Cheapie Theatre

PSO2 Alpha - Environment & Etc First Look

2012-02-11T02:47:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer:

“This review is from “Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test 2″, since this game is currently under development, the contents may not reflect the final version. Additionally, such contents may be improved upon in the future. Phantasy Star Online 2 Official Site http://pso2.jp”

Another longer post, this one with "Environments & etc" 3rd in the series.

EXP:

Who knows how it'll be in the final. You can't talk levling in an alpha. But you get it by being CLOSE to monsters who die. You don't need to "Tag Up" like pso/psu. This frees up forces to be healers without having to tag everything with a big spell every 5 seconds to get EXP. It doesn't punish rangers for 'standing back' to shoot, like they want to play. This seems good so far & adds to the fun.

My Room:

Loads of people loved PSU's my room, it's back, and its better, but all your guys share the room. You can buy decos and maybe find them in the level as drop items. Other people can hang out in your room. There's a tub you can sit in, couches, redeco tickets etc. Basically everything PSU myrooms had you're going to get in here, so don't worry.

Environments:

Fantastic. Maps randomly reconfigure themselves to not get boring. Jumping means cliffs, hills, towers, plateaus, just on and on. There IS weather outside, including reduced visibility fog, rain that makes the river push you around, lightening storms that can hit you, sun, clouds, etc. Really good stuff here. Item drops appear as tiny dots on the map! What a nice feature! Lava burns you, stalactites can fall on you, you can chop down trees/grass/rock walls & etc. Feels real-er and interact-able more than PSO or U ever did.

Getting to missions:

All is done via space ship like PSO. No stupid lobby garbage like psu. Blocks set up like pso, so you can meet up and then team up. WAY BETTER. Team name/pass/restrictions & etc all present to customize just like every other game before it, no one will be unhappy.

Mags:

They're not in yet but they're not PM trash from PSU, all signs point to 'good pso like mags'

Scape Dolls:
Not in yet. Should work the same way as all previous

Telepipes:
They are IN! It was a big beef in psu that they weren't there. This has them, seems to work like PSO.

Drops:

Drops are unique to the player, meaning people cant "ninja ur rarz" like PSO. DropING stuff should be possible, we never figured out how to do it. There will be player shops, so that's good too. Dropping when dead? No.

My opinion on dropping is a very big deal (to me) things NEED to be drop-able, trade-able for it to be fun to hunt weps. PSP PSUs limited this on 'very rare' things. You couldn't trade some things which made the game feel stale and stupid, like you were playing "In a bubble" all by yourself. Part of my joy was hunting with friends so if 1 person got it, they dropped it for the other. It better not be ruined here by playing in some isolationist crybaby bubble.

Rappies:

They're in. Regulars look just like PSO's Rags, so that's good. They were a well liked rappy design. They have the same behavior. Sometimes they sleep among a shower of bubbles. No idea why.

Rappy Bighead:
Some kind of brain-meltingly cute rappy.
Seriously. This will RUIN your toughguy card in about 1 second flat. I have no idea what this thing's purpose is but it is so damm adorable I have no idea what to do. Not only does it look cute by being wooly & charming, but it SINGS TO YOU at random complete with colored music notes. And it won't attack you but follows you around like some kind of puppy. It's targetable, but anyone who hits it is likely a horrid monster. I wound up protecting this thing from enemies rather than attack it. Purpose unknown. Consider me intrigued. Especially because it shows up inexplicably in the volcano as well as the forest. How did it get there?

Shops:

Yes, they're there, no they're not finalized so you can't judge them. Not all shops are in. Hopefully char details can be changed for pay later on like PSU had.

Wep detailing:

Yes there's grinding, but I can't judge because I couldn't read enough to do it. You can also combo weps to get better weps? Without trying it, it sounds really really good. Klutter like "the 50th Varista" that PSO people will be familiar with will become useful. Will def. add depth, is all a good thing.

Plot:

There is no plot yet revealed.

All in here looks positive, or unconfirmed/mysterious so far. Only post to go seems to be very brief 'social' and 'over-all impression'.

PSO2 Alpha GamePlay First-Look

2012-02-11T02:26:00.001-06:00

Disclaimer:

“This review is from “Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test 2″, since this game is currently under development, the contents may not reflect the final version. Additionally, such contents may be improved upon in the future. Phantasy Star Online 2 Official Site http://pso2.jp”

2nd post in the series on PSO2!

This one will cover a lot of the rest of the stuff so its LONG but well worth it if you're interested at all.
This one is game-play focused so the

"Bias Alert:
For any critic/reviewer/reporter it's important to know the biases of the person going in. It lets the reader judge the opinions better, and understand where the writer is coming from. Oddly, most critics don't announce their biases up front, forcing you to guess at what they'll prefer over many reviews. (thus creating critics who you like to ignore a lot, because they'll never agree with what you like & etc)

LOVED PSO * A console gamer at heart * Doesn't know Japanese * Prefers action games * Customization is a lot of the fun for combat/appearance/skills * Over complication/convoluted things is considered an annoyance * Making oddball strange characters that aren't mainstream or normal"

still really applies, maybe more-so here because the customization was just 1 aspect and hardly much like PSO's at all. There will be comparisons to PSO AND PSU for everyone who played it or hated them. I've done them all, for every console, every class, so......yeah experienced. First the chosen things, available areas and all:

Only used hunter gameplay
Only used android
2 available stages with boss / sub boss (forest & volcano, bosses were a ball of sticks & a dragon)

First off:
It FEELS faster. Like your guy is faster, you swing & shoot faster than PSO vanilla & PSU for damm sure
Think "god/battle"
The running is quicker meaning you get to the fun faster, which is fab.

A big beef in PSU was you felt slow. They fixed it...ish on the portables but everything's fine here in pso2. Swinging the sword around also hits all the guys not just "Set number of puny targets" like PSU so that frustration is gone.

JUMPING!
Yes, you will love this as much as you think you will love it.
Bird in the air givin' you trouble? Jump up and whack it down. The chars feel weighty enough, you fall fast, it's not some floaty phony jumping. The jumping is awesome, a mega great addition to the game play. They make use of it in LOADS of environments too. It's not forced on you all the time, but you'll want to use it to explore. Its pretty much perfectly done, and adds great dimension to the game.

Fighting:
You can charge hit (like pso heavy attack) you can do combo timing, but you're not limted to the 3 hit whack whack whack of PSO or U. There's no "Chain chain" like the portables either to worry about. Just keep hitting. You have PP (as a hunter) it regens by itself, and by doing normal hits, there's no "fluid" like pso had to re-up it...so its basically there to encourage combo variety.

Blocking/quick stepping:
I was bad at this and am unfit to review it. On a keyboard it stunk, I failed at pulling it off right. You can raise your wep/flat of the blade to block hits as a HU. You can also step-dash out of the way, force can turn invisible/teleport out of the way which is hella cool.

Why is there no FO / techs review?
I didn't play with any of them, and didn't choose it because its the "read-ey-est" class where you'd have to actually know some Japanese to pull it off well or enjoy it. I didnt know enough, neither did anyone I knew so basically fo is in the cold here. If the alpha had had more time on it, I would have tested it out and muddled at it. All reports say 'its good' though.

Weps:
Weps are what you quest for after you've been everywhere. It's an alpha, so they're lacking. HU could use either gunslash, wire lance or giant sword. RA got gunslash or rifle...thing. Felt limited, but its the alpha so oh well. We should get at least everything PSO had which was (saber, sword, twin sword, handgun, rifle, shot, mechgun, etc) when it finally comes out. Wire lance is new, and it's fun. Things will have Photon Arts (PAs) but they're not really implemented yet. So this is one of the things you can tell will be enjoyable but isn't there yet.

ReSpawning:
Enemies can & do respawn. So do boxes and traps if an area is let alone long enough. You can shoulder them aside though, if you so choose/want to go to a diff area. There's no locked gates/doors etc that the other games had. My feeling thus far is neutral toward this. It will take a lot of gameplay to determine if this is good or a nuisance. Likely dependent on how rares will work.

Enemies/Bosses:
Good variety. Did not spot any reskin rubbish.
Wolves use the environment by jumping off trees/walls, monkeys throw rocks, nothing that takes a billion years to die and is boring to fight like some of the PSU things. Dragon was varied, with lots of attacks, goes swimming in lava to 'revitalize itself' somehow. You can knock it down & wail on it if you break the magic crystal off its tail. It's fun to fight when you're not in a panic to not die. Creative enemy entrances (dig up from ground, monkey in tree, jump out of bush, swirl o' darkness, emerge from lava) don't feel fake. Nobody felt 'cheap' either, like the Goshin Worms of PSU or the stupid "flying thing that goes out of range & makes you wait" or the turret in ruins PSO.

Events:
New to the game are events that pop up at random during missions. Protect a fallen ship, weaken enemies so they can be teleported up to the ship for study, exterminate a batch of enemies, fight a miniboss (the aforementioned ball of sticks or Rockbear (this game's Hildebear/Bil De Vear) These seem like a good thing, when they're not timed wrong. Random can mean "you're screwed" too. (if a protect the ship appears at the same time as an exterminate the billion guys...the ship one is GONNA fail because the ship becomes the enemies main target, they will ignore you and kill it off)

These seem fun, and will not be tiresome if they don't end up being super frequent in the final. The importance will be the availability of quests with various objectives like PSO had.

Over All:
Potential to be the funnest PS___ yet. If they up the wep variety, up the PA variety, & give out masses of quests that have various objectives as well as leaving the free-roam as good as it is, it'll be fantastic. Hopefully more monsters too. You know more environments are on the way.

Phantasy Star Online 2: Alpha Article Customization

2012-01-31T02:15:00.001-06:00

Disclaimer:

“This review is from “Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test 2″, since this game is currently under development, the contents may not reflect the final version. Additionally, such contents may be improved upon in the future. Phantasy Star Online 2 Official Site http://pso2.jp”

I managed to get onto the the Alpha2 trial for PSO2, and can provide a review / retrospective / new info for anyone outside of Japan who is interested! Just read on...

Do you remember Phantasy Star Online?
It was the first console ORPG (couldn't call it MMO because it was instanced) and it was on the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast. Whatever the opinion on it, it'll always retain its title of 'first' and 'pioneer'. Created by SonicTeam before their heavily-bashed period of "making Sonic worse", it really was ahead of its time.
In fact, it was considered so much fun by so many people that parts of it are still being played today, right now, online---10 years later. Yes, with all the 10 years ago graphics and the same combat that lots of people put over 1000 hours into. They're still at it. That's really a testament to something special, in gaming.

A popular point in it was character customization.
You could pick your race (human, newman, android) and then male or female, and then customize the face & body as well as clothing color to get a character you could really relate to. It made it so much more fun. People role-played, wrote whole stories & made tons of fan art--because of this great freedom. Every PS game since PSO has at least attempted to expand on the famous character creation system. (the only one that didn't was ps0 for the DS--due to hardware restrictions) Anyone who played PSO will fondly remember their characters.

However, this isn't a retrospective post, it's a future-look at what's to come!
This is a "Part 1" post, with just charcreate since it's so huge a thing, the blog would become too big. There are video & photo links at the end. Other topics will be game play & "Degree of PSO-ness"

Bias Alert:
For any critic/reviewer/reporter it's important to know the biases of the person going in. It lets the reader judge the opinions better, and understand where the writer is coming from. Oddly, most critics don't announce their biases up front, forcing you to guess at what they'll prefer over many reviews. (thus creating critics who you like to ignore a lot, because they'll never agree with what you like & etc)

The above are my biases going in. So you'll know how the review is 'flavored' by the preferences, and if you agree or not.

Trial:
Contains the nice opening video you can see on youtube.
Once you're in you can use the charcreate to make up to 4 guys. Most people just fiddle with it, make 1 guy, and then jump into the game. The incentive is that "1 level 10 or above char gets you into the next trial, guaranteed" so there's pressure to level RIGHT away.

Charcreate:

As amazing as everyone says it is, so far. Is it complete? NO.
They have 100% confirmed MORE will be added to this, so it's only going to get better. But it's important to know NOW what's in, and what's not.

At this point, most anything here is only a minor nitpick except the cast body issue.
You'll love the charcreate anyway. Anyone can spend hours in there having fun with it.

The first Alpha, CASTS felt like they were really ignored.

They were missing the 'look' to a whole set of them (Force/cast), and couldn't modify the body at all. They still feel short on 'costumes' as their entire body can only be restructured by mixing and matching 9 different things. (3 arms, 3 torsos, 3 legs) They only have 3 heads to choose from. (plus a plastic face with the full human range of customization) Since they were underdogs in A1, they still sort of are.

What can you customize?

