Podcasts about Caprica

Vera Wylde and Jessie Gender venture out on the Battlestar Galactica and take in the entire voyage one episode at a time. Season 2, Episdoe 2: Valley of Darkness - Starbuck and Helo try to their way around Caprica, while the survivors of the downed Raptor try to hold it together on Kobol, and Galactica is attacked from within.

Vera Wylde and Jessie Gender venture out on the Battlestar Galactica and take in the entire voyage one episode at a time. Season 2, Episdoe 1: Scattered - Adama's life is on the line as Galactica is separated from the fleet and the survivors on both Caprica and Kobol have their own sets of troubles, and yet somehow we can't stop focusing on Adama's flashback mustache.

Dans cet épisode Signa 034, on passe en revue les news Battlestar Galactica de début 2025 concernant des vidéos YouTube, des articles, des invités exceptionnels à la Comic Con de Bruxelles et de nouveaux produits dérivés. Quelques liens en rapport avec l'épisode : L'article de Space.com à la gloire du reboot : https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/battlestar-galactica-at-20-the-show-that-reinvented-space-opera L'article d'Inverse sur les possibles raisons de l'échec de Caprica : https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/caprica-15-year-anniversary Le top 10 de Collider sur les fins de séries qui ont le plus divisé : https://collider.com/controversial-tv-finales-ranked/ Le site de la comic Co de Bruxelles où seront présents Mary McDonnell, Edward James Olmos et Dirk Benedict : https://comicconbrussels.com/fr/homepage-fr/ Les vidéos de vaisseaux de la chaîne YouTube The Hangar Bay : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URTwUYMa7I4&list=PLMK_SPVuVg6P_qOf6HzD737L5seWx3-iG Les créations 3D de vaisseaux de la chaîne Venture Pictures : https://www.youtube.com/@VenturePictures/videos L'article français du site TechGuru : https://techguru.fr/2025/02/18/cette-serie-de-sf-est-un-chef-doeuvre-absolu-et-son-jeu-video-est-tout-aussi-culte-une-pepite-a-ne-pas-manquer/ Le point de vue original de Bleeding Fool sur l'optimisme de la série originale : https://bleedingfool.com/blogs/between-battlestar-galactica-78-vs-2004-the-originals-optimism-prevails/ La vidéo recap' des 7 ans de construction du chasseur Viper en taille réelle de Baz : https://youtu.be/kB9ErWMM7Tk?si=D2tdR_2XVqRvRWUq Le test du jeu de plateau BSG par Air Gaming : https://air-gaming.com/battlestar-galactica-le-jeu-de-plateau/ Le podcast Total Trax qui a consacré 2 épisodes à la musique de BSG : https://podcast.ausha.co/total-trax La révélation de Tricia Helfer concernant la condition imposée par Ronald D. Moore au projet de nouvelle série BSG : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ssPAsMdLo&t=3393s Les produits dérivés BSG sur le site de Factory Entertainment : https://factoryent.com/collections/battlestar-galactica Le top 15 des plus gros vaisseaux de l'univers de BSG sur la chaîne YouTube Nutbug : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrV9XniN_XM La vidéo de DevilDredd qui vous dit tout sur BSG : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZNX76DolT0 Les dernières nouvelles de Susan Hogan à propos de son mari : https://www.gofundme.com/f/michael-hogan-fund RDV au bar La Binouze le mardi 29 avril à Paris à l'occasion du concert de Bear McCreary au Trianon ! GalactiFrak fait partie du label PodShows et est disponible sur podCloud, ainsi que sur Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Google, ou Amazon ainsi que YouTube. Retrouvez les notes de l'émission sur galactifrak.lepodcast.frRetrouvez GalactiFrak sur Facebook, Twitter, Instagram et Discord. Suivez Draven et Karine sur Twitter et Bluesky

Vera Wylde and Jessie Gender venture out on the Battlestar Galactica and take in the entire voyage one episode at a time. Season 1, Episdoe 5: You Can't Go Home Again - Adama and Apollo lead the charge to recover Starbuck from the surface of the moon she crashed on, costs be damned. Meanwhile Boomer and Helo continue to hunker down on Cylon-occupied Caprica.

Graduation Day.  Book 3 in 18 parts, By FinalStand. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels."You know nothing of what you speak of, Ishara, yet you now feel free to insult us," she simmered."Don't know, don't care. It was all before my time. I care about the 'here-and-now' as well as what we do in the future. What I am asking you is what concrete item or 'thing' can be provided to House Zorja to put this blood feud behind you. Name it and House Ishara will endeavor to procure it for you.""We are not merchants," Jana's eyes narrowed."No. I didn't imply you were. If you want new sandals for everyone in your House, I'll find you new sandals. If you want 100,000 acres of ranchland, I'll find you the land. Name it," I persisted."Our prestige cannot be bought," she 'explained'."No, but a blood feud with House Ishara can be avoided by making a request of us in the same way as expressing your desire to harm my daughter can be expressed by denying my offer," I hardened. "And 'fuck you very much' if you think I won't use every son, daughter, mother, aunt, and uncle of Ishara when I come gunning for House Zorja too.""You wouldn't dare bring outsiders into this," Klavdiya interjected."Why not? The offices of Ishara handed House Zorja the coup of the century ~ the capture of the People's Liberation Army Navy nuclear carrier. A member of House Zorja commanded that task, yet they did so by leading forces marshalled by House Ishara, outsider forces. You may wish to keep playing by old rules concerning who is and isn't part of a House, but I am not so constrained, sisters.""So Klavdiya, if House Meenakshi pursues its blood feud with House Zorja, House Ishara will gleefully join them in the pummeling. And we have Isharans in the 9 Clans, the Khanate and the Illuminati who will gladly help us out in slapping them around like the old-fashion curmudgeons they are showing themselves to be, or, House Zorja may request a gift from House Ishara and we will happily clear accounts between them and House Meenakshi in the name of our daughter, Parvati. Their choice.""You are still on the mats," Elsa reminded me. Sikia coiled protectively next to us."And you said something about a lesson being long overdue," Pamela smirked, "Kitten.""Cáel Ishara," Shawnee said in a soft voice, "perhaps it is germane to the argument: the fault of the blood feud rests with House Zorja, not House Meenakshi."I fell on my back, carrying Tad fi with me. She gasped out in surprise while remaining closely cuddled with me. Her right hand never left my lips."Why does no one tell me this shit?" I moaned."You are hard," Tad fi announced. "Are you ready to have more sex?" She was sounding upbeat about our prospects. She was also ignorant of our surroundings being deaf and blind to the mortal realm."Gossamer Wing," I created a pet name for the augur, "we are lying on the sparring mats of a large combat arena in the central Full-blooded training center for Havenstone with roughly 500 sisters in attendance (the audience had grown). While I am enticed by your scent, words, proximity and sweet memories of what we've shared, I'm probably going to be badly beaten up really soon for a terrific diplomatic snafu.""But then we can have sex?""Yeah. I'm totally up for having sex with you after they release me from Medical," I assured her. I looked around her to a very unhappy Mahdi."Can you find it in your heart to forgive House Zorja? Anything I can,""Yes," she abruptly cut me off.What the fuck?"At this time, my hatred of House Ishara, and you in particular, make any grievance I have with House Zorja pale in comparison. You have bewitched my only daughter. She bares your child, and it will be a wonderful child if the soiled augur you've stuck your cock in is to be believed," she ground out bitterly. "I want to go home. I want to find enemies to kill. And when I do, Cáel Ishara, know each and every one of them will carry your face in my mind."She turned to Jana. "Do you agree that we both hate Ishara enough to put aside our current differences?"Jana studied Mahdi, me, then Mahdi again and agreed. She stood. Mahdi stood. They clasped arms like Amazons, then hugged like sisters."Agreed. He is much worse."My thoughts on the matter. Woot! I was having sex! Oh, and I was making Aya happy by ending a blood feud."My admiration of you continues to increase," Krasimira looked at me. "This diplomacy stuff is harder than it looks yet you pull it off so effortlessly.""Yay me!" I muttered."Keeper, are we done?" Sikia asked Krasimira."I believe so," the older Amazon rose to her feet. Sikia was far faster in rising."Mahdi of Meenakshi, you have insulted me and my augur. Defend yourself," she snarled. If Tad fi hadn't been immediately present, Mahdi wouldn't have even warranted a warning no doubt."Had you done your job," Mahdi flowed into her fighting stance, "you both wouldn't be pregnant.""Whoa now," I struggled to rise while keeping Tad fi close and my body between her and the Meenakshi/Zorja side of the mat. "Sikia, I can't let you fight. You're pregnant too.""Don't be stupid, Cáel Ishara," Sikia retreated off the mat, so she could shed her jacket and footwear. "Amazons have fought pregnant for thousands of years.""Hold on now," NYPD Sgt. Larisa Kutuzov said in English as she moved forward. I was a millisecond too late. Larisa's foot touched down on the mat and Marlene Zorja popped her one, a hand chop to the larynx. The senior cop stumbled forward."Mom!" shouted Nikita. Marlene followed up with a leg sweep, putting Larisa face first on the mats, then a fist strike to the back of the head, knocking her out. Neat and tidy in less than two seconds.Nikita was about to charge in when Chaz stopped her."Footwear," he advised in the tone of voice I had learned to associate with him and imminent violence. The moment he stopped her, he was quickly removing his own socks and shoes. Virginia and Pamela were doing the same. I was allowed freedom of movement because I was holding Tad fi. Krasimira exited because of her unique status. The rest were already barefoot."Gale, could you please stay with Tad fi," I tried to hand her off."No," Gale looked me over. "I will fight." No hint on whose side she would be fighting on. Krasimira came to my rescue."I'll take her.""Tad fi," I told the augur, "I have to go get beaten up now, but I promise I will be back for you directly.""This is not your fight," Krasimira said. "The words and deeds are Sikia's.""A, she carries my child and B, the deeds being called into question are my fault.""You told me once they were the Will of Ishara," Krasimira mused."We are one in the same," I gave a lopsided grin."Be careful," Tad fi pleaded. "Your future is a chaotic jumble, I cannot see,""Eh, I've been very bad. We'll talk about it later. Gotta go," I headed onto the mats.Pamela was giving the ground rules to the 'normals': No 'fair warnings'. No 'fair play'. No 'time outs'. You fought until unconscious, or you surrendered."This is going to suck," Virginia assessed our odds. Two Amazons had removed Larisa from the mats and were tending to her. Nikita was kneeling by her side until she heard Virginia, then came our way.Besides Sikia, we had Pamela, Chaz, Virginia, myself and Nikita. Oneida stepping up was nice. She wasn't a great combatant, but we dearly needed the help. Gale joining us was, unsettling. Amazons don't play fair, so this could be a ruse.Against us were all three Zorja and both Meenakshi ~ I imagined Rhada felt she had something to prove to her mother. They'd picked up ten other Amazons and Rhonwenn Nemain. Klavdiya joined them to counterbalance her baby sister. Eight to seventeen ~ ouch."Damn," a familiar voice from my first days on the job spoke up from behind me, "we almost missed this." I didn't dare look over my shoulder. Desiree stepped between Chaz and Virginia. Rachel came up on my left and Tiger Lily on my right. At the tail end of our line was Mona, Meridian, Brielle and Wiesława. Fifteen to seventeen was looking much better, especially considering Desiree had brought five Security Detail warriors with her, all of whom were moving to further bolster our numbers."Rachel," Elsa looked to her underling, "you have no idea why you are fighting.""It is for Cáel. So it must be for a better tomorrow," Rachel laughed."Very well," Elsa smirked."You!" Mahdi pointed at me, and we both charged. It was a jumbled nightmare of clashing bodies, war cries and flashes of movement all around. Our side had two main advantages -While Chaz was by no means the best hand-to-hand combatant present, he knew the basic Amazon style and most Amazons didn't know his. Added to his overall height and bulk advantages, he bought us time.Of greater importance, Rachel, Tiger Lily and Mona had extensive training working as a team, which none of the opponents had.Elsa was the most dangerous individual on the mat. Pamela was the second most dangerous, so Elsa grabbed a couple of partners and ganged up on her to drive her off the mats. Chaz went next, out-Elsa'ed and beaten unconscious. The issue was, it took her too long to accomplish those two feats. By the time she rounded on me, Rachel and Tiger Lily, our half of the field had wiped out theirs. It was six of us (me, Rachel, Tiger Lily, Gale, Wiesława and Desiree) versus four of them (Elsa, Marlene, Klavdiya and Rhonwenn).Still, I was facing Elsa, so a judicious bit of treachery was required."Gale," I huffed and puffed, "please retire. I don't want you to fight your sister.""What?" Gale snapped. She'd taken a beating, yet remained feisty."No, fighting her sister is okay with me," Desiree scowled. "We are still facing fucking Elsa.""All the other women you have mated with have failed. I remain," Gale trumpeted."Oh, you are right," I half-turned. "All the reason you are more precious to me.""Really?""Of course," I deepened my introspective appreciation of her."Oh," and Klavdiya punched Rhonwenn. That was an 'oh, Cáel Ishara must actually care for my baby sister and not be just a Playa' on Klavdiya's part. Yeah. I'm a horrible fucking person at times.Rachel, Tiger Lily and I rushed Elsa. Marlene pivoted to ward against Klavdiya while Gale and Wiesława stormed in against her. Desiree helped Klavdiya finish drubbing Rhonwenn before they combined to force Marlene off the mats. Elsa chose to go down swinging in a dogpile of bodies. I took an ear-ringing blow to the head which allowed Rachel to apply a chokehold and it was lights out for the Head of SD.After some water bottles went around and those concussed returned to wakefulness, the resolution of the brawl was decided. Mahdi apologized to Sikia. It was short, terse and sparing of any empathy, yet was within the bounds of Amazon etiquette. She departed with Rhada, which left me to pick up the pieces, starting with Nikita's mom."Oh," the older woman moaned then, "Ms. Fredrickson? What are you doing here?""Avenging you, Mother," Nikita fluffed up the truth. "She, Cáel and the others cleaned house on the woman who jumped you and her allies.""Desk Sergeant," Desiree gave a curt nod."This isn't over," Larisa winced as she moved to a sitting position."Mrs. Kutuzov, it is over," I headed off a colossal waste of time. "This is my daily life and part of your daughter's life with JIKIT. You will find scant witnesses and no tape recordings of these events. This craziness is just another day in the life here at Havenstone. You stepped on the mat and thus became fair game to any physical confrontation an opponent cared to mete out. Consider this sovereign soil of an independent nation-state.""We," she looked around. "You kicked their asses?""Definitely," Pamela gave a feral snarl."This is plain nuts," she shook her head, winced in cranial pain, then put her aching head in her hands."One of the reasons we've put our dating in hiatus," Nikita comforted her mother while looking at me, and smiling affectionately.Ah, for fuck sakes! I was engaged to someone else and having a dozen kids by ten different women. How could I still possibly be considered viable dating material? Oh yeah, martial valor, laughing at death, I hung out with truly exceptional cool people and I would always be in need of saving, a plus for a crusader like Nikita.I had so many allies to tend to, but only one who seemed to be making an exit. I swooped down on Tad fi long enough to place her fingers to my lips."I'll be right back, friend of a friend in need," and off I went. I caught Tavi of House Stolgos just outside the door. She wasn't avoiding me. She'd been observing Chaz and he had been otherwise occupied.My British companion had played a pivotal role in the combat and taken his beating like a man. He'd been rendered unconscious. So had many others, so no stigma was attached to his loss. Post-battle, he had chosen to sit on his haunches, knees up, talking to several of the Amazons, both kneeling and standing. A few had been bystanders and a few others foes.He stayed on his ass to reduce his height advantage. Letting Amazons make eye contact while not having to look up at you created definite benefits. His good natured approach to his role in the fight and pummeling earned him positive vibes as well. He made it clear the tussle to him was not macho-personal. He was my 'brother / sister / sibling' spiritually-speaking via Pamela adopting us both as her 'grandsons', so my fights were his fights. Sikia had my (Cáel's) child, so that bond extended to her as well ~ family.Pamela and I had schooled him on Amazon psychology and those lessons were now paying serious dividends. 'The Male' hadn't wanted to fight them ~ 'Amazons are tough' he'd confessed, he knew this because he worked with several every day on JIKIT~ but family was on the line, so he fought. Mahdi had apologized, so the matter was settled. The other Amazons he'd fought? They had fought for their reasons and he was okay with not questioning them about it.Why? He was conscious of his conspicuous status as a 'guest', knew he was in no way an Amazon, and was not privy to what motivated them. He didn't want to be an Amazon. He had his own, much younger, martial tradition he was proud of, yet was eager to learn from the vastly greater Amazon war lore because 'winners' didn't have a gender-bias and no other tradition could compete with the Amazons' 3,000 years.Under normal circumstances, the women around him wouldn't have given credence to his praise. He was a male after all. Through the tiny tear I'd created in their insulating social fabric, Chaz was building upon his own exploits. In the after-battle analysis, the Amazons reflected on the realization Elsa had concentrated on him as her number two objective, second only to Pamela who scared everyone who knew anything about her. That bolstered Chaz's appeal.For the Amazons who thought a male would get all pouty and cry over being beaten up by a girl/girls, Chaz was breaking the mold. He wasn't angry. He was amused. The fight had been a learning experience and he'd felt honored to watch, no matter how briefly, a warrior of Elsa's caliber fight. He'd explained 'I', Cáel Wakko Ishara, considered Elsa one of the top 5 combatants I'd ever seen, which included Ajax the Unconquered. The others were Sakuniyas, reborn Amazon and former Queen of Assyria, Saint Marie, the Golden Mare, and Pamela, the Cliff-walker.More happy Amazons because the list's only non-Amazon was a dead Hero from the Trojan Wars and it was well known I 'got around' (aka dealt with violent outsiders.) Chaz was telling the truth, almost. The 'fifth' person on the list was Alal, but explaining him would be difficult, so Chaz edited him for this particular audience. Good man.In the hallway, "Tavi, a moment," I called out. She slowed down, took a few more steps allowing me to catch up."Yes Ishara?" she gave me her best neutral look. Yep. She was jealous."I beg two favors from you," I quickly went down to one knee in her path. That caught her off guard and left her in the awkward position of me being terribly close and staring up at her."I, I will listen," she muttered."I would like to know if you are pregnant," I asked very softly. Yes, she was, but she didn't want to tell me. She contemplated pushing past me. It would be very easy. "I know I am stepping beyond the boundaries between warriors. Please. My destiny has brought you two together. I am at fault here." 'Fault' was the key word."If I have a son, he will be given to the Queen," Tavi's face was stern and unforgiving. "He will live.""That's not what he's worried about," I shook my head. "He wants to be a father to your daughter, Tavi. He wants to introduce you to his mother and grandmothers, maybe his sisters too, if that can be arranged.""Huh?""He is not like me, Tavi. There is no other in his life, but you.""I, I will not leave my House for him," she protested angrily."He would never ask you. That doesn't mean he doesn't want to remain at your side for years to come. He can be a father to your child and not be a part of House Stolgos in the same way you can be a mother to your child and not be a part of Clan Tomorrow.""Oh," she furrowed her brow. "How would this possibly work?""I have an 'in' with the Queen," I winked. "I'll work out something.""He knows I will never stop being an Amazon," she elucidated intensely."Absolutely. He is an intelligence operative after all. He's figured a few things out for himself.""Why doesn't he tell me these things?""Tavi, he threw his body on top of me to shield me from a bomb blast, so he's undoubtedly brave, but telling you what is in his heart is scary for him. As his brother, I see behind his silence,""Oh, what should I do?" she was vexed."Go back in there, demand to speak with him and tell him the truth," I stood up."The truth?""That you are going to have a little StolgosTomorrow-ite running around sometime next year," I exuded confidential friendliness."Cáel Ishara," she tilted her head slightly, "you don't know much about infants, do you?""Nope," I pseudo-confessed. I actually did know something about newborns. I'd studied up so I could make a move on a cute girl whose free time was eaten up by babysitting, so I 'helped out'. Oink."They aren't 'running around'," she turned to head back into the gym, "until the ninth month at the earliest. Normally, running doesn't happen until the eighteenth month.""My fiancée has a three-year old, so she should be able to help me through some of the hardest parts," I babbled along. Tavi didn't give a crap.In we went. Tavi stormed straight toward the bevy of Amazon babes concentrating on 'her' Chaz."Color Sergeant Tomorrow," she abruptly interrupted. "A moment of your time.""Ladies," Chaz uncoiled himself from the surrounding women. The Amazons were either mildly put off, they thought they were about to get laid, or pissed off, they were sure they were about to get laid, and Tavi was stomping on their happy."Yes, Ms. Gentry," Chaz linked his hands behind his back in a 'rest easy' stance. 'Gentry' was the fake last name Tavi used in the outside world. She motioned toward the windows with her head. Off they went. I couldn't hear what was being said, but my lip reading skills were up to the task.T: (I am pregnant)C: (I love you)T: (Oh) ~ stunned. Go Chaz!C: (Well, I don't imagine the Amazons have a marriage ceremony and an Anglican service would be inappropriate, so perhaps we could research a Scythian ritual which could make both families happy) ~ delivered in the patented smooth Chaz style.T: (Marriage? To you?)C: (I will not submit to being anyone's slave nor would I ever ask you to submit to me. Outside of that, will you be my partner and my partner alone until the cliffs separate us?)T: (Amazons are not monogamous)C: (I am)T: (I will, I mean, can I think about this?)C: (I am not going anywhere, Tavi){Pause}T: (Did you put Ishara, Cáel Ishara up to this?)C: (Yes)T: (Why?)C: (I imagine he explained what I am feeling better than I could)T: (Oh, do you want me to meet your mother and grandmothers?)C: (Absolutely)T: (Okay)C: (Okay ~ you would like to meet my Mother and Grandmothers?)T: (No, yes, I mean, yes I would like to meet them and I am okay with you being with no other woman until the cliffs separate us, and I will do the same, no other males)C: (If I pick you up, hug you and kiss you, will your sisters freak out?)T: (I don't know)So Chaz swept Tavi up until her head was higher than his (a feat, considering their 8" height differential) and kissed her deeply. Mumbled words followed. Tavi wrapped her legs around Chaz's waist and out they went. Around me were angry murmurings of the 'did that Amazon just run off with our man' variety. Not my problem. I had plenty of different Amazons wanting my attention. Hallelujah!{8:00 pmDon't try this at home.I covered my face with a pillow and pressed down hard. I'd already tried breathing exercises, meditation and even contemplated more cranial trauma before thinking up this particular crazy idea. It took some mental effort and accessing some of my Alal-'pain sorting' skills to accomplish, but in the end, I felt myself 'let go'.I sat up."Hello," Tad fi beamed."Hey," I took a deep breath. Since we were talking, I must have passed out. Her eyes wandered over the room."Is this the world as you see it?" she wondered. Oh yeah, I had to be creating the environment for her to enjoy.Sikia was kneeling on the bed a foot away, her gaze moving between the two of us. The 'grayness' of her form suggested she was wholly in reality and not in the 'Ishara-space' the goddess had shown me and I was now sharing with my augur."This is how you see me?" she examined her fingers, her wrists, then some long locks of her hair."You are more beautiful," I answered. The impact of my words crossing over drew her eyes back to me. It was the magic of hearing for the normally deaf girl. I concentrated, peeled back some fantasy and attached a realistic form to Sikia. Tad fi followed my gaze."Your hair," she addressed her guardian, "It is lighter than I imagined."Sikia said something I couldn't understand, muffled as it was by my dreaming."I cannot hear you, but I see you through his eyes," the augur carried on her conversation. They touched. It had to be somewhat bizarre for Sikia. As she reached for Tad fi's hand, her friend intercepted the extended member. Their fingers intertwined before completing the journey to the guardian's lips."Don't cry, no, we couldn't have, no, we shouldn't have knocked him out sooner. I don't think he was aware of this discipline when we first met. Were you, Cáel?""No. Perhaps if I had understood more about the consequences of seeing ghosts, I might have," I tapered off. "Now that we know. I can try this more often.""Your health?" Tad fi worried."I might be immortal," I confessed. I was confessing because I was desperately seeking a way to share some of my genetic quirkiness with her ~ some strength to carry her through this pregnancy and spare her life, Dot Ishara be damned."And you would seek a way to spare me," she graced me with her gentle presence. Lying in the 'spirit' world was a whole lot tougher than in the flesh."Yeah. I've got some arcane lore rattling around in my head, plus I have a few outside sources I can ask for help. I'm not giving up on you.""I have foreseen my death.""Well, un-foresee it," I scolded her. "Dot Ishara told me we see what might happen, though nothing is guaranteed. So even your death isn't an absolute. Since it hasn't happened, I see no reason to let it happen. You are going to live to hold our daughter. If not, my immortality is worthless.""You can never save everyone. Sometimes you must let a few go to save the rest," she advised."If I find someone I'm not attached to, I'll let them go. I promise. Until then, I'm, ugh, I'm fading, and I'm keeping you.""We shall see," she murmured. I fell back into my body and into wakefulness."Now we have sex," Tad fi announced in a melodic voice."He is ready to perform," Sikia agreed. She was fondling my balls with one hand while her breath played across my rod. I sat up to see the augur climbing up the bed between my thighs. She kissed my glans, licked across its top, then kissed it again."I've got it from here," she told Sikia."What?" Sikia was confused. Tad fi's lips began to engulf my sceptre."Sikia, come here," I gently pulled on her arm. She was conflicted yet up some came.We started out with tender kisses on the lips. I kept drawing her toward me. My lips and tongue migrated down her chin and throat to her breasts. When she thought my target was her breasts, she was all onboard. That was a mere stop-off point on my journey, though I played around for a while.At the same time, I had to use subtle movements with my hips and clenches with my gluts to school Tad fi on her fellatio. Thankfully, I was doubly-blessed. This wasn't my first time schooling two girls at once and Tad fi could determine more from such minimal reactions due to her heightened sense of my muscle contractions through her touch than any other woman I'd ever met.When I began running my tongue in large lashes underneath her breasts, I confused Sikia once more. She was resistant as my hands on her hips pulled her higher so that my lips and teeth could tease her taut stomach while I twirled my tongue in her belly button. She giggled.I had been slowly wiggling down the bed, backing Tad fi up, so when it came time to mount Sikia on my face, I had the headboard room. I kept her muscular thighs securely in hand because the moment I had her happy, I pushed her up. She looked down, seeking guidance and I motioned her to turn around. She did the eye-ball math, realized she'd be facing her augur, and hastily obeyed. Of course, her movement on the bed alerted Tad fi through mattress vibrations.Sikia was sitting on my face, leaning down so she could run her hands through Tad fi's hair and along her face and lips (and my phallus). I kept my hands pressed between our bodies. My right made the sojourn to my pubic area to play around and give them both something else to suck on, my fingers. My left loitered around between Sikia's breasts and her clitoris when my lips were otherwise occupied.I could cup her clit with my tongue in a U-shape, rubbing it along my taste buds. Most of my time was taken up with my tongue broad lashing her vulva or tightly-twisted and delving into her cunt and my nose pushing against her brown hole. I could tilt myself up so I could make tongue-intrusions into her back passage as well. The first time, she squealed.Before she could decide if she wanted to make me stop (she did, virtually all first timers always default to asking their partner to stop, so you have to distract them), Tad fi wanted to know what had brought her reaction on. Then came Sikia's troubled revelation of what I was doing, how the augur shouldn't suffer through it, despite the increasing pleasure she was receiving, only to finally be unable to supply the answer as to why Tad fi shouldn't experience it too.Sikia shot me a treasured look of bewilderment. I'd brought her to orgasm with my tongue alone. I was a guy after all."Switch?" I suggested. Tad fi was still administering one of the slowest, most considerate blowjobs I'd ever experienced. She wasn't rushing toward anything. Sure, she was unschooled, but was devoting her incredible sensitivities to my pleasure and taking pleasure in her ability to bring me to such excitement."Change places?" she mused. "Okay." Tad fi's lips slid off me with one final, loud 'pop', then she used her spider-like fingers to climb up my body while Sikia traveled south. She lavished butterfly kisses on my face ~ childish, yet so very appropriate between us ~ and I mirrored the gesture.With some reluctance, she mounted me, facing Sikia. My tongue flicking across her clit on its first exploration brought out a joyous gasp. It only got better from there.The Long Slide Into Domestic Life:"Twins?" Hana snuggled into my arms. We were at her place, naked in bed together after a late late-night unscheduled meeting with some VIPs. Despite the late/early hour, she was alert, tense even. It had been a mentally stimulating late night encounter which had brought me to her bed."Yes. That is what Tad fi predicted," I inserted between raining kisses down on her forehead. Hana liked non-distracting attention when she was in this kind of mood. She was exhausting herself mentally as she was building up to being amorous."Ana-Călina and  rp d?" she worked over the names on her tongue. "They have a special meaning?""Only if you are Hungarian and Romanian," I teased her. She elbowed me slightly. " rp d was the semi-mystical pagan warlord who led the Ten Tribes who became known as the Hungarians ~ the Magyar peoples ~ into the Carpathian Basin, present day Hungary. Ana-Călina was born a Byzantine princess of the storied House of Basarab; she married Radu Negru, thus becoming the first Princess of a free Wallachia ~ the foundation for a free Romania. She was also the great-grandmother of Dracula.""So they are famous names with regional historical significance, did they live long, happy lives?"" Árpád, no one knows for sure. His kids were quarrelsome, but they did manage to found a dynasty at the start of the second millennia which ruled for three centuries.""Ana-Călina, yeah. I think so," I continued. "She lived into her seventies and her eldest son left his country stronger, richer and safer than when he received it. She did out live her husband by over fifty years, and got to see her youngest grandson bury most of his rivals, the kids from her husband's first marriage.""Ah, what?" Hana rose up until we were eye to eye. Since she was naked, her boobs swayed slightly as she did so. My eye flickered. "Eyes forward, Mister," she playfully barked. "What happened to all her other grandsons?""Wallachia in the 15th century was a tad rough and tumble," I evaded."They killed one another?""Mostly they were killed by conspiracies amongst their boyars, nobles of the time.""Why does, Tad fi want to dredge up these names again?" she kept eye contact."Not a clue," I pleaded."But you think it is important?""No. I think you are important. Screw Fate. It can name its own kids. We can chose whatever names make you happy, except 'Up'. Up's been taken.""You've named another of your offspring 'Up'? That's cruel, or does that mean something in another language I'm unaware of?" she shifted her shoulders so her boobs wobbled again. Of course, I broke eye contact. I hadn't had sex in hours and her boobies were right there, damn it!"Actually, Pamela and I named this secret agent in Hungary that, just to fuck with his head," I divulged."Oh. Pamela. I should have known," she slowly smiled. "You are being very well behaved," she added. Woot! She noticed I wasn't throwing her down and pawing her delectable flesh. "One more thing before the nookie.""Name them. Their dead," I pledged."Not necessary," her sigh turned into a giggle. "If I'm going to be having twins, I'm going to be rather big come late March. We need an earlier wedding date."Oh, fuck me!"What do you have in mind?" I tried to keep the creeping dread out of my voice."New Year's Day?" she suggested. I did a quick calculation. That was annihilating 78 days out of what remained of my bachelor life. In 114 days my life would cease having any meaning whatsoever. I'd be a Mr. to someone's Mrs. The end"Sure, I can arrange to be killed before then," stumbled out of my mouth."What was that?" Hana pouted."Nothing Dear. Cosmic psychic intersection with an Al -demon; don't know what came over me," I fibbed."Man up," Hana bit my nose. "Our marriage won't be that bad if we both work at it. It isn't like I'm demanding celibacy from you." Then she mouthed 'yet'."Wait. Did you mean celibacy, as in no fun at all, or monogamy, as in only 'happy time' with you?" I desperately sought clarification."Oh," she pursed her lips. "I meant monogamy. I didn't mean to scare you.""Oh, thank goodness," I sighed."Here," her gaze turned tender. "Let me make it up to you." Hana placed one hand on my shoulder and rose up my body until my face was gently nestled in her bosom. Then she wiggled back and forth, basically because I'm a big baby and easy to please. I was alternating which nipple I was kissing in no time."Mmm," she murmured. "I've missed you." Her other hand's fingernails coasted down my abdomen and found 'Mr. Happy' had risen to attention. Okay, he'd been hopping up and down on my groin since she'd said we were 'going to bed' 30 minutes ago. Hana decided wrap up my shaft with her hand, then applied a few tender strokes. I reciprocated by cupping her left tit in one hand, forming a mound with her areola at the center, and began to twirl from the outside inward to her hardened nipple with just the tip of my tongue.It was 4 a.m. Why was I taking it slow when I had my final work review with Katrina in three hours? Hana deserved this and more. Why was Hana doing it? She was her own boss, plus her life was careening wildly outside of anything she'd imagined before she'd first laid eyes on me. Half of the financial empire she shared with her father was suddenly in the hands of a military dictatorship, her beloved father was dealing with the murder of her hated step-brother and she was marrying a Prince in a European cathedral which required someone high in the Vatican's approval process to use.Yeah, her life had gone nuts. Worse, she loved me. And I wasn't the kind of man she ever thought she'd love. She'd thought she'd never love anyone again after her life with her asshole of an ex-husband and their bitter, contentious divorce. I was barely someone she could classify, and Hana was a terribly ordered and organized person. Saying my life was messy was being generous. I was some mysterious warrior-diplomat-playboy-aristocrat who hung out with people more bizarre than me.Hana picked up her tempo. I switched breasts. Her motor was really starting to hum. Any other night, I could have moved straight to revving her up to an orgasm. I had the time to make it two without any problems. A good one and Hana would be happy and drift off to sleep. Instead, I intuited she wanted more, so we developed our own game of cat and mouse with her climax, and its suspension, being our ultimate goal.My left hand danced down the back of her ribcage like playing keys on a piano. It was a light, teasing gesture. Her hair the color of tarnished gold cascaded down as she began placing her own kisses upon my crown. Each move by one partner evoked a response by the other. Hana ran my glans over her glistening labia, getting it nice and slick. I worked down her waist, cupped her ass, and then glided over her thigh to the back of her knee where I started tickling her. She snickered."You are distracting me," she murmured. I wasn't. I knew these things."I like to get the feel of every inch of your flesh," I responded. More mirthful noises from her. Slowly, her gooey vestibule rubbed against and over the top, until I felt myself entering. There, she hesitated. I propelled my hips an inch up, twisted right then left before falling back down, a micro-fuck."Ah," she emoted her approval. "My turn." Hana's knees spread to the side, making a memorable sound on the silk sheets as she impaled herself. This time she rolled her hips forward, back, then did a slow 360 with me  inside her, letting the slow progress over her spark memories for her to savor. "I never believed sex could be like this," Hana hiccupped."How so?" I knew the answer, but wanted her to put her chaotic passions to words. It would make her happier."Experimenting, silly. Stopping in the middle and doing, this," she reversed her hip rotations this time. "I never imagined a lover having such patience, or,""Yourself as being so openly sexually adventurous?" I finished."Yeah," she huffed. "I really, really owe your college professor, plus you and all your diligence, for this," at the last moment, she encountered the gateway to her G-spot. I knew precisely where that gem was. Previously, Hana had gained a vague idea where it was from the perspective of masturbation and our prior lovemaking. Now I had let Hana rediscover that joy with my cock as her tool to utilize as she wished."You realize pregnant women want even more sex," she hummed. She was vigorously working my cock now. Hana had bridged a huge gap, sexually. Normally, a woman of Hana's quality tried to please her man first with the hope her orgasm would soon follow. I was different. My greatest sexual gratification came from her ecstasy. She was confident in that now. By bringing herself to climax, she was making me excited for what would come next."That's okay," I propped myself up on one elbow now that Hana was riding me cowgirl-style. "I dig big chicks." The open-palm slap to the chest was a given."Hercege, you, you are horrible," she growled around a feral smile. The lip-biting, tongue-sucking kiss was equally vicious, primal and leading Hana to the end of her tether. Not only was Hana's sexual trust in me/us expanding, she was putting extra effort into her physical workout regime too. She might still have a ways to go to compete with an Amazon, but it was still going to be a great night."Hercegn , I am nothing but a twisted shadow of masculine lust whose every contour is cast by your muliebrous glow," I teased. Her eyes twinkled. Yes, definitely still going to be a great night."Okay," Hana yawned, "I give up. What does 'muliebrous' mean?" She'd been holding on to that for an hour and a half. It was five-thirty and I was dressing in my biking clothes before heading into work."From the Latin 'muliebri' which means 'womanly'," I answered. Her sleepy eyes drank in both my response and my physique. I had discovered another thing Hana liked and that was to expand her academic/linguistic frontiers. She was enchanted with the idea that I liked to engage her mind along with her body, sparking on all cylinders.She'd crawled over to my side of the bed, her head resting on my pillow, soaking up my scent as she watched me. I knelt down, kissed her on her ear, cheek and finally the side of her lips. Hana was beat."Have a good day and be careful," she mumbled. Her eyes closed. Her chest rose with one last, waking breath before her sleep rhythms took her."Ditto," I whispered. I snuck into  Annela's room and planted a kiss on her head as well. The craziness of my life had a way of cascading over to the ones I loved. Loved? Oh boy,7:00 am Monday, September 8th, Graduation Day!Brielle and her buddy were humming along as the elevator doors closed. Once more, my 'hellish' schedule demanded I change in the elevator. I'd gone to gun practice with my bike clothes on, so I absolutely had to change into business attire in the magic box, in front of them.Juanita adjusting my tie was a less than subtle attempt to strangle me. I was about to be late to my final 'start of day' meeting as an intern in Executive Services, so her chastisement would have to wait. Who would have thunk it? Juanita would have to wait outside for this ceremony. Paula raced with me to be the last one in, only to have Daphne grace us with the 'news':"The meeting won't start for another fifteen minutes," she grinned. "Katrina is bringing up the 'new hires' for the fall program."I finger-flicked my head. The 84 days as an intern was merely the 'training wheels' period. To really be a member of ES was at least a two year training process. The Amazons around me had started their training for this gig when they were fifteen and were eighteen and nineteen now, their ID's said they were older for legal purposes.In theory, my four years in college was counted as 'preliminary' training and provided things such as acclimation to outsider culture ~ aka 'acting normal'. Logically, I would train under someone like Desiree or Buffy for a year before being a full-fledged member of the service."How many this time?" I asked Daphne since she seemed to be in the know."Twenty," she grinned. "We are getting two."I noticed there was still only my tiny desk in Katrina's office. That meant the new guys would be out in the office pool with everyone else. Probably for the best. The ladies were now used to having a male around, so would be careful in what they did and didn't say. I yawned."Tired," Fabiola smirked."Oh yeah," I stifled another yawn. "Met an emissary from the Pope." Fabiola glowered. "No. Seriously. I met an emissary from Holy See. I let Hana know I wanted to get married in a highly improbable place, a ruined cathedral, so she contacted the Catholic Church and one of their guys wanted to meet with me.""That had to be fun," Tigger grinned. "What does the Cult of the Nazarene think of you and the Goddess Ishara?""We actually discussed polytheism and the place of an omnipotent, omnipresent being in the scope of things," I placed my hands behind my back and rocked back and forth. "It was quite interesting. The guy knew his shit."By that, I meant he was probably with the Pope's Secret Service as well as a Brainiac with a PhD in something. He'd promised to be in touch as soon as he heard back from his superiors. He had this hot chick with him who I suspected was a nun. And if his driver wasn't ex-military, it was because he was still in the service. On the plus side, Hana had been beaming when we left, which assured me the meeting had gone well, so we had sex from 4 AM until 5:30, thus my current fatigued state."Are you going to abandon your faith?" Fabiola taunted me."I don't have faith, Fabiola of Minerva. Faith would imply I don't know there are supernatural entities screwing with our lives. I know they do exist, I've met a few. To satisfy your disingenuous curiosity, we discussed the nature of the Weave and it being the possible manifestation of God's Will.""How did that go?" Paula appeared interested."He strongly suggested I should 'revisit my Catholic roots' soon. By that, I think he meant I'm supposed to start attending church regularly," I shrugged. "The Pope is sending an envoy to the Great Khan too, so odds are good I'm getting married," I pronounced the last bit as the doom-laden prediction it was."Oh, yes," Fabiola reached passed Paula and smacked me in the chest with the back of her hand. "That is for insinuating you and I had intercourse to my Mother and the Council.""Was that chastising me for lying, or for not making it so?" I winked."Ah, no!" she pouted. "Stop lying about me."I looked down at my phone."We've got twelve minutes," I double-pumped my eyebrows. "Want to go to Katrina's bathroom?""What! No!" Fabiola

