Jump to content

Lazzy the Spazzy

Premier Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    328

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Lazzy the Spazzy

  1. Lazzy the Spazzy
    TEAM 14
    Brief Team History:
    n/a
     
    Sensei:
     
    Name: Hattori Hanzō
     
    Member: Kakumei
     
    Age: 24
     
    Rank: Jounin
     
    Village: Konohagakure
     
    Personality: Hanzō's not a passive person, or someone who likes authority, he is a true ninja in keeping secrets and being sly and sneaky, yet he loves to have a laugh.
    He will not, however, remain cheerfull in battles. Quite the opposite. He will usually sink into a state of Zetsubō [despair] and lose the will to fight. He can also apply this state to other people.
     
    Fighting style/skills: Hanzō's special technique is similar to the Fourth Hokage's in which a person can move great distances in a second. A Space/time jutsu. He is also master in Gen and Ninjutsu, though lacking in Taijutsu, he can easily defeat someone of Chuunin leven in a Taijutsu battle. He will often use senbon or Kunai to attack. He is a long ranged fighter.
     
    Weapons: Senbon, Kunai, Shuriken, small Chakra blade carried in the small of his back.
     
    Team: 14
     
    Relationships within team: n/a
     
    List of jutsu: N/A for now
     
    Clan: Hattori, a clan famous for it's prodigy Ninja. The Hattori Clan exists outside of Konoha, or any of the five great hidden villages. A Hattori, every century or so, will appear and become great, Hanzō is the latest to appear, and has so far proven that this theory is correct.
     
    Trivia: Hanzō fist appeared in Konoha, fully trained and capable, at the age of 14.
     
     
    Genin:
     
    Name: Koitoro Jatsume
     
    Member: Minun4
     
    Age: 11
     
    Rank: Genin
     
    Personality: He keeps to himself. He'll work with others, only when neccisary. He would rather let his kunai do the talking. The enviorment never fazes him. He trains all day because his mom is dead and his dad hates the clan, so he has enough to worry about. He loves his other family members more than his father. He acts cold to everyone.
     
    Appearance: He has a dark tan skin color, and is rough. He has dark brown hair and has his hair point to the right. His 5ft. tall and has green eyes. He wears a thin gray jacket, with plain blue t-shirt underneath. He has a watch and long jeans. He keeps his kunais on his right leg. He wears a black belt and standard shinobi sandals. He also wears a sache on his right shoulder.
     
    Fighting Style/Skills: He specializes in Ninjutsu, Fire style. He likes to fight mid-range, and he likes to start out with genjustu to slow his opponet, then use fire style jutsus. His weaknesses are: he is slower than other ninja; he always starts the same way (so he is predictable); and he doesn't have a lot of chakra, so his fire justus wear him out quickly. Since he can't fight for too long, he focuses more on scouting out territory.
     
    Jutsu: Substitution jutsu, shadow suriken jutsu, illusion cloneing, and the tramsformation jutsu. All curently basics.
     
    Clan: His clan has always been fighters, no matter at what the personal cost. Therefore, it comes to no surprise that his Kekkei Genkai is called "the sacrifice sword." It takes a lot of the person's chakra and hurts the person, but it comes into the form of a large, but light, sword. They would all lay down their life for their family (yes, even his father).
     
    Name: Mizuno Jiro
     
    Member: Zaktan of the Shadows
     
    Age: 14
     
    Rank: Genin
     
    Personality: Unlike his older brother, Jiro is more calm and cheery, due to the fact that he was raised under better circumstances. He is easy to get along with probably due to the fact that he becomes the subordinate of social groups. However, like his brother, he has a feeling of neglect, and severely underestimates himself. Although rare, it can lead to mood swings of depression or violent bursts of anger. He is always striving to do his hardest to become the great shinobi his brother never got to be. However he prefers to take it easy, usually slacking off from training and practice and pursue other interests such as reading, shogi, bird watching and other past times.
     
    Appearance: Jiro is above average in height easily topping most classmates in the academy. He has neat black hair of medium length. Nowhere near close to girl’s hair length, but still longer in comparison to guys hair. It is done in a way so that part of his hair covers his left eye usually. He has dark brown eyes. They also look as though he just got up after a nap. His facial features are not as sharp as his brothers but not exactly “soft” either. His skin shade is darker than Caucasian but not quite at the asian tinge either. He usually sits and walks with a slouched posture.
    His usually clothing is an ultramarine Hawian with some yellow and orange patterns. Underneath he wears a cornflower blue short sleeve T-shirt. He wears Grey cargo pants that go past his ankles. He wears the standard sandals and wears to kunai pack on his right leg.
     
    Fighting style/skills: Mizuno lacks the ability to use even the most basic of ninjutsu or genjutsu due to a chakra disorder. The only exception to this is water jutsu to which he excels at, however he knows none. So he ends up studying basic taijutsu instead. However he is not physically dexterous so he usually resorts to setting traps or using all kinds of trickery to catch his opponent off guard and then strike a weak point. Due to this he has gained the ability to move about undetected and excel in stealthy operations.
     
    Weapons: Just the standard stuff
     
    List of jutsu:
    Clone Jutsu
    Substitution Jutsu
    Earth Release: Inner Decapitation technique
    Exploding tag release
     
    Clan: Mizuno Clan. The most powerful and feared clan in the land of waves. It is a large and thriving clan that has most control in the region. In the past it took full control of the Land of Water and declared war on neighboring nations. However it was eventually removed from power through civil war after being severely weakened by the shinobi of the land of earth. But as time progressed it managed to get back a seat of power in the regions politics. However under a peace treaty with the nation of fire it sent its clans successor Mizuno Ikari as a ward, who died after 10 years. They then surrendered the next one in line Mizuno Jiro. Members of the clan usually suffer under a genetic chakra disorder which makes use of earth, fire, lightning and wind jutsu difficult. However the clan excels at water jutsu, able to master them at fast rates and even continuously use these jutsu whilst a normal shinobi would have been long expelled of water chakra.
     
