[Games] [E-Books] [WTS] [Gift Shop]

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New this week: Chapter 76, a longer chapter, in which Pauline imparts some dating wisdom to Jim, who's on the prowl

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Men in Black

This sci-fi comedy hit from 1997 is currently on my Top Ten list and has a climax (set in Flushing Meadows park) that is sure to delight any and all New York World's Fair enthusiasts. You can tell that the Unisphere has finally attained true landmark status when Hollywood destroys it on the big screen. (However: the New York State pavilion has 3 saucer towers, not just 2. But who's counting.)

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The Hidden :-)

Wow, what a great thrill!
(Not counting the Spielberg part
That messed up the end.)

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lulliloo (lull'-i-loo) vt. and vi. [imitative] to welcome with a joyful song; to sing a joyful welcome.

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Comments?

Thursday, March 4,1999

Alison has joined the WTS Jake has provided the complete brain dump from Alter-Egos Robin put up the Pirate Feast pictures from 1997 The Other Kristin wrote a poem called Kaleidoscope Ginohn has a report on Booda's TPO surgery and a new hero John added some musings to his Branches of Religion Gina added a warning about Paris to her ScarfBarf game The ContagiousDreams site is growing

We haven't been as productive as we might otherwise have been this week, since we've been spending rather a lot of time getting to know our new friend Alison Frane. The initial version of her webpages include some thoughts about weeks and a clever little poem, both of which were part of a really cool package she mailed us a few weeks ago. You'll also notice a new featurette in the left hand column, called Cool Words. Alison kind of has a thing about words, so I'm putting this obsession of hers to good use by asking her to provide us with a wacky new definition each week. So pay attention, there'll be a quiz at the end. Also new this week are the materials from (and a report on) Alter Egos, a Live Role-Playing game Jake wrote and ran in September '97. I had the great pleasure of playing that day, and took on the part of the Andrea Azure's Beliefs. My teammates Kristin and Angie played her Thoughts and Feelings, and the three of us together comprised one of the five characters in the game. It's a unique role-playing format even for those experienced in Live Role-Playing, and Jake has this week provided everyone with the complete materials from the game: the rules, instructions, character sheets, and text for item cards. So if you're looking for a fine evening's entertainment for 15 of your friends, you might want to re-use or adapt Alter Egos. Just be sure you tell Jake how it works out... Meanwhile, the ContagiousDreams project is moving along... the site has expanded a bit (in particular the Products page) and we're hammering out our plans for managing the review process. The response to the plan has been very gratifying, and many of the Toasters are excited about the prospects of becoming game reviewers. At the same time, we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We've been going through the stacks of adslicks and such that we brought home from Toy Fair, pulling out the products we think would fit well in our store, and we're beginning to contact said places for review copies and retailer terms. Also, Kristin's investigating more advanced e-commerce software; when the site launches in earnest, we plan to be using some sort of cool shopping cart technology. (We're contemplating a company called Virtual Spin... does anyone out there work with them, or one of their competitors? if so... contact Kristin) The site also has some art now, courtesy of Alison, who's an artist as well as a word monger. (She's also a plant person.) Anyway, the process continues...

Don't forget to play!

I've been reading about the current controversy in the Magic player's community over the rules simplifications in the new Sixth Edition, notably treating interrupts as instants. It reminds me of when we dropped the wall rules from Icehouse, only on a much larger scale. (I've never been able to remember the difference between instants and interrupts anyway...)

Ghostarianism: The belief that the only afterlife is the spectral haunting of wherever your physical body ends up.

"Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and refracted the light from Venus." - K, Men in Black