Facts which I know about Star Trek and its casts

PLAGERISM ALERT!: My contest entry has been copied in its entirety in THIS ENTRY. Please be on notice that I am, in fact, the original author of this blog entry. Proof? There's a spelling mistake in my disclaimer, which was duplicated.

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for the bad grammar mistake in the title. It's a requirement for participating in a competition to win STAR TREK TICKETS! I will gladly sully my grammer for STAR TREK TICKETS!


This is my somewhat shameless bid to win Star Trek premiere tickets.

Facts I know about Star Trek and its cast.

(1) Contrary to popular belief, Captain James T Kirk is not the first captain to appear in a TV series. The first captain was Captain Christopher Pike, played by Jeffery Hunter, then Sean Kenney. The studios switched to Captain James T Kirk because they felt that the series needed "more action". Mild Spoiler Warning: Ironically, in the new movie, the man that convinced a young Kirk to sign up with Starfleet is none other than Christopher Pike.

(2) The "T" in James T Kirk stands for "Tiberius".

(3) Mild Spoiler Warning: The latest Star Trek movie represents a soft "reboot" of the series, because it actually happens in another "timeline" from the original series. The villian of this series, played by Eric Bana, travels in time to take his revenge on a younger Kirk. That explains the reason why the trailer has Eric Bana saying "James T Kirk was a great man, but that was another life."

(4) Mild Spoiler Warning Cont'd: This also explains Leonard Nimoy's guest star appearance in this movie - he plays an older Spock from an alternate timeline.

(5) Speaking of Leonard Nimoy, he's written two autobiographies about his time as Spock, entitled respectively, "I am not Spock" and "I am Spock". Go figure.

(6) There are massive homages paid to Star Trek on the series "Heroes". For one, George Takei, who played Sulu in the original series, plays Hiro Nakamura's father in "Heroes". The homage was made even more obvious when George Takei is seen driving off in a car that bears the license plate "NCC-1701". "NCC-1701" is the starship designation of the original Enterprise.

(7) Of course, Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar, is now the new movie's Spock.

(8) More facts about George Takei - he's homosexual, out of the closet, and one of the first few men to get his domestic partnership registered as an actual marriage in California before Proposition 8 kicked in. You would never have figured seeing this photo.



(9) Memory Alpha, the famous(?) wiki on all things Star Trek, is named after the planetoid containing the sum total of the knowledge and culture of all Federation members. I used this reference only once during the composition of this and that was to find out the episode Khan Noonien Singh first appeared.

(10) The original series of Star Trek featured the first interracial kiss shown on TV. The kiss was between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, playing Kirk and Uhura respectively. It was a big deal back then.

BONUS!

(11) The plot of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" was actually the continuation of an episode from the Original Series "Space Seed". In that episode, Kirk convinces Khan Noonien Singh to settle on a marginally inhabited planet, not knowing that the planet eventually becomes unstable. Khan loses his wife to that planet, and blames Kirk for her death - which is the motivation for his actions in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan".

(12) Speaking of grammar mistakes, "To boldly go where no man has gone before" is a grammatical mistake when the Original Series was first telecast, because it splits an infinitive. It's now grammatical correct because the rules on split infinitives have been changed.

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I can probably get the list up to 50 or even 100 if I wanted to, but I think this would suffice. As can be seen I am a massive Star Trek geek (even though I missed "Voyager" and "Enterprise").

I want to watch this movie bad. As a lover of Trek, I am excited about this reinterpretation of Kirk and Spock - showing them as younger, less skilled but no less idealistic and courageous members of Starfleet. It's like watching Daniel Craig as James Bond - the fact that they are vulnerable and young does not detract from their heroism. Rather, it showcases how much more heroic they are.

I've always loved how Star Trek reflected the mood of the times. This is a prime example. We no longer want our heroes invincible. We want them flawed. We want them emotionally vulnerable. We want them human.

Most of all, we want them being heroes, because they remind us even ordinary men can be heroes.

Remember guys! Catch Star Trek in cinemas on May 7!

Business Tips from Restaurant City

Proof once again that I take my gaming WAY too seriously, here are some practical business tips I picked up from playing Restaurant City.

