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The Closet Gamer Kemi has finally found an MMORPG she can afford! In other words, one she doesn't have to pay for XD
Perfect World International is an MMORPG based on Chinese legends, where you can play one of six different classes. It's somewhat similar to WoW, from what I hear. There are Human Wizards and Blademasters, Winged Elf Archers and Clerics, and Untamed (anthro) Barbarians and Venomancers. The storyline is propelled forward by the uprising of Wraiths, that seek to disrupt the harmony of Perfect World after the three races have finally called a truce amongst themselves after many years of brutal war. Some of the old hostilities still linger under the surface, however, and you encounter them in the NPCs as you travel across the world. The GMs and Devs run Wraith Events multiple times a day, where different towns in the world come under attack by the marauding wraiths. There are also holiday-linked and random server events, even a calendar contest for the artistically inclined on the Forums.
Now, as I mentioned, this is free! No monthly fee, no download fee, nothing. But you do have the option to buy items from the Cash Shop to make your gaming experience "easier." I haven't found it necessary, nor particularly tempting. Most of the Cash Shop items (if not all) can be bought with the coins you earn in-game from other users who don't mind spending real money on pixels. A lot of the users have come from Pay-to-play games and find this to be quite a savings opportunity - they buy what they want when they want to without paying a monthly fee for every character. (You can have 6 characters, by the way.)
I currently have 3 characters and play on the HARSHLANDS (PvP) server. If you join up, send a Whisper to me. I'll be on either Lalarei (Cleric), Lareish (Wizard), or Pemarkre (Venomancer). I'm gearing up the first two to participate in Territory Wars with my faction ^x^ The Venomancer is a blast (uses Pets to solo/tank quests and such), but I'm a bit of a team/support player so my magic users are getting more attention from me right now. Plus they'll hit wicked hard in the later levels ;)
- Mood:
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Gotta love the innovators. This article talks about a new German development of a product they call Arboform. It's a potential plastic alternative, created using lignin, a byproduct of paper processing that is generally viewed as waste. It's quite abundant, and what they're doing with it is just great. It can be pressure-injected into molds to create... well, it looks like they're not letting anything hold them back. From car parts to toys to speakers, they're testing out some possibilities. It can even be spun into fibers to be clothes for the highly detailed toys!
Plastic is created using crude oil byproducts, and you've probably heard about all the dangerous chemical goodies that can hide within it. This alternative skips past that, and looks to be at least partly biodegradeable as well. Hurrah for innovation! That saves money and the planet ;)
There are apparently some myths about global warming that still persist in general talk, arguments, and maybe even news reports. This article spotlights many of the major ones, and gives a very clear picture on the reality of global warming.
Why Lenders Might Forgive Your Debt
The article above has various helpful links for people who are struggling with their mortgages, as well as student loans, car payments, and credit card payments. It has some good insight into changing laws and what your bank might be willing to do for you. Particularly in relation to the mortgages, and the rescue plans being enacted to help out homeowners.
It isn't a free handout, but the banks don't care much for their clients going bankrupt, because that means they don't get paid anything on what they owe. So it's in their interest, too, to work with people to make payments possible.
I have voted in two prior presidential elections, and many smaller local elections and referrendums. But yesterday morning, November 4, 2008, when I had finished pushing my buttons and was making sure the lights were lit up in all the right places, I got a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
That, for me, just doesn't happen with politicians. I don't trust them, as a whole, and the only ones I've ever had faith in are our US House/Senate Reps, who've been there for our state since I was a kid, and have been doing right by us. My state votes pure Democrat, except when it comes to one of our Reps. He's Republican, but we love him because he knows what he's doing and he does it well. That exposed me early on to being able to judge a candidate by what he can do, and what he has done, not by what color pin he wears or what animal's on it. (And now that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin have come into play, by what she can and has done.)
This time, though, I got to vote for the man I wanted to vote for, the man I wanted to win. Every time before, I've voted for the guy that I disliked least; none of them inspired a political passion in me, a hope for the future, and their plans for the country were just so-so. But Barack Obama made me care, he made me believe, he made sense. And he inspired millions to come together, not as people carrying the flag of the democratic party, but as a nation that longed to move forward and enact positive change.
