#making miniature to-scale books of things we’ve read

[applesandbannas747]

Being my student is just microdosing on adhd

[fictionadventurer]

@lady-merian, Well, now you’ve made me curious. How does each chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe end? I’m going to use the same categories I used to classify the Hunger Games chapters, but there are a few things that alter how these endings function in this book.

Genre: This is a portal fantasy, not an action-adventure book. To borrow terminology from Orson Scott Card, this is a Milieu story rather than an Event Story. The tension comes as much from exploring a new world as from navigating a plot, so a lot of the revelations and narrative changes aren’t going to be as dramatic or devastating as they might be in a more intense narrative.

POV: Rather than a first-person narrator, this book has an omniscient narrator who can show us things that the main characters don’t know about. This means that chapter endings are classified by how they function for the reader rather than the characters, since we know things that the characters don’t know.

The Categories

Bombshell: A surprise event or revelation occurs that’s outside the characters’ control. We want to turn the page to see the fallout from it.

Cliffhanger: Something is about to happen or be revealed, but we’re not sure what it is yet. We turn the page in the hope of learning this new information.

Tension-builder: We’ve just learned some new information that  makes the situation more difficult or stressful.. It’s sort of a long-term cliffhanger--we know this is going to have an effect on the story, but not necessarily at the beginning of the next chapter.

Initiative: Characters are about to or have done something to take action.

Resolution: Main conflict of the chapter has been successfully resolved.

The Chapters

Chapter 1: Lucy has just entered Narnia and seen a faun. The faun is startled by her and drops his packages. Bombshell.

Chapter 2: Lucy comes back to the spare room and announces to everyone that she’s alright. Resolution.

Chapter 3: The witch demands to know what Edmund is. Edmund says he doesn’t know what she means, and says he’s at school, but it’s the holidays now. It’s a very odd place to end a chapter, since the next chapter picks up with the same argument, and this is the second time that the Witch has asked what Edmund is.  I’ll call it a Cliffhanger, since we’re waiting to find out what the Witch means by asking “what” Edmund is.

Chapter 4: Edmund and Lucy are going back to the wardrobe. Edmund feels sick knowing that his siblings are on the side of the animals and he’s sympathetic to the witch. Lucy says, “What fun we shall have now that we’re all in it together.” A nice little bit of irony that serves as a Tension-builder.

Chapter 5: The four children hide in the wardrobe (and they don’t shut the door, because you never shut yourself in the wardrobe). Cliffhanger.

Chapter 6: Edmund and Peter argue if they can trust their guide, and Edmund points out that they don’t know the way to get back home. Bombshell.

Chapter 7: The children have just finished a meal with the Beavers and Mr. Beaver says it’s time to get down to business (and that the snow means no one will find tracks if someone’s trying to follow them). The gentlest form of Cliffhanger. We’re about to get an infodump, and we turn the page to learn the answers to questions, but it’s not a dramatic need-to-turn-the-page-now kind of tension.

Chapter 8: They’ve just found out that Edmund has gone to the White Witch, and the Beavers tell them they have to flee immediately. I’m going to call this a Bombshell, because Edmund’s defection is a huge surprise to the other three, and the announcement that they have to leave feels like an extension of that surprise.

Chapter 9: Edmund has just told the witch where his siblings are, and the witch orders her sled without bells to be prepared. Tension-builder.

Chapter 10: After everyone enjoys tea and sandwiches in the cave, Mr. Beaver tells them it’s time to move on. Initiative.

Chapter 11: The dwarf tells the White Witch that winter has been destroyed and it’s Aslan’s doing, and the Witch says anyone mentioning that name will be instantly killed. Tension-builder.

Chapter 12: Peter, still shaky after killing the Wolf, kneels before Aslan and is dubbed Wolf’s-Bane. “Whatever happens, never forget to clean your sword.”  Peter has just been prepared for the coming war. Initiative. 

Chapter 13: Aslan announces he’s made a deal and the Witch has renounced her claim on Edmund. When the Witch questions his promise, Aslan roars, and she flees for her life. Resolution.

Chapter 14: The children cover their eyes as Aslan is killed. Bombshell.

Chapter 15: Aslan brings the girls to the Witch’s home and they find themselves in a courtyard of statues. A resolution, because Aslan is alive, the journey’s over, and they’re safe, but as I’m reading it, it feels like a mild Cliffhanger, because we’re still curious about what Aslan’s going to do next.

Chapter 16: Aslan’s forces join the battle; Peter’s tired forces cheer, Aslan’s forces roar, and the enemy gibbers. Cliffhanger, since we’re not told how the battle goes, but an extremely joyful one, since it’s clear that circumstances are on the side of good. (And the first line of the next chapter tells us the battle was over in minutes). 

Chapter 17: “And that is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe. But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.” Resolution of the whole story, but with a tantalizing promise of more.

Observations

The children are pulled along by the narrative and make no decisions for themselves (at least in the chapter endings). Even in the two chapters that end in Initiative, other characters are telling the children what action to resolve upon: Mr. Beaver tells them to keep moving after tea and Aslan tells Peter to go forward in the fight. And in both cases, they’re just continuing actions that have already been happening: the flight from the Witch and the battle against the Witch’s forces. This is part of the function as a middle-grade portal fantasy. First off, they’re children, who usually need authority figures to tell them what to do. Second, the characters are just vehicles to explore the world; we don’t need to explore their struggles with finding the right course of action. We just need them to go along for the ride so we can see more of Narnia.

Only three chapters end with neat Resolutions: Lucy coming back from meeting Mr. Tumnus, Aslan sending the Witch fleeing in terror, and the very end of the book. The first one serves to set the tone: this is a place where you can go on wild, fantastical adventures, but don’t worry because you’ll get home safely in the end. (It’s like those two chapters are a miniature form of the entire book). The second one gives us a moment of triumph before the ultimate, heartbreaking defeat of the story’s lowest point. And the last one is there because the book has come to an end (though we do get imagination-firing sequel promises).

The tension-builders all relate to the villain’s wider plot. They all relate to Edmund, and two of them come when Edmund is with the Witch and separated from his siblings. This makes sense, because the villain’s plot is the only large-scale thing happening in this otherwise very immediate quest story. The story isn’t driven by tension between the characters (except the tension introduced by the Witch). It’s a very concrete “we need to go here and do this” kind of story, which provides more opportunities for the promises of immediate resolution that we get from cliffhangers and bombshells.

The cliffhangers are all very mild. It’s not “oh no, are they going to be okay?” It’s a much gentler, “I want to find out what happens next” or “I want to find out what’s going on.” We turn the page, not necessarily because we’re worried about the characters, but because we’re curious. This makes sense with the portal fantasy structure. The story is driven by that sense of wonder and curiosity.

The bombshells are the hardest-hitting moments of the story. And this story provides plenty of opportunities for them, since the children aren’t the ones driving the narrative. The four bombshells actually provide some of the turning points of the story according to Seven-Point Story Structure.

Plot Turn 1(The character’s world changes): Lucy discovers Narnia in the wardrobe

Pinch 1 (forces the characters to action): Learning that they don’t know the way home forces them to continue with the adventure, but the third bombshell is the actual pinch point that forces them to act, because Edmund’s defection is what them to flee from the Beavers’ home.

(Midpoint is Peter joining the battle after meeting Aslan)

Pinch 2 (lowest point): Aslan’s death

This function of the bombshells makes sense according to the demands of the structure. The midpoint occurs when the characters move from reacting to taking action, so it can’t come from a bombshell, but the Plot Turns and Pinches happen when the characters are faced with events that are outside of their control.

All this is fascinating to me, because we have an story where the main characters make almost no choices, yet the underlying structure is still present and still satisfying. The characters aren’t driving the story; they’re just swept up into it, yet it works because a portal fantasy is driven by wonder and curiosity. We’re the ones going on this adventure, swept up by the story with no control over where it goes, so the story functions best when the characters themselves lack that control. The story’s momentum comes not necessarily from life or death stakes, but by the readers’ curiosity to know what happens next or what’s around the next corner. And yet, because so much of the story is outside of the characters’ control, we have opportunities for bombshell revelations that provide the story structure. There are a couple of odd chapter endings, but Lewis knows what he’s doing, and can keep up the tension in a way that’s appropriate for the tone of the story. No wonder this book has become a classic.

[sjrresearch]

Bataan and Corregidor – Wargaming!

As promised, I am finally at the part we’ve all come for—the wargaming. I wanted to talk about some of the wargaming opportunities for the Bataan campaign, as well as the tools available to you to refight the campaign. Many of these games and figures I own (Bataan is a passion project of mine!). I am eager to share with you some of the opportunities and ideas on how to wargame the campaign in hex, counter, and miniature.

Hex and Counter

Bataan! – Compass Games (2010)

I own this game, and I must say, it’s a very solid simulation of the fighting on Bataan. It gets the feel of the fighting right and forces both sides to act within their historical limitations. The scenarios are also well crafted, and I would encourage anyone who’s interested in the campaign or just likes a good wargame to pick this up! Thus far, this has been the best game on the subject. My only gripe? I wish they’d included Corregidor. 

You can get a new copy from Compass here for $62.00, not including shipping, of course. But it’s well worth your time, and it’s a fun, fast play with very solid design decisions!

1942 – Game Designers Workshop (1978)

This game is not bad as games go, and it’s not just about the defense of Bataan and Corregidor, but the strategic problems faced by Japan and the Allies at the opening of the Pacific War. The game is a bit bland, but for 1978, it was state of the art, and Marc Miller did a pretty good job laying the framework. It’s currently out of print, but you can find it for sale on eBay for about $20-25. 

The Damned Die Hard – Games Research/Design (1999)

This was a surprise when I found it cheap in a flea market. It’s the Pacific continuation of the old GDW Europa series, and its scope is the entire Philippine Island chain. I like it because it really confronts the Japanese player with the time and supply constraints that were present historically. You must win quickly as the Japanese, or not at all. Moreover, one of the scenarios is counterfactual of what if the Philippines had more time to prepare for the Japanese onslaught. I have not played that scenario, but it would be a fun one to explore! It even has its own Bataan scenario on a separate map! Not bad for the value!

You can find the game currently with Games Research/Design for $65 here.

Bushido Denied – High Flying Dice Games (2000)

I don’t own this one. I like the premise that it includes Corregidor as well as Bataan. It appreciates how much of a slog it was for the Japanese, and the price isn’t bad either at $20.95! You’ll have to pay an extra $5 for mounted counters, but I don’t find that all that bad! $25 for a wargame these days is a bargain, and I will probably break down and buy it.

You can order it here.

Miniatures

Miniatures options for the campaign are plentiful for the Americans, Philippine Scouts, and Japanese, but not so much for the Philippine Army. I know Eureka miniatures makes them in 15mm, but that’s the only company I know who makes them in any scale. That said, there’s plenty of ways to convert them, such as head conversions with any sort of brimmed hat or German DAK solar helmet heads? I suppose those might work.

That said, there’s still plenty of scales to choose from and notes out there on how to carry the campaign off in miniature.

Let’s discuss some of the more popular scales!

15mm

As discussed, there’s quite a lot out there in 15mm for both sides. Eureka makes both Japanese and Americans (they’re marketed as Marines, but they’ll work for either service), as well as the Philippine Army with rifles. Heck, they even make the cavalry figures for the 26th! The figures average about 6-8 figures a pack and run about $1 a figure. While Eureka is in Australia, they have a Eureka USA branch, whom I order quite a bit of my 20mm World War II from, and they are good gents to deal with.

Another source for Japanese miniatures is Battlefront’s line of 15mm for Flames of War. While they’re a bit pricy and bigger than most folks’ lines, you’ll find them in just about every hobby shop that has Flames of War figures. I think they match well with Eureka, but as I don’t know 15mm well for World War II, I welcome comments on that score from our readers.

Another source for smaller and more in-scale with Eureka Japanese is Old Glory’s Command Decision line. Old Glory packages their figures in 50 figure bags, and the sculpts are 80s chic, so not quite state of the art. But if you want big Japanese armies quick, and with all the equipment you will ever need, it’s not a bad way to go.

20mm

The sad part is, 20mm used to be the go-to scale for the campaign. There were tons of manufacturers for 20mm figures for the early Pacific War. Sadly, that herd has thinned a bit. I bought most of my early war Americans during that heyday, and with a bit less out there now? I have a collection left half-finished in many ways. And will someone please make Philippine Army figures in 20mm!

What is out there, though, isn’t half bad at all! First, there’s Early War Miniatures in Britain. I am rather happy with these figures. They’re the old Skytrex line, and their figures fit in with my old American Hinchcliffe and Platoon 20 figures. The Americans have some nice gear, including the 26th Cav figures on horseback (the only manufacturer that makes them in 20mm). For the Japanese, they make just about everything, and you can buy single figures as well! 

Ehliem also makes a small line of 20mm figures of Americans for early war Pacific. They’re part of the old Sergeant Major Miniatures line, and I liked their line and wished I’d gotten more. I also hope Matt releases the rest of the line at some point. 

As for other sources for Japanese, you can find some nice figures from Eureka, Grubby Tanks, and  Simon’s Soldiers. I also recommend the 1/72 Scale Miniatures Company, as they are branching out into early War Pacific as well. They’re not doing the American or Philippine Army just yet, but their Japanese look amazing, and they have a ton of suitable terrain.

Another option in 20mm is, of course, plastic. The Russian figure company, Strelets, makes some serviceable figures in soft plastic for early war Americans. There are two packs, and their write-ups on Plastic Soldier Review can be found here and here.

28mm

There have been some exciting developments for those that want to game Bataan in 28mm. It used to be you had to do a lot of conversions to make Americans, let alone the Philippine Army. But now? Company B has released an entire line of 28mm figures and vehicles for Bataan! Their line of Japanese isn’t so complete, but you can supplement it with other companies.

One of those companies I recommend is Warlord Games. Their figures are for their rules, Bolt Action, but you can use the figures for whatever rules system you choose. They’re hard plastic for the most part, and they’re easy to convert and paint. And, for about $50, you can get a nice starter army. There was even an article on how to construct an American force for Bataan for Bolt Action.

Some other great sources for Japanese are Eureka and Empress Miniatures. I can also recommend the Berlin or Bust range of Japanese from Old Glory. 

Terrain

Terrain for Bataan is tricky but doable. You’ll need lots of hills and tall grass, as well as more than a few dense jungle forests. The open areas were not plentiful and were usually part of a village or some farming community. Much of the jungle can be found cheaply, depending on your scale, by hitting the aquarium section at your local pet store. Many of the smaller aquarium plants will do well for bamboo stands. Simply glue them to an old CD, flock the CD, and voila! Instant bamboo stand. 

