Consequential Design

Virtual world design is about consequences.
— Designing Virtual Worlds, Chapter 2

This small line really caught my eye. I realized that I was struck by the insight that I often think of programming designs in terms of consequences. It was something that became more obvious to me when I was working this last semester because I was introduced to the fact that most programmers don't. I found that my own typical line of thinking was often "suppose that we simplify and generalize this... what would be the consequences?" and then finding ways to minimize poor consequences and enhance good consequences.

Book of the Moment: Designing Virtual Worlds

It's fairly often that I might be talking with someone and remark that the degree I'm in is the one I chose because the one I wanted doesn't exist. I then have the tough time of describing what is it that I've long considered "my life's work". If you read my stuff regularly you might have seen several hundreds of words on the topic. If you continue to read my stuff you'll probably find scattered throughout several hundreds more words on the subject, as it is something so close to home.

Designing Virtual Worlds would be the core of at least one fundamental course in that degree program. It seems to be an excellent introduction to areas and topics that I've spent so many years contemplating, observing, and analyzing... to the areas that I hope to one day be paid to work in. Only a few chapters in and its already become a good place to point for those who may be interested in my "applied systems analysis" (aka "(Virtual) World Making") degree.

So far in the few chapters I've read I haven't found much that I haven't before been at least introduced to, but Bartle's writing style is friendly and sometimes slyly funny so I've enjoyed reading even stuff that I already knew. It's also nice just to have those "I remember that" and "I remember discussing that" moments leading back to some of my own insights and thoughts on some of these subjects. It makes me wish for a conversation with Bartle himself as opposed to just reading the book. (Which perhaps means that I may make a post or two at the book's associated website...)

Welcome

My website is a place that I fill with the random thoughts that cross my mind in addition to those works and experiments I feel need their own space or merit larger attention... Feel free to explore. Things are in something of a mess as I lost several months of content and an entire design template (and moved to a new host for those reasons) and am busy piecing things back together. Due to the fresh start I also decided to move on to a fresh CMS engine (Drupal) which has been a learning experience. It has some nice advantages to the hodgepodge I used previously, even if I miss having my own code involved. (I guess that could change eventually if I write a module or two for Drupal...)

Meta-War

Murphy, currently Assistant Chief of Operations for the Yggdrasil Corporation, examined carefully the other seated members of the Board. One of the more important, and yet one of the lower totems on the pole, Murphy was sizing up the group for his own potential takeover even as he worked to help the current administration.

Sitting on the far side from Murphy was the current presiding President of the Corporation, Jasis. Murphy worried what the odd burning rage sometimes present in Jasis’ eyes meant, and spent much of his day either avoiding the President or working not to anger him. Murphy figured there was some reason Jasis was such a vocal proponent for the Corporation’s goals, but was afraid to find out. Murphy, himself, was just in it for the raw chaos it might cause. His long employment with various arms and alternate histories of the Chaos Corporation still his largest loyalty.

Chaos wanted control of Yggdrasil largely because Yggdrasil was competition. Not only that, Yggdrasil was stupid competition that didn’t understand the ball games it was dealing with. To control Yggdrasil Chaos needed to control Jasis, and as afraid to find out why, Murphy need to critically examine Jasis with more detail than any of the other Board members.

Jasis, unaware of Murphy’s careful eye, brought the gavel to contact with table to signify the beginning of the meeting. Murphy already knew what most of the reports would be today. His own would be to acknowledge that the first phase of Operations had been put into motion.

“Well, I’m afraid I don’t have as much time as I thought I did,” the Old Man said apologetically, à ...

The Rain God in Me

There is a common myth that I've had told to me that on his or her deathbed an atheist will often "“repent" and shout out to god. Often this is either used in conjunction with the broken Pascal's Argument in an attempt to sway me or it is used in conjunction with "“magic" and placed in the same mystic realm as "“out of body experiences" and "“near-death experiences", which is to say that they sound to me an awful lot like illusions and hysterias.

