why do you want to be a mod?

that's arguably the most important question of all.

i meet people everyday, and all they ask is "how do you become a mod?" or "is this against the rules?"

i give them the answers, but if they probe further, all i have to say is why.

why do you think it's against the rules?

why do you want to become a mod?

that usually shuts them up. otherwise, i've so far only received two valid responses (imo "the crown is cool" doesn't apply).

that leaves "i deserve it." or "i want to make rs a better place."

i further probe the former till the arrogant little twit realises the answers he has that are true are answers he cannot give me. those who fit into this category typically don't even think about the latter reply. as to the latter, my next question, then, goes back to how.

that shuts them up too, eventually.

how do temporary mutes make rs a better place? why can't you make rs a better place anyway, or do you think that's only the responsibility of mods? how do you think...

writing all this down makes it seem like a job interview, or even a test. but that isn't my intention at all. all i want to do is let them know themselves. let them know why they want what they claim to want. let them judge, for themselves, of themselves.

writing all this down makes me seem cruel. excuses, excuses, you might say, but i say i have a right to them. i don't say all this to "shut them up", to shame them. right after, i move on to another topic. it's their choice if they want to continue talking, and i don't intentionally try to crush them, nor do i. i've become quite the expert at changing the subject now, and it's easy when the person you're talking to wants something mundane to converse about just so they can think, at the same time.

because all most people want is the perceived popularity and prestige that comes with what they want most of all, that little crown by the side of their name.

saddest of all, i think, might be a boy i met, who hasn't spoken three sentences to me since i declined his trade of an emerald ring and expressed my views in a way such as would soften the impact of my opinion on online dating. apparently that didn't work very well, and it's one of the things i've most regretted. it's also one of the things i'd probably do all over again.

my point, anyway, being what he told me. "i want to be a mod so people will listen to me."

i want so much to make people understand. if you have the potential to become a mod, or if you should be one, people will listen to you anyway. people will respect you precisely because you deserve their respect and attention as much, or more so than any mod's.

i've only met a few who don't want to be mods, and that's because they dread the attention, and the time they'll have to sacrifice combating said attention.

it's strange, really. i'm still trying to figure out the lure of it. is it like wanting to become a prefect in school? except many, many people didn't want prefectship, myself included. the desire to prove yourself, desire for popularity, that aside, is there anything left?

the "i want to make rs a better place" works. the problem is, how? by muting people? when it's less necessary i try not to mute because i want to change the person. i want to persuade the person not to, i want to hear what they have to say. sometimes i succeed, other times, i don't.

either way, i don't regret my decisions.

i go about playing in, you might say, the same way i always did. sometimes i remember that my account was modded, and i'm surprised all over again. then i forget it, let it retreat into the background.

before, i did want to be a mod. had you asked me, though, i'd have given you the second response. you'd have been able to shut me up, to make me think, because frankly, i wouldn't have known why.

now i do.

what did you think? i'm not about to tell you. that'll be too easy. it's personal, but aspects of it may well be universal, and not without cause.

what do you think?

think, because the answer's worth it.

more, moresly, monotonous.

to be a librarian is to have the most boring job in the world, i'd wager. no offense to librarians, of course. it's nothing personal.

to catalogue, shelf read, wrap, process, stamp, watermark, label, repair, shelf books... i'd count it the most boring job not because it's repetitive, which it is, and which many jobs also happen to be, but because it's repetition of the intellectual sort. even if you stand around handing out fliers about hairdressing and tuition, your mind doesn't need to be on the action of your facial muscles and hands. but fliers happen to be the most unnecessary means of paper wastage that i know of, so it's off to the library for me.

when i did community work at the library i couldn't bear to stay for more than two hours. average was one and half. why is it that your stereotypical librarian is portrayed as an intellectual with horn-rimmed glasses? by now i wouldn't wonder if the job's frozen their minds.

in fact it's almost like rs.

you do it for the sake of doing it, what's great is you actually get to do worthwhile things on the side. like blogging. to purely play would constitute torture. people take the monotony out of it, yet sometimes you'd almost prefer monotony to human company. it's the human company that ensures you aren't operating now like a machine. there's the intellectual shackles of it.

there was a forum topic i came across, it went something like this. rs: a game or a test of patience?

neither would be my answer. monotony mixed in with the stench (fine, aroma) of humanity can't be labelled a game. but who ever said monotony couldn't be fun?