Ears for newmen, any shape, but length won't modify much. (so no 'beast ears')

Boobs for girls

Body width / fatness / height / definition

To a degree arm & leg length

Eye color / shape / size

Skin color NOTE: Androids get the full rainbow, all saturation levels. It is AMAZING.

Eyelash / eyebrow / facial hair

Makeup & tattoos for everyone, stickers for casts

Hair doodads / glasses / kitty ears / hats (Hat BLENDING)
Facial structure / shape / nose / lips /eye spacing

What can you make with it all?

Kid size to adults, you can basically reduce the boob slider to 'nothing' if you want to, or have giant boobs.
Fat people who are convincingly fat.

Convincing kids where its not miniature adults or misplaced heads
You can get pretty big dudes, but not like you got in PSO. There can't be like...Marvel vs. Capcom Capt. America / Venom styled guys which is somewhat unfortunate.
No albinos (PSO you could)

No sumos

The "dark skin end of the slider" can have a tad of a 'gray hue' to it somehow

No grannies (yet)

It's great because you're not limited to someone else's bogus "beauty ideal" which in PSU was average slim guys and average slim girls. Yes you can make Johnny Bravo styled mutants, but really, so what. Variety is the spice of gaming. The individual parts sliders are an amazing addition. Facial fine-tuning is present and works well.

One of my judgement tools is trying to re-create characters from previous PS games. It's an easy way to expose 'downgrades' or if something's missing. Each game should bring the custom options of the one before it, then build on top of that. The first thing to pop up in that area is hair (always...)

Pros:

Hair physics improved. A lot.

Not so much clipping of hair through the character

More convincing / non blocky hairs

More LONG styles for male & female (long desired by fans)

Saturation slider available for hair / full color range

Hair matches eyebrows if you want it to

Cons:
So far, the hairs (remember, more hairs will be added!) are a tad lacking.
No Asian cuts or styles (blocked off, not whispy- hopefully they're not too obsessed over the new whisp ability that they forget to make other hair textures)
the cornrows are predictably bad (they're immense and look odd)
no afro (it was always really popular with male & female)
no shaved-head/close shave for the guys (you can't have "bald" for men or women because of Hitlerism)
No flat tops

No mowhawks

All the styles are solid here, as opposed to, in that PSU had it where you could mix/match bangs & rest of hair...its kind of a nill point, as that PSU feature didn't do a whole lot for many of the styles

PSU missed the flat top too, but provided loads of Asian cuts & styles, like buns, capped ponytails, looped hair & block cuts/squared ends. As you can tell, I had a guy with a flat top, and another with an Asian style.

The alpha also has less eyebrows & far less cast heads than PSU did, but they'll fix it. It also lacks the solid-color Cast eye that PSU had (it was a delightfully creepy solid color glass bead) Hopefully they fix that too. Giving them the Duman black scalera from PS Infinity would be a nice touch....

Accessories:
No eye covering ranger 'mask'

No helmets

No ninja masks

No bandit or pirate style items / scarves / cloth bands / veils etc

No earrings (yet)

There is an eyepatch, but only 1 & its mechanical in nature

Hopefully, all this stuff gets fixed. PSU had gorgeous female android faces, and loads of them. Everything from creepy dolls to ninja faces, to wonderful styles like the RAcaseals of PSO. Just import the whole set of PSU's female android heads / hairs & a wonderful base will be formed.

Everything here is an easy fix.

Even if the game doesn't launch with something you want (EX. PSO costumes/exact replicas) doesn't mean it won't show up later. This is a PC game, THAT is the advantage of the PC. You can patch in goodies whenever to please the fans. If everyone wails because the afro didn't make it in, well...expect it later. That's not something a console would do until an expansion pack or something.

* you can test the facial expressions before you finalize!

* cut-in chat (comic book style panel with facial close up) still present in-game

* you can choose 'no voice' for your char if you want to keep silent or hate all voices

Videos & photos

See a HUnewm http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192999

Screen shots of various people http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192948
To see charcreate videos, basically go to youtube & search 'pso2'

There are too many to link here, but they'll give great ideas.

The Web goes Dark

2012-01-17T07:42:00.000-06:00

Most of this is Copypasta, but it isrelevent to what's going on. Obtained from Raspberrypi.org

Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing, and others are going to 'go dark' Wenesday Janurary 18th to protest against the proposed introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the USA. SOPA will not just affect those in the USA; its knock-on effects would touch every website in the world. Under the proposed legislation, it would be illegal for us (or you) to link to any website – any website at all, including community-driven behemoths like YouTube, Flickr, Blogspot or WordPress – without checking first that nothing on that site infringes copyright. And we’d have to review those sites continually after a link was made.

Under these Acts, every person making a link to such a site would have to check the millions of other pages on that site to ensure that nobody, anywhere, is breaching copyright. Even search results would be covered under the proposed law. And if a website like ours were to be prosecuted for linking to another site where copyrighted material was hosted, our domain could be confiscated and our IP address added to a USA-wide blacklist, even though we are UK-based and have servers hosted outside the USA – all this without legal process.

So far, so ridiculous. It’s censorship and shifting of responsibility on a grand scale. But despite a loud chorus of opposition to the Acts from legal experts, internet experts, journalists, website owners like us, human rights activists (want to publicise the next Arab Spring using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or another site that potentially infringes? You’ve just provided the powers that be with an instant excuse and mechanism to shut you down) and ordinary people who just surf the web, the Acts stand a genuine chance of being pushed through. Lobbyists like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the movie and music studios have much louder voices and deeper pockets than we individuals on the internet do; but by joining together on January 18 we hope that we can make enough of an impact to be noticed by those voting on the legislation, and by the news outlets that they read and watch.s going dark for a day to protest against the proposed introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the USA. SOPA will not just affect those in the USA; its knock-on effects would touch every website in the world. Under the proposed legislation, it would be illegal for us (or you) to link to any website – any website at all, including community-driven behemoths like YouTube, Flickr, Blogspot or WordPress – without checking first that nothing on that site infringes copyright. And we’d have to review those sites continually after a link was made.

Under these Acts, every person making a link to such a site would have to check the millions of other pages on that site to ensure that nobody, anywhere, is breaching copyright. Even search results would be covered under the proposed law. And if a website like ours were to be prosecuted for linking to another site where copyrighted material was hosted, our domain could be confiscated and our IP address added to a USA-wide blacklist, even though we are UK-based and have servers hosted outside the USA – all this without legal process.

So far, so ridiculous. It’s censorship and shifting of responsibility on a grand scale. But despite a loud chorus of opposition to the Acts from legal experts, internet experts, journalists, website owners like us, human rights activists (want to publicise the next Arab Spring using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or another site that potentially infringes? You’ve just provided the powers that be with an instant excuse and mechanism to shut you down) and ordinary people who just surf the web, the Acts stand a genuine chance of being pushed through. Lobbyists like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the movie and music studios have much louder voices and deeper pockets than we individuals on the internet do; but by joining together on January 18 we hope that we can make enough of an impact to be noticed by those voting on the legislation, and by the news outlets that they read and watch.

Well this is annoying

2011-12-01T12:24:00.001-06:00

Oh hey I kind of haven't been updating this thing. Why? Blame Google+. Most of my quickie observations have been popping up there rather than here, and while I have been working on story segments, it's all fragmentory and none of it lines up with the next part I want to show Here.

Oh and I've been looking into places that might could possibly serve as freelance-ish work, but for that to happen things submitted can't have shown up elsewhere first (but that's OK because I would still retain rights and all that's being asked is nonexclusive distribution.)

That and I'm possibly going a bit batty again, but I'll leave that for. Well. Not Here.

Hang on. Google redid their black bar of Google Service Integration. NOw it's more of a sidebar thing really you click on. No youtube still does not have this, but they've always been kept somewhat seperate. As has Blogger. Nevermind both are owned by Google but eh. Whatever.

I have hopes for something later today.

Modempunk: Part 7

2011-11-19T16:00:00.001-06:00

We're starting to move away from the territory of the everyday and into where things start to get a bit strange. I can't promise it'll be entirely accurate, but I'm making attempts so that what follows will sound at least somewhat plausible.

Edit: Changed a line near the end since I'd honestly forgot Microsoft didn't get Huge till the 90's.

Thief

Head hurts but I guess that's normal. Weekend went well, better than expected to be honest. Miss Stone promised she'd try making sure Steve gets looked after instead of just booted out and or bounced to some other school. I'd write the guy but I don' know where he lives and some things need to be said face to face. Right now i don't trust me to not hurt him if he isn't bowing down apologizing.

Today was my first time at a swap meet. Blackbird wanted me to go so she'd have an extra pair of hands carrying things and I think she wanted me out of the house. OK fine, I had more money than she does so that was likely part of it too. She said she saw it in QST and was supposed to have more than just old radio stuff there.

At first I didn't think much of it. Not really in my interest area. Granted It does interest me a little since grandad's let me use his radio under supervision and some of the conversations I've heard him have are thought provoking. Others not so much.

Finally got to meet at least some of the faces that went with the voices I've heard so often through those ratty old headphones. A few asked me where 'Old Joe' was. I don't know where Granddad goes when he's out of town but it was nice actually to hear a few of the familiar voices that don't actually live around here.

Now that I think about it the whole thing felt like when I first started meeting the rest of the BBS's population.

While I was busy playing catchup with a couple oldsters who'd actually been around since before granddad got licensed Blackbird was snooping around. I dunno which of us told them we were into BBSing but that sparked something. Turns out these old hams had been messing with computers too.

Still having to let that one sink in. These guys have been messing with trying to get radios and computers talking for the past few years. I'd known about teletype and messed with it a bit, but I didn't know they were trying to get boards hooked up through radio. Technical challenges aside there's this part of me that just can't grasp the generally friendly well-mannered group that kindof police themselves on a BBS.

I'd always figured boards turn anyone into a hooting screaming lunatic. Could be the community at large makes sure those problems don't happen. Have to look into that I guess.

Ended up leaving with a commodore 128 with a busted case Blackbird says is in good enough shape she can make work again if she can dive for a case that's got a dead board. Also got a TNC so when she gets licensed she can plug radio into computer and see what's out there. Thing's a kit that'd have to be soldered together but if she's confident she can bring a flea market dead commodore back to life I'd say putting together a pile of good parts isn't beyond her.

Oh and I got a new set of speakers Jim had built. They look nice and when he plugged them in it was pure ear candy. Don't think dad'll like it, but whenever he's out next I'm going to see how loud they can go. Cost a bit but quality costs, and I"m pretty sure I would've had to pay three times as much from a store.

-

Blackbird's off making phone calls while I try processing this bit of news.

> Post Author: Copper
> Subject: AVS STOLEN
>
> A couple guys showed up this morning. Showed some kind of ID then started going
> through my stuff. Plain black suit. No ID. I'd understand, but still be pissed,
> If it was some goons Nintendo sent out to pick up a prototype that shouldn't
> have left the compound but somehow got out but that's not the case here, not at
> all.
>
> Emergency meeting at Jon's. Spread the word around so the non-computer users
> know to show up. Dad's calling the police and we've got the plate number of the
> car they were in, but at least one of these guys had a gun and showed it to me
> when I tried getting them away from my things.
>
> Some major-heavy stuff going on. Jon's. two hours from now. Everyone that can
> get down there. Dad managed to snap a couple pictures while they were too busy
> getting me out of the way.
>
> - Can't Stop the Coppertop! -

When I showed Dad the printout he just went still then left. No words. No advice or warnings. He just got up, left. Something is seriously not right here.

-

Most of this is being taken down at Jon's. Might add commentary later.

Place's packed so we're kinda filed in wherever since we can't be sure others won't show. Will disperse later, but Aku's here and he's one of the people Copper wanted to see. When Aku got a look at the pictures he went still. Said those were the guys that bought his dad's apple. Not just looked like the guys. Those were the guys.

Copper said his dad got approached last week about the AVS Kinda surprised he didn't sell to them since the amount offered would have set Copper for college and then some.

What are we dealing with, a collector that's willing to pay stupid huge money for things, then send muscle out to grab these things if the owner doesn't want to sell? I suggested hiring a private investigator. Copper asked with what.

I've got some money. So does Aku, Sif, Thor, Sero, and a bunch of others. Might buy us a few hours. Might not since none of us are eighteen yet. Still it's a start, and we can try getting more money from the people that didn't show.

Blackbird made a real good point. Why not just wait for the police to do all this? Only counter I have goes back around to Money. Whoever's doing this apparently has lots, enough to set up college funds for kinda interesting hardware that really isn't worth /that/ much if you stop and consider it. So he's probably got enough money to either buy people off or outright stop anything the cops would do.

Bad Idea? Youbetcha. We're doing it anyway. Sero's going with Copper tomorrow to try finding somebody.

