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"Hmm...should I use my advanced gravity powers or my standard falcon punch?"

So something crazy happened tonight. For the first time in my entire life. I just experience being bullied on the internet. Now as a brief background, I was never public schooled, but Home schooled. Yes, I was that kid. But life would have it that I was able to make really good friends that I still, to this day, have a close relationship that I share stories and personal stuff with (guys and girls also!). I've never experienced an abusive family, or an abusive relative, or extended relative. Up until tonight I've never been legitimately persecuted by another human being. Sure, I've had my fair share of hard to work with Bosses. I've been around unpleasant people. I've been around those people that make you wanna pull your hair out. But none of which have done such an act as these fools did on DotA. I'm not a gamer. Though, I was when I was a kid at 13. But that was when I had free time. However, my parents were wise enough to know that the open dialogue over the internet can be dangerous for kids. So I've always been secure that I'll avoid conflict and harassment through chats/voice overs in games. As I got older I tried out a game called blockland, and there were a fair share of some rude "children" on there. But again, never had them directly abuse me. I've seen and heard videos on Youtube, and know crazy stories of The Bullies. I mean, common, who hasn't seen a movie with a school genre where there's that one mean boy/girl? I'm literally shaken as I write this. My fingers are frittering a little from...this...I guess. It's very similar to that feeling you get when you know you shouldn't be talking to your crush. It's like I'm afraid that those people will find me again while I sleep...I don't know why. I mean, I'll definitely be fine in the morning. But what's struck me is that...Oh my gosh! There are kids out there that have EXPERIENCED this for the majority of their lives?! The constant living in fear?! This is TERRIBLE! I feel so un-righteously angry at these individuals that treat other people like their crud. These "children" that were on this server with me, basically decided to treat me the same way. I was Tumbersaw, level 13, trying to get that item that gives a lot of mana or something, and the team I guess wanted to push Mid or something. Anyway, I always talk like I'm having a good time while I'm losing(which we kind of were). I keep things positive in the game while I play. EVEN when there's that cuss bomb that's shooting his mouth off in into his mouth piece. This guy was taking his time to press a key to let me know that I'm dirt. (in comparison, dirt is not even close to what I was called). So I'm like, "This isn't new. This guy's probably tired and frustrated and needs someone to take it out on. No biggy." Twas a biggy. The next thing I know, I died, right when that tower was gonna explode, I was gonna pull a final smash on it right before I died. But I was just a few seconds off. For me, I don’t care, it’s just a game. However, this dude, and the rest of his “buddies” took this as my pinnacle of stupidity. The next thing I know, I’m hearing this guy talking some real smack about me. I simply reply in chat, not voice, that I agreed that I was being retarded and then left my L O L in there. But then the rest joined in. Then that wound just kept getting longer and deeper. The rest of the game was unpleasant. But I didn’t care. I couldn’t, and I shouldn’t. If I’m an adult I need to know who I am. I know myself too well that I’m not what these guys are saying. And most of what they were blabbering about in chat, besides my legitimately poor playing skills, were lies. Filthy lies. I hurt bad from this guys. But all this to say: When you have a person that’s just trying to play the game for passing-time’s sake, don’t take it upon yourself to let him know how stupid he is. Don’t do it so seriously that you ruin someone’s self-esteem. You don’t even know that person, and they you. So why bother? It’s childish, immature, highly disrespectful, and this is not my own opinion. I’m sure these people were willing to take a bullet for you. There are kids out there that need someone to look up to. Not circles of adult-children choosing to use them as their “play”. And I only refer these bullies out there as adult-children. Not gamers. Treat others like you would be treated. And trust me, none of us would want to be treated like crud. I can guarantee it.

GOOD NEWS WE ARE NOT DYING WE ARE GOING TO LIVE FOREVER -

I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR FRIED-CHICKEN TRAMPS But I'm wedging my head through a door to tell you I'm sorry D: Final question: You have a dinner date for seven. What time do you arrive? - Seven. AM. Case the restaurant, run background checks on the staff. Can the cook be trusted? If not, I gotta kill him. Dispose of the body, replace him with my own guy, no later than 4:30.

Conga!

