tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-637530904505464122024-03-17T21:04:19.213-06:00Servitor LudiThoughts on role-playing games, Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game, and other stuff that I find coolCygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.comBlogger360125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-79723305917611393652023-12-21T12:37:00.000-07:002023-12-21T12:37:18.723-07:00Dark Days?<p>Where has the year gone? Today is the winter solstice, and I thought I'd revamp a <a href="https://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2011/12/dark-days.html" target="_blank">quote-post</a> with some wise words (not mine!) from the first year of this blog:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuY2uu310qVseLG5_WSNZhEiiNwfUemyHWKHHOUhGTcEjDWK9NtetTocDBjTMOujmPzy0NYD60Ql1rnZ4wW44EQaEWBSR1EwKpxuHDCDusZheJQaKaxrQZj1yJ8lOMRZAomWH-2re2h0P6PWUQbbpNrYFFeo9ddrgwo-BbYsCJCdnpOOmj-eRKAVL5zg/s400/Winter-Solstice.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuY2uu310qVseLG5_WSNZhEiiNwfUemyHWKHHOUhGTcEjDWK9NtetTocDBjTMOujmPzy0NYD60Ql1rnZ4wW44EQaEWBSR1EwKpxuHDCDusZheJQaKaxrQZj1yJ8lOMRZAomWH-2re2h0P6PWUQbbpNrYFFeo9ddrgwo-BbYsCJCdnpOOmj-eRKAVL5zg/s320/Winter-Solstice.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />On this darkest day of the year (at least for those of us north of the equator), I thought a few inspirational words may be in order. This was written by someone named "Knight Monk" in a LiveJournal group a few [<i>2023 update: so so many] </i>years ago. I'm not omitting any intro; what follows is the entire post:<p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>I am writing about more than sunlight, you know... although the swift-passing window of the Winter Day is no small matter either. These are the shortest days. And for many they are filled with hectic activity. For others they are cold and barren desert of Depression. Lao Tzu writes: "Movement overcomes cold."</p><p>Translating this into one's own practice means that during darkest days of Winter, instead of hiding under a comforter and napping all day, one should keep active. Do many things even if you feel like sitting still - this is how one makes it through the worst Winters, even the most terrible Winters of the mind.</p><p> The converse also holds true. During the hot days of Summer, or even the most hectic and anxious times of any season, one should seek to still the mind and body. "Keeping still overcomes heat."</p><p>The words hold not just literal truth for the thermostat of the human body. Properly applied, the words can govern our moods. They put into the hands the reigns of the intellect. Anxiety and panic are also ruled by the still Player.</p></blockquote><p>I wish everyone actively contemplative Dark Days and a fantastic New Year! I'll try my best to finish that solo GBG, honest! ;-)</p><p><br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-88057417088066686142023-02-12T12:37:00.001-07:002023-02-13T12:03:08.905-07:00Dinners with Erik and Andre<p>At some point, I'm <i>really</i> hoping to surprise everyone by bringing this ol' blog back to vibrant activity again. We'll see if 2023 is the year for that. Soon, I definitely plan to complete the "New" Glass Bead Game that I started in... um... December 2021.</p><p>For now, I've got two parallel quasi-reviews to share in this post. I feel like the two things I'm discussing -- the 1981 movie <i>My Dinner with Andre</i> and Erik Hoel's 2021 novel <i>The Revelations</i> -- sort of <b>rhyme with one another</b> in some abstract analogical way. I'm definitely recalling the late Charles Cameron's concept of <a href="https://zenpundit.com/?cat=627">"Double-Quotes"</a> here. After both, I'll muse about the why and how of this pairing. But first, let's get to them:</p><p><b>Dinner #1: Andre and Wally</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIAI6Xg58Kz8pBpi4z6LBguiD7fqw5jHvmKQeHVXBd_LJP7Kkx2V0-qK3K-Pa1xvF9DwU61czu_lJ9_dBbb_W9YaG8zPQatEmCEv6mKHxh-33pRB2qalmjJPrzO_WTSCtLNjUgIEwGHalwNC31aseKD9jQYcEFtY5DdcFK2-6NldFk_nXa_27StU/s576/my_dinner_with_andre.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="576" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJIAI6Xg58Kz8pBpi4z6LBguiD7fqw5jHvmKQeHVXBd_LJP7Kkx2V0-qK3K-Pa1xvF9DwU61czu_lJ9_dBbb_W9YaG8zPQatEmCEv6mKHxh-33pRB2qalmjJPrzO_WTSCtLNjUgIEwGHalwNC31aseKD9jQYcEFtY5DdcFK2-6NldFk_nXa_27StU/s320/my_dinner_with_andre.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>A few months ago, I recommended this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4lvOjiHFw0">iconic 1981 movie</a> to a friend. I'm forgetting the key detail of <i>why</i> I thought this particular movie was the ideal thing to recommend at the time, but I haven't forgotten her response: it was a strong dislike of, and visceral aversion to, the guy who did most of the talking: Andre Gregory.</p><p>Okay, that meant I <i>had</i> to rewatch the whole thing, then. I idolized this movie when I first saw it in my mid-20s. I remember being kind of envious of the life Andre led. Spiritual experiences that make you feel truly alive? Hey, I want that. Seeing through the hypocrisy and shallowness of the world? Yeah, man.</p><p>But now, in my mid-50s, I definitely saw it with new eyes. I got the feeling Andre was leaving out some key details -- like, how okay was his wife with all this spiritual gallivanting? It really looked like he was describing a combination mid-life crisis and nervous breakdown. Despite the guy trying to get away from it all, it still really seemed like he retained many of his upper-class NYC pretensions. "40 Jewish women?" The suckling teddy bear? Blech. If you don't know what these phrases mean, please don't feel the need to find out.</p><p>After talking through those weird experiences, Andre pivots onto a tangent that could only be described as self-loathing and resentment. <i>THEN</i> it's all the fault of a shadowy dystopian government or something? Our man <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Shawn">Vizzini</a> eventually gets up the gumption to poke some holes in the most excessiest of Andre's excesses, but it still doesn't shift away from the overall feel that the audience is supposed to end up nodding along with Andre anyway.</p><p>Now, I'll say, starting around 1:22:40, there's a bit that still enthralls me. Andre gets optimistic about rebuilding the human spirit on a small scale. Repairing the world through art and constructing a new language of the heart. His focus on movements like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Findhorn_Foundation">Findhorn</a> pointed me in some inspiring directions, back in the day. But I think one can work to build these kinds of things without all that other self-indulgent crap. :-)</p><p><b>Dinner #2: A Neuroscientist's Paean</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2iNL1hLZWO_Z4XyJrpEpIR97x_soKDO5NnXvHw-sHlrsLfl62BlOgSZy_AHO_LVUWU5IllOx-DBKiWbLR9FiOCAT-nCBywDLKIOTo-gV68F5BX5jD6_68eX_TkBisdfQ9mnjpkrgN8QXa9xx70_5e1L2n5e5MMqdnrdyPbK_o5ikbOSK_h-vlv3A/s500/hoel_revelations.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="325" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2iNL1hLZWO_Z4XyJrpEpIR97x_soKDO5NnXvHw-sHlrsLfl62BlOgSZy_AHO_LVUWU5IllOx-DBKiWbLR9FiOCAT-nCBywDLKIOTo-gV68F5BX5jD6_68eX_TkBisdfQ9mnjpkrgN8QXa9xx70_5e1L2n5e5MMqdnrdyPbK_o5ikbOSK_h-vlv3A/s320/hoel_revelations.jpg" width="208" /></a> <br /></div><p></p><p>Right around this time, I was in the middle of reading Erik Hoel's newest novel. I admit to being suckered in by the author's <a href="https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/secrets-of-the-publishing-industry">Substack post</a> about the publishing process... which maybe was his secret plan all along to boost readership. I'm still not 100% sure about whether I can actually <i>recommend</i> this novel to others, but I can try to say some spoiler-free things about it.</p><p>There were things that definitely weren't my cup of tea. The main character was unlikable, somewhat by design for sure... but the author was also going for some undiagnosed mental illness that made it a bit hard to step into his P.O.V. The main female character seemed to be a bit of authorial wish fulfillment (brilliant scientist... but with a history as a fashion model...) There was ample discussion of the animal research done in the neuroscience lab, which carried definite squick factor.</p><p>However! Hoel's choice of narratorial voice was nothing short of fascinating. I don't think I've seen "omniscient third person" done so... omnisciently! We spend a lot of time in the main characters' heads, but we randomly bop into the heads of a dozen others, and also into the "heads" of some animals, plants, and inanimate objects. And those unannounced "bops" go deep, even if they're brief. All befitting for a novel about consciousneess, I guess. At <i>one</i> singular place in the book, the narrator pivots briefly -- but hard -- to second person. That kind of floored me.</p><p>Hoel also drops adjective non-sequiturs, about once per page, which often had me scratching my head. Why that word in that place? Again, because everyone's thinking about consciouness and the mind, these often feel inexplicably right.</p><p>About the actual content of the characters' discussions about consciousness... interesting to say the least. I prefer the times when they're just talking to one another about these ideas, rather than when the main character is just thinking about them. (The Joycean stream of consciousness has a bit of an undertow.) For a few months after finishing the novel, I was continuing to follow up on various bread crumbs of theories and ideas on the internet. The author based some of it on his own experience as a neuroscientist, and he knows academia, for sure! So, while it maybe wasn't everything I hoped it would be, I'm still glad I read it.</p><p style="text-align: center;">- - - - - - -</p><p>So, why this pairing? Both the movie and the novel are about people who think deeply about what it means to be human in this modern age. They both ask tough questions about how we can better understand our inner natures to figure out how to live <i><b>better.</b></i> But they also both show (maybe unintentionally?) how we can never fully purge ourselves of the full range of foibles and rough-edged imperfections that make us human in the first place.</p><p><br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-64580563205825781072022-04-01T07:33:00.000-06:002022-04-01T07:33:26.150-06:00Ten Years of Weird<p>I'm interrupting our regularly scheduled programming for a quick anniversary acknowledgment. This blog passed its official ten-year anniversary more than a year ago (the first post was on January 2, 2011), but I assert that today is an even more special day. Exactly ten years ago today, I began my first <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/p/april-z.html"><b>April A-Z challenge.</b></a></p><p>Even though that wasn't even my first month-long blog challenge, I still see it as the birth of the true voice of this blog. Prior to that, I had been focused much more narrowly on the two original topics of the blog: old-school D&D and Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game. I think I even tried to always "pay the Joesky tax" <i>(does anyone even remember what that means?!) </i>on RPG posts, too. But on April 1, 2012, I began to mentally remove those fetters. That's when things really started to bloom.</p><p>To be clear, there's nothing at all wrong with my original topics. I keep pondering & writing about them quite a bit. But I think I really needed the freedom to more completely <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2011/12/follow-your-weird.html"><b>follow my weird,</b></a> as they say. (Note this internal blog link is from December 2011, so I think these juices were stewing prior to that fateful day exactly a decade ago.)<br /></p><p>In April 2012, and over the next few years, I met quite a few fascinating people, one of which I count as one of the most important people in my life despite having never met in person. I've gone through a lot in the last decade -- a new job, moving across the country, loss of a parent, hitting my 50s -- and this blog & its people have been lifelines at times.<br /></p><p>I can't promise a return to super-active blogging over the next decade, but I still value this place and the chance it gives me to, well, be Cygnus!<br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-2059627068888238302022-03-23T13:31:00.000-06:002022-03-23T13:31:07.605-06:00Orienting us to Move 4 of the New Game<p>The Glass Bead Game that I've been constructing on the blog now plays on. With the pacing of these posts, it may <i>keep</i> playing on through all of 2022 and into 2023... but no matter! Ideas are eternal. Today we see a new one posted into the foundational circle at the bottom of the board. There's a stylized picture of a rising sun that, to me, evokes the Latin phrase <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_orientem"><b>AD ORIENTEM.</b></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZktdj7OPHdGCXWZtyH0nlnpP74RUuiPzwYh_BpY0Im607nwgNnc7v4AIKMPotZ_5BndkSK8dutjT15FmgYJ-dh7tCO9QmOhxelyqUGNBcda4hpnGL8UEnxrumOgmUlW6QWf-fb1zyW0iYEcHrSIm1GZD1I9EpDjKsldJ_qHXCSRHJ_BsNUKu8FHk/s2220/tenstones_2021_4th_east.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2220" data-original-width="1456" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZktdj7OPHdGCXWZtyH0nlnpP74RUuiPzwYh_BpY0Im607nwgNnc7v4AIKMPotZ_5BndkSK8dutjT15FmgYJ-dh7tCO9QmOhxelyqUGNBcda4hpnGL8UEnxrumOgmUlW6QWf-fb1zyW0iYEcHrSIm1GZD1I9EpDjKsldJ_qHXCSRHJ_BsNUKu8FHk/w263-h400/tenstones_2021_4th_east.png" width="263" /></a></div><p>There are quite a few religious (and other) traditions in which the participants all face themselves in a particular direction as they pray or do other important things. In Christianity, that direction has traditionally been the East. The original reasons for this choice are probably lost, but there are many possible explanations having to do with the past (the direction of Eden) or the future (how Jesus will approach Jerusalem in the second coming). There are also modern-day controversies about whether the priest in the mass should face the people (<i>ad populum</i>) or join with them so everyone faces the east as one Body of Christ (<i>ad orientem</i>).</p><p>I'm sure many of you already know that in Islam, there are daily prayers that must be said while facing the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca. There have been times in the past when the exact direction of this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibla"><b>Qibla</b></a> was not known precisely, and in some parts of the Muslim world they used other estimates like the closest of the four compass directions (i.e., facing due East isn't a bad guess if you're in Egypt), or the direction of the rising/setting of the bright star Canopus.</p><p>In Judaism, some pray facing the direction of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. In the Baháʼí faith, some pray facing the shrine of Baháʼu'lláh in the north of Israel. In the much more recent tradition of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema"><b>Thelema,</b></a> there are ceremonies in which one must face Aleister Crowley's former manor Boleskine House in the Scottish highlands. (Fans of Led Zeppelin sometimes treat that place as a kind of Mecca, too, since Jimmy Page owned it from 1970 to 1992.)<br /></p><p>For some reason, there's one other piece of trivia that sits in the same corner of my brain as the above: In Major League Baseball, there's a rule that says baseball fields should be oriented towards the east/northeast, so as to avoid the glare of the setting sun interfering with the players' vision. <a href="https://tht.fangraphs.com/lost-in-the-sun-the-physics-of-ballpark-orientation/"><b>Not all parks obey that rule,</b></a> but they trend around the recommended value as a statistical average. There may be no direct supernatural questions of faith involved, but the Field of Dreams can be a sacred space, too.<br /></p><p>How do these bits of worshipful wayfinding relate to the interconnected cells on our GBG board? Hozier's <i>Take Me To Church</i> is certainly an exhortation to reorient one's soul to face the divine beloved. As mentioned in the previous post, one cannot mention <i>The Gift of the Magi </i>without thinking of "his star in the east."<br /></p><p>We'll continue to see where this all leads, but it's clear that we must always pivot to face what life throws at us.<br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-2182747720081825162022-01-18T14:37:00.001-07:002022-01-18T14:38:30.434-07:00Myrrh, uh, Move 3 in the New Game<p>The Great Big Glass Bead Game (GBGBG) plays on. Please see the first two moves <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2021/12/playing-new-game.html"><b>here</b></a> and <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2021/12/move-2-in-new-game.html"><b>here</b></a>, and apologies for being a bit tardy with my anticipated posting schedule of one move per week. I also feel a tinge of regret for not starting this whole schmegegge a few weeks earlier, so I could've synchronized <i>this</i> move more closely with the Christmas season...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhO_iLZy7wQ6SMH-t44QU92AQcSPuavG6ZubtZ5LGOPUvapP5ZKUrmdXNXcz0JWKLhem0ccqziWcqaU7TAqH78z4cfZaGeNLAAzQi8fDH00x3Foe7Xwq7liP9iVagzXIDn2xilI-alxw4VktWH_r7vj1A9mA8iMk2ZmnuO83DB2JDQATQT9Zkgs2EQ=s2217" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2217" data-original-width="1455" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhO_iLZy7wQ6SMH-t44QU92AQcSPuavG6ZubtZ5LGOPUvapP5ZKUrmdXNXcz0JWKLhem0ccqziWcqaU7TAqH78z4cfZaGeNLAAzQi8fDH00x3Foe7Xwq7liP9iVagzXIDn2xilI-alxw4VktWH_r7vj1A9mA8iMk2ZmnuO83DB2JDQATQT9Zkgs2EQ=w263-h400" width="263" /></a></div><p>The new image, placed in the lower-right corner and connected to the previous two moves, represents the 1905 short story <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_the_Magi"><b>The Gift of the Magi,</b></a> by O. Henry. Even if you've never read it (which I hadn't before now), you've probably seen its core plot played out in other books, movies, or TV shows. There's a poor couple who love each other more than anything. The husband sells his gold pocketwatch to buy his wife some stylish hair combs. The wife cuts her long hair and sells it to buy him a special chain for his watch. Irony -- especially the kind that tiptoed over the tightrope between comedy and tragedy -- was what paid the bills for Ol' Henry.<br /></p><p>I suppose I'd never really wondered why this story had this particular name, but in the final paragraph, it's made clear. One can attribute the invention of the Christmas present to those three Wise Men of the East. Henry layed it on a bit thick, but his last few sentences do deserve to be better known:<br /></p><blockquote><p><i>And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two
foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other
the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of
these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the
wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest.
Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.</i></p></blockquote><p>Okay, so how does this relate to the other ideas placed on the board earlier? Linking Henry to Hozier is pretty straightforward, I think... self-abnegation for the beloved is a clear and common thread. Likewise Rory the Roman. He sacrificed 2000 years for Amy, and it should be noted that she sacrificed a lot for him, too (see: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Waited"><b>The Girl Who Waited</b></a>).</p><p>There's one other tenuous, but sparkly, link. Those two millennia in which Rory waited took place in an alternate timeline. One key difference with our own was that there were <i>no stars</i> in the night sky, because the universe was in kind of a slow-motion collapse. But the collective unconscious of humanity held on to some shred of memory of the stars, since the existence of underground "Star Cults" was mentioned briefly in hushed tones. I can't help but think of the Magi's </p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Star of wonder, star of night,<br />Star with royal beauty bright</i><br /></p><p>which symbolized so much about this underground cult that started growing, right around the time Rory began standing guard.<br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-69014977490239387212021-12-31T12:26:00.000-07:002021-12-31T12:26:41.293-07:00Move 2 in the New Game<p>Here we are, on the last day of 2021. I'd like to play the next move in the Hipbone-style <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2011/01/more-about-glass-bead-game.html"><b>GBG</b></a> that I started in the <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2021/12/playing-new-game.html"><b>previous post.</b></a> Since I'm using these games to explore the bounds of what makes sense (and what doesn't), I'll make a weird choice and put down an idea in a spot that's not connected at all to the first idea. We'll fill in many links, I promise.</p><p>Thus, in the fourth spot down from the top (if you follow one tradition's "lightning flash" zigzag path), I place <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Williams"><b>Rory Williams, the Last Centurion.</b></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgt6hz5hag-9oNkng7atSUxe-l4DuFDefnb2TlSiGvGR9dVmhSSZgCt24-oTLq-XJrpBX4hT9YXgufdg-tXuw33o7hNsiErYP1SQbHGBFcWSioA3hQE2x3R5ElxvwuDu3ppRnedIVFlIbBb7icWs5k7jpdGU1iZYTvmxSW6EerQv_TjpXGGMo781pM=s2225" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2225" data-original-width="1476" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgt6hz5hag-9oNkng7atSUxe-l4DuFDefnb2TlSiGvGR9dVmhSSZgCt24-oTLq-XJrpBX4hT9YXgufdg-tXuw33o7hNsiErYP1SQbHGBFcWSioA3hQE2x3R5ElxvwuDu3ppRnedIVFlIbBb7icWs5k7jpdGU1iZYTvmxSW6EerQv_TjpXGGMo781pM=w265-h400" width="265" /></a></div><p><br />For readers who don't watch Doctor Who, Rory was one of the best characters from the 2010-2012 Matt Smith (11th Doctor) era. I've <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-11th-regeneration-of-christmas.html"><b>waxed on</b></a> about this Doctor, but not much about his human companions. Rory started out as someone who got left behind, when his fiancee Amy Pond began traveling with the Doctor. Then he turned into a bit of a joke about dying (and being brought back) multiple times. But his shining moment was in the Season 5 episodes <i>"The Pandorica Opens"</i> and <i>"The Big Bang,"</i> when he came back as an immortal (?) plastic (??) Roman centurion (?!?!) in the year 102 AD. When Amy got trapped inside an impregnable cube called the Pandorica, which wouldn't open again until the year 2010, Rory realized that the only way to protect his one true love was to stand guard, and not waver, for the next two millennia.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><i><b>The Doctor: </b></i>Two thousand years, Rory. You won’t even sleep. You’ll be conscious every second. It would drive you mad.<br /><i><b>Rory:</b></i> Will she be safer if I stay? Look me in the eye and tell me she wouldn’t be safer.<br /><i><b>The Doctor:</b></i> Rory, you...<br /><i><b>Rory:</b></i> Answer me!<br /><i><b>The Doctor:</b></i> Yes. Obviously.<br /><i><b>Rory:</b></i> Then how could I leave her?<br /><i><b>The Doctor:</b></i> Why do you have to be so... human?<br /><i><b>Rory:</b></i> Because right now I’m not.</blockquote>So, he waited. And waited. And became so much of a legend that museums had exhibits devoted to him. I'll add another quote from one of those exhibits:<p></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><em>According to legend, wherever the Pandorica was taken, throughout
its long history, the Centurion would be there guarding it. He appears
as an iconic image in the artwork of many cultures. And there are
several documented accounts of his appearances. And his warnings to the
many who attempted to open the box before its time. His last recorded
appearance was during the London Blitz in 1941. The warehouse where the
Pandorica was stored was destroyed by incendiary bombs. But the box
itself was found the next morning a safe distance from the blaze. There
are eyewitness accounts from the night of the fire of a figure in Roman
dress carrying the box from the flames. </em></p></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLEmqlf7IAnA5cv8OtiNxHZgVSOdHYYMXyRWbs87vD0TAyuHIA0zKKAi80wOIxRPlU6jttFUDhUIrbjBi7ku-dYgZfcFO2a2PzUpFEoew7pDXyD9Qht6-Vg9ghuKg_Gwdi5v52t0G5WdrtzwdRIaWtYFLLFvdB8Q8-MkcuBDfGRnplPNLeIvCJs3c=s1257" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="787" data-original-width="1257" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLEmqlf7IAnA5cv8OtiNxHZgVSOdHYYMXyRWbs87vD0TAyuHIA0zKKAi80wOIxRPlU6jttFUDhUIrbjBi7ku-dYgZfcFO2a2PzUpFEoew7pDXyD9Qht6-Vg9ghuKg_Gwdi5v52t0G5WdrtzwdRIaWtYFLLFvdB8Q8-MkcuBDfGRnplPNLeIvCJs3c=w400-h250" width="400" /></a></div><p>My icon on the game board combines Rory's centurion helmet with the
whirly circly pattern from the face of the giant cubical Pandorica.</p><p>I've always loved the trope of taking the goofiest of goofball characters and having <i>them</i> be the ones who choose to do the noblest, the most honorable, and the most difficult things for the sake of love. Maybe we'll see more of this as the game progresses. :-)<br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-27368228888512199602021-12-23T09:14:00.001-07:002021-12-23T20:44:21.501-07:00Playing a New Game<p>It may no longer be the heyday of the blogosphere, but I still enjoy coming here, jumping into the river of ideas that's been flowing since 2011, and being Cygnus again for a little while.</p><p>Thus, despite having no idea who even reads this blog any more, I'm going to start a new project to exercise my <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html"><b>Glass Bead Gaming</b></a> muscles. Back in 2014, I decided to take a break from the top-down design process and just <i><b>play</b></i> one of the existing game variants. The result was the "Ode to Joy" game that started <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2014/01/shall-we-play-glass-bead-game.html"><b>here,</b></a> ended <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-ode-to-joy-game-completed.html"><b>here,</b></a> and has its intermediate moves listed <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html"><b>here.</b></a> Let's try that again.</p><p>For those who haven't seen it before, I'll paraphrase some of the explanations from the beginning of that game here. The idea, when playing by the late great Charles Cameron's <b><i>Hipbone</i></b> rules, is to lay down a pattern of interconnected cells, like this...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibepFim8VANrQUBjvl-Q5HbOkTVRv4qRQMd6eyF0rJWgOMGQlmU3Wpn4qEO-hDRCZbwmsIy_6RDbXNySKevvGo9yCeniKE8H3XfwmFkYhdtcQXyh_LdfbcK2n31nqBU5N6xNrOWNv_kkG1vxYv0R3moNEL93wUjbKou6wuvjqgnvKc9ieeDxE3qBk=s2226" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2226" data-original-width="1464" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibepFim8VANrQUBjvl-Q5HbOkTVRv4qRQMd6eyF0rJWgOMGQlmU3Wpn4qEO-hDRCZbwmsIy_6RDbXNySKevvGo9yCeniKE8H3XfwmFkYhdtcQXyh_LdfbcK2n31nqBU5N6xNrOWNv_kkG1vxYv0R3moNEL93wUjbKou6wuvjqgnvKc9ieeDxE3qBk=w263-h400" width="263" /></a></div><p>...then start "composing" a game by positioning specific ideas in each cell. The challenge is to always ensure that neighboring cells (connected by lines) correspond to ideas that are interconnected in some way, too. The ideas can be text, images, pieces of music, logical arguments, or references to other works of art or science. The connections between the ideas can be whatever one wants them to be.</p><p>There can be competitive or collaborative games, where multiple people take turns claiming cells one by one. In this way, they can challenge one another to find connections between wildly disparate or disjointed ideas. My Ode to Joy game in 2014 had a bit of successful crowdsourcing for new ideas, but there's value in the solitaire exercise, too.</p><p>Okay. The seeds of this game were planted last week, when I heard the song discussed below on the radio, and I started thinking about its other implications. As of right now, I have tentative ideas for 8 out of 10 cells on the board, but that may evolve. I'll try to post new moves about once a week, but we'll see what life has in store.</p><p>My first move is to place Hozier's 2013 song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVjiKRfKpPI"><b>Take Me to Church</b></a> in the second cell up from the bottom.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsnSBxkaGnofQTtqYi4hDXvf9T_FIuD1YnuPuJzhdk8cwf_EwFDaYR3SXHeNe2pxtTN8I1xISheW60lAJeTEPG2gymMCgzBmbjFakXdXMWA3XI5Ylmxtzd30tKJQ6BLMJS6jcSBXCkXrLeIsG6eKebh0tjdNcwFWWybEENhMJP4ATlhUmmdGBgfXs=s2227" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2227" data-original-width="1451" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsnSBxkaGnofQTtqYi4hDXvf9T_FIuD1YnuPuJzhdk8cwf_EwFDaYR3SXHeNe2pxtTN8I1xISheW60lAJeTEPG2gymMCgzBmbjFakXdXMWA3XI5Ylmxtzd30tKJQ6BLMJS6jcSBXCkXrLeIsG6eKebh0tjdNcwFWWybEENhMJP4ATlhUmmdGBgfXs=w260-h400" width="260" /></a></div> <br />Those who recognize the board from Kabbalah may know this cell as the dreamy, emotional realm of Yesod, but that's not too important here. My silly icon above is just a juxtaposition of a cathedral with the memorable central image of the Tarot's Three of Swords card, whose triply pierced heart indicates, well, the sweet heartache that Hozier hints at in the chorus...<p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies<br />I'll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife<br />Offer me my deathless death<br />Good God, let me give you my life</i><br /></p><p>If you've heard the song, you know the verses go even further, essentially equating the singer's beloved with the only deity worthy of worship. I've been there, dear readers, I've been there. The good Irish songwriter, Andrew John Hozier-Byrne, also tossed in some barbs at his own native Catholicism -- specifically the doctrine of Original Sin -- for good measure. Suffice to say that worship-leaders appropriating this song for Sunday services may not be reading the lyrics closely enough. This possibility of misinterpretation reminds me of when Billy Joel joked about "elevator-muzak" versions of his (minor-key) song <i>Pressure</i> that were transposed into a peppy major key.</p><p>Hozier's <i>Take Me to Church,</i> by the way, is in the key of E minor, which a 17th century music textbook called "amorous and plaintive." Maybe that's true for my entire planned game. We'll see.<br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-20688881602115931222021-10-21T14:50:00.000-06:002021-10-21T14:50:31.190-06:00General Organa<p>Today would have been Carrie Fisher's 65th birthday. I saw some other tributes online, and I thought they were missing some of the best pictures... including a scene from the original Marvel comic book that shows that Princess Leia was just as (if not more) badass as Han Solo... </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeY-VD_afs90ZNA3BlAGsNA9COjOpBWc678mVunzXOBH0Yc_3g44e_xaT3jJ3zRLJl1V-VqPOyas3jiysNegk1oxVvPnhnBmhZrEeZv5cd92T816Hi7Iru0EBdDpTZQpNDgBWdayqlBA/s1858/carrie_rebel_rebel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1858" data-original-width="1272" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeY-VD_afs90ZNA3BlAGsNA9COjOpBWc678mVunzXOBH0Yc_3g44e_xaT3jJ3zRLJl1V-VqPOyas3jiysNegk1oxVvPnhnBmhZrEeZv5cd92T816Hi7Iru0EBdDpTZQpNDgBWdayqlBA/w274-h400/carrie_rebel_rebel.png" width="274" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4beEu7z30ScEhuDmE37vcpt5SW3q3afcID4nfyk4U22aZio-GijDR2J64jAWZ2cclx9j6zUrPHMOIBSgqTaKwyavPlU1U80A1Iv-xTFNVJHP7UVgErSrU1iJLCHON9d8-KXdp-t_Kvg/s1669/carrie_bw2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1256" data-original-width="1669" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4beEu7z30ScEhuDmE37vcpt5SW3q3afcID4nfyk4U22aZio-GijDR2J64jAWZ2cclx9j6zUrPHMOIBSgqTaKwyavPlU1U80A1Iv-xTFNVJHP7UVgErSrU1iJLCHON9d8-KXdp-t_Kvg/w400-h301/carrie_bw2.png" width="400" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNYW4e9kuvlxnYO1UTKgXDiiFdgg9vkm90tLXg8-PqmZnV7ZraP68dSVUkTQ7s3YdBr0JkgmfUiK0WqS02RzJZKWpebQNkzimrCIrZoB2neHL2PRgxB7_PMwp7ORv8rrGqjYziz_Z9g/s411/set_mine_to_kill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="411" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNYW4e9kuvlxnYO1UTKgXDiiFdgg9vkm90tLXg8-PqmZnV7ZraP68dSVUkTQ7s3YdBr0JkgmfUiK0WqS02RzJZKWpebQNkzimrCIrZoB2neHL2PRgxB7_PMwp7ORv8rrGqjYziz_Z9g/w400-h348/set_mine_to_kill.jpg" width="400" /><br /><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ofn5YFcH8rcDl8AuzLXp906_noGivO4OakfRccH1dtd5Vc3pBhjmDpOYRUheVbVY3l9oJZUW_TwVbc32bfZzJ1ZFugZz4AzR75ihcGrHKmyHVeAh7AQ5kywCZ4XKhQkR-_Mgxy9rdw/s1125/carrie_confidence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1125" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ofn5YFcH8rcDl8AuzLXp906_noGivO4OakfRccH1dtd5Vc3pBhjmDpOYRUheVbVY3l9oJZUW_TwVbc32bfZzJ1ZFugZz4AzR75ihcGrHKmyHVeAh7AQ5kywCZ4XKhQkR-_Mgxy9rdw/w400-h400/carrie_confidence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQKpop5cu8PBZYkTHdjJKU6G9ZDHEQPR7e8HcganvKCjrUlrrbaopjkSfvZ235uNRJvIyF8mc9lkF8dYNz8H-OFnc7Te8nl5PYFAO8yhyteD4jDFnQXX8yhIlU2zIi6tuNuqspAU5WQ/s619/carrie_ring.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="413" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVQKpop5cu8PBZYkTHdjJKU6G9ZDHEQPR7e8HcganvKCjrUlrrbaopjkSfvZ235uNRJvIyF8mc9lkF8dYNz8H-OFnc7Te8nl5PYFAO8yhyteD4jDFnQXX8yhIlU2zIi6tuNuqspAU5WQ/w268-h400/carrie_ring.