Noise in the Shape of Writing

I wrote a poem for a friend who turned 40 today...

Just change that number from a base-Ten to base-Five, my son.
Instead of over 40, now you're not quite twenty-one!
If that's a stretch, then twenty-four or twenty-eight, my friend.
Or simply use base-Forty and declare you're turning 10!

Originally published at PatGames @ PopePat.com. You can comment here or there.

©2011 Ian F.

Players: 1

RULES
Voluntary Amnesia is a game that you can play anywhere, on your own,
without any dice, paper, tools, or props.  I usually play while driving.
It works like this:

* Pick a moment in your past.  The middle of your high school graduation, the day you started your current job, midnight of New Year’s Eve 2005; anything works as long as you can place it in time, both in the context of your life and on a calendar.  For optimum play, it should probably be at least a couple years ago.  However, going back all the way to childhood will make the game extremely difficult.

* Pretend that moment is the last thing you remember.  Take a moment to put yourself back in that time and place - what were you interested in? Who did you spend most of your time with?  What were your hobbies and obsessions?  Once you’ve oriented yourself, it’s time to “wake up”.  You will abruptly “wake up” wherever you are, doing whatever you’re currently doing, and you cannot recall anything that has occurred since the chosen earlier time in your life.  You do, however, know that a significant amount of time has passed.

* Now deduce where you are, when it is, what you’re doing right now, and other important facts about your present life (job, romantic partner, where you live, other important responsibilities, etc.)

* You can look around in your environment, go through your own pockets, and make inferences based on what you find.  See what you can figure out
and what you can’t.

* There are certain things you may have to eliminate from consideration to keep the game from being trivial.  For example, access to your own e-mail account.  I usually play in the car, which eliminates access to my computer, and I pretend my smartphone is password-locked, thus denying me access to that as a resource.

* You can play just as an intellectual exercise, or you can set a victory condition, like figuring out exactly where you’re driving to right now and why.  My usual victory condition is finding something or someone that could tell me the rest of what’s happened during my missing time (like the phone number of a family member.)

Here’s an example.  Let’s pretend I’m playing in the car while driving to my Tuesday night class in Burbank, and that the moment I’ve chosen is my high school graduation.  Here’s how my thought process might go:

* I’m in a car.  A Volkswagen, apparently.  I’m driving, and I’m alone, so it’s probably my car.

* The car has just over a hundred thousand miles on it, so I’ve probably had it for a while.  It doesn’t appear to be a luxury car, so I’m probably not wealthy.

* Checking the mirror, I look substantially older but still more-or-less the same.  I don’t appear to have any new scars or other injuries/impairments.  I’m wearing glasses, which implies that my vision has gotten substantially worse.  Between that and my appearance, I can presume that many years have passed; I’m probably between thirty and forty.

* The registration card in the glove compartment says I’m in a 2000 Jetta, owned by me.  (n.b.: I’ll usually “virtually” go through things like this if I’m playing the game while driving, imagining that I’ve chosen to pull over and look at things rather than actually doing so.) More importantly, this card was issued in mid-2010, so now I have a pretty good idea that the current date is late 2010 or early 2011.  The car clock says it’s 7:00 and it’s dark outside, so 1) it’s probably evening, not morning and 2) I can probably narrow the time scale a bit further: somewhere between October 2010 and March 2011, because otherwise there’d be some light outside.

* The registration card also has my address.  I live in Arcadia, California (where the hell is that?)  From the unit number, it must be an apartment, not a house.

* I just passed a sign that said I’m on the 210, and that the next nine exits are for Pasadena.  (If I’d had a better mental map of the L.A. area back when I graduated high school, I could now deduce that I’m headed *away* from my home, but I didn’t so I can’t.)  I do at least know that I’m still in Southern California.

* Oh my God, gasoline is expensive now.

