Tag Archives: Greek

April 2, 2025 · 02:02

Software directions

That tends to be the norm, some software BI person looks at where the masses are and then shoots his net, so that he can catch the biggest population. And I (initially) tended to think the same way. We can call this the wrong way. 

So this started last night when Wired (at https://www.wired.com/story/can-gaming-save-the-apple-vision-pro/) gave me ‘Can Gaming Save the Apple Vision Pro?’, OK, I admit, the story was two weeks old, and none the less relevant to this conversation. Personally I didn’t know that the Vision Pro required saving, but that is my wimple setting. You see, new devices open up new frontiers and on November 9th 2024 I gave the world (apple too) ‘The Easy Lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) and in under an hour I designed a near original game an adaptation from a world favorite game. Yes it took me less than an hour to think of a solution. 

Now there is another idea based on all time favorites and used in a very different different setting. You see, people look in the same direction over and over and hoping that something new hits them. I look in the opposite direction and that is why I have over half a dozen original IP settings and this one could bring Ubisoft the fortune it so immensely desired, the dream of growing to greatness. The funny part is that most of the work is done already. You see, schooling is required all over the world and the chances are that Ubisoft overlooked it. And apparently Timmy the Cook did too (said to be the CEO of Apple). 

The setting is larger to be considered as more and more need is out there for languages. OK, there are some hangups. But the larger setting becomes visible in mere minutes and 80% of the gamers have had that feeling, especially those who played any of the Assassins Creed games. You see, we all want to be that assassin, but the missed part is that they loved walking down the streets of Florence, Rome, The America’s, New York, Paris, London, Egypt, Greece, Iran and Japan. The one thing that Ubisoft excelled in were the graphics. When these games get upgraded to Unreal Engine 5 it becomes a very different game. Now on Apple Vision Pro (optionally MetaQuest as well) people can actually practice their language skills in a private setting and there are millions ready to get ready. Now there is no killing, there is no climbing all over the place. It becomes a walking setting, with optional reward settings and Ubisoft actually opened the door to this when they had the expansion The Discovery Tour added to the game AC Origin. It gave us a different setting to the game and also gave us just how deep they had taken the game. Now consider that we get access to languages English is gotten from AC Syndicate and Watchdogs Legion, and optionally AC3. French from AC Unity (when it is properly fixed), Arabic from Mirage, Italian and Latin from AC Brotherhood and optionally AC2, Greek and Egyptian from AC Origin, and most of the work is already done. Now there is one setting that takes precedence.

About a month ago I saw someone program a chatbot to take on scam centers. His view was that when they are held busy by chatbots, scammers cannot scam. But that impact is larger. People can now be set in chatbots engaging in the use of natural speech. As such there is a unification of skills and in that setting Ubisoft could offer a much larger population. According to ‘records’ in 2022, the United Kingdom had the most students learning English as a foreign language. There were approximately 262,400 students who were learning English as a second language that year, followed by Ireland with almost 116,000 foreign students. The third place ranking was completed by Canada, with around 105,000 students learning English as a foreign language. That implies a population of billions who want to learn English. When the modules are ready Ubisoft could cater to millions of people who want to learn any of these languages and with a subscription model they could cater to hundreds of thousands of them. To make it fun they could add the villa in Monteriggioni and as language assignments are completed they could get another painting added to the villa. There is also the notion that ‘midterms’ in several stages would upgrade Monteriggioni. You will not get a well and a few other things, but most other upgrades become possible. And as you engage with the people in Florence and Rome you could get lots of interactions. With Latin you get the added nun/priest outfits and get access to the old Vatican. Linguistic skills are valued globally and for those who want to learn Arabic there is the world of Mirage (just Bagdad) and there we will see what more there is to learn. Any language student gets assigned an address and as your skills progress you will get a ‘better’ address. All this was already possible and now it serves a much better purpose. There is classic English (AC Syndicate) and modern English (Watchdogs Legion) the setting already exist for the most. But the added setting of interactive chatbots will push the Ip to new heights and the graphic skills of Ubisoft have seldom been questioned (only in AC Unity). So this took a little more than an hour, but it was there for the longest of time. It just required Yves Guillemot to wake up to see what he had and now that this writing is out in the open, he could wake up and seek new frontiers. There is the thought that Unreal Engine might not be a solution everywhere, but it will give the most lifelike views on Vision Pro and MetaQuest. As such it just fits better. 

Software directions are out in the open. The trick is not to take the mundane direction that everyone seems to be taking. As such I offer this thought to the wannabe captains of industry.

Have a great day and think of what language you would like to learn, because that is a universal thought we all have. It might be that you want to learn the dead languages (Greek and Latin), you might want to broaden your horizon with English, French, Italian and Japanese and for those wishing to learn Spanish, a case can be made to include AC Black Flag. The rest? Well that gives a person a dozen languages to learn, but cases can be made for other languages as well. How that goes? It would be up to Ubisoft. 

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November 16, 2024 · 03:27

One step left for a new world

That hit me a moment ago. You see, 6 days ago I wrote ‘The easy lesson’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/11/09/the-easy-lesson/) it was an idea that could aid Apple in propelling their Apple Vision Pro, the idea hit me a week ago and now I see a few more angles to this. If Epic Games (makers of Unreal Engine 5.4) get a translation system online. It could propel the Apple Vision Pro even further. Areas like Tourism, Theme parks and even larger attractions could be visited, or seen in different ways.

