Finding the voice

I'm doing research on celebrities. One of my characters is an A-list actor and the other is a popular mainstream singer, so I'm trying to find out as much as I can about the staff they'd have working for them. Google searches haven't led to many informative areas, but I've managed to stumble on a few job titles like "handler" and "publicist" and "agent." This is good! This is progress!

What I'm not so clear on is how much contact these folks actually have with their celebrity clientele. Is an agent always on the lookout for his or her client's next Big Role? If so, does the agent keep the celebrity up to date on the process of casting the next project? What does a handler do exactly? Does the publicist set up different things than the agent? I'm guessing interviews and the like (meaning the, em, publicity-related things) are done through the publicist? Etc.

Also, what do celebrities' schedules look like when they're not acting/singing? I know movies and albums can take anywhere between six months to several years, so that's a significant chunk of time taken care of there. But what else is in the pie chart? I know some celebs attend charity functions, others see personal trainers, and there are those who have side projects that have nothing to do with their careers. How long can celebrities enjoy down time before they're off and running for their next project? I'm guessing there's a constant pressure to be Seen and Not Forgotten.

Any information is welcome! Books, documentaries, articles, etc. My search has resulted in a lot of gossip and interviews, but not much about what happens behind the scenes.

(I'm starting to assume I should just mainline Entourage for my research.)

I am in the oddest of moods today. For some reason I'm feeling very bothered about the prospect of snow (in January/February, whenever), and am also worried that an ice age is imminent.

I would not be happy during an ice age at all. In fact, I would probably never leave the house again.

Having said that, I did finally go to Muswell Hill yesterday (five minutes to the bus stop, seven minutes on the bus), after putting it off for the last three or four weeks because of the cold. Well, my back may have had something to do with it too, but in general I have no plans on going anywhere until April.

Clearly I need to move somewhere warm.

So, I recently upgraded my PC from Windows XP to Windows 7, and I've been quite happy with it... with one exception. Due to changes in the way that "always on top" works in 7 (and Vista before it), HeroStats and other overlay windows cannot be placed on top of COH in fullscreen mode. The author of HeroStats has confirmed that there's nothing he can do about it, and the only workaround is to run COH in "windowed" mode -- which means losing screen space to the title bar (and the taskbar, unless you autohide it, and even then it can pop up when you don't want it to).

However, thanks to a freeware utility called AutoHotkey, I've discovered a workaround. I've compiled a small script and made it available for download at http://tinyurl.com/cohwindowhelper (source is at http://tinyurl.com/cohwindowhelperscript, if you feel like tinkering further). When you run this file, it will start up a background process (which only uses about 2 MB of memory), which in turn will set up the following hotkeys:

WindowsKey + ]
Sets the Windows Taskbar to auto-hide, and hides the COH window's title bar (if COH is running).

WindowsKey + [
Sets the Windows Taskbar to always visible, and unhides the COH window's title bar (if COH is running).

(NOTE: Be sure to maximize your COH window first. If you don't, there isn't much point. :)

As an unintended (but entirely welcome, to me) side effect, this also causes the auto-hide taskbar to NOT appear when the mouse is placed at the edge of the screen and the COH window is active. Yay, no accidental taskbar clicks while playing! (You can easily get the taskbar back by pressing the Windows Key, and auto-hide will still work while any non-COH window is active.)

Put the EXE file in your startup folder, hit the hotkey when you're at the login screen (doing it while in-game will cause the in-game windows to shift around), and enjoy the use of every bit of screen real estate.

(The program icon is one of Liz's, and is used with permission.)

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DISCLAIMER: This is something I slapped together this evening, with a tool I'd never used previously -- there may be quirks. I have no idea how well this will work in a dual-monitor setup, or really any configuration other than the one I have. But, hey, it's free. :)

As a matter of fact, I just found one quirk. Once in a while, if I tab (or Windows key) out of the game, do some stuff in other windows, and go back, my overlay window (HeroStats) will get pushed behind the COH window until I manually select it from the taskbar again. Pretty minor, though -- it doesn't happen all that often (never when I'm just playing the game), and it's quick to fix.

I have no idea how to even begin googling for this, so:


Are US Army bomb dogs usually/always spayed/neutered? Under what circumstances might such a dog not be altered, if the answer is "usually".

where: USA, Batman-fictionnal town of Blüdhaven (for sanity's sake, I choose to assume Blüdhaven's police (like Gotham's) works like the New York one.), nowadays

searched: Wikipedia (police, police procedure (which is about novels), nypd), google search (police procedure, ten-code, radio-code, police code, textbook police procedure), little_detail (*merge: police procedure,usa: government: law enforcement, gunshot wounds) and ask_a_cop (current page and the two previous ones the day I searched) - plus various tv shows (probably wrong) and crime novels


In an indoor shooting leading to a murder witnessed by police officers, then one of the officers being hit (shot in the arm) and needing medical treatment, what's the police procedure?

The person murdered turns out to be Navy, so NCIS is going to take the case, and the shooter escapes.

