I got married today, in Frontierville.

[fflo]

It's a rainy day in RL, my wedding day.

Or, rather, the wedding day of my alter ego. Or actually the alter ego of my alter ego's alter ego. That's myself thrice removed, or moreso.

I'm also still single in Frontierville.

I borrowed Bert's hacksaw without his permission (he's out of town) with the intention, yet to be enacted, of cutting the rest of the way through a lilac branch I hadn't succeeded in severing the other day with the family hatchet and a small loose saw blade, from Bert's tree pole, borrowed earlier (with permission). Had looked in the basement for a family saw, or a Baltimore apartment saw. I feel as if I had a saw at one time. None was down there, though, anywhere near the surface of things, like the family hatchet was. But I found some more of the good/swanky packaging tape. The "crystal" clear kind. Worth shelling out for.

Been a little tight on the funds this month. Texted someone this morning "Breakfast?" who is tight on the August dollars, too. Too tight for breakfast, and besides, absorbed in a book. I made eggs with tomato and a tomato & cheese sandwich, and more coffee, and did some dishes to a This American Life about a rest stop, and watched some old Showtime. Had called yesterday to cut back my cable, and ended up trading (basically) Infomania for a $7 a month bill reduction + Dexter & Nurse Jackie. I even watched some Weeds. Yeah, there's a special. $10/mo. for 6 mos. By then maybe I really will have pulled the plug and gone AT&T.

The free movie in the backyard of the failed city council candidate that was to be tonight, rain delayed from last week, was flat-out rained out tonight. I wouldn't have been going anyway, pretty sure.

When I first played the Sims way back when, before my impatience led to looking up cheat codes for free money, I remember thinking it was sort of instructional in some aspects of living. Having to make money in scut jobs first, then working your way up. There's an unrealistically linear aspect to a career there, but there's also something to the implication that patience is necessary, and things don't come all at once. In this latest play world, I like chopping down a tree, clearing some grass or rocks. So you run out of energy. Then you eat or "rest" (wait a while). All in good time. And it doesn't hurt.

Some radio show yesterday when I was in the car was talking about asking people which power they'd prefer: being able to fly or being invisible. They were suggesting that people say flying but would really, cuz of their mischievous secret darker selves, want invisibility. So they could shoplift, have all the things they want, and watch celebrities have sex. Or so the woman was explaining it. I thought of how once in a while I remember in dreams how I can fly, always could, had just forgotten I could: I just have to lean slightly forward and know I can. And then I do, and I do. And I do. I lift off.

Of course I'd take flying, I thought in the car. If you could do it without your shoulder hurting.

Invisibility, I thought, back when I first heard of this choice, would mean eavesdropping on others, and you probably don't really want to know anyway.

Comments

[shmuel.livejournal.com]

The show was This American Life, in a segment by John Hodgman.

Me, I'd take invisibility, no question. Being the only person in the world with the power of flight would probably mean ending up captive by military scientists trying to figure out how to replicate it, or possibly being roped into secret missions (cf. the entire run of "The Greatest American Hero). It's too conspicuous. Invisibility might be kept under wraps, and could be used to avoid would-be muggers and other dangerous situations.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Well, if we're going to consider the "catch," the potential down side, and trust me I know how to do that, I can't imagine winning the lottery without thinking more of how one's life might change for the worse, then we do have to start getting into the conditions of the deal. If you're the only one who can fly, yeah, not so good. But if everyone can fly, then that's a different deal. And if only some can, that sucks too. They all suck!

On the invisibility side, however, and perhaps we do reveal our fears a little here, don't we, there's the issue of the vulnerability of one's invisible physiognomy. I mean, are we still corporeal, just transparent? So we take up space and can be felt? Or, more to the point, we can be injured when someone slings something like this



in our direction? Then do we become visible, as we bleed out, or what?

[shmuel.livejournal.com]

Going with Hodgman's rules, you're the only one in the world with the power, and you have no ancillary powers. (If all possible powers were on the table, I'd go with invulnerability in a heartbeat.)

I grant the point that it wouldn't be hard for a determined opponent who knew I was invisible to wipe the floor with me. The keys here are to keep it under wraps, and to avoid cultivating any archenemies. Even if I imprudently vanished from under the nose of a would-be mugger, I figure it'd be unlikely he'd leap to the conclusion that I'd turned invisible (especially if I switched it on while turning a corner)... and even if he somehow did catch on, he might well decide to find some easier prey.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

But see, you're positing an intentional enemy. I'm imagining an accident. Not that people go willy-nilly slinging saw blades about particularly much, but that's just one possible nasty fluke injury, of a zillion. :)

And wouldn't it just figure, on your first day of invisibility, that a piano would fall from the sky, right on you? Or on just your lower half, leaving your sorry invisible head and torso to stick out, and scream all you might, with no one to see anything but a pile of piano rubble?

[shmuel.livejournal.com]

There is that. I suppose my thinking is that I'd use the invisibility only sparingly, probably at night on nearly deserted streets, lowering the odds of such an accident, but I will grant the point.

On the other hand, I suppose that navigating through the air is likely fraught with hazards as well, what with power lines, birds, and planes (depending on your altitude).

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

Nothing is really any fun, if you think about it.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I was amused by something that popped up on the This American Life segment repeatedly--with invisibility you could sneak onto airliners and get free travel. I think flying by magic would be more fun.

I was thinking that if I were to be a crime-fighting superhero, invisibility would be far more useful. Certainly with the "you can't carry anyone you couldn't carry walking" rule. But flying strikes me as so viscerally joyful that I'd have to choose it.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Am I an inveterate quibbler? Someone, please help me reform. Cuz, again, with invisibility with persisting corporeality, where would you sit? Okay, you don't want to wear a seatbelt, but wouldn't there have to be an empty row? Other people's bodies would certainly get in your way, and yours in theirs.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of that until posting my comment. I just thought it was kind of pointless to get on airliners for free when flying free would be so much cooler. You are correct that inside a cramped airliner is a pretty pointless place to be invisible.