Right Back At It Again - Chapter 9

Seria

 

       I sighed and tucked my hair behind my ear again before clicking on the next link.  I should have gotten it cut shorter, I thought to myself, even though I knew it had been a stretch for me to get it cut this short to begin with.  I grabbed the can of coffee next to my mouse and took a sip before reading the title in bold white letters against a background of dark green.

      "SAO Survivor School,"  I muttered aloud, taking another drink from the piece of aluminum that I was now gripping tightly.  What the fuck is wrong with me?  I thought to myself.  He probably doesn't even think about you anymore; it's been over a year and a half.

      Tanchi jumped on top of my desk, meowing loudly as if he was still hungry even though I had just fed him an hour ago.  I made a face at my mother's cat and retorted, "It's not my fault that I thought he had been executed!"

         The words came out a little louder than I thought they would and I briefly thought about backing out of my plan.  As soon as the thought entered my mind, though, it was quickly vanquished by the image of the smiling boy with bright blue eyes and sandy blond hair.  He probably doesn't look like that anymore if he's smart enough to know to hide, I thought to myself.  Then again, PoH was able to able to find him, so that doesn't say much for that.

         I sighed and resigned myself to the trip I knew I would be making tomorrow, no matter how ridiculous it was.  Tanchi meowed at me as if calling me stupid for stalking this guy I hadn't seen in over two years.  I flicked him off and pulled my legs up close to me, burying my face in my knees.
        You had better be alive, Aiken.

Right Back At It Again - Chapter 8

 

      "Wait - Can you repeat that again?"

        Josh gave the lady at the cash register one of his best smiles and proceeded to rattle off a long list of ingredients for his frozen treat.  Devon and Jeshika silently took their orders from the flustered employee with gratitude and sat down at one of the tables near the windows.

        It had been a week since we restarted the guild and we had finally gotten enough money to buy the old manor house on floor thirteen.  So, to celebrate this, Josh suggested that we should all go and get milkshakes.  It had seemed like a good idea at the time and I figured that I could use some time outside of school and my house; however, it seemed that Josh's only plan was to confuse the employees by asking for as many specific toppings as possible.

Some 3D Designs

 

Right Back At It Again - Chapter 7

 

       "Five million yul?!"
        Jinx and I nodded and Gerg whistled, obviously impressed.  After completing the event quest, both of us had received the reward, which had been the apparently large amount of money.  At first, I wasn't sure if it was a lot of money, I thought to myself, walking a short distance towards the World Tree in the distance.  Each MMO can have a different rate of currency value.  In some games, a million would equal the same as 100,000 would in another.
        "So, what are you gonna spend the money on?" Kitty asked, taking her right hand claw off of her belt and fitting it back on.  She seemed rather energetic for someone who had just tattooed symbols on eight different people, including herself; then again, the process for placing a guild tattoo on a player was considerably easier in VRMMOs than in the real world.

Chapter 7's Illustration

Right Back At It Again - Chapter 6

This was a little marker drawing I did of the members of Darkness Falls in Scott Pilgrim format.  Sorry for the mis-coloring of Josh's and Garrith's hair; I didn't have any good brown markers.  Plus, it seems that I've forgotten Matt.

       I opened my eyes and smiled as I felt a slight breeze against my face.
       I was back in the plain where I had killed the event boss, Lunastra Fatalis, and it was absolutely beautiful in the daylight.  I thought briefly on the fact that the daytime and nighttime cycles were the same as the cycles in the real world; in SAO, it had made sense because there was no way to log out, but there was no reason why ALO couldn't follow the rules of most other MMOs and have an accelerated time cycle.

Beta Review of Chaos Heroes Online

I apologize if this review seems a little early, seeing as how closed beta started today, but I couldn't waste my time on the game any longer than I need to.  For those of you who do not know, Chaos Heroes Online is a MOBA, a type of MMO that was made famous by the game, League of Legends.  That being said, MOBAs have been popping up all over the MMO industry and it seems to be yours truly's bloody job to beta test each and every one of these wretched excuses for creative content.  Don't get me wrong: the characters in these games almost always have surprisingly rich backgrounds and origins.  Things that the games NEVER DELVE INTO; that's right, these games never seem to mention the character's stories or personalities outside of long paragraphs that you can read on the game's wiki or the annoying statements made by the character after each movement or attack.

