Broken Thy Name Is Government

I am trying to get my VA login changed so that I can actually access things.

Gods forbid they leave the system alone, but it was working so I guess it needed another coat of paint.

I made the account.  Easy.

Click verify...  Goes to a page, tells about the process and never starts.

Go to the VA medical side, use the login, it demands to verify...

Upload pictures of my driver's license about ten times.  No Bueno.

Suggests that I can do it in person at a post office.

Yes, I want to get up early and do that.

No life outside bankers hours for me!

Oh, and it's not something they can just DO.  You have to get a bar-code from the verification web page and they'll give you a time restriction to get to the post office.

Oh joy!

PS: I did finally get to the document that started this adventure!  Hurrah!  There's not a damn thing on it that needed to be encrypted so well.  Booooo!

Not That I Object

I've ranted on the combat wheelchair before...

But I need to make clear why.

It's not because I think the disabled should be denied mobility.

It's not because I think the disabled shouldn't be as mobile as any able bodied person.

It's because of the gross anachronism of it.  Such things didn't really exist until after WW1.  Yes, there are examples that qualify, here and there, going back centuries, but the form used in the mini didn't.

The modern wheelchair simply should not be invented in a fantasy setting.

Even so, being in a wheelchair would still preclude you from doing much adventuring, just like they're very limiting in normal, daily, activities today.

The combat wheelchair is a special effect.  Your character is not impeded in any way if you have your combat wheelchair.  You can go anywhere an able bodied person can go.  Up stairs, across a tight-wire, through a moat.  No limitation to movement.

That's better than modern chairs!

I've said bullshit and seen others do so.

The reply from the inventor is that magic is how it works to be better than a modern chair.

Fine.

But part of my rant is that the magic used to make that chair could also restore the crippled person to full function.  It could be used to prevent or reverse birth defects too!

Then there's The Gods.  Even if a magic user can't, The Gods can.

You don't need a wheelchair if you can walk.

Just A Little Short

Bob Uecker has left the chat.

Didn't quite make it to 100.

Story of his life...

Comics Bankrupt

THE distributor for comic books, Diamond, has declared bankruptcy.

That's a bummer because I have so many fond memories of comic books.

But I haven't actually bought a comic book for a very long time.

Just a graphic novel here and there.

I have, in my box, the start of several new titles.  Maybe 10 or 12 issues that just... stop.

I see books on the shelf that look interesting and see that we're on issue 150 and realize that I need 149 back issues so I put it back.

I've been burned on buying  based on the cover (and thanks to those baggies you can't look inside pre-purchase) and finding I didn't like the art inside or the story wasn't related to the cover.

It's the culmination of small things that led me to stop spending my hard earned on comic books.

It would appear that I am not the only person who'd gradually tapered off their purchases.

It makes me sad.

Especially with the gaming side of the comic shop being in upheaval as the companies who make the games seem determined to drive off over half of their customers by virtue signalling an ever more fractured side.

I really hope that both industries survive and recover, but they're going to have to do something they, presently, hate:  Return to mass appeal.

It occurs to me, after seeing the combat wheelchair for a Pathfinder mini, that since GURPS has "no-legs" listed as a disadvantage it could not be written in the current political environment.  How dare you abilists declare that having no legs is a disadvantage!  Prepare the effigy of Steve Jackson for burning!

Comms Down

Good thing I got Willard's phone a new battery, installed it, charged it and prodded him into picking it up.

Because it still doesn't take calls.

Emails disappear into the void.

Messages left with the daughter don't appear to be relayed.

Can't get past the gate at the gated community.

I am thinking I am being told to leave someone the fuck alone.

Message received.  Dang it.

Odd Overlap On The Venn Diagram

In pursuit of gaming stuff I do some odd searches.

Got a suggestion for "slowest way to kill yourself".

Turns out, just doing what you're doing right now is, in fact, the slowest way of killing yourself.

Death by time gets everyone.

Now I'm prolly going to get red flagged for being suicidal.

