If this kid were older I'd suggest he buy a lottery ticket...

14-year-old hit by 30,000 mph space meteorite

Hey Folks,

Lately, I've been thinking about where I come from, and I've been thinking about getting one of those Genographic Project Kits from National Geographic. Has anyone participated in this? Are the kits hard to use?

Hmm, Donna and Kirk. Nah, she wouldn't want him...

I heard about it when jemstone announced the arg_comm community on the Mekton Zeta mailing list.

My first post was July 14th, 2006, and consisted of my answers to a survey posted by jkahane, but I actually had my account well before that, having gotten it to post in the arg_comm community.

Hey Guys,

I just finished reading War Eagles by Carl Macek on friday.



The War Eagles story is set just prior to the start of WWII and revolves around a publicly humiliated Army Air Corps test pilot who was court-martialed and discharged from the service for an unauthorized flight that ultimately endangered the life of President Roosevelt. He takes the only job he can get—flying an experimental airplane around the world from pole to pole—and ends up stranded on an uncharted island above the Arctic Circle. The island is inhabited by a lost tribe of Norsemen who ride giant eagles that, in a surprising turn of events, become America’s only hope against a devastating sneak attack by the Nazis and their powerful new electromagnetic weapon.

The novel is based on an original concept by King Kong creator/producer Merian C. Cooper. One of a number of intriguing film ideas Cooper never got off the ground, do to his own wartime activities with the Flying Tigers. The adventure tale about a lost tribe of eagle-riding warriors has long fascinated Harryhausen, whose Ray Harryhausen Presents shingle is also developing a feature film version with Angel Gate parent company Left Field Film Corp. and Hand Picked Films.

The book, which has been adapted by Carl Macek, (anime’s greatest monster) from the original movie concept. War Eagles reads a lot like a HEX scenario, dishonored hero goes on journey, crashes, finds lost tribe, bonds with the ofrior orn that destroyed his plane, wins the heart of the hilmir's daughter, and leads the tribe in battle against the Nazis. The book can almost broken into parts, first Lt. J.P. Brandt’s accident and court-martial, then his job flying pole to pole, the crash, his eventually becoming a member of the tribe, and then the fight against the German Zepplin over New York. Except for some incongruities, a female MP guarding Brandt in 1939, and Utahraptors that seem to be T-rex size, it was actually a very enjoyable read. Nothing special in pulp terms, but good none the less.

The feel good song of the Millennium.

If you hit them fast enough...

Up since 3:30 am, on the way home at around 5 pm, after work and helping John clear some of his gaming stuff, I hit a wild turkey, roughly a 60 pounder, with a good THUMP! sent it flying off the hood.

Bird seemed well enough to take off, but he left a dent in the front of the hood.

George, your career can only go down hill from here:

So is there any women watching Dancing with the Stars who doesn't seriously envy Cheryl Burke right now? or guys who don't envy Gilles Marini?

Thanks unquietsoul5

So, spross, your LiveJournal reveals...

You are... 2% unique (blame, for example, your interest in world-building.) and 16% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy star wars). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are keen to please. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.

Your overall weirdness is: 34

(The average level of weirdness is: 29.
You are weirder than 72% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

Hi Folks,

Just yesterday, jkahane introduced me to a game called Mutant City Blues written by robin_d_laws and brought to us by simonrogers and the boys & girls at Pelgrane Press.

So without further ado, here is my first mutant cop:

DONOVAN KINCAID
Donny was a student of Art History who joined the police shortly after discovering his powers. He's fresh out of the Academy.

Academic
Archaeology 1, Art History 4, History 2, Languages 1, Law 2, Research 2, Textual Analysis 2.

Interpersonal
Bullshit Detector 2, Bureaucracy 2, Cop Talk 2 (Default).

Technical
Chemistry 2, Data Retrieval 1, Document Analysis 2, Evidence Collection 1.

General Abilities
Athletics 3, Driving 6, Filch 2, Health 10, Infiltration 3, Mechanics 2, Medic 3, Preparedness 5, Scuffling 4, Sense Trouble 4, Shooting 4, Stability 8, Surveillance 6.

Mutant Powers - General
Fire Control 8, Spontaneous Combustion 7, Fire Immunity 7, Fire Projection 4.

Defects
Trance Susceptible.

All in all, character creation was no where near as hard as I expected. However, talking to jkahane, I've learned that the math on the powers and the defect are wrong. Also, after having the powers defined, I probably wouldn't have taken Fire Projection.

And now for something completely different:

I got this from simonjrogers thanks.

Traveller - 20 January - 19 February

They call me the Wanderer, yeah the Wanderer, I roam around and round and round and round... Sorry about that, Buttercup's playing 20 Number Ones of the 1950s again. That said, it pretty much describes a Traveller. Notoriously commitment-phobic, it's Another Girl, Another Planet. Buttercup, for goodness sake turn that off, how's a Moo to concentrate?

Most Compatible With: Frodos, who might like to travel along for a while and with Gurps who probably won't remember them in the morning.

Least Compatible With: Shoggoths, who have long memories and hold grudges.

I was thinking along the lines of astronaut, archeologist, or S.H.A.D.O. agent. Don't have the physical conditioning for the first, the education for the second, and as far as I know, I could be wrong, but the third doesn't exist. :D

A friend of mine cross-posted this from one of her Classics lists.

