Why Life Isn't Fun
Copyright (c) W.B.LEES
May 9, 2011
You and I can tell that writing and reading this essay is having fun. You can play with the parts.
Part I Its no fun where's the pun
it is inevitable that some events in life are no fun at all: death and taxes always come due.
Maintenance chores are not necessarily dreary.
Practicing to acquire the skill of the higher levels requires regular discipline investment, up to 10,000 hours, for a big payout.
Overanticipated expectations of aleady winning forces the point of disappointment.
Its fun when a surprisingly pleasant outcome happens to come together, but that doesn't always happen and it doesnt' count.
Its not fair play to have have fun.
Its never fun when you don't expect what is fair fare.
When your life is consistently non-fun, we begin to wonder if the system is being gamed.
It isn't fun to play when you already know the end points.
It's too fixed when the end-game comes pre-screwed.
It isn't fun when there no new game left in the system.
A good old roaring bonfire sounds fun, you are looking at the burn(ed) out.
Part II Does a pop quiz sound like fun?
Quoting popular culture references can be about as much fun as it you gets.
1. "In every job that must be done, there is an _______ of fun. Find the fun, and _____ the job's a game." What character says this? Trivia: in the movie, how many occupations does the male lead have?
2. "Its all fun and games until someone loses an _____" From what sport does this adage descend? Apparently in the ancient sport this was the only rule; to break it meant sure disqualification. (hint: it doesn't involve poking the ends of sharp sticks)
3. The phrase "are we having fun yet?" was make famous being quoted by what comic strip character? __ The ____. Trivia: coined by Bill Griffen in 1979.
4. "Have fun! Have a ____" is the slogan of what beverage in what year? Was it 1955, 1957, 60 or 64? Is drinking the beverage, in and of itself, fun? Is enabling fun, part of the fun?
5. It's fun to play the "Its about as much fun as ... ?" game. Each person tries to find a satisfying sentence that punishment demands. The funniest and most original is the best one.
Top this:
a) That's about as much fun as an electric chair execution catching fire. (Trivia: a class of malfunctioning electric chair was called Old Sparky)
b. that's about as much fun as drinking mouthwash
c. That's abuot as much fun as endodontic therapy. Trivia: the procedure goes by a more common name. Score: Its not fun because the procedure is widely known to be not fun, its not fun but actually not so not fun as it used too, and its not fun to use terms the audience is known to be not familiar with. Triple word score!
Part III top 10 lists are kind of fun
Rank this top 10 list of ways that "Fun is Not Fun"
____ Not having to be there.
____ Not saying something to someone
____ Saying to someone who was not there that "you had to be there"
____ Those nearby are banging on the doors and walls, saying "what's that noise going on in there"
____ "He makes me laugh" It sounds like fun when people are laughing
_____ Know the rule of law; know the limits of good and legal behavior; Know who issues the "no-rules" (disqualificatons and penalties); Practice playing by the rules so you can act like there are no rules and you don't have to quote rules.
____ No pushing or shoving
_____ First you play, then you have fun playing; practice to play, play to practice; the more you play, the better you get; better play gets better; you get better when you play well; after you play well, you can play around
_____ Save improvising for the very best; the best can improvise well
______ I don't mind; don't have anything in mind; its no fun to be re-minded of every little thing; discuss rule and plan changes in advance so you don't have to mind; I don't mind questions about the playing; I do mind your optinion of questioning the rules.
____ Its fun to know what was decided; when its over we should have decided something; on the way out we can decide what was best and what was worst and what was least and what was most and what was high and what was low; its not fun to have to decide later what was the outcome.
No matter what we think, not matter what opinion we espouse, we can all agree that we saw what we saw and and we heard what we heard and we all witnessed the same thing.
Part IV Fun is having a place at the table
Fun is scheduled and held
Fun is organized
Fun is not surprised that there will be surprises
Fun is knowing whether gifts are expected
Fun is a place, having a place at the table, fun is finding your place at the table
Its fun when your place is set
Fun is planned, paid in advance, prepared, set up, and prepared to deal with clean up costs afterward.
Fun is having everything you need in place, so you don't have to have anyone go out in th middle.
Fun is a state of the place, fun is remembering the "state of the place" by the end, fun is putting that place is "such a state" that never was before and never will again.
Fun is pre-purschased.
The fun is in the assembly.
Fun is when we have "taken out" all the toys and tools we might need; we know it will be fun when we are taking out alot of stuff to use; its fun when you have to get alot of stuff out;
fun is making a mess and having to do pick up and clean up and put away at the end.
Its no fun when there is nothing to take out for the occasion; its no fun when nothing was done to the place that needs to be put away again.
fun is being able to get stuff out.
Fun takes work; fun takes planning; fun takes time in advance; saving time ahead of time so that you have free time is fun
fun is time paid and saved; fun is earned time off; fun is a time already on the books and accounted
Part V Fun is what people bring
Fun is what the people bring to the feeling, not the facilities
Fun is the surprise that happens at the expected time.
When you have a sense of pace, you don't need to pace (back and forth).
Fun is keeping up with the change of pace.
Fun is pacing yourself so you don't come early or late; come up tall or short; come up running out or having too much left over money on the table
Fun is not too tired
fun is not hungry.
Fun is not bored.
Fun is about watching what the people do feeling
When the animals are lazy, its fun to rattle the cages.
