Disability Funding

The Medicaid Waiver Funding proposal is now up on the actual official change.gov site:

GO AND VOTE

Halphalphalp

OK, this is what I have so far, via a form builder:
http://www.heartofbirth.net/test/webform/

This is what I need to change, that I'm drawing stupid blanks on:

1) Mom & Partners name fields on same line (horizontally, not same form field)
2) Phone and email on same line
3) # of prior, birthplace, attendant on same line
4) Class offerings checkboxed, as well as the drop down (IE, they check the class they want, and then pull down the date they want) Those should also be tightend up into columns for space

Now, here's where it gets complicated...

What I *want*, is for it to total up their class choice, and any extras, based on the check boxes and show it in a "Subtotal" line.
Then, they're given a checkbox that allows them to pay just the $50 class deposit (plus extras) or pay in full.
Then, the Total Due At Registration is shown (either $50+extras or full, based on above checkbox)

Then, 2 submission options. One for payment by check or MO, that just submits the form information to me, and gives them a mailing address to send the check to.
The other for credit card/paypal payment, that takes them to paypal with the total due +$5 fee.

Oh and then after all that, I want to be able to plug it into my regular website at www.heartofbirth.net, and have it look like it belongs there.

OSMO, al

Once again the endemic (and mostly unsupported) Fear Of Power raises its ugly head.

We can't have cooperation, that would be Someone Would Be In Charge, and have Power Over Others! *gasp horrors*, We can't have a single hub, that would mean some sort of organization, some sort of established structure and framework! NOOO! We must all have absolute Individual Power! We must all be able to build our Ages and Shards the way we want, or else!

Heavens forbid that the community actually listen to Chogon and utilize "organization by guilds and other fan groups." Heavens forbid that the community actually try to come up with a roadmap and a plan, instead of waiting like hounds at the leash, to be released and run everywhich direction.

People reaction to suggestions is "If you don't like it, just don't install it." People are so gung ho to get their hands on code and fix it 'their way' we'll have 20 different versions of OSMO hanging around, all claiming to be the 'right way' to do it. This, they say is "what Open Source means". Eh.

VOTE!

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