April 2002 newsletters Welcome to the Barren Realms Newsletter of April 4, 2002! Come visit us at telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000/ News from the Realms: FireLily: Easter Egg Hunt Quest RESULTS Well the Easter Egg Hunt was a smash hit (in my opinion)! Congratulations to our winners: Midgard in First Place with 19 Haze in Second Place with 18 Haldir in Third Place with 17 And a special Congratz to Daredevil for finding the special Golden Egg! All participants get a prize. See Jatproco for your prize. You must turn in your basket (with eggs) to get your prize. Thanks everyone! I hope everyone had a good time! And a big thank you to Amystery for sponsoring! :) -FireLily & Jatproco Everybody: Return of the Description Quest Alright folks, it's again that time. "What time is it?" I hear you ask? Well, time to give your character some character. Unfortunately, seats are filling up fast, and space is limited. So get your entry in today. Specifically, the entry would consist of a description of your character, that is, what you would put in your description field via the "description" command (see help description for more details). As I don't have a huge amount of time before I have to get back to doing schoolwork and other such nonsense, the deadline to get entries in is a week from today, or midnight system time on 4/11. I won't be accepting entries after that. Most preferably, send your entries via e-mail (well, or note me here, I guess) to me at mddosch@students.wisc.edu. All decisions are final, contestants must meet eligibility requirements, and all that jazz and fine print legal stuff. Remember: the text of your description, via e-mail or note, to me before midnight next thursday. We now resume your regularly scheduled programming... -EB IDEAS - please hit reply and send me some responses to these ideas: Kharn: remove the "BACKSTAB is another [...]" sentence from "help kill". just confuses non-kenders Exo: I think we should have help pages on auras, i mean, newbies, and myself <-- stupid need help on these kinda things Dwimmerlaik: got this one from a potion that caused create food. It would be neat to have a potion cause someone to 'lay an egg', maybe it can have special pill proerties according to level of the layer Ashes: how about changing magic missile so that it can attack another room, like throw, and so that that way it would actually become useful FireLily: we need a wave hello social. i keep waving at people and it says "wave goodbye" and i didn't mean to say goodbye Ankou: how about a command "slist racename" that will show the slist for any given race Kiri -- we have this. Try slist dru, elf, dwf, so on. Hugin: remove the noexit room in Camelot or remove the curse in it FireLily: a place in profile to put IRL age/sex/location. obviously optional, but useful for anyone who wants others to know and wants to know other's Shiloh: the drunk mobs should carry bottles of beer Sensi: know what would be cooL? if an avian that's carrying someone could drop that person on a mob for some damage. that'd be cool right? PADAN: could we make multiattack easier to use, like autoattack everything in room PADAN: and could it be constant once you attack, it continues to attack all of the people in the room Leiland: when you're not invis, typing visible should infor you that you werent invis, not tell you "you become visible" Ashton: Druids should have a spell where they ask other players for there mana...Like from the dwarves, kenders, humans, or avians that don't use it FireLily: we have who hero and who imm... maybe we should have who mort? Hugin: let ignored players show up on where Cyclone: be able to flee when riding in a vehicle Shiloh: maybe when someone summons a mob it can get mad at the person who summoned it and attack Cyclone: a skill that speeds up the regeration of mana and hp so u dont always have to be drunk Cyclone: be able to remove enchants from items so u can reenchant it... it would cost lots of mana tho Lugin: change some of the descs in Midgaard so it really looks broken Radicaled: show how much damage we actually do once you reach a certain level Golbez: Make it so that you can use HR to flee from battle, like regular recall does Shiloh: a spell that converts hp into mana Radicaled: make the histories show you what times they were said at Liubei: sneak should work when riding in a vehicle Xorex: for commands that people enter all the time, make the most common ways of misspelling those commands into new commands that say funny little comments about the player's typing abilities or other humorous things. Dreamkeeper: I think it would be helpful if when you typed "prac", the ig and oog stuff show up in two different colours. Then it would be easier to tell the difference. BIO: Sgetsuo 1. What piece of equipment would you most like to have irl and why? A Farslayer. If it lived up to it's name, I'd be King of the World before you could say "Where did that pointy metal stick come from??? Arghhhhh......." 2. If you could be any kind of M&M what kind would you be and why, also what color? Plain chocolate, with the "M" scratched off so people wouldn't be quite sure if I was an M&M or not and would therefore be less likely to devour me without a thought. Probably green. 3. What color is your toothbrush? Mostly white. 