Tag Archives: books

It’s new Jim

That is the setting giving a little homage to Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and he rightfully deserves it. Don’t get me wrong, Karl Urban did a fine job, but I grew up watching the Original cast on TV and lets be clear, Karl was amazing as the little winged Cupid and he was the best judge we have seen in cinema. He looked really like the comic books, but it is not about either characters. There is however some light connection and this story I hand to Avalanche Software. You see, I got to thinking early this morning and I reckoned that backstories make for decent games and whilst we consider series like CSI (which is awesome) the idea of an Auror taking care of business was not greatly shown in Hogwarts Legacy and as such that role needed an update for the second game. But what is a story/vocation when you aren’t vested in the idea? So that’s when I came up with the trials of an Auror. You see, we can all look towards the stages of magic as there is greatness and greatness, but working with limitations is what truly could make a game great. As such we needed to see a magic class that has little magic, not a squib, but perhaps an alchemist derivative, so not magic press, but magically inclined and with additional skills. And as such the Auror Alchemist came to mind. Not a squib, but limited magic with skills. So even as some (namely one) that had the Philosophers stone, but alchemists has a long lineage of magic creatures and this one was driven into a police force as a forensic specialist and as such he was ‘summoned’ to work in Irondale. So this is where the setting starts.

Consider the CSI games and they were fun, but it is settled around statical settings. So what happens when the game is drenched in Hogwarts Legacy (to give it a name) and you need to look at the settings of crimes with a magical aspect and often it needs to be surrounded by muggle settings. As such it becomes a two tiered game. Consider like the crime scenes in Arkham Knight, but not that high tech, the setting however could be used and it needs to be set in both ‘muggle’ and magic challenges, because the evidence needs to ‘satisfy’ common folk (as in non-magical hardworking people) and that is the challenge for Avalanche. I consider the feeling I had with the scene of Potter/Dumbledore finding Slughorn in Budleigh Babberton (yes, I know, it is not a real town). But that setting inspired the idea and it needs to be a serious piece of entertainment. As such the groundwork needs to be done and all kinds of Lore would need to get created and perhaps this would be up to team Avalanche/Rowling. I have no idea how that setting is or works. But I am merely trying to dot the “iiiiii’s” So when the mechanics are given the proper considerations (I used the Batman as a setting, which might work) but there is no high tech, there is a ‘predator’ setting of the room with scents, different looks and a splatter view of substances you see and so on. Like a magical renaissance view of Batman crossed with what a snake might see (they have infrared vision) and link that with a cat and you get a whole new world. Optional these views are evolution views that the Auror could grow/embed. 

And there needs to be decent cases, which is up to Avalanche software to figure out. Can’t expect me to do it all. But I believe that the Wizarding world fans are numerous, so numerous that they will grow that side into a talking about this setting and this optional game (optionally rejected by Avalanche software) to consider. And as this is a Wizarding world setting is is (as I personally see it) the idea is now also co-owned by JK Rowling. 

So, consider the implications of it all, the idea of getting a magic/muggle stage and how to combine that? I think that Arkham Knight had the right setting (and amazing job by Rocksteady Studios) and we cannot tweak it, but we can set this stage in a similar fashion, more renaissance, less high tech and there are also red herrings (not the fish), because when can we see a muggle stage? It might be a more advanced case later in the game. 

As such I feel I have spend my day creatively and it beats looking at the lies from politicians in a stage we massively don’t care about. Personally I think that this could be its own game (or at least should be) whilst parts of this could be transferred (more transformed) into Hogwarts Legacy 2 (if this fits whatever story line Avalanche is considering.

As they say another day, another dollar (in my case, my issues should then be solved by February 10,415 (almost 2 centuries after Paul Atreides is born).  You all have a good one today. My Monday is nearly over and I see now on YouTube that the TIFF is running (Toronto International Film Festival), and rumor has it that Sebastian Stan will be seen there with both arms intact (can someone confirm this please?)

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A literary question

That is what I saw this morning. Ekathimirini (at https://www.ekathimerini.com/culture/1314309/how-do-you-teach-the-odyssey-to-a-12-year-old/) gave us an interesting question. ‘How do you teach ‘The Odyssey’ to a 12-year-old?’and I have an optionally better one. Where is the literature for the young? I am not talking about children’s books, but the need to keep the young at the edge of their seats and knowledge has been largely abandoned. I actually touched on the subject 1-2 years ago when I wrote my first film script, it was called ‘How to assassinate a politician’ and I considered down the track that it was too long and gave it the alternative title ‘Essay’ I offered it to the Dubai Media Corporation who was not interested (fair enough). The story is set in the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia (Dammam) and I touched on the setting of children’s literature, although I wasn’t doing it aware or intentional. The setting was a film script and that was what is was. It was my first film script. There is plenty of literature for the young. The two most famous writers are JRR Tolkien (the Hobbit) and JK Rowling about a boy with his scar (aka Harry Potter) and now a new generation will get that influx of near perfection in the upcoming HBO TV series. There are others, the Netherlands has Anne de Vries ‘Journey through the night’ and Jan Terlouw with Oorlogswinter (Winter in Wartime), but there are the ‘classics’ from Hector Malot who wrote Nobody’s Boy in 1878. There is a gap and it needs to be filled fast. There are new writers and Rowling might be the most famous one, but she is not alone, still the harvest on literature for the young is meek, very meek. So, as I saw the article, I kinda rejoiced, because that might be the start of a new generation of literature for the young. 

