"Woking on my game"–lol. Imma leave it.

A World of Madness: Cream of Wheat

She really enjoys the Cream of Wheat when she finds it. With just water and salt was fine; with a few tablespoons of milk it was a delight.

She happily eats it every day in that house that isn’t her own. As she performs chores to repay her presence there.

Fixing the electricity was a matter of course. She fumbled around for nearly a whole day before she figured out the setup and got the lights to switch on. But once she got it going, she was quick to get the food back into the newly disinfected refrigerator.

She left that place with her head held high and hope in her heart.

She didn’t know why the phones had stopped working.

She didn’t know why the sudden snowstorm had blanketed everything in feet of snow. She didn’t know why the bridge had flooded out. She didn’t know why she had made that wrong turn.

When she thought back, it was a series of mishaps that had brought her to the house.

Trudging back toward where she’d abandoned her car, she kept up a whispered conversation with Dahlia.

The cat had been so good natured throughout their month long adventure. They’d never been away from home for so long. It had been a relief not to have to keep Dahlia locked up. Something she would have had to do if the cat had been ruining anything.

Instead, Dahlia had seemed to show a genuine respect for their borrowed house. She had made use of the array of cat towers but had otherwise kept her claws to herself.

"When we get home," she said, "I’m going to buy you a whole bunch of new toys. Some little jangly balls and a new cardboard scratch pad. You’ve been such a good girl."

Dahlia took the praise with admirable aplomb, though there was a vague sense of rolled eyes. She accepted the scratching fingers through the side of her carrier, even going so far as to roll onto her side and offer more surface area.

"We’re going to be all right," she said. "It’s just been a really weird month. I’m going to be glad when things get back to normal."

Faizel 02 at Amazon

Woking on my game, coming up with concept ideas.

My account: (https://harperkingsley.itch.io)

I’ll be posting my notes as I go.

A World of Madness

"A World of Madness" (https://harperkingsley.itch.io/awod current password: "behemoth") is my tester game. It’s where I’m planning out the format and colors (though the current color palette is eh) and how I’m going to make it happen.

Starts with "Impasse" and then the picking of a universe. The character "She" from Impasse is a ubiquitous character. She can be anyone. Or no one.

Currently there’s not much there, and that’s why the game is set to Restricted Access, but I think purchases can be made at this time. So I might add separate downloadable content.

As it is, as a browser playable game, feel free to click around. I even made a discussion board for it if anyone wants to help my html/css problems. (When a div is opened, the screen view doesn’t go to the top of the div. It just stays where it’s at. Very unhappy making for me. And the mobile view turns to landscape and the colors are off. Like way off.)

I’ve been making updates as I go along. It’s most definitely a work-in-progress. Though I’ve got a lot of ideas for the multiple storylines.

Restart: the World

She’d always seen the world in smears of color and soft detail. (Near-sighted with an astigmatism. It was the way it had always been.

  • She restarts the World. Everything is based on the way she perceived things. And she had bad eyesight.

People quickly realize that things are odd. Nothing is quite right, not just the noticeable color shifts but the feel of things. There was a palpable oddity to the world after The Phase Shift.

  • The Phase Shift — "The world had been attacked. Everything was changed. Human perception has been Shifted due to the interference of an alien virus."– the public is not to know what really happened. That the whole of reality has been restarted and reshaped. That everything they have always known is no longer real. They have been brought into a new and different place that reeked of familiarity. And they are to believe that it is home.

Smears of white clouds across a vibrant blue sky. The grass was shades of green all blended together with the occasional golden tuft rising high above, the puff-ball of seeds an odd [1-word, conglamation? conflagration? con-something put together] to minds expecting to see something different.

BRB…

Small Gods at Amazon

RIPPING ON PRECUT FOOD

I don’t know where the hate is coming from, but when people straight up tell you that you’re being ableist, maybe stop?

"I know. I don’t care" is not the answer to give. That’s some seriously negative shizz and that’s not the hill you want to die on. For reals.

Precut fruit and vegetables are very useful for people that don’t have the dexterity to cut their own ingredients. It allows people to eat prepared food straight out of a bag, or to throw a bunch of ingredients together and, I don’t know, what’s the word? cook their food.

It’s not just ableist to mock people’s food choices. It’s also really classist.

Like, why can’t poor people have nice things?*

I’m sorry everyone can’t afford a personal Frannie to come in and prep ingredients. I’m sorry everyone doesn’t have the time available in their day to spend hours of it preparing food when it’s easier to combine readily available ingredients. I’m sorry some people have to be super judgemental about how other people are living when there’s more serious concerns taking place.

Prepared ingredients are not the Big Evil alarmists are concerned about. It’s a distraction thrown out by social media influencers and bad operators attempting to spark moral outrage to flood timelines and muffle the messages that really should be heard.

