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Pimpin' Me - Website design

They're not the most Uberfancy webpages ever, but they're functional and easy to add to.

$50 base + $20 per page. Includes layout, images, graphics, you get all files, plus a blank template page. If you need to add additional graphics later, it's $5 per graphic/image

Working Examples:
http://heartofbirth.net/
http://www.soundbirthing.com/
http://heartspark.tezhme.net/
http://dninetwork.net/
http://www.dninetwork.net/idea/

Yes, they are all similar. I have a very tidy layout I like working with. I'm lazy ;) http://mystembassy.net/ is different, and much older, when I was playing Fun With ImageMaps.

Here's some other designs I've been playing with: http://www.flickr.com/photos/urueleri/tags/webdesign/

OSMO vs Uru vs Myst vs ...

I've been trying to clearly articulate in my head, the discomfortature (is that a WORD?!) I have with OSMO, without making it sound like I think OSMO is a Bad Idea.

So let me start out here with a disclaimer:

I think OSMO is going to be a rocking good time, full of so much fun stuff to do of varying stripes, that everyone (including me) will find something to keep them entertained and happy.

That being said, I'm still in a sort of grieving process for Uru. OSMO is not, for me, Uru. OSMO is OSMO. Uru was... something more. Uru was a mythology, a story, a universe, a continuity.

I don't know if I can explain it clearly... Imagine if Tolkien had quit writing halfway though Fellowship...and then opened up Middle Earth as a creative playground. Or sitting through the first half of an undiscovered work of Shakesperian fantasy, only to have it cut off abruptly, because the play was unfinished.

That's what I mourn. I'll never know what the carved spire above the Hall of Kings is, the weird hangar-like ceiling doors near the ferry, or why the Arch has blinking lights on top when there's no planes. I'll never sit and talk with Laxman and tease him about blowing up the Great Zero again, or get in Cate's face about management.

I'll never know why Wheely needed to die, never see a Bahro up close... I will stand at the top of the Great Stair, surrounded by a million mysteries and questions, and there will be no answers.

OSMO will (I hope, although my cynical side scoffs at the notion, the track record for support of fan story from the populace is weak.) bring new stories to the table, maybe even bring back old ones (I *liked* the WE of UU), there will be chances, as Rand says, to see "whats around the next corner..."

But it won't be the corners I've always wanted to look around. OSMO becomes, in essence, digital fan-fiction. And there'll be the good, the bad, and the downright ugly, as is the nature of fanfic.

I'm glad for OSMO, but I mourn, because in gaining OSMO, we've lost D'ni.

poking at the government 2

http://change.gov/openforquestions

do a search on 'respite', mine's the only one in there.

Midwives for a Change

ddfreyne:

Uru being open-source means anyone can do pretty much whatever they want without Cyan's approval.

Dr Britcom Mom:

I think ddfreyne sums it up pretty nicely.

Me:
And some of us get the screaming heebie geebies from the thought.

Yup. Big Old Screaming Heebie Geebies. NOT because of the potential for wild and wacky Ages. Not because of the potential for 'adult' spaces and events. Not because of worrying about Ages that look like they were pulled straight from an 8 bit game (Although doing that *on purpose* might be tres nifty.

Because with no one steering the ship in any way, how do we keep from ending up on the reef? It's already started, with the conflict between an FCAL or none, between if this will be isolated shards just like UU, or one big central network that servers can decide to connect to or not.

I could care less if someone makes a Nudist Age, or someone makes a Pentecostal Age where everyone must dress modestly, as long as everyone has the right to visit, or not. But without some sort of centralization, some sort of road map, we'll end up like UU all over again, individual 'shards' of people, who rarely to never go anywhere but their 'home' shard, and all the attendant isolation, territorialism and conflict.

And all the cool new Ages in the world won't help that.

OSMOUL, Venn Diagrams and You

The Uru/MOUL/Open Source MOUL community seems to fall into three basic categories:

Social, Sandbox and Story.

Social are the people who are really into it for the hanging out, Sandbox are the people who want to tinker and build, Story are the people in it for the story and history. Within that there's lots of overlap of concept: people who want to build D'ni artifacts, or people who hang around discussing the notebooks in the Hall of Kings, or people pushing the limits of what their avatars can look like and having parties.

