A Productive Day

Except for the part where I didn't really wake up until noon, of course.

DDR: Posted a lot of stuff, talked over some stuff with Rebecca, there could be some exciting DDR things in my future, including roadtrips like to the all-female DDR tourney in NJ, assuming it happens and isn't like, the same weekend as the Pittsburgh DDR tournament. And I'm still excited about hosting DDR tomorrow at my place. I still want to have a Bemani party. Just need to figure out when.

Unemployment: Called the UC office and got everything straightened out. Yay. I'm an official slacker now. Although I seem to still be pretty busy, excited, happy, etc, for an unemployed slacker. And I have an interview Wednesday and sent out another resume today.

Driving: HAHAHAHAHA! I have a piece of paper now that says I'm allowed to operate an automobile if someone with a license over the age of 21 is in the front seat. Stay off the streets! ha! ha! Actually, it was quite cool. Unlike in Philly, I just went downtown, went in, said "Hi here's my application, here's my state ID, ok?" and they said "good, go read the fourth line on this eye test thingy, ok, very good, now go take the permit test over there on that computer," and I said "ok," and passed the test, and came back, and he said "ok, give me a check for $30," and I gave him a check, and he gave me a learner's permit. Nice and simple.

KGB: It was outdoors today because of the wacky Pittsburgh weather being like 65 degrees. I got to see all of you lovely KGB people and say hi and all, and tell Bayani about exciting DDR stuff, and so on. If I had stayed around long enough for Schmucks, I might have also mentioned that I will shortly become the terror of Pittsburgh's streets, but I left for Kiltie Band as usual. blk wasn't there anyway - she's going to teach me to not be the terror of Pittsburgh's streets. :) I also had the honor of walking down to the Doherty cavern with puuj and fleaplus to see the Lobster Guy everyone keeps talking about. It was sort of weird, I'm not sure I really understand his project, but who am I to judge?

Kiltie: Amparita Roca has officially kicked my butt, so I took the music home with me to copy and write in little numbers. We have three more rehearsals until the concert on March 14th. I'm psyched. You should all come to it - it's free and we'll be in kilts and I'll be sporting my lovely new Hello Kitty buttons and stuff. (I'd wear the earmuffs but that'd probably be a bad idea) I do really enjoy some of our pieces though, and my sight-reading skills have gone up quite a bit. Our tuba section kicks ass.

Dinner: Carl and I went to Taste of India in the ex-Highlander today. They now do dinner as an AYCE buffet. I had no problem with AYCE Chicken Tikka Masala, rice, and naan... heh. They also had pakora. In general, though, the food wasn't as good as it is when you get it at the restaurant... the sauce was not as thick as I'd like, and the pakora was kind of stale, and so on. But, it was a good deal for $7 IMO...

Games: I played a bunch of stuff in the CS lounge tonight. There was a game of Tigris against Carl, Dan, and Brian Railing, except that at the same time, Jason, Martin, Tom 7, etc, got back from dinner and started playing Ricochet Robot. I decided to blatantly lose Tigris... partially because I got really lousy tiles, but partially because I'm sick of Dan saying that I win every game of it he plays in. So I spent half of the game playing Ricochet while it wasn't my turn in Tigris. After that I played Ricochet for real, and even if I impressed Jason and Drew with my mad skills, Dan kicked my butt at that too, so... and then I lost to him in Lost Cities as well. Martin helped me break in my Hello Kitty cards by playing War for a bit. That was pretty silly. The evening culminated with a game of Cosmic Encounter after buoren showed up. It was sort of silly in many ways. Unlike everyone else, I managed to keep my original alien powers and my hand for the whole game. Yay. I was Healer/Chosen, so I had a shitload of cards. I won. So did Dan. I think so did Martin, although I might be on crack. (I think basically Kevin and Carl didn't win.)

People: Lately whenever I see jcreed, combinator, Drew, or Nick, I want to hug them. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, since I think most people like random acts of hugness, but it's sort of funny for me because I had gotten out of the random-hugging thing for a while. However, I dunno, I mean, it's like I know the school year is ending and even if I don't leave Pittsburgh this June, being seniors, they will most likely leave. I've known Nick and Drew since early on in their freshman years, and Jason almost as long (I can't remember exactly when I met him but I know it was before the summer of 1999). I haven't known Martin more than a year or two, but he is a fantastically cool person as well. I remember how sad I was when I thought Carl was going to leave after he graduated in 2000, although he has fortunately turned out to be just as much a slacker as I am. (It's funny with that whole group... Oren, Brad, Kevin, and Li left, Roman and Carl and Andrew and I stayed, then Kevin came back, then Andrew left, now Roman is theoretically leaving soon and who knows what I will do...) Blah, many people leaving this year. I always get sad about it somewhere mid-March and then wish I had more time to see everyone before they go.

Random: Wow, it is almost March. My birthday is in two months or so. I should figure out what to do for it this year... last year's party with ralphmelton, whose birthday is 4 days before mine, was fun, and the Church Brew Works 2 years ago was awesome, and my Shady House birthday party when I lived there also kicked ass, and... well, basically, anywhere I can invite lots and lots of people and feel lucky to be surrounded by such a great group of people and do fun stuff would be good. Eli and my apartment is a little small for a huuuuuge gathering is the problem. I'll have to think about it for a while.

