SO, is there a magic level or qualifier to get the Keeper of the Secret Badge and the Oroborous thing? I ask because my Lv 30 blaster didn't get it when I logged in. But I have it on a Lv 25 scrapper. Does this make sense?
-Cindy-

I heard this on the radio this morning -- actress Maila Nurmi, who created (and became) the "Vampira" character in 1954 to host a TV show, passed away on Thursday January 10. The radio coverage I heard credited her with essentially creating the goth look. I wasn't a fan, myself, but I do recognize that many are. There's more information at her website, www.vampirasattic.com/ .

-- Bob
---------
I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....

Minor or major, take your pick, but while watching the first episode of the official sub/dub, I came to a realization.
We've been getting it wrong all these years. There's no such thing as a Reflex cannon, or even a Reaction cannon.
When Breetai and Exedore (pardon me, Vrlitwhai and Exsedol) talk about "reaction weapons," they're referring to the nuclear missiles thrown at them by the ARMD platforms. A legendary technology that only primitive Microns would use.
So Macek's team got the translation wrong (big surprise) and we've been using inaccurate terminology ever since...
--Sam
"Fire the wave motion gun!"

Charge up your wiimotes and crank up the amp to 11, it's Guitar Hero time!
picked up two instances of this wonderful little thrashing simulator this weekend, and was able to spend some quality time realizing that this is a _Lot_ harder than it looks. I seriously reccomend jumping right into the Medium difficulty as soon as one has the basic mechanics down, as the toughest part of the game is going to be managing the transitions between frets 123 and 4.
On the Wii, the graphics are surprisingly good, the load time is negligible, and the audio is very pleasing. I was playing Mississippi Queen, and found that I was not only tapping my toe to the beat, I was flat out _rocking out_.
Once I get a copy of my own (the other two were christmas presents), there's gonna be a Guitar Hero party at my place, bring your earplugs and your wahwah pedals!Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

yours truly has been scraping away at the accomplishments and history and flat-out _slaughter_ of vicious creatures required for the Portal Jockey accolade, and I'm back from the misty depths of the Portal Corps with a report on the Tina Macintyre mission arc, which is required for Portal Jockey, and good clean fun besides.

The Good - Tina is a relatively easy contact to deal with. She provides several non-arc missions which you or your team can run to increase your stature with her, and will give up the phone number relatively quickely (in my experience). Once you've got that, the lion's share of your missions can be reached easily, being either Portal missions, or something near an Ouroboros exit.
My initial team loadout was myself on my 41 tank, and a pair of scrappers. The missions with this oddball team were fairly challenging, and the inclusion of the 'boss' critters made it that much more interesting. I believe I have burnt though several _hundred_ green inspirations during this arc, and the easy portal setup of Pocket D -> Tiki Bar -> Ouroboros -> Peregrine Island is almost a necessity for sanity's sake.
The precise missions involved in this arc, and the listing of 'boss critters' required for the Portal Jockey badge are available on Paragonwiki, and not part of this discussion. The early missions in this arc can be accomplished _very_ quickly by a sneaky or agressive team that moves in, assasinates the boss or eliminates the glowy, and pops exit.
this method is not without it's risks, however, and this affected me on one mission where we executed a precision strike on the Freakshow guarding one nice lady, and.. she continued to cower and whimper. We ended up resetting the mission and repeating the process, with no problem on the second run.

