Tag Archives: books

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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Reselling is the art

Is it? Or is the art of reselling the game? And they might sound the same, but they are not exactly the same. Confused? That is not the goal, but it comes with the territory. To get this setting, I have to take you back to last September when I gave you (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/09/09/one-thought-of-many/) ‘One thought of many’ I gave that seeing at least twice more, but that might be one of the first times. You see, I was replaying Black Flag and it got me thinking and for some reason I was thinking of some corny advertisement of a romantic novella setting. I never read them, but in the Netherlands they were famous.

I reckon that every nation has these in their local language, optionally they are translated, but that is a fact I have no idea on. What does matter that this series has appeal with over 2.5 billion female readers. There are also these novella’s for the male, optionally they are pirate, spy, Jetsetter stories. What matter is that there is now a 5 billion target area. And Ubisoft ha the inner track on this. So as I was playing Black Flag and walking through Havana and Nassau the idea hit me. So when you take away the assassin setting and you keep the places the same, and it would be limited to a location (like Havana/Nassau) and optionally other locations in other games and you can only walk in these places and optionally through a Apple Vision Pro/MetaQuest and you don’t read the story, you play and live the story. I reckon that you can have 5 stories per location and optionally the eagle vision shows the people you need to talk to and progress through the story. You could make more of it, but at first we have the storyline and the way to proceed and that is the story. The story is the live played on the places you normally read about. The next step in novella’s and Ubisoft already has the locations. Consider Jerusalem, Florence, Venice, Forli, Rome, Boston, New York City, Havana, Nassau, Kingston, Paris, Versailles, Alexandria, Memphis, Heraklion, Bagdad, Kyoto, Osaka and several more. This needs no creation, Ubisoft already made the locations, made the art. Now you only need the engine to be altered to let the story flow and you can have 5-9 stories per location and even there, there are short cuts. They merely need to use one location to see if it has the appeal. My voice goes towards Rome with stories for the masses regardless of gender. And with DML and a small investment in these novels you can make  several of them, all unique and perhaps with a creation system and it is all additional revenue for Ubisoft. It becomes what matters in a new direction, not what it was meant for, but what else can be done with this and I reckon with the MetaQuest, it becomes a lot more engaging, the nice side is that there is a massive lack of innovation for these devices, so Ubisoft could enjoy a much larger share of that attention. As everything is due to evolution, why not how we read stories? An engaged form of literature, brought to your eyesight. And when in Rome, you could always consider The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses) by Apuleius. From modern, to classic and educational. This is the age of reinventing the idea that already is and Ubisoft has a tremendous advantage here.

Just my idea on how to go next. And whilst Ubisoft get another version of the same in a new coat with a new audience, they might consider even other paths. Paths I never thought of. So this was the third setting that started messing with my mind two days ago. I have not completed that journey and made you aware. 

Have a great day. Still three hours to go until I wish myself a good morning.

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A digital setting

That was always in the works, especially as those so called ‘influencers’ were trying to get traction at the expanse of both Saudi Arabia and the UAE on LinkedIn and YouTube (optionally also on TikTok, but I do not venture there). So as we see the Defense Post (at https://thedefensepost.com/2026/03/25/lig-nex1-palantir-defense-uae/) give us ‘LIG Nex1, Palantir Expand Defense Cooperation in UAE’ which comes with the hidden byline, the image shows a soldier with a Saudi patch, but that might have a different alignment issue. Where we see “The deal was signed at Palantir’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California, with senior executives present, but no details on programs, timelines, or contract value were disclosed. Under the initiative, South Korean firm LIG Nex1 will contribute its experience in integrated air defense and unmanned systems. US-based Palantir will provide data integration and analytics software designed to support defense operations and connect sensors, platforms, and command systems.” And it seems that there are optionally additional settings. The Dutch organisation Trollrensics might be well suited to expand its horizons to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. That firm has had expertise in dealing with the data to ‘unveil’ Russian trolls and give defense abilities to the Ukrainian IT forces. As I see it, it also has seen its shares of Chinese trolls and when comparing Palantir to Trollrensics there is no question that Palantir wins. But taken the price of a seat, I reckon that Trollrensics would be great at prototyping the requirements to unveil these fake influencers. And rolling out Palantir to an organisation is kinda big. Getting a small team onto Trollrensics seems a little easier. As such both nations could be deploying both solutions in the field giving prototyping abilities in almost no time flat and when more is needed in comes Palantir with the the driven questions that have been parsed to some extent, without draining the AI pool of credits (as the saying goes) a simple setting that I was aware of at least. So as we are given that the Dubai mall is empty (according to an influencer on YouTube) we need to realise that this was in the middle of Ramadan. I reckon that most Muslims will avoid the temptations that the Dubai Mall gives the fasting Muslim community. It might be small, but the underlying setting is ‘abused’ by that influencer giving the watcher that the mall was empty for another reason. So as I give the world

