Current News of the Strange Society by Dangerously Psycho: 9-13-98 1:34pm Central OMYGODWHYDIDILEAVEALLMYHOMEWORKFORTODAYTHECOMPUTERSCIENCEASSIGNMENTISLONGERTHANITHOUGHT! 9-12-98 9:43pm Central I wrote more than half a story today. I also won a game of bowling. It's also become apparent that I'm online more often than I have pertinent news. I wish I could tell more about what's going on, but not yet... 9-12-98 11:48am Central Hmm... I missed breakfast today. Oh, well. Nothing to report, just stating my presense. Time to go do some writing. 9-12-98 1:43am Central I'd meant to update this earlier, but they cleared out the lab to fix the server which ended up taking them all day. Now it appears as a Saturday update. Ah, well. Frat parties around here aren't all they're cracked up to be. Nothing significant to report. I should have some kind of a surge of stories soon, though, assuming I neglect some of my studies to write instead. 2am editions of the ST News. There's a new one for Strangesite. 9-10-98 10:49am Central The ST 4um has been restored. Poor Aries. She logged on just after it returned and couldn't understand where we had all gone! I'll leave the link to the temporary 4um but ask that all new messages (besides localized responses) be made in the original 4um. I had my first Japanese class today. Teehee! 9-9-98 10:43am Central I observe by the filesize that this news file is almost full. *SIGH* How time elapses. Netbabbler is feverishly trying to restore all the lost forums. Apparently, a message of explanation HAD been given, but was overly ignored by panicky users. In the meantime, 8472 is a rather nice temporary ID... Furthermore, some know-it-all bitch decided to respond to my message in the support forum like I'm some kind of uneducated child. Naturally, I did the mature thing. I told her off and insulted her spelling capabilities. ;)~ I guess we just have to wait and see now. Classes start tomorrow here at Knox, so my next update will probably occur at some extremely random moment. Keep watching the 4um. 9-8-98 10:38am Central And so I log on this morning, worried that after four days of my absense I would be greeted with an hour's worth of email and a day's worth of 4um. I got one of the two. As I perused my mail, a new message appeared from Sicko questioning "what happened to the forum?" Not having been there yet, I opened a new window and surfed there, horrified to discover a blank page with a Netbabbler ad. Logging in, I found that my forum didn't exist and had to create one. I did so so traffic could resume as soon as possible. It turns out that every forum Netbabbler hosted has vanished. The support forum contains only the pleas of people who want their messages restored. Netbabbler has not posted a single message of explanation. Needless to say, this is a very unsettling incedent, one I am not too thrilled about. Fortunately, the FFVII story has been preserved, but all the correspondance since the 4um's implementation in April(?) appears to have been lost forever. On an interesting note, and something the MW will undoubtedly appreciate, our new forum ID is miraculously "8472." What are the chances of that??? Oh, nasty. 9-4-98 10:40am Central And so I spend my last day before college. Even with an additional two weeks as compared to everyone else, things are completely hectic. *SIGH* This won't be such a big deal for Strangesite. It will still receive its much-needed attention from me, but I'm just not sure when the next update will be. The first week is sceduled with a host of orientation stuff, including the Pumphandle, a big group handshake event between the entire freshman class and faculty. I wonder if anyone I meet will be of the psychiatric-germ- fearing-towel-over-hand type? Oh, college promises so many experiences... My only gripe is the rule against bringing any form of weapons. My collection has to rust at home without me. Back to Strangesite, I foresee a possible update on Sunday morning, a full day after my arrival. Sunday updates are very rare to Strangesite. Just check the STnews history. Um, well... check them against a calendar, I guess... I don't include the day of the week in the heading. And so my life in limbo comes to an end. Oh, nasty. 9-3-98 9:58am Central Everything is functioning properly again, and apparently while I was unable to access the 4um, others were. I'm uncertain as to why I couldn't. Tomorrow's my last day of being around. Come Saturday, I'll be making my Strangesite updates from Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. Also soon, I'll have the first edition of the Spin-off I've conceived which will take place (the part which relates to Earth, anyway) near Galesburg. It's working title is The Foonch Chronicles, although that is subject to change. In the meantime, I have cleaning and packing to do. Oh, but I can't wait to start taking Japanese classes! Sayanora! 