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by M. J. Young

Let’s Try This Again

April 2, 2012 in Blogs

When I agreed to a Collision rehearsal for Friday night, I knew it was going to mean that I would not be able to finish everything.  I was not worried about it, because I thought I could easily do it on Saturday, my usually free day.  I did have to make a trip to the dump and one to the store, but I did not consider how much problems on Saturday would delay me and I got less done than usual.  So I spent Sunday trying to catch up on Friday’s work, and finished neither Friday’s nor Sunday’s.  Now here it is Monday, and I’m kicking work into later in the week so I can try to get on top of that which has fallen behind.

I did not let the Examiner temporal anomalies series slip, releasing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III part 9:  replay today, in which we return to the question of whether their last trip might have been their first trip, and how that impacts time and history.

I also managed to keep up on Eric Ashley’s contributions as they appeared.  Practice Bits:  Prep is a challenge to arrogant privilege.  Practise Bits:  Oven presents a king rescuing his infant son from the sacrificial intentions of evil priests with a bit of help from–well, that would be spoiling it.  Practise Bits:  Intro just appeared today, giving us a look at a disoriented new arrival in a TexMex community with a few twists.

Well, if I’m ever going to catch up, I’d better do some chasing.  Yesterday I got so far as to open all the threads I needed to answer, and then got tapped for some emergency writing for someone else, but today things might go a bit better.

–M. J. Young

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by M. J. Young

First Things Last

March 29, 2012 in Blogs

It’s been a strange day, in which I was asked to awaken someone who had to be somewhere within a four-hour window and wanted to aim for the early end but wound up heading out with a few minutes to spare, so I wound up waking early and staying up to ensure that they did not miss it and then also unexpectedly wound up driving, on the promise of lunch, which was redeemed at the not-quite-local-anymore custard stand and sandwich shop that just opened this week for its summer run.  The complication is that upon returning home I collapsed for an afternoon nap to make up for my morning wakefulness, and have since been trying to figure out how to squeeze everything into the day in odd pieces.  Thus some things that I do to start my day well I have not yet done, and other things which I usually only do if I have some spare time at the end I have done more than once.

One thing I did in the early part of the day was publish today’s Examiner article on temporal anomalies, this one covering what happens when one Turtle is left behind:  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III:  Michelangelo.

I also gave myself some heavy reading material.  I keep getting e-mail from family pressing the “birther” issue, as I mentioned yesterday, and I was going to write an article based on what I knew.  I had seen the suggestion that the issue of what the Constitution said about citizenship had only been addressed in one case, so I did a check for it, and discovered rather that there were four cases that address the issue, all of which I found and printed to the tune of about two hundred pages which I am reviewing slowly.  John Marshall, writing a concurring opinion in the first, was a fascinating jurist but not always an easy read.  I also pulled out everything the Constitution says about citizenship, and am beginning to get some understanding of the problem, which is not exactly what I thought but is still not exactly what the birthers seem to think.  But I don’t know when, or even really whether, I’ll write the article.

Eric Ashley has written another, though, entitled Practise Bits:  Troubleshooter, which is worth reading as a moment of calm in the hectic life of an imperial aide.  Besides, Mark is a cool name.

–M. J. Young

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by M. J. Young

A Side Trip

March 8, 2012 in Blogs

We continue our Examiner temporal anomalies consideration of those crazy turtle kids with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III part 2:  dimension hopping.  It begins by considering whether there might be a parallel dimension solution to the film’s timelines, makes the analogy I have been looking forward to making about why parallel dimensions are not time travel, and uncovers a problem with the device itself that impacts any consideration of what happens.

Meanwhile, I have been banging my head against the wall all week trying to reach drummer John Mastick to tell him to come to a Collision rehearsal tomorrow night, and tonight I get a message from Jonathan that he can’t make it so we don’t have the hall; but Kyle says he can practice with me, which will be time well spent and will save me moving so much equipment.  I still have to reach John, though, if only to work out some better way to reach him–for four days straight, every one of perhaps thirty calls went straight to voicemail.  Today his phone finally rang, but no one answered the several times I called.  So I am a bit frustrated, but at least I don’t have to get hold of him to tell him never mind don’t come after all.

(He tells me that he has a lot of trouble getting calls, that he often gets notifications that someone attempted to call or text him several days before.  AT&T tells him it’s his I-Phone; Apple tells him it’s the network.  It has confirmed my belief that I want neither an I-Phone or an AT&T contract.)

