I was going to try and have something out for it, but I don't know now. I'm not exactly bathing in a vat of mojo right now.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

You can borrow some of my Mojo........I have an excess of it at the moment.......

Craig

----------------------------
IAMTW-Nominated Author

Author of the Battletech Novels, Icons of War,
Elements of Treason: Duty, Elements of Treason:
Opportunity, and Elements of Treason: Honor

Co-author of Four Outcast Ops
novels -- African Firestorm, Red Ice, Watchlist, and
Shadow Government.

Author of the The Russia-Ukraine War Factbook (Vol 1)

Have any spoons to do anything with that care? No.

I know the Trumpster sounded a lot less divisive in his victory speech, but the fact that he spent the last 18 months encouraging lots of violent hatred, at least some of it directed to one or more groups that I belong to and/or support, make me very wary of his true intent. I've had The Who rattling around in my brain since ~10am yesterday, and it's still stuck on repeat...

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

It was the loveliest party that I've ever attended
If anything was broken I'm sure it could be mended
My head can't tolerate this bobbin' and pretendin'
Listen to some bullethead and the madness that he's sayin'

This is where the party ends
I'll just sit here wondering how you
Can stand by your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
You and your racist friend

This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

Out from the kitchen to the bedroom to the hallway
Your friend apologizes, he could see it my way
He let the contents of the bottle do the thinking
Can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding

This is where the party ends
I can't stand here listening to you
And your racist friend
I know politics bore you
But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you
And your racist friend

- They Might Be Giants
"Your Racist Friend"
Flood (1990)

Good luck with things!

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

One common thread I saw in a lot of the Twitter reactions (before I turned it off as a detriment to my health) is that people who are horrified by this result don't seem to understand that many of the things they take as the worst facets of the Chump campaign are the best features to many of the people who voted for him. Take, as an example, my mother, who is eagerly anticipating mass deportations, closed borders, some kind of crackdown on Sexual Deviants, the re-in-their-place-ment of Uppity Women and Minorities, a renewal of the War on Drugs, abandonment of any and all international commitments (especially those regarding trade, environmental matters, or the defense of countries that are not the United States), and—if it can be arranged—the enforced reintroduction of Christian religious observance in public schools. And, naturally, the general trampling of anyone who objects to any of the above, because they clearly Do Not Love Their Country and shouldn't even really be allowed to live here. Oh, and jus soli citizenship is right the fuck out.

(I was part of that cellular consortium for several months in the winter and spring of 1972-73! I know, I can't figure it either. Not why she's like that, but how in the world I'm not. I mean, genetics aside, I've lived in Red Maine for most of my life. How am I not a racist redneck fuck too?)

Anyway, the point is, she wants all of that, and she's convinced that Mr. Chump will give it to her. And if he grabs a few unsuspecting women along the way, well, their fault for not dodging. What were they expecting to happen, going around owning a pair of knockers like that? (Seriously, she's a woman and she thinks this way. The full "well you should have known better than to dress like that.")

Looked at another way, this is Old White America saying, "Not like this, not like this! If I'm going down I'm taking you bastards with me!" to the rest of the country, and still having enough electoral mass to make it stick. I'm upset by it, but I can't say I am or was ever surprised. I learned long ago never, ever to underestimate this country's ability to stab itself in the leg, then insist through gritted teeth that everything is fine and it's all going according to plan.

Also, I think Democratic primary voters grievously underestimated how very much, and for how very long, many people have hated the Clintons. They kept it in mind in 2008, which is why they went with Barry even though at the time, he seemed like an even longer shot. Figured it had been long enough this time. Silly of them. It will never have been long enough.

Also also, the numbers suggest that she appealed to too many people who, possibly because consumed by their postmodern ennui, didn't bother voting for her.

Also also also, the fucking Electoral College strikes again.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

You're a gweep, a college student, and a person of minor Internet fame. You're a founding member of the Federation of Lawful Humanoids. You know a tiny bit of what it means to be a minority. You've met people who are truly minorities, and you've probably heard more of their experiences than you remember.