No, for me, the place I will most likely seek comfort on the deathbed isn't "“God" or any other external deity. I'm afraid that the obvious place for me to go is a familiar place called solipsism. Solipsism, the belief that I alone matter, is something that has always been on the edge of my thoughts. Ultimately it's a combination of natural skepticism and paranoia. At the end of the day it's easy for me to say, "I'm not sure anyone else exists outside me," and fall asleep in that simple comfort. Come death, I think the temptation would be too great to slip into those thoughts one last time. Solipsism isn't exactly egotism, at least in my opinion. In fact, the loneliness that tinges it can alone be ego-shrinking.

In my own thoughts I've dealt with solipsism for a long time. The small belief I carry as a keepsake of some of my more solipsistic periods of childhood, as a small mini-solipsism, is the belief that I am a Rain God. I remember so many afternoons when I was disturbed and angered over some outside game and my only friend and companion would be the Rain-- its tears would overpower my own, and in so doing ...

Book of the Moment: Manifold: Origin

I tried doing this once before with my "Currently Reading" mini-blog, but found out that I often wouldn't update it enough, due to both procrastination and a slower reading pace (thanks to College). Because books seem to be so integral to my creative sanity, and are a large part of any "decorating" efforts I tend to make, I do like the idea of attempting say a bit more about what I'm reading and why.

I'll start this off with Stephen Baxter's Manifold: Origin. Baxter is an often incredible writer in my fairly small, but heavily enjoyed, category of ex-physicists who write great books that I often pick off a shelf automatically. (The other in this category is David Brin.) The problem with some of Baxter's novels is that as much as I enjoy them they can often be slow reading for me. This book actually sat in my "Currently Reading" box up to the point where I got tired of it and hid it away in a template redesign. It has been on my shelf with a bookmark in it for several months now. So the book has come back into the vogue of my conscious because it has become my coffee break book at work now that I've finished scribing my Meta-War tale (which I'm thinking I'll release in its entirety relatively shortly; probably after I scribe something of a Cliff's Notes).

The book took some time for me to get into it. It started strong, and I liked the previous two in the series, but this one's large focus on anthropology had me bogged down in much of the beginning because I had a hard time slogging through it. Anthropology is one of the few subjects where I ...

What happens in Bizarro World, stays in Bizarro World...

You know what the Bizarro World is, don't you? It's a part of the grand Superman mythos, the unsettling Sealab 2021 mythos, the satirical Drawn Together mythos, and even made a cameo in the Seinfeld mythos. (Just to name a few.) From time to time Superman would come into contact with an arrival into his Universe from the Bizarro Universe, which was usually Superman's short-bus counterpart Bizarro Superman, or Superman might wind up with an unplanned vacation in the Bizarro Universe. Bizarro Superman is considered by some as Superman's menace, although he was really more like Superman's retarded ward. Bizarro Superman didn't really know any better than destroying and smashing things because, ultimately, he was extremely stupid. It was often that he would think he was helping things by destroying things. It was the only real characterization from the DC Canon that truly pulled any emotion from me as a kid, the harsh emotion of pity.

The main Conservative tactic over the last four years, and which I believe will continue for sometime, seems to fit the description Bizarro Liberalism extraordinarily well.

I think its probably best to explain Bizarro Liberalism through examples. A few quick starting points: The Rights Fight, The Bush Agenda: Unfuckingbeleivable: God vs. Liberals.

I've been meaning to showcase a few of the Reader's Letters from the local newspaper that have particularly boiled my blood, but these are easy enough to find at the Courier Journal's Opinion Page. Instead I've decided to savage someone from a much smaller paper, the student-published "liberal" newspaper The Louisville Cardinal. (The Cardinal is actually sometimes readable. On the other hand, there actually is a student-published conservative newspaper, The Louisville Patriot, which frightens me from even attempting to pick it up ...