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michanna ([personal profile] michanna) wrote2011-01-16 01:44 pm
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times


Well, it's near noon on Sunday and having just spent 3 hours reading Jacqueline Carey, I am in the mood to wax poetic.
I feel languid. Part of me thinks I should feel guilty for having wasted half of my day in reading when I so badly need a job, but the greater part of me knows that guilt and self-recrimination are extremely destructive forces in my life.
For books that are such a guilty pleasure, I find the Jacqueline Carey books contain a lot of healing for me. Sometimes it's extremely unfair that I do not live in Terre D'Ange.

Yesterday morning my dog had a seizure. He shook violently for at least 2 minutes. I tried to do something then, feeling ineffective, ran to get the phone number for the vet. It was 8:20 am. The vet scheduled me in for an appointment at 10:30. The hour from 8:30 to 9:30 was hard as Lucky tried to regain his bearings. He couldn't connect his limbs to his brain and kept running into walls and falling over. I couldn't get him to settle; I could see he wanted to walk it off. By the time I got to the vet, he was fine again, if still a little shaky and confused. The vet didn't see anything to be concerned about and set me to just watching. There's a high possibility that it's the start of an escalating problem but the vet didn't see the point of running further tests at this time. He did say we're very lucky to still have Lucky and that he's lucky to be as healthy as he is at his age (that was a lot of luckys for one sentence).

I still feel like I'm walking on eggshells waiting for something else to happen with Lucky; the first time I didn't have any choice but to react. I feel like it'll be harder next time. I was quite restless when I got home and cleaned the kitchen, but it's still so cold down there that I had to do it with my jacket and hat on. There are still a number of chores I have to do before my parents get home but it's supposed to warm up tomorrow so I'm holding off. I've haven't been eating properly because my kitchen's too cold for me to want to bother hanging out in it to cook properly when I could hang out in my room and eat crackers, cookies, vegetables and hummus instead.

[livejournal.com profile] narikalen came to hang out with me and she painted my nails. I'm kind of fascinated by them. They're just long enough to actually look pretty instead of stubby with the polish on them. I wish I had my garnet rings here in Calgary because it would accent the purple polish nicely.

I applied to a number of jobs on Friday. It probably won't go anywhere, but I felt accomplished enough to take a break and catch up on NCIS and Castle yesterday. I also finally started playing Dragon Age, which mostly consisted of playing with facial structure for hours. [livejournal.com profile] blademistress and [livejournal.com profile] the_antichris will appreciate that I couldn't decide on a backstory, so I rolled a dice and ended up as an elven mage, which probably started as my second-lowest choice. Didn't get much playing in because it was 11 pm by the time I finished the character creation.

I'm feeling a little light-headed. I maybe should go find myself food despite the temperature of my kitchen. I think it is a little warmer today. There were other things to talk about, but I'm attending a distance Con-G meeting now and can't remember them. More later.

[identity profile] strayfish.livejournal.com 2011-01-16 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Poor Lucky :( I hope he's more peaceful now.

Dragon Age! Mages are really fun to play, you'll enjoy it I think. They have very effective area spells. (I was a human mage named Arche ;) ).

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-16 09:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course you were :p
I actually liked the backstory for Dwarven noble but I didn't really want to play a dwarf the first time through. I also liked the idea of being an elven rogue but raped on my wedding night? No thanks.

I forgot, in my time of listening to my NZ friends talk about Dragon Age all the time, that you were the one who first got me onto it. I'll remember to keep you involved in my thoughts about it too.

[identity profile] the_antichris.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
It's not you, it's your friend, but either way it's pretty rough. Dalish elves are awesome, though. My first PC was a Dalish elf rogue.

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I kind of thought picking a Dalish elf would be a little too stereotypical 14-year-old me.

[identity profile] strayfish.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
There's a girl on Deviantart who always draws her dwarven princess and Alistair. She's a big advocate of playing dwarves partially because it promotes having women's bodies that are fuller and differently beautiful than the usual waif look. I love her character drawings.

Anyway, she's made me think that I should give that story a try even though I'm not usually into dwarves at all.

Yes, please do tell me how you find it!

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I decided to play a little more yesterday. I wasn't really feeling it when I started, so I figured 1 hour break and then I'd go do other things. at 1:30am, nearly 8 hours later, I decided I'd regret it if I didn't go to bed.

[identity profile] simsabalim.livejournal.com 2011-01-16 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I live in a basement, and cooking in the cold really sucks. But turning on the oven raises the room temperature an impressive amount.

And *hugs* about Lucky. Gadget has epilepsy, and it's scary when she has a seizure.

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-16 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I feel like it'd be different if the room was smaller but it's huge and open concept with the whole house.

I had a friend whose dog had epilepsy but I never saw the seizures and with Lucky, you know it's something wrong ... it was mostly concerning because of his age. I didn't think he was going to wake up from it.

[identity profile] simsabalim.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, it's probably a sign of failing health. How old is Lucky now?

Also, what's Dragon Age like? WoW? And is it free, or must you hand over money?

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
He's 16. So yeah, as terrible as it is to say, he might be on his way out.

Dragon Age is an RPG that's not online. This means it has more plot. It's supposed to be really good. I haven't really played very far yet. You technically have to buy it first but it's a one time thing, not monthly like the online ones but you can also get pirated versions.

[identity profile] simsabalim.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
*hugs* Sad.

Do you have a link to a free version of DA? Or maybe a trial version?

[identity profile] strayfish.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 05:21 am (UTC)(link)
Usually you buy it in a store (it's on PS3 and XBox too) though I guess you can probably download it from Steam too. I don't think they do demos though...

