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Chapter 36 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-11-12T14:44:39-05:00

It's been a few days since I've had time to do any serious writing, due to personal business that I won't discuss on this site. However, I've finished Chapter 36 of Starbreaker and have (I hope) advanced the plot further. Here's a summary of what happened:

Morgan Stormrider meets Edmund Cohen and Dr. Zachary Aster at a private room in Sun Wukong's, a Chinese restaurant on Times Square in Manhattan. Though he has already eaten, Morgan invites his guests to dine with him.As they eat, Dr. Aster tells Morgan about an extraterrestrial species who call themselves 'Devas'. According to Dr. Aster, the Devas were hounded across the universe by intelligent Powers that once aided their evolution, but have turned against them. The Devas eventually made their way to Earth, but one of these Powers, whom the Devas now call the "Shadowkings", followed them.Dr. Aster now wants Morgan to help him destroy this entity, and wishes to train Morgan. Another Deva seeks to use Morgan for the same purpose, but has chosen to manipulate Morgan instead of offering him the truth and a choice. Morgan refuses to believe Dr. Aster, and leaves after Aster throws his past in his face.

Of course, if you want to know what exactly Dr. Aster told Morgan, and how Dr. Aster knows this story, you'll have to pray to the deity of your choice that I finish this book and get it published. :)

Chapter 35 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-11-08T10:22:14-05:00

Damn, that was fast.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-11-02T09:46:44-04:00

I suppose that 18 months of heavy use is a decent run for the MagSafe adaptor that came with my MacBook. Unfortunately, however, I had to get a new adaptor because the cable leading from the power converter to the plug that attaches to the MacBook was starting to fray. Duct tape just wasn't good enough.

I'm surprised, however, at how quickly I got my new adaptor. I ordered it last night, it was shipped that night, and FedEx just delivered it today. I have to admit that I'm pleased; Apple tends to ship my orders quickly. The last part I ordered, a mini-DVI to VGA adapter, was supposed to ship in one to three weeks (according to Apple's website). I got it in three days.

Now that's what I call service.

My first day with Leopard

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-10-27T12:00:00-04:00

Chapter 34 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-10-16T18:27:45-04:00

Chapter 33 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-10-02T20:00:00-04:00

I have quite a bit happening in this chapter, so I've ended up switching viewpoints a couple of times. I open with Polaris in Isaac Magnin's office, cut to Claire and Josefine in London, and switch between the ladies and Polaris. Here's what happened.

Polaris

Chapter 32 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-09-19T19:24:10-04:00

Well, Chapter 32 of Starbreaker is done. I'll probably have to refine the dialogue a bit, and I'll definitely have to run it by my wife. I'm lucky to have her around; I'd have no idea what girl talk is actually life without her. Here's a summary:

Josefine Malmgren flees to London, and to sanctuary at the home of her old university friend, Claire Ashecroft. Claire does her best to relax Josefine, plying her with wine, chocolates, and light, fluffy entertainment. Josefine eventually reveals to Claire the reason behind her fear: she knows that not all is well with the finances of the Asgard Technological Development Corporation. The company is spending everything it makes on R&D for the Asura project, and is secretly covering the shortfall using funds supplied by the Phoenix Society.
Though Josefine worries about reprisals because she fears that Isaac Magnin knows that she had been poking into the company's finances, Claire tells her not to worry. Claire thinks that the worst Magnin can do is accuse Josefine of espionage, and thinks that if Magnin makes such a move, then Josefine should tell the press everything. Claire then goes further, suggesting that Josefine work with her to expose the AsgarTech Corporation's secrets.

I had thought of doing the next chapter from Claire's viewpoint, as it will deal with Polaris' efforts to bind Josefine and bring her back to Asgard. As I think of it, however, I think Chapter 33 would work better if I switched between Claire's viewpoint and Polaris'. Doing so will allow me to explain why Polaris is after Josefine, and will allow me to further expose Magnin's power over the Sephiroth.

Plans for Chapter 32 of Starbreaker and beyond...

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-09-17T12:43:00-04:00

I had said back on Labor Day that it was time for Polaris to get some time "on stage". Well, he got some. When I last left him, Isaac Magnin had asked him to be a very naughty little Asura Emulator and help Magnin manipulate Morgan Stormrider. Polaris had his doubts, and had asked for time to think it over. That set the stage for chapter 31 of Starbreaker. Here's a summary of what happened:

Unable to decide for himself whether or not to help Isaac Magnin manipulate Morgan Stormrider into entering the battle against the Shadowkings, Polaris flees to the antarctic ice outside the city of Asgard. Once on the ice, Polaris connects to the internet and contacts Binah for advice. Binah provides Polaris with the means to interact with all ten of the Sephiroth AIs in a private virtual environment.
Once Polaris has entered Daath, the private virtual space used by the Sephiroth to collaborate, he is introduced by Binah to her fellows. They ask Polaris to help them oppose Isaac Magnin, whom they call by his true name, by acting as a double agent. Polaris is to act as if he is working for Magnin while allowing the Sephiroth to observe Magnin through Polaris' eyes. Polaris agrees, and is given a means to protect his mind against direct coercion on Magnin's part.

It's Dr. Josefine Malmgren's turn on stage in Chapter 32. I begin with her getting off a maglev in London and waiting for Claire while pretending to read a manga. When Claire finally shows up, the two go to Claire's place and catch up on old times. Josefine will eventually explain her reason for visiting: she's learned something nasty about the Asgard Technological Development Corporation and is afraid of reprisals should she reveal what she knows.

Of course, while explaining what Josefine learned and why she's scared, I'll be introducing something new to the story. In the Starbreaker setting, manga and other forms of sequential art are just as popular as they are in the real world. One of the more popular manga series is called Eddie Van Helsing. (I told you that this name would come up, didn't I?) EVH is something of a double spoof. To begin with, it was inspired by the fact that KISS had their own comic book back in the 80s (at least, I think it was the 80s). It's also somewhat of a spoof of the events of Starbreaker itself.

