Evil all around.

Wow, our dipshit in chief has something in common with the Catholics' dipshit in chief.
Bush


The Catholic Church

While I realize that shared evil comes as no supprise to some of my friends, I have others who believe that the Catholic Church under its current leadership is a good thing, regardless of how much John Paul 2 is undermining the results of the second Vatican Council and the church's ability to stand in a position of moral authority.
Funny how Bush is doing the same thing to the US, undermining key pieces of our guiding documents (eg the constitution) and removing our ability to claim the moral high ground.
And I'm giving those of you who wrong-mindedly support the church in its idiocy the benefit of the doubt on the Bush issue. If you still believe that Bush is a good person or president, I suspect that there really is no hope for you.

YAY!

I just made a backup/transfer of about half of my hotmail account! I will finish tomorrow, but for now, I have copied most of it to my HDD and have put about 1/5th of it in my gmail account. For those who are interested, I used a javascript program from source forge called mrpostman (which allows you to contact webmail accounts like Yahoo and hotmail with a pop3 client and thus can be used to back up your e-mail to a hard drive from hotmail or yahoo. You do need to change the port from 11110 to 110 unless your pop3 client lets you change it from 110 to 11110. (Being java, it is avaliable for essentially any platform, even for the technically challanged. Yay!!! You will need the Java Runtime environment though) I then used Eudora (if you aren't transfering to another account, any pop3 client will do, but Eudora is one of the only ones with a well functioning redirect system. Thunderbird's redirect is broken.) The first thing to do in eudora is set it up to grab hotmail. It is similar to setting up any other account in eudora. Your smtp server (or whatever) does have to allow redirection. Mine did. Yay again! Next create a filter (I called mine opopopopopopopopopoo and filtered for that line in the subject heading) to redirect incomming mail to your gmail account. Then check your mail. Oh in both MrPostman and Eudora remember to tell it to leave the email on the server. It only checks the first page of your inbox, so with hotmail, you can transfer 100 messages at a time.
If you need more detailed instructions, just ask.

oops

So in my last entry, I cut and pasted and completely forgot to change the first two lines
I am Michael and I was born in 1979.

acquired from <<lj user="pope_guilty">

LAYER ONE
-Name: Michael or whatever. I've been called a lot of things, and I've answered to most of them.
-Birthdate: November 23 1979
-Birthplace: Lompoc/Santabarbra CA
-Current Location: Hanover, IN
-Eye Colour: Bluish on the outside, a brown ring in the center, it averages out to hazel from more than a foot away.
-Hair Color: Brown. I must chop most of it off soon.
-Height: 5'10"
-Zodiac Sign: Er... Sagitarius I think. Not sure what that has to do with anything.


LAYER TWO
-Heritage: Every damned thing. Genetically, I am derrived from mostly Western Europe, though my mom's mom is something like 1/16th one of the midwestern tribes. In my near range extended family though, I have an uncle and a cousin who are black (not African American, their family had immegrated to Ireland (merchants from somewhere) and from Ireland to the US. My cousin has taken some shit for refusing to call herself African American., I have two half sibilings who get a good part of their genes from Scandinavia, I have another half sister who is 1/2 one of the midwestern tribes, and I have a cousin who is adopted from China (though I haven't seen her in person yet.)
-Today's shoes: Naked feet, probably my earthshoes when I wear them at all.
-Your weakness: Inability to finish a task. I'm not really unable to finish what I stat, but I do tend to get side tracked when I am working on my own initiative.
-Fears: Needles, to a large degree, things that sting in numbers greater than one (less than needles though.) Falling off of really tall things (I love heights, but I have this tendency to be a bit clumsy, so walking along the edge of a stone bridge with the trees in the valley below ending a hundred feet below me without anything to grab if I fall always makes me nervous. If I've got something to grab or hang on to, on the other hand, I love being out over hella big drops.)
-Perfect Pizza: Black olive and Peperoni from Pizza Hut, deep dish and fresh out of my refridgerator
-Goal I'd like to achieve: I want people to come to conventions to have me sign things I've written.

