New thread is new.

Old thread is still useful.

If anyone is currently trying to log onto Homecoming and are getting launcher errors try using this manifest in Teq

http://patch2.homecomingservers.com/manifest.xml

its a backup when the primairy homecoming manifest is down due to outages.

I thought I might give it another go with a slightly stronger computer than last time, in hopes of being built up enough to get into most of the goodies by the time the January ten year anniversary rolls around with whatever events they roll out for it.

I'm already using "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)" by Megadeth... but what other songs might be worth trying to snap the leash holding Moaning Myrtle to her bathroom?

Just re-read the first half (or so) of "A Fanfic Writer's Guide To Writing (or, How To Be In The Ten Percent)" since I saw it was linked from the new ATT page about verb tenses. And, as usual, I found myself making comments of varying degrees of usefulness.

Quote:I. GENERAL GUIDELINES
...
2. Acquire writers' references, and consult them as needed.

Quote:4. Get into the *habit* of writing.
...
And it can be heartbreaking to sit
there for hours and look at a blank sheet of paper or an
empty document file, and have *nothing* happen.

Quote:6. Proofread and preread.

Do it yourself, or recruit a friend.

Quote:7. Pick prereaders carefully.
...
self-
nominated prereaders run the risk of being (or turning into)
"yes men" who always respond "it's great!" to any new
material. While good for the ego, this can make it hard for
an author to grow in his skills, or to evaluate his growth.

Quote:9. Don't be wedded to your text.

Quote:12. Know your source material.
...
But almost
everything is on DVD these days, and the subtitles are just a
button-press away on your remote.

Quote:I swear I will hunt down and kill the next
person I find misspelling "Dolores Umbridge" as "Dolorous" or
"Delores".

Quote:II. STUPID WRITER TRICKS
...
xx. Eggcorns and Mondegreens
...
* "For all intensive purposes"

Quote:xx. Overusing Favorite Words
...
((Which author always used "sandalwood" for Ukyou's eye color?
Dreiser, among others. Need to doublecheck. Gregg Sharp?

Quote:xref "Bathos"
...
A "Love Hina" fic I have been reading at the time I write this
suffers greatly from this -- the narrative voice frequently (read
"excessively to the point of monotony") calls Kitsune "the foxy
lady",

Quote:xx. Chapter Size

Despite what Dan Brown does in "The Da Vinci Code" and his other
works, ten paragraphs do *not* a chapter make.

Quote:xx. The Eternal Now
...
((case in point: the cell phone era makes it almost impossible
to put characters in serious jeopardy -- unless the author goes
through hoops to take their cell phones away or strand them far
away from a cell tower.

Quote:xx. The "Burly Detective" Syndrome
...
Using "the red-haired
> girl" when it should be obvious to the reader that the person speaking is
> girl-type Ranma is so very annoying.

Quote:xx. Special Advice for "Ranma" fiction:
...

* And while we're on the topic: Despite nearly a generation of
fanon, Nerima is *not* a haven of weirdness, known throughout
Tokyo as an open-air lunatic asylum, a mere visit to which is
tantamount to a legal declaration of suicidal intent. Nerima
is in fact a very sedate middle-class area, which Takahashi
(and other mangaka) use as a *contrasting* background for all
the bizarre happenings in their stories.

Quote:III. CRAFTING FICTION

Why?  because I've been watching AMV's based on Bonny Tylers "Holding out for a Hero" and both wanting to make my own, based on my CoH Star Ranger saving, and alternatly... well, won't say saving, but at least pushing back the threats to our tanks (Mags, Terr and Silicon Sabre) using something that looks similar to (CoH:homecoming) in game footage...

But I don't have the mad skillz to do it.

*sigh*

From the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49221936

But even during these things, people rise to the call: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man...g-n1039011

My condolences to the families of the victims.

Yeah, I didn't know about it, either. But apparently it's been a thing since 2008.

