Zombie Jorune

I have been seriously out of touch with profound problems with Apple and how they handle my access to my Macs, with the rejoinder "We don't support that anymore." But I've been able to get things up to the point where I can start working with a word processor again.

I've had other Earth drama related to health and cash flow, but what else is new?

But tonight I got a very interesting note from a guy who wants to interview me for his old school D&D blog - about Jorune.

So, if something happens there, I'll post the information here.

If you post to other Jorunis, please carry that word. When I'm the only one posting, I'm the only one posting. When other people post, people start a conversation.

The Colonial Ballot piece threatened to blow up, so I'm trying to keep it down to <20 pages and will release it as Segment: Sho Caudal #12.1, and the Game-Bashing with ORFA as #12.2. I can't really give a date on either of them, yet. But it continues to boil on the back burner.

And I think the thirteenth will have the collection the original blurbs for SSC was supposed to be - pages from my notebooks. There are a lot of things I had hoped to write but the combination of advancing neuropathy (robbing my fingers), and the retinopathy/macular edema robbing my vision, those will have to be released. Maybe some of it will give another Joruni some ideas - for their own games, or maybe in a more public forum.

But I'm trudging along, so far.

Dare I Hope?

I have really bad computer karma. Really bad. And it may have an explanation (later for that).

But I just wanted to do a teeny little post to say I seem to have a working system which will allow me to work. I have said that at least three times in the past three months. And I have been wrong.

So I will try to assemble the scraps from three semi-working computer systems into Segment: Sho-Caudal #12. And then send them out.

Maybe.

If the system stays up.

We think we may know why I have so much problem with my computer systems. And it hasn't mattered which computer system it has been. It has been an iMac, which I really was quite comfortable using - despite Apple marketing and legal shenanigans. Then a Windows 10 box which may have been damaged in shipping and was returned. Then a MacMini which I used for about 18 months with Apple degenerating further. Then a Linux Ubuntu Studio, followed by a Windows 10 laptop.

All of them have suddenly zapped. And we think it may be ... (drum roll) ... the wiring in my mobile home. We were in the process of moving my whole room around, putting my computer (or hopefully computer-to-be) station across the room and onto a different power circuit. While plugging in the nifty surge protector and battery backup box, before anything was plugged in, my friend plugging the box into the wall got a surprise. A shock. And cry out loud and take hit point wounds.

So... that might explain why I have been having problems other people don't have.* And makes me wonder what can be done to prevent it from happening again. And the easy answer is "move."

I don't wanna move. I'm ensconced. I have lived here for 13 years - the longest I have ever lived anywhere. And then there is the question of where else I could live - or afford to live.

But in the short-term I will try to complete the bits of SSC #12. And mail them out.

Fingers crossed.

The computer nightmare has taken a bigger toll than I have experienced before. I am four weeks out of being able to write or have a reliable computer system. I was finally able to install the CC Adobe package and I can open Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, but the InDesign WILL NOT open, no matter how I try to configure the system, download installer, installed, uninstall and repeat.

I cannot boot Linux, although I was able to install it on an external USB disk. But it is unable to connect to the Internet by Ethernet or WiFi. Why? I dunno. I've done Ubuntu Studio (that installed but I cannot download the components for the programs that make it "Studio"). I got the installer stick for Elementary OS, but it will not let me install because the disks do not have a "Root."

I don't know what that means and no one has been able to tell me or give instructions or how to put a Root in place.

Windows 10 is the system that accepted the Adobe CC installs, but WILL NOT open InDesign for me to either layout the new material, or open previous documents to get material. Or finish the layout of the DANSTEAD TRAVELLER compilation, which is done, but I cannot open.

I am thinking of taking the material from SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #12 and sending out a clean word processing version with the promise to send them the full layout when I can do the full layout. With art and stuff.

Did I mention InDesign refuses to open? It WILL NOT open.

I do not have a working Mac box in the house except for an old laptop with OSX 10.4, and I just was able to install 10.5.5 onto it. But it won't run the programs I need to open the documents I need to work on. A friend says he will send me a newer MacBook with 10.10, which would be a great move up. And I'm seriously looking at entering the world of Hackintosh to put OSX on my Windows 10 box. Apple will not support it, but if I can run the damn programs it might get me through the period while I do the adjustments for Linux, of whatever distro I wind up in.

Tonight was the first time I was able to get onto my Jorune account and access the blog in a few weeks. And I found one letter from someone who was just encouraging me.

It helps. It really does.

What I am working on - many short bits on the mindset of Colonials.

Why they were leaving Earth?

What if the mindset for immigration to Jorune's World
was not based on English, Western European concepts?

Who thought it was a good idea?

Who thought it was a terrible idea? What did they think they were coming to?

What did they know about the aliens they would encounter?

Economic, social, political, religious schools of thought - in conflict.

That might be the word processing document I send out (I can do fairly nice layou8ts in Word Processing.

And I think I know what I will do with #13. It will be my notes for projects I will not get to do. It will be a Message in a Bottle for some solo Joruni somewhere to get the idea from the list and run with it. It would be nice to see some of the ideas that I thought would happen to get some completion through other minds. Maybe.

We shall see.

I'll have to get this one done first, and that's not an easy dance.

Back in the Waiting Line

I'm finally able to get back to writing, or re-writing, SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL 12.1. The Colonial Ballot and supporting documents. I'm working in Libre-Office, which is not my first choice, but at this point I don't know what my first choice would be.

The goal is to move into full-time Linux operations as soon as possible, but I've not been able to get the hard disk partitions to hold a new boot section.

