Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Toys on Kusha

Greetings sweet readers. Thanks for being here. What do the kids of Kusha do for fun? Of course the game glasses are popular. The player stands on a flat disk and wears the glasses. Then they can play a variety of games from snowball to football to racing and flying games. Adventure games are popular. I understand there is one that recreates Max’s journey through the jungle when she discovered the Fordian Pyramid. It even has the event when she fell into the Mother’s Pool which was called the Toilet Bowl back then. You can read the full story in the upcoming historic novel “Kusha”.

A lot of the kids are into the new Crestori fabrics. They can be set to almost any color and some of them can display moving images. I’ve seen kids set them up to display what ever background they find themselves in so that they blend in. Other kids like to be more showy and will set their clothes to display some popular movie or musical group. My grandson Tommi likes to wear the Toxik Idols playing one of their hits from the twenty-first century.

I have one of the sweaters. I got it for the Winterfest last year. I’ve worn it a few times. Usually one of the grandkids will pick out a theme for me. I like the forest scene but the kids like the space battle scene. Personally, I find that distracting to wear. Who wants exploding spaceships scrolling across your chest while you are trying to enjoy a cool one?

Well, I’ll certainly be enjoying a “cool one” tomorrow as we celebrate the harvest. The kids will be playing football . . . I’ll be watching. I’m too old to play anymore. At least that’s what my wife tells me.

We brought the harvest fest from Harappa. It is one of the four festivals of the year. My favorite is the Winterfest. Of course you all remember my participation in the best Winterfest ever. Maybe for this Winterfest I’ll repost the telling of when Dorian and I won the great slide race of two-hundred.

In the mean time have a great holiday.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Note from the author; I hope you all have a great holiday weekend. I’ll be taking a few days off myself but will return next monday with Philip the Bard and a continuation of my futurist series.

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Life on Kusha

Greetings famous readers. Thanks for being here. Last week and yesterday we spent discussing the planet Kusha and it’s environment. Today we’ll start talking about what kinds of technologies are available here on Kusha.

Of course the SID still has people here and they all have their own technologies. Most SID employees have the optical implants. Apparently it is a requirement for promotion. At some point in every SID person’s career they must accept one. Some folks like to wear the eye glasses that kind of do the same thing, let you see a display for life, but at least the glasses you can take off. Once the implants are in they are there and on all the time. Management can look in on what ever you are seeing day or night. Supposedly there are provision for limiting access to private time but there have been many scandals where government operators were looking in on personal moments.

Most of what we have here on Kusha is of alien design. We cut ties with the SID early on in the Galactic War and never really became involved with them afterwards. We still get occasional visits and they do have an office in Harappa City with about a dozen employees.

I have a pair of the glasses but I rarely go out with it. I prefer to have a tablet. I like holding something in my hands to read or view. I find the ocular displays distracting and think they give me a headache. My wife Ina says that is all just in my head and that there is nothing in the glasses that could give me such symptoms. She likes the things and is always reading with hers while she does house work. I prefer to prop up my tab by the sink when I do dishes.

I may not be the best person to talk up the latest gadgets. I don’t use many of them but the kids do and I know what they like. (isn’t it Grandpa who winds up getting these things for the kids after all?)

So, starting tomorrow, I’ll tell you what gadgets the kids are into in Earth Year 2479. That is the kids on Kusha. I don’t know much of what is going on on Lava and Earth has taken a different path haven’t they?

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The Kushan Ring System

Greetings fantastic readers. Thanks for being here. I’m still recovering from the weekend. Me and the Gutterminds spent Saturday night at the Bird and Hand Pub playing our best Toxik Idols and Stones. I spent most of yesterday watching the kids play football. Its not as much fun as snowball but since we have so little snow on Kusha it’ll have to do.

Over the past several post I’ve been telling you a few things about Kusha that you might not know. Before I start discussing some of the technology available here I thought I’d better mention one of Kusha’s most interesting feature. “Ring D”

Who doesn’t know that Kusha has a spectacular ring system? It is one of the planet’s most striking features. But not everyone knows that Ring D is a double helix.

The double helix is one of the most important shapes in the universe. DNA is a double helix and without the ubiquitous DNA we would not have life.

One of the big things we learned when we were first exposed to the Encyclopedia Galactica was that DNA molecules naturally form in magnetic fields where gravity has little or no impact. For centuries humans believed that the creation of life required divine intervention.

Now we know that DNA exists all over the Galaxy and anywhere it’s given a place with oxygen and water it will grow into something called life.

