September 24, 2006
Volume VII - Issue 316
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Spindizzy's Flora and Fauna
Powered by the near-mythic SpinDizzy drives, SpinDizzy never sits still. It floats in space, hosting dozens of denizens, their lifestyles, hopes, dreams, and communities. It's a place you can see centaurs walking alongside talking balloons, or bears traipsing through a Jellicle's marshmallow field.It stands to reason that if SpinDizzians themselves are unique, their food would be, too. From the food at the New Orleans café to walking, talking versions in the Rose Garden, there’s variety everywhere you look.
So where am I going with this?
The answer is quite simple: Mushrooms.
It's true that anything and everything grows on SpinDizzy, but the strangest of these have to be the mushrooms. Borris claims to have a Chernobyl patch, for example, and who’s to guess what is available in the depths of the marshmallow garden? The most interesting of the types, according to local legend, are the glowing versions, which some claim grant superpowers. Supposedly red ones grant giantism, and blue ones, flight.
Of course, it's up to the eater to find these rare jewels, and there's no telling what the result may be. SpinDizzy has been fortunate to have a number of exploration RPs, but for some varieties, there's no need to go beyond the garden. Still, it's worth wondering what's beyond the edges of the Glimmersea, or deep in the southern jungle or northern forest...isn't it?
Pastimes of SpinDizzy is on hiatus this week while Chanspot gets some things sorted out. In the meantime, please toss Tanuki a line if you’ve heard of a good game program or two...something big is going to happen!
Suri
The Lemur Seasonal Calendar
Lemurs observe two calendars: a civil calendar, which is like everyone else's, and a Seasonal Calendar. The Seasonal Calendar is somewhat like an ecclesiastical calendar, consisting of several seasons of unequal and occasionally variable length, each of which emphasizes some important theme of the prosimian year.
The Post-Decemberish Season
The Post Decemberish Season begins with New Year's Day, and
continues until the weather has definitely turned to Spring, usually
around mid-April or so. It's a time for planning, and beginning
projects. No seasonal holidays fall in this period.
The Anti-Pre-Decemberish Season
The Anti-Pre-Decemberish Season commences with the coming of
Springtime weather, and ends on the Sunday in May immediately prior to
the last Monday of the month. It's a time for outdoor activities,
planting gardens, digging, and doing things with gasoline engines.
The Anti-Decemberish Season
The anti-Decemberish Season lasts from the last Monday in May until the
Tuesday before the first Wednesday in August. The Spindizzy National
Day marks the rough middle of the Anti-Decemberish Season. The
Anti-Decemberish Season is celebrated with boisterous outdoor
activities, fires, and explosions. More Lemurs are blown up during the
Anti-Decemberish Season than during the rest of the year combined.
The Anti-Post Decemberish Season
A time of completion, and for showing off what you've accomplished in
the past year. Stoat Fairs are traditionally held during this time
frame. Collectively, the Anti-Pre-Decemberish, Anti-Decemberish and
Anti-Post-Decemberish Seasons are known as the Anti-Seasons.
Responsibilities are de-emphasized in favour of festivities and hobbies
during the Anti-Seasons.
The Pre-Octoberish Season
The Pre-Octoberish Season begins when the Fairs have ended,
and the nights have turned cool. It's a time for storing food, and
doing housework neglected during the anti-seasons. It anticipates the
accumulative activities of the Octoberish Season.
The Octoberish Season
The Octoberish Season is a time for accumulating stuff, and the
holidays focus on that. It's traditionally divided into two
sub-seasons, the Half-Octember, and the Octember.
The Half-Octember
Halloween is celebrated at the end of the Half-Octember. It marks the
boundary between the Half-Octember and the Octember.
The Octember
Thankstaking is celebrated at the end of the Octember. It marks the
boundary between the Octoberish and the Decemberish Seasons. Certain
Lemurs (primarily the Ruffed Lemurs) further divide the Octember into
the New Vember and the Old Vember, although the practice is dying out.
The Decemberish Season
The Decemberish Season is a time for giving stuff away, and the
Decemberish Divestment balances the cycle begun by the Octoberish
Accumulation. Lemurs celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah, and both
are occasions for gifts.
The Post-Decemberish Respite
The Post Decemberish Respite is that period
which falls between Christmas and New Year. It's traditionally
considered to belong to neither year. It's a time of waiting. It's
considered poor form to launch projects in this time period. The
Respite concludes with New Year's Eve.
Caption Contest
This week, Portia is giving the caption contest a go. What do you think would make a good caption for this photo? Send your answer to newspaper@spindizzy.org!
Findra
Recent Connetion Problems
There were a number of problems with the DSL modem last weekend, and some intermittent ones during the week, that I'm sure annoyed a number of our residents. They caused several periods where the muck was unavailable for periods from 30 seconds to about half an hour. Skyler and I spent a good amount of time testing out cabling and running through some scenarios to try and work out was was happening, especially on the Sunday, and that's when most of the up-and-down behaviour of the muck caused the most disruption. We think that the majority of the problems have been ironed out now, and the connection seems to be in a much more stable state. For those readers who like the gory details, read on!
