Everyone is making a line in Loimi Linger just to fill their jars at this amazing never ending swarm of fireflies.
bit.ly/vRzPpW

Kevbob was caught planting yellow crumb for malevolent plans! He left just moments after this photo, leaving behind a dangerous axe.
bit.ly/utdWNE

With winter coming, we spent 5 days in the cold mountains searching for caverns where adventurous Glitches could make a fire to keep their little fingers and toes warm while staying hidden from the rooks or, perhaps, other Glitches.
bit.ly/t8cx4M

Hunting for icons? There are some really cool things you can donate to Giants, if you use EHSP, a garden gnome can give 600 favor points, something like 10 caterpillars gives 1500 and with just one cubimal box you will get 1500 favor points from the giants.
bit.ly/sFmvmW

-------------
Thanks for reading this special edition.
Staff: Vera Strange, Arizoo.
Special thanks to: Lord Bacon-o, Millie, Acreditando, mira gaia maia and varaeth.

Let's go back.......
Close your eyes.....And go back.....
Before the Internet or the MAC,
Before semi-automatics and crack,
Before chronic and endo...
Before SEGA or Super Nintendo
Way, Way back.....
I'm talkin' about hide and go seek at dusk.
Sittin' on the porch,
Hot bread and butter.
The ice cream man,
Eatin' a 'super dooper sandwich',
Red light, Green light.
Chocolate milk,
Lunch tickets,
Penny candy in a brown paper bag.
Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubledutch
Jacks, tag, kickball, dodgeball, y'all!
Mother May I?
Hula Hoops and Sunflower Seeds,
Jolly Ranchers, blowpops, Mary Janes,
Grape and Watermelon Now-Laters
(what about "Alexander the grape," "lemonheads")
Running through the sprinkler...
The smell of the sun.....
Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons,
Fat Albert, Road Runner, The Three Stooges, and Bugs Bunny,
Layin' on the ground & decidin' what the clouds/stars are shaped like.
Quilts over the clothesline made good tents,
Do you Remember that?

So, you're a Machinist, or would like to become one? That's great, so am I! I put together this little tract as a quick reference guide for all of the recipes used to make things with Blockmakers, Fuelmakers, Woodworkers and Metal Machines. I hope it is as helpful for you as it is for me. --Grem


Urth Block Basics:
1 Heavy Gas
2 lumps of Loam
5 lumps of Earth

Fuel Cell Formula:
2 White Gas
8 blocks of Peat
12 clumps of Jellisac

The Woodworker Continuum:
4 Planks -> 1 Board
4 Boards -> 1 Wood Post
4 Wood Posts -> 1 Beam

Metal Machine Mathematicals:
2 Plain Metal Ingots + 3 Tin Ingots = 1 Metal Rod
2 Copper Ingots + 3 Tin Ingots = 1 Metal Bar
8 Molybdenum Ingots + 12 Plain Metal Ingots = 1 Girder


First Edition, Year 21, No. 25

The Fox: 20 Bruise @12am - 45 Bruise @3:59pm
*energetic, independent, ambitious

The Piggy: 45 Bruise @4pm - 1 Fever @7:59am
*friendly, hard-working, confident

The Frogs: 1 Fever @8am - 25 Fever @11:59pm
*communicative, carefree, cerebral

The Crab: 26 Fever @12am - 51 Fever @3:59pm
*empathetic, moody, loyal

The Yeti: 51 Fever @4pm - 5 Junuary @7:59am
*wild, creative, vain

The Batterfly: 5 Junuary @8am - 11 Septa @11:59pm
*reserved, intense, disciplined

The Chick: 12 Septa @12am - 24 Remember @3:59pm
*fair, indecisive, detached

The Squid: 24 Remember @4pm - 8 Widdershins @7:59am
*transformative, spiritual, destructive

The Firefly: 8 Widdershins @8am - 33 Widdershins @11:59pm
*philosophical, artistic, playful

The Sloth: 34 Widdershins @12am - 1 Recurse @3:59pm
*strong, resilient, stubborn

The Butterfly: 1 Recurse @4pm - 26 Primuary @7:59pm
*unpredictable, intellectual, sociable

The Salmon/The Ghost: 26 Primuary @8pm - 19 Bruise @11:59pm
*daydreamer, visionary, disconnected

Stoot, the Rube and the Rook walk into the Hell Bar.

The Bartender looks up and says, "Is this some kind of of a joke?"

By Liza Throttlebottom
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

In a swirling cloud of imagination, a bright blue substance of unfathomable beauty, there once formed a consciousness so vast and so fluid that the cosmos were stretched to their fullest to contain it. This consciousness was Grendaline, giant of all that is flowing and wet.

