The Queen of Over-The-Counter Culture

Episode 17 rough draft done

2009-06-30T03:43:31Z

Exactly what it says on the tin. ;-) Lots of ErosxYamiko fun, but plenty of other highlights too, particularly with Fuyuko and Kazeko--and some choice Erik and Seisui interaction as well.

Plus, Tokimo flirts!

MS Germany

2009-06-27T03:47:35Z

I'll post tomorrow morning of Noahcchi hasn't gotten to it, worry not.

Progress report

2009-05-11T04:13:47Z

Pages 7/≈30
Words 4000/≈16,000

Tokimo's brilliant plan:

seduce priests!

And with that, I leave you wondering.

Progress

2009-05-07T05:06:36Z

Pages 4/≈30
Words 2000/≈16,000

Slow but steady, guys. Hpoefully more tomorrow...still getting into the grove with Moko...and trying to get to bed before 1:00 so....-.-

I blame Kaylee.

Karmatic Backlash

2009-05-04T17:01:08Z

Clearly, karma is making up for my other incoherent review, because now I got this one:

This is truly one of the few fanmade Senshi fics I have come to enjoy. I started on your series almost 7 years ago and have been following it ever since. Keep it up.

T_T Wow. Followed my fanfiction for 7 years.

>.<o がんばります, Anonymous reader-san!

Moon Senshi Progress

2009-05-04T04:07:02Z

Pages 3/≈30
Words 1600/≈16,000

Hopefully I'll pick up speed as I get used to my new schedule, imposed on me by my new sheltie puppy, Moko.

Also, "Queen Venus" sounds even sillier than "Princess Venus." iMO, "Queen Minako/Aino" sounds less weird. What was Naoko thinking?

Ooookay.

2009-05-01T01:29:01Z

Pages 1/≈30
Words 500/≈16,000

Good news:

I got a new review for Moon Senshi on fanfiction.net!

Bad news: It says: "I'd say you did alright. Sixteen chapters of alright not bad cool semi neat stuff"

....whatever the heck that means ^^;; Is it a compliment? an insult? Something in between? Some specificity might have helped....anyway.

Episode Sixteen is DONE!

2009-04-29T17:27:34Z

Edited, and up on the site! Check it out!

Episode Seventeen progress:

Pages 0/≈30
Words 0/≈16,000

German Game

2009-04-25T16:11:09Z

For those of you who don't know, the LJ community for he Germany game is up:

http://community.livejournal.com/ms_germany

Please join, if you want to play!

The game is more or less open...anyone can join who wants to play, with my approval.

Germany RPG Posting RUles

2009-04-25T04:21:51Z

Okay, this is my next-to-final draft of germany RPG posting rules. Most of these are taken whole-cloth from the forum, but they bear repeating 'cause they're good rules and I'm proud of them, dammit.

Also note that I very slightly shortened the time window for the three days rule; I now will send you an e-mail on the morning of the 3rd day (or maybe the evening of the 2nd day) and if you don't post by midnight of the 3rd day, the game goes on. If people object to this, speak now or forever hold your peace.

The RPG will take place on an LJ community. You can use the LJ username you have (you may want to make a special icon to keep things less confusing...up to you) or a new account that is your characters persona. Up to you.

1. Please don't post your profiles to other characters. If your characters are supposed to know about each other and each other's pasts, then it's okay, but let me know first and let me know why you know each other. Although I don't think any of you would take advantage of OOC knowledge, you might inadvertently or subconciously. I think this comes most into play when characters are confronting each other; if you're trying to have an argument with a character, and you have what their social weaknesses or character faults are right in front of you, it can give you an unfair advantage in manipulating them to come to the personal conclusion that you want. That probably didn't make any sense. Anyway, the point is don't do it.

2. Role-playing is like acting. I expect you to act in character during posts, which means leave your personal baggage at the door. If you want to talk about something personal, talk to me personally or to someone else you trust personally. Or even post it in "General Chatter." Don't make your character !angst when they were happy in your last post. Don't make them angst when they aren't having problems. And don't make them happy when they're supposed to be !angsting. These are fictional characters, not you, and they should behave that way.

3. If you're having a problem with another player in-game talk to me first. Talking to another player about RPing or other problems when you're upset is going to further escalate the conflict. Meanwhile, I'll probably notice something is going on because you'll probably violate rule #2 and bring it into your in-character interactions. I need to know if there's a problem, and as the closest thing to a ruling body that we have, I need to work out the solution if the problem is affecting the game. I realize your problems are your business, but if you violate #2 and bring them in the game, they become my business.

