# starting stuff
INT	MIN_GUESS	5
INT	GUESS_TO_WIN	3
TXT	ENDGAME_TEXT	Yes, you see a pattern in what you want to say--similar to what was before, but different. It'll have to do. Re-reading, you're surprised. It will do.
0	There's a definite pattern here. You feel like you're writing out of inertia, which is better than not writing out of inertia, but perhaps there's a shortcut worth taking. How much can you write? How much should you?
1	You've gotten better with ruminating and writing. You've done something every day, filled in those gaps of spare time. Still, start small.
2	This time, you feel it! You can have a big block of ruminating, if need be!
3	You feel as though you can bounce back and forth between writing and ruminating as need be. You just don't want to get stuck in a rut, though.
# reject three w's or r's in a row
x	www	No, three writing cycles in a row would be too much. It helped you break out of your slump at first, but now, it feels a bit undisciplined. You're confident you can get back to writing.
x	rrr	You feel more confident in your ability to let your mind wander moderately, but not that confident. Three cycles in a row of ruminating is too much.
# random-ish sequences
$SEQ2-1	You are a bit worried you won't be improving with this next effort, and it takes a while, even though you know it's true, that regardless of how good it is, you'll be exploring new areas.	You're still not sure what issues you wish to explore. But you know they'll be there. Now you can admit they are worthwhile issues, and even if they may be First World Problems, they're problems worth solving, or at least shedding light on. There'll be stuff you missed in your first effort. You can enjoy subtleties and share them with the reader.
$SEQ3-1	You think of people you felt you needed to impress, even if you didn't like them. And it wasn't even just to get ahead. You just felt obliged. You want to write about that but not attack anyone specifically. How?	You remember self-help books about getting things done or being more social and such and feel they missed the point. Over the years you read clues of how to do things better: a thought-experiment here, a piece of social-psychological research there. But that's so dry by itself! How to bring it to life?	You've always felt a certain sort of ordinary, and you didn't know how to express that without being boring. But you do feel you can at least express the pitfalls you want to avoid, and that may help people.
$SEQ3-2	You think back to grades in high school, and how you felt you should really be getting better grades than you did. You remember people telling you, well, what with less of a social life , you should be getting better grades, but somehow they are the ones getting better grades. You felt dumb, when you realize you were fooled because they were trading information, not with other classmates, but with students a year or two ahead of them who knew what certain teachers liked or disliked, and they could act on that information.	Thinking more about grades, you remember how you actually kind of felt bad about classes you were good in and should get good grades, because you weren't really pushing yourself, and the classes where you might have been at a disadvantage, well, you probably really weren't going to figure out what the teachers really wanted you to. Of course, it was hard just to say, I'd like this class or that class, where I'd like to look into things more once class is done. That sort of talk or thought brought trouble, not from anti-egghead style meatheads, but people who just needed someone to push down.	You remember the first time you felt graded by someone your age, then someone considerably younger. You also remember how certain people would rebel against grades, saying they were imperfect, and then they would sort people by how cool they were or how attractive they were or whatever. There were so many contradictions, and you didn't realize all the power struggles that went into even simple assignments. Somehow, you shake that off to get things done. But it seemed to take too long. You wanted to write about how to shorten the time it took to just doing stuff.
$SEQ4-1	You reflect on your own political beliefs. You think they're sane. You hope they're sane. But all the same, you realize that certain people you agree with politically, you can't stand, and you wonder why.	The whole thing about political agreements and views, you realize that it's not just about politics, what about people saying you had better agree with me, but I don't have to agree with you. How to fight that sort of struggle? How to establish that you have your own ideas to say?	You realize that you've slowly moved from, well, I guess I feel this way about how the world should be, to being reasonably sure certain things are right, and being okay if you are wrong with that. You've changed before. You realize politics is about much more than just voting or complaining about people in power.	One more thing on politics: the people most "I don't care about politics" were often the greatest manipulators, and you remembered being told to vote because "you can't complain if you don't vote." But you didn't want to complain. Not that you wanted to virtue signal, but ... you didn't know quite what you wanted. By process of elimination, though, you could get rid of a lot you didn't and be left with a general idea how to go forward.	It is confusing, realizing you do, indeed, have strong opinions and hope not to shove them in people's faces unless they want them. But the people who might really want to hear them aren't going to bust down your door. How to reach them?