because strangely enough, that's what it seems to be.

the box noob.

seems self-effacing's the thing of the day.

the box noob, anyway, is this bright spark (or brainchild of some bright spark, if you want to be picky about language) who was inspired by the brainchild of a couple of jmods', or that death to the dorgeshuun quest, to be exact. inspired to the point that he goes to the trouble of getting a new account and (you guessed it) starting said quest. in this bit he has to help this cave goblin zanik (don't ask) get into a watermill. for some reason the chosen mode of transportation (or smuggling if you're still on that picky streak) the goblin's in a box.

he goes on to go marvellously off track, by way of fally, to be specific. (jagex should charge him for abduction of the poor goblin, if nothing else.) and carrying that big quest box he goes round saying things like "please donate!" and "donate to free me from slavery!" (perhaps the goblin draws on all that gold heaped in the box with it for survival's sake) which is a step above "phr33 st00f pl0x!". just goes to show, a step takes you rather far, (now for the rumours) apparently he got a million gp from just one run (or one player, if you're more inclined towards the gossip mill than the water one). and apparently that's not a one-off occurrence.

gossip goes as gossip does. apparently (hypocrite that i am, i'm not that bad. last apparently,) he got enough for a santa. which to put things into perspective, costs roughly 20 million.

apparently, (and this is a good apparently, credit goes as credit should) some bright spark (the first one, by all accounts) got the box, and simply walked with it till he had a bunch of cat-imitators hounding him with "wuzzat" and suitable exclamations. he pretended to subscribe to the 'action over words' theory (or the 'silence = gold' one) and simply walked. and walked.

all the way into the wildy. (i'll leave you to reconstruct the outcome.)

so there's the box bit of the name explained. noob because he keeps his combat level at 3. presumably he's just another dime a dozen levelist, who also happens to be some bright spark in circles i haven't yet discovered exist.

if you're the type who doesn't have too firm a grasp of english, or if you're the type who's got a firm grasp of english, detests incoherence and lack of clarity, and is nonetheless patient enough to wade through all this, (or if you're the type who's plain normal,) you probably didn't understand all that.

so basically, the box noob goes about perpetuating a form of glorified begging. (not much better either, was that?) okay. he thinks up a new way of going about this age-old business of begging, and is enormously succesful at it. some people reward him for his creativity, some for the same reason you reward street performers. they interest you enough to make you stop in your tracks for a bit, and for what's worth, that bit of brain power deserves its bit of monetary return.

i haven't yet run into him, because i'm strictly f2p. i've got a low opinion of runescape beggars, but not because i discriminate against beggars, whether on runescape or in real life. some things that go on in real life are just unforseen. and sometimes there are customs that even encourage begging. that i understand.

on the other hand, runescape's a game. you attain things by clicking. by exercising one index finger, and maybe some muscles of the hand. everyone starts on more or less the same ground, and therefore there simply isn't any need to beg. that's why i cannot stand beggars, in runescape. or most other people i see, really. those are kids. most of them (note use of the word most, instad of all) should be middle or upper middle class pre-teens or adolescents coming from families with enough money that they can afford internet access. they do not need to beg. begging cannot be excused as a habit, as a bit of culture.

it is plain sloth.

add to that. beyond sloth, it's self-demeaning. with every request for money they are lowering their own self-esteem, their own self-respect, let alone any respect anyone else might have for them, seeing them as they are, begging. begging when they have the means to work something out themselves, for themselves.

screw the 'it's not against the rules' school of thought. (and make sure you get the whiny, butt-kissing voice right when you say it.) i don't care if it's not against the rules. what i'm about to say defies logic, but that doesn't make it any easier to believe. i don't see why i should conform to rules, or even laws, when they conflict with personal moral standards. of course, this school of thought is a potential disaster. allowing the system to subsist on this would have the game (let's not even talk about real life) infested with scammers, account traders, pass scammers...

i'm still not about to follow rules that i disagree with, or not condemn actions that are confined to within the perimeters of these rules. (come on, it's an online game.) that's why i'd like to work in some area relating to law. law's about making moral standards legal standards. and the latter is what matters.

the "dancing for money" people, on the other hand, seem largely to be having their own bit of fun. perhaps they do this in the fashion of street musicians, but they aren't rightly exhibiting any talent of sorts, nor doing anything exemplary. so while i respect them marginally more than i do those begging just because they can, they don't rank very much highly on this mental list i've accumulated.

