Climb to the Shrine, Right What Is Wrong

*KEYBOARD SMASH* Watch it. Watch it now. *more keyboard smashing*

Ohmyfrickin'goshwonderful. Of course, Your Mooses May Vibrate, so feel free to disagree with me if you didn't like it. But I did. :D

More thoughts later, p'rhaps?

Read it. Read all of the responses. I cannot stop laughing.
And, even better, here's the Phoenix Wright Kink Meme post that inspired it all.

Also, IKEA. That is all I will say.

So yeah, I'm surfing the Kink Meme. I've written a fill or two, so... I'll get around to de-anoning tomorrow or so. Eh, only one of them's reasonably good, so you're not missing out on much. :P

BLESS THEM

TRULY, BLESS THEM

BLESS THEM

JOAN CRAWFORD HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE

...No, I haven't gone completely insane. Just continue to hang around this nice lady's Deleterius tag and wait for updates.


*painfully* Also, if you should come across any of my comments on any archived Deleterius posts, I would like to remind you all that I was a fifteen-year-old in 2007 and I'm much smarter now. Got that? Good.
Dear f-list members who remember me from back then: thank you for your patience and tolerance.

*peers* Holy fuck, my old Deleterius: United Against Stupidity icon (horrible JPG pixellation and all) is archived. I thought I'd lost that thing forever. *saves*

Again - I was a fifteen-year-old. You can all stop laughing now. *involuntarily breaks down into sobbing laughter of her own*

Currently running around Shade Abbey. Just destroyed the Laser Eye.

This mod does an INCREDIBLE job of improving play balance and adding excitement to battles. I really don't know on any given battle whether I'll survive or limp back in after an embarrassing K.O. I mean - heck, I have to hang back and kite enemies towards me rather than just ROFLRUSHING any given formation. (And this mod cuts back enormously on the number of Gaddamned Bats, thank GAD...)

Considering that unmodded Shining Force is, ah, not what one would call hard, this is a great accomplishment.

I mean, I just beat the Laser Eye battle with three out of twelve party members remaining, and with all of them within a hit of being K.O.ed. (In fact, the hero was hiding off in a corner while I crossed my fingers and hoped the other two could beat the last remaining enemy to death before it could K.O. one of them and run over to the hero on the next turn.) Freaking TENSE. And I have to say, I DID have to use a fair amount of strategy to even get to that point. (The Laser Eye has been de-lobotomized. As have the Runefaust tacticians. You can no longer sit on your rear and wait out the Laser Eye while it flattens half of "its own" army.)

To be honest, this feels like less of a "mod" and more of a "patch". That is to say, not a fanmade alteration, but rather an official-quality improvement of a game that was reasonable but highly imperfect.

Anyway, if you like Shining Force and aren't adverse to getting a Genesis emulator/Shining Force ROM (and you remember to convert to .bin via that WIN BIN thing and THEN patch), get this mod. The quality of the game is vastly improved. And I really liked the original game, so that should tell you something.

I'll never have to stop using my computer during a headache again

More seriously, this is nice. Bright light starts turning me into a hyperactive, unable-to-focus twit late at night, so this will do wonders for my concentration and ability to sleep.

Also, I never realized how bright keyboard LED lights are. Thank goodness for creative use of bottlecaps.

Fellow techno-insomniacs, download this application. Here, I'll even link you to the official site for download. I have no idea if its effects are real or just psychosomatic, but they're certainly pleasant.

The only problem is that you'll have to memorize where your less-frequently-used keys are on your keyboard. >_>

There's actually a glossary of fandom terms out there! 8D (VERY comprehensive, last updated November 2012.)
I am... very much... not a Communist, but damn did they have great propaganda art.
William Blake's poetry is... very, very trippy. And amazing. (He wrote "The Tyger", if you're wondering.)
Go here and search for "Chrono Trigger". Some of the MIDI mixes are VERY good. (Particularly recommend "Robo's Theme - Primitive Remix", "To Far Away Times (SW1000XG)", "Zeal (Endless Remix)", the Ocean Palace remixes, "Boss Battle 1 (Remix)", and... on second thought, just listen to all the remixes and see which ones you like. MIDI files are SO SMALL that it won't chew up bandwidth.)

How To Write Popular YA Paranormal Literature AND Defile Your Spirit!
Blistering and hilarious.

