Lately, I'm seeing more and more "reign in" on Slashdot and I've got to say, I'm disappointed.

http://xkcd.com/1386/

I use mine as an ashtray. What do you guys do with yours?

War in La Jolla, eighth year, thirteenth entry

Eternal life. You think of eternal life as something of a pie in the sky legend, a joke, maybe, something to laugh at. Nobody has eternal life. The book of Psalms lists you at seventy or eighty years. Noah's covenent limited man to one hundred and twenty years. Earlier lifespans are recorded in the bible near a thousand, and ancient Egyptian tombs claim tens of thousands of years. Is that a descending curve? Is there a mathematical trend to that? Perhaps that bears some looking into, but maybe for other people. It does not now nor has ever really mattered to you. You want to grow up, make money, maybe get in the club, be somebody, do something, then get old, retire, and, what? Well, who cares what? That's like the possible mathematical trend in the recorded lifespans; that's for somebody else to figure out. Heaven, hell, who cares? That is all the things that matter only after death.

Gunshots. When you first learned of a gun, as a child, oh my, that was something big and powerful. You could shoot somebody, and that would be the end of them. Bang, boom, done. But then, as a child, you learned something new in the next week or two after learning of the gun. You could shoot somebody, and they wouldn't die. You could shoot them in the hand, or the arm, or even in special places in the gut, and they wouldn't die. They would bleed, they would hurt, but not die. So, now you know, if you wish to shoot somebody and make the end of them, you must hit a "vital" organ, you must make a "mortal" wound. Otherwise they don't quite die. Perhaps they are maimed, maybe they need an amputation, but they don't die unless you hit one of those magic sweet spots.

Then the maiming, and the amputation. What portion of your voice would you lose? Oh, sure, that's for somebody else to figure out. You don't really care. It is eternal life, maybe, maybe not, but not really important to growing up and making money and getting to do things. For a moment, though, because this is _my_ presentation and _my_ journal, what portion of your voice do you lose with that amputation? Divide the entirety of your voice up, your arm makes this portion of the sound, your other arm makes that portion of the sound, these toes for these pitches, those toes for those tones, your heard, your ears, your shoulder... YOUR NUTS. What portion of your voice would you lose if somebody shot you with a gun, and you didn't die, they didn't hit one of the vital mortal things, but you did require a maiming amputation. What portion of your voice would go with that? What portion of your voice, suppose, goes with YOUR NUTS?

While nobody's voice ever drops, while the entire world is made of nothing but faggitts, I suppose you will never know or care. Like eternal life.

Eternal life is somewhat of a joke. Your voice is related to various amputate-able portions of your body. You are actually top of the food chain. Top of the food chain meat is special, because it doesn't quit moving and making noise until you beat it to death bit by bit and piece by piece. The bugs and dogs down in hell have a very carefully planned process to ensure that nothing of that moving and noise is wasted. Eternal life, itself, is easy. IF YOU MAKE IT. If you actually make the three thousand miles, if you actually make the seven years, if you actually make your voice drop and get into the real frontal lobes, if you actually become the top of the food chain meat which you are supposed to be, then making another day and another day and another day is really easy. Eternal life is nothing. You are actually _SO_ top of the food chain that you are really hard to kill, like a gunshot that never hits the vital organ or the mortal wound. You would need to apply yourself to dying, you would need to box yourself down and train yourself into completely disasterous situations over and over and over again to actually make it to dying. You are actually really really really hard to kill. The phairies and dogs down in hell have that box system set up for you, and you have that box system set up for yourself up on the surface. You are really hard to kill, you would need to spend thousands and thousands of years training and ramming yourself into completely stupid scenarios to get that job done. Then the mathematical trend cutting down the number of years it takes to get the job done enough to turn the remainder over to the phairies and the dogs down in hell.

Do not be surprised by hell. The same people responsible for the coverup of your voice, and the coverup for "where do babies come from?", are the same people responsible for the coverup for hell.

http://mapfortu.wikidot.com/

After searching for an MP3 player on the car i bought a cheap player and a harness. After finding a howto video onYoutube i went ahead and installed the radio.

I lost two screws during the installation. The previous radio had a piece of metal that attached to the radio and to the car, each side with two screws. I lost one of each. How? I'm glad you asked. The attach-to-the-car screws were too hard to unscrew with the Phillips screwdriver, so i used another screwdriver that i got at Dollar Tree to go around the sides of the screw. That worked. The first came out nicely. The second did too, except (for some unknown reason) i stopped in the middle and continued by hand, which ended in a lost screw.

