I've now had a couple people say that it's annoying to have to click through to read the twits on the Loudtwitter post, when they just want to glance and see them. At this point, I'm going to go back to that.

Sometimes, you just can't get rid of a bomb!

These are the twits I twitted.

( Click here to see the twits as they were twitted. )

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

These are the twits I twitted.

( Click here to see the twits as they were twitted. )

These are the twits I twitted.

01:04 Bleh. woke up with bad headache. Clearly, I need an air purifier in here, stat. Got the windows open and the A/C on as a stopgap. #
09:26 Mmm. After A/C and pseudoephedrine, I slept well. I dread the day they take pseudoephedrine away from us. #
09:32 I dreamed of being in a prison yard last night, though it wasn't so bad. Mostly it was about scrounging for basic foodstuffs for our cook. #
11:58 Hee! tinyurl.com/3r6sfh -- it's not that Blizzard dissed Uwe Boll, it's that Uwe Boll *announced* that Blizzard dissed him. #
14:02 Websnark post on the Interview: tinyurl.com/3g7n3c #
14:43 Off to the store, in hopes of getting an air purifier. Damnable spring. #
15:44 I now own an air purifier. I feel so grown up. #
16:38 Sugar free dried meringue cookies are one of the joys of a low glycemic life. #
22:08 Well, 'yay.' tinyurl.com/6xdva4 -- Wizards is (apparently) going for the jugular. #
23:23 You know... when Weds lives here, if we go to 'necessities and only rare perks' level and sock money away... we can live pretty cheaply. #

These are the twits I twitted.

10:01 Awake before Weds, which is somewhat unusual. Having coffee and net and considering the trip back -- the last without her. Looking forward. #
10:14 (Forward, that is, to bringing her with me next time. Not forward to leaving. Leaving sucks.) #
10:24 And, set stuff up to send twitter things to LJ once a day. Convergence and junk. #
11:40 @fadeaccompli At least you have an excuse. I woke up at 9 am for no reason. #
11:54 Gema. #
12:42 @etherjammer We prefer 'socioneurotically challenged.' #
13:33 Wedding registries are hard to get one's mind around. #
22:26 I am home! And someone left champagne on my dishwasher. The good stuff, no less! I mean, *dude.* #
01:04 Bleh. woke up with bad headache. Clearly, I need an air purifier in here, stat. Got the windows open and the A/C on as a stopgap. #

These are the twits I twitted.

14:57 Okay. I have a twitter account. Also -- the government is letting me get married! To a *girl!* #
01:46 We have found... the best of Kalbi in Ottawa. THE BEST OF KALBI! #
10:01 Awake before Weds, which is somewhat unusual. Having coffee and net and considering the trip back -- the last without her. Looking forward. #
10:14 (Forward, that is, to bringing her with me next time. Not forward to leaving. Leaving sucks.) #

The interviewer opened the interview with "I'm feeling jaunty today."

We considered this a good sign.

We were right.

And now, Denny's. But first, action friend

fiveslashfour sums it all up better than I could, given A) my exhaustion, B) my exhilaration and C) my desire to go have Denny's with THE WOMAN I AM NOW ALLOWED TO BRING ACROSS THE BORDER TO LIVE WITH AND MARRY ME, GOD DAMN IT!

So, enjoy the KJT.

( It's the mittens that got me. )

Current Mood: ecstatic

According to the BBC... the Italian police are on the lookout for a criminal with eerie mind control powers!

Italian supervillains. Man. That can't possibly go well.

This spoils an April Fool's joke involving Youtube. If you don't care, already know it, or whatever, then click the cut and enjoy.

( I suppose tomorrow it won't matter anyway. )

Apropos of little:

I am now scheduled to drive to Ottawa on the 16th. I will be driving back on the 20th.

I hereby predict that either Closed Beta for Issue 12 of City of Heroes will launch on the 16th or 17th, or if Closed Beta drops later this week (Hah!) Open Beta will launch then.

Assuming all goes well at the Consulate (likely, though not certain), we will be moving Weds almost certainly in May. Ergo, I predict Issue 12 will drop in May, that weekend.

