Just what I need, more hobbies
Jan. 2nd, 2005 21:34![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillSo I picked up the knitting needles, because a long-neglected scarf was in my knitting basket, and I had to move the basket to get to something else in the closet. I was curious as to whether I remembered how to knit, and the answer is yes, I do... well enough to make a 10" row every 45 seconds or so if I'm not hurrying. The tension is good, too, which is one of the hardest things for me. I need shorter needles than my full-size aluminum behemoths, though...
I prefer crochet, certainly, but it's nice to know both. Now I'm looking at making something I've needed for some time, and thinking, "yikes!"
It takes four double-ended needles (!) but nothing particularly fancy in the stitch department... I'd need to re-learn casting-on (easy), casting-off (I seem to remember that's not too hard either), and I need to find out how to join the whole thing in a circle, which strikes me as simple but something I'd need to see done. Four needles might actually work the way my mental eye sees it; I need to ask![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cangmom if she has some time to coach.
On another front entirely, I had the usual quiet New Year's Eve gathering, which was even smaller than anticipated... This year it was just me, Dave, my brother Alex, and Nick. Dave has a couple of consoles, but no Tomb Raider (the second half of the now-traditional Martinelli's and Lara festival) so instead we hauled Stilgar out from under Nick's desk, grabbed the monitor that I'm using until my laptop screen gets fixed, and headed over for a LAN party.
Alex brought an additional computer so that I could "join in" on a game of Unreal Tournament 2004. Now, keep in mind I've never played a classic first-person shooter in my life -- I've watched many many of them, enjoy watching them, and in general have no problem with them. I have no particular dexterity, however, and never felt up to the coordination required to play one... I did very badly at piano lessons when younger, and have never had any luck learning to touch-type as anyone else does. (I've taught myself to almost touch-type by simple familiarity, but I'm not quite to the point of not having to look at the keyboard, for comfort if nothing else, and that process has taken about a dozen years. I'm not very coordinated, for all my artistic skills.) Back in high school I dabbled in Descent II, and still have no idea how I managed with it -- I think I was really just playing around, and didn't sweat the fact that I wasn't any good.
In the interests of fun, though, and because our New Year's Eve parties are all about picking up games you suck at and laughing genially at yourself, I decided to give it a try. It was a closed LAN, as Dave lacks net access for the next few days, so even if I sucked hard I knew that the other three wouldn't whale on me or chew me out for dragging down the team. And I was right.
Alex showed me the basic controls, which were simpler than I thought (Nick punching number keys etc. made it look more complicated than it usually is), and checked the settings on his machine to ensure I'd be okay. I then proceeded to play for the next five hours, over about eight maps in rotation, first on Assault and then on Capture the Flag at the very end. I still suck at driving vehicles, but I'm now pretty good at moving smoothly around the map at a run. After all, the first lesson in UT is "never stand still".
What dismayed me totally: the next morning I had a distinct urge to play more.
While I set up Stilgar again for Nick (it was really my idea to drag it out, only fair) I didn't give in to that urge until this morning. I played three single-player rounds today, one of 1-1 deathmatch and two of three-way deathmatch... and aced all three. I got ten kills each on the first two, fifteen on the third, and didn't die once. WTF? I mean, the bar starts low on novice level, but I didn't expect to do that well.
So now I'm afraid I'm hooked. The bad news is that UT won't play on my laptop (hardware reqs), so I need to use Stilgar whenever Nick isn't.... and it's more time for a hobby. Of course, there are a few good things, like the fact that there will be more games I feel like I can play myself. I'm looking forward to breaking out Half-Life 1 and giving it a spin. And boy, does my geek-chick quotient go waaay up -- not only am I happy to watch my boy play games (enough to make any geek drool), I'll be able to play networked games with him. Wowie, I'll be a way cool and desirable geek chick. I can play at LAN parties and watch the boys' eyes bug out. :)
(If only more geeks were dateable... ah, well, I've got mine.)
Oh yes -- my style on UT2K4. So far I appear to be a charmed flak-monkey who likes to play Chicken. My style of play seems to promote my survival much more than Nick expected, and keeps my health up high enough that I survive the occasional head-on charge quite handily. He watched me sprint toward opponents a few times before pointing me at the flak-cannon; I was a minigun sort before that (I always loved the Vulcan cannon in Descent, so many lifetimes ago). In close quarter maps, the flak cannon seems to suit me perfectly... I'll do the minigun in longer-range areas, with the link gun secondary in both situations. Hehe.
