Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Starting to miss Max Gavaskar

Welcome fine readers. Thanks for being here.

Last week was the Kushan Yam Festival here in Harappa City. It was fine time for all. People are heading home now and only the memories remain. Several shuttles left yesterday taking people to their respective starships.

The big disappointment was the fact that Max Gavaskar was unavailable. Her health is not good and she was unable to greet visitors. Many came here to planet Kusha just for that. There is a galaxy wide malaise about the demise of the beloved Max Gavaskar. That she was even unable to see people is a huge concern. There has been hope that modern medicine would come up with something for her. Alas, that seems not to be available for our little Max.

With the festival over and Max disappearing to her private compound Harappa City is a sad place today. 

Not that Max Gavaskar was ever a regular fixture in Harappa City. She was usually too busy to spend a lot of time in town. When she was on Kusha she was usually here to rest between diplomatic missions. She mostly stayed with her family and friends at the Gavaskar Compound. She would come to town and visit but it was usually a quick visit and then she would retire to her private compound. But, that was enough. It was enough for the people to know she was there. To know that Max Gavaskar, the Mother of the Galaxy, was among us was enough. It gave us hope and pride. When she makes the final journey we will be lost without her. LIfe will go on but there will be a gap in all our lives.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The end of the Festival

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

Whew! The Kushan Yam Festival is over. The prizes have been handed out. The cider and wine has been put back in the cellars and the musicians are putting their instruments away for the moment. Harappa City is calm and peaceful this morning.

The memories still linger. This week I’ll share some stories from the event. Some things I experienced and some that I heard of.

My personal experience of the event started with the opening ceremony. Me and the Gutterminds played for the opening and that got us involved right away. I enjoyed the event, we played well and after there were several folks wanting to buy us drinks.

I slept in the next day and that evening we played in a local tavern, the Bird in Hand. We were joined by a Loric guitarist and he was really hot. All I did the next day was take in a couple of Ball Games with my friend Dorian Thain.

The last day of the event, me and the Gutterminds played at a park. It was a lovely day, a lot of families gathered for a picnic. When that was over we all moved to the town square for the awards ceremonies. I didn’t win anything but then I guess you’d have to enter something to win.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba the Science Fan's Friday Blog: Debating Creationists

Welcome fine readers. Thanks for being here.

In my ongoing series of debates with creationists I have come to understand dogma. Firmly held dogma. Providing facts and links to scientific articles defending natural selection and evolution does no good. Asking questions that will not be answered does no good. 

Why do I do it?

My hope is that someday a fence sitter will read through one of my debates and be swayed to the scientific side of the argument. I don’t expect to convert my debate opponents. They have made it very clear that they have made up their minds. Usually they each have one comment they fall on to. Richard Dawkins or Lawrence Krauss quotes taken out of context appear often. Equating science with atheism happens a lot. We keep hearing the same bogus claims over and over. The scientists keep showing why the second law of thermodynamics does not disprove evolution and the creationists keep throwing it back in our face.

I have found one way to make them disappear. I ask them to offer some proof of their theory. Not an argument agains’t evolution but an argument for creation. They either come back with one more tired opposition to evolution or they disappear.

I don’t want to wreck anyones religion. What I want is for the religious to not try to take over the government to take away rights from those who do not support their particular beliefs and I don’t want their religion taught in the science classroom.

Simple.

Never mix red wine with Oodo, but cider is fine.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Jammin' with a Loric Guitar Player

Welcome fine readers. Thanks for being here.

Last night my band The Gutterminds were playing at the Bird in Hand. We were really jammin’. We were sounding great. Then a Lor came into the bar. He was wearing one of their new head bowls. He asked if he could join in.

At first I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. The Lor had a guitar and we already have a guitar player. Bubba said he was open to letting the Lor have a shot so we agreed. 

He identified him self as LM 279, his Fordian name, we called him  Mick.

Mick took out his guitar and it barely fit under his breathing helmet. We started an old Chuck Berry song and Mick joined in.

