My nice Samsung widescreen LCD monitor died last night, or so it seems.

I came home, jiggled the mouse to get the computer out of screen saver, and the screen started flickering like nuts. This had happened a couple times a few
weeks ago, and a reboot cleared it up, so I rebooted, but this time I got nothing. No BIOS logo or anything, and no beep codes indicating boot problems -- the
PC sounded like it was booting just fine, except, of course, no video. Normally I see at least an overlay in the corner saying "Digital" to indicate
what kind of video feed the monitor's getting, but not even that this time, and except for the power button which lights up (and blinks after a few moments
to indicate no signal), none of the other front-panel controls respond. Even if my video card is dead I should at least get the menu and input source buttons
to put something up on the screen. So logic dictates the monitor has died.

Peggy is, of course, spazzing out over this because we only got it, what, two years ago? And is on the verge of condemning all LCD screens as short-lived junk
now.

It looks like I'm going to have to buy a new monitor, but if anyone has any advice for troubleshooting I can try first, I'd be happy to have it.

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

For the longest time, I didn't have any really good pictures for Ptichka. One of the big problems with using obscure Soviet-era hardware as a base ship is there's not a lot of good pictures of said hardware. When I started this thing, the best stuff I could find were grainy, low-resolution snapshots off of Wikipedia or Astronautix. What I *really* wanted was a good 3D model, but there wasn't one available.

This weekend, I found out that the beautiful, wonderful people at http://buran.ru/ had released their professional-quality 3D model of the Buran for free download. A little bit of tinkering later and, well, I'd like you to take a new look at an old friend:


Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

Culled from the Eyrie forums...

Doctor Who - The Anime.

I love my dad dearly, but he can try my patience.

He just listed his first item ever on eBay, and somehow in the process forgot how he did it. Never mind that he asked me to explain as he went along. Somehow
between listing and *printing out a copy of his listing because he's "OCD"* he forgot how to list and can't seem to understand what's on
the screen.
''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

If so, please tell us you are okay.

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

Epsilon

700 years is a long time.

Some of the ships failed. Some of them didnt hear the call to come back. Some of them decided not to heed it.

... and some of them came back *strange*

A WALL-E bunny :-D

Because the story after the movie might be as interesting as the one told in the movie.

700 years of voyaging in deep space, under largely robotic control.

Maybe not all of them just went along in a happy daze?

Maybe some of them encountered... something amongst the stars.

Obviously you could use this to setup all kinds of scenarios.

Want to check on something. Did anyone reserve the name Stalnoy Volk on Virtue server? Because I wanted to bring him over from Infinity, but apparently the
name is not available.

"Why?"

"Because we need to know."

"Why?"

"Because it's important."

"Why?"

Huffing in mild frustration, calm annoyance from adult to child lofted his brow pleading softy in his tones. "Just because." the final wires in place
as he pat her ash gray hair, square between the dusty pitch protrusions on either side of her head. She still wanted to know why. Why it was important that
the people in the white coats kept asking her to do stuff while they sat behind glass walls looking at glowing tvs on their desk.

A static crackle before the voice of the gent in the white coat, safe behind the glass asked kindly "Hop on up on the treadmill sweetheart." At five
she really wanted to ask him why if only to have some semblance of a conversation outside of numbers and words she didn't quite understand yet. Mortal
eyes glancing up to him as he fanned his hands to the machine from his place. "Please?" he implored of the child, ever so sweetly. Huffing in
mocking of him earlier she stammered "f-fine." and did as he asked of her.

At five years there was this calm that emanated, at five she wasn't rowdy but at five she only slept for a few hours every night. She liked that
'why' question very much but she didn't like them 'lima' beans, and she hated being locked up alone in a room like people were scared
she'd break. At five she ran at a steady pace on the treadmill while machines spat out miles of observances that screamed full clarity.

At ten the testing got a bit more complicated as did her questions toward the people in white coats who weren't telling her why she was still here. At
twelve things started to get a little more strange. Her childish grey shed the last bit of it's dark leaving nothing but a white haired, ram horned test
subject for the doctors to poke and prod. Something was screaming inside her telling her there was something beyond those white washed wall, something more to
living she was supposed to be doing.