Eli: I don't mention Eli nearly as much as I should on here. He is wonderful, even if he kicks me out of our bedroom (which is the room my computer is in) when he wants to sleep. If I was reasonable, I'd go to sleep earlier too. Of course, what have I to wake up for tomorrow? But, anyway, it's almost a year and a half for us together now, and we're really happy, and he is really wonderful, and I just wanted to mention that. It feels so natural to be with him that sometimes I take it for granted, like that I just deserve this wonderful guy who is always here to hug and stuff. I guess "deserve" isn't the right word, but... anyway, whee! yay Eli.

Meta-LJ: Suddenly tonight all of the "share&enjoy" instance on CMU Andrew zephyr decided to get LJ accounts. So, uh, I'm trying to add most of them to my friends list, but probably failing. If you are someone I missed, please add me and I'll add you back. Unless, of course, you don't want to read about my life. Plplplplpl. Also, wow, almost 80 friends on my list. I have to start really splitting this up into groups... since it takes like three screens of stuff per day of friends entries and I almost never see followups anymore.

And that's the news, and I am outta here.

Holy spells, batman!

I had some ideas for spells this afternoon when chatting with Carl. As a joke I wrote them up. See, I think my character (the lawful good cleric of Heironeous in Tal's campaign) would love to go research some of these...

Holy Smoke

Conjuration [Good]
Level: Clr 3, Good 3
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft. level)
Effect: Cloud of smoke that spreads in a 30-ft. radius, 20 ft. high
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

A gigantic cloud of smoke puffs out from the point the character designates. The smoke obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has one-half concealment (attacks suffer a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cant use sight to locate the target).

Evil creatures take 1d4 per caster level (maximum 10d4) holy damage every round they are in the smoke. The spell deals only half damage against creatures who are neither good nor evil.

A moderate wind (11+ mph) disperses the smoke in 4 rounds; a strong wind (21+ mph) disperses the smoke in 1 round.

The spell does not function underwater.

Spell Focus: A stick of incense (does not have to be lit).


Hot Damn
(aka Holy Fireball)

Evocation [Good]
Level: Good 4
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Area: 20-ft.-radius spread
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

This spell produces a burst of flame that detonates with a low roar and deals 1d6 points of fire damage per caster level (maximum 10d6) to all creatures within the area. Unattended objects also take this damage. The explosion creates almost no pressure.

Half of the damage from this spell is holy damage. Therefore good creatures who make their saving throw only take one-quarter damage, and only take one half on a failed saving throw. Evil and neutral characters take full damage, or half on a saving throw.

The character points a finger and determine the range (distance and height) at which the holy fireball is to burst. A glowing, pea-sized bead streaks from the pointing digit and, unless it impacts upon a material body or solid barrier prior to attaining the prescribed range, blossoms into the fireball at that point (an early impact results in an early detonation). If the character attempts to send the bead through a narrow passage, such as through an arrow slit, the character must "hit" the opening with a ranged touch attack, or else the bead strikes the barrier and detonates prematurely.

The holy fireball sets fire to combustibles and damages objects in the area. It can melt metals with a low melting point, such as lead, gold, copper, silver, or bronze. If the damage caused to an interposing barrier shatters or breaks through it, the fireball may continue beyond the barrier if the area permits; otherwise it stops at the barrier just as any other spell effect does.


Holy Shit
(aka Transmute Dirt to Feces)

Transmutation
Level: Clr 6, Good 6
Components: V, S, M/DF
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Area: Up to two 10-ft. cubes/level (S)
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: No

This spell turns dirt of any sort, including bricks made out of dirt, into an equal volume of feces. If the spell is cast upon a brick wall, for example, the brick wall collapses into a pile of shit. Magical or enchanted dirt is not affected by the spell. The depth of the feces created cannot exceed 10 feet. Creatures unable to levitate, fly, or otherwise free themselves from the pool of shit sink until hip- or chest-deep, reducing their speed to 5 feet and giving them �2 penalties on attack rolls and AC. Brush thrown atop the pool of shit can support creatures able to climb on top of it. Creatures large enough to walk on the bottom can wade through the area at a speed of 5 feet.

In addition, the feces smells really really awful and causes a poisonous vapor to rise from it. This vapor nauseates all characters regardless of alignment; they must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 15) or be nauseous, suffering a -2 circumstance penalty to all attacks, saves, and skill checks for the duration of the spell. Also, all evil creatures in the stench take 1d4 poison damage per round they are in the stench, up to a number of rounds equal to the caster level. Neutral creatures take half damage.

If Holy Shit is cast upon the ceiling of a cavern or tunnel, the mud falls to the floor and spreads out in a pool at a depth of 5 feet. For example, a 10th-level caster could convert twenty 10-foot cubes into feces. Pooling on the floor, this shit would cover an area of forty 10-foot squares to a depth of 5 feet. The falling mud and the ensuing cave-in deal 8d6 points of damage to anyone caught directly beneath the area, or half damage to those who succeed at Reflex saves.

The transmuted material remains feces for the duration of the spell or until a dispel magic is successfully cast. Afterwards, it becomes a pile of mud and evaporates to dirt at an appropriate rate.