Battles with Integrity

Vandal Phase II was suppose to happen today. Alas, they actually wanted me to work at work today, and so I have to postpone the completion of Phase II until tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it happen then, along with all of the other things planned for Thursday. I plan to pop over to Pettingel's Book Binders tomorrow to see about hardbinding a copy of Dogs, I'd like to stop at the school Financial Aid office, and I'm meeting a friend for to chat and hang out. Alas, this means that Vandal completion may be delayed, as Stage III can't begin until after Stage II is complete. Still, never fear, as long as I have breath, I will do all that I can to make Vandal a reality.• • •Also of note, Happy Flag Day.• • •One other thing. I'm curious to learn what y'all might know about cheap-as-free web hosting, as I'd really like to host Heart & Sol without having to deal with Tripod, Geocities or their ilk. Comments / Advice appreciated.

~B

[Edited to Add: So, sorry about the delay. Take a look at Marvin and think about how much worse it could be, and how glad you are that it isn't.]

Thanks all for the bindery suggestions. Looks like I'll be hitting Pettingell's on Bancroft shortly after payday with a copy of Dogs in the Vineyard in hand. We'll see how that goes, I'll keep those interested up to date.• • •Happy Birthday steluch, welcome to the dark side.• • •I've been meaning to write up my impressions of Kublacon, but I've not yet taken the time to do so. We'll see if I can get around to that before the memories fade too much.• • •Watched the new Battlestar Galactica episode "Flesh & Blood". I almost wish I'd seen the episode again before I played the Captain of the Geminon Traveler in dancingshaman's LARP, "Wandering Traveler". Not that I would have done a lot differently, I suppose, but it would have been a better fix of the character in my mind.• • •Ok... back to work. Looks like Drunken Fish for lunch today, yummy.• • •Oh... and secret project, about which I will not speak to y'all until it's done? Proceeding apace. ;-)• • •ETA: Today is the anniversary of that dark day when Genseric (and some friends) sacked Rome.

In today's Space Review, Taylor Dinerman's article entitled Low-cost access to orbit: space Marines to the rescue includes the following:

In July 2002, the Marine Corps released a Universal Needs Statement that defined the Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) concept that, if successful, will give the US a “…heretofore unimaginable assault support speed, range, altitude and strategic surprise” capability. SUSTAIN is an RLV that will carry a squad (13 men) into space and land it anywhere on Earth within two hours with, among other requirements, “flexible launch on demand… to any orbital inclination.”

The article goes on to describe how the V-22 tilt-rotor plane is a direct result of Marine lobbying for a VTOL transport mechanism that had better speed and range than a helicopter. It would seem that using a similar timeline, the USMC could in theory, be dropping screaming Marines anywhere on the earth from space by 2045.

Military applications aside, it also opens doors to developement of commercial Reusable Launch Vehichles. Welcome to the future.* * *On an unrelated note, I took a look inside the new Cyberpunk 3rd Edition book yesterday when I visited my FLGS. It was... dissapointing. I think we can all agree that no matter how they are dressed, Barbies are not very cyberpunk. Alas, Babylon. Dear Mike Pondsmith, next time please splurge and hire some original art. It doesn't matter that digital shots of dolls with mirrorshades are practically free. It brings the production values down to close to the same value. Just my opinion, though. Others mileage may vary.

With thanks to Kingdaddy for the original link.