Lone Wolf 29: The Storms of Chai

After 18 years:

Lone Wolf 29: The Storms of Chai - Cubicle 7 Entertainment Web Store

Via Joe Dever:

LW29: THE STORY SO FAR…

It is early Spring in the year MS 5102, and you are a Grand Master of the New Order of the Kai, the warrior elite of Sommerlund.

It is a clear moonlit night and you are staring out across the crystal clear waters of the Sea of Dreams from the high window of your chambers in the Kai Monastery of Lorn. The crunching sound of footfalls on loose gravel draws your attention to the parade ground below. A pair of diligent young Kai Warmarns, clad in black and yellow chequered tabards, is patrolling the perimeter with spears on their shoulders. Your eyes wander towards the centre of the parade ground, to a low circular wall of white Kirlundin stone. It encompasses two sturdy Sommlending Oaks. You are reminded of when these trees were transplanted here during the inauguration of the monastery, on the Feast of Fehmarn, two years previously. They were transported all the way from your homeland by sea. The oaks represent the two Sommlending Kai Monasteries with their roots inextricably entwined. The moon is full tonight. Ishir’s Blessing casts its ashen light upon the battlements, towers and gleaming porticos of the new monastery. You take great pride in what you see, for the sweat of your own labour contributed to the construction of this magnificent fortress. Your pride is tinged with apprehension for you have much on your mind. Sommerlund suffered greatly during theperpetual winter and heavy thaw of last year. Fortunately, before his untimely death in MS 5101, King Tor IV had wisely made provision for the storage of food and fuel throughout Sommerlund, and these caches saved the lives of countless thousands of citizens. You are confident that your homeland will surely recover from the Long Winter of MS 5101, but it will likely take two years or more before life there returns to normal. However, this is the lesser of your present concerns.

The greater is something less tangible. For the past two weeks, you have been haunted by a feeling that the forces of darkness are poised to unleash an assault upon Magnamund. You are not alone in your feelings. Blazer, one of your fellow Grand Masters, confided to you this evening that he, too, has been having similar feelings of foreboding for no apparent reason, as have several of the more-psychically gifted Kai Masters in the monastery. The events of tomorrow should allay or confirm your fears. Supreme Master Lone Wolf is expected to arrive by skyship from Dessi at noon. You and Grand Master Blazer will formally greet him when he disembarks upon the monastery parade ground. You have personally overseen the arrangements for the docking of his skyship, and an honour guard of Kai Masters has been drilled to perfection is readiness for his inspection. Satisfied that everything is prepared for tomorrow’s duty, you close your window and retire to your bed.

You awake at dawn and breakfast with a dozen Kai Masters in the mess hall. Then you make your final preparations for Lone Wolf’s return. As noon approaches, there is a buzz of anticipation on the parade ground as eagerly you await the imminent arrival of Supreme Master Lone Wolf’s skyship. Together with Blazer, your fellow Kai Grand Master, you make one last inspection to check that everything is ready. The lookout in the Tower of the Moon spots two skyships approaching, and he informs you of this by a telepathic message. Hastily, you issue orders to the Kai docking crew to prepare to receive this second, unexpected skycraft. A further area of the parade ground is cleared, and mooring points for the second craft are quickly installed and made ready. The skyships make a slow and simultaneous decent towards the parade ground from out of the blue cloudless sky. They come to hover, side by side, no more than a few feet above the ground and their sorcerous engines are powered down to a soft hum. Mooring lines are attached fore and aft of each vessel, and wheeled stairs are positioned against the gunwales of their main decks. The larger of the two skyships is Skyfort, Supreme Master Lone Wolf’s personal vessel, which he received as a gift from Guildmaster Banedon two years previously. Lone Wolf appears at the head of the stairs, and behind him you can see four Kai Grand Masters: Black Hawk, Star Lynx, Steel Hand and Swift Sword, each dressed in their distinctive personal uniforms. The smaller skyship is named Comet, one of the Brotherhood of the Crystal Star’s new fleet of fast aerial vessels. Standing on its main deck, you recognize Lord Rimoah and Guildmaster Banedon. With them is a small humanoid creature with greenish skin and crimson eyes. It shuffles impatiently and tugs at the brim of its tall felt hat to shield its sensitive eyes from the glare of the noon sun. Although you have never seen a creature like this before, you know enough about the myriad races of Magnamund to deduce that this is a Kloon Sage of Chaman.

Supreme Master Lone Wolf descends the stairs to the parade ground, and a fanfare of cornets is sounded when he first sets foot on the gravelled surface. He makes a swift inspection of the assembled ranks and commends the Kai Masters on their turnout. Then he dismisses them in order that they may return to their teaching duties. As they disperse and leave the parade ground, Lone Wolf calls you and Blazer forward and informs you both that a special conference will be held in his personal chambers in one hour’s time. You are both instructed to attend. Supreme Master Lone Wolf’s chambers occupy the top two floors of the Tower of the Moon, the tallest of the monastery’s crenulated towers. The lower of these two floors contains the Grand Hall of the Supreme Master, and it is here that the special conference is convened. The hall is a magnificent exemplification of Sommlending architectural design. Its gold-veined pillars of marble support a buttressed ceiling embellished with a vibrant mural depicting famous events in Sommlending history. The walls are draped with the war banners of the Kai, and several glass-fronted display cabinets, set around the hall, contain trophies, medals, and mementoes collected by Lone Wolf during his many quests. You and Blazer pass through the hall’s great door which closes behind you and locks with a muffled click. Gathered in a circle around a large table set before the Supreme Master’s alabaster throne, you see the illustrious and dignified group who arrived at the monastery an hour ago. Lone Wolf beckons you and Blazer to join them. Spread upon the table’s polished surface is a detailed map of Magnamund.

“Now that our company is complete, I call upon Lord Rimoah and Sage Chastan to give their report of the unprecedented events that have prompted me to convene this special meeting,” says Lone Wolf.

“Thank you, my Lord,” responds Rimoah. He picks up a steel pointer from the table and uses it to aid his briefing. Tapping its tip upon his homeland of Dessi, he begins.

“The High Council of the Elder Magi has become aware of several threats to the security of Magnamund that have demanded our urgent attention. Whereas, in the past, the agents of darkness have confined their attempts to corrupt sovereign nations in one or two specific regions, we are now convinced that an orchestrated effort is underway to overwhelm the goodly nations of Magnamund. Several sizeable and coordinated attacks have been launched simultaneously. We believe their express purpose is to overwhelm us before we are able to gather our allies and mount an effective counter-offensive. Here, in Dessi, from the depths of the chasm of Gorgoron, a vast horde of Agarashi has awoken. They have emerged from the chasm and spread throughout the central jungles of my homeland. Our magicians and our brave Vakeros are now locked in battle with this horde as I speak.”

Lord Rimoah moves the pointer across the map and taps several other places where sinister uprisings are taking place.

“The Maakengorge, the Kraknalorg Chasm, The Dark Realm of Ruel, the ruins of Cragmantle, Ljuk, The Danarg, the city of Shadaki and the Doomlands of Naaros. All of these places have now become mustering points for the forces of darkness.”

Lord Rimoah lifts his steely gaze from the map and looks to the slight figure of Sage Chastan.
“Our learned allies in Chaman forewarned us late last year. I very much regret that the High Council did not heed their warnings sooner, and for that I owe our learned ally a sincere apology.”

The Kloon blinks his crimson eyes and accepts Rimoah’s apology with a gracious nod of his head. “Our fears have become real,” he replies, in a softly rasping tone. “But there is still time enough to stem this tide of darkness, though precious little time it is.”

