>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> WELCOME TO <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ___ ___ __ __ _____ ___ / __| ___ / _ \ ____ \ \ / / _ _ | __ | ___ ___ / __| | (__ | _ \ | _ | |_ / \ V / | \| | | __| \ \/\/ / \__ \ \___| | / |_| |_| / / |_| | .` | |_____| \ /\ / |___/ |_|_\ /___| |_|\_| \/ \/ --- * Issue 12 * --- --- * C R A Z Y N E W S ! ! * --- Welcome to the 12th issue of CrazyNews: --- * Contents * --- * Introduction * The News! * Ossie's Travel Tips * Admin Admissions! * Residents Homepages Competition * Big Al's Woodworking Tips * Corrections * Submit Stuff * Mailing Information --- * Introduction * --- Welcome back to Ossie's Travel Tips - read these if you are planning to go anywhere abroad this year, they're great! We've got a whole series of them to come, so start planning your foreign backpacking holiday now ! Sorry about the lateness and slimness of this particular edition. We have perfectly good excuses, but if we told you we'd have to kill you. We're 69 reasons short this month, and still looking. Anyone? :) Remember the spodmeet this April (see below for more)! ~Editorial Team --- * The News! * --- * Easter Spodmeet - Toronto! * As a few of you might know there's a big spodmeet taking place Toronto, Canada around easter time. Specifically, the weekend of April Friday 9th until Sunday 11th. It should be a pretty cool event with lots of spods from all over the world! If you're interested in going or need more information, email: easterorg@crazylands.org Further arrangements have been made, though it's not to late to let us know you're coming along! * Backpackers.com * For those that have been following Ossie's TRavel tips, please be aware that backpackers.com has shut down due to excessive spam mail and is no longer available. Yahoo.com or *shudder* hotmail might be reasonable alternatives. * Id Hit's the UK * On June 27th - July 4th this year, Id will be in London, UK or in the general vicinity thereof. She may be hopping on the Chunnel to visit different flavour Europeans, but will definitely be doing some British touristy type stuff. If you want to meet up with Id this summer, email her now at id1@runestone.net for more info on travel plans. She's particularly interested if anyone has good ideas as to what I should see, what I should NOT eat, and uh... well, where I she should stay (poor student who hates roaches), e-mail her! * Looking for Reviews * CrazyNews will be running regular book reviews from next month onwards. If anyone would like to review their favourite book(s) then send us an email here to let us know (crazynews@crazylands.org). We're looking for reviews of almost any book which are just a few paragraphs long. Look out for the new section next month! --- * Ossy's Travel Tips * --- * Will that be Visa or Incarceration? * Before you leave home, there are two things you must be sure to have to save yourself a lot of hassle and possible incarceration. 1) A passport, valid until you have returned home. 2) Any appropriate visas. Before you go overseas you must ensure that your passport is valid and up to date, and that it will not expire while you are away. If it does expire, you will be considered illegal in that country and are subject to any and all of their applicable laws. Your rights will be null and void and you will be on your own. BEWARE!!! Depending on where you are from and where you are going, you may also need a visa to enter one of the countries on your journey. Australia, for example, requires visas from anyone entering their country regardless of where they are from. Conversely, many countries demand that Australians have a visa to enter their country, in a sort of payback! Petty, but something to be aware of. Canadians are okay to enter all countries in western Europe, and as far as I am aware, so are citizens of the United Kingdom. Your travel agent will be able to advise you on whether you need a visa to get where you're going, so ask him or her and leave plenty of time for all of the paperwork to be processed. Visas can be free or cost up to about $50 Canadian (about 20 UK pounds or $30 American, ish), so be prepared for the added cost to your travel expenses. If you're already on the road and decide you want to add a country to your itinerary which requires a visa you haven't got, visit the local embassy and they should be able to accommodate you. Remember that these visas are only good for a certain amount of time, and that you are violating federal laws if you do not posess a valid one. Also be advised that if you intend to work in a foreign country of which you are not a citizen, you will require a special work visa, unless you intend to be paid "under the table" which can be risky. These items are relatively simple to obtain, but will cause you no end of grief if you do not possess them. It is worse to be without your passport or visa than it is to be without a plane ticket. Replacement flight tickets can be bought at the airport. You won't be able to help yourself in a foreign prison. Happy Travelling... ~Ostrich --- * Admin Admissions! * --- Hi everyone. Just a few things to 'admit' this month. Just to keep you updated, the new code base is coming along