Interview with Gimp Mask
Interview with Gimp Mask
In conclusion:I hope you have a vague idea of who I am now, cowabunga! I could go on and on but ultimately what's the point? Maybe you got something out of this interview, maybe you didn't. Probably didn't. If you have anything you'd like me to clarify let me know, hth. Thanks again for the interview Gimp Mask! (Wow he speaks of himself in third person, what a dick am I right? Oh yeah completely forgot about the interchangeability of I / you / we that I mentioned in this interview, so I guess you're the dick. I mean, we all are. One enormous all-encompassing cosmic throbbing and pulsating veinous and vibrating cock. Spreading the seed of DAC, right in your mother fucking face. I think that's what I want to communicate to you pretty much, so whenever you read my posts from now on, I hope this is the first and last thing that pops into your mind. Here's a picture if you're not much of a reading man: B======D ~~~~ ) Any time Gimp Mask and I literally mean it, and this is probably the first time you see me say "literally" in the right context, I literally prefer to use it inappropriately, because what is literal anyway? "I sure as shit hope he doesn't go there" you're thinking, I'm a mind reader ese that is my problem, and your problem is that I most definitely will go there, in fact it will be the very next thing I shall address.
So where should we start? Did this interview already start, and if so, where does it start? You're probably thinking more along the lines of "will this ever end, sheesh, fuck off man." Told you I was a mind reader. Well I will keep on going until the day I die buddy and that is not a threat, it's a promise! This will be a journey through my mind instead of a bunch of questions so it's not an interview in the most traditional sense I guess. I'll answer your questions too don't worry, if you just wanna see that part you can skip ahead, but I just kind of thought: who's best equipped to interview Gimp Mask? Gimp Mask of course. Maybe.
If this sounds like a bunch of self-serving bullshit to you already then you're absolutely right and you might as well spare yourself and skip this post, but ultimately I feel human existence in its entirety is very much self-serving: we're just a bunch of physical processes and genes and shit (I dunno how we work what am I a friggin scientist? Gimme a break! I'm Gimp Mask! ) whose purpose is to secure the existence of the species (14/88 except for the white supremacy bit, but more on speciesism later, Heil!) and not ask a bunch of questions from some cunt called "Gimp Mask" on a Fallout computer game forum, I mean how fucking ridiculous is that? And think about it, why are you reading this post right now? Is it to please me? I sure as shit hope not because I'm 2 tuff 2 care my friend.
In fact I'd go as far as to say that the whole idea of altruism is diametrically opposed to the human condition, and all forms of real-life altruism are just our attempts to rid ourselves of the burden of the condition so in a sense we're less human when doing something kind, pretty neat huh? Anyway it would be silly of me to simply dismiss the inherent nature of this species when interviewing myself on the Internet, but while I'm writing this for myself, I hope that you as a reader are able to gain a better understanding of not only me but of yourself and ultimately of Everything, because that's kind of my personal goal and now I'm making it your personal goal too! It's a bit ironic because I truly believe the biggest obstacle in my discovering the meaning of life is the fact that I am human, so in that sense I can't wait for my Sisyphean existence to come to an end; until then I'm just along for the ride homeboy. Camus literally said that the literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself, and while it may seem like a buncha angsty JohnPnP-esque (DAC reference, just to keep ourselves grounded here) bullshit to you, I think it encapsulates the idea perfectly. What that idea is, well I guess we'll never know, right? Anyway that's why I'm writing this post and that's why you're reading it, capiche? Let's move on already.
Speaking of species (hmmm the "more on that later" part was much sooner than later, fancy that. See a pattern emerging already? If so you're probably bonkers and suffering from apophenia or some shit and should be locked up for LIFE! Or better yet, executed, why the hell not, but considering what I just wrote that seems like a reward instead of a punishment, so carry on, I suppose. Or kill yourself if you want to just keep me out of it alright?) I think it's funny how we have just decided on this hierarchy and conveniently placed ourselves right at the top, whereas I personally imho think that the whole self-awareness business was an evolutionary mishap and more of a curse than a blessing and we should pretty much flip the script, holla, and realize we're at the bottom of the upside-down-pyramid or whatever. But then the god damn gravity would make the whole thing collapse and we'd be all equal, what a terrible fate. Fuck species anyway, I would much rather be a rock or something, but why stop there? I would rather be Nothing.
First of all, or second, or infinitely of all, it was impossible to try to figure out where this paragraph should go, because language can become an insurmountable obstacle in some cases. Like I have to figure out how paragraphs and letters and shit work in order to communicate my ideas effectively, and then I'm supposed to form a semi-coherent, structured bunch of bullshit out of an entire subjective human existence? I don't think so compadre. What a chore, this whole language business. I could go and get a PhD in DAC ebonics or whatever but that would be self-defeating since it would change who I am which is what I'm trying to convey in the first place, but then again I'd still be Gimp Mask, so it's turtles all the way down baby, cowabunga! I'm partial to Leonardo myself. All I'm able to offer to you is this glimpse in time, unfortunately. And even that is gone already, I'm a changed man! Panta rei, and all that. Hasta!
Anyway if you disagree with that statement, my counterargument would be that you're proving my point, language is a bunch of bullshit preventing me from proving that I'm right and that I'm me alright bro? I feel like talking about qualia is like arguing on the internet about the special olympics: can't do it without language, that's the whole problem. I wish there was some way of just transmitting this interview straight into your brain instead of smashing the keyboard like some sad and lonely incel version of the Hulk, but we haven't reached that point in technology yet. Maybe we'll get there, maybe we don't, it's all the same to me because... I feel like I addressed this already. Or maybe I will.