The original problem occurred on the Friday night, and ran into Saturday. The modem kept losing DSL synchronization, and eventually gave up trying to move down to a lower line speed. This needed a cold restart of the modem to get it going again. We asked Covad (our ISP) to put the line into 'safe mode', which knocked the speed down from 3.0 Mbps to 2.0 Mbps. This helped with the noise margin to some extent, but there were still problems with the line dropping. After some investigation on Saturday, it turned out that there was a poor connection on the punch-down block in the garage. I redid this, and things improved. We were still getting drops, but nowhere near as frequently. We investigated a few more theories on Saturday and Sunday, which caused the connection to bounce a few times, but on Monday Skyler had the suggestion of using better quality (solid core, twisted pair) cables from the punch-down to the modem. This hasn't quite solved the problem, since we've seen some occasional drops since, but we do seem to be a lot better. By the way, the BritePort 8120 DSL modem is a horrible piece of engineering – having the status page up makes the modem crash!
We may do some further work to increase the quality of the link (since it's still at 2.0 Mbps at the moment), but first we'll see how stable it is like that. I'd rather not subject our residents to anymore interruptions than absolutely necessary. I'm very sorry to everyone that was inconvenienced and/or annoyed by the line drops this last week.
In Step With: Patashu
This week, we have a chat with Patashu, local mecha-dragon.
Patashu has arrived.
Ba'ar nods, "Hello Patashu and thank you for helping me to do the interview."
Patashu smiles and nodnods.
Ba'ar growls, "So tell me, how long have you been in Spindizzy?"
Patashu clanks, "Since August 31st."
Ba'ar nods, "So what brought you here?"
Patashu clanks, "Leowulf told me about the place."
Ba'ar looks the dragon over. "You seem to be mechanical. Are you organic at all?"
Patashu clanks, "Nope."
Ba'ar nods, "What's a typical day like for you - or is there one?"
Patashu clanks, "Well, I don't think there is one. It depends who's on and how they're feeling really."
Ba'ar nods, "If there was one thing you could change about Spindizzy, what would it be?"
Patashu clanks, "Uhh."
Patashu hms.
Ba'ar growls, "You don't have an answer for that?"
Patashu clanks, "Nope."
Ba'ar growls, "Who do you admire the most then?"
Patashu hmms. "Than, I think."
Ba'ar growls, "Who do you admire the least?"
Patashu clanks, "Uhh. No one yet."
Ba'ar growls, "Do you have any plans for the future?"
Patashu clanks, "I'll just see what happens."
Ba'ar growls, "Is there a secret fact or desire about you that would surprise our readers?"
Patashu clanks, "Surprise? No, not really. <.<;"
Ba'ar nods, "In closing, do you have any words of wisdom for our readers? "
Patashu clanks, "Oh, oh, I know."
Patashu clanks, "When you come to a fork in a road, take it."
Ba'ar nods, "With that in mind, that concludes iour interview. Again Patashu, thanks."
Patashu hehes.
This week in History
Back issues from a year and more ago. Remember when...?
- One Year Ago - / Report of dragon attack met with skepticism
- Three Years Ago - / Roofus Roo Surprised by Party
The "Tauren Empire"
What is the Tauren Empire? Over whom does it hold sway? Why are you reading this?
Newswire sources suggest that there will be a full article disclosing the events of the Tauren Empire RP in next week's paper!
Bearing Up
Welcome to the latest edition of Bearing up, the advice column where Ba'ar (That's me!) has answers to your most challenging questions.
Dear Bearing Up:
I've heard that Andros is going to take over Spindizzy. Is this true?
- Argon
Dear Argon:
I think he's just "Horsing Around" !
Dear Bearing Up:
What's better? Bidpay or Paypal?
- Ebay
Dear Ebay:
Neither! Cold, hard cash!!
Dear Bearing Up:
A thief stole my identity. What can I do?
- Compromised
Dear Compromised:
Go to him and steal your identity back!!
Dear Bearing Up:
When doing shopping at the local mall, I found that they already have the Christmas stuff out and it isn't even Halloween yet. What to do about it?
- S. Claus
Dear Claus:
Think of it like this, they COULD get the Christmas stuff out around July 4th, so consider yourself lucky!!
Guidelines and Procedures for Submitting Articles
Contributing a story, artwork, a cartoon, even a regular feature to @Action News is easy! Just send it to newspaper@spindizzy.org, or pagemail Argon, Findra, or Skyler with your article. We'll let you know what issue it will appear in!
@Action News is published weekly on or after 12:01 AM Eastern Time on Sunday. Most any type of story or article will be accepted. Generally, we'd prefer things that aren't out and out lies or flames about other folks, and have a basis in the reality of SpinDizzy. Things that occur in public areas are fair game. The things reported don't have to have actually happened, (any more than anything that happens here does) but make sure you don't overstep the social boundaries and rules of interaction that we have. These are pretty broad guidelines, but we expect good sense to apply.
Thanks!
Argon,
Editor @Action News