Campaign Trail by Burn Unit
April 2nd, 2007 11:51 PM
). You may then select a congressional committee and subcommitte (Re Election
FAIL
I hereby offer to complete at least thirty five (35) vote-worthy feats and/or deeds—think tasks or 'micro-tasks'—for anyone who requests them between the 1st of September and the end of "real world" election day, November 4.
You the players are cordially invited to play the upper hands in an epic game of "Let Another Person Plan Your Term of Office".
Burn Unit will complete 35 tasks worth at least 5 points (i.e., one vote) by request over the course of the next couple months. Proof of these activities will be funneled into my existing Campaign Trail proof.
If my actions and campaigning do not garner 35 additional votes on the Campaign Trail praxis by election day, I will consider it a defeat in the Re Election and request that my Senator Badge be altered to reflect my "former senator" status.
Obviously people who have already voted for Burn Unit last time will be unable to vote on that task. However, you may also request a deed, which I will complete along with the others. I only ask that you then reach out to another player on my behalf once I complete it.
In a sense we've FAILED in the enactment of legislation as Senators, and I feel the pain of this fact often. But we've SUCCEEDED so many times in the realm of praxis. The only way I can think of to make up for the one, is moar praxis. So that's what I'm doing.
Praxis for the people.
Completed Feat 1: three pounds of flesh for Dax Tran-Caffee!
39 vote(s)
- Jackie H
- Cthulhu Kitty
- Saul Z
- qwerty uiop
- Ohrlyeh Totenkinder
- Flower
- Jason 7au
- SNORLAX
- beverly penn
- Ziggy C.
- K!
- Mantooth
- Møuse
- Darkaardvark
- yoko ono
- Bubblesort's Ghost
- Zhee Meatss Needz Cheffing
- Murdoc
- Blue
- Cameron
- pink
- ghettosmurf
- Jellybean of Thark
- dexter in question
- Geronimo
- Lank
- Ink Tea
- Lizard Boy
- Ariock Knight
- Poisøn Lake
- KenDragon
- ROGER RABBIT
- the band-aid bandit
- Spidere
- Too Much Exposition
- Adam
- Absurdum
- Dax Tran-Caffee
- done
Terms
(none yet)62 comment(s)
She and I spoke about it and she's contemplating it. I warn you, that child is a TYRANT. Speak of her election to some post of power at your Peril.
As indicated, these represent first steps down the trail. We are waging a campaign here, not an...instantiation. If you ask out of some wish to "bide your time" awaiting further proofs, I cannot fault you and can promise you ongoing procedures and manifestations.
Know this as you deliberate: we are seeking to effectuate the reinvention of the ambit of our shared parahistory. In such efforts, momentum has a way of proceeding logarithmically.
Dear Mr. Burn Unit,
I am very excited about your candidacy and wish you the greatest of luck with your campaign.
I love your photograph in the corn field.
I also love points #5 and #6 of your platform. I can tell that while you are now a member of the University of Aesthematics, you haven't forgotten your Crisis roots. That means a lot to an old-fashioned stick-a-fork-in-it-and-call-it-a-day kind of guy like me.
I am following your Campaign Diary with great interest. You have truly made my day. I wish all politicians could express sentiments as complex as, "What have I done? I don't want to speak to this delirious and manic person who inhabits my brain, concocting his plans." And mission statements as clear as, "we are seeking to effectuate the reinvention of the ambit of our shared parahistory."
Thank you for your time.
Ian Kizu-Blair
Citizen of SFZero
Mr. Unit,
As a past member of a team that was unquestionably under-represented in the geopolitic of our collective involvement, and a current member of a team with uncertain trajectory, it concerns me that your platform is being built from a position within the very team that dominated most if not all of our last era in terms of both membership and Score... one that now, so very briefly into our next era, has more than twice as many players than any other team. I find myself concerned that your majority affiliation will prevent you from adhering to your "promise to stand forth for every player," as you put it in your announcement to run for office, and represent members of the other teams equilaterally. I could cast projections even further out and predict that some players may never affiliate themselves with one of the five established teams; I am thinking about their representation as well. What are your plans to prevent your own potential partisanship?
