On being different – Part I: What a distinction difference makes

As a writer, I find myself often asking myself about human nature. It’s the driving force behind every character driven story, and even the plot driven ones, not just because I’m writing about people in motion, but because I’m developing characters that readers need to sympathize with. People sympathize with the similar, but go too similar and the sense of self repels. This seems to be the stake in all relationships between people.

I am different. I grew up “different.” But not different in the fashion that a made-for-TV Disney movie might attempt to portray. I am not Dumbo with my giant ears helping me fly; I am not the kid who had bazillions of navigational data points poured into my brain by an ET; I am just myself, same as millions of others, no strange maverick when placed against the billions of humanity. Yet in my smaller community I am the black swan.

The concept of growing up different or being different is so broad that I am going to have to break it up into parts.

Being different is not about finding a distinction from the mainstream—it’s about being different from your local community. Why? Because anyone sufficiently different from everyone else simply stops being a social human and in those terms anyone can argue that nobody is different: everybody is the same. We all have the same underlying mechanisms driving our motives and needs, but this seems to be a hollow entreaty, especially when it’s an individual arguing this. We are all different and we’re all similar. It is only due to the basic similarities that tie us together that we can even give context to our differences.

As writers we draw upon our experiences to weave believable narratives from nothing. First we must produce a foundation from what makes everyone similar—those social motives and mores I just spoke about—then we have to tweak them slightly to move away from them. The character in question also cannot be so alien from the readers that they cannot relate. This is the problem of aliens.

The problem of aliens could be distilled into a single idea: that readers want to sympathize with characters coping with situations that they themselves can put themselves in. The crux of a great deal of Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction is about things that haven’t happened to anyone, and some of them want to prevent a world quite alien from our own, either alternate in reality or deeply futuristic. Aliens in these stories often become prominent; but they’re not that alien, especially if they’re the character telling the story. Narrator aliens happen to be very human (similar enough) where as non-narrators can be wildly alien; but instead they get lensed through an anthropomorphic camera.

Good example of this is M.C.A. Hogarth’s Spots the Space Marine. The aliens in this context are a type of sentient praying mantis. They’re definitely alien, but they use English to communicate, they’re capable of distinct social reasoning, and their behavior is portrayed to us through human characters. By forcing aliens in SciFi stories to interact with humans close enough to the reader it allows them to sympathize with the aliens through the narrator. This can also be true for actual humans who would otherwise alienate the reader by being crazy—there is nothing more alienating than complete breaks from social reality like schizophrenia.

Another case of careful difference in characters happens to be when portraying deep afflicting traumas. How a person reacts to PTSD, to a rape, assault, having a friend commit suicide—all horrible and sad traumas that must be coped with, but most people don’t experience most of these things directly, even many of our readers. Those that do, of course, have a context that they can draw from but it will different fundamentally from that of the writer (and probably every other reader.) So the writer first builds a world familiar to everyone. The mundane similarities that tie us all together: the desire for company, the need for comfort, the things that go bump in our heads when we feel insecure… And then they introduce the exotic portions of the trauma to show how all the above have been changed or struck by that trauma. And finally how the character copes.

We all cope with stresses day to day. Small ones. Big ones. They differ greatly in type and amplitude; but when writing fiction they all take on the same sort of axis, one that either leads towards resolution or one that doesn’t. People read stories to escape their mundane stresses, so they add our exotic stresses instead. We reflect their coping mechanisms, their defenses, even sometimes their hopes and fears in our literary brush strokes.

My differences make my writing distinctive.

You should let them do the same for yours.

The Tempe Town Lake Monster gone for good?

As we all know by now: there is none. No monster.

For some time since the creation—flooding, filling, fish-stocking, et al.—of the Town Lake there’s been wild and delirious rumors of various critters thriving beneath the opalescent waves. Some of them described like the otter (or beaver) which frolicked there for a while in the early 2000s, although they described a creature almost ten times larger than any ordinary otter. Sleek and splashing through the waves, tossing fish, harassing boats. Then there’s the Loch Ness Monster sightings from the lake’s shores that coincided with nights after curfew and sometimes full moons. Loops of a large, reptilian creature that would surface momentarily like a submarine and peer around. Finally, I’ve read tales about a suspiciously tentacled creature, the giant lake squid or octopus that crawled in the depths during the day, attacking fishers’ bobbers, or thumping the bottoms of boats.

Now, with the lake drained, sadly we can see that none of these creatures has made their appearance.

We could speculate further.

Perhaps the lake monster is the reason why the dam burst. The official story a carefully designed cover up talking about sunlight and heat affecting the rubber until it gave way. No, this has been an escape.

The monster—by whatever phylogeny it might possess—must have grown weary of devouring the stocks of fish and decided to flee downriver. Perhaps it also has a mode of locomotion that permits it to stride overland without too much difficulty. This could certainly explain how it arrived at the lake originally. Either that or it might have come down from Hoover dam when the lake originally filled, sneaking in under the watchful eyes of the civil engineers who flooded the riverbed to create the lake.

Needless to say: our Tempe Town Lake Monster has vanished with the waters. Leaving behind only the strange legacy of its memory.

Tempe Town Lake drainage and the culture of nothing

So, there’s been a little bit of discussion about the Tempe Town Lake dam breakage over at Mill Avenue Vexations. And it’s certainly something that affects Mill Ave, both community and culture. Especially those expensive condominiums that sold billed as “water front property” due to the construction of the fake lake. I still recall the days that the fake lake got added, filled in, and became the glistening stretch is now—er, or was until a few days ago.

The project struck a lot of us who live at street level as a poor grab at celebrity for a town that already has a grassroots fame for being a historic venue, and a recently gained fame for being a music and artistic venue next to a college. At least that’s the outcome of the 90s bohemian “revival” effect. Which seemed to do the economy a lot of good, brought in a lot of people—like me—and made the place a lot more livable. I can’t speak much for the culture of the place before the 90s (because that’s before I arrived) but stories seemed to reflect that it was pretty dull.

A proper history of will reflect that before the 90s the artistic revolution did not represent Mill Ave; but those that try to use this to say that an artistic history for Mill Ave is improper are deliberately ignoring the impact that having one had. Especially in the fact of the 2000s being an era where every interested party in Mill Ave went out of their way to stomp and kill off that culture…while claiming it as a foundation. The Tempe Town Lake certainly handles a legacy of this sort of behavior and with their latest snafu they haven’t gained a lot of credibility.

The Lake failed to deliver what it suggested it would. Except perhaps cheap celebrity. The condos and business buildings there cost way to much, people don’t visit Mill Ave to visit the lake. People certainly won’t, and for the most part cannot, move into the condos due to their egregious pricing, and the failure of the dam only tends to illuminate this misfortune.

Now as for the mystique of the lake. I think I’ll talk about that in a separate post. I have some ideas to play with.

Anyone have an experience with the Tempe Town Lake they’d like to share?

Disability

I started the application process for Social Security Disability today.

For everyone who doesn’t know me that well. I have cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure, and I have had it for a while now. It limits the things I can do. Fortunately, I’m a writer, which involves sitting around a lot—and it would be nice also to have a lot more energy to do writing. My job situation has dissolved, and thus I’ve been looking for a new one that can accommodate my needs. As these are few and far between… It seems only responsible that I see if I can get on disability.

While most of my Mary Sue characters happen to also be sick, my best-written characters have amazing strengths. My illness has affected my writing in that I tend to design characters who have strengths to overcome their weaknesses. Vex Harrow may be seemingly crippled by the voices that she hears, but she’s an extremely powerful mage; her obstacles arise directly from the application of her power. Elaine Mercer happens to be somewhat socially inept even if she is brilliant with computers and technology; but she has her friend Frog, who is a social butterfly, to help work her through that.

I’ve never professionally written a character with my disability yet. Possibly because it hits too close to home. Also, when it comes to the audience, it can be a bit of a cheap shot. It creates a false sense of initial intimacy and involves an entire set of coping mechanisms that make the reader feel sorry for the character rather than actually sympathizing with them. Certainly, if I wanted to raise heart failure awareness, I might work out a character with my particularly romantic “rarified constitution,” but I prefer my superheroes somehow “super.”

I need not go into how my kryptonite happens to be walking more than a quarter mile or trying to lift anything heavier than a jug of milk.

Just like Vex I have a talent that arises from my disability—my patience and gentle teasing out of thought from the pliant nature of reality—and like Elaine, I have many, many wonderful and good hearted friends who help me when I’m unable to do things for myself.

I might get on disability, in which case there’ll be a lot more writing for everyone to enjoy; or I might not and instead find a new job, in which case there’ll be fewer projects but they’ll have a better budget.