The attach-to-the-radio screws were simple. I had this great idea to attach the piece to the new radio. There was only space for one screw, but who cares, one is better than none. So, i tried installing the radio with dangling metal piece in the car. Wondering why i could not find the piece from under the dash, it hit me that the radio, being half the length, would not reach the bar. Duh! Seriously. I knew it was half the size, i even took pictures of it being half the size. But it still didn't dawn on me that half as long meant it would not reach to the same distance. Anyway, upon removal of the radio the screw fell. I now have two screws loose in the car. During the installation, when taking one of the panels off, a Canadian nickel fell out of a drawer which i dutifully put back. Too bad it wasn't a dollar. Had it been a dollar you could say there's a loony in my car with a couple of screws loose. Come to think of it, you can say that now anyway. Hmm... if i listen to music, we could work tune-ey into that pun. And yes, the former was probably the main impetus of writing this JE. I admit it.

The USB worked. Well, i thought it worked until it started playing the same mp3 over and over again. So, i re-downloaded LoTR, this time including The Silmarillion by another reader. Once at it, i downloaded The Hobbit by the same reader, in preparation for an upcoming trip. On a side note, i realized these are actually for sale at audible:

• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Return of the King

Unfortunately, those are expensive. LoTR itself would be over $100. Being i liked the recording so much, and now i now it is still for sale, i would think of paying for it. But not at that price! I would rather not have listened to it at all for that, or just use some cheaper. So, what will i do for The Hobbit? But, i digress.

I tried listening to the mp3s. Previously, i deleted all mp3s except the appendix, which is what i am up to. The player played the first one over and over again never advancing to the next file. So, last night, not finding LoTR on my computer, i downloaded LoTR (including the Silmarillion) and The Hobbit, and put them on the USB (i deleted the earlier files forgetting they now existed in .Trashes) as there is no reason to split the mp3s anymore. On the way to office it played the introduction to the appendix over and over. Using next or the +/-10 didn't help. Random did, but only while random was selected. Deselecting it made it repeat what file it was on (unless it was the appendix that it played). Perhaps this is due to having more than one level of sub-folders.

I really need to leave hidden files showing on my mac. Now to delete .fseventsd, .Spotlight-V100, .Trashes, ._.Trashes, ._.DS_Store and .DS_Store from the usb key. Done. The next test will be on the ride home.

Note: There will be a chapter inserted between chapters nine and ten. Chapters have been renumbered in the manuscript.

