ILX's Oblique Strategy for the Day

1 January 2010: Turn it upside down.

I'm going to post one here every day. I've modified my OS desktop widget to also include Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft aphorisms, so sometimes one of them will be showing up as well.

So if I see a post urging guitar players on the West Coast to utilise hallucinogens, I'll know why...

I texted the following fake Oblique Strategy to a friend playing Civilization IV last week: loosen the most important knot.

It must have worked really well because he never responded.

2 January 2010: Ghost echoes

3 January 2010:

Make a sudden, destructive, unpredictable action; incorporate.

Uh, I just quit my job and talked to a lawyer about starting up a business that manufactures giant "mirror cubes". These hollow "mirror cubes" would be covered in mirrors on the interior, so that when you step inside of them and apply a light, it reflects in all directions and casts freaky infinite shadows everywhere. Also there are different colors to choose from, and a strobe light. The company will be called Infinite Mirror Cube, Inc.

Now what?

this thread is going to kill. keep it up WmC

whoa dude mirror cube

ZS, if the mirror cubes take off, invest in epilepsy drugs and research.

Methodology for this thread: I roll percentile dice to determine whether to pick a card from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th editions or the GC aphorisms. I'm going to overrule the dice if they don't come up GC at least once a week.

4 January 2010:

Not building a wall; making a brick

classic

5 January 2010:

What mistakes did you make last time?

6 January 2010:

What is the reality of the situation?

I'm in my pajamas?

why do i love the logic of oblique strategies? because i am a dork

7 January 2010:

Sometimes God hides.

8 January 2010:

Always the first steps

9 January 2010:

Ghost echoes

10 January 2010:

Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle.

11 January 2010:

Is there something missing?

haha oh shit

12 January 2010:

Each part does the work of that part, and no other.

http://twitter.com/oblique

13 January 2010:

Turn it upside down

14 january: Love to hear percussion?

wtf gukbe: the strategy for tomorrow is already here today?
mirror cubez!

I'll post the one for the 14th on the 14th. I don't know wtf Gukbe's playing at.

My original concept for this thread, about six months ago or so, was to post a Guitar Craft aphorism every day with the hope of maybe debating them, whether they're actually good life advice or relevant beyond the narrow purview of Learnin' the Gitbox the Fripp Way. But it didn't seem like a thread with legs.

one of the dudes in my band is always talking about the league of crafty guitarists and the convoluted shit they would work on. perhaps you could pick the one with the most potential for debate and then see what happens?

I don't know wtf Gukbe's playing at.

like I was the only one who immediately when there

gukbe be ruinin your thread six months in the planning

like I was the only one who immediately when there

this seems like English, but...?

now you're helpin him

15 january 2010:

gukbe be ruinin your thread six months in the planning

posting the year makes it seem official! soz for ruining your thread.

you didn't, conrad was concern-trolling

excellent! i am enjoying this, though this one has led to Gloria Estefan bouncing around my head all day.

not real trollin just makin fun of u

that's cold shit conrad. suddenly the internet doesn't seem so nice anymore.

WHOMP

13th January 2*1* - Tomorrow's another day.

wait so we turned it upside down on the first of the year, then turned it upside down again on the 13th. doesn't that mean it's rightside up now? what if i miss being upside down :(

or maybe it's like one of those glass frames with dyed sand inside, and every time you turn it upside down it creates a new pattern of sand, and it's like life because you can never recapture exactly what you once had.

you can buy those sand things at Knott's Berry Farm, or at least you could in 1993.

14 January 2010:

Remove a restriction

I wonder if citing the ilx oblique strategy of the day would cover me in traffic court…

11 January 2010:

Is there something missing, officer?

15 January 2010:

Relaxation is necessary tension.
Tension is unnecessary tension.

16 January 2010:

Ask people to work against their better judgement.

17 January 2010:

The problem with knowing what we want is we just might get it.

Be careful what you wish for 'cause you just might be repeating a lame old proverb.

Yeah, I really hate this one. It's from Fripp, not Eno.