You see, when Crowley's Thoth started gaining serious popularity, all sorts of people wanted to cash in. Teeshirts, posters, celebrity endorsements -- the band got pitches for all sorts of things. And then somebody wanted to do a manga based on the off-stage adventures of Crowley's Thoth, casting the band as a cover for a tightly-knit team of demon hunters. The band naturally refused this, but somebody started doing a manga called Eddie Van Helsing soon afterwards. EVH is, according to a disclaimer printed at the front of each issue: "A fictionalized account of the real-life adventures of a popular progressive rock band. The people are real. The events are real. The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty alike."

I won't say more than that here, except to mention that even Morgan Stormrider is a fan of Eddie Van Helsing, and the identity of the author is a secret -- even though she's a lot closer to Morgan than he or his friends realize.

The Importance of Being Earnest

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-09-15T22:00:00-04:00

I finished Chapter 32 of Starbreaker this morning, but haven't had time to summarize it yet. I had other things to do today, and I spent tonight with my wife broadening my horizons.

My wife is a friend of a few people from Shakesperience, a local theatre troupe based in Waterbury, CT. They do acting classes and put on performances from time to time. To celebrate their acquisition of a new headquarters, they've put on a performance of Oscar Wilde's classic dramatization of the fine art of social engineering, The Importance of Being Earnest.

Now, "social engineering" is basically a term used by crackers to describe methods for obtaining access to systems by exploiting vulnerabilities in people. Calling a naive sysadmin and saying, "I'm so-and-so, and my userid is such-and-such. I've forgotten my password; could you reset it for me?" is one rudimentary example. However, social engineering existed long before scientists started building computers to ease the work of cracking Nazi crypto back in World War II. In Oscar Wilde's time, one might use social engineering to obtain access to an aristocrat's daughter instead of a corporation's customer database.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, both male protagonists -- Algernon and Jack -- pretend to be named "Earnest" in order to gain access to the affections of two haughty girls who insist that no man will do unless his name is "Earnest". The play eventually ends happily, but not without some still-relevant satire on the absurd requirements of single women -- and the lengths to which some men will go to get around them.

Now, to be fair, men certainly have absurd requirements of their own. Put ten men in a room, and I will show you at least one who insists that the perfect woman be six feet tall, wear a size zero dress, and wear a D cup. I have absurd requirements as well, to be honest: I won't sleep with a woman who isn't a well-built Australian brunette named Catherine.

After all, my wife would kill me if I settled for anything less.

RapidWeaver 3.6.2

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-09-12T17:45:40-04:00

Realmac Software just released RapidWeaver 3.6.2, if anybody reading this gives a shit. If you don't care, too bad. I use this software to build starbreaker.net, so it's in my interest to give a shit about what happens with it. You can check out the changelog, if you want to.

Of course, since today's the 12th, version 3.6.3 will probably hit the fan tomorrow. But I won't bore you with a blog entry about it.

Chapter 30 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-09-03T15:21:56-04:00

It usually doesn't take me over two weeks to do one chapter of Starbreaker, even if I do have a game to play or a book to read. After all, I cannot play Persona 3 at Barnes & Noble, where I come to write after work. To begin with, its nearly impossible for me to get a table near the cafe's only power outlet, and I strongly doubt that the cafe staff would be amused if I were to plug in a PS2 and a small LCD TV.

Chapter 30, however, was more difficult to write than I expected for some reason. Even though I had a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish with this chapter, the specifics were what bogged me down. Basically, Chapter 30 was where I wanted to get Dr. Zachary Aster, who knows more and is more than both Morgan Stormrider and the general public believe he is, to accept that it was time to reveal some of the truth to Morgan and attempt to obtain his willing help, rather than let Isaac Magnin manipulate Morgan.

It should have been easy. I had already established that important data had been lost, and that the AIs on which the Phoenix Society depends insist that they never had the data to begin with. The words of a minor villain whom Morgan Stormrider had held in contempt had given Morgan reason to suspect that there was more to the matter of Alexander Liebenthal's short-lived dictatorship than he had previously suspected. That should have been enough.

It wasn't, at first. My first mistake was in having Morgan talk to Saul Rosenbaum. While Morgan does report to Saul, as well as Iris Deschat and Karen Del Rio, if something relevant to the Phoenix Society concerns Morgan, it would be out of character for him to go through channels. Why would Morgan bother with the bureaucracy, however agile and responsive, when he has in Edmund Cohen a contact on the Phoenix Society's Executive Council? My first mistake was in having Morgan act out of character.

My second mistake was in having Morgan find the cause of the data loss. The cause itself is irrelevant, and I'll not describe it here, but it attributed to Alexander Liebenthal and Tetsuo Munakata more deviousness and technical prowess than the reader would expect, given the manner in which I initially described the characters. Alexander Liebenthal began as a money-grubbing schmuck. Tetsuo Munakata is worthless on his own, and is dangerous only if he has bound himself to somebody competent. To have them use an encrypted filesystem to store their business records is probably beyond their capabilities; neither could have done so manually, but probably instructed their AI to ensure that only they had access to their files.

Things fell into place last Saturday when I scrapped all previous attempts and began with a different line, which was based on something I had read (or perhaps heard) about Japanese salarymen. Supposedly, Japanese salarymen will get roaring drunk, and then bitch about their jobs, or their marriages. While drunk, they might curse out a coworker or even a superior. But the next morning, it's back to work with no hard feelings. After all, it was the booze talking, not the man.