Restaurant City is a game produced by Playfish, and is currently one of the most popular games on Facebook. It's my new productivity sink. As I understand it, Cowboy Caleb is also on this game. I am currently using the Cowboy as my toilet washer.

The game is incredibly subtle in its complexity. The basic premise of the game is that you must run a restaurant, decide on menu, layout, etc. You earn money and experience based on the number of customers you serve (i.e fail to piss off).

The "hook" of this game, apart from tapping into the nesting instinct, is that there are many business and economic principles that are at play in this game. My observations are based on some of these.

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1. Think pipeline, not just production

One of the interesting game mechanics here is replicating, in some respects, the "supply chain" of the restaurant business. Essentially, you must cook, serve and clear the table ready for the next customer.

One of the early mistakes I made was to improve food production without improving my serving and clearing capability. I did this by upgrading the quality of my stoves, thinking this would clear a bottleneck of cooking (which was, at the time, what I perceived as a weakness of my sales model).

Instead of making things better, I made things worse. My poor waitress couldn't keep up with the production of food. Instead of clearing tables, she shifted her time into shuttling between the kitchen and the tables serving food.

What made matters worse is that I created a situation where 2 upgraded stoves could not duplicate the capability of 3 normal stoves (i.e I couldn't just reallocate a cook to a waiter) and still keep production up at a capacity that I wanted.

My solution in the end is to tough it out until I can afford another staff but I'll be clear about this - it -has- hurt my business and I see a couple of friend-competitors overtake me in this time period.

2. Lessons of scarcity - What's your comparitive advantage?

The game starts you off with one starter, one main and one dessert. In that sense, everyone starts off "trained" in the same menu choice.

What's interesting about my subset of friends is that they, in large part, have all opted to be "trained" in the same menu choices. I don't blame them. In that sense, since you started with something "free", if you focus on that option, you are essentially getting one "upgrade" for free.

However, the interesting thing is that due to this, everyone in my subset is hunting for more or less the same ingredients. You need those ingredients to improve your menu choice. However, if everyone hunts for the same ingredients, those ingredients become much harder to obtain.

One thing I did right in this game by accident - I deliberately chose a menu choice that few other people in my subset of friends duplicated. In that sense, I have a nice distributed menu choice where I do not have to stress about where to get surplus ingredients.

3. Make your customers work - Get within their decision loop

One of the keys to success, I found, in Restaurant City is the ability to get within your customers' decision loop. Essentially, a customer is simulated into making a decision based on whether you have a table open and cleaned, whether you can produce food fast enough to fulfil their needs, whether you have a clean toilet available, etc.

One of the keys I've found to serving large numbers of customers fast is to create a "tiered" priority system. In other words, I place some seats much further away and make it more difficult to get to them. I place other seats right next to the door. In the time that it takes for a customer to get to the back seats, I'd have had a slight time advantage in fulfilling the orders of the customers, while staggering the impact on my own time.

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These are just some observations that I've found generally applicable to business. I'm sure you guys have more. Let's share them!

ZOMG I HAS LUNCH WITH FEMES BLOGGER

Okay, the title is a bit OTT. No I haven't been possessed. Still, in line with connecting and reconnecting with people, I did something I've always done - meet the Cowboy.

As a bonus, I met the even-cuter-in-person Fireangel as well, plus members of the Cowboy Bar whose exploits are legendary on the web. Hi MistressGrace, Nerak and TK!

So here it is. No pictures though.

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Even before the start of lunch, I was faced with an interesting problem - how in the seven hells do I recognise Cowboy, he without an online photo? Plus, he's probably never seen my photo either, so if he didn't recognise me, I would be in trouble.

Luckily, I recognised Fireangel, who looked damn surprised when she first saw me. I must have looked like some rabid stalker. In my own defense, it was because I was relieved to see her.

Anyways, with that bit of awkwardness behind us, we went for a "quick" lunch at Brotzeit.

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What can I say about lunch, except that it was the best stress relief I've had after a long week of back-to-back work? The banter was easy, funny and free-flowing. I can only imagine what they are like when they are drunk.

Bloody hell, my liver can imagine what they are like when they are drunk.

