I Am A: True Neutral Human Wizard (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-10
Dexterity-10
Constitution-12
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-14
Charisma-9

Alignment:
True Neutral A true neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. He doesn't feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most true neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality. Such a character thinks of good as better than evil after all, he would rather have good neighbors and rulers than evil ones. Still, he's not personally committed to upholding good in any abstract or universal way. Some true neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run. True neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you act naturally, without prejudice or compulsion. However, true neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it represents apathy, indifference, and a lack of conviction.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXX (7)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaos --- XXXXXX (6)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Evil ---- XXXX (4)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXX (6)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Half-Orc - XX (2)

Class:
Barbarian - (-2)
Bard ------ XX (2)
Cleric ---- XXXX (4)
Druid ----- (0)
Fighter --- (-2)
Monk ------ (-29)
Paladin --- (-21)
Ranger ---- (-2)
Rogue ----- (-2)
Sorcerer -- XXXX (4)
Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6)

Yes...it was shear torture to be fasting for a blood test that I'm about to have done.

My evening routine disrupted....no having supper whenever and then having fruit in the late evening. And, no snacking the rest of the time. And, there is plenty of stuff for snacking all over my place....recently I even have a few tins around the computer.

It is making my morning rough.....I'm looking forward more to getting breakfast this morning than anything else....not sure I'll hit the office before hand and just go straight to breakfast.

Meanwhile, it has begun...the end of my E*Trade account as it is transferred into my TD Ameritrade account. Not having service fees has given the TD Ameritrade account the edge. The decision was made when I got hit by a $40 quarterly service fee. Of course, I guess it was a matter of time. The E*Trade account was mainly for ESPP, and, I was laid off from that employer almost two years ago now. Plus I sold the last of the ESPP shares to help pay for closing costs on my condo.

The strange thing about all the food I keep in easy reach....I still have cravings for food that I don't have around.

It is probably between all the food I keep in easy reach at home and at work, plus the occasions of eating breakfast with co-workers, eating lunch with co-workers, having supper out more often, etc...that accounts for having gained more than 10 lbs since my last doctor's visit. Not to mention discovering that I couldn't fit into any of my pants now that it isn't quiet warm enough for wear shorts.

When I work this morning it was 31F...right now it is still 33F. Worse, is that I've been procrastinating buying a winter jacket....

Well, off to get the blood test over with...so I can eat again.

Recently, I was home sick. And, I had the desire to have something in the way of a pasta dish. Except, I with around the condo and couldn't find any suitable pasta.

Now feeling better, I set out to remedy this oversight. As I was looking over the choices, I remember having this pasta at one time that I really liked...and wondered if I could find some of it. Only problem is that I couldn't remember what brand it was, or where I had purchased it from.

I hunted through my old financial records, but nothing lept out.... I guess I never did find an online source of it back then. Perhaps discovering during my last bought of unemployment was a factor. But, I had gotten from a local store. But that Dublin, Ohio....and I live in Manhattan, KS now.

I was certain that I had blogged about it somewhere at one time....so I went looking through my various blogs to see if I could find it. Livejournal doesn't seem to have a specific site search, or at least not one that I could immediately find. So after clicking through my livejournal for a bit, I went and checked my other blogs...which do have search boxes. No luck there. So, back to a more careful click through my Livejournal.

Well, I found it...."Al Dente Pasta". Can't remember if it had an online store when I last looked, but it does now....now to work in an order into my near-term budget and schedule....

Welcome to Al Dente Pasta

...but I'm sad :..(

My mother was disappointed that I didn't sink all my cash into the down payment for my condo. I only paid the minimum that was required to close. Sure, if I worked at it, I could come up with an extra 5%. And, it would reduce my monthly payment by about 3.5%....(of course, the [30 year] future value of the extra 5% down is like 267%).

But, the plan was to immediately put nearly that amount away as my emergency fund. With the hope that reach the 5% level by year end. And, eventually, it would need to be much more for it to be comfortably enough to cover 6 months of living expenses. The suggested guideline for emergency funds is to have 3-6 months. And, I want 6 months, given that the last two times that I got laid off, I was out of work for about 6 months. And, it should be more, since they have also involved major changes and relocation expenses. First time I dipped into my retirement, second time I blew away a large chunk of my investment portfolio. Neither of which have recovered very well since...and I'm I can't do anything about fixing the retirement savings hit...and I'm not in the position to add cash to my investment portfolio in the near term.

Anyways, I won the argument for having an emergency fund now....because I've already had an emergency....the dishwasher broke today. >:X

Given that its a built in and fairly new/nice still...I'll probably seek to repair it ASAP. Rather than rush out and buy a new one, like I did last time (on credit). Last time it was an old, decrepit looking (and green) machine and it was a portable unit. So, replacing it with a new white unit (with a butcher block top). Which made it the nicest kitchen appliance....until I replaced the fridge....

Well, I've done it again....I now own my own home.

Kind of different than last time, because I have already been living in it for the last year. Plus its the whole in the USA thing. Different than how things are done in Canada.

