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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Who is Mulch Maker?


Well, my claws have come out. Make an ass of yourself in print, and you risk Mulch Maker coming out and, well, making mulch out of you. I wanted to come out soft, so I did, but I am opinionated, egotistical, provocative, and interactive.



Again, yes I have an ego. Yes I think I am always right. But I do have a strong logic circuit, and I can and do listen to reason.



Blatant disregard of truth, facts, logic, honesty, and reality set me off. That is a pretty good reason why I hate the Bush administration; they disregard all of the above.



Anyway, if somehow you find yourself reading my work, and wonder why, here are but 2 articles where I go on the offensive strongly against things that seem to me in every logic, karmic, and realistic fiber of my beings to be wrong. Neither are my best work, but, they show you what you are dealing with if you lie or deny truth.



Both were pointed out to me by friends, so I took a look and was outraged enough by what I saw to take a stand. The first one involves Cindy Sheehan and what a friend pointed out was an indecent attack on a grieving mother in another blog (which ended with Clyde influencing me into starting my own blog, to what avail I know not at this time), the second a consumer advocate friend of mind sent me to a site where the corporate activists were beating up on consumers taken advantage of and steamrolled by the corporate machine. In both cases, I hit back hard and deadly, putting all forms of diplomacy by the wayside.




OK, some of that stuff where I point out the Allstate shills IS pretty good material. It astounds me that some of them continue to deny they work for Allstate in spite of the overwhelming evidence, but then again, I guess I would lie too if I cared that much about money and someone named Mulch Maker pointed out and proved that I was a liar and corporate plant, thereby killing my meal ticket.



Burying this comment is probably the wrong place for this, but I saw a pretty major discrepancy between the names of places where people on the opposing side of the Sheehan debate have chosen to come together, Camp Casey and Fort Qualls, according to Dictionary.com.



CAMP

    1. A place where tents, huts, or other temporary shelters are set up, as by soldiers, nomads, or travelers.

    2. A cabin or shelter or group of such buildings: gathered branches and grasses for a makeshift camp; had a fishing camp in Vermont.

    3. The people using such shelters: a howl that awakened the whole camp.


    1. A place in the country that offers simple group accommodations and organized recreation or instruction, as for vacationing children: a girls' summer camp; a tennis
      camp.

    2. Sports. A place where athletes engage in intensive training, especially preseason training.

    3. The people attending the programs at such a place.


  1. Military service; army life.

  2. A group of people who think alike or share a cause; side: The council members disagreed, falling into liberal and conservative camps.



v. camped, camp·ing, camps

v. intr.
  1. To make or set up a camp.

  2. To live in or as if in a camp; settle: We camped in the apartment until the furniture arrived.



v. tr.
To shelter or lodge in a camp; encamp: They camped themselves by a river.



and



FORT
    1. The science of fortifying.

    2. The act or process of fortifying.


  1. Something that serves to fortify, especially military works erected to fortify a position or place.

  2. n 1: a fortified military post where troops are stationed [syn: garrison] 2: a fortified defensive structure [syn: fortress] v 1: gather in, or as if in, a fort, as for protection or defense [syn: fort up] 2: enclose by or as if by a fortification [syn: fortify] 3: station (troops) in a fort



It just seems one name is blatant military, which implies war, and one isn't. When I go camping, there is no military or warlike connotation. If I set up a fort, well...



Just seems to point out a fundamental difference in the mentality of the 2 sides.

2 comments:

Jon said...

OK, so boredom finally pushed me today to see what the big fuss was all about over this 'Second Life' cyberworld... The website makes it sound like a pretty interesting game with no limits (except financially). And for US$10 for a basic account, I was actually half considering signing up just for the sake of "checking it out". But then I saw the 'Live Video' feed. Just a fixed camera position next to a water fountain with some ppl chatting. You wanna enlighten me perhaps on what ELSE goes on in Second Life?

