The Mind Of OverlordTomala

Well, my second week of guest blogging on “I am Uru and so can you” is quickly coming to an end. I have purposefully kept these extremely informative and entertaining posts non-confrontational. I know my statement that “Trees are good” might have been close to inflammatory, but I thought it was the right thing to do. But who knows, maybe somebody who hates Druids was reading that blog entry and had a coronary. If so, my apologies. That wasn’t my intention.

The Uru Community is a wildly diverse group of people, and I count myself as a member in good standing. Now sometimes some in the community get crosswise with others in the community. Kind of like siblings. Everybody needs somebody to beat up on, except the youngest of course. In my case, being the youngest of six, instead of having somebody to beat up on, I learned diplomacy. Smart move. So I was able to defer my fair share of poundings on the next youngest child. Again, my apologies (this time to my brother, Bruce, who was born with a “Kick Me” sign on his back.)

I consider myself a nice person, sometimes to a fault. Growing up in California, I have a certain amount of experience with faults, but that is beside the point, except that it seems that the earthquakes have followed me to Texas albeit 27 years later. I try to be friendly and non-judgemental when meeting new people. When Uru Live was put to bed in February 2004, I grieved with others like-minded and somewhat obsessed with all things Uru. I was one of those thrilled when Cyan cooperated with the fans and allowed Until Uru to become reality in August 2004. I spent most of my time with my friends from the Institution Neighborhood on the Tapestry shard. This group of folks had found the Ubisoft Uru forums as a place to hang out and participate in general silliness in Uru related story threads such as the Mystery of the Bahro Caves and several Experimental Program threads. It was fun getting to know others from the Tapestry shard as well as those visiting from other shards. I found the folks from Slackers shard to be a fun-loving, sometimes edgy group. But I thought they were a decent bunch. Tomala from early on displayed a fondness for the game, which I think is still there to this day. I have a great deal of admiration for Semplerfi and Semplerette. They had a hobby of collecting avatars on many shards. They still have their shards webpage. Pretty impressive list.

I thought the whole UU experience was great, except for the Shard Wars of course. Just like watching your parents fighting, it takes a toll on the kids. Unfortunately some in the community have the opinion that every problem Uru ever had was due to the “Ebil Slackers”. I have found first hand that defending them has a cost. But I gladly took my lumps because it’s the right thing to do to stand up for your friends.

There, I said it. The Slackers folk, evil as they are or only appear to be, are my friends. So, if that offends anybody, then my apologies. In the years since the Tapestry forum disappeared and UU closed during the MOUL/Gametap experience, i have found the folks at the Slackers forum to be quite accepting of me despite my Tapestry pedigree. I’ve found that in real life and the virtual world on the internet, that the best way to have friends is to be a friend. That is what I’ve attempted to do most of my life. Not just to avoid being beat up, but because it makes life more fun and rewarding.

Now, as to the scorched earth policy I promised, here goes. I like ice cream, and in fact last Sunday we made two freezers of homemade ice cream for my son’s party as our family said goodbye to my son as he readied to leave for his second year in college. Mmmm, vanilla and strawberry. Now if you prefer chocolate, then you are entitled to your opinion. Flame away, I can handle it. Just to be fair, I have had chocolate ice cream before.

Oh, and before I step aside for Semplerfi to be next week’s guest blogger, I want to thank Tomala for the chance to stir things up on this blog. Maybe if I get another chance some time in the future, I’ll re-tell the School Bus story I told a few times in UU.

Tonight for dinner was a homemade bacon cheeseburger. And speaking of food check out this website. One of my prized minions (KBQ) found it.

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

Now onto money. My favorite place to spend it is ebay, because everything is cheap there. I get special clothing, jewelry, computer parts, laptops, teasets, and a bunch of other stuff off of there. My camcorder came off of there for $237 with free shipping! The computers that I use, all 3 of them came off ebay. My oriental clothes? Also ebay (in fact I got coupons recently! glee).

There you have it. The Overlord approves of ebay.

