TOW-19

Sure, Covert. The book's called "Jack's Knack." It's about a jackrabbit who sees everyone in the forest who has a "specialty" or just something that they're good at. Something that everyone else sees value in, but when Jack looks at himself, he doesn't see that he does anything of worth or that anyone else appreciates. It's really just in his own head, and it takes his friend the beaver to come along and open Jack's eyes to his own self-worth as well as his worth to the community around him. It's to help children who feel "outside" certain social circles or what not to feel more comfortable and to know that somewhere, somehow, they are always accepted and "needed." Her first book, "Bruce, the little Blue Spruce (of which I advertised here a long time ago)," dealt with the same type of lesson. A blue spruce tree who never got picked to be a family's Christmas tree was sad about the way he was so different. But it took a little girl from a family to see his worth...that she wanted a tree that WAS different and special. "Bruce" is being read to younger grades in schools across the country, with the author being there for a few of them in an actual classroom reading. The author is a former Girl Scout and infuses a lot of these helpful, social values into her writing. Being published primarily through the comic book industry first, and then having it trickle into stores like Borders, Barnes and Amazon, the books aim to become a "gateway" of sorts into introducing kids to comics as well. I have ALWAYS been an advocate of comic book reading for children and think this is a great idea. In fact, it's funny that I hated reading when I was a kid, but LOVED comic books and couldn't put them down. I credit comics with my ability to speak well, read/write well and engage my imagination well (which I eventually put forth into a few series of D&D comic writing as well as all the tournaments that I wrote and co-wrote here at UF during my tenure). Hopefully this helps you understand the books and their intent a little better. I would not promote them, especially to young children, if I didn't believe in the books, their message and their potential benefit to kids.

I have a friend who is an author. She authors children's books published within the comic book industry. The childrens books she publishes involve woodland animals and convey a good moral lesson. They're fun, they're creative and they aim at encouraging young kids to read, learn some valuable lessons. Her newest book is being plagued by the comic book industry's slump right now and her orders for the book are coming in pretty low. If this happens, then it axes any possibility of another book aimed at the same audience and educational goals from being published in the future from the publisher. The books are GREAT and those with children really connect with their kids when reading through these really fun characters. I helped with this current book a little bit by helping her concoct one of the main supporting characters...."Pat the beaver." (SERIOUSLY, I named it "Pat" PURELY because that's what a beaver's tail does....and really did NOT know about the "other" connotation until after it was published and she told me "hell YEAH I kept it in there...parents'll get a kick out of it!" It's a great book from a great author with a great aim. Check it out. The book goes for $12.99 through Amazon, BUT through this tinyURL, you can order it direct from the comics distributor, delivered to your door, for the discounted retailer's price of only $7.99! http://tinyurl.com/yl6os6o Help out someone who's helping our future generations. - TOW

Hi everyone! Helping a friend out here: Anyone interested, or anyone know someone who would be interested, in adopting two sibling cats from an owner that can no longer care for them due to work schedule? Check it out, pass it forward through your email or Facebook friends, and if you do, work it out. The cats are nice, the person giving them away is nice...just wants to give the cats a good, loving home: http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/pet/1552087001.html Thanks! - TOW

Hey Chili.... I live and work downtown Chicago. If you'd like to meet up for a quick beer, PM me and I'll give ya my cell (if you don't still have it). In any case, hope you have a good trip. Chicago's great.

Oh, and SUBSCRIBED! ;D

Way to go, UF!

http://www.urgentfury.com/viper/TNU_SPOOF_116secs.mp3 Aaahhhh, lovely.

WOW....I remember them talking about this a few years ago (and all of us talking about it on the forums). Looks like they finally went and did it. Sorry Comcast users....get out while you can (and before other providers follow suit).

I love Best Buy.....best thing that could have ever happened to me and my PS3. LOL.....oh, the free stuff you can get from stupid people....lol

Oh come on Neo its a little funny. LOL......too rich.

Great link! When I get my iPhone early next year when my 'scripts up, I'll keep this in mind. Oakley's the only brand of sunglasses I wear for my beach vball and all, so I'm very surprised I never walked deeper into their site to see these types of things. Very cool.

Nice to see you again, Apoc....safe and sound. Welcome back!

That....is.....FAST! Jeezus....

LOL....oh, he's done. He hasn't posted since I did. This was just being carried to page 5 by everyone else.

