Most people think of intelligence and wisdom only as qualities, that we either have or don't have, without much thought as to HOW they are acquired. Here I will attempt to share my philosophical views on the subject, as I perceive them. These may be incomplete; I'm typing out what I can think of at the moment. Please, offer questions, as I think much better when I have something to respond to and it will help me refine and flesh out these thoughts:



We presume that knowledge alone makes us Intelligent, but rather knowledge should be thought of as raw, unrefined ore, potentially valuable yet useless unless you know of something to do with it. To know that, we must walk what I call 'The Path of Intelligence' by seeking out ways to actively USE our intellect, by identifying and solving problems and striving for greatness. In their own way, these pursuits can lead to satisfaction, and all but the most pridefully stupid appreciate and respect an intelligent man, yet it is not a path without consequence. Opening your eyes and filling your mind with the problems of the world can be disheartening and stressful. Finding a problem is beyond our capability to fix or realizing that greatness is out of reach results in great frustration. Still, intelligent people are the ones who shape our world, and Intelligence is a noble path to follow for those able to handle the stress or keep it in check with an equal measure of wisdom.


Wisdom, likewise, does not automatically come with age, despite what your elders may have told you. Wisdom comes from raw life experiences, and a long life spent reserved and sedentary will not accumulate as many experiences as a short life spent actively seeking them. These experiences, much like raw knowledge to the intelligent, must be tempered purposefully into wisdom by application. While The Path of Intelligence deals with influencing the world around us (to benefit of ourselves or others) The Path of Wisdom, on the other hand, is more about not making waves, and not letting the world around us disrupt our inner peace. Do not be fooled, the ignorant only have bliss because they are unaware of the turmoil around them or in their futures, and when it finally catches up to them they often meet with tragedy they know not how to deal with. A Wise person sees the turmoil, and concerns themself with it only if it is a TRULY grave matter or within their means to easily fix, otherwise they step out of the way and let it pass them by. Far from selfish, the Wise simply choose to avoid causing others turmoil in the first place and spread this mindset; When none are causing problems, there will be much fewer problems to have to be solved.


The intelligent choose to achieve. They seek higher and higher goals and find satisfaction in meeting them, as it represents an improvement in personal ability.

The wise instead favor Zen, hereby defined as "the application of high skill or quality of work at minimal effort". If you aren't employing a great deal of skill or making something of high quality, then you aren't having Zen, you're just... being lazy. Likewise an action is not very Zen if it is a struggle. True Zen is an incredibly satisfactory and self-affirming state; we know we are doing something we are purposed to do without taxing ourselves in the process.

Like alternative bands? Like it when japanese news shows get taken over by foul-mouthed, man-eating space monsters and repurposed into late-night talk shows?

You know what, just... watch some of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSfD.....w9355TeK28fQhg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihKS.....w9355TeK28fQhg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_NS.....w9355TeK28fQhg

Okay, so, it turns out I completely forgot to SCHEDULE OFF OF WORK any time for the con. Ooooops.

Good news: Turns out I had all of Thursday and Saturday off anyways, and I intend to spend all of it there.

Bad news: I'll be working all evening on both of the other two days. Also I haven't prepared for this in the SLIGHTEST. Ack.



Additional Reminder: I intend to invite my con friends over for movies at least one of these nights. Games may also be possible. I'll just be winging the details on this, so.. relevant people let me know what times you think will be good. I haven't even consulted the morphicon schedule yet.

To sum the experience up shortly: I could never capture my favorite moments in photo... but hopefully someone else captured them on video. ;)

And I should have bought more stuff! I got a little Diana Sprinkle art booklet and both packs of the "Nature of the Beast" card game (really cool, by the way). Commissioned a little sketch by the wonderful Kitsumi and also something from my friend HollyAnn which I will try and get scanned up in the near future. But of course those of you familiar with those two artists will know that it was CLEAN art that was commissioned.