The image of Gulf News that the crowds at the Dubai Mall (Dubai) are just fine, remember that you also get loads of information from people who have no idea what they are doing and they are merely in it to get the numbers and their YouTube Subscriber Milestone award, all whilst they have no idea what they are doing to the truth of the matter. 

So, you all have a great day and consider where you are in the larger setting of things.

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Wrecking my brain

That is at times the exercise. It is not one I like, but there are a few settings that have been plaguing me. First there was the setting that someone had ‘an idea’ and they basically repeat the idea I spouted on February 1st (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2026/02/01/sinking-a-dilemma/) where I basically nullified the setting that Iran has with the Strait of Hormuz. No biggie, but the idea ‘now’ belongs to the UAE (as it was on their turf), so today there was some ‘intelligent’ person who started to debunk the idea (nothing wrong with that) but that person goes on on how high the mountains there are. So, what does that have anything to do with that? The nice thing of a tunnel is that it goes UNDER the mountain. And then that person goes on that such a solution will cost $200 billion. So when we consider the setting with the Eurotunnel we get

So, why does it take 16 times more now? I have an issue with that equation. And there are settings that do apply, but to get 2-3 tunnel diggers to do that track a few times might not be that much more, as I see it, the 3 tunnel diggers will work in layers. Top middle and bottom layer. I personally think that is it and it doesn’t require much more (perhaps it does and I lack the knowledge of this) and I admit that it might take 5 layers, but at least I am trying to find solutions. The track I had in mind might need a little adjustment, but beyond that I think the idea is sound and now that Iran is blocking the straight of Hormuz, the idea becomes a lot more pressing. So this was the first setting for me. 

Then I suddenly got an idea in the digital realm. You see in the 70’s there were these books, I believe that Esso or Shell released them. These books had pages with fields, tennis courts and a few other sports. You placed a transparent rubber sticker on the page and the rubber would keep it in place. There were all kinds of balls, arrows and lines to add to this and the result was a goal or point setting. They covered field hockey, football, tennis, and several other sports. I had such a book and we were all trying to make the most elaborate and stunning goals that the sport could have. Now we have digital options. But consider this. Like a Flash setting. We have a starting position with the figurine and the end position of that person. And now over that line we can animate (and morph) the player so that the animation is smooth. All this already exists. The ball will go through a similar track (via the line) but no morphing is required. Consider this to be a ‘vanilla’ person and as we select the team the outfit is made to match. What would be new is the option to attach commentary, so you become the sports commentator. And in that setting we now have a digital version of this and consider all these kids no longer on social media. So we will create new places, not social media, where they can share these idea’s and sports consider that we can use all the summer sports and all the winter sports. As the library of actions is increased there will be the option of all these animations to be completed and as such we get an entirely new setting for youthful players and the not so youthful ones who are into sports will also revere the opportunity given here. It would be something like Macromedia Director and it will be more polished as it is limited to sports and based on morphing figurines, timeline and sport items. The commentary is a new feature that we never had before, as such there is plenty of IP in here, because the old ideas are based on non-digital sources. And there is plenty of adjusted sports that could be added (like polo) waterpolo existed if I remember correctly, but there are plenty of games that never made that setting, as such they could be added, because the engine that drives it would be the same. Some people try to come up with something no one has ever seen before, I look behind me and see what others have forgotten and it could be made malleable in the new age, on new grounds and still the IP could result in patents. What a lovely thought. 

