Sunday, February 15, 2009

Mind Control

Today on the street someone was telling me about how GlaxoSmithKline is inserting some mind control formula into all their products and to stop taking their medications unless I wanted to be a drone. This is very frightening stuff, because they are a major drug manufacturer and lots of people down their stuff. If they really are using mind control they could take over the world.

Also, I take one of their products. So at this very moment, I could be under mind control. Who am I really? I wouldn't remember what it was like before mind control because I would be controlled into thinking this has always been normal. I certainly would hold the opinion I was not under mind control because they would be silly to let their victims know about it. So I myself don't think I'm under mind control because by that criteria I'm not, but you can also say that because I don't think I am, I really am.

Why would they want to take control of my mind, anyway? Is GSK really that obsessed about Second Life that they need me? Or do they really need another college student to the ranks of drug zombies? I'm not exactly a famous and high profile person. I guess if I was into their zombie hordes I would be the 'meat shield' or 'cannon fodder', you know, those jobs where they just throw bodies at something in the hope something gets accomplished. Maybe I could apply for mind controlled medic or zombie lab assistant. That's about all I think I'm qualified for, just about. Unless they want another blogger. "Good God, no. We already have billions of those under our control."

I wonder what it was like before I was mind controlled. How does it work? Do I stay the same person but only activated when necessary, or is my entire personality changed and my mind wiped so I think what has been always was? I like being me and I would be pretty upset if suddenly my entire being was changed into someone else. That could be part of the mind control. But I still like the satisfaction of being me. I guess that means I'm addicted to mind control drugs. Hopefully the removal of the mind control element doesn't affect me much and that the mind control element just makes me more susceptible to influence rather than radically changing me.

But if it did radically alter me, I wonder what life would be like, had been like, before I started popping pills. What was high school like? Elementary school? And what would I be like after a few years of brain washing? It's hard for me both because I'm under mind control and also because I have to think about what I would be like if I wasn't me. That won't stop me from making speculations!

I'll bet that before I was being brain washing by excellently engineered chemicals designed to target self control, gullibility, and personality, I was someone super cool. I probably wasn't a blogger because there are a million of those and I wouldn't want to be drowned out in the endless white noise of the internet. This is difficult because I haven't been alive long enough to have much of a past and taking drugs has occupied all of the cool parts. Maybe I was one of those child savants? That would be interesting. I can't think of anything else a high school kid would be. They are pretty boring otherwise.

Let's fast forward into what I'd be without mind control drugs. Let's operate on the assumption that I keep taking the same drugs but now without the mind control element since drugs themselves are ok (well, the regular normal prescribed ones) it is just the mind control aspect that is bad. Let's see here... uh... hmm... I got nothing. Maybe I would be smarter? Or more open minded, because I'm finding it real hard to actively criticize GSK for some reason. I guess without mind control I would find writing this easier.

I live a blissful existence, full of sunshine and daisies. I find it extremely hard to be sad. I do moderately well in school. If this is mind control, I'll take it. As of yet I have never lost long tracks of time so I am confident I don't turn into a total zombie and as of yet I've never felt the compulsion to take to the streets and mob rush City Hall, gain control of local government, and force others to submit to GSK's kind and benevolent rule. If anything, they've done nothing for me as they have the gall to charge me for the privilege of being held under their sway. I don't even have any stock in them. Not like I'd want any, because they're getting creamed by generic competition and the economy at the moment.

In short, I believe you should submit to the GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical rulers of the world who are completely good and righteous and will lead us to a grand age of golden lives.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Telling a Tattle Tale

"Anyone telling about his travels must be a liar, for if a traveler doesn't visit his narrative with the spirit and techniques of fiction, no one will want to hear it."

I was thinking of this quote the other day while I was busy not paying attention in class (an act I will surely regret). Surely some things are not the works of fiction? Someone's travels must have been true and still exciting to the listener.

Then I thought that perhaps what the person was really trying to get at was that we ourselves like to spice up our stories. Who would want to hear of someone who just randomly drove up and down a river looking at static objects and AFK avatars? No one, that's who. It's boring, no matter how pretty the photos are. No, it's much more entertaining to add some flair to it and try to impress someone.

