Existential Save Games
In this podcast post, I talk about a singularly odd thing that happened in GTA, which brought into question the very nature of the universe.

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If you'd like to download just this file, this is the link.
If you'd like to read the original text, here it is:

I was just playing GTA: San Andreas a second ago, and I noticed something wholly unseen in the history of man.

First of all, you have to understand something about the way they do savegames. When you step on the little floating floppy disk, the game will do five things: save your game progress (obviously), fully heal you, fully feed you, drop any wanted level you may have gained, and advance the clock by six hours.

In the past, I have always assumed that it worked like this: I walked into my safehouse, got something to eat, had a bit of a lie down to refresh myself, and then came out six hours later. However, I have a spinning savegame icon that's standing in between two pillars in front of a garage, so it's not really a safehouse.

Anyway, I was running out of health, because my wanted level was at about three stars (not impossible to survive, but impossible to ignore). Cops were pouring out of the landscape, shooting off all of my armor, then most of my health. I got to the savegame icon with only one percent health, and a cop pointing his gun in my face. As I was looking down the cobalt blue barrel, the screen flashed to a "Save Game?" prompt.

I said yes, and the game resumed. It was six hours later, I was still standing in the middle of the parking lot, and still looking death in the barrel, when the cop put his gun down and walked away.

It had such an existential feel to it, like the last scene in Time Bandits, where Sean Connery gets back into the firetruck and waves as they drive off.

I figure this is what happened: The cops were pursuing me when I suddenly blipped out of existence. They ran a five-hour exhaustive manhunt, during which I could not be found. One cop stayed in place, swearing to all the others, "I don't care what you say! He freakin' vanished, man!" Then, just as he was giving up hope, I blipped back into existence in front of him. The vision of me, appearing like magic in front of the cop was a highly religious experience, one that made him rethink his whole moral outlook. He put his gun down, swearing never to raise it to another man in anger, and went home to tell his wife that they were going to buy a farm and live off the land.

Of course, it could be one of those normal gameplay invariants, but I like my version better.
- posted by BrandG @ 11:35 PM 0 comments

 
Video Game Ethics 4 - Sex
In this podcast, I talk about the ethics of sex as handled by games. With added 'Hot Coffee' goodness.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast this is the link.
If you'd like to download just this file, this is the link.
If you'd like to read the original text, here it is:

It's kind of tough to talk about video games, ethics, and sex, because I don't think humanity has completely defined what appropriate sexual ethics are.

I mean, sexual issues seem to wax and wane with each generation. For instance, in America, just thirty years ago, homosexuality was never referred to on TV or film.

In that thirty years, however, we have seen "Will & Grace", "The L Word", and even the Crying Game. So, morals swing a lot over time.

Rather than try to determine where games stand on the right or wrong of sex,let's look at where they stand on individual issues within the realm of "sex".

Before I get started, let me point out that I'm drawing a distinction here between sex in games, and sex games.

The first group is personified by games that you can buy on the shelves at any Best Buy or Electronic Boutique (Leisure Suit Larry, Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto).

The second group is usually bought over the internet or downloaded (Hentai games, strip blackjack games, stuff like that).

Without trying to offend anyone, I'm going to call the first group "Normal" games (games that revolve around gameplay), and the second group "Hentai" games (games that revolve around sex).

I should point out that there are very few games out there that have courtship or sex, and of those few, they all feature a male courting a woman.

But while you may see a game where the male has to buy expensive presents, flowers, and candy for the female, you won't ever see a strong female lead striving to convince a male to love her. In this, at least, art imitates life.

Monogamy:

Of the entire range of "Normal" games, there are almost no games that support monogamy.

Whenever courting is represented in a video game, it is almost always a man courting a woman; and in all of those situations, the man is allowed to court as many women as he wishes.

Every episode of Leisure Suit Larry was about the player trying to have sex with as many girls as he could.

In Fable, a man can marry a woman in a grand ceremony, then walk to the nearest town and marry again.

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, there are six different women who are designated "girlfriends".

