As usual, given enough time, people will dumb down a concept to such an extent that it will come to bear no resemblance to its original concept — and often come to mean the exact opposite of its original.
Consider “agnostic”. If you care to look the word up in the dictionary (www.dictionary.com) you’ll find definitions of the following sort: Continue reading
In The Study of Games, Brian Sutton-Smith writes, “Each person defines games in his own way—the anthropologists and folklorists in terms of historical origins; the military men, businessmen, and educators in terms of usages; the social scientists in terms of psychological and social functions. There is overwhelming evidence in all this that the meaning of games is, in part, a function of the ideas of those who think about them.”
If the meaning of games is a function of the ideas of those who think about them, how then would a spiritual gamer think about games? Continue reading
A useful first step when looking at gaming goals is to differentiate between goals of the character and goals of the player.
In Diablo Lord of Destruction the character could have a goal such as eliminating the evil creatures currently infesting the system of tunnels called “Den of Evil.” When the character accomplishes this task a skill level is given to the character as a reward.
What would the player’s goal be during all of this? Depends upon the player, and depends upon where the player is in his (or her) ladder of gaming experience. Continue reading
Few of us experience our greatest joy — for fear of annihilation.
Later we may be able to deal with it. But, not then when it is offered.
We aren’t brave enough or experienced when it’s offered.
Well, maybe “Forget About SEO” is a little inflammatory. Perhaps a more accurate way to phrase this would be: “refocus your attention on content and user experience.”
There are many websites and SEO gurus that have much to say about keyword density, header balance, and dozens of other SEO gimmicks and tricks. Are these really just gimmicks and tricks? Or, are they sound advice? That all depends upon you the reader. If you are looking for a magic wand that will transform your website with a flick of the wrist, then they are gimmicks and tricks. However, if you have laid a firm foundation of solid content and optimized user experience, then the gimmicks and tricks are transformed into sound advice. Continue reading
Today I received an email from a friend asking my advice about a comment posted on her website. The comment was from an individual giving her advice on what she was doing wrong with the SEO on her page. AND, advertising his or her services at the same time. Below is my response.
First and foremost (please take to heart what I am saying) you are already doing something right. With zero concern about SEO you are doing well in organic searches. You seem to have a knack for doing something right. We don’t know what precisely. But, you can see the results in the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).
So, in my opinion, you could safely disregard SEO advice. However, if you want to improve your page content generation, I would recommend the following: Continue reading
Yep, just like they say in all those movies on the topic of relationships, ya gotta be a good listener. What they don’t tell you is that you should be listening to yourself.
I’m not suggesting to ignore others. I’m simply saying it’s about time that you started paying attention and listen to what you are saying. Start doing this and you will be in for quite a shock.
Just in case it isn’t totally clear, “listen to yourself” is not an euphemism for take your own advice, or be your own boss. I mean actually listen to what you are saying. And not just listen; listen with the same intensity to detail that Sherlock Holmes would bring to it. Continue reading
These are not things to do excessively to bring about de-de-death. These are things to do during that time period following the irrevocable realization that your life as you knew it is over.
There comes a time when the cosmos plays a particular dirty trick on you. Not a particularly dirt trick. Lord knows the cosmos has plenty of equally dirty tricks up its sleeves. This particular dirty trick is a certain specific trick. It might look like the following. Continue reading
Below are eight clown types. These are notes I made in 1980 on an old Altair computer — one of the very first personal computers. We had to flip switches on the front panel to input binary code to boot the computer.
I don’t recall where precisely I found the inspiration/source for this material those 30 some years ago. But here they are for your edification. Continue reading
Over the course of this winter some very good friends are working on creating lists for themselves by addressing the questions “What did they hope to accomplish with their life?” and, “What will they regret not doing if they should die without doing it?”
Reading emails from a couple of these friends I was reminded of something. Continue reading