So, somepony posted THIS (click through for animation):


Low Flier (animated) by ~Snapai on deviantART

...and so now, I keep hearing THIS all day:



NOTE: This is very much not a complaint. ;)

-The Gneech

Things are looking up muchly for me, moodwise-- yesterday was a great day and so far today has been pretty darn good too. To celebrate, I present you with the world's catchiest song about lazy harp seals.



It's by Parry Gripp, the same people who did Space Unicorn and Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom. Are we surprised? No we are not. It came to my attention by way of The Mary Sue blog, which is awesome and you should all be following it. Get on that!

That's all for now! Have an awesome day, you crazy internet peeps!

-The Gneech

Pony vs. Dalek #8: Spitfire and Soarin by ~the-gneech on deviantART

-TG

They really do!

-TG

It's weird how certain people can be so tightly locked with your associations of a thing, that when they are gone, everything is off. I guess this is what parents mean when they say the house seems empty without the kids.

Besides obvious recent events, what's got me thinking on this is that there are a lot of activities which some or many of the people with whom I once used to enjoy those events, particularly early on, have wandered off or are hard to connect with... and it's surprising how hard it's made it for me to continue enjoying those things.

Case in point: furry cons. I got into furry cons over ten years ago now, which just sorta boggles my mind, but so very many of the people I used to love going to those cons to see have either cut back or just stopped going, that I end up hanging out the the same "gang of four" that I see at every con just because they're the ones I know. Unfortunately, one of those (Vince) will not be at AC, leaving us with a gang of three; and unfortunately for Vince, I will not be at FC, putting him in the same position. Unless I do a bonzai trip (as Kerry calls them) to MFF, I will not see Vince again this year. That distresses me.

Heck, for that matter, just going to cons without Kerry is hard. :(

Another case in point: the Twitterponies. One of the long-term Twitterponies players, in fact the one who more or less made it possible for me to join and in fact with whom I did most of my playing for a long time, has cut back to the point of effectively being gone, and it's been a real punch in the gut to my enjoyment of the RP. It's not that we don't have a ton of other great players, 'cos we do and I love 'em! But there are times when I find myself thinking, without this other particular player, that the RP feels... empty.

A lot of this, I'm sure, is a side-effect of grief. My Aunt Iris, my dad, Waarhorse, now Sandy... I've had a rough year-and-a-half. :( But some of it is also just my introvert nature. While I have a ton of acquaintances that I'm quite fond of, I don't have lots and lots of friends. I have a few very close friends that I am very attached to-- probably more attached to some of them than they are to me, I might as well face-- and so every one of those who is carried away by the currents of life (or worse, is lost forever) is a real wrench for me. And it isn't easy for me to find new people I become that close to.

It's not like I have a real definable "friend-making" process... generally after a bit of time I either "click" with a person, or I don't. Sometimes I encounter someone and I get an uncanny "we've been friends forever, we just hadn't met yet" thing, and that always frightens me because I'm afraid I'm going to come on too strong or do something annoying and put them off. I spend weeks, maybe months second-guessing myself, trying not to alienate this new friend, in the ironic position of feeling all awkward precisely because I feel so at ease. Go fig! XD

Anyway, as I say, this is all just on my mind tonight, as I examine the upcoming months/year and try to figure out what I'm going to do with myself. So many things, I find myself looking at them and saying, "Yeah, but it's just not the same any more..." I have to come to grips with the fact that they aren't the same any more, they are what they are, and that's the way it's always going to be. I have to find ways to be interested in what's happening right now, and take solace in the family and friends that I've got, and stop thinking so much about how things once were, or how I wish they could be.

Which is easy to type. Not necessarily easy to do. But I'm working on it.

-The Gneech

There's a whole lot of miscellaneous stuff built up, which I'm just going to write down as I think of it, but it's all stuff that's been in or near my mind lately and I want to address here.

