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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Thursday, July 24th, 2008 |
bardiphouka
|
6:22a |
visitor
The whiskery wisp of a something came one thunderish night during the incident. He took up residence behind a broken clock at the upper back of the closet, as far away from the cats as possible. Before the incident I believe that it was a gamer, for it would often gaze wistfully at the controls for the various game consoles but what is a whiskery wisp of a something to do when it is the same size as the controls? |
trishalynn
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6:07a |
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| Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 |
wintersweet
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11:35p |
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unkyrich
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9:20p |
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bethynyc
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10:41p |
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straif
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10:01p |
Hmmm Thematically, my Eisteddfod dialog (posted 30 minutes ago) is about the nature of fate and responsibility. Sure, we all make mistakes and sometimes 15 cities sink beneath the waves because of it. But sometimes, bad things happen just because we are who or where we are. Is this responsibility or fate? Curious. There does seem to be something to the theory that everything I write is about ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) podling. She might not always cause the chaos and destruction, but it does seem to happen around her rather frequently. |
straif
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9:54p |
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straif
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9:29p |
Eisteddfod - Tynged This was my entry to the 2008 Cwrs Cymraeg (held at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa) Eisteddfod for levels 3, 4, 5. The subject was to be a dialog between a resident of Iowa and a visitor. This was written under the name "Seithenyn", who is described in the Triads (the Iolo Morgannwg "contributions" I think") as One of the Three Immortal/Notorious Drunkards of the Isle of Britain. Kind of catchy, really. I've made a few corrections based upon feedback received after the Eisteddfod. If anyone really cares, I might be persuaded to post a translation...but I'd have to translate it first. ( Read more... ) Current Music: Big Leaves: Seithenyn |
wintersweet
|
5:30p |
Jacquie Lawson e-cards Somebody here sent me one of these once and I was really delighted by how beautiful and detailed it was. They really are pretty, and well done. Not at all like other animated e-cards, either pay or free. I've just paid for a year, because they're so nice that I won't feel embarrassed to send e-cards to my clients. I know the pretty-and-cute style is not for everyone, but I can find enough that I like and I think my clients (and friends and family ...) will like. (Some are even quite elegant.) So thank you, whoever sent me one! |
wintersweet
|
3:00p |
Online card catalogs So in the Old Days you had to go look up the author's last name, then first name, in a physical card catalog. Nowadays we have amazing things like computers and databases, which libraries purport to embrace. So why is it that if I type "timothy pratt" into the author field, it doesn't automatically check for "pratt, timothy"? Progammers, that's not going to be HARD, right? Aside from issues with names like "de la Fuente" and stuff--just search the whole author field for those two strings in any order! Right? Isn't that why we USE computers? (By the way, the results page for "timothy pratt" includes, in the middle of irrelevant results, "Your entry timothy pratt would be here ------ Change search to pratt, timothy". I guess that's supposed to be helpful, but a) Why not just search for both automatically? and b) non-fluent users probably won't even notice that, let alone understand it. Many other languages/library systems require no such name-juggling to search, so it's not something that those users would ever expect or think of.) This complaint inspired by aclibrary.org. Current Mood:  irritated |
ebonyandsnow
|
1:25p |
Yosemite Backpacking For those of you who don't know, I went backpacking for the first time (First time camping, too! ...Girl scout camp doesn't count... I still didn't even know how to pitch a tent yet.) from Thursday, July 17, to Sunday, July 20 in the Yosemite High Country (starting from Tuolumne Meadows) Blog entries, maps, and pictures can be found at my travel blog. (Day 3 and 4 to be updated at a later time, after rockclimbing today. :D) Current Music: seether - fake it |
saxifrage00
|
12:02p |
