Today’s Examiner temporal anomalies article is in one sense a filler, a stopgap article because my Blackadder series ended on a Monday and I want to start my Watchmen series on a Monday but I don’t want to skip publishing on Thursday.  On the other hand, Temporal theory question:  How can I change the past? addresses an issue that arises in e-mail and comments quite frequently, so I have taken what I know and proposed a system that overcomes the problems as long as nothing disrupts it.  I have attempted to explain this to people individually in the past, so now I have an article to which to send them which will address the problem more directly.

Among my frustrations, Jonathan cancelled our Collision rehearsal scheduled for tomorrow night because he, the only person with a key to the rehearsal hall, has not yet finished rebuilding his kitchen and his wife will be upset if he does not invest the necessary time into that project.  I understand the complications of having an upset wife, so I can’t argue the point (and it would do me no good to do so), but I don’t even know who was planning to be there who has to be told not to come.  I know that I had a sound tech who was going to make an appearance (to use it as an excuse to get out of a party his girlfriend did not wish to attend), but I don’t know whether anyone else was going to be there, so I’ve got some calls to make before it gets much later.  We also have to figure out how to reschedule.

I am also frustrated by something that probably does not matter but which keeps hitting me.  I hold what are regarded politically incorrect views on a subject which is very hot right at the moment, thanks to a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which struck down the right of the majority of voters to write a legal definition of a key word in the controversy.  Those who hold the politically correct but apparently minority view are thrilled by this, probably prematurely since the Ninth Circuit is the most overturned Appellate Court in the country and its presiding judge who wrote the opinion is the single most overturned appeals court judge in the country, and it was only a three-judge panel, not a full court ruling, and was not even unanimous as such.  That, though, is not the part that frustrates me.

What frustrates me is that those who hold the “politically correct” view have taken the attitude that anyone who disagrees with them can only do so based on bigotry.  I have expressed my own views on the subject clearly and rationally, and instead of getting rational discussion I get character assassination.  I don’t generally speak ill of those who disagree with me; I have great respect for the abilities and opinions of many who hold opposing views and do not think that everyone who does not see things my way is an idiot.  (Nor do I think that everyone who agrees with me is brilliant, nor even that there are not people who hold the views I hold out of bigotry–but then, there are those who hold the opposing view out of bigotry as well.)  I would like the matter discussed rationally, not viscerally, and have attempted to do so.  I would at least like those who oppose the majority view in favor of the politically correct view (I feel comfortable referring to my view as “the majority view” because the issue in the court case was whether a referendum carried by a majority of the voters to strike down a law pushed through by the politically correct faction could be maintained; that means that the majority of voters voted against the “politically correct” view in favor of the position I hold) to treat me with enough respect to accept that I hold my views for rational reasons, not out of bigotry or hatred or fear.

I had to say that to someone, and it seems that this blog is about the only place I can speak my mind sometimes, so thank you for allowing me that.  I feel a bit better now, despite the fact that my post probably accomplished nothing at all.

–M. J. Young

The Collision rehearsal for which I have been long awaiting may be delayed again; the guy with the key is still trying to deal with his kitchen remodeling and has if the rest of us can put it off a week.  I am of two minds, but have said I’ll be ruled by the majority.  Meanwhile, I managed yesterday to set up enough equipment for me to practice, and got through all the material once, not without complaints from one of our house guests concerning the volume of my equipment.  I am definitely a bit rusty, not having played at all since November, but I should manage to recover.

Before I close, let me call your attention to three new fiction pieces from Eric Ashley.  The first, Practise Bits:  Diner, talks about a dimension traveler who was poisoned with a substance that will continue to kill him repeatedly until he finds a cure, although coffee helps.  Practise Bits:  Fall gives a glance at a decadent republic through the eyes of someone who would see it restored.  Practise Bits:  Raid is an interesting application of Clarke’s Law, in that seriously advanced technology is mistaken for something supernatural by a more primitive culture.

It’s getting late and I’m not getting everything done I need to do, but let me push forward.

–M. J. Young

One of those is a silly bit that ought to be written somewhere.  It is said in the Multiverser Referee’s Rules, in the appendix describing a few characters, it says, “Most famous of the Alchemist’s equipment quirks is his pockets.  There is a 60% chance of any small object being found in them.”  This past weekend that statement got a shot of adrenaline.  As you perhaps know, the Alchemist, also known as the Architect, is my original game persona.  I was at a birthday party this weekend, and there came a moment when we began opening presents.  As the first of the wrappings was removed, the child’s mother was for a moment holding the trash, and I said I thought I could help with that.  I promptly pulled a full-sized intact thirty-three gallon black plastic trash bag from my pocket and handed it to her, which was then used for the remainder of the day to collect party trash.

