The Old Hack

Long ago, I frequented 3 forums; a General Video Game Forum, an Ace Combat Forum, and here. While it's been hit-or-miss most of the time, the one thing I loved about all the forums was this sense of... community. I posted a long time ago somewhere that shared interests are the glue that sticks people together - at least at first. And while at first you kind of need to adjust to the environment, once you get into the swing of things (even just by lurking the comic forums as I do), you start to feel that... sense of catharsis, and that mildly overwhelming-in-a-good-way feeling that here are dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of like-minded individuals around the world just there at the touch of a button. I post about all this here in the sad thread because I feel like with social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter now dominating the discourse, well, the world's moved on. Of the 3 places I used to frequent, this comic forum is the only place left with some of the old community still intact. While I still get that feeling in the new social media (dude, everytime I tweet out #StarCo there's at least 1 or 2 people responding) it's somehow not as fun. Maybe it's partly because people can't do the kind of wild zany things that we can roleplay do here.
Most of all I miss some of the people; of course a few of them are still here (namely Hack, Pharaoh and Zorua), then there are those people I still fondly remember (Heresy, That guy with the Dwemer robot avatar (really sorry I couldn't remember your name, I liked you, man), JJ, Celtic Minstrel, and Lyre Harper in particular, especially Lyre, I was actually really touched when she - around November 2013, checked my old account to see if I was still OK.) To change some lyrics to an old song: 
Some [have left], and some are [staying], in my life, I love them all.

 
Perhaps someone should tell them.  They might get another mention in the press out of declaring an end to their rebellion, and if the one telling them were in any way, shape, or form representing the nation, they might get a nice meal out of the deal. ;-)

Wow! Then they were in a state of civil war all that time, too! Awesome!

Gimme that.
/me snatches mlooney's list
/me adds Vorlonagent to The List
/me returns List to mlooney

The interesting thing is that if you can just convince an immortal that they have broken their laws, that would in and of itself make them guilty automatically. Hm.

There was a town in Spain that was so indignant at Denmark's support of Napoleon during the Napoleonic War that its municipal leadership decided to declare war on Denmark sometime back in 1812 or thereabouts. This state of hostilities lasted without cessation for more than a century and a half until a Danish newspaperman found a reference to it in the archives. He decided to go there and investigate, and lo and behold, the current mayor of the town found that yes, war had been declared and no, no peace treaty had ever been formally signed.
He then took the newspaperman as a prisoner of war, cruelly treated him to a grand dinner with the finest wines he owned, and together with the other guests they debated the matter and finally decided that the time had come to bury the hatchet. And the newspaperman got to return home with a formal and signed declaration of cessation of hostilities. I do not know if an actual peace treaty has ever been agreed on but at least there has been no violations of the ceasefire so far.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053084/
"The Mouse That Roared" is my favorite when it comes to commentary on declaring war.

The interesting thing is that if you can just convince an immortal that they have broken their laws, that would in and of itself make them guilty automatically. Hm.

Effective, oh, July 14th +/- one strip, the odds of a Grrl Power/El Goonish Shive cross over series just went up about 200%

Just got back from listening to five hours worth of Drum & Bugle Corps performances at the DCI World Championship Prelims simulcast held at my local movie theater. Ohmydearlord, the Canton Bluecoats were INCREDIBLE tonight. Best show Mrs. Prof and I have seen/heard in years.

89°
Clear
feels like 97°
Please to note that it's 23:00 (11:00 PM).  It should not feel like it's damn near 100 at 11 PM.
And, this being Oklahoma, Weather.com says we will have a 30 minute long thundershower starting at 5:30 AM.  And then it gets hot again.  I can not wait for that cold front to get here.  Even if it does (slightly) increase the odds of thunderstorms.
And six months from now I'm going to be bitching because it's 20 degrees and sleeting.   Weather sucks when you are on the edge of a good sized plateau and don't have a handy large body of water to act as a heat sink.  Granted when we get nasty wind, while stronger than hurricanes, much less wide.  And not as much water being pushed around.  I can really hate SoCal now, not only do we have crappier weather, we are beating them in earthquakes now.  Of course, most of ours are sub 4 on the richter scale, and have caused no real damage as yet...
It's freaking 60 degrees in Paris right now and the high tomorrow is lower than our low.  Not freaking fair.
 

There was a town in Spain that was so indignant at Denmark's support of Napoleon during the Napoleonic War that its municipal leadership decided to declare war on Denmark sometime back in 1812 or thereabouts. This state of hostilities lasted without cessation for more than a century and a half until a Danish newspaperman found a reference to it in the archives. He decided to go there and investigate, and lo and behold, the current mayor of the town found that yes, war had been declared and no, no peace treaty had ever been formally signed.
He then took the newspaperman as a prisoner of war, cruelly treated him to a grand dinner with the finest wines he owned, and together with the other guests they debated the matter and finally decided that the time had come to bury the hatchet. And the newspaperman got to return home with a formal and signed declaration of cessation of hostilities. I do not know if an actual peace treaty has ever been agreed on but at least there has been no violations of the ceasefire so far.

Hmm, I can see a scene at the end of the plot where Adrian winds up doing this.  Most likely he'd know what he was doing, too, although not necessarily.

I have often felt the need for more of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Well, he thought about amplifying Ellen's need for pepper once.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Pandora broke into 5 tantruming children all screaming in unison.

You're no fool.... 

...which means the mightiest tree in the forest feels safer...

If you do, because red tape comes in Mobius strips, cutting it lengthwise will make it twice as long and twice as twisted.

And it is a very good thing for Grace (whose mind is still hosting them) that Pandora has not chosen a more destructive manner for her tantrum. Pandora may in fact be holding back for this very reason, and will more properly vent herself when she is safely isolated from anybody who might be injured.

For me, the most fun part of this episode is Child Pandora running around cussing like a little kid who doesn't know any grown-up cusswords yet.

European court tradition, at the very least, has a post dedicated to making snarky comments about the King.  No tedious weapons training or having to wear armor...

Oh yes, right.  Silly of me.  I can never keep tabs on who we're at war with from week to week...

I cannot help but just cackle at Pandora's temper tantrums like the kid she is (sorta).
In the back of my head, I picture magic as electricity. And it is not half bad.

Those killer penguins are real, as far as herring are concerned.