As we see “When, in 2018, BBC Culture asked 108 writers, academics, critics, journalists and translators from 35 countries to choose the stories that shaped the world, Homer’s Odyssey came in first place. Among the reasons cited by participants were the power of a story full of gods and monsters, its influence on the narratives that followed, but also the questions the work still raises about heroism, war and homecoming. Almost three millennia after it was written, The Odyssey continues to be read, adapted and giving birth to new narratives.” And the larger issue is shown with ““When the Odyssey is taught in the classroom, it often loses its narrative momentum. It is broken up into small fragments, interrupted by constant questions and loaded with terms, figures of speech and ‘correct’ interpretations,” says Dr Christos Tsagalis, professor of Ancient Greek Literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, who has been studying Homeric poetry for years. “Thus, the child stops wondering what will happen next and starts wondering what he needs to memorize.”” And the next issue pops up with ‘Did they watch the movie, or actually read the story? Pops up in me. As for Harry Potter, I might be one of the few people who saw the movie before reading the book. I was attending a showing of Sleepy Hollow in Stockholm when I was given a teaser. I heard the words “There is no such thing as magic!” and the entire audience went insane. That was my introduction to Harry Potter and after seeing the movie I read the first novel. Thinking  “Kids read this?” I had heard of Harry Potter, I have friends and they have kids. So the name was familiar, but nothing more than that. So as we now see ““I would put the narrative at the center, not the quiz tests,” answers Tsagalis. “The students would first learn the entire course of the journey through a short, well-crafted narrative map and then delve into selected episodes. I would combine reading aloud, dramatization, journey mapping, creative writing and discussion about hospitality, loss, the desire to return and the responsibility of one’s choices.” By the end of the school year, “every child should have read the prologue, basic parts of Telemachy, Calypso and Nausicaa, the Cyclops, Circe, Nekyia, the Sirens, Penelope’s recognition of Odysseus, the slaying of the suitors, and the final reconciliation,” he continues. More than memorizing individual episodes, it is more important to have the overall picture. “Most importantly, being able to understand the coherence of the story and being able to narrate how suffering transforms people.”” I am willing to go with Rowling and Tolkien as storytellers. There is even the idea of other writers having a firm grasp of these settings, but Homer was largely meant to be orated in the Theater of Epidaurus (or something likewise) and the world moved on (not in a good way), don’t get me wrong, the world needs its share of mindless drones and they can get their jollies filled with writings from ChatGPT. But if we are to protect the next generations of leaders and insightful people, we will need to create literature for you young and someone needs to take over from JK Rowling. And If you want to stay in the greek phase, we have Rick Riordan and the Burton fans could look towards Ransom Riggs who wrote an entire chain of books starting with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. But the settings of Hector Malot and likeminded people is seemingly lost and that could be resolved by todays writers. Creativity is key in all this (which is why ChatGPT will never be a solution) and it was never my cup of tea, I have my own style, but what style appeases the youthful reader? 

It is a question that is meant to be resolved by actually smart people (which leaves me out of that equation). I believe that writing or narrating Homer for the Young is a path that is worthy of exploiting for some, but so are the writings of Aurelius and Virgil if we want to steer clear of Greek writings. There are plenty of writings to be found all over Europe and that is also the curse. You see, Hollywood changed the bulk of those seeking funding and there is no criticism here from me, those were the times that brought the books to the audience. But the original works suffered through them and they need to be rediscovered and as I see it, the path of literature for the young might be a worthy new path to take to reintroduce these original writings. But what is the best path? I am not the one to tell anyone what the best path is, there is no best path, I think there is only a most complete path the align to. Because writings and opinions are two of the most versatile settings anyone will ever seen. And I think that Clint Eastwood had that one right (or his scriptwriter) “Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one” but we can agree that there is a more or mostly complete path to introducing literature to the young and that could also be done through new and original IP (taking ChatGPT out of that equation). 

The best path out there and someone will find it or write about it. I don’t feel that I am wise enough to be the one to do that. But the question remains and it is a good one “How do you teach ‘The Odyssey’ to a 12-year-old?”, I merely appreciate ‘How to create literature for the young’ a little more, Homer was yesterday (actually it was 1,032,196 yesterdays ago), we can and should keep these works in the highest regard, but we also need todays literature to appease the young and that takes creativity and a writer that is a little more today, unlike Homer, Aurelius, and a few others. So the question that Ekathimirini voices is pretty true, but there is more and that needs to be addressed too, preferably before most of our youth has become too stupid to care. 

It is merely a question to voice, but that is how I see it. Have a great day.

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Mirror, mirror

So, here I was thinking of a few historically documented events (they are called movies now), so in  1937 a man named Walt gave us the recollections of a girl who used to live with several  individuals, namely Warwick David, Peter Dinklage, Kenny Baker, Mike Edmonds, Malcolm Dixon, George Claydon and David Rappaport. They all worked in the mining industry. But then I saw this so called ‘evil person’ with a magic mirror and then I saw it, that bitch was a Technomage. She was using a magic mirror (aka raspberry pie fitted two way mirror) to set the stage. What an evil wench. Well, two can play that game and as the idea took hold of me, I starting to consider.

So what if a new place like Warner Brothers Abu Dhabi had this gimmick, a mirror that is also a communicator. It links to your mobile and allows two way communication with whomever you are talking to. The idea is to apply a filter (through the app) that gives it that magical shine. And taking the elements of Hogwarts, there are 4 options. Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Gryffindor, the all have the same filters except two, these are house driven. A smoky filter (Yellow, Blue, Green and Red) and now, as we are now 89 years later, we have basically mastered miniaturization and we can make it a lot smaller. I would argue that each house has two options, the mirror you can set on your desk and a smaller one that you can fit in a bag, and when you answer the call, the mobile sends it to the mirror. I would argue that you could have 4 buttons on the mirror so you can call your 4 best friends, optionally these buttons are on the frame, so that the buttons can be a little bigger and the 5th on the mirror initializes the call. Wouldn’t that gimmick (original ‘creator’ the evil bitch from Walt’s company) fit nicely in the arsenal of merchandise that could be created and there are a few months before the new TV series start and I reckoned that the Abu Dhabi park opens up either in that same time, but the article tells us that this part of WB will open I 2029, as such Miral (the operator in Abu Dhabi) has time to look at the the options to create this merchandise for real and create alternatives. Or, at least investigate whether this idea could be made real. And from there they could offer it to the Wizarding World for real. A small idea to hand to Miral is that the United States is almost out of cash, so handing them credit might not be the best idea. 

