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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
| Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 | ||
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benhimself |
12:55p | System Kernel Idea Every character has a number of traits expressed as a verb-phrase followed by a number. For example "Lie 3", "Fight with swords 6", "Discover the meaning of ancient artifacts 1", and so on. All rolls are contested (objects can have traits too: the GM can give a mountain range "Be Moderately Hard To Climb 2" or the like). Each side rolls a number of d6 equal to their trait. For each die that comes up a 6, roll an extra die. Highest total wins. In addition, if you get a number of 6s equal to or greater than your trait value, your trait goes up one level. If you're using a narrower trait than the other guy ("Fight with swords" versus "Kick ass and take names", for example) you get one phantom "6" that counts towards advancement purposes but not actually towards winning the contest. Any time you need to make a roll and don't have an appropriate trait, write one down on your character sheet at level 1. (Use common sense, don't write down traits that would require extensive training without actually spending IC time to reflect that training, etc) Still liberally from Levi's Metasystem for everything else (conditions-for-failing-contest, and resource pools, mostly) Hmmm. |
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qwrrty |
1:23p | geeks: Rails hosting services? ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} omegabeth is in need of a Rails hosting service that can support a medium-large Rails-driven web site. I can't help very much with recommendations, since my company kind of does its own hosting. :-)I know some of you are Ruby and/or Rails developers. Can any of you recommend a Rails hosting service from personal experience? Current Mood:  nerdy |
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bearfairie |
9:46a | The Bear's Continuing Olympic Commentary So I'm a huge pervert, and I watch the olympics for the hot athletes. I'm pretty nondiscriminating, so little things like gender really don't get in my way. I *really* want to think the women gymnasts are hot but I just CAN'T. I think, wow! Those girls need a sandwich! then I feel like a HUGE PEDOPHILE. because they're all, like 12 years old and just...ew. And Nastia Liukin PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF PETE STOP FREAKING POUTING! YOU'RE AT THE GODDAMN OLYMPICS! IT WOULD'T KILL YOU TO SMILE. Also her dad looks like Christian Slater, which just amuses me. But I was SO PROUD of Shawn Johnson (who I've been calling my little matzoh ball, b/c dayum that girl's solid) and her amazing beam skillz last night! I was a crappy high school gymnast and beam was my event (really, I was terrible but yay was it fun!) so I have a special place in my heart for balance beam. I'm definitely taking this whole olympic thing way to personally... :) But you know who I have NO PROBLEM perving on? THE WOMEN'S TRACK AND FIELD RUNNERS. They're HOT and actually ADULTS. I tried to perv on the men's track and field dudes, but the proliferance of goofy sunglasses and huge gold chains and ginormous diamond stud earrings kinda put me off. Just not my kink. But Marshevet Hooker will not get kicked out of bed for eating crackers. Not that she'll find crackers in my house, but honestly? She can bring her own if she wants 'em. So yeah. What? Were you thinking you were actually gonna get sports commentary out of me? Snicker. I'm still *actually writing* Ryan Lochte/Michael Phelps porn. Vague teaser: there's gonna be somekind of a scene in there where Michael Phelps makes fun of Ryan's *freaking grill* (really, boy, just...sigh) and Ryan threatens withholding blowjobs, with Michael being all, "I'm not putting my dick in your mouth while you're wearing that thing"... yeah. Ok, I'm gonna go pretend to work or something. Current Mood:  amusedCurrent Music: my own juvenile snickering |
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patrissimo |
9:54a | Shoulder recovery, continued My PT yesterday: "I've never seen anyone able to do handstand pushups so soon after a shoulder injury!" |
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duchess_webb |
12:50p | A Morning Music Battle ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) Current Mood:  curious |
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patrissimo |
9:46a | This American Life on subprime An accessible introduction to the roots of the recent financial crisis. |
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kpram |
9:34a | Exercise Update (and a little WoW) ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) |
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joedecker |
9:42a | Pelican in Fog--Print o' the Month 
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triplemare |
11:24a | Baa, motherfucker. Do you speak it? Don't forget! There are still some Musical Meme Madness out there: 2. He paused outside her door in the dark 4. Just called to say that it's good to be alive! 6. There is no faith in which to hide. 8. Nobody, nobody, nobody knows for sure 10. Your hair still smells like the sea 11. Tongue of fire tracing lips outline 12. I take your bones away 15. Bemused we flinch no easy work 17. And your darkness speaks and has eyes to see :) Current Mood:  hungry |
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patrissimo |
9:37a | Evolutionary Fitness Here's a nice long article on Evolutionary Fitness / Diet. |
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baronmind |
