RPG. Remember when that used to mean something? Role. Playing. Game. Role playing.  Immersive, complete, take over Role.  As much as a love a good MMOrpg , and the graphics that come with it, I can’t help but feel, there is something missing.  I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights beyond anything I could dream or fathom, and it was so close to perfect I still think about loading it up for another try.   Almost everything I wanted to imagine could be done with it.  I recreated my greatest characters, DMed games and made items and lands, quests, and even (dare I saw) dropped in few zingers.   But…I was missing something… That something about “The time when we [all our characters] were all splayed across the floor, every item used, every potion expended, and T Man stood up.., pointed at our DM and said ‘this is done. I’m rolling a 20.” Stepped back, and opened up the heaven of woop ass.”

We.  Our.  My.  It was real (within the context of the game world.).  I was invested, (and still am). I remember to this day, the incredible feeling and awfulness the first time (after years) my character died, and how it made my next character an obsessive defense master. 

But I also remember Diablo, and shouting and yelling as we had a “Leroy moment”[running into the room, activating all monsters] and realized someone had aggrooed all the guards in hell….that first character death was bitter, more so when I looked up from my computer walked out of the room to yell at my roommate who had gotten us all killed.  It wasin’t the playing, but the social interacting of the panic, the yelling at the screen and of course talking about it at lunch with the other Diablo players.  That shared experience about hell and wild panic.  A hidden geek social contract.

  Online playing vampire, and Mage and so many others, I still have stories about the man cliff hangers, the tension and the 20 character rooms waiting for the pin to drop.  RPG at it’s finest.   We knew each other by character colors, descriptions, methods of typing.  Who knew who ruled, in truth and online… it was a community.  What did they have in common?

1. The Social aspect.  Whether it’s net gaming, internet chat, or Xbox, being part of the group was always about… being part of the group.  Things happened in the group, the jokes, the Coke, the “I can’t believe you just jumped off a cliff” and GM reacting to the whim and craziness of the players. My chat room days was just as fun describing a battle as being in the battle afterwards, and my good friends relived mass moments of gaming lore, where someone did something we’d remember together.

2. I love seeing it, but I also like describing it.  Gamers talk with their hands, and their imagination.   There is not a GM, DM, storyteller, et al on the planet who has not had the perfect game fall apart, as the player does something ….unintentional.  Better yet, the adversarial (GM vs Players) nature of the game is preserved, and trust is rewarded.  The GM is not out to get you, because you CAN win…. But you can fail, and it will be more than creating another character or rebooting.

This game up because I saw a slide for a website. The slide had “RPG” on it, and described real mechanics, gorgeous graphics, storyline and epic quests, and strategy based battles, and right then I figured out what I didn’t like about modern RPG’s of the video game Varity. I figured out what was missing in today’s RPG’s.  They are Role playing  in title only.  You are not “Grandro, King of Servat.  Or Jim Danger, unlikely mage.” No, you’re playing a video game, where you get to make choices, sometimes, but it has an end, it has a story, and when you play again, it will be the same story, and no record of it will be kept.

Immersion is missing.   No, it’s not Mass effect.  Or Bio Shock. That’s just you, and some hanger on NPc’s you get to drag along, and when you die you curse and restart.  You’re forced to know about the world, because you need it to get the shotgun, and the “bio weapons of Boom” you really could care less about why.

Yeah, how many people know or care about the actually WORLD in Warcraft? Halo? It’s just a nice mechanics.  Very nice mechanics.  The backstory is Useful for if you raid or guild or which character you start as, but.. what about when you enter a town and the towns people boo? Or if you and the other players assemble to take the Castle and can’t overcome the defense.  Just long on and try again right?

Why does this matter? For years, I’ve had this game in my mind, and everyone who plays get’s invested in the game, their characters, and more importantly, the people they play with.  The game is mechanics heavy, but truly, it’s not (not if I can work it out) but it does require trust (as all rpgs) and time.

When White Wolf Studios closed their chat, I realized we’d lost something.  Many many people couldn’t find a group, lost the ability to really get into roleplaying as much as they could.  Furthermore, it was very much the way the game could  be played, exposed to sooo many people, and so many lives, it showed me a microcosm of life I didn’t know, as much as it sucked away my weekends.  I miss it.  I know it’s gone for the best (and my eventual growth) but just once, I wish to once again type out … “I enter.”