Well that is it for me and this idea came out of the yellow (I’m a Hufflepuffer). In other news Blooloop confirmed two days ago “Warner Bros. has confirmed that the Harry Potter area in its Abu Dhabi theme park will be the only one in the world to feature recreations of the iconic Hogwarts Castle and Diagon Alley locations, as well as a Forbidden Forest.

We got last week (1st September) when Warner Bros. released a teaser video for the expansion at its annual ‘Back to Hogwarts’ event.” The video can be seen (at https://blooloop.com/news/harry-potter-abu-dhabi-lands) so at present you know as much as I do, apart from the innovative ideas that are forming in my mind to upgrade the mirror setting. Oh, as we are also given (by Blooloop)“Currently, the only theme park home to a recreation of Diagon Alley is Universal Studios Florida. A scale model of Hogwarts is found in the neighbouring Islands of Adventure, and although it is connected to Universal Studios Florida by a replica of the Hogwarts Express train, it is a completely separate park.

So that’s it for today and I need to think of another filter to make the mirror ‘more’ magical and why stop at 2? The idea to insert the house crest in your communication is also an idea and there is more. The idea to link the apps that you have to the mirror when you are not communicating, as such whatever app is on your mobile (like accio dobby) or whatever the app world has to offer now, just thinking out of the box.

Have a great day today.

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Where gods are left for dead

Yes, story time. This came to mind after I saw the movie conclave, which was a lot more worth its time when you think back on the movie than whilst you see it. The setting of cardinals (not the football players) is a lot more worthy then you think it is (If you never saw the movie) and you don’t need to be a religious fanatic to appreciate the movie. And after seeing the movie (I also checked if it was actually fixed in the Vatican, which it was not) the setting was pretty overwhelming. I also saw some 4K touristy movies on the walkthrough on the sisteen chapel (with roof view) and these sights gave me the setting of what comes. You should never waste the imagination of grey cells. Ask Ryan Gosling, he went to the Tau Ceti system after all (a massively good movie) so there is plenty of immersion and excitement to go around. I wanted to bitchslap Sundar Pichai at first through a public service announcement, but at present my new Google Pixel 11, decided to behave. As such I don’t have the screenshot to make Sundar shiver with fear. But that will come, don’t you worry.

So story time. Lets get cozy.

It was a warm day and I was looking over a silo that was kind next to the Via dei Servi where the Leonardo Interactive Museum was. And it was not that what had me bothered. You see, the attic had a smaller attic the held a map that I wanted very badly. As I saw it, it was a forgotten gem of Italian maps, a foundational map that was somehow forgotten in all the chaos of yesterday and it had some of the most ghastly of settings. So as I walked on the roof of a building, there was nothing to be heard and it needed to remain silent, because the smallest noise and too many people would start to look and that would never went my way. There were too many sides that could spot me. So as I went from roof to roof, I was now only one roof away from the Leonardo Interactive Museum. I studied the roof and aw that one place that was off. it was not driven into smoothness. That must have been the place. I studied the roof pats and there it was, I compared it to the movie I had made from the inside and the windows showed exactly where it was, there was a small additional space and the terracotta pans looked older there. So o got to that point and slowly started to move the pans, first I nailed a hemp sheet with wax layer to part of the roof, then I removed the wax cover, so that I could place the tiles and they wouldn’t accidentally slip and fall. The wax was a simple bee wax, there was no way it could be traced. Then I drilled a small hole in the roof and let a small wire down. I looked, it was black as night, the infrared option showed me some kind of dusty room completely dark. The sight was energizing, because this means that the story was seemingly true. I saw a few benches and they looked wooden. I looked at the roof again and measured the 4 by 5 pans I had to move and I started. I moved the rest of the 20 tiles onto the hero sheet and it took me the better part of 5 minutes to do this, I tested the hemp sheet and it all looked sturdy. I then got a small portable gypsum saw and I worked the first thin wooden beam. That went smoothly, these wooden beams were dry as fuck, the gypsum saw made short work of it and when the lower side was done the first beam was done, 10 more minutes and the other 5 bemas were cut I folded the wax sheet over the pans and placed the beams on that. It all looked unmovable, I then placed a small net over it all and fastened it to the roof, just in case a wind should blow. I then lowered my backpack and slingback to a wire fastened to the roof and in I went. 

The room was pitch dark, which might have explained why no one thought of looking there. My daylight goggles showed nothing out of place, merely centuries of dust and there was plenty to be had. I got a canister of air from the backpack and cleaned the wooden bench. It looked immensely old. It should fetch a decent euro if it was ever actioned. I moved to the side to see and old map archive and opened it. It had loads of maps and I liked through them. Then I saw the maps I needed and I took images of them all before moving them. There was no such thing a bad luck and I carefully folded them all in a roll and placed them in my pvc canister and they fitted well, I had taken a canister two inches bigger then I needed and I rolled the entire collection up. The other drawers were mostly empty with nothing much in the way of art. Then the lower drawer had even more maps and even a parchment or two. I had not counted on that, but I had brought more canisters and they weight next to nothing and now it turned out that they were a godsend (an applicable label for this) and as I completed the setting I went back outside. Whilst first applying thick double sided take to the open hole so it could carry the weight of the ceiling beams. I might have used to much of that, but better be safe than sorry. Then I placed the thin beams back to their original place I then applied thick wack over the beams and especially the places where they were cut so that water wouldn’t find entrance there, I then placed a plastic sheet over that and applied more wax. Then I place back the pans and the roof looked almost what it looked like and I vacated the area, putting the hemp and net in a plastic bag. Leaving nothing behind and whilst I retraced my original steps I took extra tie to see if my location was not observed. 25 minutes later I was back where I started and it was only a block way from a block from a large garbage bin and dropped the waste. I felt good whilst I walked back to the car and drove back to Rome where the jackpot was, It was a mere 274km and almost 3 hours drive, but I was energized with the findings I photographed. In the end it took me 215 minutes to get back to my garage and whilst I looked like a slightly mature art student, I walked back to my apartment, where a table and a well deserved espresso machine would make me my cappuccino.