4. Do you have any pets? There is at least one mouse living under the floorboard in my house. As my attempts to catch it have so far been unsuccessful then I have a pet mouse and wouldn't be rid of it for the world. Or maybe mice. 5. When's your birthday? 29th December 6. What is your favorite sport and favorite team? I don't follow sport. I don't mind playing pretty much any sport but I don't find any particular amusement in watching other people kicking around balls or running really fast. I may make an exception for Toughman, if you could call that a sport ;) 7. Who was the hero/imm who helped you when you first started BR? 'Twas the winter of '94 and I was seeking shelter from the cold and rain. I approached a large white-stone building, stained with years of smog and neglect and entreated sanctuary from the guard within. His initial disgust at my bedraggled, sleep-deprived appearance turned to jaded acceptance as I produced a card identifying myself as a member of the much-maligned student society. I mounted a set of winding stairs set behind a statue depicting some long-dead scholar the hand of which I ritually shook in passing, perhaps for enlightenment in my studies or maybe just to thank him for his efforts in raising this roof which now protected me. At the head of the stairs stood the combined Libraries of the Sciences. Although now mostly devoted to the arcane practices of chemistry there were still some of the greater tomes of my studies located in the farther corners. Tonight, however, I turned from them and made swiftly for the room of the calculating machines. Within were 30 or so bodies, eyes glazed and fixed on the flickering screens before them. None looked up as I walked past them, nor made a sound as I stumbled on a chair-leg. Only once did a head swivel in my direction, in wonder or perhaps amusement as I sat myself in front of the one un-used machine. The head smiled once in embarassment at having been caught caring about the world, and instantly sank itself back into it's photon dream. The machine itself was seldom used, as it carried an unfamiliar air to it and would not respond to the usual demands of the populace. It was for this reason that I had studied the machine and it's ever so infrequent visitors, and from my watch gleaned a little of it's workings. Over days unnumbered I had learned to circumvent it's prohibiting maze of questions and pitfalls and master the black "X" which embodied my portal to the other worlds. Wielding the ever-changing power of the Mosaic I discovered an unreal world of doors, each one opening to a marvellous land of unknown adventure. The third of these doors I tried brought me to the gates of the Barren Realms, and there my lost and frightened soul was guided to enlightenment by ........ MATRIX. I'm not sure I ever thanked him properly, so if he's still reading these - thanks man! Your help and advice made me want to give the Realms a shot - something other MUDs I had tried had failed to achieve. 8. Which mob is your favorite? The Rainbow Guardian - as the first mob to do me damage which deserved captial letters. 9. Who introduced you to the mud? Have you passed the favor on to anyone? I found the MUD through a random search of the net. I have tried to introduce others, but none have stayed. 10. If you were an animal, what would you be? If I had a chance could I be a fish? My scales would shine bright as I jump and I splish. But the river is cold, and the sea so vast. I think I would shiver and feel so small and lost. Perhaps I could live my life as a lion in the sun of the plains with my bite hard as iron. Still that life would be fierce and my heart is not willing to be brought low by fatigue and a failed life of killing. I have looked at the birds and believe it could be, that my soul would be happy could I but fly so free. Yet the eagle is lonely, the sparrow seems so scared, do they fly without joy and cry death to the air? So my eyes return earthward and many I see, are the flocks and the crowds who just ignore me. And even as I hide in my corner a while, I could do worse than this - I'll be human and smile. 11. What significant events greatly affected your life? Writing this is the greatest event that has happened in the past minute - it has made me forget work and that's significant enough for me! 12. What is your favorite area in the realms, and why? Any area written by our own mudders. It's part of what makes the Realms so unique. 13. What is the longest amount of time you have ever spent in one sitting on the realms? Many hours. Many, many hours. 14. If you could go back in time to 1BC, what modern invention would you bestow on our primitive ancestors to make their lives better? An oil-heated lava lamp, to help while away the long, hard winter nights watching the 'lava' go "gloop". 15. Given only a golf club, a shoe, some flypaper, sand and a cube - what would you make? I would put all the objects inside the transparent cube, and wait patiently until someone put it in the Guggenheim. 16. What one thing would you change about the world? Mondays. 17. What one super power would you like to have? Laser Beam Eyes. Who could go wrong with Laser Beam Eyes? Kiri's www of URLs: Mindbogglingly funny: http://www.misterpants.com/junk/ Find out what your junk is worth! For two bonus points, tell me if you think Frank Van Valen is a doppelganger for Scavenger! http://www.collectors.com/index_flash_version.chtml Haiku Homage to Iron Chef http://www.khrishna.com/haiku.html The Man Code 1. Thou shall not rent the movie Chocolat. 