But the colonial papers are in movement again. I hope to get this part out by the end of the month. Hope. We shall see.

Transition

Apple - Blah.

My Mac died. Big time. Took a hit from a power spike at the end of Hurricne Florence. I didn't get flooded out, but my life got zapped and destroyed - does that count?

I was not able to get another Mac because my available credit would only cover a Windows 10 laptop. Which is not how I roll.

But, it is getting a working system or not having a working system.

It has been a rough transition. First I have to adjust 35+ years of Mac OS skills to Windows styles, and with problems of eyes and neuropathy, it is difficult.

First the transition from control/command key positions. I'm used to it on the immediate left of the space-bar, but Windows is to the far left of the keyboard, putting it under the pinkie of my left hand, which is mostly dead. I do not feel the finger so I do not know when it hits or where it hits. This means the letter a is sometimes caps, Caps Lock, z, s, or q, and I don't know until after it is typed. I try to catch them all but do not always succeed. Correcting means a complete stop, use different fingers to hit the correct combination, the use of the command/control key requires a complete stop to get the thumb over to the left-control key. I can't use the ring finger because it is dying, like the pinkie, and is an-almost-always fail.

So, there's that.

Second, something happened in the new laptops hardware that re-mapped the keyboard I was using in a very bizarre way. "Y" and "Z" became reversed and I did not notice immediately. It coupled with problem Three, but resulted in a series of refusals of gMail to accept changes of passwords to access all of my email accounts (I have about twenty) and Facebook. Time after time I had to re-key passwords from a schema I had grown comfortable with, and what I was typing was not what had been pasted from the results of my schema. (For some reason I am allowed to paste a password into the change-password field, but was required to retype for when I entered what I thought was the same password the first time I went to use the password to log on and read mail.)

After several hours of getting 'incorrect' responses to entering new passwords, setting up another password and getting incorrect for that, I had a total of two passwords accepted, for some reason. Screamed and decided to go to bed.

Third, my eyes. I have had great progress with my macular edema - a swelling under the macula of my left eye, which prevents a readable image. To accommodate that reality I blow up my email (and blog entry) to "Huge" for typing, so I can see them, then shrink them back down to "Normal" before sending/publishing. Hopefully. I've failed with that a few times, too. But there has been progress on shrinking the cyst under the macula with shots in the vitreous humor (look it up) and I could get a prescription to wear for about six months. But that takes eye exam money and glasses money.

Hope nobody slaps me, 'causr
I'm all out of cheeks.

But that is how I roll with advanced neuropathy and macular edema, both the result of 28 years of Type II diabetes. (Did I mention diabetes, which sucks all by itself.)

One of the first bits of email I received during this whole mess was a subscriber to SSC who got lost and NONE of the issues he had ordered had been delivered. That goosed me to solve the return2jorune@gmail password problem, which I did and today, after a night's sleep, I was able to fulfill his order. AURGH. My credibility is shabby enough.

So I have about a dozen email accounts to bring back on line, then go through all the backlog created by this, and Facebook, which I was able to access with my phone as much as my eyes could stand reading the teeny little screen.

My documents from the old Mac system are still not completely available. I have backups but they are on Mac formatted USB3s, which I cannot get hooked into the new Windows machine. A USB2 disk is readable. So that's a whole other headache I will have to deal with before I can retrieve what I have written so far for SSC #12.

The alternative is to write everything from scratch, which I could do. I've had to do it with whole stage plays and whole books when original manuscripts were lost - before computers. It can be done, but I don't know what will be lost in the process. Which is depressing.

So, that I'm not jumping on Jorune fast enough, suck it up. I'm running as fast as I can to fall behind.

Geekspeak of Jorune

Once upon a time a Kaypro //, and later 10, was all I needed.

It is official. I will be leaving Macintosh with the zapping of my Mac mini in Hurricane Florence's last hurrah. We have very unstable power in this area of North Carolina. Brownouts happen sometimes, surgery during some storms. But spikes are way beyond even the best surge protectors ability to insulate from the massive sudden increase of voltage.

I have a very good burger protector with batter backup, but the spike has gotten through to kill my last three machines.

What is convenient is the April 2017 spike destroyed the hard disk on my iMac. I was able to to replace it with a MacMini through a friend who rose from the past to help. The Mini was brought down last week with the spike, but that spike destroyed the CPU. I was able to cobble together a working system with the disk-fried CPU and an external 10.12 SOX FireWire backup disk rom back when that computer was working, and I had a new 10.13 system on an external USB 3.0 disk. 

I have a catalog account where prices are higher but they extend credit to me, so I will get a Windows 10 laptop (HP Pavillion) with 8Gigs and an 500Gig internal, where I will immediately co-install a Linux system. I've been giving myself some time to learn Linux but time has come to get serious. 

I need to transfer all of my Adobe CC files (InDesign, Photoshop and PremierPro) to things that will run on open source products. I am shifting away from being a publisher for anything but my own writing (non-Jorune) so the layout and pdf-online concerns are not as great.

In a pinch I will be able to boot from the iMac with the external drive and use old legal CS6 Adobe products, but I would have to be pushed for that. Open source has some good PDF manipulation tools, so those may be sufficient. 

Interesting that all this comes as I've made the decision to closeup Jorune shop - maybe not forever, but I'm down to a couple of projects to be done, and was moving into a new phase of pushing my writing anyway. My physical problems with neuropathy and vision make my creative time much more limited. So open source seems to be the way to go.

But the ride is never boring.

