Thaylien

I remember the one time that luck of the draw did something right for me. I'd just won a single (only one, note) booster pack from a casual game with the guy who ran our club. It wasn't anything serious, but hey, it was an extra fifteen cards. This was at the Torment release just before the main tournament (constructed, not draft), so we had things like the mana T-shirts still hanging around too, but we were still at the point where a lot of the Oddesy cards were worth a lot of money. The only good card in the pack turned out to be a... foil Battlefield Forge, I traded this thing straight back to him for another three boosters (english prices, I hate them). I then proceeded to claim a foil Laquatous Champion, a full set of wild mongrels (broken, yes, incredibly versatile in this set? Definitely.), and two other rares that bought me enough smaller cards to build a proper black-green threshold deck that annhialated me through to win the tournament. The guy I won that pack from was the guy I beat in the finals, the look on his face when I slapped down three Grotesque Hybrids against his white-green deck was something spectacular. But since then... luck of the draw basically told me to go whistle.

Personally, I'm an avid Magic.com visitor, although I never have opted into the online game. I read up on what people are playing and either adapt it or try and beat it. I've ended up now with a Darksteel deck that's pretty much a good copy of the deck Beatstick from a week ago. (Damn my insistent money spending on cards). 2 Plains 4 Stalking Stones 8 Island 4 Ancient Den 4 Seat of the Synod 1 Darksteel Colossus 4 Talisman of Progress 4 Fabricate 1 Isochron Scepter 4 Sun Droplet 4 Thirst for Knowledge 3 Nuisance Engine 4 Thunderstaff 4 Mana Leak 4 Raise the Alarm 1 Goblin Charbelcher 4 Proteus Staff The whole idea of this deck is to abuse the Proteus Staff. You get it out, create a token creature from any one of the token spells, use the two to fetch out the Darksteel Colossus and beat them to death with it. The other victory ideas in here are (if they've gotten rid of, or can easily block the colossus) to use the Staff to stack your deck conveniently and then to use the Goblin Charbelcher to smite them with lethal damage. I've even used an army of Pest tokens from Nuisance Engine, pumped them up with two Thunderstaffs and swung in with swarm of 2/1 pests. You should have seen his face. The deck play is realtively simple, you defend early on with the Thunderstaffs and Sun Droplets (I've tried attacking into those and it's not easy, I'll tell you), ocasionally you'll pull out the Isochron Scepter and when you do imprint Raise the Alarm on it immediately, that way you'll always have chump blockers and Proteus Staff fodder. If you don't draw a Staff then Fabricate, while slow, gets the job done of fetching it, and it's *allways* fun to hard-cast the Colossus if the game drags a bit. There's extra defense and some emergency fodder in the Stalking Stones as well as some nasty with the Mana Leak. And finally, the Thirst for Knowledge gives you a little help in digging for cards. As you can see, I've spent too much money and too much time on this deck. But it works like hell, and I've even made it stand up to the traditional 1-turn-win decks, but only because of some emergency play and sheer luck. If you've got the cards then go for it. I've even tried it without the Colossus and put in an extra Charbelcher and that works too, but less often. Have fun if you can make this. CFN

Okay then. First off, I thought it was fantastic. Second, I thought it was fantastic. And third, I'm not sure where to begin. You've definitely got the character down right. There's a lot of personallity there to work with and you've obviously had a lot of fun changing his life. I'm with Mimmi on the subject of the brief intro of the gang, but I'm not there on the fight. In my eyes the fight was too... calculated. If you changed it ever so slightly it would be a great fight scene (I've had a lot of experience in fighting large odds, I used to get picked on a lot and I had attemtped lynchings on a fortnightly basis when I was in school). My point is that, to pick one point as a specific example, 'I kicked him hard on the kneecap, shattering it.' he wouldn't know that. Try 'I kicked him hrd on the kneecap, there was a crunch and he let me go with a cry of pain.' Not the best substitute, but that's all you would get from Joseph's perspective. Little things can niggle, and that was one of them for me. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that there's not much you could do to effect the storyline itself. I wouldn't change it myself, but I would put a few different inflections on the emotions and on the actions. Fourth, I thought it was fantastic. CFN, I look forward to anything else you're going to write.

Okay, here's an odd view, I occasionally (only occasionally) enjoy a good case of writer's block. It's like Rincewind's endless search for boredom and dullness, the patient frustration of trying to find something that works. But at other times I hate it just as much as any writer. I only have one way of getting over it, and that's by doing something that demands that you don't. Take my complete insanity of the last few days as an example. I specialise in Oh/Ah! My Goddess fan-fic writing, although I do poetry and take the odd swing at my novel every now and again. I've recently finished one fic, I'm working on a second (although communications problems with the person who owns the computer I'm using to work on it mean I haven't gotten very far), and I decided to amuse myself for a while. I challenged myself to write a fan-fiction in 10 Days or less, I based it very loosely in the AMG universe by using the main character from my other fiction as the supporting role and adding a few of the AMG rules of the universe. I based it very *largely* on Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson and re-wrote most of the book into the modern day. If you're wondering, I managed to finish the challenge with two days to spare after 22 chapters and an epilogue. And you can find it [URL=http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1760305]here.[/URL] Anyway, as I said, it was insane for me to try it, considering that my last fic took me about six or seven months of effort, and it was also the best way of getting past writer's block. If I have trouble with a storyline, I take one or two characters and write a completely different story with them, but I place it further on in the timeline so that I know where I need to get them to in the original fic. Then I just work through between the two points (the now of the one and the then of the other) like connect-the-dots. I'll possibly even put money on the fact that it might work for anyone else too.

