Purple Objects

Casual Gamers? Hardcore Gamers?

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 19:22:27 GMT

How would you define a "casual gamer" in comparison to a "hardcore gamer?"

Would you say it has to do with the games the person plays? How often they play them? How much they're interested in the gaming industry, or gaming as an art form?

Is someone who plays a game like Tetris or Animal Crossing for several hours a day less hardcore than someone who plays Bioshock for a half hour a week?
What about someone who plays a lot of Halo, Call of Duty, and Final Fantasy, but then knows little about what's current in gaming?
Or someone who constantly reads gaming news, but then rarely picks up a game?

So... what are your definitions? I'm pretty curious!

People Touch My Hair

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:49:03 GMT

People keep touching my hair when I go out. Seriously! My brothers, too. I-- I'm not a holy person or anything, so it's pretty weird!
See, my brothers and I are half black, and half white. As such, we have really curly hair.
The three of us all wear our hair in a kind of dreadlock-like style. It is very long: for two of us, it's all the way down our backs, in fact.
And people are always, always walking up to us and touching our hair without asking. So far, they have invariably been white and middle-aged or older.

Most recently, this almost happened to me when I was at a pharmacy. I was walking briskly through an aisle, and a guy reached out and started to touch my hair. I was still walking while he did this, so it fell out of his hands, and he kind of nervously said "nice hair." I think I smiled at him and said "oh, thanks!" and went on my way.

But... that was a pretty mild incident. No, the strangest incident by far was at a doctor's office over a year ago.
My mom and I were checking out, making our next appointments, and paying the bill. And out of nowhere, I heard a woman's quiet voice right behind me, almost whispering:

"I have to touch your hair."

My response: "Uh, okay."
My thoughts: "OH MY GOSH I'M GOING TO DIE."
My face: Matching my thoughts.

Not that it mattered that I said anything, though, because she was already touching my hair.
The receptionists and my mom were kind of amused by my reaction, and kind of weirded out by this elderly lady.
This elderly lady who went on in a way I will paraphrase:

"When I was younger, in the 60's, I had friends who were black. And my white friends all said I shouldn't be with them, and I did. In fact, I spent the night with one of them, even though my friends and family didn't approve, because I knew that was wrong."

Mostly, my mom and I smiled and nodded.
And left.

I would be okay, if no old ladies ever told me about their sex life from forty years ago.
And I would be okay if strangers would stop touching my hair without asking. (I'd be fine if they just asked first, really, I would!)

Thank you and goodnight!

Delivery! Fresh CSS for all!

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 22:29:57 GMT

You can download my CSS!
I almost hate to make two posts in a row (scroll down a little- it's not about BYOND being broken due to my messing up!), but, heck! My membership runs out in an hour and a half!
I'm breakin' all the rules, out here!

The only thing more that I need to do is post quiz results. Hmm.

Anyway...
I uploaded it to my domain, Cel3stial. When my membership runs out, people can still get it there. People will probably still be able to get it there for many years to come.

http://cel3stial.net/offsite/css-1-07.txt

The instructions are at the top. Please note: it isn't very versatile. If you were to, say, have interests, but no fans-- or not have any games/demos/etc. published, there will be holes where there should be boxes.
Well, that's what you get with absolute positioning.

Changing the positioning isn't too hard, though. Just look for the name of the box you want to change, and adjust the "top:###;" thing for it, as well as the ones beneath it.

Maybe it's a little harder than I thought. But it just sounds hard! It's actually quite easy, and if anyone wants help with it, they can just IM me or something.

Hey, IMing me!

For the record: My AIM is blustarfaerie. My MSN is shadowslushie (at hotmail.com).
Go ahead and IM me there! Even if you don't have questions! Even if I don't know who you are! I don't mind.

Have a good day, everybody!

P.S.: January 4, 2008: This CSS is very stale, now.
Just so you know.
It would take tweaking to use, but the base is still there if you want it.

Lo, look yonder! A post!

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 21:38:46 GMT

I've been wanting to post for a while, so now I will, while I still have the time!

So, I'll just write about whatever comes to mind. My mind is a little foggy, because I should be in bed, so please forgive me if it's not a likable post.

Thorg sent me the link to a song the other day. It was such a happy song! I like it! "Here Comes a Special Boy", by Freezepop. (But, I'm not listening to it right now. It's on my playlist, though, so... victory!)

I'm writing all of my unreplacable things from The Sims 1 to a CD, because I don't play it much anymore. Then I'm just going to uninstall it, and ZWABAM! 2GB freed up!

I wonder how long it will take my family and I to use up that space?