Putting together VideoFuzzy ep. 100 -- coffee certainly helps!   Hi! My name is Terry J. Aman, marking my 100th episode of VideoFuzzy, reporting the progress I've made in cataloging thousands of VHS transfers and digital recordings. This set covers discs 1751 to 1800 in my Classic Collection. I open with a project overview highlighting some of my finds. For my Fuzzy Feature, I encountered the 100th episode of "Bones" that recalled the first case Booth and Bones worked on together. I found a similar story construction in "In Plain Sight," and talked about that one as well. Under Cross Connections I trace Golden Threads Todd Giebenhain and, later, Michael Shamus Wiles. Also, appearances by Amy Acker, Lee Majors, Kathy Najimy, Bryan Batt, Alan Ruck, Stephen Root, Katie Sackhoff, Mark Bergeron, Angela Bassett, Sarah Silverman, Rita Moreno, Dana Delany, Sheryl Crow, Mary Pat Gleason, Marc A. Sheppard, Charlotte Arren, Johnny Broderick, Cyd Cherise, Fred Astaire, Jane Lynch, Olivia Munn and Brian Skala. And under Fond Reflections, love for Michelle Trachtenberg of "Buffy," "Mercy" and "Six Feet Under," and I share some headcanon from an "Angel" chat group I was in. In Video Outreach, I share comments from author and fellow podcaster Kemper Donovan on my review of "Loose Lips," available here: https://bit.ly/3C11ENN Kemper hosts the "All About Agatha" podcast here: https://bit.ly/43j4hnB Then I chat with my sister, Patti Ellingson, about shows we've enjoyed, including "Doctor Who," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Bridgerton" and "Stranger Things." I know I've mentioned my sister's influence on my television viewing different times over the course of this production, and this felt like a fantastic opportunity to chat with her directly. So much fun! In my Classic Collection, I take almost a disc-by-disc deep dive on what I was finding in this set, beginning with a third meet-cute storyline I encountered in this set: the first season finale of "Human Target." Also, comments on "Arrested Development," "The Simpsons," "FlashForward," "Archer," "24," "Caprica," "Community," "Mercy," "Ugly Betty," "Parks and Recreation," "Justified," 2002 and 2005 MTV Movie Award shows, "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" C-SPAN coverage of the Affordable Care Act, "Breaking Bad," "The Big Bang Theory," "Jawbreaker," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" "Batman Returns," "The Three Faces of Eve," "Sybil," Union activity at The Minot Daily News, "Star Trek Voyager," "Fawlty Towers," "Monty Python's Flying Circus," commercials and music videos, "LOST," "Cougar Town," "Castle," "Fringe," "Chuck," "Broadway Melody of 1940," "Silk Stockings," "V" and "Damages."  Also surfacing in this cataloging effort I found home movies, including a one-act presented at the Carnegie Center in Minot in 2002 or so called "Excerpts." Friends of mine read from books in my collection: https://bit.ly/3DslFO6 It's a bit silly, but if you think of books on your shelves murmuring to one another, that was the idea I was going for. Then, from 100 episodes, I share 100 clips! But there'd only be 99, right? Well, one of the clips I shared referenced outtakes from a "Michael Caine in Space" sketch on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" which, at the time, I had trouble locating. Since then, I was able to locate it here: https://bit.ly/4hnn9XM Enjoy! Finally, in What I've Been Watching, Ralph and I took in Larry Shue's "The Nerd" at the Vernal Theatre downtown, and I shared some thoughts. The company closes out its season with a production of Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate" coming up in mid-April, and we're looking forward to it. Tickets and information at https://www.vernaltheatre.com. TOP FIFTEEN: Here's a "Top Fifteen" episode guide for people looking for a quick read-in on this blog and podcast effort: https://videofuzzy.libsyn.com/about. Enjoy! 