9-2-98 9:16am Central Well, it looks like the host of problems which were resident yesterday haven't been remedied just yet. By that I mean the 4um and the welcome.to address are still down. I wish we could be a little more independant here and not have to rely on other services. The fact is that so long as the welcome.to address isn't functioning, places Strangesite has been registered with can't rate the content, and so long as the 4um is down, Strangesite's features are minimal and what would otherwise be repeat traffic decreases, also hurting the way Strangesite is rated. And while these are our problems, neither of the two is our fault. Ho, boy have I been sleeping poorly. I am soooo ill. My throat feels like steel wool. I guess datsit. I'll try to find something worthy of my time this morning. 9-1-98 10:14am Central The 4um WAS working this morning, but by the time I finished writing an addition to the FFVII story and tried to submit it, netbabbler could no longer be contacted. That makes two inoperable Strangesite features this morning. The 4um and the welcome.to address. So I'd brought my computer in to Best Buy last Thursday so they could isolate the thing making Win98 crash and get the CDr running, right? I kept calling to check up on the progress and the only guy who'd answer the phone hadn't a clue what the real technician had done with the thing. Finally, yesterday evening, I get the diagnosis. All they had done was run diagnostics ($20) and determined that I should bring it back to Micro Center to have a reimaging done ($35) which would delete all the stuff I'd put onto it before the CDr drivers crashed the thing. Anywho, we went and picked up the PC and brought it home, figuring we'd have to go back into Chicago with the thing this morning. I work with the thing for 15 minutes and by removing one file get Windows operating perfectly. WHAT THE F*CK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE??? One stupid conflicting driver, and they wanted me to wipe the system clean. Why don't they have ME working there instead of those lugnuts? OK, besides the fact that they'd make more $ by telling me it needs work which it really doesn't. Either way, I'm not gonna bother messing with the CDr again for awhile. I need the PC in proper working order come Saturday. Sorry for taking your time to bitch about stuff, but as a twist, the Web isn't working while my PC is, no thanks to the "professionals." 8-31-98 10:54am Central This has been an extremely busy morning. I'm glad I only have one upload to make and that I got September's FWSotM done early. I've created a list of ST Protocol to aid those who are applying for ST membership. Well, actually it's more for those handling the application process. The Provisions are up for approval by the ST members. Read them at Provisions.txt and leave responses in the 4um or email them to me. If any changes need to be made, I'd like to know now. I finally saw The Truman Show last night. Great flick! Just wish there were still people around I could have brought with me. :( (Squeaky called me, though!) Life is slow in Limbo. 8-28-98 10:21am Central Now that this seems to be working, I'll try to recap in brief what I just took fifteen minutes typing for nothing. Recruitment of new members is underway in preparation for ST Days 98. I'll have specific policy posted soon. Xoom.com has been limiting client resources for three weeks to update its editing format while Tripod was able to do it overnight. Funny. Marching Band mini-performance tonight with special feature, a football game before and after. If it doesn't process this time, I'm going to break something. It didn't, but fortunately I saved the new content to the clipboard first this time. 8-28-98 10:13am Central Well, dat's lovely. I just typed up a rather long update to this file, and Tripod "misplaced" it. 8-27-98 10:06am Central Some good news and some bad news this morning. The good news is dat when you use the Recommend-It button on the initial page of Strangesite, you will now be entered in to win one of those Palm Pilot things. Many of you should be receiving email about this really soon. The bad news is from the SOS page which reports dat, while the new eps of Saiolor Moon were slated to appear on Monday, Cartoon Network execs suddenly realized dat there was a difference in dat people were waiting for them specifically. Their "logical" decision? stall the episodes until October or November when ratings should be higher and so they can have time to hype them. AAAAAAARRRRGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! And I had respect for Ted Turner. Well, at least they'll be starting DBZ on Monday from the beginning and HOPEFULLY all the way through to the end. I wish people could get brains wholesale. Well, with that aside, the Marching Band performs tomorrow night (following an opening by the footbal team) sometime around 8pm. Get there by 7:20! I know I will. Have a good day. 8-26-98 9:24am Central I've uploaded a new MW story. You can either follow the link in the 4um or view it directly at Result.htm in this directory. Wow, I'm finished early today. That's what happens on rare mornings with no new email messages. 