If it’s Thursday, this must be… Planet Earth in the Rain?

Thursday, August 1st, 2013. I think today is my cousin, Lesley’s, birfday. 18°C / 64°F and raining here in what they tell me is “The Real World”.

(((Ignore the intrusive phone calls, ignore the evil people who want to control your life, ignore all the b.s. “facts” they try to whip you with— and you just might get through a few more minutes; -intact?)))

Hey wait a minute, this is supposed to be “Mostly Positive”. I chose that idea, I chose that sub-title.

So why am I singing “Everything——— Gives you cancer….”?-While observing out loud, “We have a very wet dog.” ((The dog found his much loved nub of what used to by a red nyla (sp?) bone and threw it on the floor to let me know he wanted to go out. I asked him, “Are you sure you want to go out there in this… steady rain? Don’t get wet—”

He looked up at me with a swindler’s smile and nodded okay, I’ll be good, just open the danged door already.

———Which brings me to something I’ve wanted to say about the connection between computer games and real life, these days. I went into a really intense study of a ‘social game’ on facebook, and traced that game to its home servers on disruptorbeam dot com. This game is based on teevee’s Game of Throne, which is based on a book cycle “Song of Fire and Ice” or “Ice and Fire” or “Songs of-“.

The point is, the game has divided life skills needed to live in this game world into three categories: Battle, Trade, and Intrigue.

——Each skill heading is divided into three sub headings. Battle skills are divided into “Aid”, “Fight” and “Harass”.

—The Fight skill involves killing everybody and everything that stands between you and winning your game of life. The Harass skill involves capturing and threatening your opponents’ captains or leaders with death and humiliation. The Aid skill involves showing strength and maybe hacking through the underbrush instead of killing anything that just might be an enemy or hapless animal that gets in your way.

—The Intrigue skill is divided into “Spy”, “Sabotage” and “Steal”.

—But the Trade skill has divisions that I found ‘intriguing’: “Barter”, “Swindle”, & “Bribe”.

———The point I think I had in mind when I started to explain this is:

The trade skills— Is trading a completely amoral behavior? If you’re a tradesman and you want your family to thrive, do you have to swindle and bribe? Or is this the way “They” want you to believe this world actually functions. If you play nice— Are you fair game to be tortured, dismembered, humiliated, raped, murdered, and then hung out to dry as en example of what happens to people who want to be Angels in a world where the devil believes he’s in charge?

——Remember, the sub-title of this journal is “Mostly Positive”.

Insight into the way this world works is one thing. Knowing that your ‘rivals’ for this earth’s resources do not believe in playing by the rules might brace you for the fight of your life. But dangit, are we supposed to believe that we have to fight every day for everything we want, need, cherish or crave? Is that what this world is all about? Hack and slash your way to power and wealth? Damn the torpedoes, lay waste to anything that gets in your way?

———How did we allow ourselves to be manipulated into this position?

———And speaking of manipulation, I have an orange cat attacking my leg, complaining vociferously about something. I better go see what he wants.

—I’m back. He wants to experience “Outside” but when it’s raining I get a dirty look, and the feeling that he’s telling me, “This isn’t outside- this is rain!” and he stares at me like I’m supposed to be able to snap my fingers and make the world more appealing to orange cats who just want to run out there and roll happily in the grass.

~~~~~Jim