First of all in conclusion before we begin or end I should probably mention that this will very much be a stream of consciousness type of post and I'm not gonna restrain myself to time or space so the normal constraints of thought that you're used to probably don't apply; I hope this introduction will serve as a smooth landing on planet Gimp Mask. This post might make near-perfect sense to you or the ideas might seem completely alien you, who knows. Also when reading this interview, I / you / we / so on are pretty much interchangeable, I think it's pretty much the same stuff, so it's all the same to me. Or you. In fact, you can replace every single word in this interview with something that pleases you more, what do I care. Or you. And so on. Turtles all the way down, again. Or was it before? Either way, I tried my best, sorry for falling so short, thanks for interviewing me.
If you actually read through all that stuff, I'm sorry, it must have been excruciatingly painful, but I feel like writing it any other way would have been inauthentic and a compromise. This is all very much me, unfortunately. Also sorry for any typos and shit, but I'm using a wireless keyboard and there's a chair between it and the receiver, and it's fucking with my flow. Que pasa paradoxx. Also also when I woke up my phone's clock was stuck at 07:06 and my computer's clock was running a random amount late so I had no sense of time, which might have something to do with the nature of this post. But probably not.
I'll answer your questions "later", so "later" "taters" :nudge:
Credits:
Interview: Gimp Mask
Formatting: Notepad
So where should we start? Did this interview already start, and if so, where does it start? You're probably thinking more along the lines of "will this ever end, sheesh, fuck off man." Told you I was a mind reader. Well I will keep on going until the day I die buddy and that is not a threat, it's a promise! This will be a journey through my mind instead of a bunch of questions so it's not an interview in the most traditional sense I guess. I'll answer your questions too don't worry, if you just wanna see that part you can skip ahead, but I just kind of thought: who's best equipped to interview Gimp Mask? Gimp Mask of course. Maybe.
If this sounds like a bunch of self-serving bullshit to you already then you're absolutely right and you might as well spare yourself and skip this post, but ultimately I feel human existence in its entirety is very much self-serving: we're just a bunch of physical processes and genes and shit (I dunno how we work what am I a friggin scientist? Gimme a break! I'm Gimp Mask! ) whose purpose is to secure the existence of the species (14/88 except for the white supremacy bit, but more on speciesism later, Heil!) and not ask a bunch of questions from some cunt called "Gimp Mask" on a Fallout computer game forum, I mean how fucking ridiculous is that? And think about it, why are you reading this post right now? Is it to please me? I sure as shit hope not because I'm 2 tuff 2 care my friend.
In fact I'd go as far as to say that the whole idea of altruism is diametrically opposed to the human condition, and all forms of real-life altruism are just our attempts to rid ourselves of the burden of the condition so in a sense we're less human when doing something kind, pretty neat huh? Anyway it would be silly of me to simply dismiss the inherent nature of this species when interviewing myself on the Internet, but while I'm writing this for myself, I hope that you as a reader are able to gain a better understanding of not only me but of yourself and ultimately of Everything, because that's kind of my personal goal and now I'm making it your personal goal too! It's a bit ironic because I truly believe the biggest obstacle in my discovering the meaning of life is the fact that I am human, so in that sense I can't wait for my Sisyphean existence to come to an end; until then I'm just along for the ride homeboy. Camus literally said that the literal meaning of life is whatever you're doing that prevents you from killing yourself, and while it may seem like a buncha angsty JohnPnP-esque (DAC reference, just to keep ourselves grounded here) bullshit to you, I think it encapsulates the idea perfectly. What that idea is, well I guess we'll never know, right? Anyway that's why I'm writing this post and that's why you're reading it, capiche? Let's move on already.
Speaking of species (hmmm the "more on that later" part was much sooner than later, fancy that. See a pattern emerging already? If so you're probably bonkers and suffering from apophenia or some shit and should be locked up for LIFE! Or better yet, executed, why the hell not, but considering what I just wrote that seems like a reward instead of a punishment, so carry on, I suppose. Or kill yourself if you want to just keep me out of it alright?) I think it's funny how we have just decided on this hierarchy and conveniently placed ourselves right at the top, whereas I personally imho think that the whole self-awareness business was an evolutionary mishap and more of a curse than a blessing and we should pretty much flip the script, holla, and realize we're at the bottom of the upside-down-pyramid or whatever. But then the god damn gravity would make the whole thing collapse and we'd be all equal, what a terrible fate. Fuck species anyway, I would much rather be a rock or something, but why stop there? I would rather be Nothing.
First of all, or second, or infinitely of all, it was impossible to try to figure out where this paragraph should go, because language can become an insurmountable obstacle in some cases. Like I have to figure out how paragraphs and letters and shit work in order to communicate my ideas effectively, and then I'm supposed to form a semi-coherent, structured bunch of bullshit out of an entire subjective human existence? I don't think so compadre. What a chore, this whole language business. I could go and get a PhD in DAC ebonics or whatever but that would be self-defeating since it would change who I am which is what I'm trying to convey in the first place, but then again I'd still be Gimp Mask, so it's turtles all the way down baby, cowabunga! I'm partial to Leonardo myself. All I'm able to offer to you is this glimpse in time, unfortunately. And even that is gone already, I'm a changed man! Panta rei, and all that. Hasta!
Anyway if you disagree with that statement, my counterargument would be that you're proving my point, language is a bunch of bullshit preventing me from proving that I'm right and that I'm me alright bro? I feel like talking about qualia is like arguing on the internet about the special olympics: can't do it without language, that's the whole problem. I wish there was some way of just transmitting this interview straight into your brain instead of smashing the keyboard like some sad and lonely incel version of the Hulk, but we haven't reached that point in technology yet. Maybe we'll get there, maybe we don't, it's all the same to me because... I feel like I addressed this already. Or maybe I will.
First of all in conclusion before we begin or end I should probably mention that this will very much be a stream of consciousness type of post and I'm not gonna restrain myself to time or space so the normal constraints of thought that you're used to probably don't apply; I hope this introduction will serve as a smooth landing on planet Gimp Mask. This post might make near-perfect sense to you or the ideas might seem completely alien you, who knows. Also when reading this interview, I / you / we / so on are pretty much interchangeable, I think it's pretty much the same stuff, so it's all the same to me. Or you. In fact, you can replace every single word in this interview with something that pleases you more, what do I care. Or you. And so on. Turtles all the way down, again. Or was it before? Either way, I tried my best, sorry for falling so short, thanks for interviewing me.