Season 1 of BSG has already dealt with heavy topics like genocide and nuclear war, but today's episode explores the most frightening topic of all: presidential elections. Laura hates political podcasts in every universe. Xhafer proposes a new podcast for polyamorous specters. It's Battlestar Galactica Season 1, Episode 11: Colonial Day.Join The Discord @ https://discord.gg/MUHKDDk6TN

Having made her television debut at just 9 years old, Alessandra Torresani is well-known for her roles in The Big Bang Theory, Caprica, Arrested Development and Malcolm in the Middle. In our interview with Alessandra, she gets candid about navigating adult life as an actress after she was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 at the age of 22. Despite being discouraged from talking about her mental health openly, Alessandra realized the importance of encouraging stigma-free conversations about mental health after she decided to share her story.  She said, “I'm Alessandra Torresani, and I am bipolar. Who wants to talk?” It turns out, a lot of people did. This “talk” kick-started her advocacy to normalize talking about mental health issues, and she has since started her own podcast, called EmotionAL Support, where she discusses mental health with her guests.   In this episode, we discuss:  - Alexandra's childhood and her journey through misdiagnosis - The importance that documenting both highs and lows has on receiving an accurate diagnosis - Alessandra's work with NAMI, and the conference where she shared her bipolar diagnosis - How toxic positivity discourages people from talking about their struggles - Finding emotional support and comfort  - The difference between mental health and mental illness  - What we can do to help destigmatize the conversation around mental health According to Alessandra, it's vital that we start talking about mental health openly and encourage people to seek support and medical help when they need it. This is the only way to foster an environment where every single one of us can celebrate our individuality and uniqueness. Where to find Alessandra: Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialAlessandraTorresani Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alessandratorresani/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALtorresani?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Clubhouse: https://clubhousedb.com/user/alessandratorresani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandra-torresani-75178121/   Podcast: https://www.emotionalsupportpod.com/ Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/emotionalpod Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emotionalsupportpod/ Podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710491219388010/?source_id=298097584405277 Products: https://emotionalsupport.bigcartel.com/product/we-are-not-alone-img-x-emotional-support-mental-health-awareness-month-limited-edition National Alliance on Mental Illness (Nami): https://www.nami.org/Home   Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=23010497) This is an encore episode and was originally published on May 19, 2021.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Time WarpBy FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.What follows is a diversion from the central storyline, but it is crucial to understanding why certain members of the supporting cast are behaving the way they are.808 BCE near Halab in what is today's Northern Syria:For me, Cael Nyilas, it was a return to last night's horrifying scene that engulfed me. The screams of dying horses and moribund men crying the pantheon of life's final regrets. Blood, piss, voided bowels and the stench of comingled sweat and leather filled my nostrils. The true cacophony of battle was all about. The battle shock faded into an innocuous background distraction.In my heart of hearts, I felt at ease, even content. We were cut off and surrounded yet hardly hopeless. Men, my brothers-in-arms and the younger noble sons of Assur and Nineveh combined to put a press of shields, armor and flesh encircling us. Those 'pampered' aristocrats stank with fear and well they should. Death was still possible before their relief arrived.I hurt, Shara (my deity?), I was wounded, but it meant nothing. I laughed; a primitive version of 'atheists and foxholes' passing through my mind. This body had lived through much worse. The closest man, her deceased husband's cousin, and I lifted the shattered wooden chariot off the person our circle was centered on. My arm was extended to her.She was glorious, fierce and half-drunk with battle lust. I could feel her talon-like fingers through the leather and 'parzillu' scales guarding my bicep. She half jumped and was half pulled to her feet. Her kinsman presented her 'misplaced' sword, hilt first. In her eyes, I saw the burning intensity of the Shamash (Sun God, consort of Aya?) at the height of the Burning Season.Her martial mirth exceeded any other noise as it passed her lips."You took your time getting here," Shammuramat taunted me, not a true reproach. "I was so bored, I decide to take a nap in the shade of my conveniently overturned chariot." She defied all fortunes that conspired toward her demise; her own breed of madness."You looked so peaceful in your sleep, I didn't want to wake you," I bantered back. Her 'kinsman' scowled at my familiarity with his monarch. My champions, more like brothers to me than any kin born of my blood, had carved a gory swath to her stranded bodyguard. Mounted on Median steeds, we had pressed back the entourages of two Aramean kings bent on her violent passing.A barricade of overturned, or unattended chariots gave us space to dismount and perform our very visible rescue mission. All the pieces were right where she wanted them; everything unfolding according to her plan. Focus the enemy in the center with her person and the banner of Assur while the rest of her chariots and all of her cavalry swept through an unguarded wadi and fell upon them from behind.Brilliant. Somewhat less brilliant when faced with the desperate energy of our enemies, but her victory was already a certainty. The allied Western Kings were sure my command was attempting to snatch the Queen back to the safety of her infantry. Those hardy, foot-bound souls were still holding their own against the greater mass of the enemy footmen.The children of rebellious nobles bent every bit of their remaining energy, squandered their last reserves to ensure Shammuramat didn't escape. If the positons were reversed, they would have eagerly abandoned their troops and sought safety to the rear. The idea of Shammuramat being overwrought with terror was absurd.Our opponents' bellows for our blood turned into wails of despair. The charging, plumaged steeds of Assyria had appeared behind them. Our enemies had nothing left to slow the new arrivals down, much less stop them. For those who dared defy Shammuramat, Queen of all the Akkadians, the slaughter was just beginning."Come 'Alal' (that was me); I promised 'Atarshumki' I would kick his head over his own city walls before sunset and I always keep my promises," she shoved one of my horse-holders aside and took one of my steeds. 'Alal' was not the name my father gave me. It meant destroyer and it was blasphemy to lay claim to it."Killing kings will cost you extra," was my impious response.Assyrians nobility barely tolerated mercenaries most of the time. My men and I didn't care. I hadn't taken up the killing business to make friends and my troops felt the same way. What mattered to us was that their coin was good and delivered on time. That was a good thing because whores and merchants were loath to advance 'our kind' anything on credit."I'll meet you half way," she grinned manically at me while my fighters and I raced for our mounts. (Saving the junior nobility wasn't what she were paying us for.) "I'll let you take any prince you capture as a hostage." I nodded. My men cheered hungrily, despite the choking dust. As long as I didn't get too greedy, the Kings would pay for their sons. Now we had to capture the bastards."Tūbātu," I reminded them. 'Goodwill'. It was a polite way of saying 'stop your chariot, rest your arms and your mother won't have to come begging for your corpse'. It was best to let opposing nobility keep their dignity in our business. Today's enemy might be tomorrow's paymaster.I blinked and things changed.Planting followed harvest and harvest followed planting. It had long ago become a blur. Shammuramat had grown older. Her first son became king when he was of age. I had long exceeded my welcome and my desire to stay. I was fixed to this small patch of the greater world by a rare emotion, empathy.It had come out of nowhere. We were campaigning against the Scythians raiding over the Zagros Mountains and followed them into Urartu. Night had fallen and I walked the camp as was my habit; being killed a few times in your sleep will make you err on the side of caution. Shammuramat was gazing out over the river Arkas."I though all the scouts have returned," I asked as I stepped to her side. A cool, early autumn breeze blew down the valley, tossing a few loose locks of her greying hair. She always had one patch shorn short which made her left-side braids prone to unwind."They have. We head back for Nineveh with the dawn," she murmured, her mind elsewhere."Do you ever dream of home?" she asked me out of the blue."No. I don't dream anymore. I rarely sleep and if I did, I would hope to dream of something less boring," I snorted in amusement. She had never talked about her home, to anyone as far as I knew."You will be going to Lydia when winter comes," she stated tensely."King Gyges needs someone with experience beating Cimmerians," I answered. The true reason was that I was no longer welcome on the Assyrian payroll because I insisted on recruiting only non-Assyrians into the ranks of my ferociously effective little band of one hundred; never more and rarely less."Shemtsu is a fool," she grumbled."That is unfair," I countered. My willingness to argue with her was one of my charms in her eyes. "He is an excellent Treasurer and he makes sure your vassals pay their tribute on time and in its full amount."The silence was hurtful to me because Shammuramat was never one to obfuscate her thoughts, especially around me. It was one of her charms, to my way of thinking."Salmu Eretu, the northern night sky has no answers for what ails you. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to start out cold before it bakes us." I called her 'Black Cloud' in Akkadian.I had first used that name twenty years ago to insult her, highlighting her tempestuous nature. In the Assyrian court, having just received recognition for my quick thinking, Shammuramat had belittled my accomplishment, throwing my body between her, her unborn child (the man who was now not-so-gently ushering me to the border) and a Kassite noble and his retainer bent on killing them both.Had my deed not been witnessed by half a dozen reliable sources, I wouldn't even have received that tawdry token."He sought glory without risk," she spat out her insult in a Hittite tongue alien to this court. Unfortunately for us both, I had worked for a Babylonian family for a few generations and they had been kind enough to turn me from an illiterate commoner to a man of some education.Ironically, they even taught me my native cuneiform long after my birthplace was barely a memory."Well aren't you a black cloud on an otherwise waste of a day," I replied somewhat bitterly. Her eyes widened, then narrowed and then I heard her laugh for the first time."Should I tell them what you said?" she mocked me and my predicament."But of course," I grunted in Akkadian. I'd screwed up. My inner thoughts were 'please not decapitation, please not decapitation' because getting my head on straight after that was a real bitch."You've been nothing but a black cloud bent on turning the choking dust at my feet into a grasping, muddy morass. Why stop now?" I announced loudly. If you are going to die, die well. Having died too many times to count, remembering my last words were all I had left to look forward to.The guards, familiar with the Queen's temper and stunned into inaction by me clearly embracing a long, messy death, stood around uselessly. Had I been allowed a weapon in the royal presence, I might have thought which one to kill first."I gift you, a lowborn man of the South (Sumerian), with honors and you respond by insulting my wife?" King, Shamshi Adad V growled as he rose from his throne."Husband," she stood to join him. I thought it was a pity she rarely smiled. "You asked that I too give a gift to my savior and the savior of our son (all unborn babies were sons back then until roughly half had the audacity to gender switch while exiting the womb). I have chosen." I was expecting my life for the moment and a day's head start to the border."It is your choice to make," the King allowed."From this day, until my passing, this man may always speak his mind in our lands," she demanded. She had a habit of fatally correcting anyone who saw her as less than co-ruler. The hesitation was deafening."As you will," Shamshi Adad V acquiesced to yet another of his wife's odd 'requests'. From that day forth we had been fast friends. She never asked about my immortality, where I was from, or how I ended up with my elite band of professional killers. I returned the favor. It was an unspoken understanding that in a few years, or decades, she would die and I would leave, not necessarily in that order. We had shared more years than I had given to any one person in quite some time."There is nothing left for me but ash," she declared with morbid certainty."Should any of us expect any better?" I did my best to offer words of comfort she would accept."Oh no," her noise was too bitter to be a laugh. "I had my own 'Life beyond Death' and it was stolen from me, along with my birthright.""We are chasing the thieves?" I asked."Yes and no," her face grew grim once more. "These were not the ones I was looking for. They share some bonds with some of the Scythian tribes who live on the far side of the Sea of Death (the Black Sea). These raiders weren't from those tribes.""Why are you turning back?" I questioned. "You know your Assyrians are loyal. They will follow wherever you lead. Your son won't begrudge you these few hundred. I'll come too.""Why?" she turned and looked into my eyes. She still had that blazing fire in her eyes. She was teasing me. If she asked, I too would follow and my men would follow me."The Scythians have been raiding the Lands of the Two Rivers from, well, before I graduated from 'spear for hire' to a 'seeker of a mastery of war'. The rich plunder of their camps will provide plenty of incentive for my men plus we can sell the horses when we come back," I stated."I do not have the years left to spend on such a campaign," she sighed. I had never heard a hint of defeat in her speech before. It was unsettling and rather tragic."I have squandered my years in marriage, being Queen and raising my boys. I tried to make Assyria my new family and I am revealed to be a fool. You had it right. We will always be outlanders. No matter how brave, loyal, just and smart, we would never be allowed in their sanctimonious circle," she said. "You. I should have ridden off with you after my first born was acknowledged (the present King Adad-nirari the 3rd).""We could have gathered up some more fighters, ridden over shattered Phrygia, to the narrows (Bosporus) and into the lands of the Thracians. There is a legend of a great river that pours out from the western shore of the Death Sea. What I seek is up that river.""How many would we face?" I grew equally serious."One," she coughed. "Me." My confusion was obvious. "I am not asking you to fight me, Alal. I want you to come back for me.""I can't. That is not how it works," I stated."How does it work then?" she looked into my eyes. The fire was there, but banked and waning. I didn't say anything. "I have never seen, or heard of you entering a temple.""Your men go. You do not stop them, but you have given up any pretense of worship," she pressed. "Do you not believe that anything exists beyond your senses?""I believe," I sighed. "I believe people are fools for giving offering, pledging their fidelity, pleading for mercy, or extending thanks to any deity. Those Shar-an (gnats) do as they will, unless it is to punish us for treating them like the spoiled children they are."Shammuramat regained her long-stilled laughter."I have always felt a kinship with you through our mutual bitterness.""Bitterness comes with familiarity," I snorted in amusement. Lovers had passion. We shared a simmering anger that came from being irredeemably wronged."I was born Baraqu, the first son of a potter in some city that no longer matters. I was a failure as a potter and an embarrassment to my house and my clan," I began a story I hadn't told another soul in, I couldn't recall. "In those days, the Priest-Kings declared wars and demanded each clan of the city give forth a certain number of males to fight. My family volunteered me and two rowdy cousins.Outside the gates, my clan elder gave each of us a cowhide shield and a spear with a small spindle of copper at the tip so we wouldn't think it was a staff. We marched, I forget which city we were fighting that time. Three days later we found the enemy behind a deep irrigation ditch that had dried out for the season. Our orders were simple, 'There they are. Attack!'My elder was at the back of our mob, making sure none of us ran away. My older cousin made it across the ditch first, but was speared twice; once in the right kidney, I can still remember my first sight of blood, and once, piercing the shield and lodging in his ribcage. My second cousin and I were pushed from behind into the fighting. I stabbed at one shield, doing no harm.Then my surviving cousin's morale broke and he tried to claw his way back into our ranks. He was stabbed in the back, his dying body tangling with mine and bearing us both to the ground. I saw this howling mad face over me. He was a commoner, like me, driven to violence by the terror of battle. His shoddily crafted spear plunged first into my right lung. The second stab found my heart. I died.From there, my spirit fell down toward the wretched dank caverns where all pitiful lowborn dregs are doomed to end up without hope of parole. Instead of endless misery, the Goddess Sarrat Irkalli appeared before me, barring my descent. With icy claws, she trisected my soul. I cannot begin to describe that agony. She snatched up my tattered bits and dragged me back into the world.Sarrat Irkalli is Goddess of the Netherworld, whispered a word that penetrated my brain through the left ear of my cooling corpse. It was an utterance so catastrophic to the fabric of the Veil I dare not repeat it even now.Baraqu? she blew a dark wind upon the first bit of my essence and it flew away.Cael, she whispered to the second portion and off it went in another direction. You are Baraqu no more. The second name was meaningless to me at the time but my name. Do you know that if you have your true name, your spirit can not find its way to your reward, no matter how foul, or pleasing? To the third part of my soul. I name you Alal, he who stands witness to the end of all he desires; their destroyer. Powerful yet powerless.}With that, she left me. My body was stiff from being dead so long. The next few hours were extremely painful. The Sun had set and the Moon was not in evidence. Jackals barked and hyenas laughed as they fought and feasted on the dead. I pushed the body of my cousin off me then crawled down into the ditch to hide. Hardly the reaction of a hero.""Not the actions of the man I know," Shammuramat smirked. "So, your name is Baraqu.""Was and I never much liked the name," I countered. "The priests gave it to me because right before my naming ceremony, a bolt of lightning from a spring storm struck the temple of Shara. So they named me Baraqu, which means 'struck by lightning'.""That sound likes a good name," the Queen Dowager regarded me."That is the noble meaning. The common meaning is less eloquent, it means 'idiot'."Another deep laugh from my treasured compatriot. So few had ever mattered so much to me."Struck by lightning, stricken dumb," she guffawed. "Still not the 'you' I know.""What does the other name mean?""I have no idea. In all my travels I have never found a people familiar with it," I shrugged. She looked out over the low waves lapping against the stony shore."No explanation?" she grudgingly inquired. She had wanted me to continue."No. I have never again come face to face with Sarrat Irkalli, been visited by a messenger, divine, or demonic, received an omen, or any otherworldly presence of any kind," I shrugged. I was long past any resentment. "After the battle I made my way back home, we'd lost, and resumed my life for a few years. My father took the excuse of me 'letting' my kinsmen die to place my younger brother over me.I didn't care. I always hated being a potter, so I ended up being a piddling nuisance all the time and a drunken brawler whenever I had wrangled some beer. I was always the first choice of my clan to send into battle. Despite my lack of training, I began surviving more battles than I died in. At some point, the priests began getting suspicious that I was still hanging around my great-grandnephew's house, so my house Elder suggested I leave the city.I was given a nice copper-headed mace that I had taken in a recent skirmish. Tradition dictated I offer it to the Elder, so he could give it back to me as a sign of my value to the clan. He had taken it for his own. Now he was giving it back out of fear that it held some part of my taint. I had no idea how to live on my own. Two days out, I was robbed and murdered for the first, but not last, time. That inaugural event, I got really angry and hunted those two farmers down.I got my mace back. I also relieved them of an onager, three slaves and a few ingots of silver. I guessed they had been rather successful robbers until they met me."