He succeeded on so many levels last night, and over the past two years. He has inspired a nation to stand up and take action, to make By the People, For the People mean something. People who have spent their entire adult lives sitting back and watching the political landscape take care of itself got up, got out, and propelled a wounded country towards hope. The power that has been in all of our laps, so long unused, came to bear in this election.
It wasn't a black man we voted into office yesterday, as many of us stood for hours in the rain wating for our chance to enter our ballots. It was for ourselves that we voted. For the hope that our ideals, our needs, our dreams could again shape this country, as was always intended. If this election had been based purely upon the color of the candidates' skin, Barack Obama would not be our President Elect right now. Millions of Americans, patriots, dreamers, and even some with racist leanings, looked past the color of his skin and voted for what they believed he could do for them. And that amazes and awes me. Perhaps this somewhat cynical, anti-politics woman is casting things in a prettier light than they actually are. It could be that part of Obama's victory came from the fact that, for once, our citizens are more scared of a Republican than a black man. But the results are telling, either way, that our country is taking steps in a very new direction.
I just hope that the passion and motivation that drove this election continues, on all sides, and that we harness that energy and drive to continue moving forward, and together. Millions of people from all backgrounds came together and made this happen. If we direct that hope, that fervor, to the problems that need fixing, to poverty, to education, to illness and disease... just think of what we can do.
No matter who your candidate was in this election, I hope you'll join me in rejoicing that the American people again care about America, beyond just putting flags on their cars and lapels. We've gotten up and done something here. Let's remain standing, and push forward, together.
- Mood: grateful
The official website for the art expo is http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/
And here's the MSN Travel article on them :)
So, what about all those empty jobs? Well, restaurants, hotels, food processing places, people who hire cleaning staff and nannies, they'd be scrambling to keep their businesses afloat. They'd have to raise offered wages to tempt people in, and that'd raise prices. Some wouldn't be able to cut it, and the businesses would close.
The article is well worth a read, it goes into who would really lose in a situation like that, but also takes time to go into what the plus side might be.
Well, it does back up my personal experience, but doesn't do much more than that. Still, it DOES have a good recommendation at the end for using the little tricks to not only keep your serotonin (happiness chemical) at a nice boost during the day, but to time it so that it works to help you sleep better at night too ;)
Now, the article has a brief sentence debunking chocolate as a makes-you-feel-good... but...
It confirms that simple carbs and fish make for happiness - the simple carbs (like in a cookie or white rice) boost serotonin, and the fish (poultry too) has tryptophan which is <3 too. Yay for sushi! It's my resort on days when I'm feeling down, I actually get a kick in the Feed Meh center of my brain going GET DA SUSHI. Salmon and tuna work best <3
"Airplanes of the future could be self healing"
I found this article from MSNBC to be rather interesting. In aviation, the people who maintain the aircraft often have a hard time pinpointing areas of damage from debris strikes, and worry over whether that invisible little defect will turn into a life-threatening crack or not, and when. Scientists have come up with a solution based on nature, make the plane show a bruise and form a blood clot! Two epoxy-forming materials, one piped through "veins" of hollow carbon fibers, the other surrounding those tubes, combine to form a flourescing, hardening "clot" that shows as a bruise under flourescent light. Damage can be pinpointed easier, and the clot, meanwhile, is a temp fix that restrengthens the damaged area and retains the necessary rigidity between the various carbon fiber layers.
I highly suggest reading through the article, which goes into more detail, and alternate solutions. It also covers the hurdles implementing this technology faces, but in the long run it looks like I good deal to this non-aviatory kitty. An added plus is that it might encourage the switch to this lighter weight product (which sounds to be lighter than the usual materials even with the weight of the epoxy added). That turns into gas savings, and we all know about that ;) It should even be implementable on wind turbines, which get damaged, but are these days likely remote, which makes the cost of inspecting and repairing them so often kinda painful. The bruise & clot tech of the carbon fiber material would lessen the number of long distance trips and man hours needed to keep the green energy running, making it greener.
Win!
- Mood: cheerful
Up Side: Bamboo grows faster and sequesters (pulls in & stores) more carbon than its hardwood counterparts, without needing fertilizers or pesticides to help it along.
