I wonder where you are tonight; no answer on the telephone

(from the loss album)

I cannot see me parting from you
I see no place on the road ahead
where I would willingly part from you
where I would choose to leave
the safety of your shadow...

Still not walking away, but that no longer seems to matter. After all, I'm the only one here. It's not like there's anyone else to walk away from...

Is this the giving up point? At least briefly, I think it might be.

Also, this is really disturbing. It's like exposing the vile underbelly of the net we know and love to sharp, reflecting light...and then giving those malformed and mutated creatures the ability to speak.

History of that link: basically, Mountain Dew is having a contest: name the new flavor. They're still taking votes, and they have said (as ridiculous as this now seems to be) that they will choose a winner from the top ten list. Based on the number of riffs on "apple" as a flavor component, I'm going to go out on this limb and say the new flavor will be apple-based. In some sense. Maybe.

But it's been appalling to watch. Reload the page, you'll see what new aberrations appeared in the top ten leaderboard. So far, our selections seem to be hovering around diseases, strange internet memes, My Little Pony characters, feeble racism, and several worse concepts that I don't even want to mention involving various body fluids. If that's the mind of the internet at present, we are in terrible, terrible shape.

[Update--prior to publishing, even: they seem to have taken the site down entirely. I can't help but think that's a good thing, frankly.]

In other pop-related news...sort of...this surfaced on the intarwebs tonight. Apparently the bottle of Orange Crush is there for comparison with the pygmy goat.

Okay, then.

And more strangeness from tonight on City of Heroes:

[Help] Pseudo Shock: So this is the Famous RP server, that's awesome.
[Help] Arkon Prime: I smell a troll.
[Help] Pseudo Shock: No, I'm serious. That really is awesome
[Help] Pseudo Shock: I'm not being sarcastic, I'm just not used to it

This is not the first time this has come up. It always confuses me slightly, because in one sense, it's just another game server, no big deal. But in the other sense, yeah, it's the main RP server--but why is that a big deal?

[Help] Crathos: this is a rp server? my friend just told me he plays on this one
[Help] Crathos: and I'm not being sarcastic
[Help] toxic mouth: i think it's a bit of both at this point
[Help] Fortunata Sin: Unofficial RP server.

Well, yes, it's never been officially named as the RP server, mainly because that would mean NCSoft is validating all forms of RP on Virtue, and well...I'm quite sure there's some RP that goes on they want a lot of distance on, just in case.

[Help] Crathos: ah. I just knew it was a heck of a lot busier than guardian
Well...yes. Virtue and Freedom (Freedom being the "unofficial" main NON-RP server) are also the two busiest, most populated servers in the game.

[Help] Pseudo Shock: Ahhh, that's still really cool though.
[Help] Satsuma: so is that an incarnate RP level or what?

What, Guardian? No, Incarnate-level play happens anywhere. There's a specific Incarnate-level zone called Dark Astoria, but that's a recent addition. Prior to that, running strike forces/task forces weekly, or Ouroboros flashback missions, would gain Incarnate shards, threads, and Incarnate salvage drops--all of which are necessary to "level up" characters past 50. (Seeing as how there's still--and there may be always--that cap of level 50 for actually earning experience and leveling.)

Unless Satsuma meant VIP content, in which case Exalted is the server locked to only subscribing players. (I have one character on Exalted; sadly, I never play her. I likely should try, because I'm starting to become elitist enough to want a world without spammers, or free-to-players 4channing in Help and Looking for Group because they can't do anything else.

[Help] Pseudo Shock: A little of Role-playing and a little of your self?
[Help] Crathos: like a guy I saw yesterday posting asking for someone to RP his brother? that other lvl?
[Help] Fortunata Sin: Yes, that level.

I'd say "bwuh" over this, but just the other day, someone approached a friend of mine in Second Life, and asked her to be his wife because he wanted a baby now. He then asked her how he could have a baby (what, sweetness, you never took a high school health class?), and how he got married.

He was about a week old.

[Help] Slaughtron: There will be bouts of RP all over the place. Seems that a lot of the "good" RP takes place within SG's...
[Help] Fortunata Sin: I'm the same Slaughtron. I tend to RP only in my SG. And for the non-RP communities sake i don't RP in PUGs.

For the unintiated, "PuGs" translates to "pick-up groups"--as in, groups of people who don't know each other, running for the sake of the mission at hand, versus folks who run because they're in the same SuperGroup, or because they're friends in or out of the game.

The big reason behind not RPing (as a generally unspoken rule) around random folks is that they may not understand. While just about anyone can RP in Pocket D, say (or just stand around and listen), it's a bit harder for random RP to really take off properly with a random mix of people. Not impossible, just more difficult.

[Help] Slaughtron: I try and be IC on PuGs, mainly cos sometimes people get a kick out of it. I like that. But If someone has cat ears, or a name that sounds like a porn star, RUN AWAY!

Cue hysterical laughter on the part of me, considering the prevalence of catgirls everywhere.

To be absolutely fair to City of Heroes, there aren't as many catgirls as there used to be, but considering there are official supercatgirls in the game's mythology, catgirls are an acceptable heroic (or even villainous) alternative.