This I believe (if Bob had not picked one yet) would be a dandy way to enter the SM step.

The Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
and what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
and rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard
and answered when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that and someone believed it.
Look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us star gazing
and what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

All of us under its spell. We know that it's probably magic.

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors.
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

The line about the "young sailors" almost calls for it.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

A specific one, to be precise. A coworker sent me this description:

Quote:I think the best one I ever saw was a cat laying on a Mini Cooper painted like the Flag of England. It said something to the effect of "I use the queen's English and I type properly!"

This is not precisely Legendary-related, more general City of Heroes.
I've recommended this story before, but as of yesterday it's complete. Finished.

Which greatly amuses me, because I'd spoken to the author a day before, and he/she was all 'oh, actually
there's more coming'. Seems like that's really a promise you can get behind...

Faces of the City is available on the official CoH forums or the Virtueverse wiki. The second is a more reliable
permanent URL.

This is, bar none, the cleverest piece of CoH fiction I've ever encountered. It has an incredibly unique
perspective on Paragon City - it's a very very cool concept, which ties in well with the nature of its protagonist. The author, Megajoule (or Miss
Megajoule), tells me there's a sequel in the works focusing on the Rogue Isles. Seriously looking forward to that.
-- Acyl

Got this from the COH LiveJournal just today. Don't be drinking or eating anything before you read, okay? I don't want to be resposible for monitor or
keyboard replacement. ^_^

Our father who art The Statesman

Hallowed be thy game

Thy updates come

Thy will be done

Online as it is your vision

Give us this day rare salvage drops

And forgive us our farming

As we forgive those who spam blind invites

And lead us not into PVP zones

But deliver us from real money traders

For thine is the server, and the XP, and the leveling

Forever and ever (so long as we pay $14.95 a month)

Amen.

When I watched http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/206.html]Hanauyko Maid Tai, I thought the computer security bit in episode 8 was even sillier than most such in fiction. Today, I discovered that the animators were actually on to something - they just picked the wrong game.

The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/23/l3dgeworld/]Sysadmins get Quake tools

Anyone want to bet this is how Loony set up the Warriors' computer security front-end? 8)
--
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

The Inquirer: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... rews-music]Microsoft takes back the music

Quote:We have been saying for years that ANY sort of DRM is unacceptable, and this goes to show you exactly what we mean. Anyone who bought music from MS just got screwed, period, without recourse.

Ok. Qualities I want:

Efficient memory usage

Efficient process handling (no stutter in playback from music, for example, if I open a new program while it's playing back)

Runs well on my machine (Athlon 2.0 ghz with 1 gig of ram, video card: Radeon 9550 w/ 256 megs)

Will run CoH well under WINE.

Can handle software for playing back mp3, mp4, AAC, and divx video in avi and/or mkv formats
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Male voice, spoken:
Kommt zu mir.
Kommt zu mir in mein dunkles reich...
Kommt zu mir in mein dunkles reich...

(Sempiternus raptus est...)

Blutige Rache.
Verrat und Raub.
Asche zu Asche.
Staub zu Staub.

Aus Rheingold geschmiedet,
von Gottern erzwungen.
Vernichtend der Fluch.
Der Ring der Nibelungen.

Kommt zu mir.
Kommt zu mir in mein dunkles reich...
Kommt zu mir in mein dunkles reich...

Seelen verbrannt.
Das Blutmeer versiegt.
Helden sind tot
und grausam das Lied.

Aus Rheingold geschmiedet,
von Gottern erzwungen.
Vernichtend der Fluch.
Der Ring der Nibelungen.

Choir (sung):
Sempitemus raptus est.
Te tenebo in umbras.
Exire imperio nemo potest.
Si sinistra te tango
in me aeterno ardes
et in obscuritas captatus est

Male voice (spoken):
Kommt zu mir.

Sempiternus raptus est.
Te tenebo in umbras.
Exire imperio nemo potest.
Si sinistra te tango
in me aeterno ardes

Choir (sung):
Sempitemus raptus est.
Te tenebo in umbras.
Exire imperio nemo potest.

Male voice (spoken):
et in obscuritas captatus est!

Choir (sung):
Si sinistra te tango
in me aeterno ardes
et in obscuritas captatus est

Sempitemus raptus est.
Te tenebo in umbras.
Exire imperio nemo potest.
Si sinistra te tango
in me aeterno ardes
et in obscuritas captatus est

Male voice (spoken):
Kommt zu mir...
zu mir...
zu mir...

(English translation

Male voice, spoken:
Come to me.
Come to me in my dark kingdom.
Come to me in my dark kingdom.

(Eternity has been raped.)

Bloody revenge.
Treason and robbery.
Ashes to ashes.
Dust to dust.

Forced by the Gods,
it was forged of the Rhine's gold.
The curse is damning.
The ring of the Nibelungs.

Come to me.
Come to me in my dark kingdom.
Come to me in my dark kingdom.

Souls have burned.
My blood runs dry.
The heroes are dead
and the song is cruel.

Forced by the Gods,
it was forged of the Rhine's gold.
The curse is damning.
The ring of the Nibelungs.

Choir (sung):
Eternity has been raped.
I will hold you in the shadows.
No one can leave the empire.
When I touch you from the left
he will be captured in my eternal flame in darkness.

Male voice (spoken):
Come to me.

Eternity has been raped.
I will hold you in the shadows.
No one can leave the empire.
When I touch you from the left

Choir (sung):
Eternity has been raped.
I will hold you in the shadows.
No one can leave the empire.

Male voice (spoken):
he will be captured in my eternal flame in darkness!

Choir (sung):
When I touch you from the left
he will be captured in my eternal flame in darkness.

Eternity has been raped.
I will hold you in the shadows.
No one can leave the empire.
When I touch you from the left
he will be captured in my eternal flame in darkness.

Male voice (spoken):
Come to me...
to me...
to me...

-- E Nomine, Der Ring Der Nibelungen
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Neat little tool for templating up a character in the "Bruce Timm" style used for the Batman/Superman/Justice League/JLU style. Hero-O-Matic is a nifty little resource. The only drawback is that it's in Spanish
(Portugese?), but a little trial and error lets you figure it out. Oh - no way to save character images other than to print-screen and use an image program to
crop it. But that's easy to do.

Here's some of our characters that I've done versions of. Helmet options are somewhat limited unfortunately, so I can't really do a good version of
Cyberman 8, unless I were to photoshop it. Likewise, Looney and Wide aren't really being done justice here with their headgear. But I did my best.
Superball came out pretty good though.

Anyway, go check it out and see what you can come up with!

Here's the Legendary characters.

Looney, without and with his helmet.



Lora'Lai and Evangelia



Superball and Wide Receiver



Bella Fuego



And here's my Saturday night Champions game characters - The Marvels! Shocker, Beetle, and The Mechanic.

Peggy and I had dinner with my sister Nancy and her partner Mary Ellen on Sunday night, and dinner talk ranged all over the place -- including, at one point,
Fenspace. Upon hearing the description of the setting, Mary Ellen remarked that it sounded familiar to her -- a nephew, or cousin, or something, I can't
remember now what the relationship was -- had recently been talking to her about a collective writing project that sounded almost identical. So I'm just
wondering if anyone reading is related to a Mary Ellen and has told her about Fenspace... or if we have to go searching for a bunch of plagiarists.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.