“Precious little time, indeed,” says Lone Wolf, solemnly. “If we are to prevent this resurgence of evil from overwhelming the Freelands of Magnamund, we must strike swiftly and effectively at the enemy’s main mustering points. By preventing the reinforcement of their hordes, we shall stem this flood before it converges and drowns us.”

Lone Wolf casts his eyes upon each Kai Grand Master in turn as he continues speaking.
“With the aid of my wise and learned councillors, I have prepared missions for each and every one of you.”

From the pocket of his golden battle tunic, Lone Wolf produces six furled parchments, each tied with a silk cord of a different colour. One by one, he hands them out to you and the five other Kai Grand Masters assembled here.

“Unfurl your scroll, my lords. Read and memorise the contents,” instructs Lone Wolf.
With a tingle of anticipation, you untie the scarlet cord and open your furled parchment. It contains the details of your mission, handwritten by Supreme Master Lone Wolf personally.

‘An Agarashi horde, numbering several thousands, has emerged from the Doomlands of Naaros. Our agents in Chai inform us that it is being commanded by a powerful Nadziranim sorcerer called Zashnor. The Bhanarian city of Bakhasa has become their mustering point and it is now completely under Zashnor’s control. Bhanarian forces hungry to avenge the Massacre of Yua Tzhan, have been mobilised and are currently marching southeast towards the Chai border with Zahsnor’s Agarashi horde. Khea-khan Zhazhing, Chai’s renowned warrior king, passed away peacefully in his sleep some weeks ago, on the Feast of Fehmarn. The new ruler of Chai is Zha-zhing’s son, Lao Tin. He is sixteen years old. Although he commands the loyalty and respect of Chai’s military High Command, he does not yet possess the wisdom and martial experience of his famous father. Without Zha-zhing’s outstanding generalship, Chai is especially vulnerable to invasion at this time.

Seventeen years ago, you defeated Autarch Sejanoz of Bhanar and secured the cursed artefact called the Claw of Naar. This powerful weapon was delivered to the Elder Magi in order that they should destroy it, to prevent it from ever falling into the hands of our enemies. Alas, despite every attempt to annihilate this foul object by all means at their disposal, its destruction has not been achieved. The Elder Magi have constructed a secure prison for the weapon in a secret location in Dessi until the means to destroy it is found. After years of careful study, and with the invaluable assistance of the Sages of Chaman, we now know a great deal more about this cursed artefact than we did when you first captured it. The Claw is powerful, but it is not complete. It is but one half of a weapon that is capable of unleashing a far more intense blast of destructive energy, with power enough to obliterate an entire city at a single stroke. The missing component of this weapon is a gemlike object called the Eye of Agarash. Without the Claw, the Eye of Agarash has no innate destructive powers. However, when it is married with the Claw, it greatly intensifies and concentrates the power of that weapon several hundredfold.

The Sages of Chaman have located the Eye of Agarash. For centuries, and without the knowledge of a succession of royal owners, it has been a gem that embellishes the Grand Throne of the Khea-khans. This throne is located in the Imperial Palace of Pensei, in Chai. Your mission is to journey to Pensei and retrieve the Eye of Agarash. Once you have it in your possession, you must return with it as quickly as you are able to the Kai Monastery of Lorn. Years ago, you saved the life of the young Khea-Khan’s grandfather. For that, he will forever be in your debt. Our agents in Chai are confident that Lao Tin will willingly give you the Eye of Agarash and assist your swift return here to the monastery. However, now that Zashnor’s hordes are moving quickly to invade Chai, there is a serious risk that the city of Pensei may fall within a matter of days.

We are in no doubt that Zashnor is aware of the Eye’s location and its significance. It must be retrieved before it falls into its foul hands. We know that it possesses a personal weapon that bears a chilling similarity to the Claw of Naar. If, indeed, it has the same properties as the Claw you retrieved, then the consequences of it capturing the Eye of Agarash will be devastating. This outcome must be prevented at all costs.’

When you and the other Grand Masters have finished reading and digesting the contents of your mission scrolls, Lone Wolf instructs you to furl them and place them in the centre of the map table. Guildmaster Banedon steps forward and sweeps his hands across the pile of scrolls. Immediately, they are consumed by a cold magical fire that destroys them utterly leaving no trace. Lone Wolf calls an end to the conference and dismisses you and the other Grand Masters. Before you leave the Grand Hall, he instructs you all to gather at dawn on the parade ground in readiness for your departure from the monastery. With a formal salute, you acknowledge his order and leave the hall in single file. In silent contemplation, you each return to your quarters to make preparations for your individual missions. The afternoon is spent selecting your clothing and equipment for the mission and, after supper, you retire early in order to get plenty of rest before you set off tomorrow morning. With some difficulty, you eventually fall asleep after several hours spent in listless contemplation of your quest and the unknown dangers that lie ahead.

La Voie du Calinour

via Way of the Tiger:

"Voilà ce qui arrive quand j'ai un peu de temps à tuer, que c'est vendredi et que je suis fatigué. :P
Version Calinours de : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151422576668898&set=a.10151346694793898.500327.169720893897&type=1&theater
avec l'accord de Megara Entertainment"

Turn to 400 - The Fighting Fantasy documentary film

"Fighting Fantasy was born 30 years ago, Ian Livingstone & Steve Jackson started a role playing phenomenon. This film tells their story."

On contrived plot premises

"It's a funny thing about these commando missions: from the premise that a large force would not make the long journey unnoticed or intact, which seems reasonable enough, it is invariably concluded that the only remaining option is to send a single hero. That hero usually ends up in a death paragraph dangling from a snare trap or something. If I were in charge of an operation like this, I'd send out several groups down separate routes, each comprising two or three people so that they could watch each other's back, bounce ideas off each other to cover more angles, command a greater range of skills, and cut each other down from snare traps. I'd expect them to have a much larger chance of success this way; but then my opinion is very seldom asked in these matters, and let's face it, they'd all die anyway."

On "Fighting Fantazine":

A: Seriously, I couldn't give a hoot about some fizzy tooth-rotter drink. I don't understand why it's the first thing that apparently springs to mind for some people.

Essex, Middlesex and Sussex...Oh wow! They all sound like "sex". Tee-hee.

Kilkenny, Ireland... Oh wow! It sounds like "kill". Tee-hee.

Fukuoka, Japan. Oh wow! It sounds like...

B: It's not a bad name, although it does bring Enid Blyton to mind for some reason.

C: What does Enid Blyton have to do with this??? I used to read her books, and
there was NO fighting in them at all!

B: Can't claim it was a rational connection, but it brought her books to mind for some reason (and those kids certainly did have a lot of adventures, even if they didn't often indulge in monster slaying !)

Alaralatanalara - the password of the second Throben Door.

Strangely enough, we only get Japanese, French and Spanish hits when searching for the password.

