[OOC] The Great Hall

[Peleus]

Duncan's gonna be a lone wolf.

But, it's for good reasons. Do awesome on your last classes, and congrats on being close to graduation!

[DukeofTuring]

Sorry to hear it Cloudpiroth. Good luck with the last stretch.

A more pragmatic problem: we need *someone* who can heal magically in the party. Can we keep Lethario on as an NPC?

[Admin Dirk]

we'd better hope this dragon has a prisoner in his lair. A cleric prisoner. A female, cleric prisoner. A cute, female, cleric prisoner. A very grateful, cute, female, cleric prisoner.

[rngrbob]

Sorry to hear that as well Cloudpiroth, hope you the best in your endeavors. :,(

I know you guys need a healer in the party, do to the fact that Saladmuffin dropped out without no warning at the beginning. An with Couldpiroth bowing out as well you guys are two healers down. I will see though what I can do and may keep him as an NPC healer or have you guys found some healing aids (eg potions, healer kits and the like) or may have you guys run across a healer though hehe alright.

[rngrbob]

On another note I'm wondering how many of you are going to school (college, university etc etc)? Just wondering is all.

[Admin Dirk]

Not me.

I suspect I've been out of school longer than most of you have been alive.

[Peleus]

I'm back in school. I recently returned to school to pursue an MA in Writing and Publishing. For my undergrad, I did management and psychology, so this represents something of a dream path rather than a practical one. LOL! (I worked retail management for years and realized it was a soul-sucking profession. No offense if any of you are retail managers. )

[Admin Dirk]

Good luck on your Master's pursuits!

My MS was several presidents ago.

[DukeofTuring]

Originally Posted by dirkoth

Not me.

I suspect I've been out of school longer than most of you have been alive.

Dirkoth took up mining in the big gold rush back in '49, and has never looked back.

Originally Posted by dirkoth

Good luck on your Master's pursuits!

My MS was several presidents ago.

Originally Posted by dictionary.com

sev·er·al/ˈsev(ə)rəl/
Adjective:

More than two but not many.

So I guess that's technically true when referring to Lincoln.

As for me, college graduate (mathematics) currently looking for jobs while applying to graduate programs as a backup/second choice.

[DukeofTuring]

Originally Posted by Peleus

I'm back in school. I recently returned to school to pursue an MA in Writing and Publishing. For my undergrad, I did management and psychology, so this represents something of a dream path rather than a practical one. LOL! (I worked retail management for years and realized it was a soul-sucking profession. No offense if any of you are retail managers. )

As someone who has worked retail under managers: Yes, that seems like a god-awful job. Being below management in all of my work to date, I can say that although many of us hate and fear your level of management, we also empathize with and pity you Horrible places to work, don't go back

[Peleus]

Originally Posted by DukeofTuring

As someone who has worked retail under managers: Yes, that seems like a god-awful job. Being below management in all of my work to date, I can say that although many of us hate and fear your level of management, we also empathize with and pity you Horrible places to work, don't go back

Oh, I'm not going back. I'm job hunting right now too--I worked at Borders Books when it went under--and I could probably walk into a lot of retail stores and get a job. Maybe even get a salary position again. But I can't bring myself to do it. The thought of going back to work endless hours again for little money--sure it's salary, but when you break down the 80+ hours you work weekly to an hourly rate, you're barely making more than some of the hourly associates--it fills me with dread.

So, now I'm looking at positions with local independent publishing houses--I live in Chicago, so there's quite a few. But because my resume is all retail and customer service, I may have to dress myself up, show a little leg, and unbutton the top button of my shirt and hope they like a hairy chest. So far, it hasn't proven too helpful ... LOL! And, I've been sending off my writing. I've had one short screenplay excerpt published in a local literary journal here in Chicago, and I met a lot of really cool people at AWP who all expressed interest in my work. I'm writing a lot more now, so I have more work to send. Unfortunately most of the places that accept short work only pay in contributor's copies. It's not lucrative, but it builds platform for later. I've written two screenplays, and I'm just about done with the first draft of an urban fantasy novel, so I'm hoping the grunt work now will give me connections later. It's all about living the dream, right? LOL!