    Name: Yira Veran
     
    Member: Rakaru
     
    Age: 17
     
    Rank: Academy student
     
    Personality: Veran likes to be with people and talk to them, but he doesn't really care to hang around goths, pessimists or any life hater. He does like to hear about legends and learn new things. He is kind to other people who are kind to him and treats those who are cruel with equal cruelity. He had lost his parents long ago to an illness and eversince had been with the academy (was around 13 at the time) He likes to fight as it ventailates his anger at others and he doesn't hurt any allies this way. Looks up to mentors and more wise and stronger people and tries to learn from them. He has had a hard life which from that he had learned things in the Academy rather quickly and doesn't forget things. He is very responsible for anything.
     
    Appearance: His skin color is white, texture is somewhat rough, his hair is black and semi-long that is pulled in a backward position, his eye color is a deep green which doesn't really reflect light, he is around 6'3" he wears black gloves, has no accessories besides for a few kunai, a small dagger, and a sworddoesn't wear any accessories or carry these weapons around he just knows how to use them (somewhat) and has them for protection in case anything really bad happened, wears a long sleeved T-shirt which is black and is made out of the typical fibers in most other T-shirts, he wears long black pants (he likes the color for he always feels somewhat cold and black soaks up the sun's heat, Keeps his kunai on his right leg,? wears a belt to hold his dagger when he carries it around it is a black leathery material, wears standard shinobi sandals, A small design is on his shirt which is a red dragon (is a dragon geek at times mind you) and thats it.
     
    Fighting style/skills: genjutsu is his specialty, Manipura, Which chakra, fire type-jutsu, mid-range fighter,He is strong for his age, but doesn't look it. Has good accuracy, and is flexible (to an extent), he has no disabilities and will start out with what he thinks is suitable in a battle, His weakness is his ability to hesitate at times in battle, and that he can be a little arrogant at times, he is overconfident and is sometimes not the easiest ally maker, He is relatively good at tracking (he was taught how to track from his father)
     
    Weapons: has a dagger, and a sword which he is pretty good with and that would be all.
     
    List of jutsu: substitution, and illusion, that is all he has so far.
     
    Clan: The Yira clan is a dying clan. Long ago it was established by Veran's great grandfather, but didn't thrive so well. It is rather small now they don't have a speciality.
     
  2. Lazzy the Spazzy
    TEAM 15
    Brief Team History:
    n/a
     
    Sensei:
     
    Name: Heroga Kaizen.
    Age: 27
    Rank: Jounin
    Personality: Kaizen has a goofy personality. He likes to fool around, mess with others, and other stuff like that. Despite his age, he acts like a young teenager. Not only does he almost never take anything serious, you can almost never take him seriously.
    Despite his behavior, he is a good friend, and a loyal one too. So he liked by many in the village. He can also be found at the academy, or at the park, playing with kids. And he is always nice to everyone. And if someone is mean to him, he look hurt, but in a goofy way. SO basically, he is always in a good mood.
    One odd thing about him is that he has an odd interest for dandelions. Why no one knows. But he can be seen looking at one for hours.
    Appearance: No one knows what Kaizen looks like. The only thing people know about Kaizen is that he has white hair. The rest of his body is covered up with armor and other ninja clothing. You can’t even see the color of his skin.
    Kaizen is 6ft 7, and wears your standard sandals that look more like shoes. He wears your standard black pants that goes down to his foot. He wears a black long sleeve shirt that goes to his hands which are covered completely with ninja gloves with the leaf village’s symbol on them. He also has your standard ninja bags on his lower back.
    He uses his leaf headband as a belt. He wears some shoulder armor, with your standard samurai chest place (both are grey.). He wears a face mask like Kakashi with a black and grey mask that looks exactly like Tobi’s over the face mask. And his white hair goes down to his shoulders.
    Fighting style/skills: Kaizen specializes in taijutsu and ninjutsu. He is also a wind and fire type user. As a Jounin, Kaizen has experience with both short, mid, and long range fighting. Kaizen is a master when it comes to using his katana in his fight. And combined with his wind chakra, it makes Kaizen even more of a threat. The same applies to his staff, which he uses with his wind chakra for some devistating blows.
    One of Kaizen’s weaknesses is genjutsu.
    Weapons: Kaizen uses a unique katana. Instead of most of the blade being black with a little silver at the back of it, it is mostly pure white with the back of the blade being black. He carries this sword in a white sheath on the right side of his waist.
    Kaizen also carries a staff that’s about 7ft long, and it can be turned into a whip of some sort (like the one Rock Lee used on the 3rd movie.).
    Team: 15
    Clan: Kaizen belongs to the Heroga clan. The Heroga clan consists of a small group of nomads that exist throughout the many countries. There is no one country or village you can find them in. The members of the clan are also known for their light but strong bodies so that they can use their Kekkei Genkai to its fullest.
    And not everyone is born with the clans Kekkei Genkai. Their Kekkei Genkai has no official name like the Uchiha or Hyuuga clan’s. Some call it wind storm, and some call “air bending” (lol like avatar.).
    The Heroga clan is known for their wind Kekkei Genkai. The Heroga clans Kekkei Genkai allows the user to manipulate the wind and air around him or her however they want (Like how Gaara can manipulate sand to his will.). With this Kekkei Genkai, One can creates mini cyclones, or giant bursts of wind. They can send objects and people flying by shooting compact wind bursts towards people. They can use it to lift objects (Unless their too heavy. Full adults are too heavy for them, but young kids are about perfect.), and even themselves.
    The Heroga clan can also release this power from any part of their body. By doing so, they can almost fly, or hover in the air.
    But there are limits to the Kekkei Genkai. They can’t suffocate a human, or create giant Tornadoes.
     