Even though Morgan Stormrider, as an Asura Emulator, cannot get drunk on alcohol, I thought he might still use it as Japanese salarymen supposedly do. I thought that he might go to Edmund, who he trusts, drink with him, and confess his concerns with the knowledge that he could blame his words on the booze. Of course, given the manner in which I had characterized Morgan, I had to depict this in a manner that showed that when Morgan wants to get drunk, he's got some serious shit on his mind -- hence the vignette concerning Dr. Jason Stafford.

The other material -- Edmund Cohen's experiences as a British soldier during Nationfall and his memories of the courtesan Chidori -- served to flesh out his character. Edmund is a major character, though not the protagonist. After all, Cohen was Morgan Stormrider's mentor when the younger man was an Adversary-candidate, and Dr. Zachary Aster has asked Cohen to watch over Stormrider. Furthermore, I will eventually reveal that Cohen is the only human being who serves on the Phoenix Society's Executive Council. It would not make sense for me to tell the reader nothing about the past of a character of Cohen's importance.

Besides, I find Cohen an interesting character to write. I had first imagined him while drinking beer, listening to Van Halen, and reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. I had even called him "Eddie Van Helsing". Of course, that name will appear elsewhere in Starbreaker as the title of Dr. Josefine Malmgren's guilty pleasure, a manga about a vampire hunter who makes his living as a rock musician. Yes, I know it's silly.

However, Edmund had grown beyond his origins as a comic-relief character. Of course, he's not the first of my characters to do that. Naomi herself had started out as a minor character that I had thrown in to amuse a girl I was involved with at the time. And when I started hinting at his past and combined that with Morgan's concerns and the implication that he worked fairly closely with Dr. Aster and knew somewhat of Isaac Magnin's machinations, I had Chapter 30:

Edmund Cohen knows he's in for a bad time when Morgan tells him that he wants to get drunk. Once had been bad enough, but this time was worse. As he listens to Morgan, and lets slip somewhat of his own feelings about events from his past, he comes to understand that Morgan has stumbled dangerously close to the truth. After Morgan leaves, Edmund gets in touch with Dr. Zachary Aster and convinces him that it is time to tell Morgan the truth and attempt to persuade him to help them -- before Isaac Magnin can finish manipulating Morgan.

In Chapter 31, I think it's time to give Polaris the stage.

Nothing important, just life.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-09-03T14:00:57-04:00

Well, the summer is almost over. It's September, and the autumnal equinox approaches. The days have already gotten noticeably shorter, though anybody who makes a hobby of noting the exact sunrise and sunset times could tell you that the days start getting shorter right after the summer solstice. It just takes a while for people who don't care as much to notice.

I am sitting at the Barnes & Noble in Waterbury, where I often go in order to write. From where I am sitting, I need only look a little to the left and turn my gaze downward to see the latest edition of New Scientist magazine, which asks, "If morality is hard-wired into the brain, what's the point of religion?" on its cover. It is an amusing question, since it depends on the mistaken assumption the religion has ever had anything to do with morality. Of course, I could just be being cynical when I think that religion is more a tool of social control than it is a means of encouraging human beings to put aside self-interest for the "greater good" -- assuming that there was ever such a thing as the "greater good".

I do not think that the greater good exists, at least, not the greater good that politicians like to use an excuse to impose yet another tax or pass yet another law. To ask that the interests of millions of strangers coincide must surely be an exercise in hubris, as it is difficult enough for the interests of two people to align in a matter that serves all involved. Perhaps that is the root of friendship: if an ally is somebody with whom your interests currently coincide, perhaps a friend is somebody you trust to remain an ally even if your interests and his temporarily diverge.

Or maybe I'm just indulging in the sort of wanking that is de rigeur in 100-level college philosophy courses. Of course, I'm a step ahead of the philosophy majors. I already know how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It depends on the tune.

Apple, TotalFark, bad jokes, and Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-08-18T10:17:02-04:00

Did you think that I'd let a mere video game stop me from writing? Don't be so stupid. You'd have to take a sledgehammer to my MacBook to stop me, and you'd only stop me for as long as it took for me to get to Apple's website, order a new MacBook, and get it shipped to me. After all, I do daily backups.

Though it'd be tempting to get a 15" MacBook Pro next time around. The 17" model is probably overkill, and I doubt that Apple will ever introduce a 13" MacBook Pro. No matter; it's not as though I need a high-end MacBook to write, or to inspire some clown on TotalFark to take the handle CristabelCrowley and complain in a discussion thread that "some scoundrel used her given name in a dreadful piece of fiction". If CristabelCrowley is the real deal, and not just some longtime user's idea of a joke, she'll have plenty more to bitch about when I'm done.

Steve Jobs of Apple decided to have himself a little party last week. I wasn't invited, but that didn't stop me from reading about it. The new iMacs look cool, but I think an iMac done all in black aluminum would rock like ten thousand drunken samurai. And it would match my iPod Nano. I'm not sure I'll bother to upgrade to iLife '08 right away; the only iLife app I've used with any regularity is iPhoto. Maybe after I've upgraded from Tiger to Leopard. iWork '08, on the other hand, is something I'll purchase as soon as I get my next paycheck. Apple was kind enough to provide a 30-day trial version of their new productivity suite, which includes the Pages word processor, a presentations app called Keynote (which I've yet to use), and a new spreadsheet app called Numbers.

Of course, the introduction of a spreadsheet app to iWork means that AppleWorks is utterly irrelevant now. No great loss; I think it was last updated in 2000. Nor will I have any reason to consider purchasing Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, even if it does run natively on Intel hardware. After all, all Office has going for it is that the product name and the names of the individual Office applications are easily parodied by anybody possessed of a penchant for bad puns and toilet humor. I wonder what genius at Microsoft's marketing department decided to name their diagramming application "Visio", when the name can easily be twisted into "Microsoft Vitriol".

