Link to the Game. Kingdom of Loathing: Virtual Society of the Spectacle Kingdom of Loathing, located at kingdomofloathing.com, is a game that began as a joke. The joke requires some historical background in order to be understood. In 2003 online games were becoming increasingly sophisticated with 3-D type graphics, complex imaginary worlds, and sophisticated character…
Category: Work
Never Mind the Bullocks…Where’s the Passion Fruit?
Never Mind the Bull, Where’s the Passion Fruit? by Vago Damitio For the bulk of the existence of the human species, men and women have not kept pets nor tended gardens in the ‘modern’ sense. Neither have they ranched livestock, planted fields, nor built houses in one spot and put a mailbox in front with…
Tourism and Reality in Southeast Asia
Tourism and Reality in Southeast Asia by Vago Damitio While watching the food channel the other day, I came across a disturbing thing. Initially, what caught my attention was a bald man in a southern China marketplace looking at the various foods being offered on a street vendor’s barbecue cart. I wasn’t disturbed by this,…
Tourism, Women, and Power in Southeast Asia
Women and Power in Southeast Asia by Vago Damitio Society is a complex organism that reflects the diverse use of power by the individuals and groups within it. Sometimes obvious and sometimes subtle, power is coveted, used, exploited, and always present in all groups of human beings. This is a constant. What is not constant,…
Like Sands Through the Hourglass
Like Sands Through the Hourglass…. by Vago Damitio No matter who a person is or where they may be growing up, there is no doubt about the fact that they will, at some point in their lives, deal with some sort of rite of passage. If a person is Caucasian, middle income, and living in…
Living in a Not Material World
Living in a Not-Material World by VagoDamitio In looking at the material world around us, it is easy to suppose that everyone sees the same things, the same way, the whole world over. This is not the case. Most of us, living in what we call ‘western’ and ‘modern’ societies tend to look at the…
The Time of Rice
Time for Rice. Rice Time. The Rice for Time. Timing Rice. by Vago Damitio It is easy to forget that time is a human construction. Not to say that things didn’t happen in a way that could be described as ‘time’ before humans were measuring it, but this is a very different thing than the…
Waist to Hip Ratio in Male to Female Attraction
Like Sands Through an Hourglass Figure by Vago Damitio In the battle for the hearts of minds of future anthropologists, behaviorists, and popular science buffs, two competing camps have risen to the forefront. Each of these camps has appeal to the masses, each of them can make points that astound and confuse the layperson, and…
How Mass Media Shapes Personal Identity
A huge part of being a human being is the ability to ask one’s self ‘Who am I?’ Certainly, we cannot know for certain that all creatures don’t ask themselves the same question, but since, as human beings, we are able to communicate the thoughts that we have within ourselves to other human beings outside…
Badjao : Sama Dilaut of Tawi-Tawi Sea Gypsies
The Sama Dilaut of Tawi Tawi: Facing Change in a Modern World by Vago Damitio Throughout the world, there is a huge danger that modernization and globalization will destroy irreplaceable resources in the name of progress. The oceans of the world are becoming polluted, the forests of the world are being cut, and the animals…