Welcome, Guest
You have to register before you can post on our site.

Username
  

Password
  





Search Forums

(Advanced Search)

Forum Statistics
» Members: 187
» Latest member: MorningDaylight
» Forum threads: 14,079
» Forum posts: 219,347

Full Statistics

Online Users
There are currently 412 online users.
» 1 Member(s) | 408 Guest(s)
Applebot, Bing, Google, RMH999

Latest Threads
Even more oddities spotte...
Forum: General Chatter
Last Post: Bob Schroeck
4 hours ago
» Replies: 269
» Views: 40,944
STMPD’s Fanfic Promotion ...
Forum: Other People's Fanfiction
Last Post: STMPD
9 hours ago
» Replies: 3
» Views: 401
Stupid dialog, free to a ...
Forum: Other People's Fanfiction
Last Post: robkelk
Yesterday, 07:39 PM
» Replies: 185
» Views: 64,704
Video Madness XII
Forum: General Chatter
Last Post: robkelk
Yesterday, 05:49 PM
» Replies: 52
» Views: 3,943
Fic Update: The 59-Thread...
Forum: Other People's Fanfiction
Last Post: Shepherd
Yesterday, 04:55 PM
» Replies: 148
» Views: 10,326
Plotbunnies, Pastebin, an...
Forum: My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character
Last Post: robkelk
Yesterday, 04:20 PM
» Replies: 102
» Views: 20,123
Dearly Departed of 2025
Forum: General Chatter
Last Post: Jinx999
Yesterday, 01:34 PM
» Replies: 87
» Views: 9,340
More Political Images thr...
Forum: Politics and Other Fun
Last Post: Labster
Yesterday, 12:35 PM
» Replies: 235
» Views: 27,634
Just to show I haven't ab...
Forum: Future Steps
Last Post: Norgarth
Yesterday, 12:12 PM
» Replies: 3
» Views: 169
Image-Dump Thread 30
Forum: General Chatter
Last Post: Norgarth
Yesterday, 12:09 PM
» Replies: 264
» Views: 24,041

 
  Zombies, Zombies, Zombies
Posted by: SkyeFire - 06-30-2012, 02:37 PM - Forum: General Chatter - No Replies

I blame the following on weeks of extreme stress combined with equal weeks of accumulative sleep deprivation (thank God for spellcheck).

Found on a recent trawl through the Internet Alternate-Universe Movie Databse:   the great original classic of Zombie filmmaking, the B&W 1947 magnum opus "The Unquiet Dead," starring Peter Gorre, Claude Braines...
um....
okay, people, help me out here.  It's undead-actor pun-naming time!

Print this item

  few thoughts
Posted by: zojojojo - 06-29-2012, 08:57 PM - Forum: The Game Everyone Loves To Play - Replies (2)

The Electric Slide .... everybody who can hear the music does the electric slide.

don't know if anyone's brought it up over the years, but MJ's Thriller causes the two sides of the conflict to resolve it via stylized gang fight before zombie dancing in unison.

why? because i can't help but picture LT playing Neutron Dance for the Dementors and having them all do a synchronized line dance like out of a Hollywood musical.
-Z, Post-reader at Medium
----
If architects built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

Print this item

  Stolen Valor act struck down by SCOTUS
Posted by: ECSNorway - 06-29-2012, 08:20 PM - Forum: Politics and Other Fun - Replies (4)

Among several other rulings yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that falsely claiming to have served in the US military and/or to have been awarded medals for such service is, in fact, constitutionally protected speech, and that the Stolen Valor act, which prohibits such frauds, is unconstitutional.
*sigh*
I am deeply, deeply, deeply disappointed to see this, and hope that Congress can indeed pass the alternative legislation already being suggested (criminalizing the use of such deception to seek monetary gain or other considerations).
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Print this item

  A Teaser From Chapter Two
Posted by: Bob Schroeck - 06-29-2012, 07:46 PM - Forum: Drunkard's Walk VIII: Harry Potter and the Man from Otherearth - Replies (4)

(Posted because Pyeknu coincidentally posted a bit of stagger with a phoenix in it...)


