For about a year now, I’ve been updating this blog every day.
I’ve been maintaining IT CAME FROM NETFLIX every week for around the same amount of time.
I’ve held down a job, revitalized some of my hobbies, made some fantastic friendships and climbed closer to my goal of publication, bit by bit.
I’m going to continue that journey, no matter the cost, and I know I’m going to get there. I also know that I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.
You read my words and occasionally find merit within them. That’s more than any author, aspiring or no, could ever hope for.
Today’s a day where people gather around a table with their families and express thanks at good things that have happened, or continue to happen, over the past year. It’s one of those highfalutin’ “tradition” things. But lately there have been a lot less thankful people out there. They don’t seem thankful for much of anything, save either the freedom of speech or the anonymity of the Internet.
They’re upset at the government. They’re upset with movies that are being made. They’re upset with design decisions driving new games and expansions to existing ones. And they’re very, very upset that people disagree with their opinions.
I will admit I’ve fallen into this trap myself from time to time. If you’ve tuned into the Classholes Anonymous podcasts at all, more than once you’ve heard me sipping on some Hateraide. I really enjoy smart entertainment and get a little irked when clever stuff gets bumped for something that panders to less discriminatory tastes. And I’m bitter about the decisions I made in my life that kept me from being where I am before now.
But that last part’s on me. The entertainment thing is something I don’t really have a say in, other than the occasional Facebook group and giving my money to distractions more worthy of my time and investment. As for the hate, I try to keep it in check. It’s not good for myself or those around me to lash out at the slightest things that irritate me.
However, there are a lot of people who don’t keep their rage in check. Any little slight or change to the status-quo and there will be gallons of hatred flowing through the Intertubes. Fox News’ pundits and their associated bloggers and other cronies seem to thrive on discontent, digging deep for even the slightest flub to blow out of proportion into a political scandal the likes of which hasn’t been seen in our lifetime. Hyperbole mixed with ignorance breeds blind hatred, and that never ends well. Just ask the victims of the Inquisition, the Holocaust or anyone who’s ever found a burning cross on their lawn.
I’m not saying hatred is an invalid emotion that should be suppressed, but spewing vitriol indiscriminately isn’t going to help anybody. Channel that emotion in some constructive way. If you disagree with someone or something, find a way to express that disagreement in such a way that the flaw you perceive is presented more as a polite critique than a call for revolution. I think you’ll find your argument will be taken a bit more seriously, and you may just cause the source of the problem to see the situation in a different light.
The fine Canadian comedians of Loading Ready Run have taken to the road once more. In a manner of speaking. The 4th Annual Desert Bus For Hope, I believe subtitled “A New Hope”, is underway. They’ve already been playing the world’s most boring video game for 9 hours as of this writing.
For those of you who don’t know, this annual event is similar to the Extra Life challenge, in that intrepid gamers take on a marathon session for charity. Desert Bus, however, lasts much longer than 24 hours. It lasts as long as the donations do. And the crew at Loading Ready Run play only one game: Desert Bus, an unreleased game on Sega CD that was part of Penn & Teller’s Smoke & Mirrors. You drive a bus from Tuscon to Las Vegas. There’s no traffic, very little scenery and the bus occasionally veers a bit to the right, so you can’t tape down a button to do something else in order to complete the journey.
Sound like fun? It isn’t.
Last year they raised over $140,000 for the Child’s Play charity, which benefits children’s hospitals with donations of toys, games, books and cash. This year I’d love to see them break the $200,000 mark. That means they’d be playing Desert Bus for at least a week straight.
Visit their site or the special feature over at the Escapist. Give what you can. Check out the things they do to amuse themselves while they play this tedious excuse for a video game. There are auctions, special guests and more than a few surprises.
There are twenty-four hours in a day. Let’s be generous and say the average adult sleeps for 7 of those hours. You’re going to need to eat, too, so let’s allot an hour for each meal. That gives us fourteen hours to work with. Fourteen hours seems like a lot of time, doesn’t it? But if you work at an office, you need to get to and from it. There’s a couple hours there. Even if you don’t, there will be tasks necessary to maintain your living space that need doing, taking up another hour or two. The more you think about it, the less available time you have.
There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for us to do what we want on top of what we need.
In the interest of not taking up any more of your time than necessary today, I admonish you to make the most of what time you have. If you want to be a writer, write. Want to be a game designer? Make a game, or at least play something critically. Don’t just lounge on the couch poking the buttons to make the mobs go boom – examine the game and its mechanics, see what works and what doesn’t, find the triggers for the player to become involve and ask yourself why they’re there. Extra Credits has more.
This isn’t to say you need to fill every available hour with work. We as human beings do need our relaxation and decompression time. Not to mention exercise. So go for a walk, play with the kitten, call a friend, watch a movie, masturbate. It’s all about moderation. If you do nothing but write all day, you’ll likely go mad. If you do nothing but whack it all day… well, they say you’ll go blind, but mostly you’ll just have a hard time sitting due to all of the chafing.
It’s a sad state of affairs when we need to do more to pay our bills that takes us away from that which makes us fulfilled. I’m sure some people love flipping burgers or shoveling gravel, but others fill that time mentally being somewhere else, doing something more interesting. Despite the apparent success of some blatantly talentless people, the individual who has the gumption and wherewithal to pursue a passion to the point of profession is rare. Most of us schlubs work a profession to keep ourselves fed and pursue our passion in what spare time we can spare between dodging phone calls and pounding the porpoise.
Enough philosophical wanking, I need to get back to work.
