980203 - Business was a bit slow today, but at least that gave me an opportunity to finally catch up with my inventory. I do not know how many scrolls I've manufactured the last week, it must be several hundred of them. What do I mean by slow? That means, in my case, that my vendors sell for less than 15 k per day. Everything is measured on a relative scale you know. One of my suppliers brought me a batch of magical weaponry, some very nice pieces of machinery amongst it. The wholesale business is like that - some things you buy are useless and worthless, but most items are quite good, and every now and then you find a truly outstanding weapon. And, dear me, so much time wholesale business saves you. Since I've finally got some space to breathe, I've decided to outline my operation in Britain. I think I'll refrain from selling scrolls there, just selling runes and female armor initially. Speaking of female armor, another supplier reported the confirmed existence of *magical* female armor - I *must* have those in my shops - at any cost.

I had a very tenacious unwanted visitor in my Main Office's back yard today. A zombie walked up and started to groan like they do when they attack. Now I was sitting in my backroom scribing, and had no thought about interrupting my doings for a lowly undead. All such monsters usually go away after a while, since they cannot get to me. But this one wouldn't leave, it just stood there and groaned and moaned, irritating me. After about 5 minutes, I thought enough is enough and went out to kill it. I also wanted to test out just how good a fireball is after the last patch. It took me 3 Vas Flams to bring it down, and I'm an adept witch, killing small monsters sure is a loosing proposition financially. And to top it off, all it carried was a Wall of Stone scroll and a jawbone. Yippie-yey hooray, what a treasure - not!

980201 - My Island hopping kits are a tremendous success. I was all sold out when I logged on today, and had to spend a full hour and a half, creating 3 more. Oh if I only had three avatars each with six times my mana available, I would have a private mage tower in a few days. When I recall around like that, you all know that I use my time very sensibly. Now one recall into the spot, and three mark spells depletes much of my mana, but don't you for a second think I stand idle to wait for my mana to come back. I usually go to the local tailor-shop instead and make clothes for a few hundred gold pieces worth during this time. This money in turn is used to buy even more reagents if I happen to find any mage selling for instance black pearls or blood moss for say 5 gold pieces each. Oh yes, you find such prices quite often out on the island shops, now isn't that a little different from shopping in Britain or Vesper - eh? Sometimes I even squeeze out a few low-level scrolls and first and tailor a bit longer.

This new patch is really fun. I found a tanner today with a large spawn for the first time since the patch went into effect. I bought quite a number of hides, since I needed to replace some lingerie articles I was almost sold out on. Now where do you think the hides go if your backpack can't hold them - onto the floor of course :) Now that's not a big deal if you are *alone* in the shop as I was on this occasion, but if there are other players in the shop... So if you go into a tanner-shop next time and find the fur-trader sold out, and at the same time see *another* player standing there working from a huge pile of hides he selfishly bought... Just go over there and start tailoring from *his* pile - that ought to teach him a lesson - he can't even Recall away with his loot. Remember "Magic Arrows and Energy Bolts may break your avatar's bones, but words can't hurt you" - if someone is that inconsiderate and refuses to share - then he's got it coming to him, right? And that's probably not a person you would like to be your friend anyway in the first place, now is it? What do you mean by "Bitch"? It's Dr. Bitch to you....

980131 - What did I today? Oh nothing really, I marked 3 more complete sets of my Island Hopping kits plus maybe an odd dozen single runes. Then I scribed some 50 scrolls for my vendors, talked to a dozen of my customers outside my shop, and I also manufactured a couple of chairs for my Main Office. Not very interesting is it? Maybe not, but it sure makes me a *lot* of money. I need to increase my buffers, the individual affairs I do with my suppliers and my special customers tend to get larger and larger. This is of course much to my liking, since the larger my turn-over is, the larger my profit becomes, but the downside is that I must keep large cash reserves. A lot of people reading my diary have been asking me for loans, but they will find me a very difficult person to get a cash-credit from. Now why don't they have the cash in the first place themselves? Are they too lazy to work, or are they too unskilled in playing the game? If such is the case they will find my purse closed and tightly sealed. Very good friends who have helped me previously, or people in true need will, however, find me much more generous. Now if somebody reading this starts to think about which category he or she belongs to - then that person should ask himself these questions. "What have *I* done for Sandralene in the past?" and "Is the favor I've done her corresponding to what I ask from her now?" - just think about it! And just because I'm rich - I am *not* an NPC bank, and even if I was - I would surely like to take a look at the credit rating of a potential customer - just like in Real LifeÔ .

