ReConstituted Press (RP)

London – August 4th, 1859

A Concerned Citizen Writes Re: The Dissappearance of Dr. Mallory and What it May Mean for Society at Large!

Dear Reader,

You will doubtless know that we at the London Reconstituted Press normally only publish public letters in our “Letters to the Editor” column that won awards at the International Printing Awards last year for advances in the field of publishing.  It was a close run with the french daily “L’Esprit National” - though fine British ingenuity topped the scale.

But I digress.

Recently we were telegraphed a letter which we will print here in it’s original entirety.  We believe that the public may find it illuminating.  This letter is regarding the disappearance of Dr. Mallory, the Esteemed Physicist, just over a month ago.

TO RECON PRESS STOP I AM A CONCERNED CITIZEN COMMA AND I WISH TO SHED LIGHT ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF DR MALLORY STOP I WRITE YOU FROM NEW ORLEANS STOP DR MALLORY WAS RECENTLY HERE SPEAKING WITH THE BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE SPANISH COLONIES STOP RUMOUR HAS IT THAT HE IS PLANNING AN EXPEDITION TO CAPTURE LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE TO POWER A MACHINE THAT WILL HAVE MORE COMPUTATIONAL POWER THAN A CURRENT STEAM DRIVEN MACHINE COMMA A MACHINE HE PLANS TO USE FOR THE PROPER CALCULATION OF THE NUMBER OF ALTERNATE WORLDS AND TO CREATE A BETTER METHOD FOR VIEWING THEM STOP THIS WOULD EVENTUALLY LEAD TO THE POSSIBLITY FOR REGULAR PEOPLE TO SEE THE ARTIFACTS OF THESE ALTERNATE WORLD COMMA PERHAPS EVEN TRAVEL TO THEM STOP

As you can see, if we are to believe the authenticity of this letter, Dr. Mallory is safe in the Spanish North Americas, and is working on a discovery of epic proportions.  Whether he succeeds or not, he works to further the cause of science and discovery for Britain and all Her Subjects.

Yrs Humble and Obedient Servent & etc,

Horatio Fedgewick, Grand Editor

####

This is a story written for a game I play, called PMOG.  I’ve written about PMOG before, and if you would like to experience the narrative in it’s entirety I encourage you to go to pmog.com and get started on the game.  Then come back here and you will be able to follow the mission.

You can find other snippets at ficlets and my PMOG guild site at guildlaunch.

What is PMOG you may ask.

I would answer thusly.

“That is a very good question. According to their website it is a ‘Passivley Multiplayer Game’, but the real truth goes a little deeper than that. Allow me to give you a link to where you can get it, and then I will discuss it further below.”

Perhaps the first interesting look at PMOG should be this webcomic detailing in sort of poetic form the descent of one into the PMOG world. That is to say, the underground of the internet in the real world.

You can find the original sized comics at http://pmog.com/codex/appendices/metamorphosis

Here is the general idea. First, you install a firefox toolbar. This “voluntary spyware” tracks your surfing history and you begin to gain coins and whatnot passively, while you surf normally. You can easily turn it off or on, and change lots of it’s settings.

Now that you have your toolbar enabled, you can “find” things that other people have placed on the internet. For example, I’m going to place a crate on my website with some coins in it. If you are the next “pmogian” to come along, you will see a crate pop up, and you can choose to take what is inside.

So, it’s sort of like a treasure hunt, right? Yep. It’s also a little more.

Pmogians can leave missions on websites too. Missions (should you choose to accept them) take you on a guided tour of the internet, linking from page to page. I’m going to build one based on my linked blogs on the sidebar.

Portals, when you see them, mysteriously take you to another website. Why? Well, you’d have to ask those who dropped them. Sometimes it might be because they like another site better, and want to let other pmogians know. Sometimes it could be because they just want to cause mischief. ;)

I haven’t figured out lightposts yet. Their description says “Lightposts light up the areas between web sites. They make visible connections that were dark before.” Ah, I see. If I read a little further it tells me that lightposts are required to make missions. Neat.

Mines can be dropped on websites, and when you step on one they take away some of your datapoints (coins).

Armour can be worn to protect against mine attacks.

Coins/Datapoints are collected at each new site you go to. (Each day, or ever, or something. I’m not quite sure. I’ve found a way of farming them, and in only a day and a bit have collected over 600 of them. Since I’m using firefox I do a search in google and go along and open every link in a new tab. I do this for as many as I have patience for and then close all tabs and start again! Whew! Internet surfing at speed!

Now, depending what you do there are different factions you will be joined to. Bedouins for example are known to wear armour to protect themselves. Vigilantes foil others mischief by placing St. Nicks on their profiles, blocking them from doing their next action. There are others, fly over to pmog.com to see what they are like.

Feel free to come along and join me. My username is Suprspi, and I’d be happy to have you as an acquaintance. Or just take my mission and see what I like best on the internet in the world of blogs, comics and random stuff.

