Let's see how far we've come...

The Church of Snuggles believes that humanity is guarded by invisible monsters who need our snuggles. Without snuggles, good monsters become bad monsters and seek ways to harm humanity.

Every human being has his own invisible monster. The only way to see your invisible monster is to believe in your invisible monster. Once you have faith in your monster, you will see your monster.

By extension, monsters also need other forms of affection. Hugs, cuddles and kisses are appropriate.

As evidence of our faith, we point to various monsters who did not receive snuggles and therefore became bad monsters and therefore turned their humans into bad humans.

Good monsters snuggle you at night and keep bad dreams away. They also protect you from the robots who seek to dominate humanity.

The Church of Snuggles pays special attention to the physical act of snuggling rather than the abstract concept of "love." Physical acts of affection are demonstrable evidence of appreciation and not simple claims. Saying "I love you" is not the same as baking someone cookies or making them a sandwich or even just putting your arms around them and holding them for a moment or two. Snuggles are the evidence of love, not just a claim.

This is our credo. We believe in snuggles. We believe in monsters. We believe that acts of love are what counts in life.

So, join the Church of Snuggles today! We don't just say we love you. We show it.

I'm working on the "Religion and Magic" section for Blood & Honor, working on the "setting the magic level in your campaign" section and typed these words:


And I had the thought, "If I was writing a Catholic RPG or a Mormon RPG or a Jewish RPG or an Islamic RPG and wrote those words, I'd get heat for it. But, because it is a pagan Eastern faith, I'm in the clear."

That makes the Discordian in me want to do something exactly like that...

(thanks to Swarner)

http://earth.google.com/mars/

Thanks to this guy who made me want to write, want to play drums, want to think.

I post this to demonstrate what devotion to your craft leads you to. Watch for the :30 mark. Something happens. It's subtle and if you aren't watching closely, you won't see it.

Watch for what happens, watch for how he responds to it, and watch a Master keep moving on...

Two episodes. Take a listen:

Travel Broadens the Mind

and

The Storyteller in You



Also, if you haven't been approved for the forums, let me know here and I'll get you approved!

Tweaks and enhancements

1. In order to improve site security, we've temporarily suspended the ability to change passwords for old email addresses that haven't been used for over six months. For further information and support, please visit our customer care page.
2. We've launched a new mobile site with an enhanced UI at m.livejournal.com. View spotlights, post to your journal, read and post to friends pages, and more, no matter where you roam! Please let us know what you think, since this will eventually replace our existing mobile interface. You can update your mobile preferences on your account page.
3. We've upgraded from Beacon to Facebook Connect to improve dual posting. If you've already signed up for Facebook Beacon, you're good to go. If you wish to update your Facebook Connect setting, visit Account Privacy settings and scroll down to the option labeled: "Send information about my updates to Facebook." You can choose Always or Ask each time. Remember to save (on the bottom left corner of the page). To learn more, check out FAQ 249. While we're on the subject, if you happen to be visiting that side of town, please join our Facebook fan page for a touch of home away from home.
4. You'll now receive the Writer's Block Question of the Day in the body of email notifications. To sign up for Writer's Block notifications, visit writersblock and choose the Watch Community option. Next, update your Writer's Block notification settings by checking the box to the right of "Someone posts a new entry to writersblock."
5. Paid and permanent users can now view, add, and edit Notes of commenters. Notes will appear beside the username of comment posters (instead of stars) on S1-themed comment pages.

Send some lovin' thanks to your friends with our holiday vgifts!

Photos of the week

We're so delighted with the immense talent of our growing, global lj_photophile community that we've decided to introduce a poll. Each week, we'll choose a half-dozen photos (based on user comments and staff feedback) and ask you to select a photo of the week. The winning photo will be announced in the next newsletter. If possible, please limit photo size to 350x350 to ensure that images display properly on friends pages. We want to thank you again (and again!) for sharing your passion.

Check out this week's photo poll and more fantastic user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks for joining us. To our American friends, have a fantastic Thanksgiving. To all of our international neighbors, we'll eat a little extra for you!

What do you do when you make a bitchin' Big Daddy/Little Sister costume set?

