The scribble pad of John Thornbush

I stole this from ladyringo.... sure. I'll give it a go!


I WILL BE COMPLETELY HONEST FOR 24 HOURS... You can ask one question. Any questions, no matter how crazy, sinister, or wrong it is. I WILL answer no matter what, you have my FULL honesty, but I DARE you to put this in your Lj and see what questions you get...

Current Location: United States, Minnesota, Burnsville
Current Mood: scared

You know, people often ask me what I have against religion.  I used to attend a church in Lakeville, Minnesota called Hosanna Lutheran Church and I remember one of the sermons about how we can't say that we love God and hate our brothers and sister for them being gay.  Then, they decide that accepting gay pastors is too much, and is going to eject themselves from their big Lutheran master group because they voted to allow them.

Way to go there, Pastor Bohline - way to prove yourself a hypocrite and proving yourself just like -nearly- every other Christian I've met that wanted to ram their opinion down my throat.  It's only evil to hate them when they are nowhere near, eh?  Can't have them part of your precious community, oh no...

Current Location: United States, Minnesota, Burnsville
Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Local News

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: NCIS Los Angeles episode.

I am almost done moving - though my computer, which was private, is now in public view.  This means I might need to be more discrete about what my screen saver should be...  *makes a note to show vacation photos - not erotic artwork of questionable tastes*

I am hoping to hold the usual Battlestar Galactica role-playing session this Saturday, but it will be very strange not to look out my bay window in Minneapolis...  Lakeville doesn't hold the same inner-city charm...  but it will have to do.

Current Location: United States, Minnesota, Lakeville
Current Mood: blank
Current Music: Nothing

I will be without Internet for a little bit - perhaps about a week or two, due to moving out of my house. I can sorta kind of reach me through LiveJournal mail and the like - but the response time will be *slow*

The plans are moving forward to seek a zoning variance from the City of Lakeville for a Tunbleweed home, as their minimal size allowed for a house is 960 square feet 'above grade' with a full basement required -far far outside my budget.

Current Location: US, Minnesota, Hennepin, Minneapolis

Sadly, I don't have a Print Screen button to capture the screen to the buffer, but here is the raw desktop I am using.


It's a computer render of the Battlestar Avalon hiding with her rag-tag fleet inside a nebula from the Cylons.  This is a scene from a story I was working on for the BSG Big Bang before I basically ended up semi-homeless (moving in with a friend's parents - oh joy) so basically, that put an end to that.

The main difference between this universe and the official cannonical BSG universe is that these are furs, whose colonies were destroyed by their own creations - the Cylons - and they are trying to find their way to Earth, where humanity went after they were exiled from Kobol countless years ago.

Current Mood: awake

Hi there guys and gals, I know I don't post a lot of stuff here - but that might be changing up here.  My impending homelessness comes with an upside.  If the house sells without costing a ton in terms of forced improvements, I will have a chunk of change from the sale.  I have decided I wanted to work to build MY OWN HOME!

In case any of you haven't noticed, I have added tumbleweedhomes as an interest to my bio page.  Tumbleweed Homes is a company specializing in small, sustainable homes - something that makes a lot of sense to me, ecologically and economically.  Buying a home for 100k in this area means either you get a burned out shit-hole, a house robbed of all of its copper pipping, or a major fixer-upper.  On the case of building my own home, I could create an entirely new structure for less than 100k.  No mortgage, no crushing debt.  Simply a home I can call my own.

What I am wondering is, since this will be separate from my writings and musings about my literary work - who would want it to be a separate filter, and who would want to be on it?

If I don't get -any- answers, I will merely tag them with the 'tumbleweedhome' tag and post them in my standard journal.

Current Location: Soon to be not my home anymore...
Current Mood: determined
Current Music: None

Current Mood: depressed

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Location: United States, Minnesota, Minneapolis
Current Mood: blah

Glycerin - commonly used as an inert filling for analog pressure gauges to cushion the internal mechanics against vibration and brief over-pressurizations during operation.

Such gauges have a rubber stopper or fill port on them to keep the glycerin inside the gauge. Such a 'fill port' allows the gauge to be refilled after service or repair.

