Should I read the sixth and final book of the Golden Clipper series now, or wait a while for the first five to settle?
As an aside, its still less than a month since I picked up the first one. That is, those five disappeared.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Novel: Captain's Share.
Novel: Captain's Share.
Author: Nathan Lowell
Rating: 5 of 5
These books aren't subtle. But, they are really fun.
Our Hero Protagonist, Ishmael, finally gets a command of his own. He gets the worst ship in the six-ship fleet he works for, and immediately turns it around.
Of course he does. Ish is good like that. Counting Ish, there are eight crew members, including:
-- A cargo chief who doesn't pick cargoes. Ish empowers him to actually do his job.
-- A sailor with imagination, but who is unruly. Ish gets him under control by challenging him to beat the cargo chief at picking cargoes. "I could pick better cargoes!" "Oh yeah? Cool, prove it."
-- An engineering chief who talks like a child as protective camouflage. She loses this as the ship becomes a safer space.
-- An XO who talks too loudly due to hearing loss and not knowing it. Ish gets her to get her ears checked, and her entire personality changes.
There are other issues and plot and such, but these were the main touch stones in turning the ship and crew around. If you've got a good crew, you'll make money.
One thing I absolutely adore in these books is Ish's insistence that he's trying to make money. And he is, too! He knows everyone's incentives are aligned with the ship making money (everyone gets a share), so its his job to empower them to do their job.
Its a lot of how I think businesses should run: ensure employees have an immediate incentive to care about the business, management's job becomes empowering them, and everyone wins.
One moral of these books is: Incentives. They get the job done.
Author: Nathan Lowell
Rating: 5 of 5
These books aren't subtle. But, they are really fun.
Our Hero Protagonist, Ishmael, finally gets a command of his own. He gets the worst ship in the six-ship fleet he works for, and immediately turns it around.
Of course he does. Ish is good like that. Counting Ish, there are eight crew members, including:
-- A cargo chief who doesn't pick cargoes. Ish empowers him to actually do his job.
-- A sailor with imagination, but who is unruly. Ish gets him under control by challenging him to beat the cargo chief at picking cargoes. "I could pick better cargoes!" "Oh yeah? Cool, prove it."
-- An engineering chief who talks like a child as protective camouflage. She loses this as the ship becomes a safer space.
-- An XO who talks too loudly due to hearing loss and not knowing it. Ish gets her to get her ears checked, and her entire personality changes.
There are other issues and plot and such, but these were the main touch stones in turning the ship and crew around. If you've got a good crew, you'll make money.
One thing I absolutely adore in these books is Ish's insistence that he's trying to make money. And he is, too! He knows everyone's incentives are aligned with the ship making money (everyone gets a share), so its his job to empower them to do their job.
Its a lot of how I think businesses should run: ensure employees have an immediate incentive to care about the business, management's job becomes empowering them, and everyone wins.
One moral of these books is: Incentives. They get the job done.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Failure!
Failure!
Winter is bad. I've gained 10 pounds since early November. Stress of the world ending, the lack of sunlight and heat, and eating too much are all contributory factors.
I ran yesterday. I'm getting back into it on the treadmill until I can run outside, just because I gotta do some maintenance.
And here's a secret: running a 5k is only about a 500 calorie burn. That's nothing huge, but. But. I am likely to eat less shit if I've run recently, and drink less, and be more generally active. And that's the real key: sweating makes me behavior better.
The stats so far:
Successes: 3
Tentative Successes: 1
Failures: 9
Winter is bad. I've gained 10 pounds since early November. Stress of the world ending, the lack of sunlight and heat, and eating too much are all contributory factors.
I ran yesterday. I'm getting back into it on the treadmill until I can run outside, just because I gotta do some maintenance.
And here's a secret: running a 5k is only about a 500 calorie burn. That's nothing huge, but. But. I am likely to eat less shit if I've run recently, and drink less, and be more generally active. And that's the real key: sweating makes me behavior better.
The stats so far:
Successes: 3
Tentative Successes: 1
Failures: 9
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Novel: Double Share
Novel: Double Share
Author: Nathan Lowell
Rating: 2 of 5
I adore this series. This one, though, I had to almost put down.