Officer, "He had a clock right there like was going to use it.  He also had a calendar app open on his phone, I think we know what his intentions were."

Now, try to sound sane explaining this idea to a psychologist.

OMG They Hate Facts

A person that I used to be meatspace friends with and now am just a Facebook acquaintance is who posted that forced sterilization meme.

I replied to that post.

WOW.

Reversing the bad law that was Roe vs Wade eliminated ALL of a woman's rights to reproduction.

I know this because they told me so.

So I listed a couple of exceptions.

Like:

A woman can rescind her coital consent after the fact and get the man charged with rape.

Despite abortions being much harder to get in some states, a man still cannot force a woman to get one; or prevent her from getting one any place it's legal.

A woman can still get an abortion legally in many states, even if they live in one where it's not legal.

If the woman decides to carry the child to term, she can still change her mind and abandon it at most any fire station with no questions asked or legal repercussions.  Even if the father is willing to take the child.

A woman who drops her child off at the fire station can do so against the wishes of the father.

A woman can demand the father pay child support for a child he does not want.  The government will enforce this demand.

A woman can demand the father pay child support for a child he does want and can prevent him from being a part of his child's life.  The government will enforce this demand.

So, I am confused here.  I see a lot of responsibility without rights here for the man.

I'm a firm believer that if you don't have any rights, you don't assume any responsibility.

Likewise, if you have all the rights, you have all of the responsibility.

Since it takes two to tango, the division of rights and responsibilities needs to be more equal.

Corvith

I've decided that the house-cat / raven version of a griffen I talked about here will be called a "corvith".

RWR Install

Finally getting around to mounting a radar warning receiver in The Beast.

This is a Mirror Mount from Radar Mount.

I am not sure I like the placement, but I am sick of the detector dropping from the windshield when the suction cups let go.  The Precious had a mount that went into the passenger side sun visor's clip...  That let your passenger break off the latch for the detector.

This is clear of the visor's movement and allows access to all the buttons.

If this doesn't drive me insane, I'll wire it up in a couple days.

Reducto Meme

 This one is making the rounds again:

I am not even certain where I should start.

Wow The Hate

Jason Bulmahn, lead designer of Pathfinder objects to JD Vance owning and playing the game.

They say he should return his books.

Because Mr Vance is a fascist and they don't support fascism or something.

First off, I really wish the left would buy a fucking dictionary and read the definition of fascism.

I'll even be generous and use the online version of the dictionary:

1. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
2. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
3. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
4. A political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government; -- opposed to democracy and liberalism.
5. An authoritarian system of government under absolute control of a single dictator, allowing no political opposition, forcibly suppressing dissent, and rigidly controlling most industrial and economic activities. Such regimes usually try to achieve popularity by a strongly nationalistic appeal, often mixed with racism.
6. Specifically, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini in Italy from 1922 to 1943.
7. Broadly, a tendency toward or support of a strongly authoritarian or dictatorial control of government or other organizations; -- often used pejoratively in this sense.
8. A political regime, having totalitarian aspirations, ideologically based on a relationship between business and the centralized government, business-and-government control of the market place, repression of criticism or opposition, a leader cult and exalting the state and/or religion above individual rights. Originally only applied (usually capitalized) to Benito Mussolini's Italy. 
   

I think they mean definition 4 and are also not using liberalism correctly. 

But I think liberals need to look HARD at this list of definitions and register that Trump might be the least fascist president we've had in decades because of his de-regulatory efforts.

A lot of that list fits the US government.  And it has fit since, at least, FDR.

Definition 8 in particular rings true during the Wuhan Flu "misinformation" era.

But the creator of Pathfinder was A-OK with all that!

So I ask, once again, who's really the fascist here?

Reading vs Watching

It took me a minute to read this.

This video is 10 minutes long, says the same thing.

It's really made me realize that it might not be my attention span, but the way something is presented.

Because it doesn't take 10 minutes to say, by name, two cases had been denied cert at the Supreme Court.

But I sure know about the stuff those youtubers are shilling, don't I?