I’ve listened to a lot of Loric music. Their symphonies are spectacular. Their music is moving in ways we don’t usually get from even our own music. Well when this Lor started wailin’ on his guitar the room took notice. Their hands are very similar to our own and the guitar was more than just a tool in his hands. Bubba, our guitarist is a find guitar player but this Lor was transcendental.

Word started spreading around town and soon the place was packed and there was a growing crown outside trying to listen in.

I guess humans and Lor have more in common that most space species. I look forward to more musical interactions with Loric musicians. I’m not very impressed with their cooking but their music . . .

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Aliens and Games at the Festival

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

The Kushan Yam Festival is in full swing. Entries for the cooking contests are being prepared and sports teams are making final plans for their contests. Literary contest entrants are being read and evaluated. Party goers are doing what party goers do . . . partying.

Yes, Harappa City is a party town, especially during the Festivals, the Yam Festival being the biggest. All the taverns and saloons are operating on expanded hours and doing huge business.

The Gutterminds are playing most evenings this week at various venues. All the other bands around are playing too. There is music and wine everywhere.

Later in the week several alien species are sending representatives. Kusha gets lots of alien tourists and many of them are here already but the Bigwigs come later in the week.

The mingling of various alien species is something fairly new to Kushan festivals. The first few years that aliens came to attend there were some awkward moments as the species got to know one another. Not everyone in the Milky Way can handle alcohol like humans can. Neither the Lor nor the Fordians drink alcohol, however the Lors have a herbal libation they consume called Kallah. I’ve tried it but didn’t find it interesting in any way. It apparently does not have the same effect on humans. The Lor get quite giggly when they take this.

After a few years of alien participation we have all gotten to know one another quite well. There are no more drunken fights between alien races. There are still fights occasionally between fans of various sports teams but they seem to be mixed species fights and not one species against another.

Some of the aliens are starting to get involved in the contests. There is not yet a Loric Ball team but I understand there are teams forming on several planets and next year we may have off world entries. Not sure how the rules will have to be changed to accommodate the various attributes of the various alien species. We’ll have to see.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Opening Ceremonies of the Kushan Yam Festival

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

We survived. We made it through the opening ceremony of the Kusha Yam Festival.

Me and my bandmates, "The Gutterminds” played for the opening ceremony. Lots of ale, cider and wine was flowing on and around the stage. I understand that there was Oodo too but I did not take any of that. I was playing bass after all. I can play under the influence to a point but Oodo makes you too crazy, even to play Toxik Idols music.

We did a ninety minute set before the speakers came on. We did come classics (Idols, Stones, Beatles . . .) and some new tunes done in the old rock and roll style. I’ve written a new song called “Mother, May I” about Max Gavaskar. There were a few tears when we played that as people came to understand that Max would not be there for the festival. Her absence is its own presence. It is something palpable this year. Next year will be different and the year after that. Eventually people will come to forget that she was even involved in the pageantry of the Kusha Yam Festival.

This year everyone is talking about Max. “How is she?”, “Does she  even know what is going on?” etc.

No one knows what Max knows right now beyond her small family circle. I understand a Fordian Ambassador is coming to Kusha in the next months or so for an official meeting so we assume Max is still alert and somewhat active.

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the people who are here and what they are doing.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Opening of the Yam Festival

Welcome Festival Going readers. Thanks for being here.

Hooray! The Kusha Yam Festival starts today. Just a short blog today. I must get to the Square to help set up for a concert today. The Gutterminds are playing at the opening ceremony.

tomorrow, however, I’ll share tales from this years festival and perhaps some stories from past events. 

See you tomorrow then.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba the Science Fan's Friday Blog: Learning new things at Finnriver Farm and Cidery

Welcome groovy readers. Thanks for being here.

Another Friday another weekend at Finnriver Farm and Cidery. Today I am working in the label room in the morning and in the afternoon I will be working as host in the Tasting Room.