Release: Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 14: Ghosts of the Past

Announcing the release of Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 14: Ghosts of the Past.

It's been a while before I was able to get this one online. I went to my friend, Luis Boisvert, who designed the very first covers for Mill Avenue Vexations. There isn't going to be a physical production of this booklet for the time being until I have enough funds to publish one; but right now we do have the web version and you can read it.

In this volume the strange changes taking effect have been given palpable form. We get introduced to Vex Harrow's mother, and we get to visit the 'A' on A Mountain. The world and reality may be coming apart at the seams but it's a good time for a hero to step up.

With work on Black Hat Magick Dread Vote complete we will be seeing further work on Mill Avenue Vexations until it’s completion sometime next year. There are probably only two or three volumes left to complete this arc and afterwards I’ll be compiling it together into a full novel. It might even be fore sale as a hard copy. A representation of almost five years of constant work.

It’s been a beautiful drive, with lots of amazing artwork, wonderful artists, interesting people, and a rich, vibrant culture to follow from the year 2005 until 2010. We’ve seen 14 volumes, half as many tribute booklets, two humorous short stories, a short story published in a magazine, and so much more from this project.

It’s been an amazing cultural success.

Anyone who wants to, come find me on IM, tweet me (twitter @kytsune), or call me—we can celebrate the release of Volume 14!

Link via (Mill Avenue Vexations).

Why is Veronica Mars so awesome?

I don’t know, but one of the bad perks of unemployment: I can spend all night on a Netflix video marathon.

Just finished both season one and season two of Veronica Mars and I really love the show. Of course, we’re talking about me here: I grew up on Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, and other teenage detectives.

Veronica Mars reminds me of those books, but updated for the 21st century.

The Monday after…the 4th

So, I’m discovering that most doctor’s offices are closed (this because I want to get an appointment at a specific few) and my guess is that I should have listened to my editor. She’d warned me they might be closed today.

Of course, I should have guessed. It is the day after the 4th of July.

I haven’t slept—which is actually rather odd.

We’ll see how this affects my writing today!

US Vice President promotes lie about US piracy law

Vice President Joe Biden introduced the Joint Strategic Plan to combat intellectual property theft today. In his speech Biden declared war on ‘pirate’ websites, both foreign and domestic, arguing that piracy is theft and a potential threat to national security. Read the article at torrentfreak.com.

Upon the nomination of US President Obama to office my friends told me that Joe Biden, his chosen VP, happened to maintain a penchant for gaffes—but this isn’t exactly what I thought they meant.

To top it off the Vice President reiterated the words commonly uttered by pro-copyright lobbyists such as the RIAA and MPAA. “Piracy is theft, clean and simple, it’s smash and grab,” Biden said, comparing unauthorized downloading to robbing a jewelry store. Although semantically incorrect, since ‘theft’ implies that something is taken away and not copied, the message is clear.

I am not sure what the Vice President is smoking, but it’s obvious that the MAFIAA have spiked his weed with the propaganda of stupid. There is nothing clean or simple about copyright being theft except for in a diseased left-brain sort of stretching-facts-to-fit fashion. It’s especially not comparable to burglary. Nothing gets smashed (no windows, no doors, no barrier that needs repair later) and in a sort of way nothing gets grabbed (no product taken needing to be replaced, no store owner waiting on insurance to make up the loss.) No. Something gets copied. The only working metaphor comparing copyright to a smash-and-grab at a jewelry store is that one morning a jeweler wakes up to discover all of their alarms, windows, and cases intact—no jewelry missing, nor disturbed—but the store across the street is now selling the exact same product.

“No, officer they didn’t take anything they copied it exactly and are high tailing it out of here to sell it across the border! Arrest them!”

In fact, the US Supreme Court does not agree with the MAFIAA or Vice President Biden in this account. In their 1980 decision in Dowling vs. United States the Supreme Court opined that “copyright infringement is not theft.” Both of these terms have distinct definitions in our legal system and they don’t overlap—playing dishonest games with language to pretend that they do makes for some stunningly disingenuous acts by our leaders.

Is copyright infringement illegal? Yes. Is theft illegal? Yes. Is copyright infringement: theft? …vandalism? …racketeering? …assault? Shall I continue to compare illegal acts that don’t legally overlap seeking a deceitful metaphor? This is the basis of this propaganda spread by the MAFIAA and their PR cronies and we, the public, shouldn’t be falling for it.

Tell us that copyright infringement is a problem; then show us why it’s a problem. Stop bleating at us with loaded language, propaganda, and non-sequiturs trying to connect these acts to laws that don’t relate to them. If you cannot argue copyright infringement poses a threat to us, without being dishonest about its place in our digital culture, then perhaps it’s because you don’t have the case you pretend you do.

Does Biden know better? Probably. The copyright and IP law lobbies of the RIAA and MPAA to create an IP mafia with public opinion continue apace, but it’s not fooling everyone.

Grow up, Mr. Vice President.

Link, via torrentfreak.com

A letter to A. A. Milne

Hails Mr. Alan Alexander Milne,

I would really love to be on a first name basis with you. Alexander. Alan. It would be a fitting honor for someone that I literally grew up on. I’ve loved the 100 Acre Wood since I was a foot tall and lived in my own imaginary woods between the brick alleys of my neighborhood.

Did you know that I was almost named after Christopher Robin? (Although the name would still be odd today, I would proudly wear it.) While the stories certainly resounded more around the inhabitants of the 100 Acre Wood than Christopher himself, he did represent the numinous event that produced their need—and not without a minor “Tut, tut it looks like rain!” and that little red umbrella.

Perhaps I should get myself one.

You’re one of my literary heroes to this day. Enlightening me with moral stories that didn’t make grand patronizing gestures to me as if I didn’t understand the world; that actually presented dilemmas that I found frustrating, and giving me a reason to like the disliked neighbor—Rabbit.

(To be fair, aside from Christopher, my favorite has always been Eyore—perhaps I’d been goth way back then as well. Give me an Eyore patch and perhaps a backpack and I’ll be happy as a lark under a branch in a rainstorm.)

Who are we as writers if not the replay of our favorite moments from our own lives and those of our literary progenitors and you have many progeny today, Mr. Milne. I may not write children’s books that I so lavishly grew up on, but you are never far from my thoughts even as I yank ghosts and goblins from the collective unconscious of the human race and parade them through gaslit streets.

Don’t wait up for me.

I’m already a fan.

Sincerely yours,

Kyt Dotson

Via my blog on Redroom.com.

REVIEW: Kanira Baxter – Chapter Two Pelak IV

The WHITE KNIGHT receives a transmission sending them to a watery planet. A world with a problem: namely a colony that suddenly stopped talking to the rest of the civilized universe. Upon their arrival they discover some disturbing factors—one in particular which happens be the colony, empty of people.

The space opera continues in full force and we learn a little bit more about the crew and their reasons for following Kanira. And we get to learn about how the watery world happens to be a prime distributor and producer of sushi. Not unexpected, I think, lots of water means lots of fish!

Of course, with all the colonists gone dark maybe sushi production might take a hit.

Fun takeaway? In this one we get to see Meglen, the mouse-like alien Myanai, sometimes walks on all fours. And also why certain sushi isn’t exactly the best thing to tangle with.

Expect some common space-opera themes, well rendered sci-fi scenery and some really angry seafood.

Link, via Comic Genesis.

The best thing about growing older, and it’s not growing up

Everyone wonders if they’ll die in interesting times—the old oft-retold Chinese curse that places its recipients in a strangely unfortunate situation. It’s a parable almost. “May you live in interesting times.” Believing how something so innocuous sounding could be a curse.

Growing older is interesting times; perhaps, at least, it’s an interesting reflection.

Only through changes in the world do we have a chance to compare ourselves now to ourselves then. To see what’s change and what stays the same; or perhaps what keeps happening again-and-again. I’ve lived through some strange events—only some interesting—which have made life stranger for all of us. Things like 9-11 or the various wars-that-aren’t-wars, the election of a black President to the United States of America. But these, unless affected directly, are hardly “interesting times.” They’re just more of the same, swinging like a pendulum.

Growing older doesn’t mean growing wiser, nor more sedate really. Being a writer doesn’t just mean sitting around in front of a glowing screen—or a softly buzzing typewriter—it also means living. Getting out there and looking at the world. It means that those interesting times might as well become my words onto the paper so that I can not just connect with my audience but give them the broad stroke of my lifetime.

In growing older I also grew up on Mill Avenue.

Series that I write like Mill Avenue Vexations exist in an idyllic continuum of the street. Attempting to combine the curiosity and living-breath of the current street with the romantic ghosts of its past. My past. A lifetime ago, within my lifetime.

