D&D tonight rocked my socks on so many levels.

First, I rolled 3 nat 20s, all in the same combat. One didn't do much because we were fighting the big, bad, Entropic Reaper-thing temple boss, and the other two were VERY important saving throws. If I failed, I took 1 wisdom damage every round until I had 0 Wis and died... unless I made a charisma saving throw at a DC 20-something to stall the damage. The assassin who doesn't talk... yeah... I have a Cha of 8, which means I would have had a -1 on my throws, and only could have stalled on a 20. Thank Gygax, I made my saving throws.
Two of us ended the combat at 5 hit points, one died and got brought back (6 hit points), the Druid's elemental and summoned unicorn died, the druid couldn't cast spells anymore because he failed his wisdom-drain saving throw. Heck, everyone failed the throw except me and the NPC cleric (out of healing spells) who didn't get hit. Two more rounds would have meant the end of the party.

When the bad guy FINALLY kicked the bucket, we got the victory cut-scene, and the very injured PCs and two who were about to die from wisdom drain waited for the magic veil around the temple to fall. When the veil fell, the deity who lived there was able to teleport back.

And he was a bit flippant with us.

And I felt my character's rage in such a strong way. It was awesome. There have only been a few times when I really, really connected with what my character (usually Ester) was feeling at the time. Just... Noor's rage astounded me. She'd never had friends outside her assassin tribe before, and the D&D party is now her nakama and they were DYING for this guy's sake, and to save the big artifact and slowly protect their world. And this guy's attitude rubbed her the wrong way, and she felt insulted and worried about her party dying (the fact that she had 5 hit points and couldn't enter melee because the bad guy would hit her and she would die didn't help any).

It all built up in her, and I felt it very deeply. And so, for the first time in the campaign, Noor spoke. She said all of two sentences expressing her displeasure, but it was enough. She's a charisma 8 speaking character now, and she is distressed that she spoke on the impetus of negative feelings. Her quest to find the balance in herself sorta ended, just not the way she'd hoped.
Very neat development I hadn't forseen, and it'll make for a good 1st-person bluebook if I miss a game at some point.

RP like this is why I game. Bravo, D&D. Bravo, Matt (please don't kill us anymore-- Khorvash is already thrice-born).
~A

Today was the (last ever) yearly review with my dissertation committee. To my complete relief, they were very pleased with the progress on my work and had a lot of incredibly flattering things to say about me (the door to the meeting room lets you hear everything going on inside). All of the nice things they said was just the motivation I needed to get the last 3 dissertation chapters finished, and I'm recharged for the writing process. Done by New Years, done by new years.

The only thing they seemed concerned about was how I was mostly focused on industry jobs, and wasn't looking into Post-docs as much. I completely understand their reasoning-- a post-doc would be a great chance to further improve my manuscript writing and how I approach the research process. There's a big piece of me that still holds onto a future career in the USDA working on biocontrol, and the possibility of looking at a 1-2 yr thing with EBCL in southern France.

While I'm still gung-ho about industry jobs, I'm going to keep an ear to the ground about post-doc stuff in both the USDA and academia (even if I'm completely sure about NOT going into academia for reals).
~A

I beat Ocarina of Time, and got a little teary-eyed. So epic, even if I like Wind Waker more! I was a little surprised at how easy the big end-of-game battles were, although I did run out of magic at the last minute because I stink at aiming with the bow.

Andrew and I began Majora's Mask! I was looking forward to what TV Tropes assured me was Nightmare Fuel (<-- Warning: TV Tropes will ruin your life), and excited about the moon killing us all.
So far, it's kind of meh, but I haven't been to any temples yet. Dear lord, there are a LOT of side quests!
~A

Wait a gosh darn second!! They're offering "Miss Independent" by Kelly Clarkson for Rock Band DLC, but there's still nothing from my wish list?!

*goes to cry*
Thanks goodness there are Beatles albums to download for Beatles RB. Oh, wait! I can't buy it for the PS2.
Video game woes.
~A

And on a non-woe note, which day is better for Assassin's Creed and B:RB, Matt? Mon. or Tues.? Yes, I'll bring Wegemans.

My efficacy data is driving me CRAZY!!!!!

SAS JMP analyzed survivorship instead of mortality, and I didn't even know it until I was doing further data analysis today. This is an issue, because even though the surv & mort are just mirrors of each other, proportion-wise (i.e. if there's 60% surv, then there's 40% mort), analyzing one or the other in statistics yields different results on what is significantly different in profile plots.
It's an issue (I realize only Colleen and Meg have any idea about my woes).

And then there's the fact that I have some mortality in my control group, eggs treated with water. In some cases, water kills more stuff in eggs than the insecticide does. It's not bad data; it is still teaching us something about the effectiveness of insecticides which aren't marketed as ovicides, but farmers use them anyway.
It's that I need to apply Abbott's Formula for control mortality to a very long list of numbers for a lot of different experimental groups. Like, hundreds of rows of stuff. I'm overwhelmed by the numbers.

