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I think that everybody's afraid to post at the moment because the room's overdue for being cleared. (So when IS the room going to get cleared?)
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Monday, April 14, 2003 06:49:01 PM
IP: 65.57.60.192

Damn, its quiet in here.

Barracuda: I got the first of the transformers I ordered. Sheesh, they really did shrink! Or maybe I'm just twice as tall...
Josh
Monday, April 14, 2003 06:43:36 PM
IP: 64.168.29.163

We have a visitor for the week, a mac developer who's interning at Apple this summer. Its nice having someone around who's so grateful that you're letting them stay for free that they do the dishes. Other than that, mostly work on the programming project today. Minor work in my programming project and we'll see if I can really finish it by the end of next weekend.

Leo: <<RAID>>: Thanks for fixing me.
<<it's officially Monday in the eastern timezone>>: Its officially monday in the pacific timezone too.

Taleweaver: <<is it at all possible to get Tidus Sun sigil or Kimarhi's sigil?>>: My roommate has found an online guide most helpful.

Kathy: <<She's just one of the potential casualties for the rumored "Big Scooby Death" that's to possibly occur in the last five episodes>>: We can only pray.

Silvadel: <>: Does that include friendly fire and all aiding countries?

Brooklyn: <<can anyone help me add more stuff to make it better?>>: I cannot, but I will say that if you keep your site simply formatted like that, it will rock. Most of the garg fan sites out there really bite because they're filled with all kinds of garbage.

Jan: <>: They don't pay me to be mature. All I'm doing is telling you how I, as a technical person, would feel.
<<zeroed in on something that you felt you could insult on instead of congratulate on>>: As I pointed out to my parents recently, it is redundant to congratulate someone for earning an impressive award, as the award itself is congrats for a job well done.
<<I'm a bit disappointed in your behavior>>: I won't lose any sleep over it, don't you worry.
<>: I could never take his place.

Jaden: <<NOT MORE RAIN!>>: It poured for the last two days straight up here.
<>: I'll be dropping by mid-may to pick up my car.
<<gotta figure out what I want to do for college>>: Do something that you love. Otherwise college will be a waste of time.

Barracuda: <>: When my parents make jokes about that, I just respond with "as if there's going to be any money left!"
<<What am I, dead?>>: Which brings up another question...nah, just kidding.
<<That's a pretty generalized explanation to accuse Hawkins of being a Mary-Sue>>: You weren't paying attention. I asked if you PREFER that type. Plenty of men do not (like me, for one). Anyway, same first name, behaves like you, and has your ideal woman and ideal lifestyle. You can argue all you want, but I will always know the truth. Buwahaha.
<<Thank god for summer and the extra cash>>: My thoughts exactly.
<<as a man, didn't read the instructions>>: This is dangerous. It is acceptable to not read the directions, but had you been an engineer you'd have figured it out anyway ;-)

Gside: <>: Congrats!
<<There is not much that compares to the original Prime>>: Unicron.
<<We took on Sin just to see the ending>>: That wasn't pretty. My roommate is now going around trying to get all the sigils and unique weapons for his cast.
<<lenders make great interest>>: banks do. Lenders get ripped off.
<<you don't have to tie the other guy. You have to get a time less than 0 seconds>>: How does that work?

Okay, time for sleep.

172. I will allow guards to operate under a flexible work schedule. That way if one is feeling sleepy, he can call for a replacement, punch out, take a nap, and come back refreshed and alert to finish out his shift.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Monday, April 14, 2003 05:08:14 AM
IP: 64.168.29.163

Whee. I was officially inducted into Tau Beta Pi (got dressed up and wore a bow on my braid). And McCormick was officially sworn in as the president of Rutgers. They closed down the Busch dining hall so it could serve the presidential brouhaha, but TBP fed me.

Barracuda> <<but compared to the original, he doesn't compare>>: There is not much that compares to the original Prime.

Imzadi> <<My roommate decided to break off his fight with Sin to level everyone around the entire sphere grid>>: We took on Sin just to see the ending, but now I'm leveling so I can get to and take on Nemesis (must get Nova for Kimahri, missed it on Omega).
<<Neither a borrower nor a lender be>>: But lenders make great interest.

Leo> <<several hard drives, all identical copies of each other>>: Heck you can multiple drives with pieces on each.

Taleweaver> <<the toughtest enemies and the highest leveling up are inside Sin>>: I've been doing Omega Dungeon, but I must be careful to keep Auron up front in case any Marlboro Menaces ambush (which they always do there).
<<Though is it at all possible to get Tidus Sun sigil or Kimarhi's sigil?>>: Yup. We are in posession of all the sigils. I did Kimarhi's myself (the worst part was that ugly turn near the end of the first screen). For Tidus, you don't have to tie the other guy. You have to get a time less than 0 seconds.

Oops, the last one wasn't mp3 #350, a little mistake on my part. But anyway, the new mp3 is Playing in the Band by Dylan and (not The Band but) The Greatful Dead.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Monday, April 14, 2003 02:29:01 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

Well, it's officially Monday in the eastern timezone.
Leo
Monday, April 14, 2003 12:03:32 AM
IP: 68.96.8.12

Josh: <<I've already found the secret for milking my grandparents, and I didn't have to do anything illegal to do it. Grad school. There are few things grandparents like better than to say that their grandkid is a (insert lofty degree here) -holder in (insert impressive major here). Works wonders.>> My grandparents just pity me. "College? What the hell is that?" Then, after hearing that, they shake their head. Thus, I think I'm being slowly written out of the will.
<<That depends. Do you prefer ridiculously busty blonde-haired blue-eyed women?>> What am I, dead?? What man doesn't? That's a pretty generalized explanation to accuse Hawkins of being a Mary-Sue.
<> Thank god for summer and the extra cash. Even if I try to resist, somehow the charge will still appear on my VISA. I think it's good for the line though, creates more interest and we might get some good paint schemes on familiar molds coming out soon, especially the old Diaclone colors.
<<When is that, anyway?>> Aren't season finales always in May? There's only got to be a few episodes left before the Scooby massacre.
<<I'm counting my blessings for the Faith spin-off. She's definitely worth watching just to see her bounce.>> That'd be cool, but let's gather all our resources shall we, Mr. Whedon, into your other show. Spinning off one series after another begins to dilute the talent pool.
<<broke him as well, five minutes after I got him, I broke the little transformation tab>>: LOL!>> I actually didn't know what the little white tab was, because, as a man, didn't read the instructions. Then, snap, and then, I found out I was supposed to insert I.Q., the power master, to allow him to transform. I didn't do that.
The Barracuda
B.C., Canada
Sunday, April 13, 2003 10:34:59 PM
IP: 208.181.156.210

When I left Washington I expected to be able to get some sunshine, NOT MORE RAIN!

Josh- Don't be too jealous, I don't really plan to stay around here for very long.

ARG, gotta figure out what I want to do for college. I'm thinking of changing my major, but to what I just don't know. It can be very agrivating.
Jaden - [jaden1444@aol.com]
Sunday, April 13, 2003 09:21:38 PM
IP: 4.33.184.22

Josh> It's the government and more so, the military that Michael is in and therefore the "major" for his education has changed names at least 3 times already. It's the same material, just a different name. Of course I know what he is doing - it's computer engineering field. I do find it extremely immature and childish of you to only comment on something as lame as trying to chastizing me for not knowing the exact title of his major. I knew what his courses were in "civilian" college too.
You totally missed the point of my post and zeroed in on something that you felt you could insult on instead of congratulate on. Doesn't speak very highly of you and actually, I'm a bit disappointed in your behavior.
I know S.J. and you are no S.J.
Jan
Sunday, April 13, 2003 07:29:25 PM
IP: 12.215.181.120

This is the fixed link to "Brooklyn"s site
Leo
Sunday, April 13, 2003 04:30:24 PM
IP: 68.96.8.12

Hey guys, Ineed some help. I am starting up a web page from Yahoo, and it is incredibly cinchy. can anyone help me add more stuff to make it better?

Thanks guys
Brooklyn - [mango_11_19@hotmail.com]
Sunday, April 13, 2003 03:59:41 PM
IP: 149.159.96.133

Josh -- I do not think it was long enough that it required "the question" to post a URL link and all -- I probably wouldnt have read the article if it were a link and it was worth looking at. Not like the comment room is so large that it cant take it these days.

I am pretty amazed that we managed to take over a country with losses of only 50. That is astounding and so very lopsided that it is insane.

---

This is also one of the later new weeks -- Doesnt usually extend into sunday.
silvadel
Sunday, April 13, 2003 03:10:21 PM
IP: 208.58.107.167

Todd > You're welcome and **** Buffy Non Spoiler***

Dawn isn't dead. She's just one of the potential casualties for the rumored "Big Scooby Death" that's to possibly occur in the last five episodes.
kathy
Sunday, April 13, 2003 01:56:22 PM
IP: 66.82.166.97

FFX> I'm in similar straits playing the game. It's OK to fight Sin, the toughtest enemies and the highest leveling up are inside Sin, just don't defeat Yu Yevon. Though is it at all possible to get Tidus Sun sigil or Kimarhi's sigil? Tying on the chocobo race seems near impossible.
Taleweaver - [~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]
Sunday, April 13, 2003 12:21:43 PM
IP: 24.205.177.15

Josh:<> That's just one of many types of RAID. "RAID2" I think. I think "RAID5" is the mirror type - where you can have several hard drives, all identical copies of each other.

Leo
Sunday, April 13, 2003 07:51:42 AM
IP: 68.96.8.12

Okay, Question, really. STOP POSTING ENTIRE ARTICLES. Post links.

See the URL field in the "Add Comment" page? Use that, then mention briefly what the article is about so that the people who want to read it can and the people who don't can continue about their merry way.
Josh
Sunday, April 13, 2003 05:28:16 AM
IP: 64.170.152.85

Force Majeure
What lies behind the military's victory in Iraq.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Thursday, April 10, 2003, at 3:45 PM PT

So when and how did the U.S. military get this good? The elements of swift victory in Gulf War II have been well laid-out: the agility and flexibility of our forces, the pinpoint accuracy of the bombs, the commanders' real-time view of the battlefield, the remarkable coordination among all branches of the armed services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) and special operations. But these elements, and this degree of success, have not been seen in previous wars, not even in the first Gulf War 12 years ago. Three major changes have taken hold within the military since then�a new war-fighting doctrine, advanced digital technology, and a less parochial culture.

The new doctrine was put in motion in 1983, a decade before Operation Desert Storm, when the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., created an elite, one-year post-grad program called the School for Advanced Military Studies. The school's founder was a colonel�soon promoted to brigadier general�named Huba Wass de Czege (pronounced VOSS-de-say-ga). He was in the forefront of officers who had served in Vietnam, witnessed the disaster firsthand, and were eager to change the way the Army thought about combat.

In 1982, Wass de Czege had written a major revision of the Army's war-fighting manual, FM 100-5, the official expression of Army doctrine and the foundation for all decisions about strategy, tactics, and training. The previous edition, written in 1976 by Gen. William DePuy, had recited a strategy of attrition warfare, a static line of defense against the enemy's strongest point of assault, beating it back with frontal assaults and superior firepower. Wass de Czege's rewrite outlined a strategy emphasizing agility, speed, maneuver, and deep strikes well behind enemy lines.

The advanced-studies school at Fort Leavenworth was set up explicitly to weave this new strategy into the fabric of the Army establishment.

By the time of Desert Storm, a small group of Wass de Czege's students had been promoted to high-level posts on the staff of Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf's Central Command. This group of officers, who self-consciously referred to themselves as the "Jedi Knights," designed the ground-war strategy of the first Gulf War, and it was straight out of Wass de Czege's book�the feinted assault up the middle, the simultaneous sweep of armored forces up to the Iraqi army's western flank, the multiple thrusts that surrounded the Iraqis from all sides, hurling them into disarray before their final envelopment and destruction.

The Marines, meanwhile, were going through a similar transformation. Col. Mike Wiley, vice president of the Marine Corps University at Quantico, revised his branch's war doctrine on the basis of a 1979 briefing called "Patterns of Conflict" by a retired Air Force colonel named John Boyd. Boyd too had concluded that successful warfare involves surprise, deception, sweeping quickly around flanks, and creating confusion and disorder in the enemy's ranks. The Marine Corps commandant at the time, Gen. Alfred Gray, considered himself a Boyd disciple and ordered his officers, who led the assault into Kuwait, to avoid frontal assaults and to maneuver around the Iraqis and attack their flanks.

For the Air Force and Navy, Desert Storm saw the inauguration of "smart bombs" that could explode within a few feet of their targets. Fewer than 10 percent of the munitions dropped in Desert Storm were smart bombs; the weapons were new and expensive (between $120,000 and $240,000 apiece); not many had been built; and they still had lots of technical bugs. By 1999, in the war over Kosovo, smart bombs were more reliable and a lot cheaper ($20,000 each); they constituted about 30 percent of bombs dropped. In Afghanistan, the figure rose to 70 percent, which is probably how the math will work out in Gulf War II as well.

The war in Afghanistan, however, saw three innovations that would alter the way America fights wars. First, high-tech smart bombs were combined with high-tech command, control, communications, and intelligence. A new generation of unmanned Predator drones flew over the battlefield, scanning the terrain with digital cameras and instantly transmitting the imagery back to command headquarters. Commanders would view the imagery, look for targets, and order pilots in the area to attack the targets. The pilots would punch the target's coordinates into the smart bomb's GPS receiver. The bomb would home in on the target. Total time elapsed: about 20 minutes. By comparison, in Desert Storm, the process of spotting a new target, assigning a weapon to hit it, then hitting it, took three days.

The second new thing about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan was that it was truly a "combined-arms" operation�a battle plan that involved more than one branch of the armed services, working in tandem. This had never really happened before. Often using the new high-tech drones as the communications link, Army troops on the ground called for strikes from planes flown by Air Force pilots. Some of these planes, such as B-52 and B-1 bombers, had been built 30 or 40 years earlier to drop multi-megaton nuclear bombs on the Soviet Union. The notion of using them to drop 2,000-pound conventional weapons, in support of ground troops, would have appalled an earlier generation of Air Force generals.

Over the previous decade or so, that generation of generals, weaned on Curtis LeMay and the Strategic Air Command, had died out, and so had SAC's central enemy and target, the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the '90s saw the creation of a new Joint Forces Command, which promulgated doctrines, field manuals, and war games that envisioned all the services fighting wars together, under command structures that were unified or at least "interoperable." One such document, called "Joint Vision 2020," issued in June 2000, emphasized a strategy of "full-spectrum dominance," involving the conduct of "prompt, sustained and synchronized operations with combinations of forces � space, sea, land, air and information"�a "synergy of the core competencies of the individual services, integrated into the joint team � a whole greater than the sum of its parts."

Written doctrines are one thing, actual operations another. However, the new structures and doctrines did breed, in the words of one Joint Forces Command publication, "a common joint culture." The institutional barriers of inter-service rivalry, even hatred, were gradually broken down. Once new technologies made joint coordination possible, and once the war in Afghanistan showed that coordination could reap tremendous advantages, resistance seemed futile.

Operation Desert Storm was really two wars�the air war and the ground war�each fought autonomously and in sequence. Gulf War II was an integrated war, waged simultaneously and in synchronicity, on the ground, at sea, and in the air. The vast majority of airstrikes, from Air Force bombers and attack planes as well as Navy fighters, were delivered on Iraqi Republican Guards, in order to ease the path of U.S. Army soldiers and Marines thrusting north to Baghdad.

Another new thing, which started in Afghanistan and continued in Iraq, was the systematic inclusion of the so-called "shadow soldiers," the special operations forces. The 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act, which was best-known for giving new authority to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also made special ops a separate command, with its own budget. (Before then, each branch had its own special-ops division, which tended to get the big boys' leftovers, in terms of money, equipment and everything else.)