As writers we are not just historians of people, places, and things, but some of us reproduce worlds never visited, places that only exist in our heads. And we get older with them as well. Both the purely imagined to the imagined-from-real. As we age, we accumulate different parts of our life, and shed others. Certainly a teenager doesn’t have much of an experience to write about mid-life-crisis or living in a cubicle farm except bought cheap from the stories of others (thankfully I know neither of these by experience, but I sometimes I wonder.)

The trick, I suppose, is not to become conformed to the mundane times; or caught up in the interesting times so much that we make them mundane. Readers look to us to highlight, contrast, and stark out their world, to give them a lens they cannot access through any other means and to become that lens we cannot let ourselves grow too comfortable.

Grow older. Age that imagination like a cyclist training for the Tour of Germany. It’s not just the start—muscles bulging, brow trickling with sweat, breath bated—to the finish line—triumph in the veins, the burn of adrenaline, the tears dripping over cheeks—but also the vistas in between, the drama of the other racers, the strange, beautiful journey.

Not everyone can make that race; but with our help, and as we age with them, they can imagine it.

Reposted from Kyt Dotson’s Red Room blog.

Kindness from the fanbase

Today I received an e-mail from Paypal that someone extremely awesome in the UK sent me $2 based on reading Vexations. I am absurdly grateful. Every, tiny drop counts. I haven’t written them back yet (and they deserve some kind of thank you note, I just haven’t the energy.)

Today has been rainy out here. No thunder & lightning, but the gales of water sheeting the sky just the same.

How Vex Harrow met Cory Doctorow

Just properly published this one, “Hell Cory” by Kyt Dotson. It’s been in the forums for ages (since 2007 when I wrote it.) So now, I’ve brought it out of there and put it where it belongs, amid its siblings in the proper story queue.

If you haven’t read it before, mosey along and peruse it.

The image (and part of the story) is a homage to xkcd.com.

Link, via Mill Avenue Vexations.

REVIEW: Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium, by Robert C. Rodgers

Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium is a rock-solid, hilarious foray into a steampunk dystopian alternate past. It’s been getting some rave attention over at Web Fiction Guide and there’s some very good reasons why. Keep reading and you’ll understand.

What a calculating beast is man

Deep within the strong-beating brass heart of every steampunk aficionado is a vacuum chilled series of hopeful gaslit rooms filled wall-to-wall with books. And one day soon, one of those shelves in my heart will have this book.

Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium is a tour de force of silly mixed with the macabre, scabrous copper tinge of blood. It manages to wind the dizzying height of humor and edge it aptly with careful cuts. From the very first chapter—and the chapter that hooked me—it makes its lighthearted swipes at the imagination and drew smile after smile. At first the steampunkish metaphor and simile seemed heavy-handed, overwrought in fact, but soon they became fuel for the whimsical engine of my delight.

Victorian attitudes abound in the brass-city, a dystopia in its own right but not in our future, but our accidentally forgotten alternative-past. A place where villains and heroes alike have an almost cartoonish bearing on a world that manages to tempt suspension of disbelief with daunting and brazen attitude but never ceases to both enchant and frighten at the same time. This tale has left me in fits of gooseflesh laughter more than once.

Expect strong humor mixed with the oil and grease of industry; expect grand legerdemain run through the cogs and wheels of progress and chewed up by clever antagonists, incompetently-competent protagonists, and even a bit of social commentary about the Victorian attitudes about gender wars. Why I even caught an almost-reference to the old television series “Remington Steele” (wherein a woman detective hires a male “face man” to pretend to be the investigator.)

Even people not inclined to the steampunk aesthetic will probably enjoy this story. It has a little bit of something for everyone. Little explanation is needed for much of the far-fetched mathematics and mechanics of the lunatic mind as it’s deeply buried in laugh-out-loud metaphors; allowing the conspiracy, detective work, and general slapstick amazement to drive the story onwards.

Link to review (via “Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium” @ Web Fiction Guide)

Direct Link: Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium.

REVIEW: Kanira Baxter – Chapter One Cruise Ship Hostage Rescue

Light-hearted, full-throated space opera at its best, The Adventures of Kanira Baxter by Kate Fahr happens to be a comic worth reading between projects, during lunch hour, or in the morning before work. It’s one of those comics with long running, memorable characters and an ongoing plot. The first chapter off with a bang with our merc group showing up uninvited for a cruise—to deal with some other uninvited guests who have started a hijacking coup.

The comic is generated with an interesting 3d program (3DSMAX maybe) and the characters pose and display enough emotion to follow. The eyes are a big wide and large for my aesthetic taste but it grows on you quickly. I do love the sound-effect methods displayed (WOOSH, PEW PEW.) This is a space opera, they do have blasters.

The crew has the requisite team a hard-hitting commander, Kanira, a computer-tech and fighter, Dare, and even an alien who looks a lot like an anthropomorphic mouse. The alien happens to be one of the only species that humanity in this universe has ever met—which is pretty interesting, but more are to come in later chapters as foreshadowing might suggest.

Space ships. Blasters. Aliens. Hijacking in space. The part that makes the first chapter so much fun is the whole mundanity of the exercise. A hijacking is a common experience and cruises are pretty passé when it comes to everyday experience. Of course, the difference is that we’ve got a crew of mercs, we’ve got outer space, and we have some witty back-and-forth.

Those who watch BionicDance’s YouTUBE channel probably hear her voice when we see Kanira talking. She happens to also be the author and she uses her same 3D program to do videos. There’s also some suggestion that there might be a 3D movie coming out; there is a well-cut little trailer for the comic, but I’d really love to see a mini-episode.

Link, via Comic Genesis.

Facebook widgets and gadgetry

Yesterday, I added a wee little Facebook like box to Mill Avenue Vexations hoping to help spike the number of people who like the page on FB. Mostly because it still doesn’t have enough fans to get its own nice looking title.

It’s in the sidebar, and fun enough, two people got added shortly after I put it up! Which is cheerful.

In Defense of Draw Muhammad Day

Comic book: The Deal by Kyt Dotson

I am so glad that I can finally announce this. It’s been a long, long time in coming but the Vexations comic book has finally finished the editing stages and proofing so now I can show off a few things about it!

Mill Avenue Vexations: The Deal by Kyt Dotson.

Twelve pages of beautifully rendered artwork by Sanjana Baijnath, with story by Kyt Dotson. They will probably sell around $3 and I’m going to try to get them into some comic book stores around Tempe, we’ll see how that goes. If anyone knows a place that might be interested, contact me and I’ll try to get it figured out.

The story is short, but it revolves around Vex’s usual sleuthing, hunting down a demon, and then taking over a deal—hence the name of the story. As usual, things never go entirely as planned, when dealing with demons, but especially when dealing with Vex Harrow.

Copies will also be available for purchase from this website for a very similar price, and if anyone would like to pay extra to help out with future releases of Vexations I am willing to part with signed copies as usual.

Look forward to this coming out next month if all goes well.

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE HERE!

Link, via Mill Avenue Vexations.

Everybody Draw Muhammad Day Videos (Part 3 of 3)

Fallout from the Everybody Draw Muhammad Day has led to Pakistan banning Facebook over the “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” page as well as today banning YouTUBE, Wikipedia, and other sites not for just participating, but actually containing information on the event.

 

Everybody Draw Muhammad Day Videos (Part 2 of 3)

 

 

Everybody Draw Muhammad Day Videos (Part 1 of 3)

Today is 20 May 2010 and thus the First Annual Everybody Draw Muhammad Day. There have been protests against Facebook because they have a group supporting it—even to the point that Pakistan has blocked the entire site from their Internet providers. Censorship is rampant. Altogether a better need to show our solidarity against censorship, that there is no room for the sacred in the congress of free ideas. And while to defend free speech we must sometimes defend scoundrels; but sometimes we must also defend free speech against scoundrels.

 

 

 

REVIEW: Wonder City Stories, Jude McLaughlin

For anyone who likes super heroes and days-of-our-lives style drama, this story reviewed over at Web Fiction Guide, Wonder City Stories, might be just the thing for you.

Superhero life has the mundane and profound too, you know

"Young Paranormals Christian Association of Wonder City, working with super powered youth since 1964!"

The parallels between the YMCA and the YPCA tickled the cockles of my heart when I read the first two chapters of this story (And to start when I saw YPCA, I thought of the YMCA. This simply got confirmed straightaway when there's a pool near the YPCA.) I guess I'm just a sucker for four-letter-acronyms. I also play City of Heroes and I like super-powered stories. This may color my review positive somewhat.

I enjoyed following the heroine through her day, coming to the city, and living her life in the strange shadow of her mother. It has all the hallmarks of young adult drama and romance, with some slice-of-life as well. Especially the parts where sometimes as a reader I forgot that our heroine is indeed taller than most.

