It's Personal...

Red_Rob · Post by **Red_Rob** » Sun Feb 09, 2014 10:44 pm

Ancient History wrote:http://www.stjoshi.org/news.html

hee

So your "project" is being published? Congrats!

Did you approach Joshi, or did a publisher approach you?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Feb 09, 2014 10:49 pm

I asked Joshi for his advice on publishers, and he suggested Hippocampus Press, which he's the chief editor of. Hopefully I'll see it in print by the end of the year.

Foxwarrior · Post by **Foxwarrior** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 6:54 am

Have you ever been tempted to re-subtitle Gurren Lagann so that Simon is a Nietzsche enthusiast?

Row Row, Will to Power!

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 7:19 am

No, but I did once start writing a TTGL-inspired rpg with a call of cthulhu retheme...

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:43 pm

I finally replaced my iPod with a new one! Yay!

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:56 am

Maj wrote:I finally replaced my iPod with a new one! Yay!

And so, the cycle continues.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:19 pm

Speaking of cycles, has anyone ever been chased by a swan in the process of laying an egg? As in, it is laying the egg as it is running after you with the fury of a thousand and two suns.

Because that happened to me the other day. I wouldn't recommend it.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 6:53 pm

You people live in interesting times O.o

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:23 pm

I've been chased by an elephant. I don't recommend that, either.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:27 pm

A peacock in my case. It jumped me, but I was able to keep it away with my hands. Luckily, it didn't try again. I think I was 10 to 12 at the time. No injuries as far as I can remember. It was still extremely jarring. I wasn't expecting them to be aggressive.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 10:42 pm

My brother was chased by a peacock when he was a kid, too.

What is it about large birds that makes them douchebags?

violence in the media · Fri Feb 14, 2014 1:08 am

Shrapnel wrote:My brother was chased by a peacock when he was a kid, too.

What is it about large birds that makes them douchebags?

They remember a time when they were dinosaurs.

ubernoob · Post by **ubernoob** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 6:42 am

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 6:48 am

Well, shitfuck, the neighbors are trying to kick me out of the apartment again. "If you don't leave willingly, we'll sell our shares to [racial slur] and they'll rape your brains out and bury you in cement." Racism and guro aside, selling (low-liquidity) housing shares to the mafia is actually a disconcertingly common practice.

Last time people tried to get me to gift the share, I was accused of chasing people around with a knife and, this is golden, dislocating the jaw of one of the attackers (it was trying to eat my neck and hurt its jaw). The cops never bothered to identify themselves and let me go as the station was closing at 9pm.

(If I don't post in the Sorcery! thread for 48 hours straight, I have been arrested again.)

I work at a law firm, but I'm scared if I try to consult anyone, they'll just have me fired for being "a less efficient employee". They talked about kicking out a divorcing woman like two days ago.

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 10:43 pm

I was mentioned in the school paper today.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:27 pm

Gratz. I was only mentioned when I graduated, and that only to say I graduated. Plus there was a reference to an "anonymous anti-smoking activist". (Smoking was eventually banned under new management.)

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 3:34 pm

violence in the media wrote:
Shrapnel wrote:My brother was chased by a peacock when he was a kid, too.

What is it about large birds that makes them douchebags?
They remember a time when they were dinosaurs.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45165298/ns/t ... v-IcUDcT_A

Maj wrote:I've been chased by an elephant. I don't recommend that, either.

You win the chased by animals thing. Could you elaborate?

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:02 am

My nephews are young enough to be into dinosaurs, but also young enough that pictures like that are not amazing. Not only did it turn out that birds are dinosaurs, but also that a bunch of dinosaurs were totally just big birds.

Better yet, the Quetzalcoatl was a Giraffe. Like, exactly, only it ate meat and flew at 200km/h. When I was a kid they were still climbing cliffs to take off and glide near the beach, and most other dinosaurs were only just getting their tails off the ground and walking upright. It's like people my age grew up thinking "really?" and made it all better.

