[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Gossamer]

. Polish Stuff Again I actually have Autumn Spice and can probably get another bottle. It's everywhere up here from Fred Meyers to Walmart. I think I raved about it a previous scrap. I haven't seen Stay the Night but I'll look at all the Opi haunts that are around. Have you tried searching Biglots if its an old enough release? Do you know that Biglots is now carrying Opi Polishes & Sephora Polishes that are store pulls when new editions come out? It's crazy. They are... $1.80. I got some amazing ones not too long ago that were big name... including one that was so gorgeous it made me want to cry before I dragged it home and discovered that was a @#$@#%$#%#$@ crackle (Sephora calls them blasted)... which I hate. Sephora, if your reading this, make Opalescent Gold into a regular polish. Mkay? Please and thanks. No one wants crackles. No one. Okay maybe five year old little girls. I dunno. Kids are weird. Anyhow, I think we should probably start a nail polish thread in the Non-Miz Discussions were we can all post what we like. That way if we spot something on say Etsy that's a great Indy or whatnot we can post it. Just looking at your post you need Indian Summer from Crow's Toes too. Like you shouldn't probably have it, but that you really really really need it. Its one of my lemmings too. Google it.. and I'll set up a polish thread where we can gush, rant about our favorites, ask people to be on the lookout for certain ones, and do exchanges! I'll have it up for tomorrow or the next day then maybe you can post your above thread in there. We can even do fun videos of Polish Collections .

[Vanari]

Yes! That would be perfect. *looks at Indian Summer and cries*

Now I must hunt down all Big Lots within a 30 mile radius...

[Elysium]

Vampy Varnish in Napa Valley Red though...

...

Someone start a thread for this.

By the by, I slapped on one coat of Julep's Michelle yesterday and sadface, it has already come off three of five nails on my left and half of one on my right. But then again, I did the mani in about thirty minutes. Oh and I broke my middle fingernail today in traffic.

[Elysium]

I saw this and thought you'd find it hilarious. I know I did:



Warning: Profanity. Like, woah.

[Gossamer]

