Dunlap Dabbles

I published a post mentioning that I’d been sick a little while ago and I thought it might be interesting to see the blog post I was in the middle of when the first “serious” (or, in any case, alarming) symptom presented itself. There is no way I could actually put this together into a real post anymore and I stopped writing shortly afterwards to do… something. I honestly can’t remember anymore. These are just kind of preliminary notes and pieces that are out of order and lacked transitions/logical connections (and the end of sentences) but since I like looking at how good writers work I thought it might still be interesting to look at how I work. Plus, I had high hopes for this entry and didn’t want to waste it. Consider this kind of bonus footage from my Cancer Playlist DVD. Like an MTV “Making the Video” or “Diary: So-And-So.” You think you know, and now you have a pretty good idea. Without further ado…

I recently recommended just getting out of your home for whatever purpose and by any means. Today I want to take it a step further and say “go for a walk.” All types of transportation have their own merits but there’s nothing quite like a walk. I make practically the same walk almost every day which comes in at 2.2 miles round trip. And while it is the same it is also entirely different. On my way home, not five minutes ago, I realized that the reason walks are great is the same reason multiplayer FPS and RTS is great, although on the surface it looks completely repetitive and exactly the same, it is always different and infinitely replayable. There is a framework of rules and limitations that people must work within and there are classic tropes and generally accepted standard moves and counters but you never know exactly what you’re going to come up against.

There has been intermittent construction on my “commute” for quite some time and today I came across several newly set patches of sidewalk. They were still that dark grey color of wet cement but all the cones and tape had been removed. Those first tentative steps where I wasn’t sure if I would be sinking in or walking across

Sometimes when I drive (or more often, am driven) on the freeway I’m start thinking of all the other cars as setting and if I consider the drivers the feel a lot more like NPCs than anything else and then all of a sudden a biker gang drives past and I’m like, “Oh, nice detail, life designer” because it’s like one of those details writers think makes something feel authentic even though you hardly ever run into them in real life and then I realize that those bikers are actually real and they just had to think about weather to weave right or left there and they represent an entire life of choices leading up to joining that bike “club” and being on that freeway at that instant and then I realize that every single person on that freeway is a real person making their own adjustments and representing another entire life of choices that might literally or figuratively collide with my own in the next five seconds or fifty years and am kind of terrified and kind of amazed.

I guess what I’m saying is life is pretty much the richest game out there and you should stop playing the sims and take a walk. And if you really like shopping for electronics or whatever go do it in an interactive setting.

We are currently caught up in my day so this is shifting to just shy of a real time blog. I just pissed blood which kind of goes along with everything I’ve been talking about. In my twenty three years of living I’ve never done that before and I find myself with several options, call my mom and ask for her expert opinion, be a man and do nothing, or try to mine it for some comedic value on twitter. Obviously I’ve chosen the latter for the simple reason that I’m not a man and my mother would recommend immediate action, which I don’t really feel like taking at the moment. As usual I will provide you with the tweetular proof.

For those who don’t follow @andrewwk here’s what I was referencing

** This, I just added** I like to think he saw it.