The Masses, those who have come to the internet now, the late adopters have recently run into something us long time users know: their are trolls amung us.
I bring this up because i’m starting to see more and more of these posts.  In the NY times, poor Richard made a (Gasp!) comment about Stephen Fry, the British writer, actor and television personality.  (he called his tweets boring).  The writers and actors of Stargate Universe are actually getting depressed.

These are choice examples, but still, a wave that’s growing.  From twitter under the control of it’s user mob. To backlash against something (google wave: at the time) not yet even finalized.
I have something to say to you all, thou i admire you all:  “Welcome to the internet.  Now ignore the fools on it and go back to doing awesome work.”

Trolling has but two purposes: Provoke a emotional “negative response” and make express a (angry) and not always wrong point of view. But Trolling, and getting yelled at have been part of life forever, using the internet just requires more “emotional armor” than most people are used to. Admittedly, many people have to have a thick skin to do their jobs (think journalist and Politicians.) but ordinary people are not prepared for “vitriol” backlash they get after posting an otherwise innocent comment.  Thank fully i spent many times back in the BBS and Forum era.  You learn to read and ignore something a majority of internet users are JUST coming to grips with.

What hurts, is that someone you don’t know, who knows nothing about you, feels the need to call you a “dirty, lying bastard who should have his mother killed” it shocks, it raises your hackles, but I have both sympathy and yet none.  If i say Madonna sucks, and her twitter 2000 followers get angry about it (i don’t even know or care if Madonna has a twitter account btw)… these are the same people who would (in the past) flood my email if they could find it, who would send me hate mail if they knew my address, but in reality, would share a beer with me at a pub or ask me a sane questions in real life (“Why do you think that?”).  The other 2 million people who care about Madonna don’t give a damn what i think!  They would just laugh of my comments and keep going with their decidedly busy lives (listening to Madonna i might add).

I say again. “Ignore the fools and move on.” better yet, Disenvowell them!

My word of Advice: No matter what you do, their  is ALWAYS backlash.  Accept it. It’s a bell curve.  Humans must disagree with each other.  It’s something we all know: The squeaky wheel get’s the grease;  the loud person is always listed to; Most people who write their congress men are the ones who disagree.

Furthermore, these people think they are in the majority (See Sanford Study) , often times, unfortunately, they are not.

We know they(Trolls & Angry Vitriol) are not in the Majority..

Sticks and Stones, people, sticks and stones.

Iran with its unrest here in the June 2009 is learning a lesson that oppressive regieme seem to never learn, what those drunk on power never seem to grasp. If you are going to pretend to give people the right to vote and chose their own way, you cannot also treat them like complete sheep and idiots.

People will accept their injustice, their oppression to a degree, but they will not accept a shell game. What do i mean?

No Choice.

Back in the Old Soviet union (and lots of dictatorships like Iraq) people were given the right to vote.  There was one candidate and he generally won with 99% of the vote (and most of the population), even when most people stayed home.  The election was a sham, everyone knew it, and that was the state of things, you went on with your life.

Choice

In  contrast, in Venezula they had a close election, In America 2000, and 2004 they had a close election.  People were upset and they voiced it… and their countries and govenment still stand. Why…  Many countries have had close elections, there is always talk of voter fraud and ballot fixing, but in actually democracies, the expectation matches that of what has been reported in the run up. Further more after one side loses, and there is obvious bitterness, it’s not that people don’t take to the streets and protest, its’ that the ruling powers acknowledge their protesting and basically ignores them, until they tire and go home.

General Conclusion

In a true democracy (right to vote, press freedom, right to assemble and speak), or let’s say a place where even if people don’t believe their guy lost,  They demonstrate, They bitch and then, They move on, why? because they trust the eventually digging.  Those who lost, and who think they should not have lost never stop seeking answers, questioning every machine, balot, they file every legal challenge and WE LET THEM!  because, that way we let them exaust themselves.  They are not following some fallacy either. If they found evidence they know it would be reported, the courts would listen, etc

The Problem with Pretending.

