Thursday, October 21, 2010

TL's Folly. You think you're the worst but your not Zerg Replays.

*Man with dejected eyes sits by the camp fire*

"Have a seat lads. Ol' TL here is gonna tell you all some good old fashioned fables of bad times and good times. Heroes. And terrible scouting, horrible play and matches of pure hilarity and ultimate sadness."

"But why unkie TL?”

“Why You ask... so you can learn from the mistakes of the past my friends. TL's folly"

*Sigh*

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(I just suffered a horrible lost.... kind of broke my heart. Turned into the catalyst for finally uploading my replays.)

I will post them here so that you can see, that you are not in fact that bad. Prepare for replays of Terrible APM, Non-existent laughable scouting, microphobia, and complacent macro. There are always some one worse than you my friends. But heck you might even learn something!

The real horror? Some of these are wins.

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What is Star Craft 2?

For the un-initiated, SC2 is a real-time strategy game. It’s very demanding. The multitasking alone is quite taxing on the brain. But the rush of building and controlling your units is unlike any other gaming experience out there. There is technique involved, strategy, tactics, reactions.

Its like Chess on Steroids. 3 races each with unique units and abilities and buildings, you then go up against the other races or the dreaded mirror match up. The game has a story mode, but the true allure is testing your skills online versus other opponents. I am a bronze level player, the lowest level. I get beat a lot but the game is so fun that I LOVE it even when I am struggling. Sometimes tough battles do exhaust the heck out of me and depress me a little. Because many times it’s because I made stupid mistakes that cost me the game, or at least the chance to do good in that game match.

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Oh joy! Proxy Rax distraction (,_, ) totally throws TL into off balance sloppy play - October 19, 2010

http://screplays.com/replays/terrorandlove/12044

So I send out a overlord to get a looksie at his base. Somehow somewhere in between this interval he snuck a SCV into my base. Takes me totally of guard. Somehow I exize him. Then finish my expansions. He tries more pushes but then I get Corrupters and finally Broodlords. Sloppy Macro them and some how manage to win.

BUT!!!! SPECIAL SURPRISE: Opponent GGs. Hmmm, but thankfully I was so engrossed in my Broodlords grinding his base I dont exit right away. Then I realize he is still in the game and go hunting. Good thing I usually dont just end my games.

Moral of the Story?: FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THATS GOOD TL USE A PROBE TO SWEEP THE BASE. And its cool to always check that map even if they GG.

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Worst Zerg Play that actually won a game - October 20, 2010

http://screplays.com/replays/terrorandlove/12042


Standard TL Build (AKA no plan and no scouting) led to a devastating Void Ray attack. Some how managed to keep it together by Turtling with the Zerg. YES turling. Other player was so out of it too he stayed air after I walled off and ended up spending himself out on the defenses. The poor soul.

Why no scouting? I think I figured I could just static defend until I got enough macro to start major pushes. Of course VR come in and my attention is so poo poo I dont even save my workers.

Moral of the Story?: Scout!! And dont trust your static defenses. The enemy can sneak into your base through the smallest margins. He would of won too if he had scouted my Spore Colony traps [yeah yeah I meant to do it..... (~_~) ]

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Of all my battles and losses. This loss hurt me the most. – 10.21.10 (Ended 1230AM)
The Epic battle of Macro failure.

http://screplays.com/replays/terrorandlove/12039

This was a grueling 1hour and 45 minute game that ended in a really bitter defeat for me.

After earlier losses that day I was doing pretty darn well mentally. Got my expansions down, timing was alright in the beginning. I had my overlords outside scouting his base so I could see when he pushed up. (LOVE patrol function)

I saw he was turtling so I even managed to research drop. I thought I was so cute with those drops. Even had a good army. Which I proceeded to piss away. My static defenses were rather nice also. Since I figured the Air attack was coming. Messed up again by not scouting properly. Managed to pick up 2 more bases. I though I was doing well. Even managed to stop a few raids. Lost my initial base but I had smartly (FOR ONCE) remembered to build backup structures so I could keep producing units.

