Make it personal

"The personal, as everyone's so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here - it is slow and cold, and it is theirs. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference - the only difference in their eyes- between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's the way of the world, it's a tough life, and that it's nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal."

(Quellcrist Falconer, Things You Should Have Learned by Now. Volume II- quoted in Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan)

Specialization is for insects

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

(Lazarus Long in Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein)

The Baron is back

I pre-ordered the new version of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, brought to us with the help of James Wallis. I had to record my special instructions for the good people in Mongoose Publishing.

"Every bit of wisdom the Baron ever learned, he stole it from France and, since then, he has been hoping to grasp our unfathomable French brilliance. I now wish to check what kind of ill-mannered lies he delivers nowadays and I henceforth command you, inbred Englishmen, to send me one 'Gentleman's Edition' as soon as tea time is over."

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