On top of all of the stuff associated with Sandy, we were already busy. laurie_robey is getting training this week and then has some fairly hefty surgery in a couple of weeks that will knock her for a loop for a period of unknown duration but measured in weeks. During that time, I'll be doing anything and everything around the house that involves leaning over or pushing, pulling, or lifting anything heavier than five pounds, as well as the driving, the shopping, etc.

Of course, right in the middle of that is AnthroCon. Also right in the middle of that, I've unexpectedly been asked to be on a panel at BroNYCon, which kinda came out of the blue at me. The night before BroNYCon, however, Laurie and I will be at WolfTrap with my mum, watching Pirates of Penzance, meaning I'll have to get up in the Whee! hours to get to the con in time for my panel. I was originally looking at going up with Natasha and Quilly, but they're going on Friday, so that's kind of out. I might just drive myself, I dunno.

A few of you have noticed there hasn't been any Short Story Geeks podcast recently. We do actually have one recorded, it's been sitting on my hard drive for a month? Two months? But I haven't had the oomph to get to it. I'm thinking of just calling that one a "lost episode" and gathering the guys to record a fresh one, but probably not until July, when my schedule opens up again a bit.

Speaking of opening schedules, there is a moderate chance that I will be cutting back to 30 hours/week at my day job. This is wonderful for my free time-- but not so great for the finances. If that happens, I will have to start actually doing things like taking commissions and doing freelance work on the side. It might be a Grand Thing, or it might be Some Scary Shit... this has not been determined.

Oh! Speaking of commissions and AnthroCon and such, I'm thinking of doing some prints of the "Pony Vs. Dalek" series to take to AC. Good idea? Y/N I'm a little worried that the market will be flooded with ponies and that particular bubble might be getting ready to burst. But at the same time, I don't really have anything else new to take. It's not exactly been a good year for me, creatively speaking. I dunno.

Also, re: cons, the time has come to say we are officially skipping Dragon*Con this year. I shall probably also not be at Further Confusion in January. Is it wrong of me to resent the fact that you have to plan for cons nine months ahead any more? I miss being able to decide a month before to get a table. -.-

Anything else? *thinks*

Hmm. I can't think of anything at the moment. If something else comes to me, I'll let you know. Do you have any questions for me?

-TG

Huh. I didn't realize how annoyed I was by the Irene Adler ep. of Sherlock until I wrote that Fictionlet.

In the original (as I recall it, anyway, it's been a long time), Irene Adler just flat out BEAT Holmes. No vagueness, no coy games, nothing. She had his number and she called it-- and her reasons for doing so were perfectly understandable. There was sure as hell no grinding her into the dirt, humiliating her, and then turning her into an emblem of women's oppression.

Dude. When a Victorian era story fundamentally respects a woman and your interpretation fundamentally tries to crush her under the heel of guyness? You're seriously doing it wrong.

Ugh.

-The Gneech

“So how about that Irene Adler episode of Sherlock?” said Alex, scooping a handful of pretzel sticks out of a bowl that walked by. “Was that awesome or what?”

“Eh,” said Greg, as if it were a subject he’d rather not talk about, “I dunno…”

“Oh, here it comes,” said Alex. “Let me guess, you think it’s too sexy, right? You hate that they dare put eroticism into your oh-so-intellectual Sherlock Holmes stories, don’t you?”

“Well, no,” said Greg, “that’s not it. I mean, I don’t like that, but I’ve pretty much come to expect it from anything on television– everyone in show business is constantly giggling like a 13-year-old about how ‘naughty’ they are. Why should Sherlock be any different? That’s not what bugged me about it, but I haven’t quite put my finger on what it was.”

“How about this?” said Brigid, and swigged her drink. “They pretend to make Irene Adler a ‘strong woman’ by turning her into a dominatrix, specifically for the purpose of knocking her back down again. How about, for having the gall to be so uppity that she actually gets a brief advantage over Sherlock, she has to go all fluttery over him, then get swatted and crushed into crying and begging? How about the way at the end she’s finally kneeling in a freakin’ burqa, where she gets rescued like a goddamn damsel in distress because Sherlock had the ‘grace’ to be merciful after putting a whore in her place? How about because it’s the same damn misogynistic crap, just with a fresh coat of paint?”