As I looked at the art and maps I was taken aback, the art was old, really old and whilst some might take it at face value, I recognised the work of the artist, but not the drawings. The autograph told me these drawings were from Andrea del Verrocchio. This is quite the find and I carefully stored them. 5 drawings with charcoal would easily be worth over a million euro’s each. That was a decent price for a week of sneaking. But it was not the price, so as I had away the goods I returned to the table. These maps had to be identified and the drawings were immensely old early 14th century and several had a coat of arms, which I didn’t recognise.

As I understood it, there were rooms far below the sisteen chapel and there was no way in or out, not anymore, but there was one option, it was an old sewer system, it only grazed that location and grazing was enough for me. I understood the assignment and it would be one hell of a trip, I set out to get the equipment I needed, first there was a gfasprrof suit, because these sewers were loaded with germs of all kinds gong pac to plague ridden Italy, then there was the rat repellent, these buggers bit into anything, then the hardware for drilling and cutting and there was a good chance that one trip was not enough, but it hd to be done in one go, because something like this will alert every institution in the world and I could not leave traces, not anything. So first a scouting party to where the entrance lies. The I thought of another option and I looked at the map again. This might be possible, but scouting was essential and for that I needed to visit a hobby shop. A drone ship was required, a remade version of the LCVP (aka Higgins boat) with a small addendum, adding snow tracks below the boat would let it move where there was no liquid and as he worked out the dynamics of it all the design formed in his brain. He got his 10 inch boat and added the tracks, he then added 4 power banks which would let it go a much longer way and he attacked a encrypted camera and added the observational settings in his little van. There were even provisions to let it submerge completely in case there were sunk settings of the sewer. Two days later he had the contraption he needed and as he studied the map, he realised that in every nation governments were seemingly lazy and an opening might be found in the Viale Vaticano. So he looked into an old CCTV setting, because these old systems were designed to detect faults, He needed none of the, merely to see it intersecting was possible and whilst he could not go there, his mini Higgins could see where he could enter. So whilst he parked his van on the Viale Vaticano, he had adjusted the van to drop stilts behind every wheel to support this van on the ground because a moving and shaking van would still attract all the wrong attention. As such he get into first gear and launched the Higgins through an open grate and close it immediately after that and as he did this at 03:00, he remained unseen.

End of part one

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A badger by another name

This is the setting and I just dreamt it up. Whether it was because I recently rewatched the 3 fantastic beasts movies (which I think it was) or as I had played Hogwarts Legacy, anyones guess is good enough. So as these elements united in my brain, it went to create a 4th Fantastic beasts movie. As such the title is Tea Bee Dee (To be determined) and no matter what or who gets involved, this IP is now property of JK Rowling. She made up the Wizarding World, she decides what happens. I cannot control what my brain conceives, but I can make sure that the people behind this become owner of this IP. That is just how I roll and I created enough unique IP to do this. 

Central Park
Jacob Kowalski was walking with his wife Queenie on the arm, it was a summer afternoon and they were enjoying the warm weather and the soft smell of grass in New York. Over the years his bakery had done well and even as his students are now in charge of the bakery, he could never resist taking charge and making all the fine trimming a little bit more awesome. The students (all three of them)( had come to expect and respect this. It was a good job and he was a good boss. His wife didn’t interfere and when she came down with a new strudel, it was to be expected that noses would soften at the delightful smell of the pastries she made. So as they were walking as close as they could, summer seemed the very delightful thing they could wish for. In the back there were children laughing over ice cream and there was a small kart handing out ice creams. “You want some darling?” Jacob invited and queenie smiled. She loved vanilla ice cream. They walked over to the vendor and Jacob bought one vanilla for Queenie and a strawberry for himself. He paid and they walked on enjoying ice cream. As they walked on the sky grew darker, queenie became a little rigid, she threw her eyes left and right. Jacob knew that this meant things were about to get serious. He looked at her and she looked around. He pointed at the edge of central park but the shook her head. There were too many people there. Jacob did not know what to do and Queenie took his hand and they ran towards the lake. Suddenly it was there a creature part Tiger, part elephant the tall seems to be of an ox [I later looked this up, it is a Baku].

Queenie used her wand to deflect the creature and whilst she did this, she also looked worried about what would happen next, because this creature was immensely strong. She put the wand towards her head and spoke a word. Jacob couldn’t hear what she said. He merely heard the words “I love you husband” and suddenly a jolt went into Queenie as she went rigid and the world turned dark. 

Magical Congress of the United States of America
Jacob Kowalski was still groggy when he looked at his surroundings. He recognised the place, but he had not been here for a long long time. He looked around and a lady in an elegant dress approached her. Mr Kowalski, My name is Beatrice Bishop, I am the President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America. We called for your sister in law, Iter Praesidentiale Hogsmeade Britanniae Goldstein, we are trying to reach her, but we are currently not aware where she is. Let me be the first to offer my condolences on the loss of your wife a sad setting. Do you know what happened? Jacob gave a rundown what happened and explained that he was not aware. He was confused and a intense sadness overcame him. The loss of Queenie was more than he had ever conceived and it was killing him. 