* Let’s check my pockets.  Aha - keys!  One of these probably opens up the door to my apartment!  (I could declare this a win - within my apartment I could certainly find ways to contact family members, or access the last ten years of my e-mail, or a thousand other clues to my “missing time.”  Or I could keep playing…)

* Also in my pockets: a wallet!  In addition to evidence that I’m an Auto Club member and have dental insurance, here’s my driver’s license; it confirms my address.  Aha - business cards!  In fact, here’s *my* business card!  (note: upon inspecting my wallet for this example scenario, I found a business card for myself that’s now years out of date, which would lead me to the inaccurate conclusion that I am currently the Chief Technology Officer of a company based in Encino.) Also here are business cards for several other people…I now have phone numbers for several people who know me in some capacity, and could help me figure out what’s happened.  (Three of the business cards currently in my wallet are from close friends, so this could be another way to satisfy the victory condition, although I wouldn’t know which people from the business cards are friends and which are acquaintances until I called them.)

* Also in the wallet: a newish-looking receipt from a restaurant in Claremont, dated 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 16th, 2011.  I’ve now pinpointed the current date to within a matter of days.  The receipt shows two entrees; who did I have dinner with?  Could our waitress “Stephanie” tell me more about him or her?

And so on.  So far, I’ve figured out when it is, where I am, where I live, what I do for a living (roughly), but not where I’m driving to or why, or who I’m in a relationship with.

It’s not something you can play all the time or it will get repetitive, but it can make for an entertaining diversion if you have ten or fifteen minutes to yourself - on a drive, in the dentist’s waiting room, or almost anywhere.  Good luck, voluntary amnesiacs!

Editor’s Note:
What blows me away is the fact that I TOTALLY USED TO PLAY THIS TOO! What are the chances that two people made up the same game? Well, we are both gamers and improv enthusiasts and writers, so I guess it’s not THAT surprising. Perhaps a LOT of people play it and people just don’t talk about it.

Here are a few varieties that I used to play as well:

“3rd Person” version – I often played a version in which I imagined that I was someone else that I knew in present time. A relative or a friend usually. The game works more like a classic “body switch” story in this case. In this version, the victory condition is typically that this friend or relative has to figure out who you are. You sort of have to imagine that you are them and that you only have their age/background/cultural knowledge to go on. Often it’s fun to play this version by imagining that you are a High School teacher that you used to have. Or that you are a cousin you have not seen in a LONG time.

“Choose Which Time to Live In” version – You play this one as Ian describes above where you are yourself from a previous time in life. The nuance here is that once you figure out who and where and when you are, you now have to decide whether you want to stay in this age, or go back to your original time period. The decision is not necessarily academic – it’s an intriguing concept in that you have to decide how tempting it might be to a younger version of yourself to stay in this body and time period.

Originally published at PatGames @ PopePat.com. You can comment here or there.

glith. is a pen-and-paper game that you can play on any sheet of printed type. You can play it on a flyer, a homework assignment, or on handout in a boring meeting. You can play it on a sheet of newspaper, a magazine article, or even on a page torn from a book! All you need is a pen or pencil.

Start by drawing a stick figure standing atop any of the words in the first sentence on the page. (Look at the example game below to get an idea for the playing field and to see what a finished game looks like.) Your goal is to get off the bottom of the page alive and with as much treasure as you can. Draw three little circles at the very top of the page wherever you can find room. Those are your beginning Health Points. Try to leave room for lots of items and for more circles. If there is a wide margin, you can draw them there instead.

So how do you get your adventurer from the top of the page to the bottom?

Here are the rules:

- Your adventurer can walk across any word on the page. Just draw his path along the letter tops.
- When you reach the end of a word, you must either get across the gap between words, turn around, or fall down.
- If you fall down, cross a Health Point off for each line you fall before hitting the next line of type. If there is another gap between words below you, then you fall another row! (cross off one more Health Point)
- You cannot go into the margins on the left or right. The blue lines in the example below show the imaginary edge of the play area.
- Every time you come to a dot (the top of the letters j or i, a semicolon, the period at the end of a sentence, or an ellipsis), you may add another Health Point at the top of the page. Circle the dot (or period or j or i or whatever) to show that you have picked it up.
- If you every cross off your last Health Point, you die and have to start again (chose a different starting word next time, perhaps!).
- When you encounter the letter l you can circle it and write it at the top of the page. These are planks of wood.
- When you come across the letter t you can circle it and write it at the top of the page. These are swords.
- You may lay a plank of wood across a gap between words. If you do so, then cross it off at the top of your page. You may now walk back and forth between those words, but you cannot pick the plank up again or move it.
- Capital letters are monsters. In order to pass them, you need a sword. Once you use the sword, cross if off your list. Also draw a slash through the capital letter to show that it was vanquished. If you dont have a sword, you take one Health Point of damage and can then move past the Capital, but it will still be there to thwart you if you find yourself needing to pass by it again.