The jobs in production are more like meditations. Repetitive and calming. The crew usually plays music while they work. There is a camaraderie in the crew that is fun to be a part of. There is a joy in making cider. The work can be repetitive and physically hard but there is always in the back of your head the joy of creating something so fine, so fun.

The tasting room on the other hand requires you to be “on”. You can’t just cruise through the shift. While cleaning bottles for the label machine you can let your mind wander some. In the tasting room you have to be sharp all the time. The customers expect you to be knowledgable and charming.

Charming is not all that tough, most people come to the tasting room with a great attitude and the wonderful ciders of Finnriver melt the hearts of most skeptics. But, one has to keep up to stay with what’s going on at the cidery. We are always creating new ciders and wines. I learn more every day. Yesterday I was pouring buckets of blackberries into the vat for making our Spirited Blackberry Wine. Not very educational by itself but being around the cider maker and listening to him and watching him work is a learning process in itself.

What a great job when you can keep learning new things and spend time with charming people.

Never mix red wine with Oodo, but cider is fine.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Max Gavaskar's Health

Welcome happy readers. Thanks for being here.

Yesterday after writing my blog it struck me that we were in the last days of Max Gavaskar. She may only  live for a few more months. I hope to get to see her again before she leaves us for good but I may not. I may have met the Mother of the Galaxy for the last time and that saddens me a great deal. Not that I have had regular daily meetings with her but knowing that she is a small part of my life makes me proud. Max Gavaskar has come to know many people areound the Galaxy and one of them is me.

I can honestly say that I knew her before she became known as the Mother of the Galaxy. When I first met her she was a refugee from the SID. Back then the SID was the most powerful human agency even though their influence was small on planet Kusha.

When Max first went underground she met Alice Toten who arranged for Max to hide out with David Green, a member of the Paladain Society. Unfortunately Mister Green was killed almost immediately after he and Max met.

In conversations I’ve had with Ms. Toten, I’ve come to learn that when Max first went to Ms. Toten Max wanted to try to get to planet Kusha. Alice Toten thought getting to Kusha would expose Max too much and assumed that the SID agents would be looking at the pathway between Harappa and Kusha. 

History tells us they were. The SID was focusing on starship loads going  to planet Kusha and mostly ignored the Lavan flights. Had that little quirtk of history gone only a little differently Max may have been found and arrested.

How would history have been different had Max been caught? 

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Kusha without the Mother of the Galaxy

Welcome joyous readers. Thanks for being here.

Everyone on planet Kusha is eagerly anticipating the Kusha Yam Festival. It will be a fun and exciting time for all . . .

Well, for most anyway. There is a sad undertone to this year’s celebration. Typically Max Gavaskar is the Grand Marshal and opens and closes the festivities.

Word has come that her health will prevent her from attending this year. Last year her activities were limited but she did appear at the opening and closing ceremonies in a hover bed. It was up lifting seeing her and sad to see her so diminished.

The Festival will go on without her but she will be on the minds of all attendees. No one is sure how much longer she will live but I hear from her doctors that her end wont be long, perhaps a few months, no more.

Max’s absence will be a physical presence this year but we march on. Next year things will seem more normal without the participation of the Mother of the Galaxy and better the year after. Eventually it will seem as if she was not ever really with us and w=she will ascend into the mythical realm. Her memory will become embellished as the memories of all great people are. The reality of her life will eventually fade behind the myth of the Mother of the Galaxy. 

Unless you read my blog posts about the real Max Gavaskar.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Preparing for the Yam Festival

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

This week we’re getting ready for the Kushan Yam Festival. Certainly the event will honor the Kushan Yam and all the wonderful things you can do with them but that is only part of the event. There will also be sports, music, arts and crafts and of course much socialization.

Planet Kusha is a beautiful world and we have a happy population of active, hard working people. We socialize often. We work hard and we play hard. 

People have been working hard in the yam fields and the harvest is almost complete. Next week the work will be done and we play hard.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The Kushan Yam Festival

Welcome open readers. Thanks for being here.