I have no idea how City of Heroes will release special events and new issues moving forward, since I won't be travelling to spend time with my fiancee any more. I mean, once she's living in the same apartment, she'll understand if I spend a night in City of Heroes because it's Double XP weekend or we just got Powered Armor costume packs or something. I don't do nearly enough business travel for that to inform their release schedule.

Current Music: First of May - Jonathan Coulton

The United States Consulate General in Montreal, Canada has requested my (Eric's) presence and the presence of my Canadian Fiancee (Wednesday) on April 18 to perform final Visa process approval, allowing her to officially, legally enter the country and for she and I to be bound together into the legally binding contract that is Matrimony.

On April 18.

APRIL 18, GOD DAMN IT! ALL SHALL MAKE MERRY!

We get through that, and then everything is on our schedule. We plan the move, we plan the actual quick "we get married now so we has no problems KTHX," and then we start planning the wedding. Or reception. Or whatever.

April. 18.

Dude.

Current Mood: THRILLED!

Eric Millikan has a damn good looking Project Wonderful skyscraper ad.

It's a detail of this.

And, I mean, damn.

I take lunesta and go to coma now.

Hey gang -- a quick question to the RPG developers in the crowd. And you know who you are.

Does anyone know if OSRIC's been juried or otherwise 'acknowledged' to be legitimate? I know they believe that they're in the clear, but their contention that the underlying algorithms of First Edition AD&D are reverse-engineerable without trouble sounds... I dunno. I'm not sure about it, and I don't want to get too far in the project I'm working on without knowing more.

Thanks!

It was weirdly emotional to write about Gygax on 'Snark. I expected some emotion. In part, that's why I write remembrances like that -- they help me get my head around things that I feel strongly about.

But this one... it's like I tried to say in there. Gygax was too seminal to my life and my perception of roleplaying.

A few people have been upset that I brought up... well, 1982-86. But more seem glad to have a chance to remember all of Gygax, good and ill, and the impact he had on our world.

One person mentioned to me that her parents met playing AD&D first edition. This is a human life that wouldn't have existed before.

All in all, it was cathartic. Now, while I await my hard-won Dragon archive, a friend has loaned me his, and I'm steeping myself in old Dragon magazines.

Wormy really was one of the best fantasy comics, like, ever. Wasn't it?

Wednesday, who is a professional, pointed Mint out to me, which she got up and running for me.

Oh, holy crap dude. This is awesome. By far the best tracking/referral/popularity thing I've ever touched. Weds is right. Weds rocks. And it's realtime, in a way that actually works.

Of course, now I'm rethinking strategies moving forward -- I'm stunned at how much traffic the archives get. Stunned with stunning. And I can watch as they spread (the Silent Garfield stuff, for example, seems to be propagating again.)

Man, this is just awesome.

According to Google Analytics, websnark's currently operating at about 60k pageviews for the past month, representing 22k "absolute unique visitors."

Which isn't a patch on the old days by any stretch (it was running around 60k pageviews a day for a while there), but better than being hit by fish any way you look at it. And there's been a significant spike over the last week and a half, no doubt fueled by my actually fucking writing. Good healthy new visit rate too.

Reasonably? It won't get near the old numbers. There's too much healthy diversity in that space at that point, and it's a very different world. But it's a good solid group of readers, and that makes me a happy King.

On the other hand, I wrote about James Grant and Mel Hynes on the same day I eulogized William F. Buckley. I'm anticipating a meteor killing me.

It's been a long time since I've done concentrated criticism and analysis type things, even summations like I'm doing right now.

What I've realized is this.

Time away == distance from your subject.

Distance from your subject == sarcasm.

Sarcasm == significantly more useful criticism.

Dude.

This officially constitutes one of my personal milestones being reached.

Wow. After a full on good evening, with a lot of fun playing Illuminati with friends, and an (Early) birthday party catching me by surprise at a Chinese restaurant... yeah. This blows my mind.

I hope all is well with all of you.

One of those memes that actually appeals to me. I've seen it a bunch of times but it was

caprine who pulled me in.

