On random and thankfully rare occasion. occasions, the screen of my computer goes completely black. The computer is still running, but doesn't appear to be doing anything or to respond when I attempt to manipulate it. This has not happened when it's been making sound or playing a game, so I don't know if it continues. It's not overheated and it runs OK after manual power off and rebooting. Any suggestions about possible causes or fruitful invesigation would be gratefully recieved.

On New Year's Eve, Peg and I showed Despicable Me to her brother's family, who hadn't seen it before.  And when it ended, I wondered, as I've done every other time I've seen it, what those little girls are going to be like when they grow up; are they going to go into the family business?  Then I realized that someone must have written a fic about it.

Unfortunately, if they have, I can't find it.  FF.net has only 138 DM fics, and almost all of the ones about the girls growing up involve the problems of dating when Gru's the dad.

Has anyone seen a proper "next generation" fic for Despicable Me?  Thanks.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Kelly Clarkson - What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANKWwI0ONGc
You know the bed feels warmer,
Sleeping here alone,
You know I dream in color,
And do the things I want.
You think you got the best of me
Think you had the last laugh
Bet you think that everything good is gone.
Think you left me broken down
Think that I'd come running back
Baby you don't know me, cause you're dead wrong.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone.
What doesn't kill you makes a fire
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, Myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone.
You heard that I was starting over with someone new,
They told you I was moving on, over you,
You didn't think that I'd come back, I'd come back swinging
You try to break me you see
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
stand a little taller
doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone.
What doesn't kill you makes a fire
Footsteps even lighter
doesn't mean I'm over cause your gone.
what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
Thanks to you I got a new thing started
Thanks to you I'm not the broken hearted
Thanks to you I'm finally thinking 'bout me
You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning
 in the end...
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little talker
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fire
Footsteps even lighter
doesn't mean I'm over cause you gone.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, Myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone.
2 possibilities here:
1) another inspirational song
2) Power song: Doug absorbs the energy of attacks against him (kinetic or otherwise) and transfers it into strength  (like Sebastian Shaw of  Marvel's Hellfire Club)
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

(I have no idea who Doug is speaking with here; all I know is this is after he visited Fenspace.)

"Doug...?"

"Yes?"

"I thought they lyrics of the songs you hear tied into what your ability does."

"That's right."

"But I don't see how the lyrics to Once in Love with Amy made a copy of your laptop appear."

"Oh, that. It's a transliteration error."
--
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

An amusing post I found while trawling the Blog-o-Sphere, I find it's an amusing reflection of my own habits in the great world of MMOs.

"Marry/Kiss/KillDon't Return Calls From" as applied to MMOs

Having taken this particular model, I find it an interesting way to look at things, so here's mine.

Marry:


1. City of Heroes


A first, true love and one that's still going. If alts were kids, I'd be paying so many schooling tuitions I could refund the country. As it is, we're in that casual part of the long term relationship where constant conversation isn't necessary because you're just as comfortable with long periods of silence. We still go out for a Task Force now and then, or get together with friends, but even though I'm not always home every night, I know CoX is there waiting whenever I do come home, and to say that she takes up a significant portion of my waking thoughts would not be an understatement by any metric.

Kiss:


2. Star Wars: The Old Republic


Yes, yes she is very, very hot. She hangs out in a lot of the same places as WoW, but her edge is a lot less rough. She doesn't seem to need the same constant crowds and the next newest thing, and long conversations over dinner are actually on the table, as opposed to what the next big social event that everyone else is focusing on is. I get the feeling that she's interested in something a little deeper than the rough, hard treatment most girls of her type go for, but she's not got the history and long affection of CoX. Still, I suspect we'll be feeling each other out for a while, and enjoying ourselves in the process.

