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Madrigorne
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Madeline L'Engle's a Wrinkle in Time was my first SciFi book, also introduced to me by a librarian, after which I voraciously read every book she ever wrote, wrote a paper on her in both third, fourth and fifth grade, and made her a pen pal as part of a class project (she wrote back several times AND sent me a bookmark!) I read Z is for Zachariah and it made me so very sad. I reread it and it again made me cry. I hope for so much more of us. I read so much now I don't quite remember all the authors names, though every story is written forever in my head, and I can recite back to you . If you haven't yet, may I highly recommend reading ALL of William Gibson. You'll love them as much as I, my friends.
librarians are awesome
I was recently invited to participate in an awesome literacy project, and I wanted to share an excerpt from my contribution: I want to take a moment and say thank you to librarians, because it was a librarian who made me fall in love with reading. In third or fourth grade, part of our curriculu...
Um, you are awesome, and you rock, and yay Kitty! but dude um - throne - okay?
-Madrigorne
a stupid cellphone video, and other various items
Last night, I made a new stupid cellphone video. Enjoy: Related. This Sunday, I return to LEVERAGE on TNT as the evil computer hacker Cha0s, in the holiday spectacular episode The Ho Ho Ho Job. Immediately after the episode airs, I'll be joining the cast for a live web chat. I'll give lin...
I am so buying this, framing it, and hanging it on the wall in my computer room. Its just so awesome. How much you wanna bet the pegakittycorn is all stretched out sleeping in one of those sunbeams? And I just bet that somewhere off to the right (follow the point of the sword) there is a double rainbow in the distance...
"as his kilt rises..."
I think this is one of those rare things that can be equally enjoyed* by those who have context, and those who don't. *for very disturbing values of 'enjoyed'
Hawesome, just hawesome. On another note - I too want a TARDIS purse.
How one redditor found happiness. This is just wonderful.
I came across one of the most wonderful things I've ever read in my life on Reddit this morning, penned by Redditor alukima, who shares some insights on finding happiness: I am not witty or interesting; I wont pretend to have anything profound to say. I am 26, female, divorced and spent most of...
Okay so I had to go to the google cache to read this. And it was a very dumb article, written by a lameass who thought himself clever. I bet his mom tells him he's clever.
Anyhow - so I told my best friend Alissa that I follow you on Twitter and that you are awesome, and she quite literally turned pink. She blushed! Then she asked me if I could get her an autographed picture of you. If I send you a SASE + cost of photo, would you send one back to me?
unintended consequences
Last night, I saw a column at Newsarama that infuriated me. It's been taken offline, so I can't quote it, but the basic premise was that Wesley Crusher was playing Ted Kord, so Ted Kord was a Redshirt, because Wesley was a Redshirt, so now you know how lame that episode is going to be ha ha ha. ...
I am a long time gamer girl, been playing D&D and other RPGs since 1982. 4th edition's an okay game, but its not really Dungeons and Dragons.
I still game with the same groups of friends, and we still try to have fun - but I am finding this to be an entirely different game, and not altogether a good one. I am not sure why they had to change every aspect of the game system;some of the names are the same but the rules and mechanics are not. They let you keep your dice and gave you a new character sheet, they kept levels and experience, but they took the game and gave back something very much like a paper version of a video game with a strange embedded cardgame subvariant.
Feats are a concept they stuck into 3rd edition/carried over to 4th. I unabashedly hate feats. I either ignore them entirely, which annoys the GM, or I take the ones that permanently change some attribute of my character - like an initiative modifier, or a constitution score, so I can write it down and ignore it. The rest is just fluff and paperwork - which bogs down play for me - and I hate it.
Magic items are pretty worthless now - not really interested in an item that will give me an additional +1 to my jump/climb/athletics check. Spiderclimb items don't let you spiderclimb - they only give you a slightly better chance to climb - if you roll high enough. If my climbing skill sucks, the spiderclimb slippers are not going to help. Rope works better. Waterwalking only gives you the ability to wander out atop the water until the end of your move - when you submerge and swim or begin to drown. I can drown just fine without magic, thank you. I will use a boat instead. You can still get + 1 weapons/armor, those are really the only things worth having. The rest of the items - you could just rip the pages out of the book, they are not worth the trouble. Magic is no fun now. None for me thanks.
