Random Story – This is a weird prologue

This is just an odd little story from my life.

Some years ago, a girlfriend and I broke up a few days before my birthday.  It was for the best.  Anyway, during the exchange of things like spare keys and whatnot, I got the book she had bought for my birthday gift.  It was something like The Dragons of Warevin, or something, by an author I hadn’t heard of.  I still have it, and could look it up, but I don’t feel like doing it now.

So this book sat on a shelf for a few months, but at some point I figured I should move on and only remember the good times, and I figured I should read this book.  It started with this fifteen or so page prologue that began with the tale of two kingdoms, one with magic and one with dragons, or something.  I only vaguely remember the details of the story.  Anyway, I’m reading through this and I’m thinking it seems rather odd.  There’s no dialogue, or even a story, it’s almost just bullet points, like an outline of a story.  I read a couple pages of this, and then we find out the kingdoms were joined through marriage, and then we start in on some scandal that rocked this new kingdom some twenty years later.

Eventually, sadly later than it should have taken, I start to wonder if this is like the sixth book in a series.  I go back and scan the cover, and there’s just The Dragons of Warevin, and on the back there’s a blurb about this author’s outstanding Krithrak Series, or whatever.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Inside the book, on the list of other works by the author, there’s several apparently stand-alone novels, as well as five or six books in the Krithrak Series, and The Dragons of Warevin isn’t anywhere on this list.  Which isn’t all that strange. 

I go back to the prologue, and hundreds of years past, and there’s civil wars, and dynasties fall, and gunpowder is invented, and a lot of stuff happens.  By the end of the prologue, I’m convinced that this is indeed the sixth or so book in a series, and the prologue was just a bullet point listing of the big events from the previous books.  I then Google the book (back when you could actually get an answer from Google instead of AI slop or pointless ads trying to sell be shit) and it turns out that, yes, The Dragons of Warevin was indeed the sixth book of the Krithrak Series.  Knowing this, I again looked all over the book, but could not find any indication of this.  I guess if you were buying this author’s book, you knew the series.  Or were my ex-girlfriend.

Since all the big events covered in the prologue seemed self-contained in their respective books, I figured I probably wouldn’t miss much reading The Dragons of Warevin.  I don’t think I did miss anything, and the book was okay.  If it wasn’t the last gift of an ex, and for some reason they decided not to show it was part of a series, I’d probably have completely forgotten about it. 

Short story – “Moon Light”

“Moon Light”

With her four-year-old son Jason half asleep on her shoulder, Lenia Davidson walked out into her backyard.  As with any four-year-old, getting him to go to bed was a challenge, which would only be even more challenging in the days ahead after waking him in the middle of the night.  But he needed to see this.

Between the neighbor’s lights, the glow from Houston, and a nearly half-a-moon, there were only a couple of stars visible.  Although, Lenia thought one of them was supposed to be Jupiter, but she couldn’t remember which one.

#

Commander Sean Davidson quietly counted down, “Three, two, one.” At zero, the only thing that happened was a change on his computer screen.  After glancing over everything for a few seconds, he transmitted, “Houston, everything on our end indicates Moon Light is working and running its first program.”

A few seconds later came the reply, “Copy Armstrong.  We can see that it’s working.”

Sean turned to his crew – in various stages of making dinner – and announced, “It appears Project Moon Light is a success.”

His crew nodded and applauded, then went back to work.

Sean checked the displays again, then looked up and smiled.

#

After a few minutes of trying to keep Jason awake by pointing out the fireflies or the distant hoot of an owl, Lenia finally saw what she was waiting for.  She turned him around so he could see the moon.  Half was lit by the sun, but in the dark half was a point of bright, white light.  “Jason, look.”

Jason yawned and rubbed his eyes.

 “See that point of light on the moon?”

Jason stopped rubbing his eyes, and looked up at the moon.  After a second or two, he nodded.

“That’s where your daddy is.”

Jason turned to her, then back to the moon with his mouth open.

Lenia explained, “They have a really bright flashlight that they can turn on for a minute at a time, so everyone on Earth can see that there are people on the moon.”

Whatever tiredness Jason had was replaced with awe, and he waved at the moon.

By now, the light had turned red and was starting to shift its way through the rainbow.

Lenia kissed Jason on the top of his head, then waved at the moon with him.

My idea for a lunar program

I’m not really a fan of the Artemis Program.  The main reason is the SLS.  I want a permanently crewed lunar base, and a billion-dollar rocket that launches once a year (maybe) isn’t how you do that.  And I seriously doubt Starship will meet expectations.  So recently, while waiting for Artemis II, I started wondering how I would have designed the lunar program if I had control of it.  And this is what I came up with.  Now, I’m sure a real space engineer will be able to point out, “You can’t do X for this reason,” but this is basically the idea a space fan came up with some night while at work.

