100 Days

In Japan, it is tradition to take an official portrait of your child on its 100th day and r34lg33k has been kind enough to share Aiko's picture with us.   It's not scummly to squee, so I'll give you a cuteness warning now.

And lest you think that she is too adorable to be scum ... I'll just tell you that Aaylia has been already teaching her to hide ninja stars in those kimono sleeves.  So that's your second warning.

And I'm fairly certain r34lg33k will not provide advance notice if you even swivel your head to look at her in about 14 more years.  

I am chock full of goodwill and heads-up notices today, aren't I?  Consider it to be my good deed of the day.  I shoulda been a girl scout.

And g33k ... squee!!  *sigh*  Soooo cute.

After an unintended three week absence explained by illness, computer hard drive and power supply problems and visitors, in that order .. Flipping Pages is back with a look at a long-standing webcomic.   The Becoming, a gothic steampunk story written by J. Alan Shelton and illustrated by Douang Khamsitthisack,  has run since February 2010 with a somewhat mixed bag of release days. Sometimes three times per week, sometimes two and currently Mondays, there is a lot of back story to get through.

The Becoming is the story of a young orphan named Oscar LeBeau who becomes the ward and apprentice of the woman who made him that way: Jeannine Delacroix, a Disciple of the Church of Bellac. The two find their fates entwined as they weather the political and religious climate of Bellac, ultimately defining the distinct roles they each will come to play in the world’s ultimate salvation – or destruction.

In Chapter one, we are introduced to a number of characters, quite a few who are involved in what appears to be a very corrupt church seizing control of Bellac.  Most of these characters are inter-related in some manner, so you may wish to take notes, since the author provides only a breakout for Chapter One.

We are advised that each chapter of the story can be thought of as akin to a season of television. It may have its own story arc and characters, but will still be drive the story forward. At this point in time, they are still in the midst of Chapter Four, but I see on Douang's Deviant Art page that the cover page for Chapter Six is complete .. so there will be plenty of story to come.

If you like full blown stories of intrigue and mystery, full of well rounded characters, excellent writing and superb art ... give The Becoming a whirl.

ScumFlash: BeanStory

Because we all want to know what has happened to Bean over the past couple of months, and because he can't keep telling it to everybody, he decided to post his words on Scumbase. Well, I'll post them for him, but let me assure you they're his words:

Yes indeed, bEAnS is back! Sorry folks for going off the grid for such a spell and at a moment’s notice, however right around Christmas time we were hit with a Family Emergency with the possibility of losing my Father. My wife and I knew we had to get on the road immediately and drive out here to N. Carolina. My mom isn't well off very well either and needed someone to take care of her in dad's absence. He has always been a great man in my eyes, yet his heavy years of smoking had taken its toll on him. He began coughing up blood in which the first hospital was unable to do much for him so they transported immediately to one of the major North Carolina Trauma Centers which could handle it. That was when the doc said to call the family in. Not good news to ever hear!

After 3 days of continual bleeding and receiving over 19 gallons (Yes...gallons, not pints),of blood transfusions the bleeding finally stopped. He was kept under sedation and pumped slam full of fluids for the next 2 weeks. I spent every day driving from my mom and dad’s home here on the coast to go see him every day which is close to 2 hours drive each way. my mother doesn't handle long rides and had only been able to go see him up there 3 times that entire time. Shortly around into early February he was later moving better and they shipped him closer to home just up the road which only required a 10 minute drive. At this time my mom was able to finally go see him every other day. He began Physical therapy and learned to walk all over again. He was only perhaps a week away from coming home in March when he was hit with a nasty and toxic poisonous bacteria called "C Diff"  (Clostridium difficile) and it took him down with a severe blow.

Anyone who knows enough about white blood cells knows that 4.5K-10K mcL is normal but when the count reaches 30K, it is dangerously high. Dad's count came in Saturday night at 78K, Sunday morning it soared to 110K and his kidneys shut down, liver function has ceased and lungs were collapsing. He was fighting death at that very moment. An emergency collectomy (Colon removal) was performed to rid him of the major source of the bacteria. Again he had cheated death as he lay really weak after a successful surgery. But determined again to get back, dad struggled once again for quite a few weeks to relearn again how to walk, how to move his arms and gain strength in every effort. It this time was a mentally challenging experience that is not for the weak hearted, but his determination is why he is back with us today. it has only been a few weeks now that he has finally been home and doing physical therapy here at the house each day. And even 2 days ago, he was able to finally go for a drive for the first time in his truck by himself.

All I have to say is that when a blow comes to our family, we join together we take care of family! And on a final word, one thing definitely stands true: Any man can be a father, but it takes an incredibly strong, determined and loving man to be a DAD.

As far as being able to get back into the game, I now have a bit of free time each day and decided to jump back to S&F for now. TE was all booked up and I took one look at open guilds and sent a few messages out, thankfully Ghetts fired an invite my way and the rest is all guild chat! It is official, Beanhead III is now officially a true SCUM! And darn glad to be here! I still hold respect to my friends in other guilds and definitely for all my brothers in The Endless...but as scum, we are now coming for ya!

bEAnS

FreshScumFlash: Surprise Guest!

WHAHAHAHAHA!!! We have finally done it! We managed to turn the unturnable. Yes ladies and scum, it took some trickery though. Pretending he had left the game for many many months, but in the end he finally became what he always was… Scum!

Don't look so surprised, everybody knew Beanhead III was a closet scumcase ready to come out. Even Dar knew, deep inside his heart! So welcome to Bean. A level 240, non mounted (he'll have to work on that), Warrior with a scrapbook of  98.24%. He is not a complete idiot (the doctor said pieces are still missing) but he probably hasn't found the toiletkey yet (new game feature Bean).

I'm very glad he joined us. He may not be the biggest warrior out there, but he sure as hell is a great person that will boost chattyness in guildchat (you have been warned). The downside is, with Bean here, we probably will never manage to get an Endlesseer to post a weekly column on the scumbase...

This is also a good spot to welcome back our Dungeonpary from My Little Pwnies. Badness, Iola, Zimmi, Pizzar, R34lg33k and Magnumpower have done their best to help Pwnies to beat some dungeons. In the end the check in wasn't even remotely close to good and they managed only one. But Hey, check out Iola having fun with that War Ogre of War...We'll be back Pwnies!

And last but not least, congratulations to Bain, for being the first one on this server to hit 300.000 honor. Proving that crashing with a helicopter doesn't need to be bad for your Shakes & Fidget career at all!

ScumFlash: Badness #1

And we have a new contender for the #1 spot. Congratulations to Badness!