mistaken identity.

i've had my skiller mistaken for a macro more times than i'd care to count.

i've tried...

1. talking excessively. actually starting conversations, believe it or not. i tend to keep to myself when playing, and since may, virtually never say a thing unless i've been talked to in a manner i can't ignore. that's why it's a nightmare when i start playing on my main, but forget that i'm playing on my main and not on my skiller...

2. starting off by raising stats no macro would ever raise. namely, the most boring, useless stats that i don't even actively train on my main (not that i actively train anything, really...) because i simply don't see the point of it. namely, firemaking and rcing. i got firemaking up to the hiscores sooner than i did any of the other skills. after that came runecrafting. hardly any bots seriously rc on f2p servers, after all, if it's nature runes they're after.

3. dressing tastefully. not that macros don't ever do that, but i tried dressing something radically different from the usual combinations.

4. showing off items a level 3 character shouldn't have. not showing off in the explicit sense of the word, seeing as i can't quite afford that many items. not wearing items worthy of of much attention, like trimmed robes or rares. wearing items that are quietly expensive, rather. common items that you wouldn't give a second thought to, but items that just don't belong on a level 3, as most would think. exemplified by coloured gloves, holy symbol/power ammy (prefer the holy symbol), fire staff...

5. not following a set routine. using lumby tele sometimes when mining near the lumby swamps, but walking to draynor other times. not following a set pattern when banking, or mining at certain rocks. changing clothes between bank runs. and so on.

i've tried all that, and still i get that "macro!", "macro?", "macro or friend?"...

well. at least that's a start...

acessorising, 1 1/2

ohh enough of psychoanalysis and criticism. i'm sorry if all that offended you, when i read it i know some of it's too harsh, i know i'm not saying what i should, or what i really do think, just what goes with my mood at that time, or what's just happened.

in any case. welcome back for (drumroll) ... acessorising episode II!

(superficiality to go with the dischantment, and superficiality to match.)

i've met someone who's totally fashion-conscious. which is rare, 'cos he's happens to be a guy. not that there's anything remotely wrong with that, it's just good to actually have some fashion advice.

anyway. been sworn not to reveal his trade secrets so i'll settle for the eccentric and ecletic, since that's what you got last time, anyway.

hm. come to think of it, not ecletic at all. never mind. when dressing to impress, i wear the princess blouse and skirt. power ammy. skull sceptre. red cape. coloured gloves. how boring. post isn't going quite the way i expected.

lessee. on my skiller, i dress in black. default clothes black. black long-sleved midriff baring top. black pants. black shoes. red cape. works with the red hair. cut into a bob. i'm still bored. can't remember what exactly it was i was planning to say here.

ahwell. there you have it. make it 1 and 1/2. hardly deserves II status.

bot names do have style, you know.

before we start, let's clear up that little misconception that all macros are chinese in origin.

so, a large percentage of them are. but some others're just riding on the back of that prejudice.

i can speak chinese. it's the only subject i failed in school, and it's the only subject i ha- eh, dislike with unparalleled intensity. but yes, i can speak the language. and i know for a fact that a fair few of the macro namers don't.

by the way. macros = bots = getting a programme to practice a skill for you = afk training = cheating

yay! so let's start. post-translation, some of the names aren't too creative, some're obscene. some're just cute...

xiao yu. xiao means small, yu means fish. small fish woodcutting...

wc ren. kind of apt, ren means person.

mei hao. mei means beautiful. hao means good. put it together and into a sentence, it's a bit like wishing some one, phrase that comes to mind: mei hao de shen huo. de's a conjunction, so basically, have a good, prosperous life...

jun yi. (bear in mind, all these translations mayn't be strictly accurate. each word (i.e. mei) can have four different sounds (- and / and V and / in the opposite direction). each sound for each word here (i.e. mei with a V above it) can have lots of characters with that pronounciation, with lots of meanings... ) so jun could mean soldier. yi could mean one. yi could mean clothes. soldier person or soldier clothes... a macro's begging for the drill demon??

more entertaining than the random letters at any rate. bbvvv. dfskd.

define me.

i know. sort of the longest silence for as long as this blog's been up.

because it's been bugging me, whether i'm allowed to say this or not. scroll down, there's that post about stagnating. yes. i'm still stagnating, in that leveling my main, or even my pure doesn't have any meaning. but. something came up. something totally unexpected. but more on it later, i like to break things slowly.

if you already know, meaning this post comes out second for today, then that's probably how you'd define me.

define me.

of course, i'd prefer if you did that in the context of me as a person. and i know that's a tad difficult though, so why not start like this, define me as a player.

that's how every other player would start, anyway.

there's the clothes. i've mentioned that before, scroll down to last month.

and most of all, there's the combat level.

i can see why they chose combat over total, or something. it's an indication of how much danger i pose to you. and when the colours highlight it as the main thing to note, next to the white username, then it's difficult not to asses a person on the sole basis of that.

asses being a softer word for judge.

and judging's wrong, and not judging's difficult. and what's even more so, is not defining yourself, not allowing yourself to be defined by that.

it's easy enough to say. i worked at bringing my combat up to 40. after that, i didn't pay it much mind. but that's another story altogether.

still, the mentality's faintly disgusting. i hear people complaining about being called n00bs. i don't encounter that as often as i'd expected to. and frankly, i don't mind all that much, although others certainly do.

what i do mind is the whole emphasis on combat. it's practical. it makes sense like nothing else would. yet, it's like a regression to the caveman mentality of how well you fight being a reflection of you. the whole you. i mean, i have a name. or, at least, a username. no need to go "level 57".

i go into this determined to keep my combat level exactly where it is, well below 70, below 60 even, just to prove that it has nothing to do with my character, it has nothing to do with my experience, it has nothing to do with the person sitting here typing.

and i'll hear jaws drop when i open my mouth. to be exact, when i hit enter.

of course, i won't say it outright. but my presence screams it, almost. the whole combat thing?

stuff it.

