Tag: coh

Three Day Weekend – Yay!

We all survived the first week in the new school! I’ve really been enjoying the room – it feels like home already. (Though there’s no guarantee I can find something when I need it – really need to get those cabinets labeled soon!) Sure, there are still some things need doing, but that’s no surprise in a new building.

What’s even nicer is after we did our first week, we get a 3-day weekend! So today, the folks and I went to the Heritage Festival in Piqua. Always a nice time, always good food. Not always great weather, but today was perfect. Mid-60s (°F), cloudy/sunny/breezy. I was actually in long jeans and SHOES with SOCKS! Haven’t worn my gym shoes since the hike on St Maarten! This little taste of Autumn is, alas, just a taste. Tomorrow should be perfect and in the 70s with Monday back in the 80s. Think I’ll go swimming Monday, and maybe tomorrow.

In my virtual life, I’m playing City of Heroes again (have had a year subscription since I finished my thesis, but rarely played – I blame World of Warcrack). The main reason is because the latest patch lets you switch villains to heroes and heroes to villains. I have no desire for any of my heroes to switch to villain (not even Evah Green, who’s got quite an attitude), but I’ve wanted Jack Dodger, my main Mastermind, to be a hero since I created him in the Beta version of City of Villains. Today, I completed his first Morality Mission and he’s now a Rogue – able to visit either the Hero or the Villain side. Cool beans!


Jack and his Bots

I’ll probably get my other Mastermind to Hero-side eventually as well. Paragon City’s a lot more fun to play in than the Rogue Isles where the villains live.

Regular College Classes? Done for now!

Phew! I finished my final essay for History and Philosophy of Science and turned it in. elsaf was nice enough to proof it (in its nearly-done state) and gave me many useful suggestions & corrections. Thanks again, hon!

I managed to complete both final papers on time, despite City of Heroes once again celebrating its anniversary by offering the game free for a week. Thankfully, I didn’t discover this until around midnight on Friday. So I spent a bit of time Friday night (OK, by “bit of time” I really mean “I got onto a task force team and got to bed after 4:30am”) playing and likewise on Saturday night (though not for nearly as late). I managed to curb the desire enough on Sunday to simply fiddle about with a couple of ‘toons rather than rack up hours of play time.

Anyhoo, feels good to be done. I had a fun time (sometimes too much fun – read too much, didn’t write enough) researching the history of the atom and showing how the scientific method also changed during the time. Hope the grade was sufficient to get me an A (or a B – anything less doesn’t count). 🙂

Spring Break ’08!

Although I had today off (being Good Friday and all that jazz) I didn’t feel like I’d started Spring Break until just a few minutes ago when I finally finished the third Data Analysis Exercise for my stats class. But it’s turned in, my proposal for my statistics final project is turned in (though originally I turned in a StarOffice file instead of Word document – whoops!) and I can now think a bit more about Spring Breaking!

I did sleep in today (well, til 8am – went to bed at the usual time last night since I was so tired) and talked dad in to buying Chinese Buffet for my lunch today. We also had a short stop at Walmart after lunch. But for the most part I’ve been in my library working on statistics. I’d been putting it off to get teaching stuff done last week and this week. The third quarter ended yesterday, so I’ve been trying to get caught up on grading. However, I have all of the quarter exams to grade and several retests for chemistry to grade (I had an Amnesty Day since some of the test scores this quarter were pretty low on average – I blame all the days off due to weather – or maybe lousy teaching, heh). Hopefully I’ll actually do them rather than let them sit there until Sunday night of next week. Heh. (One of my seniors predicted that and I suspect he’ll be right, procrastinator that I am.)

