godlikedream

Seems like a lot of folks have made the move to facebook. Given that I only like to maintain one social journal site at a time, I need some opinions.

Should I abandon LiveJournal and make the move to Facebook?

Something of great importance happened many, many, many, many years ago today. In a time between when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the son of Titus, hither came Fairybite to tread the jeweled roads of the earth beneath her feet.

Happy birthday my dove. I will love you always, and I am fortunate to have such a person in my life. You put up with me and love me despite my geekiness.



Sarah in on Navy Pier in Chicago during Convergence 10 music festival.

Sarah and I were dating here and there before our trip to Chicago. At the end of navy pier, as I look through the camera lens and saw her posed here against the Chicago skyline I realized that, despite my best efforts, I had fallen in love with her.

I'll always remember that this picture captures that exact moment.

Happy thir.. ter.. uhm... twenty-first birthday - and yes, there will be cake!

Thats right. Take the title of this post and sing it to the tune of that little number from Phantom...

Today I've been in a decidedly Siouxie and the Banshees mood, letting winamp ramble randomly through their catalog.

What musical mood are you in today?

Youtube was made for this.

One of my favorite web comics, a Dr. Who comic called the 10 Doctors, wrapped up today. Tons of references to nearly every single Doctor Who series throughout, and, as far as I can tell, every single companion ever. Despite the fact that I was sure there were references I wasn't getting, the comic was still quite good, funny, and even suspenseful.

If your a fan of the series, you should definitely check it out.

Peter Murphy
Friday, July 17
Clutch Cargos

The garden is coming along nicely. I posted a few more pictures to my Flickr page today. While planting some extra tomato plants (thanks flappervamp!), I sampled some of the romaine lettuce and other herbs. Its like a self-filling buffet!

( Garden Pictures )

Prepare for geekspeak!



My World of Warcraft main character, Mortedamos, finally got his Valorous Plagueheart Circlet from Kel'Thuzad a few nights ago, and the Dying Curse trinket last night. This means I only have his belt to replace before I get the Epic achievement.

Sarah and I watched the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshal" last night. All in all, a pretty funny movie. The best part, however, was the main characters side project - he wanted to stage a Dracula rock opera - about how in the end, Dracula is just a man who wants love - oh, and he wants to do it using puppets.

And at one point in the movie, we are treated to the final scene of the musical.



Someone took the song itself and used it for their final animation project at school.

I wish something like this would actually get made into a touring show. I would definitely go out of my way to see it. It completely fits my admittedly bizarre sense of humor.

At least the guy who made this is on to write the next Muppet movie.

I've taken a huge interest in the indie game and classic pc game scene lately. Below are some of the gems I have found and definitely recommend to anyone with a few minutes to kill. They range from strategy to rogue-like to shootemup to ansi to flash based. There is gaming history here, and gaming history in the making.

• ansidude (http://www.textmodegames.com/download/index.html)
• cloud (http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/)
• cyclops (http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/)
• echoes (http://www.binaryzoo.com/games/echoes/index.htm)
• effingHail (http://jiggmin.com/play_game.php?title=Effing+Hail)
• flOw (http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing/)
• gammaBros (http://www.pixeljam.com/gammabros/)
• jumpman (http://runhello.com/)
• lost labyrinth (http://www.lostlabyrinth.com/)
• molten core (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lPwQ0MUCuc)
• Cave Story (http://www.miraigamer.net/cavestory/)
• Ray-Hound (http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/)
• Soundless Mountain II (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=2481.0)
• Spelunky (http://www.derekyu.com/)
• Vulture's Eye (Nethack isometric interface)
• warning forever (http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/)
• Shooters Solitude (http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza/Prod/)
• battle for wesnoth (http://www.wesnoth.org/)
• ZZT (http://www.textmodegames.com/download/index.html)
• Kingdom of Kroz (http://www.textmodegames.com/download/index.html)
• Snipes! (http://www.textmodegames.com/download/index.html)

Just FYI:

VNV Nation at St. Andrew's Hall
07/11/09 8:00 PM
St. Andrew's Hall / The Shelter DETROIT

When I grow up I hope to be half as awesome as this guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74dWyDw6Bxk

(I fail at embedding youtube videos into LJ, so here is the link instead)

I posted this to the forums of the World of Warcraft guild I started, named Shadow and Flame. We had a good run, but - all things have their time, and now its time to move on.

I'm sharing this here because, even though it was a game, it was also an amazing social environment, and had an impact on how I have learned my trade as a project supervisor.

---

Greetings Guildlings,

After long and careful consideration, I've decided that S&F has had its day. We had some great times, and having a guild like this is an experience I will, honestly, treasure forever.

But, in light of recent developments and the fact that many of our core members and officers have moved on or can no longer participate in game due to real life concerns, I think that we have reached the tipping point in terms of continued guild viability.