Gen. Schwarzkopf didn't think much of special ops, so didn't use them in Desert Storm, except toward the end of the war, to go hunt for Scud missiles in Iraq's western desert. In Afghanistan, these forces were central. They could be parachuted into the country in small numbers, set up airfields, and develop contacts with rebel leaders. The information about Taliban targets, which the Predator drones transmitted back to headquarters, usually came from a special-ops officer riding on horseback with a laptop.

We may never know how much special ops have been doing in Gulf War II. Certainly, these forces were in the Iraqi capital days or weeks before the war began, scoping out targets and lining up contacts. They were in the western deserts again, hunting Scuds and preparing airfields. They were in the north, training Kurds and securing oil fields. They were probably accompanying, and perhaps advancing, the 3rd Infantry and 1st Marine divisions all the way from Kuwait to Baghdad, scouting targets and transmitting their positions to the air commanders back at headquarters.

We don't yet fully know the lessons of this war�in part because it isn't over yet and in part because, as James Carafano, a former Army officer now with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, put it, "90 percent of the war was going on out of our vision." Most of that 90 percent was being conducted by special ops (no embedded reporters there) and by the laptop-wielding joint-forces crew in Qatar (a few embeds, but no access to that part of the operation). What they were and are doing, however invisible, formed a large part of what made this war so stunning and new.
The Question
Sunday, April 13, 2003 05:27:02 AM
IP: 67.233.55.236

Yes! I did some major work on my programming project, and most of the back-end is done. Now I just have to design the GUI and callback functions, and its all over but the design document. I have this order totally backwards, but I guess that's to be expected when I write a program to solve a particular civil engineering function.

Patrick: <<Do you mean tax refund?>>: Yes, thank you for correcting me.

Fire Storm: <>: Been doing that since I started posting here. Which makes things odd if I ever want to look back.

Gside: <<Got most everything. In the middle of Blitzball now. Must get Jecht 2 and Auroch's Spirit>>: My roommate decided to break off his fight with Sin to level everyone around the entire sphere grid. Lots of battles will ensue.
<>: I didn't say that most overweight pigs were my friends 8-)
<>: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." No idea who said it, but I've been living that way for a long time.

Bud-Clare: <<I'm afraid to post>>: So it gets lost, no big deal.
<<What about Fox?>>: She doesn't have one.
<<I'm _slightly_ obsessive, which is certainly a good thing in a restaurant>>: I don't think employers want people who are admittedly insane.

Barracuda: <<a few people would kill their grandma for the life insurance to get some of these sets>>: I've already found the secret for milking my grandparents, and I didn't have to do anything illegal to do it. Grad school. There are few things grandparents like better than to say that their grandkid is a (insert lofty degree here) -holder in (insert impressive major here). Works wonders.
<<Are you calling Mr. Hawkins a Mary-Sue?>>: That depends. Do you prefer ridiculously busty blonde-haired blue-eyed women?
<<I'm a sheep, lining up to spend more money on simple re-colors with new names...I'm so excited>>: I may pick up some repaints if I discover extra sofa change this summer.
<<as for my VISA, don't ask>>: That would be very rude.
<>: When is that, anyway?
<>: I'm counting my blessings for the Faith spin-off. She's definitely worth watching just to see her bounce.
<<broke him as well, five minutes after I got him, I broke the little transformation tab>>: LOL!

Hudson: <<raid>>: I thought RAID was where you use two hard drives as one so that you can write twice as quickly by storing half the data on each one.

171. I will not locate a base in a volcano, cave, or any other location where it would be ridiculously easy to bypass security by rapelling down from above.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Sunday, April 13, 2003 05:26:42 AM
IP: 64.170.152.85

Okay, I guess it's safe to post, then. Altogether now: THANK YOU, HUDSON. ;)
*************************
Josh> <<From my experience, only two types of characters get gargoyle exo-suits. One is Xanatos. The other is a Mary Sue.>>
*L* What about Fox? Bet she'll get one, sooner or later.

<<I'm really not sure what to tell people about myself.>>
If I'd been at all expecting that question, I would have done okay, since I could have given some of the reasons why I'd be better at that job then a lot of people... like the fact that, after growing up around an obsessive-compulsive person, I'm _slightly_ obsessive, which is certainly a good thing in a restaurant. But I was too surprised to think of anything.

<<Yes, I am. I was thinking of Tara. My bad. I think Tara was far more obnoxious than Dawn.>>
I like Tara. I can at least understand people not liking Dawn, as her whining did get rather out of hand a few times (but most of her whining seemed fairly typical for a teenager, so you can't fault them there ;). I thought Tara was nice, though.

<<LOL I hadn't even thought of it that way.>>
I get paranoid around certain people...

<<Its always been my attitude that the sooner I gain financial independence from my family, the sooner I can stop owing them stuff.>>
Right there with you.
************************
Gside> << <<No experience?>>: That's me.>>
Yes, we know, but that's not what we were talking about. :P
Bud-Clare - [budclare@yahoo.com]
Sunday, April 13, 2003 03:39:18 AM
IP: 66.24.93.77

AS you people have probably noticed, the websites have been doing some seriously Weird Shite (TM) for the last two days.

These are growing/moving pains related to the new server we moved into last week.

Here is the rundown:
First, our raid mirror broke, bottom line: all websites disapeared due to hardrives not behaving.

Second, we started a background rebuild of the drives.

raid is the trick where you have two hardrives that act like one: benifits, if one drive has a completer hardware failure, you have a full fallback copy and you never miss a beat. while both work, you get added read preformance and speed.

problem: the rebuilding of the mirror -didnt- work properly.

problem 2: when we re-linked the pair, they skewed. and old files overwrote new files. and before we knew it, things all across the system 'rolled back' several hours due to the fact that this rebuilding of the mirror spanned an entire day. So at whatever point a file was at when it was copied over, flashbacked when they relinked.

After watching this damn thing nearly destroy the entire /web partition. we ditched Raid completely, its not worth risking. We have backups, yes, but we cant afford to re-do this every week when the raid drops due to errors.

some files might be missing if they were added in the last day or so, but we are finding this rare, its more along the lines of files that were 'updated' over this days time, 'rolled back' to previous copys of themselves.

Sorry for the oddness and any lost posts this might have led to. It won't happen again, we are completely abandoning the raid method and switching to a more reasonable and reliable means to making an active backup of the /web partitions.

If anybody has any specific questions, feel free to email me at hudson@ketnar.org.
Hudson - [Your not so happy systems admin.]
Sunday, April 13, 2003 02:54:58 AM
IP: 12.237.226.60

Hey, has anyone saved the last two weeks? LM needs them for the Archive.
FIre Storm
Sunday, April 13, 2003 01:03:41 AM
IP: 66.72.189.117

Josh: <<Alas, I had no money this winter. Well, none to spend on lego. I've mostly been picking up larger sets (500+ pieces), because the smaller ones only keep me busy for a few minutes.>> I sold some pretty big sets, and made some serious cash while doing so. Seems a few people would kill their grandma for the life insurance to get some of these sets.
<<From my experience, only two types of characters get gargoyle exo-suits. One is Xanatos. The other is a Mary Sue. And since Xanatos' slot is taken in your ficverse...>> ...the hell? Are you calling Mr. Hawkins a Mary-Sue? BAH!
<<Too many to keep track of. More money for Hasbro and fewer manufacturing costs. Smart. I'm already going to have a tough time keeping track of my Thundercracker and Starscream.>> I know, I'm a sheep, lining up to spend more money on simple re-colors with new names...I'm so excited.
<> That's the usual price, and if it's in the U.S., you can save ten to fifteen bucks in shipping. And as for my VISA, don't ask.
<<Yes, very important so they break that much sooner.>> I still have my original 1984 Prime, and I'm never broken a smokestack. And considering he looks hideous with them short...
<<Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary lately.>> True, a lot of useless characters are getting the spotlight. But I think Whedon's trying to squeeze as much from each character before they all die in the series finale.
<<Yes, I am. I was thinking of Tara. My bad. I think Tara was far more obnoxious than Dawn.>> I'm very glad Tara died, but Dawn grates on my nerves something fierce. I hope to god there isn't a Dawn spin-off. I could handle a Spike or Willow spin-off, tolerate a Xander, but Dawn should just fade away when the show ends.

Gside: <<And I do believe that's the only Prime I have. And I have some fond memories of it, in fact. Though one of the exhausts on his shoulder broke.>> I did have him, I don't know why, probably a gift, but compared to the original, he doesn't compare. I broke him as well, five minutes after I got him, I broke the little transformation tab. Ker-snap. Whoops.
The Barracuda
B.C., Canada
Sunday, April 13, 2003 12:44:11 AM
IP: 208.181.156.210

I just saved it. :)
Leo
Saturday, April 12, 2003 11:46:11 PM
IP: 68.96.8.12

I'm afraid to post....
Bud-Clare
Saturday, April 12, 2003 11:34:02 PM
IP: 66.24.93.77

Imzadi> <<Did almost nothing except for watch my roommate play FFX. Cool game>>: Yes, it is. I've been working on my roomie's recently. Got most everything. In the middle of Blitzball now. Must get Jecht 2 and Auroch's Spirit.
<<And since most of my friends are overweight pigs>>: I didn't know I was your friend.
<<the sooner I can stop owing them stuff>>: I have no problems owing anything, as long as it comes without intererst and they don't start mentioning collection agencies.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Saturday, April 12, 2003 11:28:51 PM
IP: 198.151.130.245

Hmmm this is wierd -- with the comment room being lost consistantly when wiped we almost have a reverse top 10 -- people are saying save the room -- you had better save the room -- and remember to save the room.

Silliest thing I remember seeing in this comment room.

silvadel
Saturday, April 12, 2003 03:08:18 PM
IP: 208.58.107.167

AND I reccomend that anyone who posts should save their posts.
Fire Storm
Saturday, April 12, 2003 02:14:41 PM
IP: 66.72.189.117

Recommend people start saving the CR page now, in case the board "double clears" again. :-)
Leo
Saturday, April 12, 2003 12:10:55 PM
IP: 68.96.8.12

Just passing through...

Josh > "Does anyone know how long it takes for tax returns to come in?" - Do you mean tax refund? If you e-file and choose direct deposit, about a week to ten days. If you file a paper return and request a check, around four to six weeks.

Looks like we're going to have the first good sunny and warm weekend of spring these next two days. So it's off to the garden center this afternoon for grass seed... the battle to transform mud back into a lawn commences.
Patrick Toman
Saturday, April 12, 2003 06:59:19 AM
IP: 68.73.168.49

Ah, lazy day. Did almost nothing except for watch my roommate play FFX. Cool game. I also got an offer from Bechtel SAIC Ltd this morning to work on the Yucca Mountain Facility in Nevada (you know, the one where they're burying all the nuclear waste). But they're not paying much and they're not offering any benefits, so I'd rather be at GE. Then again, I'm still holding out for Apple.

Does anyone know how long it takes for tax returns to come in?

JacKaL: <<You're walking down the street, you see a good looking woman, and as usual you check her out>>: And as usual, she can't tell because I wear reflective shades.
<<Hey, bitch! Yeah, you with the nice ass! Bring that purdy mouth over here!>>: I would hope that my penis would be more intelligent than that, but unfortunately tact doesn't radiate outward.
<<Point to the guy beside you and start whistling nonchalantly?>>: Yes! And since most of my friends are overweight pigs, that strategy will never fail!
<<wanna read a little story that should upset you?>>: That is sick. Those people should be drawn and quartered. Do we still do that in this country?

Kathy: <<You have to decide if you want to go with the safe bet or keep gambling for the big prize>>: My temptation is to tell Apple the same thing. They already know that they really like me, the engineers have told me as much. So do they want to go with the guy they know they like or take a chance with someone who might not be as talented or as group-oriented? Well, it won't matter, since GE extended their deadline.

Barracuda: <<Should have been looking during the winter>>: Alas, I had no money this winter. Well, none to spend on lego. I've mostly been picking up larger sets (500+ pieces), because the smaller ones only keep me busy for a few minutes.
<<For the last time, that isn't me. He's based on me. Seriously>>: From my experience, only two types of characters get gargoyle exo-suits. One is Xanatos. The other is a Mary Sue. And since Xanatos' slot is taken in your ficverse...
<<'Clamp Down', 'Deep Cover' and 'Tiger Tracks'. Plus they're releasing an orange Starscream and green Grapple>>: Too many to keep track of. More money for Hasbro and fewer manufacturing costs. Smart. I'm already going to have a tough time keeping track of my Thundercracker and Starscream.
<<Megatron goes for higher prices>>: I found one for $70. I'm gonna wait till next month, after I get my credit card statement and have that heart attack ;-)
<<thank god for Takara keeping the smokestacks the original length>>: Yes, very important so they break that much sooner.
<<Buffy IS the star>>: Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary lately.

Niamhgold: <<My best friend's boss emailed me today and let me know I'm at the "head of the pack.">>: Isn't that a great feeling?! Congrats.

Bud-Clare: <>: I have the same problem. I'm really not sure what to tell people about myself. Er, uh, I'm a senior in CivE from Los Angeles...it winds up being mostly a review of my resume anyway.
<<too nice to stop speaking to you?>>: No, I don't think that's it. He's stopped speaking with lots of other people. He's not very diplomatic with his ex girlfriends, for example.
<<Eek. That's slightly scary>>: All the engineers are very talented, I assure you. Making 17" powerbooks is no easy task. But having attractive engineers is inline with the company's "form AND function" M.O. Also, Apple really has to put its best face forward to survive in this market, which is why they don't hire the nutty zealots over the people who can admit flaws in the work.
<<That'd make it tough for you to get a date>>: As if I didn't already have that problem.
<<You must be thinking of someone else>>: Yes, I am. I was thinking of Tara. My bad. I think Tara was far more obnoxious than Dawn.
<<Hey... wait a minute... You pervert!>>: LOL I hadn't even thought of it that way. I refer to most midterms that sound ugly (like AI, or stellar dynamics) as painful. But thanks for pointing it out!

Gside: <<I'll mooch off anyone any way I can for as long as I can>>: Its always been my attitude that the sooner I gain financial independence from my family, the sooner I can stop owing them stuff.

Hasta manana.

170. I will be an equal-opportunity despot and make sure that terror and oppression is distributed fairly, not just against one particular group that will form the core of a rebellion.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Saturday, April 12, 2003 03:47:48 AM
IP: 64.168.29.69

Imzadi> <<If your profs are anything like our profs, 1-2 weeks>>: I've managed a couple that regularly hit a week.
<<No experience?>>: That's me.
<<there's no way I'm soliciting relatives for gifts>>: I'll mooch off anyone any way I can for as long as I can.

Barracuda> <<Power Master version? No, never did like that toy>>: And I do believe that's the only Prime I have. And I have some fond memories of it, in fact. Though one of the exhausts on his shoulder broke.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Saturday, April 12, 2003 12:51:04 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

Nevermind I guess someone fixed it already.
Amalthea
Friday, April 11, 2003 11:50:02 PM
IP: 68.101.158.193

Hey! Something is wrong with the gargoyles fan fiction archive. Does anyone know whats going on with it?
Amalthea
Friday, April 11, 2003 10:53:20 PM
IP: 68.101.158.193

Josh again> << <>: Sounds painful.>>
Hey... wait a minute... You pervert! *punches*
Bud-Clare - [budclare@yahoo.com]
Friday, April 11, 2003 10:28:25 PM
IP: 66.24.93.77

The interview went okay. I totally blanked when he asked me to tell him about myself (you would _think_ that I'd be prepared for that kind of thing, but no), but other than that, it went okay. Now I just have to wait to hear something... Bleh.
********************
Josh> <<Sounds painful.>>
Especially since I was late. Dumb me. 60 points of it were evil, since it was doing stuff that we'd gone over in class, but which I'd never actually done myself. It looks easier when someone else is doing the work, for some strange reason. :P

<<Makes me wonder why he's been my friend since 7th grade.>>
Because he's... Hold on, must yell at cat... too nice to stop speaking to you?