Even in real life. When the police busted a party I was at once, what really happened was they came up and told everyone to knock it off and everyone just kind of left. To hear my friends tell it, however, you would think it was a shocking case of police brutality with the cops breaking down the door, beating everyone with their beatsticks (heh, 'nightsticks'), and cuffing us all up and into jail where many bad and terrible things happened which is sure to haunt us for the rest of our natural lives!

So while some may argue it's bad that we can't tell the straight truth, I say to hell with that. That's boring. I'd rather hear something incredibly unbelievable and exciting than your mundane trip to the grocery store. You only live once, might as well ham it up and add something about flying elephants or the hoardes of robotic cyborgs you had to fight in the dairy aisle. Nah, don't go to that extreme. But have some imagination. Otherwise life is boring.

The only problem, though, is what exactly is true and what isn't? History would get awfully distorted with tall tales. You are probably wondering: if this is what she believes, then can we really believe anything that she says or writes? You have a point. You have no way of knowing. But doesn't that make it much more fun? At the least, you can say you're never bored. Also, we can consider: If I am a liar, and everything I say is a lie, and I admit it, then am I a liar?

The simple answer is yes, you're a liar because just four minutes ago you said to take the first left at 5th street which led me around in a circle.

I think the line needs to be drawn when things turn serious. A clever and exciting tale is good when nothing is at stake. But imagine how angry you would be if I told you the Lindens were going to consolidate all islands into a small continent, forcing you to give your sequestered island neighbors who might pester and annoy you? So you sell your island and leave, only to find out I was kidding. Or if I told you your dog was hungry when in reality a gigantic bus came up onto the sidewalk and squashed him into paste? Leaving out the fact, of course, that the bus was really my Toyota and the driver was actually me.

We can only hope, I assume, that people tell the absolute truth when the chips are down. Otherwise we'd have no trust in what anyone else is saying. And if one doesn't, then we do brand that person as a liar. Because it's not funny anymore.

There are subtle clues, though, that allow us to spot when someone is bullshitting us. The person may fidget a lot, or break into a sweat, or search for words, or cross their legs back and forth. There's a lot of bodily clues you can use. Tone of voice, sometimes, too, can give someone away. The game can be given away in several ways when you're up close and personal.

But over the internet, you don't have those things. All you have is text. I know some people (myself included) have sometimes argued that over the internet, there is no body language to get in the way of your message, that it becomes distilled. And that is true to a certain extent. There's no misunderstanding me here, for instance, for you can come back and reload the page as many times as you want and analysis every sentence fragment of mine. It's out there, on the record. There's no mumbling to one's self. Even if you make it the tinest little font, you can copy and paste it somewhere else and enlarge it. Speak a foreign language? Babelfish and Google translator can give someone a hint of what you are talking about.

With nothing in your message, no body language or facial expressions to get in the way, I can quite clearly see exactly what you are trying to say. However, that's a double edged sword. Unless I make it immediately obvious through some means ( :) ), you can't tell my tone of voice. This has gotten me into much trouble. People can't tell when you're joking, when you're being sarcastic, or when you're being serious. People can read your message more clearly, but they also can't tell the attitude with which the message is being said. Only by familarity can you figure it out, and even then sometimes it's hard.

In Second Life, you have an avatar. You can make your avatar look like whatever you want, but almost everyone makes one that is human to some degree (even furries are humanoid in shape). You would think this would add some clue of communication and perhaps reduce down some errors. After all, you can create an animation override. But that's not true. It's the same as any other place on the internet. You have to resort to smileys or outright telling the person what kind of delivery you are giving (*sarcasm*). Plus, with an animation override, I can have my avatar give you a false impression of what I am actually trying to say. It's very hard not to think I am being consistently sarcastic when my avatar is slouched back, arms crossed, with a detached look on my face.

