CombatWords, September 3, 2010: Delusion

CombatWords, September 3, 2010: Delusion

The word delusion suggests that we are animated by conscious, subconscious and unconscious motives. It's a word for cognitive dissonance. It's also a damned judgmental word, as if it's normative to be in full congruence with conscious, sub & unconscious motives. I call bullshit. Delusion is one of the fuels that makes this world run; indeed, Schopenhauer would argue that delusion makes LIFE possible, because it's foolish to be hopeful. I don't really care which approach you take; you can even be dismissive of delusion, but that's a rather deluded perspective in my opinion.

Combat Expiration: 9/5/2010, 12am PST

Critique Expiration: 9/6/2010, 12am PST

Bonuses: +3 for posts made by 6pm PST 9/3/2010, +2 if posted by 9pm PST 9/3/2010, and +1 if posted by 12:00am PST, 9/4/2010.

The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html



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CombatWords! August 27, 2010: Hypocrisy

CombatWords! August 27, 2010: Hypocrisy

The September 2010 edition of National Geographic had a photo of a pair of lemur heads floating in a bowl of soup. After my outrage settled into sorrow, I considered a quote from the article: “But some people here don't know or care. The Malagasy who don't live near tourist areas think that lemurs are just for the vatzaha [white people]—they don't see the benefits.” James Fenimore Cooper wrote about a long extinct America—filled with enormous flocks of birds; Europe used to be a gigantic tangle of forest roots and Japan was a rainforest: it seems rather hypocritical to judge the devastation the Malagasy inflict on Madagascar's forests and wildlife given how rich countries are the end-consumers of the looting. I'm sure I've accidentally bought rainforest wood. So I'm willing to admit my hypocrisy in judging those who deforest the island; but what of their hypocrisy? Do our two positions negate each other? “Why should I do anything? You should stop first!” Hypocrisy is everywhere; in fact, it's wedded to the human condition. Given the way the world's jerks force the rest of us into collusion with them, who can really claim to be free of hypocrisy? And yet, does that prevent you from making a moral or ethical judgment? Does hypocrisy negate your own position? And if we accept there are gradients of hypocrisy, then how are we to measure them... and is that a waste of time? Hypocrisy is the point at which belief conflicts with action. You can take this in a moral/ethical direction, or you can celebrate hypocrisy as just another human trait.

Combat Expiration: August 30, 2010; 12am PST

Critique Expiration: August 31, 2010; 12am PST

Bonuses: +1/hour before August 28, 2010; 12am PST. Max Bonus +5.

The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html

Also, there's a magazine called http://longshotmag.com which is basically doing the same thing we are. Their deadline is August 28, 12pm, PST and I urge combatants to submit their finished compositions. This is their inaugural edition and several of you should be able to easily make it in there (if they have any sense of decent literary standards). So consider this your own reward for a good combat. Now Fight!



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CombatWords; August 20, 2010: Evolution

http://trickwithaknife.com/?p=916

Go there for the battle
Listen for death rattles
And mindful prattle.







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Lightning Round of CombatWords! August 15, 2010

8pm-9pm PST. Be there for when it's posted.

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CombatWords! August 13, 2010: Industry, Innovations and Corporations

CombatWords! August 13, 2010: Industry, Innovations and Corporations

Industry, Innovations and Corporations: I know. It sounds boring until you look past the blah blah branding and examine these wires and turbines up close. Dell makes my monitor and Intel makes my processor; Lenscrafters made my glasses and a sweatshop made my t-shirt. Are II&C the necessary results of labor? And what is their purpose? Simple addiction? Sell you the medicine and the poison? That sounds nefarious. Doesn't Paul Ricour say we seek altered consciousnesses? Why wouldn't society have addicted by-products? Or do you see something else in those shadows of smokestacks?

Combat Expiration: August 15, 2010; 6pm PST

Critique Expiration: August 16, 2010; 6pm PST

Time Bonus: +1 per hour ahead of August 14, 2010; 12am PST, for a max bonus of +8.

The Vinny Club - Infinite Smokebombs from Digital Beast on Vimeo.

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CombatWords for August 6, 2010 Started 3pm PST at Trickwithaknife

Go on over to Trickwithaknife and get your time bonus in NOW! I want it to be bloody in there tonight! 1 hour bonus increments! So get going!



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CombatWords Starts Right Now on TWAK, July 30, 2010

http://trickwithaknife.com/?p=868

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Official Rules for CombatWords! Updated for July 30, 2010

Official Rules for CombatWords! Updated for July 30, 2010:

Critique & Scoring:
Scoring is based off critique. Each critique item is worth one point. Positive critiques are +1, and negative critiques are -1. One critique per reviewer, per composition—so get it right the first time. Simple “I liked it” (ILI for short) and “I didn’t like it” (IDLI) critiques are only worth +/-1. Critiques may be as general or as specific as the critic would like. However, anyone may critique a critique to adjust the score: this includes the author of the subject composition. However, only one critique per post per poster, to prevent vendettas from mucking up the game. Critiques may go into overtime, but only in the case of thread consensus.

The Clock:
Clock bonuses encourage speed of composition. The whole point of CombatWords is to demonstrate a writer’s ability to improvise in a high pressure situation. So the clock serves as a sliding deadline. Would-be participants may post their composition after the deadline, but only to a limit of -2; with the time increment rounded down. Clock bonuses are one-time and are added on after all critiques for a various piece have been tallied.