We get pretty creative... We could be your third party quality assurance evaluation service. LOL

LOL....dumbass....he said "minions." LOL Take care, Strick. Don't be so irritated. Even Semi-..... Because life's to good to be irritated. Move on to things that make ya happy. And smile.

Aww, c'mon now..... Am I that bad a guy? I thought I spent some good, quality time playing nice host to you and your lady when you came in to visit last year. Do you not have any tolerance for me now? I don't think I've wronged ya, have I? (Bad memory, though, so maybe I did...who knows....) If this is annoying, UF can always ask that this cease and desist, and I'll be quick to comply. Really. It's not an issue for me. Otherwise, I don't know....you can opt NOT to click on it. The icon button next to it just says "New," it doesn't say "Hey Strick, this is NEW, and yeah it's annoying and not fine and dandy anymore, but you must click on me anyway...and you just don't...know...why!" The power of non-annoyance is in your hands as always! As with anyone. Or...if you were just joking along with it.....then no biggie....and "hello!"

THAT...........was hilarious. LOL

DAMN good to hear the man back in the saddle again!

Not sure if this got posted on the UF forums yet or not....but this was posted by Fat Jezus over on the RVN forum and wanted to make sure the love was spread like cream cheese....

Nice! Good luck to you and the newly-enhanced clan! Great group, both of ya!

LOVE IT. (miss it..... :'( )

Wow....I had NO idea Mike-Ops was SOCO!! How you doing, bro? Last time I saw you, we both just took the firefighters exam in Chicago! LOL I remember that party at your place! You don't still have that PORN that got delivered there, do ya? LOL Good seeing you again. - TOW

My very first UF tourney.....hmmmmmmmm...........LOL I remember UF1. It was a magical day. "State of the Union" it was called. Still have my State of the Union tourney t-shirt from that listing all of the participating clans on the back. It was a hell of a scary time throwing a new tourney out there and the worry that Sniper and I, along with Demo (the other third original creator) had about hoping EVERYONE was going to love it. What a immature and ignorant worry. LOL Back in the time when we thought we COULD please everyone. Once we got over that thought, things became a lot easier for us mentally as the years went on. My favorite tourney as a player would have to be UF3 where my clan, then named A Perfect Circle, went 30+ weeks in first place before the tourney got shut down. It was a hell of a run and one I do not believe was duplicated, though there have been some monstrous clans come to UF since then as well. After that, we limited the number of weeks of a tourney to 12 or so, so I don't know if that record will ever be challenged. Be fun to see it get challenged, though. My favorite tourney as a creator would have been The Horsemen tourney. We've run TACMAPs forever. Black, forever. Did a charity tourney in which players from all clans were randomly teamed up to work with one another.....but Horsemen, I thought Horsemen was such a GREAT idea, my favorite I came up with out of all the tourneys. Sounds weird, maybe, with all the storylines and game mechanics that Sniper and I came up with through the years together....but Horsemen was kinda "my" baby from concept to hand-off (to Sniper for its design). I loved the idea of ONE guy being valued over all others and what each team would do with that player. LOVE it. If the new administration here will ever run another Horsemen tourney or another like it, I would very much like to feel that adrenaline rush that everyone else was talking about when being the Horseman. I never felt that when the tourney launched and played out. And lastly, my favorite match.....and I think most know this (and it was mentioned above), was the motherF'n epic battle between my then-clan, A Perfect Circle, vs. Stormwatch on Copperhead Demo. Twenty-eight friggin' rounds, deadlocked in a 1-1 round tie until APC finally broke it up with a great effort of team play and a scramble, last minute (but more like last SECONDS), to get a kill of a hiding gunner that gave us the win. Both clans were basically saying "thank god we won" and "thank god we lost" just because players wanted to eat/sleep/fuck/jerk-off/piss/shit/rip-their-hair-out or whatever the hell they wanted to do that they couldn't do because they were caught up in an unexpected 3.75 hour war! That was was longer than a friggin' director's cut version of Lord of the fucking Rings! LOL Credit to both teams for not wanting to give up and for making a match SO grueling, SO nailbiting that not ONE gunner from either team wanted to be that one kill that would tip the tide of the war. Memorable for so many reasons, and one of the milestones of affection I've had for Urgent Fury ever since. Speaking of stories and Stormwatch.....there was also this one time when this dude pulled down his pants for everyone.......... Ahhhhh, thanks, UF, for this li'l trip down memory lane. It was a nice one. - TOW

Good luck, gentlemen. Sniper and I know that UF and its community of great personalities are in very caring hands. Do us all proud! - TOW