That's right... I didn't buy no porns!! D: Gasp. I guess I'll just have to wait until MaxBlackrabbit is ready to take on more commissions online. That also reminds me of one regret I have: I didn't get the opportunity to commission my acquaintance GraveWalker! She had to leave the con early and I had a good window of opportunity to go see her at the "Zoo" area of the hotel, but I got all preoccupied with other stuff and missed out. Plus, I think I ran out of clean commission ideas. Except of course for my ongoing desire to have someone draw Klonoa meeting a Lovecraftian horror in a way that inexplicably does not involve tentacle rape. I mean, I guess I could have asked her to do me another badge, but is there some kind of rule of etiquette about not getting more than one badge from the same person? It feels to me like there should be.. or something.

Speaking of all these great artists... I don't know how you guys do it. Giving up so much con time to get your work done. Being busy with it 'round the clock. Man, I hate to see you guys miss out on so much. I can only hope that you find the work itself to be as satisfying, somehow.



Mmm. Want to know some of my favorite moments? They all involve me being unexpectedly gregarious. :3 I mean, really.. who knew I had it in me, to be such a fun guy?

I think the first instance was during the "Whose Lion is it Anyway?" Improv show, where the audience rather than trained professionals got to volunteer to do the improv. I wore my gas mask to it, and so when the theme of "Worst excuses not to use protection" came up I stood before everyone and shouted, "What do you mean? I AM wearing protection! See!?" Audience in stitches. Later there was the prop game. We had a couple big foam U's and some kind of stretched-8 or domino-mask piece, so I picked them up and held them together like U8 arranged counter-clockwise.. held it up in front of my face and yelled "I'MA FIRIN' MAH LAZER! BLAWWWWW!" while tossing another foam piece out the "mouth". Big hit. Later still there was a game where one person would pantomime an action, then a second person would ask "what are you doing?". The first person would then say they are doing something completely unrelated, and walk away while the second person now pantomimes the stated action, and the process repeats. When I said "I'm increasing my power level!" in my best Dragonball Z voice I got some laughs, but I think I was much more successful when I put the gas mask back on and the question of "What are you doing?" was answered with a stare, a brief pause, and then... my best impression of the Grand Galactic Inquisitor from the Venture Brothers. "IGNORE ME!"

Later on, I attended the Spaz Fox and Jibba show. Oh jeez, those guys had some funny stories. But the entire time I couldn't help but get this strange feeling of recognition as I watched them seated there beside each other, and listened to them talk. Near the end I decided to go for it, and raised my hand. "Yeah, actually I have a question for the audience. Watching those two up there together, am I the only one getting the inexplicable urge to go back to my hotel room tonight, turn on the TV... and watch Scrubs?" I'm pretty sure every last person in the audience nearly died laughing right then. People were high-fiving me left and right, and Spaz Fox even told me that I "won the game" before running up and handing me a dollar. I can't even begin to describe how awesome that moment felt for me. Do professional comedians feel that way all the time? If they do, then why do so many of them get mixed up with drugs or alcohol abuse? The thrill of making people laugh is a pretty damn powerful high in itself!

Hmmm... okay, I think the third big memorable moment for me was the charity show starring both 2 the Ranting Gryphon AND Uncle Kage. I just want to say that if you shuffled out the door the moment the show "ended" then you're a loser! }:3 They kept going after that. Man, was Kage drunk... and after he had left the room to go take a piss, I handed 2 half a pack of party poppers. You know, those kinda bell-shaped plastic things where you pull the string and they go BANG! and a puff of smoke and a few pieces of confetti blast out? Yeah. I thought it was a good idea for two major reasons. First off, 2's show on the previous day had been scheduled DURING the city's fireworks display, so he and everyone who went to see him missed out on the explosives. Secondly... I wasn't entirely sure I could find any location or opportunity to use them that wouldn't get me in some kind of trouble, and I figured he could get away with it. But at any rate, the moment I handed them over the gryphon's eyes lit up and he knew what to do with them. When Kage returned he launched a surprise attack. BOOM! Big melodramatic death performance by Uncle Kage, who spent the next while laying on the stage, signing things, and playing with the remaining few poppers with 2. So, good call on my part, I suppose. I do love instigating chaos... and I hope someone got it all on film!

No, seriously, did anyone get any of this stuff on film? It isn't every day that I actually manage to do something awesome, so I'm going to want proof.

*ahem*

Hurray, Chick-O-Stick
Delicious crunchy candy
Oops, ate the wrapper...