Ish is a problem solver. In this one, Ish solves problems of what happens when shitty people are in charge of a spaceship.
Those worse excesses are not ones I want in my recreational reading. Namely, sexual harassment and assault.
While it is handled well, I had to stop, put the book down, and reach out to friends who had read it to make sure of that before continuing.
Hence the low rating.
Author: Nathan Lowell
Rating: 2 of 5
I adore this series. This one, though, I had to almost put down.
Ish is a problem solver. In this one, Ish solves problems of what happens when shitty people are in charge of a spaceship.
Those worse excesses are not ones I want in my recreational reading. Namely, sexual harassment and assault.
While it is handled well, I had to stop, put the book down, and reach out to friends who had read it to make sure of that before continuing.
Hence the low rating.
Friday, January 6, 2017
Needed: Deck plans
Needed: Deck plans
Specifications: something akin to the Traveler Free Trader. My mental image is a 50 meter (or so!) space ship with 18 crew plus 4 officers.
The deck plans should show walls and rooms, but not what's in each room. So, for example, I don't want to know where the galley or the engine room is, but I sure do want spaces that can be marked as galley or engine room. No furniture.
At current, I'm using a map of a blank free trader. Which is close, but gives analysis paralysis, so I want something a little more filled in.
Something folks can easily draw on, or just write "crew berths" on.
Any suggestions hive mind?
Specifications: something akin to the Traveler Free Trader. My mental image is a 50 meter (or so!) space ship with 18 crew plus 4 officers.
The deck plans should show walls and rooms, but not what's in each room. So, for example, I don't want to know where the galley or the engine room is, but I sure do want spaces that can be marked as galley or engine room. No furniture.
At current, I'm using a map of a blank free trader. Which is close, but gives analysis paralysis, so I want something a little more filled in.
Something folks can easily draw on, or just write "crew berths" on.
Any suggestions hive mind?
Solar Wind & Sales
Solar Wind & Sales
Ran a playtest last night. It went super well.
By which I mean: some things worked as intended, some things were disastrous!
Having the 18 crew members onboard continues to work well. That is, there's a stable of NPC the PCs can interact with, talk to, and be mean to. They pulled a gun on Polya! She should have made them shoot, but I weaseled out. Next time: Crosshairs!
As is, we go around the table deciding on ship's systems. Right now, this is four tours around the circle. I think I can get it down to two -- every chooses a broken system, and a ship's system in good repair. Everything else is merely OK. The fifth roll, if it exists, will upgrade a single system at the end, and will unbroke a single system. So, we'll wind up with 3 broken systems, 3 OK systems, and 1 Great system.
This was the first time trying out the "fifth roll" -- in this case, the shipboard AI.
She has moves like "If someone should make a roll and no one has told them, go ahead and mention it. If they do it, mark xp", and "If someone rolls a 6-, explain how it'll be SO EXCITING", and her XP trigger is "participate in multiple conversations at once".
So far as I'm concerned, it worked. There were conversations and scenes I wasn't privy to, which then came back and shook the fabric of the ship! Not knowing everything is kinda my jam, and this was pretty great.
The proxy voting also worked!
See, everybody on a pirate ship gets an equal vote. So, that's the 4 officers and the 18 crew. The 4 officers are each responsible for a section, and have the proxy votes of that section. There's six sailors, five boarders, 4 traders, and 3 seers, so everybody has a different amount of political authority.
I need to make the procedure a bit more obvious, but I think it worked.
Still, things to modify!
Ran a playtest last night. It went super well.
By which I mean: some things worked as intended, some things were disastrous!
Having the 18 crew members onboard continues to work well. That is, there's a stable of NPC the PCs can interact with, talk to, and be mean to. They pulled a gun on Polya! She should have made them shoot, but I weaseled out. Next time: Crosshairs!
As is, we go around the table deciding on ship's systems. Right now, this is four tours around the circle. I think I can get it down to two -- every chooses a broken system, and a ship's system in good repair. Everything else is merely OK. The fifth roll, if it exists, will upgrade a single system at the end, and will unbroke a single system. So, we'll wind up with 3 broken systems, 3 OK systems, and 1 Great system.