The old Jorune

A dyadic weaving.

There are a lot of file for Jorune. They have been gathered to Archive.com for a few years. You can search for it by title or by "SOJ RPG." Ten big zip files by title, and the Big Momo has EVERYTHING in one file, for those of you with fast internet connection.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=SOJ%20RPG

Archive is a great resource and deserving of your support. I wouldn't mind a few bucks thrown my way.

But everything from Archive.org is free. Pass the word alone.

Boil

The Mac 512 changed my life. This is a Plus.

The model after the Fat Mac 512. The is not

the keyboard - the 512 did not have a keypad.

1985 I traded a first draft of a screenplay that

would go nowhere for my Mac. It payed me

far beyond that screenplay, for many years. I

had a 512, 512 with Brainstorm, 405, Mac II, 

SE, SE 2-Drive (Still have one of those), 525, 

Powerbook 100, 105, 120, 150, 512, MacBooks

(several), iMac (several), and now the late and

lamented MacMini. Time to make the move to

Linux, for which I have been preparing.

I survived Florence and the flood are downriver from me. No damage from those.

So at the end of the storm I took a spike to my system. I have a very good burger protector with a two plug battery backup (cpu and monitor), but that does not protect you from a spike. I always thought the old people telling you to unplug your devices was an old wives tell, well I'm an old man now and it's true. I lost my iMac almost two years ago to a similar spike that munged the disk. This time it munged the cpu.

But the CPU works in the old I Mac, and I had a outboard FireWire disk with a working 10.12, and an outboard USB with a working 10.13 boot. I have been trying to salvage files between iCloud, DropBox, backups, and old files. The disk on the iMac booted again, I transferred about 19Gigs of files from April 2017 (which was the iMac bit it) and the iMac disk went away again. It tried, bless it's little silicon heart.

Among the recent files that were eaten was the layout for COLELCTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER and most of the Colonial. But I'll do it again - not my first rodeo. I still don't have a cover, so ... not that big a deal. I can crank out what I had done before. It's come up with many wild broncos.

Those are the losses I've notice. So far. At least the one's Jorune related.

Something else is happening that I find scary. SOMETHING is wrong and I suddenly get a second disk image for hard USB disks. It happened last night with my collection of Television shows (like my favorite TV SciFi series, STAR COPS, and my almost complete HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, and THE SINGING DETECTIVE and ... a lot. But I then saw there was a second image with the same name and all the files were there. MP4s to beat the band.

Gave me a start. Almost a stop.

But it means something is wrong with the file systems. I hope it is just because of the Mac OS. I will be using this event to exit MacWorld. After 27 years. I will get a Windows 10 box and immediately install Linux, either Elementary or reinstall Ubuntu Studio, which formerly lived on a partition fo the MacMini disk. I will keep a Mac running enough to transfer files from a Mac to a Windows system. I tried consolidating file and had certain filed (from my documentary archive) that would not copy because "some of the data cannot be read or written." For which I cannot find a good interpretation.

So, movement forward, however glacial, is progress.

A damn irritation, tho.

Everything New is Old Again

So my longtime friend Gary A. Poe got a new portrait by a really good photography in historic garb, and I saw it and began tweaking it (like y'do). And for some reason, the tweak began to feel like original colonial Jorune, because that's how my mind works.

The original negotiators creating the new world's constitution - what is Earth going to do - send a cop? But it was serious, post-Western Civilisation for a whole new branch of humanity to grow.

And I like the idea the new human society would revive live performance for drama, history, dance, and music. I really do. Newfield in the Thanterian district.

Quick 'n' Dirty

I spent more time trying to get one graphic to show up on the back issue page than it took to do the rest of the page, including the revised PayPal button. Seriously. This graphic on the side of these words. WILL NOT show up on the web page. Damn. I've given up on programming web pages. Used to be simple HTML. It's not anymore.

So I'm putting up the back issue page as it is, and focusing on my current work instead. Warts and all.

You can get the whole subscription, (11 issues out, #12 in-process which you will get when it appears), or you can pick one, three, six, or nine of the back issues. There is a discount for buying groups - do the math. Individual issues described, scroll down for the order menu, plus links to the free samplers from #1 and #4, plus links to the DriveThruRPG.com pages for SHOLARI MAGAZINE v2n1 and GOMO GUIDE: THONEPORT.

And there are still hundreds of pages of freebies. Go to archive.org and search "SOJ RPG" - Skyrealms of Jorune Role Playing Game" and you will get some big zip files, grouped by source, and one big momo zip file with everything.

Whew.

I need some sleep.

http://skyrealmsofjorune.com/back/back.html

Frustrating

I am working on THE COLONIAL BALLOT, which is growing from a simple half-an-issue-of-SEGMENT-SHO-CAUDAL article into something more. And it is building to a way to play "Jorune" in the time right around Earth's Colonial mission. Why would people leave Earth? What did they hope to find? Who thought it was a bad idea?

But at the same time, I'm trying to learn to animate in Photoshop for some new pages and uses. I was working on this little clip.

And tonight I got an email from someone to tell me the SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL sales links are no longer working. At All.

I said I would eliminate the advance sales for #13 and #14, but people should still be able to reach the link for #1-#11, or smaller chunks.  So I need to work on that...

But his is part of what I was working on using a familiar illustration for ALIEN LOGIC by George Barr.

(damn)

-----------------------

Hey, let's see if the code will work from the journal. Doesn't work on the main page, but ... like the old Jewis lady said where the taxi and run over an old man and killed him. "Give him some chicken soupo," she yells. "Lady, this guy is dead. Chicken soup isn't going to help." She shrugs. "Couldn't hoit."