It is quite possible, and apparently pretty common, for people to co-mingle in "The Sims". They can even get married, although even that is limited to kissing and hugging. Also, the Sims condones poligamy by allowing the male to marry as many females as he wants.

Now, there are several games out there that have a woman as a goal ("Save the Princess" to receive a chaste kiss on the cheek), but in those games, there is never an alternative.

You can't get to the end of the game and say, "Actually, I think the evil witch is more my type."

And because there's no choice, it's not really monogamous (was Adam really monogamous with Eve, or was there just no other choice?).

In Hentai games, monogamy is not even a consideration. Most of the game is involved not with which woman you should sleep with, but rather details about how you sleep with them.

T&A:

Given how much it's been covered in the past, it's almost not worth mentioning that body styles in video games have grown unbelievable.

Every leading man has a 30-inch waist, washerboard abs, four foot wide shoulders, and rippling muscles.

Every leading lady fits a 36-24-36 DD format, and in some games, you can even set how much the breasts bounce when she moves.

This section is obviously tailored to the lowest common denominator, and it will not change. Why? You may ask? Because there's a lot more people in the lower common denominator than in any other group, and they spend money the same way anybody else does.

And, of course, it's even worse in the Hentai games.

The Act:

In Normal games, showing the act is very rare, and usually involves creative editing. GTA will show a car bounce up and down if you hire a prostitute.

Leisure Suit Larry will show some suggestive imagery, but put black "Censor bars" over the private parts of the couple. Probably my favorite example of this was in the first LSL, where the Censor bar was the exact same size as Larry, so it looked like the bar was bouncing on top of Larry's date.

A more common form is to fade to black, or show an exterior shot of the room, while you hear the moaning coming from inside.

Either way, games apparently don't think it's necessary to show much in this situation. Why, you may ask? Because it's got nothing to do with gameplay, and gameplay is king.

In Hentai games, you rarely see much of the act, because in most cases, it's just a series of images with lurid descriptions. However, in the games that show animated sex, they rarely shy away from showing any part of the act.

Now, no modern discussion about sex in video games would be complete without talking about the biggest news story in video games this past year, the Hot Coffee Mod.

It seems that, while developing the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the guys at Rockstar thought it would be fun to make a minigame based on sex itself. However, the company decided to cut the minigame, because of censorship concerns. For all we know, this happens a lot in video games, but we never find out, because they always remove that code before shipping the game.

And, in fact, we probably never would have heard about this one, except that when they took out the minigame, they didn't completely remove it. And so, after some enterprising hackers got into the game, they unlocked the sex minigame, and created a mod so that everyone could play it.

Now, to be fair, there wasn't a whole lot to see there. It was basically a couple of sexless Barbie dolls bumping into each other, in time with a beat. The game was already rated T for Teen, so it was pretty much in line with what had been seen before. A lot of people compared it to the sex scene from "Team America: World Police" where two marrionettes bounce into each other humourously. It was, frankly, pretty tame.

The gaming world went nuts. Parents groups were up in arms. Walmart, KMart, Target, they all said they would be removing the game from their shelves. The ESRB decided to re-rate the game as "Adults Only", a rating which had previously only been used for Hentai and other porn-based games.

So this is probably the clearest indication we can get as to what the culture thinks of sex. Whereas it was entirely valid to suggest that a player can have sex with multiple partners, it was entirely off-limits to actually show two androgynous people engaging in consensual sex. Once again we get the message that the image of sex is bad, but the concept of sex is good, or at least, not worth mentioning.

Re-cap:

So, games seem to be physically and emotionally immature, either incapable or unwilling to commit to one relationship. Also, they seem somewhat chauvinistic in their portrayal of men pursuing women. However, they seem to be pretty prudish when it comes to nudity in the games.

That seems kind of odd, that they are okay with multiple partners, but unwilling to show naked people. But when you think about it, it's not that odd. Our censorship is based on images, not on content.