    Genin:
     
    Name: Uchiha Saito
    Age: 13
    Rank: Genin
    Missions completed:
    D: 1
    C: 0
    B: 0
    A: 0
    Personality: Friendly, warm, loves making new friends. He has a mild fear of blood and is disgusted with unnescesary cruelty or death. Somewhat restless, on occasion has trouble listening. He is determined and works on teamwork with his friends. He is sometimes distracted by sympathy for an animal or person that is in pain or having trouble. He is a little impatient. He is quick at memorising things, including handsigns. He is intellegent and a straight-A student.
    Appearance: He wears a green t-shirt with a black stripe down the middle and an Uchiha emblem on the back. He wars black gloves. His pants are khaki shorts and his kunai holster on his right leg. He wears standard Konoha sandals in black. He is near-sighted, but often wears contact lenses as he sees them easier to deal with, however outside of missions or ninja training he sometimes wears glasses. He has spiky black hair. His skin is somewhat pale.
    Fighting style/skills: He uses ninjutsu and sometimes taijutsu. In taijutsu he his effective in continuous blows and strong attacks. In ninjutsu he mostly uses fire and lightning type jutsus. He is a straitforward fighter and lacks the patience to use strategies or genjutsu. He combines speed and strength to deliver several devestating blows at a time. He is a hard trainer and learns jutsus quickly. He is a good tracker. His weaknesses include these: His fear of blood can make him freeze up in the midst of battle if he happens to see any gore.His sympathy for others can distract him and leave him open for attack. His non-observance can lead him directly into a trap.
    Weapons: He has standard shinobi weapons, although he also has 'summoning tags' that he can use. By attaching one to a kunai, the summoning tag-a clip-out from a summoning scroll-can summon several more kunai, creating a barrage of the daggers.
    List of Jutsu: Clone jutsu, Transform jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, Exploding Tag-Activate
    Clan: Uchiha
     
    Name: Raimei Shiru
    Member: Sum Dude
    Age: 17
    Rank: Genin
    Missions completed:
    D: 1
    C: 0
    B: 0
    A: 0
    Personality: He is friendly towards those who aren't rude to him, and rude back towards those who are. He demands the best of himself, which is why he has purposely failed the academy graduation test every time(he doesn't believe he is ready to be a genin). He is sarcastic(very much so) despite the fact that he is not very good at it. He likes to lay on the ground outside at night and look at the stars, wondering what else is out there. He is very intelligent.
    Appearance: He wears loose clothing(a green T-shirt and blue jeans) and the standard ninja sandals. He wears the three swords he received from his father(one on his back with the hilt over his right shoulder and one on each hip.). He has dark brown hair, brown eyes, and is about 5'9" tall. He has tanned skin(he spends a lot of time outside polishing his skills).
    Fighting style/skills: He uses swords, which is the specialty of his clan. He usually uses the Raimei Kiru(the sword on his back) in his right hand and one of the other swords in his left, although he does use kunai and shuriken as well. He is very fast but has weaker upper body strength, and uses jutsu to offset this. He shows the most promise as a swordsman of anyone to ever come out of the Raimei Clan.
    Weapons: He has a sword that has been passed down through his clan for generations, called the Raimei Kiru, that he wears on his back. He wears two others swords, one on each hip. He is very skilled, though he hasn't reached the level of skill his father has, despite the fact that he can hold his own against him.
    List of jutsu: substitution technique and illusion clone technique, transformation and Shunshin
    Clan: The Raimei Clan. the Raimei Clan is a small clan, although it isn't dying. All the members of the clan have been sword masters, very fast(both in running and dashing and with their sword strokes) and prodigies of the sword. The Raimei Kiru, their sword that channels lightning chakra better than any other sword in the world, has been passed from the first born son to his first born son for generations. It is currently in Shiru's possession, although he can't channel chakra through it yet.
     
    Name: Hyuuga Cain
    Age: 12
    Rank: Genin
    Missions completed:
    D: 1
    C: 0
    B: 0
    A: 0
    Personality: a cold person at most times, he is a loner more or less. His interests are training and becoming stronger. He acts respectively towards his allies and even his opponents and shows great honor, but above it, great chivalry. He acts cool, even on the losing side of a fight, and tries to maintain his cool attitude at all times.
    Appearance: White short hair, somewhat like Sasuke\'s hair style, white eyes like Hyuga clan members, wears a uniform like Neji\'s, his fathers, and lets his hair grow out at some points for his Taijutsu which of course will be made later when I get to add custom Jutsu to his arsenal. His pouch is on his right leg and wears a belt with his shuriken pouch on the back along with normal black sandals.
    Fighting style/skills: Specializes in the Gentle Fist and normal Taijutsu, but also uses Ninjutsu. He uses earth and lightning (doton and raiton) style Jutsu with long range earth and short range lightning. Weaknesses are: 1: overly uses Taijutsu, so is left open to some long range Ninjutsu and weapons, 2: Lightning takes a lot out of him 3: earth doesn't seem to be generally strong for his fighting style; his best would be higher leveled earth Jutsu.
    Great at stealth due to his own personal training.
    After the death of his aunt, Hanabi, Cain’s general outlook on life quickly became much more focused and dark. Cain began to train even more, focusing on developing a technique of his own self-named the Byaku Rendan, and vowed to make up for the death of his aunt. Following with this increase in his already serious personality, Cain has developed his Byakugan to be able to see up to 100 yards in one direction.
    Weapons: cords, demon shuriken, or whatever its called, katana that usually just remains at his home, but has trained with for a few years and only uses on special occasions.
    List of jutsu: Gentle Fist, Substitution, Illusion Clone.
    Clan: Hyuuga
     
  3. Lazzy the Spazzy
    CartoonNetwork's old show
    Justice League is one of the best, if not the best, animated series in the history of animated series. Its sequel JLU isn't far behind.

