Fantasist’s Scroll

Just when you thought it was safe!
Yep, this is the final sushi link for a while, at least. While I’m sure you all are getting tired of the sushi links, this was just too good to pass up. This site, The Original Sushi Pillow, has the perfect cushions for a post sushi party nap. They have several nigiri sushi pillow, including salmon and shrimp, and a whole mess of sushi roll pillows. I have to say that these pictures look really good! You can actually buy them, too, via an eBay store.

Way cool, and the perfect Friday Fun Link to end this series of sushi links.

Look, I made more art!
I needed a fantasy world to escape into, so I made one. Well, part of one. So far, I’m just experiementing with some stock images, but at least I’m producing things. ThisVue d’Espirit program is really intuitive, for me, and makes great output very easy to produce. Or so I’m told. So far, I’ve only made really good output, but I see the potential for great. Who knows, one day, someone might actually donate money for the art I produce! Yeah, okay, that might be asking too much, but, still… On the other hand, I’ve been thinking about saving up the money for a new color printer. Rumor has it that Epson produces archival quality inks for their inkjet printers. In theory, I could use them to produce prints that I could sell. Make a limited number of prints, frame them, and sell them on eBay or, dare I say it, my very own web page!

Yep, you can bid on a space mission on eBay.

Seriously. Of course, I’m not sure what the average Joe would want with a satellite, but you never know. It does have a camera, according to this article on Wired News, but is it really worth the price? Well, I guess we’ll see.
Personally, I like it. Sure, I’m not going to bid on it, but I like the idea of privitizing space this way. After all, how else are we going to get out there? What’s more, how else are we going to make it cheap? Cars and planes used to be horribly expensive, until everyone started using them. Now, almost every family owns a car and everyone flies somewhere. Okay, maybe not in their own plane, but still… Combine this with a little space tourism and we might actually start to get out into space!

Will that be cash, check or charge?

Technology keeps marching on, doesn’t it? Now, according to this article on Wired News, there’s a Canadian company that offers churches a new way of collecting donations. An interactive kiosk. What will they think of next? Will indulgences be autioned off on eBay? Will “independant” churches offer PayPal as a method of donation? I wonder what God thinks of all this? Does this offend his sight? Are the money lenders in the temple?
It seems strange to me, but then, I guess it’s harder and harder to collect money for charity these days. Who knows if it will even work? It sure is an interesting idea, though. Even if it is a bit frightening.

Will this become more common as we become more integrated with technology? Will shrines have donation kiosks available to distribute prayers for the faithful on their pilgrimages? Can a priest be replaced with a PERL script? Man, there are so many ideas for stories here that I can hardly imagine all the possibilities! Sci-fi religion at it’s best!

DragonQuest still rules.

Okay, the new version of Dungeons and Dragons is good, but is a new version really neccessary already? Well, Wizards of the Coast sure seems to think it is. They’ve announced a D&D 3.5. What, are they taking lessons from Micro$oft?

So, it’s back to good old DragonQuest for me. Thanks to some helpful pirates in New Zealand, I can still get copies of the DragonQuest rules, albeit modified with their house rules. Still, the Seagate Guild of Adventurers has everything you need to play, except dice. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, they’ve ignored copyright issues to bring this to the public, which I admire. Of course, they’re in another country, which makes copyright enforcement a little tricky, I guess. In any case, over the years several gamers, myself included, have tried to get teh rights to DragonQuest, to no avail, so it’s nice that someone has made the info available.
Though, you can still try eBay for stray copies. They do turn up from time to time.