I saw one side, then another and another. Apple seems to overlooked this, but the setting in high end tourism is easily made and the more are set to multiple sides it could boost Apple in several ways. As I see it, should Epic Games make the jump to make an engine that translates Unreal Engine 5 to a system that could be fed into the visionOS operating system. Apple would enjoy the upsizing, but in equal measure Apple and the game developers could get an entire new population to their translated games. We all know (or have heard of) “spatial computing experiences”, but how to set that? I saw the options about 4 years ago, not as the Vision Pro, but in other ways. And now I see that the Apple solution could work there too. And once this is going I reckon that Meta with its goggles would soon follow. The hard part is to make it work and not a simple figment of an idea that is nice or one title. This is why Apple needs to talk to Epic Games. The unreal engine would be central for conversion. We merely think of the Unreal Engine as a gaming system. But imagine that The game Assassins Creed 2, or Origin gets upgraded to Unreal Engine 5.4 and after that we get the translator to get the spatial system fed into visionOS. Consider that the spatial system let us walk through Florence, Venice, Rome and even Egypt (AC Origin) or Bagdad (AC Mirage), from there we could use it to teach us Latin, Greek, Italian, Baghdadi Arabic, Egyptian. It allows the goggles (to avoid confusion with glassware) to show us how it was then. It could also in a more frontal view of the Horizon games. To see the Thunderjaw next to you (a separate discussion). Once these systems are created the avalanche will build up and here Ubisoft has a distinct advantage through titles. So how long until the Vatican wakes up? And from there tourism gets a larger slice of this approach. And lets be fair, wouldn’t you walk through the streets of the cities we saw in the Assassins Creed games? See the machines in the Horizon games, or learn the languages of days gone by? The learning ability that is part of something bigger. A massively wild idea and perhaps contemplated by some. However, I cannot find anything in this direction at present. All options for at least two systems and if I had my way (I seldom do) there is even another side to the options I gave to the Saudi government. A way to propel the Saudi way of life to a much larger population. And now I see that the Apple Vision Pro device could do this even more so. 

It is not a step forward, it is a step to the left (or right) and it enhances the overall setting. It doesn’t replace it. A simple idea that others didn’t have (or rejected). I wonder how many considered this to be a futuristic path to learning languages? 

It has been Saturday for 3.5 hours now. Vancouver has a decent amount of Friday to do before it is here too. Have a great day.

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September 20, 2024 · 20:58

The step in the open

We all have this, we see another option. Or an option that is there when two players unite their resources. So here we get player two who enters the field. The player has an app named Talkie. It is seemingly some hardwired to a sexy girl that entices you to interact. She dances and possibly does more, but it is all virtual. The app gives us (as one of the options) “Enjoy endless conversations with Talkie AI’s expansive gallery”, well that seems to be the core of it.

Yet, already there was a player one in the air. It is FunEasyLearn. They offer a interesting way to learn languages. They appeared in the first covid phase, or at least that was when I became aware of them. They have a multitude of languages. Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French (my reason for getting the app), Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese and several more. I got the plus package which was at the time $100 and it gave me instant access to every language they had. It was a good deal. 

Now combine those two (and add one language) and you get a new setting. 

In my case I would get an option to practice Latin (or ancient Greek). We could see this as an option for people to train language skills to men and women. Even until recently (2000 years ago) you would address a person (male or female) different depending on what their status was and believe me, the idea of addressing a roman centurion with the words ‘bonum mane carus’ as a simple slave, a senator or a striking woman will have very different responses (me laughing out loud). But with talkie in the field the options to learn linguistic skills gets a whole new range of options. Then there is the business need to learn Arabic and that is one business meeting you want to go well. The same can be said for every language. And here we have a new setting. Will FunEasyLearn offer it as a new stage, or will talkie add to its library of options? Consider the option to practice the classical languages (Greek and Latin). With that in option there is a lack of educational options and at present we need to hand more as a language tools, especially languages. Oh, and if you want to address Lord Hades with ‘εσύ εκεί, πού να είμαι’, let me know because that is an interaction I want to see with my own eyes. Should be fun for all seeing that interaction. 

All fun aside, there is more and more lacking in the proper interactions we all have (I am equally guilty in that) and now I see two apps that could score a lot higher by uniting skills. And the question is, was this option missed entirely, or is it still coming? 

Your guess is as good as mine, but the advertisement show us that enticing hormonal drifts (read: sex sells) might seem more prevalent, but even in France there is a case to address an person properly (I once hear a person use ca va, in stead of comment vas-tu), that one mistake ended the business introduction. The visiting man had taken offence. I do not know French as such I was unaware of what I had just missed. Wouldn’t it have been a great idea if these apps were in existence then? 

Just a simple snack for thought. But some apps are growing a lot beyond the simple needs we have and as such we should hand the applications a larger width to offer the users a lot more.

Well, Saturday is still three hours away, as such I am going to kill a lot of Uruks (shadow of Mordor). We all need a hobby to keep us entertained. Have a great day.

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August 26, 2024 · 22:59

That earlier thought

This is a thought I wrote about some time ago (in my blog), it was an intersection of God of War 3 and something I had been working on. As such it was a thought but recently the thought had reemerged as I decided to replay Shadow of Mordor on my PS5. Something stirred and the ideas I had that should be in every game. You see God of War 3 created my thought and it was all based on the very first introduction when you see the armies of Gaia (optionally a chaos based intrusion) gave us a view of Olympus. Now God of war 3 doesn’t use it, as such I feel no guilt. 

To see the impact there needs to be a unique option that you find. As such it ‘triggers’ the introduction. The introduction is a simple path where the game is shown to you with the basic abilities that you gain. This is also the setting where you start.

Heaphestus
Heaphestus is the tinkerer of the lot. He made the olympian weapons, but he had done a lot more, as such this is where all the players begin. It is up to you to get the machines working again. Sustenance is first, food and water needs to be recharged. For this the machines work on ore to get some parts working. And that gets the whole thing up and running. Still, you need to do more. Olympus had elevated knowledge of solar energy and those need to get started. It is a mere 2 hours of the game, but that set the larger game. I decided on the thought that Olympus and others were transcribed in classical works. These works are added to the game, and as the gamer progresses in the game, he gains an above working knowledge of the gods, the earlier stage of Greek civilisation and some of the philosophers. When the machines are back online, the other rooms become accessible. 

Automatons set the stage for Olympus. They do the mundane tasks. The food machine sets the first automatons in motion. We see the stage where the machines are fed and it beacons the cloning machines to start creating the life stock that are processed for the foods that you receive. You get to create the fields for weeds, corn and grapes. As this is done (seems simplistic), you are guided to a room where several pendants are and you are only allowed to take one. 