$SEQ4-2	You remember some ill-fated days searching on Facebook for people from high school you didn't even like. You felt it would be as useless as, say, reading about the Kardashians. But you did so anyway. And it brought back memories. Memories that had a new spin, with life experience. So-and-so wasn't as charismatic as you thought--people's smiles around them weren't genuine.	You recall more people from the past, not necessarily from high school or college, but even people who were teens the first time you found a message board, and they were probably grown up by now, and they reflected on how they were kind of wild and silly and all that, but they were grateful for the people who indulged them and believed they would become better people as they experienced more.	You recall former coworkers who seemed to have more technical knowledge than you. When you talked about writing, you always seemed to share that with the wrong ones. Some people, discussing helped. Some didn't. You felt guilty you didn't listen to some people rattle on about their goals, personal or professional. But you realize they would not have listened to you.	Finally signing up for your high school class's Facebook yearbook was a big step. Many people who sucked were leading conversations. But surprisingly, it bounced off you more than you thought it would. Were you too lazy to care? Or had you gained armor without feeling suffocated? How did this happen? You remembered particular jerks doing particular jerky things, and yes, it was easier to write about. In fact, those stories you had, inspired by some jerk? They were obfuscated enough. Yes, yes they were.
$SEQ5-1	You think back to what you wrote. It's tough--whether it was a success or failure, you found excuses to say "why bother to do it again."	You reflect on a contradiction, but is it really? You don't want to be a people-pleaser, but you don't want to displease people. This seems obvious, but wishy-washy, thus stated.	You wonder if you've really ever stood for anything in your life. Then you remember times you told someone to cool it on a message board, or hoped you offered support. You had reasons why words meant less from you than more exciting people--and yet, you still wanted to be a writer!	You realize times when your words actually did have power, even though people said the opposite. Not crushing power, but enough to make some jerks back off. Of course, you felt grateful to them for doing so, even though it was more them realizing their "fun" might be spoiled around you. it's frustrating at first, then amusing. How to capture that in a story? Yes, perhaps you see now...
$SEQ5-2	You remember being petrified over rereading your own stuff. What if it was really terrible? What if there is that one idea you should have followed up, but didn't, and now those ideas are lost, because you didn't strike when things were still fresh? But that's gotten better now, you've realized it's more important to do this sort of thing then, say, replay some game you already know how to win. It sounds silly, but even something as small as deleting FreeCell from the windows system 32 folder was a step of self-empowerment.	You also remember the first time you snarked internally at someone who repeated themselves. They, of course, deserve to, because their point was fully salient, but boy oh boy, they didn't like other people repeating themselves. You saw that hypocrisy, and you played it back in your mind, and you wondered how to fight it, or even be able to laugh at it. It was hard. Sometimes you'd mock them in private and feel guilty the next time you face them, as if you had to let them repeat themselves once more.	Perhaps the worst offender of repeating stuff was someone who Seemed to want a receipt for all his complaints, to make sure that everyone around had heard what he had to say. He had friends he would synergize with, too, who would complain a lot, a full chorus, and they found you a bit grumpy and not very full of life since you never decided to join in.	Somehow, through all the hearing other people repeat themselves, ruminating about things in the past you couldn't change and hoping for away through to say you weren't that wrong, and so forth, something happened. Your proofreading wasn't just about, Oh my goodness, what errors did I make and I'd feel stupid if they popped up? You actually remember small details you'd like to add, and it was sort of fun, and it went pretty fast, too. It should be wasted a few hours in a row playing a game you've already beaten. Or even looking through message boards where you didn't post anything to reply to, but you sort of hoped there was something for you, because your interests sort of collided.