Each of those facets have their own expectations, their own cultures, their own wants and desires, and in some areas they blend, and some they don't.

Classic Venn Diagram, right?



Ever notice how a 3 ring Venn Diagram looks like a tree as seen from above?

The trunk, the strongest part of the tree, that which supports the entire structure, is in the area where all three of those facets; story, sandbox and social, come together. To be strong, the Tree needs a core place where all of those aspects can manifest in an equal, supported way.

From there, things branch out, into places where people are creating puzzles, and telling stories, and social events, and creating surreal ages, and having parties and playing with physics.

Everyone can build a home that meets their dream, and it is built on a foundation of a place where everyone is valued and welcome and a part of the Whole. And all of the branches, twigs and swirling leaves, can be accessed by climbing up that trunk. Or, you can be content to just sit in the shade, leaning up against the trunk watching the sun filter though, and that's just as good.

more thoughts

Just to be clear, I'm not horrified or dissapointed by this move by Cyan. I think it opens up the world for the community to strech its wings in ways that it never has before. But there will be, for me, an element missing. I think, given that we won't have the no new content limitations of UU, that the community will step up to create some fantastic stories. Maybe, someday, those will even be integrated into the canon story. But, I'll still wander around D'ni wondering what *that* building is for, or where *that* passage might lead.

You do realize this is Cyan getting back to its Roots, don't you? This latest iteration will be called "Cosmic OSMOUL"

Open Source MOUL

I can't say that I'm thrilled.

On the one hand

All of those people building Ages will finally have a chance to really share their skills.

All the people longing to be back in the Cavern can.

All those who need an Empire of their own, with their own rules, can have it.

On the other hand, unless Cyan runs their own canon server, we'll never see the DRC again, never know what happened to Yeesha, and the truth behind Wheely's death and the Bahro cave she found...

They could never have canon plot things happen on any fan run server, not without accusations of favoritism or elitism, demands of proof of Cyan involvement, ect and so forth.

So, while this keeps Myst Online as a game, as a concept alive... the story of Uru is, at this point, dead.

EDIT: Just after poasting this, I saw this quote from Chogon (Mark DeForest) over at the MOUL forum:

By opening up the source to MystOnline, it does not preclude Cyan from creating their own server in the future with Cyan's content and storyline. However, with our current situation, that might be a long ways off and we don't want to hold people back.

So, there is always the glimmer of hope that we will, someday, get the Uru story Cyan meant to tell. Less dead then, and more like Sleeping Beauty.

Worthy Cause # 3874

This lady singlehandedly puts on a Christmas Dinner for homeless youth each year. Help her out.

Waiting for Uru

Marten said:

My point is: If Cyan is not involved, whatever you have is not really [i]Uru[/i]. You can call the game whatever you like... you can pretend that it is Uru, you can put the word Uru in the name, but it is like calling the sky green and the clouds purple; it doesn't change what it really is, and any incarnation of D'ni won't be Uru without Cyan.

Yes. This.

Fan made, fan driven, fan centric is a good thing. People can fine-tune their social and sandbox space the way they want it. There is already tangental way to do this, witness the thriving Uru-centric communities in There, Second Life, and (to a lesser extent) Guild Wars. There should always be a place in the Uru world for fan creativity.

But fan run live options are not Uru. They are using D'ni as a setting, but they aren't built around D'ni, and the mythology of Aitrus, Ti'ana and descendants. Uru *is* that story. Always has been. Always was meant to be that story. We were meant to be players in that story.

So, if Cyan stepped up today and said "You have a choice, you can have access and rights to materials, you can make fan shards or servers or Ages or whatever, but the price is that we will never move forward with Uru or the D'niverse again... or you can wait, bide your time, and eventually we'll pick up where that story left off." then my vote would be for waiting.

Not because Cyan is perfect, not because they haven't made any mistakes, but because, when it comes down to the bottom line... Uru, the real Uru, the settinggs and mythos of D'ni, is *theirs* not ours. It's their creation, their story, their vision, their world. And it's also their IP. We don't have the right, legally or ethically, to demand or expect they hand any of it over to us, no matter how much we want it, no matter how cool it would be to have UU2: Electric Boogaloo, no matter how much we miss hanging out with others in the cavern.