Aphrodite, Hermes, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, Apollo and Hebe are the only pendants to chose from. When one is picked the others are closed off. This is essential to create a level of replayability. At this point I am still brooding on one point. Should this be set to the creation of your character. As such if you are a man you get Hermes, Poseidon, Ares and Apollo. The female character gets Aphrodite, Athena, Hebe and one (for now) hidden character, you know spoiler alert. Each has their own part in the palace and with Heaphestus making it all available the palace opens up. Some will take a few more ‘hours’ but that is linked to the machines taking hold of Olympus. As I see it, the automatons are linked to your personal choice. A sort of greek filter of your character. The man get female automatons, the woman get male automatons. 

As you go through this place, you only get one track in the beginning. With the bracelet (or tiara) you have one path, as you play the game you unlock gems of succursus. (Read: support gems). Each support gem opens up the track for that god. It is in that ay that you get more and more access.  

Hermes
He is the messenger of the Olympus. It also means that he will open up two major parts. The owl system when the system becomes available. Lore of Olympus is opened up and the messages return to where they are. It is shown in the office of Athena where now a Athene Noctua arrives. This metal tawny rascal will be your mental guide to a lot. It will also tell you where important owls are. You still need to interact a first time though. The second setting is a mobile hub (based on a few thousand old design. To get both active, you need to repair them. This will set the stage where instruct an automaton to direct to repairing a machine. It is now that you learn that Automatons come in a variety of settings. This allows you to tinker with the machines in the space of Heaphestus and you will see that these automatons require more ore to make and as such you need to ‘dig’ in his basement and find more ores (and open) a cavernous level where low level automatons start grinding for ores. Back to Hermes, Once these machines are back online, the screens in this rooms will give information on Greece (Athens, Sparta, Heraklion, Rhodes) and you will see all kinds of news pass by, including a repetitive loop of each of these places.

The mobile stage gets you access to the rooms directly as they are opened up

Ares
He is known as the god of war, but in Olympus he is the foremost authority on security and defence, with him the defending Automatons are aligned and activated. You have no chance to beating any one of them, but in that setting, they are keeping Olympus safe and with the gems you have you will be safe in these areas. So there is a stage to keep them an authority and you need to up your stealth skills (not sure how yet).

With defence up and running, you will gain the option to create the Butcher automaton. It will prepare the life stock for consumption, it also unlocks the cooking automaton. It will also be the time to gain access to the vaults of 

Dionysus. They are open to all, so you are safe, but in that space is the wine automaton and the fruit automaton. 

Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, physical pleasure (sexual), eternal youth, grace, and beauty. These elements get us a few parts. In the first we learn that she was the orchestrator of Aesculapius the famous healer. He was killed by Zeus, but this also set the gods against one another. Aesculapius and Prometheus were hunted by the gods and they are still part of this world. The second part is the physical pleasure, with Aphrodite in play you can have sex with the automatons, but her powers are eternal youth and beauty (via Aesculapius) and it will open up another stage. The Automatons are yearning and with Aphrodite you get to see their ‘thought’ and the unmentioned sides of the automatons. Her healing niches are all over Olympus, once staged for the human servants and now you get to use them to revitalise your health from hunger, thirst and exhaustion. 

Thats the lines for now, there is more of course. But it still need to be syphoned out (it makes sense later on). You see, this would be a streaming game. Amazon Luna makes the most sense. You see as the lores unfold the optionally connected Kindle would get the classical works. It is at heart an educational game. The lore are classical works (they shouldn’t have any ‘protection’) the player gets more on the age of polytheism. I saw that need during the TV show I was designing namely Keno Diastima. And the age of that is largely lost to the Christian waves that is now losing its grip on what they enforced. The polytheism from Greece and the Nordic is getting a fresh wave of people who have had it with the deceitful clergy from Italy. This is also a setting where we can elevate knowledge of the gamer. It is not a wave of conversion, merely a side to show that we come from a larger stage. And that large stage was forgotten. It is merely a way to show the people that we come from a huge stage of excellent work. Homer, Herodotus, Aurelius (not a Greek), Plato, and so many more. For the larger extension mostly forgotten. And this game can reeducate people to see that larger stage. There is an opening market to that (or better said, I believe it is).

There are more sides, but not in this game. This game is about educating the people on the Polytheism that brought the Greek civilisation to bare. And as we learn about the Greek gods, we also learn that they had a lot more to offer than we realise. 

Games have gone into a slump of forced advertisement and targeted turbo moments, but not much more. Certain games are pushing us into microtransactions and they will make their fortune their way and by the time people figured it out too much is lost for to people who merely wanted to have a good time, paid double plus bonus. That was never what gaming was all about. Intelligent gaming can be used in other ways, to educate. Something too many game designers have forgotten about. It is the age of advertising money and too many greed driven people are pushing that wave. I believe it is time for some to push back. I think that Amazon has options here (the kindle does help), the other track doesn’t need a kindle, but Amazon is the first choice, Tencent Technology the second option. As such Microsoft loses a lot more than they bargained for. Will it work? I hope so (partially for my own reasons).

If we push the agenda of joy and education, not of advertisement, we have a chance. Some food for thought. When do you ever get something for free? Never ever, there is always another side to that coin. And that is where the greed driven are. To see that side polytheism optionally brings that first wave. And when you get to the sides of Poseidon, Apollo and Hebe we get more to see that the Greeks knew things thousands of years ago, isn’t it weird that we never evolved from there? The Vatican never aided in that struggle, did they? That’s all for now.

Have a great day.

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August 15, 2024 · 00:20

By any other name

This started some time ago and today things started to mesh up in my mind and it got started with the movie Gods of Egypt, I watched it again this evening. The setting is not one could debate the reality of things (as one could consider), but there is the crux. What is real? 

You see, this is the question that I have often asked myself and this week a few things happened that calls an old idea into power.

You see, Ubisoft did most of the work and AC Origins set it in motion. When you get the addition on the game, you also got a tour you had to complete, visiting a brewery that makes beer and a few other places, places that were in the game and now Ubisoft added a tour to show the players how far they had taken the game. It was brilliant and some will find it boring. Yet it could be taken further and in part based on their own IP.

You see, what else could be done?