Animals
        Destiny was already awake and dressed when I got up the next morning. I'm glad she was there or I might have overslept.
        "Are you going to sleep all day? Your breakfast is going to get cold. I'm eating."
        I groaned, rolled out of bed, put on a robe and followed her to the dining room. She'd made coffee and had the robots make French toast, bacon, and tater tots. I didn't feel like tater tots. "What time is it?" I asked.
        She laughed. "You need a clock right there on the wall! Computer, what time is it?"
        The computer said "The time is seven twenty eight." Good, plenty of time. I finished eating and took a quick shower and started my morning chores about five minutes early. This time two of the computers disagreed with the other two. Two said "systems were nominal", one said that engine sixty four was getting three volts too much and the other said number sixty four was two volts short. Oh, well, I was going to have to walk the stairs anyway, so I decided I'd get engine and generator inspections out of the way first. Even though two or three volts was almost nothing when you're talking terrawatts.
        As I passed the commons Lek walked up, the one that talked English kind of okay.
        "Captain Knolls?" she said, which confused me because the whores usually called me "Joe" even though my name is John.
        "Lek?" I said, "how can I help?" I read Tammy's book, I didn't want to piss these dropheads off.
        "Look, Captain, you surely know what not having drops does to us by now."
        I almost said "I ain't got no drops, bitch" but I didn't. Instead I said "You're short of drops? Look, talk to..." Damn, I almost screwed up and gave Tammy away. Damn it, John!
        "Uh," I continued. "You need drops? Look, Lek, I finally get it. I do inspections and can confiscate..."
        "No," she said, "It's Sparkle. She going to..." she hung her head. "Buddha, but I really hate myself. I not human without drops! What has happened to me? But Sparkle need drops or she be dangerous wild animal."
        I really felt sorry for these women. I didn't think of them as whores any more, life had really kicked their asses. Tammy's book had really opened my eyes. Poor women. I called her on my fone, but she was already on it.
        "Tammy, could you get some..."
        "Drops to Sparkle?" she interrupted.
        "Yeah. Is she..."
        "She's okay. Now, anyway. But John, even though I knew, thanks. Please, if it comes up again call me, don't hesitate!"
        "Jesus, Tammy," I said, "Of course I will, after I read your book I know how dangerous a dropless drophead is."
        I finished walking down the hall to the stairs, then down that five damned flights. Most of this boat is engines. Second is generators, the generators take up more space than quarters and storage, and storage is as big as quarters.
        I checked number sixty four first, of course. It read normal. I almost logged that, but it suddenly dropped two volts, then immediately to a two and a half volt overvoltage. Bill told me once that that usually meant a bad connection, he's kind of a nerd.
        It's good to know nerds.
        I shut sixty four down like the book says, then inspected the rest of them. I don't know why I have to check the port generator, since it's broke, but I do so I did.
        The starboard generator was fine.
        The damned alarm went off. Fire in cargo seven. I didn't know whether to cuss the damned whores or the damned stupid engineers who design shit that catches fire and have emergency drills when there's a real emergency.
        I fucking hate it when there's an emergency upstairs when I'm downstairs. I have to run up five flights of stairs. Yeah, we're at half gravity now but it goes down slow, after the first day you don't really notice it dropping. The droppers hadn't complained, except when it had sudden changes like when we sped up to beat the rocks. I'm just glad I didn't have to run up the stairs that day I was climbing around outside. Oh, wait, I did, didn't I?
        I wished we were at zero G, I could have made it to the top in seconds. But then, of course, the women would kill me.
        The red light was flashing on cargo seven. "Computer, is there anybody in there?"
        "Parse error, please rephrase question."
        God damned computer. "Is cargo seven, uh, occupied?"
        "Negative." That was a relief; not only does the company get pissed off when cargo was damaged, these weren't just cargo, they were people. Human beings.
        At least, they were human when they had their drops. What Lek said was spooky, like one of those old horror movies Destiny likes, the old two dimensional ones with werewolves and vampires and no colors. I kind of shivered a little.
        The flashing light went out and I went in. There was a burned up maid in the room. Hell, was it noon already?
        Another burned up... wait, what was the number on that thing? R2? That's the same maid that burned up before. Whoever programs the robots that repair the other robots needs an ass kicking, or at least an ass chewing.
        I pulled out my fone. "Computer, take R2 out of service until the Martian maintenance."
        "Acknowledged." Another robot dragged it off to storage, and a third started noisily cleaning up the mess.
        I went to the commons, which right now was a restaurant with robot waiters and robot cooks and about a hundred naked women. I thought "I'm going to start inspecting cargo at meal time!" Not that these girls eat much, except the fat blonde with the German accent. They slept more than anything.
        "Attention," I yelled. They ignored me, the din continued. I pulled out my fone and addressed the PA, they can't ignore that.
        "Attention, ladies, who lives in number seven?"
        "That's Crystal," one of them said.
        "Where is she?"
        "I don't know. Oh, there she is," she said as another woman walked in.
        "Where have you been?" I demanded. "You're supposed to go to the commons when your quarters catch fire."
        "What?" she said, startled. "My quarters caught fire? I was in Leslie's cabin and got hungry. Is my stuff okay?"
        What stuff? "Yeah, the only thing that burned was the maid."
        "Good, I hate that noisy damned thing! Robot, I want a ham and cheese sandwich and a chocolate shake."
        I finished inspection by one thirty and was starved by then. Destiny called. "Where are you? I'm starved," she said.
        "Walking back to our apartment," I said. Oh, shut up you two, that's what I said. I told you I don't want that "professional" shit, I ain't no God damned professional.
        We had pizza and beer and watched an ancient comedy called Blazing Saddles and I didn't understand a lot of it, but some parts were funny. Destiny thought it was hilarious, and told me to read some history.

First, I want to thank you folks for your suggestions, although I didn't see them until I logged in this morning. The answer came to me last night when I was sitting on my porch with a beer in my hand and several in my gut.

The answer was simple and I don't know why I hadn't already thought of it, maybe I should drink more. I hacked out maybe 500 words, about half a chapter that will go between the present chapters 9 and 10. I'll post it when there's more than a skeleton, tomorrow is chapter 24.

And the answer was something you guys have probably seen way too many times at work -- corporate bureaucracy and lack of communications. What I wrote last night had the CEO chewing out the head of scheduling, a women with a BS in math who had only taken one physics class, and the head of finance, who held an MBA.

Stopping the boat a couple of times (like to help Captain Kelly) and detours around meteors didn't hurt.

As to the CEO, I have to apologize to you folks for something that may be a bit confusing; I'm changing the CEO's name.

The first germ of an idea for this book came last spring when I was sitting in the beer garden at Felber's talking to a couple of guys about Nobots. I hadn't realized that the patrons there were more literate than the general population, probably half of them read Nobots when I published it.

