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'Tis a foine day to be sailing the seven seas, me hearties.

* Dragonrose dances hornpipe.

Mine is currently winging it's way to Minimi's mailbox

I hadn't played any of the Sierra "Quest" games in quite a while, and I recently reloaded SQ5, because I have a french translation of it and I wanted to practice my french.  I was actually shocked by how many times I died. I died because I didn't get to class quickly enough.  I died because I couldn't tell if I'd cleaned the crest or not.  I died because I got caught cheating on a test.

I don't remember death being quite so pervasive the last time I played.  It's bloody annoying, now!

It's kind of interesting: the Sierra games that I really like and want to play again and again, it's quite hard to die.  If there is a sequence where there is sudden death, I can't stand that part.  

Take KQ6.  Most of the time wandering around doesn't get you killed, except maybe in the labyrinth, and it's easy to tell when you're not supposed to do something, because there'll be ominous music or the genie.  The only problem is in the land of the dead, when you have to avoid the ghouls.  I always had to get my sister to playthrough that part for me, because I would panic and end up running right into the darn things.

The Gabriel Knight games: You're only in real danger at the very end.  The rest of the time, though there's a real sense of tension, Gabe is never in any real danger.

Quest for Glory: The deaths are slightly more random in this one, but they usually aren't UNEXPECTED.  If you go out into the woods, yeah, you're going to find monsters.  You can always run away.

As I said to the last person who suggested a game about dragonslayers:

Dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon dragon DRAGON!!!!!!!

First one all the way!

/quote]

That isn't ALL I eat.  Those were just the things I had to cut in half.  I still could eat all the fruit and veggies I wanted (except for apples, for some bizzarre reason) and normally I down a litre of juice a day.

I'm 1.72 m and around 54 kg.  This weight range is also known as "so skinny you can see my ribs." This spring I was a little sick, but my doctor ended up putting me on a low fat diet where I was eating about half of what I normally would. EG I normally eat two bowls of cereal for breakfast, a bagel with cream cheese at lunch and a couple of chicken breasts for dinner.  This became one bowl of cereal, a peanut butter sandwich and a chicken breast. Under this diet, I lost 2 kilos.  It took a month for the weight to come back.  

I'm probably the only person in the world who really WANTS the freshman 15.  That would bring me right up to the "healthy" range.

That's pretty bizarre, I've never heard of a parade like that. Where exactly does this take place at? Sounds like Vegas...only in Vegas you can just go to a brothel or something. Heh, bizarre.

Vegas... I wish!  It's just McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.  The PJ parade is part of the week long initiation of the first year students.

Note, complete with back story:

I recently went on a traditional university parade, where everyone marches through the neighbourhood around the university dressed in their pyjamas.  If anyone is sitting on the curb, we had to give them a kiss or a handshake, depending on gender.  

HOWEVER! A lot of the guys are college students in the area, so they had the stubble thing going on.  By the end of the parade, the parading girls had very tender lips and were skipping over the stubbly guys entirely.

The moral of the story: cleanshaven guys get more kisses.  Think about it.

Okay, I find this much more interesting.

Tierra mentioned in Penny Arcade!

Alright, it's only a few sentences.  But I spotted it first!

Argh! I knew I'd gotten it wrong.  Richler is "Apprenticship of Duddy Kravitz" and "Barney's Version." I should know better, I'm a Canadian English student!  

Ugh, I even spelled it wrong!

This is an absolutly excellent post, Goldmund.

Quintaros brought up an intersting point, I think. He quoted Mordchai Richeler's "The Fifth Buisiness," which uses the main players of an opera company as archetypes for the characters.  The four main ones are the hero, the love interest, the villain, the sorceress (I'm not positive on that one, but it was some sort of female accomplice) and the fifth buisness.  The fifth buisness is the "keeper of his conscience,"  the hero's best friend.  He himself is not important, but we learn a lot about the hero by the way he interacts with the fifth buisness.  

Interaction is really the key to understanding a character.  I don't know if Chrille meant to do this, but there were clues to Jake McUrk's character thorughout P:DA.  For example, if you look at his bookshelf you find he likes to read mysteries.  You know he has particular tastes in art, because he always has a comment whenever you look at a painting.  You know he isn't very domestically inclined- there were various comments in the kitchen about how underused it was. You know he is a loyal customer- they knew him by name at the store.  But there was never a message that popped up saying "You are Jake McUrk, a mystery loving, art criticizing, domesticaly impaired loyal customer."  If there was, I would probably ignored it.  

Next, for your viewing pleasure... Fifteen men on a deadman's chest (yo ho ho's optional)

1) Greece
2) It seems to be working just fine for me. What are you talking about?
3)See 2, above
4)Apprentice

I've got to add to my list from way back when.  

Evanescence
No Doubt
Garbage
Bif Naked (going to see her in concert next week!EEEEE!!!)

They've got some pretty catchy songs, and they're also in the perfect range for me to sing along to.

Age: 19
Gender: Female

1)- Focus on story over action
 - Use of logic to overcome obstacles
 - Linear plot (as opposed to an RPG where anything can happen as long as you're in the right place)

2) Adventure games focus on character and plot, often continuing a story arc throughout a series.  An adventure game also tends to have more emphasis on logical thought processes.

3)Description of the plot- to quote the president of Pixar, "Story is King."

4)-Unusual childhood (i.e. orphaned, runaway, exceedingly good student, victim of crime/tragic accident etc.)
  -Flashy costume
  -Secret identity

5)I would't buy a game just based on pictures, though they would influence my purchase. After all, if the box doesn't look interesting on the shelf, I wouldn't pick it up.  Also, pictures on a box help convey atmosphere nd tone about a game more effectively than just words by themselves. But just looking at pictures and screenshots is not enough to outline the plot of a game.

The most that happens for NA football in Ontario (I can't speak for the rest of Canada) is that we send the two best teams in the province to have one game in a professional stadium. I've never even heard of high school having a stadium.  I know a few high schools- and we're talking private academies, here- have their own ice rinks.  But you don't here about the next big high school athletes on the news or anything.

I used to be able to carry on a conversation in French, but now I can only really remember how to ask questions- really useless, because I can't understand the answers.

I also speak a brand of slang that I think is limited to my high school, because I've never heard anyone not from my school use it.

"This class/band/movie is chate."= This class/band/movie is insulting to my intelligence.

"I geeve"= I give into your reasoning.

"Trucks! Trucks!"= You have done something extraordinary. Congradulations.

I'm 50/50 lesbian... but I'm 33% gay. How does that work?

The Orphan Who Saves the World and Revenges His Parents

We have David Eddings' Garion, R. A. Salvatore's Elbryan and Pony, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, Mercedes Lackey's Tarma... oh, I KNOW there's more, but I can't think of any right now.  

Just once I'd like to see the mysterious orphan be told that his parents were killed by evil people, and instead of grabbing the nearest sword and running off into a duel arcane, just think to himself "Well, ain't that a kick in the pants."

a-HA! I knew he was sticking around!