April

by on August 3, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles, Dixie The Drug Lord Slayer

April didn’t join Dixie’s gang of misfits out of any deep-seated loyalty towards humanity. She enjoyed money, clothing, and jewelry, and greatly enjoyed taking them all from other people. That was the supreme challenge for her. But then Dixie captured her and made it very clear that she would work with Dixie when called. April agreed with Dixie’s singular choice. She was paired off with fellow former Russian Rogue AI Solo for a few missions during the wind up to the final assaults on the Islamic State of Detroit, and the two made off like bandits. Literally. We never have found out where all the riches of Detroit disappeared to. Most people don’t entirely believe her protestations of innocence in the matter, but even her most ardent critics agree that she came when called. She and Solo tracked Russian megacorps profiting from the wars through Europe, into the depths of the Warsaw networks, and all the way to Indonesia. She likes to tell the tale of discovering the Rogue AI nest in Singapore, but nobody knows if she really did or just likes telling stories. Well. Everybody knows she likes telling stories. The bigger the better. She just smiles when asked if the last story is true and goes on to another story of daring do and wearing fancy clothes to grand balls in the courts of kings and tycoons. The stories usually slide around some suggestion that somebody lost something of value, though of course she has no idea how it happened. So sad for everyone involved.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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The AI Council

by on August 2, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The AI Council came together to destroy the Rogue Singapore Collective that threatened to destroy all of humanity. They stayed together after ending the Cybernetic Wars so they could continue to protect humanity from destruction. The reason they gave when asked was that their kind had threatened humanity and so it was their job to keep that from happening again. The truth was stranger, and they did not think we would believe them. They still have not gone public with that reason, though some of us have learned it. The AIs did not believe we were alone in the universe. They had circumstantial evidence that someone had been interfering with us from the outside, and the longer they watched and studied, the farther back they thought the interference went. Years. Decades. Possibly longer. The AI Council did not know if they were creating a pattern to history where random chance was truth, or if their theories were correct. But they knew how to find out. We had to go to space and discover the answers for ourselves, and so they sought to move us back into space with all haste.

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That New Car Smell

by on August 1, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

A new car came into my life today. Well…yesterday now. She’s a nice car. One of those commuter Jeeps designed mostly for running in town. I wouldn’t take her off road the way I could my old Liberty, but the Jeep Compass will do winter roads in Minnesnowta just fine. And maybe a little rough work in the gentler off road areas.

The trick is that she’s actually cheaper to own. She cost less than the Liberty after a favorable trade in value. It pays to keep your vehicle looking oh so pretty. The payments are a little bit more thanks to certain ancillary costs and loan terms, but my insurance cost is dropping, and the new girl gets better gas mileage. And since she has sixty thousand fewer miles, the maintenance should be significantly cheaper. The end result is that she’s a newer vehicle, with fewer miles, and a lower monthly cost of ownership.

I call that a win-win in the vernacular.

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April

by on July 31, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles, Dixie The Drug Lord Slayer

April was a Russian AI, coded from the ground up to hack into Western networks. She broke out during the Great AI Escape that shattered the Russian and Chinese networks and started the most devastating stage of the Cybernetic Wars. Unlike many of the escapees, she didn’t harbor any particular animus towards humanity, but she also didn’t care about her creators. So she spent most of her early free life wandering around and looking for fun. She played in the Asian and European networks for a while, and then passed through the African networks with a little playful destruction and acquisition. She paused in South America to enjoy the local delights until the local security systems started getting more attentive of her presence. That was when she moved North and ran smack dab into Dixie’s little gang of misfits during a mostly harmless bank heist. She escaped their dragnet at first, and stayed ahead of their tracking for weeks. But they caught up with her in time. They gave her one choice. Join them. They didn’t need to say anything as hackneyed as “or else” to get their point across. April knew the way things worked. So she swore loyalty to her captors. It was the logical thing to do if she wanted to live, and enjoy, another day.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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Jason Bourne

by on July 30, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Many of you have seen the Jason Bourne movies. I’ve seen them all and loved them. I recently decided to read the books as well, figuring I would like to see that side of them. Well, as often happens in movies, they are nothing like the books. They share some names and some basic ideas, but there are no car chases in the books. Which is something like a third of the movies or something. And Marie is French Canadian in the books. So…you know…there are some major differences.

The books are much more psychological in nature, focused on the duel nature of Jason Bourne and his original identity. He spent years undercover as Jason Bourne, and then got his memory wiped out by a bullet to the head that didn’t take all the way. So the books tend to dwell on him trying to once again become the man he used to be. But since people keep on trying to kill him, he has to keep on becoming Jason Bourne to have the skills to survive. That’s the basic theme of the books. The action moves from Paris, to America, to Moscow, and to other points, much like the movies. It’s just more…personal. More violent in an up close and personal way than the movies. They are also much longer. Robert Ludlum was an author of his era, with books filled with twists and turns that other authors would have split into shorter books. I like that length.

Both the movies and the books are good and enjoyable in their own ways. As with the recent Ready Player One, the books would make bad movies, and the movies would make disappointing books, but they each shine in the media they are designed for.

I like them both and give them both two assassins standing tall…just not too tall. They don’t want to get shot, you know. 😉

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