Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Greentongue

Did you get the feeling it was that they were actually not interested or just concerned that they would owe you compensation for anything they profited from?
I get the feeling that sharing it not something they do easily. Just a guess of course, as I have no direct knowledge.
=

Neither, I think; it seems to be all about being willing to share the stage.

My original deal, as contracted archivist, was that we would make a digital back-up copy of all of Phil's files as a safety precaution against loss or accident. My 'fee' was that I got a copy of all the files, with the understanding that I do not have publication rights - which I don't want - and that I have the files to merge with mine for research purposes. I supposedly have the most complete set of Tekumel files on the planet, after I merged my collection with Phil's. At one point, I had actually co-located a lot of my collection with Phil's, as I thought that there would be a lot of depth to the collections that way, but that ended in October of 2012. When my contract ended in November, 2012, they made no effort to contact me re the files; when I specifically offered the files to them in 2015, I got a polite 'don't call us, we'll call you' sort of blow-off. Since then, mutual friends have been told that "I am impossible to work with" and not welcome in the Tekumel community. At one point (in 2014), the story was being told that I had destroyed the Temple of Vimuhla model, and that the Foundation could not publish anything because my daughter had destroyed Phil's data files.

I think the relationship soured when I refused to lie for them, and wound not manufacture the data to support their idea that Gary and Dave stole the idea for RPGs from Phil. It's nonsense, but they seem to want to float the notion in order to sell a book on the history or RPGs or something.

There also seems to be a very real fear that making Phil's files available for study will mean that people might see information from him about his world that might contradict when these same people have been saying is Phil's Tekumel since the 1990s. I'm surprised by that; me, I say let people have the data and make up their own minds. My definition of 'canon' - a word that I hate - is anything Phil wrote or said, coupled with what he did in his campaigns. I think that's a pretty broad canvas for people to play in and and with. Add in the current racial, sexual, and political biases being pushed on people, and you get a very murky situation.

So, everything is in the proverbial deep-freeze, and I continue to potter along with my studies. Rather like a monk in his cloister, up on one of those peaks at Mount Athos...

Originally Posted by AsenRG

First, I thought you mean 60+ Gigabytes of text, and almost fainted.
Then I remembered you have video and audio as well, and felt better.

...maybe you don't want to speculate about their motives, but I really can't imagine them (unless you wanted them to pay for the scanning - but knowing you, I suspect that wasn't the case).
I mean, where's the hurt in having a more complete digital archive? I've got more books and movies than that for my hobbies on my hard drives.

There's about 32+ Gb of texts, and about 32+ Gb of images of maps and texts. The photos, videos, and audio tapes would add up to another 40 GB or so of materials. The physical archives occupy 16 running feet of shelves, the miniatures reference collection another 60+ feet of shelves, and the artifacts about six square meters of floor space - I have a complete set of typical Tsolyani room furniture; Chirine owns a lot of stuff, from mats to astrolabes...

Please see my reply to Zirunel on this subject.

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Will do, it will be later in the day. The key I think is to see the catalogue as a means not an end. Make no mistake, it is a tedious job, but the easier it can be made, the sooner it gets done, and from then on researching the archives can be more of a joy and less of a chore

No problem; I'm on a four-day holiday. I'll be here.

Agreed. I know my way around the collection, due to my memory abilities, but for anyone else it's a huge mess.

Originally Posted by Zirunel

Thank you! Gonna add your blog to my own blog list so I don't forget the link again!

I'll add you as well, when I get home. I can't access my blog from here, so found my own blog via Google.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

There also seems to be a very real fear that making Phil's files available for study will mean that people might see information from him about his world that might contradict when these same people have been saying is Phil's Tekumel since the 1990s. I'm surprised by that; me, I say let people have the data and make up their own minds. My definition of 'canon' - a word that I hate - is anything Phil wrote or said, coupled with what he did in his campaigns. I think that's a pretty broad canvas for people to play in and and with. Add in the current racial, sexual, and political biases being pushed on people, and you get a very murky situation.

"Information wants to free". (AFAICT, that's the Rule #1 of Cyberpunk that I like quoting. Rule #2 is "The Street Finds Its Own Uses For Things", and I like to apply it without quoting).

Or as an ancient Bulgarian author said centuries ago, "if you see in a book an inscription not to loan it, and not to let others read it, throw this book away, for it is useless indeed" (translation mine). Given that this is from the time when books were expensive...nothing new under the sun, eh?