Now, about this new patch, or should I say series of patches... I sure love it. Not only does it castrate many of the lamers' doings, it doesn't hinder me one bit, quite the opposite. Now I can, for instance, scribe a complete 3rd or 4th circle of scrolls just like that [*snaps her fingers*], and guess what - I can scribe 7th! Actually even the logic behind this new patch that mana is spent when you scribe a scroll just like you were casting the spell appeals to my common sense - now what is a scroll more than a storage media for magical energy? The concept of using a scroll mixing the paper, the reagents and your personal mana for later use is really what it *should* have been all along IMHO. And we also got the added benefit that those people, recalling around tanner shops, buying 500 piles of hide at every stop, will get a nice big surprise the next time they try. I must sort out the logistics of my own bank vault, but I know, I'm a packrat, I will dispose some of the less wanted goods in some manner. Now everybody should be aware of the fact that there is a work-around to get in more *money* into your bank-vault even if it's full. If you cannot transfer coins from your backpack straight into your bank box, then give them to a banker - he can squeeze them in for you even if you can't. But all in all - these patches have made me really, really happy, even the houses have gotten better protection from bug exploiting thieves!

Other than this the day was uneventful by and large. I created two more copies of my Island hopping kit - those kits sell very, very well, and they are a true bargain for only 999. Best thing is, I include a promotional rune to my shop in Vesper in that set, that way the customers might come back for more, if nothing else to buy more Recall scrolls. I'm starting to learn the revised logistics about scribing very well already, and as I said, this patch is *good* if you play like me. Oh I threw those invalid Wind runes out of my shop inventory and my own private "transport central ", just by dropping them on the ground for some uninformed person to pick them up - taking away my trash for free so to speak. Sure enough, a scavenger picked them up in less than 10 seconds, I hope he liked them, maybe they'll catch a price as a "collector's object" someday - but I certainly don't do antiquities in my shop - I live by the very latest in fashion. The scavenger was very friendly though, asking me if I really didn't want them for re-marking... "Oh -please...", that would be like asking Christian Dior to work with second hand materials - it's a shame I did not have an emote "Icy stare - enough to trigger the Hell-freezes-over event" ready at that point :) But I saw this everywhere I went today, the rich and famous literally tossing their less valuable possessions into the street to make room in their safety deposit box for their really valuable goods. For instance, the rooftop of the bank in Nujel'm was so littered with lesser items that you could hardly see the roof itself. A good scavenger could make 1000s of gold pieces just by picking up our trash and selling to NPCs today.

tables is annoying enough. They do take a while to replace. The game master responding to my call sounded like he had explained this to a hundred persons before, that cheaters *can* enter you house to steal. I sure hope they fix this in a patch to come very soon now. I do not like losing pieces of my furniture at all, especially not to some lame cheaters.

Other than this, the day was rather uneventful. I've started to make market analysis of my Minoc operation. It actually works and gains me some profit, but the revenues from Vesper are still my main source of income. I do understand that people might not like to stand around and shoot the breeze at my vendor in Minoc since this is outside guard protected area, but Trianon obviously sees some customers. I'm slowly building up a number of scrolls in that shop too, no surprise it's the Recall scrolls that sells best. Speaking of Recall, I've managed to obtain a rune to Wind. Now I know that this is mainland, it's a secret labyrinth that can only be reached from a teleporter near Britain if and only if you are skilled enough mage (like me), but the city is surely fashionable and interesting enough to sell at my shop in Vesper. I'll try to test with a few at first. Some stupid nitwit has started selling runes 100 g.p. a piece, that's *not* an economically viable price, you will loose money if you sold it for that little money. I absolutely refuse to try to compete with that, but I've lowered my price to 150 nevertheless. I feel the end of the lucrative rune market in Vesper coming along very quickly now, better move over to my other merchandise, scrolls always sell well.

