Katzaniel

Venefyxatu, I think you're going to have trouble finding people who have .NET and don't program. Of course, I could be wrong. At any rate, if your teacher can pretend not to know computers, so can I. I've written down everything I noticed, it's your perogative whether you have time or even care to change everything mentioned. All in all, very good. I found nothing major. * Pretty fancy. No program of mine has ever had an installer, never mind one that lets you choose where to install, whether for yourself or everyone, or had a progress bar. The bar didn't really portray the actual time to install, but then again neither does any windows program. I'm assuming you found that in a ready-made library? It's neat. * Can you hide the display on the left-hand-side on the overviews? Clicking on them makes an ugly red box appear. Clicking in the area of the box (or anywhere in the record's space except the actual text, odd) brings up a single record, which wasn't very useful and difficult (impossible?) to close. * For future reference, it is possible to have values that are the same for all records in a subset appear only once. ie, In the wallet overview, you should be able to show something like this instead: Wallet Number Quantity Maximum Quantity 1 48 48 Game Position Age of Empires 2 6 Shogun: Total War 5 Hitman: Codename 47 4 Motocross Mania 2 Serious Sam 1 * If I make a typo in the game title, it's impossible to fix. ----- ah, apparently you knew this already. * The add game tab should probably be invisible until needed. * The program should probably complain if I try to add a game to a position already used in the wallet. * I'll assume that editting wallets was beyond the scope of the assignment, because I couldn't find a way to do it. * Same for developers/publishers, though it makes me wonder what happens when you buy a new game - perhaps you should add a "default" or "unknown" option? * When you delete all the games, perhaps you should clear the text? It's good that no unexpected errors happened when I did this (of course there were "Wise man" errors when I tried to navigate), but if weren't very smart I might get confused about the fact that a game still appears to be there. Also, trying to delete again produces two "Wise man" errors, which is all right, but the second one isn't very helpful.. you might want to see if "There is no row at position -1" shows up anywhere on its own and write a more logical explanation. (Or is this just your program repeating whatever error the database happens to throw?) * Why do have an empty "tools" menu? Might want to remove that. ---- Okay, I see now that this (and next point) is explained by the fact that the Tools menu changes when you change tabs. This is not obvious (at least, I've never seen a program do this before), and I had (I thought) fully explored the program before I finally realized this. As a side effect, the search and sort are not very easy to find. I'm really not sure what you can do about this in a day or less, though... the best option, if you have the time, is probably to have all options visible but not enabled until they're usable. Then the user will know exactly what is available the first time they look at the menu. (I'm sorry, I imagine you were probably quite proud for the tricky programming that enabled the neat menu behaviour. I would have been, had I written it.) * Your help file has a picture (Games -> Adding) that I don't see anywhere in the program (namely, dropdown with "sort by title" et al). Did you change how something is shown after the helpfile was made, or is my version missing something it's supposed to have? * Your sorting and searching explanations in the help file both say "publisher" for all three types (ie, game, developer, publisher) * The link thing is really cool. * "Games.exe" does not use the icon, so it's not obvious that it performs the same function as the item in the start menu. Anyway, cool. And no crashes, yay! Edit: For whitespace.

Well, it seems to me, then, that unless anyone has a compelling reason for switching, even though it's something like 11:5 for it, we shouldn't change. I mean, most of those votes were very likely based only on, "That one's a little neater," like mine was. O' course, I don't make the decision, I only posted the poll. I did like those pens though. 'Twould be so much cooler if we all had pens under our names in all the skins, methinks...

This looks cool. Note 1: Typo in your address made me almost not find the site... it's here. Note 2: Click "Introduction" at the bottom if you want to read about it without signing up. I only say this because it's not a very obvious link. Question: When signing up, it asks what player referred us. May as well say you... what's your username there?

Yeah, I've only ever seen the one Strawberry Kit-Kat. On the other hand, I see Toffifee all over the place here, which I find fascinating. I mean, that some brands would be so hard to find in some parts of the world, and plentiful elsewhere. Do tastes run so different? Surely it can't be entirely economics. On the other hand, here's one that's stood the test of time (ie, I've seen it two years in a row 'round Christmastime) - Winter Oreos. These are regular oreos covered in one layer of white chocolate. Much better than regular oreos, in my opinion, which are merely decent. These... have white chocolate! (Mmm, despite my New-Year's resolution for less chocolate, I'm going to have to go have one now...)

