Katzaniel

Ohhh, and I actually believed that for like fifteen minutes until I tried it. That's a measely 87 *million*, reverie. *chuckles* I'm a little confused why the "filtered" and "unfiltered" results give me the same number of hits for that, though...? So... what I was *about* to announce as a candidate for second place... "new" for 7,440,000,000 or 7.4 billion. .... And do you know what's *really* interesting? I just tried searching for "com", too, and I'm getting 18,480,000,000 or 18.4 billion. Huh.

"one" with 4,680,000,000 or 4.6 billion...

I suspect that some of you have played the "Google Battle" game where you see how many hits two words get and then the winner is the one that has the most. This game is very closely related to that, but we're just going to use Google itself because I found Google Battle to be a bit buggy. Also, we need to use ONE search engine, so even though I myself am a Yahoo-er, I think we should all use Google just because that seems to be more popular. The game is, we use all the wordsmithing and creative power of the people at the Pen to see which word is used the most often of all words. Articles (the, a) and whatever "and" and "but" and so on are called, the're out. Basically anything else is okay, but if you can think of nouns or ideas or more substantial concepts over connecting-type words, that's better because it's more fun. The winner is declared when this thread sits still for two weeks straight. Also, I recommend we don't start right away with the ones that we're sure will win, though I already played this a bit by myself and I found words waaaay more popular than the ones I originally thought would win. (See PS note). I hereby start with the word "pen" - about 172,000,000 or 0.17 million hits. PS. I suspect the thread may go through a Scarlet-worthy phase, but single words are pretty harmless, and the more obscure ones aren't our goal here, so I figure the Cabaret room should be okay.

March 17th, St. Patty's Day. I don't know where or why it started, but in my family we always eat green food for supper on this day. It's so much fun gathering everything we can find that's green, and colouring the milk green in the morning (or being surprised on the years when I forget, and I pour it in my cereal and it's green..) and putting out lime candies and stuff. We almost always make green mashed potatoes, and spinach alfredo makes excellent green pasta... one year we even made green bread! (Colour the water, not the flour...) Only thing we've never found is good green meat or a way to effectively colour meat. When I was younger we'd also put flour on the floor the night before and wake up to discover leprechaun footprints in it. Sometimes we'd make a patchwork trap but those wily leprechauns never fell for it. *sigh*

My purse, which probably counts as about six items, because it holds my palm pilot, cell phone, digital camera, and jump drive (with four disks) not to mention all my cards and usually some cash. But I insist that since I cart this thing around all day, every day, as one item, it really must count as one. (The palm pilot and possibly the jump drive w/ disks is all I really need from there.) Then my laptop bag which also holds an external drive. The drive is all I really need from there. Um. I guess that's it. Really, everything I hold dear is in the form of information - all my writing and my pictures and schemes are between my palm pilot, memory cards and external hard drive. The rest would take time to recontruct, but it wouldn't take a part of *me* like removing me from all my prior writing and ideas would do. I guess if my third item could consist of a relatively bulky and heavy filing cabinet (but not relative to other filing cabinets; it's actually pretty small, then) then I'd bring that - or just quickly grab the ideas and drawings and writing folders. Sure, that's three in total now, right? *grin* I suppose it's sort of sad that I can't think of anything with purely emotional value. Then again I *do* put emotional stock into people and pets, so it's probably not that abnormal.

Dauna: Promotions are based on more than 2 weeks. Congrats, you *have* earned it. Congrats to the rest also. And congrats to Ozy, who has brought us yet another highly amusing promotional post. Grinned all the way through.

* interest * Question, though... is this a long-term committment, or do you think we'll go for a few posts each and then try to end it? (Or just play it out and see how long interest lasts, I suppose...)

Okay, this is based on a lot of people's discussion recently about being able to say what sort of feedback you like to give. The idea is that there's a bunch of headings, and you put yourself in one by either posting here, or editting yourself in if you've got the editting powerZ. It will work best if anyone who can edit would add as many people as still need to be added, when they've got the time. The people listed here should not be assumed to be willing or able to post feedback whenever asked, and especially it is discouraged from going through this list and asking a bunch of people to provide you feedback, especially in-depth comments - probably half the people at the Pen wish they could get good feedback on most of what they write, but no one has the time for that. Anyway, if you occasionally ask one or two people to take a look at something you've written, and you understand if they don't have the time, then you're doing okay. Poetry Structural (rhythm, stresses, etc) Prose Character development Katzaniel Consistency Devices (repetition, foreshadowing, etc) Either General interpretation (thoughts, impressions) Katzaniel - Although I wonder if not everyone could do this? I guess it's a list of people who want to be considered available for it. Mechanics (grammar/spelling... should they be separate?) Katzaniel PS. I took bits out of your profile, rev, so if it looks familiar that's why. And this definitely needs things added to it, so feel free to brainstorm/just add things, especially since I'm sure I've missed some obvious things... but I'm going to bed now.

I love this idea. I never know where it's appropriate to post, and usually just do so in the actual thread. But this would be a nice guideline. It certainly could. Not sure how to handle that, except that it seems after all this talk, we're all thinking about it, and if most of the old members were using it then the new ones would see it and try it, too. (Plus I'm thinking that maybe this would be the new requirement for entering the SWG, but not, and I repeat NOT making you a member just by using it, unless you want that). Yes, I meant for this to be able to stand as either a default for all works and/or a specific rating for one work. Possible, but I'm with Alaeha in that I think it would soon become too difficult to really use. I like the idea... but I think it's not feasibe. Besides, don't you indicate what sort of feedback you give simply by giving it? Though this does make me wonder whether a different sort of implementation of "give" feedback could be used.... no one is going to sort through everyone's feedback descriptions trying to find the person that does the sort of feedback they want, but what if there was just a list, "People willing to give grammatical help", "People who feel comfortable with 'the feeling I get from it' help", "People who are comfortable with help regarding consistency" and so forth. The headings could be added as people named things they wanted to be listed under. (In fact, this could be another requirement for SWG... list yourself under at least one of these. Yeah, I always bring it back to the guilds, don't I? Geez, Katz...) Listing yourself would not mean you necessarily have the time, but rather that you may be willing to be a resource when you can manage it, if people ask. In fact, I think I'm going to try starting another thread for this. Man I'm energetic tonight. (For those of you that can't see, I've also made two long guild-room posts).

Ozy, you forgot "give more power to the Elders" which is basically what I was trying to suggest as a possible solution... cutting down on all the discussion we do and giving more time to fun, games and writing. Which leads me to the utter astonishment in discovering that Quincunx has DSEPER-whatever as read-only. How? Why? What? Why should our most experienced and respected members be kept out of those discussions? I understand that it was probably to encourage posting by others, but yegods, I think that's a bad idea. And no wonder people think the leadership is inactive when some of them (is it just the Ancients? I know they're not "leadership" but still) are barred from activity in certain rooms. Wow. Mardrax: I think Quincunx was just answering your points, not putting them down. Q has a way of speaking that oftentimes comes across as terse to those not used to it... but I think you're okay. We still value your input. In fact... About the guilds: I think Mardrax has said it best. All the while catching up on this topic, I was thinking those things. The guilds should be doing both, if possible. I don't think we should turn this topic into yet another discussion of the purpose of the guilds, but ... well, it needs addressing. But I think most of us are in agreement, actually. It might not seem that way on the surface, but I think that that same restructuring of the guilds that was suggested by Sweetcherrie could accomplish all of this. No, we're not here to offer activities - everyone should do that, and any group of people designated as activity makers is bound to discourage the rest of the membership from it - but if we can provide a place for people to learn and grow, right from the start up until past quill-bearer, then methinks we're doing our jobs. And what we have in mind is actually very similar to what Q suggested, I think... Q, your outline has the guilds separate, and I know you're not exactly pro-guilds, normally, but if they were to serve the function of a separate Critic's Corner in each area, then perhaps they would be more helpful to everyone. In closing, I just want to reiterate something Sweetcherrie said: "What the guilds are now is dispensable, what they can be is a whole different thing." No, we are not living up to our purposes, any of them, at the moment. But even after all this time, I still have faith that we are getting closer, and that we can eventually be a boon to the Pen as a whole. Oh, and also that anyone can and should post contests or even interesting tidbits when they so desire! We seem to have this feeling that only certain people should be running things, or that it has to be related to writing (though I do feel that it's better when it is), or that we should save up ideas until we're a quill-bearer, or what-have-you, I don't know. Perhaps the carnivals are actually drying us all up because we're waiting to host things until they come. Perhaps people think no one will participate, so they shouldn't try. But if we can make it more widely known that any activity at all is encouraged, then that would help, too. PS. Mardrax: When the guilds get up and running as they should be, we probably won't really need leaders. But right now we do, because (in my opinion) what the guildleaders need to do is ensure that the guilds become what they should be.

Oh geez, I forgot to incorporate my own changes. Thanks to Appy's and Tanny's recent comments in that other Feedback thread, I have updated #1. (Or will in 3 seconds).

Erk... so it's starting in like 3 hours? Or am I doing that totally wrong?

Okay, this is sort of ironic but mostly just an interesting prospect: I am asking for feedback on this feedback thingamajig. The goal is that, by giving yourself a numeric designation (or, if it has to get more complicated, a number and letter or something like that) that tells people at a glance what your goal is for feedback. You would be able to give yourself a default number, and also to give certain pieces a separate rating. (PS It's geared toward stories... should there be a separate one for each area or not? People can feel very different about their poetry vs stories vs RP, but then again perhaps the rating guide should be the same?) Please tell me whether you think you could easily fit yourself into one of these, or how you'd change it if not, or whether you'd even use the thing. Any and all comments appreciated. Version 1.0:

So does that mean we should "dress up" in terms of not coming with our usual name, too? * imagines everyone coming as each other.. except the ones who don't bother, but not being able to tell which is which * * imagines a roomful of Joats * * giggles * PS. Anyone have a link to a good page for timezone calculations?

Ohh, and I thought it was a car. So what happened to her?

It might be interesting to note at this point that something I'm thinking about contributing to the Assembly Room (which might be adapted for use elsewhere) is a rating level thingy similar to the thing Valdar wrote up, only the other way around - ie, his was recommendations to the reviewer about what sort of feedback the reviewee might want, whereas mine is a way for the reviewees to indicate their desires. The goal would be to standardize certain feedback levels, and if enough people participated, then it might solve many of the problems we have re: not enough vs too much feedback. But, properly orchestrated this might also solve many of the problems we're having with the guilds, so I don't want to reveal it just yet. Also, it's probably about time I expanded upon my earlier brief comments: What do I get from being at the Pen? The Pen provides my motivation to write, because I know that if I take the time to write it, it will probably get read. Furthermore, I've become rather addicted to the occasional good feedback that I get... coming to something I've written and seeing a comment is like a high, and when it's something that can actually help me to improve my writing, that counts for double. I don't think there's anything that the leadership can really do to alter this, nothing that needs to be improved. More activity in general would probably result in more feedback, but of course we still need to keep out trolls and the like - which we do. I'm quite happy in this area - that's why I'm here, after all. What do I think should change? I don't know whether there's really anything that can be done either way, here... but it seems like many times where there's an issue brought up, it takes forever for any consensus of action to be reached. This is, I suspect, the direct result of our wanting everyone to be heard. If we had a dictatorship, everything would move smoothly, but few would be happy... as it is, most are happy but it takes so long. Still, I can't help but wonder whether even more people would be satisfied if the Elders took on just a little more authority and sped along decisions? Hard to say.

I want to make another attempt at forming a circle of writing pieces, but here's my idea to make this go more smoothly: No signing up, no due dates, just go. If you're interested, show us by going ahead and posting the piece. How? Why, by using already-written pieces. You don't even have to have read the stories/poems/etc that you're using - just find something that has a last sentence/line that inspires you as to the start, and something else with a first sentence/line that inspires you for the ending. For example, I might pick Peredhil's 4-line poem in Yui's recent birthday thread and Tanucha's first line in Perfect Sell to compose the following: "From a Polite Ancient Elder Ghost," the letter said. Tanuchan looked it over three times, trying to figure out what it meant. It claimed to be for Salinye... sure. But then why had it appeared from nowhere in the sky above her? Tanny felt the earth energies around her, and nothing seemed to be wrong. Nothing for it then but to deliver the letter. No other way to find out what it meant, anyway. "What does it mean?" she was asking Salinye later, after having explained what had happened. "I'm not sure what the concern is," replied Salinye. Obviously it appeared from nowhere because Peredhil has become a ghost. How did you think you could see a ghost? Anyway, I've got a date with Gyrfalcon, so I need to get ready." Tanny didn't think that was much of an answer, but Salinye seemed very certain. Supressing a groan, Tanny sighed and nodded at her, then left the room. It's short and doesn't make much sense, but that's because it's just an example. You see how I changed around my last sentence for the sake of the flow? That's okay. And then I would just post it somewhere, either indicating it as a Circle piece or not, as I desired, and then post in here with links to all three pieces. The circle will work best if, for example, people start using the end of a story that someone left off at. So look first for inspiration among already-posted links. And try not to make the other end of the piece too hard to work from. Also, if you're planning on using something already linked, you may want to post in order to claim it. If you still want help finding inspiration, you could try something from The Pen Recommends list. Or just search random words. I found Perfect Sell by looking up "roast" - I was attempting a limerick. (Bonus points, by the way, if I were actually giving out points and if you can find two lines with rhyming ends and the same number of syllables to do a limerick or other poem). Have fun!

"Noooooo!" cried Llassar as he saw his father fall. Forgetting everything, including the orc he'd been barely staving off and the claws that swiped at him from the side, Llassar rushed to Teq's side. He took in his fully-cut throat, felt desperately for a heart-beat that did not come, and knew that he was dead. He grabbed his father's hand, tears streaming down his face, and the world around him slowed, seemed to grow smaller. He leaned forward and it felt as though he was moving through water, struggling past currents just to reach his father and plant a kiss on his cheek. "Damn you, Gyrfalcon!" he cried, the words torn from his lips in fury but they, too, seemed hindered, as if pushing through a wall before racing out where everyone could hear. Llassar's heart was beating, his anger building up, and as he raised a fist everything regained speed. A demon rushed past him and he could hear the echoes of his own wail, realized he was still crying out. A sob wracked his throat and he grabbed once more at the hand of his dead father. Even in his grief-stricken state, Llassar noticed when everything slowed down again. The rest of the party was still in combat around him, he saw, but moving in slow motion, at least those that were nearest himself. Further out, he could see them moving at a speed closer to normal, but close by everyone, including himself, was slowed. No one else seemed to notice, though - they were moving normally, just more slowly. Llassar looked down at where his hand grasped his father's. He remembered when he'd raised a fist, meaning to strike at the ground, and his surroundings had seemed to rush at him. Tentatively, he let go - and grabbed again when it happened a second time. He fumbled a bit, though, as the slow-motion didn't occur immediately. Not just by holding his father, then... perhaps the ring that he wore? A little groping soon proved that to be the case. The young boy gently pulled the ring from Teq's lifeless hand and placed it on his own. He was still grief-stricken, but anger was now filling him, and he felt the need for revenge, even more pressing than before. If Gyrfalcon would deprive him of his mother and father both, then Gyrfalcon would look into this boy's deadened eyes at least once before he died. And if he could cause the man's death himself, well then Llassar might be able to rest. But certainly not until then, and probably never again. In that brief instant, Llassar had begun to think of himself as a man, and he had nothing to live for but his vengeance. Standing up from his father's corpse, he retrieved his dropped sword from the ground and moved against the fluid-air to meet his opponents. His renewed vigour and the unusual pace of the fight meant that he could strike harder and better aim his strikes, respectively. He easily dodged the orc's claws and thrust right to their hearts, downing one and then another two in quick succession. But as he, Robby, Licha, Brygad and the others began to turn the tide of the fight, as he began to calm down, he noticed that everything was slowly speeding up - he grew nervous again, and his heart beat down his throat. It dawned on him that the ring must work in conjunction with his own emotions, and that the graver the situation, the slower things moved. As the fight neared an end, he realized how hard that was to control. Still useful, though. Teq might be dead, but his ring would allow his son to enact revenge for both parents at once. Llassar was able to kill another two before he saw that the battle was nearly over, and his anger was beginning to settle as a raw feeling in the pit of his stomach. He fell forward onto his knees, and dully watched Robby dispatch the last demon in real-time.

Gah! But there's no way to change for a particular user when they want it to default to off? ... Ehh, I won't complain if there's not. I suppose it's far worse to lose important messages than to fill up the outbox with often not important ones. It's just that I am used to checking that box if and only if I want the message... PS. I only bring it up because I'm sure that option used to be settable. It was default on, and I changed my settings so it was default off. And thanks Rune! I don't mean to offset your help. I just looked myself for how to fix that, and found nothing, so I can understand that whatever you did wasn't easy.

Inbi and a large collection of Pennites stood on the edge of the Keep, waving fondly as Dain and the rest of the carnies started their journey away. She had received no promises about his time of return, only that he would return. As the caravans rolled slowly out of sight, she turned away and sighed. Individual events would still run for a little while, and wrap up however they needed, but the Keep looked much emptier with the majority of the tents taken down. At any rate, they'd be very busy for the next while wrapping up all the loose ends and making sure everything would be ready when the carnival did return. Inbi smiled at everyone, and began to turn away in order to begin doing those things.. but stopped herself. Why? Why not mingle with everyone a bit longer, while everyone was here? She stepped toward Sweetcherrie and struck up a conversation, and soon five, six, ten people were standing around smiling, laughing. Ah yes, thought Inbi. This is the spirit of the Pen that I love so much. OOC: Carnival end is officially begun. Wrap up what you need, and anything new can either wait until next year or be started as a non-carnival event... which would be great, too!

Do I hear thirty? Thirty? No? Twenty-five... twenty-two, twenty-one... Going, going, gone! Sold to the woman in front, for 20 geld!

And the winner is Sweetcherrie, for 50 geld. May you use it well.

... I wonder if starting these in the same thread as the poll was actually a *bad* idea. Well anyway, the winner is Tamaranis for 10 geld. Enjoy!

Do you mean like, what do we want from it, as in what are our goals in being here? (My answer: practice and feedback in my writing, and also the friendships I've garnered) or more administrative-oriented answers (My answer: less bureaucracy, without sacrificing the openness - yeah, good luck with that, I don't imagine it's very possible), or more technical (My answer: The news page to make a return) or something else entirely? (My answer: A T-shirt!!) I'm guessing from that last line that you mean anything and everything, ie all of the above, but I find a little direction is desirable...

Get back here with my soul, you evil camera-toting b@$*%#&! (You know, 'cause in olden days some people thought pictures stole your soul). Or, Watch out for the bird just over... never mind. (Just noticed Zool said basically the same thing.) PS. Do we get to find out what you were saying, or do you even recall?