Rules are as follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.

http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Using your favorite graphics program combine these three elements to design your album cover and post the result.

Snow Aeronautical

God, I'm totally doing slightly whiny piano pop, aren't I? I mean, the sort of thing they'll play for years in chain restaurants like Chili's. Total Five-for-Fighting going on here.

Discovery Health is being consumed by Oprah Winfrey.

Seriously.

The Discovery Health channel is being taken over entirely by a woman who won't use the word Vagina without making it cutesy.

Okay, we're now into "patently ridiculous" territory.

So, as I live in New Hampshire, today was Primary Election Day, otherwise known as "the only day New Hampshire is significant to the united states election process, and that is disproportionately so."

Voting is done at the Episcopal Church in our little town, right next to the hospital, and as with many of these places there are rules about how close to the front door you can campaign. So a hundred feet away there are massive signs and people waving, throngs of supporters of Obama and McCain, Romney and Clinton, and the gruff unsmiling bearded men for Ron Paul.

That is not what caught my eye.

What caught my eye was the twentysomething man, looking sheepish, holding the Richardson sign.

He looked embarrassed, but man. It takes balls to stand there, holding your sign and stating to the world "this is the guy whose policies I like, and positions I agree with. I voted for him in the Primary even if no one else in the state does, and if you're a Democrat you should too." I respect that man. It's easy to be one of a crowd. It's American to stick to your beliefs even when you're all by yourself.

Does anyone know if the Michael Green who is an executive producer on Heroes and the new writer of Superman/Batman went to the University of Hartford?

So, we spontaneously went to a casino.

It was easy enough. We were in Gatineau to look for some stuff that Quebec does better than Ontario, and on the way back there was this casino, and we were curious.

So we went, and wandered around. And noted who was apparently a prostitute vs. who was just dressed like one.

We cashed in ten dollars into quarters, and that was our gambling bankroll. Other than that, we had a couple of drinks (well, I was driving and am a frightening lightweight, but on the night Weds had a couple of drinks), and we spent the ten bucks on slot machines here and there.

We left with our ten bucks having become twenty-six dollars and twenty five cents.

We attribute our good luck to Fand, she who disguises herself as a sea bird and trains celtic ninjas in the art of urban infiltration. And also to our deciding to actually just play ten bucks regardless of result, but I digress. In Fand's name, we offered up some kind of chocolate martini girl drink thing, because... well, because.

Also, one woman wore white tights that had a built in sash in front of her pelvis. Well, sort of tights -- at the bottom, they flared into drapey bell bottoms. She looked like she had a day job as a 1970's kickboxing eyecandy bodyguard for a Bond villain.

And someone at one of the bars sang the acoustic cover of Layla. In French.

So, you know. A good time.

Except for the guy singing Layla. Jesus Christ.

Apparently, for several days now, drivethrurpg and its related sites have been "down for maintenance." Is there something going on?

One of the things I often think about, when I'm writing a story, is what the lead character looks like. And I'm often tempted to commission a portrait from someone over it. This is especially true when I'm writing superheroish stories.

I almost never go on to commission, mind. It's an idle thought at most.

My lead character is a forty-two year old woman with a normal human body who wears normal clothes while she goes around the country interviewing people.

As God is my witness, I have no idea who I would even contact to do that. It's not like most working superhero artists have much experience with that sort of thing.

EDIT: Okay, let me be blunt. Blunt clearly works better.

"Wow. I'm writing a superhero story, but the lead is someone who isn't often represented physically in mainstream superhero comics, in as much as she A) looks her age and B) isn't a physical ideal of any kind. I find it interesting that there are not many examples of this type at Marvel or DC, where a 42 year old is either depicted, generally, as 22 and hot as a supernova or 64 and decrepit. As a side note, she also has normal proportioned limbs and shins, which is not always seen in comics either."

Better?

Current Music: Pandora.com - Atlantis Nights - Hudson Bell

So one of the things in the back of my head, while working on Justice Wing stuff, is "where can I go with this."