11:59a | Because Seven Threatened His Dog I'm starting to have problems with numbers again. Specifically, I'm enjoying looking at them too much. This is a recurring problem I have; I get really into numbers for their own sake. It starts out small, learning a few more digits of pi or writing formulas for interest compounded daily in Excel. But from there, it moves on to turning numbers into larger numbers under the guise of making them easier to remember, and soon I'm reading Sudoku puzzles and laughing at jokes in the ordering. An online game I play has an unofficial bank now, which is what I think started this. I was figuring out how much in-game money I'd have to deposit in order to be able to live off the interest; it may seem odd to have a goal of retiring in a game, but I've never claimed to have normal interests. My budget spreadsheet includes a small work area calculating exactly how much money I'll need and what interest it'll have to be earning for me to live off of it for the rest of my life; as soon as all of the numbers in that rectangle are black, I'm putting in my two weeks' notice. Fortunately for my employers, they're about 80% red right now. The numbers, not my employers. My employers might also be about 80% red, but as they're about 90% covered by clothes, I have no way to verify this rumor. I realized I might be getting back into a problem area on the way to work this morning. I had a bill in the car, and was driving with the windows down; this had the potential to end up with the bill on the freeway, so I decided I'd better make sure I knew how much it was for. Conveniently, it was for $42.72, which is easily remembered as 6789, two factors of the first number followed by two factors of the second. Now, while this is a remarkably easy way to remember the exact amount of the bill, it only later occurred to me that I could also have moved the paper to the glove compartment, or under a book, to simply remove the risk of it being blown out the window. I could have rolled the window up, too, but I like having the windows down, and I don't like bills, so that wasn't going to happen. I'll do what I can to fight it, but it doesn't look good. I'm afraid my days are numbered. Current Mood:  busyCurrent Music: Violent Femmes -- Kiss Off |
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toonhead_npl |
12:27p | worst ... parents ... EVER! Parents Let Kid Drop Out of High School to Focus on Guitar Hero |
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cuddlycthulhu |
9:24a | Political Post of the Day: Well, we can all rest easier now that we have that cleared up... Guess what everybody, Obama really isn't the Antichrist because the author of Left Behind said so! *sigh* -Ren |
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rabbit_motaei |
5:03p | I'm in London! Not much time to write as I am in an internet cafe paying through the nose for wireless...but I arrived safely here in London and am heavily caffinated and settling in. Woot! Staying in Holborn, near the British Museum...which is where I'm wandering next, and then to the pub for a pint. Then sleep...oh blessed, blessed sleep. Our flight had 2 connections with layovers and it took us a little over 24 hours to get from San Francisco to here...starting at 5:30am. Current Mood:  exanimate |
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dawn_guy |
12:07p | if on fire ... I should put a sign like this on my office door. Sadly, my office is at the bag end of a hallway; it would be more useful on my boss's door but I'm not going there (at this time). |
| indexed_feed | 10:36a | Santa, the dot com era, blind dates, etc.  |
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paisleychick |
1:07p | Wordless Wednesday |
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ysabetwordsmith |
11:07a | The State of the Nation America's condition has plummeted in recent years across multiple markers, including the integrity of its government, the purity of its wilderness, the resilience of its economy, and the competence of its leaders. Here's a look at some of the wreckage: Anti-Regulation Aide to Cheney Is Up for Energy Post Bush is doing everything in his power to push his agenda as far as possible in the time left to him, and to make it as hard as possible for his successor to change anything. Would you put a dinosaur in charge of halting a mass extinction? I wouldn't. Christopher Moraff | Feeding the Beast: Federal Agencies in Shambles We had a rather carefully built government, which has had pieces ripped out and sold off, and other pieces expanded far beyond their intended size and power. The next President is going to have to spend at least the first couple of years under the hood just to get the blighted thing working again. Serge Truffaut | The Great Accomplice In other words, don't put the fox in charge of the henhouse. Deregulating the banking industry encourages people to make money at other people's direct expense, which is ultimately destructive -- of the entire economy, not just the victims. Plus it encourages individuals to put what money they have left under the mattress, instead of in an unreliable bank; that's also not good. Dean Baker | Swift Boat Economics When a magician waves his hand, look everywhere else around the stage. When a politician attacks an opponent, look at the speaker's past actions, not words, on the same issue. McCain is trying to distance himself from the Bush regime, because Bush took a thriving economy and ran it through a meat grinder, dropped the patties on the ground, and then slapped them on the grill hoping nobody