Mud @ MindSay 
game
For those of us that are 35 and over, going to college meant a lot of things.
Freedom.
Parties!
New experiences.
New friends.
Late night study sessions.
Intense school spirit!
Preparing ourselves for the future.
Along the way, we encounter the things we never thought we'd see:
Cheap, cheap pizza.
The value of a dollar. Or even 50 cents!
The joy of sleeping in on a day with no classes, and still technically calling it 'being at school'.
Ditching a lecture.
The beauty and simplicity of ramen!
How strong friendships from high school really are.
And then there are the things we never knew existed:
The Internet
The Outside World
My freshman year in college was a tumultuous one. I was away from home, in a school that I really didn't choose, and I was away from all of my friends who were still at home for the most part. I had to start over. The classes were overwhelming, it seemed, trying to make it to everywhere on time and get everything done on time was a monumental task in itself, let alone absorb the material. I did start to make some new friends on the floor in the dorms, and we bonded pretty well. Well enough that two of them eventually became my roommates for a time over the course of my university experience.
But the stress of everything weighed in much heavier, and faster, than I could ever have anticipated. My grades started to suffer. My pride and joy up to this point was disintegrating in front of me. And for a time, I honestly didn't care. I still felt alone.
One of the guys that I am still friends with, introduced me to a new thing on the blossoming Internet back then - before web pages were tossed around and created like confetti, before Flash animation and 4 different browsers, before spam and viruses via attachments, before newbies were called nOObs, before AOL or Google or MSN, before even 56k dialup speeds, the Internet was a very quiet place - except for these hot spots of gaming and interaction called MUDs and MUSHes. And some were called MOOs. Not kidding.
MUD meant Multi-User Dungeon (or Dimension, depending on who you talked to) and was a text-only game based on the popular Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. There were others out there that based their creations in different genres - some of their names sound so foreign nowadays. SneezyMUD. ApocalypseMUD. JediMUD (for Star Wars fans). But the premise was the same. People (college students, mostly) from around the country, and even in some cases, from areas of the world where access was available, would jump online and interact with their environment in a game. People would group together, take down creatures, gather gold and experience, and move onto more challenging areas. If your character died, you hoped that someone could guard your body from looters or that someone could grab it and bring it back to the (now called) respawn point. And of course, you chat. You get to know people. You become friends.
MUSH meant Multi-User Shared Habitat (or Hallucination, depending on who you talked to) and was also a text-only game, but in this case, it was more of the peaceful, create-your-own world section of the Internet. Some were based off of a general concept, others had specific themes. Again, some of these places sound foreign now. TinyTIM. GlobalMUSH. PernMUSH. After5. You would get a limited amount of credits to create rooms and objects, and since it was all text-based, with the exception of some people's creative ASCII graphics, you had to really use your imagination. The nice thing about the credit system was, if you created a lot, you got more credits. They were free. FREE! Because college students are poor, and there was no way that any of these places could even conceive charging a nickel for this type of interaction. The infrastructure just wasn't there. Also, almost all of these places were hosted on university servers. Sometimes someone would sneak it into a corporate mainframe, but still, each and every one of these places was free. Just needed to know the IP address to TELNET into.
People flocked to these places as well, those that didn't like the whole gaming and competition aspect of it, or those who preferred to socialize instead. Some did both MUDs and MUSHes, in many cases multiple ones, and those people were Internet Addicts. I became one of those. I had a character on Apocalypse, and Global. I found out about Global as it was just getting started from a friend on Apocalypse who was 'hanging up her sword and shield' and settling down to become a wizard (admin) on Global, to help them start up.
Global became a home away, from the home away from home. I spent hours on there, coding, creating, polishing, experimenting, perfecting. One had to learn the coding system of the MUSH in order to operate, and once I started to get the hang of it through the help of my wizard friend, I asked how I could repay her kindness. She said:
"Help others. Teach them what I've taught you." And I did.
I created my perfect area, my sanctuary, complete with some interactive items to make it more 'real'. I would meet people from all over the country. Flirt a lot. Fall in love. Fall out of love. And the time slipped away, as did my grades. I went from being an A-B student to being a C-D student in the matter of one semester. I didn't care about my finals. I just wanted to be online, basking in the warm glow of the white-on-black background 15" CRT and my friends from far-flung places.
Global is still around, (telnet mildew.org 4201) for those who have a good TELNET emulator (the one with Windows is kinda hokey) and an account on there. I don't know how easy it is to create an account, but it's still free, even after 15+ years of being online.