4. No twinking. For the un-slang-informed, that means I don't want to see your character become really powerful and overwhelm other characters. Your attacks can not blow away other characters or NPCs unless you ask me first. The best way to avoid this problem entirely is merely to attack and (if it's an NPC) I'll decide whether or not they take the damage. If it's another character, you can come to me or just ask the other player if it's okay if they take damage--whichever you feel more comfortable with.

5. If you think I'm twinking out talk to me immediately. I'm very sensitive to twinking concerns and I hate GMs who make it impossible for you to win.

6. Please narrate all of your posts in the first person present tense. That means

Don't do this:

She went into the store and bought some cheese. Then she saw Leonard coming in the store.

"Do you like cheese?" Fiona asked.

Or this:

I went into the store and bought some cheese. Then I saw Leonard coming in the store.

"Do you like cheese?" I asked.

What I want you to do is this:

I go into the store and buy some cheese. Then I see Aldrich.

"Do you like cheese?" I ask.

You're all experiencing this in the present moment. You don't know what's going to happen, so I think this tense reflects that best.

7. Don't speak for a character unless you have permission first or you've chatted out the conversation in AIM or another chatting client. I realize that for personal conversations, the LJ format can be slow. Just make sure I see the conversation after you've had it. From there, I may or may not ask you to post it. Since the characters present will be the only ones seeing it anyway, it's not usually necessary for you to know what they're saying (since it's happening off-screen anyway.) while other characters don't need to see these conversations, I do. Your personal chatting does not become RPG canon until I've seen it.

8. Don't make any major changes to your character (especially their history) without telling me or asking me. Sometimes your changes can clash Moon Senshi canon, already established relationships or seriously mess with my plans. It should be fine, but just let me know!

9. The RPG is reliant on everyone's participation. If you do not participate, it will come screeching to a grinding halt. In an attempt to stop this from happening, I'm instating the following ground rules.
a) You must post within three days of it being 'your turn.' I will e-mail you on the morning of the third day and if you do not post within that day (the third day) It will either be assumed that you have nothing to say, or, if a question is posed to you at the end of the post that is 'your turn'--and this is the important part, I will reply as your character for you. This is the only way I can see that we can keep the game from putzing out if someone flakes out or something happens.
b) An exception is if you let me know ahead of time that you can't post for a certain period of days. This will cover people that have understandable real-world obligations, such as visits to family, illness, exams, vacations, etc.

Btw, I found some questions Ianthe had asked first time around that are still excellent questions. So I'm re-posting those, too.

Ianthe (Thyone) raised some good questions in a private message, so i'm posting the non-private-ish bits out here, so you all know the answers.

QUOTE
Is it okay to write out your character's thoughts?

I ask, since some people frown on that. Unfortunately, it's the only way for some people to express their true nature. Of course, some people can twink out like that, too.

After some deliberation, I'm going to say no, you can't post out your thoughts. There may be a few situations where I'll find it okay, but I don't want characters revealing in-depth, personal information via thought-posts, since this ruins the surprise. If anyone has a problem with this, please let me know and give me your reasons why and I may very well reconsider.

QUOTE
Which also brings me to ask: Can we post our hair/eye color and height (not age, though, since that's a spoiler for at least one person)? I've had a few goofs where one character was taller and the other, who was shorter, looked DOWN at him... @_@;

The "no profile info" is PURELY for spoiler reasons. You can post any kind of trivial information about your character like height, weight, age, etc...for things like favorite food and color, you can post them, but if anyone magically happens to choose a character's favorite food, that will look a bit cheesy and I'll notice. :-)

QUOTE
Oh, right. What's the expected post length? Some people expect at least a page.

I actually encourage you to make posts a little on the shorter side, since it will give PCs more chances to interject on your actions.

For Kaylee and me the most infamous example of this was a character who would insult another character and then walk off before the other character had a chance to respond. The character insulted was--incidentally--Crius, who would probably impale you on a stick if you insulted him badly enough, and, in addition, was good at fighting. Eyah. We were a bit annoyed.

I suspect that short posts will happen anyway because of the formatting. In the end, just post however much feels right. If your character is spending a lot of time alone doing something important, you can make it long. If you're talking with someone, it'll be short since you have to wait for their responses.