Not sure what else to say....guess because I've already lived in it, it is less of a thrill than there would be otherwise. But, it has me thinking of what kind of stuff that I've been putting off buying....will I buy now that I own this place.

Such as will I get a new, high efficiency and/or super high capacity, washer and dryer? A gas grill for the deck? A bicycle? Hmmm....a new computer? a new digital camera? or two? a 50" HDTV? other gadgets?

And, that's the tub drain.

Of course, I put it there....

When I came to Manhattan, finding an apartment was next to impossible. Given that it was a University town and it was the wrong time of year, plus I had certain requirements. I considered home ownership, but wasn't sure if I was in the position to take the plunge....especially given my finances and having to self-relocate. But, then I found out about a lease to own condo property. One year lease, option to purchase anytime during the year. Otherwise, get out. ;) Though now it seems that that they are considering allow renters. Perhaps the huge surge in housing demand didn't happen.

Anyways, when I moved in there was an issue with the bathroom drains. Well, just the sink. The tub drain worked great. The sink drain was slow...and getting slower. One evening, just before I was to make my annual week in Calgary for the Xmas break, it stopped. evening it stopped. I called the landlord to get it worked on, but it wouldn't be until later on the day that I was flying out that a plumber would show up. I decided to risk it and leave on my trip. I had explained that the only drain in issue, was the bathroom sink. All the others were working fine, well the toilet had issues (the water level would drop every day).

Well, the plumber showed up while I was gone....and from the mess he left, he had worked on all three 'drains' in the bathroom. Including what resembled black mud in the toilet. He also left my front door unlocked....ARGH! At least the door was closed. The neighbouring unit (vacant until recently), I often come home and the door would be unlocked and wide open (or bottom locked, not the dead bolt, and wide open). Didn't matter if it was in the dead of winter and the heat was off in the vacant units. Took me a while to realize that part of the problem was the door didn't line up with the holes quite right, so you had to really pull the door hard to get it to latch. So, who ever worked in that unit (or showed that unit)....didn't do the dead bolt and didn't pull the door until it latched. Hopefully the new occupants have figured it out.

Back to the drains....well, the sink drain worked great, I was amazed. It worked better than any bathroom sink drain for any apartment that I've ever had. But, now the tub drain was slow. Hmmm.

Though the level dropping problem with the toilet seemed to have gone away as well.

I decided to just live with the problem....though it nagged me that the tub drain was slow, so the water pools at my feet when I take my shower. I tried slow drain opener stuff, a couple times....didn't seem to make any difference. Since I had pretty much decided that I'm going to buy this place, I figured that I should figure out how to work on the drain myself. The next measure usually calls for a snake. So, I decided that I would try one (before turning it back over the landlord, just before I close). But, I recently made two trips to the mall on consecutive weekends....but managed to forget both times that I was looking for a snake.

I had it on my wishlist at Amazon.com, but it seemed unlikely that I would buy it this way. Though it was starting to look like I would resort to online purchase. I opted to looking on eBay to buy the cheapest 25' snake that would be shipped to me by USPS (since I didn't want to have to fetch it from the UPS store). I also bought a couple other items while on eBay...and they were also tool related purchases. Though they were ones that I had decided to make as online, rather than in a store. One which I had seen in a store, but wanted the convenience of getting it delivered and the other was something I hadn't seen in any (physical) store (but sold on TV, which I don't do)....

Well, it arrived earlier this week, but didn't get around to opening it. Mainly because it was time to leave feedback for my eBay purchases, so I thought I should at least open the box before leaving feedback. Though once I opened the box, I decided to use it. First time I fed it into the bathtub drain, it stopped....I cranked it a few times, but didn't seem to be getting anywhere. So I backed it out to see what was on the end. The last couple of feet was covered with a whitish goo that looked like wet plaster....hmmm, I tried the drain. Well, now it was even worse.

I fed the snake back in and tried again. This time it broke through, maybe having some water in the drain would help the snake work....probably makes sense given the type of obstruction. I kept working it forward....and running more water down the drain. Along the way the plastic collar for the set screw broke....well it was cheap. But, it was still usable. I eventually hit a point where I couldn't seem to advance any further....not 25' yet, but the drain is running great now. I decided that was good enough. I suspect I hit a tee in the drain or something, and I couldn't convince it to properly navigate past that....I could push more in, but I could feel that it was just flexing to fill space in the drain and not advancing. I'm on the middle floor of a 3 story. Then I had a bit of panic as I tried to pull the snake back out....in that it got stuck somewhere. Working it a bit, I was able to pull past and get it out.

Now the end of the snake was covered in a black sticky, oily goo (and lots of hair).

Since I hadn't taken my shower yet...I cleaned up, and then took a shower...and all is good again....except for a bit of a smell, I could leave the fan on in the bathroom...except it is on the same switch as the light...and I don't want to leave the light on...I plan to someday replace it with a non-incandescent bulb.

Speaking of incandescent bulbs....I think these are going to be extinct in my home soon. Right now the only places are the bathroom (where I tried CF, but it didn't hold up), 3 flood lights over the kitchen counter...the CFs that I had were bigger and interfered with the cabinet doors and the light in the fridge.

