Interesting?

[featherynscale]

OK. Everything's a meme or a game lately, for which I apologize. Back to your regularly scheduled steaming pile of monkey crap soon.

Here's the latest game I'd like to play, as kipped from lysana:

Go browse through my list of interests and pick one that either 1) you know nothing about but sounds intriguing, or 2) you know something about but can't fathom why yours truly would be interested in it, and request an explanation.

Comments

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Oh! Fun!

Tell me about kemetic unorthodox rat screw, please.

KURS

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Kemetic Unorthodox Rat Screw (KURS, for short) is a card game invented by triadruid and kittenpants. The rules may be found here (http://gaia-kat.addr.com/Entropic/kurs.html) if you want the whole story, but the short version is that KURS is a bastardization of Egyptian Rat-Fuck (a hybrid of war and slapjack for more than 2 players) which is played with a tarot deck. As tarot decks have more than the standard number and variety of cards, each major arcana card (The Sun, The Fool, etc.) has a unique rule that goes into effect when the card is played. For example, when The Star is played, the person who played it must immediately sing a song that has the word "star" in it, or deal out two cards to each of the other players. A player who plays The Hierophant recieves a tithe of two cards from each of the other players, and so on. The object of the game is nominally to collect all of the cards, but as this almost never happens, the object of the game is actually to socialize, drink, kiss the other players, and generally have a good time. It is a fabulous party game, as long as all of the players understand that it is not the sort of game one plays to win.

Re: KURS

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Ah. I had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with Egyptian Ratfuck (which I have played). Sounds like a blast.

Re: KURS

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

It is much fun - much easier to play than to explain though, and you have to have at least one person at the table that can remember what all the major arcana rules are, even when trashed.

Re: KURS

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

...or else, a copy of the rules could be printed out for handy access. Unless part of gameplay involves speedy responses.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Bandler & Grinder, if you would, please.

B&G

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Richard Bandler and John Grinder are (or were, I don't keep up on these things) therapists who did much of the pioneer-work on neurolinguistic programming. My interest in their work comes primarily from the books The Structure of Magic, vols. I & II. In these books, they lay out a meta-model for successful therapy based on the concept of mental modeling - they're basically about the idea that if we have an established set of expectations about reality("I'm not worthy of love", for example), that we tend to give selective attention to only those observations and facts that support our existing models, and ignore or distort what doesn't fit. Their model illustrates the use of directed questioning, language in the patient's preferred mode of perception and communication (visual, auditory or kinesthetic), and a handful of other really simple "tricks" to expand the patient's model (in the above example, to have the patient alter his perceptions of events to include times when s/he *is* worthy of love) so that the patient has more accurate information to work with when making decisions/choosing behaviors.

Now, I'm not a therapist, but I do find that a lot of their work is also applicable to the way I'm fine-tuning my own brain. These are books that I recommend to anyone who is working on any sort of self-growth program.

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

How about Looney Labs Games?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Looney Labs (http://www.looneylabs.com) is the maker of Fluxx, my favorite card game not invented by someone at EHQ. It's a game where virtually every card played changes the rules, and the point of the game changes all the time. They also make other cool games, some of which involve time travel, martian chess, and werewolves.
Aside from which, their household/cadre of friends seem to be cool as hell, the sort of people that people like us hang out with.

[jaiwitchy.livejournal.com]

androgyny

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

A few angles on this one.
1) I like boys that look like girls. Drag queens, boys in eyeliner, generally willowy long-haired boys, etc. I also like girls who look like boys, but possibly not to the same extent.

2) I'm big on gender neutrality in personality - I try not to put a lot of stock in prescribed gender roles, and for the most part I tend to hang out with people who also don't cling to gender roles. I believe that, as Mr. Heinlein puts it, "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, write a sonnet, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, solve equations, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Calling something "a girl thing" or "a boy thing" and then refusing to do it because that's not your gender is a cop-out.

Tell me of 'temporary autonomous zones', Usul.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

The TAZ

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

The TAZ is a concept stolen from the writings of Hakim Bey (http://www.hermetic.com/bey/), who is a bit difficult to explain in and of himself. So I'll stick to the TAZ. A TAZ is a place and time in which either the normal rules of society do not apply for some external reason, or the mass of assembled people has decided that the normal rules do not apply to them, and they are of a substantial enough number to keep the enforcers of the normal rules of society from being able to act on them. In a nutshell, a TAZ is a floating island of anarchy which dissipates at the end of whatever event created it. On the one hand, they may be revels - Mardi Gras, Santarchy, a well-done flaunt. On the other, they may be riots. They may exist in public space or private - a Charlesworth party may be a fair example of a TAZ-type private event.
Establishing a TAZ may be seen as an act of terrorism. Even a non-violent action of this sort is potentially damaging to the social order, because it illustrates other options outside of the social order.
I am, of course, infinitely more interested in non-violent actions than in violent ones.

Thank you

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

That was about the only one I couldn't identify/reason out... I don't think my interests list is ready to play this game yet.

Re: Thank you

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Why not? Don't want to talk about anti-determinism?

Re: Thank you

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Ehhh, I'm just not sure more than that one interest would get a bite...

[malvito.livejournal.com]

OK, Hot Pagan Bathing does, indeed, sound intriguing. It would be absurd to not be able to fathom your interest in it, but, what the hell, thought I'd bring it up since it's not exactly something that shows up on a lot of interest lists.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I keep forgetting that you have not yet been to EHQ. If you had been, and if you had seen our bathtub, it would quickly become apparent to you what hot pagan bathing entails :)

I added it to my interest list mostly as a joke, following some conversation which was probably about the size of the bathtub, or the friendliness of the denizens of the house, or pagans in general, and which I have now forgotten.

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

23?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Super secret code number implying discordian tendencies. Either that or my proclamation of undying love for the concepts of Euclidian geometry.