LAYER THREE
-Most overused AIM phrase: Anything in that mornonic AOL shortcut crap. I swear folks, learn to type and please don't display your ignorance like it is a banner.
-First thoughts on waking up: Often "Aw Dammit, I wanted to finish that dream." (I often wake up in the middle of lucid dreams) Otherwise "Go away dog, I'm trying to sleep here."
-Best physical feature: dunno
-Bedtime: between midnight and 4, depending on the day

LAYER FOUR
-Pepsi or Coke: Diet Coke.
-McDonald's or Burger King: Well, I like BK's burgers and dislike McDonald's burgers, but I like McDonald's Fries and BK's fries taste like oily ass. I usually pick McDonalds and get Chicken McNuggets with honey.
-Single or group dates: You know, I am not entirely sure what exactly a date is.
-Addidas or Nike: When I have the cash, Nike. they are one of the few big name shoes I can wear that really fit my feet (though i do need more arch support, I seldom actually get it.) And until I discovered Earth Shoes, I had never found a 20 dollar shoe that I could wear for more than 4 months before It became holey. (My Nikies usually lasted at least a year, so it was about the same cost per year, though the benefit of only having to break in one pair of shoes instead of three was considerable.)
-Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: I hate Tea. I can drink green tea for a tea ceremony without making funny faces, and the bottled green tea with all of the flavor additives to make it taste almost completely unlike green tea is okay, but I'd rather have a diet coke.
-Cappuccino or coffee: Neither. I have tried and tried and tried to drink coffee (it would be cheaper to get my caffine from a can of foldgers.)

LAYER FIVE
-Smoke: Nope
-Cuss: On occasion
-Sing: Very much.
-Take a shower everyday: Eww, you don't? Get away!
-Have a Crush: Not at the moment
-Think I've Been in Love: Heinlein's definition, yeah.
-Want to get Married: Possibly
-Believe in myself: Heh, I am one of the most overconfident arrogent people I know (I work hard to overcome that in recent years.)
-Get motion sickness: Once, in a boat, on 2 foot seas, the day before and after when we had 6 to 8 foot waves I was fine. Once in the whirly cups at a local fair (but I had just eaten too much fair food as well.)
-Think I'm a health Freak: Um right... No.
-Play an Instrument: I used to be pretty good with a Trumpet. Now I would need a year or so to get back to it.

LAYER SIX: In the last month...
-Smoked: Nope
-Done a drug: Nope
-Had sex: Nope
-Made out: Also nope.
-Gone on a date: Nope
-Gone to the mall: Actually, yes.
-Eaten an entire box of Oreos: Ick, no!
-Eaten sushi: Nope. I'm in the midwest man. Sashimi is nasty when you are a 2 hour flight from the nearest coast.
-Been on stage: Nope.
-Gone skating: Nope
-Made hommade cookies: Maybe, can't remember.
-Gone skinny dipping: Nope
-Dyed hair: Nope.
-Stolen anything: Nope

LAYER SEVEN Ever....
-Played a game that required the removal of clothing: Literally, yes, in the spirit of the question? No
-If so, was it mixed company: See Above
-Been caught "Doing something": Nope
-Been called a tease: Nope
-Gotten beaten up: Yeah in 4th grade.
-Changed who I was to fit in: Hum, not that I can think of. I may hae changed who I was as a result of being part of a group, but that is part of interacting with people, you change them and they change you.

LAYER EIGHT
-Hope to be married at age: Hee hee, marriage isn't high on my plans. Hinestly, except for some of the legal benefits, I don't see the point.
-Numbers and Names of Children: Hum, I do definately want children, but I'm not sure aboutnumbers and names. I just want little souls to corrupt.
-Describe your dream wedding: Fairly casual dress, outside, somewhere with a spectacular view. Maybe with me and the groom's men in Hawaian Shorts.
-How do you want to die: Er, really, that's okay. Death is so over rated. I like existing thank you. I guess if I have to die, I want it to be on my own terms at a time and place of my chosing, preferably some time a thousand thousand years or more from now (Yes, I will accept immortality if it becomes avaliable before I die.)
-What country would you most like to visit: Japan, Austrelia, Mainland Europe (on foot without a time restriction)

LAYER NINE In a guy/girl...
-Best eye colour: With smile crinkles on the edges.
-Best hair colour: Heh, no real preferences, natural black is cool.
short or long hair: That is very person dependant. I know girls who look great in a pixie cut. I also know girls who look great with their hair down to their butts, though for the life of me I don't understand why they would want their hair that long. Seems to me to be way too much trouble.
-Height: Not too important. Comforterable with their own height is all I ask)
-Best article of clothing: Anything useful and practical for a tomboy. I'm not looking for a delecate flower or a trophy who can't do things for fear of ruining her image. If clothing is easily torn, restrictive of movement, hard to clean, or made with enough cloth that it extends from the body, it seems silly to me.