nicely, so expect to see some exciting new features sometime. We're at the stage now where we can really start testing things, so hopefully we shouldn't be too long. Nevyn has been working his keyboard to death recently so even I can't wait to see the results. I hope to see some of you at our spodmeet this April 9th. I'll be there, and so will lots of other people with spod lives :) It should be great fun, I hear we're getting Laser Quest booked among other things, and there's rumours that some new CrazyLands merchandise will be available! See you there! ~Swiff --- * Residents Homepages Competition * --- This month we announce the winner of the CrazyLands Homepage of the Month Award, and it goes to: -----~ WINNER ~---- Alien http://www.xmission.com/~alien/ -----~ WINNER ~----- Nice page Alien! Alien has been a big contributer to CrazyLands for a long time, helping out the Admin staff and keeping people from going crazy. Check out the cool animations on his page and there's a picture of Alien himself, so look out! :) There's also a link to CrazyLands, which we always like to see! Well done! If you'd like to enter this competition, this year all you need to do is make sure that your webpage is part of the CrazyLands webring. Check out http://www.crazylands.org to see if you're webpage is included If your site doesn't appear on the web ring email Nexus (crazyweb@crazylands.org), who will arrange for your link to be added. --- * Big Al's Woodworking Tips * --- This month, Big Al advises: "Maintaining a sharp edge on any woodworking tool is of paramount importance. Compared with a blunt tool, a really sharp chisel or plane not only leaves a superior finish but handles without resistance and cuts with a clean crisp cut. A truly sharp blade will be like a mirror on both sides of the cutting edge. There are several sharpening stones available to do this. These include ceramic whetstones, Japanese waterstones, and diamond stones. These are all expensive, but a standard artificial oil stone should suffice for the home 'Do It Yourselfer', though if you can afford it, a natural oil stone would be the best bet." --- * Classifieds, Correspondence Section, Personals * --- * FREE SPACE FOR ALL TO USE! * Your advert here! FREE! This section is where ressies can submit info for other ressies to get in touch with them, to start (or end) a love connection, or to buy or sell goods or information! Please note that all adverts are free, and any one advert will only be run for 3 issues of CrazyNews. The editors reserve the right to remove an advert or decline to display it at anytime. * Evil Campaign * Come on, everyone! Rally 'round! How would you like to be able to marry anyone and everyone on Crazylands who your little heart desires? After all, we limit ourselves to monogamy irl, who wants the same restrictions in cyberspace? Not I! Join me and many others in the quest for polygamy on CrazyLands! Let the coders know that you care enough to marry all of them, as well as your own personal honey. End divorce! Celebrate love! Lobby for polygamy today! --- * Corrections * --- Here in our newest section of the news letter, we admit our faults. It had to happen sooner or later, though the editor was surprised to see that mistakes could actually be made. Here, every month, we'll spend time correcting our faults. This is also a good way to get your name in the news letter, cause unless people tell us not to, we'll thank each person who finds a problem with the last edition. * 69 Reasons * Reasons 64. and 65. are effectively the same thing, but us editors missed it! A twinkle is just another name for an output variable, though I don't think anyone uses the longer name for them! So here's another way to celebrate CrazyLands birthday (if you've not already), and that's to submit some stuff to CrazyNews (see below)! --- * Submit Stuff * --- If you want to submit anything, use the following email addresses to send your stuff. Please remember that all the usual rules about content apply, and the editors reserve the right to change any submitted articles. Please make sure you say so if you do not wish your name and/or email address to be published!! crazynews@crazylands.org All submissions, jokes or debate topics, etc. crazy@crazylands.org Any email to admin, complaints, etc. Back Issues - Available on the CrazyLands web site at: http://www.crazylands.org/crazynews.html --- * Mailing Information * --- This email has been sent to you because you're a resident on CrazyLands, the talker which runs at: crazylands.org 6969 See our web page at http://www.crazylands.org for more information. If you do not wish to receive this email, please log onto the talker and type: crazynews off If you do not know why you have been sent this mail, please let us know at: crazynews@crazylands.org ...send along the email address that you received this email at and any character names you may have had on the program. Your email address is never published to users or external sources. It is a rule of the talker that you must set a valid email address however, so that you may be contacted if there is a problem or with important talker information. This is not a stored mailing list. --- * The End (of Issue 12) ! * ---