Your circle of awareness is wider than you and your immediate family. Once you learn to care about people who aren't like you, it's hard to pretend that they are The Other, to be feared and hated.

Peter Eng
--
Short version: Your experiences have made you a better person than your roots would suggest.

I think you've pretty much got it surrounded, but this bit in particular stands out. It's so easy to see through, so blindingly obvious that however many dozen scandals turning out to be literally nothing is nothing but endless partisan wolf-crying, that the idea that people could take the nonsense seriously just... never registered to me.

I still don't understand it.

-----

The most wonderful thing about BBs
Is BBs are wonderful things
Their sides are made out of iron
Their guns are made out of pain
They're crashy smashy bashy flashy fun-fun-fun-fun-fun
But the most wonderful thing about BBs
Is there is more than one
The~re is more than one!

Or alternately, she appealed to too many people whose votes were successfully suppressed by state Republicans.

Are you guys really that red up there anymore?

As near as I can tell, Millinocket itself, though it went Trump this year, went for Obama in both 2012 and 2008. Precinct-level data is hard to come by for other years, but even if Millinocket itself didn't, Penobscot County, which doesn't look like what you'd call a cosmopolitan urban area to me, went for Obama twice, went for KERRY of all people who you'd think would be poison out there, and went for Clinton twice. (How do you go for Kerry and not Gore? The mind boggles.)

>Anyway, the point is, she wants all of that, and she's convinced that
>Mr. Chump will give it to her.

The editors would also have accepted "Il douche" as an acceptable nom-de-trump.

>Also, I think Democratic primary voters grievously
>underestimated how very much, and for how very long, many people have
>hated the Clintons. They kept it in mind in 2008, which is why they
>went with Barry even though at the time, he seemed like an even longer
>shot. Figured it had been long enough this time. Silly of them. It
>will never have been long enough.

You know, Ben, thanks for being clear-eyed about what happened there.

I've seen a fair amount of yelling the last few... well, months, really, about how Clinton was "installed" as the Democratic Candidate. Like, her nomination is 100% due to the fact that a sinister cabal met in a room somewhere and decided she would be the nominee and anyone else would be destroyed. That the pure and virtuous rank and file got rooked by a corrupt establishment, who were pouring forged ballots into boxes all across New York state which is totally why Bernie Sanders didn't win against our immensely popular former Senator who was endorsed by our immensely popular current Senators here.

And, well... no. Did the DNC have its thumb on the scale? Yeah, a bit. That was total bullshit, people got fired and they deserved it. Did it have its thumb on the scale to the tune of three million votes? It did not.

Hillary Clinton is and always has been popular in the Democratic Party. At all levels. Was nominating her a mistake? Yeah, probably. But it was a mistake 55% of the party made. I say that as a proud Sandernista who rode that train to the end of the track and beyond. This screwup, to the extent it was a screwup, is on all of us.

>Also also, the numbers suggest that she appealed to too many people
>who, possibly because consumed by their postmodern ennui, didn't
>bother voting for her.

This, in my opinion, was the 'best worst case' scenario. That is, if we were going to lose, this is the least horrible way.

Trump won the election with fewer votes than Romney got when he lost. That's super bad. You know what would have been worse? If Clinton had got, say, a couple million more votes than Obama did, and Trump had walloped her by an extra six or seven million on top of that.

That would have been nightmarish. It would have meant "holy shit, there really is a missing army of super racist fucknuts who were just waiting to crawl out of the woodpile." There'd have been no coping with that.

So it looks like a large part of the Obama coalition just... sat at home.

And that has led me to an uncomfortable thought. I have always rejected the notion that policy doesn't matter, that Presidential elections are just beauty contests. But in the wake of this one... well, I got to thinking. Has there been a Presidential election in the modern era in which the winner wasn't either sparklingly charismatic, a demagogue, or both?

