On the plus side, nothing was damaged at all, just a bunch of shaking (and  sort of strange humming sound). It was over relatively quickly and I can't expect it was very powerful at all. That makes three natural disasters I have personally experienced. Can't say I'm looking forward to collecting more of the set.
---------------
Epsilon

Doug needs to go loot this.

Quote:THAT GREAT BIG WAY-OUT-THERE
(c) copyright 1993 W.J. Bethancourt III
This one should be sung like Bob Wills would have done it.
Now a cowboy's life meant freedom, ridin' in the prairie air
We could ride away into the sunset; never have a care
And we'd gather 'round the campfires, that looked like burnin' stars
And wonder if somebody else was lookin' back at ours.
Then they put up barbed wire fences, and the railroads came on thru
And the motor cars and freeways went and split the range in two....
Now a cowboy's just a stage-prop, ridin' in a rodeo
And the city lights blot out the stars, and there ain't no place to go.
But there's still a last frontier for us to challenge, if we dare
We could whisper secrets to the stars, comb a comet's silver hair!
So I'll go out where the open range is farther than the eye can see
Where there ain't no barbed wire fences, and there's room for livin' free!
And I'll ride from star to star upon a pony made of steel
Where a man depends on what he's got, and the livin's really real;
You can keep your earth-bound cities with their concrete everywhere!
Oh the spaces are wide open in that great big Way-Out-There!
Then I'll look back at the covered wagons drivin' out to space
The settlers and the gamblers and the whole dern human race!
I'll keep an eye for Indians; maybe this time we'll be friends...
There's room enough for everyone; -this- frontier never ends!
Now you won't find me sittin' in the honky-tonks and bars,
The High-and-Lonesome's where I'll be, a-singin' to the stars
In a starship made of silver-steel I'll ride the open space
And walk where no one's gone before, and meet God face to face!
And I'll ride from star to star upon a pony made of steel
Where a man depends on what he's got, and the livin's really real;
You can keep your earth-bound cities with their concrete everywhere!
Oh the spaces are wide open in that great big Way-Out-There!
Oh the Final Frontier's where I'm bound, that great big Way-Out-There!

Quote:         GUN CONTROL COME
(c) copyright 1992 W.J. Bethancourt III
     (Tune: "The Banana Boat Song")
        Every year, the local ACLU chapter puts on a satiric revue. As it
happened, the fella in charge of it was on FILK echo, and I complained
about the liberal bias of many of the songs. He promptly asked me to
write them a song for the revue, of a subject of my own
choosing.....muahahahahah! They were big enough to perform it, and it
made quite a few people squirm.

G       C        G
Day-o...Day-ay-ay-o!
G                            D           G
Gun control come, they'll be raiding our homes!
 G
We all support the Bill of Rights!
     G                            D7
    Gun control come, they'll be raiding our homes!
G
Except that part that we don't like!
     G                            D7
    Gun control come, they'll be raiding our homes!

Those evil guns should all be barred!
Except the cops and the Army and the Kennedy bodyguard!
We attack the symptom, that's the answer!
Like giving asprin for lung cancer!
Take away the guns, we have no crime!
(And we've lived in Oz for a very long time!)
   [note: singer should get a cockeyed and very vague look on his/her
          face on this verse .... Fuzzy Liberal sort of thing]
We can trust the government American!
Just ask a whale or an Indian!
Freedom of Choice for your daughters and sons!
Except when they want to own a gun!
The ultimate defense of the laws of the land:
Is educated citizens with weapons at hand!
The truth is pretty self-evident to me:
The right to bear arms is the right to be free!
   (stop suddenly, and say, in a thick German accent
"So! All of you are nodt zinging! Vell! Ven -one- piece of der Bill of
Rights goes avay, maybe pretty soon the rest follows, nicht wahr? Der
Jews didn't haff guns either.....but der -SS-did! Und ven der -lawyers-
don't haff guns.....heheheh!"
(not in German accent
Of course, that can't happen here........or can it?
Day-o...Day-ay-ay-o!
Gun control come, they'll be raiding our homes!