2. Under no circumstances may two men share an umbrella. 3. Any man who brings a camera to a bachelor party may be legally killed and eaten by his fellow partygoers. 4. When you are queried by a buddy's wife, girlfriend, mother, father, priest, shrink, dentist, accountant, or dog walker, you need not and should not provide any useful information whatsoever as to his whereabouts. You are permitted to deny his very existence. 5. Unless he murdered someone in your immediate family, you must bail a friend out of jail within 12 hours. 6. You may exaggerate any anecdote told in a bar by 50 percent without recrimination; beyond that, anyone within earshot is allowed to call B.S. (Exception: When trying to pick up a woman, the allowable exaggeration rate rises to 400 percent.) 7. If you've known a guy for more than 24 hours, his sister is off-limits forever. 8. The minimum amount of time you have to wait for another guy who's running late is five minutes. For a woman, you are required to wait 10 minutes for every point of hotness she scores on the classic 1-10 scale. 9. Bitching about the brand of free beer in a buddy's refrigerator is forbidden. You may gripe if the temperature is unsuitable. 10. No man is ever required to buy a birthday present for another man. In fact, even remembering a friend's birthday is strictly optional. 11. Agreeing to distract the ugly friend of a hot babe your buddy is trying to hook up with is your legal duty. Should you get carried away with your good deed and end up together, your pal is forbidden to speak of it, even at your bachelor party. 12. Before dating a buddy's ex, you are required to ask his permission and he, in return, is required to grant it. 13. Women who claim they "love to watch sports" must be treated as spies until they demonstrate knowledge of the game and the ability to pick a buffalo wing clean. 14. If a man's zipper is down, that's his problem --- you didn't see nothin'. 15. The universal compensation for buddies who help you move is beer. 16. A man must never own a cat or like his girlfriend's cat. 17. Your girlfriend must bond with your buddy's girlfriends within 30 minutes of meeting them. You are not required to make nice with her gal pal's significant others --- low-level sports bonding is all the law requires. 18. When stumbling upon other guys watching a sports event, you may always ask the score of the game in progress, but you may never ask who's playing. 19. When your girlfriend/wife expresses a desire to fix her whiny friend up with your pal, you may give her the go-ahead only if you'll be able to warn your buddy and give him time prepare excuses about joining the priesthood. 20. It is permissible to consume a fruity drink only when you're sunning on a tropical beach ... and it's delivered by a topless supermodel ... and it's free. 21. Unless you're in prison, never fight naked. 22. A man in the company of a hot, suggestively dressed woman must remain sober enough to fight. 23. If a buddy is outnumbered, outmanned, or too drunk to fight, you must jump into the fight. Exception: If within the last 24 hours his actions have caused you to think, "What this guy needs is a good ass-whoopin'." Then you may sit back and enjoy. 24. Never hesitate to reach for the last beer or the last slice of pizza, but not both. That's just plain mean. 25. If you compliment a guy on his six-pack, you better be referring to his beer. 26. Never talk to a man in the bathroom. 27. If a buddy is already singing along to a song in the car, you may not join him. Greetings from the Barren Realms! Come visit at telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000/ News from the Realms: This last warmboot leaves with 100 correct maps at Aod, thanks to Brodgar's tireless work. Kiri: typo winners for April Since the typos reported were so low, it's again just going to be a smaller stat raise. However, Xorex wins with 27 typos, Hugin is runner-up with 11. Honorable mentions are: Mulch, Dwimmerlaik, Ankou, Eshe, Firelily, Brinley, Mathis, Sting, Lairian, and Ashton. IDEAS: Mulch: Something you could configure so that when it was the mud would notify you every time there was a new ticket...it would save me having to type return every fifteen seconds to see if the tick had come yet FireLily: i want to be able to hug inanimate objects ;) Isis: this has prolly been proposed before, but a spell like charm person or glare for ills would be kinda logical, I think... Isis: another ill thing: gate, allows everyone in the ill's group to enter a gate and go to a mob? or just the ill himself... it's in a book... Anubis: a single character command for the hero channel much like "." is for chat Kiri - we have this. Try ] FireLily: it would be nice if there were a way to see the last 10 things I said in a tell, as opposed to tellh which just says the last 10 things other people told me. FireLily: i hate having to type out someone's entire name to get their profile... FireLily: i wish 'fly' would show up in the affected spells list Radicaled: you shouldn't be able to flee in the arena Liubei: when newbies first enter the game they should have a small bag or pack called the newbie pack/bag Liubei: be able to set reply to a