15 posts tagged “artefact”
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Another year of not enough sleep, last-minute desperation and managing what ever junk Lady Eris sends my way.
Taking the literary route to Europe, making it a lithmus test to whether or not my geopolitics chops are worth anything...
Would have loved had the whole Cloud City situation been taken care of before this, but having a couple more nights all to myself might be a boon.
If all fails, I might find inspiration in today's MtG Tarot Pick, HOWLING MINE .
Secluded spot, with enough coffee? Yeah, that could work...
In the meantime, I apologize in advance as my sanity will slowly crumble away...
Cloud City is fizzling along like a soda bottle that's not properly stoppered... Since one of the main benefits of that project was to permit me the opportunity to diminish (if not abloish) the amount of mundane data I'm picking up, I have to implement a stopgap measure in the mean time while the situation clears itself. So back to the library, and hopefully before Christmas, everything will be okay on that front...
With NaNoWriMo starting this weekend, I feel my creative juices are percolating along nicely. Stocking up on stuff about Europe for a last-minute cramming session.
The madness begins Sunday...
Weird MtG Tarot pick as I got RELIC BARRIER for today's draw.
Then again, it is rather fitting as I'm in the process of planning ahead and this is a reminder of the usefulness of preparedness
With November fast approaching, I like to browse baby books to find names for my characters.
I usually pick from French sources, since I'm centering my stoires around La Cité, but I was kind of surprised of coming across a news article listing the top 10 names for babies in Canada.
I was surprised to see names like Nathan, Benjamin, James, Abigail, and Madison becoming popular. But Jaxon??? Really???
The week that was has been a bit of a mess and with Cloud City not completely resolved, I'll have to forego my plan to go out next week-end. It would have been fun to prepare my next data gathering away from here. Still, since I'll probably spend Thanksgiving week-end by myself, I'll probably have enough time to prepare.
All this talk about books and notetaking links nicely to today's MtG Tarot pick as I got GLASSES OF URZA.
Then again, maybe it's a portent that I will have the opportunity to look into the future next week...
It's weird that most of my evenings have been occupied with Cloud City stuff, at least the first part of the BigMediaCo-related stuff is all but over till Saturday. I have to admit that I sympathize with customers, if they have to go to through the same hoops I did, the only difference being that at least I have a walkthrough so I knew what exactly I needed to do to get out to each escalating predicament.
Almost had a scare as the 2-drinks-minimum latest blunder almost meant I had to work this week-end. This was averted so I didn't have to express my feelings on the subject. :-)
Can't wait for next week to come so that I can finally take a breather... Just a couple of days...
Came across yesterday some posters for my "coup de coeur" at this year's Fantasia "Private Eye" I hope the dvd will be available here, even if the odds are against me on that accounrt.
..And it seems that today's MtG Tarot draw fits the QotD, as I got ASHOD'S BATTLE GEAR. As a fellow bro would say SUIT UP!!!
Have you ever seen the Prisoner? One of the best TV series, which I am told is beiong made into a movie coming next year. Any hoo, the intro of the show is how a British Agent (not John Drake, or so we are lead to believe) makes a great show of resigning from his job, only to be captured as he was preparing to leave on vacation.
This is the exact opposite of how I feel? BigMediaCo's Human Ressources have been a dud so far. The union rep is not returning my calls and I almost feel as if I've become the character in The Sixth Sense. This makes me feel strangely ambivalent as to what I should expect.
On the one hand, I'm still pretty confident I'll get my job back (from what I have gathered, they usually suspend you a week for a first offense) but I'm ambivalent as to what I should do once I returned. I used to laugh in a self-conscious way that my life was like a Dilbert strip, almost to the point of seeing them as an horoscope of sorts, But now I have reached the stage where I have become a Wally, the employee working the system without any shame.
Surely, this is not what they wanted me to become, but they sure made it easy for me to become like that.
My whole perspective of the office has changed also. Instead of thinking in shades of gray (lulling me in a false sense of security by not looking for threats), I should instead adopt a Manicchean outlook, with the balance heavily tilted towards the "Bad" side.
In other news, was a bit flabbergasted when I read the plan of La Cité's downtown borough who wants to offer free parking on the streets around Christmas time and even wants to make sure the Métro would be free. 2 bad ideas, because firstly, as unapetizing paying for parking can be, it helps provide a healthy rotation and prevents people from monopolizing the place. Take off the parking meters, and people who get in early, most probably not Christmas shoppers but people coming to work in the area will hog the spots all day, making it EVEN more difficult for shoppers to find an open place,
As for the free subway plan, Yeah, it would be a good plan if it wouldn't mean that they would raise rates to cover the $2M this plan would cost. It's not that expensive in the first place...
My MtG draw is not as related to my current woes, or so I think, as I've drawn SCROLL RACK. Then again maybe it does have a meaning as to provide a way out of my current predicament.
If only I can decipher its meaning before it is too late.
Well La Belle Province (or at least, its government) is having a bit of problem election-wise. Seeing that the (provincial) Liberal party has no one on the federal side they could feel comfortable supporting.