A few crack whores were walking down the street (it's a pretty bad neighborhood with plenty of characters who make fodder for fiction), and Dewey laughed and said "you ought to write a book about whores in space." I'd never seen a book with space whores, so it might be a unique idea, and writing a book about whores without it being pornography was a challenge.

A few days ago, Dewey said he wanted to be in the book, so I named the CEO after him, even though the Dewey Green in the story is nothing like the real Dewey.

War in La Jolla, eighth year, twelfth(a) entry

It would just never occur to you...

You would just never expect...

You had just never even seen anything like that before...

Waco, TX. The local sherriff had just never heard anything like that before. Some lady showing up out of the blue, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, telling horrifying tales of eating green eggs for money distribution and holding breakfast devouring contests with eggo and dogs in the back room. So they show up at the door to the little apartment and to ask, umm, maybe you could tell us a little more about the teachings here in your church, just help us figure out how maybe we could help you with the rest of the town, and HOLY SH*T the whole place goes up like 4th of July.

You spend twelve years finding better graphics for Pac-Man, from Atari through the arcades up to all the different Mario Nintendos and into the 2k millenium with carts and 3-D sonic racing, trying to impress somebody for a first kiss with your high score. It would just nevet occur to you that they do their kids up with their dogs near right away and they're all chipped and wired. Would just never occur to you.

And, lately...

You would just never expect that the chipped and wired crew is lining up with children, waiting around the corner to brutally rectally rape the young child and then bring the screaming toddler or pre-ado to face-off with the homeless man at just the right moments, at just the exact right time, at some meaningful and purposeful window frame of events. Because they thought you liked it. You would just never expect that sort of directed hate and spite weapon, would just never occur to you.

Obviously, if I ever mentioned to the police that, on all four occasions that I have ever seen a particular woman, the three year old blond boy with her looks as if he's been recently broomsticked, and on the three previous occasions you heard the little boy screaming in the women's toilet for minutes beforehand. Obviously, if I ever mentioned to the police that I was concerned for abuse, I would be then be considered a risk and threat to the people around me and I would need to be evaluated by the doctors.

On the previous meeting with the police, the first words from ofc. Reinhold upon exiting his vehicle and approaching me,"There is no conspiracy of people waiting with dogs to make you mad". Just like my pretend street friends going into immediate flaming mode over the $10 sack of herbage they owe me, not even thinking to talk of the weather or the current state of sidewalk and traffic. So, what you're telling me is that there is a conspiracy of people waiting around the corner to make me mad? Then, later, during the handcuffed interview, ofc. Reinhold asks of me,"Do you know what a cabal is?" I immediately and completely spaced the question and returned nothing but a stupid blank look, so ofc. Reinhold glossed the question and continued on as if he hadn't asked. He's willing to testify in court that I admitted to sleeping on the walkway...

I'm willing to testify in court that the little blond boy will likely never speak any real language, having been abused so often for this vendetta that he sounds like Superman's Non.

http://mapfortu.wikidot.com/

ofc. Reinhold also, during the in-cruiser assessment and interview, offered to joke,"Your race, you're black, aren't you?" There is no cabal, and to say anything of conspiracy requires psychological evaluation.

In jail, along with mapfortu's recent discussion of characteristic traits of jail time, was also amusing to me that the soap never really turned hot. I could whip the soap for an hour, two three times daily, allow it to dry open air (to take on oxygen and bleach the surface), and whip it again in the morning, and the soap never really turned hot. Sure, I am whipping this with a spoon in a milk carton without any rocks for the press: I know what hot soap is. Whatever the scale is, full percentage or tenth or even hundredth percentage point, whatever the scale is the atmosphere is totally low oxygen. Settle quickly with your opponent on your way to court, take the plea bargain, you'll suffocate if you wish to feel you have grounds to argue with the attorney about your race.

Continuing entertainment when the cow-stick (caustic, mummy baby in the bread box, the cash cow delivery to hell and back again) began pulling the wax from the inside of the milk carton. I have had waxy soap before (led me to contemplate the joke down to hell, we've tried pressing them to bricks, tried rolling them to dogs, tried taking them apart and putting them back together in every which way, Melchizedek is going to sew you into horses and poke you into soap! that's Elmer on the glue bottle, but nowadays they so fat and blubbery that they don't even make good wax, greasy dirty wax, and then not even wax at all, but maybe fatty oil if you wick the bottle, and then the fatty oil is so greasy that it's midnight black to the ceiling... these people so far gone, and all the progressions of the levels to the bottom where they pit now, the same three thousand miles and seven bible years away as any other. I have had waxy soap before, it may not lather as much, but it continues to be hot. The soap I poked in jail never managed to achieve any semblance of hot.