I mean, it's fun to write, but the major difference between it and Superguy (besides my being a significantly better writer now than I was back in the day) is it could go somewhere. I could actually publish a novel.

But... writing superhero fiction is dicey, because absent the characters that have already entered the culture, there's pretty steep barrier. You have to introduce everyone, set things, and also be engaging enough to be read.

And if you're going to write a novel about stuff like this... well, I realize, I'm a lit major, but... I'd like to write something with something under the surface a little deeper than "Power Guy smacked Evilite while Spandex Babe arched, her suit straining." I mean, it's not going to be The Great Gatsby but I'd rather it not be Remo Williams has sex and kills a dude too, you know?

And then it smacked me in my brain. Which means not only do I have my novel? But I'm already twelve thousand words into it.

And Christ knows how many I'll need to get out of it.

I guess I know what's going to dominate Banter Latte for the next few weeks.

Current Mood: doomed
Current Location: Texas Roadhouse
Current Music: Pandora.com -

Okay, the first dozen times it was cute.

However, it's over.

No more Rankin/Bass inspired commercials.

You got me?

No more fucking Rankin/Bass stop motion commercials!

I'm especially looking at you, Food Network. Why you thought it was a good idea to use CGI to intentionally look worse than Rankin/Bass ever did is beyond me, but I swear to God I will not rest until I convince our Government to impound you all as enemy combatants if you don't fucking drop it. I practically throw up when I see your jerk motion shit!

NO MORE!!

(An exemption is granted, albeit reluctantly, to Aflac. They at least had the balls to go out and actually license the Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and his extended cast from the current rightsholders. So while I still feel the cold depths of hatred for them, they may continue. Alltel? Not so fucking much.)

Application Type: I129F, PETITION FOR FIANCE(E)
Current Status: Approval notice sent.
On December 13, 2007, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). Please follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service.

(Yes, we're thrilled.)

I was at a CompUSA, when I saw the original City of Heroes game marked down to seven dollars. I grabbed it, thinking that I could add its game time to my account at a savings. As it works out, I can't. No harm, no foul -- it's a code that can only be used to make a new account and get a month that way.

So, does anyone want it? First come, first served!

Leon Redbone's playing Northampton, Mass in January!

...why do I have the feeling no one reading these words knows who that is....

Did a Websnark post yesterday, and it went okay. Today, Banter Latte spun back up.

I'm really pretty happy with Prosperina. It felt like about the right note to come back on. Which is good, because at eight thousand words plus, it needs to not suck.

Anyway, that's all. I kind of liked that one.

Now, to get the next Justice Wing out. I can't let myself finish a Superguy thing until I'm actually back on track with the 'official' stuff.

Guys?

The Russians don't care about your journals. They really don't.

The people who are worried are Russian LJ users, because the Russian livejournal presence is thriving -- and nearly ubiquitious -- and LJ is seen as a place where you can say whatever you like about the government and get away with it, and Sup has ties to State Security (as almost all successful Russian businesses have ties to the Russian government right now -- things are not clean over there).

No one's going to delete us. They're not going to give a shit about us. But the Russian users have cause for concern, and it's legitimate.

For one thing, almost all those Russian LJ users can remember when the price for writing dissent involved Siberia. And they know it's not that big a leap back to those days. These are people who know just how valuable their freedom is, because it's still pretty new to them.

So, on the one side? The sky isn't falling. All our communities and BPAL trading groups and Superguy discussion places and RSS feeds to Garfield are still going to work.

And on the other side? Don't belittle a people still recovering from decades of harsh totalitarian repression for being freaked out right now. they have plenty of reasons to be scared, even if you or I don't.

Peace, y'all.

Current Music: Jazz24 - KPLU

A brief conversation with a coworker, fortunately where no students could hear:

Him: Well, agnostics are just atheists without the courage of their convictions.

Me: Wow. That was both a lie and offensive. That's a neat trick.

He looked confused. I went on to tell him what I'm going to tell you, right now.

Atheism is not the lack of religion, despite the roots of the word. Atheism is a religion. It is the specific belief, without evidence, that the universe lacked intelligent or motive force behind its creation.

