Urban Legend: Have you ever heard the story of the lost server? The story goes that an institution had a contract to replace their servers on a rotating schedule. The company notified them that it was time to replace Server, let's call it X. Institution's IT department checks their maintenance logs & can't find a server X on it. They double check with the company, who confirms that yes they have a Server X. IT people ping the server & to their surprise they get a response. So the server does exist, but where?

They do a quick check and can't find it. In resignation, they form teams to start tagging and tracing cables, to find the server (good things those thing aren't wireless, huh). These cables sometimes go through walls and so on, too, increasing job fun. One team, in a recently renovated building, traces a cable going into a wall but can't find where it exits. As a last resort, they cut open the dry wall to see where the cable went.

There, behind the drywall, still in the plastic, protective dropcloth, is the missing server. It had been placed temporarily between to wall studs and then the workers had just drywalled over it. In all the time since the renovation, it had done its work, without requiring service, covered by a dropcloth.

Here's the kicker. I know the building where they found the server. One of my friends was on a search team, although not the one that found it. This is not an urban legend. It really happened.

Bus: I was (I counted) 36 steps from the bench at the bus stop when the bus drove by. It must have been a new driver because although the sidewalk is not right next to the road there, experienced drivers look to see if anyone is close to the stop. I know because I've had them stop for me. I got to work a little late as a result. The sad thing is, if I had walked back home and driven to a park & ride to get to work; I would have gotten to work at the same time as I did waiting for the next bus.

Gaming: Chris's game was last night. We're sticking with D&D 3.5 because switching to 4.0 would be like changing game systems entirely. One player is at the beach & another one had car problems but we continued the adventure anyway. We descended into the underground river to sneak into the giants' keep.

It was all navigating natural hazards and one character's lack of engineering knowledge. Our scout almost drowned but the one who almost drowned her, rescued her. We used an immovable rod to belay the rope to lower folks down the waterfall. Which is great, but the monk deactivated the rod early and let all the rope descend on the scout swimming downstream. She managed to cut the magic rope, making is disappear, before she drowned. The monk had consumed a fly potion so he was able fly over and grab her to finish the rescue.

My druid Kelis, 12th level now by the way, used her 2nd wild shape of the day and took the trip as a polar bear. I need to check how long she's been changed, I think she's limited to her level in hours.

Chris's Game: We finished off the other two trolls (duergar) and the last three kobolds. Our poor dwarf monk, Vertum, was so upset when he woke up (From being -55 hp with a delay death spell), that he hadn't killed a troll. He was happy that he'd killed duergar though.

We backtracked them deep into the mountain. There, in the depths, we found another one of those cities. But it's apparently an earlier effort because it's not as well constructed and in worse shape.

Just as Deriot (Diana) & Vertum (David) were about to retreat from the city full of kobolds & duergar, they saw most of the kobolds being herded out of the city by duergar (dark dwarf) commanders. That's not enough to get even our characters to attack an entire city. But the sight of the Commander of the Imperial dwarf legions (ie our current CO) being dragged into the city in chains is. In two weeks, the next game session, we go try to rescue the commander, without a chance to rest up from our last fight. Kelis (my character) still has two wild shapes left and a number of spells: note - badger is really not the right shape to fight anything big. You just don't do enough damage (ooh, both claws & bite connected, raging, max damage, that'll be 10 points of damage).

Bus Pass: Still can't find it. Guess what I'll be doing at lunch.

book: finished the character creation section. Now on to the rules section of Scion: Hero.

New Comic: Chivalry & Knavery - the art is really simple but the story is entertaining; somewhat D&D centric.

clothes: black slacks, slippers, belt (silver tone belt), white polo, Celtic knot ring, stone ring, triskele earrings, triskele pendant (new), black glass bead bracelet, & plaited hair with white elastic at the bottom and brown/white/black glass bead elastic at the top.