"Anything too stupid to be said is sung." - Voltaire

***

Random posts from gamebooks mailing lists:


"i just bought a book in Ebay, thinking it was an unknow "branching-plot-novel ", here what it say in the back cover :

"lost at the train station station ? to buy a ticket, turn to page 40. To find a hotel, go to 55. hot day, blue sky ? to hit the beach, turn to page 141. To meet the local, open page 93. Take this phrasebook and choose your own adventure ! "

well, so nothing to do with a choose your own adventure, it is a phrasebook, to help you translate croatian in english...

the book name are "craotian" phrasebooks, lonely planet editor, written by Gordana & Ivan Ivetac .

just wanted to warn you, to avoid the same mistake i've done ^^"


"Regarding genres, it must be noticed that fantasy doesn't necessarily need elves and trolls to be fantasy. Modern fantasy is deeply rooted in medieval Europe, a complex setting that did exist in the real world and whose appeal on today's Western people is obvious - after all, it's our past. And it is a past that not only offers many elements of wonder and much food for thought, but can also be represented fairly easily by just anyone who has studied it in his or her schoolyears. On the other hand, the future depicted in sci-fi is only too often a lazy speculation that inexorably tends to project current social problems in a stainless-steel, uber-technological world that is way too square and clean to be fascinating and too advanced to possibly pose all the problems we see depicted in sci-fi books and movies. Combat in a futuristic setting is also incredibly boring - you hit the target and zap!, battle's over. It's not physical nor spectacular, and it's no wonder that lightsaber duels are among the most exciting sequences in Star Wars. What made the original Star Wars great is exactly its fantasy elements: decadent towns and civilizations, space rogues, an evil empire, supernatural powers and myths, weapons that are more advanced than anything we have today but still are considered ancient at the time of the story. These elements are all mutuated from the classic medieval background of fantasy, and they're interesting because they existed in the past in some other form, and also because they can pose problems and help people solve those problems. Let's face it, a future where all disease is curable, where people needn't walk, cook nor work, where everything is clean and pure and everyone speak the same language just isn't interesting. And most sci-fi gamebooks fail to be interesting because they offer the usual generic "save the world" mission in a setting that features futuristic looks, but it's just our good ol' everyday Earth deep inside."

"Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual." - Terry Pratchett

***

The original version of Fighting Fantasy universe's analogue to the Monstrous Manual, Out of the Pit, had some page-sized full-colour illustrations included, which were excluded in the later 'pocket-sized' edition.

Simon Osborne has kindly scanned in these for those (like myself) who got the cheaper version.


Doragar (Christos Achilleos)


Night Demon (Julek Heller)


Brain Slayer (Terry Oakes)


Fog Devil (Alan Craddock)


Life-Stealer (Ian Miller)


Dracon (Julek Heller)


Dark Elf (Mark Bromley)


Shape Changer (Iain McCaig)
This is "a mirror reversal of the cover of The Forest of Doom"

"Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." - Bill Gates

***

On VR3: The Coils of Hate

"Life in the decadent city of Godorno is not easy on the Judain minority. A shrewd people of mystics and merchants, they are often accused of usury and witchcraft and anything else that happens to be amiss. Now the ruler has declared them outlaws and mobs immediately form to go about waving pitchforks and smashing shop windows. The Judain, huddling in their underground congregations, just want to go and find the Promised Land where the Chosen People can live under the one true God. I have searched this premise long and hard for real-world parallels, but nothing seems to
leap out."


On repairing wet gadgets:

"Vronko relates an unusual story in which his cell phone was on his lap during his drive home. When he got out of his car, the phone fell onto the driveway and that night was covered by 12 inches of snow. He didn't find the handheld until spring, two months later.

When he found the phone, he didn't have time to work on it, so he threw it into a freezer for another two months.

Once he found the time, Vronko cleaned out the phone with a solvent and made sure it was thoroughly dry. As a result, the phone worked just fine.

"Certain electronics don't like freezing temperatures," Vronko notes, so he doesn't recommend this approach for everything. "But, in this case, the cold kept the delicate parts from oxidizing."


"I think Mas Selamat was abducted by aliens. This is a giant conspiracy hatched by the CIA and FBI, in conjunction with the Vatican and the Illuminati.

They landed a UFO at the detention center and used mind controlling devices to wipe off the memories of the guards, who are really grand masters of the Knights Templar in disguise. The aliens then flew him to a top secret underground facility in Area 51 to be interrogated by a team of vampires and werewolves.

And do you know why they did this? Because Mas Selamat is The One --- that's right, he is Elvis Presley --- the sole descendant of the Holy Grail bloodline of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene.

I fear for his fate. If they do not get what they want from him, I am afraid they will get the Abominable Snowman to feed him to the Loch Ness monster."

My Grailquest collection is now complete! Muaha!

A message from Project Aon:

Lone Wolf In Print Again!

Today is a milestone for Lone Wolf. Flight from the Dark was first printed 23 years ago. For the last several years, this seminal book has languished in limbo, sadly out-of-print in English. We at Project Aon and other faithful stalwarts have kept the banner of the Kai flying in this time of uncertainty.

Today, our hopes are vindicated. Today, Mongoose Publishing makes available a newly expanded and revised edition of Flight from the Dark. If this is to succeed, we need to show that there is enough interest to justify this new publication. Please consider supporting this rebirth of Lone Wolf. We hope that we and future generations will have the opportunity to know the pleasure of reading Lone Wolf.

For Sommerlund and the Kai!

The Project Aon Volunteers
(31 July 2007)


I was asked if I wanted to buy a hardcover together with someone, but I'll hold out for the softcover in September.

"It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them." - Alfred Adler

***

A: There I was, strolling down Sukhumvit Road to the local second-hand bookshop, looking for something to read before dropping into the pub for a few pints of the dark, and what should I find on the discount table outside the front of said used book emporium.

Tunnels and Trolls Corgi edition rulebook
Naked Doom/Deathtrap Equalizer Corgi double gamebook

B: They have a street named after the guy who built Deathtrap Dungeon? Best. City. Ever.

C: Hmm... I had a funny feeling a lot of the early Allansian names were
actually taken from Thailand, after Steve and/or Ian was on holiday there? e.g. there's a "Chiang Mai" in Allansia and in Thailand.

It's surprising what you can find with Google Maps...

a place called Hammerdal in Stockholm, Stonebridge in a number of English counties (Durham, Brent, etc), Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan in Russia, no Salamonis, but there is a Salamoni's Pizzas. There's companies with "Holmgard" in the name in Britain and Denmark, a several companies called Blacksand, "Arantis S.I." in Spain, and so on...

D:

> >a place called Hammerdal in Stockholm,

I'm not sure there is in Stockholm, but there's a town called Hammerdal
elsewhere in Sweden.

> >There's companies with "Holmgard" in the name in Britain and Denmark,

"Holmgård" is the old Viking name for Novgorod.

E: And a bunch of names in Sorcery! were lifted from Nepal, including
Kharé. In fact Nepal feels rather like Kakhabad, but without the Archmage, Black Elves and Baddu-Beetles. Plenty of Red-eyed backpackers though...

A: He he he...

Sukumvit, Chiang Mai, Fang, and (Bang) Kok, were all lifted from Thailand. Later ones, like Kognoy and Kaypong, were made up which is why they sound kinda silly.

I'm pretty sure the blind martial arts master monk in the Trial of Champions sequel was called Noy, which is a common nickname over here.

Sukhumvit is a major road in the middle of Bangkok passing through at least three red-light areas (one of which is called Soi Cowboy) before collapsing at the beachside resort of Pattaya.

I teach kids at school whose surname is Sukhum - they're from the clan that the road was named after. Haven't told them that they have a ground-breaking dungeon-bash gamebook based on them though...

"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon." - Woody Allen

***


I ate at an atrocious Zi Cha place ("Sew An Seafood Cze Cha") recently. Shockingly, it was at Glutton's Bay beside the Esplanade, where all the food is *supposed* to be good. There were no ingredients in the rice and they threw in frozen mixed vegetables, resulting in it having hardly any taste (it didn't help that it wasn't salty enough either); it was the worst fried rice I'd ever had. This 'crab meat fried rice' didn't have crab, but flavoured flour packed around crab claws. Wth.

There is a 'Delilah Pub'. Gah.

A Malaysian businessman had a project in Istanbul and wanted to send an underling there to set up an office. The next day his mother called and asked: "Why are you sending my son there? Is there Halal food in Istanbul?"