$SEQ5-3	You'd had plenty of genie-in-a-bottle stories, of people who got what they wished for, except it wasn't what they expected. Surely there was a new riff on that? Somewhere? It was something you wanted to do, even if it didn't get published.	The easy genie-in-a-bottle angle was all the toys you got as a kid that didn't turn out the way you wanted. Even if you did enjoy having them around and eventually giving them to someone who liked them. Also there were people you were sure you wanted to make a good impression on who turned out boring, but maybe other people had felt the same way, and making friends with them in the end worked out better. But you realized this had been done before.	It seemed like the worst sort of humblebragging, the "be careful what you wish for" where at some point you flipped from having too few ideas to being swamped with too many and getting nothing done. After all, you sorted it out eventually, or the best ideas. Though it was sad some side ideas would never get developed.	Aha. You had it, with the genie-in-a-bottle. Someone who wanted to be the smartest person in the room, who in fact got to be by a good stretch, but only because people worked hard not to outshine him. Then he got bored with the incompetents who were far beneath him and did not understand him. Surely it had been done before. But you came to it of your own accord and added some funny details. You think.
$SEQ5-4	You think about what hobbies you have, or you'd like to have, or you lost track of. Presumably, this helps with making your writing be about more than just writing. Oh, and it also keeps your life interesting, too. You have nothing exciting. You once felt barred from it. Recently, you've dared to think you don't need said excitement for fulfillment, and you almost feel elitist thinking so.	You realize a lot of personal goals can be discussed the right way. Sure, there were books about chess, and some of them were even very very good, but they miss certain aspects of what you wanted to do to improve. And about chess, you always sort of wanted to get back into it, maybe even hit a certain rating online, but that would get in the way of writing, wouldn't it? Especially all-night benders far past when it was fun, trying just to get back up to a certain rating before you went to bed.	You realized you tried to establish streaks of getting to the Athletic Club, maybe doing arms one day and legs the next, or maybe even just cardiovascular stuff. Sometimes it helped to break up just staring at a computer screen or flaking out. And you got back to work, energized, after doing a bit of exercising. It was sort of a personal journey for you, what with males tell you what machines you should work at, and why you should work out in order to get babes, or perhaps an even more off-color term, and your failure to show enthusiasm put you squarely in suspected homosexual camp. That, and for someone so pliable, you failed to agree loudly enough with them that they deserved hotter girls than you! Yes, there was irony material in there.	Perhaps the trickiest hobby, though, was reading. It seemed at first that you needed to read a lot if you wanted to write, to see what was out there, and what you might want to improve, or how you might want to break. You were certainly encouraged to read as a kid, but when your parents saw your choices, they had reasons why it perhaps wasn't fully optimal, and sometimes they said, oh, we never got to read such nice books as kids. It was dreadfully confusing, where everything seemed wrong, and you recall conversations with them that you never quite read as much as you should have . Once you started writing, you realized that your reading habits you picked up, just reading on the bus or wherever, had slacked considerably. Did you stop caring? Or did you realize you didn't need any data, as it wasn't adding as optimally to life as other things? You hoped it was the second case. There were so many books to read, and you wouldn't get around to all of them, but you also hoped you had gotten around to the major ones.
# notes for writing a bunch of things in a row
~w	You no longer feel special for just sitting down and writing. You miss that excitement, but on balance, you'd rather be getting things done. You hope you never take your focus and discipline for granted. And, after all, you still slack off some times.
~r	Reflection no longer feels like procrastinating the results-oriented part of writing. There're things to consider, and they're worth considering. Am I overlapping too much with what I did? Am I going too far out on a silly tangent? That thing I said that I meant to say, was it what I really meant to say?
~ww	Well, how about that? You sat down and wrote for two chunks in a row, straight. You don't always have to, but it's good to know you can, and it's more ordinary than it used to be.
~rr	Well, how about that? You sat down and ruminated for two chunks in a row, straight. And you didn't wallow. Your thoughts felt deeper and more focused than before. There's a point to it, and you'll be ready to go once you write stuff down.
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