Behold the Caffe Ninjacano! []

The other day I "created" a drink on Starbucks.com, the Caffe Ninjacano. It's a "ristretto quad grande, one shot mocha, one shot hazelnut caffe americano" in Starbucks-ese. In my language, it is just "awesome."

Today, I ordered one. I'm sipping it as I compose this post. It is better than I'd hoped, even if it cost $4.23.

Picture below; I suspect the barista may be an anarchist, but he still brews a mean Ninjacano.

Peace,
JT

Worst...arcade...ever...[]

Okay, not really...I have actually seen worse, but only in movie theater lobbies and food courts.

This space, at a local mall, used to be a marginally decent arcade...no fighting games, after they removed an old Tekken 5 machine, but at least dance dance revolution (the real version), time crisis, and skeeball, among the various ticket sources (yes, there was a ticket counter). A while back, it finally folded. The sign above the entrance which was visible during remodeling showed two futuristic laser guns, so my friends and I all assumed it would be a (very small) laser tag arena.

We were wrong. Pictures speak for themselves.

This is the sad state of arcades today. It's a horrid catch-22: to get customers, they need good games (fighters MADE arcades, practically), but they can't afford/are not willing to spring for it if they don't get customers...

Peace,
JT

I Love That Font! Or, How to Spot a Typophile...[]

Friendship Town

A Busy Mind...[]

So I'm working on converting over a very large amount of content to my site: all my conlang stuff that used to exist on an old Angelfire site. Won't even post the link, due to horrid design and oldness...

Of course, by "converting," I mean "redesigning" and "redoing" for the most part. Will take quite a while. At least this will give me an opportunity to polish up a lot of this content.

Also working out ideas for those novels I keep meaning to write, which is a related project as they're set in one of the worlds I created for several of my conlangs. Good stuff.

In unrelated news, I've picked up The Name of the Wind, since a certain webcomic recommended the series. Good reading so far. That's always a good sign.

Peace,
JT

For another thing...[]

Suddenly, they were surrounded by zombies. Bill dropped his pop bottle on the ground, his hands desperately grasping for anything nearby to use as a weapon. Deb hastily grabbed a chair, although with the weight of these cafe chairs nowadays, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for her to brandish it viably. Rick pulled out the taser he kept on his person at all times (for reasons that nobody else seemed to want to know) and hoped that zombies would be stopped by electricity.

They weren't.



Peace,
JT

And I'm free....free-writing...[]

The crows were mourning the sun's last wind-swept rays over the barren hills of Tolan iLahnin, where stood the mighty Citadel of Rin-Kored. The earth was groaning. Iron wheels tore apart the loose-packed road that led to the last mine, and on them road Destruction. Ten great horses pulled the mighty wain as their master drove them mercilessly, determined to reach the mine by nightfall. Destruction waits for no man. There were rumors of a new danger approaching, from the mountains of Bhetkalen. Destruction knew no fear but the unknown. He raised one hand to shade his eyes as the evening sun bit into them, just before it vanished behind those very mountains. Giving the beasts another lash with his other hand, he wiped the dust from his brow, the dust that had become an ever-increasing burden since he left Tán Losin with his cargo. His cargo.

They had been silent for the entire journey; Destruction knew the benefits of silence. It helped that he did not need to speak to them, for he did not, in truth, wish to know entirely why they needed passage to the mines, and the last mine in particular. Another lash for the horses, and the West Mine came into view, its timber entrance-way the only thing that marked it from the surrounding hills. To the east, the Citadel was just barely visible, having been built when the easternmost mines still had any silver in them. Greedy axes had torn the virgin ore from its resting place and laid the east hills barren. Destruction could not claim that he had not helped, for his iron-wain was one of the many which made regular trips from the mines to the port city of Tán Losin and back, each trip another robbery on both ends.

Destruction brought the horses to a halt, and they stood still, waiting for another signal from their master. A porter called out from the watchtower. "What business?" he demanded in a weak voice that creaked with caution. It was not an idle question; the West Mine had been closed for the past month, after the far tunnels had caught fire, and it was only the promise of vast undiscovered riches deeper down into the hill that had kept it from being abandoned entirely. The roadman known as Destruction called back. "Old crows for the nest." He had been given the words, and from the porter's response, it appeared he had spoken them aright...



Peace,
JT

The Good Old Days...[]

I remember AOL 3.0. I'll just put that out there. I remember 28.8Kbps modems, AOK keywords, and that voice saying, "Welcome!" "You've got mail!" and "Good bye; see you soon!"

We got the internet in 1996; started with CompuServe, but then got pushed onto AOL. Being that I was the resident techie in the house (comparatively speaking, you must understand), I was given an adult admin account, so that I could fix things. Therefore, I wasn't limited to the few keywords and limited browsing of a kid or teen account. Even so, one of my favorite places on AOL was undoubtedly the Blackberry Creek Comics by Kids keyword. Never before had I been given the opportunity to publish my creative works for the world to see.

It must also be understood that at this point we were still on our first personal computer, the Macintosh Quadra (800 I think...and yes, that means I did, at one point, own a Mac), and the most advanced image editing software to which I had access was Kid Pix 2. Didn't get me very far, in other words, but it did what I wanted it to do (until I got a scanner in '00).

Anyway, beyond creating my own comics was the joy of reading the efforts of others. A few truly stuck out from the crowd of amateurish scribbles, and these still live in my memory today.

Which is a good thing, since the site was dismantled, reborn, and killed again...no more. Fortunately, I did manage to snag a few of my favorites before they all died:

Aaron

Aaron was probably my first favorite. It was a sci-fi epic about an alien...thing that crashes to earth, which the titular character uses to power his experimental power suit. It works a bit better than expected, and soon Aaron, along with his best friend Stump (real name forgotten) are fighting evil (a corporation? been too long). Well-done (if simple) artwork, and an engaging storyline. It shall be missed.

Lester & Barkley

When I saw Nickelodeon's CatDog, this was what first came to mind (and it came out years earlier, so I still say Nickelodeon "stole" the idea). Rational, sophisticated cat and his fun-loving, excitable dog housemate. Best story arc: Lestermorphs, the Animorphs crossover/homage. At the time, Animorphs was the best book series ever (according to me), and this predated even the TV show.

The Trio

One of the better-drawn comics (although certainly largely a copy/paste comic), this comic revolved around a trio of characters (I really can't even remember their names, although apparently one was named Reggie). The cast eventually grew, as all sitcom casts do.



There are others for which I didn't save images, but were awesome nonetheless:

Sqidsy and Slink

Managed to find the artist's website, with new(er) comics of this series, but it started out MS Paint-style. Sqidsy the Squirrel and Slink the Snake had crazy adventures...I think. So long ago, but it's one of the names I remember most clearly.

Some Assembly Required

Wow...this one was awesome, and one of the few that I actually remember ending. It went out with a bang – Karim, the villain of the series, blew the cast (and a large chunk of the world) to smithereens, and the last comic ended up with them in the afterlife (some in one place, two in...the other). Also, spiky balls. That is all.


So yeah...there's now a Facebook group for BCreek CBK Alumni...so there's still hope. Still hope. May we never forget.


Peace,
JT