But yeah, I feel your pain on the job hunt. It's hard these days to find a decent job that's not hourly peon work. Graduate programs are a good option. Most of them will have a fellowship program to be a teaching assistant or on-campus office help. If you can get accepted into it, you'll get a per-semester/quarterly stipend in a lot of cases. It's not a lot of pay, but it helps to buy food and pay for gas. Hopefully you'll find something! The economy is slowly looking up, so maybe that will mean more jobs for all of us.

[Admin Dirk]

If you are decent at writing in a logical manner (ie, you can write a policy or email that can be read easily), if you can stand in front of people and teach/present information, and you can work with powerpoint, may I suggest the Safety Arena?

Whether in field safety, engineering, ergonomics, or regulatory compliance, the US desperately needs safety folks in most jobs... the pay is pretty good, honestly, the hours not bad, and the job isn't hard.

[DukeofTuring]

Good luck with the writing. Have you got anything online? I'm curious.

Personally dunno anything about safety work, but it sounds like a good gig. But f you wanna write, make sure you've got a backup plan that doesn't suck (not that I'm speaking from personal experience ).

[Peleus]

I'll have to look into the safety field. I actually worked with American Airlines for five years as a flight attendant where I was trained to evacuate a full 767 in under 90 seconds. Maybe that would give me a leg up in the competition for a position. Thanks for the suggestion!

As for a backup plan, with an MA, I can teach in most 2-year colleges. And, of course as I said above, there are independent publishers--or, maybe even jobs in one of the big six publishers--that I can go for. I'm also toying with the idea of starting an online literary journal of my own, one geared toward sci-fi/fantasy, but with a heavy literary bent (so no fan fiction, Mary Sue stories, etc.). Not that it will pay me a salary, but that could boost me into a good paying position in the publishing industry. And, I'll probably put in the extra time and get an MFA, which opens up the possibility of teaching at the 4-year university level. I'm hoping all that will be enough. But, who knows. LOL!

And, of course, there's my writing. Maybe this novel I'm working on will be my ticket to a J. K. Rowling Cinderella story of my own. LOL! (But, I'm a realist. Doesn't mean I can't still hope, right?)

I do have a blog that I just started--as in started just a couple weeks ago after being told I should have one to build my platform for getting an agent and possibly publication. There's not much there yet, but I have two posts--a piece I wrote for an in-class exercise this past quarter, and one of my attempts at poetry (notice I say attempt... ). I'm still trying to figure out what I really want to put up there. I'll post more there, of course. Anyway, here's the link: http://pephredo.wordpress.com/

[rngrbob]

Okay Peleus and dirkoth I was just curious on who else in the group that is going to school currently . That's good dirkoth I too went to school and tried to get a degree in BA in Visual Communications. That was two presidents ago myself. That turned out not to be as successful since the market is saturated with graphic artists/designers, an etc in the Vis Comm field.

LoL that's funny and good one DukeofTuring, making dirk older then dirt lmao. Sorry dirk I had to :P hehe. Anyways I know how is too with the job market since I worked for McDonald's for over three years :P yay not lol. I quiet that since I didn't want to deal with their BS anymore and my hours where cut to less then 35 hours (20, -15 hours a week most weeks ). With that said I too need to look for another not one at a burger joint lol. I may have to show some chest hair as well though I hope that it isn't taken the wrong way hehe. An you don't really do that except sell who you are as person an how you can be part of the "team". That's cool Peleus, I like to write for a living to, though like you I'm a realist as well . Yeah good luck on your writing though Peleus.

We will get into the next chapter here soon okay. Oh you guys gain 1,000 exp for the first chapter and 2d10 plus two zeros for role play exp alright.