Blue Ghost's thoughts on sci-fi

[sabredog]

To me the appeal of science fiction has always been the nagging feeling that I was born in the wrong time. I always used to say I joined the Air Force because the Navy doesn't use sails and black powder anymore, and my endless years of fencing and combat pistol/rifle competition reflects my yearning for a simpler time, when there were unexplored lands to, er - explore, and savage animals to classify. Duels to be fought for honor,enemies to smite, and damsels to rescue.

I grew up reading musty old tomes containing the thrilling tales of Sir Richard Burton, Horatio Nelson, Stanley & Livingstone, Cook, and Darwin. I wanted to go a-whaling and was severely disappointed as a child to find that it wasn't like in Moby Dick anymore. The Scarlet Pimpernel was as much a hero to me as John Carter fighting Tharks on Barsoom.

Regrettably the world I actually live in tends to support none of the above and is getting more venal and small as I watch. So, I seek refuge in Traveller, where I can spin tales of two-fisted sword n' blaster adventure among the savage stars. It keeps me sane in an insane world that rewards cowardice and small men.

 

[Blue Ghost]

To me the appeal of science fiction has always been the nagging feeling that I was born in the wrong time. I always used to say I joined the Air Force because the Navy doesn't use sails and black powder anymore, and my endless years of fencing and combat pistol/rifle competition reflects my yearning for a simpler time, when there were unexplored lands to, er - explore, and savage animals to classify. Duels to be fought for honor,enemies to smite, and damsels to rescue.

I grew up reading musty old tomes containing the thrilling tales of Sir Richard Burton, Horatio Nelson, Stanley & Livingstone, Cook, and Darwin. I wanted to go a-whaling and was severely disappointed as a child to find that it wasn't like in Moby Dick anymore. The Scarlet Pimpernel was as much a hero to me as John Carter fighting Tharks on Barsoom.

Regrettably the world I actually live in tends to support none of the above and is getting more venal and small as I watch. So, I seek refuge in Traveller, where I can spin tales of two-fisted sword n' blaster adventure among the savage stars. It keeps me sane in an insane world that rewards cowardice and small men.

Dude.... where've you been all my life. Do you have a sister I can marry? Let us both slit our palms and strap them together in a blood oath.

Today, I had a cowardice moment for myself. I heard our Loss Prevention Specialist talking R-Rated Jive talk in a section of the store frequented by ladies. My gut reaction was to go tell him to stop, but then I thought better of it because I might have either A) hurt his "feelings", B) he was pretending to trash talk on his cel because he was casing a shoplifter, and C) he'd probably do it whether I told him to stop or not.

So, like a moron, I waited until after my shift was over to go tell him to keep the phone conversation G-rated.

At my other job I'm intimidated to tell people to not to use the F-bomb when kids are around. Why? Because I live on the peninsula of the SF Bay Area, one of THE most litigious areas in the entire nation. The place where if you fall on a brick stair you can sue not only the owner of the building, but the brick layer, the union the brick layer works for/with, the makers of the brick, the makers of the mortar, the man who drove the truck to dump off the bricks, and so forth. THAT, has me intimidated.

When I was in high school and middle school I used to tell other kids and people to shut up quite frequently. Even in college. Now that I'm an adult, and get the living crap sued out of me, .... not so much.

Another reason to escape into Traveller, if only briefly.

 

[aramis]

BG,

Move to Alaska... where such suits generally get dismissed right off... if not openly ridiculed... by the judges. Sue the building owner, and HE gets to sue the contractor, who can in turn sue the bricklayer and/or brick manufacturer. As I said, LL 4. 3 in some of the outlying villages.

Of course, you also get wild animals in town... bears at your picknics; Lynx and Eagles eating small pets, including up to 30# dogs; and of course, wolverines and wolves who can and sometimes will eat your dogs; and every so often, a killer moose.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Aramis, when I went up to our Security Guard today (1.5 hours ago from the time I'm writing this), I felt like an utter *EXPLICATIVE* when I left the store. San Mateo County probably has more lawyers per capita than Lost Angeles and New York combined. So, gaming skills come in handy as a survival technique. According to the Justice Department most sociopaths are attracted to Aspen than any other place in the U.S. I'm not so sure about that, given the lawyers I've seen around here, normal, sociopathic and ambulance chasers alike.

Truth is I love the Bay Area. To me it's one of the hearts of Science-fiction, or at least used to be. Before Lucas and ILM it was a Godzilla and Star Trek Mecca of sorts. Cult icons of sci-fi-horror-fantasy thrived here on and off. But, then came the first computer revolution with the first Apples and the then "IBM Clones", and it seemed like with Silicon valley came a pack-load of lawyers to boot.

Truth is I need to tell people to shut the hell up when I see it (as I do when I'm on my own). But, when you get the sense that you're under evaluation, the cautionary genes kick in, and you stay at "Yellow Alert"; run the cannons to the ports, but don't load them much less fire. As a result I bottle up my frustrations and vent them in private. Unhealthy.

In short, thanks for the invite to Alaska, but I think I'm going to stick it out there.

 

[sabredog]

Dude.... where've you been all my life. Do you have a sister I can marry? Let us both slit our palms and strap them together in a blood oath.

Alas, no sisters, but we can still drink mead and sing of our adventures and boast of how many enemies we take to Valhalla when we die in honest battle.

When I was in high school and middle school I used to tell other kids and people to shut up quite frequently. Even in college. Now that I'm an adult, and get the living crap sued out of me, .... not so much.

Another reason to escape into Traveller, if only briefly.

Well, part of that is just growing up and being wise enough to pick battles worth fighting, even if they can't all be won. I used to get into fights regularly in school since I used to be the kid everyone would stuff into a locker - but I also wouldn't back down from a bully even if it would have been the smart thing to do. But as I grew older I grew wiser about that sort of thing.

