#5 The four walls: Philosophy

Mr T. with a cello

Anyways, Philosophy is a super broad longtall wall that nearly almost makes the floor and ceiling for freedom. Ethics, being a branch of philosophy that shares a corner wall with common sense. Its chief tennant is 'be nice'

I'm actually watching a creepy film right now about extreme right wing feminism. Made back in the 90s so it was. Seems to point out that the application of religion to free will needs to be carefully thought out. Plenty of history to back that up.

People don't fight if they think they're free. That'd be one of the ideas from the matrix. So we sort of owe science fiction a nod as a form of accessable modern philosophy. Existenialism wouldn't make a lick of sense if there wasn't a whacky film about it (sure it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining either).

Today's existential thought: if you don't work, you don't exist.

Oh bloody hell, now the film characters are playing scrabble! Damn NeoCons! (hehe, that'll look funny later)

Offhand cute thought: Baby Polar Bears!

EMERGENCY! Mam doesn't know what Pacman is! Code Blue!

.... err, yellow even. Hell, code RAINBOW!

#4 There goes my neighbourhood!

Houseflies don't have patios, shoeflies don't have laces and horseflies never whinny. But if they did...

I updated firefox like everyone else and am liking it so far. Not sure I approve of the past links thing. It seems my computer knows more about me than I do!

Anyways, my snarled up thumb is healing nicely, the midge bites have nearly stop itching and there are 2 days of summer left. And I never did have that BBQ. Ahh, large quantities of flame-throwered meat. Maybe next year.

Stats have changed as follows
Depression is up from 10% to 13% because I won't be at electric picnic (the annual music festival). Bad social planning mostly to blame here. And a complete lack of funds, though that's being addressed.

I.T. savvy is up a few more points due to my sucessful installing of windows 98 under virtual PC. I was actually trying to get Dungeon Keeper to run again with no success. The same endevour sees self worth drop a point because I still can't get the thing working. Disappointment also sees a moderate increase of 7%. Overall mood now stands at 80% (where 50% is the middle of the scale), falling slowly.

Mood may well continue to drop until I get over my game cravings. It is unlikely to occur having been an addict for so long. Probably one of the negative aspects of the gamer character trait.

Mood is now around 65%, (yeah, it flucuates fast) so even though my perceived sleepiness stat is low, actual sleepiness, established habit, cultural norm and societal expectation mean a high likelihood of sleep.

Current philosophical bent: genetical custodians.
Long term objectives: gather resources to satisfy needs as defined by Maslow and others;
contribute to the discovery of nuclear fusion.
Maudlin thought: 15 years of childhood and only a videogame collection to show for it.
Mid term objectives: Meet new people (oh the horror! A technocrat otaku meeting new people!)[mood rose 8%]
Short term objectives: Consider human behaviour and evaluate existing lexography to determine if it can be defined succintly.

#3.5

Seems one of my posts got lost in the ether. Not to worry. This week, I have mostly been doing yard work. Injuries now include 2 sore thumbs, several midge bites, and some minor scarring. These should all clear up by the end of next week.

As you can see, I haven't managed to come up with a decent name for this post. Not to worry. Over the weekend, a few skills increased such as electrician (+2), DIY (+3) and lawn mowing (+2). These 3 skills currently belong to the common sense sphere, but you can choose as many spheres as you like. Remember, you're in control here!

As for current buffs and debuffs, the weekend working outdoors means I now have the mosquito temp debuff (itchyness +5), the good days work buff temp buff and the large pile of laundry debuff which doesn't really have any effect other than a time defecit (so -time I guess, and of course the random stat mods associated with doing laundry).

Unlike linear games, free will uses sliders that go both up and down. There are positive and negative. I figure most MMOs are virtualisations of real life in one form or another so it makes sense that real life has more sliders, stats and skills than you could shake a stick at. I'll list a few more in 3 days.

#2 Current Stats

Let's take a look at some of my stats:
Height: 'bout 176cm or 5'10" and a bit
Weight: 85kg or 187lbs (erring on the heavy side)
Diet: Whatever I find in the freezer
Most useful skill: Computer troubleshooting
Current attire: Pyjamas
Mood: Frivolous, Generally Positive
Current activity: Watching Olympic table tennis
Hungryness: Low (9%)
Thirtyness: Low (20%)
Personal hygene: 42%
Energy levels: 78%
Perspicasity: Normal (56%)
Confidence: Steady
Outlook: 68%

#1 Welcome to Free Will!

Have you ever wondered what it might be like if you were playing a game like the Sims with real people? It'd be pretty interesting. That sort of the idea with this blog. You, dear reader, get to decide what I should do with my day. Just like a video game character, I have stats, attributes, skills and equipment. In order to gain favour, you have to suggest good courses of action. Regular players who suggest beneficial things like 'eat a healthy breakfast' or 'get some exercise' will be given more attention than players suggesting things like 'jump off a bridge' or 'stay up pask 4am playing video games'.

The ultimate goal of the game is to turn a 20something male nerd into a successful human being who goes to church, pays taxes and is a general asset to society. The game is complete when I, your character, have completed a series of objectives, such as 'hold down a steady job with good pay and prospects' and ' get married and start a family'.

As various challenges are faced, relevant abilities will become available such as social skills, technical skills, fashion sense and the all important confidence stat. It's up to you though to decide what I should do in a given situation.

On the right, we can see the free will chart. There are limits to free will of course, because without them, we wouldn't know it existed. As you can see, Laws (of man and the universe like treason and physics) restrict free will, as do relationships, common sense and religion. These restrictions are subject to change as I grow and learn.

You'll also notice that free will is encircled. This represents my comfort zone. Even though it doesn't touch any boundaries, there are many things I would not be comfortable doing such as tattoos, piercings, sky diving, eating spiders etc. Players who can make the circle bigger earn points for expanding the comfort zone, even though this objective is perhaps the most difficult to attain.

Since the game has just begun, Confidence is 0/100 and at level 2. This means I can just about order lunch in subway without getting too embarrassed and can even ask for directions when lost.

Computer skills on the other hand are reasonably good, since I have a qualification in the field. Right now, they're 22/100, level 8 and rising, since I'm learning how to use this blogging software. In particular, my computer networking skills rose recently thanks to a bit of tinkering with some RJ11 cable.

Your first task is to decide what my stats and stats should be. You can come up with as many different stat types as you like for me and I'll assign various numbers which you can then argue up or down. Do I need a bladder control stat? Should I have a yoyo skill? Should I apply for a job at the zoo as a wolverine herder? You decide!

My free will - It's in your hands!