If you actually read through all that stuff, I'm sorry, it must have been excruciatingly painful, but I feel like writing it any other way would have been inauthentic and a compromise. This is all very much me, unfortunately. Also sorry for any typos and shit, but I'm using a wireless keyboard and there's a chair between it and the receiver, and it's fucking with my flow. Que pasa paradoxx. Also also when I woke up my phone's clock was stuck at 07:06 and my computer's clock was running a random amount late so I had no sense of time, which might have something to do with the nature of this post. But probably not.
I'll answer your questions "later", so "later" "taters" :nudge:
Credits:
Interview: Gimp Mask
Formatting: Notepad
Last edited by Jeff on Mon Feb 08, 2021 11:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
DAC: Where are you from, how many siblings do you have, how is your relationship with your parents?
GM: Kashlukland, two siblings, good relationship with my mom, she's awesome and I love her, dad died ages ago so nonexistent relationship with him at the moment.
DAC: How was your childhood, happy?
GM: Not happy, ever since I was a kid I've felt out of step with the world, it's like the society and environment is a radio station and I'm not really properly tuned into the channel so everything sounds a bit garbled and terrible and I could never make sense of a lot of stuff, and I was pretty depressed most of my youth. Other than that it was alright I guess, I come from a pretty small town and have always been pretty introverted so I just played computer games a lot and later on posted on DAC and talked shit on #fallout and hung out and got drunk with my friends and stuff like that
DAC: Do you keep plants or pets?
GM: I have a few plants that are constantly on the verge of death. They're nice to have around but I don't mind if they die either, I would just consider it a beautiful reminder on the temporary nature of life. Memento mori and so on. Pretty allergic to a bunch of animals and I have some ethical issues with keeping pets in an urban environment with regards to their territory and range, and I'm not interested in having a spider or some stupid shit like that, so no pets.
DAC: How did you find DAC?
GM: It's a bit of a convoluted & boring story but here goes. I joined a Fallout: Tactics clan before the game's release because I was a huge fan of FO1&2 and a tactical combat game in the Fallout universe sounded pretty damn good to me as I'm a big fan of the Jagged Alliance games as well. Pretty sure this was also before they decided to go with real-time combat instead of turn-based; that decision was a letdown but I still played some matches for a little while when the game was released. Anyway the clan had its own website and forum, and that's where I started making the Toxic Waste Boy comics (this was around 2000/2001). They somehow found their way to Kreegle (the boss man of DAC at the time, we're talking GameSpy era DAC now), he took a liking to them and posted them on the DAC front page, so I visited the forums a few times to check out the feedback but didn't like the terrible forum software. Maybe I had visited DAC for news or something before that but that was my first real connection with the site. Pyro/Megatron was one of the people who enjoyed the comics and that's when I sort of made his acquaintance for the first time as well. So that was 20 years ago, christ.
At some point another Fallout fansite called vault13.net became kind of a hub for the clans and the biggest ones, ours included, got their own subforums, so the clan moved to V13 and I started posting there. V13 had very much a similar vibe to duckandcover.net-to-be. Eventually V13 closed down and many of the regulars migrated to either DAC or NMA, and I was done with the clan nonsense by then. I think the "new" DAC and V13 must have coexisted at some point because I don't think there was any big gap between my posting on V13 and DAC (I did some research: The new DAC forums opened on 18 April 2002, and V13 closed for good on 24 May 2002). Anyway this was when DAC left GameSpy, and I vaguely remember the grand re-opening of DAC. I joined on the very first day of course because I'm hardcore like that. The forums have stayed basically the same ever since, but back then someone even made a forum theme that resembled the old V13 forums which I thought was a really nice gesture. It was all black and green and far superior to this shitty theme, back then all the cool websites were black.
I also created & ran the Wasteland subdomain of DAC where we uploaded the comics and all the silly stuff with Megatron like the fake STALKER and New Vegas fansites, it was basically our own playground for our creative projects and collaborations. Megatron was responsible for all the best content there though. I don't remember how this came about but I was friends with Kreegle by then so I guess he just gave me a subdomain and let me do my own thing. I had been learning HTML and CSS since I was a kid, and it was nice to build something that people actually visited for once.
It's funny to think I've done all this stuff and that I've been both an op on #fallout and a moderator on DAC even though I consider myself pretty much just another shitposter, any of you guys would have probably done a much better job than me.
DAC: What drugs have you tried, what do you prefer? How do you buy them, is it from the same source over the years?
GM: I can't be bothered to come up with a list sorry, I guess I've tried basically everything that I've found at least somewhat interesting and have been able to acquire without much of an effort, so pretty much most of the usual stuff. I prefer hallucinogens, anything that expands my horizons a bit. As for the sources, MR Snake is my man, look him up FBI
DAC: How old are you? How is your health?
GM: I'm 35, pretty healthy, could be better could be worse, I'm not fat or anything. I haven't exercised much since summer so I've developed slight back/neck pains due to my line of work but nothing that can't be solved with a bit of gym and/or yoga. My diet is pretty terrible though but somehow I'm still in a pretty good shape. I haven't caught any colds this past year which is unusual for me as I do get sick very easily, maybe it's because of all the mask / handwashing business.
DAC: What is your ideal life, if you had funds secured how would you enjoy your existence ideally?
GM: Short answer: Nirvana
Long answer: I don't really like the concept of ideal life, life is just life, it's better to be free of any attachments or expectations, fuck the hedonic treadmill. Even if ever I achieved any sort of "ideal life" that I had envisioned, I'd probably not be much happier than I am now anyway. Like one study showed that lottery winners and paraplegics both pretty much returned to some sort of a "baseline" level of happiness after something like a year after the incident/accident. But the biggest problem is the "enjoy your existence" bit with which I've always struggled; the thing is I'm very good at being discontent and overthinking things, and my whole life is pretty much one long existential crisis (there have been good times and bad times but it's something that very much defines me for sure). Meditation and psychedelics help.
