Revelations

Hello again. Much has happened since my last journal– much more than I can possibly capture in the few lines of a paragraph.

*** You know how you listen to a favorite song over and over again, and suddenly you can't stand it? TOPAZ CLEAN. I've seen this effect used properly a few times– many months ago– but recently everyone has gotten the effect for their version of Photoshop. And suddenly everyone is using it like a mindless editor, editing their artwork until it looks like it's made from string cheese. I'm going outright and saying that I've seen "artwork" that looks hideous when it's simply a manipulation with TOPAZ CLEAN sprayed from corner to corner. Really, this useful tool is about ruined from being overplayed. It's more than upsetting that TOPAZ CLEAN is practically everywhere, painted over artwork that didn't truly need it, or was better off before the heavy effects. Make art with your mind and creativity. How creative is "making" is a TOPAZ CLEAN? No more TOPAZ CLEANS! There are quite a few people I know who use TOPAZ software often and successfully. Probably because they've been perfecting it for years, if not longer. In time I hope juvenile artists will develop this way and use TOPAZ to enhance their work and add that finishing touch. After all it is an effect, made to be an effect, not made to cover up artwork. Just a Shoutout on this growing issue– please comment with your opinions.

----- If you role-play, please read on.



My month to Iceland was beyond magnificent and compares to absolutely nothing I've encountered before. They say that people make a place, but I'm here to tell you that the place makes the people. Icelanders are perhaps the most resourceful, traditional, and mysterious people I have ever met. But I presume that all comes from living in a place of beauty, where tomorrow your home may vanish under snow, or be eaten up into the folds of the earth. In a place where tourists account for three times the Icelander population, it's no surprise that people want to stay to themselves, or else be known only by their family and their land. The time I spent there was but a drop of water in the sea, and already I'm startled by my own stark insignificance.  In comparison to the world around us, one human being is nothing more than a mammal on two feet. Yet we all strive to be something– to define ourselves in this world– and "leave our mark" if we're lucky. It's upsetting that so many people choose to leave their signature by destroying the world.. Instead of nurturing it. A brazen few devote their lives to witness the bounties this planet has hidden away.

Wolves are one of those selfless few. Although they live to provide for themselves and their family, they live in a world that we just can't imagine. I envy them for living in such close contact with their environment. Their senses are so fine-tuned that they live in a universe we can never understand. They hear things that no man will ever hear, and respond to the world in ways that man would never consider.

It's with this knowledge that I've begun to turn away from role-play. Not just that it entraps people away from the real world, but because it's so hideously skewed into human perspective. Wolf role-play in particular began as a curious wonder of wolves. Now it is a disgusting practice, warping and inverting the ways of wolves into horror and science fiction. The worst part is that people believe it. Young children, perhaps 10 and 12 years of age, grow curious about the wild canines of the north. They stumble upon a popular "wolf role-play"– in accordance with their search for media entertainment– and they find that wolves are nothing short of the monsters that ate Little Red Riding Hood.

Wolves are not the creatures to wage war on one another, or kill each other like mindless savages. The only creature that kills each other is Man. So called "killer packs" are some of these sickening culprits, teaching children and teenagers that it's OK to say that animals are just as thoughtless as people. I'm here to tell you that it's NOT okay. In a time where wolves are more threatened than ever by humans, no one can afford to have such twisted perceptions about these animals. A "killer" role-player might say "of course I understand it's just role-play, wolves aren't like this," but the destruction occurs when juvenile players don't think with such common sense. They may only get a taste of wolves via wolf role-play, and that will be all they ever learn for the rest of their lives. They vote on the ballot with True Satans in mind, giving Parliament the permission to exterminate wolves from the lower 48 States.

Some might think that this is all poppycock– that it's all too far-fetched to be true. The truth is that it's already too late for most wolves. So few people really climb the mountains to understand them. Most accept wolves the way media shows them; as killers, beasts, soldiers fighting wars in the wilderness, raping others and thinking with a demonic mind. That is not the way of the great wolf.

My argument stretches to "realistic role-plays" as well. Some try to give wolves the upper hand, and do away with killer practices and other trash that sick kids have come up with. Unfortunately, there is so much that is in the wrong perspective. The human perspective. Wolves live in a world where disloyalty means death. Not "killed by the alpha," but by starving on the tundra or being shot in the forest, all for wandering too close to a farmer's ranch. Role-players do not understand the gravity of the life they live online. They fail to respect the life of the wolf, and the ways of the canine kind. There is an aspect of fantasy to every role-play game, and people aren't recognizing that anymore. Wolves don't dive and catch fish from the ocean, or climb trees to gobble up newborn squirrels. Why waste so much precious strength on something so human.

It sickens me every time I see it. I see it so often now that I've all but thrown away the RP Community. Wolves hunt to eat, not to kill. They build dens to raise their family, not to make a fortress. They become alphas by teaching their family to survive. Not by bullying others, being elected, or being born into the alpha position like a King or Queen. There are instances where we see wolves bully each other in captivity. Not because they want to be a "royal" alpha. Because they have a stronger mind and body than the current alpha. Humans are born selfish and self-centered. We are the center of our own universe. No matter how hard you try and think differently, YOU are the only one that matters in your world. It's coded in our genetics, it's the human level of self-preservation. In maturing, one learns that he is not the center of the world. The only way to grow and succeed is to work with others, and accept that YOU aren't the only person that matters. It's a long and painful process to learn this. Most people never really do. They remain the center of the universe until they die, doing things without regard and dying selfish.

Wolves are one of those creatures that's evolved with a "family first" mindset. Where humans think "self over others," wolves live by "family over self." It's one of those things that we will continue to screw up, until we really devote energy to climb those mountains and understand the world differently.
These young role-players are selfish and ignorant, as we all were at some point in our lives. But it takes a certain fire in the soul to want to move on, to want to learn more and live fuller. Until we understand wolves, wolf role-play will always be a disgrace.
People who want to role-play wolves are the people we need to SAVE wolves. But we only teach them lies about wolf character; that they are killers and savage, untamed beasts with demonic minds. People's views change– they feel the pride of ruling a pack with evil intentions, the power that comes from doing others harm. Thus is born another generation of Role-Play Wolves, out to extinguish any trace of their ancestral heritage. Where their dreams were born, out among the endless winds of the wilderness, alongside the wolf's howl that rides those winds with life and longing.

What can we do to fix the problem, other than stop the problem? What we believe doesn't define us. It's what we do that makes us.

As I move farther out into the world and closer to the real wolf– closer to learning from them and protecting them– I'm faced with the challenge of reteaching every human about this carnivore. Little Red Riding Hood drew the wolf's first blood, and role-play took hold on those wolfish fears and fantasy. The blood's in the water and the sharks came many years ago. It will be a battle to ward them off without becoming a meal, and restore the clarity to that water surrounding the wolf.