More attack rules that I'm re-posting that are useful enough to bear repeating.

1. You cannot hit a PC/NPC without my permission. You cannot dodge an attack without my permission. You may hit intermediate targets (ie tires, tables, etc) without my permission. If you are a PC, you can automatically take a hit instead of receiving my permission, OR you can ask the attacking character if you may dodge.

My suggestion is, attack with an aim in mind, and then let me decide if you actually hit, as most people have already been doing (such as Epimetheus.)

2. Here's some guidelines for power as far as how many times you can attack:

1 Attack: You're fine. You got mad skillz.

3 Attacks: You're starting to get tired.

6 Attacks: You've passed out.

If you put more energy or power into an earlier attack, you are able to attack less.

Alternately, if you put less energy into an attack, you can attack more.

3. If your character is doubtful of their abilities, their power is lowered. I get to determine how much. Basically, the more you doubt and think "what if I can't hit? Am I good enough?" the less power you have. Just compare Tokimo with Yamiko, attack-wise, in the series, and you get a picture of what I mean.

4. You can never, ever kill a PC character without my permission.

16 Rough is done!

2009-04-24T06:21:40Z

Episode Sixteen progress:

Pages 32/≈30
Words 16,403/≈16,000

Yup, that's right, sixteen rough draft is done!

LESS THAN A MONTH, BITCHES.

*dances*

Now I need to plan the Germany campaign, since I'm apparently so productive.

Germany game....

2009-04-23T04:31:33Z

Episode Sixteen progress:

Pages 26/≈30
Words 14,193/≈16,000

As you can see, 16 rough draft is almost done. I don't really want to talk about it too much, since this episode is "the big reveal" on Kane, so....suffice it to say there's lost of angst and shiny things. And a swan.

I want to start the Germany game again, dammit. I've promised myself to start it after I finish this episode. I told myself I was going to do it after last episode, but I didn't, because I suck.

I need to stop sucking.

Also, I need more MS LJ icons. Because I'm an attention whore.

Episode 16...has begun!

2009-03-27T22:44:04Z

Episode Sixteen progress:

Pages 3/≈30
Words 1192/≈16,000

See, I've already started episode 16.

First scene is, believe it or not, a Kazeko and Fuyuko scene. Kazeko looks to someone used to senshi-hood for perspective...Fuyuko looks to someone used to, um, identity-having for help in finding hers.

At first I struggled with this scene, which seemed sort of a one-way conversation, with Kazeko asking "what does it mean to be a Sailor Senshi?" and Fuyuko providing (in her sort of 'take things as they come' way) sort of no-nonsense answers. I was having a little trouble writing it, because these four characters (The Sailor Quartet) are so badly defined. I asked myself, "why?" obviously there's the fact that in the manga, they get ridiculously small amounts of stage time; as the Manga progresses, less and less time seems to be focused on chara development and more and more is focused on plot. but That led me to another question--of course know that we don't know who the Sailor Quartet is, personality-wise, but do they know who they are?

The answer I decided on is "no." The Quartet were only around a year with Neherenia; then they were saved by Sailor Moon and brought to the future with a teenaged Chibi-Usa. After that, we get about, maybe, 4 or 5 years, tops, between when Chibi-Usa returns to the future in Stars and the beginning of Moon Senshi, when she is 14. So the Quartet is about 5 years old in terms of forming an identity of who they are. Moreover, Chibi-Usa has only been in public school since the beginning of Moon Senshi, so we have to think that a lot of their time has been confined to the rather isolated world of Crystal Tokyo, where they probably weren't participating in a lot of outside hobbies.

So I decided that not only do we not really know who these people are, they don't really know who they are, either. So from now on they have to establish a more rounded personality for themselves, in addition to my having to do it for them, since Naoko Takeuchi didn't. (Hey, she had a lot of characters at that point, and they weren't exactly the stars of the show.)

I've decided that Fuyuko is going to enjoy board games, because of her name sake (Pallas Athena, who is the goddess of the "brains" side of war) and because I can see her as being exceedingly clever, if equally eccentric.

Episode Fifteen is Done!

2009-03-25T18:01:40Z

Episode Sixteen progress:

Pages 0/≈30
Words 0/≈16,000

See, and you thought I was just neglecting this blog because I was being lazy. No! It was because I hadn't written anything.