The third setting was an idea for a script, but as Iran started being nasty, that idea could be the new option for Saudi Arabia and the UAE to develop and deploy against Iran and there was still the idea of closing their harbours, but not on their terms. A harbour is only useful if it can be utilized, take that away and you have all these cranes collecting dust for months, if not years. I can be a mean piece of work if I set my mind to it and as I see it, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia could use my level of sneakiness. But about that later. Going back to the new IP, the idea that the animation is set also gives the stage that the export could be YouTube video and with the commentary in place, it could sound a new age for whomever likes to be creative and we all adhere to our creative mindsets and thus far I like where the idea is taking me. But I have other things to do, as such I leave it here for others to pick up that baton. 

That is how I roll, those wanting to hang onto every idea THEY have end up having nothing and that is not me. So whilst I place this I go on with the options I am working on. Have a great day today, I am now 300 minutes from breakfast, time to learn if I can still snore like a sawmill, you all have a lovely day.

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The games we cherish

We (namely gamers) have a weird knack. When we go ‘gaga’ for a game we cannot help but try to improve upon it in our minds, optionally create new IP based on that game. In 2012 I created Elder Scrolls VI (now basically VII) and after Bethesda was bought by Microsoft, I thought it might be better to put parts of this on my blog, but now ‘altered’ to fit new IP and I basically handed it to anyone making games for non Microsoft systems. I thought it was a good idea to create new IP to cater to the new game designers. I also came up with a new idea of setting a larger combat setting, so that we would not fall for the usual culprits (by stepping out of that combat area, a new way to increase the deadliness of the NPC and I used an idea that Vint Cerf created and gave it new life, but now in gaming. I reckon that this was never done before, so there was a nice niche for that designer. This background was slightly needed as I created an idea for the upcoming (somewhere in the future) of Hogwarts Legacy 2, there is no real timeline, but several sources tell bye that Avalanche Software is on the ball. That didn’t stop me from slapping my mind about for some quick fixes and I wrote about this in the past in two blogs I gave Avalanche Software the ideas, free of charge. I did put one small barricade in place, because as I see it, Hogwarts is the IP of JK Rowling and I have no idea how this is set in the corridors of Avalanche Software, as such the small barricade was that they get it (still free of charge) only with the approval of JK Rowling. 

It seems flimsy, but I believe that IP is holy, messing with it is not my forte. As such I keep some ideas and they go straight to JK Rowling, because she owns that IP. As such I cover myself in some protection and no-one can come and go with the setting “But he gave this to us”. To prevent that, all Hogwarts related idea become property of JK and if she doesn’t approve no harm was done. 

Anyway, I was thinking or speculating on what HL2 would be like, and that is a waste of my time, so I thought that it might be an idea to set a threshold in place. As such we get a condition if you transfer you HL character. And if done splendidly, you get to do that 4 times. And that was how I came up with the setting of a part (could be a DLC) where your Hufflepuff character could become a junior wand-maker (at Olivanders) the small scene at Azkaban gave the idea that people from Ravenclaw could get one of three jobs at Azkaban, Slytherin gets to be a ministry of Magic employee and Gryffindorians become Aurors, it came with a few ideas. First it shouldn’t impact the game, so it might be either DLC, or unrelated at the end of the game where you could get into that phase after you do the main story (or graduate from Hogwarts) in any way, it shouldn’t interfere with the main game (because that would be a pig move) the added benefit is that you get a lot more if you have to replay HL to get into the other houses, but I reckon that most Harry Potter Fans have played it for every house already, so that makes the threshold rather slim. 

There was some idea where there were more jobs, and the idea was that one is perfect for the house you were in, but there would be the setting where Hufflepuff students could get a smaller function in Azkaban (the Ravenclaw choice) as would the Gryffindor student, on the other side we have Slytherin they are fit for the ministry, but there Gryffindor and Hufflepuff could get a smaller job. And so on, as such you get to play 3 jobs (not at the same time). It was merely a thought and it would enable larger lore to be created and given a larger setting towards the magical world. I took this idea and put it here for Avalanche Software to capture the idea and make it their own (if JK Rowling approves). I am adamant about the latter part of this as I consider JK Rowling to be the owner of the original IP, then as I got into this stage of Harry Potter there were more sides that I was thinking of, but in this case I will refrain from (for now) as I have no idea what Avalanche is doing. And I have no intent on getting into their fairway. 

