Change for the Karma Jar

"Ebony is a stay-at-home mom with her two kids. Things were going along well until Daniel lost his job. Then the car died and without money to get it fixed, they couldn't go job hunting. And without a job, there is no money to fix the car. With bills piling up and their cars failing, they took out a second mortgage on the house to keep the family moving. Months later, now they're facing foreclosure. They need the money by December 8th or they have no place to live. "You don't happen to have $10,000 laying around, do you?" Ebony joked with me."

Her oldest son is developmentally delayed so they have to pay for his nurse and special schooling. Then, surprise! Ebony found out she was pregnant on top of it all

10,000 hits. $10,000. Please donate $1. Help Daniel and Ebony keep their home.

I sent my little bit I had. Because this could be us, in a heartbeat. No one should lose their home to misfortune.

One Day More

Yet Another Upopular Myst Opinion

The Uru community is not worth cat herding right now, not worth trying to inspire, not worth wrangling.

The *MYST* Community is. The D'niverse community is. The people for whom the D'ni Universe is about more than an online multiplayer experience... THAT is the community that has endured for 15 years, that will continue to endure even if Uru never comes back in any format.

Uru has become, in many people's eyes, the be-all and end-all of the D'ni universe. That without Uru the community collapses, fails, the dream dies. Uru fell, so D'ni falls.

Bullshit.

Uru is just one iteration of the story, just one expression of the Mytholody of D'ni. There are a thousand other ways that Mythology could come to light, via Cyan, or other sources.

It doesn't matter if we never get Uru back. It doesn't matter if we never gather in the cavern again. If we're that hot to see each other in the digital flesh, there's a dozen other ways to do so.

What matters is keeping the dream, the stories, the soul of D'ni, alive.

Thinking Out Loud: M.O.U.S.E.

Myst Online: Uru Shard Environments

Home Shard-
Like D'mala, this would be the 'official' shard. Run by a team of Cyan approved admins (a rotating team?) The admins would eventually have the ability to open and close existing areas, add new content objects, make subtle changes to the world as the tech to do so advances. An official story reason would exist for why MOUL ages aren't available at this time. Both official and Fan run story could (and should) happen here, supported by the admin staff tools. Fan-made ages could be added to this shard after rigorous GoM review.
While the Admins could have the admin KI mods, only realistic mods would be available to the UserKI (light, /me, etc.)

GoM Test Shard-
Where the Guild of Maintainers can test out Stuff, like new ages, new toolsets, etc.

Public Test Shard-
The next step from the GoM Shard, the place people can come test out new fan-made ages & tools, with the caveat that Things Break, Here There Be Vault Wipes, etc.

Playground Shards-
Individually run Shards that allow the Admin and UserKI.

Ponder: Reasonable ways to make sure that a)people can have a playground, but b)the community doesn't diffuse between dozens of shards? Ideas: Lottery for pre-set number of shards? Neutral 3rd party run shard servers w/ rotating admin teams?

Ponder: Basic Code of Conduct for all Shards, simple things, like "Be excellent to each other", "Don't use unauthorised tools", "Thine Admin Has The Last Word", etc... plus the ability for a Playground shard to designate a rating "G, PG, R", so no one gets supprised, or has expectations about a place that might not exist.

Assumptions-
People are already figuring out how to access MOUL and EoA content in earlier versions of Uru. We can assume that someone, somewhere is reverse engineering MOUL for a UU-type experience. And that at some point, those tools and builds will need tested where the fans can poke at them.

People are willing to pay for MORE. Will people pay for something even more fan-run, if a portion of the proceeds go to support a D'mala like shard: that is, a place where Cyan can participate. How could such a system be implemented? Kagi keys? Other user registration system?

The Ubiquitous Everybody just knows that there's underground shards running already. You can bet there would be with a relaunch of any UU sort of system. But the above shards would be the ones publicized, supported by Cyan and the GoM, and included in any new tools, builds and ages.

Stephen Hawking message to John McCain

I'm Joe Six-Pack

From the inimitable Copperwise, ok to link/distribute with proper credit.

My Fellow Joe Six-Packs:

Sarah Palin et al like to call us "Joe Six-Pack," and they think we like it too. They think it sounds folksy and homey and cute.