Signal Boost- Missing Girl in NC

http://narniarose.livejournal.com/63920.html

Change for the Karma Jar

"Ebony is a stay-at-home mom with her two kids. Things were going along well until Daniel lost his job. Then the car died and without money to get it fixed, they couldn't go job hunting. And without a job, there is no money to fix the car. With bills piling up and their cars failing, they took out a second mortgage on the house to keep the family moving. Months later, now they're facing foreclosure. They need the money by December 8th or they have no place to live. "You don't happen to have $10,000 laying around, do you?" Ebony joked with me."

Her oldest son is developmentally delayed so they have to pay for his nurse and special schooling. Then, surprise! Ebony found out she was pregnant on top of it all

10,000 hits. $10,000. Please donate $1. Help Daniel and Ebony keep their home.

I sent my little bit I had. Because this could be us, in a heartbeat. No one should lose their home to misfortune.

One Day More

Yet Another Upopular Myst Opinion

The Uru community is not worth cat herding right now, not worth trying to inspire, not worth wrangling.

The *MYST* Community is. The D'niverse community is. The people for whom the D'ni Universe is about more than an online multiplayer experience... THAT is the community that has endured for 15 years, that will continue to endure even if Uru never comes back in any format.

Uru has become, in many people's eyes, the be-all and end-all of the D'ni universe. That without Uru the community collapses, fails, the dream dies. Uru fell, so D'ni falls.

Bullshit.

Uru is just one iteration of the story, just one expression of the Mytholody of D'ni. There are a thousand other ways that Mythology could come to light, via Cyan, or other sources.

It doesn't matter if we never get Uru back. It doesn't matter if we never gather in the cavern again. If we're that hot to see each other in the digital flesh, there's a dozen other ways to do so.

What matters is keeping the dream, the stories, the soul of D'ni, alive.

Thinking Out Loud: M.O.U.S.E.

Myst Online: Uru Shard Environments

Home Shard-
Like D'mala, this would be the 'official' shard. Run by a team of Cyan approved admins (a rotating team?) The admins would eventually have the ability to open and close existing areas, add new content objects, make subtle changes to the world as the tech to do so advances. An official story reason would exist for why MOUL ages aren't available at this time. Both official and Fan run story could (and should) happen here, supported by the admin staff tools. Fan-made ages could be added to this shard after rigorous GoM review.
While the Admins could have the admin KI mods, only realistic mods would be available to the UserKI (light, /me, etc.)

GoM Test Shard-
Where the Guild of Maintainers can test out Stuff, like new ages, new toolsets, etc.

Public Test Shard-
The next step from the GoM Shard, the place people can come test out new fan-made ages & tools, with the caveat that Things Break, Here There Be Vault Wipes, etc.

Playground Shards-
Individually run Shards that allow the Admin and UserKI.

Ponder: Reasonable ways to make sure that a)people can have a playground, but b)the community doesn't diffuse between dozens of shards? Ideas: Lottery for pre-set number of shards? Neutral 3rd party run shard servers w/ rotating admin teams?

Ponder: Basic Code of Conduct for all Shards, simple things, like "Be excellent to each other", "Don't use unauthorised tools", "Thine Admin Has The Last Word", etc... plus the ability for a Playground shard to designate a rating "G, PG, R", so no one gets supprised, or has expectations about a place that might not exist.

Assumptions-
People are already figuring out how to access MOUL and EoA content in earlier versions of Uru. We can assume that someone, somewhere is reverse engineering MOUL for a UU-type experience. And that at some point, those tools and builds will need tested where the fans can poke at them.

People are willing to pay for MORE. Will people pay for something even more fan-run, if a portion of the proceeds go to support a D'mala like shard: that is, a place where Cyan can participate. How could such a system be implemented? Kagi keys? Other user registration system?

The Ubiquitous Everybody just knows that there's underground shards running already. You can bet there would be with a relaunch of any UU sort of system. But the above shards would be the ones publicized, supported by Cyan and the GoM, and included in any new tools, builds and ages.