The only upside to this mess is that my major professor green-lit me to email our stats consultant at NC State, Dr. Brownie, who is a MIRACLE WORKER. She is the most amazing agricultural statistician, worth every penny and more. If I can't do this on my own, then I can email her for help, and everything will be fine.

*collapses*
I hope I make it to the gym today. It closes tomorrow for Thanksgiving break, and I don't want to miss working out 2 days in a row.
~A

(Yes, venting helped.)

EDIT: Abbott's gave me some funky divide-by-0 issues, so I broke down and sent an email to Dr. Brownie. Ah well. Maybe I'll have some answers before my yearly review next month.

It seems like a lot of folks on my friends-list are having some cruddy issues right now. Things ranging from relationships, to work, to weight, to family, to school, etc. etc.

I want to present a list of the little things which make me happy. If you have a little thing which brightens your day and want to share, please do.

1. Little dogs with poofy tails, and terriers, and hot dog dogs
2. Cats in general
3. Knitting, beading, and crafts which make me feel accomplished
4. Reading a really good book while drinking hot cocoa
5. Trying new food
6. Rolling natural 20s at D&D
7. Beating a tough part of a video game
8. Late-night trips to the library right before it closes and no one is there
9. New episodes of my favorite TV shows
10. When my favorite fictional characters are very clever, or particularly funny, or have moments when they're made of Win
11. When I'm driving my car somewhere and I'm in the mood for a certain song or band, and it suddenly comes on the radio
12. Learning new songs on my guitar
13. Finding lost things
14. Discovering a new passion
15. My stuffed Appa plushie, even if he's still traumatized from Sue and John's wedding
16. Really good soundtrack music from video games
17. Monkeys. Ring-tailed lemurs in particular
18. The many antics of squirrels
19. When strangers hold open doors for me
20. Cookies

So there's a nice list of things that brighten my day, and I hope it makes yours a little better, too.
I will be thinking of some of those while I work on 2 Power Points, an abstract, math and stats on old data, and three dissertation chapters.
~A

Beat the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, and it wasn't even remotely a pain. Really.
I hyped myself up for a horrible temple experience, far worse than any other temple EVAR, and... nothing.

No issues.

Where did the dramah go? I know Shadow!Link was a snap since I traded my way to the Biggoron's Sword (bless you, Gorons), and Matt's trick of setting up Farore's Wind in the highest water-level switch room saved oodles of time.

Heck, I will even state it plain: I LIKED the OoT Water Temple. It was a little long, but a lot of fun.


... Shadow Temple tomorrow.
~A

Last night at armetrek 's D&D game, I cast the 1st lv Assassin Spell Critical Strike, and held my breath as I rolled against the end-of-dungeon boss (AC 33? Or was that another guy....)

I rolled a NAT 20!!! There are few sweeter feelings than landing a natural 20 when it matters most. Your heart leaps.
To be fair, I had 3ish 20s last night... I also had a run of, like, 10 zillion rounds where I could NOT disable device.
But it was a sweet, sweet 20, and the +4 to confirm the spell gave me was wonderful.

My assassin, Noor, uses a scythe. Mmm, x4 critical on a huge bad guy. 92 points of damage with one hit of my 2d4 + 12 weapon.

Not counting my lv.10 Evoker Sorcerer in the other D&D game, I've never had that much damage with a single hit. But some minutes after we wrapped game at 4am, I realized it could have been even better!!!!

I hit that crit while being invisible, and Matt rightly reminded me that I couldn't have sneak attack damage because the big bad had blind-fighting (or whatever blind-thingy it was).
But I forgot....
TELLING BLOW!
I have the feat telling blow, which lets me sneak attk when I crit. Sigh. It could have been 4d6 additional damage.


But all that said, Matt is the best 1st time DM I've ever had. I've already said lots of nice things about him to Andrew, who also enjoys playing in his game, and I'll stop right there before Matt gets a big head and/or decides to do something bad.
~A

I totally didn't remember how irritating the Forest Temple is.  I got through it (or rather, Andrew got fed up watching me cautiously enter rooms and declared it was his turn) on one fairy, but still.  Annoyance.  The song bugged me after a while.
.... SOOOOO not looking forward to the eventual Water Temple.
~A

Tonight, Andrew and I popped in Matt's LoZ collector's disk and started Ocarina of Time.  The graphics are showing their age, but fun is fun!

