This week, Skyler, local wiz and toon bunny, erected this year's Christmas tree.  The tree is just a few small, green branches, nailed on a weak, wooden cross.  Pine needles spray from it on every motion.  A ragged old  blue blanket is wrapped around its base.

         The tree is located in the park, and anyone may add their favorite decorations to it.  Currently, it is wearing A model of the moon lander from 2001, A model of a Gemini capsule., something that Maxl actually enjoys, A 'Join the SED!' pamphlet, a slightly mouldy severed elk hoof, Entrails that serve as garland, a golden acorn, Mini-clock from TimesHeart, a carousel reindeer, a Chinese dragon, a blue crystal in the shape of a kitty, A small paper angel with white hair and a black-and-white skunktail. and fifteen billion college applications, a garland of Floridian chads, fifteen empty Starbucks cups, twenty roadkilled eggplants, a little brass hexagram with a hovering sphere inside it and a new password.

         Feel free to visit the park and add your own decorations!  You can also see trees from Christmas past by typing 'luge chr'.

         Mozdoc, former local centaur, was caught using Argon's Spindizzy account by Skyler, local toon bunny and wizard.  Argon's password was guessed merely by knowledge of his species and personality.  Before anyone had realized what had happened, however, Mozdoc was busy removing descriptions of various rooms and objects, including that of Argon himself.  Mozdoc was quickly @toaded and will not be allowed onto Spindizzy for quite some time.  Mozdoc's motives for his actions were not quite clear, though he seemed to have issues with Argon just a few weeks prior to the act of vandalism.  No permanent damage was done, however, as Argon was able to restore his descriptions using his @archived backups.

         When asked for comments, Argon stated, "I had no reason to be too concerned about security.  I'm not a Wiz, and could foresee no reason for my account to be hacked.  Guess it just goes to show that you can't assume anything.  Thank goodness for @archive though.  I'm still amazed Mozdoc found me all that interesting, and worth such revenge."

         "In consequence", stated Austin in a recent bulletin board posting, "it is strongly recommended that everyone reset their passwords to some alphanumeric combination which has no obvious connections to the player or to the character played."  He also mentioned that you can see where you last connected from when you first log in.  If you do not recognize the IP address or hostname, there is a possibility you were hacked and you should contact a wizard immediately.

         @Archive is a way to back up everything you have made. Unfortunately, typing one command will not archive everything you own, generally.  Before we get into actual commands, lets go over the basic idea of @archive.   Essentially, you turn off word-wrap in your muck client, turn on logging for the Spindizzy session, type in the @archive command, and press enter.  In a minute or two it will finish and you can turn off logging.  You will then have a snapshot of everything @archive read through.

         If you needed to restore the snapshotted objects,  you would simply tell your muck client to paste the file back into the muck session and in just minutes your creations would be restored.  In some cases when you have an exit linked to someone else's room and they no longer allow linking, that part of the room creation will fail. Be sure to take a quick look around your restored creations to check for things like that.

         Now for some commands to get you started.  Please log the results of these @archive commands if you wish to make a backup of what they describe.  To archive yourself (including morphs, objects carried, etc) type in:  "@archive me".  In SOME cases, if you join another muck, you can paste this back into that muck session and get most of your morphs and objects automatically. Try this at your own risk.

         To archive a room and all the rooms connected to it that you own, type in "@archive here=ae", but first make sure you are IN that room!  This should also grab the objects and zombies as well contained in it.  If you wish to backup a specific object, simply do a "@archive objectname", where objectname is the name of the object.

         If you have further questions about the @archive command, you can get help by typing "@archive", or "look @archive" for very simplified help.  You can of course ask Wizards if you have even further questions or do not understand quite how to work it.

         The other crucial command, @password, will let you change your password.  Using it is very simple.  Simply type "@password currentpassword=newpassword".  For an example, if you have a password of hello, and wish to change it to goodbye, type in  "@password hello=goodbye".  Please do not choose such an obvious password though!

         In summary, @archive your important objects and be sure to have a secure password so that what Mozdoc did cannot happen again!

         The Path East, leading from Centaur Square to the edge of SpinDizzy, suffered some minor vandalism earlier this week due to Mozdoc.  Because of @archive, it has been restored and is ready to be explored.   In addition, a new global has been installed muck wide which will take you to Centaur Square.  Enter  'cs'  or 'csq' to go there.