Blackbird made an offhand comment it's too bad we can't make a fake system and lure these people in with. She claims she could with some help on cosmetics, but someone with money would probably be able to find out from the makers if it's real or not.

From there someone suggested a hypothetical using either apple or possibly tandy doing a case redesign/cost reduction, or something else to one of their failed lines and remaining unused parts to try making a quick buck. We all laughed at the idea but then we all looked around. Lots of hardware nuts in the club and more than a few junk collections full of working parts. We've also got programmers, people that can do the metal work on a 'rough' case, and it wouldn't be too hard to put up some fake ads.

If nothing else it'd give us something to do while we wait. C'mon. We might even make something that could do something useful. The Altair was a kit system, and people made all sorts of stuff for it. Why not?

[note=MGS] The Machine-Gaming Station ended up being one of Copper's babies. I wasn't involved in the hardware but it had a couple different processors stuffed in there and at the time an overkil amount of ram (256k of ram. My jaw hit the floor. I didn't know the tinkerers had that many spare chips between 'em.) I'm going to spend a good chunk of the next bit going into the MGS since I was one of the people they wanted to do the fake reviews 'from an end-user's perspective' since the pitch they came up with was 'when you want a machine that Just Works.' That and I was deemed one of the better writers they had on hand. [/note]

Modempunk: Part 6

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

Most of my writings have, sadly, been the sort of thing I don't feel like sharing with the general public. You people deserve better than mindless politically induced ranting.

Anyway. Banner's staying covered till I get definite word SOPA's dead.

Snap

It's been about a week since the club meetings started. Aku's dad sold the Apple I, so I guess we should feel lucky to have seen it. I just feel... I dunno what I feel really. Upset yea but why? It felt like a stripped down barely working thing compared to what i have at home. Maybe it's just the fact it's gone to somebody's collection where it'll sit collecting dust instead of get shared with the public.

I dunno.

Messed up thing is Steve's been allowed to join even though he's started taking on a fairly anti-technology sentement. Miss Stone thought maybe it was just part of whatever caused him to snap over the summer and his rants will subside with time. We're supposed to humor him as 'the voice of the opposition'. Personally I"m with Alyssa and Will. His board's a couple chips short.

Sadly he occasionally, even if it is less by design and more by accident, does raise a good point. It shouldn't surprise me much since he's always been good at debate.

-

Sero wants to start a band. Sure i could possibly do vocals, but I'd rather sit this one out. Blackbird's interested even though she hasn't really played anything. Hey couples aren't supposed to constantly be in eachother's business right?

-

"Max?" Miss Stone's voice pulled me away from the maze I was trying to map my way out of. She sounded. I dunno. Not pleased but not mad. "A word with you after class."

Several people snickered. Usually when she wanted you to know to hang back after the bell it wasn't good. I couldn't tell what it was up since i knew my grades were good. So I waited till after everyone filed out.

"Ma'am?" I waited while till she finished grading papers.

Her answer was to slide a stapled together stack of papers at me. "Did you write this?" Again with the not pleased tone. The cover had Gad on the cover in front of a set of tesla coils. 'Across the Stars; A Bonehead's Guide' blazed across the top in block font.

Oh kipple that wasn't good. All sorts of typos, rude language, and definitely situations proposed in what's otherwise a blandish tabletop rulebook that I'm fairly sure my dad wished I didn't know about. Nothing overly lewd but sometimes in a scenario it helps to know where the red-light district was on a given star port.

Me being terrible at lying I nodded. "Yes Ma'am." Waited. Figured the less I said the better.

"I am bound by school regulations to confiscate this..." She held the papers by the corner they were stapled together at. "As your teacher I am disappointed with some of the subject matter, your sentence structure needs work, and there's misplaced punctuation everywhere."

Her tone still had that not mad/not amused tone. I kept waiting.

"However since as of right now you are /not/ in my class I am encouraged by the depth you've gone into and your attempt at reconciling social problems your audience would wish to work into a story with a post-scarcity setting." Small twitch of a blink and you'd miss it smile then. "You'll get this back during your next gaming session."

Flat statement there. No negotiation.

When I was excused i grabbed my things and left.

-

"Wait can't you just print out another one?" Calling Aku annoyed would have been to call water wet. It was after school and he was my ride home.

I tried to disappear into my coat. Not easy to do since I'm a touch over six foot tall. "I don't have enough paper left."

"So? It can't be all that expensive."

My hand shook. it wouldn't be till later that I realized it was because I wanted to strangle him. "I also had to get dad to buy another ink cartridge for my printer. Those things are *not* cheap* and unless you're gonna pony up for another one just so I can run off copies we can deal with her sitting in."

"But-"

It's a minor miracle when I smacked him he didn't swerve ant hit anything. "Dude just chill. It's just for one session and it's not like she can threaten to screw with our grades if we don't make her the star of the show."

-

Right. So in review I backhand a friend. I've got my english teacher showing up for Aku's gaming session, and Blackbird's told me off (rightly so) for getting pissy with Aku. Think that sums all that up nicely.

Oh and Blackbird's Commodore is broken so we've gotta try figuring out if it can be fixed, or if not how to get her a new system. Life's just Prime sometimes I suppose.

-

Das Game

Miss Stone showed up early. Since I was the reason she was there I was responsible for stepping her through chargen (though she didn't really need any.) Her and my dad made small talk and he settled into his chair for the night. Guess he found it off that my teacher showed up for game night.

Table talk ended up diverting from the game to Steve. I dunno what happened. I honestly don't. Sure I haven't made much of a secret about Blackbird and I but it's the eighties let it go people. He must've seen us having a quick frisk between classes. Sure kinda stupid I guess since if somebody wanted to get brownie points they could've had us wrote up for 'inappropriate conduct on school grounds' but it was nothing really just a quick hug and...

Next thing I know he's yanking us apart screaming bloody murder at Blackbird. She tries shoving him away. I've got eight or nine guys piled on me. Surprised they were able to hold me to be honest. She was holding her own fine but-

Oh.

Crap.

I just realized. He wasn't pissed that I'm white and going out with her. He was pissed i was going out with her.

She gets shoved away and he's got his hand on something in her bag when I manage to twist floose. We start yelling and by the time I can see straight I'm on the ground with Blackbird's commodore on the ground and most of the teachers on the floor trying to sort out just what happened.

I'ts been a couple days. Maybe that's why Miss Stone came by and showing up for the game was just an excuse. Blackbird was at home. Not sure if Steve's gonna get expelled or what. I told Miss Stone I think there's something wrong in the head with him. I don't want him thrown out since it'd just leave him with nothing. He needs help.

She kept asking how my head was, if I'd gone to the emergency room. I hadn't and it's just a bit of a headach and a shiner. Had worse when I was little so why bother? Everyone's always said I have a thick skull. Guess I just got lucky that the Commodore missed my face. Guess I should feel lucky anyway since there's a lot of delicate little bones that could've broke. Sure I don't feel great but I don't drive anyway. Big deal.

Down some pills. Get some sleep. I'll worry about tomorrow when it gets here.

American Censorship Day

2011-11-16T14:40:00.001-06:00

This post is made during American Censorship Day. Other than code that I'm running on that day there is nothing else being done on-site. There's much talk of the harm SOPA will do while not actually achieving it's supposed aims by folk wiser than me. So no need to duplicate efforts.

http://vimeo.com/31100268

Modempunk: Part 5

2011-11-15T13:42:00.001-06:00

Yea I had a good day writing yesterday. Trouble is it's stuff that's out of chronological order with what I'm posting. Wouldn't matter I suppose, but I don't want a sudden out of left field 'Wat was that?'

Little Fish Big Pond

Haven't written here till now since the only really interesting thing other than Blackbird showing off a new swimsuit she got, was the general gearing-up went smoother than it di last year. I'd say it's because I'd already hit my growth spurt and didn't have to buy a whole closet full of clothes, but it's not just that. No last minute need-to-haves. None of the expected logjams at checkout.

OK fine. Grandad got me a leather duster that I find pretty sweet, but I'm not sure if I"m gonna wear it at school or not. People might think I'm gonna start some kind of power metal band or something.

Then again I have to admit between the spiked hair, my general build, and with the right lighting, I could probably double as Roy Batty in the thing; which is ridiculously epic in my opinion.

Sadly Blackbird doesn't really share any classes with me, but we do have the same lunch period and there's after school stuff. So it's not like I won't see her at all. Point of fact I'll probably see most of the crowd from Copper's board. Unfortunately that includes Steve, but I hope new school, lots of new people, and all that will help take the edge off of whatever's wrong with him.

-

Just got done helping with a stress test of the school's shiny new BBS. Have to say I'm kinda happy that they included sub-sections for ascii and ansi art. Never did get into it like other Venom or Neko, but cultivate creativity where you can.

...now if only they'd include a set of demoscene sub-boards.

Happy to report the board itself is fairly easy to navigate and the layout's pretty logical. Student Organization sections are sealed till after signups. Makes sense. We can't do any of it till a couple weeks into the semester. I'd say there's staff/SysOp discussion going on though. Has to be.

[note: Music Removal] Removed about three albums worth of bad poetry and song lyrics both because I doubt anyone would be interest in my attempts at purple prose, and because I could've sworn I heard three or eight of them on the radio. Since there's no proof I did it first, I'd rather not have the pants sued off of me. [/note]

-

First Day of School.

General meet and greet aside. I've already got homework from most of my new teachers. Seriously. Oh well. It's all easy stuff really and I'm done except for some of the critical thinking material, but I don't think my science teacher wants a five page write-up/rant on ethics in experimentation. Think it'll probably impress her enough that my work's printed (I sign my own stuff though, not that anyone asked or that it's a particularly good way to tell if I cheated or not.)

Hate the gym uniforms. It's like they went out of their way to make something nobody looks good or feels comfortable in. Might be more the fact I'm bored with the class. Keep having to hold back.

Example: They have a set of weight machines. Most of the class tried it out while she gave a lecture on good habits, knowing your limits, and some other stuff. I was one of maybe three guys that didn't jump right in but I let myself get goaded into giving it a whirl anyway. Had everything set at half of what I'd max out at.

Still impressive considering I'm a beanpole, but It isn't the best out of the class by a long shot. Had to fake being wore out after. Not sure if anyone bought it really but I don't want to make the same mistakes I did last year.

Sure I got called out on it by the teacher but after class I explained things to her. I'll step up if I really have to, but not if it's going to cause school-wide problems. Don't think she bought it since it involves peer pressure and she seems to think you shouldn't bow down if it means hamstringing yourself.

I dunno. Put the question to the boards. Fairly universal 'Go For It man' response, but I don't know how they'll react if I do that.

Enough whining! Work on the supplement to Aku's space setting now.

-

Steve's joined the school wrestling team. He seems happy and it looks like he's making friends. Happy for him. Trouble is he's getting more and more anti-Everything. Anything having to do with gaming, computers, He now considers it all a waste of time.

I wonder what's gone on since I know at one time he had, on the board, a very lengthy text file detailing why computers and computing would be The Future.

-

Making notes while club's meeting. Will transpose later.

So. Meeting starts, introductions made. Feels as strange as when everyone from Copper's board first met over the summer. I mean lots of people from boards we've been at 'war' with, if you think name calling and empty threats count.

Introductions made, time to start showing off some of the stuff. The Apple 1 was up first. Interesting to me since it's a very do it yourself system and there's not all that many of them left since there was a big return for credit to an apple II way back. Other than that I have to say it's kindof disappointing. Just text, coding. Boring presentation but even so it's part of history so I feel a bit bad for being bored [not included; lots of drawings I'd made at the time.]

Next up was a request for any games, relevant books, and the like. Anything so people that were either just interested and didn't have, or, in the case of people who had the same hardware, they could borrow and see if they wanted copies for themselves.

Anything donated would become club, and by extension, school property. Books and Software could be loaned out for a week then it would be a dollar a day fine (barring weekends.) Hardware either stayed in the designated areas or, if a majority consented, could be gifted out.

We're gonna have votes on officers and the like next meet. For now though it's a cooperative head between Copper and a few of the other board sysops along with Alyssa and a couple of the other gamerheads to balance out the non-computer voice.

Argument ended up breaking out over system representation, which turned into shouting over which one was the best system. Won't claim I took the high ground. After all I love my apple and not a chance in the bloody pit of Hades that I'm gonna let some nut with a freaking Nintendo claim high ground.

Not proud of it, but I put up with Blackbird's teasing because between us that's all it is. Plus she lost it just as bad as me when the same nintendo nut started slamming Commodore.

Gotta hand it to Copper for finding a way to make everyone shut up. While the arguing went on he brought out a... something. Looked like a nintendo, but at the same time Not. Was a keyboard, controllers. Wand... gun... thing.