 

 

Looty Shooty

Let's say anarchy has come to my neck of the woods.

There's looters in the streets and they're carrying torches and have lit some of the surviving structures on fire up the street.

That end of the neighborhood is 500 yards away.

Let's GURPS!

Let's start with the Savage 110 in .270.

I usually give myself a Guns/TL8 - Rifle skill of 14.

500 yards is a -14 to hit.

Not looking good...

Better take an all-out-attack (determined) +1.

Brace on the bipod +1

Aim for three seconds:  +6 for the acc of the rifle, +3 for the power of the scope and +2 for settling in.

13 or less to hit the torso.  10 for vitals, which, on average, I should should be able to hit.

Since all .270 ammo is some kind of soft or hollow point damage is 7d(0.5) pi+.

If our looter is wearing a shirt, then the (average) damage roll of 24 should get 23 to penetrate and do 69 points of damage.  Auto-death calling on line one.

It might be hard to justify popping a looter at 500 yards, though.

How about 300, like it'd be if they came from the other direction?

-13 for range, so still going to make the hit, on average.

However, I've often stated that one of the AR's is my go-to home defense and anti-looting rifle.

The M16A4 clone seems to match needs here.

Let's go with 200 yards for a -12 and a more legally defensible shot.

All out attack, +1; braced, +1, Acc +5, scope +2, 3 turns of aiming +2.

13 or less again!  I can still go for vitals.

5d pi with the ball ammo I have here.  Average roll of 17 does 51 points of damage and that will likely kill them with the 4 death rolls they've got coming.

Brenda has fewer bonuses.

All out attack, +1; braced, +1, Acc +5, scope +1, 3 turns of aiming +2.

12 or less for the torso; 9 for vitals.  Prolly miss the vitals by one and hit the torso anyways...

4d+2 pi does 16 raw on average which will do 16 to the target.  "Just" a consciousness roll.

Using the OTM rounds I have on hand changes the damage to 4d+2(0.5) pi+ and the damage that penetrates to 15 that is modified to 22.  One death roll.

One hopes to never reality check this.

Did You Know?

Armalite was actively pitching the AR-18 to the US government at about the same time the paroxysms about the M14 program and the USAF adoption of the M16 were happening.

It, apparently, came >< that close to happening.

The Stoner 63 system was being troop and field tested in this same time frame.

The US Army was going to get a 5.56x45mm rifle; but which rifle was in play longer than I'd thought.

I Need To Install A Zipper

I am going to have to take the dash apart, again.

I need to remove and replace the stereo/HVAC faceplate because the knobs have failed.

I need to run power for a radar detector.

I need to find the dimmer wire so I can get the overhead console lights illuminated.

I want a warmer day than today, because it'd be better to have the car outside so I can open the doors all the way.

I Did A Thing

I installed the RCA ports into my car's head unit and now we can plug The Boy's portable DVD player in and have the sound come out the car's speakers and not just the tinny things that are built into it.

He thinks that's pretty cool!

Badge Mod

The adhesive on my Caprice badge was losing the legs on the 'E' and one was already almost ripped off washing the car.

You can't easily get the stock badge anymore, but the Caprice V version is readily available.

The V, being the performance version of the Australian Caprice, gains at least 30 horsepower from the badge alone.

Dammit

Some pictures from the Pacific Palisades fire have been posted.

Burned and melted hot rods.

That hit me harder than I would have expected.

Especially after reading David Freiburger talking about how he's lived in the area his whole life and his reading about how California deserved it.

I replied to that thread telling him that we got the same shit after Helene and Milton and to keep his chin up.

I don't feel California had it coming any more than Sarasota or North Carolina did.

But there's definitely things California could have done that would have mitigated the fires, or even made them a non-event.

You have to cut fire breaks.

You have to make the roads that let people escape.

You have to maintain the infrastructure that keeps the hydrants flowing.

California failed to do that.

The people of California voted for the people who would neglect those things.

Did I say, "neglect?"