Summer Camp Mayhem.By FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.The miracle is not a person jumping into a torrent to save another. It is the dozen who form a chain to pull them both out.(Midnight in the Grotto of Good and Evil)We were in one of the underground pools at the bottom of the mesa. Our tour guide had informed us there were nine known caves and the complex had never been fully explored due to the remaining waterways being totally submerged. It was well past midnight, all my little friends had crashed out and I had wisely ditched my security after Miyako silently woke me up with her hand over my mouth.She pulled my hand to her lips and sucked deeply on two of my digits. I took this to be an indicator to me she was in dire need of loving. The grotto was my idea. I was inspired by my desire to see her naked and I couldn't risk a light source any place but underground. The tool shed and garage lacked a certain appeal. The fuel depot and septic tank were also ruled out."Is the chaos in your mind still raging, Cáel?" Miyako asked in Nipponese, with enough worry to doubly enhance her cuteness."Which of the twenty-seven unexplained languages rolling around in my head do you want me to answer you in?" my toothy grin barely visible in the darkness.Around half way through my sexual enlightenment in college, I had a revelation. The two guys I had gone road-tripping with took me to a bar in Portsmouth. I caught a woman looking us over. I already had my one-night stand lined up and she was looking most agreeable to my nefarious skullduggery (i.e. she had come with some other guy who preferred beer and darts with his buddies over keeping his attention on what mattered).And then my awakening."Nah, she's too fat," he remarked. For one thing, my friend who said that could have stood to lose ten to fifteen kilograms himself. Next, we were dressed like middle class college kids, jeans, shirts that were most likely clean when we picked them out of the laundry basket, light jackets and the shoe thing.This girl was dressed up for a good night out. Nice makeup, her clothing choices were, eh, not stunning, but this wasn't a stunning nightclub/bar. She looked fun, she smiled and yes, she was overweight. It dawned on me that not only did I not care, I never cared. I was a sexual omnivore and that meant any lady interested in sex with me was fine in my book.So, I turned the tables on him."If you can score her number, I'll give you my watch," I dared him. The wristwatch was really nice, one of those $500 handmade German ones. One of my Ex's great-granddad had swiped it off some Nazi pilot in World War II, and the same girl gave it to me twice. See, by accident, as I was exiting the (thankfully) first floor window of the Natural Sciences building, she threw a pitcher at me.It had been sitting in an ornamental display case close by. I caught it, nodded to the flabbergasted female professor-type gawking at the semi-naked me, handed her the projectile, then fled like the responsibility-dodging coward that I was. It turned out that that bit of crockery was from the mid-1600's; the woman I'd surprised was the item's owner.That older lady wasn't a teacher. She was a major benefactor in charge of one of the school's larger endowments. Had it shattered, the Ex most likely would have been expelled. Instead, after watching me round the Chancellor's residence, the mature chick turned to the totally naked chick leaning out the window, still screaming at me."Is he on the track team?" she inquired as she handed the artifact back. They talked, agreed I was a miserable human being, a cad and had firmly developed buttocks. Well, I guess that makes me a pig with nice hams. The next day, I showed up to return the watch, it was just an excuse for one more round of sex.She explained the whole incident to me, took back the watch and sent me on my way. I hurried back to my dorm room, changed the sheets and picked up a bit. An hour later she was quietly knocking at my door. Rather epic make-up sex followed, she gave me the watch as a keepsake and I swore off intercourse in classrooms for two whole months. I'm a tower of resolute willpower, I know.Back at the bar, my buddy snorted, made some comment about her being obviously desperate and promised me he'd nail in her in one of the back rooms. They talked a little, he got 'friendly', then said something that really hurt the girl's feelings. She looked our way, steadied herself with a shot of bourbon and came over to me and my other bud."Did you tell that guy you would give him fifty bucks if I put a lipstick ring on his cock?" she confronted us."No, I told him you were too good for him and if he could get your phone number, I would give him this watch," I showed her the watch. The girl's face flashed back to 'cautiously curious'."Is it a nice watch?" she asked."It is a family heirloom. My great-grandpa brought it back from World War II after taking it off some high ranking kraut officer," I embellished. "I knew he didn't have a chance with you.""Thanks," she grinned. "I agree. Let me get my sister and we can get a bite to eat." Sex.Two guesses of who her sister was. If you guessed the girl I had been cultivating since I got there, you would be right. I am too damn lucky. Lads, the next time you blow a sure thing, blame me for sucking all the good karma away from you, and nine of your friends. I got a three-way. The guy I made the challenge to, got his revenge. He bailed and I had to hitchhike back to school. You know, female truckers, oh, back to Miyako.After stashing our clothing and weapons (all of mine anyway), I took a small fluorescent lantern and slipped into the water. Cold, but doable. Miyako joined me and then, by moonlight, we swam to the point where the guide had said we'd find a passage to a secluded grotto. Down we went. My motivation wasn't sex.That was coming no matter what. Seeing my Nipponese sweetie completely nude directed my course of action. Security protocols meant no lights after 11 p.m. My solution was to cut on a light that couldn't be seen from outside, the grotto. We felt our way along the rather wide submerged passage emerging well before air became an issue. I raised the lantern and cut it on.Our tour guru had forgotten to mention that the algae patches along the sides and bottom as well as the quartz veins on the roof and walls reflected the light over what must have been an eight by ten meter cavern. Gorgeous. We glided to a shelf that met our needs, climbed up and shared a high school 'nervous virgin' moment. She broke the spell by pulling herself out of the water and, standing on her tippy-toes, touched one of the roof veins.I drank in every inch of my little ninja babe's lithe, finely tuned body. Once she got over the newness of my voyeurism, she became playful, giving me a variety of silhouettes and poses. I stripped and returned the favor, which earned me a giggling fit. As I took a minute to sit down and stare into the tranquility of the still surface, she snuck up on me.She said it all with her eyes. I tried to speak, but she put a forefinger to my lips. 'Hold me forever,' her eyes relayed her intentions. 'Love me for all eternity and think of no one else but me.' My elbows were locked, supporting my upper torso as she hovered over my lap. She was a lone feather falling upon the unyielding stone.With one hand behind her, she guided my cock into the wet, luxurious vice that was her cunt. We took it in increments. A sigh more at home in whispered Nirvana than on mortal tongues escaped her lips as she nestled all the way down. We didn't fuck. We rocked back and forth in a timid motion.As Miyako became accustomed to me once more, she would lean farther back with each pulse until an in and out rhythm was achieved. I took the occasion of her victory to pluck her left nipple into my mouth. Experience had taught me that was her more sensitive one. For several seconds, she fought it before knowledge caught up with instinct, then she loosed her passion.After her vibrations subsided, she rested her body tightly against mine. I still impaled her and she was returning a fraction of that warmth."Do you ever think you will find true love?" she whispered into my ear, in Nipponese. I was drawing my finger through her damp hair as it trailed down her back."As in love one over all others, no," I confided. "Even if I did, I could never admit it.""Why not?" she asked in Mandarin.In French I explained; "My life is a mad race through the forest and I don't know if I am a hound or the stag. I don't dare slow down until I know, and that is no way to repay such devotion.""When do you think the race will end for you?" she moaned softly, in English."I would really like to hold a child of mine. I don't regret my life's path up until now, yet I leave so very little of me behind if it ends soon," I muttered in Nipponese, and then chuckled. "It used to be at the first sign of a pregnancy test, I would panic. The World turns very rapidly."A minute passed as she went from warm to heatedly sensuous."Less talk, more babies," she sacrificed her emotions for my well-being with her oh so naught Baby Metal band voice and questing fingers. How could I say 'no' to that?"I don't think it works that way," I teased."Let's find out." She implored me in NipponeseSometime later, I was lying on my back, Miyako's body extended over mine so that not one precious inch of her touched the cool slick rock surface. Considering our position and location, it took me a bit longer to notice the intruder. I thought she was all kinds of strange. Twin memories and perception joined forces for once.The woman moved through the water, yet she was only hip deep in a place I knew the bottom was three meters below. As she entered our isolated love nest, I noticed she had sent forth not a single ripple in the water. Memory filled in the rest. Her eyes, when her gaze met my own, had that void that comes from a tortured life punctuated by horrors you witness as well as ones you are forced to perform.That was from "me". The electron swarm inside my mind provided another crucial piece of the puzzle. Utukku, phantoms, dead denied entrance to the Nether Realms, trapped between, until some sin had been lifted. The spirit gave me a look of shock, then turned and fled."We are in danger," I hissed to Miyako in Nipponese, before cutting off the lantern.I dove in, angling for the tunnel we'd entered by. I was close enough not to jab my fingers into the stone surface as I clawed my way through. I didn't burst noisily to the surface on the other side. My approach was that of an alligator, slowly letting my head crest the surface so I could look around. No one was in evidence. Miyako was soundless at my side as we scramble to the hiding place of our gear.Miyako held my hand back until she was sure our belongings hadn't been booby-trapped. I had to make quick judgment call: how time critical was this? I went the 'clothes and weapons' route."What is going on?" Miyako spoke quietly."Back there, I saw a feminine Asian ghost and the last time I witnessed such a pained, hopeless look, I was confronting the Seven Pillars," I told her. "Their slave had that same doomed stare.""There are only two things here of value," Miyako made her assessment. "You and the children. You are far more accessible in New York City, so it must be the children." We pressed ourselves tightly to the cave sides when we heard the sound of footsteps coming our way. It was Charlotte, my minder for evening, with her bow notched and ready.Firearms were kept to a minimum after hours, so bows were the order of the day, except for the snipers on the mesa top. My movements must have alerted her. I sat down and continued dressing."Charlotte, the Seven Pillars know we are here, they know the camp is here," I told her."How imminent is the threat?" Charlotte knelt beside me. I didn't know."They must be close, to be making a reconnaissance of the caves," Miyako said with tactical certainty."It was drawn to you, Charlotte, you were out of place, so this thing looked further. Otherwise these caves are irrelevant," she added. Miyako had the mindset of a seasoned professional spy."The cavern and spring have a night guardian," Charlotte countered. "I saw her when I was following you two here."I had on my light bulletproof vest (no shirt), shorts (no underwear) and shoes (no sox)."Let's go check on her to see if she's seen anything," I suggested/ordered.What I had assumed was some sort of bedroll brought by Miyako turned out to be a Ninja Survival pack. This allowed me to weapon up while she dressed up. The amount of time we were taking still ate at my nerves. Charlotte stopped me from heading out first, only to be stopped by Miyako. The ninja slipped out like a cool desert breeze.(Friend, Enemies and those In Between)Thirty seconds later, a plastic BB bounced off my right shoulder. This time, I was leading Charlotte out. No one spoke. We couldn't see Miyako anyway, now dressed in her black pajamas and her face being reduced to just one slit for her eyes. We found the Amazon dead at her post. She was in a cunningly crafted blind not easily spotted from any direction.A quick sweep for 'gifts' left behind revealed nothing, but the corpse yielded plenty. She was shot multiple times with two separate flash and sound suppressed submachine guns. The woman had been alive when we came down and if there had been a firefight, Charlotte would have heard the shots, if not seen them; thus the suppression. The bullet holes suggested a small caliber weapon.Miyako stepped up, held up three fingers. Every piece of the Amazon's gear was still on her. The attackers had shot up her phone box. Wireless communications were deemed too risky so all the outposts had buried land lines. At this point, a few seconds of extra effort stood between the Seven Pillars and success; that and the Goddess Paranoia.Had the assailants yanked up the box and cut the phone line, it would have been rendered useless. Instead, they shot up the device and moved on so that when Charlotte pulled out the cache of concealed goodies, including the spare phone box, we were back in business. As Charlotte got to work switching out the busted for the back-up, I studied our situation.Advanced teams taking out the perimeter guards, and most likely the snipers, didn't make much sense. The camp had 300 highly motivated Amazons. Cutting them off temporarily from their armory and vehicles didn't make any sense, since all Amazons were armed anyway. That left timing. But timing meant nothing if I didn't have the goal of their attack.It came as a double-whammy. The Chinese place a high premium on family and the Seven Pillars had mastered a sadistic art form of turning young foreign women into their concubine/assassins. The Condotteiri would have slaughtered the entire camp. The Seven Pillars would want to kidnap the children, both as current bargaining chips and as future tools.500 girls, 400 could be kidnappable. The oldest would go down fighting with their sisters. How did you get 400 kids out of here? Helicopters? That would be a fuck load of helicopters taking out their team and the children. Besides, helicopters alone couldn't dig them out of their cave and cliff-face strongpoints.Desert, no waterways. That left the road. You couldn't use ATVs, not enough carrying capacity. The smart move would be to have tractor-trailers parked alongside the hard top state road. They would use smaller, more rugged trucks to ferry their captives out to the semis. That suggested some sort of 'cover/support' vehicles.2 half ton trucks with weaponized Hummers providing fire support a la 'Blackhawk Down' and that meant the bridge and the BBQ pit. That objective would solve both of the Seven Pillars problems, moving the main assault group into close contact with the Amazons so the Amazons couldn't organize a defense, and removing their hostages in a prompt manner so they all could be gone before anyone else could react.The Seven Pillars had to have secured the bridge and were mostly likely replacing the missing piers. It was the choke point of their battle plan. Worse for them, it wasn't part of a barricade where they could attrition the Amazon numbers with vehicle mounted heavy weapons. The ditch ran north-south, bow shaped with the arch to the west and was over a kilometer from the camp.The flanks were purposefully strewn with huge boulders that limited traffic to horse and motorcycles, no four-wheelers. They had to have control of the bridge, so that's where I went."Charlotte, I'm going to the bridge," I whispered before slipping out of the blind. I didn't order Miyako to follow me and I was sure Charlotte wanted strangle me for departing from her protective custody.There are four kinds of fights, be they between armies, or individuals. Set-piece (sparring), assaults, ambushes and meeting engagements. I was about to be in the latter one. Meeting engagements happen when opposing forces are set on goals that unknowingly intersect one another. One of the most famous battles in US history, Gettysburg, was a meeting engagement.I was using the bone-dry culvert because we feared the Seven Pillars had replaced our snipers. Miyako was, somewhere else. The enemy commandos used the same conduit to avoid having the remaining Amazon pickets spot them and raising the alarm. I had little doubt that the three men speedily moving south were heading for the grotto and its three inhabitants (Charlotte, Miyako and me).Not knowing that I could both see ghosts and guessed who its demonic masters were, they assumed we were still in the caverns. Me not knowing how this whole ghost-scout thing worked, I assumed that I had a chance of surprising them at the bridge if I moved fast enough. In a final prick of irony, they misinterpreted the role their snipers played in our engagement.They believed that their snipers would alert them if anyone moved on the bridge, ignoring the fact that the snipers didn't have a complete view of the gulch. I was only using the big ditch because I was afraid they had taken out the Amazon snipers and now had the high ground, which turned out to be true. Thank you, Goddess Paranoia.My first tomahawk was in my left hand and my Glock-22 was in my right. My fear of snipers and the bend in the gully saved my life. We literally ran into each other, me and the first 7P soldier. His long barreled Type-05 was pointing past my left, his torso slammed into my pistol, ramming his front armored plate against it as it discharged.The proximity muffled the sound of the gunshot. The bullet failed to punch through his impressive body armor, but the resulting force knocked him down and out. Unfortunately, our shared momentum knocked my gun out of my grasp. My right hand went for tomahawk two. The flattened man's team mates swung their submachine guns my way.Halfway through his shift, a black dart flew out of the western darkness, past the first one, then snapped back. The action caused the hardy thread to wrap around the barrel of his weapon. I couldn't see her, but I knew it was Miyako with her flying wedge with the thread attached. The middle guy was startled and not moving as his training dictated.That allowed me to use him as a shield against the third guy. Right as 7P #2 decided to release his weapon, I kicked him hard into the confused man behind him. Neither man went down, but I still got what I wanted.Guy number three's main weapon was trapped to his right as I rushed his left. Vainly he tried to get an arm up to defend himself. My right tomahawk shattered his forearm at the elbow joint. Only the body armor on the inside of the blow stopped the appendage from falling off. My rational mind was catching up with my instincts.These men had on head-to-toe ballistic body suits with knee guards and solid ballistic inserts for the front and back of the torso. They had on some sort of dull, dark-grey respirator mask which was why the armless guy wasn't screaming his head off. They also had matte black circular ear protections and a type of high tech visor on the ears and eyes respectively.The sole survivor was falling back, drawing his silenced pistol while trying to put some distance between us and find Miyako at the same time. Dummy, tomahawks are designed for throwing. A bit of Amazons indignation was behind that toss. His visor was cut in two as my anger drove the blade 6 cm/2+ inches into his skull.I heard a sharp crack of a rock being shattered. Miyako's graceful flip landed her at my side. I ran to the last victim, put my foot on his chest and put my right hand on the tomahawk's shaft. The guy reached up and grabbed the thigh of the foot on his chest with both hands. Shit, the fucker wasn't dead!

Cáel' as the new Amazon Teen IdolBy FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels."I've missed you too," Aya bumped foreheads with me. I was 'a Son of the White Stallion' who 'ran with the herds of Epona'. I was so proud of her. She had woven together a Magyar myth with an Amazon naming convention. Epona, the Celtic Horse Goddess and Aya's matron divinity, was worshiped with the sacrifice of foals, Amazons offered up fillies (female baby horsies) whose spirits ran with the Goddess in the Spirit World.When the pre-Christian Magyars went to war, they sacrificed a white stallion to entreat their deities to grant them victory. No one was about to slit my throat, or cut my heart out. I was made sacred, a spirit stud in Epona's vast herd of mares. How freakishly accurate."I love you for your brains, you know that, don't you?" I whispered to Aya."Yes. You are saving up your other love for Mommy," she kinda/sorta teased me. Out of the semi-circle of children, three stood out. More accurately, they were dwarfed by their companions. I took the group's indecision as an offer to advance."Hi," I addressed the smallest three members of the audience. "Are you the Fatal Squirts?""They are not allowed that name," Sophia interceded. "No Amazon child deserves an acknowledgement before their trial." I half-turned and nodded her way."(Cough, cough). "Excuse me, please." If she spoke Phoenician, I was boned for being obviously disrespectful of her authority and would have to take whatever punishment Sophia felt I deserved.Otherwise, I was getting away with binding 'leads to death' to 'blood-death wound' in that ancient and highly extinct tongue: 'fatal, squirts' indeed. Her hand fell on my shoulder."I have heard you laugh at death," Sophia remarked. If I was on Zoosk, all you would have to do was type in 'Preference: Amazon Male Who Dares Talk Back', and there was my smiling mug, all alone, staring back at you."Before I confess to anything, do you consider that an asset, or liability," I grinned."I withhold judgment," was her reply."I don't mean to 'laugh at death'. It is because all the other choices suck and, perhaps I've been called stubborn, bull-headed and 'not having even a passing acquaintance with common sense' a time, or two," I shrugged with my lovely burden curled around my left arm."No names, our tradition and my command," Sophia laid down the law. Sigh. I put Aya down. She didn't cause me a hint of trouble because she knew my heart. I unbuckled and handed her my two guns (my Glock-22, and 38). I motioned one of the mini-Amazons forward. She shuffled up to Aya's side and received my two tomahawks.Not only was no one leaving, the rest of the camp started coming down to see what was about to transpire. In my short stint at Havenstone, I had developed a reputation as an exciting fun-guy/irrepressible troublemaker."I feel your decision is founded on misinformation, or your rendering to be unjust," I told Sophia."Explain," Sophia requested.I hadn't disarmed for my sake, or hers. I gave up my weapons to affirm my desire to talk. I placed myself at my sister's mercy, thus expressing my trust in her. Amazons are not savages, just violently inclined.Later, Pamela would remind me that my behavior was precisely what Isharans were supposed to do, seek peace."Aya has taken a position as intern with Executive Services at Havenstone," I explained. "She held my position and served effectively for four days with good work reviews from the head of the department herself," I added."She has served in a caste, been assigned duties by members of that caste, performed errands and accomplished all that was asked of her. Doesn't that create an allowance for Aya, as she has been considered for a caste?" I was fishing for an excuse based on my instincts for these people."She has never been selected, chosen and been anointed to a caste, so her preliminary experience does not qualify," Sophia said after a few seconds of introspection. "Next?""She has charged forth into battle on my behest." The archery range."You were not an acknowledged member of the Host when that happened. Next?""She's tried to kill me," I tossed out there."What?" many exclaimed."No!" Aya gasped."When did this occur?" Sophia's eyes twinkled."At the archery range. She shot at me twice," I responded."She was practicing," was the counter. "Next?""Not next," I smiled. "I didn't have permission from anyone to step beyond the shooting line.In doing so, I accepted all calls to combat. Both Leona and Aya shot at me. Aya shot twice and came close once. Leona only hit me after I gave myself up to protect three Amazon children."Pause."Okay. Aya has served in combat, no matter how one-sided, " Sophia began."I was armed for part of the fight," I interrupted hurriedly. Aya's first arrow."Accepted. You were a viable combatant before that as witnessed by other Amazons in earlier encounters. She and another Amazon shot at you without any other claiming traditional ownership of you," Sophia nodded. The Leader had given me a 'bye' on my intern status."Aya may bear an honorific," Sophia loudly proclaimed her change in course. To Amazons, screwing up was a distant third to not owning up to what you did and not learning from your mistakes. Besides, I could tell Sophia was warming up to me, as a male and an Amazon."My war band?" Aya chirped."You do not have a war band, Aya Epona, but whatever name you use among yourselves is not a matter I will concern myself with," Sophia stated firmly. "Fifty days, Cáel." That was the end of it. Sophia turned and began walking uphill, conflict successfully resolved.The Fatal Squirts had emerged with a semi-official status, I had emerged without a new series of wounds and I had wrangled forth a small down payment for all the love and loyalty Aya had showered on me."Best Daddy in the World!" Aya shouted. "Mamitu! Mamitu!" Destiny.Amazons weren't huge believers in luck. They put their faith in training, planning, experience and diligence. For them, victory was a matter of destiny. Let the sloppy, treacherous Greeks invoke 'Nike', Victory, or 'Tyche', Luck for tossing them a positive outcome in battle. My side weren't thankful for the win they deserved.They acknowledged Mamitu had, through foresight, prepared the Host for what had to be done. For Aya, it was destiny that had put me in her path; she and her sisters trained for the hostage scenario multiple times, so she was a logical choice for my training. She had been training with the bow when I was giving her the inner strength and confidence to hit the target.Training, not mutual good fortune, put her at the range to make that shot. Whatever part luck played, that bolt that had saved my life and paved the way for Aya's rise to leadership had been a part of her training as well. Amazons didn't deny luck, nor did the put any trust in it."Hi, so who are the rest of you?" I addressed the Fatal Squirts while rearming."I am Mosa Oya," the tomahawk holder identified herself."I am, " the third member got out before we were propelled back into that 'never too distant' No-Man's Land. A girl, a stranger in her early teens, came up and shoved Aya hard."You are nothing special," the older girl growled at my buddy. My 'daughter' barely avoided sprawling in the dust.The intensity was palatable. Aya had no chance of beating this girl. Not only did her opponent have every physical advantage, she had three buddies as well, correction: two buddies and a twin sister. Amazons built lifetime bonds around these foursomes. Aya and company backed down, despite her obvious shame. She had just won an honorific as a child, unheard of before this. It was Amazon tactical thinking, not fear, that ruled Aya's mind. I was so proud of her."What's your name?" I inquired congenially of the newcomer. She flashed me a look of anger laced with teenage hormones, then turned and stormed away, actually, she only started to storm away. Her behavior had played right into my hands. I was an adult. She wasn't a full-fledged member of the Host, nor was she a child anymore. I had asked her a question and she had been disrespectful to me. Her bad. Still, I doubted anyone expected my leg sweep.The bully hit the ground hard, no rolling with the blow for her. My foot smashing down on her diaphragm drove the fight right out of her. I wasn't done. The twin rushed in, my thunderbolt left sent her flying back from whence she came. Amazons despise child abuse as cruel and socially cancerous, yet no one else was rushing in to stop me.Even her other two friends were obeying both basic Amazon battle philosophy and conduct. Two young teens versus me was stupid, and I wasn't alone. I had four Squirts plus two other women close by who saw nothing wrong with a cooperative pummeling. I lifted my foot a centimeter from the girl's chest."Let's try this again," I spoke softly. "I am Cáel Ishara. You have disparaged my house by putting your back to me after I, an adult, politely addressed you. In fifteen seconds your sin will pass beyond your ability to address and your actions will be viewed as your family's unwarranted insult. My sisters will seek vengeance against your sisters with the added advantage that your sisters won't know what's going on. Now, what's your name?"See, I could have gone straight to Step Two, the House on House vengeance. Me kicking her ass was merciful because after five, or six members of her house were jumped, one at a time by three, or four, of mine, those ladies were going to be truly curious why their youngster had been so fucking rude in front of so many fucking Amazons to the HEAD of a fucking First House.'Honorific' Aya still had no status except that of a child. Dumb Bunny was passed her 12th year test, so she was of her House, thus the insult. Despite my 'fantasy' assumption of the role of grunt, everyone knew that Cáel Cabbage-head was Cáel Ishara, Head of House Ishara. I was the only accepted male Amazon in existence, the only possessor of a 'five o'clock shadow' in camp, I was armed and I was so armed while walking among their children.She could not have possibly mistaken me for another. Her eyes showed that truism too. Her wrathful 'how dare that male!' morphed into 'oh fuck, my older sisters are going to be tossed down stairwells, jacked up in parking garages and they were going to be caught totally flat-footed when it happens, and it is all my (the girl's) fault'.In theory, Saint Marie could deny my feud (we were at war), or warn the girl's house of my request, but why would she? The crime couldn't have been more obvious and the Amazons were way past making harmful shit up about me."Zarana, Zarana of House Inara," she gasped.I switched foot placement, pivoted, reached down to arm-clasp my left with her left and ended with me pulling her effortlessly to a standing position."A pleasure to meet you Zarana Inara. I am Cáel Ishara, but you may call me Cáel if you wish," I gave her my award winning smile. "No one will ever doubt your courage in my presence," I added.'Lead with the left jab, then catch them with the right hook'. As true in interpersonal relationships as in boxing. I had beaten her handily seconds ago and now I was applauding her bravery. Again, I wasn't a Head of House calling attention to her virtue, but I was."Your sister shares your warrior's heart.""I, I, I don't know what came over me, " she started to give me a respectful head-nod. I hooked a finger under her chin to stop her."Are you going to reconsider your approach for dealing with a male Amazon, Zarana of Inara?" I bridged the awkward moment. Bing! I had turned a humiliation into a learning moment."Yes," she smiled at me. "Yes Cáel Ish, Cáel.""I swear by the All-Mighty, if I find this one crawling into your sleeping bag, I'm going to be very disappointed in you," Delilah ambushed me. Wa-ha?"Oh, come on!" I protested. "She's thirteen.""Fourteen," the other twin, bleeding lip and all, puffed herself up."Not helping, " I looked at the twin."Vaski," she supplied. What?"Vaski? Really? That was Grandmother's name, it is Magyar-Finnish," I wondered."We are almost related," she conjured the improbable out of the impossible."No you are not, young lady," Delilah serpentined her way to the front of the crowd. "You are not family now and you can't attempt to be for four more years.""Who would you be?" Zarana challenged Delilah. Man, those two kids were spunky."An honored guest," Priya provided. "I hope another lesson in manners will not be necessary.""I'll do my best," I volunteered. Priya had been addressing the twins; not me. Taking the hit was a bit of comedy to diffuse the moment."Some of you need to eat," a camp counselor stated. Another crisis down and the sky wasn't even dark yet."Cáel!" and here we went again. Thank you, Ishara, it was Europa, the strange one, meaning the one I understood the most.(Night and Day)This place kept getting more and more wonderful. There was one safe road that rolled out of the camp's front gate (there was no wall, the gate was ceremonial) and disappeared off toward the closest state road. Scheduled trips were made to the closest blip on the census data where they bought stuff (irrelevant) and were 'seen' by the locals (the important thing).If anyone investigated, there was a legitimate summer camp 'out there'. The counselors weren't friendly, but they worked with 'troubled' kids, so keeping the small talk to a minimum was excusable. Sure, they only saw women, usually the same ones each trip during a given summer. The camp held nearly a thousand people, so the all-female thing was dismissed as a quirk.That was the second layer of deception. We had already learned that the first layer was the idea of a camp for girls in the foster care system. The third layer was all the visible 'props'. This went beyond the typical craft centers, juvenile obstacle courses, and a dozen other distractions. (The only 'real' one was the stables. Amazons loved riding horses and being assigned to tend to their care was a high honor.)Thirty meters inside the gate was a bridged gulch. After dark, the bridge supports were removed turning a clear shot into the center of camp into a waiting death trap. If there was any doubt, the gulch, so comforting and protective, was a blast zone as well, designation: The Barbecue Pit. I couldn't find it, but I was sure there was an altar somewhere to the matron goddess for this summer camp, the Goddess Paranoia.The sleeping quarters for everyone? More props. Campers would go in, mill around for ten minutes, then curl up on their bed, the ones that warmed up to 98 degrees in the shape of human bodies. Then the campers went down the shafts beneath their bunks and dutifully shuffled along the one meter high underground tunnels to their mesa-based domiciles. Again, once in the cliff-side barracks, they had two chimneys, a tunnel back to the dorm building and a cleverly designed, nearly invisible front exit to choose from.Pamela took it in stride, Delilah was a bit peeved by the 'excessive' security. Virginia, we'd already dragged her through her dorm tunnel to her cave to sleep it off. For me, the tunnel's dimensions made it a tight fit. Amazons can be pretty strong, but they don't have shoulders as wide as mine, nor are they normally over a meter/eight (six feet for us Yankees).I would have complained, except I had a sneaking suspicion that Pamela had a trowel to give me so I could 'widen up' a twenty to forty meter stretch of tunnel the moment I opened my mouth. As the last portion of the instructional tour, we were directed to get our grub before it was gone because the sadistic chefs loved to watch the eight year old workhouse orphans fight over who got to lick the pot instead of starving.Not really. The victuals were actually very good. I had hopes of more bonding time with my Epona ladies, yet no sooner had I cleaned my tin plate and dinnerware, I found someone else who craved my attention, Sophia. She was hot for my touch and by that I meant she wanted to punch and kick me around for a bit, all in the name of fun."Since you are my guest, I will let you choose our weapons," Sophia decided."I choose hyperbole," I gracefully flowed from sitting with one leg down and the other bent to standing."Specify.""Caber tossing with real Sequoia. I'll wait for the ladies of Girl Scout Troop 666 to go get some, they have to be authentic; no substitutes accepted," I explained."That's not hyperbole," Sophia snorted. "Hyperbole would be, 'I want to use the biggest spears ever used by Amazons, or Goddesses'.""My hyperbole wasn't the caber tossing, it was us 'waiting' for a set of circumstances we both knew wouldn't happen," I countered. Sophia nodded.