    Give a shout out if Justice League was a fond childhood memory for you too.



  4. Lazzy the Spazzy
    So, after sending someone a PM, the content of that message prompted me to try to figure out how to get to a list of my previous topics...
     
    It took a while, but first I stumbled onto the subscriptions page, containing the only topic I ever actually subscribed to -- the Covenant of the 13. It's an epic by Wolf Eyes (sadly no longer active), and it's a great read. I'm still rereading it, so I have no idea if she ever actually finished, but anyway.
     
    So, I finally wound up in my topics list. It actually took up two pages. It had every topic I've ever started, every story I've ever written, every RPG I've ever run.
     
    Wow. Can someone say nostalgia? (rhetorical question, don't actually say it)
     
    But man, I just started scrolling through those topics...one thing led to another and I was skimming through old epics I'd read, such as Nid's Arachniphobia (about Nidhiki's missing years).
     
    It really reminded me of how much I had experienced at BZPower...fitting for the reminder to come at a time when we're all celebrating this site's ninth birthday. But wow, four years passed by really quickly. I still remember the exact thoughts in my head as I typed up some of those stories...I even recognized a quote I pulled from real life, a few days before I actually wrote the story I put the quote in.
     
    But enough of that. I hope you didn't mind suffering through an old member's boring reminiscence...
     
    I guess what I really got out of this was that I realized how little I wrote as time went on. There was actually this one instance back in 2006, where I wrote two stories in the span of 15 minutes. Where did that prolificness (I know that's not the right noun, but bear with me) go? How did I go from that to one story a year? I should start writing more. Maybe keep better track of my time, make better use of it. We human beings can get a lot done if we use time management properly.
     
    Well, that's it. Just thought I'd share my thoughts with you all, if anyone's listening reading out there.
  6. Lazzy the Spazzy
    People will never agree. Especially not on standards. People will argue about the verdict in a courtroom, the flaws of the SAT in providing a standard for college admissions, even the 'accuracy' of a history textbook that is too left-leaning or right-leaning. When these standards are taken to a national scale, these disagreements become huge as well. And ugly.
     
    There is no correct way, no one Truth; at least, even if there is, there are few people who can figure it out in their lifetime. It's impossible in such a short amount of time, with millions of different and unique viewpoints, to set a perfect standard for what should be taught in history classrooms. I do think we should not teach history that is biased, but I also believe we shouldn't make a conscious effort to 'balance the playing field'. All right, so people say we should keep it perfectly in the middle, make sure no one bias pulls our history textbook too far to the left or the right. But how?
     
    There will always be biases, and events will never be perfectly recorded. No one can ever tell what every single person directly related to the incident was thinking or what led to their thoughts and actions, much less know what every single person not directly related to the incident was thinking. It's impossible. It's impossible to have a perfectly objective history, a perfectly objective viewpoint, a perfectly objective government.
     
    Nor should we try. Yes, some of us have extreme viewpoints on some subjects, but we should not, contrary to what most believe, make a conscious effort to lean toward the other direction. That's lying to yourself and that's something that will fail. Look at affirmative action. Look at where a conscious effort to force ourselves away from race biases to "make things fair" led us. Were things fair? No.
     
    But, if we have extremists and we discourage them from trying to push themselves toward the center, what should we do? I believe that rather than force ourselves to believe something we don't believe in, we should instead stay true to our beliefs, but understand that others have other beliefs and be willing to accept them.
     
    That's what it means to keep an open mind. Not forcing yourself toward the left or right.
     
    Note: On advice from a trusted friend, I have disabled comments for fear of said comments becoming too political in nature. If you have something to say in response, please post a blog entry (keep it within Blog guidelines though) and direct me to it via PM.
  7. Lazzy the Spazzy
    As a premier member, I have room in my inbox for 1000 messages. But the PMs I've been getting over the years I've been here are stacking up, and already past halfway. I panicked, and went on a sort of cleaning spree, reading through some of the PMs and deleting ones from the same thread.
     
    I did this at first to clear space for future PMs, but soon found myself happily reading the PMs I sent to friends and vice versa. It awoke so many good memories...Hak discussing his Hunters of the Dark comics...Dwin and I talking about BZPower, the Final Battle the RPG...Me, asking Moutekea about catalysts...that MoC of Lazok that Khote sent to me...The 'how could you' PM I sent to Hahligirl56 after her character, Alta, was killed...All those PMs that I and the other four mods of the Naruto RPG sent back and forth...I remember sitting late at night, typing up the rules for the RPG, rules and more rules...It took hours, didn't it?
     
    Haha, I even uncovered that PM that Black Six sent to me for posting one of those 'I'm the first one to post on this page' posts. I lost proto for that... ^^;
     
    And then I found this PM that I didn't even remember sending; it was this guest star request for an epic that Nidhiki99 (now Nid) was writing. I didn't even know that I knew Nid from before BZPRPG!
     
    And there was even this PM that Lady K sent to me! Imagine that, one of the BZP legends talking to me, just a normal member!
     
    Man, reading all those PMs brought me back...I feel so old right now. I've done so many things on BZP, some that I don't even remember anymore.
     
    Good times, good times.
  8. Lazzy the Spazzy

    Priorities

    By Lazzy the Spazzy,

    Bad experiences balancing BZPower with Sophomore life? ... Check.
     
    Thinking ahead to two years in the future? ... Check.
     
    Revelation that Undergrad life will likely require an absence of a commitment to BZP? ... Check.
     
    Decision to make long-term plans to "retire" from BZP by the end of senior year? ... Check.
     
    Adamant about decision despite persuading and/or objecting from BZP friends? ... Check.
     
    Almost ready to retire? ... Check.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    "What is the meaning of this status on EW's AIM? I shall ask. Hello EW...what? Do I hear you right? Lady K's joining the BZPRPG?"
     