8-25-98 9:38am Central Following a sudden burst of inspiration, last night I wrote Chapter I of the Bane World Saga book III. I knew it needed another powerful beginning, and I think I got it down just right. So... how're all you guys enjoying being back at school? Life sucks when you're in limbo. 8-24-98 10:43am Central My job at the pool has ended and nearly evryone I know will be in school starting tomorrow. Nothing better to do now than to work on ST related stuff. Oh, and reread Frankenstein for school. I should probably start taking it seriously now. I'll be around for the next two weeks if anyone needs me. 8-22-98 11:17am Central Last night's get-together at Drum Boy's turned out to be a lot like Strange Days. As you may have noticed, I've created a personalized front for the Text Inbedder which is featured in our links. It's a pull-down menu of all the stories (excluding BWS which is 21 separate chapters). I may expand it to include all the pages in Strangesite such as the FAQ, this news file and, of course, the BWS. Lemme know what you all think. I'll see all you remaining band people at the first game, so keep your faces to the pressbox. I know when you're not doing things right... 8-21-98 9:55am Central This morning, I rose at 4:30 so I could see my girlfriend off to college. It's been many hours since, and I think I'm ok. According to Sicko, plans for STD3 (um, that's Strange Days '98) are underway for this New Year's Eve and the two days following. Expect a bigger turnout than ever. This morning: Psycho got up too early. *YAWN!* Tonight: Gathering at Drum Boy's for everybody to see his kittens. Anticipate looking at the cats hungrily while asking if dinner will be served... Tomorrow: Damn! I can't think that far into the future! Maybe we should all get together and see Wrongfully Accused. 8-19-98 9:42am Central Not much to say this morning. (It's an obvious Wednesday.) Everyone's going off to school now, including What tomorrow and Squeaky Friday. Jazmine's already visited the 4um from college, and I... don't leave for more than two weeks. *SIGH* It's gonna be a lonely place 'round here. New South Park tonight. Yahoo mail is currently down. I guess dat's all. 8-18-98 9:14am Central I'm a little dismayed this morning. On Saturday the 15th I established the most recent part of the story being developed in the 4um, and I did it in such a way that everyone could do whatever they wanted for the time being, but no one has continued it! Where'd everybody go??? All the important parts of the story thus far have been copied to their own files, so you can read them in order without having to click around. See the link in the 4um's heading, or direct your browser to FF7.html on this server. Band Camp has begun at NiWeHi. Enter Extremely. 8-17-98 9:40am Central I haven't been able to do too much offline work for Strangesite lately as I've been struggling with the installation of my CDr drive in the new PC. Currently, Win98 crashes unless it's in safe mode, and from there I can't access the needed Controls. RRR! The 4um story is continuing wonderfully, even though some elements are being forgotten (We're not at Dude's house, we're at Jazmine's!) and some people don't refresh their screens before adding more. You know who you are. To give everyone the chance to go off on a lark and visit the most remote pats of the FF VII world, we have now all been completely scattered, so get to the 4um now and let us know what happened to each of your characters! I'll be making an HTML page out of the story thus far so it will be easier to reread everything. Good luck to everyone who's off to school this week! Don't let it hinder your visits to Strangesite! 