Does anyone remember Kamarsi? I do. She was a remarkably good artist around here. She also had a lot of at-home problems with her fiance, so I'm hoping that things worked out and she's doing well wherever she turned out.

Happy birthday, wherever you are!

Back when I was in college I submitted an article called "A Guide to Undercover Missions on Low-Tech Planets" to the now-defunct Traveller Magazine. They paid me but never published it.

But now it's in Traveller Compendium 3!

So that makes me happy. My years of playing sci-fi RPGs because I was too hipster for Dungeon & Dragons have been totally worth it.

This Valentine's Day, I proposed to my girlfriend of four years. We met in college (dinosaurs class specifically) and I finally tied the knot We both have stayed up really late talking and doing the same things, we share all the same interests, we're both going into video game writing as a career, and I've never met another person who I'd rather spend the rest of my life with.

I got really really really REALLY REALLY lucky with the ring, because I inherited a really good ring from my Grandma, it looks kinda like this one, only imagine the metal were gold and there was no wreath around the sapphire:



So I'm very excited and so is she!

I am having a very hard time understanding why this concept is useful. The iPad was designed to be like an iPod, but bigger, meaning it filed a niche role between an iPod and a computer, and for that it's sold really well and been really popular. But an "iPad mini" is just an iPod, but slightly bigger. If you wanted a smaller iPad, why wouldn't you just get an iPod?

My first one-off. Just something I wrote as a thought experiment when I was bored in English 101. I wanted to show how the Hebrew Bible would explain the anthropomorphic characters in the Darwin's Soldiers universe. This is the in-universe version of Genesis 3 from the Hebrew Bible.

_________________________________________________________________________



1 Now, the serpent was the most subtle of all the wild animals that God had made. It asked the woman, 'Did God really say that you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?'

2 The woman answered the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden.

3 But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, lest you die."'

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, 'No! You will not die!

5 God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.'

6 The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to the animals and her husband who was with her, and they ate it.

7 Then the eyes of all were opened, and the animals stood up and knew themselves, and the man and woman knew they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.

8 The man and his wife heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from God among the trees of the garden.

9 But God called to the man. 'Where are you?' He asked.

10 'I heard the sound of You in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.'

11 'Who told you that you were naked?' He asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?'

12 The man replied, 'It was the woman You put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'

13 Then God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The serpent beguiled me, and I ate.'

14 Then God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all animals wild and tame! You shall have no hind legs, on your belly you will go and on dust you will feed as long as you live.

15 I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; she will bruise your head and you will strike her heel.' To the other animals He said, 'I did not wish for you to know your subservience, but you will still live in man's domain, and you will serve him.'

16 To the woman He said, 'I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you will give birth to your children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.'

17 To the man He said, 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; painfully will you get your food from it as long as you live.

18 It will yield you brambles and thistles, as you eat the produce of the land.

19 By the sweat of your face you will earn your food, until you return to the ground, as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.'

20 The man named his wife 'Eve' because she was the mother of all those who live.

21God made tunics of skin for the man and his wife and clothed them.

22Then God said, 'Now the man has become like one of us in knowing good from evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and eat and live forever!'

23 So God expelled them from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which they had been taken.

24 He banished the man and his animals, and in front of the garden of Eden He posted a cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

These next two Darwin's Soldiers stories will both be ending trilogies. Nietzsche's Soldiers 3 marks the completion of about a year-long endeavor to create three stories focusing on Dragonstorm characters instead of our heroes. I'll be updating this story every day until its completion.

This final Nietzsche story will chronicle the founding of Dragonstorm. Since its an origin story, I don't believe it requires any knowledge of the expanded Darwin's Soldiers universe to understand, though obviously you will miss a large amount of the references.

Darwin's Soldiers is a sci-fi/furry universe. You can learn more here.

Off we go!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The thoroughbred Mustang stared derisively at the freshman Shire horse. “You don’t even have a gun.”

“Could never afford one.” The lanky, poorly-dressed Shire stood unflinchingly a hand-breath away from the taller Mustang.

The Mustang was part of a ring of horse college students surrounding the Shire. They were the Crazy Shoes gang, one of the major gangs on the University of California Three Rivers campus. The Shire was attempting to join, despite clearly coming from a lower social class than the other members.

“Family’s never had enough money to buy baking powder, much less gunpowder,” the Shire continued.

“Well, nobody likes scholarship kids around here,” the Mustang snorted. Like most of the university’s student body, these gang members had gotten in due to their wealthy parents and their contacts. “Being friends with you won’t get any of us high-paying jobs once we graduate.”

“Even when my scholarship comes from W-Y Industries?”

The Mustang raised an eyebrow. “How’d someone like you get a scholarship from there? You need connections  to deal with a company like that.”

“W-Y has more connections than just legitimate business ones,” the Shire retorted. “Like most conglomerates, it understands that having contacts in the lower class can accomplish things no amount of upper class contacts could.”

The Mustang raised both eyebrows. “Yeah? How so?”

“Well, living on the streets makes one much more capable than they first appear to be.”