Defund the Police = They do not need 80% of a city’s budget. If it came down to it, I’d rather garbage people get more money to sort recyclables out of the mess. There should be more social workers. There should be more outreach programs for the poor and socially isolated.

The fact that police responded to Black Lives Matter and the idea of "Defund the Police" by brutalizing massive amounts of people? It’s a clear signal that the system needs fixing. And the police shouldn’t have military-grade weapons backed by protection laws that keep individual officers–murderers!–from facing justice.

It’s wrong.

As is the idea that a group of people STORMED THE CAPITOL to OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT. That shizz was fukked up.

And the fact that some of them–most of them–are out on bail right now?!?

Some kid is accused of stealing a backpack and spends years in prison. A trans woman is put in men’s prison and KEPT THERE because she couldn’t afford $500 bail. A man is accused of using a fake $20 and is executed by the police. (That’s not their job!) Persons of color and poor does NOT mean subhuman treatment.

The fact that the insurrections were rich racists doesn’t take away from the fact that they committed a horrible crime and are being let back out on the street while poor people die. The cops weren’t prepared for the insurrection because it was committed by rich people in positions of great power.

Rich people met in secret and arranged to overthrow our government.

The only thing that stopped their plan from succeeding? Stupidity.

That’s all that saved us.

They looked at the cops, they looked at the National Guard, they looked at the federal officers and assumed a shared color of skin would mean they would all band together as one race to suppress the will of the American people.

Living in their echo chambers, noshing on the same foul stew, the insurrectionists arrived in the Capitol expecting that the POLICE would help them overthrow the government.

And some of them did.

Brave officers DIED or had their lives threatened because some of their number did NOT have their backs.

I will be angry if there is no justice.

"No justice, no peace" doesn’t mean violence.

It means that as long as I look around and see this BULLSHIT going on… I’m not going to stop sounding the alarm. None of us are.

Whatever holes they want to hide in. Whatever dark corners they want to whisper in. If I catch a glimpse… I’m going to scream out "Here they are! This motherfucker is the one that ‘ruined our water’/’destroyed our economy’/’spread sedition’/’assaulted that girl’/’passed that shitty law’/’caused a pandemic that has killed over 420,000 Americans’!"

Because if we wave our hands and say "Well, they’ve learned their lesson" then yeah, it’s true. They learned that they can fukk everything up and we’re going to roll over and let them.

They’re just going to keep on keeping on–screwing up everything and destroying lives for the lulz and their own short-term benefit.

Politicians may have the pop culture reputation of being sleazebags and law breakers but, get this, THEY’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE. They’re supposed to be the best of us representing the needs of the least of us so that everyone has the chance of a good and happy life.

They’re not supposed to actively be working to make things worse.

They’re not supposed to cheat, lie, steal, false represent themselves, and KILL over 420,000 people because they’re death cultists.

Like WTF?

I don’t even know what’s going on. But I’m angry. And it’s not at people buying prepared food to feed themselves.

  • "Poor" people deserve food, medical care, housing, consideration as human beings. And everyone deserves a hot meal.

It’s already really gross that people on disability aren’t allowed to have above a certain amount of money in their bank accounts before they lose their benefits.

It’s like "Bitch, they’re only $100 over their monthly limit and you’re CANCELING their insurance? WTF is wrong with you?" — The whole idea of it makes me seriously heated.

To keep the disability insurance they need to live, they are forced to stay in poverty.

If there was medical for all, then it wouldn’t be a problem.

Medical costs are KILLING people.

And the big issue is precut, prepackaged food? Seriously?!?


AMAZON SMILE

FYI, if you donate via Amazon Smile (5% of your purchases go to your charity of choice) you have to MANUALLY activate it.

Via website: use the smile.amazon.com link.

Via the app: Tap the three dashes in the left corner -> Settings -> AmazonSmile, then activate it.

I’m personally donating to Meals on Wheels right now, though pre-pandemic I would choose Operation Smile. (I feel terrible because there’s nothing I can do, but during these current times, I don’t think those poor children are being taken care of 🙁 Without the surgeries they desperately need, there’s likely been a lot of deaths. It bothers me a lot.)

If you’re shopping on Amazon anyway, and if you’re not using my affiliate link code => https://amazon.com/?tag=harperkingsley-20 <= you should put a smile on it.

Because why not.

Pax,
~HarperWCK

Allies & Enemies at Amazon

WE GOTTA TAKE A STEP BACK

Though we supported you
against all reason,
sorry, Josh,
but what you did was, kinda, treason.
Don’t sue us for our accusations
social media live-streamed your agitations.
The bottom line, Josh, is
we’re a card making corporation
that depends on the public’s monetization
so we have to break our association
with you, Josh.
We helped you in the past
though we don’t want to say why
and now we regret it
as our donation is dragged into the public eye.
We’re embarrassed to know you
so now we have to blow you
off, Josh.
This will be our last friendly communication
as we have to protect our reputation
and so, sorry Josh,
F off.