LAYER TEN
-Number of drugs taken illegally: None.
-Number of piercings/ tatooes: None. No real desire.
-Number of newspaper mentioned: A hand full, but I live in a small town. They put you in the paper for seezing on mainstreet.
-Number of scars: A double handful, most noticibly, my liip, my forehead, my right hand below the thumb, and a couple on my legs.
-Number of past regrets: Very few. I don't regret anything that is the result of my active choices. There are times when I have hurt people unintentionally, and I do regret that, but the rest of it, that was my own choice. Even if I would do things differently today, I don't regret what I did then. Oh, I guess I do regret not staying in shape, but damn, if I regretted it much, I'd be back on my way to in shape again.

back on the bandwagon

well, I got me a g-mail account! Whoot!. I've promised my first invite to a friend of mine, and my second invite goes to some farker in the forums (since I got my invite from a farker in the forums.) A gig of storage. That is more storage than my first 6 computers had all together. That plus the force field for tanks, the private spacecraft that launched this morning, the invisibility cloak from last week, and some other stuff tell me that the future didn't quite fail to make it even without the flying cars in everybody's garage.

well, done again. I think

So, last night, right after I posted that I was not quite done, I went ahead and finished the story. I was going to give my brother the computer, but he was already asleep. *chuckles* except for his most annoying habits, we have so little in common. Poor kid. (I wouldn't wish my annoying habits and personality quirks on anyone.) It is summer, he is just out of 8th grade. What is he doing asleep at midnight? So after getting grumbled at for waking him up, I went back in here and finished the story. Eva, Annie, don't read the things in the second e-mail I sent you until you get to the things that are marked:

* * *
Transit
* * *

I actually put them in the e-mail in order and labled!
I'm a little sleepy. (Unlike my brother I went to sleep at 2 or 3 and woke up fairly early. I checked my webcomics before he was out of bed, a process that takes an hour to an hour and a half to do with a modem. Though this being Sunday, it wasn't quite as bad.)

I tried to call dad, but either he isn't going to the shop on Father's day or he is still out west with Victoria.

I sent an e-mail to all of my current players and the two who missed the first game due to a wedding. I'v recieved one reply sayong he'd like to play this tuesday or wednsday during the day. no body else has written yet.

Went to the library, got a couple of interesting books.

Not too much else
Ooh! the dead rise from their grave. Fred just woke up. (I don't give her a hard time over that, her sleep patterns are cose to what mine were. Lloyd, who is bad at entertaining himself gets mad at her fro sleeping in. I've been tempted to start waking up at 6 just to wake him up on essentially the same arguement.

boo Yah

please disregard the last post title. I just finished the damned thing. Well, wrote the last sentance.
Oh shit. I forgot the transitions I decided to write when i was done with the rest. Well, I thought I was done. *sighs* Abstract and Absurdist give me almost as much trouble to write a villian. At least in this case it is a lack of words not a feeling of slimyness inside when I get inside a particularly nasty villian's head.
At least the story is finished, the rest is cosmetic.
Now I can repolish the piece I wrote before this one and send it off. (I told myself no working on the Catapult story until I finished this one. yeah, 4 months later...)
*sighs* my work is never done. After I finish these two, I've got at least two Samuel Prior, professional government psycopath stories to finish, as well as the colony at the end of the first terran empire story to finish. (and as Eva said (in nicer words) a bunch of historical crap to cut and show from the viewpoint of the colony instead of the empire. Sorry Eva, but I am not making the heroine in the early years any more realistic. She's a Prior. It's like being a Long but less god-like. And less inbred.)
But if I can sell all five, that is something like 1000-3000 dollars (and the right to join the Science Fiction Writers of America, since 4 of the five are SF. Oh I also need to work on something SF not in my History of the Terran Empire setting. Even the Catapult Rider story is very early in the setting)(one of the few stories I ever hope to write set soon enough that I can hope to live to see it not happen)

Poor Lloyd David. He wanted the computer, but I was on a roll and now he's asleep. I keep forgetting that he sleeps more than I did at his age (I wasn't sure about that initially, but then I remembered, at his age his dad still lived here, and I used to have to sneak to read into the wee wee hours of the night (like 3am)

yet another day with a minimal amount of writing.

