The Lay of a Lotus Eater

The Lay of a Lotus Eater

Oh, wicked little dope pill,
    You sphere of poppy dough—
Tho’ sin too oft indulged in—
  I fonder of you grow.

Thou dear, diverting hop pill,
    That makes all care forget;
Without you what would life be?
  A drear and tasteless lot.

The Tenderloin girls all love you,
    You are their heart’s delight;
The sight of you brings sunshine;
Your absence—darkest night.

A Devotee, Louis J. Beck

Limehouse, London

Click here for a high resolution map

Authors who wrote about the sordid aspects of Limehouse: Arthur Conan Doyle: The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Sign of the Four; Thomas Burke: Limehouse Nights; Sax Rohmer (Arthur Ward): The Yellow Peril, Dope, The Yellow Claw, and his Fu Manchu series- Fu-Manchu’s Bride, The Insidious Fu Manchu, The Hand of Fu Manchu.

Must I reread these stories once again?

West World Season Two Episodes

West World Season Two

The second season of West World has made its way to DVD and I have been binge watching this new season of episodes. This new season has been titled "The Door". In the last episode of season one, the hosts had started killing off the visitors. Season two continues the host's rampage. Although corporate is trying to contain the situation, there are darker subverting forces at work.

Here is a list of season two's episodes. The introductions are from the inside booklet that accompanies the three disk set.

Episode	Title	Introduction
1	"Journey into Night"	The puppet show is over, and we coming for you and the rest of your kind.
2	"Reunion"	Why don’t we start at the beginning.
3	"Virtù e Fortuna"	There is beauty in who you are,. Shouldn’t we, too, try to survive?
4	"The Riddle of the Sphinx"	Is this now? If you’re looking forward, you’re the wrong direction.
5	"Akane no Mai"	Welcome to Shogun World.
6	"Phase Space"	We each deserve to choose our fate.
7	"Les Écorchés"	Strike the match.
8	"Kiksuya"	Take my heart when you go.
9	"Vanishing Point"	Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything.
10	"The Passenger"	You only live as long as the last person who remembers you.

The Barge: Episode 1- Scratch Building with Polystyrene

A very informative tutorial on the creation of a n-gauge barge. The author used the dimensions of a real prototype for his model.

I have heard that working with polystyrene is easy and from my own limited experience it is rather easy, but it does requires patience. How often have I messed a project up by not being patient?

Les mystères de l'opium #2

“Boy, another pipe. Sweet to me this chance.
And the airborne gold where sleep’s steps are muffled.
But no, stay o boy, don’t you hear,
The silent god who knocks at the ebony door?”

Paul-Jean Toulet, Les Contrerimes

Les mystères de l'opium

“And the least foolish, intrepid lovers of disorder,
Fleeing the heard restrained by Destiny,
Take refuge in Opium's vastness!”

Le Voyage

---

“More than fidelity, opium,

night,

I desire the elixir of your lips where love flaunts

itself”

Les Fleur du Mal

Charles Baudelaire

An Encrypted Message for Lord Grandrith

“The goblin has gone mad, and he is our enemy and the enemy of our enemies, his former friend. The goblin is holed up, but we are digging him out.”

Brass Bwona (Doc Caliban)

The Goblin probably refers to Iwaldi, the ancient dwarf and one of the nine. Iwaldi was at least ten thousand years old and possible could even be thirty thousand years old.

Lord of the Trees, Philip Jose Farmer

A Tale of Two Universes

In his introduction to Philip Jose Farmers “Lord of the Trees”, Scott Eckert has made more than few observations about Farmer’s work and his characters. There is much I will not comment on, however there are a few points of his introduction I would like to share.

Farmer wrote three novels about the nine and as is usually the case I did not read them in succession, I read them in the order I was able to obtain them. They are:

“A Feast Unknown”
“Lord of the Trees”
“The Mad Goblin”

I have read the other two, with “The Mad Goblin” being my first introduction to the “Nine”, and then “A Feast Unknown”, which was the most disturbing of Farmer’s work I had read up to the point, and now I start second of the series as my last read from the series.

“The Nine are a secret sect of immortals (those who have partaken of immortality elixir that extends one’s life up to 30,000 years) bent on amassing power and manipulating the course of events.”V

There are always mentions of other texts. Texts that are meant to fill-in-the blanks as to the history of the Wold Newton Family, like Farmer’s “Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke”, and “Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life”, both fictional biographies. Both are on my Farmer reading list.

Tom's Spaceship Miniature & Game Lists

Tom has collected an extensive list of resources on spaceship miniatures and games in an old directory like fashion. The pages include items currently available and items no longer available.

Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Scratch-Built Spaceship!

Here is another scratch build from Adam Savage's One Day Builds

Although Adam Savage has been at it for some time, I am still inspired by watching Adam work. I am still a long way off from Adams skill level, but I do want to move forward and improve my scratch-building skills.

P.S. I had wanted to get to a couple more post last month. I had other projects and a deadline I had to meet. I never go to the posts. Hopefully, I will get to post them this month.