Who else gets there on the scene? Back-up first, then EMT, or not that order at all? The shooting takes place at 8 - 8.30am - when does the NCIS team arrive, and who/what do they find (the residential building where the shooting happened will be shut down, police there, who's in charge, who interact with the NCIS team?)?

Or you can all tell me to go lay down and stop be anal over those pesky details I probably won't use the half of for a fanfiction in a fandom that takes the rules of all things reality and make them weep.

Hello, all. I have a character in a roughly late-medieval setting, who I want to be scarred (generally "uglified") via having suffered a brutal beating earlier in life (say, teens to mid-20s). Trouble is...I'm not sure what the exact nature of his scars should be. I'm considering a scar from a scalp laceration, broken nose (pretty standard), and husky voice from larynx trauma. I'd like some injury to one eye (not missing or blinded, though). Hearing loss in one ear would be okay. I'm mainly aiming for stuff that would mess up his face, though. I also don't want any long-term mental impairment (no brain damage).

Knife scars would be easy, but I was aiming more for just blunt trauma (fists, clubs, maybe a bottle). Any idea what sort of injuries he could receive that would have long-lasting effects on his face?

I googled "blunt trauma scars", "disfiguring injuries", "disfiguring beating", and "scars from a beating", as well as general things like "scars". I also reviewed the medical sections from this site on "injuries", "injuries to order", and "head injuries" (found some useful stuff, but not sufficient/specific to my purpose).

Thank you for any thoughts or leads.

I have a Liberty loyalty card now. It's just like a Boots Advantage card, but for Liberty. WIN. I love shopping in there. It always feels as if you've wandered into someone's house and are going through their things, and the staff are just lovely. However, I draw the line at a purple knitted scarf I was looking at. It was a lovely shade of indigo, and made of nice enough wool, though not the softest I've touched, and it was priced at over £200!

Dude, the only way I'd pay £200 for a knitted purple scarf is if it was actually made of yarn spun from the pubes of phoenixes.

Please feel free to enjoy these pictures of a heron, on my neighbour's roof.

Context: Unbeknownst to them, a group of students adopt a sniffer-dog trained to search out human remains and/or human blood. He's never allowed in the living room, but when he is permitted entry, he always pauses at a particular spot.

This is only a really thin thread of my plot, used to tie together some of the major themes/plot points, so I won't dedicate a huge chunk of my word-count to it... but I do need it to be plausible.

After giving up my search and texting AQA, I found labradors, collies and golden retrievers are the breeds commonly used to sniff out human remains/blood.

When police trained, what are these specific breeds like as pets? Affectionate? Is the above situation likely? Would the dog stop each time, or just once, or not at all without his trainer present?

Setting: Contemporary Cheshire, UK.

Research: I've posted to a few other communities, with no luck, text AQA for the basic info and have Googled various combinations of 'sniffer dog', 'police dog', 'dead bodies', 'blood', 'retired', 'ex-', 'collie', 'labrador' and 'golden retriever'.

I have a group of medieval European people who have been sent millions of years back in time by an astrologer-sorcerer. They have almost succeeded in putting together a counter-spell to return them to their present.

My questions:

I came across an incomplete list of auspicious days in the lunar cycle for various undertakings; does anyone have a complete list?

In astrological terms, what combination of visible planets, sun and moon would suggest homecoming to the medieval mind?

Searched:
Warren Kenton: Astrology: The Celestial Mirror
Margaret Wade Labarge: Medieval Travellers
Ian Mortimer: The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England (would have been cool if this had had anything helpful in it!)
Reader's Digest: Daily Life in the Age of Chivalry
Keith Thomas: Religion and the Decline of Magic

Google Scholar: combinations of: medieval astrology auspicious lunar homecoming return NOT zodiac NOT constellation

Many thanks!

ETA to clarify

I would like to bring you a slightly different query from the normal.

I've tried google, and indeed my local market but can't seem to find an octopus there.

I need to know what a dead octopus looks/feels/squishes like. Yes, really.

I am including the Legend of the Octopus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Octopus) in my fic and the main character ends up getting be-octopused and covered in goo.

I need to know how realistically gooey an octopus would be, any sort of help or personal experience with cephalapods would be much appreciated.

"...when drawn-weapon sets were kind of a pain in the butt."

From BABs, on the official forums:

Good news everyone, I think I have figured out a way to bypass weapon redraw in combat. I've tested it with with various non-weapon powers or weapon powers from completely different sets, and it seems to work out. This means that you will be able to use any power in a chain with a weapon power, and not have to redraw the weapon...even completely different weapon powers. It will just instantly appear in your hand and play the attack animation. If you're not in combat, out of range, or have no target selected...then it will play a non-rooted, interruptible version of the weapon draw animations.

Some minor issues with consistently playing a weapon draw animation outside of combat, or the weapon draw animation playing when it really does need to...but that shouldn't interfere with combat.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to get to every powerset at once, but I was able to get the following powersets done.