Stephen Hawking message to John McCain

I'm Joe Six-Pack

From the inimitable Copperwise, ok to link/distribute with proper credit.

My Fellow Joe Six-Packs:

Sarah Palin et al like to call us "Joe Six-Pack," and they think we like it too. They think it sounds folksy and homey and cute.

Sure. It's a folksy, homey, cute way to euphemistically call us something very close to trashy, ignorant hillbillies. We're just not supposed to be smart enough to realize it.

See, JSP isn't referring to our rock hard abs. JSP literally means "the blue collar guy who picks up a six pack of cheap beer every night after work and goes home to watch Nascar (and probably beat his wife/kids and light a cross on the black neighbor's lawn but we won't say anything about that wink wink nudge nudge)." That is the message that they are trying to get across to America.

We know you. You don't have a thought in your head beyond making sure you have food on the table and beer in the fridge. You want us to take care of you and do all the thinking for you. You're a demographic we've put together based on statistics of race, level of education, and family income. And we think that everyone who falls within those statistics is just exactly the same. And did we mention we don't think you're very bright?

And that, to them, based on statistics, is what they think of us middle Americans.

Are there a percentage of Americans who fit their definition? White (or POCs who are happy with their lot in life), blue collar, no higher education, racist, homophobic, specific brand of Christianity, afraid of intellectuals, jingoistic, sexist...of course there are.

Can we safely assume that demographic is already on their side? Fabulous. So now, JSP just refers to the undecided voter and the folks they want to pull over from the other side.

That is to say, us.

So, Governor Palin et al, let me tell you who the Joe Six-Pack that you think you're talking to really is.

Joe is the guy I worked with who served in Vietnam, worked construction, had four kids, thought Portland micro-brews were for hippies and weirdos -- and told me one day about having to change churches, because "our pastor spends all his time talking about how bad the gays are, and I go to church for God, and I really don't think God cares who you sleep with or who you marry." Oh, and he went back to school at 45 to get a degree in architecture, so I guess he won't be Joe Six-Pack soon. His income will put him into that Better Class of People y'all think you're part of.

Joe is a writer or an actor or an artist who waits tables, pumps gas, shelves books, does landscaping, delivers pizza, scrubs toilets, and otherwise works his or her ass off all day or night to pay the mortgage so they can continue to write or act or make art.

Joe is the lady down the street who is "just a secretary" and never finished college. She also reads D.H. Lawrence and lots of egghead poetry. Oh, and she can also name the newspapers she reads, but then she doesn't actually have time to read all of them.

Joe is a POC with parents of different races, who gets interrupted an awful lot at work to be asked "what ARE you?" by customers, and continues to bag your damn groceries with a smile. Then he goes home and watches Britcoms on PBS, plays long distance chess with a guy in Russia over the Interwebs, and feeds his kids before putting them to bed and reading them subversive stories by Neil Gaiman.

Joe is a stripper (who doesn't have a drug habit and isn't a prostitute.) She's putting herself through school. She's going to be a lawyer and look like one of you on the surface, but you're really gonna hate it when you're up against her in front of the Supreme Court.

Joe spends 8 hours a day on an assembly line with a wrench, turning bolts and hoping you don't send his job to a child in China. On Thursday nights he bowls with a bunch of construction workers and he does share a pitcher of beer with them. Budweiser, even. Then he goes home, puts on his ABBA records, and dances with his partner -- Andrew.

Joe comes in when you call I.T. because you've opened a forwarded executable file from your sister in an email with the header "Smile, God Loves You" and locked up your machine with a nasty killer worm. She smiles politely when you tell her how impressed you are that a pretty little girl like her knows so much about computers. Then she goes to her Tai Chi class and later dances naked in the back yard with her coven. But she drives a Chevy truck, so who knew?

Joe Six-Pack isn't who you think he/she is. You don't have a fucking clue about Joe Six-Pack.

I wish I were only talking to one camp. But I'm talking to my own, too. We "liberal elitists." Because we say the same kind of things when talking about "the average American." We assume we know them, and they are the same people Palin knows.