<<And in general, Apple doesn't hire ugly people unless they're extremely talented.>>
Eek. That's slightly scary.

<<We're talking about how Puck "knew"/guessed what Brooklyn would look like in 40 years.>>
Yay! What I said made sense!

<<It already gets me into enough trouble by thinking, imagine if it spoke!>>
*L* That'd make it tough for you to get a date...

<<No experience?>>
Yeah, that'd be it.

<<Congrats! Best of luck.>>
Thank you.

<<Maybe Gunn too. That show would rock if it was just Angel, Fred, Wesley, and Lorne.>>
I like Gunn. He's damned cool. (Meaning that he's funny. I like funny. Plus, cute, so that helps.)

<<Only because Dawn died, though.>>
You must be thinking of someone else.
**********************
Niamhgold> <<Congrats! Best of luck>>
Thank you. :)
Bud-Clare - [budclare@yahoo.com]
Friday, April 11, 2003 10:25:54 PM
IP: 66.24.93.77

KATHY - Thanks for the help.

Just out of curiosity, when *did* Dawn die? She was still alive in the last new episode (the one which * SPOILERS * revealed why Spike responds the way that he does to that "Early One Morning" song * SPOILERS *).
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Friday, April 11, 2003 06:37:48 PM
IP: 67.28.90.61

Bud-clare: Congrats! Best of luck :)

My best friend's boss emailed me today and let me know I'm at the "head of the pack." What's even scarier is that if I sublet from someone here, I'd be living in the same building as my best friend AND, possibly, working with her. Well...we'll see ;)
Niamhgold
Friday, April 11, 2003 02:04:14 PM
IP: 209.143.83.90

Josh: <<Should have called me. I might have purchased some of it.>> Should have been looking during the winter, I sold most of the sets then. Mostly mid/late eighties.
<<The Prime and Sideswipe I just snagged are the Takara ones, so I'll compare the quality to Rod/Rodimus and see.>> I guess they're the Takara book versions then. They're faithful. Hot Rod I can't find any differences between the American Hasbro re-release and the Takara re-release. The quality is about the same.
<<You have enough names already, Mr. Hawkins.>> For the last time, that isn't me. He's based on me. Seriously.
<<Which ones are those? Like the yellow/black sideswipes?>> Exactly, 'Clamp Down', 'Deep Cover' and 'Tiger Tracks'. Plus they're releasing an orange Starscream and green Grapple.
<> Get in that mindset, Megatron goes for higher prices, but since his release, demand has slowed a bit, and you can find some good deals.
<<Do you have the PM version?>> Power Master version? No, never did like that toy. I have the original, plus the TRU version, and the newest Takara release (and thank god for Takara keeping the smokestacks the original length).
<<And he's got to the be the only mac user, too, just to be a thorn in IT's side>> Pretty much.
<> Eh, Buffy IS the star.
<<But now Angel is getting annoying too. Cordy and Conner need to die. Maybe Gunn too. That show would rock if it was just Angel, Fred, Wesley, and Lorne.>> I don't mind Gunn, or Cordelia, just Conner should die, and leave the original six.
<<Only because Dawn died, though.>> Then why can't Conner die? Whedon has proved himself as cruel to his characters I as I am sometimes to mine.
The Barracuda
B.C., Canada
Friday, April 11, 2003 02:03:33 PM
IP: 208.181.156.210

Todd click the link or go to http://users.ox.ac.uk/~arthsoc/howjoin.html . You might also run a Google search under "Arthurian magazines" or "Arthurian periodicals" to see what pops up. Also, and I've gone all braindead here, so I can't remember the name exactly, but I think it's Publisher's Weekly that puts out a yearly writer guide that lists magazines looking for submissions. Go to any of the bigger bookstores and look in the Writers Reference section. Best of Luck.

The war stuff reminds me of the story of the little red hen. She asks for help and everyone tells her they're too busy so she plants and raises and harvest her corn herself. Then only after she's ground the corn and made her cornbread does everyone suddenly want to be her best friend. The only difference here is that now the rest of the world is telling the little red hen to take a powder while they enjoy the fruits of her labor. Fah.

Josh > It doesn't get any easier. You have to decide if you want to go with the safe bet or keep gambling for the big prize. Best of Luck.
kathy
Friday, April 11, 2003 01:06:11 PM
IP: 66.82.166.97

<<Too bad it doesn't have a larger vocabulary>>: I don't think we want that. It already gets me into enough trouble by thinking, imagine if it spoke!

Let's all stop and imagine the trouble a talking penis would get us guys into.
Scenario- You're walking down the street, you see a good looking woman, and as usual you check her out.
Muffled yells start coming from your crotch, "Hey, bitch! Yeah, you with the nice ass! Bring that purdy mouth over here!"
I mean, what do you do? Do you try to gag it? Point to the guy beside you and start whistling nonchalantly?
well anyway...

Toppled, So.. Damn..- NOW the French sing the praises of America. Screw that. Saddam can NOT slip thru the hands of this administration for 2 reasons-
if Bush plans to be reelected.
but moreso for the credibility of America, we have to know Saddam's fate.
Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein... where are they, dead or alive? You understand how bad this looks. Yeah Iraq is pretty much free, but a missing Saddam tarnishes this mission. Not only Saddam, but his money needs to be found, that's billions of dollars.

Hey, wanna read a little story that should upset you? Then get ur click on!
These jerk offs, in spite of whatever their gender may be, should have their genitals severed, fried and force feed to them.
JacKaL
Shoe Smacking City, Iraq
Friday, April 11, 2003 10:09:43 AM
IP: 205.188.208.9

Thanks to Christine and Taleweaver. I've corresponded with James Lowder (the Green Knight Publishing chap that Christine referred to) myself a few times, and have bought a number of books from the Green Knight Publishing line (both fiction and role-playing); they don't appear to have a periodical, though. For now, I'll just keep looking around.
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Friday, April 11, 2003 07:39:19 AM
IP: 67.75.179.216

Hello everyone

just stopping in

Aiden
Friday, April 11, 2003 04:04:01 AM
IP: 149.159.96.133

ARGH! Apple is really starting to piss me off right now. The HR lady called me and told me that all the product design managers were visiting the manufacturing plant for a production ramp-up and that I wouldn't hear a decision until next Tuesday evening at the earliest. Next tuesday was GE's deadline, so (very annoyed), I emailed GE and asked for yet another extension. They granted it, so I'm off the hook for another week. I'm just getting really tired of being dragged around. On the plus side, I can hope that my competitor for the spot is also fed up and isn't nearly as patient with Apple as I am. Maybe she'll tell them that she has other offers and can't delay any longer.

Maybe I should just find her email address and send her an email spoofed as Apple that says she'll never get the job. That would make me happy.

Bud-Clare: <>: Sounds painful.
<>: If your profs are anything like our profs, 1-2 weeks.
<<He was just trying to be nice>>: He doesn't have to try. He's always nice. Makes me wonder why he's been my friend since 7th grade.
<<They're geeks. Don't be too sure>>: True, but they're gainfully employed and very successful geeks. And in general, Apple doesn't hire ugly people unless they're extremely talented. HR has admitted as much to me. So they can be picky.
<<he could have met an older Brooklyn in the past>>: Good point.
<<I'm not even sure what we're talking about>>: We're talking about how Puck "knew"/guessed what Brooklyn would look like in 40 years.
<<Too bad it doesn't have a larger vocabulary>>: I don't think we want that. It already gets me into enough trouble by thinking, imagine if it spoke!
<<why won't anyone hire me?>>: No experience?
<<Does he even _know_ any good words?>>: I don't have to. Only my friend has to.
<<Job interview tomorrow>>: Congrats! Best of luck.

Kaioto: <I've got a hidden agenda that needs taking care of>>: Not anymore.

Barracuda: <>: Should have called me. I might have purchased some of it.
<<the American ones being safer for children with longer missiles, etc, and the Japanese ones being faithful to the entire original mold>>: Silly. The Prime and Sideswipe I just snagged are the Takara ones, so I'll compare the quality to Rod/Rodimus and see.
<<call me a fanatic>>: You have enough names already, Mr. Hawkins.
<<e-hobby has re-colors>>: Which ones are those? Like the yellow/black sideswipes?
<<the price is still going to be high>>: I know. I'm getting psychologically prepared to plunk down the c-note for him, but I'd be more prepared if I got my tax return first.
<>: Do you have the PM version?
<<And a Dogbert doll above the Mac>>: And he's got to the be the only mac user, too, just to be a thorn in IT's side 8-)
<<I've been watching it, and more faithfully than the recent Buffy's, but maybe only because I like Angel more and am getting sick of all the Spike-centric stories>>: I was getting tired of all the Buffy lines. The Andrew becoming a Scooby story, the new slayers, all that crap. But now Angel is getting annoying too. Cordy and Conner need to die. Maybe Gunn too. That show would rock if it was just Angel, Fred, Wesley, and Lorne.
<>: Only because Dawn died, though.

Gside: <<Graduation invites>>: I laughed when I got that mailer. I'm not even going to commencement, so there's no way I'm soliciting relatives for gifts.

Nite all.

169. If I have massive computer systems, I will take at least as many precautions as a small business and include things such as virus-scans and firewalls.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Friday, April 11, 2003 03:15:32 AM
IP: 64.168.29.69

Job interview tomorrow! Woohoo! (Not a "real" job, unfortunately, but even low pay is better than nothing.)
*****************
Barracuda> <<Is it all right to wish for the painful death of a main character?>>
No, because that would just make him even more whiny. Quick and painless, that's the way to go. ;)
*****************

*sighs* I'd better get to bed now... I have to get up so early.
Bud-Clare - [budclare@yahoo.com]
Friday, April 11, 2003 02:13:03 AM
IP: 66.24.93.77

Got my second communication systems test back, after a guest lecture by one of the inventors of wireless and cellular phones (they were designed to compensate for travelling at speeds of 60mph, i.e. for use in cars). Another breast curve on the test, average of 64 out of 150. I broke 100, so I'm happy. Now to get cracking on the RPC coding and on the fantasy basketball for software engineering.
Then I went to mail a package and found out I was cited for high distinction (capitalized, bolded, and underlined by them) by Comp Sci.

Imzadi> <>: Perhaps, but it makes a statement. Granted, I wouldn't do it myself.
<<sending them another tuition bill?>>: I'm all paid up. Graduation invites.

Happy Birthday Stephen.

And some celebration for mp3 #350. Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich, as performed by the Boston Pops.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Friday, April 11, 2003 12:10:17 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

Todd> Non-fiction, eh? You migh want to try Parabola or headlinemuse.com. I'll post a link to the later. Both are pretty good on comparative mythology and how they impact modern times. If I ever get the time maybe I'll finish up my tretise on warrior princesses.

Taleweaver - [~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]
Thursday, April 10, 2003 11:18:55 PM
IP: 24.205.177.15

Todd > You might try Realms of Fantasy magazine. They have run some non-fiction articles before. Maybe some of the gamer magazines; Dragon or Dungeon or the like. You could investigate Green Knight Publishing -- they do books on Arthurian stuff, though I don't know if they have any periodicals. I know the Green Knight editor (same guy as does the zombie anthologies) and he's a nice, approachable guy. Sorry I can't be more helpful. I've never investigated the non-fiction markets.
Christine - [christine@sabledrake.com]
Thursday, April 10, 2003 10:28:10 PM
IP: 208.187.8.13

Josh: <<Its how my lego fixation re-started as well. A couple of really expensive ebay sets.>> Funny, I sold all of my Lego on "the 'bay" to pay for the Transformers.
<<Aren't they all selling the exact same set, just packaged differently? I'm just interested in the toys themselves, not a collector, so I'll buy the cheapest ones.>> Pretty much, some differ, such as the American ones being safer for children with longer missiles, etc, and the Japanese ones being faithful to the entire original mold. But, call me a fanatic. Plus, e-hobby has re-colors.
<<The bummer is that Megatron isn't available here in the states because of the stupid toy gun laws...do you know where I can get one for cheap (50-75 US) up there?>> That could be hard, I bought the Takara 'book' version for a little higher price from Japan. If you can find an American/Canadian seller to avoid paying 20-30 bucks shipping overseas, well then you're lucky. But the price is still going to be high.
<<Yeah, I know. So far I've only bought three: Hot Rod, Rod Prime (different models, as I'm sure you know), and Optimus.>> Trust me, I know, I already have two different Primes and two different Jazzs among the collection.
<<Believe me, I understand. Its a good thing I'm not still into Magic cards, otherwise I'd be buying those in droves. I broke down on Optimus and decided to buyItNow, because I was tired of waiting for auctions to run out.>> I've used Buy It Now on more than one occasion to reduce the absolute headache of vying against a hundred different bidders on a single product, that usually ends up being more expensive than the BIN.
<<Which reminds me, a certain engineers cubicle in Beginning Anew must be covered in legos and transformers.>> And a Dogbert doll above the Mac.

<<I'm only trying to get G1's or G1 reissues. The rest have no nostalgia value for me.>> Same here, though I did get the Autobot Brothers and their repaints from RID. They were the only ones from that line and Armada that sparked any interest and were actually well-designed.
<<No one seems to be selling those on ebay. I guess the tapes are really hard to find.>> The tapes, even the more popular ones, and thus, higher in production number, are very hard to find, especially since they're coveted.

<<Angel drives me nuts. I watch it every week, but it still SUCKS.>> Actually, I've been watching it, and more faithfully than the recent Buffy's, but maybe only because I like Angel more and am getting sick of all the Spike-centric stories. But Angel is dragging along, and finally, they dealt with Angelus. Of course, in watching Angel, I have to put up with Conner, who has replaced Dawn as the most annoying Buffy/Angel-verse character. Is it all right to wish for the painful death of a main character?
The Barracuda
B.C., Canada
Thursday, April 10, 2003 09:36:09 PM
IP: 208.181.156.210

CHRISTINE - After checking out www.ralan.com, I noticed that it appeared designed almost exclusively (if not exclusively) for fiction submissions. The trouble is that my series of articles are non-fiction, so I don't think that your recommendation will work so well for them. Do you have any ideas on where would be a good place to submit some *non-fiction* articles on modern-day Arthurian literature?
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Thursday, April 10, 2003 08:52:51 PM
IP: 65.57.57.157

Lain >> You're right of course. "Couldn't care less." Ugly habits of typography spawned from the way we slur our words where I live, I suppose. On the up side, the same local customs made it much easier to learn Japanese. :)

Oh, and (as an aside) the word is "you're" not "youre." (just teasing) ;-)

As for the source of objective media coverage, it - IS - a myth. Everyone has an agenda. We shouldn't blame the corporations either. That's just a lame cop-out. At least their motives are out in the open for anyone with even a mild case of cynicism to see.

Non-profit organizations as news sources are even - worse - than corporate as a general rule. Seriously, you can't get that many people together to work on a project without a motive. Remove the profit motive, and you're almost always left with a strong political motive, a strong philosophical motive, or no organization at all.

"Objective reporting" might be a nice theory for a philosophical motive, but it never survives the test of consumption over time. Everything gets tainted or buried.

Seriously, the bulk of various world religions have non-profit media outlets. Greenpeace has media outlets. Governments have media outlets (and they sure as heck don't run a profit). They are all outrageously biased.

It is pretty safe to assume that everyone who is trying to "educate" or "inform" you has some sort of agenda, big or small. This applies to the scientific communities, the political communities, the religious communities, the corporate communities, the art communities, and all the others.

That doesn't mean they don't have facts, evidence, and even logic sometimes. It doesn't mean that everything they say is wrong. What it really means is that you can't be lazy and just accept what one or two sources say about anything or everything. You have to put in a lot of effort to sift out the facts from the opinions, notice the omissions, and sometimes you're going to have to make some real judgment calls.

