You men you
spoke poetry when
your balls were full;
but you couldn’t wash a dish.
That, more than anything,
will make your last home
a hotel.
—
Believe in nothing,
and nothing will serve you well.
Believe in everything,
And everything will go to hell.
We can win the war, we can kill everyone; by becoming a mirror of our enemies and taking on their successful aspects: nonquestioning devotion, sacrifice of self, acceptance of paternal rule.
Except we will have vast resources and technology.
I would prefer to consider the next element of the global decline:
Fortress Europa Vs Fortress America Vs Fortress Pacifica.
The borders of resource countries will always move, but it will be more important to carry out internal renewal and purification. Our children will be exposed to an ever more fascist, nationalist and religious direction in order to unite the country. Our media is being openly and effectively stifled without protest, negative coverage of the war in the middle east is depicted as sabotage and unpatriotic. Suspicion of countries outside of the Coalition is encouraged. Frankly there’s alot that will have to be changed in order to prevent social protest and upheaval everytime we take part in a necessary annexation of resources and military staging grounds.
The perfect citizen of the future will be a leisure spartan, athletic, agressive and territorial, technologically capable with a goal focused outlook. They will play computer games and sport in order to visualise conquest personally; they will be sexually open but politically modest. They will spend aggressively to support the economy but will save little. They will be pampered and their children will be cared for to enable them to work and play without delay. They will notice difference in an unfamiliar way to us, by ideology rather than colour, taste or ethnic background; save those people who come from countries which are part of the black continent of resource.
No matter the empathy you may have for those countries under the hammer and bomb right now; look closer to home. There are going to be changes.
1. Clean your room and air it out. It smells like a two dollar peep show on pension day. Smoke inside less, and use soap when cleaning the walls. Perhaps you should burn your sheets and contemplate a new mattress. Throw out any items that do not hold incredible sentimental value. Think of the fire drill, whereby you have half a minute to select items while your house is burning down. Discard the rest or at least relocate them.
2. Stop annoying that girl/guy you are infatuated with. people will not change their minds by your artful flattery, nor will a root equate with a contract to marry them. You are a fool and an idiot until they decide otherwise.
3. Indulge now to save later. A binge of legendary proportions after weeks of abstinence has only made a fool of you. If only you properly planned to enjoy your vice, you would not feel the need to hate yourself as you torpedo your self image.
4. Do something you despise at least once a week. You are a close minded and spoiled ass-hole. Perhaps trauma would help you to break free from the chains of habit.
5. Saving things because they mean so much to you? If you really need that video collection of the best of gladiator, perhaps you should watch them again and realise what a bunch of crap it all was. Discard those old likes because so many of them were really worthless. You might bring the real treasures to the surface.
6. Thinking of dating? I dare you to use the word FUCK next time you make a move on someone. I swear, I am so sick of Morrissey inspired limpness. Do not be rude, nor crass, nor macho; just let that special someone know you would happily desiccate them immediately. If they like you, they’ll be relived. If they don’t like you, they’re already making fun of you behind your back and they deserve the discomfort.
Look very carefully around you.
Look at all the people you know,
The wind has blown;
and they are different now.
Regardless of whether or not you believe in magic, it can be said that the other role of a magician in history was to encode. This is to say that they layered meanings onto each other, whether that was through the oral, literary or musical dissemination of culture and knowledge. Like the Promethean flame, we started as no better than Apes and ascended through a deeper and more complex layering of meanings. No longer did a transmitted idea hold a simple meaning. It carried multiple meanings encoded into the signal. No longer did we see a river – it was also a dragon or some other symbol, and that symbol might subsequently represent a phallus, vein or symbol of rulership, each resting and relating to the last symbol . That additional symbol, and the subsequent meanings allowed us to see into the future, to appreciate the subsequent result of our actions, of our thoughts. When all language became a parable and suggestion for the result, we could begin to possess memory on a deep and subliminal scale. When a word achieved multiple meanings, the word taught. The word had life which created more life. A visible and indivisible compilation of genetic knowledge could be transmitted though all verbal and non verbal communications. We effectively bootstrapped ourselves to the next level of cognitive ability. We could see the result of our actions because we had encoded memory into our words, our stories, our songs and dances, and even in the way we smiled and kissed.
However this great victory over evolution has turned on us. We now are addicted to the secret and powerful hidden symbol and its pervasive revelation. We abuse the knowledge of the power of signs with deliberate abandon. We acknowledge that we are thrall to and yet wish to unleash on others the ability to remember things that are of no use to us. To remember feelings and decisions which may destroy, imprison or enslave us. We apply the science of encoding to propaganda, to advertising, to storytelling, even to the toys our children play with and the food we eat. We no longer have the power of co-creating and encoding, it is done for us and we consume it whole and without participation. We are dumb animals again and a higher, malign consciousness applies reason to our great memory with the impure intention of using us without permission.