After that disastrous semester, I came back, on probation, but with a renewed sense of what I needed to do. Time spent on Global was limited to when I could do it. A treat instead of the main course. I pulled up my grades, graduated and here I am today, reliving the memories of the days spent in the early Digital World. But what is very interesting to me is to see how far things have come since those days:
ICQ
Yahoo! IM
AIM
IMVU
Second Life
D&D Online
WoW
I talked to a couple of my old friends since I've been out and they've been wondering why I've changed my ways. I could get away with it, but I'm tired of worrying about getting in anymore trouble than I already have thus far. Maybe I'm getting older and wiser? I sure hope not. Regardless I'm trying to be even more focused on the things that are important to me than I have been in the past. Not to say that I wasn't focused on them, but I wasted a good bit of time and energy and money on things that didn't produce any sort of positive result in the long run.
Live and learn, and live some more.
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Dixie currently feels:
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Blog #13
Obsessive Idea...
I didn't end up getting the injection today.
The posters all said "girls aged 17 and 18" - I'm 17, but I'm a month too young - Ash is 18, but she's a month too old... So neither of us ended up getting needled.
I'd taken Tiger with me too - the little pocket-sized cuddly cat that I always squeeze in my hand when I'm having any type of needle. He's seen me through around 10 needles so far.
Language was a proper shit lesson though.
All we did was talk over commentaries. Errr, I know how to write a fucking commentary.
Then I got told I need to have my 1st draft of my coursework done on Thursday.
What, I'm going to hand in a blank page? Wouldn't surprise me.
Shelly had an ICT exam, so I didn't get to spend much time with her - nor did I see her in Photography.
I still got to spend a lot of time with Ashleigh though. We went to the LRC and I showed her my website homepage I made for the 2nd half of the Media Studies coursework.
She showed me the plans and logos she'd drawn up - all good of course.
It was then that I got the idea that I've been obsessing over ever since I thought of it.
For the film trailer, I got a new an idea for another clip.
As Ash agreed with me - it's better to have too much than not enough.
I went with the ideal that all villains have something bad that happens to them before they are spakred to go off and commit their wrongdoings.
Abigail is abused as a child, and that's shown in the drawings, and some of the clips beforehand - but I had an idea for a clip where Jonathan shoves her in the legs as she's walking - with his cane, thus causing her to fall flat on her face into a mud puddle.
In effect, it's the chance for me to get dirty for the film trailer - like I wanted to, so I get mud instead of blood. And, all the things I've made Ash do (technically she volunteered, but still), she has a way to get back at me.
I just hope I'm not TOO pathetic when it comes to the 'raise-your-head-wipe-your-eyes-and-groan'. :)
I CANNOT stop thinking about this idea.
I'm even planning on tilling the land over with a spade/fork/shovel - then sloshing water over it to create the perfect man-made mud puddle.
I'll have to locate a more secluded section of the green outside - I'd hate to have some randomer walking by and seeing us filming it. :)
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I saw Dianne today - which is a change, I don't usually see her on Tuesdays.
I just got hyper off my tits - took one of the tissues to wipe my glasses - THEN ATE IT.
And I was just ranting on about all my weird quirks, like enjoying being slimed three times.
And of course I included all of my unneeded squishy and grim details - like how woodlice have thick green guts - and what slime feels like in your underwear.
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I came home - made myself some chicken burgers with cheese spread inside them - WHICH WAS SO MUCH NICER THAN I IMAGINED.
Came upstairs - vegged out on Guitar Hero III for two hours - got pissed off with it because I kept missing ONE note on Metal Heavy Lady.
GOD DAMN IT, I WILL GET MY 3RD EXPERT 100%!
Now I'm just winding down before bed.
I don't need to go into college tomorrow until late on - so I can have a sleep in - dad said he's going to give me a lift there, so no faffing on with buses.
I'm on the phone to Shelly - as I do with my usual nightly ritual.
She came out of her exam proper hyper off her tits. She's pleased with herself, so I hope she's done as well as she thinks she's done. :)
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Dixie currently feels:
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Blog #31
Banana Blowjobs!
Ah, Dixie has been looking forward to today for a while now.
So, she awakens at half 8!
She showers, she cleans, she hoovers. She heads off to ASDA and purchases Pepsi, crisps, bananas and a boquet of flowers.
It be Valentine's Day, so she does not look out of place with such an item.
Though she purchased them from the normal flowers rather than the Valentine's bouquets.
Paying £6.50 for her five items - she returns the iPod headphones to her ears and walks back home, bouncing up the kerbs and diving off them on the other side.
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And this is where the divider is and the third person stops. :)
I took my Wii downstairs - set up the World Tour stage - both guitars, drums and the mic.
I set off on an epic 6-song lead guitar Expert gig - only to have Ashleigh turn up halfway through it.