would notice the grit. Terrence McNally | How Anti-Intellectualism Is Destroying America In fact, some people do take pride in their ignorance, lack of education, and/or low level of academic performance. I know: I've gone to school with them, I've taught them, I've argued with them, and they're all around me outside the layer of smart people I keep for insulation. It's one thing to be uneducated for lack of opportunity or skill, if you do what you can with what you have, and keep an eye out for better options. It's quite another to choose to be ignorant and wear it like a badge. People do that partly because it's safer -- in many places, being smart and efficient gets you beaten up when you're young and worked harder with no better recompense when you're older -- but also partly because it lets them look down on other people. And it's a disaster. Democracy only works when a well-informed and sensible population makes decisions based on facts. When that doesn't happen, well, look around -- this is what we get. The facts bite back with economic meltdowns and global-warming-pumped hurricanes surging past dilapidated levees. When people make decisions based on propaganda instead of facts, and get distracted by bread and circuses so they don't notice what's really going on -- that's the Fall of the Roman Empire. When people make decisions based on faith instead of facts, and kill science and scientists -- that's the Dark Ages. Those sucked. Let's not go there again. Current Mood:  busy |
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beetiger |
11:50a | Casual eating establishments, NYC I've ended up doing some interesting casual eating in NYC in the last few days, at places I didn't know about until the day (or minute) I was trying to go to them, and thought I'd share. 1)Empanadas Cafe, 56-27 Van Doren St., Corona Park. Crowded little lunch counter with a mixed Hispanic and police and emergency worker crowd, serving 28 kinds of empanadas in 3 styles: corn, whole grain, and white, at about $1.25 each. All made to order, so there were tons of people waiting around crammed in to the space, but we snagged a little table in the corner, one of 2 in the store. It took about 10 minutes to get the food, and it was fresh out of the fryer, very flavorful, and each kind I tried was very different from the others, not generic. They also had little dixie cups of homemade ice cream frozen on to popsicle sticks. I had a lovely, icy, tamarind. Apparently very famous, though I had not heard of it until I started poking around Chowhound trying to find a cheap but interesting place to eat near the Museum. 2)Soy, 102 Delancey Street. I got to the Complaints Choir rehearsal a bit early last night, found a parking spot right across from the rehearsal space, and after nearly failing my dinner roll and going to a Burger King up the block, saw this across the street. Japanese "mama-style" home-cooking, mostly based in soy, though she had a beef curry and a spicy tuna bowl on the menu too. Tiny place again, counter plus about four tables. There were homemade bookmarks for giveaway, little toys to play with on the counter, and a sketchbook in which patrons were encouraged to draw, full of little art and poems about how people loved the place. While I was there, it was empty save for two take-out customers. The lady at the counter was slow and quiet, but the "Treasure Pockets" I had were triple soy-licious: fried inari pockets stuffed with a pressed mix of seasoned tofu, studded with whole soybeans, served with rice and some pickles and cabbage. When I walked by later in the evening, it looked busy. 3) Sugar Sweet Sunshine, 126 Rivington St. Even after being told it was there by some members of the choir who were squeeing about it being right nearby, I walked by this place by mistake the first time. It's okay --my detour took my the extra block to Babeland, which was fun, and the fine ladies there pointed me back to the cupcakes. At ten p.m. on a Tuesday, there was a line of people nearly out the door, trying to buy designer, yet homey, cupcakes from pierced and tattooed young people. The cupcakes had names like "Oooey Gooey", "Sassy Red Velvet", and "Bob", who was vanilla with chocolate almond butter cream. The guy ahead of me in line bought 25 cupcakes, ate one while waiting, and told me that he was taking them all home to eat in his pajamas, even though he didn't really like cupcakes very much. I got mine to go and brought them home to share with bard_bloom. Damned good cupcakes, with buttercream that was rich but neither heavy nor overly sweet. Never going to do a trip to Babeland or DeMask without stopping there also again. |
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devonapple |
8:51a | "I'm Jimmy Buffett" [The Onion] ( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) |
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futurecity [ rhodamine ] |
11:46a | |
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ysabetwordsmith |