The immediate plan will be to get CFs of the right size and shape for the kitchen. Since I use these lights a lot, but don't like the hot incandescent floods that are currently there. Later I might try an LED bulb in the bathroom (don't know about the fridge, probably leave that until I buy that new fridge I'm dreaming of....) But, short term, in addition to the (3) CF floods for the kitchen, I'm gonna get 4 CF bulbs for the living room. So, that'll be expensive. All 7 bulbs will be of the more expensive full spectrum variety....to complement all the other full spectrum CF's that I have already. That would probably leave the kitchen and hall lights as not full spectrum. But, these are already CF and there is adequate light from these fixtures for the space. I had used cheaper CFs for the living room, and they don't give sufficient light....which is why they are on my list as well.

I haven't decided what the fate of the porch light is. I tried what was supposed to be a no-bug CF bulb. But, the bugs don't care....and seem to prefer it over the regular lights that are on the property. And, its a little long for the fixture. Also on the 'list' for this light is to change the switch to a timer of some sort. Unless there was a way to convert it to motion sensing, without being noticeable....since its a condo....

Oh well....

....I have resorted to covering my bedroom window with paper and tin foil.

When I was moving to Manhattan, KS back in July, I knew the new place wasn't going to have curtains...though I tried to buy some based on measurements I had been given before moving. But, the measurements didn't make sense so I concluded that I would need to measure the windows for myself. Turned we had different ideas on how to measure windows. (I wanted the whole outside frame, not just the dimensions of the two inset window units).

If I had more time between arriving and having to move in and live here, I would probably have gone with professional window coverings. Oh well.

As fall back, I had tossed into my luggage a new roll of tin foil, a ream of (copier) paper, and some tape. Figuring that I would resort to some method of this for covering the windows.

Except when I arrived in Manhattan, the gas company messed up the order to transfer utilities to me (they did, but they then disconnected my service). So, I had no hot water for the first night. And, not knowing when my furniture would arrive, I booked at least a couple nights at a local hotel to sleep in.

As it was furniture arrived the next day, and the following day I bought all the blinds of the right size I could get my hands on at Walmart. And, covered a bunch of windows (not all). And, that has served me well, until now.

Yesterday, the property owner got the new lights for the area of the property that they are turning into a new parking lot. The lights are under the roofline of an adjacent building (bedroom side) and projects across the parking area onto the front of the building on the other side (bedroom side is opposite). But, I'm on an end unit of the building diagonally from where the lights are...and my bedrooms are on that face 'to' the parking lot. So the light is all over my windows and it makes it too bright now (even though they are room-darkening blinds) in my bedroom.

This morning I felt like I was hung-over from the lack of sleep >:-(

I did lots of rushed looking around for drapes to solve the situation, but ended up placing an order from JCPenney....it'll be a week before they arrive.

So, in the meantime I have resorted to papering/tin foiling the bedroom window to get the necessary darkness to sleep. I could probably handle some brightness, but the light is direct on the window and then in my face....

Part of me is wondering if I'll keep it up even after I get the new drapes....its not like I open the curtains/windows much. :o

Oh well, off to get some zzzz's

Last night I got an email that seemed to indicate that my main blog site was down.

A quick visit confirmed it. It couldn't connect to its mysql database. After waiting a couple of hours, I contacted technical support on when it would be fixed.

After many messages of all are busy with others, I finally got somebody...but he seemed clueless. I asked about the mysql server, he kept asking if I was saying that the domain wasn't working. Well, ok, just the part that needed mysql.

He then said I probably exceeded some resource limit (connections per hour...but it had already been a few hours), and was being blocked and that I needed to check my scripts. I hadn't made any significant software changes to my site since July (too busy with my day job as an Enterprise Unix Systems Administrator). Said they just take care of the servers, can't help me with programming issues with my site.

A few hours later (because I couldn't sleep, head cold)...I saw that my site had started working again.....I checked the system status, and it showed that mysql had been running for 54 minutes.

I only renewed my contract with iPowerWeb back in October. Again, because until then it had basically be working fine, and its too much work to move it...and I don't have the time. Though it is usually a problem like this and their poor handling of it, that causes me to go looking for a new provider.

Plus I was more looking at moving my other site...which I also opted to not move. And, largely because of the work involved in moving email accounts and the site's backend MySQL DB. Though the time where that they pushed my site back in time 3 months because their idea of daily backups was to use RAID 1 and then ignored that it was running degraded and then for it to start having errors...and then replaced the wrong disk. So, they had to go to the quarterly offsite image. But, the company had outsourced its DC...and move their servers back under their direct control seemed to have resolved those issues sufficiently... that I don't have a strong desire to leave them anymore.

Moving my main blog to them might be something I'd consider now, except that I'd prefer to have different providers behind each of my domains. And, its too much hassle moving my main web site, so that my blog could move....

Today I have learned that my friend Ann Minton had lost her battle with cancer on Tuesday :..(

She requested that contributions be considered for:

The Wellness Community of Greater Columbus

5500 Frantz Road Suite 115
Dublin, Ohio 43017
614-791-9510

www.wellnesscolumbus.org

Looking around, I made an online donation in her memory to The Wellness Community National....