It would be reasonable for you to wonder why I had a trash bag in my pocket, and perhaps I ought to let you wonder, but it might help your understanding of this mysterious character if I offer the explanation.  I had used such a bag to transport several presents on the long journey in the car, to keep them contained, clean, and intact in the rear, and to carry them inside.  Once they were inside, I removed them from the bag and was left holding, well, the bag.  Not seeing any good place for it and not wishing to turn a useful object into trash, I balled it up and stuffed it in my jeans pocket, where it remained for an hour or two until it was needed.  That, then, is how those objects wind up in his (or my) pockets.

On another note, a week from tomorrow we have a Collision rehearsal, the first of the new year.    I’ve talked with the drummer and expect everyone to be there, and even wrote up an extra brass part for an experiment.

My brain is rattling through several other matters, but they don’t matter, so I’ll move forward.

–M. J. Young

Meanwhile, I have completed the draft of a short series on Watchmen, and posted the anticipated episode titles to the index site.

Friday we had an interesting meeting at a diner whose bar crowd was too loud for our preference and whose prices reflected the fact that they drew a clientelle there for the nostalgia.  Most of Collision was in attendance, plus a few family members of the members.  John, the drummer I had hoped to introduce to the rest who chose the location, did not appear and has not been in contact with me since; I am again beginning to worry about him.  Hopefully it’s nothing serious.

We have illness in the house, and already my effort to get my work completed has raised ire that I should be able to skip work and attend the sick; but Monday is a bad day for that, so here I am.

–M. J. Young

My day didn’t exactly crash, but a substantial chunk was given to a family adventure, viewing a rising full moon in a heavily overcast night sky over a dark ebbed ocean, and as we returned westward from the shore snow found us at our dinner stop.  It was not a major delay, but I do seem to be running late.  Too, my youngest has come home with the request that I ensure he gets to work in the morning, so I can’t stay up too late.

I have started work on Watchmen.  There’s not that much to it in temporal terms, but what there is can be entirely confusing.  Just the one conversation between Jon and Laurie about her affair with Daniel which he does not yet know about but already knows he will learn about later in the conversation is enough to confuse any temporal analyst.  It will be a short series, but a rough one to write, I think.  After that, my sons have tracked down our copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III:  Turtles in Time, so I’ll probably turn my attention to that bit of humor next.

On the home front, if Gaming Outpost is home, we have more from Eric Ashley.  In Practise Bits:  Knife he explores the other side of whether and when women might be soldiers.  (This should not be confused with his earlier piece of the same title.)  Practise Bits:  Hunt puts a high-tech warrior on the track of giant spiders.  Practise Bits:  Ride reads like an interlude connecting parts of a longer story; but then, he gives this to us as writing practice, and it helps to practice all the parts.

–M. J. Young

Meanwhile, my readership for the Examiner temporal anomalies articles.  Whether people are finally finding them, or the volume of past articles is building a growing audience, or the new films are of particular interest, I could not say, but today I published Blackadder Back & Forth part 2:  the bet, giving a quick overview of all the convoluted time travel in the film and eliminating the possibility of a fixed time resolution to the story.

I read the recent Eric Ashley piece as well.  Practise Bits:  Locked is a new take on the dead man in sealed room motif with a few fresh insights along the way.

I’ve had a few interruptions today, but hopefully still have time to finish what needs to be done if I hurry and encounter no further delays.

–M. J. Young

I tentatively diagnose exhaustion.  I had been asked to help the Silver Lake Community Church with its parade float; they wanted their kids accompanied by something more than the church worship band, so their music director got all of us plus the drummer Nick from Collision.  Although I was little involved in the past weeks with the carpentry and such, I was first on the scene Sunday morning, shortly after nine, already setting equipment that had come with me while waiting for someone to open the church where the rest was stored.  We used ninety percent of my functional equipment plus some of Baxter’s to set up separate sound systems for vocals versus instruments, and while some of the others were in church I went with Nick and a couple others and finished tacking everything in place so I would be comfortable that it would not fall.

We were doing sound checks and testing the generator within the last hour before the parade began.  Jonathan, the church music director, had said that in addition to a clever but simple medley of Happy Birthday, This Little Light of Mine, and Joy to the World which fit the float theme (a birthday cake for Jesus in which the kids wore flame-like caps to make themselves the candles) we would do a few of the “popular” Christmas carols (Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Deck the Halls, and Angels We Have Heard On High are the ones I remember actually doing, although we practiced a few more) and the Collision song (that is, my song) Free, which he thought was a good Christmas song (I’d have thought Easter, but then David Meece’s We Are the Reason got promoted as both).  We tested Free with the sound check, and the pastor said that would not be one of the songs we did during the parade, so I shrugged and said as far as I was concerned it was up to Jonathan.  He grumbled a bit about it, but never called for it.