I was completely distracted by the dancing Goron, and was willing to watch him dance forever, and then Andrew pushed "A". 
I have a great love of Gorons, stemming from how easily I trounced them in sumo wrestling in Twilight Princess (Andrew was shocked, since it would seem sumo is tough for him).  They are my brothers, and I'm always delighted when they pop up.
~A

Tonight, after cleaning up the side-quests (err... most of them), I beat Wind Waker.  It was an adorable and awesome game, and once I have free time, I'm sewing a Makar plushie with jingle bells in his little bottom so he jingles when he walks.  To those who say WW is not hardcore, I counter with this: ( Spoiler! )
Also, Dragon Roost Island might be my favorite piece of Zelda music.

If armetrek doesn't mind bringing it this weekend, I will begin Ocarin of Time Master Quest as a late-night break from writing the dissertation.
~A

We beat Uncharted 2!  To be spoiler-free: it was splendid, all was well, and I no longer hate Chloe.  She's ok in my book.
~A

Quickies....  Went to  armetrek 's place to play Beatles RB and Uncharted 2.

B:RB
I'M SO IN LOVE I HAVE NO WORDS.
(Slight annoyance... I'm used to singing the songs however I want, and have to get used to singing the actual melody.  Not that it matters; I sang everything in Expert except one song in the first act that I didn't know(!), which was in Hard.  We beat story mode in a hair over 5 hours.)

Uncharted 2
YES.  Nate Drake is his splendid, wry self, and I'm trying to pick up the controls again.  I'm having issues with changing where I've got cover, but otherwise, it's all good.  Not a fan of Chloe.  No sir.
I beat the first few chapters, and Matt and I will switch off between sections, even though he's 80% done with his own save file.  I vote that we beat this thing in the next two evenings of play.

~A

Sat. night

Game last night was splendid.  Meerlinda said nice things to Ester, and that 100% met Ester's Tribunal character goal ("have Meerlinda smile at me, stand near her, and don't act like an idiot").  Also gave a run-down of my (impressive!) accomplishments to Diamond, and he was very pleased, and completed my suck-up goals of making my Lord look like the most generous, creative guy in the clan.
There were two cases brought to Tribunal, and one just... made my head explode.
Wait for it....
A Tremere apprentice in New Mexico had physical and emotional relations with an Assamite chick.  Pontifex Dupré was sure to ask if she was hot.  She apparently was.  Merideth Sturbridge, prosecutor, made sure to tell the little guy that there were plenty of lovely ladies in House and Clan he could have hooked up with.  His advocate, Regent Jack Kurlein, did his duty and defended as best he could (we talked IC about the case much earlier in the night, and he stuck me as deciding to give it his all, even if we both knew the outcome).
I loved being able to put faces to names!  I met one of my regional Keepers of the Code, and one of the Hashem initiates, and Lana Taylor, who reminded me IC of Glinda the Good Witch.  Also, Jericho Fenix, who managed to win me over a little despite the Mark of B flaw; there's some funky umbral plot in his neck of the woods that I might help out with.
Also, again, seeing the usual suspects like Chris, Jenn, Kim, Stacy, Jason, Joe, Joel, etc. etc.  I love our clan and our players so hard.  The npc guys were great, as always.
The hot cocoa downstairs was yummy.

Sunday

I briefly woke up at 7:30am to print my Southwest boarding pass (number 22 A!) and went back to sleep until noon.  Took the train and the bus over to Navy Pier and had a deep dish at the food court Connie's, then wandered around the stained glass exhibit and the water front.  I then got on the 66 bus and walked up State to a little hole-in-the-wall high-end cupcake shop called More.  I avoided the really wacky flavors like maple bacon and BLT, and got some yummy treats for Bec and I to eat after dinner tonight.  Walked alllll the way down State to Library, and returned to the dorm.
I have so much writing to do.  At the least, I have to type up the Tribunal transcript, write a Lord report, and edit the P-Code.  I miss the Tremere event already!!!!
~A

Friday

I took the Roosevelt bus to Target (bought Bec super glue) and DSW.  The shoe store was, indeed, a veritable Shangri-La of footwear, but I didn't buy anything.  Since the weather stunk, I stayed in after I returned to the dorm and looked up maps and things for Saturday.
The buses to the game site were pretty quick, and I had time to change for Tribunal at the site.  Night 1 was a lot of fun because I got to meet 2 of the guys I email with a lot, and saw all the usual suspects.  Taxi'd back to UIC for 10 bucks :)

Saturday

I woke up at 11am, and had breakfast.  After a quick look at Google maps, I took the train in to the Loop and walked to Portillo's for an Italian beef sandwhich.  It was no-frills; thinkly sliced grilled beef slices (think similar to cheese steak beef, but way thinner) in a long, soft roll, with beefy drippings.  Tasty!!
I then walked over to the Magnificent Mile to window shop, and loved looking at all of the stores.  I popped into Filene's Basement to look for good buys, and walked out with a beautiful Max Studio silk shirt.  I also went into The American Girl Place, because I have good memories of playing with my Samantha doll.
I was also stopped twice and asked for directions by random families, and lucky for me, I could tell them where to go.

