Avaunt
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Posts posted by Avaunt
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In idle moments I muse on a novel I ought to write, in which a certain soi-disant "Dr" is actually a Galactic scale peace destroying eternal evil, who has co-opted simple minded, naive "Humanity" into being his "local" shock-troops/stalking horses. And given his ability to travel undetected in time and space, (an ability that actually allows "him" alone of all the multiverse to transfer between LIGHT CONES i.e. to go beyond a time-fixed entities even theoretical reach,) not even important shock-troops/stalking horses.
And some humans become aware of it, and that is where the tale has its pathos, because most of the aware ones are also aware that this presents an "outside context problem" which is simply impossible for time-fixed beings to deal with. Anything like successful dealing with "The Physician" simply moves you onto his list of lifeforms to negate. And negate before you even exist. That "he" has NOT already negated you, is proof that you never even come close to success, the future and the past are his and his alone. It would be like a two dimensional entity being set the task of tying a rope around a persons neck and pushing them off a stool.
And so they actually refuse to even listen to the protagonists who think ( the reader is aware of how existentially impossible their dream of "freedom" actually is, but they struggle and eventually die BELIEVING in their hope ) they have found a loop-hole, and then later in the piece where it looks like rather than remove the "Dr" the heroes will simply attract his annoyed attention for "a space of time" . . . and all that might mean for humanities continued existence, eventually the other people and organisations who are aware of the physician actually move against the protagonists.
And the entire novel, no appearance at all of The Medical Man, or even any real proof that he exists.
Final lines, from a certain Sargent of a military U.N.I.T. who is mopping up the mess.
"This medic they were worked up about . . . any idea about him, Sir ?"
"Who?" asks the Brig.
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It was such an amazing era. Just some wonder or prodigy happening everywhere you looked, and not just in warfare. Some very important social advances were underway, or being debated, religious turmoil, Great increases in engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, and innovations in sailing, and poetry . . .
You could write a book about it, even.
Or ten thousand books for that matter.
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I liked the idea that even The Terror was just European Dynastic Nastiness at one remove.
Didn't one of the French Princesses marry a Prince, and as a "Wedding Present" push all his "tribe" into their churches and burn them, lock, stock and pulpit ?. Solidly in the "Heartless Vampire" camp.
I am reading Stephan Fry's book Mythos.
I do love the man, with a sort of admiring devotion. I would follow him into the lists, was it ever to come to a proper literary battle, and he needed foot soldiers to deal with his fallen foes.
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Living the Dream in effect. I am glad to hear it.
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Happy New Year, better than the old year.
( Which is almost aggressively weak-sauce as a wish ! )
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Berth rent is 18 dollars a day live-aboard and Insurance averages 4000 a year.
Which seems like a lot, but then owning a boat lets you have "cheap" excellent holidays at a moments notice, it has been a long dream of mine, and even when you take into account the lost income from buying the boat and maintaining it ( this will take that money OUT of investment potential, and that probably would amount to another couple of hundred dollars every year ) it probably works out only the same as the 13 000 I will pay for rent this year.
FUELING it is extra, but lots of people have a boat and spend money on fuel every year.
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The land lord rang me Friday and seemingly sincerely apologised for his losing his temper, which he attributed to the surprise of me ringing out of the blue. Then he reminded me that when we first talked about me renting it, I told him, "You will never have a moments uneasiness from me, I promise" and did I remember that?.
I had to admit I did. Then he said he thinks I also accepted at the time I had to give him two weeks notice, and says he genuinely did because he always does so with every tenant.
Which was exactly what he should have said in the first place, because I am honour bound to accept that as I promised to give him no uneasiness. So I have TWO flats at the moment. Not ideal. However, quite lucky in one way, because on Friday morning when I rang my nephew to come help me move like he promised, he was halfway to the Coromandel with his fishing buddies. So I was trying to find some other way of getting my stuff across town on a public holiday.
About the living in the Marina idea . . . Yeah, well, I went and talked to some people about buying their yachts, I went along and watched an auction of one that I quite liked, and I have to say there is a great demand for them at present, and something that would be fit to live in in the marina is out of my price range. The yacht at the auction went for about 25 000 more than people expected.
