Difference between revisions of "Joysweepers Incoherent Idea Bank"

Revision as of 21:28, 6 May 2008

This is Joy's Idea Bank. It isn't a story. It isn't an article. It is a list, and a list without organization, at that. To get ridiculously metaphorical, this is a garden of story-seeds, fertilized with things that supercharge me with enthusiasm. Joysweeper is easy to inspire, but for various reasons can't act on everything. This is a backup - her computer is crashy, and she doesn't want to lose all of these. Why is she typing in third person?

You can look through it, but it isn't for you. By which I don't mean that you can't use bits and pieces of it - I mean that I picked things out for me, and I haven't reformatted it, explained the in-jokes, or anything like that. To go back to the garden metaphor, I haven't hewn a path, and although I know where everything is and what is or isn't pleasing to touch, smell, or eat, you're likely to be lost. Here we have definitions, a couple of links, and some story concepts and fragments. Oh, and I repeatedly express a juvenile love for Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. Why? Dude, if you knew, you'd be in love too.

ZOMGFTATL THE IRON MAN MOVIE IS AWESOME! AAAAAAAAHH! I AM NOW HYPERACTIVE! So cool - ARMOR, POWERED ARMOR, POWERED FLYING ARMOR, POWERED FLYING ARMOR WITH LIFE SUPPORT! Rhodes - War Machine! WAR MACHINE! And SHIELD! And- NICK FURY! AVENGERS! AVENGERS! AAAAHHH! AVENGERS AVENGERS AVENGERS OH SWEET GUARDIAN THANK YOU THANK YOU AVENGERS YES! ...You're not going to get anything articulate from me for a while, you know. I just fully converted from loner to geek. No, no, no, no - I'm not taking down the Star Wars posters! They are MINE! AAAAHH AVENGERS AVENGERS SHIELD NICK FURY WAR MACHINE STARK - damn it, when do the rest of these come out?

Woo, episodes of Avatar. I feel all warm and squirmy inside!

Power Perversion Potential. I'm growing up. There was a time when the things speculated about on this page would have made me very uncomfortable. "I(man)'ll never have lesbian sex(with his wife) again!" makes me laugh. Okay, fine. Just one -

"Another member of the Gold Palpy Society was found dead this morning. Electrocution, like the others." "Gold Pal- oh. Yeah. The - those guys. The ones who always insisted that Palpatine wears a gold metal bikini like Leia's under his robes. I thought it dissolved after the Event. Guess not. Man, those people are weird." "Yyyyep. This means there's a Palpatine out there, at least one, and able to track anonymous people over the Internet. And he's vindictive enough to murder civilians in their beds. Not a good sign."

This was intended to be part of an epilogue for a story Bryan and I are working on. Then it got long. I had a lot of fun with it, though.

Godot: You're saying that if something isn't normal, it simply isn't possible? Where does that leave the porcu-headed lawyer and the topknot chick over there... and the ungodly cool guy with the mask over here? Well, Trite?

"I'm reduced to babbling EDGEWORTH AS A DEFENSE ATTORNEY, GHOSTFLAME MAGATAMA, GIANT GHOSTFLAME MAGATAMA, VISOR GLOWS IN THE EFFING DARK, VISOR GLOWS IN THE EFFING DARK, BLOOD TEARS, BLOOD TEARS, COFFEE CUP, COFFEE CUP over and over again."

Motivational posters for supervillains.

Seven sins, seven virtues, seven wonders, five senses, two hands. Keep your shirt on, damned if you do damned if you don't, old habits die hard, where there's smoke there's fire. Soar/sore. Brave new world, into thin air, all that glitters isn't gold, truth will out.

If a general idea bank becomes available, I'll put it there. "Generators", then "Other Generators", then "Mutation Generator." It gives us such gems as: The ray hits you and you realize that your arms are becoming more wolf-like. The next thing you know, you begin to shrink noticeably shorter. You realize that you are growing a set of tentacles and realize a pair of antlers. The ray hits you. You notice that your hair begins to rapidly grow really long. The next thing you know, you observe that you are growing a set of tusks and observe a set of tusks. Just when you think nothing is going to happen, you notice that fur grows from your skin. You swallow the bottle's contents and you observe that you have wolf-like abilities. You discover that you have parrot-like abilities and you realize that you slowly begin to glow and you realize that your limbs begin to shrink down to 3 inches tall.