Sure. It's a folksy, homey, cute way to euphemistically call us something very close to trashy, ignorant hillbillies. We're just not supposed to be smart enough to realize it.

See, JSP isn't referring to our rock hard abs. JSP literally means "the blue collar guy who picks up a six pack of cheap beer every night after work and goes home to watch Nascar (and probably beat his wife/kids and light a cross on the black neighbor's lawn but we won't say anything about that wink wink nudge nudge)." That is the message that they are trying to get across to America.

We know you. You don't have a thought in your head beyond making sure you have food on the table and beer in the fridge. You want us to take care of you and do all the thinking for you. You're a demographic we've put together based on statistics of race, level of education, and family income. And we think that everyone who falls within those statistics is just exactly the same. And did we mention we don't think you're very bright?

And that, to them, based on statistics, is what they think of us middle Americans.

Are there a percentage of Americans who fit their definition? White (or POCs who are happy with their lot in life), blue collar, no higher education, racist, homophobic, specific brand of Christianity, afraid of intellectuals, jingoistic, sexist...of course there are.

Can we safely assume that demographic is already on their side? Fabulous. So now, JSP just refers to the undecided voter and the folks they want to pull over from the other side.

That is to say, us.

So, Governor Palin et al, let me tell you who the Joe Six-Pack that you think you're talking to really is.

Joe is the guy I worked with who served in Vietnam, worked construction, had four kids, thought Portland micro-brews were for hippies and weirdos -- and told me one day about having to change churches, because "our pastor spends all his time talking about how bad the gays are, and I go to church for God, and I really don't think God cares who you sleep with or who you marry." Oh, and he went back to school at 45 to get a degree in architecture, so I guess he won't be Joe Six-Pack soon. His income will put him into that Better Class of People y'all think you're part of.

Joe is a writer or an actor or an artist who waits tables, pumps gas, shelves books, does landscaping, delivers pizza, scrubs toilets, and otherwise works his or her ass off all day or night to pay the mortgage so they can continue to write or act or make art.

Joe is the lady down the street who is "just a secretary" and never finished college. She also reads D.H. Lawrence and lots of egghead poetry. Oh, and she can also name the newspapers she reads, but then she doesn't actually have time to read all of them.

Joe is a POC with parents of different races, who gets interrupted an awful lot at work to be asked "what ARE you?" by customers, and continues to bag your damn groceries with a smile. Then he goes home and watches Britcoms on PBS, plays long distance chess with a guy in Russia over the Interwebs, and feeds his kids before putting them to bed and reading them subversive stories by Neil Gaiman.

Joe is a stripper (who doesn't have a drug habit and isn't a prostitute.) She's putting herself through school. She's going to be a lawyer and look like one of you on the surface, but you're really gonna hate it when you're up against her in front of the Supreme Court.

Joe spends 8 hours a day on an assembly line with a wrench, turning bolts and hoping you don't send his job to a child in China. On Thursday nights he bowls with a bunch of construction workers and he does share a pitcher of beer with them. Budweiser, even. Then he goes home, puts on his ABBA records, and dances with his partner -- Andrew.

Joe comes in when you call I.T. because you've opened a forwarded executable file from your sister in an email with the header "Smile, God Loves You" and locked up your machine with a nasty killer worm. She smiles politely when you tell her how impressed you are that a pretty little girl like her knows so much about computers. Then she goes to her Tai Chi class and later dances naked in the back yard with her coven. But she drives a Chevy truck, so who knew?

Joe Six-Pack isn't who you think he/she is. You don't have a fucking clue about Joe Six-Pack.

I wish I were only talking to one camp. But I'm talking to my own, too. We "liberal elitists." Because we say the same kind of things when talking about "the average American." We assume we know them, and they are the same people Palin knows.

And that's kind of dangerous, and it's also kind of not true. Like I said, there are those people out there, and we know what camp they are in. But how many of us assumed "the average American" would say that Palin won the debate, because she didn't fall down and start speaking in tongues? And what are the polls saying? And hasn't our side also been moaning about how "Joe Six-Pack" wouldn't vote for a black man? Assuming "the average American" is that special demographic? Do we really think he did so well in the primaries because there's such a vast quantity of "intellectual elites" out there to compensate for all of the average people who'd naturally vote right wing? Come on, people.

