The Gaming Outpost

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

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

Let me not forget to extend an invitation to anyone within the sound of my voice (you know, I’m not sure I ever actually ever said that in my radio days) to come to the Collision concert at the Silver Lake Community Church fall festival this Saturday.  We will be playing at noon and again around three fifteen, if I’m remembering correctly, and the early show will be aired on Lift-FM (formerly WZFI-FM) throughout the southeastern New Jersey area and on the web.  The downside is that I have rehearsals for two slightly different bands, tonight and tomorrow night, which are going to eat my time and leave me very tired; but this will be good.

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

In our previous Examiner temporal anomalies article, in piecing together the interactions of the travels of the three boys and their would-be assassin, we neglected to integrate the remaining trips of the original time traveler.  That is remedied this time in Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel part 12:  Cassie, which addresses how she can come from the future, know that Ray will be famous, and not know that Millie murdered him in the pub.  It actually is possible.

I also neglected to mention last time that I had watched once and begun analyzing Warlock (in which Lori Singer is no longer the Daryl Hannah clone she was in The Man With One Red Shoe).  It is deceptively simple–two persons are carried from sixteen ninety-one Boston to modern-day California, one is killed and the other returns to his own time–but as I unravel it, it begins to become unraveled, and Zymurgy’s Law of Evolving System Dynamics (Once you open a can of worms, the only way to recan them is to use a larger can) has been demonstrated in a major way.  I’m thinking that it should be fun; I’m also thinking of turning the comment about “safe” made by Arthur Dent, to say “This apparently is some entirely new use of the word ‘fun’ of which I was previously unaware.”

I was derailed yesterday due to the fact that a flu-like respiratory illness has struck the family.  It has not (yet) struck me, but it has put me in the position of caring for some who have been struck, including transporting them and feeding them, and thus consumed much of my time yesterday.  Things do not look much better for a few days, as I have rehearsals today for the church and tomorrow for Collision.  Tomorrow’s is expected to be overly long, because we are again preparing for a looming concert and trying to add some new material; tonight’s is not so long, but because of other complications the music director has asked that we have it at his home, over half an hour away and requiring that I pick up some of the equipment from the church on the way and return it to the church on the return trip.  So much for my evening.  I have managed to get an early start today, though, so perhaps I shall not be so negligent as otherwise.

On that note, let me turn my attention to the recent work of Eric Ashley, whose new Practise Bits:  Ways is an interesting beginning of yet another story, giving us a glimpse at a character trying to hide from scrutiny and make a positive difference in the world.

If I am to complete anything else today, I had better move in that direction; here’s hoping I did not neglect anything else.

–M. J. Young