    *tosses out two years of plans*
  9. Lazzy the Spazzy
    I was just thinking about the phrase "before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes". The idea of it is supposed to be that you don't have the right to judge or criticize someone until you've been through what they've been through.
     
    This entry isn't entirely related to that, but it does have to do with the "in their shoes" part of the phrase. About a week ago, another forum I visit had a topic to honor the memory of another member's late friend. The friend had "mixed with the wrong crowd", which led to his death.
     
    This got me thinking. I think it's regrettable that the person did that, when according to the member the friend had been a really great person before mixing in with the "wrong crowd". But I also thought of the "mile in their shoes" phrase, and thought, can I really blame him or say that he was wrong? From my viewpoint, yes it was, but then again I haven't walked a mile in the person's shoes.
     
    So I kept thinking even more. What does it actually mean to walk a mile in that person's shoes? The usual meaning of that phrase is, mentally put yourself in that situation. But is that possible? I mean, I can pretend I'm in that person's immediate situation, and make judgments and decisions based on that, but to truly walk a mile in their shoes, to truly put yourself in their situation, you have to know everything else they've been through. Not just their immediate situation but their whole past life. Their childhood, their role models, events that subtly influenced and together made them the way they are now. If I put myself in that person's immediate situation, I might have done something other than what he did, but if I had been in their situation and had the same exact childhood and experiences?
     
    So I decided, it's impossible to really put yourself in someone's situation because you haven't been through the same experiences they have that may have subtly influenced them to make a particular choice in this immediate situation. But then I realized, the phrase "walk a mile in another's shoes" was never meant to be interpreted literally in the first place so I just let myself go off on a philosophical tangent for no reason.
     
    Just a random thought.
  11. Lazzy the Spazzy
    My only complaint about the Short Stories Contests was always that there weren't enough of them. =P I loved writing, I loved reviewing others' writing, but I often had trouble working up the motivation to do either. Part of that may also have been because the Short Stories forum always felt so lonely, as opposed to a couple of the other forums I was a regular to. The contests not only provided me with an incentive to do the former, but also gave me much-needed reassurances that there really was a community here at the Library, even if many of the "legends" I used to idolize no longer dwell there.
     
    The Short Stories Autumn Olympics answered my cry for more. More contests, more fun, more community-fuzziness. It was a success -- the Olympics provided unique "events" that were a welcome deviation from the usual "write your story on the day of and submit it" type contests. I especially enjoyed the team event, the round robin story. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that my team won, but still. XP
     
    My point is, the SSAO was great. It was enjoyable to participate in and I look forward to more of these Olympics. It might be a bit late for a Winter one, but perhaps a SSSO? (*hintHHhint*)
  12. Lazzy the Spazzy
    In my previous RPG Etiquette Episode (more than a year ago now), I adopted a rather cynical and sarcastic tone. This Episode will depart from that a bit by taking a more neutral opinion on matters.
     
     

    ---Part 1--- 
     

    Godmodding. We RPers all know what it is. It's a rule in almost all RPGs, and those that don't have it usually tend to fall apart. Why is that? 
    For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, Godmodding essentially stands for "godly modification", where a player makes his or her character unrealistically powerful or omniprescient, like a god. Ever heard of the slang term "hax"? A godmodder is basically the text-based RPG's equivalent of hax.
     
    Let's use a scenario to clarify this definition. Let's say you're role-playing in an RPG. Your character is a Toa, let's call him Toa A. You're fighting another player who also has a Toa, let's call him Toa B.
     

     

     

     

     
    Above I've illustrated the usual symptoms of godmodding. Player B not only has his own hits inexplicably hit his opponent without giving him a chance to react (a subcategory of godmodding called auto-hitting), but he also showed a disregard for Player A's actions and his surroundings (dodging their attacks without getting hit, despite being in a narrow alley).
     
    Now let's say Player C comes in. Player C has accumulated quite an army from years of role-playing, and has brought a fleet of airships that she has earned.
     

     

     
    Now the godmodding gets more unrealistic than before. Yes, we all see this in movies. A single person somehow manages to take down an entire airfleet through sheer awesomeness alone. But unfortunately, what godmodders often don't understand is that RPGs aren't movies, and that they (or their characters) are not the main character in some epic battle. In RPGs author powers don't apply, and using them without respect for the other player's wishes often leads to being punished.
     
    But my main purpose for writing this entry isn't to tell you what godmodding is. Chances are, if you're in an RPG, you know.
     
     

    ---Part 2---
     
    So, we know what the problem is. How do we solve it?
     
    Usually (and hopefully), all it takes is a word with the godmodder. Most of the time they don't know that they're being unrealistic, and once they've been corrected they get better.
     
    But sometimes things aren't that easy. Sometimes the godmodder just doesn't get it, or if he/she does, just doesn't care. Maybe he or she likes being all powerful and invincible, and the rules can go to heck because they're in control, they get to make their character as omnipotent as they want.
     
    If you've been RPing for more than a few months, you've probably run into this situation. Maybe you're Player A, and your character is the one that gets "killed" by the other player. Maybe you're an observer, but you see how Player B is clearly godmodding and breaking the rules. Maybe you're a Staff Member, and it's your job to tell Player B to quit it.
     
    It's never pretty, and it's never fun. If Player B is okay with godmodding, he's probably okay with breaking every other rule in the RPG or even disrespecting the staff. On the internet where it's hard to actually enforce a rule on someone who intentionally chooses not to follow it, dealing with this can be frustrating.
     
    But deal with it we must, because otherwise, without consequences, Player B can godmodd all he wants and the RPG would fall apart.
     

    ---Part 3---
    So how should we deal with it? Punish the godmodder? Sometimes this helps. Sometimes they just keep playing without regard for the rules.
     