In my reading I fell in love with the history of the characters as much as the history of their entire society -- the paranormals and their plight.

Readers who want well-rounded drama stretched over believable, and adorable, characters who dwell in a living, breathing world, will find everything they're looking for in this story. There's almost something for everyone. The conversations and scenes trace a lineage of heroism and paranormal lives from the young (in our heroine) to the middle-aged and elderly lifestyles of these magnificent and interesting people.

Link to the review (via “Wonder City Stories” @ Web Fiction Guide.)

Direct link: Wonder City Stories, by Jude McLaughlin.

First Livingston Parish pagan festival event goes off without a hitch…

…in spite of stupid, inflammatory commentary by local Sheriff’s Office.

Back story for those who don’t know about these proceedings. Livingston Parish is a town in Louisiana through with a particular brand of religious bigotry flows that promulgated a religious ban on fortune telling (the law was taken to court and the town lost.) Now, a group of pagans wanted to run a festival near the city to celebrate their culture and religion and before it happened the Sheriff’s Office felt like making an unprofessional statement weighing in on the celebration:

“A scheduled pagan festival is under the scrutiny of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office. “Obviously, we don’t like this type of activity, but if they are following all of the laws to the letter of the law, then we can’t do anything about it,” Perry Rushing, chief of operations for the Sheriff’s Office, said Thursday. “We vehemently oppose this type of activity in Livingston Parish.” The pagan festival is scheduled to be held the last four days in May at Gryphon’s Nest Campground Inc. at 19306 Bull Run Road in southeastern Livingston Parish.”

Such terrible depths that law enforcement has fallen when they make statements like this that basically read like tacit permission to groups to go out and hinder, damage, or injure the festival. After making a public statement like this the the Sheriff’s Office would have had a hard time showing that they didn’t fail to do their jobs properly if anyone decides to do so. Perhaps they should stick to their duties—dispensation of the law—in the future and stay out of religious relations.

Well, this statement came along other statements from various religious groups that they would proceed to protest the festival. Including language such as “educating” the visiting pagans about how Christianity feels about them. All well-and-good to me, they’re welcome to bring their education and signs and the visiting pagans are also welcome to show them hospitality and otherwise totally ignore them.

The protestors plan to appear at the end-of-month festival, so still more could unfold from this event; but insofar they’re not organized enough to care about the first, albeit smaller, event.

I enjoy both protests and festivals. I thoroughly enjoy the activism and the interest generated by them; but I am not encouraged by the statement and behavior of their Sheriff’s Office. We’ll keep our eye on them, and hopefully this is simply a gaff and not an outward indication of bad intent on their part.

Link, via The Wild Hunt blog.

RESPONSE: Is atheism a religion?

In response to “Is Atheism a religion?” by Craig Portwood via Examiner.com:

Another non-response to straw man atheism. To quote, "Atheism is the belief that there is nothing in existence that can be called God." No: atheism is a response to the belief claim that gods exist, not a belief claim in itself. In of itself it's a single position on a single claim, this is hardly sufficient to be a religion.

The article really falls apart when the author decides to conflate science and atheism. Unlike atheism, science doesn't have a position on the existence of a god (being an untestable proposition, science as a tool doesn't reply to it and remains both apathetic and agnostic.)

"Other philosophies which hold themselves to be above and beyond religious thought, fit neatly into such a category as religion. Evolutionists for example, fancy themselves to be part of the science community. Even though their position has yet to be proven,(hence it is described as the theory of evolution) they put forth their proposition that life somehow magically appeared as if by random accident."

(1) Science doesn't deal in proof but the collection and modeling of evidence;

(2) The theory of evolution exists to model how the fact of evolution functions; (to see how absurd this statement is replace words with "Gravitationists" and "theory of gravity.")

And the real failure here:

(3) ...the theory of evolution does not postulate how evolving life "appeared" it makes no claims about abiogenesis. To state that it does it to dishonestly misrepresent the theory of evolution.

The author continues to make outright distorted statements about disbelief in gods and other non-related subjects like economics and politics.

After the first failure to honesty research this subject, I decided it wasn't worth my time to continue reading. If a person cannot do the bare minimum of honestly presentation, I don't have time for their propaganda.

Link, via Examiner.com.

Everybody Draw Muhammad Day - May 20th, 2010

COPIED FROM FACEBOOK ===============================

For those of you not already aware of the South Park Muhammad fiasco, I will attempt to enlighten you. If you already know about it, skip to the steps below.

South Park released an excellent episode that displayed the problem with showing Muhammad — you can’t show him or death threats will ensue. The first episode (part one of a two-part show) ended with Muhammad being brought out in a bear costume that didn’t even show his eyes, so that the town of South Park would not be blown up (or so the characters of South Park had hoped). This episode resulted in multiple death threats from Extremist Muslim communities. Comedy Central, the network that airs South Park Episodes, caved to the threats. They suspended the internet version of the episode (this is an episode you can no longer watch on the South Park website) and severely censored the second episode, which was never released online. They also suspended an old episode called “Super Friends” which featured an actual cartoon version of Muhammad. The makers of South Park have issued a public statement saying that they did not authorize the censorship. Comedy Central still has not issued any comment on the matter.

Comedy Central’s fear is not unwarranted. Several people who have drawn and displayed images of Muhammad or criticized Islam have received the same death threats. Some went into hiding, others were murdered. Theo Van Gogh, a film director who produced a documentary criticizing Islam’s treatment of women, was one of the murder victims. Photos of his body were used to threaten Comedy Central. This represents one of the worst forms of censorship I have seen — because of its international scale. It isn’t being perpetrated by any one government; it is being perpetrated by murderous extremist groups who reach around the globe to kill anyone who offends them. It’s time this murderous censorship came to an end. That’s why the International Draw Muhammad Day meme was started.

Our plan is to spread the images of Muhammad around the internet in order to send a message to these murderous extremists. We must all tell them that we will not be silenced. They can’t tell us what we can or can’t say, or who we can or can’t draw. Censorship cannot take all of us down.

The way this will work:

1. Everyone who receives this must spread the word. Post it on your blog, write a note or bulletin, make a journal entry, send e-mails to everyone in your address book, make a youtube video talking about it, whatever it takes. That way, if one of us is taken out, there will still be millions more who are spreading the word.

2. Draw Muhammad. You don’t have to be an artist. Draw a stick figure, a smiley face, whatever you can. Those who use different media in their artwork can show Muhammad differently (sculptures, carvings, whatever)

3. Photograph or scan in this artwork, in an internet-compatible file type.

4. On May 20, post it in all the places where you told people about the event. Make sure it’s posted in as many places as possible, so that it can’t be censored away.

And that’s all there is to it. By participating in this, you will take a stand for free speech. You will stand up for the rights of every person around the world. Murderous extremists will not rule over what we say and what we draw. We will not be silenced!!!

Link to the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Everybody-Draw-Muhammad-Day/116425498385947

REVIEW: Spots the Space Marine, M.C.A. Hogarth

Spots the Space Marine has received some well deserved acclaim over at the Web Fiction Guide. I’ve been reading it this week and it’s certainly shaping up to be a story worth the time of any space opera loving sci-fi geek.

Intriguing, bite sized slices of life from the front lines

War. War never changes.

Except maybe when your squad happens to be named Team Kitty and your callsign sounds slightly silly to remain thematically prudent.

The prose of “Spots the Space Marine” is spartan almost laconic, but the mood comes across loud-and-clear. It reads generally like a radio-play; but retains the solid impact of a heftier work. The presentation forces the reader to instead invent their own voice for each of the characters and imagine themselves into the situation that narrates itself from the screen. The chapters are also so short they can be read in a bite—a style allowing the entire series to be grazed casually, episode at a time, or swallowed in a huge handful as time permits.

Spots presents herself as a likable person, yanked out of her comfort zone and thrust into a war zone. A woman among the war. The story then plays out in the conversation space between Spots and other marines. Their voices resonate, with hers playing the following melody of the narrative. Spots isn’t your normal marine. She’s also a mom. A fact that makes her something different, something familiar yet out of the ordinary to read about.

The part of the story that really began to hook me, however—like any proper sci-fi geek—happens to be the aliens. Not just aliens: bugs. The introduction suggests that the insectoid aliens have brought technology and know-how to humanity to aid them in their upcoming war against invader xeno bugs; but the first time that one of the friendly xenos appears in the story happens to be during a vignette titled “The Violinist,” where one gets an introduction to Spots. I have a soft spot for aliens and xeno racial epithets (like the piggies from Ender’s Game.) The friendly xenos here get to be the “fiddlers.”

The hardcore sci-fi reader and drama aficionado alike will find something to like about “Spots the Space Marine.”

