Despite the ominous online silence, there has been progress on the UTC storyline.  Much of the material is hand written, so there will be a further pause while I type it up here.  I have a couple of revisions for you and the next installment in the story arc.  As well as continuing work on the UTC setting, I have also begun work on another series of unrelated stories.  In a complete change in direction, these are more contemporary in that they are set in the nineties and focus on a fictional town in the highlands of Scotland and the strange and disturbing events that occur there.  Well, I hope it will be strange and disturbing…

The good people at Train or Maintain are putting together the site for these new stories at the moment, so when its up and running I’ll post an announcement and supply the direct link.

Anyway, I need to go and capture a wild haggis in preparation for the ancient pagan rite of Burns Night, where hagisses (haggi ?) are ritually slaughtered and eaten, accompanied by the dreary verse of our national bard and mildly poisonous whisky.  Yes, I said dreary.  As I mentioned here, I’m not a great fan of poetry.  Be seeing you.

unifiedterrancommunity@gmail.com

convert this post to pdf.

unifiedterrancommunity@gmail.com

convert this post to pdf.

With the level of deceit that has become customary for our leaders to employ, I started to wonder if maybe this is something that needs to be done now.  Sounds a little paranoid, right?  Consider the example of Peter Mandelson.  If I recall correctly, Comrade Mandelson was the MP for Hartlepool to begin with.  He was removed to avoid a corruption scandal, quietly fading into the background for a while.  Then he re appeared and not long afterwards was sent off to the EU parliament to avoid another scandal.  Everyone sort of forgot about him until the Supreme Leader, Comrade Brown summoned him back from Europe to try and save his failing Premiership.  Interestingly, Mandelson didn’t just come back.  There were always rumours about the Blairite/Brown split in New Labour and Mandelson was definitely one of Blairs.  And thus, we the taxpayer paid a ‘moving allowance’ of over £250,000 to smooth the transition between the EU parliament and the UK one.  That would seem to be somewhat in the nature of a bribe, but we’re not that cynical.  Are we?

Anyway, back he came.  But not as an MP.  There was nowhere for him to go as an MP and he has a … dubious, success rate as an MP.  Clearly then, the way forward was to award him a Peerage.  With this crude bit of political flim flammery, the Supreme Leader got his fixer and Comrade Lord Mandelson of the Sith was born.  This was the beginning of the Supreme Leaders unusual policy of having a Cabinet that was over 50% unelected officials.  Certainly members of the Upper House had appeared in the Cabinet before, but never in such numbers.  I think many people have an instinctive distrust of Dark Lord Mandelson and that is a Very Good Thing.  But few people seem to remember that even Tony Blair had to get rid of Mandelson because he was so corrupt.  Even fewer people remember the actual reason Mandelson was cast out in the first place.  I suspect that if more people remembered the truth about Comrade Lord Mandelson, Brown could never have brought him back.

They say we live in the Age of Information.  This is almost correct, we live in the Age of Disinformation.  Our government continually contradicts itself and is caught in blatant lies on an almost daily basis.  Yet nothing ever comes of it.  The Iraq War Inquiry is a perfect example.  It is widely accepted (I hope!) that Blairs government lied through their rotten teeth to involve us in the War for Oil.  Now we have an Inquiry into what went on.  On the surface, this is great – only last night I watched one of our top military officers gleefully lay the blame for our high casualty rate at the door of Whitehall.  But this was an illegal war.  The focus should not be on who mismanaged the occupation but on who caused it to occur.  Tony Blair is a war criminal.  He should be treated as such.  The comedian Frankie Boyle remarked that latterly Blairs focus was on his ‘legacy’ and that said legacy was assured.  He would be remembered as a mass murdering bastard.  I certainly hope so.

Well, ramble over.  Have a pleasant day and remember to check your TVs for hidden cameras.  Remember, Lord Mandelson of the Sith knows where you live…

unifiedterrancommunity@gmail.com

convert this post to pdf.

