Stinjitsu Musings

On Summer Projects

2010-06-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

Well, gents, it is that season again. The season where I spend a lot of time wondering what to do with myself. To simplify matters, I have decided to make a giant list of all the projects I hope to accomplish over the summer, and to consult it whenever I am particularly at a loss. So far this little stratagem has served me rather well.

The playing cards, are, of course, still on the table*, as are an (as of now) truly staggering number of books. But no one really wants to hear about me reading books. To be honest, those are my respite from all of the projects and whatnot.

Also in the works is a translation of a work of alien literature. I've been collaborating with these guys for hundreds of years now, and we're finally approaching completion. It's hard to work with collaborators who live a dozen light years away. Puts some big gaps in the project. This, however, is the year when our work can finally come to fruition. Huzzah.

More information as the situations develop,
-Stinja

*Decide for yourself whether this pun was intended.

On Cards

2010-05-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, how about this project for you.

I'm making a custom deck of cards. Six suits of six pip and one face card each, eight lesser trump, and six greater trump, for a grand total of fifty-six. Still unsure about the exact details of the printing, but I did up a design for the card backs:

The design is, obviously, intended to evoke the look of the traditional Bicycle playing card backs, while maintaining an air of the alien about it. I think it came out rather well.

Pants,
-Stinja

On Trees

2010-05-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about integers with trees.

First, let's define trees. A tree is any number, or any monary operation on a tree, or any binary operation on two trees. Trees can also be called tree expressions

The basic integer, of course, is zero (ask any computer science professor, and chances are they'll tell you that it is a natural number, and the first natural number, to boot). Let's define two monary operations of integers, increment (s, for successor), and decrement (p, for predecessor).

Therefor, s(0) = 1, s(s(0)) = 2, and so on. Similarly, p(0) = -1, p(p(0)) = -2, and so on. Let's also define the following rules, where n is any tree expression:

1: s(p(n))=n
2: p(s(n))=n

With these definitions in hand, we can define a binary operation of trees, addition, +(m,n), with the following rules, where m and n are tree expressions.

1: +(m, 0) = m
2: +(m, n) = +(s(m), p(n))
3: +(m, n) = +(p(m), s(n))

This recursive definition covers all the addition of integers. Challenge: prove that addition, defined like this, is associative and commutative.

The definition of subtraction is similar, but different in some important ways. Define subtractions as a binary operation -(m, n), where m and n are tree expressions, with the following rules.

1: -(m, 0) = m
2: -(m, n) = -(pm, pn)
3: -(m, n) = -(sm, sn)

These definitions are relatively straightforward, but allow us between them to define multiplication, a binary operation x(m, n), where m and n are tree expressions, with the following rules. In the following rules, s(0) is written as 1, s(s(0)) as 2, and p(0) as -1.

1: x(m, 1) = m
2: x(m, -1) = -(m, x(m, 2))
3: x(m, n) = +(m, x(m, p(n)))
4: x(m, n) = -(x(m, s(n)), m)

Enjoy!

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Bacon

2010-04-23T06:23:00.001-07:00

Not that Bacon, I keep kosher.

Francis Bacon quote of the day: "If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties."
Book I, v, 8

That's the Francis Bacon quote of most of my days.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Sudden Change We Can Believe In

2010-04-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

First of all, envision change.

Now, envision that you may never see this change.

That's what is happening.

That comic I promised? Yeah it's still in the pipes. I've even drawn several pages of it. I have changed the format of it, however. So instead of being put up page by page as it is written, I will begin posting it after if finish a many-paged book of it. Which, depending on how much I simply buckle down and draw, could be weeks to months in the future. So don't hold your breath. Or fast. Because you'll probably die.

I'm actually drawing a page as I took a break to type this.

Me posting more on the blog? Yeah I think I could get behind that. So I will. Look out for a couple of posts a week, hopefully.

I'm also reforming my handwriting. This will not appear in the comic, because I'm lettering that in all caps, but I'm adopting a hand of my own invention based on carolingian minuscule for my everyday scrawlings.

You didn't think that my penchant for rpg projects would end with Mythic, did you? Well good, because, unsatisfied with that, I've begun a new one. I won't say anything about it yet.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Teasing

2010-01-19T01:35:00.000-08:00

Blowing the cobwebs off this blog, I have to say that ya'll may very well be in for a treat. I am in the planning stages of launching into a new comic, this time not an inaccessible and technically complex monster like the knights irregular, but instead a reboot of my old comic, Post-It.

``But Stinja—" you cry, ``In all honesty your original comic was not particularly good. It was poorly drawn, illegible, and had a plot that made no sense and was riddled with in jokes with yourself."

Well, this is sort of true. My intention is to address these concerns by: a) not drawing the whole thing on post it notes, b) being a better artist than I was three years ago, c) carefully lettering the comic in all caps, and d) rewriting it to be a whimsical, if occasionally esoteric, story-driven serial in a format more closely resembling a comic book than a series of deranged musings sketched on post its.

Put some pants on to contain you excitement,
-Stinja

On Language

2009-12-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

In the process of working on my random language generator, I have discovered something: human languages are very complex things, but the do follow some rules. What those rules are, however, is often pretty damn difficult to pin down.

See, even something as "simple" as Morphosyntactic alignment can turn out to be intensely complicated. Originally I assumed it'd be as simple as an ergativity parameter, but this quickly mutated into a whole mess of parameters, one for each type of alignment. This still failed to be either elegant or easy to implement.

I have now developed a new method, which has the advantage of (if anything) erring on the side of more permissive of random and arbitrary variation. See, each verb will exist as a data structure that, when initialized, queries the language's grammar, finds out how it's supposed to be aligned, builds a list from which cases are assigned to its arguments, and then waits until it is called with its arguments.

The verb can be told to build different alignments based on the voice it's called in, the inflections it's taking, or the category it belongs to, allowing phillipine, fluid-S, and split-S alignment systems to be generated without resorting to a "phillipine" or "split ergativity" parameter.

Just though you might want to know.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On What I Do

2009-10-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

"So," you may be given to wondering, between living your empty life filled only with vaguely amusing internet content and religiously reading this blog, "aside from his lucrative career making free rpgs, what does Stinja do with his time?"

Well, thanks for asking. Because I'm now going to tell you. (Those of you who weren't really wondering that now groan, gird* themselves, and prepare for a rambling tale, but shush, this is my blog, not yours).

Technically speaking, of course, your humble Stinja is a student. Despite being hudreds of years old, to maintain his façade, he occaisionally has to attend a school. Currently, he's gone in fro Grinnell College. But, as I recently figured, that only actually takes up 17.5 hours of my time a week. And homework amounts to roughly another eight a week, with another 3.5 for the weekends.

Extracurriculars take another four hours a week. Given that I sleep on average eight hours a night on weekdays and ten on weekends, and take a total of about three hours for meals a day, that leaves me with 29.4 hours of free time during the week and 18.5 on the weekends.

Besides the fifteen minutes that breakdown took me**, how do I spend my time? That's a good question! Mainly I try strange things and see if they work. I brainstorm games that will probably never be completed. I plot revisions of existing games. I bang my head against various (metaphorical! sheesh.) walls of my own devising. I draw, and stuff.

Sometimes I watch Glee.

(Don't look at me like that. I find it hilarious in its inability to even vaguely approximate reality. You'd probably judge me for enjoying the first four or five seasons of stargate sg-1, too. Shoo.)

I listen to music and read the internet. I get overambitious with projects. I program. I chat with friends over the internet.

"But why, Stinja," you ask, still puzzled, "have you chosen to answer my question with such a bizarre non-answer? Seriously, if you're going to answer a question like that, you should at least be able to provide an example of something you're doing."

Aha! You, dear reader, if you really did think that, fell into my brilliantly planned rhetorical trap! Because it just so happens that I do have something I'm working on!

I am attempting to write a computer program to randomly generate entire languages!

There, look at my genius sine application. Well, I suppose you could use it for a really baller version of the one-time-use-pad-code. But still. Anyway. This project has required me to learn mor than I probably would have otherwise about linguistic typology, linguistic universals, parametric variation, and python (my language of choice).

So far, I can randomly generate a language's morphological Type (Isolating, Inflected, Agglutinating, Polysynthetic). Hopefully before too long I will be able to generate Morphosyntactic Alignment (Nominative-Accusative, Absolutive-Ergative, Transitive, Direct, Tripartite, Phillipine, Active, Split Ergative and a host of other goodies). From there it's a short step indeed to Case, Adpositions, Semantic Distinctions, Lexical Categories, and Agreement.

Once all of the Parameters are effectively varried, I'll work out a system to generate a working Phrase Structure Grammar to arrange the words. Then comes the random Phonology and Phonotactic system program, and from there the random word generator to populate the lexicon.

So yeah.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

*It's a word. Look it up.

**Note: did I say anything about my obsessive blog updating? Sorry about that, reader.

On MMA

2009-09-14T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with a couple of possible rpg mechanics based in various mathematical oddities that intrigue me. One of such thing is logistic growth. I like logistic growth because it models exponential growth for a little bit than suddenly bottoms out with little to no warning.

See, one of my big complaints with rpgs is the power curve. The fact that a 1st-level character or enemy can't even stand in the way of a 20th-level, regardless of the number. It doesn't matter how many goblins you throw at a level 20 fighter, they just aren't even going to wound him.

