φιλανθρωπικόν ὄνειρον

That is, 'philanthropic dreams' - φιλανθρωπικόν ὄνειρον (philanthropikon oneiron) is not here noting being sent some message through dreams, or meeting said god  Ὄνειρος (Oneiros), or having some personified journey through the netherworld, but just a dream.  You see, I have been thinking. If I had the money to, some of the places I would like to be able to help out financially would be local coffee shops.  Granted, by being a patron and going nearly daily to these shops for a latte or a smoothie, I am in some ways already being somewhat philanthropic.  But, I mean on the grander scale of being able to financially back their endeavors to help serve others.  To make sure they always have enough to keep afloat and stay in business.  For to me, these shops provide a valuable service.


The local coffee shops in my area that I live are my office where I work on writing, editing, and doing all that I need to do to create and shape stories.  It is also where I can relax and have a feel for a vibrant atmosphere, even if I don't actively participate in what goes on around me.  In some ways, when I do look up from my writing, it does give me chance to observe the flow of people around me.  To see them as they study, talk with friends, order their drinks, hear the sounds of the espresso machine at work heating up the milk for the lattes or water for the teas.  The music, though I sometimes drown out with my headphones when I'm searching for songs I want to use as themes, also adds to the atmosphere.  It's a lovely office and recreation all at once, and perfect for inspiration and observation.  


So, if I ever did become a famous author, or at least good enough to make due, and have extra to spend on 'φιλανθρωπικόν ὄνειρον' then that is what I would do.  I would put it in as my 'lease' to my offices of work.  Of course, I already do in that little bit that I give each day for my own drinks that I buy there.  But, I would prefer that one day I could do more for them as appreciation for the good service and hospitality they have given to me throughout my years of patronage to them.

Werecats

Remembering some of my RPs back when I did more with Luke and Ioh as weretiger and wereleopard respectively, it seems that I had been doing it right all along.  Funny, though, is that I did not know about the Four stages of forced transformation, even for werewolves, but I still essentially RPed them out in similar manner, minus the full moon aspect. That's mainly because the full moon aspect seems mundane to the whole therianthrope genre, and more so because SL doesn't have moon phases.  There's always a full moon in SL night, and I just don't want my were-creatures to be always being forced to change every time night time comes around in SL, which can be quite often, depending on sky settings.  However, if an RP sim wanted to designate a period of time for a full moon to be in effect, I'd consider using that for forced transformation.

But, for now, I'm not really focusing on any therianthropic character, so my were-creatures can relax and not be worried about being forced into any transformations any time soon.  However, the wiki was still a fun read, which all you who read this blog can check out here.

The Writer's Creed

Ok, maybe not so much a creed.  But certainly a good portion of an argument that I think is worth  posting here as it's own blog spot.  The rest of the argument can be found here. 
This is my writing from that a comment.  Luke Heartsdale is my character, and so I feel that, as it is my writing, it is fine to post this here to be read on it's own in this blog, as well as being referenced back to its origins on the Flickr picture post.  Feel free to comment here or there.
***
Writing and storytelling have always been in the realms of natural and either 'unnatural' or 'supernatural'. I suppose, in the long run, I choose the latter because, if something is created, no matter how abstract and hard to define as something of nature, it still is a part of the whole of what is natural. Therefore, it's supernatural because the explanation of its creation/existence is outside our realm of being able to describe it in whatever bubble of normalcy we accept or choose to buy into. I choose to refrain from calling things supernatural 'mythical', mainly because, the very meaning of the root of the word, being mythos, basically means 'story.' And, if anything can be made into a story, which anything can, then all things can be considered mythical. The only difference between modern and ancient myths is what we know, or think we know, compared to what our ancestors knew, or what we think they knew. What is the commonality? All stories, past present, and future, were, are, and will be based on the experiences and imaginations of the human beings that have, do, and will make the stories they write. And most of all, for any story - any myth - to come into being, someone has to either write it down, or at least tell it for it to be passed down in some form or another, regardless of what shape the forms of media take in any given human generation. But this is the altruism of story writing that has been passed down and remains as sacred a tradition to a writer as Sacred Tradition does in so many world religions, even in those Bible thumping Sola Scriptura Evangelist Christians that would claim they go by no tradition, but the Bible alone. I'm sorry to tell them, as much as they doth protest, by going by that principality, they have been going by a tradition that's now nearly 400 years old.