    Ban the godmodder? Sure, that would make things much nicer. But does that guy deserve this punishment? He should be given a chance to improve himself, even if that chance happens to be the twentieth we've given him.
     
    Does he even deserve another chance? If we're considering doing something like banning the godmodder, he's probably done enough to deserve it. It would certainly save ourselves the trouble of having to deal with him again (which is a very real possibility).
     
    That dilemma is a tough one, but punishing the godmodder is a privilege that only staff have. What should we regular players do if we are godmodded against, or see someone godmodding?
     
    Telling them is usually the first option, but in rare circumstances where this godmodder is repeating his "crime", what would we do?
     
    Godmodd back? Fighting fire with fire works in many situations, but not in this one. If we try godmodding against the godmodder, he'll just godmodd more, thinking it's okay to, or doing it because we made him mad. Worst case, when the staff finally get to the problem, they may just punish all of us, because we also godmodded. If we sink down to his level, then he has an excuse to break the rules.
     
    Ignore him? We could just have everyone not interact with the godmodder, but that may not work if the godmodder actively seeks out people to beat up.
     
    The biggest problem is, a godmodder will usually respond to bigger conflicts with even more godmodding. Things escalate without a way for a reasonable solution to be achieved. I don't entirely know a path we can always take against godmodding, but I do know that responding with godmodding definitely won't work. If we get mad over this, then we're no better than the guy who repeatedly godmodds.
     
    What I think is the best road to take in this circumstance, is to just let the staff handle it. They have the authority to punish him, and if the godmodder ignores even the staff then there's no help for him anyway.
     
     

    ---End Credits--- 

    A group of kids run around on the playground. One of them points at another. "Bang! Bang!"
     
    The kid ducks. "Missed me!" he points at the first. "Bang! Bang! You're dead!"
     
    "No I'm not!"
     
    "Yes you are! I hit you!"
     
    "No I hit you!"
     
    "Liar!"
     
    "Cheater!"
  13. Lazzy the Spazzy
    Just read DC Comic's Justice League of America: Salvation Run, and I think it's one of DC's best, or at the very least a must-read.

    The basic premise of this is that, seeing as how more and more supervillains are overrunning the world, the government decides to set up a sort of Prison Planet - another world deep in space and far away from Earth. Captured supervillains are deported to this Prison Planet via Boom Tube (teleportation machines), and left alone to "start a new life" apart from civilization as we know it.

    So, a bunch of murderers, psychopaths, egomaniacs, lowlifes, together on a wild and dangerous planet. You can imagine what this band of backstabbing villains will do to each other...the thing is, the creative team doesn't leave much to your imagination. I was surprised at the sheer darkness and savage morbidity of this story (faint of heart be warned), but that's part of what distinguishes Salvation Run from the rest. It's becoming more and more cliche to make villains more sympathetic to the audience, but writers Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges play these villains straight. These are evil people, through and through, and the creative team doesn't make any attempt to euphemize their nature.

    In short, this is basically a version of Lord of the Flies...except these guys' fall from humanity has already occurred and there are no Piggys to prevent them from degenerating further. A frightening but believable tribute to the villains of the DC universe, Salvation Run is definitely something that even non-DC fans should give a read.
  14. Lazzy the Spazzy

    Shanghai

    By Lazzy the Spazzy,

    Second day of the tour of Shanghai. So far, three things resound with me the most:
     
    1) Bus drivers here are even better than the ones in America. Didn't think I'd ever say this.
     
    2) Farmers don't have to pay tax.
     
    3) Shanghai has three times the population of LA. Congestion is like...whatever it's like, it'll be an understatement. You have to come and see for yourself. I spent more time staring at the back of people's heads and getting pushed around than sightseeing.
  16. Lazzy the Spazzy
    Well then. I'm there. I'm an Eagle Scout. After four years of community service, merit badges, camp outs, leadership...I've done it.
     
    ...
     
    It hasn't really hit me yet. XP
     
    But seriously, after looking at Eagle as the goal, the thing to strive for, it's hard for me to get used to finally being there. I suppose if I recount all my achievements, it might make it easier for me to accept.
     
    I started out later than everyone else. I didn't do Cub Scouts, and it was only in the March of my sixth grade year that I joined. It was great: everyone there was willing to help out, willing to answer questions. In my Troop, no one was indifferent to other people's needs. I have my Troop to thank for my desire to stay in Scouting.
     
    And the requirements. I was competitive, and when I saw those requirements in the back of my Scout Handbook, I had to fill them up. I quickly began advancing, making Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class in the space of three months. I have to admit that some of what I learned, I forgot. I was too busy rushing through my ranks to actually learn stuff.
     
    And I was a Patrol Leader, too. I suppose most people wait till they're older to go for such a position, but I was thrown into that almost immediately after I joined. I was chosen to lead the other new scouts, most of which were a year younger than I was. Our patrol was the best in its short lifetime (we named it the Dragons), and it wasn't just because of me. Everyone had my same competitive nature, everyone wanted to advance. We all had ambitions. Many of these people later dropped out, or stopped coming; school caught up to them.
     
    I stayed as a Patrol Leader for another term, and after a year I passed the torch to my Assistant Patrol Leader, someone who did even better than I did. Meanwhile, I took another position within the Troop, Chaplain's Aide. As Chaplain's Aide I was in charge of everything religious, including saying grace before meals during camping trips. But I also was responsible for making monthly reports about upcoming religious holidays. I really enjoyed my job: as one of the few (if not the only) Buddhist(s) in the Troop, I had to learn every other religion. Looking back, I suppose it made me religiously tolerant and aware; I understand now what's going on when one of my friends doesn't eat a particular meat product or at all, and I know what they're talking about when they mention "Lent" or "Ramadan".
     
    After my term was over, our patrol, the Dragons, was "disbanded". The Dragons had experienced an extremely successful year and a half, but according to tradition the new scouts had to be split up and feeded into the three senior patrols. I found myself in the Billy Goats, with a couple of former fellow dragons.
     