Next up - Gluttony and Envy
- posted by BrandG @ 9:47 PM 0 comments

 
In-Browser Podcast Player
If you look at the top of this page, just under the title, you'll see a Flash player that will let you listen to the Rambling Brand Podcast in your browser!

If you're like me, you load up podcasts on your MP3 player for the commute to work. If, however, you want to 'try before you buy', this gives you a great opportunity. I hope you like it.
- posted by BrandG @ 8:56 PM 0 comments

 
Lying
In today's post we look at the ethical situation in video games regarding Lying. Where are you allowed to lie in a video game? How do most games handle it (if at all).

f you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, this is the link.
If you'd like to download just this episode (about 3.2 meg), this is the link.
And if you'd like to read the original blog post about it, this is the link.
- posted by BrandG @ 8:09 AM 0 comments

 
Theft
In today's post we look at the ethical situation in video games regarding theft. Namely, is there anything wrong with stealing the red key from a Troll?

f you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, this is the link.
If you'd like to download just this episode (about 9 meg), this is the link.
And if you'd like to read the original blog post about it, this is the link.
- posted by BrandG @ 9:53 PM 0 comments

 
ITunes Listing
If you'd like to follow this podcast using ITunes, it is now listed.

Just open ITunes, click on the Music Store, then click podcasts, and type "Rambling Brand" in the search box next to the magnifying glass. When you hit enter, you'll see this Podcast listed at the top!
- posted by BrandG @ 6:41 PM 0 comments

 
Video Game Ethics Chapter 1 - Murder
A long time ago (nearly a year ago), I wrote a short treatise on ethics in video games. Now I don't mean the effect that games have on society, children, or whatever. This is solely a look at what kind of ethics a game expects from it's players. Ethics are imposed on players inside the game, and it's worth looking at what set of ethics people are expected to have in-game.

Anyway, today I recorded, mixed, and posted a podcast version of the first chapter of these treatises, about murder.

If you'd like to subscribe to the podcast, this is the link.
If you'd like to download just this episode (about 5 meg), this is the link.
And if you'd like to read the original blog post about it, this is the link.
- posted by BrandG @ 6:15 PM 0 comments

 
Sandy rough draft.
It occurred to me that I should post the actual story for Sandys, along with the podcast. This is actually the rough draft that I used for the final story, but it does at least give you the gist of it. Hope you like it.

If you'd like to hear the podcast form of the story, it's here.
Or you can subscribe to the podcast by using this link.


---- Sandys
---- by Brand Gamblin

Susan scribbled down one last saccharine platitude, and threw the pen into her bag. Staring down at the paper, she was glad to be done with it. American History papers always had to be syrupy patriotic and uplifting for a good grade.

She shut the history book with an unintentional slam, and stretched.The library was quiet and vacant, as it always was after classes. The air had time to settle, and dust wafted lazily through it, illuminating the afternoon light coming through the windows. Just watching it made Susan want to sneeze.

She liked having study hall at the end of the day. It always gave her a head start on the others, and gave her a chance to wind down before the evening. In the quiet of this room, it seemed like time slowed down to the speed of dust in the light. She yawned and grabbed the book with both hands.

Susan walked back to the reference section, her low heels snapping loudly in the empty room. Finding the right shelf, she slid the heavy book back into its place, healing the gapped-tooth row of historical encyclopedias.

"You've got to stay away from work!" A voice shouted from behind her. She grabbed the bookshelf in shock and spun around. The woman standing behind her was older, probably mid-fifties, in a power suit and expensively-styled hair. The woman looked intelligent and alert, but
very obviously stressed. "Susan, do you understand me?"

Susan leaned back against the bookshelf and put one palm over her heart. "Jesus, you scared the crap out of me."

The woman looked unmoved, "I'm sorry for my arrival, but I don't have much time, and I have to tell you –"

Susan pushed past her as she headed back to her table, "Just shut up. I don't want to hear it."

The old woman followed her, expensive shoes snapping crisply on the floor, "You don't understand. I'm from the future! I've come back with an important message!"