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAytguaZoUZHu6wPXNePkVKqyhXLgvDPNaxjVl4KYvbrD_7TKcEMs7wavHeKVhiUfNfh4FjyLm49-fT6VBagg_e4jYOhu5YPw_GtO6BkK2z9iySDLK6a2mMZdhzCVJXQMYKqUK0qccvA/s774/carrie_iknow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAytguaZoUZHu6wPXNePkVKqyhXLgvDPNaxjVl4KYvbrD_7TKcEMs7wavHeKVhiUfNfh4FjyLm49-fT6VBagg_e4jYOhu5YPw_GtO6BkK2z9iySDLK6a2mMZdhzCVJXQMYKqUK0qccvA/w361-h400/carrie_iknow.jpg" width="361" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuCM3mADd0VzmYk79pe0Vw2x9ib-aIqxUAUkjvTocHSOgbNcb4Fh26s1G-MpsVNg39HgTi-52FF56tWMroswkv5MIpzQQrbC1DFug2W03wR6aZV2k6eooiDnQWfju50QsVhf-cTGGSRg/s618/carrie_finger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuCM3mADd0VzmYk79pe0Vw2x9ib-aIqxUAUkjvTocHSOgbNcb4Fh26s1G-MpsVNg39HgTi-52FF56tWMroswkv5MIpzQQrbC1DFug2W03wR6aZV2k6eooiDnQWfju50QsVhf-cTGGSRg/w324-h400/carrie_finger.jpg" width="324" /></a></div>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-19305060545884513332021-08-08T16:26:00.000-06:002021-08-08T16:26:43.809-06:00Humanism<p><i>Although I've got some other ideas for posts more relevant to the topics of this blog, I just wanted to take note of an inspiring exchange I saw on Twitter. Specifically, I wanted to preserve a bunch of the life-affirming responses to the following question:</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYuS1eRPbpRJxcP6cDPBtowDxOH-9zZBQCehxY4FTvkWaba7QqZm8gFjZ8IjvPBGV0xszcHuOChYnUywAE4SCeo9DCza_S4erc7cTsmeN3T78bOi_54wJzkBlbaQk8LRNmNo7KGbnBg/s1417/humans.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="1417" height="66" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrYuS1eRPbpRJxcP6cDPBtowDxOH-9zZBQCehxY4FTvkWaba7QqZm8gFjZ8IjvPBGV0xszcHuOChYnUywAE4SCeo9DCza_S4erc7cTsmeN3T78bOi_54wJzkBlbaQk8LRNmNo7KGbnBg/w400-h66/humans.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>(If for any reason the above image isn't viewable, the question was "What makes you feel love or appreciation for humans?")</i><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~</p><p>Loyalty, courage, intelligence, dedication, wit, and discipline, plus, the power of facing unpleasant facts and daring to know... Hopefully with enough joie de vivre to enjoy the fruits!<br /><br />There are actually a lot of people who quietly get up every morning, go out, and help others.<br /><br />The dissenters and oddballs and those who know so much of our social life is theatre. One smirk across a room, sharing an unspoken observation or bit of humour, is a gold mine of renewed faith.<br /><br />The ability of humans to recognize humanity, and the human capacity for empathy over sympathy. Speaking and seeing beauty and joy in stereotypical "ugly" can transform the environment in a room.<br /><br />Authenticity, loyalty, competence & a general good nature or humor are the easiest ways to get me to appreciate another person. Trustworthiness & accountability will earn my respect. Excellence gets my admiration. A mysterious mix of all of those things (sometimes) leads to love.<br /><br />I think if you see everyone as a divinely inspired soul — and have transcended all the culturally-induced silliness like race, gender, etc. — the kindness and empathy just flows from you.<br /><br />Magnanimity.<br /><br />Observing them demonstrating love or appreciation for other humans or animals in general, and me, in particular.<br /><br />How they are in a crisis. True natures appear. Usually for the better.<br /><br />The ability to find joy, connection with others and nature in the midst of the brutal fleetingness of our existence.<br /><br />Kindness.<br /><br />I love that we are all made out of bits of stars that exploded billions of years ago, yet our warped time scale is all we can manage to wrap our minds around. It makes it easier for me to understand how irrational we all are and how slow society and cultures move.<br /><br />The fact that we’re are all far more similar than we are different. We all suffer from the human condition. We all have potential. We all fall short of it. We all struggle and try. How can we not have love for each other?<br /><br />Children playing and laughing.<br /><br />Intelligence, skilfully applied that helps our species to one degree or another. Don't care about sinners and saints. I care about the person who makes a better world.<br /><br />Disgruntled tired old man still petting the kitten even though he hates cats. The mail man that leaves treats for dogs. The woman that cleans and refills her bird feeder. Even though only one bird comes. Sometimes when you observe you see humans want to connect. Even if its small.<br /><br />Having gratitude for all the things miniscule and humongous that touch my life just by knowing someone. It reminds me that love is great. Especially when it's reciprocated.<br /><br /></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-36643239549046700612021-01-08T21:52:00.000-07:002021-01-08T21:52:54.587-07:00Other Fictions: Weird Modes<p>My new year's resolution for 2021 is to stay adamantly positive about the world. In that vein, I'd like to recommend a few fictional universes for you all to get lost in. If escapism makes you feel guilty, don't worry -- that's not all this is about. Let's call it 25% getaway, 75% inspiration for the now. Refueling rest stops for the soul.<br /></p><p>I've got two primary recommendations -- for which the "delivery modes" may be as unconventional as the content -- and two secondary ones, which many of you probably already know about.</p><p>First, I'd like to tell you about a science-fiction podcast called <a href="https://www.procyonpodcastnetwork.com/starship-iris" target="_blank"><i><b>The Strange Case of Starship Iris.</b></i></a> Created by Jessica Best, the first season was released between 2017 and 2019, and the second season just started earlier this week. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiInQ1OZqljIk-hn-OPmjZ0sQCTB0D2x5ogzLWOHQvGwhg-SgPA3XiJlERfwvdPH4Gx1yHeVszuBSHg4i4NaNmImwcwTabyOWGSnntlOhV5yxFTwt-QMsx0pOAbqw-b2ITrFbh6ZzkKkg/s510/iris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="510" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiInQ1OZqljIk-hn-OPmjZ0sQCTB0D2x5ogzLWOHQvGwhg-SgPA3XiJlERfwvdPH4Gx1yHeVszuBSHg4i4NaNmImwcwTabyOWGSnntlOhV5yxFTwt-QMsx0pOAbqw-b2ITrFbh6ZzkKkg/w400-h250/iris.jpg" width="400" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Okay, it's the year 2191, and humanity has spread to the stars. A few years prior to the events of the show, there was a war with an enigmatic race of purple aliens known as Dwarnians. During the war, there was a military coup that saw the human worlds taken over by a <i>kind, benevolent</i> Intergalactic Republic. (Shh... they're listening.) In the first episode, we check in on an IGR research ship exploring Planet 5925, and we begin to meet our characters.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The above summary doesn't do it much justice, because it's really about those characters. The official podcast description says "It's a story of outer space, survival, espionage, resistance, identity,
friendship, found family, romance, and secrets. (Also there's jokes.)"</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To that I'll add: ramen noodles, linguistics, awkward crushes, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDkP7KiA0DA" target="_blank"><b>songs!</b></a> Also, the Dwarnians may be on their way to a place in my heart -- alongside the Bajorans, Minbari, and Time Lords -- as one of the few alien cultures in which I'd truly like to immerse myself.<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The characters live in my heart, too. I hope you get to know them.<br /></div><p>* * *<br /></p><p>Second, I'd like to recommend the world of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/WhisperwindASMR" target="_blank"><i><b>Whisperwind,</b></i></a> which is delivered in the form of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASMR" target="_blank"><b>ASMR</b></a> videos on Youtube. Yes, these kinds of videos are often the subject of giggles and disdain, but there are gems. There are pearls. Sometimes the talents of the artist are just perfectly matched with the medium, and the Story (capitalization intended) just breathes through the screen.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmXxci_2CZaPiUCxrbritY0GTmz5oppTciOWwpRjJGvhjP9wuyjuhvJgAa62coduseAwbzOi0EBhbwnrfD8ra3zkIl0DoM14xGNrudD8geoc9IMS0kvHupcC-vfoDlvO73oYwkQXeS3g/s3441/whisperwind_montage_snap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="3441" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmXxci_2CZaPiUCxrbritY0GTmz5oppTciOWwpRjJGvhjP9wuyjuhvJgAa62coduseAwbzOi0EBhbwnrfD8ra3zkIl0DoM14xGNrudD8geoc9IMS0kvHupcC-vfoDlvO73oYwkQXeS3g/w460-h123/whisperwind_montage_snap.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><br />It's kind of a D&D world, with a mix of humans, elves, gnomes, goblins, werewolves, vampires, and such. But there's amazing depth... multiple fleshed-out towns and cities, quite a few parallel plot lines, and occasional flashbacks to an adventuring party from hundreds of years ago whose actions continue to have an effect on the present. Amazingly, it's also all told in the second person. <i>You</i> are a character in this story, and over time we come to learn just as much about your backstory, motivations, and secrets, as we do about the other characters (nearly all of whom are played by Sage, the creator of this story).<p></p><p>And, it's all <i>very</i> relaxing. :-)<br /></p><p>* * *<br /></p><p>Lastly, my other two recommendations. I'll be quick: </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I think the recently concluded 3rd season of <i><b>Star Trek: Discovery</b></i> has been the best season of Star Trek in its entire history. Controversial? Maybe, but I stand by it. Some individual episodes of the other shows have been better, but taking the season-long arc as a whole? This jaunt into the 32nd century shines.<br /><br /></li><li>Just last week my family and I started watching <b><i>The Watch,</i></b> based on the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett. I haven't read them, but now I might. So much fun.</li></ul>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-53653502185556200322020-09-16T19:27:00.000-06:002020-09-16T19:27:16.162-06:00Socially Distant Miscellany<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhULVkW9WWkvKMa2CwJUoGEm86zQRhO9ewwDG71N15VqTtNQ539eSUPUGWrN0-QsOULe1r8ofsZiHLwQG4xiIBgIZfOL_16CBrazXZ6E6guX6Z-dXtcMEnACSqGBf152FA4-hdAuA2sGw/s1909/socially_distant_concert.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="1909" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhULVkW9WWkvKMa2CwJUoGEm86zQRhO9ewwDG71N15VqTtNQ539eSUPUGWrN0-QsOULe1r8ofsZiHLwQG4xiIBgIZfOL_16CBrazXZ6E6guX6Z-dXtcMEnACSqGBf152FA4-hdAuA2sGw/w500-h161/socially_distant_concert.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br />Have I collected some new blogworthy topics in these days of viral isolation? You bet. Let's juxtapose them with the tried and true <i><b>"five things make a post."</b></i><p></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b>(1) C2TH << AF2K ?</b></span></p><p>My <b><a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2020/06/all-i-really-need-to-know.html" target="_blank">previous post,</a></b> as well as my lengthier <b><a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2015/04/c-is-for-closer-to-heart.html" target="_blank">2015 musings</a></b> -- both about Rush's classic tune <i>Closer to the Heart -- </i>managed to neglect one important thing: it doesn't exist in isolation. This song is the first track on side two of its album, and it rhapsodizes about possible solutions to personal and societal problems. However, it's the first song on side one, <i><b>A Farewell to Kings, </b></i>that both lays out those problems...</p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>When they turn the pages of history,<br />When these days have passed long ago,<br />Will they read of us with sadness<br />For the seeds that we let grow?<br />We turned our gaze<br />From the castles in the distance.<br />Eyes cast down<br />On the path of least resistance.</i><br /></p><p>...and indicates, indirectly, at the end, that solutions may be forthcoming:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Can't we raise our eyes<br />And make a start?<br />Can't we find the minds<br />To lead us closer to the heart?</i></p><p>I have a feeling that these songs are best when played back-to-back, like Queen's inseparable pair of "We" songs. <br /></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b>(2) Grognardia is Back</b></span></p><p>On my <i>"2020 weird events"</i> bingo card, alongside the tiger kings, murder hornets, and babies named <span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">XÆA-12, I didn't think I'd be noting the return of one of the main D&D OSR (Old School Renaissance) bloggers after 8 years of silence.</span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> But a few weeks ago, we started seeing posts from <a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>James Maliszewski</b></a> again -- sometimes 2 or 3 in a day now -- like nothing at all happened since that last post from 2012.</span><i><b><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> </span></b></i><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> I haven't been reading so closely to know if he's talked about the gap, </span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">but it's good to see him back again. I'm kind of surprised that YDIS hasn't mentioned it...<br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">(3) Alpha-Bytes Redux</span></b></span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">For a while, I posted a lot about my obsession with weird alphabets. Recently, when re-watching the classic movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Element" target="_blank"><b><i>The Fifth Element,</i></b></a> I rediscovered a bit of odd linguistics that doesn't get talked about a lot. Usually, when commenting on this movie's creative use of language, one sees a lot of discussion of the (spoken-only) alien "Divine Language" that director Luc Besson had star Milla Jovovich try to commit to memory. But there was something interesting happening back on Earth, too. The police had the word "Police" written in two parallel scripts on their uniforms and equipment. Some searching found a high-resolution version, and it's possible to search for some phonetic realism in those two sets of characters...<br /></span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBL5GR-COW-JMmAEw2RqmmmUkvY2TgoQd2D-AQyxcpaqhj2LQiMQogvUQYF3E3Ys6q2RaI_ArxfvRIMNWgFBpVmjJWwSSVtIlVOFopoo_q_JEN2hansqOY45TMx6jnTdQD0AfMzdhgw/s1911/fifth_element_police.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="1911" height="66" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGBL5GR-COW-JMmAEw2RqmmmUkvY2TgoQd2D-AQyxcpaqhj2LQiMQogvUQYF3E3Ys6q2RaI_ArxfvRIMNWgFBpVmjJWwSSVtIlVOFopoo_q_JEN2hansqOY45TMx6jnTdQD0AfMzdhgw/w400-h66/fifth_element_police.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> <br />For example, are there only 5 letters on the right, thus dispensing with the English oddity of a silent E? Or do the stacked dot and dash count as two? Both P and L are backwards, but the order still seems to go from left to right. I can find no explanation of how or why anyone associated with this movie came up with this alt-alphabet, or if any real-life script inspired it. Does anyone know anything more about it?