"Come in, Douglas," Dumbledore's voice echoed through the door
just as I lifted a hand to knock.  I turned the motion into a
grab for the handle, and opened the door instead.  Still carrying
the pannier rack from my bike on my shoulder, I stepped into the
office.

Little had changed in a week -- fireplace, paintings, little 
whirring and puffing gadgets, messy desk, big throne-like chair, 
all pretty much the same.  The only additions were Dumbledore 
himself, in that chair, and the large scarlet and gold bird 
perched on the stand near him.  "Good morning, Douglas," 
Dumbledore said, closing the book in his hands and laying it on 
the desk to his left.  

"Good morning, Headmaster," I said, lowering the rack to the 
floor so I can stand up more or less straight.  "Reporting for
duty, as ordered," I added with a grin.  I suppressed the urge to 
give him a Benny Hill-style salute; not until I knew the man 
better and could judge his reactions.

Then I went ahead and spoiled that resolution almost immediately
by nodding at his pet and saying, "Remarkable bird, the Norwegian
Red.  Beautiful plumage!"

The Headmaster gaped at me for a moment, then burst out in gales
of laughter.  The bird in question seemed amused as well, 
emitting an arpeggio of trills that I found pleasant, and even
encouraging.  

It took a little while, but eventually the Headmaster's laughter 
trailed off to mere chuckles as he wiped his eyes.  "Oh, my.  Oh, 
my, I haven't laughed like that in quite a while."  He took off 
his glasses and wiped them with a cloth he retrieved from his 
desk.  "I must say I wasn't expecting a Monty Python quotation 
from you, Colonel.  I had assumed from your military background 
that you would be somewhat more... reserved."

I inclined my head slightly.  "For my part, I have to say that 
I'm surprised you're familiar enough -- or at all! -- with the 
Pythons to have even gotten the joke."

"Ah," he said, putting his glasses back on his crooked nose.  
"Unlike many of my fellow wizards, I am not *entirely* ignorant
of the Muggle world."

"Then shall we say we are each more complex than the other
expected?" I asked with a smile.

"Indeed, Douglas, indeed."  He stood and crossed to the stand.
"My bright-feathered friend here is my familiar, Fox.  Lovely as 
his plumage is, he is not, in fact, the fabled Norwegian Red 
Parrot -- distant cousin to the Norwegian Blue, I have been 
told," he added with a twinkle in his eye, "but that most rare of 
creatures, a phoenix."

"A phoenix?" I exclaimed.  "Whoa.  No wonder you cracked up over
the Dead Parrot Sketch."  I reached out to stroke Fox's feathers, 
and the phoenix trilled again as it leaned into my touch.  "I 
take it this beauty is why you named the order as you did?"  

The old wizard nodded.  "Precisely.  Phoenixes are creatures of
light, and their cycle of death and resurrection symbolizes the
eternal triumph of light over darkness."  He smiled as he watched
Fox eagerly receive my attention.

I raised an eyebrow at him.  "Phoenixes, plural?  Huh.  In my 
home universe, the Phoenix is a single, unique creature of 
Celestial origin.  They're a corporeal species here?"

"There are more than one phoenix in the world, but 'species' is
perhaps the wrong word for them," Dumbledore said thoughtfully.
"It might be better to describe them as free-willed elemental 
spirits of Light -- despite their obvious associations with 
Fire."  His gnarled hand joined mine in stroking the now blissed-
out bird.  "Although I call him my familiar, Fox is in no way
bound to me.  He stays with me of his own free will, in a kind 
of... partnership, you might say."

"Nice work if you can get it," I murmured.  Then it hit me.  The
phoenix wasn't named "Fox", but "Fawkes".  As in "Guy Fawkes".
Argh.  I gave Dumbledore a flat look.  "Oh, geeze.  A phoenix 
named Fawkes.  I just got that."  The Headmaster was chuckling at
me, his eyes twinkling again.  "You know, if I'd heard that 
first, I wouldn't have worried about cracking a joke in front of 
you."  I looked at the bird, which I was pretty sure was now 
smiling as much as you could with a beaked avian face.  "Was that 
name his idea or yours?"

