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by M. J. Young

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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by M. J. Young

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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by M. J. Young

A Man Who Wouldn’t Be King

January 30, 2012 in Blogs

Of course, the position has not been offered, so there’s no point in debating whether I would be a good king or not (I would not; I lack both the administrative skills and the charismatic leadership qualities).  But Edmond Blackadder seems to think he’d be a good one, and uses his time machine to make it so.  How like is that?  We consider the problem in the latest Examiner temporal anomalies article, Blackadder Back & Forth part 11:  king, seeing that it is possible but extremely complicated.

I’m going to note that after a week or so hiatus Eric Ashley has struck again, offering us Practise Bits:  Rail, which I discovered too late in the evening to read before posting this so I can’t yet comment on it as I have dinner cooking and people in need of transportation and forum posts to address and more, miles to go before I sleep, but it’s open on my desktop and I might even attempt to print it and take it with me (although I’ve found that printing articles here does not always work so well).

So with that I’m moving forward.

–M. J. Young

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Some Things Can’t Be Fixed

January 26, 2012 in Blogs

In case you were wondering (which probably you weren’t) the car was repaired and is back on the road.  On the down side, the price–well, I had given a number that I said was the ceiling above which I wanted to be alerted, and they were only three quarters of the way to it, so I ought to be pleased; but there were some other unanticipated expenses which would have been easy to absorb had it not been for the huge car repair bill.  It has put in jeopardy an anticipated trip to visit family this weekend which on one level we cannot afford to have put in jeopardy.  So I’m scrambling to cover things.

Meanwhile, today is Thursday, and I uploaded another article to the temporal anomalies series at The Examiner, Blackadder Back & Forth part 10:  repairs.  There might be ways to fix the past, but for several reasons Edmond cannot do so the way he does it.

Not yet having received 11 Minutes Ago and finding a bit of extra time on my hand Tuesday evening, I have started working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.  I don’t much like it–I mean, it’s a decent fun movie, but as a time travel story it’s going to be a lot of trouble.  On the other hand, having seen it several (many?) times when my boys were younger, the single viewing with a notepad already made might be sufficient to cover the details.

–M. J. Young

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Stuck at Home

January 23, 2012 in Blogs

It was still autumn when I mentioned that the brakes on the car were making the kind of noise that means minor repairs are in order.  At the time I was brushed off with “I don’t hear anything.”  Thus when they started making the kind of noise that makes me nervous to drive the car last week, that got a “Why didn’t we know this sooner?”  Because of the delay, the vehicle needs a couple of shoes, a couple of pads, a couple of rotors, and a caliper; and because it needs that much and calipers are apparently not standard stock, the car with disassembled brakes is spending the night at the shop to be fixed in the morning.  We’re not going anywhere tonight; hopefully we can manage without it.

Blackadder finally makes it home in this week’s Examiner temporal anomalies installment, Blackadder Back & Forth part 9:  home?, in which the issue is whether it is possible for the time traveler to discover that he has changed the past.  The film isn’t over, though, because Edmond will recognize the damage done and will make another trip attempting to repair it.

I have not started work on the next film (the one to follow Watchmen, which is ready to run), but I am not at the moment certain which it will be.  I have been stalling the start of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III:  Turtles in Time partly because I’ve been otherwise engaged, partly because I already know the story and think it’s not going to make a very interesting series, and partly because I’m not sure how much interest there is in it.  Meanwhile, someone wrote pressing me to analyze a film called 11 Minutes Ago, so I ordered it from Amazon (it really seemed cheap of me to suggest that he do so).  It sounds interesting, perhaps challenging, in that it appears the time traveler keeps hopping back earlier and earlier, which means that he’s rewriting his own history as he goes–definitely the dangerous way to do it.  It’s supposed to arrive around Thursday, so maybe I’ll do that one first.

Well, work awaits.

–M. J. Young

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by M. J. Young

A Late Stop

January 19, 2012 in Blogs

I got an early start this morning.  Someone needed a ride to an early doctor appointment I had scheduled, so I was called upon to drive on a few hours of sleep.  After that, the restaurant we had chosen at which to lunch was no longer there, and I gladly embraced the suggestion that we travel the half hour home plus half an hour in the opposite direction to lunch at that wonderful restaurant I mentioned a month or so ago (and Eric Ashley immortalized in one of his articles, Practise Bits:  Feast), The Golden Corral.  It was early afternoon when we exited, contentedly full.

As long as we were by the shopping centers, though, there was one thing my passenger needed for work, so stopped at a store for a quick errand.  A few hours later we left, but had to make another stop for another necessity, and by the time we were home, the morning daylight had given away to evening darkness, and the day was spent.