Is it so noble that we now cannot make a decision without referring to a higher power? That we cannot make a choice without referring to a label, a group, a team, a ruler, a computer, a panel, a judge?
Perhaps it is time for the Magician to decode – to unravel and destroy meaning. To seek simplicity and the base underlying current. The true solvent of thought which dissembles and reveals the base block of construction. To avoid culture and artifice, to destroy sham and lie, to reveal, solve and dissolve.
EA PLAY games night sep 18th.
We arrived at 6.30 at the merivale street convention center. Crowds of Emo kids waiting in queues while sitting on the floor. Worried that we had completely misunderstood the demographic of a games promotion night, we were able to find the real site several floors up, guarded by alert security guards in suits and the occasional lost teenager.
Whoops! A Placebo concert on the same night of course.
Bottled drinks chilled in large silver tureens while a Police car with flashing sirens waited. A group of lovely mums waited to take our details while we sipped on our “comps” and we got in with nary a hassle. We got an armband and tickets for two alcoholic beverages and a chance at the prize draw. Security was lax if you were an infiltrator or terrorist.
The room. A largish single room with banks of consoles and a reasonable crowd of virginal middle aged IT professionals and a similar crowd of younger adults who had obviously gotten in on the coat-tails of their parents businesses; no-one looked like they had ever missed a meal – one obviously confused mature aged woman had come in her cocktail dress as if she was going to pop out to the opera later. Well dressed waiters dispersed drinks and cold horse doovers while clumps of 60 priest NE LFG checked out the talented games girls in mini-skirts and little else.
A Dicko impersonator took the improptu stage in front of a massive screen and introduced the night. The main focus was on the comps that he would disperse – An X-box, tickets to the grande-pri, an iPOD and T-shirts for those who attended the presentation in another room (games would also be distributed, a good deal til you remembered that pizza companies give away their backstock). Oohs and aahs from this crowd of people who don’t seem to be short of the money to buy stuff like that. Police were on hand with speed cameras to measure the golf-swings of punters, the longest and strongest would win a prize later.
My girlfriend and I filed out to check out the presentation while a small group of hip hop kids commenced break-dancing maneuvers to the single DJ by the stage.
A small theatre, we shuffled in to be met by a small group of women who guessed our sizes then gave us “Need for speed” shirts, most of the people put them on immediately.
A man who looked like he worked during the day at Citybeach stumbled through a paint by numbers powerpoint display of the latest games and their most important features, every so often he would assure us he was “excited” and that we should attempt to improve our preorders. The sound system would pump out ultra-loud static on occasion, causing ears to bleed.
The Line up
Need for speed: Rice wars – Apparently the cutting edge of car racing involves racing riced up cars around volcanos. We are promised customizable cars.
Sims 2: petzzz – We were told that the amazing feature of this game would be that it was a PC expansion, but a stand alone on console. Another “feature” would be that on one system you owned a pet hospital, in another you worked at one. Thrilling stuff.
EA sports: We got to watch a video of the only golfer in the world with balls stuck to his face (for the animations). Tiger woods is truly gifted at pulling faces man, and I don’t care about a sports game that can only come up with this as a selling point. The other sports titles had little detail, but mentioned that they were better than the quality of PS2 games. Shocking. We could also stop games to listen to a real sports radio and sports internet TV – they failed to mention if Aussies would be able to access that gimmick.
Battlefield 2142: The thing to remember about this entire presentation was that at the bottom right of the screen was a small warning that this entire show was “confidential”. Secrets leaked now could destroy EA’s dominance. We got to see the first ever released movie that EA had given the world on BF2142. It was embarrassing. There were also NO DEMO computers in the main area. Given that EA is currently running a BETA, this is damned lame.
The audience didn’t care about golfing and dancing, we wanted details on BF and some love. There was none. The people in control here were bored and didn’t know their product, and since there was almost a 50-50 male female ratio of visitors, having hotty girls was a sexist insult. It was a lazy, expensive and over-indulgent picnic.
I can’t believe that one of the only reasons that were presented for people selling BF2142 would be that quake wars would come out after x-Mas while 2142 would come out before. IS that ALL you can THINK of?
After that, we were bundled out of the room. It was embarrassing and a bit of a let down. These people shouldn’t be working if that’s the kind of buzz they are able to generate. We wanted blood and we got nothing. My girl and I left, rather than face that for another hour or so in the off chance we would get a prize.
I’d like to thank Webber4technologies for the invite (they were open to anyone on GA) and of course EA, but for gods sakes, give me a call next time and I’ll do it half as expensive and with people who are awake. Mum can cater, we’ll do a sausage sizzle and people won’t fall asleep.
Sometimes, there are special days,
where the dead get up and walk around,
and visit all the people and places they remember;
so we leave out food and drink,
so they will think of us kindly.
We may understand the basis of Atheism, but not think too much about the effect it would, and perhaps should have on our society.
