On 12 Oct 2012 18:34:01 -0500, " +Grant. " <+Grant@grant.grant> wrote:
>
>
>Stephen's Secure Blog #85
>
> These stories about Stephen began was when he was 10 years old, and
>moving to a new part of the country to attend a special school for
>gifted students, in the 1950's. This was from a time before computers
>would fit on a desk, and when people communicated with friends in other
>countries by actual letters sent through the postal service. He wrote
>225 of them to a friend. He stopped writing to his penpal, but found he
>still wanted to record his life, in case he lost his memory again, and
>wrote 30 entries in his first logbook. Then he wrote to an artificial
>intelligence called Geenee, in the master computer in his school for
>gifted students, which he started attending in 2016. Now it's after
>2018, and he's continuing to save his memories in a secure blog.
>All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
>that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
>The stories may not be posted in chronological order.
>Stephen is 13 in this story, in the Winter of year 4 of his special
>school.
>
>
>Stephen's Secure Blog #85 "Stumak, Delivery, and Teaching"
>
>
>START Page
>
>
> We had to have escorts from the Stumak venue because of my new mass
>popularity. On the way out, I contacted Zander said said, +Would you
>like me to use the Stumak games here as a teaching moment in your
>school? I usually do that in mine, and there was much more going on
>than might be apparent.+ He said +Yes! Great idea. At the school after
>the new students are given the first crystal+ I said +Fine. Then I need
>to borrow Harditch for an important recruitment mission. A young boy of
>her kind who is homeless and abused, but with great potential.+ He said
>+Get him now?+ I said +When the time is right, so he will accept us.+
>He said +I bow to your judgement.+ I said +I'll port you home when you
>become unobserved.+ That happened soon after, and I did it.
>
> Rose, Hawk, Passinchance, and Raybit, congratulated me on the win,
>when they could get a chance, when we were out of the venue and resting
>in a park. Passinchance said, "We still had great odds; 91 to 1 against
>you, when we locked in the bets before the first game. I bet all I had,
>and helped Rose and Hawk do the same. I did something for you, too. As
>your agent, I could use use your winnings even after they had been
>transferred to your account. You weren't able to bet there, so I did it
>for you. Those winnings, and my 20% back to you, and my commission on
>your enormous purse, well, I think I need help calculating it all." We
>laughed. Raybit said "Why don't we go to a terminal and check it all
>out?" We did that. Passinchance was in absolute heaven. Rose and Hawk
>were amazed. I was just normally me. I had already done all the
>calculations, and knew I was ending up with a total of over 7 billion
>credits in my account. I explained to the Posintans why I wasn't amazed
>and very happy, "I don't need money for me. I can make things I want,
>and much more. I'm doing this to fund schools." Raybit said, "I
>understand some of that. I don't have to do anything for money now, but
>my life isn't going to change. I will still study and learn, and
>compete." I said to Passinchance, "Listen to him. He's wise. Don't let
>a pile of credits change who you are, and what makes your life exciting
>and fun. You love being an agent. I hope you don't give that up for the
>absolute boredom of the idle rich." He said, "I heard you say you could
>get all the money you want. I see you can. So, for you, it doesn't
>matter much. Life and doing good, matters to you more, which you have
>shown it should be. You've learned our games, but I, and I think all
>who have witnessed your actions and seen who you are, have learned more
>important things from you. You improve all who meet you, and that's
>worth more than all the credit in the galaxy." I was embarrassed and
>looking down. Rose said, "And not just to them."
>
> We said our farewells, and agreed to meet again in a year, and we
>humans went back to the hotel room. Hawk said "We looked up the game
>while you were playing him on the stage. You shouldn't have won." Rose
>said "Hawk! That's a nasty thing to say!" I grinned and said, "He's
>right." Her mouth dropped open. I reached over and closed it for her.
>We laughed. I said "Don't let emotion interfere with your objective
>reasoning. I couldn't have won against that master, after the short
>time I had to learn it. That's why I had to play HIM, so he would do
>something I could predict and plan for. I'll be doing a teaching
>session about it at Zander's school after the new students use the
>They got the message and grinned. Our clothes flew off, and we kissed
>and stroked all over in the link, and built up to a really great
>finish. While we were resting, Hawk said, "Victory is very sexy." Rose
>said "Around you two, everything is." We laughed.
>
> Rose and I contacted our students, and ported them to our hotel room.