But then again, *none* of the characters in G-Wing are portrayed as evil, they all have a sense that they simply have taken another route to get what's done and the only reason it's a bad choice is because of the means they use. Anyway, when it comes down to it, I think I prefer the good guys. Not because they win, and not because of the moral issues. I write fan-fics and when it comes to it, good guys are so much more fun to design. There are certain trends to all evil guys, they can be classified into certain groups or you can see yourself liking parts of them because of just who they are. But good guys... now there's the thing, anyone can make a good guy, they can make them strong, weak, different, the same as a whole group, even make them extensions of themselves. But what is tough to do with a good guy is make them likeable. It's so hard to make a super-hero or a main character that has the abillity to be the saviour of the world, but still make them somebody to relate to. To make them somebody that people can see all of the obvious faults in, and to have the characters themselves in some way aware of those faults too. To give them weaknesses that in some ways and cases far outweigh the strengths. But that isn't all. What, in every series that you've seen involving mecha, magic or sword/martial arts, is the main thing that every character gets? A power boost. Every time that a hero emerges some villain becomes too powerful for them, but because of the very nature of a good guy they can train/upgrade/get a new weapon, and manage to beat this strong opponent. (Think DBZ that's the one that does it over and over again, doesn't it?) So that's why I prefer the good guys, because they're a challenge to make, and because they have so much room for improvement. (I wonder if anyone else will take this view?)

Okay, first of all I'd like to point out just how much anime I DON'T have access to where I live. There are no DVD stores that sell anything like it near me, I mean I'm currently on holiday and for the first time in three years of fandom I've actually found a pure anime shop. But aside from that, I'll just get on with it. Firstly, I'd like to get the full series of Eva. I've only seen the movies recently and about half of the series, and I was disturbed enough by it to be intrigued. Then there's all of the early Gundam series, and to finally see *all* the episodes from Wing and find Endless Waltz. To go with that, I wouldn't mind seeing the missed episodes and the ending of Outlaw Star (a possibillity, I actually found the box-set a short while ago and I'm going back to that area in a few days) And to balance that wierdness, I want to see more wierdness, and get the whole series of Love Hina. And see the missed bits of all the Tenchi series. Aside from that, I want to top up my movie collection a bit and find a region 2 encoded Blue Sub 6 that *isn't* the cartoon network edit. And then I want to find some of the stuff that's come out recently onto DVD like Patlabor, ROD, Amon Saga, and similar. I want to actually find out what the heck LandLock is about, and also get a proper look at .Hack//sign, Lain, El Hazard and even, if I can be bothered, round out the strange with the innane and get the Zoids series sorted. I have a lot of things that I want to get, see and find out about as you can see. But I fully intend to do it all, and am willing to put a lot of money to the cause if I have to. It's the type of person I am.

My touch glance-whispers over boards, I feel. A grain of life that once was, will be. Tools of metal shaping, moulding, sense stirs. Glass and fibers to polish at last, shape tones. A final touch to seal its life, I leave. It stands there now, my vision wrought real, in wood, in life, in mind it lasts. Real to all, but all unseen to me. (Copyright to me, Dominic Evans, Best Poets and Poems of 2003)

[quote=Sere Tuscumbia] For a good read, I suggest Diane Duane's 'Wizard' series [/quote] Good lord, is that still going? Yes, I'd recommend that too, good spot there that otakuite. But I actually didn't finish my post, I forgot to put my 'advanced' section in. First of all, if you have the time to slog through it, Paradise Lost. And if you're up to a good philosophical/theology trillogy, see if you can get hold of Dante's Divine Comedy. Personally I prefer the Comedy because of books two and three, and there's definitely some good points to book one, but less room for comparison between it and the other two. (And if anybody knows where I can re-buy those books I'd be greatful, mine kinda... burned. My brother put them too near a candle when he left the room, when he came back the whole stack had to be thrown in a bucket of water.)

Hmm, I have a few, but their actually the sort of books that are supposed to either be a little beneath people or they're right out into the advanced sections. There's Tamora Pierce, for the series The Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens (nothing to do with teen-witchcraft whatsoever if you're worried) Lisa Jane Smith, her series NightWorld, but I think that the final book was cancelled before print (damn shame, I liked them). I have a seconding of the vote for the Eddings books, those are some of the best reads that I've had for a long time, William Nicholls, his Wind On Fire trillogy is really something out of the arc of regular books. And there are my favorite writers: Brian Jacques, who I've enjoyed since I was about twelve, and his Redwall books. And last, but far and above the least, Phillip Pullman, his trillogy His Dark Materials is quite literally the work that I am unendingly impressed with. I even spent two hours waiting outside the shop before it opened so that I could get the final book. (Something I HAVE NEVER and WILL NEVER do for Harry Potter, like some fanatics).