DAC: What are your hobbies?
GM: I have these bouts of mania almost, where I get super into random things (I've spent a considerable amount of my free time on these interviews and going through old posts for example) but they rarely hold my attention for long. But the past year has included at least: going to the gym, yoga, making music on my computer (I also play a bit of piano), drawing, writing, reading / listening to audiobooks (mostly non-fiction), interviewing DACKers, lately I've been making 2D animations as well, I was really into photography for a bit... basically I just do whatever I feel like doing at any given moment. I think it's more to do with constant self-improvement: I like learning new stuff and if I get bored with one thing I'll just do something else for a bit. As you can see it's mostly pretty solitary stuff, like said I'm very much an introvert.
DAC: Tits or ass?
GM: That's a tough one, I'm pretty divided on the subject. I'm big into anal but I would say great tits are more aesthetically pleasing than great butts. I can't really choose, I need the whole package or at least some sort of a decent compromise between the two.
DAC: Have you've ever walked out of a mall into a huge parking area and realized, you'd forgotten where you parked your car?
GM: I've never owned a car, but the times I've borrowed one, pretty much every time yes
DAC: https://youtu.be/9S1EzkRpelY
GM: That's a lot of questions, hopefully I got the order right:
1. I just answered this
2. No
3. I've always been more of a living-in-the-moment guy, I don't really give a shit, I just want to do stuff that makes me happy so I don't really get attached to things because they probably won't hold my interest for long anyway as mentioned earlier
4. No tipping culture here thank god, so 0
5. No
6. I couldn't really hear the stair question. So, maybe?
7. I dunno, any amount of money would do, I'd prefer a more interesting incentive, I have all the money in the world man
8. Probably not since I have never hunted and I wouldn't consider it a trophy had I not hunted it
9. Still no
10. I prefer salty things like potato chips or "crisps" if you're Megatronian
11. Nope
12. I did an online hearing test that plays different tones some years ago, and apparently my hearing is pretty shit, but then I knew that already.
13. I was hoping to finally go to Hong Kong last year but all travel plans are on hold for the time being for obvious reasons. They're ripping down the old neon signs at an an alarming rate, was kind of hoping to witness that whole aesthetic but I've probably missed it by now. But there are many other reasons to visit, for example I love the verticality of the city, look up "Michael Wolf: Architecture of Density", I'm awestruck whenever I browse through those photos, too bad the physical book has been out of print for a long time. "City of Darkness" is another great book, it's about the Walled City of Kowloon that's long gone now but it's a beautiful book and the whole concept and history of the place is just so bizarre and interesting. So yeah I wanna go to Hong Kong
14. Not at all, I don't remember a whole lot of stuff anyway
15. I love to stay at home
16. I have not
17. I'm pretty careful yes, thankfully most of that stuff is already digital around these parts but for example I have my accounting sorted in separate folders by year and month in the Cloud
18. Haha, lately my computer has been setting the time to random times for who knows why, so yeah. But it's probably a virus not a sign of sentience
19. I've visited Chinatown in Manchester, not sure if that counts as a "major city". I've visited a major city in China, does that count?
20. Many times
21. A couple of times
22. No, I think I would be pretty unsuitable for that sort of a job
23. I had not noticed that, no. Unless you count the type of food they serve a "theme", then yes.
24. Of course
DAC: What three items are guaranteed to be in your bug out bag?
GM: I first thought it said butt plug bag, and that one is much easier to answer so I'll say three butt plugs. I'm gonna have a jolly good time when the society collapses I guess.
DAC: What is a music album you could never live without?
GM: I don't know if there is one; looking at my Spotify playlists, there's very little stuff there that I was listening to like 3 years ago, and I have a bad habit of listening to an album until I get sick of it for a really long time. But if I had to pick something I'd probably go with something / anything by Bill Evans (preferably his solo / trio stuff), mostly because I think harmony and its contextual nature is the most interesting thing about music and he was a genius when it comes to that stuff, but also because his playing is pretty much perfect in every way. Here's a great example (just skip the bass solo bullshit fuck that)
DAC: Are we alone in the universe?
GM: Aren't we all ultimately alone in the universe? A very open-ended question so I'll give you a very closed-minded answer... NOT! Haha just a little joke. As for "is there sentient life that coexists with us within our tiny corner of the universe that is reachable at least in theory (fucking Hubble constant sheesh)", the chances seem kinda slim; I'm being kinda carboncentric sure but would we be any less alone if there was some silicon based freak of Prosperian proportions living on the moon if we'll never be able to even comprehend its existence anyway. Same with the expansion of universe: if there's life in some distant galaxy that's impossible to reach at this point, does it even matter what the DACers there are up to? Maybe, maybe not I don't fucking know. But just to make this answer even more of a clusterfuck, I think panpsychism is the most elegant and parsimonious answer to the hard problem of consciousness, so in my mind (:blargh:) matter or even the universe itself has intrinsic conscious properties, or something to that effect. So in a sense, we all are together in the universe; isn't that nice?
DAC: Is everything a simulation?