Down Side: The demand has led to some hardwood forest ecosystems being cut down for more bamboo growing space o0; Whoops. That, and they're negating a plus by throwing fertilizers on it to make it grow even faster. And some of the glues used are bad for asthmatics...
For the full article, plus tips and links for looking into sustainable woods and bamboo, click here.
I have fallen so far behind here on LJ in recent months, with the hubub of getting in on the launch of several new RPs, the upgrades to my own forum, and, of course, getting married.
Well, the wedding was this past Sunday, and I'm still all hyped and excited from it. I got to see a lot of my family that I haven't seen in 2-6 years (some longer, I think), and T's mom, sister, and our niece and nephews came up to stay. We had a blast. I'm only checking in really quick to let y'all know I'm still alive here, I'll dish on the details later, and share a couple photos as well. The professional ones aren't in just yet, but my dad, an uncle, and our friend have gotten us some digitals already and I have them sitting on my flash drive ready for uploading when I get home. (Tis lunch time for me right now at work.)
Anyway, hello to you all and Teh Ki'i is HYPER. But controlled. 'tis a buzzing inside my arms more than anything right now XD Hopefully in the next couple weeks, I'll be able to swing through your journals and catch up on everything I've missed over the past months while my wedding ate my brain. I have 87 messages right now o0;
Luvs!
Where do jihadists come from? They start off as impressionable young people who want to make a difference in their community, be remembered, be something special, be heroes. They hear all the rhetoric that the best way to be a hero is to go to war against the world's most powerful nation, and to be "jihadi cool" they join and become the future suicide bombers and plotters who take so many innocent lives... because that's what they think will bring them glory and have them be remembered.
So how do you stop this war at the root? Give them another message to listen to, that the jihadist way of being a "hero" isn't the only (nor the right) one. Give them role models based in the legends and lore of their culture and religion, in an exciting and engaging format, the comic book. Where the heroes have Muslim names, and abilities correlating to the powers of God as laid out by the Islamic writings... and show them that there is more to life than what they have been shown and told.
I highly recommend reading this article. And maybe even checking into the comic book series it talks about. It's likened to X-men in basic plot and femme styling. Which has to be a good thing XD
PS: Yeah, I haven't been around much. Very much with the business of the wedding and working behind the scenes on some RPs on Gaia, doing Art, and brainstorming on a couple of novels with T. But I fixed the home compy so I could be here more again and catch up on everything I've missed from all of you.
- Mood: optimistic
The Chimpanzees of the Fongoli stream seem to be making the behavioral changes that our distant ancestors made eons ago: moving from the patch forest to the savannah, adding hunting to their longstanding foraging behavior. In our homonin ancestors, the nutrition from this behavioral change not only allowed our ancestors to survive a world changing from forest to savannah, but also led to more sophisticated brains, and the eventual evolution into homo sapiens.
In the National Geographic article "Almost Human," the author, Mary Roach, follows Anthropologist Jill Pruetz, who has been studying the Fongoli chimps for years. She's the reason you may have heard about the technique the females and juveniles have developed to hunt "bush babies" (another kind of primate) with pointed sticks that the chimps carefully choose, trim, and sharpen with their teeth. Her examination of this, and other, hunting behaviors gives us a wonderful window into how humans may have evolved from similar tree-dwelling primates that moved into the savannahs, changing from diets based on vegetation and insects to not only scavenged, but -hunted- meat; a huge advantage for the development of larger, more highly functional brains.
I highly recommend reading this article, it is far more informative than I can summarize here ;) And exceedingly well written; I love the level of description that Ms. Roach has achieved here, bringing you into her experience of watching the Chimpanzees ^x^
This article gives a glimpse not only into the evolving behaviors of these Chimpanzees, but also into the de-evolution that happens when scientists butt up against each other. Apparently, (mostly male) scientists tend to dismiss Pruetz's findings, the men particularly stubborn in their stance that only dominant male chimps hunt; if a female kills something small for food, it's "gathering," not hunting. Hm. Iunno, isn't it still hunting when humans kill things that are pretty proportionately small to us, like rabbits and fowl? Pruetz has been passed over for credit; read the article for more info on that.
