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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Monday, December 14th, 2009 |
craigoxbrow
|
5:48p |
Ooh. C7 just sent me a free pdf of Doctor Who. And announced the first follow-up supplement, a UNIT box set. With the Brigadier on the cover, no less. Current Mood:  chipper |
muskrat_john
|
9:35a |
Dechnical Tifficulties
'K, a couple big things happened last week, not least of which was a hard drive crash on my laptop. Between that and the blizzard that hit the midwest, it essentially wiped out another work week. Fortunately, it seems (fingers crossed) as if all of my data was backed up. But getting everything back on the machine’s new hard drive has been a bit – shall we say “entertaining.” Not least because the new hard drive came loaded with a new operating system, and many of my old discs are still in boxes somewhere from the move. I *hope* to have new strips up and running by this coming Friday, Dec. 18, Monday, December 21 at the latest. On the plus side, there’ll be some news about something that’ll soon make sure DorkTower.com web site problems, etc., etc., are – if not a thing of the past – at least far more infrequent. There’ll be other big news as well. I’ll probably pst that this coming Thursday. For the moment, it’s been incredibly frustrating, and I’d like to apologize for the ups and downs (mostly downs) of the web site this month. In 2010, I hope that the thrice-weekly schedule of comic strips will be hit, and hit regularly and well. On the other hand, I’m not a kid in Darfur, so I really can’t complain too much about anything… Also at the start of the year, some more big news, about what’s going on with everything: the Dork Tower comic strips; Dr. Blink comics and more; the Dork Tower comic books; My Little Cthulhu; Mythos Buddies; Munchkin; Out of the Box Games; the Dork Tower puppet project; where my mind’s at; and so on. Kind of a State of the Cartoonist address. I’m working that up now to post New Year’s Day. It may need to be broken into a few parts. In the meantime, thank you SO much for your patience these last few weeks. Please check back in lter in the week, when I hope things will be starting to run a bit more smoothly. I’m working on making everything sharper, smoother, faster and better at DorkTower.com. John PS – please excuse any typos. I’ve got to run off for a plane, and don’t have time to proof this in my usual haphazard way… Current Mood:  busyCurrent Music: "We Fight/We Love" - Q-Tip |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
Still Lame
 As profound students of medieval history, I’m sure you all know that today is Roonemas. Since at least the fourteenth century, the eleventh day before Christmas has been celebrated as a time to make Andy Rooney-esque complaints. So while I wouldn’t do this any other day of the year, the spirit of the holidays compels me to share this observation saved from my recent trip to London.
Okay, so since when did standing still in a weird costume become a busking monoculture? Down by the Southbank Centre there had to be a dozen different street performers trying to cadge coins from sightseers, and pretty much every single one of them counted being stationary as his main talent. Granted, the two guys in the anole costumes riding bikes were more mobile than the others. But with the competition on display consisting of immobile Shakespeare, immobile French dude, immobile silver statue, etc., you'd think a juggler or classical guitarist would move in to easily conquer their malnourished entertainment ecosystem. I can't decide who was worse, lumpy immobile Superman or disturbingly off-brand immobile Mickey Mouse. Or is this all part of some art project to discourage tourists from clogging London, by ensuring that its street diversions remain consistently cheesy?