Dumbledore chuckled.  "Oh, his alone.  He has quite the sense of
humor, which I have had the benefit of enjoying for many years."

"I'll bet," I said, eyeing the phoenix for a moment.  He eyed me
back, with a palpable good humor.  I smiled and nodded to him, 
and got a nod in return.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Print this item

  [Story][Season 0] Revolutionary
Posted by: Ace Dreamer - 06-29-2012, 10:16 AM - Forum: Fenspace - Replies (1)

Revolutionary - 22/Jun/2012
Who do laws benefit?  The rich and powerful.  They write the laws.  Get them changed when they're inconvenient.  Or, if they break them, they can muscle or pay their way free.
The rest of us.  We have to live with their leavings.  The scraps of meat they cast aside.  Is there any surprise we get angry?  Break rules, do what we need to survive?
Going into space.  Any new frontier.  People talk of a "fresh start".  Leaving the bad bits, the dross, of the place they came from, behind.
They never do.  It's ground into them.  Dirt that wont wash off.
You need to be brave, to break free.  Risk being unpopular.  Risk breaking the law.
You need to be Boskone.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Print this item

  Sigh...
Posted by: Black Aeronaut - 06-29-2012, 04:57 AM - Forum: Other People's Fanfiction - Replies (10)

You know, guys, when someone sticks an RFC tag onto something, then some sort of response is desired, even if that response is something as rude and uncouth as a suggestion to perform an anatomical impossibility.
At this point, I get the message now.  I won't pester anyone with anything related to DSKS anymore.

Print this item

  This weeks Coffe 'chat'
Posted by: Star Ranger4 - 06-28-2012, 04:59 PM - Forum: The Legendary - Replies (1)

Is available at:
http://www.twitch.tv/paragonstudios/b/322882107
Topics of Interest include a look at the new Cosmic Corsair costume pieces available from the new super card packs; as well as a look at Bio Armor and Nature affinity if your not the type that is always haunting beta....
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-

NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

Print this item

  ReBoot stagger - notes and fragments
Posted by: robkelk - 06-28-2012, 03:38 PM - Forum: Future Steps - Replies (46)

Pulled out of the current Nano-Steps thread...

robkelk Wrote:Time unknown. Date unknown. Location unknown.

I woke up in an alleyway. As alleyways went, this one wasn't too bad - it was clean, and there didn't seem to be any surveillance cameras in the area. Which might just mean I couldn't see them, of course.

Then my bike started shaking. It took me a moment to realize that it was the back pannier that was shaking. I opened it... and Eimi climbed out. Not the laptop computer, but a jumpsuit-clad teenaged girl who looked just like Eimi would if she was human. Well, except for the blue skin. "This is new," she said while looking at her hands.

Then she looked over my shoulder and gasped. I turned around to see an unusual building dominating the skyline - it looked like a cross between an office tower and a hooded cobra ready to strike.

Eimi pulled me down behind the bike. "Doug, we've got to get you some face paint, quickly." Then she added to herself, "This is bad. Very bad."
Eimi's format: Guardian - to mend and defend... Doug. (Her laptop body has become her keytool. Considering it's an IBM laptop, "Watson" would make a good name for it...)

Doug's format: User. Don't let anyone know.

