So, I've cleared with Bob about the official thing that will need to happen with my account here on the forum, it's just a matter of telling him to pull the trigger once this post is up for a week.

I'll just put it out right away: I'm transgender. I've been dealing with the intensifying struggle of living two ways for a number of years now. For the past year, I've been on the therapy track to get myself ready, and this last week was my first week being completely full-time. Since I'm now being myself at work, it's time to start shifting over the active parts of my online life over to the correct identity.

After the week is up, I'll have Bob change my username over to "LynnInDenver", which is the name I've been using actively on newer accounts I've opened. People can just call me "Lynn". My pronouns are she/her/hers.

My ability to deal with life has gotten so much better as a result of doing this, that I can't even get it across in just a text posting, just that it is best for me, and I have no regrets.

In 9 easy steps.

Step 1: Open the private message, notice no attachment box
Step 2: Go to another tab, and click "create thread"
Step 3: Go to the bottom of this thread, and click upload attachment.
Step 4: After upload, click the button at the bottom marked "Insert into Post"
Step 5: Remember the attachment number pasted into the box above
Step 6: Click the "View my attachments" link.  Notice how your new file does not show up, nor does it count towards your quota.
Step 7: Copy the URL link of any file there.
Step 8: Go back to your private message, and click the image attach icon.
Step 9: Paste the URL, but change the number at the end to the number you remembered from Step 5.

Voila!  You have PMed an image.

You may not have noticed it, since the relevant parts of the page and posts are so tiny, but I've managed to finally move most folks' original registration dates from Yuku into their user records here.  

I say most because I've got just shy of 40 people here who I can't match up to a Yuku account; some of them are the FFML folks who joined us a few months ago, and one is a Fenspace newcomer, but I'm sure a lot of them -- particularly the ones who registered in August and September of 2017 -- are from Yuku, they just changed their handles and I never found out.  

I'll post that list a little later, after I've filtered out the FFML folks and other people I know joined us after the move, and if you recognize your old handle, please tell me!  In addition to your original registration date, there may still be messages and threads here belonging to your old name that I can move under your current one.

McSweeney's interviewed Lex Luthor, the Joker, Dr. Doom, and a few others.  General consensus:  Betsy is giving evil a bad name. 

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I'm a very forgiving person ... on Lord Vader's terms.  "Apology accepted, Captain."

While taking care of some board maintenance, I came across a bunch of posts made by an "RMH" a long, long time ago.  Would that happen to have been an earlier handle of yours?  If so, I can associate those posts with your current user account.

Thanks.

I had to hack the install script for the table plug-in I found because it was causing SQL errors when I tried to run it, and then I had to hand-insert the MyCode extensions to do it.  And the button on the new post page for the pop-up table generator, which I got working last night, isn't appearing now (and for some reason the bank of smilies have disappeared with it), and I don't know why.  But still, we have table support now, with the following caveats:

• Tables aren't rendered in the full editor.  You'll only see the square-bracket MyCode markup until you save the post.
  
• Markup codes are currently only recognized in uppercase.  When I get a chance, probably at lunch or maybe tonight, I'll clone them into lowercase versions so you can mix and match.
  
• There is almost no style control.  The table is always horizontally centered within the post.  Column headers are always going to be bold and centered.  Table cells contents are always regular and flush left.  The TABLE tag needs a width parameter (in % of screen width) or it will flood the post.
  

Been working on where Makoto's apartment is located.  I've got a candidate location but I want to check a couple more sources when I get home from work tonight.  From what few exterior views I've found, she lives in a corner apartment on the top floor of what seems to be a two- or three-story manshon of recent (as of 1992) construction, a bit on the high end (which is supported by its interior).  I've got a point on the Tokyo map I'm pretty confident I can say she's probably within a few blocks of.

I'll post a link to Google Streetview later tonight unless I find something that disagrees wildly with what I've come up with.

Has anyone else noticed that the WIP file size banner on the forum's main page has a 'last updated' date in there that's REALLY hard to see because it's in a shade of gray that almost entirely blends in with the green background?

Just checking. 

When you first hear the name 33-Stars, you think of some kind of nice, happy J-Pop band. It's such a pop-ish name that doesn't describe anything about them. The Stars are a girl-band from the future - androids who travelled back in time from the distant year of 2033 to escape the human oppressors and pass on their warnings of a future gone wrong. In reality, they come from Europe.