8-14-98 10:28am Central I'm still working on the links from the hi-graphic page. Pikachu AMB has been submitted to the search engines and I'm about to register it at the Institute for Testicular Consumption, or whatever it's called. Next: AMB Webrings. Tomorrow's the Brian-Ursula Wedding. *SHUDDER* 8-13-98 10:10am Central I know. You've been waiting for me to say it, so here it is. I've established the link to the graphics rich flavor of Strangesite. I'm really pleased with how the image map turned out. It's a new reason to stare at one of our pages for more than a minute. I'm still working on a couple of the destination pages, so don't be surprised if you click somewhere and don't get exactly as you expected. My next project, among improving the shopping sections, will probably be the spin-off I've been plotting. Honor the ST! 8-12-98 11:21am Central The hi-graphic version has been uploaded, but the program which created the map info did it wrong, and the page is riddled with Javascript errors. I'm going to use the program I used to make the STpic map instead, so expect to see the new Strangesite tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience. Despite the frequent nonsensical entries, the story of Skye's rescue from FFVII is becoming sorta interesting. See for yourself in the ST 4um. 8-11-98 11:04am Central The hi-graphic version of STmain is complete and ready for upload first thing tomorrow, once I get all the destination pages done. Then I'll go back and fix up the text-link version so it goes to the new sub pages. Once this is all done, I'm going to update all the existing sub- pages like the links and the FAQs. I've also been helping Extremely with a new site. You'll get to see it when I make the personal links page. 8-10-98 10:15am Central The following is pretty much the same address I just made in the 4um. Within the next 2 days, there will be an alternate STmain.htm with an awesome image map I've been working on. Everything's drawn, but I have to finish piecing it together and get all the destinations straightened out. Once the image map is in place and Strangesite looks more impressive, I'll publicise the Pikachu Ate My Balls page I put up last week to try to attract more traffic. You can check it out now from the main page. The 4um has an active story going on. Feel free to add to it as you like. Read the surrounding messages if you don't understand the basis. I still need some input on what to do with ST Galaga. Please respond! I have my new, awesome PII 350mhz 11.5 GB HD 64 MB SDRAM Win98(<--suck!) 17" Monitor 3D 128 voice sound 8 MB video PC! I'll be able to make, um audio CD's again pretty soon. Yeah. Audio. Swimming lessons have ended, so I'll be online on a more regular basis from hereon. 8-8-98 11:12am Central Skye Valentine is trapped as stray data inside the PSX version of FFVII! Help him in the Strangesite 4um. New PC later today! Hehehee! 8-7-98 5:48pm Central In brief: Strangesite has broken 3250, the 4um has over 1500 messages, and I put up an anime video store to complement the CD store. The graphics-rich version of Strangesite is almost done, and I should be getting my new PC tomorrow! All I have time to say at present. 8-6-98 4:36pm Central I finally have a satisfactory CD store page. I removed all the Tripod ads which probably voids me from their contest, but I could care less. I finally got it to link to a list of all of their anime videos and still carry Strangesite's commission ID. You can find a link to the CD store from the initial page (which no longer mentions FC) along with a non-active choice for a graphics-rich Strangesite. I've been working day and night to get an awesome animated image map done, and it's looking good so far. Hope you all think so too. You'll notice a lot more rearranging in the next few weeks, so watch the site closely. I'll get my new computer this Saturday! YIPPEEEEE! Oh, um, see 7-21-98. I thought I'd been this happy once before. So good to see progress being made! 8-5-98 4:42pm Central Pikachu of Pokemon Ate My Balls has been uploaded. I'm not going to make a big deal out of it, or add the counter to it, until Strangesite has been revamped. I'm making progress on the massive image map. I'll also be opening the CD store really soon and creating a section devoted to Strangesite financial support. This will consist of online stores which grant a commission and banners which offer coins per click. Any revenue from this kind of service will go toward an ST fund and will probably result in more food at ST Days in the future. In the meantime, Pikachu has some balls to munch on... Oh, one more thing. I meant to put this Saturday but forgot in my haste. Next year's Marching Band WILL go to Florida and perform at football games, but due to lack of funding will not appear at any competitions. More updates will appear as they become available. 