I was seated next to Nerak, who turned out to be a lark, a mother of two and in impossibly good shape. Fireangel and I could only stare in disgust when she claimed she was "normal" weight. I muttered under my breath about my own....er....full figure.

Of course, what German meal would be complete without sausages? And what sausage-based meal would be complete without innuendo, both about Germans and their sausages, with meaningful looks cast at Nerak and Fireangel?

MistressGrace joined the four of us a little later, and somehow the conversation turned towards blog traffic and Nuffnang earnings. My own pathetic earnings turned out to be even more than MistressGrace's, for which, in a burst of schadenfreude, I was eternally grateful.

TK joined us last. Again, the conversation took a bizarre turn towards artistics photography. TK suggested that I should pose in the nude with nothing but a steel gauntlet, and I was, for once, shocked into a loss for words.

Lunch tapered off eventually, with all of us needing to return to our day jobs. Still it was pretty awesome. Good bunch of chaps, one and all. Kudos.

My Mom is a FOB

This is an awesome website. Brings to mind some of the conversations I've had with my mom.

A "FOB" stands for (F)resh (O)ff the (B)oat. That's often used as a derogatory term, representing the use of Engrish, and flawed understanding of western culture. To me, it shows that they are trying hard to understand and accept the world they are now in, albeit through murky lenses.

I especially love this story where a FOB mother refuses to take a "YES on Proposition 8!" sign because "Our family has the gay!".

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The often-cited "Singapore is not ready for XYZ social change because of traditional conservative social values" is a bunch of crock. Quite beyond the often-hilarious aspect of this website, I think it provides a stark insight into how traditional asian values are not incompatible with modern social issues like same-sex marriage.

To me the question here is this - which value are you championing?

What is more traditional than loving your children unconditionally?

What is more traditional than wanting your children to have a happy marriage?

What is more traditional, more Chinese, than wanting your children to have a better social conditions than the one you come from?

Answer these questions, then tell me again that social change is incompatible with Asian values.

Employment Day 1

I know it's a bit of a shock to go from "Unemployment Day 1" to "Employment Day 1" but there you have it.

I generally don't write too much about my work, seeing as most of the stuff I work on tends to be confidential (professional hazard) and even the stuff I -can- write about, the context is confidential. Hence, I'll stick to writing about incredibly shallow things about my new job.

1. My new workplace is incredibly close to my home. It's about as close as one can get from my home, given the way Singapore's residential areas are zoned. That means I can get up at 8 in the morning, change, drive, park, walk to my office and still be in time for work at 9 with time to spare.
2. I have an office. This is the second time in my career I've had an office, the first was when I was a lowly peon-associate at my old law firm. This office is set up much more nicely than my old office too, with nice shelving and a big ass table I can actually hold meetings with.
   
3. My new office laptop is literally twice the size of my old office laptop with 3 times as much RAM. The only problem with it is that it has an European keyboard. No biggie, since I had some practice in Finland typing with it, but it gets annoying at times.
4. My new office is tiny. There's about 10 people located in Singapore, as compared to the hundreds at my old workplace. I enjoy the solitude, to some extent, but I do miss the hustle and bustle of the old workplace.

That's all for now.

And for those who are on my Facebook, yes I did actually get attacked by a one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed monkey in Tioman.

What do you remember?

Obtained this from the Alchemist.

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don’t speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want — good or bad. When you’re finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

The Most Powerful Force

I am a dire wolf, prey-stalking, lethal prowler.

I am a hunter, horse-mounted, wolf-stabbing.

I am a horsefly, horse-stinging, hunter-throwing.

I am a spider, fly-consuming, eight legged.

I am a snake, spider-devouring, poison-toothed.

I am an ox, snake-crushing, heavy-footed.

I am an anthrax, butcher bacterium, warm-life destroying.

I am a world, space-floating, life-nurturing.

I am a nova, all-exploding… planet-cremating.

I am the Universe—all things encompassing, all life embracing.

I am anti-life, the beast of judgement. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds… of everything. Sss. And what will you be then dreamlord?

I am hope.

Singapore's Superhero

This advert from Nuffnang caught my attention. Write a post about what a Singapore superhero should be, embody, what powers he should have, etc. This contest is sponsored by the Singapore Movie Fiesta.