While Stephane Dion's Liberals would be a "logical" fit as they share the same name, the party is still tainted by the scandals from Chrétien and Martin's era and the hardball stance that Dion has taken, while a minister against the interests of the province has made him a very unpoular figure.
The Conservatives, while sharing some ideological basis with Charest's party is not a good fit either as the areas where their philosophies differ (war on crime, environment, et al) is a major turn-off. Which is probably why the finance minister, Monique Jérôme-Forget felt the need to mention on a press conference that one ot the main claims of success by the PC, mainly that fiscal balance has been acheived by saying that there is still a $3.5G outstanding amount (mainly for post-secondary education) that is still missing. Of that amount over $800M would be for Quebec.
As for the NPD or the Green party, they don't hold much weight here to make a difference.
The Bloc, the BLOC? No, unless, no... just no. My brain would explode...
Enough election silliness, onwards to personal silliness instead...
For some reason in my story-universe, I have been toying with the idea of using Texas as a sort of foothold for the Fey (when they first appeared, I used Victoria-era England, if only for the facile link of using A C Doyle as the first Commonwealth ambassador to the Fey).
But I never went much beyond this general idea, my only notes on the matter is using Middle Earth's Rohan as a model (even outlying a territory stretched roughly between Dallas, Cleveland, and Minnesota, even though the Midwest would be more suited).
Coming across the latest offering for the Pathfinder setting, my interest has been rekindled. I particularly like how they are flavouring the bard, one of my favourite PC class.
To add some spice, I could label the lot Tex-Mex-alted. Especially their treatment of the Underworld.
My MtG Tarot draw of the day is rather low-key MAGEWRIGHT'S STONE. Given my tendency to be so bloody litteral about the meanings of the cards, but it means i'll find some way not to "tap" out from work, all the better.
Tommorow, Lunch with the Raven and then onwards to Bytown...
Wow, I think it's the first time, I am kind of glad of coming in early. Read all these "great" mails on how the systems at the office are off-line, and can alreadty anticipate the blame-shifting flame wars this will cause.
I can relax because I don't have any stake in this fight and it's funny to see other people butt heads instead of the usual "Me vs Brick Wall: Redux". Given that there's supposed to me an implementation tommorow, either I stay late tonight or I come in at a more leisurely time tommorow.
And with all the internet problems at work and the freak weather outside, I decided to take a look at the latest BigMediaCo policy and came across a great line on how the Company will provide services for other companies on their network. I think I could have a field day using this as a plot hook with a person being a "ghost"
And MtG Tarot seems to agree with me as I've drawn CRYPTIC GATEWAY.
Somebody call William Gibson and them Shadowrun guys...
Seriously
Say, what's that catchy tune I hear, would it be the time for another vacation waltz? Ayup,at least, for once I'm the one who needs to make a change and it's not due to the inefficiency of my PHB. It seems, I'll finally get my chance to visit Bytown next week-end.
No plans on what I'll do while over there (R&R, most probably) and there's probably gonna be one small impact on that week-end's data gathering, but unfortunately no plans on merging both Bytown and New Orleans... The funny thing is that I had taken the Thursday previous so it's only a matter of 24 hours.
Although, it might cause some problems at the office as we finally received the date of our move to our swanky new place, which falls on Friday the 13th. Maybe, it's a good day to take off, after all.
As for myself, nothing new under the sun, especially given the fact the Sun had made itself scarce, leaving rain and cold winds to rule the countryside. Even with this unclement weather, my allergies have started to kick in fierce.
On the good side of things, I don't want to jinx it, but there's a good chance, my mug will be broadcast in HD this fall, causing no doubt a fall on the prices of HD terminal, after said mug making people return their equipment to the stores.
My MtG-draw-of-the-day is VOLTAIC KEY. I think the aspect of this card is the fluff text.
"The key did not work a single lock, yet it opened many doors." I feel like that sometimes.
Spent last night trying to set up my wireless router. I really don't know why I bought this up in the first place. of course, having the computer in the living room is a bit awkward but I could manage.
Oh well, one more thing for the Illuminati to monitor me with. Or is it? Mu-ha-ha-ha!!!
Too bad, my mom's away. I guess she'll havve to wait for that wii console. Never would have pegged her for a gamer, but run backwards in my family :-)
I guess my MtG tarot pick of the day seems to be related to my computer endeavours as I've drawn STABILIZER.
Next stop, I need to pick up a flux capacitor if I won't to add a HDTV or what not.
Well it seems that my trip to Ottawa I had planned for next week is all but cancelled. In a way, I don't really mind as it would have only been for a couple of days at most and it's not like I had anything planned while over there.
Besides, I just got back from 2 weeks out of my house, I can make do with staying in La Cité for this vacation. From a data gathering aspect, I am somewhat ambivalent on how I should actually tackle the coming week. On one hand, I could try and not use any RPG-related sources much like when I am away but it's not like I prevent myself from using mundane sources when I am here. That's where my mind wanders when I have nothing to do...
Today's pick is MOX SAPPHIRE. One of the most rare artefacts and I supposed it's a way out for my conundrum. One should always uses what is at hand instead of looking for the next big thing.