As for the small villages, there are two manufacturers I can recommend. One is Sarissa. They’re easy to assemble, and they’re sturdy, being made from MDF cardboard, so they’ll hold up under years of gaming! They come in 28mm, 20mm, and 15mm, so pick your scale! (Incidentally, they make Japanese landing craft, another plus for Philippine games.) I have several of their products, and I recommend them highly.

Rules

Rules to do Bataan are out there. It really depends on how big a game you want to do and what level you want to do it at? 

Two rules sets that are commonly available today that I recommend are: 

Battlegroup World War II – As a rule set, Battlegroup is scalable for a variety of actions for everything from squad level-to battalion-level actions. The rules are smart, intuitive, and a lot of fun to play. They focus on     playing like the history we love to read. It’s why they’re my go-to rules.     Now, while they recently released a Pacific book, they structured it for     Late War Pacific, but I am sure early war lists will be released soon     (Hmm, perhaps I’ll write the darn things!)

Bolt Action – While some decry it as “Warhammer World War II,” it has a simplistic appeal that runs a good game you can finish in a few hours. The mechanics are simple, and once you have the main rules book, the rest is optional. Warlord Games has a ton of support out there for every period of World War 2, even Bataan.

Further Reading

I wanted to conclude this article with some further reading for you to learn more about the campaign, these three books were of a huge help in writing this series, and I wanted you to find out more, so much more than the surface we’ve scratched here.

The Fall of the Philippines – The War in The Pacific – US Army in WWII Green Book     Series, Morton, Louis, US Army Center for Military History, 1989

The Fall of the Philippines 1941-42 – Osprey Campaign Series No. 243, Chun, Clayton, Osprey Publishing, 2012

Last Stand on Bataan – Kolakowski, Christopher, Mcfarland, and Company, 2016

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At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

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(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

[v-thinks-on]

A Social Visit

Part 2 of Jeeves and the Amateur Cracksman

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“Mr. Manders,” Jeeves announced, waving the aforementioned into the flat.

“What ho!” I exclaimed, jumping up to greet him.

While A.J. Raffles came closer to Jeeves in height, Bunny Manders, though dwarfed by Jeeves and even by myself, upon examination in the light of day, seemed to have some family resemblance in the set of his features that, combined with his youthful appearance, made it easy to believe he was Jeeves’s kid brother or young cousin, not that Jeeves gave any indication they had ever so much as exchanged a passing how-do-you-do.

“Hello,”  Bunny said with a sidelong glance up at Jeeves. “I’m sorry Raffles couldn’t make it, but he told me to convey his regards.”

“Not at all! I’m sure a famous cricketer like him has all sorts of places to be and things to go to and what not. Tell him I say, ‘What ho!’”

I waved it off genially enough, but I confess I was more than a tad disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to rub elbows with the acclaimed A.J. Raffles. Still, we Woosters are nothing if not gracious hosts, and if I was to be entrusted with his pal Bunny, then it was the least I could do.

I waved Bunny into the sitting room. “Have a seat, make yourself at home! Jeeves, drinks all around, what?”

“Sir?”

Jeeves had drifted over to fiddle with the window while I had been preoccupied with our guest, but now he resumed his place at attention. Jeeves had been on the frosty side for the past couple days - I couldn’t say why, having thoroughly rearranged the wardrobe, I had just about ascertained it didn’t have anything to do with my costume - and now was no different.

Bunny jumped a little at his sudden appearance, clearly unaccustomed to how Jeeves has a way of flickering in and out of the presence rather than walking like any ordinary fellow.

“Care to join us for a spot?” I asked. “Bunny’s your cousin after all.”

“That is very kind, sir, but Mr. Manders is your guest.”

I shrugged - that’s the only thing to do when the man is in such a state, though there was something in his tone that grated more than a little. “Have it your way, Jeeves.”

While Jeeves biffed off to prepare the drinks, I turned my attention to playing the gregarious host. “Lovely afternoon, what?”

Bunny tore his eyes away from Jeeves. “Oh, yes, it is, isn’t it?”

“Do you play cricket?”

“No, not really. Do you?”

“Hardly - I’ve never gone in for sports myself except for a touch of golf or tennis. I did try rowing once, but it didn’t last long. The coach, an old pal of mine, Stilton Cheesewright, was a real terror; I’ve never stood so much rapid fire abuse. But I throw a mean dart. My club, the Drones, has a competition every year and I would be a shoe-in if not for Horace Pendlebury-Davenport!”

“Really?” Bunny said, with the air of a man who had gotten rather lost along the way.

I was about to endeavor to explain when Jeeves shimmered over with a pair of glasses.

Bunny leaped like he had been stuck with a pin, nearly knocking the proffered glass out of Jeeves’s hand. For a moment, he just sat there, looking like a chap who had just seen a ghost, which I supposed wasn’t such a strange response to Jeeves appearing and disappearing like a genie out of a lamp, especially not for a fellow called Bunny. I’d only just grown accustomed to the man’s mysterious ways myself.

Finally, Bunny took the glass, though he kept an eye on Jeeves, as though he expected him to vanish into thin air at any moment, which I could have told him was sure to happen sooner or later.

“I don’t suppose you could walk a little louder, Jeeves? Tie a bell around your wrist or somesuch?” I suggested.

“I will endeavor to make my presence known, sir.”

You may know that Jeeves sometimes takes on an expression, or rather a lack of expression, altogether reminiscent of a stuffed frog or other such specimen, typically when he’s present and wants to give the impression of not being so. There’s something of a wax statue in the chap, absolutely silent with no presence at all. Well, I’ll tell you that Jeeves could have passed for a stuffed Jeeves then. I reflexively glanced down at my raiment, but as far as I could tell, there was nothing offensive in the lot, and it’s unusual for Jeeves to stay silent on such matters.

When I glanced back up, he was gone.

Bunny and I sipped at our drinks in a companionable silence for a tick or two before I remembered; “Say, you grew up with Jeeves, didn’t you?”

Bunny hesitated on the reply. “Yes... You could say that.”

“Has he always been like this?”

“I suppose so... How do you mean?”

“Oh, all brainy and whatnot. Ate a lot of fish, I expect.”

Bunny seemed to take a moment to process the question. “I don’t think we ever had fish,” he said at last. “But he’s always been intelligent, just like Raffles. I was the only- well, compared to them...” he struggled with the words.

“Oh, rather! I mean, you should hear my Aunt Dahlia - or worse, my Aunt Agatha - talking about how much of a lost cause I am, negligible intelligence, waste of space, you’d think I’d run away to live a life of crime the way they put it. I’m just lucky my cousins Claude and Eustace are worse. I couldn’t imagine what it’d be like if they had a real paragon like Jeeves to compare me with.”

“It’s not much of a comparison.”

I gave a sad shake of my head. “No, and I couldn’t tell you why he’s stuck around as long as he has. I would’ve thought he’d have left as soon as another posish. opened up, but he’s still here biffing around.”

“You don’t know why he’s working for you?” Bunny asked, sounding truly intrigued for the first time since he arrived.

“Not a clue. Did he always want to be a valet? With a brain like his, he could give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money. I assumed he went in to support his family and what not, but that was before I knew he was related to a fellow like A.J. Raffles, though really I should have known Jeeves couldn’t just be any ordinary chap.”

Bunny nodded thoughtfully at the comparison. “No, I wondered why he went into service. He did stay and help when the rest of us went our separate ways, but-”

Jeeves gave a quiet cough, like a polite sheep on a distant mountaintop, to announce his presence - Bunny jumped at the sudden interjection, but not nearly as much as before. “I could not help but overhear, sir - if I may.”

“Do enlighten us, Jeeves. Why did you decide to become a valet?”

“Life is too short, sir. To spend that shortness basely were too long.”

“Well, there you have it,” I declared, though I wasn’t at all sure what it was that I had.

Bunny frowned, seemingly intent upon deciphering it himself as Jeeves shimmered off.

Our conversation wandered off to other subjects until Bunny made his excuses and got up to leave. I followed him to the door, still expounding on whatever the latest topic was.

Jeeves coughed softly to announce his presence as he brought in Bunny’s jacket. He gave the jacket to Bunny and then took a step toward me.

“Sir, I took the liberty of liberating your cigarette case from Mr. Manders’s jacket pocket.” He held out the now unfettered case.

“I can explain!” Bunny burst out, looking rather like his namesake, as he glanced nervously between Jeeves and myself - mostly looking at Jeeves, to tell the truth.

“Another one of your pranks?” I asked - nothing else seemed to make sense.

He rather jumped on it. “Yes! It’s a competition. We’ve always tried taking things from each other, and, well, since Raffles failed, I had to try.”

The scales seemed to fall from my eyes, if you get my meaning. “Jeeves, I never would have expected you playing a game like this. Do you try to steal things too?”

“No, sir,” Jeeves said with some disdain.

“But you did?”

“Well-” Bunny attempted.

“I have not in many years, sir.”

I could nearly imagine it, Jeeves in miniature and all his cousins sneaking around an old manor house in the dead of night, trying to get away with a toy or book in a clandestine game of cops and robbers. I only wished I’d thought of it in my formative years.

“I say, Jeeves, you’re full of surprises! And Bunny, you’re welcome ‘round any time, though I’d rather you didn’t run off with my cigarette case.” I took a cigarette out for good measure. “I’m sure we can find you something else - I wouldn’t want to break a family tradition.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Bunny stammered, still looking rather beet-like.

“Anything for a chum. I have an old cigar box I never use, if you like.”

I had been hoping to get the bally thing off my hands ever since my engagement with the girl who gave it to me ended, but Bunny was having none of it, and so I dropped the case, or box as it were.

“I really must be going,” he insisted.

So, I bid him, “Toodle-pip!” and saw him on his way.

“A very amiable chap,” I proclaimed as I meandered back into the sitting room.

I had a mind to settle on the sofa and return to the tale of suspense I had been reading earlier that afternoon - they were just about to discover the second body - when I noticed that Jeeves had materialized by the window and was peering down into the street below.

“Something catch your eye, what? I hope we didn’t send Bunny straight into the fray.”

“Not exactly, sir.”

I meandered over to the window to see what it was Jeeves was making such a fuss about - by Jeevesian standards at least - but his powers of perception must have been much greater than mine if he saw anything more than Bunny making his way around the square.

“It’s a nice day for a stroll, but nothing to write home about,” I remarked.

“I was merely observing the unkempt gentleman with a pronounced limp following Mr. Manders.”

“Oh!” I spotted the fellow, sure enough trailing a bit behind Bunny, but gaining ground despite his awkward gait. “Do you think Bunny’s in trouble?”

“I expect not, sir.”

“If you’re sure, Jeeves.”

“Quite confident, sir.”

“Right-o, then!”

I tossed myself down on the sofa and not a few moments later Jeeves rippled in with the tea.

Part of The Mysterious Mr. Jeeves

[tiny-opal-essence]

Pocket Paladin Chpt 10

A little help from friends

It was quiet in the library except for the occasional rustle of pages.  The space mice were working on reading one book while Lance was working on another.  Allura was scrolling through the digital library for anything that could help Lance’s situation.

“I’m glad Pidge made this translator, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to read any of this,” Lance commented as he walked across the pages of the open book to read the translated text projected onto them.

“You could always try to learn.  Learning another language is quite fun.”  Allura scrolled to the next article.

“I’m already bi-” in both ways, “-so I know all about that.”

“Bi?”

“Bilingual.” and bisexual.  “English is actually my second language.  Spanish is my first.  Most of my family is bilingual, except for mis abuelos.”

“Mis abuelos?”

“My grandparents.  Sorry, I usually refer to them in Spanish cause that’s the only language they speak.”

“I think that’s lovely.  How would you say father in Spanish?”

“Papá.”

“Mis papa would have loved to learn this language.”

Lance started snickering slightly.

“Did I say something wrong?” Allura asked.

“Kind of.  You said my potato instead of dad.”

“Oh.  What’s a potato?”

“It’s a type of food on earth.  Best in fry form.  Don’t worry, saying potato instead of dad is a common beginner’s mistake.  You just have to put a bit more emphasis on the end of the word.  And since papá is singular, you would say mi, not mis.”

“Alright.  Mi papá.”

“There you go!”

“Perhaps we could add your language to the library.  I would love to learn more.”

“Sure.  I could be your pocket tutor.”

Allura smiled at that.  “I’m sure you’d be an excellent teacher.”  She started reading the next text on the datapad.

Lance had reached the end of the page he was on and stepped off of the book.  He grabbed the bottom corner of the page and started walking left while turning the page.  It was heavier than he would have thought, but that was the case with a lot of things now that he was slightly more than 3” tall.  He climbed up the translator and jumped on the button to scan the open pages.

“Hey, Allura.” He said as he climbed back down to the pages of the book.

“Hmmm.” Allura looked over at him.

“What do you think Hunk and Pidge are working on?”

“I don’t know.  Why do you ask?”

“They wouldn’t let me in the lab to help or even provide fun commentary.”

“I’m sure there’s a reason.  It’s probably something that would be too dangerous to work on with someone your size nearby.”

“I guess.” Lance dejectedly responded.

But they let Chuchule in to help them.  Why would they let her help and not me?  I can be helpful too.

‘Clearly, Chuchule is more helpful than you.  With you in there it would be too many cooks in the kitchen, though you can’t really do too much but sit there.’

I just hate feeling left out of the loop.  Hunk almost always let me watch him work on stuff.  It’s a lot more exciting than reading these old books.

‘Get used to it.  Your situation isn’t about to change for the better.’

Lance looked over to the space mice and saw that Platt had fallen asleep next to their book while Chulatt and Plachule were each reading different sections.

“Are you able to see what the space mice are dreaming with your whole psychic link thing?”

“Oh, no.  When they’re sleeping, their minds are closed to me.  I can only connect with them when they are awake and within a certain distance.”

“What distance is that?”

“You know, I actually don’t know.  The furthest I’ve done it from successfully is just outside the particle barrier and there was just a hint of static then.  There’s never been much need to do it any further than that.”

“Cool.”

Allura tried to stifle a *yawn*, but was unsuccessful.

“Sorry.  I had another late night last night.”

“Allura, are you getting enough sleep?”

“I’m fine.  There are just so many books to go through to see what can be done about your situation.  If there’s some way to help you. I want to find it as soon as possible.”

“Please don’t forget to take care of yourself too, Princess.”

“Don’t worry about me.  It takes more than a little tiredness for me to be down for the count.”

She’s working herself to the bone.

‘Your fault.’

Shut up!

‘Tu culpa, tu culpa, tu culpa.’

I said shut up!

Before the sing-song voice in his head could continue, there was a knock at the door.

“Princess?”