But back to Pages, which is the reason I bothered to shell out $80 for iWork '06 when I got my MacBook last year. Pages '06 was primarily a page layout app, which showed in its toolbar layouts and manuals. Its word processing capabilities were probably something of an afterthought. This is not the case in Pages '08. Its templates are split into two sections:

Word processing for text-intensive documents, such as letters, reports, and bad science fantasy that I write in order to entertain my wife.
Page layout for image-intensive documents, such as flyers, brochures, and such.

When in word-processing mode, the toolbar shows only the relevant options by default: paragraph style, character style, font name and size, background color, text color, bold/italic/underline, alignment, spacing, columns, and list mode. Other toolbars can be shown by ticking off the relevant options in the View menu.

And you've got to admit: when all you need is a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application, $80 for iWork is a better deal than the standard price for Microsoft Office, which approximately $300 if my memory is correct. For $300, I could get iWork, a used PSP, and the PSP remake of Valkyrie Profile. Sure, there's also OpenOffice, but if I wanted to settle for that, I could have bought a Dell laptop and installed Linux.

Oh, that's right, I finished chapter 29 of Starbreaker. Here's the summary.

Morgan Stormrider has had enough, and he wants out. He is tired of the responsibility that comes with being an Adversary, and he is tired of being a killer who hunts other killers. Faced with evidence that Tetsuo Munakata was more than Alexander Liebenthal's bodyguard, Morgan doubts that he will accomplish any lasting good by bringing Munakata to justice. However, neither Saul Rosenbaum, Morgan's superior in the Phoenix Society, nor Morgan's own pride will let him walk away now.

I think it's time for some other characters to take the stage for a while, don't you think?

Initial impressions of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-08-17T10:46:45-04:00

I posted this initial review on Amazon.com, and may post a more detailed review on this site once I have finished the game.

Gamers who buy games developed or published by Atlus know that Atlus games tend to be somewhat different from other developers' offerings. After several hours of play, I think it's fair to say that Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 for the PlayStation2 console continues this trend.

The gameplay is fairly realistic, given that P3 is a Japanese RPG. In battle, your characters may stumble when attacking and leave themselves vulnerable to the enemies' attacks. If you try to push them too hard, they will get tired, which will affect their performance. Ignore their fatigue, and they will get sick, which further hampers them. This principle applies to the main character, whom the player directly controls. Try to do everything, and you won't be able to do anything particularly well.

Since part of the game involves the character's day-to-day life as a high school student, one cannot expect major plot turns every day. However, the choices the player makes in school do have an effect on the player's options as a Persona user. The more connections the player forges with other students, the more power he will bring to bear as a Persona user, so expect consequences if you decide to play as a loner.

Some players may find some of the imagery in this game disturbing, or even offensive. The characters summon their Personae by using a gun-like device called an Evoker. Unlike another reviewer, I do not think that they are mimicking suicide. Instead, given that in-game dialogue suggests that one can summon a Persona without an Evoker, I think that the Evoker is used to break down a character's inner barriers so that his Persona can manifest. While I understand why the summoning animations may be offensive to some, I do think that Atlus did it this way for a legitimate reason. However, parents thinking of getting this game for their teenage children should be aware that this game contains imagery that may be inappropriate.

As for the title of this review, I think this might be a thinking man's RPG because of the themes I've encountered thus far. I haven't completed the game yet, so I can't say I've seen everything it has to offer. However, given the introductory movie that plays when you load the game, I think that Persona 3 will give an attentive player a few things to think about. For example, the player is asked to sign a contract at the beginning of the game. The terms seem simple enough, but when is responsibility ever simple?

As for technical details; the graphics are somewhat minimalist, but very stylish. I think that the character and Persona portraits were well done, but I don't think that Kazuma Kaneko (who handled character design for the other SMT games on the PS2) was involved. Shoji Meguro, however, handled the soundtrack. I suspect that some of the hip-hop influenced tracks may begin to grate on me after further play, but I am somewhat biased against hip-hop, and prefer rock, heavy metal, jazz, and classical music. Your mileage may vary. You may also dislike the voice acting, but the Config menu includes an option to turn off voiced dialogue for players who just want text.

I heartily recommend Persona 3, and think it's worth the fifty bucks I paid for it. Buy it instead of renting it, and you'll get a nice little art book and soundtrack disc in the package.

I'm not dead yet.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-08-11T18:29:52-04:00

Well, the last couple of weeks have been moderately interesting. UPS tried to deliver my wife's copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to my office on Saturday, 21 July 2007. Since I wasn't there to take delivery, they left one of their little "We tried to deliver your package" slips with a promise that they'd be back on Monday. Monday passes, and my wife still hasn't gotten her book. When I call UPS that night, they claim that Amazon.com requested that any copies that could not be delivered on Saturday be forwarded to the US Postal Service for delivery.

That sounded like bullshit to me, but I let it pass. I figured that if I didn't get it by Friday, I'd just buy a copy at Barnes & Noble and have Amazon give me a refund. Friday came and went, but the book never arrived, so when my wife came to meet me at B&N that night, I had a copy of HP7 sitting on the table waiting for her.

When I got the book delivered the following Monday, the package had tire tread marks on it, and was severely battered. I suspect that somebody had decided to use the package as an oversized hockey puck, so I refused to accept delivery and had it returned to Amazon. Amazon ended up giving me a refund, so they're still cool (It's not their fault that Atlus is still sitting on Persona 3).

Catherine was happy to finally get her book. It took her a week to read it. Of course, I finished it the same night she did; she put it down at 7:30pm; I grabbed it at 8:30pm and finished it at about one in the morning. Catherine thought I was crazy, even though she's seen me do this with other books.

Of course, I'm not so good that I can get through The Count of Monte Cristo in one night.

