Why did the chicken cross the road?

"If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

I'm reading through Armageddon in Retrospect. Once I'm done I think I'll re-read A Man Without A Country. Then I think I'm good to write a few stories I've been kicking around in my head a while.

There was a Starship Troopers anime in the 80's.

Starship Troopers! Anime! 80's!

Would you like to know more?

Fuck yes!

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I can't get this song out of my head.

Please send help.

1. Choose one or a few of your own characters.
2. Make them answer the following questions.
3. Feel free to go ahead and add some questions yourself!!
4. Then tag three people.

I'm doing two of these. One for my FFXI character, and another for my most successful Shadowrun charcter.

( Cutcutcutcutcutcut )

Japan is weird. We know that. Linux fanatics are weird. We know that, too.

When you combine the two, you get "Ubunchu," a romantic comedy manga about the joys of running Ubuntu on your computer. No, really. You do.

Personally, I'm waiting for the ero doujins based on the manga. I've got a few good titles I could suggest, like "modprobe -v aic7xxx."

SO, first things first. I'm getting a good mortgage at a crazy low interest rate with money provided by the Federal Home Loan Bank's first time home buyer grant for part of my down payment. The total monthly payment comes out to less than the rent for a two bedroom appartment. You have NO IDEA how excited I am by this. After seven months of anticipation, hard work, and penny pinching, I'm just glad that the home buying process is moving along, let alone working in my favor. By the end of May I can finally start enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Now, since that's not really what I tend to talk about in this LJ, let me talk about something that I normally do talk about here, and that's role playing games!

( Yeah! )

I read this article about Dune RPers in Second Life getting a cease and desist order. I think the justification for this *might* (IANAL) be that things in Second Life is considered the property of the user who created it. I mean, imagine if a Second Life user named Paulyloveschani makes a Second Life version of a Thopter. Does Paulyloveschani get the copyright or does the Herbert camp? I have no idea, but I think I'm siding with the role players on this one. Role playing does not violate copyright, mang.

What's even better is that in his post Cory Doctorow says this:

Good going Trident! There's 130 Herbert megafans who won't be so quick to enjoy, proselytize and spread your client's work next time. Keep it up and you'll soon have the whole world turned off Dune!

So basically, Trident's doing the job that even the rest of the Dune series couldn't do.

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That is a good question. Prepare for a ramble. Also, possible spoilers for Twin Peaks and Fables. Ye be warned.

First, let's assume that Sherlock Holmes is unable to help you at the moment. If you need a fictional detective and you don't rush for Holmes you're not even trying to be helped. But, if he's busy there are plenty of good fictional detectives you can choose from.

The next famous detective Hercule Poirot is a fine choice. He's a brilliant and pleasant fellow who values matters of the mind above all things. Sometimes, though, investigations can get a little physical. Poirot is not the toughest guy around, and those little gray cells will be useless if they're splattered on the pavement. There's always Jane Marple, Agatha Christie's other famous detective. She's an amusing lady and competant detective. I think she'd find that my hometown of Dundalk is rather much like her English village, but with less money and a tiny bit more urban. Again, she's an old lady and might break a hip, but I expect few people would ever get physical with her anyway. I imagine people would tend to disregard her, and that would turn out to be her biggest boon. She's kind of a proto-Jessica Fletcher, who, by the way, is also an excellent option.

Then you have more modern detectives. Gil Grissom, Horatio Caine, and all the CSI guys, but they're only good if you're dead. There's one modern detective who has a very special place in my heart. That's Special Agent Detective Dale Cooper. The guy's brilliant, and projects some quantum weirdness field that I can totally get behind. He's the only guy who uses a dream about Tibet as a method. There's only one problem. Dale only ever fails. He comes close. Always comes close, but never succeeds. He might have succeeded if Twin Peaks had gone on longer, but I like the way the show ended so I'm just going to say he failed. Frank Drebin also projects a slightly different quantum weirdness field. He would solve the case by just kind of stumbling onto it. Hey, whatever works. I'm sure if I'm ever caught up in a plot to shoot the Queen of England at a baseball game he'll come in handy.

There are also a few less common detectives I'd consider. The first being Loki. Yes, that Loki. There's an anime where he comes down to earth and acts as a detective. It's pretty entertaining, and he proves himself as a good detective. However, this is also the same guy who screwed over Baldur for not showing some courage and self-sufficience, so I doubt he'd help me out if I asked. And speaking of unintuitive detective choices there's always The Big Bad Wolf. In the Fables comics, he turns out to be freaking brilliant. He figures the whole thing out immediately, then still goes through the motions of doing the rest of the necessary detective work just because he feels like he maybe should? I don't know that I'd appreciate being jerked around like that. If you know then go for it, man. Don't make people trash and apartment and cover it in blood just because it's funny.

In short, I think my choices are down to Miss Marple and the Big Bad Wolf. I could deal with either of them, really, and know they'd get the job done. Though, I think Miss Marple has better tea, so I'd probably go with her.

What the hell kind of fucked up state of mind do I have to be in when "Mr. Tambourine Man" fills me with a sense of Lovecraftian dread? This one.

Holy fuck.