newnumber6

No comics today. NYX was on my list, but I decided I'd skip the trip this week (big snowstorm was supposedly today, which turned out to be a semi-heavy snowfall followed by freezing rain and the resultant slush. I think I made the right call) and get it with next week's.

Work was a bit of a pain in part due to the snow/slush (which also made things late), but also a couple random minor problems with delayed things and made me sorer. Meh. Oh well, at least it's over.

And in case you hadn't heard, LJ MAY DIE AT ANY MINUTE (no, this isn't anything updated from the other posts on the subject you may have seen on your flist, I'm just being deliberately overdramatic). I dunno, I'm not too worried. I backed everything up just in case, but I suspect it's more likely the layoffs are more designed to position for an attempt to sell the company (because then they can say that they only have X amount of staff, paid X amount of dollars), rather than a sign that LJ is going to be swallowed up into nothingness. That said, LJ lost the trust for me a long time ago, which is why I never considered buying a 'permanent' account (whereas years ago I might have, although didn't have the funds). And let's face it, when they can decide to pull the plug at any moment a permanent account is hardly permanent, and not worth paying the equivalent of (what is it?) 2 years of paid (unless you would have paid that and more already)? Anyway, should LJ go completely belly up and we must go our separate ways, well, I'm not sure where I'll go. Probably to one of the other LJ clones, because I like the formatting and such. But if you need to contact me, my e-mail address isn't hard to find (hint, I run a website and an e-mail address is listed there). Although technically if it disappears overnight e-mail _might_ not reach me as there are currently some problems with my e-mail that need to be ironed out.

Had another Sithicus dream. For those who don't know, in the 90s I ran a local computer Bulletin Board System (over the phone-lines, pre-Internet age) by that name. Every once in a while, I have a dream where I discover it's still going, still running on that old (now deceased) computer. It's odd. ( Read more... )

Writing cycle begins next week, first one after the December break. Don't have any particular _new_ ideas unfortunately, but think I'll be trying something a little different. Start writing up one of my ideas for a comic format in prose. Not to have the story meant to be in that form, but as a way of getting through my block against working on it. See, I can do fairly well in terms of 'writing off the top of my head' in prose, but in script or comic form I tend to sit there and type nothing. So I thought maybe I could try it this way. Then I'd just have to adapt my own work.

This week I got one book:

Astonishing X-Men #24 (okay but this last arc's not worth the waiting)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was a pain. Late, and due to renovations it's a more annoying job even though the load's lighter.

Almost took the subway home (from the comic shop, anyway), due more to lateness than any tiredness, but I decided to press on. I'll need the fitness if I ever go on the long walk. Speaking of walking, did help me develop some ideas... unfortunately, they're mostly ideas for the story I'm editing now. Which is good in one level, since the story involves rapid technological progress and I was needing to add more tech stuff to the background, but I worry the story might already be getting too bloated as it is. Maybe the story's beyond my capabilities to tell well at this point, but oh well. And of course, it's a problem because that story's in the editing stage, and since tomorrow is the start of another writing cycle I need either completely new stuff to work on, or new ideas for older stuff, and I didn't get much of those. Ah well.

Also on the walk home, I wanted to check the time, and I saw a phone booth, which usually displays it. Except when I got there, it said, "Please hang up receiver". So I did. And then it immediately changed to "Please pick up receiver." No. Just because I do you a favour, doesn't mean I'm your little puppetmonkey. Make up your mind. Anyway, then it put the time up.

On other fronts, I'm still enjoying the Sarah Connor Chronicles quite a bit. It's going in directions I don't expect, which is often a good thing (though I still hope it goes in a couple directions I expect). And bonus points for a mention of the Singularity.

And, I suppose I should mention something about Heath Ledger. I'm not a particular fan of his -- by which I don't mean that I had any dislike for him whatsoever, just that I haven't _seen_ a whole lot he's been in. The only real connection I had to him, aside from looking forward to his role as the Joker, was that I used him as the character model/actor for Scuzz on XET. So it does hit me a _little_ more than any other actor that I don't have a particular connection to, so it was something of a shock. I think I actually said "Holy crap" when I heard it on the news. And of course, mostly, it's a tragedy for his family. Must be hard for them, especially with him being fairly young (he's actually younger than me, though I wouldn't have guessed), and him having a young daughter. I wish the best for them in the times ahead.

So, somewhere in the next two to three weeks, the server on which X-Men: End Times was hosted will be going away. Because it is an ex-game, and not really used much as a hangout spot anymore, there's not really much point to me scrambling to find another place to host it (especially if it would cost money). As such, this is likely the end.

Any former players on my flist, if you want to come on to @decompile, grab any other useful information, do one last bout of future-set RP with those character, or even just say goodbye, do so before August 23 - it might be up for a few days after that, but I'm told it'll go down sometime between Aug 23 and one week later. I'll be attempting to get a copy of the DB, but I don't know if or when I'll be able to set it up to get into it, so don't count on it. I don't know if people'd be interested in setting up a time for one last online get together on it, but it's an option.

I've of course been holding fort on it, more out of tradition than anything else. So if anyone does want to get in contact with me, well, of course you're reading this journal, so that's easy. But if you want a live-er connection, I have IMing info in my profile, and actually am connected to them on a regular basis now.

Also much thanks to our sitewiz who was able and willing to host us for so long, even after we ceased being a game.

(Oh, and though I doubt any of you are out there on my flist, anyone who was on the old Children of the Atom, that's going too. I don't know what other games were hosted there, but presumably the same thing's happening).

XET F'TAGHN!