Any of you folks have g-mail yet? if so, how is it?

I need other hobbies

So I spent about 1/10th of today manually encrypting a message for the D&D game I ran (That includes developing the cypher, writing the message, reworking the cypher so one of the pieces is actually useful, and then translating the final product. All of this is for something that the pcs are unlikely to even bother trying to translate. A quick warning to any of them who might read this: woking it out without knowing the algorithim is not worth the effort. I almost decided to make a bunch of nonsense into a handout, but I decided that I could go about it this way. (heh, I really like the system I came up with, though it doesn't really lend itself to automation very well as a lot of the difficulty in breaking it lies in the existance of two seperate methods of encryption, both of which are set up so that while there is no single unique way to represent a character, each codeblock represents a specific letter. This makes it much easier for someone who knows the algorithms to read the codeblocks than write them. I'll talk more about this after I run the adventure the paper is for.

As for the "but what? Cryptography in a fantasy setting?" complaints, before Newton entered the Royal Society there were books of code systems. The Chinese had an elaborate cryptography system at least centuries before the rennisance. I suspect that the romans had it, the greeks probably did, anybody with an alphabet will discover basic cryptography almost immediately. And the realms has more secret societies than you can shake a stick at. Mine is probably not the most complicated method in use on Faerun.

A question

Anybody remember a movie where the vice president was a woman and she was being dragged through the wringer in congress and the media because of some photographs of her in her sorority days having sex with two guys at once? I'm trying to remember whhat it was called.

Thanks. I need to get back on track with my cookbook (as well as other things, like finishing the story I promised to show Annie like 2 months ago and actually typing parts of my children's story book. I swear that I have one story from that dine to the rough draft level, even though it is on paper instead of my computer.)

How goes it?

the list-o-meat

Domestic Meat
Cattle (beef)
Chicken
Duck
Egg, Chicken
Goat/Kid
Goose
Lamb
Pig (pork)
Rabbit
Sheep (mutton)
Turkey
Veal


Unusual Domestic Meat
Bison/Buffalo
Camel
Cat
Dog
Horse
Kobe/Mishima Beef
Ostrich
Water Buffalo
Yak

Animal Products and Cuts
Blood
Blubber (any Sea Mammal)
Brains
Cheek
Cock's Comb
Dairy Product, Cattle
Diary Product, Bison, Water Buffalo, Sheep or Goat
Dairy Product, Other (Missed my chance at kumiss)
Eyes
Feet
Heart
Kidneys
Liver goose
Marrow
Reproductive Organs
Rocky Mt. Oysters
Squid Ink
Sweetbreads
Tongue
Tripe/Chitlins
Organs, other Pork Skins

Mammals
Antelope
Armadillo
Bear
Bighorn Sheep
Boar, Wild
Capybara
Caribou
Deer, Cervena
Deer, Other (venison)
Donkey
Elk
Guinea Pig
Kangaroo/Wallaby
Llama/Alpaca
Monkey
Moose
Opossum
Rabbit, Wild/Hare
Rat/Mouse
Reindeer/Caribou
Seal
Squirrel
Walrus
Warthog/Bush Pig
Whale
Wildebeest
Zebra

Reptiles and Amphibians
Alligator
Crocodile
Frog
Iguana
Snake, Other
Snake, Rattlesnake
Turtle, Other
Turtle, Sea
Turtle, Snapping

Birds
Cornish Game Hen Whenever I think of them and am in the store
Dove
Duck, Muscovy
Duck, Wild
Egg, Duck
Egg, Goose
Egg, Ostrich
Egg, Quail
Egg, Other
Emu
Guinea Fowl
Grouse
Owl
Partridge
Pheasant
Pigeon
Pigeon, Squab
Quail
Rooster
Turkey, Wild

