Friends, a little more

Busy day in prospect today, lots of changes and installs scheduled (and of course, none can ever wait for another day once they have been approved, naturally).

But I was thinking about friends again last night, after trying to soothe one of my online friends. I need to explain a little: I've been playing an online game, World of Warcraft (or WOW), for the last 4 years, and essentially it is similar to playing Dungeons & Dragons or such games, online rather than face to face, and with a computerised Games Master providing automated quests and challenges.

A large part of succeeding at the game is finding and cultivating people to team up with and rely on, and the game has a mechanism (called Guilds), which allows you to create your own online home-rooms, and longstanding (or not) groups of people to cooperate with. Naturally, for the more long-lasting of these associations, these relationships spread out beyond just the game and immediate requirements and assistance, and flows out into the rest of your life - you share tidbits of what you're doing, why you're feeling bouncy (or grumpy), & what's happening, and generally establish friendships.

Of course, like all online friendships, these are much more fragile and transitory than personal, real-life friendships, but that's largely just a matter of degree (I sometimes think of the internet as not much more than a giant keyhole to peep through, you get such one-sided and limited views of anything, and anyone).

Anyway, one of the women in the guild got upset last night, because she felt she was always being asked for assistance (quite accurately) and was taken for granted and not properly valued (which I didnt think was accurate, but it's her perception): and her son, also in our guild, was being exalted and praised while she felt mostly ignored. I suspect the feeling is largely an artefact or spillover from whatever it is that is happening in her actual life (you get a lot of that projection on the 'net, it seems), but in the end that hardly matters, from my point of view, so naturally I spent time trying to calm her, and make her feel more appreciated and valued, and encouraged some of the others to try to do likewise.

Just one of those frustrating situations where there's not much you can do, except try your best and wait for the storm to pass. I'll have to wait til tonight, or later, to see if it had any lasting effect.

I must say, one of the hardest bits of the game is simply, many - perhaps most - of the players are teenage boys (or boys stuck in teenage mode despite their age). Man! are they ever hard work. Not that they are all, or always, dreadful, but the proportion of arrogance, ignorance and vicious cruelty is just enormous with them. Possibly the hardest bit for me to adjust to is, in earlier years anyone I encountered on the net was likely to be essentially like me, i.e. another technophile geek. Nowadays they let all sorts of riffraff on the net (just to add my own touch of arrogance!) Overall, though, I must observe: being a teenager looks every bit as appalling as I remember it.

Am I going anywhere with this? Not really, more just blithering on about what's on my mind :)

================================
Totally changing the subject, it still astonishes me how much music reaches in and twists, changes me. For the last couple of years, I've found when I get upset, listening to Astral Weeks just helps me detach myself, calm down, and feel comforted.

If I ventured in the slipstream
between the viaducts of your dream
where the immobile steel rims crack
and the ditch in the back roads stop
Could you find me?
Would you kiss-a my eyes?
to lay me down
in silence easy
to be born again,
to be born again

From the far side of the ocean,
if I put the wheels in motion
and I stand with my arms behind me
and I'm pushing on the door

Standing with the look of avarice
talking to huddie ledbetter
showin' pictures on the wall
whispering in the hall
and pointing a finger at me
There you go, there you go
standing in the sun darlin'
with your arms behind you
and your eyes before
there you go
takin' good care of your boy
seeing that he's got clean clothes
putting on his little red shoes
seein gyou know he's got clean clothes

and here I am
standing in your sad arrest
trying to do my very best
looking straight at you
coming through, darling

If I ventured in the slipstream
between the viaducts of your dreams
where immobile steel rims crack
and the ditch in the back roads stop
Could you find me,
Would you kiss-a my eyes
Lay me down
in silence easy
to be born again,
to be born again
in another world,
in another world
in another time
Got a home on high
Aint nothing but a stranger in this world
I'm nothing but a stranger in this world
I got a home on high
in another land
so far way

so far away
way up in the heaven
in another time,
in another place