http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/Mws5UD1KJkk/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=223724

I can't actually perceive them, but I imagine that there are two ways out of this depression.

Maybe the path through life that I thought was a dead end really isn't. From where I'm standing now, the slope looks too steep to climb. I can no longer make believe that a college education, having a regular job that I enjoy, or owning a home are anywhere near attainable. So why bother even trying? Maybe somebody can show me the way. But I caution anyone who would try that if it involves starting over at square one, I'm going to say fuck it. The world owes me something for ten years of hard work and integrity.

The other way might be to simply give up on everything I thought I wanted and stop letting my idea of happiness be influenced by our culture of materialism. I could join the Amish, become a monk, or simply wander the earth. But I don't know if I'll ever have the courage to do that. Or, indeed, if it would really make me happy.

Part of the problem is that what I really want – the only thing I really want in the whole world – is to be a teenager again. And of course that's impossible.

Maybe I should just kill myself.

The Ustream Q&A is done for this week - thanks to everyone who showed up!

Gentle persons:

I write to you as your hostess of the 5th annual TempleCon Retro-Futurist gaming convention, a weekend that embodies the spirit of temporal creation, featuring a plethora of games, performances, stories, and diversions that explore Retro-Futurist genres such as Steampunk, Neo-Victorianism, Weird West, Dieselpunk, Decopunk, Raygun Gothic, and Cyberpunk - all past visions of the future that are being re-examined in modern times and re-envisioned in modern terms. These are anachronisms with attitude, independence and idealism versus monolithic conformity and control, girded with the true grit and superior fashion sense required to go adventuring in the wasteland of civilization's decay. Mix in a healthy helping of elder gods, piracy, and revolutionary mayhem (this is Rhode Island, after all!), and you have a time-bending Retro-Futurist experience the likes of which no other convention dares to offer.

You are cordially invited to join us on the weekend of February 5th, 6th, and 7th, in the glorious Crowne Plaza Hotel in the city of Warwick, in the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  We offer a rare array of Retro-Futurist amusements, including the premiere of the Unhallowed Metropolis theatre game led by the game's developers plus multiple other Unhallowed Metropolis events; appearances, lectures, classes, and panels by G.D. Falksen, The Penny Dreadfuls, George Higham, Jason Soles, Nicole Vega, Leanna Renee Hieber, Kelley Hensing, C.J. Henderson, Simon Berman, Robert Tritthardt, The Rhode Island Pirate Players, and more; a weekend-long Retro-Futurist costume contest as well as a Makers' Masquerade for Retro-Futurist costumers to show their creations on stage and a Retro-Futurist Fashion Show featuring work by multiple designers; steampunk seances by mentalist Rory Raven; a Neo-Victorian High Tea; retro-futurist dance performances by Ela Rogers, Ameena, Troupe Moirae, Neylan, Tempest, La Paloma, Samara, Happy Hour Burlesque, and more; musical performances in our Diesel, Deco, and Dance event by the Dirge Carolers, Sasquatch and the Sick-a-billys, and more; plus numerous vendors in our Clockwork Bazaar, and a stunning assortment of games in various genres.

Please be so kind as to peruse our pages on the Aethernet:  http://www.templecon.org/ and be sure to pre-register soon for this Retro-Futurist extravaganza!

I look forward to hearing from you and meeting you in person at the grand event!

Most Sincerely,

Madame Ximon
TempleCon Creative Director
http://www.templecon.org/

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank everyone who came out to today's Chrononauts' Winter Stroll. I had a wonderful time, and I hope that you all did as well. I know there were a number of pictures taken and I look forward to seeing each and every one of them!

In addition, I'd like to set you all on the very lovely site http://www.fashion-era.com, which has numerous wonderful references for vintage clothing. I hope you all find it useful.

Regards,
-G. D. Falksen

I'm working on scripts for the coming year and answering reader questions.

I got some Wii points for Christmas and have a total of 2500. I spent a good hour and a half browsing Wiiware and virtual console titles and just can't decide!! What would you suggest (for either catagory, but Wiiware is the biggest mystery to me)?

This might be the very strangest study I've ever seen. I laughed so hard I cried. Honest. It's toilet humor, but of the seriously nerdy kind.

http://www.metafilter.com/87536/Sitters-Vs-Standers-The-Great-Wipe-Hope

It has been a weird Christmas.  Lots of illness and disruption in the immediate and extended family.  Not our normal Christmas at all.