the box noob is a case apart. the original box noob, i can respect. i would "donate" to him, if i could, for the sole reason that i would be paying him for his creativity. it's not unduly harmful, amd he provides a right bit of entertainment for us poor slobs without another new thought in our heads.

of course, you'll by default have the pitiful imitators (think, the box kid, skilla4life) or similar people trying to imitate him, or claim ownership of that idea on various forums. plagarism at its best and basest.

which, rumour has it, (i know. couldn't resist though) will have him quitting rs after a time.

i don't at all support that decision. if i went by that attitude, i'd long ago have given up modship, and given up rs altogether.

so, the box noob, if you're reading this... great job, that was. and go on, don't give it up. it's the world, and you might as well stand out even further from it.

training arson.

the sleepy seaside village of rimmington - not the average arsonist's haunt. or so you might expect...

as of 20th august, the little town and its sparsely forested outskirts were plagued once again by a spat of fires that at the time of reporting, continue to persist.

due to the ready supply of viable fuel, rimmington has long been a popular spot for deforestation and arson in a manner that would almost resemble the slash and burn agricultural method if not for the climate and the meticulous care taken to obtain fuel preceding the attacks.

fires on this occasion were largely confined to the northeastern suburbs (as they are) of the town, which comprises mainly of wooden houses surrounding the communal well. fortunately, the fires died down of their own accord. the arsonist remains at large.


the product of perhaps a tad too much sun there.



basically, behind rimmington, the side facing the sea, that's a great place to train woodcutting and firemaking. no bank for miles, and no competition either. boring, but not so much with private chat. or clan chat either, for that matter. it's more convenient, holding a conversation.


rimmington's just so pretty. :D

clicking gets too repetitive after a time though, so beware. i found myself back in draynor before five levels...

blog traffic.

sometimes i choose to be grateful, sometimes i'm a brat and an ingrate, and consciously so. this is one of the latter times, so you'd be ill-advised to continue reading.

how do i increase blog traffic?

i'm not even going to say 'post your ideas'. the blog's that dead. i daresay i'm the only person who actualy reads it. i mean well, that's encouraging...

i'm not the type to plaster VISIT MY BLOG all over my forum sig. not one for self-promotion, and not one for letting people i respect realise how unrespectable i am. which is also hypocritical, but then again, i've covered that already, so let it rest for now.

so posting? and hoping someone passing will see the "blogs updated at 9.53pm - runescape - a blog" and click on the link? even i don't do that.

i don't want people to get here because they've googled "minisinoo", or even "player mod list". i don't want people to come here hoping to find out "what a skull sceptre does". i'd like for people to come here seeking to know what i think. isn't that rather arrogant though? wanting an audience for my rants? because that's what all of them are. i write because i want to, because i'd rather let strangers read these thoughts than tell them to my friends.

but then again, nobody gives a damn, and rightly so.

and that's a blessing in itself.

ps. the person with the gall to google player mod list seeking to find one... i can't identify precisely what's wrong with you. there's too much wrong, i'd wager. i don't understand people like you. i don't know if i ever will. conscience is common grace, given to us by God. i know you have it. and trying to hack a mod's account does not consitute using it.

people i meet in rs everyday... some of them just give 'scum of the earth' a new meaning. and those are just kids, i shudder to think what they'll be like when they grow up. i do hope you are not one of them.

themed worlds.

a simple update, maybe, but in good faith.

personally, i appreciate it more than clan chat.

conspiracy theorist in training...

following the recent slew of updates, i have come to certain conclusions.

1. the ceo of one of the ad companies has a kid hooked on rs, and he's paranoid, as all ceos are, so he wouldn't trust his bank account with jagex. he's been throwing obscene amounts of money at jagex towers, and by total coincidence paul and andrew, whom he golfs with, have realised the error of their ways and have henceforth stopped discriminating against f2p, as far as updates go.

2. one of these major updates was planned for june or july. and just kept getting pushed back, and back... my bet's clan chat. i mean, it's a little too early in the month for updates, isn't it?

3. the management needs to examine that tea fountain. someone's been spiking it with coffee, or one of those energy drinks people get sent to the er with hypertension for.

i'll be back with more insanity later. classes to go. >.<