Susan shoved her papers back in her bag, refusing to look at the woman, "Oh, I understand all right. You've got an important message that will change the course of history, or change my life forever." She pulled the bag over her shoulder, and ducked under the strap as she fitted the bag, bandolier style, across her chest, "Now will you please shut up and go away!"

The woman grabbed her shoulders, "Prepare yourself for a shock."

Susan looked disinterestedly into the woman's tired eyes, "You're me, right?"

This stopped the woman suddenly, and she let go of Susan, "Uh, yes."

Susan frowned at her and raised an eyebrow, "Then, I suppose there is a question you can answer for me."

The woman brightened, "Wonderful! That's what I'm here for!"

"You could tell me, at exactly what point . . . I became so stupid." She breezed past the old woman, and headed for the door.

Her older self stood there, and put her hands on her hips angrily, "Young lady, you stop right there and take this seriously!"

Susan called out over her shoulder, "Don't bother. You can't change history, everybody knows that. Just go home." Susan opened the door,and nearly walked into the woman standing in the doorway.

Susan covered her face in embarrassment, "Oh, wonderful."

The woman in the doorway was clearly in her seventies, wearing a long sundress with bangles and tassels hanging all over it. She had a floppy hat, and kind eyes. She had deep and long laugh lines, and her mouth looked like it was unaccustomed to frowning. "My dear, have you already talked to her?"

The power suit walked up behind Susan, "Who are you?"

The old woman in the sundress said, "I'm you, dear. I know it must seem confusing, but I can't let you stop her."

Susan actually found it within herself to be embarrassed, angry, and bemused, "So, if I get this right, we're maid, mother, and crone, right? How about you guys wait here for MacBeth, and I'll be right back."

The others looked at her, and the older one said, "Dear, this is a serious matter. You know I wouldn't have come back if it weren't the most important –"

The power suit interrupted her, "That's what I'm telling her. That's why we can't go to the embassy today!"

The old woman put one wrinkled hand on the power suit, "No, hon. I know what you're going through, but it's something you're just going to have to deal with. I know what happens after –"

Susan pushed past them, "Great. So you two get acquainted, and I'll see you in about thirty years." She started a brisk walk down the hallway, headed for the exit. Behind her, the two were still bickering.

"No! You can't go to work today. Lives are at stake!"

"Woman! You leave that girl alone. She's got to do what she's got to do, and you can't stop her."

At the entrance, Susan could see her friend Becky, gawping at the tableau. As she approached, Becky asked, "Who are they?"

"They're Sandys. Can we go please?"

Becky's lip curled in a disgusted sneer, "Omigod. Sue, I'm so sorry for you."

Susan didn't even break stride, "Let's just go, they'll have to leave soon anyway."

Becky put one hand lightly on her back in sympathy, "Don't worry, hon. We'll go home the back way, nobody will see them."

Susan shook her head, "Actually, I forgot, I've got to go to work today." Behind her, a plaintive cry called out, "No! You can't go today!"

Becky looked back at them as they quickened their pace, "Wow, they get really worked up, don't they?"

"Yeah. It's really pathetic."

Becky faced forward again, smiling, "Good news. They're gone."

Susan pantomimed wiping the sweat off her brow, "I was afraid they were going to follow me all the way to work."

Becky pointed up ahead, "We're almost at the corner." She angled off toward home, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Susan nodded and waved, "Yeah." In the back of her mind, she thought, 'Unless the Sandy's right.'

Susan walked on in silence. It was more than five blocks from her school to the Hungarian embassy, a perfect distance for leisurely walks through the city. This was a special time of day for her, when she could just breathe deep, watch the trees bow with the wind, and just enjoy the time alone.

But not today. She did her best to ignore the Sandys (after all, that's all you can do) but they had got under her skin. Of course it was embarrassing enough to know that she would one day go back in time to give lifestyle hints to herself, but that wasn't the worst of it.