>They had both bet on the second game, and won, and thanked me for their
>new fortunes. I said "Does this mean you don't want to train very hard
>and become something like us?" They both strongly denied that. I said
>"I don't personally care about money. I don't need it. Schools do,
>though. That's why I went and got some." Rose poked me and said, "More
>than some." I grinned and said, "Well, enough to fund 3 or 4 schools
>until they become self supporting. Oh, and Zander might not need our
>help for his school. But I don't know how much he bet." I said to the
>students, "So, do you still want to be students in our system?" They
>did. We checked out of the hotel and went the ordinary way to the ship,
>and took off with their control system. Past their orbital control
>station, we went invisible and ported to near Zichesshich and went
>detectable, and said through the comm who we were. Then things got a
>little confused. The Control Agent said, "Let me see if I understand
>this. You have two native Posintans with you. Then you have two not
>native Posintan citizens, who are related to you, who are a citizen of
>Zichesshich, Posintan, and Tsuriss?" I said "Yes, and for such a
>confusing situation, you have described it accurately. Well done." He
>said "Thank you. What are the reasons for the offplanet visitors?" I
>said "The two native Posintans are students, and will be attending a
>school here, which I support. The two not native Posintan citizens who
>are, by clan adoption, brother and sister to me, assist me in that. The
>President of Zichesshich will vouch for my truthfulness if asked." He
>grinned and said, "No need. I saw your citizenship newscast. Anybody
>who can handle reporters like you did, can charm the scales off of any
>politician." Rose yelled "Absolutely!" We laughed. He said "I'll add
>your relatives to your documents. The next time you and they use a
>credit terminal, your disks will be updated. They may visit and stay as
>long and as often as they wish. The two students may stay four years,
>with renewal privileges. Welcome home." I said "Thank you very much!"
>
> We landed under their control, at the VIP section, and we all went
>into the terminal. I registered and said no service. The others updated
>their credit ID disks. Then we took regular transportation to Zander's
>home. He was there and waiting for us. The introduction and acceptance
>of the new students went smoothly. I had already given Zander by push,
>necessary information on the new species, and had made the set of
>crystals for them. I gave Zander a crystal of Rose's competitions, and
>our laser tag matches from a remote viewpoint, and Rose gave him
>crystals of my competitions. He said wow a lot while reading them. Then
>he called all the students together for a class. I said "We just came
>back from Posintan. I don't know if all of you know about that planet,
>or how much if you do know, but they like sports. Well, that's like
>saying Ssintris have teeth." They all laughed, even Zander. I said
>"They are almost fanatical about competing, and they do a lot of it all
>the time. Because of that, the one personal thing they value above
>almost all others, is good sportsmanship. And mostly, they have a lot
>of it. So naturally, I like them, and like competing with them. And
>they, well, kind of liked me and Rose a little, too. However, my last
>competition there, was against a Ssintris, who was the greatest player,
>ever, in his game, which is called Stumak." I told them about the game,
>and then gave them the crystal to pass around. There were wows and
>laughter.
>
> I said "In the hotel after the match, Hawk said to me something
>important. I shouldn't have won. I agreed. I had less than a day to
>learn the most difficult and complicated game we know about, and beat
>the best player in the history of the game, which usually takes a long
>Ssintris lifetime to learn. Actually, only they could stand that much
>boredom." Zander laughed louder than the others. I said "Granted that I
>have total recall, extremely high intelligence, and great physical
>control, there was no way I could learn the game in that short of time,
>and with no practice games, to even come near to the level of that
>master of it. So, I didn't. Yet, I beat him. Now we will discuss why
>and how I did it. Zander, Rose, and Hawk, will stay out of it as much
>as they can, because they know me too well. Harditch, they already know
>I'm a sly one, so you can leave that out." They laughed. She said "You
>didn't win. Oh let me finish! You didn't win so much as made him make
>himself lose." I nodded and said, "Well, is somebody going to tell us
>how?" Pink, Rose's Posintan recruit said, "You used the first game to
>set the pattern for the second." I said to the group, "That sounds like
>it might be true. But, is that where it started?" Dat said "It started
>the moment he saw who his opponent was going to be. That's when the
>action started, but you had already planned your moves, because you
>researched him and knew his personal weaknesses. You never said you
>did, but a master competitor you obviously are, would do that if he
>could. Then you deliberately provoked his arrogance, and manipulated
>him into displaying his foolishness." I said "More, I knew how
>Posintans felt about him and the other players, and I played even more
>to the audience to help influence him. Never discount public support.
>That can often turn a win into a disaster, or defeat into a moral
>victory more useful to your goals. Tell me, which game was the hardest
>for me to play?" Hahchet said "The first, by far. You had to make a
>draw to magnify the bet and set him up for the fool's mate in the
>second. Yes, I recognized that. Relatively easy when you make your
>opponent be very conservative, and forget what can happen if he does
>that. The draw in the first game, with so little time, and not knowing
>what he would do, was amazing! THAT was the really hard part. The rest
>was simple for you." I said "Exposed! Oh how could you!" They laughed.