But think about that. Just in noting tradition, just in speaking of stories, there is the workings of conflict no matter what. Why? Because there are multiple schools, theories, principalities all at work there. Whether we like to see it or not, our lives revolve around some sort of conflict, no matter how big or small we make of it. Tolkien himself had noted that he saw it no big a thing if people want to explore the dreadfulness of modern life any more than those that delve deep into the mythologies or ancient peoples now long dead. Of course, he quipped, just as any sensible author might, that modern people can be just as 'dead' and dull as those ancient people, but he, who gave us the world of Middle Earth and all the Lord of the Rings entails, does not deny that the modern world has created for us the blueprints for even fantasy. In some ways, he chose, consciously or not, to utilize his real life experiences to help drive meaning into his world of fantasy. It was a place he could escape to, yes, and certainly to free his creativity and imagination. But it was also a safe place to explore his ideas and experiences from real life, and maybe in doing so, helped to keep him sane and hone in on an ability to be reflective in nature. To maybe relive the horrors or war, but to also provide a way to produce his lessons learned from war in a way that does not lecture or preach, but shows them in powerful imagery.


I will never deny that RP is a form of entertainment and escapism. So are many books, movies, and other media. But, RP does not just have to be limited to such. Mythos itself cannot be limited to one lock in step way of doing things. Although, just like life itself, it does have the basic pattern, that eternal cycle of having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Humanity did not need Aristotle to note this. But Aristotle was one of the ones of antiquity that we can point to that did put it in the footnotes of the human story. And ever since then, all stories mimic the three act play, or deconstructed it to basically recontruct it and come up with the same thing, but with a few more steps added here and there. Regardless, the cycle is there in a story we create, just as the cycle of life is there in our collective story of humanity. There's no getting past the rhythm. It's just there. It exists. And it will continue to exist for as long as we, or some other sentient being is around to create stories and be part of the story of life.

Camping in Crossroads?

This post has a related picture on Flickr here.

Crouched on a ledge of the old clock tower, a dark, shadowy figure looks over the courtyard. Doth this barely visible, brooding-looking shade bring about fright and terrorize the folks below him due to his IC prowess and loathsome look as he perches there in a stoic silence? Apparently not. It seems this dark knight is more terrifying to those around him in OOC. Read on, dear reader, if you dare, and learn about the frightning things that the GMs of Crossroads are more concerned about with OOC appearances, rather than IC actualities.

GM I
GM I: Iohannes?
Iohannes Crispien: yes?
GM I: I'm a GM here in Crossroads. You know the rules of Crossroads and CCS?
Iohannes Crispien: pretty much
GM I: I'm asking because your behaviour looks a lot like camping
Iohannes Crispien: I'm taking photos
Iohannes Crispien: but I can turn off the meter, if that's the problem
GM I: Please do.
GM I: Then you won't get problems with any GM
Iohannes Crispien: sorry. I'm used to not being hassled just for taking photos.
GM I: It's not a big issue, but when you stay for a long time in the same place without any RP it might
Iohannes Crispien: But then, also RP non metered, and in places that don't use them, so camping isn't ever considered, since there's no meter to camp for
GM I: Camping is allowed, but not camping for XP
Iohannes Crispien: well, it's a nonissue. I don't even care about xp. I've been in SL for 3 years, RPed in CCS sims and estates, and the furthes any of my characters have gotten is lvl 10 or so. Considering that I've been RPing for this long, and non of my characters are at lvl 50 or 100, you can rest assured that I don't camp
GM I: I believe you.
Iohannes Crispien: thanks
GM I: Have fun
[01:42 PM] Iohannes Crispien: you too.