On the Road to Aya.Cael becomes the Amazon's Unorthodox Global DiplomatBy FinalStand. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.For me, the diplomacy revolved around Delilah and Virginia, I had already fallen on my knees and begged Odette to let me go see Aya 'alone'. A few sexual-charged hours later, she agreed. That left four choices for the role of my two agents. They wanted to go 'as is'. Rachel informed them they would be murdered in-flight and their bodies tossed out over a convenient body of water.Rachel felt that the only reasonable course of action was for them to not come. That way the two could live a few more weeks. However, she would settle for stripping them down, doing a full body scan and then sealing them naked in airtight coffins (with a suitable amount of oxygen) for the journey. I suspected they might still slip out the baggage compartment somewhere between takeoff and landing.I cut through the clash of egos and made the final decision. Delilah and Virginia would be stripped and thoroughly examined. Initially I had the chore. Rachel was deeply suspicious of my true intentions. Freed of any electronic devices and with their weaponry in my keeping during the trip, they would be blindfolded as we made it to Aya without bloodshed.They applauded my wisdom by roundly refusing my decision. Pamela was of no help. Ten minutes into it, I informed them I was going alone, completely alone. They laughed, snorted and chuckled. Rachel reminded me that I didn't know where to go. I lied and told her that Katrina had given me the coordinates for the super-secret juvenile, all-feline [yes, I meant cats], survival training school.Fine, they would just keep me under constant surveillance. I responded by assuring them that despite my lack of spy-like abilities, I would escape and get to relive my Summer Camp experience with the only woman who respected my Demigod-like combat status. Their laughter hurt my feelings. Pamela stepped up and told the room they could either respect my compromise, or she would help me evade them.It was even more depressing to see the room full of women who had previously been mocking me suddenly 'snap to' and quickly agree to my earlier suggestions."It is okay," Pamela told me softly as the actual mechanics of my vacation were figured out by others. "I didn't want to play Bill Munny to your Ben Logan."Pamela's eyes flared brighter than any phoenix's rebirth. She'd stumped me."The Unforgiven, my Son," she patted my cheek. "It is a western made in 1992 starring Clint Eastwood, recast masterfully by 'Yours Truly' and, we need to work on you making a convincing Morgan Freeman.""Doesn't Freeman end up in a pinewood box in the first third of the movie?" Virginia mused."I didn't want to dishearten him," Pamela grinned. To me. "He ran off alone and got himself killed.""I was what, not even a year old when that movie came out," I responded with indignation."You've never heard of Block Busters, Netflix, Redbox, Dish, Hulu, or late night, Spanish language television?" Pamela snickered."I only watch Univision for their sports coverage," I countered."You mean for those sexy female sports announcers," Delilah chuckled. That earned her a 'well duh' look from all the other women."Before I consent to the strip search and inevitable follow-up anal probe, are we really going to be in a situation that requires us to fight this time?" Virginia asked."We should be perfectly safe," Rachel responded."Check, bring extra ammo," Virginia nodded."Good for you, Ms. Maddox," Pamela winked. "One day there is hope your life will have some meaning to me.""Great," Special Agent Maddox muttered, "now I have to think of what to get her for Christmas." We all laughed. Christmas was such a long way away.We packed up, rode to a private airfield near Doebridge, learned that SD was smarter than the rest of us, boarded our flight, and then finally entered US airspace from there. Around Ohio, a thought occurred to Maddox."If we were somehow forced to land and have the plane searched, how bad would it be?" she requested of Rachel."Bad enough that we have a better chance of fighting our way free than seeing freedom before dying in prison," Rachel answered calmly."Hmm, Rachel, if something like that happened, how many parachutes do we have?" Delilah joined in."Enough. Mona rides down with Cael because he's a virgin," Rachel stated."Oh! Come on Rachel," I fell down on my knees. "Can't I bungee jump it?""Luv," Delilah snorted. "If the drop didn't kill ya, the bounce back would snap you in two.""Cáel, we are at thirty thousand feet," Tiger Lily giggled. "You are more likely to end as a streamer than a pancake." An Amazon giggle, a most joyous noise."Rachel, I have been unkind," Virginia confessed. "Cáel is so personable and so dead set on getting himself killed. I had no idea your assignment was so herculean.""Acknowledged," Rachel said, "and we don't use 'that' word." Hercules was Greek too."We have it worse," Delilah patted Maddox on her shoulder. "We must obey some sort of legal code that doesn't allow us to preemptively save him.""We must too," Rachel gave a depressive sigh. "Her," she pointed at Pamela."Hey," Pamela pouted. "I'm more a force for vigilante justice than a team player. I ride alone.""Alone?" I took a quick headcount and added our Amazon pilot. "I count ten, Lone Phaser.""Am I included in that count?" Miyako yawned from under her blanket. "This jet lag is killing me.""Where did she come from?" Virginia hopped up."She was here when we boarded," I told her. "I searched her, I swear.""Yes he did," Miyako gave a sleepy, Hello Kitty smile. She'd 'searched' me too."I bet you did," Rachel glared at me, then Pamela, then me again since I was the titular boss.Thankfully we all 'bought a vowel', played a card in Clue, and shared an Inspector Clouseau moment. The gang settled down for a nap. Sleeping was not complicated. Rachel, as my bodyguard, slept beside me. The airplane's touchdown was so flawless I had to be shaken to alertness. Did I fall asleep? More on that later.It would have been better if Virginia hadn't figured out our pilot had violated numerous FAA regulations, like dropping below radar at one remote airport then sailing along for an unknown number of kilometers at nape of the Earth until we reached our final destination (This is great in date flicks, btw. It convinces the girl that we should 'live in the moment'/screw as much as possible.)We weren't there yet, of course. That level of un-convoluted thinking would have been an Amazon indicator of senility. Being a male Amazon, I was immune to such considerations, that meant I was always nuts in their regard, but they chose to humor me. Our plane had to park in a camouflaged hangar before we were allowed to disembark.I concluded we must be getting close to our desert gulag/re-education center as the sharp glare of sunlight was accompanied by an equally heartless glare of hostility rolling forth from our waiting all-terrain vehicle caravan. Thank goodness Rachel had the foresight to bring sunscreen for the passel of us. I swallowed the bitter realization I'd lost a $1000 bet concerning our landing zone with Virginia (a Temperate Rainforest) and Delilah (the American Southwest). In retrospect, betting on the site of 'Camp Rock' wasn't my smartest wager.The Brit made off with $2000 of our money and she wanted to be paid in Euros. That's €778 from me, you offspring of those who didn't have the courage to cross the Atlantic 100 years ago. Neither Virginia nor I really cared. With the level of violence about to escalate, it was all looking like 'funny' money to us. I didn't share my misery. Our Welcome Wagon ladies hardly looked sympathetic, or all that opposed to utilizing scalping as a valid debating tool.They didn't view this moment as just a bad thing, me showing up. My arrival was apocalyptic: #1, a man. #2, with a member of another secret society. #3, #2 was a professional assassin. #4 and #5, two more outsider women. #6, an unscheduled visit, as in 'the camp guardians hadn't been given six months to plan out all contingencies'. And you think your daycare takes its security seriously?"Cáel Ishara," the curt, mega-harsh bitch addressed me in English. As the other seven women dismounted from the four Jeep Wranglers (Delilah enlightened us), it was obvious they were well armed and armored, right and ready to provide some extra-curricular para-military fun. "Welcome," and 'oh please tear out one or two of my fingernails you Ginormous Pain in my ass' she greeted the exalted me. We spoke in Hittite;"I am”, then I used a phrase which I hoped meant 'I had shed blood in battle with sister Aya'. "No other name means more to me right now." Ah, the lovely jerk that full-blooded Amazons gave the first time they heard a male speak their tongue. The slot machine of her intellect kicked into high gear. No arm grasp was coming my way. I almost forgot."The outsiders are to remain armed as guests of House Ishara." That command was crucial. When/if I got my way with my first request, I was going to be rendered 'one of the girls'."If that is your wish. (Evil grin) Grab your bags and make it snappy," the woman ordered. "I don't like any extended activity at this airfield.""Ladies, let's hurry up and get our bags," Pamela barked in English. "You too, you hairless ape." That would be me, if there was any question. The Super-friendly camp counselors, with their slung FN P90's, didn't lift a finger to help us. Miyako flounced around without a care in the world. Pamela, eh, there were only eight of them. Three of my SD group were cautious while the pilot was already effecting her refueling and departure.Rachel shot one of the guardians a look I perceived to be friendly. A double-take elucidated things. She was Rachel's younger sister and had already been updated on my bona fides. Then in Hittite;"Male, you are agreeable to the eye," Rachel's sister fired off. Three whole seconds."Why thank you. I run faster than you would think, thankfully heal even faster and have the venerated outdoor skills of Bigfoot," I smiled.The seven other ladies weren't sure what to make of that jocularity."A very, very young Bigfoot," Rachel corrected."There is nothing wrong with the size of his feet," Tiger Lily added to the fun. And then all the homicidal fanatics chuckled.Pamela's whispered translation brought a subdued, yet similar reaction from the non-Amazon contingent. Sure, the new group knew about the New Directive, my fun encounters which I equated to my life and death struggle in those earlier days, my rise to house leadership, Constanza's blinding, the grenade launcher episode and the totality of my last confrontation with Hayden. Amazons are some hard-ass bitches.As we were loading up the jeeps, the leader tapped me on the shoulder with some force, in the same way a teacher catches an unruly student's attention."What was sex with an augur like? My name is Caprica Mielikki.""Out of respect for your authority, I will answer this personal question that is really none of your business," I looked down a good ten centimeters at her. No fear."It was beautiful, like every other woman I have had the treasured pleasure to have sex with," I continued. My reply's undercurrent was simple: I am not a House Head while I'm here. I am an Amazon, not a slave, or outsider male."Did you suffer stigmata?""Yes. To be fair, I was also having intercourse with her personal guardian at the same time. I'm not sure where to lay the blame, or importance," I inhaled her rugged fragrance."Both?" a different camp counselor questioned."As I told you, he has a really big and craftily-wielded foot," Tiger Lily teased, then Pamela said in Hittite;"And he is banned from having sex with any Amazon women for fifty more days," Pamela reminded them. Miyako, Delilah and Maddox weren't involved so were left uninformed of that detail. That bludgeoning innuendo dealt with, off to camp we went. Our journey was a pleasant diversion, punctuated by our trail, or lack thereof.The jeeps split up once we hit the aerial cover of the desert pines. At that point, every rock, shrub, tree and loose bit of debris revealed its God-given mission in life was to kill us. I kept telling myself that surely our Amazon driver abhorred suicide as much as I frowned on vehicular manslaughter as a means of me dying.Failing to believe that left me with tuck, duck and roll and that death-defying move would leave me lost and waterless, somewhere. I would have thought 'somewhere without cell reception', but none of our mobile devices had made the trip, despite a valiant effort at skullduggery by Special Agent Maddox and some highly creative types back at the Hoover Building.See, after we dutifully packed all our gear, the troupe got to watch Rachel's team toss everything into a cargo bin set to be loaded onto a flight to, the ticket said Banjul, Gambia. Woot! My ten ton armored long coat was going to Africa without me. It would have undoubtedly have tried to kill me in this heat. I was lured into acceptance by hoping this was going to be a 'birthday suit' flight.Yay! (Sarcasm) We got all new undies, shirts, shoes, pants, shorts, jackets, ponchos (I was beginning to suspect duplicity on that one), and a variety of other gear, including guns. They were nice enough to replace our weapons with the exact same production models. The sole exceptions were my trusty axes and I trembled at the scrutiny they must have endured.Meanwhile, back to my archaic, misogynistic inspiration that women shouldn't be allowed to drive: after the third skirting of what must have been a ten meter drop, I realized I was looking at this journey in the wrong light. I raised my hands over my head and began screaming like a fool. I was on the best rollercoaster ride ever!!The hobnail boot was on the other foot. My driver really wanted to know what the fuck I was up to, but couldn't take her concentration off the terrain. One massive lurch planted us in an arroyo (that's a dry riverbed for those of us who aren't freaked out every time it rains). Rachel and I were sitting in the back. Turning around in the front seat, Pamela grinned at me."I dare you to surf the hood," she laughed. Sweet Mother Ishara, that was the best mixing of 'you must be a redneck'/'immortal high schooler madness' I'd ever heard. I unbuckled milliseconds before Rachel could stop me. Her look said it all. 'Please, you Moron, don't do this to me. I've been a good little guardian and really don't deserve this, now do I?'I gave her a deep French kiss. She moaned, just not in a sexual manner. One of these days Rachel was going to start running around with a needle and fast acting sedative to keep me safe from myself. Understand, my driver was racing down this dirt, well, "pathway" was being generous. Her first warning that something wasn't right was me hand-standing on the roll bar and flipping onto the dashboard.Considering I was up against a 70 kilometer headwind, I felt I pulled off that maneuver rather well. She grabbed my closest ankle with one hand while keeping the other on the wheel. Our eyes were masked with goggles, but my smile said it all. No, I hadn't been thrown forward, and no, I wasn't running away from something in the back seat.I shook free, stepped over the windshield, braced my right heel against its base and leaned into the torrent of air. I was surfing a jeep. Then I was flying above the jeep, but only for a second. We'd hit a rock the size of an armadillo, or maybe it was an actual armadillo. I wasn't looking back to check. Why was I doing this? It was a tad complex. I gave Psych 101 a shot.My life was not where I had envisioned it would be when I kissed Dr. Kimberly Geisler, and my last two Bolingbrook girlfriends, who had been unaware of each other until that moment, good-bye before leaving college forever. I proudly considered myself amoral. No social contract would keep me from some good cunt, and since I found all cunt to be good if you worked at it, I slept with every girl I could, married, committed, bored, desperate, I didn't care.I held no relationship sacred. I had already proved I could do any girl's mother, daughter, aunt, roommate, childhood friend and total stranger. I hadn't cared. I knew I was going to cause multiple women emotional pain and I did it anyway. Sure, I regretted the agony I left in my wake.I never considered myself a sadist, but I had been a pretty horrible person by ignoring the inevitable consequences of my actions. Then Havenstone. Suddenly people were doing bad stuff to people I didn't know and it mattered to me. I was talking to women without the end goal being a sexual encounter.Hell, I had been honest to women without them using pain, or the threat of pain, on me. I didn't stop being me. I nailed four women at Loraine's, Europa's and Aya's school. I nailed Nicole while waiting for Trent to toss me his social table scraps, Libra. A whole army of women engaged in murder, slavery and infanticide on a regular basis, and I cared for them.I cared for them in a way that confronted damnation, not sexual adventurism. I had graduated from 'Dude, don't do that to the lady' at some bar to 'do this and I'll have you killed' and meaning it, and making it happen. I hadn't learned my lesson. I'd gone on to kill Hayden and Goddess-knows how many other women who Hayden had placed on that list.Yep, dead, dead, dead and it was all on me. Worse, I would do it all over again because deep down, tearing up my insides, was morality. To me that boiled down to caring about someone else without reward. And all that led me to surfing the hood of a jeep on my way to meet my lodestone of this transformation, Aya.My laughter was drowned out by the noises of the engine, tires, rocks, wind and sand. It resonated all the more. The driver didn't slow down. I sincerely doubted she understood my lunacy. That was okay. Pamela did and Aya would. She'd want to go jeep surfing too. Man, for a jackass and dastardly betrayer, I was accumulating a sizable heart-load of people I could honestly say I loved.Kimberly had once told me that the pain of knowledge is never being able to forget it. Good, or bad, it is an affliction for which there is no cure. That was where I was, pained by the creeping advancement of my soul and unable to turn back now that the door to familial affection had been opened.My thoughts of Dad dying and of a thunderstorm burst in my noggin weren't being terribly helpful to my mental state either. The horn blew and I snuck a quick peek back. The driver was making a sharp, forward jabbing motion with her right hand, then thrusting to the left. We were getting ready to exit the arroyo and that probably required some hellish footwork far beyond my ability.I made a hasty, less dignified, yet safer return to my seat. Rachel quickly buckled me in before a rapid turn up and over the bank of the river bed had us heading for another forested area."What was that all about?" Rachel asked once we were back into the tree cover. She'd have asked earlier but she was too busy clenching and unclenching her jaw in frustration.

Dans cet épisode Analytica 029 en compagnie de Karine, on passe en revue l'épisode S02E02 de Battlestar Galactica intitulé Les Centurions De Caprica en VF et Valley Of Darkness en VO. Nous vous faisons part de nos remarques et analyses, sans oublier de nombreuses anecdotes sur les coulisses de la production et du tournage. Quelques liens en rapport avec l'épisode : Le morceau Metamorphosis Five de Philip Glass qui figure dans cet épisode : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rebr_F53db8 Article "Les études liées aux relations au travail se comptent par centaines" : https://emploi.lefigaro.fr/vie-bureau/les-etudes-dediees-aux-relations-amoureuses-au-travail-se-comptent-par-centaines-voila-ce-qu-il-faut-retenir-20240213 Article "L'amour au travail : 14% des couples se forment au bureau" : https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/c-est-mon-boulot/l-amour-au-travail-14-des-couples-se-forment-au-bureau_2798741.html Article "Résultats de l'Étude sur la Romance du Travail par le Groupe Technologia" : https://topmanagement.fr/communiques/resultats-de-letude-sur-la-romance-du-travail-par-le-groupe-technologia/ L'échange tendu entre Dualla et Billy en début d'épisode : https://youtu.be/_wMlTKJCfUw?si=VBr4S3EVPAyZIh64 Adama noie le "bébé" de Gaius Baltar : https://youtu.be/noVXDnXBSRc?si=tTw4Kpgy9PNc9yiO Les gradés du Galactica se rendent compte que des Cylons sont à bord : https://youtu.be/LfDRH1YV-3Q?si=hSrLj-AGEF5ylDr_ Les choses ne se finissent pas bien pour Socinus sur Kobol : https://youtu.be/L9JhVPnGU44?si=bFHYMnRLEC5cURS8 Starbuck traite Helo d'idiot sur Caprica : https://youtu.be/wjqQOhzQ02I?si=ZDkNNtQ2DvpOIEgU Apollo motive ses troupes avant la confrontation finale avec les centurions Cylons : https://youtu.be/lgF-u2fiuis?si=X_iYzXpzxtTdKw6h Le formulaire pour poser vos questions pour notre épisode 100 : https://forms.gle/tUTrdihcCdiRkcXWA GalactiFrak fait partie du label PodShows et est disponible sur podCloud, ainsi que sur Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Google, ou Amazon ainsi que YouTube. Retrouvez les notes de l'émission sur galactifrak.lepodcast.frRetrouvez GalactiFrak sur Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram et Discord. Suivez Draven et Karine sur Twitter ou Bluesky

Check out our recap and breakdown of Season 4 Episode 6 of the Big Bang Theory! We found 6 IQ Points!00:00:00 - Intro00:11:57 - Recap Begins00:14:28 - The biggest car company in India00:22:11 - Train(ing) Day! Carney's and Travel Town breakdown00:43:42 - Bifurcated uvulas and then some! 00:58:49 - Lucky Baldwins01:13:32 - Caprica 01:21:22 - Allowable amount of insects in your foodFind us everywhere at: https://linktr.ee/theoreticalnonsense~~*CLICK THE LINK TO SEE OUR IQ POINT HISTORY TOO! *~~-------------------------------------------------Welcome to Theoretical Nonsense! If you're looking for a Big Bang Theory rewatch podcast blended with How Stuff Works, this is the podcast for you!  Hang out with Rob and Ryan where they watch each episode of The Big Bang Theory and break it down scene by scene, and fact by fact, and no spoilers! Ever wonder if the random information Sheldon says is true? We do the research and find out! Is curry a natural laxative, what's the story behind going postal, are fish night lights real? Watch the show with us every other week and join in on the discussion! Email us at theoreticalnonsensepod@gmail.com and we'll read your letter to us on the show! Even if it's bad! :) Music by Alex Grohl. Find official podcast on Apple and Spotify https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theoretical-nonsense-the-big-bang-theory-watch-a/id1623079414

Miután a cylonok visszérnek és elpusztítják a 12 kolóniát, az emberiség túlélői egy űrbéli flottába tömörülnek, a civilizáció maradéka pedig menekülésre kényszerül. A hajókat és a civileket egy múzeumi romboló, a Battlestar Galactica védelmezi, Adama parancsnok pedig bejelenti, hogy a flotta az új otthonuk, a Föld nyomába ered. Ünnepi különkiadásunkban Ronald D. Moore és David Eick sorozatáról, a 2004-es Battlestar Galacticáról beszélgetünk, a mikrofonok mögött Csabát, Ysu-t és NocadLee-t hallhatjátok. • Kapcsolódás az eredeti sorozathoz, aktualitás a 2000-es évek közepén. • Kezdetek (minisorozat), Kobol történetszál, a Pegazus érkezése, Új-Caprica hatásai, Operaház-álom és visszaemlékezések a fináléban. Legemlékezetesebb jelenetek. • A főszereplők sorsa és küldetése, misztikus karakterszálak. Műsorunk videós formában is fogyasztható: - https://youtu.be/jd-wSI8-0VY

Dans cet épisode Analytica 028 en compagnie de Karine, on passe en revue l'épisode S02E01 de Battlestar Galactica intitulé Le Tout Pour Le Tout en VF et Scattered en VO. Nous vous faisons part de nos remarques et analyses, sans oublier de nombreuses anecdotes sur les coulisses de la production et du tournage. Quelques liens en rapport avec l'épisode : Extrait d'un livre qui aborde l'impact de la confiance en lui du dirigeant sur la réussite d'une entreprise : https://shs.cairn.info/revue-questions-de-management-2017-3-page-47?lang=fr Article sur l'influence de l'empathie : https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-017-0082-6 Article sur la générosité du cerveau des femmes : https://www.cerveauetpsycho.fr/sd/neurosciences/le-cerveau-des-femmes-est-plus-genereux-12715.php#:~:text=Des%20diff%C3%A9rences%20entre%20hommes%20et%20femmes&text=Les%20chercheurs%20ont%20d%C3%A9nombr%C3%A9%20les,contre%2039%20%25%20pour%20les%20hommes Article sur les avantages du daltonisme pour les chasseurs : https://lucperino.com/595/avantages-pour-les-daltoniens-chasseurs.html Starbuck et Helo ne sont pas d'accord à propos de Sharon sur Caprica : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB8hNWYixGk Tyrol, Cally et Tarn se font attaquer par surprise sur Kobol : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB8hNWYixGk Felix Gaeta laisse un virus Cylon s'infiltrer dans le Galactica pour tenter de retrouver la flotte : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0BD4jmTS_M Le colonel Tigh a un flashback de son passé : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpmwEdgQc2E GalactiFrak fait partie du label PodShows et est disponible sur podCloud, ainsi que sur Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Google, ou Amazon ainsi que YouTube. Retrouvez les notes de l'émission sur galactifrak.lepodcast.frRetrouvez GalactiFrak sur Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram et Discord. Suivez Draven et Karine sur Twitter ou Bluesky

Tread Perilously's Cornucopia of Sci-Fi concludes with a Caprica episode called "False Labor." After each of the main characters has troubled dreams, Joseph Adama awakes to another day of work while his brother, Sam, plots to send guns to Tauron. Daniel Greystone continues to develop Resurrection technology and perfect a simulacrum of his wife, Amanda. She, meanwhile, works to embed herself among the monotheists, even if one one of their number doubts her intentions. Trouble continues to brew behind the scenes at Greystone's business. The mob gets ever closer, and a prototype Cylon Centurion makes a startling contribution to the day's events. Erik and Justin can't help but examine Caprica through the eyes of jaded former Battlestar Galactica fans. Ronald D. Moore ends up in the hot seat even though he had little to do with Caprica. The duo split on star Paula Malcomson's performance. Esai Morales easily wins their hearts, though. Erik sees why Eric Stoltz was fired from Back to the Future. Despite not appearing in the episode, Caprica marketing star Alessandra Torresani merits discussion. Episode director John Dahl leads to a chat abput Rounders and the career of Gretchen Mol. The major Cylon problem infects Caprica and Erik gives The 4400's Billy Campbell some credit.

