...put me on the disambiguation page for the term Drunkard's Walk on Wikipedia?
Not that I mind, of course. And please note that I am using the word "lunatic" in only the fondest and most complimentary manner.
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

After a furinkan.net went dark a while back I was pretty worried he'd either had something permanent happen, or had decided to leave fanfiction.
That is not the case however!
Furinkan.net is back up! with more material even.

You know the kind. Ones like, "[Person]'s [situation] is not my [status/situation]."
One of my favorites is "You/They attached a [unlikely device] to a(n) [unlikely platform]!? Are you/they insane!?" Where, if directed at me, I would happily reply, "YES!"
How about the rest of you guys? You got any favorites?

Create your own!
Or better yet, help with mine. ^_^
Okay, so, the fundamental concept I was running these numbers to fit with is wondering what kind of civilization could or would develop on a world with no oceans. I don't, however, want some place like Arrakis or Tatooine - this place has a little water - enough to fill some pretty impressive lakes and/or small seas... It has crustal plates like Earth's - high, low-density continental ones and low-lying basalt 'ocean plates' - and just about enough water to fill in what would be its ocean trenches. I think you should get... some rain... downwind of them. Maybe as much as the Sarengeti does.
The average temperature should be cooler than Earth's, because less water-vapor in the upper atmosphere means less of a greenhouse effect. Midday in mid-summer is still beyond all dreams of Earthly hot, though. Likewise, it would get cold at night.
The native population are - or started as - perfectly ordinary modern Homo sapiens, and were essentially dropped on the planet by accident and without much in the way of support equipment - no libraries, modular factories, etc. By the time my story picks up, they've clawed their way back up from the rock-bottom crash to about equivalent to the nineteen-teens. For entirely arbitrary plot reasons, they've yet to reinvent radio. There are also more logical places where their emphasis differs from what Earth's had, and so they're more or less sophisticated at.
I have some suspicions about what the place is like, but I'd like to hear y'all's opinions without having me prejudicing you beyond telling you the image that started this setting percolating in my mind.
It's in the middle of a tremendous, tremendously flat desert, like if Groom Dry Lake covered from horizon to horizon without a single bit of variation. The sky above is absolutely cloudless, giving an unobstructed view of the glaring sun and an earth-like planet - clouds, ocean, green plants, etc. - covering a shockingly large arc. The perfection of the plain is spoiled by two things - the first is some sort of spaceplane, maybe seventy feet long from the scale of the space-suited but helmetless human figure standing in its shadow. It's obviously crash-landed - its skin is scratched and torn, the underside is all ripped up, and there's a long scrape mark trailing out of frame where it slid to a halt. It's equally obviously never going to fly again.
About two thirds of the way to the horizon is a vehicle that looks like someone crossed a container ship with a three-trailer road train with one of those obnoxiously huge off-road dump trucks with a windjammer with Turby-type wind-turbines where its sails should be.
And just overhead is buzzing a moderately sleek biplane, like something Earth would've built circa 1930 or so, with an open cockpit but retractable landing gear.

(Note - I suspect I'm going to be changing the worlds' orbital period to somewhere around 25+ hours; longer days and nights have more time to heat up and cool down and drive the weather patterns I want.)
Planet Scour
Diameter: 18,928 km (1.48*Earth's)
Density: 4.3 g/cm^3 (0.78*Earth's)
Mass: 1.5294*10^25 kg (2.56*Earth's)
Viewing Angle: 21 degrees (42*that of Luna as seen from Earth)
Albedo: ~5.5
Orbital Period: 21.7 hours

Planet Iden
Diameter: 11,654 km (0.91)
Density: 5.9 g/cm^3 (1.1)
Mass: 4.7794*10^24 kg (0.80)
Viewing Angle: 15 degrees (30)
Albedo: ~3.5
Orbital Period: 21.7 hours

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

Well, Minuet finally met Aegis Sanctuary (Min's been curious for months as to what Aegis looked like.) Always a pleasure to make new friend Aegis.
So, here's the two of them. You can bet Min commented on Aegis' excellent fashion sense and hairdo. :-)

World's leading supplier of stolen magical items.
Wait...you mean she's different from our Azuria? How?
Hmmm.
-- Acyl

Interesting discussion taking place on this thread at Cold Fury.
Here's an excerpt:

Quote:

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If the Democrats are in power and want a pullout fine, lets do it and do it right and that is a complete withdrawal from SW Asia. My friends, there is no other choice, a deal can not be made where we do anything part way. It is all or nothing and that is the sad reality. The final failure of Vietnam was the long withdrawal after Congress became intent on the idea of pulling out. That mistake must not be made again. I ask my fellow conservatives to help make sure the troops are brought home and they are brought home now.