. THOUGHTS ON RP RP Producers vs. RP Consumers I’ve been thinking about something for a few days. It’s been on my mind hot and heavy and dictates by and large who I rp with (if I have a choice) and whom I find myself really enjoying rping with. Tarot, whom we all affectionately call GP, either coined a couple of phrases or introduced them to Mizahar in one of his blogs. Those phrases are RP-Consumer and RP-Producer. These terms have to do with a character and how the player chooses to play that character. The definitions should be obvious. An RP-Consumer is pretty much an IC turd. They sit on a patch of grass, deposited by a player, and wait for something to happen. And much like the visual I’m trying to paint, they stink. At first they might not be that offensive, but over time it gets worse and worse and worse. And in my head, I picture these turds as having little cartoon faces and thought bubbles that pop up and say “I’m bored. Entertain me.” Now, RP-Producers are like the flies buzzing around happily on the scene. Have you ever seen flies photographed in micro? They are astonishingly beautiful. They are never bored. They are busily buzzing around happily here and there, having adventures and gathering friends. They might not be perfect entities. I mean no one is going to ever accuse a fly of being a unicorn that farts glitter, but by and large they are INTERESTING things. Each one is a tiny gem. They don’t mind getting down and dirty and investigating things. They stick their nose in shit. Sometimes it gets them in trouble, but by and large they live their little RP lives and go from point a to point be never holding still long enough to grow sedentary. So when I think people say they have lost their character’s voice, I just shake my head. That character is alive because the players birthed them. All you need to do to find their voice is just write. Every character has a story that’s just itching to be told, but it’s up to you to tell it. It’s up to you to be that fly and buzz around producing plots and rp. It’s up to you to have conflict and drive adventure. It’s not ever a good thing to sit around and wait for something cool to happen and then complain or feel bad when no one pays you attention and no one shows up to make things happen. I’m definitely an RP-Producer. I have an incredibly low tolerance of RP-Consumers. This runs the gauntlet from people who can’t think up a good Konti gift (I can probably brainstorm twelve in twelve seconds no kidding.. and I’ve seen people in chat that do the same thing) to the reactionary PC that always response to what other people do or say in plot but never adds anything to their post so when their posting buddy suddenly replies, they have nothing to go on and have to move the story on all on their own. I’ve tried yelling at people. I’ve tried asking them to think up things and do things and you know what? It rarely works. You can’t make people excited about their pcs. You cant force them to find their pc some direction and get them involved in things. Sure you can include them in big quests or ask them to do this or that, but in the end, it is what it is and I’m fairly sure no one can change them. I certainly can’t. So, I’ve hit pay dirt this season and have been threading with someone who is equally driven to promote plotlines and advance stories. I’m sure they know who they are. It’s almost the type of thing I want to go down on my knees and thank the various deities for because I’m enjoying the hell out of it. I don’t have to ask them for threads. They just come up with them. I don’t have to muddle through things they think I want to read or write about because I get to work on their issues, and their issues are pretty complicated. At the same time I get to get my pc’s issues worked on like no one has ever offered to do before, and that makes me jump for joy as well. I don’t say thank you enough. But I’m saying it here. Thank you. You’ve given me a fresh start and a new enthusiasm for my PC that I kind of thought was long gone. And its really good to have an IC good friend that is a good friend due to threads we’ve written and not because two people like each other outside of the game and decide two of their pc’s are going to be bffs but never thread. People ask me all the time what I think a successful PC is. A successful PC is an RP Producer. That’s it in a nutshell. People gravitate towards those sorts of characters, because they want to be part of their plots. They want to jump on the thread bandwagon the RP Producer is producing and go somewhere. Could you imagine what it would be like if every PC on Mizahar was in some aspect or another a RP producer? And that way those of the group reading this who are pc producers would get a break once in a while and get to jump on someone else’s pc producing bandwagon and not always have to be responsible for coming up with fantastic threads or plot ideas or even beating pcs into posting or urging them to move the plot in their posts. Honestly being a RP Producer is hard work. I can see why so many pcs, especially newbies, are RP Consumers. It leaves you drained sometimes and at other times resentful. When you go to plan things and if people don’t want to plan with you it leaves things all up to you. So you go make your plans and put your motivations into action and if things work out they work out and if they don’t you really have no one to blame but yourself. But in general, if you are a motivated person, they work out. And the reward is the combination of story and skill points you’ve just told and earned. To me that’s a hell of a payoff. And it makes people want to be around you. I can tell you this from experience. Unlike what some people might think of me, I do want people to want to be around me. Not only as a moderator, which is important, but as a PC which to me is even more important. I don’t want to ask people to play with me. I want them to WANT to play with me. I can always get threads with Goss. I suspect that’s less about my ST abilities and more what my blue name can grant THEM in thread. So to me the litmus test is how and when people approach my PCs and post for them or generate plot for them. And lately it’s been telling. And I know why. Somewhere along the way in the last perhaps three seasons, I’ve gotten tired of being a Plot Producer and wanted something more. I get tired of people coming to me and telling me their character is this and that and the other with no thread work to back it up. I want to be able to point behind my PC at her timeline and say… “This is who she is and this is why she’s like this.” Meaning, NOT because it’s in my head, but because the who of what she is and the stories she’s told in her past. And when I say ‘she’ I don’t mean one specific character, but any number of mine. They happen to be all girls atm so she works well. And because of this, I like playing with new folks. I’ve seen quite a few good ones lately, thankfully most in RF where my primary lives. It gives me a wide choice of Sundae toppings to put on my creation when I have a craving for some new story icecream. So I guess this scrap is more about my thankfulness for the people around me rather than a complaint about what folks don’t do when they rp. We have a lot of people that show and don’t just tell. That’s another great phrase. SHOW don’t TELL. Who cares what your PC is all about if you haven’t threaded about it? No opportunities? Bullshit. Make your own. Oh, and if your PC has no driving motivation, no goals, and nothing you want to really accomplish with them? Do us all a favor and go get some long term plans. Because if you don’t have any goals, you’re a turd. And that’s just not going to be pretty for very long. Stop stinking and start buzzing around making things happen. That gorgeous fly is in all of us. Channel your inner fly. .

[Therizo Tafos]

Just wanted to say that I found this last post very inspiring. I didn't even mind the harshness. Well, I will endeavor not to be a turd.

[Gossamer]

Harshness?

[Taylani]

The first season of my characters are usually spent aimlessly doing solo's and social threads because I detest having to try and decide in my head how my characters are going to react to stuff. So I use those things to help flesh them out.

Well except Taylani but I lucked out and found an RP thread partner by accident that just really was a click and we just really fed off each other's creativity so Taylani just really shot out of the gate with two or three plots that were fairly pivotal in her season.

Now that I have Favchean pretty well known in my head, I am now branching out and putting plots into place..he is a bit harder since being an Akalak I have to really dig into lore more then say humans because I know how humans tend to think obviously.

I think he might have been referring to calling people who are reactionary as turds might have came off a little harsh Though I totally see the analogy

[Therizo Tafos]

Yeah, I just meant the analogies. Not complaining though, I found them quite... illustrative

[Gossamer]

. That Ah Hah Moment Darth Maul Vs. Mizahar That ah-hah moment when you ask your husband who knows about weapons and weapon fighting how in the world to train double bladed swords.... and he turns to you... gives you that 'Girls are stupid. (tm)' look and says "Ray Park is a GOD. Google Darth Maul Saber Battle Videos Jen. That guy is a FANTASTIC martial artist and did all his own work in Phantom Menace. It wasn't CGI. He was his own stuntman." Oh. I watched them. And in ten minutes I learned a ton. .