Link to the review (via “Spots the Space Marine” @ Web Fiction Guide.)

Direct link: Spots the Space Marine, by M.C.A. Hogarth.

Bad behavior by LoveASU and Urbanevangie on Mill Ave

Friday and Saturday, Mill Avenue becomes a collusion of community and audience, making every street corner into a forum. Striking upon this, numerous minds find them irresistible for promoting their arts, religious opinions, politics, and ideas. Mill becomes brightened for every person who does this.

So when I found an article posted at Urbanevangie.com about when they teamed up with LoveASU to speak, prance, and be merry on Mill Ave, I figured there’d be a good place to see something interesting unfold. The event took place Friday, April 23^rd 2010 right out in front of the US Post Office on Mill.

“We started the night off by sharing the gospel via mic a few times. From there we let the Love ASU crew have a go at the mic. Between our group and Love ASU, the Christians totalled in at about 40 people! We were able to use that amount of people as an advantage, to form a crowd. As people passed by in the streets they quickly joined the large group, curious as to what was going on. We rotated on the mic for about an hour and a half. Anything and everything was shared, from testimonies, poems, skits, spoken word, scripture reading, etc.” (via urbanevangie.com)

The interesting thing that struck me about this article is how most of the black & white photographs contain a person who I know and recognize: Kazz. His person—or at least his equipment and display—show visible in every single photo. The narrative spoken by the photographs silhouettes a hollow in the very content of the article; while Kazz and his happen to be visible in the photos, he remained entirely invisible to the article’s writer.

Kazz is part of a protest group who provide a response to religious opinions on Mill Ave: The Mill Avenue Resistance. If these photographs reflect reality and his loudspeaker and he happened to be near the epicenter of this forum of religious opinion, he wouldn’t have been so silent as to have no impact. The lack of acknowledgement in the article itself is baffling; although the blatant bias makes a short explanation as to why this might be the case.

An interview with Kazz, however, reveals the side of the story deliberately left out by the Urbanevangie writer. A story of bad acts perpetrated by both Urbanevangie and LoveASU; a tale of breaking the understanding of basic decency in a public commons and forum. LoveASU’s place in this story may still be ambiguous; they have no history with Mill and may well be dupes in this trite little play. The manipulated hand puppets of a more sinister hand, but I think that if they want to be good members of the Mill Ave public they should earn up to their part in this.

When Kazz and Kayleigh arrived at the scene, the LoveASU and Urbanevangie groups had already set up their thing over to the side and Kazz let them be. As the crowd expanded, he spoke to a man identified as James, who I believe is a member of LoveASU, about giving up some time to the other group in the commons. A proper concession of the forum which did not get honored appropriately.

At one point, LoveASU even approached The Resistance about using their amplification. The reason being that LoveASU had some singers with a greater range than their own speakers could handle appropriately; Kazz accepted and allowed them to use his equipment for a time so that the singers could be heard in their full flavor.

As the night wore on the LoveASU and Urbanevangie group began fielding members to speak life stories. Kazz explains that at first he went to wait for a break in the speeches, trying intermittently to speak between speakers; but as they started going the varied speakers began to roll smoothly, making no break between persons taking up the microphone. Even going so far as to deliberately ignore Kazz and Kayleigh—even with the common’s compromise on the table with James.

Eventually fed up with this behavior, Kazz waited until one speaker had finished and hit the button on some loud music. “I’m sick and tired of hearing things from uptight, short sighted, narrow minded hypocrites. All I want is the truth. Just gimme some truth.” (Lennon, “Gimmie Some Truth”.) According to Kazz, with the volume set high enough to encumber the next speaker LoveASU and Urbanevangie were forced to acknowledge their presence and assented to James’s earlier promise to give them time to speak.

Both Kazz and Kayleigh indict Phil, a member of Urbanevangie, for this bad behavior. Both replied during my interview that he appeared to have taken over pushing speakers to their microphone, doing so in such a fashion so deliberately saturate the forum as to deliberately disallow and disrupt any reply. From my reading of the article on the Urbanevangie website, which carefully ignores their scrape with the Resistance it’s easy to see that they see no need to defend or even outline their actions.

LoveASU and Urbanevangie clean up your act. When you approach our community in this fashion, when you deliberately close out others who have equal place in the commons because you have greater numbers, then in this you become bullies.

I expect that if either of you make numbers again on our Mill Ave that you will reconcile this problem with your conduct and act to better our public commons and not pollute it with your bad manners.

Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 2 is up on Smashwords.com

With the Mill Avenue Vexations series having a web presence, I’ve decided to take the released volumes and slowly prepare them for digital distribution. Naming convention aside, getting in my way and all, I have Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 2: Vexations on Smashwords.

Same shtick as with Volume 1. Just got it up this week. This also means that next week, or so, I will be publishing one of the tributes. For anyone who anyone who wants to contribute to the growing Vexations media, this is a good way to own some. (Of course, the Volumes are also free with the “set your own price” option.)

Link.

Santaria animal sacrifice controversy in Sacremento brings out fear of the religious “other”

In an article published on sites such as News10.net a Santaria practitioner has been targeted by what seems to be a lone detractor who doesn’t want to play nice with the “strangitude” of the otherness of her neighbor.

But to some neighbors, the ritual slaughter of geese and goats at a Tracy woman's home is too close for comfort.

"I don't care what they do to express their religious belief, but I don't believe it should be in a residential area," said neighbor Vicki Pease. She is worried about the animal sacrifices that take place at her neighbors home and the impact it could have on children in the neighborhood.

Looks like one of the neighbors is upset by something they haven't even witnessed happening. Everything but the sounds of the rituals and their knowledge of the ritual slaughter drove the comment about, “it shouldn't be happening in a residential neighborhood.”

“…the impact it would have one children in the neighborhood.” Really?  Does anyone really buy this sort of malarkey? Really, we need some sort of bigot bingo to add “think of the children” to the list of items. They complain primarily about the sound of Congo drums and her fears that the culture of her neighbor might “taint” children in the neighborhood. There’s really no polite way to approach this one other than: “Grow up lady!” If you cannot come up with something actually substantial that might affect the “children of the neighborhood” you shouldn’t be bringing them up. This particularly cowardly, passive-agressive tactic for trolling against things that you’re prejudiced against is so well documented that it colors you only with your dishonor.

I like how the article breaks down the actual civil issues taking place (parking problem, which is a problem with any gathering) and pretty much puts the theme in the lap of the law.

As for the occasional sights and sounds of her faith, Marquez believes it's far less offensive than many other things her neighborhood endures. "People have parties with DJ's, people getting drunk, driving up and down the street, shooting, fighting, and we don't do that. We don't even drink."

With an amusingly wise quote from the practitioner at the end, reflecting that what she doesn't doesn't cause harm, is her own thing, and puts it in context of ACTUAL PROBLEMS these people could spend their energy on rather than ruffling their feathers at religious practices for non-reasons.

Link, via News10.net

More commentary, via the Wild Hunt blog.

Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 1 is up on Smashwords.com

With the Mill Avenue Vexations series having a web presence, I’ve decided to take the released volumes and slowly prepare them for digital distribution. Naming convention aside, getting in my way and all, I have Mill Avenue Vexations Volume 1: Vexations on Smashwords.

It can also be bought at other ebook retailers; but on Smashwords it’s “set your own price” so you can buy it for free. I expect.

I will be doing this with each subsequent release of the volumes; but tribute stories will all be $0.99 ea. Also, if you’d like to support Vexations, you can always set your price to something and give me some money for the work. (Note: I totally don’t mind you downloading it for free, they’re free anyway! Enjoy the different formats.)

Link.

A new store in Hilton caters to Pagan culture in the Hampton Roads area

 

"Take a few moments to learn."

Good advice, but the problem that she's speaking against in her monologue happens to involve cultural Christian demonization of the other (examples like calling practitioners of other religions/cultures "Satanic" or "Devil Worshipers.)

A great deal of energy may still need to be spent on retaking the word "witch" and unzipping its cultural baggage.

I also hoped to hear more about the store and how they intend to cater to Pagan culture; although a small educational blurb by an everyday sounding lady talking about her culture and experience certainly has merits.

The article adds a great deal more information as well.

Link, via the Daily Press.

Putting up some stories on Smashwords

Lost Sphinx Cat by Kyt Dotson on Smashwords.

I am going to do a weekly upload to Smashwords with Vexations titles – basically so that people get to read various versions in different formats. Also, if they’d like to support me in some way, they can buy them. Since they’re on sale for only 0.99$ it shouldn’t be that much of a burden.

Plus, if you’d like those ever-so-awesome PDF formatted stories, this is a way to get them for whatever device.