GM II
GM II: why are you taking pictures of the sim?
Iohannes Crispien: because it's what I do in SL? I like to take pictures. Even post some that I edit and think look good and put them on Flickr. Even make stories for those pics. It's part of how I RP and enjoy my time in SL
GM II: so not copying builds?
Iohannes Crispien: I don't even build, and if I wanted to I know where to get textures legally. But I"m not interested in building.
GM II: ty
Iohannes Crispien: what I have been doing is parially a profile pic, and trying out windlight settings to see what gives the best look and feel
Iohannes Crispien: yw

Note: On a more serious side, I did find this interruption to my photo shooting quite annoying and disturbing. But, I put this here as fair notice that if you do go to Crossroads to take pics, and they find you standing (or perching) around, they will get in your face about it. I was neither trying to camp for xp, nor take pics to copy their precious build. No, I was just trying to enjoy the environment and get in some pictures to be able to post for flickr and profile purposes. However, because of the interruption, and because I like to reveal asshattery when it happens, I post this here.

I'm not saying that Crossroads is a bad place to RP. Having been observing it for some time, both on Ioh and my alt, I have found it an interesting place and had Ioh join the RP group there to maybe get in some minor RP here and there, or just to be able to go around taking photos for fun and as being there in a more official manner. It is a beautiful build, and I would provide more pictures of Crossroads to advertise that, to which would gain them more traffic, assuming those of you that check out my Flickr like what you see and hear from me about the place. So, I'm just disapointed that my first impression to put up on Flickr is not so great. Hopefully, though, my next reviews of Crossroads will be much more on the positive, as I do believe that this sim has potential for good RP, despite the hang up of using the CCS for metered battle.

And no, none of my characters likely will make it to lvl 50 or 100 on CCS. I doubt many of them will get past lvl 10 or 15. I just simply will not waste my time on trying to gain XP when my PRIMARY reasons to go into any RP sim are either to RP or take photos.

But, I guess that goes to show that asshat GMs are not just isolated to Midian or Crack Den. :p

Pearl of Wisdom

What is the real beauty of a pearl is that it is the byproduct of agitation to a poor sea-shell animal called an oyster.  It is, in a sense, much like what happens when a kidney stone effects that particular bladder of our own human body.  So just think, if you were an oyster, you would be pissing out a valuable and precious stone.  Oh the pretty things that agitation can produce!

Shaping and Dialogue

In RP, there's often been this back and fourth about paraposting and 'one-liners'.  To give brief definition, I'll note that paraposting is essentially making paragraph posts.  One liners are, well, essentially one line or sentence used in a post.  

In my opinion, though I like a good paragraph, I do think that paraposters do become a bit fanatic about making flowery, descriptive posts and forget that most important aspect of telling a story: flow.  Flow is the most important aspect of any story.  It's like the river that the reader travels on.  And, like most rivers, a book that flows well is going to have a diversity of landscaping from calm, broad banks where the river flows slow and deep, to more narrow, fast-paced areas where the turbulence from white water that's quick-flowing crest falling and rising through rapids.  A good story is much like that.  And, as much as RP is a story, good RP is like that too.

The landscaping of a book, or, to more modernize the concept, the landscaping of a text-based story, from classic book novels to online published blogging, and into the realm of RP - the landscaping is called shaping. And, I reiterate this one more time, because of how important I see this concept, the landscaping of any story is called shaping.  Shaping of posts, shaping of the traditional paragraph, shaping of dialogue.  Any text that you want to utilize has a shape to it, and the way in which the author of the text shapes it is called shaping.  The way I shaped this paragraph, the body of this blog, even down to the sentences and word choices, and how the words are used, they are all part of shaping.