A man came over to Beatrice and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and excused herself from Jacob for a moment. Sh walked away and the man offered a paper, she liked at it and talked for a minute. She then nodded again and she handed the letter back to the man. She walked back to Jacob. Mr. Kowalski, a friend of yours, two friends have offered their condolences and asked you to come visit them in a place called Hogsmeade. Professor Dumbledore and a band named Newt Scamander. Are you willing to visit them now? Jacob felt a light brush of positivity when he said yes. But Queenie, what about her? Beatrice Bishop stated that nothing will happen until her sister is found and in the meantime he might be better away from it all. She beckoned Jacob to follow him. A man approached them and she waived him away. “This I do myself” she stated and the man stepped back. She took Jacob by the arm and pointed to a large empty fireplace. This is what we call a floo spot. I am not certain if you know it, but we will go to Hogsmeade together. She merely grabbed a handful of sand from a little cauldron attached to the beam of the fireplace and stated clearly “Iter Praesidentiale Hogsmeade Britanniae” and suddenly they were doused in green flames and a second later they arrived at the southern edge of Hogsmeade. She let go of Jacob and walked towards the square. She saw professor Dumbledore and Newt Scamander. She bowed to them both and handed them Jacob. “He doesn’t remember, but I reckon you can deal with that. We are trying to find her sister Porpentina at present. I will let you know when that happens and invite you both as well. Newt and Albus nodded in agreement, she bowed to both man, then turned to Jacob, deeply bowed to him and stated “I regret your loss in this matter, you have my condolences” she turned around and walked back to the floo spot, she grabbed some floo powder she spoke something clearly and vanished. 

Hogsmeade
Newt embraced Jacob. I am so sorry to hear this. Lets get you inside, we are just around the corner of the Hog’s Head Inn. They walked to the Hog’s Head Inn and entered. Aberforth was already waiting and bowed to Jacob. Mr. Kowalski, nice to see you again. I prepared a bed for you upstairs and I am preparing some food. He gave him a glass of giggle water. You’re preferred poison If I remember correctly. Jacob nodded. “Hey don’t forget the beef, it has been on the fire a little too long” Newt and Albus looked at Jacob. Jacob wondered how he knew that. Newt looked at Dumbledore with a puzzled look and them thought as loud as he could. Jacob looked at him and stated I has strawberry ice cream and Queenie had vanilla ice cream. What? What is going on with me?

The Dumbledores and Newt exchanged looks. Aberforth stated, I am empty for now, but he needs special care soon. They agreed. Newt stated to Jacob. It is only for a night, but tomorrow we are taking you to Hogwarts. We need to set a few things in motion first. Jacob nodded and as Albus Dumbledore and Newt left the Hog’s Head Inn, Jacob solemnly tended to the stew handed to him, it came with decent bread with garlic. The sadness radiated from his face.

The end of part one

As my mind can set these situations in seconds I had a lot more, but my arm is tired now. In the next setting they learn that Jacob has received the abilities of Queenie and he seemingly is part man part wizard. They will grant him access to Hogwarts and he is put in Hufflepuff house. It has a separate part that only the head of Hufflepuff and the heady of Hufflepuff have access to. There are barrels inside house Hufflepuff and one of them has a frog chiseled on it, it can only be used in combination with shackles and only the heady and the head of Hufflepuff can access it, no one knows of it. The day after they learn the extent of what queenie did, but not why or what. They learn that after the first part. There is also the setting of a new part of Hufflepuff. It is below house Hufflepuff and has ways directly to the infirmary and the kitchens. That part has its own house elf. It is not a prison, there are no real views, but the room is large and comfortable and the snacks will allow travel to the infirmary and the headmaster room. The shackle is a portly of sorts, with limited abilities and it is put in place magically above the elbow. 

For the most I merely got part done (In a day, so that’s not bad) and we learn that no-one can find Tina and Newt learns that the creature was a Japanese Baku, but these are rare even in Asia, they have no idea how one got to be in New York. As such there is need for Net to go to New York (with Jacob) and whilst job gets more skilled in basic magic, he is adjusting like a fish in water. They go to Olivanders to get a wand and there they learn that he is drawn to Hinoki made wands. Olivander only has two of those and advices that he might be better off with a wand from Mahoutokoro he would have Cherry wood wands but for now the Hindi will have to do. And we learn that Tina was looking into a Japanese thief who stole abilities of wizards and witches though the Baku. As far as It goes, this is as far as I got, perhaps JK Rowling can make more of this. This is her IP now. 

Have a great day all. This was an unexpected travel into my mind, but all travel is cool. So whether she wants to pursue this, use this for Hogwarts Legacy 2 or simply reject this is up to her.

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Intertwinning reminiscence

That happens and for kms it was a blend of a few things as I was watching the fantastic beasts movies in 4k. First of, I came up with the idea for actual giggle waters years ago. I saw it in the first FB movie and I was wondering how to do that (I have no degree in molecular biology) and according to my brain, I solved the solution (to put a pun forward) and I wrote about it in my blog around the time the movie was out. Then I came up with the notion of a printable display and it was regardless of dimensions. From there we went on, but I was unsettling to say the least. I was in some IT University, in one building the shape of a cube had at least 7 floors, but the top 5 floors were the issue, they were all used by PHD students, they all had their own mainframe and there were 4 mainframes in every floor, I reckon that several teams per mainframe (it only makes sense) but the floors were the conundrum, I drew the floor below.