I was commenting that black jokes were the funniest racial jokes, and my brother in law commented that most black jokes were written by black people.

My brother in law says the "speak bad French to get the French to speak English" trick works with everyone, even old aunties.

I now have all 6 Fabled Lands books. Yay.

Gamebook philosophy from the gamebooks Yahoo Group

***

1: I don't quite understand how "rank" is being defined in this discussion - clearly there isn't a single command hierarchy including Kekataag, Ixiataaga and Sejanoz, and their various positions are separated by gaps between different periods. The Darklord army had a definite rank structure, but a lot of the other figures were unaffiliated and did not appear to answer to anyone. For example: the leadership of the Darklord army switched with the deaths of leaders; Vashna, Zagarna, Haakon and Gnaag were all of the "same rank" but at different times. Ixiataaga for instance was supreme ruler of a very particular terrestrial area, but not apparently answerable to the Darklords prior to their defeat; similarly Sejanoz (and Shasarak) were supreme lords of earthly realms independent of the Darklord command hierarchy but owing some kind of fealty to Naar or his servants. I'm not sure what kind of situation would have entailed Sejanoz, Kekataag and Ixiataaga being required to take orders from one another as they were members of different command hierarchies (similarly there didn't seem to be a "rank" relationship between the Darklords and Zakhan Kimah, even though they fought together at Tahou, nor would I like to say whether Vonotar "outranked", say, Haakon). That the Darklords were unable to call on the Bhanarian, Ixian and Shadakine forces during the conquest of northern Magnamund, and that the Bhanarians did not intervene to support either the Darklords of Shasarak, suggests to me that the different groupings were completely independent, perhaps even hostile.

These kinds of "Naarist" creatures seem to be classic "chaotic evil" types, recognising no authority from others of their own except on the basis of might, and forming unstable balance-of-power groupings rather than fixed hierarchies. Given the way the Darklord leadership contests were portrayed in the "Legends of Lone Wolf" series, I would imagine that if a situation emerged where there would be a contest of position between these individuals, their relative ranking would come down to the strongest in combat or which could win the fealty of a greater or more powerful following. Kekataag (cs60-ep58) would seem to edge out Ixiataaga (cs60-ep39) in direct combat, but Ixiataaga's undead following (cs 45-47) are tougher than the average Agarashi demonspawn which Kekataag could maybe muster (cs in the lower 40s in LW and as low as 17-18 in Grey Star). As for Sejanoz, I've not been able to obtain statistics for him, and I've no idea why (perhaps he was to be the major villain in LW29/30?).

A: So by "rank" you're meaning a kind of "unholiness ranking", something like an Honour score for bad guys? Again I'd wonder if it isn't a dynamic thing - one would earn honour with Naar by killing his enemies and causing maximum possible mayhem, so at any given time those who have "failed" him will be looking to redeem themselves whereas those who are active will be higher in esteem - I would also expect there to be a difference in status between those (such as Kekataag) who are Naar's servants on his own plane (equivalent to house staff) and those (such as the Darklords and Ixiataaga) who are active in Magnamund (equivalent to generals), and again between either of these and the various human and free-willed beings who do deals with or services for Naar in return for personal gain (which would include Sejanoz, Shasarak, the Cener Druids, Vonotar etc).

There also seems to be a split between those beings (the Darklords, Shasarak, Vashna) who seek world domination, others (Ixiataaga, the Cener Druids, Lord Zahda of Kazan-Oud) who are quite happy to run their own mini-realm of evil, and still others (such as Agarash) which are pure forces of destruction. These would seem to reflect different philosophies of evil so to speak - all serving the purposes of Naar but by very different means. Again it depends how Naar's (anti-)ethical code is reconstructed - it's quite possible that autonomy and hostility among his followers is encouraged by Naar as a "survival of the fittest" strategy, that Naar would deliberately cultivate competition or bestow/withhold favours arbitrarily to encourage jealousies which would in turn make each follower more desperate to prove itself, that maybe favour is withdrawn disproportionately due to failure... After all, there must be some reason the likes of Vashna and Agarash don't rest on their laurels in hell, but keep trying to be resurrected over and over. I would imagine human followers "blessed" by Naar are viewed by him as tools and suffer eternal torment at his hands after death, though this is partly guesswork (we know "good guys" who fall into Naar's hands are tormented in a typically nasty way).

The levels difference between books is certainly very remarkable - an obvious response to the growing strength of the hero (notice similarly how a task which logically should only require basic Tracking of Hunting gets upped to requiring the Magnakai or Grand Master equivalent); though if I remember rightly, most of the later enemies are typified as "groups" of Giaks, Kraan, Agarashi etc to justify upping their level (actually the last Giaks are in Captives of Kaag, book 14, and appear as a "patrol" - single enemy - headed by a Vordak; similarly most of those in book 12 are groups). Agarashi can also be anything from a piddling little Burrowcrawler to a massive demon because they're basically mutants...

B: You do have a point. Somehow I've always thought of as Ixiataaga as a mini-villain, or a sidekick to someone (though in a way, all the badguys are, besides Naar of course). I also really liked the way Demonlord Tagazin seemed like a mini-boss. By the way, has anyone thought about how stupid and ridiculous Ixiataaga would seem before he died (unless he was kind of created undead, which is a bit weird, but still kinda works out)? I mean, the whole goat skull looks really cool, but how would Deathlord Ixiataaga look when he still had flesh on his face? But then again, he could have had one of those devil-worshipper guys, with those goat masks like in House of Hell, but that still wouldn't make proper sense. Never mind, my head is spinning!

***

A: Hi everyone. I'd just like to know who's the best gamebook villain in their opinion (I'm expecting a lot of Zharradan Marr, even though he's a bit of a wimp). Too bad no gamebook author has ever written a good Star Wars gamebook with Darth Vader, but Balthus Dire is the closest we get (we all know a lot of his cool lines are ripped off from Darth Vader).

B: IMPUDENT PEASANT!

Seriously, what lines were ripped off Vader? i guess their was the join
me.... thing and the die with your people thing, but those are kind of cheesy.

C: Zharradan Marr is kind of devious, but does have a tendency
to 'monologue' too much.

D: The Zagor-Demon in Legend of Zagor was girly, so he has to be crossed
off the list.

E: One thing that always bothered me was how the ponytails of Balthus and the Black Elf are kind of floating. Maybe Balthus Dire cast some sort of permanent Levitation Spell on his ponytail so that it would look stylish, and maybe the Black Elf had a wine that made his float up because he happened to be a big copycat of his master. Who knows?

***

And on running your own RPG:

"In general I prefer traps with a little flavour but rarely kill with them.

Interesting trap:

Large, glass ball hanging from a ceiling (contains water). The glass ball is attached to a chain, then end of the chain is held by an animated skeleton at the far side of the room. There is a large pool of acid below the container.(containing a spike to break the glass ball should it hit the acid) The skeletons orders are to release the chain if attacked. The resulting explosion should be devistating. (smallish amount of water added to largish amount of acid = nasty stuff) The adventurers can avoid the trap by not attacking the skeleton...clues could be left in treasure map, riddle, etc."

A: well, for a newly designed dungeon, or a current laborotory, sure a few hired thugs to guard things.. but surely after a year or two of having to replace the dead, pay the others danger pay, unions, adventurers, you'd give in and hire a goblin sapping team to dig out a decent few holes, and a snirfnebblin (evil gnomes?) team to design a nice intricate trap that you can come and go from, but all others get horribly mashed up if they pass through.. (remember the CUBE? - slice and dice... OUCH) also, traps.. if done correctly, last a few hundred years.. so after your buried in your tomb (or as a necromancer you continue your lifes work) your safely secured behind said trap..