18 January 2010:

Give way to your worst impulse

uh oh.

My actual worse impulse, or what I currently think is the worst?

You gotta figure that part out yourself.

mine would be "talk too much about self," which is my usual m.o., so...done!

you need riskier impulses

"mh just can't help acting on Impulse" (tag line of old UK TV commercial)

no way I'm going near my worst impulses

well worst impulses on internet are a lot milder than worst impulses in real life

19 January 2010:

Look at the order in which you do things

20 January 2010:

Do the washing up

21 January 2010:

The musician and audience are parents to the music.

22 January 2010:

Cascades

is that another 'warm jets' ref

23 January 2010:

Use an unacceptable color

24 January 2010:

Consider different fading systems

25 January 2010:

Get your neck massaged

today's strategy is so true, omg
my neck is hurtin tho

26 January 2010:

The future is what the present can bear.

bummer, I forgot yesterday

28 January 2010:

Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance

Might as well say "apparent importance", he needs to specify if it's most or least important first.

bummer, I forgot yesterday

― the end times are coming, but they're just the beginning (WmC), Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:46 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

what a great strategy
"forget yesterday"

29 January 2010

Take a break

http://www.brandchannel.com/images/FeaturesProfile/235_profile_img1_kitkat3.jpg

30 January 2010:

In total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly

31 January 2010:

How we hold our pick is how we organise our life.

1 February 2010:

Trust in the you of now

dude how many different ways are there to hold a pick? am i missing something with the whole 'between thumb and index finger'?

There's some specific pick technique RF teaches in Guitar Craft; the angle and grip have to be just-so.

2 February 2010:

We are held responsible for our actions, whether intentional or not.

that is not a strategy

that's true

I do like these in theory, but in practice lots of them seem to mistake vapidity for obliqueness.

keeping it in mind could be a strategy though

xp new ilx board description

"Be excellent to each other!"

And one for the olds: "Drinka Pinta Milka Day"

makitlikeasaladbap beansaladbean

today's is a Frippicism -- they're always scolding admonitions, not oracular like OS.

3 February 2010:

Put in earplugs

4 February 2010:

What context would look right?

5 February 2010:

From nothing to more than nothing

6 February 2010:

Intentions
- credibility of
- nobility of
- humility of

7 February 2010:

Bridges
- Build
- Burn

Is anyone still alive after following these every day?

It's more of a general guide than a direction, I guess.

8 February 2010:

To try is to fail.

jeez

;_;

Tell that to the All Blacks.

9 February 2010:

What wouldn't you do?

10 February 2010:

Interrogate the error.

11 February 2010:

A very small object
- its centre

;_;

^is this means crying?

yes

aw ledge doesn't like to do things he aint good at on the first try then, eh?
i pretty much fail at everything i try the first time, but then i get better init

12 February 2010:

Trust the process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Process_Church_of_The_Final_Judgment

http://i45.tinypic.com/2djsz1s.jpg

Trust...the...process....ahahahahahaha

aw ledge doesn't like to do things he aint good at on the first try then, eh?
i pretty much fail at everything i try the first time, but then i get better init

"if at first you don't succeed, try again" = fairly empowering. "perfection is unattainable so try your best", yeah am down with that. "to try is to fail" = "you ain't never gonna amount to nuthin', might as well give up before you start".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Process_Church_of_The_Final_Judgment

Following DeGrimston's removal the group underwent a significant change in orientation and renamed itself the Foundation Faith of the Millennium. Further changes in both name and focus followed, and the organization eventually became the Best Friends Animal Society, which is now one of America's best known animal welfare rescue groups.

Sc1ent0l0gy splitters end up with a series on National Geographic o_O

I'm pretty sure Fripp means that there will be failures along the way for anyone who sets their hand to a task (in this case learning to play guitar), and one never rises above occasional failure no matter what level of mastery one achieves, but that the failures are no reason not to try. It's a good gauge, a little more subtle than "is the glass half empty or half full?"

half full of what?

13 February 2010:

Always first steps

14 February 2010:

Cynicism is death to the artist.