<br /></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">(4) Sci-Fi Reading & Reviews</span></b></span></p><p>Last year, I really enjoyed reading through the 1967 <i><a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2020/01/dangerous-reviews-3-of-3.html" target="_blank"><b>Dangerous Visions</b></a> </i>anthology, and I've been pondering a bit about doing another one. I've got a copy of 1972's <i>Again Dangerous Visions,</i> but I suspect my reviews wouldn't be very positive. I recently dug out a set of <i>Fantasy & Science Fiction</i> pulp magazines from the 1980s, and I noted a few favorites in them that I could reread and review, too. However, I'm not too excited about either of those options. If I'm going to reread something, I think it will be Neal Stephenson's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem"><b>Anathem.</b></a> When it came out in 2008, I breezed through it quickly, mostly on planes... but I think it deserves another go. We'll see.<br /></p><p><span style="color: #fcff01;"><b><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">(5) Sad News</span></b></span></p><p><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">A few days ago, I learned that one of my personal heroes and mentors, Charles Cameron, has <a href="https://zenpundit.com/?p=68207" target="_blank"><b>passed away.</b></a> I blogged about him several times, and it made my year when I saw that he <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2013/04/c-is-for-charles-cameron.html" target="_blank"><b>showed up</b></a> in the comments!</span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"> </span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">God speed, Magister Ludi.</span></p><p><i><b><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-1qd0xha r-ad9z0x r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><br /></span></b></i></p>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-37338194988143174242020-06-13T22:22:00.001-06:002020-06-13T22:22:27.051-06:00All I really need to know...<div>...I learned from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oem46aJgUg"><b><i>Closer to the Heart.</i></b></a></div><div><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBgfgyS-LVXXKpBZz4wuapE7gQTwz3bb-rk-h2TobGGZd8zxexjaVLyywVrp0m8RLbqYAOBhNXZZRwleoLtm__RrDNQnDfms_nk6SxmBuSaWxxskZk0t1fiUDp3y1jkuxg4GydM-WYTQ/s500/closer_to_the_heart.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="500" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBgfgyS-LVXXKpBZz4wuapE7gQTwz3bb-rk-h2TobGGZd8zxexjaVLyywVrp0m8RLbqYAOBhNXZZRwleoLtm__RrDNQnDfms_nk6SxmBuSaWxxskZk0t1fiUDp3y1jkuxg4GydM-WYTQ/s320/closer_to_the_heart.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure why I felt the need to post about this, given that I probably said all that needs to be said about this fiery manifesto of love <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2015/04/c-is-for-closer-to-heart.html"><b>a few years ago.</b></a> But the last time I posted to the blog, the world was in a very different place. I think this message is needed. So maybe just a few pictures here.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The song -- by Canadian prog-rock trio <i>Rush</i> if you don't know -- is only 75 words long, but I've held each of those suckers close to my own heart for more than 30 years. You want to see the super-sophisticated Macintosh word-art that was pinned up on my desk for several years in college, don't you...</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio4GWhpq2ODaYOhqybyfva93nVY_wpdesX5z_kdNV0Gwe5VVY95xjCoMgEBoYXIHN0oST4xTgN3S4baHFZ8xlveu-yFswWZ95QqS-9v9YUDMEyLCjr6Ai8HgUbpy68Gtrt_0laM324dg/s3747/closer_to_heart_lyrics_desk.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2876" data-original-width="3747" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio4GWhpq2ODaYOhqybyfva93nVY_wpdesX5z_kdNV0Gwe5VVY95xjCoMgEBoYXIHN0oST4xTgN3S4baHFZ8xlveu-yFswWZ95QqS-9v9YUDMEyLCjr6Ai8HgUbpy68Gtrt_0laM324dg/s320/closer_to_heart_lyrics_desk.jpg" width="460" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><font size="1"><i>(Click to zoom for dot-matrix printer goodness)</i></font></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>I saw Rush live 4 times over that time...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GAxIQk4ClEHyyVSQ7feogwRRKAtbx_Y7NPX2ItdUzsTn-34mxjSxeeUFZu8kQu5Zro0AMYsrH64FrfgR1u2TkAhId-DULX1Cjx22OOcyXX_smG-1Oe_t-HyDp4R2U3QJ4aRDvzHWBw/s3831/rush_tix.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2006" data-original-width="3831" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8GAxIQk4ClEHyyVSQ7feogwRRKAtbx_Y7NPX2ItdUzsTn-34mxjSxeeUFZu8kQu5Zro0AMYsrH64FrfgR1u2TkAhId-DULX1Cjx22OOcyXX_smG-1Oe_t-HyDp4R2U3QJ4aRDvzHWBw/s320/rush_tix.jpg" width="383" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>...and it's kind of hard to believe that these peak experiences, in total, cost less than what's now one month's cable/internet bill.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know what else to say except that I still miss <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Peart"><b>Neil,</b></a> who left us back in January. <br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzwjAuO9iuuspoFFQp8PAbAMWaVii6KYBPTjKLnMYuUnD234XMMAtpKuNjQDDKUdHDS3kTQnXBUJ01vV7cIcnr5f_zsROuzcKhNv6w8KBSOnzb6GQnsvTdi97AhHTct7PIBNUCtNslEg/s1799/force_ghosts_with_neil.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1799" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzwjAuO9iuuspoFFQp8PAbAMWaVii6KYBPTjKLnMYuUnD234XMMAtpKuNjQDDKUdHDS3kTQnXBUJ01vV7cIcnr5f_zsROuzcKhNv6w8KBSOnzb6GQnsvTdi97AhHTct7PIBNUCtNslEg/s320/force_ghosts_with_neil.jpg" width="446" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times";"><font size="1"><i>(Okay, not my best photoshop, but not my worst)</i></font></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div>I'll continue to sow, and mould, and forge, and <i>try </i>to help chart a path to somewhere positive.<br /></div>Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-38990415276896898352020-03-09T21:51:00.000-06:002020-03-09T21:51:22.837-06:00Star Trek, RPG Dice, and STEAMA few weeks ago I saw an interesting Venn diagram posted on Twitter by someone named <a href="https://twitter.com/christineliuart/status/1223673670649823233"><b>Christine Liu:</b></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtC85mxeXQ4Zzq_9KqELJMeJlZN1YVbM8BqUOxQ2AdQfkG-AbYbDzRPhEKcTz-jVG9kNQv-cdJcpLgLUjwnJN0MNfF-6cyoS-QiQ298JyIyRmVaAUUUwRkQhOZD6JAIXZMnrvO83YKw/s1600/art_sci_venn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="1161" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHtC85mxeXQ4Zzq_9KqELJMeJlZN1YVbM8BqUOxQ2AdQfkG-AbYbDzRPhEKcTz-jVG9kNQv-cdJcpLgLUjwnJN0MNfF-6cyoS-QiQ298JyIyRmVaAUUUwRkQhOZD6JAIXZMnrvO83YKw/s400/art_sci_venn.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
In hindsight, I guess it's not surprising to see so much overlap between science and art... after all, the education acronym STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) includes them all. I just enjoy seeing these intersections, and I guess I've tried to make the central region of this diagram a focal point of this blog, too.<br />
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<i>(Sometime, ask me about a talk I heard at a conference a while ago about how astronomer Johannes Kepler got the idea for one of his eponymous "laws" of planetary motion. The answer, I say in Buzzfeed listicle mode, will surprise you!)</i><br />
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Today, though, my thoughts about this STEAMy synergy turn to the world of dice. If you're coming here from the RPG world, you know all about them. You may know that a two-handed sword does 3d6 damage against large opponents, and no speed factors will tell you otherwise. You may have been inducted into the illustrious <a href="https://vulcanstev.wordpress.com/category/rpg/order-of-the-d30/"><b>Order of the d30.</b></a> You may have scratched your head about the fairness of some <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2011/06/so-non-platonic.html"><b>very non-Platonic</b></a> Zocchi dice.<br />
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But did you know about how Vulcans use them?<br />
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Almost 30 years ago, <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i> brought back Leonard Nimoy as Spock. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unification_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)"><b>That episode</b></a> may have been a bit underwhelming in some ways, but it showed some interesting aspects of alien cultures that fans had been hungering to see for years (well... <b><i>this </i></b>fan, anyway, he said pointing two thumbs inward).<br />
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In the episode, a Romulan kid shows Spock a set of little dice-like blocks that supposedly convey "the syllabic nucleus of the Vulcan language." In an episode of <i>Star Trek: Picard</i> from just a few weeks ago, those dice showed up on the desk of a Vulcan admiral. Since we never got a good look at them, I always just assumed they were either cubes or four-sided dreidels (since Nimoy had a history of using elements of his Orthodox Jewish heritage in creating bits of Vulcan culture).<br />
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But no! An enterprising (heh? heh?) fan found pictures of the actual props from 1991 and posted some <a href="http://startrekvulcanology.blogspot.com/2010/11/vulcan-language-dice-from-unification.html"><b>detailed shots...</b></a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9zvzrz7lKPbEerBAJQMwj31KcfkyxB42eloZN2zec_MLw4m4qiX-DhGnL2Zt4mGXhD8OEARI_jAwQDVDNh3smi7k9EXQxK2zIcNNDLorFXH9P7sn77w_UGlUX7vTpg4ZL5M4oYnjfLw/s1600/spock_vulcan_dice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="463" data-original-width="1600" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9zvzrz7lKPbEerBAJQMwj31KcfkyxB42eloZN2zec_MLw4m4qiX-DhGnL2Zt4mGXhD8OEARI_jAwQDVDNh3smi7k9EXQxK2zIcNNDLorFXH9P7sn77w_UGlUX7vTpg4ZL5M4oYnjfLw/s400/spock_vulcan_dice.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Click to enlarge... it's only logical</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are some shapes here that RPG veterans have probably not seen:<br />
<ol>
<li>Okay, we do have one bog-standard D&D die, an 8-sided <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octahedron"><b>octahedron</b></a> (d8) on the left of the image above, with slightly sawed-off corners.</li>
<li>There's also a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_pyramid"><b>square pyramid</b></a> (5 sides), at the top, which I don't think is useful for dice-rolling at <i>any </i>aspect ratio.</li>
<li>But then we come to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_octahedron"><b>truncated octahedron</b></a> (14 sides), on the bottom. Essentially keep sawing off those corners of the d8 until the triangular faces erode into hexagons. A Google image search for "d14" seems to bring up a few manufacturers that use this shape, but it's not employed by many games.</li>
<li>Lastly, the one that surprised me the most: the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombicuboctahedron"><b>rhombicuboctahedron</b></a> (26 sides) on the right! There's kind of an architectural mini-majesty to that shape, which I don't think I'd ever taken notice of before. No less than Johannes Kepler himself gave it that Greek-derived monster of a name, but if you were around in the 1980s you may remember it as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik%27s_Snake"><b>Rubik's Snake.</b></a></li>
</ol>
However, if you were around during the ancient Han dynasty, you may remember either the 14-sided one or the 26-sided one (with 8 of its corners minimized to give it 18 rounder sides) as dice for the Chinese board game <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liubo"><b>Liubo.</b></a> Some random examples from Google image search...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgXd8BV2wYJ4tPYo_nux1nfMEvsDgj_aSCmc1O25rthW0zmMkzRh7pSRWz8zNK6bVManIi0PugdfvKVll6OoN11D9yQW2sxW47yg7nprCWmzMkpe5vsXVA4esaLBcBGmP-2pkFBOBcLw/s1600/liubo_dice_miscellany.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgXd8BV2wYJ4tPYo_nux1nfMEvsDgj_aSCmc1O25rthW0zmMkzRh7pSRWz8zNK6bVManIi0PugdfvKVll6OoN11D9yQW2sxW47yg7nprCWmzMkpe5vsXVA4esaLBcBGmP-2pkFBOBcLw/s400/liubo_dice_miscellany.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Anyway, 8 + 5 + 14 + 26... I guess there must be 53 unique syllables in the Vulcan language.<br />
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Where was I going with this? Oh, the ART of it all. It's kind of amazing how these uniquely deterministic 3D geometries can be used (hacked?!) to give our brains <i><b>randomized </b></i>input that assists in our creative endeavors, be they games or divination or actual <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada"><b>art pieces</b></a>. They all have the capacity to instill wonder, push boundaries, and do the other stuff in the middle of that STEAM diagram at the top of this post. Occasionally one also finds designers of <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html"><b>Glass Bead Games</b></a> employing randomness as a spur to creativity, too! I keep ruminating on becoming one of those designers someday, so these posts are a set of running notes that may someday be assembled into something bigger....<br />