The number one point of this plan is that everything will be designed to launch on existing rockets, such as the Falcon 9.  No need to spend untold billions and years and years of work to build some super-duper rocket that can do it all in one launch.  Each mission would require components launched on multiple rockets spaced out over a few months, and some of these could be components could be launched on European, Japanese, or Indian rockets. 

A big element of my plan would be two “space stations,” one in Earth orbit and one in lunar orbit.  I say “space stations” because on the less expensive – and quicker – end they could just be satellites, while on the more expensive – and longer – end they could be permanently crewed space stations.  The option I lean towards is where they are basically satellites, but they have a module where a crew can dock for a week or so to do maintenance or repairs.

These stations would consist of three modules.  There would be a command module that would have all the computers, and communication equipment, and solar panels.  On one end of this would be the crew module, which would have two or three docking ports and an airlock.  On the other end of the command module would be a module with the thrusters for station keeping, as well as the fuel tanks.  There would also be a docking port for a refueling craft.  These refueling craft would likely be some version of the X-37.  It would launch, dock with the station, transfer fuel, then return to Earth to be relaunched. 

Now the possibly bigger part of my plan would be a ferry craft.  Ideally, this would be reusable, with part of the reason for the stations to be a place to store fuel for this ferry.  But if that was too complicated, then the alternative would be to have a reusable command ferry with all the computers, communication equipment, and solar panels, that would dock with the Earth Station and wait for an expendable rocket stage that would send it to the moon. 

How I see this working, is you’d have this ferry craft docked to the Earth Station.  Then a rocket would launch the cargo, which – with the help of a robotic arm or two – would be attached to the ferry.  This ferry stack would then undock and set off for the moon.  If it’s just plain cargo, then it would take the most fuel-efficient way to get to the moon, taking a month or more.  When it reached the moon, it would go into orbit and dock to the Lunar Station. 

In the case of human cargo, it would take a shorter, more fuel intense trip.  One possibility, is that instead of taking whatever craft carried the crew to orbit, they’d dock to the Earth Station, and transfer over to a travel habitat, or whatever.  This would have more room for the astronauts, but the downside would be that these travel habitats would only be for traveling between Earth and Lunar orbits.  They could not reenter and land, meaning if something happened to the craft docked to the Earth Station, they’d be stranded.  This sounds bad, but what would the difference be if something happened to the craft docked to the Lunar Station while the crew was on the surface?

The lunar landing system, at first, would consist of two components.  One would be an expendable descent stage.  The other would be a reusable habitat with an ascent stage.  Eventually, this could be replaced by an entirely reusable system, but I expect that to be more complicated.  That’s the eventual goal, but it’s tough to start there.

All of this sounds like a lot, and it is, but part of the point of this is you can spend a year or more launching the various parts and getting everything in place before you start landing on the moon.  And I figure the way to start the lunar landings would be with cargo that would land on the descent stages.  This way we can get multiple landings to make sure everything works long before we risk humans.  Probably one of the first landings would be of a RTG rover that could scout out future landing sites and take samples.  Later landings would have experiments, and could start landing cargo for a future base.  Then you could do a dress rehearsal with an ascent stage.  But instead of people, it would land some cargo, then be filled with a few hundred kilograms of rocks and samples.  This would take off and eventually get to the Earth Station.  Then a crew capsule could launch, but instead of four crew members, maybe only two go up.  They would transfer the samples over to their craft, and then return home.

Once deemed safe, we’d start flying people.  At first for short stays of a week or two, but eventually – once there’s enough equipment and supplies – for months.  Eventually, a permanently crewed base would take shape.  And by that time, a new system would probably be developed.  Because the goal of all of this would be to find a safe, efficient way to get to the moon with existing technology.  And hopefully in the years it would take to design, test, and launch all this, maybe we could finally crack the super-duper rocket issues and do all this with a single launch.  Or maybe we’d just scale everything up.  Or maybe we’d discover issues and have to figure out a different approach.  In the end, I want humans on the moon in a safe, efficient, sustainable way.  I don’t care how it’s done, but I’m pretty sure the current program won’t be it.

Short story – “Still Relevant”

“Still Relevant”

With a sigh, Gary opened the bottom drawer of his dresser and took out a threadbare t-shirt.  Thirtyish years ago, it had been a plain, dark blue shirt his girlfriend at the time had ironed a political message on.  Now it was a faded blue and the message was hard to read since the letters had started peeling. 

His wife Susan watched him for a moment.  “It’s time to throw that away.”

“As I’ve explained before,” Gary stated, “I told my college girlfriend I would wear this shirt until it was no longer needed.  But sadly, we live in a world run by assholes who have no qualms about shedding other people’s blood for their oil.”

Gary pulled the shirt over his head, and looking at Susan gave it a firm tug over the belly that had somehow grown since college.  This unfortunately caused a large rip to open on the left side of the shirt.

Gary took a breath, then took the shirt off.  He folded it up, placed it back, then closed the drawer.  He turned to see Susan watching him with a raised eyebrow.  “Perhaps I should order a new one.”