Yep, I'm definitely hooked. Sigh.
I prefer crochet, certainly, but it's nice to know both. Now I'm looking at making something I've needed for some time, and thinking, "yikes!"
It takes four double-ended needles (!) but nothing particularly fancy in the stitch department... I'd need to re-learn casting-on (easy), casting-off (I seem to remember that's not too hard either), and I need to find out how to join the whole thing in a circle, which strikes me as simple but something I'd need to see done. Four needles might actually work the way my mental eye sees it; I need to ask
cangmom if she has some time to coach.On another front entirely, I had the usual quiet New Year's Eve gathering, which was even smaller than anticipated... This year it was just me, Dave, my brother Alex, and Nick. Dave has a couple of consoles, but no Tomb Raider (the second half of the now-traditional Martinelli's and Lara festival) so instead we hauled Stilgar out from under Nick's desk, grabbed the monitor that I'm using until my laptop screen gets fixed, and headed over for a LAN party.
Alex brought an additional computer so that I could "join in" on a game of Unreal Tournament 2004. Now, keep in mind I've never played a classic first-person shooter in my life -- I've watched many many of them, enjoy watching them, and in general have no problem with them. I have no particular dexterity, however, and never felt up to the coordination required to play one... I did very badly at piano lessons when younger, and have never had any luck learning to touch-type as anyone else does. (I've taught myself to almost touch-type by simple familiarity, but I'm not quite to the point of not having to look at the keyboard, for comfort if nothing else, and that process has taken about a dozen years. I'm not very coordinated, for all my artistic skills.) Back in high school I dabbled in Descent II, and still have no idea how I managed with it -- I think I was really just playing around, and didn't sweat the fact that I wasn't any good.
In the interests of fun, though, and because our New Year's Eve parties are all about picking up games you suck at and laughing genially at yourself, I decided to give it a try. It was a closed LAN, as Dave lacks net access for the next few days, so even if I sucked hard I knew that the other three wouldn't whale on me or chew me out for dragging down the team. And I was right.
Alex showed me the basic controls, which were simpler than I thought (Nick punching number keys etc. made it look more complicated than it usually is), and checked the settings on his machine to ensure I'd be okay. I then proceeded to play for the next five hours, over about eight maps in rotation, first on Assault and then on Capture the Flag at the very end. I still suck at driving vehicles, but I'm now pretty good at moving smoothly around the map at a run. After all, the first lesson in UT is "never stand still".
What dismayed me totally: the next morning I had a distinct urge to play more.
While I set up Stilgar again for Nick (it was really my idea to drag it out, only fair) I didn't give in to that urge until this morning. I played three single-player rounds today, one of 1-1 deathmatch and two of three-way deathmatch... and aced all three. I got ten kills each on the first two, fifteen on the third, and didn't die once. WTF? I mean, the bar starts low on novice level, but I didn't expect to do that well.
So now I'm afraid I'm hooked. The bad news is that UT won't play on my laptop (hardware reqs), so I need to use Stilgar whenever Nick isn't.... and it's more time for a hobby. Of course, there are a few good things, like the fact that there will be more games I feel like I can play myself. I'm looking forward to breaking out Half-Life 1 and giving it a spin. And boy, does my geek-chick quotient go waaay up -- not only am I happy to watch my boy play games (enough to make any geek drool), I'll be able to play networked games with him. Wowie, I'll be a way cool and desirable geek chick. I can play at LAN parties and watch the boys' eyes bug out. :)
(If only more geeks were dateable... ah, well, I've got mine.)
Oh yes -- my style on UT2K4. So far I appear to be a charmed flak-monkey who likes to play Chicken. My style of play seems to promote my survival much more than Nick expected, and keeps my health up high enough that I survive the occasional head-on charge quite handily. He watched me sprint toward opponents a few times before pointing me at the flak-cannon; I was a minigun sort before that (I always loved the Vulcan cannon in Descent, so many lifetimes ago). In close quarter maps, the flak cannon seems to suit me perfectly... I'll do the minigun in longer-range areas, with the link gun secondary in both situations. Hehe.
Yep, I'm definitely hooked. Sigh.