Those pretending to be a democracy always overreach.  Instead, not only do they stack the vote but they also stack the vote into the unbelievable range.  This is their crime or, real mistake.  Then after some initial disturbances the ruling class feel so shaky, so not in control, they then crack down on the people.  Often enough, this works –people like living after all.

The cause of the disturbance is the same- overreaching.  Whether or not the Voting in Iran was fixed two things have happened.  a) the expectation of a close election was a landslide (over reach) and then, telling the people that protesting the result would have grave consequences. (over reach).

The fix would have been simple. Let the people have the retally and then bring the counting in close with expectation, say 52/48 and still declare your guy the winner.   After all, those pretending usually have control of the media. It’s too late now anyway. The people are starting to figure out their are more of them, than the ruling class. This will only end in blood.

In the end, Pretending you are a democracy is bad, or just works until fear grips the ruling class. Just admit you’re not, and people accept it because they understand it, they understand those rules.  The rules are not going to change suddenly.   The Mob does not like change they can’t anticipate.

“When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted.” Abraham Lincoln

There seems to be a problem with phones, and information in the courts. 

This article is astounding, more so I’m astounded by the silliness and stupidity of the courts.  Let’s go back to oh, 1980. I am on a Jury and I am told to go home at the end of the day… I do so. The court has to TRUST that I do not look up, speak with or discuss the case.  Now, let’s be serious, people probably did but it was to whom and impact: Your wife, your next door neighbor, they read up on the latest in the news paper…

When they came back to court the Court had to judge they didn’t violate the rules. However, if they were found to, they were dismissed or there would be a mistrial.  In short we accepted out of sight, and out of mind.

Fast forward to 2009.  It’s the same thing, people looking up info on their iPhone or twittering.  Only difference “instance and magnitude.” The solution is still the same… BAN cellphones in the court room. I mean seriously, how difficult is that. When do you so, you return right back to 1985, and you didn’t know if people broke the rules then, and you wouldn’t know now.

The twitter users are different. IF someone goes home and twitters such info, then, just as you did in 1985, you dismiss them or the trail. It’s no different. Infact, you can “ask” for such blogs and Twitters, and i’m sure defense attorney will monitor them, but better yet, attach a fine to blogging or twittering about a trial during a trail as a modified GAG order, which has existed for quite some time. 

The first time someone gets a $5000 for doing it, i bet no one else will do it.   No new laws needed, no new rules; just impose the ones you have and get back to the business of the courts.

The Point: Don’t make something a big deal with laws exist already to handle the problem…, laws and a little common sense.

Solution. Ended.

“There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law” – Abraham Lincoln

Congress is pissed about the AIG bonuses (March 17, 2009), so am I. You should be pissed too, but let us be clear:  The law of unintended consequences states clearly; (paraphrasing) if you use a simple solution to fix a complex problem, you will end up with outcome you clearly didn’t foresee.  

As we’ve learned over and over again, anything Congress agrees to immediately is a BAD idea. Legislation that is decided in about a week is written too broadly and loaded with Anti- Constitutional bias, because, really, the constitution is there to help us stop our head long rush to bias.

Examples of Quick bad laws with unforeseen consequences:

• USA Patriot Act (eventually led to the Iraq war justification and wire tapping and GITMO)
• The TARP act – Seriously, how much money did we give them (800 Billion) and still had to do it again?
• And now a potential Tax on AIG bonus specifically?  Seems ripe with equal protection bias. 

The problem is, the Tax ability of Congress (per the XVI Amendment) is DAMN broad.  On One hand, the argument to kick AIG executives in the teeth feels good, (98% to 100% tax on those people getting bonuses!) sounds awesome, but congress shouldn’t do it. The old definition still works too: A simple system cannot effectively control or predict a complex system. 

Note: Now, I understand taxes (I don’t like paying them); I am not stupid. I know that taxes are necessary to run things.  It would be a nasty and silly idea to actually allow a government (especially a capitalist government, that can print its own money) to actually go into full on business to generate funds. It has different rules, makes the laws, and will tend towards monopolistic ideals.   However, I do agree that spinning off LLC’s and 501(c)(3) -not for profit) are good in my book. It also adds some independence to the process. Governments who was in charge of making money don’t like losing money, so things will be glossed over, money will be “switched.” etc, In general, the business cycle isn’t a nice place for a bureaucracy.

