An Empowered and Informed Member of Society

Phone angst?. Me, I like the phone a whole lot better than SMS. Actually, to qualify: I like my home phone, my mobile shits me and I wish I had never bough- err.. got it off Im (I've never actually bought a mobile phone, to this point I have managed on hand-me-downs from the active mobile phone buying section of the community (Grandma, Dad and Im). I just get really annoyed every time the little crapbox rings, or buzzes or unleashes clouds of acid or whatever the latest ringtone thingy is (That would make a good skit, I think. <- This Skit Idea Copyrighted By Prof. S. Q. Windowlicker, 2005 all rights reserved by reading this you void all claims to the ownership of any bodily organs you may possess including, but not limited to, your juicy, precious brain...). Home phone, fine, I enjoy running down the hall all tensed and 'who could that be!'; but when that little thing goes off and I have to dig it out of my pants and try and press the right button (it likes to lock up or put them on call waiting to torment me) my attitude goes to 'this better be worth it...'.

So how about airline food? Why do they call it 'air-line' I mean, what kind of line goes through the air? TOM CRUISE OPRAH OMGLOL!!!!!!1111. Ugh... Sorry. It all just came over like a big brainfart. I'm better now.

Exam break just ended, but I still have precious little time to cram for subjects I've barely noticed all semester. Those evil bastards at Social Science and Policy Studies gave us the questions in advance. Only, of the 10 questions out of which you must pick 2, only 6 will be on the exam paper itself. Oh yeah, real evil. I can just imagine them cackling away in their tiny underfunded common rooms: 'Yes Batman, you wanted the questions in advance, well here they are: but which ones will be on the paper, why, I wont tell you! Remember! If you get the question wrong, Gotham City burns down! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH!'.

As for me, I managed to squander STUVAC playing Hearts of Iron. I am minded to (seriously) blog about my experience so here goes:

I think pretty much every gamer knows this story. Our sloven protagonist sits down in front of his computer, and thinks 'I really should get started on that assignment, but it's 12:30. I'll just play [Hearts of Iron/GTA/Civ III/MS Golf/that game that Skittles™ made to sell more of their delicious fruit* candy. Six out of ten doctors say 'Skittles™ Makes You Smarter!' ( the other four said 'How did you get into my office?!')] for half an hour, and then get started' and so you sit down to you virtual command seat and everything seems to dissolve into the screen. Your posture worsens, your eyes strain against the cathode's unyielding stare, your hands harden and constrict themselves into a brutal rictus around the mouse and keyboard. And then, after what?, maybe an hour tops, you look around and notice the sun is down and the moon is up. Your butt makes a sickly peeling sound as you rise from your damp seat to stare and the cold face of Father Time. His grim predictable nose shows the record: an entire afternoon is vanished.

Meh. It's 6:45. I'll just annihilate the last vestiges of the French Army and then get started at 7 on the dot. Repeat x 7.

Well not entirely. I did some work, and I went out to Church's farewell party. But still. It's the wierdest thing, because I was playing on someone else's computer (mine wont even run it) and they're gonna uninistall it at some point, and so all the progress I made (in this case I was playing as France in 1936, trying to set things up so I didn't get steamrolled by the Krauts) will be wiped. But I kept playing, hour upon hour. Holz had a film theory term that described this- i forget it's name and more precise details but it was basically the state of interacting with the screen, and letting what is on the screen become your point of view.

In my case, its meant spending (wasting?) hours upon hours on various games (this is in the last half a year or so, when I've really had better stuff, and sometimes important boring stuff to do) running over games, scenarios, worlds I've already played and trying to get something more out of it, when in the end, it'll eventually get erased from my hard drive and never seen again.

I think it's a similar reason to why people watch television, to be able to just sit, watch, focus on the screen and kinda dissolve. Games are a little different, they require some imput, but unless you're really onto something interesting and new, in many ways it's plain old data entry at a desk meets watching TV (with apologies to all those people who find data entry as interesting and stimulating as gunning down Nazis or managing a spacefleet) that tiny level of interactivity doesn't make it more of an involved active pastime (unless you play your computer games while rapelling down a cavernous ravine or something. Hey... that's an idea**.

In conclusion: our society is sick beyond repair and it is only a matter of hours before we collapse into a massive lump of biomass fused to a huge radiating screen eternally explaining to ourselves how we think that sometime in the next couple of episodes Hernandez is gonna get shanked ( I'm only up to Season 4) and that there's no way that bullet could have been made of meat.


*'fruit' is defined by the Skittles™ corporation to include any and all forms of matter, including but not limited to dark matter, benzene, vespene gas and processed cheeses or meats. By reading this you forfeit any and all legal rights you may possess and are required by SkittlesFuntimeLaw™ to report to the nearest Skittles™ vendor for re-education your chance to win a NEW IPOD SHUFFLE.
**Copyrighted yadda yadda yadda void ownership of your firstborn