Most of the "liberal elitists" I know are not, in fact, rich. Some are highly educated and working in lucrative professions. Some are highly educated and working class. Some, sadly, are incredibly liberal but not terribly educated (formally or autodidactically) and are just as easily led by sound bite as "the great unwashed" that they don't believe they are a part of.

But honestly, I know for a fact, pretty much everyone I know who will read this is, statistically, demographically, Joe Six-Pack.

And how many of you...us...truly fall into the assumed stereotype? Even if you're conservative? Even if you do like to buy a sixer now and again?

Are we the Joe Six-Pack they think they know?

When I get overwhelmed by all the things I feel passionately about -- racism, sexism, homophobia; when I despair that nothing is getting better and we're all just going to go on hating each other; when I start to fall into thinking that the doomsayers are right and nothing has improved and America just sucks...I hear Dr. King in my head.

I say good night to you by quoting the words of an old Negro slave preacher, who said, 'We ain't what we ought to be and we ain't what we want to be and we ain't what we're going to be. But thank God, we ain't what we was.'

And I look at the world, where things have changed a bit at a time, a step at a time. There are states where gay marriage is legal. We have a black Presidential candidate, and not, bless his heart, a Jesse Jackson running independently, but a black candidate who made it through our very inherently racist and generally crappy two party system to be the probable next President of the United States. And had it not been him, it would have been a woman.

We SO AIN'T what we ought to be or what we want to be. We are not even what I would call close. But one step at a time, one person at a time, we are steadily pressing on, trying to get there.

And the rich and powerful don't get to steal the credit for that.

The credit for the ongoing battle goes to Mr., Mrs., and Ms. Goddamn Joe Six-Pack. The agitators, the commenters, the people on the phone banks, the people in the streets marching, the people organizing, the people speaking out, the people working on their families and neighbors to make the changes that have to happen for us to change our society for the better...

Joe Six-Pack.

You are JSP. I am JSP. I grew up white and middle class. I have that endangered mortgage. I worry about putting food on the table. Hell, I'm an artist and a writer, I'm not even as high up as blue collar...I can barely find a good shirt to wear. And I'm bisexual, polyamorous, and pagan. And by the way, I know Cindy Soccer Mom. She's a full time nurse, "single" mother, drives a minivan, takes her kids to soccer and dance classes -- and goes home at night to strap on a leather harness and roger her girlfriend silly.

I am Joe Six-Pack. I am not who they think that they are talking to. Are you?

Truth in Advertising

Or something like that. It's come out in various places that Eleri is Not Doing Well.

This is true. See, the body can only run on stress and adrenaline for so long, before things start shutting down. When they say that stress can kill you, they mean it, and I'm trying to put the brakes on before the ride gets that wild.

I'm doing my best to keep up with the obligations I've already made, like making it to Mysterium, and getting to AustinGDC. But after that, I'm likely to drop off the face of the D'niverse planet for a while. (I can hear the party scheduling starting already! ;))

My community focus, after that, will be Mysterium 2009. I need to not jump into any other projects, as much as I'd like to.

I need time to heal, physically and beyond, if such a thing is possible. The good thoughts people have sent really do help. The whole community means lots to me, theres so much in my life that feels very bleak, that seeing the hope and vitality of the community, being able to do things that *matter* to the community, does me worlds of good.

Hang in there for MORE, everybuggy.

Smith-Magenis Syndrome

September is Smith-Magenis Syndrome Awareness Month. Both my daughters, Mousie and Pookie, have the RAI1 gene mutation associated with SMS. Mousie is officialy diagnosed, while Pookie is not, based on the existing diagnistic criteria.

If you've ever wanted to ask me questions about SMS, or the girls, but were unsure how or what to ask, feel free to jump in here.

Also, please visit PRISMS for more information on SMS, events supporting SMS families, and how to help.

More GDC questions

this time in the form of a full survey

plus, there's the ongoing discussion of Why Uru over here

BWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA

Getting grilled by a constituent.