The Bad - As mentioned earlier, my initial team was a pair of scrappers and a tank. This DPS-heavy group did surprisingly well, although I felt stretched to the limit during the boss fights, handling my own healing against signifigant horsepower. This was made quite clear when we borrowed Sweno for a filler, and proceeded to get splattered against simple overwhelming power. The 3-4 man teams never encountered actual AVs, though, which kept us in the realm of sanity, and Paragonwiki confirms that the Elite Bosses we _did_ fight counted towards the Portal Jockey accolade.
A few incidents stand out - namely, trying to hold the Clockwork King at approx 2% hp while I put out an all-call for the start of the arc.
Do Not Do This.
a few deaths later, we reformed, pulled him back down from the 50% he had regenned to, and locked him away. Even as Elite Bosses, there's too much going on to play around with this mission arc. Fortunately, you'll probably have a good team, as fairly few idiots survive to this level. Get in, hit hard, get out fast.
Another incident revolves around the 'bad kitty' level. Council-like spawns of cat-based villians in a nice compact map were a very fun and dynamic fight experience, and the boss here didn't even phase me or my healer. We had upgraded to 2 scrappers plus tank plus healer at this point, and were developing a 'juggernaut twitch', which caused a minor problem in the following mission..
the 'bad doggy' mission. After defeating Bobcat, most of my group wandered off to buy and sell, and I called up Tina - who sent me on a timed mish to eliminate _all_ enemies in a forest setting. This was a surprisingly difficult thing, as they were hidden in every nook and cranny, and hit real good. Lots of Council warwolf type enemies everywhere and a limited time to clear the zone. By the time I got everyone back from shopping and AFK breaks.. we wound up being pretty close. Be aware of that when pushing through this arc!
Once we added a 'ickle firsty', who had gotten fed up with watching us playing CoH, snagged a copy of my install and hit NCSoft.com for his account, we traded one of the scrappers in for an exemplared 50 healer, and started adding additional people. This roster was fairly static, and included Ankhani, which was a bit of an eye opener for me. I started paying attention to the damage flows on a Ghost-based level, and I was _very_ surprised at how big of a force multiplier she is. Normally, ghosts rip me apart at the seams, but between a competent healer and a competent 'troller, it wasn't no thing at all, and we were lining them up and knocking them down like tenpins.

I haven't finished everything that this contact has to offer, but I've completed her main arc, and I believe I now have access to it in Ouroboros, and it's worth doing. Her dialog and storylines hang the missions together in a fairly coherent whole, and the 'Them ain't clockwork, them's Bo-Bots' Praetorians and carnies and freakshow and crey and cats and dogs provided a nicely varied fighting experience.
I would be happy to take a group through this arc again, given a good chunk of scheduling availability, as there are plenty of missions.
We had a level one with us for a good part of the arc, and he finished as a level 13. There's nothing in this arc that's level-restricted, so bring your SKs out to play!

So, in conclusion;
Tina Macintyre is neccesary for the Portal Jockey accolade, and provides a good fun 40-45 mission arc for limited or full teams. Many missions can be 'sidestepped' by an assassin squad tech, but many require full clears.
Ankhani was an impressive DPS/Safety boost for my team, though I was able to _function_ with nothing more than a scrapper or two for DPS. Learned something new about the role of 'trollers.
There is a plentitude of missions available from this lady, and a large block of time is needed to 'clear' her mission arc. I took approximately 15 hours to do so, in two seperate sittings.
The Portal Jockey accolade is a worthwhile accomplishment, giving +5% HP and +5 END.
Keep alert for the next portion of Portal Jockey badge, Maria Jenkins!Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Look, either we need to let Rumors withdraw enhancements from the base enhancement banks, or we need to automatically promote everyone up to the level where they *can* withdraw.
There are *tons* of low-level enhancements in the store, and it'd be nice if our lowbie alts could actually GET them.
--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

According to this article, the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has a team working on a "power assist robot suit" for agricultural workers. According to the article, they expect the suit to be in use by 2012.
--The Twisted One"If you wish to converse with me, define your terms."
--Voltaire
"If you
wish to converse with me, define your
terms."

--Voltaire

HI folks!
Pardon the gleeful cackling...I have some good news to impart.
I made it! WOOHOOO!!! ^_^
Today at 3:30 PM approximately, myself and three other folks from my karate class successfully completed the 1st-dan grading test, and are now officially 'Sho-Dan' black belts. ^_^
I think I'm going to go collapse now. XD
Later!
Bert V.V.
skyknight@sentex.net

Researchers create rideable walking robot. With video that looks almost too good to be true.

-- Bob
---------
I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from Now We Are Six through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So theeeeeere....

...that I keep mentioning whenever I get an opportunity?
Well, if you missed the chance to get the first volume of manga and the tv series for not much more than what just a volume of manga usually costs...
You can read the first volume for free at CPM's website. Among other things. Unfortunately, the part I think is one of the most well done dramatic scenes in any manga ever is in volume 2, you won't be able to see it there...
(Now, I just wish I knew if CPM was still a live company that I could expect to get volume 5 translated someday...)
-Morgan."Mikuru-chan molested me! I'm... so happy!"
-Haruhi, "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
---(Not really)