Kaitlyn-NOT Playing by the Rules; Guest-Internet Ships in the Night

Kaitlyn knows that soon enough she must commit to playing by the rules. After that, it's a lifelong thing.

So she pretends the gameboard is foreign to her and that her game piece cannot possibly land on a bad spot.

How long can she avoid the reality of life as told through a board game?

And Guest Writer Michelle laments Internet personnas gone but very missed.

Pic of the Day

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Quote of the Day Christian Quotes Part 3 A lot of church members who are singing "Standing on the Promises" are just sitting on the premises. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers or judges. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Be ye fishers of men. You catch them - He'll clean them. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Don't put a question mark where God put a period. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Forbidden fruits create many jams. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* God grades on the cross, not the curve. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* God loves everyone, but probably prefers "fruits of the spirit" over "religious nuts!" *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* He who angers you, controls you! *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* If God is your Co-pilot - swap seats! *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Prayer: Don't give God instructions -- just report for duty! *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* The Will of God never takes you to where the Grace of God will not protect you. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* We don't change the message, the message changes us. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to..........discourage him. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* The best mathematical equation I have ever seen: 1 cross + 3 nails= 4 given.

Web Site Worth the Visit Bugs You read right....INSECTS! All you need to know. Bookmark site for future reference. CLICK HERE

TIDBITS Some Liberal Nonsense That Might Amuse The List: Killer Products By Foreign Policy Foreign Policy offers a mini-consumers guide with its web-exclusive list of five common products that are destroying lives and hurting the environment. The hall of shame includes chocolate (pesticides and child labor), gold (cyanide pollution and bad labor standards), and cell phones (funding civil unrest). But all consumer hope is not lost; the list also offers alternatives for each of the items. -- Bennett Gordon CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIBERAL NONSENSE

 


Kaitlyn Not Ready to "Play by the Rules"

I have never, not once in my entire life, cheated at a game. Never.

Now I'm not especially proud of this. Or am I ashamed of it. It just is what it is. I was the sort who learned how to play the game, learned the rules, and played on. It always seemed stupid to cheat at a game, for God's sake, and besides, a win by cheating is not a win at all, go on.

Of course if the winning prize is something besides one's own personal pride, ie should there be large sums of money or other items of worth as prize for victory, well then cheating makes some sense. Winning a prize by cheating or winning a prize by playing by the rules still results in the win of a valued prize. Thus I can certainly understand why some people want to cheat through life. People who are particularly dull and stupid like to cheat because, duh, they have less chances of actually winning fair and square. It's the real winners who band together and refuse to play with cheaters.

My brother, on the other hand, cheated every chance he could and yes, even the most innocuous of board games would find my brother doing everything in his power to win, including stealing coveted game cards, moving the die after it rolled to an unfortunate number or sneaking a game piece forward should opposing players chance to look away.

People like my brother think of life as a chance to cheat someone out of something. Playing by the Rules is for dummies, or so my brother and his ilk see it.

America is a country that prides itself on the concept of an equal playing field. The notion is that from this country you'll get every opportunity you could want but actually winning a prize, be it a sport victory, a lottery or a dream job, is on each individual. It's the level playing field guaranteed American citizens, NOT a promise of undeserved victory, that is an ingrained tenet of American culture.

The inferior, however, will continue to cheat. They will cheat at life, during a board game, and while the sport is being played. The superior, ie the WINNERS, need to be ever vigilent and watch that the rules are followed at all times.

So at age 3 Kaitlyn begins to enjoy the sport of the game and she has issues with it all.



First, the child wants to cheat to win.

Yes she does.

Like I said, she's just three and in her whole life, Kaitlyn will never learn a more important lesson than she is currently learning via the art of the board game. Specifically, her mother and I just won't play the game with her until she agrees to play by the rules.

Kaitlyn is not ready to play by the rules. Her mother and I must stick to our guns. When Kaitlyn tries to cheat, we methodically pluck up all the game pieces, fold up the board, and put it all away. The lesson for Kaitlyn? Nobody wants to play with cheaters. Who wants to sit down and play a game with a little cheater who'll cheat to victory while we sit and fume, knowing we were cheated?

Nope. Kaitlyn's gotta play by the rules and don't kid yourself. Kaitlyn gets it.

It begins with her Candy Land game. This is a game of colors and pictures and a 3-year-old can play it handily. Only Mom-Mom discovers that Kaitlyn suddenly can't move a game piece around a marked playing board the way it should be moved.

For if Kaitlyn should pull the gumdrops' picture card she simply does not WANT to go all the way back to the beginning of the game board after she worked so hard to get almost to the end and victory over Grandmother. Suddenly Kaitlyn becomes very dumb and can't for the life of her negotiate that playing board to find her way back to Gum Drop Pass. She got stupid all of a sudden is what I'm staying here.

So long as the game is proceeding in a manner that makes her happy...ie her playing piece is always ahead of Mom-Mom's, she can follow the board game's markings fluidly. A bad pull from the card pile and Kaitlyn just like that becomes too young to understand it all.

Kaitlyn would rather be considered stupid than lose the game.

Heh.

The child understands the concept of "playing by the rules" and frankly I think Kaitlyn knows that soon enough she'll be expected to play by the rules of life and board games at all times and for now, I think she's still thinking about it.