8-4-98 10:36am Central I've got a lot going on. First of all, I uploaded 2 AVI's of the music sign turning into the BAND sign (thanks to Sicko for emailing us the pics!) and will link to them at my earliest convenience. Second, the Pikachu of Pokemon Ate My Balls site will be complete before the week is out. It will be a shameless Strangesite promotion to reach a vaster audience. (I'm going to give it its own counter to guage its success.) Thirdly, I'll be opening a small CDnow store. I don't plan to make any sales through Strangesite, but the registration claims you can customize it to promote certain genres of music. If I can have an anime music store, I would be very pleased indeed! Time is still not a commodity I have a lot of, so I can't say when you'll be able to see these things implemented for sure, but I can tell you that I'm typing so quickly that I'm incorporating above-level vocabulary. Sorry about that. 8-1-98 11:01am Central One more week of swim lesson teaching, and then I'll FINALLY be able to get back to a regular schedule of updates. Until then, enjoy August's FREAKY WRONG site of the month. Just... don't enjoy it too thoroughly. (This means you, Sicko.) 7-31-98 4:35pm Central Well, tomorrow begins August. The month when most of the ST scatter across the midwest to wreak havok in our own destinations. Everybody but me. I don't have to leave until September 5th. It'll be sorta odd being the only one around. Being a new month, I'll also have a new FREAKY WRONG site of the month featured. I found a perfect one but lost the address... so I'll be trying to rediscover it (or an equally suitable one) for the next hour or so. Honor the ST! I'll have some new content soon, once my job winds down. 7-29-98 5:53pm Central Sorry for not updating this file recently. I've been flooded w/ email and the 4um. The thing has more than 5/4 of 1000 messages now, and there's still about 4 people in there right now! Ho, boy... so much work. Anime week is in effect on the SciFi channel! All for now. Back to the 4um... 7-24-98 9:14am Central I made a special effort to go online early today to activate the links to BWSagabII. I hope you all enjoy it! It has some improvements since the unsanctioned text file LOL leaked out without authorization. (Bonzo said "RRR!" Everyone died.) 7-23-98 3:50pm Central Bane World Saga Book II, The Journey is all set up and ready for tomorrow's release. I didn't hype this one as much as Book I, but it doesn't make it any less an event. Let the saga continue! Also, it had come to my attention that some browsers would simply refuse to render the st2.gif image correctly, so I darkened the file. You probably noticed this on the initial page. So little time, so much to do... 7-22-98 4:54pm Central Hail the foul weather which wrested me from my job and brought me to the computer! OK, the commercials have been bothering me for awhile now, and I feel I need to say this. I SUPPORT MORE TOBACCO TAXES!!! Damned cigarette companies thinking they can incite something. Where do they think the people would rather the government gets its revenue from than obese businesses? From us??? HAHAHAHA! Stupid, insolent tobacco fatcats. Um, sorry. I guess I got a little carried away there. Two more days until BWS book II! 7-21-98 5:44pm Central This is an awkward time for me to be online, but this is what a job and musical rehearsal does to a person. Never fear, however. The sequel to Bane World Saga book I The Transgressor, Bane World Saga book II The Journey is complete. I may make a few more minor alterations, but the planned unveiling is for this Friday. Somehow our 4um has become a primary Mental Ward haven as well. The more, the merrier! I'll be getting my new computer REALLY SOON! YIPEEEEE! Sorry for the few-and-far-between updates. Gimme a week or two and I hope my schedule will settle down to something manageable. Honor the ST! 7-18-98 2:22pm Central Contrary to some peoples' beliefs (LOWELL!) I still update Strangesite about every other day. I've just been a lot more busy with cashiering and "Hello Dolly." Does this mean Strangesite is in a sort of rut for awhile? NO! It's given me time to do more offline, including more writing and a nice image map for the main page. I'll get these things to you all once they can be typed up or whatever I need to do on the computer at home. In other news, everybody seems to have had unsurprising success on their AP physics exams. Too bad Drum Boy couldn't have started the messages in the 4um intead of via email so we all could read about it. BWS book II WILL come out soon. I promise. I just wish my laptop hadn't gone kaput. 7-15-98 4:50pm Central I have FFVIIPC. Hehehe! Strangesite got another award which I'll place later. In the meantime, I added on I got for free just b/c it seemed almost fitting. 