#99 I don't believe it

Figures. I started this blog then everything else started going wrong. Let's blame the blog.

I'll delete it on my birthday after post 100 and leave it on a usb key.

I hope you've all enjoyed reading the development of my philosophical ideas. I have decided that free will is unacceptable, until you consider the alternatives. Maybe I did choose. One quiet night brushing my teeth just before bed. Same as any other night really. Only that every day is different.

Now what was the point of all this you may ask? 0. It doesn't matter how many times you roll the dice or play the game. You wind up where you started. You win. You lose. Play again? Continue?

anything>nothing

#15 Shopping around

Looks can be deceiving.


I mentioned before that time buys money.

I thought about this. Money has value. There are many different types of money. The type of money I earn has a much higher value in places like Eastern Europe. In fact, as I go east, the value of my money goes up. There are plenty of factors at play here, far too many to quantify within the system of my blog.

In a similar way, time has value. Just like money, where you are determines what it's worth. What's my time worth right now? Not a lot really. I'm spending it watching TV. Successful people don't watch TV (apparently). Tomorrow morning at work my time will be worth a wage, because I'll be spending it pushing paper.

SO, I suppose economics determines what my money is worth. Does free will determine what my time is worth?

The other thing is that you need both time and money to survive. When you run out of time, you don the wings and head up to the pearly gates (hopefully) . But when you run out of money, bad things happen.

Money buys time, time buys money. Money can buy happiness, or at least the means to attain it. Whoever said otherwise obviously never heard of buying tickets to a comedy gig, or a nice holiday, or even a rigamarole PA to find a date. Courtship can be expensive. The grand objective appears to require significant amounts of time and money, but the return on investment is well worth it.

I'm trading time for money. It's working out. Now I need to find a way of spending my time towards the current objective: Stat increases.

#10 Stride

Handwriting skill improved today. Paperwork management, work habits and customer relations skills are also up.

Still working on it all. Hope you're all reading good books :)

Here's a picture of a TV oozing what might be cheese:

It's art Jim but not as we know it.

#9 Reality Intervenes

The real first day was today. Because my social stat is so low, working with customers is very difficult. The first week will be a true test. Toughness has been revealed as dangerously low. An offhand remark or angry person seems to cause a long lasting sometimes permanent confidence debuff, a stat that can't afford to go any lower. If it does, introversion will take a sharp rise, and social will plummet until confidence recovers.

The 'forget about it' ability needs to be learned. Otherwise the foibles of everyday life will eventually crush me. Toughness is low because of a long period of self imposed social isolation, largely related to the shyness trait. Why it should be that I can't take the mildest of knocks is yours to decide. Bound and retained such as these wounds are, remedied only by love. So we should hope.

Everything works out in the end. God plays dice, and the dice are loaded. Kay surah surah. Another Day another Dollar. Live to work or work to live.

Winter is coming.

#8 Time marches on

So well we are, happy and healthy, or hopefully at least so.

Stats update today.

Social is up 10%
Beermat flipping skills levelled up thanks to a successful first attempt at a stack of 10 (asynchronously sized, half aerial turn, fingertip catch, 2 witnesses). Beermat skills now stand at level 4
Hearing took some temporary damage due to all that loud music
Loneliness is on the rise, +1% every hour
Organisational skills are set to rise steadily until the end of the month
Sleepyness is rising steadily, so this post won't last much longer
Dancing abilities rose by 2D6%. Those of you playing at home should roll 2D6 now.
Maturity rose by 1 D10%. Mental age is now estimated at around 19 years.
Despondency caused by the humdrum nature of life rose slightly

Maybe next week I'll post up my alternate zodiac. It should blow traditional astrology out of the water.

#6 First Day

First day of the rest of my life, of Autumn, of September, of what will be. This means a lot of stats over near the relationship wall will start moving about. An odd mood dip occured earlier today but passed. Full moon I guess. The language is coming on nicely, the book has stalled and the other blog is sporadically updated.

Sickiness is up due to a rather terrible diet. I was thinking of adding Health status somehow. Life is pretty three-dimensional as is free will, so I might add Health as the floor. It'd fit nicely, because without good health, very few of the other walls matter. Religion holds up in the hopes that belief in healing has been demonstated to cure disease e.g. faith healing and the placebo effect.

Financial situation might improve in 4 weeks.

Common sense now dicates that sleepiness should be decreased. There is much to be done tomorrow.

#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.

#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!