So, Mr. Maybe President! What's your policy on recess? What are you going to do about school lunches? And I think every little girl should get a pony!

pulled from My Mysterium

since My Mysterium is misbehaving...

This was a triumph!
I'm making a note here:
"HUGE SUCCESS!!"

It's hard to overstate
my satisfaction.

Yeah, that. I haven't got the mental fortitude at the moment to express just how much GLORY AND WIN (as the kiddies say) this Mysterium was made of. But, I wanted to get a few thank-yous out before I turned anymore jelloy.

LaReh is my new Favorite Burger King Delivery Man. thank you so much for looking after me.

Many many thanks to KonDor for his kind words and support during my Saturday afternoon emotional reboot.

Simon Bitiddle is the Eleri Peanut Gallery. Witty, clever, an UTTER smartass (There is proof!) And one of the most selfless, generous, caring people I have ever had the honor of meeting. Thank you so much, hon.

Wolfie, for watching over us and giving us beautiful weather for the weekend.

EricL, as always, a snugglebunny and dear, dear friend.

Al's little bro, for his beautiful singing... even if he did try to put my teeth out in the pool.

Seekrit message for Odo: Silly Grin, heeheehee!

River, you rock my socks in more ways than I can count.

Memiki for being a beautiful person, full of wonderful hugs, and a warm heart. And cookies!

For the long-suffering Oscy, much love.

For 'nat. Dude. (Do0od!) You rock. We rock. Yup, we're not married!

For my beloved ozho, my Blade...for staying home with the Mousie, even though we both deeply, deeply wanted you there.

The Melting Pot in Burlington may NEVER BE THE SAME!!! We love them.

Ari, for being the mail box. Him and Keshwyn for shelter and taxiing.

For EVERYONE, thank you for enduring me, for looking after me, for being amazing, wonderful, fun people who came all the way to Boston, just to hang out with 50+ other Myst geeks. This is Uru.

I miss you all. See you next year in SPOKANE!!!

O.M.G.

US Department of Health and Human Services moves to declare some forms of birth control as 'abortions'.

So, in order to support that Abortion is Bad... they're talking about taking away the ability of women to KEEP FROM GETTING PREGNANT in the first place.

Just...just... AUGH!. There's NO science to support this, no viable evidence for this position, just religious extremism. Good grief, this could have been written by the POPE, rather than a branch of the US Government!

Whatever your views on abortion itself are, the ability of women to control their capacity for pregnancy is a hallmark of society. It gave women the ability to do something else besides spend their lives barefoot and pregnant. To quote a friend:

It's widely accepted that the single most powerful driving force in the liberation of women from thousands of years of being confined to home-and-hearth was the advent of reliable forms of birth control. For the first time in human history, women were able to make their own reasoned choices about when or whether to have children, and that gave them the freedom to do, well, everything else.We've seen the pattern repeat itself all over the world: If you want to empower women, first give them control over their own reproductive choices, then give them access to education - then stand back and watch them bloom.

Ohnoes! An Unpopular Suggestion!

Yours Truly said:

balance balance balance balance. At some point, Cyan will have to either supervise themselves, or vest into a group (and dear Maker, may it be an anonymous group of people, known only to Cyan, otherwise the power paranoia will fly) the need to keep crappy Ages and Edits from their IP. Now, what constitutes crap will be up to them, but it'll have to happen.

the reply was:

Oh goodness no. Not another secret group. Wont the crappy accused have the right to know who their crappy accuser is?

No. Cause there's already two big huge problems in this community; the perception of people having Power Over Others, and Us vs Them. Even in a situation where QA would be appropriate, like a publicly accessable Age, those two problems would come screaming to the fore were there to be a named group of people playing Wonka's Trained Squirels, sorting out the bad nuts.

"Who gave them that authority, what gives them the right, how dare they stifle creativity", and so on; followed by "Well of *course* Harry rejected that Age! Snape built it, and you know Harry just can't be objective there..."

The whole community would descend into the mess. So, if it ever gets to the point that Cyan has to control the 'quality' of what's coming in, and if they needed to 'outsource' that work. Don't let us know who's doing it.

Build some damn good strictures, so people know what's being looked at, even allowing for objectivity, establish an iron clad appeals procedure, but don't paint the targets on people's backs.