As such, it is generally -not- commonly accepted procedure to remove the stopper or port from the instrument and placing it upside-down in the returning box. At least, if you don't want the recipiant to kill you all manners of to death when all the glycerin ends up ALL OVER THE FLOOR as well as ALL OVER THE LAB TECH!

This public service message is brought to you by the letter A for asshat, as well as the commonly ignored letter S for shop rags, of which I had to use about fifteen of to clean that mess up.

Current Location: At work
Current Mood: Pissed Off

Why are like -every- video game review done by 'customers' on websites done by illiterate people? I mean, come on... Spelling mistakes occasionally are one thing, but run on sentences, no punctuation, and no sense of verb-noun agreement? Gamers wonder why the world at large does NOT take them seriously - its because it looks like we lack a 3rd grade education. I remember reading somewhere that nearly all of these 'reviews' are bots... which is sad, because people just learn to never trust the reviews and either play a game that a friend has bought, or just rip it off to play it for themselves.

In other news, picking up The Sims 3 for my Mac - will see how that goes. Been playing Spore off and on for the past few days, and finally escalated my people to the Space Age. The Grox suck by the way...

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Disturbed - Indestructible

I've had about enough of getting gross food from Perkins. The malts have a nasty metallic taste they -refuse- to fix. The service is piss-poor, and it makes me sick nearly every time I eat there. It's really hard to advocate eating the food there when the local furmeet meets there.

In other news, I really should get started on the BSG Big Bang novellete entry - fit it in there between working like a dog and my nightmares of homelessness.

Current Location: US, Minnesota, Hennepin, Hopkins

Well, I would have to say that Battlestar Galactica is my favorite space television show, for its plot and technological balance. The show is not too much about the tech, and not too much about the people. The only thing I really hold against the series is the ending (Daybreak) and I just pretend that it never happened, as it SUCKED! God is NOT a tool to use when you can't write an effective end to the series.

Firefly (Serenity) had the potential to be something really great, but with only 8 episodes aired (12 or 13 made), it just doesn't have enough to really rate. It was just getting started, so unfortunately just can't rank with more established series. Perhaps if they can put out another movie, or get the series picked up sometime down the road - it might get more of a following from me.

I used to be a big Star Trek fan until Bragga and Berman ran the franchise into the ground. I believe it was them being proud of having never seen the original series when they wrote Enterprise that really did it in for me. The new Star Trek film does offer the chance for a new change, and perhaps will bring this grand ol' lady back from the dead... but considering it was an -expensive- film to make, I highly doubt there will be more then one.

I'd write about the others, but I am too tired and too sick to be detailed about any others. Sorry...

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: sick
Current Music: None, just woke up.

Our career related life has to be more than the worst screw-up you've ever committed. It shouldn't be about who to piss off today that can fire me.

Truely, we are in the dark ages of employment - that if you just unlucky enough to get fired for a mistake, that you will never work again.

The concept that in order for you to succeed - you must never make a poor call, or use bad judgement, or simply make the choice that sucks the least means we will all face the firing squad eventually.

That concept sucks.

Current Location: On the move

Well, Furspectives Media has been working on a Battlestar Galactica character generator, hoping to roll out a product that could actually be of some use to people while we work out a few details on the game we've been trying to make. The big hurdles for this will be licensing - first with Margaret Weis Productions, and then with NBC Universal. Both 500lb gorillas will need to be satisfied before this product will see the light of day - but it's shaping up to be quite the product.

In other news, I will be posting up some story snippets from time to time to help resuscitate my muse, who has been on life-support for the longest time. Don't know how it will shape up, but I am getting there.

Finally, I have had to come to the conclusion that I will not be attending any more conventions for a while - with finances being what they are, and the fact that I don't own a car anymore - I simply cannot afford to go, or to have someone else take me there.

Current Location: Home - Minneapolis, MN
Current Music: Nothing

Battlestar Galactica (the new one) got named in Fox Television's ten worst television series finales listing. That's what happens when you decide to say 'frak it, it's about the characters' and use God as a cop out to writing a proper ending to the story.