    Camping was excellent, and easily my favorite part of Scouts. It was really more about hanging out with friends than anything. We didn't really focus on learning wilderness survival skills or things like that, but we unwittingly ended up wiser after every trip. We learned important life lessons too.
     
    My favorite outing of the ones we went on--I actually have two--are desert camping and rafting. You've never really lived until you've faced six-feet high walls of water in Class Four rapids. And as for my other favorite activity, I enjoy just being in the desert...nothing but dunes and rocks all around you, the blue sky above...you feel incredibly small, but energized at the same time. It's the closest I've ever felt to nature. I definitely plan to visit the desert as much as possible when I'm an adult.
     
    I have so many more experiences, but ultimately the most memorable was during a weeklong summer camp on an island off the coast of California. My dad and I were canoeing--he had come along to chaperone on this trip--and we got caught in a current. The shore of this island happened to be surrounded by a thick mass of seaweed, and we had to fight both these and the current. It took almost an hour to get back to shore, but looking back, I feel like it was great.
     
    And finally, the trip I took this February, to Japan (you can see an entry about it if you look back a few months on my blog). I met thirty other scouts and adults, all of whom were hardcore--all of us were Eagle or Life scout (Life is the second highest rank in scouting), and most were Senior Patrol Leaders. I had the new experience of going on a Scouting activity with girls (Venturers, which are co-ed), and it actually wasn't all that different...sort of like the camp I went to last summer, with a college-esque atmosphere. I had a great time...I can't help laughing every time I recall us on Mount Fuji, running around in swimsuits and pelting snowballs at the Scoutmaster. Haha...good times.
     
    July 9th. That's the day I became an Eagle Scout. The Board of Review actually wasn't as bad as I thought. I went in, shook hands, sat down, and just talked. I had thought of it with apprehension, like an interview for an internship, but in fact, I acted like I was talking to my friends. I just relaxed, and everything went smoothly. Far from the little kid I was at eleven, who got tongue-tied at the thought of talking to adults. I've grown up...and Scouting might have something to do with it.
     
    Is this it? Am I done with Scouting? Lots of people in my troop have dropped out after becoming Eagle--it's great to have it on college apps, and after getting it, there's really no real reason to stay. But what will happen to new scouts coming in? I remember when I was a Tenderfoot. The senior scouts helped me through my first steps as a Scout. They're all in college now. They never dropped out. They stayed, and even those who didn't made Eagle were more than willing to mentor younger and more experienced scouts until they graduated and legally became adults. And what about those I met on the Japan trip? One of them had 106 merit badges, another had 50, as well as several Eagle palms, ranks you can get beyond Eagle.
     
    I think I'll do the same. I'll stay in scouting, keep getting positions, tutor incoming scouts--and get a few merit badges while I'm at it. After all, I'd be doing those scouts who mentored me a disservice if I didn't. I want to be like them. Scouting's not over for me. Not by a long shot.
  17. Lazzy the Spazzy

    Staples

    By Lazzy the Spazzy,

    Don't you hate it when somebody staples a packet of paper too close to the center, and the staple isn't in the top left hand corner but too far down and to the right?
     
    It's like the staple is intruding in the rest of the paper's personal space. I mean, how are the words going to get any room to breathe if the staple is right next to them? It's just rude and obnoxious. If any staples are reading this, I suggest you go back to the little square inch in the corner of the page where you belong.
  19. Lazzy the Spazzy
    Story Fit Season 1 Finale

    As the first Season of Story Fit draws to a close, we've seen our writers perform amazing feats. Some club members amazed us through the eloquence of their prose, or their vivid imagery, or poetic talent. Some inspired awe through sheer prolificness, churning out work after work, week after week. Some were just plain crazy in terms of imagination and creativity.

    And now it's time to look at the results of our first session of exercise in the Writing Gym, and the incredible athletes who earned awards.

    Most Prolific
    We all know who this one goes to: Akai Hana no Tenshi! This guy's the fittest of us all (just look at those abs! ), with nine, count them, NINE stories under his belt! He even did two stories per week, twice!

    Most Diverse
    This award goes to the writer who kept up best with the different and varied themes: Grant-Sud! Despite the randomness of some of the themes, Grant-Sud still managed to write a story that not only was solid in its own right but also matched the theme excellently!

    Most Creative
    This award goes to the writer who put the coolest spin on things or employed an imaginative take to his or her stories. This season's Most Creative award goes to: Rising Moon! Some of his stories literally sent chills down my spine...great job RM!

    Tutor's Award
    This award goes to the SFer who gave the most helpful reviews. This one goes to Yukiko, whose reviews were consistently concise (lol alliteration).

    Most Improved
    Believe me, this award was a tough one. All of you writers who participated were all so good already! But I felt in terms of adapting to the schedule, the writer who deserved this award most was: Toa Velox! For somebody who was busy for almost two months but churned out two amazing works of writing in the span of a few weeks, you adjusted really quickly to the change of pace!

    Most Valuable Writer
    The final one. This was the easiest award to give, and the award goes to: Akai Hana no Tenshi! There were points where the Story Fit became less active, but Akai's devotion to this project kept the fire alive. I owe my deepest gratitude to Akai for saving the Story Fit from dying out!

    Now, give a final round of applause to our writers who got awards!

    The first exercise of Story Fit Season Two will come in around an hour. Stay tuned! =]
  20. Lazzy the Spazzy

    Story Fit! =]

    By Lazzy the Spazzy,

    Some of you may have heard of Exo-Fat's new RPG Fit Program. Due to its success, I'm starting a similar program for story writing rather than role-playing, named the Story Fit.
     
