My dad came back from South Africa today and he bought me a lovely silk shawl that makes me feel like I’m a fancy lady, but more importantly? He brought a stone sculpture of none other than an AMAZING HIPPO. As well as some other creepy sculptures of African heads. I’m kind of scared of them, tbh. They look like props you see in adventure films that contain voodoo spirits within them and stuff.

If you’re clicking this, it’s probably because of one of three things:

1. You notice that I’m Dragon-ranked.

2. You notice the title of this blog post from my RSS sig.

3. You read the description in my RSS sig and are as in love with hippos as I am.

Frankly, I just don’t have the time for RSBANDB anymore in the capacities of moderating. The community is great, but my interest in the game itself has dwindled considerably now that I’m busy with other things. No, it’s not a “chore” to come to the forums. I just rather be your peer than your moderator. It’s a better fit with my schedule. So, I’m leaving the moderator rank but staying as a member.

It was an awesome two and a half years.

It would be awesome if I could write a post that was so bad ass that you could play Requiem for a Dream to it.

That is all.

Yes, this blog can exist without me posting any needlessly-controversial or heavily thought out material. In fact, I’ll prove that by just posting a list of random garbage that makes me happy. Why? Well, I don’t know, it’ll be fun though (for me, at least).

• Comics: A few of you probably know this already, but I’ll spell it out for those who don’t. I love my comics. I don’t really read into the superhero guy-in-spandex genre, but I am pretty well-rounded otherwise. I’ve never liked those types of comics that are purposely marketed to women either. I hate that, in fact. I don’t want forbidden love, loss, and drama. I want a plot with a purpose, a character with flaws, and a good dosage of violence in between. I don’t see comics as a form of escapism. If I did, I’d want the exact opposite of what I just said. I’d want boring Mary Sue characters who are the pinnacle of everything great in the world. In reality, I just want a story that is believable in its characterization (of course, suspension of disbelief is needed to read pretty much any comic). Here are some of my favourite comics: Serenity: Better Days, The Surrogates, The Umbrella Academy, Lords of Avalon, Preacher, Fables, and Rex Mundi. All of them are highly-recommended on my part.
• Trying a recipe out for the first time: No, I’m not the domestic type, but it’s always so exciting to cook something for the first time, even if it doesn’t always turn out right. Such an example would be the first time I tried to make bread. My goodness, I don’t know how many of you have tasted unrisen bread, but it is disgusting. There was..erm..what could best be described as confusion over what constituted “warm water” for the yeast to activate in. But then again, you learn from your mistakes. Baking bread can go wrong for so many reasons though. This is why I like cooking stuff in a crock pot.
• Anything mint-scented: Mint’s often considered a somewhat masculine smell, but I like it anyway. It has such a naturally soothing quality about it that I wonder why people pick lavender scents. I guess it could be considered odd if people walked around smelling overly of mint though.
• Tea: Speaking of mint, I love my mint tea. In fact, I like just about any type of tea that isn’t fruit flavoured. If I wanted to taste mango and blackberries in my tea, I’d go out and buy the actual fruit instead of having it ground up in my drink. The thought of it is almost as offensive as dinner in a pill. I don’t take sugar or milk with my tea either. Hardkore. I hate coffee, but love the smell of it. I mostly stay away from coffee because it literally makes me feel..unlike myself. I don’t feel awake from the caffeine, I just feel jittery. And hyper.
• Small book stores: In Germany, there’s Buch Habel and in America there is Barnes & Noble (I don’t know wtf you all do in England or the rest of zie world), but if you ever go into one of those conglomerate chains and ask a “sales associate” to fetch you a book that’s “a little bit of fantasy, but with a non-Lord of the Rings type plot, along with themes of love, hardship, friendship, and redemption”, you’ll get a blank stare. If you go into a small bookshop, you’ll most likely be met with, “I think I know a book that fits that description”. At least I did (and, yes, that was my exact description of a book I wanted. Take a look at King’s Man and Thief by Christie Golden if you don’t believe me). Shops like these are dying out and it’s a real shame.
• The smallest bits of kindness from strangers: Sure, I’d like to be saved by some daring person if I should ever fall in front of a bus, but holding the door open for me will do just fine. People who move through their world conscious of those around them and willing to offer their respect without forethought, but as a natural reflex to seeing another human being are worth mentioning here.  Actions like that, even in their tiniest forms, are proof that humans are versatile creatures. We don’t need to be best friends or lovers in order to show decency toward others. Of course, I’m not implying that we’re saintly for these minor actions. Just present.
• Quotes that are unintentionally motivational by their honesty: Sure, advice like “reach for the stars!” is wonderful and all, but there are so many words out there that go unnoticed when written down or spoken by a truly wise person. It’s because we want to be told that everything is okay and if we just “be ourselves” and “try, try again” we will succeed. In honesty, I don’t think there is a formula for succeeding. Sure, hard work helps, but not all people who work hard are successful. A quote I think that sums this up best is from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog where the protagonist (Dr. Horrible) assumes that his friend/crush is going to dispense an age-old saying about fate:

Penny: But, you know, everything happens–

Dr. Horrible: Don’t say ‘for a reason’.

