Thank Grog It’s Firday!
Except it isn’t.
Once again, life has forced me to write this early Thursday, during a week when “early” or “too soon” and “not soon enough” all seem to be running into one another.
I have been overwhelmed with friends, TSTO buddies, and others texting, emailing, and FB messaging me about my thoughts on “the big story.” And yet, here…I am sworn to keep politics off of this blog, which is supposed to only be “about the game.” I am word-cuffed in sharing any real thoughts about what has transpired this week. But, I put those cuffs on willingly. It’s important for our friendship.
So, I will do my best to keep it all about the game. Mostly.
In fact, I will do a lot better job of not mentioning my slant on the elections than the Simpsons did in the most recent THOH episode, which finally ran this past Sunday after being delayed by the MLB playoffs and World Series. I will not comment…but merely place some screen shots and let you figure out The Simpson’s writer’s take on things. 
OK. So that is as political as this post is going to get…and I DIDN’T WRITE A WORD ABOUT THE ACTUAL ELECTION!
What I will write about, is a couple of observations I have made during this last Chapter of the TSTO version of “hell on earth.”
I have long thought it weird that so many of the tasks that they have us do during these repetitive, lazy, “Chapter-Events” take place in “The Brown House.” It is weird. The Brown House(s) are apparently just catch-all placeholders for the programmers.
But, in the most recent Act, it seems that the programming has become even more lazy, and has had the characters just compete their task at any random “house/building” that is available.
Bart has been doing his tasks in a random “blue house.”
Homer, Lenny and Lisa have been “performing” at the “Outlands Simpson’s House.”
And my favorite…Carl and Old Scratch have been hanging out in the Alien Nativity scene.
Why do they do that? Why do they default to the laziest path possible, during the same, repetitive, EALPish (EA Lazyass Programming) events?
Are we rEAlly in a place where the programmers are so bereft of creativity or resources that we are destined to just keep recycling the same, lame, mind-numbing cycle over and over and over and over and… Wait. I said I wasn’t going to talk about the election.
And, speaking of “Why Do They Do That?”
Why do they keep expanding our Springfields with random, weird, disconnected, Non-Canon characters and decorations, when there are hundreds of ACTUAL storylines, characters and premises from the actual show, they could pull from.
I’m doing my best to play along. I have placed my “Hellscape” near the Dystopian area that is near my KEM mining marsh operation, which is overseen by “Robot Homer.”
I bought the original Premium offering (Old Scratch) with mined donuts…but have not, and will not be buying any of the other random, “hell characters” from this event. I don’t need them to complete the event, and don’t want any more “hell” in my town than I am forced to have. There is enough real-life hell in the world right now. I didn’t buy Donut Homer…or Old Scratch’s Gym, or Hell Moe’s. Enough Hell. 
Believe it or not, I find myself at a loss of words today (some of you are rejoicing, I know). But the fact is, my agreement with Alissa keeps me from writing what I’d really like to write. But, I’m fine with that.
Unlike so many in the world today, that have ramped up the discourse to new levels of vitriol, Alissa and I have chosen to “agree to disagree” on our choices. But, unlike so many who have decided that violence, destruction, threats and intimation (from BOTH sides), is the hand they want to play, we choose to remain friends, who simply “don’t talk about it.”
Again, I’m fine with that. That is what voting is all about. It’s our chance to make our voices heard, where it counts most, and then find ways to live with the outcome, because we don’t have a choice. Administrations change…but, the survival of the world depends on us knowing this, and working to find commonality where we can.
I hope that by the time you read this, the elections have been settled, and we are moving in a direction that gives us at least a couple of years before the whole damn election process starts again. Why do they do that??? It’s been almost two full years of “primary” chatter. The general election comes at a time when we are so fatigued, so weary of “the message” and so tired of winning without solutions, that I honestly feel that the frustration in the streets is mostly just about people saying “enough!”
But here we are. Playing and writing about a game that has so little consequence on anything important, that it feels like doing a post about the drapes, while the house burns around us.
But, that’s fine. I just wish that if we are actually playing our game to escape the realities and stress that is going on in the real world, that at least it was more challenging and interesting than just logging in to earn something I don’t really want.
I suspect that what is actually happening as I write this, is that a “winner” has been declared, just long enough for a rash of lawsuits to be filed, that will drag this thing out for weeks…while we all become more diminished, fatigued, and worn out…while “holding the line” on whatever color of hat we chose to support.
It’s time to make this all more than a team sport. People’s lives are at risk. This all feels like one, long, wasteful diversion.
Why do we do that?