South Texas Jalapeno Pie

South Texas Jalapeno Pie

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#Brazos Mason

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The Gaming Game - An Opinion

August 27, 2010, 4:01 PM — I see you. There you are, over there, hiding behind your computer. May I see what’s on your screen? No? You’re embarrassed, aren’t you? I’ve caught you in the midst of playing one of those “free” online games. You know, that free game that you’ve spent $125 on so far this month, and there’s still five days left before the first.

Oh, I know, you’re going to argue with me. The game most certainly is free, you’re going to say. They didn’t charge you any kind of subscription fee, or any set-up fee, or anything, you’re going to say. Why, you got started for nothing but a small investment in time. The money you’ve spent was not required in any way; you have spent it of your own volition. What could possibly be wrong with that?

The Hook, the Line, and the Sinker

In my opinion, there is a great deal wrong with that. The producers of the game (you name it, it doesn’t make any difference) have put together a slick advertising package to draw you into the game. The ad features the word “free” of course, and is usually accompanied by visually pleasing graphics, some of which are slightly erotic in nature, that appeal to your baser moralities, and promise a fantastic voyage, the like of which you have never been on before.
They usually deliver. The game is fun, in an absorbing sort of way, the graphics might not be all that you thought they would be, but they are pretty good. Your playing, you’re smiling; hey, life is good.

Soon, however, you discover that the game is even more fun if you buy a few things from the “shop” (always open for business, 24/7); and, not only that, but also those bought items give you an advantage over your adversaries. The more you buy, the bigger the advantage; woo doggies, we’re having fun now.

The next time you look up, you discover that you now have a major investment in the game, and to quit at this point would mean to lose that investment of time and money. Ergo, you can’t quit now! We must battle on to the bitter end; after all, you are playing for the bragging rights of your clan!
　
The Sad and the Inevitable

The problem is, you’ve become very much like that character in the Roger Miller song, “Dang Me.” You’ve “done spent the groceries and half the rent.” Not only that, you’ve become a hermit, a recluse. Your own family doesn’t even recognize you anymore; you’ve become one of the unkempt and the unwashed. You now live in front of your computer; you eat and drink there, you doze in and out of tortured sleep; if you could, you would even go to the bathroom there. To snooze is to lose, sleep too long, and one of your enemies might steal your prized possessions. You even play the game at work, on your computer there. You don’t have to worry about being caught; you’re boss is playing too! Win, win, you must win; you will do whatever it takes…

Then, you begin to notice a few other things, things that had eluded you until now. In spite of all the money and time you’ve invested, you notice that some of your fellow players are still way ahead of you; how can this be? Could it be that some of them are…cheating?

The realization hits you like a heavy punch to the heart; yes, you realize, there IS cheating going on in the game. In spite of the promises of the gamekeeper that “no cheating is allowed,” and if cheating is discovered, the offenders “will be removed,” it is still happening.

You remember reading the “big no-no” when you first began. It clearly stated that “having duplicate accounts was strictly prohibited,” and you believed them. You believed that they would punish offenders by making them close their extra accounts, so you played by the rules. Gee, it’s just too bad the rest of them weren’t playing be the rules as well…

The Evil is Encouraged

It’s not like its any secret anymore; in fact, it is openly touted on the chat board. The evil one’s actually brag in public about how well they have cheated; there’s ol’ Brad from Omaha bragging about “having six accounts now,” God only knows where he gets the free time. You are already putting six to eight hours a day into your one measly account; how much time would be required if you had two or three?

And why aren’t these people being punished, why are they being allowed to go on cheating, all the while they are beating your butt to death?

Money Talks and BS Walks

They are not being disciplined because more accounts equals more money for the producers. The more accounts they have, the more cash they are banking; they don’t care that a lot of that money is coming from rules-breakers. If, at the end of the day, there is more cash in the till than there was the day before, they are happy. Go on brother, go to the “shop” and buy yourself more coins/gems/jewels, etc. You know you want them.

All you have to do is explain to junior why he can’t ever get on the puter anymore, and to your wife, also. Why wouldn’t they understand, can’t they see how important this is to you?
Besides, you can quit any time you want to…can’t you?

Truth and Beauty

The beauty of poker lies in the fact that it is so brutally, wonderfully honest. You know going in that it’s you against them, your pile of chips against their pile. If you get tired of playing and want to goof off for a week, nobody is going to steal your pile of chips; you can carry it with you. When you come back to play again, nothing has changed; it’s still you versus them.