Word of warning: This post will not be campy or snarky. It will also probably not win the competition for those reasons. Nevertheless, I believe that campy makes character unbelievable and believability is the heart of a superhero. Spiderman wouldn't be interesting if his superhero-life/non-superhero life didn't screw him over every so often. Batman won't be interesting without his obsessions.

Second thing is, I much prefer superheroes in the form of the TV series like "Heroes" and "Smallville" rather than the costumed superheroes in the 1970's.

That, and I don't particularly like the format of a biography - I much prefer narrative.

Anyways, having stated my preferences, and probably described all the reasons my superhero character won't win the competition, here's my 0.02.

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There is a gaping wound over Singapore.

Few can see the the raw gash of glowing red hanging above the sky, but all can feel it. It turns the hope of a better tomorrow to a paranoid insecurity. It transforms honest work ethic into an overwhelming lust for consumption. It turns noble protectors into deluded oppressors. It turns virtue to vice, tolerance to ignorance, best intentions into Faustian bargains. It fuels the tiny bits of evil in every Singaporean and turns them into monsters.

It feeds as it is fed.

It grows every time a Singaporean is corrupted. Every time a maid is beaten, a friend is cheated, a half-truth is told on the national paper, the throbbing sky-wound gets just a little larger, a little brighter, a little more alive.

Singapore needs a hero. It has one.

Jimmy Lee wears no spandex. He wears his favourite wash-worn demin, along with a 10-dollar Giordano T-Shirt. He has no underground cave liar in Xiao Gui Lin - property prices in Singapore are insane enough without having to take out a second mortgage. He is no billionaire dilettante - he works at a tuition agency, trying to put his NIE Degree in Education to use. He has no Kansas-Farmboy good looks, nor dashing Creole accent, nor muscle-bound body - his face is too rough to be handsome, and his build too gangly to inspire schoolgirl dreams.

How can such an unlikely person be a superhero? That is what Jimmy asked himself too when his Eye appeared.

Like all other Singaporeans, Jimmy never expected to be taken in by a "magic stone" salesman. He expected to be smarter than that, with his cosmopolitan outlook and street smarts. He also never expected to develop a blood clot in the brain at the tender age of 27.

Too many blows to the head, the doctor said. Jimmy disagreed. While he professed a love for sports, and occasionally indulged in Tae Kwon Do sparring, he never sparred without safety gear. The blood clot was a mystery, but one that was slowly robbing his health. He had completely lost feeling in the tips of his fingers, and the vision in his left eye by the time he meet the snake-oil salesman.

To this day, Jimmy had no idea what possessed him to boil the stone, and consume the three 1.5 liter bottles of bright green stone distillate. What he does remember is waking up and seeing that his left eye had turned glowing green, and that the sky had a terrible wounding that bled red light.

He had recovered that day, of course. The doctor gave him a squeaky clean bill of health, and expressed surprise that even old tissue damage seems to have disappeared. The doctor never saw the glowing green eye. No one could. Just like no one could see that awful red glow.

Jimmy knew he was going to say that. He saw it in his glowing green left eye. He also saw that the doctor was having an affair with three nurses in the hospital, and that his wife had found out. Most of all, he saw that awful red glow in the doctor, ready to harvest the bitter fruit.

He saw the futures too.

Jimmy saw the first future, where the doctor returned, hurled abuse at his wife, then leave with a pre-packed bag. The wife died in that future. Tore her veins open with a razor and bled to death.

Jimmy saw the second, fainter future, the one which would happen if he confronted the doctor with what he knew now. He saw the doctor confess to his wife, honestly and sincerely, change over a new leaf, and live twenty years of marriage.

Jimmy didn't hesitate.

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Since that day, Jimmy has been pulled from event to event, person to person, fighting the awful red glow and its corruption. He has been shot, stabbed, burnt and beaten, but every single time the wounds never lasted longer than 23 minutes. He's leapt over 8 meter fences, out-wrestled three sailors at Boat Quay, and outran the 171 bus to town. Jimmy's second lease of life also granted him some remarkable physical capabilities.

