The Harvest Moon is on the Horizon.

I read today that to celebrate Natsume's game, Harvest Moon's tenth anniversary, yet another two Harvest Moon games will be joining the already-swollen ranks.

At this point, I'm not really sure what to think. I'm a huge fan of simulation/rpgs, don't get me wrong, because in middle school i definitely use to wake up early so I could play my hacked copy of Pincess Maker 2 before going to school. However, the idea of more Harvest Moons just seems to be beating a dead horse, which in the Wii release, your horses can die from neglect causing the townspeople's opinion of you to drop. While that does seem pretty amazing, I'm not sure I can see myself spending whatever the price tag ends up being on August 26th for the chance to hoe, plant, and water with whatever Wii remote action they decide corresponds to that.

I sat at work for the next thirty minutes, engaged in a debate, struggling in the pursuit of a for or against attitude to the new releases. What follows is the debate between my Harvest Moon shoulder devil and angel:

--
Devil (Against): This game is a perfect example of how out of control our consumer culture is! Do we really need to spend another thirty, forty bucks so we can farm one more time?!

Angel (For): Shut up, you're boring - besides, with the Wii Remote, you can actually do the work!

Devil: So it should actually be called Harvest Moon: Tree of Unpaid Manual Labor?

Angel: There's an ostrich!


Devil: Unless it shoots lazers out of its eyes, then it's just a horse with feathers.

Angel: But you run a farm, and build a family, make money and buy things.

Devil: Uhh, too close to real life - I need escape, and explosions!

Angel: You like it when you make money and buy things in World of Warcraft

Devil: EXPLOSIONS!

Angel: But it's an explosion of cuteness!

Devil: Eh, I’ve got this

Angel: Sabrina's pretty cute.


Devil: Eh, she's the poor man's Maria Besides, WTF is she talking about??!!? Um, no, Sabrina, I have no idea what you mean. I'm leaving you here on this beach.

Angel: Whatever, like you don’t still secretly play it.

Devil: So?

Angel: Mmhmm.

Devil: I can’t help myself!

Angel: That’s what I thought.

--



So maybe the debate didn’t quite take thirty minutes or maybe I had to do work in between points of the debate or maybe, just maybe, I'm actually sitting here, daydreaming about myself in front of my TV, wildly swinging my arms, watering my crops and saving up for that ostrich . . . I can always just imagine the Lazer Eyes.

wizard academy

so here's this paper i wrote a while back.

