http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2008/08/28.html

Just last week I was scripting and I used the phrase "revoke metaphor privileges." It made me giggle, but it sounded familiar. I worried that maybe I was stealing from somebody.

Turns out I'm stealing from me. I decided to run the line anyway. In the linked instance above it's the punchline. In the upcoming script (three or four weeks out, I forget) it's the setup for a different punchline.

And the point, long since lost by now, is that I've now posted 3,000 installments of Schlock Mercenary to the web in 3,000 days. No, I've never missed a day. There have been no guest weeks, no two-for-Tuesdays to cover a missed-it-Monday, and no stretches where I hurriedly threw together a week of Ennesby and Schlock doing plot exposition because I knew I could get seven days of that penciled, inked and colored inside of four hours.

Okay, maybe that last one has happened. At least twice. Still, nobody called me on it.

We've all changed a lot in the last 3,000 days. Politics, global economics, and science have all done interesting, disappointing, wonderful, and terrible things in turn. But more importantly most of us have gotten 3,000 days older, and at least 250 days wiser. Some of you have told me that you have practically grown up reading this comic strip of mine.

Three thousand days is longer than any American President has sat in office since 1944. It's long enough for a bull market to become a bear market, and then back again three or four times. It's long enough to turn a 9th-grader into a college graduate, or a college graduate into a surgeon.

It's long enough for Sandra to create two beautiful children from scratch and send them off to school. It's long enough for me to start a marketing career, excel in it, and then abandon it.

It's long enough for me to start getting a handle on the basics of writing and illustrating a comic strip. It's also long enough for me to have figured out how to pay the bills with a comic strip I'm still just exploring basic principles with.

3,000 days is a long time, but it's not long enough.

I want 10,000 days. That's 28 years, give or take. I'm not setting that as a maximum, mind you. I'm just holding out for permanence in this particular career. I want us to be able to look back on these times and remember the best of them fondly, while forgetting the worst of them in favor of remembering our favorite punchlines.

Which I will almost certainly re-use.

( family affair )

Goblin (CL 1/3 / 100 XP)

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2008/08/27.html

Minotaur (CL 4 / 3,080 XP)

Ya big bully! I don’t know where some people get the idea that minotaurs are immune to mazes – the labyrinth in Crete was built specifically to keep Asterion prisoner.

Large Monstrous Humanoid 6
Sanity Loss 1/1d6
Init +8; Senses Perception +8, Darkvision, Scent
Resistance Spells +3

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Defenses Ref 16 (flat-footed 16), Fort 12, Will 10
hp 39; Threshold 18

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Speed 6 squares
Melee Large Greataxe +8 (3d8+11) and Gore +8 (1d8+7)
Fighting Space 2 squares x 2 squares; Reach 2 squares
Base Atk +4; Grp +13

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Abilities Str 19/+4, Dex 10/+0, Con 15/+2, Int 7/-2, Wis 10/+0, Cha 8/-1
Feats Bull Rush, Power Attack, Skill Training (Initiative), Weapon Familiarity (Greataxe, Natural Weapons, Simple Weapons)
Skills Initiative +8, Perception +8, Survival (tracking) +8

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Goring Charge A minotaur that charges with its gore attack does double damage on a successful hit and throws its opponent 1 square beyond its reach (doing an additional 1d6 damage).
Natural Armor A minotaur's thick hide gives it +5 natural armor.

Minotaur PCs

Ability Scores Str +4, Dex -2, Con +4, Int -4, Cha -2
Size Large. As large creatures, minotaurs have -1 Reflex defense, -5 Stealth checks, +5 damage threshold, x2 carrying capacity, and +5 to grapple checks. They may also wield large weapons as if they were medium sized, or enlarged versions of medium weapons (which generally do +1 die of damage).
Special Abilities
Minotaurs have Darkvision and Scent. They are considered trained in Survival for the purposes of tracking only.
Minotaurs have 2 squares of reach.
Minotaurs gain +1 natural armor (which does not stack with worn armor) per level, maximum +5.
Minotaurs have a gore attack that does 1d8 damage. Minotaur PCs may gain the "goring charge" ability described in the minotaur entry by sacrificing a talent or bonus feat gained by a class in exchange.
Favored Class Barbarian (warrior)
Other Minotaur PCs do not gain a feat at 1st level other than the starting feats for their class.
GM Note Minotaurs are extremely powerful melee characters. Exercise caution in allowing a minotaur PC without a strong balancing factor.

( ''Julie Andrews!'' )