FaceQ Avatars!

The entire Darkness Falls guild in FaceQ avatar form; the red squares are how they appear in real life and the checkered sections are how they look in ALO.

Right Back At It Again - Chapter 5

      "Erica-san!"

        I raised my eyelids from their drooped position and looked at my teacher.  Did he just call me Erica?  "Yes, teacher?"  I replied, resisting the urge to yawn.
        "Since you've decided to make this class your nap time, perhaps you would like to answer a question for me," my instructor said, putting his hand on his hip and pointing to the learning screen that replaced the SMART Boards of the 2010's.  "What is a system that provides computer-based support for complex, nonroutine decisions, primarily for middle managers and knowledge workers?"
        Blinking, I yawned despite my attempts to prevent it.  "Um... a business intelligence system?" I said, glad that I had dozed off in Information Technology class, one of my best subjects and coincidentally, the last class of the day.
      "That's... correct," the middle-aged teacher said, pushing his glasses father up on his nose.  "However, in the future, I would like you to stay awake for my class, Erica-san."

Chapter 5's Sneak Peak Illustration

 

 

The illustration for chapter 5; notice, this isn't gonna be what Eric is gonna be wearing by any shot.  However, I wanted to show what he would look like just out and about the town

Right Back At It Again- Chapter 4

     "Come on, get up," I muttered, shaking my sleeping friend's head.

     "I'm up, I'm up," protested Jinx, waving his hands in front him and lifting his face off of the table.  "What took you so long?"  His widened eyes told me that he had only dozed off for a few seconds.

      "I had to fight a huge dragon that breathed lightning," I sarcastically replied, picking up my bow and pulling it over my arm and head.  Pulling up my player menu, I selected my quiver from my inventory and equipped it.
       "Where are Gerg and Vin?" Jinx asked, slowly standing up and stretching.
       "Back at the house.  Raf's using an Amusphere and they want to figure out what he's doing."  I pulled up my map to check where the event boss was; it was slowly moving towards Alne, the town where Jinx and I were at.  If the boss is supposed to attack the city, it would explain the event quest's title, Bulls-Eye Pillager, I thought to myself.

Cover Art For "Right Back At It Again"

 

 

 

I just recently completed the cover art for "Right Back At It Again", the fan fiction I'm writing about Sword Art Online.  I hope you guys like it.

New Song and Download link!

http://dracs.kicktone.com/jjnpw/start-something-single

Rock Climbing

I'm very glad that a). ASU has a rock climbing wall and b.) my girlfriend likes to climb.  It makes climbing a lot more enjoyable and appealing. Still get some weird glances from people in the SRC but I guess I kind of deserve that when I fall asleep in the waiting room.

Time to Make the Donuts

College has just seemed to be a blur of barely-reached deadlines, late night work and parties, and worries.  I've been building my alias of Aiken Arrows by spray painting the graffiti tunnels with some of my lyrics and quotes, fixing random things around campus (like the squeaky door in Trivette), busking on King Street, and leaving various other kinds of public art.  Hopefully, if I can find enough time, I will gather a big enough reputation, like the girl that does art in the tunnels that everyone just knows as "The Ghost Girl", and start getting some money from my band and this blog.  My band just started a Kicktone page at http://dracs.kicktone.com/, so please go and check us out!  We need more monies so we can make more songs!

Mornings and Tunnel Tuesdays

Have I ever mentioned how much I love have breakfast in Central Dining Hall in ASU? No? Well, I do, like a lot. The old 80s-ish music is surprisingly calming and open space makes me feel comfortable and at ease. It's also a great place to just go up to someone and talk to them, which is rather strange for my inner Yankee but it's cool.

