Lots of Monkeys

Filemon ten years ago was a very different person.

True facts, I traveled all the way down the blue line to King Street to do Groceries like this.

One Sentence Quick Take: This PC title is a city builder with an impressive number of genres that the developer has melded together into something that I find both fascinating and engaging.

Additionally, this title has one of the most woe inducing because it is so on point things that I have seen in a game.

A lot of genres depend on income generation, creating some form of money. In Industries of Titan, that is <Credits>

This game presented early game income generation by a worker citizen walking to a Monetization station with screens that, according to the in game description, generated credits by showing ads to workers.

Generates <Credits> quickly by hiring idle <Human Population> to watch ads.

Monetization Station Devices Wiki, Industries of Titan

The workstation itself is a bleak, a cramped area that I optimally place closer to the sleeping areas in order to maximize efficiency. It gets worse! Or—better?

This is the only way to generate credits, the game’s resource that has value through the shared delusion it has value. Actual physical labor only provides you with ever increasingly scarce raw materials.

//  "Ridiculous!" he said, sitting in a dedicated work area of his home with three monitors, three screens, three applications running, and two browsers with 16 tabs.

I stand off to the side, watching James work. He is patient, and even behind the mask I know he smiles. He smiles because it’s clear that he loves what he does. The whole time he talks, about fit, about break, about materials, about the fact that once you add alterations to something off the rack you might as well have gotten something bespoke.

I’ve already had my fitting and I’m beaming. I put my hands in the pants pockets and there are phone sized inner pockets in both sides. James even threw in a shirt for me, the hem cut short in that incredibly trendy new untucked length.

I take a quick selfie to send to my partner.

I look over to the future groom. A barrage of questions.

“How’s the fit? Hands to your sides please, fingers in a gentle curl. Great. How do you feel? Can you step here to the mirror to check yourself out? Awesome. Pockets? Turn a little bit? Okay turn around and take a step back and then look at yourself in the mirror.”

This is a whole new man in front of me. James and I watch the groom, and he sees himself for the first time in his suit.

For a moment I imagine that this is what my Dad felt like.

// No you're crying!

Make them work for a living, to live day to day wondering if they have enough for the mortgage, or the utilities, or the car payment, or any money at all if any one of them gets really sick. Make them work in the gig economy and live what it’s like. To live the life of entirely too many human beings in any number of countries in the world.

Somehow strip their power, their recognition that comes with their name, their ability to hurt others. Their influence.

Let them survive on their own means, to the best of their ability then, and may they end up forgotten faster than their rise.

And still, it would not be enough to compensate for the hatred they brought into the world.

// It's not the time to do nothing.  At some point you just have to wish demons a speedy trip, and would they kindly go back home, to wherever they came from.

Yesterday I noticed a bike light I use when riding my scooter was broken. I was a little bit concerned, this was the first time I’d noticed the defect, a very clear crack that split the plastic right where the USB plug was. It was sticking out so badly that I might have broken something plugging it in, just glad I caught it. I know that’s a lot of anxiety over what is basically a repairable item, but I am risk-averse.

I found the manufacturer’s customer service form on their webpage. I then filled out the information, including the monopolistic online store of the oligarch I’m currently not trying to support.

I completed it and started my commute.

By commute I mean hitting shift windows and the left arrow key to switch my desktop from Desktop 3 to Desktop 1. My commute using this method is approximately three seconds, which by the way, is incredibly bad.

Do not do this.

I had a full day at work, figured out dinner, went to bed, woke up the next day and saw that I had received a response to my warranty inquiry. My documentation was accepted and they will replace the light, noting that the package would take about three to four weeks because it was coming from Australia, I learned.

As I was responding, I noticed a land acknowledgement in their signature.

Sent from Wurundjeri Country. I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which I work, and pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and future.

Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation

And while I know that a land acknowledgement is not going to solve the problems that indigenous people have faced for centuries, I have family that I know would appreciate the educational effort coming from a company. On the whole, I would rather give my money to a company that is at least trying in its own way to educate others and have respect for all human beings.

I snoozed the email for four weeks and signed off.

“May we all get treated like human beings, equally, some day, every one of us.”

//In retrospect I reread this and then realized I own enough tools at home to have glued it shut and filed and sanded it to a usable condition, but then I would have never seen the land acknowledgement.