Not Ready I stood by the big computer monitor in the boardroom, waiting for the music to begin. The project I was working on was a media center - complete with images and music and video - that could move from one computer to another, whichever was closest to a beacon that it was told to follow. Little programs that moved via messages sent over the internet were used to accomplish the task. The whole system was actually working pretty well now, if a little slowly, and I was proud of what I'd done. This morning I'd made a change with the music part that should allow it to more consistently move without a problem. It had been really hard finding the mechanism to get it to move from one computer to the next without restarting the song, and when it had first worked, it had done so for one song only and sometimes even then did not work. Now I thought I had the problem solved, and was hoping it would work for any song, any time. The music wafted out of the speaker and I picked up the beacon and moved over to the next computer. Nothing happened immediately, and I thought it might just be the slowness. When there was still no change after a few moments, I held up the beacon in the air, shaking it a little. What was going on? I tried walking to the third computer and back again. Still the music played from the big computer, the first one. Something must be wrong with the location detection. What had I changed that would affect that? Pondering this, absently playing with the beacon, I suddenly became aware of the song that was playing. I'd been testing the system with the same five songs since I started on the project, but I'd never actually listened to the words of this one. It was the Trews: "I'm Not Ready To Go." Seeing the irony, I laughed and shook my fist at the computer. "I guess you're not!" I half shouted. The music blithely played on, answering my question better than I'd ever have thought. "Are you unhaaaa-ppy?" it crooned, "Or are you low? I should be leeeea-ving, but I'm...not...ready to go!!"

Elevator Blues Dear Diary: Sunday May 13th My first day of work is tomorrow! I'm so excited. I start at 8:15, so I'll have to be up pretty early, especially since I have to make sure I have a place to park and everything, and want to be absolutely certain (of course) that I'm not late. This is my first serious office-type job, as you already know, dear diary... wish me luck! Dear Diary: Monday May 14th This job is so cool. I didn't get to do anything today, what with setting up my computer and email accounts and installing all the programs I'll need. This afternoon I spent much of my time reading up on HTML. But everyone here is very friendly and I can't believe I get paid over double minimum wage to be here! Dear Diary: Saturday May 26th Work is going wonderfully. Everything is all set up now and I have actually starting doing some real work. My boss is fantastic, she really understands what it's like for someone new to the work world. This week I started taking the stairs up to work. I'm on the fourteenth floor so it's tough and I get to my cubicle tired, but it's somehow satisfying, and definitely good for me. It's kind of funny, though, because the stairs on the bottom floor are locked so I have to ride the elevator to the second floor before I can get to the stairs. Dear Diary: Thursday June 7th Work is still going great. Still not believing I get paid just for this. Time passing so fast... still doing the stair thing, it's getting to be less difficult to do. I mean, it's as tiring as ever but now I don't get out of breath until about the 10th floor, whereas at first it was five or six. Dear Diary: Wednesday July 18th Funniest thing happened to me today. You know how I said I have to take the elevator to the second floor before I can take the stairs to fourteen? Well, this morning I was doing that, and there was this other lady on the elevator. I remember noticing she was going to eight. Anyway, she was looking at me kinda funny as we rode up, and right as I stepped off and the door was closing, she shouted at me, "What's wrong with the stairs, lazy?" I guess she must take the elevator every morning and have gotten so worked up about people who worked on two and took the elevator, slowing it down and whatnot, that she finally had to shout at someone about it. Most amusing thing is that if she had ever tried walking herself, she would know that the door was locked.

I don't remember that.. but wasn't there also, for a time, some plans to allow some sort of skin-designing contest? Hmm... anyway, I posted a question to Yui in the original thread that was discussing this.

Did there? Pauses. Well, doesn't seem like a silly question to me. I can't answer it, though Yui might. I'll ask how difficult that would be.

