Saturday, September 18, 2010

Learning How To Lose

I have yet to meet anyone who likes to lose. Be it an argument, a game of risk, or anything else the appeal of getting the better of your opponent is far greater than letting someone be dominant you. So I would like to appeal to anyone reading, that they learn How To Lose.

Games can be a great example of knowing how to lose being a beneficial thing. I mentioned the game of Risk because I just recently saw a game escalate into an argument and some raised voices. Anger over a board game. The reason the person sat down and began to play the game was that he intended to have some fun with his friends. His anger and yelling are probably good indicators that he has failed to achieve his goal of having fun. So when he began to lose he failed to remember his original goal of having fun and forfeited it for a new goal of winning the game. Thus he lost. Even if he turned it around, and began to win the game, his original goal of having fun has been diminished if not obliterated.

This applies to life as well. I avoid time consuming arguments by letting people win. You might recall me having a brief 'argument' with a co-worker in a sketch a while back. I avoided correcting him, didn't press any issues I had with what he said, I just made my best attempt to move along in order to get the job done. The goal was to repair his computer and get back to work quickly. I achieved that goal far faster than I had hoped, despite the holdup.

I don't think I did this topic the justice it deserves. Sometimes you have to bite your tongue. Hold back that urge to inform people of their own ignorance or even that your opinion differs from theirs. It will usually do very little but waste your time, given the inherent difficulty of changing anyone's opinion. I'd like to try and be more through, but sadly I must return to my work. But look forward to sketches soon, as I have ordered a new scanner out of a necessity. (I took a job that required one. Deductible!)

Saturday, September 4, 2010

On Dwarf Fortress

I admit,to pass the time I have been considering returning to Dwarf Fortress. The game sucked me in completely in years past. I had planned on playing it as soon as it was available for linux. Sadly, this did not happen. Several factors pushed me away from that time sink.

Recently, I decided to take a look back and see what bug fixes were in since my last peek. In doing so I had sealed my fate. So many things had been changed, it sounded amazing. I now feel like I've fallen behind. My knowledge of the game is outdated. So I'm taking a weekend to play it once again. I also decided that since I have time I might as well update this blog.

I plan to update this every so often, but it will continue to be irregular until likely January. When my financial situation will hopefully look a bit brighter.