Of course, times were different back then...if you got into a fight the teachers only stepped in when it was clear the fight was over, and there wasn't any nonsense about "zero tolerance" that rewards bullies and punishes the ones who stand up to them. Fathers taught their sons to stand up for themselves, and at least with my dad, I'd better not come home whining about getting picked on unless I at least tried to stand up for myself.

I remember one kid who lived up the street from us who always harassed me and my brother on the way to school (we went to a parochial school so our uniforms made us fair game to goofs from the public school). After I got tired of having to figure out every day how to avoid that kid I took my dad's old nightstick (from when he was in the USAF as an MP) and bushwacked the kid when he was riding his skateboard. I ran out from behind the hedge howling like a banshee and rapped him across the shins like I was swinging for the bleachers. Then I kicked him a few times yelling that if he didn't leave us alone I'd get him again since I got home before he did and would just ambush him again.

The kid's parents called the police, but the officer that showed up looked at all like, 50 lbs and glasses of me...and at the kid with the banged up shins that was 3x my size and just called it mutual combat. "Kids are kids."

I think now I'd have been locked up for that sort of thing, and my life ruined. probably been doped up and turned into some wet-lipped, slippery-eyed deviant in his mom's basement cruising the fish-white underbelly of the Internet.

Instead I grew up to be a cop, a productive citizen, and teach my girls how to disable their boyfriends if the boys won't take no for answer.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Heh, can't say I agree with ambushing the guy with a weapon, but thanks for the anecdote.

I guess martial arts comes in all shapes, forms and sizes.

 

[sabredog]

That wasn't cheating...that was the traditional plucky underdog going up against a wild beast armed only with a stick and his screwed up courage.

See how twisted things have gotten when you look at something like that and the lesson taken is that it was "unfair" to use a stick? That's like telling someone who was mugged they were in a morally superior position because they didn't use a weapon to defend themselves.

Now in Traveller, we have these sorts of situations all the time (or worse) and it is expected that the players defend themselves in all manner of ways - sneaky and underhanded to "fair". So why not in real life? I think there's a paper in there somewhere.

Or is the reason we look down on someone in real life taking action to defend themselves, or another, while in the game play it out an virtually beat our chests about it is because in real life we are too scared to stand up for what is right? In Traveller right and wrong are usually pretty black and white...even when we refs try to make it all murky and gray. And there is the separation that it's just a game.

Does that separation really just promotes a weekend warrior "wannabe" attitude that makes it all the harder to take righteous action when the time comes and then we just sound like a bunch of doofus kids going on about how we kicked those orcs rears with out +5 swords, and if we just had that then we could have taken those guys who threw their Big Gulps at us?

Just some thoughts, since having been on both sides of combative reality on a daily basis...and then playing at it on my time off, it's a subject that philosophically interests me. Particularly when I step outside myself and look back.

 

[Spinward Scout]

...probably been doped up and turned into some wet-lipped, slippery-eyed deviant in his mom's basement cruising the fish-white underbelly of the Internet.

You mean like Traveller forums?



What? I'm kidding. I hope.

 

[sabredog]

You mean like Traveller forums?



What? I'm kidding. I hope.

Yeaaaaahhhh.....I had the same sort of creepy feeling when I typed that line.:rofl:

 

[Spinward Scout]

Yeaaaaahhhh.....I had the same sort of creepy feeling when I typed that line.:rofl:

Yeaaaaahhhh.....I had the same sort of creepy feeling when I read that line. :rofl:

 

[sabredog]

Fortunately Traveller isn't creepy..just nerdy. It's D&D's smarter brother who might wear glasses taped together, but he can build a laser out of a light bulb and an old Betamax greenboard and wields a +5 Slide Rule of Uncertainty.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, saber, there's standing up for yourself, then there's retaliation. I can't say I ever retaliated physically against anyone. It's just not in my nature. It never has been, and I hope you understand that.

*sigh*

I guess I can't post anywhere without being interrogated.

I may ask to have this thread closed.

Thanks.

But I'm not leaving the BBS.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I guess I can't post anywhere without being interrogated.

But I'm not leaving the BBS.

Good. There's no reason for you to leave. Not sure what you mean about being interrogated, tho.

 

[Icosahedron]

Yeah, but over there, the Law Level is 8+; where I live, it's about a 4. I like the option of having said lethal force.... (Yes, I can hear it now... "Bloody Yanks!")

So actually you want to have your cake and eat it?

The only reason you need lethal force is because they have it. You want a place where nobody except you has lethal force available? Good luck in looking.

As Vargr says, human nature dictates that in a society where weapons are banned, only criminals have weapons - because criminals by definition disobey the laws...

Fortunately, in a hypothetical state that is rapidly passing through LL9 on its way skyward it generally means that only the really hardened criminals carry - bank robbers, drug cartels, etc. You don't have to worry that every punk kid on the street is carrying a gun, they're unlikely even to be carrying a knife unless they're part of a 'real' gang (rather than just acting tough with some mates).
That doesn't mean you're entirely safe, though - tell a group of kids to stop swearing and you'll find your face and groin need surgery. Oh, and if you defend yourself you're up for abusing a minor...

Hmm, maybe Vargr is right, once you get beyond LL8, the real threat to life and liberty is the law itself. Gimme Revenge of the Killer Moose any day.

Perhaps this is why I play Traveller - I get to right wrongs and get away with it.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, I don't appreciate saberdog's anecdote about ambushing someone with a police weapon. I think this runs contrary to the character of this BBS, and have asked Far Trader to consider deleting this thread.

It's up to him of course. No real infraction was made, but I think it very counter to the character of Traveller players, me included. To this end it doesn't sit well me.