Starship Operator

 

For the 73rd class of cadets of the Defense University of the small planet Kibi, a shakedown cruise on the fleet's new starship "Amaterasu" is a fitting lead-up to graduation. 

As they are returning to their home planet, however, they are shocked to hear news of a declaration of war by the aggressive Kingdom against Kibi. 

When their planetary government surrenders without a struggle, the cadets decide to launch their own war, aboard the "Amaterasu". 

To gain funding, they make a deal with a galactic news network - and find themselves the "stars" of their own "reality show". 

Unfortunately, this is the kind of reality show that can get you killed... 

The last volume I bought earlier in the year.

Wardrobe of the mind

 

The earliest time I saw myself as being that bit different was in my early infant years where boys play and girls play didn't seem to align with me as everyone else seemed to be totally one or the other  and if that wasn't enough I liked to wear at times girls clothes such as dresses.

By the time I was in my teens this was how I wanted to look  in my school uniform around the age of eleven through thirteen being gangly and if I'd of put that skirt on doubt would of which is a core image of the child me

Today I do although nothing really has changed because what happened through that childhood that included those images of how I'd of been throughout that period, this is how I actually am dressed as that age regressed adult-child little.

Whatever the chronological age of me might be, the age I am inside that governs how I think, act and relate so I'm still a middle school/junior high child functionally and so in certain settings were uniform. 

The Beano in the past

When I was younger I grew up reading comics which are usually combinations of short stories written for children in a series of frames with the drawing, speech bubbles for the characters and a little bit of plain text to set the scene of the frame.

The stories are usually centred on universal aspects of childhood, such as parents, authority figures, school, war or adventure stories with heroes and having fun with other kids.
Some comics are written to appeal mostly to one gender but most I read were for both such as the Dandy and the Beano pictured.

In many ways the Beano had it all as far as I was concerned with the adventures of Dennis the Menace,  the lovable roguish boy fighting dad, every authority figure there was, Walter (the goody-goody boy) with every trick in the book. 

That said in earlier editions he'd get his comeuppance once in a while when Granny would arrive on the scene and spank him with the 'Demon whacker', a notoriously hard leather slipper!

Dennis of course had Gnasher, his pet dog although there was nothing soppy about him and Gnipper the pup

There was Rodger the Dodger who always tried to get out of things at home or at school but I preferred Winker Watson in the Dandy for that kind of story.

My other favourite as The Bash Street Kids set in a old run down inner city primary school with loads of wacky characters engaged in a constant battle with 'Teach' who carried a cane with him who himself was under pressure from the Headmaster. 

In older episodes he'd cane the kids from time to time for their misdemeanours in class or on trips which didn't phaze us as boys cos we often got Six of the Best across our shorts too so it it was normal.

For girls there was Minnie The Minx. She was a bit like Dennis but with a Tam and obviously a skirt on compared to Dennis's flannel shorts but more cunning with a tomboy aspect to her personality always scheming to get her own way . She'd have me in stitches every week!!!

I still love reading them and buy the annuals.

Petticoating

 This life can be complicated for both carrying around the mentally held sense of being a feminine boy and the expression of that physically through our gender variant presentation which can be either or both at any one point.

The problem for most of us was and for some still remains having the space to explore that with support as part for learning about ourselves balancing having feminine traits with being and loving our biological male selves.  

I feel there is merit in creating feminine time for boys where they can experiment with being put into petticoats and silk underwear wearing very feminine dresses away from the world of scratchy male attire and rough play to let it all out having a fuller experience ready to make up their minds about their own styles of presenting from a similar experience base as girls. 

To me this is a positive thing.

Childhood play

While looking at childhood play, you can't forget the climbing frame that used to worry the grown ups in era before soft surfaces came in as you'd hit at best the grass, at worst as it happened to me the asphalt.

Thing was we enjoyed a challenge, climbing things as many of us climbed trees and it was little different for these Crawford prep school boys who were blessed with a school playground that had things.

All we ever had was a pair of goal posts as boys and the girls had to mark out hopscotch with chalk every break time. This is one the games I enjoyed playing as a young child and still do, Marbles.

It is more fun playing with others so here's how.

How To Play the Classic Marble Game of Ringer
Most children understand the game of marbles the first time it is explained, but to make it easier, these drawings show the most common plays.

FIG. 1: To start a game of Ringer the children lag from a line, drawn tangent to the ring, to a parallel line across the ring, which would be 10 feet away. The child whose shooter comes nearest the line has the first shot. Players must lag before each game. Practice lagging, as the first shot may mean the winning of the game before your opponent gets a shot. In lagging, a child may toss his or her shooter to the other line, or he or she may knuckle down and shoot it.

FIG. 2: This shows child No. 1 who won the lag, preparing to knuckle down. His knuckle has not quite reached the ground, which is necessary before shooting. He can take any position about the ring he chooses. (The process of picking the best possible position for starting is referred to as "taking rounders.") The 13 marbles in the ring are arranged as in tournament play. For casual games, a one foot ring is drawn inside of the ten foot ring and each player puts in some 5/8" marbles, so that there is about a dozen marbles in the smaller ring.

FIG. 3: Child No. 1 knocks a marble from the ring on his first shot and his shooter stays in the ring. He picks up the marble. As he has knocked one from the ring, he is entitled to another try. Players are not permitted to walk inside the ring unless their shooter comes to a stop inside the ring. Penalty is a fine of one marble.

FIG. 4: Here we see child No. 1 continuing play. He "knuckles down" inside the ring where his shooter stopped on the last shot. This gives him the advantage of being nearer to the big group of marbles in the centre of the ring for his next shot. Expert marble shots try to hit a marble, knock it out of ring and make their shooter "stick" in the spot. "Sticking" or shooting seven consecutive marbles out of the ring and winning the game without giving an opponent a turn is usually good for two days of playground bragging rights .

FIG 5: On this play, No. 1 hit a marble, but did not knock it from the ring. At the same time his shooter, too, stays inside the ring. He can not pick up the marble, and whether he is allowed to pick up his shooter depends on the type of play - in tournament play, if your shooter is in the ring at the end of your turn, you must remove it. In casual games, if your shooter is in the ring at the end of your turn, it becomes a legitimate target and any player who hits it out collects a forfeit from you, or even your shooter! (Players should agree in advance whether to use this rule.)

FIG. 6: Child No. 2 may start by "knuckling down" anywhere at the ring edge. In this case he may shoot at the 11 marbles in the center or if he wishes, he may go to the other side and try for the marble that No.1 almost knocked from the ring. In a casual game he might also try to knock the other player's shooter from the ring.

FIG. 7: Child No. 2 chooses to try for No. 1 child's shooter and knocks it out of ring, winning all the marbles No. 1 has taken (and his shooter, if that rule is being followed) and putting No. 1 out of that game. Or he could shoot as shown in Fig. 8.

FIG. 8: Child No. 2 hits a marble but does not knock it out of the ring, yet his shooter goes thru the ring and stops outside where he may pick it up. The target marble remains where it stopped in the ring, and as No. 2 did not score, it is now the turn of No. 1 to shoot again.

FIG. 9: No. 1 "knuckles down" inside the ring where his shooter stopped (Fig. 5). he is going to shoot at the marble nearest his shooter. By hitting it at the proper angle and knocking it from the ring he can get his shooter near the center of the ring for his next shot. Play alternates until one player has knocked a majority of the marbles out of the ring.