Back in December, I was invited to alpha test Glitch, an MMO that has recently emerged from beta. I was excited because I’d been an acolyte of the Game Neverending, even contributing some money to support its development. When the game was finally shut down so they could focus on Flickr, they promised us supporters lifetime Flickr accounts. At the time that was of no interest to me because I didn’t have a camera, I just wanted to keep the GNE. I should have taken them up on it anyway, because of course no one at Yahoo now cares about this ancient history.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time in my first apartment making paper, sitting on my mattress on the floor since I had no other furniture. It was a cute game, and a great community.

Since then, I’ve mostly stopped caring about video games. It’s weird, as I had this idea about myself in my teens that I would never lose touch with games, much like I told myself I’d never lose touch with popular music à la my parents. The occasional game sucks me back in for a while and I really enjoy it, but then I lose interest, not obsessively completist like I used to be.


That’s the context for my entry into Glitch, which is certainly the modern successor to the Game Neverending.

I became obsessed. It was in testing, with weeks between periods of being open. When the alpha was on, I was playing, or I was thinking about wanting to play. I was skipping social engagements and staying in my room.

There were hints of the end for me, though. People were talking about the future potential of Glitch, that there could be communal housing, political parties, etc. It depressed me because I feel people need to be engaged in that way in this world, not a virtual one. I live in a communal house and I engage politically, though not party-style. There’s a culture of generosity in Glitch, but does it carry over IRL?

Still, knowing I’d quit eventually didn’t stop me. I became less obsessed, but still spent a lot of time there.


It was furniture that was the beginning of the end. Someone in global chat asked whether the furniture in one’s house could be customised. It couldn’t be, but another person suggested it would certainly be added at some point. Then people started speculating about what options there would be and talking about how great it would be.

I’d never cared much for the avatar customisation options; I chose one look and stuck with it. This furniture talk snapped me back to reality, made me start to question what I was doing with my life in this game. What are these quests for? Were the times of thrilling awesomeness (the opening of the tower) worth the tedium?

I started losing interest. I still completed quests as soon as I was assigned them and learned skills, but I left when I had no more quests. Eventually, once I learned all the skills, I didn’t even enter the game despite knowing there’d be new quests to make use of them.

It’s over for me. I don’t think I’ll enter the post-beta world.


Fast Company:

“its actual goal is more profound: To create a world where players actually start creating their own games--and thereby get back in touch with the kind of spontaneous, imaginative game-playing that comes naturally to children on playgrounds but that gets lost in adulthood.”

Reading that yesterday finally catalysed me to write this, which I’ve been dithering about all year. What ultimately depresses me about this game is that same goal because that’s what I do. I spend ridiculous amounts of time creating frameworks for people to have their own adventures.


SO: Glitch is fun! You might enjoy it. I’m certainly not critical of those who enjoy games, but I do wonder about the social implications of millions of people staring into screens, interacting with virtual communities at a distance while neglecting their geographically-proximate communities. I’m still quite susceptible to it.

Hey, it’s been a while!

I’ve done the best web design of my life for a new messenger company.


I was thinking about quitting this place for half a year for reasons involving privacy, unintelligibility, and multi-tools, but it’s not happening, at least not yet. One indicator to me of my ambivalence was that I saw George Geoffrey van Mackelbergh at pride, and I didn’t even want to post about it!

In the weird post-parade hang-outs at The Forks, I spied him in uniform and goggled. He saw me looking and called out “Hey, there’s my secret boyfriend!” He asked how I was, I said “GREAT” and scurried off. Too much!

I should have asked a friend to take a photo of me with him, but I couldn’t handle it. Instead I took one from afar:

Yes, after skipping 2010, it’s adventure time again on the evening of Thursday, February 17:


The site is all in-story and necessarily vague. If you’ve attended an event before, there’ll be things familiar and things not; some of the technical aspects could be amazing if haven’t overcommitted.

I’ll gladly tell you the location in a non-public forum if you want to know. I wish I could put it on the site.

A friend of mine got me a job at the place he’s worked at for ten-ish years, same time I started at Winnipeg Transit. They needed a Rails developer and are into me only working two days a week, which is pretty excellent. They were also not taken aback by lengthy travel plans and support work from outside the office. Wish that flexibility had existed for the city, I still miss it sometimes. I’m tending to endless comparisons of elements from the old job and this one.

With the first paycheques, weird after almost a year without income, I am installing an SSD for the computer I use at home and fixing a fan that makes the most dreadful noises. Should stretch its usefulness out a bit longer. I could have gone maybe six more months without working but this opportunity seemed wise to take advantage of.

The bus trip was okay. The near-continual makeouts of nearby heteros were a bit much, but I survived, eyes intact.

There was a notice that I had a package to pick up when I got home. I rushed to the post office excitedly, only to arrive before it opened. Then when I finally got the package, it was empty! Indignant phone calls and emails to follow.

Trying to think of ways I can ever go to the Midwest again given Greyhound’s betrayal.

As promised, photos from our visit. Busy week being an artist yaknow, took a while.

We didn’t see any of what Churchill is famous for: polar bears and beluga whales. We were there in the downtime between tourist deluges and couldn’t afford the enormous fees to be taken around.

( Photos )

It’s my regret to have to give you an F on this paper, but you forced my hand. It’s unacceptable to hand in a term paper 559 days after it was assigned, with extension after extension, let alone one so riddled with spelling and factual errors as is yours. Since you deserve quick feedback, I have only noted the superficial errors, later I’ll give it a more thorough going-over so you can address some of the problems in the future.

p. 1: consider not using ASCII art to draw a line and instead use the drawing tools built in to your word processing software
[2]: “wilfully” → “willfully” (also in [4], [5], and [6], at least; find and replace is your friend)
[6]: “alleged that did” → “alleged that he did”
[13]: “St, Mary’s Avenue” → “St. Mary’s Avenue”
[16]: “affected” → “effected”
[27]: the use of “he” for general examples is sexist
[31]: “cyclists” → “cyclist”; split infinitive in the second sentence, clarify the subject
[36]: “ones” → “one’s” (also in [41])
[37]: “identification,” → “identification.”
[46]: “persons’” → “person’s”
[89]: “could not hear what, if anything was being said” → “could not hear what, if anything, was being said”
[110]: “if male” → “if the male”; “along the lines of get him in relation” → “along the lines of “get him” in relation”
[122]: “utilized” → “used”
[139]: “male” → “female”; sensitivity to gender presentation is advised
[145]: “she” → “he” unless Constable Christopher Blain says otherwise
[159]: “was not given his police cautions due to the scene situation”?!
[180]: “affect” → “effect” (also in [256], [426])
[186]: shouldn’t there only be one accused named here?
[187]: missing “
[197]: missing .
[198]: “Scrabek” → “Skrabek”
[205]: “done so on by” → “done so by”
[208]: “cyclist’s” → “cyclists’”
[213]: “waived” → “waved”
[232]: use quotation marks around quotes
[267]: “Despite what may have been obvious was not acknowledged”?!
[274]: “This is even so other accused do acknowledge”?!
[295]: “others evidence” → “the evidence of others”
[296]: Care Bear is a trademarked phrase
[297]: “middle to back” should be hyphenated
[307]: “[accused]s” → “[accused]’s”
[310]: double period
[328]: “heavy handed” should be hyphenated
[338]: “began,” → “began.”
[343]: “them” → “then”
[348]: “breath” → “breathe”
[380]: “Cisasowski” → “Cisaroski”
[385]: “over reacted” should be one word or hyphenated
[397]: defence witness name misspelled
[402]: “tot his” → “to this”
[407]: “known,” → “known.”
[423]: “hard” → “heard”
[424]: “ill-motive” should not be hyphenated; “tot the” → “to the”
[426]: “duties,” → “duties.”
[427]: “their” → “their”
[430]: “within,” → “within.”
[431]: “with respect to” causes this sentence to be unparsable
[433]: paragraph number is italicised
[436]: “Once” → “once”
[448]: “highly charged” should be hyphenated
[452]: “to le go” → “to let go”
[457]: “crown” → “crowd”

While I am sensitive to arguments regarding prescriptivism versus descriptivism, the context for which you are writing has exacting standards. It’s insulting to have us wait a year and a half and then submit a paper so flawed. I strongly urge you to get editing help before submitting another paper.

Though I said I would only address superficial errors, here’s a hint of the more significant problems underlying your paper:

Though I am cognizant of the need to firstly assess the evidence of each accused [...], I will initially lay out the evidence of the police officers involved in order to provide a backdrop of this case.

Consider what it means to allow a paramilitary body known to go to extreme lengths to protect itself and its power to provide the backdrop. Police that testified in this case are now accused of having falsified evidence, yet you accord them complete credibility.

That title was a lot funnier to me the hour before we got the verdict. Still.

Most people were convicted of their charges, including one person being convicted of assault. No word on when the officer who assaulted him at the Public Safety Building will be brought up on charges, might you get on that, Barr? Oh, sorry, forgot you only prosecute those challenging illegitimate authority.

It was somewhat anti-climactic but still dramatic when John Barr handed over three 65-page decisions riddled with errors (how does it feel, Christa?) and we skimmed, looking for our fates, the realisation that all was not well slowly dawning. Judge Kelly Moar found most police testimony believable but most defence witnesses not “compelling”, contradictory, blah blah blah fuck.

Since then, I’ve come to understand that despite my extreme scepticism regarding the “justice” system, I was still buying into its mythology. I now know just how ridiculous it is, what a sham, what a performance, going through the motions, everyone busily working together, pretending they’re bettering society… yet buried deeply by a lifetime of indoctrination, I harboured the belief that it would work out for us, nonetheless. Though justice is regularly debased in its temples, I apparently thought it would never happen to us, that Moar would stand up for our rights. Resisting unlawful arrest is legal, right?

Hah.

• years between incident and verdict: 4 exactly, thanks for that, fuckers
• babies that have been born to those charged: 2, including one the day of the verdict
• crushes on straight men I’ve endured: lim x → ∞ x^x
• times I’ve mistakenly brought a knife into court: 2
• maximum number of people some charged are allowed to be in as a group on bikes: 4
• days between the case being closed and a verdict being delivered: 559 if I’m not mistaken
• why I hate the state: this case, among many other reasons

Why should it surprise me that the mouth of the state should find the testimony of its arms credible and discard that of those pathetically needling it? Earlier this year, the defence argued that Darrel Selley and Kris Overwater, who were on administrative leave when they testified at the Critical Mass trial for having falsified evidence to justify shooting the wrong person, should be put back on the stand. Judge Moar decided there was “no rational nexus” to do so, accepting that putrid jerk John Barr’s argument that since the ride happened in 2006 and Selley and Overwater’s error (at having been caught) happened in 2007. Because having falsified evidence in 2007, it was surely their first time and not indicative of any such habit on their part or on the part of the entire fucking police force.

So fuck you, Kelly Moar. I should have expected you’d back up your boys, the biggest gang in the city who hilariously investigated Critical Mass as an OMG, clearly afraid of the challenge to their supremacy on the streets after the May 3 humiliation.

And fuck you, John Barr, you smug barrel of toxic waste. You disgust me. I don’t give a fuck that it’s your job.

The Invisible Committee: “When all is said and done, it’s with an entire anthropology that we are at war. With the very idea of man.”