Astronomers figure that ring D formed a double helix in Kusha’s heavy magnetic field. It is speculated that some object hit some stones in the ring sending them into a spiral and they twisted the formation over the eons. It can’t be seen from the surface but I’ve seen several photographs of it in Kushan homes.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Notes from Bubba's Desk: Computers and Electronics of the Future

Greetings fetching readers. Thanks for being here. Yesterday I railed at all the negatives I see coming from modern technology. Today we’ll get more upbeat and talk about the good things I see coming.

Today I’ll focus on computers and electronic entertainment. In coming posts I’ll make my predictions on Health Care and Aging, LIfe-style, Robotics, and more.

Computers and Electronic Entertainment

We’ve all witnessed the huge advances in electronics and computing. How much further can we go? Futurists of the past did not see the internet coming. We, most likely, don’t yet grasp what the next paradigm changing technology will be. I can only extrapolate from what I’ve seen but the one thing I can guarantee about my and all other predictions for our future is that we will all, most likely, not see the “next big thing” till it gets here.

I Worked in the electronic biz many years ago when VCR’s were still the new thing. The industry at the time had future advances lined up years ahead. They had all the technology but they doled it out one step, one year at a time. From this I assume that what we are seeing in the new computer/pad hybrids is just the beginning of computers with new configurations. I’m hoping my laptop will last another two years so I can see how this shakes out.

The near future will bring all kinds of new and different computers. We’ll be seeing more projected keyboards and menus. Computers that look like writing pens. Computers in our clothes.

I’ve recently heard several people, semi jokingly, complain that we never got the flying cars we were promised in the fifties. Well, I’m kinda glad some of the people I have to share the road with don’t have the capacity to fly, but I do look forward to my “Dick Tracy Wrist Radio”.

We’re seeing the latest smart phones come in wrist models and google glass is just around the corner. These devices are becoming more and more integrated with our life styles. Soon we’ll see clothing with connection capabilities. The google glass is a start. At some point they may go internal.

In my sci fi series I have a technology whereby people have “ocular implants” that allow them to record everything they see and allows them to watch media that no one else can see. They can surf the web with menus they see in front of them that, again, can not be seen by any body else. I also mention that most people choose not to have them unless they are required by their employer. Who wants their boss (or the government) to have access to everything they’ve seen or heard?

I still have a huge vinyl collection. Who among us hasn’t bought into some technology that left us with an unplayable library of classics? (who remembers four tracks?) I envision that someday very soon most of us will consider absurd the notion of paying to own a hard copy of some movie or piece of music when it is available 24/7 on-line or in some other format.

I see video gaming becoming a much bigger slice of our entertainment pie. As the games become more immersive (and if you haven’t tried them recently you will be surprised at just how immersive they are) people will find them more appealing than watching movies. Why watch when you can do?

I see the future being very fun and entertaining, assuming we don’t destroy ourselves first.

Have a great weekend! Philip the Bard will be back next Monday through Wednesday and this Thursday and Friday I’ll post more of my futurist essays.

Earth Year 2013

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Notes from Bubba's Desk: First of my Futurist Essays

Greetings brave readers. Thanks for being here. Today I’m going to begin discussing my thoughts on the technology of the future. As a sci-fi writer I try to read as much as I have time for about what futurists believe is waiting for us in the coming decades and centuries.

Sadly not all of you have read my book yet (get with the program, it’s a fun read!) so I will tell you it takes place about four hundred years in the future. In the interim there was a period of natural disasters and environmental collapse which moved technology back some.

In my future we’ve see a backlash against technology. I am certainly not the only sci-fi writer to have used this meme. Frank Herbert uses it as a significant plot point in his Dune novels.

I’m not a huge fan of many modern conveniences. I use the internet (we’re all here aren’t we?), I have a big-screen TV, DVR, ipad, laptop . . . I don’t always like these things but I use them. I don’t have the internet at my house. Not necessarily by choice but since the phone company (who shall not be named) lied to us when we were looking at the house only to say later “No, you can’t have the net.” I find that I do enjoy being away from the connection. I have more free time now that I am not looking up the history of every director who’s movie I watch.

I tell you this so that you know why I have included in my futuristic novels the concept that people will eventually get bored with toys and get back to relating more and more to people directly. I have a deep hope that this happens. I believe it is essential for the continued growth of society.

I’ve heard from several people recently the idea that they just don’t like people in general. (???) What is wrong here? Sure, there are knuckleheads out there but where would we be without people? It is our human connections that give life true meaning, not our collection of toys. I see technology getting in between human relations and I think that is wrong.