Basically, you've got to be an extreme critic towards just about everyone, including yourself. Even then, don't expect anyone else to believe you've got an objective view on anything.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a hidden agenda that needs taking care of. :)
Kaioto - [kaioto@yahoo.com]
Thursday, April 10, 2003 11:16:14 AM
IP: 208.204.155.241

kai>> (on a total aside.. ive asked this before but when you say al jazeera "could care less," wouldnt that more proporly be al jazeera "couldnt care less"? if they could care less, that would suggest that there is some level of caring involved, which doesnt seem to be what youre suggesting..)

youre right, of course. the thing that pisses me off about corporate media is how it pretends to be "anti-war" when really, it isnt. it cant be. being truly anti-war would have to mean being anti-profit, and we couldnt have THAT. they all LOVE war, because people want to watch it. i also hate how they make things 10 times more controversial than they really are, just to make a better story.

but anywyas.. where would you find "unbiased" reporting? in a company that doesnt get a cash flow from advertisers? something not for-profit? (and obviously something not acting as the mouthpiece for any given government?
where is this glorious news-machine, or is "objective" reporting just a myth?

lain
Thursday, April 10, 2003 10:38:42 AM
IP: 65.93.72.17

re: Objectivity, Fox, and Al-Jazeera

Al-Jazeera isn't objective at all. They are a for-profit company and their reporters and writers aren't - paid - to be objective. They are paid to pander to their target demographic. And if that means pandering to racism and bigotry, Al-Jazeera could care less.

Heck, we aren't much better in the Far East and "Unholy" West, but at least many of our countries have multiple independent news sources. Sure, - none - of them are even remotely objective in about 95% of their reporting - not Fox News, not CNN, not ABC, CBS, not NBC, not the BBC, and certainly not Talk Radio or National Public Radio. Ever since the News became a way to turn a profit, News Media have been trying to differentiate and target-market themselves, and that means sacrificing every shred of objectivity.

Certainly, as a consumer, getting biases from every angle gives you a better shot at shorting through the lies on all sides, but in the end, targeted marketing of News panders to our personal biases because they know it - works -.

Kaioto - [kaioto@yahoo.com]
Thursday, April 10, 2003 10:02:11 AM
IP: 208.204.155.241

Greetings all... just wanted to stop by, since it's my birthday today. the big 3-4...

Hope everyone is doing okay... Maintain and Check Six!

Stephen R. Sobotka Jr.
Tampa, FL, USA
Thursday, April 10, 2003 08:59:03 AM
IP: 65.35.132.55

Thanks for the help, Christine.
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Thursday, April 10, 2003 06:57:40 AM
IP: 63.208.45.126

Grr... I took my AI midterm today. I wish I had some idea how I did on it. I think I probably got a B, but I can still hope for an A... I wonder how long it will take him to grade them...
**************
Josh> <<My roommate thinks I'm a shoe-in. I hope he's right.>>
He was just trying to be nice.

<<If she's ugly, no amount of flexing will turn them on.>>
They're geeks. Don't be too sure.

<>
But he could have met an older Brooklyn in the past... (I'm not even sure what we're talking about, actually. Just thought I'd jump in.)

<<Goliath's moronic understanding of time, that it "corrects its course" is incorrect. Its course can't be altered in the first place.>>
Not moronic, _picturesque_.

<<My penis thinks sometimes.>>
Too bad it doesn't have a larger vocabulary.
*******************
Kaioto> <<making it a fixed event, not truly "random.">>
Crappy pseudo-random number generators... ;)
******************
Niamhgold> <<There's an internship fair today (please wish me luck!>>
Good luck. :)

<<Head hurts, it's so confusing>>
Argh, I hate it when you have no way of knowing what you should do until it's too late. I always choose wrong.

<<how come all the employers are hiring the kids who get C's, show up late for interviews, and actually tell the interviewer that they've done drugs and have/had mental issues?!>>
Then why won't anyone hire me? I'm always late, I got a whole bunch of C's when I first transferred to my new school, and I'm insane. They should throw money at me!

<<And maybe he'll put in a good word for you>>
Does he even _know_ any good words?
Bud-Clare - [budclare@yahoo.com]
Thursday, April 10, 2003 04:09:41 AM
IP: 66.24.93.77

Interesting day today. Spent a good portion of the afternoon with my TA's getting MATLAB to stop behaving stupidly on their computer (code works fine on this end!). Turns out my TA is friends with the guy who TA'd one of my classes a couple years ago, and we all sat around the office talking about civil engineering programming classes. Then an email from Apple telling me I might not hear until Monday. Jeez, as if the suspense wasn't enough already. Then the end of the DS9 DVD's, the special features. Even had a chance to work on my programming project briefly.

Another ebay'd transformer is due to me sometime soon. That GE intern of the year bonus is sure being spent well! Or maybe its my tax return. There is a major advantage to only working over the summer, BTW: massive tax returns.

Senator Hatch is trying to remove the sunset clause of the PATRIOT act. I am so embarrassed to be a republican right now.

Kaioto: <>: It is a fixed event, but it can also be random. It just won't be different if it happens again (i.e. in a second loop).

Niamhgold: <<there are only three weeks left in the semester,>>: 5 on this end. Including finals. Not that I'm counting or anything.
<<I've yet to find any sort of position for the summer>>: You'll find something. You're much more talented at art than I am at engineering, and everyone seems quite confident that I'll get Apple.
<<Or, I could wait and hope that I get something in CA and scramble at the last minute to get out there. Argh. Head hurts, it's so confusing>>: I hate that kind of uncertainty. It'd give me an ulcer. Hell, the suspense from Apple is making me nervous, and I have a backup.
<<maidens of MICA>>: Um...nevermind.
<<the "I'm Naked!" shirt with two GIR props>>: that one. I'm slightly biased, of course.
<>: kinky. Drool.
<>: Somehow, I doubt you'll ever find them.
<<You've been trying long enough>>; An A for effort isn't worth much.
<<if the gymnast gets in...I'll have *thryn* beat her up>>: In the next few days, please.
<<Did he have to sleep with a man?>>: Probably not. He's just good.
<<at least he's not in "The Calling.">>: I am so bitter about that, don't remind me.
<<God help us all if we forget>>: I consider it an insult. Like they haven't been paying attention to me.
<<Or I could just build this damned time machine from my toaster and microwave and find out for myself>>: Find out when I get the job at Apple, that way I can stop going crazy.
<<Gotta love those arts and humanities>>: Only when I outsmart them.
<<how come all the employers are hiring the kids who get C's, show up late for interviews, and actually tell the interviewer that they've done drugs and have/had mental issues?!>>: Because they're interesting real people. Only engineers need to have straight A's.
<<Some people, it seems, will never reach pit-bottom in their lives>>: Its all relative. From my point of few, I reached pit bottom about 6 years ago and have been steadily rising since.
<<it seems as if he works his butt off>>: Thank you for recognizing that. I do appreciate it.
<<he has no life>>: I keep posting here, that should say something.
<<maybe he'll put in a good word for you>>: If I get in, I won't have any weight in programming.

Luminous: <<now I got the entire series on VCD>>: A tivo and a video card, that's all I need...$500 later and I'll be able to record all those episodes to DVD 8-)

Aaron: <<I'm still alive>>: Prove it.

Gabriel: <<it seems that everyone and their mother have become experts on objectivity>>: Objectivity is like Othello. A minute to learn, a lifetime to master.

Brooklyn: <<Whats up?>>: The price of rice in china?

Question: <<no one is talking about Angel this week especially with the explaination for Connor's birth and purpose and the whole back story involving the demons and the powers>>: Angel drives me nuts. I watch it every week, but it still SUCKS.

Barracuda: << that's exactly how I started on my re-issue collection last year>>: Its how my lego fixation re-started as well. A couple of really expensive ebay sets.
<<the collection has grown now, TRU, Takara, E-Hobby>>: Aren't they all selling the exact same set, just packaged differently? I'm just interested in the toys themselves, not a collector, so I'll buy the cheapest ones. The bummer is that Megatron isn't available here in the states because of the stupid toy gun laws...do you know where I can get one for cheap (50-75 US) up there?
<>: I'm doing the same. Fortunately I'm about to come into some money that won't be spent on computer supplies this year because my system officially rocks. So I'm blowing it on transformers and lego.
<<Careful, it gets bloody expensive>>: Yeah, I know. So far I've only bought three: Hot Rod, Rod Prime (different models, as I'm sure you know), and Optimus.
<<the promise of buying back our childhood for low starting bids and the ever dreaded Buy It Now>>: Believe me, I understand. Its a good thing I'm not still into Magic cards, otherwise I'd be buying those in droves. I broke down on Optimus and decided to buyItNow, because I was tired of waiting for auctions to run out.
<>: Which reminds me, a certain engineers cubicle in Beginning Anew must be covered in legos and transformers. You know who I mean 8-)

Taleweaver: <<G1 and Beast Wars/Beast Machines are good, but I don't have much love RID or Armada>>: I'm only trying to get G1's or G1 reissues. The rest have no nostalgia value for me.
<>: I am so jealous.
<<All out of the box and extensively played with>>: I don't trust other people to play with my toys before I buy them.
<<My favs are the Headmasters and the decepticon tapes>>: No one seems to be selling those on ebay. I guess the tapes are really hard to find.

Gside: <<Hand in ten blank pages>>: I think that's more silence than they're looking for.
<<'Rhoids?>>: Worse. nerves.
<<If they don't know mine, they're going to be getting reminders soonish>>: sending them another tuition bill?
<<perhaps it's part of the shared left brain consiousness>>: I don't think so. History isn't my strong suit.
<<Where can I find the calendar?>>: Careful, there are some scary looking women at that school.
<<don't think about the purple elephant.>>: NOOOOO!

Jaden: <<I'm back in S. California>>: I am so jealous.

Nite folks.

168. I will plan in advance what to do with each of my enemies if they are captured. That way, I will never have to order someone to be tied up while I decide his fate.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Thursday, April 10, 2003 03:23:48 AM
IP: 64.161.25.58

Well, after three years, I'm back in S. California. And for some reason it just doesn't feel like home...not that it ever really did. I'm not sure just how long I'm going to be here, but I don't think it will be too long. Has anyone here ever worked on a Cruise ship? I was thinking about do that for a year or so. I've got a few choices and I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I'll accept the offer to go teach english in Japan. I've always wanted to go there.

Hey, what happened to last weeks posts?

Well I'm going to go luck around some of the other TGS sites.

Later.
Jaden - [jaden1444@aol.com]
Thursday, April 10, 2003 02:32:32 AM
IP: 172.194.240.57

I'm afraid we missed Sadaam. His blog is still active. Click on my name for a good laugh :)
ghost of Reverend Attila
Thursday, April 10, 2003 02:23:20 AM
IP: 136.216.75.2

Gabriel> Objectivity is a nice idea, but a myth. To me, Fox News should make it's motto: Yeah, we're biased, but it's your kind of bias.

Actually, liberalism would be good in the Middle East, though I'm a granola chewing barefoot hippy comapred to the Middle East.

But one time GB wrote an article and was branded a left-winger by a Buchanan supporter. That's scary when someone brands the Green Baron left-wing.

Ed> BBC= Baathist Broadcasting Corporation :) Though the BBC makes good comedy.
ghost of Reverend Attila
Thursday, April 10, 2003 02:14:37 AM
IP: 136.216.75.2

Lain> <<discuss the ideas of silence and/or absence>>: Hand in ten blank pages.
And pass this along: Devils burnt, count exactly 50.

Leo> <<such "original" and "revolutionary" works as "concerto for cello and upsidown bicycle">>: Don't knock P.D.Q. Bach. But then, he doesn't try to be revolutionary, original maybe.

Warpind> SMJ and first Excel burnt.
<>: And go and get the DivX and XviD codecs, if you don't have them already.

Lain> <<what the #(*& is "ligitimation" when its at home?>>: The process of making a medium legitimate

Imzadi> <>: 'Rhoids?
<<You can be damned sure everyone in my family knows my major>>: If they don't know mine, they're going to be getting reminders soonish.
<<My friend says I wrote it just like Burke speaks>>: Congratulations. Or perhaps it's part of the shared left brain consiousness.

Niamhgold> <<there are only three weeks left in the semester, and I've yet to find any sort of position for the summer>>: You're a bit better off than me, even though I have a bit more time.
<>: Congratulations. Where can I find the calendar?
<>: I've gotten a couple favorable Medium personals. I would like to know the gender of whoever sent them.
<<Just don't think about it>>: Quick, don't think about the purple elephant.

Taleweaver> <>: Same here. Right now sitting in the crawlspace, mildewing next to He Man and Star Wars (and other various) stuff.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Thursday, April 10, 2003 02:11:39 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

Josh> I know what you mean about legos. Since I changed majors out of Mechanical Engineering, I"ve been hitting the bionicles hard. I tried to win the transmetal dragons on Ebay, but I always got outbid. G1 and Beast Wars/Beast Machines are good, but I don't have much love RID or Armada. Fortunately, I still have some of my originals from when I was a kid. All out of the box and extensively played with. My favs are the Headmasters and the decepticon tapes.
Taleweaver - [~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]
Thursday, April 10, 2003 01:17:29 AM
IP: 24.205.177.15

Josh: <<My collection of re-issued transformers has begun. Tonight I scored Hot Rod on ebay. I miss toys, hence all the lego.>> Funnily enough, that's exactly how I started on my re-issue collection last year. I remember getting the box in the mail and holding the actual toy in my hand. In the palm of my frigging hand, and the first thought that popped into my head was, 'did they shrink this thing?' No, I grew. But of course, the collection has grown now, TRU, Takara, E-Hobby, I wasted the money I should have kept for, say, food, rent, general living expenses. Careful, it gets bloody expensive. And Ebay I figure is an infectious disease, packaged for the general public in bright colors and the promise of buying back our childhood for low starting bids and the ever dreaded Buy It Now.

But, I still love it. Damnit...
The Barracuda
B.C., Canada
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 11:20:49 PM
IP: 208.181.156.210

Strange no one is talking about Angel this week especially with the explaination for Connor's birth and purpose and the whole back story involving the demons and the powers.
The Question
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 10:29:46 PM
IP: 67.233.55.179

Todd > Here's a link to Ralan.com, which is one of the best and most comprehensive sites of markets for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. It includes publishers, magazines, e-zines, anthologies, paying and for-the-love markets, etc. Lots of details. Very good, useful site.
Christine
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 09:28:24 PM
IP: 208.187.159.229

Hi everyone
Whats up?

Just dropping by
Brooklyn - [mango_11_19@hotmail.com]
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 07:51:07 PM
IP: 149.159.96.133

*shakes head* there's the liberal Arab media at it again. when will it end!!!???
Gabriel "gaygoyle"
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 07:12:59 PM
IP: 68.116.248.99

for you, gabe. :P

"The scenes in the Iraqi capital were chaotic. Jubilant Iraqis welcomed advancing US forces in Baghdad while rampaging looters attacked symbols of Saddam Hussein�s power.

Residents threw flowers at the armoured column as it swept past, just three kilometres east of the central Jumhuriyya Bridge over the Tigris river. Joy at the apparent removal of Saddam Hussein was tangible, with one man beating a canvas portrait of him with his slipper.

Crowds threw flowers at the Marines as they drove past the Martyrs' Monument, just three km (two miles) east of the central Jumhuriya Bridge over the river Tigris.

"No more Saddam Hussein," chanted one group, waving to troops as they passed. "We love you, we love you." One young man ran alongside a Marine armoured personnel carrier trying to hand over a heavy belt of ammunition. An older man made a wild kicking gesture with his foot, saying "Goodbye Saddam".