"Zen. Stop."

That same kindly pleading tone of the same that she'd connected with since the moment she woke up here as a toddler. Greying eyes that once were blue
glancing over her shoulder through that white hair. "It was bound to happen... please, let it happen peacefully." he sighing softly as his hand
slipped over a walkie-talky at his belt. "Please." she implored with a wavering voice hardly above a whisper. His finger depressing the button at
the side as static ticked through, "She's trying to leave."

At twelve she turned back to her path and streaked down the hall faster than most could dive after her. At sight of security guards in her path she skidded to
a stop only to glance back for escape. From either side of the hall they bore down on her as truth dawned on her. Grey eyes turning downward to the hardened
vinyl floor in its sterile white. Thoughts churned amid the tiny flecks of violet and blue, ears hearing the boots approaching quickly.

I've been a prisoner for longer than I ever would have known.

Resounding. Deafening but far from defeating. She crippling softly down into a crouch while her eyes held fixed on the floor. Her heart pounding in the
quickness of betrayal. She thought on fighting back against them but she couldn't. Not them, they had been her family even if in truth they were jailers
of a different color. People, normal people trying to understand her. Making every effort to keep her entertained, to keep her happy during her stay.

"Can't stay." as her heart raced quickly enough to slow time down as security and doctors neared. For all her stress tests, for all her time on
the tread mill she was lost of breath forcing her to wheeze her breathing. Amid the voices that blended together under the rush of blood into her ears there
was a sound unlike any those ears had ever heard. Quiet despite the vast noise around as she sunk down internally.

In slow motion her eyes lifted to see nothing she had ever expected to when seeking that odd sound. It was a click and that was a gun aimed at her.

All that blood in her ears, all the pounding in her chest suddenly bottoming out almost like the power going out. Her crouch down to compose herself righted
quickly enough to put her through a drop ceiling tile. The calm silence inside of her snapped into action over top the rush of adrenalin and with her small
frame finding her way beyond the mass seemed in her nature. A miss step would lead to a tile giving way, which she did in a planned fashion landing on one
guard and shoulder checking the other in the gut with the wall.

"Why?"

"Because they needed to know."

"Why?"

"Because it was important."

"Why?"

"Listen" the white haired one spoke calmly with a soft smile as she ruffled up the small boy's hair, "soon as I figure it out, you'll be
the first to know. Okay?" Wrapped in reds and yellows with beads to either wrist the tanned child nodded firmly up at her, "Okay." Before
being distracted by another elder dressed not unlike himself.

"Ten years later. Ten years to the day." As she looked out across a vast expanse of land littered in mountains and valleys painted in shades of
green. A man tan as the earth itself wrapped in that same robe as the small boy drifting quietly to her side. Age and wisdom had long since painted his face
with those same ridges and valleys as the countryside she surveyed in a calm.

There was a look he gave that spoke volumes as her wholly grey eyes drifted over. Father to child that unspoken conversation left either with a knowing. A
weathered and well loved mala who's beads could speak almost on their own drifted from wizened hand to the more youthful pale ones reception. Here too had
been a place she had too long remained, just as she had in her youth. It had been no prison but an Eden outside of anything any of those doctors could have
fathomed. Again... it was time for her to leave a place she knew to be home.

Her hands pooling one to the other at her chin as she payed him high respect for the gift. The teaching and this prised thing he'd loved and cherished
since he was a small boy. His hands pooling the same as hers with a matching dip as he smiled and ruffled her hair just as she had the young monk's.
"You go find your place in this world." flustering a bit like a child she puffed her fallen hair away from her eyes and smirked back at him under the
wild look of her.

The mala circled her wrist and with a slight bow of her knees that same leap that found her escape all those years ago lofted her into the current. Higher and
higher her inner self wondered against the winds where her place could possibly be if it haddn't been there? What would make her happy in this life? What
would she do if she could do anything?