Then he plugged it up and passed the controllers around. I didn't get a turn, but all he had to show was Mario. Not sure what the system specs are, or what it would take to get a disk drive on it, but it looks more like what's sold here than in japan. So maybe we could cobble a few things up as add-ons if we study this thing enough? I dunno but it sounds interesting.

Meeting ended with re-stating a point Copper made when it started. There will be no console vs computer vs brand wars on the school BBS. It makes us look bad and our write privileges might get revoked. Don't think anyone wants that. I sure don't.

Modempunk: Part 4

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

More Modempunk. Figured a day's break was enough to get something bashed out.

Unrelated, but I'm not liking how laggy Google Docs behaves when confronted by novel sized chunks of writing.

Threads

> Post Author: Max Justice
> Subject: The School Year Approaches
>
> While I don't claim to know what Copper has planned I can say that, with the
> exception of Steve being banned (which none of us liked since he at least was a
> fairly cool guy till he went nuts) everything he's planned has ended up being
> stuff we've all been able to get behind.
>
> Personal theory is he's trying to talk Cross Town High into setting up a multi-
> line BBS. How is that awesome you ask? Well they'd want him on as an admin,
> though maybe one level removed from staff sections maybe. It would sure put him
> in a good position to give us any sort of heads up on the doings that they'd try
> surprising us with. That and c'mon, if they'll budget in a BBS they can't be all
> brain-dead fogies ya?
>
> - M -

> Post Author: Blackbird
> Subject: Slightly Misleading Thread Title
>
> Sure it'd be kinda neat if Copper was given an intern job helping keep a School
> BBS running, but that'd mean he wouldn't have time for this place, and they'd try
> keeping him either away from us so they could milk him, or try turning him against
> us so he wouldn't want to share whatever new neat and fun stuff he finds out.
>
> - Do not cross me. I can find where you live. -

> Post Author: Terry
> Subject: Tinfoil Hat Time!
>
> Whoa there girl Even if Copper got a job with Cross High it's not like he'd sell us
> out at the drop of a hat. Plus we don't even know if that's the big project he's
> working on. Nobody knows. Though I think Sharea from IceWind is clued in on a few
> details I'm almost sure she'd keep us in the dark just to make us squirm.
>
> Point is, don't go flipping out over something we're clueless on. Just sit tight
> and let things happen on their own. Plus, even if he did have to give up running
> the board Copper wouldn't just tell us all to find a new place. Venom's got same
> access level he does and they live a couple doors from eachother so it's not like
> there's nobody else.
>
> - Aliases used to Protect the Innocent. -

> Post Author: Max Justice
> Subject: Hints are being Dropped
>
> Blackbird here. Max's letting me use his account since he's said he doesn't want me
> using my login on his machine. I dunno why but whatever. Got off the phone with
> Copper before I left for Max's. Seems that yes there's going to be a school run BBS,
> but Copper's not involved. Slade from IceWind talked them into it and is going to
> help keep the thing running along with a couple of the more tech savvy guys from
> the facility. Supposedly he's getting exempted from a couple classes worth of
> homework to do this, but that sounds just plain silly. Even for the Ever-Boastful
> Boy Blunder.
>
> - M -

> Post Author: Venom
> Subject: If not a BBS then what?
>
> Title says it all. What else could it be?
> - It's only Poison if I don't like you. -

> Post Author: Copper
> Subject: BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.
>
> As some of you have heard I've been working on a fairly large project with Cross
> Town High. It isn't a BBS, like some have suggested, and it isn't tied to any
> official school activities.
>
> Well OK that only works if you don't considered school backed and endorsed clubs,
> Which I'm helping put together along with Slade, Rose, and a few other Sysops in
> the school district. If the school is to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a
> sixteen line system they'll want to make sure the student body will bother using it.
>
> The school board will have no warez discussions. None. Asking about warez or how to
> crack will get you banned, and possibly get some kind of in-school punishment too.
> Same goes for phreaking. In fact if you arn't sure if it's legal. Don't talk about
> It kay? I don't want to have to ban any of you, but if it's my day to act as Op I
> will without hesitation.
>
[note=clipclip] Boring Board Regulation Stuff got clipped here. Seriously. Does anyone want to know how a board that's been gone since '94 is structured or it's three strikes policy?
No I didn't think so. Moving on. [/note]
>
> With that out of the way what about you guys? Well several clubs are being talked
> about. Some want a single monolithic club for electronics, gaming, and general
> computer stuffs. Others want each put in it's own group. Dunno if there'd be enough
> for each to have the member requirements, and if you lump two or three together then
> there's the folk in the amalgam whining at the independent groups running around. So
> I think an amalgamation is the likely way things will play out.
>
> To kind of help bring as much bang to the table as possible we're all bringing our A
> List material to the meeting. Slade's bringing the Apple I his dad bought. I know
> Aku's working with the gamers, especially the ones that don't also have modem access,
> for stuff that will be relevant to their interests. There's a little something I'd
> gotten my mitts on a bit of something that will likely interest most everyone.
>
> Just a couple more weeks. Are you ready for it?
> - Can't Stop the Coppertop! -

*

Blackbird finally let me have a look at Copper's big announcement. She looked pleased. Couldn't really fault her for it since it was a good idea. Get the students that already did this thing to help the staff that might or might not know the ins and outs of the system. Plus having a school recognized club was something that was a bonus all the way 'round.

We got to schedule events. Could use school resources, and possibly would have their discount when buying new stuff.

What? There's an accelerator card I want. Plus we could get books, resources. Blackbird's drooling over the idea of getting her mitts on some of the technical material. She's already good. I've seen her at work with a soldering iron and she's got a far neater hand than I've got.

Got a neater hand than Grandad too, and he's been in the ham radio thing I think since it started? No that's not quite right. It started in the teens and he wasn't around till the twenties. Still. Been a licensed radio guy since at least World War Two, back when the only way to get really good equipment was to build it yourself.

Grandad's met Blackbird. Likes her. Says she's doing real good for herself. I dunno. Those two started talking tubes and ohms, amps and I just kinda wandered off. He was raised in the deep south. Kinda freaked out he's being so nice with her, especially since he saw her coming out of my bedroom.

If he knew we were dating I'm pretty sure he'd kill me or drop over dead... or drop over dead then kill me. No. Now's not a good time. Don't know when would be, but I think Dad won't tell him. Not sure how he feels about it either, but dad knows we're sweet on eachother and seems fine about it. Kinda wish I could talk to grandad about it. They like eachother, smart, and he's been after me to find a girl. Ah well.

Speaking of Dad. Work's been pulling him away more often. Something about new seismology gear or- If it helps figure out if we can tell when the next quake hits before it does. Even if it's just a few minutes, that'd be worth the long nights, him looking like he's been put through the wringer.

Yea, I worry about him.

[Self Promotion] Blue Shadows and Other Stories now on Sale

2011-11-12T18:56:00.001-06:00

Probably should make a proper Page (Google Plus and or Otherwise) for my self-publishing adventures/trials. However here will do just fine for now.

This is my first book. Editing done by me (and it shows unfortunately) and more as a showcase for the sort of work I do than anything else.

Available for purchase Here. As of this writing I'm charging $14, and that price is subject to change in the future (down. I have no illusions that I can get away with charging an arm and a leg for my product.)

If anyone wishes to read without paying that's perfectly fine too. Just so long as it's read.

Unfortunately I do not have the original file I made the interior PDF out of, but CreateSpace was kind enough to give me the provide me with the file they had on hand. It's formatted for 6x9 so I would not advise printing out (when I convert to standard 8x11 printer paper I will make that available.)

Another collection of short fiction should be up for purchase either end of the year, or beginning of next year.

By the way. I have no idea how to make a coupon code for this thing, else I'd put one in to knock the price down a few bucks.

Summery:

Eleven stories ranging from supernatural creatures verses victorian age mecha, to superheroes blogging about their lives.

In the Old West a Genius from the Far East is put under investigation by entrenched competitors that see him less as an innovator and more as a threat to their profits.

One woman's trip to Europe lands her far more, and stranger, than she bargained for.

When people stop showing up for the guild's activities one of their own uncovers more than just people that have become burned out from the web.

A group of thieves get caught trying to steal a computer built before the current laws hampered what could and could not be done.

...and a man and his companion must find out what's been unearthed in the ruined cities of a once thriving civilization that now only serves as a tomb for horrors that have been loosed on a world that's just gotten back on it's feet again.

There are more stories than these. Do you dare take a risk on an unknown to find out what's inside?
An example of the work seen inside this book:

Deep Six
Introduction and Part 1: Buddy List
Part 2: Heat
Part 3: Evasion
Part 4: Non-Persons
Part 5: Verification
Part 6: Opening Shots
Part 7: Dirty Deeds
Part 8 & Coda: Taking it Back

Everything within this book is Copyright Andrew Singleton, and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Story: World of Wonder 2

2011-11-12T07:30:00.000-06:00

Couldn't get much accomplished on the Modempunk front today. Blame whatever you wish I suppose. However I've been listening to Van Canto, which might or might not have something to do with it.

"Now what?" The players looked to Max for suggestions. Nevermind the fact he wasn't playing he had written the scenario Copper was playing off of. They were still looking at him like he had answers.

His head shook as he watched the group. "I have no answers here, and even if I did it would be defeating the point for me to hand solutions out."

Copper sat his papers to one side. "Break for food, come back to this later?"

"Sure," Elizabeth got up, stretched and wandered off. "It'll let a new round of players have spotlight for a bit anyway." This while Terry was trying to slide one of the notebooks nearest Copper over before she smacked the back of his head. "No peaking." And then with a grin she was gone.

Copper motioned for Max to come over when the players cleared out. "I think they're disinterested."

"Nah. Just make sure you leave a little room for input. I mean I don't DM much but I'd feel just a little off-put if all I was doing was being a bit part in something that's set from the beginning." He paused and seemed to think this over. "I mean that on a long term. You can have bits, like you just did, where something /has/ to happen to get the game rolling, but if it were all like that I'd have to find somewhere else to be."

"Makes sense." Copper got up and started mingling with the 'crowd'... if you can call eight a crowd.

[author] This of course raised the question of why food was so expensive. Roughly twelve bucks per pizza You had enough to feed a small army (seventy divided by twelve = five-ish.) Let's say the ten was for a few drinks along with. That's still more food than any group would have a reason to- You know. Forget it. I can magic in people later, or have them eat leftovers the next morning or something. I'd just pulled a random number up when i wrote the last section and I'm probably going to end up editing anyway and this is just being left as is since first draft is going on my blog which people may or may not be reading. [/author]

While they ate someone had apparently hooked a nintendo up and. Well hey let's see how far you can get in mario, or excite bike, or even Zelda (we're fudging this and saying this takes place in mid/late 87 just because I want zelda to exist here.) It's amusing to see people clustered around a TV yelling at the one guy that's actually playing. Fine it's amusing if you're in the crowd giving directions. Not so much when you're the one getting directed.

The TV in the den had Elizabeth's commodore hooked up and an impromptu 'loser passes the controller on' tournament was going on. Game didn't matter to Max. People were at his house enjoying themselves. Granted they were doing so because he'd bought the food and no immediate adult oversight meant somebody, probably Micheal (Aku) was playing Max's Metallica collection entirely too loud.

Then again is there any other way to properly play their music? Mind you this is long before even the Load/Reload albums and the 'fan' cries that they'd sold out, much less Napster and their actual selling out and destruction of their reputation.

After a time Copper started getting a second group, Terry surprisingly being in said group, while Max and Elizabeth watched from across the room.

"I'd worry about whether or not They like me, but it's all just whining and un-cool worry." Max put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Just glad for the company to be honest."

This got a grunt from Elizabeth. "While they're plunging the depths of Planet X wanna go see if they'll let us cut in on Vice for a bit?" Pause a four man 'let's see ho's the best' game so the person who's dad own's the house and the other person who owns the system that's being used can goof off? Nothing wrong with that.

With the party settling into differing routines let's go visit the world of make-pertend to see what the crew of the Tesla is getting themselves into.

*

The natives, as it turned out, did not speak GCT (Galactic Common Trade) or any of the other languages that those in the small expedition party knew. Granted they knew maybe three other languages (Imperial, Trade, and Techno) so it was entirely possible they merely spoke Esperanto since at least a few words seemed to sound somewhat familiar.

Sarah was holding out a series of objects the group had agreed they were willing to part with for barter, since nobody seemed to have a debit-chip reader on hand, for either whatever passed for local money. She had a feeling she was being swindled, that or her sense of value was so skewed compared to the locals that each probably considered the other mildly insane.