Another point of order is the bee song. To which are you referring?
Sincerely,
Jason 7au, SF0 Player and Advocate
Hm. I'm more convinced that I must vote for Eleanor, when she announces her candidacy.
Figure out a night you can meet up and put it up as an event so folks can get together! If you want some ideas on where we can meet up near to where you'll be, shoot me a message.
Ian, thank you for the encouragement and the compliments. It is important for any candidate to maintain a well conceived photogenic and telegenic image. Also, cornfields and corn mazes are awesome. Doubly so when you're walking those paths with The Future.
I also love points #5 and #6 of your platform. I can tell that while you are now a member of the University of Aesthematics, you haven't forgotten your Crisis roots.
Ian is correct, in fact, and has intuitively leapt upon a facet of my long term plans. The ~six month cycling of scores and identities has performed an alchemical transformation of the game, liquefying certain components which were once thought immutable. Perhaps the potentials of this liquefactive process haven't been entirely thought out by everyone, myself included. However, one implication became clear very quickly: in working through all the groups, experiencing each, players have the opportunity to bear the mission of each into each. So I have that in mind as I consider the profound concern of Jason
your platform is being built from a position within the very team that dominated most if not all of our last era in terms of both membership and Score... one that now, so very briefly into our next era, has more than twice as many players than any other team
The leap from Humanitarian Crisis to University of Aesthematics is a transgressive leap in terms of the beliefs and expectations of groups.
It is hoped that in this transgression, some centralizing themes and hierarchies of value and/or meaning may be disrupted, relocated into less stable forms. Further, the switch, and to an extent this candidacy, tests a hypothesis that this destabilizing process presents an opening, a door, a breach through which the aims of Humanitarian Crisis may be more fully realized, even as much as--or insofar as!--those of the University of Aesthematics are. The proposition is that in such an admixture of these energies, each one reaches toward realization of their beliefs or devotions. We greatly advance the cause of Humanitarian Crisis by mindfully and artfully realizing the techniques of UofA. Likewise we produce meaning more fully as we more fully relieve the victims of the Crisis. The only true test of these is to move through each group iteratively. Put in completely other appropriate terms: to derive through the groups, propelled by Drive, to model each group precisely and seamlessly within the living city.
As much as I enjoy complicated phraseology for it's own sake, I come to realize that we are not joking about reinventing ambits.
Jason, did I say I'd stand for "every player?" Shoot I did! That's awfully vapid to the point of meaninglessness. We must excise such language to be taken seriously. Indeed, if I interpret the concept of a senate correctly, ideally the senators (recall, thank you wiki, that's from senex, the old men!) represent a broader constituency.
Realistically I'm sure the senators of SF0, like those of other senates, will most of the time stand for their own groups and in particular the people who actually voted for them. I believe I would represent the whole. But this critique prompts me to open the door to publicly promise that as my powers of broad focus become tested, I will deal honestly with all players who challenge me to live up to earlier flights of rhetoric. I challenge all potential voters or opponents to make my faults and shortcomings public and to hold my words up to me when I begin to slide.
In a very crude way, as one of the earliest adopters of team switching, I witnessed many more changes from UofA to something else right at first and I backed that horse accordingly. I also noted that there were no UofA-only tasks in the first wave of Glasnost--which will presumably change with the first release of player-created tasks. But with the previous eras best players slowing or halting play and jumping groups or opting out of groups entirely, a part of me gambled on a switch to UofA being as "unattended to" (?? "uncool?" "unsought-after??") in the new era as it was notable in the last. This is one prediction I can see is quickly being proved wrong.
Finally, there is no song: the bees are disappearing! What the hell?
Vote early and vote often!
but could you address the rumor floating around that your mustache may in fact not be real? If so, does this imply falsehood in other aspects of your demeanor, character, or platform? Should I be worried? Have I backed the wrong horse? Would you be willing (should these allegations prove true) to grow a real mustache?