I had a nightmare, the other night. It wasn't very bad, though.
In it, I went to the computer and checked how much space we had left.
We only had 27MB left.
I got a little upset. I asked everyone who did it. I couldn't find out myself, because the computer was running so slowly.

"Wheeze... virtual memory... wheeze... where did I put my dagnabbed virtual memory pills? And my glasses?!" - My Computer, Running on 27MB. A sad sight.

Not that my computer is really running on 27MB of space. It has more like 2.7GB.
Still not enough, but that's why I'm writing things to CD and deleting them!

I like people!

I might be getting a part-time job, next year.
My mom asked about it for me when she went to Hot Topic.
They thought she wanted to work there-- and when she said "no", they thought my dad wanted a job there. They were less receptive to him than they were her.
If I do get a job, and it's there... I love my mom, she's really great, but it would be like an awkward sitcom if she and I both worked there. I'd probably get used to it, though.
And it probably won't even pan out, so why am I worrying?
Actually... I guess I'm not worrying.

Speaking of worrying, I have stomach acid problems! I hope they don't lead to an ulcer.

Hey, I need to make some fractals and layouts! Several of them!
I won a paid livejournal account in a contest where I took pictures of The Sims 2, so I'll need to make a layout for a livejournal, and for my main site.
But, I've been meaning to make more graphics lately, so this is an excellent chance for me to jump in.

I think I'm going to fix my CSS for my BYOND members page, and make it so everyone can use it.
But I'll have to do that in the next two and a half hours, so maybe not. Maybe I'll just go to bed.
But... think of the children!
Okay, I'll do it for you. For you, BYONDers.

I need to drink more orange juice! And eat more carrots!
See, my eyesight's getting a little bad, because of all the eyestrain I get from being on the computer. My mom thinks I'll need some reading/computer glasses.
I do not disagree with her!

So, uh... I think I came down here to check a guide for Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga.
That game is pretty fun! I just wanted to see if there was any advice on fighting Cackletta. As it turned out, there was.
She's going down!
But, man, it's a funny game. I like Prince Peasley. And the guy with the hat-- Mr. "I HAVE FURY!!!"
I can't remember his name, though. Apologies.
(Edit: Fawful!)

So, I guess that's about it. I made a post! Dagnabbit, I followed through! Finished what I started!
I hope it hasn't been an annoying post.
Thank you for reading!

BYOND on Unemployment

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 16:17:56 GMT

BYOND stopped working for me a couple of days ago.
Honestly, it used to go out every day in a construction helmet, because it was just that hard-working.

But, anyway. The construction helmets have all faded, now. This is... me asking for assistance.

My problem seems to be that BYOND does not wish to connect to the hub. Maybe they had a messy breakup or something-- I don't know.
When I log in, it just keeps me as "offline" until I exit.
When I ignore my pager status and try to connect to a game, Dream Seeker informs me that "BYOND Central is not accessible."

I have rebooted my computer since this error began.
I have upgraded my version of BYOND to the most recent version.
I have made tried to change my pager port to one I made up specifically for the pager. (I did it for you, pager. And you still won't love me. Not even the most chaste of hugs. I don't ask for much, pager. Whyyy?! *weep*)
I have restarted my little wireless internet box (oh, little wireless internet box! *heart*). Even as I wrote this entry, in fact!
I have double-checked to make sure that yes, my firewall allows BYOND.
I have tried to log in on other keys.
The hub doesn't seem to be down.

Why the lies, pager? Why the lies? Did you IP ban all of my houses? Even the condo in St. Louis?

Does anyone have any solutions? Perhaps I'm missing something... but either way, I really miss hanging out around BYOND.
Even if you don't have any ideas as to what might be wrong, thanks for reading this entry. I appreciate everyone's time!

I am not keeping time spent on my members page in a bowl.
Especially not one next to my refrigerator.
Especially not to be used for nefarious purposes, perhaps � la Dorian Gray.
Not in the slightest.

Edit: It works now. It was user error. I knew it was user error. Dagnab me.
Well, I'm off to go break more things! That's the plan, anyway, and I'm sure you all know how well plans tend to go. :D

Away: The Acronym!

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 21:07:04 GMT

Do any of you know any acronyms that generally mean "I'm away"? I already have a few, which are listed below.

