virii_or_edifice wingedSerpent ondering the dead bird at my feet as i was stepping out of the office and into the night 031021 ... wingedSerpent pondering the missing first letter of the first word in that blathe as well 031021 ... misstree new ideas entering a system change the system. virii, infectants, apt terms. most that enter each day are swallowed by our logical immune system (that guy standing on the corner preaching that hamtoaro is the antichrist). some leave small toxic buildups (consumerism, hate). others run through our systems and abate (mustseekillbill, mustseekillbill, mustseekillbill). but the ones that truly have lasting effect are Virii, a term coined by lemon_soda elsewhere. virii enter the system and begin changing things. damage is not the correct word in this sense; that which is lost is usually replaced by something different, and is that not the true nature of change? a virusthought is a thought that someone or something or some event places in your mind, and then the virii expands the limits of what it affects. then it becomes tangled up with preconcieved notions and long-standing beliefs, and leaves its mark on them. it may change behavior patterns, it may lead to a long string of "insights" based on infectous thought. it may tear down your psyche bit by bit and replace it with the atrributes that best suit it. obsession and psychosis are symptoms of mental virii. a single concept has entered and dominated so throughly that normal behavior patterns are no longer functioning properly. this way lies madness, rationality degraded. not all virii are harmful, but all can go great harm if not kept in check. which brings us to edifices. there are certain guideposts which must be guarded, runner's towers spiralling out from our central defning characteristics. for me, kindness is one. when this piece of me beings to shift or warp, i know that some thought is running unchecked. i sound other towers, see how they have been affected, and if they are sound, batter the intruding thought against them. this usually breaks down the virii enough that it can be seen for what it is, its useful parts picked out, and the rest discarded. but few people are aware of virii as concepts, much less how to deal with them, or catch them before the security systems have been tainted. this makes virii perfect vehicles for operation_mindfuck. it takes only a few moments to implant a virii inside someone's head (again, lemon_soda breached the concept of this use, but i agree and thus am carrying the ball for a bit). once implanted, though, a virii can change someone's life forever. maybe it's a seed of doubt. maybe it's a thirst for something more. maybe it's the thought that there *is* something behind the curtain, that "there is another world. there is a better world. there has to be." maybe it's an awareness slipped through the mail slot. maybe it's a few ayn_rand books and long hours of coffee. any way it's done, making and breaking minds is a wonderful way to reshape the urge at your whim, to get people to wake up once they realize they've snapped, or break people of constrictive mental patterns. use it carefully, though, and remember to keep an eye on your own virii. 031021 ... Lemon_Soda I couldn't have put it better my self. 031021 ... consensual_reality Noted. 031021 ... amy wow this is very interesting... in my case i've been trying to choose good edifices so that i may know "value". and i find some truth in every virii, although it might take some contortionism or a few months of mulling to see it. but it all comes down to values and usefulness, even through the storms. 031021 ... nom . 031021 ... marked . 031022 ... celestias shadow an edifice is something there. something to lean on or to embrace when necessary. physical or not, it is there for strength and support when it is needed most. 031025 ... marked I think I've recently experienced such a viral thought; it's something that you know is incorrect, but that keeps recurring, like a bad dream - you know it's not real, but yet it still impacts on you. Once I'd identified it, I deliberately stopped thinking that particular thought, I had stopped thinking it after a few days, and felt the first effects in matter of hours, but identifying that it was a false, viral thought was the hardest part; it had already dug in so deep that it was affecting myself in different subtle ways. For me, destroying the thought was simply a case of mental power, actually stopping the words and feelings forming as soon as you notice them, and actively forcing the opposite thoughts to happen, until the original viral thought had disappeared. I think viral thoughts are a very useful concept, so thankyou for sharing. anyone remember which blathe Lemon_soda brought the Virus terminology up? 031030 ... birdmad while this is all kind of cool, my original point was that i was just wondering if the dead bird lying there was dead from west nile virus (or something along those lines) or from smacking into the building in which i work carry on 031030 ... psychic it was the virus 031030 ... misstree marked: consensual_reality, 031015 birdmad: i realized that after i wrote it, but the terms being joined on that particular day poked at me. i was much entertained when it finally clicked. :) 031030 ... bird nonetheless, i found the tangent it all went off in to be quite interesting 031030 ... book of eris what, i haven't marked this yet? 031217 ... andru235 was it the latin nominative declension of a personal plural pronoun as applied to an adult male? or was it the habitable construct of daunting proportion? i have spent today wondering about this; 'tis an enigma riddled with bizzility. 051220 ... Viriist The latin nominative declension of a personal plural pronoun as applied to an adult male, all the way. 071201 ... hsg that virii's me! 071201 ... birdmad wow. it's already been four years since i first blathed this? ouch... that's a realization enough to cause me a bit of a time_pang 071203 what's it to you? who go blather from