There are two settings here. The Egyptian side gives the people the option of polytheism, the believe of multiple gods. The game could take you on a trip as a diverse amount of people in Egypt and take you on a trip of worshiping the gods like the Egyptians used to do this. We could limit the player to be in Memphis, Alexandria, Letopolis and a few others. The second site is the Roman side, with a Roman farm, the ability to learn Latin, set this part to Latin and as we are thrown into the deep end we learn a language and there is a market, more importantly as Ubisoft already created the IP, it would be a simple alteration to the game to engage in languages (Egyptian and Latin) and here you are no hero, you could be a roman legionnaire, a scribe, a farmer or a slave. We saw the impact of it in all kinds of TV series, but that is the story told us. So what would it be to live it? And that is only the beginning. At some point Ubisoft will create a Unreal Engine 5 transfer making it as lively as possible and there we could use these programs to educate. And Ubisoft has the IP to make larger changes to programs like AC Mirage and add Arabic to the fold. 

Now some people might think that this seems boring and yes. It is not a slice and dice game, but it is IP that exists and could get a double function. You see as people ‘return’ to learning the classical languages they will also increase several other languages Spanish, Italian all have a grounding from Latin and in this day and age, we need more to keep us busy. There is only so many time that you can chase a Pokemon, or kill the masses in a race car. To give people something more will soon be the only way. The people and the gamers want more. I have nothing against Elden Ring or games of that nature, but how long can you play these games? And here Ubisoft clearly has the upper hand. They created such treasures from the old days. The renaissance, Egypt, Native America, Victorian London, Paris and a few other places. They have the materials, so why not employ the powers to use them for education? For me and many others Egypt have held sway on us and there we get two settings. In the first the Egyptians and in the second degree the romans. The second one could be set to the area of Pissa Oros Citadel. Where you have to complete several ‘tasks’ whilst you optionally do it all in latin (an optional advanced setting). And now (either as Egyptian or Roman) you do it without any assassin skills. 

Will it be successful? I believe it will and with the IP already made by Ubisoft, there would be a case to see it happen. 

Am I right? I don’t know, but the idea to learn ancient Greek, Latin or Egyptian is immensely appealing and I know there are more who find it appealing. There is whole group on Twitter (still refusing to call it X) with the notion to lean Latin, with a few thousand members. 

Just a thought to get through the day, it’s Thursday here now.

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October 18, 2022 · 18:59

The rut of the game

Yup, I am in a rut, it happens to us all. Anyone claiming that it will never happen to them is lying to you, there is no exception to that rule. We will all face it, whether we are in creative more, in production mode, in management mode or in operation mode. Rut is a dangerous thing, it tends to precede burnout for some. You see rut is not always dull, it is not always repetitive, but the brain sees a return to similar enough settings to treat it that way and it comes across as dull and/or repetitive. But there is a much larger issue in play and I cannot define it. 

For me it started with one of the series I was writing. I got to the stage that I wanted to up the ante and add to the flavour of Greek mythology. So my mind wandered all over the field and I suddenly remembered an old (very old) lesson. You see organised crime and corrupt officials have the same flaw, the same weakness. It is ‘unfathomable loss’. So even if they have no issues stealing from you. When you start killing their children they go all huffy and puffy on these innocent kids, however they never considered your innocence when they stole from you and there lies the rub. But that setting is also dangerous because the main player gets ‘changed’ in the process, no matter how close he is related to Hades. As such I started to recall one of the lost episodes (I truly forgot where I put them). You see, you can orchestrate a player, you can expose them to the social media (with images and YouTube footage) hoping that one of the caught players will lose their mind and kill for you. You can take strife and do the killing yourself and kills those corrupt protection people as well. But the rut starts when that becomes repetitive. You need to change the menu, even though the act remains the same the journey to these acts can alter, and for me there is the added setting of taking a Greek take on the events. The adulterous female party can be thrown in that Turkish cave (formerly Greek) and let the change to a Medusa be the act where her lover the corrupt politician ends up relying on mercy which will never come and as a statue he will be as dead as anything else and placing that statue in the garden of a certain enabler should create the right tone. Not only can he explain the statue, but when they examine the statue he would be in much warmer waters than he would be happy with. And that is merely the first three players. I need a few more, but then the rut set in. Avoiding the repetitive is essential, as such looking for Greek solutions might not make the right cocktail, even though it feels right. There were a few options, but I wanted to keep that player out of the equation until much later (like the season 2 cliffhanger). 

So the rut that I fight is against relying on the repetitive, the mundane and the creation based on existing paths. Now I could hand him an accuracy International AX338, but that is out of character. But it would be a tool that the protective details have access to and we only need to change the ammunition for one with more ‘bang’, an altered bullet and the bolt system would end up seeking refuge in the skull of the shooter. Yes, that might work, but I would need to check some elemental engineering principles (which will take some time). And that is one problem solved, but like the old Greek dramas, I need something with fireworks, like a gift, but not the gift, the wrapping becomes the killer, so it needs to be fun enough so that the reader sees the gift and sees the menace that the gift represents, even as the wrapping will be the killer in the room, yes that might work. 

Still two solutions to find and doing this whilst I fight the rut of the matter is not the greatest setting for any creative mind, but there I am ploughing ahead trying to change the stage, change the setting and change the speed of things in motion. It is what it is. That is the danger of rut too, relying on yourself is dangerous, because what the mind sees as different could merely be a change of perspective and that is an additional danger that every creative mind faces. And in that I am no different than any other creative mind. That too matters (for me at least).

So whilst I try to fight the rut of the game, I might do some gaming in the process of working things out. It always worked in the past.

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May 8, 2021 · 07:10

Create history with history

It is a stage I have been pondering about. To get there, I need to tell you how I got there, I do believe it matters. I wrote articles of the Afreet in the past. I was introduced to them in a game called Archon 2 by Electronic arts (30 years ago). Archon was a sort of battle chess. Consider chess, but you do not ‘conquer’ the piece when you hit it. It starts a battle between the two and the victor is left standing. So like chess pieces each one has abilities, not to move, but to fight (the higher the chess piece, the stronger his or her ability to fight). The additional part is that black pieces are stronger on black squares, white pieces are stronger on white squares and the board also has a collection of squares that rotate colour from dark to light and in the other direction in several stages. As such standing still there is a dangerous undertaking. The Ifrit, or afreet is like a whirlwind and quite powerful, its opposition is the thunderbird. That was my introduction to the Afreet. Over time I learned more, but that is the start. So when we see time travel stories we tend to go to places, yet what happens when time comes to us? What happens when time becomes a defence mechanism? What happens when the Afreet go back to defend the sands they love, defend the places that threw them out, but in this case as they return they fight for the people? It is merely one part of the setting. 