It is my fear that people will continue to buy what TV is selling them. They will become more and more reclusive and disconnected. That will make it much easier for someone to control society from the top rather than the people actually having a real say in the way things work.

So, I am pushing, lobbying, crying for people to spend more time together and away from their “things”.

OK. That’s off my chest. I am an optimist. I see a bright future for humanity and our little world. I see some fun and interesting technologies coming our way. “My future is so bright I have to wear shades.”

Starting with tomorrow’s post I will begin my predictions for what technologies we will experience in the near and distant future.

Earth Year 2013

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Gimpkos on Kusha

Yesterday we told of the Kabears, the most feared predators on Kusha. Humans rarely see them any more. They were chased away from the areas around Harappa City years ago. Farside still has to deal with them pretty often and the nomads run across them occasionally. I haven’t seen one in at least twenty years, but then I don’t go out in the woods much any more.

What worries most folks more than the Kabears are the Gimpkos. They are biting lizards about a half a meter tall that like the Kabears often walk on their hind legs. Individually they are very timid and a typical human would never see one. However in groups they become strangely emboldened.

Commonly they hunt in packs. Typical game for them is small to medium rodents, house pets and occasionally people. I don’t know that many people have been killed by the Gimpkos but there are attacks at least once a month.

Usually they come after some kid playing ball. The kid wanders too close to the edge of a cleared field and a handful of the quick moving  creatures rush the kid and start biting the calfs. Kicking and running away will usually halt the assault. Just don’t fall down! If the Gimpkos can get you to the ground you may still fight your way out of the jam you’re in but you won’t come away clean. Nasty, nasty little buggars.

I know some of the Mandan eat them. I don’t care for them myself. My wife Ina will eat them when we visit her family and says she likes their flavor. I think it is a little gamey and the texture is very stringy. Besides there is way too much good stuff to eat here on Kusha to consume anything that is not perfectly delicious.

This is my last post of the week but my friend “The Author” will be posting tomorrow and Friday on the technology of the future. I’m sure you will find that interesting.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Wild Kusha

Greetings wild readers. Thanks for being here. I came to Kusha on the first load of settlers with Dorian Thain. The engineers and construction crews had already been here for some time. Still, the world beyond the small area cleared for construction of Harappa City was wild and free.

Most of the planet is still in it’s native state. We humans have only civilized a tiny portion of one continent. The nomads roam the upland plains and they have a few scattered villages out there. There is the small settlement on Farside where Max made her big discovery way back when and there is Harappa City.

The rest of Kusha . . .? I say wild but it is not wild in the way that the Old Forest on Harappa was wild. The Old Forest had all kinds of creatures that wanted to eat you or at least bite you. There were even some that did worse things to you.

Kusha is pretty mild compared to that. There are dangers in the Kushan wilderness but they are rare.

Of course there are the Kabears. Three to four meters tall, they often stand on their stout hind legs. Their front legs are smallish and not much use for anything beyond putting things in the creature’s mouth, which is wide and lined with triangular, razor sharp teeth.

They are furry but their hair is not like any hair humans have known before. From a single stem the hair branches out almost like a downy feather.

There are a couple of interesting facts about the Kabears. First their method of locomotion when in haste is interesting . . . they skip. It is a silly thing to watch. A giant ferocious beast skipping like a little child. The can move surprisingly fast in this way. It also makes them very hard to shoot when they are charging since there is so much up and down motion, which brings us to another weird habit of theirs.

When charging someone they will often pull up just short and wildly wave their arms to the side and above. Apparently this is a display to ward off aggressors and apparently among other Kabears this works. Most human hunters have learned this and use the display as the most opportune time to shoot the creatures.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the gimpkos.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The End of Harappa

Greetings amazing readers. Thanks for being here. Last week we discussed the ecology of planet Harappa. Sadly the world is due to become a dust spot on the surface of its sun within a few weeks, maybe a few months. We’ve never seen the end of a world before. Astronomers from around the galaxy are gathering to witness the event.

No one lives there any more. It’s way too hot for anyone to survive there. I understand that they have set up a space-station with a solar orbit to watch Harappa’s demise from a safe distance. I assume there will be vids and pictures all over the Encyclopedia Galactica when this happens.

I and many others still think of ourselves as Harappans. We just live on Kusha now. It’s mostly us older folks. The kids who grew up here on Kusha, of course, have no connection to the old world.

Us older Harappans must now learn to be Kushan. I’ve been here over eighty years and it still seems new to me. 

Perhaps it is the ever changing sky or the amazing fecundity of the fields and meadows and forests. There is always something new to discover about Kusha. A flower you’ve never seen anything like before. A different light than you have experienced or some other nuance this world offers the senses.