For instance a pair of unused jumpers looked like it would go for what amounted to enough food for the group to eat but not much else. Nevermind the fabric itself would keep the wearer warm, dry, could absorbe a full clip from a plasma pistol with no real damage to speak of, and could be machine washed. It wasn't enough for these people. Gesturing and pointing around made it clear that they valued the garments about as much as they would their poorest work clothes; sturdy and good to have, but nothing to write home about.

On the other hand the pair of bio-monitering bracelettes seemed to be enough to buy a house large enough for the small group to live in and a week's worth of supplies simply because they were pretty and nobody knew how the band could both be a single piece of metal, yet be as flexible as it was.

"Great. We've got a beacon set up in the loft," Allen informed the rest of the group. "We hole up till they show, pool our resources then chase leads."

Mic seemed displeased with this, which wasn't particularly smart considering he was twirling a pair of short swords around like a circus performer. "I dunno. Sounds too much like sitting around on our duffs and hope stuff happens."

"Your point?" Allen sounded annoyed. He wasn't armed and wouldn't have been able to physically overpower Mic even if they were both unarmed, but he just sat there looking annoyed. "We're on a planet with no means of getting a message out for another ship to give us a lift back to civilization. There's no guaranteeing that the computer will work even if we get it back OR if the lifeboat will be able to get off this rock even if it does."

"Pessimist." Mic grumbled before sheathing both weapons while managing to cut himself in the process. It was easily patched and wasn't remotely life threatening, but come from a society where you don't swing sharp things around for a living and you shouldn't try doing stunts with the things.

While Sarah watched the two try for the alpha male position she started planning. Then after they both went to sleep she took one of Mic's swords, one of their survival packs, and started out of town. She had no idea where, except it was away from the arguing and might in theory lead somewhere useful.

*

"Guys this next bit's gonna take a bit so go stretch your legs. Talk. Go look around whatever... Alright?" Copper then looked to Crash and motioned for him to sit back down. "This part's just to establish your character.

"Groovy."

*

The sacrid mountain had been invaded. Though it had lain in ruin since time out of hand few had dared try taking that mighty hall as their own. Those that were soon faced with a populus that fought with the tenacity and fury often overlooked by those that would dismiss them as simple mountain folk.

All those who had tried before had fallen by renewed resistance when they dared break sacrid tradition and enter the Great Hall. That is, all till They came.

They faced a brute army more beast than man led by winged beings that demanded the people bow down in worship to their God-Emperor.

Songs are sung. Tragic ballads played of the slaughter on the Ancestral Mountain. Even these beings from past the Veil were moved by their courage. Though they had lain countless peoples to the winds and comitted genocide on top of atrocity they burned the memory of that last desperate stand within the mountain hall. Tens of thousands gave their lives so a few hundred could carry their legacy onward.

Their blood flows in the veins of the boy that gave his body so I might live. Their blood remembers even if they themselves do not. Their blood calls to me to avenge myself on them.

He is without his former strength and have only a handful of soldiers. Yet the call is something he could as soon ignore as he could cease to breath. It forced his hand. Yet to right this ancient wrong. It felt proper.

*

"Whoa Woah WOHA man!" Crash smacked the table with a palm. "Are you /trying/ to build your NPC up to being a God or something?"

Copper smiled a thin smile, one of satisfaction at something not entirely nice. "No Crash. This's the intro for your character. Take a better look at the sheet."

Several moments were spent skimming which showed Crash had a, compared to the setting he'd been told about, completely overpowered character. "Uh... why?"

"Because," Copper toyed with his dice bag. "You are new and I figured giving you someone that was pretty hard to kill relative to the general threats would let you focus more on the character's story, personality and such."

"-but you pretty much already gave the guy a background. I mean 'fallen demon king bound in a human shell' kinda seems more like a mid-level end campaign NPC than a player character." By this point Terry and Viper came back from their break.

"Yea," Terry sounded happy about something. "But you gain a quarter the experience you should, and the other three quarters experience you were supposed to get goes to us if we're in the same scene."

It took a few moments for this to sink in. "So I'm a walking level crutch and player shield?" Copper nodded. "That kinda makes sense, except I'm a Naitive and you're all kindof crash-landing on my back yard." He then grinned at the rest of the party and leaned back in his chair. "I have ideas."

"Sweet. Let's do this."

*

"Sir?" Familiar voice.

He hear other noises, sounds further away than whoever was speaking. "Sir!"

Someone was shaking me. The Warlock looked around his tent then to the short stocky creature that was his aid. "Yes Leeroy?"

"There are strangers here Lord." Leeroy made no show of respect or servility. Instead he aided the Warlock in dressing and explained that these strangers had come from the sky-ship that had been sighted earlier.

"It worked then." Bare whisper, joyless tone to his voice. The Warlock's thin lips twitched into a not-quite smile. "Thank you Leeroy." His voice louder now. "Have the men clean camp and make themselves presentable."

"Yes Sir." Leeroy bowed before exiting.

With him gone the Warlock opened a journal and started writing. "It is the fifty ninth day in the third year of my Exile of Flesh. My spell worked! The object I was informed of through the few creatures of the aether still loyal to me contains a trove of knowledge that I had to expend most of my stored mana reserves to obtain. It is still a chancey thing. Their... library is unlike anything I have seen before. Fortunately it seems that a small band has been dispatched from the downed craft and has wandered close enough to my current position for me to parlay with. That is if they do not immediately take hostile action and get ripped apart."

That done the Wizard took a few minutes to make sure his robes were arranged properly, that the collar was folded exactly right, and that there was nothing obviously out of place. Only then did he leave his tent and inspect the camp.

Standing in the central clearing/parade ground/common area/whatever stood a lone woman. She was dressed in a curious dark blue jumpsuit festooned with pockets, some empty and others not, looking at the Wizard with... amusement. She appeared burdained with a framed pack of some sort, but held no obvious weapons.

"So you're the boss of all these little lizard guys?" Her voice sounded somewhat disbelieving.

"That's right." The Wizard's voice was smooth as silk, hard as an iron slab, and held just about as much warmth. "I am-"

"Somebody that is trying entirely too hard to impress me." The fact Sarah interrupted The Wizard caused several of the pint sized folk in camp to scurry elsewhere. "The fact we can understand eachother says lots of interesting things. Right now though I'm only interested in getting a thing stolen from my ship."

"What would you offer in exchange?" Flat tone from The Wizard, unamused and somewhat bored look on his face. "You don't look like you would offer me much save for a brief fit of entertainment."

Sarah rolled her eyes at the idea.

"However I know how to get what you need. You know things that I wish to know." The Wizard's hands clasped behind him as he paced. "Due to how messy torture is and how unpredictable the results I am forced to help you and those that wait on your return."

"You'll help us?" Color Sarah skeptical, but the one person on the planet who can speak the same lingo as her offering aid seems a bit fishy.

The Wizard seemed aware of this, or maybe not since his face seemed frozen in one of five expressions each more bored and or disgusted than the last. "Yes."

"And what do you get out of this deal?" The inner cynic living on Sarah's shoulder was threatening to take over at the current rate of her disbelief in random acts of kindness.

The Wizard smiled, and it didn't even take a team of sculptors or puppeteers to manage it either. "My total sum of knowledge will be increased, and you will be off this world." Then he added in a dry matter-of-fact way, "I would simply have you and your companions killed, but I fear what your shade would do if left to linger here." He looked at Sarah's face, attempting to meet her eyes. "Go back whence you came and bring your companions to speak with me."

There was something about his voice that reverberated through Sarah's skull and used the fragments to kill the jaded cynic that had been puppeting her around. "Our goals are mutually beneficial and I do not wish you to remain here a moment longer than can be helped."

Sarah turned around. as the Wizard leaned over, his lips next to her ear. "Go."

With that command she was off like the world as on fire behind her and her hair was catching.

Modempunk: Part 3

2011-11-11T07:30:00.000-06:00

You know the hardest part of this? Aside from making sure I don't gaff on details like when Star Trek Next Generation got going or if there were any contemporary tabletop games that used space and or SciFi themes.

Seriously. I wrote a big long huge scene between Max Copper and Siro debating whether Kirk or Picard was the better captain and how each would handle the other's problems. Having to use that bit later on since TNG came out in '87 and 'now' in my story is middle of '86.

Anyway. Hardest part of this is writing something new Every Day. Easy to do in fits and starts a coule times a week. I've always considered myself a fairly creative sort, but NaNoWriMo has always tasked me due to having that daily goal that has to be met or I start lagging behind.

Flamewars and Stolen Goods

Been a week since I'd met Blackbird. We talk on the phone. Constantly. She's Commodore and I'm Apple, but she's a smart girl and she's showing me things about my box I didn't know about. Granted I've never been big into the whole programming thing and all but most of what she's explaining is practical stuff. Methodology, organization of files and the like.

We've been batting around the idea of writing a text adventure or, I dunno, something. The problem is we don't know how zork manages it since they can't go rewriting the whole game from scratch for each system. We'd put the question to a few boards and the general consensus is they use an interpreter that then looks at the game data.

Great. Awesome. We know sorta what they do but no idea how. Plus Steve's making more angrish noises on the boards and he's getting support. Says Blackbird's 'coming out' is just a stunt so everyone will stop paying attention to him.

Granted it IS a stunt, mostly because we couldn't find some peaceable way to talk him into being quiet. Board's in a huff and Copper's growing more frustrated.

Both Blackbird and I have promised we'd help with the Independence Day meetup. Personally don't know how so asking Siro and Venom to help organize, take funds, and the like. Everyone trusts Siro to be impartial and not skim. Dunno why since most of us haven't actually met. Sure there's small clusters of people, but it's largely the board itself that brings us together.

Weird when you stop and think about it since it only runs part of the day and it doesn't even have that big of a warez section and nothing to speak of in art. Ah well. It's mostly talking gaming and the occasional bit of social.

Case in point. Venom and Art have been huge into Dungeons and Dragons. I mean like Godzilla huge. They've been giving me transcriptions of the basic ruleset so I can try coming up with a setting they can use that isn't the usual Conan the Barbarian or Lord of the Rings ripoff.

I am an unrepentant Star Trek nut. I view Kirk, Spock, and McCoy as a holy trinity of interstellar asskicking with Scotty keeping the Enterprise running with Hope Dreams and LOTS of Duct Tape. Blackbird likes Star Wars, and I gotta admit X-Wings and Lightsabers look totally rad, but gimme a phaser any day. I'm also, and if anyone finds out I'm probably going to have to turn my geek card in, of Battlestar Galactica. Don't ask. Please, any hypothetical readers, don't ask. There's a poster of Mars in my bedroom right next to a painting of one of the Tripods that attacked London.

This is brought up because my background is in Space. I know of fantasy settings and even like a few. However I'm going for something rooted in the Stars. Sure TSR has a few things for space but Venom only has DnD so I'm making what they have work for what they want.

[note=SciFi Tabletop Gaming] At the time Venom, Siro, and a few others actually had their eyes on existing systems that could have worked. There was already a Star Trek themed RPG, ditto for Marvel, and I think Gamma World was in 3rd ed. Thing is, none of us had these things and our money was already either used up or spoken for. So make do with what was there and maybe if we were good little jibbering idiots we'd get some shiny new books to play pertend with for Christmas, or if one of us managed to make enough with summer work above and beyond what we'd already decided to save up for. [/note]

There are four days between now and the meetup. Hoping to have something sketched out to give them there. Man this's gonna be one of those 'it's gonna end up weird and everyone's gonna wonder what drugs I've been on' sorta things. I just know it.

Will transcribe later . Right now using a notebook and pen to get everything down. Weird. I've known some of these people months and never actually saw 'em. No wonder the news, media, whoever runs TV Land is cashing in on the spooky computer guy image. Probably going to mishmash tenses during transcribing along with color commentary spaced throughout. Have to remember to keep things consistent. Even if nobody reads this except Blackbird it's good practice.

The big fireworks display was on the opposite end of town from us. Sure it meant we kinda missed out on the big show, but it meant traffic was less of a problem. Most of us didn't drive so there were a few of the folks there; my dad, blackbird's mom, but surpisingly few adults on hand and It was mostly us pooling what we had in way of food and kaboom.

Granted it wasn't much, and the big draw was the food, but hey make your own fun.

I'd used a good twenty or so sheets of printer paper but I'd gotten Siro that writeup I'd promised. It was only threeish when we got together so plenty of light, and it's not like we were just there for dice rolling. I don't bike, but most everyone else seemed to have one, or a skateboard.

No. I don't skate either.