“Yes, Coran?”

“Oh good, you’re there.  Is Lance with you?”

“Yep!  I’m right here!”

“Perfect!” Coran entered the library.  “I believe I found something that might make you feel more comfortable until you’re back to normal.”

“Really?  What is it?” Lance was curious to know.

“I’ve got it set up in Keith’s room.  The others are waiting for you right now.”

“Well, let’s not keep them waiting.”  Allura put her hands down in front of Lance and the three space mice that were with them.  Chulatt and Plachule had to poke Platt to wake him up before they all climbed into Allura’s hands.

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“I was cleaning out some of the old storage rooms and I found some things that I believe will help make Lance’s time at this height more pleasant.”

Everyone looked at the sheet-covered object on Keith’s nightstand.

“Don’t leave us hanging, Coran.  What is it?” Lance exclaimed.

“How could I leave you hanging when you aren’t even hanging in the first place?”

“It’s an earth phrase.  It means don’t leave us in suspense.” Shiro explained.

“Ah.  Good to know.  Anyways, without further ado,” Coran removed the sheet with dramatic fashion.

“My old dollhouse!  I thought father had gotten rid of this.”  Allura had a nostalgic look in her eyes as she looked at the miniature model of the castleship.

“He thought it would be good to hang onto it for your children down the road.”

“Does it still work?” She asked.

“After 10,000 years?  Of course it does.  Altean technology is second to none.”

“What do you mean ‘work’?” Pidge asked.

“Watch this.”  Coran opened up the dollhouse and everyone saw how detailed it was on the inside.  The rooms were almost perfect miniatures of the ones in the castleship.  Coran reached behind the dollhouse and flipped a switch, causing lights to turn on in some of the rooms.

“Wow!” Lance exclaimed.

“Woah,” Keith said.

“Each room has a working light switch in it, so you can have just the rooms in use be lit.” Coran reached into the dollhouse and demonstrated this.  “Alfor spared no expense on this.”

“Like in Jurassic Park.” Hunk commented.

“Huh?”

“Oh, it’s this old earth movie that has one character keep saying that he ‘spared no expense.’  Do you have it on your laptop, Pidge?”

“Nope.  Sorry, Hunk.”

“I also found some of the furniture that goes with it, so Lance won’t have to sit on the table for meals.  I do believe these are close to the right scale for you, my boy.” Coran gestured to the dollhouse table and chairs that he had set up.

“One way to find out,”  Lance said as Allura lowered him down to the nightstand.

The amount of detail in the dollhouse was even more impressive up close.  Lance had almost expected to find some sort of mark or scratch that the others didn’t see but it was a perfect copy of the castleship.  He took a seat at the table and found that it was the correct scale for him, albeit not as comfy as the cushion on the chair made it look.

Though, in their defense, they probably never thought someone would actually sit on the chairs.

Lance looked at the table and saw that there were plastic dishes and utensils.

The fork and knife aren’t that useful, since they’re plastic and dull, but the spoon could be.  And there’s finally a cup that I can use!

“This is great, Coran.  Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, number 5.”

Yeah, still not a fan of the switched numbers.

‘It’s not that big of a deal, though I guess you aren’t either.’

You’re not that big of a deal!

‘I’m a part of you, so that means you just called yourself that.’

“I can bring the table, chairs, and accessories to the kitchen, since that’s where they’ll be used.” Hunk offered.

“Good idea, big guy.” Lance stood up off of his chair.  He continued to look around the room of the dollhouse and walked towards the light switch.  It was the only thing that stood out as being ‘off’ about the scaling of the room.

I guess they had to make it big enough so someone could actually flip the switch.

Lance grabbed the switch with both hands and pulled it down.

“I’m going to build some muscles doing this.” He joked out loud as the light in the dollhouse kitchen was turned off.  He pushed the switch back up.  “Are there any other cool things it can do?”

“Uh, no.  That’s it.” Coran said.  “I’m going to see if I can find more of the furniture for it.  I already found a bed and a desk.  I’m sure I can find some more, but things have gotten all sorts of boggled up in the storage rooms.”

“Do you know if my dolls were saved as well?” Allura asked.

“I believe they were, Princess.”

“Maybe one of them could be Lance’s girlfriend.” Hunk joked.

“I hear Polly Pocket’s single.” Pidge snickered at her addition.

“Haha, very funny guys,” Lance said sarcastically.

“Alright, that’s enough you two.” Shiro used his Space-dad voice once more, though it was obvious he was trying to hide a smile at their joke.  “We’ve all got important things to get back to.”

More important than helping me?

‘Definitely.’

“Awww.  I’m sick of reading.  Can’t I hang out with you, Hunk?”

“Sorry, Lance, but…what we’re working on is a very delicate and dangerous thing.” Hunk explained.

“We only have one mask that would fit you, and we need Chuchule’s help, so she gets it,” Pidge added on.

“I know.” Lance *sighed*.  “My mind’s just getting foggy with all the words.”

“Why don’t you come with me and Keith to the training deck?” Shiro suggested.

“Thanks, but no thanks.  Don’t you remember what happened last time I was in there?  I was almost shish kabobed by the gladiator-bot!”

“No gladiator-bot this time.  Keith told me that when you rescued me, your bayard turned into a longsword.  He said it was pretty cool.”

My crush called me cool?!

“I didn’t say it was cool.” Keith looked away from the group.

Never mind.

“Alright, fine.  But you did say that Lance had room for improvement.  And who better to teach him than you, Keith?”

“I can think of several people.  Allu-” Keith was cut off by Shiro.

“All of which are back on earth, leaving you as the best person to teach him.”

Shiro and Keith had a silent conversation before Keith gave in.

“Fine.  I’ll teach you, Lance.”

“Sweet!  But what am I going to use for a sword?  My bayard didn’t shrink with me.”

“I got some of those plastic sandwich swords at the earth store.  You could use one of them.  I’ll show you where they are in the kitchen.”

Plachule let out a *squeak* from Allura’s shoulder.

“Do you want to come train too, Plachule?” Lance asked.

Plachule nodded.

“The more the merrier,” Shiro said.

Keith put his hand down in front of Lance and lifted him up to his shoulder before doing the same with Plachule.  Hunk grabbed the dollhouse table and chairs and joined Keith and Shiro as they headed to the kitchen to get the plastic swords.

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(Keith and Shiro’s silent conversation from the previous section.  They don’t know word for word what the other is thinking, but they get the gist.  Sorry for the interruption.)

If Lance found out I called him cool, he would never let me hear the end of it.  Keith looked away from the group.

So you’re not quite ready to admit what you said, that’s ok.  Doesn’t mean I can’t orchestrate a scenario for the two of you to hang out together.  Shiro smiled knowingly.

Shiro, why would you say that?  I’d be a terrible teacher.

You’ll be fine, Keith.  You always did well in HEMA.

Sure, I was good at HEMA, but teaching?  Why did you cut me off before I could say Allura would be a better teacher?  She has more experience than me.  What if I do something wrong and Lance hates me?  I don’t want to risk our friendship.

I’m sure you think that Allura would be a great teacher.  You’re right, but for all the things I love about her, she doesn’t always listen to others when she should.  She might push Lance too far.  You wouldn’t.  Besides, you and Lance have been getting closer lately.

I think you’re taking this ‘building bridges’ thing too far.

If you think I’m taking ‘building bridges’ too far, I think I haven’t taken it far enough.

I can’t believe you’re making me do this.

“Fine.  I’ll teach you, Lance.”

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“Alright, what do I get to learn first?” Lance and Plachule were on the raised section of the room.  “Stab?  Slish slash?”  He swung the plastic sword around in the air with a dramatic fashion before Keith nudged him with his finger, causing him to stumble.  “Hey!  Rude.”

“First, you need to work on your stance.  If I can knock you over with hardly any effort, it means you don’t have a strong stance.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just push me over on purpose?”

“Tempting as that is, no.  You need to learn how to defend yourself with a sword.  It’s different than a gun.”

“Swords are different than guns?  Who knew?” Sarcasm was evident in Lance’s voice.

“Lance.” Shiro glared slightly at Lance.

“Ok, I’ll take this seriously.”

“Anyways, to do that, you need a strong foundation.  Then you can ‘slish slash’ to your heart’s content.  But for now, you’re not going to be using the sword.”

“Awww.  But that’s the fun part about sword fighting!”

“You’ll get to use it later,”  Keith said.

“So how do I get this ‘strong foundation’ anyway?”

“You start with your stance.  Stand in front of Plachule.”

“Ok.” Lance and Plachule stood facing each other.  “Now what?”

“Uh, both of you put your hands palms out and touch the other’s like this.” Keith and Shiro demonstrated.  “And have your feet be shoulder-width apart and put your left foot forward and your right one back.”

“Like this?”

Keith stepped away from Shiro and towards Lance.  “Your front foot should be pointing straight ahead while your back foot is pointing 45° off of that.”

“Ok.” Lance and Plachule adjusted their footing.  “Is this better?”

“Yes.” Keith and Shiro got back in position.  “Now, keep your back straight and press against the other person’s-”

*squeak*

“-or space mouse’s hands.  If your stances are good, neither of you will fall.”

“Ooof.”  Lance fell backward.

Plachule gave him a hand to stand back up.

“So, what does that mean?” Lance asked.

“That means that your stance wasn’t good,” Keith answered.

“Try having your feet be further apart.  It takes some time to find the right balance.” Shiro suggested.

Lance took his advice and tried again.  He could feel that Plachule pushing against his hands, but neither of them fell.

“Yes!  I did it!” Lance pumped his hands in the air a few times.  “Can I please learn some actual sword fighting now?”

“Not yet.  There’s still a few more things you have to learn first.”

“Like what?”

“Like footwork.”

“That seems easy enough.”

“There’s three main types of footwork in longsword.  I can’t remember the technical names for them all, but they’re pretty simple.”  Keith stood in his stance.  “The first one is just shuffling forwards and backward like this.”  He demonstrated, moving only slightly forwards and backward and keeping the same foot in front.

“Can do.” Lance and Plachule copied him.

“It helps if you imagine there’s a line on the floor that you’re moving along,”  Shiro recommended.

“Make your steps a bit smaller,” Keith said.

“I think my steps are already small enough given current circumstances.” Lance still adjusted them.

“Now, try doing that while pushing each other in the stance,” Keith spoke after a minute.

Lance and Plachule did just that.

“You should be able to feel what the other person is going to do.”

“How does that make any sense?  I can’t read Plachule’s mind, and he can’t read mine.  Can you?”  Lance asked Plachule who shook his head and *squeaked* to say that he couldn’t.

“You need to pay attention to the slightest shift in muscles.  They will tell you everything you need to know.”

“That’s a lot to think about.”

“Then don’t think.”

“Huh?”

“Thinking slows you down and gives your opponent all the time they need to take you down.  You have to trust your body to know what to do.”

“Is that why you always run into a fight like a crazy person?” Lance teased Keith.

“Lance, focus,” Shiro said.

“Ok, Space-dad.”  Lance found that Keith was right about feeling what Plachule was going to do next.  It was kind of strange.  They worked on that for a few minutes before Keith moved on to the second type of footwork.

“The next one you kind of pivot on one foot.”  Keith demonstrated.  “Make sure you keep your guard up.”

“Try to keep as straight as you can,” Shiro said.

“I make no promises.” Lance laughed to himself.

Get it?  Cause I’m bi?

‘How many times have you used something along those lines?’

Shhh.  I’m hilarious.

Lance and Plachule started trying to mimic Keith.

Right.  Left.  Right.  Left.

“You need to keep your guard up, Lance.”  Keith continued as he gently nudged Lance’s arm up into the right position with his finger.

Lance’s breath caught in his throat and he had to try to resist the urge to blush.

‘Calmate, lover boy.  This isn’t a rom-com.  Why get all flustered over someone you know would never feel the same?’

I know, I know.

Lance was still amazed at how gentle Keith was able to be with him while he was stuck at this height.

For someone so aggressive, he’s actually pretty soft.  I mean, he’ll still go from 0 to ‘Ok it’s murder then’ in less than a second, but…yeah.  He’s really caring under all that aggression.

Lance and Plachule once more held their palms together and continued to practice the movement.

“This is almost like dancing,” Lance commented with a smile.

“Yeah, it is.”  Keith had a small smile on his face.  “Except here you want to mess with the tempo to get your opponent to mess up so you can take them down.”

“Why couldn’t it just be a dance-off?  That would be a fun way to do things.”

“Not when you have two left feet like Keith here.”

“Shiro!  You said you wouldn’t tell anyone!”

“I said I wouldn’t tell anyone at the Garrison.” Shiro corrected.

“He’s got you there, Keith.”

“Ugggh.”  Keith looked up at the ceiling.

“Don’t worry.  Once I’m back to normal, I can teach you.  Think of it as me paying you back for teaching me sword fighting.”

Oh my God, why would I say that?  That just makes me sound desperate.  What if he says no?  What if he says yes?  Is that making it too obvious that I have a crush on him?  He can never know!

“Ok,” Keith responded.

“Wait, really?”

“Are you taking back your offer?”

“No, just surprised you agreed.”

“Good luck teaching this one,” Shiro said.

“I’m not that bad a student.”  Keith punched him lightly in the shoulder.

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Can we focus back on sword fighting?  I want to actually use a sword today.”  Lance yelled up at them with Plachule *squeaking* in agreement.

Never thought I’d be the one to tell them to focus.

“Alright.  For the last move, you step to the side with your front foot and pivot on it to strike your opponent in the head from the side, like this.” Keith once again showed how to do the move, ending with fake stabbing the air to the side of him.

Plachule and Lance worked on doing just that for a few minutes, with both Keith and Shiro providing guidance.

“Ok, we’ve done the footwork, can we PLEASE use our swords now?”

“Sure.”

“Finally!” Lance and Plachule grabbed their plastic swords.  “En garde!”

“You’re not holding it right,” Keith said.

“What do you mean?  I’m holding it by the handle.  How else would you hold a sword?”

“First of all, it’s called the hilt, not the handle.  Second, even though this technically isn’t a longsword, you should still be practicing with it like it is.  Meaning, two hands on the hilt.  Act like you’re shaking hands with the sword and your grip should be good.”

Lance took Keith’s advice.  “There.  Happy?”

“Ecstatic,” Keith said with a straight face.  “Now, I’m going to teach you the four circles drill.  It’s a good way to start getting a feel for the blade.”

Keith’s bayard turned into a longsword, but before he could start showing Lance and Plachule the drill, the comms *crackled* overhead.

“Could everyone come to the lab, please?  We’ve got something to show you.” Hunk said.

“You heard him, let’s go.” Shiro started for the door.

“Awww.  But we were going to learn the circle thing!”