And that's kind of dangerous, and it's also kind of not true. Like I said, there are those people out there, and we know what camp they are in. But how many of us assumed "the average American" would say that Palin won the debate, because she didn't fall down and start speaking in tongues? And what are the polls saying? And hasn't our side also been moaning about how "Joe Six-Pack" wouldn't vote for a black man? Assuming "the average American" is that special demographic? Do we really think he did so well in the primaries because there's such a vast quantity of "intellectual elites" out there to compensate for all of the average people who'd naturally vote right wing? Come on, people.

Most of the "liberal elitists" I know are not, in fact, rich. Some are highly educated and working in lucrative professions. Some are highly educated and working class. Some, sadly, are incredibly liberal but not terribly educated (formally or autodidactically) and are just as easily led by sound bite as "the great unwashed" that they don't believe they are a part of.

But honestly, I know for a fact, pretty much everyone I know who will read this is, statistically, demographically, Joe Six-Pack.

And how many of you...us...truly fall into the assumed stereotype? Even if you're conservative? Even if you do like to buy a sixer now and again?

Are we the Joe Six-Pack they think they know?

When I get overwhelmed by all the things I feel passionately about -- racism, sexism, homophobia; when I despair that nothing is getting better and we're all just going to go on hating each other; when I start to fall into thinking that the doomsayers are right and nothing has improved and America just sucks...I hear Dr. King in my head.

I say good night to you by quoting the words of an old Negro slave preacher, who said, 'We ain't what we ought to be and we ain't what we want to be and we ain't what we're going to be. But thank God, we ain't what we was.'

And I look at the world, where things have changed a bit at a time, a step at a time. There are states where gay marriage is legal. We have a black Presidential candidate, and not, bless his heart, a Jesse Jackson running independently, but a black candidate who made it through our very inherently racist and generally crappy two party system to be the probable next President of the United States. And had it not been him, it would have been a woman.

We SO AIN'T what we ought to be or what we want to be. We are not even what I would call close. But one step at a time, one person at a time, we are steadily pressing on, trying to get there.

And the rich and powerful don't get to steal the credit for that.

The credit for the ongoing battle goes to Mr., Mrs., and Ms. Goddamn Joe Six-Pack. The agitators, the commenters, the people on the phone banks, the people in the streets marching, the people organizing, the people speaking out, the people working on their families and neighbors to make the changes that have to happen for us to change our society for the better...

Joe Six-Pack.

You are JSP. I am JSP. I grew up white and middle class. I have that endangered mortgage. I worry about putting food on the table. Hell, I'm an artist and a writer, I'm not even as high up as blue collar...I can barely find a good shirt to wear. And I'm bisexual, polyamorous, and pagan. And by the way, I know Cindy Soccer Mom. She's a full time nurse, "single" mother, drives a minivan, takes her kids to soccer and dance classes -- and goes home at night to strap on a leather harness and roger her girlfriend silly.

I am Joe Six-Pack. I am not who they think that they are talking to. Are you?

Truth in Advertising

Or something like that. It's come out in various places that Eleri is Not Doing Well.

This is true. See, the body can only run on stress and adrenaline for so long, before things start shutting down. When they say that stress can kill you, they mean it, and I'm trying to put the brakes on before the ride gets that wild.

I'm doing my best to keep up with the obligations I've already made, like making it to Mysterium, and getting to AustinGDC. But after that, I'm likely to drop off the face of the D'niverse planet for a while. (I can hear the party scheduling starting already! ;))

My community focus, after that, will be Mysterium 2009. I need to not jump into any other projects, as much as I'd like to.

I need time to heal, physically and beyond, if such a thing is possible. The good thoughts people have sent really do help. The whole community means lots to me, theres so much in my life that feels very bleak, that seeing the hope and vitality of the community, being able to do things that *matter* to the community, does me worlds of good.

Hang in there for MORE, everybuggy.

Smith-Magenis Syndrome

September is Smith-Magenis Syndrome Awareness Month. Both my daughters, Mousie and Pookie, have the RAI1 gene mutation associated with SMS. Mousie is officialy diagnosed, while Pookie is not, based on the existing diagnistic criteria.

If you've ever wanted to ask me questions about SMS, or the girls, but were unsure how or what to ask, feel free to jump in here.

Also, please visit PRISMS for more information on SMS, events supporting SMS families, and how to help.