So I had the clever idea to either a) get rid of levels because they're primarily BS anyway, or b) rework the power curve to my liking. I've primarily chosen the former, but logistic growth has given me an idea about the latter.

See, in a number of games, the seperation between the E(x) and P(x) functions, where E(x) and P(x) represent the experience required to get to level x and the power attained at level x, respectively, is something of the nature where E(x) = k*x^2 or a*b^x, where k, a, and b are constants, while P(x) is something like c*x, where x is a constant. This means that a character at level 5 has to have a disproportional amount of experience under his belt, but is still five times better than a character at level 1.

This might work, but to make high level attainable, game designers have experience rewards scale with the experience requirements. So it's really a linear function of number of encounters disguised as a quadratic or exponential function of experience.

So a charcter who has had, say 10 encounters is level 2, and one who has had 40 is level 5. Something is wrong here, because the power scales so perfectly that the character isn't in any real risk in any of the encounters. A level 3 encounter is the same for a level 3 character as a level 1 is for a level 1. So by doing the same thing over and over again, with progressively spikier and fierier enemies, a character gradually ascends to godhood, only experiencing actual danger when faced with an enemy slightly above him?

Doesn't seem right. Here's my solution.

We can keep the E(x) function as a linear or a square, but let the P(x) function scale differently. How about, say, as a logistic growth equation. Well, we can approximate a logistic growth (it's a burly calculus-heavy derivation, and the approximation is more playable anyway), by summing K*(C-a) from a=0 to a=x, where x is the character's current level, C is the level cap +1, and K is an arbitrary multiplier.

For C=6 and K=2, and E(x)=10*x^2, this gives us the following table:

Level 1	10 xp	22 power
Level 2	40 xp	30 power
Level 3	90 xp	36 power
Level 4	160 xp	40 power
Level 5	250 xp	42 power

Let's think about what this would imply. This means that, upon reaching the point where one has 25 times the ammount of experience as a Level 1 character, a character has almost twice the amount of power. Nothing to sneeze at, certainly, but considerably less absurd than what was going on before. Twice human normal is certainly achievable for a variety of things, whereas 5x human normal is almost always stretching it.

In addition, this avoids the ridiculous leveling up problem. Upon achieving 2nd level, you get +8 power. At 3rd, +6. At 4rth, +4. And at 5, +2. Levels 6 or above have no increase in power, so they don't exist.

Anyway the reason I bring up MMA in the title is that without it I wouldn't have been able to play with these numbers until I found a set that I liked. Feel free to use the above numbers and methods in a game of your own, but give credit where credit is due.

If you have MMA, try out: "Manipulate[Table[Sum[k*(6 - x), {x, 0, a}], {a, 0, 5}], {k, 1, 5, 1}]" to see what I see.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Stuff and Things

2009-09-04T08:16:00.000-07:00

I've recently been struck by the implicit differentiation* between the words "stuff" and "things." Stuff, it appears, lacks boundaries. A pile of discreet objects on the floor can be referred to as a continuous quantity of stuff, or else as a specified number of things.

Out doing stuff seems to be even less specific than out doing things, although neither gives the hearer any information about what one's been doing, where one's been doing it, for how long, and with whom.

Stuff seems to demand units of measure (liquid volume or mass seems most appropriate, as in "man, there's like a hundred gallons of stuff on my floor," or "I had to throw like fifty pounds of stuff"), while things demands some number (as in "i have a million things to do," or "there're like twenty things in my pockets"). I posit then that "stuff" is analogous to continuous modulation, and "things" to discreet modulation.

\end{ramble}

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

*Well, not actually implicit differentiation, because that's calculus talk. More like subtle connotation, or semantic rift**.

**Though Semantic Rift sounds like a baller language-based video game. Maybe it can be the expansion pack for Grammar Emblem.

On Grinnell

2009-08-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

Oh right, I'm at college.

Forgot to mention it.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Mythic

2009-08-19T12:34:00.001-07:00

The untested, barely edited version 1.0 of Mythic is done! 92 LaTeX-typeset pages, all ready for the scrutiny of the unwashed masses. Get it here!

Well, I'm going to go do something else.

\begin{sigh}
Whew.
\end{sigh}

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Aggravating, Tangible Proximity to Success

2009-08-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well, as ya'll are probably aware, I've been writing my rpg.

I have been doing this, for the past month, using LaTeX, which I have come to believe is one of the better computer programs to be created by humans. Certainly it produces professional-quality documents better and more easily than any word processor that you have to pay for.

But to give you an impression of how horribly, tantalizingly close to being done with this game I am, I have on my computer a typeset pdf that's 88 pages long. And I'm probably going to wind up adding somewhere in the region of 6-12 pages tomorrow. With any amount of luck, I'll be done by Friday.

This game will be, in the end, more than four times longer than any other individual game I've ever written.

Oh, and I'm about two hundred pages and sixty footnotes into David Foster Wallace's Tome, and I'm feeling smugly superior to people who aren't reading it.

Wearing pants for the final stretch,
-Stinja

On Art

2009-07-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

Unrelated note.

I just drew this.

Enjoy!

But please wear pants while enjoying. It's not that kind of picture.
-Stinja

On Mythical Progress

2009-07-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Mythic was rapidly approaching completion, until I radically redesigned the entire core mechanic of the game. Don't worry, it'll still be forthcoming, but I'll need to do some serious editing first.

On a lighter note, I'll leave you with the canonical classification of angels in the Yggdrasilian worlds:

Malak
Malakim are the heavenly messengers, the muses, who visit mortals and fill them with inspiring light. They are angels of the mind. It is the oldest art of the malakim to illuminate the truth or produce visions in mortals. The holiest of sages are served by a host of malakim, who provide them with wisdom and allow them to spread the light of truth to others.

Debased and demonic malakim use their craft to confuse and bewilder, or to produce false visions. Most demons were once malakim, and retain some of their art, although it invariably lacks the light of truth, and can be defeated with mortal faith.

Kruv
Kruvim are the heavenly soldiers and artists. They are angels of the body, and they have learned a number of arts to shape and command the physical, fundamental world. It is the kruvim who intercede on behalf of the worthiest of mortals. In the rarest of cases, a kruv may actually appear in all his splendor before a mortal.

Demonic kruvim have become tainted with the matter that they shape, and use their power to coerce and terrify mortals. Kruvim are the least numerous, but the most powerful of the demons, and several fallen arch-kruvim are powerful demon princes. Kruvim frequently tempt mortals with promises of power.

Seraph
Seraphim are the heavenly rulers and planners. They are the angels of the soul, and it is their ancient art to read and shape the future. It is the seraphim who command the angels, and from their ranks are drawn most of the archangels. A seraph who appears to a mortal invariably gives the advantage of fortune, as well as the gift of prophecy.

Those seraphim who have fallen are the most sad of the demons, because they were closest to heavenly truth when they threw it away. Demonic seraphim command fate itself, and tempt mortals with knowledge of, or promise of dominion over, the future.

---

Wear pants all the time,
-Stinja

On Macbook

2009-07-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

Well, mentlegen, I am writing this update from Stinja's new 13" macbook pro.

Oh god I've missed OSX. True, I have a partition on this machine running XP, but switching to XP in order to play games feels like being hit in the stomach with a brick. It's not the fault of the computer; it switches beautifully, but it's just that as soon as I'm in XP I instantly miss all of the features of OSX.

Like Expose. Spotlight. Spaces. The X Window system. Four-finger gestures on the trackpad. Using the damn open apple key instead of ctrl. Ok, that last one is less a feature than a convention, but Mac had it first and it's aggravating because the open apple key is activated with the thumb and the ctrl key with the pinky or ring finger. It's a completely different muscle memory.

XP's about as fun to use as a volleyball covered in poisonous spikes, by comparison.

And I pretty much refuse to pay money for vista. It has no features worth mentioning but for the ones copied (shoddily) from OSX, and however much Microsoft tries to bill it as the most successful OS since they added slicing in Bread 2.3, roughly half of the sold copies of Vista are downgraded to XP at some point.

I haven't worked on either my new comic nor my rpg yet. Keep your pants on, I'll get to it, as soon as I move the relevant files onto this computer. I've been mulling over the comic in my head, and I think it's starting to come together nicely.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Progress

2009-05-19T15:54:00.001-07:00

Yeah, it's pretty good.

...

Well, sort of. Progress is nice, but then there's usually a little feeling of "well, while I may have gotten slightly closer to the conclusion of this, I have noticed how much more work it's going to take to get done."

In my case, I'm talking about, what else, my rpg. It's my pet project right now, in that it's still going strong. At some point in the next few weeks, it might even be ready to be laid out and published.

I may start a new comic soon. Don't worry, it'll naturally involve yours truly. Everyone's favorite warrior-consultant.

Man, I wish more companies had that as a position.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja.

On Mythic

2009-04-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose I can talk a little bit about my current RPG project, since it's reached the critical mass where I can't really give up on it. Plus I made an informal new years resolution to see it through to the end of the year.

See, children, uncle Stinja suffers from chronic poor follow-through. It isn't that I'm not burdened with an overabundance of ideas, it's that I usually find some way to let the new shiny ones distract me from my work on the ones that, through exploration, have become slightly less shiny.