On the good side, there's snow on the ground and we are less than half way through our Christmas break.  My lovely wife surprised me with an HP Mini 311 netbook, a bit of techno wizardry I've been lusting after for a while.  I would have never bought it myself.  I already have a new, very speedy, full-sized laptop that is reasonably portable, so a mini is an indulgence.  My son has a mini, though, and I had borrowed it several times when I wanted to work at my computer while on the road, but didn't want to pack up the much heavier laptop.

The 311 was my netbook of choice.  Its screen is 11.6 inches, as opposed to the smaller 10.2 of a traditional netbook.  The screen is high resolution, LED.  The battery is good for about 6 hours, and it only weighs 3.2 pounds.  That extended battery life is a big deal for me, by the way.  My regular laptop last about two hours, sometimes less.  You would think that would be plenty of time, but I can always hear the talk clicking, and several times I have thought that I had thirty minutes left when it suddenly is telling me to save my work before shutting down.

I remember that Ray Bradbury typed all of Fahrenheit 451 on a library typewriter that he rented for a dime per each 30 minutes, so a laptop that is only functional for two hours unplugged should feel like a luxury, but it doesn't.

What I really like about it is that I can type comfortably with it on my lap or if I'm in bed.  My regular laptop grows too heavy (and hot!) too quickly to write for a long time.

I'm getting lots of work done on it because it's so easy to use, and, of course, it's a brand new toy.  My only complaint is that there isn't an easy way to turn off the touch pad.  Some laptops have a button to turn it off, and others have an option that turns off the touch pad if a USB mouse is attached, which is my preferred set up if I'm working at a desk.  Right now I'm running a little freeware program called Virtual Touch Pad Cover that turns off the touch pad with a preprogrammed hot key click, but that hot key also turns off an attached mouse.  Sigh.  Maybe when I upgrade from the XP that came on the machine to Windows 7, I will have a more elegant solution.

I hope the rest of you out there had great Christmases and not weird ones, but that's probably too much to expect.

Just finished and filed my review of Sherlock Holmes for Tor.com (short version: it was awful and I loved it), and before that, I made some candles. See, I used to commit chandlery fairly often but had fallen out of the habit, and yesterday cristalia mentioned she was thinking of taking it up, which inspired me to break out the wax and crayons.



I'm still staring meaningfully at The White City, trying to figure out how the damed thing works. It would be nice if I could finish it by year's-end. But it all depends on if the story tells me how it ends.

 I guess tomorrow I start rereading it again.

It's finally raining out there, and the wind is gusting fiercely, but it's 41 degrees, which seems positively balmly.

Round 1...suggest! (mods remove this if you think it's not properly placed)

I'm moving to my new apartment within the month *squee* and most of my friends have wonderfully geeky names for their flats. I can't quite well name it the TARDIS (not unless my landlord lets me RE DOOR the front door...and I doubt that'll happen), but I am looking for suggestions. Names of previous friends apartments: Oz, Wonderland, King's Cross (Harry Potter/Brits FTW), The Hub, so on and so forth.

I'm looking for something who themed, or exceedingly nerdy, or british. (Big Bang Theory, Mighty Boosh, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc) those are all appropriate themes.

I'm looking forward to hearing your suggestions! Thanks! (I apologize for the cross posting)

Thanks to my IRL friends, the Doctor Who community and the Steamfashion community it has been narrowed down to 2 suggestions

So it's Star Trek versus Doctor who. Now we all know Doctor Who wins by default. But that doesn't mean it has a better ring to it.

SO PICK YOUR FAVOURITE

Holodeck or the Oodsphere (Note: If the oodsphere wins, my bedroom will be renamed the holodeck). Although I can't guarantee I'll abide by the what happens in the holodeck stays in the holodeck rule.

Let's see who gets Knocked Out!

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/zWe5LY9rV1U/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=224293

I'm secretly a hermaphrodite.

http://joule.marnanel.org/chart/lj/karaksindru/2009-12-27

Friended by: None.

Unfriended by: None.

See the last month as a chart, or graph.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/999tQBixXOQ/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=223726

Heyo! These aren't the world's best pictures, but I know some of you might want to see pictures of the kids' Christmas this year. There's also some camera comparison photos at the end of it. But mainly it's...

( ...pictures of my cats and mouse with their presents. )

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/from-exact-middle-of-nowhere.html

Waving from the Middle of Nowhere, where there's no TV, my cell phone doesn't work and the internet is slow and klunky enough that semaphore might be more efficient.