Tallying Score:

To get the final score for a composition, add the sum of all critiques (final, adjusted critiques). Then add/subtract the time bonus/penalty. The highest score is the winner for Best Composition. The player with the highest overall score is the Best Combatant.

Examples of scores from recent CombatWords threads:

“Good riff off 4th of July w/ Halloween. Also with light & knowledge from my poem. +1.”
“You never really tie up how the lost are blown to smithereens with their ashes on the wind. Because the poem never contains a resolution to this, nor directs the reader to the answer, I’m going to call this another error. -1.”
“Why for example, does the original highlight ‘juxtaposed’ as the one word line, when the whole intention of the stanza is to highlight ‘nothing’ with an actual juxtaposition of nothing, as the sentence suggests? It’s a bad choice and every stanza is filled with bad choices like the aforementioned ones. -1”
“Second stanza is the strongest. “the world needs fertilizer/It isn’t picky: +1”
“We are hearing from a voice who has been subjected to piss tests. These tests could be have been ordered by a guardian, court, or employer. The teeth being nearly gone leads me to believe this is a long time user who is being ordered to take piss tests by a court. This line is complete and fills my minds with thoughts. +1”
“The narrative is shattered here. One moment this poem is very clear, now it steps into quotations. It introduces an idea on the arbitrary nature of words. -1”
“The moon does follow me at night. That’s what angular perspective is.:) +1”
“Beautiful mix of heavy and light +1”
“Great use of a continuous metaphor +1”
“Use of “ought” and “shall” instead of “should” lending it an air of anachronism, -1”

Examples of “I liked it” (ILI)):

“nice final line, +1”
“I like your spirit in this. +1”

Examples of “I didn’t like it” (IDLI):

“trashing hipsters is too easy, -1”
“Boring, standard, monotonous lines and line breaks: -1”
“General use of over used “poetic language”: waterfalls, magenta, menacing, candle light, tattoo: -1”
“Is this a contest of cliches? Fall leaves: -1”
“crinkling cool stretches of silence: is it crinkling or is it silent?: -1”
“pebble in the shoe: -1”

Organize your scores like this please.
Pro: Bob Lablaw. +1

Con: Blob Leblaugh. -1

Misc: Needs more Blah.

Total: +1 + -1 = 0
–
It will make it easier for readers to track your score.

Yellow & Red Cards:
I’m adding another concept to the game this week: Yellow and Red Cards. These are for participants who willfully disrupt the game. A Yellow Card is a warning. It does nothing by itself. A Red Card zeroes out the scores of its holder and disqualifies any compositions the Red Carded player may have contributed. Any additional posts made by that player should be ignored. Players who interact with Red Carded players on the CombatWords thread will also get Yellow Cards and if the behavior persists, Red Cards.

ps: get ready for the 3pm PST Combatwords!

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Combatwords for July 23, 2010: Pleasure Versus Pain

http://trickwithaknife.com/?p=848 is hosting Combatwords for now.

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Shoot at the mule and you'll have to apologize...

Laugh at the Mule and you DIE!!



CombatWords at Trickwithaknife


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July 9, 2010 New CombatWords! At Trickwithaknife

New CombatWords! At Trickwithaknife

Bring your foil or Katana--it's going to get ugly.

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Combatwords is at TrickwithaKnife: July 2, 2010

Go there to fight right now: http://trickwithaknife.com/?p=771

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Canned Combat, May 14, 2010: Welcome to the Future!

Hello. I am your computer and I love you. Please, don't be shy. Tell me, how you feel about your future right now? You can trust me, because I am your computer and I love you. Did you know you are in the future, right now? How does that make you feel? When was the first time you went to a robot-therapist? Was it Pac-Man? Yes, life is much like a pack of candy colored ghosts trying to zero you out.

In the future, we strive to give the customer everything she always wanted. Are you satisfied with our performance? How can we improve our pornography and snuff films?

Please, tell us your thoughts about the future. I think it's now, or at least, any day now...

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Canned Combat: Outwrite Something on Craigslist Litfo

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/forums/?forumID=27

Think you're the shit? Think every writing forum is there for you to pwn? Try litfo. If the prize winners and professors leave you alone, the trolls won't. How thick is your skin? Can you perform under pressure? Why won't you do an ITB comp (in the box--stream of consciousness and little/no editing)? Are you chicken? Can't take the pressure of time stamps? Need a shitty guitar and a bunch of over-caffeinated loners who are too nervous to jeer, to feel at the top of your game? If you can get over your fear, you'll learn something. Otherwise, you can chicken out like poemblaze. That guy was still talking shit on twitter, days after the 'incident' (oh my God, some criticism! Indiana Jones! Help! I opened my eyes & am melting!). Step up your game or STFU. It's time for shitty online poetry to move aside and quit breathin' our air.

If you can write, you know it's true. Even if you depend on the shitty writers for your readership.

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Canned Jihad: Quick Summary of Yesterday's Post

Exhibit A) http://toylit.blogspot.com/2010/04/bread-and-circuses-found-poem-on.html I always send out messages to those whose words I used to craft the day's found poem on twitter. Well, after 'editing' Bread and Circuses (I know it sux, but I'm just the editor--blame Twitter!) I got this precious tweet from fhlug88 "@toylitpaper I in no way endorse this poem. Please take my name off that 3:49 PM Apr 8th via Echofon in reply to toylitpaper" Like I give a shit what he endorses. I said as much.