This was fine of course - I do believe it was the luck she provided by turning up in a pink shirt, neon pink trousers and a cowboy hat that enabled me to reach my 5th lead guitar World Tour Expert 100%.
What's My Age Again - 100%, lead guitar, Expert.
A very nice addition to my community scores.
I was so pleased, I threw my guitar on the floor and sort of roared at it.
Ash was amused. :)
Shelly appeared shortly after - not bearing anything pink asides from her Playstion 2.
And she'd brought along her two guitars.
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For the next hour or so we sat around playing World Tour and eating the crisps I'd got.
They were on offer - the Walkers 'do us a flavour' winners - the ones you vote for on the website.
I got the Crispy Duck and the Builder's Breakfast flavours.
I've had the Crispy Duck ones before - they're lush. The others taste like really peppery smokey bacon flavour. Ash didn't like them, so I ended up finishing her bag whilst she nommed the duck packet instead.
We'd agreed to film some scenes for the trailer - OH THERE'S NOT MANY LEFT TO GO NOW... - so we had to head up on to Eston before we lost the light.
We looked so fucking weird - here's me: shirt and tie, black trousers, Converse, immensley customised blazer.
Here's Ash: full suit, jacket, trousers and black tie, holding the walking stick and the boquet of flowers on her lap.
Here's Shelly: Pretty normal, jeans, cardigan - walking alongside us. :)
We only actually got weird looks from the wankers on the 64 and 64A buses going past us.
Honestly, one of them - every single fucking person on the bus was staring at us - it was so bloody creepy.
We were going to Eston cemetery to film a section of our trailer.
Jonathan is a lonely widower - so our trailer opens with a clip of him laying flowers on his wife's grave.
We actually didn't know the person who's grave it was but... The location was pretty good - secluded, beside a really buckled-over tree that you have to duck to walk under.
The clip itself looks pretty mint though - it's one we're all really pleased with.
It's good we did it in one go too - you can't really take flowers back from a grave.
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Since we were in Eston, we went over to my nana's bungalow.
She wanted to meet Shelly and Ash before they came to stay with me during March.
I basically just sat there and drank about ten pints of blackcurrant juice whilst Shelly sat in silence and Ash had a rant on about her car to my nana. :)
We walked home another way - over the rec field.
WORST FUCKING IDEA EVER.
It's snowed recently, but most of it's melted now. The rec field has paths - but they dip - they make really deep trenches that fill with water and mud after rain/snow/ice.
I couldn't push Ash over the actual field - as wheelchair and grass just doesn't work.
So we ended up walking through this big fuck off semi-frozen mud puddle. It was alright for Ash - Shelly and I couldn't fucking feel our feet afterwards.
The water was up to our shins and my socks were full of mud by the time we got to the other side of it.
Still, it was pretty funny - especially when I got Ash's wheels caught in a fucking pothole. The whole reverse-back-turn-around-and-walk-on-the-other-side keruffle.
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Upon returning home we filmed another scene out in the garden - another chance to cover Ash in fake blood.
I think she's getting pretty sick of it now. :)
This was a re-do of a scene we did before - having to be re-done due to the issue of having BIG FUCK OFF PURPLE SLIPPERS in the background.
Pmsl, not the perfect fucking ambience for a slasher horror film like. :)
We then retreated inside - set up Shelly's beloved pink PS2 and thrashed away some Guitar Hero 2.
Guitar Hero 2 is my favourite in the series - and we unlock bass guitars for Shelly by doing the co-op mode.
It's annoying though - due to the dodgy hammer-on/pull-off system, there's some songs I just CAN'T do on Expert. Guitar Hero 2 reduces me to Hard; and as I continually say:
"BUT HARD IS FOR PUSSIES..."
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We ordered a meal deal from Riverside Pizza - pizza, parmo, garlic bread, donner meat and chips.
Roxxorz - we shared this out; I even gave Ash some of the parmo - and I no like sharing parmo.
She didn't like it much anyway - it's too greasy for her tastes.
Nice one, so I hogged a half parmo to myself.
The garlic bread proper tasted of cardboard too - so I had a bit of that. :P
(Yes, I am partial to a bit of cardboard. :P)
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Ah ha ha ha!
Then came half 8 - the time of night I had been looking forward to ALL day, ALL week, even.
Time for Dixie's dare card game!
We'd made a few new ones prior to this, shuffled them up then we assembled downstairs to let it all begin.
