Just woke up. Sleepy, hazy, confused, and so on.
Tried playing some ESO before sitting down to lunch and blogging. Pretty rapidly realized that I was too sleepy for that shit so I quit, got my lunch together, and sat down here to blog at you lovely, lovely people.
Right now, in ESO, I am doing quests in a place called Murkmire, which is a swampy area (ick) home primarily to Argonians, a race of amphibious lizard people.
I like them. They are an interesting people. Alien in some ways, very human in others. I don’t care for hanging around in a swamp much. I hate swamps. They are so gross.
But it’s worth it for the plot and the lizards.
One thing about my current character is that he dies way more than my previous Sorcerer ever did. Life is tough when you are a stabby thiefy type, it seems.
Of course, as a Sorcerer, I had my summoned creatures to help me, and I suspect that spoiled me somewhat. It’s way easier to let my critters engage the enemies while I hang back and make with the zapping than it is to engage the enemies myself with just my two daggers to protect me.
So right now, I am getting crushed by the learning curve. I have to learn such novel techniques as blocking and dodging.
I never had to do much of either of those as a sorcerer. I just blasted away at the enemy from a distance.
I have also had to learn what we will call “discretion”. As in the better part of valour. As in, knowing when to fight an enemy and when to just sneak quietly past it and hope like hell it doesn’t notice it.
It’s a humbling experience, and I am enjoying it. My own hubris and lack of caution amuse me to no end.
There was one moment I have to share : there is a plant in the swamp called a “catapult cabbage”. It’s a complicate lily-like flower about the size of a man, and it gets its name because of how it flails out if anyone comes near it.
So once, I saw one, and decided to run up to it to trigger it. I had triggered them before without any harmful effects, so I thought nothing of doing it again, on purpose.
Well it turns out that if you are close enough when it happens, the lashing out hits you and knocks you on your ass.
It was so unexpected and so slapstick that I couldn’t help but laugh.
Admittedly, I don’t use my stealth abilities as much as I could. It’s a struggle to rein in my usual bloodthirsty instincts and slow down long enough to sneak up.
Part of the problem is that it’s not that rewarding. The best result so far for sneaking up on an enemy successfully is them being stunned for a couple of seconds.
I prefer games where that results in a massive damage bonus, sometimes letting you take out the enemy with one shot.
Now that’s some quality stabbin’.
More after the break.
LOL. I just checked the balance on my reloadable VISA to discover that…. quelle shoq, quelle horrer…. I went an entire 66 cents over my weekly budget!
Well clap me in irons and lead me to the pillory for being the profligate wastrel I am.
I have, in a rare bit of insight, put a link to the website for said reloadable VISA’s website on the bookmark bar of my browser because I know that, as part of this new card based lifestyle, I am going to be jonesing to know how much money I have and seeing as I can no longer count it, the next best thing is checking my balance online.
Another odd little fillip to my transition to paying with plastic is that now my monthly bills come out of my spending money.
In the before time, I would put $60/month or so on my card to pay my bills and that was it. The cash in my pocket was entirely mine to spend, so to speak.
But now that I am keeping most of my money on the card, those bills come right out of the monthly money, and that’s going to throw off my bookkeeping for a little while.
Oh well. I am sure I will make the adjustment.
Now, to talk crap about democracy.
Me : (Over a PA system) Ladies and Gentlemen, may I have your attention please for the following announcements.
Me : (Over a PA system) Number one : You do not live in a democracy. You have never lived in a democracy. There has never been any democracy.
How can this be? It’s simple : one vote with two choices every four years is not democracy. I repeat, it is not democracy. It is not even close. It might call itself a democracy and you have definitely been raised to think it is democracy, but that is a lie.
It is’ at best, democracy flavoured tyranny, and has about as much relationship to real democracy as orange Kool-aid does to oranges. It may contain traces of democracy. Democracy might be what gives it its characteristic flavour. It might even say democracy on the boxes and tins it comes in. But it is not democracy.
You have been lied to. You have been hoodwinked. You have been conned into thinking you have democracy by powerful elites who know the best way to oppress people is to tell them that they are already free.
But you’re not. You are a hamster in a wheel running your paws off to make money for people who think of you as less than nothing.
In a system like that, does it really matter that you get to decorate your own cage, and what kind of pellets you eat, and what hamster wheel best expresses you as a person?
Because let me level with you, people : freedom and democracy are not just concepts. They are also emotions, the kind you can feel in your gut. The kind that come from deep in our collective hearts. So let me ask you this :
Do you feel free? Does commuting and working and hating it like everyone else does make you feel free? Does having no choice in the really big things in your life, like what you do with half the waking hours of the day, say “liberty” to you?
And do you feel like you live in a democracy? Do you feel like the people are in charge of what their own governments do to them? Do you feel like your politicians represent your best interest and not just their own? Do you feel that your government is currently being run by people who think and feel like you do?
It’s time to wake up, everybody. You are not free. You do not have to take this. You can stands up and demand real democracy, with no tricks, and raise holy hell until wem the people, get to determine our own fates.
No more fake democracy.
No more politicians.
Mo more capital city.
No more lobbyists and special interests.
The people will be the parliament. The citizens must become the Congress. The whole pathetic farce of representative “democracy” has to end.
We want MORE DEMOCRACY NOW.
And we will not be satisfied until we get it.