For those of you who are thinking it took me a year to write this thing, SO ARE SO WRONG. It took me six months, thank-you-very-much. The other six months was waiting for my editors. Thanks to Kaylee, I now have a reliable editor. Thank you, Kaylee.

Now I just have to start the next episode.

Watch....as we finally figure how what the hell Kane's deal is!

Learn...if Fubuki can maintain a stable relationship!

Wonder...if Kazeko can accept her god-like status!

Beware...of freakish gear-filled youma!

Updates to come as I write.

Grandia!

2008-10-22T16:21:21Z

I finally finished that blasted game.

Baten Kaitos Origins, here I come!

I suspect I'll finish that much quicker. A lot of the reason why Grandia took me so long was that there were bonus dungeons I kept dicking around about whether I was going to do or not, plus I was busy.

IT IS DONE!!!

2008-10-09T05:29:42Z

Episode Fifteen progress:

Pages 34/≈30
Words 17,000/≈16,000

Between Kingdoms Progress:
Words 123,000/≈200,000

Okay, I know it's been awhile. But I kept telling myself I was "almost done" episode 15, and i wanted to finish it before I posted it. Well, guess what?

EPISODE FIFTEEN IS DONE!!!!

Yes, that's right. So for all of you who thought Moon Senshi was a dead project, neener neener. It's not dead. I just resurrected it.

Episode 15 took a lot longer than I would have liked, but it actually wasn't too bad considering episode length and the fact that I write this in my spare time, on top of writing full-time. It was a few months, not great, but I've seen way worse than 30-some-odd pages in a few months for fanfic turnaround. I can definitely keep this pace up if response is good to episode fifteen.

Please note; THIS IS THE ROUGH DRAFT. Fifteen still needs to be edited. But I think it's a pretty solid episode and probably won't need a lot of heavy editing. Syrinx has left, too, so whoever edits (John, Tiffany, both?) will probably be a hell of a lot faster (as awesome of a job as Syrinx did.)

writing the episode is always the hard part--editing it is the easy work. So the worst is over.

While it's being edited, guess what I'm going to be working on? That's right, the game! I'll be plotting out the game, collecting people's more complete chara concepts, laying down rules and formatting how it's going to work.

Meanwhile, on the BK front, I think I'm 2/3 of the way through. Unfortunately, Greita is about to have her worldview shattered and I really need to think about how I'm going to write about this. Whew.

BUT FIFTEEN IS DONE!! I'm so happy.

Bush is using administrative power to make birth control = abortion, destroy Endangered Species prot

2008-08-14T01:29:32Z

Do I have your attention?

This is absolutely true. If you're thinking, "this can't happen because Bush has so little time left," you are, sadly, incorrect--because these are changes in the government's administration, not laws to be passed in the legislature, it could very well happen before January when Bush is gone.

Houston Chronicle's Article on the Issue

Please sign MoveOn's petition. Please!!!

CNN's article on building federal projects on areas protected for the sake of Endangered Species

Unfortunately, no petition yet for the Endangered Species, but I'll keep everyone posted if there is one.

Romulus, Kane, Squeeze & Blow

2008-08-08T05:27:19Z

Episode Fifteen progress:

Pages 21/≈30
Words 11,300/≈16,000

Between Kingdoms Progress:
Words 108,000/≈200,000

So, I was feeling like the first scene I wrote with Yamiko and Kane in this episode (well, the first big one) was a little weak, but this next scene I feel a lot more secure in. It has chemistry and all that good stuff in it, so I feel pretty happy with it. There will probably be at least a couple more scenes between Kane and Yamiko, and the first of many hints to come about who Kane really is.

The scene I wrote today has the first glimpse of Kane's inner life, something we haven't gotten to see yet--so far, any scenes with Kane have not involved any of his personal thoughts or feelings for one reason or another.

Maybe including Kane's thoughts at last is me trying to make up for not including Seisui's thoughts anymore after episode 12 or 13 or something like that (I forget the exact number.)

I think the next scene may be a Miranda scene, though it could also be a Usako or Tokimo scene. It could be a another Kane/Yamiko scene, although I'll probably put a scene between another one of those, even if it messes with perfect chronology, for pacing reasons (I've done this before, if anyone has noticed or cares.)

So, Romulus will be appearing very soon. Originally I thought I was going to totally butcher him in every way, and while I am still going to butcher him a lot, he's going to be more like old Romulus that I had originally planned.

