Since I just http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Yuu_Inagawa]unstubbed a page, It's time for another entry in the Fenwiki Destub Project... This time, Fenspace's professional tour guides. Here's http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Gondolier]the article as it currently stands:

Quote:{{stub}}
'''Gondolier''': General description for the sort of easy-going, likable Fen who are naturals at playing tour guides around the Solar System. Those with the best reputation and presence are known as '''Undines''' (especially on [[Mars]).

The term "gondolier" comes from the tour guides of Venice, on [[Earth]. The term "undine" as an expert gondolier comes from a single work of Japanese fiction, embraced by Fen who've never heard of [%[link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_%28manga%29]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_(manga)] the source stories].

[[Category:Fen Culture]
[[Category:Tourism]

I just got a compressed file, but the format is "zipx" instead of "zip". IZArc can open it if I change the suffix to "zip", but the extracted files are all zero-length, so it obviously isn't reading the compressed file correctly... Anybody know what will open a zipx file?
--
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

So I pulled the trigger, and just ordered http://www.dealextreme.co...transceiver-dongle-16921
I've got an appointment here in about ten minutes, and afterwards I'm cruising into Barnes and Noble to snatch up a Nook Color.
Cyanogen just put a fresh Release Candidate for the Nook Color that's Android 2.3.3, includes full accelerated/native hardware drivers for everything except the FM radio in the Nook, and has an install process of like..  five steps.
a copy of Torque is gonna run me about five bucks, and here..  we...  go!
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

And is willing to mention a game in it? And wants to win some "real" money? [size=smaller]("Real" is in quotes because, while the top prize is $1000, it's in current US funds.)[/size]

The folks behind Munchkin are having http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2011-04-22]a contest for webcomics during the month of May.

(Sorry, Bob, but I think you aren't eligible, even if you did have a webcomic.)
--
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

Two songs that I don't think have shown up here yet.

The Future Soon (video)
(lyrics from the wiki)
Last week I left a note on Laura's desk
It said I love you, signed, anonymous friend
Turns out she's smarter than I thought she was
She knows I wrote it, now the whole class does too
And I'm all alone during couple skate
When she skates by with some guy on her arm
But I know that I'll forget the look of pity in her face
When I'm living in my solar dome on a platform in space

'Cause it's gonna be the future soon
And I won't always be this way
When the things that make me weak and strange get engineered away
It's gonna be the future soon
I've never seen it quite so clear
And when my heart is breaking I can close my eyes and it's already here

I'll probably be some kind of scientist
Building inventions in my space lab in space
I'll end world hunger, I'll make dolphins speak
Work through the daytime, spend my nights and weekends
Perfecting my warrior robot race
Building them one laser gun at a time
I will do my best to teach them
About life and what it's worth
I just hope that I can keep them from destroying the Earth

'Cause it's gonna be the future soon
And I won't always be this way
When the things that make me weak and strange get engineered away
It's gonna be the future soon
I've never seen it quite so clear
And when my heart is breaking I can close my eyes and it's already

Here on Earth they'll wonder
As I piece by piece replace myself
And the steel and circuits will make me whole
But I'll still feel so alone
Until Laura calls me home

I'll see her standing by the monorail
She'll look the same except for bionic eyes
She lost the real ones in the robot wars
I'll say I'm sorry, she'll say it's not your fault
Or is it?
She'll eye me suspiciously
Hearing the whir of the servos inside
And she'll scream and try to run
But there's nowhere she can hide
When a crazy cyborg wants to make you his robot bride

Well it's gonna be the future soon
And I won't always be this way
When the things that make me weak and strange get engineered away
It's gonna be the future soon
I've never seen it quite so clear
And when my heart is breaking I can close my eyes and it's already here

------

I can see two things coming out of this:
1) four minute vision of what he is going to be doing next week (strong preference of getting those four minutes to be work/tech related). Or
2) summon robots (who will try to find the closest approximate bridal candidate/Maggie)

