[Caelum's Scrapbook] Use Your Words.

[Caelum]

Intelligence skill goes on and on. I keep thinking of things to add. The intelligence skill should almost never be awarded alone. It typically comes with one if not half a dozen other skills in application. As I previously stated, this is an inclusive this; but below are all those I can exhaust off the top of my head: observation planning stealth strategy cryptography subterfuge politics larceny acting investigation interrogation disguise impersonation Those are the skills I would consider to be directly related, but additionally there are plenty were are two degrees apart and often combined. Things like persuasion, rhetoric, writing, sociology, etc. You could even toss in physical skills depending on the nature of the planned occurrence. So what’s my point? My point is that the intelligence skill is not a skill you award in place of another. You award it with other skills. You don’t have to debate on whether a character is acting or intelligencing. It should be obvious whether or not their acting is being done at least in partial attempt to gather or assimilate or distribute information. That’s the key. If a character is doing something that is in some way, shape, or form attempting to collect, assimilate, analyze, distribute, warp, or any combination thereof information (active data), then they deserve to be awarded intelligence too. Not to beat an old example to death, but the healing skill ranges are very familiar to me and continue to be good things for me to point at. So, saying that you’re not going to award intelligence because you’re going to award, oh, stealth or something instead when the above criteria regarding information gathering is being met is basically the same thing as saying you’re not going to award herbalism because you’re awarding medicine despite that both skills are being used in post or thread. It isn’t always a one or the other. Life is rarely a one or the other. Multiple skills can be brought to bear upon situations. Okay. I think I really am done this time. Lol

[Caelum]

Surprisingly productive weekend. I had no set and solid plans coming into this past weekend on purpose. My days off for the past month or more have been cram packed with things needing done. Therefore I was looking forward to doing a whole lot of nothing, but I ended up doing a whole lot of stuff. Friday night I somehow managed to kill a few bottles of wine with my best friend while we helped our husbands on their holiday project. The project in question is building wooden mats as presents for our respective sets of parents. They’re super cool looking and I’ll be sure to post up a picture of the finished product. Saturday I slept in because I drank way too much of that wine. Dan, the husband, had to work so I had the house to myself and intended to do nothing more productive than flip the channel on the television and snuggle my dog. I ended up flipping open my computer to reply to a work related email, and ten minutes later I was opening my document drafts and thinking altogether too hard. My first draft needed breaking, so I brewed another cup of coffee and vid-chatted my go-to writer/editor friend and didn’t look up until about three hours later. Story. Broke. BOOM. It was amazing. On an adrenaline rush from that, I realized that oh shit, my house is dirty. So I cleaned it! Then I showered (because gross, yeah, took me that long to get there) and went back to the computer to sketch out the second draft outline now that we broke the story. Sunday, I was determined to do nothing. Lo and behold, nothing turned into shopping for the materials for my mother and mother in law’s present (hand made cake stands, in case you’re curious) and then grabbing my husband to go fetch a Christmas tree with me. All in all, it was a great weekend. Obligatory pic of tree below.

[Caelum]

Grumpy Grinch. Disclaimer: this is just whine. Whine, bitch, whine. Money is tight. It’s the holidays! And I have two sets of parents, ten siblings, and six nieces and nephews to gift. That’s a lot of people in our “immediate” family and it’s excluding the fact that I’d like to give a few of my close friends a little something nice as well. And, you know, my husband. I’d probably better get him a gift too. So what in the world causes my coworker to think I want to waste one of my weekend nights being pressured into buying $40 candles? Don’t get me wrong, she’s a nice girl, but we aren’t the hang-out-when-off-work type. Also, I like candles. Who doesn’t like candles? But I’m not obsessed with them. I don’t need a hundred candles. I’ve got electricity and my house is clean so I don’t need candle scents to cover up a stink. I certainly don’t need to pay $40 dollars for a candle. It’s winter in Savannah, which means it’s cold enough I no longer need AC but not yet cold enough I need to turn on the heat. $40 is therefore half my electric bill last month. (Which was, admittedly, awesome.) I thought she might take the hint when I politely declined the first four times. Or maybe when I not-so-subtly mentioned that the gift buying budget this year is a little tight. Alas, no. She invited me again. I finally just told her that I genuinely can’t stand those sort of “parties” where I’m supposed to go get sales pitched at and am them expected by friend obligation to buy something from an often pushy party planner or whatever. No offense. Hm. I need more coffee today.

[Taylani]

Ha! I would have responded the same way. It's almost as bad as when you teach a Sunday school class and all 10 of the children are selling cookie dough for school, and all 10 come up to you on the same Sunday wanting you to buy lol. Hard to tell those rascals no, cause if you buy for one you have to buy from all of them in fairness and I can not afford paying 15 dollars for a roll of cookie dough that I could get at Wal-mart for 3 lol.

Don't let it make you feel bad, she was the one that didn't want to take a polite no.

[Gossamer]

This must be going around. I had the very same situation happen to me too. My solution was on the fifth time I was asked, I actually took the magazine/sales list, walked over to the garbage, dumped it in with a flare, and said.. "I'll look it over later. Honest." You know... they got the hint.

[Elysium]

Well played, Jen. I hate those people. Hell, I won't go to "passion parties," not even just to giggle at dildos.

[Caelum]

Lol Jen. “I’ll totally look at it later.” You’d think the person would take a polite “no". Right, Taylani? By the way, Ely, one of my best friends got pressured to go to a passion party a few years back. It was with a group of ladies she didn’t know very well and circumstances made her think it would be too rude to withdraw her acceptance. The result was that pulled the friend card on me and begged me to go with her so she’d know someone there and also use me as an excuse to leave early. (“Oh, Katie’s not feeling too well and we drove together. I so wish I could stay longer, but..”) End result? I made her bail about forty-five minutes in. It was right after they asked us to fill out what amounted to a sex toy wish list. Hm. Not putting that in writing, nor handing it over to a stranger. Nope. Also, my grumpiness was officially dispelled a little bit ago when one of our salesmen walked up and handed me the below.

[Taylani]

*sniff* it's not cobbler...

[Caelum]

Everyone needs a little appreciation. And in that vein… I would like to thank my thread partners not only for being willing to make stories with me, but also for putting up with my occasional snark and typical delays in responding. I am not always an ideal thread partner and it’s awesome that you want to write at me all the same. Magpie, Gossamer, and Translucent have all gone out of their way to answer my sometimes ridiculous questions and, additionally, taken time to help me brainstorm different ideas and direct me toward potentially better ones. They rock. Other STs have also answered a sometimes stupid question from me and failed to make me feel stupid for having asked it. Their patience is always appreciated. Still other STs have done very kind things for me since my return from hiatus, everything from a going out of their way to welcome me back to making me a special boxcode. You know who you are, and you should also know that your kindness is not unnoticed. Mizahar friends from all groups are super appreciated for cracking jokes with me in chat now and again, letting me vent without judgment about something that’s irritating me, and having a conversation with me about this thing or that thing because you’re interested or curious or just plain recognize that I am and are willing to indulge my rambling. Also people of all groups who have taken the time to let me know that they think something I’ve done or am doing is cool and/or useful. Go forth and be kind, ya’ll.

[Taylani]

*offers lots of huggers* You are worth all this "help" you are thanking people for and much more for what you do for others.