- If there is an r or an f at the end of a word, you can “jump” across to the next word (they are like little trampolines).
If the r or f is at the beginning of a word, you can jump to the previous word. Note, however, that this might strand you on the new word you landed on!
- All ascenders are ladders up. The letters h, k, b, d, and f allow you to climb up to the line above.
- Although t and l are ascenders, they DO NOT work as ladders since they represent swords and planks.
- All descenders are slides down. The letters p, q, g and y allow you to slide down to the next line of text without having to cross off a Health Point.
- Note, you cannot climb up descenders nor slide down ascenders, so they are sort of like one-way stairways. However, if there is a descender above an ascender, you can go back and forth as much as you want.
- Commas and quote marks are treasure. A double quote is two pieces of treasure. And, yes, a semicolon is both a piece of treasure AND a Health Point. When you happen across a piece of tresure, circle it and also add it in your item area.
- If you feel like it, you can add Capital Letters that you defeat in your item area. It might be fun to keep track of them, too.
- One thing to point out: When you circle letters or draw a slash through them, it is not like you are removing them
. The word does not all of a sudden have an imaginary gap in the middle that you have to jump over or fall through. For example, you can “grab” a sword from the middle of a word and still walk back and forth across the word like normal.

Since there’s no limit to the amount of items you can carry, there is no reason not to take every t and l you come across. So take a look at the example and see if you can follow along with what he did to get from the top of the page to the bottom… with 34 treasures no less!

Be on the lookout for version two of glith. which will add:
- Ropes
- Ranged weapons
- Tougher monsters
- and Item Shops!

And if you get caught in class playing glith. … PLEASE … TELL EVERYONE! It’s FUN!

Page 1 of “Norse Code” by Greg Van Eekhout used and scribbled on with permission from its awesome author.

(click the graphic below for a larger PDF version)

Originally published at PatGames @ PopePat.com. You can comment here or there.

copyright 2011 Pat Mannion
Equipment: a printout of the cards below, drinks
Players: any
RULES
I created this drinking game almost 15 years ago and it’s been mostly untouched since then. Simply print out the two sheets below, grab a drink and start playing! Click the pages to get PDF versions.
Hand out one card at random to each player. The cards aren’t secret and everyone should know what cards each player has. Put the extra cards aside. When the event listed on your card happens in the football game you are watching, DRINK!
“Take a Sip” - Just take a sip of your drink.
“Have a Gulp” - Take an even bigger sip of your drink.
“Down it!” - Finish whatever is left in your drink.
Below the event is a special instruction in smaller type that indicates when to take more than the normal indicated amount (ie. DOUBLE Sip,  DOUBLE Gulp). Also, at the bottom of the card is a description of “Everyone Drinks” events.
At the end of each quarter, shuffle all the cards back together and deal one to each player. If you get a repeat, exchange it for a new card. Feel free to trade cards mid-quarter!
Ok, does everyone have their drink of choice? Mine’s chocolate milk and sriracha! Let’s watch some football!

I know there are a few more of you out there! And I can honestly feel the increased karma this year. So come get some!!!

It's time to put it down in writing. What are your goals for 2011? What do you need help with? What have you been putting off? Can I help you? Can we all help you?

Please state your BIG and SMALL goals here.

PAT'S BIG GOAL:
Become a Project Manager

I suck at that. I really do. But the tools to become better at time, project, deadline, communication management are no secret. They dont cost money and they havent changed in decades. They are right there in every book about managing one's life and tasks. They are effortlessly employed by successful people. Even dingbats know how to make their dingbaty projects move forward, so why not me? 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? How do I not have these down yet? I cant even think of one off the top of my head... though I think making a to-do list and doing it must be one of them).
I have projects and I need to start managing!