As the blue tendrils whisped together shaping Grendaline's seven eyes and forty teeth, so too did they form her free-flowing thoughts and her feelings, which were mostly, if not all, positive.

Finally, in a voluminous cloud of smoke, the last of the blue was transformed into substance and there she floated, as that was all a planet-sized being could do.

After a half million years of formation and understandably exhausted, she drifted over to a particularly dark and comfortable looking section of the cosmos and began to rest. And as she rested, visions of others like her floated past. Visions of a world drifted by, just out of reach.

By Yakitori
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

It is considered a bad omen for something to go missing on the day of your birth, and the loss of the statue was a terrible omen indeed. Our chieftain, angered and helpless, thought that since today was my birthday, our tribe's loss was my fault entirely.

Guards came to my hut that day and took me to the chieftain?s court.

?Where is it?? The chieftain snarled. ?Where is the statue??

?Your majesty,? I said calmly, ?I have been in my hut all morning, I could not have taken it.?

?That is no excuse!? he screamed. ?You will be sent out into the rain forest to find it. And if you cannot, you will not return at all.?

With that the guards took me to the edge of our rainforest where scant supplies had been laid out: water skins, a bag of food, some extra clothing and a sleeping mat. Strapping everything to my back, I felt the weight of it all and tried not to cry. Not daring to face the guards, I headed into the forest.

Written by Moz Art
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

Limmu Later is one of those streets that piggies dig in. Limmu means ?king? in ancient Assyrian, a long forgotten language in Ur but known in other realms. So anything remotely royal usually denotes singing crystals. They were used to entertain those kings of old, and even now the Giants will pay many crops to obtain one. Crops are what we hold valuable. So while the Giants are keen to seemingly ban us from the Mines, the secret streets are still pig highways to Half Thought, and the Glitchen have no idea.
Many an early morning will see me digging, the gentle sunbeams warming my flesh and propagating that unique bacon flavour. Down, down I dig, scrapping away the earth of Ur to make new dirt piles. I can smell Half Thought streets away; that realm?s scent is unlike crops or flowers or trees. It is metallic and sweet and very addictive. One last scrape and I fall through, the earth closing above me as I land on fresh, green grass.

Written by Moz Art
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

Piggies aren?t allowed in the Mines no more. It?s not because we get in the way, but because we know things about mining that Glitchen don?t. I?m sitting here musing on potatoes, letting them mix in my gut to please this Glitch who?s waiting to collect his seeds. And I?m thinking about writing it all down (I have Penpigmanship), then burying it somewhere. It?s a story and a half. My name is Sir Loin and this is my tail.

We don?t have picks; we use sharpened trotters. There are certain places to dig that will bring rich pickings. The Batterflies know and they need a nightmarish tale in exchange for such secret information. I have a vivid imagination, and so I know lots of places to dig. You see, in certain streets you can dig into another realm entirely. It?s the realm of Half Thought and if you?re clever enough, you can sniff out crystals that sing. Such are the things that PigLore is made of.

By Yakitori
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

You may think that a turtle is simply a slow-moving creature
undeserving of respect or reverence, but if you had been born into
the tribe of Bahamalama, you would think differently.

My name is Ananda, and I am 13 years old today. I live with the
tribe of Bahamalama, and like many other tribes, we have a sacred animal. Ours is the turtle.

Centuries ago, our first chieftain, Vladimir, found a small turtle
statue made of a copper-coloured crystal. Recognizing its value,
the chieftain brought the statue back to the temple for the sages
and priests to inspect. Together they concluded that this sacred
artefact had been made by the gods themselves: Ru and Ka.

Now that I am a woman grown and a child no more, the legends of my people are even more precious to me. And so it was with great sadness that I learned today, of all days, that our sacred turtle statue had been stolen.

Under the Mirabeau Bridge there flows the Seine
Must I recall
Our loves recall how then
After each sorrow joy came back again

Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

Hands joined and face to face let?s stay just so
While underneath
The bridge of our arms shall go
Weary of endless looks the river?s flow

Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

All love goes by as water to the sea
All love goes by
How slow life seems to me
How violent the hope of love can be

Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

The days the weeks pass by beyond our ken
Neither time past
Nor love comes back again
Under the Mirabeau Bridge there flows the Seine

Let night come on bells end the day
The days go by me still I stay

-Guillaume Apollinaire
-translated by Richard Wilbur

I heard two workers say, "This chaos
Will soon be ended."