This was the first time trying out the "fifth roll" -- in this case, the shipboard AI.
She has moves like "If someone should make a roll and no one has told them, go ahead and mention it. If they do it, mark xp", and "If someone rolls a 6-, explain how it'll be SO EXCITING", and her XP trigger is "participate in multiple conversations at once".
So far as I'm concerned, it worked. There were conversations and scenes I wasn't privy to, which then came back and shook the fabric of the ship! Not knowing everything is kinda my jam, and this was pretty great.
The proxy voting also worked!
See, everybody on a pirate ship gets an equal vote. So, that's the 4 officers and the 18 crew. The 4 officers are each responsible for a section, and have the proxy votes of that section. There's six sailors, five boarders, 4 traders, and 3 seers, so everybody has a different amount of political authority.
I need to make the procedure a bit more obvious, but I think it worked.
Still, things to modify!
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Content warning: Spoilers.
Content warning: Spoilers.
Trigger warning: discussion of fictional sexual violence in fiction no one in this thread wrote.
Josh Mannon warned me, and I need to double check.
I've picked up Double Share, the fourth book in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series.
I am concerned.
Our protagonist has gone from the Lois, a lovely corporate ship, to what I'll call the Piece of Shit. I think I would have noticed warning signs without Josh's warnings, but now they are screaming.
So far, the signs are:
-- The waitress who says its "not a happy ship"
-- The XO calling another officer "hon"
-- The XO's general bullshit alpha male behaviors
-- Ish's shower mate saying "all men are like that"
These are blaring pretty loudly. Like, ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP. There are some things I do not want in my fiction -- for a lot of reasons, but one sufficient reason is they make me a less empathetic and shittier person.
Here are those things:
-- On screen depictions of sexual violence.
-- Male privilege saving women from sexual violence
-- The use of rape and sexual violence as a plot device, and especially as a plot device to humanize women.
-- Depictions of sexual violence written in a way meant to turn on or titillate the audience.
-- Sexual violence treated as about sex rather than power.
-- The fiction excusing this shitty behavior.
For example -- spoilers! -- the use of sexual violence in Orphan Black or even Orange is the New Black can be OK. In these situations, it is (generally) the Patriarchy putting women into shitty situations, and then women get their revenge. Additionally, these are really about how shitty those situations are, and if they didn't have it happen, the stories would be worse.
Heck, I can even excuse the fiction allowing Vader to force choke Amidala. This is absolutely sexual violence, but there are real immediate and severe consequences -- to both of them. Still, this is on the edge.
So, Josh Mannon, what am I getting into?
Trigger warning: discussion of fictional sexual violence in fiction no one in this thread wrote.
Josh Mannon warned me, and I need to double check.
I've picked up Double Share, the fourth book in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series.
I am concerned.
Our protagonist has gone from the Lois, a lovely corporate ship, to what I'll call the Piece of Shit. I think I would have noticed warning signs without Josh's warnings, but now they are screaming.
So far, the signs are:
-- The waitress who says its "not a happy ship"
-- The XO calling another officer "hon"
-- The XO's general bullshit alpha male behaviors
-- Ish's shower mate saying "all men are like that"
These are blaring pretty loudly. Like, ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP. There are some things I do not want in my fiction -- for a lot of reasons, but one sufficient reason is they make me a less empathetic and shittier person.
Here are those things:
-- On screen depictions of sexual violence.
-- Male privilege saving women from sexual violence
-- The use of rape and sexual violence as a plot device, and especially as a plot device to humanize women.
-- Depictions of sexual violence written in a way meant to turn on or titillate the audience.
-- Sexual violence treated as about sex rather than power.
-- The fiction excusing this shitty behavior.
For example -- spoilers! -- the use of sexual violence in Orphan Black or even Orange is the New Black can be OK. In these situations, it is (generally) the Patriarchy putting women into shitty situations, and then women get their revenge. Additionally, these are really about how shitty those situations are, and if they didn't have it happen, the stories would be worse.
Heck, I can even excuse the fiction allowing Vader to force choke Amidala. This is absolutely sexual violence, but there are real immediate and severe consequences -- to both of them. Still, this is on the edge.
So, Josh Mannon, what am I getting into?
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