PAT'S SMALL GOAL:
Re-Write

I write a lot. But I am afeared of re-writing. I need to get un-afeared.

OTHER GOALS:
Fitness, game design, decluttering, reading, cooking... I'm gonna work on all those too.

Are you all thinking about goals? Good. I sense you all need a few more days. Here they are. Get ready, though.

So why did I name this thing a "Karma Tontine"?

A tontine is an illegal agreement in which multiple people put money (or something valuable) into a "pot", and the last one alive in the group is the one who gets to claim the money.

But in our case it's not money, it's karma. And it's not "being alive", it's helping each other achieve their goals. So to redefine the Karma Tontine in those terms, we are basically all trying to help each other out throughout the year and if we keep actively doing that, the karma "pot" can be reaped at the end of the year.

Esssentially it's a self-fulfilling scenario. If you do good, good will be done back to you.

The pot keeps getting fuller as people help each other and -- magically -- your goals get achieved because others are helping you in return. You dont even have to wait until the year is over to claim the pot... it's an ongoing process!

Oh, would that it were that easy.

I know I fell off the wagon during the year. I dont think I did much to help anyone apart from post to LiveJournal occasionally. OMG who am I kidding... there's little chance anyone is still reading this post by this point unless you are one of the hard-core. The dedicated.

Prime.

So let's try making 2011 a year of filling the pot.

And you never know what fills that pot. Sometimes it's something as simple as setting your OWN goal and showing how dedicated YOU are to meeting it in the coming year. And then DOING just that by showing (and sharing proof of) your real progress as the weeks go by.

When Ian mentioned his 100-pushup goal, it got me off my ass! I started trying to beat him by working out on my own in secret! It worked!

So wont you all join me once again in my Karma Tontine? The non-money, non-deadly tontine craze that's sweeping the nation?

Take a week to think of your goals. One BIG and as many SMALL ones as you want (I think having lots of smalls helps your fellow tontiners), but please indicate the main SMALL one so we can focus our energies if we need.

Report back here next week.

You may report in.
Hey would anyone care if I converted this to a Facebook group?
Mark Zuckerberg wants to join in the fun.

And honestly, there's more traffic over there...

My report:

Find you...
I did not exactly feel that warm snuggly sensation of connecting with you all. That is my fault. I didnt check in very often and I didn't post at all. And honestly I didn't help anyone with their goals much. So if I didn't get much Karma, that's the bitter truth of why. But I still feel like you're all out there.

Find me...
I'm pretty content right now. I found me in the stage. Twice now! And in my writings. Even though I only completed half a novel. I learned Shiatsu and am pretty good at it. I have more or less cemented my niche at work and know that I have this job for as long as I care to keep it, as unfulfilling as it may be creatively (really that's my problem... I could transfer to a more creative dept if I made the effort). And I found a couple wonderful things to do with my body... Running and P90X. I am poised to share p90x with all my FB friends, and I always share my love of running. I've shared my love of gourmet coffee and gourmet truck food. I've given hugs at work and at the theater, and I've remained a rock for most everyone else I know who is in an emotional state. I feel pretty good actually. Looking forward to 2011!

Hello fellow Karma Tontiners.

Is it fall already?

It's time for a check-in. I know I dont keep this site up very regularly at all. What can I say? Blame facebook, baby!

But I know there is a place for blogs as well as Likes and Tweets, so I am still here and you are still there.

Care foe a check-in?

I can safely say that I am here and that I am proud to know that many of you are plugging away at your goals. I recently finished my first session of P90x and it was amazing. It's what I'm hanging my hat on right now. That and the fact that I am in another play at the local theatre. A Christmas Carol! I am the "Ghost of Christmas Future"... oooh, spooky!

No intelligible line? Full body costume? All intended to elicit laughs? Sounds like Pat's in another Live Game.

But I love it and it's gonna make for an exciting holiday season.

How about the rest of you?