Healing surges are an interesting idea - but they have pinioned the healers to only being able to heal 2x/encounter - and that's great if you have a group of only 3 people gaming, and only if the non-clerics each need to be fixed up only once in combat and only if they have any healing surges left. Even healing potions rely on your surges - except the really really expensive ones. That's more cardgame+tokens than I'd like, shades of magic the gathering. If you do not meet each and every part of that criteria - you are dead or you have to go sit that combat out at the bottom of the discard pile and stop having fun until everyone agrees to go back to the campsite/inn/half collapsed cave to take a nap and start again the next day. Diety forfend some wandering monster come to eat you during the night. Its a whole lot of paperwork just to keep the game fun. The whole point of the game is to have fun, right?
Geek in Review: Keeping the Borderlands Alive
December's Geek in Review has been unleashed on an unsuspecting internet. It is all about Dungeons & Dragons, specifically … Fourth Edition [DUN DUN DUUUNNNNN!!!1] Last week, I spent an entire day playing Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition with some of my friends. "Big whoop," you say. "So did I...
I am a long time gamer girl, been playing D&D and other RPGs since 1982. 4th edition's an okay game, but its not really Dungeons and Dragons.
I still game with the same groups of friends, and we still try to have fun - but I am finding this to be an entirely different game, and not altogether a good one. I am not sure why they had to change every aspect of the game system;some of the names are the same but the rules and mechanics are not. They let you keep your dice and gave you a new character sheet, they kept levels and experience, but they took the game and gave back something very much like a paper version of a video game with a strange embedded cardgame subvariant.
Feats are a concept they stuck into 3rd edition/carried over to 4th. I unabashedly hate feats. I either ignore them entirely, which annoys the GM, or I take the ones that permanently change some attribute of my character - like an initiative modifier, or a constitution score, so I can write it down and ignore it. The rest is just fluff and paperwork - which bogs down play for me - and I hate it.
Magic items are pretty worthless now - not really interested in an item that will give me an additional +1 to my jump/climb/athletics check. Spiderclimb items don't let you spiderclimb - they only give you a slightly better chance to climb - if you roll high enough. If my climbing skill sucks, the spiderclimb slippers are not going to help. Rope works better. Waterwalking only gives you the ability to wander out atop the water until the end of your move - when you submerge and swim or begin to drown. I can drown just fine without magic, thank you. I will use a boat instead. You can still get + 1 weapons/armor, those are really the only things worth having. The rest of the items - you could just rip the pages out of the book, they are not worth the trouble. Magic is no fun now. None for me thanks.
Healing surges are an interesting idea - but they have pinioned the healers to only being able to heal 2x/encounter - and that's great if you have a group of only 3 people gaming, and only if the non-clerics each need to be fixed up only once in combat and only if they have any healing surges left. Even healing potions rely on your surges - except the really really expensive ones. That's more cardgame+tokens than I'd like, shades of magic the gathering. If you do not meet each and every part of that criteria - you are dead or you have to go sit that combat out at the bottom of the discard pile and stop having fun until everyone agrees to go back to the campsite/inn/half collapsed cave to take a nap and start again the next day. Diety forfend some wandering monster come to eat you during the night. Its a whole lot of paperwork just to keep the game fun. The whole point of the game is to have fun, right?
Geek in Review: Keeping the Borderlands Alive
December's Geek in Review has been unleashed on an unsuspecting internet. It is all about Dungeons & Dragons, specifically … Fourth Edition [DUN DUN DUUUNNNNN!!!1] Last week, I spent an entire day playing Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition with some of my friends. "Big whoop," you say. "So did I...
can't...stop...screaming...oh great now they're sending me home from work...
plan b
My plan to be Doctor Horrible for Halloween was disrupted when I couldn't find the appropriate lab coat and goggles anywhere. Luckily, I had a much more disturbing Plan B.
can't...stop...screaming...oh great now they're sending me home from work...
plan b
My plan to be Doctor Horrible for Halloween was disrupted when I couldn't find the appropriate lab coat and goggles anywhere. Luckily, I had a much more disturbing Plan B.
IRL my name anagrams into 'An Alien Toy' - which is really really funny...to me anyways...
i thought i was the only one
Writing fiction is a scary, solitary experience for me. Eventually, I get stuff to Andrew and we start working together to hammer out the final draft, but I write my first draft with the door closed, as Stephen King advises, and it can be a lonely time, with Self Doubt and the Inner Critic dropp...