I reckon there was some artistic reason for that, optionally it was to make sure that every floor had decent air-conditioning, but the setting was the space, these were roughly 7 by 7 meter floors the floors had open spaces in the floor and there were two winding staircases per floor, they went all the way to the ground floor, I reckon that every floor has a door getting to elevators, but I do not recall them, it is the only reason these triangles in the corner make sense, but there were no railing and no visible bridges to the triangle parts. I have no idea, but there was one server that had a large decal of the crest of Hufflepuff on its side. I reckon that this was intentional. I remember looking for something on that server, but it was vague and I cannot recall what I saw. The shape of the room is all I can recall, So I am trying to get back to the reminiscence part of the story. There was the giggle water and the printable display. There was something else, It was a third thing I came up with and it was not linked to the Harry Potter movies, it was linked to the books. You see, several years ago, I came up with an advertising idea for places like Monaco, a setting you can watch through glasses and mobiles, but the idea was done through QCodes. The idea was to have a QCode in a jewelry shop and the mobile would show you that ring or bracelet and when you put your hand under the lens, the phone would combine the two and voila, there was an image of that ring on your hand. As I saw it, it had great appeal to the tourists and as there was no interactions with the actual ring (or bracelet) there was no need for actual security on alert and when this is done once a month (or week) the push for advertising goes away as there will be scores of influencers doing the advertising for you, so if there are 200 million content creators and 68% is female (I think we can go to a naughty 69%) this gives the world 138 million advertisers and when in Monaco, everyone becomes an advertiser. As such I saw the setting that we could either pay for advertising or let the influencers do it for us and that is why I came up with the idea. Actually the origin of that idea came to me for public interest advertisement settings. When I thought about the malls (I used the Eaton centre as an example) the idea could be stretched to a newer level and I came up with some additional materials, but now we get back to the concept. What if the QCode gives us a flippable image of 3-5 pages of a book? And the publisher has that in control, they decide what pages are used and the people who scan that code suddenly have direct access to those 3-5 pages and if it is stored in a central server, the codes will only unlock that book and these pages for a certain amount of time, decided by the publisher. I know it is not fool proof, but it is merely 3-5 pages and when did you last see meaningful advertising in (or around) a bookstore? That was the idea that was bugging me, the idea is sound and it has a few connecting ideas next to all this, because the stage was created (during Covid) that the malls are empty and even now, malls do not have the pressing population it used to have, as such the need for stronger interaction remains and only engagement will push people back into malls. And yes, there might be plenty of wannabe influencers there too, but does it hurt to hand them the goods to make something of themselves? Let the people do the walking for you and as that drives down the cost of advertising there is a larger need. So whilst I gave the world a solution based in Monaco, the idea would be easily transferable to Los Angeles, New York or London as such I felt that my idea had real potential and for some reason it came back to me and ‘haunted’ me in my sleep. I am merely puzzled with the building I saw, it actually ‘haunted’ me and I have no idea why. So whilst my mind set a larger stage around it, I merely wonder why I had those thoughts. 

Well, that’s it for me for now, Ill be back in around 15-20 hours for more. Have a great day

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Flame on

That is the setting I saw a few days ago, for the most I ignored it for obvious reasons and I will get to that. But ‘suddenly’ the non-book readers are in a bind, someone is destroying books and Anthropic is pointed at as the guilty party. So here is the first thing. When you acquire a book, it is your property and it is up it you what you do with it. Anthropic bought millions of books, they cut of the back of the book and then scanned the book, after which they destroyed the book they had acquired. So far so good and it leaves me with a few questions. And whilst the (so called) book lovers go for the Fahrenheit 451 scenario, the people who oppose AI are in a fritz. I have different questions. 

  1. Is an owner allowed to set a book to digital format?
  2. How rare is the book?

The second question is linked to the rarity of the work. We can assume that hell breaks open if Anthropic does this to the Magna Carta (1215) or the Gutenberg bible (1454), but how many will cry havoc if someone does this to Joop ter Heul (1889) or a famous five book (1942) or even a Harry Potter (1997) book? There is a setting that the editor is responsible for keeping the book available and if they do not, it is what there is left. And when this happens it means no one is interested in that book. The first question is linked to the rights set in the settings of copyrights. Can a book be replicated digitally? And if so, what is the problem? 

So here comes the article (at https://mashable.com/tech/anthropic-ai-book-training-destroy) in Mashable with the headline ‘AI companies keep destroying old books. Here’s why.’ And as I see it there is so much white noise in all this, that the bottom question is ignored. Does Anthropic have the right to replicate a work into digital format, if so, what is everyone crying about? If they are not allowed to do that, the law is broken, but merely in the digital setting. It is still their book and they could shred it for all they cared for. It is the cold reality of commerce taken legally out of context. And you all know this (especially the previous generation). How many have recorded an album to tapes? I know I have. I prefer the actual CD, but before 1980 I had no income and for the most no music. So when we see this setting, how many have copied a book? (I admit I have copied a few manuals in that past) but that went away when Borland released its products with manuals and it felt really good to have Turbo C with a manual and all for $249. But that was then and now we do not see ‘value’ in books and it is often rejected with the Fahrenheit 451 label, but the reality is there. This leads me to a simple question. Ask yourself, how often have you been to a library in the last month? That should give you the part you need to know, so whilst the article gives us “AI companies looking to build better AI models are hungry for fresh data from any source that isn’t the internet. Books — generally better edited and more cogent than your average Reddit thread — make AI sound smart. (There’s a premium on books published before 2022, ironically because we can’t be sure if books were written by AI after that date.)” as well as ““legally-binding nondisclosure agreement” that would hide an AI company client’s “identity and strategy.” Why? ISBNdb explained: “Destroying millions of books evokes images of burning libraries … the optics problem is real. ‘AI company destroys two million books’ is not a headline that generates sympathy.”” But in all this, are they breaking any law? If that is not the case, why get fussy about it? For the sold book is revenue for the writer and the publishing house, so the issue remains, is there permission to reset a book to a digital format? Because that hurts the writer and the publishing house in their pocket and lets be clear. Writing is a commercial enterprise. In doubt ask JK Rowling. Apparently “She earns an estimated $60 million to $80 million per year from book royalties and digital sales alone, with total worldwide sales for the Harry Potter series surpassing 600 million copies and grossing over $7.7 billion globally” giving us a clear view that she made more than the writers of the bible, which is said to be “a collection of 66 books written by about 40 different human authors over a span of roughly 1,500 years” and I leave you to wonder how many of those 40 writers ended their lives in the poor house (just to make a point).

