So. I'm getting nagged by my father to "create a WEBSITE! MAKE OODLES OF MONEY!"
My big problem? No idea what to do. Blog? Find some sort of tchochke to sell?
Or any advice for how to get started on a blog and let the chips fall where they may?
''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

Peg and I did, and while it wasn't Oz, it wasn't too bad.
Anyway, I've been amusing myself the last couple days by trying to work out a list of all the explicit shout-outs to the famous 1939 Judy Garland version that I saw. And I was wondering if anyone else watched it and spotted something I didn't.
And when I say "shout-out", I don't necessarily mean something that was the same in both because they were paralleling the same plot (although one or two of mine are kind of close to that). I mean something that explicitly invokes a memory a viewer would have of the earlier film. Check the list, you'll see what I mean.
* DG's waitress uniform is all but identical to Judy Garland's costume; likewise for the hairstyle when she's wearing it.
* Sheriff Elmer Gulch, who wants to arrest DG, references Margaret Hamilton as Elmyra Gulch, who had a grudge against Dorothy and Toto
* DG's house is numbered 39
* When running across the meadow to the entrance to the Realm of the Abandoned, Glitch stumbles in a manner similar to Ray Bolger's rubber-legged Scarecrow
* In the illusion used on DG by Azkedelia, DG "wakes up" the next morning to discover her adventure in the O.Z. was "just a dream" -- which she described as being "in Technicolor"
* DG's line "And Toto, too"
* During a flashback, Azkedelia and DG's shared "Lions, tigers and bears, oh my" lines just before the encounter with the bear.
* The spinning tornado sculpture in the Mystic Man's theatre
* The Mystic Man's brief appearance as a giant head floating in the air, heralded by gouts of flame
* The Queen calling out for DG in Azkedelia's viewing tank echoes the image of Aunt Em in the Wicked Witch's crystal ball, and uses some of the same dialogue
* The longcoats marching in front of Azkedelia's tower echo the Winkies in front of the Witch's castle
* Cain, Glitch and Raw's strategem for entering the tower to rescue DG is the same as that used by the Tin Woodsman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion to get into the Witch's castle

-- 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....

he second season is still on-going, but between this season and the last sason, there's enough to make me think that Doug showing up in this dimension might be interesting.
The key point of this world is the "Power of Existence" aka POE. The Tomogaras seek to amass POE for their own selfish needs (most of them) and the Crimson Lords, thru the Flames Hazes, seek to stop thm.
So if a metahuman showed up in this world, he'd probably show up as a klieg light pointed straight up during a Hollywood matinee to both Crimson Lords and Tomogaras.
So, is Doug going to end up being on someone's menu? Or would the they find his chaos field to be just a wee bit toxic?
What would be intersting to me would be Doug's relationships to the older members of the cast..espcially between him and Sadonay.
__________________
Into terror!,  Into valour!
Charge ahead! No! Never turn
Yes, it's into the fire we fly
And the devil will burn!
- Scarlett Pimpernell

What happens when you let D&D LARPers play in a Christmas pagent? This. It's hilarious.
--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

Does anyone here know a way to put mathematical formulae, such as those generated by TeX or similar, into LiveJournal posts?
Sorry about this, but I'm not sure who else to ask (there's been no response to my inquiry on this topic in LiveJournal's support area).
--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

(Excerpt from a book put inside a vault with lots of security precautions)
On Handwaved Movie and Television Props
It's determined that influencing handwavium is like herding cats. One's will influences it a bit, along with the underlying desires of the individual conflicting. If one expects one's will to affect it, then the will of an entire group would affect the handwaved device. A actors's job is to make things look like the person he or she is portraying. A thing portrayed in a movie is made to -look- the part and what's better than looking the part than having the effect that the audience(movie patrons) believe in? As Hollywood objects, they are enhanced to behave like the objects they are portraying as a better prop. Perhaps the more patrons who believe in something the more powerful it is at the time it was waved, i.e a movie prop is more powerful than a television prop and a legendary or historical movie prop is more powerful than a fictional prop?
OOClease comment.
"Evil tends to triumph over good...unless good is very, very sneaky."-Anonymous-

I have found the ultimate tool for online collaboration. It is not a chat client or instant messenger (though these can help). It is not Google Docs or any online service.
It is a beautifully simple tool called CoOffice Tools and it turns your Microsoft Word and PowerPoint softwares into real-time online collaborative tools.
Sit there and watch in amazement as your friend on the internet fixes typoes for you in Word in real-time. Take joy in having an "OH OH OH! How about this!" moment as you suddenly jump in and write in a plot twist.
The only way it can get better would be if your writing partner was right in the room with you.
Here is their website: cooffice.ntu.edu.sg/coword/index.html
SET
CoOffice Tools is a small download, quick to install, and easy to setup. It will work with all versions of Word and PowerPoint (I don't know about 2007 versions, though).
First of all, you're going to need a server to connect to. This is actually not as hard as it sounds. Sure, there is the provided public server, but you don't really want that. You want a secure location to save your stuff.
Luckily, the folks that made CoOffice also made an equally simplistic Server program that lets whatever computer you install it on into the host for the 'Repository' that will hold your files.
Here's the one oddity: in order to work on the same files, two people have to use the same account/login. In that respect, it's kinda like file-sharing in a Windows environment - you need to have so-and-so's username and password to access his files.
Other than that, setting up the accounts is simplicity in itself. Just set the name, password, the rights the account has (which is kind of a moot point I think) and the folder on your machine you'll be working out of.
NOTE: Don't change the name of the folder or else you'll ahve to set the accounts up all over again. Granted, it's an easy enough fix if you only have one or two, but what a bother!
Once you set everything up, all your friends on your LAN or in Internet Land need is CoOffice Tools (They won't need the Server if you're the one hosting the party) your IP address, the account name and password.
CoOffice tools is loaded with useful features like a radar to help you track down where your co-author is in the document, highlights to show who made what changes, and other nifty toys.
I can guarantee that you'll love this wonderful piece of software. I already do and it is proving to be just the thing to help me realize my goal of being part of my own team of writers. ^_^

Funny, but wrong.
Gilbert and Sullivan's Baby Got Back.

-- 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....

OK, after the conversation Noah and A.C. have over the field-com system I put together this for open use. Rob's had a look and, other than the Sat-com stuff I've recently added after looking up some info, he felt it was OK.
Have fun.

A monkey playing.
www.liveleak.com/view?i=f662c8df87