IRL my name anagrams into 'An Alien Toy' - which is really really funny...to me anyways...
i thought i was the only one
Writing fiction is a scary, solitary experience for me. Eventually, I get stuff to Andrew and we start working together to hammer out the final draft, but I write my first draft with the door closed, as Stephen King advises, and it can be a lonely time, with Self Doubt and the Inner Critic dropp...
Yay! This is on Fark now too! Woohoo!
That crazy PandaBee was snuffling you.
my episode of gorgeous tiny chicken machine show
My episode of Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show won't be "officially" released until tomorrow, but thanks to my extensive contacts in the seedy and delicious underbelly of the Internets, I've secured access to the episode a full 24 hours early. I did some interviews to support this episode,...
Yay! This is on Fark now too! Woohoo!
That crazy PandaBee was snuffling you.
my episode of gorgeous tiny chicken machine show
My episode of Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show won't be "officially" released until tomorrow, but thanks to my extensive contacts in the seedy and delicious underbelly of the Internets, I've secured access to the episode a full 24 hours early. I did some interviews to support this episode,...
*heavy sigh* I have missed Sarah Jane. I grew up in the time where you only got 3 VHF channels and then UHF - where you had to have the rabbit ears and the circular wire to catch the briefest glimpse of either - when cable just came out, but was too expensive for a single mother. There was no internet, there was no cable, there was only ABC, CBS, NBC and grainy PBS. I grew up treasuring every sci-fi moment I could snatch from the television, clogged with mindless sitcoms and movies of the week. We watched alot of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers when Dad was still around, but after the split - all Mom watched was Threes company and other uninspired gorp that would send my mind into torpor. Having Doctor Who surface on PBS for an hour and a half on Sunday afternoons was amazing, and you have NO idea just what happy hell I had to endure just to get left alone for that hour and a half - having to run and do stupid unnecessary errands during the middle of the show because Mom thought it was a boy's show and would turn me lesbian. As If!
Tom Baker was my first love. I wanted to be Leela, to be Sarah Jane, to be Nyssa, or Teegan, to save Adrick. I still do, even now. When there was no Doctor Who, I read copiusly, compulsively, devouring as much Sci Fi as our school library held, and then on to the public library when those books ran thin. TNG was proof that there were other people like me in the world who still wanted to see something intelligent on television, besides Nature Documentaries. I cannot believe what changes the world has wrought. Cable is almost everywhere - or you can get your signal sent to you from a satellite...from space! There are hundreds of channels now, we have the internet, we can stream shows we want over cable into personal home computers, we have shows like Lost, and Heroes, there are THREE flavors of Doctor Who now (Sarah Jane, Doctor Who, Torchwood), we can watch all the Star Trek or whatever show we want, buy the whole collection on DVD, there are entire networks set apart specifically for encouraging the imaginations of Sci Fi fans. We have the Matrix Trilogy. We revamped Star Wars and added some pretty awful prequels. We have the Lord of the Rings movies, we have the Terminator movies - and now a pretty awesome Terminator TV series. Battlestar Galactica has come back from the past. We have Firefly, and Buffy, and Angel.
Wesley Crusher is part of what gave me hope, when the rest of the entertainment industry wanted to force feed me Urkel. That TNG writers could not intelligently write child parts is irrelevant. The truth is that actor who played Wesley Crusher is cool, intelligent, who loves comics and science fiction, who is a wonderful writer, a great dad, and geek like me seriously rocks. Tod Emko is an uninspired dick who cannot seperate character from actor. I have never heard of Tod Emko before today. And as I sit here, in the wee morning hours, in the dark, at work, doing technical support on satellite data uplink technology - technology in space! - I can tell you that your words mean far more. Tod Emko can DIAF. Seriously.
more excellence in journalism
In a review the Sarah Jane Adventures, Tod Emko at UGO writes: So, children's show, yes. Has young teens in it, yes. Yet, a show you may actually want to watch, despite your probable hatred for Wil Wheaton-type characters through the years. It's definitely one of the most intelligent shows for k...
*heavy sigh* I have missed Sarah Jane. I grew up in the time where you only got 3 VHF channels and then UHF - where you had to have the rabbit ears and the circular wire to catch the briefest glimpse of either - when cable just came out, but was too expensive for a single mother. There was no internet, there was no cable, there was only ABC, CBS, NBC and grainy PBS. I grew up treasuring every sci-fi moment I could snatch from the television, clogged with mindless sitcoms and movies of the week. We watched alot of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers when Dad was still around, but after the split - all Mom watched was Threes company and other uninspired gorp that would send my mind into torpor. Having Doctor Who surface on PBS for an hour and a half on Sunday afternoons was amazing, and you have NO idea just what happy hell I had to endure just to get left alone for that hour and a half - having to run and do stupid unnecessary errands during the middle of the show because Mom thought it was a boy's show and would turn me lesbian. As If!