I like trees. They do a lot of things for us. They turn carbon dioxide into oxygen for us hoomans. They provide a sturdy place for birds to build nests. They are leaf factories. If carefully placed, they can hold a hammock. Some trees provide for climbing fun.

This weekend we watched some home videos from 1994 so my son’s girlfriend could see some funny movies of him at age 4 1/2 years old. The best part was from Easter 1994. I was recording the action. My daughter, who was 8 1/2 years old was sniping all the eggs. We’d give my son a hint, then SWOOP in she came and stole it. We kept hearing, “Sissy, that was mine!” Well at one point he said in a maniacal voice “I GET CANDY!!!”. We watched that scene quite a few times.

Well, back to the topic of trees. It’s amazing how much our trees have grown in the last 15 years. Oaks, Ashes and a lone Pine tree. They’ve all been busy growing. Then we saw the Silver Maples that all died from borer beetles. The place has changed quite a bit over the years, especially the swimming pool and pool/game house. The yard is kept much nicer … since the yard man is no longer a 4 1/2 year old boy.

Living in the country has been very enjoyable. Being able to see many meteors a week and a half ago was fun. It was fun that would be hard to do living in the city.

When I was young, we lived on a six acre place in Sonoma County, California. We had a great fir tree (20 – 30 feet tall) in our front yard that made for great climbing. I’d climb it and sit near the top of the tree and just relax. It was usually our home base for hide and seek games. I miss that tree, and though I can see the old place using MSN maps, the tree in the front yard is gone. The other fir tree is still there next to the driveway, but it was not a very good climbing tree.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=qd8fg84rs1m2&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=8026682&encType=1

Speaking of trees, I like the Age of Kadish Tolesa in Uru because it has very majestic trees. They kind of remind me of the Great Redwoods in California. Sometimes trees can be problematic. If you hit your golf ball into the woods, the trees make it difficult to hit the ball where you want. Trees don’t have much give when hit by a car, unless you’re lucky and run into a balsa wood tree.

Trees are good. That is my opinion of course. If you disagree, I’d like to hear why.

It was a typical summer day. Fog all over the place. So I made some homemade tomato soup and homemade hot cocoa. Deposited all of my checks today and tonight we had some homemade chili. And I can’t forget the rootbeer float I had. That was good too.

Today was a good day. We had ribeye steak tonight with salad, homemade pickled beets, smoked salmon, and steakhose fries.

Didn’t buy much today, a meal bar here, an energy drink there, simple stuff to get me through a hectic day. We’ll see where tomorrow takes me.

Overlord over and outish.

Well here it is, August 22nd. Although summer is not officially over until somewhere around September 21, it really seems to be over now, as school has started. No, I wasn’t held back for another year in Third Grade, but my son leaves for his second year in college on Tuesday. He’s attending at a school near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

He’s been home for close to four months, but it went quickly. We played golf again this Thursday and we both had our moments. He was ahead by three strokes through the eighth hole and playing well. Then I had went par/birdie on the ninth & tenth to his double bogey/par and we were even. Woo Hoo, the game was ON! When it was all said and done, I had won by five strokes and he was properly and utterly defeated. Lots of fun. He had beaten me the last several times we played so it was good payback.

I had one embarrassing moment. On the eighteenth tee he was dragging himself along having already conceded my victory. I stepped up and hit my drive into a few trees at the bottom of the fairway. OoooOoops, there were people down there, waiting to hit I had to move ahead to the green and apologize for almost killing them. I also thanked them for finding my ball.

So tomorrow we’ll have the rest of the family over for a bon voyage party for him. We’ll get out and get the yard looking nice. That’s another thing. I’m losing my summer yard man.

So on Tuesday, he’s doing the thirteen hour drive by himself. We told him to stop often and stay focused on the road. That means to already have his iPod playlists ready. Don’t send text messages while driving and eating.

At least now I have a Twitter account so he can keep up with what I’m doing while he’s busy studying. “I’m sitting on the front porch”.

I’ve been enjoying my one and only day off. Last night I did this:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtYUmvGcf7A&hl=en&fs=1&]