It has nothing to do with anything, but it made me laugh. I love scans_daily. ...And I, too, want Steve Rogers. Damn it, come back from the dead already!

"I'm not sure if I want Steve or just his stuff!" "This is very bad for me as a comic fan. Steve's a wonderful blend of manly and metero. I want all my men to have nice clean homes yet be manly! ;__;" "We only have one hope! Making comic book characters real and then (scratched out)fight for them!(/scratched out) clone them!" "Yes! But I get the feeling that I'd be lecture for my less than clean habits. *glances around her dorm room*" "And really we'd have to be careful because when you really thing about Batman or Superman wouldn't be the best of boyfriends." "This is why I go for the Marvel boys, they're less scary. But damn, Bats and Supes. Damn."

The Nearness of You. Sixteen full-sized scans. It is possibly the best comic-format story ever written. Poignant and bittersweet. You don't need to know anything about Astro City or superhero comics in general; you don't even have to have any interest in them. I feel certain enough to say that anyone who reads it through and is not moved lacks a soul. And I'm not even sure if I believe in souls.

There is something in my eye. It will not come out. Eh, who am I trying to fool? I re-read it and cried like a slapped infant. It is good. Love and loss...

So there's this Livejournal guy who is in the habit of posting incredibly intelligent, lengthy pieces about current events and politics. A lot of it goes over my head, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the feeling of getting something is incredible and thrilling. I love understanding things that I never understood before; it's practically a high. Hope is not Irrational.

"We did not survive the Cold War without a global nuclear exchange by accident or by luck or by clever strategy. We survived the Cold War because every time nuclear war was about to start, one or more of the people, not necessarily at the top of the military command chain but sometimes even at the bottom said, "No.""

"The senior missile control officer for the whole Soviet Union was on duty late one night when the whole Russian early-warning radar system lit up with tracks that could not possibly be anything other than an entire swarm of US nuclear bombers crossing into Russia, heading towards every radar position. Standing orders said that if multiple radars agreed, and he could not prove that they were in error through visual confirmation in less time than it would take the bombers to wipe out his radar stations, he was to initiate a total nation-wide launch of every missile aimed at the US and Europe. It being the middle of the night, he knew there was no way to get visual verification. So instead, he checked the newspapers, concluded on his own authority that this was an unlikely day for the Americans to attack because tensions were fairly low, and decided to risk not giving the launch order. When his KGB political officer attempted to countermand that order, he ordered his troops to hold the KGB officer at gunpoint and shoot him if he approached the command console. That he turned out to be right that it was a software glitch didn't save his career, he was still demoted for pulling a gun on a political officer and retired to relative obscurity many years later."

Stanislov Petrov. 20+ incidents that might have caused nuclear war.

"Every order that is given ends up in the hands of a self-aware moral individual with his or her own responsibility to decide whether or not that order is the right thing to do. Yes, some people abdicate their moral responsibilities and do what they're told, sometimes even whole armies of them. If such things never happened, then Hitler's army wouldn't have obeyed the order to march in to Czechoslovakia and Bush's army would never have obeyed the order to march into Iraq. Nevertheless, our history and our economy and everything about our lives would be much, much worse than it is if the world and its history were not literally full of people who decide every day, no matter what they were told or what the people around them are doing, to do the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do.

And any author whose fiction does not reflect this fundamental reality misunderstands the human race so severely that I find it flatly unreadable. Any book whose characters are all greedy selfish monsters or morally bankrupt obedient automatons is simply too unrealistic to hold my attention."

Lots of motivational posters here. Verrry interesting. "Tribute to Gary Gygax". Hmm.

DISSOLVED INTO A CLOUD OF BEES. Bees. My God. [/DC reference] I love it. Cloud of bees! Swarm, the Nazi-made-of-bees? [/Marvel reference] Nah. Hate Nazis. Inspired by, maybe. Human skeleton? Mmm. Maybe. Form a human skeleton made of beeswax? YES! YES! Not regular bees, tougher, something more like certain ants, can link up to pull on the bones like muscles. Utter nonsense! I love it! "As I watched, he stumbled, his skin bunching unnaturally, as if he was instantly being covered in boils - he fell, too fast for me to react, fell flat on his face. As he hit he dissolved, coming apart like a sandcastle into a swarm of hundreds, thousands of bees. They droned, coalescing into a cloud, and shot off in a stream. I saw his clothes, empty but for a few stragglers struggling out of the folds." Bees. Bees. I love it.

