Notes on GoldenEye

• Note to self: Whenever I become hegemon of a declining paranoid superpower, make sure that I do not leave any dangerous weapons of mass destruction just lying around, ready for ambitious generals in one or more of the shatter-states to take over and use.



"Gosh, what did you do with the EMP-generating satellite in orbit?"
"Me? I thought you were decommissioning that satellite?"
::lights flicker::



• How on Earth did Natalya Semyonova manage to escape from Severnaya, in the middle of northern Siberia, to St. Petersburg, in the space of a few days with only the scanty clothes on her back in winter? And how did she know about the CIA's secret transmitters in New Zealand if she was just a second-level programmer?


• The events referred to by Alec Trevelyan--the betrayal of the Lientz Cossacks who had fought for the Nazis by the British, and their mass deportation to the Soviet Union where they were executed--really did happen. There were even suicides, just like those committed by Trevelyan's parents. Nikolai Tolstoy wrote a book on the deportations, by the Allies, of Soviet citizens in central Europe to their deaths in Stalin's Russia. It wasn't a good chapter in history.

A very good film, incidentally.

Pruning

I earlier wrote about Karen Kingston and her theory of "space clearing," of eliminating clutter in one's life to feel happier about oneself. Even discarding her feng shui rhetoric, her idea is basically sound: I've got all kinds of books that I've never read; I have some books that I have read but didn't get much out of. If I can get rid of them and make some money doing it, what's some small regret that I don't have them any more worth? I just have fewer things I don't want around.

Links to Past 2400AD Posts

2400AD Notes: Part 1
2400AD Notes: Part 2
2400AD Notes: Part 3
2400AD Notes: Part 4
2400AD Notes: Part 5
The Sygmani
Worlds of the League (Part 1)

[2400AD] Pre-Stutterwarp Trends

Part 1 breaks down into four broad divisions: cultural, demographic, geopolitical, and space trends.

( Read more... )

[2400AD] Pre-Stutterwarp Trends (Part 2)

This examines trends in diverse localities of Sol system.

( Read more... )

[2400AD] Worlds of the League (Part 2)

( SOUTH ATLANTIC ARM )

( ALIGHIERI ARM )

( BETA AQUILAE SECTOR )

( 61 CYGNI SECTOR )

( YLII SPACE )

Student Loans and Travel

I've begun to look over the requirements for student loans for the upcoming year at Queen's. They are stringent, but I've no doubt I'll be able to meet them.

The main problem facing me now is this: I need to accumulate a minimum amount in savings; my off-hand guess is some 1700 dollars at a minimum. To get that amount, and to pay of my credit card debt from my recent trip to Ontario, I'll need to earn 3000 dollars, which I can definitely do. But to earn that amount will mean I'll have next to no cash left over; and moreover, since the proposed trip to Virginia to visit Tom and Dan is in the first half of August, not the second half, right now it's looking very much like said trip will never happen, at least not this year.

Damn.

UPDATE: No, looking over the qualifications for a student loan it's quite certain.