h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>> Ps I wonder whether a little light ad hominem
is preferable to being ignored. <<

That sort of wondering sounds
like a missionary position.
Or the town drunk.


~jwf~

I sometimes feel ignored when I post in some threads. Nevertheless, I prefer that to being scolded or worse. I try to see things from different perspectives, and some of them aren't popular.

I began writing my poems after my Mum died.

It helped to channel my anger at having my best friend taken away from me.

Now, I am too calm to write much more than rhymes. Emotions definitely bring out the raw feelings needed in my case.

The best stuff is written when you're calm though...they call it strong emotion recollected in tranquility...that's the real art.

Mind you some of us are never *that* calm

>> I wouldn't be able to voraciously read
fantasy fiction or play RPGs <<

RPGs, eh.
Thought so. Do you prefer single shooters or
dressing up as a witch? Swords or fire-balls?

More pointedly, this admission proves my point
about imagination. You are quite willing to dip
into the imagined fantasies created by wizards
of CGI but unable to see that I am a fictional
character, an online persona who says on his
homepage that he is a karmic experiment, the
blending of a bird, a dog and an elephant all
re-incarnated as a single human soul for the
first and only time in a multi-million year
history of incarnations.

I also describe having the letters ~jwf~ inscribed
in gold leaf on the doors of my coach, suggesting
a slightly pompous and aristocratic aloofness a
bit like Squire Alsworthy in Tom Jones.

Such a personality, if REAL, would behave much as
I have done, resistant to criticism and dismissive
of any riff-raff or hoi poloi that dared to insult
or assault my house of cards.


In my experience h2g2 is a complex role-playing game.

But like all video games it is based on algorithms of
Pong and Pacman. Everyone wants to be a winner but
most just get sore thumbs.


"Little Jack Horner sat in a corner.."


And good day to you sir.

~jwf~

Why have you started making unpleasant personal remarks, Squiggles?

"That sort of wondering sounds
like a missionary position.
Or the town drunk."

I can understand why Mr Dreadful finds (at least some of) your posts difficult to read.

I think ~ jwf ~ is allowed a bit of a phase of rough talking...christ there's some here who do it all the time in a nasty mealy mouthed way...

He'll come around.

Cut him some slack. I'll vouch for him.

Why? When he's being unpleasant?

He's very rarely unpleasant unlike some slime balls here.

He's my mate. I stand by them.

It all comes down to Ed's earlier question -
what is it about the internet that brings out
the savage in our breasts and reduces us to
name-calling and mean-ness.

I blame it on Pong and Pacman and the growth
of violently competitive video games. Some
people go online to score points. To wound,
to impale, to kill, to conquer. It's built
into the experience.

That's what happens when you stare into the
flickering flames and see warfare instead of
the light and warmth of the homely hearth.


~jwf~

Then why not rise above it and apologise?

Hey ~ jwf ~ you are one of the reasons I stay here...you know good people love and recognise you....

And you are an artist like me...and will be subject to sneering and nastiness.

I *do* understand.

>> Then why not rise above it and apologise? <<

But I am above it.

I simply replied using the Golden Rool of Webfoolery,
do unto others as good or better than they did for you.

Let he who is without armour cast not the first stone.
The man has gone off in a Huff and left me to Puff.

My persona and its expressions are all part of an
extended experiment in creative writing and even
cyber-dramatix. I have been merely exercising my
wit and could never apologise for that.
Chillax, eh what.


~jwf~

I do think a lot of people get off on hurting others online though.

It's the safety of annonymity. People that would be too scared in real life can indulge themselves in this medium. It's depressing.

Ah, teh interwebs. Last refuge of the scoundrel.

'Keyboard Warrior' is the term, I believe.

For those who like poetry:

'O would some Pow'r the giftie gie us to see oursels as others see us.'

I sometimes think what's wrong with me? Online to me is the same as real life. My ideal is *not* to hurt. Yes I have on occasion of course...but that's not my desire. I lose my temper or whatever...but just like real life.

I don't get this geeky thing of keyboard warrior. I don't get that at all.