Feh. Didn't work. But it didn't hurt.

I'm told not posting to this page is a bad thing. So I will post. The project I thought would be 1/3 of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #12 has been growing.

THE COLONIAL BALLOT has become longer, more complex and may become a stand-alone "product" through DriveThuRPG.com. Why would people leave Earth to become Colonials? What would they be going TO? Basic negotiations with the aliens, the Thriddle/Shantha team would be completed - what does that mean? What do they know about the new world? What would they be going FROM? What is the technology they will expect to share with the Mother Planet - planks, rolls, 'tons, and the great gift of Aubrey? What is the Colonial life-expectancy? Do they plan to move as permanent emigres to Jorune's planet? Do they go for purely intellectual and scientific purposes? Do they expect to return with fame and wealth? To they hope their grandchildren will have a new and wonderful life?

Plank image of Receiving District

It is possible to build a satisfying campaign based on the first generation of Colonials. Or during the Human-Shanthic War.

JORUNE BASHING, which will address system and setting, has also grown and may become another free download for the Jorune Comunity. ORFA: JORUNE - ditto. Possibly combined with BASHING for download. And since I do not feel a "monthly" pressure I hope they will emerge properly, rather than to fit an artificial deadline. If it takes another month, it takes another month. I can produce yet another typo-riddled document, but do anyone really need that? There may be typos regardless, but the content is what matters most to me. The copy-editing may or may not come. Depends on my copy-editors. We shall see. But what we see should be worth the wait. Eh? Ditto for the two final issues of SSC. And if it takes a bit longer, so what?

Breathing

Gallery of the covers for SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL. #12, not there yet but in progress.

I'm enjoying the time to breathe. I'm preparing the Channel Joe project, which will include a video introduction to Jorune. The colonial ballot and application is getting more interesting and, by itself, would constitute a full issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL. But I committed more to #12, and will get it all together. Or split it into releases like 12.1 and 12.2, but the whole of 12 will, ultimately, released as a single document.

The colonial material has fleshed out who left Earth, and why. Horrible things happened before and the whole colonial thrust is insurance against horrible things happening again. And there are people who did NOT want anyone to leave Earth, so there is a statement to give that minority opinion.

It is interesting because I have been working on science fiction since long before I was contaminated by Jorune. I have pulled projects that would mean nothing to you, but which will figure into my post-Jorune lifestyle. My writing will turn more toward novels and the ancillary rights involved with new worlds and storylines. There may be room for the completed ANGELS novel from SSC #5, but the Jorune is output is limited. I have my own lost-colony novel, which has had a couple of title in development: FEASTS or THE NINE MILE ISLAND. There is a Barsoom homage that exists whole in my mind, but only about 40% on paper (actually, electronic files) so I need to make peace with that 60% and THE SCARLET CITADEL will be ready for release. I do have a sequel to the SONG OF ORPHANS, called THE SONG OF POWER, and it is floating in the background.

The "Jorune Bashing" article is taking a nice turn with the pressure off. I think that would be 12.2.

ORFA Jorune would be 12.3, but I think I'll just make it a separate release.

It's nice to relax for a minute.

Focus

After the little drama of almost losing the domain and the hosting service, I am happy to report that the Jorunis connected to SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL came through to my Mayday. They did that with an advance subscription to the next few products with RETURN TO JORUNE. The costs for the next year have been met and I can focus.

And early mock-up of the planned
Collected Danstead Traveller

Focus: Cover for COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER. Text is together and the book can be released almost as soon as the art is received. PDF to the advance subscribers first, then files for print to DriverThruRPG.

Next: SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #12. This is a three-part project so the subscribers may get them both as segments and as the final assembled product. Part the first: Application to become a colonist for Jorune, about 130 years in our future. The process, the culture people going to Jorune are fleeing, the expectations for the colonies, and the models by which the colonies will be run. There is also a needed answer to a question that has been ignored - why create colonies on other worlds? And there is another question - was Jorune the only colony? After that we will get to the question of how the colonies will be operated.

Colonization is kind of like time-travel, where we can pick and choose the technologies and social structures to be used. The most popular models involve 22nd Century medical technologies, with information technologies in the 20th and 21st Century levels. Some colonists wanted a more agrarian, rural, and less technological society.

I think the idea of colonies is a backup insurance for the human culture - possibly the civilization. We already know that the life-contract has been almost canceled on this planet. The Extinctions. But life is tenacious and has generated new, more complex, and ultimately technological cultures to carry itself across the face of the homeworld, and will do the same into the space between stars, on nearby planets (very inefficient). All of that will give us new technologies, new economic and political models, for carrying our frail bodies to other stars.

Hopefully to succeed. If we cannot believe in our own success, why would we bother?

Sex is fun, but dreaming of what our children could do can drive us forward.

And to me, the whole Jorune project, the last Century of science fiction, speculative fiction, and the growth of media to explore all possibilities (including those we hate).

So then there is Part 2: Jorune Bashing, based on kitbashing from the old days of car and military models. Look at the model starships from the late 1970s generation of science fiction films. Bits and pieces from twenty model kits come together to create an impossibly cool spaceship. Jorune Bashing will do the same to bring bits from many Role Playing Games together to allow each Sholari to form the exact game she (or he) wants to run. That means each group will get a game that is more like a fine meal, rather than the endless streams of chair drive-thru extruda that is available.