GM: Nice one I friggin love the Matrix! What if I told you... that Zhuangzi came up with pretty much the same idea years earlier in his movie "the Butterfly Effect"? One thing I've always wondered about is what if Neo would have eaten both the red pill and the blue pill? Maybe he would have embraced his masculinity and gone on a raping spree with his raging boner. As for the question, last year I read an article that summarised Nick Bostrom's (the guy who popularised the simulation hypothesis, along with the Wachowski sisters, those beautiful rastafarian albino twins) argument something like this: either the likelihood that we live in a simulation already is very high, or the likelihood that we'll ever reach a level of technological competence to run said simulations is very low. So that's a definite maybe from him, whereas it's a definite yes from the albino camp. Pick your poison or pill or whatever. To me this is kind of in the same category as the question of free will: does it even matter? We can't trust our senses anyway (see Zhuangzi) and I'm gonna waste my days posting on DAC or doing some other dumb shit either way. But I think the possibility of it boils down to whether or not you're willing to accept infinite regress (if we are in a simulation, there would have to be a "real world" running it right? But it could be just another simulation and so on, it's turtles all the way down cowabunga motherfucker). I do like thinking about these kinds of things but simulators aren't my top priority, I'm more interested in the consciousness, the intrinsic nature of reality and that sort of stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_XaJdDqQA0
DAC: Who was phone?
GM: Princess Nokia
DAC: Yes or no?
GM: Sorry but I have to go with maybe, not a big fan of binary thinking. Which would be kind of funny if we're just a bunch of 1s and 0s in the Matrix anyway. :albino:
---
There's a few more interviews that I'll put up once I get the answers back, but that's it for now, maybe I'll do some more in the future if any other old-timers stop by. Basically I spent about a week at my computer pretty much just living in the past when doing these interviews, and in the end found myself refreshing the forum page throughout the day just to see if anyone had posted anything, just like back in the day, so I think I'll stop crowding the forums this much for now.
Thanks everyone for accepting to do these interviews, hope you found them entertaining / interesting / valuable / whatever to some degree.
GM: Kashlukland, two siblings, good relationship with my mom, she's awesome and I love her, dad died ages ago so nonexistent relationship with him at the moment.
DAC: How was your childhood, happy?
GM: Not happy, ever since I was a kid I've felt out of step with the world, it's like the society and environment is a radio station and I'm not really properly tuned into the channel so everything sounds a bit garbled and terrible and I could never make sense of a lot of stuff, and I was pretty depressed most of my youth. Other than that it was alright I guess, I come from a pretty small town and have always been pretty introverted so I just played computer games a lot and later on posted on DAC and talked shit on #fallout and hung out and got drunk with my friends and stuff like that
DAC: Do you keep plants or pets?
GM: I have a few plants that are constantly on the verge of death. They're nice to have around but I don't mind if they die either, I would just consider it a beautiful reminder on the temporary nature of life. Memento mori and so on. Pretty allergic to a bunch of animals and I have some ethical issues with keeping pets in an urban environment with regards to their territory and range, and I'm not interested in having a spider or some stupid shit like that, so no pets.
DAC: How did you find DAC?
GM: It's a bit of a convoluted & boring story but here goes. I joined a Fallout: Tactics clan before the game's release because I was a huge fan of FO1&2 and a tactical combat game in the Fallout universe sounded pretty damn good to me as I'm a big fan of the Jagged Alliance games as well. Pretty sure this was also before they decided to go with real-time combat instead of turn-based; that decision was a letdown but I still played some matches for a little while when the game was released. Anyway the clan had its own website and forum, and that's where I started making the Toxic Waste Boy comics (this was around 2000/2001). They somehow found their way to Kreegle (the boss man of DAC at the time, we're talking GameSpy era DAC now), he took a liking to them and posted them on the DAC front page, so I visited the forums a few times to check out the feedback but didn't like the terrible forum software. Maybe I had visited DAC for news or something before that but that was my first real connection with the site. Pyro/Megatron was one of the people who enjoyed the comics and that's when I sort of made his acquaintance for the first time as well. So that was 20 years ago, christ.
At some point another Fallout fansite called vault13.net became kind of a hub for the clans and the biggest ones, ours included, got their own subforums, so the clan moved to V13 and I started posting there. V13 had very much a similar vibe to duckandcover.net-to-be. Eventually V13 closed down and many of the regulars migrated to either DAC or NMA, and I was done with the clan nonsense by then. I think the "new" DAC and V13 must have coexisted at some point because I don't think there was any big gap between my posting on V13 and DAC (I did some research: The new DAC forums opened on 18 April 2002, and V13 closed for good on 24 May 2002). Anyway this was when DAC left GameSpy, and I vaguely remember the grand re-opening of DAC. I joined on the very first day of course because I'm hardcore like that. The forums have stayed basically the same ever since, but back then someone even made a forum theme that resembled the old V13 forums which I thought was a really nice gesture. It was all black and green and far superior to this shitty theme, back then all the cool websites were black.
I also created & ran the Wasteland subdomain of DAC where we uploaded the comics and all the silly stuff with Megatron like the fake STALKER and New Vegas fansites, it was basically our own playground for our creative projects and collaborations. Megatron was responsible for all the best content there though. I don't remember how this came about but I was friends with Kreegle by then so I guess he just gave me a subdomain and let me do my own thing. I had been learning HTML and CSS since I was a kid, and it was nice to build something that people actually visited for once.
It's funny to think I've done all this stuff and that I've been both an op on #fallout and a moderator on DAC even though I consider myself pretty much just another shitposter, any of you guys would have probably done a much better job than me.
DAC: What drugs have you tried, what do you prefer? How do you buy them, is it from the same source over the years?
GM: I can't be bothered to come up with a list sorry, I guess I've tried basically everything that I've found at least somewhat interesting and have been able to acquire without much of an effort, so pretty much most of the usual stuff. I prefer hallucinogens, anything that expands my horizons a bit. As for the sources, MR Snake is my man, look him up FBI
DAC: How old are you? How is your health?
GM: I'm 35, pretty healthy, could be better could be worse, I'm not fat or anything. I haven't exercised much since summer so I've developed slight back/neck pains due to my line of work but nothing that can't be solved with a bit of gym and/or yoga. My diet is pretty terrible though but somehow I'm still in a pretty good shape. I haven't caught any colds this past year which is unusual for me as I do get sick very easily, maybe it's because of all the mask / handwashing business.
DAC: What is your ideal life, if you had funds secured how would you enjoy your existence ideally?