Tom Baker was my first love. I wanted to be Leela, to be Sarah Jane, to be Nyssa, or Teegan, to save Adrick. I still do, even now. When there was no Doctor Who, I read copiusly, compulsively, devouring as much Sci Fi as our school library held, and then on to the public library when those books ran thin. TNG was proof that there were other people like me in the world who still wanted to see something intelligent on television, besides Nature Documentaries. I cannot believe what changes the world has wrought. Cable is almost everywhere - or you can get your signal sent to you from a satellite...from space! There are hundreds of channels now, we have the internet, we can stream shows we want over cable into personal home computers, we have shows like Lost, and Heroes, there are THREE flavors of Doctor Who now (Sarah Jane, Doctor Who, Torchwood), we can watch all the Star Trek or whatever show we want, buy the whole collection on DVD, there are entire networks set apart specifically for encouraging the imaginations of Sci Fi fans. We have the Matrix Trilogy. We revamped Star Wars and added some pretty awful prequels. We have the Lord of the Rings movies, we have the Terminator movies - and now a pretty awesome Terminator TV series. Battlestar Galactica has come back from the past. We have Firefly, and Buffy, and Angel.
Wesley Crusher is part of what gave me hope, when the rest of the entertainment industry wanted to force feed me Urkel. That TNG writers could not intelligently write child parts is irrelevant. The truth is that actor who played Wesley Crusher is cool, intelligent, who loves comics and science fiction, who is a wonderful writer, a great dad, and geek like me seriously rocks. Tod Emko is an uninspired dick who cannot seperate character from actor. I have never heard of Tod Emko before today. And as I sit here, in the wee morning hours, in the dark, at work, doing technical support on satellite data uplink technology - technology in space! - I can tell you that your words mean far more. Tod Emko can DIAF. Seriously.
more excellence in journalism
In a review the Sarah Jane Adventures, Tod Emko at UGO writes: So, children's show, yes. Has young teens in it, yes. Yet, a show you may actually want to watch, despite your probable hatred for Wil Wheaton-type characters through the years. It's definitely one of the most intelligent shows for k...
A Pansy is a sweet, cute, delicate flower.
You should get Nolan with your chicken liver nose gun - and watch him scream like a little girl "Get it off! Get it off! Eeeeee!" when he realizes the chicken liver leeches have attached themselves to him... and then ask him who the pansy is.
Personally I like flavors other than pain...
Hope you feel better soon, that particular coughing brand of misery has washed over us here too - and I tell ya its no fun for anyone.
my con sars. let me show you it.
It looks like I picked up a touch of the convention sars at Wizard World: sore throat, coughing my guts out, massive headache, and other upper respiratory stuff that is too disgusting even for me to describe. So I'm back onto the goddamn couch for at least 24 hours. At least this time I have LEG...
A Pansy is a sweet, cute, delicate flower.
You should get Nolan with your chicken liver nose gun - and watch him scream like a little girl "Get it off! Get it off! Eeeeee!" when he realizes the chicken liver leeches have attached themselves to him... and then ask him who the pansy is.
Personally I like flavors other than pain...
Hope you feel better soon, that particular coughing brand of misery has washed over us here too - and I tell ya its no fun for anyone.
my con sars. let me show you it.
It looks like I picked up a touch of the convention sars at Wizard World: sore throat, coughing my guts out, massive headache, and other upper respiratory stuff that is too disgusting even for me to describe. So I'm back onto the goddamn couch for at least 24 hours. At least this time I have LEG...
That's not my nose...its a carrot...
i don't want to go on the cart
I feel happy! I feel happy! In all seriousness, I'm recovering at exactly the right pace, according to people who keep score on this sort of thing. Warning: this is about to get gross. I'm off all the meds, except for some stupid steroid for swelling that makes me really fucking irritable and re...
That's not my nose...its a carrot...
i don't want to go on the cart
I feel happy! I feel happy! In all seriousness, I'm recovering at exactly the right pace, according to people who keep score on this sort of thing. Warning: this is about to get gross. I'm off all the meds, except for some stupid steroid for swelling that makes me really fucking irritable and re...
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