Warp Nine Flying False Colors!

Bob Butler's Rather Strange Home Page

Welcome to a somewhat diverse homepage. My interests have much to do with role playing games, history, conflict, with a little digital art thrown in. As a result, instead of focusing on one issue, there are numerous articles on subjects varying from Sickles' III Corp's placement at Gettysburg, dogfighting, the right to keep and bear arms, Star Trek's Prime Directive, poetry, and more.

Some of the articles below are stagnant and perhaps dated. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the web was an active hobby. Lately, less so. Most of the pages stand up pretty well a decade later, but not all. The US Supreme Court has made my position on the Second Amendment essentially the law of the land. Mirror Dance's computer generated artwork has been left way behind by major software advances. Joy Mudd is no longer an active role playing character. Still, I can't find myself taking the site down.

My micro-bio is available if you want to know more, but straight on to the main features, or just click on the flag or icon of your choice.

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An Android's Tale Fan fiction stories of the Joy Class androids of Mudd, role playing characters active in AOL's simulation community. Asimov's Laws of Robotics, the Prime Directive, and the movie roles of Audrey Hepburn are programmed into Star Trek androids, and let loose on an unsuspecting 24th Century.
Flight by Committee Account of a Sky Warriors dogfight. The pilot / author was experienced with desktop computer simulated combat, but had never flown a real plane before. The theory and practice of shooting down aircraft is explored.
Proving Murphy's Law Many World quantum mechanics, single particle interferance, electrons interfering with their own past and future orbits, reverse time causality, and a theory of psi and ESP that makes specific and testible predictions. It might be wrong, but this will make you think.
I won't wear it! "I don't care if it's traditional, I won't wear it!" Glenn Blacow's The Wild Hunt covers explore the humorous side of chain mail bikinis, giant rats, twit elves, and the liddle people. Fantasy role playing at its least serious.
Polyticks: A Secular Humanist Manifesto My political party is agnostic, marital status is independent, and religion is single. Polyticks gathers several barely related political essays and opinion pieces. I'm against bigots, fundamentalists, and neo-confederates. I am for the Bill of Rights, Rule of Law, Truth, and the 19th Century practice of capitalizing Virtues. I'm distinctly in favor of the Founding Fathers, and the Future. Confused yet? Welcome to Polyticks!
USS Massachusetts Photo Tour Photo tour of the USS Massachusetts, currently docked as a museum ship at Heritage Park, Fall River, Massachusetts. While many battleship web sites feature shots taken from a distance, often with a broadsides being fired, this one gets up close and personal.
Mirror Dance I am an amateur artist. Most of my work might be credited more to my tools, than to my own skill or training. Still, posting a few of my better efforts to the web seems worth while. Adobe's Photoshop, and Metacreation's Bryce, Poser, Ray Dream and Painter are among my tools. Comments are welcome.
Sickles' Hole During a recent trip to Gettysburg, I explored with a digital camera the pros and cons of General Sickles' advanced line, a line he adopted without orders on the second day. It isn't an entirely stupid line, but the bitter fighting in Devil's Den, the Wheat Field, and the Peach Orchard were neither necessary or wise. In addition to the Sickles controversy, a decent overall photo tour of the southern half of the Gettysburg field is provided.
Visions Visions is a small collection of poetry, lyrics and prose which I enjoy browsing from time to time. Most are classic. A few are not. Authors include Lincoln, Dylan, Jefferson, Dylan, King, Thoreau, and Brin.
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms The post-Reconstruction Jim Crow courts, in an effort to prevent the Uniton from enforcing black rights in the south, essentially nullified the Bill of Rights. Most rights have been resotred. The major exception is the Second Amendment...
Recognizing the Battle Flag Does the banner stand for state's rights, or slavery? Highlights from the secession crisis, in the words of the participants.
Fantasy Ladies I am very much into fantasy role playing games. This section gives a glimpse of a few of my favorite characters.
The Ladies of the Night Background and history for an all female chaos army for Warhammer 40K table top battle games.
The Butlers of Brockton New! For a while I got into genealogy, fulfilling my father's quest to trace the family line back to the Mayflower. Much of the results are available here, in iButler, a human written mini overview of the family line, and in The Butlers of Brockton itself, a computer generated file with more information than one can comprehend. I've also included a collection of family pictures, old and new.
Dice Statistics I once needed statistics on how large numbers of dice fell. It seemed easier to create my own C program than to figure out the statistical methods normally used. Here is the code. Recursion, anyone? The code has been translated from C to Java, and implemented on the web. Calculate your own bell curves! Netscape 4 or Explorer 4 recommended.
USS Galveston (C 17) Scrapbook My great uncle was in the Old Navy before the First World War. He left behind a somewhat politically incorrect scrapbook...
Blue Ribbon Campaign Keep the web free of censorship. Visit the Electronic Freedom Foundation site to keep up with the moralizing politicians. (Would you really trust a politician to enforce morals?) Visit also my Polyticks site for my own ideas on Internet Regulation suggestion. Protect free speech first, then chase the porno spammers...
Web Rings Want to find other web sites dealing with similar themes? How many themes have I covered already? Let's see... Three rings for the elven kings...
Cool Lynx No, this is not an article on wild cats from the arctic circle...
Who Am I A Brief biography, of sorts.
Home Punch this picture to get back here.

Also, not quite worthy of icons...

• Constructing a Logical Argument. Includes a list of common fallacies. Author unkown.
• Letter to Lexi A response to one of the net's lost souls.

Bells and Whistles