February 15
 

Starting tomorrow we'll be focusing on one subsite for a while, so I want to get a couple of things moving beforehand. <ul>[*]First, here's Derek's latest SV fiver, "Tomb."[*]

Second, I've started two important threads in the 5M.net Talk forum. Be sure to check those out. One is for eTrektion candidates, but the other is something on which I need as many readers' input as possible.[*]

Third, my Fans! CDs arrived today! Attentive readers will know of my love for Fans!, a brilliant webcomic by T Campbell. It ended its remarkable five-year run last April, and T recently announced that the archive CDs would no longer be available for purchase, so I got them while I could. (The archives are also available online; you need a GraphicSmash subscription, but if you haven't read Fans!, the subscription is more than worth it for that comic alone.)


To mark the occasion, I'm publishing something here that I wrote when the comic ended: The Top 10 Problems Rikk, Ally, and Rumy Are Going to Have. The context is as follows: the longest-running plot thread in the comic was the love triangle between protagonists Rikk, Alisin, and Rumiko. In the last week of strips, T resolved this triangle in an extremely unexpected way, creating his biggest controversy to date. I was an active participant in the debate (on the negative side -- I thought, and still think, all three of them were out of character), and at one point, to inject a little levity, I wrote this Top 10 list poking fun at the whole thing.


I didn't post it here at the time because it makes no sense to non-Fans!-fans. I'm posting it now for three reasons: I think it's one of my funniest lists ever, the arrival of my CDs felt like a sign, and there's precedent now for hopelessly obscure T10s. Enjoy -- unless you haven't read Fans! and intend to, because this'll spoil you stupid.[/list]Be here tomorrow for a VERY special weeklong event, of a sort we've never done before. Let's just say Drusilla would call it the best party ever.

So the strip pulled an I Will Fear No Evil? It sounds really confusing.

Urge to kill...moderate. You live this time, Dean.

Second most abundant substance in the universe after hydrogen - third if you count stupidity.

There's something caked on my screen from this scene. It looks like irony.

*snicker*

Chloroform. Is there anything it can't do? (I meant apart from dissolve hydrophillic compounds.)

OK, *now* you die.

*znerk*

Top hole, Derek. (I think that means it's good.)

That or you're playing skeeball.

If that means polyamory, yes. What the characters formed is called a "vee", i.e. two relationships with one partner shared; this explains a couple of the jokes in my list. One of the unfortunate things about sf fandom is that arrangements like this are way more common than in the general population (and their proponents are quick to call bigotry on anyone uncomfortable with them).

Also, it must be said....

For the love of God, Montresor!