... in rec.arts.anime.fandom and rec.arts.anime.misc. Google Groups isn't returning a hit when I search for it, so look for Message-ID later. In the meantime, here's a copy of the posting.

Quote:First up, any New Year's-legal team may enter.
Second, any fic must be in before January 1.
Third, even if you haven't submitted a team to tackle this challenge,
you may assemble a team after this posting to tackle it, if you wish to.
Fourth, good luck.

----

It was Halloween again, and I was looking at a familiar face.

The Master: Well, with no one stepping up last year, you certainly did
well on your own.

Me: What do you want this time?

The Master: Before you recalled the mirror, I did make one final
mirror image, but I wish it had been with the master summoner, not the
standard issue one.

Me: You mirrored Rob Kelk? Well at least I'll see the first
anti-meganneko website...

The Master: No you impertinent twit, I mirrored you. I was off by a
year, and only got the one with a normal summoner, but like your master
summoner, it's been modified to allow non-traditional and non-Challenge
characters as well. You'll be off facing your mirror, hope you'll be
having fun tracking him down, but there's something else you must know
about.

Me: Great, what's the side dish for this s*** sandwich?

The Master: Such language! Well, if you must know, I've summoned 3
creatures in search of a Philosopher's Stone, also I've told them that
the one of them that creates the most chaos in your world will actually
get one. I believe you might be familiar with this stone of mine.

Me: (eyebrows) They thought that lump of Jethric was the Philosopher's Stone?

The Master: Well, they only saw it briefly enough to identify it as a
glowing stone.

Me: Okay then, who are the stone fanatics?

The Master: Oh, they're some of the nastiest, most vile creatures I've
ever met...

Me: ... and considering the source, that's saying something.

The Master: HEY! (adjusts his collar) I'll let that one slide. First
there's a nasty wizard called the Rezo, the Red Priest. I took the
real one before he acquired his stone.

Me: Crap.

The Master: Then there's this body-switcher called Dante. She's from
that series with the living armor.

Me: Living armor? Wha... oh... FMA... double crap.

The Master: Finally, there's this no-nosed freak, a nasty wizard who's
a very capable manipulator, I took him from the 6th book of his series,
since the 7th one is the final one where he is no more.

Me: No-nosed? Don't tell me, Lord Voldemort.

The Master: Well, my work is done here, I've no reason to stay, but I
shall watch with great humor your attempt to defeat your doppleganger.

(The Master leaves & I send out a Challenge summons)

----

Okay, Rezo, Dante, and Voldemort have been let loose in our world, each
one working against the others to create the most chaos. You and your
team's job, should you choose to accept it, is to stop the trio by any
means necessary. If you need clarification on anything, feel free to
ask.

...and no English either:  an Italian pop song that's supposed to sound like English, but is nonsense in both languages:
"Freezing Cold, and Ants and I Chew Soul", aka "Prisencolinensinainciusol"
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Today's UF Link of the Day is http://www.movie-map.com/]Movie-Map - The tourist map of movies. Give it the title of a movie you liked, and it'll give you other movie titles that you might like as well. They're presented in a "cloud" - the closer two movie titles are to each other, the more likely somebody who liked one will like the other.

The really cool thing about the site is that you get to see the titles moving around in the cloud as they're being sorted...

Edit: For fun, I gave it Star Trek: The Motion Picture - it generated an http://www.movie-map.com/star+trc-3a+th ... cture.html]intriuging results list...
--
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

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/

I imagine amazon is kind of pissy right now.

The inset lcd screen seems like such an obvious touch I wonder why no one has thought of it before.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=481097

Requires login. not the actual chapter, but a significant preview.

---------------

Epsilon

Area Affect: Souvenir; Cat Ears for all the female human(oids).�

The Cat Ears can be kept or thrown away as desired by the affected when the song is over.

So, I'm going to the Champions Online website to check the free trial weekend deal, figure I'll mess around with it, yeah?

....the website is down, with the following message:

Quote: The web site is currently offline

The web site is currently offline. We apologize for this temporary inconvenience and are working to return to service as soon as
possible.

Well since nobody has posted a new update thread as of my wiriting this...I give you the deluge...

I give you Mizukage chapter 45

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3138018/45/Mizukage

And Tenhawk has posted the latest part of Alexander Harris and the Shadow Council on his yahoo group (Registration Required) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/th_presents/message/18244

No doubt he will soon have it up on Tenhawk presents
as well soon.

Also Cannonshop posted some more updates to "...but
somehow a most melancholy."
--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."

Literally.

You could make a drinking game out of recognizing all the references involved.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

Found this while randomly checking my regular webcomics:

First Comic

It's a fun little strip and very energetic.
''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