She took a deep breath, and tried to clear her head. Nobody knew when the time machine was invented, and these days, nobody cared. At some point in time, someone will discover the secret. Soon after that, the secret will be exposed. Soon after that, it will be mass marketed. And after that, who cares about keeping up with the timeline?

There was one ironclad rule to time travel that everybody knew. You can't change anything. If you go back in time to tell yourself to buy a certain stock, your earlier self will buy the wrong one, or you'll get the breath knocked out of you just as you're about to give up the information. Causality works like that, just one big stupid sitcom of comedic interference.

Or worse, if you actually fight causality, go back and change something big, you end up splitting off an alternative timeline, with ramifications you won't even see, because you're still stuck in your timeline when you get home. Or else, you end up in a timeline you couldn't have predicted, or something. It got into egghead territory at that point, and Susan frankly didn't care.

Still, for some people, the pull is just too great. They can't help themselves. They just feel like they have to go back in time and fix some terrible wrong, no matter what the consequences. It never works, but desperate people will go to desperate measures.

Whenever you see one of those desperate people (they were called Sandys, after the Cassandra complex), all you can do is shake your head and let them say their piece. Everybody knows it won't make any difference, but it's embarrassing to let people know that, someday in the future, you'll be stupid enough to become a Sandy.

The only thing worse than the Sandys was the –

Susan looked up at block ahead of her. There was nothing noticeably wrong, but it seemed to her like there were a lot of people standing around outside the Hungarian embassy. They all seemed to be watching the building, as though expecting something. She gritted her teeth, and finished the thought. The only thing worse than the Sandys was the Tourists.

Tourists were people who went through time, not to change anything, but just to witness it. These were the guys who packed Ford's theater the night of Lincoln's shooting. They are the ones trying to push their way into the Zapbruder film. They were the ones who stood in the high rises on September 11th, watching the World Trade Center. Bunch of voyeuristic bastards.

You could always tell which ones were the Tourists, too. They would be a large group, spaced out around some event that no one else could see happening. They would all be quietly staring at the same thing, and they'd refuse to tell you what it was. If you asked what they were looking at, or what was going to happen, most Tourists would just smile that know-it-all smile, and say, "Oh, nothing. I'm just hanging around." Or else, they would just play coy and make little jokes like, "Well, you never know who'll be dropping in." while staring at the sky.

It wasn't the timeline that made the Tourists act like that. They knew about causality, and didn't really care. They didn't like to tell people what was going to happen, because they felt like it spoiled the moment. It was like talking during the movie, saying, "I've seen this movie, the wife's the killer." Tourists thought it was rude to give away the ending.

But they weren't spies, and they weren't good at hiding their presence. Susan had never seen a crowd of tourists before, but a mammalian, pattern-recognition part of her brain recognized the danger. After that, it was hard not to notice them.

Susan stopped by a deli just a block from the embassy and waited. There was no way to tell what was going to happen, but she suddenly knew she didn't want to be in there. She started looking around, thinking she could grab one of the Tourists, and shake the truth out of him, when the bomb went off.

The first thing she noticed was the shock of it. From a block away, the explosion managed to knock the wind out of her, just before the sound hit. It was so loud, she didn't hear it at first. It was too sudden for her to realize what she'd heard, and it was replaced by the rumbling sound of the collapsing building.

Susan hadn't been looking at the embassy, so she missed the bright light of the explosion, but she turned in time to see the building buckle forward, tearing it's foundation apart in the back. Smoke had just started to issue out, and it all came at once, white dust, small grey rocks, and black smoke.

Embassys are political targets, and they're made to be defensive. Because of the recent Baltic struggle, this embassy had built up their defenses in preparation for protests. In the end, all the preparations did was force the car bomber to ignite the front of the embassy, rather than the whole first floor.

The entire building leaned forward over the thin two-lane entranceway. It leaned into, and crushed, several of the top floors of the building across the street. Then, after a sickening, twisted metal groan of effort, it seemed to settle temporarily against the other building.

Susan stood there with her mouth open. She didn't feel anything. She was bone weary suddenly, and she just wanted to sit down. She couldn't move, though. She just stood there and looked at the smoke.

