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Tue 27 Aug 2019 09:26:40 AM EDT
Slept from nine-thirty to six-thirty.
Woke around two-thirty, and took a long time to fall back to sleep.
High of eighty-three and mostly cloudy today.
Extremely humid this morning.
Work:
- Add disks to Storage?
Done.
No time for a walk at lunch.
Ear-splitting fire alarm went off while I shopped at Meijer.
No one bothered to evacuate.
They continued shopping, apparently deaf to the alarm.
Home:
- Grocery (lunches)
Done.
- Laundry
Done.
Twenty-minute walk after I got home from work.
Hot.
A chorus of cicadas.
Saw a dragonfly, a morning dove, and one scarlet tanager chasing another.
> Another line of action which a mark who refuses to be cooled can pursue is that of turning "sour." The
term derives from the argot of industry but the behavior it refers to occurs everywhere. The mark
outwardly accepts his loss but withdraws all enthusiasm, good will, and vitality from whatever role he is
allowed to maintain. He complies with the formal requirements of the role that is left him, but he withdraws
his spirit and identification from it. When an employee turns sour, the interests of the organization suffer;
every executive, therefore, has the problem of "sweetening" his workers. They must not come to feel that
they are slowly being cooled out. This is one of the functions of granting periodic advancements in salary
and status, of schemes such as profit‐sharing, or of giving the "employee" at home an anniversary
present. A similar view can be taken of the problem that a government faces in times of crisis when it
must maintain the enthusiastic support of the nation's disadvantaged minorities, for whole groupings of
the population can feel they are being cooled out and react by turning sour.
> Of course, when the mark reaches old age, he must remove himself or be removed from each
of his roles, one by one, and participate in the problem of later maturity.
> The strategies that are employed by operators to avoid the necessity of cooling the mark out have a
counterpart in the strategies that are employed by the mark himself for the same purpose.
There is the strategy of hedging, by which a person makes sure that he is not completely committed.
There is the strategy of secrecy, by which a person conceals from others and even from himself the facts
of his commitment; there is also the practice of keeping two irons in the fire and the more delicate practice
of maintaining a joking or unserious relationship to one's involvement. All of these strategies give the
mark an out; in case of failure he can act as if the self that has failed is not one that is important to him.
Here we must also consider the function of being quick to take offense and of taking hints quickly, for in
these ways the mark can actively cooperate in the task of saving his face. There is also the strategy of
playing it safe, as in cases where a calling is chosen because tenure is assured in it, or where a plain
woman is married for much the same reason.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=PEsHLSFFQhQ
> On August 9, 2019 we sailed through a pumice field for 6-8 hours, much of the time there was no visible water. It was like ploughing through a field. We figured the pumice was at least 6” thick.
The wave action is sureal.
https://kotaku.com/dungeons-deceptions-the-first-d-d-players-push-back-1837516834
> Not mindful of the language of product sales, of intellectual property, Arneson apparently wanted to share his innovation with a likeminded, and well-connected, new friend. He and Gygax had already collaborated on another game, a Napoleonic naval battle ruleset called Don’t Give Up the Ship, and curious about the campaign and its ruleset, Gygax invited Arneson and one member of his gaming crew, David Megarry, who had designed the adventure board game Dungeon, to his Lake Geneva basement to demonstrate Blackmoor. To get there, they drove through a snowstorm in November of 1972. Megarry and Arneson arrived to find Mary Jo Gygax clearing away the dinner plates while Gary sat at the typewriter, Kuntz recalled. Rob Kuntz was there, too, and joined them as the sixth player in Gygax’s first game of Blackmoor, alongside his brother Terry, Gary Gygax, his son Ernie, Arneson, and Megarry.
> “Arneson set up his 3-ring binder as a screen between us and him,” wrote Kuntz in an unpublished work called A Tale of Two Daves, Two Gygaxʼs and Two Kuntzʼs, which he shared with Kotaku. “He noted that Dave Megarry, a regular in his game, would be our guide for the adventure. Megarry did most of the interfacing and explaining what it was we were about to do with imaginary characters. Arneson noted that we could be either heroes or wizards. Gary chose to be a wizard and the rest of us heroes.”
>
> Kuntz continued, explaining how players received no rules and no maps. Mostly, it was Arneson rolling the six-sided die behind his binder. “Arneson controlled everything behind the scenes with a screen and told us what he saw,” Kuntz said.
>
> “Arneson described a typical medieval inn and an affable innkeeper who served us; and he also warned us from starting any trouble in his establishment as its patrons were a quiet and simple folk. We all had drinks and checked out the surroundings. A little into this I informed Arneson that my character (we had no names, so it was Garyʼs character, Robʼs, etc.) was stepping outside to get some air.”
>
> “Arneson said, ‘Okay. You come back in.’ I was confused while thinking that he had understood that I stepped out and got air and then, later, came back in. I questioned this and he clarified by noting that when I stepped through the entryway that I indeed found myself walking back into the inn. Magic! I had never exited the inn. We all caught onto the problem at once. We were trapped! Megarry and Arneson either smiled or snickered as we realized what ‘Come Back Inn’ really meant.”
>
> Eventually, the group figured out how to escape the Come Back Inn. Kuntz went on to describe how the adventure continued, with Megarry playing guide, leading them into a castle, an encounter with some humorous magical elves, and then a battle with a troll.
>
> “After a brief struggle the five of us overcame it and Megarry started looking for treasure,” Kuntz said. “Here was encountered another aspect which we all take for granted today but which was foreign to us then. To vanquish an opponent was not new to us due to our grounding in wargames. But that the opponent could have treasure that we might immediately secure and use, well, this was a novel concept.” The group found a magical sword that could grant wishes. Megarry suggested the group keep the sword for the future.
Servings: grains 6/6, fruit 2/4, vegetables 3/4, dairy 0/2, meat 3/3, nuts 0/0.5
Brunch: banana, cucumber, an egg, coffee
Lunch: doughnut, tomato
Afternoon snack: plum, coffee
Dinner: Thai noodles
121/76
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