Happy Roonemas, everyone! |
craigoxbrow
|
11:55a |
Okay, I just saw BBC1's Christmas ident on TV for the first time. That's... I shudder to think how they're going to manage to push Matt Smith. Current Mood: amused |
| Sunday, December 13th, 2009 |
craigoxbrow
|
10:26p |
Deleted: Debriefing
Five players is probably too many for people on the run across Europe. Look very seriously at which advantages and disadvantages to include, not just ones suited to the wider general milieu. Wound penalties are a good idea when every hit matters and you really shouldn't be willing to fight to the death every time. It is possible for a run of bad luck with the dice to last thirteen sessions. (It was uncanny.) A game about where revenge stops should indeed have consequences for going too far, which I think worked and Matt didn't seem to mind them landing on him. No remotely-serious session can survive the concept of a whole town of people talking like BRIAN BLESSED because he had to get the accent from somewhere. Which then lead on to the idea of pulling into a station and everyone being BRIAN BLESSED. And then the idea of BRIAN BLESSED as Agent Smith. I'm glad we tried it, and I think fun was had. A lot of the above are things I should have had a tighter grip of from the get-go, so this was a game as its own playtest. Not the freaky bad luck thing, though... Anyway, next up, something more cheery and straightforward. Current Mood:  okayCurrent Music: John Powell, The Bourne Identity |
alaimacerc
|
7:48p |
Most self-referential thing ever
Currently, MTV2 are playing the "Top 100 Most Played 2009". In other words, MTV2 are playing tracks that MTV2 have played, a lot, because MTV2 have played them a lot. Just when I was thinking how everything in the "20s" (Green Day, Killers, Florence...) was horribly overplayed (which I guess is pretty explicit in the premise), in at #24 was "That Golden Rule". :D Current Mood:  easily amusedCurrent Music: Paramore, "Decode" (at #19) |
| Saturday, December 12th, 2009 |
craigoxbrow
|
11:39a |
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alaimacerc
|
3:09a |
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| Friday, December 11th, 2009 |
alaimacerc
|
11:48p |
Private Pseudo-Prelacy
I'm a whole Panzerpapst story behind the curve, now, since as of today we whole "crocodile tears about clerical abuse" thing to mull over. But I've just about caught myself up on the whole "Anglican-poaching" thing. ( That would (most definitely not!) be an ecumenical matter! ) Current Mood:  contemplativeCurrent Music: David Gray on C4 (threatening, a la FR, possible curry "explosive results") |
| Saturday, December 12th, 2009 |
yodathedark
|
12:01a |
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| Friday, December 11th, 2009 |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
|
deathlyphil
|
11:51a |
Is anyone going to see Placebo on Monday in Glasgow? I was supposed to be going with a friend and they've had to bail, so it's just me. |
craigoxbrow
|
12:09a |
I knew The Descent Part 2 wasn't a patch on the original according to its critics, but I thought it was okay and in places pretty good. Until the end, which was so nonsensical it pissed me off intensely. Trailers: yes-please-want-now The Wolfman, new black-and-white post-apocalypse parable The Book Of Eli, entirely-impractical-world-of-vampires thingy Daybreakers, and Elektra-remake-with-a-boy Ninja Assassin. New Orange ad was shit too. Current Mood:  annoyed |
yodathedark
|
12:00a |
|
| Thursday, December 10th, 2009 |
yodathedark
|
11:30p |
In pumps life that I must feel...
I can't remember anything Can't tell if this is true or dream Deep down inside I feel the scream This terrible silence stops it there Now that the war is through with me I'm waking up, I cannot see That there's not much left of me Nothing is real but pain now Hold my breath as I wish for death Oh please god, help me Back in the womb it's much too real In pumps life that I must feel But can't look forward to reveal Look to the time when I'll live Fed through the tube that sticks in me Just like a wartime novelty Tied to machines that make me be Cut this life off from me Hold my breath as I wish for death Oh please god, wake me Now the world is gone I'm just one Oh god, help me Hold my breath as I wish for death Oh please god, help me Darkness imprisoning me All that I see Absolute horror I cannot live I cannot die Trapped in myself Body my holding cell Landmines has taken my sight Taken my speech Taken my hearing Taken my arms Taken my legs Taken my soul Left me with life in hell ( Read more... ) Current Mood:  gloomy |
yodathedark
|
9:44p |
Now the world is gone, I'm just one...
So, I feel like dropping some barriers. And so, in recogition of this fact, I'm asking a favour. This isn't a meme - unless you make it one - but it is based on the general ideas of them. So, to get to the point, would people mind doing the following? First, tell me what name you think of me by. Second, tell me what I am to you - be it friend, family or something else. Thirdly, can you describe me or how you feel about me in as few or as many words as you like. Then, optionally, I invite you to ask me a question. Any question you like. And I'll be as open and honest as I can be with the response. If you want to ask me more, then I won't mind too much. This might be partially for my own sanity, and so I'd appreciate any responses. Thanks. - y. Current Mood:  blankCurrent Music: Metallica - One |
alaimacerc
|
7:04p |
English whiskeeek!