Many atheists refute this, mind. They say that they stand for science, and skepticism, and that any divine presence would need to be proven, and without that proof one must assume there is no divine presence. That, they often say, is simple science and stark reason.

And that's utter bullshit.

Science is agnostic.

Science says "I do not know, until I see. When I see, I can gather evidence and hypothesize. After I hypothesize I gather more evidence. I experiment. I test my hypothesis. I revise my hypothesis. If I and many other scientists perform these experiments and verify and reproduce my results, we might -- might -- upgrade my hypothesis to a theory, but that takes a lot of doing."

Atheism doesn't do any of that. Atheism takes it on faith that there is no god in any form, comprehensible or not. And the evidence for that is just as prevalent as the evidence for Yaweh, Allah, Aphrodite or Manannán mac Lir: absolutely none.

Guys? We don't know. We don't know who or what if anything started the cosmic ball rolling. We don't know if there's something beyond the edge of human perception. We just don't fucking know, okay?

Now, you can be convinced the Christians have it wrong. Or that the Greeks were full of shit. Or that the Wiccans are fooling themselves. You can be personally convinced that the universe is a cold place where everything is essentially chaotic and all things happened because of chance. That's fine.

But don't pretend you have an inside understanding that the religious nuts don't. You have a belief. Nothing more, nothing less. And that's fine. If it makes you happy, power to you.

And if you believe in a god, gods, goddesses, or whatever? Fine by me. Whatever helps you get to sleep, man.

Me? I'm agnostic. I don't have the hubris to think I've got the final answer. I'm still watching and waiting, and I'm keeping an open mind -- to all sides of the question.

And for the record? Don't you fucking dare say I don't have the courage of my convictions. It takes a hell of a lot more courage to admit what you don't know than assert what you believe to be true.

Sadly, it means I don't get to be nearly as smug as certain theists or atheists. But don't worry about me. I usually find something else to be smug about.

Current Location: Work
Current Music: Jazz24 - KPLU

I entirely blame

gwox for this.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine demiurgent, and sometimes voices.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

I'm enjoying Leopard. And Time Machine stuns me with just how good it is.

But I just had a weird, almost surreal experience.

It did its thing at 2:30. It was next scheduled to do it at 3:30. At 2:53, I decided "eh, I'm curious how much it'll back up if I do it now," so I opened up the Preferences page so I could watch it copy, and I triggered a copy.

23 minutes after its last copy, it breezily sent over the 28.6 megabytes that had changed.

28.6 megabytes. That's more than one megabyte a minute.

I remember. My first "computer" had a miniscule amount of RAM -- 16k, maybe -- and got its programs off a cassette drive. My first real computer had 128K and a single 5.25" floppy disk drive which pretty much everything ran off of. You had to take the program disks out and slide the storage disks in to save anything.

My mother got a great computer on her desk, just before her retirement. AT&T brand, a 286. It had a 20 megabyte hard drive on it.

I completely filled my mother's hard drive with random changes and shit in less than twenty minutes, and then went over it by almost half-again her space. And I didn't do anything in that time.

Man, every so often I need to be reminded just how different things are now....

I am writing a ton these days.

I write myths. I write Justice Wing. I write other projects. I need to get back to Theftworld. I have three essays I really want to write for Websnark. I have. A lot. Of writing.

God DAMN Gary Olson for making me want to write Superguy again! God damn him to a Hell of damnation and Hell!

Bastard.

Current Music: KPLU News and Jazz

One of my Justice Wing characters is named the Lieutenant. He's barely shown up so far. If Paragon could be said to be my Superman, or the Nightwatch my Batman, the Lieutenant would be my Captain America. The ultimate embodiment of Law Enforcement and the Law and the principles and justice behind it. The ultimate Good Cop, who believes with all his heart in the principles he fights for, never lets vengeance overcome his conscience or his sense of right and wrong--

In short, he's my True Believer character. The incorruptible. The one who gets it all right, every time. The one who wrestles with hard issues because they're hard, and never once takes the easy way out

(For those who've wondered what I mean when I say Paragon, though obviously meant to bring Superman to mind every time you see him, is not Superman, this is why. Paragon would make choices Superman would never make. This is not to make Superman sound like a one-note character: this is the intentional decision to make a failed ectype of the Superman archetype.)