Incidentally, here are four very useful Firefox addons:
* Scrapbook, a.k.a. what I used to keep the Amy Player posts accessible for sporking (and screencapping) after they ran into terminal issues with LJ screwing up Wayback. Also highly useful for keeping backups of image-heavy pages when Internet is restricted. Absolutely recommended.
* IMAGEBLOCK! Now you have actual control over whether or not you load images, so that you can read text on pages that would otherwise murder your bandwidth! :D Very important.
* Prevent Tab Overflow - keep more tabs onscreen at once. If you're a sane person who doesn't have more than ten or so open at a time, this is probably unnecessary. If you're some kind of psycho who keeps *checks* 20+ open on a GOOD day, then yes, this will ease your heart quite a bit. Recommended for fellow weirdos.
* Text Link - automatically enables you to access any plaintext link by double-clicking on it in your browser. I use it... a lot. For the lazy.

And the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest occasionally breaks out into profound philosophy, as you can see below:
The real problem with the “many universes” interpretation of quantum mechanics is that if it’s true, then somewhere, in some universe, anything you can possibly imagine has already happened, which means that somewhere, another version of me has already finished writing the rest of this science-fiction novel, so I’m not feeling real inspired to do it myself. — Steve Lauducci, Bethlehem, PA

There is a prize for Oddest [Book] Title of the Year. Great advertising, really - I mean, can you sincerely tell me you've never wanted to read The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories?

And have you ever wanted a good look at what happens if you say "Yes" to spyware?

Anyway, hope everyone's doing well! :D

Back in 2007, some Israeli idiots had an epic case of Babelfishing Yo Momma...
It's discovered why the "Pokemon Diamond" (aka Telefang) bootleg was so bizarre: It was poorly translated from Japanese to CHINESE first, and only THEN translated into English.
Just read everything on the Translation Train Wreck page and be happy.
Did you realize that all the "Things X is not allowed to do" lists actually started with a real person?!
I highly recommend the BEYOND NSFW webcomic Oglaf. In brief, it's usually a porn parody of fantasy cliches. Occasionally recurring characters have something resembling a plot subplots, but that usually clears up after a while. Here, have a SFW one to get some idea what this comic is like.
Here's a nice Goku/Vegeta fanart site. As a bonus, the Japanese author provides English text!
Even Charles Darwin had his bad days! ...He sounds like he's whining on his LJ.
And here's a parody SCP that amuses me, though Your Manboobs May Vanish.
There may be a free program to adjust your computer to avoid the usual My-Screen-Is-As-Bright-As-The-Surface-Of-The-Sun issues late at night. I'll have to try it out before I can tell you how well it works. Considering that the color of bright light late at night may affect depression, I'd say it may be useful...

Chocolate may help keep your brain healthy!
Malaria vaccine on the horizon?
Hyperconnectivity found in the brains of children with autism... Wait. Wasn't that already common knowledge? Short-range connections increased, long-range connections decreased? *scratches head*

( ''Hedy's Folly'' (Richard Rhodes) and ''Zelda's Cut'' (Philippa Gregory) )

( Four books! Maybe I'll actually get into the habit of reviewing, now. )

No, it's not a romhack. Many poor fools did their best to reconstruct Pokemon in RPG Maker, and they actually succeeded. I'm not sure what their SAN ratings logically have to be at this point, but they succeeded. So somebody used those packages to make a fangame with several 'Fusion Pokemon' running about.

May not play more than a few hours of it because A) I have better things to do, B) the encounter rates for some Pokemon are infuriatingly low, C) I have other games to play, etc. - but if you have some spare time and you're low on cash, it would make for a decently fun FR/LG takeoff. My obsessive-compulsiveness with catching all the Pokemon in an area, however, interferes with my enjoyment. :\

(That said... it's a Pokemon game that's not a ROM. It does fill a niche if you have ethical objections to emulators.)

The download link is here. Costs you nothing to try it, anyway. :P

Zowayix's Pokemon Blue Worst Luck Possible Run

I never knew Sandslash was so GOOD. O_O (Or just HOW Slash's critical-calculations worked in Red/Blue. *wolf whistle*)

( Nothing of interest )

--( Recommendations )

Cannot stop listening.

