Archive for the 'Insight' Category
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
The Heterosexual Questionnaire
Saw this and just had to add it here. This questionnaire was created back in 1972 to put heterosexual folks in the shoes of gay folks for a brief moment. Many questions and assumptions about gays that are unfair are reversed in this and asked instead to a hypothetical straight person.
1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
2. When and where did you decide you were a heterosexual?
3. Is it possible this is just a phase and you will out grow it?
4. Is it possible that your sexual orientation has stemmed from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?
5. Do your parents know you are straight? Do your friends know? How did they react?
6. If you have never slept with a person of the same sex, is it just possible that all you need is a good gay lover?
7. Why do you insist on flaunting your heterosexuality… can’t you just be who you are and keep it quiet?
8. Why do heterosexuals place so much emphasis on sex?
9. Why do heterosexuals try to recruit others into this lifestyle?
10. A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual… Do you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers?
11. Just what do men and women do in bed together? How can they truly know how to please each other, being so anatomically different?
12. With all the societal support marriage receives, the divorce rate is spiraling. Why are there so few stable relationships among heterosexuals?
13. How can you become a whole person if you limit yourself to compulsive, exclusive heterosexuality?
14. Considering the menace of overpopulation, how could the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual?
15. Could you trust a heterosexual therapist to be objective? Don’t you feel that he or she might be inclined to influence you in the direction of his or her leanings?
16. There seem to very few happy heterosexuals. Techniques have been developed that might enable you to change if you really want to. Would you be willing to give such a thing a chance?
17. Have you considered trying aversion therapy?
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
Par la Grâce de Dieu
Been listening to a bit of Coldplay lately, specifically their single Viva la Vida. More than a catchy tune, the story it tells is so completely compelling. The lyrics basically offer a narrative of an Emperor who conquered the world only to lose it. The story itself comes as a part of the life and retelling of the epoch by the once-king.
I can’t help but think the band is referring to Napoleon. The singular world-conquerer who crafted a cult of personality and was completely unmatched in leadership. The story of Napoleon resonates on some deep levels for me personally. He came from Corsica, a dinky little island neither French nor Italian in the Mediterranean, and he quite literally conquered Europe, save Russia and England.
After his defeat and exile to Elba, he came back. Because, what else could a person do? Elba is an island only few miles off the shore of Italy. After his really big defeat at Waterloo, they exiled him again. To St. Helena. A barren wasteland of an island in the South African sea, near absolutely nothing. Positively the furthest away they could possibly send a person. They couldn’t kill him. How do you kill a living embodiment of The State as a fellow warring state?
Napoleon spent the last years of his life on St. Helena. The Coldplay song sounds like a lamentation from the Emperor of the French. How does one go from ruling a nation of millions and being the foremost power in the entire world to sweeping the balcony of your prison-home on a destitute island in the middle of nowhere?
What’s more, the once-king seems not so much to mourn the loss of his actual soul, noting that Saint Peter won’t be calling his name, but rather that he was unable to get all of it. Russia was just too tough to invade. Can you imagine having the opportunity to sit and talk with someone like Napoleon?
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
Hitchens to Heaven
Warning! Religion ahead!
For me, spirituality is core and operant. I take care not to use the term “religion”, which implies a ritualistic set of beliefs. For the most part, I think I’ve lost religion, but I’ve kept a handle on a really sizable chunk of spirituality. I still adhere to a basic Christian faith, though I’m hesitant to use the word due to all the baggage that comes with it. Lately, I’ve been listening to some really good atheist point of views, which intellectualize religion and blame it for so many of society’s woes. In truth, I can’t help but agree, but in the deep kernel, spirituality remains a constant.
Agnosticism I get, at that core level I can understand how a person might be lead to believe in a unframable, unidentifiable “greater source”. That truth certainly resonates on a species level with me. But atheism, atheism always bugged me. Atheist thought, in my mind, was and is always followed by nihilism, a pervading embrace of entropy and oblivion that assigns absolutely no special meaning to the infinitesimal chance of life existing. If there is no God, or greater power, how does one explain what cannot be explained? Specifically related to this thread is the illogical chaos-borne emotion of love. If, in fact, it is no different than the chemical equivalent of eating large amounts of chocolate, neurons firing in the brain based on pre-existing notions of anticipated and expected physical and psychological characteristics assembled in the form of an ideal mate, doesn’t that reduce the implications of improbability? Doesn’t that suck every last ounce of magic from the experience and immediately answer the question “Why are we here?” with a curt shrug?