At first, I was going to try and find an example of shaping through finding a fight scene in a given novel.  Strangely enough, most action and adventure novels tend to not deal with fighting very much, and rather tend towards avoiding fights.  A phenomenon, I suppose, that has to do with trying to build up to a fight.  The fight is the 'last battle' and, generally, when the big fight is over, so is the novel.  And since no novelist likes to write a book of less than 100 pages, and most averaging around 300 to 500, it is no wonder that most of the chapters of adventure deal in 'dodging the bullet', so to speak. Granted, there might be a few minor skirmishes.  If a series, there might be those moments of a 'middle man' battle, but the big battle, the main event still remains at the end.  For the sooner you go to the big battle, the sooner the story's over. So the smaller skirmishes that lead to escapes keep the story going, and a sort of comfortable feeling of there being another day ahead, and another adventure to look forward to.

So, not wanting to skim to the end of a given book (fine, you can call me lazy for that), I decided to go with one of the most common examples in novels of this mixture of short one liners and long, drawn out paragraphs.  The excerpt below is from a classic 20th century novelist called John Buchan called The Thirty Nine Steps.  It was published in 1915 by William Blackwood and Sons in Edinburgh and features a protagonist/narrator by the name of Richard Hannay, who finds himself in the midst of a world of conspiracy theories at the verge of World War I.  Theories that wind up leaving him on the run due to a beggarly sort of man he meets at the beginning of the book and somehow manages to be found dead in Mr. Hannay's apartment.  Of course, Richard Hannay isn't the killer, but the circumstantial evidence doesn't put him in good light either.  So thus he goes on the run to try and find the real killers of the man and try to stop the conspiracy that would lead to the death of a distinguished Greek politician.

And so, without further hindrance, here is the example of the flow of dialogue from the first chapter of the book:

My flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place. There was a common staircase, with a porter and a liftman at the entrance, but there was no restaurant or anything of that sort, and each flat was quite shut off from the others. I hate servants on the premises, so I had a fellow to look after me who came in by the day. He arrived before eight o'clock every morning and used to depart at seven, for I never dined at home.

I was just fitting my key into the door when I noticed a man at my elbow. I had not seen him approach, and the sudden appearance made me start. He was a slim man, with a short brown beard and small, gimlety blue eyes. I recognized him as the occupant of a flat on the top floor, with whom I had passed the time of day on the stairs.

'Can I speak to you?' he said. 'May I come in for a minute?' He was steadying his voice with an effort, and his hand was pawing my arm.

I got my door open and motioned him in. No sooner was he over the threshold than he made a dash for my back room, where I used to smoke and write my letters. Then he bolted back.

'Is the door locked?' he asked feverishly, and he fastened the chain with his own hand.

'I'm very sorry,' he said humbly. 'It's a mighty liberty, but you looked the kind of man who would understand. I've had you in my mind all this week when things got troublesome. Say, will you do me a good turn?'

'I'll listen to you,' I said. 'That's all I'll promise.' I was getting worried by the antics of this nervous little chap.

There was a tray of drinks on a table beside him, from which he filled himself a stiff whisky-and-soda. He drank it off in three gulps, and cracked the glass as he set it down.

'Pardon,' he said, 'I'm a bit rattled tonight. You see, I happen at this moment to be dead.'

(http://www.gutenberg.org/files/558/558-h/558-h.htm)

I chose this particular section because it has everything in it.  The introduction at the beginning with the two narrative paragraphs describe the scene, and then lead into the dialogue, which presents the problem, or the conflict/action of the scene, to which the dialogue elaborates on.  Notice, the paragraphs are used for description, the dialogue for presentation. Paragraphs help to lead into the action, the dialogue is the action.  Paragraphs describe and build up to the conflict, the dailogue puts the conflict into motion. The paragraphs give depth to the story and the motivations underlying the actions, and the dialogue puts that depth into action.  When put together, the paragraphs and the dialogue together help with producing the flow of the story.  

Maybe, for me, being a more of a storyteller, and not so much bogged down on the silly banter between the paraposters and one liners, I can see how both tie together.  Not every post has to be a paragraph or a page long. Not even sentences need to be very long.  They can be short.  And, more importantly, both, when you shape out your posts well, and consider the flow of a story, they can powerfully impact and greatly improve your writing and the RP experience.  

