Month: May 2018

Gaming Thursday: Top Secret NWO Addendum

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I forgot to mention one thing during my review that I really appreciated in the new TS:NWO, and that is the rules for interrogation.  A classic, standard, spycraftian story trope to be sure, but NWO puts little factual spin on it.

In NWO, there are two rolls made during interrogation:  One is to get the subject to talk.  The other is to get the subject to tell the truth. And here’s the thing:  if you use violence, while the first roll becomes easier, the second becomes harder.

It’s nice to see them break the trope that torture is efficient, quick, and produces immediate, proper, and actionable information.  Because it really doesn’t.  And in my book, the less we perpetuate that myth, the better.

So big kudos to the designers on TS:NWO for this one!

KF Mind Boggle

Kannik2 Comments

I’ve just had one of those Niels Bohr-type moments in kung fu, and I’m a) resisting the potential insight really hard and b) finding my mind blown.  Cool, weird, frustrating, exciting, confusing, and illuminating, all at the same time!  It seems so unlikely… yet somehow logical… and I certainly cannot argue the results when I test the movement.

One of the reasons I love the art(s) so much!

Philosophy Tuesday

Kannik4 Comments

Goals, resolutions, targets…

Maybe sometime, it’s better to just play a game.

Not any kind of game, though.  Not something like poker or sports or something we can wrap so much of our identity(ies) around.

But the primordial kind of game.  The kind we made up when we were kids.

Games like “The Floor is LAVA.”

Games that we totally made up, and know we made up, but we play them like they’re real.  Full out.  100%.  All the way, twisting, jumping, balancing, taking risks, giving it all we’ve got.  (And probably laughing a lot too…)

And then we either win – yay! – or not.  Floomph!  Into the lava we went.

The game is then done.  We reminisce about the game, we review what we did, we

Then, we can play the game again, make up new rules for the game, choose to play a different game altogether.

And so it goes.

Our games can be short and simple:  “Today, I will practice being grateful.”  At the end of the day, “Hmm.  How did my game go?  Did I win that game?  Yes, no?  By a little, by a lot?”  Tomorrow, we create another game.

Or the games can be great and long.  “I am playing the game to complete the first draft of my book by the end of the year.”   The year is up!  How’d the game go?

Oh, you want to play again?  Or play this related game?  Cool.  Anything you see missing that you want to add in before you play?  Cool!  Ready… set…

Games are fun.  Games get us going.*  Games can be fulfilling.  And they’re just games.  They propel us forward, and when the timer’s up, they disappear, leaving a clean field for the next one.

So…

What games do you want to play?

 

* The NaNoWriMo is another great example of this:  A game to write 50,000 words of fiction during the month of November.  It’s a game!  Play, write, and either hit 50k, nor not!  Woo!

Philosophy Tuesday

Kannik1 Comment

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.

The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”

— Martha Graham (Emphasis Mine)

 

Everyone is passionate about something.

When we listen closely, to our deepest authentic selves, we can feel it welling up, ready to burst free in glorious self-expression.

When we listen closely, from our deepest wonder, we can hear it singing in others, ready to grace the hills in its beauty.

When we remember that life and living life is itself an art, our avenues of expression grow even more.

And with the channel open, we get to share with the world.