certain char so that when someone sends u a tell when u are talking to someone else u dont reply to them accidently FireLily: if we have someone on ignore, it'd be nice if they stayed on ignore until you took them off, not every time you logged off Replies by Firelily: >Kharn: remove the "BACKSTAB is another [...]" sentence >from "help kill". just confuses non-kenders I don't think that's necessary. It says, "used by thieves" and it is in all caps so they know there is another help file. Even if they are confused after reading help kill, they won't be after reading help backstab. >Exo: I think we should have help pages on auras, i mean, >newbies, and myself <-- stupid need help on these kinda >things I agree. There were a lot of times when I was a mort when I'd stumble upon a new and interesting aura/tag and would have to ask what it meant. help aura should be written to include auras, humming, glowing, etc. >Dwimmerlaik: got this one from a potion that caused create >food. It would be neat to have a potion cause someone to 'lay >an egg', maybe it can have special pill proerties according >to level of the layer That's a cute idea, but not realistic. A new spell would have to be created and then what would be the purpose of laying an egg? Maybe it should a social. >Ashes: how about changing magic missile so that it can attack >another room, like throw, and so that that way it would >actually become useful Naaaah... then people would ask to change fireball and acidblast and all that good stuff to go to other rooms. >FireLily: we need a wave hello social. i keep waving at >people and it says "wave goodbye" and i didn't mean to say >goodbye Don't ask me why, but I think I'm right. >Hugin: remove the noexit room in Camelot or remove the curse >in it I don't think that noexit rooms should be cursed. How would one get out? That is really annoying. As for this particular room, I'm not familiar enough with the area to say anything about it. >FireLily: a place in profile to put IRL age/sex/location. >obviously optional, but useful for anyone who wants others to >know and wants to know other's Wow, another good idea from me! >Shiloh: the drunk mobs should carry bottles of beer That's cute. I like that. >Sensi: know what would be cooL? if an avian that's carrying >someone could drop that person on a mob for some damage. >that'd be cool right? Hmmm that is interesting... but it should cause damage to the player being dropped, as well... and thus there should be a way to insure that avians don't just go around dropping people on mobs for fun ;) >PADAN: could we make multiattack easier to use, like >autoattack everything in room and could it be constant once >you attack, it continues to attack all of the people in the >room I don't have multiattack yet, so I don't know what it is. No comment. >Leiland: when you're not invis, typing visible should infor >you that you werent invis, not tell you "you become visible" I agree. >Ashton: Druids should have a spell where they ask other >players for there mana...Like from the dwarves, kenders, >humans, or avians that don't use it Um, how would that work exactly? If they created a spell where Druids could suck mana out of other players, wouldn't there be widespread abuse? >FireLily: we have who hero and who imm... maybe we should >have who mort? Wow! I'm on a roll! >Hugin: let ignored players show up on where Hmm... then they wouldn't be ignored, would they? >Shiloh: maybe when someone summons a mob it can get mad at >the person who summoned it and attack maybe if it is an aggro mob... does it do that already? maybe it can be a new spec... summon_mad >Cyclone: a skill that speeds up the regeration of mana and hp >so u dont always have to be drunk I think that kinda is the point of getting drunk... nah... >Cyclone: be able to remove enchants from items so u can >reenchant it... it would cost lots of mana tho that would be useful... but would it be fair? i dunno >Liubei: sneak should work when riding in a vehicle it's pretty hard to sneak up on someone while on an elephant or in a balloon. >Xorex: for commands that people enter all the time, make the >most common ways of misspelling those commands into new >commands that say funny little comments about the player's >typing abilities or other humorous things. I really like this idea a lot. I know I am constantly type 'scam' instead of 'scan' and it is funny every time! >Dreamkeeper: I think it would be helpful if when you >typed "prac", the ig and oog stuff >show up in two different colours. Then it would be easier to >tell the difference. I think this has been suggest before... I agree that would be a useful thing. Kiri's WWW of URLs: From Sgetsuo.. utterly fascinating... http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/NMT01.html From Scavenger - cat and girl: http://www.catandgirl.com/ How fast can you spank the monkey? http://www.vectorlounge.com/04_amsterdam/jam/flamjam.html And finally, the BR boards! GO THERE! http://www.barrenrealmsmud.com/phpBB/ This is a short one with no bios. Once again you folks have petered out - must be the exams coming up :) A duck walks into a feed store and asks, "Got any duck feed?" The clerk tells him, "No, we don't have a market for it, it so we don't carry it." The duck says, "Okay" and leaves. The next day, the duck walks in to the feed store and asks, "Got any duck