How awesome are they going to be in another 30 years? And will Elephants still exist in the wild? Because Rhinos aren't going to make it, nor Polar Bears, nor various Dolphins (we're even making our local one extinct right now in NZ). Go-go mass extinction event. Yay us.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 4:48 pm

Did you mean Quetzalcoatlus.

I don't see how anyone can not like giant chicken demons (even if they were assaulted by their descendants).

Extinction is definitely a bummer, however... Okay, they haven't had much luck, but here's hoping nonetheless.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 6:29 pm

OK. So I keep getting credit card offers in the mail from Capital One. I hate them. I will never get a credit card from them. I want nothing to do with them. They pissed me off so badly the first time that it will never happen again.

So I found a handy little number included on the inside of the Additional Disclosures & Terms and Conditions insert - 1-888-5-OPT-OUT. So, I called it hoping to dump Capital One once and for all. It apparently opts you out of all prescreened credit offers for five years, so that was an added bonus.

The problem? It's creepy as hell. If that number had not been included on an official document sent to me by a credit card company, I would never have provided the information that I did. The first things they ask for are your Social Security number and your birth date. But they don't look you up in their database with that information. They then ask you for your zip code, your address, then finally - your name. At no point does the system verify that they know who you are. They just collect the information you provide.

Supposedly, a message will be sent to the Triumvirate of Credit (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) that will stop them from allowing this information to be given out. But this phone call was - in just about every way - exactly the type of phone call that the credit companies warn you against. So if my ID is stolen in the next few months, all y'all know better than to call that number.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 7:26 pm

I usually give out false information if I think the person I'm giving it to is suspect.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 8:34 pm

The number is apparently legit, though I have now learned that I can steal people's identity by harassing them with bogus solicitations and setting up a trap in the opt out number.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:31 pm

@Shrapnel - I usually just hang up. In this case, this was a phone number distributed within the legal text of a credit card offer. It was a legit credit card offer. I had no reason to think it illegitimate - the phone call was just creepy.

I did notice, though, when I googled the number, that there is also a website that was NOT mentioned in the legal literature. The only two options listed were calling the phone number, or sending a letter via snail to each of the three credit bureaus asking to be excluded from further offers.

I suspect that this is a calculated ploy. Internet links are easy, fast, and painless. But no one wants to write and send the three letters via snail, so they're going to call the number. The number is rather creepy, so people will probably hang up and not follow through. And thus, the credit companies can keep people on the victim solicitation list, while claiming to be as accommodating as possible.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 2:58 pm

How deliciously devious.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:18 pm

OK. So I'm pissed at Apple. (Again? Still?)

Micro USB ports suck. Maybe there are some people in the world who never have problems with them ever, but they are so small and so flaky that every single Micro connector that I've seen has failed. And that complaint doesn't touch on the Micro's limited power capacity and speed.

Apple, in their quest for an ever thinner product (and more money), decided that they were going to stop using the 30-pin connectors that every car, alarm clock, and other expensive products used (so they can charge you for that shit all over again!). So now we have the new Lightning connector. It's small and not subject to the same problems as Micro is. It's also reversible, so that when idiot me is trying to plug my iPod in at night, I don't have to squint by the glow of my screen to figure out where the little rectangle is on the front side of the charging cable (I actually took a pin and etched that rectangle into the cable so I could feel for it, but not mar the look of the cable).

But because they're fucking Apple, they aren't going to share that shit. Nope. Ess' Kindle Fire - which needed to be replaced THREE times because of that ridiculous port - will be replaced this week, yet again, by a new Kindle Fire with the same stupid Micro port. And the charging plug for it - which also failed because Micro connections suck - will fortunately be replaced as well.

I resent you, Apple. You have created a product that is so good that it should replace the current industry standard. But because you failed kindergarten, the rest of the ph/ablet industry is stuck with garbage.