in preparation for the day of contemplation that is mistakenly recognized here in this country as a day of celebration, i enjoy seeking out new ways to revisit and critically examine what it takes to stay useful in our days of decline.enter the ‘survivalist resume‘.

the paradigm shift is occurring.  when people stop talking about the need to illustrate ‘actionable results’ and ‘quarterly earnings,’ and instead discuss the necessity of practical skills such as repairing things, building things, and self-defense - all on one’s own and without the intervention of any ruling body or corporate mercantile entity - the shift is no longer something to cast aside.

in other news, arthur silber is writing again after a several-week hiatus, due to ill health.   i don’t know how he does it…one minute, he’s talking about the unequivocal, bald-faced lies carried out in presidential speeches and the horrors of american exceptionalism; the next, he’s talking about his opera and piano music list-serv memberships and adopting cats.  a prolific, insightful/inciteful writer and unendingly complex being.

also, this week was the release of a multiple-page examination of police intimidation and abuse of authority regarding citizens video-and audio-recording police activity. props for radley balko, helping reason stay worth reading.

in local news, united workers will be hosting a fair development conference in late october this year.  i plan on submitting a proposal on a ‘local skilled labor guild’ initiative in an effort to dredge up support, collaborators, and funding to make the program happen sometime before i leave this town for good in just over a year.

also in local news, i’ve assembled yet another board game design; this one an abstract strategy game centered around shifting tiles and moving across the board based on one’s sequence of colours.  it’ll make its debut at next week’s board game design workshop.

the inaugural tabletop board game has been released from let-off studios: “Keel-Hauled!”

AVAST ME HEARTIES!

The old captain has been keel-hauled and tossed off the ship to feed the sharks…Who will be the next leader of this misfit crew?  YOU…But of course!

KEEL-HAULED puts the players in the middle of this dilemma, as swarthy pirate sailors with their eyes (or eye) on the captain’s post.  Roll your dice, place your sets, and suck-up to the Cabin Boy, Ship’s Cook, and First Mate: the only sailors whose opinions really matter!

KEEL-HAULED is a quick-playing, surprise-filled dice game suitable for any group of 2 to 4 friends with about 30 minutes to spare.  Gather your friends, strap on that eye-patch (not included), and see who becomes the next captain in KEEL-HAULED!

The instructions also include links to additional content and free downloads.  CHECK IT OUT!

NOTE: KEEL-HAULED contains small parts…Keep away from kids who think dice look like food.

visit the game crafter website to purchase this game.

(click the image to see it full-size: 1000×600)

the main point of his work is the somewhat elementary premise that people will tend to stick with work longer if it is interesting to them, and that conversely, if a type of work is not personally interesting to a person, they’ll shirk at it more.  if someone is working in a job they hate, they’ll call in sick more often, maintain low levels of productivity, refuse to cooperate with their coworkers more, and so on.  meanwhile, when a person’s work and interests coincide, then you experience the relative opposite: high productivity, enthusiasm, and dedication to the job.

but how do we determine what one’s interests are? how can we help someone who has little or no work experience figure out what they want to to with themselves (other than do drugs or commit crime?) what if they have no “workplace vocabulary” to communicate their skills and abilities to a potential employer during a job interview?

there have been some recent developments in interactive software that turn standardized tests into interactive, web-based applications.  i’m a big fan of the mynextmove.org website, as it’s a streamlined, user-friendly version of the interest profiler that directly links people to job openings in their interest areas.  i want to do the same sort of thing, but in a board game format: inform people of the different interest areas, and jump-start their minds into thinking about possible careers that link up with their interests.

a drawback of the tabletop game format is that there would be no immediate link to current job openings.  however, the advantage of being an accessible and portable format (no computer literacy required, no internet access or electricity required) makes this still worthwhile and valid.  prisoners do not have access to computers - let alone the internet - while incarcerated, so this can be a useful, engaging alternative to in-class lectures.  also, i’ve not seen any successful board game conversions of this theory as of yet, and i know there is a demand (through interaction with my colleagues).  so why not?

