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So Dundee and I have a strained relationship; I spent a very odd couple of days up there in '16, ended by a raucous dinner hosted by a wonderful organisation called the "Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee." I gave an uproarious speech in which I toasted the Queen of Scots (nope, no idea), talked a ton about the importance of Scots in the English Legal System (a lot of padding) and finally quoted Burns. It was awful.

The sole aim of the dinner, I am now convinced, was to get the English lawyer so drunk he would never venture north of Berwick again. It worked. The lowpoint of a journey home in which several of my personal 'worsts' were achieved was passing out on the flight south; when I awoke upon landing my neighbouring passengers had dispersed far and wide, such was the shambles of a human that I had become.

Anyhoo, it's a fun city if you avoid official hospitality. They wear their history well, and I had a fun hour (before the dinner) in Captain Scott's ship Discovery. Very much recommended.

Basically all we've learnt from this is that he's a total square and barely survived the hospitality of one of Scotland's tamest city's. I must beg you never to go to Ireland or you'll die of alcohol before you leave the ferry.

It's only fair to share MY terrible drinking story. I was being hosted for a full semester in Amsterdam by the Erasmus Scheme and taken to the original Oktoberfeste in Munich via overnight coach. Little notable occurred on the way aside from watching for the first time the Wolf of Wall Street, which I must say is much funnier in Dutch.

Anyway, we penetrate the german border and stop for eats. Two policemen were at the petrol station and quite alarmed at the coachfull of very foreign young peoples milling around. We avoided a scene only by the grace of their I must say quite fantastic hatred of the French. We arrived on time to the campsite and started predrinking for a few hours then got into the festival at 7 the next morning.

Several hours of 1.5litre stein glasses of finest 3 euro lager later, we feasted on whole roast chickens and pretzels (the limit of solid food in the beer hall and damned if we were moving) while brass bands played constantly. Everyone was in lederhosen and other traditional dress which meant of course more bulging bulge and cleavage than usual at 10 in the morning. There wasn't much fighting but the traditional dare/suicide pact of standing on a bench and downing a full glass to raucous applause before being thrown bodily from the hall by staff meant plenty of entertainment.

Anyway, everything was cheap and excellent, and the goverment was paying our tab, so after making friends with several people who ended up joining the Hong Kong resistance, we quit the hall and wandered around aimlessly smashing into things and people. After a time we were determined to steal some stein glasses (because for some insane reason they don't sell them at the festival) and succeeded in getting thrown out of two halls.

It gets a bit fuzzy after that but I do know I did manage to (somehow) kneck a whole glass to massive acclaim. We got ice cream on the floor and a couple of rugby lads on tour carried us back to our coach at the end of the day. Munich is best taken in on your side, I find.

The projectile vomiting and other bodily fluids the next day were an experience all of their own.

Anyway, a few weeks later Trump was elected President.
 
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11 days! Where is Pip and what have you done with him? Is he tied up under the desk, release him at once I say!
He is trying to write slightly shorter chapters, say 1,500 words ish, so he can produce them faster. It appears to be working.

I like the idea of these updates, framing the various problems for the conference to solve and giving examples of how industries are effected. It will really contextualise why things gets decided/rejected when the conference rolls around.

I have to admit to bring excited to see what other industries get this forensic level of examination (Birmingham gun trade please!). You will no doubt be inundated with requests so I feel no guilt in being the first. :p
That was my hope and I am delighted it has worked. :)

I'll admit I wasn't planning the Birmingham gun trade, but there is probably a lot in it so I will have a look and see what turns up. I warn you it may become a bit general Midlands light industrial, a subject that must always come with a trigger/health warning.

Not only 11 days, but also not top of the page billing?! Have you enlisted the Pipettes already into your scheme?!
If I had waited for a new page, or even tried to get others to fill the gap, it would have ruined the surprise of it only being 11 days. :D

Here we go...
"The impact of the citrus trade and international fruit industry credit financing on the Spanish Civil War" is one of my favourites of hte upcoming chapters and I cannot wait till we get to it.

Damn Scots, you ruined Scotland!
Truth.
DYAEiOu.gif


This style of appendix looms interesting, so long as it isn't just an excuse to start going backwards in game time instead of forward!
Maybe a little bit of looking backwards to show context of the industry/area/concept being discussed, but I can promise every appendix will have some actual events that occurred in the current game year and will have some relevance. So overall progress will be made.