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

There's about 32+ Gb of texts, and about 32+ Gb of images of maps and texts. The photos, videos, and audio tapes would add up to another 40 GB or so of materials. The physical archives occupy 16 running feet of shelves, the miniatures reference collection another 60+ feet of shelves, and the artifacts about six square meters of floor space - I have a complete set of typical Tsolyani room furniture; Chirine owns a lot of stuff, from mats to astrolabes...

Please see my reply to Zirunel on this subject.

I'm glad it's in digital format.
I almost can't imagine dealing with 32 Gb of text without the Search function.

Or rather, I can imagine it quite clearly - my own books at home are way more than 16 feets of shelves...books are one thing I don't compromise on (though I send the books I don't plan revisiting soon to my country home, where I've got even more shelves).
And I know from experience that it's much slower to search without the Search function!

BTW, Uncle, you don't need the help of your software-minded friend, or rather, no need to wait for it...
I'm pretty sure that the free OS Linux already does what you're looking for about the index, meaning it searches in the text of files and not only in the titles.
(And unlike Windows 10 it's not a Trojan with the MS logo).
Anyway, just install the text files on a computer running with Linux. That's the basic search function (and here is a command string in case it doesn't work for some reason).
Search by words or phrases, get a list of files containing them.
Hope that helps!

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Was your good lady there the night Phil announced his plans for our doing a WorldCon masquerade presentation? It would have been the early fall of '86, after the Pettingers took "Best in Show' with the Lords of Stability. (They took another in 1996 with the Lords of Change, too.) We got some nice cookies in 1988, too...

Wow, I missed that. Would have been the beginning of my second year of grad school.

I never heard of the Pettingers presentations till now.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

I think the relationship soured when I refused to lie for them, and wound not manufacture the data to support their idea that Gary and Dave stole the idea for RPGs from Phil.

Buh?

Wow, just wow, that's just low and ridiculous.

Originally Posted by AsenRG

I'm glad it's in digital format.
I almost can't imagine dealing with 32 Gb of text without the Search function.

Or rather, I can imagine it quite clearly - my own books at home are way more than 16 feets of shelves...books are one thing I don't compromise on (though I send the books I don't plan revisiting soon to my country home, where I've got even more shelves).
And I know from experience that it's much slower to search without the Search function!

BTW, Uncle, you don't need the help of your software-minded friend, or rather, no need to wait for it...
I'm pretty sure that the free OS Linux already does what you're looking for about the index, meaning it searches in the text of files and not only in the titles.
(And unlike Windows 10 it's not a Trojan with the MS logo).
Anyway, just install the text files on a computer running with Linux. That's the basic search function (and here is a command string in case it doesn't work for some reason).
Search by words or phrases, get a list of files containing them.
Hope that helps!

So am I; the Missus and the girls worked very hard to make it happen.

I personally don't need an index or catalog; it's all in my head, which - if you asked me - is a lousy place to keep it. As I mentioned, there was very little in Phil's files that I hadn't seen, usually as it was being created. What I'm concerned about is anything happening to me - like my brain bleed four years ago. Which is why I would have settled for anything up to and including total paralysis if the memory functions were still good.

We're way outside my skill set here. We are Mac-based here at the house, and don't have either the hardware or software that you mention.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Wow, I missed that. Would have been the beginning of my second year of grad school.

I never heard of the Pettingers presentations till now.

After "Man of Gold" came out, Pierre and Sandy contacted Phil with an eye to doing a costume presentation. He did them lovely sketches of aspects of the gods, and they built the Lords of Stability - and won. Did the same thing about a decade later with Change; I have both the drawings and the photos of the finished product, as well as videos of their presentations. Chirine and friends did well in '88, too.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

So am I; the Missus and the girls worked very hard to make it happen.

I personally don't need an index or catalog; it's all in my head, which - if you asked me - is a lousy place to keep it. As I mentioned, there was very little in Phil's files that I hadn't seen, usually as it was being created. What I'm concerned about is anything happening to me - like my brain bleed four years ago. Which is why I would have settled for anything up to and including total paralysis if the memory functions were still good.

We're way outside my skill set here. We are Mac-based here at the house, and don't have either the hardware or software that you mention.

Any computer that has at least 50 Gb of memory would do, which means almost any old machine can do it, and Linux is free to download.

Granted, since you have an index in your head and you're the only people with access to that information, you don't really need it at the moment!
May you not need it for 10 000 years yet!