“I can always show you later.  This sounds important.” Keith reached down so Lance and Plachule could climb onto his hand.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Alright, you’re probably wondering what me and Pidge were working on today and why all the secrecy around it.  Well, like Coran, we wanted to do something that would help make Lance more comfortable while he’s like this.  We wanted to surprise you and heard you say that you were kind of sick of all the manhandling, so we came up with a potential solution.”  Hunk and Pidge both stepped to the side and the others saw what was resting on the workbench.

“A floating tray?” Lance was a little confused.

“Not just any floating tray, one that will let you open the majority of the doors in the castleship.”  Pidge pointed to the tiny console that had been built onto the tray.  “It took some engineering, but when you’re in close enough range to a door you have access to say, the door to the kitchen, and press this button, the door will open for you.  You can steer with this joystick and this button here will move the tray between resting on a surface and hovering at its normal height.”

“You made this for me?”

“And the space mice.  They’ll get to enjoy it once you’re back to normal.” Hunk added.  “We put a small force field around the edges so you don’t fall off while it’s floating.  That’s part of the reason we needed Chuchule with us.  She was our tester, since you’re roughly the same size right now.  Do you want to try it?”

“Yes!” Lance exclaimed as Keith helped him down to the surface of the workbench.  He quickly climbed onto the tray and pushed the hover button.  The tray lifted up at a good pace allowing him to adjust to the elevator like sensation.

“It took a few tries to get the speed of the accent and the fluidity of the turns right.  Sorry about the bad fur day, Chuchule.”

Chuchule *squeaked* in response to Pidge’s apology while trying to pat her fur back down flat.

“She says that it’s quite all right.  She’s happy to help out a friend.” Allura translated.

Lance used the joystick to move the tray around the room. It was nice to have some independence back.

“I thought we agreed that someone would always have to be with Lance while he’s like this?” Shiro said.

“We did agree to that, but we didn’t say that someone had to be carrying Lance at all times.” Pidge pointed out the technicality.  “I put a tracker in the console so we can see where he is at any time.  I think we can let Lance get around on his own like this, don’t you?”

“Makes sense to me.” Keith shrugged.

The others all agreed.

“As long as you wear your helmet,” Allura added one condition to Lance’s newfound independence.

As long as there was a tracker on the device and in Lance’s helmet, they would know where Lance was, so they could let him get around without needing an escort.

“Do you like it, Lance?” Hunk wondered.

“I love it.  This is great.” Lance responded.

“Any suggestions for improvements?” Hunk asked.

“Maybe a chair or something?  If I’m going from one end of the castleship to the other, that’s a long way to be standing for.”

“We could use one of the chairs from the dollhouse.” Hunk suggested.

“Good idea,” Pidge said.  “We can work on that later, though.  Looks like you’ve got a few friends who want a ride.”

The space mice looked at the tray with a pleading look in their eyes.

“Well, how can I say no to those faces?” Lance said as he pushed the button to get the floating tray to rest back down on the workbench so the mice could climb on.  “Race you to the kitchen, Hunk!”

“That’s not fair!  You got a head start!” Hunk raced after the floating tray.

“Should we try to stop them?” Coran asked.

“Nah.  They’ll be fine,” Pidge commented.  “As long as the tray is floating, the force field won’t let them fall off.  It’s 100% foolproof.”

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“Did you hear that?” Lotor asked his generals.

“Yeah, they practically gave us the key to their front door,” Ezor smirked.

“All we have to do is get a copy of the tray’s code for Narti and we’ll be able to slip right past their defenses,” Axha stated with Kova *meowing* in agreement on Narti’s shoulders.

“Let’s go get it then.” Zethrid’s eagerness for a fight showed in her voice.

“Patience, Zethrid.  We need to make sure they suspect nothing.” Lotor said.

“I thought the virus already let us into their system?” Ezor asked.

“The virus gives us eyes and ears and control over their video feeds.  We would have had to use other means of hacking into their ship to get inside if we hadn’t found this code.  This code will speed up our plan when the time is right.  We’ll need to have you slip in to clone the signature code, Ezor.  Are you up to the task?”

“Affirmative.” Ezor gave a mock salute.

“Before that, we’ll need to set a trap so they’ll come to us.  This will allow us to be ready as soon as they land planet side.” Lotor continued to explain the plan.

Narti typed on her console and brought a planet up on the big screen.

“Excellent choice, Narti.  Planet Dezernent will be perfect.  Now, we just need to make sure word reaches Voltron.”

“On it,” Axha said.

“Now remember,” Lotor directed mostly to Zethrid, “do not engage.  We want this to be a low-risk situation for them so they all leave their ship.  There will be enough of a presence on the site for them to investigate.  They won’t risk a fight if he’s with them.”

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Realities without Lance: 84 (+12)

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[brobi-wanwrites]

Out-Dated Review: Iron Man

A decade ago life was a bit more simple. I was turning 15 and besides finding time to play GTA IV and high school I didn't have a care in the world. My birthday was never a big deal but earlier that year I got my first PS3 and was desperate to start a Blu Ray collection. I told my mother the one thing I wanted for a gift that year was Iron Man. She delivered. That night after reading the case over a dozen times me and my best friend would sit down and watch the movie that jump started the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

At the time I knew as little as you could about Ironman. I spent most of my time reading Spider-Man, X-men and Batman comics so the only things I really knew about Tony Stark was that he was a rich alcoholic and was really prevalent in 2006s Civil War which was in my backlog of comics. Going into this movie I really had nothing to go on besides the great reviews it was getting and that I was always excited to see a comic book character get their chance on the big screen. After credits rolled like many people my expectations were blown away. I watched it again and again enjoying every minute of it. I then dove into my comic backlog and read Civil War and any other Ironman story I could find. It’s safe to say that the first Ironman reinvigorated my and many others love for comics, all while starting a universe that would have as deep of lore as the comics they adapted from. 

So ten years later, does Ironman hold up?

(SPOILERS)

Lets start things off with the story. 

We’re introduced to Playboy Billionaire Weapons Designer/Manufacturer Tony Stark and he’s just as much as cocky jerk as you would think he’d be. Skipping out on an award presented to him so he could gamble, sleeping with a reporter who’s writing a hit piece on his company and giving little care to the crew of his private plane as he arrives late for its departure. Couple this with how he almost gloats at the amount of death and destruction his weapons bring you would be safe to assume that Tony is unremarkable cliche villain, except he’s not. 

I don’t know if it’s his charm alone, his acting chops or how relatable he is to the character but Robert Downy Jr. makes Tony Stark probably one of the most believable and entertaining personality in the MCU. He brings so much life and fun to Tony even before his good guy turn in this movie. Easily stealing every scene he’s in, RDJ was undoubtedly destined to play Tony Stark.

Speaking of good guy turns.

Things go astray for Tony after a weapon presentation in Afghanistan as he’s fatally injured and kidnapped by a terrorist group known as The Ten Rings (more on them later). He awakes in a cave with a car battery attached to his chest, powering an electromagnet that’s keeping the shrapnel away from his heart and other vital organs. Parties amirite? He’s made aware that The Ten Rings are his “loyal customers” and have been using all his weaponry and is then forced to build them his latest weapon. Tony reluctantly agrees and uses the supplies and resources to build something a bit more powerful, a miniaturized Arch Reactor. An invention of his fathers that’s used to power a factory, Tony designed his to be a little more compact. It has enough power to keep the magnet [in his chest] charged for a thousand lifetimes or something big for ten minutes. 

Thus Ironman is born.

Even for ten years old at this point, the CGI still holds up. The suits in this movie, whether it’s the Mk I, II or III all look fantastic and just completely seamless. I never once even questioned if they built an actual prop suit or not, it looked so good i assumed they did. Coincidentally the first Ironman is the only movie they actually built the full suit, every subsequent movie they used mo-cap primarily. 

After 3 months using only weapon parts and presumably some scrap metal Tony builds the Mk I and kicks some serious ass in his escape. He’s quickly reunited with his friends and coworkers back in the States and damn does he want a burger. Also he announces very publicly he’s done with making and selling weapons. This is Tony’s big turn, he realizes the real cost of him profitting off war with his weapons and decides he is alone responsible for making things right. His business partner and his deceased fathers long time friend Obadiah Stane advises him to lay low for awhile after crashing his companies stock with his big announcement.

The Stark Employee Roster.

RDJ may steal the whole show but Ironman boasts a pretty big and talented cast. Gwenneth Paltrow as the remarkable and composed assistant to Stark Pepper Potts, she’s a joy to have on screen and perfectly bounces dialogue off RDJ. Terrence Howard plays Stark's best friend and military liaison Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Howard plays this character really cool and I have a hard time seeing Rhodey as much as I see Terrence Howard. His chemistry with RDJ is phenomenal off the bat though, something that takes Cheadle & RDJ about another movie or so to get right. Paul Bettany lends his soothing voice to articulate Siri knock-off known as JARVIS. While his role obviously becomes more expanded upon in later films, Bettany brings a simple yet appealing approached to the A.I. here that pairs well with Tony’s persona. Rounding it out you have the rugged Jeff Bridges playing Tony’s mentor and eventual madman Obadiah Stane. Bridges brings something to this role that I can’t quite put my finger on, he just fully leans into this character and I can feel his presence on screen. He does however have a very sudden change of character entering the third act, he goes from conniving business man to super villain so abruptly I may have whiplash (wink) now. 

Bored and nothing to do.

Stark finds himself in isolation and does the only thing his obsessive brain lets him do, work. He begins designing and testing an updated version of the suit he escaped imprisonment with. The Mk II is a thinner, shinier and more airborne suit than its predecessor. It just isn't up to snuff for Tony though, so after a quick flight test with some icing issues, he completely redesigns the suit. After seeing on TV that someone is throwing a party without him, Tony decides laying low just isn’t for him and crashes the party. Thankfully the party is hosted by Stark Industries so Tony can just walk in with no real problem. It’s here that Tony learns that his mentor and friend Obadiah Stane filed an injunction against him and is trying to force him out of the company and may be dealing weapons under the table. 

Tony decides take the moral high ground and hops in his new suit the MkIII which must be the coolest getting dressed montage I’ve ever seen, then flies for 6 hours back to Afghanistan. He proceeds to just ruin the Ten Rings day by destroying their weapon caches, which include plenty of Tony's own weapons. After surely making the locals think he’s some sort of alien or metal angel he flies back home, only to be intercepted by two fighter jets. What ensues is an entertaining little game of cat and mouse for a minute until Rhodey, whose job is seemingly just to be convenient to Tony shows up and Tony informs him he is in the suit that the fighters are chasing. Rhodes clears everything up as a trainig exorcise and Tony makes it home.

It’s here our big reveal happens, Obadiah is a bad guy and he hired the Ten Rings to kill Tony but they didn’t like the deal, so they altered it like Vader. Now they want to alter it even further and have Obadiah build them Metal Soldiers like the one Tony escaped with.  Obidiah smiles and politely kills this faction of the Ten Rings and figures he might as well build his own suit with his own arch reactor.

Back at the factory while speaking to his team of scientists about their inability to replicate Tony’s miniaturized Arch Reactor, Jeff Bridges delivers the best line in the movie. 

“TONY STARK WAS ABLE TO BUILD THIS IN A CAAAVE, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS”

After this everything starts to happen real fast. Pepper finds a video that directly incriminates Obadiah, he panics and politely tries to kill tony, Rhodes shows up to try and save a dying Tony but he already saved him self. Once he catches his breath Tony hops in his suit to go find Obadiah. Terrence Howard takes a look at the MkII and decides it’s better that Don Cheadle gets to use it. Pepper while accompanied by some agents finds Obadiah's lab only then to be ambushed by Obadiah in a what can only be described as the offspring on the hulk-buster armour and war machine, Iron Monger. 

Tony flies in with no time to spare and saves Pepper. A street fight ensues between Iron Man and Iron Monger with them chucking cars at one another. This fight seems oddly small scale now, having been spoiled by the massive fights we’ve seen in recent MCU movies. The smaller scale and one on one fight does feel more personal though and given that this is Iron Mans first outing it makes sense.

The fight goes airborne after Tony realizes he’s no match for the strength of the Iron Monger suit. Much to Tony’s surprise Obadiah has upgraded his suit as well and its now able sustain flight but as a call back to earlier in the film, the Iron Monger suit has an icing problem in higher atmosphere. Tony's suit begins to lose power as they fall back to the roof of the Stark factory. Tony sabotages Obadiah's suit so he cant shoot straight and Obadiah squishes Tony's helmet. Rude. The two men begin to fight with there wits and the bare minimum of their suits. Tony tells pepper to overload the Arch Reactor beneath him and Obadiah and after Tony begs she pushes the bug red button. Boom. Obadiah's suit short circuits and he falls to his death into the Arch Reactor causing it to explode.

I am Iron Man

I gotta give credit to this movies ending. Setting itself up like Tony is going to become your average secret identity super hero but in perfect Tony Stark fashion it subverts that by Tony declaring to the world he is Iron Man. It’s easily one the most memorable moments in all of the MCU. We also get our first name drop of SHIELD here, which at the time blew my mind because up until then super hero movies were so self contained. Credits roll and a Marvel tradition is born as the credits finish and we’re given another scene as Tony walks into his house to see a someone standing in his living room. NICK MF FURY.

“Think you’re the only super hero in the world? Mr.Stark you’ve become part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet.” 

One of the single most important lines in all of the MCU. When I saw this my 15 year old brain melted and while at the time I was ignorant to who owned what in regards to film rights my mouth foamed over the idea of all marvel characters existing together in a shared movie universe. It only took ten years and a couple billion dollars but all the marvel are finally gonna share a universe together.

Does it work?   

With full retrospective Iron Man is your cut and paste Phase 1 MCU origin movie where the bad guy is basically just a different color pallet than the good guy, which is totally fine. There’s a reason they use that formula, it establishes characters perspective and personality along with their skill set to the audience. It could be because it was the first or just the combination of Favreau and RDJ and all the other cogs in the machine but no movie uses that formula better than Iron Man. I’m in awe of how much fun I had with this movie, I highly recommend going back and watching it again if you haven't recently. It holds up as it’s own movie but with the added benefit that you can clearly see how the whole MCU evolved from the style of Iron Man.

VERDICT  

You should already own this, go make some pop corn and watch this./10

[winterverses]

Chapter Thirty-One

Warning: Discussion of abuse and suicide.

Anne had stayed the night again. It just seemed pointless for her to go back to her quarters, even though the tension between them was still present, still throwing them both off. Kirk hadn’t known quite what to do; he’d never been in a position where he had to figure out whether to give his lover permission to kill herself. Not just permission, but the means to go through with it. His mind kept returning to that, gnawing at it like a dog with a bone. Conversation between them had been sparse, a little stilted, and he found himself chafing at the contrast to how easy they usually were with each other.