Good gad, this song is addictive. I recommend the following setting: http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=srTk1BKawZw&start_at=60&end_at=179
--
Hilarious list of intentionally-fumbled English rules. Do read.
--
Play around with mixing Pokemon a bit! (I recommend using Magnemite in the first slot for some amusing results...)
--
Amusing Piled Higher And Deeper comic.
--

Aside from that, I don't have many interesting things to suggest. I'm on the Forest Temple on Ocarina of Time (and I took trips to Fire Temple and Water Temple for fun, but it really wasn't much use without the Fairy Bow), and am busy getting beaten up by... falls from high places. ...I'm exploiting those extra ~4 hearts to enjoy fail!playing to my utmost, what can I say? Link: Cliff-Jumper of Time. :P

EDIT: Also, the most interesting thing that happened to me in the last two days was having the Sprite bottle go nuclear on an airplane. ...You know, a Sprite bottle did that to me when I was on a trip when I was twelve, too. I think I'll just veto sugared-Sprite bottles from now on. *sigh*

 

( Mostly Blue Oyster Cult, with a token Jefferson Airplane song. I'll probably have more later, but these were the ones that came to mind. )

All of the random generators you could ever need.

Comes with:

Fandom-Relevant Generator Index
Browse a list of popular fandoms to find generators relevant to your interests, be they Doctor Who, The Avengers, Sherlock, Dungeons & Dragons, or many, many more.

Worldbuilding-Relevant Generator Index
Browse a list of random generators useful for building worlds and cultures.

Name Generators
Names for characters, places, and more.

Human & Humanoid Character Generators
Profiles and descriptions for humans and things mostly resembling humans.

Non-Humanoid Character Generators
Profiles and descriptions for non-humanoid characters - eg, pets, dragons, etc.

Character Detail Generators
Bits and bobs like abilities and personal details.

Genre, Plot, & Story Prompt Generators
Plots for everything from short stories to novels.

Item & Artifact Generators
Generate fictional feelies and/or crafting and art ideas!

Costume & Wardrobe Generators
Clothing and fashion for your characters.

Location & Setting Generators
Places for your story to happen in.

Other Generators
Generators that don't warrant their own category yet.

Randomly-Chosen Random Generator
Let random chance take you to your destination!

Impossible/Impractical Random Generator Requests - And Where You Should Go Instead
Every now and then, I get someone looking for something that's really not doable because it's either too broad or too narrow, so I've created this page to help people find something that should suit their purposes.

Quick Character & OC Creation Kit
A page with links to the pages I use most when creating new characters, particularly OCs. Figured if I found it helpful, so would others.

Check it out! *pins as App Tab* *continues painfully enthusiastic (mental) squealing*

EDIT: Credit to aikaterini for linking to an article elsewhere on that site that led me to that page.
"or maybe she's a deliciously frigid frost giant or a beautiful were-alpaca -"
It's worth a read.

(Yeah, yeah, old news to harp , I know)

It's available here (public domain and all).

Now, I actually like this more than most of Lovecraft's work for the following reasons:
( *insert verbose blithering here* )

So try it out! It's free, after all.

And the shoggoths would like you to read it. You don't want to anger the shoggoths, do you?

Behold the adventures of a sassy Mimic, a dimwitted but cheerful Rust Monster, and the most badass Gelatinous Cube ever to grace the pages of a webcomic.

There are also hipster vampires, punk princesses, and powergaming sorceresses. And that's not even mentioning the Illithid Mafia.

...Ohdarn. *flees like her brains depend upon it*

YA Paranormal Romance Blurb Generator

Come on, come all! Don't you want to see your brilliant Mad Libs abomination totally original plot? :)

Here's an example of a possible blurb:( Come on, take a look! :D )

...I should note that I really, really DO recommend Codecademy with the fervor of any new convert. With all due respect to all the other fun activities on the web, it's the only recent one that I can remember that made me actually learn something. XD And it's fun! Really!

Notes:
Contrary to what you might think...
At least at first (i.e. with the HTML/CSS and early JavaScript portions)...
1) It requires absolutely no mathematical or logistical abilities.
2) It requires nothing more than a working keyboard and internet connection.
3) If there are any problems, the Hint will usually tell you what you should be doing.
4) You can probably finish a few exercises in about the same amount of time it takes to mass-click 300 Pokemon in the Berry Feeder on GPXPlus while mashing the 1,2,3,4,5 keys at full speed.
4a) The amount of time it takes to finish a full section feels like about the same amount of time it will take to mass-click those Pokemon.
Also...
5) To be really cynical? ...It's set up in the rapid action-reward system that hypnotizes people with ADHD-like traits. >_> Put music on, sit down in a comfortable chair, and drift happily through the lessons. Heck, open up tabs and jump between track courses and non-track courses - it isn't going to stop you. Just make sure said courses are all in the same programming language so that you don't end up bewildered by syntax errors. :P

(Remember, you can always go to Codecademy Labs to run code of your own for Python, Ruby, and JavaScript. No on-computer compiler needed!)