7-13-98 7:10pm Central LOL's party occured on the 11th, even without a complete ST showing. It was still a success. (Hey, Chinese food, Frisbee and Nintendo. How can you go wrong?) As you may have noticed, this message is coming to you in the evening rather than the morning as I have been doing for the past two weeks. This is due to a scedule change at the pool. Sorry for any massive nuclear holocausts this change has caused. Regular updates will be in the evening at least three days a week for the time being. Don't mention this to my mom, but I increased my weapon collection again this weekend. I now own a triad of axes and a cool folding sword/dagger thing. Ooh, I feel so tingly! The laptop phutzed out, so I have to work on editing BWSaga II on my own time. This is as opposed to working on it on the Morton Grove Park District's time as I had been doing previously. I'll also have a main navigational image map up soon. Dat's all for now. 7-9-98 9:20am Central I'm about to add something new, one of those link-of-the-month deals. (Yes, like the MW used to have before it changed management.) I should have it up before I finish this morning's session. I saw the X Files movie last night. Definitely a winner. I'll have an image map for the main page of Strangesite up pretty soon. I promise that it will be pretty. 7-8-98 9:39am Central Undecided, of BWSaga, has gotten his Internet access working and has paid Strangesite a much overdue visit. Welcome, Undecided. Dat's pretty much it for now. Honor the Strange Society! 7-7-98 9:35am Central You'll notice a new graphic on the initial page of Strangesite. Clicking on it allows you to easily send personalized email messages to friends to promote Strangesite. An unessential but useful service. I have a lot of things to add to Strangesite, but I don't know exactly when each one will occur. Still, keep checking back here because the site's about to gain a lot more content. 7-6-98 10:05am Central I'm a little busy right now adding and removing services at Strangesite. (Why didn't anyone TELL me Weirdring disappeared?) 7-3-98 9:50am Central Time to list some events: Today: Sicko's BBQ, my uncle's wedding (obviously I won't be at Sicko's) July4: Duh. Some of the ST is helping Krymson Lady's family at the start of the parade route. FREE PIZZA! Soon?: LOL's birthday party (Tentatively the 11th, but What and Sicko can't do that day.) Soon!: Release of Bane World Saga book II! Dec25: Christmas. ?????: Apocalypse never: Parin voted President of United States. (Not applicable to Bizarro World) 7-2-98 9:41am Central It's sad to see a friend pass on, even if it's in the form of a website. The Mental Ward Online was created at about the same time as Strangesite. I've been the longest resident visitor there as Patient 91i. I created the patient bedroom builder and wrote portions of the MW stories. I still remember when their counter passed ours and took off. With the onset of summer, Strangesite has still prospered. We are nearing the 3K visitor mark, which may not be momentous to some, but it makes me proud. I've managed to spend about an hour every weekday updating it and maintaining our 4um. The Lord of Lemurs, Vince Bondy, has not had that blessing. He is in a position where he cannot improve his site over the summer months, and visitors to The Mental Ward had all but stopped, as any visitor to their forum would note. In light of this, Vince decided it would be best to abondon the project. It's horrible to see the MW go. Our websites seemed like peers, although they were nothing at all alike. Strangesite is here for the promotion of our stories. The Mental Ward sought to entertain an unknown masses through interaction, letting visitors form it as they like. The Mental Ward also did a very good job of this. I only hope that the Lord of Lemurs will reconsider, whether it be that he lets someone else take the responsibility of the project, or that he finds the time to continue it next school year. I know I'll be watching for movement at the Mental Ward. 7-1-98 9:55am Central You ever notice how I either have everything to say on Wednesdays or absolutely nothing at all? Odd. 6-29-98 7:28pm Central Yup, the news file became too long to edit. This is the third one, now. Ah, wonderful vacation! Of course, there is something to be said for being able to check one's email again. Still, it's good to have a week off. In vacation news, I cought a 14 1/2 inch bass, bought a set of ornate knifes at a flea market, and bought some gifts for LOL's birthday. Wasn't there something else...? Oh, yeah. I also FINISHED Bane World Saga book II, The Journey. (I don't know if I ever mentioned it online, but book one was named The Transgressor.) It's still in draft format, but I should have the final product up within two weeks! I love MSDOS Editor. Sweet DOS simplicity. Never a single crash! It's true. FF VII PC version is out. Whoever buys it is ordered to lend it to me overnight. No illegal copying and distribution will occur I assure you all. thiS is A seRious deClarAtion of my perSonal Morals. Ignore capital letters in the previous sentence. Do not take note of the word they spell. Happy birthday, LOL! Enjoy your complimentary preview copy of book II. I urge you to offer any ideas or criticism or praise which doesn't involve including more from your character. Honor the STrange Society, my friends.