I meant to say actively destroyed and worked against policies that would have kept this from getting out of hand.

At one time California had the water thing figured out.

Environmentalists made sure that was undone.

Fire breaks are fundamental in keeping wildfires under control.

Environmentalists made sure none were cut.

Expanding roads to make sure gridlock doesn't trap people on the roads and prevent first responders from responding is part and parcel of an increasing population.

Environmentalists and NIMBYist combined to make sure roads weren't widened.

California voters didn't vote to stop or even slow environmentalists and have, thus, reaped the whirlwind.

Florida is about to enter its wildfire season.  Wanna bet we don't make the national news.  Again...

Wow

Some interesting changes have suddenly hoved into view here.

First was finally giving in and calling USAA's bluff about "you're pre-approved!"

Past experience has informed me that, no, I am not really approved and once I apply I will be declined.

Wrong.

They instantly approved me.  For a limit that seems outlandishly generous.

We're going to use it to buy gas and beer and pay it off every two weeks like we'd just bought beer and gas with cash.  That'll show 'em!

That made me realize that my credit rating must be better than I thought.

It turns out my bank will show me the Experian report.

727 is my credit rating.

It wasn't all that long ago it was 530.

Harvey checked hers and it's 680.  680 before her discharged loan hits her report.

Holy shit!

We're normal Americans again!

Next time we renew our insurance this will have a positive effect.  And this is the only reason we really care.

Minimum Safe Distance

The official GURPS stats for the 40x46mmSR round shows 30 yards minimum range.

Real rounds DO have an arming distance.  It's a bit shorter than 30 yards.

M381 HE has an arming distance of JUST 3 yards.  The later M406 arms at 15 yards.

They both do 4d-1 [2d] cr ex.

The person standing in the hex with the boom takes the listed damage.

Everyone in dice x 2 yards away can take some too.  In this case, 8 yards.

So firing at minimum range of 3 yards with an M381 can be dangerous.

But you divide the damage by 3x the distance in yards, so...  Divide by 9 at minimum range.

Maximum damage from the blast is 23.  Dividing by 9 and rounding down does 2 to our grenadier.  On average, though, just a single point will come back.

Fragmentation goes out 5x dice yards.  In this case [2d] so out to 10 yards.  The "skill" of the fragments is 15 and normal speed/range penalties are applied for distance.  Fragmentation has an effective Rcl of 3.

3 yards is -1 for range for a "skill" of 14.  On average that will give two 2d cutting hits.

That's less good than the blast with an average of 21 points done after modifiers.  That will kill the average person.

He *IS* Literally Hitler After All

Trump should use the justification of the USA needing "living space" for annexation of Canada as its 51st+ state.

The jokes write themselves.

Update:

National Day Of Celebration More Like

They have declared today to be a national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter.

Fuck that!

To mourn, you have to miss the deceased.

I've been wanting this "person" to stop sucking my oxygen for decades.

Jimmah is the first president I had grievances with, and he was out of office before I even got to vote!

I learned about the depth of his failures later.

Then I learned that many of the failures weren't fails, but deliberate.

So I will heartily cheer his demise and my flag will remain at full mast.

I Don't Want A Relationship

Getting the largest source of non-mortgage debt removed from my credit score last year should have had a positive effect on my credit score...

So I went to check.

Everyone wants a lot of information up front and once you provide it, they force you to make an account with them.

I'm not looking for a relationship, I just wanna fuck.

I get why they need to collect most of the information, but once they have it that should be enough to give me a result.

The way they're going about this reminds me of a lot of bait and switch free offers where it's easy to sign up, and nearly impossible to cancel and they have your payment information so you get to pay while you're trying to get it shut down.

The Long Slow Slog

It appears that the criminal enterprise that was Corinthian Colleges is finally being made to pay.

The Lovely Harvey got an email today about the discharge of her student loans due to the college's criminal malfeasance.

Discharge of loan.  Removal of it from her credit report.  Refund of any and all payments made.

Wowsers!