Eric Ashley has again contributed to the fiction collection here with Practise Bits:  Cassandra, borrowing, I think, the mythical person whose true predictions of disaster are never believed and who is punished for trying to prevent those disasters, but who hopes that the arrival of the dimensional traveler will give her someone who will be able to believe her and avert the trouble.

I’m hoping to get through everything else quickly and tonight have time to get to that movie I’m trying to analyze (I was stymied several times already this week), so I’d better move.

–M. J. Young

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by M. J. Young

At a Turtle’s Pace

March 5, 2012 in Blogs

We start a new movie temporal analysis today at The Examiner, launching with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III part 1:  Turtles in Time, which gives an overview of the time travel aspects of the story.  It will take five and a half weeks to get through it, by which time I hope to have the next ready.

I got something of a slow start today–at least, sort of.  I got to bed at four and up at six, a son needing transportation to work.  While I was up, upon returning from the nearly hour round-trip, I uploaded the article and posted announcements; I was back to bed shortly after eight.  Something woke me at one, but I went back to sleep until four, and was awakened even then rather abruptly by someone (who forgot I had been up early) coming into my room and talking about the fact that I was still asleep.  Fortunately, I don’t have to be anywhere tonight except bed, so maybe I can get something done before then.

I’ve also been knocked about a bit by rehearsal sessions for Collision scheduled on short notice–Friday night with Jonathan on keyboards/vocals and Nick doing a bit of drumming, and then Sunday evening doing guitar work with Kyle Baxter, and it looks like we’re going to try to get all of us together this Friday night, so there’s more practice time ahead.

Meanwhile, there has been plenty to read, as Eric Ashley has been prolific contributing several new pieces, and James T. Marsh also brings another.  Starting with Eric because he posted first, we have Practise Bits:  The Kid, which is interesting to me because I’ve had several players start very young and have to deal with still being young hundreds of years later.  Practise Bits:  Lundgren was also interesting because I have always liked and perhaps envied dolphins.  Practise Bits:  Discuss brings a space warrior against the Cthulu mythos, or at least sets up the encounter.  Practise Bits:  Superagent started with something of the flavor the The Next Karate Kid (I think that’s the one–the one I never saw with the girl), but diverts into what to me is familiar ground with familiar characters.  Finally, he gives us Practise Bits:  Trekker, of a verser whose arrival to a new world is not going terribly well.

Meanwhile, James’ contribution, Frontier, is about a guy who joined the space navy to see the worlds, and discovered he had volunteered for an invasion force against a very tough opponent.

That’s a lot to read, but now that I’ve read it I hope to get through everything else at a better pace.

–M. J. Young

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Evolving Situations

February 20, 2012 in Blogs

I have a great and diverse group of topics to cover today; let’s see if I can remember more than half of them.

First, I have received a couple of e-mails I probably ought to have mentioned but did not think to mention until today.  Shawn Michael Kelley, a long-time regular here at Gaming Outpost, underwent surgery over the weekend and is recovering; I do not think I caught the purpose of the surgery.  I am sure he and his wife would be grateful for your prayers.

Now on to business:  I continue the Examiner temporal anomalies series with Watchmen part 3:  evolution, in which I discuss whether Dr. Manhattan’s peculiar memory could be an evolved trait.  I also added the list of articles about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III to the index page at M. J. Young Net, having over the weekend added one more to the series making it a five and a half week run and requiring me to find another filler article to round out the final week.  Meanwhile, I was once again interrupted in the middle of watching 11 Minutes Ago, but I have solved the problem with the DVD player so I can again watch it in the bedroom.

The Collision rehearsal went well on Friday night, considering that we had not played together (and some of us had not played the material separately) since November.  John Mastick did not appear and I have not heard from him nor been able to reach him by any means, so I am again worried about him.

Eric Ashley did not write another story, but he did post what ought to be a blog posting in the articles section, Happy, Happy…, an apparently facetious title because it is announcing that he is again having computer problems which are not expected to be fully resolved until his tax refund check arrives.  On the other hand, I responded to his political comments with some political questions of my own, so perhaps a discussion will appear when he does.

I am not certain whether I covered everything; I am in the middle of helping someone with a project for work, but at the moment data is being confirmed so I have time to do my work before I have to return to writing.

–M. J. Young

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Not Knowing What You Know

February 16, 2012 in Blogs

It has been a frustrating week of sorts, because I am supposed to be at a Collision rehearsal tomorrow night and the drummer and old friend John Mastick is supposed to be there, and I have been unable to reach him by phone or e-mail or any other means for a week or so, so I don’t even know if he knows.  Ah, well; we will see what happens.

Meanwhile, I have been examining the temporal anomalies in Watchmen, and have been grappling with the peculiarities involved in what Dr. Manhattan knows and does not know.  That is the focus of today’s installment, Watchmen part 2:  consciousness, where we struggle for an explanation of how he can know that he is going to learn something and not already know that which he is going to learn.  Read about it at The Examiner.com.

I am further frustrated by the fact that the movie I was watching, of which I watched half the other night, 11 Minutes Ago, tonight does not play on my DVD players; they do not even recognize it as a disk.  I have had to download software to my computer, which means I will have to watch it in my office instead of somewhere comfortable.  Ah, well–at least it runs.

Now I find, too, that my night has just changed abruptly; after planning all day to be free to work this evening, I am not free to work this evening.  Well, we’ll steal as much time as we can, and then there’s no telling when we’ll be back, but it will probably happen.

–M. J. Young

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Watching What Happens

February 13, 2012 in Blogs

I had a very strange weekend.  Half of what I should have done I never did, and half of what I did was probably unnecessary.  On Sunday evening it suddenly occurred to me to ask whether I was supposed to be somewhere on Sunday afternoon, thinking that that would be today, and was told rather that I missed it.  Nothing went terribly wrong, but nothing went particularly right, either.

There was supposed to be a Collision rehearsal Friday night, but the guy with the key cancelled it and rescheduled it for this week; I have to try to organize everyone and everything for that, but I’m not sure whether that’s going to work or not, and I’m far enough behind schedule tonight that there won’t be any calls.  I tried to grab a bit of time to practice myself Friday night, and was asked to stop on the basis that someone had gone to bed early–someone who then got up and went out when it was past the noise curfew and I was up to my elbows in making dinner, so I was a bit annoyed at that.  Maybe, though, I’m irritable overall, and so I’m just irritated by everything.

In any case, I have launched the new temporal anomalies series on The Examiner, starting with Watchmen part 1:  possibilities.  It introduces the temporal problems created by statements made by Dr. Manhattan concerning his abilities.  I also finished tweaking the series on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and managed to watch about half of the new one, 11 Minutes Ago.  Normally I don’t care for efforts to entertain through the pain of the characters, but in this case the absurdity of an already bad situation at a wedding reception being complicated by the fact that the crew filming the festivities–and only them–become aware that one of the guests is a time traveler from the future who keeps bouncing back and forth visiting the event out of sequence, and they divert their attention to documenting his trips instead of preserving the nightmarish proceedings is just funny in a really sad way, and you almost feel sorry for bridezilla as she yells at everyone to pay attention to her.

Ah, I just remembered something else I was supposed to mention, and that is for those who did not see it over the weekend I posted an article entitled Off Topic:  On Homosexuality in Animals.  It’s less an article and more a response to a specific argument in a larger discussion, but I will want to be able to find it again I expect, as it is something that is raised rather frequently.  It also has me involved in time-consuming discussions on three fronts, but at least some of the posters are on my side, which is an encouragement.

I’m raking through my brain looking for what else I’m supposed to remember, but all I can recall at this point is that there’s a new article from Eric Ashley, Practise Bits:  Cures, in which an interesting start of a story introduces a character and his equipment.  Eric elsewhere mentioned what inspired this, but I don’t think I got the connection, so I’m not going to try to explain it.

–M. J. Young

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Making Things Work

February 9, 2012 in Blogs

I am frustrated on several fronts, and it is leaving me too tired to work effectively; but I am here, and posting, so let me see what I can do ineffectively.

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

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The Same Same Time

February 6, 2012 in Blogs

It is sometimes asked what happens if the same time traveler travels to the same time and place.  In our previous Examiner temporal anomalies article we considered the notion of the same time traveler and found it wanting; in the new one, Blackadder Back & Forth part 13:  simultaneity, we address the issue of “the same time” and find more problems.  This also concludes the series on this film.  Thursday I will post a way of using time travel to “fix” the past that might actually work, in response to all the letters I’ve received from people asking if this or that way might work, and then on Monday I expect to launch a new series on Watchmen, to which I added a sixth article jotted out longhand last night while waiting in the car for someone who was late getting out of work.  I am still working on the turtles movie.

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

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Digressions and Divergings

February 2, 2012 in Blogs

As the groundhog seeks and probably finds his shadow, telling us that there are six more weeks of winter rather than, as my father often observes, a month and a half, I am nearing the end of the present Examiner temporal anomalies series, posting Blackadder Back & Forth part 12:  divergence, which tries, unsuccessfully, to find a version of multiple dimension theory that will give us the results we find in the film.  Meanwhile, my mind wanders to several other subjects.

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

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