Dear Mr Unit.
Having followed your campaign for quite some time now, I feel assured that your are a man of convictions, who has steadfastedly commited himself to not only tackling many tasks in an intelligent and thoughtout manner, but also to the continuation of sf0 itself.
For these reasons alone I am deeply considering open support of your campaign.
I have been made aware that your campaign is planning a stop on the trail shortly . Now I am well aware that such events are unlikely to reach my own geographical shores due to time and budget restrictions, however as an international member of the sf0 community I must ask the question of what steps are contained in your senatorial plan towards the furthering of sf0 towards an international base?
Yours faithfully,
Mr Mouse
Good Mouse, and any others who may be reading this, I thank you for your consideration and I expect to find ways to earn it in the days to come.
I want to note to you that the event I proposed for this weekend in SF is one I believe could be conducted in likewise fashion in other cities. I can only promise more details to come.
When I set out, I didn't think much about the international community. You've given me something serious to chew on that I need to examine closely. First instinct: keep the game together, keep playing at a high level and reaching out to others. But that's a kneejerk response anyone can and should do. To really facilitate international growth needs thoughtful study.
Way to reach out to the new, inexperienced person, who doesn't know any better but to vote for you. :P
Ahhh, thank you so much!
I will always reach outward, most especially to the "new person!"
You "knowing better" or not is simply no kind of excuse at all, for remember: your character is able to do things that you may be unable or unwilling to do yourself...your character never misses a connection...!
Mr Unit,
As a follower of your campaign I find myself worried that you seem to have cast it aside. Though your actions in tasks are highly admirable, i would be reassured as a possible voter if you found a way to link your drive continually to your campaign.
Sincerely
Mouse
The voters, man. They're out to get me too! The only opponents are the voters. Mouse, man, you know it ain't anything like that, man. Man, you know I'm out there hustling on the wild frontier, workin the angles, strugglin to lead by example, and not duckin any criticisms, no matter how debased.
I have shaved my moustache, the real one I mean. It was going no where. It's hard like the stiff scent of whiskey to get this right but you'll see. I'll show em, man.
I bet Eleanor hasn't given up on *HER* moustache, and she has *TWO* X chromosomes to battle!
Consider our blood debt repaid my friend.
I have been strongly considering a senatorial run myself, but the more I see of your campaign, the more I think perhaps you're the horse for me.
Although I have both vision and strength, I am thinking perhaps a supporting behind the scenes role would be best for me.
On the other hand, I am a wicked public debater, trained in the art of law and advocacy.
I will need to think on this more...
Yes. Yes. But who will you debate against? The other candidates? Why? We're on your side. We want it too and we understand intuitively that the trough is exactly as big as we make it for ourselves and who will stop us? Not to even hint at mentioning the hounds of hell they unleash when you launch your campaign, where they'll tell you to your face your innocent, hopeful face that they wish someone else would do it, how they're waiting, trailing their fingers through the lukewarm sea wishing idly about the good features of your supposed betters, your own flesh in fact, you 2.0 or beyond. They'll gnaw at you, the whole great flock of them. Yes, I'll welcome you, my wings are wide and covered with the sweetest down, please there is plenty of room in the back alleys and secret corridors of power but by all means grab those reigns yourself and lash the flanks of the voters! They're the horses here, we are just the humble jockeys, the polo players, the hopeful, longing, pigtailed little children who just want a pony for god's sake just a pony!
See...
The thing of it is... you use too many words sometimes. I hadn't thought of a good way to say it in my previous comment. I'd written it out, and I thought nah, I won't say that. But then! Then you responded with too many words!
Wit in writing is a joy to me, and you frequently bring me that pleasure. But like many illustrious writers before you such as Thomas Pynchon, James Joyce, and Neil Stephenson in Quicksilver and beyond, YOU USE TOO MANY GODDAMN WORDS!