I've been strugging with the right kind of story to really bring him out. I have stories in mind for almost all the JW characters, but the Lieutenant I didn't have.

Today, it hit me. It crystalized in my brain as if we were discussing sugar in a supersaturated solution -- from zero to GLEAM all at once. It would be powerful. I think it would be moving. It is based in the real world, and it would deal with an issue that is painful and emotional and say desperately unpopular things about it.

And right after it crystalized, I thought "if I do this, I will lose three quarters of my audience. And though I'll get some other readers, I won't like some of them."

As God is my witness, I don't know what to do.

Maybe I'm just a coward.

So. The last part of "Interviewing Leather" posted at midnight. This is without a doubt the most popular thing on Banter Latte to date, and this is the blow-off.

It goes without saying that Dreamhost is having Issues today, right?

Dreamhost is absolutely perfect for all my technical needs. Is it too much to ask that they be perfect and that people also be able to reliably connect to them on the internet?

Heh. Probably.

Current Music: Jazz24

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/14181828/detail.html

It's nice to see the referral logs, so you know when people are talking about your stuff.

Until, that is, you have a referrer log back to a nice, juicy livejournal entry that might have something to say about your writing... and you discover it's a locked entry.

You go a little mad. What could they be saying? What would your post have done that drove them to write about you but lock the post away where no one would ever see it but those they trusted not to rat them out? This isn't even an LJ that's entirely posted protected normally -- they had to make a decision to lock this entry.

It's like having a phantom itch on the side of your face that's been numbed by Novocain. You scratch and scratch and scratch, but all you succeed in doing is leaving welts you can't feel on the side of your face with no sense of relief in sight.

Current Music: Jazz24 - KPLU

Look ahead, look astern--
Look the weather an' the lee!
Blow high! Blow low!
And so sail'd we!
I see a wreck to windward
And a lofty ship to lee--
A'sailin' down along the coast
A'High Barbary!

Current Music: KPLU Jazz... um... I mean PIRATE Jazz. Um... heh.

...any chance in Hell Clinton was going to get my primary vote just went out the window.

That's not good, because there's a moderately limited slice of New Hampshire Democrats that Clinton could have appealed to, and I was in it.

The idealists are lining up behind Obama.

The pragmatists had been thinking about Clinton, but now they're leaning to Edwards.

I don't know which side I'll lean, but after seeing the Clinton Health Care Plan Take Two? Yeah. No. Not just 'I differ with you on this issue, Senator,' but 'you are clearly not saavy enough to be President.'

Buh-bye, Hils. Have a good rest of your career.

Current Music: Jazz24

Theftworld needs Zazz. Also, tits. Allusions to nudity in Libby's past is a good start, but maybe define her planet as all nude all the time. I need to think about potential movie and TV options, after all.
Perhaps give Leather an adorable Monkey sidekick? Who doesn't like adorable Monkey sidekicks.
New myth topics: 'No, why don't you shut your goddamn mouth?' 'Why are writers originally from northern Maine are so much sexier and better than you are?' 'Why are whores so totally awesome?' 'Who exactly did die and make me God.'
Back to Theftworld. There must be a way to put a monkey in the cast. A space monkey. Maybe replace Tam Abbot with a Monkey? Would anyone notice?
Possible sequel? Leather becomes a Supreme Court Justice! Consider comedic potential in gavel jokes and PVC robes.
Dude! "Why are Monkeys awesome?" That myth writes itself!.
Running low on old ~~crap~~ gems to run on Wednesdays. Consider plagiarism. Or do what the RPG companies do and announce a 'contest' where people send me stories and agree to sign releases that give me all rights including the right to claim I wrote it.
Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist and Lady Chatterley are all in the public domain. They could totally fight crime! And be married! And own a monkey!
Chad Underkoffler says he's the Monkey King, but he hasn't published a Monkey King RPG yet. Total chance to get to press first here.
Theftworld still lacks Zazz. Maybe rename Sacreae Chairman Baris Bilton and give her a small dog? Consider the potential biting satire?
Consider mind numbing ego driven hyperemo essay about the pain of being a writer. That won't help now, but fifty years from now it's my key into the Norton Anthology of American Literature.
Maybe do a Gossamer Commons thing with a fistfight on top of a moving train? There must be something in Celtic myths about fistfights on moving trains.
No, wait. Have Leather accidentally be given a Fulbright Scholarship. Call it 'Leather Abroad' and claim I didn't mean the pun.
God, I need more coffee. And maybe I should start smoking. Wait! That's it! Total short story about how someone only manages to write when he takes up bad habits, dying early but gaining literary immortality! No one's ever done that.
Screw it. Everyone's a monkey. A naked monkey. Now that's zazz, god damn it.

