[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Gossamer]

. Couple Of Quick Things! And some of you can verify these things as well... So as some of you know there's been some drama revolving around Accolade this morning. He posted some hate rants that were far from child appropriate so they were removed by staffers. But some of the things he said in his rant probably needed addressing. I don't want to lend any credibility to what he says, but I want to clarify policy on a few things. Children In Mizahar & Having Them Female PCs have approached me countless times in regards to children they've wanted to have in Mizahar. They've asked who decides sex, condition, even race at times depending on the combination. I have, without fail, answered them all the same way... "YOU AS A PLAYER DO." They have then asked me if they could have rare or usual types of children. Without fail I've always answered sure. Some have even questioned why I answer this way and I tell them repeatedly all the same thing. "PCs are the rare exceptions, not the rules. That means you can have anything you want to in terms of a child... color, sex, even race." One of my PCs has kids herself and two are Akontak and one Konti. The first one's race was determined by a random roll of the dice by SOMEONE ELSE tee hee in chat with witnesses. And there are still chatters around to verify that. The second and third one was determined the same way by me. I selected the sex in all three cases. I honestly didn't care what my pc had, but I went with it, and it was fun. That's my policy: It's up to you. PCs get priority over NPCs and PCs are always the exception, not the rule, which is why I keep NPC stats towards the regular end of thing... average... rarely high end. The latest pregnancy I know about is a woman who's having an Akontak girl. I was totally cool with that. You should be too. THE NPC ISSUE You are always welcome to make up NPCs and play them. Casual encounters with them such as barmaids, folks on the street, guards, etc are almost always fine to just post without permission. You might want to give a shout to your local ds with something like.. "hey would a guard react to this?" but otherwise its fine. However, when you start making up named NPCs that have skills and stats that are significant, and do business with them, kill them, or plot with them to further your PC in which your PC benefits, then you'd BETTER GET PERMISSION and catelog the NPC somewhere... like a local NPC submission thread. If you don't, then you are going to have issues with me especially in my domains and Cyphrus as a whole. We have made it INCREDIBLY EASY to document NPCs and play them without waiting for ST approval. You just need to write them down (fill out a form) and let us know what they are up too. It is our city/domain/region after all and we like to know what the NPCs in it are doing. I hope that clears up any confusion you might have on NPCs and the rules on them. Most domains have a codex that clearly outlines this as well. If you don't find the rules or aren't sure, just PM the local DS and they will explain it. Easy as that. MY OBSESSION WITH AKALAKS Yes I love Akalaks. It's been a long standing joke in chat how much I love Akalaks. The whole thing started when one of my AS's (who was male and very very gay and very good at photoshop - you know who he is) started posting very nice pictures of tinted ripped guys. It was a way myself and this AS bonded, photoshopping nice pics for each other. But I want to clarify a few things. I can definitely survive without RPing one of my PCs being in a relationship with them. In fact, I find them kinda pigheaded about women and not all that fun after playing a Nakivak. I've written with some great writers, but when they are true to their characters its not all that great. I know other Nakivak PCs can attest to this. Purple is not my favorite color. In fact, I kinda hate it and have made that statement over and over again. I started the purple thing with Xalet because it got chat to teasing him which was a whole lot of fun especially when his warhorse kelvic was around. And it kinda amused me that all these folks made a rash of purple Akalak after all the fuss we made in chat over Xalet and his beautiful manly purple hue. The truth is.. blue is in fact my favorite color. The exact shade? The color Tarot so nicely used as Founder Blue. Wrestlers. While I enjoy wrestlers and watching them wrestle because I am a girl and we like that kinda thing, they are not all that attractive to me in the facial features. In fact, the PC my PC was involved with for ages was downright ugly and I've made that comment more than once about him having a face only a mother HAD to love. I'm sure about almost all of you will agree that certain PCs are ugly... and that one was. Does it have anything to do with how they RP? Sometimes. Sometimes they are beautiful and turn ugly and once the inside matches the outside, its time to bail. And that's when I got gone on that one. Do I like pretty pcs better? Hell yes. But do I only write with pretty pcs? Nope. I will write with almost anyone. AFFECTION AND CHARACTER ATTACHMENT We all love our characters. In some ways, to many of us, our PCs are real to us. However, that doesn't mean the things that happen to them are personal. You roll with the punches and move forward and either quit playing your PCs if it effects you too much or you quit letting it affect you and have fun despite the bad things that happen. I choose to have fun. That doesn't mean I don't get offended when someone power posts for someone else and ignores my threads for ages. I do. When it happens there's a choice to make. Wait and hope they post or move on. In almost every case I will move on. I hope that clears some things up especially if you saw the related hate posts throughout the site. .