My main problem I think was ineffectual attacks. I had some good pushes but I attacked expansions when I should have attacked key structures at his main. Not enough harassment at all. Damn looking back on it I just cringe I didn’t know what I was thinking. I guess I was so glad to be in late stages of the game finally, after

I was also filled with over-confidence. I thought because I had 5 bases, with tons of queens I could just attack and outproduce him. Then totally forgot about 1 of his expansions. The Battlecruiser attacks just cost me too much too even if I defeated them. Then before I knew it I had spent myself into the grave, when that’s what I wanted to do to him. SO MANY ADVANTAGES I HAD, I PISSED AWAY.

In the end tried some fancy (I.E. sloppy) spore crawler and spine crawler tricks because I didn’t have enough units to attack anymore. Though maybe finally he ran out of money only to be surprised by a 4 Battlecruiser force.

Finally I conceded. Of all my battles this one broke me a little, because if I had applied pressure instead of being complacent I could bust his force with Brood Lords and Corrupters I might have won. Really messed up on upgrades too. Definitely shouldnt have let him have carte blanche in terms of building what ever he wanted either. It was quite a learning experience in any case. And one of the most epic battles I have had in my short and volatile career.

Moral of the Story?: Even though Zerg are Macro-delicious and you think you have a lead don’t get Complacent. Resources are not finite. Harass, Scout especially late game. Don’t let them gain momentum.

Kei Katan – 10.21.10

Kei Katan - “What is up?” - Kalaykan codetalk. (rough translation)

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So what have I been up to lately?

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TL’s Law of Conservation of Energy.

For the most part I have not done a lot of anything. Lots of rest and some gaming since I have free time (more on that later). I have done some reading. Got a few good books from the library. Writing (EXTREMELY minor. Damn this prison sequence….writers road block.) I have downloaded a few new shows to watch. Started doing some walking out at night in the cool Florida weather too… Until I realized that my neighbors let their semi large dog loose at night and without a lease so had to cancel my favorite route. This disrupted my patterns and now I am inactive once more until I find an alternate. Gave up on taking care of my pool. It was costing too much to maintain in terms of chemicals and cleaning so its officially closed for the season. (-_-) Had some good times with her.

(P.S. Fall and Winter in Florida is some of the best weather in the United States of America. Period. Nothing can beat it.)

Started getting more and more into Star Craft 2 online play. Which is going okay in terms of having fun but not in terms of me doing actually good. (subsequent blog to follow)

There is a cat I am thinking about adopting who hangs around my job. He is cool but also annoying with all his damn chatter. It’s what makes me like him and hate him at the same time. He is not a wild cat. I think just someone’s domestic that got loose a while back and has been surviving in the wild. Using http://www.wikihow.com/Earn-the-Trust-of-a-Stray-Cat guide I got him used to me and now he is sort of overly friendly with me. He is kind of an ass though, demanding, and he talks too much too. (A perfect match huh.) Sorry ladies looks like I don’t need a girlfriend now. (-.-)

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And so the ship sinks.

Never did a job post about this but. Well a few weeks ago I was alerted to the fact that our office is loosing money. In an effort to not let everyone go they reduced us down to 3 days a week. At first I was quite overjoyed as I had hoped for something like it to happen. (At first I wished for a 4 day work week. At a 20% paycut I still wouldnt have to do anything extra to stay afloat maybe have to cut out a stripclub visit or 2. Give up drugs and drinking to every other day) But a 40% pay cut is kind of bleh. I will be able to keep up my rent and power. Might end up paying my car note like every 2 months though. Feth debt. I can handle debt standing on my head (What can they do ship me to a foreign colony of Georgia… sorry US but there are no new lands to settle). I had hoped we would get some work for the company by now, but its 3 weeks into this and I think we wont. At the end of October there is definitely going to be layoff. I think it will be me too.