One thing, though, that I think helps some is gestures. With gestures, you can add that layer of emotion. I can '/clap' or '/laugh' at the bare minimum and others have created ones of all shapes and sizes and flavors. It is not like smileys or outright braining the person over the head with just telling (*smiles sinisterly*). It does not solve the problem of determining whether someone is telling the truth, because just like text, gestures can be manipulated into conveying whatever message I want. Unlike in real life, where I have no control over when I blush, in Second Life I have complete and total control over it and thus appear emotionally detached all the time.

But like in real life and telling tales, one can only trust that in Second Life (and the internet in general) everyone is not actively lying to you. Otherwise, it would be a cruel world indeed. You would have no trust and not much would get done. There's that layer of trust, again. But how to tell just how the person is delivering the message? You still can't.

Wikipedia has a policy: "Always assume good faith". In some ways it's naive, because some people you should assume bad faith. A NeoNazi (Godwin) editing an article on Judaism cannot really be trusted to provide an unbiased encyclopedia article. But overall, it's a smart idea. If we all assume good faith then communication is much better, you can know the person on the other end isn't trying to piss you off or deceive you. On the other hand, it is suspectiable to the tragedy of the commons. A liar could easily take advantage of the fact that everyone will assume what you say is true unless otherwise proven, how would we know?. And then we're right back where we started.

In the end, I suppose we really can't do anything. Miscommunication will just have to be a part of life. And we just have to believe that what you are saying isn't a malcious lie, and you have to believe that I'm not a horrible liar or writing in an attitude other than simply stating my thoughts. Or that you can't detect my anti-cat agenda.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Ha Ha Ha

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The Weather

The weather today was very pleasant.

It was still pretty brisk, but a welcome relief from the bitter cold from a few weeks ago.

The snow and ice have also almost melted away. The sidewalks are clear again.

I hope it's sunny tomorrow, too.

I wish everyday could be like today.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Merry Rezzday, Jurin Juran!

Today is Jurin's rezzday. Like the terrible friend that I am, I did not get her a present nor organize any kind of celebration. If I see her inworld (or IM her) I'd send her a 'happy rezzday', but that is like sending a generic birthday card to someone in real life. It's more a 'hey I'm still alive and you are still alive and this is an acknowledgment of that fact' reminder rather than an honest gift between two friends.

Oh, I could rationalize myself. I'm poor (which is too true, I'm not a good vendor) and thus can't buy anything spectacular. I'm busy in real life and so cannot find the time to do or get something special (not even a prim birthday cake? :O). I'm forgetful (lame!). I'm lazy (double lame!). Surely this post is enough? Triple lame!

So, this will be Jurin's second year in Second Life. You read that right. For two long years, this person has slogged through thick and thin and never went AFK permanently. For two years, she endured copybot, closing of ad farms, horrible sim and viewer upgrades and downgrades, and countless waves of spammers and newbies. And the occasional griefer. And me.

If you do the calculations, one year in real life translates to six years in Second Life. I believe the Lindens stated that there are 6 days in a single day, 6 days times 365 is equal to 6 times one year equals 6 years. By this measure, Jurin is 12 years old with respect to Second Life. She's just about to become a teenager!

Jurin wastes a lot of time. Making sure the sim is ok, making sure the artists are ok, helping the occasional newbie, discussing the effects of global warming upon the production of Dr. Pepper plants in North Dakota and the effect upon the boiling point of hydrogen. And that's not counting the half million independent projects she starts or joins. And social networking, which she loves to do.

It is an incredible work ethic that unfortunately wears upon her real life to some degree. Jurin, today or tomorrow I want you to do nothing. You hear me? NOTHING. You need just a day off to goof off, explore Second Life, watch a sunset, or pick one of the newly laid Linden roads and follow it until it hits the end of the continent. You deserve it. Nothing is going to go wrong if you take a single day to yourself. And if someone bugs you, tell them to stuff it in their talk hole until tomorrow. And don't hand me that crap that "Oh, I already had a day off and you just happened to miss it". You're going to take the day off because it's your rezzday, dammit. Even if we have to tie you to a chair and drag you to a beach.

