Available for pre-order (only): http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/goods/goods_de ... 0000023543]Space Invaders Magnet Collection Set

And it'll be out just before my summer vacation... 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

While this is very much off-topic, I'm going to post it anyway and apologize to Bob if it's not kosher.

This coming Summer, I'm doing a 150 mile bike ride to support research for Multiple Sclerosis. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Central New England
Chapter will use funds collected from the Great Mass Getaway to not only support research for a cure tomorrow, but also to provide programs which address the
needs of people living with MS today. Because we can fight this disease by simply riding a bike, because we have chosen to help thousands of people through a
contribution to the MS Bike Tour, we are now getting closer to the hour when no one will have to hear the words, "You have MS."

You can find more info about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at www.nationalmssociety.org and the New England chapter specifically at www.msnewengland.org.

I set myself a (mostly arbitrary) goal of raising $1,500 for this ride, and every little bit gets me that much closer. Please sponsor my ride and help us find a cure for MS.

Thanks,

-Z

PS. Bob - if you don't want this on your forums, I'll understand and take it down.
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

I just added an "appearance" section to Leda Swansen's writeup on the wiki. I'm sure somebody can draw inspiration for a story from it:

Quote:Appearance

I look like who? During the http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/1632]Interdimensional Incursion Incident, Leda discovered she bears a remarkable resemblance to the adult http://www.usagi.org/~doi/smoon/char/jupiter.html]Makoto Kino, except for her “white” skin colour and a one-cup-size-smaller bustline.

Some people who are aware of the existence of alternate worlds have theorized that notable people have analogues in other worlds, and some of them believe that Leda is Makoto's analogue. Leda and her close associates attempt to discourage this theory whenever they hear it.

But sometimes she lies awake at night and wonders…

Fedifensor is running an online Arcanis game, so neither of us are going to be available this Friday. But that doesn't mean there's no Task Force
Friday this week! The 7pm Eastern / 7pm Pacific split seems to work pretty well, just remember that the late shift is going to be down two regulars this week.

The next TF I'd planned to do is Citadel's. I want run the original six for the Task Force Commander Accolade, and then continue one with the newer TFs
and the Trials. (I do plan to hit the red side SFs and trials, too.) Feel free to run Citadel or do something else if you prefer. But I hope you'll do
something.

I've never done the Citadel TF, so I will be running it one way or another. Either a week from Friday or sometime outside the usual Friday slot,
depending on what you guys do this week and when I can get six people together.

At level 40, anyway.

We've got a lot of alts and lower characters making the run up to 50 in a big hurry - I'm consistently impressed by how fast 'you people' level
for a group of _non_ powergamers.

Anyway - please stop levelling at 40. Why?

The Abandoned Sewers Trial

I was under the impression, due to P-Wiki, that we could 'cheat', and use 50s with one level 39 to round-robin exemplar to to get the weapons -
Vyperpunk informs me that this will not work.

So, instead, we need 'some' (Pwiki says 'one', see earlier statement on Pwiki reliability), Red Tomax doesn't have much to say -

But it appears that only heroes of level 40 and below can get the temp power for hitting the Hydra, regardless of SK status.

So. Save your 40s! I'd like to run this trial a few times, get everyone who's interested in it covered. It's a goofy trial, as it's _not_ in TF
mode. So getting the group together is easy - anyone can come, who's 36+ for the abandoned sewers.

Roy will be hitting 40 soon, and I'm gonna stop him there until we can get this trial knocked down! I'd like the badge on Mag and Pooky as well,
though, so..

Save your Forties!
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

So, I'm working on something as an intellectual exercise/junk writing project and find myself vexed.

I'm writing a crossover that will feature five series. It will also feature five main characters, one from each series. However there is a catch. These
characters must be people who don't have superpowers/special abilites in action/adventure series which heavily feature people who do. So far I have picked
out five of the main characters: Winry Rockbell (Full Metal Alchemist), Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Tatsuki Arisawa (Bleach) and Rakki (Claymore). I
need a fifth character (and thus series). I am looking for a character to fulfill my "spiritual person" role. That is I need a character from a
series that could reasonably be called the kind of person who could serve as the spiritual center of the group above.

Barring that if one could make a good argument for a character to shift roles from the above group to the "spiritual center" role. At the moment I
have a fighter (Tatsuki), a faceman (Sokka), a thief/rogue (Rakki) and a brainy type (Winry). Other people could fill one of those roles if I could move
somebody out of their role to the spiritual center one.

I never realised how hard it is to find a spiritual person who has no superpowers in such series.

Caveat: No, I'm not using Xander. Nor do I want to use characters from any series which I've already hevaily worked with in, say, Hybrid Theory.

----------------

Epsilon

Anyone game for a Strikeforce tonight at 7 Eastern? I have villains in available ranges for every SF/Respec, with a heavy weighting on Tarikoss and Silver
Mantis.

Nogi's good for everything, Chiyuki Inari is good through Ice Mistral, and I have Bizarre Mouse, Arbmu, and Mother Meyai for Tarikoss and Silver Mantis.
Additionally, I have a Fire/therm corr, Happy Grin, for Tarikoss...
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Today is the 75th anniversary of FDR signing the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition. Salud!

So, a few of us did the Terra Nova Respec TF tonight. It all goes well, the usual overwhelming firepower strategy serving us well, until we got into the
reactor room. In there, you get a random number of Sky Raider waves spawning for a while as you defend the reactor core. Pretty easy, but frustrating as there
was close to a five minute gap between spawns for some reason... Then there was the last wave. We cleared it out, sat back, waited... and waited... Eventually,
we concluded that the Sky Raiders were being let out on bail, getting new gear, and flying back to try again. (Except poor Bob, who'd suffered at the teeth
of Farming Roys Imps). As we come up on 15 minutes, getting ready to find a GM, because what the hell man, Gamma suddenly runs off. A moment later, there's
a cry of 'Found a Porter!' and the mission ends.

Yet again, heroes are put through grief because of freaking teleporters that run away and hide! Knight has bad sunburn, Gen must have Cancer after sitting in
the reactor for an hour with no shielding, and Gamma and co... well, they got their powers from radiation in the first place, they'll be fine

A few random thoughts (which may or may not work their way into stories), and a request for input and related tangents...

Of course there's a Hacker Underground Underspace in The Black. Like most pseudo-factions, it's even (vaugely) organized.

Who's in the Hacker Underspace? Going by character writeups, Lebia Maverick would be, and Perry Doper might. It wouldn't be too big a stretch for Yuki Nagato to be part of the group as well. (Ghu knows the poor girl needs something in the way of background other than "she's part of the SOS-dan"...) And anybody who's looked at my discussion page over on the wiki knows about Takami Sakuragi appearing in 2014; she'd be a member, too. Anybody else?

It's a bit more difficult to hack a system protected by an AI, but that just means bigger bragging rights. The penalties for hacking a system protected by an AI are bigger, too - the AI can fight back.

Would anybody go beyond hacking a system protected by an AI and actually try hacking an AI? Most of the ethical hackers wouldn't... but there's always a chance of a boskonian "cracker" being out there somewhere.

Hacking at lightspeed would be a challenge - would it even be possible, or would hackers need to be either reasonably close to on-site or using the Interwave?
--
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