Stairway to Heaven performed by a pair of Spanish-classical guitarists. Unplugged, it goes without saying.-- Bob
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One of the primary differences between the Left and the Right is their attitude toward the Future. The Radical wants the Future to have gotten here yesterday. The Reactionary wants the Future quietly shot and the corpse buried where no one can find it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

So my frustration with the lack of plot-progress on OGJ has combined with my love of VROOM and my recent gameplay of Motherload to form..
Charles Darwin.

Wait, no, that's not right.
I have an idea for a story that I'd like some data and a co-author or two. The timeframe would be at the end of OGJ, as part of the finale. The current dev-title is "The Penultimate Peril"
The basic outline is thus - planetbuster bomb used to hold the Solar System hostage, defeated by a small crew of Fen and AI, who have to fight there way down to the depths of Mars through active boskonian resistance.
Current crew roster is myself, Mr. Sparky on heavy weapons, V on overwatch and EW, and I'm planning on running off a clone of G.O.D. from Hoplessly Lost for the prime mover of this convoy.
Temporaly, this will be happening simultaneously/slightly before the finale of OGJ, so characters should not be able to appear in both stories - though comms is always a possibility.

Current rough trope-plot includes realization, penetration, gauntlet, technobattle, humorous denoument, and lengthy-follow-up-problem.
Please reply in board or by email to wiregeek at tertiary dot net if interested, all characters and authors welcome.
Current plan is for this to be a Hephaestus flagged operation, though I am willing to give up the driver's seat in-story for good reason, and the driver's seat for the project for VERY good reason and proven performance.

Thank you for your interest.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Tsubasacon is happening this weekend not more than a dozen blocks from my apartment. Naturally I'll be going.
Besides giving a shout-out to any other attendees, I mention this because I'm planning on dropping by Artist's Alley, cash and CoH screenshots in hand. For those prepared to cover the cost of the commission, I'd be pleased to act as errand boy for anyone else who's looking for art.
Ja, -n

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

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

There's a reasonably-successful local woodworking and gardening tool business in town (yes, they take web orders), and they have a reference-book sideline. This month, the reference books are 20% off. Details here, for those who are interested in such references or who collect books. But who wouldn't want a copy of "Open Timber Roofs of the Middle Ages", "The Great Saskatchewan Fowl Supper and Literary Contest", or "Traditions of the Navy", to name just three? (For some reason, the naval reference works are filed with the gardening books...)

Hmmmmm... Maybe these posts should be going into Marketplace... Bob?

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 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

In addition to all the Issue 11 stuff, the following is now up on the COH site:

Quote:

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Two new features come to City of Heroes: Character Transfer and Character Rename. Additionally, we have completed a sweep of un-reserving names of characters below level 6 on accounts that have been inactive and not subscribed for over 90 days. This has freed up millions of previously reserved names all for the taking with the new Rename feature, or for that new Hero or Villain youve wanted to start!
Both the Character Transfer and the Character Rename features are available from new buttons added to the Character Select Screen. Please keep in mind that these features cost $9.99 USD per use and require that you have a credit card on file.

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Bungie + WETA Workshop == Pure Fucking Win
The latest ad campaign for Halo 3, just in case you didn't catch it. Why nobody will give these guys a movie deal, even a TV movie, is beyond my comprehension.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

Don Anthony Esposito
Primary Writer: Open Character
Notable Mundane Attributes:
* Filthy.. Stinking.. Rich?: May have signifigant amounts of capital. Will not discuss matter, except to assure you that 'it can happen'
* I don't think you understand how this is supposed to be going: Not a 'gangster'. Prefers the term 'relationship facilitator'.
* Rocco, Take.. Care.. of this man: Has minions. Minions are extremely (95% chance) loyal, thought most are surprisingly intelligent and moral, if not geniusses.
* It's my all-pasta diet: Surprisingly healthy on a cardiac and general fitness level, though quite stocky, pushing 'obese', and pushing it hard.

'Wavium Abilities:
* None: Not Biomodded. Takes care to avoid biomodding, claims it isn't needed or wanted. Would probably take a non-major biomod in stride.
Quirks:
* RESPECT, DAMNIT!: Is very conscious of how he is treated in his prescence and dealings with others, requires a certain level of respect and good faith. Failure to accede and cooperate with this can result in increasingly signifigant beatdowns from a Rocco.
* Hey, I _like_ this suit: Primary clothing is a cream double-breasted suit, well tailored. Owns several. Add fedora for extra 'oomph'
* Mama Mia: Is strikingly fond of italian cuisine, polish cuisine, and vietnamese (!) cuisine.
* Sucker!: Is not above playing a Black Hat (or Boskonian) type along far enough to take a serious bite out of their operations, but loves to be 'in' on the subsequent denoument.