The Kushan Yam festival is coming again! Many preparations are yet to be made. Relatives are making plans to be here in Harappa City. Recipes are being refined. Ciders and brews are being finished and musicians are practicing new acts.

Me and my band the Gutterminds have been preparing for weeks. We’re adding some new Harappan folk songs and a couple of rock and roll songs from the Earth Classical Rock Era.

A new stage is being built in the City Square. A tent city is being set up on Rodin’s Field, east of town. Many of the out of towners will set up there. Shops, eateries and sports fields will be set up there as well. It will be a complete city before the end of the festival.

This week I’ll spend some time discussing preparations for the Kusha Yam Festival.  Next week the event takes place and I’ll have reports from the action.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba's Friday Blog: Working at Finnriver Farm and Cidery

Welcome beloved readers. Thanks for being here.

Trying to work a full time job, finish my novel and write a blog five days a week is tough. I like to write the blog in chunks. That way I can try to create a flow from one post to the next. However when you are pressed for time that can get tough.

Today I’m going to share some of my experiences at Finnriver. Which is where my work is taking me these days.

It started out as a part time job hosting in the tasting room but it has developed into a full time job with me spending time helping with production of Finnriver Ciders.

Don’t worry I don’t mess with the recipes, but who knows I may someday get an idea for a new cider. I spend time labeling and bottling.

The tasting room is for me something like a musical performance. Giving a tasting is like singing a song. You don’t have to sing the song the same way every time but there are certain notes you have to hit. I love interacting with the customers and sharing a product I happen to enjoy very much.

Working on the production crew is more of a team effort. Each of several persons are required to perform specific tasks in a line of tasks needed to bottle or label a bottle. I enjoy the sense of teamwork and the accomplishment of a pallet of beautiful cider bottles.

The crew are all fun, hard working young people. They all love being at Finnriver. So do I.

The management of the farm are the kind of people you love to see achieve success. They are honest and earnest with a real commitment to making their corner of the world a better place. It is nice to go to work not having to worry about the ethics of the company I work for.

Family obligations and life took me out of the work force for some time and when my wife and I settled on the Olympic Peninsula to be near family I hoped to get a job. Someone over sixty that hasn’t had a “job” is several years in not what most employers are looking for. I have often joked that someday I would have to be a Wal Mart greeter. Indeed that seemed the only kind of job available and the jobs that were out there were going to younger people.

Finnriver Farm and Cidery took a chance on me and I am going to do everything I can to make them glad that they did. . .  And I am going to have a great time doing so.

I will continue to offer my views on science and society here on my Friday blog but I will also be telling stories from the farm as they come. For example yesterday they were “disgorging” which is opening the sparking cider bottles after “riddling” to loose the sediment plug. By it self not too fascinating but the process is made more fun by the farm dogs. They love to eat the plugs. When the bottles are opened the pressure from the carbonation pushes them out with force. The dogs leap and flip to catch them as they fly across the courtyard. It is better than a frisbee dog show.

Come by Finnriver some afternoon you might get to see this and many more fascinating things that happen there. And If I’m in the tasting room I’ll show you a great time.

Never mix red wine with Oodo, but cider is fine.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Looking for lifeless planets in the Milky Way

Welcome great readers. Thanks for being here.

I have been discussing the demise of planet Kusha these past couple of days. Granted it’s not happening for several hundred thousand years, but if we had to move, is there somewhere we could go.

Yes. There are indeed worlds out there capable of supporting life that are not already colonized by living things. There aren’t many but they do exist. Most planets capable of supporting life do. The theory of the primal bacteria is supported by the notion that anywhere in the Milky Way we’ve been where life could possibly survive, we’ve found life there.

Surveyors are out scanning the galaxy looking for sterile planets in the “Goldilocks Zone”. They are being catalogued and watched. My guess is that they will be settled soon so as to beat the Galactic provisions against settling planets that already have life.

