Say goodbye to your favorite MOG! Worlds.com, possibly an agent of Cthulhu, has hired the IP enforcement company General Patent Corperation (GPC), who is DEFINITELY an agent of Nyarlathotep, to enforce their patent on 3-D worlds.

Issued in 2004. And it wasn’t even filed until 1999 - well after Meridian 59, Lineage, The Realm Online, Ultima - hell, after any number of early-generation MOGs were well off the ground.

Seriously, does the patent office not have the internets to look this shit up?

Right now, they only seem to be going after NCSoft, which I don’t really understand. If they are too chicken shit to try and take on the current king (WoW) because Blizzard could raise monstrous legions of undead lawyers to squash this stupid patent like the trolling it is, why would they go after NCSoft, who although not riding gold-encrusted hoverboards like Blizzard, is at least wealthy enough to rally a small legion of lawyers.

Also, they know Sinanju. They’ll f you up, man.

If you want to read a much better take of this whole nonsense (including an interesting reason why they went after NCSoft instead of Blizzard), check out Lum’s take.

I got this link passed to me by about twenty different folks just in the past hour, so I think it’s fairly safe to say it’s full-on viral now, but just in case you haven’t seen it, I thought I’d share:

Do yourself a favor and watch the high-res version. Sure, it’s no Hollywood thriller, but considering it was done by someone on a whim, it’s pretty goddamned incredible. And they certainly made it a LOT more interesting than the original cartoon!

A great example of how little side-projects can get you noticed. If this guy doesn’t get snatched up by some big FX shop, I’ll be amazed.

Then again, wtf do I know about Hollywood. He’s probably black-listed for using the phrase “peripheral bitches” or something…

So finally, at long last, I have good news to report! And it’s coming in a stream, so brace yourselves!

First off, my friend that had a double mastectomy is recovering well. She had the reconstructive surgery and is doing VERY well, with NO sign of cancer!

Secondly, our own Anson had a bad scare - his father was in a very serious accident last month. I’m glad to say that he’s doing much better now, and that’s a huge relief. Anyone that put up with Anson for that long certainly deserves much better…

Thirdly, HappyJack’s lovely wife finished her nursing school and is now a… erm… is it RN or LPN? Anyway, she’s some sort of breadwinner. Finally no more eating dirt for HappyJack’s children! They’ll have ONE parent that’s gainfully employed!

Lastly, closer to home, Kwipette FINALLY got her first Tysabri treatment this past Wednesday! It’s been a LOOOOONG time coming, but thankfully she got a clean (enough!) bill of health to proceed. It was a scary time - there are plenty of people that have received Tysabri, but you only remember the bad cases - but she came through with flying colors.

I was still nervous about Tysabri, and I’ve been doing some Googling on personal experiences. In doing so, I came across the beautiful Lauren Parrott, a young lady who has been living with MS for the past 8 years. Lauren has been kind enough to chronicle her experiences in a weekly video blog on YouTube.

I started with Lauren’s post from a week after she began Tysabri. In this video, you can see A) the neck tremors that Lauren suffers from as a result of her MS, and B) how her hotness will no doubt result in wildly inappropriate comments from HappyJack.

Fast-forward to three days ago, a year after she’s been on Tysabri. Lauren shares a particularly painful experience dealing with bladder control that Kwipette can relate to only too well:

Apart from still being a lovely lady, there are huge improvements in her MS. While she still has symptoms, she has definitely improved. Granted, she was in a lot better shape than Kwipette, but it still made a big difference and helped her a lot (and if you want some really touching experiences, spend some time on her YouTube page and view more of her entries).

Her videos really gave us a lot of hope - while we’re not expecting Kwipette to jump up and start dancing, being able to witness someone’s improvement on Tysabri really gave us a positive, solid hope. We’re both in way better moods than we’ve been in weeks, and so very encouraged.

I sent Lauren an email to thank her for sharing her experiences and to tell her how grateful we were for her. Of course, knowing you lot, I probably should’ve apologized for exposing her to you deviant n3rds.

And by “you” I mean “me,” of course. I mean, seriously - would it be wildly inappropriate to ask her to demonstrate how well she’s doing with her MS by posting a video of herself doing jumping jacks? In a bikini?

It’s for purely scientific research, I tell you…

So that’s what’s going on around here. I’m wildly enthusiastic and hopeful now, so there’s a good possibility we might record a show or two soon, and maybe I’ll even finish some non-game related stories I’ve been working on.

Thank you to everyone that’s been offering their support.

I hope your holiday season is looking up, too!

I figured I’d give everyone an update. Kwipette’s in a nursing home that’s right around the corner from our house. It really sucks that she’s in a home, but it’s literally two blocks away from our house, so that part is good.

Also, the folks at the home are fantastic. We haven’t met anyone (having been there for over a week now) that’s unpleasant. Well, no one that WORKS there, at least. There’s some pricks that are residents there, but that’s kind of expected.

I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to everyone, but I’m going to be taking a little time off around here. Things are pretty bad with Kwipette, and I don’t really know if they’re going to improve. I’m a pretty big mess, and it’s a miracle I can move the mouse around, let alone type. So I’m going to take some time off, see where we’re at, try and get things a bit more settled.

Kwipette and I appreciate everyone’s thoughts, and I’ll keep you posted as things develop.

All the best,
Kwip

With everything that’s going on in my life right now, what better way to get a bit of escapism than firing up some WAR and doing a few scenarios, right? So I hop on my Shammie and proceed to die repeatedly.

Ah, now THAT’s relaxing!