Women waved from balconies, girls threw flower petals at young Marines leaning across gun turrets. One woman held her baby aloft. Tank crews picked the flowers from the tops of their fighting machines, smelt them and grinned. Crowds of Shia men beat their chests in the streets."

lain
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 07:09:22 PM
IP: 65.93.78.33

Gosh golly, lain. that link is not working. could you bychance repost that in your busy schedule. thank you.
Gabriel "gaygoyle"
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 07:07:24 PM
IP: 68.116.248.99

ok so my computer is a freak and both of those links work. :P

*more essay writing*
lain
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 06:58:00 PM
IP: 65.93.78.33

damn, it seems that everyone and their mother have become experts on objectivity.
Gabriel "gaygoyle"
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 06:57:46 PM
IP: 68.116.248.99

ok.. that didnt work.. how bout this?
lain
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 06:56:15 PM
IP: 65.93.78.33

Ghost of Reverand Attila: That's not saying much. The Iraqi information minister is ahead of the BBC for objectivity.
Ed - [ed@steelclaw.org]
London, England
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 06:55:29 PM
IP: 213.187.48.60

youth n asia>> this ones for you. this is the temporary english language website for al-jazeera. read for yourself.
lain - [<< clickie]
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 06:54:25 PM
IP: 65.93.78.33

Youth N Asia> Actually, Al-Jazeera is one of the more moderate Tv stations, but not what I'd consider objective. Of course, I put them a step ahead of BBC :D

BTW, Peter Arnette got a job with Al-Arabiya, and if we can capture Baghdad Bob alive, we can put him on Saturday Night Live :)

Now, Al-Jazeera has some pretty sick cartoons and I will warn you that if anti-semitism offends you, you may not want to view these links.

http://www.aljazeera.net/Cartoons/index.asp?cu_NO=1&Temp_ID=197&Index=62

http://www.aljazeera.net/Cartoons/index.asp?cu_NO=1&Temp_ID=197&Index=158

http://www.aljazeera.net/Cartoons/index.asp?cu_NO=1&Temp_ID=197&Index=151

http://www.aljazeera.net/Cartoons/index.asp?cu_NO=1&Temp_ID=197&Index=57

I'll admit a few of their cartoons are funny, but many have levels of anti-semitism even France may find objectionable (as they sit on their thumbs when a French girl has a star of David carved on her arm, because she is Jewish).

The sad thing is, there are networks much worse than Al-Jazeera.

Jackal> It is a wonderful site to see Sadaam's statue crashing down. I guess the families of Palestinian suicide bombers can't count on Uncle Sadaam to give them any more money. I guess they can look to Pat Buchanan or Jacques Chirac as a new role model :) or maybe they can string up Arafat and promise not to kill any more Jews, and unlike Arafat, keep their promise.

Now, I don't know if Sadaam is actually dead. He may be in Paris by now :) Today is a good day, but we still ahve busy days ahead there. I do admit that we haven't doen too badly in three weeks. My hats off to all the soldiers, and the Marines, too (gotta root for GB's team);)

Niamhgold> <<But the ends do not always justify the means.>> The ends are what counts, though.

Besides, I'd rather release kids from an Iraqi prison than have peace in our time, anyday.

Jackal> <> Well, there is an understandable desire for peace, however I have never been of that philosophy. My only regret is that we let these people suffer as long as we did. We still have to earn their trust, but these soldiers are definietly doing a good job. I think Blair should get an honorary American citizenship, too.

Louisiana is going to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of it's purchase by Jefferson this December, and amongt those invited are King Juan Carlos of Spain, Le Vichy Waesel Jacques Chirac, and Dubya. There is a move by one Louisiana Rep to cut out Chirac's invitation. I'd say we disinvite him and invite some Corsican politician, since Napoleon was Corsican. What a perfect way to piss in Chirac's cheerios :)
ghost of Reverend Attila
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 04:36:19 PM
IP: 136.216.75.2

Lain wrote:

"youth n asia>> <> actually.. youre wrong. that footage was broadcast *live* on al-jazeera, and on abu dhabi TV (another arab TV station). "

They stopped the propaganda machine for a few minutes?

I am genuinely shocked.

I would applaud their actions, but I'm not sure what sort of negative spin they may have put on the footage after it aired.
Youth N Asia
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 02:49:47 PM
IP: 38.118.3.204

youth n asia>> <> actually.. youre wrong. that footage was broadcast *live* on al-jazeera, and on abu dhabi TV (another arab TV station).
lain
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 02:11:57 PM
IP: 65.93.78.33

Jackal wrote:

"I mean, look at them goin at that statue!
Direct quote from an Iraqi man, "Thank you Mr. Bush. We very like Mr. Bush!"

I somehow doubt that particular video footage will ever make it onto Al-Jazeera.

Youth N Asia
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 01:07:34 PM
IP: 38.118.3.204

Just popping in to say I'm still alive, and I do read the room, slowly, even if I don't have time to post anymore. Hopefully, when things get more settled, I can get back to my old routines.

Be well, all of you.

Aaron - [JCarnage@Yahoo.com]
San Antonio, TX, USA
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 12:12:06 PM
IP: 66.139.49.253

Syrin: Thanks so much for droppin' the line that it was an actual episode! Prolli one of the few I missed! (Cept now I got the entire series on VCD! Go EBAY! woohoo!) Thanks Again!
Luminous Aphrodite
BV, VA, USA
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 11:34:07 AM
IP: 63.165.157.83

** Niamhgold enters **

Well, it's been an interesting past couple of weeks. I had a sudden realization last Friday that there are only three weeks left in the semester, and I've yet to find any sort of position for the summer. There's an internship fair today (please wish me luck! ;), and I'm hoping for *anything*. Since Big Huge Games here in MD turned me down even after recommendations from three of their employees and a portfolio that I murdered myself making, I have little hope for LucasArts, ILM, and the few in LA that I applied to, since they're pretty much similar sectors and have even *higher* expectations. And the ones in LA that I *did* apply to...well, they're not making their finalist calls until after Easter. I need internship credit signatures by the end of school, and school ends May 2nd! I may just grab my friend CAra's place here and live here for the summer and hope that I find a job. Or, I could wait and hope that I get something in CA and scramble at the last minute to get out there. Argh. Head hurts, it's so confusing ;)

On the other hand (and more randomly), I apparently made this year's "maidens of MICA" list and have an equally random photoshoot this Saturday. I'm thinking my hawkgirl wings, or the "I'm Naked!" shirt with two GIR props ;) Or, I may work something out with Thryn, since she's got the hour after me. In any case, I want WORDS with the kid who signed me up for this--male OR female ;)

Saw Head of State saturday when my roomie's mom took us out for dinner and a movie. Great movie, like a giant SNL sketch and a great bash at government. Now, films are a great place to get on a soapbox, and I don't care what anyone else says ;)

Ooh, this business-card CDs I made are cute and shiny. I hope possible employers think so, too ;)

Quickie replies:

Jackal: <Everybody deserves freedom> Of course. But the ends do not always justify the means. I'm just concerned that we've been nagging at this whole terrorism/Hussein connection like a stereotypical housewife, to the point that it's only going to elicit the reverse result in the end. Centcom even says that they're not going to stop until they take down all the "regime appendages" in the world. Argh. Hehe. Saw that this morning. Yes, that's an image that is very reassuring.

Josh: <Joy! My roommate thinks I'm a shoe-in.> Seriously. You've been trying long enough ;) ::crosses fingers:: Well, if the gymnast gets in...I'll have *thryn* beat her up ;) <And since he just went through the HR garbage getting in full-time, he's reluctant to deal with them> Did he have to sleep with a man? <Played violin right next to me for several years> Well, at least he's not in "The Calling." <Brain? ;-)> No. Spleen. der. <Windows> Lindows. <You can be damned sure everyone in my family knows my major> God help us all if we forget. <It would have to be, or the model would fall apart. If time is immutable, then it should logically follow for both upstream and downstream.> True. If you think about the present from the viewpoint of the future, then technically it serves as the past. If this past-present is immutable (according to the law that the past cannot be changed), then the present cannot be changed, and thus the future would not change. The "tributaries" leading to the future (or the past, if working from the future) may be multiple, but they all go to the same place. Or I could just build this damned time machine from my toaster and microwave and find out for myself ;)

Warpmind: <Which MIGHT mean that another ep in my series may be forthcoming... someday... if I remember my login/pass to the archive... > Woo-HOO! Gosh, I don't think I can even remember my old login. It's been so long since I touched my fanfiction. I think the last one I wrote was in...2000? 1999? How about you?

Revel: <ain- Is there a strong possibility you are going to fail or are borderline? You could write how wonderful silence would be if you did not have her class. Remember you are bi-polar so you can't be blamed for your rapid depression and manic states ];)> Gotta love those arts and humanities. And I thought the real world was better--how come all the employers are hiring the kids who get C's, show up late for interviews, and actually tell the interviewer that they've done drugs and have/had mental issues?!

Bud-Clare: <But it's about damned time. Why should you always get everything? :P> Some people, it seems, will never reach pit-bottom in their lives. But if it's any consolation, it seems as if he works his butt off (and says he has no life, to boot ;)). And maybe he'll put in a good word for you ;) Hehe. Oh, I like you!

Dezi: <Ok, am very agitated now (from other things, not this post), and on the verge of an anxiety attack. My arms feel all tingly inside like an adrenalin rush. What do I do?> Definitely anxiety attack. First, yes, calm down. You can stand up and do some light stretching, or lie on your back and stretch, as well. Just don't think about it (it's like having heart palpatations--first task is to NOT think about it). To make improvements in your life to help keep this from happening again, drink more water, and less caffeine and salt (when I drink too much coffee/soda, for example, I get like that ;)). This is especially true if you have low body weight--and the last thing you want to do is get so anxious about it that you faint ;) Better yet...hunt up your BF and get a nice massage! :)

Adios, all. Internship fair time... ::gets anxious::

Niamhgold
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 11:22:24 AM
IP: 209.143.83.90

Lsd alwayz makes for good laughs!

Lookie, lookie!! Free Iraqis!! It's a Baghdad Jamborie!!
And to think that people were protesting this war...
Everybody deserves freedom.

I can't believe liberals wanted to keep these people under the rule of Saddam, to let these people be treated like animals. This war is the right and LEGAL course of act.
I mean, look at them goin at that statue!
Direct quote from an Iraqi man, "Thank you Mr. Bush. We very like Mr. Bush!"
They should chop this statue down to the song, "Ding Dong the witch is dead.." but sadly we have to wait on confirmation of that.

In any case, there's NO turing back for these people, it's a Free Iraq or die. We need to liquor these people up on tequila or jager... you think they are having a party now?!
YES they brought in the tank for that damn statute!!
This is soo great.. brb
JacKaL
Statute 232 of Saddam, Iraq
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 10:08:50 AM
IP: 152.163.189.68

Alright, this Time Travel ...

I sat down with the Greg himself last Gathering and asked him to enlighten me as to how the time-travel rules work in the Gargoyles universe. I'm sure there is a bunch more on that line in the S8 "Ask Greg" archives as well.

How does the Gargoyle's universe deal with Time? Time is a circle, from what I remember of Greg's explanation, that we can only traverse in one direction of rotation without magic like the Phoenix Gate.

Make of that what you will, but the impression I got from Greg was that history is immutable because "past" and "future" are completely interdependent. Due to the loop nature of Gargoyle's time / history, you can't alter the "future" because the "future" shapes the "past" changing your "present" creating a paradox.

The "past" can not alter the "future," and the "future" can not alter the "past" either, as Goliath learns in Vows and MIA. Everything he tried to change, he had done back then.

The only real oddity that struck me is that in a circular nature of time, I suppose randomness becomes something of an illusion, since the random possibility becomes history in the "future," which the "past" is dependent upon, making it a fixed event, not truly "random."

I guess free will still exists, surely, but the exercise of free will is what creates the immutable nature of the Time Loop to begin with.

Weird. Kind of fun, but weird.
Kaioto - [kaioto@yahoo.com]
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 10:08:44 AM
IP: 208.204.155.241

Warpmind> Be careful with that joke. I think most of the SARS cases in Canada are in Ontario.
ghost of Reverend Attila
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 05:01:41 AM
IP: 136.216.75.2

Long day. I barely slept last night, and I couldn't sit still in class all day. I was waiting nervously for an email from Apple. And did I ever get one. The HR lady said I'm at the top of their list, everyone loved me, and they'll get back to me by friday. Joy! My roommate thinks I'm a shoe-in. I hope he's right.

Attila: <<LSD>>: Good laugh.

Lila: <<Cross your fingers for the primacy effect>>: I am.
<<Social psychologists say it's stronger than the recency effect, anyway>>: Do they, now? I've never heard that.
<<she's a GYMNAST, and they're geeks>>: I know. But its Stanford, which means I can hope that she's ugly. If she's ugly, no amount of flexing will turn them on.

Leo: <>: Of course!
<<when they go home for the night>>: I don't think ANYONE goes home to fantasies of a female engineer.
<<Hope you have a few friends on the inside to put in a few good words>>: I have one in PD, but he's not in the same department of PD that I'm applying for, so he can't do much. And since he just went through the HR garbage getting in full-time, he's reluctant to deal with them.
<<Zach from 'Kindergarten Cop>>: I know that kid, he went to my high school. Played violin right next to me for several years.
<<HA HA!>>: Not nearly as funny as it sounds.
<<she needed um..*cough* a certain part of her anatomy eaten>>: Brain? ;-)

DPH: <<Last night, I rebooted my computer and the sound didn't work>>: Windows.
<>: How did you survive?
<<Who's to say by the time by Future Tense, Puck really hadn't encountered a similiar looking Brooklyn?>>: Nothing, but that wouldn't pertain to the dream Goliath has. I don't think Puck knows the future the way the Weird Sisters do.
<<It's pretty easy to count the deviations TGS has made from Greg Weisman's plans, especially in the Pendragon series>>: I ran out of fingers.
<<History is immutable but since recorded history isn't always correct, you might be able to do things differently from the way things were written. Either way, you're still not changing anything>>: That's just it. In the gargoyles universe, you can't do things differently. If you went back in time and tried to "change" things, then it would be because you always went back to change things. That's why time is immutable. Goliath's moronic understanding of time, that it "corrects its course" is incorrect. Its course can't be altered in the first place.
<<if the past can't be changed, neither can the future>>: Thank you.

Jan: <<He's specializing in Computer something. hehe I forget>>: This isn't funny. If I were Michael, I'd be downright insulted. You can be damned sure everyone in my family knows my major.

Dezi: << My arms feel all tingly inside like an adrenalin rush. What do I do?>>: Valium

Mecord: <<The problem with time travel is that there is no one way in which to discuss it.>>: But we're discussing it in a particular fiction universe, in which case there is only one way to discuss it, the way the writers wrote it.
<<This definitely suggests that time is kind of mutable, but whatever changes you try to make it corrects, making it at the same time immutable>>: The problem is that this is clearly contradicted by the use and behavior of time travel in our beloved show.
<<did she find something in her centuries of study that led her to believe that she could change it? Or was it just another example of her self-delusion?>>: perhaps she blocked out some of the more painful memories and thought she was being clever *this* time around.
<<The future is not written yet.>>: As far as he is concerned, his choices determine the path he will take. But if Broadway's granddaughter dropped by for a visit from 100 years from now, she'd disagree. They're both right. But since Goliath can't make two separate choices at the same decision point, it determines the future in such a way that it becomes the past for anyone from there.
<>: True, but gargoyles takes a rather limited view of the past/future relationship. Given the evidence in the show, the future is just as determined as the past. It would have to be, or the model would fall apart. If time is immutable, then it should logically follow for both upstream and downstream.
<<The time loop that leads Goliath into the Battle of Britain is so logically impossible>>: It is not. Its really quite simple, it just isn't explained very clearly in the episode. Once upon a time, Goliath went back to rescue griff because Leo and Una were pissed at him. He brought him to the future, and during those 40 years they thought he was missing. So when avalon sent him to London, they were angry at him. Cycle continues, very simple. What's important is that he brought griff back after the point that he left from, so there was no overlap.
<<none of us can say "In the Gargoyles universe (insert firm belief).">>: I don't think so. The evidence in the show speaks pretty clearly. Time travel behaves a particular way in every instance.
<<Even if we do, who's to say that if the show had gone on for one more season, an episode would have come along to prove us wrong?>>: Because Greg had written consistently for 65 episodes. Its unlikely to think he would have changed his ideas on time travel suddenly.

