lucianowrites

[lucianowrites]

Tomorrow is #ElectionDay. I have compiled and shared a messy, and human set of my thoughts going into the final stretch of the election, particularly as it relates to election night and expectations. If you like me you may like my final thoughts as we enter the finale of the latest season of America.

[lucianowrites]

Communication Corner Pilot/Experiment

[lucianowrites]

Oh hey I made a Riverdale Jumpdoc. Nice! Now you can come and visit #Riverdale in all of its ridiculous glory, as a superpowered jumper. Wanna recruit one of the gang to join you on your journeys? Be my guest!

Also, next week we're gonna work on a High School Musical jump! How exciting.

[lucianowrites]

Making something under a minute long feels unnatural to me. But I did it! I made TikTok's first Jumpchain-explained type video! I'm so proud of myself.

This still feels weird. But hey, this exists. Let's go!

[lucianowrites]

It's... also worth noting that this isn't unique to Mormons. We only say this about Mormons specifically BECAUSE Mormons, and occasionally Jehovah's Witnesses, are the ones WE see.

I lived in Latin America as a kid. I saw Christians of all stripes come to the towns and neighborhoods I lived in, who got told much of the same things as Mormons when it came to mission trips, and who were often treated the same way. The PURPOSE of a mission trip is to fail. Christians are constantly told that only God can change a human's heart, and at the same time they are told to go and make disciples of all nations. Christianity has inbuilt systems like this for all denominations, it's just that in the United States the main Christians you all see are Mormons, but it's not just them. As a young Catholic I had conversations with Catholics in LATIN AMERICA who came to convert people in places like Honduras and Colombia to Catholicism. They want the kids to fail, and to be ridiculed, so they will slip further into the clutches of their faith.

Kindness disarms them. Respect disarms them. Knowledge disarms them. The key to defeating missionaries and to stop mission trips is to be kind and treat them like people.

[lucianowrites]

This is a WIP Riverdale jumpdoc, and it is one of the three in my Patreon showcase. For more information on my Patreon showcase, click here. Patreon supporters of mine will be able to vote in support of this jumpdoc, or Generic Noble Court Drama, or Generic Narconovela for the next jump to be completed.

[lucianowrites]

This is my latest W.I.P. jump, a jump that is modeled after a mishmash of prestige European Noble Court shows (like Reign, Borgia, and The Spanish Princess). It is a part of my Patreon showcase, and will be one of the three jumps that my patrons will be able to vote for, and if it wins (the poll will be published tomorrow) then it will be the first of the three jumps I complete in October, or possibly very late September. This is a fun jumpchain, and it's one I'm rooting for. The other two are Riverdale and Generic Narconovela.

[lucianowrites]

List Of Publicly Accessible Jumps

Hi friends! 

Here is a list of the jumps I've made that are publicly accessible. That means that anyone can read them and comment on them. 

W.I.P.:

Little King's Story 

Generic Platformer 

Sanguinarch Jump 

Generic Backrooms 

Complete (Updates will occur, periodically, what this means is that this is a WHOLE jump that is easily jumpable):

Welcome To Vaporwave City 

For ME what "Jumpability" means is that thereis a fair collection of perks, items, drawbacks, and any relevant gimmicks pertaining to a specific jump. Someone could argue that "Welcome to Vaporwave City" and "Sanguinarch" are jumpable, though I'd personally aruge that only WTVPC is jumpable. Still, both are noticeably more complete than either of the other three. 

This is a handy document that I may update or repost periodically, particularly when new jumps will be added to the list. 

[lucianowrites]

Why Do I Like Jumpchains?

I have been creating jumpchain content for a bit now. It has begun to color what I'm known for in some spaces. In the Reddit community over jumpchain enjoyers, I'm actually not unknown, due to my passion for this community and the contributions I've made to forcibly expanding and growing our audience and community. But why do I like jumpchains? That's a good question.

For me, jumpchains remind me of the wonder I felt when I first started playing video games. They allow me to feel what it is like to live in another world, another time, sometimes even another country. In doing a jumpchain I don't just think of the powers I/my jumper get or their cool gear, I think of the sights they get to see.