Yet, Jimmy's signature ability remains the Eye that Sees All. Every so often, the Eye reveals to him a person, one special person who is at the threshold of making a decision that will change a life. The Eye reveals to Dennis the greatest power of all - the power of a second chance, like the one he was given.

Perhaps, with enough second chances, Singapore can be saved from itself.

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Editor's notes: Some things don't convey well in narrative, so I'm putting them down here as notes.

My conception of Jimmy comes from what I see as two central definitions of Singapore:

1. The idea that Singapore is a victim of the Law of Unintended Consequence; and
   
2. the idea that Singapore is all about second chances.

Yes, Singapore has become very successful but for every action that it takes at success, it creates an kink for itself into the future. Think of the 2-child policy, for example.

What Singapore tends to forget, however, is that it is all about second chances. Our forefathers came to Singapore escaping political and economic persecution, for large part. Our own independence was centered around our seperation from the Malaysian Federation.

Given these two ideas, I think a uniquely Singaporean superhero would embody both these concepts. What if we could get a glimpse of what would really happen? Would it give us just that little push into making things right, doing things better, by getting that second chance?

I don't know, but through Jimmy I'd like to have the opportunity to find out.

Awesome Posts

I recently (meaning just last year) discovered the joys of the Penny Arcade forum.

Just a sample of the awesome posts found there.

Trowzilla said:

This was, of course, the exact moment my parents chose to have a long, involved talk with me about my grades. In the kitchen. With me holding a cucumber that had very recently been used for terrible, terrible purposes.

Another Trowzilla story:

I'd discovered fanfic as an endless, free source of kinky porn that I could print out and hide in my room, and while I figured a lot of it wasn't too realistic, I had no idea of how much. Anyway, so I'd found this Sailor Moon (shut up!) tentacle porn fic that really got me turned on, and while obviously I couldn't replicate tentacles, I figured I'd try out the other major element in the story: hot wax.

I agree with Scrublet's description of American Idol here:

The fact that it's so popular magnifies its shit quotient, such that even though it may not be the most vile shit, it's still the biggest. Sort of like how a massive 2-pound turd spawned from eating an entire loaf of bread would be greater, though far less objectionable, than the comparatively dainty 8-ounce calamity that results from downing an excess of Indian curry.

Have fun!

If

If you are making millions, you better be good for something.

If what you are good at is getting other people to pay for your millions, you better make sure that the other people get what they are paying for.

If you getting millions, making other people pay for your millions, and not giving us solutions even a citizen can suggest, then really, you aren't being joked about. You are the Joke.

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If you like hot nurses, you're a hot-blooded male.

If you like hot nurses appearing out of nowhere on the Internet, your hot blood probably just fried your brain out temporarily.

If you like hot nurses appearing out of nowhere on the Internet who is suddenly very interested in getting it on with someone, then really, the joke's on you.

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If you are happy for someone hooking up, you're probably compassionate. Or kay-poh. Whatever.

If you're happy for someone for maybe-hooking-up-but-you're-not-very-sure, you're probably very compassionate. Or very kay-poh. Whatever.

If you don't understand what the heck just happened, but are happy anyway, join the club. You're probably compassionate and kay-poh like me. The joke's on you. If it is a joke. Or not. Whatever.

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If you were worried that Questionable Content got hacked, you didn't realise it was April Fool's Day.

If you were worried that Questionable Content AND XKCD both got hacked, you probably didn't realise this is 2008 either.

If you were worried that Questionable Content AND XKCD both got hacked AND wondering where to get the new Axe peripheral for the Bard Hero class in World of Warcraft, you need to get out. Really. See that shiny bright thing in the sky? It's called a sun.

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There ends my round-up of the best April Fool's pranks and stunts online. Have fun all.

Images from Tokyo

Some photos on my trip to Tokyo




This was a family having their traditional Japanese Wedding at the Meiji Shrine, near Harajuku. They were one of three families that day having a wedding. The kimono looked awesome.



I missed sakura season, but I definitely didn't miss plum flower season. I think these were taken in Shinjuku Gyoyen, but I can't quite remember - I just saw so many of them.



An awesome cityscape picture of the Shibuya district. The shopping scene is awesome there. I'm told the clubbing is also awesome but I didn't go.



