o/~
Bring your shoulders to your jaw
make your hands a pair of claws
rock your fingers
roll your hair
Now go WILD AND CLAW THE AIR!

Do the creeeeeepy creature!
(Yeah, yeah, yeah!)

Do the creeeeeepy creature!
(Yeah, yeah, yeah!)

Do the creeeeeepy creature!
(Show it to your teacher!)

Do the creepy creature!
Do the creepy creature!
(Show it to your teacher!)
(Hey, I said that!)

Do the creepy creature!
Do the creepy creature!
Creepy creature! Mwuuhahahahahaaa!
o/~

--The Electric Company, "Creepy Creature" (performed by Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Wolf Man)

-The Gneech

PS:
"When the villagers came, I hid
for it surely would have been my doom
I thank the stars for Silent Eeeee
he helped me hide quite eeeeeasily!"

Today's Forgotten English...

lionize
To treat and exhibit as an object of interest. Originally to take visitors to see the lions formerly kept at the Tower of London. [Hence] lion-hunter, one given to lionizing people, popularized by Dickens in Mr. Leo Hunter [in] Pickwick Papers (1836).

--Albert Hyamson's Dictionary of English Phrases, 1922

On the third of June, 1605, King James and his family went to the Tower of London to see the lions. From the time of Henry III, who placed in the Tower three leopards which had been sent him from Emperor Frederick in allusion to the three leopards on the royal shield, there had always been some examples of larger carnivora kept in this grim old seat of English royalty. In the fourteenth century, to maintain a lion in the Tower cost sixpence a day, while human prisoners were supported for one penny ... To go and see these Tower lions became an indispensible duty of all country visitors of London, insomuch as to give rise to a proverbial expression, "the lions," passing as equivalent to all kinds of city wonders.

--W. & R. Chambers's Book of Days, 1864

On an unrelated note, Kung Fu last night demonstrated to me that my stances have gotten a bit sloppy; I'm going to have to put in some extra practice on those.

On another unrelated note, the cicadas seem to be moving into the "lay eggs and die" phase ... there are fewer active ones, and the ones there are seem to be sluggish ... and there are lots of dried up dead ones lying on their back all over the sidewalk. Alas, poor little idiots. It's a bit sad.

-The Gneech

Of all the roleplaying games I've loved and lost, so to speak, Justice, Inc. has always held a near and dear place in my heart. In particular, satyrblade ran a Justice, Inc. "quasi-Cthulhu" campaign that is one of the highlights of my experiences as a player.

I have attempted to run Justice, Inc. a few times myself, with little success. The problem is that what I really want is to play it -- coming up with the plots and background information etc. sorta ruins it for me, if that makes sense. There are situations where you want to create, and situations where you want to consume; I'm happy to create fantasy campaigns, SF games, and so forth, but there are certain genres that I only really want to experience from a player POV, and Justice, Inc. is one of those.

I pulled out the books the other night and started rereading them wistfully; I doubt I'll do much but read through them once or twice and put them back. Various d20 games notwithstanding, I kinda think that the time of "pulp adventure" and period horror has more or less come and gone. But it's nice to reminisce about every once in a while.

-The Gneech

I've been slowly picking up the occasional pack of the prepainted plastic D&D miniatures over the past few months, since Mage Knight has so effectively shot itself in the foot. While at the local comic store in search of I Hunt Monsters! #2 I snagged myself a pack and opened it up ... repeat, repeat, repeat ... Hey! Drizzt Duorden!

For those not up on Forgotten Realms lore, Drizzt is the Wolverine of D&D -- super-competent dark loner outcast drow-turned-good ranger with a tragic past yadda yadda yadda. Your basic 13-year-old macho-wanna-be gamer nerd identification character. ;) Knowing that it would drive the value of the Drizzt miniature up, he is a "rare," and I've read claims that he goes for $20 or more on eBay. Checking that out, I think it may be an exaggeration; at the moment, he only fetches ~$8.50. But still, not bad for a little plastic elf with two scimitars.

Not that I plan to sell him, at the moment, but who knows, I might at some point. :)

-The Gneech