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On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2025-10-21 07:33 pm

Update on the Weird Happenstance

It's been fixed. City Hall's website is back to normal now. Since I posted my complaint on Bluesky...

https://bsky.app/profile/dewline.bsky.social/post/3m3qidgsrak25
dewline: Highway Sign version of "Ottawa the City" Icon (ottawa-gatineau)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2025-10-21 06:35 pm
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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-21 12:08 pm

Finally got a new(er) phone

Having been happy with my old iPhone SE (first 2016 version) since 2020 I've had to upgrade because some apps I use quite often will no longer run on it, presumably due to security issues. I need a Lightning connector for my thermal camera, and the most recent iPhones are USB-c, so I got the last iPhone released with a Lightning connector, a 2022 iPhone SE 3rd version - it's an ex-display one from an eBay shop which sells at £154.99 including P&P and appears to be completely unused. They've got a lot of them, if anyone else is interested I can send you a link.

So far I'm pretty happy - it's a bit bigger than I like to carry, but does have the advantage that I can read the screen clearly. Data transfer turned out to be remarkably easy - I've never had two phones or devices that were compatible with Apple's settings transfer thing before, and it really does seem to have gone perfectly without supervision. Not sure yet what I'll do with the old phone - trade-in value is pretty small so I'll probably keep it as a backup for the time being.

And yes, this is yet another lurch into rampant consumerism - I've had to replace my ipad, PC and phone this year and my old Macbook Pro last year - but it's probably keeping someone in work somewhere...

dewline: (canadian media)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2025-10-20 11:14 pm

World Series 2025

So.

It's on, one more time.
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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-20 08:13 pm
Entry tags:

Another Horror Bundle - Ghastly Affair

This is another horror bundle featuring Ghastly Affair, the "Gothic Game of Romantic Horror in the fevered age of Marie-Antoinette and Napoleon." 

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Ghastly

  

This one is quite interesting, although it does have its origins in systems that put numbers on everything - I'm a little boggled that these include stats for Death and for Lucifer. it's primarily focused on Gothic horror, but claims a lot of other things as inspiration including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, etc. - a list of fictional characters that might be inspirational puts Faith Lehane immediately after Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. It has quite a lot about weird science and weirder magic, horrible illnesses (including several that often get overlooked in RPGs, such as rabies), and period architecture - the last is there because a major theme of Gothic horror was strange crumbling manors and their denizens. While the military history of the era is mentioned in the timeline, it's mostly there as background, and this isn't the game you want if you want to re-enact Sharpe or Master and Commander. On the other hand, it would work very well for ideas like a Napoleonic-era version of The Beguiled and other war-adjacent dramas.

The bottom line is that you get a huge amount very cheaply, and it's full of ideas that could be useful for any game or fiction with similar themes. This is one I definitely recommend, but I should really add a disclaimer that I sometimes forget - I get to download this stuff free, if you don't your mileage may vary.

alierak: (Default)
alierak ([personal profile] alierak) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2025-10-20 10:11 am

AWS outage

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
dewline: Virus Don't Care (coronavirus)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2025-10-17 09:04 pm

Can-Con Weekend 2025

I'd love to go. I used to be a volunteer working with the organizing committee on designing promo stuff.

Two problems with going there in person:

1) No masking-required policy in place on public transit. If I can't walk to a destination or get a lift from a trustworthy driver, I only use public transit.


2) The venue is in Kanata, at the other end of Ottawa from where I live in Orléans.

So.

If you're going, please be careful. đŸ˜·
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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-15 07:30 pm
Entry tags:

Another Repeat Horror/SF Bundle - Eclipse 2E

Another revival, the July 2022 Eclipse Phase 2E Bundle, featuring the 2019 Second Edition of thetranshuman survival SFRPG:

 https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Eclipse2025


  

The last time around my comments mostly quoted my comments on a previous and somewhat different bundle:

'"I'll be honest - these look like good deals, they're just not where I want to be right now with role playing. As usual with these bundles you get a shedload of stuff for your money, and they do look like pretty good deals. I'll probably download a couple of the supplements because they address areas that interest me - most notably Panopticon - but I'm not going to try to get my head around another new (to me) RPG at this stage in my increasing decrepitude. But I think I can recommend them, subject of course to all the usual YMMV disclaimers."

This time the offer is a bit different, with fewer supplements, but it's a good starting point if you're interested, and all of the supplements from the earlier offers are still compatible.'

Unfortunately Panopticon didn't make it into the bundle, but the rest is a pretty good horror / SF setting - unfortunately still not something I want to run at present, but you get a lot for my money and if you are in the mood for a primarily SF horror setting it's worth a look.

