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

So, over the past fortnight or so, I have been drinking tea. A lot more tea. A lot more tea than my usual daytime beverage of choice, coffee.

I've particularly started liking some herbal blends. . . Yogi Tea ones in particular: Berry DeTox, DeTox, and Bedtime (though this last has had spotty effects -- I had two double-strength mugs of it Sunday night, and I still pulled an inadvertent all-nighter; I had the same amount last night, and it knocked me on my ass).

Also, I like Tazo teas . . . especially Awake, Chai, and Zen.

Lastly, I think a visit to Teaism will happen Real Soon Now, for some good loose-leaf blends/varieties, as well as Salty Oat Cookies, Ginger Scones, and the Salmon Handroll Sushi Bento Box. YUM!

To elope, most literally, merely means to run away.^[1] More specifically, elopement is often used to refer to a marriage conducted in sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving hurried flight away from one's place of residence together with one's beloved with the intention of getting married.

-- Wikipedia

“You, that are going to be married, think things can never be done too fast: but we that are old, and know what we are about, must elope methodically, madam.”

-- Oliver Goldsmith

----



More news about Neoncon later, but for now, the important stuff.

On Saturday night, driving through Vegas, while looking for a liquor store with American Honey, mnight  and I drove by a neon sign that said, "Wedding Licenses." The hour was late but the sign was still on and across the street--directly across the street--was a chapel with drive thru service.

Twenty minutes later, we were married.

No photographers, no rings, no guests. We had Jimmy Buffett on the radio singing "Brown Eyed Girl" as a bit of coincidence. 

And so, ladies and gentlemen, Ro is now, officially, my ex-girlfriend.

Folks:

This was the song I was talking about at the GCE tonight:

Romanes eunt domus should really be Romani ite domum.

Just FYI.

Well, November is packed with (writing/editing) work:

* Freelance editing project, at my day-job rate.
* Starting DFRPG edit work Real Soon Now. [1]
* Working on STotC at odd moments. [2]
* UA PDF project progressing. [3]
* Day-job editing of many, many 2 yr old DOCs.
* Once again, pondering Hyperworld. [4]

I think that this weekend is the last anyone will see me in a social context until December.

NOTES:
[1] That would be the Dresden Files RPG.
[2] That would be the Strange Tales of the Century sourcebook.
[3] That would be the Thin Black Line, the Order of Saint Cecil sourcebook.
[4] That would be the revisiting of my "Hyperworld vs. the Invadroids" CiaB. . . and a backdoor new edition of T&J under the PDQ# rubric.

If you ever wanted to know what the Sea Dogs really looked like, here they are.






We were a silly bunch. 

The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

 



Designed by the lovely and talented paintscribe .

Release dates forthcoming.

I was contacted by a gaming club called the Dead Gamers Society in Orange County, CA. They plan on running Houses of the Blooded demos this Sunday. Unfortunately, I'll be in Las Vegas this weekend, so I won't be able to attend. Here's the notice I got:




So, if you have the time and the interest, go check it out!

(Here's their website and contact information.)

Facebook bringing back memories.

I was 29 when this record was released. I'm much older now.

And the song is stronger in my heart every year. Memories don't fade over time. Just the opposite.

Finally reading Richrd Dawkin's The Blind Watchmaker, and boy oh boy, he is an impressively IRRITATING writer.

The manuscript was dipped in smug, as far as I can tell.

One of the October Bear Swarm podcasts had the theme of "Character Advancement."

Listening to it after my Wicked Fantasy entry on experience points was... enlightening. 

They also talked about HotB, Wilderness of Mirrors and The Shotgun Diaries.

I gave a new Wicked Fantasy entry on the Open Design Podcast.

The santa vaca this time? Experience Points.

You can listen to it here. 

The new Crimson Sorrow podcast is up!

Go check it out! 

A Game of Tears makes two mentions of tivalti. Until recently, most ven scholars had little information on the game, but recent revelations have given us a very good look at what the game many call "ven chess."

The game can be recreated with a standard chess board and pieces, but the pieces have different names and slightly different moves.

THE PIECES
Spear (Pawn): The spear (or spearman) may only move forward but may move one or two spaces. Like the pawn, the Spear may only attack diagonally. The spear may not jump pieces like a knight.

Roadman (Knight): Moves as a knight.

Sword (Bishop): The sword (or swordsman) moves as a bishop.

Lover (Rook): The lover takes the place of the rook. The lover has a very strange move in that it can exchange places with the husband or the wife (see below) once per game. This move is called "the lover's leap." The lover may move in any direction but only two spaces.

The Wife & The Husband: At the beginning of the game both players put their respective husband (the King) and wife (the queen) in either the left or right hand and reveal their choices at the same time. The piece in the left hand is the submissive and the piece in the right hand is the dominant. The dominant piece moves like a standard king and the the submissive piece moves in a completely different way. The submissive piece may move as any other piece on the board.

OBJECT
The object of the game is to capture the dominant husband or wife. Not to isolate it (as in regular chess) but to capture it. Once the dominant is captured, the game is over.

RANSOM
If a player moves any piece to the other side of the board, he may exchange that piece for another captured piece.

http://with-gusto.livejournal.com/128072.html

Any questions?

I'm on TV Tropes.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProseDescriptiveQualities

ZOMG.

For your reading pleasure:

Happy Birthday, Harry: We Have A Target

and

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDresdenFiles

(That latter link will keep you reading for HOURS.)

ALSO, because I am a tres geeky fanboi, I was thinking today that if I saw a story where Harry Dresden and Vlad Taltos teamed-up, I'd probably plotz.

(Then, I thought about Vlad teaming up with Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen, and I DID plotz. Then, I thought about the Three Musketeers teaming up with Cyrano and Captain Alatriste, and plotzed halfway through the thought. We shall not speak of the Kirk and Sheridan team up, or the Matthew Gideon and Malcolm Reynolds team up.)