Do You Remember Second Edition?

I’ve had the Core Rulebook PDF for Shadowrun Fifth Edition for a while, but now I have the physically massive hardcopy. Thing should have its own Damage Code. I’m not crazy about how the setting has “grown up” in the last couple editions. Part of the fun of Shadowrun is that it’s a bit mad. It’s a solid brand, you don’t have to justify it now by going all SRS BZNS. Any Shadowrun I gamemaster will always have that Discordian wobble.

Also, Technomancers are still complete bullshit.

Mom is doing well in the Durham rehab facility. Driving an hour each way to see her is pretty rough, though.

Maya’s and my perfect Valentine’s date is the LEGO Batman Movie, and it’s up there with “Batman 1966” and “Mask of the Phantasm” as my favorite Batman film. Lots of fun, plus Real Talk about The Dark Knight. Also, it was that or a “Fifty Shades” movie, and we weren’t going any where near that one.

I found an English version of “Do You Remember Love” from the Macross ’84 movie of the same subtitle. I’m impressed, though as always I’d have chosen different rhyme and scansion options in some places. Not like I can sing.

Speaking of YouTube, here’s human beings landing a rocket at a spaceport: not crashing into the ocean, but actually landing. I’ve waited a lot of years to see this happen in real life.

Managlitch City Underground released Episode 27 – Shockwaves on February 22nd. Seven weeks between episodes isn’t terrible but I’d like to do better. I remember when it was every couple of weeks. Life, man.

Lastly, I’m going to invent a document type called the Journalled Information Format just so we can argue about the pronunciation of .jif files.

“Lightspeed Subway”

– another in the Sidequest series: fiction fragments which may be expanded someday –

The “incoming capsules” indicators lit up, and Josmin braced for the thud of air that would come from the subway tunnel. The gust wouldn’t knock you over unless you’d had an especially long day, but loose items would sometimes go flying.

The capsules burst from the tunnel entrance, already slowed to a quarter of their initial speed by the long line of control rings stretching back down the tube. Mana gems embedded in the rings glowed violet as the thaumatronic system absorbed velocity, and the capsules glided to a gentle, precise halt next to the platform. The passengers inside stood eagerly to leave, having never felt more than a gentle surge.

Josmin knew people who wouldn’t board the express capsules. Despite hundreds of years without accident, the idea of traveling through solid matter for most of the trip was one they couldn’t bear. He had to agree that the theory and engineering were far beyond him; an encyclopedia article lost him somewhere around “eight spacetime dimensions” and “phased etheric vibrations”. All he cared about was getting 30 kilometers to the other end of town in mere seconds.

He entered one of the capsules and took a seat, as did the other couple dozen folks. The capsule was full this trip, but not crowded; the afternoon rush hadn’t hit yet. He felt a tiny surge as it moved forward into the next set of control rings; the mana gems dimmed as they fed the speed back into the chain of capsules. The momentum field in his capsule could have prevented even that surge, but it turned out people liked the sensation of gentle movement even as the passing rings turned into a silver smear outside the window.

The rings disappeared. There was an electric blue darkness in the capsule with him. For a fraction of a second, Josmin had an eerie suspicion that he no longer existed –

– and then he heard the gentle thud of air being pushed out of the way by the decelerating capsules, and saw the rings reforming from silver blur outside. He’d just moved from south of the Scar to the Boreal Hills in practically no time. He stood to go, slinging his bag over his shoulder. Perhaps for a moment he truly hadn’t existed: it still beat the Void out of traveling by transbeam.

Glitchers Hospitaller

Let’s see… what was January 2017 like?

Well, we had to move Mom out of another apartment… cleanup was difficult and painful because of all the spilled cigarette ash. In the process, we took her to the hospital again for what was perhaps another stroke, and then again two weeks later because she couldn’t stand up on her own.

I released Episode 26 – Holiday Special of Managlitch City Underground on New Year’s Eve, so I’m counting that.

Maya and I introduced Professor Spines the Hedgehog, teacher of Dance Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, at MarsCon 2017. Later in January, we went to see the “Hidden Figures” movie and loved it; I, of course, recognized some of the Langley locations.

I wrote an analysis of the progressiveness of the various Star Treks. Fair to say, though, that Star Trek fails in its ideals on a regular basis, even as we praise it for at least having some. I experimented with rating the various generations, but sadly things got silly in my brain, so you get this.

  • ST-TOS: “We Got Rid of Some Patriarchy But There’s Plenty More”
  • ST-TNG: “We Managed to Get Rid of a Litte More But This Is Hard”
  • ST-DS9: “Working On It, There’s a War On”
  • ST-VOY: “Our Second Most Complex, Rich Character Was Hired For Her Boobs”
  • ST-ENT: “Vulcan Boobs This Time”
  • ST-JJA: “Hell With It, Toxic Masculinity Is Awesome”