I was at the church before the float, and someone fed me four squares of pizza (one with sausage) from a local pizza shop some love and my wife hates, along with a tumbler of root beer (Mug, not Barq’s).  It was already dark by the time I was alerted to its arrival, and everything had to be off-loaded back into the back storeroom of the church to protect it from the weather.  While I was finishing that, the pastor informed me that the equipment (which arrived in August for the rehearsals for the concert for the September 10 ice cream social, stayed for the late October Fall Festival, and then stayed again to be used for this float) was cluttering the rear entry and would have to be removed this week.  I observed that it could not go that night because I was without a car, relying on others for transportation.  I did not mention that I did not have a key and so could not move it at my convenience.

I thought I would remove it Thursday when the church band rehearses, but Jonathan cancelled practice because he is away this weekend.  That means either I disrupt youth group tomorrow or I disrupt church on Sunday; I’d rather do the former, if I am well enough, as I can apologize to the youth leaders and blame the pastor.

In any case, I will probably be finished with regular work with the church band.  I’ve been looking to phase out my involvement, which was always envisioned as temporary, for quite a while, and with the parade behind me and nothing major ahead and the demand that the equipment be removed, I think I’m probably done there.

I am not finished reading Eric Ashley’s latest contributions, but I intend to do so.  They are entitled Practise Bits:  Magic and Practise Bits:  Petrification, and at this point that’s all I know, although maybe I will print them and take them with me.

–M. J. Young

Meanwhile, I keep forgetting to post links to the available videos from the recent Collision concert at Silver Lake Community Church.  At first it was because they were delayed–I have no video equipment, and someone else had done the recording.  Then when finally they were posted I myself was too busy to view them.  I managed to do so last week sometime, but forgot to mention them here.  So for anyone who is curious what I look like and sound like when I’m singing, I recommend the video Fall Festival 01, if I recall aright three songs from our performance there which are reasonably well done overall.  I hesitate to recommend the other two videos, creatively entitled Fall Festival 02 and Fall Festival 03, because I made a could of mistakes in the singing–you probably wouldn’t notice it in the first clip, but I displaced a line and had to fake a fix during the song; the second is, if I recall correctly, a much more obvious flub.  altogether that’s just over half an hour from the concert.  I’m waiting for the rest of the video, but it might come to me privately on DVD rather than posted publicly, and I don’t think I have any editing software so I’m not likely to be able to post the massive amount of material I anticipate receiving.  I also haven’t figured out how to download those, but I did manage to dub the audio off to my recorder so I can listen to them.  Anyway, I expect the response will be “don’t quit your day job”, but since I’m not making appreciably more money on my day job than I am singing for churches, it’s a moot issue.

While I’m posting links, let me include the new material from Eric Ashley, who has given us three more over the weekend.  Practise Bits:  Leo gives us a Florentine setting with a man summoned to see the king.  A man who takes a job overseeing the policing of the royal highways is the core character of Practise Bits:  Roadway.  Finally, Practise Bits:  Dance begins at a dance, but moves to a different kind of dance in which a villain again confronts his Nemesis in an ongoing duel.

I have been asked to help with a float for a Christmas parade Sunday, primarily in providing sound system equipment and a bit of musical performance, so I’m hoping to get a few minutes to do some equipment repair just to cover the bases before it gets too late.  That means getting through things quickly here.  And I am already tired.

–M. J. Young

Among other things, this means that the pressure for rehearsal is significantly relieved:  we have no scheduled events ahead.  Of course, there is still reason to practice if we intend to perform again–we managed twelve of the fifteen songs I had listed for our repertoire, and the remaining three will take some effort to bring to performance level, not to mention that the dozen we have done are still a bit weak, some more and some less.  However, I am pondering how often we need to rehearse at this point, and it might free a bit of my time.

I certainly could use some of that time.  I just today posted Source Code part 3:  divergence to the Examiner’s temporal anomalies series, and the Source Code series will be short, so there’s pressure to prepare the next film.  However, I probably shouldn’t take the time right now to discuss future articles there; they’ll come.

Speaking of articles brings us again to the works of Eric Ashley, who has posted twice since my last visit.  His Practise Bits:  Pammy is another bit of science fiction space adventure.  As to Practise Bits:  Adventure, it’s barely the beginning of one, but perhaps it is another anticipated serial of shorts.

Even with the changes, it’s still a challenge to get through everything on Monday and finish the forums, so I’d better be moving that direction.

–M. J. Young

In trying to stay ahead of the rush, I have already uploaded the latest Examiner temporal anomalies article, under the title Source Code part 2:  memory, which examines the Source Code machine based on Dr. Rutledge’ claims about its operation, deciding what it could and could not discover if it worked as he suggests, and finding flaws.

Eric Ashley is again adding to our library here at Gaming Outpost.  Practise Bits:  Zombie has an almost Civil War feeling as humans fight marauding undead.  Practise Bits:  Bridge describes an unexpected meeting between two characters, reminding me of a good use of an old article of my own, Game Ideas Unlimited:  Encounters, which I might take a moment to reread myself if I can find such a moment today.

Unlikely, though, with everything else I have to remember.

–M. J. Young