Kusha certainly has a history before humans got here, but we all know the historical disputes about just who owns the place. Therefor I’ll just content myself to ponder Kusha’s recent history. From just before humans got here to now.

Tomorrow: what was Kusha like when we first got here?

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Musings from Bubba's Desk: The Good Guys are Winning . . . Honest.

Notes from the author: Musings from Bubba’s Desk

Recently one of my Facebook friends posted that she was not enjoying her life. I’ve had the JW’s (that’s what Jehovah’s Witnesses call themselves these days) come to my door to tell me that we are all going to hell in a hand-basket.

What’s wrong with these people? There are fewer people engaged in armed conflict than at any other time in human history. Poverty and crime are down. Science is making new discoveries on an almost daily basis. Our understanding of the nature of matter and the universe is expanding like never before.

This is a wonderful time to be alive. Gay people and women are getting access to the rights they should have had all along. Like him or not, having elected a black man as president speaks to an increasing amount of tolerance in society for those who do not look like us.

I just don’t get all this doom and gloom. Yes, there are problems to deal with. The environment is going to be a huge job to repair, if that is even possible. We still have religion and all its associated problems to deal with but there are signs that they are slowly fading. Corporations have way too much influence in society but there are people becoming involved in that fight.

There is in America a very vocal minority who wish to impose on us all their particular political bent. But, even the Tea Party seems to be fading.

Life is good. Try to hang on to that thought. I understand that we all have our own personal demons and issues to deal with. I’ve been called the meanest man in the world a couple of times in my life. I get sad and angry at times but I never loose my love of life. I’m having too much fun. 

This is a great time to be alive. Don’t listen to the turkeys who are selling this negative thought system. Humans are getting better all the time. We don’t go to stadiums to watch people hack at each other with swords. We don’t stage public executions for our entertainment. We are safer, healthier, wiser than we have ever been.

Relax people, enjoy your life. It’s OK.

Work for good, but know that we are winning.

Earth Year 2013

Never mix red wine with Oodo.

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: What was that awful smell?

Welcome endearing readers. Thanks for being here. Something about planet Harappa that I and most Harappans did not know until we moved away was that Harappa had its own peculiar smell.

This was due mostly to the oceans which had a healthy population of algae. The algae became one of the main sources of food for many Harappans. Those of us in the White Mountains did not eat the stuff. At least not if we didn’t have to. Fortunately for me my wife grew up with the Mandan who also did  not eat the green goo.

I do understand that the Mother does like the stuff. Apparently she still has it for breakfast. The Kushan oceans have salt in them and the algae wont grow there but commercial ponds were set up out side of Harappa City. I don’t know many people who still eat it but I’m sure as pond as the Mother wants it someone will grow it.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Early Harappan Ecology

Greetings wise readers. Thanks for being here. Humans landed on Harappa in the Earth year 2190. There actually two ships that were a part of the Arc of the Millenium. The first ship carried a small corp of engineers and construction workers. Johnson himself landed with this group. The bulk of the colonists arrived six months later.

One of the main features of the environment of Harappa was the Dark Times. Every twelve years the Blud Moon would pass infront of the sun blocking its warming rays for over a week. In that time the planet froze. The oceans became the consistency of oatmeal.  

Harappans learned to go underground for that time. It became a family time a party. We’d head to shelters and huddle together drinking Oodo and wine (not together of course) and eating ourselves sick. The first two Dark Times were spent in the caverns of the Librarians on Mount Cailas.

There weren’t many large animals on Harappa besides some of the bigger insects. The most notable animal of the planet was the black wolves. They looked a little like a dog or wolf but hairless and metalic looking teeth. They were very smart. They hunted in packs and often used an organized assault. I know, I survived a few of these attacks when Dorian and I were escorting Rodin to see his leaders before the Battle of Caelum. That was also when I first met my wife Ina.

The other feature of the Dark Times was the life that came out after. There were these slags, something like large Earth slugs. They were as big as a grown man‘s foot or bigger. They came out after the Dark Times and literally covered the ground. Walking was difficult with the slimy, things carpeting the ground.

After their reproduction cycle was over they’d die, having left their seed in the ground to wait for the next cold snap to wake them up. It was a real mess to clean up.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Death Watch for Planet Harappa

Greetings dynamic readers. Thanks for being here. We’re discussing the planet Harappa. Yesterday I mentioned that many Harappans are starting their death watch for the world they came from.

Typically when Harappans gather to mourn the often sing an old Harappan folk song called Sweet Peace. It has a sad melody and the words recall a loved one, wishing them sweet peace where they lay.

