Old Man

Re: The cranky thread I almost made it through the weekend without major spousal sibling drama. So close.

So it seems very likely that we will locate several Earthlike worlds around other stars in the next 5-10 years, some of which could be only a few dozen light years away. The question on my mind is... what happens after that? Should we send a robotic probe and wait centuries for it to send back information? Should we attempt to send a multigenerational starship to colonize the world? What if the world has liquid water but no evidence of life? What if it does show evidence of life? What if the Chinese or Iranians start to build a colony ship? What should be included on such a colony ship? How do you set up a society and ecosystem on such a ship so that its occupants (or their descendants, anyway) will make it?

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) I have dreams that scare me to death. Not because what was in the dream was scary, so much as the realization that that kind of material is floating around in my subconscious. As it is, a pretty good percentage of the dreams I actually remember involve guns, and I've only ever fired real guns once.

Re: The cranky thread I had discussions like that before I got married too. She's altering the deal. I pray she doesn't alter it any further.

Re: The cranky thread Mostly I hear the same damn sermons over and over again. I swear they do the prodigal son one every other month.

Re: The cranky thread

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Aww, tkdguy was getting hit on. It's so cute!

Re: The cranky thread I think I've given some of my best presentations on three hours of sleep. Mostly because I'm too tired to care, so nervousness is not an issue. Of course my memories of actually giving the presentations are pretty dim, but the feedback was positive.

Re: The cranky thread Man, I'd rather gnaw off my left arm than go to church most weekends. YMMV.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. This week: "Daddy can I be a pumpkin? Daddy can I be a ghost? Daddy can I be a frog? Daddy can I be a brachiosaurus?" "We go trick or treating in four hours, kid." and "Don't make me hit you with my war teddy!!"

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Hot glue. I am saved.

Re: The cranky thread Probably not in the middle of the night though.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Not a kidnapper?

Too bad there's no google ads on there. http://io9.com/5670091/real+life-star-maps-show-where-the-spice-flows-and-babylon-5-is-stationed

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread Not hardly, but thanks.

Re: The "Nice Happy" Thread He is pretty wonderful, all right. You can tell by the cool chick that married him.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Thanks, but I have to point out they're not always fun. For example, typical 2 A.M. quotes would include "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!" and " *barff* " and "Daddy, I had an accident." I only put the highlights in this thread, usually.

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Boy: "Daddy daddy daddy daddy are you going to hang the Christmas spider?" Me: "The what?" Boy: "The Christmas spider!" Mom: "No, honey, it's Halloween, not Christmas." Boy: "But I want a Christmas spider!" Me: "Don't worry, kid, if you still want a spider when Christmas rolls around, I'll put one up for you." Boy: "Yay!"

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) I navigated through the crowd around the building complex, trying to move quickly without drawing too much attention to myself. The crowd was there to watch the filming of a Bollywood movie that starred Chow Yun-Fat and was based on the exploits of myself, that I was about to conduct. I was deeply irritated that they coudn't wait to film the movie until the events it was supposed to depict were over. The crowd was... crowded... in front of the frontmost of the buildings. These were run-of-the-mill apartment buildings, rectangular and about eight stories tall; there were four or five of them. I got through the crowd and slipped around the back of the first building without being noticed by the terrorists who I knew were lurking nearby. Hastily I searched the back wall for explosives, and quickly found them. The terrorists had packed the plastique into electrical boxes and stuck them to the wall at key structural points. Immediately I called my superiors and told them what was up, and how to find the rest of the explosives. But that, predictably, alerted the terrorists--they had someone on the inside. A terrorist disguised as a security guard rushed around the corner and gave chase. As I ran I heard a shot ring out. Turning, I saw a sniper on the rooftop of one of the other buildings, and realized that there were one or two of them on each rooftop. They took a few more shots, but didn't hit me. I sped back around the front of the building with the "guard" a short distance behind. No one noticed as I ran across the parking lot, because they were filing a stunt. Chow Yun-Fat leapt out of one of the upper windows with an assault rifle blazing in each hand; the bullets left a wavy tracework of holes in the front of the building as he fell. That's not how it's going to happen, I thought with annoyance. There was nowhere to hide in the parking lot. I crouched down behind a hedgelike bush and awaited my pursuer. As he rounded the bush, I went back round the other side, and we continued this childish circular pursuit for a couple of revolutions. Finally I hid inside the bush. When he poked his head inside to look for me, I stabbed him in the neck with a knife. I pulled the body into the bush and left. As I climbed out of the bush I saw another group of buildings in the distance, and realized that the terrorists were going to attack those too. I sprinted toward them.

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) Zombies, Nazis, and aliens--a bad guy hat trick! Not bad!

