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An Unfortunate Journey
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- Written by: Silas DeShane
- Category: The Ruminations of Silas DeShane
- Hits: 468
To continue my journal entry:
It seems that due to my unfortunate trip the science of Mechanology marches on. It appears that the hypothesis on the potential difference in the flow of time has been proven with my unintended trip to your universe. When I left it was 1883, yet here in your universe it is 2024.
To answer the question of the city name differences, and with help from Mr Dickinson, we have determined that in both of our worlds the city was called St Anthony due to the fact that the US Army first built a logging and grist mill at the falls of St Anthony. A bit of time later your world's city renamed itself as Minneapolis.
The next detail baffles me the most. How in the name of heaven did your western hemisphere's continents come to be called America? In both of our worlds Amerigo Vespucci was the cartographer who's name was used to categorize the new world.
However, even in your world the America name is an anomaly. For example, is it the Henry River, Henry Bay, or the City of Lucius? All of these places have been defined by the last name of the explorer or legislation of the territory. Hudson River, Hudson Bay, and Cincinnati Ohio.
From what I can see nearly all locations named after a person in your world uses the last name. So, why was Amerigo used instead of Vespucci? Of that question I cannot answer.
Godspeed, Silas
My cat, Daisy
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- Written by: Webknight
- Category: Webknight's Slice of Life Corner
- Hits: 1343
When I first got Daisy I didn't see her for the first three days. She only came out to eat and use the litter box. Otherwise she would hide under the bed.
The caring people that had fostered her brought over some of the toys that she had played with at their place. She would not come out to play with any of the fancy toys. Amazingly, it was a simple one made with some cardboard on a piece of wire.
I would lay on the bed and slowly move it back and forth, and after a couple minutes a paw would appear from under the bed. I would slowly move it further out and she would keep stretching to avoid actually coming out. Eventually she did come out.
However, it took a minute for her to notice me, and when she did see me she froze for a second. I thought that she would dart back under the bed, but she just went back to playing with the toy. After that she started laying around different spots when I was home. In the fullness of time she would snuggle up with me at night.
Since I have Aspergers I would get really depressed at times and I wouldn't even got out of bed for most of the day. Daisy would come to the side of the bed I was facing and she would put one paw on the edge of the bed near my forehead and the other near my chin.
She would get right in my face and loudly meow. Which I would translate into, "Get up and feed me Damnit!"
I would chuckle a little and get up to feed her. It would kind of jump-start my day, so I did some other stuff. Unfortunately, and truthfully speaking, I probably wouldn't have gotten up those days without her doing that.
I got her a cat tower, and she loved to stare out of the window to the balcony watching the birds in tail-swishing joy. Every so often she would look like she was going to try and get the squirrels or birds on the balcony. I'm not sure she would have known what to do if she had been able to get one.
Daisy was a one-person cat. If anyone came over she would hide under the bed. Eventually she got to the point where she would come back out a few minutes after my guests left. But at first, it would take an hour before she would come back out.
As time went by she turned 11 years old. She hadn't eaten all weekend, so I took her in, and they said her liver numbers were off. The vet said that at her age is when you can start to see medical issues. We tried what treatments were available at the vet's office and discussed my options for further action.
Those treatment options would have left me nearly penniless, but I still considered those options. She did begin to eat again, so she must have been briefly feeling better, but she quickly went back to not eating.
I took Daisy back to the vet to see if the treatments had done any good. Nope, her liver numbers were even worse. I agonized over whether to try more advanced care options. But, after discussing it with the vet, there was a slim chance of any of those options actually making any difference.
So I had her "put to sleep". The "nice" way of saying euthanized. Euthanasia comes from Greek, which means "good death".
It's never easy to say goodbye. But, I didn't want her to suffer for days and slowly starve to death.
I so miss the little furball, even her midnight zoomies, which would wake me up and make me wonder what the heck was happening.
Or, her begging me to share whatever I had just cooked. It didn't matter what it was; she would always demand a little bit to see if she would like it.
I still occasionally pat the bed when I go to bed, waiting for her to snuggle in.
In the end I had to euthanize Daisy. I miss my cat.
The Beginnings of Differentation
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- Written by: Silas DeShane
- Category: Timeline Differentiations
- Hits: 434
Before I begin the Timeline divergences I must inform you distinguished readers of how I am able to observe my world, even though I am stranded here in your universe.
First off I was able to cobble together an Ætheric telescope from the remnants of my Difference and Analytical engines that brought me here in the first place. What the telescope does is use the Æther to pierce the veil of Ætheric energy that separates the collection of diverse realities in God's Creation.
Unfortunately, my Difference & Analytical Engines were so damaged that the telescope is of limited capability. It can only capture a snapshot of my world once a variable amount of time has passed in my plane of existence.
Alas, due to this fact my timeline revelations will not be as accurate as I would wish it to be.
Be that as it may, let us begin this sojourn of discovery...
1260:
Roger Bacon was the first scientist on my world to discover how the Æther interacts with various disciplines that we now call Mechanology. The first discipline that was discovered was Æthernautics.
It was discovered when Bacon used an unknown form of energy that he had discovered to cause a metal sphere to spin when he fed it the energy. All disciplines of Mechanology function in this fashion, as an interaction with the Æther.
Disciplinarions are what the practioners of Mechanology were first called. Now they are called Inventors, and to be classified as an Inventor the person must harness the Æther to achieve a task.
The more difficult the task the more complex the interaction with the Æther will be. In practice this is very much like the technology of your world. The methods of those interactions are repeatable and can be extrapolated from earlier experiments.
Mechanology is very much akin to your science, even though the underlying principles of Technology and Mechanology relies on very differing universal mechanics. As an example in the world of the United States of Vespuccia technological inventors are still able to create such things as trains, weapons, and telegraph stations.
Godspeed, Silas
Godspeed, Silas
Welcome to Webknight's Board Game Corner!
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- Written by: Webknight
- Category: Webknight's Board Game Corner
- Hits: 876
When I joined GPI I started exploring more modern games. So, I would like to share my thoughts on them.
The first game I want to talk about is called Innovation. Boy I really like this game.
First off there are four expansions available and It's a relatively easy game to learn for 2 to 4 players. For me one play-through was enough to learn the game mechanics, but to learn how to play well will take many more play-throughs.
Sadly I have only played the base game. So I will limit my thoughts to that one. When I play the expansions I will talk about them.
Innovation is a game of civilization building through technologies, ideas, and ingenuity. There are ten ages from the Stone Age to The Space Age.
One of the things that I really like about the game is that the mechanics only involves card play with no board or other pieces involved. I generally don't like games with a lot of pieces.
To win the game you must score various forms of achievements. The number of achievements required to win varies, which depends on the number of players; The more players the fewer achievements that are required.
In the game there are four actions available for the player to take:
- Draw: Add a card to your hand from the supply piles.
- Meld: Take a card from your hand and put it onto your board.
- Dogma: The core action of Innovation. It allows you to activate one of the top cards on your board for its game effect.
- Achieve: Allows you to claim an achievement.
My final thoughts are that it is great family fun taking place in the civilization genre of games. Easily accessible for even the beginning gamer in your family.
What makes it really fun is the ability to see the interactions between technology and concepts of the ages
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