THE BRIGHTSIDE! There are jobs out there in my field, which is ironic in that those are the jobs I don’t want to do again. I want to do something new. A janitor job or something where I can be active. Hmm if I do get kicked out of my house I might be able to become a servant at Alistair and Shannon’s house in exchange for Room and board. Which might work out as I can focus on my writing too.

Also another benefit of the 3-day work week. LOTS of free time. I have caught up on my reading and gaming and anime. I have had pletty of time to get doctor appointments and admin stuff as well. And taken time for vacations.

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Under the knife.

Aye. TL has had a few implants lately. My datajack and reflex augmenters are running nicely. Recently underwent some LONG awaited oral surgery too. Got my chompers fixed. Haven’t told anyone at work other than my Apprentice. Want to see if anyone will notice and actually have the guts to bring it up. I know they knew I had bad teeth problems before but never said anything. Be interesting. Cant wait to see if my friends really like em though. My Uma is happy. Gums are still sore. Been healing for weeks. Still cant really eat hard stuff yet. Oh got prescribed some REALLY nice Hydros for the pain. Hoping to get a refill. (Actually glowing on them as I type)

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The Great Hunt

Thanks to an obscure preview of an anime I plan on intro-ing at our anime club, called Gankutsuou. I have now taken to diving into more classical music. The particular selection of music is Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony. So after that I ran into a massive collect spree. I have a lot of Tchaikovsky to get through its all sounding good.

(UNEXPECTED SIDEEFFECT! – This type of music synchs really well with writing. As most music I try to listen to while writing ultimately distracts me. The magical notes of Classical orchestral have a nice un-distracting flow. In fact it helps block out distractions even!)

Some powerful stuff. (Actually has my toes curling up as I type right now)

Downloaded some Everything But the Girl best off. Nice soft yum yum music. Thanks to @VentureBrosBlog I found out the name of the Techno song that plays at the beginning of second season of Venture Bros. Aquagen feat. Rozalla remix – Everybody’s Free. Been delving into Techno/Trance/House music as a result. Which also seems to have a writing synch effect. Brother game me the Halo: Reach and Street Fighter II The Movie OSTs which are good.

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The LMT returns

Very happy that an old friend of mine who I love dearly has contacted me through twitter. Glad to be in touch with her again. Follow my dear dear @KimmyLMT . She is doing well! Yay! And my future apprentice is also doing well in school.

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Status

Relationship Status: Single w/Cat (Although I do have like 3 crushes I am under right now. One particular women is soo cool I dunno what I would do if I had courage to… I don’t know.)

Health Status: Standard (Back is better, but need Super Tam to walk me. Gums hurting)

Money Status: Some reserves still remaining after surgery

Car Status: Relatively Clean with Gas in tank

House Status: Semi-Clean need to wash dishes. Make bed more in morning

Work Status: Extremely Bored. No projects to keep me occupied.

Friend Status: Need to hang out with friends more. Sad Panda.

Sleep Status: Bad, moving to a Nocturnal to a Morning midweek is fracking me

OCD Status: Getting kind of annoying with bad thoughts.

Meds Status: Off my meds because of surgery. Not Good

Hope For Black People Status: Hopeful in long run

Hope For Political Apparatus of USA: Grim w/ small dab of Hope

Social Thought: Wish country could grow up and just accept Homosexuals without all the damn lag. People are too homophobic too. I hate casual homophobia the most!

Life Expectancy of United States (As of this post): 20 years tops. (+5 years from last prediction)

Booty of the Month: Rachel McAdams http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9590/f3su34.gif

Celeb Infatuation: Helen Mirren <3 :(

http://www.accesshollywood.com/content/images/22/230x306/22691_helen-mirren-oscars-feb-25-07-blurb-ap.jpg

http://paintedfurnitureonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Helen-Mirren-1.jpg

Favorite Dream: Transendant Sex-Marriage Dream

Movie of Week: Starship Troopers

Book Currently Reading: Dhalgren. (One confusing narrative having a hard time breaking into it) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhalgren (O_o)

Game of the Week: Super Robot Wars OG for GBA.