<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-42486254790141220552020-01-22T20:39:00.003-07:002020-01-22T20:39:51.946-07:00Dangerous Reviews (3 of 3)Finally... Here's the third part of my ongoing review of the 33 stories in Harlan Ellison's 1967 anthology <i>Dangerous Visions.</i> In <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2019/06/dangerous-reviews-1-of-3.html"><b>part 1,</b></a> I reviewed the first eleven stories, and in <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2019/07/dangerous-reviews-2-of-3.html"><b>part 2,</b></a> the second eleven. Some stats and summary at the bottom.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhib0DY4AboC8IEKVtVX_CmGCQ9F0ZJ1p6YQzqG8Y00sdOrFOTZjH3mDTyPinu_-JpbZZ-DoMGVFSGPr5OQSfeNCu0bvnN7YgR99gCoJanuAyRpD3JJOl36h-n1OxqpOUozIF3i02tv0Q/s1600/dangerous_french1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="856" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhib0DY4AboC8IEKVtVX_CmGCQ9F0ZJ1p6YQzqG8Y00sdOrFOTZjH3mDTyPinu_-JpbZZ-DoMGVFSGPr5OQSfeNCu0bvnN7YgR99gCoJanuAyRpD3JJOl36h-n1OxqpOUozIF3i02tv0Q/s320/dangerous_french1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>23. "Go, Go, Go, Said the Bird" by Sonya Dorman</b><br /><br />What do you get when you mix a depressing, dystopian future with a bright-eyed, well-drawn protagonist? I'm not quite sure. At just 6 pages, there was nowhere near enough time or space to really find out. What this story <i>did </i>do was remind me that I truly ought to read <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2013/04/o-is-for-octavia-butler.html"><b>Octavia Butler's</b></a> <i>Parable</i> series. I've been remiss. This story, though? <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>24. "The Happy Breed" by John Sladek</b><br /><br />Okay, this may be another cautionary (<i>"if this goes on..."</i>) type of tale, similar to a few others in this collection, but it was really well done. Seriously creepy vibe, conveyed simply and straightforwardly. It makes you feel for the fate of the protagonists, and it stings. Why? In the 1960s, they were a bit vague about how "The Machine" could become so firmly ensconced in our lives. Now, we have smartphones, the internet, streaming everything, and home devices that you converse with. It's here. (Also, I read this on a <i>plane,</i> where you definitely get the sense they're trying to lull the passengers into a similar zombie-like state as the "Musselmen" in this story.) <span style="color: lime;"><b>WOW.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>25. "Encounter with a Hick" by Jonathan Brand</b><br /><br />Let's joke about that big taboo called "religion," why don't we. This ultra-short story has the similar genetics of mockery as the ones in this collection from Lester del Rey and Damon Knight (which I loathed), and in some ways, this one is just as shallow and silly. I won't be pulling out comparisons to Voltaire or anything. If this was published elsewhere, I'd guess it would've been in a like-minded venue of the time, say <i>Playboy</i> or <i>National Lampoon.</i><br /><br />However...<br /><br />The voice of the hippie-ish first-person narrator held my interest for the duration. His patter (in the form of a transcribed legal deposition) was zippy and even a bit lyrical. Still led to a stupid punch line, but <b><span style="color: yellow;">OKAY.</span></b><br /><br /><br /><b>26. "From the Government Printing Office" by Kris Neville</b><br /><br />Despite the clever conceit -- a jaded grown-up voice narrating the thoughts of a toddler -- I can't find much to redeem this story. It's another one that extrapolates a nasty, brutish future from one slightly whimsical and inconsequential concept. Oooh... "Doctor Spock, but <i>evil...</i>" <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>27. "Land of the Great Horses" by R. A. Lafferty</b><br /><br />Cute concept. I'd never read Lafferty before, but the prose reminded me a bit of Harlan Ellison's (which is a decided compliment). Just a bit politically incorrect by today's standards, but not a hugely "dangerous vision." <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>28. "The Recognition" by J. G. Ballard</b><br /><br />Very well written. About as spooky and folksy as Leiber's <i>"Gonna Roll the Bones"</i> earlier in this collection, but in a very different setting (swap out America for England). However, this story also suffers from that same bleak malady of British pessimism that suffuses Pink Floyd's <i>Time,</i> Rick Priestly's <i>Warhammer,</i> and the absurdist ending to <i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail.</i> Not my thing at all, but still so nicely wrought, craft-wise. <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>29. "Judas" by John Brunner</b><br /><br />Silly silly silly. Semi-interesting, possibly, as an example of a 1950s aesthetic one could call "chromepunk" (youngsters of today: visualize the pre-bomb <i>Fallout</i> universe?). But the story itself was just a thin veneer for more simplistic religion-bashing. Zero nuance or subtlety. <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>30. "Test to Destruction" by Keith Laumer</b><br /><br />Interesting combination of a hard-drivin' rock-em sock-em adventure with an old fable that tells us how absolute power corrupts absolutely. With a dash of alien hive-mind telepathy, for flavor. Not really very deep, but it holds the attention. <b><span style="color: yellow;">OKAY.</span></b><br /><br /><br /><b>31. "Carcinoma Angels" by Norman Spinrad</b><br /><br />Entertaining O-Henry-ish tale of the <i>"be careful what you wish for"</i> variety. Not very science fictional, but somewhat phantasmagorical and solidly a product of the sixties, man. <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>32. "Auto-da-Fé" by Roger Zelazny</b><br /><br />This one was masterfully written. A bit silly in its own way, too. The conceit is clear in the first couple of paragraphs. I don't need to go into the details, but I will say that it forced me to think about those creepy online speculations about the pre-history of the universe occupied by Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater.<br /><br />I was a bit surprised by how "straightly" Zelazny played it all. He didn't feel the need to drive home any explicit Moral Of The Story™. However, I couldn't really find much of an <i>implicit </i>meaning or message, either. I'm not saying every story needs that, but in this particular case I think it was reduced in stature by lacking some deeper <i>why </i>of it all. It's probably regarded as a sci-fi classic in some circles, but I can't see much beyond the tricksiness of it. Ultimately, just <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>33. "Aye, and Gomorrah" by Samuel R. Delany </b><br /><br />All righty. <i>FINALLY,</i> not since perhaps the fourth story in this collection, <i>here</i> is a story truly worthy of being in this anthology. I'm actually not going to say anything about the story itself, except that it makes wild extrapolations about the weirdness of humanity that really aren't that wild or weird. I've written some <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2013/04/l-is-for-lorq-and-lobey.html"><b>purple praise</b></a> about Delany in the past, and even though since that time I've heard about some other opinions of his with which I vehemently disagree, I still think his writing is amazing. <span style="color: lime;"><b>WOW.</b></span><br /><br />- - - - - - - - -<br />
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<b>Statistics:</b> I've recommended 12 out of 33 to skip (36%), copped out on 16 out of 33, that lie in the murky middle (49%), and given only 5 out of 33 the "blew my socks off" rating of wow (15%). Is it ironic that the author who said <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law"><i><b>"ninety percent of everything is crap"</b></i></a> only rated an OKAY?<br /><br />I didn't really expect to be so negative about the majority of the stories in this collection, and I searched for good things to say whenever I could. It's probably just obvious that 53 years is a long time, and the norms and tastes swirling around the concept of a "dangerous vision" have shifted quite a bit. I'm still very glad I did this, and there are a few authors that I'll be seeking out more from.<br /><br />
Then hopefully I'll be catching up on some other topics relevant to this blog, which hit an all-time low number of posts in 2019. I hope to bounce back those numbers <i>a bit,</i> at least! ;-)Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-13722990157501949542019-07-30T20:45:00.004-06:002019-07-30T20:45:55.342-06:00Dangerous Reviews (2 of 3)This is the second part of my ongoing review of the 1967 sci-fi anthology <i>Dangerous Visions.</i> Find <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2019/06/dangerous-reviews-1-of-3.html"><b>part 1 here</b></a> (for reviews of stories 1 through 11), and stay tuned for reviews of stories 23 through 33.<br />
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<b>12. "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber</b><br /><br />I think this might be the first time (for this collection) that, when finishing the story, my immediate thought was "I'm going to have to read more from this author." Shame on me for being a fan of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser"><b>classic D&D</b></a> and never having read Leiber before, but what can you do?<br /><br />On the surface, this seemed like a classic American spooky tall tale, descended from Ichabod Crane through the genealogy of Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. There wasn't very much sci-fi, so maybe you can think of this story as the slightly more red-blooded cousin of Rodman's <i>"The Man Who Went to the Moon -- Twice."</i> Despite the (feigned?) simplicity of the first-person narrator's working-class point of view, Leiber's words are poetic and cadent and gleaming. Just for the craft alone, I've gotta say <span style="color: lime;"><b>WOW.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>13. "Lord Randy, My Son" by Joe L. Hensley</b><br /><br />Initially, I was put off by the Twilight Zone trope of the creepy kid with the weird powers, but Hensley took the idea much further than I've ever seen it taken. Hats off to that. The author's vision of the not-too-distant future was hugely pessimistic. A fair bet in the 1960s, I suppose, but I'll never be a fan of the anti-Panglossian vision of the "worst of all possible worlds." Still, Hensley kept the tension running high throughout, and the ending did kind of leave you wanting more. So, on balance, let's say <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>14. "Eutopia" by Poul Anderson</b><br /><br />Quite interesting. I've read some Anderson before, and he always seemed quite adept at exploring the fuzzy boundaries between sci-fi, fantasy, and other thematic corners of speculative fiction. This story was no exception, because it contained a combination of:<br />
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(a) The classic trope of dimension-hopping adventures between alternate Earths,<br /><br />(b) Philosophical musings about how human society should be ordered,<br /><br />(c) Just a pinch of taboo-busting, to give it the dangerousness required for this anthology.<br />
<br />Did it really need (c)? I probably would have been more comfortable with the story if that aspect had been left out, but it didn't ruin the story for me, either. I'm actually curious to find out if Anderson ever wrote any other stories set in this interesting multiverse. But, for this one in particular, I think I won't go farther than <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>15. "Incident in Moderan" by David R. Bunch</b><br /><br />Oh lord, I was actually rolling my eyes. War Bad. Yes, we get it. Maybe there's a smidge of something interesting here regarding the unintended consequences of transhumanism (i.e., uploading ourselves into robot bodies), but it's really just an unmitigated <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br /><br /><b><br />16. "The Escaping" by David R. Bunch</b><br /><br />Editor Harlan Ellison really talked up Bunch's writing, to the point of giving him two back-to-back stories in this anthology. This second one ended up being an abstract mood piece, without even a hint of sci-fi set dressing. Maybe I should call it the outline of a thought of a seed of an abstract mood piece. The words were engaging and surreal, but at just over 3 pages there wasn't nearly enough room to see how this seed might sprout into something truly interesting. <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>17. "The Doll-House" by James Cross</b> <br /><br />Sigh. Not another Twilight Zone trope. It had some interesting concepts, and some key details of its execution certainly appealed to the wannabe Greco-Roman classicist in me. Definitely too heavy-handed on the condemnation of 20th century consumerism and status-seeking, but that's the 1960s. I could probably write out exactly what Rod Serling would've said at the end. <b><span style="color: yellow;">OKAY.</span></b><br /><br /><b><br />18. "Sex and/or Mr. Morrison" by Carol Emshwiller</b><br /><br />Weird weird weird. I can't quite tell if this story takes place in an alternate universe, or if it's our world and all the "dangerousness" was in the mind of the narrator. The one main weakness of it, I suppose, is that I didn't truly understand what the author intended to convey until reading her Afterword. Interesting concept, but mainly just <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>19. "Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" by Damon Knight</b><br /><br />Kind of a mix of the eye-rolling banality from stories #1 (<i>"Evensong"</i>) and #15 (<i>"Incident in Moderan"</i>). Please just <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br /><br /><b><br />20. "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" by Theodore Sturgeon</b><br /><br />The stories that I rank "okay" are a mixed bag. Some I like, and some I don't like. This one I liked. The writing popped and entertained. I'm not sure I've read any Sturgeon before, but I can see clearly that his craft was on par with the greats. The story was probably included in this anthology because of some solidly Dangerous™ squick, but you can see in my reviews that this doesn't automatically repulse me. No, my avoidance to give the highest grade, in this case, comes from a violation of that old standard: "show, don't tell." It's a 39-page story, and the story itself was almost over (except for a big reveal) by page 29. Unfortunately, the big reveal came in the form of a dry 10-page monologue, told by one character to another. Isn't that Ayn Rand's territory? So close, but alas merely <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>21. "What Happened to Auguste Clarot?" by Larry Eisenberg</b><br /><br />Is it true that the worst thing you can say about a joke is "I don't get it?" This wasn't sci-fi in the least, and although it was a mildly inventive take on the hard-boiled detective story, it just went nowhere fast. <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br /><br /><br /><b>22. "Ersatz" by Henry Slesar</b><br /><br />I'm impressed that such a short piece could be so stupid, so offensive, and so pointless all at the same time. Please skip this one. If you read it, you'll think very much less of this collection and all its participants. Every story here probably contains some little thing that marks it as having been written in the 1960s, but there's dated, and there's <u><i><b>dated.</b></i></u><br /><br />(In the author's afterword, there <i>was </i>an interesting question raised about whether fiction ought to highlight our best angels or our worst. The case for the latter being that rose-colored glasses can sometimes blind us to real problems in our midst. It's the case for <i>1984 </i>and other dystopias. But every piece of fiction need not play this role!)<br /><br />I'll say it again. <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><span style="background-color: orange;"></span><br />
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Ack... only one "WOW" this time around. That makes only 3 out of 22 so far. Will the remaining stories change that ratio? Come on back to see...<br />
<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-9057609755435342912019-06-25T08:00:00.000-06:002019-06-25T08:01:42.164-06:00Dangerous Reviews (1 of 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last December, I said I was going to wait until I was done reading all 33 short stories in the 1967 sci-fi anthology <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Visions"><i><b>Dangerous Visions</b></i></a>
before posting my mini-reviews. Well, I'm not done yet, and I'm prone