And Part 3, ORFA Jorune, my own personal Jorune Bash that has evolved for more than 25 years. Take it and do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

I will not be doing a RoleMaster version of Jorune... not that Law.

But do what thou wilt - yeah.

So then there is the project to follow... Approaching the finish line. Only one other runner has started the race, but I'm waiting for permission to talk about that.

Mayday and Response

A rough for the cover of SSC #12.
Not the reaal final, but... it's what I do.

I sent out a mayday to the active Jorune subscribers. I have domain name registration and hosting coming up and it just was too much in addition to my flurry of medical events, two surgeries in 60 days, a plumbing emergency (are those ever expected0 and getting spanked for taxes, registration and late fees for my car. And my roommate is going to be leaving, which is another financial hit - but necessary.

Not only was I able to raise the direct Jorune costs coming at the end of the month, but will also be able to reinstate another medical appointment I had needed to cancel.

So... a bit cowed but very grateful. You folks came through when I needed it the most. Thanks.

Meanwhile, working on SSC #12 and beyond. Public details shortly.

Multiple Hells

I just had a week of nightmares related to my computer system. I don't think the MacMini is designed to do as much as I do and the overheating problem may be the cause. I completely reformatted the resident disk as three partitions - MacOS, Ubuntu Studio, and a Swap disk. I'm learning the Ubuntu but the main work still has to be done through MacOS. So, there's that.

SSC #11, Fred Lang Cover

In this nightmare files have vanished - the catalog does not record them - in BOTH operating systems. As a result if have written and three times what it takes to do the next issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CADAUL (#12) and the files has vanished in this nightmare. More than once.

I've been getting it re-re-rewritten and have become a total paranoid about saving and backing up. Slow, but it is progressing.

SSC #10, says 11 but 10

The next SSC has evolved. Why did people come to Jorune? Why did they leave Earth? This has become an issue of participatory votes on the way the 80 sites on Jorune will be structured - socially. the issue will be the winning models, plus warnings from religious leaders on Earth (to go to Jorune is deserting the home God made for man). AND the application to become a colonist. AND the bash to allow a near future sci-fi game to get to the temporally appropriate Jorune. AND the ORFA: JORUNE to get it off my To Do list. #12, like #11, will be a hefty issue.

From SSC #9 Cover
Art by George Barr

I also have a plan for the wrap up of my Jorune. #13 and #14 of SSC have been discussed. COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER - cover art will be by an actual artist, not by me, and that has moved into an agreement for the cover. GOMO GUIDE; TAN IRICID, print and pdf. COLLECTED BORKELBY'S FOLLY, now in final edit. And... we're done. And this last three will be print through DRIVETHRURPG.COM.

SSC #8

In the past I offered an "advance" support option, and this month I have to cover the domain and hosting agreement for the hosting service - and that's out of my budget. So, I will offer that again.

SSC #7

Many years ago a group of Jorunis offered support in the form of a $10-for-the-next-three-in-PDF. And they did get the next three. One of those has remained a very staunch supporter. My current project with GOMO GUIDE: THONEPORT, SHOLARI v2n1 and the SEGMENT; SHO-CAUDAL subscription should serve as a track record that I do produce. And there has been progress in quality - and I hope in concept.

I am going to ask $25 as the advance for the PDFs on the five projects shown above. I'll ask for feedback and will set up the link to do that. I'll also offer the previous issues of SSC as a block to people late to the party.

My email addresses will be separated for each level of current subscribers - who ends with 12, who end at 13. The nest issue of SSC will be sent out according to those distinctions. You will be given the opportunity to determine if you want to get the last two issues.

Rough on a cover for my collected
fanzine materail since 1993.

But, right now SSC #12 has focus, The Colonial Ballot, Application for Emigres, Jorune Bash, and ORFA: JORUNE. I promise 12-issues with. minimum of 16 pages per issue, and will. meet the issue promise, and have far exceeded the page promise.

Oh, one last thought: I may gather the SEGEMENT: SHO-CAUDAL into a single volume, re-edited to get the crap that go through, for print. You will, as a subscriber, get the collected PDF. Print - I can't cover the processing onto paper from here. I'm thinking of combining all my zines in that volume - Sholari Magazine, Annals of the Tansoor Historical Society, and Segments: Sho-Cadaul. It would be a thick little volume. But this will require an editor to clean up the mess. My current subscribers will get that collection free as a PDF. The print version will be on drivethruRPG.com.

I'm not saying I will never do anything Jorune again. I still love the world. But it is not the only world. I have to refocus my energies into something that goes somewhere after 25 years of trying.

You can't say I haven't tried.

Mock up for Gomo Guide: Sho-Caudal

Back on the horse...

In the past six weeks, I was able to get #11 OUT. I also had two shots in my eye, a surgery on my right let, am waiting on surgery on the left leg (trying to keep them), and two falls ... nothing broke except my pride.

AND I've had more-than-normal problems with my OSX.

Working on the immigration application from the Colonial Authority in the 23rd Century for emigres to Jorune's World, with the full Bash to get Jorune into n existing sci-fi game. And ORFA as part fo the bash.

Do people know "bash"? It comes from the old day of model building and hit a new crest with Star Wars. It is where you "bash" parts from model kits to make a new model - like the Destroyer from the opening scene of A NEW HOPE. My crowd bashed games to get setting and system that suited our particular favorite flavors. After a while, you forget there was anything but the bash, and it makes it difficult to move into other areas.

