Greetings Earthlings!

From the joy of Warren Ellis comes Four-Color Love Story a love song done from the point of view of a comic character. I especially liked this part of the lyrics.
"Gwen Stacy isn't dead, she's only sleeping/And Elektra isn't evil or insane/Those bastards at the Pentagon/Can't really kill Sue Dibny/No more than they could kill off Lois Lane"

The Metasciences MY Space, where you can get most of the album. And you can get the song all by itself here (for 7 days}.

( Four Color Love Song Lyrics )

Am I the only one tired of kids acting up in restaurants, movies, and other public places ?

Kids Gone Wild
By JUDITH WARNER

CHILDREN should be seen and not heard" may be due for a comeback. After decades of indulgence, American society seems to have reached some kind of tipping point, as far as tolerance for wild and woolly kid behavior is concerned.

Last month, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that nearly 70 percent of Americans said they believed that people are ruder now than they were 20 or 30 years ago, and that children are among the worst offenders. (As annoyances, they tied with obnoxious cellphone users.)

The conservative child psychologist John Rosemond recently denounced in his syndicated column the increasing presence of "disruptive urchins" who "obviously have yet to have been taught the basic rudiments of public behavior," as he related the wretched experience of dining in a four-star restaurant in the company of one child roller skating around his table and another watching a movie on a portable DVD player.

In 2002, only 9 percent of adults were able to say that the children they saw in public were "respectful toward adults," according to surveys done then by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan and nonprofit public opinion research group. In 2004, more than one in three teachers told Public Agenda pollsters they had seriously considered leaving their profession or knew a colleague who had left because of "intolerable" student behavior.

(the rest of the article is here)

Been pondering more uses for PDQ while spending my my long nights at work. Any thoughts are welcome.

[PDQ] Amber Thoughts

Natural Upshifts

There are three types of persons dwelling in the Amber universe, Amberites, Chaosians, and Shadow Dwellers. Amberites are generally stronger and more powerful than Chaosians and Shadow Dwellers. And the same holds true with Chaosians versus Shadow Dwellers. So the added Upshifts and Downshifts are below.

Amber: +1 vs. Chaos, + 2 vs. Shadow Dwellers
Chaos: -1 vs. Amber, + 1 vs. Shadow Dwellers
Shadow: -2 vs. Amber, -1 vs. Chaos

Further Elder Amberites (Benedict, Corwin, etc) get a +1 Upshift when in conflict with those of the younger generation.

If I run this as a campaign only the first fiver Amber books will be considered canon for game purposes. Some story elements will be used from the Merlin novels at my discretion.

Amber Qualities

Taking a Quality like Amberite will allow one to walk Shadow, but no greater knowledge of how Trumps and Pattern work. If a player wants more ability in these types of things they need to take a Quality like, Pattern, Shadowshifting, or Hellriding.

Qualities taken in things like Personal Shadow, Shadow Allies, or Shadow Resources, to exert control over a certain Shadow. The higher the Quality one takes the more the player can define and control the Shadow in Question.

Similarly if a player desires an item like Corwin’s Greyswandir or Merlin’s Fakir, the higher the Quality the more powerful and defined the weapon is.

Other Powers

Other higher powers like Logrus, and Trump can be taken as well. Simply taking Trump does not include Trump Artistry.

Senate pressured to hold hearings on ET

By SUN NEWS SERVICES

A number of groups have joined forces with former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer in urging Parliament to hold public hearings on 'exopolitics' - or relations with extraterrestrials (ETs).

Three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were reacting to a speech made by Hellyer in September in Toronto in which he warned that "UFOs are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head.''

Hellyer said he is concerned the United States is preparing weapons for use against the aliens and could get the whole world into an "intergalactic war.'' According to Hellyer, the Americans' interest in returning to the moon is in part based on the desire to build a forward military base there.

The three organizations backing Hellyer's request for hearings are the Institute for Co-operation in Space (ICIS), the Toronto Exopolitics Symposium and the Disclosure Project, a U.S.-based organization that has assembled high-level military-intelligence witnesses of a possible ET presence.

Earlier this month, the Senate replied to the ICIS that their full agenda precluded any hearings in the near future on ET issues.

"That does not deter us," one spokesman for the NGOs said, "We are going ahead with our request to Prime Minister Paul Martin and the official Opposition leaders in the House of Commons now, and we will re-apply to the Senate of Canada in early 2006.

"Time is on the side of open disclosure that there are ethical extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth.''

It starting snowing pretty good on the way home. Wasnt sticking to the roads or anything, but it brought out the idiot in many drivers. It seems that every year people forget how do drive in Winter. If you have lived in Michigan for any length of time you should know how. I dont understand how you can forget from one season of the hated white stuff until it's return how handle it.

I am just worried with snow warning from now till early in the AM how bad it will be driving home. I doubt they will be cleaning the roads off real well not wanting to pay the snow plow drivers the extra cash to be working on a major holiday. I am taking some extra clothes and whatnot in case I get stuck in Flint till morning arrives.

In other news Ann got me some DVDs for my birthday Space: Space Above & Beyond, more Due South, and Revenge of the Sith. Should keep me busy for quite a while.

Gordy & Brandee got me some surgar-free candies, a funny book called Bad Dog : 278 Outspoken, Indecent, and Overdressed Dogs which has been fun to pick up and read randomly, and lastly a cool Nazgul figure. Its posable and about 8 inches tall.

Have a good Turkey Day tomorrow!

This years Grand Marshall for Disneyland's Thanksgiving Days Parade are a couple or real turkeys. Turkeys by the name of Blizzard & Snowball. Fresh from their pardons they will winging their way to Disneyland! When asked about the trip Snowball said that he hoped that Disneyland would accept his and Blizzard's "lifestyle choice" and hoped they could find a place at Santa's Reindeer Ranch and live out his life with his "lifepartner and soulmate".

( National turkey will fly, by plane, to Disneyland )


And now for some parody....


( Bush Refuses to Pardon The National Turkeys Democracy and Freedom )

This was just something that occurred to me while at work last eve. Inspired by chadu doing the PDQ conversion of Temple of the Lost Gods (GURPS Lite) Not really fully fleshed out yet. Using PDQ system made by Atomic Sock Monkey I present the SG-1 team as in Season One, expressed as starting characters.

Captain Samantha Carter
Expert Stargate Tech, Good Scientist, Good Soldier, Poor (Any suggestions?)

Dr Daniel Jackson
Expert Ancient Egypt, Expert Archeology, Poor Trusting

Col. Jack O’Neil
Good Gunplay, Good Special Forces, Good Pilot, Good Leadership, Poor Sarcastic

T’ealc
Master Jaffa Warrior, Good Carries Symbiote, Poor Outsider

I would also use damage upshifts for using proper weapons or tools. And I am pondering some Mook Rule ideas.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Now off to bed.

Quick note....

I have often toyed with the ideas of doing a campaign called Stargate: Exiles. Earth has been destroyed or conquored by the Guoald at some point the the PCs would be one of the Pathfinder teams for the surviors of Earth.

USB Microscope - QX5

This is very cool. Not something I would buy for myself but this could be very cool in a teaching situation. Too bad it dosent use Mac OS.