to procrastinate. So I've decided to just post the first one-third of
the bunch. Maybe that will spur me to keep the reading and reviewing off
the back burner.<br />
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In the following reviews, I'll do my best to avoid giving plot
spoilers, but I won't hold back on anything else. I'll sum up each
review with one of three possible grades, which might be useful for
readers who decide to pick up the anthology and want to avoid the
clunkers. Hopefully the names for the three grades (<b><span style="color: lime;">WOW, </span><span style="color: yellow;">OKAY,</span></b><span style="color: yellow;"> </span>and
<span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP</b></span>) are self-explanatory. :-)<br />
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I won't be reviewing Harlan Ellison's introduction, or Isaac Asimov's two forewords. They're interesting as character studies of these two titans -- and as an insight into some major sci-fi history -- but they're not what the seeker after<i> visions dangereuses </i>are really here for...<br />
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<b>1. "Evensong" by Lester del Rey</b><br />
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Sorry, just a banal groaner. I'm finding it hard to believe this was considered socially relevant, or even somehow remotely edgy, even in the 1960s. <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br />
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<b>2. "Flies" by Robert Silverberg </b><br />
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I'm sure I've read Silverberg before (I subscribed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov%27s_Science_Fiction"><b>Asimov's</b></a> all through the 1980s), and I'd classified him in my mind as one of the good ones. However, this story is pointless and unnecessarily crude. Although the author's "big idea" is made abundantly clear at the end, (1) it's kind of just as stupid as that in the previous story, and (2) I can't quite believe the author thought readers would see past the shock-value and nod their heads sagely when seeing the big idea at the end. <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br />
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<b>3. "The Day After the Day the Martians Came" by Frederik Pohl</b><br />
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I liked this one. It's <i>very </i>much a product of its time, and it's essentially all lead-up to a single punch-line at the end, but that punch line was kind of worth it. <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br />
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<b>4. "Riders of the Purple Wage" by Philip José Farmer </b><br />
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Holy crap... what a story. At 30,000 words, it's the longest in the anthology, and so far it's been the most memorable. A deep and phantasmagoric look into one possible future, and into the psyches of some of the people that inhabit it. The author cites Joyce's <i>Finnegan's Wake </i>quite a few times, but I think of it more as a crazy child of Joyce's peripatetic <i>Ulysses,</i> Jarry's absurdist <i>Ubu Roi, </i>and Huxley's soma-filled <i>Brave New World.</i> If you can hold all three of <i>those </i>in your mind at once, you might be ready for the Purple Wage. I fully acknowledge that, in a different frame of mind, I may have been turned off by the crazy stream-of-consciousness prose and the, um, vivid explorations of sexual taboos. However, on the days I read it, its overall spirit and cleverness just happened to charm me. I had to put the book down once every few pages to chuckle. Its last words spoke to me directly.<br />
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This wild wild thing was definitely a product of the 1960s. I hadn't heard about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triple_Revolution"><b>Triple Revolution document</b></a> before (and I can't say I'm a fan now that I have), but I've got to give Farmer points for extrapolating such an interesting future from it. I also can't stop thinking about how this story fits into the wider scope of literature. In addition to its forefathers Joyce, Jarry, and Huxley, I'm wondering if there was some influence from Tommaso Marinetti's blazing <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2015/04/f-is-for-futurism.html"><b>Futurist Manifesto.</b></a> Also, could it be possible that more recent fictions such as <i>Idiocracy, Wall-E, </i>and <i>Demolition Man</i> were influenced in some way by this particular dangerous vision? <span style="color: lime;"><b>WOW.</b></span><br />
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<b>5. "The Malley System" by Miriam Allen deFord</b><br />
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The first half definitely went overboard on the "shock value" that seems to be an occupational hazard in this particular anthology, but I eventually understood the point of including it. Interesting idea behind it all, but I'm fine with just saying <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br />
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<b>6. "A Toy for Juliette" by Robert Bloch</b><br />
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Aha, now <i><b>this </b></i>is how to do shocking content, without the need to go overboard on the gross factor. Nice twist at the end, though the editor's introduction kind of gave it away. (Read the story first, if you can.) Bloch's tale inspired Harlan to write the next one as kind of a sequel. <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br />
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<b>7. "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World" by Harlan Ellison</b><br />
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Now look, <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2013/04/h-is-for-harlan.html"><b>Harlan</b></a> is the reason I'm here writing about this book, but I was less than impressed. Knowing the genesis of this story from the introduction(s), it honestly felt like an unnecessary addendum to Bloch's <i>Juliette.</i> Harlan did include some fascinating (and new to me) deep-dives into a historical topic that I'd assumed was already rather played out. But I can't be very enthusiastic about this 20-page tale, after Bloch essentially said it all in just 6 pages.<br />
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For all of the above, I might have said to skip this one, but it's Harlan, and I can never recommend missing out on his impassioned prose. <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br />
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<b>8. "The Night That All Time Broke Out" by Brian W. Aldiss</b><br />
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Mildly entertaining sci-fi conceit, for the 1940s or 1950s maybe. Aside from one drive-by mention of Nabokov's <i>Lolita,</i> I can't figure out for the life of me how this milquetoast story got included in a purposefully Dangerous™ anthology such as this. <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br />
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<b>9. "The Man Who Went to the Moon -- Twice" by Howard Rodman</b><br />
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This one still intrigues me. Harlan's intro emphasizes how it may not seem initially very much of a sci-fi tale, and I agree that's it as subtle as all get-out. Is it shockingly New Wave? No, but that's kind of the point. Definitely worth your time for fresh insight into the scope of history that transpired between the beginning and end of the 20th century. <span style="color: lime;"><b>WOW.</b></span><br />
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<b>10. "Faith of Our Fathers" by Philip K. Dick</b><br />
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The ordering of the stories is interesting, because right after the last one (which was so understated and homespun) we get the psychedelic's psychedelic, the gnostic's gnostic, the source of weirdness at the heart of <i>Blade Runner, Total Recall, </i>and <i>Man in the High Castle.</i><br />
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Actually, this is the first prose of Philip K. Dick's that I've ever read. I was a bit worried that it would be a drug-induced stream-of-consciousness, a la Bukowski or Ginsberg, but it wasn't. It wore the clothes of a 1960s-era science fiction story quite comfortably. Of course, it had those Dickian tropes we hear so much about: Is this the real world? Am I the one having the mind-melting hallucinations, or are they having me? There was a taste of the Lovecraftian, too, and it reminded me a little of Neil Gaiman's <i>"A Study in Emerald."</i> In the end, it felt a bit unfinished to me, but I guess Dick himself was working out these ideas throughout his whole life. A lot of fascinating stuff to chew on, but I think I've got to give it an <span style="color: yellow;"><b>OKAY.</b></span><br />
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<b>11. "The Jigsaw Man" by Larry Niven</b><br />
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I dunno. If Niven's goal was to create a plausible extrapolation of present (mid-sixties) trends to a horrific possible endpoint, then mission accomplished I suppose. But now, 50 years later, the scenario seems a bit silly. Sometimes the future doesn't happen like you think. <span style="color: orange;"><b>SKIP.</b></span><br />
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Stay tuned for reviews of the remaining 22...<br />
<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-65879711605108909602019-06-14T21:50:00.001-06:002019-06-15T10:23:11.402-06:00NoctologyOkay, I know the worst thing you can hear from someone is <i>"Hey, let me tell you about this dream I had last night."</i> But in this case, I hope you'll indulge me. If anything, it's given me some cool stuff to think about.<br />
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In the dream, I was at a middle-school reunion. That in itself probably seems kind of odd to many readers, since those don't seem to be common. In the late 1970s, I think some administrators in my school wanted to out-Montessori the private schools or something, so they created a weird experimental class for some of the 5th and 6th graders. Lucky me. That first year, our teacher looked and acted like Annie Hall. The second year, our teacher was an ex-priest who yelled at us a lot about our apathy. We didn't really learn a whole hell of a lot, but I'm still great friends with many of those weird kids.<br />
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Okay, the dream. I could name the four classmates I was sitting with at this imagined reunion, but I won't. In that bit of subconscious reality, we had all become scientists of some kind, and we had just (in an hour or two of chatting at the reunion) made a major collaborative discovery about how the human brain works. We managed to prove, conclusively, that the brain actually <b><i>does </i></b>make a permanent record of everything it experiences -- both external perceptions and internal trains of thought -- and that aging does not degrade that record in any way.<br />
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Unfortunately, we also proved that it's completely and utterly impossible to <b><i>retrieve </i></b>those records past a certain point. Something about the brain carefully laying down layers of cells on top of one another, and you'd have to destroy the brain to peel them back.<br />
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But still, we showed (somehow!) that nothing is ever really lost.<br />
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The actual first moments of my dream were maybe just 10 or 20 seconds of happy chatting about the fame and fortune that would soon be coming our way, once we published our amazing discovery.<br />
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I didn't mention that the reunion wasn't just for our little nerdy group. There were hundreds of people there from many other classes and years at the same school. Jocks, too. Dreams can be very cliched, can't they? The jocks mounted a kind of mock "attack" on the nerds.<br />
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It was actually just a jokey pantomime of an attack; nothing truly dangerous. Although it was meant in good fun, it still impelled our group to laugh along for a second or two, then grab our drinks and find some more peaceful place to chat.<br />
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Dreams being what they were, we found ourselves in a much older and decrepit part of the building hosting the reunion. It essentially was a huge rickety barn filled with junk. Have I been watching too much <i>American Pickers?</i><br />
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Ever the nerd, I sought out the piles of old books. In waking life, I've been working a lot on my teaching, so in the dream I found all kinds of useful resources. Old textbooks. A module for teaching the stuff that I'm teaching right now, but with the theme of the Netflix show <i>Stranger Things.</i><br />
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I also found a set of astronomy books, but they were filed alphabetically under the letter N. The reason is that some of them had the title <b>"Noctology."</b> The study of the night. I swear to you that I had never heard that word before, and a Google search tells me that not many other people have, either.<br />
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That's essentially the dream.<br />
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And I'm absolutely entranced by the idea of being a full-on Noctologist.<br />
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Sure, I've always been a stargazer. Readers of the blog have seen plenty of <a href="https://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2015/12/star-wars-eve.html"><b>sci-fi fandom</b></a> here, and a bit of actual <a href="https://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-are-we-here.html"><b>astronomical musing,</b></a> too. It's under the stars, and only under the stars, where I feel an immediate emotional sense of divinity. I look up, remember what it is I'm looking at, and I think "Oh yeah, that's right. I love you. How could I have forgotten since the last time I was out here?"<br />
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But noctology isn't quite the same as astronomy, is it? About 25 years ago, I was introduced to the folk singer <a href="https://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2013/11/good-at-night.html"><b>John Gorka,</b></a> and saw myself in <i>"Good."</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I am good at night<br />I am good at night<br />Sun don't fit me right<br />I tried with all my might<br />I am good at night<br />I am good at night</i></blockquote>
