Aug 20
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Combat Words, Craft, Literature, TWAK, evolution, guns, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, politics, promotion, random, richard dawkins, science, web, writing combatwords
CombatWords! August 20, 2010: Evolution
This cycle of cells is vicious, isn’t it? Predator and prey all germinated from the same batch(es) of cells and filled every exploitable niche on this planet: an endless cycle of growth and consumption. Parasites, symbiotes; eater and eaten all draw energy from the sun and its legacy. When I think of the chain of life, I sometimes think I am a skin cell that has forgotten it is part of a bigger organism. Of course, most of the time, I just think my cluster of cells is precious and the rest have little to do with me. Evolution can be metaphorical as well; I find it hilarious for example when I hear about technology ‘evolving.’ Do creationist engineers hide in secret covens and call their manifold works the products of intelligent design? Do they grit their teeth when their colleagues discuss the ‘evolution of the business process’? There’s more than one angle to this one.
Combat Expiration: Sunday, August 22, 2010; 12am PST
Critique Expiration: Sunday, August 22, 2010; 6pm PST
Bonuses: Flat bonus of +1 for compositions posted before Friday, August 20, 2010 9pm PST. +2 for compositions posted before Friday, August 20, 2010 6pm PST.
Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
ps: Okay, this is posting >1min early. Those who got here early have some extra initiative.
Aug 15
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Combat Words, Craft, Literature, Publishing, books, humor, memes, poetry, promotion, random, web, writing
CombatWords! August 15, 2010: Lightning Round
You have one hour to weave the below keywords into a composition. I’ll be really impressed if you can find more than one theme to unify the keywords/concepts.
Keywords/Concepts: tropic, sound, insanity, strategy
Combat Expiration: August 15, 9PM PST
Critique Expiration: August 16, 6PM PST
Time Bonus: +1/5 minutes ahead of deadline, max +5
The Official Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
Aug 11
P. H. Madorehumor
This is the game where you show me an online literary magazine worth reading and I go read it. Then I come back and write a mag report. This report is typically worth one dollar which you can deposit in the donation box at the end of the touring season. Please let me know if there are any questions about this game. Otherwise please drop off your annotated biographies, letters to the editor, and magazines you want me to go read right now in the comments box.
Jul 30
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Craft, Literature, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, writing combatwords
CombatWords! for July 30, 2010: Good
The Good: Shall we say ‘The Good’ maximizes human happiness, as Aristotle would have us define it? Good is of Anglo-Saxon origin, so I think it’s safe to say it predates a Latin—and therefore Mediterranean—definition. GE Moore sez ‘The Good’ is for suckers. Or let’s make it more simple—what if you could go back in time and shoot your French machine-gun a little more accurately at Hitler in WWI? Is that good if you prevent WWII? Is that bad if that means WWII is fought in the 50s with nuclear weapons? See? This shit gets tricky. What does it mean to be good? Is it an act constrained to time? Our experience? Or forget all that; be opposite-kid and write about Evil, because ooh, you’re so rebellious. As long as you riff off the theme, you can rack up the bonus points.
Combat Expiration: August 1, 6pm PST
Critique Expiration: August 3, 12am PST
Bonus Increment: +1 per 3 hours ahead of deadline with a maximum time bonus of +15. Yes, time bonuses are going to be huge in this CombatWords, but quality matters. The limit is +15 to give PST people some time to write after work. Don’t want to give the East Coast an unfair advantage. If you don’t want to wake up with the Saturday penalty, you’d better get writing NOW.
Rules are here: http://trickwithaknife.com/?p=861 and here http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
Jul 23
Khakjaan WessingtonCraft, Literature, TWAK, Uncategorized, evolution, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, writing combatwords
Combatwords for July 23, 2010: Pleasure Versus Pain
Pleasure and pain; comedy & tragedy; happiness and despair—these are the moods and feelings we chase or flee. They are also the foundations of behavioralist worldviews. Han Fei Tzu and BF Skinner have plenty in common, despite their 2000+ year gap. Take this topic however you’d like: humans as animals; the two flavors in life; whatever.
Combat Deadline: July 25, 6pm PST.
Critique Expires: July 27, Midnight PST.
Time Bonuses: +1 per 5 hours ahead of deadline.