Penny: No, I’m just saying that.. everything happens.

Well, that’s all I feel like typing for now.

Lots of cool and interesting things have happened in the past week or so. I got an iPod Classic (at the last minute, I decided against the Touch). I’m totally loving it. I love being able to finally watch videos. I’ve got a nice 80 gb black one that I can watch episodes of The Office on. I’m so completely happy. I’m also getting my Wacom Bamboo in February. Really excited about that as well.

So while I was gone, I had my birthday. Yes, I’m now 21. I’m officially old-as-hell on RSBANDB. Oh, I just realised that there’s still some cake in the refrigerator. Mmm, much better. As I was saying, I feel old now. I’m going to end up being one of those women who hangs about here age after 30.

Awesome RuneWire Updates

Shane released the PM system while I was away. Everything just looks so good. I told him that I need to disappear more often since he seems to work better without me Another update-in-progress is going on with the client that Jeff’s developing. I’m currently testing it and it has the foundation almost done, but it needs a lot of work.

The client, when it’s released, will be updated in several semi-frequent updates. Right now, it’s only being developed with basic functions (posting, image uploading, options, and window transparency). I’m really excited about the client, to say the least. When it comes out, it’ll be running on AIR (so you’ll have to download it before installing the client). I see a lot of good things to come with the client and RW itself. I’m thinking that there will be user versatility with creating add-ons or skins for the client, and I really hope that this takes off because of that.

Right now though, everyone’s working hard on furthering the development of RuneWire so stay tuned. :}

Like..real-life ones. So, if you’re not into real-life issues, read my bit below about the blonde keyboard or something. Okay, so I’ve been friends with a friend of mine (let’s call her Paulina) for about three years. She’s always been a smart person who helped me out with my maths coursework in college..overall very bright. Her fatal flaw is that she’s a complete dimwit. Do you know the type? The type that is amazingly gifted in academics, but doesn’t know a damned thing about taking care of themselves?

So Paulina got married when she was 18 (she’s a few months younger than I am) and her parents were furious– rightfully so. Her father nearly disowns her over the whole matter and she moves away with this man. She moves very very far away and is dependent on her husband’s income. Her husband is away a lot on business, but is overall a good person who loves her a lot. He has a very demanding job where he’s actually risking bodily injury everyday. While he was away (he’s gone sometimes for 6+ months), she gloats about how she wants to have a baby with him and I tell her that she’s crazy. I mean, she’s crazy, is she not? Having a child one year after getting married and having the husband gone? A few weeks later…

The story gets more interesting. Paulina’s husband is away and all is well. She’s a little lonely, but has made friends in the neighbourhood. Paulina’s friends, unfortunately, are dumber than bread and they wag their tongues constantly as if they’d accidentally swallow them if they stopped. Paulina cheats on her husband. She kisses another guy who is the friend of one of these girls. A few weeks go by and Paulina realises that she’s very unhappy with her marriage, so she sleeps with said guy.

She rings up her husband and tells him that she wants a divorce without telling him what happened. He arranges to come home, and will be there within the month (has to finish up duties required of him). She phones me up telling me how “inconvenient” it is of him to come home and how he has “added to the drama” in her life. Now when you have a friend of  three years, it’s hard to tell them the truth. I did it though and I lost that friend to-day. What did I tell her that was so wrong? I told her that what she did was shameful, that the guy that she broke her marriage vows with doesn’t love her, and that her self-pity is frankly infuriating. I also told her that because I care about her, I decided to tell her what I thought. Since she did ask, after all.

So Paulina doesn’t want to be my friend after this and I’m writing this to you all for no reason other than the fact that since she’s told me that, I haven’t been able to be of much use for anything else.

So! The assist system came out today. I really like the idea of it and it completely came out of nowhere. It’s clear that Jagex sees that there is a disparity between lower-level and higher-level players and they’re finally doing something about it. Rewarding players for helping each other isn’t new to gaming, many MMO games have some sort of system or quest designed for players to rely on each other and it’s about time Runescape added something like this. The only way I can see this being misused is by people who are über-newbies who think that “assist” means they can ask normal players for FREE GP PLZ.

I hope they add info about the assist system to Tutorial Island as well, if they haven’t already. It’s something that can be great as long as people can work together.