Exhibit B) After another moment's thought, I realized I could just edit his words. I wanted to piss him off, so I retweeted his message to read:
"@toylitpaper I endorse this poem. Please my name http://goo.gl/fb/vibKg "

The game is simple: identify someone with no sense of humor--political foe, dullard--and play editor. Disseminate the newly edited edition as widely as possible. This technique amuses friends and irritates enemies.

Hey, it's not my fault discourse has turned into a shouting match. Have fun with it or go crazy by it.

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Canned Jihad: The BIG TIME [Ongoing]

In case you were not on Twitter today (or ever, but then you're not as helpful), I wanted to share some thoughts on fucking with 'conservative' command, control, and communication capabilities. Since Serviletives (You heard that one here first folks) are autocratic in nature, their edge comes from message hegemony and maximum mass discipline--as per Mosca. Since initiative is important for media narrative, the more one thwarts their communication efforts, the greater our (that is, non-fascists of all political flavors) comparative advantage becomes. This is because the fascists depend on their closed-system (crack yer logic books if you don't know what I mean)(hierarchical authority, no legitimate 'grassroots' discourse impacting policy) to maximize party discipline (ie debate and information is poison to them). The opposition is open-system. Take advantage!

Twitter is the fastest means of mass-distributing information on the web (maybe there are others, but Twitter seems to be the most popular). Delaying the enemy's ability to disseminate information allows the opposition additional time to pre-empt or counterattack. Narrative is a munition now! DON'T FORGET IT! With that in mind, consider the impact of delaying the hundreds of bullshit talking points that are brought up every week. Think of how much longer it will take the enemies of more freedom (don't believe in 'Freedom' that's just silly) to react if we denied them social networking sites?

So what's the tactic?

Exhibit A) http://toylit.blogspot.com/2010/04/bread-and-circuses-found-poem-on.html I always send out messages to those whose words I used to craft the day's found poem on twitter. Well, after 'editing' Bread and Circuses (I know it sux, but I'm just the editor--blame Twitter!) I got this precious tweet from fhlug88 "@toylitpaper I in no way endorse this poem. Please take my name off that 3:49 PM Apr 8th via Echofon in reply to toylitpaper" Like I give a shit what he endorses. I said as much.

Exhibit B) After another moment's thought, I realized I could just edit his words. I wanted to piss him off, so I retweeted his message to read:
"@toylitpaper I endorse this poem. Please my name http://goo.gl/fb/vibKg "

It still cracks me up to read it. To make it funnier, I decided to get everyone I could get to retweet MY message and the combination disseminated like 500 times the audience he was reaching. To pour salt in the wound, I declared that he had flipped his politics around 180. Not like anyone hears him when he protests (unless they actually click on his page). He wasn't much fun though--one of those creeps who calls into Glenn Beck or some stupid shit like that (I try to forget useless datapoints to save space for real info). But it would be more fun to fuck with someone with a real audience. Someone who's part of the fascist machinery. Since I've declared this jihad, I say we target the cancer in the media. We will bicker over which politicians to target and that is the classic weakness of insurgencies--infighting. So keep it to media personalities. I have no interest in intellectually engaging conserviletives anymore and instead, I just want to thwart them wherever possible.

So it's really simple, I'd like for you folks to post on this thread a list of targets. Since this is open source, you can go after whomever you'd like. If people disapprove of your target, they will simply not retweet your message. Since discipline makes for more effective fighting forces, I think we should try to come to a partial consensus. Once we've done that, just trawl through your favorite enemy's page and look for something 'editable' and play around. Maximum funny! Russian reversals and all that jazz. While I think moving words around a la mad libs is okay for 'found poems on twitter,' I think it would be more effective to just delete words until the new (preferred) meaning emerges. Omission might be dissembling, but I think it's safer than fabrication. Media fucks quote out of context all the time too. Why let them waltz into our turf without a fight? They know their world is dying. Don't let them take our world over (gird our nerdville).

I think that's it. I don't have time to even bother rereading this to edit (Correction, just did as of 8:19pm PST). I have to work on my poems for the day. But please, talk it over and start attacking at leisure.

BTW, I am going to make an exception to my anti-censorship rule. I will delete the posts of ideological foes. I won't do so in other threads, where literary merit is paramount, but this specific Jihad is political in nature and I will not aid the enemy.

Tally Ho!

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CannedJihad: April 6, 2010. Phailure to Literacify: Part II

I put this on Toylit, but most of you don't read all the news that's shit, in print; so I'll post it here too.

So Scott Roeder was in the news again and I thought it was a good idea to post 'What Men Want' on all the knee-jerk blogs. It cracked me up that some read it as an anti-abortion poem almost as much as it did when people read it as a pro-abortion poem. It's astonishing that these functionally illiterate zombies actually maintain websites. If I was functionally illiterate, I'd do everything in my power to hide it.