15 February 2010:

Space has its own rules and determining conditions.

15 Febrary 2010

Make sure your name is before Eno's in the credits.

Hollow. (xxxxpost)

16 February 2010:

Fill every beat with something

jelly imo

17 February 2010:

There are three kinds of repercussions: the necessary, the unnecessary and the inevitable.

18 February 2010:

Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics

19 February 2010:

Reverse

20 February 2010:

Do nothing for as long as possible

I think the denizens of ILX have already mastered that one.

21 February 2010:

Use your own ideas

22 February 2010:

Disconnect from desire

23 February 2010:

Things are not as bad as they seem.
They are worse than that.
They are also better than that.

fripp?

fropp.

xpost, yeah

24 February 2010:

Simply a matter of work

25 February 2010:

Discard the superfluous

26 February 2010:

Always give yourself credit for having more than personality

27 February 2010:

Think of the radio

28 February 2010:

Just below the surface of our everyday world lie riches.

1 March 2010:

Use "unqualified" people.

^if only prospective employees took heed

* employers

see how unqualfied i am

2 March 2010:

Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic

3 March 2010:

Make a sudden, destructive, unpredictable action; incorporate.

I think i want to name my company Greenhouse Media.

4 March 2010:

We have the right to choose our form of suffering.

In Soviet Russia, a form of suffering chooses you.

i misread that as 'we have the right to choose our own form of duffering' and it made me happy.

5 March 2010:

The quality of our perceptions determines the quality of our judgement.
Our judgement determines how we interact with the world.
How we interact with the world changes the world.
So, the quality of our perceptions changes the world.

the banality of our truisms more like

6 March 2010:

Lost in useless territory

7 March 2010:

Give the game away

I smell book option by September.

Oblique Hipster Puppy

8 March 2010:

A beginning is invisible.

There is some useful advice here!

9 March 2010:

Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list

10 March 2010:

What would your closest friend do?

11 March 2010:

How would you have done it?

with my closest friend?

hahaaaaa

12 March 2010:

Tidy up

Oblique commands from your mother!

13 March 2010: Finish your vegetables

13 March 2010:

Don't stress one thing more than another

14 March 2010:

Destroy
— nothing
— the most important thing

14 March 2010 = Zen.

*sits in the lotus position facing the wall contemplating this new instruction until the words lose their meaning*
(and by doing so for hours, destroying time, which is both nothing and the most important thing)

15 March 2010:

The science is in knowing, the art in perceiving.

16 March 2010:

Water

brb gonna go get some oblique strategy

17 March 2010:

We have three rights: the right to work, the right to pay to work, and the right to suffer the consequences of our work.
We have three obligations: the obligation to work, the obligation to pay to work, and the obligation to suffer the consequences of our work.

18 March 2010:

Ask your body

it refuses to answer

all I get is a "busy" tone

17 March 2010:

We have three rights: the right to work, the right to pay to work, and the right to suffer the consequences of our work.
We have three obligations: the obligation to work, the obligation to pay to work, and the obligation to suffer the consequences of our work.

― Religious Embolism (WmC), 17 March 2010 15:33 (Yesterday)

lol national holiday

18 March 2010:

Ask your body

dear god day after national holiday

my body says "glad you don't drink like that on the regular"

My body only has wants and questions. No answers at all.

19 March 2010:

Overtly resist change

^ This is part of our ongoing union action as a matter of fact

20 March 2010:

The only contribution we make is the quality of our work.

21 March 2010:

Helpful people are a nuisance.

22 March 2010:

Be dirty

(taking a 1-week break)

(subbing in)
23 March 2010:

If it could be worse, why isn't it?

2 April 2010:

The inconsistency principle

3 April 2010:

Good habit is necessary, bad habit is inevitable.

4 April 2010:

Music is silence, singing.

5 April 2010:

Do the words need changing?

6 April 2010:

Go outside. Shut the door.

^^^otm

whatever happened to this?

I got bored and/or achieved enlightenment.

Those two are kind of similar IIRC

7 April - 19 July 2010:
Get bored and/or achieve enlightenment.

7 February 2012:

You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas.