You can, of course, read this and more on Mill Avenue Vexations.

“The Deal” comic book feat. Vex Harrow available at Pop Culture Paradise in Tempe

I’ll create a much more clever headline for when I’m much more awake.

I just hope that anyone who happens to live in or near Tempe reads this and goes to check this out, but the first ever Mill Avenue Vexations comic book, “The Deal”, is now available at Pop Culture Paradise store in Tempe, AZ. It’s on the shelves.

I think it’s being sold for $2.99! I am quite proud of it being there too, so if you have anyone interested in buying it; send them over to get it.

I am also looking for more places who’d like to sell them so if anyone knows any places trustworthy to do so. I’d love to hear it.

Let me know if you see it yourself, also give them some visitors just because they’re nice enough to give me a space.

Brother Jed’s god and the Euthyphro Dilemma

When speaking in front of the Arizona State University Secular Free Thought Society, Brother Jed approached his solution to the Euthyphro Dilemma:

“Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious; or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?”

This is the presentation for Jed:

(1) Is it moral because Jed’s god says it; or

(2) Does Jed’s god say it because it’s moral.

According to Brother Jed, he ascribes to the latter. Jed’s god says things because they are moral.

This interests me because it suggests that not only is morality external to Jed’s god—fundamentally meaning that Jed’s god is capable of saying/doing immoral things—but it also means that Jed suggests that he has a moral litmus test to apply to Jed’s god’s sayings to determine that they are moral according to this external standard.

I wonder if Jed would be willing license out his moral litmus test; because it may come in extremely handy to the rest of us. Also, I’d like to see other people apply Brother Jed’s moral litmus test to moral situations so that its limitations and capabilities can be studied. And, I include, that this might preclude the possibility that Brother Jed’s moral litmus test (1) does not exist; (2) does not actually function in any sense that can be corroborated with reality; or (3) has so many limitations or failure states that it’s rendered useless involving practical situations.

Someone out there should ask Jed to license the technology he’s using to determine the moral certitude of Jed’s god’s commandments.

Venomgate Redux: The VenomFangX Scandal Revisited

After another spate of bad-acts, VenomFangX has left YouTUBE once again. This time permanently, if anyone is to believe him; perhaps even if he does return someone can claim that VenomFangX did not return, as he has chosen to escape from his past by divesting himself of that name like removing a wet coat upon entering a house. So we'll call him Shawn.

Shawn has shut down his VenomFangX channel in the wake of community outrage about his filing of more than two dozen false DMCA notices to various other YouTUBE channels in a transparent attempt to stifle their speech. His false-concern replies noted that he was choosing only those videos that mocked and harassed him unduly and put he and his family in danger. This is a behavior which he basically showed he already knows is illegal from the last time he was caught doing this, in fact he said as much in his apology speech to Thunderf00t from the original Venomgate Scandal.

Then, after several of his targets moved to defend themselves and several retained legal aid, Shawn went ahead and posted a video calling DPRJones a pedophile. A demonstrably false accusation based on bad information and in bad faith – and directed at his primary adversary when it would come to his upcoming legal troubles for filing false DMCA notices.

As he has since shut down his channel, his new apology is posted on the DPRJones channel.

People have mentioned that he sounds contrite, apologetic, as if he intends to get help for his apparent mental problems and criminal behavior – and understand, filing a false DMCA notice is perjury (knowingly and willfully making a false statement for legal purposes), a felony in the United States. Shawn is a Canadian citizen, so I don't know what criminal laws bind him there, but it's likely they also frown at individuals lying on legal documents.

As we well know now, Shawn is a snake. He is a brilliant manipulator of emotions, a plagiarist, a liar, and a known fraud (see: Venomgate and Sick Children Hospital.) In spite of his apology and attempt to escape from his bad behavior as VenomFangX is manages to fail to actually stop this behavior.

As part of his apology he grovels, simpers, and attempts to show contrition by saying that he will get help (which he may) but then he continues on to ask people to remove videos mocking him and outlining his bad behavior as VenomFangX. Claiming that the existence of this history will make it difficult for him to move on.

There are those who will be quick to point out that he isn't welcome to escape his history. What he's done has been done and if he did get into legal trouble there would be court cases and public documents of his actions. That much of his history is now in video form which can be removed does not mean it should be removed at his request.

My issue is altogether different.

VenomFangX has committed a series of crimes. The fruits of these crimes was to remove videos outlining his past, mocking him for his bad behavior, and otherwise documenting his terrible acts. He got caught in the commission of his crime and failed. In his apology – in an attempt to escape justice according to his crimes – he asks people simply hand him the fruits of his criminal behavior. To me this is exactly like the executive caught embezzling $10M who gets caught, but escapes imprisonment through an apology and while apologizing asks people to just give him the $10M he tried to steal "out of kindness."

Don't give Shawn the fruits of his criminal behavior.

Around Azeroth: Leveling with trolls

Anoxia finally hit her 77th level this weekend after a marathon run of quests with the trolls in the fallen city of Zul’Drak. The city is so large that it literally takes up an entire zone of Northrend, filled with trolls of every imagining (mostly the frost variety) who have turned on their own gods to fight the Scourge.

Their predicament is terrible and it saddens me greatly. It’s stupid of them to turn on their own protectors for fleeting power, but this is troll culture: not just cannibalistic but deicidal. The trolls there have taken to themselves to cannibalize their own gods for the might to repel the Scourge which has led to a bitter internecine war. The trolls eating their gods aren’t doing so well either, as some of them have run into a disagreement from those gods themselves.

For example, the healer goddess – a winged serpent – yanked her and hers into an undead nightmare vale upon her death and is now exacting terrible revenge on them for their transgressions. And the mammoth god, who seems to be quite stubborn, detonated himself rather than be quaffed the hungry trolls.

Needless to say, the city is in various states of smoldering ruin.

And it’s been great fun.

Also, in other news:

I am seriously thinking of doing some WoW videos, directed at newbie players to elaborate the various classes in their early roles. Especially now that I’ve been playing a warlock repeatedly from early levels. They are such a fun class.

Around Azeroth: Anoxia of the Netherwing Flight

Talk about grinding.

For those not in the know, Anoxia has been burning hard and bright attempting to get her wings. Netherwing-wings, with those dragons out in Shadowmoon Valley of Draenor. It involves a series of up-ranking quests via reputation to rise up among the ranks of the fel orcs of the Dragonmaw clan.

To put it short: she has her dragon.

The quests start by the netherwing dragons giving a disguise so that you can visit their island without being detected. In Anoxia’s case she became a rather wide, red orc male with a huge netherwing dragon to ride on. Of course, when she arrived with papers they smacked her down to peon.

The quests are interesting and start at the fel orc peon level, requiring that Anoxia run around and collect dust from bushes, and cut down animals for their nethercite crystals (if she was a miner this would come from mining nodes.) All of the other orcs also treat you like a peon.

Then came Overseer and with that rank came the booterang. BOOTERANG. A weapon that I had to fashion myself from a bunch of leather (provided by Spearmint) and the hide of a beast which was found in an Ecodome. A huge tyrannosaur who went down under the not-so-gentle blades of our dearest rogue. The booterang worked pretty much as expected: it’s a pair of boots strung together that boomerang at a disobedient peon’s head, wack him (sending him back to work) and then return. Quite funny.

The next rank is a commander. With each new rank the orcs treat you differently, with more respect, they stop requesting and start asking. Eventually you’re giving commands to take down portals, to fight giant demons, and to lead attacks—one of which Anoxia tipped off the target and assisted in the defense of said target.

The final stage felt so much fun after turning in 40 netherwing eggs. To explain eggs. They’re worth 250 reputation (about as much as a standard mission) and they spawn all over the Dragonmaw fortress and island. They do have specific places they appear so pretty quickly you end up with a patrol route to find them. As you can guess, collecting 40 eggs took some time (a week) and a lot of patrolling.

Being a rogue came in very handy since most people don’t like to brave the mines to extract eggs. However, being invisible things became a great deal easier.

It’s a beautiful black winged netherdrake who ferries her place to place wherever is flyable.

Fun times.

Of course, that dragon isn’t the only goal here. Anoxia wants her albino drake for its 310% flight speed and that’s only available via an achievement—namely the achievement for having 50 mounts.

Mag’har, here we come!

Ogres, watch out, I need War Beads.

Around Azeroth: Getting your ‘lock on

“Hi, I’m Kyt… And I am an altoholic.”

To an extent, I don’t even have an 80 yet and the alts that I’m working towards that point happen to not be my main… However, this goes even further than that, since I have friends trying to experience WoW and level on other servers, I have been going to the great over there and experiencing all that I can.

Foremost the title of this post is about warlocks. The demon-wrangling, chaos-casting firestarters that everyone loves to hate.