Fish
Amberjack
Anchovy
Bass, Freshwater
Bass, Sea
Blackfish/Tautog
Blackmouth
Blenny
Blowfish (Fugu)
Bluefish
Boston Blue
Boxfish
Buffalo Fish
Butterfish
Carp
Catfish
Char
Cod
Croaker
Cusk
Dab
Dogfish
Drum
Eel, Freshwater
Eel, Saltwater
Flounder
Flying Fish
Goatfish/Red Mullet
Greenling/Lingcod
Grouper
Grunion
Grunt
Gunard
Haddock
Hake/Whiting
Halibut
Herring/Alewife
Hoki/Nz Cod
Jack
John Dory
Kingfish
Mackerel
Mahi-Mahi/Dolphin
Marlin
Monkfish/Anglerfish
Mullet
Opah
Opakapaka
Orange roughy
Perch, Freshwater
Perch, Ocean
Pike
Pilchard
Pollack
Pompano
Porgy/Scup/Breem
Pout
Red snapper
Rockfish
Sable
Salmon
Sardine
Saury
Shad
Shark, Cape
Shark, Mako
Shark, Other
Smelt
Snapper
Sole
Spearfish
Spot
Sprat
Sturgeon
Sunfish/Panfish
Swordfish
Tilapia
Tilefish
Trout, Freshwater
Trout, Sea
Tuna
Turbot/Brill
Wahoo (Ono)
Walleye
Whitefish
Wolf Fish
Yellowtail

Shellfish and Other
Abalone
Barnacles
Caviar/Roe
Clams, Hard Shell
Clams, Soft Shell
Crab, King
Crab, Softshell
Crab, Other
Crayfish
Jellyfish
Lamprey
Lobster
Mussels
Octopus
Oysters
Prawns
Ray/Skate
Scallops
Sea Cucumber
Sea Snail (Conch/Whelk)
Sea Urchin (Uni)
Shrimp
Snail
Squid/Cuttlefish

Insects
Ant
Beetle
Cicada
Cricket
Grasshopper
Larvae/Grub
Scorpion
Spider
Termites
Worm

59 that I am sure of.

We live in the world of tomorrow

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08/19/boffins_invent_grenade_vaporising_electric/
It is a forcefield for a tank!

*sighs*

Well, I am four rooms from almost done with the adventure. I got an e-mail from one of the players saying that since he and another of the players are going to a wedding, he can't play this week. Oh well. No biggy. Well, except that I don't know if the other player has the same constraint. Oh, and yeah, while I was talking with him scheduling a time and date, he didn't mention a wedding at all. And he's bad at checking much less replying to his e-mail, and I don't have a phone number for asking him. I'd reschedual, but the odds of me getting a hold of all of the players between now and then are slim to zero (seeing as I don't have anything other than an IM username for one of them.) I'm trying to decide if I want to run this adventure with a seriously weakened party or try to throw together something else. Problem: this particular adventure is fairly difficult, combat-wise, and the chat medium for playing doesn't really lend itself to people playing more than one character, not to mention that I have several events here that will work best with more players for input.I'm tempted to just run a one off Amber game in the shape of a real campaign (I know, that is cheating)

Oh, it looks like in the future Saturdays wont work for at least one player. After the game, if anyone is still interested in playing, let's select a better time for everyone.

Product acquisition from www.80scartoons.com

I know that a lot of my friends are too young for this but:

* You wanted to be on Star Search. (Didn't we all?)
* You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off. Or even when he had those freaky eyes in "Thriller" at the end of the video.
* You wore a banana clip or one of those slap on wrist bands at some point during your youth.
* You wore French rolls on the bottom of your splatter painted jeans.
* You had slouch socks, and puff painted your own shirt at least once.
* You owned a doll with 'Xavier Roberts' signed on it's butt.
* You knew what Willis was "talkin' 'bout."
* You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, Wax off."
* You can name at least half of the members of the elite "Brat Pack."
* You can remember watching Full House and Saved by the Bell for endless hours.
* You have seen at least 10 episodes of Fraggle Rock.
* You know that another name for a keyboard is a "Synthesizer."
* You'll always hold a special place in your heart for "Back to the Future."
* You know where to go if you "wanna go where everybody knows your name."
* You thought Molly Ringwald was REALLY cool. (Was there an 80's movie she WASN'T in?)
* You know what "psych" means.
* You fell victim to 80's fashion: big hair, crimped, combed over to the side, and you wore spandex pants.
* You wanted to be a Goonie ("Goonies never say die.")
* You knew "The Artist" when he was humbly called "Prince."
* You ever wore fluorescent -neon if you will- clothing.... Hee hee, I had flourescent pink and green ninjaturtles shirts
* You could breakdance, or wished you could.
* You know who Max Headroom is.
* You know, by heart, the words to any "Weird" Al Yankovic song.
* You remember when ATARI was a state-of-the-art video gaming system.
* You own any cassettes or albums.
* You were led to believe that in the year 2000 we'd all be living on the moon.
* You remember and/or own any of the Care Bear glass collection from Pizza Hut.
* "Poltergeist" totally freaked you out.
* You carried your lunch to school in a Gremlins or an ET lunchbox. We were Poor
* You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the ONLY female smurf.
* You wanted to communicate with Synergy, or you wanted green hair like that lead singer of the Misfits.
* You inserted the word "like" into, like, every sentence.
* You know what a Doozer is. See Fraggle Rock.
* You wore biker shorts underneath a short skirt and felt stylish.
* You ever had a Swatch Watch.
* You actually spent countless hours trying to perfect the care-bear stare.
* You had a crush on one of the Coreys (Haim or Feldman).
* You remember when Saturday Night Live was funny.
* You had Wonder Woman or Superman Underoos.
* You have worn a Banana Clip, or knew someone who did.
* You actually thought "Dirty Dancing" was a REALLY good movie.
* You have heard of "Garbage Pail Kids" (and perhaps still have a collection of them).
* ***Extra point*** You have seen the Garbage Pail Kids TV show. (Only one episode was aired.)
* You had a crush on Bo Derek.
* Punks actually "shocked" people.
* You wanted to be The Hulk or Rainbow Brite for Halloween.
* You believed that "By the power of Greyskull, you HAD the power!"
* You thought that Transformers were more than meets the eye.
* You know what a "Whammy" is. ("No Whammy, no whammy, stop!")
* Partying "like it's 1999" seemed SO far away.
* Songs by Debbie Gibson still haunt you to this day.
* 3 words: "Atari" "IntelliVision" and "Coleco". Sound familiar?
* You remember the days that hooking your computer into your TV wasn't an expensive option that required gadgets - it was the ONLY WAY to use your computer!
* You remember "Friday Night Videos" before the days of MTV.
* You ever owned a pair of "Pop-Wheels" - that handy little combination of shoe and roller skate that lasted about a year on the open market.
* You're PO'd that you couldn't really participate in the 60's, pissed that you were a part of the 70's, think you wasted too much time doing stupid, meaningless things in the 80's, and still have no clue what the 90's are all about.
* While in high school, you and all your friends discussed elaborate plans to get together again at the end of the century and play "1999" by Prince over and over again.
* You remember when music that was labeled "alternative" really was.
* You were shocked and horrified at the Challenger explosion (which you were probably watching in school at the time).
* You watched HR Puffenstuff as a child, but now that you're older, you really understand that it would have been much better had you known about drugs at the time.
* You've recently horrified yourself by using any one of the following phrases:
* "When I was younger"
* "When I was your age"
* "You know, back when..."
* "Because I SAID so, that's why"
* "What the HECK is this noise on the radio?"
* "Just can't (fill in the blank) like I used to"
* You can't remember a time when "going out for coffee" DIDN'T involve 49,000 selections to choose from.
* Schoolhouse Rock played a HUGE part in how you actually learned the English language.
* You ever dressed to emulate a person you saw in either a Duran Duran, Madonna, or Cyndi Lauper video.
* At one point during your teenage years, you walked with a noticeable tilt to one side due to the number of plastic rings on that arm.
* "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang was one of the hot new songs when you first heard it at a school dance.
* The first time you ever kissed someone at a dance fell during "Crazy for You" by Madonna.
* There were at least three people in your school that voluntarily went by the names of "Skip" "Buffy" "Muffy" or "Dexter."
* You ever owned one of those embarrassing crimping irons.
* You used to hold in your head the thought that all those gold chains on Mr. T actually looked kinda cool and the thought that Mr. T made millions seemed rational to you at the time.
* You remember with pain the sad day when the Green Machine hit the streets and made your old big wheel quite obsolete.
* You've gotten this far on the list and aren't totally confused.
* The phrase "Where's the beef?" still doubles you over with laughter.
* You read the "Hot Video Games Player's Secrets" guide for Mortal Kombat just so you could find the hidden screen, and play Pong again for old time's sake
* You're starting to believe that maybe 30 isn't so old after all, and it's those people over 40 you have to look out for.
* Your hair, at some point in time in the 80's, became something which can only be described by the phrase "I was experimenting."
* You've ever shopped at a Banana Republic or Benetton, but not in the last five years, okay?
* You're starting to get that "why aren't you married yet" spiel, not just from parents, but now from friends that are married.
* You ever wanted to be gagged with a spoon.
* When someone mentions two consecutive days of the week, the Happy Days theme is stuck in your head for hours on end.
* You remember "Hey, let's be careful out there."
* You're parents wanted you to attend medical school, but you decided it was pointless since Quincy got all the babes, anyway.
* You had a crush on Jon Bon Jovi, or knew someone who did.
* You thought eating Reese's Pieces would attract your own Alien.
* Your name is Jennifer or Jason.
* You have ever called 867-5309.
* You had a poster of Rob Lowe, Kirk Cameron, or Michael J. Fox on your wall.
* You held the top score on Pac-Man.
* You owned a t-shirt that said, "I shot J.R." or know someone who did.
* This rings a bell: "and my name, is Charlie. They work for me."
* You HAD to have your MTV
* You know what a "burnout" is.
* You owned a Jordache anything, or you remember when Jordache jeans were cool.
* You remember when Madonna was just hitting the scene.
* You remember the original version of Windows: Macintosh. Still sucked even then.
* You thought "Weird Science" was a masterpiece.
* You remember any or all of the following: Echo & the Bunnymen, Cutting Crew, Scritti Politti, or Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark.
* Chevy Chase was really funny in those vacation movies.
* You actually know who Rick Springfield is
* You remember when film critics raved that no movie could ever possibly get better special effects than those in the movie TRON.
* You jammed to the Miami Vice theme and thought Jan Hammer was cool.
* Guys: You remember when a guy piercing his ear was radical to the max, but did it anyhow.