Meme of the Week: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-rent-is-too-damn-high-jimmy-mcmillan

Closing thoughts: Concerning Jimmy McMillan a lot of people see the dude as a joke. But dammit the RENT IS too damn high. He takes it seriously too. And damn he would have my vote if I lived their just for saying stuff that regular politicians are too scared to say. Well and because of the awesome mustachios too.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Dream Log 3 - The Prom, The Marriage, The Transcendence

“Another night of splendid dreams. If I was a pauper and lived in the streets I would still be blessed if I had such dreams”

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I have 3 of my more potent dreams collected here for you. Some of these I have tweeted. One I know is totally new. (~_~)

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The Prom, The Wedding, The Transcendence
Thursday, September 30

This one began in one of my repeating places. The school cafeteria / lunch line / formal dance.

Imagine a prom set in a regal cafeteria but with college spice thrown in. So I am in line and I am. Paraded through row after row of familiar faces. Some real. Some of the people I only “dream know” know them

So finally I arrive at the cafeteria food counter to pick my food. This I remember quite well. It was a detail feast. The heat lamps made everything a cast of gold. I ended up picking 3 strange meat/glazed pastry type foods. (Anyone remember the young Sherlock Holmes movie. When they hallucinated about the pastries coming to life :/ )
What was really amusing this time was that I got to enjoy my food. Now I usually never can get to eat my food in dreams. I remember deriving joy from the food, though I never became aware of any taste of the food.
Next the dream got weird…..
Well after the lunch line. Though by dream time it was night out and the party was in motion. It was beautiful.

The cafeteria main room was decorated in lace with glowing lights. But it was dark like a starry sky. There was dancing and familiars. The place was cavernous. Somehow I realized I was searching for someone that I loved :/ Yet try as I might I could get to her through crowd.

And then it was as if a veil had been pulled back! And I realized that this woman never returned my feelings and probably thought me a joke. I can recall if she was a real person or if it was just dream memories of the unreal.

It was like having water thrown on me. I realized I was in a Dream! Had I achieved lucid dreaming? It was like my heart was pounding super fast! I swirled around in amazement. Then I wanted to will myself to wake up but I couldn't. I didn't know how.

Simultaneously I felt scared that one should do such things like it would destroy a universe.

So I resigned myself to stay in the dream. No idea how time was passing or even if it did. Dream time is so weird like that. 1 minute can pass or 100 years….

Ah but before me on the dance floor stood an Amazon of a woman. Beautiful, other worldly and towering over me. Maybe 7 ft tall. So of course I hugged her in embrace. Grabbed her booty double handed and asked her to marry me. (O.o) It was that abrupt. Including the feelings of love, rightness… all of that marvelous mix. I was surprised I was not spurn, she accepted me as if she had been always waiting for it.

The scene switched to me carrying her to the marriage bed! I figure it was to consummate the marriage. I did carry her. She clung to my chest and it was odd. Despite her stature I did carry her quiet easily.

So I lay her down on the bed. But things had become weirder as this happened.

It appeared as if I was in a large ritual and ceremony. There were candles all around like thousands. The room lilting and shaded. Lace and goldish print everywhere. There were lines of people in white robes, with a Priest or Guide by the marriage bed. Holding a large tome in his arms, also beckoning like a person presenting for his Master to precede him through a door.

It felt as if an ancient rite and by doing this thing it would alter me in some way. That it might claim my life. I remember a feeling of deep melancholy over me. My lady lay on the bed beckoning me. I was aroused by her magic but also scared.

Then I entered her.

And the whole world disassembled itself. I was sent out of body. Transformed... (._.)

Has anyone ever seen the movie Dune? When paul drunk of the water of life he went on a transcendent journey that changed him. It was like that, with montages of far places. Desert places, and Space time. like I was Paul of dune.