feed?" Again the clerk says no and the duck leaves. Next day, the duck walks in, and asks, "Got any duck feed?" The clerk says, "I've told you twice, we don't have duck feed, we've never had duck feed and we never will have duck feed. If you ask me again, I'll nail your feet to the floor." The duck leaves. The next day, the duck walks in and asks, "Got any nails?" "No," comes the reply. "Got any duck feed?" News from the Realms: Darkcrad: APPEARANCE QUEST :D! Greetings Realmers Dark has came up with a quest during dinner!! (it may have already been done before) The quest is to give me an image of any characters appearence!! it MUSt be an image or a flash movie tho uh.....deadline...hmm....well how about 3 weeks? email your work at darkcrad@hotmail.com (or send me a link to your flash if its too big) SOUND COULD BE INCLUDED TO YOUR FLASH MOVIE, ALSO IT CAN BE AS LONG AS YOU WANT Amystery also says that extra credit will be given for those who draw a good one of him :P (he's a warrior avian btw and he's been wanting a good image of his character) note me or email me if you have ANY questions, deadline COULD be pushed back (good excuse required :P) IDEAS: See: Have a time stamp option (show the times of the chats and such) Radicaled: create a tongue social to stick your tongue out at someone, to wildly flap your tongue about and then try to touch your tongue to your nose FireLily: make the 'fake' social do random numbers from 10-20K so you can't always know when someone is doing a fake report ;) Liubei: wear all.itemname should work like for wear all.sigon Radicaled: make it so there is someway to see the level of the mob (if there is a way, heh, i'm an idiot) Radicaled: avians should get a skill similar to glare only it paralizes them from fleeing Radicaled: allow us to see how much damage we actually do ( i know i've submitted it already, but just want to emphasize :P) Radicaled: blast says it knocks mobs to the ground, so maybe they should come down from fly FireLily: When you give a non-damaged piece of eq to Harry, he should say "I repair DAMAGED armor" Thalas: A command to clear all notes you have from a specific board, like note clear all, or note clear hero... so if you have several characters you don't have to sort threw them all Wasabe: Major Premise: Colors are fun. Minor Premise: Descriptions are fun. .: Descriptions and Color are fun. get it? good. Xorex: A skill/spell for getting rid of illithid spells Zwerg: spells/skills that require bad weather to work Responses by Leiland (this is very hard for me to read or tell who is writing what. Please put your name in front of responses, guys, so I can tell who is saying what! :)): IDEAS - please hit reply and send me some responses to these ideas: Kharn: remove the "BACKSTAB is another [...]" sentence from "help kill". just confuses non-kenders> maybe make it more clear that only kenders can use backstab? Or include dive and specify avians get it... *shrug* Exo: I think we should have help pages on auras, i mean, newbies, and myself <-- stupid need help on these kinda things>like "help white aura"? I think that could be useful, I know when I started I had no idea what a pink aura, or white aura, or red aura, or whatever meant... Dwimmerlaik: got this one from a potion that caused create food. It would be neat to have a potion cause someone to 'lay an egg', maybe it can have special pill proerties according to level of the layer>umm... *shrug* doesnt seem to fit with everything else... but whatever... Ashes: how about changing magic missile so that it can attack another room, like throw, and so that that way it would actually become useful>well... I personally never use magic missile... and I dont know many who do... maybe this way people would use it? FireLily: we need a wave hello social. i keep waving at people and it says "wave goodbye" and i didn't mean to say goodbye>hehe, that sounds good to me. Ankou: how about a command "slist racename" that will show the slist for any given race Kiri -- we have this. Try slist dru, elf, dwf, so on. Hugin: remove the noexit room in Camelot or remove the curse in it>umm... if it's not a bug, then it was meant to be no-exit and cursed... FireLily: a place in profile to put IRL age/sex/location. obviously optional, but useful for anyone who wants others to know and wants to know other's>if it's not too much work, I don't see why not... Shiloh: the drunk mobs should carry bottles of beer>no, they shouldnt, they're drunk cuz they already drank their beer! :-P Sensi: know what would be cooL? if an avian that's carrying someone could drop that person on a mob for some damage. that'd be cool right?>I dont know... it'd prolly have to hurt the one being carried, too... and then who would want to be dropped onto a mob? PADAN: could we make multiattack easier to use, like autoattack everything in room>I have no experience with multiattack, so... PADAN: and could it be constant once you attack, it continues to attack all of the people in the room>and again, no experience with multiattack... Leiland: when you're not invis, typing visible should infor you that you werent invis, not tell you "you become visible">lol, it's my idea, of course I'm all for it... Ashton: Druids should have a spell where they ask other players for there mana...Like from the dwarves, kenders, humans, or avians that don't use it>and how would the other player consent to giving their mana up? Besides, I'm a human, and I use mana for things like laughing buddha and iron monk... FireLily: we have who hero and who imm... maybe we should have who mort?