Game tonight!  Navy Pier tomorrow!
~A

Thursday

The flight on Southwest Airlines was very pleasant.  This was my first time flying with them and I was very surprised with how stress-free it was.  I had a good boarding number and got my window seat.
Flight landed at Midway a little early, and I put 10 bucks on a CTA card and rode the L (changed trains) to my sister's stop at UIC.  She lives near a hospital.  There are many sirens.
Bec went to class and left me in her dorm to nap, watch tv, and take care of any internet things until the afternoon.  Then I took the university shuttle to BSB to visit her department.  While there, she took me to student services to buy a 3-day CTA pass.  After her afternoon classes were over, we went to dinner.
We went to Pizzeria Due, which, her fellow grad students told us, was the best Uno's in town.  We had the spinach deep dish, and it was incredible.  Even better than the deep dish I had near Lincoln Park many years ago on the Rubber Chickens/ Second City trip.
After dinner, we hit the Trader Joe's accross the street for groceries, and spent the night drying off our clothes.

Why yes, it is raining and chilly!  I just missed the good weather.

I think I'll take my sister's advice and take the Roosevelt bus to DSW.  She says it's the best DSW she's ever been in, which is high praise.  There is a VERY easy bus route from here to the game site, so as long as I leave around 6, it won't be an issue.  Taxi home.

sidhedevil, where do I go for pizza puff?  Also, UIC is next to Little Italy... is there anything I need to do over there?
~A

Last week at armetrek 's D&D game, we fought horrible troll-creatures which Matt called "Mary Sues" (we killed them with flames, 'natch).  Noor also got greaves which let her use tumble for wall-running, and fan-girled a little for her deity, the Nameless One, and may or may not have composed a self-insert Mary Sue fic about herself and the Nameless One to place in the Hall of Bad Fiction... but I digress.

mssngrdeath  has laid down the gauntlet for me to participate in NaNoWriMo, and I'm mighty tempted to do so (especially since I could combine it with the fact that I've never actually written full-blown fanfic before... unless you count back stories and blue books for my RPG characters).  I have a killer idea that, like the great SMeyer's sparkly emo vampires, came to me in a dream, and I already know from the Me/Sue/Tessa story that I can write something 50k words in length (it was 58,000 words and change).

BUT I need to finish the dissertation draft next month, so I'm really unsure about prioritizing my time.
I'll think on it.  So tempted.
~A

I have a laundry list of writing activities, and luckily, they're slowly being crossed off.
My abstract is mostly edited.
My PowerPoint for the guest seminar next week is done.
Graphs are re-vamped.
CV is completely reformatted.
Cover letter(s) are in progress.

I was very flattered this week when I sent an email to my dissertation committee, asking for letters of recommendation for a very big Branch award, and 3 of them immediately offered to write (in addition to my major professor).  It was really encouraging that they think I might have a shot at this.  It's very competitive, and I don't have a looooong list of pubs to my name (I don't expect to win, but it'll be a good experience to apply).

Also:
- My photo was published
- I was quoted in a front page article about stink bugs in the Bedford Bulletin
- They're writing a big article with pictures of me for the Southeaster Farm Press

Good stuff.
I'm so tired.
Yay for D&D.
Yay for Tribunal in two weeks and the culinary adventure contained therein.
~A

I'm so excited!  We finally decided that I would submit my egg efficacy work to the Cotton Conference in January, and compete in the student competition.

Finally.  All I ever wanted after my second trip to New Orleans was a third go-round.  Now I get it!!!!!!  OMG GONNA DIE FROM TOO MANY BEIGNETS.  Also... insect museum on Canal St., maybe a lunch with some NOLA larpers, if they're around (need to shoot Justin an email), double chocolate bread pudding (the greatest dessert I've ever had, which is truly saying something), and a trip to Esoterica.

.... Um, and cotton.  I'm going to network with all of the industry folks as much as possible.  I already have 3 industry contacts who have a personal interest in my CV and cover letter (one of whom is "aggressively hiring"), but dood.  With the job market the way it is, I need to keep my possibilities open.  The idea that someone with a biocontrol background can get an industry job is still new to me, but it's a welcome one.
I'm really looking forward to this.
~A

After returning from Yom Kippur morning services to my dorm room, and taking a hot shower, I settled in for some computer time.

Then I think something by Enrique Iglesias started playing loudly in a neighbor's room, followed by the comforting sounds of a vacuum, and then... LOUD, high-pitched singing.
*head/desk*

Now I have a reason to be glad about only being here on the weekends until November.
The singing is pretty horrendous.  I am cringing as I type.  Just... bad.
~A