There are plenty of other musical paeans to the dark side like this. One that I think is kind of interesting is inserted subtly in just a single line of Poison's hair-metal ballad <i>"Every Rose Has Its Thorn."</i> You remember the line, don't you? "Every night has its dawwwwn..." For years, that line just passed over my head. I assumed it was just conveying that old saw about it always being darkest before the dawn. But look again, in context with the rest of the verse.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Every rose has its thorn</i><br />
<i>Just like every night has its dawn</i><br />
<i>Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song</i><br />
<i>Every rose has its thorn</i></blockquote>
Each line begins by talking about something good, then says how it can
be ruined by one little flaw. The night is the good thing, and the dawn
is the flaw! Good old Bret Michaels... closet noctologist.<br />
<br />
I
wonder how much more I should explore noctology as a frame of mind. I
kinda sorta started already a few years ago, with some thoughts on <a href="https://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2015/09/cthulhu-fhtagn.html"><b>cosmicism.</b></a>
There are traditions -- both real (Judaism) and fictional (Tolkien's
elves) -- that start the new day at sunset rather than sunrise. There's
Mozart's star-studded Queen of the Night in <i>The Magic Flute.</i><br />
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Technically, she's the villain, but she's also enough of a force of nature to snag the only slot for opera on Voyager's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record"><b>golden record</b></a> that was sent out into the darkest reaches of space.<br />
<br />
Nocturnes and aubades. Night owls and early birds. Nuit and Hadit. Cherry red and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgv_uwKPvE"><b>midnight blue.</b></a><br />
<br />
There's a lot there to ponder, and I don't have a crisp ending to bring it all together. Maybe coming up with the perfect words is a concept more appropriate for the stars. The night is okay with letting stuff happen, then layering it over with other stuff. Nothing is ever really lost, after all.<br />
<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-28091426366262086432018-12-28T15:27:00.004-07:002018-12-28T15:27:53.848-07:00Holiday RoundupEver since my new job started in 2015, this blog has definitely taken a back seat. I'd like to try to reverse that a bit, and maybe by posting a quick list of highlights (from 2018) and wishes (for 2019), I can kick things into gear. Anyway...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
HIGHLIGHTS</div>
<br />
1. A few months ago, I was hugely flattered and humbled to receive blog comments from <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2015/01/alpha-bytes-somtows-inquest-script.html"><b>one of my favorite authors.</b></a> The wonders of the internet...<br />
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<br />
2. This year, an old classmate of mine from 5th & 6th grade (roughly ages 10-12 for non-US readers) joined Facebook, and we spent a few weeks over the summer reminiscing over the groovy late 1970s. Digging into old boxes from that time revealed something else that I had forgotten: As a kid, I once wrote to sci-fi author <b>Arthur C. Clarke,</b> and he wrote back! It was just a form letter, but he added a few flourishes at the top and bottom...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDNKuvXLC9th57ATd1MgGAdlG0DWgUDJJtAXEqGdK6_DLQITTvm8e95BLP_4jZ-Hiki8gsZR7PVV0G2i3TLYl0HQQ4L2MRDSm6vYWCPAmeQ-xoJtLznErHIFppbsfg7FejSpLJxeNokg/s1600/clarke_anon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1075" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDNKuvXLC9th57ATd1MgGAdlG0DWgUDJJtAXEqGdK6_DLQITTvm8e95BLP_4jZ-Hiki8gsZR7PVV0G2i3TLYl0HQQ4L2MRDSm6vYWCPAmeQ-xoJtLznErHIFppbsfg7FejSpLJxeNokg/s400/clarke_anon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
For the life of me, I don't know why I didn't remember this when I wrote <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2013/10/cephalopod-coffeehouse-lost-worlds-of.html"><b>this post.</b></a><br />
<br />
By the way, I'm not sure what the "P.T.O." at the top meant. Clarke's letter came from his home in Ceylon... now Sri Lanka... so, maybe "Pacific Theater of Operations?" Doesn't sound right. "Please turn over?" I think the sheets were typed on one side only. Any ideas?<br />
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<br />
3. This blog has gone into some oddball territory, but I'm not sure if I've ever talked much about my love of coins. I never really amassed a huge collection, but I've always liked the history, symbolism, and lore. I also have had a sweet spot for the pre-decimal coinage of Britain... you know, pounds, shillings, pence, farthings, and so on. At two different times this year, I took a deep dive and constructed some interesting graphical images. First, some nice visual examples of the classic types, with their amounts laid out clearly:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxuIXcvsvtU1PUGKQm1pfY33pmSo0taUAYsZPTW_GuYliXLAYTsX5DxHNvH_yIs7Bd9osxJHpDdSo3u8S4SWbQzI3NI2T_oL57jmNrG7XyC2XenTju3tgWbdKRuGvAUsad_vKRlQSfdg/s1600/uk_coin_sheet_v2_snap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1156" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxuIXcvsvtU1PUGKQm1pfY33pmSo0taUAYsZPTW_GuYliXLAYTsX5DxHNvH_yIs7Bd9osxJHpDdSo3u8S4SWbQzI3NI2T_oL57jmNrG7XyC2XenTju3tgWbdKRuGvAUsad_vKRlQSfdg/s400/uk_coin_sheet_v2_snap.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
<br />
Next, after finding an auction catalog of weights of silver coins -- listed by monarch from the Dark Ages to the 20th century -- it was interesting to tabulate and plot how British silver money has been "debased" over time... i.e., how the amount of silver needed to make up one "pound sterling" got smaller over the centuries. Here's the data:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YI-Kp6vqhRJG1wVoYzplu0Bp2qXvC6DCKb9wf3YqcJXMPm1NKs4iILxOR5e7Umb4B0w1uBSs5gOuTloqv2m-d2Sr-tzKbdOB5TMbA_-YM9haegZK4IaUNvOO3vex1FtaXxqVlB3CAA/s1600/brit_silver_snap_final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="1501" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1YI-Kp6vqhRJG1wVoYzplu0Bp2qXvC6DCKb9wf3YqcJXMPm1NKs4iILxOR5e7Umb4B0w1uBSs5gOuTloqv2m-d2Sr-tzKbdOB5TMbA_-YM9haegZK4IaUNvOO3vex1FtaXxqVlB3CAA/s400/brit_silver_snap_final.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Click on any of these to enlarge</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Note the gradual drift downward from 1400 to the late 1600s... until Isaac Newton came in (as master of the mint!) around 1700 to bring together perception and reality! There's also a mini-history of metal-working technology in this plot, too. The spread of weights gets narrower over time, as mass production became more accurate.<br />
<br />
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<br />
4. What do the following songs have in common?<br />
<br />
The Who's <i>Baba O'Riley, </i>Slade's <i>Run Runaway, </i>BTO's <i>You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, </i>and Rush's <i>The Necromancer </i>(final part: "Return of the Prince").<br />
<br />
I'll attempt to hide the answer on your screen... just highlight the text to see it:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">The majestic I-V-IV-[V]-I chord progression! (That second [V] in square brackets is optional; just lengthen the IV if it's missing.) I don't know why, but that particular progression does it for me every time. Finding quasi-universal patterns like this is a fun side-quest in my search for a playable Glass Bead Game....</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
WISHES </div>
<br />
1. Believe it or not, I'm still working on a piece of short fiction that I first <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2014/10/murphys-law-halloween-edition.html"><b>got excited about</b></a> in 2014. The first draft is about halfway done, and I've gotten some feedback on that half from the best writer I know. I've got my fingers crossed that I'll grab enough time to finish it this year.<br />
<br />
2. Yes, I'm also continuing to add notes to my corpus (corpi?) of thoughts about: (a) the <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html"><b>Glass Bead Game,</b></a> and (b) my own D&D retro-clone <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/p/homebrew-82-rpg.html"><b>Homebrew '82.</b></a> Low low priority these days, but still going.<br />
<br />
3. I've been slowly working my way through the 33 short stories in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Visions"><i><b>Dangerous Visions, </b></i></a>the ground-breaking book edited by the late Harlan Ellison and published the year I was born. This anthology exemplified the "New Wave" of the time, and it was only this year -- after collecting Harlan's works for the past few decades -- that I found a copy at a used bookstore. As I read each one, I'm writing spoiler-free mini-reviews, and ranking the stories into 3 groups (skip, okay, wow). I'll publish them on the blog when I'm through the whole thing.<br />
<br />
4. I'm kinda sorta still doing <a href="https://myownweirdway.tumblr.com/"><b>tumblr,</b></a> even after the controversial purge of NSFW content earlier this month, but I'm mainly just collating and reblogging stuff I find cool. I'll occasionally scan images from old comics or magazines that I haven't found online, or maybe post some of my numismatic musings (see above), but I'm not a super-user by any means.<br />
<br />
I hope everyone who got to the bottom of this post has an awesome 2019!<br />
<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-92147557676317073082018-12-14T19:08:00.000-07:002018-12-14T19:08:15.678-07:00A little nonsense now and then......is relished by the wisest men!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh6qSrVsbGd2nxGNQEdxk9f99FOdAApbZclBb4xQxlr2zXv2S3OUvovcpUdYUp2RqPWG0VmYRYFcVbRAjK-DkNnEXj5PU7T-4VAsz8hlwozCjcS0mPisgeyDLgn7uNfS5-MfbMRd7SDw/s1600/snozz.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh6qSrVsbGd2nxGNQEdxk9f99FOdAApbZclBb4xQxlr2zXv2S3OUvovcpUdYUp2RqPWG0VmYRYFcVbRAjK-DkNnEXj5PU7T-4VAsz8hlwozCjcS0mPisgeyDLgn7uNfS5-MfbMRd7SDw/s320/snozz.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
And <i>this </i>man had no idea that Willy Wonka's defense of snozzberries comes from a longer poem, simply titled <i>"Ode,"</i> by <span class="c-txt c-txt_attribution">one Arthur O'Shaughnessy:</span><br />
<span class="c-txt c-txt_attribution"> </span>
<br />
<div class="c-feature-bd">
<div class="o-poem isActive" data-view="PoemView">
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
We are the music-makers,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
And we are the dreamers of dreams,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
Wandering by lone sea-breakers</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
And sitting by desolate streams;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
World losers and world forsakers,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
On whom the pale moon gleams:</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
Yet we are the movers and shakers</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
Of the world for ever, it seems.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
With wonderful deathless ditties</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
We build up the world’s great cities.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
And out of a fabulous story</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
We fashion an empire’s glory:</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
One man with a dream, at pleasure,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
And three with a new song’s measure</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
Can trample an empire down.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
We, in the ages lying</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
In the buried past of the earth,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
Built Nineveh with our sighing,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
And Babel itself with our mirth;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
And o’erthrew them with prophesying</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
To the old of the new world’s worth;</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
For each age is a dream that is dying,</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
Or one that is coming to birth. </div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: left; text-indent: -1em;">
I'll be pondering this one for a while.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: left; text-indent: -1em;">
</div>
<div style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: left; text-indent: -1em;">
[I hope to have some other blog updates coming soon...] </div>
</div>
</div>
Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-60364055699700604472018-06-13T21:35:00.001-06:002018-06-13T21:35:07.385-06:00Second star to the right...Should I start a category of posts for "tropes that get me every time?" For some reason, this well-known line from <i>Peter Pan</i> provides instant feels.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5g2fK2a1EWmenFoF9w3wZELSjbfaCbmacgvZ5wEOCM1V_d8vugjHz41Bf0rLROkogU3ud0AALgz5ncsQyk-VKzXv2JC8McV0kHApWLxX_aF4F4Nbr9mwWxhNpCYhZ3T2mFolTHZmhg/s1600/second_star_1953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="468" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp5g2fK2a1EWmenFoF9w3wZELSjbfaCbmacgvZ5wEOCM1V_d8vugjHz41Bf0rLROkogU3ud0AALgz5ncsQyk-VKzXv2JC8McV0kHApWLxX_aF4F4Nbr9mwWxhNpCYhZ3T2mFolTHZmhg/s320/second_star_1953.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
There's something ineffable -- especially to this person who's thought a lot about the equations that govern the physics of the stars -- about setting such a whimsical course into the boundless, impossible ether.<br />
<br />