---

NOT a bunny. For a change. More of a spamfic, offered for your amusement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I hate ZPIs.
Zero-Prep Insertions are the bane of every IA like myself. Theyre dangerous, unpredictable, often sanity-bending, and worst of all, usually frustrating as all hell.
But they give the highest entertainment value, the most interesting psycho-socio-whateverilogical data, and the highest sheer WTF factor. Which means they pay the most. And I happen to have a reputation- for being good at them.
So there I was. Again. Inside the QLP accelerator, wearing my birthday suit and a coating of conductance gel, waiting for the Beckett-Mallory field to hit critical and catapult me into a whole nother universe, with no idea where I was going or who Id be when I got there.
My last ZPI, I ended up leaping into a guy who ran a small ramen shop in a place called Konohagakure. No problem, right? Except I dont know Thing One about making ramen, aside from the microwaveable kind. And you- try replacing a mildly well-known restauranteur in a city populated by paranoid super-powered ninja who have a lot- of experience dealing with professional shapeshifters and bodysnatchers. Im mildly amazed I lasted three hours.
That Ibiki fellow wasnt too bad, though the mind-gamers are always fun. Insertion Agents just about have- to have abnormal degrees of mental flexibility, to deal with what we do. By the time I tripped my Recall and bailed out, Id actually impressed him a bit he made me promise to drop by and have another stare contest the next time I was in town.
The ZPI before that one, I was Gendo Ikari. You wouldnt think that was so bad, would you, jumping into the Guy In Charge? Well, think about this: what happens inside a paranoid, disassociative, intrigue-riddled snakepit like NERV when the Top Dog suddenly cant remember his passwords, his master plan, or where he left his blackmail material? I know- what happens, and let me tell you, it aint pretty. The only good part about that entire disaster is that after I bailed, he probably couldnt convince them that he was the real Gendo Ikari again. Couldnt happen to a more deserving fellow.
And the time before that, I leaped in just in time to get killed by a multi-gigaton explosion. My survival module Recalled me just a couple of milliseconds into the blast front, but I still spent a month in the regen tanks. The after-action analysis of my sensorium recordings concluded that Id leaped aboard some kind of very, -very- large space vehicle that was in the final seconds of descent through a planetary atmosphere before striking the surface. The estimated impact energy wasnt a Dinosaur Killer, but couldve been a Tunguska -- somewhere, somebodys got a continent with a big chunk missing.
So, I wasnt exactly looking forward to this next trip. Not that I had a choice. Id already accepted the assignment, spent the advance, and the accelerator was too far along to stop n--
Reality went bye-bye.
The techs insist that the leap is instantaneous, that its not possible to perceive, and that the subjective perceptions of the leap are just neurological static as our brains adjust to the sudden change of location, time, the laws of physics. Well, dont believe it. Every IA experiences the transfer differently, but we all perceive the time in between departure and arrival. Some go crazy, some quit after the first run, some get addicted to it. Most, like me, just deal. But dont ask us to describe it.
My ears always come back first. I was still trying to figure out what the heck was up with my eyeballs when it registered that the voices Id been hearing for the last few seconds were familiar. Familiar from the second-to-last time Id been strapped down to an interrogation apparatus, to be specific.
Suddenly, I wanted my vision back really- bad. I could tell I was standing up, in water nearly up to my neck, and in some kind of restraints. But my body felt oddly numb, only partially attached everything seemed to be really far away....
My visual cortex finally figured out how to deal with its new inputs, and my vision suddenly came back like one of those magic image pictures that you have to stare at for five minutes before you see whats there. It was kind of odd, more like a video image than normal vision, and the perspective was odd, but--
A new voice made itself heard, and suddenly everything snapped into place. Id seen this scene before, from a different angle. A blonde in a lab coat, a yummy brunette in a short skirt and red jacket, a shrimpy dark-haired teen and the source of the new voice, staring down at them through a window that was directly across from me at... eye... level....
Holy crap.
HOLY CRAP!
I was EVA Unit 01.
I was a giant biological robot. That could take out entire armies.
I eyed Gendo and grinned mentally. Oh, I was going to do some damage-. Starting with Mr. Sacrifice-The-Human-Race-In-Order-To-See-My-Wife-Again....
Um. First problem. I couldnt move. And it wasnt the restraints. It was like all my motor nerves were disconnected. Um wasnt there something about the Entry Plugs? They plugged into a gap in the spinal column or something? But EVA-01 had moved on its own in canon, right? If Yui could do it, I could too. I just had to figure out how to
Thats when I saw the medical team wheeling Rei in on a gurney, and realized I was just about out of time....

And this test isn't the best one I can imagine - the lack of a neutral option in the question seems inappropriate, to me.
It is, however, the best I can recall having seen. I'd be interested in looking at anything better, but don't feel obligated.
Ja, -n
('socialist,' hmm? seems fairly accurate.)

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

Bunnies. You know I've got 'em. Now to actually WRITE the cursed things. 'Cause, hopefully, banging my head against them will wake up my dormant IWATDP and Legendary muses.
Summaries:
Wish Plus 15 -- the tale of Lori Kahn/Khan/Konda, some random Schlub's wished-for perfect girlfriend... who shows up 15 years late.
Prototype -- Evangelion fic, where preproduction versions of Asuka and Rei emerge from the 12th Angel along with Shinji
Ukyo 1/2 -- AU continuation of Ranma 1/2, where Ukyo was kidnapped along with Akane in the last storyarc. Akane dies at Jusenkyo, and Ukyo is cursed in the "Akaneniichuan." (Apologies for the Japanese/bad Chinese construction, but it's Viz's translation so...)
Charming Huntress Tailchaser Vic -- Mahou Senshi type of story, with a lot of animal legends tied together. This one has some chapter titles bouncing in my head of the format "Noun preposition the noun." Example: "Cat in the Cradle" for dealing with Trickster!Cat. [imagine a Loli catgirl with a thing for Boots] I know that one of the early scenes has a Brother Rabbit analogue playing against Ysengrim.
This idea is more visual in my head, since I was doodling and came up with a Foxgirl in equestrienne gear...
''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