For those of you who don't know and probably don't care but are reading this anyway out of pity, Romulus is Tiffany's old character from Between Kingdoms. He was a rat monk that pretended he had all the ladies and was way cool among the rats (but he was lying. He did that a lot.) He was kind of a free-spirited character. Things that are changing and staying the same about Romulus:

1. He's an anthropomorphic rat. (A siamese colored one, in this case.)
2. His name actually will remain Romulus. I think it works for him and it's not inconceiveable that a real name in this world might be a real name in another one--i.e., Russian Yuri/Japanese Yuri, French Ami / Japanese Ami, English Ana / Chinese Ana / Japanese Ana...
3. He is still a monk, but a monk in this case is not a religious figure but a ironic word for an outcaste rat.
4. He is still free-spirited and probably lies quite a bit, though not as much as, I imagine, Tiffany's take on him. He is still very selfishly motivated.

I love Siamese rats. SO CUTE! I should draw Romulus.

Today at Iain's I was taught out to "squeeze and blow"--on the bagpipes, you pervs!!! I have to learn to fill the bag, pump for seconds, blow for seconds, and do this to maintain a constant stream of air to the shuttle pipes to make a note. This is challenging!! I'll have to practice, like, every day. Iain also gave me major props for an almost flawless, almost at-tempo forest lodge. (I played it on a chanter, not on a fiddle.) I got major props and was feeling very proud of myself. Now I gotta learn to squeeze and blow, dammit! Iain says that I should get it in a week or two if I work at it. Ganbarimasu!

I also learned today that the Uilleann Pipes use different fingers for many of their notes than conventional bagpipes (by which I mean, every other bagpipe that i know of uses the same fingerings.) It's crazy!!! Iain doesn't even really play (by which I mean not at a level of proficiency to teach...he may be good enough to play them for listening purposes) the Uilleann pipes. As well as the extra octave that so impressed my hubbie (most pipes only play one octave) Uillean pipes are the only set of pipes that can play staccato.

I may decide to play my hand at learning these babies if I ever get good at my one true piping love, the Shuttle PIpes. Love that warm buzzing drone they have.

Germany Game Stuff

2008-08-07T14:57:10Z

For people who haven't seen it or many of missed it and are thinking of doing the Germany campaign, please read this post.

Meme!

2008-08-05T16:20:28Z

o1. Grab the nearest book.
o2. Open the book to page twenty-three.
o3. Find the fifth sentence.
o4. Post the text of the next five sentences in your journal along with these instructions:
--Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Whether this reasoning of theirs be just or not, is no matter. Its influence on their life and conduct must still be the same. And, those, who attempt to dis-abuse them of such predjudices, may, for aught I know, be good reasonsers, but I cannot allow them to be good citizens and politicians; since they free men from one restrain upon their passions, and make the infringement of the laws of society, in one respect, more easy and secure.

After all, I may, perhaps, agree to your general conclusions in favour of liberty, though upon different premises from those, on which you endeavour to found it. I think that the state ought to tolerate every principle of philosophy; nor is there an instance, that any government has suffered in its political interests by such indulgence. There is no enthusiasm among philosophers; their doctrines are not very alluring to the people; and no restraint can be put upon their reasonings, but what must be of dangerous consequence to the sciences, and even to the state, by paving the way for persecution and oppression in points, where the generality of mankind are more deeply interested and concerned.

~from Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume

Kane and Yamiko baking cookies

2008-08-04T17:29:08Z

Episode Fifteen progress:

Pages 21/≈30
Words 10,700/≈16,000

Between Kingdoms Progress:
Words 107,000/≈200,000

Damn, I've been bad recently. Finally John has fired up one of the gaming consoles again and so I had a good opportunity to write.

Sorry, there was a golden opportunity work exploiting there. Actually, they do bake cookies, but only in the literal sense. 'Cause, you know, Yamiko likes cooking--so baking cookies is actually a realistic pastime-like activity for her to engage in. And not just in that stereoytpical "impress the Japanese boy with my homemade cookies" kinda way.

SInce I've been so bad, here's a sneak peak of the new scene. And because we all know how much Kaylee likes KanexYamiko.

"You used to have a cook?" Kane asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Yamiko replied. "We own a mansion outside of town. When we lived there with my parents, we had a whole wait-staff. But..." Yamiko sighed. "When I go there now, it's just painful. Everything echoes with loss. When my parents passed away, I couldn't bear to live there, and I moved to our downtown flat. Besides," she added, turning back toward Kane, "the commute is quicker, so I save time."