So I'm doing a different take on the SAK - Sholari Adventure Kits. I provide the bits and you bash them to suit you or your group's preferences. There was a Jorune before Iscin, or the separation of the Colony from Earth and the Colonial Authority.

I want to explore that.

So, SEGMENT SHO-CAUDAL #12 will have that three-point stance - Colonist recruitment - Jorune Bash - ORFA. And it will take a few minutes to put together (as the kids say). I'm not sure when ti will hit the emailboxes, but that is where my effort is.

I've made a few other decisions:

• #12 will rap the commitment to most subscribers.
• A few people have me committed to #13, that is going to happen. Contents to be disclosed.
• #14 will be the SAK for THE CHILDREN OF BOMOVERIS, to put together for my personal favorite campaign from all of my Jorune-life. 
• I will offer #13 and #14 separately, advance purchase discount*
• I may do a collection of my fanzine writings on Jorune. *IF* that happens, 2019, will get a free-PDF to SSC subscribes, print - you're on your own. Waiting to see.
• COLLECTED DANSTEAD TRAVELLER - waiting for a cover, meaning waiting until I can do the cover, but maybe by the end of summer. Over 100 pages, minimal art.
• COLLECTED BORKELBY'S FOLLY - not sure where I stand with the editor, but hoping it comes out this fall. Over 100 pages, too.
• GOMO GUIDE: TAN IRICID, A couple of sections to be written or finished. Really, by the end of the year. Think Christmas. 100-page range, maps with some art.
• All of these will be in a new format. 8.5x8.5 book format.

Anyone interested in a few pieces of art to spice up the production - I do pay in percentage of sales, and when we move back into print from the PDF only, it gets involved.

* Advance purchase. Several times in the past I have done the "Advance" thing for different projecdts, including Jorune. And i have delivered. 12 Issues of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL, for examplle. People put in some support. Once upon a time I did a "the next three projects" and those people go their money's worth with ANNALS OF THE TAN SOOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY, GOMO GUIDE: THONEPORT (2 versions), and SHOLARI v2n1. I may offer two "Advance" options, but for PDF only. Print is an option but it is material, not the tangibility. Or I may rethink to offer a "Print" option, which will be included for more, but PDF-first. I will decide and post when it is time. We're talking $20 for the next three, maybe $40 for next three print (US, with additional postage to other destinations where applicable - Ii don't like calling it "foreign." I'm too much of a hippy).  Comments are invited.

#11 is real

Not Quite #11

Last time I announced that I was completing #10 before I actually mailed. Mea culpa.

#11 is completed and has bee mailed out. In the emailboxes of my subscribers. Paid Subscriptions and "House Copies" have all gone. The cover is a great piece of art by Fred Lang, dedicated Joruni.

#12 will focus on the promotional drive to get people to leave lovely, science fiction Earth to go to a distant world to live under the primitive conditions of 21st Century Medicine and 20th Century - or earlier - technologies. But you can't get a 200-acre homestead on earth anymore, and the natives have put strict limits on the amount of land available to the immigrants. The United Nations and Colonies Office of Colonial Authority have made the information and applications available for would-be colonists, as residential frontier-person or contract workers to populate research and trading stations. Way retro-formats like to-print documents, but published in all the regular languages.

But more on that later.

Isn't It Ready YET?

Very much like the cover of
SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #11,
but not quite it.

No, it isn't ready yet.

It has gone from the promised 16 pages to 55 pages.

Almost all of it is from 25 years old text documents that did not translate correctly. Rather than a hard return at the end of the paragraph, it is line by line by line for every line from the original email, which then has to be correct line by line by line by line with a space between words, or not. Line buy line by line by line by line by line by line...

More than half of it is the conflict between American-English and UK-English, mixed it with the couple thousand of identified Jorune words from the glossary, plus the individual Jorunish words created for the articles in question.

And the problems with language and spelling are so bad, even I can tell they're wrong! That's a clue.

On that add the damage taken int he right elbow in a fall on June 9th. I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, but not for the elbow. For the foot from which a big toe was almost deleted to see if it can remain undeleted. Then I have an appointment to see if I get another shot in my left eye and its Macular Edema. And after THAT appointment I will be able to go to my primary doctor to see if there is something we can do with the elbow joint. IF the second surgery on my other leg is not sprung upon me and my schedule and resources. If. That mean there are only THREE scheduled doctors appointment in June. So far.

But I'm dancing as fast as I can.

Fresh Blood

Kind of nice to have some 13-year-old enthusism for the old home world.

A friend's son is getting a little more enthusiastic over Jorune with the faint whiff of a d20 version. He interviewed me on his channel a while back, and we just did it again. Fun and pro-Jorune. Nice combination.

https://youtu.be/AwH-66pEUQ0

Just a moment...

I woke up today and stood up. Next to my bed and realized I was standing without the third point of support of wedging my calf against the bed so I could stand with a third point of support. I have needed a third point of support for a long time. A cane, a walker, sometimes surfing through the house using counter, chairs, table, washing machine... for support.

But for about a minute I could stand. I think it is a direct result of the surgery to open an artery in my right ankle. I will be having another surgery on the left side in a few weeks. If this is the result, I look forward to the next round.

I don't talk about it much on this blog because it is not the purpose of the blog. In reality, I have challenges that I do not think should be the measure of someone's interest in the projects. But I have to live with it 24/7. I did so a while back and I got an email, answered, and this charming reply.

"Since you have already told me about your health issues on numerous occasions, I am tired of you constantly bringing it up.  I get it -- poor Joe.  As if you're the only one with health issues."