As a child, one of the things that I loved the most about video games were the sights I got to see. Getting to see even things as simple as Kanto region in the original Pokemon games was incredibly exciting to me. Getting to see Yoshi's Island was exciting to me. Nowdays seeing things like the eerie pool rooms and liminal spaces in Anemoiapolis and seeing the dragon filled skies above Skyrim in TES:V excites me. For me, creating a jumper is, in a sense, giving someone else the chance to feel that wonder. I actually like creating jumpers who don't have meta-knowledge or genre-awareness so they can experience the wonders of these places for themselves for the first time.

Another thing that I really like is the freedom jumpchains offer. Video games are inherently limited by the fact that they are programmed and thus have limits (though ones that are being stretched and improved every day) that imagination and imaginary games like jumpchains do not. If you ever wanted to wander Hyrule as a dragon but knew that no Legend of Zelda game would let you do that, well... Jumpchain. If you ever wanted to ride through the Mushroom Kingdom on a F-Zero machine... Jumpchain. If you have *thoughts* about how someone in a Metroid powersuit would do in Castlevania... Jumpchain, baby!

On a more personal level, I also strongly enjoy jumpchains as a sort of escape. I don't mean that in a way that is super depressing or anything, but I'm physically disabled and I'm also chronically ill. My health will... never be good. For the rest of my life. But with a jumpchain I can allow myself to become someone who can do cool stuff that I can't do. As a kid I was a martial artist with formal training in Taekwondo and Karate and less formal training in Muay Thai and Silat, and I LOVED martial arts. I may not ever be able to do the same kind of martial arts shenanigans I could once do, but I can with jumpchains. Between basic perks in jumps like Generic First Jump and full jumps like Generic Fist, I can envision myself doing cool stuff that is beyond my real-life capabilities. I don't often do self-inserts in real, sketched out, chains but I sometimes daydream about self-inserts doing a few jumps. I like to imagine getting the parkour skills of the mario brothers from the Super Mario 64 jump, and spending time on Isle Delfino in the Super Mario Sunshine jump, or spending a decade honing my skills as a martial artist in the Generic Fist jump.

Why do you like jumpchains? If you see this post, and you feel like engaging with it but aren't a jumper yourself, what do you think it'd take for someone to persuade you to try? I'd love to know what could convince you to try out a chain yourself.

[lucianowrites]

I explore a very fun Choose Your Own Adventure in today's video. After we save a wizard's life he gives us two keychains, or one special keychain, that all transport us to different worlds. Let's go see what the Wizard gave us in a Wizard's Keychain!

[lucianowrites]

Hi friends! I am starting a patreon that is specifically revolving around jumpchains. While it is fairly barebones at the moment there is ALREADY content that can be accessed by people who join the patreon, and in the days to come more patreon exclusive content will be uploaded.

[lucianowrites]

Generic First Jump Discussion

[lucianowrites]

Juneteenth

Today is Juneteenth. Juneteenth is a celebration of the historic defeat of the, until then at least, primary manifestation of the institution of slavery. It is a day to celebrate, joyously, as it marks the beginning of the modern movement towards racial equality in this country. It also represents a vital defeat of American Christianity, one of many vital defeats which have played a pivotal role in making our country a better, happier, more perfect union and also one that celebrates freedoms not imagined in the Bible.

The Bible encourages complacency when it comes to the institution of slavery (even though the Old Testament is actually a touch harsher towards the institution than the New Testament is, but this is primarily towards one form of slavery; the practice of kidnapping men to make slaves, rather then ALL forms of slavery). It encourages slaves to meekly serve their masters, and rather than flatly outlawing the institution it puts in regulations that make it clear where the Bible stands when it comes to slavery: at MOST it is indifferent to it, and at worst it is actively supportive of the institution, marking slaves as hereditary property that sons can inherit from their fathers, and instating different regulations for Hebrew (male) slaves than slaves from other lands, protecting Hebrew slaves and ensuring that they can someday attain their freedom (though they can also become the same type of slaves as other slaves, if practices outlined in Exodus are followed).

Americans, including American Christians, rejected the evils of the Bible, and the way that earlier American Christians enshrined a homemade version of slavery into law, and worked to actively end the vile practice of slavery, despite what the Bible had to say on the manner. They rejected the indifference of their faith on this matter, and worked to put an end to an abhorrent practice, and such a sincere devotion to life and liberty is worth remembering and honoring, especially when it is at odds with the purported values espoused by the wicked book they based much else in their life on.