Needless to say, not going that way with my furry-ized version and I don't need to cap my version of Lee Adama, because he is making Starbuck look like a serious officer...

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: US, Minnesota, Hennepin, Bloomington

The answer has never been, is not, nor will it ever be flying your ships into the sun and going native. That is all.

Current Mood: pissed off

I woke up this morning with an ominous feeling, called in to work, and went upstairs only to find out that a long time friend has died. Born on October 30, 2005, my XBOX 360 console was a replacement for my original which stopped working about two weeks after I got it - and has been with me ever since... at least until this morning. It ran like a champ all the way to the end, and it will be sorely missed. Microsoft told me that they will pay for repairs, I just need to send it in - and it will be taken care of - which is a relief (couldn't afford to replace the unit).

Preceded in death by its predecessor, and survived by its accessories, the 120GB hard drive, a Rock Band band set (microphone, guitar, drums), a Guitar Hero 2 guitar, and numerous friends and co-workers. No services will be held, as its consciousness will be downloaded into a new body and brought back to me - now that is a resilient SOB. Puts the Cylons to shame, it does.

Anyway - on a more serious note - I should see what I can do to entertain myself during the month I will not have the unit available to me. Perhaps I should....write? GASP! I know, be still the beating heart! Anyway, it just means I am unplugged a while and will have to hope that I can be reunited with my friend in its next incarnation sooner rather than later - and definitely not in death.

Did get the special edition of the Battlestar Galactica 4.0 season, complete with Kara Thrace's dog tags, a book about the people, and the sucky 'pseudo' ending that we would have been left with if the writer's strike had nixed the series. It is good, despite the fact that I SO know I don't wanna go the same direction with my BSG RPG group.

Current Location: Home
Current Mood: crushed

First of all, I want to state that this is not a snipe against anyone - especially the players of the "furry-ized" version of my Battlestar Galactica roleplaying game. It's more of a musing I made while I commuted to work on the bus yesterday morning.

It's commonly forgotten that roleplaying is meant as a type of cooperative story-telling, a chance for every character to define him or herself in the eyes of the other players and the audience at large. Conflict, drama, life, and even death serve a literary purpose. For the character to mean anything to the other players in the game, the controlling player must be willing to share the limelight with others in order to tell a convincing narrative.

For example, why should the audience care about the mouthy Viper pilot named Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace? Certainly, being a prime example of a type A personality doesn't make the character any different than any other Viper pilot. What draws the audience to them is the story of the character, the gradual discovery of their secrets, their hopes, their fears, and their past. While knowing Starbuck is the best shot in or out of the cockpit is nice in terms of tactical information; finding out that she passed the old man's son in Viper training because she loved him, not because he had the skills (which subequently got him killed) makes her real. Her love makes her a real person, with real lapses in judgement for real reasons.

Simply living your character for the chances of killing and action in general makes for cannon fodder characters who only advance the plot through brute force methods - not through plot development. Conflict means more than slinging steel around or flinging hot lead at enemies - especially when facing an 'endless' enemy like the Cylons.

Simply put, 'rollplaying' denies yourself, as well as the other players and characters the opportunity to know you through your narrative skills and diminishes yourself in ways that would insult anyone else.

Rant over, thanks for listening - always looking for input. ;)

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: 44.828812, -93.297073

Well, we managed to get the first game of the 'furry'ized Battlestar Galactica roleplaying game off the ground. The players managed to save a good sized civilian fleet and escaped without losing either the Galactica (controlled by a NPC Adama) or the Avalon (controlled by 'Commander' John Reez - another NPC but one that the players have a bit more access to).

In the process, they have discovered three of the seven mass produced Cylon models. Justin, a model one, was discovered while trying to kill two of the players who tried to explore more of Ragnar station. Leon, a model seven, was found stowing away on the Galactica by marines shortly after they left Ragnar. The third is a model six, who was posing as a deckhand that disappeared when the two battlestars had to leave the anchorage - and got left behind.

Basically, I am fishing for some game atmosphere ideas - things that make the game that much more immersive. I am also seeking feedback if people want to leave any.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Current Location: US, Minnesota, Hennepin, Bloomington, W 96th St, 1441