At Intervals or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the MMFRPG

Had a bit of a scare early this morning when my sister had food poisoning induced fever. By breakfast she managed to vomit out last night's dinner and it succeeded to bring the fever down, but she was pretty lethargic for the rest of the day.

On to the good stuff! Spent the entire morning driving through the Alishan mountain range, a mountain range directly West of Jade Mountain, the tallest mountain on the Western side of the Pacific Rim. Only real stop was a pair and massive dead trees called the Husband and Wife trees (no idea why), but we did get to see the phenomenon of the Jade Mountain range literally blocking out incoming cloud cover.

At the top of the Alishan range was a tourist spot whcih features a nature reserve and public park, a repurposed train station made by the Japanese for logging operations during their occupation, and a 7-11 that could me mistaken for a temple if not for the logos. Due to my sister's food poisoning I was the only one who took the train, and it was towards a landmark called the Sacred Tree. From what I could tell, it was a holy tree that was cut down, but because of its significance it remains stayed where they fell, even to today. Didn't have time to stick around much, though, as we were on a schedule.

Afterwards spent the next three hours driving to Tainan. Fell asleep for most of it. Came to the home of a friend of the family, whom the grandfather started a company that specializes in distributing raw metal internationally. As you can guess, he's rich. Currently staying in a second residential building he owns directly across from his house. Melinda went to doctor as well. Told to drink lots of water and was given some pills.

"You hear something from where we put the titan?"

"Nah, just the wind."

So now that the damage has been done, was the titan affiliated with the Bloodhounds or was it just wildlife (if that's the right word for it)?

It's technically affiliated with Ashur's dudes, the idea being that it serves as deterrent to keep the 'civilian' population out of their hair - if people in that part of the forest start getting eaten, nobody's going to want to go near it. By extension, nobody's going to want to go near the base.

In Singapore, but not here for vacation. I may have limited time here.

Did not really do that much today due to my sister recovering. During breakfast I spent time with the grandson of our host. He's a nice kid with a real interest in bugs. I helped out in replacing the soil for his collection of possibly cicada larvae, and we played with a toy bow and arrow set my mom bought for him while we were at the brewery. Kid's a better shot than me.

After breakfast we went to the temple where the ashes of my mom's parents were inturned in. After paying our respects, we just drove around Tainan for some potential places to visit. We rested back at the apartment, mom and I went to pick up a rental car. Last thing we did was go to the high school my grandfather, mom's side, was the first principal of (which is also the high school my mom went to). She spoke with some of the teachers there, but since they were speaking in Chinese I just spent time taking pictures.

Again, what I said about being bossy - feel free to disregard my character's advice and be an edgy loose cannon who plays by his own rules and such.

Thoughts

1) Is the Giant on Medicball's radar?

2) did it fall off the radar? Ie, being magical and on said radar If it fell off it probably died.

3) with this telepathy going around, who exactly hears it?

4) more thinking. . Mach speed is pretty Damn fast. That would probably have killed any of the players were it aimed at them. Although Medicball could survive depending on what it damaged on his body. As long as his processors and memory survived he would still be repairable.

edited 19th Jul '14 4:14:15 AM by StephanReiken

More driving around, this time through some more mountains towards the East coast. Along the way we did have an interesting conversation where my mom told this story where there was an exhibit on Olmec artifacts, having writing on then in a langauge that baffled scientists for decades.....until a random visitor managed to do so ten years ago. This visitor turned otu to be a Taiwanese engineer who studied ancient Chinese languages as a hobby, specifically from the San dynasty (don't know the exact spelling). As it turns out, the language on those Olmec artifacts were, infact, San Dyanasty writings. This means that the Chinese had a hand in creating an early Latin American civilization.

Anyway, the first real stop was at a beach where it looked like the beginnings of a temple was being built. Only interesting this were the lion statues at the shrine being blindfolded, which I don't whether has any real significance or not, and a random dude screaming at the ocean. The latter is easily explained as aboriginals having the tradition of "singing" to the ocean for good luck, meaning this dude was a descendant.

We arrived at our motal soon after in Taidong, again up in some mountains. After settling in, we next went to this small aboriginal village. Fislrst involved a wedding ritual where the husband pushed the wife on a swing and them caught in midswing. My sister and I volunteered since we were the only visitors there. Next was archery, and me having not held and actual bow that was not a toy since high school, I was a pretty shot. Two out of three bolts that I fired hit the board, and one actually hit the target! :D Last thing we did was pound some millet and prepare. Would have been more activities, but we were the only visitors there and it was a very slow day.

The motel we are currently staying at has hot springs, but I decided not do it because I did not feel comfortable about using one, especially the public one and especially after nearly burning myself trying to shower myself, which the shower is connected to said hot springs source. My mom and sister wanted to try out the private one, but the a thunderstorm hit and it started raining. Pity.

edited 19th Jul '14 4:08:45 PM by UdtheImp

There's a book called 1421 that deals extensively with this theory and also postulates that Chinese treasure fleets managed to build settlements all across the New World and Australia. It's kind of a controversial book, since the author's hypothesis is supported by some dodgy evidence and circular reasoning, but it's still an interesting read if only as food for thought.

(also, people always forget about Polynesians when it comes to early trans-oceanic navigation. Those guys were pretty badass as well .)

edited 19th Jul '14 9:57:54 AM by Locoman

My sister said all polynesians originated from Taiwan, and after they landed they were mostly stranded where they were due to lack of materials.