I should mention that I found this game, like so much other cool stuff I’ve found on the internet, from Wil Wheaton. Will is also playing PMOG, but I don’t know his name yet. This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen on the internet in a long time, and I really encourage you all to check it out.

That’s what time it is.

Mimi is over.  We had an awesome dinner (if I do say so myself) then hit the coolers.  We watched flashdance and The Phantom of the Opera.

We kept drinking - had to go get more drinks even.

Turned on American Idol PS2 game and started singing.

Now it’s 4:30.  The little girl will be up in a few hours.  I can’t even bring her downstairs to watch Dora and I sleep on the couch, since Auntie Mimi will be there.  Oops.

Merde!

It’s bedtime - you know, now that the sun is coming up and all.

More later.

PS. It was fun though.

I’m sick today.

Sore bones and joints.  Upset stomach.  Dizzy and really disoriented - things in my head threaten to come out of my mouth, but they’re sort of dreams - they make no sense.

I hope I feel better soon.

We went for a picnic today at a local park. It’s constantly being expanded by the city, and is now our largest park. It has a couple of ball diamonds, a great kids park, new tennis courts, gardens, lawn bowling and, as we discovered today, a great network of trails through the wetlands.

We took the kids for a nature walk. Amanda, Gabe and Anna came, and I met Samantha, Ivy and Dylan after work. We had wraps and salad, played with the kids in the playground, then went hiking.

I have some pictures, because they can say it better than I can.

Playing the the playground, on the teeter-totter.

Playing with Auntie in the sandbox.

Daddy helping climb on the equipment.

We saw a puppy getting a walk and playing fetch. Her name was Kia and she likes kids. The kids liked her too, but she was moving around quickly, so made them sort of nervous.

We wanted to play in the pond, but Mommy and Auntie said No!

Off we went, down the trail.

A tree blocking the path. Ivy and Gabriel helped me move it so Mom and Auntie could get under.

We found a little creek before we turned around. The kids (and I) had to throw stones into it.

The next two photos I took looking onto the pond at the geese, with Auntie Amanda and the kids in front of it. I almost captured how sunny our day was with the glare!

At the end we got to sit on Daddy’s motorbike while Mom and Auntie and Daddy packed up the truck.  (Note the super awesome Dale Ernhardt Jr. screen from the dollar store.  Hey, it was a buck.  No, I’m not a race fan.)

**This post deals with events that might be traumatic for some people, notably miscarraige. You have been warned.**

One of the webcomics I read regularly is Ctrl-Alt-Delete. It’s a comic about gamers, and is usually funny, often ironic, and occasionally, very emotive. Is that the right word? This is a post about the latter, one comic that struck a particular chord with me.

Cut added for those who’d prefer not to read the rest of this post.

Long ago, in a previous life, my wife and I had what I call a mini-miscarriage. (This is bound to stir up controversy.) We had a pregnancy scare. We’d been thinking about kids, but I was never ready. One day she told me she was late. Over a month. We waited another month, still no indication of regular monthly cycle.

I can’t remember now if she took a pregnancy test and it was positive or not. My mind says yes, but sometimes my mind fills in blanks with details that are suspect to the rational part of me. It matters not.

It turned out we weren’t pregnant. I’d gotten really excited. So had she. (I’m trying to refrain from telling anything of her point of view - that’s not my business.) I’d already talked to my Mom and Brother about the whole thing. I’d come to the conclusion that this was a “good thing”.

Finding out that she wasn’t pregnant was heartbreaking. This is what I refer to as a mini-miscarriage. The emotional loss was there, but there was never anything to lose in the first place.

Fast forward to last summer. Sami and I had moved into our new house, and life was good. I was already “Daddy” to Ivy, or at least it was starting. Samantha and I found out we were pregnant. It wasn’t exactly planned, or prepared. She was on birth control. I guess we can go ahead and call it a “happy accident”. We weren’t planning on kids yet, but then again, we were having sex. I guess that means we accepted it as an option. We are after all adults, and we know that sex is the leading cause of babies.

After about month three I began to have my own personal hell. I was really excited. I didn’t want to show it too much, for the chance that I might curse it was always on my mind. Every time Sam went to the doctor, I was scared that I would get “The Call”.

“The Call” is the phone call that I answer. In my imagination I’m always happy go lucky when I answer the phone, but grief quickly intrudes. There will be no baby for me.

I don’t know how I would have dealt with that. I had very close friends who did, and now are happily toodling along in their next pregnancy - but the grief in their eyes in that time was hard to be around. What do you say? I generally took the quiet road and said not much. A quick “I’m sorry for your loss” and that was that.

Head to ctrl-alt-delete today and read the comic “Loss”. Ethan works at a game store, and got a phone call from the hospital. His fiancee Lilah is pregnant. That’s about all the backstory you need. Actually, Tim drew it so well, I’m not sure you even need that.

A good friend of ours, Amanda, is starting a home business selling baby carriers. Specifically she’s making copies/derivatives of an African baby carrier her mom brought home for her when she was in Africa.