It's a somber episode of The Stage Select this week.00:00 Introduction, a sad week at The Stage Select17:25 While We Wait Here, NBA 2K2550:56 Dragon Age: The Veilguard01:32:19 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Life is Strange: Double Exposure01:51:06 Buttknight, Retrorealms: Ash vs The Evil Dead02:19:57 Julian's horror movie roundup (Mr. Crockett, Late Night With the Devil, Barbarian), Dan Da Dan, Dragon Ball Daima02:42:33 Questions, Comments, ConcernsTheme song and interstitial music by Megan McDuffee: https://meganmcduffee.comLogo and artwork by John GholsonAnnouncer: John GholsonJoin our Discord, learn about how you can support the show,and more: https://linktr.ee/TheStageSelectEmail: thestageselectpod@gmail.comTheme song lyrics:What could this possibly be?Seems a lot like a podcast… Wonder what specifically?Talkin' bout video games,With your hosts, you're in good hands.Not more of the same!Now we'll jump right in,So expect the unexpected and more. Now we'll get groovin,'Never know who's gonna walk through the door!There just might be some treasure in this chest,Having fun with our special guests,Time for Stage Select!Copyright 2024 Space Monkey Mafia Productions

When Commander Adama gets pissed at the President, their game of civilization chicken spurs a mutiny in the fleet. But while Starbuck's side quest reveals exactly who is pregnant, the rest of season one's interesting questions remain mostly unanswered. What type of fuel do Raptors use? When should you throw away a toaster? Who had the weirdest day? It's the episode that‘s a little too incurious.Support the production of Greatest TrekGet a thing at podshop.biz!Sign up for our mailing list!Greatest Trek is produced by Wynde PriddySocial media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill TilleyMusic by Adam RaguseaFriends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | JusticeDiscuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestTrek and find us on social media:YouTube | Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Mastodon | Bluesky | ThreadsAnd check out these online communities run by FODs: Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1236, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: The Performer 1: Patton Oswalt cooked up the voice of Remy the Rodent in this 2007 Pixar film. Ratatouille. 2: From 1960 to 2010 Don Hastings played Bob Hughes on this "global" CBS soap opera. As the World Turns. 3: Esai Morales lawyered up as Edward James Olmos' dad, Joseph Adama, in this "Battlestar Galactica" prequel. Caprica. 4: J.K. Simmons, seriously evil in "Oz", brought it down to "not so nice" as publisher J. Jonah Jameson in this 2002 film. Spider-Man. 5: This "Some Like It Hot" co-star who died in 2010 turned to Matisse-influenced art in later years. Tony Curtis. Round 2. Category: Impersonators 1: Impersonator El Vez puts a Mexican spin on this singer. Elvis Presley. 2: When she appeared at the 1999 Oscars dressed as Elizabeth, she said, "I am the African queen". Whoopi Goldberg. 3: Lucille Ball was the mirror image of this Marx Brother when she impersonated him on "I Love Lucy". Harpo Marx. 4: (Hello, I am Jon Lovitz. [Coughs]) My "SNL" impersonation of this 1988 presidential candidate was not the reason he lost the election. Michael Dukakis. 5: In 1995 the "Tonight Show" featured "dancing" men impersonating this California judge. Lance Ito. Round 3. Category: B Movie Quotes. With B in quotes 1: "My people are praying for a man who can drive their team to victory over Messala". Ben-Hur. 2: "I am William Wallace! and I see a whole army of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny". Braveheart. 3: "Miss Golightly, I protest". Breakfast at Tiffany's. 4: "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas... it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses"; "Hit it". The Blues Brothers. 5: "Just what are you getting at, Elvis?"; "I think you know what I'm gettin' at, Mr. President. We're gonna kill us a mummy". Bubba Ho-Tep. Round 4. Category: States By National Forest 1: Allegheny National Forest. Pennsylvania. 2: Sequoia National Forest. California. 3: Delta National Forest. Mississippi. 4: Prescott National Forest. Arizona. 5: Ocala National Forest. Florida. Round 5. Category: The Wheel Thing 1: A popular tongue twister concerns its rubber bumpers. Baby buggy. 2: On a cattle drive, Cookie works out of this vehicle that carries his supplies. Chuck wagon. 3: It's a child's vehicle with 2 wheels on a low footboard, or a motor-powered adult vehicle. Scooter. 4: A serving cart for desserts, if you're "off" it you're crazy. Trolley. 5: A tumbrel, a farm tipcart used to haul manure, was used to haul people to this during the French Revolution. Guillotine. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used

Send us a Text Message.For this show, we venture into the fascinating intersection of mythology and science fiction through the lens of Battlestar Galactica. From the original 1970s series to the 2000s reboot, we uncover how certain pagan and celestial references are ingeniously woven into the storyline with names like Pegasus, Commander Adama, and Lieutenant Athena aren't just characters—they're symbols of a grander narrative that tie the drama into the premises of the ancient astronaut theory.We also focus on Caprica, the prequel series that adds further depth to this rich universe and also on how the human survivors of a millennia-long war with the Cylons seek out the elusive 13th Colony, which is here on planet Earth. You'll find intriguing connections to the Hebrew Bible's creation story and the reptilian attributes of the Cylons. Mormon cosmology is also significant, particularly the parallels between planet names of Kolob and Kobol, showcasing creator Glenn Larson's intent to infuse the narrative with elements of Mormonism.As we round out our discussion, the thematic richness comes to light with love, betrayal, vengeance, and theology and forms a complex web that mirrors real-world advancements in AI. We delve into the series' depiction of the android robot Cylons integrating into their society, drawing parallels to actual automation, and show how there are religious undertones to it, such as creation and resurrection. The story reminds of the poignancy to what the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan had once said about us being made of "star stuff" and helps us ponder the possibility of our origins from the out there in the cosmos. "Space Journey" by Geoff HarveyCopyright © 2021 Melody Loops LPFull License Royalty-Free Music https://www.melodyloops.com Support the Show.Visit our website

Dans cet épisode Signa 029, on récapitule les news Battlestar Galactica de février, mars et début avril 2024 concernant la disponibilité en SVOD de la série, des nouvelles déclarations de Ronald D. Moore et David Eick, ainsi q'un nouveau jeu vidéo. Quelques liens en rapport avec l'épisode : L'interview dans laquelle Ronald D. Moore déclare qu'il referait bien une saison de BSG : https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/videos/2950375/ron-moore-outlander-end-for-all-mankind/ L'annonce de l'album concept The Singularity de Bear McCreary : https://bnnbreaking.com/world/us/bear-mccreary-unveils-the-singularity-a-genre-defying-album-with-star-studded-collaborations Un article qui raconte n'importe quoi sur l'ordre de visionnage de BSG : https://movieweb.com/how-to-watch-battlestar-galactica-in-order/ L'annonce de la sortie de futurs vaisseaux BSG miniatures par Master Replicas : https://x.com/MasterReplicas_/status/1771914340255330626?s=20 Les dernières nouvelles de Michael Hogan (colonel Tigh) par sa femme Susan : https://www.gofundme.com/f/michael-hogan-fund L'article fleuve de SlashFilm qui contient énormément d'infos, surtout sur les dessous de la saison 4 de BSG : https://www.slashfilm.com/1542460/reaching-daybreak-inside-look-at-battlestar-galactica-final-season-exclusive/ La vidéo de Metaball Studios qui compare les tailles de vaisseaux spataiux dans la bair de New-York( le Galactica apparaît à 5:30) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw6qppma02s La bande-annonce du plateau BSG pour le jeu de flipper Pinball FX : https://youtu.be/RWNiLU59cL4 Le site du musée Sci-Fi World à Hollywood : https://scifiworld.org/ GalactiFrak fait partie du label PodShows et est disponible sur podCloud, ainsi que sur Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Google, ou Amazon ainsi que YouTube. Retrouvez les notes de l'émission sur galactifrak.lepodcast.frRetrouvez GalactiFrak sur Facebook, Twitter, Instagram et Discord. Suivez Draven et Karine sur Twitter et Bluesky

Dans cet épisode Analytica 027 en compagnie de Karine, on passe en revue l'épisode S01E13 de Battlestar Galactica intitulé À La recherche De La Terre 2/2 en VF et Kobol's Last Gleaming en VO. Nous vous faisons part de nos remarques et analyses, sans oublier de nombreuses anecdotes sur les coulisses de la production et du tournage. Quelques liens en rapport avec l'épisode : Adama ordonne l'arrestation de la présidente Roslin : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRGyfYh0NJ4 Starbuck arrive sur Caprica, trouve la flèche d'Apollo (notez la présence d'un caméraman à l'image, derrière la verrière avec ses manches orange, à 1:25), se bat avec Numéro 6 et est retrouvée par Helo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElYp4eVOnk Adama explique à Boomer le plan qu'elle doit accomplir sur le vaisseau Cylon : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZQuTSPVHBk Boomer découvre sa vraie nature, en parallèle des événements sur Caprica et dans la flotte : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJQReHQx-OE La fin de l'épisode, où Numéro 6 montre son futur à Gaius et où il se passe un événement particulièrement choquant sur le Galactica au même moment : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpoCLAJTfDQ Avertissement : contrairement à ce qui est dit dans l'émission, la réponse à la question posée par Karine ne se trouve pas dans l'épisode. Donc ne vous inquiétez pas si vous n'avez pas la solution ! ;) GalactiFrak fait partie du label PodShows et est disponible sur podCloud, ainsi que sur Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Google, ou Amazon ainsi que YouTube. Retrouvez les notes de l'émission sur galactifrak.lepodcast.frRetrouvez GalactiFrak sur Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram et Discord. Suivez Draven et Karine sur Twitter ou Bluesky

Boot up your modem, we're going cyberpunk! We're cover What If? The X-Men from 2018 that sees our favorite mutants go full Matrix as Charles Xavier, Cable and Domino tangle with Magneto in cyberspace. Then we head back to this universe as we see a digital Wolverine face off against a multi-armed Silver Samurai in a 2019 follow-up. Plus we talk the first time we saw The Matrix, The Net, Caprica and whether cyberpunk is still a vital sub-genre. Ep. 122 What if the X-Men were cyberpunk? AKA the X-Men meets the Matrix!From What If - X-Men #1 (2019)Find us at https://linktr.ee/dearwatchersI hope your sister is off the phone and you have your free AOL CD-Rom ready because this episode we are going cyberpunk as The X-Men go full hackers in this 2018 What If issue from Bryan Edward Hill, Neil Edwards and Giannis Milonogiannis that sees Professor X recruit Cable and Domino to take down a plugged in Magneto. We then head back to this world in 2019 courtesy Zac Thompson, Lonnie Nadler and André Lima Araújo in a backup story that has "Wolverine" battling a cyber monster. We also chat about The Matrix and the entire cyberpunk sub-genre plus why we don't see more genre mashing in Marvel. Hop into the chatroom and join us! Reading / Watch List: X-Men #1 (Marvel comic book 1963) The Matrix (movie 1999) What If? X-Men #1 (Marvel comic book 2018) Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 3 #9 (Marvel comic book 2019 Email Podcast@DearWatchers.comFind us & support us at https://linktr.ee/dearwatchersTheme music is Space Heroes by MaxKoMusic (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0) ★ Support this podcast ★

It's time for the game changing season 2 finale! We've got an almost stolen election and a new President, Starbuck's triumphant return with survivors from Caprica, and one hell of a time jump. Oh yeah, and this little Cylon occupation. Apologies for how long it took for this to post. The last few weeks have been a lot. Better late then never though, right? Connect with us on social media! Twitter: @galactuallypod Gmail: galacticaactuallypodcast@gmail.com Instagram: galacticaactually Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for Part 1 of the Season 2 finale where we have a lot of politics, a suspicious Priest named Brother Cavil, Starbuck's return to Caprica, and the discovery of a habitable planet. Connect with us on social media! Twitter: @galactuallypod Gmail: galacticaactuallypodcast@gmail.com Instagram: galacticaactually Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We spend a lot of time on Caprica this week as Starbuck goes through a truly disturbing experience that hits a little differently in 2023 than it did in 2005. Back on the Galactica, Adama underestimates Roslin's reach. Send us messages! Twitter: @GalactuallyPod Instagram: @GalacticaActually Gmail: galacticaactuallypodcast Rate and review us on iTunes! Intro and Outro by The Weekend Pilots on YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's resistance all around in this episode: Roslin and Lee are resisting Tigh's new world order; Starbuck and Helo join forces with resistance fighters on Caprica; Baltar is resisting accountability by tricking Boomer into telling him information and almost killing Tyrol; Cally is resisting civility and decorum by running around like a screeching banshee and eventually killing our dear Boomer; and Adama is resisting death by waking up from his sedation and taking the first steps - literally - to righting the ship. Intro and outro by The Weekend Pilots on YouTube Twitter: @GalactuallyPod Instagram: GalacticaActually Email us at galacticaactuallypod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doug Drexler is a visual effects artist, designer, sculptor, illustrator, and a makeup artist who has collaborated with such talents as Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, Meryl Streep, and Warren Beatty. He began his career in the entertainment industry working for makeup artist Dick Smith on such films as The Hunger and Starman. He has also contributed to Three Men and a Little Lady, The Cotton Club, FX, Manhunter and Dick Tracy.Dick Tracy earned Drexler an Oscar, as well as The British Academy Award and the Saturn Award for his special makeup effects on characters such as Big Boy Caprice (played by Pacino) and Mumbles (played by Hoffman). Two Emmy nominations in the same field followed for three years working on Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he performed such tasks as aging Captain Picard for "The Inner Light". In 1992 Drexler moved over to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as designer, digital artist and effects artist. He continued in that capacity on the subsequent Star Trek films as well as Star Trek: Voyager. In April 2001 Drexler worked as senior Illustrator and CGI designer on the fifth Star Trek series, Enterprise. Following Enterprise, he was hired by Visual Effects Supervisor Gary Hutzel as CG Supervisor on Battlestar Galactica, "Caprica", "Blood and Chrome", and "Defiance". Doug won two Emmy Awards and a Visual Effects Society Award for Galactica.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5351305/advertisement

We're back with the first episode of Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica, Scattered! We rejoin the search for Earth and the fight for humanity's survival right where we left off, with Adama being shot and Colonel Tigh has his hands full when they lose the fleet and strand their crash survivors on Kobol. Meanwhile, on Caprica, Starbuck's reunion with Helo isn't going the way either of them would prefer when Sharon steals their way back to Galactica. Tweet us at @Galactuallypod Email us at galacticaactuallypodcast@gmail.com Intro & Outro music by The Weekend Pilots on YouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