From my Maori bits in Social Studies, I believe that is correct.

Once again, spent the day driving. Before that, my mom managed to soak herself this morning, and it did wonders for her physically, especially her legs. Anyway, nthing really interesting on the four hour trip to Hualien, other than two things. First, my mom took us to a random shop where they sell these seeds called bin lan wrapped in these special leaves that are stuck together by plaster. The combination of these causes them to turn blood red when chewed, but people still buy them for a minor high. Perfectly legal and can be seen as a healthier alternative to tobacco, but its still addicitive. The only other thing was the marker for the Tropic of Cancer border.

After checking into our hotel, we went to the Toroko National Park near Hualien. It is a rather large national park both my mom and sister went to before with various locations for exploration and photo ops. Its a beautiful place overall, but the only problem were moments where the road became single lane. For both sides of traffic. X( Anyway, tthe more interesting stops included a hydroelectric plant, a large bridge with two small pagodas on either side, a path to a long rope bridge, and a temple at the top with a very tall tower near the park's town.

Lastly, we went to a cncert that was the second day of an event that celebrated Taiwanese aboriginal culture. All the performances were aweseome, but two stuck out most with me. First was this interpretive dance which showed how two warring aboriginal tribes set aside their difference when the armies of Qing dynasty invaded to wipe them all out. All the men were killed, and the women from both tribes reconciled to rebuild their culture. The second was the performance of the Brunan tribe, which actually was the tribe we did demostrations with the day before. Their dance even had hammers and pestel to mimic grinding millet. XD

Still need to know a couple things for my post :p

Well I can partially answer the telepathy question; Jake's only directing it at people in the group, so people like the Bloodhounds wouldn't be able to hear it.

I guess it's up to you if the thought-speak affects Medicball (thought-speak apparently works on at least one robotic race so there's that)

edited 22nd Jul '14 7:51:04 PM by Locoman

Then there is no reason why he wouldn't hear it, his kind, though not him specifically, have ESP weapons. Though Its implied that unless a bot is specifically good with ESP, ESP based weapons come with a lot of help.

But would day that telepathy would work on him, assuming your telepathy works on non-telepaths.

Very little today, mostly due to a typhoon hitting the country and my mom being rightfully cautious about going out and renting another car. Before then, had breakfast and played some games with the grandson of my family friend, including air hockey off the kid's tablet and some Go. I lost both games.

Then me and my mom went to meet two people she knew. The first was this old ladies who knew my mom's father back during his principal days. Had the cut the meeting short becuase the alley her house was located in was small that our medium sized rental car blocked traffic. The second meeting was with another woman my mom knew, again maybe a friemd of her parents. No idea really.

Will try to let Dobermaxx engage the Titan if tick sweat ammo fired from his Garapata pistol from close up can work.

I'd like to see the Titan scratch his face like mad.

Today was a bit busier than usual. After breakfast we went to the town Yenshui, the first location being the middle school my grandfather taught before moving to Tainan proper and buildingnhis own middle school there. The trip was mostly about the book collection my grandfather left at the school after he went to start his own school. I took pictures for archival purposes.

We then had lunch with a friend of my mom'm at this quaint noodle place before heading toward the friend's house to pick up some photocopies of a book detailing food combinations for wellness. Next was a scenic walk along a river that directly empties out into the ocean, the sights including a temple that was once a tiny little building to become a large complex, and a rather large and impressive mural. After stoppimg at a tiny little movie theatre with various old Japanese film equipment and then a small place that sells chilled soybean curd with various topping, we went to a barber shop where my mom ended up getting a haircut. Coincidentally, I've been to that place before back in '07.

Lastly, watched part of the LEGO movie with the grandson, but could not finish due to his bedtime.

Hrrrm, something tells me having Aang along is going to complicate many missions in the future...excellent.

For dinner tonight, the metal broker friend invited us and friends of my mom over to this nice restaurant I remember eating from seven years ago. Its basically a slaughterhouse for fish, and you can actually choose which ones to eat and they will freshly kill it for you! :D

Oh wow, you brought it back to life! This is amazing!

I'm...probably not joining this time, but if it's okay can I still join the discussion?

Absolutely not.

OH NO, MY PLANS ARE RUINED.

Seriously though, I missed you guys. I actually got bummed out that Season 3 got cancelled, even though at that point I pretty much lost interest in the RP, because it had this set-up and it intrigued me and I wanted to see where it goes, even just how it ends...and then it just stops.

BUT NOW IT'S BACK and just in time for my mega crossover interest to resurface.

...Speaking of which I remembered I haven't finished my reread of Season 2.

Left Tainan in the late morning and took the high speed rail to Taipei. At the station we met up with this old couple that are friends of my mom. We had lunch at the train station.......which is a part of the station I have never been to before. And let me tell you, this portion, call Breeze, was amazing! The best way to describe it would be a combination of Grand Central and a vertically aligned shopping mall.

The restaurant we ate at was one of food court type deals, and we had Indian specifically. The dish I had was honestly so spicy I was sweating as if we were standing out in the sun. The couple gave my mom a book which talks about Taiwan's progress for 60 years from 1949, and let her read some books of massaging and accupressure. After lunch we left the couple and took a taxi to a friend we stayed at earlier. Dinner was not that interesting aside from the restaurant having some seriously obese looking goldfish. Lastly, I played Kingdom Hearts 3 D while my mom and her friend continued to talk.