This character has not been created yet, but it's an idea that's been knocking around in my mind for a few days, so I decided to get it down on paper.  I'll add more once I get the chance.
I lay there in the room, completely alone.  My eyes are open and staring blankly at the ceiling.  I try to look around, but my view doesn't change.  This one vision has been burned into my mind for as long as I have been awake.  It's only broken by someone or someones walking into the room and moving into my sight to look at me.  They say something, either muttering it to themselves or to someone else in the room I can't see, but I can't hear them.  I don't know what they're saying.  I don't even know how long I've been here, at their mercy.  
They do things to me too.  Surgeries, tests, you name it.  Apparently trying to fix whatever's wrong with me.  Only problem with that is that they don't know I can feel every little thing they do.  At first I couldn't bear it, it was torture.  But now, I've almost become inured to it.  Almost.  Besides it doesn't do any good to scream or cry or anything.  Nobody can hear me.  I've just about given up on anything ever changing.  I'm just their subject, to experiment on I suppose.
Oddly enough, it's when they all leave that it's the worst.  Staring up at the same spot for infinity, having no concept of time passing.  Only your own thoughts to keep you entertained.  Well, that only lasts for so long.  It's hard to try and keep a positive outlook after hours, days, or weeks of being utterly alone.  The despair creeps in.  Eventually suicidal thoughts.  The completely ironic thing is, there's no way I can commit suicide. I can't even 'will' myself to death.  Believe me, I've tried.  So I just sit here, forever alone.
Not alone anymore, Little Sister.
If I had control over my body, I would have literally jumped out of my own skin. That voice... I heard it!  But, it sounded like it came from inside my own head.
That's because it did.  I'm speaking directly to your mind.
What? You can do that?  How?  Where are you?  Who are you?  What's going on?
The voice chuckled dryly in my mind.  Slow down.  We'll cover everything in good time.  Suddenly a white glow appeared in the center of my sight, slowly expanding until it was all I could see.  Then from the middle of that emerged a pair of glowing blue eyes.  My name is Rolan, and if you will have me, you will never, ever be alone again.
All I could do was give an inarticulate cry of joy and fall into the sapphire depths of those eyes.
You are mine, now and forever.  We will always be two minds twined within one soul.

Flobots: No Handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handlebars

No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handlebars

No handlebars

Look at me, look at me

hands in the air like it's good to be

ALIVE

and I'm a famous rapper

even when the paths're all crookedy

I can show you how to do-si-do

I can show you how to scratch a record

I can take apart the remote control

And I can almost put it back together

I can tie a knot in a cherry stem

I can tell you about Leif Ericson

I know all the words to "De Colores"

And "I'm Proud to be an American"

Me and my friend saw a platypus

Me and my friend made a comic book

And guess how long it took

I can do anything that I want cuz, look:

I can keep rhythm with no metronome

No metronome

No metronome

I can see your face on the telephone

On the telephone

On the telephone

Look at me

Look at me

Just called to say that it's good to be

ALIVE

In such a small world

All curled up with a book to read

I can make money open up a thrift store

I can make a living off a magazine

I can design an engine sixty four

Miles to a gallon of gasoline

I can make new antibiotics

I can make computers survive aquatic conditions

I know how to run a business

And I can make you wanna buy a product

Movers shakers and producers

Me and my friends understand the future

I see the strings that control the systems

I can do anything with no assistance

I can lead a nation with a microphone

With a microphone

With a microphone

I can split the atoms of a molecule

Of a molecule

Of a molecule

Look at me

Look at me

Driving and I won't stop

And it feels so good to be

Alive and on top

My reach is global

My tower secure

My cause is noble

My power is pure

I can hand out a million vaccinations

Or let'em all die in exasperation

Have'em all grilled leavin lacerations

Have'em all killed by assassination

I can make anybody go to prison

Just because I don't like'em and

I can do anything with no permission

I have it all under my command

I can guide a missile by satellite

By satellite

By satellite

and I can hit a target through a telescope

Through a telescope

Through a telescope

and I can end the planet in a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handle bars

No handlebars

I can ride my bike with no handlebars

No handlebars

No handlebars

Given the fact that this guy can do anything, even patently absurd things, this may be a powerful reality control song. Alternately, it may allow him to make
absurd braggart claims (like the guy from the Dilbert comic strip who always one-ups everybody else) and force people to believe them.
----------------------------------------------------

"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

Anyone remember a HP fic, GoF timeframe, where Harry happens to enter the Room of Requirement at the same time as a coven centered on him is meeting?

It was out relatively recently, but damned if I can find it again?