* Broadsword
* Claws
* Dual Blades
* Archery
* Battleaxe
* War Mace
* Trick Arrow
* Thugs Mastermind Dual Pistols
* Robotics Mastermind Pulse Rifle
* Arachnos Widows
* Arachnos Soldiers
* Patron "mace" powers
* Munitions Ancillary Pool

The rest will have to wait until sometime after GR:

Visually, this may take some getting used to, but I think my new /TA controller just got even more enjoyable.

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EDIT: It was too good to last. The change has been cancelled. BABs again:

Head's up, I've had to retract my previous statement. I've run into a complete roadblock related to shields and weapons that makes this method I was using un-workable. So it's back to the drawing board with the whole thing.

this is my 7 year old son and his hair. he chose to have dreads a few years ago so we stopped brushing his hair. they have formed completely naturally with very minimal assistance from me, and only when a massive beaver tail was forming! he still has quite a lot of loose at the front that doesn't seem to want to dread and we just leave it alone. his hair has never been cut. the white ends in the first pic are his baby hair. he is VERY proud of his hair, even though he constantly gets mistaken for a girl.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30278490&l=d8d06d1089&id=1148433378
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30664713&l=046bb56c8e&id=1148433378

Hello everybody!

First-time poster here, directed to you via the power of Twitter. So glad I found you.

To get right to the point: I am working on (or rather, working up to) a scene wherein one character shoots another with a pistol, and am having trouble getting details right, both in terms of the physical and mental impact of the shot and the kind of weapon the shooter is liable to have access to. This is super-detailed, so my apologies; I just want to make sure I don't get any details wrong and I am kind of intimidated by what I do not know. If you can either point me to good resources or outright explain some of these to me, I would greatly appreciate it:

Type of Firearm: The shooter is using a handgun which he procured in either California or Nevada; which is available for under a thousand dollars (including a couple boxes of ammo); and which can be concealed in a jacket without attracting any attention on the street. Said character is not experienced with firearms or concealing them, so that may be a factor in what he can be expected to hide.

Physical Impact: The actual plan for the shot is that the shooter is intending to kill his target (who is sitting down in front of him, immobilized, in case that matters), but gets jolted by intervention from another character into delivering a non-fatal shot. But I don't "non-fatal" to mean "a graze"; I actually want the character to have long-term physical effects from the gunshot to show how seriously close to death they came. Any suggested target area and resultant damage you can provide would be excellent: does it bruise, is the character liable to be thrown forward by the impact, etc.

Mental Impact: Also, how do people who are shot react? Are they really not in much pain at first? Will they be able to get themselves out of the area once the shooter is subdued, or will they need assistance? What stage of shock does that tend to put a person into? And is it true that doctors always call the police when someone is admitted with a gunshot wound?

I have plenty more, but I would go on forever if I let myself; so I'll end here and say, thank you!

Oh my totally trousertastic god! I made trousers! And what's more, I was expecting to be distinctly underwhelmed by them, and I'm not! I think they're fricken great! I am soooo astonished!

The only thing I've sewn on a machine before is a pair of pants and one fold over cushion cover, and the cushion cover doesn't even count because a monkey could do that. So it turns out I'm ok at this. Balls to you all, clothing manufacturers! I shall not darken your tedious doors again!

Except for suits. There is no such dress code as "business eccentric". Yet.

A general impression:



Mit BOOTS:



Concealed zip! And plaid alignment! The blue threads disappear completely under electric light, but show up nicely in daylight. Please forgive the incongruent top - I was too excited to change into something that actually, yanno, went:

I need a knee or ankle injury that makes it impossible for my character to put any weight on his leg three days after he sustained it. At the same time, he will have to run for his life just after getting it (he is being chased and jumps down from a high wall and over some obstacles when he hurts his knee), but he doesn't have to run far (the car is waiting fifty meters down the road).

( extra details under here )

Bonus questions:
How much will it hurt?
Will the knee/ankle be discoloured or bruised by this injury?
Will support bandages help at all?

Setting: modern time England

Searched: "knee injury getting worse" "injured knee from jumping" "injured knee from dancing", the same strings with ankles. Honestly I have no clue how to find what I'm looking for, and my slightly relevant search strings didn't give me what I needed.

Blimey, I've cut out my tweed trou and pinned them, and they actually look exactly like trousers. Which is:

a) surprising, to me; and
b) what I intended, which makes it all the more surprising.

Obv there is many a slip twixt hem and hip with this sort of thing, so there's still plenty of room for me to come out of this with three legs and an unexpected arse-hoodie, but for now, hurrah!

One thing I thought about, but hadn't budgeted for how fiddly it would be, was making sure the tweed matches, front and back leg^[1], and - you know - left and right leg. I did it by pinning the layers of tweed together on the intersections of the plaid all over the length of each leg before I cut, and it seems to have worked reasonably well.

I hate poorly matched plaid on trouser seams.

Unfortunately, I have now run out of eyesight and must stop.

^[1] I should clarify: I am not a centaur and only have two legs, usually. What I mean to say is: "the pattern on the front of the leg should match with the pattern on the back", rather than "I need my amazing four-legged trousers to have matching patterns on both my front and back legs."

It's been a while, so I ganked this from my Sistor.

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