B: In the original D&D rules (you know, Basic, Expert, Companion & Master) magic users had to have a dungeon at the base of a tower. The idea was so that creatures would infest it, creatures that they needed to live in it to provide a source of components for potions and suchlike.

By doing this, they created a ready source of dungeons for adventurers to clear out. Also, the advantage of building a dungeon, that I realised in Baldurs Gate, is that you can loot the bodies of the adventurers who come to clean it out. Of course, the down side is that some may end up getting the better of you... (And of course, that the denziens that you have in your dungeon go on the rampage in the local countryside killing peasants etc.) I can not remember the mention of any unions though. But D&D was a US creation, and unions are viewed as commie scum by them.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s quality-of-life index (2005)

"Another criticism is that life-satisfaction responses refl ect the dominant view on life, rather than actual quality of life in a country. Life satisfaction is seen as a judgment that depends on social and culturally specifi c frames of reference. But this relativism is disproved by the fact that people in different countries report similar criteria as being important for life satisfaction, and by the fact that most differences in life satisfaction across countries can be explained by differences in objective circumstances. In addition, it has been found that the responses of immigrants in a country are much closer to the level of the local population than to responses in their motherland. Answers to questions on satisfaction in bilingual countries do not reveal any linguistic bias arising from possibly differing meanings and connotations of the words “happiness” and “satisfaction”. Selfreports of overall life satisfaction can be meaningfully compared across nations.

When one understands the interplay of modernity and tradition in determining life satisfaction, it is then easy to see why Ireland ranks a convincing fi rst in the international quality-of-life league table. It successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new—material wellbeing, low unemployment rates, political liberties—with the preservation of certain life satisfaction- enhancing, or modernity-cushioning, elements of the old, such as stable family life and the avoidance of the breakdown of community. Its score on all of these factors are above the eu-15 average, easily offsetting its slightly lower scores on health, climate and gender equality.

... The United States ranks lower on quality of life than on income but it is above the eu-15 average. Italy performs well, but Germany and France do not—belying the notion that the big eurozone nations compensate for their productivity lag with a better quality of life than in America."


Wah, so funky, regressing life satisfaction against various variables.

The coefficient for gender equality is very insignificant and the one for political freedom quite so, but how do they interact with the other terms?

***

Twenty-Two Short Stories About Port Blacksand

"No matter how often he looked upon the city of Port Blacksand, Vulpine marvelled at how little it seemed to change over the years. Pirate and slaving ships flying the skull and crossbones still sat in the harbour, rotting tubs filled with scum gathered from the twelve seas of Titan. A grey, gloomy fog still hung over the city, concealing hidden plots and crimes committed in its shadow. The air was filled with a disgusting stench that somehow combined blood, excrement, sea salt, raw fish, and bad ale all at once. The ramshackle buildings and homes were crudely built and ugly to look at, making the viewer feel oppressed and trapped as he walked through the filthy, winding streets. The city wall that ringed the city was badly crumbling and stained with blood and bile from the convicted criminals and felons that hung from cages and nooses on its ramparts, and the trolls and orcs that stood guard at the gates looked hardly better.

Ah, what a joy it was to be home!"

***

Dignity and the Burden of the Welfare State

"Something of a historical irony may be involved in such as development. Well-meaning politicians who solely intended to promote a good society may in the end come to favour and patronize various more selfish special interests. It should also be noted that this process is largely self-enforcing. The bigger the state becomes and the more politics comes to dominate society, the greater the reasons for different actors and interests to try to use the state for their own narrow and myopic special interests. The larger and more complex the role of the state, the harder and more costly it also becomes for the voters to inform themselves about the totality of the political decisions, the programs of political parties and the activities of the politicians and bureaucrats. These will therefore gain an increasing independence from the actual wishes of the voters...

To be able to support oneself and one’s kin is essential to dignity. Without an income it is very hard to actively form a life project. Productive work is thus a prerequisite for dignity. Consequently a dynamic market economy with an extensive division of labour and specialisation is of primary importance for dignity, since only such a system can create long-term prosperity and employment. Moreover, the market process itself can be described as a learning process where the individual actors constantly use their freedom and take responsibility for their decisions, the bad as well as the good ones. The market also creates the resources that are essential to dignity. We cannot choose any type of economic system and still believe that we can promote liberty, responsibility and dignity. The same is true for civil society. To a large extent it is within the communities, families and voluntary associations of the civil society that our views on personal responsibility is formed. Consequently, a vital civil society is fundamental to dignity...

My conclusion is therefore that human dignity unequivocally will decrease when the size of the state and the level of taxes reaches a certain level. Figure 4 below illustrates the general relationship between taxes and dignity"


Dignity?! Wth.

He's just pulling rabbits from hats with no evidence at all.

"I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing the rich would have kept more of it for themselves." - Bruce Grocott

Mongoose Publishing :: View topic - Lone Wolf - Back with a Vengeance!

Hi guys,

In what has rapidly turned into our worst kept secret, I can now reveal (some) of what is going on with Lone Wolf. . .

You may have already heard about the new Lone Wolf computer game coming out in early 2008 (we are told). We have seen some of the concepts going around for this project and, well, they are awesome!

For our part, we are going to be kicking into high gear with Lone Wolf. Have a look at the following projects. . .

Novels
Next year will see the release of two new trilogies set in Magnamund, and more will be following. You will be able to find these in most good bookstores, starting Summer 2007.

Gamebooks
Well, we have something special planned for Lone Wolf fans here! To begin with, we will be re-releasing all the original gamebooks - but with a difference. The first volume is currently being re-written by Mr Dever, expanding the story. Think of it as a director's cut. Subsequent volumes will feature all new art and gaming material, including a new mini-series of adventures running alongside the greater Lone Wold story.

That is not all - as you may have already heard, Mr Dever is also working on books 29-32, completing the saga that was started many, many years ago (Lone Wolf was actually my introduction to RPGs!). You can expect to see these late 2007/early 2008.

That is not all either, however. . .

While you will be able to pick these new Lone Wolf books up from your local book store, we will also have them available from our web site, and there will be a special treat in store for dedicated fans. Whether you take a subscription out to be sent the gamebooks as soon as they are released, or simply collect them one by one at your pleasure, anyone who orders the complete set from us (over whatever time period) will also be sent their own replica of the Sommerswerd, free of charge. We will have pictures of this magnificent blade next year, before the gamebooks become available. Drool at your leisure!

We will also be producing a new set of gamebooks, centred around another famous character in Magnamund.

Roleplaying Game
We spent a lot of time thinking and debating about the Lone Wolf RPG. We have decided to release a new Lone Wolf RPG alongside the gamebooks, with mechanics based on (though expanded) from the system found in the gamebooks themselves. Our intention here is to a) give Lone Wolf RPG fans a quick and easy to learn system allowing them to tour Magnamund, but mostly for b) a fond hope that we can bring new players into the hobby using the same road that we took all those years ago.


Life is going to get exciting in Magnamund!
_________________
Matthew Sprange

Mongoose Publishing
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com

HWMNBN is fond of proclaiming that I have the largest gamebooks collection in South East Asia. I doubt that, but feel justified in claiming that I have one of the larger ones. Someone else was curious, so I've made a photographic record.