Bud-clare: <<she must also be a good engineer, or they wouldn't even bother interviewing her>>: True, but I might be a better engineer. Apparently some people think I'm pretty good. I just need the right people to think I'm good.
<<Why should you always get everything?>>: Because, in short, I rule.
<<which other part of the body could be made to think?>>: My penis thinks sometimes.

Gside: <>: Fair enough. I finished the script earlier this evening. My friend says I wrote it just like Burke speaks.
<>: I'm hoping the two chicks I interviewed with thought I was cute.
<<there is no "first time through" without time travel>>: Woot.

Lain: <>: Are there too many other things crowding it?
<<the one who decided i "wasnt a good enough student" to allow to graduate this year, and i have to stay another half year>>: That's sadistic. Hurt her.
<<susan>>: Why don't you yell at her?

and with that, I bid you good night

167. If I am recruiting to find someone to run my computer systems, and my choice is between the brilliant programmer who's head of the world's largest international technology conglomerate and an obnoxious 15-year-old dork who's trying to impress his dream girl, I'll take the brat and let the hero get stuck with the genius.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 04:21:21 AM
IP: 64.170.153.47

ok, now THIS one is a gem that needs to be shared. this is part of one of the articles we have to reference in this essay:

"the exercise of ligitimation, though often characterized by debate and disagreement about video's nature and its usage was a significant process in the forging of a space that cultivated access to a financial economy within the cultural funding aparatuses, whose categories of eligible media did not yet accomodate video as a new and initially experimental cultural technology."

excuse me but.. WHAT THE #)*(& DOES THAT MEAN!? other than NOTHING!? what the #(*& is "ligitimation" when its at home?

yeah, and this article goes on for 18 more pages; thats seventeen pages past the point where i claw my own eyes out and gunjack stalks off to beat the author to death with a sack of periods...

i think im going to die..
lain
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 04:03:11 AM
IP: 65.93.78.33

*Warpmind wanders in, smelling lemony and sporting little nicks on his fingertips.*
Well, another hard day at work, cutting stuff with scalpels and dissolving glue with a citrus-based solvent... 'Sgood to have something to do all day. :D

Not much to say today, actually, except I live, and I have finally managed to extricate ALL my old documents'n'stuff from the old 486 and transfer them to the HP. Which means that I have my garg fics on hard drive, available to me. Which MIGHT mean that another ep in my series may be forthcoming... someday... if I remember my login/pass to the archive... Anyway...

Methinks I should get back to work now. No good surfing on the net when I'm supposed to, y'know... WORK!

And Lain, I wish you good luck, and hope your crazy art teacher gets a few nice little bouts with the flu... Just enough to keep her from coming to work for a while. };)

*Fades*
Warpmind de InzanE - [warpmindATtiscaliDOTno]
Middle, Nowhere, Norway
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 03:58:47 AM
IP: 212.62.227.137

lain:>Typical A.A.(Anal retentive Acadimic) professor. They can't make it in life outside a university. Their only goal in life is to be mentioned in academic journals. I bet she's in her early to mid thirties and has at most only three years teaching experience after compleatig her doctorate. I had a music theory professor whole composition portfolio consisted of such "original" and "revolutionary" works as "concerto for cello and upsidown bicycle", "Sonata for Bathroom Scale and piano", "Variations on a 12tone matrix for water galsses and assorted scrap metal." She never got tenure and after just 6 years at the university had to look for another job. (YES!!!) <<" silence is the noise of all those waiting for a performance to begin; the shuffling of the audience..">> Tell her that concept has already been done hundreds of times. Can she say John Cage, 4 minutes and 37 seconds for piano? The performer sits at the piano, doesn't play a single note, turns a few pages of music (yes there is actually printed sheet music. You count rests for 4min and 37sec.) The "music" is the sonud of the audience rusteling, coughing, (muttering "what is this $h!t").<<what is her PROBLEM. little too much crack?>>Probably the same problem my professor had. The remedy according to one of my friends it took the class with was that she needed um..*cough* a certain part of her anatomy eaten. Yes, I know. Crude but so damn funny and so true. :p
Leo
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 02:01:35 AM
IP: 68.96.8.12

Lain- Is there a strong possibility you are going to fail or are borderline? You could write how wonderful silence would be if you did not have her class. Remember you are bi-polar so you can't be blamed for your rapid depression and manic states ];)
Revel - [samrx5@cs.com]
d, tx
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 01:18:40 AM
IP: 129.120.247.140

Lain> Ahhhh yes. Essays that do their damnedest to be intellectual and convey what's already-there, but often fail to reach the standard audience. I've got of those coming up. One on the being-with and the being-for-the-other in "Paradise Lost" (of course, I shot myself in the foot with that one considering it's my own damn thesis :P), Shakespeare's ardument concerning the truth in writing vs. the truth in language in "King Lear" and two others that haven't been assigned. All due in two weeks! YAY!!!

I would just love to die right now (everything else around is, so why not)! :P
Gabriel "gaygoyle"
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 12:52:30 AM
IP: 68.116.248.99

ok so.. i have to get this off my chest before i can get to writing this essay. i have 4 to write befor thursday, and it has been fun, and can only get better :P <sarcasm>

so my insane art teacher, you know, the one who decided i "wasnt a good enough student" to allow to graduate this year, and i have to stay another half year at this hell of a university, shes teaching one of my classes. let us call her SUSAN SCHUPPLI because this is her name. this class is called "art now! II". i took "art now! I" in first semester with a different, much better, much less insane prof. it was an ok class. first of all, the readings course-pak is, no kidding, six times bigger than the one for last semester, which was already pretty substantial. she comes up with this lame-assed half-term project called "boite, is it art" in which we had to "explore the ideas of archiving and storage" by creating an art project inside a white box which was then displayed in the hallway of the art building by volunteers wearing white lab coats and chemical gloves who allowed other students to check out the boxes and inspect them for certain periods of time. this was supposed to be clever and witty, but ended up being totally stupid and about the equivalent of a grade 9 art project :P.
anyways, now we have this final essay to write. shes given us this critera of things we have to discuss in said essay. it goes like this:
"discuss the ideas of silence and/or absence. while silence is generally understood as the absence of articulated sound, it is also a way to speak to that which defies language, which cannot be identified and named. silence is the noise of all those waiting for a performance to begin; the shuffling of the audience, the sneezing, the whispering, the rustling of clothing..." and on and on.
hang on a sec there, susan. silence is the sound? how can silence be sound? lo, and there was logic, and it dictated that the sound of the audience rustling and shuffling was.. the sound of the audience rustling and shuffling. and a heavenly light shone down from above and all made sense to everyone.. except to susan, who continued to live in her own little deluded art-brain world.
what is her PROBLEM. little too much crack? is her ego a little too fluffy from all those students she crushed this year?
susan, darling, why are we spending class time watching "art films" about male torture-bondage and unrequited love between bellboys and artwork and then spending an hour discussing why the public doesnt like "modern art" very much? what part of the equasion DONT you get?
ive seen your art films, susan. you ARE the reason why the public hates modern art. now shut up and get the HELL off the university payroll..
oh no wait... western university was designed to crank out bitterly disenchanted art students like some hellish, tear soaked mill of agony, wasnt it? oh well i guess its doing its job.

back to the essay now! :D
lain - [<<-- boite, is it stupid?]
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 12:29:58 AM
IP: 65.93.78.33

Imzadi> <<Perhaps, but that isn't relevant to the story we're trying to tell>>: Of course, bu tI just felt like throwing out a piece of connections that I remembered.
<<she has a vagina. I just can't top that>>: But I can, for (wait for it) I am a sexy, sexy man.

Dezi> <<how do you think his body doubles are gonna take it?>>: There is precedent for inflicting matching wounds. Though it was on his son's aides, not body doubles.

Mecord> <<The time loop that leads Goliath into the Battle of Britain is so logically impossible>>: Not really, because the way things work there, there is no "first time through" without time travel.

Bud Clare> <<And exactly which other part of the body could be made to think?>>: Many, many. From the stomach to other less polite areas.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Wednesday, April 9, 2003 12:10:04 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

Josh> <<but she has a vagina. I just can't top that>>
But she must also be a good engineer, or they wouldn't even bother interviewing her, so... yes, you probably are screwed. But it's about damned time. Why should you always get everything? :P

<>
I have, but only in a lying-awake-giggling sort of way... ;)
******************
lain> <<did you get thunder in yours>>
Some, yes. It made it seem like spring... until the power went out. :P
****************
Dezi> <<My arms feel all tingly inside like an adrenalin rush. What do I do?>>
This is a crazy idea, but maybe... calm down?
***************
Mecord> <<They make the mind think.>>
And exactly which other part of the body could be made to think?
Bud-Clare - [budclare@yahoo.com]
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 10:46:53 PM
IP: 66.24.93.77

Time>> The problem with time travel is that there is no one way in which to discuss it. Is the past immutable and the future mutable? Is the present arbitrary? Perhaps, time is nothing more than one single moment that involves a changing universe. Could all points in time actually happen in one single instance we only see in sequence? Does time even exist? Is time travel possible? And what about predetermination? There are even multiple ways in which to interpret the Gargoyles "time".

For one the "Time is like a river, correcting its course." This definitely suggests that time is kind of mutable, but whatever changes you try to make it corrects, making it at the same time immutable.
Second, consider Demona. She remembers an older-self visiting her while young, and it changed nothing. So when it came time for her to go back and speak to her younger self, why did she do it if she knew it would change nothing? Did she do it only because it had been done before? or did she find something in her centuries of study that led her to believe that she could change it? Or was it just another example of her self-delusion?
What about Goliath's, "The future is not written yet." if the future is immutable, then this is simply a case of Goliath being wrong. But I believe a reoccurring theme of Gargoyles is the case of the past is the past, deal with it and make something of your future.
Then there is the phoenix gate. Whether or not time is truly immutable in the Gargoyles universe is impossible to determine because the only method of travel that has been witnessed is with the gate. The time loop that leads Goliath into the Battle of Britain is so logically impossible that either there is some inherent magical property or nature to the gate that we don't know about, or perhaps we are again dealing with the orchestrating and/or predetermination ideas.

Instead of any one clear picture we are left to create our own ideas and theories. But that's the great thing about stories with time travel. They make the mind think. Well, sometimes they just cause people to roll their eyes and change the channel. But I guess my main point with all this is that none of us can say "In the Gargoyles universe (insert firm belief)." There is too much open to individual interpretation. Even if we do, who's to say that if the show had gone on for one more season, an episode would have come along to prove us wrong?

Well, I've blabbed incoherently long enough, I'm outta here.

Mecord
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 09:10:00 PM
IP: 12.255.15.121

Dezi: <<If it turns out that we didn't kill Saddam, and, say, only blew off his leg; how do you think his body doubles are gonna take it?>>

LOL, well they will just have to pray that the cameramen doesn't pan out to show the underside of the table of where the doubles are talking from. ;D
Heather - [neo_digi@yahoo.com]
Warner Robins, GA, USA
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 09:06:20 PM
IP: 68.99.148.20

Oh yeah, and, as an individual who is against this war, I'd like to answer DPH's 'rhetorical' questions:

<1)In retrospect, would they have been against the American revolution?> No, that essentially was a MAJOR protest in itself.

<2)In retrospect, would they have been against the US entering WWI? WWII?> Dunno, maybe. Probably not this protestor, but that is because I have knowledge of how every thing turned out. There were people who didn't want us in WW1, they wanted us to isolationist. And there was speculation that the Lusitania wasn't just an innocent cruise ship, but was carrying arms. WW2 was no question, we were attacked by a NATION. So we kicked the sh!t out of them.

<3)If your country is invaded, do they believe it's ok to fight back?> Yes, that is the point of self-defense. But you are not defending yourself by attacking others on sketchy evidence. You are only creating bigger problems.

<4)Do they believe it is ok for the citizens of a country to revolt against the government if the government is ignoring the basic needs of the people?> Yes. That goes for us too.

Ok, am very agitated now (from other things, not this post), and on the verge of an anxiety attack. My arms feel all tingly inside like an adrenalin rush. What do I do?

Dezi
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 08:37:53 PM
IP: 68.58.158.101

Ok this doesn't have much to do with anything, except it made me laugh and so I'd like to share:

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, France is accusing the US of arrogance and Germany doesn't want to go to war."
-Anon
That was the signature attached to an email that one of my professors sent out to the class. That Prof. is cool, kind of a hippy meets Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World.

The second thing I wanted to share was a comment in the Indy Star's Comment section (people email their random comments on something and the paper actually gives it print space). I won't quote it 'cause I don't remember it exactly but it was basically this:

If it turns out that we didn't kill Saddam, and, say, only blew off his leg; how do you think his body doubles are gonna take it?

:)

Oh yeah, and as of about 11 AM Colorado time (mountain time?) my dad has officially shipped out to our big desert sand-box playground. And I don't mean Kuwait either. :(

Ok thats all for now.
Later!

Dezi
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 08:18:44 PM
IP: 68.58.158.101

DPH - Thanks (although what I'm really looking for right now is names of likely magazines, journals, or periodicals to submit the article(s) to rather than general "best wishes" sentiments).
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 06:40:42 PM
IP: 65.56.170.227

A Proud Mom Moment:

Michael (my son) is currently ranked first in his class at Keesler AFB with a 99.6% average. =) He's specializing in Computer something. hehe I forget.

DPH> <<All those anti-war protestors got me thinking about the following rheotorical questions>> reminds me of something that I read...
"Except for ending Slavery, Facism, Communism, and Nazism War has never solved anything."

*goes back to practicing the piano*
Jan
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 06:04:45 PM
IP: 12.215.181.120

rev atilla>> <> yeah dude, i dont read your posts. they annoy me too much.

bud-claire>> <<Stupid bloody ice storm>> you must live around here then.. cos we got one that started on thursday. did you get thunder in yours, or just the regular cold wet sloppy rainstuffs? i wanted to go take pictures of ours, it was so beautiful out.. but i didnt have any film :( but yeah, it yanked down two trees on my street and put out power here, too. glad you have yours back :)
lain
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 05:12:12 PM
IP: 65.93.78.33

Ok, I feel much better today, after a good night's sleep.

Last night, I rebooted my computer and the sound didn't work. So I decided to call it a night and turned my computer OFF.

Lately, dc has been bugging me. If anybody spots him, a pre-empt strike against him is condoned by me.

All those anti-war protestors got me thinking about the following rheotorical questions:
1)In retrospect, would they have been against the American revolution?
2)In retrospect, would they have been against the US entering WWI? WWII?
3)If your country is invaded, do they believe it's ok to fight back?
4)Do they believe it is ok for the citizens of a country to revolt against the government if the government is ignoring the basic needs of the people?

Future Tense - Who's to say by the time by Future Tense, Puck really hadn't encountered a similiar looking Brooklyn?

Imzadi - <You have made a critical mistake, which is assuming that TGS is the same as the Gargoyles universe> Thank you for reminding people of that. It's pretty easy to count the deviations TGS has made from Greg Weisman's plans, especially in the Pendragon series.

Todd Jensen - Good luck in getting the article(s) published.

Timetravel - I prefer to think of it this way: History is immutable but since recorded history isn't always correct, you might be able to do things differently from the way things were written. Either way, you're still not changing anything.