Also, every Tuesday, late at night, the college students participate in this little music get together that we call Tunnel Tuesday. I played in the graffiti tunnels last Tuesday an it was a lot of fun. This guy named Charlie on my floor brought his sax and was jamming out too. Needless to say, the instruments have been getting a lot more diverse and the sound is incredible. Go Tunnel Tuesdays! 

Shout Out to the Guy Who Doesn't Know the Opposite of "In"

Life is strange; looking back, it almost never seems the same as it did in the present.  We only get to have one and, thus, are critical of mistakes we make but only a select few get to have the honor of having their lives reviewed and recorded into biographies that lay in piles of dust on library shelves in wait for a student, procrastinating on a research paper, to come by and skim the pages and thrust the piece of literature back, causing the dust bunnies to float up and waltz in the air before settling back down.  Why on Earth, with only the nearby dust bunny population to keep the records of our lives company in years and decades after our deaths, do we try so hard?  Why is a trip up, a typo, a bad grade so terrifying?  Because of what it means right now, in the present?  Consequences?  Rumors?

I don't know, honestly.  I just think it's funny when you truly think about it and, no, I have not received any traumatizing bad grades or anything.  Just being deep, you know... like usual.  Anyways, the last couple of days have been crazy and a blur.  My dorm floor had a mixer, called "Neon Blackout" which was awesome even though I was only there for the last 3 minutes of it; if you live in ASU, please, PLEASE, keep your ears open for the next mixer.  I went hiking to these amazing waterfall thingies (really technical, I know) and got winded walking back.  My weekend has been crazy and I'm kind of happy to back into the world of order and deadlines.

Oh, and by the way, I am starting to get paid for this blog and my band's YouTube channel.... you know, just putting that out there.

Collection of Great/Funny Graffiti

Among my floor (Art Haus/Frank Penthouse) and throughout the campus are some awesome and hilarious graffiti artists.  Here are some examples:

On the whiteboard of someone's door on our hall:

3 Things I Hate:

• People who write on other people's whiteboards
• Lists
• People who can't count
• Irony

On the wall of the graffiti tunnel:
(In white spray paint) Do what you love and love what you do.
(underneath in black with an arrow pointing up) Basically, have sex with your wife

On the side of the gym in chalk:
The cake is a lie
(to the side of it, scrawled out) Let them eat it

English, meditation, nihilism, and One Direction hyptonism

English class seemed to be pretty nice; only problem was that I was sitting next to the rackety, old air conditioning unit that sounded like it would fall out of the window at any moment.  Next was my Arts, Community, and Change class which was a breath of fresh chloroform, if you know what I mean.  You see, I had forgotten that dancing and theatre are forms of art and the professor seemed to think that they were the only forms of art (she is originally a theatre professor).  She has us doing meditation at the beginning of class and then introducing ourselves through acting.  I'm going to stick the class out though because I believe it will help me be more tolerant and understand some of my fellow artists better.  Finally, History class; remember that "scary, fearsome dude" that I was talking to you guys about when all I had was the syllabus to go off of?  He's about 5', balding with greased toupee-like hair, skinny, and wearing one of those theed (I don't know if I spelled that right) suits like a professor from the 80's with a voice to match it.  He's a pretty cool guy though: he lectured about(against) nihilism, which is the modern belief that nothing is behind what we experience and there is no limit to our individual liberty.

Later on yesterday, some friends and I went to a hypnotist show, which was HILARIOUS.  At one point, he had 5 of the volunteers/subjects believe that they were One Direction and playing a concert in the auditorium.  They ROCKED it so hard it was so awesome!!!!  I love the college life, complete with it's strange classes and tons of homework.

2nd Day/ Statistics

My 2nd and last class yesterday was Reasoning with Statistics..... the teacher oddly reminded me off a mixture of Mr. Bell and Mrs. DelliSanti.... yup, this isn't gonna be good.  I had to pay a 85 dollar fee to use the online homework service thing (Mr. Bell) and she always seemed overly happy when she said something terrifying (Mrs. DelliSanti).  Anyways, this is the start of my second day and this time I have 4 classes, not two.  Let's see how this works out.