Fighting Fantasy 1-37


Fighting Fantasy 38-59 (I must get Bloodbones the next time I visit a bookshop), Grey Star 1-4, Combat Heroes 1 & 2, the Magnamund Companion


Lone Wolf 1-28 (I like Beaver covers and so got 1-12 Beaver), Steve Jackson's Sorcery! 1-4, Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy (I just Buy-It-Now-ed the Riddling Reaver from eBay), Titan, Out of the Pit, Dungeoneer, Blacksand, Allansia


Blood Sword 1-5, Legends of Lone Wolf 1-4, 7, 9, 10-12, Virtual Reality 1-2


Way of the Tiger 1-6, The Skull of Agarash (I keep forgetting I have this), The Tasks of Tantalon, Casket of Souls, Clash of the Princes 1 & 2


Virtual Reality 3-6, Zagor Chronicles 1-4, all 3 Fighting Fantasy novels, Eternal Champions 1 & 2, Freeway Warrior 1-2 & 4, Maelstrom, Cretan Chronicles 1-3, Fabled Lands 1-5, Grailquest 1-3, the Sword of the Templar


Sagard the Barbarian 1-4, 2 Time Machine books, assorted crap. As you can tell from how these are in the same place as my old Chinese materials, I'm not as fond of these.

Ah, those were the days!


There're assorted CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) and CYOA-type books, but I despise most of them and so didn't bother digging them up. I'm also quite sure I've a Golden Dragon and a Falcon somewhere but can't remember where it is. No matter - the complete Golden Dragon set, Dragon Warriors 1 (hmm, maybe I should've picked up 2 of these when I got Way of the Tiger 4-6) and Falcon 1-5 are supposed to be on their way.

Back to heteroskedasticity...

[Addendum: I now also have Grailquest 4-5 and the Riddling Reaver.]

"Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care." - William Safire

***

Someone I asked about Marshall's Curse (see below): aren't u supposed to be the purveyor of all obscure information?

...


Hate mail on the previous poem:

Xenophiyl: "ur critisizing ur ex schl? how loyal, bastard. as bastardy as the idiot hu wrote it"

Response: "Quite apart from your inability to write properly, not only do you not get the point of the poem, you seem to have fallen prey to the curious conflation popular in our country that criticism and attack are necessarily the same thing; loyalty, patriotism and slavish adherence to the propagated line are treated as one and the same thing.

Indeed, often it is through spirited criticism aimed at improving the general condition that we show our loyalty."

***

The Associate: i generally hate lawyers

the SACSAL quotient in SMU is considerably smaller. lots of bananas who either can't afford to really go overseas or are too fucking dysfunctional to leave.

nw.t: i realise that i have a lot of friends who have reached out and made their dreamsof what their lives to be into reality. one of my oldest and best friends is now a technology writer for PCMagazine. another is a teacher. still another is ajournalist.

but i've been conditioned by my parents and my family my whole life that i have to slog and suffer in order to achieve something. do the hard sciences or the economics; avoid the arts subjects. study hard. don't bother about girls. which is part of why i chose my current career path. my cousins and i sneer at people who do artsy stuff as wimpy liberals "following their path" as opposed to discharging their responsibilities

looking back i have a lot of anger at being forced to be what i am, and,e ven worse, being not quite there either

Me: well
you were the one seduced by tapas
blame them not
we are all pressurised by society

He Who Must Not Be Named: true
oh well

Me: I was expected to apply to law or even engin
yet I eschewed that

it's part of the sinister chinese culture about doing only 'productive' things
following your pre-ordained path, filling your pre-ordained place

which I suspect was one reason why the Chinese got left behind after the Ming

***

More lessons that we, in National Education, can learn from the Fall of Singapore to the Japanese:

"What I find bitterly ironic is that National Education draws a militaristic, nationalistic lesson from WWII and the Japanese occupation of S'pore. It is ULTRA-NATIONALISM and the idolatry of the nation-state over the individual that produced the aggressive foreign policy of Japan and led to countless atrocities. Nationalistic fanatism was the force behind the evils of WWII, at least in the Pacific theatre of the war. But what does the govt do when they recount the events of 41-45 to our school children? "We must ourselves defend Singapore, do you want this to happen to you, we must have NS, blah blah blah blah"."

Ed: This was from YR.

***

Another guestbook entry that makes me go "what the hell?!". If anyone can figure it out, please tell me:

Name: Another Azn
Email: No Matter...@Hotmail.com
Homepage: Let c u find it..!
Where are you from?: My mother

Comments: Wow man u say alot... shit is that all hand typed.?. J/ wanted to giv u PROS for the site... Needs more picture... Live it up for Asianzzzzz...We here 2 stay!!!! U Da Man

***

Amusing review of Eye of the Dragon, the first "new" Fighting Fantasy book released in a decade (actually a previously written adventure by Ian Livingstone):

"Fighting Fantasy 21 - Eye Of The Dragon.

He's willing to tell you all the details you need to find this dungeon, and the treasure within. The catch? All you need to do is drink this vial of slow acting poison (to which he has the antidote) so he knows you'll bring him back a share of the treasure by way of reward instead of just absconding with the lot. Now at this point, anyone with half a brain would have stopped and thought "hang on, he's expecting me to drink poison?" and promptly told Henry Delacor where to get off. Not so with the hero in Ian Livingstone's latest below par tale. Nope, you take the poison and gulp it down without a second thought. No wonder you're always so short of funds if you're this stupid.

... In fact, a good portion of the book involves nothing more inspiring than simply wandering along very mundane corridors and deciding whether or not you want to open a perfectly ordinary door. Ho hum. You can see just how Mr Livingstone writes so many books. He just uses the same ideas over and over again. And they're not even particularly good ideas.

Push open a door and you find a whole variety of unlikely people and places beyond. One room even has a merchant. A merchant? What, he decided to set up shop not in a city but in a dungeon inhabited by hordes of monsters underneath Darkwood Forest? Yeah, right… Actually it was nice meeting the merchant because at least it introduced me to someone dumber than an adventurer who willingly drinks poison.

Other rooms contain pretty standard adventuring fare: a throne which adds a nice little boost to your SKILL if you sit on it*, dozens of items which seem to serve no little purpose and the usual monsters to kill. There are a few NPCs from time to time but their dialogue is so poorly written that it often seems like they've been replaced with cardboard cut outs while you weren't looking.

* An amazing magical device which can actually boost the fighting abilities of someone who sits upon it just so happens to be found in a dungeon beneath Darkwood Forest? Apparently so.

RATING: 1 out of 10"

Someone else: "EotD is a damn sight better than Crypt of the Random Trivia and Armies Of Pie-Eating. Let alone SkyLord. And it makes a change from yet another Chaotic threat that will destroy the world unless you make a LUCK roll."

***

食虫少女２
(Translation: The young girl who eats cockroaches - 2)

OMG WTH. Just when I thought the Japs couldn't get any wackier... This means that there was a part 1...

Someone: what is mars spirit...some sort of Jap fear factor, I guess...

japanese and koreans are alike...they try to attain the ideal for "Oriental Land of Manners" on one hand, and entertain more perverse entertainment than any other nations on Earth...

The most perverse film I saw last year was South Korean...they're good man...
Korean movies have very sadistic tendencies...the movie was OLDBOY, it featured incest, hammer-assisted teeth pulling, sliced off tongues, live squid eating and drug-induced hallucinations involving ants...

***

http://penisland.net/ - "Welcome to Pen Island, the best place to get custom made pens on the internet! "

eBay item 5566217149 (Ends 26-Mar-05 23:53:38 GMT) - Haunted Possessed Disney Stitch Teddy Dangerous? - It went for US$11,100.00.
Courtesy of phelan

14-Year-Old Learned How to Burgle Watching CSI - "A 14-Year-Old in Florida admitted to breaking into houses and breaking into over 100 cars - most of them in this week. When asked how the youth had learned his art he replied he watched CSI: Crime Scene Investigations to study up on it."