The Register: It's Friday lunchtime on International Beer Day. Bitter hop to it, boss'll be none the weiser

Let's see, in this article, we have scientists using a procedure to turn normal photons into Ridburg polaritons, which then condense into quantum entangled photonic molecules... then in the links to other articles offered below, there's twisted light gaining angular momentum through self-torque, nanophotonic structures that enable artificial vision, and a hyperbolic lattice forming an a coplanar waveguide array! Behold the wonders that SCIENCE has wrought!

The final episode of the Simpsons will begin with an electric sign high above Springfield, broadcasting the status of the nuclear power plant.

"Relax. Everything is fine"

Meanwhile, far below in the plant itself, we fly in through the window of the managers office with a glowering Mr Burns receiving a visit from NRC inspectors. Turns out, an important safety test wasn't done fifty years ago - actually, a lot of important tests weren't done fifty years ago but this one most of all.

What happens if there's a blackout, and the core still needs to be cooled?

If it's not succesfully completed, the plant will be closed by the coal-friendly government. Naturally, Mr. Burns picks the one employee whose name he can't remember - since obviously everyone he can remember, has failed him somehow. But he cannot remember who the devil Homer Simpson is.

Naturally, Mister Smithers begins to sumbit his CV's to places like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl.....

Homer arrives at the office. He's offered a promotion if he succeeds - to executive status. But if he fails

Mr. Burns: "Now, if you pass this test you will never have to worry about being a safety inspector again. But if you fail, you will never have to worry about being a safety inspector again."

Homer: "WooHoo! Win! Win!"

Homer, of course, seeing no failure in failing promptly puts his feet up, until everyone else at the Plant begins to despair. Their livelyhoods now depend on Homer - harmless in the window-seat of Sector 7G - but now he's in charge. Their abject bullying and despair needles at Homer

Homer, realising that his job and the job of everyone in the plant is now riding on his shoulder, tries his best to study up on what's involved. He brings the test proceedure back home to study. A "Man getting hit by football" season is on Fox but Homer's doing his damnedest to focus.

Lisa, asks what he could possibly be doing to get hom to focus so hard. Homer tries to explain.

"Dad! That's the same test as Chernobyl!"

"Oh please Lisa, our reactor has a negative power coefficient. That means it shuts itself down if I make a mistake. It can't possibly explode."

Lisa is stunned. Damn, he's taking it seriously enough to recognise Chernobyl.

-----
The test begins. Mr. Burns has brought in the best nuclear engineers from around the world. With Homer in charge. Naturally, being an empty suit Homer just parrots what he remembers of the proceedure and, remarkably, being a robot succesffully completes the test. Well done Homer. Piece 'a cake. He sits on the control panel and closes the main core isolation valves.

The valves are stuck stuck. There's no water flowing to the core. A safety valve has opened and is flooding the containment with highly radioactive feedwater. The core is boiling. It's going to explode and kill everyone. But there's a single manual override on the valve that will save everyone.

This, of course has to be explained in excrutiating detail to Homer who's professional facade is cracking.

The radiation monitor has stuck at 3.6 and none of the really fancy well educated types are willing to go in there because they know how dangerous it is. It even looks like that scene in Wrath of Khan.
Of course, they reckon without Homer - and the plaque. The Maggie plaque.

Do. It. For. Her

Homer enters the reactor and dissapears into the steam. Mr. Burns resigns himself to his fate. Smithers panics.

The alarms stop
---
Springfield General Hospital.

Marge sits beside a homer covered in bandages, in a mirror image of a particular scene from Chernobyl. Homer is wheezing to breath. Hibbert enters.

"Will Homer be Okay?"

Hibbert chuckles. "The feedwater was only mildly contaminated. I've seen worse with Doctor Gale. His obesity saved him from the worst of it."

"But his burns Doctor?"

"Oh.... the guys were so glad they got to keep their job they poured a giant pot of scalding hot coffee all over me to celebrate"

The final episode of the simpsons will end with an electric sign high above Springfield, broadcasting the status of the nuclear power plant.

"Relax. Everything is fine"

Bart gets a B-plot.