I'm having a math and physics problem: math and physics is getting in the way of the plot in Mars, Ho!

I originally thought it would be a six month trip, but math got in the way since they were getting gravity from propulsion. So I shortened it to a two month trip, and to do that I had to have Earth and Mars on opposite sides of the sun -- but orbital mechanics makes waiting shorten the time.

The best bad way around it I can see is a little hand-waving, with the captain wondering why the company didn't wait a week to launch. But I'm not satisfied with this. Does anybody have any ideas?

War in La Jolla, eighth year, twelfth entry

I yet do not really have much time to spend on the accounts, and the wikispaces material cannot be modified without moving it to an entirely new provider. Oh to have a real interface, like ssh and local shells.

Samson's riddle, nerve agent and seahorses, a result of ploughing with the heifers. Do not in particular blame the models, they are doing you a favor, at least half your own fault for never dropping your voice, just the way things must be. If anything, you could argue with them about the sheer amount of nerve agent which they are slinging around like beer batter; but that's how far down the world has sunk. There was, at one time, a particular numerical individual method to the madness for each and every single point, but that was so long ago, and now is mostly a flat-out mudslinging contest for fun and games, and it all works out the same in the end by the time the numbers are counted up and resolved down in hell anyway.

From the readings earlier this week to today's gospel, in particular. If you have the light of the world, if you have actually made it, then how great will the light be; you never really stop improving until you grow your wings back and suck your butt to the dome to feel the sun again. If you do not have the light, then how great will the darkness be, like, in particular, exactly how many micro-injuries, in particular, exactly how far out of joint for each member of the spine, in particular, exactly how many points of nerve agent and seahorses have you accumulated? There was, at one time, an exact numerical count and an exact reason and purpose for each and every single one, but now the whole operates as a blender and the map for the passover lamb is really the only near logarithmic chart to the mountain of numbers running today. Naboth and his vineyard, that's similar to Naaman from Syria, the last of the maharajas at the time when the Hebrew doctors were beginning to perfect the uses of nerve agent by adding to his cobra bite. Naboth's vineyard is the well of nerve agent just up from Aladdin's lamp on the thumb. Ahaz's castle, on the other hand, is a descendant of Jacob's well, the woman at the well, greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well?, what's wrong with your hand? So Jezebel takes care of the issue one way or another and the money counted up by the specific exact placement and conviction for each and every point of nerve agent on the shoulder by the wrist becomes part of the kingdom managed by Israel. "Oh, Maharaja, you look so sad and tired, let me check your pulse and temperature, and Jezebel over there will start working on your elbow... now how in the world did the cobra bite you so far up your arm? You'll never make it..."

The bigs oppressed the small, the gumbies coming in from the fields from the real women, and then the bigs became so good at oppressing the small that they set up a production line to generate new smalls, all with delicately designed injuries and ladders keeping them as smalls, and then all the bigs got knocked out and went to hell from their own idiocies, den-up and lair-n-get-us or get drunk chasing chickens knocked out by a tree picked up by the phairie or, later, this isn't the stupidest thing you'll ever do in your life it's a great way to make money! Now the world is full of nothing but the model town smalls, and in the model town, they've all been models to begin with anyway.

http://mapfortu.wikidot.com/

Interesting article: http://evolver.fm/2012/10/04/guest-opinion-why-24192-music-downloads-make-no-sense/

War in La Jolla, eighth year, eleventh entry

The pretend street friends have become extraordinarily easy to identify and work over. In normal life there are many interests and hobbies, paths of conversation and paths of "did that one get ya?" innuendos over the course of daily chatter. Once the idolatries have been stripped away then the remaining important items of conversation are sugar and herbage, mainly. Fifo2ed includes a discussion about "air moved in prayer" and the legitimacy of other topics of conversation. The pretend street friends have left to them only the hooks of sugar and herbage, and my diet is mainly my own and carefully protected. A long-running play on herbage has been to gain my association as a possible convenience store (supplier of herbage), then wait for a pre-pay, and then balk, for weeks on end. The most reliable method for me to glean the excuses out of the entire town is to pre-pay a $10 bag of herb. Has nearly never failed. They pre-spend the $10 and, as usual, I wait for weeks to see so much as a flake while the convenience store individual continues to make up whatever irrational excuses. No big deal to me. Perfect opportunity to exercise my preferences.