Tamaranis: You don't like romantic comments or even letters, but then again either do I, and that's why we fit so well. You brought me to the archmage conservatory and from there to the Pen, and that has shifted my world indescribably. I've spent my life looking for something to challenge me, and you do that. It took me so long to sort out what I felt and gain the courage to say it, but you stayed by me for that. Thank you, Katz Tanuchan: Speaking with you on MSN means more to me than you can know. When we're planning something or discussing something, I feel like we know exactly what the other is feeling. Even during misunderstandings I feel like that! I know I usually laugh so hard when we're trying to sort out what the other meant. Everything I'm saying, it's not coming across right, but you probably know what I mean anyway. So far across the world, Tanuchan, and I only "met" you so recently, yet I think of you as one of my best friends. Thank you, Katz Yui-chan: I wish I knew you better. You write like I wish I could, and make it seem so easy. Words fail me now, as they often do after I finish reading one of your works. Vivid images, perfect wording, encompassing mood - and a great sense of humour. Pirate Yui indeed. And how can I express my appreciation for all the time and effort you've spent, helping me do one thing or another? Your dedication is astounding. Katzaniel Peredhil: You never cease to amaze me, Peredhil. You know everyone here - I almost suspect you must know everyone in the world, somehow - and you love them all. You manage to have enough time for all of them. You pop in unexpectedly all the time and just fix everything, because you know what everyone needs and you know how to give it to them in the way they need it. Katzaniel Wyvern: Your sense of humour, of course, but also your zest for life, your keen sense of perception as evidenced by your poems. Before watching you on that camera for your radio show, I never thought anyone could move around so much. It's a great thing to see, really, that excitement, and hear your love for and knowledge of all things music. Peace out, Katz Ayshela: Your hard work, even in the face of hard times, puts me to shame. I admire your tireless efforts for the good of the Pen and the guilds. You are another great could-be friend, if only I could meet you in real life. You have a common sense and down-to-earthness that is only outstripped by your energy when it comes to welcoming and, dare I say it, tacklehugging. Thanks, Katz Ozymandias: I always enjoy what you write, and you always do your best for these boards. Your humour and your efforts are greatly appreciated. I hope that through writing this story we're planning, I get to know you even better. Katz Oh, so many more that I simply can't leave out, and so many more beyond that that I want to write to and will probably not have time. In case I don't get back to this at all, understand that I appreciate you: Salinye Finnius Black Celes Gwaihir BPO Valdar Zadown Deggy at the absolute, rock-bottom least. I wish that I had the time and determination to, like Peredhil, write to all of those that have affected me.

Quote from last time: The items are: Seranil, the Lyre of Deception - PM Alaeha The Silvered Sapphire Tear - PM Katzaniel Devil's Advocate - PM Salinye You may submit up to THREE descriptions but only ONE per item. When the deadline is reached, the submissions will be posted by the guildleaders in three separate polls. Without revealing the authors of the descriptions, a vote will be held to determine the "favourite" item on whatever criteria the individual voters wish to use. You may vote for your own. You do not need to have submitted a description to vote. Ideally, all votes will be in within 3 days. To quote Salinye again (she puts it so well): "Once a submission is chosen, from that time forward, that *IS* the description and history of that rare item." Three auctions will be held for the three items. The details of that will be posted in those threads, so I won't get into it here, but the winning bid will be taken from the bidder and given to the description writer, and you are allowed to bid for an item you described, but only with as much geld as you actually have. Let the fun begin!

There's a poll in the Mistrel Hall about the two image schemes we can use for images for the Black skin. If you're using that, please vote. If you're not high enough up to see the Minstrel Hall, PM me and I'll reply with the pictures so you can have a say too. Poll

