Sugar and Spite

Haley's Uniquely Titled Hangout.

@HaleyTheRandom What happened the last couple of days?

@SouffleGirl123

Thursday was wrapped up in my crap car. After having it at the shop for four months, we were finally allowed to take it home. Luckily, dad was driving, and he felt the brakes not working right. Pulled over, got out - no brake fluid. Mom was following behind us, so she went and got some, came back, and we filled it up. The brakes were working less than before they were when they didn't have the fluid, so we got out of the car again, and I noticed some leaking. Turns out all four of my break lines are rusted to hell, and two of them busted, meaning the front and back breaks don't work. Pretty much all the parts for this thing have been discontinued, so the only way to get the brake lines, emergency cable lines, and the other 95% of the parts is to have them custom made, which costs a literal freaking fortune. But hey, the piece of shit has new front and back break pads, new battery, and a new air conditioning system. We're going to try and part it out/scrap it to get as much money as we can back, and mom says that she will be more than glad to try and help me get a more reliable car around June.

Fast forward until today - Mom has some dogs coming from overseas that she has to go to Virginia to pick up Saturday (looking at the clock, it's now Sunday. O.o) But they decided to take of Friday afternoon instead. Due to traffic and the lady changing the meeting place, they didn't get back home until 4:30 this morning. Today was EXHAUSTING. At three today (Saturday) me and her had to meet with two of them to give them to their owners.

Oh, and I have and appointment at 10am Monday to do my taxes. And then I have to shop for a prom dress. That I'm actually going to wear. Like... a girl.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I like the metallic taste that you get when you stick a car key or a spoon in your mouth.

Ask a Mod.

<Snipped quote by Exit>

When I was a kid, before we even had internet, my friend (Hyzhenhok) and I would write stories together. We each had our own Lego man and we'd take turns writing chapters in Microsoft Word while the other played Nintendo 64. Our Lego men would roam around a Lego galaxy into fictional worlds like Lava World (the floor is lava) to defeat an antagonist named Shane, who was basically a Chad.

My character's special weapon was the Adult Rifle. By the time I learned it was actually called an Assault Rifle, too much lore was written and I kept them old name.

I don't know how that began. Just cosmic luck, because it was probably one of the most important events in my life, a gateway into writing and eventually other socially destitute hobbies like programming and being a roleplaying forum admin.

I didn't know we were roleplaying at the time. So by the time I found internet roleplaying forums, I was a seasoned veteran.

The bulk of my roleplaying took place on the now-dead http://rpgchat.com/. And that's where I met someone named Blackfire.

Well, rpgchat.com had this annoying issue where the admin, ThornBreed, was never around. Ugh, doesn't he know how to run a free forum? I was 15 and had all the time in the world. I didn't understand how an admin could just neglect a forum like that. I obviously knew things he didn't!

At the time, 2006 or so, roleplaying communities also usually were mired in strict rules and moderation.

So Blackfire, Hyzhenhok, and I created the Guild as a place with no rules nor moderator intervention. And with admins that would always be around.

Well, it took a year of sock puppeting my own accounts to get the Guild to a point where it had a large enough cabal of regulars for me to stop sock puppeting. And that's how I burned out on writing and roleplaying. In fact, I've barely roleplayed since then. I wrote many thousands of posts to make the Guild's first members think they weren't the first members.

Fast forward over a decade and I now understand why ThornBreed was never around. I'm 29 now and every year it gets more and more expensive to devote time to the forum, but I look at it as a charity since roleplaying was so enriching to my youth. Every time someone gets mad that I'm not around, I see my own self 13 years ago. I would've never guessed how much effort it would take to bootstrap a forum, that's for sure. Definitely not something I will ever have energy for again.

Of course, in Dec 2013, the Guild was deleted. And having no job/money, I thought it would be cheaper to build it myself. But I underestimated the effort it would take. Though I finally got the Guild's monthly expenses down to almost $100/mo while it used to cost $400-500/mo when it was on vBulletin. After an incredible amount of work (github.com/danneu/guild) the Guild is still missing relatively basic features people expect from a forum.

These days I'm always wondering if it makes more sense to continue work on my custom forum software or finally migrate to something like Xenforo. I wish I could peer into a parallel universe where I use Xenforo and see how much money I'm spending and how much happier Guild members are.

Every once in a while I create an alt account and try to roleplay to force myself to use the forum I've built. It helps me experience the forum's sharpest pain-points first hand, like the atrocious editor. But I think I roleplayed enough for two lifetimes back when I first started the Guild and it just doesn't seem to be an interest I can claw back.

@Mahz

Hold the phone, here.

Our wonderful @Mahz pays to host the site out of his own pocket?!

I never realized someone had to pay for the forum, because before RPG, I used forummotion and proboards, so I just figured RPG was free like those.

Dude, you just got so many extra brownie points with me.

Thank you for everything that you do for the guild.

Post a random fact about yourself.

When no one laughs at my jokes, I do all the laughing until everyone else laughs because it's hella odd and awkward to be the only one laughing in any group you're in.

@Altered Tundra

My brother does that.

I think your science jokes are gold tho.

Men vs. Women Race to 1000: Version 2.0

517

Haley's Uniquely Titled Hangout.

Pretty good. Just chillin Hbu?

@POOHEAD189

Supposed to be asleep, but I can't sleep, so I'm doing the internet things.

These last couple of days have been insane.

Haley's Uniquely Titled Hangout.

Hi.

@Ruby

Hey Rubes!

@HaleyTheRandom@SouffleGirl123 My two favorite girlies *hugs*

@POOHEAD189

'Sup, my dude?

Post a random fact about yourself.

I have never broken a body part. Also my immune system is pretty awesome, I've never had chicken pox or measles even though I've been near people when they had and a vicious flu was cycling around my house for 2 months around my family and the worst I got was a minor cold xD

@SouffleGirl123

Another insanely random thing that we have in common. xD

Haley's Uniquely Titled Hangout.

Me too!

Does this mean that I'm ready to be an adult.

I'm kinda supposed to be sleeping now, too, but.. eh xD

Post a random fact about yourself.

I can't go to sleep if I'm wearing socks.