game summary: players are young people on the last three days of summer vacation.  they want to cram as much fun as they can into those last three days before going back to school. the object of the game is to have as much fun as possible; this is measured by “fun points” and “friend points” (for when more than one player completes the activities at the same time: they cooperate).

players can visit a number of different locations throughout town to participate in various activities: The Bank, The Butcher Shop, The Library, The Repair Shop, etc.   the layout of the town is randomly determined at the beginning of each game, and the current tasks for either the morning or afternoon phases are also randomly determined.  this keeps additional play-throughs fresh and different from previous games.

i’m also toying with the notion of adding in “bonuses” that a player can choose at the beginning of the game to put in a layer of customization: a bicycle to increase movement speed throughout the town, a packed lunch that allows a player to spend more time on an activity and extract more fun from the task, etc.completing a given task allows the player to collect a particular type of token (one for each interest category).

 but the connection between these different tasks and career theory is key to success in the game.  using the six categories of the interest profiler (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional), the tokens will add to a player’s score the more frequently they show up in the player’s collection.for example, a player with two tokens in one category and four tokens in another will earn more points than a player with one token for each of the six categories.  furthermore, there is synergy  between adjacent interest categories, as well as penalties for conflicting categories.  it’s up to each player to seek out tasks that match up in terms of category in order to gain more points and reduce their penalties.

almost a month after my latest entry.  my apologies.  there’s one topic in the works, dealing with a software project i have been picking away at for some time now, but that will have to wait for completion.

meanwhile, just a few thoughts on a recent editorial.  i uncovered a recent editorial on the daily reckoning website, which discussed the topic of “generational wealth.”  this dovetails into a lot of my recent reading lately and it’s worth examining in some detail.  the editorial digresses quite a bit particularly in the latter half, but the first third or so discusses a phenomenon i see in my day job all the time.

bill bonner calls it “compound effort over time,” but i like to call the same principle “economic inertia” for a fundamental reason: i look at it shifting in more than one direction.  he essentially states that although one can pull themselves up by their boot straps, start a financial empire, and become wealthy in the space of one’s lifetime, if taken at a generational level, true family fortunes are generated and established over several lifetimes.  dynasties are created in such a way.  bonner brings up examples like the beretta family, the martin family, the rothschilds…all these families have been in their respective fields for literally hundreds of years in some cases.  they have amassed their fortunes over generations, through shrewd investment of time, energy, and funds, not to mention all the positive opportunities that those resources bring.  i would also be remiss if i didn’t mention the privilege allotted to such families.  the point is: their brand is established, and later generations continue to build upon that wise/opportunistic foundation.

the reason i call it economic inertia is because i think that it can also impart the opposite: a generational financial ruin.  families who start off with very little, and continue to squander investment and partnership opportunities, mismanage funds, empty their pockets thanks to irresponsibility, or naivete, or violence…these families will continue to experience financial hardship.

from the article:

Caesar did not start from nowhere. He did not start with nothing. He started off where his father left him. He launched his career with the capital his father gave him – skills, reputation, experience, money, and contacts.

with added resources at the beginning, one is obviously ahead of one’s competitors.  however, with added debt at the beginning, one is already behind.

and what about the privileged?  they will continue to be ahead without some form of seismic shift that modifies the cultural landscape in a way that no longer keeps them ahead…a cultural landscape that has been forged over generations.

and what about role models?  this isn’t touched on so much in the initial editorial.  but if one grows up with a parent who is a well-to-do banker and socialite mother, who drive or are driven in nice cars to high-society social functions…they’re expected to pick up where their parents left off, regardless of their level of blue-blooded inbreeding.

but what about one who grows up with an absentee father, an alcoholic or drug-addicted parent, in section 8 housing and/or surrounded by illegal or high-risk behaviour?  AND culturally marginalized, on top of all that?  what if they stay in the same neighbourhood in which their parents and grandparents lived?  can they really be expected to achieve success of any remarkable measure, or to actually break even?

or will they be relegated to becoming another statistic?