As expected, these bundles will mostly be horror of some sort from now to the end of the month - I have no idea what else is coming as yet.
dewline: A fake starmap of the fictional Kitchissippi Sector (Sector)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2025-10-14 08:54 pm
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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-13 06:26 pm
Entry tags:

Another Horror/Weird Bundle - Huckleberry

Another Bundle of Holding offer: the Huckleberry Bundle, featuring the "mythic Wyrd West RPG about tragic cowboys in a world doomed to calamity."

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Huckleberry




This basically seems to be cowboys (and other interested parties) in a world full of chaotic monsters. I don't think it's really a game that interests me much, but it's well-presented and you get quite a lot for your money, It's just not a genre I particularly like.

Seeing this makes me suspect that we are now in the run-up to Halloween with these offers, which usually means a lot of horror.

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muninnhuginn ([personal profile] muninnhuginn) wrote2025-10-12 08:56 pm
Entry tags:

Hallowe'en Quiz

From the OUP (whose blog I highly recommend; much variety and fun): https://blog.oup.com/2025/10/whats-your-literary-classic-halloween-costume-quiz/

I'm classic Gothic. Caw!
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muninnhuginn ([personal profile] muninnhuginn) wrote2025-10-12 04:00 pm
Entry tags:

DöstÀdning

I've been procrastinating since the diagnosis, or perhaps for even longer, maybe since I heard of the concept. But today I made a start. (This does not mean I've had bad news: I'm toddling along just fine, if knackered.)

For someone who claims to have few clothes (and I maintain I have, at least, fewer clothes than most: no judgment intended as it's nostly 'cos I simply dislike shopping for clothes, or shopping at all), I had a desparately overstuffed wardrobe.

Summer clothes (to the tune of one skirt, three dresses, one vintage blouse and two knitted pieces) are now in a box under our bed. One pair of lightweight linin trousers will be added after they're washedmand ironed. A second box contains my undergraduate gown (should probably donate to college), my wedding dress (homemade), one hand made skirt that down't fit, my mum's wedding dress and a couple of her party dresses (all three made for her by her mother). These I'm not ready to part with.

A pile of stuff to go to Vinted ('80s silk ballgowns, a bridesmaid's dress of Looby Loo's, an Alexon jacket) and some probably only worth donating items remain to be dealt with next weekend.

The wardrobe still contains items that fit, but I may not ever wear. I'll review at Easter.

I confess I haven't tackled the collection of impractical boots.

[This was all prompted by my sending off for a new pair of trousers, the third pair I've bought this year, and a new pair of winter shoes. I'm ditching more than I'm acquiring.]

dewline: Art Against Bigotry and Fascism (artists vs fascism)
On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2025-10-12 10:53 am

The True Trump Motto

Magnitudo per crudelitatem.
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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-11 02:58 am

Fanfic - Harry Potter / Buffy / Bedazzled - Harry Potter: Undazzled - V

This is a crossover between the Harry Potter books, the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series, and the film Bedazzled (1967, not the 2000 remake), with some other crossovers and Easter eggs, so far including Dogma (1999). All characters belong to their respective creators / owners / megacorporations of doom and not to me, please don't sue...

V - On Task )
I haven't proof read this much and it's 3AM, so please let me know if you spot any mistakes. Comments please before I post to archives. For previous parts see:

On Twisting the Hellmouth - https://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-34251/MarcusRowland+Harry+Potter+Undazzled.htm
On Fanfiction.net - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14336114/1/Harry-Potter-Undazzled
On Archive of Our Own - https://archiveofourown.org/works/54407350

update Sunday - corrected errors etc., thanks to everyone who commented.
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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-09 11:48 am

Is it just me...

...that thinks of the guards in Castle Wolfenstein whenever I see these in a supermarket?

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/315239766

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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-08 07:11 pm

Today's weird thought

I have just listed a box of genuine IBM 3.5" floppy disks on eBay and said, without any attempt at irony, that they might be useful for "collectors or for period film and TV". It took me a few minutes to realise just how strange and/or pretentious I would have thought that say 20 years ago...
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ffutures ([personal profile] ffutures) wrote2025-10-08 06:17 pm
Entry tags:

Another Horror / Weird Bundle - Mystery Flesh Pit RPG

This is the Mystery Flesh Pit RPG Special bundle, featuring "Mystery Flesh Pit National Park: The RPG," the Cypher System game of cosmic horror and bureaucratic satire from
Ganza Gaming.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/FleshPit

   

This one is simultaneously strange, horrific and very silly, based on a web site that has developed the idea over several years. It's cheap, and if you want to use this setting it's well worth a look, even if you have to convert it to your preferred system. Definitely recommended.