I want in on the club! Me too! Drop me a message too, I should be under ToaEljay. Also, if ya got Skype, we have a pretty snazzy group goin', and we play Dota pretty often. So yeah, there's that too. =P -LJ

Kongu!

I have no idea what you're talking about. Nope, Dukemon's actually a little taller (As will be seen in a later shoot. Shhhhhh spoilers!). And until now I don't think that even hit me... Yeah, it's a little strange. But it's not by as much as the picture here makes it look. That's some weird angle magic at work.

why would you do that

I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR FRIED-CHICKEN TRAMPS But I'm wedging my head through a door to tell you I'm sorry D: Final question: You have a dinner date for seven. What time do you arrive? -

I AM NOT ONE OF YOUR FRIED-CHICKEN TRAMPS

We began the day by looking at the route home when I discovered a place that we'd unexpectedly pass: Montpelier, the home of President James Madison. It was a detour of just a few miles from our initial route, so we decided to take the detour and tour his home. Having visited Monticello many years ago, I kind of knew what to expect, but that was a while back and a completely different house. Montpelier was similar - starting in the visitor's center, we watched an introductory film and learned about how the house was undergoing extensive research to return it to what it would have looked like at the end of the Madison tenure, as it had been extensively modified by subsequent owners after the widowed Dolley Madison had to sell it to pay her debts. The tour started off slow but picked up interest as it went along, and was given by a nice older man whose general facial features, unfortunately, resembled Dracula. They've pretty much finished stripping back the additions and restoring the structure to what it would have looked like during the residence of the Madisons, but there were very few original pieces of furniture. While everything was a period piece, tracking the original furniture and knick-knacks from the house is a difficult and time-consuming process. Among the interesting information was the importance of Dolley Madison in the fledgling nation's affairs. She was the longest-serving First Lady, as the socialite and trend-setter had served as the de facto First Lady under widower Thomas Jefferson. In addition to her popularization of ice cream (her favorite flavor: oyster), she popularized the turban and made her husband so popular that his presidential opponent said that he could have beaten Mr. Madison, but not Mr. and Mrs. Madison. We exited Montpelier and endured the blistering heat back to the air-conditioned sanctuary of the visitor center, where we added an ornament to Mom's Collection and rolled on out, continuing down the road to our original first stop of the day at Appomattox Court House. Though long hailed as the end of the Civil War, as Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had long posed the biggest threat to Union forces, and Lee himself had just earlier in 1865 been appointed commander of all Confederate forces, it was not the last action of the Civil War. Other armies surrendered later, and the last battle - in Brownsville, literally as far south as you can go and still be in the United States - was won by the Confederates. The sweltering heat had not diminished in the least as we sweated around Appomattox Court House. While it's only just a few houses situated at a crossroads, it served as the administrative district for Appomattox County, which is confusing because the town of Appomattox is just a few miles from the Court House. Easily the most interesting thing on the grounds was the famous McLean House, site of Lee's surrender to Grant. The magnanimous Grant made sure that Lee's depleted army - starving and tired to the point that some would just fall over asleep while marching and captured by the Union forces coming up behind them - was properly supplied and sent back home in an orderly manner. Amazingly, Lee didn't want to give up the cause, saying that he wanted to keep fighting to the death than give Grant the unconditional surrender he demanded. Though the war was lost, a short battle was waged the night before, with the Confederates unsuccessfully trying to break through the lines of the Union army that finally had them surrounded. Cut off from their only way out - south to General Johnston's army, which surrendered not long after the events of Appomattox - Lee realized that attacking was suicidal. The McLeans were forced to sell their house after the war, as their fortune, which was entirely in Confederate money, was worthless. The new owner was an enterprising fellow, and took extensive notes on the interior of the house before meticulously taking it apart, with the intention of taking it to the Chicago World's Fair, like the building at Harpers Ferry that housed John Brown. But with the travel cost from Appomattox to Chicago prohibitively expensive, he decided to re-build it in the much closer Washington, D.C. ... but he went bankrupt shortly after, leaving the McLean House not much more than a pile of stones and slowly rotting wood. It was re-built on the spot years later and restored to what it would have looked like when it hosted the generals of both sides. With a mix of originals and replicas, it really wasn't all that big. Though still immensely hot, we made the trek to the gift shop, where - in addition to the obligatory ornament - my dad got a few books for himself. I have no shortage of assurance that he will have completed these tomes within the week. Back in the car, we continued down the road a little ways. Hungry, and with nothing to eat on Route 29 itself, we exited and found an Applebee's, where we all got what we'd had yesterday, purely in the interest of time, as our main priority at that point was to get back home during the daylight hours. I'm glad to report that there was no atrocious karaoke at this establishment, only a waitress who called all of us "sweetheart" and "honey" in alternating order. Two hours of driving later, we made it back home, just as the sun was setting. This trip clocked in at 4625 miles on the dot, about 55% of the mileage that we covered on the first two trips. Strangely, it feels like we've done more, as the things to do in the Northeast are generally more tightly packed. The wilderness of northern Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and parts of Québec and Vermont was more like what we've been accustomed to out west. Though there are more baseball teams in the northeast, the number of pennants we collected was significantly lower, which I can only attribute to the fact that, in terms of mileage, this is only half a trip. Our beloved car has finally seen its last road trip. With over 120,000 miles and many road trips in its rearview mirror, it's broken down six times on these road trips, and we were on track for five if this third trek had gone a full 8,000. She's a retired greyhound now - still a great car, but we're not going to put her through any unnecessary stress. Tomorrow: we sleep in our own beds for the first time in roughly a month - and tonight, I don't have to pile pillows on my head to protect my ears from the wood-chipping quality of my parents' patented Tandem Snoring™.