Gaming today: It's Living Greyhawk, Dominion Over Bright Sands (delayed from an earlier planned game). I'm playing Kelis; she is my Bright Sands character, after all.

Doug & his wife have lovely cats. One is a lovely long-haired orange, named Simba. The other one matches the house colors & is named Misty. They really resemble a bobcat & a lynx in color.

Cleaning Last night I worked on clearing the kitchen counter. I washed stuff & I put things on the dining room table. Tomorrow morning we'll work on putting things back. I have learned that we have an amazing number of travel mugs.

clothes: burgundy arrowhead tee, blue jeans, brown belt, black tennis shoes & socks, knapped flint crescent moon pendant (on cream silk cord & with moonstone chips above the crescent moon), feather charm earring, fem-power ring, red-stone ring, silver & white fiber optic bead earcuff, and ponytail with navy elastic.

books: I re-read Slightly Married.

Gaming last night, advanced dungeons & dragons, v.3.5, run by my SO, Chris. I play a half-elf druid of Obad-hai; Rosemary plays her half-sister, a human paladin/bard of Brigid; David, the latecomer to the game, plays the dwarf monk; John plays the human fighter/archer/sorcerer or wizard; & Christopher plays the human rogue/wizard/cop. We cleansed the final temple & by converting the portals to fire instead of darkness killed most of the army attacking the city. Okay, backstory: all of our PC's upset someone, so we got sent out to the back end of civilization to patrol. We found an enemy, which was a surprise. We also found a war. About the same time we found a huge underground city, parts of it inhabited by very nasty individuals & groups. We took care of a couple of them & we found an ally or two.

Our new task: explore & find allies. We ended up on the other side of the mountains & found an elven community/civilization. They were suffering because someone/thing was killing all of their spellcasters. Our two multi-class wizards were immediately the highest arcane spellcasters in the city. Besides us there was 1 20th level cleric, a 2nd level one, a 1st level one & a couple paladins. That's it. We found (got found by) the construct assassin & tracked it back to the 2nd level, ooops, I mean 11th level cleric. Tracked him after he fled the city & found an old temple to Obad-hai with a portal under it.

And we found the army of evil cloaked in darkness that was approaching. Turns out that there were at least 3 more of those temples, each with a portal under it. The bad guys had transferred the portal opening to darkness & then linked it to the sky above the army, giving the undead, etc shelter from the sun/light. So, we, brave volunteers that we are (well, we do have a paladin with us, & a monk), said that we would go & cleanse the portals. When the paladin transferred the portals to channeling fire instead, that killed 3/4 of the army. Only golems & constructs are left.

Next we get to try & kill what's left of the command structure. Wheee.

Is that clearer now?

Last night I had a very vivid dream & since no one probably reads this, it's safe to relate here. It starts out I'm socializing with the fair folks at the end of a season/run in Greensboro. I'm talking to 2 of the performers, both women from England. One of them is complaining about how bad G'boro is to drive around & I concur, telling them that I grew up here. Then I tell them my mom's story about asking for directions when she first moved to G'boro.

Meanwhile, a couple of boys (performers or children of performers) are playing in the maze. They have the clue book but since they are non-native English speakers, they get confused & lost. The maze & clues are very Amero/Anglo-centric. While looking for them, one of the other people found something that he had been looking for, an antique carved statue/wood of Napoleon. BTW, we are not in Greensboro anymore. Inside the statue, this British gentleman found a map of the world, early 19th century (say 1810) hidden & untouched, in near pristine condition. It had only a bit of browning here & there to attest to its age. The Frenchman who had been looking for the same statue & map showed up, with soldiers.