Y'know... okay, some kind of AIM. One-sided. "Shakennotstirred" for the Bond connection. Can maybe do it

 like this.  Yeah, this could work.  Looks kind of disruptive, but it could work.

"Take off your gloves". Hnn. Can cameo VvD(Hee!). Cargo crates at entrances, put a TR as guard. The schism. Maybe. I don't think they'd be the antagonists, though. Need someone else. Or something. Raise an army? Of what? I love how ridiculously obscure my notes are. If you-who-is-not-Joysweeper is getting any of this, I commend you.

"A palimpsest is a manuscript page, whether from scroll or book that has been written on, scraped off, and used again. The word "palimpsest" comes through Latin from Greek παλιν + ψαω = ("again" + "I scrape"), and meant "scraped again." Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be reused, and a passing use of the rather bookish term "palimpsest" by Cicero seems to refer to this practice." So! Strangers = totally unfamiliar. Palimpsests = changed, but something yet remains. Some other term(Lenspain?) = basically untouched. Will come up for Five Years.

Here. She(DC character) calls a superhero a "costume." As in, "A costume, he shot up the place with arrows" "The costume guy. He looked kinda like Kevin Costner in that 'Robin Hood' movie." Interesting. It's actually pretty much perfect; terms like "capes" and "masks" are basically specific to super heroes/villains, but "costume" encompasses everyone. Except for secondaries, but I don't think they need a special name. Okay! In Joysweeper's personal canon, replace "victims of Xanadu" with "costumes"! As in, "It was a peaceful, quiet day in the town of Gaylord, Michigan. Then the costume showed up to rob the bank."

Kind of awkward in the narrative. "'Hey,' the costume said." It might be better to keep it dialog only.

[1] DUDE! YES! AWESOME! FIVE YEARS!

Okay. Daniel... I want him to be mute, but avoid the obvious way to get around it. Hells. I've played versions of LoZ, I know the character never speaks, but everyone knows what he's getting at. Sure! He can say "Hey" and maybe "Whoa" or "C'mon" and one or two others, but is otherwise pretty much wordless. Same with writing and typing, perhaps a few words at most. Okay. No regular telepathy, that wordless form that came up you know where. Portrayed "Dan looked up, blinking, and told them that if they were going to fight they really should get to it already." Yeah, that could work. Get Leah to repeat things back - "No, I'm not cold" and not be aware of it. Happens all the time in Star Wars. Don't make a big deal of it.

"Is there anything that arouses the senses so strongly as a feast of chocolate delights fresh from the oven? Thoughts of childhood joys, first love, and the divine fill the soul. A drifting aroma which begs appreciation. The sensual fingertips of desire wrap delicately, yet needily, at the center. Ingestion. A climax. The roaring winds. Drifting, consuming madness, beautiful in its inescapable passion. Open and fertile skies, waiting desperately to be explored. Elevation. Freedom. Bliss. A compelling call. Parasailing. Baked chocolate goods." Shortpacked blog.

There’s something unbelievably exhilarating about having a protector who’ll take anyone who picks on you and dangle him above the ground. Stick up for one another, and defend the lesser folk.

Villains act, heroes re-act. Ambition is for villains. The Five Hundred and First would by that definition be villains.

“There should be all this steam and a KSSSSSH sound effect whenever X takes off X’s helmet.”

To cameo: Taskmaster.(Photographic reflexes, pseudo-villain) Gamecock.(Buh. What an awful villain.) Razorfist.(Replaced HANDS with KNIVES. WHY.) The Walrus.(Yep.) Spider-Girl is cool. I could have a line or two, nothing big. (RAZORFIST. WHY. WHY. I think I broke Joy's brain!)

Aggggh. I'm getting a serious lot of "hey you know what'd be cool? A STORY WITH SPIDER-PEOPLE. Call them alternates when two people were the same strain of the same character. YAY!1!!" But it wouldn't work! I can't do anything like that yet! My subconscious, as always, is INSANE. Aggggh. ... "Alternates" sounds good, though. "Alts." "Alt-me." "Alt-sister." Oooh.