Greg blinked at Brigid for a moment, then said, “Yeah, I think that might be it.”

-The Gneech

<-- previous B&G

Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

So I’ve decided to give Savage Worlds a bash for the next session (at least) of my Ghostbusters campaign, so see how we all like it. I’ve translated all the PCs from the UHM system (hardly an exact process) and started writing up a few critters for practice. I’m also writing up a rules summary doc for my players, with modifications for the setting.

I took some inspiration from Graywolf’s “Savage Ghostbusters”, but actually ended up using the gear stats from the Horror Companion (I love that SW has official stats for proton packs and ghost traps), with my own house rules for the application of psychomagnetheric slime. It’s very much a work in progress, as I get the hang for how SW actually behaves in play. I’ve got as good a grasp as I can get on the rules just from reading, but how a game reads and how it behaves at the table are usually two very different things.

One thing I’m undecided on, is the use of miniatures. Savage Worlds, for all its rules-liteness, is written with the assumption that you’ll be using minis, and while I like using miniatures for my Pathfinder game, I’m not sure I really want to be pulling out the mat and figs for busting spooks. Ghostbusters (when done right, anyway) alternates back and forth between freewheeling and terrifying, neither of which are really well served by counting squares; on the other hand, one of the fun things about Ghostbusters is how busting spooks is “just a job,” like being a plumber (or possibly an exterminator), and I can see how having the miniatures could make it feel more like blue-collarey work. (“Yo, Iggy, ya got yerself a nasty free-floating vapor at about ten yards, hit that sucker up with a capture stream and it’s Miller Time.”)

The fact that there aren’t easily-convertible Ghostbusters miniatures doesn’t help, but isn’t really that big a factor– I could easily make Cardboard Heroes-style figs if I wanted to. There have also been some really nice custom minis made, but that’s a bit of a stretch for my sculpting chops and would take forever.

I’ll poll my players on the topic (HEY PLAYERS: Weigh in on this! …That was easy.) and see what they have to say. I’ve certainly got plenty of monsters I could use as spook figs.

-The Gneech

Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

Someone sent me Pinkie Pie's "Smile, Smile, Smile" song to cheer me up, and it did... but I was bawling like a baby the whole time.

Grieving is weird.



-The Gneech

Details: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3463229/

-TG

Back from Sandy's funeral. For laurie_robey and myself, the short-term things are done and life now begins to settle into the new "normal," whatever that ends up being.

I'm very tired; I've spent way too much time in cars the past ten days and done entirely too much just getting through things so they'll be done. There's all sorts of ancillary things going on that are not directly related to Sandy, but are still connected. Saw murrrmaiyd and praeriedog for the first time in (mumble) years this weekend and got to hang out a bit, which was nice. Saw G'Ma (Sandy's mother) for what may very well be the last time, which is another painful parting. She lives in Florida and is not likely to come back up to Virginia... but Laurie and I are not likely to go down there, either. We're going to have to start sending her letters or something.

A major chunk of our routine is all discombobulated now; going over for cards/games w/ Sandy on Saturday nights has been one of our staples for years. I don't know if we're going to take up the mantle of hosts for those nights, if Mary will start joining those on a regular basis, or what.

There's a lot of dealing with stuff that still needs to be done, mostly by hantamouse, but as the sort of "designated grown-ups" of the bunch, Laurie and I will probably be doing a lot of the prompting. Going through papers, finding out things like beneficiary status on policies, all that jazz, are all things that are way too annoying if you don't have social anxiety disorder. :P But they're all things that will need to be done in order for Lee and Jamie to stay in that house, which is kind of important.