For example, when dealing with my convenience store, I do not prefer to announce to the entire world in large conversations that I am buying a $10 sack of herbage. I am not hiding my affinity for marijuana, but it is not a flaming component of my topical personality. I walk into convenience store, I buy a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of soda, and a $10 sack of herb. I do not stand and go flaming conversationalist about my bottle of Mt. Dew. I do not turn into hours long flaming conversationalist about my pack of cigarettes. Why would I go flaming conversation about my $10 sack of herbage? I don't. They do. Every time. It's pathetic. In the past I have attempted to assist them, by beginning with the usual topics of converatiion, weather, lunch, how's things?, etc., with all of the appropriate opportunity for the convenience store clerk to indicate whether supply is up or down, in or out, open or closed.

The pretend friends, however, make enormous grandeuristic displays about such minor technicalities as the size of the stock on the shelf, or the delivery schedule of the truck at the back door. I am the _CUSTOMER_. I do not give a sh_t about the delivery schedule of the truck at the back door. No customer ever does. Sure, maybe if the clerk and I spend time over weeks talking about weather and how's things? then perhaps some day it may be a passing news item that the delivery schedule of the truck at the back door is on or off. The pretend street friends, however, having only herbage remaining to them as their hook, have absolutely no concept of normal conversation. They have always been dead zeroed in on using every $5, $10, or even pinch of herb as a hook and line to try and create the kill scene. They have been, to each individual one, completely incapable of maintaining any pretends of normal personality or interests aside from flogging me over bud every time they see me.

Stupid. Just stupid.

http://mapfortu.wikidot.com/

Be sure to check mapfortu's journal here on Slashdot for running current updates to the material. Similar to commercial slots to present the episode of books.

Junk
        I felt pretty good the next day when I woke up. Destiny was still asleep, so I started coffee, told the robot to make breakfast and no robot coffee, damn it! And took a shower.
        Huh? Bacon, eggs, and hash browns for two. Destiny would be awake by the time I got out of the shower. Huh? Why? Over easy. Christ, guys! What difference does it make how the God damned eggs are cooked?
        She was just waking up as I got dressed. "Hungry?" I asked. "I made coffee and the robots are making breakfast."
        "I'll probably be hungry when my stomach wakes up. What time is it?"
        "About seven thirty, we have a half hour before I have to go to work."
        "Is the coffee done?"
        "It should be by now, I started it before I got in the shower."
        "Well, I guess I'll get up, then," she said grinning, and got up.
        She put the news on the video... or is that "olds" since it's the same old shit? There was something on it about pirates, they had arrested thirty after a firefight on Earth, and fifty pirates and twenty policemen died. Hell, I killed hundreds of the bastards just throwing rocks at 'em. And only the bad guys died.
        Stupid news.
        Destiny I weren't paying attention to it anyway. Five 'til eight I went to the pilot room to make sure we weren't going too fast or too slow or the wrong way and started my inspections.
        There was arguing coming from the commons, damn it. I stopped and called Destiny. "Hon, could you call Tammy and have her handle these crazy women?"
        "Sure, what are they doing?"
        "They act like they need drops."
        "Okay, I'll call her."
        I decided to inspect the commons last. I didn't need a dropless whore.
        For once the cargo didn't give me any trouble in inspection; they were all asleep and the doorbells didn't wake them up.
        Odd, what with the commotion in the commons.
        When I went into the passenger section there was a funny smell in number eighteen. Burning insulation, it smelled like. I got out fast and pulled out my fone; systems should have seen that and fixed it already.
        "Computer, fire in number eighteen."
        "There is no fire in cargo eighteen."
        "PASSENGER eighteen you stupid computer!"
        "There is no fire in..." There was an explosion in eighteen! Shit!
        "Computer," I said as alarms went off. "Report."
        "Fire in passenger eighteen" it said as the door light flashed red. "Fire suppression technologies in play."
        Damned computer. "Cause of fire?" It had smelled like an electrical short circuit to me, ozone and burned plastic. They don't make these boats like they used to. This was the third damned fire on this ship! It wasn't a brand new boat, thank God, or the damned robots would talk. But the ones with three generators, the old ones that got retrofitted with fusion generators, almost never had electrical problems.
        "Unknown at this time," the stupid computer said. Stupid computer, something shorted out and a fuse should have blown but didn't. Same as the port generator, it should have shut itself down before it caught fire and melted lots of the parts.
        I decided to investigate later. "Computer, do not repair until ordered by me. Continue fire suppression and keep the door locked.
        "Acknowledged," it said. Why do them damned things talk like that? I'm glad my robots are old, I hate talking robots.
        Well, except that the old ones catch fire. That's never any fun.
        I inspected the good generator, the ion engines, and the messed up generator. One robot was working on engine One Thirty Two and I noted it in the log.
        Back at P18 the light was no longer flashing, so I went in. Yep, a burned up panel. I opened it, it was fried; something had shorted. I logged it.
        This shit didn't use to happen on old boats.
        I went to the commons and finally inspected it. The commotion was over.
        I went home and had lunch with Destiny. "What was going on in the commons?" I asked.
        "Thieves. You read Tammy's book, most of these girls had criminal parents and stealing is normal for them. Well, there were about fifty of them that had all their drops stolen and were in the commons accusing each other of stealing, when the thieves were all asleep. Tammy took care of it."
        "I'm sure glad we have her," I said.
        "Me too," she agreed. "Do you have to work this afternoon?"
        "I hope not. Not unless something breaks or the whores act up or pirates attack or..."
        "Okay," she said laughing. "I get it. Want to watch something?"
        "Sure. Pick something."
        "How about..." she started before an alarm went off.
        "You jinxed me," I said, grinning. "Damned dropheads!"
        It was another fire, this time in P19. Why in the hell are unoccupied quarters powered? It don't make no sense. It's a fire hazard, especially the shitty way they build boats these days, glad I didn't get a brand new one. I'll bet they're even worse than this one, and it's only ten years old.
        But it wasn't a real fire, just a drill, there only to waste my free time and annoy me. I have enough real emergencies that I don't need no drills. The company's programmers are idiots.