BH Ideas are better

10 February 2012:

Expect nothing.

Wise words today

I have a page that generates random ob strats bookmarked and I often click on it when I feel lost. It's a kind of tarot or I Ching.

I've got a copy of 'The Book of Answers', which is not the same thing, but similar in some ways.
http://thebookofanswers.com/

In answer to the question 'Should I continue posting to this thread?' the book answered 'Finish something else first'. \(-_-)/

hahaha

11 February 2012:
Take a break

13 February 2012:
Be extravagant

In answer to the question 'Should I be extravagant?', The Book of Answers said 'Wait'.

'Twist the spine'

17 February 2012:

Don't be helpful; be available.

did you buy the 'oblique strategies for mods' edition?

haha, that would be the Frippicisms Expansion Pack

'the Frippicisms Expansion Pack' = genius!!

:D

Don't be helpful; be available.

This is one of my favorite Fripp aphorisms of all time, btw, and nothing has ever made my wife madder at me than when I told her "helpful people are a nuisance."

I rolled up yesterday's and forgot to post it.

20 February 2012:

Do something boring.

21 February 2012:

What is the reality of the situation?

22 February 2012:

Emphasize the flaws

I love these btw

22 February 2012:

Emphasize the flaws

that was the pants i was wearing yesterday.

I think I am achieving this sans makeup today

23 February 2012:

Overtly resist change

Can do

24 February 2012:

Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame.

25 February 2012:

Good habit is necessary, bad habit is inevitable.

(Confidential to Bobby F: comma splices are a bad habit.)

26 February 2012:

State the problem as clearly as possible

27 February 2012:

Think of the radio

mexican radio?

oh wee oh?

29 February 2012:

Use 'unqualified' people

1 March 2012:

Get your neck massaged

2 March 2012:

Distrust anyone who wants to teach you something.

Calif. teacher resigns after leaving family for student

lol/;_;

3 March 2012:

Is the tuning appropriate?

In response, The Book of Answers sez: "Related issues may surface."

4 March 2012:

Bridges
- build
- burn

5 March 2012:

Courage!

i love these

7 March 2012:

The inconsistency principle

8 March 2012:

Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list.

that sounds like a good idea!

9 March 2012:

Nothing worthwhile is achieved suddenly.

...orgasm?

Pop Tarts, Instant Noodles

don't let it cook all the way through

10 March 2012:

Let us find clean and cheerful friends.

good call. let's!

how clean? do I have to inspect them somehow?

Good question. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't pass a clean-friends test, unless it just meant "not on smack."

*crosses WmC off friend list*

*cries tears of mud*

*moves WmC to secret "unclean friends" list*

11 March 2012:

Repetition is a form of change

Repetition is a form of change
Repetition is a form of change
Repetition is a form of change
Repetition is a form of change
Repetition is a form of change

hmm not working yet... I will keep trying

As an enthusiast of repetitive music, motion, and menus, I endorse this message.

13 March 2012:

Give way to your worst impulse.

already on ilx

laziness - check

Hmm, sneering, condescending elitism for me -- I wonder if I'll make it through the day alive.

i wore a leopard print headscarf and giant sunglasses on the train to work
narcissism: check

Maybe it means I should watch this DVD I bought the other day:

http://media.insidepulse.com/zones/movies/uploads/2010/02/impulse-dvd.jpg

14 March 2012:

The tape is now the music

are you sure the year is correct?

Ha, I hadn't thought of that. I wonder what other anachronisms are in the cards.

I like it! Noises and music are all around us, even in the tape.

I took 'tape' to mean 'tapeworm.' As in "The tape (tapeworm) is now the music."

15 March 2012:

Act in private as if your behaviour were known in public.

^^ real talk

16 March 2012:

What would your closest friend do?

leave me behind to get drunk and pick up women

Worry about it for 2 weeks and then call me in tears for an emergency pep talk?