Gunjack - <Uh... I thought it was that the PAST couldn't be CHANGED.> Our present is always somebody's else past until time ceases to exist. So if the past can't be changed, neither can the future.

btw, I have two interesting questions: Could somebody from a universe where history is mutable travel to a universe where history is immutable? [If history is mutable in said person's universe, that person may not exist to take the trip to the universe where history is immutable.] Could somebody from a universe where history is immutable travel to a universe where history is mutable? [Since history is mutable to the universe being visited, could said person have accurate and consisent memories of the visit to said other universe?]
DPH
AR, USA
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 04:47:26 PM
IP: 204.94.193.36

Oh yeah

<> HA HA!
Leo
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 02:31:17 PM
IP: 68.96.8.12

Josh:<<Hopefully they'll pick the right man for the job...me.>>I immagine you stress the word 'man' in that statement. }:D <<On the other hand, she'll be more fresh in their minds when they make the decision>>and when they go home for the night. :p <<but she has a vagina. I just can't top that 8-)>>Hope you have a few friends on the inside to put in a few good words. (not Revel's 'the inside') Good luck.

"Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina.": Zach from 'Kindergarten Cop'

Leo
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 02:29:31 PM
IP: 68.96.8.12

Josh- Cross your fingers for the primacy effect. (Social psychologists say it's stronger than the recency effect, anyway.) But dude... she's a GYMNAST, and they're geeks...
Lila
LA
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 12:36:58 PM
IP: 134.173.121.83

Luminous> Future Tense was an actual cartoon episode of Gargoyles. ;)
Siryn - [<-- MGC]
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 12:35:12 PM
IP: 66.66.97.209

BTW, the news announcement is a joke courtesy of Scrapple Face.
ghost of Reverend Attila
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 09:11:28 AM
IP: 136.216.75.2

Chemical Agent Found at Information Ministry
(2003-04-07) -- Coalition troops now in the heart of Baghdad have discovered a massive cache of the chemical agent lysergic acid diethylamide.

The Iraqi Information Ministry has been identified as the site of a huge repository of the substance, commonly called LSD.

"After listening to recent statements from the Iraqi Information Minister, we had suspected there were large quantities of LSD in the building," said an unnamed Pentagon spokesman.

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf called on the United Nations to address the "immanent humanitarian medical crisis."

"There is no way I can do my job effectively without this essential medication," said Mr. al-Sahaf. "Without LSD, I cannot stand up before the people and say 'Be assured, Baghdad is safe, protected. Iraqis are heroes.'

Mr. al-Sahaf said the 'medicine' helps him to see Abrams tanks as gentle lavender camels and Bradley fighting vehicles as enormous pansies and petunias.

The Minister of Information has been nicknamed Baghdad Bob. In the upcoming movie (wait and there will be a movie about this), the Minsiter of (dis)Information will be played by Jon Luvitz who will use his SNL character to play him, ending every announcement with "that's the ticket."

Lain> I guess you missed my last quip, about Gunjack joining the Bloc :) and GB's Newfie ladyfriend slamming the NDP and Jean "pepper-spray of mass destruction" Cretien.
ghost of Reverend Attila
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 09:10:43 AM
IP: 136.216.75.2

Hmm. Well. Okay, this is gonna show my lack of gargoyles episodic memory but was "Future Tense" an episode of the cartoon or a written story?
Also: Moves over to shadows and scratches Archwolf behind the ears. You do have a point, wolfie dear. Smiles sassily and disappears in a puff of smoke
Luminous Aphrodite
VA
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 04:19:09 AM
IP: 64.12.96.138

Long day. Hours in the lab, then hours of homework, then hours of programming. The good news is that I finally got the currency converter working. You'd think it'd be easy, but whenever every person in the class wrote their coin to behave a different way, there was a lot of error checking for me to do. Like my time isn't better spent elsewhere.

My collection of re-issued transformers has begun. Tonight I scored Hot Rod on ebay. I miss toys, hence all the lego.

My roommate thinks my chances at Apple are improved over the gymnast because I interviewed first, so she won't be able to speak without being compared to me and she'll have to one up me. On the other hand, she'll be more fresh in their minds when they make the decision. In conclusion, I hate waiting.

Archwolf: <<The only problem with that entire argument is that it essentially forces everything to be predetermined>>: No, it just says that time is immutable. Its all really the same. If I can't go back from 1996 to 996 and change events in 996 so that 1996 is different, then why should I be able to go back to 1996 and change events so that 2006 is different?
<<This doesn't have to mean that events happen the exact same way, especially if Chaos Theory is anything more that a bunch of odd mathematicians thinking about 'what if'>>: Then you obviously don't understand chaos theory. Just because chaos theory, probability, and physics don't predict every possible action doesn't mean that the future isn't predetermined. The point in the gargoyles universe is that whether the butterfly's wings' flapping affects the hurricane or not, that will be how history recorded it happening.
<<That would seem to go a long way in proving the existance of some guiding intelligence>>: No it wouldn't.
<<If all points in time are fixed, then every possiblity is accounted for some how>>: That's just it, they don't have to be. Since time is linear in the gargoyles universe, it doesn't matter if you have other possibilities. Only one thing happened, and therefore there is only one outcome of that thing.

Question: <<We don't know that. Puck even suspected that another force was influencing him in Out of Joint Part Two.>>: You have made a critical mistake, which is assuming that TGS is the same as the Gargoyles universe. It isn't. TGS claims to be a continuation based on the original writings, but there are many deviations. If you asked Greg W, he'd say that Future Tense was a dream from Puck's imagination, then say that maybe its the future and maybe it isn't.
<<there are also alternate universes in The TGS Universe which we saw in season 1 of gargoyles and pendragon>>: Again, TGS does not necessarily hold true for the Gargoyles universe. Greg W would never have written an episode where Demona from some alternate universe visits "our" universe.

Gside: <<Just remember that the stirrup lead to the breeding of Clydesdales>>: Perhaps, but that isn't relevant to the story we're trying to tell.

Lain: <<whats this room coming to?>>: No idea.

Bud Clare: <<three and a half days with no electricity, heat, or phone>>: ACK!
<<Why, are there going to be backflips required?>>: Sadly, no. But since the department is largely male, they may be actively looking to recruit women. The fact that she's a gymnast just makes her more desirable to the males choosing between us. I mean, sure, I'm GE Nuclear's Intern of the Year and I can design tension tests for glue in my sleep and build load frames for reliability testing...but she has a vagina. I just can't top that 8-)
<<this is a problem because...?>>: I sure haven't lost any sleep over it.

166. If the rebels manage to trick me, I will make a note of what they did so that I do not keep falling for the same trick over and over again.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 04:11:31 AM
IP: 66.125.228.229

*sighs* After three and a half days with no electricity, heat, or phone, I'm finally back (and more or less thawed out). What a crappy weekend. Stupid bloody ice storm.
****************
Fire Storm> <<Does anyone have last weeks CR saved? Last one LM has saved is: Bud-Clare Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:26:50 PM >>
*L* I broke it again. ;)

Josh> <<They have one other candidate for the slot, a female gymnast from Stanford (this lowers my odds significantly).>>
Why, are there going to be backflips required? :P

Archwolf> <<The only problem with that entire argument is that it essentially forces everything to be predetermined.>>
And this is a problem because...?
Bud-Clare - [budclare@yahoo.com]
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 01:49:49 AM
IP: 66.24.93.77

wow.. talking about TGS? whats this room coming to?? o.O
lain
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 01:11:05 AM
IP: 65.93.78.33

Imzadi> <<working on my Connections video>>: Just remember that the stirrup lead to the breeding of Clydesdales.

Gunjack> <<It's sommat about the serendipity between my love for the song and the movie it's based on>>: Don't really like the song, and haven't seen the movie.
<<You coulda at LEAST done the right thing by the creator, and stuck it in with some LBG>>: But LBG had been burnt a while back.

Archwolf> <<it essentially forces everything to be predetermined>>: Predetermination or just not enough randomness in the system to change character traits that cause events.
<<If then time travel is thrown into the mix, doesn't it created a bit of an endless recursion?>>: It doesn't have to be endless, just a nice little loop. Forward, around back, and through.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Tuesday, April 8, 2003 12:50:56 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

I'm submitting this query to anyone here who knows a fair amount about the magazines out there. I'm currently writing an article (or maybe a series of articles, depending on how much I can dig up) about modern-day developments in the Arthurian legend (such as the interpretation of Morgause as an evil sorceress), and I'd like some pointers as to what particular magazines would be good to submit this series to. I'd prefer it to be one which pays those people whose admissions get accepted and printed in its issues. Since I know that there are a few people here who've experience in the "getting published" field, such as Christine Morgan and Christi Smith Hayden, I'm hoping that they might be able to offer me some helpful suggestions.
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Monday, April 7, 2003 06:27:16 PM
IP: 63.208.62.92

Josh <Maybe its because Future Tense was not the future, all it was is an extrapolation from Puck's knowledge of the present.>

We don't know that. Puck even suspected that another force was influencing him in Out of Joint Part Two.

<Ah, but you must remember that in the gargoyle universe, the future cannot be prevented. If what Goliath saw *was* the future, then his actions of trying to save everyone would ultimately be what led to their demise.>

But there are also alternate universes in The TGS Universe which we saw in season 1 of gargoyles and pendragon. Perhaps that vision was indeed real in an alternate universe and the fact that Goliath saw it thanks to Puck's magicks was what prevented it from coming to fruition in our universe.
the Question
Monday, April 7, 2003 12:12:01 PM
IP: 144.92.164.204

Josh> The only problem with that entire argument is that it essentially forces everything to be predetermined. Since the present only exists for an instant, it is safe to say that any point in time is either the past or the future. If the future, which from any 'present' point of view has not happenned, is immutable, then everything is decided for us already. If time is a linear thing, then no matter what happens, time will flow along a straight line. This doesn't have to mean that events happen the exact same way, especially if Chaos Theory is anything more that a bunch of odd mathematicians thinking about 'what if', because what ever happens, time _still flows forward_. I mean, Chance is Chance. Any decision that depended upon Chance, when being relived, could quite possibly result in completely different outcome than the first time it happenned. To assume otherwise assumes that the past present and future are fixed. That would seem to go a long way in proving the existance of some guiding intelligence. If all points in time are fixed, then every possiblity is accounted for some how. If then time travel is thrown into the mix, doesn't it created a bit of an endless recursion? *sorry if this doesn't make sense. I'm at work and watching Bahgdad Cam hoping to see something blow up* oo...here comes da boss. gotta run. *returns to endless lurk*
Archwolf
Monday, April 7, 2003 08:43:32 AM
IP: 208.242.212.159

Gunjack: Actually, they are the same from the point of perspective. If you're in the future and it sucks, then Goliath going back to "the present" (your past) would be the same as going back and trying to change things. Remember, the point of the phoenix gate stuff was to alter events in the past so that events in the present/future are altered. The point is that its what always happened, so you don't "change" anything by going back.

Goliath can still try and "alter" events in the present, but that won't affect Brooklyn's fashion sense in 40 years (or it will, but it will be his (in)actions that lead to the body armor). No matter what Goliath does or doesn't do, Brooklyn will be wearing body armor in the future. Because that's what happened.

The future is just as fixed as the past, just not from our perspective 8-) And if you aren't cross-eyed now, you are eligible to write for the Gargoyles universe.
Josh
Monday, April 7, 2003 03:44:18 AM
IP: 64.160.47.45

Josh><<Ah, but you must remember that in the gargoyle universe, the future cannot be prevented.>> Uh... I thought it was that the PAST couldn't be CHANGED. Thinking back on all the Pheonix Gate rigimarole, it was always people from the present trying to alter events in the past. "You won't, because you didn't" isn't quite the same as "you WILL, because you DO". The past is fixed, but I don't remember any indications that the future was also...

Gside><<It was on a Nanako disc.>> You contaminate its virtue with digital archival amidst softcore porn! HEATHEN!
...You coulda at LEAST done the right thing by the creator, and stuck it in with some LBG...
<<And that reminds me, only need burn the devils until shipment.>> Soon, my preccciiooouussssssss... *eyes glow faintly as he skitters off to bed*
Gunjack "MAC Attack" Valentine
Monday, April 7, 2003 03:17:28 AM
IP: 65.93.72.246

*Listening to the Filter remix of "hey man, nice shot"*

Gside><<Nah...>> The heck you say! It's sommat about the serendipity between my love for the song and the movie it's based on, but every time I watch that vid, it gives me the shivers.

<<...go through the libraries of Doki Doki and Studio Hybrid, and maybe some of Maboroshi. Oh, and what I've seen of Big Big Truck has been good.>> Hmmm... Doki Doki sounds familiar, but I can't place em...
Oh! The guys who did Virus in the Shell! Damn, they're cool too! I love BBT, but she can't seem to FINISH a vid. :P ...Anyway, #1 Crush is still the best... but that's no reason to neglect all the other greats, is it? 8D

*off to download AMVs, and maybe shoot people in the face*
Gunjack "Hell Mel" Valentine
Monday, April 7, 2003 02:54:44 AM
IP: 65.93.72.246

Well, as I haven't posted in a few days, I thought I'd return to the fold. I had my final interviews at Apple on Friday morning, and they went pretty well. Two and a half hours with 5 different people, mostly just going over my resume and doing some very basic design problems. They have one other candidate for the slot, a female gymnast from Stanford (this lowers my odds significantly). Hopefully they'll pick the right man for the job...me. I should hear by the end of the week.

Spent most of this weekend working on my Connections video for my humanities project. My friends and I are doing a spoof of James Burke's Discovery Channel show to present the topics in our class, and we think we're set for an A already. All of the profs love the idea (as they should, we're friggin' brilliant for thinking of it). Overall, a pretty productive weekend.

Question: <<What happened here?>>: Offhand, I'd guess that the room was wiped.
<<I am sometimes curious on why the TGS staff did not make Broadway blind when they made Brooklyn and Lexington resemble their Future Tense selves. Was it because blind gargoyles weren't cool while cyborgs and gargoyles dressing up in high tech armor were?>>: Maybe its because Future Tense was not the future, all it was is an extrapolation from Puck's knowledge of the present.
<<Coldstone, Talon and Maggie being alive was only thanks to Goliath actively trying to avoid the dark future he saw in Future Tense>>: Ah, but you must remember that in the gargoyle universe, the future cannot be prevented. If what Goliath saw *was* the future, then his actions of trying to save everyone would ultimately be what led to their demise.

SmackAttack: <<What is the horrible fate that Lexington has that everyone keeps mentioning in the TGS? Has it been written yet into the story?>>: Perhaps you should keep reading. If it hasn't been mentioned yet, it probably will be.

Taleweaver: <>: Wow, you are close to me. I used to go to the NuArt for RHPS.

Lynati: <<Yes, I'm sure that is it. Because it wasn't cool>>: Love the deadpan. Truly inspired.

Patrick: <<Angela never joined the clan and became Broadway's mate. As a result, after many years alone he ended up going blind>>: ::rolls eyes:: Funny.

Todd: Excellent points about Future Tense.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and be nervous about Apple until I hear from them...in 4 or 5 days.

165. As an equal-opportunity employer, I will have several hearing-impaired body-guards. That way if I wish to speak confidentially with someone, I'll just turn my back so the guards can't read my lips instead of sending all of them out of the room.

Josh - [ATkicktothenutsDOTcom]
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Monday, April 7, 2003 02:01:48 AM
IP: 64.160.47.45

Gunjack> <<You oughta see the music vid Lain did for it>>: I had to go through almost two full CD folders to find it. It was on a Nanako disc. And that reminds me, only need burn the devils until shipment. It's almost gotten to the top of the spindle.
<<THE best AMV>>: Nah, go through the libraries of Doki Doki and Studio Hybrid, and maybe some of Maboroshi. Oh, and what I've seen of Big Big Truck has been good.

Dezi> <<The Baptists are sending out recruiters>>: At least Baptists can preach, unlike Catholics.

Gunjack> <<More later>>: Really truly.

And in case you were confused. I'm A Man, by the Yardbirds.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Monday, April 7, 2003 01:18:26 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

*DPH enters the CR, smiling in a manner which causes the CR villains to run away. DPH pulls out a 1 millimeter by 1 millimeter sheet of paper with his left while his right hand makes a fist surrounding an object. DPH lines the sheet paper above his right fist. Suddenly a beam emits coming from the object in his right fist, goes through the sheet of paper and strikes dc. A second later, dc disappears into thin air.*

*Points to the 1 millimeter by 1 millimenter sheet of paper* DC is trapped on that sheet of paper before giving me connection problems. No, he isn't not dead and there's no way he can kill himself. Hey, anybody want to see a really small version of DC?