Aside from my misadventure in online ordering, not much of note happened. I took a few days off from Starbreaker to avoid undue influence from Rowling. I don't mind being influenced by Dumas; he's dead and his books are in the public domain now. Rowling's still alive, and I don't want her or her fans accusing me of plagiarism. Besides, I had to handle some business that I won't discuss on this website.

Once I had taken care of business, however, I turned back to Starbreaker. Here's your summary for Chapter 28:

After spending a night with Kallisti without feeling what he expected to feel, Polaris goes to Isaac Magnin for advice. While exploring the art Magnin keeps in his private office, Polaris overhears an argument between Magnin and Tetsuo Munakata, who accuses Magnin of lying to him. Polaris hears Magnin refer to Munakata and Morgan Stormrider as "Asuras", and questions Magnin about it after they talk about Polaris' night with Kallisti.

Magnin attempts to explain that Munakata and Stormrider are part of an older series of Asuras, but Polaris rejects the explanation and demands the truth. Magnin tells Polaris some of the truth, and attempts to recruit Polaris into his conspiracy. Polaris is reluctant to help Magnin manipulate Morgan Stormrider, and asks for time to consider before making a decision.

Chapter 29 will turn back to Morgan, who will learn that perhaps he should have been more concerned with Tetsuo Munakata than he was.

Since Persona 3 isn't out yet, I did some writing.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-31T18:53:44-04:00

Well, since Atlus insisted on holding back the release of their latest Shin Megami Tensei title, Persona 3, I did some writing instead. Chapter 27 of Starbreaker is the result. Not much happened; it's just a tale of boy meets girl, only the boy is an android.

Polaris spends an afternoon playing his guitar in an Asgard park. While he's busy playing, a street vendor named Kallisti stops in front of him and gets his attention. After buying some of Kallisti's ice cream, Polaris propositions her on impulse and receives a favorable reaction. Kallisti agrees to get back in touch with Polaris after she has finished working for the day.

Chapter 28 will continue with Polaris. What will Isaac Magnin do when Polaris comes to him for relationship advice?

Chapter 26 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-24T19:50:00-04:00

Chapter 26 of Starbreaker is done, and I've pretty much wrapped up the Liebenthal story arc, though the consequences of Liebenthal's actions and the consequences of the Phoenix Society's efforts against Liebenthal will reverberate through the rest of the novel.

Morgan Stormrider transports his prisoner, Alexander Liebenthal, back to New York City. After placing Liebenthal in the hands of some city militia, Morgan returns to the NYC chapter of the Phoenix Society with Saul Rosenbaum. While driving, Morgan expresses a desire to resign; he no longer believes that he is doing any good as an Adversary. Karen Del Rio's insults anger Morgan, prompting him to quit on the spot, promising that the Phoenix Society will get his resignation in writing soon enough.

Morgan's had enough, and he wants out. Of course, he'll soon learn that he can't walk away so easily.

Chapter 25 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-21T19:38:30-04:00

Well, since my copy of Harry Potter is Going to Die hasn't arrived yet, I decided to do chapter 25 of Starbreaker. It took me a while, but things are finally starting to get weird (As if a world of city-states where people carry swords and fight duels instead of clogging the courts isn't weird). Here's what happened:

Tetsuo Munakata, a sellsword who reads too much samurai manga, has ignored Morgan Stormrider's warnings and turned his sword on the Adversary to avenge his fallen master, Alexander Liebenthal. As they duel, Munakata taunts Morgan, suggesting that not only are they related, but that they are beings that Munakata refers to as "Asuras". Morgan learns as he fights Munakata that not only does Munakata share Morgan's immunity to tranquilizer darts, but that Munakata's wounds also heal as quickly as Morgan's does. Morgan goes all out and strikes Munakata down with two fatal wounds, only to see Munakata rise again.

My wife can tell you that there's more to the story than that, but if you want the whole story, you'll just have to wait.

If you've got a schoolgirl fetish...

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-20T17:22:14-04:00

If the line outside the Barnes & Noble where I'm sitting is any occasion, there's a metric shitload of people waiting to get their copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tonight. The line here stretches for at least 100 meters, and it's a second-class miracle that I was able to find a parking space. Some of them have even bothered to dress up, which is a good for guys who like to look at young women in schoolgirl uniforms. I just hope my wife isn't on that line, or that she forgot that I have already ordered a copy of HP7, and will probably get it by Tuesday at the latest.

Oh, wait, here she is. She didn't dress up as a schoolgirl, but one can't have everything. I'll tell you one thing: if I make it big as a writer, I'll try to keep these marketing events to a minimum. If you don't give a shit about Harry Potter, tonight is likely to be a royal pain in the ass.

Chapter 24 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-19T19:49:51-04:00

All right, chapter 24 of Starbreaker is done. A duel has been fought, and a tyrant accused. Here's the lowdown:

Morgan Stormrider toys with John O'Riordan, elected captain of the Fireclowns MC, during their duel. Wishing to be done with the matter, O'Riordan demands that Morgan finish it. Morgan does, and severely wounds O'Riordan. As Morgan, Catherine, and Bill (who turns out to be O'Riordan's younger brother) administer first aid, Alexander Liebenthal and his bodyguard enter the warehouse. Morgan denounces Liebenthal and demands his surrender. Liebenthal refuses, and accuses Morgan of bribing the Fireclowns. Bill, now the newly elected captain of the Fireclowns MC, refutes Liebenthal's accusation and declares his predecessor's agreement with Liebenthal to be null and void. Liebenthal, enraged, attempts to kill Bill O'Riordan, but is thwarted by Morgan, who knocks the captain aside and takes the bullet meant for O'Riordan.

I'll be continuing this story arc in chapter 25. Stay tuned.