GM: Short answer: Nirvana
Long answer: I don't really like the concept of ideal life, life is just life, it's better to be free of any attachments or expectations, fuck the hedonic treadmill. Even if ever I achieved any sort of "ideal life" that I had envisioned, I'd probably not be much happier than I am now anyway. Like one study showed that lottery winners and paraplegics both pretty much returned to some sort of a "baseline" level of happiness after something like a year after the incident/accident. But the biggest problem is the "enjoy your existence" bit with which I've always struggled; the thing is I'm very good at being discontent and overthinking things, and my whole life is pretty much one long existential crisis (there have been good times and bad times but it's something that very much defines me for sure). Meditation and psychedelics help.
DAC: What are your hobbies?
GM: I have these bouts of mania almost, where I get super into random things (I've spent a considerable amount of my free time on these interviews and going through old posts for example) but they rarely hold my attention for long. But the past year has included at least: going to the gym, yoga, making music on my computer (I also play a bit of piano), drawing, writing, reading / listening to audiobooks (mostly non-fiction), interviewing DACKers, lately I've been making 2D animations as well, I was really into photography for a bit... basically I just do whatever I feel like doing at any given moment. I think it's more to do with constant self-improvement: I like learning new stuff and if I get bored with one thing I'll just do something else for a bit. As you can see it's mostly pretty solitary stuff, like said I'm very much an introvert.
DAC: Tits or ass?
GM: That's a tough one, I'm pretty divided on the subject. I'm big into anal but I would say great tits are more aesthetically pleasing than great butts. I can't really choose, I need the whole package or at least some sort of a decent compromise between the two.
DAC: Have you've ever walked out of a mall into a huge parking area and realized, you'd forgotten where you parked your car?
GM: I've never owned a car, but the times I've borrowed one, pretty much every time yes
DAC: https://youtu.be/9S1EzkRpelY
GM: That's a lot of questions, hopefully I got the order right:
1. I just answered this
2. No
3. I've always been more of a living-in-the-moment guy, I don't really give a shit, I just want to do stuff that makes me happy so I don't really get attached to things because they probably won't hold my interest for long anyway as mentioned earlier
4. No tipping culture here thank god, so 0
5. No
6. I couldn't really hear the stair question. So, maybe?
7. I dunno, any amount of money would do, I'd prefer a more interesting incentive, I have all the money in the world man
8. Probably not since I have never hunted and I wouldn't consider it a trophy had I not hunted it
9. Still no
10. I prefer salty things like potato chips or "crisps" if you're Megatronian
11. Nope
12. I did an online hearing test that plays different tones some years ago, and apparently my hearing is pretty shit, but then I knew that already.
13. I was hoping to finally go to Hong Kong last year but all travel plans are on hold for the time being for obvious reasons. They're ripping down the old neon signs at an an alarming rate, was kind of hoping to witness that whole aesthetic but I've probably missed it by now. But there are many other reasons to visit, for example I love the verticality of the city, look up "Michael Wolf: Architecture of Density", I'm awestruck whenever I browse through those photos, too bad the physical book has been out of print for a long time. "City of Darkness" is another great book, it's about the Walled City of Kowloon that's long gone now but it's a beautiful book and the whole concept and history of the place is just so bizarre and interesting. So yeah I wanna go to Hong Kong
14. Not at all, I don't remember a whole lot of stuff anyway
15. I love to stay at home
16. I have not
17. I'm pretty careful yes, thankfully most of that stuff is already digital around these parts but for example I have my accounting sorted in separate folders by year and month in the Cloud
18. Haha, lately my computer has been setting the time to random times for who knows why, so yeah. But it's probably a virus not a sign of sentience
19. I've visited Chinatown in Manchester, not sure if that counts as a "major city". I've visited a major city in China, does that count?
20. Many times
21. A couple of times
22. No, I think I would be pretty unsuitable for that sort of a job
23. I had not noticed that, no. Unless you count the type of food they serve a "theme", then yes.
24. Of course
DAC: What three items are guaranteed to be in your bug out bag?
GM: I first thought it said butt plug bag, and that one is much easier to answer so I'll say three butt plugs. I'm gonna have a jolly good time when the society collapses I guess.
DAC: What is a music album you could never live without?
GM: I don't know if there is one; looking at my Spotify playlists, there's very little stuff there that I was listening to like 3 years ago, and I have a bad habit of listening to an album until I get sick of it for a really long time. But if I had to pick something I'd probably go with something / anything by Bill Evans (preferably his solo / trio stuff), mostly because I think harmony and its contextual nature is the most interesting thing about music and he was a genius when it comes to that stuff, but also because his playing is pretty much perfect in every way. Here's a great example (just skip the bass solo bullshit fuck that)
DAC: Are we alone in the universe?
GM: Aren't we all ultimately alone in the universe? A very open-ended question so I'll give you a very closed-minded answer... NOT! Haha just a little joke. As for "is there sentient life that coexists with us within our tiny corner of the universe that is reachable at least in theory (fucking Hubble constant sheesh)", the chances seem kinda slim; I'm being kinda carboncentric sure but would we be any less alone if there was some silicon based freak of Prosperian proportions living on the moon if we'll never be able to even comprehend its existence anyway. Same with the expansion of universe: if there's life in some distant galaxy that's impossible to reach at this point, does it even matter what the DACers there are up to? Maybe, maybe not I don't fucking know. But just to make this answer even more of a clusterfuck, I think panpsychism is the most elegant and parsimonious answer to the hard problem of consciousness, so in my mind (:blargh:) matter or even the universe itself has intrinsic conscious properties, or something to that effect. So in a sense, we all are together in the universe; isn't that nice?
DAC: Is everything a simulation?