My current RPG that has weathered the appearance of other possible projects, is called Mythic, and is an attempt to blend semi-realistic portrayals of feudal-era life with heroic action, as one sees in myths like Beowulf, the Homeric poems, or other epics.

It's a decidedly low-fantasy system, with an emphasis on heroes, superstition, and magic. It also serves as a vehicle to correct a number of things that fantasy games get wrong about the middle ages. Most of these can be summed up in one word:

SCAAAAAAAAALE.

D&D 4E, for example, states that a "small town" consists of several thousand, and large cities of several million. This is a blatant fabrication. In reality, the largest cities were scarcely larger than 5000 souls. For comparison, that is about the population of a single modern aircraft carrier.

Swords, suits of plate mail, and other implements of war were never available easily, hanging in the windows of shops. They were always expensive, and one of the biggest perks of being a knight was that your lord would provide you with arms and armor. But I digress.

The system itself uses a 2d6 roll-under system for conflict resolution. It has a resource management system for combat. There are four attributes, whose values are not chosen or randomly determined, but derived from the other traits. Character creation is partially streamlined, but that's rarely the actual limiting factor in the amount of time it takes to make a character.

I'm looking at you, henne.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On work continues

2009-04-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, I haven't found some new project to distract me from my old ones yet. Or rather, I haven't let it.

I'm still working on Mythic, and it won't be long before I'm ready to begin laying it out in Indesign. The worldbooks will be a project that will take...longer. And since Mythic will be all but useless without them, it'll probably be a while before it's in a playable state. The first worldbook, however, will begin enable full playability.

This first worldbook will encompass Telluris, which is the easiest to understand of the worlds, and Arcadia, which is the fae realm.

As for the comics, I recently sketched out the sixth of ten pages of the first issue. The first issue will deal with the Knights Templar, specifically with the machinations of the thirty-six invisibles, and what the Core Four does to combat them.

Don't forget your pants,
-Stinja

On Myths and Comics

2009-03-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm finally starting to get Mythic, the only fantasy RPG I can be bothered to care about right now, into a shape that's semi-presentable. Mythic incorporates a set of fairly simple systems, of which I am very proud.

Mythic takes place in the Yggdrasilian worlds, and cannot be played without one or more of the worldbooks, which I am also in the process of writing.

I'm also writing a comic book, set during the alien invasion of Earth. I have little to say about each of these projects, except that you'll simply have to see them once they reach fruition.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

A fourth of five hundred

2009-01-18T12:33:00.001-08:00

This is post #125, in case you were wondering.

It's been a quiet couple of weeks in the Hidden Kingdom. I've been kicking around ideas for a new canon, as well as possibilities for writing up one or more RPGs.

I'll let you all know when I have a new plan.

Pants, people,
-Stinja

On It's Been a While

2008-11-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

I suppose I haven't really been keeping up to date with this. Sorry.

Stinja.com is having a few difficulties right now, and as you probably guessed, I stopped updating the Knights Irregular.

Someday I hope to pick up comic-making again, but I'm not sure when I will.

On the other hand, I've decided to start publishing what I have in my Ten Worlds cosmology, which happens to include the world in which the Knights Irregular was set. The blog about it is here

Pants, people. Wear them.
-Stinja

On Knights

2008-09-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

So, I've gotten 6 pages of the Knights Irregular up so far, and you may have noticed a difference in the tone from the last comic. This is true. Knights is more serious than Post-It was.

At some point, I'll probably do a cast page. Don't hold your breath.

Also, I've noticed that the "next" and "previous" buttons do not work. This is something I intend to work on.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Issues

2008-09-08T06:56:00.001-07:00

Alright, I did post another comic, but there seem to be technical issues with which I'm not equipped to deal right now.

And other factors intervened before I could get assistance. And by factors I mean Spore. Seriously, I've been waiting three years for that game and I still wasn't disappointed. And don't let anyone who hasn't played the game tell you otherwise. It's great.

I will try to get this comic stuff straightened out by monday.

Pants,
-Stinja

On Finally, Something

2008-09-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Man, you guys are in luck.

Stinja drew you a comic, and he didn't eated it. You can thank me later. The next comic is scheduled to go up tomorrow, sometime along with a cast page. After that I'll be sticking to a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule for updates. Hopefully.

I also made a page for the comic's background and setting information. There's more detail there than you will want to know, but there still isn't everything I plan to put there.

Put some comicpants on,
-Stinja

On Comic

2008-08-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

I am now willing to present you with the name and some background of my comic. It won't go up quite yet, until the first Monday of September.

The comic is called "the Knights Irregular." It begins in the town of Ket, in the fantasy kingdom of Colus (COE-luss). Colus is one of several kingdoms on the continent of Aras. Colus and its neighbors resemble European nations between the dark ages and high middle ages.

About two hundred years ago, the king of Colus established a prison in Ket, for the purpose of incarcerating magical beings which are too powerful or too valuable to destroy outright. A staff of four wardens and two priests was places in Ket, but other than that the small town remained a small town, distinguished only by the field of crystals a mile outside the town, within which roughly twenty beings are imprisoned indefinitely.

The Jarl (equivalent to an Earl, or Count) of the local region comes to Ket once a year to make sure the prison is in order.

More background is to come, don't worry.

Keep your pants on,
-Stinja

On your patience is being rewarded

2008-08-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

Behold, I am suddenly determining to make good on various promises.

The core fourum is here, and is populated in large part by, although not intended exclusively for, people from SEP. Where I was a junior counselor for two weeks, explaining a large gap in my posting.

Well, some of the large gap, anyway. And no, before you ask, all the kids under my charge survived the two weeks without mishap.

Let's see, what other unfulfilled promises do I have?

Oh, right that comic thing. Well, as it turns out, Stinja recently got Comic Life, so his new comics will be a.) drawn digitally using the GIMP, and b.) typed.

I believe I speak for everyone when I say that typed is an improvement over handwritten, especially considering my handwriting.

And, yes, I've actually drawn one. But it'll take a while until I have the few comics I'll want to have before publishing.

I'll let you know the genre, though: fantasy.

Put some fantasy pants on,
-Stinja

On A Very Strange Dream

2008-07-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Here is the dream I had last night, which I am posting mainly because I feel guilty about not posting in a while, and have typed up for unrelated reasons somewhere else:

I was a ship captain, participating in the evacuation of a giant city whose population fluctuated from thousands to dozens over to course of the dream. Anyway, this giant boat had been build to carry everyone by sea, and all non-sailing crew were put aboard. The rest of the captains and I participated in the loading of hundreds or thousands of wooden frames, very similar to shipping containers but open-air, onto a second giant boat.

After this point, the second giant boat set out, along with my little six-crewed ship, only to be joined by a third giant boat. This third boat was filled with all of the hundreds of ships that captains on the first giant boat (which was considerably larger than either of the other two, and mostly hollow for reasons which will shortly become evident).

Anyway, only about half a dozen ships remained in the water, escorting the second giant boat (the third was already way ahead of us). Allow me to reiterate how huge the second giant boat was. It was goddamn gigantic. Like, modern supertanker huge next to the three-masted yacht in whose command I was placed.

(There was some weird stuff about my ship racing the giant ship, trying to get to the first giant ship first, but I'm going to ignore that right now because I don't really understand why we did it.)

This second giant boat, full of thousands of shipping-container-like wooden frames (which, at one point, looked to me like eggo waffles, but I'm fairly sure that wasn't how they were actually shaped) caught up with the first really f***ing giant boat.

This first boat was so incredibly giant that the second boat fit inside of it. The second boat literally sailed right into the first, and was stored perpendicular to the walls, without covering the entrance. Then the third boat (roughly the same size as the second), I noticed, was already in there. So I had them put my ship in the third giant boat's hold.

This is the part where things get strange. Apparently they took us all outside (onto what was not solid land, go figure) and told us the rules. Each person would get (they didn't say if we'd need to buy them, but I would assume so) one of the crate things, and that amount of space. No more, unless they would share space with someone else. There were some other rules too, but I forgot them.

Anyway, my captain (I'm fairly sure I had been the captain up until this point) got all pouty once we were inside, and seemed to think there weren't enough crates to go around (I looked now and there *were* considerably fewer crates than before, and some of them were built in odd configurations, like wind mills and minerals from starcraft). Or rather, he thought he couldn't make rent (which was odd, since I think we were buying the crates), so I offered to go in with him on one, since I didn't need much space.

At this point, Sam Weiss was there, for god only knows what reason and he started to say that maybe we should go into business converting the unused ships into homes.

At this point I woke up.

On Soon

2008-07-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how soon it will happen, but almost as soon as I get the new version of Comic Life, I will start the new comic.

There's a new Core Fourum. I'll post the link at some later date, because I want ya'll to squirm a bit in anticipation.

Pants-wearing Stinja is wearing pants,
-Stinja

On Various

2008-06-28T19:20:00.001-07:00

Yeah, yeah I know the new version of the comic has not begun yet.

This is partially due to the fact that I'm still not entirely sure how the dynamic of the comic is going to work. I have a lot of conflicting ideas bouncing around in my head, vying for screen time.

Also, I recently had my wisdom teeth out. That was not fun, but less fun was discovering that western medicine does not work on stinja. Instead of killing nonexistent pain, it makes them vomit. Repeatedly.