A little less cheer in those cheerleading routines, please - "Representative Al Edwards of Houston proposed last week to bar "sexually oriented" performances during sporting events at Texas schools. "The way they're moving their bodies, it's not twirling or doing the splits. Those majorettes are doing things that are sexual," said Edwards."
Associate Flesh Parade isn't popular in some quarters, it seems.

How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else) - Unfortunately, safe blogging tends to vary inversely with honest blogging.

Singapore Model United Nations [Conference] - I notice they do not have the support of the United Nations Association of Singapore (UNAS). Why, I do not know.

***

One of the ways the Economics Society raises money is by selling suggested solutions to past exams. Each set of answers is 2-4 pages long, costing them 5-10 cents to produce (assuming they are charged the normal photocopying rate), and is sold for $1 each - a fantastic level of profit, ignoring labour costs (zilch, since helpers are paid in ECA points). At least one entrepreneurial businessman (there might be more) saw a chance to erode the supernormal profit of this monopoly, and pirated the solutions - instead of 3 sets of solutions for 3 dollars, he sold 3 sets for a dollar, still making a profit. In the end sales were about half last semester's. A pity they didn't apply to real life the lessons they learnt in class :)

I think I'm becoming used to SACSALs. I don't even notice dyed hair anymore, and I doubt that's because the trend has ended, or that the sun has faded the dyes. "They speak with the damn China/Beijing accent. Nonstop... now I have to deal with a cacophony of fugly ah-lians, with voices like banshees in heat." - Azrael on SACSALs.


Quotes:

[On peer review] Don't let me give you your essays back. That's a classic Dr *** move.

[To me] Your hair looks different everyday

[On someone illegally zapping exorbitantly priced exam solutions for sale at a lower price] He's the pirated VCD seller... [charge a] two-part tariff.

The same as firm's one (firm one's)

[On Galton discovering that tall fathers have shorter sons, and vice versa] This is something that I can verify [personally] *laughs* You are making your own hypothesis already.

[On error terms in regression analysis] Why am I telling you these stories about the History of Science? Because that is my hobby...

I think everyone should know who Alfred Marshall is. If you don't know you should leave the room, you shouldn't be doing economics. *someone stands up* Just kidding, just kidding.

[On something about putting Price on the Y axis instead of the X axis, as it should be, since it's the independent variable] This leads to all sorts of misery for students today, and we call that Marshall's Curse. [Ed: Anyone who can clarify what Marshall's Curse is is invited to contact me.]

This word here is homo'scare'dare'city. If you find that hard to pronounce, blame Karl Pearson. (homoscedasticity)

Remember our ep'sai'lorn? (epsilon)

[Me on Screwed Up Girl] Girls making fun of a girl liking pink - what does that tell you?

As China assess to the, join the WTO. (accedes)

The pencil-sized battery in India. It was seven bucks. [Professor: Seven bucks?] Seven Indian rupees.

The government simply bills you out (bails)

[On the US and the Middle East] Either they try to be on good terms with those countries, or they attack them, for the oil.

You are supposedly to grant every nation 'Most Favoured Nation' [status] (supposed)

They could be buying hwheat (wheat)

If all the developing countries are in this shoe, this framework (situation)

"A man can but wish for a Swiss house, a German car, and a Japanese wife, who is well-versed in Chinese cooking, and a cellar of French wine." - Mizusaki (attr. Xephyris)

***

2 people on my M$N list have the presumed acronym "THMC" in their nicknames. I asked both of them; one didn't reply and the other said it was for him to know and me to find out (bah).

Earlier, one person changed his to "THSC", and when I asked him what it stood for he said it was "Temasek Hall Singles Club". Therefore "THMC" must stand for "Temasek Hall Something Something".

One person suggested that it was "Temasek Hall Morons Committee". Mmm, good guess. After all, they need to form lots of committees to get lots of ECA points to compete with each other to get rooms in halls. They're all suffering from money illusion. Bah.


Someone: nus.. sigh. but i really like the way you refer to it as
"The Premier Institution of Social Engineering". reminds me of all those cheesy NUSSU ads on double decker [Ed: The one of the swimming pool in which 2 graduates (with the stupid graduation hats) prance]


Someone on previous post: "and there i was, the computing student who had to make sure the rest of them were not handing up their rubbish for marking"

ZOMG!
This is exactly what happened for my Japanese Studies project!
I almost thought I was reading my own thoughts there!

***

Sheares Revisited

What I've learnt from FYP and Sheares Hall

2. Got various invitations/hints to sleep overnight in a guy's room, on his bed. I'm shy, so I ended up not getting any sleep at all as long as I was in Sheares. Even guys try to play matchmakers. Albeit very indiscreet, quite vulgar, and quite brainless ones.

4. Got an offer to be made 'a real woman'. Interestingly, this offer was the second one from the same and only fellow who has ever expressed carnal interest in me. YES! Hope for the troll! Sadly, I think he doesn't remember the first time anyway, and I think he's probably not very discriminating, nor was he very serious (both times). (This isn't the same fellow as point 2.)

7. Learnt about the extensive Porn library and its librarian in Sheares.

I went for project one day, and after having been there for a few hours was informed that the stack of CDs in front of me was porn. Want to watch? Apparently there were 2 different types of porn in that stack. The ones with plot, and the ones without. Was informed that the ones without plot all looked the same in the end and hence, the ones with plot were slightly better.

The stack of CDs I saw was an insignificant portion of the porn collector's library. No, Porn-librarian was not my group mate, and I don't think I know him.

I think it was mostly Taiwanese porn. Not sure.

12. Learnt that hall people, or Sheares hall guys really do nothing except gossip about their Sheares hall mates. Gossip usually involved - girls, girls and girls. Learnt that a guy and girl walking alone anywhere together would usually result in gossip. Guilty without trial.

15. My life long ambition is to be one of those narrow-minded old ladies who dress up in samfoos and stake out our national parks to spy on and throw bricks at amorous young couples. After that I hope to progress to the old cranky coot in your void decks who does nothing but terrorise the little kids who walk past making too much noise disturbing me while I spy on the rest of the inhabitants in the block of flats.

In conclusion, I will never ever step back in Sheares again. Might miss the guys, and think of those times fondly when I'm drunk, or losing my mind, but otherwise you'll have to kidnap and drag me screaming and kicking back.


Some people get all the fun / action. *pout*

Computing / Sheares Hall guys must be very despo *runs away*

***

Someone on SMU: im only taking 4 modules. no exams for the other 2. all projects and reports.

i rather have exams...
the grading system is silly.

financial accounting for instance. we have 1 presentation, 2 reports, hmwk, quiz, participation, mid term n final term exam. so hard to score!

"leadership and teambuilding" is even more cock. we had to plan and do a community service project and submit a report. then according to the report, the prof will IMAGINE how our implementation of the proj went and mark accordingly. and its 35%!

participation is very wayang.
some people juz talk for the sake of talking..