هذه الحلقة منتجت وسجلت بالإشتراك مع بودكاست ستيل شاوت (Steel Shout) أدب السايبربنك يعتبر من أهم الفروع التي ولدت من أدب الخيال العلمي في القرن العشرينما هو الـ(cyberpunk)  في الأدب.يمثل الـ (cyberpunk) نوعًا من أدب الخيال العلمي الذي يتميز بتمحوره حول العالم الافتراضي والتكنولوجيا المتقدمة، كما يتضمن العديد من العناصر الأخرى مثل الجريمة والفساد والتحرر والتمرد، ونوع من القصص الغامضة. يعود أصل الـ (cyberpunk)  إلى الأدب الخيال العلمي الذي ظهر في الستينات والسبعينات من القرن الماضي، ولكنه انتشر وازدهر في الثمانينات والتسعينات، وذلك بفضل العديد من الأعمال الشهيرة التي تناولت هذا الموضوع، مثل رواية "نيرومانسر" للكاتب وليام جيبسون التي صدرت في عام 1984.تعريف (cyberpunk)تأتي كلمة "سايبربانك" أو "سايبربونك" (Cyberpunk) من مزيج بين كلمتين:الأولى هي "سايبرنيتيكس" (Cybernetics) وهي تعني دراسة النظم الآلية والحيوية والتفاعل بينها.يشير مصطلح "سايبرنيتيكس" (Cybernetics) إلى دراسة النظم والآليات والتفاعلات بين الأجزاء المختلفة في الأنظمة الحيوية والآلية. ويتضمن هذا المصطلح فهم العلاقات المتبادلة بين الجزء والكل في النظام، وكيفية تغيير وتحكم الأنظمة في أنفسها.وتشمل مجالات الدراسة في السايبرنيتيكس مثل هذه النظم المختلفة كالأعصاب والغدد، والآليات المتحكمة في الصناعة والتحكم في المرور والملاحة والطيران، والتكنولوجيا الحيوية والطبية، والذكاء الاصطناعي والروبوتات.يعود أصل مصطلح "سايبرنيتيكس" (Cybernetics) إلى اللغة اليونانية، حيث تعني "kybernetes" باللغة اليونانية "الملاح" أو "القائد" أو "المدير". ولقد استخدم هذا المصطلح في اليونان القديمة للإشارة إلى الشخص الذي يدير السفينة ويتحكم في اتجاهها وحركتها. وفي القرن العشرين، أطلق عالم الرياضيات الأمريكي نوربرت وينر (Norbert Wiener) مصطلح "cybernetics" لوصف الدراسة العلمية للتحكم والتواصل في الآلات والأنظمة المعقدة. وقد استخدم وينر هذا المصطلح للإشارة إلى دراسة العمليات التي تحكم الأنظمة المعقدة، سواء كانت هذه الأنظمة آلية أو حية. ومنذ ذلك الحين، انتشر استخدام مصطلح "سايبرنيتيكس" لوصف دراسة نظم التحكم الآلية والحية، وأصبح مصطلحًا شائعًا في العديد من المجالات العلمية والتقنية المختلفة.ومن المهم أن نلاحظ أن السايبرنيتيكس لا تقتصر فقط على النظم الحيوية، بل تشمل أيضًا النظم الآلية والتكنولوجية، وهذا ما يجعلها مفهومًا مهمًا في العديد من المجالات المختلفة، بما في ذلك العلوم الحاسوبية والهندسة والفلسفة والاقتصاد والعلوم الاجتماعية.  والثانية هي "بانك" (Punk) وهي تعني نوعًا من الموسيقى الروك المتمردة والمناهضة للنظام والسلطة وبالتالي، فإن الـ(cyberpunk)  يجمع بين عنصرين رئيسيين: العالم التكنولوجي المتقدم والمتمردة والمناهضة للنظام والسلطة. ويتناول هذا النوع من الأدب عادة العالم الافتراضي والتقنية المتطورة بطريقة متمردة ومناهضة للنظام، ويتضمن الكثير من العناصر الاجتماعية والسياسية والثقافية المعاصرة.يُعرف مصطلح "بانك" (Punk) بشكل لغوي على أنه نوع من الموسيقى الروك المتمردة والمعارضة للنظام والسلطة، والتي ظهرت في السبعينيات من القرن الماضي. ويشار في قاموس أكسفورد الإنجليزي إلى أن كلمة "بانك" تعني بشكل عام شخصاً أو شيئاً يتمتع بالقوة والعنف والتمرد والانفصال عن النظام السائد. ويمكن أن يُستخدم مصطلح "بانك" لوصف أي شيء يتميز بالتمرد والمعارضة للسلطة والنظام، وليس فقط في عالم الموسيقى الروك. وعلى سبيل المثال، يمكن استخدام هذا المصطلح لوصف حركات اجتماعية وثقافية وفنية أخرى، مثل حركات الشباب المتمردة وحركات المقاومة السياسية والفنانين الذين يسعون لتحدي النظام السائد.بروس بيثكي (Bruce Bethke) هو كاتب أمريكي ولد في عام 1955، وهو معتبر أحد رواد الأدب السايبربانكي. وقد نشر بيثكي في عام 1980 قصة قصيرة بعنوان "Cyberpunk" في مجلة "Amazing Science Fiction". وقد تم استخدام هذه القصة لاحقًا كدليل لتحديد الأدب السايبربانكي. تتناول قصة بيثكي العالم الخيالي والمستقبلي والذي يتميز بتكنولوجيا متقدمة وتمحوره حول شخصية مخترق حاسوبي يقوم بسرقة بيانات مهمة. وقد اشتهرت هذه القصة بسبب استخدام كلمة "سايبربانك" في عنوانها، والتي أصبحت بعد ذلك مصطلحاً مشهوراً في الأدب والثقافة الشعبية. وقد كتب بيثكي العديد من القصص الخيالية والروايات، وأصبحت له بعض الأعمال الأخرى مثل "Headcrash" و "Wild Wild West" و "Redbeard" و "Rebel Moon"، وقد تم ترشيح روايته "Headcrash" لجائزة نيبولا في عام 1995. وبالإضافة إلى كونه كاتباً، فإن بيثكي يعمل أيضاً في مجال تكنولوجيا المعلومات والحوسبة، ويشغل حالياً منصب مدير تقنية المعلومات في إحدى الشركات الأمريكية.تصريح بروس ستيرلينغ "combination of lowlife and high tech" ليس تعريفًا محددًا للسايبربنك، وإنما هو وصف للجو العام الذي يمكن أن يتميز به عالم السايبربنك. ففي هذا الوصف، يركز ستيرلينغ على تحدُّث السايبربنك عن النزلاء الرَّخاء والمتعطشين للمتع الجسدية والأمور غير المشروعة، والتكنولوجيا العالية والحديثة التي تستخدمها هؤلاء الأشخاص في تحقيق ما يريدونه. ويتناول ستيرلينغ هذا المفهوم في روايته الشهيرة "المرآة الشعورية" (Mirrorshades)، وهي مجموعة من القصص القصيرة التي تعتبر أحد الأعمال الأساسية في أدب السايبربنك.ومع ذلك، يمكن القول أن هذا الوصف ينطبق بشكل عام على أعمال السايبربنك، حيث يتميز هذا النوع الأدبي بتحقيق التوازن بين الجوانب العالية التكنولوجية والجوانب الأكثر شعبية والمرتبطة بالعالم السفلي والجريمة المنظمة. وتنتمي روايات وليام جيبسون وبروس يرلينغ وغيرهما من الكتَّاب إلى هذا النوع الأدبي، ويتعاملون في أعمالهم مع قضايا تتعلق بالتكنولوجيا المتقدمة والحياة الافتراضية والتحديات الاجتماعية والثقافية التي تنشأ بسببها. وتجمع هذه الأعمال بين الجوانب العالية التكنولوجية والجوانب الأكثر شعبية والمرتبطة بالعالم السفلي، وتتميز بأسلوب سريع الإيقاع وشخصيات مثيرة للاهتمام، كما تستخدم لغة فيها الكثير من المصطلحات التقنية والحاسوبية.وبشكل عام، يجمع وصف بروس ستيرلينغ "combination of lowlife and high tech" بين هذه الجوانب، ويعكس الجانب الغامض والمثير للاهتمام في أدب السايبربنك، الذي يتميز بتحقيق التوازن بين العالم الافتراضي والعالم الحقيقي وبين الجوانب الفنية والتكنولوجية والجوانب الاجتماعية والثقافية.عناصر السايبربنك الأدبي:·       الجوالـ (Dystopian):o      تحكم وتملك المنظمات والشركات للمجتمع.o      طبقية الرأسماليةo      حياة وضيعة.o      تمرد الأفراد على الشركات والمنظمات.o      انغماس الأفراد في الجريمة والملذات والشهوات.o      غلاء المعيشة ·       التقنية العالية:o      الذكاء الصناعي.o      الواقع الافتراضي .o      تطورعلم الأطراف الصناعيةo      المستنسخين والرجال الآليين.o      الاتصالات والتقنيةo      الهاكرز او محرك الشبكة  (Netrunner)·       الثقافة:o      موسيقى الـ  Punk Rock والـVaporwaveo      الازياء o      العمران والأضواء (اليابان في الثمانينات ونموها اقتصاديا في العالم الإلكتروني)o      المتحري والمحقق الظلامي (Noir)o      الرياضات والترفيه  أهم الأعمال الأدبية:·       رواية نوفا لـ (Samuel Delany) في عام 1968:o      نوفا هي رواية خيال علمي من تأليف الكاتب الأمريكي صموئيل ديلاني ونشرت في عام 1968. تستكشف الرواية، التي تصنف رسميًا كعمل فضائي، السياسة والثقافة في مستقبل يتسم بانتشار تقنية السايبورج بشكل شامل (والرواية واحدة من سلفيات السايبربانك)، ولكن يمكن أن تنطوي صناعة القرارات الكبرى على استخدام بطاقات التاروت. تحمل الرواية نغمات أسطورية قوية، وترتبط على حد سواء بمسألة البحث عن الكأس المقدسة وبقصة جايسون والأرجونوتيكا والسعي للحصول على الصوف الذهبي. تم ترشيح نوفا لجائزة هيوغو لأفضل رواية في عام 1969. في عام 1984، قام ديفيد برينجل بإدراجها ضمن قائمته لأفضل 100 رواية خيال علمي كتبت منذ عام 1949. ملخص القصةفي عام 3172، تنقسم السلطة السياسية في المجرة إلى فصيلين: فصيل دراكو الموجود على الأرض وفصيل الاتحاد الثريد الذي ظهر في وقت لاحق. كلاهما لديه اهتمامات في المستعمرات الخارجية الأحدث، حيث تنتج المناجم كميات قليلة من المصدر القيم إليريون، وهو مادة فائقة الثقل ضرورية للسفر الفضائي وتغيير مناخ الكواكب.يتورط قائد مهووس ومشوه من الاتحاد الثريد، لورك فون راي، في صراع بين العائلات الأرستقراطية والاقتصادية القوية، فيجند فريقًا متنوعًا من المختلفين لمساعدته في السباق مع عدوه اللدود، الأمير ريد من شركة ريد شيفت المرتبطة بفصيل دراكو، للحصول على الزعامة الاقتصادية عن طريق تأمين كمية هائلة من إليريون مباشرة من قلب نجم نوفا. وبذلك، سيحدث فون راي تحولًا في توازن القوى في النظام الكوني الحالي، مما سيؤدي إلى سقوط العائلة الحمراء ونهاية سيطرة الأرض على السياسة الفضائية بين النجوم.تتبع الرواية مغامرات فريق فون راي في محاولة الحصول على إليريون من نوفا، حيث يتعرضون للعديد من المصاعب والتحديات، بما في ذلك مواجهة العدو، والتعامل مع الأسرار الغامضة المرتبطة بنوفا نفسها، وكذلك الاستكشاف العميق لشخصيات الأعضاء المختلفين في الفريق.في نهاية المطاف، يتمكن فون راي وفريقه من الحصول على الإليريون من نوفا، ويتغلبون على الأمير ريد وشركته، مما يؤدي إلى تحويل التوازن في السياسة الفضائية بين الفصيلين. وبالتالي، ينتهي السيطرة الأرضية على السياسة الفضائية، وتبدأ مرحلة جديدة في تاريخ المجرة. ·       رواية (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) لـ (Philip K. Dick) عام 1968:o      هي رواية خيال علمي كتبها الكاتب الأمريكي فيليب ك. ديك، وصدرت عام 1968. تدور أحداث الرواية في المستقبل البعيد بعد أن تعرضت الأرض لحرب نووية دمرت جزءا كبيرا منها وأدت إلى إنقراض الحيوانات وتحكي قصة ريك ديكارد، الذي يعمل كصائد للروبوتات المتمردة التي تشبه البشر، ويتم تكليفه بمهمة القضاء على ستة من هذه الروبوتات المتمردة. هذه الرواية تشتمل على بعض العناصر التي يمكن وصفها بالسايبرنك، مثل الروبوتات والذكاء الاصطناعي، يمكن اعتبار هذه الرواية الأم لفيلم "Blade Runner" الذي صدر في عام 1982 والذي يعتبر من أهم الأعمال في فن السايبرنك.تدور قصة الحيوانات في الرواية حول شخصية ريك ديك، الذي يعمل كصائد للحيوانات النادرة، وذلك لكسب نقاط مادية تتيح له شراء حيوان حقيقي بدلاً من حيوان اصطناعي. ويحلم ريك بامتلاك حيوان طائر "البطريق الإمبراطوري"، وهو الحيوان النادر الذي يساعده على التفرد والتميز في مجتمع موحد.تعتبر قصة الحيوانات والتركيز على الرغبة في امتلاك حيوانات حقيقية، رمزًا للحاجة إلى التميز والاهتمام بالطبيعة والحيوانات، وكذلك للعلاقة بين الإنسان والطبيعة في عالم مستقبلي متغير. وتعد هذه القصة أحد المحاور الرئيسية في الرواية التي تتناول موضوعات أخرى مثل الهوية الإنسانية الواقعية والذاتية والمجتمعية والروبوتات والذكاء الاصطناعي، والتي تركز على القضايا الأخلاقية والفلسفية المتعلقة بالحياة والوجود والتعايش في عالم متغير ومعقد.رواية (Neuromancer) للكاتب الأمريكي ويليام جيبسون عام 1984 م:تعد من أولى روايات السايبربانك. تعتبر من أهم الأعمال الأدبية في هذا النوع، حيث أنها قدمت للقراء نموذجاً جديداً للأدب العلمي والخيال العلمي، يستخدم فيه (جيبسون) تقنيات ومفاهيم حديثة كالحوسبة والشبكات والذكاء الاصطناعي والروبوتات والتجارة الإلكترونية، وجعل منها عناصر رئيسية في قالب قصته المثيرة والمشوقة. وقد فازت هذه الرواية بجائزة نيبولا لأفضل رواية علمية خيالية في عام 1984.بطلها كيس، وهو هاكر حاسوب عاطل عن العمل يتم استئجاره من قبل صاحب عمل جديد غامض يدعى أرميتاج. يتم تشكيل فريق مع مولي، السايبورغ، وبيتر ريفيرا، اللص والخادع، لتنفيذ سلسلة من الجرائم التي تمهد الطريق للهدف النهائي للمجموعة، والذي يتم تنفيذه في محطة الفضاء المدارية المسماة "فريسايد"، موطن عائلة تيسييه-أشبول الثرية. تم إنشاء اثنين من الذكاءات الاصطناعية (AIs)، وينترميوت ونيورومانسر ، التي هي قوية لدرجة أنها يمكن أن تتصل ببعضها البعض في نقطة واحدة فقط. يتعلم كيس وزملاؤه أنهم تم استئجارهم من قبل وينترميوت لكسر الفصل بين الذكاءات الاصطناعية. يتغلب كيس ومولي على التدخلات القانونية السيبرانية ومحاولة خيانة من ريفيرا لدمج وينترميوت مع نيورومانسر، وينتهي الأمر بكيس يعيش في عالم جديد شجاعأفلام:·        Escape from New York (1981)[40][41]·        Burst City (1982)[42]·        Tron (1982)[43]·        Blade Runner (1982)[44]·        Brainstorm (1983)[45]·        Videodrome (1983)[46]·        Repo Man (1984)·        The Terminator (1984)·        Brazil (1985)·        RoboCop (1987)[47]·        The Running Man (1987)·        Gunhed (1989)[48]·        Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)·        Circuitry Man (1990)[49]·        RoboCop 2 (1990)·        Hardware (a.k.a. M.A.R.K. 13) (1990)[50]·        Megaville (1990)[51]·        Total Recall (1990)[52]·        Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)·        964 Pinocchio (1991)[53]·        Until the End of the World (1991)[54]·        Nemesis (1992)·        Freejack (1992)[55]·        The Lawnmower Man (1992)[56]·        Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)·        Cyborg 2 (1993)[57]·        Demolition Man (1993)[58]·        RoboCop 3 (1993)·        Robot Wars (1993)·        Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II (1994)[59]·        Death Machine (1994)·        Hackers (1995)[60]·        Johnny Mnemonic (1995)[61]·        Judge Dredd (1995)[62]·        Strange Days (1995)[63]·        Virtuosity (1995)·        Escape from L.A. (1996)[64]·        The Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)[65]·        Deathline (a.k.a. Redline) (1997)[66]·        The Fifth Element (1997)[67]·        Nirvana (1997)[68]·        Andromedia (1998)[69]·        New Rose Hotel (1998)·        Pi (1998)[70]·        Skyggen (a.k.a. Webmaster) (1998)[71]·        Dark City (1998)[72]·        eXistenZ (1999)[73]·        The Thirteenth Floor (1999)[74]·        Bicentennial Man (1999)[75]·        The Matrix (1999)[76]·        I.K.U. (2000)[77]·        The 6th Day (2000)[78]·        Avalon (2001)[79]·        A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)·        Electric Dragon 80.000 V (2001)[80]·        Cypher (2002)[81]·        Dead or Alive: Final (2002)[82]·        Impostor (2002)[83]·        Minority Report (2002)[84]·        Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (2002)[85][86]·        All Tomorrow's Parties (2003)[87]·        Code 46 (2003)[88]·        The Matrix Reloaded (2003)[89]·        The Matrix Revolutions (2003)[90]·        Natural City (2003)[91]·        Paycheck (2003)[92]·        Avatar (a.k.a. Cyber Wars) (2004)[93]·        Immortal (2004)[94]·        I, Robot (2004)[95]·        Paranoia 1.0 (a.k.a. One Point 0) (2004)[96]·        Æon Flux (2005)[97]·        Children of Men (2006)·        Ultraviolet (2006)[98]·        Chrysalis (2007)[99]·        Eden Log (2007)[100]·        The Gene Generation (2007)[101][102][103]·        Babylon A.D. (2008)[104][105]·        Sleep Dealer (2008)[106]·        Tokyo Gore Police (2008)[107]·        District 9 (2009)·        Hardwired (2009)[108][109]·        Surrogates (2009)[110]·        Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)·        Tron: Legacy (2010)[60]·        Repo Men (2010)[111]·        Priest (2011)[60]·        Dredd (2012)[112][113][114][115][116]·        Total Recall (2012)·        Elysium (2013)[117][118]·        The Zero Theorem (2013)[60]·        Automata (2014)[119]·        Transcendence (2014)[120]·        RoboCop (2014)·        Chappie (2015)[121]·        Ex Machina (2015)[122]·        Hardcore Henry (2015)·        Ghost in the Shell (2017)[123][124]·        Bleeding Steel (2017)·        Blade Runner 2049 (2017)·        Ready Player One (2018)[125][126]·        Upgrade (2018)·        Hotel Artemis (2018)·        Anon (2018)·        Alita: Battle Angel (2019)·        Reminiscence (2021)·        Jung E (2023)القصص المصورة:·        Judge Dredd (1977–) by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra·        The Incal (1981–1989) by Alejandro Jodorowsky·        Akira (1982–1990) by Katsuhiro Ōtomo[33]·        Black Magic (1983) by Masamune Shirow·        Ronin (1983–1984) by Frank Miller·        Shatter (1985–1988) by Peter B. Gillis and Mike Saenz·        Appleseed (1985–1989) by Masamune Shirow·        Dominion (1986) by Masamune Shirow·        Ghost in the Shell (1989–1991) by Masamune Shirow·        Neuromancer (1989) by Tom de Haven and Bruce Jensen[34]·        Battle Angel Alita (1990–1995) by Yukito Kishiro[33]·        Martha Washington (1990–1991) by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons·        Barb Wire (1994–1995) by Chris Warner·        Transmetropolitan (1997–2002) by Warren Ellis[35]·        Eden: It's an Endless World! (1998–2008) by Hiroki Endo·        Blame! (1998) by Tsutomu Nihei[36]o   NOiSE (2001) – prequel to Blame!o   Biomega (2007)·        Singularity 7 (2004) by Ben Templesmith[37]·        The Surrogates (2005) by Robert Venditti[38]·        The entire Marvel 2099 line is an example of the cyberpunk genre in comics, especially Ghost Rider 2099 and Spider-Man 2099.·        Marvel's Machine Man Vol. 2·        Batman Beyond·        The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (2013-2014) by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon الأنمي:·        Megazone 23 (1985)[127]·        Neo Tokyo (1986)[128]·        Black Magic M-66 (1987)·        Bubblegum Crisis (1987)[129]o   Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 (1998)[130]·        Akira (1988)[131][132]·        RoboCop: The Animated Series (1988)·        Beast Machines: Transformers (1999–2000)·        Dominiono   Dominion (1988–1989)o   New Dominion Tank Police (1993–1994)o   Tank Police Team: Tank S.W.A.T. 01 (2006)·        Appleseedo   Appleseed (1988 film)o   Appleseed (2004 film)o   Appleseed Ex Machina (2007 film)o   Appleseed XIII (2011)o   Appleseed Alpha (2014 film)·        A.D. Police Files (1990)·        Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990)[133]·        Æon Flux (1991–1995)[134]·        Silent Möbius (1991–2003)[135]·        Genocyber (1993)[136]·        Macross Plus (1994)·        Armitage III (1995)·        Ghost in the Shell (anime films)o   Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)[137]o   Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004 film)[138]·        Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (S.A.C.)[139]o   Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (S.A.C.) (2002–2003)o   Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG (2004–2005)o   Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society (2006 film)o   Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045 (2020–2022)·        Ghost in the Shell: Ariseo   Ghost in the Shell: Arise (2013–2015)o   Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie (2016 film)·        Spicy City (1997)·        Cowboy Bebop (1998)·        RoboCop: Alpha Commando (1998–1999)·        Serial Experiments Lain (1998)[140]·        Gundress (1999)·        Batman Beyond (1999–2001)·        Metropolis (2001)[141]·        The Animatrix (2003)[142]·        Code Lyoko (2003–2007)·        Heat Guy J (2003)[143]·        Parasite Dolls (2003)[144]·        Texhnolyze (2003)[145]·        Wonderful Days (a.k.a. Sky Blue) (2003)[146][147]·        Burst Angel (2004)[148]·        Fragile Machine (2005)[149]·        Aachi & Ssipak (2006)[150]·        A Scanner Darkly (2006)[151]·        Ergo Proxy (2006)[152]·        Paprika (2006)[153][154]·        Renaissance (2006)[155]·        Dennō Coil (2007)[156]·        Vexille (2007)[157][158]·        Technotise: Edit & I (2009, Serbia)[159]·        Real Drive (2008)·        Mardock Scramble (2010)[160]·        Accel World (2012–2016)·        Psycho-Pass (2012)[161]·        Tron: Uprising (2012)·        Dimension W (2016)·        No Guns Life (2019–2020)·        Altered Carbon: Resleeved (2020)·        Akudama Drive (2020)·        Blade Runner: Black Lotus (2021–2022)·        Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)مسلسلات·        World on a Wire (1973)[162]·        The Deadly Assassin (1976)[163]·        Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983)[164]·        Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future (1985), British television movieo   Max Headroom (1987),[165] American television series based on the UK TV movie·        Wild Palms (1993)[166]·        TekWar (1994)[167]·        RoboCop: The Series (1994)·        VR.5 (1996)[citation needed]·        Welcome to Paradox (1998)[168]·        The X-Files, two episodes of the series were written by William Gibson and contain cyberpunk themes:o   Kill Switch (1998)[169]o   First Person Shooter (2000)[170][171]·        Harsh Realm (1999)[172]·        Total Recall 2070 (1999)[173]·        Dark Angel (2000–2002)[174]·        RoboCop: Prime Directives (2001)[175]·        Charlie Jade (2005)[176]·        Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009)·        Power Rangers RPM (2009)·        Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (2009)[citation needed]·        Dollhouse (2009–2010)[177]·        Caprica (2010)·        Person of Interest (2011–2016)·        Black Mirror (2011–2019)·        Continuum (2012–2015), set in the present with a protagonist who has time traveled back from a cyberpunk future in 2077·        H+: The Digital Series (2012)·        Almost Human (2013–2014)·        Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl (2014)·        Mr. Robot (2015–2019)·        Humans (2015–2018)·        Westworld (2016–2022)·        Incorporated (2016–2017)·        Altered Carbon (2018–2020)·        S'parta (2018)·        Better Than Us (2018–2019)·        Love, Death & Robots (2019–present)·        Meta Runner (2019–2022)·        Onisciente (2020)·        Upload (2020–present)[178] ألعاب فيديو:·       Exapunk The Screamer (1985)[190] Imitation City (1987)[191] Megami Tensei series (1987–present)[192]  Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (1987)[193][194]   Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (1997)[195]   Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (2004)[196]   Shin Megami Tensei IV (2013)[192]   Soul Hackers 2 (2022)   Metal Gear series (1987–present)  Metal Gear Solid (1998)[197]   Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)[198]   Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)[192]   Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (2013)   Akira (1988–2002)  Akira (1988)[192]   Akira Psycho Ball (2002)   Neuromancer (1988)[199] Snatcher (1988–1996)[200] Genocide (1989)[192] Night Striker (1989) DreamWeb (1992)[201] Flashback (1992)[202] BloodNet (1993)[203] Gadget: Invention, Travel, & Adventure (1993)[204] Shadowrun series  Shadowrun (SNES) (1993)[205]   Shadowrun (Sega Genesis) (1994)[206]   Shadowrun (Sega CD) (1996)[207]   Shadowrun (2007)[208][209]   Shadowrun Returns (2013) [210]   Shadowrun: Dragonfall (2014) [211]   Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown (2015)   Shadowrun: Hong Kong (2015) [212]   Syndicate series  Syndicate (1993)[213]   Syndicate Wars (1996)[214]   Syndicate (2012)[215]   Beneath a Steel Sky (1994)[216] Burn:Cycle (1994)[217] Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller (1994) Delta V (1994)[218] Hagane: The Final Conflict (1994)[192] Live A Live (1994)[192] Rise of the Robots (1994) [219][220] Policenauts (1994)[192] Appleseed series  Appleseed: Oracle of Prometheus (1994)   Appleseed EX (2004)   System Shock series  System Shock (1994)[221]   System Shock 2 (1999)[222]   CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (1995)[223] Johnny Mnemonic: The Interactive Action Movie (1995)[224] Road Rage (1995) Osman (1996)[192] Blade Runner (1997)[225] Final Fantasy VII (1997)[226]  Compilation of Final Fantasy VII (2004–2009)   Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)[227]   Ghost in the Shell (1997)[192] Einhänder (1998)[192] Nightlong: Union City Conspiracy (1998) Xenogears (1998)[228] The Nomad Soul (1999) Fear Effect series  Fear Effect (2000)   Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix (2001)   Fear Effect Sedna (2018)   Deus Ex series  Deus Ex (2000)[229]   Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003) [230]   Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) [231]   Deus Ex: The Fall (2013)[232]   Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016)   Perfect Dark series  Perfect Dark (2000)   Perfect Dark Zero (2005)   Oni (2001)[233] Anachronox (2001) Mega Man Battle Network series  Mega Man Battle Network (2001)   Mega Man Battle Network 2 (2001)   Mega Man Battle Network 3 (2002)   Mega Man Network Transmission (2003)   Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge (2003)   Mega Man Battle Network 4 (2003)   Mega Man Battle Network 5 (2004)   Mega Man Battle Network 6 (2005)   Uplink (2001)[234][235] Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (2002)[236] .hack series  .hack//IMOQ (2002–2003)   .hack//G.U. (2006–2007)   .hack//Link (2010)   Neocron (2002)[237] Enter the Matrix (2003)[238] P.N.03 (2003) Cy Girls (2004) Æon Flux (2005) Dystopia (2005)[239] System Rush (2005)[240] Mirror's Edge (2008) Halo 3: ODST (2009) Cyber Knights series:  Cyber Knights (Classic) (2011)[241]   Cyber Knights: Flashpoint (2021)[242]   Gemini Rue (2011)[243] Hard Reset (2011) Cypher (2012)[244] Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (2013) Remember Me (2013)[245] Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (2013) Alien: Isolation (2014) Jazzpunk (2014) Transistor (2014) Watch Dogs series:  Watch Dogs (2014)[246]   Watch Dogs 2 (2016)   Watch Dogs: Legion (2020)   2064: Read Only Memories (2015) Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015)[247] Dex (2015)[248] Technobabylon (2015) Soma (2015) Satellite Reign (2015) Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (2015)[249] Invisible, Inc. (2016) Mirror's Edge Catalyst (2016) Superhot (2016) VA-11 HALL-A (2016)[250] Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker's Memory (2017)[249] Observer (2017) Ruiner (2017)[251] The Red Strings Club (2018)[252] Ion Fury (2018) Tales of the Neon Sea (2018)[253] Astral Chain (2019)[254] Katana Zero (2019) Dohna Dohna (2020)[255] Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) Ghostrunner (2020) Incredibox  V8: Dystopia (2020)   Cloudpunk (2020) ENCODYA (2021) The Ascent (2021) Stray (2022) SIGNALIS (2022) The Last Night (TBA)[256]  الالعاب الروائية:·        Cyberpunk (1988)o   Cyberpunk 2020 (1990)o   Cyberpunk V3.0 (2005)o   Cyberpunk Red (2020)·        Shadowrun (1989)·        GURPS Cyberpunk (1990)[257]·        Necromunda (1995)·        Infinity (2005)·        Corporation (2009)[258]·        Deadzone (2013)·        Carbon 2185 A Cyberpunk RPG (2019)

In this episode: It's a trap! Baltar is being set up by a Six model who has proof that he worked with the Cylons to bring down the defense mainframe on Caprica. Or does she? Intro and Outro music by The Weekend Pilots. Find them on YouTube! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Vintage interview as he was about to appear on Caprica. We chat Buffy, English accents, his film work and even his singing.