She’d seemed almost… apologetic. As if the idea of suicide were something she couldn’t help, something she couldn’t control, while Kirk saw it as the opposite.

As it got later, Anne had come to sit snugged up against him, her leg thrown over his and her head nestled on his chest, as if she needed the reassurance of closeness to talk about it. He could tell she wasn’t happy about this either. “I almost wish I hadn’t said anything,” she’d said. “I know it touches on some painful memories for you. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but… if it means keeping you safe…”

He’d felt his resistance melt then. She hadn’t done it blindly, carelessly stepping on his issues with self-sacrifice and the way his father had died. She’d known, and she’d felt it important enough to mention anyway. Wrapping an arm around her, he’d sighed. “I’m glad I don’t have to explain. I do need to think about this. Anne… I don’t know. I don’t know if I can allow it.” One side of him argued that he had done the same once, that he’d sacrificed himself for the sake of his ship… and the other side stubbornly refused to believe that there was a situation where he couldn’t get to her in time.

She’d lifted her head then, her eyes the impenetrable grey of London fog. “You know how I feel. I only want to protect you… and your wife.” Her mouth had curved in an ironic little grin.

He had known what she meant immediately, his grin answering hers in tone. “I’ve lost her before. I think I mentioned that. It’s not an experience I want to repeat if I can help it.”

He saw a tinge of sadness in those misty grey eyes. “Take your time and figure it out. I’ve told you what I think is best.”

Kirk had kissed her then, partly because he wanted to chase away the sadness in her eyes, partly because he didn’t want to keep talking about it. And despite the tension, that kiss had developed into a full-scale assault on each other, a hungry, devouring lust that left them sticky and sweaty, shaking and breathless and fulfilled. It had been harder than ever to control himself, to make sure he didn’t do all of the things he wanted to do, to keep himself restrained so that she could be comfortable. And, as usual, the restraint just heightened the pleasure they’d gained from each other.

After they’d showered and collapsed on his bed, Anne had snuggled up against him, her back to his chest and her ass pressing lushly against his cock. It was a sort of compliment; she trusted him enough to know that she could tempt him, a little anyway, and he wouldn't let that temptation lure him into anything she didn't wholeheartedly want. Tease. Kirk had wrapped his arms around her, tucking her head under his chin. Despite the tension, he didn’t want to let go of her.

Sometime in the middle of the night, she cried out in her sleep, loud enough to wake Kirk. “Anne,” he murmured, then again, louder. The nightmares were a worrying development.

She came awake with a start, and he could feel the tension gripping her, her heart racing, her panting breaths. “Jim,” she gasped, and he tightened his arms around her.

How could he send her back into that nightmare? He asked it of himself over and over while he soothed her. How could he let her go? How could he let her protect his ship, his crew, with her life? The questions were eating at him, devouring his mind. By the time she was asleep again, he was wide awake, frustrated and angry. Not at her, but at the circumstances, at his own inability to think his way through them. After he was very sure she wouldn’t wake, he carefully slipped out of bed, snatching up some clothes and walking out to his desk. He ordered the door to hold half open, so that he’d hear her if she cried out again, and flipped on the screen on the desk, meaning to lose himself in work.

When he saw the time, however, he realized that it would be morning already in Iowa, and there was one person he knew who had been in a similar situation. He punched in the comm code and waited.

She smiled as she answered the call. “Jim! It’s good to hear from you. You’re always so busy.” There was no reprimand in her voice, only a loving acknowledgment of his position. She was Starfleet too. She understood.

“Hey, mom. How’s life on the ground?”

They made small talk for a while, Kirk answering her questions about Yorktown and the new Enterprise, asking her about her work at the shipyard and new designs that were coming out. Underneath it, there was a faint undercurrent of tension. There always was. He wasn’t sure if it was him who couldn’t forgive her, or her who couldn’t forgive herself for inflicting his stepfather on him and his older brother, but it was a wound that had never quite healed properly, especially since his brother had run away. Still, he loved her, and he knew she loved him.

Maybe it was because of that tension that she eventually asked him, “You don’t usually call just to chat. What’s going on? Is there something I can do for you?”

Kirk found himself reluctant to answer. He wasn’t even sure how to put it. But she knew something was wrong, so he had to say something. “I’m… I have to make a decision, and I don’t know what to do.” She waited patiently for him to figure out how to put it, how best to ask. “If you had known there was a chance-- not a certainty, just a chance of what happened to Dad… If you’d known that going in, and known how many people he would save doing it, would you have let him go?”

Winona Kirk closed her eyes, a pained, bittersweet smile on her lips. “You really don’t ask the easy ones, do you, Jim?” She sighed, opening her eyes and looking down, that smile still lingering. “I’ve thought about this so many times. If I had known… god, my heart says I’d never have let him go. But could I let eight hundred people die, including myself and you if he hadn’t been there?” She shook her head. “No. What’s this about, Jim?” She paused briefly, looking curious. “Is there… are you…”

He couldn’t help an embarrassed, wry grin. He knew what she was trying to ask. “Don’t get your hopes up. Yeah, there’s someone, but she’s not Starfleet, so… I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’ll probably split. We’ve talked about it.” Sort of. Once.

She shook her head gently, that bittersweet smile returning. “And that’s on top of the rest, huh? I’m sorry, hon. That’s hard to deal with all on its own.” After a moment, she added, “I can guess that you can’t tell me most of the circumstances around this. But if I could prevent George from going… I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. Not if it had that price. At the same time, if there was anything else I could do to make sure he got out alive, I would do it. Anything at all.”

They were both silent while Kirk digested this. She was right; whether Anne went didn’t necessitate her breaking, and her breaking didn’t necessitate that the ship and the crew would pay the price. There were other things he could do to ensure both her safety and the safety of the Enterprise. A beacon, maybe, that she could use to warn him if she was in trouble-- well, more severe trouble-- so that they weren’t taken by surprise. It could even be installed in place of the final friend. If Scotty could miniaturize one of the pattern enhancers, they might be able to get her out before anything went critical-- it would give up the game, but at that point, she would have given it up anyway. Something like that. There were other options. Kirk felt the schism in his mind ease, his brain finally getting past the shadow of his father’s death.

His mom must have seen him relax, because she smiled. “What’s she like?” she asked, half teasing, not really expecting an answer.

Kirk surprised himself by wanting to answer. “Her name’s Anne. She’s short. Mean. A bit of a hell-raiser.” He felt himself grin. “When she looks at people, she sees them as people. There’s a word for that, but I forget what it is-- it means looking at people and knowing they have full lives and self-awareness and all that. Whatever that word is, she has it all the time. She writes books.” Kirk laughed, shaking his head. “I told you to read one of them once, actually. That western one, with the group of cowboys that went on the expedition to those old mines--”

“That one?” his mom, asked, surprised. “She wrote that? That was really good. I read the rest of them after that.” She looked thoughtful. “So she’s smart, too. Of course. You’d never settle for someone who couldn’t think on your level.”

“Yeah.” He felt awkward; his mother had known about Carol, but it had been an offhand thing, not this strange, too-serious conversation. “Well, anyway, she was in a bad situation and I got her out of it… but she’s insisting on going back into it to try to stop it. And it’s really bad. She’s… well, she’s not quite…” He sighed. “I don’t know, mom. She’s hurt. She needs time to recover and she doesn’t have it. I’m worried that she’ll… That she won’t come back the same, or at all.”

“Well, she’s got something else in common with you, and your father. Neither of you could sit still when you thought you had a chance of fixing something, or saving someone.” Kirk felt himself grimace, and his mom gave him a sympathetic look. “Anyway, do whatever you can to get her out safely. And…” She paused, searching for words. “Don’t worry about whether you split up or not. The important thing is that you--”

“Jim? Is something wrong?” Anne asked softly from the doorway.

His mom didn’t hear her; she continued, “take every chance you can to enjoy what you have while you have it. You’ll regret it if you don’t.” She gave him that bittersweet smile again. “Trust me.”

Kirk held up a hand, motioning for his mother to wait, and looked over at Anne. The cool grey mist of her eyes was troubled with worry. She didn’t look frightened, so it hadn’t been a nightmare, but… his mom was right. He had to enjoy what he had while he had it. This wasn’t going to last forever. “I’ll be right there, Anne. Everything’s fine.” She nodded, her worry easing, and disappeared back into the bedroom.

His mom was smiling a little, shaking her head. “Go on, hon. I love you, and I miss you. We’ll talk once all this is over.” She paused, and then added, “Tell her I liked her books.”

“I will. Love you, mom.” He gave her a grin and blanked the screen.

His mind easier, he stood up from the desk. They still had a couple hours to sleep. As he crossed the room, he pulled off his clothes, dropping them in a heap by the bed before he slid under the covers, feeling Anne curl up against him. “I couldn’t sleep, so I called my mom,” he said. “She said to say she likes your books.”

Anne stilled for a moment, surprised, and then laughed quietly, not entirely happily. “So this is that serious, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kirk answered. There really wasn’t anything else to say about it.

Laying a soft kiss on his chest, Anne settled further against him, the arm thrown across him squeezing gently. “When you talk to your mom next, tell her I said thanks.” She paused, then added, “I… I don’t talk to my family.”

He’d thought so. She’d never mentioned them, and Kirk knew enough about how his stepfather had affected him to recognize the same kind of thing in Anne. “You don’t have to explain it. I think I get it.” He felt her lips again, another brief brush of a kiss. “Hey.”

“Hey what?” Anne asked.

“You’re spending all your time here anyway. If you want to move the rest of your stuff here, that’s fine by me. I’ll figure something out so you can have free access.” The offer was spur-of-the-moment, but it felt right. She should be here with him. They should take the time they had and use it as best they could, before it ran out. It would be difficult, but he thought he could lock everything so that she couldn’t access anything sensitive. Probably. Not that he was worried about her, but Starfleet wouldn’t look kindly on it if he didn't.

Anne thought about this for a while, and her silence made him a little nervous, but that nervousness dissipated when she spoke. “When we get back to Yorktown, let’s rent a place, an apartment or something. Something with a balcony where I can have plants and a garage for your motorcycle.” She laughed quietly. “Even if it’s just for a couple weeks, we might as well go all in while we can, right?”

“Might as well,” he answered, feeling himself grin slowly. “Need help getting your things up here?”

“I have most of them here already,” she laughed. “Just the art and that’s it. But I’d like you to come with me, if you can.”

“Sure. After shift tomorrow. Today. Whatever. I’ll meet you there.” He carefully pulled her up, tipping her chin up so that he could kiss her, and she responded eagerly, melting against his side, her lips and tongue tangling with his. It felt right. Lying beside her at night felt right. Knowing she would be there when he finished his shifts, knowing they’d have dinner together, knowing she’d be lying on the couch studying while he finished his daily reports, knowing there would be more opportunities for popcorn fights and even awkward races to put on clothing while someone waited to come in… again, it was weirdly domestic in a way that he liked, the way that he’d envied Sulu for. He almost couldn’t believe it was happening, let alone so quickly. When the kiss broke, he asked, “Are we getting tame, Anne?”

She laughed and hugged him. “No. Even wild animals pair off sometimes. We’ll just be wild together for a while.”

Her answer made him laugh. It was a good way to put it. “I am going to be in so much trouble over this. You have no idea. Bones is going to kill me.”

Anne snickered, “You can let me deal with him and Dr. Hayes if you want. Better yet, tell them while I’m standing there with you and I’ll yell back at them over it.”

The idea of her taking Bones and Hayes to task was pretty damn funny. “Sounds like a plan. We’ll break it to them tomorrow before your session with Spock.” He kissed the top of her head. “Make sure you’re feeling especially tiger-ish, I guess. But I’m not going to lift the weapons ban.”

Anne laughed, immediately recognising his reference to the conversation they’d had about exes. “Grr,” she said, playfully digging her fingernails into his side. Kirk held her as their humor eventually faded into sleepiness and wondered how it could possibly be this easy to be with her. The idea that it would be over soon made it work somehow. But he couldn’t deny to himself that he’d enjoy what they had while they had it. Hell, he was grateful for this brief chance, even if he never said it out loud.

[jumperlink2-blog]

Tunnel Visions

We need to talk about transport tunnel portals.

Ages ago, The Beauty of Transport looked at the Rotherhithe Tunnel, the portals for which feature moulded stonework and a pink granite finish. It was completed in 1908 to the designs of Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice.

Rotherhithe Tunnel portal. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Just over a century later, in 2011, the Hindhead Tunnel in Surrey opened. It was one of those rare things, a major road scheme with support from environmental groups. The diversion of the London-Portsmouth A3 road away from rare heathland allowed two such areas, previously blighted by the A3, to be reconnected with benefits to the environment (and visitors). But its portals, rather than celebrating this excellent addition to the trunk road network, are, well…

Hindhead Tunnel, northern portal of southbound carriageway. cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Ben Gamble – geograph.org.uk/p/2408078

No pink granite nor moulded stonework here. Just plain, unadorned concrete. Not that there’s anything wrong with plain, unadorned concrete, it’s just that here it’s not doing anything interesting.

But of course it is the railway, rather than the road network, which has been the great tunneller amongst transport modes. Thanks to the railway’s need for shallow gradients and generous curve radii, the railways frequently ended up building heroic tunnels, and they’re still doing it to this day. Perhaps the greatest railway tunnel of recent decades in Britain has been the Channel Tunnel. It is proper, daring, railway engineering, providing a giant social change in the process; a land connection between the Britain and mainland Europe. For some British people it effectively cost Britain its island status (though I think it still is an island, or at least it was the last time I checked). For mainland Europe, the Channel Tunnel provided a firm link to its semi-detached best frenemy, though it hasn’t helped hold the UK within the EU. So how is this world-changing, psyche-shattering transport project marked at its portals?

Embed from Getty Images

With a big flat concrete wall, with two circular holes in it. That’s how. I can’t help thinking that this somehow fails to sell the scale of the endeavour. It wasn’t always this way, though. Once upon time, railway engineers knew how to dress a tunnel portal. I am generally sceptical of articles, transport articles in particular, claiming that things were much better in the olden days. Mostly, they weren’t. But when it comes to tunnel portals, I’m afraid to say that things were, well, much better in the olden days.

One of the earliest great tunnel portals can be found close to London’s Euston station on the West Coast Main Line. Primrose Tunnel opened in 1937 and was designed by William Budden, assistant to George Stephenson, who was too busy building the world’s first long-distance inter-city railway (not the first inter-city railway, note) to worry about tunnel portal design.