4e Forgotten Realms preview released Wizards of the Coast have released, via their organised play body the RPGA, a preview of some material in the forthcoming Forgotten Realms supplement to 4th edition D&D. On that promo page is a link to download the preview document, which contains some expurgated rules for creating drow, genasi, and swordmage characters, as well as the rules around a few of the character origin choices. The first thing is the the fluff writup for drow, and I've already decided the setting book due in September will not be worth any of my scarce gaming dollars. But first, some background. In 4e WotC has chosen to genericise the cosmology and a bunch of the fantastical elements. They've been selling this significant change to the background of the game by saying it makes adapting it to other settings easier for DMs. Great! I don't mind the changes, and they're going to make it even easier to bring in unique, setting-specific cosmology and stuff. I'm looking forward to how the Forgotten Realms (my first love among D&D settings) will be injected with new vitality in 4e, and how its long history and its place in the universe are going to be added to. There's the operative word, though: added. So, back to 4e drow in the Realms. Fey Origin: Your ancestors were native to the Feywild... The Feywild? Fuck that! The Realms has well-established history for where all elves came from, and it wasn't some vaguely-developed "bits of pure goodness left over from the creation of the world, parallel to the normal world". This is rewriting the stuff that I enjoyed about the setting. What happened to the Elemental Chaos, the Shadowfell, and the Feywild being generic and replaceable for individual settings? The generic cosmology kinda sucks, so not capitalising on its replaceability—it's entire raison d'être according to Wizards—is barmy. What draws me to a setting is the feel of it, which is conveyed by the hints and details about what the world is like. 4e's generic cosmology does not excite me, and including it in the Realms sourcebook is an anti-feature in a product they're hoping I'll buy. Sure, I could just ignore that stuff and put old Realms cosmology in the blanks, but the situation isn't even that good. Reading the book for inspiration, it's not going to be like suddenly finding these unfortunate blank patches that I need to fill in, but rather like the stuff I love and was expecting to savour suddenly streaked with a big pile of poo. Even if I didn't feel it would inhibit my GMing glands, there are mechanical problems with running 4e Realms with a modified cosmology. The 4e rules have very tight coupling, with crunchy mechanics directly interfacing with fluff. (Being from the Feywild gives a character the Fey Origin keyword, for example, which is used to determine interactions with spells, items, and stuff that doesn't even exist yet.) Changing the setting cosmology will leave a lot of small inconsistencies that will be a headache to track down and squash, and they will keep cropping up in future 4e materials I might want to use because the rules depend on fluff I wouldn't be using. Doing that in the middle of a game is even worse. Not my idea of GMing fun. I won't GM in the official 4e Realms, though I might play in such a game. As a player I can enjoy a game without direct contact with the setting materials because I'm instead diving into the fiction that the DM crafts in and around the game. As a GM, though, I'd be constantly stumbling over tiny little unpleasantnesses. That kind of harshes my GMing groove. Yeah, I'm whining about tiny details that they zOMG CHANGED!one! like a rabid fanboy. But hey, they're needlessly messing with the part of the product that would cause me to buy it; the fact that their avowed intention was to not change those details just adds a layer of stupid over it all. They're offering something that is very much akin to the Realms, but... isn't quite. It's the same reason I didn't really enjoy the 3e Realms books. Sometimes I'll go to the café and want a cheese scone, and I often will not buy a substitute when they don't have cheese scones. I went to satisfy my desire for cheesey, sconey goodness, not just because I wanted something, anything to eat and would buy something despite not wanting it. My desire for Realmsy goodness doesn't inspire me to lay down cash for, say, peanut butter, or a Smart Car, when an acceptable source of Realms isn't available but peanut butter and Smart Cars are. Or piles of poo. |
bardiphouka
|
3:01p |
just a thought
If,as some say, Mankind creates their own mythos,and if the media is what we draw our mythos from and feed our mythos to, then what of those short run series? And what of those short run series where creative energy was expended to create entire universes. Do those universes continue to exist in some bizarre form? TV seems to have been throwing new worlds of science fiction and fantasy at the home screen with very little in the way of success.
Although in this day and age a series being cancelled does not always mean what it used to. Series stay online..or they get grabbed by other networks on the vast nonstandard plethora available on cable or sat. Which means those quasi-mythos, those created universes continue to be seen. Even if we sometimes wish they would not be? |
wintersweet
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11:55a |
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swestrup
|
2:39p |
More Dreams. Last night's dreams were far more pedestrian. I'm only recording them because I actually remember them. ( Cut, for boringnesses. )Sometimes my brain is not very subtle in its hints to me and I have no trouble interpreting my dream. In fact, it exactly echoes what sps told me last night. In essence, when things seem difficult or unduly complicated, its not necessarily my job to sort them out. Also, its perfectly acceptable to let someone in a better bargaining position sort things out for me. |
saxifrage00
|
10:01a |
Mars Inc. boycott Mars Inc. promotes beating and killing gay men. This is simply appalling.