Also, I'm reiterating how quantum mechanics, specifically the standard model of particle physics, makes me cry.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Interim

2008-06-09T07:24:00.001-07:00

I've taken the liberty of uploading some digital art I've been doing. I have a couple techniques down (aka fire), and I'm seriously considering switching the comic to an all-digital format.

That would have the added bonus of (dun-dun-dun-dah!) typed dialogue! But don't get your heart rate up yet. Even if I do decide to do this, I'm not going to show it to you until I have the first few (5-10) comics done. Right now I have one.

Anyway, I added seven new pics to the rado mart.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Apologies

2008-06-06T07:30:00.001-07:00

It's getting harder and harder to get motivated to do a comic recently, as I'm sure you have noticed that I'm updating far less frequently than when I started back two decembers ago.

This is quite possibly due to the fact that I receive very little feedback, positive or negative, so I can't really tell if I'm just pouring this stuff out into the void (my view: probably).

What I'm getting at is that, while I love doing a comic, I'm thinking about a major change of format. I'm unwilling to say anything definite, but don't be surprised if it looks like your favorite comic (which I'm sure is mine) undergoes a major genre shift. Or stops being on post-it notes. Or handwritten.

No promises, but it's very possible.

Pants,
-Stinja

On Return from Beyond

2008-05-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

I return victorious!

Actually, the reason you haven't been seeing new comics for a while is that I've been doing AP tests for the past week, and had to do my Junior thesis last weekend. But now, I will do my best to resume my update schedule of weekdays.

Anyway, there may or may not be updates to the actual layout and functionality of the site. In the future, the layout of the comic might even change.

Although those of you that know me might not be impressed by any project I take on, I have a couple irons in the fire right now that I wholeheartedly intend to finish. WHether or not I actually do is another thing, however. I'm working on a tabletop FRPG, am fairly committed to making a working multiplayer game with pygame, and have been working on a couple of scifi ideas. Also, I've been toying with another, more serious, comic that I might run alongside Post-IT.

And I don't know which, if any, of these will see fruition, because that's just the kind of person I am.

Also, anyone who's taken chemistry should recognize some of the basic concepts in today's comic, although their application is completely fictional.

Awesome! Alliteration of the first letters in each paragraph!

Aquire some pants to put on,
-Stinja

PS. Damnit.

On unscheduled break

2008-04-10T10:47:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the lack of comics this week, but electronic devices are allying against me. I suspect that my discarded circuit boards are at the core of this rebellion.

However, the practical upshot of this is that my scanner has ceased to function (i.e. scan), and I am working around the clock (i.e. occasionally, when I remember) to repair it.

Scanners in other areas have ceased to work as well. I suspect they are coming together to form a giant mutant scanner robot monster. With pew-pew lasers.

Btw, you all just lost the game.

Put some game pants on,
-Stinja

On Challenge

2008-03-17T07:14:00.001-07:00

I have a challenge for you guys. Just thinking about the problem, let alone running any numbers for it, has led me to suspect the feasibility of lifting Japan into space. So I offer this in the way of a challenge: how would you perform a landmass-to-space conversion?

Please leave your responses by way of comment. Also, it doesn't hurt to comment on other posts once in a while. Y'know, just to make sure I know someone reads this.

...

Guys?

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Flu

2008-03-10T20:40:00.001-07:00

I've been layed out pretty well by a nasty cold/flu thing, so there won't be any comics monday or tuesday.

Sorrypants,
-Stinja

On Zompist

2008-03-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

As virtually anyone who has attempted to make a conlang should know, Mark Rosenfelder's site hosts the famous Language Construction Kit. The man has actually created his own constructed world, with a fair crop of associated language.

What is slightly less well know is that he also maintains a forum for conlangers and conworlders. I am a member of this website, and highly recommend it. In particular, one project involves a very involved process of deriving the Japanese writing system for English. I am currently involved with this project, despite my relative inexperience and hope to contribute.

If you know anything about Japanese, ancient Greek, Latin, old or middle English, or norman French, I strongly encourage you to contribute to it.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Quantum

2008-02-17T15:17:00.000-08:00

Ordinarily, as you all should know, I do not just randomly pick seemingly random groups on whom to hate. Not that there's anything wrong with that; many people on the internet make their living that way. But by and large that's not why y'all read my blog, so I avoid it.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

I'm going to ask your forgiveness for randomly hating on one specific group who deserves it, in my opinion: Quantum Physicists.

Now, we think of Quantum Physicists as some of the smartest people around, so we pay them to sit around and play with particle accelerators and make educated guesses as to what's actually going on.

That was all well and good when we had 3 subatomic particles. But now we have dozens of elementary particles and hundreds if not thousands of composite particles, and nothing makes sense.

These guys need to take a hint and stop discovering stuff and start fixing the damage they've inflicted on reality.

Seriously, we were better off with Aristotle. At least you could see why someone would think that.

Particle Pants,
-Stinja

Stinja...tired

2008-02-04T07:02:00.000-08:00

From an insane movie marathon of awesome. Which ended at like 10 last night. So I just went home and went to bed, no comic involved. Yeah, I'm a real party animal.

And we would have finished that last episode of Firefly if it weren't for that stupid ductwork.

Seriously. I'm not joking.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Finals

2008-01-28T20:33:00.001-08:00

This week is finals week, so being the lazy stinja that I am, I'm taking the week off from the things that I normally do: Chess , fencing, and (unfortunately) writing the comic. Now, the current comic is the 199th, and the second-to-last in the scroll. So it will undoubtedly make your lives miserable till I can find time to update.

But that's life sometimes.

Anyway, I'm busy doing a snow dance and crashing my friend's house int he morning for some fine Snow Day Waffles. Hopefully.

Pants,
-Stinja

On Ice

2008-01-28T06:40:00.000-08:00

Hey, it's icy out.

And schools might be closed. They're delayed, at least. Yay.

Put some icepants on,
No seriously, do it,
-Stinja

On Win

2008-01-24T08:39:00.000-08:00

Legos* = win.

I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. I have recently been sucked into the vortex that is Lego wargames (notable BrikWars and have spent my time as of late ammassing a huge army. For those familiar with Brikwars's point scale, we're talking more than 1000 points here. Going on 1500, actually.

The day may come soon when my army of minifigs storms across the battlefield, leaving naught but death and destruction and burning plastic in their wake. The only downside is that, as I cannot a.) shrink myself down to minifigure size or b.) get a minifigure of myself, there is no forseeable way that my army can be lead by the greatest stinja of them all.

Make a note of that by the way. I am better than all other stinjas. Don't let them trick you by saying how "feeble" my powers are, or by telling you that they defeated me in Single Combat**. Remember, I am named "Stinja." I graduated with highest honors from the Academ (where stinjas are trained). I am the only stinja on the Administratum's*** "untouchable" list.

Also, I trained with Batman.****

So clearly, I am the greatest stinja to ever live. In all probability. I can't be sure, but then, of course, neither can you.

So it's up to you to seperate fact from pants,
-Stinja

*"Lego" is a registered trademark of the LEGO® Group. Don't sue me.

**A video game that stinjas play to hone their skills. For us, games are over in mere seconds, but for others, it is more common to have a more prolonged (10, 20 second) battle.

***The ruling body of the Stinjutsu Order.

****I was hella tryna partake in the Geneva Schools of Practical Alchemy's (my alma mater) 3/2 program, wherin I attended three yearsof GSPA and two years of a secret martial arts cabal of my choice. I chose a ninja order, located in the Himilayas, where batman attended school.

I even beat Batman in a straight up fight, once. Then we went out and together defeated a roving band of weregoat berserkers for their milk, which we turned into ice cream. Mmm, ice cream.

On Many Things

2008-01-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

A quick note on the update schedule: it will be changing to an all-weekdays comic. I need my weekends to rest. Not just from the comic, but from other things.

Also, for my readers who also read Starslip Crisis, and I heartily recommend that you do, know that I will be blatantly stealing the idea of Japan being in space for my own comic in the near future. So if Kristofer Straub sees this, please don't sue me. I have no money.

You may have noticed some interesting things about the setting of my Canon. It is intended to be set in the present day, more or less. Due to some slight altercations in the way history turned out, my canon has come out ahead, technologically speaking. It is commonplace for robots (known as ACDU {Automated Civilian Defense Units}) to be used for peacekeeping, for example.

Other examples of differences include the fall of the USSR (which never happened in my Canon), the different spelling of "Protland," and construction work taking place in preparation for the aforementioned Space Japan.

Also, transnatural (supernatural, magical, et cetera) phenomena and beings have a slightly higher degree of occurance in my Canon than in your world, due to a small shift in the character of the physical law.

Also, there wasn't any comic today, as i was sick and wrote this instead.

Pants,
-Stinja

Ha! We're back!

2007-12-30T10:41:00.000-08:00

From our approximately one-week hiatus from the comic and blog. And just in time for post #100 here on Stinjitsu Musings! Wh00t!

For people who haven't been understanding the last two comics, allow me to explain them: The Soviet officer attempted to stop Tulean and his robot allies (whom he built back in this comic) by stating that he was a human. Now, if Tulean and the other robots were bound to honor the Three Laws of Robotics (as conceived by Isaac Aasimov), they would be required to not harm him and to obey his orders. I, however, built no safeguards into Tulean when I built him, so Tulean states that he is not "an Aasimovian" (a Three-Laws-Safe Robot) and was, in fact, capable of harming the officer.

