This is really more just a teaser of the start but I figure if I post this now it's pressure to actually get more done soon. Comments, suggestions, and criticism welcome.

I was standing out in a field that night, admiring the sunset as I waited for my ride to arrive. Yeah I admit it, I didn't build my own ship to get out here. When you talk to some people you would think handwavium flowed through fandom like chips or beer in those wild early days. But I'm getting ahead of myself. When I say I was admiring the sunset what I mean is that I checked the time and location on my GPS unit for the fifth time in two minutes. It was a cheap model, a no name model that even Fry's had seemed ashamed to stock, with a rather poor back light. Pretty soon I would need my flashlight to be impatient. I really didn't want to spend the night out in a field with nothing but a pile of boxes.
Mike told me I'd know it was him, and while I certainly hadn't expected him to show up in one of those converted junker cars I had heard so much about he still surprised me. Catching the last of the sunlight was nothing less than a double decker house boat. About two hundred feet up a pair of spotlights came on and panned about until they had found my clearing. The boat slowly dropped down until it was floating a mere meter off the ground and I could see Mike's crew toss down a pair of anchors before leaping down and quickly driving stakes into the ground to tie off more lines. I simply stood there and stared until Mike called out to me from the railing along the lower deck.
"So what do you think of my modest home Drew?"
"Your modest home is a floating house boat?"
"Well, yes. Boats are supposed to float. Wouldn't be much of a boat if it didn't."
Okay, so I did deserve the poke. It isn't like I expected him to show up in a government surplus shuttle. Still, it isn't every day that you see a hundred foot long houseboat. Let alone said houseboat drifting through the air like an airship. Okay, so technically I guess you could call it an airship. I knew he had a houseboat, he'd mentioned it in some of his old emails and forum posts, but I never had seen any pictures of it.
-----

Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.

Holidays of Fenspace (excerpt)
April 12 - Yuri's Night: One of the only holidays celebrated by all factions that isn't a holdover from mundane society. Yuri's Night commemorates the April 12, 1961 flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. All the factions view Gagarin as a founding father of sorts ("If he hadn't done it, we wouldn't be here.") and as a result celebrating Yuri's Night is very popular throughout Fenspace. Celebrations are similar to New Year's Eve parties, where people gather together for booze, music and general revelry.
Yuri's Night is also celebrated by some mundanes, mostly ex-Soviet citizens and people involved in hardtech space flight. The 2011 celebrations in Moscow, Baikonur, Cape Canaveral and Houston are considered legendary by those lucky to have been there.
www.yurisnight.net/
---
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!"

They played Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" on the radio this afternoon, and it gave me an idea for a song power for Doug. My one concern is the minimal lyrics, which you may deem disqualifies the song. But there is the repeated "Hey" in tempo, and given my power idea, it might be good enough.
Basically, it's used for Riot control, causing everyone in range to just bop to the music and shout "Hey!" at the right (and occasionally wrong) times, such that they (hopefully) will have calmed down by the time the song is over and can be more easily broken up. It has the restriction that in addition to Doug hearing the song, he MUST play it audibly on the external speakers so that the crowd can hear it as well, the louder the better. This song automatically affects everyone who can hear it - it's an exception to Doug's normal 110ft. radius, in that it can both be limited to shorter ranges by obstructions, but also can affect people outside his normal range. This can be amazingly effective when played over stadium speakers...
Offsides
Drunkard's Walk Forum Moderator and Prereader At Large

Has anyone had any problems trying to use the promotional referral function over on the COH website? I tried to send an invite to Sofaspud from the EPU boards and got a "403 Forbidden" message telling me I wasn't allowed to use the referral script.
Yes, I'm talking to the folks at NCSoft, but I couldn't find any mention of this in the forums and I wanted to know if I were alone.