Luckily, Budden was up to the task. He created a tunnel portal featuring carved lion masks, rusticated voussoirs, a heavy modillion cornice and vermiculated stone pedestals. Statutory heritage body Historic England notes that this was the first railway tunnel to treat its portals as an architectural set piece. This was not least because local landowners Eton College Estate demanded it. If you know the area at all, you’ll notice one key difference between the picture above, and the current situation. A second tunnel, and portal, was added in 1879, faithfully recreating the details of the earlier one.

Shortly afterward, on the North Midlands Railway in Derbyshire, George Stephenson designed the portals of Clay Cross Tunnel, and the northern portal is particularly notable. This is a common theme with railway tunnels, in which the portal at one end is much grander than the one at the other.

Clay Cross Tunnel, northern portal. Photo by Tony Hawes [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Clay Cross Tunnel’s northern portal was built from 1838-40 and features flanking octagonal towers with castellated tops, and further castellation along the parapet above the tunnel mouths. Charmingly, this little faux castle has little faux arrow slits, though it’s not clear what any archers would have been able to do in the face of an oncoming steam locomotive. It was all part of the early Victorian need to reassure nervous passengers of the safety of the new-fangled railway through dressing it up in markers of historical solidity, or overt Classical grandeur (as at Primrose Tunnel).

Milford Tunnel, also in Derbyshire, also on the North Midland Railway, and of the same vintage as Clay Cross Tunnel, reaches even further back into British history. The northern portal (again; did the North Midland not want southerners to have a nice view?) takes the form of a monumental Romanesque, or Saxon, depending on what sources you’re reading, arch. It’s huge, and wonderfully detailed, with seven rings of differently shaped stones.

Milford Tunnel, northern portal. Photo by RHowarth [CC BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons

George and Robert Stephenson engineered the North Midland, with their assistant Frederick Swanwick, and it is likely that one of the three, or perhaps Francis Thompson (suggests Historic England) designed the portal, though it adds,”this is uncertain.” Historic England suggests the special architectural treatment Milford Tunnel received was merited because, “it faced land owned by the Strutt Family, who were in negotiations with the railway.” It’s not well seen today thanks to the growth of lineside vegetation but it is a truly spectacular construction.

You don’t get very far in a discussion of architecturally significant railway tunnels without mentioning Box Tunnel, opened at more-or-less the same time as Clay Cross and Milford Tunnels. The western portal is by far the most dramatic (the eastern one, however, features in Cold War doomsday scenarios – see this earlier The Beauty of Transport article). Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in a Classical idiom, to reassure and impress nervous passengers, and I rather suspect as a further example of Brunel’s personal brand-building, there’s no doubt that this is one of Britain’s great tunnel portals.

There’s a well-known legend that Box Tunnel was built die-straight on an alignment that allows the rising sun to shine through it on the date of Brunel’s birthday, April 9. This does sound exactly like the sort of thing Brunel would have done, no doubt adding to the currency of the legend, but it is disputed. Thanks to the fact the year isn’t exactly 365 days long, the sun’s position on particular dates isn’t the same from year to year, but current franchisee on the line, GWR, tested the theory on April 9, 2017. Its staff found that the sun did indeed shine directly into the tunnel, but it didn’t shine all the way through. Another example of the fame of Box Tunnel’s western portal is that a miniature recreation of it can be found at Stapleford Miniature Railway in Leicestershire.

Stapleford Miniature Railway’s replica of Box Tunnel’s portal. Photo by Stapleford at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

A year after Box Tunnel opened, one of the most intriguing tunnel portals in the country opened at Clayton Hill in West Sussex, on the London-Brighton Railway. Clayton Tunnel’s northern portal returns to the popular castle theme, although this is a very grand one, with two large octagonal turrets flanking the pointed arch of the tunnel mouth, and retaining walls either side finished with a smaller turret, giving four turrets in all. Poking shyly above the parapet over the tunnel mouth is a small cottage.

Clayton Tunnel, north portal. tristan forward, via Wikimedia Commons

There is some disagreement about the date of its construction: 1849 is often quoted but Historic England’s listing citation insists it dates from the tunnel’s opening in 1841. It remains a private residence, and its occupiers have created a website about it (the cottage occasionally opens for tours). The occupiers claim it as the inspiration for Charles Dickens’ classic railway ghost story The Signalman, though as we’ve seen (in this earlier The Beauty of Transport article), there are other contenders for that honour. Nevertheless, the cottage over the tunnel is a real rarity and along with the decorative portal makes for a wonderful composition.

Bramhope Tunnel, of 1845-49, takes a rather rakish approach to the castellation of tunnel portals. Eschewing the conventional symmetry of most such essays in the genre, Leeds-Thirsk Railway engineer Thomas Grainger instead created a radically asymmetric design.

Bramhope Tunnel north portal. Photo by Linda Spashett Storye book [CC BY 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

To the left of the tunnel mouth is a large circular tower, while to the right is a smaller octagonal one, giving the whole a very rakish appearance (although Network Rail could do with giving it a bit of attention to sort out the vegetation growing on it and repair the damaged window; unless it has done so since this picture was taken). Hidden by trees are further turrets. The dramatic effect is enhanced by a whopping keystone at the top of the tunnel mouth which features a sculpture of a bearded man’s face, but whose? One possibility is that it is a likeness of the landowner whose property was crossed by the railway. Above the sculpture is a large panel featuring a wheatsheaf, fleece and fish. Like many early railway tunnels, its construction was expensive in terms of the lives of the navvies who built it; their lives, however, were regarded as cheap. Twenty-four of them died, and a memorial in the form of a model of the tunnel can be found in nearby Otley churchyard.

Sutton Tunnel, on the Chester-Manchester line returned to the more familiar symmetrical approach of tunnel portals pretending to be castles. It is notable for the attractive and unusual sunburst arrangement of stones surrounding the actual tunnel mouth.

Sutton Tunnel, south portal. Photo by Philphos [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

It is, unfortunately, more famous for being the site of a fatal 1851 train crash that once again demonstrated why separating trains by set periods of time, rather than by signalled blocks of track, was a very bad idea. It was all very well allowing a train to depart along a section of track at set intervals of a few minutes, but if one of those trains came to an unexpected halt, there was no way for the driver of the train behind to know, until it was far too late…

By the latter half of the nineteenth century, tunnel portals had moved away from Classical, Saxon/Romanesque and castle allusions. With the railway essentially accepted by society, tunnel portals were allowed to stand on their own merits, though the best ones were still works of art. In London, the Crystal Palace and South London Railway opened a branch line in 1865 to serve the relocated Crystal Palace in Sydenham. Just before the terminus at Crystal Palace High Level station was a short tunnel, which goes by a number of names, though Paxton Tunnel (the name commemorates the architect who designed the Palace itself) seems the most common. Its south portal is a thing of wonder.

Paxton Tunnel, south portal. Photo by ethanlittle [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Constructed of red and cream brick, its colours match those of the Crystal Palace Subway (subject of this earlier The Beauty of Transport article). Its details are exquisite, with the bricks arranged to make a sort of cogwheel pattern around the tunnel mouth, interspersed by large sculpted stones. Flanking pilasters have cream brick sections standing proud of the red bricks. Though the line to Crystal Palace High Level has long since closed, the tunnel portal remains.

As the expansion of the railway network slowed, there simply wasn’t the same number of tunnels to decorate, so inevitably our picturesque tunnel portals tend to date from Victorian times, and reflect Victorian tastes in architecture. At least, they do in Britain. Overseas, examples can be found in much more recent design idioms. Though attractive tunnel portals outside Britain need an article of their own to do the subject justice (I’ll add it to the list…), two American tunnel portals bring the story up to date. The first, opening in 1928 is the Moffat Tunnel in the Rocky Mountains just west of Denver.

Moffat Tunnel, east portal. Photo by Mackpie [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Its construction knocked miles off the difficult Rollins Pass through the mountains, which was frequently snowed in. The tunnel’s muscular portals are good examples of Inter-war Modernism. Ventilation in the long tunnel is difficult though – when you go through the tunnel on an Amtrak train, you’re told to keep the windows closed.

Meanwhile, Alaska’s extraordinary Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel sports two portals which would probably be best described as Postmodernist, with structural elements making a pattern of triangles within triangles. The tunnel dates from the 1940s, and started life as a railroad tunnel constructed by the American military. The military eventually pulled out, and the 1960s saw tourist traffic to the town of Whittier increasing, with cars conveyed on flatbed railroad trucks. That sounds perfect to me, but by the 1980/90s the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities wanted to improve car access. After considering several options, it decided on an ambitious plan to convert the railroad tunnel into a hybrid rail/road tunnel, with cars and trains taking turns to use the tunnel. It opened in its new form in the early 2000s. New tunnel portals were designed as part of this conversion process.

Anton Anderson west portal. Photo by Gabor Eszes (UED77) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5], from Wikimedia Commons

Their distinctive triangular design, with sloping roofs, stems from a very practical need: withstanding avalanches (of a pressure of 1,000lbs/square foot on the Whittier portal). Because the tunnel is single track width, not only do trains and cars take turns, they do so in each direction. In each hour cars pass through from east to west for 15 minutes, followed by 15 minutes for westbound trains. Then there’s 15 minutes for cars from west to east, and then 15 minutes for eastbound trains. It’s one of the great pieces of unusual transport infrastructure. Actually, why am I just writing about it? Where’s my passport…?

Bibliography and Further Reading

Alaska Department of Transportation history of Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, here, and design features, here

Primrose Tunnel, Historic England listing citation, here

Clay Cross Tunnel, Historic England listing citation, here

Milford Tunnel, Historic England listing citation, here

Box Tunnel, Historic England listing citation, here

Clayton Tunnel, Historic England listing citation, here

Bramhope Tunnel, Historic England listing citation, here

Moffat Tunnel, at American Rails, here

…and anything linked to in the text above.

Source: https://thebeautyoftransport.com/2018/05/16/tunnel-visions/

[epochxp]

How to Get Miniature Gaming Mileage Out of Old Role-Playing Games!

1st Edition box cover | Amazon.co.uk 

I have been a wargamer since 1983 and a role player since 1985, and the truth is, no game was as formative to my gaming “zeitgeist” as it were, as was Twilight:2000. Why is this so? Because first, the timing of the game was excellent. The Cold War was in full swing, and Ronald Reagan was hell-bent on beating the Soviets, and it seemed to many, damned the cost. With movies like Threads, The Day After, and Testament being made, it seemed NATO and the Warsaw Pact might very well come to blows. 

Or at least it did to this 10-year-old growing up in Gaithersburg, MD, which is a stone’s throw from Washington DC. Maybe it was my subconscious need to make sense of it all. Maybe I wanted to play something other than sword and sandal RPGs. I just wasn’t that into that sort of thing? Well, come one day, I was reading Analog magazine, and I read a review of Twilight:2000. I was hooked. I got the game as a birthday present that next summer and collected pretty much everything that came out for the game until GDW folded up shop in 1993, but here I was, plenty of books and a fertile ground of ideas…what to do with it, right?

I was fortunate in that the game has had something of a bias towards miniatures since the beginning. In fact, a set of Twilight:2000 miniatures rules were published in Challenge Issue 25, which was GDW’s house magazine for its RPGs. (The rules had a very proto-Command Decision feel and could be its predecessor.)

US Army Vehicle Guide Cover | Amazon.com

Furthermore, the game had an official line of miniatures (by Grenadier Miniatures, long OOP), but if you look hard at convention flea markets (bring and buys to our British cousins), you’ll still find from time to time a supply of the figures usually in lots of 6 or 8 packs of figures. The miniatures themselves are a bit smallish compared to some 20mm lines (Britannia comes to mind), but they’ll fit in well with some others, like Ehliem, and they have some nice poses and sculpts. 

Jason Weiser, “500 Miles..” 

And if that wasn’t enough? GDW published the US Army Vehicle Guide, which had an entire section, and black and white pictorial on just how to use Roco and Roskopf vehicles with your figures (not to mention how to make conversions of some of the harder to find stuff). Dated stuff today, but the pictures are a real bit of inspiration on how a gaming table for Twilight:2000 should look.

So, this all inspired the beginnings of my blog. I’d done some stuff for Twilight:2000 before, on the late, lamented Guild Wargamers forum. (which was a real boon for all things 20mm) and I wanted to write a blog to tell those small group of souls that “Good Luck, You’re Not Alone” in this crazy subset of a subset of a hobby, and with all this Cold War Gone Hot nostalgia going around (Down in front, Team Yankee!), I thought, “perfect time for a blog, right?”

So thus, “500 Miles to the German Border” was born. I was prolific my first year and wrote a wargaming-focused analysis on everything that could be of use to the Twilight: 2000 gamer. I think my best stuff has been my writeups of the various role-playing modules as suitable miniature wargaming scenario material, but I have found my blog being quoted in a lot of places, including The Miniatures Page, and even some Twilight:2000 role-playing pages as they mine it back for ideas.

This is just my own experience, really, but honestly? There’re tons of older RPGs out there, collecting dust and not being played, but they’re chock full of ideas that await the application of your favorite miniatures rules sets(s). But the best advice I can give is the following.

Pick a single game and stick with it: It really works best this way. Focusing on Twilight: 2000 has let me do a lot with the game and let me reexamine an old favorite in a new light. I mean, I didn’t realize that Allegheny Uprising could probably take the cake as “grimmest     adventure I’ve ever read”. This is especially true when you’re searching     the module for miniature gaming ideas, and they’re all grim. And readers     like knowing what to expect from each blog entry.

2. Be flexible: It’s more important you stick with the spirit of the game than the letter. I will admit I have had to fudge here and there (the canon color plates in the Vehicle Guides versus the RL schemes that probably would have been used in my vehicle color schemes articles is a good example).

Respect the Copyright: You’re playing in someone else’s sandbox, so be a good net citizen and don’t be posting PDFs online or such. If you must quote, use citations. And always credit photos if you can. I know that’s not always possible but get in the habit of doing so. 

Listen to feedback: Sometimes, comments can really be a big help. My figure review articles, for example, have been nothing but improved due to the assistance some posters have provided (especially the 28mm article, which is a scale I know little to nothing about).

Know your audience: My audience, for example, is going to want all sorts of tutorials, news on where to get neat stuff to improve on that Twilight: 2000 look on the table, and plain inspiration anywhere you can get it. When I am not writing on a topic myself, I am recruiting contributors, and I have two part-time contributors already! 

So, what does all this mean for the miniatures gamer who is looking to crack open a “dead” RPG for inspiration? Well, there’s a fertile ground out there. You’d be surprised what you can find, and honestly, a few throwaway sentences buried in an adventure can be the basis of a great scenario or two for the tabletop. 