Rown

         Wednesday evening, the 12th of December, SED leader Morticon attempted an invasion of the home of resident Centaur and Spindizzy regular, Rown.  In a surprise move, Morticon preceded his invasion with the message, "Morticon invades Rown's living room with hoards of SED Soldiers :)" Morticon then advanced (with an hoard of one) into Rown's front yard and attempted to invade his home only to be repelled by some quick thinking and a banishment command. To the great amusement of the guests at Rown's home that night and to Morticon's disappointment, the evil wallaby was sent back home.

 

         An attempt was made to request the nature of Morticon's actions and render assistance. When Rown asked Morticon if he needed help, his reply was, "Yes. You can set your house on fire." Of course the request was denied considering the nature of his wish. Rown's response was a joyful laugh towards Morticon to which Morticon asked, "What's so funny, horse?" Of course Rown, being far above the average evil wallaby in intelligence, overlooked the crude remark and went about enjoying the company of his friends, safe from the SED 'forces' outside his walls.

         Morticon, on the other hand, was visited by Fraxusterpouet, Frogar's pet. Fraxusterpouet, being the lovable, curious, and endearing little creature that he is, went right to work letting Morticon know just how much he'd like to be his friend. Morticon's reply was, "Errm, that's OK." When asked if Morticon would give Fraxusterpouet a piggy back ride, Morticon replied, "I think I'll be leaving... quickly...", after which he made a hasty retreat!

         Rown, local Centaur, in an effort to expose our community to culture and entertainment has opened the Centaur Amphitheater off Centaur Square. Equipped with the latest in audio and lighting equipment, the open air edifice is designed for the best in acoustics and viewing.  A large screen is available which displays films, including IMAX, along with a full surround sound system.

         Designer and builder Rown, when asked why he built the center, said, "I wanted to offer something special to the community, and especially the friends I have made here.  It seems a place for those with talent to perform was needed and this seemed like an appropriate place for it."

         Although designed with Centaurs in mind, with large platforms and ramps, accommodations have been made for all forms of audience members, both to observe performances and to perform.  Rown asks that anyone who cares to use the amphitheater feel free to do so.

>> Procedure for submitting an article:

 *  The newspaper building is located at Role Play Central (rpc).  When you

enter the building you will see a bulletin board.

 *  Go ahead and 'write' your story.  If you decide you don't want to write

one, hit .abort and forget about it.  Otherwise page 'newspaper' alerting

us that you wrote one when you finish pasting it in.

 *  An alternative to this is to page #mail newspaper with your story OR

email it to newspaper@spindizzy.org

 * We will edit it and tell you where you can look at it to make sure it wasn't mangled.  You can then p #mail the editor involved saying that it is ok.  Otherwise, suggest changes that should be made. If you trust the editors feel free to put something to the effect that you pre-approve the editing in your rough draft.

 * That's it!  It'll appear in the paper!

>> Guidelines for writing articles:

When writing articles for the paper...

 * Try and do some proofreading before submission.  That means spell check!

However, if you're no good at that sort of stuff, just send it as-is and the

editors will try their best.

 * No articles whose sole purpose is to flame someone.  You can use the SpinDizzy BB for

that ;)

 * Please strive for accuracy.  If they have time, the editors may check up on some of the quotes and perhaps the basic facts of the article.  Otherwise, it is assumed you did your best to write an accurate article.  If this is abused and inaccurate things are complained about, stricter rules may be put in place.

* Submitting your article anytime on Friday evening through the normal publishing date (Saturday night) will usually waive your right to review the edited version because of time constraints.  You will be contacted and informed but if you cannot get on before the publishing deadline to check your article it will be published regardless UNLESS you specify otherwise.

 * The editors' decisions are final.  This is not a wiz ran paper so do not

complain to them.  We can be reached by paging 'newspaper'.

 * Just about anything is published, so be creative!  It can be IC views on

RL topics, RPs that occurred around the MUCK, or most other things you can

think of.  You have creative license when it comes to documenting RPs, so

feel free to expound on the action, etc.  If you aren't sure if a story is

acceptable, page 'newspaper' and find out! :)

 * The AUP applies, so keep language and content acceptable.