Dorky Goodness

Which Discworld Character are you like (with pics)
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You scored as Lord Havelock Vetinari. You are Lord Vetinari! Supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork! Cool, calculated, and always in control. You graduated from the assassins guild, but failed a course on stealth and camouflage, because the professor never saw you there (even though you attended every class). You always seem to know what everyone is thinking, and after a conversation with you, people feel that they have just escaped certain death. Lord Havelock Vetinari 88% Esmerelda (Granny) Weatherwax 75% Gytha (Nanny) Ogg 56% Commander Samuel Vimes 50% Death 50% Rincewind 44% Cohen The Barbarian 38% The Librarian 25% Greebo 19% Carrot Ironfounderson 19%

What can I say? I’m a fool for stupid books. Evidently this is a sequel to Meg, which I didn’t actually realize when I picked this up at the library. Meg was dumb. I’m figuring this isn’t going to be much better. We’ll see though, eh?

Alrighty… Who’d've thought there were Cthulhu jokes? This one by Paul Robinson won some joke contest or other…

A Servitor of the Outer Gods slithers into a pub. Its a friendly place, so the locals strike up a conversation. Eventually one of the locals asks the Servitor what it does for a living.

“I’m a musician” relies the Servitor. “I can play any instrument known to man, and any other race come to think of it. I’ve done gigs for Azathoth at the centre of the Universe!”

The locals take this as a challenge. “Prove it! Drinks all night if you can play any three instruments we give you to play. Otherwise you’ll but a round for the whole bar!”

Relishing the challenge the Servitor says “You’re on.”

The first instrument the locals produce is a flute. “Too easy!” says the Servitor. Its tentacles wrap around the instrument, and it pipes away. Discordant sounds and outré rhythms issue forth. As a result a couple of the locals curl up into the foetal position, and one or two gibber in the corner. But in the end those that remain standing are suitably impressed.

The next instrument is a guitar. The Servitor looks at it carefully, picked it up and turns it over once or twice. But really, it is no challenge. Plucking sounds that a human with a mere ten fingers could never hope to do, sounds issue forth that challenged the very sanity of the drunkest bar patron. Again however, the locals have to admit the Servitor was damn good.

The last instrument is a set of bagpipes. For moment the Servitor contemplates it. It picks it up, and its tentacles and pseudopods ooze over the intrument. It turns it around and goes through the same process.

This carries on for a few minutes, the Servitor becoming more and mystified. Eventually the locals start getting a bit restless, “Come on” one wag calls out. “You said you can play anything! Give us our beer if you can’t. Can you play it or not?”

“Play it” replies the Servitor. “What do you mean play it? I’m too busy trying to work out how to have sex with it.”

I’ve been working on the fluff for my 40K army (The Kabal of the Malebranche) for about a year now. It’s currently undergoing it’s third iteration of plot line.

The first plot line was pretty vanilla. Not much to say about it.

The second plot line was a bit more engaging. The Kabal was a splinter of a larger Kabal that failed in a coup against the Archon of the Kabal of the Splintered Crown. They ended up isolated on a feudal world and established themselves as dieties until the Adepta Sororitas arrived. Battles were fought and then the Kabal left once the Space Marines arrived when the warp storm holding them there dissipated.

Now, I’m thinking that the world the Kabal was stranded on was actually an Imperial Shrine world with a fairly decent sized Imperial presence. The storm is still there but the Sisters didn’t arrive - instead they were the guards of the Shrine along with an Imperial Guard Mechanized Infantry Company and assorted PDF units. There’s also an Imperial Navy Penitent Crusade in orbit when the DE arrive.

What I’m trying to avoid is making my Kabal have “exceptions” to the codex fluff and yet remain fairly unique. I don’t want them to be anything silly like an elite cadre of Dark Eldar raiders with unique abilities.

However, there is a plot line for the Kabal of the Splintered Crown that has a few special rules I’m working on. The side story is intended to allow Dark Eldar to be selected as allies for a Daemonhunters army.

I just read Sabbat Martyr by Dan Abnett and it looks like the Gaunt’s Ghosts novels are coming to an end.

Read no further if you’re ever intending on reading it. Ahoy! There be spoilers.

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Wahoo! I just finished the new Harry Potter book and it was f’ing fantastic! Rowling did a magnificent job of capturing the raging emotions that a 15 year old is bound to have (especially considering the circumstances). And to be perfectly honest, I was kind of surprised at who she killed off (more on this in the extended entry - it’s a spoiler so you probably don’t want to read it if you haven’t read the new book yet).

As you’ll notice by the image embedded in this post, I’m kind of pissed that there’s an American and British/Canadian version of the book. Screw the dumb ass Americans that can’t pick up slang in context. My wife has a friend in Canada who sent us the unedited version of the book and I wouldn’t read any other version. In fact, all the Harry Potter books I’ve read have been the Canadian version. Why? Because I’d much rather read the story as it was written then allow some editor to decide how the book should read for people who can’t be bothered with figuring out the nuances of the real thing.

Before you go on, however, know this: Some people are really really really odd.
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… I promise!

A Study Guide for William Gibson’s Neuromancer? How cool is that?

I’d probably have to read it again to answer some of the discussion questions. I can only imagine how much work this would have been to generate.

If’n you’re interested, here’s the Official William Gibson site!

He even has a blog that he updates from time to time. Spiffy insights at times are evident.

William Gibson has a new book! How cool is that?

I’ve been in love with his books since I first picked up a copy of Nueromancer from the Library. Of course Nueromancer happens to be his very best book (the associated books in the trilogy come in at #2 and #3 respectively)!

The Idoru sequence was also excellent.

Pattern Recognition is a bit of a departure from the future cyberpunk stuff from Neuromancer and Idoru. It’s set in the present day, which is actually kind of neat.

While not as engaging as his prior books, Pattern Recognition is quite a blast to read. I thought some of the plot devices were a little strained - Russian Mafia, Internet cults and fashion phobias.

More later.