Just a reminder for the folks who were on it the other day that we were going to pick it back up Saturday, Feb 27, 10:30 pm Eastern Standard Time
Which is Sunday, 28 February, 3:30 am GMT
Or.. Sunday, 28 February, 1:30 pm Canberra, Australia Time
Edit: We may as well have a thread announcing when we have to "hang" a TF, so here it is
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

...for the last couple days.  Most recently this happened last night while I was in the Synapse task force on COH.  I suspect that it's weather-related, as we had a Comcast tech come by yesterday afternoon and he couldn't find anything inside the house to cause the problem (although he did apparently find and replace a splitter that was dirtying the signal).  In any case, three times in the last few weeks we've lost the Net unexpectedly for several hours, just to have it come back as unexpectedly. 
I just wanted to let people know what's been going on, in case it happens again before Comcast takes care of it.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I've recently found myself engaged in some heavy-duty writing.
I hold no illusions that my current project is objectively huge, nor necessarily particularly good, but let me give you a bit of background first.  I've tried to write a number of stories in the past, both original and fan-inspired.  The first was barely two pages, and decidedly juvenile in quality.  My second try was no better- I think I made it onto the third handwritten page (and I tend to write big) before it died like the plot-abomination it was.  After a number of plot bunnies that were, quite frankly, sad (and never got past the "hey, wouldn't it be cool if" stage), I tried again with a Ranma SI.
I think that one went five pages before I lost it.  With a bit of revision, the idea would've been good, but I didn't have the experience, skill, or knowledge of the source material to get it right.
After that, there were a few plot bunnies here and there, and then my shot at DWstuffs, which died after the prologue and a fairly decent outline of main plot events.  Then, nothing, until a few months ago.
I had been reading a short story a friend of mine wrote about Billy vs. SNAKEMAN, that ninja game that somebody brought up here a year or two ago, when an idea came to me.  I remembered it a few days later on a long walk, and gave it a bit more substance, but consigned the infant plot bunny to a short trip down the cliff of my nonexistent writing ability, to be eaten by the wolves of my own forgetfulness.
For some reason, I started to write on it a week or two ago.  It's now ~50 pages long, about 3/4 of the way done, and still going strong.  I've been writing half a page a day minimum- typically, it's more like 2-4 pages, though I hit 7 pages one particularly inspired day.
That's not the oddest part.  The oddest thing about all of this is that it's actually halfway decent- certainly not publishable quality, but better than a lot of fanfiction I've read, and getting rave reviews from the people who've been reading it over on the other forum.  I've had tons of praise so far and one nitpick- more like friendly advice (from the guy who wrote my original inspiration, no less) than anything else.  It's good enough that I can read back through it without cringing in shame- I actually rather like it, which is a first for my writing.
How is this even possible?  I've been utterly hopeless at creative writing up until now, and here I am, knee-deep in a work of fiction four times longer than anything, fiction or not, I've ever written- and I'm enjoying every minute of it. 
Has anybody here ever had a moment like that- a time when they broke what felt like a lifelong, terminal writers' block, to find that the words would just keep flowing from that point onward?

The Sun: Carly Simon reveals the subject of You're So Vain

No, it isn't a lover. Yes, it was somebody important in her life.

Who is it? I'm not telling. Go read the article.

Oh, look; she's releasing an album next week, and a re-worked version of the song is on it. What a coincidence...
--
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

Okay – So I am so very, very, late in reviewing this one; I just picked up a copy used for $3.00 and after viewing, I fear that I paid too much.
Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, what the hell were you thinking?
Given the opportunity, budget and talents available to you, I was sort of hoping that you could come up with… well… something. Anything!
Now, let’s go with the basic premise. Superman sods off to parts unknown without telling anybody; this bit of behavior is odd as, according to the plainly obvious plot point, prior to his departure he had been slinging the super-schlong in Lois Lane’s um…. Editorial capacity. Either that or while beating upon the super meat in a moment of caped onanism his super-swimmers blasted through the ceiling and descended upon Metropolis like squiggling, caped, rain, impregnating women from the suburbs to the slums and it is just coincidence that Lois ended up as just one lucky recipient of the alien money shot.
I know – neither makes a whole lot of sense, welcome to this movie.
Lex Luthor is back too, and despite as good a performance as the material allows, Kevin Spacey is let down by the writers/director. Okay, that is an understatement. Spacey/Luthor is held down by the writer/director in a scene that is one ‘Squeal like a piggie’ away from being Deliverance. We are reacquainted with Luthor as he plays the ‘Zero Mostel’ role in The Producers, seducing a wealthy octogenarian into signing over her vast riches to him. Nice play there Lex; did you close your eyes and think of the science? In a world populated by the Savings and Loans scandal, Enron, shady bond issues, the best plan the smartest man in the world can come up with is the blue-haired bouncy-bouncy, followed by a will signing? I kept looking for Gene Wilder and a musical number.
So now rich and powerful, Lex and his crew of thugs and molls (Okay moll singular) are off to Antarctica to locate the Fortress of Solitude; steal Kryptonian crystals – which have the same basic rules as those in Gremlins – don’t get the bastards wet; to create a new continent, steal technology, rule the world, etc. Once more the writers treat the bald braniac like his awesome mental prowess is that of a slack-jawed drool monkey as he creates his kryptonite continent, rather than spending the time researching the weapons he would need to defend it. (Three guys with bats could stop Lex’s plan, let alone Special Forces, the SAS, or any member of the Street Fighter cast – including the goofy – or goofier – ones.)
Oh, and Superman has a son by Lois Lane (as alluded to earlier) who is small, sickly, etc; which might as well be a neon sign that he is going to unleash awesome Kryptonian whoop-arse at some point in the movie. Which he does. Then forgets how to do it…and… it’s just not worth it. Kat Bosworth as Lois Lane, brings to this movie what a bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich brings to a Bar Mitzvah buffet table; the feeling that someone is pretty unclear on the concept. Gone is the spunky reporter, replaced by a fretting mommy, whining employee and all around yippy yuppie bell-end. Again, I would blame the writers as much as the actress, but….urgh.. it was just a bad performance all around.
The actors portraying Perry White and Jimmy Olsen turn in credible performance with the limited screen time they have; they are the lucky ones, the writers didn’t have anything for them to do, so they are left largely unscathed by the carnage wreaked upon the others.
Okay – epic scale wise, Superman does bust out a few super-tricks and engage in a few large scale set pieces with planes, trains and automobiles, but without a truly credible foe to face off against it never feels particularly super. This is a film in dire need of a ‘Kneel before Zod!’ moment, as the bumbling Luthor caricature doesn’t feel like a threat; and the dangers faced by the super-simpleton feel more contrived than a round of spontaneous applause for Dick Cheney.
So, if you haven’t seen this film, I simple cannot recommend it, it is not even interesting enough as a train wreck to warrant watching.
Cheers,
Shayne