And I found this quote on one of the 501st homepages. It is so perfect. "Some fans are content to collect action figures...other fans want to be action figures. Nothing professes your fandom quite like building your own detailed costume replica of a classic Star Wars villain, and there's nothing quite like the feeling that comes from bringing the characters of Star Wars into the real world and sharing the magic with others. A truly engaging Star Wars experience only occurs through a convincing appearance. To this end, the 501st constantly strives to improve the quality and accuracy of its member's costumes. Our goal is to appear as if our characters have just stepped off the big screen and into this world." I hope I can find some way to use this ironically.

Donny grinned, freckled face distorting above his immaculate white coat. "Wings? Sparklies? Magic wands? Thas nothin'. Getta loada this." Snapping on one of the latex gloves that seemed to be produced without end from his pockets, the boy uncovered the plastic bucket he was carrying, from which came a variety of soft rustling sounds. Donny plunged his hand in, the fluorescent light glinting off of his lenses and the stethoscope around his neck. A series of sharp cries and a great deal of frantic scrabbling erupted from the bucket, and when he pulled his hand up he held some shredded paper and a pair of what looked like the same kind of plastic army men that sold to boys by the millions. One was khaki, the other green. But they moved. Donny only held them up for inspection for a few seconds before closing his hand, but in those few seconds they kicked their legs and tried to back out of his grasp. He dropped them carelessly back into the bucket and grinned at his fellows as another series of sharp, muffled cries rang out. "I foun' 'em over there-" and one latex-gloved hand waved vaguely in the direction of the Con- "inside, 'fore things went wacky. There was bjillions!" One of his fellows, attired in blindingly red Nascar nomex that conformed perfectly to his skinny frame, asked lispingly whether Donny'd been caught. "Naah," he boasted. "I'm the bes' there is. 'F I don' wanna be caught, I don' get caught." Puffing out his chest, Donny was about to continue the boast when a harried-looking white-coated man came into the room, clipboard in hand. Immediately Donny straightened and went to the bewildered man, spouting technical jargon about "moderate contusions" and suggesting a painkiller as he lead the doctor and his peers away. The bucket lay forgotten.

Ladies's restroom. Right. It had apparently had a door at one point, but this had been removed. The gaping doorway, one hinge still attatched forlornly near the ceiling, reminded me yet again just how lucky I had been in choosing my costume. Hands and a bipedal stance... yes, very lucky. I sidled in, passing a...seahorse thing... that was apparently having trouble deciding if this was the right place to go. Despite a not-completely-clean floor and a couple of cracked mirrors, and the poisonously clean aroma of far too much cleanser in the air, this bathroom was in relatively good condition. I refrained from looking at the stalls, however. Not something I needed to see.

Can I use this? “You know, with all the mind-wiping, mind tricks, mass hallucinations and super powerful telepaths in comic book universes, I'm starting to realize how terrifying it must be to be an average civilian in one of these universes. Take the Marvel universe - there's the grand illusion of House of M, then you have to live through a war, and now you can't remember anything about that Spider-Man fellow. There's probably tons of other mass mind-wipes before all that, too. How does the average person ever know what's real? How many people eventually have existential crises and end up in an asylum somewhere? Seriously. With all the incidents of time travel, mind-wiping, altering reality, hypnotic illusions, dimensional warping, and psychic manipulation in the world, how could you be sure anything you've done you actually did? And that you would even remember having done any of it tomorrow?”

“Problem.” “Yes?” “You’ve read the report on what happened to Paul Redmond, right?” “Redmond… oh, one of the vampires. Fell into the bay and was… bitten rather badly by sharks, right?” “That’s right. Turns out there’s some fallout to that. Uh-“ “Don’t tell me we now have vampiric sharks.” “Very well, sir. I won’t. But if I might suggest the chainsaw sword and the deep-sea respirator…”

Someone who is not narrator gets a phone call/text message, exclaims “Zombies!” or “Giant Ants!” or “Femtroopers!” or “Rockettes!” or something similarly left-field, then tears off at high speed. Narrator is perplexed but too busy.

