Super Power Game

Super Power Game

Psycho Mind Your character has the Psycho Mind Power.  Pretty much anything goes.  +1HD to all rolls involving crazy batshit maneuvers like jumping out of a plane or punching sharks.

Boss Face Everyone thinks your character is someone important and will generally let them have their way unless they have problems with authority.  +1HD to interactions with hierarchists, +1BD to interactions with anarchists.

Lightning Eyes You can see electrical fields including those given off by living things through walls, you can blind enemies by going "waaahhhhhh!!!!" with light coming out of your mouth.  The attack uses Green Dice.

Fire Muscles All Wounds you deal are Meta-Wounds when you use physical force, you're immune to cold attacks; if you flex really hard everything just explodes for two distance increments and deals a Meta-Wound to everything caught in the blast.  +2HD to rolls anytime you use Red Dice.

Lucky Lungs You breathe good luck.  You can blow a +1HD bonus to an ally within your sight.  If you suck air in through your mouth, you can apply a 1BD penalty to an enemy in sight.  These dice remain until the end of a scene.  If you hold your breath, you can't be hit with projectile attacks.

Neon Blood You can choose to illuminate an area around you to a dim torchlight.  You can also raise the light level to illuminate an area the size of a football field.  If you cut yourself, your blood is acidic and deals 1 Wound to the person who Wounds you directly or if you use Red Dice to fling your blood at an enemy.

Exhibit 292

Master Yi [15:39]: sorry guys i went to buy some taco bell and forgot league was up

Zilean [15:52]: I hope you get diarrhea

Master Yi [16:01]: dude never wish that on anyone

Master Yi [26:25]: shit brb

Master Yi [34:34]: zil

Zilean [34:39]: ?

Master Yi [34:45]: are u a wizard

(Thanks to Pattata for the quote!)

Towards a Method to Avoid Getting Played: In Which are Discussed Four Tips

We've all run into it at one point or another: he seems just as excited about you as you are about him, at least until the following day/week/month passes. Do you wonder if he was playing you? There are ways you can find out, and we're not using phony psychology or trying to guess from the color of his pants, but before we examine these methods, there are a few things that should be borne in mind. First, sometimes he's just not into you, and that's okay. The process of dating is supposed to be about finding out whether you're into someone, and he doesn't have to apologize for his feelings (neither do you, by the way). What matters is that you were dealt with respectably, that you were called or sat down and explicitly told that he's not as interested as he thought. That's respectable, especially if you don't have to elicit this honesty by asking. However, everyone has a story of a batshit nut job who just couldn't take no for an answer. Honor his honesty with a little grace and make a safe environment for him to say what he feels. Trust me, you'll avoid a lot of drama. Second, maybe he really is legitimately busy when he says he can't hang out. I workout four to five days a week, attend school full time, wrestle twice a week and volunteer my time, some weeks I really am just too slammed to hang out. I'm hardly unique in that regard, and you should be considerate of the fact that this guy probably has a life that he was managing before you came along and that all that didn't stop just because he's excited about you, and he may indeed be excited. With those things mentioned, let me make a third point: some dudes are jerk wads. No way around it. However, there are ways that you can find out within the first few days or weeks and so doing reduce the unpleasantness when your excitement turns out to be founded on un-solid ground. Let us turn to four tips that can help you avoid getting played, some of these are habits for you and some things are things to look out for in him. Never Try to Meet Anyone New Between December 1st and February 25th Believe it or not, there are still guys who believe in Christmas miracles and Valentines Day Providence. The relationship between depression and romantic desperation surrounding these holidays is well documented, and you'll do well to give the entire period around New Years Eve a miss. Similarly dubious are the few weeks leading up to Pride in your city. Allow a good 3-4 because while winter boys may be clingy or indeed completely unhinged, Pride boys are going to assess you based on how much of a party you can make their Pride weekend into. You're neither a psychologist or a cruise director, so be on guard for the demands of boys around key holidays. 2. When You Meet Him, Make a Special Point of Getting His Full Name Today, it's harder than ever before for someone without a thoroughly paranoid mindset to be a player. Guys like to Facebook and tweet and instagram and grind and a4a and blog, and they broadcast a remarkable amount of information about who they are, what they're doing and who they're with to the Internet. Voluntarily. With his full name, throw a few keywords into google, like what city he lives in. Chances are good, especially if he has an unusual name, that you're gonna get his social networks on the first page. You might even get a google images result. If you're not on his twitter or Facebook, there's a very good chance that he assumes, whatever his content settings, that you can't see what he's saying. Indeed, a twitter account is a gold mine of date-time stamped public access material that can tell you if he was excited about a boy when you took him out or if he was when he told you he was too busy to meet up. If he's on grindr or a4a each time that you look (granted this requires you to log in as well) then maybe he's not as excited as you- he is after all seeing what else is out there. If you feel dubious about the things he's saying to you, don't give the benefit of the doubt. Eliminate the doubt. 3. Don't Trust Anyone Who Claims to Value Honesty This is a common dodge. If you seem like you're on your guard, the player will attempt to assuage your better judgement by commenting on his strong traditional value set such as honesty and commitment. Take such comments with a grain of salt- or a whole bag of salt, that might be better. Assume that all such assertions are lies until you can observe his behavior and judge for yourself. Only by checking your enthusiasm and allowing a longer courtship to play out can you ever hope to find out if someone is trustworthy, simply because they say so is very much a red flag. The honest guy will just be honest with you and not bother to mention it. 4. Bitchy Friends are Red Flags With Mouths Judge your prospective by the company he keeps. You want to meet a nice boy? Chances are good that he'll have nice friends. The bitchy friend will reveal himself or herself within the first hour of meeting them. They'll express vindictiveness, a callous disregard or even contempt for others (particularly wait staff), or a streak of bossy aggression a mile wide. If you find one of these in a friend of his, be suspicious. If you have the misfortune to find them all, punch out. "Maybe he has to hang out with them because they work together," you may say, or "he's fallen in with a bad crowd." Banish such logic from your mind. Whatever crowd he's fallen in with, he chose to fall in with them. Some aspect of that group- maybe it's the exclusionary parties they throw or the way they treat service staff like dirt- appealed to your prospective enough to make him want to spend significant time with them. Indeed, it's been found that people often spend time with aspirational models, people they want to be like one day. Consider how that reflects on him, and don't dismiss the red flag just because you're excited. I'm sure I sound like a paranoid pessimist after all that. I am paranoid at least, but where being treated respectfully is concerned, you can avoid a little caution and prudence when choosing who to spend your time with. Life's too short to get mixed up with someone who doesn't see you as the grand prize, and there's no point wasting any more time than you have to figuring out that he's not the right guy for you. Spend some time with friends, have a happy Pride, and good luck meeting a nice boy ;)

