About

So what is there to say about all of this? It’s a blog. I have no concrete plans as to what to do with it, but I have a couple of thoughts.

We “inherited” some of my oldest daughter’s textbooks (step-daughter, actually, but still…). Among them was the text used for her Freshman Composition course which had some interesting stuff in the introduction. According to the authors, writing reinforces learning. This strikes me as a very reasonable conclusion. Speaking from my own experience, putting my thoughts down on paper helps me organize and clarify, although I have a nasty tendency to digress when writing anything other than notes.

While I have little problem with spelling, grammar, syntax and the like, I must confess to being a poor writer. Getting a thought out of my head and into print is a constant battle and I never seem to be satisfied with the final product. Perhaps I should have taken a regular composition course rather than Creative Writing, but what’s done is done. I am hardly a creative writer and am (again) digressing.

I must also confess to being a Liberal Arts major. My undergraduate degree is in History, with minors in Political Science, Education and Paralegal Studies (that one didn’t transfer when I did, but I finished it). I have somewhere between 210 and 225 college hours scattered out over so many different disciplines that I think the school declared me "graduated" just to make me stop changing majors. I’ve never gone on to do graduate work simply because you have to focus on a single field of study and there isn’t anything aside from law that could hold my academic interest for more than a couple of semesters. You might think it’s a flaky way of approaching things, but it’s my education and I’ll study what I damned well please for as long as it pleases me.

In the years since, for better or worse, I have indulged two penchants. The first, computer games of various sorts, keeps me entertained, off the streets and out of the pool halls. It also requires constant upgrading and rebuilding of my computer to keep pace with the increasing demands placed upon the hardware. Combining this with the idea of writing as a reinforcement to  learning resulted in the production of the various “Beginners Guide” links that you can find below. The list does not reflect the games that I have played, but only those that (1) I found interesting enough to delve more deeply into and (2) saw a lack of similar material from other gamers/authors. I very much doubt that I will write any others. The amount of time required to do even a half-assed job is time that can be better spent on other endeavors.

The second penchant I indulge is an almost insatiable curiosity about almost everything (hence the multiple changes in my major). To be curious is to have questions that require answers. It is not sufficient to merely have a question. The question must be coupled with the willingness to go search for an answer and the ability to recognize an answer when found. However each new answer seems only to raise new questions, the answers to which either raise new questions or seem to contradict previous answers, which raises even more questions and…. So here I sit with a head full of stuff, a never-ending supply of questions, and few answers that hang together well. If misery loves company, why not share the pain? Maybe someone out there can point me to answers that will make sense.

The blog title is taken from John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty” (“There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purpose of human life”). In many respects, “all I know is that I know nothing.” I very much doubt that Socrates meant that he was ignorant of everything, but was expressing his view that absolute knowledge is impossible. Perhaps one day I will be able to ask him about that (I have a few other bones to pick with him, as well, should the occasion arise). I do not know that there is a hereafter of some sort or that I might find Socrates in it, but I also do not know that there isn’t or that I won’t. In spite of those hanging questions, the method of acquiring those answers is unappealing, so I will just have to defer gratification until such a time as it does appeal.

Blathering to an indifferent Internet seems to scratch a few annoying itches, though. Having the means to do so close to hand, all that remains is the time and will to do something about it. We shall see how it goes.

Beginner’s Guide to Daggerfall – started it all (woo-hoo, I guess)

Beginner’s Guide to Morrowind – not as well done as the first, I think, and I’m too damned lazy to go back and rewrite

Beginner’s Guide to Oblivion – probably my last effort in the game guides field – too many wikis now do the same thing and many heads are better than one when it comes to game strategies

Beginner’s Guide to Neverwinter Nights – a brief (and incomplete) foray into Bioware’s AD&D realm

Beginner’s Guide to Singles 2: Triple Trouble – written because no one else in the US had bothered, although there are a few French and German equivalents

Visit Le blog officiel Singles - Singles’ official blog – a Singles and Singles 2 blog written by a friend, although I do not believe that she is still posting in it. It was still live as of 3/14/2010, though.