Since I have a friend who joined up on a random server, I ran over there and made a new undead warlock—Blume. People might know about my blood elf warlock on Thunderhorn (Sybrwyd) who happens to be a Demonlogy ‘lock, so I am taking Blume into the depths of the Destruction tree. I’ve already played the hell out of the new LFG system with her, and she’s run a few dungeons every night to meet and greet people to have fun.

To list what dungeons I’ve seen with LFG so far, and generally see at least three a night:

The Deadmines (x2)

Wailing Caverns (x3)

Shadowfang Keep (x2)

Stormwind Stockades (x1)

An interesting fact here is that two of these instances, Deadmines and Stockades happen to be Alliance controlled. This means that under normal circumstances I’d never want to brave the Allied lands in order to even try to reach them (point in fact, the Stockades is in Stormwind Castle!) So seeing that instance did happen to be fun and interesting, and Anoxia is going there at some point on her lonesome.

My friend, Ryan, is rocking a rogue (making Anoxia proud) and Blue is supplying fire support. I will have some instancing adventures to write up at some point, I am sure. These cross-shard groups sometimes go well, something bad, sometimes VERY bad. My experience so far has been exceptionally good.

Four levels in two days doing instances and quests in them.

What a way to experience content.

Around Azeroth: The alt money grind, and Netherwing misadventures

Gold grinding and altaholism

So, as anyone has discovered by the time they hit Northrend: flittermounts cost a femur and an ulna. That is to say, I need 4,000 gold just to learn to fly my quick flittermount; and then 1,000 more to make it fly in the icy steppes of the north. That doesn’t include the 200-ish to buy it.

Well, thanks to Trichoderma and Spearmint, Anoxia is 3,000 gold closer to getting her riding skill for the quick flittermount. This through daily grinding of words and shoveltusk by Spearmint across the freezing climes. If it weren’t for Winter Fur drops (which make almost 75g a pop) this would take forever.

I’m not exactly one of those who knows too much about how to make money in WoW, so here I am making it in chunks of 200g a day or so trying to reach that infamous 5,000 gold just so that one of my characters can ride in style.

Also sadly, one part of the winter event cannot be run without a flying mount.

Netherwing Distractions

On what’s left of Draenor, Shadowmoon Valley to be exact, there’s some see-through dragons called the Netherwing. Basically they’re a clusterbomb of quests and reputation that give you (eventually) a dragon mount. They’re also a good way to make a little money while trying to get to the point you can ride one. (Remember that 4,000 gold?)

I don’t know if I even want one, but I do want to try out the experience at least once.

So Anoxia leapt to their aid. First, she had to go kill some critters that eat the crystals that grow in the ground. The critters aren’t all that tough, they just come in packs of two or three—and it takes five small ones or one big one to get the items we need. Namely: carcasses of size enough to feed a netherwing dragon. After getting a carcass, one can be placed on the ground so a dragon can come down and om nom nom; after which they say something cryptic in Draconic and leave.

Next, I she got a quest to go visit a floating island upon which draenite crystals are being mined. There’s peons everywhere, and also some sort of nightmare vine that has crystals on it—probably nethervine with nether crystals. (See a naming convention arising?) These, she took back to the big dragon in the sky who enchanted them up.

With these crystals she went to the Dragonmaw orc clan and tried to free the baby dragons they’d enslaved. However, the baby dragons are terrible at escaping—they feel the need to attack whomever happens to be standing around. So, after freeing one from the mind control, she had to take down everyone nearby in several cases. Be careful only to free netherwings that have handlers, otherwise they charge into the nearest (largest!) group of foes and aggro all of them.

Finally, after freeing a bunch of these dragon kids, the big dragon gave her the quest equivalent of a smack-down: go kill this clan leader, oh, and by the by, bring four of your friends. Well, that’s not happening today. Hopefully there’ll be some very bored 80s on tomorrow to help out with that and we’ll see how it goes.

Around Azeroth: There and back again, a tale of more shards

Monday again and it’s time for another issue of Around Azeroth, at least that’s what I’m going to call my little semi-daily updates about my adventures in the World of Warcraft.

BLUME of Sentinels

So I’ve started playing a baby warlock with a friend on an RP server. She’s going destruction—unlike Sybrwyd, my primary warlock, who is all-the-way demonic, right down to her demon socks. The new undead warlock, Blume, rocks a beehive haircut and bondage-tape X across her face. She just picked up her blueberry (read: Voidwalker) and is now hassling the elves about their own deadite problem.
Scything through the Dead Scar with my friend—playing a rogue, Anoxia would be proud—his brother chimes in about the strange affair of the Auction House. Seems that people are selling extremely low level items at extremely exorbitant prices. Wandering around town, watching the RPers do their thing, a glimmer of a thought came to mind. I know why people are selling piddly level 17 items for 3g and higher…
Look.
I’ve seen people wearing the most aesthetically bizarre mismatches of sets wandering around town. RP servers often suffer from a sort of anesthetic of the mind effect when it comes to came play and livable socialization; but they take extreme advantage of the social and “let’s play pretend” effect of being in an existential virtual realm. Having outfits that match personality would certainly be a boon. Perhaps some of these really low level items just look particularly exotic.

ANOXIA of Thunderhorn

The little rogue is rising in the ranks! She’s made level 69 and doesn’t show any sign of stopping before 70.
I’ve been using the new PUG interface that Blizzard added in patch 3.3. Abusing is probably a better term for it. I love this thing, it’s been rather a fun ride. Some drama, some yelling and infighting, but overall I’ve liked it.
The last experience, though, put me into a Wrath of the Lich King dungeon where we had to go up against Prince Keleseth. For those not-in-the-know, he’s a night elf who visits Vengence Landing, picks a fight with the executor there; the executor commands his archers to light off—they fire a hellstorm of arrows at him, but Keleseth teleports behind his own Vrykul troops and lets them take the arrows for him; then he “drinks the souls” of all the archers. Not fun.
As it happens, he’s a pretty vicious fight that requires some sort of attention to detail. Keleseth throws an ice-tomb over people in the party, this takes them out of combat for a short time while the DPS break through the ice. If he happens to hit the tank or the healer the raid wipes. Both of these events happened on my visit.
Mind, everyone, I’ve never seen this boss before and I don’t know how to fight him. Also: I’m a rogue! I’m DPS so it was my job to get the tank/healer out, and I did, however, not before Keleseth went on and massacred two other people each time.
Long story short, our tank /ragequit, “You guys really suck!” Of course, I am cleaning up his grammar and spelling, but that’s basically what he said before he vanished.
Never did down the guy.
Moonsweet mentions how our guild <Moving Targets> act as a well oiled raid-murder-machine and that every time he’s encountered a single boss with them, they go down with ease. And no kidding, together with the Targets in instances we act with extreme tactical precision, and excellent leadership. If anything, PUGs show me repeatedly how haphazard discipline among players can end in defeat against even lower level content; while well planned strikes can take apart even higher level content.
Go Targets.
Keleseth, I am still for you. I’ll be back. FOR THE DARK LADY!

Lord High Extinctioner to the xp rescue

Oh, a hunter by any other name would not be Hemet Nesingwary.

Anyone who has actually leveled a character into their 30s has probably made their way into the dreaded Stranglethorn Vale. Dreaded why? Mostly because it is literally unavoidable, large, and full of quests that send you to all corners of the entire zone. Oh yes, it also has Nesingwary.

Everyone’s favorite Azerothian reincarnation of Hemmingway—right down to the book he wrote (excuse me: books.) Anoxia and Spreamint have already had their fun with him in Stranglethorn, but of course, he went to Outlands and Northrend as well. So now Anoxia is meeting him again, for the first time.

And just like the quests from the Stranglethorn, Nesingwary and his safari … expedition … or whatever he might be doing has a million small, fuzzy forest creatures for me to kill. Kill them until not a single one stands. Killing in the morning. Killing in the evening. Killing all night long!

I am surprised there’s a single species left on the planet for us to hunt—or on Draenor for that matter.

So. Anoxia hits Nagrand, fishing pole in hand (I’ll talk about this later) and talks to Nesingwary and his safari. Kill clefthoof! Kill birds! Kill elk things! If it moves make it die, die, die, dead, die!

And so, now here we go scything through the wildlife like a hot orc through scantily clad elves.

Wish me luck.

Ambassador this!

Have I mentioned that reputation is my most-hated aspect of all Azerothian endeavors?

Perhaps I didn’t mention that the good Lady of Venom, Anoxia, has just gotten her first big rep reward: “Ambassador to the Horde.” An achievement gained by getting Exalted reputation with each of the major Horde racial factions.

She now wears it proudly.

