League of Middle Management

Competitive team video games can teach the suburban college going future leaders of the world the middle management skills they need to get promotions and occupy talking time at company meetings.

Take League of Legends, the Free-to-Play business model for promoting conformist mediocrity. League is full of the neeblets who populate the world:

• wanting distinction for doing essentially nothing,
• wanting superiority status over other people,
• feeling deserving for simply being complete tools, milked cows, sheep,
• needing some way to gloat over their advantages.

Today's gaming community headline: Reformed players ask riot, how you like me now? In the article they claim their ban system for 'toxic' players has reformed problematic players. But when a company's purported morality code is designed only to exclude hostile players so they can coddle their incompetent paying clientele from the ridicule they deserve, it's not surprising that there is little discussion to be had. 

This is what is the greatest concern of the 'press a single button to have the game play for me', play by shopping, 'my step-father takes me to Aruba on summer vacation' noobs: special edition character skins - how rare and visibly exclusive their clothes are. The only topic discussed in comments is about a limited edition purchasable skin: Will you ever bring back Championship Riven?

---

If you bring Championship Riven back, give people that had her before a reward that demonstrates that they've had the skin since it's original release, something like you did with the First Strike Project thing.

so some kind of banner/splash art frame/etc. that would differentiate the rerelease of Championship Riven from its original release.

Sizhin  - 6 days ago

• 88

I feel they needed to do this with King Rammus too. I have one of the oldest accounts thats still active in league of legends and now a bunch of brazilians got my skin without being around since alpha. shame

SPACEJAMTHEME  - 6 days ago

• 9

Yes all limited skins should be "redone" with a splash art frame... It's a kick in the nuts for those that have played for a long time.

• 2

I'm still salty about surprise party fiddlesticks, why is exclusivity such a bad word? If they make a limited release it should be exactly that. People that didn't get in should look at those who did and say damn I can't wait til I get a skin that others will be jealous of, instead of trying to ruin the experience for those that have one.

Conditiona  - 3 days ago

I agree. I have King Rammus as well and I feel it takes away from the "special" of it.

xX JayTea Xx  - about 12 hours ago

(Look at this neeb's xX Xx name. I think adding those x's to your name makes you super and not having them takes away from the "special" of it.)

• 22

I think people who own Championship Riven should be given an emblem

Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty

College of the Sequoias
Tulare, CA

Monday, June 26th
Visalia, CA

Walked into a Costco with my yellow bags, yellow shell jacket. One employee joked I was there to fight fires. The other one thought his joke was serious and thanked me for coming all the way over from Virginia. ^-^

Steady 100F highs this week. Been waking up near hotels for breakfast, traveling 8 am to 10ish to a library, then 1 pm to 3ish to a buffet. After the late lunch, I sit somewhere air conditioned trying to keep my eyes open and sleep at the same time.

The evenings are tough. Many air conditioned hangouts close their doors around 5pm when the day is near its hottest. The temperature stays above 90F for hours after 8:30 pm sundown and doesn't really cool off until 1 am.

I sit on the shady side of a Lowe's building, feeling my cooked brain run out my nose. I can't travel far in the dark, so I wait for the night to get cool and quiet to search a nearby empty lot to make camp. I often don't sleep until 2 am.

Taking credit

Some young adults think their future is entirely in their hands, and all their success is their own accomplishment. No, it's not.

On the left is a smooth road, on the right is not. Ride on the left and you might feel proud of your speed and physical capabilities. You may think yourself superior to your exact duplicate riding on the right.

I got off the cracked farm road and onto the smooth freeway. I glanced at my former self and looked down my nose at him, who I concluded had not been working as hard and determined as I now was.

It's hard to understand for someone who's only ever traveled one side of the road.

Valkommen to Kingsburg, CA

A town for some reason attired in a Swedish theme. Swedish flags, architecture, accordion music. Blue and yellow banners say 'Valkommen'. Librarian said participation for all buildings downtown was mandatory.

Solicitations

Homeless are always coming up looking to get something. It's getting worse as I travel south.

Monday, June 27th
Visalia, CA

This morning while I'm sleeping, I feel someone close by and sit up when I see a homeless kid walking to me.

"Can I have your bike?"

I answered him: "WAT..."

He repeated his question like it's a totally natural thing to ask a stranger.

"... No."

How much was it?

"Three fifty."

It was his turn to say what.