As we moved into our study of cyberpunk, I found myself wishing that I too could “jack in” and ride hack programs into fortresses of code or dismember an adversary in the most exclusive club on the metaverse. I would even settle for goggles instead of my monitor so that I might be able to increase my interface with my machine. Then I set Snow Crash down, put on my headset (headphones and microphone), logged into World of Warcraft, a popular massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), and killed a rabid bear with nature magic while talking to a friend in Paris. Four months ago, this series of events would not have given me a moment’s pause, but the course of our reading has given me a new lens to view this situation. I am the beginning of the realization of the cyberpunk’s prophecy. What does this mean for my generation? After all, we are the generation that straddles the time before internet and the internet-riddled present. Those older than us can throw their hands up and shrug, claiming to be incapable of understanding the intricacies of the web. Those younger than us are now learning how to easily surf the web shortly after they progress from liquid to solid foods. That leaves us, the generation that was something before the proliferation of the internet and now, in our vulnerable years of definition, we are forced to ask ourselves just who we are with the addition of this technology. Perhaps this is why I keep noticing the pattern of identity questioning in the cyberpunk’s work. Who are these characters and how do they define themselves and more importantly, what role does technology play in these character’s definitions of themselves?
In Neuromancer, the character Case serves as one of our studies for the redefinition of identity directly involved with technology. He makes delineations between meat, drug flesh, jacked in, and simstim. These four categories provide two schools of comparison. Meat and drug flesh exist within his own body and value is attached to each. Meat experience is the ultimate low for a cowboy who is use to experiencing the world within the Matrix. Case only uses it to refer to his life without the ability to jack in and contrasts it with his drug flesh. When in drug flesh he seems to not mind the mundane corporeal existence. Perhaps this is due to the heightened sensory experiences being like that of the Matrix. He chooses ups for his drug in an attempt to push past the boundaries of “meat” and experience more than what the world has to offer. Are these drug experiences actually his own or are they the chemical’s? Can he say, “I did this” or if he were interested in accuracy would he be forced to admit “Betamphetamines did this.” If one’s identity is based on his experience then would Case be able to say that he did and was all the things that occurred while up or would he need to refer to himself as two separate entities (meat and drug flesh) as Gibson has him do? This question is taken further with the inclusion of another form of experience. Jacking in is the only thing Case misses about life and seeks it above all other forms of consciousness. In this form touched only with the mind, keyboard, and monitor, he is truly comfortable and confident. Is this then who Case really is? Is he just a bit of information within an even greater web of information? Case’s physical form had two separate entities and his information self posses two as well with the simstim contrasting the jacked in. If being jacked in were equivalent with drug flesh then Case’s simstim experiences would without a doubt be on par with the level of meat. Case is hesitant to leave the world of information for empirical experience through flipping into Molly’s consciousness. It is a return to the gritty world of human experience even though it is like existing as a true to life action hero(ine). Are these experiences Case’s own? Did he lose miserably to Hideo in Straylight Run? Was his leg broken as he was fighting with the Guards of Sense/Net? Is Case perhaps an odd cocktail of all these experiences; Meat, Drug Flesh, Jacked In, and Simstim?
Molly serves as another form of altered identity. Hey physical self exists as the housing of various cybernetic enhancements that function to alter her body’s ability to receive and process stimulus. One must recognize the situations she encounters because of these nonorganic alterations shape her reality and identity. If we accept Case’s technological experiences as part of his identity, then we must also permit Molly’s. This stretches this concept to a more physical/personal level. Case’s altered experiences required the aid of machines as do Molly’s , but Molly’s machines are hidden inside and part of her flesh, tucked away from the naked eye so that it is easy to see Molly’s situation as more “natural.”
In Snow Crash, the internet/metaverse has been made available to the masses. One can access the ‘verse from public terminals, cellular connections, laptops, or even equipment strapped to the body in the case of the gargoyles. No longer is the technological experience for the elite few for in Stephenson’s mind he can see the ease and accessibility that will come from a system such as this. Both Hiro and Y.T. are familiar with the navigation of this system, but in the case of Hiro, the Metaverse is the basis of his identity. He is better known there than in reality and prefers to spend his time there as Y.T. admonishes him several times to stop being a “goggle head” and spend some time in the real world. However, Stephenson draws a strong separation between the metaverse and the actual world. Hiro laments the fact that he could jump into speakers that are playing Vitaly Chernobyl and travel back to LA by wire but he is bound by his corporeal form. There is not the same possibility to exist as a collection of data as there is in Neuromancer.
As technology progresses, the limitations of the human body are in some cases removed completely, allowing us to participate in things completely outside of our normal realm. Is a person’s character on World of Warcraft actually an extension of themselves, allowing them to experience events they otherwise would be unable to? Am I actually not just Jared Dawson but a level twenty six night elf druid as well and if so how am I to mesh those experiences with my own into my own cocktail of consciousness? While jacking in, simstim, the metaverse, and experiencing the alternate universe of an artificial intelligence while brain dead may seem like impossible ideas, they are really just extensions of what is occurring in our day and time. We have Second Life, World of Warcraft, Maple Story, and countless other MMOs that allow us to transcend this world of flesh and live out another existence full of relationships, commerce, responsibility, and etiquette. The question is not how far this will go but will it ever stop in progression and how do we as humans define ourselves as we move into a time of identity that has a diminished reliance on our physical selves?

sacrebleu

Two things.

one:

I just got a call at work and the Caller ID, said the location calling me was "Scientific Game." I immeadiately thought of ender's game and the boys zapping around battling in their anti-gravity chamber . . . anyways. It was just some poor schmuck of a telemarketer trying to press AT&T on us.

Bish, plz.

two:

I've been getting caught up on season four of battlestar galactica. So far I've made it to episode six. I now know that my body can survive 42 minute time periods of streaming internet video without my having a heartbeat. Seriously, I wish at least one other wizard read this so we could squak at each other comment-style.

alas.

?

why am i not in arkansas?

why am i not and Henderson State University?

why am i not part of this

yesssssssssssss

Ryan: bring them to me alive and unspoiled....

me: ha

whattttttttttttt

Ryan: its what saurmon said to the uru kai

about the hobbits

the chase has begun

Sent at 3:55 PM on Wednesday

me: hahahahaha

OH NOES! THE CHASE HAS BEGINS

Ryan: now the master dwarf is needing rest

me: is it sleepy time king dwarf?

Ryan: yes

and frodo has disappeared

ahhhh

and bromir as well

me: noooooooooessssssssssss

Ryan: you know what that means!!!

SEX

me: hahahaha

i knew it!

Ryan: bromir is telling frodo about the other ways and other paths that he could take

me: two paths in a yellow wood?

Sent at 4:00 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: he just tried to rape frodo but frodo ran away

Sent at 4:01 PM on Wednesday

me: did he use the ring?

Ryan: yep

and now all of the bad guys are coming

me: whew. good

Ryan: bromir is about to die

me: the eye is upon him!

Ryan: he just sounded the horn

berrm thats what is sounds like berhhhmmmp

but x3

me: ahahahahahahaha

that's so many toots

Ryan: but its true

Sent at 4:07 PM on Wednesday

me: i do not doubt it!

Ryan: he just got shoot

shot

me: so many arrrowzzzzzzzzzzzzz

ouch

they are in my chest

Ryan: right in the kisses

ehh?

me: how many kisses?

Ryan: i dont know yet lemme see

Ryan: bromir has 3 kisses so far

now 4

me: ahahahahahahaha

Ryan: lol

wait maybe its just 3 kisses

me: and one to grow on?

Ryan: now aragon came in a chopped off the guys head

now hes about to kiss bromir

me: that'll make frodo jealous

frodo is a jealous mistress

he didn't use to be like that. it's that ring. and that wound

they've turned him into a wicked little jezebel

Ryan: lol

kisssy kissy

now hes dead

me: no more kissies

Ryan: its the kiss of deeath

me: hisssss

hisssssssss

kisssssssss

of death

Ryan: fodos about to leave

but sam is following

me: he's heartbroken

his lover is gone

but sam is glad that he can move in on frodo

Ryan: hell try to drown himslef

lol

Ryan: frodos nose is cute

me: they'll have the dirty dirty at elevensies

Ryan: what is that

??

me: and second breakfast of frodo

Ryan: the fellowship has split

!!!!

////

..

me: NOOOOOOOOOOOesssssssSSSSSSS

Ryan: whoop whoop time for the next movie

me: they're all jealous over frodo's sweet loving

Ryan: lol ok

Ryan: now im gonna watcht les deux tours

Sent at 4:29 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: smeagol smmmekkgal

me: did he trade his o's for k's?

did he become russian?

Ryan: lol

the EYE

is upon us

!!!

or at least mr frodo

me: it's the eye of the baptist church

Ryan: lol

me: they know of frodo's lovers

Ryan: and as frodo says the burden is getting heavier

me: ahahahahaha

Ryan: then they bring out the lambus bread

me: and only smeagol knows of sam's plan to roofie frodo

Ryan: limbus

i think

what is roofie?

me: that's why he calls him tricksy

to roofie someone

you know

drug them

Ryan: ahh ok

ok

me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid

i'll be back in a moments

Ryan: okok

me: tell me a story in the meantime

Ryan: well i can tell you whats happing in the film

smeagol just joined in so now its a threesome

theyre all rolling around on the ground

whoo smeagol is ruff

Sent at 4:35 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: no smeagol is groaning like crazy

Sent at 4:36 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: theyre getting freaky now, thy just tied golem up

Sent at 4:38 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: now they are in rohan

the king is creepy

Sent at 4:46 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: wispering trees

Sent at 4:50 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: now crazy crazineess with the riders of rohan and they are saving the hoppits and the hoppies are running into teh forest

Sent at 4:52 PM on Wednesday

Ryan: its sad now

they think that their friends are dead

that tey got kieed by the riders

Sent at 4:56 PM on Wednesday

Ryan is offline. Messages you send will be delivered when Ryan comes online.

oh. my. god.

there is a woman in my salon who sounds just like Bea Arthur.

BEA ARTHUR!!!!

i want her to stay and talk all day long and i'll imagine it's her.

battledome rap showdown, auntie officiated

11:32 AM aubreylc: ballin'

me: shot callin'

11:33 AM aubreylc: bitches be fallin'

when they see you rawlin'

me: just strawlin'

down the pafement

11:34 AM aubreylc: locked up like the ho in the austrian sub-basement

11:35 AM jiji taking GRE to be in the top placement

but my rhymes be sick and dat be blatent

me: and my input has been most latent

11:36 AM and these times they be changin'

oh, slant rhyme, it is your time

time to shine with internal rhyme

i will roll and jiji climb

11:39 AM aubreylc: fine, but slant shit aint like mine,

walking in the woods smellin' pine

-sol, while i fall, into a wall

11:40 AM makes me crawl, bitin' heads off ya doll

11:41 AM me: that makes no sense,
i demand recompense-
yours be like a bear in heat
that has took suck from liquor's teat?
if that the case then you best erase
those last lines
cause they be a crime

13 minutes

11:55 AM aubreylc: listen to you ramblez, like a wild horse stuck and bleedin' ta death in da bramblez/ you just can't lite them bluntz or hold up a candlez, cuz next ta me ya just pan-handlez

7 minutes

12:02 PM me: when this lesson get to be geography
talking panhandles with a z
when what you say makes me want to z. z. zzzzz. zzzzzzz.
so go on git, go off and buzz
or else i'll be callin the fuzz

12:07 PM aubreylc@gmail.com has joined

jinabkim@gmail.com has joined

me: jiji wants to flow

and everyone needs to know

that jiji's rhyme come from the east

jinabkim: my rhymes are as slanted as my eyes

12:09 PM aubreylc: lolz

jinabkim: and as ecstatic as my thigh

s

aubreylc: but when you frontin' you just full of lies

jinabkim: look at these thighs of ecstasy

aubreylc: runnin home to mama whilst you cry cry cries

jinabkim: your gams can't even get next to me

aubreylc: alpharetta, you think ya betta?

12:10 PM me: ooooh good one

jinabkim: it's so cold out I need a sweata

you say you a knight but I think you just a pawn

me: alpharetta, imma call you out
sittin in the north with all your clout
why you steal atlanta's money
sucking up our sweet tax honey
you can't hear the children cry
wrapped in your castles
in
the
sky

jinabkim: dang

I was in the middle of my cubsey diss

12:12 PM me: use shift+enter to cohere your diss

jinabkim: haha

I need to cohere my diss

12:13 PM aubreylc: (thanks jared,, i couldn' figure that out)

12:14 PM this contest is a piss
ya'll should take ur seats and hold onto your meats

12:15 PM jinabkim: Krystal knight? More like pawn of cubic zirconia
You think you authentic but you so phony, yeah
Your quartz formation is a crime to the nation
And your rhyme scheme is a sorry situation

me: AHAHAHAHAHA

12:16 PM what you say, speak up quick
i think your mouth's
full of shaun's dick
your argument is starting to crumble

cause i can't understand penis mumble

jinabkim: hahahahaa

me: jujube, it's tag team time
let's see kub-z retort in rhyme

12:17 PM jinabkim: too busy with the crystals
to shoot us with his rhyming pistols

aubreylc: it be so busy,

ya'll got be in a tissy

12:18 PM i wanna fight fire wit fire, but ya'll gunna git me fired

(i know lame rhyme)

(but i am secretly hatin' yall)

and will return, for ur turn

lol

jinabkim: hahahaaa

me: hahahahaha

12:19 PM is it monsoon season
and i ask for one reason

cause kub=z be burried
like manilla in a mudslide

jinabkim: haha

I'll be the hip-hop nazi

what say for a game of yahtzee

12:22 PM we'll invite fonzie and potsie

12:23 PM me: yahtzee?
that game is shit
make it parcheesi

and make it quick

jinabkim: what about a game of the apple variety

12:24 PM we all love it so, and don't lie to me

but we must be drunk, no sobriety

me: hahahahaha

jinabkim: and rahul will make pia sob quietly

12:25 PM me: that bitch suffers chronically

cause she offends us all karmicly

12:26 PM aubreylc: OH HELL NOZ!
ya'll be a tag team of hoz,
dogz, betta back the fuck up,
gunna yank yur choke chain/cokekain like yuz a pup,
lassie and jub jub,
think ya sassy but ya tub tub,

when i'm done ur gunna blub blub

callin leo for a rub rub

me: hahahahahah

jinabkim: getting krunk in the klub klub

me: gonna smash yer fugly mug mug

12:27 PM aubreylc: mockin me is cool, but you fuck wit my man and us a fool

while i'm choking on cock, you getin fucked on the block

jinabkim: ahahahaha

aubreylc: now ya'll can't talk

take a walk

yea, son a walk

12:28 PM me: your man be smeagol cause he gots a ring
and now you his private plaything
sitting the dank dark cave
might as well be a grave grave

hope ya like raw fish
wanna hear you say delish

12:29 PM jinabkim: what he gon' do? serve me up with some hashbrowns?
i'll fry it over easy and make him look like an ass clown
because son, I got talkin' trash down

aubreylc: u think this gunna make me cry?

u think this gunna make me die?

12:30 PM jinabkim: serve me some free french fries
to compensate for all your lies
is this what it sounds like when krystal kries?

me: no fool, you need a heart to die
and i never expect tears from your eye
you've got aluminum under that skin
it's what holds your circuts in

cause
you

a

bot

12:31 PM jinabkim: someone diss me for chrissakes

12:32 PM me:

jujube
your name a snack
and i wonder whether you can
weather this attack
cause i'mma sneak up on your back
ninja style
wait for a while
then diss yo style
cause what you got you stole from me
a tee hee
a tee hee hee

12:37 PM jinabkim: you a dirty-clean hybrid?
more like a poseur and a spy kid
your mata hari act brings tears to my eyelid

12:38 PM me: hahahahaha

jinabkim: they be made of pizza so listen and I'll teacha

12:39 PM if you diss me I'll find yo' ass and I'll beat ya

12:41 PM me: beat me with your tiny fists?
don't struggle or i'll break yo writs
you just mad cause you've got no tryst
so next time we're out
allow my assist.
you best not attack a wingman
or else you'll find a secret slam
the next time you play yo game

12:42 PM your stature small and features fine
but you best not draw any lines

and dare me cross

cause then you're lost

cause i come from the scottish highlands

and my stocky body is made for slams

12:43 PM body, verbal, i multi talented

jinabkim: you be talkin' just like yoda
signifying your paltry flow-da
now sit down while I grab a soda

me: girl, drink that aspatame
cause you know your flow is lame

it's not spinach

and you're not popeye

so why don't you hurry up and finish

12:48 PM jinabkim: Kub-z is typing

it's time to start griping

12:49 PM me: his words'll be welcome

cause my ass needs wipin

12:50 PM aubreylc: while ya'll chillz,
i be makin mad billz,
your hair is wack and u dress like a geek,
my shoes cost more than u make in 2 weekz

just sold some ear bling for 22k,
u sitin at home watchin rachel ray

12:51 PM i'm a holla to the bank cuz it'z ma payday, tonight i'm gunna fuck ma man with a solid gold dildo cuz we gay gay gay.

12:54 PM me: ahahahahahahaha

sooo goood

12:55 PM jinabkim: you gotta use a dildo cuz your dick don't satisfy
maybe your man needs a warm latticed pie

and if you don't get the metaphor than you're a foolish whore

12:56 PM and your brain looks like a genital sore

aubreylc: i gotz to go to star provision,
so ya bitches betta listen
i killz u till u dies,
gunna has hamburgerz n friez

12:57 PM me: hahahahaha

12:58 PM aubreylc: gus gus aint the only one who in da doghouse,
u step in ma house u best be quiet as a mouse

12:59 PM what was once intended was a pun,
go on git muzzle mutt i gotz a shotgun

1:00 PM me: i don't even have the energy to retort

jinabkim: me neither