And that’s the final point, do something that makes you want to write about it. Blog writing for miniature wargaming should never be a chore. And be consistent, if not prolific, once or twice a month for a posting schedule is pretty good and will keep your fans satisfied for the most part. And do not be afraid to ask your audience occasionally what they’d like to see. You’d be surprised as to what they might come up with. 

So, how is this Not Another Third World War?

As you’ve read from the sidebar, Twilight: 2000 wasn’t a game that posited the usual what I call “Soviet Sunday Drive to the Rhine.” Instead, the Warsaw Pact was on the defensive for most of the game’s background (which can make for some interesting games for all those 6mm types, as all the vehicle guides have HELPFUL information on TOEs). Also, with the end of the Cold War, there are tons of declassified materials you can mine for orders of battle, scenario ideas, and a whole host of other things. (And EpochXperience can help you with that, we’ve got a lot of archival experience!)

By the time 2000 rolls around, you have a background that has some of the bells and whistles left, but not all. What’s striking and fun is the dichotomy. Horse Cav with GPMG and ATGM, MBTs running on hooch and different uniforms even within the same unit. And you can steal ideas from Mad Max, Day After, or dare I say it? Threads? (There is a certain traffic warden that would look awesome in 20mm, and Ehliem makes a nice figure that would make a great starting point. Crooked Dice also makes him in 28mm!). All of this is a historical zeitgeist of the 1980s, where we were pretty convinced the Cold War was going to end with a bang and not a whimper. It left a big impression on my life.

Figures by Ehliem | Jason Weiser, “500 Miles…”

What’s also nice? If you like infantry heavy games? This milieu is for you. As I said before, there’s some ironmongery, but not a lot. And for the modelers? The fact there is fewer vehicles and heavy weapons means you can let your imaginations run riot and really personalize your AFVs and other vehicles, as the “gypsy caravan” look is very, very in Twilight: 2000. 

So, there is a rich tapestry out there for a 35-year-old RPG and plenty of 15 and 20mm figures out there to paint up for it. Why not give it a try?

About Twilight: 2000

Twilight:2000 burst onto the scene in November 1984 in a period of high tension during the Cold War. It took a then likely East-West confrontation and turned it into good RPG fodder, with some historical allegory to the Thirty Years War (with Poland standing in for Germany). 

The game’s initial background posited a Soviet invasion of China after escalating border tensions in the then-future of 1995. This distracted the Soviet Union, and West Germany, in cooperation with East Germany, moved to kick the Soviets out of East Germany by force of arms. This naturally went badly, and expanded into a Third World War that pulled NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The second edition of the game was printed in 1990 and changed the flashpoint to German/Polish border issues in Western Poland and ethnic Germans in Silesia, and the 2.2 edition of the game was published in 1993, just before GDW folded and changed the timeline again, this time positing a successful hardliner coup in 1991.

 The game, while a bit dated, still has something of a following and was even an attempt to bring the game back as Twilight: 2013 in 2008, to mixed reviews, and the game still has a small but fanatically loyal fanbase as the story of soldiers lost, far from home in a post-apocalyptic landscape has had something of an appeal since the story of Xenophon.

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At Epoch Xperience, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse Epoch Xperience’s service on our parent site, SJR Research.

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(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

[longislandweekly-blog]

A weekend trip in the new Chevy Blazer

The shapely and sporty 2019 Chevrolet Blazer RS handles like a dream on the winding mountain roads of the Hudson River Valley. (Talisman Photo)

Only a short drive away, the Hudson River Valley boasts beauty and fun all year long. On a recent sisters weekend away, I had the opportunity to spend time in Hyde Park, Stone Ridge, Rhinebeck and other towns in the area and can’t think of a better location for a leisurely getaway. I also had the opportunity to drive Chevy’s new Blazer and can’t think of a better car to explore the artsy, mountainous villages of the Hudson River Valley in.

Our trip began as most road trips do—by loading luggage into the car, or in this case, the stylish crossover SUV. The cargo area of the Blazer is equipped with a rail that slides forward and backward and locks in place. This ingenious feature is great for keeping a suitcase or two in place during a long drive and perfect for keeping grocery bags or sports equipment from rolling around during day-to-day activities.

The Culinary Institute of America’s American Bounty Restaurant serves up charred citrus salad with arugula and endive, turmeric Greek yogurt and an Aperol vinaigrette.

Welcome to the CIA

Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His Springwood Estate, the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, as well as the Vanderbilt Mansion, are preserved as National Historic Sites just two hours away in Dutchess County. You know what else is just two hours away? The Culinary Institute of America.

The CIA, as it is affectionately known as, is a four-year college and culinary school where the top restaurateurs of the country graduate from. The Hyde Park campus operates four public restaurants, including American Bounty, a contemporary farm-to-table restaurant with a focus on regional ingredients.

The lunch menu features dishes Roasted Sage Kobocha Gnocchi, Charred Citrus Salad and Grilled American Beef Wagyu Culotte, which are as beautiful to the eyes as they are delicious to the taste buds. The desserts—Warm Caramelized Apple, Chocolate Mousse Cake and Tres Leches Panna Cotta—are miniature works of art on a plate.

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Students at the CIA get hands-on experience at the restaurants and are constantly making connections between different areas of study. A student with a background in engineering named Joe sagely related the MAYA principle—Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable—to food design and car design. The father of industrial design Raymond Loewy developed this blueprint for delivering the future gradually and palatably to the masses.

“It’s this idea that the newest best thing that’s going to appeal to the most people is a balance between the furthest you can go without scaring people away,” Joe said. “I’m sure it’s a lot with car design too, the balance between aesthetics and use.”

The Chevy Blazer fits this principle perfectly. Designer Steve McCabe and his team endeavored to edge Chevy design into the future with sporty styling choices not typically seen on SUVs. The design turns heads—in a good way. 

Chef Bruce Mattel, senior associate dean of culinary arts at the CIA, also added to the concept of how far one can go with food design.

“If you’re too avant garde with food, some people are going to be intimidated,” he said, and this principle is reflected in the dishes he serves with innovative flavor combinations, a focus on texture interplay and artful plating that enhances the dining experience.

American Bounty changes its menu seasonally. There’s no excuse not to journey there quarterly to check out what new flavors they have in store.

Chill out with a good book or play board games with the other guests at Hasbrouck House in the warm and inviting Club Room. (Photo by Emma Tuccillo/Hasbrouck House)

Home Away From Home

Hasbrouck House has everything you could want in a weekend getaway. Established in 1757, the Dutch Colonial stone mansion is hidden among the trees of Stone Ridge, NY, and offers modern, luxury accommodations in a historic setting.

Guest rooms, lofts and suites are dispersed between the main building, the Stable House and the Carriage House, in addition to a private house called The Cottage. Though featuring the same soothing color palette, rich furnishings, large windows, Frette linens and goose down pillows, no two rooms are alike.

My favorite touches are the in-room Nespresso machines, Aesop toiletries and heated marble floors in the bathroom.

During your stay, I recommend booking an appointment with one of Hasbrouck House’s massage therapists or yoga instructors in the Wellness Room. A yoga session with Pepper will give you the opportunity to check in with yourself and feel more relaxed and renewed than you may have thought possible.

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The 50-acre property contains walking trails down to a private lake. It’s a lovely walk even with snow on the ground to get some fresh air and quietude.

For dining, you need look no further than Butterfield, the in-house restaurant and bar. Ingredients are locally sourced and the dishes epitomize farm-to-table cuisine. Simplicity is key and no more evident than in the shishito peppers appetizer. The tender peppers when blistered and sprinkled with coarse mustard salt are perfection.

After dinner, you can spend some time with a drink by the fireplace in the Club Room, or play a round of pool or darts in the Game Room downstairs. The arcade game machine, loaded with classics like Pac-Man and Asteroids, is a fun bonus. These are the best spaces to interact with other guests of the house.

Every guest is treated like a VIP at Hasbrouck House, a true gem of the Hudson River Valley.

McCabe relates pottery design to car design. (Talisman Photo)

Make your mark

Nearby Rhinebeck has a flourishing arts and culture scene. Dive right in at Hudson Valley Pottery and Ceramics School.

Most of us have worked with clay in elementary school, whether it was making pinch pots or small sculptures. It’s easy to forget how much fun it is unless you’ve gone back to it as an adult and realize that ceramics is as much an art as a craft.

At a class at the pottery studio, we were given a tutorial on hand-building a mug, then unleashed on the clay and tools to bring our individual visions to life. Hand-building is good for beginners, while using the wheel requires more practice and skill. Everyone in the class enjoyed the time spent the studio and look forward to seeing our finished projects post-firing and glazing.

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Though it may seem unexpected, clay is an integral part of the car-design process. Following the initial sketches, clay sculptors make small models of the car. Changes in the surfacing are made and rendered back into a digital form. Later, a scale model is made with clay where designers can see if those lines and curves that looked great on the small model still look great life-sized.

McCabe credits the clay sculptors he works with with making him look good. Curves that read to the consumer’s eye as simple and sleek are actually the result of a complex collaborative process between artists.

McCabe also notes that clay is easy to work with, relatively inexpensive and recyclable, which makes it the perfect material for auto design as well as good choice for a hobby.

Make an appointment at Hudson Valley Pottery for a private lesson, or open studio time if you’ve got some experience under your belt. Judi Esmond and her wonderful staff will help you tap into your creative side.

Lead Creative Designer Steve McCabe highlights unique design features of the Blazer. (Talisman Photo)

Form and Function

‘Form follows function,’ the foundational principle associated with architecture and industrial design that states the shape of a building should primarily related to its intended purpose, can also be applied beyond those fields. In food, the form is the visual and the function is the taste. No chef wants to sacrifice good flavor solely to improve the look of the meal. In pottery, a beautiful-looking mug with an uncomfortable-to-hold handle is not functional for its intended purpose. Examples can be found all around.

The Chevy Blazer sports this principle perfectly in its interior with round vents. According to McCabe, there was a big debate during the design process whether to do a rectangular or a trapezoidal shape, or a round shape reminiscent of the Camaro, which the Blazer was modeled after.

In order to justify using an older vent style, the design team decided to make it functional. The round rim acts as the temperature control, making for an intuitive and slightly futuristic design feature. It was the first thing I noticed when I sat in the driver’s seat—my hand went straight for the vent instinctively.

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“From a styling standpoint, we’ve reached ahead a little,” McCabe said.

The Blazer is offered in the signature model, the sporty RS and, for the more formal buyer, the Premiere.

“The RS captures that sports car personality. We injected that Camaro DNA into it,” McCabe said.

As a young father, he feels he’s created an exciting loophole in the market—a bold, dynamic, responsive sports car with the spaciousness and features of a family-oriented SUV that he’s not ashamed to put a car seat and stroller in.

“I can get the best of both worlds with this vehicle,” he said, another place where form meets function.

Drive around and take in the scenery of the Hudson River Valley. (Talisman Photo)

Exploring The Hudson River Valley

Each hamlet of the Hudson River Valley has a personality all its own. Woodstock’s bohemian spirit is fun to explore. The friendly staff at Hasbrouck House can show you the route that takes you over the Ashokan Reservoir, where you can park the car and take pictures of the scenery.

Fruition Chocolate, which is available at Hasbrouck House, has its storefront on Tinker Street in Woodstock, where you can sample the small batch, handcrafted, bean-to-bar chocolates and bring a few bars home as souvenirs.

Also stop into the Garden Café, a vegan restaurant and juice bar on Old Forge Road, and try the Indian chickpea blinis with cashew date chutney—little savory pancakes packed with flavor that redefine what a pancake can be.

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To get away from it all or get some of that adventure you’ve been craving, spend a day hiking, biking or climbing at Mohonk Preserve. The mission of the sprawling nature preserve is to protect the Shawangunk Mountains region and inspire people to care for, explore and enjoy their natural world.

The Chevy Blazer handles amazingly well on windy, snowy mountain roads and has a tighter than expected turning radius, which stands up to the test on New Paltz’s angular, often one-way, streets.

New Paltz is another fun destination while you’re in the area. Lagusta’s Luscious offers artisanal chocolates in flavors like tahini cream and thyme preserved lemon sea salt caramel, while its sister cafe, Commissary, makes a mean cheese plate.

To cap off the weekend, visit the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art on the SUNY New Paltz campus. In addition to its permanent collection, works by Angela Dufresne and an exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of Mohonk Mountain House are on display through mid-July.

Spend a leisurely weekend away in the Hudson River Valley. Learn more about the Culinary Institute of America, Hasbrouck House, Hudson River Pottery and the new Chevrolet Blazer, an SUV with the DNA of the Camaro. A weekend trip in the new Chevy Blazer Only a short drive away, the Hudson River Valley boasts beauty and fun all year long.

[limejuicer1862]

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger. The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Matthew Haigh

is a poet, artist and designer from Cardiff. He is a regular contributor to anthologies by Sidekick Books – most recently collaborating with friend and artist Alex Stevens on Battalion and No, Robot, No! They also collaborated on the Tumblr series This Was No Suicide – a reimagining of Murder, She Wrote episodes produced using cut-up poetry and collage. He published a pamphlet, Black Jam, with Broken Sleep Books in 2019.

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I started writing poetry around 10 years ago, after I’d graduated from university and found myself unemployed for quite a while. I can’t really pinpoint why I started writing poetry – I just found myself scribbling down little lines as they came into my head one day and it grew from there. Unemployment was difficult, but I do believe that having that time allowed me to discover something that is now a huge part of my life.

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

Nobody introduced me to it, as such. One of the first poetry books I bought was a collection of Dorothy Parker poems. I enjoyed her sharp, acidic style and it got me writing my own versions.

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

When I started out I was completely new to poetry so I wasn’t forming those kinds of ideas about gatekeepers and traditions and things like that. These days I’m very aware of dominating trends in the poetry world, but for me it’s not so much an issue of “older” poets forming the zeitgeist, it’s more a case of London-centrism. And when we have the internet, and Skype, and social media – it really doesn’t need to be the case. There’s also a strong sense of what is allowed. You see certain poets being attacked on Twitter by people who’ve decided they are the arbiters of what writers can and cannot do. Or somebody writes a negative review of a poet’s work and all hell breaks loose. I don’t believe in this ivory tower poetry community. We’re more than happy to discuss films, music and games – literally any other media – with honesty and humour, and not always with eggshell-delicacy, so why not with poetry? I think the way poets show each other support is really beautiful, and I’m not advocating being a dick to people. But some poets have this viewpoint of If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all – and that is some kind of Orwellian nightmare in my eyes.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I’m so disorganised. I work full time and care for my mother, who has a disability – and her wellbeing is always going to be my priority. It can be tricky finding the time needed to write but somehow I just get it done, because not writing isn’t acceptable to me.