She saw an ambulance pull up to the building, and the sight of it woke her up. There were people in there. She blinked quickly, as her brain unfroze. She started walking quickly over to the building. The paramedics would know what to do. Maybe she could help them.

She watched as they climbed out of the ambulance, and opened up the back. They looked around at all the Tourists, and waited. They turned and looked at the building. As Susan ran up to them, she could see that they weren't going in. They were just standing outside, waiting.

She ran up to them and breathlessly asked the nearest paramedic, "What's wrong? Why aren't you going in?"

The paramedic looked stoically apologetic, "I'm sorry, but we just can't go in yet. We gotta wait for the bomb squad."

She looked back at the building. She could see people behind some of the windows, trying to find a way to break through the bulletproof glass. "But there's people in there!"

He shook his head, "Look, I know how you feel, but there's about a dozen reasons we can't go in there." He looked back at the building, still shaking his head, "It's technically not American soil. We could be starting an international incident. What's more, the bomb squad will have our jobs if we go in there first. There might still be another bomb in there." He leaned over to her and whispered, "The tourists haven't left, see? They're still standing around."

She looked around at them. Some looked sadly up at the building, others looked stoically at the entrance. Some even looked bemusedly at the paramedics.

The paramedic continued, "Whatever they came here to see, it's not over yet. Now, I don't know it for a fact, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit if they were hanging around to see the second bomb go off."

Susan turned around, looking at them, all of them. Some from the future, some from the present, and all just watching.

She pulled off her bag, and dropped it to the ground, "Well, let's give them something to watch." The paramedic reached out after her, but Susan was already gone, running toward the back of the building.

Susan stumbled over some of the bricks, looking for a rear entrance. The back of the embassy had a powerful steel door which was solidly bolted to the wall in three areas, and could only be opened by a fingerprint scan, with positive retinal and fingerprint ID. However, when the building toppled forward, that door was popped off its frame like a piece of plywood, providing a nice wide opening for Susan to get through.

She climbed through the opening, and swayed for a moment with a sense of déjà vu. There was rubble everywhere, rocks and stone dust coating the ground. The whole room seemed to stretch forward, toward the front of the building, and it took her a moment to get her bearings. Tables, desks, and chairs were crushed haphazardly together, making a jungle of plastic and metal. The strangest thing about it was how normal parts of the room were. There was a candy dish sitting on someone's desk. Right beside it, was a metal cross beam used to support the ceiling, crushing into the desk.

Through the smoke, Susan could hear a moaning, gurgling shout. She started toward the sound, "I can hear you. Where are you?" She climbed over one of the desks, squinting into the darkness. She saw a young boy, lying down and sobbing. She reached for him and said, "Come on, I know the way out." Then she saw that his arm was pinned under a chair.

She crawled over to him, ducking under a table leg, and grabbed the chair, "Don't worry, hon. I'll have you out of here in no time." She strained against the chair, but it was pinned under a heavy mahogany table. She felt sick to her stomach as she asked, "Can you wiggle your fingers for me?"

The boy's crying didn't falter, but he nodded a bit, and she saw his hand shake. She pulled on the chair again, then said, "Okay. I'm gonna be right back. You're gonna be okay." The boy started screaming, "No! Don't leave me! Don't go!"

She crawled out of the space, and started looking around for something that she could use as a lever. She started sifting through all the rubble, but everything heavy and strong seemed to be buried under things that were too heavy and strong for her to lift.

As she was running into another room, she tripped over a man, lying face down in the dust. She screamed, and curled herself up into a ball on the floor. At the sudden noise, the man shook, and started moving. He slowly put his hands underneath himself, making her think of zombies. He looked at her, squinted, and frowned all around him. As he started to get up, his legs slipped on the dusty floor, and he rolled over onto his back.

Recovering, Susan stood back up and grabbed his shoulder shouting over the noise of the distant fire, "You need to help me. There's a boy in the other room. He's trapped. You've got to help him out."