So Dundee and I have a strained relationship;
You do have some interesting adventures I will give you that.

hosted by a wonderful organisation called the "Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee."
They do sound properly Scottish. The trades include; Fleshers, Hammer Men and, of course, Bonnet Makers.

never to go to Ireland or you'll die of alcohol before you leave the ferry.
Or worse be forced to drink Irish Whiskey and realise the 'e' isn't a spelling mistake but a deliberate warning of how awful the taste will be.
Z3wSg01.gif


Anyway, a few weeks later Trump was elected President.
I see you are familiar with the Adam Curtis style of argument/story telling, as explained in The Loving Trap
 
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I see you are familiar with the Adam Curtis style of argument/story telling, as explained in The Loving Trap

But this was a fantasy. For there never would be another Liberal government. Indeed, it was argued by many that there never had been one in the first place.

Music stop mid-bar.

Or was there?

image of a hamster on a surfboard.

Meanwhile, in Amercia...
 
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My planned electrical update got somewhat sidetracked when I found myself looking at plug standards and pondering the mystery of why the rest of the Empire was denied the majestic magnificence of the world's greatest plug, the BS1363 three pin.

Because even I recognised this sort of thing would not end well, I am now doing an appendix chapter on the City of London next.
 
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My planned electrical update got somewhat sidetracked when I found myself looking at plug standards and pondering the mystery of why the rest of the Empire was denied the majestic magnificence of the world's greatest plug, the BS1363 three pin.

Because even I recognised this sort of thing would not end well, I am now doing an appendix chapter on the City of London next.
What? You can't make it into another appendix?
 
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What? You can't make it into another appendix?
Honestly I probably will, but it was getting into 'researching for the sake of it' territory and that is not a healthy place for my writing to go.

So I am taking a step back, working on a different topic and I'll come back to it when I can link it to a wider theme or bigger point.
 
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@El Pip a quick glance at Wikipedia, and I am certain you can produce an entertaining and informative update out of the subject of power socket standardisation. In fact, I suspect the timing is pretty much perfect!
 
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...that's actually a strange thing. Why didn't the whole empire/whole world adopt the safety plug?
 
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My planned electrical update got somewhat sidetracked when I found myself looking at plug standards and pondering the mystery of why the rest of the Empire was denied the majestic magnificence of the world's greatest plug, the BS1363 three pin.

Because even I recognised this sort of thing would not end well, I am now doing an appendix chapter on the City of London next.

This confirms my earlier suspicion that you have the real El Pip tied up somewhere, let him go pod person!
 
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This confirms my earlier suspicion that you have the real El Pip tied up somewhere, let him go pod person!

Oh god...that means they're coming for the rest of us.
 
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@El Pip a quick glance at Wikipedia, and I am certain you can produce an entertaining and informative update out of the subject of power socket standardisation. In fact, I suspect the timing is pretty much perfect!
That is how I got dragged into it, there was some local standardisation around this time and the IEC were mucking about with it (including a thrilling meeting in Torquay in 1938!) but no-one really cared. There was no real cross-border trade in small electricals, there were far too many vested interests in making sure there wasn't any trade in those items and no political will to force it through.

On which note this AAR idea probably belongs in the Royal Prerogative list;
Fawlty Sockets. The IEC descend upon a certain hotel in Torquay being run by Basil's predecessor. Hijinks and international incidents results, as do scenes of extreme electrical safety discussion that some readers may find distrurbing(ly dull). Highlights include the Italian delegation proposing a 500V house circuit and a 100V plug, so whenever you plug anything in the plug wiring glows red hot - the wiring is of course in the shape of Mussolini's face so it looks very impressive (and then bursts into flames and burns your house down).

Then the Soviets proposing a 120V circuit where everything is supposed to run at 240V, because a Commissar will shoot any electron that does not achieve 200% of it's target.

...that's actually a strange thing. Why didn't the whole empire/whole world adopt the safety plug?
A long and contrived story that spans many decades that I could recite, but I'm not sure turn into something worth putting even in an appendix. I would like something to change from history, or what is the point of me writing it?

To be marginally useful Canada was doomed to be dragged along by the US and there was on going mild spat in the rest of the Empire about Standards. Namely the Dominions kept insisting on setting up their own local bodies rather than just using British Standards. Not completely sure why, I think it was just a "being different for the sake of it" issue.

This confirms my earlier suspicion that you have the real El Pip tied up somewhere, let him go pod person!
Oh god...that means they're coming for the rest of us.
Yes... Come. Join us. We mean you no harm. We just wanted to see the Butterfly Effect finished before the heat death of the universe.
 
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That is how I got dragged into it, there was some local standardisation around this time and the IEC were mucking about with it (including a thrilling meeting in Torquay in 1938!) but no-one really cared.