Gunjack "Prognosticaters R Us" Valentine - Don't you mind procrasinators instead of prognosticators?

May I offer a humble suggestion? Whoever wipes the room next time saves a copy of the room until the bug is removed.

A retrospectative analysis yeilds lots of clues that "Future Tense" wasn't real. Quite a few obvious ones come to in mind: if things in Manhattan were really that bad, Avalon would have sent the travllers home sooner. how did Demona know about Angela? why was Brooklyn concerned about the Phoenix Gate?
DPH
AR, USA
Monday, April 7, 2003 12:13:29 AM
IP: 204.94.193.11

Todd Jensen><<2. I rather doubt that the U.S. government would have just stood back and let Xanatos seize control of one of the leading cities in the United States, or let him hold onto it for 32 years.>> Maybe they didn't have much of a choice. I don't recall anyone actually spelling out how Xanatos GOT control of Manhattan, but there's no reason for it to be a simple case of conquest. Maybe America was hit bad by some sort of disaster, and society broke down a bit. Maybe the Government even requested Xanacorp to help maintain order. If society as a whole went in the Crapper, Xanacorp would probably be the closest thing to an authority there was...

More later.
Gunjack "Prognosticaters R Us" Valentine
Sunday, April 6, 2003 07:48:08 PM
IP: 65.93.73.83

<Do note that Claw still has his wings, and Maggie and Talon are still quite alive.>

Coldstone, Talon and Maggie being alive was only thanks to Goliath actively trying to avoid the dark future he saw in Future Tense.

<It was only guesswork on his part to begin with, and hey, getting 2/3 dead-on appearance-wise isn't half-bad.>

Actually didn't Owen suspect that a greater force was manipulating him in giving Goliath the dream? And the fact that the Ultra Pack did get created, one of the Clan did end up travelling for forty years and the Eyrie pyramid existing in the future does point to either Owen having some foreknowledge of the future or a higher being manipulating Puck.
Question
Sunday, April 6, 2003 06:31:43 PM
IP: 67.233.23.138

Actually, it might be worth raising the question as to how probable the events in "Future Tense" were to begin with:

1. Taking over the world, or even New York City, isn't in character for Xanatos, who'd consider such an objective too melodramatic for his taste. From his perspective, why engage in a career of conquest when he's been able to achieve the bulk of his goals under the current system?

2. I rather doubt that the U.S. government would have just stood back and let Xanatos seize control of one of the leading cities in the United States, or let him hold onto it for 32 years.

3. If trouble on that scale had been taking place in Manhattan, Avalon would have sent Goliath there long before it reached the "too late" point.

4. For that matter, would the clan and the city have really been that hopeless against Xanatos without Goliath? (Well, maybe much of the reason why Lexington turned evil in "Future Tense" was out of the belief that Goliath had deliberately abandoned them.) Goliath is a fine leader, but there were other able people in Manhattan (even without him, the clan was still able to defeat Fang and free the Labyrinth from his misrule, help King Arthur reclaim Excalibur, and get the Mayan Sun Amulet away from Hyena). I hardly think that the gargs and the human inhabitants of New York were *that* dependent upon him.

5. The point often brought up before: everybody already knows about Angela and that Goliath has the Phoenix Gate. (Not to mention that somebody other than Macbeth is able to kill Demona.)

Of course, Puck was fortunate in that Goliath took a while to realize that it was all an illusion; you've got to admit that it was an effective nightmare sequence, if one that wouldn't hold up all that well under strict analysis.
Todd Jensen - [merlyn1@mindspring.com]
St. Louis, MO
Sunday, April 6, 2003 06:24:49 PM
IP: 63.208.60.13

TGS CR STUFF: Does anyone have last weeks CR saved? Last one LM has saved is:
Bud-Clare
Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:26:50 PM

Anyone have one that's more recent?
FIre Storm
Sunday, April 6, 2003 01:22:36 PM
IP: 66.72.188.93

Question: "Strange enough I am sometimes curious on why the TGS staff did not make Broadway blind when they made Brooklyn and Lexington resemble their Future Tense selves."

In Puck's "Future Tense" world, Angela never joined the clan and became Broadway's mate. As a result, after many years alone he ended up going blind.

Pontificate on the logic of that one for a bit if it doesn't make sense at first, and it'll come to you. ;)

This has been another smart answer to a silly question brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Puck.

"And remember, guns don't kill people... it's just that certain noise they make." - Eddie Izzard
Patrick
Sunday, April 6, 2003 01:19:06 PM
IP: 68.73.165.19

Question [Strange enough I am sometimes curious on why the TGS staff did not make Broadway blind when they made Brooklyn and Lexington resemble their Future Tense selves. Was it because blind gargoyles weren't cool while cyborgs and gargoyles dressing up in high tech armor were?]
Yes, I'm sure that is it. Because it wasn't cool.

Do note that Claw still has his wings, and Maggie and Talon are still quite alive. and that Lex and Brook, while bearing similar appearances to their FT selves, lack the personalities Puck set for them. It was only guesswork on his part to begin with, and hey, getting 2/3 dead-on appearance-wise isn't half-bad.
aaand who said that Lex becoming a cyborg and later part of the computer system was everything that Brooklyn was referring to?
Anything else in particular you are wondering about while you're at it?
Lynati
Sunday, April 6, 2003 04:46:48 AM
IP: 65.66.156.156

Blah, no previous week. :P
Oh well, what am I gonna do about it. :)

Hey, here is a little joke one of my classmates sent me the nite before our final exam in the mandatory "Bible" class (btw, mine was taught by some pompus [sp} grad student who thought Paul was the next best thing to a 4x5 Nestle Crunch bar and a jug of Pepsi- well, lets just say the guy was a total nutjob). Anyway here's the joke:

And Jesus said unto them, "And whom do you say that I am?"

They replied, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the ontological foundation of the context of our very selfhood revealed."

And Jesus replied, "What?"

Ok so there. That's my weight in on the whole religion conversation that evaporated from last week.

Oh yeah, and to repeat myself from last week: The Baptists are sending out recruiters! Beware! Beware! *runs screaming away and hides under the bed, quivering with fear*

Ok done with that.

Later!

Dezi
Sunday, April 6, 2003 01:41:09 AM
IP: 68.58.158.101

Taleweaver & Greg - Liked "Knocking on Heaven's Door", didja? You oughta see the music vid Lain did for it, to the tune of Garbage's "Number 1 Crush". It is, without a doubt, THE best AMV. Ever. I'm not even kidding; find a way to get yer grimy mitts on it, and ye'll thank me later.
Gunjack "I Would Die For You" Valentine
Sunday, April 6, 2003 12:57:51 AM
IP: 65.93.73.83

And another double clutch on the wipe. I don't think I had many replies, anyway.

Was very cold for open house today, but I got some more hours in.

And I don't really have anything to say for this week yet, so I'm just marking my place.

Na zdorov'ya.
Gside - [gside@eden.rutgers.edu]
Piscataway, NJ
Sunday, April 6, 2003 12:54:56 AM
IP: 198.151.130.245

<What is the horrible fate that Lexington has that everyone keeps mentioning in the TGS? Has it been written yet into the story? >

If you are talking about Lexington becoming a cyborg it already happened in late season one. The part about him becoming part of Alexander's computer systems in Timedancer has not yet happened in the main gargoyles cycles.

Strange enough I am sometimes curious on why the TGS staff did not make Broadway blind when they made Brooklyn and Lexington resemble their Future Tense selves. Was it because blind gargoyles weren't cool while cyborgs and gargoyles dressing up in high tech armor were?
The Question
Sunday, April 6, 2003 12:23:54 AM
IP: 216.170.210.200

Cowboy Bebop> Review with Spoilers

This is what animation should do on a regular basis. This was top to bottom a great film. I saw it at the NuArt theater near UCLA. An old looking theater, but had a great sound system.

Best parts are the martial arts fights between Spike and Vincent, Spike and Electra, and the final fight between Vincent and Spike. Major ass trading on all sides. As a fan, I loved the nice little touches; the drive-in theater, the three wise guys, Sitting Bull, and Jet's old ISSP contact. The aerial battle with Spike seemed to come a little out of nowhere, but I loved it anyway. Swordfish is one sweet ride.

It's a great movie, a must see by all accounts.
Taleweaver
Saturday, April 5, 2003 11:31:51 PM
IP: 24.205.180.201

It's been way, way too long since we've had a good, old fashioned movie review. And since IMO, this is much more important than Iraq, I'm going to post my review.

Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven's Door

Well, I waited several months to see this movie, and damn was it worth it. The movie in question is "Cowboy Bebop", and as a huge fan of the series, I was definetly salivating with seeing these characters on the silver screen.

Of course I've seen this movie before, but it was a fansub on a computer screen. "Cowboy Bebop" has always been a rare case where the dub is superior to the original Japanese, and it really shows in this also.

*** WARNING SPOILERS ***

Well, not that many spoilers.

The movie starts out simple enough, in a scene that establishes who Spike Spiegel is and what he does, for those who don't know, he's a Bounty Hunter. He and his partner Jet Black take down an armed robber gang as the movie opens, and then we et to the real plot.

Enter Vincent, a mysterious villain in black, who blows up a tanker truck unleashing what seems to be an airborne virus which kills dozens and hospitalized hundreds more. The government of Mars puts a 300 Million Woolong reward for his capture, and the only one who's seen him pull off this attack and could I.D. him is Faye Valentine.

Sounds simple, but this movie is a lot deeper than that. There's a lot of twists and turns, conspiracies within conspiracies as Spike teams up with a soldier named Elektra to take Vincent down before he unleashes his weapon on the entire Mars population.

*** END SPOILERS ***

The plot is great, the animation is just gorgious, and the voice-acting is better than most American animated series and movies. The voice-actors from the series easily fall back into their roles, and you could watch this between Sessions 22 and 23 and it plays perfectly within the series.

9.9 out of 10, go see this if you can find it. I'm eagerly awaiting the DVD release.
Greg Bishansky
Saturday, April 5, 2003 09:16:47 PM
IP: 216.179.3.208

What is the horrible fate that Lexington has that everyone keeps mentioning in the TGS? Has it been written yet into the story?
SmackAttack
Saturday, April 5, 2003 08:05:36 PM
IP: 152.16.231.37

It means I have to repost this.

**GATHERING UPDATE #4**

ATTENTION PLEASE ONLINE REGISTRANTS
The PHP was recently upgraded to a newer version on the server, causing a problem- several online registration forms were received were blank back towards the start of the month. If you submitted an online registration and did not receive a confirmation, please check the list here for your name (listed by con-badge preference). If it is not listed, we kindly request that you re-submit your order.

And we�d like to remind people that the cost for a full registration has gone up to $50; Dinner Banquet cost remains $50.

In addition, supporting memberships are now up for sale on the Gathering site at the cost of $15.
These memberships are available to that those who cannot come this year, but wish to support the con and help ensure that The Gathering of the Gargoyles continues to be held year after year. Supporting members will be listed in the 2003 con booklet, and have our eternal thanks.

*

Gathering Calendar Contest and the Monthly Gargoyles art Contest:

You heard right- the April MGC contest is our very own calendar subject of �Gargoyles in New York�.
The Monthly Gargoyles art Contest originally premiered in December of 1998, went on hiatus in Feb of �00, and came back under new management in Aug �02 and is still going strong. The site, �...a monthly contest based on the Disney Show Gargoyles where
fan artists can show their talent and creativity off each month� is open to everyone. Each month features a different theme, and you, the fans, get to vote for which piece you think should win in each of two different categories.

Contests are announced at the first of each month, and artists have until the last day to submit their entries- our art contest deadlines, originally set for April 05 and April 12, have been pushed back to April 30th to fit with our calendar contest topic becoming April�s MGC theme.

(Please visit mgc.gargoyles-fans.org/current.php and gathering.gargoyles-fans....tests.html for further details.)

And for all you artists out there who�d like to show off your work at the con, Panels are still being sold for both the Gathering and Othercon art rooms- $5 buys a four-foot-by-four-foot wall space with which to display your talent! (Table space is available for those whose works runs more to the 3-Dimensional variety.)

*

Motto Contest Winner:
We are pleased to announce the winning motto for this year�s Gathering T-shirts, submitted by Xodiac;
our convention is indeed "Home At Last"!

*

Reminders and finalized Deadlines for the remaining contests:

Gathering and Othercon T-shirt contests: draw our mascots Madison and Death for each shirt! -(pushed back to April 30)

Gathering and Othercon Calendar contests: canon, original, or the mascots- anything goes for our calendar contests, with the Gathering
calendar themed �Gargoyles in New York� - (pushed back to April 30)

Writing contest: write a work based in the gargoyles universe... if it had been designed by Stan Lee of Marvel comics. Not only to you have to come up with the plot web for this twisted alternate world, but you also have to write an actual story that reveals and refers to all of your ideas, too." Minimum of 1000 words (2 pages), maximum of 5000 words (10 pages). Best fan fiction(s) will be read aloud at the convention. (Deadline - May 30)

Gargoyles Music Video contest: Ever wanted to spice together episodes of Gargoyles to music? Now is your chance. Create your own 5 minute or less music video featuring Gargoyles and bring it with you to the con. Best video(s) will be shown at the convention.
(Deadline - May 30)

ALL SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO gathering@gargoyles-fans.org

*

Announcing The Gathering of the Gargoyles 2004: Montreal
That�s right, 2004 will feature our first international Gathering!
Details to follow soon.

*

The Gathering continues to have space available for those who wish to host panels, run LARPS and other games, and have a table in the Dealer�s room. Please contact us at gathering@gargoyles-fans.org

Lynati, Gathering Staff 2003
Saturday, April 5, 2003 04:47:25 PM
IP: 64.218.107.159

One small problem with the room wipe. Last week's CR was deleted. What's the deal with that?
DPH
AR, USA
Saturday, April 5, 2003 04:34:36 PM
IP: 204.94.193.36

To clear things up the top ten list

1. Question
2.Silverbolt
3.Spacebabie
4.Silvadel
5.Revel
6.Patrick
7.Heather.
8. Josh
9. Mooncat
10. Siryn

Question>>>The room got wiped. On the weekend the clear the CR of posts. The first ten popleto post for the week make a grab for one of the ten spots. Then the previous week is in previous week...after a while it get's archived...except for one thing.

Last week is missing.
Spacebabie - [LadyAndromeda@smstars.zzn.com]
Saturday, April 5, 2003 03:21:17 PM
IP: 64.156.97.95

10th!
Siryn
Saturday, April 5, 2003 03:14:41 PM
IP: 66.66.97.209

9th in the name of the Fay

>^,,^<
Mooncat
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:48:02 PM
IP: 68.102.23.36

Eight
Josh
Berkeley, CA, US of A
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:45:49 PM
IP: 64.160.47.45

7th!
Heather
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:41:05 PM
IP: 68.99.148.20

Number six! :: sticks flag in the ground ::
Patrick Toman
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:36:19 PM
IP: 68.73.165.19

5th I mean
Anonymous
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:33:00 PM
IP: 129.120.247.140

4th

And I have a sessy accent ];)
Revel
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:32:45 PM
IP: 129.120.247.140

Fourth
silvadel
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:32:23 PM
IP: 208.58.107.167

Top Ten 2 in the name of
aliens
weregoyles
and seesy men with sessy accents.
Spacebabie
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:31:26 PM
IP: 64.156.97.95

2nd... or first, depending on if question claims it, in the name of cute fluffy werewolf pups everywhere!
silverbolt
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:30:36 PM
IP: 81.131.196.203

What happened here?
Question
Saturday, April 5, 2003 02:07:37 PM
IP: 67.233.23.64