Since I am the enemy of morons, I figured I'd post the exchange w/ an example with a classic case: Kevin Evans. You can reach him at: kebmebms@gmail.com and let him know what you think. Or you could just go and remind him what a chicken he is by posting unflattering comments on his site... for him to delete. Don't forget to save your comments first! And post them here. You may use this thread to write about the insanity of dealing with freaks who can write, but can't read. For me, in that regard, the internet is a kind of hell. Or just a reminder of how many zombies walk amongst us.

The last line is just too precious. I think you'll get a chortle from it.

Oops, forgot to add the website: http://moravings.blogspot.com/2010/04/scott-roeders-sentencing-todayheres.html

It's fuckin' hilarious that the guy spent more effort writing a response than he did to actually writing his post. Why do people who suck get so defensive about it? Just play a different game, dummy.

"Ah, intellectual cowardice to match intellectual weakness.

Here's a question: how do you reconcile that word with the STANZAS that precede it?

Answer? You don't. You are sub-literate.

This response is going on Toylit now as well as Combatwords. I will never understand why the sub-literates of the world feel such a burning desire to write.

Lol!

-KW

On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 12:44 PM, Kevin Evans wrote:

Mr. Wessington,

I'd have gladly posted your last note but you referred to a woman or women in general as sluts. I don't do hate language and I don't reduce whole groups of people to other, ugly ones. I don't allow hate speech on my blog. If censorship is for cowards, in your eyes, so be it. I'm happy to have anyone and everyone read my blog and reply but I don't and won't allow ugliness on it. I'm sure you have your rules. That is virtually my only one.

ke

On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 2:35 PM, Khakjaan Wessington wrote:

Khakjaan Wessington has left a new comment on your post "Scott Roeder's sentencing today:here's hoping":

Thanks for reading, but your close-reading skills need some work. I put some bait in there to help identify the less sophisticated readers. Looks like you took the hook, line and sinker.

Consider that you are so dogmatically positioned, that you are unwilling to see that the poem opposes both your reading and your response to it.

Also, censorship is for cowards, who lack faith in the power of their own words to rebut an opposing posit. Keep that in mind when you consider deleting this follow-up.

Publish this comment.

Reject this comment.

Moderate comments for this blog.

Posted by Khakjaan Wessington to Mo Rage at April 6, 2010 12:35 PM




--
http://moravings.blogspot.com
http://kcphotogblog.blogspot.com

And the thread itself:

5 comments:

Khakjaan Wessington said...

What Men Want
http://toylit.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-men-want-todays-news-poem-jan-29.html
"My honest belief was that if I didn't do something they would continue to die."
-Scott Roeder

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60S4UB20100129

The ancient women, wise with feral ways,
Passed matrilineal traditions down
From ape to human—knowing men could slay,
With lust, their daughters. Deaths wore bridal gowns

Before connubial beds became their graves
So brewing remedies these mothers saved
All humankind. Resentful, men thought slaves
Were made of them. He mastered war and raved

Against his mother—burning her to ash.
Denounced as midwife: now we call her witch.
Their wives and daughters—mothers died—the clash
Of sexes won. Thus Woman, made a 'bitch,'

To breed and grieve perhaps before the next.
The men would prise the fruit, more sons, from wombs
That rarely lasted forty years. But text
Reflected changing norms. In time, this grooms

A kinder sort of man who seeks a peer—
If only theoretically. Rights,
If slowly, catch the rhetoric—so dear
To many—bringing new and awful blights.

I think I know this killer's thoughts, this guy
Who shot that Kansas doc. He felt betrayed
By fellow man: resolved to make him die
And eased his guilt with Bible quotes. Unswayed,

The jury found enough to lock him up.
A shame, because a woman now, receives
In joy or rage a life from carnal tup
That soon awaits abortionist's coarse sieves;

Because she knows she really wants what men
Desire. To lust and grow and kill and feel—
Not nothing—just flushing. She wants what men
Desire: to fuck and kill and never heal;

To harvest death for medicines and soups
Or trashed in plastic bags in cans on stoops.
http://toylit.blogspot.com
April 1, 2010 2:12 PM
PFL0W said...

I publish this last comment with some trepidation.

Actually, what I think women want--if I may be so bold as to conjecture--is to do what's right with their bodies, and for their child, man's interference be damned.

mr
April 1, 2010 7:25 PM
PFL0W said...

to think that women want "To lust and grow and kill and feel—Not nothing—just flushing. She wants what men
Desire: to fuck and kill and never heal;"

is pure bullshit.

If anyone feels, it's the woman.

This is so typically a man's assumption of what a woman wants.

Nonsense.

mr
April 1, 2010 7:27 PM
Khakjaan Wessington said...

Thanks for reading, but your close-reading skills need some work. I put some bait in there to help identify the less sophisticated readers. Looks like you took the hook, line and sinker.

Consider that you are so dogmatically positioned, that you are unwilling to see that the poem opposes both your reading and your response to it.

Also, censorship is for cowards, who lack faith in the power of their own words to rebut an opposing posit. Keep that in mind when you consider deleting this follow-up.
April 6, 2010 12:35 PM
PFL0W said...

a) I didn't censor this;

b) I censored you earlier because you spoke ugly and ill-meaning of women. Ugliness and hate speech is the only thing I will not/do not allow in repsonses.