Performers at Yoyogi Park. These drummers are damn awesome - I saw taiko drums being used alongside cowbells and african drums. Hypnotic rhythm.



At the Tokyo Anime Center with some of my favourite anime characters. On a side rant, I got the coat and hat in Tokyo.



Me beside the Big Bad Wolf. 'Nuff said.



Was suprised that the Free Hug movement went as far as Tokyo. This was the second group I saw - the first was at Hachiko near Shibuya.



Some modestly dressed Harajuku youths. I use the word "modestly" quite carefully. There were many many more gothic lolitas and punk rockers there.



Kabuchiko - Tokyo's red light district, as shown from a safe distance.

More when I have time to post them.

Live from Tokyo

Am blogging from my teeny hotel room in Tokyo. Had some yummy udon for lunch. Turns out that eating out in Tokyo isn't going to be as much of a problem as I originally thought.

Be back in a few days!

Wow. Just....wow.

I thought I had it bad. This guy had it worse. Much much worse. I don't think there's a word in the English language that can describe how bad this is.



Of all the responses Ms Cleri gave, I found the last one the most heinous. I cannot believe the depth of self-delusion in that last statement.

I hope that money was worth it.

123 Meme

Tagged by a friend.

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

=============

I'm reading "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" concurrently with "Academ's Fury". I picked the former to quote from.

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"My chief problem", explained Lord Castlereagh, "is in finding men for the Army - a quite impossible task, I assure you; the British are a perculiarly unmilitary race. But I have my eye on Lincolnshire; I am told the pigs in Lincolnshire are particularly fine and by eating them the population grows very stout and strong. Now what would suit me best would be a general spell cast over Lincolnshire so that three or four thousand young men would all at once be filled with a lively desire to become soldiers and fight the French."

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I tag:

Tym
TheDisappearingMan
Tome
Gloria
Albrecht Morningblade

Alan Moore - Comic Badass

Seen on Something Positive:

"Little Known Alan Moore Fact: He got his amazing writing skills from the Devil - not by selling his soul but by beating Satan up daily for his lunch money until the Devil bribed Moore with genius just to leave him alone."

Salut!

Updates

I've begun training as a senior now, and I'm glad for it. I've rectified at least one issue - the issue of standing straight and not bending over. I tried maintaining it for the length of at least 2 free spars, and my back aches a lot less after training, so I must be doing something right.

I'm also learning more new drills, for which I'm very thankful. Lately, my attacks and defenses seem very much the variations of the same theme - long frontale, yield-to-counter, grab if they come close. Doing 5th drill and 1st drill for the first time opened my eyes to the possibility of strato deflects and pushes, along with fenestra "oh-shit" defenses.

I'm also very thankful for the fact that I'm alive and unhurt after a two-foot piece of steel hurtled past me. No further details needed.

I'm also glad for having spent time with my loved ones, friends and drinking buddies, ate like a pig, and for SAF's E-Mart purchases that comes with home delivery, so I don't have to skulk around Clementi Camp for the shit I need.

All in all, a wonderful and fruitful holiday season. I hope you've had the same.

Word of the Day III

Convenience

1. the quality of being suitable, useful or convenient
2. anything that makes for an easier life
3. a convenient time, especially in the phrase at one's convenience
4. (mostly UK) a public toilet

Conversations with fellow corvidae lead to strange thoughts, especially when one speaks to others later in the week.

A conversation later in the week spun forth additional vectors of thought that I now seek to bind into runes. Context is everything in my craft, but I fear I may only present part-context in this case. Suffice it to say, the word of the day is in the context of romantic relationships.

For a word that is of fairly common usage, I find it damnably difficult to bind the various vectors in my thoughts into a useable form. The problem I face is that convenience is itself a mutable concept.

Would one enter into a relationship of convenience? The intuitive answer is both no and yes - "no" because no one wants to be the object of convenience, "yes" because, well, what else is a relationship but a coincidence of the right emotions, at the right place and time?

On further probing, I realise that the problem is not that the vectors cannot be bound, but just that the vectors are individual. I can abstract to the point where all individual concepts containing convenience can be bound, but in doing so, I bind a lot of non-related concepts alongside it. I can bind the vectors I am aware of individual, but that rune would only function for myself.