Actually, for once, I can't find anything directly critical to say about a piece of poetry. Good pace, a thoughtful theme and, when it comes down to it, a very good poem for both reading and spoken word. I'm genuinely impressed, it goes past a lot of my own poetry in a great way, and I'm being published for some of those, so that's a good scale to work from , don't you think? All I can say is if you submit that level of poetry to the right places, you'll go a long way.

Guys, I thank you for putting this up. You are now reading a post from the single biggest collector of MTG in the south west of England. My collection is 150,000+ cards ranging back to Alpha and Beta edition. Unfortunately, due to my location (England... dammit) I can't join any of the tournaments, or even find enough people to play against during my weekends on a regular basis. As for decks, I run several at any one time, I have my traditional tournament evil ones, like the more recent Affinity mechanic based deck (can you get three 2/2s out on turn two and then two 4/4s out on turn three for the casual expense of 3 mana in total for the whole lot? That's affinity for you.) which is a tournament 40 card pre-constructed. I also run a green/white/red Flaming Weenie deck for fun, alongside a red/green Kavu Beatdown deck using all pre-Oddessy cards. Then there's my blue/white Mystics using pure Oddessy block, and my black/white Cleric Storm that I favor now an again. Also I have two mono-white decks on the Onsaught theme of Tribal cards, one of Soldiers and the other of Angels. Aside from that though, I never play the on-line game, as someone said before me, it would take too long to buy enough cards to get my collection, let alone my decks on par again. Not to mention that the rares and older cards I run in my decks alone tally well over 100 pounds in real-time, let alone what they cost online. But if anyone's willing to talk deck-lists (I wouldn't mind a look at that Evil Elves list) I also do tutoring of lists to help the aim of the deck. Just post up a deck and I'll poke holes in it until it works better than you thought it could before. Anyway, I can't stay long, so I'll just say CFN and be on my way.

If it helps, you still have your mother. I lost both of my parents in a car-crash when I was 5. I still have the scars from where the seatbelt cut into my shoulder and from where we overturned and the roof came down on my head; even though it was thirteen years ago. But life goes on, I grew up with my grandparents, collected a large group of friends and got us all a job in a local hotel when we were fifteen. Then, using the money from that job, we converted my grandparent's barn into an apartment for the twelve of us to hang out in. After that we all took up martial arts and today between us, we an average of black belt third dan in five different style and the weapons disciplines for those styles. Put it this way, my boasting aside, there's are times in every person's life when they think they've hit bottom. It happens to everyone, at different times and in different ways, but it happens. Now these times are used, mentally, as the times between flights, between the times when your life is comparitively so good that you're flying. And those times of rest are just there for a reason to get yourself back in the air. Do you see what I mean? It sounds corny, but I've had a lot of times in the past when I've felt like just shutting down, and because I've gotten to the point where I can generalise, it just means that I got past them. And, at the risk of sounding even more corny, you'll get past this too.

Hmm... I define Mary Sue as a self-insert that makes the characters too good. Anything that either has a 'perfect' character or has one that can solve everything without effort just isn't fun. The fic I"ve just finished I was actually dissappointed in, it was called Haven for the Goddess and I had the concept of it from one of the comics I used to write called Haven. Anyway, it had one of the biggest faults in it that I can think of in my own writing: The characters had no room for developement. I had finished all of their growth in their original completed series and when I brought them into that fic, it just lacked that little secret joy that people have of seeing the characters change in little ways. But hey, I'll give you a link to my other fic, which I've been trying to get finished for a while, it's called Soul, Light and Leaves, and Oh! My Goddess fic. And I was hoping that in this one, I had created something that was entirely non-self-insert. I think it's [url=http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1627708]Here[/url]

Hi, I'm Thaylien, I'm registered on fanfiction.net as BlindThaylien. My current fics are Ah! My Goddess ones, only two are currently up and running, but they're just for fun, and I've just finished one of them at the prelim stage so it's sub-standard. I used to do Comics and I write a lot of poetry, I even have a novel that's supposed to be going to print at some point in 2006. I'm also a Gundam fan, but I don't do fics for that very often and I don't have any running at the moment. Pet Peeves: Fics that scream 'this wouldn't happen!!!' in terms of what the characters do. Writers that take no real interest in their work and expect big-time returns for it. People who review work with a one-liner or even just two or three words. (I hate it when somebody comes on and reviews the introduction chapter with 'Oh, another -insert insulting reference here-') Other than that, all I ask from fics I read are that they've at least passed it through a spell-checker, that they actually do something original, and that I can enjoy the read.