Journal Entries
I'M NOT DEAD
Posted Apr 18, 2005
....I'd just developed a bad case of invisibility!
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Latest reply: Apr 18, 2005
Greetings
Posted Mar 29, 2004
Well, no doubt you've noticed my evident name change - it was only a matter of time before my Dungeons & Dragons alter-ego surfaced and took up arms at my alias and alas forced me into changing it. So, here I am with a new nick - same old Z.Z, just under a new name. *Shrugs*
If you want to know a little more about Midnight as a character read on, if not go have some 
and a nice slab of 
When I get a mo outside of the 10k words I have to write this week I'll actually put a new journal entry in LOL!
Here goes! A classic character profile of Midnight, as she's commonly found in Neverwinter Nights, Swords & Sorcery and Dungeond & Dragons. Sardis Talon is my partner's character. I won't burden you with his bio...it's all on my site anyway. As for stats - I'll spare you those too, they'd only serve to confuse you LOL
Name: Ambriel Varen
Alias: Lady Midnight of Sevenshades (Midnight)
Class: Sorceress
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Age: 24 yrs
Height: 5' 3"
Build: Slim
Hair & Eye colour: Hair - Dark Brown, Eyes - Blue-Grey
Skin Colour: Caucasian
Costume: Midnight's most notable item is her irridescent amethyst coloured cloak, beneath this she wears a skirted dark blue tunic with belt, black leggings and a pair of brown knee high leather boots.
Profession: Herbalist & Diviner
Alignment: Neutral-Good
Skills: Herblore, Alchemy, First Aid, Arcane Knowledge
Languages: Common, Elvish, Dragonic, Goblin, Infernal.
Weapons Used: Daggers, Staff & Light Crossbow
Magical Items Owned:
Ebony Staff - Defends Owner from harm by spells, cannot be parted from owner.
Enchanted Daggers (x3): Small silver throwing daggers enchanted with the following spells - Light(flare), Darkness & Invisibility which effect target or caster at discretion.
Cloak of Shadows: Grants wearer ability to hide in plain sight as long as they are in shade.
Background:
A wandering sorceress from the north.
Once cursed to serve the Demon Prince, Asengard, Midnight now travels the length and breadth of the lands seeking to atone for the crimes she committed whilst under his influence. After a near fatal battle with the demon, she banished him to the Abyss but he is strong and not easily bested. She must be ever vigilant for at any moment he can exert his will over her from his prison causing her to turn against those around her with murderous intent.
An event such as this saw her recently take the life of a member of the Royal House Guards, which has lead to her fleeing her homelands. There is a high reward offered for her capture. Should she return to Sevenshades she will hang for her crime. She is currently travelling with a half-elf Paladin by the name of Sardis Talon.
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Latest reply: Mar 29, 2004
Name Change
Posted Mar 29, 2004
T'was only a matter of time (alas) until my alter ego got the best of me and forced me to change to my web-wide alias of Midnight in it's entirety...too much Dungeons and Dragons will have that effect though. Midnight is only an extension of my psyche after all.
Call me what you may, Z.Z or Midnight. *shrugs* I answer to either
~*LM*~ (as in Lady Midnight)
Character Profile - as commonly encountered in online RPGs, Sardis is played by my partner as both a travelling companion and 'love-interest':
Name: Ambriel Varen
Alias: Lady Midnight of Sevenshades (Midnight)
Class: Sorceress
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Age: 24 yrs
Height: 5' 3"
Build: Slim
Hair & Eye colour: Hair - Dark Brown, Eyes - Blue-Grey
Skin Colour: Caucasian
Costume: Midnight's most notable item is her irridescent amethyst coloured cloak, beneath this she wears a skirted dark blue tunic with belt, black leggings and a pair of brown knee high leather boots.
Profession: Herbalist & Diviner
Alignment: Neutral-Good
Skills: Herblore, Alchemy, First Aid, Arcane Knowledge
Languages: Common, Elvish, Dragonic, Goblin, Infernal.