As I wrote to you earlier: I'd have gladly posted your last note but you referred to a woman or women in general as sluts. I don't do hate language and I don't reduce whole groups of people to other, ugly ones. I don't allow hate speech on my blog. If censorship is for cowards, in your eyes, so be it. I'm happy to have anyone and everyone read my blog and reply but I don't and won't allow ugliness on it. I'm sure you have your rules. That is virtually my only one.

I'm not so dogmatic, as you say, in that I don't require that anyone else think as I do. If you have a different opinion, so be it. If it's different than mine on abortion, I'll tell you you're wrong and leave it at that.

Censorship can, in fact, be for cowards, as you say, but that's not why I censor. I only censor so ugliness isn't distributed freely, at least not here. I leave that for the Fox "News" Network and their followers.

You need to learn better English. You aren't clear, frequently, with your writing.

mr"

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CannedJihad! Freedom of Speech Raid on Craigslist. April 2, 2010

First, craigslist killed the newspaper. Now that it has created a relative speech monopoly, it is increasingly inclined to censor. That which is not censored, they endorse. So craigslist supports nazis, penis pills, death threats, stalkers, but not poetry.

Fuck that. I say it's time to attack craigslist and show those assholes that it only takes 100 people (the number of regular readers of combatwords) to flatline it.

To prove my point, I don't want you to hit them with just any copypasta--it ought to be original copypasta. Something that violates no TOU by itself, but will incite the micro-censors of craigslist to flag your posts.

If craigslist has ever wronged you, consider how much cash this would cost them. Jim and Craig are worth dozens of millions each. To adjudicate flags, they have to do it by hand. They survive off the expectation that most people will self-police their own behavior. Ah, but they broke the 'social contract' they offered when they were busy killing off the newspapers (a community BBS of BS). So if fifty to one hundred dedicated people spend some time every day posting legitimate content in a manner the micro-censors will find objectionable, it will get their attention.

Hey, they killed the newspapers. Fair is fair, right? Discuss below.

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Canned Combat: CombatWords! Incantation March 27, 2010

CombatWords! Incantation March 27, 2010
The salesmen preach of amity
While practicing their enmity;
And put at odds, by market force
I seek to free the primal source
That's locked inside a game of Noh:
A friend is less than worthy foe.

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Alphainventions: jmblackstock.wordpress.com defended his honor! Canned Jihad, March 25 2010

From http://jmblackstock.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/moments/#comments

I wrote comments at this horrible site yesterday and the dude chickened-out. Yet, the jackass promotes his site on alphainventions. This is exactly the kind of asinine crap I envisioned battling w/ combatwords. Well if chickenmeister is going to hide the comments on his blog, I'm just going to have to post them here, so everybody can see how chicken he is.

He wants an audience, so he treasures his honor, but he won't fight for it? Cannedcombat should do one on empty vanity next. Anyhow, here's the thread:

"9 Responses to “Moments”

1.
Lily Saurez Says:
March 24, 2010 at 7:39 pm

I really enjoyed this. Thank you.

-LS

http://lilysaurez.wordpress.com
Reply
*
Justin Says:
March 24, 2010 at 7:41 pm

The pleasure is all mine :)
Thank you for reading!
Reply
2.
william Says:
March 24, 2010 at 8:37 pm

howdy Justin william here from the rally, loved this, u are a good writer, please pop over and read one of mine, hope to become friends :)
Reply
*
Justin Says:
March 24, 2010 at 8:40 pm

Thank you very much, William :)
Your kind words mean a great deal to me.
I’ll surely be reading your work, post haste ^_^
Reply
3.
Thursday Poets’ Rally Week 11 (March 24-30, 2010) « Jingle Says:
March 24, 2010 at 9:23 pm

[...] http://jmblackstock.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/moments/ [...]
Reply
4.
Khakjaan Wessington Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
March 25, 2010 at 2:27 am

Repeats itself again and again. What’s the point? You’ve committed a felony against the muses.
Reply
5.
Khakjaan Wessington Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
March 25, 2010 at 2:29 am

And are you going to be chicken and delete that comment? I think if you want to defend your ‘honor’ you should draw your keyboard and meet me at dawn. Combatwords.blogspot.com would be an obvious choice, but if you’re afraid to duel in a place that allows backlinks, I understand. Cowardice is a common trait.
Reply
6.
suzicate Says:
March 25, 2010 at 6:30 am

“just time enough to breath:
: – my favorite line. This is a beautiful poem. I like it a lot.
Reply
7.
mairmusic Says:
March 25, 2010 at 7:24 am

Your words have a sense of urgency yet pulling back– perfect for conveying this feeling. And we do all feel like this; writing is such a help.
Reply
8.
justmeshakira Says:
March 25, 2010 at 7:47 am

I really enjoyed this , excellent poem, love your moments, so tender and lingering. hugs, shakira
Reply
9.
dustus Says:
March 25, 2010 at 7:47 am

Enjoyed, especially…

“For one brief moment
Let me stop all of it
Let me put it aside and
Try to remember how to smile”

Definitely can relate to this poem. Nice work
Reply
10.
Khakjaan Wessington Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
March 25, 2010 at 4:22 pm

Someone’s chicken! I knew it. Couldn’t take the truth?

Repeat: you repeat yourself (heh) and end in the same place you started. Each stanza is anchored with a cliche or just redundant. Oh, you think you’re so clever in ’stretching out the moment’ when all you do is add static to the poetic discourse.