5. What motivates you to write?

It feels quite powerful, I think. With any kind of creative project, you are bringing something into existence, you’re utilising the power of your imagination and employing all the skills required to shape that thing and make it real. I know for a fact that when I’m not writing, I tend to feel quite low and my mood suffers for it. If I’m working on a project I feel really commanding and in charge.

6. What is your work ethic?

My work ethic is to keep experimenting and trying new things. I went through a period of not writing anything at all for about 2 years, because I’d grown so bored with my usual style – it felt like I always knew what the poem was going to be before I started it. So I began making collage poems and it brought the whole thing to life for me again. Also because I have a background in art, I love visuals and want to incorporate that more into my work. I’ve collaborated a lot recently with my friend and artist, Alex Stevens. We’ve contributed some visual poetry – including a poetry comic – to a few Sidekick Books anthologies. I’d like to expand on things so my poetry snakes its way into different forms. So for example I had this idea where I would make little scale models or dioramas of video games that don’t exist, like point and click games, and the text would be little poems… or I wanted to make a book of miniatures where the poems were typed in tiny font and you needed a magnifying glass to read them, kind of a language version of those artists who carve things into grains of rice. I wanted to make a video poem soap opera, too; think Eastenders, but with cockroaches.

7. How do the writers you read when you were young influence you today?

The writers who’ve come to influence my subject matter would be people like Harlan Ellison, William Gibson, JG Ballard… I remember reading Crash in my mid 20s and being so intoxicated by Ballard’s writing, in particular. And I mean intoxicated in the sense that his writing felt so drunkenly rich. That melding of erotica with technology, futurism and Hollywood dreaminess really influences me.

8. Who of today’s writers do you admire the most and why?

In terms of poets, I’m really taken with Astra Papachristodoulou and her futurist aesthetic. I recently read Baby, I Don’t Care by Chelsey Minnis, and I enjoyed that concept of writing a whole book in character, those fragments of old 50s Hollywood glamour. I need to mention the musician Scott Walker, who basically writes poetry set to theatrical soundscapes. Each song is like a dark play. And he’s really funny. I like it when incredibly talented people can do humour as well as the serious stuff, so for instance in his song Corps De Blah there’s a segment with an orchestra of farts.

9. Why do you write, as opposed to doing anything else?

Writing poetry is one outlet for the ideas I get, but not the only one. I get a similar thrill when I design or paint something I’m happy with. I enjoy dancing as an art form, and makeup and fashion, but in a bastardised, futuristic way – bodily adornments made monstrous. It’s that connection between poetry, music and the visceral – it’s all movement isn’t it. It’s the flowing of the brain into the limbs and muscles and fingers.

10. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

Going on my own experience – as somebody who doesn’t have an MA in creative writing, and as a Welsh writer who isn’t part of that London scene but has been able to cross over into London-based publications and beyond – do the thing that gets you excited. You might feel really unsure about the thing you’re doing – I certainly do, most of the time – but it’s a thrilling kind of uncertainty. The worst thing is to keep it safe, I would say. Also, try to find the people who “get” you. I discovered Sidekick Books way back when I was just starting out, and it was beautiful to find a publisher who approached poetry with an imaginative, experimental ethos. I’ve submitted work to them countless times over the years and appeared in a number of their anthologies – Kirsten and Jon are such supportive people. I can’t overestimate how vital it is to find those individuals who believe in your work, because it helps you believe in your work too.

11. Tell me about the writing projects you have on at the moment.

In February 2019 my first pamphlet, Black Jam, will be published with Broken Sleep Books. And then in June my debut full length poetry collection will be published with Salt. It’s called Death Magazine and it’s a contemporary-futuristic pastiche of body horror, fashion and lifestyle blogs. So there’ll be editing work to do on those, but I’m also planning on expanding Death Magazine to include a number of visual art pieces and maybe more. Again, I’m working with Alex – he designed the cover image for the book and created this cover model who’s a sort of flirty, bio-organic faceless hunk-tart. We’re hitting ideas back and forth about what we can do and I’m really excited to get cracking on those.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Matthew Haigh Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

[technato]

The High School Student Who’s Building His Own Integrated Circuits

Sam Zeloof has turned his parent’s garage into a 1970s-era fab

Photo: Beth Deene

Photo: Beth Deene

Electronics enthusiasts like being able to make things themselves. In IEEE Spectrum’s Hands On column, we’ve detailed how readers can make their own solder reflow ovens, conductive ink, and synthetic aperture radars. But making DIY integrated circuits seemed impossibly out of reach. After all, building a modern fab is astronomically expensive: For example, in 2017 Intel announced it was investing US $7 billion to complete a facility for making chips with 7-nanometer-scale features. But Sam Zeloof was not deterred. This 17-year-old high school student has started making chips in his garage, albeit with technology that’s a few steps back along the curve of Moore’s Law.

Zeloof says he has been working on his garage fab, located in his home near Flemington, N.J., for about a year. He began thinking about how to make chips as his “way of trying to learn what’s going on inside semiconductors and transistors. I started reading old books and old patents because the newer books explain processes that require very expensive equipment.”

A key moment came when Zeloof found Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube channel, where she demonstrated how she had made some home-brew silicon transistors a few years ago. “After I saw [Ellsworth’s] videos I started to make a plan of how I could actually start to do this.”

It took Zeloof about three months to replicate Ellsworth’s transistors. “That was getting my feet wet and learning the processes and everything, and acquiring all the equipment,” he says. “My goals from there were to build on what she did and make actual ICs.” So far, he has made only simple integrated circuits with a handful of components, but he is aiming to build a clone of the ur-microprocessor, the Intel 4004, released in 1971. “It’s got about 2,000 transistors at 10 micrometers…. I think that’s very attainable,” says Zeloof.

Photos: Sam Zeloof

The DIY Fab: One of Zeloof’s test wafers [top]. His equipment includes a plasma oven [middle] and a salvaged electron microscope [bottom].

He obtained much of his raw materials and equipment from online sellers, in various states of repair. “Acquiring all the equipment and building and fixing all the stuff I take off eBay is half of the whole journey,” he says. His equipment includes a high-temperature furnace, a vacuum chamber built from surplus parts, and a scanning electron microscope. The electron microscope was “a broken one from a university that just needed some electrical repairs,” says Zeloof. He estimates that the microscope originally cost about $300,000 back in 1996. It was listed for sale at $2,500, but Zeloof persuaded the seller to take “well below that” and ended up spending more on shipping than it cost to buy the microscope.

To pattern the circuits on his chips, Zeloof uses a trick not available in the 1970s: He’s modified a digital video projector by adding a miniaturizing optical stage. He can then create a mask as a digital image and project it onto a wafer to expose a photoresist. With his current setup Zeloof could create doped features with a resolution of about 1 µm, without the time and expense of creating physical masks (however, without a clean-room setup to prevent contamination, he says 10 µm is the limit for obtaining a reasonable yield of working devices). The scanning electron microscope then comes in handy as a diagnostic tool: “I can tell instantly, ‘Oh, it’s overdeveloped. It’s underdeveloped. I have an undercut. I have this. I have that. I have particles that are going to short out the gate area.’ ”

Since he started blogging about his project in 2017, Zeloof has received a lot of positive feedback, including helpful tips from veteran engineers who remember the kind of processes used in the early 1970s. Zeloof hopes that if he can develop a relatively straightforward process for making his 4004 clone, it will open the door for other chips of his own design. “If all goes well, maybe I could make chips for people in the [maker] community—in small batches.”

This article appears in the January 2018 print issue as “The Garage Fab.”

The High School Student Who’s Building His Own Integrated Circuits syndicated from http://ift.tt/2Bq2FuP

[davidrsmithlove]

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #369

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (Solve for Interesting, Tilt the Windmill, HBS; chair of Strata, Startupfest, Pandemonio, and ResolveTO; Author of Lean Analytics and some other books), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another: 

All of my Issues With the "Goodnight Moon" Bedroom - The Ugly Volvo. "It turns out that I am not the only one with issues about this." (Alistair for Hugh).

Cooking Lessons - The California Sunday Magazine. "Doing the right thing is hard and chewy. I found this story riveting; a celebrity chef tries to make a fast food joint that isn't bad for you, in Watts, home of the Crips. Like Jaimie Oliver fixing school lunches, but full of North America's social and racial issues." (Alistair for Mitch).

From Cells To Cities - Waking Up With Sam Harris. "Fascinating interview with Geoffrey West, the theoretical physicist, who turned his attentions to biology, and developed mathematical models for how organisms scale, why they stop growing, and how/why they die. Interestingly, much of his work applies to cities as well as beings. One particularly mind-bending section focuses on why cities continue growing and don't die. The answer, according to West, is that cities grow to the point where they would die, but then humans develop a transformative innovation (think: plumbing/sewage systems; electricity; the Internet) that allows the system to to get bigger without failing. But, projecting out, West calculates that at a certain point, humanity will need to come up with such innovative revolutions not once a century or once a decade, but once every year, in order to avoid total collapse. Are you ready?" (Hugh for Alistair).

A Minor History Of / Miniature Writing - Cabinet Magazine. "Tiny books, tiny writing... we've been doing it since at least 2060 BCE, and it's still pretty cool." (Hugh for Mitch).

How Twitter Fuels Anxiety - The Atlantic. "It's easy to look around and be anxious about the world. It's easy to do that without social media. Now, add that into the mix. It's not that Twitter fuels anxiety (we've seen countless articles like this). It's about the digital pile-on where everyone has an opinion. If it's an issue that is personal, we have a bigger paradox going on here. We can connect to those who are like us, get help and build great connections and communities beyond our personal geography. Still, that could make things worse..." (Mitch for Alistair).

Here (with 2 Years of Exhausting Photographic Detail) Is How To Write A Book - Ryan Holiday - Medium. "My buddy, Ryan Holiday, just published his latest book, Perennial Seller (you can hear us talk about it right here: Ryan Holiday Wants Brands To Be Perennial - This Week's Six Pixels Of Separation Podcast). Like any smart author (and, he's one of the smartest), he is promoting the book by pushing out a lot of compelling content in compelling places. This is an exhaustive read about what it takes to create and write a great book (from his perspective). It's loaded with genius and great thinking. It's going to take you about forty minutes to read this, and it could well have been a book, in its own right. If you know someone who wants to write a book, send them this link as well." (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

Tags: advertising agency alistair croll bit current bit north book a futurists manifesto brand business blog cabinet magazine complete web monitoring digital marketing digital marketing agency digital marketing blog facebook geoffrey west gigom goodnight moon harvard business school hugh mcguire human 20 iambic j walter thompson jamie oliver jwt lean analytics librivox link bait link exchange link sharing managing bandwidth marketing marketing agency marketing blog mirum mirum agency mirum agency blog mirum blog mirum canada mirum in canada mitch joel mitchjoel pandemonio perennial seller press books resolveto ryan holiday sam harris six pixels of separation social media solve for interesting startupfest strata the atlantic the california sunday magazine the ugly volvo tilt the windmill twitter waking up with sam harris year one labs    wpp

[technato]

The High School Student Who’s Building His Own Integrated Circuits

Sam Zeloof has turned his parent’s garage into a 1970s-era fab

Photo: Beth Deene

Photo: Beth Deene

Electronics enthusiasts like being able to make things themselves. In IEEE Spectrum’s Hands On column, we’ve detailed how readers can make their own solder reflow ovens, conductive ink, and synthetic aperture radars. But making DIY integrated circuits seemed impossibly out of reach. After all, building a modern fab is astronomically expensive: For example, in 2017 Intel announced it was investing US $7 billion to complete a facility for making chips with 7-nanometer-scale features. But Sam Zeloof was not deterred. This 17-year-old high school student has started making chips in his garage, albeit with technology that’s a few steps back along the curve of Moore’s Law.

Zeloof says he has been working on his garage fab, located in his home near Flemington, N.J., for about a year. He began thinking about how to make chips as his “way of trying to learn what’s going on inside semiconductors and transistors. I started reading old books and old patents because the newer books explain processes that require very expensive equipment.”

A key moment came when Zeloof found Jeri Ellsworth’s YouTube channel, where she demonstrated how she had made some home-brew silicon transistors a few years ago. “After I saw [Ellsworth’s] videos I started to make a plan of how I could actually start to do this.”

It took Zeloof about three months to replicate Ellsworth’s transistors. “That was getting my feet wet and learning the processes and everything, and acquiring all the equipment,” he says. “My goals from there were to build on what she did and make actual ICs.” So far, he has made only simple integrated circuits with a handful of components, but he is aiming to build a clone of the ur-microprocessor, the Intel 4004, released in 1971. “It’s got about 2,000 transistors at 10 micrometers…. I think that’s very attainable,” says Zeloof.

Photos: Sam Zeloof

The DIY Fab: One of Zeloof’s test wafers [top]. His equipment includes a plasma oven [middle] and a salvaged electron microscope [bottom].

He obtained much of his raw materials and equipment from online sellers, in various states of repair. “Acquiring all the equipment and building and fixing all the stuff I take off eBay is half of the whole journey,” he says. His equipment includes a high-temperature furnace, a vacuum chamber built from surplus parts, and a scanning electron microscope. The electron microscope was “a broken one from a university that just needed some electrical repairs,” says Zeloof. He estimates that the microscope originally cost about $300,000 back in 1996. It was listed for sale at $2,500, but Zeloof persuaded the seller to take “well below that” and ended up spending more on shipping than it cost to buy the microscope.

To pattern the circuits on his chips, Zeloof uses a trick not available in the 1970s: He’s modified a digital video projector by adding a miniaturizing optical stage. He can then create a mask as a digital image and project it onto a wafer to expose a photoresist. With his current setup Zeloof could create doped features with a resolution of about 1 µm, without the time and expense of creating physical masks (however, without a clean-room setup to prevent contamination, he says 10 µm is the limit for obtaining a reasonable yield of working devices). The scanning electron microscope then comes in handy as a diagnostic tool: “I can tell instantly, ‘Oh, it’s overdeveloped. It’s underdeveloped. I have an undercut. I have this. I have that. I have particles that are going to short out the gate area.’ ”

Since he started blogging about his project in 2017, Zeloof has received a lot of positive feedback, including helpful tips from veteran engineers who remember the kind of processes used in the early 1970s. Zeloof hopes that if he can develop a relatively straightforward process for making his 4004 clone, it will open the door for other chips of his own design. “If all goes well, maybe I could make chips for people in the [maker] community—in small batches.”

This article appears in the January 2018 print issue as “The Garage Fab.”

The High School Student Who’s Building His Own Integrated Circuits syndicated from http://ift.tt/2Bq2FuP