a place to put short bits I am trying to get out from between my ears so I can get back to what I think of as the main project of the moment?

Mabye even things I think might elicit comments where my present work does not?

No, this wasn't on my posted list of stories that I was working on. This is that other story that I mentioned. For now, let's set the scene and introduce some of the characters.

I was pretty sure that DW already qualified for the "Doorstopper" page on All The Tropes. I was all set to list the story, until I saw that fan works are divided by length... so I had to go count words.

Good thing Notepad++ tells me how many lines or characters are in a file. So... copy the text (not the titles, credits, formatting, or page dress) from the chapter pages on Bob's website, strip out the leading and trailing blanks and the blank lines, then replace each space with a newline. That isn't be exact (each dash get its own line, for example), but it's close enough to "one line = one word" for private sector work.*

Add up the number of lines, plug the numbers into a readable paragraph, and here's what I just added to ATT:

Quote:''Drunkard's Walk II'' is complete at just over 320k words, and ''Drunkard's Walk V'' is complete at just over 171k words. As of December 2019, ''Drunkard's Walk S'', ''Drunkard's Walk VIII'', and ''Drunkard's Walk XIII'' were still in progress: ''S'' at about 42.5k words in 2 chapters, ''VIII'' at 116.8k words in 4 chapters, and ''XIII'' at 23k words in one chapter. The other nine arcs do not have any published chapters as of December 2019, but there are five "Steplets" with 7.3k words between them. And none of these numbers include the various concordances. So... one story in many arcs, over have of which are completely unpublished, with over 680k words so far in what has seen the light of day.

So it's election time at last and the government that was never meant to last the year has rumbled on for nearly three.
But it's time to put pencil to paper once more.

The way things stand at the moment.
The Labour Party suffers from being the junior coalition partner too many times and making pledges it has to compromise away.
Soc-Dems are - vibrant among people I know. Never had the chance to fuckup in power.
Greens - may lack a sense of reality. (I'll argue against carbon taxes for one specific reason)
Sinn Fein are just that bit too sinister.
People Before Profit - not enough sanity. Too much screaming.
Fianna Fail - The Party of Landowners and Businessmen.
Fine Gael - The Party of Businessmen and Landowners.

Currently the state of the nation is as follows:
Insurance costs are spiralling out of control forcing many important local businesses such as creches, play centres, activity centres, community centres and the like to close their doors. It's taking the colour and happiness out of life and just adding more and more to the sense of being utterly leeched. Or, for that matter, the majority of the people who can't afford a home near suitable public transport and instead get fleeced for the privelege of owning a car.
Speeking of leeches, rents are through the roof because of an unwillingness to actively tackle shit like AirBnB, or to build social housing.
The Childrens hospital is massively overbudget thanks to the tender process being utterly fucking munged. Awarding a tender based solely on price gets you the contractor with a reputation of bidding 'below cost' and shafting you with every hole in the spec they can find. For billions.
The public health service is turning into an utter omnifuck - they can't even do a managed decline properly.
The government refuses to pay doctors, nurses and other critical public servants a worthy wage, while top-loading departments with useless suits in offices.
The government utterly refuses to pay the military, to the point where both morale, and actual effectiveness is utterly collapsing. This has already caused deaths.
They gloat about a 1 billion surplus for a rainy day - rather than investing it on one-time critical expenditures that might bring value in the future. Okay, I get the idea of rainy day fund given how heavy things are leverages with corporation tax receipts but at the same time it's not good saving money that *must* be spent on fixing critical failures. Those things just end up costing more in the long run.
They recognise the government is overeliant on one source of tax - and are still talking about cutting taxes anyway to make it even more reliant.
On the positives, employment is high and the statistics on paper look good - but that hides a lot of simmering discontent. People have work, but it's costing far more to go to work and wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living.

It's a government that knows the cost of fucking everything, but the value of nothing. Even people.

----

On the other hand, the current Dail as a whole should at least be commended for not turning itself into an utter laughing stock like the neighbours did. A minority government managed to ride through Brexit with the support of the opposition because - inspite of the above - Brexit represented a far bigger danger to the State so they knuckled in and made it work, and got what is possibly the best outcome for the State given the circumstances.
----

Speaking of the date.

An amusing consequence is that the Register of Electors updates on the 15th of February every year. The Election is scheduled for the 8th.

So people who've registered to vote in the last year may not be fully on it - not without re-applying to the draft register. A process which requires photo -ID and a visit to a cop-shop. to get a form signed. And which has to be posted and received by the 22nd of this month.

A cheeky way of excluding everyone who'se turned 18 in the last year?

If this happened in the States there'd be howls of disenfranchisement. It was widely reported on the news but cop-shops aren't that common outside of urban areas anymore.

----

And of course, the first day of campaigning the City Council decides to use an excavator to clear out a homeless man's tent. Without waking him up in the process.
Suffice to say he's suffered 'Life-changing injuries'. News-speak for anything from Feeding Tube to Fuck-Ugly scars. the homeless crisis has dogged the government for the last three years and continues to worsen - not to mention the Taoiseach's attempt to spin the blame to the city mayor and politicise the issue going down like a 737


He's misfired every single day of the campaign so far.