Really? That's what you got from asking and me answering? Since we did emails for a couple fo weeks, the "numerous" is sort of a surprise, but ... So I opted to not discuss it more than a couple of times a year. I know some Jorunis with far worse situations, but ... oh well.

I like the progress. I hope it continues.

Continuing work on #11. Trying to locate one author, not even going to worry about interior art after the really groovy cover, so ... I might get it out to meet my self-imposed "deadline" of early July. 

Crash and Burn

Crash and burn time. Tomorrow I go in for surgery. Checked to find my account is at Zero - Duke Energy hit me for $102, which was completed from my tiny savings account (balance now under $6) and zero on the primary.
GoFundMe goal of $1600 has had one contribution, for $100. A friend sent me $100 on PayPal, which is how I will pay for the ride back to the house after surgery - if they let me out.
So, if you were thinking of helping, now is the time.
I'll be making a lot of changes based on the results of tomorrow cutting.

The Go-Fund-Me Page for Joes new medical crap

And if you get a post from Larry Adams, it will probably not be good news.

Benefits of Being a Packrat

Ce n'est pas la couverture de SSC #11
But very much like it

I had a small panic. The coming issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL is themed as OTHER PEOPLE'S JORUNE.

I have permission from Fred Lang to use his amazing 3d Painting of a Crugar lost in Gilthaw for the cover. This is not the cover yet, but it shows the beginning of the #11 cover evolution. Wonderful piece of art, and it is about Jorune, too.

I found a lost module from legendary Jorune Second Edition author Geoff gray.

I have an adventure called PLAYING THE MARKET which does not have the author's information on it - don't know how that happened but sometimes it happens. Working on that.

I have a bunch of nuggets - little ideas that could lead to big expansions - from several people.

A then there was the Heridothian — a unique Play-by-Mail game in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where the players played city-states. I have one of the "moves" in my archive - about 20 pages of what that city was doing, conflict with other city-states and nations, news on the royal families or organizations, a bit of Heridothian History... it was fascinating.

And lost.

But I could not find my Heridothin material. With the problems of disk failures, attempts to consolidate old 3.5" floppies (remember those?) and backup CDs, I was sure it was there.

But I also have a project organization program called SCRIVNER and in some forgotten moment of sanity, I had gathered all of my Heridoth text and put them into the Uber Jorune project document. Everything I wanted and things I had forgotten were all there and ready to be pulled. So I have them all. I think there were some old maps, and I already published a wonderful 2-page spread some great spot illustrations from one of the Heridothians in the previous OTHER ARTISTS OF JORUNE feature. (I think there will be some redundancy allowed).

The Heridothians will finally get acknowledged.

Ce n'est pas la couverture de Sho Copra Joe
But very much like it

And a closing note. It was suggested that, when I finish the last issue of SSC, I should produce a single volume with my material - edited - for a print version. And I am thinking of doing my whole production other than SHOLARI v2n1, the GOMO GUIDES (Tan Iricid may still happen - this year), to create a collection of my writings for Jorune. I think the other authors deserve a cut of the pie and will try to come up with something for those who want it - a few people have already said they are happy just to see Jorune get a little more exposure.

So - I am thinking of that.

I have also decided to adopt a title. It won't go on my business cards — who would ask me for a business card. But I want to acknowledge my quarter of a century building a Jorune I remain very fond of, and recognizing that I am also a student and will always. be learning.

Sho Copra Joe. I'll use that for the rest of the run. Maybe my death scene will be well painted with romantic realism. But I suspect a cell phone photo with me on the ground after "oops" is much more likely.

Other People's Jorune

Working on SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL #11. It is themed as OTHER PEOPLE'S JORUNE and will feature a number of stories ideas that have been funneled to me over the past 25 years. Adventures and nuggets for the Sholari to adapt to her or his own group. Or allow your existing group to visit the world.

Sometimes a single line will inspire a whole romp. Years ago Chris Williams, editor of VERTEXT magazine, and Janice Sellers were playing in a Jorune game and we starting talking about trashy, mass-produced publications. Magazines, cheap books - like a Yule Dreadful series. Chris made an offhand comment about a pulp hero for kids - SLAM DESTI, BOY YORD.

My longtime roomie Richard Eide was in that game and came up with a comic book character among the yule dreadfuls called PIBBERMAN ("Do No Evil!"). In addition to some laughter around the it led to my development of the whole Mord Jalanor series, including SLAM DESTI (in SHOLARI #3), ALLIDOTH CONFIDENTIAL (an unpublished adventure which I ran in Colorado), and THE SCARS OF FAR TEMAUNTRO (in SHOLARI v2n1) and THE ANGELS OF DRAIL (SSC #5). I still want to do a. cover for PIBBERMAN.

One offhand comment that led to a few minutes of chuckles and then a series of characters.

I think the next issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL will add to the mythos and may even help a new generation of SHOLARIS craft some new Jorune.

That is the hope.

Okay. I Give Up

After weeks of trying to get the cover done myself... I give up. I can draw, but for me, the finished art must come with a mood to do finished art. The thing that marks a professional artist to me is the ability to do the work, on a deadline, whether they feel like it or not.
I'm not.
But I was able to pull together. pretty good collage based on a couple of sources.
A volunteer editor in the UK helped me put together THE RED GATE for this issue, and by the end of this week, I will have THE BLUE GATE, an expanded nugget, together by way of penance.
I'm started on #11 - OTHER PEOPLE'S JORUNE. Should be fun, even for me.
I think I like the graphic for these last few issues. I like playing with graphics and this one will take me thru to #14. Or #13 at least.