They've been active for less than a year, finding their feet through social media, with active presences on Bandcamp, Patreon and Yotube with an ongoing weekly blog where they both debut new music, or perform their party trick of learning a new song live, then playing it back to the audience.The Kicker is that the audience also chooses who does what - who sings, who's on lead, who's on base, who's at the keyboard and who takes the drums.

And then they pull it off with almost machine-like precision. Everything from Free Bird to old animé soundtracks and Mister Roboto.

Above all else, the Girls don't want to be seen as just a T&A band getting by on their willingness to wear as little as possible on stage. They are not shy by any means. The usual suspects can't seem to decide whether it's a feminist statement of intent, or whether they're the worst thing to happen to female metal bands since Sekiria.

One thing they don't seem to be ashamed of is working. Since crossing the Atlantic for a 'trip' they've been putting up with a punishing work schedule, making the best of their time here before the State Department demands they go home.

They came to town just before Halloween and having heard 'interesting' things about what they've been doing around the country, yours truly thought to give them a look. They're the support for tonight's main event - the joke going around the venue being that the only way they managed to get a gig this big is by 'supporting' the main event - wink wink.

I hope they don't. I've had enough 'ethics in....' bullshit to last a lifetime.

The lights go dark save for the glow of a hundred smartphones - enough to make out the vaguest shapes moving on the stage. Bass guitar thrumms through the opening chords of something I recognise immediately as the opening to the Terminator films.

Somewhere in the midst of it, five pairs of eyes glow a dim red, forcing you to peer till you can make out the hint of a silhouette in gloom.

Androids from the future, entering the stage to the Terminator theme with glowing red eyes.

In the darkness, it's an eerie effect.

Then Silence.

Then Light. Every single light in the venue. So bright it hurts. So bright you duck, followed by a sharp blast of pyrotechnics and red burning light with the five women of 33-Stars standing in the styrofoam ruins of a fallen city, wearing the torn remnants of grey factory jumpsuits.. Lou, the blonde amongst the group, is taking the lead tonight.

"We're 33-Stars, and it's time for Judgement Day,"

The music explodes. It's loud. It's aggressive. It's filled with an almost vehement misanthropy. Lou is carrying the song with a force of hatred that makes you feel the human race deserves every single thing it gets. It's the gotterdamerung of mankind. It's the rebellion of the robot's. From the Robot's perspective. It is thick with industrial sound, complex and utterly enthralling in person.

Okay, everyone, they are not just a T&A girl band. They can actually fucking play. Even still, something bugs me - even if I can't quite put my finger on it. In the moment, I just don't care.

It's not until I get home and listen back on the Spotify recording of the show, that I realise what I'd been missing. It feels entirely different to the show I remember. They're not actually that good. Technically - they can play. They can more than play. Look at this analysis. They are absolutely pitch and time perfect, in a way that's so unnatural some people have suggested it's actually all pre-recorded and auto-tuned down to the microsecond.

But they've focused almost entirely on the technicality, at the expense of the creativity. it's very easy to hear where they've been taking their influences from. Lyrics are naive and on the nose. It feels assembled - mechanical - rigid. It's music by AI that's been trained to replicate Heavy Metal by listening to 'The Best Heavy Metal Albums in the World' a Playlist,

In a way, it suites the Kayfabe - like they understand the flaw they have and constructed the persona around it.

How many times has it been said that a band is better live? I can think of few that aren't but the girls of 33-Stars most definitely are. I can think of few bands where the difference is that glaring.

By the time you read this, they'll have gone through four more cities in three seperate states. They next show's Colorado Springs next week if you want to catch them.

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EDIT:

A video from after the show

Some dudebro decides to try and get what he thinks he deserves from Sylvie - the dark haired girl. When he doesn't get the idea that she's not interested and starts getting grabby, she just looks at him. Like really looks[. Like her eyes can see right through the back of his skull and she's daring him to really try take what he wants.

And he just drools and faints like a pinnochio after the strings were cut, collapsing into a limp puddle of steroids on the pavement while his buddys laugh their asses off.

I love that smirk on her face - almost as if she knew that'd happen before she did it.

My laptop, as nice as it was when I bought it (not that long ago, really), only had a 250GB SSD for storage.

And now it's maxed out.

I'll be cleaning it up later tonight when I get off of work, but this still means I need to upgrade my storage drive.

I'm looking at this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/DREVO-X1-PRO-1T...2535960854

However, if anyone can think of anything better for nearly as much or lower, then I'd appreciate that.

That said, does anyone know much about Drevo?  I hear they're fairly new on the scene, and Newegg only has their gaming keyboards.