Freedom is a Decent Keyboard

I like touch devices these days, but sometimes, there's really just nothing like the responsiveness and control of a keyboard.  I finally found something at work that doesn't please me, but I know the fix.  

Cincinnati

I took a little roadie after a wedding and made a visit in Cincinnati. They've done a lot with the city since last I was here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeP7suiw4xQ&feature=youtu.be

Two Sizes Too Small

So. I have some romantic issues. Let me start from the beginning.

I’m fully aware that until I finish school, get my own place and begin at a respectable job that people are going to look down on me. Absurd as it is in some cases (dude, you didn’t even TRY to do college), that’s the way of things. I’m not too bothered by that in itself, I’ve spent the greater part of my adult life in a nascent state of development and being underestimated by people who assumed that what they were looking at was an end state. That kind of thing doesn’t bother me, I don’t-can’t- let it bother me. There are always people like that, the soul-sucking things that want to squelch anything and anyone in a state of growth to limit the number of things in the world that remind them of their own wretched stagnation.

However, the facts remain that I don’t seem like a terribly promising dating prospect at the moment. After all, 29 year old undergrads are assumed to be some kind of mental deficients or lazy bums. Indeed, I’d feel like a lazy bum if I’d started college at 18 or 19 and was just now graduating, but of course that’s not the case. I spent 19 through 25 serving in time of war. I graduated in ‘02, it was the thing to do. Indeed, no education of this kind would be possible at all had I not. But that’s me, I plan in spans of decades. Within the decades I plan in spans of years, and within the years in spans of weeks (months are imprecise) and within the weeks in hours and days.

It’s as cumbersome as you imagine and I get my wires crossed from time to time. Confusion, the occasional disheartening, bouts of ennui. Nothing unique really, the sorts of difficulties that everyone faces, the doubts of the ambitious.

And so I wonder, if in addition to this kind of socio-economic judgement am I also coming off as so nervous and fearful of failure that I can’t keep somebody’s interest?