[note=Party] Looking back I don't quite get it. I remember things strangely. Maybe I'm mixing stuff that happened later in highschool and or college with what happened that night; but I want to say someone had brought a brick of pot and we got stoned out of our minds waiting on the food to cook. None of that in the writing though so either memory's fuzzy, or this was right before we toed in those particular waters. I dunno, make of it what you will. Was a fun night. Mostly anyway, maybe it would've ended better if we had pot on hand to keep Steve from being such a, and I'm quoting myself here, 'Major source of Bogus Karma.' That is one thing I do not miss about the 80's at all. Good riddence, we have all new slang to be embarrassed about... dawg. [/note]

Steve. I dunno. I just don't. He kept hassling everyone. Demanding a public vote to get Copper removed as admin. For awhile we just ignored the bile and tried getting him to watch the pretty lights, get some fresh air. Mellow a little. It was fine for awhile. Most everyone I talked to agreed he probably just needed someone to talk to, get things off his chest.

Then it just got worse as the night went on. He got louder, bolder, more annoying. A few of us think he was drunk. He just wouldn't let it go. Started screaming at me, copper, blackbird... said we were all trying to hurt him. That we were trying to take away the things he was good at.. My dad ended up calling his dad. Took him to one side to try getting him to open up, or at least he tried to. Steve hit him. Not hard, more of a 'shove person away with your fist so you can hit them' than actually punching.

Then he hit my dad. Full on in the face. I think all of us were too surprised to move. It even caught Steve off guard, or at least he looked as odded out as the rest of us. Dad checked his nose, winced at something when he did. Maybe something got broke, probably not but there's lots of little bones in there that can break.

Steve must've figured out just how major wrong a thing he'd done because he ran for it. Never-mind the fact he left his car there. He ran like were were about to sprout claws and haul ass after him. A few of us might have but I think it was just the shock of it that kept us from reacting as a group.

Dad's fine, at least he's saying he is.

Have to say I actually feel sorry for Steve. Till we started working together everyone said he was one of the nicest most even tempered people around. Wish I knew what made him snap. Lot of things could've been it. Aku said his home life was in the dumps and he kinda used the boards as an escape. Taro said she'd keep an eye out. See he can be talked down.

Copper's said nothing on what he'll do about all this. There's other places he can go if it comes down to that, but something's wrong, seriously wrong and I want to know what, but I'm the exact worst person to go poking around.

Blackbird's here with me for the night. Her mom's got a party she wants to go to. So she's got the guest bedroom. Not like we'll be sleeping much.

. . . . .

Oh stop it. We're gonna watch Blade Runner and Tron. It's not like I'm going to make a move on her with dad home. Seriously what kind of bonehead do I look like?

modempunk: Part 2

2011-11-10T07:30:00.000-06:00

I'm posting what I can so it'll show the day after it's written. Hopefully this will give just enough pressure to keep moving but not so much that I just fold in on myself like last year.

02 A New Challenger Appears

Nervous? You bet. I didn't shake or anything like that while waiting for whoever on the other line to pick up.

"Hello?" Girlvoice. Familiar but I probably didn't know the person it belonged to.

I took a breath and tried to calm down. "Blackbird?" Felt weird saying her board handle out loud. There was a pause. "Copper said it was alright to call. I'm Max."

"Oh," Pause on the other end and some other noises. "Fruitboy. So, what do I do to prove to you airheads I'm actually the girl on the other end of the keyboard." Less than amused voice. Also, fruitboy is not my handle. Seriously....

"Why wouldn't you be? This's the number that matches the name and-" I was cut off.

Her voice had a tinge of annoyance to it. "All it would take is me getting some girl I know to lurk around or read printouts to get a good idea of what goes on, then have her do the phone work while I laughed my head off at suckering everyone in."

I hadn't thought of that to be honest. "Oh. Well," I tried scrambling for some kind of response so I wouldn't sound like a total idiot. "Well it kinda works both ways doesn't it? You get girl to pose as 'you' then you have to make sure she won't make her own account and spill the beans. Plus Copper has something planned on the Fourth so you'd miss out if you were using somebody else as a puppet."

"Well hey. You do have a little common sense." And what was THAT supposed to mean? "Granted you spend way too much just to get an apple when you could've put down a couple hundred for a Commodore and put the rest away for other stuff." Something of a teasing quality to her voice. Guess she was trying to tease, but it just got on my nerves.

So, being the ever-enlightened and levelheaded fourteen year old, I started mouthing at her. "I didn't buy it, my dad did. Plus I've got software going back years, and I've got all kinds of expansion down the road. Your little breadbox, what's it got?" I tried toning it down so tried winding up. "Plus I've got something compatible with school systems. I get an assignment. Boom. I can do most of the work at home, and goof off with wolfenstien or Zork or whatever."

Laughter. Musical and joy filled laughter on the other end of the line. "Wolfinstein? I've got Vice Squad."

"Yea. On a download off some BBS with a lame crack screen." I pulled a disk out of my collection and smiled at it. "Bet you don't have the real thing. Complete with the foldout map of the city and files on the gangs you're hunting down hmmm?"

[note=feelies]That's something I sorely miss from gaming today. Sure not everything came with maps, files, interesting cases, or the like. However the stuff that did just kinda stands out. Plus it acted as a sort of anti-piracy since as often as not you'd need something from the bundled material to get through the game.[/note]

"I've got high score on Space Paranoids at Jon's." Calm voice. No pride to it or snark, or whatever. Just a simple statement.

I couldn't let it stand though. Sure I wasn't a nova-hot gamer, but to let some /girl/ have the high score? "Saturday. Noon. Jon's. I'm going to annihilate whoever's high score. Be there."

More laughter. "Many have tried. All have failed." Singsong voice. "But it'll be fun watching you try. "Byyyeeee." Click.

So I've got a date. No not a date. I've seen that score taunting me for months now. EBC. Those three letters hanging there Just under FLN. Then again FLN had what's been generally agreed on to be the hard-limit score for the game. Then again there's so much of a gap between those two sets of initials that I could scoop little miss EBC and there'd still be room to stack the loser on top and have a little wiggle room before even touching Mr. FLN.

I'm not even sure if Space Paranoids has a killscreen or not.

-

Game Day's come and gone. I'm... not in love. Have to keep reminding myself it's probably just the fact she's got a killer bod and was being a bit of a flirt.

Jon's is pretty crowded. Sure you have the usual half-pints and parents that're there just because they don't trust their kid unsupervised but the Space Paranoids Cab was a ghost town. Strange, but then I looked at the person playing.

Girl. Dark skin. Short hair. I grinned, nolonger caring that the usual crowd of watchers weren't there, before changing out a few bucks for tokens. She wasn't paying attention to anything but the recognizers filling her screen. Would've been rude to intentionally break her concentration so i put my token down on the control surface and went to get a couple drinks. Figure if this's Blackbird then she'll want to stay and watch. If not, then it's just courtesy really. I had extra money to blow so why not be nice?

So I get back and it's still just the girl but she's about to get her last life crushed. I offer her my spare drink and pick up the token I'd put down to call dibs on next game.

"Blackbird?" I was somewhat unsure if it was her or not. When the girl smiled and stepped aside I smiled back. "Now. Watch the maestro work."

You know. It's almost like I was tempting fate there since I promptly got smished.

I glowered over at the girl, who was all smiles and innocent cuteness. Then I focused back on the game. Joystick with some buttons on it for the turret. Trackball for general movement. I'd heard they wanted to name this one something else like 'Space Paranoids: Revenge of the Recognizer!' or something like that. I'd seen some of the older units and I personally like the new control layout. Kinda takes getting used to, but as I slid around a corner firing at recognizers chasing me, I had to admit it had it's uses.

Couldn't afford to pay attention to it at the time, but I'd already beat my old high score by the time I'd passed through the fake wall in the middle of stage nine and hit a secret warp.

"Well I'll be dipped in cornflakes." Again, didn't pay attention at the time. I'm going off memory, which probably means Blackbird said something far less family friendly. To be honest I'd known the warp was there, but got killed by a rouge tank that'd followed me through. Guess they go in secret areas if they're already targeting you, but otherwise can't, because the one on level three seemed completely empty save for a couple recharge stations.

This one took me to level ?4. Guess that means there's at least three other ? levels. Oh well, not breaking Flynn's score today. This level... destroyed me. I got a couple of the tanks but it's one giant open pit and even with infinite ammo it's thirty on one.

Then it spat me back out at the 'proper' level after the one I'd warped from. It even credited me the kills I got in there how nice.

Long story short I couldn't beat her score. I came inside of spitting distance, but still no dice. She wooped and did a little dance. "You're good boy, but I'm still the best."

"Aside from Flynn you mean?" Didn't mean it to be insulting just. Yea. Pride I guess.

She snickered. "Well he /wrote/ the game didn't he? Nobody'd be as good as him. I'm happy with taking the number two slot if he's the only guy ahead of me. Oh and... pay up."

"Que?" I was caught off guard. No bets were made after all.

Still, she held her hand out as if expecting money. "Pay up. You lost, so you're buying me lunch."

Ooooh. "Lunch I can do." I grinned. Lunch wit ha cute girl. Might be Blackbird, probably was to be honest, might not. "Oh, you said you were looking for Challenger Deep?"

"Yea. Hadn't seen a copy floating around. No word on if it's because the game sucks, or if it's new copy protection."

I pulled a disk out of my backpack and held it up. "Tada!"

She made a face a me. "Apple Two software won't work on a Commodore genius."

That's when I turned the disk so she saw the other side.

"Oh wow, didn't know it's a flipper. Gimme!" She made a grab for it. Seemed playful, but I kept it just out of reach. "C'mon that just ain't right. Tease a girl with new softs and not gonna share." She punched me in the shoulder.

"I'll give it up on one condition." This caused an eyebrow. "You help me figure out a way to get Steve to stop being such harshing everything." Only after she'd nodded did I hand the disk over.

Story: World of Wonder 1

2011-11-09T14:36:00.000-06:00

Modempunk isn't the only thing I'm up to this year for NaNoWriMo. It's what I planned on and researched for. However I'd started on a 'what if these people started playing D&D'. Granted it isn't the usual campaign, but this is back in the hairy old days of Tipper Gore and her Moral Crusade against the Satanic Tabletop Gaming Menace.

So let's have a look at a B story. Cringe at what gets flung around.

World of Wonder
The Ship from Beyond the Stars Vs. The Warlock Terror

"So wait?" Elizabeth looked across the table at Max. "It's your idea to drag everyone here, wrote up the campaign complete with detailed notes and NPC characterization, and you're not playing?" She looked somewhere between perplexed and angry. "What gives?"

It was only after he finished his coke when Max answered, which irritated Elizabeth further since, well... who likes being made to wait? "OK 'everyone' being eight people so far, maybe a few more but I kinda doubt it."

Skeptical look. "You told the whole club your dad was going to be out for the weekend. Everyone's gonna show."

"Anyway I'm sitting out since I don't want to hog the spotlight and Copper wanted to have a go DMng." Max's voice sounded somewhat defensive before he gestured over to Copper. "Right?"

Up till now Copper had been hiding behind a binder full of handwritten notes, stickfigure monsters, glued on pictures, and a few printer pages scattered here and there. "Argument's between you two. I'm staying out of it."

Doorbell rang. Somebody else answered moments before a voice shouted back, "Hey Max Pizza. Guy wants money!"

"How much?" Max got up and started for the door.

"Uh," Pause, "Seventy!"

Pause. Max's expression darkened before he looked over at Elizabeth. "OK, Guy's about twenty minutes late. Pay, no pay?"

"Five bucks off each pizza."

"Yea but their commercials said-" Max started to protest before being cut off with a look.

"It comes out of the driver's check when they're late."

"Uh...oh..." Max sighed. "Right then." One Wallet-pull and money-count later he was helping Alyssa (who he didn't know all that well, but hey she was on the books so she got a slot in the party) carry food in.

With everyone either feeding or already fed Max turned to Copper and raised an eyebrow. "Well hey what's the big plan now?" He slid into the recliner his dad normally sat in and looked from where Copper lounged to the Blank TV. "You ready, or you want me to put a movie in?"

"Nah. I'm good." Copper didn't sound 'good', but he pulled out several character sheets. "Get everyone together and we'll do this."

With a grin Max got to his feet. "LISTEN UP! Anyone in on Copper's first campaign get your butts in the den right now. Everyone else is either free to watch or since I've seen a couple people bring their own hardware, set up in my room." He paused, thinking about this for a minute before adding, "I find anyone doing the horizontal mambo, or trashing the place they clean it up then they're out, with my foot up their asses if I have to."

There were a few grumbled voices but on the whole nobody seemed to object too much at the rules, especially since they'd all signed agreements saying much the same thing at school. Granted Max didn't much care who was doing who, but some things you just didn't do when at somebody else's house.