An Afreet has been part in several series, usually as a temporary antagonist. Yet what happens when the world is dying to a much larger degree, because of our stupidity and the Greek gods come back to defend what they believe is the world of their making? In that setting what happens when the gods of the dead unite in a struggle? Hel (Nordic), Hades (Greek), Afreet (Arabic), Yama (Hindu), Shinigami (Japan) and Mictlantecuhtli (Aztec) they unite because the people are killing the earth, which will then no longer feed them the souls that sustain them. In this they start via the Afreet to start larger wars and to push for population control. 

As the push into one direction we see the battlegrounds move from the Middle East and India to Western Europe and America. The movie shows us the evil and the bad that people do under the excuse ‘the devil made me do it’ (thanks to Tom Ellis for reminding me), yet what happens when there really was some form of devil (afreet) pushing people?

A series that shows the horrors of death, direct, blunt and overwhelming. A stage that has inspiration from some of the horror movies and series, but it is overwhelmed by the interaction of horror and war movies, which apart from Jacob’s Ladder has never happened, and a more brutal version is a little overdue. And it goes beyond of what we see, what happens when it re-inspires faith in people? Are these gods of the dead the safety valve for the other gods?

It is just a thought, but I cannot remember where different ideologies interact to a much larger degree and that in itself makes for a new level of TV history, does it not?

Just a thought, have a nice weekend, optionally one not involving death. And before you think it is an outrageous idea, consider India has 22,000,000 covid cases, another 4200 died in the last 24 hours and over 3 million in total have died of this disease and Australia is opening the borders with India over some bleeding heart stage. So the people (and media) making Prime Minister Scott Morrison a pariah for taking the tougher decisions. As such when the Indian variant runs blatantly through  Australia as per June 2021, feel free to sue those bleeding heart media people. Catering to shareholders and stakeholders by relying on flames and avoiding the harsh realities of choices that Narendra Modi of India refused to make should come with a price-tag, should it not? So whilst he decides to spend $1.8 billion on parliament renovation (not essential oxygen needs), we see the larger inactions, and I have written about it for days, the media avoided it all, but the media is all about happy family pictures and how it is such a sad discriminatory setting. Make sure that your court case includes the reporters and media that relied on flames whilst avoiding a lot of data, because as per June it could be the death of your child, brother, sister, partner or parent. 

So as many rely on the blame game, I merely came up with a new TV series (the creative part in my DNA) and there is every chance that Covid will have a definite presence, with 3,279,018 deaths, how could it not be?

So all hail to the gods of death and try not to choke on your tea or coffee this weekend. 

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April 5, 2021 · 17:30

The stage is the play

Famous words given to us by William Shakespeare, but are they actually true? I am not debating the insight or wisdom in this, but in a stage with Alien life, how far does it apply?

I have been working on Keno Diastima again and a few things were bothering me, well bothering is not really the right word, or the right sentiment. The stage became debatable, or perhaps shallow was the better definition. I needed a larger stage and the stage became the play. SO I decided to look back at some of the earliest original writings. There was Sun Tsu (the art of war) at 490 BC and the two works by Julius Caesar at 60BC, they are important because there was pretty much nothing of that calibre before that in their fields and their dome of influence. For me I focussed on Bellum Gallicum and on Bellum Civile. I wanted to avoid an intersection of ‘oriental thinking’. They are original as they were all ahead of their time and they set a stage that is still used today, the works were that good. It was an important stage because in any alien encounter we need to know where THEY are at and it is not some kind of wisdom puzzle, when we get visitors from the Sombrero galaxy it is not for mere tea and crumpets, there is a larger stage and that is what I needed to focus on.

I will not divulge too much, or set the stage too open, because it might still be a work of art to some stage (book, movie, TV series, etc), as such I cannot reveal my entire hand, but consider the use of Caesar, the fact that he wrote the two books in an age where writings were utterly rare and the idea that he was heading the battle in Thessalia, in a stage where the cavalry of Pompeii vastly outnumbered the one Julius Caesar had, all whilst the infantries were close to equally matched, still Pompeii missed out and lost that decisive battle, numbers matter, especially in a stage where two generals are grounded experienced veterans, in a stage when communication between parties was set in hours, not minutes or seconds. That part matters too, even as we look at our not so smart phones and forget that part altogether. 

My mind remained in brooding mode and I was starting to think things through, I was aware of the reasoning of the other side (trust me, you do not want to go there), but how and why are we reacting? Is it wishful thinking that they like tea and crumpets? It is not completely unrelated though, especially when you consider the building that once was in a place now known as Islam Abad (Iran) I think, if the right satellite looks in a proper way, they would see something that is odd, the evidence should still be there, even now 5500 years later, the evidence is still there, and I am covering that in something else, but that I keep under wraps for now, when I realised what I had found, when my mind perceived a stage that is almost undeniable I started to work on one part and in the back of my mind, my brain started to work on Keno Diastima, even the Greek part has meaning in ways that boggles the mind (well, at least to some degree). 

So as we consider the stage, the stage we are shown, what happens when it all goes topsy turvy? What happens when we become (have been for a long time) our own worst enemy, how will others react? How can we see the failings of us when we ignore what was in front of us the entire time? That is the stage I am digging through, because in all that mud a few nuggets can be found and I want to find them, they need not be there, but the mind can create them and as they are close enough to some presumptive truth, I am on the right track to create actual nuggets, not chicken, or pyrite, but golden nuggets, hoping that I can turn them to platinum bars (complete with a coca cola on the rocks), I an not driving a vehicle, as such I can have my coke on the rocks, so there!

