Is This The End?

Hello Friends,

It's been really a long time (2 years?) since I've updated this blog.

But, before I do an update of what I've been up to, or my recent equipment improvements, let me share a story with you :

Once upon a time, there was a little Magical island called Elpam. Although it was a small island, the King of the Elpam was very wealthy. 

The island became prosperous mainly because of their trading and mining industry. Most residents spent their lifetime mining minerals and gold. Some of them would save up for upgrading their homes, while some would spend them on nice clothes and maybe some pets if they can afford. 

Of course some were smarter and have some ways to gather their resources faster. However, there was a group with high intelligence, and they came up with a method to accumulate their wealth tremendously without being caught. Some residents thought that they were foreigners or even aliens not from this world - these group of miners could mine all day - and some at super fast speed - without a need to rest. 

Initially, their operations were sneaky and they do their mining in secret. But lately, they do it openly, and even took over the residents' usual mining territories. 

The residents complained to the Authorites, and it was brought up to the Council. There was nothing that the Council could do to stop the foreigners from mining in their land. When one group were banished from the island, there would be more groups formed - besides, some of these activities actually brings more wealth to the island. Trading was one important activity that brought wealth to the island - because taxes were imposed on these trades - Sometimes the residents do benefit indirectly, because they could purchase their daily food and other resources at a lower price (that is, if they already had some savings that they could use, in the first place) 

So, these activities went on for a while and everyone carried on with their lives. 

One fine day, the Council decided to commemorate the King's wise ruling for the island (for the past 120 years) by distributing some of their wealth to the hardworking residents - but of course they wanted the residents to enjoy the process too, so they held a special event for this giveaway. 

The mechanics of the giveaway was very simple - Everyone were given 5 eggs, one at a time. After breaking the egg open, the resident will need to consume the egg, retain the shells and after 1 hour they would claim their rewards by exchanging the shells with the officials on duty. 

Each resident would bring their own Hour Glass to determine that an hour was up. 

But not all rewards were equal, and they were distributed randomly. Some residents would be given a normal chicken while some would go home with other gifts. Only the lucky few would be rewarded with a Golden Chicken. 

Right from the beginning of time, the wise King had already laid down a policy, whereby each resident cannot consume more than 4 eggs a day - too much eggs is not good for health anyway. So effectively, nobody could have a chance to be rewarded a 5th time in this event.

Everybody was excited about the 120 years celebrations, and no one remembered the "4 eggs a day rule". The King had genuinely wanted to reward the residents, but he too forgot about his policy. 

The residents consumed their first egg, and then looked at their Hour Glass and waited for their rewards. 

Then the foreigners came to join in the fun. However, they were smart and their Hour Glasses had very little sand, so they could claim their rewards earlier and then continue with their activities. 

Some residents noticed this and they too, broke their Hour Glass, poured out some sand, and claimed their rewards earlier too. But there were also a few residents who were poor and their Hour Glass were already broken, so there were little sand in it too. 

Then there was the issue where nobody could claim their 5th reward. Again, the smart foreigners found a way to go around that - they would break 2 eggs (or even more) at a time, mixed the egg yolks and egg whites together, and consume them together (at the risk of their health of course). The officials giving out the rewards only look at the egg shells and did not count the number of times the rewards were claimed. 

Some residents followed and they too, were able to claim their 5th reward. While there were also some residents who were clumsy, and dropped their eggs, accidentally consumed the mixed eggs. 

The next day, the King suddenly remembered his own "4 eggs a day policy" and was very mad. So he ordered his officials to lock the doors of all the residents that were found to have any chickens (Golden and normal) in their homes.

So, most of the residents were left homeless. Some of them have been with the island since the beginning of time, and they really do not want to leave.

Should the residents be penalised for not following the "4 eggs a day policy" - some of them genuinely love eggs, some were careless and consumed more than they should, while some do not want to lose out and just followed blindly, but they too genuinely wanted the rewards since most of their neighbours were doing it too - or all these could have been prevented if the King and his council had gone through their event mechanics to ensure that it does not contradict with their "4 eggs a day policy" - besides, this was supposed to be a fun event to commemorate and to celebrate the progress and prosperity in the island for such a long time.

What do you think? What will be left of the island? Is there a better solution to make everyone happy again?

- to be continued


If you are interested to see some of my equipment from previous years, you can read them here :
- 2015 Updates
- 2014 Updates

*All characters and events appearing in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or real life event(s) is/are purely coincidental*