"360 or me!"

Thisforum post at GameSpot came up on Digg this morning. The girlfriend of a gamer is tired of him psending all his time on the XBox 360 and gave him the ultimatum, pick her or it.

Lots of opinions in the discussion. Wading past the 'ooh, pussy!' and 'ooh, 360!' crowds, leads to a devlopment that a lot of geeks eventually face... balance.

There's issues on both sides here. The original post says this guy thinks of games while making out with her, etc. I'm really hoping that's a joke. I understand an addiction (ask me to completely stop playing Aard or the few weeks surrounding the AutoAssault E3 tourney (2nd, w00t!))... but c'mon. There is life past video games... right?

On the other hand, maybe it's her. It's like asking me to not use the computer at all, or friends giving up reading or RPGs. There's some stuff that's an intricate part of peoples' lives... and while I'd consider most more 'beneficial' than video games, it's still a part of who that person is.


Maybe I've just been lucky. Girlfriends have been at least semi-geeky, some joining in or more addicted to certain gaming than I. We all have our hobbies, but we all have someone out there that can accept us for who we are... whether our issue is weight, gaming, perversion, or whatever.

I stopped reading the forum responses (and the Digg comments- basically the same, though a slightly more mature audience) out of fear for what the future brings from that band of 'hopefuls' *cough*. I suppose that'll be dealt with when the time comes.


...Hey, did I mention I just found out I share a birthday with Barack Obama? (Not that it means anything....) Happy Bad Luck day!

Why am I not surprised?

Sat through all 10 hours of the 07 Stand-Up Showdown on Conedy Central. That equates toa about 75 Lisa Lamapnelli commercials (between end-of-show ads and full-sized commercials), 20 Sarah Silverman Show commercials, 10 Verizon commercials, 5 commercials for whatever the new diet drug fad is (amazingly low!)... and all for what?

#1 is Dane Cook. I guessed this before it even started, so I shouldn't be too upset, though. Some movie deals, bunch of stuff on Nickelodeon, and whatever else, and now he's this 'visionary' comedian. Pfft. Not even all that funny. Maybe about ... 5 years ago, when it was original, but it's been the same act forever now. Gimme Lewis Black, Bill Hicks, or Denis Leary for an angry comedian anyway.

Then again, that wasn't the only BS involved. Rocky LaPorte #2... ("Who?" Exactly.) Decent, but nothing special. The uncle bit is good, tho. Jim Gaffigan #3... fuck no. Most, tho, weren't a big surprise- some faves, like Mitch Hedberg, Frank Caliendo, the Don (Rich Vos for those who didn't watch the Last Comic Standing series while it was a good series), and The Amazing Jonathan were on the top 20. So, it wasn't all bad. Plus, even found some new stuff, like Steve Byrne. A few were missing, too. Toss John Pinette in there somewhere, and swap out Dimitri Martin (how's he suddenly a big shot to Comedy Central?) with Zach Galifianakis.

I'd love to see the results from other comedians. Comedy Central did the 100 Greatest Comedians of All Time, but I'd like to see a list that wasn't a high-school popularity contest. I'm surprised Larry the Cable Guy didn't make it in with the evident lack of voter mentality. (I don't know if he has a separate CC Presents special, though... that's probably it.)

Reminds me of why I don't watch TV any more, though. Oh well, tomorrow will be quiet. I'll go back to watching Futurama or re-watch Avatar or something to restore my faith in the creative genius of some people.

Anticipation.

Sweaty palms. Heart beating a mile a minute. Staring at the clock, then loking back. Nervous twitching. Another clock check. Repeat. Check with friends, worry at a negative response. Fidget nervously some more. And then, finally.... salvation!

Waiting for your first date to arive? No. Job interview? Worse! You're all outta whack, because.... your favorite website (or game, other net addiction) is down!

It's funny how some people crawl outta the woodwork to see what's up when something isn't working. Things like, "I'll actually get stuff done today," and even just a hi, that you'd never see otherwise. All to what end? Feed that addiction.

What's worse, is how many of us offer comments like, 'Gee, I don't have this in my life right now. I can do this, and this, and that, and that.'... yet we really don't. What happens? Half the day is spent checking to make sure that adiction is gonna be back up. And when it finally is, you're behind! Not only is there catching up on everything not-so-important that you normally do, but now you've been inconvenienced enough you have to complain about it too!

I'll admit I'm equally guilty. The whole thing came about because of CT today, which I "don't go to any more". (I still check it, but I'm not participating... a la MySpace.) It made me think so much of Aardwolf, too. 25% of my day is probably spent looking at the screen, checking boards, who's on, etc. 50% is in another window and flipping back to chat, note, etc. The last 25% is actually working. (Yeah, tough job.)

Yet somehow, being without Aard, or whatever the addiction may be, makes the day impossible to live through. Can't get that fill of blank-stare-at-sreen time, I guess?

Oh well. I'm off to see if I can find a way to inject text directly into my bloodstream....

Bouncy bouncy bouncy...

Milestones used to be things like 18th birthday, 21st birthday, etc. Nowadays, it's the changing of scenery in the virtual world- moving from one social network to another, to another.

I'm scared to try to even think up my entire history of where I've moved my 'main haunt' on the web, considering I've been actively here since 1994, and in a limited form for about 5 years before that.

IRC was a big stint. So was Sugar's Place, a BBW chatroom/sex site (which is back, in a different format now). More recently, 1Up had a 'personal' area including blog, so I was there for a while. Then MySpace. Most recently, LostCherry (err, CherryTap... whatever).

Everything has its time in the spotlight... and that spotlight starts to fade, sometimes faster than others. I remember the staying power of IRC and Sugar's. (Oh, and Aardwolf, the biggest time-waster of the past 10ish years, but it's still got some magic left.) !Up got too slow and was generally filled with idiot kids that were born after the NES came out. MySpace- four words: 'Sorry... an unexpected error...". And now CherryTap. CT friends will know what went on there. (The story's really not all that interesting, but it's enough to have driven me away with a relatively sour taste in my mouth.)


So, here I am. I don't know if I'll try to change things up a bit w/ the layout, how often I'll post, or anything like that... but hopefully people will keep in touch, while I'm here, and once I move on to the next major milestone in my Internet (lack of) life.

And away we go.

First post, whoopee. Of course, I had an old account here and lost it. Well, we'll see where this goes now.