In that same setting I had (before Microsoft bought it) an idea for Fallout 5, not the story, but a wrinkle to connect your Fallout Shelter profile to fallout 5 and it would transfer up to a shelter (your active shelter) to create that shelter in Fallout 5 as a standalone mission, and the programming needs to transfer that shelter into a 3D image and as it is a 2D presentation, there needs to be a setting where the corridors are automatically created, I had some ideas on that too and when you get that, you can have your own shelter in Fallout 5, with some additional safety (security) settings and a few security gimmicks. All part of the idea and that is merely what my mind was up to and there is a lot more, but I wanted to start the new year thinking of games, not on the political disasters playing now. This is not the day to make that happen, but gaming can be done any day of the week, including day 1 of 2026.

So have a great day and enjoy yourself either already in the new year of following us when you get there. Enjoy the festivities today.

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Upgrade, next chapter

Yesterday I was thinking of a game I used to play and it left me a little underwhelmed. It was not the fault of the game maker, the game was awesome. It gave me the thought that I was in the deep with the dodo’s of the Kremlin, or the White House. The game did what they promised, but I was thinking what this game could do with current technology and settings of DMS and some LLM. There is also the thought that the game was originally a little 2D. It all fitted on an 800KB disk so I am not surprised. But consider the idea what the current settings allow for.

The idea that they had with the political tables of then (1987) and what Mindscape was able to achieve. It started as a game of geopolitics during the Cold War, created by Chris Crawford and published in 1985 on the Macintosh by Mindscape, followed by ports to a variety of platforms over the next two years and I got the AtariST version in 1987. And as sources reveal, takes the role of the President of the United States or General Secretary of the Soviet Union. The goal is to improve the player’s country’s standing in the world relative to the other superpower. During each yearly turn, random events occur that may have effects on the player’s international prestige. The player can choose to respond to these events in various ways, which may prompt a response from the other superpower. This creates brinkmanship situations between the two nations, potentially escalating to a nuclear war, which ends the game. It is my advice not to ‘antagonise’ the opponent in the Pink Kremlin, or the Black House to avoid the nuclear holocaust that follows. And why leave it there, the complications of a EU could be added, so you can see how likely little you can do as as King Gustav on charge of that small sided Sweden (population 10.5 million) and we can build on this, we can evolve this with corporate powers and the influence they hold with the likes of Strawberry, Hippolytics, Smallsoft, and a whole range of power players. See what happens when you tweak that power (or nationalise their goods) then we get to the impact of social media like SnoutTome, QuickOunce, MyTransistor, DingDong, Toucan, Connected, ScryingStone and a whole range of other groups. You could see the direct impact that trolls have when they are clearly exposed and optionally with scenarios to solve. I would recommend to leave the intelligence groups to a later date (or a DLC) to properly test the settings you have there. It could be the first simulator for audiences and students of geopolitics and social standings later. That is before you add the mess that (WatchMyGrey, AmiSix, and their offspring in France, Germany as well as Mossad does to the worlds chaos (under their tutelage) 

I wonder how no one enacted this setting, it seems to be a decently solid training and educational simulator giving students to study multidimensional settings that geopolitics present in todays industry. I’ll bet you you can’t fit that on a 800KB diskette, but there is every thought that it can be done, the social sciences tables still exist and they can vouch for the until recent messes and they are basically ready for deployment. And now that we see the world for what it is, we might also include global religion as an influence and show you why the Catholic Church doesn’t have as much as it used to be.

It is merely a small snag that escaped my brain this morning, but I reckon that the old software settings could still apply to settings of today, you merely have to upgrade the setting and there is plenty of options here and as they were solidly stated on those basic settings of Social sciences, in todays world they could be used through Deeper Machine Learning to a much more powerful extend. See what some see and what you are not supposed to know (sorry Blaise Metreweli) but that is also the next challenge. Instead of shouting at Toucan, you could investigate the trolls on Toucan and see what the expected result is and who the culprit behind these pretentious stages are, not to be coy, but using that Strawberry Studio to see it on the big screen, or even as a user of the Hippolytics Moon streaming service get a new lease of opportunity. An educational simulator for students and investigators of humbug gets a new side of life.

