Saturday, January 03, 2009

The Beat

I was considering, the other day, the meaning of life. Generally, I had taken the scientific route - to reproduce mutable offspring or some such. This goes hand in hand with the similar definition (or at least a facet) - heritable genetics.

Now, however, I think the meaning of human life is undeniably attached to Having Fun. Is one really living, if their life is not enjoyable? Is Fun the metaphysical reflection of a pulse?

The reason I'm thinking of this, right now, is due in no small part to joining Top Secret Dance Off. Essentially, a social networking structure where teams of players get to challenge one another while wearing a disguise. Comments on the posted videos grant the players points for different aspects of the Dance-Off, like +1 Awesome or +1 Style.

It's part performance, part production, part social engagement, and all sorts of ridiculous fun. Even though Jane McGonigal (who is some sort of High Priestess of Meaningful Play) started it, there's no world-changing purpose to it. It's fun for the sake of fun.

That doesn't mean it's not enlightening. One of the players, who is wheelchair-bound at the moment, didn't think dancing was possible until TSDO prompted them to find Finger Dancing.

On more personal notes, I'm shedding the rust from my video- and audio-editing skills. Through tangential learning, I was instructed that the act of sleep 'locks in' muscle memory. Oh, and I'm meeting some really amazing people, too.

So come join us. You don't even have to dance, to participate. It's fun, I promise.

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