Me: so you regretting SMU?
so-called seminars are rubbish I hear
basically it's a combined lecture + tutorial
and a lot of presentations

Someone: i wouldn't say i regret.. perhaps not yet. haha.
yeah, alot of presentations n projects. especially the past 2 weeks..

then grp presentation was evaluated in this way: 4 groups present on each of the 2 presentation days. 5 students will be assigned as judges on each day. at the end of the presentation, they will rank the 4 groups. the prof has a vote too. adding up, the grps will have an overall ranking 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th. marks are awarded according to the ranking. so the grp that get 3rd can never have a mark

the grp that get 3rd can never have a mark higher than the 2nd grp. though they might have the same grade. so even if a grp is very good, but the student judges think otherwise, or they wanna help their own friends, the better grp also LL.

and becoz everyone knows we are being rank, there is competition. during QnA, there were these few people who juz kept bombarding other grps.. they want to screw up people's presentation, make themselves seem better.

my grp did the *** one lor.. heng i had training under u before that. haha.. i compiled a list of anticipated questions and sent them to my grp. but only 1 of the gals read thru. then when people bomb, we block, bomb again, we block again.. the prof said we handled the Q n A well even though questions werent easy. haha

Me: haha training under me?
hahahahaha
you're welcome ;)


An alternate view:

hahahaha please lah it's HOW easy to do well in smu
largely for two reasons

1) singaporeans are morons
2) singaporeans are morons

i should compile a list of why i love smu
except i can't get past the first reason of 1) the girls are hot.

***

The Concept of Liberty

In Two Concepts of Liberty Berlin sought to explain the difference between two (not, he acknowledged, the only two) different ways of thinking about political liberty which had run through modern thought, and which, he believed, were central to the ideological struggles of his day. Berlin called these two conceptions of liberty negative and positive. Berlin's treatment of these concepts was less than fully even-handed from the start: while he defined negative liberty fairly clearly and simply, he gave positive liberty two different basic definitions, from which still more distinct conceptions would branch out. Negative liberty Berlin initially defined as freedom from, that is, the absence of constraints on the agent imposed by other people. Positive liberty he defined both as freedom to, that is, the ability (not just the opportunity) to pursue and achieve willed goals; and also as autonomy or self-rule, as opposed to dependence on others.

Berlin's account was further complicated by combining conceptual analysis with history. He associated negative liberty with the classical liberal tradition as it had emerged and developed in Britain and France from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Berlin later regretted that he had not made more of the evils that negative liberty had been used to justify, such as exploitation under laissez-faire capitalism; in Two Concepts itself, however, negative liberty is portrayed favourably, and briefly. It is on positive liberty that Berlin focuses, since it is, he claims, both a more ambiguous concept, and one which has been subject to greater and more sinister transformation, and ultimately perversion.

Berlin traces positive liberty back to theories that focus on the autonomy, or capacity for self-rule, of the agent. Of these, Berlin found Rousseau's theory of liberty particularly dangerous. For, in Berlin's account, Rousseau had equated freedom with self-rule, and self-rule with obedience to the ‘general will’. By this, Berlin alleged, Rousseau meant, essentially, the common or public interest—that is, what was best for all citizens qua citizens. The general will was quite independent of, and would often be at odds with, the selfish wills of individuals, who, Rousseau charged, were often deluded as to their own interests.

This view went against Berlin's political and moral outlook in two ways. First, it posited the existence of a single ‘true’ public interest, a single set of arrangements that was best for all citizens, and was thus opposed to the main thrust of pluralism. Second, it rested on a bogus transformation of the concept of the self. In his doctrine of the general will Rousseau moved from the conventional and, Berlin insisted, correct view of the self as individual to the self as citizen—which for Rousseau meant the individual as member of a larger community. Rousseau transformed the concept of the self's will from what the empirical individual actually desires to what the individual as citizen ought to desire, that is, what is in the individual's real best interest, whether he or she realises it or not.

This transformation became more sinister still in the hands of Kant's German disciples. Fichte began as a radically individualist liberal. But he came to reject his earlier political outlook, and ultimately became an ardent, even hysterical, nationalist—an intellectual forefather of Fascism and even Nazism. Once again, this involved a move from the individual to a collective—in Fichte's case, the nation, or Volk. In this view, the individual achieves freedom only through renunciation of his or her desires and beliefs as an individual and submersion in a larger group. Freedom becomes a matter of overcoming the poor, flawed, false, empirical self—what one appears to be and want—in order to realise one's ‘true’, ‘real’, ‘noumenal’ self. This ‘true’ self may be identified with one's best or true interests, either as an individual or as a member of a larger group or institution; or with a cause, an idea or the dictates of rationality (as in the case, Berlin argued, of Hegel's definition of liberty, which equated it with recognition of, and obedience to, the laws of history as revealed by reason). Berlin traced this sinister transformation of the idea of freedom to the totalitarian movements of the twentieth century, both Communist and Fascist-Nazi, which claimed to liberate people by subjecting—and often sacrificing—them to larger groups or principles. As we have seen, to do this was for Berlin the greatest of political evils; and to do so in the name of freedom, a political principle that Berlin, as a genuine liberal, especially cherished, struck him as a particularly monstrous deception. Against this, Berlin championed, as ‘truer and more humane’, negative liberty and an empirical view of the self.

In addition to the debates concerning the conceptual validity and historical accuracy of Berlin's account (extensively documented in Harris 2002), there is considerable misunderstanding of Berlin's own attitudes to the concepts he discussed, and of the goals of his lecture. Berlin has often been interpreted, not unreasonably, as a staunch enemy of the concept of positive liberty. But this was never wholly the case. Berlin regarded both concepts of liberty as centring on valid claims about what is necessary and good for human beings; both negative and positive liberty were for him genuine values, which might in some cases clash, but in other cases could be combined and might even be mutually interdependent. Indeed, Berlin's own earlier articulations of his political values included a notable component of positive liberty alongside negative liberty (see e.g., 2002, 336–44). What Berlin attacked was the many ways in which positive liberty had been used to justify the denial, betrayal or abandonment of both negative liberty and the truest forms of positive liberty itself. Berlin's main targets were not positive liberty as such, but the metaphysical or psychological assumptions which, combined with the concept of positive liberty, had led to its perversion: monism, and a metaphysical or collective conception of the self. Two Concepts of Liberty, and Berlin's liberalism, are therefore not based on championing negative liberty against positive liberty, but on advocating individualism, empiricism and pluralism against collectivism, holism, rationalistic metaphysics and monism.

(Emphasis in bold mine)


I do not think I am the only one who sees parallels between Fichte's concept of Volk and one core aspect of so-called 'Asian Values', ie Putting the community above the self.

The logical conclusion of this is, as the author notes, a form of Communist/Fascist-Nazi ideology.

***

"According to the truly frightening Spirit and Destiny, colourpuncture was devised by a German scientist, a claim which is typical of the New-Agers' desire to have it both ways: it's an alternative to mainstream medicine, so not subject to the same principles and tests; but devised by a scientist, with the implication that it has some credibility with the mainstream... Theirs is a "voyage of discovery", implying at the outset that what is being "tested" is a wonderful world of wisdom and knowledge, not a dubious sea of sloppy-minded rubbish." (Bad Moves: Loading the dice)

Ooh. Touche. I love this guy.

***

The longest, most amusing and most detailed Gamebook reviews I've read:

"Niggle #14, Trial of Idiot Savants: Occasionally a writer will get confused enough to jot down something like this: "Bob grinned and shook his head at himself, musing on the finer points of Cartesian dualism in the middle of a great jewellery heist." It's a good bet that if you find yourself apologizing for what you just wrote, you have a problem to fix, even if it's just the existence of the apology itself. For this book Waterfield has come up with a completely irrelevant, arbitrary and unexciting puzzle, and to be on the safe side he declares as much. Well, in this case there _was_ a problem to be fixed: the exercise in section 309 is flawed in multiple ways and will accomplish only that the player dies and never returns for another attempt."

"Niggle #17, Attack of the Stunt Doubles: There's a system for dream combat which basically amounts to this: you are screwed."

(on FF28: Phantoms of Fear)