People are getting back the money they spent buying yachts that they brought new ten years ago !. I have recently learnt that a yacht I was offered 5 years ago for 30 000 sold just before the last lockdown for 56 000.
To be allowed to berth in the marina, the yacht has to be insured, and at the moment even a twenty year old 34 foot two bed yacht that would be insurable is selling for around 30 000 dollars more than it was four years ago. I had budgeted it out as reasonable if I could keep the initial outlay under 35 000.
One old guy from my brothers yacht club was prepared to sell me his yacht for 34 000 but his son found out, and vetoed it, brought it off his father himself and in one week, just ONE WEEK, slipped it, cleaned it, re-did some paint and small things like that, had it surveyed ( Which allows someone to get a much reduced Insurance premium as the insurance company KNOWS then what the risk is ) and sold it on Trademe for just under 70 000.
So like a lot of things, it was a good idea but didn't survive reality.
I have got a room in a house with my sister-in-law's good friend. The woman is my age, and very good natured according to Barbara, and seems reasonable. It is in a nice suburb, near a beach I have often caught fish off, 30 minutes on the bus from where I am working, and she has a lovely girl-dog who totally fell in love with me at first sight.
Bad things about it is the woman is stone cold deaf and is sure that she is NOT, so you say stuff to her and she is sure she hears something else. And she is an artist, a very good one, but every single space and shelf and corner in the house has paintings propped up two and three deep, thousands of nick-nacks , and her kitchen is super super super old fashioned. So not perfect by any means, but not insurmountable.
I get sick of having an interesting, complicated life, sometimes.
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My landlord is being a dick, a COLOSSAL dick. Which I have to say is something I did not miss. He has the most amazing sense of entitlement, and I think goes around threatening people as a matter of fact. He has made passing comments before that verged on actionable, which I have always treated as a joke, and stepped up closer to him and asked him what he meant. And even though he is 25 years younger than me, and considerably bigger, he backed down.
Out of the blue, just before Christmas he turned up and declared "You told me you were only going to be short term, you have to be out before Xmas day !" and I laughed at him and said that was never the case, but OK, if you want me out, I will go, when I find a new place. To which he responded with surprised gratitude, and said "Alright, we will consider it before New Years".
So I got a place, rang him up yesterday and said I was going on Saturday and he started to rage and scream over the phone "You have to give me 2 weeks in writing, I will sue you !"
WT HONESTLY F !
So I waited for him to slow down, told him he had TOLD me to my face I had to leave, and told me before New Years, and he COULD sue and be damned, because we did it all on a verbal agreement, and he never took a bond, or any of the other things he was legally required to do.
I carried on cleaning the place, and he turned up raging and screaming, other tenants in the complex videoed the whole thing and one woman rang the police because he was out of control.
He made the mistake of threatening to assault me while I was walking over to talk to a neighbour in the carpark. The neighbour that I know is a Detective Sargent , and her position is dealing with domestic assaults. She had come out to see if a woman was in danger, which is right and proper.
So that went less than well for him, and she issued him with a recorded warning, and took a statement from me about previous threats he has made. And I will be out tomorrow, and good luck to him.
I had forgotten how much I hated renting.
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Very glad to hear you got to be with your family, Mr McMahon.
I didn't have covid, just a cold, this is official. I was tired for a long time tho, 'cause I is an old fart.
My sister-in law, my twins ex-wife, informed me to my surprise that this was the FIRST Christmas in 28 years, that we didn't spend part of the day together. Her mum is still alive, 88 years of age, the old lovely, and she had a little cry, because "Her Tony" didn't sit with her after Xmas dinner, and have a chat. And the next day, my niece drove across town to bring me a plate of Ham, and a lot of salad.
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Thanks mate I feel a healthier this morning. Pretty sure it was just a cold now, not even the flu.
I will stay inside for another couple of days, then go get a test.
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Merry Christmas friends.
I was going to spend it with my family, but I work up yesterday coughing and fevered.
I still have my sense of taste, and don't feel very ill, I am waiting to see what develops. I REALLY don't want to go into our MIQ system on Xmas day.
I have literally worn a mask, and carried sanitizer and used it constantly, this whole year. I wore a mask at the gym even !. I don't think it is likely to be covid, of course there are other things to give you a fever.
Bugger.
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You misunderstood something I said.
