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Tag Archives: rant

40k takes too long

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I like games. You might have noticed. Actually, let’s be fair, I love games. Another thing that I like doing is assembling models. Papercraft, or plastic, metal, glue and modelling clay. Yet another thing I like doing is painting models. So one might think (and I fall into this trap repeatedly) that Warhammer 40k or Warhammer Fantasy would be the perfect game for me. The problem is that when I’m spending literally one third of my waking hours playing a game that’s probably, usually too long. I mean sure, the occasional game of Axis and Allies or Civilization the Board Game or Diplomacy.

However something I’m putting this much time and money into, just to get to the point where I’m able to play a game, shouldn’t cost nearly this much of a time investment to play.  A couple hours for a game, sure that’s reasonable. I’m going to try and do some 1000 point “quick games” and we’ll see how that works out. Maybe with a bit more experience I can get the game times down.

What I believe

 

Stare at the center of the picture for 30 seconds then click it.

Stare at the center of the picture for 30 seconds then click it.

So belief is a complicated, touchy subject. I generally don’t bring it up with people, because the starkness of reality tends to make people uncomfortable, besides which I’ve explored so many of the possible conversations that can be had on the subject that it tends to get boring. However I just watched a decent movie that like 5 seconds of terrible logic that pissed me off SO bad that I just have to vent. And venting has made me think that maybe it’s worth putting down my slightly insanely complicated belief system.

So you may know there is only one verifiable ontological truth. “I Exist”. I know I am. You know you are. A self aware being can be sure of their own existence, everything else is supposition. However we can make some fairly good guesses based on our perception of external stimuli. However everything else is a guess. I could be a brain in a jar being fed electrical impulses that simulate what I think of as reality. I could be a computer program, coded to be self aware. Reality could be something even more bizarre and unknowable, but there isn’t actually a way for me to find out.

I consider myself to be a Devout Agnostic … meaning basically I appreciate semantical exactitude. An Agnostic is someone who doesn’t believe or disbelieve in god(s), and possibly doesn’t believe it’s possible to prove or disprove either way. Perceived reality is so messed up and weird, and yet seems so normal all the time… I feel fairly confident that it’s not actually what my senses tell me. However there’s no way for me to find out what’s really going on, hence the Devout Agnostic nomenclature. I don’t think it’s possible actually understand the universe.

Now that’s not to say I won’t do my best to grok what my senses tell me, and form a framework of perceived reality that I can operate semi-functionally within. I regularly fail to be surprised when the sun rises in the morning. I try to develop a sense of ennui about the continued functionality of gravity and inertia. I’ve built up a fairly complex framework of cause and effects that can lead to something as complex as my thoughts telepathically being transmitted out onto the ether where anyone can read them… Yeah, that’s right, WordPress = Telepathy baby!

I’m just saying if tomorrow afternoon we find out that the research dept. has had their budget cut, and the computer that is simulating our existence is going to be unplugged, AND they bother to tell us, I’ll probably be one of the first to pick my jaw up off of the floor. Reality is a strange and beautiful place. I guess I’m glad I’m here, but I don’t recall being given an alternative.

Did I make things too complicated?

I didn’t think I did. Maybe everyone thought that I was asking them to be creative. What am I talking about? Well, the Friday Choose Your Own Damn Blog Post Adventure thing I’m trying to get started. Part of the appeal of this experiment, is that I don’t have full control over the story. I’m putting some of it in my readers’ hands. Of course, that does require at least one person to pay attention (Thanks Highcove, you rule!) I put the “option 3” there so that folks could get creative IF THEY WANTED TO… not to make everyone feel that they had to be creative and then become paralyzed with indecision.

So here’s what’s going to happen tomorrow (well, in about 12 hours really) all three* options will be published simultaneously. Each possible story has 2-3 options for where to go. Your comment can be as simple as “#9!” or if you want you can post “Choice 9 is the best choice because robots are awesome and elves and beer are both dumb, as is anyone who picks any choices not having anything to do with robots.”

Or you know… whatever. None of the stories currently actually have anything to do with robots, but I’m sure that will be rectified at some point down the line, or maybe once one of the three dies we’ll start over with an awesome robot doing awesome things.

So yeah, that’s my rant for the day.