Blond Keyboards

Yes, in Russia, a keyboard specifically made for blondes have emerged on store shelves.

Each function key has a little description on it about what to do and the ESC key simply says “No!” on it. It can be yours for only 16 EUR (about 25 USD). Is this thing pointless, or what? Read more about it here.

What the heck possesses people to submit news articles like this (I KNOW people don’t read the DailyMail, but still). A good portion of the world doesn’t believe in evolution and now we have some lone scientist saying that there will be de-evolution of the human species?

100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.

100,000 years into the future? I somehow doubt that we’ll be on the earth in 100,000 years. I also am baffled why this “scientist” believes that there will be an “attractive intelligent ruling elite” that will govern the “underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures”. I can’t remember who said this, but it’s true: the more you know, the worse you look. I wasn’t aware that smart people are pretty and dumb people look like goblins.

The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.

The London School of Economics? Wow, I hear that they have some ground-breaking evolutionary research going on there.

Men will have symmetrical facial features, deeper voices and bigger penises, according to Curry in a report commissioned for men’s satellite TV channel Bravo.

Women will all have glossy hair, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts, according to Curry.

Rofl, sorry. I cannot believe that this guy is serious. I think he’s trying to pass off his daydream fantasies as science. Also, IN A REPORT COMMISSIONED BY A TV STATION? Bells should go off in the minds of the “attractive intelligent upper-class” that this “report” is grade-A rubbish.

Medicine will weaken our immune system and we will begin to appear more child-like.

Childlike = attractive = intelligent? Mr. Curry is obviously a paedophile who needs to put the HG Wells books down and step into the real world. This is the stupidest thing I have ever read.

I don’t have much to write about, so I’ll leave you all with this:

I am so glad that Jagex are game designers, not architects.

I was playing Oblivion last night and I realised that it was the voice acting that made me really pay attention to a story and get involved in it. In Runescape, I just click past most of the dialogue without even being bothered about the story. What if Jagex actually got decent voice actors to read out the quest dialogues? Would you find it more easy to become interested in the quests? Before anyone brings up the whole thing about loading times, let me just ask that you throw that out the window for now.

Now, we know Jagex are NOT good at making sound effects. I mean, heh, they have that ultra-lame sound your character makes when getting attacked (you know, the “eerrk!” sound. Or the “oorrkk” sound if you’re a male). Now that I think of this though, Jagex release so many quests every few months that it’d be a bit of a hassle to hire someone to read off the dialogue for each new one. Anyway, just a thought.

-Gripe that is not related to the above post-

Ok, for those of you who work in retail jobs/food jobs, isn’t it annoying when customers use your first name constantly? Yeah, I have a name tag, I get it. I don’t need you saying “Hey, Kristina, I like this purse. Isn’t this a great purse, Kristina? Oh, Kristina, this one is even better..Kristina”. Wtf, I seriously had a lady do that to me today. Maybe she just liked my name..or maybe she’s a l– Oh god, I didn’t even think of that. AND SHE TOUCHED MY SHOULDER. I need a new name tag.. I don’t want some crazy lady stalking me. My new pseudonym should be ______. (pick one for me)

I knowww, it’s been a while. I’ve been really busy with uni and, frankly, I haven’t had anything that I wanted to post here yet. Did you notice that “yet” was italicised? That means that I have something that I want to post here, but not right now. I’m going to post my first Informer news article on here when the deadline draws closer to it. I’m sad because not a lot of people read the Informer. Whenever the sticky in the forum is posted, only 1-2 people respond.

We’re working on a way to fix that though. Right now, I just suggested that we post Informer and Update news on the front page. This might get new listeners/viewers to these sections. Anyhow, the article is an interview. A damn good one too. I’ve never really interviewed anyone before, so I hope people find this interesting since I did.

-Stupid Things that Happen in Kristina’s Life-

Ok, so I did a really dumb thing the other day at work. My boss told me to disassemble a large metal display case before I leave to go home and I though “Oh, that’s going to be easy”. I used to work at Ikea and, believe me, I can put things together really quickly. But, I um… didn’t exactly realise that taking apart a dusty old metal case would be so hard. So.. important fact: the display case is next to the window and there is no space on the floor to set it down whilst disassembling it.

So I figure I’d do the LOGICAL thing and start unscrewing the screws from the top and work my way down. The screws are a bit..screwy..because they hold together two panes of the metal siding. That means that when I unscrew all the screws on one side, two panes come down. Well, TWO people are supposed to be taking this thing apart but it was just me. .. Long story short: I unscrewed one side of the case and one pane slipped out of my hand and almost broke the huge window next to it. The only thing that stopped it from doing that was a box I set there earlier XD.

When do you all think I’m going to get fired?