The Extraordinary Ordinary

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Say What?

The worst thing about being smart is that you think. You think a lot and this keeps you awake when you could be asleep,

The Nefarious Plan: At present I’m a member of the Dangerous Journeys group on FaceBook, and fellow member Ed Anderson  is working on a set of mechanics for creating ordinary people in the guides. People that is who have really nothing extraordinary about them.

Mundanity: In mechanical terms I’m thinking of stats ranging from a value of between 5 and 15—2d6+3. Which means a base chance of between 5 and 15% in using a skill with no substantial training. You get right down to it, that’s us 

Then I got to thinking about the essential difference between Star Trek and Star Wars.

The Pernicious Lie of George Lucus: I’ll be mean here, George Lucus is a fraud. Star Wars is a lie.

To do anything in the original trilogy you have to bee extraordinary. You have to be special. Don’t know about you but one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard is, “There is no try…”

Bull shit. If you didn’t try you would never do. Skywalker could always get his XWing out of the muck and mire, all he need to do was to call. With their equipment his crew gets the craft out of the swamp and the adventure continues.

But the Magic!

I say fuck the magic. It aint Luke’s job to make your head spin, it’s his job to make Palpatine bite the big one. You don’t need magic for that, all you really need is a clear head on your shoulders, a good crew backing you up, and an understanding of what you’re doing. I suspect that without all the mystical folderol the mess could have been dealt with in four one hour episodes of the first season.

In Contrast

In contrast you have Star Trek, ordinary Joes doing ordinary things. Yes, some of them do have extraordinary abilities, but their ability to function doesn’t depend on them nor are they the answer to all the world’s problems. A mind meld helps, it aint the solution.

Kirk is extraordinary. He has to be to be selected for Star Fleet, but if he couldn’t be trained he still be worthless. The captain can be trained, he can be educated. The man doesn’t need Fozzy with the mange sputtering like a giant carbonated soda.

As far as I can see it means that the Star Trek universe is far superior, for it has by far the greater potential. Star Wars presents a fascist mythology, Star Trek an American one, and it is the American myths I find the more encouraging. 

There is no try? That is a load of shit, for if you did not try you would not do.

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Just to Deride

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“Nowhere Man”

He’s a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man, please listen
You don’t know what you’re missing
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command

He’s as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

Nowhere Man, don’t worry
Take your time, don’t hurry
Leave it all till somebody else lends you a hand

Doesn’t have a point of view
Knows not where he’s going to
Isn’t he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man, please listen
You don’t know what you’re missing
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command

He’s a real Nowhere Man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

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I Apologize

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But now it turns out that I can’t write long posts in WP any more. This is WordPress dammit, not Twitter.

And for those for you who just have to restrict us, cut it out.I want to write at length I’m going to write at length and you can go fellate a mallard.

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Weather’s Still Above Me

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And Lo

This means I’m still going to be late with things. Though I can still do something. One thing is to let you know that I may be getting an apartment of my own. thanks to Jude at Alpha Project. In addition I’ll be having my kidneys and heart looked at, and likely I’ll be going on more medications.So I’m going to be hopeful.

But I don’t think I’ll be using a certain plugin to put content into columns.

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I Had a Heart Attack This Morning.

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No not one of the traditional ones. This was atrial fibrillation. A racing heatt in other words, which put me in emergency for about six hours. At 4 pm I was back my room sleeping until about 9:30. Tomorrow I’m starting back to work. One new medication I’ll be getting will be Cormedla and may be some others. You know anybody with afib ask them what it’s like, it’s a pain.

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Bilbo was Nuts

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Had an adventure on Monday. The adventure consisted of trips on bus and trolley with walks on a bad knee and overheated and—I think—dehydrated self to secure a medical treasure of sorts.

You see, next Monday—the 6th of August—I get to go back to the lab with a gallon jug as full as I can make it of my piss. Now I rather doubt I can fill it up with a day’s worth of pea, but I suspect there are those who can.

Then on the 13th I get a sonograph taken of my kidneys. Which will likely mean more prescriptions.May even have to have my kidneys flushed.

And to top it all, I have my heart to get checked out.

Though I do suspect that I do need more liquid, and that means more sports drink or ade. And mean the money to but it with, so tips would be nice.

And given as I’m still a bit worn out, once this is posted I’m going back to bed.

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The feeling I Get

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The Why

From what I’ve heard the feeling I get from Ron Edwards is that he much prefers to deal with role playing games—RPGs—as story.

There are those who agree with him. I don’t. For that matter I don’t see them as games though they do have elements of game and story in them. For I just don’t see how they can be stories when you understand just what stories are.

I’ve got an essay to compose, all I can ask is that you be patient.

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Waiting

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I’m waiting for the Singularity.

Why?

Because there are certain clowns that need a good talking to. Clods who have no idea how to write software. Who haven’t the slightest inkling as to why you’d want to do it correctly. Idiots who insist on producing crap code simply because they are dainty flowers. So I’m waiting on the Singularity in the hope that the Machines will lay the ban hammer on these fools.

And here’s hoping their malwritten software leads to a lingering painful demise.

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An Experiment

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An Example of Text Columns using the Code Macher CSS Columns Plugin

And I’ll Tell You Why

Because it makes the text easier to read. And it works even on a computer monitor.

Now there are times when you really only need one column, but really only when the line is fairly short. Unless you’re using a small monitor the lines of text you’ll get with broad columns will give you serious eye strain. Don’t know about you, but with my myopia, astigmatism, and age I don’t need the damn strain and I don’t want to inflict it on any one.

As for doing it the hard way. I say stuff it. If there’s an easy way I’m using the easy way, and all you flowers can dry up and wilt.

Or are your arms broken?

No.

Then you have no excuse for not using text columns in your post.

Or—Just Thought of This

 

When the text field is above a certain width the text is automatically put into columns. Each column is set at a certain optimum width, so that if the field is wide enough you may have as many as three of four of them.

If you don’t want your text in columns, then you would be able to set it so it isn’t. But this would have to be done for each entry you make.

Why?

Because I’m mean and I want you to suffer. 

 

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