Okay, I've been MUSHless for too long. And despite my earlier vow never to admin a MU* again, I've decided the only way to get the kind of MUSH I want to play in is to run one. It's just gone on too long where I see a MU* that's sort of promising but then one big thing ticks me off and I have to back off it.

I'll probably run it off XET's former site. I've not yet settled on a theme, but I've narrowed it down to a few options:
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Time for another edition of the XET Diaries. Looks like this’ll probably be the second to last, so I’m going to go even more self-indulgent than usual on this one…

Of all the plots we’ve done, I think my favorites were the Hastur related plots, based on the modified Hastur mythos in Delta Green (specifically, the sourcebook Countdown). We did a number of plots where the Columbia Branch got involved with them.
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And so now I present, for the first time anywhere, the Hastur Plot Musical Homage to ‘Once More With Feeling’, Once More With Hastur!
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Aside from the Buffy musical homage in the Hastur plot, I’ve done a bunch of other filkish songs celebrating XET over the years. The first few were done as a dubious treat for the XETty awards, or hidden in secret commands on the game as an easter egg, but a couple never made it anywhere but in my own files. So, behind the cut, the full song parodies of XET!
( Magneto as the Modern Mutant General! Xavier’s private Copacabana! Under Da Sea (Cthulhu Lies Dreaming)! and more! )
Next up is our final planned entry, where I’ll just throw out a bunch of loose character concepts and plots that didn’t fit in any other entry.

It’s time for another edition of the XET Diaries. This time, the Dreamlands, and Mojo Mayhem. Plus a few other isolated plots

We had a couple different plots abrew for the Dreamlands. Some of them might have eventually combined into one big plot, of course, but we always wanted to open the Dreamlands up to more regular exploration by the player characters.

Just as a quick recap for those who don’t know, the Dreamlands are a sort of a parallel dimension that some (though not all) people can access when they dream, in Lovecraft’s work. It’s formed from the collective unconscious and typically is at a level about 500 years in the past, at least on average. More generally it’s a ‘high fantasy’ world, with monsters and gods and mysterious cities, etc.

The Dreamlands of course, is the XET-canon origin of Lockheed’s species (along with, at least in our plans, canon Shatterstar's swords metal but we never actually established that firmly), and where the portal that Weapon Xers got lost in (and that eventually got shifted to another dimension in the Rutland incident) originally lead. It’s also where Goblyn was when Laura Dean was in our world, and vice versa, and where Catseye roamed.
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In the next entry, more on XET and Delta Green and the Secret Life of Groundskeeper Willie, plus the Government and Excelsior.

Okay, I think it’s about time to do another edition of the XET Diaries. Last time I talked about the drug plot. Well, in the back of my mind I had a second plot that would spring off that and lead into a wacky, time-travel adventure. In this edition, I’ll be tackling that, as well as discussing some of the ideas we had for the Ultimates. So, let’s get started behind the cut.
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In the next XET Diaries post, Secrets of XET’s past! Plus, what do you get when you cross a nazi with a cannibal? And some of the longer term ongoing plots and what was going on behind them…

Haven't done one of these in a while. Here's recent RPing scenes I've done on XET.

In chronological order from the last time I posted:

Helped to NPC for a scene in Eve's bar for the Nextacy plot. I NPCed Beakgirl and Fire-eater. Here's the log

As a follow-up to the Scuzz scene where he claimed to have forgotten about Frankie, is one where he talks to her again. Keeping with the song lyric theme, the log is titled We Used To Be Friends, A Long Time Ago (from Veronica Mars opening theme).

For Spidey, had a scene where he talks to Anthony who's in the hospital after the whole Ultron thing. Log is here.

NPCed as Professor Xavier in order to get Rina and Kirk involved in the Nextacy plot. Log is here.

And finally just today, a log where Kirk answers a phone call from his old flame Kitty Pryde, who's been missing almost two years. Log is here

"Look at your LJ "interests" list. If you have fewer than 50 interests, pick every fifth one. If you have between fifty and seventy-five interests, pick every seventh one. If you have over seventy-five interests, pick every tenth one. If you have fewer than ten, pick all of 'em. List them on your LJ, and tell everyone exactly what it is about these things that interests you so much."

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I don't know why, but somehow 'purchasing a pound of corned beef because it was on sale for a good price' (which I did today) feels, in my mind, like one of those dramatic 'steps towards full adulthood', like moving into your own place. I've purchased my own food for quite a while now, and look out for sales.. hell, even bought corned beef before, but for some reason, because I purchased a pound of it at once, from a grocery store deli, and brought it home, I'm getting a 'woo, I'm an adult' feeling more than I have in quite a while. Don't ask me to explain it.

I think somebody should take Big Brother, and use it to play a little sociological experiment, like simulate the sudden collapse of civilization. Like one day have the power go out - although the power's not really out, the cameras are all secretly on but they're not moving or anything. Then have one of the people behind the scenes tell the houseguests to stay put, it's probably just a power failure, and they're going to investigate it... and then have that be the last they hear from them. No more communication. Then have the sounds of machinegunshots outside, or smoke rising out over the gate. See how long it takes them to finally leave the house and see what's going on, knowing that technically, under the rules, leaving the house means you forfeit your chance. Or maybe fake a first contact with aliens going on in the outside world or something.

Did you ever notice that Hamburger Helper's Three Cheese Manicotti actually has four cheeses listed on the ingredients? WTF?

Oh yeah, I was going to mention this in my comic posts. While I was at BK for lunch I saw the ads for their chicken fries. I was tempted, but I didn't get any, so I've still never tried them, despite the fact that in a recent XET scene I spontaneously decided Kirk was a huge fan of them. :)