You take it to an aquarium, of course.



(More pics behind the link.)

(yoinked from theferrett)



Star Wars Facebook Status Updates.

Classic.

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post about Shock:, which was itself a continuation of the one about Vernor Vinge’s writing.

So, Diaspora.

(First off, let me note that Diaspora is normally available only through Lulu.com, but Lulu screwed the pooch recently and the title isn’t currently listed. As soon as it’s back, you want to get yourself a copy.  No, it’s not available in PDF yet (and probably not for some time).  I may talk more about that publication of Diaspora some other time, but that’s enough about that for now.)

Diaspora is hard science fiction storytelling built on top of Fate.  (As it so happens, I know a little about Fate!)  At first blush, that’s a weird fit.  As a gaming chassis, Fate can give you plenty of detail to work with, but generally it’s all about characters and character-driven stuff.  Hard sci fi leaves one thinking that hey, maybe you should instead focus your game system on precise models of physics, concern yourself with resource management in the black depths of space, etc.  Which might be true to a limited extent — at that’s the extent to which Diaspora gives it support.  Diaspora knows how to grab onto the attitude of hard SF without shouldering its baggage as well.  Then it takes a cue from Vernor Vinge (among others) and focuses in on the characters.

Read the rest of this entry »

Heard about that test the Republicans want to put to their leadership? They're calling it the "Reagan Purity Test." It's a list of ten policies you have to support to be a Republican. If you miss three, you aren't a Republican.

Well, guess what?

Reagan wouldn't have passed the test.

In fact, he fails every one.

By the way, the Obama icon is entirely appropriate for Reagan as well. Charisma is all that guy had. And look what happened.

You heard about that guy who's been in a coma for twenty years that they now believe is conscious?

Watch this video.



There are two things going on here. The first is the neurological testing. I don't have any way to look at the charts and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to read them, so I can't comment on that.

But the woman moving his hand around? That's called "facilitated communication" and it's bullshit.

When tested properly (by blindfolding the facilitator), what we find is the victim cannot communicate at all. He misses buttons, types gibberish, cannot answer personal questions (that the facilitator would not know) correctly, and otherwise fails.

One such test involved showing an item to the patient and not showing it to the facilitator. Then, the patient and facilitator were instructed to type out what the object was. The study showed a zero percent success rate.

ZERO PERCENT SUCCESS RATE.

Like I said, there are two things going on here. The first, I'm not qualified to comment on. The second... Jeebus. How does anybody believe this crap? I know the family feels awful and wants to communicate with him in some way, but subjecting yourself--and your injured loved one--to this kind of humiliation is just terrible.

And that woman doing the typing? She belongs behind bars for fraud. Absolutely shameless.

I'm killing zombies with a chainsaw.

Left 4 Dead 2 (a wedding present) is well-worth the wait.

DIE, ZOMBIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!

(And yes, the con man is my favorite character.)

She picked me up from the airport in a Wonder Woman costume.

She keeps telling me how lucky she is, blinded to the fact of how lucky I am.

Go over to mnight and wish her well.

Good morning, LJ.

As I mentioned before, I'd like to see this account become more active. Ideally, I'd like to show you a little something every day or every other day. I hope I can keep up!

Since Fred Hicks and I finished solving the very last Dresden Files RPG art issues last week, I thought that was an excellent place to start. Here's one of my favorite Dresden Files illustrations, depicting a scene from Grave Peril:



This probably isn't new to you if you follow the game's progress blog, but I imagine lots of you haven't seen it yet. I'm very pleased with the color scheme and the creepy sexiness going on here. :)

If you want to learn more about The Dresden Files RPG, check out:
http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/
They're shooting for an Origins 2010 release.

Thanks for looking!

In no less than 500 words, compare and contrast both performances. This is worth 30% of your final grade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS4_Z84-rRE

That is all.

Yes, I am writing a samurai version of Houses of the Blooded.

Yes, it is called Blood & Honor.

Yes, it will be a stand-alone product (you won't need to buy HotB to play it).

Yes, it is currently bullying all of my time.

Yes, I'm looking for playtesters.

No, I don't know when it will be done, but it will be soon.