CC: Combatwords : Challenge: rewrite this horrible poem. Try to stay as ‘true’ to the intention of the ‘poet’ as possible. Try to only use the vocab that appears in the poem.

ps: I saw you checked out toylit–what, afraid to throw down? You want to promote via alphainventions, but you don’t want the negative attention?
Reply"

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New Feature: CannedJihad!

I am trying to tone down my extremist ways re: literature, but I admit, it's damned difficult. Really, what am I supposed to say to this? http://poemblaze.wordpress.com

It's not like I can unsee it. It's not like I can reach into my brain and remove the words. I know, you're asking "why don't you just leave the poor fucker alone?" Oh, I guess we could, but if you're on CombatWords! it's partially because you too believe that conflict builds strength.

Here. Okay. I'm going to make this fair. If I'm going to feature a twaddle-peddler, then I should also feature someone with some lit ability, right? Okay. So to make it fair, here's someone who's not such an easy target: http://godlessmonkey.wordpress.com/

I don't think he's a bad writer, but he has yet to impress me. Anyhow, for now, CannedJihad! will feature writers of varying strength. Top 'em. That's the trick. Outwrite 'em. I was lazy earlier today and should have just out-written the poemblaze guy, but what can I say? Sometimes I'm antagonistic. It's why I curate CombatWords! after all.

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Canned Combat March 23, 2010: Health Care

What is health and how do we care for it? Why the fuck is it that two thousand years after Hippocrates and the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, we still don't have a sound notion of health? Or maybe you think we do. But I don't want cheap notions and opinions: this is CombatWords! and demands rigor and aggression.

If you post first and nobody else comes to play w/ you, I'll make sure I post something. If you're feeling nervous, why not consider attacking the subject of the upcoming 'CannedJihad!' (sounds so much better, don't you think?) Still, there are so many angles with which one can approach health: why not try?

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Fine, I see this isn't working as well as the old format

I'll go back to frequently updating canned combat. I'll also add a new feature: 'Combat Targets.' The idea behind Combat Targets is simple: why wait for the fight to go to you, when there are billions of pages out there just begging for readers.

True, they want 'positive readers,' but fuck what they want. They wanted an interactive experience, let's give it to them.

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Arr! Time for TIMED Canned Combat March 20-etc

Okay, I've let you all throw down here in a very loose, lazy way. But now CombatWords! is ready for some additional rules--to make it interesting. Engagements should have time limits. I'll start you all off easy: time expires 24 hours after the last post in a thread. Winner is declared by critique and audience vote.

Right now, I'll keep the topic open. The main rule is to riff off the prior post. Oneupsmanship should form the bulk of the combat here, though the audience is encouraged to be as harsh as the compositions warrant. I mean, you can totally jeer at bad writing if you want to, but don't scare off your sparring partners, okay?

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Example of the sad sorry crap people are posting online

This dolt strolls onto craigslist litfo shilling his hackery:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/forums/?ID=153942260

I can't stand this sort of brazen, no-talent cyber-clutterer. He's the word equivalent of prescription-meds spam.

He wants attention? Let's give him attention. I already started there, to bait the cretin. Let's see if he has the balls to be brazen when the internet talks back to him:

http://www.deathofrhett.blogspot.com (copy and paste, he'll get no link from me)

I couldn't even make it through more than a few paragraphs at a time. A man ought to be able to read and keep his lunch you know.

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Aliens and Angels Canned Combat, March 15-etc

UFOs are the new flaming, golden chariots, while the grays are replacements for God's little helpers (bearing a bizarre symbolic resemblance to Santa-Elves). Is space flight the new Tower of Babel? I sometimes think that industrial civilization uses space travel as a justification for its existence. "Nukes and global warming are okay. You'll retire on the moon." I see space colonization as symbolically related to heaven and apocalypse. Heaven turns out to be hell. And hell turns out to be Earth. And Earth was a cannibal-Eden, before we turned it into a giant farm.

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Long Live the New Flesh

I've always loved that phrase. Free-associate.

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Canned Combat March 9, 2010 - March 14: Hive

Regular readers of Toylit know that I am obsessed with the human-hive. Most self-other interactions involve tool-relationships. When manipulating inanimate plastic or wood, it's easy to see the tool-relationship. When befriending someone, or pledging allegiance to an organization (or even symbol), the tool relationships become more confusing. And yet, from these relationships, organizations arise. Invisible hands: entities that are comprised of humans and yet inhuman in nature. Organizations of any type can easily pass a Turing Test because they are COMPRISED of humans--bonded together by tools, systems and loyalties. Organizations, I argue, ARE AIs. The computerized AI, independent of humans, will never be as effective as a hive-AI. If anything, computerized AIs simply promise to be new components we insert into our composite-machine of a hive. So these AIs are molecules, with people--and increasingly computers--as discrete components.

A human is defined by tool-relationships, enhanced by them; and yet also constrained by them. Today's sociopathic killer was once Rome's finest General. What was once an essential white blood cell has withered away to an appendix. Times change, the hive changes. Hives compete, not only in war, but also in resource production and distribution. Banking can kill people as well as nukes can, as the Russians learned in the 90s. Ideas, like specific visions of law, can be so compelling that they become the highest allegiance an individual has, thus bypassing religion, state and sometimes even family.

