[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Gossamer]

. For Animal Lovers The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door: Dear Dogs and Cats: The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate of food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest. The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run. I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm. For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years - canine/feline attendance is not required. The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.Finally, in fairness, dear pets, I have posted the following message on the front door: . TO ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS: (1) They live here. You don't. (2) If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That's why they call it 'fur'-niture. (3) I like my pets a lot better than I like most people. (4) To you, they are animals. To me, they are adopted sons/daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don't speak clearly. Remember, dogs and cats are better than kids because they (1) eat less, (2) don't ask for money all the time, (3) are easier to train, (4) normally come when called, (5) never ask to drive the car, (6) don't hang out with drug-using people; (7) don't smoke or drink, (8) don't want to wear your clothes, (9) don't have to buy the latest fashions, (10) don't need a gazillion dollars for college and (11) if they get pregnant, you can sell their children. .

[Cayenne]

DAMN SKIPPY, BABY.

I am going to print that off!

Although somehow, I don't think my dogs are going to care about the bathroom thing. That was actually something I looked into when I was buying a house - was that the bathroom was big enough to fit myself, Outlaw, and Grady in it all at once. Go figure.

[Gossamer]

. Annoying So... I'm finding several disturbing things on Mizahar that annoy the hell out of me. I'm so seriously sick of them, I really feel like reaching through the computer and bashing a few people in the head with their own keyboards. So... if you don't want to know whats annoying me, read no further. If you read it and think its highly inappropriate that I speak of such things... all I have to say is that's sad you don't want people to speak whats on their mind. If I offend you, I probably should apologize but I won't because its not sincere at all if I were too. So.. read on at your own risk. It is child friendly for the most part. The age old 'Interview for a Thread'. It's almost disgusting. Seriously. A guy or gal posts a matchmaker thread and wants to find some companionship or some adventure buddies for their pc - and that's great. People meet up, get to know one another, and have a ton of fun. Super cool! But, then there' s the other side of the coin - and its a tarnished well worn unappealing shitstained side. I have a few choice words to label these 'other posts', but in essence there's the initial post, a bunch of people responding all friendly like... then the original poster comes back and says they'll interview each candidate, review their previous threads, and then pick who they want to play with. Dude. Can we say arrogance? Ego? What happened to the day you played with everyone or arranged to meet or start in a region that allowed you to accommodate the most people just to make friends? You can't predict if PCs will get along in thread or not. If they do.. they do. If they don't... its obvious almost from the get go. Don't pander to arrogance. Seriously. If someone says they are going to review your threads and posting style before they agree to play with you.... DONT PLAY WITH THEM! Its fine to review threads, snoop a CS, etc but for gods sake don't tell everyone that is what your doing. Why? Ego baby... ego. They need to get over themselves before they will remotely take the time to focus on someone else or a group project be it adventure, training etc - and actually THINK of the group. And oddly enough, the ones with the biggest egos tend to gravitate towards each other and the resulting threads are disastrous to say the least. These are almost always the guys that wipe out whole villages of evil doers (tm) without breaking a sweat (ala Anakin Skywalker and the sand people) and without bloodying their swords too badly. I'll pass... both as a mod and a pc. I wonder, honestly, if these people really realize how they come across when they do that or if they are genuinely really just looking for a 'perfect fit'. I hope to heck its the later and not really true ego talking... but in sitting back and watching ... ego almost always wins out. Which leads me to another super annoying trend. Preplanned threads with outlines all formed up with a set outcome. Where's the fun in that? I mean, its less disastrous than attempting to play with 'egoperson the superhero' but its still leaches the fun right out of threads for me. But if you want to do this, please refrain from including me... seriously. And don't expect me to give you the ending to our adventure thread before the beginning even has a chance to get started. If you want to plan out the epic romance of the year with someone - that's great. Peachy. It doesn't effect me. But if you want an encounter with Vayt and want to end up being one of The Shroud's badboys guaranteed... do not pm me demanding this. It won't happen. You have to work for it and your pc has to demonstrate some qualities Vayt would rather enjoy enough to include your pc in his plans. That's how it works! At least with me... if your my best friend in the world, I'm still not giving you what you want. Cause I know we're best friends for a reason and all the kicking and screaming I could possibly do irl is not going to phase you one bit in your moderation.... thats why I've gotten you to moderate something. You have balls enough to either mod on the fly or surprise the hell out of me as to how things go. Now that's a great thread... not the little cardboard cutout epic romance or demons slaying with all the chapters cliffnoted before the writing even begins. And thirdly.... (there's four... just two more to wade through)... If you bring your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, etc on this game... its boring boring boring as hell that you two instantly hook up and become an item. *yawn* Seriously... have some confidence in your relationship and branch out so at least a little flirting can go on outside your already made family. It's not that I want to flirt with you per say, but it just comes across as super controlling or almost 'I'm doing this so she/he doesn't get jealous..' and it makes me think 'ugh'... kinda the same feeling I had in highschool when I saw a couple repeatedly 'make out' in the hall between classes or before/after. Yes, we know you can suck face and are together irl... but do you have to demonstrate it to us every spare moment? Ugh. It's almost tacky. You know what I'm saying, even if I'm doing a piss poor job of saying it. Play brother and sister. Play twins... play anything other than what your already doing irl. IRL you can always go hug your man, kiss him, and know hes always there for you. Change it up a little. I play with my spouse on here routinely and sometimes we interact, sometimes not. But we never hook up. We've already hooked up irl. And fourthly and finally... If someone posts publicly that they are going to be away or distracted because their Dad got diagnosed with cancer and died all within ten days... don't send them tons of PMs demanding their attention on this issue, that npc, this other pc, this writeup, that thread, voicing little butthurts or their insecurities or your ...... well, you get the idea. WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE? Seriously? Are you five? Some space would be appreciated. A lot of space would be more greatly appreciated. I log on to take care of things, and keep my mind off irl. But... that being said.. every pm I was sent could have waited or been directed to someone that could have helped pretty rapidly. Its one thing if you want to send a hug or ask for a thread to be moderated on my time frame... I don't mind those. But this morning was ridiculous, and so too was yesterday. If you didn't know I was having issues, irl, then your forgiven. If you did know... shame on you. I lied. I have one more thing to vent on now while I'm venting... Signature size. Can't we keep them down to modest parameters? I get tired of pming people about their signatures. It's even worse if they don't pm me back or don't change their stuff. Big signatures say one thing and one thing only - I NEED ATTENTION. The truth is, no you don't. Let your writing speak for itself, not your bigass annoying glittering flashing bedazzled THING at the end of each of your posts. I used to just leave notes in their profile comments, and that garnered way more action than pms did. I guess it was something out there publically rather than privately. But if your signature size is too big for more than two or three fingers to cover up.... calm it down okay? Oh... and since I don't want to post this on a negative note.. I have to say posts are getting really pretty. The box code, coupled with people using css or taking the time to add in images, use frames, make little unique things... I love that stuff. I take the time to appreciate each and every post done like this. Some of them are just total works of art. And if you've done the artwork yourself.. that's like a thousand gazillion bonus points in my book. So way to go. I love them.

