Merry Christmas to all.

-- Bob
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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....

A minute or so ago in another window, I had to log into the boards...
...and it refused to let me in without signing up for spam.
Needless to say I did and will continue to absolutely refuse to do so.
So, if I suddenly vanish completely for no apparent reason, that's where the blame goes.

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"Reseeestunce ees fiutil. Yoo weeel bee Useemooletud. Borg Borg Borg."
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

Well, I meant to post the first chapter of Appreciation to the FFML yesterday. After somewhere around ten attempts, three browser-crashes and two messages that actually got through (one sans story, one with the story's formatting messed up), I gave up and posted it to FF.net. The story's first chapter can be found here.
As for what Appreciation is, the following is from my posts:
This is my venture into the realms of what a commentator at TFF dubbed a "Stealth Crackfic". Everything is logically set up, logically developed... and leads to totally absurd results. It's a crackfic... only it makes sense.
It started out as an SI. Now... before you start gagging, it's grown and changed considerably... although Recca is still rather heavily based on me, and its roots show from time to time.
It all started out when Prince Charon posted a question: what would you do if you were a jounin instructor in Konoha? Well... I'm not the type to become one -- spectacularly so... and the image of me becoming one was just plain wrong. Because of that, I wrote out a few short scenes featuring what would happen... since the only way I'd ever become one was if I had a rather spectacular psychotic break.
Those scenes were rather well recieved, and I started the work fleshing them out into a full fic. In the process of doing so, however, things changed and evolved. Recca quickly grew from being a SI into becoming a true OC -- there are things that I understand (and understood when I started writing the story) that Recca does not, and vice-versa. Recca has his own quirks, his own way of thinking... his own /life/, in a strange way.
That, and he's perfectly aware of the meaning of the word "restraint" -- it's just not his kink.
It's important to note, however, that I started writing this in March. I've tried to keep the story compatable with recent canon revelations... but there were times when it was difficult to do so. Please forgive any revision errors that occur, especially given my next point.
Unfortunately, this hasn't been fully betaed. It HAS been through the first round of the beta process, but my beta has suddenly lost a lot of free time due to a new job, and I wanted to get this sent out before Christmas. C&C would be greatly appreciated... pun intended.-- This message brought to you by Ely Lilly, makers of SeraFem: Happy Pills for PMS.

Unfortunately, I had to have one of my dogs put to sleep today. His name was Bailey, and he had rapid-onset liver failure. Over the last few weeks, he's had a lot of trouble keeping food down, and last night while I was at work, he took a turn for the worse. He stopped being able to hold water, and he would hide around the corner of the house, in the back yard, laying down. In the last two weeks, he's lost about fifteen pounds, which, for a healthy, ideal-weight boxer, he didn't have to lose. This morning when I got home, he was peeing blood. He was a funloving dog, always there with smiles and tail-wags when I would get home. I got him a basketball for Christmas.
Good luck, Bailey, and good fortunes, whereever you go from here.
-Michael, 24 Dec 07 9:22 am
Edit: I post this here not for sympathy for myself and my family, but to give to Bailey as many good wishes as I can beg, borrow, or steal for his journey into whatever lies beyond. He was a better friend than I deserved.
-MFalling out of aeroplanes and hiding out in holes

Waiting for the sunset to come, people going home

Jump out from behind them and shoot them in the head

Now everybody dancing the dance of the dead

Morning, folks!
Just an FYI, my webpage at www.bgcrisis.com has been updated a bit. I've added some more of my commissioned artwork to the 'Artworks' section, and posted the work-in-progress on my digital colouring of some black and white artwork of one of my heroes in the 'Siegeworks' section.
So Merry Christmas to all. Enjoy the artwork.
Best wishes,
Bert V.V.
skyknight@sentex.net
(PS - *comment* on something this time, willya?! )

Well I'm off to a magical place without computers. So merry christmas, lucky other holiday of choice, and happy new year everyone!
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Does anybody remember that old Impro goodness?
If you do, why do you think it's gone?
Should it have died?--------------------
I'll snap your neck like a tomato!