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
hrm ... no, but you can borrow my version when I'm done with it? Of course, I don't know when I'll next see you. Some stores are selling it for like $30 now, which is less than half of what it cost when it was released nearly 2 years ago.

I'm sure there's lots of youtube videos if you just want to check it out that way.

[identity profile] simsabalim.livejournal.com 2011-01-18 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm, $30 isn't bad. I might have to wander over to FutureShop and see if it's Mac compatible.

[identity profile] the_antichris.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
<333 I'm sorry about Lucky. I hope it turns out to be just one and not the start of something.

Let me know how you go with the elven mage! I'm all about the rogues usually, but I was reading an LJ post about mage strategy and it got me all excited to roll a mage when I get DA set up again.

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Me too but yesterday I started noticing that occasionally his legs give out ... not sure what that means.

The beginning backstory was hard! I didn't know who to trust! I ended up just being brutally honest with everyone and now my character's kind of a Vulcan in my head.

What have you read about mage strategy? Any wisdom to impart? I feel like I'm floundering in the dark. I keep getting TPKed and then going back to the same fight and having no trouble with it without doing anything really that different. My DnD wisdom is not helping me pick skills and spells either.

[identity profile] the_antichris.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
This is the thread I was talking about with the mage strategy discussion. Mind Blast and Sleep are priorities for defence, and after that, pick a couple of spell branches you like the look of and work on those. My favourite thing to do with mages is suck it up and get the useless frozen weapons so you can then get the freezing spell and Cone of Cold asap. Then just freeze everybody and get your rogue to do a crit-hit skill on them and they shatter. It is awesome. Even if they don't shatter, they're out of the fight for a few crucial seconds. Crushing Prison is also fun (and shatters frozen or petrified enemies), as is Petrify. Basically I enjoy immobilising people. After the Cold branch, I like a lot of the entropy skills and also fire. And Mana Clash is useful enough against spellcasters that it's worth getting its slightly crap prerequisites, but you can wait till the midgame to get it.

You do need some non-cold offensive spells if you're planning to fight revenants. Regular undead can be frozen (I think) but don't take cold damage, and revenants just shrug it off.

I set up a lot of tactics for my mages because mostly I was babysitting myself and Alistair, but that'll work a bit differently if you're actually playing your offensive mage. My favourite was to get Wynne to automatically do Fist of Stone or whatever it's called on frozen enemies (Wynne smash!) and also I set everyone except Morrigan to wait and not attack if an enemy was sleeping, to give her a chance to hit them with Horror, which does mega damage to slept enemies.

/tl;dr. Obviously I need to roll a mage myself.
Edited 2011-01-17 22:57 (UTC)

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
As suspected, most of that went right over my head. Clearly I'm going to have to open my game and take a good look at the spells you're talking about. Doesn't help that right now my party's only me and Alistair; I met Morrigan in the forest and was all 'no, pretty lady, don't leave me!' but I know she's coming back so I shall be patient.

[identity profile] the_antichris.livejournal.com 2011-01-18 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
Where are you? It's tricky before you get a full party, but Morrigan comes back soon and you should pick up a couple of companions in the first area after Ostagar. When you get to the quests, I always do the Circle Tower first to pick up Wynne for healing, so unless you're going to be a healer yourself, I recommend getting Wynne asap.

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-18 04:10 am (UTC)(link)
I'm about to enter the tower where I have to light a beacon while everyone else gets slaughtered. Yeah, I hate healing. Wynne it is.

That's the other thing; it's hard to know what skills to give my character without knowing what skills the other party members are going to have. It's frustrating me right now that no one has lock picking and then there's the healing abilities and trap setting and stuff ... I don't really want them but someone in the party needs to be able to do those things.

[identity profile] the_antichris.livejournal.com 2011-01-18 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that's one really good thing about starting with a rogue. Leliana (whom you pick up in Lothering, pretty soon now) starts IIRC with a point or two in lockpicking. I can't remember who sets traps in the party but pretty sure someone does.

You can get a lockbash mod. I'm planning to get that when I reinstall.

[identity profile] katrin.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
Lucky D: <3333333

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
:'(

[identity profile] shihadchick.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
Oh honey, that is so fucking scary. :/ Poor Lucky, and poor you, because feeling helpless while our animals are scared/hurt is horrible. I'm glad you've got him to the vet since and that the vet isn't hugely worried at this point, but... mrrh. *hugs you a LOT*

ALso, I hope you've eaten by now. :(

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Still haven't eaten! No, that's a lie, I had cereal this morning but all I ate yesterday were cookies and an orange.

Yeah, I'm still reacting to it. I mean, when it happened, I was worried, then I decided to not think about it until I heard what the vet had to say and then the vet didn't seem concerned but it wasn't nothing right, so now I keep running around the house to check on him and I had trouble falling to sleep because I kept imagining it happening again. I was prepared for the vet to tell me he had to be put down but then he recovered and now I can't stop stressing about it. Hopefully that will subside a little when my parents get home and it's not all on my shoulders.

[identity profile] shihadchick.livejournal.com 2011-01-18 09:58 am (UTC)(link)
TERI YOU NEED REAL FOOD. :( BE HERE SO I CAN MAKE YOU EAT.

And yeah, that's really, really understandable, on all parts. :/ *hugs so so much* Being responsible when scary stuff like that happens is so horrible, because it's so stressful in its own right, and then you have all the extra anxiety of not having backup. <33333 I will be hoping he continues to be okay and that your parents will be back soon and things will be a bit more settled.

[identity profile] nishatalitha.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 09:17 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry to hear about Lucky. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

[identity profile] michanna.livejournal.com 2011-01-17 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks