I went from this to this

Thank you to everyone who donated! We raised over $500 dollars for St. Baldrick's Children's Cancer charity.

You can see more pictures here.

Some Christmas books currently free on Kindle. If you don't have a kindle, you can still download them and read on your pc or phone with the free Kindle app. Please note that prices were all free when I posted - sometimes these change without warning, so grab 'em while they're hot.


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Info:
Gamer friends- would anyone be interested in an online sheeted/dice rpg game (system to be determined) featuring communist zombies invading a 1950s-ish town? Would likely be a weekly or bi-weekly session over IRC, possibly along with a journal or forum to play out things / track things between sessions. Characters would be human townsfolk of various types, everything from WWII vet to beatnik. Game would be cheesy fun in some aspects (Duck and Cover-- does it really work for zombies?), power level normal-ish human. Likely starting after the holidays.


Game blurb:
Welcome to Pleasantdale - A Pleasant Family Community

In the 1950s, in a pleasant little town in a pleasant little state in a pleasant little country, something sinister is lurking. The Red Menace! Communists may be in your community, hiding behind those white picket fences and shuttered windows of such normal looking houses. They could be anywhere.

Fortunately, you are prepared. Children in schools learn that all important skill– Duck and Cover. That will save you from any danger. There is a bomb shelter on practically every corner– and surely Dad's hard at work at one in your own backyard. If Atomic fallout should occur, you'll duck-and-cover with the best of them…. won't you?

But what if the commies have something other than the bomb up their insidious red sleeves? What if they're using that atomic energy to…. REANIMATE THE DEAD! Surely that's just fantasy– the stuff of those B-movies at the Drive-In, or an episode of Captain Mystery's Strange Theater on television.

Still… you can never be too careful. The red undead could be coming for YOU.

Watch this space: http://labarc.com/CharLoft/wiki/doku.php?id=worlds:pleasantdale:start

Experimental poetry from our poetry class! We had to take one of our poems and via arbitrary rules, cut it up into something else. Here's the poem I started with and the rules I chose, and the resulting poem.

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Now that I know I can successfully take a college level course, and that I enjoy learning online - I am going to try and take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities there are for online learning. In fact, I have developed A Plan!

The majority of my learning will be through Coursera, because I really enjoyed the format of the sociology class there, and there is something to be said for having a live real-time sort of feel to the class. I liked the way things were set up, and having active forums to discuss the topics in was really great.

So here is my main schedule with Coursera courses:

July:
Listening to World Music - July 23, 7 weeks
Book - none

August:
Intro to Sustainability - August 27th, 8 weeks
Book - downloadable from http://www.earth.illinois.edu/sustain/sustainability_text.html - downloaded epub version!

Sept:
Statistics One - Sept 3, 6 weeks
Book - Statistics by Freedman, Pisani, & Purves , download R software

Modern & Contemporary American Poetry - Sept 10, 10 weeks
Book - none (read Walt Whitman Song of Myself, some Emily Dickinson before first class)

History of the World since 1300 - Sept 17, 12 weeks
Book - Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World: From 1000 CE to the Present Volume II - already purchased!

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writerverse

I've been a part of this writing community since its first phase! Now they're starting phase three so it's a good time for you to join. If you're looking for a writing community with fun challenges, deadlines to keep you on track, and lots of community spirit - come join in the fun!

charloft's annual 100 Drabbles of Summer is underway. Grab a table at this post and join us for the drabble writing fun.



I will be posting my drabbles as comments to this post here in my journal, so watch this space if you want to read the drabbles I write.

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If you have Words with Friends or Draw Something on your phone / kindle / etc, send me an invite to play a game!

I'm looking for more opponents.

My username is ourlostprophet , or if we are FB friends you can find me thataway.

April is Autism Awareness month. For those of you who don't know, I am on the autism spectrum. I was diagnosed with moderate asperger's syndrome at the age of 40. I'm sure if you look around you will find many of us, living and working among you. Our brains may be wired differently than neurotypical brains, but we are your friends, co-workers, family members, and folks you see every day. Autism isn't caused by vaccines - it's a genetic condition. Nor is it 'dramatically on the rise' - it's just that we are more able to diagnose it and that's a good thing. Early intervention prevents kids these days from having to go through 40 years of their lives before learning what they can do to help themselves function in a neurotypical biased world.

The writerverse phase is underway, but you can join in the fun at any time! So far this phase we've written haiku, screenplays, stories and drabbles galore. There's open challenges right now so you can just jump in and start writing. There's even a monthly book club (participation optional), for writers who love to read.

If you like prompts to work from, a deadline to keep you motivated, and lots of community fun- come to writerverse. I'm on Team Prose if you want to be on my team. ;) We'd love to have you.