Let me rephrase it to make my point clear.
The BBC reported that some witness claimed they heard an answering derogatory remark come from the bus.
The BBC didn't say their reporter heard anything.
Quite literally this is a molehill being beat up to a mountain. YES, someone, either sincerely or otherwise, mistakenly claimed to hear a derogatory comment from the bus. Someone else offered an explanation which seemed perfectly believable, and anyone with an ounce of logical thinking will have said "Seems legit, the other words the person said also seem not to be English".
Both the initial claim, and the offered explanation have been reported, that is how reporting happens.
Getting bent out of shape, and claiming racism about the BBC doing its job would really seem self-defeating, given that anyone watching the video ALREADY saw the unacceptable racist behaviour of the people outside the bus. Anyone who saw that and didn't already feel unhappy ? you can't imagine changing their mind by reacting as if a easily proven mistake was somehow institutional racism.
As an aside, this thread led me to reading about the meaning and significance of Chanukah so there was some good come of it. I was surprised that the people got on a bus and traveled away from their own community base, tbh, but further reading makes it seem like part of the ritual. Outreach as you said.
( personally I am a New Zealander, so ANY and ALL religious ceremonies in public make me roll my eyes, but as long as they don't stop the traffic, it is equal opportunity eye-rolling. )
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I can not find an "apprehensive but attentive" smiley.
That sounds very very 70's-ish. And really probably the ODDEST sounding book I have ever heard of/seen reviewed.
And I have read many Phillip Jose Farmer books.
The second book and seemingly final book ( I am thinking it is certainly a diptych in the authors mind ) of that series I was so up about, "A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians " is called "A Radical Act of Magic" and it is much better than the average book . . . but sadly nothing like as good as the first. It has some excellent and entertaining characters, the writing is first class, the plot has very pleasing aspects to be sure, and the flow, the feel of the book is extremely satisfying . . . but boy there is some clunky clunky clunky bits. Clunky and DUMB.
I shan't get into running through the list of faults, but the glaring, utterly unforgivable one is a total absence of the inner life/professional life/commonplaces of the members of the Royal Navy depicted in the tale. One of the most interesting, complex and historically important parts of our history, and not even a single "real" character is depicted ! . It is like they are not important. And the total lack of effort, finesse or even THOUGHT with which a Mary Sue character is written onto a quarterdeck that is HALLOWED in history . . .
It is as if I wrote a novel about the 19th century, focused on the Social aspects of such an important time for our extended culture, where the importance of the Suffragettes to the structure of our modern world was represented by three characters, each of whom was told "Stop that silly behaviour this minute, you can have your equality, but only because I am feeling generous !" by a favourite male character I had written. And the most important of their victories, was "only" because my Male character interrupted their planning and told them "You are going wrong. Do what I say !" and they all meekly *and without comment, without contribution, and without explanation of HOW they just blindly stopped their own organisation in its tracks* , did as they were told. Can anyone picture M. Pankhurst meekly doing as she was told without demure ? Even if the teller was right?. Would my writing this be acceptable or derisible?
I mean, it is a fantasy novel, sure, but even TALKING out of turn to the Captain of a warship is a crime instantly punished by being driven away from him with physical force, then close arrest. It was the INSTANT duty of any of the ship officers to intervene if a member of the crew approached the Captain, when it happened the Captain wouldn't even notice it happen.
Without the Captains attention and knowledge, the entire 380 strong crew and 10 000 ropes and sails are rendered useless. How much more-so then is the Admiral kept free of distraction in normal times?. Then imagine someone trying to talk the the Admiral of a 28 strong fleet as they first sight the enemy fleet and the various reports are being transmitted to him.
But that isn't the worst. LITERALLY as the RN fleet closes to attack the combined fleets of the enemy, the author has her character interrupt, insist on the Admiral changing orders he has just given,
*THEN DISOBEY A DIRECT ORDER FROM THE ADMIRALS OWN LIPS*
and then the author basically has her character deferred to by one of the LEAST deferring of histories notables . . .
HOW could anyone write such a thing with a straight face?. Who was she writing it for ?.