DRAG0NFLIGHT Wrote:A quick snippet that popped into my head when I read Rob's post up above. Don't know if it's any good, but here it is. Smile
===
I dropped behind the smashed aircar. The CPU's were taking a ferocious beating from the virals. It didn't help that this computer system's only real defender was what looked like a 14 year old kid. They were losing on all fronts, and it was everything I could do to keep pushing them back.
Mouse's idea for a firewall had been a good one, and Eimi had shared a few pointers about how to set it up so that it was self-reinforcing. But she'd taken a few too many hits from the Viral assault, and had been medevacked back to the Principal Office. Leaving me to coordinate the defense, prop up the remaining CPU's, and try to hold the Virals back while their leader made a push on the building behind me.
What sounded like some kind of energy weapon charging up in the distance was all the cue I needed. Diving over the bridge, I caught a reinforcing rod and hung just over the bridge as a massive bolt destroyed what was left of that car. I waited as most of it flew overhead, and down into the depths under the Principal Office. Flipping back up, I straightened my outfit, and waited on the far side of the flaming debris. The CPU's were badly mauled, but if I presented just the right amount of casual moxie, maybe I could make the Virals hang back. But against all the people rushing the bridge, I'd need an edge. ""
As the smoke cleared, I could see their leader. Megabyte looked like something out of a KISS concert. The dark blued-metal body, the evil green death's head icon covering most of his chest, and the metallic red highlights. He had a terminator-esque head, with what looked like an expression of satanic pleasure permanently etched on it. His eyes narrowed as he pointed at me.
"You're very persistent, Sangnoir!"
I grinned, and tossed back, "I'm also better than you!" I stepped through the remaining embers of the wrecked car and casually brushed my jacket, as the light blinked in my helmet visor.
Megabyte just chuckled. It didn't sound very friendly. "I've played that game, Sangnoir. I also won." He raised his arm again, the three claws extending one at a time. "I'm only going to offer you this chance one more time, Sangnoir. Serve me, or die!" Behind him, several Viral cars rose up, leveling rocket launchers, beam cannons, and other various items of mass destruction, while troops around him pointed rocket launchers at me.
I just grinned back, putting as much attitude as I could in the act, while actually hoping I could avoid all that firepower. "Let's ."
The helmet is designed so that competing audio doesn't affect my metagift. I can do this because the earpieces are capable of isolating me from outside sound while the music is playing. This can sometimes leave me unaware of sounds around me. But even the audio protection in my helmet couldn't hide what happened next.
As the first strains of the music poured into me, awakening my gift and creating the first of many metal balls in my hand, the whole system shook. The sky flickered several colors, and with no warning at all, music began to play from the sky above, pouring into the whole System.
I paused as what I'd done just sunk in. I'd just told the System to play my song. And since I was a User, the system did just that.
Megabyte looked around in surprise. The various Viral forces, also shocked by the event spent a few moments staring up at the sky in confusion. Not one to look a gift neohorse in the mouth (don't ask...) I attacked.
Megabyte responded with surprising speed. He smacked one of the balls aside and lunged forward, ignoring the damage the metal spheres were causing in the Viral ranks. Enemy soldiers were knocked around, weapons firing in all directions. Cars were hit and exploded in bright, video-game colors. Other vehicles, knocked off center by the metal madness, fired into the Viral forces, or into the shields protecting the Principal Office. The devastation wrought in the first few moments was impressive, to say the least.
Their leader didn't spare a moment's thought for his troops, however. He charged me, metal claws swiping, Wolverine-style, at me as he closed. I dodged, wove, and flowed around him, waiting for the moments. When I had a clear shot, I struck hard, polykev armored gauntlets smashing into the blue metal body of the Virus.
It was like punching a metal statue. I ducked a return swipe and put some distance between us, shaking my hand out. "Not as much fun as advertised." I'd barely had a moment to register the even before he was on me again. I pulled a metal ball back, but he sliced it into four pieces, and struck me hard as I tried to dodge past him.
The impact hurt, sending me flying back into the debris of that wrecked CPU car. Shaking my head at the sudden dizziness, I was treated to the business end of the claws as he held them just above my face. I almost rolled my eyes at the theatrics, but this really wasn't the time. Besides, Pinball Wizard had some nice defensive options.
Megabyte gave me a really evil grin. "Any last words?"
Before I could deliver the double-fisted can of industrial grade ass-kicking I was prepping, a blast of energy struck Megabyte in the chest, sending him flying back fifteen feet, to land in a sprawl. His claws struck the roadway, drawing sparks as he slid to a stop and surged to his feet, eyes narrow.
Eimi landed in front of me as I stood up slowly. She wore some kind of flight harness, and her 'keytool' device glowed with renewed power. She looked at me and grinned. "Back... And fully charged."
So much for nobody finding out...

