AFD News Volume 3

Announcements

Trerannis'laya Seasper, called Layat returns.

Vacationing

Sentinel opened the Dragon Golf Bag and hauled out Lord Flame Stryke's Ark to have something for everyone to rest upon during the recent flood of activity in Alfandria. When questioned about how an Ark fit in a golf bag he answered that it was the same way a time machine with an infinite number of rooms fit into a police call box. He added that up until now, the ark had floated on the Sea of Sarcasm. "It's a lovely place, with tropical islands and sandy beaches,

and even a Club Sarc." Sentinel cautions that whatever you do, don't eat the fish.

Definitions

Clampy asked "What is the GHTA?" Trerro answered that is's a series of stories where everyone is trapped away from Alfandria and has to find a way back. This is the website for it.

Plushie Invaders

Delcan the Odd reported that plushies are testing your loyalty to them in case of an emergency. They're going to take over your mind once you've demonstrated enough fanatical support for them. Tamf responded by diving under the sofa, raising said to new heights, and huggles her plushy pig comfortingly.

Rose-Colored Dragons?

Dester'edra says a rose by any other name still wouldn't be a dragon. "Good thing, too. Petals'd fall Flame

off the first time it flew, or else it'd try to breathe fire or frost or something and mess itself up. Or it'd be massacred by the first unscrupulous knight to come across it." Lord Flame Stryke adds that a lot less would be killed, since he's never heard of a saying that went "Stop and smell the dragons" She replied with "Well, can you blame anyone? Some of us dragons are pretty rank, just like any other species. You don't really have to stop to smell them, and in a few cases I'd actually recommend speeding up."

Can you Type?

Draco18s wondered if anybody knew the reason on why Dvorak keyboards were faster than Qwerty? Apparently, QWERTY was invented to slow a typist down. He commented that Dvorak should be standard now that there are personal computers that can work at speeds much higher than a typewriter and thus can handle a Dvorak keyboard.

Lord Flame Stryke added the modern QWERTY layout was designed because the stamps kept on getting jammed by people who typed quickly and didn't let the first key leave the ribbon before the next one was there. Rai said that the speed tests for the Dvorak keyboards weren't independently monitored and often included key combinations that favoured the Dvorak keyboard. In fact, neither layout is significantly better than the other. A fuller discussion of the matter can be found here.

Editorial

The Silver Dragon attempted to start an insightful conversation by asking what does being a dragon mean to Alfandran inhabitants. To him, it's about being different and a strange pull he's always had towards dragons.

Gaframor answered that being a dragon is having the same characteristics as dragons or perhaps you feel a certain connection to them, although that doesn't necessarily mean that you have been reincarnated as them. Eredien comments that it means that she's as truthful as possible and forthright, takes care of herself and others, honour, loyalty, and tells stories.

Dr. Twisted said that granted, he isn't a very spiritual person, but he cannot deny what he feels to be his identity. "My true form as a dragon is simply the form that my soul takes. Simply put, that is my identity, that is who I am. I feel like a dragon because that is my soul, my identity. Everything else comes after that." He adds that if a person is a dragon, they can feel it just like any other person can feel what they are. He believes that there are certain attributes of a person's soul that determine their identity and given that, some people have the souls of dragons, even if their physical body does not reflect it.

Classified Data

Lord Nargus StreamWarrior reports the Dragon Classification Project hasn't died yet. Since he started this project around a year ago, it has gone from a species detail of 4 dragon species in one family to 49 difference species within 30 families and 11 orders today. The dragon taxonomy tree has changed with four major rebuilds and many minor changes.

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But now, a barrier has been reached. Due to lack of data from new dragons and the freeze of the AFD Portrait website, one of his major sources, the project needs your help. For those who do not see your own species in the Dragon Tree, it would help alot if you please complete his Dragon Survey here.

You can check whether or not he has your data or not in following pages:
http://www.dragonsempire.com/info/classify/waitingbrief.html - Dragons that he is unable to classify or has classified but for which he doesn't have a species name. http://www.dragonsempire.com/info/classify/classifiedbrief.html - Dragons that have been completely classified. Any comment or suggestion is accepted. If you think you have been classified into an incorrect species, please inform him. If you see Lord Nargus doesn't have your portrait picture and want to help by sending him one, you may send it to his private email: nargus at dragonsempire dot com. For those whose species are waiting for name, you may name it yourself with whatever name you want, in English, Greek or Latin. You may see the project page here: http://www.dragonsempire.com/info/classify

AFD Webring Spotlight

Our next site belongsto Eredien, Carestaffer Dragon. The graphics on her front page are very nicely done, if a bit large, and give one the impression of grace and intelligence. There is little else there but links and a few updates, however. To get to the meat of the site, one must fly further.

She has writings of many types, as she says: "anything that I've typed and found worth sharing." She adds that writings on Dragons are found on another page but doesn't include a link or tell which page to visit, although the word Altfandra in the navigation graphic is a very nice clue for residents. She also has photographs of minisculptures she's made from polymer clay. They are all small enough to be held in your hand. I particularly enjoyed the red dragon.

Another page includes characters she's made for the Nexus as well as an explanation of what Nexus is. Continuing on, one finds Alfandra! She has the comment that it's a place that lets people be "what they feel they are." I continued on and was surprised to elarn that she draws the occasional comic strip! She warns that it's not updated on a regular basis. This page was notable for it's lack of navigation bar found throughout the rest of her site. Included Grade A

was the usual list of links elsewhere and ways to contact her as well bits and peices that seemed to fit nowehere else.

I learned that Eredien is a very creative Dragon with a great many projects! I'm sorry she didn't include more about herself, though.


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