[Tarot]

Truer words were never written. Can I add a couple? Let's make this the Founder Rant day! One of my personal pet peeves is people complaining in chat that they are bored, as if it was someone's fault in particular for not spoonfeeding them cool stuff on demand or not posting fast enough. Boredom has been variously described in poetry and prose as a sublime feeling, the only real difference between our psyche and that of other species... but complaining about it comes across as a double-clapped request for a jester to entertain you. Something like "I could use one more thread" or "is anyone up for an adventure?" would sound so much better...

I actually have one more pet peeve, and it happens when you have developed 100 articles on a given topic and people ignore them and only want the unwritten 101st article. Like the entire game has ground to a halt until you finish that one.

[Dusk]

Oh! Oh! I want in! Can AS's complain too??

My annoyance is when people ask you to do a thread, and you agree that you will put together something and get to it - and then they ask you every single day in chat whether it's ready, and PM you a couple times to see if it's ready... and when you FINALLY get it done, they don't respond. For longer than it took you to get it ready for them.

Also, people who think all guards and bouncers are over 7 feet tall and mean. Seriously, if you look at actual science IRL, only 5% of males in the US are over 6'2". How few do you think are over 7'? Be realistic, and be subtle. Everyone's way more interested in a bouncer who's 5'4" with a high enough Brawling to kick the shit out of everyone in sight, then they are a 7'3" hulking brute monster. Be creative.

[Alice]

I so laughed at the Animal Lovers post ...

I'm going to allow myself to add my personal pet peeves. There aren't many, but some things really absorb all my creative energy.

• People who ask me to do threads or agree to my requests and disappear shortly after. It makes me think that something went wrong in the process of planning that thread and they disapproved of it. Besides, it's not fair if people make you feel happy and eager to write up that thread and then suddenly disappear.
• People who don't read my own posts thoroughly. Especially as a mod, I get easily annoyed if people oversee a NPC's question or action. I have a reason for writing those things into my posts! As a PC, this doesn't distract me as much, because I can always assume that the character concept of the other PC forbids them to react to what I did.

That's the list of things that immediately come to my mind ... I don't like grammar mistakes, but if the content of posts is easy to understand and well-written (writing style-wise), I don't mind them as much.

[Dusk]

OH! New rant:

There is NO thieve's guild, assassin's guild, crime syndicate, mafia, or cartel in Syliras - and if there were it'd be so underground and subtle that you'd need a mod to even give you a hint that it exists. STOP MAKING THIS STUFF UP PEOPLE.

*pant pant*

[Gossamer]

You can't have that rant. That's my rant. MINE! But I think its hysterical that your getting bombed with those requests now too. People just never give up.

I also think its highly appropriate that people feel comfortable enough in this thread to vent their annoyances and rants. Ranting can be so healthy. Go for it guys.. I totally enjoy reading every last one of them.

[Dusk]

...seriously though, can you put something in the Starting Guide that just says "BEFORE YOU ASK: There is no crime syndicate in Syliras. No assassin's guild. Don't ask."

XD

[Nero Czan]

I also think its highly appropriate that people feel comfortable enough in this thread to vent their annoyances and rants. Ranting can be so healthy. Go for it guys.. I totally enjoy reading every last one of them.

Rant: I'm Sick of 'People' (DUSK) Calling Me Crazy. >:D

/rant