ARE YOU A JERSUSALEM CRICKET OR A CAMEL SPIDER???!!!
FIGHT!!!!!!(?)
Jul 22
KafkaLiterature, TWAK, humor, random
If you had burned those papers per my instruction, I wouldn’t have to write this and those geriatrics wouldn’t be getting rich off my toilet paper. Really, twenty-first century? Toilet paper? What do you do with erroneous manuscripts, throw them in the trash?
Also, stop fucking using the term “kafkaesque.” All of you.
Look at me, I reference everything slightly esoteric as “kafkaesque,” I’m so literary-chic because I made a Kafka reference.
You aren’t.
God damn you, Max Brod.
Jul 13
The Humanistevolution, humor, writing
I would like to begin a discussion with the purpose of finding a place for Mather. The place will have to be full of people wearing name tags with their real names. The people there will have to be prepped so they know they have to tell Mather their full name and possibly give details about their geographic location before they can say anything else to him.
A lot of reeducation will need to be done to teach the people there to take his opinion as simply his opinion and never personally. This is because he will be doing a lot of stating his opinion and we need these people to stay and not leave offended.
Another trait the people in our theoretical bubble will need to develop is one of tolerance. Not of the religious or sexual variety, but of the putting up with nonsense kind. They must either have pre existing patience of saints, or extremely limited vocabularies (so they cannot form sentences that might anger him).
If anyone has been on TWAK for the last few days, this next point will be obvious. This place we are here to discuss, cannot abide Khakjaan Wessington. The people there should be screened to make sure they have never heard the name, incase they were to mumble it while dreaming and wake just before Mather caves their poor skulls in with a rock.
It might make sense to have no internet in this place because the internet as we all know is serious business. It could introduce far too much variety and if not destroy this place of dreams, it would threaten its stability. Since many of us have grown so attached to the web, we might not be able to muster the cold hearted strength it would require to deny Mather of it. I have given this a lot of thought and decided a simple web filter could be a viable solution and I invite anyone to discuss the definition dictionaries the filter will use.
In all seriousness, this might seem like a complete joke, but I am not kidding. I don’t think Mather will ever be able to adapt to the changes happening here. There is far too much creativity happening that he might think is because of Wessington, and if he is not attacking the work or the people posting it, he will be resenting it.
Mather here is your score:
Lack of class -1
Trying to ruin things for complete strangers -1
You are human +1
You like writing* +1
*Only if it isn’t related to Combat Words -2 (2 taken because this one spoils a redeeming trait in Mather, so it is doubly wicked)
Final: -2
Quiet people of TWAK, you who have gone about your business writing and living without becoming involved in the events leading to this point, please respond. I could go on, but it would be repetitive, like the horrible back and forths Mather and Wessington have been engaged in.
Jul 10
Mather Schneiderhumor, poetry
FLANK STEAK MY ASS
A middle aged couple gets in my cab
at the cheapo hotel.
They want me to take them to a restaurant.
“Make it someplace good,” the man says.
I take them to El Corral.
Later they call for a ride back
to the hotel.
Let me ask you something, the man
says to me.
What is the signature steak in
Arizona?
I might have to think about that one
I say.
I’m from South Carolina, he says,
and the rib-eye is
our signature steak.
His woman nods in agreement.
We had a rib-eye back at that restaurant
he says
and it was not near
as good as the rib-eyes back home.
I’m not sure we have
a signature steak, I say,
we just like all kinds around here, I guess.
That’s weird, he says,
every place has a signature steak, I hope
it’s not rib-eye
because that was not a very
good rib-eye back there.
Maybe flank steak? I say,
the Mexicans use a lot of flank steak for
carne asada and that’s
a local popular dish.
Flank steak? he says,
Flank steak for your signature steak?
Well, I say, I’m not an
expert.
Hear that Hon? he says.
Flank steak!
Flank steak my ass!
At the hotel I drop them
at the door
with 101 branded on it
and he follows his wife’s
chuckling haunches inside, shaking
his head at my stupidity.
Apr 13
Matt DeBenedictisWeb Goodies, humor
… is a wolf. I find this furry inspiring. No getting drunk because it’s only Tuesday is a go.
According to the youtube comments AhoteWolf didn’t plan out those sweet moves. Let’s never plan anything ever again.
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