New NaNoWriMo icon

Someone had a NaNoWriMo icon over on fanficrants, so I thought I'd make my own. ::Hugs HP Imaging, for allowing her to make JPEGs and GIFs in the privacy of her own home::

In other news, my dad is working on another clever decorating idea for Hallowe'en next year: He bought a bunch of marked-down plastic candy cups shaped like jack o'lanterns and he's making a set of mini luminarias out of them by putting two amber or orange Christmas tree lights in them. He's got one string all made up, he just has to figure out where to find small stakes to attach them to. He's planning on doing the same with a bunch of large jacko'lantern-shaped trick-or-treat pails (you know the kind little kids generally tote from door to door?), only with those, he'd use large-bulb Christmas lights. He's nothing short of imaginative and resourceful.

And a small masked bandit showed up at our kitchen window today. No, it wasn't an especially tardy trick-or-treater, it was a furry raccoon. My mom was just starting to cook dinner, when she heard something bumping at the window over the back deck. Thinking it was my dad setting down some bundles before he unlocked the door to come in on coming home, she peeked out the window to find a raccoon looking in and scratching at the window pane! Either he was hoping for a late Hallowe'en handout, or he was looking for a pumpkin to nibble on, since we've had raccoons chew on pumpkins sitting on the deck, in the past.

NaNoWriMo Day Four: By the skin of my teeth

8,703 / 50,000 (17.4%)

Only 1,790 words today, and tomorrow I'll be lucky if I make my quota at all, between housework and going to work, and I think I'm fighting the cough that all the kids at work seem to have picked up and are spreading around. I just might get myself a box of vinyl gloves and wear those at work this year, maybe get a supply of surgical masks, too. And if anyone asks, I'll just say I'm on doctor's orders.

Howlers from the MxO Bug fix pages

Still downloading MxO updates... I've only got 66 MB left to go, which is down from 120 last night. Maybe I'll actually be able to start gameplay Sunday night, after I've written my quota for the day. I just took some Airborne, which I *SWEAR* by, and I'm feeling better.

That and some laughter reading over the bug fixes on the MxO update page. Some of the classics begged to be shared, though that got certain members of the Houseparty chattering:

--Players can no longer use Hyper-Jump indoors (the Merv: "Zat should keep zem from marking up ze wallpaper..." Flood: ::Hyper-jumps up onto the wall and sort of crouches up in a corner, looking down at me:: "And that buys *me* an advantage over any ponces who try taking me on.")

--Bug causing players to be invisible to other players after activating an Ability (that doesn't impart invisibility) has been fixed. (Flood: "Good. You have no idea how utterly aggravating it was to be doling out a task to some human who'd suddenly disappear from sight, even though they were right in front of me a moment ago! I thought it meant my visual parameters had gotten infected.")

--Fixed an issue where a Level 20 mission pitted you against a Level 50 NPC (Me: "Whew... otherwise, it'd be my dumb luck to get up to Level 20 and get myself hosed by someone twice as strong as me." tM: "Why? Would you not prefer to have your mettle well tested?" Me: "I don't wanna be tested *that* thoroughly...")

--Inaccessible skyscraper door has been fixed. (Flood: "That would be a nuisance beyond all tolerance, and I'm glad they did something about that felching thing." Me: "Why do I have this funny feeling you know more than you care to about that door?" Flood: ::Sipping his mimosa, ignores me::)

--Interior sign for The Vault is no longer invisible (Me/Flood, almost simulataneously: "What good is an invisible sign??")

--Bug causing locked doors to appear to be open has been fixed (Flood: "That should give the raggamuffins something to think about when they're poking around where they shouldn't...")

--Missing "l" returned to the Pillsen Stairwalk map label (Flood: "A map is only useful if it's accurate. What imbecile released that thing with a typo like that?!")

--Bug causing players to walk on air after being hit with a Poison Knife while climbing has been fixed (Me: "Why is that funny?" Flood: "It's just your mental image of that event, m'dear.")

--Many invisible walls have been ficed throughout MegaCity (Flood: "Good. I was sick and tired of walking into the bloody things." Me: "Eh, I see how that could be a problem...")

--Swimming underwater in the Creston Heights park is now prohibited (Flood: "All right, how are you supposed to swim *above* the water?!" Me: "I bet a lot of people have tried that. A lot of people like the lamerz who ganged up on Stack, or the crowd that was making orangutang noises.")

--Interior sign for Zeitgeist now shows the correct floor (Flood: "Who makes these interior signs? They're probably going to be deleted for doing such a lousy job.")

--Floating air conditioners have been bolted down (My favorite of the lot.)

--Mini Guinness Lake has been paved over (Me: "Bzuh? How do you pave over a *lake*?!" Flood: "Oh come now, it's all code: they can do what they will with it." tM: ::Has a look on his face like he's considering doing what he will to Flood's code...::)

--Maintenance removed a trashcan from a revolving door in Downtown (Flood: "I figured that's what happened to that wretched thing. It was always getting in the way." Me: :Has mental image of Flood barking his shins/ripping the cuffs of his pants on a refractory trashcan...::)

--Bugs Bunny style dual elevator doors have been removed from the Slums buildings. (Me: ::Doesn't know what to make of that, but it sounds funny::)

--Players no longer sound like a cartoon dog when using the /r command (Me: ::Laughing hysterically:: Flood: "So that explains the dog-barking sounds I kept hearing...")

--Bookwyrm Intellectuals now spell their name correctly (Flood: "They must not be very intellectual if they can't even spell their name properly.")

--Cellphone mission objects that overflow onto the floor can now be picked up. (Me: ::Mental image of a "Fibber McGee" closet-load of stuff falling onto the floor, out of the mouthpiece of a cellphone, and a bunch of Redpills trying to pry said stuff off the floor:: Flood: "You have a strange mind, m'dear.")

--One and three chevron Nightmares have been brought down to more reasonable levels (a bit less "nightmarish") (Me: "Whew, that's a relief, but I'm not sure why." Flood: "You don't want to know until you have to...")

--Chateau Guards now have their mohawks properly rendered (Flood: ::Rolls eyes, shakes head:: "Not that it improved their appearances. I don't understand the impulse to style one's hair so that it looks like you have the head of a push broom attached to your scalp.")

--City Courthouse now appears in the correct location in the Atlas (Flood: "Which would have come in handy for me the other day when I was driving Downtown and I couldn't find the bloody place, even thought the dashboard navigational system indicated that I should have been right in front of the place.")

--The Archaologist has moved his digs to the Historical District (Ref: "I wondered where he'd gotten to..")

And I'm also creating a character LJ for Mercedes Hannaford, the Bluepill who's been hanging around my headspace lately. She and Ref went to high school and college together, which is all I know about Mercie. I think she's gonna be my MxO character...