Yet taxing something at 100 or 98%? For only a few people? Oh that’s just ripe for court challenge. Tacked on laws –because you’re pissed- are bad policy. If the tax was previously there as a condition of taking the money –BEFORE HAND-, well that’s one thing, that supersedes contract, as you’d be entering into a new contract with full knowledge of what you are doing.  In that way, it’s akin to filing Bankruptcy, the genuine contract thumper.

Legal Arguments against the AIG bonus Tax: Fall flat, except on purely “you shouldn’t do it” terms.

On the Equal Protection side of the fence, you can say, Congress can tax Cigarettes, Alcohol, Gas, Clothing, etc, because I can chose not to buy that thing.  And it applies to any one who buys those things, so they can’t (or shouldn’t) tax me for things imposed upon me, or given to me, (like a bonus). Because the tax is so narrow, and Imposed upon me, it should clearly violate equal protection.

Except there is the gift tax (an imposed tax).  The gift tax Congress treats like “income.” for the person getting it. 

*While we are on the subject: This “income” is general already taxed money.  A good tax would be on “Winnings and landfalls.” like Vega or lotto but the inheritance tax is silly. Inheritance is a transfer of wealth, so Congress is basically taxing “my” death.  They are basically saying “We know you possibly couldn’t have paid all the taxes you had, so we’re going to hit you again just to make sure.”

Perhaps the law would be construed as TOO narrow, but….

As for the second option, snapping the contracts?  Government can’t break the contracts for giving out bonuses with a law that would cause a ripple effect like none other. If a person can’t believe in their contract, then the ink might as well be invisible.

One real option is to force AIG to give the money back Now and then when they do fail, to send it thru tried and tested laws, on Bankruptcy filings.

Laws should work for the populous, not be used to bludgeon something that really pisses congress off.   And yes, the populous is pissed, but Mob rule is not to be acknowledged, it is a rather nasty thing.  Think about the consequence of passing something immediately.  Who’s ever going to accept money? Who’s ever going to want to be a CEO?  How about a anytime people get pissed the CEO has his money taken away? You know a consequences of that? He no longer looks out for Shareholder Value, he looks out for his own value, and making sure his kids don’t starve.  Why take risks if you will be blamed for it in the future, why innovate you could be wrong.  Punishment is a deterent, but please, never discount –personal- need or greed. People will let a company fail if it means them get to get their money for X dollars in the end.

The point:  I say congress should look at the laws they have already on the books. Don’t make more bad law.   The Tax and financial codes are thick with rules. Use them or realize they truly do suck and then make better rules.

We here have not written in a long time, there was not much to say, nothing we had not written or was reflected in print otherwise.  We, this grand expiriment was not about repeating news, but to be enlightened about the stormy present, a belief which said, ” Change course, or crash.”   It is the warning of the titanic, of the Great Depression, of our Foreign policy and ways of living that was not exesss, it was the defining turn of an empire.

We have reached that time now.  Lehman Brothers is down in smoke, Merrill Lynch  is up in Flames, A.I.G is faltering.  The Pryamid scheme is falling apart, as I knew it would.
We have now come to the turning of the tide, this stormy present.

As such, this may be our last post, I am unsure. But We are not going to simply write about the world, it’s now time to change it’s course. It’s time to change the course of America

Any civil country most maintain Monsters, whose sole purpose is to maintain the civility and freedoms of that society – by any means necessary.

These means are not acceptable by anyone who would call themselves human, or civil.  They represent us moving backwards, reducing ourselves to a reptilian brain thinking while we’d rather advocate peace and diplomacy.

We have noticed in popular culture and movement towards recognizing the “monsters” or “Anti-hero’s” that are needed as the society get’s more complacent and civilized. It is not to say we have not always done this, but more in the early days, we didn’t call them heroes and put them on a pedestal.  

Such references go back to movies and shows such as Star Trek (single episode), West Wing (episode) Serenity (movie) , Traitor(movie)  Terminator (2), Pitch Black, and the list goes on.

What these movies also show is something rather important.  It also behooves us to remember.  These Monsters, as we’ve coined them, are stronger, faster, ad believe (aka, are far more patriotic) than we ever will be, and that our control over them is a glorious illusion we all (us and them) participate in.