Yes, of course. Bush the Elder. Carter. Nixon. LBJ.

Okay. All those boring nerds ran against people who were also boring nerds. Has there been an election in which the boring nerd beat the charismatic demagogue?

... holy shit, there hasn't been.

Is this where we're at as a country? Where in any contest between a showman and a person of substance, the showman automatically wins? Where the most important quality that the leader of the free world can have is that they send a thrill up the leg of people who watch them on TV and think "Hey, I think they just winked at me." Is the only reason Barack Obama got two terms is because people thought it was the next best thing to making Morgan Freeman President?

I'm prepared to deal with that if its the case but mister I do not have to like it.

>Also also also, the fucking Electoral College strikes again.

Not just the EC. More people voted for a Democratic house and a Democratic Senate than the other way around. Result: Republican Congress.

Same thing happened in 2014. More people voted for Democrats than Republicans. Result? Republicans.

I'm not particularly attached to the Democratic Party qua the Democratic Party. I'm committed to it insofar as coalition politics are essential, and the Democratic coalition seems to reflect my values and also know how to actually run the country. I've no tribal affiliation, indeed I'm mad at them (us?) more often than not.

But god dammit, if you win, you should get to govern. That is the deal!

-Merc
Keep Rat

I didn't ditch it in a fit of pique, though. I put it in the General thread that's about most of the same stuff. You can find it there, and please try to stop following up this subthread here. It's just going to depress me all over again later, when I forget it's here and think, Oh hey, the thread about the anniversary, I should renew my acquaintance with what's in there.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Boy howdy, I fucking called that.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

It's time to lock this thread and make a new UF Anniversary thread...a celebration of all the good times and fun reads we've had. Something to pull us together and remember the good times, not drive us apart.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

I'll drink to that.

--
Mr. Fnord

Hear him, hear him!

-Droken

Even when interpreting absolute dystopian future scenarios, like anything to do with the Psi Corps or Earthgov, it retains an amazing sense of optimism, and wholeheartedly endorses the idea that everyone deserves redemption. Optimistic sci-fi is exactly what we need right now. I'm gonna keep reading, so please keep writing.

Core #1 contains a line that continues to be one of the top ten things I've ever read:

"Turns out that pushing a variable geometry motorcycle through the basements of $SOMEWHERE gets you some strange looks. Telling your fellow students that this is the True Power of UNIX gets you even stranger ones."

--
-Pasha (Paraphrased from memory. $SOMEWHERE might be Fuller Hall? Also: "CLUELESS yarited on the flux capacitor")
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

... Gosh.

I can't help but think that might be overstating the matter a bit, but I do sincerely appreciate the compliment, and I'm pleased to think that our work could mean so much. In all honesty, it's never been intended to have Particular Significance; we just... do what we think is right. I'm sorry, I'm a little overwhelmed (particularly as I'm coming to it very late in a long day).

Thank you, and everybody else in this thread too, for your support. Especially at a time like this (both in terms of world events and because, let's face it, it's been a pretty dry spell lately), it helps a lot.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

While the fic that spawned from that meeting is obscure at best, and infamous at worst, the friendship that spawned from it is one that I treasure to this day, and has moved on to a second generation (Cor's son is the only person on this planet who still calls me DigiCom ;) ).

So thank you for that, Gryph.

G, you ruined other authors for me. I expect such high quality from them, that the schlock they write doesn't cut it like it used to. UF is addictive to me, and I don't think I will ever have enough.

Happy 25th anniversary everyone, here's to our future, and may it be long and prosperous.

The characters, stories and the forum community have become like family to me.

So happy 25th UF! Your stories still give me joy.

Thank you.
Phantom

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

In case anyone is interested, I'm delurking to provide a link to the original Usenet announcement for Undocumented Features, courtesy of Google Groups. I'll resist the urge to simply paste in the original announcement in full, not least because the proper .sig file formatting is maintained with Google's "Show Original" option.