I sent the following letter to Mars Inc:
This is regarding your recent ads featuring depictions of men attacking other men because they suspect them of being, or merely acting, homosexual.
These ads are disgusting and socially irresponsible, and it's even worse that your spokesperson excuses their content by saying that they are aimed at the core marked of "18 to 25 year old males". It is precisely this demographic that is most receptive to encouragement to beat and kill gay men.
Until a widely-publicised and unambiguous apology is issued, I am no longer a customer of Mars Inc. or Effem Inc. (Mars' Canadian division). Previously I enjoyed Twix, M&Ms, Snickers, Mars bars, Bounty, and 3 Musketeers. I will no longer be purchasing these, nor will I be silent when a friend or family member purchases these. I will also be informing companies that receive sponsorship from Mars/Effem that they are allying themselves with a sponsor that promotes and advocates violence against homosexuals.
Please consider any response to this carefully, as a weak PR-spinning reply is exactly the wrong response. Substantive action is necessary to right this appalling wrong, not empty words.
Yours sincerely,
[me]
A list of Mars Inc. products can be found at Wikipedia. M&Ms, Twix, Mars bars are among them.
Too bad they're such complete asshats. My gaming group was going to start using Mini M&Ms to track the various D&D 4e combat statuses. No more deep-fried Mars bars for me now, either.
Current Mood: omfg
Current Music: Luther Wright & The Wrongs - Good Time (CBC Radio 3) |
wordweaverlynn
|
9:26a |
Is Autism Real? Not according to Michael Savage, who wants us all to know that it's just brattiness caused by a lack of a father. From amenquohi, whose son is autistic: Conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage has an opinion on autism that he felt like sharing with his listeners.
Some parents of autistic children have called for Savage’s firing after he described autism as a racket last week. “In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” Savage said on his radio program last Wednesday.
Savage then went on to say, “What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them don’t act like a moron, you’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up! Act like a man! Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’”
Mr. Savage's program is nationally syndicated, and airs on Talk Radio Network. You can email them here, or contact them via fax, phone and snail mail at:
Talk Radio Network
P.O. Box 3755 Central Point, Oregon 97502
Phone: 541-664-8827
Fax: 541-664-6250
Feel free to click on Talk Radio Network's homepage, check out their sponsored ads and then let their sponsors know you won't buy their products and services as long as they advertise on TRN while Mike Savage is spouting his ignorance and vitriol.
Clearly Mr. Savage is wrong: He acts like a moron and is third most popular talk-radio host, after Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. But then, maybe he isn't acting at all. Some of the most moving posts I've ever read have been written by amenquohi about her son. Just the other day she wrote about a breakthrough with him -- a post that brought tears to my eyes. |
saxifrage00
|
8:51a |
Most entertaining iPhone review ever. Also, now I really want to be able to reboot my web server from my phone. Current Mood: sauce-ayCurrent Music: some country-inspired junk on CBC Radio 3, wtf |
scott_wells
|
8:26a |
The Phone Fiasco One would think that a telephone company's business would be communication. Its logical. One would also be completely wrong. ( Let me explain... ) Current Mood:  cynical |
gears_and_steam
[ hiroe ]
|
10:04a |
Happy Meal toy, or Steampunk Terran Walker? Who remembers this guy?  I got him for a dollar at the white elephant table at a train show last month. Brought him home, and cut him off the top of the robot part. ( Check out why. ) |
bardiphouka
|
6:27a |
now you see him....well actually no
He was perfect for smuggling coffee from the free zones. For whatever reason he was the closest to invisible a normal person can be. He wasn't really. It was just that he was so..not there..that people tended not to see him. People would walk into a room and turn off the tv that he was watching. And I was going to ask him how his adventures as a smuggler were going but...I could swear he was here a moment ago. |
bardiphouka
|
6:24a |
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| Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 |
phinnia
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11:08p |
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phinnia
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8:16p |
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gears_and_steam
[ tea_chan ]
|
10:44p |
Should have mentioned this sooner, granted. X posted all over. This Thursday, (sorry for the late notice, my brain is a might scattered) our beloved Jake Von Slatt is to be at the Groton, MA Library doing a piece for PBS. Details are to be found here.My brother, girlfriend and I will be attending, as we live relatively close to Groton. Anyone else? We'd like to see some folks there! Either way, I get to meet Von Slatt, so I'm happy. |
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astonished