[Quint's Scrapbook] New Start on a New World

[Quint Caravel]

Oh-- huh--- there may be a typo in the template itself.

[Quint Caravel]

Yeah, this is the template code:

Code: Select all

[quote="Quint Caravel"][style=width:650px; padding:0px; border:3px solid #000000; background-color: #FFFFFF;
margin:auto; color: #bf9000][url=http://www.mizahar.com/forums/gallery/viewpic.php?pic_id=29032][img]http://www.mizahar.com/forums/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=29032[/img][/url]
[indent]Like all women, the spider with the Australian accent realized that she wanted Quint.  She needed Quint.  Someone had bought her coconuts and she hated them and needed someone who liked them to eat them.[/indent][color=#000000]
[url=http://www.mizahar.com/forums/gallery/viewpic.php?pic_id=29036][img]http://www.mizahar.com/forums/gallery/pic.php?mode=large&pic_id=29036[/img][/url][/color][/style][/quote]

I didn't even realize that was in there. Thanks Twister! Jag gillar dig! du är en söt cupcake

[Quint Caravel]

Disclaimer: this post deals with matters of a mature nature, life and death stuff. Do not read on if you are uncomfortable with such matters.

So it's been a rough week. I will not lie. My brother remains unemployed so I am paying his bills. The Revenuers are still disputing a return I made and this is causing havoc with my credit and other sources. Bizarre things are going on at work, including a restructuring of various departments. My eating and sleeping cycles appear to be off, and I've been having what I can only call moody moments. But anyway, most of that last is probably because of my father.

He's dying. There's no way around it, and there's no way to sugarcoat it. About 2 or 3 years ago he got a degenerative muscle disease called PLS, which is kind of like what Lou Gehrig or Steven Hawking have, except instead of withering his arms and legs it's now moved on to attacking his heart. Which is apparently a muscle. This variation of PLS/ALS has a rough maximum prognosis of 4 year depending on age and health of the person involved, and on what muscles are being attacked. We had him in a nursing home then in the hospital, but now they don't want him. Now that it's the heart, (and he's already had a series of attacks) the hospital is sending him to a hospice. Well the paperwork and decisions are a bit more complicated than that, but that's the bottom line; he is going into a hospice to be made comfortable.

[Quint Caravel]

Boy, I just haven't written much of anything in-game in the last few days.

I apologize to everyone and anyone waiting on me. My Dad used to say that as a teenager I would blame him for everything. I guess I can't blame him this time.

Still, I've been in chat and am floating around doing lots of OOC stuff; reviewing a list of cities for potential locations I might develop (I mean like a tavern here or a shop there, not anything that would contradict established lore) or NPCs I might contribute, or plots I might guest-storyteller for. Stuff to pad my creative resume, you might say, as I have no actual accomplishments besides doing NaNo in 15 - 20 days to show my creativity anywhere.

So, anyway if you need Quint somewhere, just send me a PM and I'll get cracking on a reply.

[Quint Caravel]

I actually did get a rash of PMs saying "Let's do this!" and "How about that?" so that's all good. Makes me feel wanted and appreciated.

And now I'm writing again.

This is my 300th post and my 45th day here. That's over 1 post per day!

And I started tinkering with the Wiki. To be clear, I'll just be editing. Fixing broken links, red links, editing out typos and stuff. It's drudge work that no one ever wants to do, but it needs to be done. (My ultimate goal is to find the fabled lost FAQ page red link on page 1 and get it connected again.) I'm not touching the creative aspects at all, as I understand none of it.

That's not humility, that's just fact. I got roped into NaNo my first month here and so I was too busy writing to read. And so my attempts to create an Alt for Quint have been hopelessly mired in things like "No, you can't be a Keypunch Operator here in Cyphrus, we don't have typewriters" or "No, you can't be a Kelvic Alaskan Dire Otter on Hiker's Island-- and wait, where is that?" and mostly stuff like "Look, will you please stop writing Gnosis stories for one god that only talk about another god?"

My hope with doing Wiki stuff is that I'll actually now be reading and doing the research, so that while I'm looking at places where Pycon is spelled Pykon, I'm actually going to be absorbing through osmosis stuff on Rupert Pycon. This way I don't end up becoming one of those guys with 3 in-game posts to his name who decides to overall the skill system and include in a Medieval World.... Aeronautics. (I am not making this up. Such a thread exists at the very top of one of the Development forums, made by someone who quit in his first 30 days once his thread got torpedoed.)

Reading the wiki lore: It can only help me. Even Quint is a terrible character development-wise. There is for example no reason story-wise why he is a Svefra. And I didn't understand the Grading system when I designed him, hence his lack of skills. And his true character is only starting to come together now while actually meeting other people. (Most Nano threads were solos churned out for verbiage, or dream threads.)
He's my first true villain and while he has dreams, he's still a con artist and a rogue and I'm not sure I like him very much. It's hard to write a good villain.

Well. In Mizahar. My last great villain (in another land) started off as a hero who slowly went astray but saw himself as the protagonist of his own story, and had many followers and friends. But that was a standard medieval world. This is a crapsack post-apocalyptic nightmare world where cougars eat your nose if you step 3 inches out of a city. I don't see Quint living to 515 AV as he's currently configured.

[Quint Caravel]

Anime I read when I'm not playing Mizahar:

Order of the Stick
A party of adventurers have adventures.

The Nonadventures of Wonderella
A Wonder Woman-expy does not have adventures.

Gunnerkrigg Court
I have no idea what's going on, but it's mostly the adventures of a young girl named Antimony and her friends. It's quite captivating. The author has much to say about man's connections with nature and his attempts to divorce himself from nature.

Out There
This is purely mainstream. It's like "Cheers," mostly set in a bar. The characters are extremely three-dimensional.

Quantum Vibe
Nominally science fiction, the adventures of a girl who dives into the sun, her mentor and a female android, but it's really far more than that as the author has much to say about politics and society.

I suppose I like these 5 graphic series the most because they all work on at least two levels.

[Quint Caravel]

In other news, I have read over some recent grades on various posts, and I have seen the phrase "Show, don't tell" come up a few times. I am not sure what this means. Of course one hears the phrase quite often, and I assume in general it means one should use more verbiage but I think there must be a finer point that's eluding me. (I assume this is something I once knew and have forgotten due to rustiness, as college was over a decade ago for me-- and I went to it late, having done a few stints in the Navy first.)

Any help would be appreciated.

[Amolina]

I was wondering the same when I started. This is how I think of it now: Actions Tell = Say WHAT somebody does Show =Describe HOW somebody does something. You can do this by dividing an action up in smaller steps, then describe step by step how it looks when the PC does something. Feelings, reactions Tell = Say WHAT somebody's feeling /reaction is Show = Describe HOW the feeling/reaction shows. You can do this by describing visible, audible and physical signs of it I'll try to give examples. Example 1, frying fish Tell: Quint fried the fish. Show: Quint made a small cooking fire. Then he cleaned the fish and put it on the table. He made a mix of the salt and pepper and the fresh herbs and filled the fish with it and it was now ready to fry. He took the pan, put it over the fire and and let a lump of yellow butter melt in it. When the butter was ready, he put the fish in the pan. The butter zizzled and soon a tempting aroma was spreading in the air. Example 2, being scared Tell : Quint woke from a nightmare and felt scared. Show: Quint woke with a jolt. His heart was beting fast, his mouth felt dry and his breath was quick and shallow. He looked around, his eyes slighlty widened, and his whole body went tense and ready to run or fight.

[Quint Caravel]

Thank you for that, Amolina!

[Shuniah]

Nice