I turned to my office, but I do not do so well on lack of sleep as I did in my college days (and I did not do as well then as I tried to believe), and was accomplishing nothing if you don’t count clicking a mouse button with my eyes closed.  I was forced to retire for a nap, and by the time I was again functional there was very little left of “today”.

I did manage to upload the latest Examiner temporal anomalies article while it was still Thursday on the eastern seaboard.  I had a couple extra hours, because even though there are independent editions of the e-paper for cities around the country, the central office is in a more westerly timezone and so articles posted to the national edition, at least, are timestamped by the clock there.  In this installment, Blackadder Back & Forth part 8:  legions, the intrepid duo make the last stop of their first trip, encountering their own ancestors at Hadrian’s Wall.  I did not mention it in the article, but apparently the joke of the scene is about making the Roman armor progressively shorter until David Fry’s suit leaves his underpants showing from beneath.  I more appreciated Hugh Laurie misidentifying the approaching Scottish attackers as a moving orange hedge, but then, I thought that the credits listing of “Hordes of Scots” playing the part of “Scottish Hordes” (or was it the other way around?) was almost as funny as the standard gag credit in the Elizabethan series, “Additional Dialogue by William Shakespeare”.

Speaking of Mr. Ashley, his latest contribution to the reading material here is a rather atmospheric piece about a vampire hunter, entitled Practise Bits:  Bitter.  I’m not certain whether the character is inspired by me, him, Lauren Hastings, or David Marcoe, all of whom have done the modern vampire scenario, although for me it was Chicago, not Philadelphia, and the character is not Lauren because it’s clearly a man.

Well, I’m obviously rambling a bit, a side effect of trying to clear the nap out of my brain, but there’s more work ahead so I’d better move ahead to where it awaits.

–M. J. Young

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The Wellington Impact

January 16, 2012 in Blogs

In today’s installment in the Examiner temporal anomalies series we examine the impact Blackadder has on history when his time machine has an impact on the Duke of Wellington–quite literally.  Blackadder Back and Forth part 7:  Wellingtons suggests that this would have been significant, but not in the way expressed in the movie.

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

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Maybe I Don’t Exist, Either

January 12, 2012 in Blogs

It has in some ways seemed a quiet week.  Behind the scenes I have been struggling to communicate something sensible about Watchmen so it will be ready to join the Examiner temporal anomalies series when the current film finishes its run.

That series continues today with Blackadder Back & Forth part 6:  Sherwood, which deals with an interesting conundrum:  how do you evaluate the impact on history of the premature death of someone who historically may never have existed and certainly did not do all that is credited to him?  It is fun to meet Robin Hood in our fictional stories (at least two of my players currently in the forum are visiting his world at the moment), but we can do that because everyone in a fictional world is fictional.  Meeting him in Blackadder’s world only underscores the unreality of that fiction; and killing him–well, I digress.

I have a meeting tomorrow evening which may delay me or interfere with my presence here entirely.  All five members of Collision are gathering about an hour north of here at a diner which happens to be a few blocks from my mother-in-law’s home but which was chosen by the guy who is farthest away, drummer John Mastick.  He is very much into fifties nostalgia, and there is a nostalgia diner there of which one of his friends speaks highly, so in addition to meeting for the first time with the rest of the band he hopes to enjoy visiting the place.  I am not nostalgic, and despite the fact that I have driven past the place perhaps hundreds of times and been inside once (to rendezvous with a member of the household needing transportation), I do not remember the name, but that I think it was called The Century Diner before it received its nostalgic overhaul.  To save on gas (his, not mine) I will be going a bit out of my way to take lead guitarist Kyle Baxter, and expect keyboard/vocalist Jonathan Maness and drummer (yes, the other drummer) Nicholas “Nick” Rhoades to meet us there.  I have no idea what exactly we are going to do, because I have never been particularly competent at unstructured social situations (dinners, parties, riots), but I hope that our gathering will help us connect with each other a bit more solidly–not that we suffer from any real disconnection, but I’m not sure how well we know each other at this point, and particularly John, whom I have seen I think maybe thrice since my wedding, last at his wife’s funeral, and who is known to the rest of the band only as the guy who really wants to play drums with us badly enough to be willing to drive three hours each way.

Today seems rather relaxed.  It’s early, and although I am planning to wash a batch of dishes and make a complicated dinner, I don’t feel much in the way of time pressure at present, and I might even take another look at my work on Watchmen to see whether there’s anything left to say.

–M. J. Young

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Trouble in Spacetime

January 9, 2012 in Blogs

As Blackadder and Baldrick travel to the future, our Examiner temporal anomalies series follows them with Blackadder Back & Forth part 5:  space, only to discover that they have nowhen to go.  There being no past, there can be no future, and our story crashes.  Don’t worry; apparently neither Blackadder nor his writers were aware of this, and so they continue their journeys in our next article.

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

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