It's been very very hard for me to recognize that our time has passed, as is the nature of these things. You are all my friends, and it felt like the friendship was slipping away.

But in truth, people stay friends regardless of the guild name under their avatar in some MMO.

Shadow and Flame will stick around as a social guild for those that want to remain, but we will no longer be actively recruiting for the purposes of raiding and running content. Anyone who is here now is welcome to stay as long as they wish, make use of the guild bank as a shared space, and chat with the friends you have made along the way.

I formed Shadow and Flame with the intent of creating something social and fun from the ashes of an old guild, Heroic Repair Bill. I wanted to make a viable place to prove that good people make for good games and try my hand at it.

And you know what? It worked.

Good people do make for good games. The best times I have had in WoW came from this guild. To me its always been a social place, a way in which friends could hang out when real world distance or other issues might otherwise preclude it. Even given that, we got to be in the top 10 horde raiding guilds on our server, for a short while. Not bad for a casual guild.

On reflection, I think ambition to become more of a raiding guild outweighed the commitment many of us were willing to invest into a game, and that led to frustrations amongst our members and eventually our bleed out and hibernation.

For the most part we were able to avoid drama - even when people moved on, they would send me thank you notes letting me know what a great time they had with us. Somehow I doubt that is normal practice in WoW.

Perhaps someday, when the time is right and the impulse returns, we will return from this haitus.

I am more than happy that I was able to share this experience with you all, and hope that you too with have nothing but fond memories of your time with here. I highly encourage everyone to stay in touch - please /join shadowandflame as a custom chat channel in game so we can keep in touch, should you move on to another guild.

We had some great times, and for that I thank all of you from the bottom of my bleak, cold, undead heart. For almost three years my evenings were filled with laughter, wonder, fun, and friendship.

Never forget what we were. All I ask of you is that you take that spirit of fun and pass it along.

~ Shawn
a.k.a. "Mortedamos" ~

( Proposed garden layout )

I've been asked to come up with a name for the garden club that is forming with killerkersten, flappervamp, and myself. It's clubs purpose is to share seeds, information, and shots of liquor, and have an excuse to party. I have been tasked with naming our little group.

Name ideas so far:

"The Hemlock Society"
"(Gardening) In The Flat Field"
"Sinister Squashling Society"
"Detroit Dirt Conservatory"
"Horrid Horticulturist Club"
"Grotesque Gardeners Gathering"
"Green Thumb, Black Clothes"

The past few weeks have brought some serious changes to the backyard landscape around our home, which got me thinking about what I can do with it.

Time to put effort into interest.

( Plans for the summer )

I'd like to know everyone's thoughts here. Anyone have any experience with these things?

Another brilliant Cat and Girl:

Alright, I've decided to share with my friends on the 'net more often what is new in my life.

This means I will no longer limit my posts to things that I think other people might find interesting. I have a few projects in the works that, by my assessment, are only of interest to my wife and I.

Too bad for you all, now you get to hear about it! Ha ha!

To summarize some upcoming posts:

1. Living in the ghetto - even the mini-ghetto Yak north of the D - means freedom from permits, freedom to be a bit daft, and a determination not to care about what your neighbors think.




1. Gardening


2. House demolition


3. Wall Building


4. World of Fencecraft


5. Learning about alternative energy - putting effort where interest lies.




2. World of Warcraft related posts - leveling my shaman, running the warlock, what it means to run a guild, and all related nerditry in between.


3. Artsy fartsy shows and my thoughts on them. Less TV = more art, apparently.


4. Subculture and ultimately meaningless aesthetics - and what they mean to me.

I see you all looking forward to my lengthy ramblings on these topics.


On a related note, I plan on using the camera more often. Where is a good space to host photos, outside of some DNS trickery through DSL to host them at home?

Two of my favorite personalities in the same place:

Neil Gaiman on Colbert Report

Noteworthy for Colbert's ability to quote Tom Bombadil from Lord of the Rings, and Gaiman's lightning fast replies to Colbert's usual wit.

I would think that this interview could only be made cooler by the addition of flamethrowers.

NASA is having a contest right now to name Node 3 of the ISS:

"NASA wants your opinion in naming the International Space Station’s Node 3 – a connecting module and its cupola – before the two segments travel to space and are installed on the orbiting laboratory. The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity- and Node 2- Harmony."

Take a moment to head over there and cast your vote for Serenity!

From IO9:

"Help make our favorite Firefly ship part of real-life space exploration history. Though right now Serenity has a healthy lead, Stephen Colbert is trying to make "Colbert" a write-in winner, and the Scientologists are pushing "Xenu" as a name. I think we can all agree that Serenity is the right choice for a space station designed to look out into the black and help us learn how to live out there one day."