Still we go on pretending stories like ours have happy endings

[j4]

Sorry I've lapsed on the "happy stories" thing. I don't have any ideas, so how about if you all pretend I handed in about 800 words of creative writing homework & you said "B-, good effort", okay?

I saw a film at the weekend. I thought it was okay. Nothing else much has happened here.

Comments

Life as a slot machine

[anat0010.livejournal.com]

Life is like standing in front of a slot machine. You cannot win, yet you cannot stop feeding in money. Whatever you win will be lost again within a few minutes. The only question is how long will you be standing there ?

Happy endings are a protected species existing only inside designated nature reserves, known as fairy tales.

Re: Life as a slot machine

[j4.livejournal.com]

What do you do when the slot machine's broken, and you have no money, but you're still forced to stand there pressing the buttons even though you know nothing will happen?

Re: Life as a slot machine

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Ring your friend to come and take you away to the Dance Dance Revolution machines on the other side of the arcade?

Am I getting the metaphor here?

Probably not. But I do feel rather sick. Am I excused?

Re: Life as a slot machine

[venta.livejournal.com]

You take a pair of boltcutters to the slot machine, and bodge it back into the semblance of a game you want to play.

I always thought boltcutters were underrated as a philosophical debating tool.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

* Distant sounds of marching, shouted orders on the parade ground, military bands etc *

Lieutenant Entry!
Sir!
Buy that woman some chocolate.

(pause)

Yessir!
Dis-MISS!

* Sounds of saluting, about-turn, and Military Door *

Re: Life as a slot machine

[anat0010.livejournal.com]

You've got it.

You keep pressing the buttons, hoping for a bright light to flicker if only for a moment. Perhaps some bloke in a boiler suit will appear, prostrate himself at your feet, fiddle around a bit, and get the machine working again. Then again, perhaps not.

But what else is there to do but repeatedly press the broken buttons in the vain hope that something might happen ?

Re: Life as a slot machine

[j4.livejournal.com]

Ring your friend to come and take you away to the Dance Dance Revolution machines on the other side of the arcade?

This would be a good idea except that the slot machine is in a lead box so there's no signal here. And my phone has run out of batteries. And doesn't work anyway. Metaphorically, that is.

I've actually never played DDR, though I get the impression that it's like bongos but with feet.

Re: Life as a slot machine

[j4.livejournal.com]

What if you don't want to play a game at all? You can't make the slot machine into, I dunno, food, or a friend.

Re: Life as a slot machine

[j4.livejournal.com]

Perhaps some bloke in a boiler suit will appear, prostrate himself at your feet

Crikey. I suppose I can keep hoping.

[j4.livejournal.com]

He does buy me chocolate, and lots of other nice things; he's also infinitely patient and never gets cross with me. So it's really, really not his fault that I'm this useless. :-(

[venta.livejournal.com]

Military Door

Blimey. I wasn't aware doors came in different flavours. Well, not beyond obvious disctinctions like "cathedral" and "Sindy car-door"

Are you a door-spotter ?

Re: Life as a slot machine

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm obviously less fussy than you. Some of my best friends used to be slot machines.

Boltcutters, I tells ya. Sheer genius.

Re: Life as a slot machine

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

I once applied for a job designing - or, at least, writing the code which runs - slot machines. If I had been successful in my application, would this have made me a philosopher or a stud?

Re: Life as a slot machine

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

I have written code for slot machines.
The automated poker machines in Aus, the one theyc call "Pokies (http://www.smartgambler.com.au/pokies/intro.html)".
God, that was a shit job.

Door Ray Me

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

A door spotter? Other than a tendency to stare impolitely at knockers, no. But wise men have been known for their fascination with doors from ancient times, and were (famously) painted doing so in 'The Adooration of the Magi' by Leonardo da Vinci, Velasquez, and others.

Re: Life as a slot machine

[geekette8.livejournal.com]

Perhaps some bloke in a boiler suit will appear

Or, maybe, a boiler in a bloke suit?