A lot of Harappans are singing that song these days. In a matter of weeks our world will be no more. 

I’m an old fart in every sense of the phrase. I’ve lived on Kusha for eighty years or so. I remember Harappa but Kusha is my home now. I’m not much for sentimentality so I for one am not spending a lot of time watching the vids from the planet.

The EG has daily updates and vids on  Harappa. It no longer looks like the world we lived on. The oceans are gone, boiled away several years ago. The last of the harvesters were pulled off world last year. What ever illumaphane is still there will fall into the sun very soon. Harappa is now a molten furnace of rock and lava. The White Mountains where I lived have been overcome by a super-volcano that rose out of the Black Range to the North.

I do feel some sadness at the demise of this world, but more than that I feel anger. Anger at the strange series of events that led to Harvest Day, the death of Paladin and the End of Harappa.

Tomorrow: Harappa when humans first got there.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Harappa and Kusha

Greetings wonderful readers. Thanks for being here. I had a great time at the park this weekend. It was nice to see some of my readers there. Glad I got to meet you and hear your ideas about what you’d like to read in the blog.

My interest has been Harappan history for some time. Of course I include Kusha since most Harappans moved here after Harvest Day. When we got here it hit me that there was soon to be a physical end to Harappa, the world of my birth. 

I didn’t see anyone else doing it so I took it on myself to compile what history I could. I have been traveling around Kusha gathering what stories I can about Harappans and their time on our Homeworld.

I’ve met some interesting people and gathered some fine stories, big and small.

I’ll be sharing some of these stories with you over time. But this week I’ll tell you a little about the world itself. Its ecology, its environment, its creatures.

We don’t know too much about how Marcus Johnson found the planet. He did not keep many records from his time on Earth. What we know is that his observations about the world were very sketchy. He knew that it had an oxygen rich atmosphere and a gravity that humans could live with. He knew that its days and years were similar to Earth’s. He knew that there was lots of water. He also knew that the orbit was not all that stable. There was a wobble in it that he could see from Earth.

We now know that the instability of the orbit was a result of the Blue Moon. The Blue Moon was a small gas giant planet that had fallen into Harappa’s orbit. The illumaphane on Harappa held the larger world in place. 

The Harvest Day Blast broke the bond between Harappa and the Blue Moon. The blue Moon flew off on its own path and Harappa started a spiral towards its sun. Harappa should meet its final end in just a few months from now. There are scientists from around the Galaxy gathering to monitor the situation. The Death Watch has started.

Tomorrow: How Harappans are viewing the end of their Homeworld.

Never Mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 87

Earth Year 2479

Notes from Bubba's Desk: Why I want you to read my book.

Notes from the Author: Musings from Bubba’s Desk

The writing is the easy part.

When I am writing, especially the first draft I am right there with my characters. I go on the emotional amusement park ride that I send them on. When my hero is swinging from the chandeliers my adrenaline is rising. When she cries I am sad. When she is safe I am relieved. I don’t want to tell you what happens when she has sex.

The writing I love, it’s is all the other stuff that I and I think most writers dislike. Why do I do it? Why do I drive to the library five days a week to post this blog? Why do I spend time trying to get people to look at my book when I’d rather be writing the dramatic conclusion of my (and Max Gavaskar’s) story?

Because I love Little Max, that’s why.

I originally started writing the Max Gavaskar series as a way to promote Harappa, the sci-fi saga I wrote a few years ago. In the process of writing Max’s story I came to understand that everything I had written before led to her story. I understood that Max is the central character in my saga.

I have huge plans for her. I am just now finishing the sequel to “The Gavaskar Field” called “Kusha”. I have found it much easier to write Kusha since it is more action packed and action is one of my strengths as a writer. I have also started the first draft of “The Mother of the Galaxy” which will conclude Max’s story and I hope to have it ready for summer reading.

I expect the “Mother” to be a bit more work to complete. The plot is more complex and a bit more internal. On the other hand it is more emotional. Both these issues are more difficult for me as a writer.

Not long ago I was pitching this story to a literary agent who asked me, “Why are you pushing this story?” 

I’ve asked myself many times why I went the self publishing route.

. . . because I wan’t Max’s story to see the light of day no matter how it is done. I still have hope for a publishing deal but if the big guys don’t want to give Max a little push I’m going to do it on my own. If Max’s story only gets read by my friends and family then so be it. At least she will be out there where she belongs. I know deep in my heart that the world will fall in love with Max Gavaskar once they get to know her.

Earth Year 2013

Never mix red wine with Oodo.