* * *

The Tesla is a lone Protectorate Science Vessel out in what is charitably considered the backwater reaches of the Far Arm of the Galaxy. It's largely automated save for a number of researchers, a skeleton crew to oversee ship functions, and it is currently being pulled towards an E class world

*

"Wait," Elizabeth looked up from her character sheet. "E-Class? I thought were were going for Star Trek's system."

Copper shook his head, "Even Trek wasn't consistent. So I'm scrapping it. E for Earth-class. Sure it's human-centric but according to Max's setting notes there is no other intelligent life. Just humans and human-derivatives."

"Oh" Elizabeth sighed. "Right, sorry for breaking narrative."

Copper smiled, "That's alright. We're getting to the bits where the dice get rolled and you guys figure out how to keep from dying."

"Yay." sarcasm dripped from Terry. "All aboard the GM Railroad Express.

*

"Ma'am it's the damndest thing." Ensign Rio looked from his console to the Captain. "Considering Orbit, relative mass, and our current heading I can't explain it, but my board's acting like we're in stalemate with whatever's pulling us in."

The captain considered her options. "Tractor beam?"

The heavily cybridized crew member manning the bridge's tactical station shook his head. "Negative. The world itself appears largely uninhabited, at least going by the structures showing on sensors. Primitive un-reinforced masonry for the most part. Largest settlements appear to contain only a million inhabitants at most." There was a pause before he added. "Assuming their civilization follows the same basic population densities as similar 'back to basics' Terran colonies."

The captain quirked an eyebrow. "Who put the chief of our research compliment in charge of tactical?" Her console beeped and flashed a message across a display mounted in the arm. "Nevermind." Dismissive wave of the hand as she considered options. "Engineering reports the more power we feed to the engines the stronger the pull becomes."

Rio looked unsurprised. "Matches what I've gotten from wrestling our way free."

There were glances around between Tactical, Rio, The Captain and several others on the bridge.

"Slingshot."

Headshake from Rio. "Might work, but if whatever's pulling us down there can compensate we're slamming ourselves nose first into the planet fast enough to pretty well ruin the local ecosystem."

"As opposed to just coasting in pretty as you please for whoever's waiting?" The Captain's voice was a bitter rebuke. "That wans't a request. That was an order."

"Aye Ma'am." Rio's fingers danced as he plotted a complex course of action. Granted they were hundreds of thousands of miles away, but once they stopped opposing the pull on them and started going with the proverbial flow it would take only moments to act.

The wonders of 22nd Century technology letting him get away with doing this.

It should have worked. Between the tug carrying them through the system and the power of the ship's engines they should have built up enough momentum to pass the failure point of anything that could influence their ship's course from that far out.

*

Elizabeth and Terry both throw wadded up paper at Copper who batted both away. "look, you botched your Diplomacy check," He pointed to Elizabeth. "That and even if you had I would've only advised Terry that Ensign Rio should do as the Captain suggested. You," He pointed ot Terry. "I can't help it that you botched three skill checks in a row to try keeping your ship out of a nosedive. I let the dice do the deciding on things like this, and it's not looking good guys."

*

The Tesla survived; barely and by a generous stretch of the world 'survival' to mean 'One person in twenty weren't killed on impact with the planet's surface.' This was less due to navigator error or the ship and, sadly, almost completely their fault for not paying attention to the 'we're about to crash into a planet so please buckle up' signs.

Later.

How much later?

The ship's Chrono broke and everyone's personal clocks disagree so it's impossible to tell exactly.

Survivors found that the crew compartment of the ship. The big bulgy thing that looked like it was glommed on top of the research decks forward of engineering. Yes that thing. It survived largely intact. It even was, in theory, able to get off the planet under it's own power.

Well it would except for a couple things, and both are kindof important. The tractor-beam or whatever it was that pulled them here was still active, still resisting the ship's drive. More importantly the ship's primary computer was gone so even if the drive could work unhindered they'd be unable to enter slipspace.

How was the computer taken? It was just gone. Just the computer. No holes, no debris no nothing suggesting anything entered the ship, or it got thrown from the ship during the crash. There was just a computer shaped hole.

Modempunk: Introduction & Part 1

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Random somewhat relevant picture.

So It's week two for this year's November Insanity. However even though I've managed to keep more or less on schedual with wordcount it's all a jumbled mishmash of disconnected that just doesn't feel like it's gelling together. So I'm going to start the story over in the style that's worked best for me in the past; First Person Perspective.

So what is this? Just so folk have a little fore-warning it's going to be treated as a first draft of something written more as a try at getting words on page than a cognitive plotline. So if anyone finds that or the idea of me taking on an 80's as envisioned by Hollywood (and possibly including a superhero origins story but I dunno if that'll work.

That kinda covers a lot of ground. So to summerize. Think highschoolers put in screwed up situations. Still interested? Great! More after the break.

Introduction:

Well hey howdie. Anyone reading this probably has either just stumbled onto the bits of my journal that I've decided to put online. Might surprise a few of you I've been keeping notes in electronic form since middle school. Just seemed neater to type it out and dump it on disk, that could be passworded and easily hidden, than handwritten log books. That and it let me take notes I wanted to share and shove at friends, or print out as many copies as I liked with a minimum of fuss.

Oh c'mon now. I bet you're wondering why I'm waxing nostalgic. Between Xanadu being built and me being 'asked' to move there to act as something of a public face and one of the elected Representative on the City council I've been going through boxes of stuff I haven't seen in years.

Then I found my old Apple GS and cases of floppies (back when floppies were floppy) and in a fit of nostalgia I got everything hooked together. Surprisingly everything worked and my disks hadn't degraded to uselessness. Figured what they hay. I started browsing my old files and I've decided to share bits and pieces.

Just to answer a few questions off the bat.

Yes the town name is real. No the school name isn't.

I'm going to be using lots of aliases and usernames instead of actual legal names. Why? The people I hung out with tended to run around on BBS's and most of them respond to handles and it's not like there's only one Count Zero out there.

Anything else I need to say? I dunno. I'm gonna be revealing an oddball point in my life and other than making sure not too much sensetive material gets revealed I'm not correcting mistakes I might have made about geography, politics, or whatnot.

-

01 What do you mean 'Before the Internet'

Dad got a computer for me. Dunno if it's the same kind as school has and he says it's Mine. I can do with it as I want so long as the house doesn't get neglected in the process or a giant phone-bill gets racked up. Wait. I can dial out with this thing? Dial out to /what/? Says it's a 300 baud modem. Dunno what brand since it's clearly second hand and somebody had a little fun trying to make it look 'stylish' or whatever.

[Note=Modem Speed] 300 baud. Kids these days literally cannot comprehend how slow that one was. Included is a link to something I found on a quick jaunt to youtube for something similar. Mine isn't in the wood case the one in the video has, but mine did have phone cups and a few wires.

You will note the far from 'instant on'ness the whole process is. Sure what's being loaded is a 'modern' webpage, but it's using a text only browser that isn't even trying to grab images or whatever. Speed looks about right and dangit, now I wanna see if I can get the old warhorse here to run a BBS for the rest of the town. [/note]

Dad said the guy that sold him the modem would give me a go at his BBS even though it's closed to new users. Turns out right after Christmas is a terrible time to try figuring out how these things work. If I get let in great. If not I've got a couple games i can play. Zork looks promising.

-

OK Back after giving the BBS thing a try. Didn't get much further than looking at the main menu and a couple topics. I dunno. It's interesting but right now I just don't have time to fiddle with it. Maybe next weekend.

-

Gee who'd have thought anybody in my class would like that I have my own computer. Doesn't matter I can and have run rings around everyone or that if I wanted to I could probably out-compete any of them in their sport of choice. I have a computer and therefor I am now a Nerd.

Same stuff. Diff excuse for them to not like me. I'll be glad when I get to highschool. New place. New people. I get to start over again.

Don't get me wrong I'm not boo-hoo over it, well not much anyway. I just don't like how isolated from everyone else I seem to have gotten because everyone thinks I'm /looking/ for all the attention I've gotten.

I can run a four minute mile. So what, I'm puking my guts out and out of it for the rest of the day.

If I wanted I could join wrestling and probably make state. So what? I get weirded out by the whole thing and the rest of the team doesn't like me. Bah... Stop crying. End of year and I'm out. Bigger pond. Just another face. I won't make the mistake of showing off in front of everyone again.

-

Summertime!

[note=Skipping Around] I'm going to make this really plain. I wrote more than I'm sharing here. I'd just gotten the Apple the Christmas before, so I'd been writing constantly. That and gaming. Often times I'd write about gaming, especially when I was trying to figure out Zork's puzzles.[/note]

Oh and I've got a job. Sure it's cash and carry but it's actually pretty nice. No yard mowing this year. I get to help build something. Tear a house down to bare beams with a bunch of other kids. Build it up how Mr. Bossman wants it. Not something I really know all that much about.

Turns out at least a couple of the other guys that signed up work the same BBS I do. OK fine I dial more than one, but there's this one that opens up late afternoon to early morning that I've kinda considered home. It was my first and other than arguments over who has the better computer it's generally polite.

Bah. Lotta these guys aren't nearly as hostile when you're looking them in the eye. People that viciously demand you admit x or y is better than the Rotten Apple you've got deflate real fast if you're in earshot.

Nice guys, a few actually know what they're doing and are trying to show the rest of us what's going on. First day done and it's been pure demolition. They want the thing stripped to sub-flooring and studs. No mention on power or plumbing so we're leaving it alone.

Amazing how fast tear-down can go when you've got a couple dozen guys and a couple rented dumpsters. Didn't know you could rent those things. Now I do.

-

End of June

Steve's been making an ass of himself on the board. On the job site he couldn't be a bigger help. Got plenty of experience, patience, and not the slightest bad thing to say about anyone.

On the boards though he's turned absolutely vicious. Attacks everyone. Has snark for everyone who even hints at disagreeing that he's the best thing since sunshine. I think Copper's taken him aside a few times. Word's gotten around that if he doesn't stop being such a prick he's getting banned.

I get it. Guy uses the board as a way to vent and make sure he doesn't piss everyone off on the job. Thing is you can't go and flip out use the board as your personal megaphone for screaming at the world.

Worse. Steve's rantings have stirred up most of the other users. Kinda strange really. I'm seeing this one number pop up constantly on the 'last used by' header. Been some debate on if this Blackbird is a girl like they say they are, or just some random guy putting on an act to try embarrassing everyone else when the mask comes off.

So Copper's told me to call them. Said it was alright, he cleared it with Blackbird first. Dunno why it's such a big issue. Maybe they think this'll distract everyone else from Steve's acid, especially if we have to kick him out.

So. Gonna call. I'll try summarizing in a few hours or something.

NaNoWriMo2011: Week Two'd

2011-11-07T15:15:00.002-06:00

So what've I been up to? A pair of stories actually.

One is the intended thing I'd been planning on for the past month based around a fictionalized 80's that intentionally plays more to how Hollywood thinks physics works. The other... is more a DnD session gone horribly messed up and me just seeing where it goes.

Trouble is I'm suffering from a couple days of no work done and no clear ideas to act on.

I've mentioned this now and again on my Google+ thing, and generally I don't like saying stuff twice. Sure I'll put links from my blog there, but it's kindof one-way traffic.

I need to separate myself from the internet since I kno a couple years back when I had no net whatsoever I pretty much intentionally the whole thing in a week.

PROTECT-IP Letter

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

I am going to re-share the post that alerted me to the existence of a well thought out response as to why PROTECT-IP, SOPA, and any act that behaves in a similar manner is not only monumentally stupid, but inherently dangerous to the well-being of America's ability to interact within a larger networked global community.

Five years ago this would have been tinfoil hat fodder, or a badly written novel trying to be relevant.

Chris Heald originally shared this post:

This is awesome, and each and every one of you should read it.

The professors who signed it are some of the foremost minds in the country in the areas of intellectual property and internet law, and they've absolutely got the right read on this bill. Read this letter, and then petition your congressman. This is too important to just click the back button and forget about it.

PROTECT-IP Letter, Final

I've seen smoke ever since the Egyptian Uprising, though I'm sure there are plenty that saw warning signs long before then. However I am, in spite of being a writer in my spare time, very inarticulate on why these bills are Evil things. This letter explains it quite nicely and is backed by a number of people far smarter than I am.

I ask you. Share this letter. I don't care if my blog see's traffic off this. Just share the link. Give it to your friends. Your family. Especially your Representatives. Be polite in stating your case as we want to be seen as serious people who deserve to be listened to.

I have, essentially, Lived on the Internet for the past twelve years. I consider the online communities I tred to be as much my home as where I park all my stuff and sleep at. Sad I suppose, but it should give some perspective on why I have such a vested interest in these doings.

It isn't a passing thing in the news that will go away in a few days with only a few fading soundbytes.