Chapter 23 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-17T18:07:34-04:00

I wasted a whole week trying to salvage some old Polaris material from an earlier draft and expand it, but I just couldn't make it fit. So instead, I continued with Morgan and Catherine's raid on Alexander Liebenthal's operation in Boston. Here's the summary:

Morgan and Catherine have uploaded images of Liebenthal's encrypted filesystems to both the Sephiroth AIs and to Morgan's friend Claire. Claire agrees to perform an independent decryption and analysis of the contents of Liebenthal's encrypted data, and warns Morgan and Catherine that enemies are approaching. Morgan and Catherine prepare to defend themselves, and take out several Fireclowns before their leader requests a ceasefire and offers Morgan an alternative to a battle against the Fireclowns that will probably leave many of them dead or wounded.

Don't forget that summaries for earlier chapters are available in the archive.

Replying to Morgan Freeburg

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-14T12:34:54-04:00

On his blog, Morgan Freeburg asks the following:

But my point isn’t that there are merits to kicking little old ladies. My point is — this wrongness, this “ought not be done”-ness, is a matter of opinion. You and I share the opinion, true. But it’s still opinion. In fact, searching for someone who would contest it, we probably need look no further than the guy doing the kicking. We are going to stop him — the question is, by what authority do we do this?

Freeburg goes on to claim that as a believer, he can claim that he is doing God's will. He can claim that he is enforcing a God-given morality that does not permit strong men to torment little old ladies, while the atheist standing beside him has nothing.

As far as I'm concerned, however, I do not need any sort of authority in order to oppose a man who insists on tormenting a little old lady in my presence. All I need is a weapon, and a reason to wield it. Getting a weapon, even these days, is easy. A shotgun will do. A reason, however, is a little harder to come by.

If I want to be somewhat subjective, I can simply say that it pisses me off to see little old ladies getting kicked around. After all, that could be my grandmother. That would be reason enough for me to intervene, and renders God and all the complications that come with believing in God irrelevant.

Or, I can go a bit further. I can't consider myself or my wife safe in a lawless place where there's no established authority to avenge little old ladies when they get kicked around. Unlike the guy kicking around the little old lady, I prefer to interact with others with speech and reason, not with violence. However, if I allow violence to remain unchecked, the guy kicking around the little old lady may eventually turn against me or my wife.

In the absence of belief in God, logic dictates that it is not in my interest to allow little old ladies to get kicked around. If I want a world in which I can interact peacefully with others, then it's interest to draw my gun and impose the conditions that will allow me to put guns aside.

Chapter 22 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-09T12:43:17-04:00

Well, I finished Chapter 22 today, as I hoped I would. I'll start Chapter 23 tomorrow. Here's the summary (in case there's anybody out there who gives a rip):

Elisabeth's bath is interrupted by Isaac Magnin's arrival at her castle home. When she finally greets Isaac, Elisabeth finds that he has brought with him a veiled companion. Elisabeth recognizes the visitor when she removes her veil, but is stopped by Isaac before she can speak the visitor's name. Elisabeth offers the woman, who calls herself 'Annelise', refuge, and promises that no one will be able to find her, not even Isaac.

Chapter 21 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-07T16:26:58-04:00

OK, I've been a lazy bastard this week, and the fact that this past Wednesday was the 4th of July is no excuse. I've finished Chapter 21 of Starbreaker. Here's the summary, if you care:

"After a chat with his brother Isaac Magnin, Dr. Zachary Aster calls Edmund Cohen in London. Dr. Aster is concerned that Magnin intends to manipulate Morgan Stormrider in some manner, and wants Edmund to keep a closer watch on Morgan, since Edmund is a friend of Morgan's. Isaac Magnin eavesdrops on Dr. Aster's conversation with Edmund, and learns that Morgan had gone to Boston in secret, which threatens his plans."

Summaries for the first twenty chapters of Starbreaker, along with a copy of Chapter 21's summary, can be found on the Fiction page. Summaries for future chapters will appear here in the Web Log, and will be archived in the Fiction section.

I've started Chapter 22 already, and I hope to have it finished tomorrow, or on Monday at the latest.

Green Shirts

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-05T12:30:53-04:00

Here's a fashion tip for men: do not walk into a Stop & Shop supermarket while wearing a green shirt. Other customers will assume that you work there and expect you to help them, which will cost you time as you either help them, or explain that you do not work at the supermarket. It doesn't have to be a polo shirt, either. It can be a nice dark green dress shirt tucked into khaki slacks for a business casual look. If you wear green at Stop & Shop, customers will assume that you work there.

Chapter summaries for Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-02T12:56:49-04:00

I've begun writing chapter summaries for Starbreaker, since I have decided that I am no longer willing to let people read the whole thing for free. If you want to read the world's most violent romance novel, you can bloody well pay for the privilege. Summaries for chapters 1-5 are available here.

Chapter 20 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-07-01T20:30:00-04:00

Chapter 20 of Starbreaker is finished, except for a couple of small modifications to help the story flow better. Give me another twenty chapters, and the plot will really be humming along. :)

Starbreaker: Chapters 19 and 20

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-29T20:57:18-04:00

OK, chapter 19 of Starbreaker is done. I've also started on chapter 20, which picks off where chapter 19 left off, plotwise.

Chapter 18 of Starbreaker is done.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-28T21:05:58-04:00

Well, that's 18 chapters done, and at least 69 more to go. I'm not too worried; Alexandre Dumas' chapter count for The Count of Monte Cristo broke 100. I think that this weekend I'll do some chapter summaries for the Fiction page, and maybe a sample chapter.

Starting Chapter 18 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-27T18:34:37-04:00

Well, I've gotten four pages into Chapter 18 of Starbreaker. I had hoped to salvage material from an earlier draft of the story, a chapter called "Polaris Gets an Education", but a review of the material persuaded me that was crap and should be discarded.