Yet in the back of the mind, the two stations are more and more complete and soon there is a line between us and the Sombrero galaxy. Bioware, eat your heart out! What was once written can be written again in different ways, so as we see “The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look”, as well as “Experience is the teacher of all things”, two truths that have been out there for well over 2000 years and now I am trying to set an entirely new stage to part of that, or basically, I am incorporating the stage for 16 people on a space station, and in all that, what happens when we become our own worst enemy? 

The University of Melbourne published Farrago, there we see “The space that fills the gap between us and those stars, is perceived by us to be empty. From a conceptual standpoint, this is a perfectly valid definition, yet from a scientific perspective we can do better”, they are correct in more ways then one, they cannot see beyond a certain spectral point and the equipment that we design has similar limitations, we see in frequencies, yet an event 5500 years ago showed us at one point that we are limited by ourselves, and we forgot what we experienced, so at that point, what are we not seeing? We merely observe the parts we can see or measure, yet what happens when we mis out because we are focussing on a ruler, all whilst we need to use a version of a spatial Inclinometer, one that also measures spatial radiation, we never did that, did we, because we were never there, but evidence of that still exists, yet as we reach the limit of our expanded imagination, we forgot to push those boundaries and that in part made us our own worst enemy, a stage where the play is us, the stage was not the play, it was to show us the boundaries of the play of us. 

And as we go forwards, there will be people stating the list of original writers, but that was never the issue, Thessalia was. It was the place where the play showed a shift of borders, you can read it in Bello Civili, the set stage we see is “The book was for a time lost, but was rediscovered in Italian city archives in the Middle Ages”, it was found, but parts were missing, the papal powers feared the missing passages, did no one ever wonder why? I cannot tell how much is missing, but a part was omitted and another side of Thessalia optionally shows that. It is speculation, but when we consider a commander like Pompeii, a person as veteran as Julius Gaius Caesar was, did you actually believe he had no records? A stage with two sides, two sides of coins, not the same coin, but the same currency and that is where we see the play, the stage of Keno Diastima, not one coin, not more coins, but two distinct currencies, and the second currency we forgot about, but it was here all along. You merely have to open all eyes, we need to focus not with one mind, but with at least two. 

The stage is not the play, it defines the edges of the play, it makes all the difference.

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December 5, 2020 · 00:40

Twists of the mind

It started last month when I decided to create a new TV series out of thin air, well, it is in space, so air was not a factor. It was a little homage to RendezVous with Rama, yet I added a twist, as one does. I started that journey in ‘And that was a hard sell?’ (At https://lawlordtobe.com/2020/09/21/and-that-was-a-hard-sell/), whilst I was exploring a few ideas, I stumbled (for more than one reason) on Thalia, the muse of comedy. Leave it to me to seek out the history and optional origin of my bad sense of humour. Now, when we consider the origin of humour, or better stated the muses, Their origin goes back 7 centuries before there was even a christ, and even then there was some correlation to comedy (the muse Thalia) and her mother Mnemosyne the goddess of memory. The heralding of the muses starts (as far as I can tell) in 800BC when the poet Hesiod makes mention of them. Over the three millennia two of his works survived. The first is Theogony, the second one is called Works and Days, describing the peasant life. The Theogony is basically a story of crime and revolt (by Zeus) and set the story of gods and titans, yet I do not want to digress, it is not bout the gods, it is about Hesiod. He sets the stage of muses, he sets the  indication of Mnemosyne and her 9 daughters Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania. They are the depiction of Epic poetry, History, Love poetry, Music and song, Tragedy, Hymns, Dance, Comedy and Astronomy, in all this, we merely whisk them away as the stories of those with angst and superstition, yet in all this Hesiod was apparently a native of Boeotia, a district of central Greece. It is said that he had mastered the technique and vocabulary of the epic by memorising and reciting heroic songs. He himself attributes his poetic gifts to the Muses, who appeared to him while he was tending his sheep. So a sheep herder focussed and learned the setting of entertainment to an almost eerie level of precision in a time when none of it existed (or mostly none of it). In this no one is wondering how that happened? 

I was wondering about the setting of comedy, about the stage of dance and what christianity broke and almost destroyed. Is no one wondering why? A stage of entertainment and insight into the mind and we are seemingly dumb do the notion, I was, and I was this to the largest degree, schooling made me this way. We have been said to a stage of moving forward, all whilst we ignore the past, the past that leaves us with more questions and not a lot of answers. You see, Hesiod did not merely have a muse of poetry, he had two, Calliope the muse of epic poetry and eloquence and Erato, the muse of love poetry. She was also part of the Aeneid almost 750 years later. So consider that we have lost the texts of most of the events between 1250 and 1400, a lot of it destroyed, yet this work survives. It also sets another person, the writer of that work Publius Vergilius Maro, who before there was a christ created three legendary works, the Aeneid, Georgics and Eclogues. In one of hist works we see the growth of tension as a forward momentum and hist work would be the larger inspiration to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, where Virgil becomes the authors guide. 6 notable legendary works in a stage where works mostly did not exist. More important, these works were kept safe, in an age where we now are swallowed by trash, spam and fake news, we disregard deeper works of optional philosophical nature and are left in the dark on their existence. 

Yet in this age, in the age of streaming entertainment, it seems natural that we take a deeper look at the old works, we might have to, even as the Vatican did it best to remove as much of the Rhaetian language as possible, they did not remove all and when we see these old works, we might ask actual questions that matter. You see, if a man herding his sheep sets the stage of entertainment to a much larger degree 3,000 years ago, even as his own audience (the sheep) had no clue what he was on about, he sets a larger frame, that frame is seemingly important, because of the goddess of memory had a sense of humour (Thalia), we better figure out what that is and how it affects us. 