Thanks ravinpa1!

A little Christmas cheer from Diane Roberts Have a PC Holiday, Ancient Rome-Style.

Enjoy.

Well the past two weeks have been interesting.

Earlier in December, Dad took me with him to BestBuy to buy a Laptop computer for my mom. When we got it, we arranged for someone from Geek Squad to come and install it and the router we needed. The guy arrived on the 23rd and started to work, unfortunately, Xplornet doesn't offer router support and we couldn't get the network to see it or the other way around. So he left being unable to do his job, you can't fully install most software without going online.

To make matters worse, mom, who had only found out about the laptop that day, didn't really want one, because she was going to be leaving the volunteer position where she needed it. So I returned the laptop, except for Office 2007 to BestBuy. After a lot of hemming and hawing on their part, and trying to convince me that I couldn't return it, they took it back. However, because it wasn't my name on the card, they couldn't put it back on the card, and instead put it on a Gift Card. I was told that dad had 30 days to come in and transfer it to his credit card.

I then got mom a $200 Gift Card from Walmart, using dad's credit card, and using my own card, I bought her the two disk set of Momma Mia!, my original gift idea. Well Christmas went well, mom enjoyed the gifts, and the Diamond Studs dad got her.

Over the weekend I caught a head cold I'm still trying to get over. But, I did get to experience creating characters for HELLAS: Worlds of Sun and Stone for jkahane along with oni_neko.

( The Business with the Card )

Well, now I'm resting, and will hopefully be recovered by the time I work tomorrow. Oh, yah, this will be the first New Years that I don't stay up for because I work tomorrow morning.

Happy New Year Everyone!

We just had an election, shouldn't we wait a little before forming a new government?

While I'll admit, Harper hasn't done anything to earn our trust as leader, neither have any of those forming the Coalition. I mean come on, the Bloc shouldn't even BE in parliament any more then the Confederacy should be in U.S. Congress.

Not that I have anything against a Coalition Government, it's worked in other countries. But, I'd rather the Canadian people choose their leaders. If they want to be a Coalition, fine, let them run as one.

My personal view is we should give the government time to actually try to do things. However, if no one can wait, then the Governor General should dissolve parliament in January and hold a fresh election. Only this time, none of the sitting candidates should be allowed to run. Just clean house totally.

Well another Sunday gaming session.

The session opened with a newspaper article about the body of a City Councilman being found in the trunk of a cab at the bottom of a quarry. Eddie's cab, which is interesting because, I (Eddie) dragged the corpse out of the quarry and buried it before I was shot. Eddie, of course knows little about this, because I'm in the hospital with a shattered knee. Things for Eddie went downhill from there. First the Paradiso police arrived and I think jkahane was a little disappointed that Eddie talked before he had a chance to REALLY demonstrate what happens when the police question you in a place with no Miranda Rights. The way I figured it Eddie wasn't lucid enough to successfully lie, besides, he's not a hardened criminal.

At some point before this, Clair, Eddie's wife was with him talking to the doctor about my condition, and the horrendous expenses for the operations that would be required to rebuild the knee. To add to this, I couldn't work, and would likely be billed for the damages to the cab.

Later in the evening while I was being tended to by Evelyn Kelman (Tammy) Olivia Martinelli oni_neko showed up with a couple of goons to inquire into what I told the police. She was rather surprised when Evelyn refused to allow her access to me until she was finished. After sweating it out and claiming they already knew everything, they knew most of it, I admitted to confirming that her cousin "Sammy" was in the cab. I also expressed my confusion over how they found the body. Further discussion was interrupted when an other plain-clothed police detective showed up. Out-of-Character, it seems obvious that someone is taking her family down from the inside.

On the family front, unknown to Eddie, Olivia had a discussion with Clair about our situation. At this point, Erin, our eldest daughter reveled to her mum that Olivia had paid for Erin's operation. The favor that incurred the original debt. Now she's offering to pay for this one too. Suddenly, I suspect the leg will be the LEAST of Eddie's worries.

That's it for me.

Squirming, and loving it!

Steve

Ok, jkahane really wants this so here we go.

I'm playing a Cabbie named Eddie Chandler, oni_neko is playing Ms. Martinelly, a gangster's daughter, Tammy is playing, Evelyn Kelman, a nurse/drug-smuggler.

To put it simply, I'm finding myself totally incapable of connecting with my character in any way. This leads me to question why I created him in the first place? oni_neko seems to be playing her character more like Stella from A Streetcar Named Desire then a gangster or someone who's destined to lead gangsters. On the other hand everything else seems to be going swimmingly.

jkahane inspite of my failings has been running an excellent Film Noir campaign. Each character has his or her share of problems the would do any of the genre writers proud. I really don't know where to go with this. Eddie is in the hospital after being crippled while dumping a body, he'll likely lose his job and likely his life as it's the only way short of wiping out the Martinelly family, that he can protect his own. Ms. Martinelly is quickly becoming a figurehead in her father's clan, and Evelyn is facing exposure.

Now to sleep.

[Sorry, feeling really snarky right now. So how about those Pirates? :)
Who'd thought we'd see a pirate Boom-Towns in this day and age. Can the Barbary coastal raids be far behind?]