News on the new Penguin series, The Last Of Us, and a look back at Caprica

Having made her television debut at just 9 years old, Alessandra Torresani is well-known for her roles in The Big Bang Theory, Caprica, Arrested Development and Malcolm in the Middle. In our interview with Alessandra, she gets candid about navigating adult life as an actress after she was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 at the age of 22. Despite being discouraged from talking about her mental health openly, Alessandra realized the importance of encouraging stigma-free conversations about mental health after she decided to share her story.  She said, “I'm Alessandra Torresani, and I am bipolar. Who wants to talk?” It turns out, a lot of people did. This “talk” kick-started her advocacy to normalize talking about mental health issues, and she has since started her own podcast, called EmotionAL Support, where she discusses mental health with her guests.   In this episode, we discuss:  - Alexandra's childhood and her journey through misdiagnosis - The importance that documenting both highs and lows has on receiving an accurate diagnosis - Alessandra's work with NAMI, and the conference where she shared her bipolar diagnosis - How toxic positivity discourages people from talking about their struggles - Finding emotional support and comfort  - The difference between mental health and mental illness  - What we can do to help destigmatize the conversation around mental health According to Alessandra, it's vital that we start talking about mental health openly and encourage people to seek support and medical help when they need it. This is the only way to foster an environment where every single one of us can celebrate our individuality and uniqueness.   Where to find Alessandra: Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialAlessandraTorresani Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alessandratorresani/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALtorresani?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Clubhouse: https://clubhousedb.com/user/alessandratorresani LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandra-torresani-75178121/   Podcast: https://www.emotionalsupportpod.com/ Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/emotionalpod Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emotionalsupportpod/ Podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710491219388010/?source_id=298097584405277 Products: https://emotionalsupport.bigcartel.com/product/we-are-not-alone-img-x-emotional-support-mental-health-awareness-month-limited-edition National Alliance on Mental Illness (Nami): https://www.nami.org/Home   Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=23010497) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard Harmon recently joined host Elias in the cave! You can see Richard as Tryst on his latest project 'Fakes' now streaming on Netflix. Fakes - FAKES is the story of two best friends who accidentally build one of the largest fake ID empires in North America. They move into a downtown penthouse, have more cash than they know what to do with, and then get raided by the feds. One of them goes to jail, the other doesn't. This is the story of their ultimate betrayal, told through each of their POVs with regular fourth wall breaks. This is a comedy-drama with two unreliable narrators who are both competing for the last word. Richard Harmon is a world-class actor, consistently working with Hollywood elite. Born in Mississauga, Ontario, Richard began acting professionally when he was only 10 years old, but it took him until he was 15 to fall in love with the craft and hit his stride as a thespian. Richard has had numerous recurring and guest star appearances on such TV shows as TheCW's "Smallville" and "The Secret Circle", SYFY's "Jeremiah", "Flash Gordon" and "Caprica", FOX's "Fringe", Cartoon Network's "Tower Prep", Showcase's "Continuum", A&E's "Bates Motel", CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation", Netflix's “Van Helsing”, the critically acclaimed AMC series "The Killing" and “A Cinderella Story Starstruck” for HBO Max. He also starred as John Murphy in The CW's "The 100", a post-apocalyptic drama set 97 years after the earth has been destroyed by a nuclear war which aired for 7 seasons. You can watch this interview on YouTube  https://youtu.be/nhljdovrSjQ Have a question? Email us  themccpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Social Media for the latest show updates  www.twitter.com/themccpodcast www.instagram.com/themccpodcast www.facebook.com/themancavechroniclespodcast www.themccpodcast.com  www.youtube.com/c/TheManCaveChronicleswElias  

Andrea talks to Brooklyn power couple Max Bruno and Caprica Stanley about ethical non-monogamy, gender dynamics and how to work through toxic masculinity. Part two of the two part interview. Follow Max @maxhbruno Follow Caprica @capricastanley Follow Caprica's alt insta at @sugarandxanax Follow Andrea's fansly at fansly.com/dogpig69

Andrea talks to Brooklyn power couple Max Bruno and Caprica Stanley about ethical non-monogamy, gender dynamics and how to work through toxic masculinity.

Catch a sneak peak episode of "Past Life Present Power with Derek Jameson" that I was so lucky to be a guest on! I chat about my past life regression therapy session I had with Derek including how I was able to answer so many questions about my career, personal life and my new baby! Be sure to Subscribe, Like, Review and Share! -Alessandra is best known for playing Zoe Graystone in the science fiction television series Caprica and Claire in The Big Bang Theory. She is the host of EmotionAL Support Podcast and a mental health and illness spokesperson. She spent the day with me to uncover her past lives and get answers to all the questions she had been pondering for years. Alessandra's regression took us in the days of the witch trials, explorations, the 70's, and so much more. Check out what she uncovered and what she wants to share with you from her past lives! https://alessandratorresani.com/ https://www.instagram.com/alessandratorresani/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/emotional-support-with-alessandra-torresani/id1476940278 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg1rRRfxY5llD4whjvS0Mng/featured https://wonderfullightbody.com/ https://www.instagram.com/derekjameson/ https://linktr.ee/DerekJameson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alessandra is best known for playing Zoe Graystone in the science fiction television series Caprica and Claire in The Big Bang Theory. She is the host of EmotionAL Support Podcast and a mental health and illness spokesperson. She spent the day with me to uncover her past lives and get answers to all the questions she had been pondering for years. Alessandra's regression took us in the days of the witch trials, explorations, the 70's, and so much more. Check out what she uncovered and what she wants to share with you from her past lives! https://alessandratorresani.com/ https://www.instagram.com/alessandratorresani/ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/emotional-support-with-alessandra-torresani/id1476940278 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg1rRRfxY5llD4whjvS0Mng/featured https://wonderfullightbody.com/ https://www.instagram.com/derekjameson/ https://linktr.ee/DerekJameson --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pastlifepresentpower/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pastlifepresentpower/support

“To have even a brief conversation with artist Michael E. Taylor is to dive headfirst into a deep pool of scientific and intellectual inquiry. Taylor has always been an extremely analytical artist, responding with equal fervor to his intellectual encounters with scientific ideas, art history, philosophy, or current events. Whether inspired by formal quality of geometry, the Higgs boson particle, or the moral implications of artificial intelligence, Taylor's work is ultimately about investigation.” – Museum of Glass, Tacoma, solo show, Traversing Parallels, 2017/2018. Widely-renowned for his cut and laminated glass works, geometric constructions, and fractal abstractions inspired by everything from subatomic particles to music, Michael E. Taylor first used glass while attending a workshop at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. He was struck by the material's heat and spontaneity, a dynamic opposite from the deliberate and extended processes for firing and shaping ceramics. Dedicated to art and education for over 49 years, the artist was born in Lewisberg, Tennessee, in 1944, where he initially studied ceramics while working towards a Bachelor of Science in Art Education from Tennessee State University. Studying ceramics honed his intuitive sense of form, color, and design; skills which would later be important to his glass career.  One of the first generation of artists to learn from the founders of the Studio Glass movement, Taylor experienced the early days of glass through interactions with Harvey Littleton, Fritz Dreisbach, and Marvin Lipofsky. As a young student, a Fulbright Hayes Grant to Scandinavia introduced him to the factories of Kosta-Boda Glasbruke and Johansfors Glasbruke, as well as artists of the region, including Anna Warff.  Taylor's artistic career has been intertwined with decades as a university professor, including a more than 20-year tenure as a professor in the School for American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology, invited Professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia, Campus da Caprica, Portugal, 2005 – 2013, and instructor at schools in the US such as Pilchuck, Penland, and the Corning Museum of Glass. His career in academia made it possible to experiment and explore new ideas through his sculpture instead of feeling pressure to repeat popular works for monetary sales. The academic setting also allowed Taylor to continue to explore scientific, philosophical, and artistic ideas. While at the College of Idaho and teaching the history of modern art, Taylor's directive led to political and visual expressions of the Russian revolution and artists of constructivism. The hard lines and acute angles of constructivism of the 1920s continued to scientific theory and theoretical physics. Using glass with scientific exactness and austerity resulted in further architectural form and shapes of accuracy. Readings of future science and cultural futurism led to issues of DNA and binary systems as they related to laminations in his work.  Taylor states: “Art reflects thought and ideals of the period in which it is made. It can relate to predictions for the future. My work speaks of the importance of science and technology and its eventual dominance through Artificial Intelligence.” Taylor's honors and awards are many and include the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Grant, 2009, 2011; Luso – American Foundation Grant, Portugal, 2002 -2007; Outstanding Visual Artist Award, Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, New York, 2001; College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, Research and Development Grant, RIT, 2000; Grand Prize, The International Exhibition of Glass, Kanazawa, Japan, 1988; National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artists Forums Grant, 1985-86 and Visual Artist Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1984-85. Other educational awards and opportunities include a Lewis Comfort Tiffany Grant, Penland School Scholarship, and The American – Scandinavian Foundation Grant. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; the National Collection of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington; Asheville Museum of Art, North Carolina; Racine Museum of Art, Racine, Wisconsin; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Glas Museum Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark; Kanazawa City Museum, Kanazawa, Japan; and Tokyo Glass Art Institute, Kawasaki-Shi, Japan, to name only a few. Inviting viewers to utilize scientific-like observations to analyze the implications of a rapidly changing world, Taylor's sculpture is both triumphant and cautionary, simultaneously celebrating technological breakthroughs and worrying about their implications. By using glass to make these theoretical connections, the artist inspires contemplation of social and scientific issues and continues to take the material of glass into new expressive terrain. States Taylor: “The race is on in all technological advanced countries for the discovery of human consciousness for AI. I predict it will be the last frontier of human intellect. I have constructed a laminated slab of color blocks which represent the codes for the human consciousness. I see it as a kind of Rosetta Stone of translation from one language to another – binary to English. The RS interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphics to Greek language allowed us to make the intellectual and cultural jump. “I see Codes as containing the information for making the final leap from human consciousness to that of machines. This will be a discovery of epic proportions. This would be the beginning of a new world of solutions to puzzles such as eternal life, interplanetary travel, and the discovery of philosophic truth for each individual human.”   

Welcome back for season 2 of Off The Cuff, we are so happy to have you here.  We open up the season by talking to actress, mental health advocate and podcast host Alessandra Torresani.  Alessandra has been acting since she was a kid and has appeared in countless movies and TV shows including The Big Bang Theory, Caprica, American Horror Story, Malcolm In The Middle, and many more.     Knowing something was not quite right for most of her life, Alessandra was finally diagnosed with Bi–Polar 1 when she was 21 years old.  Since then, Alessandra has made it her mission to spread mental health awareness and create a community so people feel less alone.  Which is also why she started her mental health podcast “EmotionAL Support.”   We have an extremely honest and funny conversation about our experiences with bi-polar disorder and what her life has been like as an actress with bi-polar disorder.  And yes, we said funny, mental health is allowed to be funny!   We can't be serious all the time, so we mine as well have a good laugh about everything we've been through, right?     So listen up, and let's talk, Off The Cuff….     What We Discuss:   [4:01] How Alessandra deals with internet trolls and how it affects hers and others mental health. [5:40] How Alessandra dealt with rejection as a child actress and how she deals with it today. [7:43] A current day in the life of a working actress since the pandemic. [9:26] How Danny found out he was bi-polar. [12:28] The differences between Bi-Polar 1 and Bi-Polar 2.   [14:47] Alessandra's bi-polar symptoms before she was diagnosed later in life. [15:57] What Alessandra's episodes look like and how her husband deals with them. [17:17] Telling your partner about being bi-polar. [22:55] Feeling very low lows, especially before going on medication. [26:13] The judgment surrounding mental health medications. [28:36] How being on set is Alessandra's safe space, rarely having episodes while working. [30:13] What it was like when she got diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  [32:01] Alessandra's first acting gig with David Spade. [34:47] The initial signs Alessadnra had of being bipolar. [36:43] What high highs feel like. [40:00] How Danny had resentment towards his parents growing up, but how the relationship has now changed very positively.   [42:41] Alessandra's relationship with her mother and the sacrifices her mother has made for her. [44:00] What it's like memorizing lines with Bi-Polar type 1.   [48:49] If having bi-polar has helped her as an artist. [49:56] Why Alessandra started her podcast “EmotionALl Support”.  [51:46] Alessandra's goal of creating a community for mental health.  [53:39] Alessandra's favorite genre to perform.   Notable Quotes:   [30:50] “I don't know if it's a safe space or my mind tricks itself into being happy, but I have yet to have a manic episode on set because I think I'm just escaping into a different reality.  My brain just shuts off that part.”     [49:26] “I'm a firm believer in therapy and working on yourself.  Not just traditional therapy, but whatever that therapy means to you."   Useful Resources:   Alessandra Toressani Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/alessandratorresani/   EmotionAL Support Podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/emotional-support-with-alessandra-torresani/id1476940278   1AND1LIFE Website:  https://www.1and1life.com   Off The Cuff Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/1and1otc/   Danny LoPriore Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/dannylopriore/   Suicide Prevention Lifeline:  https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Today on Too Opinionated we sit down with actress Teryl Rothery! Teryl is known for her work on Stargate SG-1, Masterminds, The Good Doctor, Upload, Nancy Drew, Virgin River, Arrow, Cedar Cove, Wayward Pines, Smallville and Caprica.  Want to watch: YouTube Meisterkhan Pod Check out the website: Meisterkhan.com

Dom and Billy provide this bonus ep from their interview with James Marsters where they talk about preparing for his role as Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, his early acting career in Chicago theater, his favorite guilty pleasure food, and listen to one of his favorite funky jams. Get your Friendship Onion HOLIDAY merchandise at https://www.friendshiponionpodcast.com! James Wesley Marsters is an actor, musician and comic book writer. He is best known for his role as the British vampire Spike in the tv series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. Since then, he has played the alien supervillain Brainiac on Smallville, Captain John Hart on Torchwood and terrorist Barnabas Greeley in Syfy's Caprica. He's also plays in the band “Ghost of the Robot”. Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes and please be sure to rate, subscribe, and leave a comment/review! Take a screenshot of your Apple review, tag the show on IG and we might feature you on our story! And be sure to follow and add your favorite funky jams to our Spotify playlist "The Friendship Onion." Feel free to leave Billy and Dom a message with your comments, questions, or just to say hello! https://www.speakpipe.com/thefriendshiponion or write us an email at thefriendshiponion@kastmedia.com TFO's IG - @thefriendshiponion Billy's IG - @boydbilly Dom's IG - @dom_monaghan_ James' Twitter - @jamesmarstersof Ghost of the Robot Twitter - @ghostoftherobot Go to expressVPN.com/ONION to get an extra three months of ExpressVPN for free! Go to magicspoon.com/ONION and use the code ONION to save five dollars off. Get Honey for FREE at joinhoney.com/onion. Go to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/ONION to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

James Marsters joins Billy and Dom to talk about his role as Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, his band Ghost of the Robot, favorite video games, getting his start in Chicago's theater scene, and offers awfully bland Lima Beans for Eat the World! Get your Friendship Onion HOLIDAY merchandise at https://www.friendshiponionpodcast.com! James Wesley Marsters is an actor, musician and comic book writer. He is best known for his role as the British vampire Spike in the tv series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off, Angel. Since then, he has played the alien supervillain Brainiac on Smallville, Captain John Hart on Torchwood and terrorist Barnabas Greeley in Syfy's Caprica. He's also plays in the band “Ghost of the Robot” Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes and please be sure to rate, subscribe, and leave a comment/review! Take a screenshot of your Apple review, tag the show on IG and we might feature you on our story! And be sure to follow and add your favorite funky jams to our Spotify playlist "The Friendship Onion." Feel free to leave Billy and Dom a message with your comments, questions, or just to say hello! https://www.speakpipe.com/thefriendshiponion or write us an email at thefriendshiponion@kastmedia.com TFO's IG - @thefriendshiponion Billy's IG - @boydbilly Dom's IG - @dom_monaghan_ James' Twitter - @jamesmarstersof Ghost of the Robot Twitter - @ghostoftherobot Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code ONION at Manscaped.com. Head to beamorganics.com/ONION for 40% off the first 3 months of a peppermint dream subscription PLUS free mug and frother, or 20% off a one-time purchase. Go to keeps.com/ONION to receive your first month of treatment for free. Get your next delicious bowl of guilt-free cereal at magicspoon.com/ONION and use the code ONION to save five dollars off. Get 20% off Grammarly Premium at grammarly.com/ONION   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Angeli is a screenwriter, Executive Producer, author and a former celebrity profiler for such magazines as Playboy, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire. As a journalist, he covered sports and pop culture for The New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Details, and Sports Illustrated. He is co-author of the autobiography of Chyna, a World Wrestling Federation performer a.k.a. Joanie Laurer and ghost-wrote the Rosanne Barr autobiography, "My Lives", and is credited on the fly page. His television credits include Black Sails, Twilight Zone, The Code, Now and Again, Cover Me, Medium, Monk, Touching Evil (U.S. version), In Plain Sight, Law & Order: SVU, ESPN's first drama, Playmakers, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and Battlestar Galactica spin-off/prequel, Caprica. He is best known as a writer and co-executive producer for Syfy's remake of Battlestar Galactica. Among his accolades, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for his work on the Battlestar Galactica and was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Episode in a TV Series, for his work on "Mr. Monk and the 12th Man". In 2005, Angeli and the creative staff of the drama series, "Battlestar Galactica" won a Peabody Award. Check out his blog @ https://substack.com/profile/22148353-michael-angeli

Actress and host of the EmotionAL podcast Alessandra Torresani and mental health educator Victoria Maxwell discuss topics of resiliency and living with bipolar disorder, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. They talk about peer support, creating boundaries and practicing self-care. Hosted by Dr. Erin Michalak. Alessandra Torresani is an actress, podcast host, and mental health advocate who lives well with bipolar disorder. Her television credits include appearances on American Horror Story, Caprica, and the immensely successful sitcom the Big Bang Theory as a recurring character. As a mental health advocate, she is an ambassador for the US-based National Alliance on Mental Health, and hosts the EmotionAL Support podcast, a funny, candid and highly-reviewed podcast where she brings on a guest to talk about mental health and to break through stigma. Since being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, psychosis, and anxiety, Victoria Maxwell has become one of North America's top speakers and educators on the lived experience of mental illness and recovery, dismantling stigma and returning to work after a psychiatric disorder. As a performer, her funny, powerful messages about mental wellness create lasting change in individuals and organizations. By sharing her story of mental illness and recovery she makes the uncomfortable comfortable, the confusing understandable. The Mental Health Commission of Canada named her keynote That's Just Crazy Talk as one of the top anti-stigma interventions in the country. TalkBD is a series of online community gatherings to share support and tips for bipolar wellness. Learn more about the next event at www.TalkBD.live

Welcome to the first of what was guaranteed to be a long line of films in the BSGCU, on the now acclaimed podcast; Beers, Beats and Battlestar Galactica. Featuring your deep space hot mess expresses, Leesa Charlotte and Cayley Waldo. The Cylons were created by man. They rebelled. They evolved. They blew up all of man's nice colonies and then they were like…what the frak do we do now? Improvise? The cities of Caprica are climaxing. Let's geno-start it in here. Please visit our new website and pick up a t-shirt and a pint glass! Oh, and Leesa's new $3000 Patreon tier? Worth it. https://beersbeatsbsg.com Twitter: @beersbeatsbsg
 beersbeatsbsg@gmail.com
 Support us on Patreon here.

Alessandra Torresani an American actress known for her portrayal of Zoe Graystone in the SF television series "Caprica" She has starred in The Big Bang Theory, ER, Even Stevens, JAG, The War at Home, Malcolm In The Middle, Arrested Development, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation amongst many more. Diagnosed with Bipolar I, Alessandra shares her incredible journey of being diagnosed later in her adult life, we chat about an amazing career, her advocacy to bring more awareness around mental health, and we ask the most important question as we do with all of our guests. What does it mean to be ‘imperfectly perfect' To find out more information on Alessandra, you can find her on her socials @alessandratorresani IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003779/ Or you can check out the 'EmotionAL Support Podcast' via all podcast platforms. To find out more information about the Imperfectly Perfect Campaign and how you can get involved, simply head to our official website at imperfectlyperfectcampaign.org The Imperfectly Perfect Campaign is creating awareness and not a substitute for professional advice. Should you need help, please refer to your nearest crisis numbers. Voice-Over: Mike Christenson ( thevoiemonkey.com )

Just in time for comic con, we have a very special guest. Alessandra Torresani refuels her spaceship at the BMG studios, and we have a great chat. We met while filming a movie in 2014 and recently reconnected over our common interest in the podcast space. (see what I did there?) Alessandra's many credits include Caprica and Big Bang Theory. We talk about her new project, "The EmotionAL Support Show" a mental health podcast due out in August 2019, as well as life on set and her origin story. She's a firecracker and had me on my toes the whole time. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I do. Thank you for listening. Follow along with Alessandra on the grams@bambolabambina