It is perhaps best seen in:
“Do not, I pray thee, do not weep for me, neither pursue me thus ominously as I go to the stern shock of war. Turnus is not free to dally with death. Thou, Idmon, bear my message to the Phrygian monarch in this harsh wording: So soon as to-morrow’s Dawn rises in the sky blushing on her crimson wheels, let him not loose Teucrian or Rutulian: let Teucrian and Rutulian arms have rest, and our blood decide the war; on that field let Lavinia be sought in marriage”

Now consider his assumed past “Virgil was from an equestrian landowning family who could afford to give him an education. He attended schools in Cremona, Mediolanum, Rome and Naples. After considering briefly a career in rhetoric and law, the young Virgil turned his talents to poetry”, which I do not debate, yet consider that he died at the age of 50, he was at home the first 10 years, yet after that he attended 4 schools, over a distance of 1100 KM, which would have taken at least a week per part and in that setting he would have been exposed to all kinds of issues. And when we see this work (one of three important ones) over 12 books, hundreds of words per book, we forget the important question, how was this created? There was no typewriter, this is the work on scrolls, likely several per book and now consider that this would have to survive well over a thousand years. Each fact gives us something more to consider, and when we look at then, perhaps we are doing something really wrong now, have you even considered that part? 

If we consider merely these two writers and the massive impact that they had, what did we lose over time and more important was was removed from sight since the 11th century? These are part of the questions that were plaguing me as I was setting the tone in my idea for a TV series, but here I am, I already forgot the title, but not the setting. And in all that there is the choice, but what happens when we never had a choice? Did you consider that? Some might have seen the movie How It Ends, but did you consider it? Basically Theo James had a lot less options than he thought he had, and we merely see that ending come to us as the movie ends. Yet what if Hesiod and Publius Vergilius Maro were telling us about the fight, the fight that is coming in the only way that they could grasp and we wasted 90% of 2750 years and 99.9% of the 47 years that followed, with the last 3 years 100% wasted due to spam. We consider and we accept that some (in the most weird corners of life) can be the stage masters of life and creativity (JK Rowling being an example), but we have something to look back to, we have (to some degree education), as did Publius Vergilius Maro, yet what about Hesiod, who pasturing sheep on Mount Helicon? Shall we write it all to ‘imagination’?

I am happy to do that, but from what we know now bout then, his work leaves us with all kinds of questions, questions that we (for the most) cannot answer. How many people (of non noble origin) had the ability to write? Were versed in all kinds of manner? And consider that Mount Helicon was close to 150KM from Athens, not a trip sheep herders tend to make. So where did the refinement of his work come from? We are left with questions and some people (academics) will give bright answers that make total sense today, but 2000 years ago, a lot less so.

As such, when I was considering memory and humour as I was trying to find a scientific narrative in season one of Keno Diastima (I had to name it again) and that is where I find myself. A station of choice where the choice is an illusion, because the option of choice was only valid for a while and we decided to waste time and options, as such what would we face then? 

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May 6, 2015 · 00:13

What’s the matter?

That is the question I asked myself. Greece is in worsening shape, we see certain news as it happens and I noticed how certain ‘facts’ are now missing in the news articles I have been reading. In other news we have the UK election as it is going towards the final day before the people in the UK will decide on who they trust to give them a better life and now we get news that Isis decided to mess with Texas. So here on the day when the Dutch celebrate that the Germans were defeated and the Netherlands became a free nations once again, we see these issues come to blow more and more.

Miss Representation

Yes, she has image, she is the vision we desire and we all stare at her cleavage, complete with two boobies, one named ‘slush fund milk’, the other one we name ‘the party’s choice’, both giving ‘as implied’ the consumer the honey of equality. Now we get the real deal, if we bring the breast to our mouth, will we taste honey? Or will we perhaps the taste be more of the same, more of what is bland, non-nourishing and will never satisfy.

The first issue is Greece and the representation it is receiving. The first part we see in the article ‘Greece vows to pay debts as it awaits handout from international creditors‘ (at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/04/eurozone-enjoys-production-boost-but-greece-and-france-dip). In here we see the following quote: “Greece has vowed to honour heavy debt repayments over the coming weeks but says it is counting on international creditors to release billions of euros in rescue funds before the end of the month“. Now, let’s be frank, no lie is told here, but the direct fact is not that payment is due, but that the first payment was due May 1st and is due to the fact that it was a public day, payment was rescheduled to be due May 6th, the first payment of 200 million will be due in 24 hours. So why is that not clearly voiced? Before the end of the month another 760 million will be due, making the total slightly south of 1 billion. The second article ‘Greek debts: what does it owe? When will the money run out?‘ (at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/24/greek-debts-what-does-it-owe-when-will-the-money-run-out), states almost the same. Yet this one shows a little more, even more than I bargained for.

You see, there we see May 1st an IMF interest loan payment (now due May 6th) and May 12th we see the part that 760 million is due. The part that was unknown to me is also the part that is not loudly voiced to EEC nations, because this knowledge will influence the voters (as I personally see it). You see, the missing part that is not voiced in many sources is the small fact that two T-bill batches mature, the first one on May 8th and the second one on May 15th, each worth 1.4 billion.

Now we get the part I voiced over and over in the past, that the consequences of bonds are high and the Greek people are about to learn this the hard way. You see, when a T-bill matures, it becomes a nice piece of paper, one that has value. You see, at the beginning, you are offered a paper that offers a percentage, so you buy it for $918.10 and when the bond matures a year later (if you got one for 1 year), you get $1000. A nice 10%. So, before the end of May, Greece will have to make two payments, one for 960 million, and one for 2.8 billion. Greece is out of options, out of money and the quick 5 billion they sold in 2014 to get a quick cash option is now starting to come back. Billions are needed and the Greek treasuries are about to learn that not only could it never afford to play the Syriza game via Alexis Tsipras, the assurances we see in the papers left right and centre is now showing to be hollow and not realistic. Greece is about to seek another deal and one more and then likely some more. Greece is awaiting 7.6 billion in aid, yet where will it go? Before the end of May Greece needs 4.7 billion and in addition before the end of June, Greece needs to come up with an additional 6.8 billion, the 7.6 billion will not even cover the bills. Greece is about to make a call that will hit the financial district and small investors alike, the Greeks are facing a hel we do not wish on anyone and for the most, as I see it, the only people who are allowed any consideration are the wealthy power players that depend on continuation of the status quo. How can this ever go to a better place?