I didn't repeat myself. It was 7 in the morning, and this guy didn't look like he had a gun. Or the wherewithal to mug me. I turned onto my side and closed my eyes.

"Got any spare change?"

"... (are you fucking kidding me?) NO!"

Saturday, June 25th
Selma, CA


Homeless lady walks toward me while I'm sleeping in the morning.

I sit up and say hi.

She answers, "I wanted to see if you were dead."

Not 'see if you were alive', not 'see if you are okay'; 'dead'.

"Naw I'm not."

She repeats her dead body finding explanation then asks me for a cigarette.

Are you kidding me? You wanted to see if I was dead so you could get a smoke.

Yeah sure. I'd be great if I was dead and left you my will wouldn't it? Unto the first person who finds me dead, I bequeath a pack of cigarettes and this bicycle.

Sunday, June 12th
Sacramento, CA

I'm sitting outside at a community college. A guy rides by on his bike, sees me, then stops, thinks wait that homeless guy doesn't look right ... guy has money, and turns back.

"Give me some change. I need two dollars for the light rail."

Wtf? Am I your mother? You're biking to the train without bringing money for the fare? And so now it's my problem? And you think I'm stupid enough to believe your story?

"Got no cash on me."

Scrub makes a tsk and shakes his head at me, like man this town's full of deadbeats.

Look who's the one asking for money?

Quotable

A lesson taken from a flat bicycle tire:

"On the road of life, don't be afraid of encountering big bumps. You will get over them and keep rolling. What you ought to do is shield yourself from little pricks; they're the ones that will get inside and take the air out of you."

Life is a bumpy road

Don't fear the big obstacles in life. You'll get over them! Getting past the big problems is the good part of life! Landing a career, getting married, buying a house, winning a game of Jenga.

Keep the little pricks out. They're small things! Don't let them get inside and you'll keep your air about you. You'll keep moving. You'll get to where you need to go.

Life is like a box of chocolates. There are a few good flavors and the rest is just filler.

Saturday, June 25th
Fresno, CA

I got a new set of bicycle bags. Happy yellow. Aren't they beautiful?

Replaced free at REI. :smiley:

Fine dining

Wednesday, June 21st
Merced, CA

Colored lights on signs need to be flashing and spinning. A disco ball inside a chandelier.

A little shrine with offerings of fruit and food to Siddhartha. I understand the thought, but placing it underneath the buffet island is worshiping insects and rats.

Faux marble trim around the bars and tables. Colored plastic on the walls. There's maybe a hipster joint somewhere that tries hard to be this authentically tacky.

I can't get enough of it.

Ulix eyeing my last piece of chicken.

The waiters were disorganized and weren't aware of their duties. I refilled my water from the bottle in my backpack. I had to repeat in Chinese my request for the check to a confused young man.

Going it alone

University of California Merced
Merced, CA

How lonely dreams can be!

Late evening. Sitting on large cobbles. Side of the library building my lean-to sheltering wind.

A beautiful, spacious campus. Like a wonderful futuristic city of an advanced, civilized society whose only needs are to further technological, scientific, cultural and artistic talents.

But designed to be empty, filled by open spaces.

The close, catacomb-like stacks of Colorado College had student life coming out the woodworks. It was thriving, alive.

This here feels like Gattaca. Like a place so advanced and exceptional, that no one is really good enough to be here.

Police car just drove past without looking my way. Facilities staff going home. 10 pm. I will be alone soon.

I want to study by the library all night exploring the physics of the universe. Instead, I'm probably going to end up falling asleep at the laptop after jerking off to porn.

Sigh. Dream's even alone from its conceiver. It might take two dreamers to create a reality.

This university was built in 2005. It is something else! Unbelievably modern and advanced. It is like a city unto itself.

All the seats at the library have wired Ethernet ports for Internet. !.

Imagine a society so technologically advanced that its citizens do not need to worry about any of the primitive basic needs - food, shelter, and material goods are universally provided.

Citizens do not need to earn wages or labor. Everyone is free and their sole responsibility for work is to pursue higher arts. Music, painting, athletics, inquire into knowledge, discovery, creativity.

Visiting this campus, strolling through its boulevards, parks, and avenues feels like stepping through a portal into that kind of alternate reality future society.

Welcome

 

It's like a vision of my dream, made real. But I don't know that I want to live it, because it is alone and lonely. Dystopian.