The English are distilling whisk(e)y now? In of all places, Norfolk? One of the onwers was on the Beeb self-reviewing it as "really very good". Pardon me while I wait for a slightly more objective assessment! It's a three year old "single malt": they've bashed it out on literally on the very first day they're legally allowed to write "whisk(y/ey)" on the bottle. Industry practice is that single malts are aged for at least eight years -- hence only those aged ten or more trouble themselves to announce their age on the label in any prominence. Apparently the producers are waving their hands and muttering incantations about it being "fast maturing", all the while selling off "not quite whiskey" releases that were even younger! One wonders if they've gone with the ol' "bung lots of peat in to cover a multitude of sins" technique. The English "reclaiming" haggis was moderately amusing, but really... Surfing around for reviews of this I found mention of an " Ardbeg Supernova", a "specially peaty" edition. Ardbeg's pretty peaty to start with: I'm getting a mental image of a slab of turf, with someone pouring bottles of TCP over it! In other news, Dara O'Briain, who these days is All Over, has been having a pop at English libel law. Good on 'im, and on the various others members of the great and the good/usual suspects taking part in the same campaign. Current Mood:  sober |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
The Ill-Aspected Facial Tissue
Had a day of seriously awful vibes near the end of last week. A distressing dream jolted me awake. Still recovering from post-trip food poisoning, I stumbled from bed headachey and wobble-legged. Bad news, from the grave to the serious to the worrying to the weird, poured into my inbox. Were I prone to a Robinocentric view of the universe, the peculiar timing of one particular crummy news nugget would have felt like I’d put the jinx in personally.
That night, as I ate a dinner of suitably bland takeaway items, I saw it staring me in the face, right on the dinner table.
A Kleenex demon.
Now, I’m not actually superstitious. I don’t think he caused the various sad and unpleasant events I learned about that day. Maybe he just reflected them.
Still, I freakin’ hate these guys.
Edit: The above funny picture of a Kleenex box was not intended to evoke real concern. Nothing to worry about, folks. |
out0fcontrol
|
1:05p |
From Vicky
Becasue it amuses me (and I've woken up a bit after eating a hot dinner) On the twelfth day of Christmas,  out0fcontrol sent to me... Twelve tigercubs travelling Eleven tigers writing Ten dreams a-dancing Nine beaches cooking Eight watt-gamers a-role-playing Seven computers a-war-gaming Six thrillers a-reading Five bo-o-o-ooks Four unicorns Three student nationals Two video games ...and a lrp in an astrology.  amused |
out0fcontrol
|
12:26p |
So new job - well its my third day :) Will post more when not in an exhausted state. I wasn't this morning, but then again I took an antihistamine about 2 hours ago now, and it doesnt say non-drowsy on the packet :( Reason i took it - I had a rash this morning; tis a scary thing as last time I had a sinus infection my entire body reacted badly and came out in a rash. I have a very bad cold and pressure on my sinuses atm... see the link?? Hoping to feel better this evening K |
| Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 |
alaimacerc
|
4:42p |
Bah, humbug
Far from buying my flights to Scotland for Christmas too late, looks like I bought them too soon: Aer Arann are having a "happy hour" sale tomorrow, which would have saved me a bundle. I wondered if they were going to do something like that again. Grrr. I chickened out because the inconvenience of the destination airport means I can't be at all flexible in dates, really. Of course, it's doubly annoying to pay over the odds for an inconvenient airport, come to that... Current Mood:  highly Calvinist |
craigoxbrow
|
2:51p |
DOCTOR!
Doctor Who reaches shops. I buy the first Black Lion copy. (Chris having ordered it from C7 direct through me, so I feel my karma is spread evenly.) Since Liam is curious, I open it up. Shiny box. Shallow... probably wouldn't have room to add the screen, as it's a four-way hardback screen. Playtester credits: "Thanks to everyone who took part in the playtest - too many names to print, but your help was invaluable." Excuse me while I burst into tears and run to my room. Oh well. Pressing on... ( This is bigger on the inside ) Current Mood: okay |
robin_d_laws
|
9:20a |
Terminal Hunger
Whenever you find yourself lf stuck in a place running a continual news-loop with inescapably loud audio, the Esoterrorists put it it there, as an emitter of low-grade cognitive dissonance. They particularly target airports, where their installations play to a captive audience of the already anxious. Their client entities derive particular nourishment from those involuntarily exposed to the stock market segment. The mix of fear—of lost opportunities, of nosediving portfolios—combined with greed is greasy with psychic resonance. Since the economic downturn the yields have grown even stronger. Even those most knowledgeable about the financial world, once inured to this material by familiarity, are now prone to radiate rich waves of subconscious distress.
