Life has been good recently.  Halloween is just around the corner, making me very excited (I've heard that Quorinosa and Naiades are supposed to have some special quests available starting Halloween morning) and Jack-o-lanterns are popping up all over the place.  In fact, I'm thinking about celebrating by handing out candy to fellow PoDD members tomorrow.

 PoDD has gotten to be more active lately, which is happy news for me.  When I first joined there wasn't any activity at all; in fact, I was considering quitting when I came started playing this year.  But then Justmejoe, Peregrinfig and all the rest started to make the clan more active again.  Now we're having a contest to see who can find the most blacksmith tokens (which I've basically lost, as I sold all my blacksmith tokens to the Soupir Emporium).  It's been fun, though, and I'm enjoying the activeness (which I've never found in a clan before).

  I just recieved a letter from the new ruler of NEaB, Gracie13.  To tell the honest truth, I did not vote for Gracie this time.  Justmejoe was running for Lord as well, and as he's been a good Clan leader, I placed my vote for him. (But secretly, in my heart of hearts, Justmejoe will always be the second sexiest person in NEaB after Nasrudin.) However, I also know that Gracie is a good citizen and will probably make a wonderful Lady, too (as good as Iya, I hope ^^)

Anyways, Gracie is holding a Halloween party in her throne room to mark the beginning of her rein. I will definitely make it (provided I'm not too busy tomorrow) and of course, I will be going in costume!  After all, I've always wanted to dress up as a man! 

A while ago, I discovered a very odd ocean in the middle of Nowhere.  As I was sailing around trying to figure out what to make of it, I hit a sharp rock and made a hole in the bottom of my boat.  What luck.  Unfortunately, I had left on my journey without any wood, and so I was forced to sail to a small island, bailing out the water with an empty tin can.

 Luckily, the island had a few palm trees on it, from which I was able to cut some wood to fix my boat.  Afterwards, unable to resist an adventure, I decided to poke around.

 Well, what an adventure.  It took me a grand total of 9 steps to circle the island.  Another thing I noticed was that in the middle of it sat a stranded adventurer and a queer little camp which he had set up around himself.  Now, for some reason, this fellow was unable to speak, and just sat on his Island looking rather mute.  Whenever I attempted to engage in intelligent conversation with him, he just ended up looking rather mute.  In the end I gave up talking to him and sailed off, careful to avoid any more sharp rocks.

Several months later, I heard that several new Bug fixers had been appointed to correct any problems I might have in neighboring islands.  This reminded me of the man on the little island.  Maybe they had sent a psychologist over to him, and his speech problem had been fixed.  So I made my way over (which was much easier to do, as all I needed to was take the ferry to Paradise Island and sail a little ways from there) and sure enough, I was able to talk to him.

But alas, I wish I hadn't.  Mr. Hanks-as he is called-is one of the most disturbed, talkative, and DEMANDING individuals I've ever seen.  After playing a riddle game with me, he demanded 2 Dragon's breath cocktails (one for him and his life-size voodoo doll, Mr. Bobbins) and sent me off to look high and low for ingredients.  Currently I'm on a neverending search for glass bottles (which Mr. Hanks apparently uses for his Long-distance dating escapades).

I didn't mention that he gives out horrible prizes, did I? For getting the cocktail, he handed me a bloody T-shirt (no profanity intended) which is too tight for me to wear anyways.  I don't know exactly what I'll get for the glass bottles, but if it's Mr. Bobbin's head, I swear I'll kill him.  

Here's my final word of advice for young adventurers: Stay away from Reef Ocean, at least until you've matured enough to keep your head on your shoulders.  I'm currently writing this while searching for the final bottle, and have gotten my boat pierced about 30 times.  Just letting you know beforehand, so that you won't go insane.

This morning, I stepped outside to do my pre-adventuring stretches.  For some reason, everything seemed a bit...brighter.  At first I couldn't figure out what was different, but then I looked down at my feet and noticed that the grass seemed greener.  And it was-my eyes weren't failing me!  Later I  ran down to the forums to see if anything new had been posted, and sure enough, a gardener had stopped by to change the look of the grass-everywhere in NEaB, as a matter of fact.  I don't know his name or where he comes from, but I sure would like to thank him for the lawn improvements. 

 Before, I'd never really thought much about the way the grass looked-the neat turf always seemed fine to me-but now that I can see actual blades of grass poking through my toes, I'm beginning to enjoy it.  Today I took an evening stroll around the North Part, and rolled down a hill several times just to enjoy the feeling of soft grass.

Another pleasant thing I discovered was that Croesy found a way to magically remove old entries from my journal.  You see, when the Lord (or Lady) closes down an island due to charges on misdemeanor, it is obviously useless to go back to that island to finish quests.  However, I usually write my journal entries in ink, which makes it impossible to remove them from my journal!  And as everything in my journal is neatly organized, it is a pain to flip through the pages and look at all those unresolved quests.

Well, Croesy wrote me a nice letter this morning, saying that he'd helped me clear out my journal of all the old quests.  This has left me feeling neater and much better (although I do hope he didn't read anything private in there...)