Plus, I came across tall giant double doors that looks like the holding pen that the U-Rex in Jurrasic World movie escaped from.

Bicycle bags have a broken axel

Friday, June 17th
Ripon, CA (where the heck is that?) between Manteca, CA and Modesto, CA
south of Sacramento, CA

Beautiful skies over Manteca, CA.

Took a spill on the road tonight. I'm okay, nothing hurt. Hardly a scratch.

I was pulling off the freeway and stopped in the off-ramp shoulder to check directions. Started up on gear 1-6 and not a few spins later, I rolled onto a storm drain grate. Apparently the bars on the grate ran parallel with the direction of traffic, creating a bicycle hazard.

The bicycle wheel must've caught between a large gap in the grating, because suddenly my bicycle was not moving and I was sailing forward. Not sure how I ended up over my handlebars, but I released my grip and my arms instinctively shot straight out to meet the ground.

Hanging around

Sunday to Tuesday, June 12 to 14th.
Sacramento, CA

Sacramento is a big place. Sunday night, I made my way through neighborhoods, downtown, parks, and businesses.

Downtown club scene

Some state building

There's a Chinese/Vietnamese area to the south. I traveled through quite a number of cities, but none large enough to have an Asian neighborhood.

Reminds me of growing up around Boston. Haven't been to a Chinatown since leaving three years ago.

Literal translation: "Good tasting noodle store"

People Supermarket

I shopped an Asian grocery store to feel some familiar hometown comforts. The smells and colors in the building felt quaint. Got cans of "Eight Treasure Congee" 八寶粥 , a sweetened porridge consisting of eight varieties of bean. One of my childhood favorites.

Looked for a spot to catch the NBA finals series. Ended up bumming around southern Sacramento. Elk Grove area.

Valley Hi-North Laguna Public Library and Shasta Community Park

It's nice. I could live here as a homeless guy for a while like this.

• Golden Corral. Buffet. The beef pot roast is savory and tender.

• Consumes River College. High speed wired Internet. Showers. Trees.

• Lowes. Sit outside all night getting electricity and WiFi.

• Parks nearby to sleep.

I've been short on sleep 'cause I stay up 'til 5 am outside Lowes with a roaches, a mouse, and stray cats for company.

Plenty of people see me sitting outside Lowes and don't say anything. 8 pm, 10 pm, 2 am, 5 am... plugged in without moving and I've gotten no objections.

Maybe they're used to passing by homeless people and don't mind that I'm one of them, or maybe they're sick of other homeless people but they don't mind me because I'm not one of them.

I ought to go though. If I'm here every day, the staff will catch on to my coming all the time. Not that it's important. I'm friendly and they rather like me.

But I really should finish my traveling. It's pointless to repeat the same things every day without progress, no matter how nicely they fit together.

Can't shake my addiction to WiFi. Given the choice, that's all I'd do: plug in and live inside a computer. So I gotta take that choice away from myself. Because that life is not possible.

I'd come back here some day though. I like it.


Morning camp at a dog park. Sunday.

Morning camp at park. Monday.

Big city life

Saturday, June 11th
Sacramento, CA

Shaving my head with a pair of hair cutting scissors and safety razor blades in a personal bathroom at California State University, Sacramento.

Takes a really long time. 1 hr and still at it. So much hair for a razor blade to handle. Wash, wipe. Hair clogging the blades won't cut. Wash, wipe.

Can't see the back of my head. Feel around and hope for the best.

Someone tried the door handle three times. "Occupied." "Yep?" Silence. The same footstep sound and door jingle. Probably a janitor trying to finish her job. Better get out of here before I get in trouble.

Didn't get the job finished. The front's not bad, but the back looks chewed by a dog. Now I really look like a crazy person.

Why? 1) Don't want to pack an electric shaver, heavy. 2) Don't want to pay $15 for a haircut, expensive. 3) This cost me $3. 4) To see if I could do it.

Would I do it again? Not if my hair is long, LOL. Takes toooo long. But maybe if my hair is already buzzed. I'd buy an electric shaver and do it myself for $20. Maybe I can find a cheap shaver for $5 at Goodwill.

Morning camp. Bike trail.

Jedediah bike trail is long, well-paved, pretty, and has lots of picnic area parks off it. Too many bicyclist bicyclists on it, but that's to be expected in a rich neighborhood. The trail itself is great.