In coming up with the itinerary I tried to accommodate everyones’ requests and suggestions as best as I could. See you in a week.

Official Itinerary:
Proto-Con 1.0
October 21st to 23rd, 2005

Friday Night

6-7 PM          Arrivals and Proto-Bag Handout
7:30-8 PM       Keynote Address
8:30-12 PM      Star Frontiers: Session 1

Saturday

8-9 AM          Breakfast: The Tea, Juice and Fruit Morning Mixer
9-10:00 AM      A Chat Amongst Friends  
10:00-1 PM      Project: Shooting Proto-Con's 2006 Promo-Video (i.e., next             
                year's).  The video will make use of cardboard animatronics 
                and/or sculpted beasties.
1-2 PM          Lunch: Make it yourself
2-3:30 PM       Creative Canned Biscuit Cook-Off Contest
3:30-4 PM       Photos (Costume and Group)
4-5 PM          Intense Discussion/Heated Debate: Extemporaneous plot and     
                character creation collaborative brainstorm
5-6 PM          Dinner: Tim's Goulash
6-10 PM         Star Frontiers: Conclusion
10-12 AM        Movie (TBA) catered with generic snacks and one variety of   
                strange alcoholic beverage (TBA)
12-? AM         Late-Nite Thom-foolery (may include, but not limited to):
                *  Snipe hunt (sniping bags will be provided but bring your own 
                   stick)
                *  The Nightwalkers - a bunch of fools walk home along a country     
                   road in the dark enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of 
                   the night and almost getting themselves killed as they fall 
                   into ditches, get hit by cars, and such.


Sunday

8-9 AM          Breakfast: Megan will arrive at 8 AM and cook EVERYONE French  
                toast and then go home.
9-10 AM         Excelsior - Where is Protozoic going from here?  What does the             
                future hold for CoT, Ameviathan, Ant Farming, Chook, Famouse the 
                Mouse, Odin 2000, Phos Rocks and other thriving/dead projects?
10-12 AM        Project: Penning of the Proto-Con Ballad
12-1 PM         Sandwiches for the Road and Awards
                Awards will include:
                1) Creative Canned Biscuit Cook-Off Award
                2) Costume Award
                3) Intense Dissussion Award
                4) Roleplaying Award (i.e., who won the Star Frontiers game,     
                the GM or the Players)
1 PM            Goodbye Speech: "Safe Sailing Dear Friends & Associates" (To be          
                given by Thom Webb, even if he's already left on Saturday)

Note: The dealer table will be supplied by Thom Webb.
                

This is storyboard number 44. It looks grainy because it was drawn in very light pencil and Tim had to bump the levels way up to get it to show.

First off, I don’t think anyone noted the 1-year anniversary for Protozoic. I guess that’s what the Proto-Con is about, but I don’t even know exactly when this site was put up so I can’t tell.

Due to some traveling and such I let the ant news go. Here are the results.

Continue reading Ants Redux, Rodent Bot Fly →

I am proud to announce that we will be holding the first ever annual Protozoic Convention, Proto-Con, from Friday October 21st to Sunday the 23rd. Though the kinks in the event itinerary still have to be ironed out, I can say that there will be panel discussions, guest speakers, socials, cosplay and a session of TSR’s Star Frontiers (with modified rules). There is even a rumor that all attendees will get “gift bags” full of freebies.

If you are casual reader of the Protozoic website and are not on one of our many mailing lists, feel free to mail me or anyone here for more information about attending.

In the meantime, everybody else be sure to stay tuned for more information on the big weekend.

Liking semi-obscure bands is a mixed blessing. If they’re well represented on the web they’re likely to have a free sample or two. However, if they’re too obscure you can barely find any reference to them at all.

One other band I thought I’d mention, although precious little of them is on the web and no free music I can see, is The Receptionists.

The group is comprised of three women whose recording studios apparently consisted of largely of Vassar dorm rooms, and whose instruments of choice are guitar, accordian, bells, mandolin, and xylophone, supplimented with a large dose of whistle.

The Receptionists instrumental sound is a dissonent cacophony and reminds me alot of the NPR clip years back where a group of musicians made music on whittled out vegetables. On top of that their vocals are usually an off-key monotone.

But somehow with The Receptionists all the discord seems to fit together brilliantly. It’s like these girls really know their stuff but got bored perfecting the craft, maybe got larangitis, and one of ’em said, “Hey, let’s just break out the veggies and jam a bit.” And that was fine with everyone else.

This is a bit of an exaggeration though. There are a few of their songs that wouldn’t sound totally out of place in the medieval-reenacting female folk singer repitoire.

On Raphsody only their song Soren Loved Regina (apparently a reference to Soren Kierkegaard’s relationship with Regina Olsen) is available, and that only on a compilation “American Pop Style”. Cashing in a gift certificate recently netted me their only available Album The Last Letter, though supposedly there’s another set of their songs out there under the title of Keep Your Secrets.

Of the songs on The Last Letter, probably the most accessible is The Piracy of Saint Philomena, backed by accordion accompanyment. A few, like Soren Loved Regina and In Love Again are sweet. And others like the Laundry Song and Stamp Song are amusingly wrought micro-ballads about the ironies and injustices of life.

Unfortunately though it looks like their latest recordings on the Last Letter album were done in 1997. And since the first few pages of google searches turn up only a smattering of cursory reviews and advertisements for their work, I think it’s safe and sad to say that The Receptionists are now defunct.

I’m likes me music and have this insatiable appatite for random indie-ish bands, especially semi-obscure ones with a few cute or quirky songs.

Alot of these I can find on Raphsody, but of course there are a few not on there, and I don’t have Raphsody at work. Also, as you might’ve gathered from my earlier post I’m kind of cheap when it comes to shelling out money for every CD, new or obscure, under the sun.

Fortunately a little googling turns up a bunch of songs here and there by some of these artists available for free. Now and then there’ll be one of their more popular songs as a sample, and occasionally a whole bunch of limited availability songs (EPs, concert specials, etc.) on tap somewhere. Most of these are even in MP3 format.

Continue reading More FREE “Barely Legal!!!” MP3s →

Just in case anyone’s interested:

I subscribe to a couple of e-mail lists for modern-occultish/paranormal RPGs. As plot and background ideas they tend to throw around some links to the stranger and more intriguing subject matter out there. Some of it’s definitely true. Some is more speculative, theoretical, or incredible.

For my own reference I’ve started a webpage to collect some of the more interesting links brought up. Mostly it’s from the “Delta Green” and “Unknown Armies” lists, but some stuff is gleaned from other sources though (the “Camel Spiders” were referenced by Penny Arcade for example).

I’m trying to keep it updated as the information trickles in (usually once or twice a week). Those interested can find it here.