10:43a | The State of the Election Here are some articles on the presidential election... Obama Highlights Support for Veterans, Working Women This is Obama being smart and responsive. The easiest voters to pick up are usually the ones who are getting shafted by the current administration, if your opponent's platform matches the status quo. The challenge, of course, is that women aren't crazy about him because he beat Hillary, and veterans would probably prefer the fellow veteran, McCain. So if Obama can win over a sizable portion of these voting blocks, that will be some valuable evidence for his ability to make alliances and address people's needed. Health Care on the Mississippi Continue to keep a sharp eye on platform differences, especially health care. Presence or absence of health insurance can determine whether people live or die. Think carefully about how each candidate's proposed plan would affect you and your family. Voter Registration Key to Democratic Plan for Virginia This year is seeing the biggest boom in voter interest and registration in quite a long time. We need to protect that by making sure that these newly-registered voters actually get to vote, that their votes are accurately recorded and fairly counted. A majority of new voters seem to lean Democratic, but the Republicans are getting a boost as their folks react to the Democratic surge. Even the Greens and other small parties are picking up a bit. If we hook those people with a good fair election, they may stick around and help straighten out the mess. If they feel cheated in November, kiss most of them goodbye. Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III | Is Obama the End of Black Politics? A Ridiculous Question We won't see the end of black politics until the question becomes pointless, not ridiculous. It depends wholly on America's ability to transcend its fundamentally racist roots. That's hard, and the progress we're making is very slow. However, Obama's very credible run for President is a great leap forward. Top CEOs Give Ten Times More to McCain Than to Obama In other words, they can tell which side of the bread their financial butter is on. It wouldn't be in their best interests moneywise to vote for Obama, who's likely to favor average people over those with abundant wealth. On the other hoof, Obama is also more likely to respond effectively to global warming and other environmental threats: a vital point for personal and descendant survival. Frank Rich | The Candidate We Still Don't Know Candidates change during an election. Obama has drifted a bit midwards; McCain is tending rightwards. The savvy voter should 1) track the candidates' current positions in relation to previous positions, and 2) track the candidates' positions in relation to each other. Even if he's not as good as he seemed at first, you probably still want to back the guy who is closest to your ideals. But that may not be the first guy you picked out. Obama Backers Mobilize in Bid to Wrest North Carolina From Republican Grip This is another point on the voting map, this time highlighting a traditionally Republican state and two more voting blocks that Obama is courting. Getting more people involved in the election is good, because it gives a better representation of the country's diversity. And remember -- they won't just be voting for a President. Those new-minted voters will cast a whole ballot. That can leave a big footprint if they don't like the way things have been. Current Mood: busy |
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elisandra |
8:39a | Tummy... Dear Tummy, Please don't be upset with me. I understand your needs, I really do. I know that you get wibbly when big things happen, and buying a house is no exception. So, I've already planned to feed you nothing but coffee and yummy scones this morning. I'm not going to try anything greasy like eggs or soyrizo, so you can just chill the hell out now, thanks! Love, Your body. PS- PEACH YOGURT SCONES 2 1/2 c. Bisquick 1/4 c. sugar 1 egg, beaten 1/2 c. peach yogurt 2 tbsp. butter, melted Sugar Combine Bisquick and 1/4 cup sugar. Stir together the egg, the peach yogurt, and the melted butter. Stir the yogurt mixture into the Bisquick mix and sugar mixture, mixing just until the scone dough clings together. Knead the dough gently on a floured surface for 8 to 10 strokes. Pat or roll the scone dough to form a 6 inch circle. Cut the dough into 10 wedges. Sprinkle each with sugar. Place the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 425 degrees until golden. Servings: 10 scones. I used splenda and sugar free yogurt, so we'll see how it comes out. EDIT: Don't do it! Bleah! |
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vulpine137 |
10:39a | Hump Day Hijinks Well, it's Wednesday. Half way though the work week. Wee. Had a decent
night of X-Files, ferret time and stuff. Speaking of ferrets, I can't
remember if I posted this or not, but Whiskey has a new best friend/favorite
toy. I have a little plush tux penguin. Well, Whiskey found it, and has
been playing with it for some time now. Last night he was running it
around all over the bedroom. He'd stash it somewhere, then run over and
grab one of the balls they play with, and hide that as well, then move
Tux again. All while romping with Arwen and Nyx. Was very very cute.
I have some very spiffy weasels.
Current Mood: ok Current Music: Fates Warning - Sign of the Southern Cross |
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veedub |
8:39a | hm, twins.... TAURUS (April 20-May 20): After studying your astrological omens, I closed my eyes and asked the spirits for a psychic vision that would symbolize your imminent future. The scenario that came up was a pair of toddlers dressed in fine purple satin garments and wearing golden hats. They looked like a prince and princess, and were wandering around inside a ritual circle about ten yards in diameter, drawn with white chalk in a green meadow. Vases of cut flowers and statues of gods and goddesses ringed the circle. So what does my vision mean? Maybe this: Two magnificent possibilities have recently been born or will soon be born. You should cast a protective spell around them, letting them amble and dally within a proscribed area as their magic ripens. |
sick