Not very fast, I’m afraid. But, now that I have yWriter installed at work (shhh, don’t tell) and running great under Wine on my Linux laptop at home, I want to start working again on it. I wanted something besides yWriter, like RoughDraft, but couldn’t find a Linux compatible version.

A little background on it. In 2005, I decided to quit procrastinating and jumped into NaNoWriMo with a horror novel in mind. What I ended up with was an almost 51,000 word novel! The basic plot is Lovecraft inspired, more of a fantasy horror really, with monsters, ancient knowledge, and madness. It’s not set in present day Earth. I don’t say where specifically, but it could be a parallel world, or even another world entirely.

Of course, I did not edit during that November, so the plot needs some work. There are too many sex scenes (hey, they are easy to use to bump up the word count!) and there needs more character development in places. In contrast, I’ve thought of other plot points that I’d like to expand upon, to help make it longer than novella length.

Ok, so where do you fit in? I’d love some opinions on what people think about the Lovecraft aspect. Is it too specific in the horror genre? Once I’m finished, I want to get it out there somehow, and am considering a podiobook, or at the very least available to download or read online. So tell me, either via the poll below or in comments (or both!) what you guys think.

I will clarify that the Lovecraft aspect is not required for the story. I could rework it somewhat, but it would need to stay fantasy horror at the very least. So please. Let me know, and thanks!

Technorati tags: writing, poll

This Christmas there are several games that found their way into our house, as I’m sure many have among the people who read this. Whether they were bought for you, a friend, a significant other, or a kid, Hillary Clinton wants, if she becomes president, to Protect The Children(TM) from unfavorable content. What is unfavorable? Well, the government will tell us, of course!

Now, she has long been for wanting the government to decide what is and is not suitible for kids. Two years ago she introduced the Family Entertainment Protection Act [FEPA]. It would have given retailers fines for selling Mature (M) or Adults Only (AO) rated games to under age kids. It didn’t pass.

(See here for an overview of all ratings, for those unfamiliar.)The AO rating is currently a kiss of death to a game. The prime example being when Manhunt 2 was initially given an AO rating not long ago. If a game receives an AO, the consoles won’t licence the game publisher so it can be released and played on their consoles. In other words, a game company can make a game as violent and sexually explicit as they like, but if they get an AO, Microsoft, Sony, et al won’t let it be playable on their equipment. And even if they could release it, many major retailers such as Circuit City and Best Buy won’t sell it.

In order to change it into an M rated game, Manhunt 2 was cut some, but even after getting the M rating, that wasn’t enough for Hillary and the usual bunch of anti-video game legislators. In November, US Senate members sent a letter to the ESRB, asking them to look at their rating system and that they felt Manhunt 2 deserved an AO rating. Despite never seeing or playing the game themselves.

The reasons she gives for wanting to Protect The Children(TM) are:

Research has shown that violent and sexually explicit media contribute to aggressive behavior, early sexual experimentation, obesity, and depression.

and

Studies have found that exposure to TV violence can increase the risk of aggressive behavior in children and may be related to attention problems later in life.

Those are some rather vague claims. But you know what? Even if those studies are correct, and there are even studies that claim there is no link, kids get exposure to violence from way more sources than video games. So why isn’t she wanting to curb violence shown on the news? Or in sports? I play a lot of violent games, but find boxing especially violent and pointless, for example.

Don’t get me wrong though. I am in favor of some kind of labeling for games and movies and such to help determine what is right for my baby grrl and for other parents. Although both seem to be missing the mark, and the movie rating system is very inconsistent. See This Film Is Not Yet Rated for excellent examples.

The funny thing is about the whole M versus AO rating, looking back at the Hot Coffee episode, was that Clinton, Lieberman and the bunch didn’t start their vocal outbursts until it was found out that gamers could mod the game to actually see *gasp* simulated sex acts. The killing and violence? Not happy about it, but OK! Pixels that kind of looked like they were having oral sex? Oh no! Protect The Children(TM)! We can’t have kids see any kind of sex! Just like the kid who was with his dad (uncle maybe…guessing dad though) watching Sin City, sitting in front of me at the theater. He was probably 10 or 12 maybe. The dad didn’t say a word during the violence. But as soon as the clothes started coming off and the sex happened, he covered the kid’s eyes with his hand and told him not to watch. When the same woman was lying dead, and many others getting their heads chopped off, he had no problem with him watching. Tell me that doesn’t send some kind of mixed up message to the kid. But while I may not approve of his parenting, I surely don’t believe it’s up to the government to tell him what he thinks is right for his kid to see.

Video games are just the latest in a long line of blames placed on an object for The Downfall Of Society(TM). Like rock n’ roll and comic books, they are but a form of entertainment and an outlet for people, both young and old, that doesn’t need government monitoring. Especially when it involves telling parents how to raise their kids.

Technorati tags: video games, ratings, think of the children, big brother

Instead of an all-serious post, I feel the need to spread this. Besides, I’ve got a couple that I still need to write, and they’ll be more serious.

But everyone who likes comics, Hereos, super heroes, etc., MUST check out The Superest. What is that, you ask?

The Superest is a continually running game of My Team, Your Team. The rules are simple:

Player 1 draws a character with a power. Player 2 then draws a character whose power cancels the power of that previous character. Repeat.

You have to start at the first one and make your way to the current, but just one example, which happens to be one of my favorites:

Was vanquished by:

I’d love to get a shirt or three, if they made them!

I had heard about Twitter over a year ago, but didn’t really see what the big deal was. But lately, I’ve seen more and more people use it, so I decided to give it a try. I got it set up, and have been using it the past few days.

It’s actually kind of cool. A way to get out a short burst of info to people who are “following” you on Twitter. If you’ve visited the MRP main page in the past couple of days, you’ll notice I put up a feed of sorts, listing my last five tweets on the right column.

I’ll continue to update here, but since life’s been busy lately, I’ve slacked on posting. I still have one I need to write about Hillary and her continued making it the governement’s business about violence and video games, for instance.

But if you use Twitter, feel free to follow me. You’ll get some mundane updates, but then you’ll get some gems that pop to mind. Like: “Klutz porn. Not a subgenre, but should it be?”