Well anyway, that was my thought I had this morning. And the names have been changed to avoid  the guilty and make me less liable, a decently appreciative setting

Have a great day. I wanted to take a nice walk, but it is 34 degrees celsius out there, bit much for a long walk. Oh and Strawberry, fix your DoDo Dos version Hawaii 26.1, when you switch off your router before you switch off your wireless, the wireless keeps on scanning the ether, even AFTER you switch of the WiFi. Sloppy programming. 

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President Bully

Here I was, telling myself that the world is screwed up and behest and behold the world shows me I am right. So as a well known person (who I will not name) set the world on fire with his tweet (see below), I suddenly had a massive idea and as I am already working on three scripts I thought I put the idea here, for the entertaining person (likely an American democrat) to make this into a real script. Feel free to hack it in many ways you see fit and know that I would be happy to receive a donation for the idea, but that is largely in your hands. Know that I put this here for all to enjoy.

So as the world is on fire (seeing the massive response to this tweet on both the Republican and Democratic side of the isle) I thought that a script that pleases at least 40% of the American people might be the way to go. So here goes.

So this is what I have so far and I have had the tweet for less then 4 hours. So in view of the loss of Rob Reiner, who gave us  All in the Family (My introduction to Rob Reiner), the Princess bride, When Harry met Sally, Misery and a Few good men and several others. I think I countered the tweet by @realDonaldTrump, I think I got my creative revenge. I didn’t get to introduce on how Ivanka and Barron Trump had to flee to Russia as most Americans had their fill of the Trumps where they get to be toys of the Russian Mafia. Well the world turns in many unexpected ways. 

How you like my sense of consideration Mister President? 

Have a lovely day and take a moment to remember the works of Rob Reiner. I have many good and happy thoughts of his work, even if a never realised what an impact he had on me as a teenager watching Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton giving us their version of America.

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The other place

That is said, but what is the other place? The Khaleej Times alerted me to the fact that in Sharjah (the third largest city in the UAE) they are having an international book fair. (At https://www.khaleejtimes.com/entertainment/uae-will-smith-guest-speaker-sharjah-book-fair) and the title gives us ‘Actor Will Smith to be guest speaker at Sharjah International Book Fair’ this is fair enough. I wasn’t aware of a book fair there, let alone an international one. We are given “The 44th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) is taking place from November 5 to 16 at Expo Centre Sharjah, welcoming an exceptional line-up of global authors, including Nigerian literary icon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Italian theoretical physicist and bestselling author Carlo Rovelli, and Irish Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch.” And it is not the only event happening, we are also given “Meanwhile, the 15th Sharjah International Publishers Conference, organised by Sharjah Book Authority, opens on Sunday at Expo Centre Sharjah. The event will feature more than 30 professional workshops focused on the future of publishing, along with dedicated networking and deal-making forums. It will bring together thousands of publishers and professionals from across the globe, including senior figures in publishing, marketing, artificial intelligence, copyright, and international market development. There will also be a series of workshops for publishers, experts, and distributors from around the world to exchange experiences and explore avenues for collaboration.” And these events are visited by “1.82 million visitors attend book fair this year; most of them aged 35 to 44” I am a little upset that this doesn’t get a much wider audience. An event with almost 2 million should get a wider international view and it seemingly does not. I only learned about this as Will Smith is taking the centre stage. If not, I might not have known. That is a little sad, but this is what life offers. We only have a limited amount of time to spend on outer events and today I learned about this and I missed the 43 previous events. And Sharjah isn’t just a village (it is much bigger) setting the setting of over 1.5k+ activities, 2.2k+ Exhibitors from 112 countries and showing over 1.3M+ titles. As I personally see this, it might be one of the biggest book fairs in the world. So why does this not get additional attention? We see all kinds of reporters doing the same thing and why is this not on their agenda? One of the highlights is shown next week when Sheikh Sultan allocates AED 4.5 million to enrich Sharjah’s libraries with the latest works from SIBF 2024. This is definitely worth mentioning. When was the last time someone put some serious coin into elaborating the Library in Sydney (or Burwood)? How much was added to the stockpile of the Library in Amsterdam? It might be a lot, I really don’t know. But that is what the media is for, educating and informing us, not repeating the news from May on why Superman could be banned from Australian cinema’s and the fact that Hoyts showed it with the ‘news’ of “July 10th 2025. Science Fiction Themes and Violence. Trailer; Watchlist. Follows the titular superhero as he reconciles his alien heritage” gives the signal that there is something massively wrong with the Australian media and as such I wonder when they will wise up and give us actual news (like the international book fair in Sharjah) which runs from November 5th until November 16th from 10:00 in the morning until 22:00 in the evening. As such you can let your inner bookworm go nuts 12 hours a day and for 11 days, how is that for your book needs? 