Weirdly, I don't think J. M. Barrie ever wrote the line the way everyone quotes it. When I searched through the text of his original plays, all I could find is<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Second to the right, and straight on till morning."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Peter gave this as his address, and I'm sure the star was implied. I just can't find direct mention of anyone saying "second <i><b>star</b></i>" prior to the Disney movie. Did the star get added somewhere on the stage during the decades between 1904 (first production of the play) and 1953 (the movie)?</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The line crops up in the strangest places. At the end of the movie <i>Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,</i> Captain Kirk seems to set a course for Neverland...</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSSy2IMM3FqrYkqwLJRz9nZ5998PgLLPq-Wic0SsTUJESgvfmikL2JHS-0QrVf0MRatQ814nw5KT0KJ1eGg_zB5leqYXb_ONPkXV3-uSs1RbLduaMlDQKrkNibrW2fGO7-xS1pLIbhg/s1600/star_trek_VI_second_star.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1276" data-original-width="672" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSSy2IMM3FqrYkqwLJRz9nZ5998PgLLPq-Wic0SsTUJESgvfmikL2JHS-0QrVf0MRatQ814nw5KT0KJ1eGg_zB5leqYXb_ONPkXV3-uSs1RbLduaMlDQKrkNibrW2fGO7-xS1pLIbhg/s640/star_trek_VI_second_star.jpg" width="336" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I guess nobody on the Enterprise cared too much that the original "undiscovered country" (in Hamlet's original <i>"To be or not to be"</i> speech) was actually a reference to death. Still, Captain Kirk was known for flouting no-win scenarios...</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Another place where I hear echoes of this line are in the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. First, in 1973's <i>Blinded by the Light,</i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Well, I jumped up, turned around,<br />Spit in the air, fell on the ground,<br />Asked him which was the way back home.<br />He said, "Take a right at the light,<br />Keep goin' straight until night,<br />And then, boys, you're on your own."</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Not an exact quote, mind you, but I see it hiding in there. Then he followed it up, later that same year, with <i>Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),</i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Well, hold on tight, stay up all night,<br />Cause Rosie, I'm comin' on strong.<br />By the time we meet in the morning light,<br />I will hold you in my arms.</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Maybe that's even a more distant echo of the original. Am I hearing it whenever people rhyme "night" with "light?" I don't know, but two years later, Bruce explicitly takes on the role of Pan himself in <i>Born to Run,</i> in which he addresses his girl by her true name,</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span>Wendy let me in, I want to be your friend,</span><br /><span>I want to guard your dreams and visions.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You know the rest, and you know the name of <span> that place those tramps go, where they can walk in the sun.</span></div>
Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-58514178892455176472018-05-12T16:46:00.001-06:002018-05-12T16:46:14.758-06:00Give me Star Trek (Cygnus version)Six months... probably the longest the blog has gone without an update. I really want to be posting here most often, but life is busy.<br />
<br />
A week or two ago, I saw an interesting <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/382313455855970850/"><b>Star Trek related meme</b></a> by someone named Skye Gray (but it's hard to pin down its true origin). I thought it really got to the hopeful heart of the franchise. However, Discovery wasn't represented -- meaning it was probably made prior to 2017 -- and there were a few pieces of the puzzle that I didn't quite think were optimized. Thus, I made my own version... <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCM7_Uy4psBQLBK-eSgE2i03Pd6RSILo2lEMkmGCIleHU9c89g52pG86QEuXxiPIem8xbgeJcFkGczVH4KjPH4VKvyQPrXGVT4nR2r-7YiSPitJcCzam_5oPzazrwVBYYSwhCuSORxg/s1600/give_me_star_trek_cygnus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="915" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCM7_Uy4psBQLBK-eSgE2i03Pd6RSILo2lEMkmGCIleHU9c89g52pG86QEuXxiPIem8xbgeJcFkGczVH4KjPH4VKvyQPrXGVT4nR2r-7YiSPitJcCzam_5oPzazrwVBYYSwhCuSORxg/s640/give_me_star_trek_cygnus.jpg" width="363" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Click for dreadnaught-sized</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Trek fans may find aspects to complain about (Pine and not Shatner? Broccoli for Courage?) but I stand by my choices. Share if you like, and live long & prosper.<br />
<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-65795999670769875172017-11-05T09:41:00.000-07:002017-11-05T09:42:05.150-07:00Tumbling into New MediaThe blog's been a bit quiet lately... not so much because of lack of things to say, but mostly just work & life doing their thing. I am mulling over long-term plans for the <i><b>2018 April A-Z Challenge.</b></i> If it happens, some fraction of it will be a serialization of the <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2014/10/murphys-law-halloween-edition.html"><b>story</b></a> that I started writing about 3 years ago and haven't talked about much since.<br />
<br />
Focusing on the here and now, I've also (impulsively) decided to give <b>tumblr </b>a try. "Another blog?" you may say, "You can't even keep up with one, dude!" Well, the tumblr format is a little more "micro" than what I'm used to around here. For some reason, I associate this blog with archiving my long-form deep thoughts. Many ideas come and go because they can't be expanded into something that I think is servitorludi-worthy. Tumblr is also more about quick reblogs and memes. Those can still be deep and impactful, but there's less of a mental cover-charge (at least for me). Thus, let me introduce <a href="https://myownweirdway.tumblr.com/"><b>My Own Weird Way...</b></a><br />
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<a href="https://myownweirdway.tumblr.com/"><img alt="https://myownweirdway.tumblr.com/" border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="742" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ztu2O3hBIvR9p6oFaQKd-AazWhJCkq0cfBp2UND5n-1fyV0eRMQmD6a8oW_PdPjnkI-4JjEVmTZDeLzMUXzJCqSjlJvIvM8l66mctE228nlxhRnlDXyB30QUCz2TY0A-5obSNIy_-w/s400/myownweird_header.jpg" width="395" /></a></div>
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Before anybody asks...<br />
<ol>
<li>Yes, the title is based on a line in the song <i>Santa Monica</i> by Everclear. I'm not a rabid fan of theirs or anything (though I always loved that the lead singer was a guest actor on <i>"Ned's Declassified"</i>); I just always kind of liked that line.</li>
<li>The header image is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_Loop"><b>Cygnus Loop</b></a> (duh), with overlaid hexgrid and <i>Star Fleet Battles</i> counters, just for kicks.</li>
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So although I may occasionally do tumblr things about the main topics of this blog (Glass Bead Games & Role Playing Games), I'm planning on being much more free-range with my fannish & esoteric interests.<br />
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In other words, I have no idea what will show up there, but it's going to be <a href="https://myownweirdway.tumblr.com/"><b>fun & interesting!</b></a> Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-69154657074154694082017-08-23T20:45:00.000-06:002017-08-23T20:45:47.221-06:00Bright lights, big geekeryFor those times when a fully thought-out post is too much for each topical tidbit, there's the <i><b>"five things make a post"</b></i> post!<br />
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1. My family and I were lucky enough to be within driving distance of the <a href="https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/"><b>Great American Eclipse</b></a> on Monday, so we went on the moonshadow quest. We didn't spend our precious 2 minutes and 25 seconds taking crappy cellphone pics, since we knew the professionals were out in force. Here's an example from someone from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6yNvExagvlAWzG-6J2SViQZXk39Tgb2SIkWgsiXj5K7jpEp65BFJKwXbrAufKum42BDLykxIdviCq00eCb6C4A_WtZiNyB7mYzj1IbnqLRnBj4JGR83oFewW5Vc6dUls6p7h5vpbUyQ/s1600/eclipse_david_hathaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6yNvExagvlAWzG-6J2SViQZXk39Tgb2SIkWgsiXj5K7jpEp65BFJKwXbrAufKum42BDLykxIdviCq00eCb6C4A_WtZiNyB7mYzj1IbnqLRnBj4JGR83oFewW5Vc6dUls6p7h5vpbUyQ/s400/eclipse_david_hathaway.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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If you can wait a bit, you should check out what <a href="http://www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/eclipse/"><b>Dr. Miloslav Druckmüller</b></a> (arguably the best eclipse photographer in the world) will have to show for his trip to the States this week. It may be another month or two before he posts his results, but trust me, they'll be worth the wait.<br />
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Should I join the thousands of others who are having trouble putting their experience of totality into words? It was my first one, and I can honestly say it was a hugely different experience than looking at pictures online. Truly remarkable.<br />
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2. I'd been getting out of the habit of reading novels lately, so a few weeks ago I decided to catch up on a reputed sci-fi classic. I devoured Dan Simmons' <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(Simmons_novel)"><i><b>Hyperion</b></i></a> (and its second half, <b><i>The Fall of Hyperion</i></b>), and came out of it pleasantly enchanted by his vision of humanity in the year 2852. I liked the "Canterbury Tales" framing vibe of the first book, and how he broke out of it in the second. After hearing that a TV miniseries may be in the works, it got me thinking about a "dream cast" of actors who could portray Simmons' memorable characters. I'm planning on reviving my YouTube channel and creating a slideshow video to illustrate those choices. Fun!<br />
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3. A little more than a month ago, I was also fascinated by a serialized story posted online, titled <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football"><b>"17776: What football will look like in the future."</b></a> I'm not a football fan, but this story was about much more than the gridiron. If you want your mind blown, I won't say another word. Just click on that link and don't be prepared to come up for air for a while.<br />
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4. The internet has allowed many of us to indulge in nostalgia in lots of different ways. I forget how I came across it, but I found a description of a series of children's encyclopedia books that my Dad had when he was little. The <a href="http://copycatcollector.blogspot.com/2012/06/collection-243-vintage-how-and-why.html"><b>Vintage How and Why Library</b></a> was published in the 1930s and 1940s, and I got to read them when I was a kid in the 1970s.<br />
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Nothing substantial to say, other than the most memorable bit being the Art Deco style renderings of majestic gods and men. Also, don't let anyone tell you that elves with those swept-back ears were an invention of 1990s video games! :-)<br />
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5. Speaking of the 1990s, here's some more nostalgia:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----<br />Version: 3.12<br />GS d !s a+ C++ U+(-) !P L+ E--- W++ N++ o-- K w !O M V<br />!PS !PE Y+ PGP t+ 5+++ X+ R+++ tv+ b+ !DI D--- G e++++<br />h---- r+++ y++++<br />------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------</span><br />
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The above is my carefully constructed <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090220181018/http://geekcode.com/geek.html"><b>Geek Code, </b></a>which
is supposed to help others size me up in a single glance. (I'll pass
over the well-trodden irony that this gives the once-excluded the tools
to become the excluders. In practice, I think nearly everyone who used
this code used it to find kindred spirits.)<br />
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I've (kinda sorta) wanted to make this for almost a quarter of a century, but I never did it back in the day. The above string of identifying marks is brand new, but it's weird that the definition of the code
hasn't been updated a long time -- so long that its home page has
expired and the above link goes to a saved page at the Internet
Archive! Although most of the items are true for 2017-Cygnus, I
did have to scratch my head a bit to recall my fine-grained ideological stances
on the VMS operating system, Kibo, and the X-Files. :-) On a few of
these things, I had to punt. I used the exclamation point (!) to mean
either "this thing is so foreign to me that I have no idea" or "it's
just none of anybody's bidness."<br />
<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-6942111558520921682017-08-07T20:22:00.000-06:002017-08-07T20:30:00.936-06:00Abracadabra“The truth, the human experience of magic -- our
ancestral, animistic awareness of the world as alive and expressive --
was never really lost. Our senses simply shifted their animistic
participation from the depths of the surrounding landscape toward the
letters written on pages and, today, on screens. Only thus could the
letters begin to come alive and to speak. As a Zuni elder focuses her
eyes upon a cactus and abruptly hears the cactus begin to speak, so we
focus our eyes upon these printed marks and immediately hear voices. We
hear spoken words, witness strange scenes or visions, even experience
other lives. As nonhuman animals, plants, and even 'inanimate' rivers
once spoke to our oral ancestors, so the ostensibly 'inert' letters on
the page now speak to us! This is a form of animism that we take for
granted, but it is animism nonetheless -- as mysterious as a talking
stone.”<br />
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- - - David Abram, <i>The Spell of the Sensuous</i></div>
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Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63753090450546412.post-26718521247797375342017-05-24T20:33:00.000-06:002017-05-24T20:33:31.614-06:00ObservableThe family and I finally saw <i>Interstellar </i>(2014) a few days ago. I'm sure <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLS7e-1nL08"><b>this bit</b></a> is probably the part that gave rise to the most negative hits in the reviews ("oh, great hard sci-fi, great special effects, but what was <i>thaaat?</i>").<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLS7e-1nL08" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLS7e-1nL08" border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="1063" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGFrHWZ66ySLGHBP1Zfk0xK7qzT0gwa2vq6XS-udM9hUokOJ1lpw8lTV-20My14jRJkCWVT3ngFFa-iJvX9C8GKT_cspVnExcb-5GnDcvF3o323O4GWbRjCtQtfT0o0w5PO26eMsRa9g/s400/amelia_brand.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Too short a clip to be a spoiler, I suppose.</i></td></tr>
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Forget those reviewers. Best part of the movie, I say. Or, rather, <a href="http://servitorludi.blogspot.com/2015/05/p-is-for-pressure.html"><b>I said?</b></a> Those specific ideas have been rattling around in my head for the past few years, is what I'm saying.<br />
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<br />Cygnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10394890573443379954noreply@blogger.com6