"We found the gold," said Llassar excitedly. "We're going to use it to buy more mercenaries, right Papa? And get someone named Gyrfalcon who did this." The boy turned around to find his father gone. He turned around once more, getting worried. "Oh no," he muttered. "He was just here." Robby glanced around, saying, "I'm sure he's fine." He went over in his mind the things that might have happened, but common sense told him that anything dangerous would have made a noise. He grabbed the boy's tunic, stopping him from running off. "If something did happen, which I highly doubt, going off one by one to explore is not the smart course of action. Help me get Wren to her feet." Llassar, looking rather concerned, knelt so that Wren could put her arm around his neck. Doing so, she began questioning again. "Gyrfalcon did this? Where are we going to find more mercenaries? Are you sure that's a good idea, anyway?" "Yes," said Robby, checking Wren for serious injuries. "If we can find help from anyone in this town, it's the best way to use the money." Wren coughed and had just started to ask about water again when Teq reentered the room with a flask. He held it to lips and she gulped it down. Llassar began a tirade about how worried he'd been and how Robby hadn't let him go look. "I suppose I should have said something before I left," the man said gently to his son. "But Robby was right, you can't just go running off if you suspect that there is danger. Whoa, go slowly... Wren?" Forcing herself to stop drinking for a moment, the woman nodded. "Yes, my name is Wren. I know Robby already, but who are you two?" "Teq," he gestured to himself and then his son, "And Llassar. My wife was killed in this attack, so we have joined your group." A tear appeared in his eye and he wiped it away, saying a little too harshly, "Can you walk?" It turned out she could, and they made their way back outside. The four of them decided that they would split up into two groups and meet back at the house by nightfall, with whomever was coming along. They fashioned two crude wagons out of the debris and set off separate ways, Teq pulling the cart beside Wren down one street while Llassar tagged along with Robby and their cart down another.

Fine with me as well. I was wondering if others were RPing answers, and if they would get posted. It'll be neat to read.

Also, Peredhil is now lending geld - for a price. Yay, Big P!

Presumably ... and Katzaniel is much relieved. What's the due date?

Inbi Infusco sidled up to the tent. She stared at the sign for a moment, then rushed off. Later that day she returned, pushing a covered cart. The young woman waited for a nod from Ozymandias before pulling the curtain aside and entering the Sphinx's lair, food cart in tow. Wearing a determined expression, she smiled at the curious bystanders and let the curtain fall back in place.

I reread all of these again, and boy are they close. I'd like to give three of you a prize but I'll stick to one. (I marked it with actual point scores and the winner is half a point above two others). As I said before, the criteria was: (max score has been added) how well the story appears to reflect the character telling it (5) how well you make the character come across through his or her words, gestures, et cetera (ie, use similes that would come naturally to them, etc.) (5) the creation of a whole new story-telling voice through this character (4) to some extent how interesting the story is (3) I hadn't really thought about it this way before, but it seems to be easier to make a strong character come across this way. If someone has an accent or very unique mannerisms, it's easier than if your character is relatively average. I guess that's why most writers give their characters one major personality point and go from there. Anyway, I tried to take that into account somewhat when reading these over. Taking all of this into account, I feel that the winner is Wyvern. Entirely aside from the laugh-factor, his goblin boy's personality came across very well, the story was exactly the sort of thing that character would find interesting, the language was so unique to the character that I'm still not sure what a few words meant, and the "voice" was different from Wyvern's own. Congratulations! I'd still like to say a few things to the rest of you: Alaeha: I liked how your character spoke and I liked how you used the audience's reaction and his reaction to them. I must admit I'm a little confused about the story itself, though - I had trouble following the double-quoting. Venefyxatu: Great job on making the story come through despite its teller's stupidity. Ug made it interesting, and the story came out well through Ug. I liked the touch at the start where he stands there trying to figure out what he's doing. Peredhil: You took a tougher character than most, and pulled it off splendidly. The shyness, yet determination to weather it. The babbling despite, or perhaps because, of the nervousness. And the story itself was amusing, too. One tip, though - whitespace, please! Xaious: Creative character, highly amusing song! That was enjoyable. Regel: You took a bit of a challenge as well. Yes, cats are strong characters but not as much so as orcs, for example. The monologue was fun to read. Thank you all for providing these stories, it certainly teaches a lot about voicing a character, even just to read them.

I said I would judge tonight but I can't. Entries for the official "judged" part are over, I'll post tomorrow morning. G'night.