I got a notice from Blizzard that my battle.net account had been suspended and I had to regain control. Now, that account was mostly inactive - all I used it for was a SC2 beta application and my very (like years and years) defunct WoW account (with a L30 Paladin) - but still, I'm concerned.

If you see my Yuku account (or my CoX account) do anything odd, warn me. I've changed the passwords on *everything* I can think of to something longer and more secure (and unique for each one) but if they know my email address and typical username, they've got a lead.

Thanks.

What an intriguing game!
Like most Bioware games, it's a touch more blah blah blah than chop chop chop, but that's OK.
I've ran through all of the origins, and I ended up approving the most of the City Elf origin, though I had a flicker of something inside when I did the Dwarf Noble..

So I reached back into the dawn of prehistory, and rolled up my original Everquest toon, one that's been with me since MUSHs in 1994, Kokuten.
And here we have it.
I'm playing a sword-and-board warrior, and the balance between tankitivity and choptuition is juuust about right. Ostagar is behind me, and the Circle of Magi is in front.
I just bedded Morrigan, and the elegant alabaster figure of Morrigan rising above the potato-sack shaped lump of my dwarf is the funniest thing I've seen in quite a while, but YMMV.
Next stop - Magi! and Leilana!
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

...from each of more than ten different writers.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

http://www.greatwhitesnark.com/2010/02/ ... e-cosplay/]Jewish Wolverine cosplay.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I was supposed to present the budget to the co-op this evening. We didn't have quorum, so that's happening next week instead. But I'm still focused on financial matters, and this came out...

The '''Bank of Sol''' is Fenspace's central bank, responsible for interfactional monetary policy, the issuing of currency (namely the [[Solar Credit]) and maintenance of the money supply, the oversight (but not regulation) of local financial institutions, and the safekeeping of the [[Fenspace Convention]'s reserves of financial instruments issued by Earthside governments. Its primary responsibility is to ensure the financial welfare of Fenspace.

Since most money in Fenspace is electronic, the Bank's responsibility in the issuing of currency and maintenance of the money supply is pimarily in the realm of developing and testing cryptographic systems to protect the virtual money supply. These responsibilities are handled by bonded AIs that were specially programmed and 'waved to be as incorruptible as possible.Membership in the [[Hacker Underspace] by the Bank's AIs is strongly discouraged, to avoid the perception of possible conflict of interest.

== Operations ==

Every individual who has signed the [[Articles of Convention] is considered to hold one voting share in the Bank of Sol. The Bank as a whole is not a member of any [[faction], although individual employees and directors may be members of whatever faction they choose. The nine Directors of the Bank serve for three years and are chosen by vote; three directors are elected at each [[Fenspace Convention] and begin their terms on January 1 of the year following their election.This allows for elections to be held no matter when the yearly Conventions are held while still giving Directors terms of equal lengths, barring leap years.)

The Bank of Sol is funded from its seigniorage (the difference between the interest the Bank earns on its reserves of financial instruments issued by Earthside governments – which is roughly equal in value to the total value of the currency in circulation – and the cost of issuing, distributing, and replacing the currency). This means that it is in the Bank's direct interest to keep the Solar Credit stable; if the Bank were to be forced to redeem large numbers of Solar Credits, their reserves of financial instruments would shrink and the seigniorage would shrink in proportion.

== Relations ==

The Bank of Sol is on good terms with the Reserve Bank of Australia. They also cooperate with the [[Space Patrol]'s Sections 3 and 4 to investigate cases of suspected fraud or money-laundering.

== Notes ==

{{culture}}
[[Category:Fen Culture]