She does her best to play by the Candyland rules and she desperately doesn't want Mom-Mom to put the game away. Once the die roll gave her yet another inopportune number. To follow the game board where that die wanted her playing piece to go would have sent her clear back down the board. Should she act too dumb to understand the game or....

Kaitlyn picked up that die and threw it clear across the room!

I was furious with the child. Well there is nothing in the rules that states that players can't go throwing the dice all about but I have cats who could think that die was a toy and maybe choke on it. I told her Mom-Mom would never play with her again until she finds that die she threw around like the brat she was trying to be.

Kaitlyn did find the die although she complained the whole time as she looked through potted plants and under all manner of furniture to find it. Once the die was found, Kaitlyn folded her arms and refused to continue playing.

Which suited this grandmother just fine as the toddler-child was annoying the hell out of me.

She's at a major crossroads in her life, she is. For this major fact of life keeps slapping Kaitlyn in the face and while she might be but a tender three years of age, Kaitlyn understands that "playing by the rules" is not fun sometimes.

If all goes well and Kaitlyn matures as her brain-power should allow, she'll soon enough grasp the concept that if SHE can win by cheating, she can also LOSE because someone cheated on her.

It's win-win, or lose-lose if you will. An agreement to play by a pre-planned set of rules usually springs from the knowledge that the whole game doesn't mean a thing, win or lose, if no rules were established and followed by the play. Cheating is stopped by the would-be winners.

For they'll just refuse to play the game.

Perhaps it's time for me to cheat during a game with Kaitlyn.

I've never cheated while playing a game in my life. But I've already said that, right?

There ARE exceptions.

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More Kaitlyn posts HERE

 


Unexpected Casualties

I think I lost a friend this week. It's really hard to tell, over the Internet.

In 'Net life, people come and people go, much the same as in Real Life, but quicker. And they lie more often, too. You never know for sure if they *really* have a dog, or are just saying it because you have one. But sometimes, an Internet relationship lasts longer than normal. Sometimes, you feel like the person on the other end of your keyboard is truly REAL and what they tell you is true.

You like them. They become somebody you look for notes from every time you boot your computer up, and you seek their advice. You begin to know what's normal for them and what isn't.

You begin to care about them as an individual, and really want to know how their day went, how work was, how their mom and dad are doing.

Then one day, there's no note. They're just gone, sometimes forever.

Mostly, you never know what happened to them.

I've had my share of these during my time online. One of them vanished this week, one of them recently came back into my life, one of them was very public about her cancer and impending death, and one ... one of them I want to share the story of today.

We used Commodore computers back then and she and I were in a writing class together. She went by the name of Odap Flo, and I didn't know much else about her. She was on AOL, she lived somewhere on the east coast, she wasn't young, and I liked her writing style. She once explained her name: Odap was an acronym which stood for "Our Diversified Alcoholic Personalities" and the Flo was from her real name, Florence. She'd been sober for many years, and she said writing and the contact with people over the 'Net helped her stay that way.

We traded email, our writing, and jokes for a couple of years. It was rare for more than a couple of days to go by without some contact. We traded addresses, and I added her to my YearEndLetter list, back when I mailed hard copies out.

Then the contact stopped. My email to her went unanswered, and none of our mutual friends claimed to have heard from her. A week went by, and I contacted AOL. They would have her home number, I was sure, and while I knew they wouldn't give it to me, I thought maybe I could convince someone to call, check on her.



There isn't much compassion in a corporation.

The silent week became weeks, and then silent months. I sent snail mail letters to her home. The year ended and I sent out a YearEndLetter. More silent months rolled by and no one heard from Odap Flo.

The people I know in Real Life told me it was common for people to just up and vanish. After all, it's the 'Net, they said, and you didn't really expect her to keep in contact forever, did you?

Well, yeah, I did. We were friends.

Another year passed and I sent out the next YearEndLetter to her house. This one came back. It was unopened, but written across it in very-permanent black ink was the word, "Deceased."

I'll never know how Odap Flo died. I'll never know who that person truly was. But I liked her, and even today I miss her.

I've been neglecting my life lately. The construction on HexHouse has eaten many of my usual "free" hours and my chore list continues to grow on a daily basis as I shove things to the next day and the next day and the next.

I've been neglecting my friends, too, and I think maybe that was a contributing factor. I don't know what happened to my Internet friend this week. I don't know if it was something I did, or didn't do, and I don't know if he's okay. I don't know if I should try to ask, or just leave him alone. I don't know if he'll even accept email from me. I don't know if he's another Odap Flo. I hope he isn't, and I wish him well, even as I miss his almost-daily contact.

Sometimes I forget people are our most important asset. Sometimes I fail to recognize a friend's need. Don't be afraid to clout me upside the head if I need clouting -- occasionally I'm so wrapped up in what's happening under my nose that I forget to look up.

If you're on this distribution, you are my friend. Remind me of that, if you think I need reminding. Remember that, yourself, in case I forget to tell you. And tomorrow, pay attention to one of your own friends in remembrance of Odap Flo.

Michelle
The Desk Drawer writer's exercise list
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More Guest Writer HERE




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