And then we get to the part that (kinda) impacted me “But Anthropic was caught, and has admitted to using millions of pirated books to train Claude. That class action lawsuit, in which a record $1.5 billion copyright settlement was just approved, also revealed the scale of Anthropic’s physical book-destruction operation. Anthropic “became convinced that using books was the most cost-effective means to achieve a world-class LLM,” wrote U.S. District Judge William Alsup in a lengthy legal order dated June 2025. The company was “not so gung-ho” about using pirated material from 2024 onwards, to quote a memorable internal email in evidence, but still wanted to train Claude on “all the books in the world.”” As such, as I did write over 4000 literary (an exaggeration to be sure) works. Not the number, I am now at 4100 articles, so where is my money ($5M post taxation would be decently nice and highly appreciated) and there is clear view of the transgression, no one reads 1700 stories in an hour, it just doesn’t go well for the brains (not even my brain and I wrote the stuff) But the issue remains, and there is no clear setting. Is there ‘policing’ on the scanned works? Is there a copyright issue? Because that matters. If that issue does not exist, why are we crying over a book no one has read in years, optionally not read in decades?

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

So have a great day and feel free to dream about burning all the books you have to keep warm today, or even warm up your mother in law to 451F. 

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One is done

That is the setting, I completed one and I almost completed my new script ‘Information Overload’ my new nightmare towards General Joshua M. Rudd (NSA), Anne Keast-Butler (GCHQ) and optionally Nicolas Lerner (DGSE). You try to appease a population of millions, but what are the chances? So if I merely get three people on board of this nightmare, I will have filled my quota of scared bunnies. The rest of the population of those nations will follow soon enough. The media takes care of that and it is nice to use the media to fruitfully adhere to my needs. They tend to be debatable at best, but we have to start somewhere and when the NSA gets nervous, my guess is that Alexey Alexeevich Rarenko (Center16, FSB) might get twitchy too, which gets me an additional 144,998,000 (they allegedly lost 1000 Russians last night) optional interested parties. We start small and we enlarge that population through traction as we get along. But this time it is about me (my favourite subject, all the way from the township of ‘Whogivesafuck’ population: 1).

But in all this I learned a few things. No matter how Final Draft is ‘meant’ for Hollywood and scriptwriters. It has a few kinks in all this. So as I write ‘my’ script, I tend to do this in Pages. But there are two issues, when I past it into beatbox all is fine and when I try too paste it into the FD editor, things go weirdly wrong. Even when trying to adjust to FD, it seems like hidden codes make a mess of it all, in case of this script and the other one ‘How to assassinate a politician’ which got the secondary title ‘Essay’ things are different. These are relatively small. One of the scripts surpasses 50,000 words and there are three more and that is where things get dicey. 

As such I kept all the mails Final Draft sent me from the beginning, so it might be there, but at present I cannot find it. As such Final Draft might want to spend a day or two making a white paper on “From Word/Pages to Final Draft’’ as far as I could tell it isn’t there (or I missed it) So I am a little lost at present, but soon I have no other option to either type it all or make the Pages version look like it is Final Draft, a slight horrible setting. Don’t get my wrong, Final Draft is seemingly excellent. The first script went almost without a hitch, so in any way I don’t blame them, and as the pages texts go into Beatbox, I am getting the stuff across, but getting from Beatbox the text formatted into FD is slightly beyond a pain (irritating, aggravating and frustrating as well).

So I am in a little bit of a binding setting. So next on the list is dig through over 230 emails I have from Final Draft, perhaps there is a solution there. I reckon that a lot could be fixed if you could go (in the editor) in some kind of code view and delete the separate codes you see there. I reckon it should be there, because Word gives the users the most garbage codes out there, so I reckon that Final Draft has solved this option, but I didn’t find it (yet).

So whilst I have a small victory with yet another script done, there is that larger setting of the other scripts, because ‘Information overload’ is not a full movie, a short movie at best, as such reason for coffee and cakes, but only when the other three are converted the brandy and ice creams come out.

Have a great day all

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Setting the game

This is a mere fraction of what is to come (optionally not all revealed here) and it drove my idea. The ending is also known to me, but it is too sweet a setting and the gamers would get to see this instance, there is no question whether they make it, you see, for many gamers it is about the journey and I believe that this journey is worth taking (a designer always thinks that). So whilst some are dissing others for not enough challenge, people like Bethesda saw what actually mattered, not what some drove for adrenaline rushes are at times great, but there are enough games to do that. And in all this Metroid Prime served the real gamers. Puzzles that mattered, challenges that were met and amazement along the way. That was where I found myself. In all this I added two or three additional settings, but this for now is merely a story.

At this point you are thrust into the sewers of Baghdad and in filthy rags you are trust into the near darkness of the sewers. In this you get to loo around and you see a stave, unremarkable, but still glowing. As it is, it is a stave of Yew, it seems to bend a little and was a mere 18 inches long, but it was better than nothing. In the sewers you face rats and a few exits, but the guards will not let you out, you are a beggar and the streets do not need beggars. There is however other entrances thorough the sewers, some are hidden from view, but only one is open, dark and making you retreat in fear (an intentional setting), so as you go through the sewers you face rats and every rat you kill gives you +1 mana, and you need to kill 100 in total, the sewers have hidden pockets of 20 rats, so it is not a steeple chase, and as you kill 100 you gain a health segment, at this point, you get automatic healing, and some puddles glow orange. When you put the stave in your health segment loads up fast and when you have this added health your attack becomes +5. So whilst you you get more rats killed (another 200) you can get a second segment and now the fist cave does not seem so scary and is a little less dark. This is the first Cave of Prophesy. In this place you will find the Jinniya of fireless smoke. You will face her and whilst she is smoke she cannot be hit, but with your +5 attack, you can harm her when you successfully hit her. It takes 50 hits. So when you defeat her you get the next setting