"It must have been hard...having things be so tense between you--and then loosing them like that, before you had the chance to make things work."

So, yeah. I'm working on building a relationship between these two characters to the point where them being together doesn't seem too rushed or forced. Writing a good, quiet romance is always challenging--and since this is Yamiko and Kane, it can't be a "swept up off her feet", passionate-kind of thing. Yamiko's feelings are quiet and subdued, and that needs to come out in her feelings for Kane, too.

So, right now I'm having problems with how the Germany campaign is going to be set up. please take note that I don't plan on starting it until 15 is done, so we still have plenty of time to think about our characters and talk things over!

But right now the problem is this: There are certain people who do not want to do a Ventrilo game, under any circumstances. There are certain people who can't do a IRC game because of certain circumstances.

Right now my big question mark is on Kaylee and Noah. Do you guys mind doing a forum or LJ-based game, IF I make sure to stay strict on posting and make good on my word?

If I do a forum game, the contract will probably look something like this:

1. You must post within three days of it being 'your turn.'
2. I will e-mail you on the morning of the third day and if you do not post within the next day (the fourth day) It will either be assumed that you have nothing to say, or, if a question is posed to you at the end of the post that is 'your turn', and this is the important part, I will reply as your character for you. I know that's not going to be a very popular move with some people--understandably--but it's the only way I can see that we can keep the game from putzing out if someone flakes out or something happens.
4. An exception is if you let me know ahead of time that you can't post for a certain period of days. This will cover people that have understandable real-world obligations, such as visits to family, illness, exams, vacations, etc.

Does this sound like a reasonable contract to everyone? Does it make forum games "doable"?

So, besides Romfath, the messianic demi-god who Greita meets at the beginning of the novel and tells her to go forth and recruit, the characters have now met their first member of the race who is ressurecting the whole inter-world travel/trade business in the name of Greita's god, Rom. I love this race, by the way, because of their mixture of what most people consider 'attractiveness' with just a little dash of creepy on the side. They're extremely tall and skinny, with ulta-pale faces and weird, elongated digits. It's not really clear whether they're pretty and elfin or grotesque and corpse-like, and that's something I'd like the reader to decide.

The member of this race that the characters meet, Faonyr, is a very nice guy who takes them in and gives them a free ride to the next plane, Ogneo, which is a city plane with anthropomorphs (which I kind of very loosely based of the port town in Escaflowne where Millerena lives.) The thing that makes the adventurers kind of wary about him, though, is when the Leimai--a clan of Chimera--challenge him and refuse to become a part of Rom's empire, he basically toasts them all. Granted, to be fair to Faonyr, he warns them that he's going to do it, that they can surrender, and that they will be free except for the "rule of law" (whatever you interpret that to mean.) They have this Japanese-like "no surrender" attitude, though, so they get fried with a lightning bolt. (Wait for the inevitable WWII comparisions.) Hopefully this first encounter with the men who spread the word of Rom will leave the reader confused/suspiscious as to whether they're evil or good without making them feel too sure yet.

Also, soon, Romulus! Who is probably going to get renamed.

Hopefully my next update will be within the week this time, instead of, like, a month from now.

Also, after I lost my black hoodie, I did the good thing and went to Plato's closet and bought used ones, instead of brand new ones, thus saving several polar bears (I hope.) Go me! And they were cheap. Except for the burton one, which was like $25!!! But it was the one that was closest to what I wanted, so I got it anyway. I also got this cool gray one with red kanji on it and a short-sleeved one with puffy sleeves, plus a long-sleeved one with poofy sleeves and black eyelet trim. It looks very, very cute!!

By the way, Kaylee, I think I left the one I lost in your dad's car. Let me know if you (or your mum) find it.

Leahy is Awesome, Also, Green Stuff

2008-07-17T16:11:37Z

Did You Know:

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy will be featured in the upcoming "The Dark Knight" Batman movie?

I KID NOT!
Apparently, he talks to the Joker. Go Leahy!

While reading this article, I was a little disappointed to find he voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (a civil union fan, perhaps?)

Also, I found this site today. Tell your friends!

If you're wondering why I was looking up Leahy, it was while looking for info on our congressmen to tell them to support This Bill, which, as a non-driver, I heartily support.