>I said "Anybody have more to add?"
>
> I said "Rose, please summarize." She said "You researched your
>opponent, and made comparisons. His weakness was arrogance. Yours was
>lack of knowledge of the game. His strengths were skill and experience.
>Yours were intelligence, memory, and speed. You maximized your
>advantages, at the same time you maximized his weaknesses, and
>minimized his strengths. You planned the whole encounter. He didn't.
>You led him by the teeth [laughter], and he could do nothing but
>follow, with never a chance to realize what was happening." I said to
>the class, "What do you think of her summery?" They liked it a lot.
>Then I said, "It was very good. But, she knows the Stumak situation was
>only a small part of the mission. Hawk, please explain that." He said
>"Everything you did on Posintan was part of your plan. When you are an
>a mission, that's ALL it is, and you MANAGE every bit of it, to further
>the goals of the mission. They were, attracting student candidates, and
>letting Posintans know we are good people, so they will support us when
>we need it. You scheduled your competitions so that some of your
>previously selected candidates would be watching or competing with you.
>Ah! I see they didn't realize that. You knew your ability and good
>sportsmanship would be widely noticed and appreciated, and you only let
>your Ki flow fully when it would do the most good. The candidates were
>attracted to you like magnets, and you won the competition for their
>attention and desire to learn. Then you used the remaining time in
>carefully selected competitions, one more noticed than the next, to
>show your sportsmanship, including the Stumak games, in which you
>soundly defeated the most unpopular competitors on the planet, to
>influence the public just enough to respect and love you, but not
>enough to envy or resent your superiority, and hate you, and through
>you, hate all of us. Your bigger mission was successful, because you
>planned that, too, and that your plan was built around the ACCURATE
>knowledge you had of yourself and your abilities, and that of Rose as
>well."
>
> I said to the group, "So, what do you think of Hawk's explanation?"
>There were some wows. Hahchet said "It was very educational, and on
>more than one level. It showed us a lot about YOU, perhaps
>embarrassingly more that you're comfortable with, which means it's
>important for our education, or you wouldn't accept that. You showed
>one man can manipulate practically an entire planet, in targeted
>individuals and the society, all without violating our ethical
>principles, and actually improve everyone around you. You have given us
>an exemplary example of the good we can do, and skills we can learn,
>and the personal qualities we can strive to emulate." Silence. I
>couldn't say anything. Zander said, "I think you embarrassed him too
>much. That means, while what you said was and is VERY true, he was
>looking for something else." Harditch said, "All life is like this.
>Managing people and situations. When you know your tools, such as what
>you can do and who you are, and do the research, and make good plans
>for all possibilities you might encounter in the missions and problems
>you face, you have a better chance of succeeding." I said "Very good.
>Keep in mind though, no plan is perfect. You have to be flexible to
>change plans in an instant, and to even create new plans in the middle
>of action. Plans aren't something to make work, but are just imperfect
>guides to help you do what you want. Don't be loyal to them, to the
>determent of your goals. When you do change plans, the rest of the team
>must know about it as soon as possible. That's why on a mission, we
>monitor each other as much as possible. There is no privacy where lives
>are at stake, and even the smallest error can affect all our futures
>dramatically. One more thing. Leave people wanting YOU back, and not
>wanting your back broken. It's not just a nice way to be, it can save
>your goals, and maybe your life, someday. Anybody have any more?" They
>didn't.
>
> I said "Rendered down to the most basic of principles, I won, because
>I treated the whole situation as one competition. He lost because he
>just played the games as tests of abilities. When you work from a
>larger mental and operational environment, you can have a significant
>advantage, when you can use that to frame the encounters as you want
>to, to your own advantage. I'm done here for now. I like, and respect,
>and love you all." I gave them my love. "Harditch, I'll need you with
>me on a mission to your planet in a few minutes. I'll be at my house.
>Contact me when you are ready. Make the new students welcome, and I
>wouldn't mind having a count of their wows." They laughed, and I ported
>to my house. Rose and Hawk knew I wanted to be alone, and didn't join
>me. I contacted Zander to ask him to let me know what he and the
>students thought of the meeting, when that all settled down, so I would
>know how effective I was.
>
>
>END Page
Dear Grant,
Once again, I would like to congratulate and express my respect to you
for your continuing installments. It seems you, and occassionally
Chandler, are holding down the fort ... literally.
Sincerely,
Victor
NP-g18
God Save the Queen.
God Bless the Prince of Wales.
God Preserve the Windsors.
Rule Britannia!
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