Weapons Used: Daggers, Staff & Light Crossbow
Magical Items Owned:
Ebony Staff - Defends Owner from harm by spells, cannot be parted from owner.
Enchanted Daggers (x3): Small silver throwing daggers enchanted with the following spells - Light(flare), Darkness & Invisibility which effect target or caster at discretion.
Cloak of Shadows: Grants wearer ability to hide in plain sight as long as they are in shade.
Background:
Once cursed to serve the Demon Prince, Asengard, Midnight now travels the length and breadth of the lands seeking to atone for the crimes she committed whilst under his influence. After a near fatal battle with the demon, she banished him to the Abyss but he is strong and not easily bested. She must be ever vigilant for at any moment he can exert his will over her from his prison causing her to turn against those around her with murderous intent.
An event such as this saw her recently take the life of a member of the Royal House Guards which has lead to her fleeing her homeland. There is a high reward offered for her capture. Should she return to Sevenshades she will hang for her crime. She is currently travelling with a half-elf Paladin by the name of Sardis Talon.
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Mar 29, 2004
Uh oh...It's a Z.Z Random Rambling Session
Posted Mar 25, 2004
I'm feeling kinda random today so I thought I'd have a ramble instead of a rant.
<-- begin fake-TML: "ramble" code -->
[ramble]
My editor's just had a wonderful idea....I get my own section in the mag and am challenged by the readership to do something new and computery every week - sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me. **Shock-horror**
Btw - any of my regular readers (all one of you ) care to join in with my online text RPG? I'm desperately short of players and if I don't do something with it the server it's on will delete it as an unused account - I put a whole lotta work into it! There's nothing difficult about it - if you're interested go to http://darkxenith.cjb.net and click on the community link - tell 'em Midnight sent you
My lizard banged her nose on the sofa last night chasing an escaped cricket at dinnertime, she spent the next half hour hissing at it (the sofa) and anyone that went near her. I also confused my budgies by putting a pea in their cage and I spent the night stressing over a piece of digital art I've been working on for 2 months - TIP: NEVER attempt to draw a riverbank scene, riverbank's are evil. Grass I can deal with with a sly bit of paint-shopperising and a graphics tablet but soil textures are evil to draw.
Upshot: I ended the month with £300 remaining in my bank account (soon to be spent on Monty) which is a worlds first! And I may have rehomed one of my 3 snakes seen as I no longer have room to keep them. I got me 2 cali kingsnakes and a mexican black kingsnake.
I've also managed to inherit a black, yellow and orange rubber spider from somewhere and it's now living on my PC tower here in the office. I also have some african stone people (small semiprecious gems with eyes painted on them) and a red die-cast Mini model that live alongside it.
[...still rambling...]
Woke up this morning and found a small fire extinguisher in my front porch upon opening the door and was promptly ambushed by Arnie (next doors cat) and Win(ston) the other side's Staff Bull Terrier. I live in something that closely resembles a tenement block - only b/c it has an upstairs we English call is a maisonette.
I've also decided I hate Lotus Notes email system which is what we use here at work. It should be tied up, weighted down and thrown to the cybersharks.
My desk looks like a bomb went off on it - not to self: re-organise desk & get new cartridges for printer.
In other news:
If anyone wants a laugh go here: http://www.zombo.com
My dad's PC is still knackered
I'm eating fruit salad at the moment
The world is round
and now for something completely different...
It's THURSDAY (or Thing) whichever you prefer! Tomorrow is Poets...everybody likes Poets!
[/ramble] <--- end fake-TML code: "ramble" --->
- Z.Z
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Mar 25, 2004
Why does it have to be Monday?
Posted Mar 22, 2004
Welcome to another exciting episode of Z.Z's journal. This week it's rather creatively entitled 'Why does it have to be Monday?'
