Like a good geek, I just caught the opening night of Watchmen, and it was every bit as awesome as I could have hoped. It deconstructs the superhero genre, and with the exception of Dr. Manhattan being unstuck in time, brings masked vigilanteeism down to earth, and looks at what a world with superheros would really look like.

It had some amazingly complex characters, pulled no punches thematically or visually (it was extremely graphic, but always with reason), and is probably one of the best comic-book movies I've seen without having read the source material... which I'm going to do now.

Diane G. Sanford, a psychologist and author specializing in women's reproductive mental health, said while she doesn't know much about Nadya Suleman's background, women that have obsessive-compulsive disorder can become fixated on different obsessions.

"Her obsession centers around children, having children and being a mother," she said. "To what degree are her esteem and identity based on being a mom, and why has this from a young age been such a preoccupation of hers?"

I honestly can't understand the break in her train of thought... what could have possessed her to think that being implanted with 14 embryos to give birth to simultaneously was a good idea. Obviously, there is a mental disconnect going on, but either she's bat-shit OCD about having babies, a con artist willing to go to extreme lengths to live a jobless life, or some combination of the two...

See, what'd make sense is if she channeled her baby-obsession into something like hiring out as a surrogate mother for women who can't give birth or something... I hope she never pops out another one, and that at least most of those children manage to see a functional adulthood.

As far as thefts go, I've never been personally robbed... accosted by pushy trenchcoat-wearing folks who tried to peddle CDs and Cellphones often, but never robbed. I know a lot of theft-victims though; my uncle had his trailer robbed twice (in different locations) and his car was broken into while in the far north (and the theif was probably disappointed to realize that the bottles they swiped were filled with ginger ale), and an old roommate had been knifed in the back of the head once in an attempted mugging before he gave the unfortunate fellow a smiley on the edge of the pavement.

As a side note....

...when i say honestly and seriously unless in the context of sarcasm it honestly seriously happened and this honestly seriously happened yes.

...we should probably have a tag or codeword for "climbtree is actually telling the truth".

...and you can always browse fanfic websites for single geek girls, because they too will be on the internet long into the night writing Slash.

On another note, I agree that it's another one of those commercial holidays, but that doesn't make it a bad idea to take a moment out of the day to make a gesture of love to those close to you. Personally, I'm making a bunch of origami hearts and hiding them with clues around my girlfriend's apartment.

Also, there will be a lack of the lovemaking today, since both of us live in small apartments with roommates who are home all the time.

Having seen it, I know what you're talking about Marcus. There are subtle hints throughout that sort of piece the plot together for perceptive sorts. Also, I just noticed the use of "button in the eyes" and the "our eyes will be on Coraline" in the song too... crafty lyrics, John.

But yeah, the story was fantastic... it's totally a modern fairytale, without using any of the horribly cliche tropes, like goblins and fairies and trolls and crap. It's a story about kids, and why you can't always get what you want, at least not without a caveat.

Seriously though, the artwork is fantastic... and absolutely EVERYTHING was handcrafted, from the woman who hand-knit all the shirts and pants and clothes on a model scale, the flowers in the garden that moved and lit up... everything. Seeing it using the new Radial Polarization 3D technology is awesome too... it operates on different principles, so it can create all kinds of layers, which actually move as you tilt your head.... I literally found myself craning my head a bit to look around corners in the movie... incredible stuff, and worth the extra ducats.

Oh, and I'm a Michigander, so her dad wearing an MSU sweater, and the Detroit Zoo snowglobe on the mantle won major bonus points.

I got hit bad by a data-ransoming Trojan made by some branch of the Russian Cybermaffia, and subsequently with a Trojan that gave a false-positive virus scan message, locked down Firefox or IE, and tried to reroute me to fake webpages where I would DL more viruses. AVG, Spybot, and so on didn't even see them.