It is relevant even if all you do is Facebook or go through apps for your phone. It affects everyone at all levels. User. Tech-head. Gamer. All of us have to fight this monstrosity.

Melodramatic I suppose, but for once the language fits. I wish I were overstating how dire things are.

The worst part of all this is what alternatives do we have if this abomination, or another like it introduced once the Corporate Overlords believe the current outrage has subsided, do we have if the Internet gets locked down? All sorts of startup businesses will die or just never form because of the chilling effect having your site and finances effectively frozen and blacklisted if the Overminders don't like you.

#savethenet
#occupytheweb
#googlepleasehelpus

My Thoughts on the New Google Reader

2011-11-01T10:18:00.002-05:00

The NEW Google Reader.

Yesterday Google Reader got a new look. Opinions differ between me and a couple of the people I've been sharing my blog with on if it's a good look or not (I like it, co-blogger doesn't.) That isn't to say it couldn't stand to be tweaked a little. Too much real-estate given over to the right-hand side and not enough to the different feed items (which makes them hard to read by default.)

Now before I go off on a rant I want everyone to understand that I may have overlooked some feature or some thing you click that's painfully obvious to somebody else. With that said. Here's the biggest complaint I have and that I've seen.

Sharing is now a three click/step process. Yes there's a clear 'share' thing on google's Black Bar, but used to be you could click on a share link in the article itself and you know... SHARE it. Now it's almost as if the new team either didn't use reader before, or scrapped what was there in favor of forcing people to use Google+.

I'm all for product integration. However I also don't like it when I'm being railroaded, and as is I don't see a good way to transplant feed item links to say... facebook, or twitter, or just to pass out over IM. Someone please correct me if this isn't the case because I've always liked Google for not outright forcing you to use their products (you've always been able to remove your data/photos/everything from a service for transplanting.) I see no way to easily do this for the new reader.

Sadly I also have no good alternatives to offer, web-based or otherwise.

Then again can't you get Thunderbird to accept feeds?

NaNoWriMo 2011 is go!

2011-11-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

I've spent most of the past month ferreting out little details that might or might not matter for what I'm about to do. I've picked up on stories I thought I didn't want to tell but got convinced otherwise.

This will be my fifth year participating and I'm still unsure if I can make it.

We shall see.

Robot Nation Responds to my Email

2011-10-29T13:04:00.001-05:00

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the questions! We've attempted to answer them below. Can you
let us know where your blog is?

Best,
Team Robot

> From: Andrew Singleton <singletona@trioptimum.com>
> To: <support@myrobotnation.com>
> Subject: Questions for My Blog

Alright. After playing around with the customizer I have to say the idea is a really good one. 3d Printing is going down in cost enough that people are building their own at home it is my understanding the raw materials are what's expensive after the initial investment.) Also I can see uses for this even as is, especially in the miniatures/tabletop gaming market (they won't look as good as hand painted, but being able to select from a mishmash of parts and just Go Nuts with your own one-offs? Friend of mine would go bananas for that.)

However since I intend on posting any sort of reply to this email into my blog rather than simply gush at how I love the concept. I would appreciate it if someone took a little time to field the following questions of mine.

Q. What gave you the idea for 'let users mix and match parts and we'll print the design out for them'?

[MRN] Most people don't know how to use complicated 3d modeling programs like AutoCad. We wanted to make a way for everyone to have the ability to personalize their world with 3d printing.

Q. Would it be possible to allow a service so users can upload their own project files for you to print? Presumably there would be copyright issues involved, but would something like this be considered for a down the road possibility?

[MRN] There are a number of services which already do this. We are focused on the 99.9999% of the population who aren't able to do this.

Q: Why start with robots? Start with something whimsical and slightly lego-ish then try seeing what other markets exist?

[MRN] Robots and 3d printing...what could be cooler? :-) And robots are
just the beginning!

Q: I note the sudden price jump past three inch printouts. It's understandable that the end product will be expensive due to the one of a kind nature, but what makes it expensive to print? I know the internal volume goes up dramatically as you scale upwards so maybe that's it. Quality goop needs to be had cheaper.

[MRN] The price is based on the volume of the shape, since that defines how much material we need to use to 3d print. Since volume is cubic, it increases very rapidly when the height changes. For example, a shape which is 1"x1"x1" is 1 cubic inch. But a shape which is 2"x2"x2" is 8 cubic inches!

Q. If Robots proves profitable enough to press forward what's next?

[MRN] Keep watching our site. We have a number of awesome products coming soon.

I thank you for your time and the interesting service being provided. Here's to hoping you see lots of success.

[MRN] Thanks!

Review: My Robot Nation

2011-10-28T19:24:00.002-05:00

I used to have an idea when I was a kid of a place you could mail sketches (or even vague 'i want the head of Optimus Prime on a GI Joe body wearing a Jetpack' description) off along with money and you'd get sent back an action figure. Well sadly My Robot Nation won't give you that level of customization, and they only make statuettes rather than poseable action figures. However considering the people behind this venture are promising more than robots down the road I have high hopes.

I found the link for this site through the Chrome Web Store and hey it looks neat so I'll give it a look. First click on the app drops you on their instructions page. Whole thing is self-explanatory but take note of the prices listed. Two and Three inch figures are relatively reasonable priced given they're doing a complete scratch build and it's going to be in full color. After that the prices just mushroom till you get six inch figures that cost right at about $170. While that may look expensive, and trust me it IS, I can see the rational behind it.

Just like there being no supersized godzilla sized bugs due to inherent size limits imposed by the fact internal volume increases at a far faster rate than external size you also run into this problem here. More surface area plus a vastly increased internal volume to fill means costs are going to ramp up no matter what way you cut it. Are there added costs involved that don't directly go to production? Undoubtedly. Setting aside making sure the creation doesn't fall apart and other quality control measures these guys have to make money off this and while I don't like the prices I won't begrudge them for it.

Apparently this one came from C|Net.

Let's move on to the editor. First you get to pick the basic body (head, torso, legs, left and right arms.) After you get all those set, and don't worry if you don't like the initial look you can go back, other options open up for poses, shapes to position on the robot, and color. It's actually quite well done given I'm on a netbook. It's in real time 3d and you can rotate the robot around whenever you wish. My one complaint is that I wish you had a grid so you could line up parts so your ears/antenna/eyes were matched. Plus getting things perfectly in line when you accessorize with nubs is a headache. At least it did with me so your mileage may vary.

Due to ever preasent lack of cash problems I haven't ordered anything I've made so no comments on build quality, but the FAQ does warn that it isn't for kids and they can break if handled roughly. However as a plus side epoxy fixes thigns up quite nicely.

Would I give this a try? Of course I would! If it didn't cost so much for the bigger figures I'd order 'em bigger too. I mean if they branch out from just robots to including people or people like things... I'd be all over this for any would be tabletop gamer wanting custom minies of the party and or any critters. Then again I have friends that play Warhammer 40k, so maybe I can get one of them to do the physical testing and comparing price of one of these vs one of the games workshop unpainted minies of similar size.

So. If Robots are just the first step. What next? Zombies? Mecha? Look I dunno but it's an interesting business model, especially for those of us not able to build or buy our own 3d printers. I love this kinda stuff. It's what we were promised way back when technologies like 3d printing and the Web were first rolled out. Hell look at Star Trek. We were promised 'get your own thing made for you on the spot' with Replicators in TNG. Now for the last word on what i have to say about these guys.

America the Chained

2011-10-28T12:41:00.000-05:00

The sum of my Frustrations.

I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most reliable of people where predicting future events are concerned. That and I'm far from the most knowledgeable people but hey. I like to play 'what if' now and again. After all we're looking at a best case of simply having sites disappear from search listings and a worst case of... I don't want to immediately draw links to China, but site De-Listing (and freezing paypal accounts.) Forcing ISP's to double as content cops? What's next. The Great Firewall of America so you can't just use TOR to get the unfiltered net?

Iran is proving that won't work. All it'll do is slow the internet down and turn the population against you.

I was going to list here alternatives to the Internet, ways of making a system not dependent on the web as a backbone to get content here and around but let's look at Oppressed countries. Let's look at how China's security is gotten around. Look at Iran. Look at the nations I grew up being taught were Bad Horrible Monstrous things because they treated their populations like criminals.

Here is an interesting article I saw about PROTECT-IP and what it would mean for DNS (hint: nothing good.)

Now if they wanted to transition away from the global internet and try a walled garden approach I'd say go ahead. Except you'd be flushing taxpayer money down a hole that has been proven by history to not work. People don't want walled gardens (and before you point fingers at apple and the iphone that's a walled app garden. They have pretty much unlimited access to the internet.)

Still. I guess if they managed some kind of slick social network that would migrate people over with the promise of no more spam viagra breast enlarging email from nigerian princes they might be able to make ti work. Granted I don't think it would except in a cold day in hell, but I won't discount the idea of it happening down the road. Look at spam. That alone is a viability not-IP related reason to try securing the net and switching over. Redoing the infrastructure from scratch to deal with (and only with) current technologies rather than be forced to maintain compatibility.

That could work, and at first it would have to serve primarily business interests. Possibly also educational institutions. Then you'd slowly expand outward.

Anyway All this rambling and looking at the occupy movement. The failures and failings that we've put up with, moaned about, and done little to fix. It's our fault for letting it get this bad.

The whole system makes me sick because I know that reform won't happen just by replacing those in office. There are other factors in play that seem to ensure only the corrupt or easily corrupted get into the positions where you're able to vote amongst them to see who's next in line.

I don't want to sound like a tinfoil hat nutjob. I really don't, but we've let it get this bad. How do we fix it short of bloody destructive wasteful revolution?

PROTECT-IP and SOPA: My Response

2011-10-27T10:36:00.000-05:00

The following was sent to my Representatives in both the House and Senate. I include it here for the sake of public records.

* * *

The PROTECT-IP and SOPA acts, while possibly concived with the best intentions, are quite possibly the gravest threat to free speech and invintive content I've seen, and it comes from 'the land of freedom.'

Since discussing DNS and other technical details would bore the pants off of any of you let's give a for-instance.

Say you (or your children or friends or whoever) Have been watching a youtube series, or found a blog that has a wealth of research material, and then one day it's gone. Site itself didn't do anything wrong. However due to the current language of the law said site/feed/whatever would get effectively shut down alongside everything else for a particular domain because /somebody/ was covering the Occupy movement and somebody used this new law citing something or other as being in violation.

There is a quote and I may be butchering it. 'Give me six words and I'll give you a traitor.'

It is either extreme naivety or outright willful ignorance to believe this law, in whatever incarnation, will not be misused to take down opposition, censor voices, and in short turn America into a backwater that doesn't have access to the sorts of information former soviet bloc countries like Romania (for example) would have.

We already la behind in terms of connectivity, we cannot lose the ability to access the rest of the world to. It is not just a matter of freedom of speech but of national security and our Future.

Lots of people and or interests use 'for the children' as a boilerplate justification for atrocities that would hurt everyone else in the process since that phrase seems to shut off the reasoning centers in a large segment of the population. However I use it now.

For Our Children do not do this. Do not disallow them from the world's wealth of creativity.

Do not bar them from being able to learn and create and use what's out there in wholly unexpected ways.

Don't tell them that their future business model is dead before it's even started because somebody who contributed campaign funds and threatens to withhold money down the line (or worse, contribute to the opposing party so you're out of office for making a moral stand) decided that rather than try living in the ecosystem the Internet represents they'd rather clear-cut and burn it to the ground for the sake of meager immediate gains.

This bill, and all those like it that have come before and will come after offend me. I was raised that in America we were free of censorship, of the selfish few that would disregard what the population wants for their own sake.

So. I ask that you think carefully and vote against this and all other measures like it.

2011 Deal for buying Alphasmart Neo2 in Europe

2011-10-26T10:33:00.000-05:00

Wanted to share something I found in the Alphasmart Flckr Group discussions.

Hi All,
I’ll introduce myself first… I’m Richard and I work for Renaissance Learning UK as their Hardware Products Manager and I’ve worked for RL and AlphaSmart for some 11 years.

We keep an eye on your posts and are happy to help out where we can.

To these ends if you live in the UK, Europe or Norway we have set up a special 20% discount for NaNoWriMO participants if you choose to buy a NEO 2 (with or without a receiver) between now and 7 November 2011.

To redeem visit our card store at renlearn.co.uk/individuals and enter the promotional code “NaNoWriMo 2011” at the checkout (don’t forget to hit the “Update” button before you proceed to the next page).

We have UK, US and Norwegian Neos on offer along with accessories.

Sorry for this unadulterated plug for the product you all care about. We really do value your opinion and wish you all the best in November whether or not you are writing 50,000 words.

All the best,

Richard