I saw the note at the top of the page that the board will be migrating to yuku sometime this week, so I thought that this was a good time to migrate my ezBoard member proflie over. Problem is, the form refuses to recognize the text I key in from the captcha it gives me. I tried a half-dozen times, then went through the ridiculous process that they have to create a trouble ticket.
(As an aside, having worked on the Helldesk, er, Help Desk, in the past, it should not take a user a quarter-hour to open a trouble ticket. Fix your process, yuku and ezBoard.)
Anyway, I have trouble ticket NIH-77727 open with ezBoard about this, but who knows whether they'll get to it before they migrate the board? Especially at this time of year...
-Rob Kelk
"Actually, my goal is to write neat stories. The money just makes it possible for me to write them faster and then buy neat toys."
Ryk E. Spoor, 7 November 2007
--
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

Trust me. Just clicky on the linky.
If you like City of Heroes - if you like The Blue Man Group. If you like seeing wonderfully timed music vids, you owe it to yourself to watch this. Much win and awesome!
-Logan
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"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
-----------------

Harry glared at Draco, hoping that this would look reasonably convincing. Polyjuice of Snape wasn't easy to get hold of (they'd had to degrease the hair for one thing). "Sex Education, Practical: Report to me in the Stationery Cupboard."
"Wha- bu-" Draco spluttered.
'Snape' rolled his eyes. "Draco..." he hissed, discreetly tapping his left forearm.
Draco's eyes widened and he nodded quickly. "I understand Professor."
"Excellent," Harry sneered and stalked away, his robes flapping around him. A couple of Hufflepuff firsties burst into tears as he glared at them.
-
"All ready?" he asked a tapestry on the third floor.
"The roosters are polyjuiced, bound and gagged," Ron replied quietly from behind the tapestry. "They look like a couple of ordinary girls... Harry are you sure that this is the right thing to do?"
"Don't forget what we're doing this for, Ron," Harry told him in a dangerous voice. "Some sacrifices need to be made."
Ron hesitated. "You're right Harry," he agreed. "But those poor roosters."
-
"Harry," Dumbledore said. "I'm sure you know why I asked you to meet me here."
Harry scratched his chin and kept his rear pointed at the wall. For some reason, unexplained summons by a Hogwarts Professor made him feeling a little nervous. "No Professor."
"Then you don't know anything about these photographs of Draco Malfoy in the Stationary Cupboard performing a disgusting sexual act on a rooster?" Dumbledore asked, his twinkling eyes at a contrast to his stern expression.
"Ah..."
"Or the fact that several of his House Mates have reported that he had been ordered to the Stationary Cupboard by Professor Snape for..." the old man hesitated. "Practical sex education?"
"I'd heard that, Professor, but you know what rumours are like around Hogwarts."
"Ah, indeed." Dumbledore steepled his hands. "So why did you do this, Harry."
Harry gulped. "Two reasons, headmaster. Firstly, it was the first of April - it's traditional to prank someone that day."
"Really?"
Harry nodded vigorously. "Ask any of the muggleborn students sir, they'll all know about April Fool's Day."
"It was still a cruel and malicious thing to do, Harry."
"It was for the greater good, Headmaster."
"The greater good?" Dumbledore blinked. "I don't understand, Harry."
"Sacrifices have to be made," Harry said seriously. "You taught me that, Headmaster. I knew I was letting the roosters in for a dark and difficult time. I knew that they would suffer. You might ask why it had be so. Why could I not just have sat back, let things go on? I beat Voldemort last year, kept him from the Prophecy, but his supporters are still at large, angry, desperate and violent. And so I made my decision. That the children at Hogwarts needed to be protected. For the greater good."
He walked over to the window and stared out of it. "Ah, here they are," he said. "Orderlies from Saint Mungos. No one who did what Draco did can be sane, headmaster. So he'll be locked away for the foreseeable future. Where he can't hurt himself or anyone else. And the roosters?" He sighed. "I shall have to hope that they someday can understand and forgive me, for sacrificing their innocence for the greater good."
Dumbledore's mouth was slack. "I-I-I... Harry?"
"Are you proud of me?" Harry asked, his face suddenly hopeful. "It is what you would do, isn't it?"
Albus Dumbledore stared at the shining, innocent face of the Boy-Who-Lived and a lone tear trickled down his cheek.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.