I was able to boot in Networking Safe-Mode, and download Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. It's the only freeware package I've heard of that can deal with the heavy-hitters like the friggin Vundo Trojan.

Alternatively, if you trust your own judgement, and can deal with potentially damning your computer, run a search for the suspicious processes on Windows File Info or Google, and snag a File Unlocking Utility that will let you halt, free up, and delete processes, programs, and viral .DLLs that are giving you shit.

To GW:
Just caught wind of this whole ordeal, from the initial diagnosis through now, and I don't know what to say. At first glance, I had one of those heart-falls-into-your-gut moments upon hearing Steel's prognosis... like some rude, vulgar, and utterly hilarious part of the world I know- a peripheral, but no less vital spark in my personal universe- was in danger of being snuffed out altogether.

I'm a lazy bastard, and haven't gone through half of the 2,500 or so posts in this thread so far, but seeing the community from whom I normally expect racist humor, rampant chan-age, crappy RPGMaker games, and so on somehow create this enormous upsurge of goodwill... well, it really caught me off-guard.

It's really amazing to see how awesome people can be sometimes. Thanks.


@Steel:
As an on-again-off-again lurker, you don't know me, but in that wierd and stalkery way only capable on the web, I kinda know you. You've entertained the folks here in unique ways for years, and despite/because of being an ass and a troll have brought some great things to the community and the people here. It's telling how everyone, upon hearing from you, pulled together and offered you something during this ordeal.

As individuals, we're often blind to our personal gifts, and to the small, yet present impacts we have on the lives of others. You've got a lot to offer the world, be it in daily life, teh internets, or elsewhere.

I'm not a religious type, but it's my sincerest hope that you'll get through this whole thing stronger than before it began.

-- Peace.

If nothing else, even for a parody game the premise sounds inventive... the developers of the game itself trying to kill off the main character and such. Some of the alpha reviews also mentioned "breaking the game" as part of the gameplay itself. Makes me wonder if it just breaks the 4th wall all over the place, or perhaps if you exploit purposeful glitches or something.

Either way, I suspect this one will appeal more to the older gaming audience, who'll pick up on the game references... Goldeneye, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Mario Kart, and Alien Syndrome to name a few.

Loving the Wolfenstein reference here too: (Taken from this site)


Also, the tune that plays in the background of This Webpage is basically an overture made of tons of Amiga and Commodore era chiptunes, and early 90's game music. I recognize more than a few of them, though I can't place them all. Maybe they're all games it's referencing?

Hmm... I've heard a lot about this game, but I've never tried it. I'm going to give it a shot.

Seeing this thread revived reminded me of this defunct project. While only tangentially related (Inspired in part by the Tribes series), the idea of a multiplayer online platformer/shooter combining elements of base-building, teamwork, and vehicle combat and customization sounds awesome.

I just got to playing this game, and I absolutely loved the feel and atmosphere.
There are few examples of Postmodernism in gaming yet, but with the scoreboard scrambling and falling off from worlds 6-7, and the creepy messages replacing the level start message as you progress, this is seriously giving me some neat ideas for another postmodern project I've been mulling over for a few years.

Page needs more screens:

Pretty grotesque looking dude, hope in counts towards points. It's not really a screen, but like a splash page/promotional poster for Lennus Scott, which no one knows about and is due for a redux. Was practicing high contrast/volumes and low colors, and also a frank miller style of manly detailed exaggerated mugs.

Tell me what you think/how to improve.

That image is fantastic! There's a certain sketchy oekaki quality to it that I can't describe about it, but I love the monochrome silhouette lighting too. The grammar he uses is a bit confusing though... a combination of alde englishe and slang contractions. Was it on purpose? Also what is this for?

Oooooh, ouch on the death of your computer. Here's hoping it gets a proper burial and/or gets cannibalized into something cooler.

Anyway, we're on to Tainted for now. I'll fire him off an email, and hopefully he'll get his arse on over here... and if he doesn't start running the fortress, then the terrorists goblins have already won.