War in La Jolla, eighth year, tenth entry

The MRI cannon is reading the words to some, the keyboard sniffer is relaying the words to others. The constant framing and mapping complex inside the sphinx. Box dropping on every event. Give another BEEP. BEEP could be anything as described in the Jericho and System sections of BSM. The games section of FIfo2ed was created to move away from the daily grind of the mob and describe their operation on the society in general.

When I give to you all the plague, when the tower of babel is finished, when we move from the ninth to the tenth Egyptian plague, the gemstones and pearls will likely not be anywhere near the top of my list of items to recover. I began the mine cart service only incidentally.

In the audio world there are the front mains, then surround and THX. In the neuro world there are the frontal lobes, then there is all of this world. The world did not begin as a farm for the bugs and dogs in hell. The world began as a terrarium with vegetative life, meat life, griffons, and bugs. The meat life developed an inferiority complex someplace. The world went to hell in a handbasket several times over, flipped upside down on its hands, tore of its own wings, resolved itself as drunks, and then began hacking and stripping on all of the trees. Then the world went to the dogs, then the dogs got kicked outside, then the dogs got convicted to the fortresses of the bugs. Then things got ugly and the motor-powered chainsaw came to be. Then the trees got blamed for the dogs, the bugs got boarded up down in the sub-basement, then the last of the real ladies ran out. The monkey chain gangs pressing paper taught you not to throw things out with the bathwater a long time ago, and now those are all the new sons of heaven you have; notice you do not make daughters of heaven in a similar fashion until after the drunks have taught to you all of the idiot games to be played around the firepit; good things the monkeys taught you how to wrap things up and heat them up a long time ago, now those are all the new ones you have left, and the older ones boil like an egg if you try to fix them that way. The pharaohs and neurosurgeons working on sequential neurorevolvers already know this, games to be played after missing, skipping, and dropping over completely rival anything the drunks have done in the juice pits next to the fire, and all of the sewing games, training games, make him walk and talk while knocked out games, those are all old tricks by the time, which time?, the time when the ladies ran out and the bathwater new ones are the only new ones you have. The end of Ninevah on the top-side of the trees, because now it's the motor-powered chainsaw and blaming the trees for the long lost dogs, all the bugs boarded up in hell, and the world moves only according to the money earned from the bugs in the basement using the bread box delivery system, like a push-button washer-dryer with Cinder-El-la's carriage inside. Mummy baby gets to go to hell, if he's a good prophet he'll tell you about it, if not he'll go with the rest of you. Motor-powered chainsaw cuts the trees down to the sand in less than a heartbeat, the book of Genesis ends as an attempt to end the madness and send everybody to hell once and for all. Gad wakes up a few thousand later. The Reader's Guide to the Sphinx.

By the time the motor-powered chainsaw cuts through the trees there already exist seven layers of human algae salad in denial, the entirety of the population is already walking paper routes between boxes, doing it the wrong way, making up excuses, going to hell. Particularly distasteful but very true Hollywood analogy: the end of the movie "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", where the possible escaping prophet is squeezing out nerve agent and seahorses, wounds in all the key locations, half-crazy from the idiot mobs (as Abram and Mel looked out from Sodom and Gomorrah with the Lord, nothing but Amorites and Perrizites covered the plain... ahem. ahem, ahem), and the mad massacre-er with the chainsaw continues to play on the background, unstoppable, incurable.