The man slowly nodded, "Uh, yeah. Yeah. Right. Okay." He started to get up again, slowly. She helped him up, and they crawled back into the main reception room. The man took one look at the boy pinned under the chair, and hacked out a cough. He nodded, and pointed at the boy, "You grab him. I'll try to move the chair." He hacked out another cough, "You just be ready to pull him out when I move it."

Susan took the sobbing boy by his shoulders, and held him. The man grabbed the chair and pulled upward, hard. He groaned with the effort, and sweat beaded on his brow, as Susan pulled on the boy's arm. The boy kept wiggling his arm until the elbow popped free, and Susan pulled him away from the chair, just as the man dropped the chair.

She picked up the child and headed for the door, "Come on, it's this way." They crossed the room quickly, and headed out into the bright mid-day sun.

Squinting at the ambulance, Susan could see that the paramedics had grabbed a bullhorn, and were trying to shout to her. "Come on back. We can't help you if you get caught in there. Come out here, and wait for the cops."

She ran with the man over to the paramedics and handed them the boy. After a moment, she caught her breath and said, "It's not hopeless. There's a lot of other people in there, and we can probably get them out if we hurry."

The paramedics were busy working on the man and child. One of them said, "We can't go in. It's too risky. The cops and the fire department are on their way. Just wait here for them."

Susan shouted, "No!" and grabbed the bullhorn. She ran out into the rubble, and shouted back at the Tourists and rubberneckers, "There's people in there! They need our help! Come give me some help to get them out!"

Some people broke free from the shocked silence, and started running over to help her. As she watched them, she continued, "And the rest of you, all of you. The ones who can't help, or won't help. Just go home!" She glared at them with undisguised contempt, "Go back to your soft little beds, and tonight, turn on the news to see what human beings do when their friends are in need!" She threw the bullhorn at them, and ran over to the growing group of supporters.

There were about eight people, and when Susan got there, she said, "Okay, we need to split up into pairs. You two." She pointed at a couple who looked like they were together, "You go to that building across the street. Make sure they're evacuating, and check all the floors. Just shout loud, and try to help whoever answers."

She turned to the rest, "For the rest of us, we'll need to just buddy up and check everywhere we can. There's a stairway in the back of the building, along the eastern wall. If it's still there, we can use it to get to the other floors. Try to climb as high as you can, and just start pulling people out. Anybody you see who looks like they can walk on their own, just show them where the stairs are."

They all broke up into their pairs, and started back into the building. They paid no attention to the bomb squad that was just pulling up.

And through it all, no one noticed that the Tourists had disappeared.


******************************************************************************


My Great American Moment
By Ronnie Porter

For my American History assignment, I chose the Hungarian embassy bombing of 2010.

I'm a big fan of Susan Cavanaugh, and in her autobio, she listed that bombing as the most important moment in her political career. A lot of people remember that as the first time she was in the public eye, but Ms. Cavanaugh said it was important because it made her so mad at the system, she felt like she had to do something about it.

So me and my brother went back to see it, and we watched her give the famous speech on the steps of the embassy.

And then, when the first female president asked for volunteers to go back into the building, my brother and I ran to join the group that helped her.
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- posted by BrandG @ 8:51 AM 0 comments

 
Sandys
Sorry, but this post has been deleted by the author.
- posted by BrandG @ 1:07 AM 0 comments

 
My Personal Podcast
I just set up my own podcast. It's basically me reading blog posts. So far, I've just got the one story up there (R4TB0T), but I'll have more soon.

These are the news stories mentioned in the R4TB0T post rat brain. Implantable memory.

I've got music by the Brothers Burn, and the whole production comes off as very professional. If you'd like to subscribe, the link is here.

If you'd just like to download the files, this is the link for R4TB0T, and this is the link for my Introduction.

Of course, this doesn't come without a cost. I still have to pay for servers and stuff. So if you like the show, please make a donation.
- posted by BrandG @ 6:24 PM 0 comments