GM: Nice one I friggin love the Matrix! What if I told you... that Zhuangzi came up with pretty much the same idea years earlier in his movie "the Butterfly Effect"? One thing I've always wondered about is what if Neo would have eaten both the red pill and the blue pill? Maybe he would have embraced his masculinity and gone on a raping spree with his raging boner. As for the question, last year I read an article that summarised Nick Bostrom's (the guy who popularised the simulation hypothesis, along with the Wachowski sisters, those beautiful rastafarian albino twins) argument something like this: either the likelihood that we live in a simulation already is very high, or the likelihood that we'll ever reach a level of technological competence to run said simulations is very low. So that's a definite maybe from him, whereas it's a definite yes from the albino camp. Pick your poison or pill or whatever. To me this is kind of in the same category as the question of free will: does it even matter? We can't trust our senses anyway (see Zhuangzi) and I'm gonna waste my days posting on DAC or doing some other dumb shit either way. But I think the possibility of it boils down to whether or not you're willing to accept infinite regress (if we are in a simulation, there would have to be a "real world" running it right? But it could be just another simulation and so on, it's turtles all the way down cowabunga motherfucker). I do like thinking about these kinds of things but simulators aren't my top priority, I'm more interested in the consciousness, the intrinsic nature of reality and that sort of stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_XaJdDqQA0
DAC: Who was phone?
GM: Princess Nokia
DAC: Yes or no?
GM: Sorry but I have to go with maybe, not a big fan of binary thinking. Which would be kind of funny if we're just a bunch of 1s and 0s in the Matrix anyway. :albino:
---
There's a few more interviews that I'll put up once I get the answers back, but that's it for now, maybe I'll do some more in the future if any other old-timers stop by. Basically I spent about a week at my computer pretty much just living in the past when doing these interviews, and in the end found myself refreshing the forum page throughout the day just to see if anyone had posted anything, just like back in the day, so I think I'll stop crowding the forums this much for now.
Thanks everyone for accepting to do these interviews, hope you found them entertaining / interesting / valuable / whatever to some degree.
Last edited by Jeff on Mon Feb 08, 2021 3:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
- SenisterDenister
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3535
- Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:03 pm
- Location: Cackalackyland
Holy shit man that was a ride!
Language doesnt seem like a barrier to you, and hey you seem pretty tech savvy after all just html and shit and it will be fine with steering DAC into the sun.
Tremendously enjoyed that you answered all the questions from youtube as well.
Concerning the existentialism I had a phat crisis around 18 or so and to cope with the whole existing part and the enormity of everything else I landed in that if nothing matters and I am nothing then everything matters all the time.
Now I kind of landed on the middle ground of everything and all being one and we are also like you point out manifestations of everything, its the simple truth so then it doesnt matter what your mind comes up with as a reason to be conscious since whatever you do is the meaning of you doing as an expression of the universe experiencing it subjectively as you in this moment, so yeah that kind of puts a nice chill breeze to the whole thing. Enjoy anything because thats the point. Even ISIS beheadings, try to enjoy being beheaded, its clearly information that needs to be collected somehow, so if you ever find yourself in an orange jumpsuit infront of a taliban tv-crew just be happy for the uniqueness of the experience lmao. So pain and pleasure is as much the same as you already is to that stone you were mentioning.
Also its digg to be able to hear music, nice trakks by the way and down with isis. (Y)
Also, if I would refrase my question about tits and ass;
What about women with a big ass and small chest or small ass and big tits?
Again, bravo.
Language doesnt seem like a barrier to you, and hey you seem pretty tech savvy after all just html and shit and it will be fine with steering DAC into the sun.
Tremendously enjoyed that you answered all the questions from youtube as well.
Concerning the existentialism I had a phat crisis around 18 or so and to cope with the whole existing part and the enormity of everything else I landed in that if nothing matters and I am nothing then everything matters all the time.
Now I kind of landed on the middle ground of everything and all being one and we are also like you point out manifestations of everything, its the simple truth so then it doesnt matter what your mind comes up with as a reason to be conscious since whatever you do is the meaning of you doing as an expression of the universe experiencing it subjectively as you in this moment, so yeah that kind of puts a nice chill breeze to the whole thing. Enjoy anything because thats the point. Even ISIS beheadings, try to enjoy being beheaded, its clearly information that needs to be collected somehow, so if you ever find yourself in an orange jumpsuit infront of a taliban tv-crew just be happy for the uniqueness of the experience lmao. So pain and pleasure is as much the same as you already is to that stone you were mentioning.
Also its digg to be able to hear music, nice trakks by the way and down with isis. (Y)
Also, if I would refrase my question about tits and ass;
What about women with a big ass and small chest or small ass and big tits?
Again, bravo.
- SenisterDenister
- Haha you're still not there yet
- Posts: 3535
- Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:03 pm
- Location: Cackalackyland
Well you seem to be vibing hard with me then; I think it comes down to how similar two subjective experiences and world-views are, like if we were in perfect sync you would know exactly what I mean down to every word in that post (although that would make the whole post sort of obsolete), but that's not how this works so all we can aim for is sort of an approximation, which already leaves a lot for room for interpretation. Which I'm not saying is a bad thing, just that something like "what it is like to be a Gimp Mask" cannot be expressed through words. Or by physics or by modern science. All of that can give us a very accurate picture of the doing, but isn't really concerned with the being. But I feel much more like a human being than a human doing so I have a hard time accepting scientism.Hyacinth wrote:Language doesnt seem like a barrier to you,
Well it's been a decade or two and much has changed with regards to website stuff, and I don't know anything about PHP / databases and can't tell front-end from back-end and so on, so a terrible idea. Unless we're going for that retro-futuristic 1998 website lookand hey you seem pretty tech savvy after all just html and shit and it will be fine with steering DAC into the sun.
