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Ask Doctor Thicket II

Gentlemen of the Thickets,

I teach an Egyptology course at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. I acquired “Nyarlathotep” through iTunes and am mentioning it to my class tonight. Hopefully a little more publicity for you guys! The URL for my course website, if you’re curious, is:

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/98-030/

Below is what I managed to puzzle out for a translation of the song, from the transliteration you printed in the inlay. I would love to see any corrections you have if you’re willing to divulge your Lyrics Man Was Not Meant To Know!
Cthulhu fhtagn!
–Shawn

A lion cries in the desert;
Trouble in the darkness;
In the evil secrets of blood.

He knew the Summoned Black One;
Servant of the gods, before the Sphinx;
He gave me the book of Chaos.

Nyarlathotep!
Slaughter! Incite abominations!
Nyarlathotep!

Before war, swear this:
Mutilate the mothers of all who flee;
All will creep fearfully below.

Messenger of abominations,
Opener of the path of emptiness before the serpent-demons;
Terrible one in the harem of pestilence.

Shawn, thanks for the interest and thanks a lot for exposing us to your hapless pupils. As a proponent of education in all forms I am tickled pink by the use of our rock song in academia!

Great translation! Not actually knowing Middle Egyptian myself, I had to consult some other experts. Below is what they wrote. It seems your translation is quite close, I highlighted the common bits below. Both versions are dark and nasty – exactly what I asked for when we were creating the song.

“Nyarlathotep” lyrics by Cristina Rizen and Inanna Gruner

Crying out from the Red Land
Came a man of darkness
With evil bloody secrets

He knew the Black Pharaoh
Servant to the Faceless Sphinx God
He gave me the book of the dead

Nyarlathotep
Slaughterer bringing nigh those who are detested
Nyarlathotep

Tumult and time bent
Mutilation and death in every land
Unleashing fear, creeping downward

Messenger to those who are detested
Prepare a way for the Void and the Evil Ones
Terror in the harem of pestilences

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No More DMG

I just thought the blogosphere should know, I traded in my old 3.5 Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide for a new 4th Edition DMG, and then sold that DMG for $10.

Now if I am going to be a Dungeon Master again, it will be totally freeform. Take that rules lawyers everywhere – I don’t even care!

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Because Math is Perennial

For those of you who bought (or STOLE!!!) “The Math Song” off the internet and don’t have the liner notes for our album Spaceship Zero, here is the equation:

mathsongequation

Use degrees, not radians!

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Wordle Wildlife Federation of Justice

Here is a cool thing. You type a block of text into wordle.net and it arranges by size the words used. That was an awkward sentence – just look:

wordle-wildlife

I input my writing for the Mutants & Masterminds supplement for World Wildlife Federation of Justice. I think the result is keen. Click on the pic to see a bigger version and try to figure out what a mouldywarp is.

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Dude, Sleestak Were So 2007

toastsleestak

If you weren’t cool enough to listen to The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets’ “Sleestak and Yeti” you can at least experience the remake of Land of the Lost coming up this year.

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So Close Yet So Far

toast

We are very, very close to detecting an Earth-sized planet orbiting another star, maybe even one in an Earth-like orbit. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find one in the next year or two.

Read more here!

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Toren Falls Down (Again)

Toren Atkinson of The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets talks about what happened at Cthulhupalooza, Second-Level Wizards, Saturday Morning Cartoon Party @ the Rio, Ghostbusters 25th Anniversary + video game, Anne McCaffrey, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, inspirations for “Theme to an Earthquake”, The World Wildlife Federation of Justice, and the big show forthcoming on February 7th with Bloodhag & The Bossmonsters @ The Bourbon.

Accompanying tracks include songs by: Ray Ellis, Dethklok, Bloodhag Three Inches of Blood, and of course The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets INCLUDING newly released “(We’re Gonna) Kill the Chupacabra (Tonight)” now available on the Child’s Play compilation CD with Freezepop & Johnathan Coulton.

All on CiTR’s “We All Fall Down” – download the entire hour of nerdly giggles at:
http://playlist.citr.ca/podcasting/xml/weallfalldown.xml
and visit Marielle’s blog