I’d been playing World of Warcraft again for a good while, and have recently quit, again.  I think my problem with it at the moment is that there’s virtually no way to be a casual player once you reach a certain point.  A low-level character quests and runs instances, the sort of thing where you can log in, romp around for an hour, and leave.  A high-level character raids.  This is generally a three-hour solid block of time, and if one is in a raiding guild, they do this several times a week.  Of course, you don’t have to raid, but when it’s the only thing that people your level are doing, your other options are limited.  Most any time I’ve stopped playing WoW has been for the same reason – the good, smart players all trickle into raiding guilds, so this is pretty much your only hope of fun social interaction and finding decent groups.  At the same time, these people are all pitiable and scary as hell.

Not due to their demeanor, mind you.  They’re by and large friendly, witty, eloquent folks.  But their lives are pretty damn frightening.  Log in in the morning, there’s Stoffie.  Log off for lunch, go run some errands, eat dinner, hang out with friends, get home at 11, and log in to check your auctions.  Stoffie has been playing WoW the entire time.  As have probably ten other folks in the guild and a couple hundred other folks on the server.  Often I’d see that my guild had done a raid six nights out of seven in a week.  Many of them are parents, which is unimaginable to me.  How do you not do real-life stuff with your kid, so you can do fake stuff in a game?  Stoffie recently told us she had 163 days of play time put in (that’s 163*24 = 3912 hours of playing WoW.  Allowing for 8 hours of sleep a night, that’s the equivalent of doing nothing but WoW from the moment she wakes up ’til the moment she falls asleep for 245 days in a row.  Gaaaaaah)

I am fortunately nowhere close to that, but the bottom line is that there is a really, really depressing undercurrent that comes with playing the game past a certain point.  I’ve had enough of it for right now.

Thursday was kickball, which is rapidly coming to encompass sizeable chunks of the English department. This time we actually had enough people on each team for pitchers, shortstops, catchers, and dedicated fielders! Not only that, but the scores of the games plunged as folks are starting to get pretty excellent at catching balls. The proceedings were hella fun, and I’m happy that we’ve done this enough that I wasn’t hobbling about after with sore limbs.

Tonight was a joint birthday party by friends James and Karen, who have closely nested birthdays. Much pizza was consumed, and plenty of general hanging out was… erm… hung? (darn passive voice) We’re pretty well obsessed with Werewolf/Mafia here, and we played some great rounds of it tonight. In the game I moderated, the wolves masterfully kept suspicion off themselves and didn’t bat an eye when they got handed a couple random surprises. I also got stuck as the werewolf in two others games and we won both times, which almost never happens. As a rule I’m a terrible liar (and thus a terrible wolf), but I managed to get people thinking I was nervous because I was a special beneficial role instead of a horrible, slavering monster.  We made sure that any ‘safe’ people were killed off so the village was in the dark, and then closed in for the kill.  Gruesomous.

The party went for a good long time, and after the ranks thinned, we Rock Banded for a while.  It’s been a particularly excellent week, and after having a little too much alone time, it’s been very cathartic to be spending such quality time with such good folks.

I continue to be pleasantly baffled at how I wound up somewhere with such a great cadre of people – Stillwater pretty much keeps providing new additions on ‘What I Really, Really Hope My Social Life is Like Once I Land a Professorship’

Those textbooks we’d printed up? They sat unused – the institutions we’d sold them to either closed their doors or had no money to use them. And since my job was funded by a government program, I and the other teachers all got the axe. State-funded adult education was gutted.

And now, what a freaking surprise, no one can read??? I spent most of my formative years being told that the only valuable thing for a man to do with his life was crank out SUV’s, and they’re finally wondering if that wasn’t the most solid use of their time?

Short explanation: I think human processing can take advantage of environmental knowledge to give far simpler commands than a computer would need.  Rather than having to load complex actions into memory (even if they’re automated), your mind can essentially ‘fire and forget,’ giving an extremely basic instruction, knowing that when the instruction completes, you’ll know what to do without having to actively consider it.

Long explanation:  So I was in the grocery store and needed bread.  I headed off in the direction of the bakery, got about halfway there, and then realized I’d forgotten why I was heading that way.  I stopped for a second, remembered, and then went and got my bread.  Pretty common thing to happen to someone, yes?

Earlier, I was getting ready for a shower and grabbing some clothes.  I have a bin that I keep my shorts on top of, and I went over to grab a pair.  However, I’d recently unpacked from my trip, and thrown a pile of shirts on top.  So what I did was walk over, grab a shirt off the bin, and got halfway to the shower before I realized I’d grabbed the wrong thing.  Importantly, I went the right place but took the wrong item.  I stopped, went back, and got what I wanted.

In both cases, I mentally checked myself and finished what I was trying to do.

The thing that interests me about this is that I think these were cases where human processing is noticeably different than a computer.  As I understand programming, an operation like ‘Go to the bakery and get bread’ would be a process of front-loading variables and sub-routines into memory.  You define a ‘bakery,’ you define ‘bread,’ and you run a program called ‘Pick’ to get some bread.  Go to X.  Pick Y.  Memory’s allocated for the variables and the actions, and off you go.  Clearly, humans can do this.