On the one hand I know that it shouldn’t be bothering me, I very obviously have bigger fish to fry than common loneliness.

So, to boil it all down, there’s one guy who I’ve had the most absurd crush on for months, another who I’m hoping isn’t just looking for an HIV counselor and as ever a parade of flirtatious acquaintances and short-lived flings, dates, and whatever that is where he calls you up when he’s lonely but never accepts an invitation to come out.

Subject A was always out of reach but he’s met somebody pretty awesome recently and while i’ve never had the opportunity to actually meet him that would justify a proper crush, I’m not gonna lie, crazy jealous about the whole thing. Actually I had made my peace with being friend zoned there some time ago but for whatever reason I was singled out as the confidant for an extensive gushing session on this new flame and where I had just settled into the idea of not being important with Subject A prior, the juxtaposition of my feelings and my irrelevance were brought into a sharp contrast that I really just wasn’t remotely ready for in any sense. I felt almost deliberately disrespected, but of course that’s just pique. On the one hand, if you’re friend zoned you wanna admit defeat and try and be happy for their happy, but on the other you want to burn the world down. To set it all ablaze, to watch the houses fall down on the families that flee, to set off the bombs that wreck the soldiers and raise the revolutions that end nations. In the end, when the last victim asks “why, oh Lord why?" you want to calmly whisper “because it should have been me," and pull the trigger.

I’m not genocidal for the record, I’m illustrating jealousy in the metaphor of a violent narrative. I say that because while I trust my readers it’s the Internet and people on the Internet are daft. I think you’ll agree it would have been a better ending for The Great Gatsby.

Subject B was recently diagnosed and got in touch with me by Internet. It was just in the past week that it really hit him hard and he spent a day crying in bed, after our weekend together. I could be profoundly solipsistic and take it as a really bad review for me, but diagnosis is one of the most difficult moments in someone’s life so I’m not gonna put myself in that, that’s between him and the virus. Nonetheless, I can’t shake the unnerving feeling that I’m possibly getting involved with another emotionally compromised dude and all the antics and crazy midnight text messages that come with that. I mean he was just diagnosed, I can tell you, he is emotionally compromised (LLAP- Nimoy fans know what’s up).

What’s more, I can tell you as I proof read this that so am I. Thing is, it never seems to be the case that one can fix what’s wrong, that’s pathological perfectionism. I’m just hoping that the damage is sufficiently managed that I’m not the crazy- and indeed that there’s not a crazy- when next I get involved with someone.

So, on the one hand I’m angry about a brush off that I was previously cool with and on the other I’m wary about being turned into an HIV guidance counselor dressed up like a lover or very possibly transitioned into a friend zone there as well.

I have a friend as well who things got a little more than friendly with and there I’m either kicking myself for not seeing if I can jump directly onto that or I’m kicking myself for letting it get as far as jerking off together without having the appropriate discussion. On the one hand, the risk factor is negligible- I’m controlled, I kept my goo to myself and there wasn’t any vector. On the other I should have managed it better. But he was into me and I was into him and oh for a night at and a day at least, there was someone as excited about me as I was about him and I was willing to let the talk go as long as the risk factor remained negligible. Maybe it was wrong. In any event I’m confident it was harmless and it felt sort of like being in love and I so wanted that feeling.

And you know, that’s really all I’m asking for at this point, a level of excitement that is reciprocal. No expectations, no preconditions, just be someone who I’m into and be into me.

To be sure, I’ve been on my own end of the “sorry I’m just not into you" stick. Lately even. I absolutely appreciate that there are guys who have been ecstatic- in fact so enthusiastic that it got irritating- about me. But as I contemplated explaining to the last dude who hit me up seriously for Internet hookup times, it’s not just that I’m self-interested in blowing you off and not into you, I want someone who’s into me, and I’m gonna do you the courtesy of freeing you up to find someone who’s actually into you and not just killing time. I’ve had well more than my fair share of guys who weren’t into me, and I just don’t want anything to do with them, even if they’re beautiful or inspiring or intelligent or relatable.

I’ve heard it said that the great engineer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away. I believe it was some renaissance thinker but I heard it as a Nimoy voice over so I attribute it to him.

In terms of that approach, I’ve perfected what I’m looking for in a dude, I can say it in just the one sentence. I’d like to meet someone about whom I’m excited and who is equally excited about me.