Speaking to the people does not require a dumbing down of either vocabulary or message, but using the pretentions of language to obscure the messsage is simply a way to perpetuate the crisis!
Don't perpetuate the crisis just because you've joined a group that values aesthetics over the fight.
I'd like to think that, as an undecided voter, my concerns might have some sway over you. To wit:
There seems to be an increasing trend towards the loss of individual group character, superceded by a greater collaborative/cooperative spirit manifested through multigroup tasks, many of which you yourself have created. What do you plan to do to help restore individual group spirit, with particular respect to the University of Aesthematics?
The foe system seems to be an intriguing yet vastly underutilized tool. As a senator, what kind of actions would you propose to allow broader and more creative use of this and other tools?
If there was a word, heterological, meaning "not applicable to itself" (short is short while monosyllabic is not monosyllabic) would heterological be heterological?
help restore individual group spirit, with particular respect to the University of Aesthematics?
foe system...underutilized tool...broader and more creative use of this and other tools?
...would heterological be heterological?
Darkaardvark, yes. You have great sway. All players should believe in and begin to flex the power of their sway. And not a moment too soon. To your point. One key way: perhaps the election of a UofA player to the Senate before any others will get the ball rolling to instill our group pride in particular. I look to be that senator. Another: begin a deliberate effort to collaborate with and raise the profile of UofA players. We need to develop in-group collaborative task completions which are themselves high profile and of such quality as to instantly transform their immediate surroundings into a faerie wonderland as well as to render voting for them inevitable. This effort has begun slowly, and must of necessity utilize...shall we say...the thurn und taxis. I welcome any UofA player to exchange ideas and to begin the process of deliberate Aesthematic task completions, and I pledge to reach out specifically and intentionally to our group.
As a senator for All of SF0, I wonder if one possible solution is to deliberately provoke and alienate other groups, in order to instill in them the bittersweet milk of motivating resentment. I believe some other groups have considered this campaign itself a deliberate provocation. It was not, initially, but perhaps it should be. I am on the record as an advocate of creating new groups and I intend to use my influence (and peddle it if necessary) as a senator, in order to study and promote the concept of enforced group choice at the change of eras. If that requires the creation of groups that exist in the real world so that careless unchoosing players shall be cast into them, so be it. Enough of this dillydallying.
If that further means bullying, grandstanding and rhetoric against non-group tasks, I might have to consider those tactics. But not if it costs me votes in the long term. Do I contradict myself?* I contradict myself!
I think our top priority for foes is to create tasks which require foes to complete them. What are you, any of you, doing to promote this? I will work to create such tasks, and I will work to create a stable prosperous environment--see platform-- in which such tasks are likely.
As for other tools, I would like to publicly and vaingloriously take credit for the idea of the recently updated page. This is a new and exciting tool for players to keep on top of the activities and possibilities of living proofs, to push players to keep "tending the gardens they plant." I urge other players to consider the implications of this display option on the praxis page, and the possibilities for tasks that grow with time. I didn't code it of course, but I pushed for its creation and I'm proud of those negotiating efforts. Please let us see this as a good beginning of a fruitful outpouring of ideas.
Yes. Consider: "Heterological" means or signifies itself, but does not enact itself or become itself in the act of its utilization. Heterological qua heterological is not. In action, heterological becomes heterological only to its meaning. No.
(* Coming full circle here, Yes I contradict myself. Consider too: the word abecedarian, its received meaning to include the idea of being in alphabetical order, is thus a heterological one, being itself abecedarian only phonetically. )
May I express my pleasure at the state of the union.
Senator Unit,
Let me be the first to publically congratulate you on your successful election. The UK0 Union will continue to stand as strong supporters of your administration.
Mouse.
Congratulations and three cheers (hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray!) You should now select your committee and subcommittee.
congratulations! now i can put a normal photo up!
Dear Burn Unit,
It was your personal call to arms this afternoon, not the fact that you'd already won. Yes.