Ambassador Anoxia.

The story starts humbly, Anoxia wanted a raptor mount from the Darkspear Trolls, but being a blood elf she couldn’t have one until she Exalted with them. Unwilling to wait, she threw herself with wild abandon into the battlegrounds—Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin. After cutting down hundreds of scores of Alliance she earned enough marks to buy herself a raptor.

Next thing she knew, while wandering aimlessly through Zangarmarsh, she noticed she had Exalted with two factions—and nearly there with the other three. Well, everyone except the cows; Thunder Bluff couldn’t be bothered and had its reputation bar half-way while the rest were nearly on the red line.

So, after gaining Exaulted with her own city and the undead, Anoxia went on a grand world-trotting quest to get the cows to like her. It ended with turn-ins on the Hunter Rise of Thunder Bluff after hunting and killing a zeppelin-load of rare and endangered animals.

Ping!

Cows like you now, Miss Ambassador.

It came from the crumbling lagoon, tales of Sporeggar

Those who have spent enough time in the Zangarmarsh know about the fungus-men of Sporeggar. No, I am not making a reference to some obscure H.P. Lovecraft text, it’s all about Warcraft again. This time, I saw a nice little reputation reward dagger in the hands of the fungus critters and Anoxia wanted one for herself.

The problem? It requires Revered reputation with the spore people.

Reputation in Warcraft is perhaps one of the most time consuming and job-like aspects of the game. Many quests deliver it like coin, allowing users to slowly become more favored with particular factions. Some factions are utterly worthless, some have become obsolescent (see Old World factions like the Argent Crusade) while others are most beloved by level 80 characters because they have upgrade gear.

So I went out farming for rep.

Basically, I just grabbed Spearmint and took her on a massacre of anything made of fungus: Bog Lords and sporebats. Since I wanted as many [Bog Lord Tendril]s and [Fertile Spores] as I could get my little rogue hands on. Little did I know that the tendrils would only end up working once (I was left holding a huge bag of them) and that it would take forever with spores.

So I went the next best route: I grabbed Trichoderma.

Being the near-goddess she is at almost level cap, she teleported into Zangarmarsh in the North West—an area that if Zangar happened to be a map of the US would have been the west coast of Washington and Oregon—and proceeded to beat down anything fungus-similar with the shadowy power.

I spent over two hours burning Greater Spore Bats into the cracked grey rocks and distilling them for spores. I received almost 96 fertile spores and almost 100+ [Unidentified Plant Parts] (all of which went to Spearmint—I almost want that hippogryph for her. Yes, another grind-for-rep reward!)

Bah.

I hate rep.

Oh, but check out my shiny new dagger: [Hardened Stone Shard].

The furriest escapist and more stories from Azeroth

The rogue cat

It's a lost/found story with a good ending for an evening of darkness and freezing rain in the cold, wet north.

I get a call at about 9pm AZ (midnight MI) from my roommates who have lost their Internet connexion because Comcast made a mistake. My roommate, Djenna, who got a cat to keep me company while I'm indoors during the day without anybody to spend time with tells me that Pullo – the rogue cat – has been missing all day. Nowhere to be seen in the house, and he hasn't eaten. And he eats like a horse.

TV weather warns that it's going to be a heavy snow.

About 1am MI her husband calls me to tell me that while casing our neighborhood for likely bushes, a cat-shaped shadow detached itself from some foliage and followed him home.

Pullo arrived wet, shivering, covered in mud, and not at all upset by his experience out in the icy-cold. Fortunately for me his time missing amounted to about an hour or so, my roommates, though, had to suffer through not knowing where he was for about a day.

This is the same cat who likes to try to chase squirrels and once got herded, cornered, and pinned against the house and a stand of firewood by a small troop of the fuzzy buggers and had to be carried out (by me) to get him back inside because he didn't want to go anywhere near them.

 

Fear and Loathing in Outlands

This morning, flying across the cracked and parched wasteland of the Hellfire Peninsula I realized that I am having bag space problems. Both my rogue and my hunter constantly run out of space to keep their flowers and pelts – this is discounting things like the skulls of the fallen and other bling.

So, I started looking around for some of the larger bags. Mine are all 16s right now, good ole Netherweave; however, with the introduction of Northrend there’s new cloth! Frostweave. And Frostweave Bags are 20s. So I now am the proud owner of eight new Frostweave Bags. Although, it would be nice to get a Glacial Bag or two (if they didn’t cost 1,000g a piece for those 2 extra slots.)

Spearmint went back to Hellfire and Zangarmarsh after a brief stay in Terokkar Forest. Mostly because she felt like painting the steppes red with the blood of brown fel orcs; and she’d left some big game in Zangarmarsh un-hunted. Positively fun, this one, looking for a giant hydra in Serpent Lake; and then she had to cut down a gargantuan crab-man waiting with his parking brake on in the middle of an island north of Zubra’Jin.

Oh, and Boglash.

Fun and games with Boglash. ‘Mint and her red-bug-of-death took him on and did the usual hunter song-and-dance with the flabby, pale menace, downed him and went home; but when it came tie for Anoxia to take him on…everything went a little differently…

She snuck up behind the thing, holding her breath against the marsh gases. Her fingers twitched, daggers rising and falling with the soft sigh of the water as the tripod’s legs slashed wakes from the otherwise somulent murk. She opened up with an ambush, both blades poised into the thing’s Achilles tendon—or at least what she expected was—it wobbled dangerously, spinning to face her. She twirled, blood, blade, and venom leading the way, slicing and dicing tentacle and tendril alike. It struck out with lightning, she kicked it in what she hoped might have been a kidney.

It seemed mere moments later, cool downs all burning, ‘Nox stood over the fallen blubber of the pale monstrosity.

“Oh, glowing spores. Gee,” she said. And then trekked home for the reward.

As Azeroth Turns

…and other snide comments about daytime soap operas.

So, I got back into World of Warcraft again. I’ve been playing up my rogue and hunter up to higher and higher levels—read: level 63. Both are drumming away in Outlands at the strange landscapes of Hellfire Peninsula and the Zangarmarsh.

Hunter grrl, Spearmint, has been slumming it in Zangarmasrh mostly. This is where she got herself her first pretty bug—a pretty bug who happens to be named “Blacksting.” (Something about trolls and their ever growing hunger for strange and unsettling aphrodisiacs.) I renamed it Dahlia, just to see if anyone would get the reference. I then got the quest to kill Blacksting and killed him with himself for some poetic Hunter style justice.

Rogue chickidee, Anoxia, has been wandering Zangarmarsh also but just recently trotted out into Terokkar Forest instead. She needed some fresh forest air and spiders and less mushrooms.

Both of them just got their normal flying mounts. Mounts which are way less expensive than I expected. I saved up 1,200g between them (600g each) and then discovered that the riding skill sells for only like 250g right now. Although, looking at it. Artisan riding (to get the swift mounts) costs like 4,000g so I still have one hell of a grind ahead of me for both of them.

Anyone ever gone for a Nether drake? I mean, wow. How long does that take for someone who has < 2 hr a day to burn?

Mill Avenue Nights November 7th, 2009

I’ve finally gotten out and put in some time on Mill Ave proper since my visit. We didn’t see much in the way of anything, such as it is, the Ave is still in decline…and by decline I mean the stores that appear are lackluster, determined to breathe stale extruded culture instead of anything remotely clever.

Most of the street came covered in gold sweaters with people showing off their allegiance to ASU in the game taking place—American football likely—against some unknown college named USC (likely Southern California.) Amid them, here and there, I also noticed maroon jerseys, which mixed interesting effects with the USC shirts which were also red. Although far fewer on the street.

I also noticed a number of U.S. Marines in full dress uniform. Strutting their well pressed and tailored outfits along the red bricks. Every one that I saw a male, often escorting a female, who often wore less elegant attire. It’s been supposed that they might have been part of the ASU game, acting as color guard (guarding the US flag when it was taken onto the field as part of a ceremony.)

Apparently, Phantom of the Opera was also showing at Gammage Auditorium.

Very few rats that I’ve interviewed in the past came by Drum Circle. In fact, the drum circle barely existed today with a bunch of new people I didn’t get a chance to talk to and only one drum (however, a drum is very, very good.)

Mill is not dead, but its certainly not in a good place.

Vexations is coming along. Not quite how I want to … but it’s been good, and lovely, and here’s an image to leave everyone with.

And for more information about the upcoming volume go to the Mill Avenue Vexations blog.

Just bought a Nintendo DSi

Well, I thought it was just a DS, but every time it talks about itself, it says DSi.

Needless today, it’s been painless in the installation and it can even see my home wireless. I got a Zelda game. We’ll see how far this goes.

It is updating its software wirelessly right now.