I think it was Mal who suggested using converted cargo containers as living modules. This idea builds on that:

1) Handwave an old http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/sik_s-64.php]S-64 "flying crane" or the equivalent for reliability, spaceworthiness, and extended flight time. (This craft would no doubt be nicknamed "Eagle 1" by the Gerry Anderson Fen, so let's make the name official... )

2) Handwave some cargo containers (that the flying crane can lift) for airtightness and livability; install airlocks in the cargo containers while doing so.

3) Equip the cargo containers as disaster relief modules - a trauma unit, a field kitchen, a communications center, a solar-power generation station, and some bunkhouses.

4) Keep the disaster relief modules ready to deploy to disaster areas.

If Stellvia offered to pay for a chopper and a half-dozen or so cargo containers, would the Blue Blazers be interested in providing the necessary staff - a chopper pilot, two medics, a comms specialist, and a cook, at minimum?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Guys? I'm not going to be able to join you for very much. At all. Until my damn ISP gets something fixed. There's a loose connection somewhere in the
wires outside the house. It came loose in that godawful windstorm a couple weeks back in Texas. I know exactly what's happening. The sun heats the wires,
things expand and the connection goes *poof*.

At random intervals.

For random amounts of time.

Sometimes resetting the router seems to help. Sometimes it doesn't.

Based on past experience, it's going to take WEEKS of bitching, moaning, multiple trips by technicians out to the house - ALL of whom will swear up and
down that the problem is fixed, that it couldn't POSSIBLY be anything but inside my house - and calls to supervisors to tell them that NO, your damn field
techs did NOT fix it. It's at YOUR END, damn it! FIX it on the LINE or at the CENTRAL OFFICE. NOT at my house, DAMN YOU!

They don't want to own up to something that will cost them money to fix. If they can claim that it's within my house, then it's my responsibility.
BULLSHIT. This didn't start happening until after that storm.

But I know how the game is played.

In the meantime, I'll only be able to reliably get online from about 9 PM until about 9 AM.

It's going to be a long summer.

OpMegs and I have been clearing the Hollows story arc, and it seems likely that we'll be able to access the Hollows conclusion this weekend. Which means we
need backup. So, is anyone else interested in this TF on the weekend? I'm willing to be variable on the time

Ebony: I really like this, I do. I'm assuming this is Numero Catorce, heh. (At first I thought it might be Bella Fuego, but a quick check of who drives
who cleared that up).

Maybe it's because I grew up in the southwest, but this really rings a nostalgic note. Apruebo!



--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Quote: She and Syndesis have a strange relationship.

I've said for years that I have some very specific requirements of an electric or hybrid car that have to be met before I would consider buying one.

It has to have performance at least comparable to a gasoline powered car - in every way.

It has to have the range of a gas powered car, or better. This is based on the assumption that the charging/refueling infrastructure will lag behind the cars
themselves. If I'm going to use an electric car, I want to be able to take a long road trip with it out of state, just like I could a gas powered car.
That's REALLY important in Texas, where drive times are longer than most other places.

It should be able to have some room inside the car, and not be super-heavy due to batteries. Some reasonable cargo space. If I'm going to make that cross
country trip, I should be able to carry some luggage with me.

The thing should either be rechargeable in 10 minutes or less, or have an on board recharge system.

While we're at it, make the braking system into part of the recharge system.

Folks? That car has now been made!

Quote: A British engineering firm has put together a high-performance hybrid version of BMW's Mini Cooper. The PML Mini
QED has a top speed of 150 mph, a 0-60 mph time of 4.5 seconds. The car uses a small gasoline engine with four 160 horsepower electric motors - one on
each wheel. The car has been designed to run for four hours of combined urban/extra urban driving, powered only by a battery and bank of ultra capacitors.
The QED supports an all-electric range of 200-250 miles and has a total range of about 932 miles (1,500 km). For longer journeys at higher speeds, a small
conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) is used to re-charge the battery. In this hybrid mode, fuel economies of up to 80mpg can be achieved.

That bastard with the death note is at it again. *sigh*

Saw this over at Steve Jackson games in the news for yesterday. Kevin Siembieda has a tribute to him here.

We would probably know him best for these things (copied from the the link above)

Quote: Erick is best known for his many RPG games and contributions to Palladium Books®, including The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles® RPG, several
TMNT® sourcebooks, After the Bomb® RPG and sourcebooks for it, Ninjas & Superspies™, Mystic China™, Rifts®
China One and Two, Revised RECON®, Wolfen Empire™ and many others. He is also famous for Amber® Diceless, the
first truly "diceless" role-playing game, published under Erick's own label, Phage Press. Erick also published
Amberzine® and founded Ambercon™, a series of conventions celebrating gaming, friendship and the world of Amber, hosted at
numerous locations around the world.