Gryphon, I apologize if I'm stealing your thunder by providing the original announcement; I was wondering if it would be posted as part of the anniversary festivities, but then, having spent entire moments digging it up in Google Groups, got impatient and decided to go ahead and share. Also, for what it's worth, I'd certainly be interested to see all of the original Usenet announcements for the Core UF stories to be made available on the Core page.

(That said, I'm certainly glad that the comments I made on Usenet in the mid-90s have been lost to time and obscurity, so it may be that you'd rather just let those posts lie, in which case I apologize for dredging up this particular bit of history.)

Finally, and most importantly, congratulations on a quarter of a century of Undocumented Features! While I came to the original series a bit late - I think I first abused long-distance dial-up one summer home from college to download UF in 1993 - I've been a great fan of UF, and all the rest of the Eyrie Productions universes, ever since. And, as much as I enjoy all of the later stories that you've all written, I particularly love the way that the original Undocumented Features captures the experience of being a geek and anime fan on campus in the early 90s.

Also, while rec.arts.anime.stories is what got me started with fanfiction, Undocumented Features is what really cemented my love of, as was said in the original UF intro, "write yer own". To this day I spend more time on AO3 than is probably strictly necessary - not to mention keeping an eye out for the latest work here at EPU! - and I owe a lot of that to the original Undocumented Features.

Again: Congratulations! We're all looking forward to many more years of UF and EPU to come.

—

What he said.

-- Bob
(who has finally come out of the worst of his own reaction to last Tuesday)
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

"Here is how a daughter of Gallia responds to the cruelty of fate: with magnanimity, with generosity, with gallant kindness. Our hearts do not break in defeat; they grow stronger."

Indeed, a fine sentiment for these times.

And of late there have been a few developments that give me hope for the future: one, it appears that Trump is already starting to treat his farther-right supporters just like he's treated his contractors all these years; and two, his team appears to be stunned by the scope of what actually occupying the White House entails, which suggests that they'll be too busy scrambling about trying to find their own asses to have much time to be evil.

And if worst comes to worst and the Trump Administration does end up being Nazis II: Electric Boogaloo, well, someone has to stay behind and become the French Resistance.

-- Bob
("Latrine!")
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

I can't make a comment on this, my thoughts are ...Top Secret.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Thank you for all the memorable dreams and stories of heroes who continue to persevere through overwhelming adversity, for the lessons that we can always strive for success even after failure, as long as we don't give up.

Thank you for giving me hope.
-T.Z.
==================================================

Friends... they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.
--Henry David Thoreau

==================================================

That ability to meld things is a core element of what I tell people who are interested in UF. Gryphon has a knack of writing things in a way that has you go "well, of course Gil Grissom and Barry Allen are co-workers," or "Hercule Poirot is a Jedi and has Hermione Granger as a Padawan? yep, that works."

Mind you, I tend to open with "it's the kind of setting where, for a writing and practice retreat, Houkago Tea Time travels by sky bison to the vacation home of a Norse god and are greeted by the battleship Yamato in a maid's dress." (Not my best record scratch intro to a fic, but it's hard to top simply saying "Fallout Equestria" and bluescreening someone's brain.)

Offsides
Except Ranma 1/2. IIRC, it's a known law of the UFverse that there will be no Ranma. Ever.

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

This is a brilliant worldbuilding choice, because it makes the galaxy feel as big and diverse as it ought to feel, and at the same time it sets things up for more imports. Galaxies are huge. The space covered by the UF stories is explicitly not the whole galaxy, and yet we know that there are thousands, maybe millions, of star systems within the explored volume that we haven't heard about yet. It is easy to believe that any one of these might be home to the next civilization, original or imported, that will appear on stage when the narrative requires it. It's happened many times before.

My personal top example for this is still "yes of course Thrawn is a Gamilon."