Rawr Dwarf Rage

An explanation for some of the perceived weirdness from Year 1:
The Catapult was part of a complicated experimental rock-delivery system that the underground channels to the Smelter were originally dug for. Basically having a single siege operator fling single stones down the long passage and to streamline stone delivery to the fortress, but there were problems with the Aquifer layer right below.

The excess of Miners was to train idle dwarves in dirt-digging and get easy skill-ups. The pumpers were also for skill-ups for future military (notice the number of Tough/Agile/Strong dwarves). Actually, Nish was the most badass dwarf when it came to fitness, after all that furious Bookkeeping.

The pump over the water was actually part of setting up for a swim-training chamber for the dwarves; the idea was to make a mandatory swimming chamber that all dwarves would spend a few days in to prevent river-related deaths and get skill ups. Also, the military could be sent there for serious swim training (as can putting dwarves on useless pumping duty.)

Anyways, that's some very nice work. I like the Emblem too, and a kid having a strange mood is just awesome!

All in all, looks like it was a good year. I'm going to check with the next few guys to see who's up, and will start working on a summary for this year too as well as finishing my old log (Been a bit busy looking for a second job, but I'm still on this)

It froze pretty much through mid-winter, but it was a relatively short freeze, so do whatever you're going to do quick if need be. I wanted to Dam the thing, or maybe sink in an array of Water Wheels along the river and make a Hydro-mechanical Array to power things, and maybe make an artificial waterfall... what kind of monuments are you thinking?

One Daming option is the Magma model... wait for the freeze, and channel a 1-unit lengthwise strip of magma in the ice. Upon thawing, you've got an instant dam (provided the ice doesn't melt first, in which case you can actually probably dump magma from a channel down onto water from channel above)

Ah, yes... forgot to mention the Log might be a bit, but you're welcome to start when you can.

Also, I've got a rather nice graphical mod which I'll put a link to when I get a sec tonight.

Scortchthunder Expedition Log: Year 301
Journal of Olod Tomblashed, Fisher.


Download Scortchthunder, 1st of Granite, Year 2
The year is done, and the Log is forthcomming.

Okay, got you two added in, and I'm almost done with the first year. All the necessities should be in place by the time Winter rolls around. Oh, and BTW Woman, the only sand on the map is in an Aquifer layer, and until some kind of amazing pump system gets set up, the Glassmaker has become secondary miner, and has been picking up the odd jobs.


P.S. Story Update in the first post.

P.P.S. Woot! 500 posts!

How did you do that map btw?

Through sheer power of awesomeness.
Also, if you go into the Legends mode, you can export a high-detail BMP map as of the latest version. I just fiddled with the resultant BMP to add settlements and such.

And yeah, my forts always look spartan and utilitarian. I'm much better at building complex traps and machine crap than I am at making aesthetically pleasing layouts.

Besides, that's Elfy Stuff.

I've got no problem with later signups or anything. Also, I'm building a sealed swimming chamber of 4-deep water, and imposing mandatory week-long swimming training for all dwarves. Especially with a Major River on the map... Bearded Carp Snax they are not.

Nish is already a Legendary Bookie by the way. And he and my dwarf have had a Grudge going since Olod won the Stonemason as a lover Ohoho cockblocking dwarf-drama!

Yeah, DF owns.  Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to get into it lately, but I did make a few decent forts in the past - enough to unleash the demons pre-3D, anyway.  (I lost.)

Obligatory link to the best fortress possible

Holy Carp, Kef... that fort is bloody amazing! Did you make that? I love the gigantic Emerald dragon inlay in one of the round rooms... I did not know that ASCII symbols could be so pretty.

I admit I tend to go function over form, but that is still some bloody brilliant work.

P.S. Ralph, was that an "I'm going to check DF, but no definite sign-up yet." or a "What the hell, sign me up even though I'm a Complete Novice!"