To be clear to the boomers who don't (won't?) understand; this is not related to the big student loan forgiveness that Biden was pushing.  This is normal for when a college defrauds its students, the hold up was how damn BIG the department of education let the situation get and how much Corinthians tried to get away with.

It's taken almost two decades to get justice out of this.

Maybe it will make my car insurance go down with a better credit rating coming.

Answered In The Source Material

I do like talking about the implications of the existence of magic since 1945, but much of the speculation is covered in the source material.

Steve Jackson Games will sell you a pdf of both GURPS: Technomancer and Technomancer: Funny New Guys which you can get up to speed on what's changed and what hasn't since the hellstorm started spinning in Trinity, New Mexico.

For the most part, nothing changed between Merlin and our timeline.

The US winning in Vietnam is a, noted, exception.

The implications of how we did that weren't fully explored or considered by the authors.

Further implications of what magic means to politics were also not explored.

I made the outline of some of those implications with regards to Rhodesia.

Let The Sound Take You Away

Funny New Guys stresses, despite not understanding post-MacNamara designations, the combat use of magic carpets.

A Huey can lug 12 troops over 150 miles at around 100 miles an hour.

A UZ-23 can haul 13 troops an unlimited distance, but the speed tops out at 34 miles an hour.

Something occurred to me about the situation.

What keeps you from rolling up a carpet and tossing it into the Huey?

Get near the target, but far enough away that the distinctive sound of the rotors don't give the operation away and unroll the carpet next to the bird and have everyone step aboard.

It's similar to doing a parachute drop, really.

The carpets, while slower than helicopters, are silent in operation.

It could redefine vertical envelopment.

Then Why Mention It?

HMPV is spreading all around the world!

It cannot be told apart from the common cold and most people never know they had it.

The breathless reporting of, "there is no cure," is the height of why I despise the press.

The common cold has no cure either.

Every day flu has no cure, just a preventative.

This is a headline designed to scare people and it's exactly yelling, "fire!" into a crowded theater.

Platoon Organization 1967

I'm a tanker.  I don't know how the grunts organize themselves.

A late 80's tank company has 14 tanks in three platoons.  4 per platoon plus 2 for the CO and XO.

Plus a five-ton for supply and a couple of humvees.

Vietnam, if I am not mistaken, had 17 tank companies with 5 tanks per platoon.

I have no damn clue about how infantry companies or platoons are arranged, but I found this:

Airmobile Company Org

 

Things that I don't know (I'll bet Willard knows):

With everyone equipped with an M16, what makes the automatic rifleman different from a rifleman?

The movies (no shock) lie to us.

The M60 gunners and their assistant gunners appear to be in different squads from the rest of the platoon.

Are they assigned to a squad ad hoc or what?

I also wonder if the 90mm reckless rifles did much time in the bush in Vietnam.

Let's Welcome DerpyPuter

DerpyPuter used to be one of FuzzyGeff's laptops.

He's upgraded at least once since he bought this one.

I got it for the princely sum of $1.

It's a Clevo W560RZ customized and sold by System 76 as a Gazelle G10.

Just a couple of years newer than the Lenovo T420s I had been using.  Better processors, for one.  Much better screen and wider keyboard with a num pad.

Of course, I need to start modding.

The battery is so dead you can't cast zombie on it.

A bit more RAM is always nice.

Definitely need to get a bigger SSD in there.

But it's happily running Ubuntu 24.04, just like Crispy IV is.

Also: Blogger is STILL fucked for linking pics.

If I Could Talk To The Animals

The Chimera in Technomancer can all speak with animals to one degree or another.

Here's a list.

The rules in The Basic Set don't say exactly how it works and there's no color notes in Technomancer or Funny New Guys.

The question is: Do I speak normally to the animal and they, magically, understand me and then when they reply I, magically, understand them?

OR 

Am I actually speaking their language?

If I am actually speaking some canine language then fox and coyote people can chat without other humans being able understand.

That's the special effect I like, so I think that's how my version of Merlin will be run.