DRONE - A Pejorative Card Game

Portion of TARGET card

Drones bother me. Everything about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to me, screams: "I'm a pussy."

You can quote me on that.

I don't imagine I need to explain what they are, or what they're used for. But I will: They're machines used for killing people. They have no other purpose. They're used for killing people.

I've created game poems in the past, but when trying to address the drone issue, I could think of nothing "poetic" to communicate. Therefore, rather than create a poem about this particular subject, I've created more of a statement; to be more precise, I've created an expletive.

DRONE is a pejorative card game I designed based off a traditional deck of playing cards. The artwork was designed to signify anonymous targets, with piles of civilian deaths in iconic night-vision hues. The game play, the instructions, and the visual tone of DRONE is one which, however, was intended to be family friendly. Kids and adults of all ages can play this game without the gore and guilt of actual violence, which, quite frankly, reflects what I imagine is the viewpoint of the pilots themselves: totally removed from humanity, miles away, at a computer interface.

DRONE card

Number 7 card

You may download the instructions HERE as a .pdf, and play with a traditional deck of cards. Or you may navigate to HERE, where you may purchase the official deck (and make me a negligible amount of money).

Number 5 card

AGENCY card

I apologize if I've offended anyone. Drones bother me. But hey, the card game is fun! Again, this game truly is family friendly; it's satirical. Hopefully, if you're playing with your kids, they'll pick up on the wrongness of it all. Hopefully they'll get that feeling in their gut that they shouldn't be playing this game. And hopefully, so will you.

Thanks,

- SRT

Louisville Arcade Expo 2013

I regret that I hadn't brought this to your attention earlier (inexcusable, I know), but once again the Louisville Arcade Expo is bringing classic arcade games, pinball machines, and console games to the public this weekend. If you're in town, do not miss out on this event! I will once again be in attendance; this year I will be displaying Nothing is 0k, my generative poem for the Atari 2600.

For more information, please navigate to www.arcaderx.com. In addition to unlimited gameplay, there will be chiptune performances and game tournaments, as well as vendors selling classic games and game-related paraphernalia.

If you're in Louisville, this weekend, GO GO GO!!

-SRT

EMP-LIT: a New Course at UnderAcademy

Myself, along with Talan Memmott, Ray DeJesús, Sandy Florian, Linus Lancaster, Alan Sondheim, Erik H Rzepka, Rob Wittig, Claire Donato, Mark Marino, Jeff T. Johnson, Richard Smyth, and Maria Damon, will be teaching in the upcoming 4th Cycle at UnderAcademy College. Above is a flyer with a description for the class that I will be teaching, EMP-LIT, and is transcribed as follows:

Darkness. Sweet, silent darkness. The power’s out. Permanently. Piles of plastic. The network is down. The network is dark. Sweetly, silently dark.Where does electronic literature go when the power is out? Permanently? When the server no longer provides the PC? When the Personal Computer no longer provides the person?Into darkness. Into sweet, silent darkness.This class will explore and define methods of digital preservation beyond the place of power. Hypertextuality, generativity, multimedia interactivity: gone, replaced by piles of bargain-bin pop-sensational fiction, unless we work to analogize these methods to a platform with more longevity. In a first act of desperation, we will be transposing what we as electronic literates have discovered through digital composition back onto paper which, when all has become dark, sweetly and silently dark, can still be experienced by candlelight.

Admissions are open now. You may view other courses and enroll here now, free of charge.

A higher quality flyer may be found here.

Hope to see some of you there!

-SRT