>why not? Hugin: let ignored players show up on where>again, why not? Cyclone: be able to flee when riding in a vehicle>sounds logical... Shiloh: maybe when someone summons a mob it can get mad at the person who summoned it and attack>that definately sounds logical, and it'd be lots of fun! Cyclone: a skill that speeds up the regeration of mana and hp so u dont always have to be drunk>ills have adrenaline rush, which speeds up hp regeneration... course, it does it by giving you con, but... I dont know... Cyclone: be able to remove enchants from items so u can reenchant it... it would cost lots of mana tho>I really don't know... Lugin: change some of the descs in Midgaard so it really looks broken>huh? *doesnt get it* hopefully someone else, someone less confusable, will be able to respond to this... Radicaled: show how much damage we actually do once you reach a certain level>I'd like to see the actual amount of damage I do... Golbez: Make it so that you can use HR to flee from battle, like regular recall does>Sounds logical. Shiloh: a spell that converts hp into mana>And kill yourself when you have more mana to fill than hp to lose? if you really want, in my opinion... Radicaled: make the histories show you what times they were said at>sounds like a lot of work... Liubei: sneak should work when riding in a vehicle>But you're in a vehicle... isn't someone going to see a car or flying carpet come whizzing by? Xorex: for commands that people enter all the time, make the most common ways of misspelling those commands into new commands that say funny little comments about the player's typing abilities or other humorous things.>lol it'd be amusing, but it sounds like an awful lot of work for something rather trivial... Dreamkeeper: I think it would be helpful if when you typed "prac", the ig and oog stuff show up in two different colours. Then it would be easier to tell the difference.>wow, that would be nice... I'm personally all for it. No more "help this" and "help that" to see if it's in guild... I NEED MORE BIOS! SEND MORE! BIO: Kiri 1. What piece of equipment would you most like to have irl and why? * I think something that casts invisify. I'm sneaky like that. 2. If you could be any kind of M&M what kind would you be and why, also what color? * I would like to be a big talking M&M so no one eats me. 3. What color is your toothbrush? * Pink. *sigh*. It's the only color electric colgate one I could find. 4. Do you have any pets? * Meadow and Rascal, http://www.jarrodlarocco.com/kitties The grey and white one is Mead, the black and white one is Ras. 5. When's your birthday? * February 11 6. What is your favorite sport and favorite team? * Pro wrestling. And I liked WCW, but now I don't watch anything anymore. 7. Who was the hero/imm who helped you when you first started BR? * No one. I started four months into the MUD and people didn't help newbies then. 8. Which mob is your favorite? * XoR. 9. Who introduced you to the mud? Have you passed the favor on to anyone? * Lenny/Cuervo. And I have, but none of them have stayed too long. 10. If you were an animal, what would you be? * Something that flies... 11. What significant events greatly affected your life? * Not being in the top 15% in my 1L year at law school. Long story. 12. What is your favorite area in the realms, and why? * Palace of the Glories because I poured a lot of myself into it. 13. What is the longest amount of time you have ever spent in one sitting on the realms? * Easily 12 hours. 14. If you could go back in time to 1BC, what modern invention would you bestow on our primitive ancestors to make their lives better? * videocameras and the like. Who wouldn't want to see jesus on tape? 15. Given only a golf club, a shoe, some flypaper, sand and a cube - what would you make? * A shoe puppet. Put the shoe on the club with the flypaper, and stick the bottom in the cube with the sand. Then jerk it up and down as if it's talking. 16. What one thing would you change about the world? * I would like people to be less violent and closed-minded. 17. What one super power would you like to have? * Indestructability Kiri's WWW of URLs: Scavenger? You decide! http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020412 Geneanet. It's in French, but it's an amazing genealogy site www.geneanet.com Russian videos, from Amystery www.tatyru.com Have to do this at least once http://www.somethingawful.com/ Rules Cats Live By Bathrooms: Always accompany guests to the bathroom. It is not necessary to do anything. Just sit and stare. Doors: Do not allow any closed doors in any room. To get door open, stand on hind legs and hammer with forepaws. Once door is opened, it is not necessary to use it. After you have ordered an "outside" door opened, stand halfway in and out and think about several things. This is particularly important during very cold weather, rain, snow or mosquito season. Chairs and rugs: If you have to throw up, get to a chair quickly. If you cannot manage in time, get to an Oriental rug. If there is no Oriental rug, shag is good. When throwing up on the carpet, make sure you back up so it is as long as a human's bare foot. Hampering: If one of your humans is engaged in some activity and the other is idle, stay with the busy one. This is called "helping" -- otherwise known as "hampering." Rules for hampering: 1) When supervising cooking, sit just behind the left heel of the cook. You cannot be seen and thereby stand a better chance of being stepped on and then picked up and comforted; 2) for book readers, get in close under the chin, between eyes and book, unless you can lie across the book itself; 3) for paperwork, lie on the work in the most appropriate manner so as to obscure as much of the work as possible or at least, pretend to doze, but every so often reach out and slap the pencil or pen; 4) for people paying bills or working on income taxes or holiday cards, keep in mind the aim: to hamper!; 5) when a human is holding the newspaper in front of him/her, be sure to jump on the back of the paper; 6) when a human is working at the computer, jump up on desk, walk across keyboard, bat at mouse pointer on screen and lay in human's lap across arms, hampering typing in progress. Walking: As often as possible, dart quickly and as close as possible in front of the human, especially on stairs, when they have something in their arms, in the dark and when they first get up in the morning. This will help their coordination skills. Bedtime: Always sleep on the human at night so he/she cannot move around. Litter Box: When using the litter box, be sure to kick as much litter out of the box as possible. Humans love the feel of kitty litter between their toes. Hiding: Every now and then, hide in a place where the humans cannot find you. Do not come out for three to four hours under any circumstances. This will cause the humans to panic, thinking you have run away or are lost. Once you do come out, you will probably get a treat. One last thought: Whenever possible, get close to a human, especially his/her face, turn around, and present your butt. Don't forget guests. News from the Realms! Come visit us at telnet://barren.coredcs.com:8000 Everybody: the (long-awaited) description quest results! As I only ran it for a week, I was somewhat surprised with the number of entries I got (12), and with the general quality of them. Good job all of you who entered! From that field, I picked out 2 that were especially good, being: In first, Morrigan (description based off the goddess Morrigan). and in second: Andasa Both of them had quite stunning descriptions, so take a look at them if you get a chance. Two Honorable Mentions go to: Isis and Hazard (who has the neatest bit of ascii art I've seen in quite a while as its desc). All of you I mentioned should see me for your prize. Thanks also to the rest of the entrants: Cord, Sykle, Wonder, Liubei, Winterdream, Prodigy, Mulch and Xorex. I had a good time reading through all your entries. For those who didn't get a chance to participate, look for a return of this quest sometime over the summer. Get those creative minds working on your character's description! For the month: Characters that need to log on or they will be pwiped: Ashra, Athene, Aurealis, Axhind, Blud, Boot, Daneager, Darthmaul, Dawn, Dedrik, Doxic, Eola, Fafner, Frostbyte, Gamma, Gerta, Gyrfalcon, Heimdal, Kayoz, Kaz, Lordgwydion, Majadi, Marco, MrE, Niric, Oneeye, Rage, Raziell, Rocket, Soranth, Spring, Toxic, Trice, Valkyrie, Weaselneck, Xandever IDEAS - hit reply and respond! FireLily: As a reward for being a hero, perhaps we can all get 'safety deposit boxes' in the bank. we can keep a limited amount in it, of course, but how better to protect things like stars and other rewards and quest prizes we aren't using from breath spells Radicaled: handcuff social Kiri -- help writesocial and help socialex. Now what on earth do you need this social for? ;) Hugin: skills should do the same as spells Kiri -- huh? Xorex: skill: shatter object, obliterates an object...practical purpose being nodrop/noremove equ Replies by FIRELILY: I hope I'm not the only one replying to these again. If I am, I'll feel like a dope. Kiri -- no, but not enough people are sending in bios or replies, so people will be beaten by a stick :) >Mulch: Something you could configure so that when it was the >mud would notify you every time there was a new ticket...it >would save me having to type return every fifteen seconds to >see if the tick had come yet Good idea! I wish I had thought of it! >FireLily: i want to be able to hug inanimate objects ;) Bad idea! I wish I hadn't thought of it! >Isis: this has prolly been proposed before, but a spell like >charm person or glare for ills would be kinda logical, I >think... Um... why would that be logical? I dunno... I mean, the races are pretty balanced, from what I hear. Adding a spell like that... would it topple the balance? If not, they go for it. I don't like to deprive anyone of anything. Hehehe >Isis: another ill thing: gate, allows everyone in the ill's >group to enter a gate and go to a mob? or just the ill >himself... it's in a book... What? >FireLily: it would be nice if there were a way to see the >last 10 things I said in a tell, as opposed to tellh which >just says the last 10 things other people told me. I'm just full of great ideas. >FireLily: i hate having to type out someone's entire name to >get their profile... Wow! Another gem! >FireLily: i wish 'fly' would show up in the affected spells >list