A mIRC Poem

<Zaratustra> control be
<Zaratustra> control are
<Zaratustra> control you

Write Your Own Robert A. Heinlein Book

After reading nearly fifty books by sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein (I'm a fast reader and easily bored), I believe I can encapsulate the philosophies that went into creating them such that any person, even you, could write their very own novel.

Take a 20-sided dice and roll it on the table below, as many times as needed until you reach 50000 words. Add whatever sci fi gadget is on the cover of this week's Scientific American OR National Inquirer.

Our young male WASP hero... (Note: I've been pointed to the fact that most of Heinlein's books feature non-WASP heroes. I shall correct myself.)

Our young male multiracial Anglo-Saxon Protestant hero...

1 - ...enters the Army
2 - ...enters a multi-member family
3 - ...founds a religion
4 - ...founds a corporation
5 - ...fights a religion
6 - ...fights a corporation
7 - ...falls in love with high school sweetheart
8 - ...falls in love with strong, independent woman
9 - ...witnesses current love interest marry other person
10 - ...decides to marry current love interest
11 - ...takes sage advice from fatherly figure and wisely heeds it
12 - ...is bullied around by harsh fatherly figure
13 - ...realizes harsh fatherly figure was actually right in their harshness
14 - ...is patronized by motherly figure
15 - ...inherits a large sum of money or corporation from dead fatherly figure
16 - ...takes sage advice from lawyerly figure and wisely heeds it
17 - ...talks to scientists that have discovered an entirely new scientific concept and can use it for either transportation or combat
18 - ...has to handle the complex society of small groups in cramped spaces
19 - ...has to handle the complex society of small groups in a new colony isolated from government
20 - ...rambles on how army life is the best life to be

Passive Action

I wonder what we're supposed to do, as a generation. At least inside my social circles, I'm surrounded by cynics as far as the eye can see: It seems that nobody wants to change the world aside from making a nice space in the sand to sleep on. Note I conveniently ignore the people happily harrying behind whatever government is up to do whatever it takes to defend the country from what it doesn't need to be defended from.

I won't even talk about the people from -my- country that suddenly decided Colombia is the greatest country in the world cause it had the balls to 'stand up' to America. I hate it when countries behave like teenagers.

My point is, how does the world change? Is it by the sudden effort of small numbers or the slow weight of growing masses? Is the 'new' generation of people that don't care about the minor squabbles of politics and religions and all the bloody but mostly circular pattern of history enough to actually make weight in the politics they shun, or will they be cast aside by the crowd that believes they were ordained to wield the lance of righteousness against those that are outside?

Perhaps a stance should be made for active passiveness. The Passive Party. Its motto shall be, Let's Not And Say We Did.