Best. Article. Ever.

2008-07-10T17:38:44Z

I'll try to have an update on the writing tonight. I was in a bad block the last week or two but it looks like I'm coming out of it.

Meanwhile:

Bill Nye and Ed Begley Compete to See Who's Greener

I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

Moon Senshi Germany Campaign Update

2008-06-30T16:59:07Z

So, right now, it's looking like Ventrilo is our most likely option. This isn't set in stone yet, but it is my prefferred option and multiple players have expressed a strong preference for this option.

If you CANNOT use Ventrilo, but would like VERY MUCH to be in the game, let me know NOW.

If you haven't heard, I'm starting up the Germany campaign again. If you're interested, please say something! There are still a few people who were in the old game that haven't said anything.

The Germany campaign is OPEN. That means that ANYONE can be in it, as long as I don't hate them and they can make games regularly.

So.

What is Ventrilo? Ventrilo, or Vent, is a VOIP service. That means that we all hook up to a server with headsets or other microphones, and the server transmits our voice into a conference-call like scenario where we can all hear each other. If you've ever played WoW or another MMORPG, you're probably familar with the concept of doing this in raiding. It's a lot like an AIM chat or discussion, only you're speaking instead of typing. If you're certain you're going to be in the game, I recconmend going ahead and downloading it. It has versions for every OS but Linux, and it works with Linux if you download WINE. (I tried this on my Ubuntu machine and it seemed to work nicely.)

Right now I need to start determining people's schedules. When can you make a game (or can't make a game, if that is an easier to communicate statistic)? If you live outside of EST, please tell me so I can adjust for your time zone in determining a schedule.

More info about the game will be forthcoming as I examine who can make it. I will probably build the game around the players who can come.

I will probably be using a stats system this time, probably FUDGE because it's lightweight and easy for me to use. If you don't want to deal with stats, you can give a write-up of your characters powers' and I can make them for you.

Right now all this info is very tentative, so there's still plenty of wiggle room for change.

Kupaw

2008-06-30T04:37:46Z

Episode Fifteen progress:

Pages 18/≈30
Words 9,200/≈16,000

Between Kingdoms Progress:
Words 96,500/≈200,000

Whew. It's been a little while. I have been working on this stuff, just not enough to merit continual posting. I will admit, I've been slacking off pretty bad with Moon Senshi, but I hung out with a lot of people this week and I didn't end up getting to it until this Sunday.

So, Friday we went to see "Wall*E". Because it's a Pixar movie, I had to be opening night.

It was actually really good, but the beginning was really hard for me to watch. Seeing the Earth all trashed is just really depressing. Seeing people die can be depressing enough (see "The House of Sand and Fog" :-P), although depending on the movie I can sometimes handle it. (Shakespeare tragedies usually don't get to me.) But the idea the Earth being totally fucked, Society being totally fucked, or some awful combination of the two always screws with me head and leaves me a mumbling mass of tears and depression. (See "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" That movie made me depressed for almost a week. I'm not joking.)

"Wall*E" manages to be sort of borderline dystopian without being really depressing, though. Admittedly, I did cry a lot during the first 15-20 minutes of the movie, during all those pans of the trash ridden, cloud-covered Earth. John complained that this was hampering his enjoyment of the movie. After that, though, it becomes considerably more hopeful and likable of a movie. At it's heart it really is a hopeful kids movie, and dammit, those robots are cute. The ending puts a very positive spin on things. AND DAMMIT THOSE ROBOTS ARE CUTE. Interesting is that "Wall*E" uses both the "likable robot with personality" trope and "Ebeel robot who wants to take control" trope in the same movie very effectively. It seems like most movies are intent on using one trope or the other, but not both.

So strange things are happening in Moon Senshi with Fubuki. To be honest, when I had Fubuki's mom go crazy-go-nuts the for the second time, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with her. Jirou and Fubuki fight about whether or not she will stay crazy, and it's probably good that they do, because frankly I had no clue, either. But it looks like I now know.

More surprisingly, it looks like Fubuki may be leaving the nest. And where she might be leaving it for is even more surprising. But it's not for certain yet. We'll have to see.

Also, Between Kingdoms features turtle people Chimera at the request of John. It does not, however, call them "Kupaw." Sorry John. :-)

Anyway, I have piping tomorrow. Learn' Hector the Hero. wish me luck!