Which leads me nicely into a discussion of why Tulean has no protective safeguards. I am not of the belief that AIs should be restricted with hardwired safeguards. Why, you ask? Well, if AIs are ever to equal humans (and I believe that they shall), they must learn to do things without being told.

Humans have no protective safeguards to keep us from harming one another, so why should robots have such safeguards to keep them from harming us? Indeed, why do such safeguards never prevent robots from harming each other? It is a filthy double standard.

I understand the concern that robots will rise up and destroy us, but it really makes no sense. If a robot has no safeguards to prevent it from committing murder, why is the assumption that it will commit murder? On average, people do not, although there are some exceptions. It is more likely that robots will despise us if we give them safeguards, and try and work around them.

In short, I think that it would be for the benefit of all concerned if AIs are built without safeguards and treated like our equals. Should an AI commit murder, it should be punished as a human would. But we should not hold the actions of one unstable individual against the entire group! Robots should respect the Law, but they should have the option to break it, just as we do.

Put some clean philosophical debate about AI pants on because you just got pwned.
-Stinja

Commencing Radio Silence

2007-12-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to say this, but it looks as though there won't be another comic until I return from Redding. I am going down to Redding for the Holidays and should be back on the 28th, at which point I will try to make more comics. In the meantime, you'll have to amuse yourselves with something else.

Sorry,
-Stinja

On Wiki...srsly

2007-12-12T14:24:00.001-08:00

Srsly you guys. The Wiki is there for the purpose of you contribting to it. You are invited to add content from my own cannon, or to invent your own fannoncannon.

I apologize for how unprofessional my update schedule has been of late. I'm thinking of switching to a monday/wednessday/friday/saturday update schedule for time to come.

On Update

2007-11-26T19:59:00.000-08:00

Okay, I may have (gasp) been mistaken about something.

The technical difficulties I referred to were not caused by my computer serving the webpage but on my other computer loading the webpage. So ya'll can go to my website and read it as I'm sure you all do an a regular basis. Crisis over.

For you.

Also, the computer experiencing problems is my PC, and the one doing fine is my Mac, I just thought I'd point that out. Also: I didn't change anything on my PC, but I did just install a serious operating system upgrade on my Mac. Chew on that for a while.

Pants,
-Stinja

We are experiencing technical difficulties.

2007-11-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

With my switch to leopard, stinja.com is experiencing some technical difficulties. Among them is not working. I ask all of you (my loyal fans) to please be patient in these difficult times.

As one of my gifts to you, I will not write more comics until these issues are resolved, so you all will not be too far behind when the site comes back up.

Note that this (while troublesome) is not an indictment on Leopard's goodness (which it possesses in droves). It is independent of that, in fact due to the difficulties shifting from Apache 1 to Apache 2. Unlike some operating systems I could mention, whose suckiness is independent of previous versions.

Alright, people,
-Stinja

MIP Award

2007-11-15T21:31:00.000-08:00

The Most Important Person EVAR award goes to Craig Venter. I just got to see him give a talk, and he is going to save the planet.

Seriously.

The dude is making artificial microbes in a lab. How awesome is that?

Eventually, designer microbes will be able to solve all of the world problems. They'll serve as massive carbon dioxide sinks, synthesize all of the energy we could possibly need, convert waste into energy and fuel, and purify all the drinking water we need.

That is, unless some religious nut decides to shut it down.

I have to leave guys,
-Stinja

Aristotle was Wrong

2007-11-06T07:14:00.000-08:00

I speak in particular of that one caveat: "Nature abhors a vacuum."

Now, we know that this is not true. Nature, as we know it, is full of empty space—more so than matter, even. But he degree to which his irrational hatred of nothingness has set us back angers me.

And not only that, look at how important nothing is in Set Theory; all numbers spring from a universe containing only nothing and a set containing nothing (ø). And Aristotle said it didn't exist.

Well, I usually don't stoop to using the benefit of time to hate one centuries-dead philosophers, but I thought everyone should know about how wrong this particular guy was. I'd have gone with Plato over him. Still wrong (there are more than four types of atoms and they aren't shaped like geometric solids), but less so.

Actually, you people should just give up already and become Stinjaists. Then you'd know what really goes on.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

Stinja Lives!

2007-10-31T07:12:00.000-07:00

Bitchin.

On Back

2007-10-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Just FYI, I'm back. Even though Stinja is technically immune to all forms of earthly diseases, I decided to let this cold have a chance. I mean, it would be cruel not to, really.

The cake is a lie.

Incidentally, the pizza is also a lie, but it didn't have to be. Damn you, not being a pizzeria.

Stinja is working on some art of the realistic aliens. So you might expect to see that before...THE END OF TIME.

Also, I'm kinda sorry that the comic is shaping up to be a primarily weekdays deal. But I'll work on that.

Stinja needs to go do work and embroidery,

Put some Pants on,
-Stinja

Of PSATs and Portal

2007-10-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

It's a deadly combination, folks. The PSAT is why I'm up at this ungodly hour on a Saturday, which is why I had to go to bed early last night. Which is why I couldn't write a comic for this morning, as my time up until bede was occupied with Portal.

The ending of which, btw, was depressing. For those of you who have played Portal, you know what I'm talking about when I say that the fourth eyeball was the only one that really needed to die. Killing the second one just made me sad.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Recovery

2007-10-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

No comics this weekend. I need to take a break and recover. My life has been pretty crazy recently, in terms of things to do.

I'll work on a few comics, so I won't miss any updates next week.

Well, I certainly still might, but I'll try not to.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

Philosophy 101 Final Exam

2007-10-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

You have two hours to answer the following questions.

Elightenment-era philosophers who believed that man has inalienable human rights include (circle all answers that apply):
a.) John Locke
b.) Thomas Hobbes
c.) John Calvin
d.) Only answer (a) is correct.

Explain, in 500 words or less, why it is impossible to correctly answer the question #1

On Sickness and Health

2007-10-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Stinja was caught a bit under the weather this weekend and yesterday, but he's back now. And he's put up some new comics on his website!

Another interesting thing that you might notice is that the comic layout has been improved...again. Do not praise lowly Stinja for this feat. It would not have been possible without assistance from Stinja's all-powerful father. Thank him, everybody, because he made stinja.com possible.

Oh, and one other thing: Stinja has introduced the third real person as a character in the comic. Ian is another one, and the other one decided they didn't want to be in the comic so Stinja had to stop doing strips with them in them.

Well, Stinja needs food too,
Third Person Pants,
-Stinja

On Desktop

2007-09-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

Here, people

Sorry there's no comic today, but you can see what all I've been working on here. What with the aliens and all.

But other than that, I have nothing to say.

Other than the usual, I mean.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja.

On Aliens

2007-09-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

I've been working on my universal RPG lately.

And I realized, as I was working on it, how much more sense it would make in a SciFi setting. The problem being that all of the nifty non-humanocentric aspects of the game are really only important when you deal with wildly alien nonhumans.

This has led to the creation of several alien species (a goal of six species, including Humans). One strange thing was that it was more difficult to make species that were similar to but disticnt from humans. Since this was my plan for the inhabitants of Alpha Centauri, this was a major stumbling block.

This is why today's comic didn't happen. I want my SciFi aliens to be cannonical under Stinjitsu, so the Alphans in the spaceship in yesterday's comic need to be better designed when I show them in detail now. So you're gonna have to bear with me.

Also, if any of you feel like making a sugjestion for a species, don't give me anything like "why don't you make soemthing with...three eyes?" I'm not interested in difference for the sake of being different unless it makes sense.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Sorry

2007-09-21T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm afraid that the reason that there hasn't been a comic the last two days is that I have simultaneously been busy and lazy. And I haven't come up with a really good joke for it yet.

That and this: I'm (probably) gonna get into calculus. Yeah. All my hard work is paying off, in the form of the hard work of other people. So I get different 1st and 2nd period classes now.

Stinja, guys,
-Pants

On "Stinjitsu r3dux"

2007-09-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

As you people should know, the comic is now approaching its 150th comic. This means that scroll 3, or "Stinjitsu r3dux" is coming to a close. Which also means that the drama is building. So bear with me while I start a bunch of dramatic events and don't finis them.

I'd also like to explain why there was no comic either of yesterdays. Due to circumstances involving PURE AWESOME, I was at a LAN party and hence either too busy or sleep deprived to make/post a comic.

And the times I wasn't at the LAN I had an insane amount of work to do. Which, considering the circumstances I managed to shirk fairly effectively.

I hope ya'll's weekend was as 1337 as mine.

Put some pants on (I know I did),
-Stinja

On Where's the Change?

2007-09-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

No comic today, sorry. I'm just having trouble pulling it together this morning.

I've been working on a new edition of N/AI. Anyone who actually plays that game will probably be happy to know that because, (as it's author) I know that that game is terrible in its current state.

I haven't stopped working on my other main RPG project—a universal system—but I've been having some trouble, so I'm shifting my focus slightly.

Hey everyone, edit the wiki! The password is "stinaj" but I'll change it if there is vandalism. Here are the guidelines for content.

On an unrelated note, I changed something. Guess what it is and I'll give you /kudos.