Have depth, but also come out of the deep end and let all those details fully bloom in action or dialogue.  Be bold and use both paragraphs and one liners. Because, as intriguing as a long paragraph describing a death scene, or whatever the purpose of the paragraph's description is for, one still has to admit, there is much great intrigue when a dialogue presents a character saying in one line: 

"You see, I happen at this moment to be dead."

Devaluing of Second Life

At first, I thought I'd consider the concept of people boasting about giving away Lindens in the thousands, and the devaluing of the Linden dollar in general, but I feel there is something far more interesting and important than the more material consideration.  And that is, that of the essence of SL itself devaluing.

On the first aspect, this article from Second Thoughts from back in May does well in noting how the Linden dollar has been devaluing.  Current rates of the Linden dollar to the US dollar have been ranging at the time of writing this blog between L$267 to L$277 per US $1.00 with L$1000 costing approximately US$3.75 (US $4.05 approximate total), and the volume was at L$52,745,847, which is about US$198,372.65, and still rising.     The point being is that, claiming to toss around thousands of L$ is essentially like boasting about giving out a bunch of Starbucks Grande Carmel Macchiato Lattes, which sell for US $4.55 (approximately L$1200). Sure, if you give away about 10 or 15 of them, you would have a pretty big coffee bill (around US $45.50 to US $68.25), but to boast about it like one is giving away thousands of US dollars (US $1,000  would be about L$267,000) just kinda seems silly.  Argue that spending thousands of L$ makes you a big spender if you want, but it's not that terribly impressive in real life standards.  On the other hand, spending US $45.00 to US $70.00 on what many in the real world population see essentially as a game and frivolous past time are likely just to think that an excessive amount to put into something so trivial.

On the other hand, Sl is something that people enjoy.  Well, at least 1.4 million people do, out of the supposed 15 to 20 million that have joined over the past few years.  How many in those numbers of memberships are actually people that dropped out in the first few months, or are older members that simply have created alts for whatever reason they feel the need to have one..., or two or fifteen (not that I am against alts, I have a few of my own), those are statistics that no one really knows, save maybe Linden Labs themselves.

Why is SL enjoyed by these 1.4 million that continue to come to SL?  I think another article on Second Thoughts puts it quite well.  The article itself can be read in its entirety here, to which this excerpt is what I put focus on:

"Shared experience" is the gold loot of SL that everybody wants to mine. If only they can fit in, be with a group, be accepted, find something to do and people to talk to -- which is usually in a group -- they will be happy. And for particularly the SLintelligentsia, this shared experience is ecstatic. It's profound and moving and deep. They conceive it almost in religious terms. And it is addictive and it's the reason they hang on their Plurks at work and huddle in their groups at night online in SL. Their gang of friends provides a sense of identity and sustenance like nothing in real life. Nothing is as exciting and stimulating and compelling as the group online, except, for perhaps, the lover online. That they are fictions and concoctions and can even become coercive and ultimately empty isn't something they want to hear about today. They'll think about it another day.

The whit and sarcasm of the article's words can be quite humorous, but also can be quite true and to the point.  Having been on SL for 3 years, I can relate to both the power and impact of groups here in SL, and that of having relationships as well.  Both are connected, as generally one seeks out a group (or stumbles upon it), gets involved with it, often deeply and emotionally.  One tends to find another that's also in that group, and, shared experience, you find yourself deeply and emotionally involved with this person, partner them, and go through all the various aspects of SL relations.

In my experience, it started with joining Midian and then finding Ioh in with the Catwalkers.  From there, a few other groups of mine came about - the most notable of them were the Catfight Club, and the Honorarium de Iohannes.

