Reality Out of Sync

Finished off my first run through of Heavy Rain officially yesterday. That was pretty fantastic. This game has all the elements of a pretty decent movie if one were so inclined to film it. I’m a big fan of Madison Paige in this game. A strong and sexy character, if not sometimes a little overzealous. Maybe that was my playing of her though. I think I may have put too much of my own decision making under the given circumstances to the characters. A lot less caution, more “fear is temporary, the goal is more important and we must reach it no matter the cost”. I’m going to put much more thought into how I view each of the character’s personalities so that the story plays out differently. I enjoyed the ending I got though, which is really the goal of all games right, to enjoy the ending?

I had been looking forward to this game for such a long time that I was almost prepared for a colossal let down, as has happened in the past; however, I was totally surprised. The entire game is freakin’ awesome. I hope QuanticDream puts out a lot more on this franchise through DLC, or creates a few more games in a similar vein.

I think I need to see a doctor. I’ve got this whole motion sickness thing that’s been going on for like two weeks now. Sometimes it’s okay, but most of the time I feel pretty unwell when I track items with my eyes or if I move a little too quickly from one direction to the other. It’s really freakin’ unpleasant. I’m sure it’s something stupid.

I was chastised about my penchant for Asian chicks. In fact, I was told not too long ago that my penchant for Asian chicks was a bad thing. Holy crap whiskey-tango-foxtrot?? Certain phrases were used such as: school boy looking, formless, flat as a board.

Really?

Hmmm...less cloth, more on your hands.

I had carrot juice for breakfast. Fantastic!

I’m a game addict. I buy video games because my heart is an emotional black hole that requires constant sensation. Just to avoid feeling dead inside all the time. So I turn to video games, it’s my way of dealing with the bottomless pit of despair. To help quell this constant emptiness I purchased two games, Heavy Rain and Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s Inferno is basically God of War with a  penchant for the bizarre. It takes you straight into Hell and tries to disturb you more with each moment that you’re there. The further you progress the more one encounters grotesque obstacles to their path. It’s visually beautiful and oh so disturbing at the same time. This is probably why I enjoy it so much! How far will it go? I don’t know — and here’s why!

Heavy Rain was released yesterday. Heavy Rain has been on my radar for a long time and I’d pretty much decided that if the demo was even sort of decent, I was going to get the game and play the hell out of it. Turns out the demo was fucking amazing. I haven’t actually slept since I purchased the game. Partly because I was up all damn day playing it, and also because I had to work in the evening. Now, I’m soon to get off work and guess what I’m going to do? Yep, go play more Heavy Rain. The best way to describe it? Watching a movie you take part in. Not just simple select a dialogue and then watch it play out, but take action within the context of the movie playing out on the screen. It’s fuckin’ fantastic. I’ve played it non-stop save for this whole work thing. I need to figure out how to accomplish PS3 Heavy Rain action at work. =-/ Hrm.

Let’s see what happens when I get home! Will I sleep? Will I play Heavy Rain? How far will I go for the game I love?

Okay so it's not exactly Real World Bunny - It's Game Bunny? Excellent?

So, Tiger Woods apologizes to the golf world for (and I can’t say this any more clearly than as it’s put down here) getting caught cheating on his wife. Not for actually doing the cheating, he doesn’t need to apologize for the actual cheating. At least, not to the golf community or the public for that matter. An apology may be owed to those from the general public that were actually involved – for being dishonest, I suppose – but then again that may not even be necessary. The only person that really needs to hear an “I’m sorry.” is his wife. Even that should come only if he’s actually feeling bad about it.

The reason Tiger Woods is apologizing for getting caught cheating on his wife is because America has screwed up values. Well, let me rephrase that. People have screwed up values. I can happily say that when I was a child, I didn’t have a role model that was a celebrity. My family system didn’t work that way. I didn’t watch a whole lot of television either, so maybe that has something to do with it. I remember saying to myself, “Man, I want to play basketball like, Jordan.”  and “If only I could hit as hard as Mike (Tyson)!” That’s about as close as I came to looking up to someone that was a celebrity, in particular a sports figure. At my ripe old age of 29, I feel it’s unhealthy to let children look up to Hollywood and sports celebrities. This is something I’ve blogged about before by the by. Parents shouldn’t be encouraging their kids to want to be like someone else. They should be instilling values that they themselves (is this even a valid phrase? I say it all the time, or rather I guess I think it often and it always seems like I should have just chosen better phrasing…well whatever) possess.

Back when I was a wee lad of 15 or 16, my friends and I were sitting on the porch (or stoop if you like) and were talking to my dope dealing neighbors about boxing. The question came up from the neighbors during a particularly heated moment of “Who is the better boxer in this upcoming fight?”. “Is so and so (I don’t remember who the boxer was) your hero?”, and all three of us spoke pretty much in unison. “I don’t have heroes.” We each said it a little differently, but we each meant the same thing. That was the kind of mind set we’d been raised with. Heroes are for people that don’t have the strength to be their own person, to seek out self improvement for the sake of improving or at least that’s what I suspect.  I think it’s partially lazy parenting too. Parents don’t want to engage their children or put forth the examples in which they want their children to live. Instead, their children seek other influences to fill in the gaps that their parents leave. So you have the media telling you to look up to this celebrity or that celebrity, and you have impressionable minds doing exactly that. Now Tiger Woods has to apologize to the world because he got caught cheating on his wfe, nevermind the fact that it shouldn’t matter if he cheats on his wife (present or past tense). He’s a golfer people. Admire his golf skills. Let your children admire his golf skills, but seriously don’t further encourage this behavior.

People fail on a regular basis, but that’s not always the public’s business. Tiger cheating on his wife is a Tiger and wife issue. He shouldn’t be apologizing to his fans nor to the golfing community at large. He should not be put on a pedestal about how to live your life and parents shouldn’t encourage that with their children either. Let that man play his game. Parents, stop being stupid. Celebrities aren’t paid to be role models (at least they shouldn’t be paid to be role models), they are paid to do whatever it is they do, be that sports, acting, or charity work, etc. My grammar is atrocious today, but I’m not going to fix it. I’m tired and lazy.

This is how it should start - and hopefully end!

Parents, your children’s safety has just increased ten fold! Well, if you live in the Merion School District that is, because apparently when your child enrolls they use a laptop to monitor their behavior. Salvation for all the lazy parents that think that school is just a day care center for their children! This sort of thing just freaks me right on out. It’s under the guise of protecting the children, but I like to call it ensuring loyalty. Not that I’m a big 1984 fan or anything like that =-P

Interestingly, I heard a commercial for something called Safe Link. I won’t link to it because I do not want to contribute to any page hits they get; however, I’ll tell you all about it! Safe Link Wireless isn’t terribly new apparently. It’s been in production since early last year; however, the commercial was definitely new to me. Basically, you get a government funded call phone with an allotment of minutes per month and voicemail (for free!).

I wonder how safe it is to use that phone. Do you think that the government can listen in on that phone whenever they want without any risk of a litigation? I wonder, maybe I’m being paranoid. I can just see this being used (it’s targeted at a demographic that has a statistical likelihood of participating in illegal activities) as a way to more easily capture criminals and spy upon the law abiding citizen. And really, do they need to make it any easier than it already happens to be now? Jeez. I know someone that has one of these phones and they talk about all manner of things that would build a very accurate picture of their daily activities, illicit or not.

I don’t think the government should be funding big business, I’m pretty sure everyone is sick of that, and Tracfone (the provider that was listed in the commercial) does some pretty decent business last time I checked. They have over 12 million customers according to some googling I did. Disheartening.

Yah, I like it with the glasses on.