Wednesday 14 March 2001

Pic of the day: Oh, why don't I build robots instead, or make potions that turn guests invisible or transform them into rampaging monsters?

Worthless skills

I rarely finish things. It really goes against my grain. Perhaps the reason why this journal just goes on and on is that it never gets close to finishing. I mean, eventually I will die and then at the very latest this thing will stop. But it will not be finished. Just a thought, because I rarely stick with things this long. Most of the things I do either come and go, or they go and don't come back.

Perhaps that is a quirk. Anyway, my GURPSification project is sort of imploding before reaching critical mass. If it's not fun anymore, it's certainly not like I'm paid to do it. And the sad thing is, there are simply too many minor skills for me to wade through.

Skills are very important in GURPS. Whenever your character does something that there is a skill for, you roll against that skill. Most skills have a default, based on a basic attribute, while a few haven't. But it is always a good thing to have at least a passing knowledge of whatever you attempt to do. You know, that sounds almost realistic. But because I am such a fad person, I have like countless of tiny skills worth half a point each. -You're supposed to have spent like 100 hours to get that far. So Origami is not on the list, though I certainly know what it is. But there is still so much that I don't know where to begin. So why not begin with the beginning?

***

Agronomy /TL6 : Skill 18.
I was born a farmer, son of farmers. For as far back as I know, most of my ancestors have been farmers. There is barely an urban drop of blood in my veins ... such as there may have been centuries ago is probably bred all out of me. I was raised on our farm, and while I spent most of my childhood with my nose in books about the wonderful future and the world of science, you simply cannot block out reality completely. Or at least I could not.

What's with the tech level 6? That's defined as "World War I - World War II" tech levels. The atomic age, 1950-2000, is tech level 7. (Tech level 8, 2001-2050?, is defined as space age in the rule book. Evidently the rule book is a few years old, because we now know that Tech level 8 is the Internet age. Yes, it has reached the farms too. Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

I grew up with horse and cart. It was a poor and remote part of the country, far from the cities. Cars became gradually more common all through my childhood, and tractors too. We had a motorized grass mowing machine fairly early on, but I distinctly remember from my early childhood seeing the horse-drawn grass mower, and it fascinated me. The horse continued to play an important role in our work for all the years I stayed at home (15) and then some, though the tractor took on some of the tasks. I got a decent knowledge of tractor use before I left, but I would not be able to make a new tractor. I have a pretty good idea of how one makes a new horse.

I am not a practicing farmer; but if my life depended on it, I'd ignore my allergies and take up farming. And I have no doubt that I could do a passable job at it, once my degenerate muscles got used to working again. I know approximately when to sow, when to harvest, when to fertilize, what plants grow where and what food suits what animal. I'm not an agronomist by education, but there are definitely hundreds and hundreds of hours sunk into the practice and theory of farming. I still miss it now and then, which is ironic because I hated farm work as a child. Only when I was grown up did I start to appreciate it, when I returned to the farm after years of school. And then the allergies kicked in big time, leaving me sneezing and coughing and weeping. Oh well.

***

Theology: Skill 18.
No tech level for this! :) I base this primarily on my years with Smith's Friends, but also later. Unlike a real theologian, who masters Hebrew and Greek (for Christians) or Sanskrit (for Hindu) etc, I use the approach practiced by Smiths Friends: To consult a wide range of translations, and look at which ones make sense. Some translations try to be fairly literal, while others are trying to re-tell in their own words. Even those who try to be literal, often differ on many points. This is important. A few words on that.

Some people believe that the Bible (or some equivalent book) is the Absolute Truth. When they read something in the Book, the course is clear. The matter is decided. There is no doubt, and those who do differently are Sinners bound for Damnation. This may well be the case too, in all too many cases. But if you read only one translation, chances are that you're believing quite a few lies. Some things can be read in different ways. Some things are almost impossible to understand in the first place. Some parts are poetry, and constrained by rules of the poetic language to the point where a literal reading makes no sense at all. (Like the girl in Song of Solomon ... do you really think her breasts were live animals? Honestly?)

In addition to the theory and (at least some) practice of my own religion, I've looked briefly at lots of other religions. I have books like the Book of Mormon, the Koran (Quoran) and Bhagavadgita in my living room. I think it is good and proper to know what parts of my faith is shared by other religions and what parts are unique. I've also looked at mythologies and rites of long dead religions, and modern pseudoreligions like Wicca.

And there's the whole philosophical aspect of Divinity and stuff, and the actual experience of ritual and meditation ... I don't think I am overstating at all the time I've put into this. (And I don't really count actual religious practice, personal piety, here. I don't want to talk about that at all, because frankly my religion forbids me to talk about that. It's supposed to be utterly private. And if I can't obey every commandment, I sure can do that one.) What I talk about here is the scientific knowledge of religions and their concept of the Divine.

***

You see the problem? Now in all honesty, I've not submerged myself this way in all parts of life. There is a similar level on computer operation and programming, which I shall mercifully skip. And then there are the fads, from algebra to zoology, from aquarelle to xylophone. My curiosity has no bounds except my personal cowardice and laziness (so no touring live volcanoes or even the fairly nearby glaciers). Oh, and money used to be a limitation too, but these days time is even worse. I have too many fun things to do.

If I were to roleplay myself as a character in a game, I'd be slaughtered. The sheer point value invested in worthless skills would mean I would be unprepare to deal with opponents of similar resource but a more focused application. In real life, I have not been physically slaughtered. But in the end, I still don't have a life. Or so they say.