Word From the Outside

How nice. A travel writer took the initiative and wrote a review for SHOLARI v2n1. It is exceeding kind and points out the biggest flaw - my word problems.

https://matthewjconstantine.com/2018/03/29/tabletop-rpg-review-sholari-magazine-vol-2-number-1/

The wraparound cover by Steve Devaney.

Some people use my typos as authenticators. That lets them know it is really from me. he says I make typos, and leave words out sometimes. But, such is my legacy – and not just in gaming.

Go there, to that. I consider this to be a good review. Even my typos are given some kindness.

Available from DriverThruRPG.com.

And Steve Devaney, too!

I wanted to include Steve Devaney's cover for SHOLARI v1n2 in the previous post. He has had the right feel for Jorun illustration for a long time.

But Blogger wouldn't let me add it. Screw 'em.

Look for more from this gentleman. Maybe music. Maybe more kids. Maybe line art. Maybe adventurous 3d model which evolved to the meticulously painted electronic cover of SHOLARI v2n1. And it includes a shipstone with the memorial statue of The Desti, the ca-Desti leader of the Eelshon, who led the assault in the Lamorri expulsion.

Other People's Jorune

This one makes me want to sing the
lyrics of "Let it Be." (The Beatles).
A meditation skyrealmette.

I have been sitting on a little pile of nuggets from many Jorunis in many countries. I have decided to pull them together for an issue of SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL. The Heridothians, Geoff Gray, and a handful of others. Should be interesting.

Crashing Skyrealm

I am also looking at the whole "Sky Realm" thing. For me, the first flying land was a cheesy original musical for THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE STORYBOOK series around 1960. There was an episode called "The Land of Green Ginger" which was a mountain that flew. In the 1970s  Roger Dean did covers for Yes and others with flying mountains. It seems to be a cross-cultural archetype. Kind of like Angels - they aren't "gods" and there has been an enormous body artwork featuring them in Western Art, but they are there in other cultures, including the body of work with people who did not write anything down. The very story serves a purpose and, I suspect become a source of hope. Or comfort. And I do not want to bad-mouth anything that offers hope and/or comfort.

I'm just typing to fill out some layout space on this page so I can which includes lots of pictures of tiny little skyrealms from the internet. Some of them had names like 23598712355436.jpg, so I don't have a catalog of artists or sources. But with the Jorune to hang them on, I wanted to share. Join me as I jabber.

I particularly like the one I've labeled as "Crashing Skyrealms." It fits into my goal of exploring the new world. Not all Skyrealms stay in the air, though stable realms might float for thousands of years on a known trail of ambient Isho energies keeping the Ebba lode within charged. But when the charge is depleted - what happens.

I think like this artist showed, there would be descent that is sometimes dramatic (such as the crashed skyrealm from the Larmorri Expulsion, as described in SHOLARI v2n1, Scars of Far Temauntro. Sometimes is it would be almost graceful, with a mountain entering a ravine - not perfectly matched - and the tons of stone would press down, grinding boulders (some of which would float away) until there is a mountain with sorely mismatched strata and properties. And an enormous heart of empty crystals that had held the Ebba from which the whole levitated.

An Ebbe "seedrealm"
you could hatch on a
window sill.

And on the right a sketch. I don't know who the artist is. I just popped up.

Something like this rock makes me think you could find a crystal - not perfect clear quartz but a silicon structure within other metamorphic stones. It might be ready to fly, or cracked and not quite able to leave home on its own. Still, held by threads of Ebba trapped in silicon that connect it to the rest of its own flesh. It may be there for decades. The Ebba will leak out but the stone structure will remain.

While there is Ebba within, putting it near a fire might make it struggle to lift as you watch, and understand.

It just makes me think.

Thinking about Jorune is, I think, good for the mind. Stress relief. Vacationing in my brain since the body will not let me travel. Finding new things.

My tweak of Max Parrish's
great Deco style.

And a lot of that is visual for me. In the 3rd Edition SOBAYID ATLAS, I wrote about "ship stones" that were small - a few yards across - and were on the brink of levitation. Ebba crystals are triggered by heat, which is why Desti is so important for the controllers on airships. In the morning, when the sun reaches and warms the stone, the ship stones rise higher.

Dawn on the Shipstone

 On the left here, just a painting I found somewhere or that someone sent me within the last decade. Very cozy little shipstone. I'd unroll a sleep bag there for a long ride.

If their charge is too low, they may spend the night actually laying on the ground. And with those high root and peak structures, they aren't going to settle down in a level stand. They may stay connected to the ground for the whole night - giving a freeloading passenger a chance to hunt up a little breakfast (careful you don't miss your shipstone when it rises because it will be out of here...).  During the day they float, higher on warm days, and at night they sink. 

Alan Okimoto's acrylic,
messy, modern skyrealm.

Jorune has made me think. I will miss it when the SEGMENT: SHO-CAUDAL runs its course, which will be Issue #14. It may be under another name, but it will be SSC #14.

I have an image in my head I would like to find a realistic artist to execute. Ebba. Pockets of the flowing Isho lava deep below the ground. Lava heating the Ebba. Somewhere on Jorune there are volcanos where the Ebba flows up into the sky. The silicon cools and becomes a crown of floating stones that drift away on the Sho-Caudal - the Isho Wind. Some are like old tube TVs, some are like large earthmoving equipment (which they ear). Some become parts of enormous clouds of baseball sized debris, some are more inclined to come crashing down.