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Well, to start with, I am appalled that people made them unwelcome, clearly that was wrong. However. It looks to me as if your understandable outrage at people shouting threats from the street, is colouring your reaction. The explanation offered seems perfectly legitimate to me, as clearly the person supposedly making an answering slur is speaking some language not English, so we can give them the benefit of the doubt.
However, that is AFTER the explanation. The BBC initially reports that someone is heard saying something. That is merely reporting.
If it was as the people on the bus claim, something in another language, that doesn't invalidate the first impression, it simply offers an explanation after the fact.
If I was on the bus, and for whatever reason, decided to call out in Maori the term "Whakapapa" ( genealogy ) ANYONE AT ALL outside would instantly believe I had said "Fuck ya Papa" and they would be SURE of it, and perfectly harmlessly report it to a reporter WHO WOULD NOT BE DOING HIS JOB PROPERLY if he did not include this in his report.
After the fact I could offer a correction. It wouldn't convince the people who initially heard me I assume, because that is human nature.
It honestly seems to me you don't fairly have a complaint against them for "bias". They were reporting, and will continue to report as further facts emerge.
I wish you well mate.
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I would love to do a series of photos, where you were following a group of cos-players at a convention, looking past them at the faces of normal people encountering them.
And pose a question
"Can you tell when they spot the Disciple of Khorne ?"
Because that is disconcertingly daunting/ten colours of awesome.
From a life-support view, I hope he has a cooling device in there somewhere.
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That COSTUME ! ! !
*stunned mullet*
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Plus, it was Kiwi arcade in a time when there were MANY arcades. We ( then, not now thanks to instant shipping of internet-stuff ) were famous for making stuff, and getting stuff and "upgrading" it. It wouldn't have even been noteworthy if some bloke had said
"If our machines rock'n'roll, more people will come play" and simply rigged it up to shake when the Boss Fight happened.
You used to not be able to easily buy machinery and tools here, because there were import restrictions. If you wanted something, you made it yourself often. A video compilation of novel things invented here, from recycled and reused other stuff, would be a very interesting watch.
The guys who made the first bungy jump, simply purchased two miles of the rubber string that golf balls used to be filled with. Bill Hamilton ( later Sir Charles William Feilden Hamilton OBE ) made his first engineering project out of half of an abandoned boiler.
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I guess I played that Sinistar console in 1985 ? I am not sure it was anything as sophisticated as a rumble pack tbh. The speakers were louder on some machines , there was a game in the same arcade * that was almost enough to drive me out of the place it was that loud.
I think that it could have been something as simple as the speaker was set up on a sounding board or there even was a loose connection somewhere that made part of the innards "rock'n'roll" ?. It could have been a simple kind of vibrating mechanism though.
* The best arcade in Auckland, called Wizards ! and it had home made game-art on the walls, including a floor to ceiling three-colour drawing of Necron-99 from Bakshi's movie "Wizards . . . a subtlety I did not recognise at the time.
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Why I liked seeing Sinistar, is because in the original, Stand-up Cabinet arcade iteration I saw it on, when He was coming the entire cabinet started to vibrate, then when he came on screen, it actually shook so hard it used to disturb people playing the other games alongside !
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Shocking Breaking News : People shocked that people are shocked that a Tory member of Government has been corruptly serving the interests of a business that is rewarding him financially.
Also, shockingly, the evidence that the Government is required to keep by law, has been mislaid. Somehow.
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SINISTAR ! ! ! ! ! ! !
SPYHUNTER
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Never even thought of playing Skyrim, because of the compulsive, disruptive, painful time-consumer that Morrowwind became for me.
I know my limits.
Though I do relish the memories. One of my favourite memories was from one of my early all night games, before I knew anything about the play.
I had too much stuff in my bag ( didn't know about encumbrance ) because I had looted some stuff I thought was epic and wanted it all . . . even though I couldn't use any of it. I set out to go "home" and thought I would take a shortcut along a path that seemed to go straight to home. Up through a kind of volcanic plateau.
I found this large round slow creature on the path, and got too close.
Cue a painful, slow motion, nerve wracking flight for miles and miles till I got utterly lost. For Adrenalin I don't think it has ever been matched.
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We will call you Muscles henceforth.
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I am made angry by news of politics.
Who would have guessed.
Yakko Smakko & Dot present...
in Bring the Noise
Posted
Dune two was good ?
Everything is topsy-turvey !