That is why it's too easy to like Jurin. She is too damn nice for her own good. Sure, when she's angry she gets really nasty, but it takes a lot of energy to do that. Epic amounts. Similar to how helium can become a solid at low temperatures. Possible, but really really hard. Usually, though, she's relatively pleasant even when she's suffering from food poisoning. Or when her air conditioning breaks and it's pushing 110 degrees outside. Or an asteroid hits the planet and a wall of fire and ash is fast approaching.

"But Anna," you are mewing at this point, "Surely you exaggerate!" No, my friends, I am not. For I shall rely the story of the anonymous (to me, anyway) donor.

For you see, one day someone (nevermind who) decided for whatever reason known but to Nunchuck to donate a significant chuck of L$ to Jurin's Blackwater gallery. We're talking not just 100, not just 100,000 but upwards of a million or so L$. And upon receiving this huge sum and its promise of paying off some significant tier, Jurin mulls it over and decides to return the amount, judging it to be either a mistake or embarrassing and possibly both. Read that sentence again. Thinking it a mistake, she returned almost a million L$.

Now, as it turns out it wasn't an accident and it is rather rude to defer a donation back to the donator, but let's consider if it had been an accident. How many of us would return it? No one else knows but you. Would you return it? I can only speak for myself. I would keep it. And hey, this kind of works in as a plus and a fault of Jurin's, because sometimes she loops all the way around past the 'super nice' on the nice scale and back into 'super rude'. It's also annoying. Be selfish! Good Nunchuck, all 19 of my readers will see this and think I'm exaggerating. Well, 18, because Jurin is one of those 19. They'll say, "Oh, Anna is being Anna and making tall tales again, like when she talked about a cheese powered computer."

But Jurin is a good friend. Whenever she's on, she doesn't ignore people. She always gives me the time of day, and Nunchuck only knows I can rant and rave and make someone reach for the mute button. No. She always seems to listen because she will interject and not with "What?" or "What the hell?" or "I have no idea what you are talking about", but something relevant! Like "I disagree, cheese powered computers would only be good in Wisconsin." Although, since I can't (and prefer not to) hear her tone over the internet, she may be honest or sarcastic about the matter.

For better or for worse, Jurin also egged me on to create a blog. So you can blame her. You can blame her for a lot of things, because she likes to egg people on. I think it irritates her to watch someone not do something. I'll bet if I stopped writing normal posts right now and filled this thing with posts consisting of the letters of the alphabet, she would bug me until I stopped and returned to normal. Such as normal as I can get.

In short, Jurin is a good and true and loyal friend despite whatever she thinks. And she will, I know she will, IM me inworld right about.... now and deny this entire thing. Sigh. Humility is a terrible sin.

Oh, and Jurin? You didn't want anything for your rezzday? Tough shit.

We're Closed


Really now, when I saw this sign during one of my wanderings I could only wonder why Linden Lab does not put this up when log-ins are disabled. Rude, perhaps, but immature fun.

This way we wouldn't expect any kind of service from them. It would be a beacon: we don't care, come back later. Any complaints? Well, uh.... they are fairly transparent about it, aren't they?

....

Well, this is an old joke, isn't it?

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Ghosts!

The other day, I was wandering about Second Life as I usually do when none of my friends are logged in and I'm bored.

There is a beautiful build on that ring shaped continent, in the middle or thereabouts, in the Iris sim. It's some kind of pagoda with lovely deep red pillars framing its graceful arches and rooms. It is also the place where I discovered now that I am completely insane.

There was a bunch of people standing around, some afk, some bots. And someone walked by, decked out in some kind of blue spiky avatar that was named, and I kid you not, Okasus. That, my friends, is how I know I am officially insane. I am starting to see things that I made up walk around. I couldn't catch him/her/it before it left, but the name was definitely Okasus.

Someone could have been messing with my head, though, and made some alt, found me, and walked by to make me think I am going crazy. Who would go through all that trouble, though? Is it you, Jurin? Or is it you, Torley? I can't think of anyone who would be that spiteful to try and get me to think I am crazy, so I conclude that I actually am crazy.

Hell, now I wonder if I am actually typing anything or just think I am typing something.

Ah ha ha?