Anyway, back to statistics. I actually like doing the Data Analysis Exercises – number crunching has always been good to me. Indeed, I understand the exercises more than I understand the reading assignments. Well, at least I can use the tools to do the exercises and maybe understand what the numbers mean once they’re crunched. StarOffice Calc has been a godsend to me (as MS Exel would have been had I had it installed on any of my computers, which I don’t – ha!) but so have some nice websites which do statistical calculations which Calc can’t do. OpenEpi has been wonderful for ANOVA and t-test results. And today I found an Effect Size Calculator to calculate Cohen’s d. Joy joy. 🙂

I usually like to visit judiang during Spring Break since it always falls close to her birthday, but with my college work (much of which needs completed this next week) calling to me, I’m having to bow out of the visit. 🙁 Judi’s making me feel guilty, which she doesn’t need to since I already feel guilty. But all that guilt will probably result in a nice present for her, so she wins in the long run. Heh. Anyhoo, I’m sure she and elsaf will have a lovely time, if Elsa’s able to make it up there.

Tomorrow morning I’ll use one of my 15-day City of Heroin cards I got for Christmas to start up the addiction again. My only concern is that the game will completely sap my break such that I don’t get my college stuff done. I shall try to be strong. However, I’m itching so much to play again that I’ve got to do it. 🙂 I’ve already decided that the first toon I play will be my archer on the Freedom server – Pointed Stick. 🙂 Those 15 days have to last me until the end of the semester (April 28th or so) when I use the 30-day retail code for World of Warcrack. Ah, I’ve missed my little Elf and Dwarf hunters. (Not hunters of elves and dwarves, but hunters who are elven and dwarven.)

If I can tear myself away from CoH long enough tomorrow, I also intend to go to Fairborn for my Indian Fud/DWM run. Should be a nice day, even if the weather isn’t nice. (Of course, if the weather is really crappy, I’ll go to Fairborn another day of Spring Break.) Other plans for the break include FINALLY cleaning out closets and getting stuff together to take to auction, cleaning the house completely, reading, doing more college work, hanging out with the kitties, and whatever else I happen to think of doing. 🙂 Should be fun!

Men in Kilts

Well, I’ve been waiting for kilts as costume pieces almost since I first started playing City of Heroes. I like men in kilts. I wanted super heroes with kilts (as one does). So imagine my delight when City of Heroes finally made kilts a reality – woot! It’s not in the official game yet, just on the test servers, but that didn’t stop me from figuring out how some of my heroes will look. Hee!

My original Scottish hero is The Dominie (yes, named after the Sylvester McCoy character from the BBV spin-off audios). An alien who arrived in Scotland some 500 years ago, he’s as Scottish as they come. But as I love the color purple… Well, see for yourself:


The Dominie with kilt and full cape. I want to get him a shoulder cape instead, but they don’t seem to have that worked out properly yet. Soon!

Well, one Scottish hero isn’t enough, so I’m working on another Scottish hero who’s tentatively broadsword/super reflexes. Currently named Finn mac Cumaill after the Irish & Scottish folk hero, that may change.


Not sure yet about the face, but I like the braided ponytail. (Yes, I also like guys with ponytails…) Unfortunately, to get the braid, you need the cap.

And I’m of the opinion that you don’t have to be Scottish to wear a kilt (though it helps). So other male heroes will be given the kilt treatment when the kilts go live.


Mr. Alabaster, son of a Tsoo sorceror (Chinese?) and Carnival Illusion Mistress looks damn fine in a kilt.

And of course, Icy Hot Man, my main hero, will have to get the kilt treatment. Heh. (Orange skin with kilts certainly makes it interesting…)


Icy Hot Man in kilt – yay!

Now some of you are probably thinking “yes, men in kilts are cool, but we want REAL men in kilts!” Ah, well, you’re in luck! Coinciding with the release of kilts in CoH is the release of Men in Kilts, the calendar! Jennie Breeden of The Devil’s Panties cartoon fame has compiled photos of actual con-goers in their kilts when she blasted them with her leaf blower. She’s made a calendar from the photos and is selling them for $5 a piece. I’ve ordered mine, of course!

(I should probably make a “Men in Kilts” icon or somesuch. Heh heh.)