The Shire’s hands suddenly snapped forward and whacked the Mustang in both hips. Feeling a sidearm tucked into his belt, the Shire ducked under the Mustang’s grasping hands, came up behind him with the gun in his hand, and had the pistol to the Mustang’s neck.

“Poor people are also willing to risk more to get what they want,” the Shire hissed in his ear, as he moved the Mustang out of the circle so he could see everyone at once.

Several gang members drew their guns, but couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting their leader.

“I’m not looking for a fight,” the Shire announced to the group at large. “I just want to join your gang, and I don’t want any more slights about me being here on scholarship.”

The gang seemed hesitant.

“Notice how easily I did this,” he continued. “Think how useful it would be to have me on your team.”

He stared down an Arabian horse who appeared to be the second-in-command. Under his gaze, the Arabian lowered his pistol. Following his lead, the others slowly stood down.

The mustang saw his gang shift to the Shire’s side. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll let you join. One question first: are you thoroughbred?”

There was a brief pause.

“Yes,” said the Shire. “Does that matter?”

“We don’t like half-breeds. Or mutts.”

“Well, good thing I’m neither,” the Shire replied. Lowering the gun, he handed it to the Mustang and stepped back.

For a second he Mustang held the pistol and glanced calculatingly at the Shire, but then thought better of it and put the gun away.

“When do we all meet next?” asked the Shire.

“Tomorrow at 4. Here.”

“I’ll be here.” The Shire turned and started off.

“Wait,” called the Mustang. “You never mentioned your name.”

The Shire looked around. “O’Neil.”

“First name?”

“Don’t matter. Just O’Neil.” He turned back and continued to walk towards his new college.

          *          *          *

“Your first day, and you’ve already joined a gang?” Oli let out a quiet whistle. “You don’t mess around.”

Oli Struth was O’Neil’s acquaintance from downtown Fresno, where they both grew up. Coming from a family jewelry company, Oli had a much easier life than O’Neil, but little ambition. O’Neil found that with his strong personality, he can easily persuade Oli to do what he wants.

“You need to be a member of a group in these kinds of places,” replied O’Neil, putting a few clothes in a drawer and setting some school supplies on his desk. In less than a minute he had finished unpacking. “Especially in my situation. I need the safety of numbers to avoid becoming bully bait like most scholarship kids at this school.”

“I can’t imagine anyone bullying you,” said Oli. Despite arriving before O’Neil, he was still unpacking several suitcases of things. “Nobody in Fresno did.”

“They tried, I could just outwit them. But here it’s different; everyone here is intelligent, and under the protection of a rich family and the school system. Its an environment one cannot brave alone.”

Oli was silent for a few moments. “O’Neil?” he finally asked. “Do you think I should join a gang?”

O’Neil chuckled lightly. “You wouldn’t last five minutes in a gang, Oli. A fraternity would be more your style. We can visit Club Rush and find a good one for you tomorrow.”

Portal 2 just came out today!

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be working on my Vista computer. Keeps crashing right after the Valve logo and first loading screen. On the forums it seems loads of users are having the same problem. Hope somebody finds a solution soon.

Has anyone else had better luck with the game? Is it awesome?

Just got back from an epic weekend at Strategicon, and I was wondering who among us play tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons & Dragons), and what are your favorite systems?

For ongoing campaigns, my favorite system is the science fiction Traveller, which has a really cool character creation process that's built around backstory, and works for grounded "planet-side" campaigns, and space faring Star Trek-style ones.

For one-off sessions, I love Psi Run, a story-oriented system where the players assume the roles of psychic amnesiacs on the run from authorities, though they don't know why. The system is very simple, and is designed so that the players get to come up with almost all the story aspects together, creating amazingly unique stories that no GM could come up with on his own.
Unfortunately, as of this writing, it's not widely available, so you need to either know the right people or, like me, play it at a convention and have a good memory.

What systems have you guys played and enjoyed?

To everyone who is or has been in the Darwin's Soldiers role play series: There's now a Wiki for it!

http://darwinssoldiers.wikia.com/wiki/Darw...s_Soldiers_Wiki

Of course, the Wiki is relatively unpolished, and needs a bunch more content, but it'll slowly expand, until it looks as good as our TV Tropes page does.

The link below is a good page to get a large list of characters. Feel free to expand any of the pages, especially ones pertaining to characters you created, since naturally you'd know more about them than I would, and if you don't, all they'll get is whatever I can come up with, which won't be that great.

http://darwinssoldiers.wikia.com/wiki/James%27_team

Also, if Darwin's Soldiers writers could send me their old avatars, the ones they don't have as their profile pics anymore, that would be a great way to increase the picture count, which is currently pretty sparse.

But congratulations everybody! You're characters are now in a wiki!

I want to download the 85.2 FM radio song from the video game Portal as a ringtone for my phone, and the top link is to a website called "Cellsea". I've never heard of this site, so I'm wondering if anyone knows how to find out if the ringtones are safe. What are the chances of myself picking up a virus, or receiving spam from the site?