Anthony Esposito is an adopted scion of a chicago gangland family, who was sent Up by the family head due to his personality conflicts, as well as his desire to expand the family activities off of Earth. Those conflicts have since mostly-severed any connection between the Don and his earthbound family, which he is quite pleased with.
In comparison to the family he left behind, Don Anthony is practically a saint. Where his adopted family would use physical violence and threats of same to ensure cooperation with their policies and projects, Don Anthony has succeeded well with his 'enlightened cooperation' policy. His 'protection racket', as an example, is a legitimate _protection_ service, marketted to high-risk crime areas (yes, there are a few), high-risk environmental areas, and others who need it.
To continue the trend, the Don has a loan policy that would make initial sense to his adopted family, but the devil, as they say, is in the details. Failure to repay a loan from the Don usually involves an intensive audit of the business in question, with an aim towards achieving a profit goal that will allow the Don to make his money back.. with a side affect of you making your money back. The Don routinely trades ownership shares in this situation, though he usually balks at owning more than 20% of a company (At that point, Mr. Reader, there's usually no way in hell even _I_ can make it turn a profit!). More common is a 5% or 7% buyout, where the Don contributes the neccesary funds to the business in return for the ownership percentage (which includes a profit percentage, of course).
The Don has been known to rant at length about the foolishness of his Earthbound and Black Hat competitors, talking about the goose and golden eggs as one of his favorite examples.
The Don is one of the few people in Fenspace actively running a prostitution service, though he prefers to refer to it as a 'companionship' service. His differences from his Earth family show through here as well, as he keeps his girls 'in line' with educational and salary packages that are quite attractive (if not comparable to Candy Apple Red's), and a health care package that is held up as the Gold Standard across that industry. Don Anthony's girls are clean, healthy, and happy.
The Numbers racket is perhaps the closest that Don Anthony has kept to the Earth standard, with betting available on most Earth and Fenspace sporting events, with one major difference - the cutoff. Don Anthony keeps a close tab on anyone risking big or losing hard, and will cut someone off if they're in danger of losing more than a year or so of wages.
Which leads neatly into the biggest difference between Don Anthony and his Earthbound brethren - violence. Don Anthony is proud to state that he's never killed, except in self defense. Defaulting on a loan or gambling debt results in the closest thing to indentured slavery that Fenspace has seen, though the Don is careful to leave a living wage for someone who is 'working it off', and makes an effort to calibrate the punishment so that it won't last longer than a year or two. And make no mistake - working for the Don is a punishment. A gambler in to his eyebrows may find himself raking a Grover's Corners septic dump over the Martian landscape, and following the new earth all the way through a growing season, preparing soil, weeding, planting, and farming - with a minimum of artificial help. The Don has made this profitable by marketting the product as 'hand grown', and sells at a premium over automated farming efforts.
The Don dislikes discussing the 'punishment' side of his business, though, and focusses instead on the main moneymaker - loans and services. With his own impressive business acumen and some of the best financial and operational planning people in Fenspace working for him, the Don can take your idea, teach you how to make it work, and provide the startup capital and retail/commercial/industrial space you need to get started. He calls it a 'foot in the door' package, and with a rate that varies between 1% and 10% of the company ownership (with the occasional 'voice of authority' contractural rider), many small businessfen have used the Don's services.
To quote the Don himself: "Hey, hey, I'm not a loan shark, I'm an investment banker. And you think it don't pay out? Lookit the ledger on the textile shop on Stellvia. I saved that gal almost 50% of her supply costs, using my shuttles to get fabric and fashion gear up from Earth, and that turns into pure profit.. for both of us!"
Don Anthony Esposito is a cheerful man, happy to talk shop with anyone, though he is very careful not to provide business advice to anyone who isn't partaking of his services. With his clients, though, he is an avuncular man with a keen business sense, and loves entertaining new entrepenurial ideas. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

I left work at 9:30 this morning to get my snow tires.
I just got back.
Today was Direct Deposit day for the alaska state dividend, which means that quite a lot of people just got 1600$ deposited into their bank accounts.
Today is also the first day of a 60$ off sale on most michelin and bf goodrich tires at Costco, which combines to form..
The Line From Hell.
The line from the tire counter stretched out to the door by the time I got my tires, and people were already being turned away due to shortages. Over a thousand tires are expected in by the end of the week, though..
I got a set of Michelin Latitude X-Ice studless snow tire. They were relatively cheap (153$ each), and they're rather good-looking, with an agressively siped tread that I hope will do well this winter. We shall see.. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

Radiohead does too, apparently.
It's an interesting concept. If some of my favorite bands did this I would likely take advantage of it.
------------------
Epsilon
I'm looking at you E Nomine

It's Official!
The most important part:

Quote:

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WEAPON CUSTOMIZATION
Sometimes an assault rifle just isnt the right tool for the job, or character, especially when he or she should be using a sniper rifle instead. Players can now change their weapons in the same way that they change their costume parts! From within the costume creator and tailor screen players select the new Weapons region. A number of new options are now available for appropriate power sets. Current power sets that benefit from this upgrade include Assault Rifle, Mercenaries/Assault Rifle, Bow, Broadsword, Claws, Villain Claws, Dual Blades (see below), Katana, Ninja Blade, Mace, Robotics/Pulse Rifle, and Thugs/Dual Pistols.

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