---

But step foreward Paddy Holohan - former MMA fighter and suspended Sinn Fein party member who's been saying naughty things on a podcast

About the Taoiseach not being a family many

And about underage girls.

He's gone into the party disciplinary process.They'll boot him for sure - even if I gurarantee he's only saying what the majority of their voters think, the rest of 'em are smart enough not to say it.

.

Just over three weeks to go and god knows what the fuck'll happen. A hung dail is a possibility - unfortunately not meaning what you might think it does - or some form of coalition between one of the bigger parties and a small party that thinks, this time it'll be different and they won't get fucked over like all the other small parties in coalition. A minority with a confidence and supply agreement is also possible but -  it's gotten really hard to call what'll happen.

On paper the economy is doing well and the numbers are good - but the actual results for people aren't materialising. The tide is rising but the boats are sinking. And the government seems more and more out of touch with reality with every passing day.

yeah, I know no one here is guilty of this, except on the receiving end...

ANYWHO...  (and yeah, Bob, feel free to delete this when you see it?)

spent the last 3? 4? days chatting with someone.  then, in the last 2-3 hours the whole context, and the way they typed changed.  And this person both a) did not understand that I was AWARE of this,and b) would call them on this apparent substitution?  



*sigh*


and people wonder why I no longer trust the Interwebs


(wanders off in frustration.  Maybe I can write?)

So for this outing I was a stuffed toy or toon hedgehog in a 3d open-map pseudo-platformer/action RPG - not the blue one, a vaguely realistic light brown, mostly quadrupedal except when having hands would be useful for buttons and levers or trapeze swings etc., and shaped vaguely like a VW Beetle if one was a rubbery toon character that ran instead of rolled. This character had a name, but I can't remember what except that it did specifically include the word "hedgehog."

Accompanying me was a sidekick/"friend"/inverted escort-NPC Cabbie, a hot rod taxicab like in an old (WB?) cartoon I vaguely remember (most of which was spent as a chopped and dropped hot rod rebelling against his taxicab father) or the (Disney) Cars franchise, similarly small and brown and vaguely shaped like a larger, four door VW Beetle but very fast, and who is prone to getting board and running around the whole map at high speed, drawing aggro and setting off traps. This serves as the mechanism for the game's variable difficulty, as if he's far away this is useful but the closer he stays the more trouble it causes, and and the faster you go or the closer you get to the finish point the closer he tends to stick by, along with however many enemies he's gotten chasing him and not caught in traps.

This seemed like a very cool idea as a simultaneous observer even as it was annoying as a participant, and I was resentfully following a trail of footprints and face billboards left by Bonkers D Bobcat (also Disney) through a set of jumping puzzles to avoid all that on the ground for a fast time and bonus items, but had my typical amount of success with that much hated game mechanic and wandered off to consult with a couple of other world-hopping transmigration SIs in the forms of Shattered Glass Ravage (Transformers) and one of the few junior- and high-school classmates I wouldn't mind seeing again, while I T-1000 shifted into a fantasy-anime-elf-ish form, except we then got sidetracked into a discussion of insulting "trutharians" (in the form of a cult following various revelations, rather than the scientific methods of most RL examples of people claiming that title I searched up) and controlling what your next reincarnation would be and when it would awaken to past lives, which woke me up with its induced sense of falseness and pretense.

Because even in my dreams I can not have nice things, apparently. Mekton Zeta+-system Shapeshifter has been my latest "if I was getting an issekai protagonist blessing, I'd ask for..." concept, boiling down to "Bio-Energy poewered Oid with Morphable Mekton, then abusing Material Absorption, Dimensional Storage, and Expanding Plasma to get around the CP and mass limits" if you're familiar enough with the system to have that mean something. Space Magic nanotech shapeshifter only limited by how much I've consumed and stored for resources, basically, if not. Awesome enough to put up with an issekai fantasy mission from god over, certainly, and even be courteous enough to respect said god's preferences for how much tech to (not) introduce to their anachronistic fantasy planet until the mission is done and I could set myself up an FTL or Dimensional Teleport system to leave and go explore space/alternate universes/etc.

The bit with the variably helpful AI sidekick as difficulty control was the interesting part though, and what I wanted to talk about. Awake it still seems like a very cool idea and a way to avert the classic platformer "memorize each twitch on the controller for a perfect run" syndrome unless you're specifically following the bonus path, corralling enemies and keeping them occupied or outright eliminating them (Cabbie always zips past or through traps unharmed, unlike them and the player) more the longer and more often they give the player trouble, but awake the problem of actually getting that bahavior to work even with copious game-designer cheating by making the enemies go along with it seems like it would be challenging at best.