980127 - I bought my 4th house today, a training center. Eventually this will be my shop in Britain, but at the moment it's just sitting there as a deed in my bank-vault. You see I found one of those huts at the bargain price of 9.5 k and I simply couldn't resist it, having the cash available and everything. One of my customers gave me a tip that Britain would be a splendid market for a shop like mine, but I will pace myself and get my Minoc vendor operational first, before building anywhere else. The revenues from my vendor in Vesper is terrific, I can hardly keep up with restocking before she's sold out again, it's absolutely marvelous and I make 6-7 k per day from her. I must find competent helpers to run my chain of stores, they can easily become too much to handle for one person alone if you want to keep your vendors fully stocked at all times. Before leaving the subject of my vendor, I was wrong in my entry 980125, what I meant was pricing the scrolls 15 gold pieces per circle except 1st which sells for 20. I'm getting so confused sometimes when writing here, but rest assured my shop *always* keeps the correct, low, nice prices whatever's told on this page. Oh I forgot, my shop in Minoc is now partially open, my vendor's name is Trianon. I have only opened the Lingerie department there so far, but I will get to the Curiosity section as soon as I'm able.

I had a giant spider lurking outside my main office today. What a coward it was! I chased it all over creation with blade spirits, fire fields and summoned animals, but the darned thing just refused to attack me even when I came out into the open outside my house, eventually it ran away before I managed to deal it it's deathblow. I do not think that bolting or fireballing makes an interesting kill on a creature as meager as a spider anymore. Even on those rare occasions when I do kill personally I try to make a fashion statement :) I am becoming a pretty good witch by now, even marking runes for others on a commercially viable basis. Oh make no mistake, I always keep a recall scroll up for immediate use whenever I exit my main office, just in case my neighbor "Mr. Twoheads" shows up. That ettin is reported to have killed several of my potential visitors, only seen him once myself very briefly though. If he came calling while I was in my rose-garden, I'd probably skip the fashion part altogether and get out of there quickly, he looks both big and mean to me. Speaking of fashion, I also tried to add magical necklaces and jewelry to my store, but they sold out almost immediately. I'm wearing one of those necklaces myself by the way; they look so much neater than a leather gorget, especially to a fancy dress. I even selected my personal necklace to match in colors (yellow / brown) instead of choosing another, more powerful one, in silver. It's not a question about power; it's a question about fashion and style, the most important issues for a merchant and businesswoman as myself.

980125 - Hmm, maybe I need to regulate prices again on scrolls, to something like 15 + 15 / circle? Except of course for 1st circle, which must sell at 20. You see I've figured out that I keep my prices so low that my competitors actually buy everyone of my scrolls and resell them at their vendors. Naturally they have to take the cost of storing a huge amount of scrolls, but it hurts me a bit seeing my own scrolls selling for the preposterous 20 gold pieces per circle at someone else's vendor. Needless to say, I sell out very, very quickly, so I can't complain about volume, and, by all means, I *do* make cash galore. It's just that it doesn't help a beginning mage if everybody sells at 20 per circle, the cost is prohibitive for a neophyte witch then...

Thinking seriously about going franchise, I met a nice fellow, Mistwalker, at the tailor shop in Occlo. I almost got him convinced to listen to my proposal, or so I think, but his adventure mate or perhaps fiancée, Riverwind, declined it when she arrived. I gave him a rune to my shop anyway for taking his time listening to me. It's very tricky, smart and reliable players like Mistwalker all seem to have a master plan on their own already figured out. And I would never even consider approaching one of the "lamers" or "power-games" with an offer like mine, they are simply not cut out to see the project through and I would loose some 15 k on nothing. Ah well, I'm going to keep trying find such persons, and at the same time I wish the best of luck to Mistwalker and Riverwind, please come visit my shop if you're ever in Vesper. Before leaving the subject of business, I'm going to add Skara Brae and Serpent's Hold to my Island hopping kit. That would cover all the inhabited islands except Buccaneers' Den. Never liked Buc's Den myself very much anyway, going there is certainly not a fashion statement.

Come to think about it, save for the cats I strangled yesterday I haven't killed anything in days. There's very little money in killing anyway but I fear that my combat skills might start to decline, maybe I'll just have to wait for an odd ratman or orc to come too close to my mansion for their own safety. I often see a lot of players standing outside my big house trying to open the doors in vain. Sometimes, when I'm in a good mood, I let an odd traveler inside to let him gape at my property, but only if he or she looks harmless enough and I get to prepare all my defensive spells first. If I was a Dread Lady, I could probably have lured a lot of players to their untimely death in this manner, being inside a house gives you a tremendous advantage, but you know me, I'm far too nice for such behavior. Lord Orcrest, I'm sure you need to get *your* notoriety in order, I hope the GM helped you finally. Funny that we both were from Sweden, talking English for 20 minutes before realizing that we both were :)

I'll be back with more news at the situation warrants. Until next time - stay safe from PK:ers

Even a tailor can walk around semi-nude in UO

/Sincerely