>Scorched Earth Policy

Well, my second week of guest blogging on “I am Uru and so can you” is quickly coming to an end. I have purposefully kept these extremely informative and entertaining posts non-confrontational. I know my statement that “Trees are good” might have been close to inflammatory, but I thought it was the right thing to do. But who knows, maybe somebody who hates Druids was reading that blog entry and had a coronary. If so, my apologies. That wasn’t my intention.

The Uru Community is a wildly diverse group of people, and I count myself as a member in good standing. Now sometimes some in the community get crosswise with others in the community. Kind of like siblings. Everybody needs somebody to beat up on, except the youngest of course. In my case, being the youngest of six, instead of having somebody to beat up on, I learned diplomacy. Smart move. So I was able to defer my fair share of poundings on the next youngest child. Again, my apologies (this time to my brother, Bruce, who was born with a “Kick Me” sign on his back.)

I consider myself a nice person, sometimes to a fault. Growing up in California, I have a certain amount of experience with faults, but that is beside the point, except that it seems that the earthquakes have followed me to Texas albeit 27 years later. I try to be friendly and non-judgemental when meeting new people. When Uru Live was put to bed in February 2004, I grieved with others like-minded and somewhat obsessed with all things Uru. I was one of those thrilled when Cyan cooperated with the fans and allowed Until Uru to become reality in August 2004. I spent most of my time with my friends from the Institution Neighborhood on the Tapestry shard. This group of folks had found the Ubisoft Uru forums as a place to hang out and participate in general silliness in Uru related story threads such as the Mystery of the Bahro Caves and several Experimental Program threads. It was fun getting to know others from the Tapestry shard as well as those visiting from other shards. I found the folks from Slackers shard to be a fun-loving, sometimes edgy group. But I thought they were a decent bunch. Tomala from early on displayed a fondness for the game, which I think is still there to this day. I have a great deal of admiration for Semplerfi and Semplerette. They had a hobby of collecting avatars on many shards. They still have their shards webpage. Pretty impressive list.

I thought the whole UU experience was great, except for the Shard Wars of course. Just like watching your parents fighting, it takes a toll on the kids. Unfortunately some in the community have the opinion that every problem Uru ever had was due to the “Ebil Slackers”. I have found first hand that defending them has a cost. But I gladly took my lumps because it’s the right thing to do to stand up for your friends.

There, I said it. The Slackers folk, evil as they are or only appear to be, are my friends. So, if that offends anybody, then my apologies. In the years since the Tapestry forum disappeared and UU closed during the MOUL/Gametap experience, i have found the folks at the Slackers forum to be quite accepting of me despite my Tapestry pedigree. I’ve found that in real life and the virtual world on the internet, that the best way to have friends is to be a friend. That is what I’ve attempted to do most of my life. Not just to avoid being beat up, but because it makes life more fun and rewarding.

Now, as to the scorched earth policy I promised, here goes. I like ice cream, and in fact last Sunday we made two freezers of homemade ice cream for my son’s party as our family said goodbye to my son as he readied to leave for his second year in college. Mmmm, vanilla and strawberry. Now if you prefer chocolate, then you are entitled to your opinion. Flame away, I can handle it. Just to be fair, I have had chocolate ice cream before.

Oh, and before I step aside for Semplerfi to be next week’s guest blogger, I want to thank Tomala for the chance to stir things up on this blog. Maybe if I get another chance some time in the future, I’ll re-tell the School Bus story I told a few times in UU.