I'm back my ISP finally got it's act back together just in time for me to discover that one of my favorite writers has died.
Fred Saberhagen died July 3 he was best known for the Science Fiction series "Berserkers" and the Fantasy series "Swords".
Sorry I've not been able to find a link to a Obituary yet. I found out through another favorite writers website.
howard melton
God bless

Several COE (Church of England not City of Eroes) Bishops stepped forward to hoist their robes and lay the long, fragrant cable of their meteorological wisdom upon the masses. Recent torrential rains and flooding in England and Whales have gotten this miserable flock of con-men and professional god botherers touching cloth as they rush to the pulpit to deliver their news.
Goddidit. Goddidit. Goddidit. Yes, that right. We are in the 21st fucking century and these weasels are still spouting off that their favorite omnipotent, omniscient, imaginary friend is responsible for flooding. Foremost amongst this pack of gormless whack-jobs is the Rt. Rev Graham Dow Bishop of Carlisle. Nice. Carlisle is getting reamed, as Graham is pocketing two fees; the office of Bishop and Village idiot. Yes, according to Dow, gay laws and gay rights have angered god. Oh yes they have.
What sort of small mind creates such a small and petty god? What sort of imagination creates an omnipotent, omniscient, god (who moves in mysterious ways) and then somehow claims to know the mind of that god and not just the mind, but the minutiae. This flood was due to god being testy about gay rights. That volcanic eruption was caused by onanism. That tsunami was due to someone eating shellfish, because god hates shrimp or pederasty it is hard to tell sometimes. Dont worry about a tidal wave due to rape the god of the old testament was keen on both.
Religion is made up; by primates. Mostly male primates.
Sadly Dow is not alone. You can hardly turn around without a religious goit mouthing off in an attack on rational enlightenment. From Phelps to Falwell (who, in his defense has been quiet of late) they vomit forth their drivel with an enthusiasm that is as misplaced as their minds.
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo (President of the Pontifical Council for the Family) a top man at the Vatican has been shooting his mouth off about condoms, which he sees as being ineffective in halting aids. He has stated several doozies on the matter including Using a condom to stop AIDS is like trying to put out a fire with petrol. Forget the data. Forget the research. God says rubber johnnies are bad, so the Cardinal carries on even going so far as to drivel that the AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than Spermatozoon and can pass through condoms even if seminal fluid cannot. Anyone with an even passing knowledge of condom technology can point this out as what is, in the Navy commonly referred to as a lie.
What an utter, murderous, bastard.
Shayne

From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust.
A wondeful story of a post-crisis world, where the only threats the heroes really have left is their own neuroses.
Most of the heroes are blatant Pastiches and Parodies of DC/Marvel heroes (mostly DC) but still, it's a damn fine and thought-provoking read.--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

I found a site which has some of the omake's from the Nanoha manga
www.acatisfinetoo.com/edible/nanoha/
A small warning.. it is... more adult than I expected.. possible Nsfw tag may apply :S_______________________________
We're definitely playing this game wrong. I thought Vampire was supposed to be a game of personal horror, not about ninja magic-carpet airstrikes at night.
- A friend after playing a session of Dark Ages Vampire.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. THERE IS ONLY WAR!
-Same friend.
_________________________________
Take Your Candle, Go Light Your World.

Damn.
I mean, I went into the theater expecting crap. I just wanted to hear Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime; figured, no matter how badly Bay screws it up, there'll still be Pete's incomparable Texas twang for the first time in twenty years. The hero of my youth, none of the succeeding Prime voice actors could compare.
I wasn't expecting a pretty darn decent action movie to go with it, but that's what I got. Alien invasion, military mayhem, an excellent portrayal of President Bush, the problems with having a black-book government agency that's so secret they can't actually exert half the authority they believe they can, and oh yes, Megan Fox, who registers something like one million Scoville Heat Units and made me forget what Eliza Dushku looks like.
As expected, the movie concentrates on the human characters -- Optimus and his homies get a fair amount of dialogue, but the script belongs to Shia LeBoeuf, Megan, and the rest. I was disappointed at the total short-changing of the Decepticons; they get hardly any lines or characterization. In the good old days, the banter between Frank Welker as the supremely confident Megatron and Chris Latta as his snarky, reflexively traitorous second-in-command Starscream could carry whole episodes; Hugo Weaving and Charlie Adler have maybe two brief exchanges. Prime and Megatron likewise theoretically share a complex backstory, having once been co-rulers of their world, but this too is pared down to a bare minimum of their standard exchanges (one shall stand, you know the drill) and a set of last words that hint at what could have been.
Given, however, that Shia, Megan, and Peter have all signed on for two sequels, I look at this movie as the equivalent of the first Fantastic Four: now that the characters have been established, future pics can devote more time to plot. I hope.
--Sam
"Are you Username Ladiesman217?!"