Somewhere in the Assembly Room, a sleepy Canid opened an eye. A noise, like someone hammering on wood with metal. Stretching, she wandered over to a window. In the distance she could make out a large fence located just outside the Cabaret Room. Curious, she made her way out the door and toward the structure... Earlier, and somewhat closer to the scene, Peredhil sat up straight. A scraping sound. Unusual. Looking outside, he saw a large, shining expanse. Too far away to determine more, he stepped outside... A little later and in the air above, Gryphon flew over the area. He had to check his flight midair, then regaining his control he swooped down. A makeshift fence, surrounding ... ice? A large expanse of field had been converted to a rink. Coming in closer, Gryphon saw Canid, Peredhil and Katzaniel already there. Landing, sliding, he made it over to the group. "...tights," Katzaniel finished, turning to Gryphon. "What is this all about?" he asked, gesturing needlessly. "A skating rink," mused Peredhil. "Katzaniel insists that we must either wear tights or submit an Ode to Tights in order to use it." Gryphon looked surprised, then pondered. His eyes glimmered. "I'll go gather some friends," he said. Canid shook her head and began walking away, half shrugging as she did so. Peredhil smiled. "I wonder," he said aloud, then left too. Katzaniel only grinned, sitting on the ice, waiting for the word to spread... OOC: 5 geld for participating.

Just because I'm not sure if you realize this or not... Black, the Quill-Quest is what you do to get from Quill-Bearer to the next step (Herald/Troubadour/Poet) not from Page to Quill-Bearer. Also, you have to have it approved by Gwaihir. So although this looks like a great idea and may well be sufficient when the time comes, you do realize that it can't be a Quill-Quest for you yet, right? Sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news...

Loaded for me after a long wait, but I'd already found this: http://saveurs.sympatico.ca/ency_9/finlande/paques.htm Enjoy da birfday! PS, Rhaps, Did you think Finnius was from Finland? I can see how you might from Z's phrasing, but he's not.

Ah, Ven, I missed until now that you had made that edit. Looks great! Just for clarification, you didn't have to use someone else's character, I just meant not your own main character. I was thinking in terms of making up a new one or using a less common character of your own, but kudos to you if you can correctly use someone else's. That's awesome. I'm not sure exactly when the bachelorette auction is ending but I want to get this wrapped up before that, so I'm going to give until Thursday evening (ie, 48 hours plus 6 or so) for any more submissions and then judge 'em. Anyone who wants to post a story after that may do so for the 5 geld only. Thanks all, these are fun to read.

"Wimps?" said Katzaniel to herself, raising a brow. "And they say that means me?" A quirky grin appears. "Well, they're not going to get many applicants, if that sign is to be taken literally." Stepping up to the table, Katzaniel imitates a bow. "Madam. Sir. I don't need to know what the quest is, just sign me up." Scarlot narrowed her eyes but did not say anything, only handed over the paper. OOC: Are we encouraged to avoid writing a mission for world we created?

I hope you guys don't think I'm abusing mod powers or anything, but I'm starting to go through these descriptions and put the ~ thingys around titles and use common terms (like Physical Description instead of Appearance) so that the search function will actually work. Also, some of you have posted wonderful descriptions but all in one post, which makes it hard to search. I can't separate one post into many, so I'm asking that if yours is formatted that way, can you fix it? The hope is that someone looking for a specific item in a long description could use the piazza search page for, for example, "DeanTheAdequate" and "History" instead of having to find the page and then scan it for the information they remember being there. Thanks! <Edit: the specific Search function/box for this subforum has been broken for a while, and disabled until it can be fixed. You can still find the characters by browsing the the pages (they're in alphabetical order) or using the main Forum Advanced Search function, using the filter for this subforum.Thanks! /~Tanny>

Okay, I've rethought this whole thing again. Of course the original intent was to write very brief descriptions that would give people a good idea what a character was like, without spending the time to read the longer descriptions. There are, after all, oh so many of us. That, and the fact that the area I most need to improve is brevity. I intended for this quest to help me grow, and so I've tried again, and, lo and behold, actually left some things out! I'm not sure yet what I'm doing about posting them, since in the end it will be 3 parts - the interview, the quasi-brief and the brief. Ideally they can go in each person's own thread and then I can post a sticky that gets updated when I add one, the search results from Brief Character Description.