Photo by James Rodney!!! Incredible, eh?
Back from breakfast, waiting for our daily Cloister Admin Meeting, which we never miss — we used to skip a meeting now and then, but now, and for the past six months, we just don’t. Death and Illness are the only two excuses from the Admin Meeting.
If you form a leadership group in the Ashram, which I encourage and even insist upon — you can’t count on me for daily leadership, and leadership isn’t appointed, it just is — anyhow, the leadership in the Ashram should also meet on a daily basis.
I know, it’s hard, there are tons and tons of pressing obligations all around you, but that’s the story with admin, no vacations, long hours, low pay, no thanks.
Yeah, that’s the whole story around here, Admin Neglect.
Gosh, but it’s true. Mea Culpa, I just don’t very often acknowledge the help I’m getting from those around me and those helping from afar.
I haven’t time for praise — to either give it or get it — and use it sparingly, as some of you know from your own personal pain. Praise should not be payment for work done. It should arise independently from the action.
I have affection for my close folks, which includes YOU, but I don’t typically give affection, certainly not the kind you’d be likely to thrive upon or make a homestead out of, so if you’re looking for affection, don’t look for it from me. Anyone who works here at the home base will heartily agree.
When you work for me, either online or in person or both, you do it because you must. You feel the obligation. On behalf of The Work and the Higher, I accept your work efforts on any level you are able to manifest at the moment, and I never fail to thank you for your Service; but as grateful as I am, I don’t pet you.
From my perspective, Petting is for cats, dogs and youngsters in parks, just as the use of the third-person “we” when referring to oneself should be reserved for editors, royalty, and people with tapeworm.
I’m gonna get a friggin’ ton of emails about this, I know it, but I’m braced for it, haw, haw.
Hell, I take flak from all quarters all over the internet, whenever I praise or damn, explain, or refuse to say a word.Take my advice, don’t let anyone use damnation or group exclusion or any other form of emotional threat, to intimidate you into anything.
I say, take the flak, accept the damage to the armor or hide, and keep going toward the intel. Even if you get spattered onto the nearest wall, you’ll get a peek at the enemy defenses, and the next time through, you can swing around that weak point.
I never let flak stop me; it just slows me down — doesn’t even make me mad. I understand the need to stop a flag runner like me. Besides, you can’t stop me, not for long, no matter what the means or method.
Ask anyone who’s ever tried.
MEMORY REQUIRES ATTENTION
I can explain Bardo-Running technique all day long and give tireless lectures and demonstrations and all sorts of personal advice, but unless you can do it in a place where you can remember what happened, it means nothing to you, nothing whatever, and might as well never have taken place.
This memory-wipe is what will surely happen over the next few days. Soon, the idea of a Reality Shift will seem dreamlike, long ago, far away. That’s the Human Mind in Action for ya. Truly special, eh? Call it a “Gift From Nature”.
Okay, so here’s the deal regarding the Death Club Levels.
The overwhelming vote was to release stuff as it comes out, and if someone wants the discount package, let them wait. It’s not just that you’ll pay a little more. I want blood.
Well, actually, I have enough blood. What I really want is for you to take a few chances on my behalf, to the possible tune of about $3, maybe $4, in 99-cent chunks.
Nothing is worse than working in a vacuum, and I need feedback. I’m going to post the first level for you to download. It’s not a finished piece. It has plenty of problems, including play balance, but alone, you won’t be able to get game balance indications.
I want you to play it at least once all the way through. Tell me how long it took to complete, how many times you died — this is a group game, so it’s a little challenging to some, very challenging and overwhelming in every direction to others, and to Friendly, operated by Arnuld, it will be another disappointingly empty battlefield, devoid of real challenge. For him, and just for him, I have under construction “Operation Total Overwhelm, but I think it’ll still not have enough bats and zombies to slow him down.
Tell me any other problems you had. Did you get stuck someplace? Was a texture not right? Did a weapon fail to work?
That last item is gonna be you, not the weapon, at fault, but there are some things I can do to make a player more able to use a weapon, so tell me if something just doesn’t work for you. Don’t expect me to fix it. I may or may not.
Final decisions on weapons, level design and sounds remain with The Little Old World Maker — that’s me.
Okay, end of update, now I really do have to dash.
IMPORTANT ADDITION:
One more vital bit under the heading of signs & portents … after years with Dr. Mitra, she has not yet returned from medical leave, so I now have, at least temporarily, a new eye doctor.
Oops, forgot one more very very vital bit of signs & portents…Dick (VAL) is out of his eye surgery, recovering well. We stopped all building projects for the next two weeks until he is allowed to return to work, both by his doctor and by the whole community. We want him fully healed before putting those new eyes to the grindstone…or is it shoulder? So Dick will have NEW EYESIGHT in this Reality Zone. Lots of good things are happening!!!
See You At The Top!!!
gorby