Get up so I can knock you down! “We start off with a would-be hero who fights purely enough, only to slowly hit a snare thanks to his beliefs. Then it gets worse as time goes by until he’s responsible for untold damage. Once things look their bleakest, we get the hero we weren’t even sure we were ever going to find. The build up steams and we return to our villain, who has reached almost complete insanity. Things come to a head and we get the coolest fight scene ever with some of my all-time favorite comic lines (“Get up so I can knock you down!!”). And just as the fight comes to an end with a true victor, it goes directly into a strong conclusion.”<- Ooh ooh! Maybe a robot/mecha character for the WBH? Heart beats strongly, pulsing in throat, temples, gums. Stops. "You can't feel yourself breathe. You can't feel your heartbeat. And you can't recognize the man in the mirror"

Joysweeper really likes Cap. Oh, responsibility!

“The X-Men turn the tide until only Magneto is left. Magneto does the usual supervillain “ENOUGH!” attack, which is like the evil version of the superhero “THIS ENDS NOW!” tactic. You know what I’m talking about. Like if the Fantastic Four were pounding down on Doom from all sides, he could just spread his arms out, scream, “ENOUGH!” and suddenly everybody goes flying in the opposite direction. It’s a nifty power.” Joy, if you can’t find some way to use this…

Notes:

Names: Revan. Elisa Freeman.

Gist: Ask for character. Dark room, eyes very wide, ears very sharp, distracted, blindsided, no v/h, fighting, “Finish me now!”, doesn’t happen. Lingers, lasts. Walks away, Revan’s compensating and on edge(paranoid! Paranoid!), Elisa is d/b and scared, little communication – attempts. Throat vibration, monitoring tongue and lips, no idea w/out sound. Revan can’t read English. Elisa can’t read Aurebesh. War robes, war mask, bogan, intimidation factor up. Make it back to CC, one-sided conversation, healing trance. FIVE YEARS. FIVE YEARS, and Fake Rip Van Winkle it to twenty. No! More! AWESOMESAUCE.

On the Saga: Gwah. Maybe meld them all into one again. And get some things straight. Call her "Elisa Freeman", do this consistently. She's a potter, she is an art major at Midtral, her family is up in Wisconsin, she has a brother named Kris. Her father, Jack, works for American Airlines as a pilot. Yes, this is suspiciously self-insertiony, but I've already come this far.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. "At least 1,500 miles wide (give or take, could be much larger, no one's quite sure because it's a bit difficult to measure), 30 meters deep, 80 percent plastic, and 100 percent appalling." I wish I could get rid of it for real. Damn. Oooh. That island of plastic in the Pacific... I bet I could do something with that. Yeah... FMA is popular enough, and even if not, there's sure to be mages or something who could work it out. Why not? Displacement of seawater wouldn't be an issue, not like raising seamounts. Okay! It's settled! A new country, maybe? Hmm. Not just one mass, there would be several "islands", chained together. Propulsion systems. A hospital-type facility on one, for the long-term cases. Yes. Yes! It's good!

...Is this what it feels like to be omnisexual? Damn. EVERYTHING.

Names: Let's use my real name, shall we?

Gist: Self insertion for the win. Things that I have/could get: wings, ear thingies, contact lenses, Ace bandages, some kind of tail, possibly press-on canines. Forehead horn? I don't know. I could buy one, but... Anyway. Family is in Orlando why? Laborday Weekend, right. Maybe won a discount for Disneyland. I go to the Kublai Con on the second day, dropped off. I see Freeman in her Revan costume, don't have the nerve to go over and talk to her, berate myself about it. Describe the Ignore Her effect, if applicable. Get mopey. It happens in the handicapped stall. Everyone and anyone else leaves. Forehead horn, corner-of-jaw horns. Maybe backswept horns and spinal ridges, might be a bit much. Bone, smooth, sharp, maybe coated with enamel or something. Scales where appropriate, the foot thing, special wing-arm. Trapped in the bathroom, can't push door. Ceiling looks high. Make something rudimentary out of a bit of bandage, waits until door gets opened - it's Anj, but he doesn't notice - flee. Afraid to fly - the heights thing - get kicked, latch onto a leg. Wingclaws - maybe not normal venom. Maybe that agent I've been thinking of... hmm. It's a thought. Find some kind of ending, okay?

Names: Hnn. Let's say - Daniel, Edward, Leah. Maybe don't bother with last names. But if needed - Batey, Alden, Piwarski. College student directories are useful, useful things.