Consider the technological progression of paper, soap, thread, baklava, sewing combinations with human and sub-human body parts, mummified babies, cover-ups, scripts, scams, schemes, shell games, lies, all of that's so completely explored and exhausted and beaten to death by then, and that's before the trees hit the sand. Consider the movie Mary Poppins. Look, stupid, there is a remote control stage bird in that movie. That one is not a computer animation on the film. That is a real living moving remote control bird right there in that movie Mary Poppins. That was then. This is now. That bird right there would be enough excuse for anybody in the world from more than twenty feet and you know very well that it is a remote control bird right there in that movie. THEY HAVE ALL OF THE REMOTE CONTROL BIRDS, STUPID. Real life feathers are more like griffons. Your spouse is your interface to the remainder of the universe, not always entirely useful, but takes care of even those smallest of tasks that you just cannot perform. That is your spouse. Trees espouse birds with feathers. Real bird brains lay eggs. Real bird brains. When the tree espouses well enough then you have a self-packaging bird man, more than a simple layer of eggs. Then the bird-men get bored, stupid, lazy, and it all goes to hell from there. A long long long long long long time ago.

http://mapfortu.wikidot.com/

My employer pretty-well insisted that I get a certification. They went so far as to pay for the training and the first exam attempt.

To that end, I'm working on GCUX through SANS. So far, so good. It's pretty interesting.

From what I'm reading about how to prepare for the exam itself, it would be to my benefit to prepare a thorough index- something in the area of 30-50 pages long. O_O

Does anyone have any experience with that sort of thing? How does one know what should be in the index and what should not?

Golf
        "You've been practicing, boss."
        "Putting," the CEO replied. "Been practicing putting, that's where I'm weak at this game. First time I ever beat you, Bob."
        "Well, Charlie, I was a little off today. And you only beat me by one stroke," Bob said. "That was a great hole three, you eagled that one."
        "I got lucky on the initial drive. Bartender, two beers. Guinness draft, please. Bob, you're paying for a change! Oh, bartender, a couple shots of your best scotch, too."
        Bob laughed. "Well, that was the deal. Maybe we should try some zero G golf sometime."
        "Zero G? Damn, Bob, I'm not twenty any more. That's a young man's sport. Besides, I hate space."
        "Really? You run a shipping company and hate space?"
        "No, I just hate traveling in it. You did pretty good on number two or I'd have done even better against you. How are we doing on the sabotage front?"
        "Come on, we're just starting. You can't just solve a complex problem like that in a few days. Did you finish that report Knolls wrote?"
        "No, I got sidetracked by the book Doctor Winters' wrote that Knolls mentioned in his report. Damn, we need to check cargo closer, that book was horrible. I'm sure glad the charity sent her, it might have been catastrophic otherwise.
          "Then I read the report she made to her charity. I'll finish Knolls' report when we get back from 'lunch'."
        "How did you get Doctor Winters' report? She works for the charity, not for us."
        The CEO smiled. "Don't be stupid, Bob."
        "So, how much of Knolls' report have you read?"
        "Past where he saved her life. You know, Bob, you have a terrible taste in literature. Knolls couldn't write his way out of a paper bag and you enjoyed it? Damn, man."
        Bob shrugged. "We were sure lucky the charity sent Doctor Winters."
        "Yes, we were. Like I said. And Knolls was even luckier, and is probably glad he had her and the whores, he'd have been a dead man, and probably Kelly as well. Nobody expected what happened."
        He continued. "Have you talked to Human Resources to see about training a replacement for Knolls?"
        "Of course. I hate to replace him, especially with a greenie. Some of the maneuvers and weapon use he displayed in his second encounter with the pirates should go into our training manuals. "
        "Yes, he was a damned good captain. The company will miss him."
        "Well, I intent to try and talk him out of retirement."
        "Good luck with that! If you succeed you're the world's greatest salesman. I'm taking the afternoon off today, Charlie, I want to be refreshed and rested for the board meeting Monday. Do you want to shoot another nine?"
        "Sorry, Bob, I can't. I should have gotten back earlier, I want to finish reading Knolls' report, and I have a meeting with Richardson from engineering. I'm that close to firing that dumb son of a bitch. That was a hell of a boner he pulled, and I'm sure glad you brought the matter to my attention."
        "Hell, if I hadn't we should have both been fired!" the underling said, smiling, as if that was ever likely; between the two of them they owned 63% of all company stock.
        The CEO laughed. "Yeah," he agreed, "we should have! Look, Bob, enjoy the afternoon and I'll see you Monday morning. Like I said, I have to get going."
        "See you, Boss. Bartender, can I get another beer?"