But, even though some of that stuff may need dealing with in the next week or two, it doesn't need to be dealt with tonight. So I've done all the thinking I'm going to for now. I intend to spend the rest of the evening zoning out. G'nite. :)

-TG

Slimer, a.k.a. the Onionhead, a.k.a. the Sedgewick Spud, is a fairly baseline Class V Free-Roaming Vapor, believed to be a “remnant,” i.e., an ectoplasmic “echo” of a living person, rather than the actual spirit of that person. In Slimer’s particular case, it is speculated that he is the remnant of a well-known television personality who died of a drug overdose while staying in the Sedgewick Hotel. The television personality’s inexhaustible appetite for food, drink, and other earthly pleasures, combined with the highly PKE-charged architecture of the Sedgewick hotel, caused this spook to manifest with an ironically insatiable gluttony. For all of Slimer’s desire to consume all food, drink, candy, and so forth, it merely passes right through him and just ends up on the floor in a disgusting mess.

As spooks go, Slimer is fairly harmless, but that’s mostly a factor of his essentially benevolent nature. Barely even sentient, Slimer tends to be clueless and whimsical, with a cowardly streak– if he were more viciously inclined, he would be capable of being hazardous. As it is, he generally just trashes the place and covers everything with slime in the process.

Slimer (Wildcard)

Type V Full-Roaming Vapor

---

Creature: Phantasm
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Spellcasting (Arcane) d8, Stealth d8, Throwing d6
Pace: 8 (run die d10), Parry: 5, Toughness: 5, Charisma: -2
Bennies: 2, Power Points: 10
Gear: Thrown Objects d6 (Str+d4, 3/6/12)</p>

---

Special Abilities:
Quirk (Gluttony)
Ugly
Arcane Magic
Ethereal
Fear
Flight (Ghostly)</p>

---

Arcane Powers:
Slime (Entangle) Restrained target suffers -2 Pace and skills linked to Agi and Str; Break free with Str or Agi; Single target costs 2 points, Medium Burst Template costs 4
Speed Doubles target’s Pace; Running is free with raise
Telekinesis Move single target weighing 10lbs times Spirit die type (50lbs with raise); Weapons use arcane skill and Spirit; Drop does Spirit+d6 damage </p>

Text and artwork by John “The Gneech” Robey. “Slimer” and Ghostbusters copyright Sony Pictures and used for fan purposes only. “The Onionhead Ghost” originally created by Dan Akroyd. Stat block created by Hero Lab® (Registered Trademarks of LWD Technology, Inc. Free download at http://www.wolflair.com). Some inspiration drawn from “Savage Ghostbusters” by T. Jordan “Greywolf” Peacock. Savage Worlds is Copyright © 2004-2012 by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. All rights reserved.

Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

So, this image popped up on my watches last night:


Igor the Modified Henchman by *Gworeth on deviantART

And I couldn't help it... this song popped into my head:

o/`
Igor the modified henchman
had a very horrid arm
and if you looked at him sideways
it would do your sanity harm

All of the other henchmen
used to laugh and call him names
they never let poor Igor
join in any henchman games

Then one horrid Hallow's Eve
Cthulhu came to say
"Igor with your arm so foul
won't you wear my High Priest's cowl?"

Then how the henchmen loved him
as they shouted maddeningly,
"Igor the modified henchman,
you've blasted all my sanity!"

You've blaaaasted all my saaaaaaniiiiiiityyyyy!
o/`

And now... it's in your head. Mwuhahahahahaa!

-The Gneech

Velma Dinkley: Ghostbuster! by ~the-gneech on deviantART

Before there were Ghostbusters, there was... Mystery Incorporated!

There are surprisingly few good pictures of female Ghostbusters out there... and even more surprisingly few pictures of Velma that aren't borderline or pure porn.

JEEZE, PEOPLE, WHAT IS THE FANDOM? A FRAT HOUSE? >.<

So I decided to attack both problems with one pic!

Seriously, people, what Ghostbuster in her right mind is gonna go busting spooks in midriff-baring halter top, short-shorts, and fishnets? That's just puerile and stupid, and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Similarly, yes, Velma is sexy, but she's sexy because she's SMART and CAPABLE and KICKS BUTT. Why you dis such an awesome character with your pinups? That's also puerile and stupid and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

/rant

-The Gneech