Airports in general provide a wider a playground for certain discreet entities of the Outer Dark. Old fashioned fear of flying admixes with new-century terrorism dread. Though not as strong as it was earlier in the decade, the latter still exerts a nourishing pull. Xenophobia provides its own heady psychic outflow. In airports people are forced to travel with others whose clothing, speech and appearance marks them as other.
Disguised Outer Dark Entities sometimes board planes, but the limited range of action while on an airliner proves isn't always an ultrademon's cup of tea. They prefer to lurk in the terminals themselves. Some of them mill about as eternal travelers who never depart. Others assume the forms of ticket agents, baggage handlers, and duty-free clerks. Where most airport employees adopt the glassy-eyed affect of the travel-weary patrons they service, ODEs can be recognized by the hunger in their eyes.
They must act with caution, as the Ordo Veritatis uses the international air system to shuttle its agents from case to case. The loosely affiliated bands of supernatural predators haunting the world's airports attend to the security flags that precede the arrival of OV agents. They spread the word, and know where to hide. |
| Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 |
muskrat_john
|
10:35p |
My friend Leon's Open letter to ABC. Please share.
TO: ABC FROM: Leon Lynn RE: Desecration of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 12/8/09 Dear ABC, How could you? For years and years I have awaited the network broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" as the true herald of the holiday season. I brought my kids up with the same tradition -- one which has been made no less special for us by the fact that they happen to be Jewish. Tonight we sat in horror and watched what you have done to the single greatest cartoon ever made. How many minutes did you cut out of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" so you could run more commercials? Gone was Sally's materialistic letter to Santa, which finally sends Charlie screaming from the room when she says she will settle for 10s and 20s. Gone was Schroeder's miraculous multiple renditions of "Jingle Bells" from a toy piano, including the one that sounds distinctly like a church organ. Gone was Linus using his blanket as an improvised slingshot to knock a can off the fence no one else can hit, complete with ricochet sound effect. Gone were the kids catching snowflakes on their tongues and commenting on their flavor. Gone even was poor Shermy's only line. He thought he had it bad because he was always tasked to play a shepherd. He had no idea. And why were all these classic scenes cut? To plug more ads into the show, of course. To sell burgers and greeting cards -- and to relentlessly plug the insipid-looking new Disney "soon to be a classic" show immediately following. (I didn't watch the new show, by the way. I was laid far too low by what had just happened.) Cramming all of these ads into the 30-minute broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" required major edits to a cartoon that has spent 44 years now trying to remind us that Christmas is supposed to transcend crass commercialism. Do you have no sense of irony? A couple of weeks ago I noted that you can now buy a plastic replica of the pathetic little real-wood Christmas tree Charlie Brown brings home from the tree lot otherwise monopolized by shiny fake trees. I thought we had sunk as low as we could. Obviously I was wrong. Oh, and by the way: The sound was half a second behind the picture: They were not synched properly. I thought this was pretty sloppy for a major TV network, but I was willing to look past it. What I cannot look past is the chopping to bits of a genuine classic, not just to pump more ads at us, but in direct conflict with the message that has made it a classic. When I was a kid, the annual broadcast of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was a holiday unto itself. It was the only time we ever saw ads for Dolly Madison snack cakes, for one thing. But more importantly, it actually framed the coming holiday for me in a meaningful way. The shepherds in their fields had no corporate sponsors. Nobody had bought the naming rights for the manger. The infant Jesus did not have an endorsement deal lined up with a particular line of swaddling clothes. Instead he came, the story goes, to preach universal love, and the abandonment of false ideals like the acquisition of gross material wealth in favor of something far more valuable. You have not just lost sight of this, or turned your backs on it. You have stomped it into the mud. You should be ashamed of yourselves. But I bet you aren't. I bet you're way past that. Count my family out for next year. Sincerely, Leon Lynn Current Music: Vince Gueraldi |
| Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 |
yodathedark
|
12:04a |
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