Think of it this way. We all, with few exceptions, prefer stability over change, order over chaos. No matter how disordered our lives we prefer not to endanger ourselves, we don’t randomly abandon reliable elements of our everyday lives.
Whenever we see something on the news, consider how often the process of judging something acceptable or not when placed in the public eye is based on the idea that there is a higher being to which we are responsible. When we discuss genetic engineering, overpopulation, socialism or birth control in the public eye, often the old chestnuts of “playing in god’s domain” are bought up. If you are a person who identifies yourself as a atheist, you should become aware of how many issues and decisions are made on a regional, national and global scale due to the influence of religion.
One of my problems with religious interference in the world is this: to a religious person, God has created the world as a “fishtank” for them. Dominion over the plants, animals and goodies of the earth has a deep and profound effect on how they treat the planet.
Many Christians (as an example) believe that not only are all of the worlds resources there for their use, but that there is no responsibility to maintain those stocks because the Earth has a finite timeline. It will only last for a fixed number of years as a godly experiment in separating the pious from the goats. Much as the state we often leave a hotel room, we mess the sheets and don’t flush the toilet because we’re leaving in the morning anyway. To an atheist, we’re stuck with the world we have, for better or for worse. And the damage we do to it, we can imagine will affect our decendants, perhaps us. We may not think we’re answerable to a higher power for our actions, but we still may empathise with those who will come after us, and the beauty of a world which has been generated by a mixture of chance and turmoil.
A friend of mine was designing a game and I thought I would write some stuff for him. It turned out pretty good, and I’m happy that I could follow someone else’s ideas without messing them around too much.
Sun passes over the trees. The world is not as we know it. Humans do not cover the wide spaces of the Earth, but hide and struggle in the dark of immense forests, amid vast grasslands and beyond the rocks of untrammeled shores.
To be an adventurer in this age is not to a leaf blown on the wind, but to provide for and comfort your village and family, to earn your name in combat, romance and display of daring.
For the treasures of this age are to be well regarded, to not starve in the winter, to give fine rings to your friends and retainers, to have children in the tribe and allies nearby to come to your aid when raiders come.
Hidden treasures can be found in and on the Earth too, in the knowledge of old ones amidst the woods, by seeking to know the strengths of animals and plants, and by recording the path of the sun, moon and stars on their celestial travels.
But beware, for to stand too large and to prosper overmuch is to become the prey of dragons.
*This roleplaying game may contain:
Semi-historical roleplaying
This game is not one for psychopathic grave-robbers, but for playing a tribal hero or warrior, who seeks to improve their skill, magical protections and to earn a good name in the eyes of the tribe and amongst the other villages. Treasure is not measured in gold coins but by the opinions of others, strength of arm and the wisdom of your words.
Questing for wisdom and prowess
The players must consider wresting secrets of medicine, natural science and supernatural insight to better the life of their people. The struggle to provide food for everyone can be more difficult than repelling a group of raiders.
Seasons will play a part too, affecting the travel plans and fortunes of the village you live in.
Survival amidst supernatural forces
All know that to prosper too well is to invite the wrath of Dragons. As the players increase the fortunes of their tribe, they must consider the likelihood that the large population, hearth fires and iron weapons will attract the ire of the Dragons. How will they deal with it?
There are lesser concerns to deal with as well, such as improving the blessings of the tribe, seeking totems and appeasing the ancestors.
Conquest and war-parties
While the players may be paragons of martial prowess, they must still learn to rely on strong cousins in combat, and skill at strategy. Players not only assist each other, but direct the varied forces that accompany them.
Golden tongues and fine thews
Warriors may only live as long as a battle, but the best chieftains and heroes count more on their fine skill at logic, recitation of lineage and poetic storytelling. It doesn’t hurt to be good looking either. Social skills are just as effective as combat skills, and the deeds of the party may travel before them, creating unknown enemies, allies and opportunities alike.
Life after life
Unlike most games, whose fallen heroes disappear from history or come back from the dead, your hero will return through the deeds of their sons and daughters and disciples. The greater your deeds, the stronger the start your successor will have. The benefits of having left behind a strong tribe will be a source of strength to your line.
Flavour text is as important as a good picture.
It allows dense amounts of information, and more importantly, “Opinions” to be learnt and developed about the game by the reader / player.
Since I am an amateur writer, I have been writing flavour text from the position of diary entries. No-one expects diaries to be grammatically correct or well written. I can also do myself a favor by giving myself a kind of dreamwalk through the environments, in order to better empathise with them, and then evoke them.
Most of my best pieces are written from the point of view of a military man, who seems to act as a military advisor, some sort of mercenary. He is thoughtful and explains his actions. He is somewhat lonely, and talks to the reader as if they are both some sort of confidante; perhaps also a kind of student.
The problem with this character is that he is too focussed on combat, and the game itself is about the whole scope of the conflict. Societal and political maneuvering is just as good a platform for planetary conquest as a tank battle.
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