There are also being searched for evidence for the primal bacteria. Scientists have been trying to find this bacteria for  along time and so far have come up empty handed. There have been a few close calls but none so far have had all the characteristics required for the first life. There is hope that something will be found on the sterile empty worlds.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The End of Planet Kusha

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

Yes, planet Kusha is a dying planet. It’s core is cooling and solidifying. Eventually the magnetic field will weaken and the world’s life will begin to die.

Am I worried about this? Um, not really. Most scientists think this will not happen for six to seven hundred thousand years.

Until then we party on here on planet Kusha. But that begs the question, “How soon doe we need to start looking for a new world?”

How many worlds are out available for colonization? Further the question must be asked if there is any life on any potential world do we have a right to move there and take over?

We humans colonized Harappa which had complex life. We took over there world and in fighting amongst ourselves destroyed the planet. The black wolves on Harappa are all dead now as well as all the other indigenous life. Who knows that they weren’t destined to evolve into something with more intellect. Perhaps it would have been one of them to stop the coming Cosmic War.

This is a dilemma that there is no answer to. Not even Max Gavaskar came up with a good answer for these questions. Unless you can find a lifeless world you can terraform you are going to end the evolutionary path of living things.

Tomorrow we’ll look at what kinds of worlds are available.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Autumn on Planet Kusha

Welcome helpful readers. Thanks for being here

Fall is coming to planet Kusha. Yes, Kusha has a winter. Kind of. We get rain and some mountains get snow. I mean even Harappan had snow and it was a hot world. 

Here on Kusha we only get snow in the high mountains. Kusha is an old world and its geology is settling down. It is suspected that this world will become unlivable in less than a hundred thousand years. Buy then the magnetic field will diminish due to the solidifying of the planet’s core. The internal heat of this world is cooling and is suspected to continue doing to till the planet freezes.

The age of Kusha is one factor that has made living here so pleasant but also carries the seed of our world’s end. There are very few natural disasters here. Volcanos are mostly entirely extinct. The crust of Kusha is very stable as the inside of the world solidifies. The climate is stable as well but slowly cooling. Several thousand years ago when the Fordians were occupying the world it was a much warmer place. The Fordians liked it that way. They prefer a mean temperature around 35º to 40º. The actions of the Fordians raised the temperature to levels even they found uncomfortable but the cooling trend has wiped away most of the environmental damage done by the Fordians.

Tomorrow: more on the future of Kusha

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba the Science Fan's return to the blog.

Welcome gentle readers. Thanks for being here.

I am back from a short respite in writing my blog. Philip the Bard will return tomorrow with tales from Max Gavaskar’s life and more.

The final book in the Max Gavaskar series will be coming out soon. Hopefully, before the holidays. I have been in contact with the cover artist and I eagerly anticipate her work on the cover. 

I am editing the draft and preparing it for the “real” editor. I think it will be the best book in the series.

The future of the blog? I can’t say for sure how long I will be writing this blog. At least until after the final book comes out. There will be some back story that I can delve into then. There are some things I don’t want “out there” until readers have had a chance at the book. I don’t want to reveal too many spoilers.

When the blog is done it will be a chronicle of the universe I have created. This content along with the Max Gavaskar series, and the as yet unpublished Harappa comprise the Harappan History Project. 

There are certainly untold stories left in this Universe but I am not sure exactly what form they might take. I have a hope that someday fan fiction will fill in some of the gaps. I have yet to hear from any of my readers outside of my friendly circle so I don’t know what the feelings about Max and her world are. If there is no interest there will be no continuation of Max’s story.

Her story it self is told fairly completely in “The Mother of the Galaxy” and I doubt that readers will be left feeling that her story is unfinished. Yes, there are parts of her story untold that might be fodder for future books but the story started when Marcus Johnson left Earth with 2000 followers will be told to its conclusion.

The end of Max’s story does have a “tease” about possible future conflicts, some may find that story intriguing.

In the mean time, Philip the Bard will dish about Max and her friends and I will be offering my observations about recent scientific advances and occasional social commentary.

Be here.

Never mix red wine with Oodo, but cider is fine.

Earth Year 2014