Hello, my name is Jack

by on November 7, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I love the smells of northern Minnesota. Fresh pine needles carpeting the ground. Still air after a spring rain. Roasting pinecones in a bonfire. A field full of flowers. A storm front advancing across a Great Lake. They each have their own smell and taste that is utterly unique. I have never experienced them on any other world. Not exactly. Not the totality. The lake country will ever be my home, no matter how far I travel or how many places I see. I spent two decades away from it during The War and it was changed when I returned. But the smells are still there. And I can still close my eyes and imagine the world I grew up in. I will love those smells until the day I die.

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Hello, my name is Betty

by on November 6, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Big Easy was right smack dab in the middle of Twilight’s season four and was more of a throwback to season three in many ways. The gang had stopped in New Orleans between missions and just wanted to relax. When of course something bad happened and they had to fix it. What followed was one of the best “caper” episodes of the entire Dixie and Twilight runs. They ran from one end of New Orleans to the other, stopped in the French Quarter to listen to some jazz, and ended on the massive dike separating the city from the lake as sunset arrived. It was generally considered the funniest episode of the season.

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Hello, my name is Charles

by on November 5, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Colonization packages have changed significantly since 2100. Back when all we had to worry about was our own solar system we would send multiple robot ships with supplies to setup the initial habitation domes before the first people arrived. Boosting supplies before and after colonization was a small time affair of small rockets and smaller cargos drifting in the void of space between the planets and planetoids that orbited our sun. Then we found hyperspace and everything changed.

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Hello, my name is Jack

by on November 4, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Of all the things I miss it is the loons. Their haunting, rhythmic tunes speak of melancholy and freedom at the same time. Their calls echo off the foggy mornings that hush almost all other sounds in the northern lakes. Add in the sound of fish jumping, waves lapping on the shore, and maybe an elk trumpeting it challenge to the nearest tree that disrespected it and you have the sounds that I grew up to. The buzzing of mosquitoes I can do without, but I love and remember the rest, and even the best simulations do not capture those moments right. I will always miss those sounds of home.

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Hello, my name is Betty

by on November 3, 2015 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Only six episodes had originally been ordered for season four and the production team had planned to make that short season the best they’d ever made. Twilight used newly-acquired Japanese mecha in Denver and Fargo against terrorist and cyberterrorist foes, and the ratings of the first three episodes all but forced the network to lengthen the season. And that allowed the writing staff to slow the story down, splice in some good character episodes, and reveal the big bad much more slowly. It gave season four an interesting arc, from frenetic beginning to slow middle and then a ramp back up to the season finale.

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