The same is true in many other games of course; you know at the outset what your assets are, and what you have to do to improve your lot. Their beauty lies in their honesty; you are on a level field with everyone else.

There are no bells, no whistles. Nor is there a “magic” wheel or slot machine to give you things you don’t have coming. Above all else, there is no “shop” to go to and buy victory. You have to play the hand you’re dealt, just like real life; that’s the beautiful part of it. You can cry about bad fortune if you wish, but hey, tomorrow’s another day. Moreover, at the end of this day, you are still smiling; in spite of losing, some of your stress has melted away in a pleasant hour or two of playing a game. You feel better, not worse. And, you know what? You still have your paycheck left as well…

The Real Losers Identified

The real losers are the one’s that are still playing the game you were drawn into so artfully by the game-masters, wherever they are. With seemingly unlimited time, and money that grows on trees, they are still chasing the elusive crown of victory. No matter that all the color has drained from their faces, their bodies bloated, and they are now social pariahs in real life; they still strive to be the all-potent, the most feared, the owner of the throne, the champion of the game.

The sad part of it is, they are in actuality the biggest losers. They are the ones who have spent the most money, thrown away the most time, and gone to bed the most stressed of anyone playing. All of this they have done for a cyber crown? For a mythical championship, for bragging rights in an effusive and always changing world of millions of people they don’t even know?

They have my best wishes, and my highest hopes. I hope that at the end of the day, their families are still washed and fed. I hope they still have their 401k accounts, and their marriage. I hope that some day they will awaken from their stupor, and start living real lives and solving real problems. I hope they still have their sanity, and will still be able to have real conversations, face-to-face, with real people. Heck, if they just survive, that will be good enough for me…

I feel sorry for them; they are alcoholics being offered another drink, child molesters being led onto a playground. It must be hell living in a sunless, undisciplined world of selfishness.

Speaking of which…have you seen your spouse lately?

A Problematic Sound Bite

A person (who shall forever remain anonymous, posted on facebook the following ditty:

The last four letters of American is I can, the last four letters of Republican is I can, and the last four letters of Democrats is rats. Need I say more?

My rendering here is not verbatim, but it is very close.

Faulty and Uncreative Reasoning

Actually, upon reading their post my first reaction was they don’t need to say more, but less would’ve been wonderful, especially to me. They have taken three perfectly good words, and isolated parts of them to create a sound bitethat basically has no meaning. While their intention (demonizing the Democrats) is clear, the bite gives no reason why we should do that. Why not just come out and say, “I love Republicans and I hate Democrats, and here are the reasons why.” This declaration would then be followed by list of their ideas to prove their case.

Word Butchering 101

I suggest that if we are going to get in the word-butchering business, we don’t we go all the way with it? You know, let’s go the whole nine yards; let’s tear up everything.

For starters, we’ll completely change the words Republicans and Democrats to Republiwonts and Demodonts. They didn’t mean much in their previous forms anyway. Then, and this is a big then, we can bastardize those two new words as well, and create a brand new, shiny, political party called the Iwontidonts! By golly, that may be the best new word yet, and it certainly seems to fit the political morass of our country today.

The word would be a sound bite all by itself: “The Iwontidonts, the party that won’t and don’t do anything at all.” Hey, it works for me…

A Simplified Process

Having only one political party would certainly simplify the voting process. Before you start screaming about that, think for a minute. This is basically the case nowadays anyway, isn’t it? I really doesn’t matter whom you vote for; you’re still going to end up with the same pot of beans. As soon as they have our vote, they completely forget us, and go on with their own agenda of accumulating more money and more power. At least, that’s the way it seems to me.

Our world has rapidly become an “us vs. them” world, instead of a “we” world. It’s become an ugly world, and sound bites such as the one alluded to at the start, don’t help any. In fact, it is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Disingenuous bites such as the one above, only serve to make us more combative, and less cooperative.

THE POETRY PAGE

THE POETRY PAGE August 10, 2010 -- Poetry has always been a love of mine, and I have spent a good part of my life reading and writing it. My admiration for poetry began in grade school, when I was first given a description of what it was exactly. I had read poetry before then, of course, but had never recognized it as a “special” kind of writing until one of my teachers caused me to “see the light”, as it was. I didn’t recognize it right at that moment of course, but the revelation of poetry she gave me was to stand by me in all my years to come, as it still does now. The sad part is, I can’t even remember her name anymore, although I can still see the pink-tinged, cherubic, image of her face framed by her raven hair. Nonetheless, names don’t matter anyhow; she gave me an invaluable gift that added to the richness of my life. For that, I thank her; her gift to me cannot be replaced.

With that in mind, I would like to share with you some of the poetry and some of the poets I have known, in the hope that those things might make a difference in your life as well. This is no small task, however, and given space constraints, I will have to spoon-feed you this information a little at a time. I will start with this article, then, and give you my solemn promise to write more about it on a regular basis.

Tonight, let me share with you a poem written by one of my favorite authors. This poem follows none of the classical forms, nor is it intended to; rather, it is a pulsating, metaphorical image feast that somehow still manages to tell a story of love and longing. It was written just recently, and the poet’s pen name is ennovy.

She saw trees bending to engage

natures rumble, roars...

Darkened skies crying; as thunder

voiced panic in high fidelity.

Fire cutting weird angles of beauty;

lighting up our fatherland.

Be not fatuous to this enigma

so grand, resplendent.

Watch with thy heart; embrace

with thy soul... ‘tis love.

© T.Y. Maxwell 2010

There, you have it, and if that’s not beautiful, then I must be mistaken about the definition of the word beauty. For those of you who don’t know, this was written in what is known today as free verse. Free verse is a kind of freewheeling style of poetry that doesn’t have to rhyme or fit any forms; if you look for it, you can find many examples of this style of poetry writing in this age. I am a fan of rhyming poetry, and particularly some form poetry; but I thoroughly enjoy reading a well-done free verse poem, and this one is certainly excellent. Ms. ennovy is an expert at this genre, and several others as well. By the way, her poem is included here with her express permission, of course.

I’ll see you the next time we visit the poetry page, with more poets and more poems. Thank you for dropping by.

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT August 4, 2010...For the sake of argument, let’s talk, or argue, about it if you wish. First, let me begin by saying that I am not against arguing; nope, no way, not me Jose. In my opinion, arguing is a good thing, not a bad one. Arguing is one of the ways we settle our differences of opinion about things big and small; without argument, matters would be left to resolve themselves without any input from us, and we wouldn’t want that, would we? Heck no, we’ve got to get our two cents said, be it right or wrong. There are some who say that instead of arguing, we should converse; but I say that having a good argument or a good conversation is the same thing. Alternatively, at least, it should be. Nowadays, people have added some ugly heads to the argument monster, and in doing so, have actually demeaned the purpose of arguing in the first place; that purpose being to make your points known on a given subject. However, many people now have adopted a “my way or the highway” attitude that have rendered the reasons for argument impossible to achieve. With that in mind, I would like to argue for the sake of argument that some things need to be observed by the participants of an argument in order for any argument to have any meaning at all. Here are some things that I believe good arguments either have or don’t have.

Shouting: Shouting at one another is absolute poison to any argument; effective problem solving can never be attained by shouting. Heart attacks, strokes, increased sales of blood pressure medicines, yes; resolution of problems, NO!

Hogging the floor: There must be two sides to every argument, or else it is not an argument at all. To continue to speak when clearly others have input they wish to contribute is patently unfair. If you don’t want to hear the other side, go rent yourself a podium and a megaphone; and put up several signs that say “no questions taken.” Even better, go talk to your mirror, that person is a very good listener. Well, at least he/she can’t walk out on you…

Making it a contest: Really, there are no “winners” or “losers” in a good argument. The object of arguing should be to understand what the interested parties have to say before reaching any conclusions. Often, both sides of an argument will reach some middle point of agreement and often they will not. Whether or not the sides reach a mutual area of agreement, both sides will still have benefited from at least listening to each other.

No bashing, please: Nothing belittles an argument so much as using someone’s ethnicity, religion, lifestyle, etc. as support for it. Not only does it demean the argument, it demeans the arguer as well; if your argument is so shallow as to have to resort to personal attacks in order to make it, perhaps you really don’t have an argument at all. People just cannot be categorized; the best and the worst of us come from everywhere.

Listen: Ah, that’s a magic word…listen! The person(s) with whom you are arguing have something to say, else they wouldn’t be arguing with you at all. Listen to what they have share with you. Ideally, both sides of an argument would spend equal time speaking and listening, or writing and reading, if you prefer. Frequently, there is a delightful prize for conversing in this manner; you both may find that you are more in agreement than you thought you were.

Don’t argue forever: There will be instances when neither side will give even a inch, both sides remaining unconvinced of the other’s, regardless of the effort. My best advice in those situations is to shake hands and say, “Let’s talk about it again on another day.” While it’s true that unresolved problems leave holes in our lives, it is also true that hastening to solutions that are unsatisfactory to all serves no purpose. Better to save the argument for another day than to live with a “solution” that makes no one happy.