Catfight Club came about due to the waning of the Midian combat meter (MCS 2.0).  It was at a time when people in Midian still wanted to be able to fight with a meter, but more and more were opting towards text-based combat.  Me?  I loved using the meter, even if I was not the best (ok, a pretty crappy) fighter.  At that time, I had come out of being involved with the Combat: Samurai Island (C:SL) crowd, to which I began there in January of 2007, being first mentored in samurai sword fighting by Amber Suising, and then joining and then joining my first clan, Samurai Giri.  From there, I later got involved in the Tendai Clan and continued on there, learning the way of the sword (SL's version of it then, anyways) and understanding both technique and the then standards and norms of the rules of engagement and what was acceptable and unacceptable fighting technique at the time.  After a while, I went to Midian and found myself absorbed into RP and learning about how to build stories, both in character background and in the interaction of it overall in the RP itself.  


As noted, at that time, metered battle was not foreign to Midian, and I got my first taste of urban battle when the first war between the Catwalkers and the Pack came about.  It was intense, insane, but, and despite having taken losses in gunfights with IC nemesis (though eventually became OOC friends, and relatively IC friendly) known as Kuno, I enjoyed the fights.  Peole didn't take things terribly serious then.  You get shot up and you get dragged off to be healed, which could end up in rather strangely humorous surgeries and other medical care.  It had an entertainment value because people weren't taking things terribly serious.  But eventually that changed.  And as people were going more towards 'serious' text-based RP, I opted to try to bring about the Catfight Club as a way for people to be able to enjoy that non-serious, and sometimes ridiculously over the top fighting that was metered combat.  It was my attempt at a Fight Club, and it was fun. And, though some won't admit it, it also had its offshoot, of which I'm more than certain the Pitfight Club in Midian had its origins from.  Hard not to consider that when some of those that were in Catfight Club originally wound up migrating to the Pitfight Club eventually.


At any rate, that was my personal experience with groups of the more social shared experience.  The Honorarium was more of my intimate 'family' experience, and is one that still exists, remarkably.  I say that because it's been battered and beaten throughout the years, even from the beginning of its existence.  I'm just going to generally talk about it.  This isn't a post about my SL love life, or attempt at it in the greater aspects of romanticism.  No, this is more on the aspect of its nature.  You see, it started with my first Felix Amans (loving cat, of happy kitten).  She was a Kittenwalker at the time, and eventually became a Catwalker.  To make a long story short, the process, if I remember, it initially was that I collared her, then the Honorarium was formed, and I got her to join the group as my Felix Amans, and partnered her.  Eventually, the form of it went to initially bringing someone into the group first, and then working from an associate to a friend to a familial, and finally to the Amans, to which collaring became traditional, as did partnering soon after, if not all three aspects joined together.  When SL marriage came in to play, the title was changed to Regina Felinam (Queen Cat).  There was one last one to which the very last of the Felixes and I took on titles that essentially meant 'heart song'. 


To this, I  understand how deep and moving groups and loves can be in SL.  But, as also noted in the second article mentioned from Second Thoughts, these relations are made from "fictions and concoctions" and "can become coercive and ultimately empty."  I didn't want to hear it then.  And even now, I don't want to believe that there isn't a way to interact in SL, and even RP that is completely artificial and, well, has no 'soul' to it.  Because, to me, fiction does have a soul, there is an essence within stories that give them life.  In the shared experience, it is we, the avatars, the 'players' or 'actors/actresses' in RP that breath life and meaning into the experiences.  Without us there, and without us interacting in this virtual environment, there is no shared experience.  You can't play a game without people participating in it.  You can't even have a game without someone creating one to participate in it.  Creation and creativity have that necessity for each other.  Because without one or the other, they don't exist.  And without people to create and be creative, neither the creation nor the creativity can even come in to being.  You can't even have an IC character without an OOC player/person.  To not see this relationship between persons and the interaction in the shared experience ultimately leads to the devaluing of Second Life.  


One might argue that that also is what makes SL different from real life.  For SL depends on people to populate it and have that shared experience to exist.  Yet, on the other hand, if the entire human race becomes extinct in the real world, who will be here to even come up with and hold onto the concept of existence anyways?