Oh, the anarchy that ensued was just fucking amazing. :D
We start off with Ashleigh drinking tomato sauce from the bottle, Dixie imitating a chicken - incredibly badly - and Shelly screaming "I LOVE TO WEAR PINK LEATHER" after everything she said. :)
We had our fair share of blindfolding with parcel tape - Ash leading me to the bathroom, spinning me round every five seconds so I was blundering about all over the sodding place.
Then came the group challenge cards - MY WORD.
And Shelly only went and drew the card that said we all had to go without our shirts for five turns.
Oddly, I wasn't embarrassed. I think I would have been if I were the only one.
So there we all were - competing with each other to see who could drink a glass of water the fastest - only in our trousers and our bras.
(I also had to wear my wet socks from the previous escapades during this - and it's not easy to hold a glass with socks on your hands!)
Even so, Ash finished first, I finished second - Shelly lost, so Ash drenched her with what was left in her glass.
Returning back - we blindfolded Ash again with the parcel tape before mixing up a glassful of cinnamon, basil and tap water.
She claimed it tasted of fireworks. Lmfao, she's tasted fireworks?
Not long after - she drew the card where the other players mixed up a random food for her to eat.
Being an evil cow like I am - I took a slice of the garlic bread, a piece of cheese, chocolate mousse and tomato sauce. Ash hated it - her face was just beyond priceless. :)
The random eating challenges continued - Shelly ate a spoonful of butter - and almost threw up on me afterwards. This was followed not long after by a mouthful of paper.
Ash was the one who chose the card to eat a leaf - and she had it stuck in her teeth for the rest of the game. :)
I seemed to draw the acting cards the most - the hopping around like a rabbit, bounding around the room yelling "I'm a pretty pony", the animal impersonations and the 'shout a swearword of your choice as loud as you can'.
...BOLLOCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I heard the most manical laugh from Ash when Shelly drew the challenge card: 'Through The Fire & Flames on Expert practice - hit more than 55%, or you'll be drenched'.
I can hit 72%, so that wouldn't be hard for me. We actually dropped it to Hard, but she still failed with 49%.
So Ash tipped the rest of the mineral water over her. :)
This was prior to me dropping ice cubes down her jeans and Ash rubbing Pritt Stick all over her tongue.
Ash truly did get the worst cards though.
Hilarious for me - but they didn't seem it for her. :)
One card involved us pinning her to the floor and torturing her for 2 minutes in total darkness.
Tickle torture mainly - but then I started licking her face and sticking a wet finger in her ears.
Another - she shoved her socks in her mouth and sang the national anthem.
(I actually have this one on video. :D)
Unlucky Ash also drew the 'Allow another player to spit into your mouth' card.
Of course, I took the role of 'another player' - I really spat a load into her mouth too. :)
The best cards truly were around 3/4 of the way in.
I chose card #14 - my personal favourite.
I had to peel a banana half way, insert it into my jeans through the fly - and ask either Ash or Shelly to give me a banana blowjob. :)
We tossed a coin, and the unlucky one got it again - so Ash got on her knees - and she was blindfolded at the time - sucked on my banana. :)
I thrusted it into her mouth too - WHOOSH, PELVIC THRUST.
(Lmfao, was it wrong to be aroused by this? :D)
Though I had to do this too - only not as bad - another card went a similar way - only Ash had the banana in her hands. ...Still. Bananas are a bit strange to suck on. :D
The hilarity continued with Guitar Hero song charades, Shelly forcing Dixie to hold her head under the tap, toe-licking, belly-blarting, drinking milk from a bowl with no hands, hula-dancing, moonwalks, spanking (WHICH REALLY FUCKING HURT...), Shelly dragging Dixie upstairs and brushing her teeth for her and earwax eating. :D
I also managed to give Ashleigh THIRTY TWO wedgies in a row!
This was the act of tugging them, letting go... THEN TUGGING THEM AGAIN.
Thirty-two times. :)
Tee hee hee, she really cried out a few times.
I'm so sadistic. Mwah ha ha.
We have vowed to play this game again in the future. :)
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The night was finished with some midnight Resident Evil.
Going with an idea this time of SAVING THE GAME SOMETIMES - I didn't die. :D
(But if I had done, there wouldn't have been any faffing on with starting from the beginning.)
Ash really is jumpy - she jumped a foot in the air because I was SHOOTING A ZOMBIE.
I'd understand if it'd popped out or broke through a window, but no - I was SHOOTING IT.
I was in fits for the next five minutes. :)
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So to end this rather long blog, here's a few photos:
Our shoes after the puddle walking.
Two Guitar zeroes. :D
Ashleigh approves. :D
Too much love
falling from bloated skies
floods the mind and corrupts
the soul
wasted
on his dirt
decreasing the value
of your heart
in his jaded eyes.
You are only making mud.
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