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Messages - Verbal Mike

#1142
Cain, I'd be glad to have a gander at that pdf. I hadn't heard of S&S before but Wikipedia makes it out to sound like an interesting read.
#1143
I was born skeptic, managed to shrug off attempts at injecting me with religion until about the age of 13 when I started actively going atheist. A couple of years later I started half-seriously drifting into slightly new-age spiritualism and more seriously into ontological anarchy (without any external influence iirc). This was when books started to affect me.
First it was Tao of Physics.
Then I became familiar with Discordianism and sympathetic with its symbolism thanks to the Wikipedia article on Discordianism.
Then it was Temporary Autonomous Zone which totally blew my mind basically by virtue of one word, Simulation.
Then I read PD on PD.com (I had already seen many parts of it before). Some time before or after that it was Alan Watts' superb Wisdom of Insecurity.
Then a few days ago BIP drop-kicked my brain real nice.

I don't read nearly as much I'd like to, but I'm working on it.
#1144
Thank you. :)
#1145
 
Quote from: LMNO on January 22, 2008, 07:21:36 PM
4.  The best way to see the things you want is to write it yourself.  go to the BIP wiki, and have at it.
Erm, I went to the BIP wiki while I was reading the pamphlet to correct a couple of typos I noticed, and I needed to log in to edit. And I couldn't create an account. So I didn't.
How does one get an account?
#1146
It's mostly just for practice, to see how much energy it would take to take the brain-slapping goodness of BIP and inject it with some funnies.

As for the kopyleft issue, duly noted.
#1147
There's a great deal of difference between cutting back on dated humor and being outright serious. To me, The Curse of Greyface is one of the most important pages of PD (and of anything I've ever read, I think), even though it didn't make me laugh. It was just a nice and loony attack on seriousness, and in this day and age seriousness definitely needs some attacking.
Like you said, writing something funny on command is not easy. I'm not really sure whether a hilarious "Lollercaust" pamphlet is a realistic goal. Toning down the dead seriousness of BIP is definitely possible, however. I'll go through it some time over the next days and pick a page to try and treat with a little lighthearted idiocy. I hope I can contribute something to this project. :)

As to the order of the pamphlet, perhaps that would be a better basis for branching. Your argument for the order in BIP makes sense, but I still think it's more of a turn off for a great proportion of the potential audience. There could be BIP, the pamphlet that starts off by telling you the world is a prison [and that you can change it maybe], and another pamphlet with essentially the same material but starting with something else. It could be called The Two-Man Con if that piece serves as its initial hook.
But I'm jumping way ahead of myself here. I'm gonna see if I can massage some humor into some part of BIP, for starters.
#1148
Principia Discussion / Re: Discordian Dates, Etc.
January 20, 2008, 04:19:33 PM
I'm going to bump this since it's still on the first page and I don't think I have enough to say for a brand new thread.

I used to completely ignore the Discordian calendar just like LMNO. A couple months ago I started trying to work independently from home (language services - still trying, by the way) and realized the whole 7-day week rhythm is a little off my personal needs. So, since I'm on Linux, and ddate is just a few taps away, I've set myself up with a simple system whereby the Discordian week determines how much I work:
-Sweetmorn: No work. Do whatever.
-Boomtime to Prickle-Prickle: Work-for-money is the first priority
-Setting Orange: Any work left over from the midweek gets priority (I call this cleanup); certain projects that are serious but not work-intensive and make me no money get priority right after them.
I try to limit errand-running to Sweetmorn and Setting Orange because I waste enough time without leaving my room.
I find this system very comfortable, though I have yet to get enough of a workload to make it financially stable. Another major glitch is that the world is completely out of sync with it and often I have social events inconveniently breaking into my midweek.
#1149
Quote from: Professor Cramulus on January 20, 2008, 03:42:27 PM
This isn't a "we're the producers and you're the consumer" relationship - the work belongs to the community, and to anyone who will be arsed to read it!
Good point. And yet, I'm more interested in joining the collaboration behind the work, rather than just re-appropriating it as I see fit. I don't live in an English-speaking country right now anyhow, so I'm not going to be distributing copies any time soon. (People in this town seem to begrudge needing to read in English, and I'm not yet fit to translate the whole thing for the locals.)

How did I stumble upon BIP? The first time I think I just saw it in the sidebar nav on PD.com when I went in to show my mom a passage or two of PD (yes, my mom.) But that was the time I said "oh" and moved along to happier scripture.
The second time was a result of hunting down Erisian blogs. I had a few biggish moments of Enlightenment a few days ago and I was thinking of starting a blog so I'd have a soapbox to spew my propaganda off of. I thought it might make sense to get in touch with Discordia online a little before I start anything new. I actually have you to thank, Cramulus - about a day after I added 23ae to Google Reader, your post about GASM showed up and surfing the links I ended up on the BIP wiki and quickly ended up downloading the readable pdf and Enlightening myself.

Thanks for the warm welcome, by the way. :)
#1150
Reflecting on yesterday's Enlightenment in my Most Holiest Bathtub just now, I think I realized another thing about BIP.
Basically, it starts off badly before getting really good. I think I actually bumped into BIP a few days ago, read the first page (the one about "this is your prison"), and thought "oh, that", and moved on. On the other hand the next part, about the two-man con, was very powerful and really pulled me in. Moreover, I can just see all those Jon Does on the street picking up this Booklet of Light, reading the whole "welcome to hell" thing, and tossing it in the next trash bin (or on the pavement, bless them). But I can also imagine those Jon Does reading the Two-Man Con and wanting to read more. So many people are completely disillusioned about Democracy these days, this is just the kind of thing that can strike a chord with the Faceless Masses. Why doesn't BIP just start with the Two-Man Con right off the bat? The whole Iron Prison thing can be explained afterwards. In fact, Two-Man Con can lead into it, since the Con is such a prominent, clear example of a Bar.
#1151
Quote from: vexati0n on January 20, 2008, 05:30:59 AM
In the Black Iron Prison, the Warden is locked up in the High Security wing.
Well said. :)
#1152
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / Watch this newb dance
January 20, 2008, 01:29:16 AM
I'm a newb. I'm the worst kind of newb, too, because I'm not going to read the whole forum before posting my own bullshit here. If that pisses you off to no end, I hear ya man, I hate this shit myself, but I don't need you blasting me for it right here, right now. Save your time.

I've just read the BIP booklet (online) in almost one sitting, after first bumping into the whole project earlier today.

First of all, I wanna thank you guys. BIP is one of the best things I've read in a while. It's powerful, convincing, concise, and intensely Inspiring. It may have already triggered some major changes in my life for the coming years, and I'm very grateful to have read it.
I do however have a few remarks I'd like to make, which are a little negative, and you guys have probably heard them before, but I would be grateful to hear your replies to them personally.

BIP reminds me way way more of anarchist pamphlets I've read (the good ones, specifically), and of Fight Club, than it does of the Principia. This is not, naturally, a problem in and of itself, and it might be taken as a compliment. I'm just not sure how comfortable I am with that as an erisian. PD had tremendous power in its vagueness and in its humor, and both are practically non-existent in BIP. One may say we live in an era far more cynical than the decades that gave birth to PD, but if I'm not mistaken, most of the souls present in this forum were hooked in via PD, and PD is undeniably at the core of all things Discordian (or at least right near it, basking in the core's heat).
I'm not entirely comfortable with the fact that BIP does what it does without making me smile and without actually confusing me. I feel like I've been more punched into Enlightenment than, well, Confused into it, which is how I think PD worked for me. To me, Discordja has always had a real fun, funny, hippy bend to it, which is part of what made me so comfortable with it fresh out of a couple years of playing stuck-up hardline atheist god-basher. It's like Discordia is all "whoo, freedom is fun and awesome and hillarious!" and BIP is like "FREEDOM MUTHAFUCKA, DO YOU SPEAK IT!?" with that glorious afro and a nice handgun pointing into your brain. Yeah, both are about freedom. Yeah, BIP is much more clear to Internet-trained brains than PD may have been. Yeah, BIP can probably hook all kinds of cool folks and haul them in on the fun sooner or later. But am I the only one who thinks this should all happen light-heartedly, with a smile? Isn't that part of the whole point? Do we want hoards of thugs disseminating misinformation without stopping to pick the imaginary flowers?

ALL HAIL ERIS.
  And fire at will now.

EDIT: (+20 min.) Ah, now I remember the smart thing I wanted to say but couldn't remember. What I think I'm missing here in BIP is something to help me take myself less seriously. That was really the power of the humor in PD - it was disarming. BIP seems like a great tool to make people take the world less seriously, but it might make them take themselves dead serious, which, if you ask me, is not much better than just the dead part.
And still, fire at will.