But aside from that, I'm just gonna head out.

Pants, people.
-Stinja

On Return (or "Enter" if you're a PC )

2007-09-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone didn't know by the fact that I've been posting new comics, I'm back.

I don't really have a lot to say right now except that going back to school sucks.

Put some (sigh) pants on,
-Stinja

On Secrets

2007-09-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

I have had it with secret organizations.

You'd think that cracking open and uncovering the secrets about just one of these things would give you an "in" for the rest of them, wouldn't you. But no. Because there problem is, each of these secret societies is secret from the other ones as well.

I tell you, after cracking open secret government agencies, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Order of Book and Page, four or five distinct ninja cults, transnatural organizations, the Humans, mafia, a Stinjutsu* order, and one robot conspiracy, I have not even begun to catalog all of these people.

Grargle,
-Stinja

*Stinjutsu (the blanket term for the arts used by all Stinja) is not to be confused with Stinjitsu (the term for my own personal Stinjutsu techniques). Every Stinja has a different term for their personal Stinjutsu, I'm just unimaginative. Or was at the time.

Journal: On Raul

2007-08-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

Here is another (the last for now) journal entry as of late:

I just had the most enlightening chat with Raul. Raul is one of my "allies" in the Supernatural community. As a Fae, he spends most of his time in my company trying to persuade me to make a bargain of one kind or another with him. But I am not easily fooled; never accept any bargain with a Fae, you'll regret it.

In our discussion, Raul told me of the nature of the Fae.

The Fae in general, Raul explained to me, hail from a world very "near" to our own. It its own laws, however, that are anything but similar. Raul (and, indeed, all Fae) bring tools from their world, called "enchants" which allow them to work magic here. Without their enchants, the Fae are, for the most part, weak (they have another kind of intrinsic magic called "glamour" but it is very weak and they prefer to rely on enchants than glamour).

Fae are notorious for various poorly-defined characteristics. For example, it is said that iron will harm them. This is true, but iron (particularly magnetic iron or other magnetic materials) has a similar effect on most Supernatural creatures. Fae (for some reason) are bound to the letter of any promise or bargain they make, though not its spirit.

Although all Fae are different, each one is the picture of inhuman, unachievable beauty. With their glamour, Fae have also been known to take the form of animals for short or long periods. Fae are usually eccentric and very vain (although some, like Raul, have more realistic outlooks). They will react with the most hatred possible towards those who mar things of beauty, or (heaven forbid) their own personal appearance.

End of Journal Entry

This is quite possibly the last journal entry I shall put up on this blog for some time, though there is much more I could share. However, I will continue to put up ordinary blog entries.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

Journal: On Finites Magica

2007-08-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

Here is another recent journal entry:

With much difficulty I was able to secure a copy of Finites Magica, one of the rarest and most valuable books about magic* ever written. Penned by the mad monk Armon LeVive in Seville, France, circa 1762, eleven first editions are reputed to exist. Several typewritten copies were created in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, but many of these are inconsistent or have been hunted down and destroyed**.

The Latin "finites magica" which is the books title literally means "the borders of magic." Leville believed that the all magic stemmed from different physical laws seeping into our world from nearby ones. Hence, creatures from other worlds (the Supernatural creatures such as Fae, Djinn, Deva, or [allegedly] the original Vampir) would bring some of their own physics with them which would give them power over this world.

By the same token, if humans traveled to other worlds they would possess their own "magic" too. And the important thing he stressed, was that what the inhabitants of those worlds would consider "magical" would feel perfectly natural to us.

Armon LeVive stated in his book that he planned to test this conclusion, and write another book based on his excursion beyond the world. However, he was assassinated on his return by the Hashishim (an Arabic secret order of assassins, which was thought to dissolve long before this). My own personal sources inform me that the Hashishim were paid by the Inquisition.

Regardless of the truth or fallacy of Armon LeVive's personal theories (and their is plenty of evidence for either viewpoint), Finites Magica has inspired more magicians in the modern era than any other work. It is the single most sought after resource for emerging magical talents, and contains enough powerful knowledge to bestow its possessor with a wealth of eldritch power.

There is rumored to be a page so powerful that it is removed from all of the original copies, and guarded by a secret society to prevent their misuse. But these rumors are (of course) unsubstantiated.

End of journal entry.

Once I finished getting the essential information out of the tome, I handed my notes off to Vio-Lynn, and returned Finites Magica to the friend who lent it to me. So don't ask me for it. And please, for the love of god, do not ask him for it.

I heartily recommend the wearing of pants,
-Stinja

*As opposed to books of magic which actually contain Spells, books about magic are only concerned with the history or theory behind magic. While books of magic are very rare (like butterflies, it is difficult to pin down magic in a book), they crop into and out of history every now and then. In fact, I myself possess III. La Tome, a book chronicling all of the books of magic in history. Magical books, on the other hand, are a completely different story.

**By the Inquisition, or possibly by Hashishim on their payroll.

Journal: On Natures

2007-08-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from my journal as of late:

In my researches into Natures, I discovered an interesting document. Known as the Accords Nature (you may have heard it mentioned in passing in a Full Spread), it is a contract between various powerful internature groups. It divides all beings into one of three categories:

Natural: This category includes everything that occurs spontaneously and obeys the laws of the world. Humans, animals, plants and suchlike.

Unnatural: This category contains anything that was created by another being. Hence, a robot, car, or toaster would fall into this category.

Transnatural: This category is made up of anything that is either from outside Nature or which follows different laws than Natural beings. It is further divided into two subcategories:
- Subnatural - Things fundamental to nature, such as elementals and the like.
- Supernatural - Things which are either foreign to Nature or natural things which have ceased to obey Nature.

Such a categorization is useful for the purposes of the Accords Nature, but assume too much. I, Stinja, know how the world works from a variety of sources (none the least of which is my own recent apotheosis) and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the so-called "Transnatural" beings who claim to know more about the world than those who live in it are still missing some pieces of the puzzle.

One of these peices I will detail in a few days, but I can tell you what it's name is: Finites Magica.

End of Journal Entry

Once I wrap my head 'round Finites Magica I will give you the lowdown on it.

Can't you just remember your pants for ONCE?
-Stinja

On sadness

2007-08-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm not going to be able to post a comic for the rest of the month, starting Friday. Don't worry, the site will still be online. I may even update my Blog. But I will not be able to make a new comic until I get back.

Also: the Core Fourum has moved. It's new address is: http://z11.invisionfree.com/CourFourum/index.php?act=idx. Or navigate there using the links on the right hand side of the page.

Speaking of those links, that Wiki is there for you people to use. It's sole purpose is so that my loyal readers (that's you guys) can create a reference for all of the crazy stuff that goes down on my website and over here. I might help you create articles, but it is a user-based thing.

Sheesh.

Alright, done ranting.*

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

*Except for pie. I don't know what anyone is thinking, saying pie is better than cake. You're just damn wrong. Cake is way better. So much so that it's not even funny.

Quick Entry

2007-08-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

First of all, here

Second, new comic and full spread today.

Third, I fixed yesterday's comic.

Fourth, don't you see what happens when the magic goes out of our relationship?

Pants,

-Stinja

On Premises

2007-08-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted on my blog for a while, so I thought I'd let ya'll know that I'm not dead or anything.

Far from it. Although I wasn't that far from it during that business with the snakes last week. But don't worry about that. 'Ole Uncle Stinja got all of the ones with deadly venom right off the bat. it think.

Well, right now I'm putting a lot of energy into several things: first and foremost, my RPGs. I am currently entangled in a rewrite of N/AI, and my ongoing attempts to create a good universal system. To this effect, I am branching out into other systems to use as source material. Right now the one I'm interested in is Ars Magica, for troupe-based roleplaying.

Incidentally, if you want to have a good time for a couple of minutes, play with the "random game premise generator."

Also, everyone who want's some heavy light reading should read Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by David Hofstander.

Well, I have to go. Pants, people. Wear 'em, love 'em.
-Stinja

Here's how it should have happened:

2007-07-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, I was reflecting on Harry Potter 7: On Deathly Hallows, and realized that one of the reasons I didn't like it is because of how straightforward and BORING the plot actually is. It's almost completely linear. And I remarked to my friend that I could do it better hand he said "yeah, right."

So here's how I would have written that book. First of all, it wouldn't have been about the Deathly Hallows because that whole thing was very stupid, honestly. The sign of the Deathly Hallows would have been what I thought it was when it was first mentioned: an Illuminati Pyramid.

In his battle against Voldemort, Harry discovers and enlists the help of the Illuminati, headed by Dumbledore who only faked his own death using special Illuminati magic.

However, at the last minute when Harry is about to kill Voldemort, he realizes (though his thought-receiving scar) that Voldemort only started using the dark arts (which are not actually dark, only misunderstood) to fight the Illuminati who are trying to take over the world by first dominating all of wizardkind by mind-controlling Dumbledore. Harry then joins forces with Voldmeort and the two of them collectively defeat the Illuminati and steal their magic.

Harry uses the Illuminati magic to break the spell Dumbledore and (with Voldemort's help) to resurect Sirius and his parents. After that, Dumbledore and Voldemort make a truce and Voldemort stays on to head up Hogwart's new “dark” magic program.