Myst in 9+ hours

Parrallel Cautious Optimism

In a large bit of squeeing this morning, I found the news that The ElfQuest Movie is being picked up by Warner. This news makes me howl with glee, havening been an EQ fan for 2 decades now. I met the Elves before I met the D'ni. They have seniority. And I used to pour as much heart into the World of Two Moons as I do Myst now.

The Pinis have been working on the Elfquest Movie for what 10? 12? Many? years now. There's been treatments done, talks of TV, even a Saturday morning cartoon. It's been picked up, and then lost in mergers, and then dusted off a dozen times.

Man, where have we heard that before?

This announcement about EQ, aside from making me happydance around the room, also made me fire off an email to our beloved Mysteriacs, Adrian and Patrick. There is always room for hope. If it takes a decade for some studio to finally see the Myst Movie as worth making, then we'll wait that long.

John McCain- PTSD?

From Sailor Jim:

Okay …. republican presidential candidate John McCain was a POW for five and a half years, enduring - as he’s described it - “brutal torture” that was so horrific that he “broke” and attempted to kill himself. He even has put this in political ads.

Sooooooo, no post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) resulted due to this? Vietnam, shot down, tortured for over five years, attempted suicide, and none of it affected him beyond that? He’s never stated that he ever suffered from (or is still suffering from) PTSD and, as near as I can tell, not one print or broadcast reporter has called him on it. They’ve gone rabidly after politicians for depression, alcohol, drugs, infidelity, illegal immigrant house staff, and stuff they did or said in their high school years, but McCain possibly having a fairly severe emotional disorder is being given a pass?

Somebody get Tom Brocaw down here for me to bitch slap, okay?

There's MORE AT THE LINK. It brings up some interesting questions, just about how that generation views mental health in general, let alone the mental health of VietNam veterans.

Should presidential candidates be required to prove mental health, in addition to physical health? At what point would something raise red flags? Would we have caught Reagan's Alzheimer's early then? McCain seems to have been mentally stable through out his political career, but we're also talking about a man who would be the oldest person elected president. Things break as you get older, and mental stability can be a first casualty.

When we learn McCain's running mate, the question of 'do we want #2 running the country' becomes more acute, and not just an abstract, when #1 would be 72 at the time of inauguration.

Why?

Why do we fight so hard for Uru?

It can't be just the modeling & sandboxing, there's tons of places to do that.

And it can't be just the social aspect, there's millions of sources for social interaction.

So, with all the other outlets, what is it that makes us grab on to Uru and hold on with the tenacity of homesteaders?

If you had to think of the one core thing, that makes you want to be a part of Uru, and not any of the other MMOs or Virtual Worlds, what is it? What's the seed of the Uru community?


(Discalimer & request: I am using this conversation as seed material for my presentation at the Austin Game Designer's Conference. Please indicate if I have your permission to quote you.)

Another bit of Wisdom of the Blade

I really think the community needs to embrace The Great Tree of Possibilities 2.0 (like Web 2.0 but different). We need to look at Uru as everything that happens in the community - age creation, fan-fiction, Cyan content, Mysterium, the forums, the websites, etc. Hopefully the official use of the Guilds (Cyan seems to have finally learned that lesson!) will make part of it about the fans as much as the fiction.

It's time for each of us to be the Grower. And I'm happy to browse other people's gardens

Yeahthat. Uru is, always has been, more than a game. It is a 'game' that brings the parts together, but Uru is the gathering of people together.

Is it November Yet?

I've ganked this commentarry, whole cloth, from Blade, because he said exactly what I would have:
This following clip about the place of religion in America from Barack Obama exemplifies why I support Obama and am genuinely excited about him being president. Even if it's just election rhetoric, the fact that the point is being made is absolutely critical.

Here are some choice quotes:
"Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into Universal rather than religion-specific values."

"No matter how religious they may be or not be, people are tired of seeing faith used as a tool of attack."

While some people think this is a secular position, I disagree. This is a truly American position (in the best sense of 'American'), one based off of the fact that the United States is a pluralist society, and that in a pluralist society, every faith matters (even humanism, secularism and atheism), not just one.

And this is a position that is easily born of faith, be it Christian or not.

Watch the video.