automaticdoor75

I read a lot of Harlan Ellison (worked on The Outer Limits, 80's Twilight Zone, Babylon 5), and I was wondering what people thought of this quote from him:

[S]cience fiction is the only 100% hopeful fiction. That is to say, inherent in the form is, "There will be a tomorrow". If you read a science fiction story, it says, "This will happen tomorrow". Now that’s very positive, that’s very pragmatic, "We’ll be here tomorrow. We may be unhappy, we may be all living like maggots, but we’ll be here." So that means it’s 100% positive.

Ellison has even said that his short story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is optimistic, because in the climax, there is still room for self-sacrifice and defiance to authority.

I guess it comes down to whether you think a bleak future is better than no future at all.

Shameless plug for my work if you like Ellison or want to learn more: https://ndhfilms.com/ellison

I spotted these mountain goats today on the west side of Loveland Pass.

EDIT: Here's another photo:

This payphone may be found at the City Market gas station south of Granby. It is pretty close to the Ski Granby Ranch. The phone had dial tone, no broken buttons, and rings when called. I was able to call a friend with it.

The phone number is (970) 887-9907.

I read The Count of Monte Cristo some years ago, and it remains one of my favorite novels. This year, I committed to read The Three Musketeers. I chose a Librivox audiobook narrated by Mark Smith, since I had enjoyed his recording of Tarzan of the Apes.

The audiobook used a public-domain translation which apparently toned down or removed the more risque parts of the story. If you want to read or listen to an audiobook (which I recommend), I guess try to find a more modern translation, even if you have to pay for it. The Librivox recording is of high quality, with excellent narration.

I very much enjoyed the story. The true pleasure of the novel is the bond between D'Artagnan and the musketeers, and discovering their personalities. Much like Little Women, this is a novel that you remember for the characters. On top of that, you get to know the "lackeys" of the four. I had assumed the lackeys would be irrelevant to the plot, instead, they all manage to play a role in the larger story.

#Milady

The most interesting character for me was the villain Milady. My opinion of her swung wildly across the story.

(SPOILERS)

About a third of the way through the book, D'Artagnan becomes smitten with Milady. He disguises himself as Milady's lover, the Comte de Ward, to have sex with her. This is glossed over in the translation I listened to, but I was alarmed when I read about it in a separate summary. What D'Artagnan does would now be considered rape, and it's no wonder Milady flies into a rage when she discovers the truth.

In another chapter, D'Artagnan's melancholy friend and father-figure Athos confides his own dark past: years before, he was a count, and married a young girl from his village. He later discovered this girl had been branded on her shoulder as a felon. Athos cut her clothes off and had her hanged. Ashamed to his core by the scandal, he renounced his title, took on the name Athos, and joined the Musketeers. Later, it's revealed that Athos' wife survived the hanging, and became Milady.

I can accept the explanation that Athos, as a nobleman, was bound by duty to carry out the execution. Still, in the moment of reading, what he did felt pretty damn brutal. I suppose I was thinking of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, or the people who were sent to penal colonies for breaking a plate in a burglary.

All of that's to say that I started the second half of the book feeling like maybe Milady had been wronged a little bit, and may have had some reasons for seeking revenge on D'Artagnan and friends. I was accustomed to modern storytelling convention, which has no patience for purely evil characters. If the story were written today, the branding would have been treated as a tragic misunderstanding.

I hate to say it, but when Milady is captured in England on her way to assassinate the Duke of Buckingham, part of me was hoping she'd escape and get away with it.

I was sobered up by the end, when Milady has mercilessly poisoned Madame Bonacieux, and when we hear the Executioner's story. At that point, I was disabused of my notion that Milady was some victim of circumstance. If Athos had not discovered Milady's brand, she would have ruined him, too, if not killed him.

All I can do is give my compliments to Dumas' writing talents: just like the character Felton in the later chapters, I had been thoroughly seduced by the character of Milady. Milady's latest victim...was me!

#Conclusion

I'm glad to have finally read The Three Musketeers. I am encouraged to try to find some of Dumas' less-popular stories, including The Last Cavalier at some point.

I saw a giant, spiky yellow ball moving along the shoulder of the road near Montezuma, Colorado (east of Keystone Resort). They were kind enough to pose for this picture.

Sawmill Road is between Ward and Gold Hill in Boulder County. It's very steep, and connects to Lefthand Canyon Drive. I didn't have a date stamp on this picture, but I took it in 2023.

Hi @retrogaming,

Here's our Spring issue for 2024.

Retro Gaming articles in this issue:

• Coverage of ATG Expo 2024 in Waco, TX by AT Gonzalez. He saw an original Soviet-era Tetris computer.
• Grappling to New Heights: Roc’n Rope’s Unintentional Birth of the “Wire Action” Genre by Leland Tursi
• Views From the Road: Cricket's Draft House & Grill in Waco, TX
• Reader responses to last issue's article on the reverse-engineering of Sinistar.

Cover art by Chris Bordenca

Hi @pinball,

Here's our Spring issue for 2024. I'm sad to report that Buffalo, our resident color-commentator, has passed away. He loved pinball, owning two machines at his store in Cope, Colorado. I begin this issue with a brief tribute to him. This issue, and a few future issues, will contain his commentary.

In this issue, he asks, "Is Pinball a Sport?"

I also have a classified section in this issue, with a 1978 Chicago Coin "Jukebox" pinball machine for sale.

Pinball league event calendars for Long Beach Pinball League, Mile High Pinball League, and Reno Pinball. If your league is interested in being listed in the newsletter, let me know.

Cover art by Chris Bordenca

These were my reflections on the Dark Horse Saloon in Boulder. Roger Ebert, a writer who I admire and who influenced my life in a big way, would hold court at the Dark Horse when he was in town for the Conference on World Affairs. I will be sad to see it go, so I thought I'd put down a few words while I still had time.

I did an internal flash of the 20240225 version of Libreboot onto my X60 tablet (Core 2 Duo L7400, 64-bit). I'm using Trisquel 11 as my operating system.

If I turn on the laptop when it's plugged in, it boots up just fine. When I turn in on and it's unplugged, I get this message:

Welcome to GRUB!

alloc magic is broken at [memory address here]

Aborted. Press any key to exit.

Pressing any key doesn't do anything for me here, I have to hold down either power button to turn the laptop off.

Some other notes:

• If I have the laptop on when it's unplugged, and then run a command like reboot, it will load fine.
• If I restart the laptop with the button on the login screen, it will load fine.
• If I hit Reboot from the Libreboot menu, it will load fine.
• If I hit Poweroff from the Libreboot menu, I get the 'alloc magic is broken' message.

I can provide the memory address if it helps.

Standstill on the toll road today between I-25 and Quebec. People were driving backwards on the shoulder to take the York exit.

Anyone else get caught in that this morning?