Let us not kid ourselves. We need them; because you, or I, won’t do what they do; and can’t. Just stop calling them monsters. They are men, they are soldiers. They are patriots.

A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. while a committee is a group of persons convened for the accomplishment of some specific purpose, typically with formal protocols. Amazingly enough the definitions are almost similar but while a committee is a team, a team isn’t always a committee.

The best team is refreshed one or 2 people at a time. The team needs it’s veterans to explain why the team does certain things, and , and to share their experience, while the veteran need new blood and new ideas. Without either, the team gets stagnant without new blood and does thing it doesn’t understand without veterans.

Everyone has teams, it’s a base functionality of the human condition. Large companies call them skunk works, while minztberg calls them ad-hoc organizations.

The army has long since learned the effectiveness of teams and put together teams of different strength, they also do something very useful that us civilians need to learn. They teach each man a base proficiency in every other team members job. Nothing extensive, just enough that in an emergency a quick substitute can be made until a replacement is found. The problem usually comes in when temporary becomes permanent. The team suffers from a loss of a skill.

A committee however is a deliberative body. In every-way they are a team, yet a better definition would be that a committee has an agenda, while a Team has a purpose. Committee’s also tend to be democratic, each member having a purpose yet “equal” say even if they are hierarchical.

The main differences is that over time a committee becomes self preserving and self serving. It soon exist to allow itself it exist, unlike a team which moves from task to task. One would be hard pressed to find a committee that doesn’t soon wish to make itself permanent or who’s members don’t soon follow individual agendas.

We here are strong believers in teams and teamwork, but not in a committee. A team is an effective way to keep focus and solve a problem or continue work. A committee just he start of a bureaucracy.

I sometimes think it is a terrible thing we do to the oldest of those who are born.  Being born of this wholesomely unlucky number of being the first, one is saddled with being “Responsible” right off without any chance of choosing another life.  

This occurred to me as I watched a particular grueling episode of a TV show, where a family disintegrated.  The argument was cliche, as well as the “you never loved me.” And the “you don’t know what I gave up for you.” and the ever popular. “I had to be the responsible one.” But then I thought…, Why? Why was it cliche, after all, even sterotypes have to come up from somewhere. 

Now, one does not choose to be first, and it’s clear that one’s choices after the second child is born, are severely limited.  From day one is taught to take care, protect and be mindful of one’s siblings.  This pressure only increases if there is one parent, because the eldest becomes the defacto next parent.   I do not find any of this wrong, or bad, I wonder however if this accident of birth order is enough to justify the pain in the later years. 

Let’s get something factual before we begin.  Georgia (as in the Republic of Georgia) poked a bear (Russia) and the bear didn’t just swat at Georgia, it went after it full force.  Full invasion is smart and strategically important for Russia, and a attacking the breakaway region was just a stupid thing to do for Georgia

In a purely military (and strategic ) outlook there is really no downside for Russia.  It gets to swat a burr in its side.  Scantions can’t be passed against it (it’s a Security council permanent member.) and NATO, America, or anyone else isn’t really going to go to war with Russia.  Furthermore, we can’t get our allies from trading with Terrorist countries, they are not going to stop trading with Russia.

In Friedman’s “The Lexus and the Olive Tree.” He suggests the market eventually punishes countries that don’t fall in line, but the Market does not punish, even cannot punish, a Level 1 country. Worse, Russia doesn’t care. It’s canceled payments of it’s debt, sits on a surplus of oil in an increasingly oil demanding country and has a grade A military.

The Soviet Union failed in the Cold War because it ran out of money.  It now has lots of money, the potential to gain more money and it’s not illegal for American companies to do business there, or European countries.  The world [countries] would be hard pressed to suddenly go back to the War Divisions, scantions and Trade Embargoes, just because a small nation after a picked a fight it couldn’t win.

We shall speak later about how to stop the Russian war machine, but it’s foolish to deny it’s not a strategicly sound move on Russia’s move to crush Georgia or leave it militarily incapable. There is no Sympathy for Georgia from this page, just sympathy for all the people dying for the Presidents [ of Georgia] inept political maneuvering of the war machine.