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

I am serene. I am a pool of placid water. The sheltered cove of my good nature reflects the gentle sun that warms this earth.
Fuck it. Im pissed.
Benedict XVI, Benny the Strict, the Panzer Pope, has flapped his Teutonic gob in what can only be described as a big old screw you to rational thought. Taking a step back from Pope JP the Sequels moderate (for a Roman Catholic) stance on evolution, Benny has come out with both Lugers blazing in a book called Creation and Evolution.
His primary thrust is that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer. Now while I cannot speak for science as a whole, I am not sure the opinion of a man who speaks for his own imaginary friend should count for much.
Unfortunately it does. A lot. While Benny stopped just short of support of Intelligent Design, he came far too close. This will wave the red flag of ignorance and stupidity at school boards everywhere and you can hear the voices of gibbering trolls shouting teach the controversy and I didnt come from no ape. Look, Ive taken it up with the apes, and they are just as mortified at sharing a common ancestor, but are just a wee bit more self actualized about it.
The final crowning papal turd upon the pile which is Benedicts pronouncement is this gem. It is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete and scientifically proven theory.
That gentle friends and lurkers is what is commonly known as a lie. Its the big lie and it gets a lot of airplay. Evidence upon evidence upon evidence supports evolution; from transitional species to morphology to DNA analysis to geographic to geologic and so on down the list (I have offered a very, very abbreviated list here).
On the flip side the god hypothesis (It is not a theory) has no evidence. You can look at the world around you and say god did it but you cannot bring forward any evidence that he/she/it did. I personally cannot disprove god, only relegate him to the highest levels of improbability; but if cant disprove god is your primary argument, keep in mind that you also cannot disprove Zeus, Odin, Thor, The Tooth Fairy, the Invisible Pink Unicorn and Yugo the Dwarf of Despair who is currently laying his eggs in your lower colon.
Miracles. Ooooh. Shiny. Step one, tying them to a miraculous source impossible. Ignorance of the mechanism does not mean that god did it. Unless ignorance is your god, which is true in so many depressing ways.
Non overlapping magisteria my hairy Canadian arse!

This would be out of continuity, of course, but imagine if you will, poor Doug somehow ending up in a body-swap with Urd, either via his probability field, that field's interaction with one of Skuld's toys, or other means. Also, presume that unlike the classic/cliche swap, *just* the bodies are exchanged--their powers/abilities remain with the mind/personality, not the body.
Now...imagine Urd in Doug's shape getting...bored.
The setting: Paradox and Doug (in Urd's body) are chilling out on the living room couch in front of the recently-repaired television, perhaps watching movies or playing video games...
A SD Doug pops up at one end of the couch.."We're tiny!"
A second one pops up at the other end.."We're tuney!"
A third one pops up in front of the couch, and is immediately joined by the other two, who chorus, "We're all just little Loonies!"
The trio merge into a single SD Doug, and then jump into the television screen..only to pop halfway out to declare, "And we're invading your TV!" before disappearing once more..
Doug-as-Urd's response? "Arrrrrrrrgh!"

Is there an Idiot's Guide to these? Because I started reading up on them and am completely overwhelmed and confused.--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

Claymore:
Bad-ass. Creepy half-human chick with a broad sword, what's not to like?
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann:
new gainax series, with all that implies ( more gunbuster/FLCL than eva)
Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou:
Super Powered Teenagers protecting their city from evil.
Except evil usually manages to wrack up quite a body count before they take it down.
Sailor moon this is not.
Giniro no Olynssis:
Confusing but has some potential.
Any more i've missed?

Aquastar is now up to Hour 169. If you're not caught up... go do so, ASAP, then come back here. You won't regret it.
We've had the Class Trip... of Doom.
We've had the High School Festival... of Doom.
And now that six months have passed since the series began, it's time for the Summer Vacation... of DOOM!
Spoilers for Festival and up in white...
In some ways I was disappointed by the end of the Festival War. After all that, we still don't know what drove Chao to change her own past. And now she's gone...
...but she'll be back, I have no doubt. Prediction: her next arc will involve the Negima Wrecking Crew traveling to her future...
From an arc perspective, the core reason for the Festival War seems simply to be the steeling of Negi's spine. He's got the vision, he's got the motivation, he's got the undefeatable willpower. From here on he might as well use D. as his middle initial because there won't be any stopping the bozu. Negi D. Springfield, laughs in the face of death and won't let anyone step on dreams.
So we move on to #169 and the YIKES! moment.
Okay, it's cliche as all hell, but fairly well pulled off nonetheless. The freaking awesome visuals of a mage war in the Inner World help carry the revelation that Nagi's buddies weren't kidding when they called her a princess.
But that's not all, or even the point. She was a weapon. A living defense system. Makes you wonder just what the IW culture is like, dunnit?
And -- wait, no, she hasn't forgotten again! Cliche variant #1 avoided.
(And the Konoka-Setsuna moment? Pure comedy gold.)
This upcoming arc should be glorious.

Further proof that Negima! is one of the best damn shonen action manga out there today. (Akamatsu even dived into Tournament Hell and made it out intact, unlike some I could name.)
--Sam
"Sidekicks don't kiss!"

I hereby throw down a gauntlet to any and all 'fen - devise a monetary unit that cannot be counterfitted.
I will be your prime counterfitter, in the guise of the third-teir Boskonian scientist Marcus Enwhistle.
Also, feel free to discuss ways and means in this thread.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979