[...Also, the "high" mood refers to the feeling of doing courses, NOT ingesting any controlled substances. I was off of caffeine again as of Friday. :P ]

((Since I keep advertising it but seem not to have remembered to describe it... >_>))

Codecademy is a site that offers free courses in various kinds of code, including HTML (and thus CSS), Javascript, Python, and Ruby. No, it doesn't bombard you with ads or malware - as far as I can tell, it's a genuine power-of-the-people effort.

The interface is easy and enjoyable. It introduces you to a concept, has you do a simple exercise, and then goes onto the next concept. The only problem so far is that the HTML course occasionally glitches up and doesn't respond to the Submit button properly, but it's not grading you, so you don't have to worry about that affecting anything. And yes, you can go back and review a previous exercise at any time - it's pretty well laid-out, so you'll be able to find your way back.

It also has a little scoring system so you know how many exercises you've done today and how many days you've been going at Codecademy without interruption. So, if you're feeling competitive, you can work on racking up as many points as you can in any given day. :P Wonderful procrastination tool...

Apparently I've been on there for twelve days and done very little in that time.

Why do I recommend it for the casual LJer/Dreamwidther? Because it will enable you to actually read CSS stylesheets without it all looking like Greek (er, or... Chinese or something, in aikaterini 's case >_>), it will allow you to program up short little things for your own entertainment and use, and because it's a browser-game-like site that will actually increase your knowledge and be useful in the future. I mean, with all due respect to Dragon Cave, GPXPlus, and the like, mass-clicking doesn't benefit you in the long run. Learning programming languages will - even if it's as a side hobby and the most you do with it is create custom journal layouts and run amusing little text programs.

So please do check it out, if you have a minute. I promise that you won't regret it.

Free website dedicated to teaching people how to code in-browser. Teaches HTML, jQuery, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and more!

I just found my new "But it's productive, really!" procrastination site. :D

On a cheerier note, Totally Captioned is the most ridiculously amusing thing I can remember for a while. Ah, yuri fanboys. I forgot what it was like to see pure, shameless perversion, without any 'we-are-subverting-the-kyriarchal-paradigm-of-non-genderqueer-epistemology-in-the-unique-psychosocial-dynamics-of-water-bottle-orchestration-episodes' guilty justifications. :P

...*takes mental notes*

The Complete and Utter Insanity of 'Batman: Odyssey'
The Gender Genie
Texter

Pseudodeaths, sock puppets, and conversations between undead sock puppets, oh my!

As a bonus, it has some amazing internet-detective work by the person who wrote the post. Hahaha, the timestamps...

MULTIFANDOM AU DRABBLE MEME

PROJECT UNICORN, VOLUME ONE is a collection of thirty young adult short stories featuring lesbian heroines. As ghosts and witches, aliens and vampires, the characters in this extensive and varied collection battle monsters and inner demons, stand up to bullies, wield magic, fall in love, and take action to claim their lives–and their stories–as their own.

Some of the short stories are available for free on this blog as previews. It's the authors' shared blog, so have no fear of those stories being put up without permission or anything. |P

Anyway, they're pretty nice, so you should go read!

In early playtests, the author relates how one person introduced psychic vampires in time zeppelins, which, while awesome, was not part of the intended universe.

(Right over here.)

...Or from this link, actually, which is mainly a complaint about the overuse of rape-as-drama in fiction. (*much applause*)

[If you don't understand WTH is going on with Something Awful's vocabulary, they have a word filter up for non-users to prevent filtering software from cutting them off. A partial key [as far as I can tell] is below:

( I can't imagine posts without the word filter -gently caress it, the LP Archive would just not be the same insane starting of WGB threads one gets used to... )]

As an example of just how crazy the thread gets, well... We'll just say some paper-and-pencil RPG systems can go incredibly wrong during character creation...

Seriously, read through some of the thread if you have the spare time. It's bloody hilarious.
Ah - here's the index of posts, which helps because there's no rhyme or reason to the posting order otherwise. Have fun! :D