Suddenly, I'm back on the island in the early 1800's. The British captain, who has just delivered the statue sees me & from my short cap of hair knows that there is something....uncommon about me. I sit on the arm of a chair, swinging one leg as I explain to him that I'm from the future. The French governor or whatever shows up & they start fighting. Then the pirates attack. Since I'm not in the paperwork anywhere, the pirates don't know that I'm on the island. So the 2 leaders hide me. I'm hidden with both/either the French treasure & the British treasure. Both are hidden in secret hollow cabinets in the portions of the walls, right across from each other actually. Since I moved from one to the other, I see them both. The French one has carvings, there's one whole shelf/drawer of jade chunks & carvings, another of different gems. I comment to myself, "It's a good thing I'm honest, because that's really tempting."

Meanwhile the pirates are gathering up all inhabitants of the island. At this point, I'm almost hiding under an overhang in the wall, the gallery goes up 3 floors with balconies/walkways overhead. One pirate, African ethnic, might be able to see me, I can see him. I try not to stare at him. The women, all of them in sight are of African heritage, many of them panicky because they are about to be sold as slaves. They fear, rightly, what the pirates are going to do to them. Ethnicity has no weight, it simply is. What matters is that the pirates are pirates & the island's inhabitants aren't.
Luckily about that point, I woke up.

Ren Festival: bought lots of stuff, 2 ear clips one with white fiber optic beads & one with hematite; black leather strip & silver bead hair wrap (I'm wearing it today); 3 feather & bead/stone & ribbon hair clips - one for Hailey, 1 for Amanda & 1 for Nora; hair barrette from the Bronze Rose; schwing pendant in silver; Ren Festival shirt & mug; leather reticule; Chris bought me & Rosemary a rose & the leather/bead hair thing- hers is blue; belly dancing music cd; wood flapping dragon for Leela - it's a mobile kind of thing, pull its feet & the wings flap; stay awake tea; & of course food & drink. They served the mead warm because it was such a cold day. I had one sip of Rosemary's, bought none for myself.

I had an apple turnover & hot chai to begin the day. Totally not seeing Russ as I walked by. I also ate chili in a bread bowl. Didn't care for that chili recipe, it was edible but not something I want to eat twice. Come to think of it, that may be all that I ate at the fair other than some cinnamon coated roast nuts.

We went & saw the Middle Eastern dancers, the mud show, part of the young fire eater, Dextre Trippe, part of the Tortuga Twins, & the Middle Eastern dancers with swords. I ran into Chris H. & another friend whose name I cannot recall, but I have her email & I emailed her yesterday. I missed Don though. That's a bummer.

I talked to the couple who have the leather mug booth. Due to personal reasons, they will be missing most of the fair season next year. I'm quite bummed about that. But I did get a chance to socialize with them this year.

Ah well, time for work again.

Mental note: never 'read just one more chapter' of a good book before going to bed. I read until 1 am. The book was Pyramid Scheme by Flint & Freer (?). Since I'm gaming tonight until about 10 or 11pm, this was not the brightest thing to have done. I started the day with 8 oz of soda & had 16 more at lunch. I indulged myself & ate sushi again for lunch.

Tonight I play a zero round of Living Kalamar. They need a 4th person & I didn't have plans for tonight. I'll be able to run it for Chris, Rosemary & maybe Richard & Kathy at a later date. I'm meeting Joe Jungers after work, we'll buy supper on the way. I have no idea who else is playing or who is running the game. Wheee!

I've never worked with powerpoint very much. Now I'm trying to develop an organizational chart in it. ARGH! I came very close to deleting it & starting over today. But I haven't reached that point. Yet.

Last night's gaming went pretty well. We (Rosemary's character Brianna) finished cleansing the 2nd portal, apparently it's linked to fire again/now. Then we found the 3rd portal. It's the same set up. An old Nature-based church in ruins with the portal in a secret room underneath. Problem: this church's valley had filled with water. A 250 foot, cold, lake/pond that had murky water is what it was. Luckily my character had heard of porpoises, wildshaped into one and was able to investigate. Kelis, my character, found the undead & we avoided them. We reached the front door & Chris stopped there. We expect some sort of combat inside the church. Question is: with what? We'll find out in 2 weeks.