#

For those who didn’t get the reference, I remember back in 1990 in the lead up to the Gulf War, a lot of people protested the war with the phrase “No blood for oil.” While this was mostly on signs, I’m sure a few people put it on shirts.  I don’t know if anyone still has a shirt from then, but they, sadly, probably need a new one.

Random Story – The paint splotch

This is just an odd little story from my life.

About a mile from our house, the road goes down a little hill, then up another little hill.  And in the middle, another road goes off at a 90 degree angle.  Thirty some years ago, either someone pulled out from that road, or they just happened to hit a bump the wrong way, or something, but they lost a can of paint.  The result was a big splotch – probably half-a-can’s worth of paint – over the one lane.  And it wasn’t blue, or off white, but almost a neon green.  Who they were, or why that had that color of paint, is a mystery we never solved.

Well that’s odd, but the reason I’m telling this story is that this paint splotch became a bit of a local landmark.  Like, someone could say, “I saw a flock of turkeys on my way to work.” “Oh, where?” someone else could ask.  And instead of the first person saying “At the intersection of road and road,” they’d just go, “By the paint splotch.”

And it stayed a local landmark for over a decade, until the state came in and repaved the road.  I remember someone saying they wish they knew what brand of paint it was, because they made good paint.  It had faded a bit over the years, but not only had it stood up to a decade of sun and rain, but also normal traffic, as well as snow plows and road salt.  So it probably worked well for a kid’s treehouse or whatever they needed neon green paint for.

A confusing sign

 I, unfortunately, live in a rather red part of Pennsylvania.  There’s a road that – depending on the circumstances – I either drive a couple times a week, or I go a couple of months not driving it.  But leading up to the 2024 Election, it became very depressing as I drove that road.  Months before the election, there were only a few Trump signs, but then in the last month, it seemed every other house had them.

One house, had a normal Trump flag, and they also had a large banner for, I think, Women for Trump.  I’m not completely sure what it was, because whenever I drove by it I either grimaced or flipped them off. 

Anyway, after the election I tried to ignore all these signs.  But, towards the end of the summer, I noticed something about this flag and banner: they were starting to fray.  Now I don’t know if it is because most people put a political yard sign up a month before the election, and then after the election they throw them away, so they’re not that tough to begin with.  I mean, who would have a political yard sign up for over a year?  Or, being Trump branded stuff, they’re probably made as cheaply as possible.  Either way, after eight or nine months, they were starting to show their age.  But the last time I went by – some fourteen months after the election – I only saw the corners of the banner still tied to some posts.  Two Pennsylvania winters had completely shredded it. 

Now normally, you’d expect the homeowner would take the signs down long before they got to this point.  If they were a normal person, they’d throw them away just to keep their yard nice.  Or if they wised up to the Trump shitshow they’d get rid of them too.  But you’d think if they were still drinking the Trump Kool-Aid, they’d replace them with whatever new crap he’s selling.  But none of that has happened.  There are still vehicles at this place, so I’d assume people still live there.  But they apparently don’t care to have some ragged sign in their front yard. 

Or maybe they’re just lazy.

What I believe

I’ve been thinking about making this post for some time.  With all the hate and evil in the world, and all the assholes in power, I thought I should make a quick list of where I stand on the important issues of the day. 

These are in no particular order, but I’ll start by saying I think people are people.  I don’t care if they’re white, black, male, female, trans, gay, ace, Muslim, Jew, atheist, born in America, born elsewhere, disabled, English speaker, non-English speaker, whatever.  I don’t care what people are, but what they do.  The only people I hate are the assholes.  I define assholes as people who hate people because they are black, or trans, or don’t speak English, or for whatever assholish reason they have. 

I believe the Palestinian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Israeli people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Ukrainian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

I believe the Iranian people deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

Basically, I believe all peoples deserve to live in peace without fear of attack from their neighbors.

Climate change is real, and caused by humans.  I believe we could slow down, halt, and eventually even reverse the warming of our world, but that would require a bunch of billionaires to either make less money or just find less destructive ways to make money. 

Speaking of money, my economic philosophy is basically a rising tide lifts all boats.  Helping those at the bottom, helps everyone. 

The people who should decide if a woman has an abortion are the woman, her doctor, the father (except in rape cases), her legal guardian if she is underage, and whatever family/friends she wishes to discuss the matter with.  If there isn’t a politician in that group, then it’s none of their goddamned business.

There are places where AI could be used ethically for good.  Unfortunately, about 99% of AI is used to make worthless slop.

No one – kings, popes, presidents – is above the law. 

I do not have an issue with the death penalty for terrorists or mafia hitmen.  My feeling is that once you’ve killed X number of people, you’ve clearly forfeited your right to life.  What X is, I can’t say, which is why I called it a feeling.  I also have the feeling that if you are the leader of some country that invades another resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, I’d say that could also be grounds for the death penalty. 

I’ll end this with something I realized years ago.  Humanity has but two choices: evolution, or extinction.  If we don’t grow and become better beings, we’ll likely destroy ourselves.