@fishers: We were on track for five breakdowns on this trip alone had we put over 8,000 miles on the car. I suppose my sentence structure finally caught up to me.

Valve may not know how to count to three, but they sure know how to usher in an era of peace in a universe predicated on murder.

who said he was anywhere near it he is all cloudy and stuff, he's probably really far away gonna do a run-up falcon punch

Think Mata Nui ought to be a fair bit taller than that. The HF building would probably fit inside him.

Well, Friday I've gotta kill somebody who pressed a briefcase alarm button, and oh, uh. You're already gonna be at that one.

Standard? HAHAHA

We didn't say we're going to live forever, we just said we don't have TUMORS.

DOTA2 Homeschoolers unite! In any case, yeah, I've had your same story happen to me on more than one occassion. You pretty much did the same thing I do when I get obscenely irate players on my team. I just laugh it off, offer my apologies, and move on. If they continue with their tantrums I just report, mute, and ignore (seriously though, they need to raise the limit on reports I can send in every week). I have to admit that I find a degree of smug satisfaction when I boot up the DOTA2 client and receive an alert that someone I've reported has been punished. But, yeah, the long and short of the whole thing is that a competitive environment tends to quickly let you know who has self-control and who probably suffered some sub-par parenting. My advice? Play with friends unless you've really built up a thick skin. Also, you should hit me up on steam sometime. Maybe we can play a round. Takuma Nuva

I laughed.

A moment of silence for the car... ...and done.

Ah, good, I was fearful the action figs had gained sentience and my own Bionicle collection would be my undoing. Glad that hasn't happened... yet...

Actually, if you drop the thumbs then they look even more ridiculously-shaped than before because then its just this tall thin hand with two little fingers poppin out the top like if a T. rex hand had a bunch of baggy palm skin that was also solid and weird.

Last entry will be tonight - unpacking and general house checking is first. Also we'd have to have a much bigger car if we got souvenirs of that magnitude.

I'm planning on tackling this and some other archival things fairly soon. Remind me in July during the BBC contest intermission.

I've been teleporting the bread blogs non-stop for three days, sir.

WHO TELEPORTED THE BREAD BLOGS

They must be filled with TUMORS

http://media.tumblr.com/186d7f0d6f8ac17fb566b7fa70b18851/tumblr_inline_n7cb3gUwEe1qbl2we.gif Edit: Image-only comment nooooooooo + >500 kB image nooooooooo -Wind-

I have done nothing but teleport bread for three days.

(it shouldn't need to be said that building gundam with constraction is way easier)

This is Micah's fault? Picture links to topic.

Reminds of when I played MNOG II, I would wait a couple minutes and then come back when I heard the bell calling for every matoran to meet in the center. Good times