This book is the result of numerous off record conversations as well as the simple process of recording the promises of New Labour and then exposing the reality of those promises.  The book exemplifies the notion that we are a nation of people with very short memories who are very easily distracted.  Starting with New Labours landslide victory in 1997, ‘You are Here’ reminds us of the tremendous sense of optimism that gripped the country.  ‘Things can only get better’ was not only the soundtrack to the celebrations on the night, but practically a mission statement from the party who were going to save us all from the depredations of the Conservatives.  However, this was not simple politics as the past had seen them play out.  New Labour created a vast media machine, commanded by the ubiquitous Alastair Campbell, to transmit their message to everyone and anyone.  Blair surrounded himself with musicians and actors and the banner of ‘Cool Britannia’ was unfurled.  As we watched Liam and Noel Gallagher swagger into number 10 we thought to ourselves, hmm, that’s a little different.

Unfortunately, different is not the same as better as the rest of the book goes on to reveal.

The remainder of ‘You are Here’ is divided into four main topics.  Broadly, these deal with the build up to and aftermath of Gulf War II -  ‘This time it’s personal’; the unique approach that New Labour took to running our country; our foreign policy during the period covered by the book and of course the costs, financial and in terms of civil liberties, that we have paid under New Labours enlightened rule.  The book is rounded of by list of ‘little changes’ New Labour has made to the UK and a ten part suggested solution for global peace and harmony.  No.  Seriously. 

The next section I shall summarise revolves around the incredible piece of international breakdown that was the Iraq war, post September the 11th.  As a nation many (some?) of us were swept along in the tidal wave of propaganda that preceeded the war and sloshed about all the way through.  We knew our government was lying to us, simply because they kept contradicting themselves.  Thing is, to be a good liar, you need a good memory as well.  It would seem that all that time spent at our top universities not inhaling, had damaged the memories of our ruling caste.  But all of this is by the by.  There was going to be a war in Iraq, it was always going to be simply a case of finding a justification.  This subject has been covered in depth by an array of media outlets.  The result of this influx of information and rumour has been a level of obfuscation that New Labour could only have dreamt of.  ‘You are Here’ takes you by the hand and walks you through the menagerie of half truths and fictions in far more detail than I could convey here, consider this, however.  Those of you who were paying attention will recall a minor organisation called the UN.  You may also remember our Glorious Leader assuring us that we would only invade another sovreign nation under the auspices of a UN charter.  Wouldn’t be legal otherwise, you see.  You will also remember that the UN said ‘no invasion, Iraq are no threat’.  Still smiling that shit eating grin, Mr Blair proposed another resolution and as it began to fail, alluded to the notion that a resolution wasn’t really necessary – we would go ahead anyway, if the Americans indicated that was their preference.  There was mutterings about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), we knew Iraq had them.  After all, we sold them to Iraq in the first place and lent him the money to pay for them.  Unfortunately, the inconsiderate Iraqis had deactivated the vast majority of them.  In accordance with UN directives.  The Coalition of the Willing, (USA, UK, Australia and if you choose to count them, like Mr Powell, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia.) collectively shrugged their shoulders and invaded Iraq anyway.  Not withstanding the fact that the place is dripping in oil, as George W. Bush put it ‘He tried to kill my daddy…’   *shudder*

The following part of the book goes into detail about New Labours domestic policies and the results of said policies.  As an interesting side note, Routledges Economic Dictionary defined New Labours financial policy thus: “Blairism – see Thatcherism”.  New Labour began to create a ‘new’ way for the UK to conduct its business.  They resolved, under the Iron Chancellor (Comrade Brown, Supreme Leader in Waiting) that finance would be the major industry of the UK.  The City of London was given unprecedented freedoms to express their psychopathic urge to make money at all costs.  What little manufacturing industry that existed was slowly crushed.  Then came the rise of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).  This was not a New Labour Idea, the concept had arisen under the Conservative regime that had proceeded the rise of Blair and his cohorts.  However, under New Labour the PFIs positively ballooned.  The reason for this is disturbingly straightforward.  It’s all to do with accounting.  The PFIs are not recorded on the Governments economic balance sheet.  So, if for example you have a service haemoraging money, for example the rail network, that loss is not visible to a cursory examination of the government accounts.  It is this trickery which allowed New Labour to convince people they were handling our nations finances with skill and care.  There is much use of smoke and mirrors when dealing with New Labour.