These are just some things to consider the next time you find yourself in an argument. I, for one, could write at great lengths about this, but for now, let’s just leave it as it is. For the sake of argument, let’s agree to argue about it another time. That is my argument, and, by golly, I’m sticking to it!
　

THE ARIZONA PROBLEM

Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010--IN THE NEWS: THE ARIZONA PROBLEM

The folks in Arizona, both good and bad, seem to by having a problem with their southern border. You know, the one they share with the country of Mexico. So much so, that their state legislature recently passed a law giving those entrusted with the duty of enforcing the law “more tools” in the perceived “war” against illegal immigration. While I am sure that those who support the new law’s intentions are good, well meaning people, we all know what the road to hell is paved with, don’t we? Once you have given a dog a bone, you’d best be careful how you retrieve it.

Before we delve any deeper into this problem, let me assure you that I am not without experience in this matter. I lived in both Tucson and Phoenix, spending about three years there between the two, and I lived in Flagstaff for about six months. Additionally, I’ve spent some time in New Mexico (much more that a vacation’s worth), and, of course, I was born in and continue to live in the Great State of Texas; as the politicos are fond of calling it. All three of these are border states; therefore, I have a life of experience of living with our Mexican brothers. After due consideration and drawing on my experiences here and there, I have come to the following conclusion: the Arizona law is plainly just wrong-headed, and serves no useful purpose.

For one thing, there are laws already on the books that cover the situation; new laws are not needed, the old one’s either need to be enforced, or changed to something easier to enforce. You can argue that enforcement by the feds has been lacking, but you can also argue that state’s laws can never supersede federal law. Didn’t we engage in a war one time, humorously known as the “civil war” (has there ever been any such thing as a civil war?), that was, in part at least, caused by the notion that a state could write laws contrary to the wishes of the federal government? Then, there’s that other thing; the matter of the rights of our citizens. District Judge Susan Bolton was correct when she wrote that it is likely that law-abiding citizens of this country will be detained against their will while their immigration status is being checked (this quote is not verbatim, but the meaning is the same). In other words, citizens will be deprived of their right to go about their business in the pursuit of their happiness, in a free manner. We must ask ourselves this question; do we really want a law that will obstruct our liberty? It is my hope this will become a moot question; for, once the arguments pro and con make it to the Supreme Court, the law will be ruled unconstitutional. This is as it should be, in my opinion.
I can only wonder, however, how this law ever came to be in the first place. Can the people of Arizona not see what they are doing to themselves? In their haste to keep illegal immigrants out of their state, are they really willing to give up one of their essential liberties? (insert any quote by Benjamin Franklin here) What will happen if their law is allowed to stand and be enforced? The answer is as old as slavery itself.

People with brown skin will be endangered in Arizona, whether they are here legally or not; whether they are citizens or not. I am no great shakes as an odds player, but I will take less-than-even odds that no white people will be stopped. Clear-cut cases of racial profiling will be abundant; ask any of your black friends about that. In Arizona, it will be even worse, because they will be able to deport any illegals they find, without due process of law. At least the black folks can’t be deported; they, for the most part, are citizens. And, if mistakes are made? Well, shoot, who’s to know? That’s another thing I’ll take less-than-even odds on; the police departments in Phoenix and Tucson won’t be running out into the streets to shout out any mistakes that they’ve made.

Let us remember that all of our families were immigrants to this country, not a single one of us can claim the USA as a birthright. The only indigenous people we have are the Native Americans, and we have treated them shamefully through the years. Not only do we continue to treat them shamefully, we are attempting to add blacks and Mexicans to the list as well. That’s some track record we have, folks, yessiree. I, for one, can’t find a whole lot there of which to be proud.

Ladies and gentlemen of Arizona, let’s come to our senses, shall we? Let’s quit acting as if the world is coming to an end (it’s not), and find a better way. Our neighbors to the south, the Mexicans, are here to stay, and they are not going to just disappear; no matter how many homophobic laws you enact. You can’t build and supervise enough fences to keep us apart, so you’d best learn to live with life the way it is. Don’t let your over-blown self-importance destroy you; you are most assuredly not the only people on the planet.

Else, the Natives may decide to build their own fence, and deport all of us from THEIR country! You know what? If that were to happen, I’d bet you’d find that you like Mexico a whole lot more than you thought…

Brazos Mason