This is also a setting, on the wall is one place that shows the Northstar, if you want to that point you are shown to be good, all others are dark settings, it does not impede you or set you, but the light path becomes less optional in the story. Then a door appears and behind that door is clothing of a citizen, a ring and a runic stone. The stone is a smoke stone, the clothes are of a decent civilian, you are no longer a beggar and are is the second setting, you have to go through a gate you did not pass through to be let through, or you have to go through as smoke (if there is not longer any non-visited gates available) After you get through the gates you are officially a citizen. Ad not you can see that part of Baghdad. As I see it now, there are 4 exits and they are all the same with optional quests in all of them, these parts of Bagdad lead to other 4 parts who have a special place in them (like palaces and fortresses). And as you make ways into the segments you are awarded mana points (no matter whether the acts are good or bad) and the good acts give you renown, the bad acts infamy. This is the first setting towards the end goal. After you do 5 good or 5 bad things, the other option disappears. 

As such you get to find issues in Baghdad, resolve them and find mana pools, as you find new solutions, you gain more mana, so after one renown/infamy point, the mana pools become +2 stronger and you get to see more colored options. 

So this is what I found yesterday. A small step for me, a giant leap for gamers and the UAE (I think I borrowed that expression from somewhere) I think the moon spoke to me. Well, should you wonder why Microsoft cannot come with anything else then iterated repeats of what already exists, Sony, Nintendo and I feel the same way and hopefully soon a new player (gossip: It is the UAE) will show Microsoft why they never should have bothered with gaming anyway, it costed them $100 billion and they seemingly have very little to show for it. 

So you all have a great day today.

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Story time

This is what happens and after I saw all the BS (as I see it) hits the internet. I had a little enough of this. So whilst we are given ‘Bubble talk is ‘blasphemy’, says SoftBank CEO’ with the quote “SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son does not want to hear any faint-hearted negativity about AI.” So, how about calling something AI that is nothing of the sort? Is that not blasphemy? Ai is more than a decade away. After that I saw a few more articles and I kinda shutdown, but if you want stories I can give you one. This one is for ADTV (or its parent Abu Dhabi Media), the story plays for the larger part in Abu Dhabi, but to be honest, it started in Accra (around 1104). So before you start reading, this is a story, it is not real.

In May 1104, the crusades pillaged the city of Accra, over 4000 muslims died in that event, even though they offered to surrender, allowing residents to leave peacefully or stay under Crusader rule. However, the Genoese violated these terms and pillaged the place. This got the attention of a man called the Black King, his real name was Al-Malik Al-Aswad and he took offense to the Crusaders being on Arabian lands. There were scuffles, but in November of that year, the Crusaders set a trap, they wanted this infidel and they knew he was strong, but they didn’t know how strong, so a hut was created around a cage, a leaded iron cage. And they wanted, there were two doors, the first was open, the second closed after the crusader who played for bait went through the rear exit and close that door whilst getting out of the hut. As the Black King entered the hut, the first door slammed shut. Here the story becomes a jump. 

What they did not know that the man was an Afreet and without knowing they had the best cage imaginable. The man had no way of eloping from an lead coated iron cage. Lead was used to stop iron bars from rusting and the cage was completely leaded. They knew they had something really evil, because he was not stopped by swords. They took the cage and rode it with to the end of their known world. It was at that end when they heard about a cave, everyone feared this cave. This was the the end of the known world (for them) they were near Muscat in Oman and they left the man in the cave and then caused it to collapse. As they were concerned their job was done. They figured that this man would starve in weeks and they went back towards Accra, they never made it, but that was a different story, the fate of this man was lost in the sands. 

1918
It was the end of WW1, the RAF set up camp in Muscat and in that beginning there were some bomb runs for the newly graduated RAF pilots, they had sopwith Camels (the same the New Zealand air force still operates) and one threw a bomb which fell on collapsed cave and at that point, two of the bindings of the cage were broken. It was the start of his escape. It would take years to get out, but the man was immortal, time never mattered, what he was for now was hungry and thirsty.

1962 
The man had created a strong presence. It was a slow life, but he was dealing with the emerging of Islam all over the Arabic lands and the stage of such a strong christian setting was utterly upsetting to him, he was still careful to act, not out of fear, but he recently escaped ad he did not want to experience a repeat and these people have much stronger weaponry. 

2026
The man had moved and moved over the years. He was now in Abu Dhabi, he spoke the language, he knew the people and after being all over the Arabic nation, he knew where the corrupt, the easily manipulated were and he was growing his influence. Islam had stopped his progress to a much larger degree then he had expected, christians were relatively easy and tourism was awakening all over the Arabic lands. So whilst he was walking a thin slab broke and he sunk in it with one foot, under it was a Cobra, they were rare in the UAE, so he was taken a little by surprise. It attacked, but he was surprised and he lashed out and drained the cobra of its life essence.

It was a slow day, a man was sitting in a floater in the Al Raha River in WaterWorld in Abu Dhabi. He was enjoying his vacation. He was nearly dozing of when he suddenly felt a pulse, something he had not felt in centuries. As such he felt a little anxious. He looked around and saw the stairs out of the water. He quickly left his floater and swam to land, it was a mere 3 meters away. He climbed the stairs and walked back to his cabana to get dressed and return to his hotel. Back at the hotel his mind enlarged itself to feel his surroundings. He felt the usual stage os death around him, the sick, the old and the dying. That was still in place. His mind felt around the direction where the pulse was from. He was feeling something, but he had not felt this in centuries. It was time to find what was happening. 

So this is the first part, more on this soon enough. There is more to come and a small twist on all this. And all that came to me in mere minutes and what comes next already came to me, the setting of death and the facts of what deities go through when they are faced with what they see now. That part is what came to me when I saw Reconstructing the Divine on YouTube. It opens a few doors of creativity in me. 

Have a great day and don’t let creativity hit you in the back of your head. 

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