BRB - Be Right Back
AFK - Away From Keyboard
DND - Do Not Disturb
BBL - Be Back Later

Yeah, I just want to know as many of these as possible. For... things.
Please not ones that you just made up, though. ^^;

Today Was A Day

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:04:06 GMT

I haven't the time to write a long entry, so I will summarize my day thusly:

Hack cough cough!
My brother who is closer to me in age got a level up!
It wasn't in real life!
HAAAAACKITY HACK COUGH
Hey, look, The Sims.
cough cough COUGH
OH NO LITTLE BROTHER you coughed up blood! I will make you a milkshake!
We will go to the doctor's office!
Goodwill is cool to me. Does this make me a grandma?
HACK COUGH COUUUGH COUGH
A woman was checking my mom out at the doctor's office! Totally checking her out!
Let's hack and cough some more, okay?
Twice! She totally was checking my mom out again! Because we both visited the same drugstore!
Now we can sleep! Food? Who needs it?
Okay, we need food, okay, I lied. I WON'T DO IT AGAIN! I PROMISE! NOO, NOT THE HANGER!
MirANda, get off of the computer! (This one happens almost every day. Because I have a tendency to be slow to finishing things. Sorry!)
HACK COUGH GARRGH

I wrote a longer version for my main site, but I guess I just don't care about BYOND enough to give you guys the real deal.
Sorry, BYOND Members.
Hey, don't wave your hangers at me!

P.S.: Okay. I didn't make him a milkshake after he coughed up blood. It was before. It sounds better this way, doesn't it, though?

P.P.S.: COUGH

Edit: Just after I wrote and posted this, my mom said "Miranda, get up here before I beat you with a hanger!"
Now, she wasn't really going to be hitting people with hangers.
I just thought it was an odd coincidence that she said that just after I wrote that. I mean, we don't have hangers lying around the house, or anything. Just thought it was worth noting.

On Downloaded Music Videos

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 12:08:20 GMT

I went on a downloading spree to end all downloading sprees. (Or maybe not to end. I don't know. I got things.)
I watched a couple music videos and interviews on Google Video, to celebrate. Because I've never seen the videos of most of my favorite bands.

And, well... have you ever walked away from a video thinking "huh?"

Or, better yet, "hee. That was bad-funny. Too much red dye corn syrup, cutting of shots, and leather. (Way too much leather.)"

Or, "gee, enough writhing around looking boredly anguished, there, mr. pretty?"

Or, from an interview, "they're... definitely... theatrical. Yes. Yes, theatrical."

Or, on a clip of a concert, "oh, dear, he's prancing. He's definitely prancing. So prancy."

Or, "so melodramatic. And pretty. So pretty. How on earth are these men so pretty? It's almost scary."

Or, worst of all, "that-- that wasn't a music video. That was softcore fetish porn. Set to a song I like. Dude, what?"

I really hope none of you have had to go through that last one.

Really.

And, for mostly personal reference-- not counting the "huh" one:
1( Cage - Dir en Grey (Note: Way too much leather.)
2( Mizerable - Gackt (Note: He also attempted dancing in a desert. He failed.)
3( Bah, just some interview and concert.
4( Bah, just some concert (Yes, that's a guy in the frilly dress.)
5( Au Revoir - Malice Mizer (They pose a lot, I think. Too much.)
6( Illuminati - Malice Mizer (I had a hard time believing that it wasn't some fancreation. But, nooo...)

No Internet. For a Week.

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 18:13:20 GMT

I can't believe I haven't been online for a week.
A whole week!
There was a time that I went through twitchy spasms of withdrawl when I wasn't able to go online every day.
And here I just went without being online for a week. Without anything to really deter me from internetland.
...uh, except The Sims 2. But even then, I only played it 3 out of the 7 days.

I think it's a record for me.
"Most Consecutive Days Without Internet-- Without the Computer Being Physically Unable to Connect".
Something like that.

On another note-- golly gee, my site's theme is actually timely, now!
Maybe I'll have to change its color again.
You know.
Just because.
(Though, I probably won't. Sorry.)

Happy Valentine's day, anyway.

S.D.ed: It Doesn't Seem Right

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:26:13 GMT

It seems that the main members.byond site isn't working for me.
So, I'm using the test.byond.com/members version.
It's... not that different!
Yay?

Oh, wait. I tried to post a comment, got an error, and the comment still went through.
That is a difference.

If you haven't guessed by now (and I don't see why you should have), I am tired!
Why do I always post here when I'm tired?

Also, I'm going to play Super Smash Brothers Melee with my brothers. I'll probably be quite K.O.ed by them, if not S.D.ed by myself.
Is that right? S.D.ed? It doesn't seem right.

I'm going to play as Shiek, try to win, but then just see Shiek's "huh wha?" kind of C-shaped pose.
Off of the side of the level.
Dagnabbit. I need to think more positively.
I think I will.
(One positive thought, right there!)

I guess that's all. Just... chatting with some friends of mine.

Then, I almost erased this by clicking "home" instead of "bookmarks" on Firefox. Oops.
Uh... I'll just make up a title and save the post, now.