That's a nice way of putting it. I'm just really not a fan of the whole subjective experience haha and have a really hard time enjoying it, I feel the "happiest" (hard not to use a value judgement to explain this) when I'm the furthest away from it: in the zone, meditating, tripping, living in the moment. So if you're too concerned with the subjective nature of your existence, I don't think you'll have a great time getting decapitated, and the further away you're able to get from it, you'll be able to enjoy the beheading more, if that makes any sense; for me thought, sense data, our 3 dimensional non-curving linear understanding of space-time and all that crap only get in the way of what I'd like to achieve which is to be nothing and everything and so on instead of some neurophysiological automaton worrying about useless stuff, you dig? But being alive can be pretty interesting too so I don't mind, soon enough this will be over anyway, I'll be able to abandon this sack of meat and a new adventure awaits! So it goes.Now I kind of landed on the middle ground of everything and all being one and we are also like you point out manifestations of everything, its the simple truth so then it doesnt matter what your mind comes up with as a reason to be conscious since whatever you do is the meaning of you doing as an expression of the universe experiencing it subjectively as you in this moment, so yeah that kind of puts a nice chill breeze to the whole thing. Enjoy anything because thats the point. Even ISIS beheadings, try to enjoy being beheaded, its clearly information that needs to be collected somehow, so if you ever find yourself in an orange jumpsuit infront of a taliban tv-crew just be happy for the uniqueness of the experience lmao. So pain and pleasure is as much the same as you already is to that stone you were mentioning.
Yeah the interconnectedness of everything tends to be dismissed as a bunch of new age hogwash without a second thought because it's not very intuitive, but quantum physics or the general theory of relativity are hardly intuitive either and somehow we're ok with that. We know (unless you have a solution to the mind-body problem that no one else knows) that at least some matter must have some sort of conscious properties (namely our own brain), so to me it just makes more sense to extend these properties to all matter than to treat human brain and its conscious properties as something unique in the universe and that consciousness somehow magically emerges from non-conscious matter. But if you hold that consciousness is embedded into the very fabric of reality, it's all pretty simple really.
I value quality over volume because both of those options could be horrible. But now that I think about it I don't have to see her butt-side to fuck her in the ass so I'll take the one with the better tits thanksWhat about women with a big ass and small chest or small ass and big tits?
Thanks for reading, I'm happy you enjoyed it!
EDIT: I re-read my answers and feel like didn't answer this one adequately, I just complained a bunch: "how would you enjoy your existence ideally?"
That one is even harder to put into words than my current form, but I'll try to give you an idea: ideally I would enjoy my existence as The Universe (or multiverse, or what have you); the intrinsic nature of reality; the cosmic unity surpassing the boundaries of time and space; pure consciousness. And that is the honest truth. Why the fuck settle for something like "rich yacht guy" or "a real smart genius man" or whatever?
I wonder if it would be valid to compare quantum entanglement with the interconnectioness of the whole. As everything came from one then why wouldn't everything be interconnected from when one became two and so on.
Also yea my beheading example was a bit off, the core is that the essence of presence and knowing is there no matter the circumstances, might be somewhat of a challenge to stay with it when being beheaded, at the same time people seem pretty calm before being executed so the natural respons may be an intense presence, the "calm" people experience in extreme situations, a forced wake up as the eternal living in the non-existent future or past becomes invalid.
Going there before dying is clearly the aim of the game. Everyone will find it before death (if not surprise dying) but staying with it intensely alive in peace is a drug like no other.
This is also felt by others and recognized immediately, even if it's not explainable by them.
Subjectivety is just valid from the point of the individual ego.
Everyone's posts on here are colors of the same consciousness in a way, your color is fun lol.
Heil hitler.
Also yea my beheading example was a bit off, the core is that the essence of presence and knowing is there no matter the circumstances, might be somewhat of a challenge to stay with it when being beheaded, at the same time people seem pretty calm before being executed so the natural respons may be an intense presence, the "calm" people experience in extreme situations, a forced wake up as the eternal living in the non-existent future or past becomes invalid.
Going there before dying is clearly the aim of the game. Everyone will find it before death (if not surprise dying) but staying with it intensely alive in peace is a drug like no other.
This is also felt by others and recognized immediately, even if it's not explainable by them.
Subjectivety is just valid from the point of the individual ego.
Everyone's posts on here are colors of the same consciousness in a way, your color is fun lol.
Heil hitler.
I don't know nearly enough about quantum physics (then again Richard Feynman said that it's cool bro no one else does either) to say if it's a valid comparison, but feel like it would still be a very limited comparison, focused on the behavior of matter: just as I'm using English to explain me, mathematics is a language used to explain physics (I'm simplifying a bit just read on), so it's still just focused on the behavior of things (doing) rather than how things are in themselves (being). If that's enough to give us the whole picture is pretty subjective (lol), I mean there are people like Max Tegmark who say that math is not only a description of the universe, but that math is the universe or vice versa, but he's a physicist so he would say that wouldn't he. For me that's simply unacceptable. He's a good writer thoughHyacinth wrote:I wonder if it would be valid to compare quantum entanglement with the interconnectioness of the whole. As everything came from one then why wouldn't everything be interconnected from when one became two and so on.
otherwise I fully agree with all of what you said, my color is called "shrek" if you ever want to paint a portrait of me for my birthday or deathbed. thanks for the replies Hyacinth!
love both those books (or the pdfs anyway, I'm not made of money), check out citieswithoutground.com maybe; the walled city also features prominently in computer role-playing game Shadowrun: Hong KongGimp Mask wrote:Hong Kong
yeah this is probably correct, just from process of elimination. we are metaphysical detectivesGimp Mask wrote:panpsychism
Thanks for the recommendation, looks good! Hoping for a reprint of Architecture of Density at some point, I have Tokyo Compression by the same guy because I am in fact made of money, it's a gorgeous book. I love the "new" Shadowrun games, too.atoga wrote:love both those books (or the pdfs anyway, I'm not made of money), check out citieswithoutground.com maybe; the walled city also features prominently in computer role-playing game Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Ya we don't even know what consciousness is at this point, making all hypotheses regarding it unfalsifiable anyway, so might as well go with one that makes the most sense.atoga wrote:yeah this is probably correct, just from process of elimination. we are metaphysical detectives