Read about the "Loremo"
(Those with a family of four and/or really broad shoulders might want a tad more interior space, though)
I got one of these calls two days ago on my cell; first of all, I'm on the Do Not Call list. Second, it's a crime to do sales calls to cell phones. Double whammy. Third... they're a scam. So I'll be reporting it to the Federal Trade Commission, per the article. If you receive any of these calls or mailings, do the same.
In other news... "Saudis to execute woman for witchcraft"... without any real evidence. Which is what usually happens in Saudi "trials," especially to the already-subjugated women... >.
Note: Proximity to a dairy utilizing a cooling process is required. And some serious ingenuity. But hey... it's being done in Sweden!
Overheard In New York
Courtesy of the DarkAngel ^x^
And some random pony-creating fun.
"Kaverris"
Egyptian Mau Rescue Organization (EMRO) Official website
As many of you will already be aware, the Egyptian Mau cat is very dear to me. At some point I'd adore having one as a companion, so I've been watching the Egyptian Mau Rescue Organization that works out of Cairo, which rescues Maus from the streets of Egypt and adopts out the healthy ones (with vaccinations and spay/neutering) internationally. At the moment, my apartment isn't fit to house one of these glorious ancient felines, so I've been waiting until I get a house so I can adopt one. After the wedding expenses are handled, I hope to start sponsoring some of the cats so that they can get their food and vaccinations, while I bide my time until I can have one of my own with me ^x^
Unfortunately, EMRO needs some help -now-. They've made such a positive impact at this point, but they need more help caring for all the felines they have. Plans for an expanded sanctuary are falling by the wayside right now in favor of making sure the cats they have are well fed and cared for (pet supplies are apparently hard to come by and expensive in Egypt).
Could you find it in your heart to take a look by their website? Sponsoring and donations aren't the only ways to help, they're looking for people to escort the cats to their new homes as well. The website also has lots of wonderful information about Maus as well as the organization. If you're not familiar with the breed, they date back to the time of the Pharaohs and could be the oldest domestic breed of cat. They're also the only naturally spotted domestic cat (others have their spots genetically engineered and result ofttimes from crosses with wildcats at some point). And not only do they have spots, they've got stripes, too XD 'tis a rare breed indeed, one that's as friendly and loyal and playful as the family dog, but in a kitty package. Unfortunately, they're exterminated as pests in their native land! Which is why the EMRO is so important.
Of course, we still need to decrease energy consumption and carbon dioxide output, but this looks pretty good for helping with what we can't avoid. Yay for the scientists!
There's also a couple paragraphs about artifically reproducing nature's carbon dioxide - to - ocean sequestering process thing.
I've gotten a good long look at them this time, and they are just the most beautiful... <3 The iridescense on the, the one that was feeding in particular, is just breathtaking. A body sheened in deep magical blue-black, wings edged in past-twilight violet. Ahhhhh <3 I was able to judge their size this time, as one kept strutting back and forth along the cinderblock retaining wall on the drainage basin. So big and proud and strong! I'll verify the block size later, but I'd judge somewhere round 12-16" in body height, probably closer to 16. Big. One flew back and forth outside the window, and wasn't that much smaller than the red-tailed hawk that flew by last month.
*chuckles* After they'd gathered at the top of the drainage basin (three of them, anyway), a gray squirrel came bounding cross the basin, up the wall, and to the bushes by the A/C units. Crows are about three times as big as the squirrel, though it's on the small side; its friend was a bit larger. But this one was on its own at first, and when one of the crows ventured too close, it started twitching its tail stub in warning then went stone-still. The crow approached it a bit and kicked up some leaves in the hunched squirrel's direction, then high-stepped off. I wonder if the squirrel lost its tail to a large bird. Crows do hunt, but even though this was a smallish squirrel, it's still quite larger than a mouse. Its squirrel friend came by then and they faced off for a moment, and I saw how much smaller the tail-less one was. The other squirrel was a little less than half the body-size of the crows.
AH SO BEAUTIFUL <3 And they had food again, and I got to hear them call a few times. A more typical caa-caa-caa this time, though. I want to hear the sweet-as-heaven call they did when they showed up, right before we won the radio prize. OH THEIR WINGS ARE SO STRONG! Ahem. Sorry. They keep coming back and distracting me with a geeking moment XD I'll bring in some hazelnuts tomorrow to leave by the basin, I understand they eat acorns and hazelnuts are about the same...