Still, it does sound like a nifty idea, and one I've never seen done... but I'm not much of a video gamer, especially not an action gamer as I didn't have the reflexes even before I started getting a severe case of numb-thumbs if I hold a controller for more than a few minutes. Has anyone else seen something similar, or have any thoughts on setting it up?

K-On! Meets Electric Light Orchestra

As several people pointed out in the comments, the synchronization here is amazingly superb — especially the movements of Yui's mouth to the refrain, "Whamalamabamalama, rock'n'roll is king," but it starts as early as the first drumbeats matched to when Ritsu brings the sticks down.

Sorry. Can't let this one pass as just part of the "Cursed Thread". 

Neil Peart, the lyricist and drummer for Rush, passed away on Tuesday - announced on Friday. Geddy, Lee and the rest of his family kept it private for 3 days. A class move to allow Neil's family to grieve in private for at least a little while before the world came crashing in. 

Rush was all about class moves, really - all three of them. Virtuosos, professionals, decent caring human souls all. A true rarity in the business.

I am gutted. Rush is my favorite rock band of all time. They were great from beginning to end. I only saw one show - but it was awesome - I got to see them on their Hold Your Fire tour in 86 (87?).

I was so glad when they finally - FINALLY - got inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 2013. They were already well-respected by their peers. By the late 90s, Peart was commonly referred to as "The Professor". Not just because of his way with words and lyrics, but because every other drummer in the business could learn something from him. 

He was your favorite drummer's favorite drummer. 

I was semi-gutted when Neal retired from the band - and apparently from drumming - at the end of their last tour in 2015.

Speaking of which. It's a wonder the band didn't die in 1997. When Neil's daughter Selena was killed in a car wreck. His wife died less than a year later of cancer. Neil went on sabbatical. Riding his motorcycle tens of thousands of miles criss-crossing North America trying to make sense of it all and his place in the world. Finally he found his answer. A second love in his life, and a renewed sense of purpose for the band, and he notified Geddy and Alex he was ready to start again. Their next album was released in 2001. As well as a book he wrote called "Ghost Rider" about his travels both physical and emotional. 

I always hoped they might get back together for one last studio album. Even if they never toured.

But drumming DOES take it's toll. He was fighting arthritis. (So was Alex) It's not uncommon for hard-hitting drummers who reach that age. Yeah - no wonder he retired. He'd never accept anything less from himself than absolute perfection - and if he couldn't reach that consistently, it was time to hang it up. Also just being on the road for tours for so long. He wanted to spend more time with his (second) wife and child. And I totally respected that.

Going out on top of your game - well there's an absolute integrity to that.

Neal was always incredibly private. Some fans even thought he was stand-offish. Where Alex and Geddy would willingly entertain the fans gladly. But Neal summed it up - "I cannot pretend a stranger is a long lost friend." He was all about realness and integrity.

Best damn rock drummer ever. And the deepest lyrics master. He also wrote several books beyond Ghost Rider. Which I never got around to reading. I feel obligated to do so now.

We were fortunate to have Rush's music and Neil drove so much of it. And there is SO MUCH OF IT. So many rock musicians and bands only have about a 5-15 year span where they are good before burning out or something else happens.

Rush endured for FORTY-FIVE YEARS. There are 20 albums of original material! About 8-10 Live show albums. Compilations. Videos. 

SO many albums. Every single one of them can be listened to end-to-end and - as far as I'm concerned - not a bad song among them. At their worst - in their very earliest years - they sounded a bit of a Zeppelin knock-off. But then - EVERY band was trying to be the next Zeppelin in the mid-70s.

I think they shook that off when Neil joined them. BOOM. "The Professor" had arrived. And nothing was ever the same again. 

"We are only immortal for a limited time."  I think Neil's immortality may last a little longer than he may have expected. He left a deep mark.

One final note: 

The lyrics of "The Garden"  -  When you read these lyrics. When you listen to this. When you know the context it was written in - the placement of this as the very last song of the very last Rush studio album Clockwork Angels. Well - It simply CAN'T be coincidence. This was Rush's goodbye to their fans. And I can't help but think it was Neil's own personal goodbye. To the fans. To his friends. To his brothers and bandmates. 


THE GARDEN

In this one of many possible worlds, all for the best, or some bizarre test?
It is what it is – and whatever
Time is still the infinite jest

The arrow flies when you dream, the hours tick away – the cells tick away
The Watchmaker keeps to his schemes
The hours tick away – they tick away

The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect
So hard to earn, so easily burned
In the fullness of time
A garden to nurture and protect

In the rise and the set of the sun
‘Til the stars go spinning – spinning ’round the night
It is what it is – and forever
Each moment a memory in flight

The arrow flies while you breathe, the hours tick away – the cells tick away
The Watchmaker has time up his sleeve
The hours tick away – they tick away

The treasure of a life is a measure of love and respect
The way you live, the gifts that you give
In the fullness of time
It’s the only return that you expect

The future disappears into memory
With only a moment between
Forever dwells in that moment
Hope is what remains to be seen

Hey L.A. by Smash Mouth