Surely you're joking, Mr Pip.

On which note this AAR idea probably belongs in the Royal Prerogative list;
Fawlty Sockets. The IEC descend upon a certain hotel in Torquay being run by Basil's predecessor. Hijinks and international incidents results, as do scenes of extreme electrical safety discussion that some readers may find distrurbing(ly dull). Highlights include the Italian delegation proposing a 500V house circuit and a 100V plug, so whenever you plug anything in the plug wiring glows red hot - the wiring is of course in the shape of Mussolini's face so it looks very impressive (and then bursts into flames and burns your house down).

Then the Soviets proposing a 120V circuit where everything is supposed to run at 240V, because a Commissar will shoot any electron that does not achieve 200% of it's target.

Alas, this is ineligible because, as the list plainly states, the list is only for mad ideas from the Royal Prerogative AAR. So we'll be rejecting your application at this time, thank you very much for applying.

Yes... Come. Join us. We mean you no harm. We just wanted to see the Butterfly Effect finished before the heat death of the universe.

...uh...no thanks, I'm just going to go read some McArthur books to protect me from them space commies.
 
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I received an email from Photobucket saying the latest batch of restrictions are coming in (only the first 250 images will be available, rest locked, etc.) I can't really get angry because it was free, so I decided it was long overdue to finally get the pictures in Butterfly sorted before the restrictions get even worse. This is not the full Redux, just get the pictures working.

Turns out Past Pip really did not take this at all seriously and for some chapters just used random pictures, which he directly linked to and he did not download copies. This is quite annoying and means fixing the pictures will not be the easy and simple project I had hoped. There's no point getting angry at Past Pip about this, if he had known what he was taking on it is perhaps unlikely he would have started it. Still, it is mildly annoying.
 
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I recall similar situations from Photobucket. Imgur not being what it is now, nor memes being a thing, certainly I've been guilty of hotlinking stuff that I probably should have tried to find copies of.
 
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I feel your pain. I feverishly save and store all my images in aar folders for safe keeping, but as of this year all of them got destroyed in a computer transfer so all my old 'classic' AARs now exist only on the service site. Albion was long dead anyway because it was several thousand updates behind current ck2 versions but losing Cosma's story before it even began hurt.

Hopefully everything here can be saved, moved, fixed, sorted etc. Not that there's many game images here thankfully. Its mostly battleships and pictures of Winston churchill ;) :).

Except not really. By the way, an idea was floated a few months/years/whatever ago to do a summary chapter on strategic development, what's changed in terms of land and general position of the world after nearly two years of Butterflying?
 
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I recall similar situations from Photobucket. Imgur not being what it is now, nor memes being a thing, certainly I've been guilty of hotlinking stuff that I probably should have tried to find copies of.
It was easy to do back in the day. I'm unsure if I just assumed the links would last forever or that the work would be done and forgotten before they did. Either way mistakes were made.

I feel your pain. I feverishly save and store all my images in aar folders for safe keeping, but as of this year all of them got destroyed in a computer transfer so all my old 'classic' AARs now exist only on the service site. Albion was long dead anyway because it was several thousand updates behind current ck2 versions but losing Cosma's story before it even began hurt.
I've thus far managed to mostly avoid such an unfortunate outcome, through luck for the first few years and through having backups more recently.

But I did still lose all the pictures from the first half of Furious Vengeance and that was a blow, particularly when it was the only AAR I'd ever finished.

Hopefully everything here can be saved, moved, fixed, sorted etc. Not that there's many game images here thankfully. Its mostly battleships and pictures of Winston churchill ;) :).
And trains.
DYAEiOu.gif



By the way, an idea was floated a few months/years/whatever ago to do a summary chapter on strategic development, what's changed in terms of land and general position of the world after nearly two years of Butterflying?
Might sneak it in end of 1937. The King's Alternative Christmas Message.

Nevermind, juice is in the text.
While this is obviously true, the picture I've found of Sarrat for Chapter XVII is quite spicy. It's from his Governor of Indochina phase and it is a very bold look he is rocking.

Drat you have got my hopes up for an update and cruelly dashed them on the rocks!

Still I do hope your work with the pictures goes on with relative ease. :)
I've got to a chapter with some maps in and, while I have the originals, they are a bit rough even by my own average-ish standards (I am no @roverS3 or @Wraith11B when it comes to such graphics! :) ). I'm fighting the temptation to redo them, because while I do like a nice bit of map making, to do so would lead me down the dark path towards doing Redux. So I am resisting for now and trying to work on an actual new update.
 
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