Casual Acquantances:


3. Champions Online


CoX's younger step-sister, she was born after the divorce, and it really shows. On the one hand, her dad's a slightly better parent than he was when he was raising CoX, but on the other hand, you can still tell that Champs has all the same problems that CoX grew out of after she moved out. She's got a fancier wardrobe and she's got the same good genes as her sister, but in the end, you just get the feeling that for all that she's younger and hotter and a little more wild and crazy, there's an underlying immaturity whenever you try to just sit down and talk with her that just turns me off. We had a few dates, and maybe she'll grow up eventually, but for right now, we don't really hang out.

4. Star Trek Online


Champs' little sister, and a really smart kid, by all accounts. She lives with her step-mom now rather than her birth mother after *another* messy divorce (noticing a trend?) and from what I hear, it's for the better. Last I saw her, she was still gangly and gawky and definitely geeky, but with a certain intelligence that made you think she'd grow up real good. I hear she's gotten better since her step-mom seems more interested in raising her than just pulling a child support check, so maybe I'll see about asking her out for drinks at a later date. I hear she's got a real head for numbers if that's your thing.

Blacklist:

5. World of Warcraft


Ugh, this is an ugly story. I mean, I liked her back when we were both younger and she still went by Warcraft III. But these days, she's changed a lot to fit in with the popular crowd, and what I saw in her back then doesn't seem to be there still. All she seems to care about is expensive things from her thousands of groupies, and whatever she's into now, you know it'll be out of date by the time you can get to it. There's some people that're probably having the ride of their lives in the glitzy, high-profile world that WoW's made her adult career out of, but I'm not one of them. I just sort of reminisce now and then about those old albums of our younger days.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Paprika is an excellent movie. I highly recommend it, in large part because it manages to be quite disturbing while also being hugely entertaining. In this the song "Parade" is a microcosm of the film as a whole. These are the translated lyrics:

Quote:Energy in my heart is of chemical foam
A street of taxies, worn tires, blood and flesh
Behold all that is liberty is a parody of utopia
A shining boulevard of buyers and giga-movies
Mino Depression is nonsense, La Vie en Rose is on sale
They say you should know you are happier than you realize

Dying literacy is systematically auto-killed
The formaldehyde street of buyers and hanging wires
Moisturize that dry synergy with artificial sweetener
Raining money into the high-rise mega-temples

You can not write the word 'ignorance'. The future is on sale
Push aside and laugh at the karmic tale saying it’s superstition

Now it is coming to you, giving off a stench and devouring your shadow
The parade of terror is coming, and it is in your name

The roaring MC becomes a lethal dose for the public
On the street of cripples, selling diamonds and battered Tao
Behold all that is liberty is a parody of utopia
Rely on SSRI and say "hi-ho" in the coffee shop

Minor theory is flimflam, hedonism is on sale
It is non-repayable, it has reached the point of no return

Now it is coming to you giving off a stench, devouring your shadow
The parade of terror is coming, and it is in your name
Now your shadow procreates as if the ground is being smothered
The parade of lunacy is coming, and it is in your name

I was re-reading drakensis' fic The Night The House of Cards Was Built and it occurred to me that I'd seen this story, at least in broad strokes, before. Chilord's Poker Knight and a Harry Potter fic that I don't recall the title or author of.

So I'm wondering, is this a common trope? Is there a whole raft of fics in which the hero is empowered by being extremely successful at a game of poker?

http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Th ... uter_Space

Assume some method is developed to pass information through time, and (after exploiting it for himself, by winning every lottery and sports event bet in $region) the inventor has set up a telephone sevice so anyone can call themselves up 24 hours in the future. What changes does this cause? The idea occurred to me while cooking just now, but actually mapping out the consequences has me boggled, beyond utterly killing the business model of lotteries and sports betting as mentioned above, accidents and disasters could be headed off or mitigated, and restaurateurs or similar make-and-immediately-sell businesses would be able to prepare exactly as much as they needed, reducing waste. Paradoxes are forcibly ironed out, frex a policeman calling Tomorrowphone would be told by his future self that he stopped two burglaries and a murder because his past self called and found out where and when to be to do so.

Discuss?

- CD
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows