Memory Book/Fractal Confusion (Kevin Breeman): Difference between revisions

Memory Book/Fractal Confusion (Kevin Breeman) (view source)

Revision as of 00:46, 20 September 2009

4,542 bytes added , 20 September 2009

no edit summary

Fractalconfusion

1,328

edits

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''After you have filled in information in a specific section, be sure to remove the "instructional" text, including this introduction!'''
+I believe that I would do well to provide a kind of modus operandi rather than a personal history here.  Through this I hope to give the reader a feel for who and what I am.  I am not as good at straight-up telling people about myself.  Instead, I suppose I am better at demonstrating myself.  I'll let my actions tell their own tale and people can judge from that whether I'm a good person or not, a smart person or not, etc.
-I believe that I would do well to provide a kind of modus operandi rather than a personal history here.  Perhaps I will reserve that information for the "real life information" section.
 ==The Modus Operandi==
-I have approached this game with several major goals in mind.  Broadly these goals include the intellectual and psychological edification of the players involved, exploration of issues as they might evolve in the future (for example, religion and its role in society), and experimentation with literary styles.  Let us examine each of these in turn.
+I have approached this game with several major goals in mind.  Broadly these goals include the intellectual and psychological edification of the players involved as well as myself, exploration of issues as they might evolve in the future (for example, religion and its role in society), and experimentation with literary styles.  Let us examine each of these in turn.
-===Intellectual Edification===
+===Intellectual and Psychological Edification===
 I have done my best to create in Breeman a character who produces a rich thought life.  In writing his thought life I have tried to give my readers some food for thought (excuse the pun).  I've given Breeman a good imagination that serves both him as a computer programmer and me as a writer.  I have been able to capitalize on his imagination in creating extended metaphors by which to carry themes through multiple sims.  The major example I can think of now is Breeman's 'crying issue' in some recent posts, in which the images of the planet Venus and of supersonic flight were presented as lines of thought accompanying the main storyline.
 The [[smiley]]s have also served me in this capacity.  While also providing a readily deployable engineering task force to grant Breeman greater mobility (consider for example, Breeman's electing to join the boarding party aboard the [[USS Phoenix]] the [[USS Independence-A]]'s retaking of that vessel).
-In Breeman I have tried to create a voice of moderation.  Whereas many of my PNPCs show some kind of extreme Breeman will try to correct these flaws.  Though when he encounters such flaws in himself I use the opportunity to produce interesting metaphors.
+In Breeman I have tried to create a voice of moderation.  Whereas many of my PNPCs show some kind of extreme Breeman will try to correct these flaws.  Though when he encounters such flaws in himself I use the opportunity to produce interesting metaphors.  It is my hope that through Breeman's voice I can provide inspiration to others both through the character's flaws and through his strength.  In short, for me simming is not only an exercise in entertainment but it is also an excercise in exploring the way things could be both in the world at large and in the internal world of the self.
 ===Exploration of Issues===
@@ Line 32: / Line 30: @@
 ==Real Life information==
-As noted above, this is purely optional. However, feel free to talk about your real self, including what you do for a living, your hobbies, interests, and so-on.
+I don't want to give too many details about myself simply because it is likely that those details come out loudly enough in the rest of this article.  My education is that of a computer scientist and, to a lesser extent, a writer.
 ==How you came to UFOP: SB118==
-Talk here, with as much length as you please, about how you found the group and why you applied.
+My interest in UFOP began when I was trying to find a game in which it was possible to write collaboratively a story.  Naively I fancied myself a rare breed in my interest in such an activity, believing that most other people would baulk at the idea of a game in which people had to work to produce a textual artifact rather than follow the pre-existing plot of a video game.
+I was pleasantly surprised when I ran across UFOP and, not knowing the conventions of simming, I wrote a story for my entry sim.
 ==History==
-Now talk about your memories of the group. Here are some ideas for what to talk about:
+I would like to tailor this section with some of my own information.  However, for the sake of trying to be consistent with the template, I will offer first answers to the questions presented there.
+===Answers to Template Questions===
-* Where were you first placed? What was it like starting to sim on your vessel?
+====Initial Placement====
-* What have been your greatest challenges in this group?
+I was placed initially aboard the USS Independence-A.  I found the game there immediately engaging.  This isn't to say that there weren't challenges.  For example I might have gotten a bit too picky with one simmer's writing style in an OOC and I worry that might have driven him away, as he shortly thereafter sent a note that he'd be taking a leave of absense.
-* What have been your greatest achievements in this group?
-* What do you hope to ultimately accomplish?
+====Greatest Challenges====
-* Where do you see this group in five years?
+To be quite honest I find playing this game the most natural of any game I've ever played.  Am I better at it than other people?  I doubt it.  It's just a good fit for me.  However, as I've hinted elsewhere in this article, my tendency to get too overly attached emotionally to writing characters has gotten me into trouble on one occasion.
-* How do you think this group has contributed to Star Trek's legacy? How has the group contributed to the internet community?
+====Greatest Achievements====
+I have accomplished several things while being a part of UFOP.  The thing I'm most proud of I think is my simming logistics strategy of using linux's Festival text to speech engine to convert the set of emails for a given day into an MP3 for consumption while I perform various household tasks.  I have had many long and enjoyable hours contemplating the motivations behind various writers and their characters while sweeping the floors or cleaning the bathroom or mowing the lawn.
+====What I hope Ultimately to Accomplish====
+I think I've provided a summary of that above.  But perhaps more detail would be beneficial here.  I think I've been having some measure of success in using this game to think more positively.  Hah, I've said it.  I've made myself vulnerable to the reader.
+I have written narratives and contemplated scenarios in which many would give up and capitulate while my own characters and those of other writers have pressed on.  This is a quality I love in people.  When I do not see an incurable optimism in another I am immediately less attracted to that person.  If someone has a defeatist attitude in life then that person has very little wisdom to share, save for a greater attention to detail in recounting the tragedies which have befallen them and the place of those tragedies in their history of mediocrity.
+What I hope to accomplish then is to portray men and women, aliens and children, who, in spite of the greatest adversity and hardship, press on even unto death.
+====Where I see this Group in Five Years====
+I don't really know where we will be in five years.
+====How this Group has Contributed to Star Trek's Legacy====
+I don't know that I am authority enough on Star Trek and its fanbase enough to comment.  I have always seen Star Trek as probably among the best shows television has ever produced.  Into a world of sitcoms and daily talkshows came a challenging science fiction series like Star Trek TNG.  That was a legacy in and of itself.  That had an effect on me.  As to the effect it's had on other people, I have no idea.  I don't watch much television anymore simply because I haven't the time.
 ===Auxiliary Character(PNPC) Development History===
@@ Line 73: / Line 90: @@
 ====Historical Memoirs====
 Breeman frequently cites references from a journal kept by a mysterious and often suicidal great great great ... great grandfather in the 21st century.  By means of this source of information I am able to use Breeman as a vehicle to comment on issues today through a 24th century lens.
+====Nothing is Sacred.  Everything is Significant====
+This has been an underlying creed in my writing here and elsewhere and even in my living of life in general.  There is no experience which cannot be explored, no person from whom it is not possible to learn.  Even those pessimists I was complaining about earlier in this article can teach us to have greater resiliance in the face of the peanut gallery.
+In producing sims I engage in a no-holds-barred pillaging of my life and of the books I've read, the people I've met, and the places I've been to produce the posts.  There's no place I won't go and no experience I won't draw from, good or bad.  For example, I was able to capitalize on my experience viewing the rather bothersome movie "Last House on the Left" in improving post traumatic stress narratives for Breeman.  Of course I don't add really personal stuff - that goes without saying.
 [[Category:Memory Books]]