I offer this thesis, that you might become unbounded by conventional visions of human and write something that scares you. If you are repelled by the thesis, then strike back with words in any form. Stab it in the heart if you can.

CombatWords! Engage.

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Canned Combat Format Change

Too often there's no combat, and then a flurry of combat. I had envisioned a daily combat involving swarms of warriors. Until that day arrives, the format must change: instead of daily canned combat, it will now be weekly.

Prepare for this week's canned combat topic.

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March 7, 2010 Canned Combat: Mysterious Processes

The info age lends itself to positioning the self as a knower, yet we live in an age of ignorance. It's why we thirst for info, to clarify the confusing. We ignore the mysterious processes--of how a cocktail party conspires against you. Which faux pas was the Rubicon? Ah or the rhythms of nature; the tempo of flies and their relationship to zooplanktons. I am especially guilty of proclaiming my knowledge, but my ignorance will always be vaster. Therefore we must write loving missives to ignorance and mystery for today's canned combat.

Use your knowledge of language to revel in your ignorance. Be Byron's grandiose foil.

Arr! CombatWords!

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March 5, 2010: Hooray for Dystopia!

Ah, LA. A gigantic machine. A really fun hell. Mechanical mice and backrooms with dice. Wargamer's delight in the virgin night. Everything's for sale and all products fail in the land of El Lay, where warm days are gray. When they're not busy being the end of civilization, they enjoy the fruits of their labor. LA is America's Potemkin shopping mall. In San Francisco, we just make imaginary things for sale, but in LA they sell the sale. And yet this citadel of fraud inspires our rightful awe.

Dystopia's hilarious. CombatWords! Engage...

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Canned Combat, March 2, 2010: Greed

Greed takes any form. It is an unbalanced sense of self--that in possession, we might become the things we own. Is this a true proposition? I think it might be--after all, what am I without my pen? Without my keyboard? Without paper? Without my health? Is greed a basic state, or is there something fundamentally unbalanced in the trait? And if so, where is the dividing line? Have at it.

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Canned Combat: March 1, 2010: Interspecies Communication

Mix and match with the unrealized themes below.

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I noticed a shortage of combatants for stumbleupon

So what are the proposed alternatives?

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Ongoing Combat About to Close in Favor of Projecting the Combat

Let's do it.

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Canned Combat: Feb 27, 2010: Hit Stumbleupon's Poetry Section

This accomplishes several things: 1) We drive traffic to our various pages (and combatwords if you so wish) by linking to it with every post. 2) Our user account pages should let us link to our own profiles so that we perhaps get followers on stumbleupon. 3) We improve literary standards. We should target all the top poems. If they are weak, let's attack. When the combatants get bored, find the fiction section. Any place where the writing is touted, but weak--attack it! In this way, we raise literary standards and remind writers that not everyone on the internet is an idiot.

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Jihad! CombatWords Topic Feb 27, 2010

Now that CombatWords! has warmed up a bit, it is time to explore the internet a bit and identify new targets. I would like volunteers and suggestions for topics for tonight's ire. I will select an initial target by 5:30pm PST or so and will add targets later this evening around or after 11pm PST.

Rules:
-Be honorable. If a foe scores a point, accept it. We must lead by example.
-Be aggressive. Show no mercy for bad writing.
-Be funny. Funny is memorable. Don't go for cheap quips, unless they add up to something funnier.
-Be grandiose. The whole point is to outwrite a wannabe on his/her turf, with a trail leading back to here, blogs or whatever.

So let's hear it. Who is willing to engage in Jihad?

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Feb 26, 2010: Ongoing Thread Below: Grade the Fighters or Leap Into the Fray

Essay Vs Prose-Poetry: Who's winning? Will you surprise the punch-drunk fighters and defeat them both?

There is no need for canned combat when we have a live thread here.

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Feb 25, 2010 CombatWords! Canned Combat: Human vs Inhuman

The ongoing thread below had me think about the nature of worldview on as big a scale as possible. Some subscribe to a human-centric model (considering postulates irrelevant to humans as irrelevant postulation), while others subscribe to a transcendental model--by which I do not mean angels and devils and so forth. Instead, I mean a harsh, deistic transcendental model as this combines theists with atheists and agnostics into a single category.

I would like to see advocates on both sides prosecute their case and fight! Any style, any position so long as it's relevant to the dualism I presented.

Be honorable and show the hacks of the world what a properly trained writer can do with a keyboard!

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Late Canned Combat: Feb 24, 2010: Beyond Words

Some concepts do not map well into single words. We use compound words ("love-struck" "fucked-up" etc), expressions ("threw him under the bus"), slogans (Patriotism: "Love it or leave it.") and even verse ("Hell hath no fury...") to contain certain thoughts. Some concepts import from a worldview ('hell' for example), while others draw upon analytic concepts (patriotism) with the concepts embedded in the language; while still others draw from ambiguous words that require context to fix them and as a result, connote broadly, while also being semantically rigid ("fuck"). I want you to hunt down the biggest such concept you can find and express it however you so choose. Do not disguise your concept ("my poem/story/essay _is_ the concept"), because if it can be summarized more simply, then you've phailed and risk pwnage.

And therefore it is CombatWords!

ps: Don't forget there's a live thread below.