Proginoskes Wrote:In some ReBoot fanfic, there are specific kinds of Virus, based on powers and temperament. Megabyte is a Control Virus: he has powers specialized for brainwashing and seizing control, and corresponding megalomania. Hexadecimal is a Chaos Virus: her powers are vast, diverse, and unpredictable; her moods and thoughts are mercurial, but she helps as much as she harms. I don't like the idea of Doug being a User (judging by what little we learn about them, Users are everything Doug hates about Celestials), but I think it might be appropriate for Doug to look to Mainframe and its residents like a much weaker (and correspondingly saner) Chaos Virus. (I said "look", and not "Doug is a Virus", because my assumption is that Doug's person is invariant in transit: he can't be transformed by a Gate. On the other hand, a biological being doesn't fit into ReBoot's world very well, so Systems have to treat him as if he were a digital entity.)
On the other hand, if Doug isn't a User, there isn't really any reason why he shouldn't be treated as a Guardian himself. Bob (Guardian 452) merged with Glitch by giving it the instruction "Download". Doug and his Keytool were never separate, though he still needs to instruct his Keytool powers.
On the gripping hand, I'm not the one writing it, am I?
That bit about Hex is canon. (Daemon was a Cron Virus, by the way.) The bit about Megabyte isn't canon, but it makes sense.

As for Users being the everything Doug hates about Celestials - we never see an actual User in the entire series. (We see some of their game-sprite avatars, but that's not the same thing.) They might not know what their games do to the binomes and sprites. Celestials are fully aware of the impact of their actions.

DRAG0NFLIGHT Wrote:Heh. The angle I was going with the snippet really wasn't thought out as in-depth as all that. I was just considering what would happen if a human (User) showed up with what amounts to his own portable computing world with him. I mean, if you assume that inside every computer is a microverse filled with self-aware programs, then inside Doug's helmet is the exact same thing.
So what happens when he gives the helmet an order? the Mainframe system essentially misunderstands the instruction, and assumes Doug is addressing it directly. It's like how Bob can give direct network commands, which he does on a few occasions in the series, because he has a higher level of access rights. (One of the reasons Megabyte tries to recruit him early in the series.)
I wasn't going with the angle that Doug knew it would happen. Instead, he issues an order to his helmet, but because certain people with the right level of access can issue verbal commands to Mainframe itself, when he addresses a "System" command, Mainframe assumes he's addressing it, and it responds appropriately.
Edit: That said, I may look at what I can work out of that. I'd probably write it as a half-hour episode, and see where that takes me. ...
And this only works if Doug's a User.

This bit's new:

"Where are you people from?" asked the one who looked like a toaster with a spindly head.

Eimi stepped on my toes before I could reply. "We come from the multiverse - through systems, peoples, and cities - to this place," she said.

"Mainframe," the green-skinned woman with the glasses volunteered.

"My format: Guardian. To mend and defend - to defend my friend Doug, his hopes and dreams, and to defend him from his enemies."

"Really?"

She grinned at me. "Now that I'm like this, yes."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Print this item

  I may be intermittently missing for a day or so
Posted by: Bob Schroeck - 06-28-2012, 02:34 PM - Forum: General Chatter - Replies (13)

Once again, our internet connection at home is dead.  As far as I can tell from some of the widgets and utilities I have running on my tower system, it died approximately 7 AM on 27 June, and hasn't come back yet on its own.  In the past this kind of thing has been a simple inconvenience, but now that Peggy works part of the week from home over a VPN, it's now a critical failure.  I spent about 40 minutes on the phone last night yelling at Comcast customer support, with the upshot that someone is coming out this afternoon -- allegedly; I've been screwed over by Comcast techs before -- to fix it.  If all goes well, I'll be on line from home again by tonight.  If it doesn't go well, I'm switching to FIOS and Dish Network, and I don't know what kind of interruption in my home service I'll have until everything is changed over.

Just a heads up for everyone.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Print this item

  Read pages still marked as unread
Posted by: robkelk - 06-28-2012, 12:18 AM - Forum: Forums - Replies (2)

Anybody else seeing this? Every page I've read since I signed on this evening has shown up as still marked unread. I have to click on "Mark Forum Read" to clear the flags.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Print this item