In short, I can bind them, but to do so would not be convenient.

Eternal Hoodlums

Warning: My apologies in advance. Unlike my usual musings, this is deliberately written to conceal the identities of those involved. My reasons are my own.

I lunched today with some old friends, Alchemist, Morningblade and Strider. I've lunched with them individually over the course of the year I was back, of course, but it's literally been decades since I've lunched with all of them at once.

Lunch conversation was surprisingly light on reminiscing, given that this was the group I've learnt virtually all of my knowledge of the mystical arts from. As Alchemist puts it, individually, we are already quite scary, but we also taught tricks to one another.

Among us, Alchemist is the master transmuter. He is entirely gifted in most forms of the Craft, but chief among his gifts are divination, synthesis and transformation. His skill in the transformation of other people's gifts to unexpected forms and functions is especially noteworthy.

Morningblade is a master enchanter. His skills lie in the art of beguilement, deception, illusion and truth. It sounds entirely contradictory until one understands that only through the mastery of truth for truth's sake can one start mastering his art. Like me, he too is a swordsman. Though I've often criticised his chosen sword form for the lack of dimension, the fact remains that he was once my teacher in the arts of the blade.

Strider, my brother, is a master nullifier and numeromancer. His art is to find truth through complex linear forms. Through such forms he is also able to resist, nullify, and curiously enough, enable through the nullification of nullification. Though we are blood, the directions our Craft has taken is completely different. Strider possesses the most curious ability to work his Craft without noise or motion, something I've never been able to master.

I am the master evoker and runesmith. My truth is intuitive, direct and often without form, and needs to be bound with the use of symbols. The effects of my truth often deal in extreme high or low energy states in geometric (not necessarily Euclidian) shapes. Mine is the power to impart, alter or cease motion vectors.

Four forms, but always one truth. How I missed them.

Everything I Know about Leadership....

.....I learnt from Optimus Prime. Old School man, Old School.

If Prosperity is so Important....

...why not go the whole hog?

I think I've been reading too many "Freakonomics" and "The Undercover Economist" type books recently. The latest in the series is "More Sex is Better Sex" where the author proposes certain improvements to our justice system. In the appendix of the book, he notes that David Friedman makes an even more radical proposal - that there should be many competing "microsystems" of justice as possible, with individuals subscribing to whichever justice system they prefer.

I say we go one step further.

If economic prosperity, minister performance and politics are so intertwined, I say we go the whole hog and allow a plutocracy in the truest sense of the word. Some points are:

1. Everyone casts a DOLLAR vote for the candidate they want in power. Top 84 nominees takes all.
2. All monies will be paid to a central depository. Electors can deposit cash any time they wish. Elections are triggered whenever the pot hits 10 million, and electors have 1 month where they can deposit monies from the day the pot hits 10 million.
   
3. The winners of the vote has to fork out the cash. This cash goes to the people who have voted, equal to the amount they were willing to fork out.
4. The excess in the pot goes to the lowest, I dunno, 10th percentile in terms of income.
5. NONE of the money involved in this transaction will be taxable. Ever.
   
6. MP's and Ministers get no cash pay. Instead, they get a basket of properties reflecting the overall economic prosperity of the country.
   
7. Anyone becoming an MP and Minister must disclose all financial interests for the period they remain as MP's.

I sounds incredibly chaotic, but there's an elegance to what I'm proposing. What the system essentially does is to turn government over to the highest bidder. If no one likes the government, they can always be overthrown when the pot hits 10 million - which is a really small sum.

To maintain power, one must always be leeched of money to the lowest 10%, which will eventually accumulate enough to vote credibly as a collective body. Furthermore, to maintain power, one cannot just please the ultra-rich, cos a sufficiently big pool of middle class people will be sufficient to trigger an election.

The idea here is that you don't derive ANY benefit from being in government apart from your ability to make the economy grow. In short, you -will- be putting your money where your mouth is. If you can make the economy grow bigger than the money you've forked out, congrats - you've enriched yourself and everyone else in the process. If you can't, someone else will raise the 10 mil and overthrow you.

So, what do you think?