Since I’m a pretty big fan of baby/parent contact, snuggling, breastfeeding and all that sentimental stuff, I thought I’d give her a shoutout here.

You can find her blog (which is very much a work in progress, I’m giving her what help I can) at babysgotback.wordpress.com

I know she’s going to be selling these things, and I think she’s going to be doing custom orders. I’m not sure what she’s asking, but you can probably send her an email ( littlesaintsatplay @ hotmail.com) and find out the details. Tell her I sent you.

Well, I went for a ride with Greg and Kate today.  We hopped on the bikes and followed Greg’s parents out the the Yorston Farm and had Cinnamon Buns.  They have an event called Cinnamon Sunday each Sunday in May.  Buns are 1$ each and really, really yummy.  We took some curvy roads home. (Yorston Farm, incidentally, is where we went to the super awesome corn maze last year, and will be going again this fall.)

When I got home I changed my oil and filter in my bike.  Nice clean oil now, will be dirty in a day or two.  The curvy roads were fun, and Greg brought the extra pieces for my left fairing, so I can hopefully tighten up my dash and whatnot.  Sweetness.

Tom, Chris, Scott, Sam and I worked on putting together Ivy’s new swing set!  She loves it, it has one baby swing in the middle, two big kid swings, a slide and a teeter-totter.  The whole thing was enjoyed by all of the kids, because Mel brought her little ones, Ally and James over as well!  Super awesome sunny Sunday. (And it was Sun-Day as well, nice and warm at about 22*C)

Then we had some yummy barbecued pork chops, courtesy of Samantha.  Salad too - the first and only thing I ate today other than a cinnamon bun.  It was super to sit outside with the family and enjoy some dinner.

After dinner Samantha and I cleaned the barbecue, CLR and Scotch-Pads baby!  We scrubbed and hosed and sprayed and cursed and cleaned and rinsed and …. whew!  The BBQ should be nice and clean for next thing we cook on it - maybe ceder plank salmon tomorrow night.

I also managed to get our three herb pots planted, the three pepper plants and the extra herbs in the herb garden in the back.  I’m hoping my garlic chives and leeks do well back there too - the rubarb is still scrawny, it hasn’t put down good roots yet.  Maybe I should find some good food safe fertilizer to drop down back there.  We have parsley and something else new - can’t even remember what I planted.

Then, to finish off the night Chris, Sam and I put some Mario Kart Wii on and raced ourselves silly.  I have to get my sorry, sunburned butt to work in the morning, so I’m about to crash now.  See y’all later!

PS.

Welcome to summer time!

Vijay and Sunita came over for dinner tonight and brought their baby girl Pia.  We cooked dinner for them on the grill.  Sam wanted me to archive the recipes I use (something I seldom do) so that we can remake them sometime.

Lemon Dill Chicken Skewers

• 1 cup Lemon Juice
• 1/4 cup Lime Juice
• 1/4 cup Ponzu Sauce
• 1/4 cup Grapeseed Oil
• 2 large garlic cloves, diced
• 1 Tbsp. Freeze Dried Dill
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1 tsp. Herbes de Provence
• Salt + Pepper

Marinate for 6 hours or so.  Does enough for probably 4 or 5 large skewers, I did two.  Dill could be increased and lemon decreased for more dill flavour.

Middle-Eastern-Ish Beef Kebabs

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
• 1/4 cup Chai Tea concentrate (comes in a 1 liter tetra pack, like OJ does)
• 4 or 5large garlic cloves, diced
• 1 large piece ginger, diced (about 5 tablespoons, same as garlic)
• 1 large shallot, diced
• Dash Worcestershire Sauce
• 1tsp. ground middle eastern spice blend (coriander, caraway, aniseed, jamaica pepper, black and white peppercorns)
• 3 Tbsp. Yellow Curry Powder
• 1tsp. chilli powder
• 1 Stick Fresh ground cinnamon and
• 1tsp. dried chilli pepper (I did mine in a mortar and pestle)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

About the same as above.  Did 2 skewers of diced inside round steak.  Could do 4 or 5 easy.  Marinate 6 hours or so.  Curry could be increased for more Indian style taste.

Veggie Stir Fry of Barbecue Awesomeness!

• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1/8 cup Thai chili sauce
• 1/8 cup kikkoman stir-fry sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1tsp. barbecue spice (chili, garlic, onion, chipotle)
• Salt + Pepper

I did these on a barbecue wok.  Carrot, Red Pepper and Celery.  I put the sauce on in the last minute, so as not to char it too badly with the open flame through the perforated bottom of the wok.

Born to be wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiild!

I passed my Motorcycle Skills Test today.  That means I have had the supervisor and skill restrictions removed from my licence.  I can now legally exceed 60 km/h and drive without a supervisor.

I have my drivers test on Thursday at 10:15am.  I need to get some practice in before then - I’m hoping this head cold pulls a vanishing act.

I’m still hoping to take a motorcycle course sometime soon.  This can get me commuting though.  Props to all those who gave me a hand with practice time etc. when I needed it!