Quote:                I'LL SEE YOUR SIX!
        (c) copyright 1993 W.J. Bethancourt III
           (Tune: "The Sleeping Scotsman")
 A lovely lady went one night to a revel in the East
 With dancing and with singing, with wine and Roasted Beast
 When the revel came unto an end, she started out for home
 Wrapped well in her woolen cloak, and walking all alone.
 CHORUS: The things you will run into, the people that you meet
         Walking all alone upon a New York City street!
 Now, New York City's not a place for walking in the dark
 Not in the streets and alleys and especially not the Park
 But off she went most happily, without a single care
 Wrapped up in her woolen cloak, all in the midnight air.
 A street-tough jumped in front of her, with three friends in the night
 And pulled a six-inch switchblade, that glittered in the light
 He waved it underneath her nose, and said with fiendish glee:
 "Give me all your money, girl, this is a robbery!"
 She gazed upon the switchblade, and smiled a happy smile
 Said "Boy, you ain't got any brains, and lack a sense of style!
 You're standing where I want to walk, please move out of my way!"
 The tough said "Girl, I'll cut you, and rob you anyway!"
 All wrapped up in her woolen cloak, her garb was quite unseen
 Her hands were hidden out of sight, and so was chain-mail's gleam...
 She said "Now, go rob someone else, my money stays with me!"
 He said, "I'll take your money with my six-inch snickersnee!"
 The lady's smile got bigger, the robber took a swing
 The chain-mail took the blow; the lady didn't feel a thing!
 She pulled a Kirby broadsword, the robber's soul to shrive,
 And grinned and said, "I'll see your six, and raise you thirty-five!"
 The bandit gazed upon the sword, and then upon his knife
 He turned and ran, with his three friends, a-running for his life!
 Don't think a lady's easy, don't think she's helpless prey,
 Especially if she is a fighter in the SCA!
 Now if you don't believe my song, then ask the lady fair
 With Cheshire Cat upon her shield, a blazon very rare:
 Sir Trude is her name, me lads, if she should pass your way;
 The very first of the Lady Knights within the SCA!
           (yes, folks, it -really- happened!)

Since I just declared the second one closed, I figured I might as well open up the new one.  And I'll do so with this somewhat melancholy observation:
I have noticed in the last few weeks that I am getting more "thank you but we're not going to pursue your application further" letters and emails than I did earlier in my job hunt.  For the sake of my own peace of mind, I'm going to interpret this as meaning I'm doing something better than I did at first... just not good enough for most employers.  In other words, I'm ranking high enough to get a response instead of having my application discarded without a word...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

"Ellumiel" from the Ukraine, at Deviantart.  I think I might use these photos as a model for Utena as seen by Doug in "real life" when I write that Step.

Thanks to "Bushido" over at the EPU forums for the pointer.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

...for an April Fools' joke that apparently some lawyers didn't get.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

...and this movie is either going to be crazy awesome, or it will suck rocks.
Given it's coming out in January, the "let's throw out the stuff that's gone bad" month in the movie release calendar, I think I know which way that will go -- but I might go see it anyway.
See the trailer here.  (German website, but English trailer.  I think that says something right there, as I can't seem to find it on YouTube or anywhere else.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

So does he... and now the folks who weren't into gaming back in 1980 (or alive in 1980 - now I feel old) can get http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG30-2327]a copy for only 99 cents over the cover price.

I must double-check my collection, and find out whether this is one of the issues I'm missing...
--
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, apparently due out on 08/17, War Witch has announced some new info about some changes coming with GR
http://community.livejournal.com/city_o ... 52919.html

Quote:Important System Information from War Witch
Hey everyone,
I know you’ve been asking for some new Going Rogue information, and I’ve got some exciting news that I’d like to share with all of you.
Here at Paragon Studios, we’ve been hard at work preparing our newest expansion, Going Rogue, for prime time. One of our major features, the alignment system that allows our players to switch sides, has presented the perfect opportunity for us to improve Hero and Villain auction and trading dynamics. In order to make the alignment switching system the most fun and rewarding experience possible, we’ve made a few key improvements based on beta tester and internal studio feedback.
Here’s a brief list of these upgrades:
* Heroes and Villains can now trade and gift each other in Co-Op zones (except in PvP zones)
* Players can Global Email (GleeMail) INF and most items to their characters regardless of alignment (some restrictions apply)
* The Auction House markets for Heroes and Villains will become ONE
Wait. What?
Yes. You heard me, we’re merging the markets. After looking at how the system has performed in beta, we thought long and hard about the Markets themselves. This important improvement seemed to make everything more accessible and streamlined, allowing every character to participate. Keeping the markets divided would require significant on-going development support, and we needed to take this into consideration. But, most importantly we wanted to produce the most fun system possible, and this decision reflects that.
These changes are very exciting and will simplify not only the way we create content, but provide freedom for you to play your characters the way you choose.

http://www.slate.com/id/2257107/pagenum/all/#p2
Not new for anyone who's heard of Naruto (who's not very ninjay anyway), but interesting.

Bill Staines,
Wild
Wild Heart
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.