Polaris is a foil to the protagonist, Morgan Stormrider. Both are artificial beings. Morgan is an Asura Emulator, the last of the 100 series, and Polaris is the prototype for the 200 series. Morgan began as an infant, growing to adult in a manner similar to humans, and believes that he himself is human. Polaris, on the other hand, began as an adult. He knows that he is not human, but something else.

I introduced Polaris in Chapter 9, but left him in the background for a while. You'll see more of him, but unlike Morgan, his identity is not as constant as the position of his namesake star.

Chapter 17 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-27T12:56:55-04:00

So much for being on a roll. It took me three days (I tend to slack off on weekends) and a rewrite to get Chapter 17 right. I have no idea what the hell I was thinking when I decided to show my protagonist taking a minor character (sorry, Catherine) to lunch. It didn't advance the plot in any way, and was just bogging me down. So I had 'em go shopping instead.

I had Apple Computer's stores in mind when I thought of the Nakajima Armaments store on 42nd Street, even though I didn't spend much time in describing the setting. I didn't care much about the stage; in the first draft, the plot and characterization matters most. Setting can wait.

Of course, some literary types might disapprove of my placing priority on plot and characterization, but they can kiss my ass. I'm not writing literature here. I'm just looking to tell a kick-ass story and entertain my wife. There's nothing wrong with base motives. William Shakespeare and Alexandre Dumas were in it for the money. I'm in it for the pussy.

Chapter 16 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-22T12:48:43-04:00

Damn, I'm on a fucking roll. I finished Chapter 15 last night, got started on Chapter 16, and now I've finished Chapter 16 on my lunch break. If I can keep this up, I might have a draft finished by the end of the year, to give to Catherine at Christmas. I bet I'll get some truly mind-blowing sex if I can manage it.

Chapter 15 of Starbreaker

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-21T18:00:14-04:00

Well, I've finished Chapter 15 of Starbreaker tonight. Not much actually happened in this one; just some character development and setup for future plot points. No, you can't have a sample chapter. Not yours.

starbreaker.net's iTunes Catalog

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-20T23:45:36-04:00

So, you want to see what sort of music I've got, eh? I tried using Last.fm's tools for a while, but they're just too damned clunky. Then, I tried exporting playlists from iTunes and parsing them with PHP. Something tells me that if I spend another night tampering with that shit, my wife will fucking kill me.

So, I found a tool called iTunesCatalog that'll do the dirty work for me and upload the results. If you want to see what I've got, click here.

Adventures in Home Networking

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-18T20:34:57-04:00

I figured that I had plenty of room on my MacBook, since I use it mainly for listening to music, writing, working on my website, dicking around with Xcode, and looking at porn. The biggest use of space, given the way I use my MacBook, is on music. 60GB should be enough.

It isn't. Not when you've got a wife who took about 14GB worth of photos in the course of a 3-week vacation to Australia. Luckily, I had the space, but it was fucking close.

Now, when you realize that the space you've got isn't enough, there are two things you can do:

Buy a bigger hard drive.
Move what can be moved to another location.

Now, it's tempting to say "fuck it!" and buy a bigger hard drive. However, in my situation -- where I've picked up a copy of MacFormat and Catherine's got herself a copy of ImagineFX, both of which come with DVDs full of assorted multimedia, shareware, freeware, and trialware -- Buying a new hard drive isn't necessarily practical. After all, there's stuff I want to try out, and stuff she wants to try out. (Too bad Photoshop CS2 isn't available in a Universal Binary.)

Besides, installing a new hard drive requires a backup of all data -- preferably 2: one to another machine on the network, and a further backup to DVD-ROM. Then I have to actually crack open my MacBook, remove the old drive, and install the new one. Assuming that goes well, I'd have to reinstall OS X and all of my applications -- not to mention restoring my data from backup. It's an easy way to burn up an afternoon. Of course, I could simply buy an external drive that connects via USB, making it unnecessary to open up my MacBook, but I'd rather save up for a MacBook Pro so that Catherine and I can each have a nice laptop.

So, rather than go to all that trouble and expense, I decided to make room. My iTunes music collection takes up 20GB on Rhiannon, my MacBook. Astarte, my Linux machine, has 150GB on her /home filesystem (and 50GB on /, but that's the system partition). I've taken steps to secure my wireless network, so that only I and my guests have access.

Now, file sharing from a Linux machine is usually accomplished via Samba, which emulates the subsystems used on Microsoft Windows to implement file sharing. However, using a Windows file-sharing protocol to share between Linux and Mac OS seems cumbersome to me.

Luckily, Apple has their own file-sharing protocol, which has been implemented on Linux by the netatalk project. Installing netatalk on Ubuntu is something a cat can do; it's quite easy. Once I had my AFP shares configured, it was a simple matter to move my music collection from Rhiannon to Astarte, and then configure iTunes to build its library using the files shared from Astarte without storing the files on Rhiannon.

I might actually write a proper how-to, but it's almost midnight and I'm too tired to give a shit right now.

Last.fm

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-18T01:25:01-04:00

I wonder who decided to call a social networking site centered around what people are listening to on their computers "Last.fm", what they were smoking, and where Catherine and I can get some. It must be good stuff.

In the meantime, if you're utterly bored, you can click on the "Now Playing" link and see what I've been listening to lately.

Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-17T11:52:23-04:00

Catherine and I have finally gotten around to putting up some vacation photos. This set is from our drive with her brother and sister, Mat and Sharon, along the Great Ocean Road, which runs along the Australian coastline in the state of Victoria.

This is amusing...

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-16T16:10:15-04:00

It's raining hard here where I live, and thunder has been rumbling off in the distance. Lightning struck at the same moment that iTunes began playing Iced Earth's Night of the Stormrider album. I thought it was pretty fucking cool.