Current Music: KPLU News and Jazz

Law isn't straightforward. It's a web. An interconnected net whose strands vibrate depending on where the wind spiders stand and the flies land.

Yeah. I like that one. Sometimes I don't like these things that much, but I think I did okay on that one.

I admit it. I've become, late in life, a Power Rangers fan. And by far my favorite series is S.P.D. And by far my favorite character is Doggie Kruger. Who in one of the crossover episodes we see distinctively outdoing Fucking Tommy, so that just verifies that he's the best of the best.

I hate Tommy. But I digress.

Anyway, Weds has made for me what seems to be the ultimate Doggie Kruger icon, and now I share it with you.

Don't fuck with the big blue dog.

Him: Hey, "Interviewing Leather" is pretty good.
Me: Thanks.
Him: You ought to submit it to publishers when it's done.
Me: Yeah, that won't happen.
Him: What? Why not?
Me: It's unpublishable.
Him: You're kidding. It's pretty good.
Me: Thanks.
Him: No, I mean why would you say it's unpublishable.
Me: Right now it's about twenty thousand words long. There aren't another ten thousand words in it, I don't think. That means it'll be somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand words.
Him: So?
Me: So, more than twelve thousand words -- and those twelve thousand words better be fucking brilliant -- and less than about sixty thousand words, and you're in the dead zone. You have to be so amazing that someone will publish your novella when there's little market for novellas and no market for prose chapbooks at all.
Him: Heart of Darkness is in that dead zone, isn't it? It can't be forty thousand words long.
Me: It's not 1902 and I'm not Joseph Conrad.
Him: Wow. Is there any way to get it in print?
Me: Sure. I can self-publish -- doing the Lulu shuffle -- or I can sell a few novels, get a dedicated fanbase, and then publish a collection of short stories and novellas. Or both.
Him: Oh. Okay. Get on that.
Me: Working on it.

And Dreamhost has just hemorrhaged and died -- for everyone on it, near as I can tell. At best, it's very slow.

So, right when Randy's graciously linked to Banter Latte (not to mention Mephron doing a nice solid traffic generating link to the Hero Games forum), Dreamhost has, and this is the technical term, lost its shit.

Same as it ever was, right?

(Girly seems to be just fine, but Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break is slow and halting just like my stuff is. Hrm.)

So. Today I got a search string at Banter Latte that skeeves me... and that means I got to screw over some person with issues.

The string was 'bitch ill break every bone in your body.'

Seriously.

And, frighteningly enough, Part Two of Interviewing Leather is the top pick for that.

The thing is? This is not a story about beating up women. This is a story where a very cheerful woman who happens to be a supervillain breaks a guy's car and cell phone, and then holds him over a precipice until he agrees that she's in charge. No lasting violence of any sort (well, except to the car and the cell phone), and at no point is the woman in a position of weakness, fear or pain.

I can only hope he read all the way to the end, waiting for his woman-battering fix, only to realize he'd been had. GOOGLE SCREWED HIM OVER! MUHUHAHAHA!

Apropos of nothing else, I also had the search string 'leather pants make me a bad boy' come up today. I may never be able to wash myself enough.

Some Stuff By Demiurgent

APRIL 18, GOD DAMN IT! ALL SHALL MAKE MERRY!

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