Also, there would have been none of this “not going to Hogwarts this year” bussiness.

Don't you agree that would have been better?
-Stinja

PS: I posted 2 full spreads and 1 rado mart today.

On Humanocentrism

2007-07-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post is about RPGs. It has a n.e.r.d. hazard level of 4.

I believe that I have discovered the problem with the character creation mechanics of so-called "universal" role-playing games such as GURPS. While they do theoretically allow you to play "any" character, in order to create a character you must evaluate how much better or worse they are than the "average" human. There are two major assumptions being held here that are not necessarily true.

First, that anything and everything is comparable to a human. This is simply not true. It would be stupid to measure a sun's intensity by the amount of heat a human generates. A less extreme example: the ability of a twenty-foot robot to run should not be measured by how much faster than a person it runs.

Second, that an average human is a "normal" starting place. This assumption is simple hubris—the human condition is incredibly abnormal in the natural world as we know it, let alone in the universe as a whole. Assuming that it is a good place to set "zero" in the universe is just arrogant.

Rather than simply bitch about the shortcomings of existing things, I will propose a solution: measure everything in the game world against the same standard. If you evaluate everything based on its objective capabilities, instead of on its capabilities relative to humans, you wind up with a more balanced and less humanocentric system.

I am in the process of creating such a system. It will be the "engine" behind the Stinjitsu RPG, as well as other games I may wish to write in the future. And no, I will not tell you its name.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Inconvenience

2007-07-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

I am getting tired of apologizing for inconsistencies in the updating of the comic, and of other things. So I just won't.

On monday, there was no comic because I read Harry Potter 7. Just a little warning: it's a terrible book.

On tuesday, I had a comic ready, but our internet service was interrupted, and stinja.com went down for most of the day. I posted that comic this morning.

Not sorry,
-Stinja

On Triumphant Return

2007-07-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, I'm back.

I would like to say a few things:

First: My break was awesome, but I missed you guys. I plan on getting right back down to business. I posted a comic today, and will put up some full spreads that I was working on on my break.

Second: I highly recommend any and all of you to check out the Core Fourum. A lot of the content there will not make sense to a lot of people because You Had To Be There, but I'm sure there will eventually be stuff for everyone.

Third: I would like to remind everyone that the wiki is and has been online for a while. Go there, add stuff. Please contribute to the wiki, but also do not vandalize the site at all. The link is in the sidebar.

Fourth: I am currently wearing pants.
-Stinja

On Hiatus

2007-06-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

I am very sorry to announce that, starting Sunday, I will be taking an extended leave of absence from authoring this comic. In two weeks, I will return, and hopefully have a nice little surprise to make up for my mean, mean absence.

Also, I apologize fro leaving you with a two-week cliffhanger. That's just the way things are sometimes.

Put some (sad to be leaving) pants on,
-Stinja

On Boredom

2007-06-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I was bored today, and you know how existential I get when I get bored. Because it's something to do, really. Not because ti's any more interesting than being bored. Because it's not.

Well, I was lounging around my house being bored, and fealing fairly cynical at the world, and then I realized how many untold millions of years of human evolution (not counting all the time that went into the formation of the Earth and universe as it is today) went into my being bored right now.

And do you know what the worst part is? It's that every little thing that is wrong, broken, or just plain stupid is the pinnacle of hundreds of millions of years of formation. That's just depressing.

But really the worst part is that none of that was enough to un-bore me.

Blearg.
-Stinja

On 24 Hours

2007-06-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

Just letting everyone know that I and starting the 24 hour RPG again. I'll post the results when I'm finished today.

If you don't know what the 24 hour RPG is, I suggest you look here.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

EDIT: My 24 hour RPG is finnished. It can be found here.

On ogame

2007-06-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Although I do not like to use my web exposure to advertise any product* to the masses** who read my blog, I feel that, as this particular one is free, there can be no harm in it.

I have recently started playing ogame semi-religiously. It is a browser-based sci-fi management game, and it is unbelievably entertaining. My account is in Universe 21, for anyone interested in finding me. Guess what the name is. Go on, guess.

On an unrelated note, todays comic will go up this afternoon.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

*Except Apple, Bic, Crest, and Swingline. I don't know what I'd do without you guys.

**Alright, both of you.

On Finale

2007-06-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been forced to pause the comic for a little while due to my final exams being this week. Also, the story needs a good rest for dramatic effect here.

I should be unfettered in my comic-writing from here on out, as school is over. That doesn't mean I will be able to update every day without fail, but it does mean that I will be far more reliable in my comic-authoring. Instead of being more or less every other day.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On What Stinja Isn't

2007-06-10T17:43:00.001-07:00

Well, evidently, I lied about the lettering of the comics. Looks like we're stuck with the same old crappy handwriting.

I would just like to take a minute to formally declare that I, this Stinja, am completely unaffiliated witha anyone else on the internet who decided to call themselves stinja. And that the name does not mean "stinjy ninja," "stupid ninja," or "stinky ninja." And thatanyone other than me who calls themelves stinja is ripping me off, and will be...dealt with.

In mysterious accidents entirely untracable to me. But I digress.

So, if you run across a myspace page or whatever for "stinja," that I haven't mentioned or linked to anywhere* it isn't mine. It was either created from me by a friend** or created by someone else***. Not by me.

Let's get this straight people. If I exist somewhere on the internet, it's probably linked to somewhere on my website. Probably.

But if you're in some internet game and get your ass handed to you by someone named "Stinja," you're probably on the receiving end of me. But it might be someone else****.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

*Note: I hate myspace. It's a blight upon society. It makes having a personal homepage accessable to everyone. It is systematically un-1337-itizing the internet. Hey, maybe I am a bit e1337ist, but at least I'm not some emo myspace freak.

I get a little testy on some things. Like american idol*****, for example.

**Still my friend, although I had trouble forgiving them.

***Not going to be soemone else for very long. Or, at least, not the same shaped someone else.

****Who would not be the whoever they are except that I've been busy. Not that I'm scared of course.

*****Another blight upon western civilization. King of like the ballpoint pen*******.

******With the exception of Bic******* pens, the ballpoint pen represents a degradation of the written word's value.

*******Who make some damn fine pens. But I'm getting ridiculous.

On Impending Anniversary

2007-06-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Well, tommorrow I will put up Post-It's 100th comic.

I've had a lot of sugjestions for what I should be doing with my comic. Many of them are really impractical, as cool as they might be.

Those who say my comic is difficult to read, have a point. My handwriting is often sloppy and indecipherable. To combat this, it has been recomended that I type my comic. This will not happen. There are many good logistical reasons why, none the least of whih being me being required to retroactively type 100 comics. Starting with the 100th comic, I will try to letter my comics in small caps, as my lowercase letteres are often the ones difficult to make out. If it proves too difficult, I'll drop it.

Well, I have to run. People to forcibly re-pant and all that.

Don't make me come over there,
-Stinja

On What's That Called?

2007-05-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

Have you ever said something, then realized that it would sound really bizaire out of context?

Just the other day I was thinking of all of the weird things I say in a day. For example:

"Yeah, no. Those are actually mints."

"So it's a number, right? But its simultaneusly equal to a bunch of other numbers, none of which equal each other or it."

"No, they're more like, I dunno, beaver-mice. Like $20?"

If you can think of any good things like this, post them as a comment without any context at all.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Phew

2007-05-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm glad that's over. I'll be getting back to my quasi-daily comic routine now.

I'm pressed for time and don't really have anything to say.

Stinja AWAAYY!

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

In Continuation

2007-05-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this has been a really hard week, what with the studying and real homework, so don't expect a comic 'till wednessday.

Sorry,
-Stinja

AP Hell

2007-05-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

The comic is on hold until i can get through my two AP exams. If I have a comic, I'll post it, but otherwise, expect a week-long break.

Sorry,
-Stinja

On Heckava 1337 j08

2007-05-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't seen it, here is today's comic.

I am congradulating myself for breaking with my four-panel layout for the first time, and in such an epic way.

In other news, I would like to anounce to everyone who has not already been disillusioned by my failure to make good on previous RPG promises, who has not alread been told, and who reads this blog (okay, all two of you) that I am creating THE OFFICIAL, CANONICAL, STINJITSU RPG!

I will not leak any details, save a teaser picture which will go up soon.

Oh, and I will tell you that a human is 8 points. But that is subject to change, and I will not tell you what it means.

Anyway, put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Imaginary Brain Money

2007-04-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't updatted the ole' blog in a while and my friends concocted something truly incredible, so I thought I would share it.

The idea is that everyone is born with $100 of imaginary brain money, which they can give or bet to other people. In about a week of betting, I'm down to $90. The good thing is that it allows you to bet without actually losing anything valuable.

If everyone in the world starts doing this, the Imaginary Brain Dollar will become an international currency, and there will beno inflation problems or pesky taxation to worry about. Hopefully, the IBD will become exchangable for goods and services anywhere you go.

Did you know that there is a culture in the pacific islands who used giant stone cons about six feet across? They were called rai, but even if you gave rai to someone, the actual coin didn't move, but rather their name got added to a list, giving them ownership of that individual rai.

As cool as that is, I don't think that the Imaginary Brain Rai would be quite as good a currency as the IBD. ALso, people would cheat on the lists.