    Each week I will post a new prompt or task of sorts, such as a one-word theme to write a story around, or an idea to incorporate into your work. Other than that, you will have complete freedom with what to write – you can write your story in the Short Stories, Comedies, COT forum, or even in the Epics forum. Once you do, post to that week's blog post with a link to your story. There is no deadline for completing the tasks, unlike with the RPG Fit, so you can take as long as you need to write your story -- you still have to write it though. xD
     
    The basic idea here is to improve the writing skills of participants through weekly "exercises". But for members who aren't satisfied just with the prospect of becoming better writers, I will also use a point system similar to Exo-Fat's for extra incentive. You get points for completing the exercises, reviewing other members' stories, or inviting other people to join.
     
    If you want to, sign up here and I'll add you to the members list. Happy writing!
     

    Exercises 
    Season 1
    1/20/10
    1/27/10
    2/3/10
    2/10/10
    2/17/10
    2/24/10

    3/3/10 3/12/10 (Special)
    4/2/10 (Finale)
     
    Season 2
    4/3/10


    Members Akai Hana no Tenshi
    Rising Moon
    Rockhound
    protohuman
    Rassiter
    -Tilius-
    Emperor Alex Humva
    Rising Moon
    ~LG~
    ~Monday~
    Yukiko
    The Iron God
    snoopy82
    Toa Velox
    Lady Kopaka
    Grant-Sud
    Parugi
    .:Makutox The Nomad:.
    Contrary
    Spink
    AZBlue
    Ardros
    Toa Spirit
    Neelh
    Senjo
    Hahli Husky
    MechaFizz
    Saiph
    {Zaxvo}
    Lewa Krom
     

  22. Lazzy the Spazzy

    Strange

    By Lazzy the Spazzy,

    For some reason I'm finding topic-based RPGs to be harder to catch up on than forum-based RPGs.
     
    Could just be because of my spending three years mostly in a forum-based RPG only.
  23. Lazzy the Spazzy

    Temptation

    By Lazzy the Spazzy,

    I vowed not to eat any sugary products or candy for the month of March. Despite the first couple of days being pretty difficult, I'm experiencing a surprising lack of temptation. I have six Hershey's Cookies 'n' Cream chocolate bars next to me, as well as a Crispy Rice chocolate bar. It's been on my desk for two days, but I haven't touched it at all.
     
    Suffice it to say that I am proud of myself.
  24. Lazzy the Spazzy
    I have a college consultant. We meet every month or so to discuss college applications or what I have to do to get into college…community service, awards, etc. In fact, I just came home from a seminar my consultant held, which was attended by myself as well as five others that my consultant is helping. The main thing we did was conduct a self-survey, designed to determine our strengths and weaknesses. Some categories included social consciousness, affection for knowledge, school enthusiasm, independence, self-understanding, career orientation, and more. I scored surprisingly low…I had only two strong points out of ten.
     
    My lowest score was self-understanding, meaning knowing what I want to do in my life, and what I want or don't want in general. Improving that score would be hard, it's not like I have to do something or follow a set formula to understand more about myself, I can only do that through interacting with people and doing what I'm already doing, and hope eventually I'll know who I am as a person.
     
    The category that particularly worried me, though, was career orientation. It was clear before I took the survey that I had no idea what I want to do after college. Definitely not something medical-related, I don't think I can take the stress. I don't want to be a computer engineer either, it seems to complicated for me. No menial tasks like garbage collector or gardener…But I don't know what I want to do.
     
    So I've decided to research the different careers I could go into. I'll study one career each week, and then write what I like and don't like about it on a weekly blog entry. I plan to use the following format:
     
    Income: Obviously important, since I want to make a decent living out of my job. Consistency of income is also important, for example that of a writer's could range from no income to the income of J.K.Rowling.
     
    Fun/Stress level: I don't want the sort of life portrayed in Office Space…a fun job is better than a boring job in my opinion.Some things I'd look for in this category is...what sorts of places to I get to go to in this career? Etc.
     
    Workload: Generally how much do I have to work to fulfill my job? Is the workload consistent, or erratic, like that of a computer engineer, where you often have last-minute projects and have to work late into the night? How much free time would I generally have?
     
    Prerequisites: Any special knowledge or skills I need to have, and how hard it would be achieving those prerequisites (like seven years of medical school for a doctor).
     
    This sort of ranking system is incomplete, so I would prefer input from as many people possible. After ranking the career in these separate categories, I would give it an overall score and decide whether the job suits me.
  25. Lazzy the Spazzy
    This just in:
     
    ++Dr. Bionicle Sighted in RPG Forums++
     
    A Dr. Bionicle was seen around noon PST today wandering the RPG forums. The scientific community is in an uproar at this latest development.
     
    The Dr. Bionicle, for those of you unfamiliar with RPG history, was a creature that flourished in the year 2006, even winning the first ever RPG Contest and hosting the highly successful Academy RPG for nine months (after which it was merged into the official BZPRPG). In the following years, however, the Dr. Bionicle's activity declined, eventually disappearing altogether around late 2008 to early 2009. Until today, the Dr. Bionicle was thought to be extinct.
     
    "This is a miraculous development," a scientist excitedly said as he rushed to the lab to conduct tests. He and his colleagues of the RPG Science League are currently working to capture this Dr. Bionicle in order to raise it in captivity. Once its activity grows enough to get off of the endangered list, the scientists plan to release the Dr. Bionicle back into the wild.
     
    Any assistance on the capture of this legendary creature would be appreciated. Below is a picture taken with the iPhone of a passersby.
     

     
    If any creature you see resembles this appearance, stay away -- the Dr. Bionicle is suspected to be armed and extremely deranged. Instead, contact the authorities and they will bring it in.
     
    Regular members are encouraged to help with the rejuvenation of this creature. Some techniques suggested include restoring the landscape of the RPG forum to pristine condition and attempting to convince the Dr. Bionicle to stay with us this time.
×
×
  • Create New...