Unfortunately, I’m running short of space here.  This is the only criticism I have of this book, it’s a nightmare to review because it covers so much material (354 pages, including index and references).  Some of the other topics covered include, but are not limited to, our involvement in Africa generally; Libya specifically; most of the countries whose name ends in ‘stan’.  It also covers subject material such as our impact on the enviroment, the changes to our school, health and benefits systems.  And a big list of the various civil liberties that have been quietly removed since 1997.  Seriously, there is loads of good stuff here!  To wrap up then, some statistics from the section called ‘The Little Book of Britain’ (correct in 2005, things may have deteriorated since then..)

‘Over a third of the population earns less than £6 an hour’

‘Almost half the children in London live in poverty’

’7 million adults are not literate enough to cope with modern life’

‘Over £6 billion is spent on alcohol every year’

‘Over 20% of the population is obese’

‘In 2002 on average one school playing field was sold off each week’

The importance of this book is that it shows the true face of our government.  I urge you to read it.

convert this post to pdf.

But enough of this kind of talk!  The ceremony on Friday was to celebrate Col’s life, not mourn his death and so this post will follow in that theme.  Col was a professional guitarist (among other things), one of my earliest memories of Col from school is his almost obsessive interest in music.  As you grow up, you generally meet several gifted musicians in your travels.  Col was the only one I ever met who had the genuine drive to make it as a pro.  Indeed, a couple of years ago, his band signed with an indie label in Glasgow and managed to pull off the impressive coup of supporting the Dead Kennedys at their only Scottish date.

Col was charming, funny and knew his own mind.  He was incredibly tolerant and non judgemental.  The varied group at his funeral was a testament to Col’s ability to form close friendships at great speed.  I am unaware of anyone who met Col and didn’t like him.  The concept of the social clique was completely foreign to Col and his friendships crossed all social boundaries.  Never was there a more genuine or loyal friend to be found.  Col’s interests were rich and varied.  As well as music (obviously) he was an enthusiastic fan of the non mainstream sci fi, such as the novels of Michael Marshall Smith and of course the timeless classic theat is Red Dwarf.  Politically, Col was very ‘Punk’ in his attitude.  It was Col who introduced me to the ‘Net film Loose Change, the first of several ‘conspiracy films’ we enjoyed; Zeitgeist 1 and 2 following swiftly afterwards.

The other interest that Col and I shared was a predeliction for rare herbs and proscribed chemicals.  The reason I mention this is to pass on a message from someone who was most likely Col’s oldest friend.  This friend is severely ill and could only attend the initial ceremony at the crematorium.  He was unable to attend the later gathering which was more celebratory.  Simply the message is this:

“I just wanted Colin to know that I still have that pipe he gave me over ten years ago and I still use it every day.”

I’m mentioning this here, because there was a ‘memories’ book at the after gathering and i forgot to put this in there.  I think it’s important and didn’t want it left unsaid.  Both the originator of the message and myself have known Col since primary school.  He has always been an important part of our lives and he will be well missed.

And never forgotten.  We love you man, rest in peace.