The remake of SRW OG1 and OG2 for the PS2, OGs, has already sold 350,000 units, according to Banpresto.
This, on top of Bandai having announced the release of the SRW OVA and TV series in the US, makes me a very, very happy nerd.
The better press OGs gets, the more likely it, and VERY LIKELY upcoming sequels, will come out here too.- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

Okay, I just realized last night that Evangelia is high enough level now that I could slot L45 enhancements... but I can't find anyone selling them. Where can they be found?
Thanks.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JCESdFNyw
check out the other stuff by this user, this guy's awesome.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

What MMO out there is closest to playing/feeling like CoX without being it?
Because, think about it: with the Virtues upsetting all the applecarts, the game itself is gonna be dead. So where will all the players go? Since I'm not really an MMO afficianado, I can't answer this question myself, but it seems like an interesting angle to work into a story.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."

A life and death of Julian Friez
"Speech"
{Julian's thoughts to himself}
Warning: This will wind up both with mature themes and rather on the dark side in some places.
The interns: could be just a one-time thing, or could happen from time to time. I figure it's reasonable that the Prof might decide to send out a call for interns once, just to see what it was like, and there are enough people in fenspace with enough curiousity that he could wind up with a fair number of takers. Eventually they're liable to get annoying, but for the moment he's enjoying having a constant captive audience/group of henchlings.
I'm actually stumbling somewhat on the section after this, partially because I have no real idea how the Professor would *treat* individual Julians, after he'd finished the first round of experiments. Catty, if you've got any clue to share, I'd love to hear it. If anyone who's running a station likes the idea of having a string of lost, unhappy Julians tromping through it on an irregular basis, feel free to chime in, and I'll happily use you for the next bit. Oh, and any bits of concrit would be much appreciated.
----------------------
Deep inside one of the most feared ships in known space, inside a darkened lab, a machine about the size of a commercial refrigerator made a cheery "ding", and unlocked its output door. A short while later, the door fell open, and a form of approximately human size and shape fell out. It hit the floor and whimpered, then lay motionless.
A few minutes later, the Professor, star of numerous television shows (mostly of the fearmongering news variety) came striding into the lab, followed by a group of fascinated (and terrified) interns, brightening the place up with his very presence (Bad Things Happened to lightbulbs that did not brighten immediately at the approach of the Master. The lightbulbs that survived learned quickly.)
"Look! See! Witness, oh doubters! The machine does indeed make Julian Friez! Another victory for SCIENCE!"
{Oh, God. It's him!}
The vaguely man-shaped pile of sludge in front of the machine tried to shuffle away from the professor as best it could.
"Julian? Julian? JULIAN! Ah! there you are, Julian. What a delightful new form you have. You two! Fetch me that vat. Looks like we'll have to carry him to the table if we want to get any data out of him, and this version is *fascinating*."
{New form? This version? What is he ranting about? Why can't he just leave me alone?}
The sludgepile moaned in poorly-enunciated fear, but the various interns coralled him into into the vat and on to the table anyway. Then the professor brandished his tools, and the nightmare began in earnest.
------------------------
Over the next few days, in between moments of sheer terror and deeply unpleasant probing, Julian managed to find some things out about himself. He wasn't the first Julian Friez. (His fiance's number had an unhappy message telling him to go away and leave her alone.) He wasn't the second. (His mom's number had a really vicious message from his brother telling him to not even try to get in contact any more if he valued his "sick, freakish, miserable little life".) He was some sort of horrible thing that had been made to think he was Julian Friez, and he wasn't even vaguely human looking when he stopped thinking about it.
He'd spent a few hours slumped over a bench feeling miserable when it all sunk in. Finally, he decided to just ignore it. If he remembered being Julian Friez, then he was Julian Friez. The Professor had done something really unpleasant to him, and stuck some of that goop in him, and he'd wound up freakish. That happened to people sometimes, he'd heard. It sucked, but hey - with a little effort, he didn't even have to be freakish. All he had to do was stay calm and in control, and he could have his old face, just like he was supposed to. Okay, so he couldn't keep his body looking right all over without a lot of effort, but that just meant that he needed to wear a long-sleeved shirt and jeans and boots. That wasn't too bad. He wore that sort of stuff fairly often anyway. It turned out that he could even do his old job up here. You would have thought that they'd need all sorts of fancy stuff up in space, but it turned out that plumbing was pretty much plumbing wherever you went.
{What are you *talking* about? This stuff involves water recycling and air balance and...}
{Shut up. I can understand it, right? So it's plumbing.}
{But...}
{PLUMBING'S PLUMBING, DAMMIT!}
{Um...er... okay.}
{Thank you. I knew you could be reasonable.}
Of course, that was looking on the bright side. On the dark side, he was still trapped in this madman's lair, desperately trying to avoid his attention while keeping the various bizarre experiments from eating him, and scavenging enough food and water to keep going. Once, he'd been desperate enough to try to steal some of the professor's coffee. It had... not gone well. Now, now he just hid, and trembled - but it was nice to have a bright side to look on, right? Right?