Humans also perform ‘shortcutting,’ – Get to be a good enough driver and your body starts doing it by rote.  Rather than saying ‘Turn steering wheel, look left, push gas pedal, check mirrors,’ your mind just basically says ‘Drive’ and you’re good to go.  Shortcutting automates complex tasks so that your cognitive function can still be intact as you do them.
This is analogous to a sub-routine in a computer program.  You set up all the parameters of ‘Drive’ somewhere else, and then you just summon it as needed.  ‘Drive’ becomes a chunk, a complex thing that your mind treats as a single entity for easy processing.

I suggest, however, that our minds further save on processing power by giving incomplete instructions, unlike what a computer would do.  The important thing with a subroutine like ‘Drive’ is that all of the variables and conditions exist within the program, they’re just running automatically.  You’re still running commands to grab this, pull that, look here, push there.  And of course, ‘this’ and ‘that’ are all variables, which means they’re all loaded in memory.  ‘Drive’ isn’t using your active, cognitive mental resources, but it is still taking up space.

I think we save space by giving a vague command and counting on the environment to activate the necessary sub-routine (or ‘schema.’)  I think when I forgot why I was walking toward the bakery, it was because I had no instruction to ‘go to the bakery and get bread’ or even ‘go to the bakery.’  Instead, I suspect the only command that was issued was ‘Turn left and walk.’  Consider, if I had a specific instruction, why would I get confused?  If I’m ‘driving to the movies’, I don’t stop mid-way and think ‘what am I doing here?’  A complete command leaves no confusion, but it also requires more resources.  Getting to the theatre requires turning on several streets – forgetting what I was doing mid-way through would be pretty darn inefficient, so my mind is going to devote active memory to it.  Plus, when I get there, I need to do things that require active thought – find my friends, get a ticket, go to the right movie, and so forth.

However, in the store, my objective is simple.  Go to X, get Y.  Not only is the process automatic, but I can also call on my prior knowledge of what I do in the bakery – I go there to get bread.  Moreover, I know that if I happen to find myself in a bakery, I’m probably there to get bread.  And here, I think, is where we diverge from the computer program.  Rather than loading a set of programs for what I’m going to be doing, my brain does one step of heavy lifting:

“I need bread – where do I go?”

This is the single step of active processing that takes place.  A decision is made – ‘That way,’ and a command is given – ‘Go that way.’  Note that ‘Go that way’ is vastly simpler than ‘Go to the bakery and get bread.’  ‘The bakery’ is a whole collection of symbols and ideas and tasks, ‘get’ is a separate sub-routine from ‘Go,’ and ‘bread’ is another front-loaded variable added in.  ‘Go that way’ is about the simplest possible command, leaving maximum resources available for anything that happens in between.  I head that way with no further parameters given, and soon I run into a bakery!  Actually being in the bakery fires off all sorts of mental symbols, and since I was walking toward it, it must obviously be where I was going.  And since I was going there, I surely need some bread.  In this case, the symbol of the bakery itself is what does all the work, and that work is all automatic.  I know what to do the moment I get there, because I’ve done it a hundred times before.

I think something like this is fundamentally different than normal shortcutting.  Shortcutting makes complex tasks automatic, but this is a case where your brain makes a judgment call on exactly how many resources should be allocated to getting a task done.  Your mind is judging if its base of symbols is detailed enough so that you’ll automatically know what to do when you get the right place.

The reason I forgot where i was going was because I was never told.  Not only did I not have ‘Go to X and get Y,’ I didn’t have an object to get or a place to go when the instruction was given.  The downside of this is that it allowed me to get distracted, and without specifics, I forgot what I was doing (or did the wrong thing, as with the shorts).  But the advantage of the vagueness is that I’m left with a maximal ability to judge saliency.  If I’m going to the movies and actively searching for the place, I’m also actively ignoring everything else (except ‘Drive,’ which is being handled automatically).  If a building was on fire, I might not see it right away.  On the other hand, not loading in variables for a destination leaves resources open for passive observation.  In the store I’m looking at other shelves as I pass, and if I see something really salient, I’ll stop.  Big sale?  Less chance to miss it if I’m not totally fixated on the bakery.

I’d see this as a major evolutionary advantage.  ‘Go to the tree and get fruit’ might be too narrow of a focus – what if you pass a better tree on the way?  And shouldn’t you be watching for snakes?  ‘Go that way’ leaves more resources available to passively notice better fruit and actively look for snakes.  If you get distracted, it’s generally by something more important, so no harm done.  And if you forget what you were doing, it probably wasn’t that vital anyhow.  (If it were, you wouldn’t be getting vague instructions)

To conclude, the neat thing about vague commands like this is that they would be extremely efficient.  The only active processing given is right at the beginning, where the appraisal of importance and where to go is made.  The intervening time until the act has no cognitive demands upon it, and when you arrive at the correct place, schemata fire up that allow for maximized automatic processing.