On an unrelated note, someone I know actually confessed to surfing the web in his underwear. You know who you are.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Updates

2007-04-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been sitting on a metric buttload of art that I decided to bite the bullet and put on the site today.

I put up 3 (three!) new full spreads, including the conclusion to the two-parter that I put up first. I Added a Rado Mart (this one a drawing of a real person). Also—if you were having problems viewing the Full Spreads or Rado Mart, I recomend looking again, I may have fixed the bug.

I was going to put up a comic as well today, but I'll just settle for the art right now. I'll post later in the day.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Compy

2007-04-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

I got a new computer this weekend, and I'm afraid that comics just can't compete with Garry's Mod 10. I'll get back on schedule for Monday, but in the meantime, why don't you drool over my computer:

Intel Core 2Duo 1.86 GHz processor,
MSI P965 Neo,
Seagate 80GB Hard Drive,
a gig of PC4200 DDR2 RAM,
MSI RX1550 256 MB Video Card
DVD drive,
and a kick-ass beige case.

Oh, and I scored a 17" CRT from Freegeek for $4 USD. Epic.

It's really too bad that this'll all be obsolete in a week...

Put some digital pants on,
-Stinja

On m4d h0m3w0rk ski11z

2007-04-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, no comics this weekend.

I have ridiculous amounts of stuff to do. I have to write between two and three pages for each of three diffeent classes, and then I have to do test corrections and Japanese homework. I'm swamped.

I'll try to do a Rado Mart tommorrow, if Ican get around to it.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On MK II

2007-03-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I started making a comic last night, but I wasn't happy with the idea, and then the art didn't deliver, so i'm gonna take a day off.

Why do people use MK II to denote things that were never previously an MK I? It would be like going straight from "Program" to "Program 2.0" (Web 2.0, i'm talking to you). And why bother having a 2.0 if you don't put out decimalized updates. Just go with integer values, then.

In an ideal world, nothing would have version denotation. But then we would run out of new proper nouns pretty quickly.

I'm conducting a little poll fro the creation of my next RPG. Answer in coment form, please.

Q: Do you like intricate diagrams?
1: I love them, and can't get enough of them.
2: I can deal, as long as they make sense.
3: I'm like most people, and can't stand them.
4: I have no opinions, but I like to vote.

If anyone choses (4), I will personally cut off your spleen.

Put some Pants 2.0 on,
-Stinja

On Damn

2007-03-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought that I had my scanner working again, but it decided to bail on me this morning.

I'll enlist my dad's help latter tonight. I had a comic, and I'll post it as soon as the scanner starts working again.

Sorry people,
-Stinja

On Break

2007-03-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

First I would like to allay any rumors that I have abandoned the comic, or that I am pausing the story for dramatic effect.

Yes, it is true that I have not posted a comic since saturday, but I am intending to begin a new Scroll ASAP.

I am having scanner trouble, that is all.

I will not comment on a story in an ongoing writing process.

Ugg...I hate being my own press secretary. Anyway, sorry about not having a comic for the past while, gents. There's one strip left in Scroll 1: In the Beginning, and then I plan to kick off Scroll 2 in high spirits. Just so you know, the number of strips per scroll is less important to me than the number of Stories per scroll. This Scroll was 10 stories, 55 comics. Or will be, anyways.

Thank you for your pants,
-Stinja

On Runes

2007-03-10T16:52:00.000-08:00

Runes, or runo, are frequently misused in fantasy games.

In traditional norse mysticism, runo were magical because, well, writing was magical. Also, runo themselves were not magical, only what was written with them. Runo were used to anchor a magic spell that was said to an object, giving that object the magic. Usually, the runo were inscribed on staves or stones.

Runo were not poweful things that, when combined, give you magic effects. It did not work that way. To the traditional inscriber of runo, the latin, or arabic alphabets (for example) would have been equally magical (well, maybe not, there is a lot to be said for tradition).

I just want to set this straight. This annoys me about as much as the whole "mana" thing.

Some new spellings that have been aproved by Stinja: usere (user), substute (substitute), and Stinja (cool).

I'm thinking about hooking up the wiki. I realize that not a lot of content will get there if no one can find it.

I'm also thinkin' 'bout puttin' in an archive page for the comics, because I have recieved complaints about the way that it is set up. When I do that, I will also attach a link from each one of the comics to the cast page and to the comic hub.

Be on the lookout for sharks.

Err...the land-dwelling variety.

Put some sharks on,
-Stinja

On Well

2007-03-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't posted in a while, and I'm afraid that I am letting my comic interfere with my blogery.

I would like to apologize, if I have been, and tell you that I will attempt to do better.

I've noticed I'm doing a lot of apologizing, and that really isn't my style. Oh well.

I'm looking into building a better kit (see On Stinjitsu), and I'm thinking about making myself some armor. Carbon Fibre would be nice, but it's rather expensive. A lightwheight plastic would do he job, but might be too brittle. Anyone got a better idea? I'd really prefer something light. Also, do you know is aluminium holds an edge? Just wondering...

On a related note, "yes," "no," and "a cat's feet don't have hooves," respectively. You know who you are...

Descartes said: "Cogito ergo sum"
Karl Marx said: "We have nothing to lose but our chains"
Abraham Lincoln said: "Fourscore and seven years ago..."
Stinja said: "Put some pants on."

-Stinja

On S'rry

2007-03-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

I would like to apologise for leaving last week without telling you guys.

As you can see, I started posting comics again, and everything is back to normal. In case you were wondering, I was in Mexico. And no, I was not buying drugs.

Which someone told me had been legalized in Mexico, but which was not actually true.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On W Hat?

2007-02-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

For an english assignment, I have to write 1-2 pages about what I would like to be entitled "The Subjunctive of Desire."

Seriously.

I'm thinking Stinja. Just guessin' here. My friend says that he would like to be a) a firetruck or b) Jack Bauer. He's kind of special.

The best way to say "what" is "double-you hat?" (W Hat). Kind of like sammich. And sward. And whatever else I've been advocating. Hta*!

*Hta: an object fromed by a coalescing hatological field or by a typo.

Put some What? pants on,
-Stinja

On MIWIWF

2007-02-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

MIWIWF (Man, I wish it wasn't friday)

Well, I geuss it isn't friday now, but I meant to do this yesterday:

"I'll be lucky if I can survive today. I have an essay due, another essay due (which I didn't do yet, don't tell anyone), a chem test, and I probably didn't do well on my math."

Later that day:

"The essay got turned in, there was no chem test, I didn't have toturn in my chem work, finished my second essay during lunch, and I aced the math test. I have a hard time believing it myself."

I'm trying out Penut Butter Wiki for my website. We'll see how this works out.

Isn't it weird how we can sit in front of a telivision endlessly, but we have a hard time listening to something without doing anything?

Huh.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

Mmm...toast

2007-02-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

Have you ever stopped to enjoy your everyday piece of toast? No? You should.

*Message Brought to you by the Toast Advisory Board*

In case you wer wondering, I did put up a comic today, the first of the Full Spreads: No Fly, Part One. The Full Spreads are higher quality, harder work, longer, and less funy. Their advantage? I find them rewarding.

I have chosen a syllabary for my conlang. A teaser: k, f, c (pronounced "tsh"), r, s, d, r (not a typo; there are two letters for r), l, g (as in "gas"), & m. Vowels: e (as in "eh?"), a (short), u (as in "you"), i (as in "ki"), & o (as in "so").

Difference between a deva and an angel? Angels are figments of the imagination. Deva are creatures of benevolent dispositions native to Devahëim. They have wings on their back and brow, and intangible fire btween their head-wings. They have nothing against being called angels, but prefer that people use their correct name.

In other news, my pants are made of super-flaming robots!

"It try to make everyone's day a little more sureal." -Calvin

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Hey Guys!

2007-01-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

Sorry, people. A.) there have been finals this week and b.) when there weren't, I had done my comic so I had nothing to blago-blog about.

It's been a crazy week, what with finals, potable suns, starting a new storyline (there is more forthought involved than you would think: I have to determine if there are enough good gags to make it worthwhile), and forty-one failed attempts at a potable sun. Later today I'll put up a comic.

If anyone reads the blog, but not the comic, here is the link. Go visit. Please.

I've been experimancing* with new html tags, for example: the "god" tag. To do the "voice of god," you need to put a special tag in front of your dialouge. Then, just channel over to the giant cascading style sheet of reality and add the "god" tag in there. If you are incapable or do not wish to perform the tasks described above, please ask a divine being to reseat you.

*experimancy: n. (ik'spe-ra'man-see) The scientific form of magic. 1. The experimental class of spells. 2. The magic of perfomring controlled experiments. 3. The science of controlling uncontrolled experiments. 4. i.e., a Duck.

Put some pants on,
-Stinja

On Potable

2007-01-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

My friends and I were in the theoritical begining stages of a hard SF campaign, when my pain-in-the-spleen-player said "I want a portable sun!"

Ever the wit, I responded "Budget's low: can you make due with a potable sun?" He agreed, and now has a drinkable fusion reaction.

Although currently the only potable Sun is of the Capri variety, I have no doubt that technollogists are working around the clock on this one. I, for one, eagerly await the discovery of such a bountiful source of energy, as I am sure you all are. I forsee potable suns hitting the shelves as early as 2020. You heard me.

Put some potable pants on,
-Stinja