To finish up, here is a picture of Col, some links to his bands’ site (band are called Littlejohnrocket) and to a charity he approved of.  Please take the time to follow the links, there are free samples of Cols’ music (he was the lead guitarist).  The music really is very good…

LINKS

‘Youth Music’ Charity Site

LittleJohnRocket MySpace Site

LittlejohnRocket main Website

Note: It is certainly possible that the music sites will not be up forever, I don’t know what the band have planned, if anything – so have a listen while you still can  

convert this post to pdf.

unifiedterrancommunity@gmail.com

convert this post to pdf.

This was my first experience of an online computer game (mmorpg-massive multiuser online roleplaying game, I think that’s what it means!).  To start with I enjoyed creating a character and naming her, I decided to be an elf hunter.  There are a choice of races and classes which fulfill certain roles and are good at certain things.  The hunter is good at dealing out ranged damage (from a bow) but does not do so well at close quarters.  I then started the game proper and died several times before I got the hang of it.  When I say I died I really mean that I got beaten in a fight and ran out of morale, in this game you don’t “die” you just get sent back to one of the many safe points near where you were.  I thought the graphics were pretty good but not at all what I thought middle earth should look like.  The novelty of a new game and one where I could interact with others (once I finally worked out how to do that and had learned a bit of online gaming lingo) lasted quite a while.  I enjoyed the fact that when I killed a monster or completed a quest I would gain experience points which would build up and once I collected a certain amount I would go up a level.  When I went up a level I would get more hit points (morale) and more power points (energy for certain skills) and every couple of levels new abilities.

I could choose which quests I wanted and leave the ones I couldn’t be bothered with which suits my nature.  You can just run about exploring and/or killing monsters but that can get boring.  Most of the quests are either killing stuff, finding items or people or a combination of the two.  I found this got boring after a while.

As you kill things and do quests you pick up coinage and various items, armour and weapons for example.  You can also learn crafting skills which mean that you can make things and with practice (a lot of practice) improve your skill and eventually make some semi-useful items.

There are group quests which if you can find people to join in with can be fun but again get samey.

All in all it was good to start with but I got bored with it.  The graphics are good but in my opinion not really very “Lord of the ringsy”.  Having read the first book and been read all three as a child plus the hobbit I felt it didn’t have the right “feel” to it.  I know this might not be a glowing review but condsidering they overcharged me every month (you have to pay a monthly subscription as well as buying the game) double sometimes triple the fee (they did pay me back intitially but then denied it which is when I stopped playing and cancelled)  I think I’ve been quite fair.

Gameplay

Longevity 

Addictiveness 

Value for money 

Overall 

convert this post to pdf.

Eris:  It’s a priviledge to have you as a mentor, your knowledge of such matters seems inexhaustible.

Maeldune:  Truly, the time of the Dictators was a dark time for civilisation.  The rise of the dictators themselves was insidious, although it did not go unnoticed.  Indeed many of their conspiracies were so crude and ill disguised that those very factors stretched the credulity of the people of the time.  The people couldn’t believe that their leaders would be so bad at covering up their secret activities.

Eris:  So they hid in plain sight?

Maeldune:  Quite simply, yes.  That’s exactly what they did.  On other occassions they simply didn’t bother to try and hide what they were doing at all.  Blatant vote rigging, that kind of thing.

Eris:  I’m not familiar with vote rigging

Maeldune:  It’s part of the method of social control they used at the time.  Remember? the one called Democracy?

Eris:  I remember, that was a good one.  Anyway, vote rigging?

Maeldune:  Well, not content with total control on the candidacy for leadership and indeed the way in which the total votes were interpreted, sometimes the leadership needed to engineer specific results so they would indulge in the practise of vote rigging.  Essentially, they just make the result whatever they need it to be.  For example in one island nation of the time, they were holding a sub election where one side of the party was expected to lose heavily to the other side of the party.  Now, its important to remember to the people of that dark age, this party was percieved as being several opposing parties.  The party expected to lose was the faction that was officially in charge at that time.  Instead of losing, the ruling faction won by a landslide.  When those playing the role of the ‘Opposition’ demanded a recount, it was discovered that all the votes had gone missing.