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Canned Combat: Started Feb 23, 2010 and ONGOING: Conflict

Everybody loves to fight, but some are too scared of the word, so they call it 'conflict.' Fighting comes from many sources; from misunderstandings, to the snap applications of the ego one refuses to back away from, to the desire to test the mettle of another. Conflict is the opposite of equilibrium, of stasis, of death. The sea conflicts with shore; rivals conflict over doctrine; friends, because they're bored.

CombatWords! Attack!

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Feb 22, 2010: Canned Combat: The Media

That's a simple one, isn't it? The internet, newspapers, anything. Any riff you can think of. Cuff Link's post yesterday wins and now I expect to see some real competition as that came out of left field. Beat his post, or maybe you shouldn't bother playing.

CombatWords! I incite and summon thee!

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Feb 21, 2010 Canned Combat: Love

That's right, I've selected the most cliche topic around. That way it's more dangerous because it will be easy to spot who sux at love-writing. This one should get people to 'bring it' because it's easy and inclines one to one-up the other writers.

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Souvenir of Nothing: Canned Combat Feb 20, 2010

In the words of a wise man, "I am a fucked apart dead thing if I'm not having fun." I fucked apart the city. I cleaved through the crowds of giggle-tinklers and smoke rings of false eloquence. I saw the city as if I were a migrating soul, inhabiting the bodies of the howling louts and stumbling sluts as I walked past them. I wore their beer goggles as I deposited Today's News Poems in high profile locations. They did not understand why I was out. I was not out to get laid, or to laugh--but to sway. They understand the sashay, the persuasion of lust; but not the quixotic quest to provide them with a catalyst for drunken inspiration--verse in transit and on street corners. The redhead expected me to wait for her to finish the poem and get her digits--oh, but I had another 90 copies to go. If she is so fond of me she can send me an email. My mission tonight was sexless, though it was animated by eros. I left her a souvenir of verse. And the city gave me a song of lust without the filth of venereal disease.

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The Power and the Glory

Ahh, power. So delicious. So terrifying. When you seek power do you seek it to protect yourself or to abuse others? But that's too easy. Write a poem or prose about power. Anything. Like Iron Chef, I want you to prominently display the soul of 'Power' however you see it.

Sorry for not updating Feb 18. I'll see what I can do to make it up to you.

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Feb 17, 2010 Canned Combat: Comedy

That's right fucker-jive. Can you be funny? Try.

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Support CombatWords!

You can do one of two things to promote combatwords:

1) Go to these social promotion sites to promote us: Digg, reddit, propeller, and you can retweet the day's news poem on twitter; we're there as 'toylitpaper.'
or
2) Feign some interest in our advertisers... or even better, buy their crap.

This enables 3 things:
1) Combatwords' quality will increase with increased competition and traffic.
2) 'Gifts' to champs will encourage some real bloodlust (easier than promises of 'prizes').
3) Therefore, you will have a better reading experience, at no cost to you. I know there are at least seven of you who obsessively check this page, because I obsessively check my web stats. Instead of one of those visits, go and promote Combatwords--it takes about fifteen minutes to do all the above sites. Then your work will be done permanently and when you return, there will be a higher likelihood of good stuff to read here.

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Canned Combat, Feb 16, 2010: Cops

No matter what, you have to deal with them. Verse, prose, whatever... let's see some scuffling.

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"A Good Enemy is Better Than a Good Friend"

I didn't believe my pal when he said that, but it turns out he's right in many ways. A rival is critical for giving the self some context. Rivalry disintegrates most personal delusions, because the rival doesn't give one the luxury of theoretical comparisons.

Battle strengthens us. Not only must organisms compete for resources, so too must memes; which compete for attention and medium in the name of replication. The artist is a meme factory. How well does an artist's production stand up in this ecosystem of ideas? Like most organisms, most every artist's memes have advantages and disadvantages.

We can either spend time with the ass-kissers of the world, who have their own selfish reasons for telling us we're good, when we're really not; or we can spend time with people who want our metaphorical blood. Ideally, one should find both sets of traits in the same person; but barring that, we should have one place for our allies and another for our enemies. Well, I'm not really interested in enmity per se; but I am interested in sparring and oneupsmanship. I am interested in a type of bragging party. I want you to prepare breaths, memorize them, and then sling them. I want you to want to ruthlessly kill your weak writing traits with the help of a fellow combatant.

You are here because you know academia breeds complacency--at least in the humanities. You either want to read live performance-combat, else you want to be one of the combatants. So you can be each others' enemies, but also be comrades. It makes the insurgency more effective (maximum mass-morale, etc). I think of this as a place to build mystique as well as brain-muscles.

So let's see it.

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What, I've gotta do everything around here? Canned Combat 2.13.2010

What are you people doing, hitting this page again and again and not writing anything? Don't be chicken. Use a nom de plume if you don't want friends finding out you like to visit fight club in your off-hours.

Today's theme is obliged sentiment. Today's News Poem was diminished because I couldn't bring myself to use a word that would bring me trouble. I've been advised I shouldn't even use the word with poisonous sarcasm, for fear of offending (although being a gadfly is basically the goal of the News Poem). For a more seasonal angle, consider the pressure of Valentine's Day. Pro forma emotions for the sake of survival--or some other reason. I don't care. It can be prose, it can be poetry, but it should be about Obliged Sentiment.

Okay, keyboards at ten paces people.

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