proud to be an american... sort of.

I am the first to admit that I didn't research this story at all. It has many points that are easily confirmable so before I use this as anything but anticdotal, I'll have to look into it a little more, but the Guardian is a far more reliable news source than Fox News, or any of Murdock's papers, or a Whitehouse Press Release, or any Clear Channel outlet, or Catholic World News.
With that disclaimer I give you this. http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1231089,00.html I read it and turned cold. I couldn't help but cry for this woman who was so mistreated by our nation. We need to get the bastards out of office and get some new bastards installed who will change this sort of thing. I don't give a flying fuck if their actions were legal or not. As a nation, we have lost the moral high ground. Vote against Bush this year folks, if you are at all a decent human being.

more about the campaign

I am currently looking at using AIM for the game. they have a dice bot already and Eva is working on a better one, or was last night. I'm on AIM as Eliz Thann (if you don't remember, don't ask.)

I have three campaign files avaliable so far:

House Rules
http://www.geocities.com/voxpopuli42/HouseRules.html

Character Creation
http://www.geocities.com/voxpopuli42/mikefr2.html

Region Map
http://www.geocities.com/voxpopuli42/frmap.html

The campaign starts in Cormyr in the ruined city of Arabel, I plan on focusing on the heartlands of the Realms (The Western heartlands, The North, Waterdeep, Cormyr, Sembia, the Dales, and parts of the Moonsea)
I'm looking at 7:30 PM right now. I may move it a little earlier if Nick decides not to play.

Go ahead and build a character, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to IM or e-mail me. I'll adjucate any boons for you whenever you ask.

Gaming goodness

Still looking to play AD&D online.
I think I'll end up running it over Aol Instant Messenger.
I still haven't found a dice bot, so I hope anybody who wants to play has dice (I'll trust you to roll. I do when I play face to face I guess.)
So far, I've pinned it doen to Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday of next week. Definately not Friday night or Sunday Afternoon. I like lateish Saturday Afternoon if that's good with everyone else. (Heh, there is always scheduling games so that they don't quite overlap with the churched among my friends' church services. ("And It's 7:30 AM, I think it is time to wrap up. Good night folks, feel free to crash on the floor, you two have fun making it to church... *snicker*"

Harry Potter 3 rocked. The cinimatography looked more real and less like something out of a Spielburg computer lab. Not that the magic looked fake, it just looked like it was happening in the real world. The sets were amazing. Unlike the first two, there was a real sense of size for the grounds of Hogworts. Mom and the sibilings were picking nits about things that got left out, but hey, it was a 2.75 hour movie. Give me a break. (Only thing that got left out that I disliked was some stuff right at the end, and the way it cut at the very end was an iffy shot. The map and the credits were way cool effects.
(Things like floating candles looked more like floating candles than like special effects of floating candles in this movie.)