(self)friend.

i find warlock cute. as in, little kid cute. warlock from one of the too many groups boasting an affiliation to the x-men. the way he says things. or just the one phrase that sticks. self friend. (rahne.) weird, but cute.

so that shall be the title of this post. adding, so it isn't as boring as a title. i do suppose he meant, my friend.

that said, i don't quite know who my real friends are anymore. on runescape, that is.

when big things happen, i tend to measure time, and things past by it. before, and after. it's just that those things tend to be superficial, and i end up forgetting the true nature, if you will, of that big event, when i'm swamped with everything else cosmetic. i know i'm not making sense, i'm sorry.

i was freaked. now, i'm just tired.

most people on my friends list on rs just don't log in again, ever, as far as i know. with my friends on rs, i'll talk to them almost everyday. heck, i'll log in just to talk to them, sometimes, but after a few weeks, they'll just disappear, and don't seem to log in ever again.

and i'll miss them, and i drift till i find someone else to talk to.

now, i've got more than my fair share of "friends".

some people are curious, some people take me to be a sentient knowledge base/world clock/quest guide/price guide, some people flame me.

i can take that. i almost enjoy those situations, when i'm taunted, because i'm tested, i need to give a response that doesn't provoke, and is right. what i can't quite stand are the suck ups. one i know's been called that to his face, within my hearing. it's that obvious, even without pm.

it's like, they're acting, they're showing a face to me that isn't theirs, at all. and i don't quite know what to do about it. they ask, i say, be yourself.

in their answer it's just as obvious they have no intention of doing anything of that sort.

and i know i'm just as guilty, sometimes, of acting like a person i'm not. what's worse is, i can't fault them, they're doing nothing wrong, they're being great, really. like the world, real life. so hypocrisy goes on, hypocrites remain pretty much untouchable, and hypocrisy is just let alone, simply because it's valued above outright disrespect by those who matter.

so. my friends list finally reached its f2p limit.

i'm forced to indiscriminately delete the names that come after. and i don't quite understand why people i converse with just don't understand that being on someone's 'freinds list' makes you no more of a friend than the random stranger.

what's in a name, and all that.

warping established quotes is fun. reading warped versions: even more so.

like shakespeare's "a rose by any other name still smells as sweet." or something similar.

to "a rose by any other name still has thornes."

(i don't rightly know who to credit that to. minisinoo might be a good bet, she writes really well. her plot ideas are good. best of all, she favours the same character i do. meaning that i can stand to read her work without becoming mildly aggrevated by the way she handles her characters. the way i do when i watch some movie adaptations. or read, say, chris claremont's stuff. he's brought the industry far, i'll give him that. but the character he chooses to throw all the limelight at: eech.)

off topic though. hence the parantheses.

when i created my main, the username was my main problem. i wouldn't stand to have numbers in it; numbers betrayed a lack of creativity. i didn't want to come up with a name completely new, that wouldn't leave any impressions.

so i researched (yes actually researched, but minimally) a name obscure enough not to have been used and obscure enough that someone who recognises it would necessarily have enough interest in the subject matter to interest me.

and that's also why, besides my main, i have only one other account i pay any amount of attention to. because i care about the name. and also because i'd prefer to attract similar people, which in a way is another matter altogether.

so that's one thing about names. then.

• some pkers apparently craft complicated names in hopes that people won't easily be able to look their stats up.
• otherwise, the name's a statement of intent. as skills go. or social interactions.
• a statement of interest. outside of the game.
• a statement of adulation. like some kind of tribute.
• maybe even a real life name. somehow i never considered this. (edit: can't say this anymore. after a while, it just got rather tiring, and it seemed easiest to come up with a name at least resembling my own. it's too common for no one to have taken it. besides, i like my name. the switching of accounts in the meanwhile does help, i guess. aly isn't quite my real name, it's more a shadow of a shadow, something similar to my nickname. i just can't risk people i actually know coming across this blog, y'see.)

anyway. names i liked, for various resons. minus the numbers cos i can't remember them. i'll try to add to the list as i go.

• lissabeth.
• daytripper.
• deirdrel.
• arcque.

funny. that's about all i can think of. names don't really mean so much in the long run, i suppose. but for the here and now, if you're a total stranger and the name, aside from the avatar is all i have to judge you by, it does make some sort of difference. especially since these names you can choose for yourself.

accessorising.

you should, actually, skip this shallowness.

i decided that my usual boring image was just boring. so i've put together an eclectic ensemble that would, very likely, turn every guy off.

not that that matters. (if pixels turn you on, you need some help...) usually i preferred to coordinate. boots and vamps as a constant.

• mage hat, robe, ammy, fire staff, d fire shield, red cape, black skirt.
• fire tiara, fire staff, red cape, power ammy, princess blouse, princess skirt.
• mage robes, black skirt, red cape.

how normal, how boring.

today's a bit like going punk. basically being totally abnormal. mining outfit: earth tiara, red cape, def ammy, mage robes, camo bottoms, fighting boots.

nothing really special, just for me it seems downright weird. and i do suppose i won't actually see anyone else dressed like that :P