I remember coming to awareness in bed some time later... and I remember it now. I was weak as a baby but the priest man leaned in and told me a year passed. But he also told me that I had made it, I passed. And that was all.

Passed? A test? A ritual? I don't know. But I awoke after that. Disturbing but enchanting. I was lucid at one point but maybe it was a faux awareness of the dream as I still had no control in the end. The water of life? Damn (._.) I took the worm trip through my dream wife. .... that's one for the record books.











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Can not find my way home
9:59 AM Sept 11th

ALRIGHT folks! Last nights dreams were just a bit past scary....

This dream revolved around a strange light switch that could alter reality and time…. And let me tell you there was a facet of horror surrounding this premise that had me severely rattled the entire dream.

I ended up going back in time to change some event. This would further mess up my timeline. It wasn’t always time travel though. Sometimes it was reality alteration.

In one instance, it was Christmas but a terrible thing kept happening, and each time a changed it another terrible thing happen. So many rules, each one you stepped across to try to fix it, made things worse.

At one point I was stuck in the altered reality of an altered reality so I had to give up and try to make the best of what I had. I cried bad. This prospect destroyed me.

It is like getting lost in a maze where you thought you knew where the entrance was so you could backtrace, but turn around and it was gone. And no matter how long you try to get back to the path just behind you it would only get you more lost.

All the other travelers except me forgot what happened in the end. I remember a terrible feeling of despair. Like loosing your way, and not being able to fix. And no one knew something was wrong.

At one point a change radiated out from the switch changing everything into ancient China-like lands. Even though we ran, drove, etc. Couldnt escape the change wave. It was hard to describe that change in detail. Like a warping of reality and then there was a ancient Chinese city, with canals and giant constructs all around.

Forgot the second dream cause first was so disturbing. It involved trying to escape from my family home, and I remember my brother chasing after me as I jumped gates and danger was right behind us both. I remember feeling agile and the ease at which we jumped over the fences was incredible.

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The Great Hunt
September ???

(This is an odd “not really” two parter, but a connect series of dreams that sometimes reoccur.)
This dream was like a fantasy quest. Your standard fellowship of the ring long quest.

Me and my team were some sort of legendary heroes and our job was to take out an assortment of evil beings.

One took place in a city under siege by creatures not unlike zombies. And some of the people hid on top of our houses. While we fought it out in nightmarish streets.

Another was a battle on a highway at High SPEEEDS! We then had to duke it out on a semi-trailer truck while it plowed through other cars on the highway.

The next one after that was a battle in a subterranean layer. I don’t remember about much of the battles before that, just the vague points I wrote down, but this subterranean cavern was like something out of the Journey to the Center of the earth. Fire and Lava venting on some corners. Huge fields of stalagmites and stalactites. Gas gushing out of vents. And large bridgelike structures. This battle took place against creatures that were rocklike and also were also supple like oily dirt at times. At this point I had strange rubbery qualities to my body, like an elongating supper hero. They compressed on my body and it was as if I was being singed and solidified. With a rocky scab / cancer coating my arms. Then they broke off and I flailed it off and I was rubbery again.

I never really remember defeating any of the evils it just skipped to the next scene.

The next was us infiltrating a school. Elementary. With me as a wizard. Not dressed as a wizard, but as a real wizard with spells. By dream knowledge I knew it.

My male assistant then took my arm and became a female wizard. Which elicited a raised eyebrow from me. He didn’t even act like it was a weird thing.

She put a hat on her head and it then conformed to her head. Shrinking. Very surreal moment. Then she took my arm tighter as we strolled in. That was the end of the dream as I remember it.

The incident involving this school appeared sometimes later. With me as a student at the school. The thing I remember about the damn school is its haunting long white halls. And sometimes I am a teacher or student. Sometimes the children are high school or elementary age. Weird it is like the same one I had from the invasion of the superheroes I posted a while back.