BLIND MACHINE

A person should never feel guilty for enjoying art.

In speaking on healthcare, I don’t think that mandating that people have access to doctors, dentists, vision care, prescriptions, and the like is a blow to states rights. In fact, as someone who works regularly with insurance companies and directly with the uninsured and underinsured both in a mental health & medical capacity, I can only say that hospitals and mental health institutions pay thousands if not millions of dollars annually (depending on the institution) caring for the under & uninsured.

All in all, this drives up the cost of the insured person’s health care. Over a long-term plan - with this ruling in place, should everyone be insured, the costs of health care should go down. No one is telling you to go to the doctor, or mandating what you eat or drink. Be as non compliant as you like, it is ultimately your choice to do what you wish with your body and your health. The medical & mental health professional can only run tests & provide advice and care, we cannot mandate beyond which point after you have gone home and make your choices for you.

We are not living in an Orwellian America.

When Oscar Wilde said that art imitates life, I don’t think that by any stretch of the imagination he was imagining a bunch of people sitting behind their computers pretending to be cyborgs role playing in the Star Wars galaxy.

Weaving a tapestry of events together in a sequence to allow for believability of consequences and - all the while - having it be fantastical enough to capture the attention of audiences across a server is an art form. It is the true essence of role play, and it requires equal amounts of writing chops, fantastic collaboration, follow through, and subtlety.

As role players we create our characters’ lives, one event at a time. As we create the life of our character, we have to remember that throughout a lifetime, or specific moment of their lifetime, that character has many parts to play and hats to wear. They are the star, the sidekick, the tertiary character, the walk on role, and the background din of the cantina. 

Much like in your own personal real lifetime, your character has its own main story arc, plays parts in the lives of other characters, and then spends its time socializing in its hangout of choice. Just as you do, you character has its own quirks, its own wants and desires, its own motivations, and does its own heroics.

No matter who or what your character is, your character’s role play follows vignettes in a lifetime, rather than featuring as the star in episodes of a television show or as parts of an ongoing movie series. Characters who operate in this sort of fashion can be seen as overdone, over the top, and hard to work with. 

Characters who are constantly featured as the star in constantly rotating story arcs become confusing characters to follow. While those who follow the character model as life model may be seen as slightly more realistic. Remember how the word “subtle” was used as a key in character modeling? Subtlety is a key element in most great storytelling, and may be something that a role player might want to bring to the table throughout their characters’ story arcs.

More on subtlety: a character does not happen to be a member of the Republic SIS or Imperial Intelligence Corps to fall into any sort of subtle role. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, small details are what makes a character, not everything about a character has to be larger than life, megalomaniacal, or beyond belief. This sort of consistency can become tiresome not only for those playing alongside the character, but also the player to maintain. How often can a shark be jumped?

Creating a life story, or a partial life story, is an important part of creating a character, and should not be forgotten when forming a character. All aspects of the story should be taken into account: playing the tertiary character role, or the walk on role can be brought into the character’s story - perhaps not affecting the character’s major story arc (that would be stealing the limelight), but belonging in our overarching meta story of which our character is a part.

To play as a star of a television series or a movie series takes away the prospect for smaller, more casual parts of role play: the Cantina scenes, the odd jobs, the random encounters in the world, etc. It also maintains that everything is - once again - maintained at a superlative level to capture audiences. Well crafted characters are that: well crafted, and can capture audiences with their panache, their presence, and their skill in interacting with the environment around them.

Remember when you work with other players and their characters that you must give all other players the chance to breathe, while working within your own comfort zone. Play the character you want to play, while keeping in mind that others wish to play the characters they want to play as well. If you feel like you are steamrolling, you may be more correct than you realize. Self monitoring is key in any social situation.

Whether the plot is yours or someone else’s, we are all participants. We all deserve a chance to participate as much or as little as we want; however, we should all be given a chance to allow our characters’ their proper voice.

On Mubarak’s “Clinical Death:”

Considering that the condition of Clinical Death was listed as “reported,” the condition was likely a quote from a physician. The physician was, as is a physician’s wont, speaking professionally. What it means, in layman’s terms is: Mubarak died.

I know this is late to the party, but there seems to be some confusion over how medical communication works.

I have a confession to make. 

I loved Prometheus. I loved it so much, I found almost no fault with it. I enjoyed every second of it (aside from the overlydramatic reveal of Charlize Theron’s to her overly-obvious parental figure). 

I have another confession to make.

I use science every day in my work. I use it constantly in my job at the hospital, and in my volunteer work. I am consistently working with people using scientific theories and social science and medical knowledge to aid people. This is science. 

And yet, I find no fault with the science in Prometheus, not because it doesn’t leave questions raised, but because the movie falls within the science fiction genre. Science fiction genre. Because the Ridley Scott film took place eighty one years in the future, and almost completely in an alien star system on another planet, we cannot even comprehend the scientific playground that this presents to us.

In dealing in the complete and fictive unknown, those of us professionally mired in science need to take a step back and say, “Donnie, you are out of your element.” Those of us recreationally mired in science need to say, “Donnie, you are out of your element.” Those of us who have a passing interest in science need to say, “Donnie, you are out of your element.” I think we are getting the picture.

What I mean to say is: No matter what our experience with science is, we haven’t any clue what a star system 100 light years, much less 93 million light years away is going to present to us. Add in a factor of this happening beyond the majority of what may be our natural lifetimes, and we may be completely clueless: Hence - Fiction.

I have an entire bookcase of professional literature, and a series of classes I need to take yearly in order to get my professional science kick on. Add in the fact that professionally I work and volunteer my time with science. I do not need to go see an IMAX 3D movie about my profession. In fact, I don’t think anyone would pay to see it. 

If you want your entertainment value to include actual science - go visit your local zoo or science museum. Read a textbook. Attend a seminar on quantum physics. Do not go see a summer blockbuster meant to rake in billions of dollars nationwide with several presentation options: “Do you want that regular screen, 3D, or IMAX 3D?”

Your local science museum might have a movie about aeronautics, the Marianas Trench, or dinosaurs being shown in IMAX 3D if you really want to wear those glasses. Plus, it’s more likely to be scientifically accurate than a film about proto-humans, faith and the fragility of the human condition.

/rant

invisibleinkie:

Reading celebrity gossip sites this morning (I know, I know), I ventured into the comments (I KNOW). It is awesome how many people on the internet feel entitled to diagnose others’ medical or psychological conditions and/or shortcomings and/or failures as human beings and offer pointed advice/criticism/useless anecdata in the comments section of any post anywhere on the internet.

And by awesome I mean, SHUT THE FUCK UP, WHY DON’T YOU.