The unhealthy thing about such reminders is that they’re all basically porn, and porn is really good at making you turn up your nose at something that’s actually good.  Your girlfriend doesn’t look like some sculpted harlot?  That harlot is always there to remind you what you ‘could have had.’  You saved someone’s life?  David Malki saved a busload of schoolchildren with his shoulder-mounted laser cannons!

And the truly stupid part is that you might not even want the harlot or schoolchildren at all, but we live in a culture that demands that desire from us.  Of course you want to be Brad Pitt, even if he’s miserable and hates the fact that he can’t just go out by himself and get a damn Big Mac.  Of course he’s better than you, and puts all of your own petty accomplishments to shame.

I know lots of folks supposedly get inspired by these people, but I have to wonder how many get crushed as well.

“You get movies in the mail!  The more you pay, the more movies you can get sent to you in the mail!  …oh yeah, and you can stream stuff, I guess.”

when they should bill it as

“You can watch what you want to RIGHT NOW, and there’s stuff in HD!  You can still get the streaming even with the cheapest unlimited plan!  …oh yeah, and you can get shit in the mail, I guess.”

Unfortunately, they’re still operating under the assumption that the Getting Shit in the Mail is the most desirable thing, and so most of the streaming is still pretty limited.  Under TV there’s a few current programs on each network, and a bunch of really old crap.  Same with movies.  ‘Bout the only streamable HD movie is Terminator 2, which is sad because the quality is really pretty good.  Of course, it may actually be the movie studios that are scared of streaming, which wouldn’t surprise me at all.

So far there seems to be enough content available to warrant the service, but I’m assuming they’ll start adding more streamable stuff as time goes by.  Without that it would seem considerably less interesting.

To the uneducated rabble among you, it might appear to be a simple cardboard box.  But it is SO MUCH MORE.  It is in fact…

… a simple cardboard box, filled with packing peanuts.  Truly, technology that is beyond all human reckoning.

Removal of the tree, as you can see, was a simple, cleanly process.  As an added bonus, I got to use my new snow shovel!

The fully birthed tree, in its native habitat.  It looks great, and remarkably no worse for wear after being sealed in a box for days.  My dad is awesome.

I don’t really know if I have a ‘readership’ or not (my guess is ‘not,’) but in case I do, I feel like I should say that I don’t tend to blog with a singular purpose – blogs seem to have mutated since I started writing on them.  Facebook and Twitter seem to have taken over day-to-day updating, whereas blogs tend to be more professional or topic-based.  I feel like since I’m making a WordPress blog it should be called something like ‘Tip of the Tongue – the Ramblings of a Linguistics PhD student,’ and that I should just be talking about interesting findings in linguistics or happenings in the department.  And then if I made such a blog and made a post about ‘Me and Troy got so wasted last night!!!!’ that I’d be violating some sort of internet code of ethics that would be punished severely by Cory Doctorow.

Instead I will risk his wrath and continue writing about whatever, keeping a sort of hybrid life chronicle/writing practice environment going.  I don’t want to limit my life chronicling to 160 character status updates, and although I do like to write essays and pontificate, there’s more than enough places that do that full time.

If you’re a new reader and deciding whether this thing is worth any of your time, below are some examples of some previous posts:

Mass Effect and Science Fiction – How the game Mass Effect serves as a barometer for the current state of sci-fi
My Irrevocable Damnation – a completely factual and non-embellished tale of true-life horror
Confluence - an essay suggesting that anime got a foothold in the US due to the weakening influence of musical theatre
Story – a short piece I was working on for a contest

Today CNN announced that Time/Warner is spinning off AOL into its own company – aka, sending it off to die.  Yes, the mighty giant has been laid low, largely due to its moronic clinging on to dial-up when the world has moved on.  Life was grand for them when they could monopolize content ("News for subscribers only!"), but the web quickly made allof their exclusive content redundant.  Now all they have as their main site is a crappy portal that’s just a copy of Yahoo’s front page, which isn’t that good either.  While they do still have AIM as a viably useful service, Trillian, texting, Twitter, and Facebook are all steadily devouring its dominance.

Unless it very doubtfully creates some sort of new innovation (which it’s failed to do in the last eight years, why start now?), AOL has been effectively put out to pasture.  It is now the "old dog," ironically being turned out by the even older (but much more relevant) dog.

I think of all those damned CD’s, and of the living hell it used to be to cancel your service (my parents both used AOL for a while, *shudder*).
I know the company isn’t truly dead – like 3D Realms did, they might stumble around for a few years before finally collapsing.  But I’ve written this epitaph so that when the day finally does come, it can be pinned to the back of their fallen body as they’re left unburied to rot in a field.

He lasted six seconds, after which he said: 

"It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,"Mancow said, likening it to a time when he nearly drowned as a child.  "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back…It was instantaneous…and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture."

Christopher Hitchens apparently had earlier done the same thing and commented:
"Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture,"

Although I’m sure there is a sadistic few, I have to wonder how popular this practice would be if anyone that called for its use had to be subjected to it.