Yeah, atheism still bugs me. I can’t quite resolve altruism with atheism either. I don’t really think you can be both. Light and Good have to have a source, I think. If they don’t, then they are simply illusions of temporality, and the whole thing loses its point and its purpose.
I do maintain that there is a God. Over time, his picture in my mind has gotten more and more muddled. He used to be this big, white robed, white bearded glow-stick. Full face, modest golden jewelry here and there, really kickin’ it Zeus style. In prayer, I’d see myself talking up to him, only being able to see to about his knee-cap or so, constantly turning away from his face. His face. That’s something I could never really nail down. It seems to change so suddenly, never leaving you with a description. Then, I’d chat up JC, long-haired hippy, stylized anglo-saxon elf that the Catholic and Baptist folk would have me believe. A cool guy, but I’ve always felt sorry for how much he is pestered during any given day.
At one point, the paternal vision of God-As-Zeus faded into a more approachable, human-sized version. This particular iteration spoke to me in my own voice, rather than the deep basso. That was always rather disturbing - you honestly wonder if you are going crazy when God’s voice in your head sounds exactly like your own. Inner monologue starts to take on an unsettling tenor. In the past five years or so, the image has shifted to that of my late grandfather. It’s his face I can see when chatting up the big guy, or he’s standing there to the right of God’s giant leg, smiling contently and waiting.
JC has certainly changed over the years for me, too. Previously the svelt elf, he’s now a rough, almost pug-ugly dark-skinned guy with a scraggly beard that looks like he could well be a relative of my biological father.
I don’t think God is quite as bastardly as folks make him out to be. I don’t think he’s sending everyone to hell. Awhile ago, I figured out the reason for hell was that he couldn’t actually delete souls. In Revelation, there are actually two or three extra “gimme’s” at the end of time where God gives people second and third chances to change their minds about eternity. They don’t talk about those extra chances much, but they are there.
There’s this guy, Christopher Hitchens, who is a brilliant atheist. He makes the case better than anyone else I’ve ever heard. If I were God, (and being made in his image there is some level of insight here), I wouldn’t send this guy to hell. He’s too valuable. You need opposition like this to help define you. I think, in essence, Christopher Hitchens is actually doing God’s work by disassembling religion. I can’t picture a heaven where this guy isn’t standing in a forum, talking to heavenly passerby and making the case against God, for God.
Monday, September 1st, 2008
The Long Count
Now, I’m not one much for doomsday prophecies, lord knows there are certainly more than enough of them out there. Something about the December 2012 termination of the Mayan Long Count unsettles me at the core though.
For those who don’t know, I won’t get too technical on the topic, there’s more than enough shows on the History channel and websites a-plenty about the long count. Summed up, it is the Mayan celestial calendar, meticulously crafted by their astronomer-priests and accurate back to its start date 3,000 some odd years ago. Problem is, it stops at December 2012. It runs out of time, increments of 5,125 years. This wouldn’t be so bad, if it didn’t also coincide with a galactic solstice. That’s a once in a civilization type of event.
The Long Count “final day” unnerves me. It has too many things riding along with it. The Mayans weren’t arbitrary about their astronomy or religion the way we are. Chiseling something into stone and setting up vast city-sized astronomical tools wasn’t something you would toy around it. The Mayans were crazy-advanced - we still don’t know how they built much of what they left behind. December 21st, 2012. There was no second-guessing that one. They looked up at the stars and saw there was a definitive end to things. Why would you abruptly stop counting after five-thousand years? It runs contrary to the personality of anyone who would operate as a keeper or guardian of humanity’s continued existence.
Personally, my problem isn’t so much with an end. If Earth has to go, I’m fine with that. The issue I take is that we haven’t come far enough to exist independently of such a calamity. We don’t have colonies on Mars or the Moon that can watch in horror at the terrestrial impact of a million asteroids, or whatever terrifying fate might await. If in fact we have only four more years to go as a species, we’ve squandered the opportunity as an advanced lifeform. Without a legacy, humanity leaves nothing behind. A blip in an isolated solar system - a failed experiment in God’s back yard.
I really do hope that we get a chance to prove our worth as a lifeform, tenacious and creative. I hope that the Long Count terminates simply because Mayan astronomers could not see past the mountains of astronomical or functional prophecy into whatever bold new future humanity intends to bring forth.
