The 10 Commandments of D&D

1. Thou shalt roleplay, it’s not all about the dice.

2. Thou shalt watch your damn alignment and act within it.

3. Thou shalt not bitch at the DM regarding loot.

4. Thou shalt not bitch at the DM regarding anything, really.

5. Thou shalt not worry about your kill-count.

6. Thou shalt keep your character’s level up-to-date.

7. Thou shalt not fail to perform a search check. And re-check…

8. Thou shalt beware of the sneak attack.

9. Thou shalt never forget about the attack of opportunity.

And finally:

10. Thou shalt remember that what the DM says, goes.

I wrote this list after rules #1 and #2 came up in conversation on IRC. Most are self-explanatory, but if you think any are confusing, or that I missed some, feel free to leave a comment! Maybe I will make commandments 11-20, if I get enough feedback.

(Thanks to Johhan for #7, and to Sam for his help on the whole list.)

Stuck in my head…

I’m sure everyone knows what it’s like to have a song stuck in their head. I heard this song at the O’s game today, just a snippet, and that snippet promptly lodged itself in my head. It took me a while to find it, but finally I did: “Secret Plans”, by Eagles of Death Metal. They have an interesting sound to them, I might have to look up more of their music. But for now, I will be content to just post this song:

Enjoy!

Idea Dump!

So as I'm toying around on the internet, I come across a lot of different craft ideas. Normally I just put them into a bookmarks folder, but that is getting kind of full. This means that it is time for an Idea Dump! Without further ado, here are some cool craft ideas I plan on pursuing at some point:

Beautiful Paper Beads
A Beaded Tree
An Illuminated Canvas
Cute, Simple Ribbon-Adorned Notebook
Papier-Mache Tree Planters
Aluminum Can Ornaments
Aluminum Can Tinwork Boxes
Easy Fizzy Bath Bombs
Beautiful Easter Eggs
Hammered Flower & Leaf Prints
Cake Pops!
Origami Wreath
Basket-Weaving Tutorial
Amazing Clay Leaves
Clay Barbed Wire
Make-your-own Super Bouncy Ball
Coffee Filter Roses
T-Shirt Shrug
Watermelon Soaps
Knot Trivet
A "Frabjous"
D20 Handbag of Holding


And finally, something quick and fun and easy: "CubeArt" Barack Obama Print&Assemble

So I know this is a lot of links, but they are all fun things that I hope to get to do sometime in the *near* future.

Project of the Day (Night?) #1

I stayed home sick today, which means that I have been lying in bed pretty much all day today, doing work and sleeping. It's unbelievably boring.

This led to my newest idea- a "Project of the Day" series! These will be projects that are easy and relatively quick to complete, so they could be good for kids or someone looking for a way to get through a couple of hours when there's nothing else to do (because that happens so often, you know?) Anyways, simple, cheap, fun, and with useful results.

On that note, today's project is to make Newspaper Baskets, inspired by a post from this blog that I stumbled on. It seems like a fun project, but I will be adapting it a little and taking photos as I go.
1. Gather materials! The bare necessities are newspaper and scissors, but I added clips (to hold the basket together, you'll see them in later pictures) and paint.

2. To make the strips, I used half of a sheet each (one page), and folded it in half lengthwise 4 times. The base of my basket was 4 strips by 4 strips.

My hands turned kinda gray from the newsprint, which you can see in the picture. You can also see the bandage covering my wound from the Great Scissor Disaster of Last Weekend, but that's enough about that.

3. After I made the base, I folded the sides up, and started weaving around the edges of the "basket". I chose to do one continuous strip, by attaching the end of one strip to another, rather than stacked circles (which would have made my basket more even in the end.)

4. After I had added a few strips, and gotten the basket to a height I liked, I cut down the strips and tucked them in to seal the edges.


5. Now, since this was my first newspaper basket attempt, I'm not surprised that it came out like a kindergardener's project- lopsided and odd-loooking. So I painted it! Nothing a coat of metallic purple paint can't fix.

Since I had extra newspaper strips, I decided to make a matching plate for the bowl to sit on. This worked better than the bowl, to be honest. It was 5 strips by 5 strips, and I painted it metallic blue. I think it will make a nice combo.

Line Drawings!

These two (from the same Saturday as the sketches from the trace, but not in the same style as the others, so they didn't feel right in the same post) came from a different concept. The idea I had with these was to use the pink pen, close my eyes, and draw whatever came to mind. Then, when I thought I had a basic figure down, I opened my eyes, and used whatever I had drawn to lead towards the final pictures here.

I like the seal, though it took a few... adjustments to keep him from looking wrong. (Thank you for pointing that out, Madame Beloved).


I *really* like this one, it started out as a ram (no joke) and evolved into people.

Again, sorry about the bad picture quality, and again, feedback is appreciated!

On a side note, I'm really liking how these look with the background of the page.

<3 Lissa

Impressionist Sketches

So Justin and I were hanging out on a Saturday a few weeks ago (which was a lot of fun by the way), and we spent a lot of time sketching. His preferred method is ink, and his sketches are fabulous... I think he should put some up, but he probably won't want to. Anyways, I brought along my 8-color pen set, and did a few "quick sketches". Only using each pen once, in kind of an impressionist ideal, the sketches were finished pretty quickly. I'm pretty pleased with it.




Sorry for the poor quality photos, my camera is on hiatus (aka I can't find the memory card converter to put the photos onto my computer), so all the pictures are from my phone camera (3.0 megapixels, which is not bad, but not as good as my pretty pink camera).

Feedback is always appreciated!

<3 Lissa

So, uh... WHY Penguins and Alpacas?

I guess I'll start with a story. I've had this daydream for a while now, it comes to me mostly when I'm frustrated or sad or just feeling negative. I dream that I've moved out to the country (it's an ambiguous countryside, I'm not sure where. Charline says it's in New Zealand.), and it's beautiful. I live in a quaint little house surrounded by open fields and rolling hills, with a forest in the distance, near enough to walk to but past the fields. Behind the little house is a barn, and a large, fenced-in pasture, and inside that pasture... are alpacas. Five or six of them, a nice little family of their own. White ones and brown ones and multi-colored ones, a nice group of happy, grass-munching alpacas. I gather their fleece and I spin it into wool and dye it and sell it to make a living, rather than participating in all of this hustle and bustle. I also have a dog, some cats, a few bunnies, a hedgehog, a parrot, and a small school of fish, a menagerie that changes depending on my whim.

The alpacas, though? They're always there.

So that's one part of the WHY answer. The other part is the penguins, and that's a short answer- I just love penguins. I've been drawn to them since I was little, and I'm honestly not entirely sure why. They just seem so content and happy and to be such great little creatures.
So that's why. Penguins and alpacas. My happy place.

<3 Lissa