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Shop Vac (Video)
(Lyrics from the wiki)
We took the freeway out of town
We found a place to settle down
We bought a driveway and a swingset and a dog
You got your very own bathroom
I got my very own workshop in the basement

We sit around staring at the wall-to-wall
Take field trips to our favorite mall
Waiting for the day when all the kids grow up and leave us here

So if you need me
I'll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won't hear you
Because it's loud with the shop vac on
(For heaven's sake it's really loud with the shop vac on)
But you'll be OK
Cause you'll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won't hear you
Because it's loud with the shop vac on

We hung a flag above the door
Checked out the gourmet grocery store
I bought a mower I can ride around the yard
But we haven't got real friends
And now even the fake ones have stopped calling

Maybe if you forget to hide the keys
I'll take a ride to Applebee's
I'll come home drunk on daiquiris and throw up on the neighbor's lawn

If you need me
I'll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won't hear you
Because it's loud with the shop vac on
(For heaven's sake it's really loud with the shop vac on)
But you'll be OK
Cause you'll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won't hear you
Because it's loud with the shop vac on

I like the Starbucks here that's better than the other one
Cause the other one's not as good
They really need to put a light there cause it's hard to turn
It's hard to make a left turn

And when it's time to go to bed
I'm still awake inside my head
I'm floating up above the house and looking down
I guess I gotta go back there
I guess there never was any other answer

And as the freeway hums the cars go by
The headlights roll across the sky
Many miles away and I can see them speeding through the dark

If you need me
I'll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won't hear you
Because it's loud with the shop vac on
(For heaven's sake it's really loud with the shop vac on)
But you'll be OK
Cause you'll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won't hear you
Because it's loud with the shop vac on

-----

Power: summon (loud) shop vac, with optional side of dysfunctional relationship.

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I was also going to list I Crush Everything (now with video), but someone already did that. I just find the idea of a depressed lovesick kraken humorous.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

Would it be okay if I offered a suggestion?

It's a song that's quite popular in Ireland, with a distinctive riff... though I'm not sure if anyone in America will ever have heard of it, or the band. It's Dearg Doom by the band 'Horslips'. It can be found Here on Youtube, and is the sixth song on the album 'The Táin', which is based off the Táin bó Cúailgne.

There're more details on the Horslips website, including explanations of some of the lyrics.

Quote:Our man Cu Chulainn!
Dearg Doom means the Red Destroyer. The tune is O'Neill's Cavalry.

My love is colder than black marble by the sea.
My heart is older than the cold oak tree.
I am the flash of silver in the sun.
When you see me coming you had better
run . . . run . . . run .
From Dearg Doom.

You speak in whispers of the devils I have slain
By the fire of my silver Devil’s Blade,
And still you dare to flaunt yourself at me.
I don't want you, I don't need you,
I don't love you, can't you see

I'm Dearg Doom.

And when the stars go out
You can hear me shout
"Two heads are better than none,
One hundred heads are so much better than one".

I'm a boy who was born blind to pain
And, like a hawk, I'll swoop and swoop again.
I am the flash of Hawkeye in the sun.
When you see me coming you had
better run . . . run . . . run . .
From Dearg Doom.

What do you think about replacing the "Launch of the Ptichka" with "Launch of the Pegasus" ?

The second one is a much stronger (and funnier) example for an accidental blue hair day in my opinion.

Given the ridiculous prices the Tokyopop licensed translations of volume 1-3 are commanding (over $1000 for a cheap paperback? Come the frell ON.), I've decided to look to ... alternative sources.
Anyone able to lay hands on one of these for me at reasonable prices -- the prose novels, mind you, not the manga -- will be suitably rewarded.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

It started with an XXS warning in firefox, and now I have trouble loading any page in the forum. I've tried using Opera... which works fine when logged out... but gives me a blank page if I try to log in. It's barely working now in Firefox, giving blank pages 2 attempts out of 3.... and didn't work at all before I restarted my browser.