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) Having volunteered for some sort of reality TV game show, I found myself on a team of people competing with another team for some kind of prize. On tonight's episode, we were to see who could construct the best zombie-killing vehicle before the zombies were released into the big abandoned warehouse area we were in. Fortunately, my team had found an old but functional deuce-and-a-half to build on, and a pretty good assortment of automatic weapons to mount on it. We'd already mounted several guns in the back of the truck with good fields of fire, but I got into a heated argument with some of my teammates over where to mount the last .50 caliber. I finally took it and announced that I was going to mount it in front of the passenger seat to improve our forward firepower. But I was missing a bracket or tripod to mount it on. I left the truck and headed into the warehouse to find something suitable. The warehouse was very large--two or three stories tall--with shelving up to the ceiling. I noticed with some annoyance that some of the zombie-fighting equipment I'd stashed had been moved by the film crews, and swore at them. About when I reached the furthest corner of the warehouse from the truck, the zombies were released. Swearing some more, I raced back in the direction of the truck. As I ran I saw the competing team's vehicle speed out into the tarmac between the warehouses. It was fairly well constructed--it looked as though they'd taken a bus and covered it with metal sheeting, with gunports for weapons. But it was top-heavy, and fell onto its side as they attempted to turn. We were going to have to save them.

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) I dunno, I thought there was an obvious conclusion to infer there. I have kind of a backlog of dreams to put in, I just haven't had time to write them down. That particular one was especially long.

Re: The cranky thread Wouldn't expect a character sheet to hurt too much. Now if it were a mystic with a cosmic VPP, and you have pages and pages of previously worked out powers, then that might leave a mark.

Re: A Thread for Random Musings On my way back down to Boston on Thursday I passed this accident scene. I've seen the remnants of fatal traffic accidents before, so I don't know why this one bothered me so much. Maybe it was because the medevac chopper didn't seem to be in any hurry, or because of the tarp over the front of the minivan, or just because I had a two hour drive to think about it. At any rate--those of you reading this, do me a favor and be a little more careful when you drive, okay? I guarantee you this woman had no idea she was going to die on Thursday.

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) The sun shone brightly on the quaint New England bed & breakfast when we arrived. I was immediately struck by the beauty of the vast, well-kept grounds, green and flowering in the summertime, and also by the sheer number of classic airplanes flying overhead and landing in the expansive gardens. Especially odd was a Japanese Zero. I thought it was very strange to have a fully armed and loaded WWII fighter flying around New England. We went inside and headed downstairs to our suite, which was on a lower level but still had windows--the B&B was built on a slope. It was, predictably, decorated in a very floral and lacy way, but the girl liked it. Almost immediately it was evening, so we left without unpacking and headed up to the restaurant for dinner. The restaurant included in the B&B was large, dark, and oaken. The entryway was populated with bulletin boards. As we waited for our table, I noticed a flyer posted for a gaming convention being held the next day in a nearby town. I made a mental note to go, but never would. On the way out of the restaurant, we encountered a well-dressed young man who invited us to a meeting to learn about his religious organization. There was an intensity about him that bothered me. We declined politely and headed back to our suite. The next day we went to lunch at another restaurant in the B&B, which was apparently very large. This one was on an upper floor and was more brightly lit, though still largely furnished with wood. As we finished our sandwiches, the intense young man and a pair of his associates came up the stairs with guns, and took us all hostage. Their demands weren't very clear. The restaurant had TV sets mounted in the corners that were tuned to CNN, and we watched as our hostage drama began to unfold. Police cars surrounded the building, and Alec Baldwin handled the news coverage. I thought it good that he was able to start another broadcasting career. But eventually I tired of waiting, and the hostage takers hadn't realized that I was a fourth-dan jiujitsu black belt. So I got up, choked out the gang leader, and went back down to my rooms. I was followed by an older man and his younger associate, both apparently members of the religious organization. Coming down the stairs into my rooms, they shouted and yelled that I was causing too much trouble and that I needed to join with them or face the consequences. I regarded them silently, making clear both my refusal and that they faced consequences of their own if they didn't leave. Eventually they did. After a time we went upstairs again, though I don't remember why. We found the large central room of the B&B converted to hold a wedding, complete with runners, floral arrangements, and rows of white chairs. The chairs were filled with members of the religious organization, and conducting the ceremony was the young, intense man from earlier. Getting married were a pretty, smiling young blond girl and the corpse of a man, propped up and dressed in a suit. The intense man protested loudly that I wasn't welcome, but I decided that the ceremony should not be allowed to proceed. I picked up a nearby shovel and smashed the intense man's face in with it. Then I left. I was out the front door and halfway down to the garden when I heard my name called. An old, chean-shaven man stood at the top of the stairs--the cult leader. Not inclined to flee from these people, I climbed back up the stairs and confronted him. He said something to the effect that I couldn't stop the cult, that I had trifled with powers beyond my comprehension, etc., etc. One of the cult members came up and stood beside him, and as he did so, the old man produced a jar. I stepped back as he unscrewed the lid, but as he did so, the vapor or dust it contained flowed out and into the nose and mouth of the younger cult member. Immediately his eyes rolled back into his head, and he began to advance toward me. Behind him I saw the rest of the congregation, similarly affected, coming up in pursuit. I stumbled backwards down the stairs and turned to flee as the old man cackled. What was I going to do? I really had trifled with powers beyond my comprehension, and jiujitsu wasn't going to help me defeat a small army of possessed zombies. I rushed into the garden--and parked there was the Zero, fully fueled and armed. I grinned.