A Blatant Plug

[packbat]

Looking back through my journal archives, I realize that I never mentioned how good a writer chanlemur is. I first found his writing through Narbonic (he wrote (is writing?) "A Brief Moment of Culture"), but he has consistently impressed me in his other ventures, both comic and serious. Even those which are triggered by such a minor thing as a little meme that's been going around.

Yesterday, for that meme, he wrote The Thousand and First Paper Crane. It is a gorgeous story.

That's all I came to say.

Disclaimer: Chanlemur has this journal friended, and I have his journal friended. These facts had no bearing on the above – his work stands on its own merits.

Comments

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

Hm. Clever, Mr. Zimmermann. Very clever.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Bingo! The canonicity of "Brief Moment of Culture" is confirmed here (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6271&name=narbonic#strip3), and the first instance of Artie veganism is here (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=7368&name=narbonic#strip4)! It works!

Or, at least, I think it does. I'm only up to the intro to Dave-Con – might be still a reference I missed.

Powers of Geek, activate!

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

Great! Now all we have to do is figure out how exactly the specific changes made to temporal continuity in "...Unstuck in Time" might have affected Artie's genesis in such a way that he changed his moral and dietary preferences, and we're golden! Wahoo! Why, I bet it's just like--

Wait.

How long did you spend searching the archives for this?

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Three hours, I think. Why do you ask? ^_^

Maybe the key is that he never made the writing on the wall (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6271&name=narbonic#strip5). Synchronicity occurs before he gets to the bathroom (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6765&name=narbonic). My hypothesis is either that he was supposed to write the note to himself and did in the original timeline, or he wasn't supposed to, and didn't. After all, the original timeline did have Dave time-traveling (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?name=narbonic&view=archive&chapter=206#strip3).

My money is on him having written the note to himself in the original timeline. After all, that way he's merely bouncing around in the original timeline until he hits synchronicity, and it explains why his future self thought they would fill a swimming pool (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?name=narbonic&view=archive&chapter=6275#strip3) for synchronicity.

Of course, it's also possible that Dave was supposed to learn about the synchronicity here (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=6756&name=narbonic). But I like other theory better.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Wait a sec, the details of why the timeline changed don't answer why Artie became vegan. Maybe it's the smoking (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=166&name=narbonic&line=229#strip6).

[chanlemur.livejournal.com]

(Incidentally, some obscure Narbonic trivia that I don't think Shaenon would mind me sharing: There is a early version of this strip where the problematic item Helen is considering is a bottle of Bac-Os. When I wrote to Shaenon and mentioned that Bac-Os are in fact wholly vegan, she changed it to yogurt to, I think, take a jab at me in return. ;) )

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Heh. Cool. :D

(Incidentally, in reading through the archives, I noticed who wrote the Madblood Battle Anthem (http://www.moderntales.com/series.php?view=archive&chapter=2852&name=narbonic). You just keep proving my thesis, don't you? :D)