DARK PHOENIX!

You are Form 0, Phoenix: The Eternal.

"And The Phoenix's cycle had reached
zenith, so he consumed himself in fire. He
emerged from his own ashes, to be forever
immortal."

Some examples of the Phoenix Form are Quetzalcoatl
(Aztec), Shiva (Indian), and Ra-Atum
(Egyptian).
The Phoenix is associated with the concept of life,
the number 0, and the element of fire.
His sign is the eclipsed sun.

As a member of Form 0, you are a determined
individual. You tend to keep your sense of
optimism, even through tough times and have a
positive outlook on most situations. You have
a way of looking at going through life as a
journey that you can constantly learn from.
Phoenixes are the best friends to have because
they cheer people up easily.


Which Mythological Form Are You?
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Time for Hinirang
A little snippet from the Hinirang RPG stuff I've been rewriting... character creation:

Statistics

Physical Group

Ability: Agility
Power: Strength
Defense: Toughness
Life: Body
Health: Body * 5

Mental Group

Ability: Intellect
Power: Reason
Defense: Tenacity
Life: Mind
Health: Mind * 5

Emotional Group

Ability: Empathy
Power: Passion
Defense: Courage
Life: Heart
Health: Heart * 5

Spiritual Group

Ability: Insight
Power: Will
Defense: Conviction
Life: Spirit
Health: Spirit * 5

Ability indicates the raw ability that individual has in that Statistic Group. It's normally used in calculating the action value for a particular task.
Power indicates the raw power that individual has in the Statistic Group. It's normally used in calculating the effect value for a particular task.
Defense indicates the defensive value that individual has in the Statistic Group. It's normally used in reducing the effect value of a task performed on the character.
Life indicates the amount of "life force" tied up in that Statistic Group. It's used to determine how much damage of that type a character can take before dying. Damage to one's life takes a while to heal.
Health indicates that Statistic Group's endurance. It's used to find out how much punishment of that type a character can take before becoming incapacitated. Damage to one's health heals faster as compared to Life.

Writing systems galore

Please check out www.omniglot.com! It's an excellent site on various writing systems for various languages. It breaks them down into Alphabetic, Syllabic, Logographic, Undeciphered, and Alternative Writing Systems.

Alphabetic systems refer to writing systems that represent individual consonants or vowels. There are apparently some that only have symbols for consonants.
Syllabic systems refer to symbols that represent consonants and vowels.

What the heck are Logographic writing systems? Hm....

Greek Gods
Hm. Interesting...


Morpheus


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
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Well, I'm off to get my artifacts back...

Research
To blow off steam, I like to do web research. Today I happened upon some information regarding U.S. Aircraft Carriers (Nimitz-class):
General Characteristics, Nimitz Class

Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, Va.
Power Plant: Two nuclear reactors, four shafts
Length, overall: 1,092 feet (332.85 meters)
Flight Deck Width: 252 feet (76.8 meters)
Beam: 134 feet (40.84 meters)
Displacement: Approx. 97,000 tons (87,996.9 metric tons) full load
Speed: 30+ knots (34.5+ miles per hour)
Aircraft: 85
Cost: about $4.5 billion each
Ships:
USS Nimitz (CVN 68), San Diego, Calif.
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), Newport News, Va.
USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Bremerton, Wash.
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Norfolk, Va.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Everett, Wash.
USS George Washington (CVN 73), Norfolk, Va.
USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), San Diego, Calif.
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), Norfolk, Va.
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), San Diego, Calif.
George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) (keel laying 6 Sept 2003)
Crew: Ship's Company: 3,200 - Air Wing: 2,480
Armament: Two or three (depending on modification) NATO Sea Sparrow launchers, 20mm Phalanx CIWS mounts: (3 on Nimitz and Dwight D. Eisenhower and 4 on Vinson and later ships of the class.)
Date Deployed: May 3, 1975 (USS Nimitz)

Note the name of that last one.

Campaign Planning: Terran Empire
I've been planning my Terran Empire campaign and decided it would be run akin to a TV series. This would mean setting up a Tripod website and making it seem like a real ongoing series with character profiles, a synopsis for each episode, and out-of-character speculation.

Since it's still in the planning stage, here's what I posted on the HERO GAMES website about it:

I've been thinking of a Terran Frontier-based campaign, probably on a Fleet ship that's got a bunch of Marines and Navy folk on it that's sent to patrol the area.

Initial adventures:
- pirate skirmishes (introduce different races and trade routes)
- Ackalian skirmishes (introduce major alien presence)
- security for Imperial explorations of Mandaaran worlds
- putting down a few localised rebellions against the Empire (mostly unjustified, but with some basis)

Next set of adventures:
- saber-rattling against the Ackalians
- instituting Draconian measures against troublesome worlds in the sector, some even the higher-ups in the military are uncomfortable with.
- discovery of a link between the Mandaaran flight and the Xenovore statuettes.

And on from there.

Much of this doesn't make sense to those unfamiliar with the setting... but it will.

Tech Levels and Science Fiction
Too often when running Science Fiction games (particularly cyberpunk ones), I find that the latest "in-game" technology is often already dated by modern technology. Guns, sensors, and computer capabilities are often far beyond what's printed.

Fortunately HERO will allow me to tweak the Imperial Marine battle suits (Starship Troopers, anyone?) to improve after each mission that they wear it.

Journals
Back in my first year of High School, English teacher Mr. Stark asked us to always submit two pages of writing. It had to contain grammatically correct paragraphs, but could cover any number of topics. He said it was a way for us to overcome the fear of the blank page. Getting into the habit of writing and filling a page with that writing was important to him - a way to break through the 'writer's block' of young teenaged boys intimidated by a cool, but demanding English teacher.

He also used it to correct our grammar and spelling, because he'd give back the two-page journals to us with lots of red markings. Sly teacher, that Mr. Stark.

Anyway I decided to do the same on my blog, but I realized I needed something similar for my attempts at fiction writing, poetry, and other stuff. So I'm beginning another blog... I don't know the title yet, but it'll get me out of my habit of NOT writing.

I hope.

Bleh - Part 1
The boots were definitely carved from Filomenina dragon leather: dragonhide so thick that only the half-automaton craftswomen of Oortanoi could pare away the hard layers to reveal the soft, workable, yet incredibly durable middleskin beneath.

Azan swirled the wine in his goblet, idly watching it coat the dull copper sheen... occasionally marvelling at the invisible nanobots patrolling the edges of the rim keeping the now-warm liquid from spilling onto the blood-stained floor.

Newsbits
Began trolling for news in Yahoo! Found out about how despite the evidence of over 160,000 dying from the effects of global warming, another big country (Russia) is backing away from supporting the Kyoto accords. The U.S. already backpedalled on it, and I guess this means we're all doomed. Time to head to colder climes, coz it's gonna get warm near the equator. High ground too, since the polar ice caps are melting.

Hundreds of Tourists Accused of Three-Day Orgy
By Juliana Liu

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of Japanese tourists and local prostitutes held a three-day orgy at a luxury hotel in southern China, newspapers said, sparking outrage and prompting police to launch an investigation.

I remember seeing cell-recharging stations for cars in Los Angeles. Must be those electric cars...