The Gaming Outpost

My Examiner temporal anomalies series has reached the point at which the heroes of the story make their trip to the past, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III part 7:  Turtles, and then it leaves them there for a few centuries.  We’ll get them out on Thursday.  I’m now committed on the next, with an episode listing of articles covering 11 Minutes Ago posted to my indexing page, although there are still a few editorial tweaks to perform.

Meanwhile, the prolific Eric Ashley continues to outpace me with several new articles since Thursday.  Practise Bits:  Virgin Two dramatically continues the story begun in the previously mentioned Practise Bits:  Virgin.  Practise Bits:  Imperial extols the virtues of empire against the power of a freedom fighter.  For a bit of political maneuvering in an effort to secure a victory over a formidable enemy, he gives us Practise Bits:  Fair.  Finally, Practise Bits:  Commlink gives us a ninja romance in a vampire world.

I’m wondering whether I have time for what remains before me, but I’ll manage, I expect.

–M. J. Young

I am reminded that time moves inexorably forward, and that this seems to be my word for the day, as I have used the word “inexorably” several times already and I’m not even certain when, where, or why.  However, we have reached Thursday, and published another Examiner temporal anomalies article, this one entitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III part 6:  April.  This puts us at the center point of our eleven-article series.  There is good news in that I have already prepared an article to round out the last week.  The editors asked us to submit articles identifying the “bests” in our various fields, by which I think they expected to get (from other examiners) pieces about nightclubs and restaurants and such, but from me they will receive a selection of some of the best time travel movies, and specifically a few of those easily overlooked gems that aren’t big budget or famous films.  Also in the good news category, I have completed a sketch of a twelve-article series on 11 Minutes Ago, although I had to consult with Kyler on its most vexing problem and am waiting to hear his thoughts on my perhaps rather dubious solution.  The bad news is that if I have any other time travel movies lying around here that have not yet been analyzed, I don’t know what or where they are, so I may be scrambling for something to cover next.  A few have been suggested, but they haven’t yet dropped into my lap, so I’ll be doing a bit of shopping, I expect.

Meanwhile, I note that Eric Ashley has written two more pieces worth reading.  The first, Practise Bits:  Propriety, recalled to mind his verser character’s alter-ego The Ghost from his early play, the one man military force who brought down the enemy by simple guerrilla terrorism, although it was only the introductory setup for that type of story.  The second, Practise Bits:  Needle, is a clever adventure concept that has several players wishing that they had been snatched by that world.

Although it is still early, I’m hoping to get some time for other things before it becomes late, so I’m going to rush off now.

–M. J. Young

Today has taken an odd shape, leaving me too much to do and too little time; I am even now determining what will have to wait for tomorrow, as people are already impatient with how long everything is taking me.

Because of an early errand, I uploaded today’s Examiner temporal anomalies article early, and announced it before returning to bed.  The title, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III part 5:  Verona, is a thinly veiled literary reference to the essence of the core story, the ill-fated romance between the children of warring factions, considering what the various possible outcomes might do to the time travel story.

On the subjects of stories, I have read quite a few of late from Eric Ashley.  Practise Bits:  Escape was a cute setup for a well-done action sequence.  Practise Bits:  Thing has an edge of supernatural horror in a mundane setting–as all the best fairy tales and ghost stories do.  In Practise Bits:  Sheep (the second of that name, the first back in May of last year) attempts a perspective rather different from Eric’s, and I think his prejudices may show through in it.  Practise Bits:  Failure is a daring foray into advanced psionic exploration.

I have miles to go before I sleep, and an early alarm again tomorrow, so I’m going to take a few shortcuts.  See you all later.

–M. J. Young

I did post today’s Examiner temporal anomalies article at a decent time, and announced it, before wandering off to spend the day elsewhere (including dining once more at the Golden Corral).  The exploration of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles part 4:  1400 concerns finding an original history of the world defining what 1603 looks like if the Turtles, who apparently will visit in 1400, have not yet done so.  Just because their presence means one thing doesn’t mean their absence means the complete opposite.

Eric Ashley has again contributed to the fiction.  I’m afraid I read Practise Bits:  Evaluation before it was finished, and then after it was finished tried to pick up where I’d left off, and missed part of it, which is unfortunate, because the opening lines which seem to have been added later help make much more sense of the point of the whole discussion, although a consideration of the problems of diplomacy in a universe with multiple intelligences is an interesting problem to address.  Since then he has added Practise Bits:  Wyrd, which gives us a mythic storm in mythical conception and might just have you closing the window against its imagined fury.

I am hours behind, but not in a hurry tonight I think, so let’s see what awaits elsewhere.

–M. J. Young

I keep an index of all the titles used in the Blogless Lepolt series (the overall title given to these blog entries which began in December, 2005), but I am often surprised when with now 1075 prior entries I am able to find a unique title on the first try.  I use order and disorder quite a bit in my titles, and I suppose that they are appropriate, so to find that this title is different (by one word, at least) from any previous one is a pleasant surprise–I don’t have to think about what to call the entry instead.

The notion of order is appropriate here, because today’s Examiner temporal anomalies article is about which of several trips to the past is actually the first one.  As Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III part 3:  sequencing observes, we assume that the trip from the earliest moment of time occurred first, but it is entirely possible that a later trip occurred first, setting up the possibility of the earlier trip.  Advantages and ramifications of this are considered.

I’m also trying to put some order to my day.  I have made progress on the very complicated analysis of 11 Minutes Ago, but have a long way ahead; I have started defrosting some meat for dinner but have a backlog of dishes that need attending; and of course, there are the forums awaiting me.  Deciding in what order to do everything so that it all gets done at a decent hour is the challenge.

There is also some fresh reading material from Eric Ashley.  I have been keeping up, so there is only one I have not seen as I arrive today.  His Practise Bits:  Fear (second of that name; the first appeared in November) and Practise Bits:  Fear Too begin a story around a science professor at an elitist college of some sort.  When I see the word “spice” I’m afraid I’ve been conditioned to think of Dune, but Practise Bits:  Spice is about an ordinary spice dealer who happens to have been stranded in a medieval realm and has not aged for a few generations.  Finally, Practise Bits:  Shepherd is not so much about a shepherd as about a hermit who is alone not by choice in a rather inhospitable clime, whose prayers are answered in a rather unexpected fashion.

Let’s see if I can put some other things in order.

–M. J. Young

I finish the Watchmen Examiner temporal anomalies series with Watchmen part 6:  self-fulfilling, in which I consider the predestination paradoxes which occur when Dr. Manhattan predicts what someone else is going to say later in a conversation, and they say it because he predicted it.  That will make more sense when you read the example in the article.

On the subject of articles, it should be noted that Eric Ashley has added another, Practise Bits:  Mecha, which is an interesting sci-fi fragment followed already by some discussion of writing craft which might be of interest to prospective writers out there.

I’ve just been informed that I have an appointment, so I’ve got to run.

–M. J. Young