[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Gossamer]

He's just dreaming. We'll never have that a skill. Just like I'm really seriously tired of folks using Seduction in place of Persuasion. I just made it so they can't do that anymore. Seduction has its place and we need to highlight it for what it is!

Lovemaking? Naw...

But, in saying that, there was this 31 post thread that recently got completed that everyone was hugely impressed with. You two crazy kids know who you are.

[Gossamer]

. Magic I want to talk about a magical subject with folks, and I seriously don't want anyone to think I'm picking on them or talking about any one single person. I am not. This is an issue I've seen all over the place, and it really miffs me when I especially see it done with the magics I have written. There's a lot of people who I've seen recently scrapping any magical technicalities in what I can only assume is for the sake of the story - maybe its flow and maybe its eloquence. But I think it often does the opposite and detracts from it. This would be fine, truthfully, if Mizahar was free form and no one cared about getting experience. However, if you are going to give someone experience points they need to actually earn it by roleplaying out the technicalities of the magical processes they are writing about. What do I mean? Lets take one of my favorite magics for example: Webbing. I've witnessed a ton of people using webbing in the fact that in a very poetic and sincere way they tap the web, check a location destination, find it clear, and then move on. Or conversely they tap the web, find a person tied to it, and know which way to go. No one writes this out this way, btw, this is always done eloquently and in nicely flowing text designed to give a nod to how something was scouted or located, but including very little technical writing. In webbing, in order to tap a web, its a lot like having an out of body experience (OBE). You thrust yourself from your physical body into this sort of ley line of energy made up of thousands of dead souls, dead striders, and a ton of pure djed. Its this incredible experience. It takes time. It takes utter concentration. You can't just pause, tap, retrieve info, and get out all in one sentence. I'm going to give someone who does this as a one or two liner ZERO credit for webbing because they didn't go into the technical aspect of the magic. Reimancers have to rp actually creating the res from djed before the pyros among them ignite stuff especially at incredibly low levels. Morphers take FOREVER to morph stuff at lower levels just because its a technical thing. Almost no magic lets you do things on the fly when you are a low level novice. There's a lot of great writing on Mizahar. But sometimes writers here loose themselves in being too poetic (to the point no one can follow them) or in comic book or anime-like action that is pow pow pow with no time to focus, concentrate, and cast. Lots of magic takes meditation and I hardly see anyone doing that. I hope, like myself, storytellers won't award for lack of detail. Ask for it in your threads with others. Demand it in the threads you write for yourself. Please take some time to describe your casting, concentration, meditation, or anything else you really need to do to be a mage. Its great to do things instantaneous, but save it for higher levels when that is possible. it's your reward for doing all the grunt work at lower levels. .

[Verilian]

Come on now, what ever happened to anything can be a skill? Sex is totally a skill. It takes lots of practice to get good at it. Lol. And Jen, I use seduction as a persuasion technique every day to get what I want. ...which is usually sex.. but still. Sometimes I use it for other things. Like cookies. Or a massage. >.>

[Caelum]

While I am amused by your highly comedic premise, Ron, I am whole heartedly against anything whatsoever that might force me to read bad porn. I like writing and reading sex scenes as much as the next person – when they are well written. Like Dani said: when they’re bad, they’re god awful. In fact, I think if someone puts a thread in my office with a poorly written sex scene, I’m going to refuse to award it until it’s polished up. “I’m sorry. You’re ruining my romantic relationship with my husband by forcing me to read this. Please make it better so I can carry on with my life in a healthy and well adjusted fashion.” Or, you know, I just wouldn’t read those parts and thus not award them anything; and when they complained, I’d ask what they thought they’d be awarded for in the first place. And when they complained to the Powers That Be that I’m a giant bitch, I would point my finger super dramatically at the thread in question and see if the Powers are capable of disagreeing with me while maintaining a straight face. I should probably stop talking about bad porn in Jen’s scrap now. Good morning, everyone!

[Verilian]

We could talk about good porn in Jen's scrap instead.

[Gossamer]

We could have other far more meaningful conversations instead!

[Gossamer]

I'm officially on a SNOW DAY. My boss, he is a not happy, but what can we do. They have badass 4x4 trucks. I have a Chrysler Sebring. It's hot and does fine on compact snow. But in oh... two feet and counting... of fresh powder, its not the vehicle of choice.

[Paragon]

Tell him where to stick it! Last time we were snowed in, I ploughed my way out of the road, cleared the hill so the car could get up it, and ended up being only 20ish minutes late to work. My boss cut an HOUR off my pay! (and he was late in because of the snow anyway).

[Gossamer]

. Snow Angst The place I work canceled all outbound loads so none of our drivers were needed. Our boss sent some of them north to help out the Seattle Distribution Center instead... but only half of them. I'm sorta off the hook - we weren't short people really. I feel a little better. I always want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Sometimes its not personal, and we take it as such. I got into work yesterday with 10 inches of powder on the ground and with it still snowing hard... with my low slung car, no snow tires or chains (it won't take chains because of the low profile wheel well). I just have to draw the line and the line is pretty much at two feet of unplowed road. Thanks for the support. Here's a video of around the house. Gillar is narrating. Mojo is SOOO cute in the snow. He's my chow chow puppy who's just over a year old and is 60 lbs now. The other dog is Sandy, is a lab/blue healer cross. She's about five. .

[Paragon]

Thanks for sharing - Mojo is adorable, bouncing through the snow!