Why? Well, because a) it is and b) I felt like it. So 
to you!
Oh and c) because it's my journal. Ok. And I'll do just what I like in it. (Within the boundaries of normal taste and decency mind you)
Anyway, on with the show. The weather is currently lurking somewhere between cloudy and sunny, it's an indecisive day and the infamous telecom tower can't decide what colour to be as a result - ever seen a chameleon on a kilt? Well, that's where its at. There that's the British weather fascination dealt with. Two things we talk about over here all the time are the weather and politics...don't ask me why, it just seems to be a national obsession. *Shrugs*
As for me, well my day started off blindingly well, up with the proverbial larks at 7 out by quarter to 8 and on the five past bus...at the trainstation for the half hour jaunt into bcc at tenpast. 35 minutes later I'm still freezing my blessed nackers off on the platform. Why? Because there's a godblasted powercut on the cross city line - that just happens to be my route of choice into bcc - oh goodie! So there I was, frozen, surrounded by a bunch of similarly grousing commuters and getting wet with thanks to the rain. Finally got myself into the office half an hour after kick off...I'd called ahead to say I was going to be late in but reception didn't pass the message on to my editor so I got a mildly humourous dressing down off him then the email finally decided to turn up from front of house bearing the aforementioned message. Story over.
What have I been upto? Well, gathering news for Micromart which has to be rewritten for Wednesday morning (easy) and tidying up the last bit of CTO for another week. *Hallelujah!* That is of course between surreptitious glances at H2G2 just to keep tabs on things and working on my longrunning story 'Dark Legend' - started this thing back in secondary school when I was 15, it's been through 3 rewrites, 4 new computers, 3 floppy disks, one assassination attempt from a disgruntled co-worker at my last job and is now onto chapter 5 LOL! I've just spent the last half hour browsing through model mart admiring the new Transformers Alternators line. Die cast scale models of G1 characters come on, which transfan couldn't pass that up, these things are the business!
*Wishes aforementioned editor would quit playing the Raiders of the Lost Ark & Star Wars sound tracks* 
As for the weekend, it was spent swarmed under with a 2y/o & 3y/o , computer parts and webdesign. Strange combination isn't it?
It looks a bit like this - Dad & I recently upgraded our PCs only to find the new motherboards we got were more lemony than a bottle of Fairy Liquid (dish washing liquid) so out goes dad and gets a new motherboard. After several hours of faffing about with it and so forth we get it up and running but he wants to set up his SATA hard drive on it and run a dual-boot OS...sounds easy huh? NOPE. Because we're running a rather 'dubious' copy of XP the motherboard won't initialise or install the SATA drivers and refuses to let us install M$s Service Pack 1 to get the USB2.0 ports running. Yay. Whoop-di-flippin'-doo.
So out goes we to get a LEGIT copy of said XP at the bank-killing price of £90 only to find out that it's not in stock...great, so I'm left with a royally pissed off dad which is just what I don't want, and a sitting room that looks every bit the part of a computer graveyard and it's all my fault for recommending the motherboards. No mention of the fact that he owns the offending dodgy OS is there? Oh-ho no. Nuh-uh.
[/RANT]
Well, I've got 40mins to go before hometime and I hope they've sorted out the power fault on the cross city line or I'm in for a very long jaunt home. When I get home I've got to re-encode 4 sections of a website from CGI to ZISP due to my ISP not allowing CGI controls to run for security reasons....should be fun. I'm beginning to wish I'd never offered to set the site up for my AmDram company in the first place - cheapskates are only offering my £30 for it that's including domain registration, space and my time and effort! Just call me a slave why don't you? What little there is has taken me 9 hours already!
Anyhoo, I suppose I'd best skeet...let's go see what I can dig up on the old world wide wonder.
- Z.Z
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Latest reply: Mar 22, 2004
Midnight of Sevenshades (Z.Z)
Researcher U576757
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