[Ball]

I did see them. I don't know the whole story. BUT! Thanks for some clarity =D

[Gossamer]

. The Help Desk Really people... are all these tickets necessary? I haven't posted with my PC in ages because frankly the HD has been taking a ton of time. Just last night when I got off of work, I answered about twenty tickets. Then, when I got up this morning, there were about a dozen more to answer. By the time I got done wading through part of them, there wasn't much energy left for me to post. Half the tickets, I feel, are utterly unnecessary and its getting ridiculous. I don't mind the applications. I don't mind the requests for NPCs, but all the other misc stuff really needs to be cut down on. The sheer amount of retirements, reinstatements, and silly questions that a DS or AS could answer is insane. People don't read the lore. People don't ask around. People don't pre-plan their characters or even understand to rework concepts if they don't work out. It frustrates me to no end. I'm taking a break from the HD. Tickets are just going to have to pile up if they are utterly necessary. One person can't tackle all these tickets alone, and while Traverse helps out a great deal, its still too much for this small team. I don't want people to stop asking for help for things that they legitimately need help for. But I do want to be able to stop locking the dumb tickets after a short retort or a link and moving on. Thank you for understanding. I'll try to get back to them on the weekend. .

[Ball]

I admit i did some retiring of characters.

[Drusilla]

Just something I noticed, and pointed out to Magpie for a laugh. Aka is Japanese for red, however Akalaks are not red. Just some useless trivia.

[Edric Wingard]

Romanized "Akai" is red in Japanese. Just thought I'd clarify!

I appreciate the clarification over NPCs. It is often a question that comes up in the chat and it's nice to know the correct way of answering.

[Drusilla]

Aka is red
Akai is to say something is red

[Gossamer]