Gist: Everest. VG, werewolf type A, snowtrooper. Probably need a few others. Guides, right? Timeframe, keep it vague. At least a year after, possibly more. First Xanadu people(need to find a name for that) to climb Everest; can say that supers have flown to the top before, but that doesn't count. Supplies get sabotaged. Freak out the guides, make them leave? Howling in the night. Antagonists? Climate is one. Yeti? Ferals? Terrorists, c'mon, you've thought about it. Should have some Xanadu connection. Oooh - Xanadu has caused right-and-left wing antiglobalists to band together, possible Islamic connection - they don't believe that it isn't the result of a secret gov't project. The costumes are thought to be entirely supportive of Jewish conspiracies. Refer to notes. But just because you hate and fear something doesn't mean you won't use it. Hmm. Send Dan down the mountain, hole up Ed and Kate for a while, food running out, power packs get sabotaged/stolen. Storms. Major storms. Drive them out into one. Confrontation. Rescue should come in the denoument, if then.

"8113. You are 8113. That is what you will respond to from this point on. 8113. We need you." Yeah. Kate wants an identity that's more than a designation, more than one of the few female troopers. Yeah. Edward is a secondary. Let's say... mmm... bioluminary tattoos are all the rage after Xanadu, he got bit by a were, couldn't be fully cured - reaction to the tattoo - ended up a type A, which isn't a bad thing. Why? Well, he's always wanted to do it. Were-ing out would make it easier. That's part of it, anyway. Daniel? Exploration. Listen to a lot of LoZ music.

Names: Kyle Ward. Lynette Ward.

Gist: Kyle is a furry, late teens. His older sister Lynette(Lyn) is an ornithologist, early twenties. They are close. Kyle is helping out a friend who makes interesting fursuits – he’s “advertising”. Lynette was roped/persuaded to help with The Bird Costume – a nonanthro bird with good vision and manual dexterity. Fits her, because she is small. Don’t forget the shirt. The Change happens – Lyn almost beaks out Kyle’s eye, freaks out, runs. Encounters and runs from all kinds of people – let’s say, Lt Julia and SL-0075 from 501st(I told you to hold your fire!) Deuvoci, a feral feline, several others (Godot, as many people as I can get to agree). Eventually escapes. Flies to Behjopiray’s lake. Sees reflection, removes shirt, has The Freak Out (no heels to stamp or hair to pull, no fists to punch or fingernails to claw or face to twist, but wings to flap and toeclaws to rake, a neck to whip, a voice to keen). Sees Behjopiray, retreats. Sleeps. Early morning. Returns to lake, turtle scene(Kill it with stabs). Collects shirt, flies away. Passage of time. Trying to hone in on Home with magnetic field. Dodging various things. Chickens? Maybe. Winter. Starving. Some kind of confrontation climax – hunter in the woods, maybe. Almost beaks out eyes, thinks of Kyle. Flies away. More starving. Follows streets, lands on balcony of Kyle’s apartment, pecks at the door. “Kyy-yah?” “Lynette…”

Names:… Maybe use first-person? Possibly a Muslim, non devout. Godot character. Gist: Jury Duty. Yes, a number of people from Xanadu have shown up in court, but this is the first one to serve jury duty. Let’s make it a murder case? I need to work out details. At some point he sees something that was missed, and things proceed to become a little more like a crazy PW case. NEEDS WORK. Need to actually pull jury duty. Or have some idea how the hell this works.

"I was! I'm not anymore."

"After it happens, they all ask each other, 'why didn't somebody act? It could have been so different.' So many times, it's kept from happening. Somebody can't be everywhere, and they don't remember that. Somebody has a lot of hard and thankless work, but somebody has to do it. Guess what? You're somebody too."

"Don't take it so personally. They are what they were made to be. I'm sorry. I forgot. You are what you were made to be, too." - I love Nealan of Queenscove and Keladry!

Geeks in Love, Word Disassociation.

[2] Apparently cats plus treadmills equals hilarious. Enthusiastic feline fitness FTW!

[3]Cellblock Tango, performed by gay men. Hmm. I'll let this stew.

The world is just awesome. Ohh... Yes. Yes it is. Boom de yata, indeed. Succumb to the awesome.

Free speech does not equal scientific theory! This is a good one. Have a little respect for the "scientific minority". Exactly what that has to do with inspiring me is unknown. But it gives me happy shivers, so it can't be all bad.

James Gurney's articles on how "character designers have developed clever ways to infuse animals with human personalities." [4] [5] [6] [7]