Its fun to predict what a person would do in that situation. Its fun to imagine what other situations a person could be in.
its fun when you hear the crowd roar.
its fun if you keep well lubricated; lubricating is not fun in and of itself.
Fun is going somewhere.
fun is clearly making progress
Fun is knowing something (more) about the people you are playing with; fun is learning something more about the people you're dealing with.
Part VI wheels within wheels; games within games; games with games
On one level its a mechanical process
on one level its rules
on another level its a game
Fun is mixing business with pleasure
fun is mixing in
Fun is found when there is a mixture of opposite types and sexes
Fun is paying your own way; fun is knowing that theres no free lunch
Its fun when you can carry stuff in and carry stuff out
its fun to see what people are carrying
its a whole 'nother level of scoring when you can keep track what carries over
Its fun to pull something over in front of everyone in plain sight
Its fun to pull off a tricky maneuver that you practiced in advance
Itsw fun to show off a little
its fun when you know that you have practiced for this moment as much as you could
Its fun to bend the rules in a new way.
Its fun to have something in-appropriate hidding in plain site.
its fun to have spirits behind the bar for the adults
Its fun to plan, execute, and pay off on a cleaver prank that is clever and harmless and doing what could not be done.
its fun to trigger a loss of status in someone who esteems themselves of too high a rank
its fun to have a side bet in others on yourself.
its fun to meet a challenge when its private.
Having a handicapp makes it more fun for the less experienced; having a set of additional more demanding constraints to take on as well, makes it fun for the more experienced.
its fun to allow the rules to be relaxed and made lax for the beginning players; its fun to hold yourself to a more strict set of rules that you don't tell others about.
its when when you are experienced with the rules so well that you can notice when others are playing by a lesser or greater standand, and can selectively choose to point out those who are not playing by the rules at your discretion.
Its fun when you feel like you are in the place of an insider.
its fun to be inside the circle.
its not fun when you are outseide looking in.
Part VII Fun Thoughts while Watching "Its a Wonderful Life"
Its fun when people make the differencxe.
its fun when there are some jokers and wildcards in the deck.
Its fun to be doing what the others are doing; its fun to do what the others can do
Its fun when others notice something good about you.
Doing something by yourself can be fun if you do something that makes you laugh (to yourself) and makes a surprise (to yourself)
Fun is there when there is a record breaking.
Its fun when the sights, sounds and feelings are unique and special and only possible in that place.
its fun when you can make (out) the telling differences in people
Part IX whats the meaning of this?
You can't tell the players without a scorecard
Learn/Know the players names and positions; be on a first name basis with the players
Know why or find out the reason why this activity is special in the people, place, guests. Know who is the special guest star or host.
its fun when we're having something happen, when, while, along side you were doing and other people were doing.
Having fun is what we're having while we're doing what fun things we're supposed to be doing.
Not fun = not knowing while you're doing
Fun is getting to know something about someone while you are both doing
Part XII That would be telling
Life isn't fun because you alone can't tell if you were having fun
You can't tell yourself that you were having fun.
Life isn't fun if you can't tell or if others can't tell you about you.
you know you know something when you can tell something to someone, that it looks like/sounds like/smells like/acts like, they are having a special experience.
You can tell that you had fun when you can tell, someone, later, that you could tell at the time by what others were doing or not doing.
Its fun when we can tell things about what others are doing while we are together in the moment of this situation and it is also fun because we can't tell others later outside exactly what went on and what exactly was exchanged and what exactly was carried on.
Part X What was fun in this viewing of "Its a wonderful life"
its fun to watch a christmas movie in May
Its a fun coincidence that I picked out this movie months ago and it just arrived and was available for me to watch while I was writing an essay about why life isn't fun.
According to the angel, its against the law to commit suicide (take a fall).
It struck me this time that the movie is about what would be the meaning if you wished that you'd never been born.
The book that george receives is Tom Sawyer, who knows how to have fun.
What's fun about Its a Wonderful Life is that it becomes possible to imagine a non-wonderful life.
George's motto, George Lasso's the Moon, looks also like a noose.
Part XI there's no meaning to the notion that you wish you'd never been born
We can allow fun, when we are glad that are born.
The only way to truely lose is to refuse to play (along).
Its fun when you are glad that you are there, and that there wouldn't be a "there", then, without you.
Its fun when you attend, participate, play in activities that you know would not happen without you; its fun when you make it so that what happens wuold have happend that way without your being there.
What's fun about watching Its a Wonderful Life is that, at first, his life appears to be picture of the worst possible life with all manner of unique setbacks and misfortunes happening over and over. It is only later that we realize what we thought was a non-fun life was actually a wonderful life, becase it was a life that he created and lived and built and saved and endowed additional lives.
its fun to realize that what we thought was a miserable life is a wonderful life because, without our having been living it, there would be nothingness; that activies wouldn't be happening and lives would be living and places wouldn't be special places that exist.
Its fun when we can pause to notice the feeling of this special place and time, that we're enjoying at this moment, that we can notice and tell and know something special about this place and situation and ourselves that only did happen this once; its fun when we can notice something unique to this nexus of ourselves and our feedback with our surroundings; its fun when we detect and notice and tell and appreicate and share a little special something between us now that wouldn't have happened, wouldn't have existed, wouldn't have lived in us and wouldn't have been kindled in us if I hadn't exist and if you hadn't existed
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