Caleban Concept of Time

“Time, for the Caleban¹, is a position on a line, McKie reminded himself. I must look for the subtly differences; they are all this creature sees.”

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¹ This particular Caleban went by the name of Fannie Mae.

Table of Contents for Larry Niven's Ringworld

I had hoped to get this post before now.

Ringworld Table of Contents

1. Louis Wu
2. And his Motley Crew
3. Teela Brown
4. Speaker to Animals
5. Rosette
6. Christmas Ribbon
7. Stepping Discs
8. Ringworld
9. Shadow Squares
10. The Ring Floor
11. The Arch of Heaven
12. Fist-of-God
13. Starseed Lure
14. Interlude with Sun Flowers
15. Dream-Castle
16. The Map Room
17. The Eye of the Storm
18. The Perils of Teela Brown
19. In the Trap
20. Meat
21. The Girl form Beyond the Edge
22. Seeker
23. The God Gambit
24. Fist-of-God

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See more of this series.

Updated on 1/27/23 @ 11:30 am

Another Robot Miniature

It is not often that I get two miniatures delivered to my door in one month and they are both robots..

I don't know much about this scuplt, but it stands approximately 35mm tall and it is moulded in a hard plastic.

I am impressed with the amount of detail that was molded into this miniature, especially the features on the humans face.

Although the photo really doesn't do the piece justice, it is colored in a two tone grey color, which looks great on the robot and th humans great coat.

The Dystopian Cyberpunk Slums of Warhammer 40k!

Conversations with a Caleban

"Who can say how a Caleban speaks? Their words come at you like the corrusating of a nine-ribbon Sojeu barber pole. The insensitive say such words radiate. I say the Caleban speaks. When words are sent, is that not speach? Send me your words, Caleban, and I will tell the world of your wisdon."

Excerpt from Conversations with a Caleban, Masarard

Whipping Star, Frank Herbert

The Whipping Star

The End of Life

“…throughout the Galaxy was months-or days or minutes- away. When the last mysterious entities known as Calebans died, so would all those who had ever traveled by a Caleban “jumpdoor”-and the jumpdoors were the universal means on travel, with every intelligent being on every planet using them constantly.

The Caleban had to be kept alive-but it was under contract to a psychotic millionaire who was subjecting it to systematic, damaging torture. McKie and Furuneo of the Bureau of Sabotage had to outwit her-if they could stay alive one enough!”

The Whipping Star, Frank Herbert, Berkley Medallion Books, 1970

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5 Essential Frank Herbert Novels That Aren't About Dune

A Little 20mm Robot

"This miniature is from the Planets of Peril expansion set of Starfinder Battles produced by Wizkids".

The piece stands 20mm tall and is made of hard grey plastic. It is detailed from the moulding process and as you can see is provided with a few dabs of orenge and black paint.

First Shack of 2023 - In Progress...

This will be my first structure in 2023. To to be quite honest I have forgotton how many of these shacks I have built. Not that I have built all that many.I have just lost track.

It has been at least a good six months since I built any structures. I started this one in late December and should have been taking pictures as I progressed through the build. So far it is primarly built from paper. It is going to include a large porch with a roof. Around back there will be a privy. I want to get back to using a business cards for these small structures, like I did for these two sheds sometime ago.

Scratch building a Shed

I just came upon this article on scratch building a shed in S-scale. The shed is built primarly from styrene sheet and strips. It is painted and then weathered expertly. Looks like a great little project.

If you liked " read this:

Although I went through a couple dry periods where I rarely picked up a book, I have always liked to read and have always had books around me. Along the way you find bits of literature and authors that speak to you. You read one of their books and you wnat to read others in the series. However, what happens when you have completed reading through the series? Well you start looking for other authors that write similar stories.

Here is a short list of three of my favorite books and their alternatives:

• The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
10 books like The Windup Girl

• Perdido Street Station, China Miéville
10 books like Perdido Street Station

• Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
10 books like Neverwhere

Favorite Maker Projects of 2022

Another Retrograde Robot

“The Master created humans first as the lowest type, most easily formed. Gradually, he replaced them by robots, the next higher step, and finally he created me, to take the place of the last humans.”

Reason, I Robot, Isaac Asimov

He is a rather gangly fellow isn't he?

Plans for those do-it-yourselfers.

The two illustrations are from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" concept art.

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Updated on 1/11/23 @ 2:30pm, 6:36pm

Railroad Crossing Signs and Others

I found these signs on a the back of an old Con Core model railroad kits.

Here are a few of those signs. The poles are from Blair Line Signs:

The railroad crossing signs were the most challenging to cut out and I didn't have the best of luck with all of them. The ones I had the most trouble with were distressed and weathered to represent wear and tear and a bit of abuse.

These signs were typically made from metal and unless kept up with would start to deteriate as these seem to be.

I added these two stop signs to keep my model people safe.

Here a sample sign the nice people at Blair Line laid on me. Since I do have a few horse and carriages I might want to make use of this one.

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Typical Installtion as indicated on the back of extra polls from Blair Line Signs.

Japanese Critters

How I wish these little beauties were readily available.

The page features both HOn30 and On30 locomotives.

Although I do have a couple of narrow gauge locomotives of this complexity in my inventory, having one or two more wouldn't hurt.

Japanese Narrow Gauge Modeling Festival

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To prove my facination with locomotive critters here is a link to my Collection of Locomotive Critters on Pinterest

Retrograde Robot

"The robots were on the lowest sublevel. All six of them surrounded by musty packing cases of uncertain content.They were large, extremely so, their chests were at least ten feet around, and even though they were in a sitting position on the floor, legs straddled out before them, their heads were a good seven feet in the air."

Runabout, I Robot, Isaas Asimov

Screenshot from Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet

Although this robot is not quite as large as those mentioned above, is stands seven to eight feet tall. This very cumbersome looking robot runs on wheels moving very jerky.