Days bled into nights, nights back into days as the landscapes below drifted and changed in subtle ways. Pausing briefly to sneak a vegetable and a well visit
she'd make her way across the land until it felt right. Two hours a night she'd curl up somewhere and dose half in and out of consciousness as she
did.

"Why?"

"Because you need to know."

"Why?"

"Because it's important."

"Why?"

Palming her own forehead gruffly as tiny blues eyed up at her with a squeaky giggle before running off having successfully annoyed the adult. The palm to her
forehead smearing downward as her rump hit a folding chair like she weighed a few thousand pounds. "Try not to take them so seriously when they ask why a
billion times." A dark skinned woman smiled shoving a cup of black coffee across the table at Zen. "Funny, when I was that age I wanted answers when
I asked why." A light nod setting dark and tight curls into a delightful bounce. "Some do" as she sipped on her own coffee, "some
don't though. But seriously, have you gone to see Paragon yet?"

A light tick to her head sent her own locks into an odd sort of dance, "I'm not really the hero type Ang. You know this." lightly shrugging at
her from across the table. "Says the volunteering mutant at a family shelter." Grey eyes glancing over with a half kidding disrespected look,
"They couldn't prove that hence the years of testing." Angie lofting a brow at her for a moment, "What harm is there in just going and
seeing if-" another lighthearted shrug, "well, maybe you are the hero type?" Grey eyes drifting back over the sea of kids and mothers amid the
center all trying to be normal without homes.

A conceding nod for a moment only to point sternly across the table to Angie, "Not a word of it thought. I'll go and see if I can first then I'll
decide if I want to." A sisterly smile warmed over Angie's face.

"Why?"

"Because we need to know."

"Why?"

"Because it's important."

"Why?"

"What are you? Five?" in a flustered tone as a swing connected with her jaw. "You want answers? Try Jeopardy." Curling her fist as the
mechanism threw out sharp points from either of her hands, "I'll take pain and suffering for two thousand Alex." as both fists came down on the
head of a Skul sending him to the ground with a crash. "Oh lookie here- it's a freak cape." turning her grey eyes toward a horde of hellions as
they circled with chains, base ball bats and handguns, "Guess it's time for the daily double?" spitting out a laugh at her, "Cape and a
comedian, this auta be satisfying."

At first there was that pounding of her heart and the overwhelming sounds that greyed out even the smallest tones. At last there was nothing but a very calm
and strong heartbeat as fists bloodied, bones snapped and she, no matter the damage dealt to her she battled on against the numbers. One by one the Hellions
fell at her feet, those that ran away too damaged to continue got her full attention with a tuft of air that would drop them in one unconscious to the ground.

Years of imprisonment, years of encompassing freedom, years of charity, years of searching and training and thinking had lead her to this moment. This moment
in a city full of people that wouldn't give her a second glance. People that held their own unique attributes. People that didn't shrink away from
the mere sight of her. The whole of her life was instantly all too clear, in this moment.

The moment where one knows they're outnumbered but they fight for what they think is the right thing. Far from a soldier, far from a hero... all the way a
survivor.

(Need a Legendary that'll work with me on this one to help me write how she wound up Legendary. Any volunteers?)

There's a thread over on Usenet about common medical myths in anime - I though folks here might have some suggestions to offer, too.

(Note that these are medical myths, not medical facts.)

Here's what we've got so far, from "Nick", Chris Mattern, Gerardo Campos, and myself, not necessarily in that order:

0. Your blood type determines your personality.

1. Skipping a single meal can cause anemia in an otherwise healthy individual.

2. Doctors can give you a shot to cure a cold or the flu.

3. Getting soaked in the rain will give you a cold. Not just sometimes. 100% guaranteed.

4. You can cure a cold by giving it to another person; a kiss is one common way of transferring the illness.

5. You are in a hospital, after receiving a brutal beating that leaves you covered in bandages. But next day/episode you will be fine. (No scars, no consecuences, no therapy)

6. A blow to the head, even if it's strong enoug to draw blood, never causes a concussion.
--
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

The Bugatti
Veyron Sang Noir.

(Edit: Works better if I spell it right.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.