Here you see why I whacked Syriza again and again. The rock star game we saw by Yanis Varoufakis is the killer here. Alexis Tsipras did not act when he should have done this and the non-austerity approach was a non-solution from day one. Why do I feel that I am the only one seeing this, or at least the only one clearly voicing this, because the UK elections, when the voters learn that Greece is about to desire up to 30 billion before the end of the year, so that it can pay the outstanding bills. It is status quo, but in the end, there is the direct risk that almost none of these funds will help, aid or support the Greek people, who I genuinely feel for, does Syriza? My issue still remains what it was from day one, the Greek had the freedom to choose, but I believe that they chose poorly. Now you have no reason to take my word on this, but Antonis Samaras has a degree in economics and an additional MBA from Harvard, which gives him a financial view that I lack, even though my numbers gave a clear view as an analyst regarding the dangers Greece had, I saw this in 2013, it was already clear that the dangerous waters for Greece were icy cold and deadly deep.

My article ‘Are we getting played?‘ from May 18th 2014 shows my view that allowing the Greek bonds back on the market was a really bad idea, now we see that this view was a decent reality. Here we are, looking at a game that is being played with Greece and the Greek people in the middle, austerity is not the great idea, but it is the only solution. It should be clear that there is no short term solution, austerity will remain around for close to two generations, the debt will take no less than 4 generations to become manageable, but only with a restructured Greece, it is not a nice picture to watch, it will be an entirely different Greece, there should be no doubt here.

This now links to the UK and its elections too. You see, the news as is, is that the voters need to realise that it needs to support an EEC nation that will need another 30 billion, with no guarantee that this is the end of that. The economy is in a slump and too many nations are feeling the slowness of the economy that is unlikely to return to the ‘old’ days.

The news is given in the article ‘Ignore the Tories: the figures show the recovery is veering off course‘ (at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/may/03/ignore-the-tories-figures-show-recovery-veering-off-course) but in a way that gives me pause. The quote “Economists are divided about the causes of this so-called “productivity puzzle”. It’s unclear whether it’s caused by a lack of investment, poor education and training, or the fact that our labour market is so flexible that it’s cheaper for firms to ramp up output by hiring short-term, low-skilled staff than to buy in new technologies and equipment” is at the heart of all of this. You see, these economists are not just setting a bad example, they seem to leave out several elements, they know to also be at the heart of all of this and the picture that follows is incomplete.

You the reader will know some of the elements, you live these elements and some economists getting the fat checks have not been at the heart of it all. Consider the following, when did you buy anything else than food lately? Anything else than the weekly needs? When did you buy a TV, when did you buy a car or any luxury items that are produced in the UK? The UK is better off than most other European nations, I see where the people in the Netherlands and Belgium have a little cash, but most people are lowering their debt, all over Europe people do the same thing, they are not buying to the extent they were, they replace only the essentials and they buy cheap. This is why Aldi and Lidl are so successful. The evidence is all over the place, yet we see “Confidence is certainly higher than it was five years ago, but aside from notable successes such as the car industry, there is little sign of a radical shift in the shape of the economy. Manufacturing output has been growing, but remains below its pre-crisis peak“, which makes perfect sense. The view of these economists is: “But deficit reduction is not the only purpose of economic policy: they also set themselves the aim of building a more sustainable model for growth. Here too, they have largely failed“, is that so?

You see, to grow an economy, people must buy, they are not buying and they carefully consider each purchase. This is the ignored part, in addition other nations ‘might’ seem to push forward, but consider one final part, when you buy your equine burgers, is that what it states on the packaging? Perhaps you were hoping for cow?

This is at the heart of those making sales in places. Quality is at the heart and the quality of life has been under attack for some time now, an issue many economists ignore too. Should you wonder about that then take a gander towards Texas! The only hilarious part there is that ISIS attacked the one state where the population is better armed then the police, the defence department and the military reserves. How does this reflect on the other elements? Believe it or not but there are real economic consequences to terrorism, especially when it is done on US grounds. As the US economy is already slumping, this could add negatively to it all. Yet it must be stated here the one line that has direct bearing “No evidence Islamic State had actual hand in attack in which two men opened fired outside centre exhibiting Muhammad cartoons“. So, I am not doubting the statement. It is not that far-fetched that those acting out for personal reasons are very willing to get linked to a larger group, for both defence and to propagate their own ego. This all matters, if you do not believe it to be true, you should decide to watch Kung Fu Hustle. A movie well worth watching (it is hilarious). So is it a good idea to relate ISIS to a comedy? Well, when you start acting out in Texas, that call is not the wildest one to make. You see, there is a dark side here. When we consider the words from Tim Clemente, who stated “Former FBI agent Tim Clemente said the gunmen may have plotted the attack without direction from ISIS“, the danger becomes, if that is true, who else has gone the loopy tunes? Is it not weird that a place, dedicated to freedom of speech, is giving a way to the freedom of speech to people who are dedicated to remove freedom of speech? This is not at the heart of it all, what is the heart of the matter is that if this is happening in the United States, is the danger of lone wolf (sympathiser) actions in the United Kingdom so far out of realm of possibilities? Now consider the statement by British Labour “A Labour government will control immigration with fair rules“, now consider that Italy received over 200,000 refugees with no way to get it all processed. How many will arrive into the UK?

Be cautious here, I am NOT stating that these people are terrorists, yet the danger that a terrorist would try to enter Europe this way is not that far a stretch. Statistically speaking, if only 0.1% came in, than we will see that Italy, after that, the EEC and the UK will have to deal with 200 extremists, 200 people inflating actions. Now the truth is that there is no evidence that 0.1% is extremist, but today’s life of dangers and consequence is a numbers game and the numbers are against us all. Even though I could advise Andrew Parke (the man that the people at MI-5 call ‘Big Boss’) on how to clean his ship, I must also add that Andrew is very up to date on how to do that, he does not need me. Yet the political elements ignoring the intelligence issues are all positioned to blow it all on spending’s towards an economy, they ignored the elements that could drive an economy even further down.

Three elements all linked towards a change that impacts the UK economy and the British way of life, yet none of them were linked to the UK on their own. Here is what’s at play! Too many events are too intertwined and too misrepresented to ignore, yet those who trivialise the elements are not the ones paying the bills when their ‘prognoses’ goes pear shaped, it is a game we can no longer afford to be played.

 

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