Sincerely,
InkTea
Working the Union was brilliant: A moment of beauty in an otherwise mud-coated election. Not that things coated in mud can't also be beautiful.
Ill have you know we of the UKØ Union pay for Savile Row tailor made coats cut from the finest kenyan mud.
Doesnt really keep out the rain mind you, thats what our jellyfish umbrellas are for.
Yes id like to ask all three senators.. what have you got to say for yourselves? Who are going to be your senate staff? Get hiring! Get deliberating about important/unimportant/semiimportant/impish things! Start making waves! The people (I the people) demand it.
I just realized the voting ended this morning. so hey points to the victor. hooray!!!
Running for re-election? I think that's a fine idea, if that's what you're up to.
Additionaly, didn't you have a big multi-tasked task? Multi-Tasking, right?
hey, now. you're the one that voted yourself into the senate.
er, got the socks to do it.
Dear Unity,
Here's a re-election task request. If it seems ill matched to your single-vote threshold or otherwise objectionable, feel free to decline and request an alternative.
I'd like an audio recording of one or both of your children laughing, singing, or asking a question. It should be a minimum of 10 seconds long, and must not contain obvious background sounds or music. It will be used in a completing a task. (Details available upon request.)
Mr. BU,
I adore your LP listening device made of awesome and pointy. I would like a recording made available of that device playing more beautiful music. Classical is great, but really whatever you are willing to allow to degrade as a result of being played. I'll even mail you one to play if it's any trouble.
~Waldo
I second this, as it was what I was going to request.
I'll add this:
The issue of broccoli doesn't weigh on my mind at all. So I'd like to know where you stand on the issue of mechanical sentience. Is it benign or malignant to us? If you see it as a threat to us, what do you plan to do?
More beautiful? More beautiful? MORE BEAUTIFUL?
I can only assume by that you mean, "I would like a recording of that device playing more music which is also beautiful, even though it's unlikely to be quite as beautiful as the music you've already played." The alternative interpretation leaves me with no choice but to hunt you down and return with a bag full of ears, and I can't afford the jail time right now.
I'll see what I can do. I refuse to promise beautiful. Beautiful is hard. Worth more than one vote. Two votes, even. It turns out that not all LPs are created equal. Older classical records are made from harder stuff, and the grooves hold up much better. Pop from the mid seventies and later doesn't sound nearly as good, and skips are much more common. I burned through a hand full of junk records setting things up, and was delighted to discover it sounded much better on the real record than on the dummies.
essay on machine intelligence coming soon. I need to consult my advisers.
Mail it, Herr Cheerio. I believe you'll find my real address is easy enough to find.
Some reconstructive work will be required.
My dear C.M., the consultation is taking a long time and may delay the Senator's report until after Journey to the End of the Night Minnesota.
Absolutely -- the option intended was not the one which inspires a Mr. Blonde moment. I will need to hunt down a suitable record that is not 70s pop (my obvious first choice).
a pound of flesh [your flesh, of course]
I'll pick it up on the morning of the 13th.
Thanks for the pound of flesh. It was delicious!
See pictures above - three pounds of flesh, made vegan, were delivered.
I demand bollywood karaoke!!
or at least bollywood lip-syncing.
A recreation of this video.
With an amusing hat.
Make a tape sculpture. Of anything you choose. Instructions found here.
Burn Unit -- I publicly challenge you to debate the issues.
This debate should be televised through the interweb.
This debate, although live should be recorded and a public record made for those who are not able to attend.
I challenge you as your foe.
Can you talk to the issues?
Will you address envelopes?
I will go and make jello with little oranges for my children while I await your response.
You cannot hide behind a platform of micro-tasks.
Come out and address the issues, or the envelopes.
I propose that this debate take place on Dressing Gown Appreciation Day.
Hey, the only reason you didn't get reelected was lack of publicity, not lack of legitimacy.
I will challenge you to the mini task of sending me something interesting. PM me for my address if you want to go though with this offer. Then you shall earn my vote
and so do I for your use of the word "eldritch"!