Juneteenth is a day to celebrate. It is a day to remember. It is a day to honor. And it's worth remembering the totality of what it was a rejection of, it was a rejection of complacency in the face of injustice, it was a rejection of religiously backed traditional values and politics, and it was a rejection of evil, even when said evil was religiously backed. What a beautiful, joyous day, friends!

[lucianowrites]

A Humanist Perspective On Reading

Hey gang,

Being on a journey to find truth is a lifelong thing. It never stops, for the few people who are earnestly committed to seeking the truth meaningfully and without bias. And for me, a big part of that lifelong journey has been reading. Reading is what’s most shaped my life, most transformed me, and most allowed me to change and sometimes even improve the lives of others. So here’s an affirmation message about reading stuff.

I’m here as a friendly neighbor skeptic and humanist to remind you that you should read stuff. Reading stuff is cool, and also really important. And there’s lots of stuff you should read with an open mind. But the thing is, a lot of people don’t like reading stuff with an open mind. A lot of people encourage you to read stuff a certain way, and that’s… it’s not good.

As a skeptic and humanist I sometimes get told that I read stuff looking for mistakes. I’m sure some people do that, but I don’t. I read stuff and when I read stuff that purports to be non-fiction, that is supposedly about truth, science, philosophy, and history, I see how my own knowledge lines up to what the book says. When I disagree with the book I do research and I find that I was correct, I was incorrect, or more often than either of those two outcomes, I find that the truth is unknown or even in the middle where both I and the thing I disagree with have points in our favor. But that’s the thing about reading with an open mind and a heart aimed at the truth… Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong, and you’re almost certainly never right 100% of the time, and the thing you’re reading is almost certainly never right 100% of the time either. And reading with an open mind helps you learn and drives you closer to actual truths about the world we're in and the universe we live in! How cool is that?

People find it easy to naysay people when they view them as being overly critical. It’s easy to tell someone to stop when they see mistakes and contradictions everywhere. It’s fun to tell overly negative people to stop being so negative. But an equally dangerous problem is when people tell you that a book is 100% right, 100% of the time.

Anyone who reads a book and then tells you to read it with the understanding that it is definitionally right, and just, and true, is not your friend. They are a friend of the book, not of yours.

If someone tells you that a book can only be understood if you view it as a 100% trustworthy source, that it is definitionally accurate and can never be contradicted, and before you even read it that to get the most out of it you have to agree with it, they are not interested in your earnest insights, or in learning WITH you. What they want is to sell you something.

They may not even realize it, in fact, if you take them on good faith, they probably don’t consciously realize what they are doing.

Nonetheless, they are not your friend. Or at least, they care more about the book then about you, and that sucks. You matter more than a book. Any book. Even, and especially, books that supposedly contain spiritual and holy truths. Books are replaceable, and you aren’t. Keep that in mind the next time people try to fight you, because you don’t like their books.

[lucianowrites]

Some Thoughts On Housing, Education, & Poverty

Truthfully I think the idea that education is the key to escaping poverty is, in part at least, a ploy by propagandists to help absolve the government of some of its duties to protect people. As an educated, physically disabled person, I am constantly in danger of being unhoused. This is despite the fact that I did everything right according to the "Education is the key" people.

I ultimately think that the real key to escaping poverty is to have the government mandate that access to homes is a human right. And as such, to ensure that people cannot be unhoused anymore. As a physically disabled person working a remote job, one that I've been working at for real close to a whole year, who is living paycheck to paycheck, having my housing be protected would be absolutely transformational for my life. If my housing were protected it would be legitimately life-changing for me.

Saying that education is the key to escaping poverty places the onus on the individual rather than the government. Despite this, there are plenty of highly educated people who are in poverty. And people can find a dozen ways to blame the people, rather than accepting that from the jump maybe the idea that education is the key is itself the problem. It is clearly a flawed assumption when everyone pursuing higher education has heard horror stories about life as an associate professor, and we've all heard all sorts of terrifying stories about how much professors actually make. We need to think more critically about how poverty manifests and how we can actually address both it and its consequences.

[lucianowrites]

Keeping up with cross-posting stuff is very difficult but here's an article I wrote about representation. Fun fact: because of this article I've gotten invited to do some public speaking! I really enjoy public speaking.