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
The End of VMK
As promised, I’m going to try to write a little bit about the closing of VMK.
Firstly, it came as quite a surprise. The game had been doing quite well, and was in what I’d like to characterize as the “throes of new growth”.
Actually, I’m going to suddenly diverge for a moment here to mention the unique flavor of VMK. As far as social spaces go, it was specifically unique. Canned dictionary-based chat lead to a seperate language. I glove my duh.duh as “I love my daddy.” Language is the first icon of culture, and VMK’s culture took great pains for me to originally become inducted into.
The environment of VMK was Disney, but a softly dilluted Disney with alternate non-brand characters like the Yeti and Esmeralda the fortune teller. But, despite this dillution, the environment in which the players played was kept almost diabetically sweet through persistent high quality content updates. New clothing, items, rooms, contests, events - grand things and special attentions that paying subscribers of most MMOs would give their thumbs for were commonplace and free.
The players themselves coordinated events and room hosting, playing games in the freeform social space provided them in exchange for their increased brand awareness. Tweens, mostly female, occupied the bulk of the demographic. Coupled with this, I presided as Community Manager over the most professional ace team of Moderators and event Hosts I have ever known of. With pedigrees in AOL’s Community Leader program, the mods I had the pleasure of directing I have never witnessed before in any other MMO. And to boot, the staff itself was huge!
Due to COPPA regulations regarding kids in online spaces, moderation had to remain constant, and so my staff was a sizable 30+. One of the major aspects of sadness I have about the game’s closure is that I will likely never again see assembled a team of moderators as freaking awesome as these guys were. The majority have gone on to other projects, but I aspire to hire them back again in my next mod team if I possibly can.
So, we were talking about VMK’s unique “flavor”. Ever see that movie from the 80’s, Legend with Tom Cruise, before he went all schitzo? You know the one, with Tim Curry as the big red, black horned Satan creature. In it, there’s a few scenes with a unicorn running and bucking through a forest with insistent rays of sunshine blasting down in between windswept leaves. There’s a reverb synth riff playing by Tangerine Dream in stopping, high breathless pace over piano. It’s a dirty, brilliant light filled with dust and earth and good. That’s probably the most accurate way I can describe the flavor of VMK.
Friday, January 18th, 2008
Predictions for 2008 - MMO’s
It’s a new year, and time for a new slew of predictions about this year’s upcoming MMOs! These prognostications are lovingly brought to you this week after drearily reviewing the “Coming Soon” list at ebgames. There’s a lot of stuff coming down the pike, and there are going to be a healthy dose of flops, you can bet your patootie.
Rightyo then, on with the show!
Age of Conan: Anyone know if this is in beta 1, beta 2, beta pre-release or alpha? I don’t think I’ve ever had a more difficult time buying into the fiction and then wanting to get involved in a beta community. The pure exclusionary tactics and promise of blood and nudity might serve as a Cartman-land style artificial bump to demand. Who knows, with a solid core of PvP and a dedication to fiction, AoC might offer a welcome alternative.
Aion: This is where that psychotic crap that Garriott left out of the first iteration of Tabula Rasa went. Angels and demons in outer space? Apart from the aesthetic, a likely bomb.
ArchLord: Try again, SunSword. Voted most likely to be eaten by SOE or cancelled outright.
Dungeon Runners: Fun, low min-spec, surprisingly replayable. Spend some time with content and Dungeon Runners might cut into that covetted Runescape market.
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
Define “Crowded”
After a successful induction period, familiarizing myself with the role, procedures and policies of my new position, I am flying home tomorrow to Florida. I will be flying out of Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest airports on the planet, on the day before Thanksgiving, which is one of the busiest travel days in the country. Panic and mayhem!
Do I strike you, the reader, as a xenophobe by chance? I hope I don’t. I’m really not. It’s kind’ve an odd thing really, my inimitable fear of crowds. I don’t consider myself a very social person. I don’t do the “hanging out” thing much, and I make friends extraordinarily slowly. It honestly takes me about 18 months to make a friend. I’ve come to realize that this may be because my lighter grade social interaction requirements are being fulfilled by complex networks of friends on the net. As part and parcel of my career path, I am required to interact with hundreds, thousands of individual entities in a given day, usually as an operant, but passive force. Maybe this has dulled my ability to transform acquaintances into friends? I wonder if thats endemic to other CMs… hmm.
Where was I before I went all Myspacey on your asses? Ahh yes. Flying.