This chaos will not be ended,
The red and the blue house blended,

Not ended, never and never ended,
The weak man mended,

The man that is poor at night
Attended

Like the man that is rich and right.
The great men will not be blended...

I am the poorest of all.
I know that I can not be mended,

Out of the clouds, pomp of the air,
By which at least I am befriended.

Wallace Stevens

At the border between the past and the future
No sign on a post warns you that your passport
Won't let you return to your native land
As a citizen, just as a tourist
Who won't be allowed to fraternize with the locals.

No guard steps out of a booth to explain
You can't bring gifts back, however modest,
Can't even pass a note to a few friends
That suggests what worries of theirs are misguided,
What expectations too ambitious.

Are you sure you're ready to leave,
To cross the bridge that begins
Under a clear sky and ends in fog?
But look, you've started across already
And it's one-lane wide, with no room for U-turns.

No time even to pause as drivers behind you
Lean on their horns, those who've convinced themselves
Their home awaits them on the other side.

-Carl Dennis

Look: I look back. You look with eyes
But I am eyeless.
And I can speak, having no voice. You have
A voice, but all I have is lips, and they move, soundless.

- Anonymous Greek
-translated by Burton Raffel

Who are you, shipwrecked stranger? Leontias found you,
Dead on this beach, and buried you,
Weeping for his own uncertain life, for he too skims
The waves like a gull, and never rests.

-Callimachus
- translated by Burton Raffel

Child: understand me:
Everything that decays rots from the inside out,
Rots with its own corruption.
Watch rust destroying iron,
Moths eating out woven wool,
Worms chewing through wood.
But the worst rot of all is envy,
The evil root of the faithless soul--
And envy is eating you away,
It is eating at you as I speak,
And it will go on eating.

- Menander
- translated by Burton Raffel

Western wind, when will thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms,
And I in my bed again!

-Anonymous

My mother used to say, "Bury me with a band,"
and I'd say, "I don't think the grave will be big enough."
Instead, we buried her with creosote bushes,
and a few worldly belongings.
The creosote is for brushing her footprints away as she leaves.
It is for keeping the earth away from her sacred remains.
It is for leaving the smell of the desert with her,
to remind her of home one last time.

-Ofelia Zepeda

There once was a limerick called Steven
Whose rhyme scheme was very uneven
It didn't make sense
It wasn't funny
and who'd call a limerick Steven anyway?

-Steven Herrick

I read to my dog from a takeout menu
so he can sleep. When he tires
of that, I talk to him
about nothing, and when I run out
of things to say, I make up words
to a song with whatever
array of notes and breath streams in

the way the clean wind did
as we rode once, and
I rolled down the window a hair
and he sat up without effort, glossy nose
in the speeding weather, eyes half closed
in the light that whizzed through his fur
like the hands of a friend
who had missed him.

-Frannie Lindsay

Nothing is plumb, level or square:
the studs are bowed, the joists
are shaky by nature, no piece fits
any other piece without a gap
or pinch, and bent nails
dance all over the surfacing
like maggots. By Christ
I am no carpenter. I built
the roof for myself, the walls
for myself, the floors
for myself, and got
hung up in it myself. I
danced with a purple thumb
at this house-warming, drunk
with my prime whiskey: rage.
Oh I spat rage's nails
into the frame-up of my work:
it held. It settled plumb,
level, solid, square and true
for that great moment. Then
it screamed and went on through,
skewing as wrong the other way
God damned it. This is hell,
but I planned it, I sawed it,
I nailed it, and I
will live in it until it kills me.
I can nail my left palm
to the left-hand crosspiece but
I can't do everything myself.
I need a hand to nail the right,
a help, a love, a you, a wife.

- Alan Dugan

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,

Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

- Edward Thomas

The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

-John Boyle O'Reilly

Jenny kiss'd me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have miss'd me,
Say I'm growing old, but add,
Jenny kiss'd me.

J. H. Leigh Hunt

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced
The rich proud cost of out-worn buried age;
When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage;

When I have seen the hungry ocean gain
Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the watery main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store;

When I have seen such interchange of state,
Or state itself confounded to decay,
Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate -
That Time will come and take my Love away:

- This thought is as a death, which cannot choose
But weep to have that which it fears to lose.

-William Shakespeare

O, my love's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my love's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I,
And I will love thee still, my Dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
O, I will love thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Love,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Love,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!
-Robert Burns

To have a thing is little,
If you're not allowed to show it,
And to know a thing is nothing
Unless others know you know it.

-Lord Neaves

By ArtCon Doily
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

When I arrived, Mr. Slock Holmi was seated at the breakfast table reading a note that had been delivered by frog earlier that morning. I poured myself some mabbish coffee, knowing that Holmi was not likely to offer me any, and waited for him to finish.