It's now just me. Hrogge had similar trouble after getting an XSS warning for loadus.exelator.com. NoScript is automatically blocking exelator.com for me.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

In part because I was looking for some reason Jet and Ford would be working together on troubleshooting missions.... without making Ford a troubleshooter herself, and partly because it fits with Ford's Gunsmith Cats inspiration, I've been thinking about Bounty Hunting in Fenspace.

There's bound to be Cowboy Bebop fen up there too,

The reason is simple enough. The Space Patrol aren't that big an organisation, compared to the size and complexity of Fenspace, and weren't generally able to pursue fleeing felons as thoroughly as they'd like. At the 2014 Convention, [[Some Fen] proposed that the Convention legalise and regulate Bounty Hunting as a solution, inspired by Cowboy Bebop. It was a controversial suggestion, with some vehement arguments against from some Fen who felt that it would be intruding on Patrol territory, that it opened the gates to vigilante justice.... and any number of valid and reasoned arguments I can't quite think of

The motion passed by a fair margin, though some stations and settlement have opted to ban bounty hunters within their own jurisdiction.

The system established was somewhat inspired by the source, but is much more heavily regulated. Bounty Hunters must apply for a license from a local Space Patrol officer, demonstrating that they are 'of good character' and have had no prior run-ins with the law in Fenspace. In general, they would also be called for an interview, be required to demonstrate some competency beyond the ability to fill in a form, and not be of obviously impaired judgement. Bounty Hunter licenses are issued for a year(365*24hours) and must be renewed at the end of each year. Renewal can be refused 'for good reason'. A license can also be revoked for misconduct or criminal acts. It can be somewhat arbitrary, and depends on how friendly the local Patrol are to the prospective hunter.

(Basically, like getting a Firearms certificate in the UK or Ireland. )

Bounty hunters are required to bring their bounty in alive and in a condition fit for justice to get paid.... though are authorised to use lethal force for defence. In general, any bounty hunter shooting a bounty is going to be required to give a very good reason in front of the local patrol. Bounty Hunters are also held responsible for any collateral damage they cause in the course of capturing the bounty.... so in practice have to be far more careful about using force than popular fiction depicts. Active members of the Space Patrol and Operation Great Justice are prohibited from registering as bounty hunters.

Bounties are posted through the Space Patrol, and the patrol maintains a list of bounties on the interwave, kept publicly accessible. Bounties are set according to the crimes committed by the subject, and often include rewards posted by victims along with the patrol bounty. Bounties are paid on presentation of the fugitive in a condition fit to face justice to a space patrol officer, along with a valid bounty-hunting license.

The highest bounty yet posted is that posted on the head of Asmodeus Grey, who is specifically wanted alive. It's boosted further by reward money offered by a number of different individuals and Fen corporations, to the point where it's more than enough to buy your own L5 Station and be set for life, but as of October 2014, nobody has yet claimed it.

Bounty Hunters are occasionally known as Cowboys, Jubals or Blade Runners, depending on the Fen. Some are former cops, or demobbed OGJ. Most have acquired a small network of reliable contacts who can feed them leads on fugitives, in exchange for a cut of the bounty or a flat fee. Most bounty hunters are pragmatic individuals, who might well overlook a small fry if they're able to provide good information on a bigger fish with a bigger reward. Bounty Hunters rely on their reputations far more than a cop, both with the Space Patrol, and among their sources... and often walk a precarious balance keeping both sides happy. Bounty Hunting is most common in the frontier parts of Mars and Serenity Valley, but Hunters can be found all over Fenspace.

There are a few career Bounty Hunters going after the big rewards, but the vast majority see it as something of a side-dish, to add a little variety to their lives. Most only chase up prospective bounties within their local settlement. Ford Sierra is one such Bounty Hunter, maintaining her mechanic's shop as her main source of income, and Bounty Hunting on her spare time, or if a particularly nice fish just landed at Marsbase Sara.

A few Bounty Hunters will work alongside a troubleshooter. The troubleshooter gets access to the bounty hunters contacts, while the bounty hunter gets access to the troubleshooter's target... sometimes they can have big bounties on them.

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Thoughts? Flames?.... And I can't remember the name of that show on Cowboy Bebop.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?