Dear reader,

It’s hard to believe that 2010 is right around the corner.  I say the same thing every year, and still haven’t become accustomed to looking at the calendar in late December, realizing there are only a few days left.  I love this time though, an obvious point of reflection on the year gone by and consideration of the year to come.  What accomplishments deserve celebration?  What did I not quite finish that would be beneficial to wrap up?  What was my greatest joy this year?  Who came into my life and what have they taught me?  What am I hoping to do next year?

In mid 2009, I dreamed of Awaken Consciousness Magazine being a place where art integrates with personal transformation, a resource of inspiration and potentiality.  I am so grateful to YOU for helping to make that happen.  It’s an honor to have published such fantastic work, and I am humbled by your commitment to art, to growth, beauty and inspiration.

ACM is on break until the new year, but I hope you’ll visit again in January for more works that articulate and explore the Great Work, that of experiencing peace and joy, remembering our authentic source, our true self.

As always, I’d love to hear from you.  Email your comments or questions to me at editor@awakenconsciousness.com or post directly to the contributors through the comment log.  If you’re interested in subscribing to ACM, please scroll down to the bottom of this page and click “Sign me up.”

Many blessings to you and yours in this season of love and light.

Mindie Kniss

…Will be published tomorrow, due to technical difficulties. See you tomorrow!

Just going to link to my TwitPic here because I’m lazy and playing WoW:

I love receiving feedback, especially when they’re this careful, reasonable, and attentive to detail.

We are officially in the holiday season and our cup runneth over with fun and festive events taking place in Harlem! If your organization will be sponsoring an event in Harlem, please share the good news with our readers. Send the information in a web-ready format – all flyers must be formatted in jpg. If you are sending an event listing please include a photo in gif or jpg along with the 5Ws: Who, when, where, why, and what. If you are sending a calendar listing, please note it in the subject of the email. Send to uptowninsiders@gmail.com.

Happy holly days!

I will be posting but not the Port of Danger Bay as I need to prepare for the next chapter AND take some time for the family over Thanksgiving.

Our Saint Paul will feature always-popular family history posts beginning tomorrow (believe it or not, family history posts get the most traffic on theis blog than any other…go figure).

The adventures will continue a week from today!

Yeah I know, what a bent name, but you will remember it because of that, basically every sunday is cyber sunday, this is when I take the evening to sit down and add all the new bits and pieces that have been generated over the previous week. So late night on a sunday if you are keen is the time to see all the latest in NA thinking.

Yeah that’s right, NA (no art-zine) is Non Applicable, it’s published in the north for Northern Artists, you seeing a pattern here, NA means many things, in fact anything anyone that I talk to, writes for it, or reads it wants it to mean. Northern Art, a creative place for creative people.

The content of NO ART-ZINE may have parts that others find offensive, this may or may not be intentional on the authors part, either way the aim is to be thought provoking and not offensive.

Any offenses taken are unintended and not directed at you specifically, I apologise now to anyone who finds anything on this site offensive.

Some literature found here in may be intentionally offensive, I think however that this is essential in order to make our views clear, however bigotry will not and is not tolerated here.

The ethos here is brutal honesty in a patronizing world of political correctness.

When Lan and I first started considering the idea for this blog, the biggest question (besides choosing a theme, an issue we still struggle with) was that of whether or not we somehow protect the identities of those ridiculed on this website. In the end, we decided not to for a few reasons.

One, because we are jerks.

Two, because with all of our playtime being on Moon Guard, and the community there being reasonably tightly-knit, simply editing out names might not do anything to hide anyone’s identity.

Three, because this is information that is being provided by the player to the public. We’re not giving out the real names and addresses of RSP failures and asking people to punish them. We’re simply assigning blame where blame is due. And if the shame generated by being featured here (assuming being featured here generates any shame) causes someone to change their ways, then we can swell with pride and say we helped eliminate a little more bad writing in the world.

Not to mention validating our being jerks.

Welcome.

If you found this site, you most likely came from my own website or Varen’s. Maybe you came from the Moon Guard forums or maybe you just stumbled upon this site due to tags, links or word of mouth. Regardless, welcome to Varendil and I’s little corner of the tubes.

This is the Roleplayer’s Lament, where Varendil and I relentlessly mock bad RSPs.

This blog is designed to do a few things:

• To point out the wrongs people place in their RSP tags
• To assist those who are learning how to use a Flag for RP reasons
• To protect the world from devastation
• To unite all peoples within our nation
• To denouc-

Wait, that’s the Team Rocket motto.

A-hem.

• To show examples of good RSPs that don’t rape a thesaurus
• To help remove god-moders, Mary Sues, and lore breakers from our ever-fragile role play servers
• To bring you, the reader, a little humor by making fun of what we are: nerds, devoting ourselves to pixels in a video game

This site is not here to hurt or upset anyone. We have no personal vendettas against anyone or any group of role players. We are simply Role Players on WoW who take our role plays a little too seriously. We take pride in our writings and while playing on Moon Guard, we have seen a lot of good…and a lot of bad role players.

We aren’t here to tell those bad people to stop role playing. No, not at all. We are deeply involved with our characters and the world around us in Azeroth . We care deeply about the state of role play on World of Warcraft as a whole and hope that this blog doesn’t offend anyone, but betters those currently playing on Moon Guard and various other RP servers on WoW. We want to ‘live’ in a world where people use their RSP for right reason:

Describing your character’s outward appearance without sounding like a vocabulary e-peen contest.

Or ignoring lore.

Or making us want to rip our eyes out.

Until our first real post,

Lanuria

…and Varendil is somewhere, I’m sure…

Send an email to write4uptownflavor @ gmail dot com

1) Must familiar with WordPress  - you know how to write, edit, and post text and photos without further guidance.
2) Blog post length: 50 – 300 words.
3) Posting frequency: minimum one (1) post daily (you can schedule posts in advance).

If you are right for Uptown Flavor:  send an email  to write4uptownflavor @ gmail dot com

A little late this week I know, but I have two articles in this week’s Holyoke Sun (which can be downloaded using PDF). One is about a public hearing on a transfer station to be built in Holyoke, while the other is in regards to a flu vaccine program in the city that has received state grant money. Feel free to leave comments.

It’s that time of year again. Uptownflavor will be on vacation from Aug. 15th through Sept. 15th. If there is a major breaking news event that happens during our long overdue and well deserved break, we may have a special post up. If you would like to be a guest blogger during our break shoot me an email at uptownflavor at gmail dot com.

Subscribe to our Email, rss feed, or Facebook page to be the first to know when we are back to our regular posting schedule.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Back to School Contest.  Winners will be announced in September.

Thanks for three years wonderful years of  loyal readership! UF readers are the best!

My latest article in the Town Reminder about the approval by the South Hadley Planning Board for a new parking lot on the left side of the Michael E Smith Middle School. This will permit spaces to be freed up in the current parking lot for a drop off lane for students at the school. The article is in PDF format. Leave Comments.