. Work Hours How does one pick one's perfect schedule? So our boss retired at work two weeks ago in a fit of rage. There's always been drama at my work, and in fact I've never worked anywhere where the people at my job are more juvenile and petty. Seriously... the leadership has always been lacking and has been in the dark about what goes on. The fellow workers are lazy often parking and sleeping rather than working during their time on the clock. It's ridiculous. Now I've had roughly the same schedule give or take a shift in hours one way or another for about six years. Right now I work 430pm to 100am. I like the shift. I don't have to get up in the morning at any set time. I just get up when I wake up and that's that. I don't have to go to bed at any specific time to make sure I get enough sleep to do my job. But my job itself... sucks. I mean I love the actual work, but since there's no one there at a management level while I am there, I'm the boss. Now with this title comes all these extra responsibilities. If someone doesn't come to work, I have to call them. I have to call people all night long all the time for various reasons. I have to make sure all the trailers leave on time or at all. I have to repower loads if drivers break down or drop loads. I have ALL THESE UNPAID RESPONSIBILITIES. It kinda sucks, honestly. Because if someone doesn't do their job, the first person they ask why is me. So I have to pay extreme attention to detail. I have to be right on top of it. I have to do all this stuff that I don't get any bonus income for and take all this heat when shit goes wrong. Well, needless to say shit hasn't gone wrong for years.. and I think they've taken advantage of me for years. Now... boss retires, everyone moves up. They didn't hire a boss from outside, they just moved the number two guy up to the number one position. Number three guy moved into the number two spot. Number four guy? He got ignored. Number five guy? That's me... got ignored. Number six guy... got ignored... and number seven guy got moved into the number three spot because hes fishing buddies with someone. That left his gravy number seven spot open. Now there's not much ability to move schedules at work, so when a gravy spot comes open, everyone scrambles. The number four guy who got ignored has a prime spot... 800 am to 430 pm. Now me... number five... has a darn good one too. 430pm to 100am. But the number seven guy... with all the buddy system going on... had a sweet one as well. 330am to noon. Do you know what that's like at my job? For half the year you are at work when its cool outside, home by the time it gets hot. It kinda sucks in the winter, but then so does the spot I have because if its going to snow, its going to snow on my shift. Getting off at noon is a bliss I suspect, unless this is a grass is always greener scenario. Sure you have to get up by like what 2am.. 230am... to be at work by 330am.. to wake up, shower, etc. There's a bit of a time commitment there. I'd have to leave the house by 3am... 315am at the latest. But the best part is that management is there the whole time. The job I had to do while I was there I won't have too. I don't have to call people at night and wake them up etc. I just have to deal with the things I actually get paid to deal with and my normal job description. So.. number seven gets moved into the number three spot despite the fact hes only been there like three years and has no computer experience. Tee hee. That job means you have to train to dispatch and do route planning and this guy doesn't even know how to turn on a computer. That should be amusing. But regardless that left them trying ot fill his spot and asking everyone if they wanted it. I don't think they ever dreamed I would say yes. But off by noon? OFF BY NOON? I can go to my beekeeper club meetings now. I can go hang with my girlfriends after work and do girly girl things. I can just do a ton of stuff that I couldn't do because of my weird swing shift schedule. And I can totally shop, be around the house when no one has traditionally been there, etc. So I said yes. I hope to hell I'm doing the right thing and I can actually get up and be at work and functional at that time. It's going to be an adjustment for sure. But no more sitting around at home waiting to go to work all day. I kinda hate that feeling. And well for the forth of july? I'll be off work in time for the fireworks. Thanksgiving? I'll be home for dinner! You get the picture. So what do you think? Who likes 430pm to 1am better than 330am to noon or vice versa? .

[Twister]

Personally speaking, I probably would've gone for the off-by-noon time, as well. I generally think better and focus better in the early hours of morning (2 AM - 6 AM is my "prime time", so to speak) and getting off by noon, then, would be perfect to fit in my general schedule as well. I'm very much a night-time person who sleeps during pretty odd hours, but as long as I can be available in the late afternoon and evening for everything else I need to do, I'm all good.

It seems like a very good schedule you traded into, IMO. Just judging by your post, it seems you think so as well!

[Gossamer]

. Still Alive Well... sort of... I'd like to say my new job hours are eating me alive, but that's about as far from the truth as possible. I LOVE MY NEW HOURS. And what the hours changes has done has freed me up to go running amok with my irl friends and family during the afternoons and evenings, so I haven't had much time for Mizahar. I will though. Please be patient. Tomorrow I will be gone most of the day, but the rest of the week thereafter, I will definitely be working to post for my PC and catch the HD up. I should be almost up to date on my PMs. I'm at work from 330am to 1200pm PST and have the rest of the day to mess around. Around 8-9pm I go to bed... and am out. So don't AIM me anymore at night... but feel free to do so in the early mornings if anyone needs anything. And if your HD ticket doens't go answered, that doesn't mean you have permission for things. All STAFF applications will be handled first in the HD with utmost priority. Don't post stupid HD tickets for a while, not at least until I am caught up. I will most likely ignore them. This includes whining, complaining, asking for unrealistic things, or asking for lore to be altered to suit yourself. Thanks for understanding. Goss .