Oh, I just got an e-mail from one of the jobs I applied for. They want me to get my letters of reccomendation sent to them, which I didn't include with the application because I wasn't sure they would even want to look at me. I have absolutely no experience with the field, my degree does nothing to prepare me to be an RA for bright highschool students, but apparently I've got something going for me. Guess I should actually ask my references to send them letters.

Er acquired from one of <lj user ="seiryu_16"> 's friends

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

hey, I was just wondering

Anyone out there know how to add a watermark to an image that only shows up when you print it?

A survey from <lj user="seiryu_16">

Well, this is sort of like a journal entry I guess. I've been bad about this sort of thing.

1. What is your full name? Michael Guthrie Phillips

2. What color pants are you wearing? Beige Kaki Shorts

3. What are you listening to right now? Winamp, Kanno's Stella By Moor

4. Are your legs crossed? At the ankles, right over left.

5. What was the last thing you ate for lunch? Cheese Sandwich with some fritos. (No idea why we had fritos, but hey, 's all good)

6. If you were a crayon what color would you be? Turquoise

7. How is the weather right now? Er, I haven't really been outside today except to bring the dogs out. It was cool and clear, but the sun has been out longer now.

8. Last person you talked to on the phone? Jessica Hodges

9. First thing you notice about the opposite sex? the face around the eyes, or hair.

10. Do you like the person who posted this? Hai

11. How are you today? Not bad, a little tired from staying up reading then waking up to bring out the dogs.

12. Favorite Drink? Cold Diet coke, or Ice Water just this side of slush.

13. Favorite sports? To play or watch? I enjoy playing tennis and ultimate frisbee, even though I am less than sure of the rules of the second. (I also like swimming even if I am not actually any good at it.) Well, for watching, I usually don't have the TV on, but I will occasionally watch a tennis match in real life, or soccer and figureskating on tv. When I am around ESPN2, I sometimes catch pool and magic tournaments.

14. Hair color? Mid brown

15. Eye Color? Hazel with rings of other things.

16. Do you wear contacts? Nada

17. Siblings? Older Half Sister Lee Rae, Younger Half Sister Fred... I mean Brienne, Younger Half Brother Lloyd David

18. Favorite month? Ooh, depends where I am. In the midwest September or possibly October or November. In the PNW it is late winter/early spring.

19. Favorite food? Cusine would be East Asian probably, specific food is a toss up between steamed artichokes, steamed brocciflower, and a couple different seafoods.

20. Last movie you watched? Shrek 2.

21. Favorite day of the year? Er... New Years.

22. Saturday or Sunday? Saturday.

23. Are you too shy to ask someone out? More often than not.

24. Do you like marmite? Er, wouldn't really know.

25. Winter or Summer? Winter

26. Kisses or hugs? Hugs for the most part

27. Chocolate or vanilla? In icecream Vanillia, in candies, Chocolate.

28. Living arrangements? Living at mom's house *sighs*

29. What books are you reading? Er, I'm between books and I returned my books to the library via mom and she only grabbed me one new one and I read it last night. I'm working on a RPG adventure so the 3rd edition core books a little I guess.

30. What did you do last night? Worked on settign the security on my w2k box (that has been offline for more than a year) working on NPCs for an adventure, made shrimp and cauliflour and french fires, read the new M.y.t.h. inc book..

31. Did you wake up before your alarm went off this morning? No alarm, but if I had one this morning wouldn't have ben one where I did. Actually I didn't wake up before the doggy alarm.

32. Do you miss Big Brother yet? I didn't ever see Big Brother, so no.

33. Favorite smell? I like many smells. the forests out west in the mountians after a rain, the honney suckle on my back fence, the vanillia in cookies in the oven.

34. What inspires you? Hum, not really sure.

35. Buttered, plain, or salted popcorn? buttered AND salted.

36. Favorite chips? Pretzles.

37. Favorite car? Er, I'd like a Prius I guess.

38. Favorite flower? honeysuckle in huge numbers.

39. How many keys on your key ring? None anymore.

40. Can you juggle? No.

41. Favorite day of the week? none really

42. Red, or white wine? er, haven't found one I like yet.

43. What did you do for your last birthday? Don't really remember.

44. Do you own a donor card? nope. Intend to fix that sooner or later.

45. What is the first thing you think of in the morning? Huh? No idea. I usually take a good 10 minutes to wake up.

46. What are you doing once this is finished? Finishing the install of my w2k security updates.