(Album image property of Iced Earth and its creator.)

New Story: "Good Enough"

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-16T15:55:18-04:00

I've put up the Fiction page and posted a story I wrote this past winter, called "Good Enough". Check out the Fiction page if you care about why I wrote it.

Haven't We Been Through This Before?

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-16T13:16:01-04:00

According to this LA Times article, many American Christians -- especially evangelicals -- are nervous at the thought of a Mormon in the White House. To be fair, the article also quotes several of the evangelical bent who are willing to judge Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney by his policies, not his religious beliefs.

The thing is, this shit has happened before. In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, ran for President. He settled the issue by saying, "...contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic." (Quote courtesy of American Rhetoric.)

Now, over forty years later, we have another presidential candidate from a minority religion. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, finds himself facing the same objections that Kennedy did: American Protestants don't want a non-Protestant in the White House. They didn't want a Catholic because they feared he would take orders from the Pope. Now they object to Romney because he does not believe in the same sort of God that they do, or in the same way. One would think that we would have gotten past such silliness.

When James Madison wrote the Constitution of the United States, he explicitly stated in Article VI that "...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." If James Madison, the Founding Fathers, and the people who voted to ratify the Constitution of the United States don't give a damn what religion an elected official holds, then why should it matter to the average American if the President is a Christian, a Mormon, or a devotee of Great Cthulhu?

After all, the US government doesn't represent the people of the US, and hasn't done so in years.

Photos from the old site.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-16T12:15:30-04:00

I've finally gotten the hang of RapidWeaver and put together photo albums for the pictures I had on the old site. You've probably seen 'em before, but I promised Catherine that I'd get them up.

The photo album index is located here, if you want to bookmark it. Or, just subscribe to the RSS feed if you want to know when new photo albums have been made available.

OK, time to do the photo galleries.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-16T11:12:20-04:00

OK. Now that I've got the site behaving itself and using PHP, it's time to put up some photo albums. I'm just going to put up some old ones until I can convince Catherine to help me go through the photos we took in Australia this past May. It'll take awhile, given that she took about 15GB worth of photos, and she won't be satisfied with half of them.

Yes, the site looks a bit plain.

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-15T14:09:00-04:00

I know the site looks a bit plain. However, this is the template I like best out of the themes supplied with RapidWeaver. I'll get something better ASAP, unless my wife decides she likes this one.

My first iMix

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-14T02:35:22-04:00

This is my first iMix on the iTunes Music Store. It might amuse me to create more iMixes in the future, since I'm a filthy capitalist pig.

Penis Enlargement Spam

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-14T01:19:17-04:00

I don't understand these fucking spammers. They must be thinking that they're bound to find at least one sucker who thinks that there's a pill that one can buy on the net that'll make their cocks bigger -- or their lovers' cocks, since my wife gets as much of this spam as I do. None of this shit works, and let's be honest here: if you're ignorant enough or stupid enough to fall for this spam, then a foot-long cock as thick as my forearm isn't going to help you please the ladies.

"Johnny B. Goode" by Judas Priest

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-14T00:51:34-04:00

Judas Priest is one of those bands I listen to while wearing headphones. It's not one of my wife's favorite bands, so I don't play their music often. I was playing their Ram it Down album tonight while working on the new site. "Johnny B. Goode" is an old Chuck Berry song, and the original was pretty good. The Judas Priest cover is even better. You can probably find it on iTunes.

Looks like I'll be buying RapidWeaver

mgraybosch@gmail.com — 2007-06-13T23:58:00-04:00

So, after spending most of May 2007 in Australia, I got to thinking: "Maybe I should do something with my website". So I took a look at it. The mess of PHP, XHTML, and CSS must have looked good at one point, but I suspect there's a reason that I hadn't touched the demon-ridden site since March 2006 that doesn't involve laziness.

Oh, that's right. Actually coding a site by hand, especially when your lovely wife is a shutterbug with lots and lots of photos to put on the net, is a royal pain in the ass. Yes, it can be done, if you're single, unemployed, and have absofuckinlutely nothing more interesting to do.

So, since my MacBook came with the iLife '06 application suite, I had a look at iWeb. The templates were a bit lame, but I discovered that I could tweak them through dialogs. Then I realized that, aside from limited duplication options, that I could only do so much tweaking to the template supplied by Apple. Worse still, iWeb is tied to Apple's .Mac service, and doesn't really cater to guys like me -- long-haired metalheads who actually know how to use command-line FTP clients.

So, while googling for a means to extend iWeb's capabilities, I came across RapidWeaver. It does WYSIWYG site design, handles publishing via FTP, blogging with RSS, and allows me to get under the hood and use raw HTML and PHP if I deem it necessary. And it only costs $50. Good thing I'm getting paid tomorrow.

starbreaker.net RSS

Chapter 36 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 35 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Damn, that was fast.

My first day with Leopard

Chapter 34 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 33 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 32 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Plans for Chapter 32 of <i>Starbreaker</i> and beyond...

The Importance of Being Earnest

RapidWeaver 3.6.2

Chapter 30 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Nothing important, just life.

Apple, TotalFark, bad jokes, and Starbreaker

Initial impressions of <i>Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3</i>

I'm not dead yet.

Since <i>Persona 3</i> isn't out yet, I did some writing.

Chapter 26 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 25 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

If you've got a schoolgirl fetish...

Chapter 24 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 23 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Replying to Morgan Freeburg

Chapter 22 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 21 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Green Shirts

Chapter summaries for <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 20 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

<i>Starbreaker</i>: Chapters 19 and 20

Chapter 18 of <i>Starbreaker</i> is done.

Starting Chapter 18 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 17 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 16 of <i>Starbreaker</i>

Chapter 15 of <i>Starbreaker</i>