hmm, when I wrote this idea, it wasn't showing up. but now it is. what gives? >Radicaled: you shouldn't be able to flee in the arena as annoying as it is when you are fighting someone to have them flee, I think everyone has the right to be a coward and run from a battle, even with a friend. >Liubei: when newbies first enter the game they should have a >small bag or pack called the newbie pack/bag well... they do get a bag... i think... >Liubei: be able to set reply to a certain char so that when >someone sends u a tell when u are talking to someone else u >dont reply to them accidently that's what typing 'tell whoever whatever' is for ;) >FireLily: if we have someone on ignore, it'd be nice if they >stayed on ignore until you took them off, not every time you >logged off I got a million of 'em! Bios: Lately, people have been commenting that they don't know how to send me a bio. Easy! Here's a blank one. You just hit reply and fill in your answers and press send. :) Make sure you include your mud name. BIO: Name on BR: 1. What piece of equipment would you most like to have irl and why? * 2. If you could be any kind of M&M what kind would you be and why, also what color? * 3. What color is your toothbrush? * 4. Do you have any pets? * 5. When's your birthday? * 6. What is your favorite sport and favorite team? * 7. Who was the hero/imm who helped you when you first started BR? * 8. Which mob is your favorite? * 9. Who introduced you to the mud? Have you passed the favor on to anyone? * 10. If you were an animal, what would you be? * 11. What significant events greatly affected your life? * 12. What is your favorite area in the realms, and why? * 13. What is the longest amount of time you have ever spent in one sitting on the realms? * 14. If you could go back in time to 1BC, what modern invention would you bestow on our primitive ancestors to make their lives better? * 15. Given only a golf club, a shoe, some flypaper, sand and a cube - what would you make? * 16. What one thing would you change about the world? * 17. What one super power would you like to have? * Kiri's www of urls: Finally, I must do this. About.com is still cool. www.about.com My favorite online store - EXTREMELY cheap prices and huge baskets of stuff www.winecountrygiftbaskets.com Because I said so http://www.barbiecollectibles.com/index-home.asp The terrible secret about Hello Kitty! http://www.queeg.com/hellokitty/ California Driver's License Application: Name: ______________ Stage name: ___________________ Agent: ______________ Attorney: ____________________ Publicist _____________ Manicurist/hair stylist ___________ Sex: __ male __ female __ formerly male __ formerly female __ both If female, indicate breast implant size: ____ Will the size of your implants hinder your ability to safely operate motor vehicle in any way? Yes ___ No ___ Occupation: [ ] Lawyer [ ] Actor/Waiter [ ] Filmmaker/Self-employed [ ] Writer [ ] Car Dealer [ ] Panhandler [ ] Agent [ ] Hooker/Transvestite [ ] Other; please explain: ______________ Please indicate how many times you expect to have sex in car: ____ Please indicate how much you plan to spend for this sex: ______ Please list: Brand of cell phone: __________. (If you don't own a cell phone, please explain: ________.) Please check hair color: Females: [ ] Blonde [ ] Platinum Blonde Teenagers: [ ] Purple [ ] Blue Skinhead Men: Please list shade of hair plugs. Activities you perform while driving: (Check all that apply) [ ] Eating a wrap [ ] Applying make-up [ ] Talking on the phone [ ] Slapping kids in the back seat [ ] Having sex [ ] Applying cellulite treatment to thighs [ ] Tanning [ ] Snorting cocaine [ ] Watching TV [ ] Reading Variety [ ] Surfing the Net via your laptop Please indicate how many times: a) you expect to shoot at other drivers ____ b) you expect to be shot at while driving ____ If you are the victim of a car-jacking, you should immediately: a) Call the police to report the crime. b) Call Channel 4 News to report the crime, then watch your car on the news on a high-speed chase. c) Call your attorney and discuss lawsuit against cellular phone company for 911 call not going through. d) Call your therapist. e) None of the above (South Central residents only). Please indicate if you drive a: a) Beamer b) Lexus c) Mercedes d) Toyota If your answer is D, please add six to eight weeks to normal delivery time for your driver's license. In the event of an earthquake, you should: a) stop your car. b) keep driving and hope for the best. c) immediately use your cell phone to call all loved ones. d) pull out your video camera and obtain footage for Channel 4. In the instance of rain, you should: a) never drive over 5 MPH, b) drive twice as fast as usual, or c) you're not sure what "rain" is. Please indicate number of therapy sessions per week: ____. Are you presently taking any of the following medications? a) Prozac b) Zovirax c) Lithium d) Xanax e) Viagra If none, please explain: __________________. Length of daily commute: a) 1 hour b) 2 hours c) 3 hours d) 4 hours or more. When stopped by police, you should: a) pull over and have your driver's license and insurance form ready. b) try to outrun them by driving the wrong way on the 405. c) have your video camera ready and provoke them to attack, thus ensuring yourself of a hefty lawsuit. d) reload before coming to a complete stop.