Alternately, stay myopically focused on her chosen goal and don't stop working on it until it's done regardless of sleep/food/human interaction deprivation?

wouldn't do it, would quit job

i'm glad this one is more of a question to ponder and not a command

- do it, and do it well...and then wait for friends/coworkers to tell her what an amazing job she's done, get mad that no-one's praising her enough and start on a campaign of telling random acquaintances about this great thing she did

post on some ridic message board

*sage nod*

17 march 2012

the worm is the spice. fuck u worm.

*nods*

Whoever came up with that one was reading Dune, I'd guess

I was thinking about tequila

17 March 2012:

Cascades

of...

had a dream abt david lynch's dune after much tequila and woke up 5 hrs before my alarm was to go off and then i had a very, very long day at work

guess that's less oblique now that it's all spelled out

reading kobo abe/woman in the dunes-->ohhh tequilla-->dream about sting holding me captive in the desert--> total suck day

18 March 2012:

What mistakes did you make last time?

ugh, this is the question i don't want to face on the morning after st. patrick's day

none of your damn business ;_;

19 March 2012:

Simply a matter of work

billy joel?

some lovers just rely on their heart
the cold remains of what began with a passionate start

etc etc

or something

ilxors: they simply natter at work

Rolled up yesterday's and then forgot to post it. (This one from Fripp.)

20 March 2012:

When stuck, increase the complexity.

21 March 2012:

Only a part, not the whole

When stuck, increase the complexity.

"when stuck" is the whole point of these things. fripp's are always rubbish.

His GC aphorisms aren't meant to be "when stuck" advice for the most part the way Oblique Strategies are. I like tossing them in there every now and then but I'm thinking about dropping his and sticking with OS only.

I think I prefer just the OS. Fripp's sound like they are for Fripp alone!

They certainly don't apply to me and my life. Increasing the complexity will only result in more pain. I'm all about simplifying things.

Clarifying, rather.

22 March 2012:

Infinitesimal gradations

ooh

this sounds pleasing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx8-mysJG2s

22 March 2012 --> 30 March 2012

fuck, ow, fuck

23 March 2012:

Work at a different speed

I choose "slow/idle" today

that's the only speed i got.

24 March 2012:

Towards the insignificant

Z S, 1983 - present

Towards the insignificant

abandoned Buzz Lightyear tag-line

25 March 2012:

Tape your mouth

so Sunday is roleplaying day

26 March 2012:

Give the game away

http://www.spiralknights.com/

27 March 2012:

Consult other sources

— promising
— unpromising

28 March 2012:

Simple subtraction

Subtract me from work = I wish

29 March 2012:

Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics

this might be my favorite strategy so far.

30 March 2012:

Breathe more deeply

ooh another good one

trying this one right now

31 March 2012:

Only one element of each kind

for those of you with 3 or more children, that means you have to choose only one son and only one daughter. i'm sorry.

This is going to make interior decorating very interesting or very frustrating

1 April 2012:

A line has two sides

O_O

cool!

2 April 2012:

One the search is in progress, something will be found

3 April 2012:

Display your talent

4 April 2012:

Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element

5 April 2012:

How would you have done it?

6 April 2012:

Turn it upside down

¿ʇɐɥʍ ʍou 'ʎɐʞo

Turn it upside down twice

turn it upside down....then shake it really hard til all the money falls out of its pockets

8 April 2012:

Remember. Those quiet evenings.

10 April 2012:

Don't stress one thing more than another

stress all the things!

Ha, the last 2 were most pertinent for the extremely stressful 4-day moving house I just did over easter.

11 April 2012:

Listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly

11 april 2012

minute incriments; it can't only go backwards

12 April 2012:

Do the words need changing?

Do the sheets need changing? Yes.

14 April 2012:

Ask people to work against their better judgement.

15 April 2012:

Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance

16 April 2012:

What context would look right?

Ask people to work against their better judgement.

capitalist system has been pulling this strategy on us for hundreds of years already, amirite brothers & sisters?

17 April 2012:

Reverse

?tahw woN

Double reverse!

1 May 2012:

Simple subtraction

(one to mark proximity to #10,000,000)