What scares me a little I guess is the fact that 'online' money can equal real-world money. Sounds pretty hardcore for an alternate-reality. Do you actually have a job in that game???

Mulch said...

The excitement of the live feed is determined by where the camera is placed

the real money connection is actually a positive. it ties into your question about jobs.

there are no jobs given to you to train experience points, like in other games. the developers do not consider it a game at all (although there are games within the game). detractors call it a glorified chat room. It can be a stricly social experience if that is what you want.

you can be a consumer or producer. producing requires real world skills, such as building and 3d modeling (the tools are pretty easy to learn), scripting, animating, texturing, or other similar computer type fields. You an also invest in land to sell but you had better understand the market and be good at sales to do so. You can also create your own supply and demand if you want

2 notable people in game have made a lot of real world money. from what I hear, the #1 land baroness is on track to make 6 figures USD this year. A game creater created a game within second life, and sold it to outside developers for a 5 figure pricetag.

the reasons i play are as follow in no particular order
1) 98% of the contenet is user created, so you have many different inspirations, not a tunnel vision company line. be a person, a dragon, an elf, a vampire, a bdsm master or slave, or a bunny rabbit. if its not there already, you can make it and sell it.
2) Anything you create it in game, you own the rights to it worldwide. it is YOUR intelectual property, not the game creaters
3) 18+ only, no bratty kids
4) Creative people bask in an intractive environment as this. i have put together a few places i love being at, and like minded people often end up there with me. i have even hired a resident i met for a real world project currently under development. his talent in game convinced me he could handle the job when elance and local contractors failed me
5) Huge proportion of women
6)you can create things in game that you cannot in real life because of constraints such as time, money, gravity etc
7) no censorship. there are very few rules, most deal with interfering with other peoples experience. hate speech and copyright infringements is about where they draw the line

weaknesses
1) It can be a money pit, but I own a lot of land and still spend less then 1 date per month on it. if you don't have skills or something to sell, you won't be able to buy the toys you want (unless you purchase currency)
2) Buggy. Its a revolutionary concept in interactiveness started by the guy who created the Real Player technolgy. as such, it is a streaming dynamic game, not a static one. that can lead to problems from time to time that make it seem like a beta. that being said, it really is a small price to pay considering the outlet for pent up creativity
3) Non - Creative people tend to get frustrated and leave as they don't feel like contributors.
4) fairly steep learning curve. it can take awhile to aquaint yourself with all the options, possibilities, and tools. but the good news is most residents are very kind and freindly and helpful. i have met a few assholes, but the ratio is far lower than any other online game experience i ever had

there is a free 7 day trial, so no risk (although they do require your credit card for age verification. if you don't want to join cancel befor the 7 days and you won't be charged a thing. but for $10 USD for life, it's not really a bad deal anyway you slice it, even if you are just a tourist there. I have 2 accounts I pay $10 a month for plus land use fees (I own a lot of land)

MY girlfriend and I own and run a Hippy Dancehall, A Hippy Amusement Park with rides (the Acid Drop, the best roller coaster in Second Life), a drum circle, a cafe in "France" based on the cafe from Amelie, a mansion my darling decorated, and I am now working on a recreation of a 10 in 1 sideshow.

the demographics from what i understand are males 18-25 and females 35-45. Women love socializing and playing barbie. guys love building, scripting, and yes, playing army man or space invader. i have a full arsenal of weapons and have a functioning transformers skywarp "costume"

there is also a heavy element of sex in the game. there are PG and mature regions, so it won't be in your face if you don't like it. i could care less preferring the real thing, but i will admit to owning a few sexual gadgets because they are kinda fun, although hardly fulfilling

you can check out my girlfriends blog at http://sharedillusion.blogspot.com for her perspective. She is a writer and teacher in real life, and is trying to use the game as a teaching tool

Give it a shot and give me a hollar, i got tons of freebies, help advice, and can show you around a bit

 

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