Fantasist's Scroll

Fun, Fiction and Strange Things from the Desk of the Fantasist.

7/30/2004

Sell your Soul, ONLINE!

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waxing Gibbous

I knew you could become an ordained minister on-line, but…

I had no idea you could sell your soul on-line! Well, apparently, you can. And, also apparently this is the only way to Make money on the Internet. And, based on how many people have made donations or bought books from this site, I think that’s the only way I might make any money from the Internet!

Anyway, it struck me as funny, so enjoy it, or not. It’s Friday, so it’s your choice!

7/28/2004

Books for my Reading List

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waxing Gibbous

Okay, now here’s a couple that I’m looking forward to getting…

The first two are game books: Serpent Kingdoms, which is a D&D supplement about reptilian races and D20 Future, which is, well, a D20 supplement for futuristic gaming. I’m looking forward to that second one, in particular, for all the cool Star Frontiers information that they’ve included. Star Frontiers was a great little science-fiction game that TSR put out back in the 80’s. It was smart, slick space-opera and it was really, really fun. So, back a couple of weeks ago when I read that Wizards of the Coast was putting all that info into the new D20 game, was really excited. Too bad that it isn’t due out until September! Luckily, Serpent Kingdoms is due out later this month.
So is my third reading list book, Iron Council, which is the third book set in the world of New Crobuzon. A very different and innovative fantasy series by an acclaimed author. It’s really a very interesting world filled with magical creatures, but not any elves! (Hooray!) This one seems to be set back in the city of New Crobuzon itself and promises to be a good one. (Okay, who am I kidding? I’m a drooling fanboy who would worship almost anything China Miéville would put out. There, are you happy?)

So, it looks like I’ll have more reading to do!

7/26/2004

Review: The Chanur Saga

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waxing Gibbous

Wondered where we’ve been this Summer?

Well, besides changing jobs, I’ve been reading. One of the books I read was The Chanur Saga, though I didn’t read it all at once. This is actually an “omnibus” of the first three books in the Chanur series. There are, to my knowlege, two more. Now, I have to admit, this is not my “usual” kind of book. I like science-fiction, but I often have trouble with female writers because they focus on things that don’t often interest me. (In otherwords, they write romance novels in space or fantasy settings!) But, my wife read these and really liked them, so I gave it a shot. Boy, am I glad I did!
More along the lines of a “space opera” in the fact that the author, C. J. Cherryh, didn’t focus on the hard-science aspects of the Chanur universe, but instead on the “people”, mainly aliens, who live there. The story through out the three books in the “omnibus” follow the discovery of humanity by the Compact, which include a lionlike race called the hani. The Chanur are a clan of hani who have a trading spaceship who take in a castaway human, who’s lost in Compact space. Along the way, we meet the mahendo’sat, the stsho, the chi, the t’cha, the knnn, and the kif, who are all members of the Compact and have their own ideas about what to do with humanity. The kif are the bad guys, generally, but each race has their own goals regarding this newly discovered race. All in all it’s fairly interesting and entertaining.
One of the things I like the best is that Ms. Cherryh uses language and language barriers effectively and realisticlly in her work. We’ve got a bunch of races with various languages among them all trying to work together, and take advantage of each other, without having too many misunderstandings. At times, it makes for very entertaining reading! And, it provides quite a bit of food for thought for my own work in this regard.
Very well done and I look forward to reading the next two in the series!

7/23/2004

Gondor Accepted into the UN

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waxing Crescent

No, really….

I read it on the Internet! Right here at the Watley Review, so it has to be true!

Hey, it’s Friday, so cut me some slack and read the article….

7/16/2004

A Business that Stinks!

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is a New Moon

No, it literally stinks!

According to this article on CNN, there’s a company that makes very, very unusual smells for museums and advertising firms. Most recently, they recreated the stink of a Tyrannosaurus Rex’s breath. But, they’ve done all kinds of things, pleasant and, er, well, less than pleasant for verious special needs. It’s really an interesting idea, when you consider how strongly we tie memories to scent. A very interesting article. And, just the right amount of fun for a Friday!

7/14/2004

Endangered Language Fund

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is Waning Crescent

You can help save endangered languages.

Okay, so this isn’t exactlly a conlang thing, but most of us who are into conlangs are into unusual languages and language issues. So, toward that end, I give you The Endangered Language Fund and The Endangered Language Query Rooms . Two great resources for languages on the edge of extinction. And, possibly, inspiration for a conlang or two.

7/9/2004

Theremins for sale

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is in the early morning.
The moon is a Third Quarter Moon

Remember that eriee music in that old movie?

You know, that really bad, old sci-fi movie? Well, that music was most likely made by a Theremin. So, you’re asking yourself, what’s the point? Well, now you can get a Theremin of your very own. No, really. This link will take you to Moog Music who sells a variety of kits and pre-built Theremins for your spooky music pleasure. Well, I thought it was cool, anyway….

7/2/2004

Rail Guns

Filed under: — Posted by the Fantasist during the Hour of the Hare which is terribly early in the morning.
The moon is a Full Moon

Okay, this may not seem like “fun” to everyone…

But, this article on Slashdot about rail guns got me. Apparently, the US Navy plans to have rail guns installed by 2011. That’s not all that far away.
For those of you not familiar, rail guns are basically high-speed catapults driven by very, very powerful electromagnets. Very science-fiction stuff. And, the Navy plans on having working rail guns on actual ships by 2011.

Cool.


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