Eris:  Not very subtle.

Maeldune:  Indeed, but it further obfuscated the illusion of choice between parties.  It was still some time before the people realised they had been duped.  By then of course, much worse things had happened.  State sponsored Bio Terrorism and other crimes against humanity.

Eris:  The Nations used Bio Weapons against each other?

Maeldune:  Among many other types of weapon, but in this case, no I was referring to attacks on the Nations own people.

Eris:  Huh.  Why on earth would you do that?

Maeldune:  For any number of reasons!  I’ll give you an example, during the period of the Imperial Coalition the dominant wing of the leadership was known as Corporation.  Corporation was heavily involved in perpetuating the system of slavery they used called ‘Money’, remember?  Anyway, the system requires that the people spend money on goods and possessions, so Corporation spend its time devising ways to seperate people from their money.  Corporation was keen to boost its profits.  Profits was their term for the money they took for you in exchange for things you either didn’t need or shouldn’t have to pay for.  Clear so far?

Eris:  Perfectly.  Will you arrive at the point soon, do you think?

Maeldune:  Hmmph!  Impertinent child.  Anyway, they created a hybrid virus and engineered its release into the various Nations.  Careful manipulation by the state controlled media made it seem as though the strain of virus was particularly deadly.  Once a suitable panic had been whipped up, Corporation offered a drug for sale, which might or might not actually do anything to alleviate the symptoms.  They made billions of units of their currency in profits.  This also allowed another wing of the leadership to implement a plan of their own.  They announced mandatory vaccinations against the ‘killer’ virus.  Under this guise they were able to carry out a number of tests on an unwitting public, with the perfect alibi.

Eris:  That’s really grisly.  What happened to these people?

Maeldune:  Well, that’s another story…

convert this post to pdf.

Sub Category:  The Illumined.

Date of Recording:  17/06/2028

Status:  Withdrawn from Community Access.

Excerpt:

“…these and related considerations, lead us to the subject of the Illumined, their nature andtheir role in allowing this Community a chance to survive.  Although the Illumined seem like us, in a physical sense, we are not the same.  The Illumined represent something that we can only hope to aspire to.  They are the next step in humanity’s spiritual evolution, the stage of enlightenment just prior to being worthy of becoming one of the people of Heaven.  It is this proximity to Heaven that gives them the ability to wield occult forces and manipulate certain aspects of our percieved reality.  To our ancestors, these beings seemed godlike in their prowess and were worshipped as such.  In some respects, they might be considered the opposite number of the dread Outsiders.  This is not truly accurate, as their origins are quite seperate.  Additionally, it would be foolish to assign notions of benevolence to the Illumined.  They are now, as they have always been, largely indifferent to the activities of we, the unevolved members of humanity.  The Illumined have lived along side and amongst us for millenia, rarely interfering.  Often, the question of their continued presence has been addressed by the ancient scholars.  Why have these beings not left the mortal world and ascended to the Heavenly sphere?  Clearly, a evolutionary point has not been reached, but what is taking so long?  In this case, it is a simple matter of scale.  The Illumined are true immortals, the passage of time, as we percieve it, is meaningless for them.  They are ageless and undying.  This is not to say that the Illumined are indestructable, merely that it would require the action of another of their kind or an Outsider to terminate their existence.  As we begin to use the Mnemosyne Device, as sense of this timelessness will be gifted to us and we may begin to understand that for the Illumined, their spiritual ascension is proceeding at a reasonable speed.  It has been hypothesized that there is something preventing this apotheothis, and certainly when one looks into the activities of the Illumined there are numerous examples of petty and vengeful behaviour.  However, it is not our place to speculate on and judge the actions of these beings, for in truth, without their assistance we would still be living under the jackboot of the Dictators.  They have freed us from slavery, it is now our responsibility to make sure that such a situation never happens again…”

convert this post to pdf.