[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

[Prophet]

For the record, setting things on fire in a controlled environment with a bunch of friends is a totally acceptable use of time...especially if you roast animal flesh over the flames.

Awesome scrap, Goss!

[Gossamer]

...especially if the beer, water, soda, or hard mixed liquor is cold!

[Tanith Sitai]

Thanks for the code, Goss! It's so pretty

[Gossamer]

It was my pleasure.

[Gossamer]

I often wonder
what the world
would really be like
if your pants actually
did catch on fire
when you lied.

[Reisen Widerspruch]

Well for one the sales of pants and fire extinguishes would go through the roof.

[Konrad Venger]

It would also make episodes of Judge Judy FAR more entertaining. You could even have a little fire extinguisher at the top of one of those ropes you have to climb in Gym.

"Yes, you may have lost the case, but if you reach the top before the flames reach your undies, let's see what ELSE you could win...!"

[Wikus]

Fireballs.

[Gossamer]

You all are too funny.

Let's reiterate, GT style.

[Gossamer]

A Little Wisdom From Goss
In no particular order...

• Don’t react to things quickly. Take them in, absorb them, understand them, and then act if you want after you’ve had time to take them in.
  
  
  
• Have a plan. Benjamin Franklin has a famous quote that goes something like this…”By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Yea. Don’t fail. Best way not to is prepare.
  
  
  
• Focus on one thing at a time. Too many things on my radar makes me crazy and I get nothing done.
  
  
  
• Be consistent. Even if your actions are deemed consistently one way, keep them that way because people won’t believe or respect inconsistency. Another great quote, though I don’t know who said it first, is the following: “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently.”
  
  
  
• Be easy to contact/talk too. Most people think I’m not. That’s okay. I talk to the ones I want too and usually ignore the ones I don’t. I didn’t used to be like this, but I learned the ‘ignore it’ trick from other Founders who are fantastic skill wise at this.
  
  
  
• Show not tell. Don’t tell people what you are going to do. Instead, do it, then show it off. It’s a whole lot more effective of an effort that way.
  
  
  
• I know inherently that people have some really stupid ideas. And because I think my ideas aren’t stupid, I have learned a long time ago not to react to the stupid that’s out there just because I think I’m right or someone else is wrong: aka stupid. That means don’t retaliate to negative comments or scraps or pms or whatever. Retaliate equates to banning, in case you’re dense. It’s really one of my big unspoken rules that someone’s scrap is their domain and they can do what they want in it. And the truth is I’m more fascinated by all the ire out there than I am angry with it. I’ll often poke it slightly to see how deep it goes because it is so fascinating to me.
  
  
  
• Be a rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes are cool. They almost never bite without a few warning shakes. They can’t help it if the things they want to leave them alone are too ignorant to recognize a rattle for what it is. Give people a little warning if you are starting to get truly irritated with them. My rattles aren’t subtle either. I’ll make comments in chat or I will send pms that basically say KNOCK IT OFF OR ILL THROW YOU OFF so you have plenty of warning. It’s only fair. I’m sure several people can attest to this.
  
  
  
• If you are curious about something, ask. I ask all the time. I get asked. It’s super helpful in running Mizahar and often discussions or questions I ask in chat lead to policy changes.
  
  
  
• Accept course corrections gracefully. If you spent three days writing an article and someone goes through it and corrects your spelling and grammar afterwards, thank them. They aren’t being dicks by pointing out your flaws. They are usually as perfectionist as I am and just editing because they can’t help it. Leave them alone and let them.
  
  
  
• Try not to be irritated by people who are in reality desperate to help, and are helpful, doing things that aren’t helpful but yet feel helpful in their eyes. A good example of that is that someone recently issued a challenge for everyone to spend the next month – instead of grading – writing lore articles. That’s fantastic but we have no Scribes to approve articles, no one who really wants to approve or proof articles, and I have zero time to do it. So now we have a ton of articles laying around being proposed that I need to somehow find some time to go through and look at and approve or decline. And no one pointed out to lore article writers that they need to write one at a time. It was super well meaning, but now it’s a super amount of work for me. Ugh. I’m not mad though. I’m not even irritated. I’m sad though cause I know the effort will go to waste unless we get a scribe or two in place.
  
  
  
  
• Start the day productively. Get at least one or two things done in the morning because by the time night falls I’m tired and my best intentions will be set aside in favor of say things like reading a book, soaking in the hot tub (usually done at the same time), eating, or watching TV. Miz is usually the last productive thing I want to think about at night.
  
  
  
• Remind myself that while players have a signed written agreement to follow our rules here, I have no such agreement with them. I owe them nothing. Whatever I choose to give them is at my digression and that no one is entitled to my time, effort, etc. Every single Founder account here existed before there was a rules page and a ‘by creating an account here you agree to follow the rules and ToS’. Yea. I actually wrote the rules and ToS. It was hard to decide what to put there. And honestly its an organic process. They do change. This isn’t the public school system where the teachers can’t hit the students or say certain words in public. I grew up in a generation of polite students because we had hack paddles. I enjoyed that. I don’t enjoy now. So I have a ban hammer instead. Get over it. People should have realized this long before now.
  
  
  
• What I focus on is what I usually end up getting. If I focus on drama, then the site is full of it. If I focus on fun, then the site is overflowing with it. Focus on what’s currently interesting and entertaining for me. That changes day to day.
  
  
  
• When I’m talking to someone and want information out of them, I find its often more powerful to say nothing. People will blather on and fill the silence nervously all on their own and they will tell you whatever you want to hear if you make enough noises to show you are alive on the other side of the keyboard. Dirty? Yea probably. But its true.
  
  
  
• Enjoy review sites. They remind you that you often gave people as much grief as they gave you while they were here…. and that they still think about you on and off again long after you’ve forgotten who the hell they are or why they were so annoying.
  
  
  
• The whole forgetting thing reminds me. Keep better notes. Great ideas? Note it somewhere to jar your memory. Someone becomes a douchebag? Note it in their SS as impersonally as you can. The notes themselves will be enough to jar emotion (excitement, disgust, etc) without taking extra time to say why something is irritating. If it was irritating ten years ago, it will still be irritating ten years from now.
  
  
  
• Take breaks. If I feel uninspired, often not thinking about Miz for a day or two will inspire me and recharge me again. Keep moving forward. If something flops, shrug and say ‘oh well’ and move on with a ‘lesson learned’ type attitude.
  
  
  
• If you give up you auto-fail. Don’t auto-fail. Keep trying and something will work eventually and it may surprise and delight you as to why it worked because it will be outside the scope of your thinking.
  
  
  
• Don't let mouthy or full of themselves players push you around. Pushovers or those folks that try to make nice with everyone have failed websites. Stats prove it over and over again. Successful websites are ran by assholes. If I don't believe this, go read TAZ some more and everyone there will pat your ass and tell you to be an even bigger douchebag than you are. Flies are annoying and persistent too but that doesn't' mean they aren't easily annihilated. Give them, aka annoying players, a chance to calm down and play nice and if they don't, then act.
  
  
  
• Stand by your ideals. Don't give a fuck if they don't mesh up with others and their sense of fair, common, normal, or decent. That's their problem not yours.
  
  
  
• Always remember what people think of you are none of your business. The one thing that matters is what you think of you and perhaps what the small amount of people you respect think of you.