"My dear Watsle," said Holmi, finally pushing the note across the table. "It seems I have a new case."

Holmi watched as I read, a bemused look softening his usual furrowed brow. The case, as it was, seemed strange. "You have been asked to track down a hound that has been terrorizing the people in Basabasa?" I asked, incredulous.

"Correct," he replied.

"But hounds do not exist," I said. "The fauna of Ur are limited to butterflies, piggies, rooks and chickens. Other animals are just the stuff of legend."

"Then we will have to investigate," he said, tossing me my coat and heading out the door. I stared longingly at my untouched coffee, and then with a sigh followed after him.

By Larurua
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

It started with an egg.

Seasoned sharply with spice and rolled in the coarse fiber of a particularly wily fox, the egg was buffed to a high sheen with sesame oil and Purple petals. The sum of conflicting smells was nearly unbearable.

Instead of a normal chicken incubation, Dr. Frafu carefully piled hot, freshly-smelted metal bars around the egg until the air sizzled and sparked in the heat.

Why Dr. Frafu did these strange things, no one could say. There were rumors of course, that after his first visit to the Rook Museum, the glitch had gone... strange. It was true that when he wasn't at home in his lab, he spent most of his time at the museum. He had stopped gathering his own supplies, and instead took to buying them in bulk from the auctions, shunning the company of his fellow glitchen.

But it was all going to pay off now, the good doctor thought. Now, when he could hear the sharp crackling of eggshell, he knew the time had come.

By LuwysCaarl912
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

Alyss was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her chickens all day and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the pen to see if the chickens wanted to chat, but they were as surly as ever. "And what is the use of a chicken," thought Alyss, "If it will only cluck and pout and fly away?"

So she was considering in her own mind, whether the pleasure of making an applejack would be worth the trouble of getting up and finding some oats, when she spotted the bald head and dark beady eyes of a White Piggie peeking at her through the window. Before she quite knew what she was doing, Alyss found herself running out the door and along the street in pursuit of the animal, whose rear end was now but a quickly receeding plump, white blur.

Around a corner and into a dark hole it leapt and Alyss followed, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again. The tunnel, as it was, stretched on for ages.

By Larurua
Plain Crystal Publishing Inc.

In the quiet before the egg hatched, Dr. Frafu thought he could see the Giants coming for him.

Or perhaps that was after, when the explosive crack of the egg sent hot metal flying through the lab, one shard searing the air at high velocity an inch from his face. The onslaught turned his lab to rubble in an instant, but Frafu?s focus was fixated on the egg.

In the eye of the storm, a tiny fluff ball of sooty blackness sat passively, its chest expanding and contracting in a soothing pattern of breath. Frafu crept quietly forward, pulling his lab notes from his bag. When his shadow fell over the black body, the creature shuddered, and the doctor's pen moved quickly to record the reaction.

The inky feathers were little more than fuzz around bright round eyes that shone purple, but not Purple. The creature cocked its head and chirped. But Frafu?s eyes were caught by the two long feathers rising like ears from the top of its head.

Failure!

Oh Bubble Plant Oh You
Oh what bubbles thus has
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh pop!
Pop Pop Pop!

and squeek

I see you today
A swan, graceful and diving
Far away, into the deep blue sky.

But tonight you reach
for my heart; you touch
the deepest well of my soul.

Your feathers drape across my cheek,
leaving graceful swirls of down
to lead me down to sleep.

You sing for me to sleep,
your swan song lulling me
into a drifting slumber.

I cannot bring myself
to resist your tender touch
You are my downfall,
my pure white beauty.

I feel your heart,
its gaze, every facet
of your face upon my own.

I see you, my dear one
Swan face, human heart,
my cherished beloved.

I leave you now,
but only for slumber,
my woman disguised
as perfection.

(Note! This recipe uses the metric system!)

Needed:
2 mixing bowls
something to melt butter in
mixer
bundt cake pan

Ingredients:
3 eggs
3 dl sugar
150 grams butter
1 ? dl milk
3 ? dl flour
1 ? tsp baking powder
2 ? tsp cinnamon
2 ? tsp clove
2 ? tsp cardamom
2 ? tsp ginger

Instructions:
- Melt butter
- Dust the pan, if it's not non-stick material
- Whip eggs and sugar together
- Mix flours and spices together
- Mix everything together
- Pour into pan
- Bake in 175 C for 45-60 min.

By Vulpixels :3

A piggy wanders
Through a silent snowy place
Then he drinks a hooch