Guests from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nepal, UK, America, Kazakhstan and several other countries, including a prince from Bel-Air, a rather fresh one. So you can wonder what is wrong with western media not giving (as far as I can tell) any time and space for this international event which has almost 2 million people attending this event. 

I think it is time to ask the western media some heavy questions whether it helps them to play courtesan to the digital dollar, because as I see it, the difference between the Western media and the Dodo is rather thin, perhaps even too thin.

Try to see if you can get something on Dr. Zubair Farooq. He is apparently the first Urdu poet from the UAE. He created 40 collections of Urdu poetry and ghazals. In addition, he has written poetry in Arabic and English. It seems like it is something on the side, but that is how you learn and how you grow. I have no idea how Urdu reads, but as he also created poetry in English, it might be worth finding out more about him. A small remembrance on Poetry. It is a literary art form that uses the aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings beyond the literal. Poets use careful word choice, sound, and rhythm to stir imagination and emotions, often employing devices like rhyme, line breaks, and meter. Poetry differs from prose by its structure and emotional depth, though the line between them can sometimes be blurred. 

My smallest exposure of self inflicted poetry could be seen through:

Yup, not the best form of poetry, but I never got that class in school, it never mixed with Chemistry or Physics. So have a great day and see what you can learn today.

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Hidden claws

That is what happened to me, suddenly as I was rewatching ‘the last Witchhunter’ something woke up. It started after I played Oblivion on the Xbox360 for the first time. An idea awoke and I placed part of this as an idea on a gaming website. The idea however never completely died and it remained within me too. You see to take the Olympians into account, there is no way that the worlds of Hecate were innocent and docile and Hecate knew that. Balance is real, it cannot be maintained in the settings we see. Balance of light is still imbalance. In one of the books books of Star Trek there was a expression “Bless the world of shadows, because when the last sunsets fades, they too will die” and that stuck with me over the decades. So what about arch mage Traven? That was the setting I had in mind at that point and the setting war re-awakened in the last Witchhunter. What if the world of Hecate is reimagined but in a more balanced way? What happens when we accept the light and the dark? As such the worlds of Meridia and Namira? In the gaming world they are on opposite sides, but what is the thought that they aren’t truly opposite, what if they are merely apart by a third. Consider a segmented pie chart, one segment light and one dark. But the Elder Scrolls doesn’t hold that as ‘real’ and shows the light as two thirds, whilst the dark side is a mere third and Namira is on the edge between the two worlds and shown as dark. But the largest dark side is ignored. So what about that so called balance? What happens if Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess associated with magic, witchcraft, crossroads, night, and the underworld becomes real in Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls? What happens when that balance is restored? Not to celebrate ‘evil’ but to celebrate the ‘reality’ of things. Without light and dark the shadows do not exist, merely what we personally conceive as light and dark. So what will we see when the larger setting is revealed? What do we do when the world of Hecate is given life renewed? Will we create a larger setting of Vampires, Werewolves and darkness? What will be the real dark places? Perhaps we get a funny side of life and the true world of politicians and false prophets will be revealed to us. It is not merely the setting of what is real, but where the true darkness is real is equally important. As such, as the designer of gaming IP I say good night to one of my my godmothers (and family member) Hecate. 

If gaming is delusion and we love our games, let us say good day to the reality that beckons us and in there we might see what we cannot see in real life. It is merely a point of view to behold.

Have a great day and did you enjoy your Shawarma in Riyadh today? 

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