Exhaustion

So the sharp of you might notice that I have not written at all in the past week (11 days, whatever). Mainly the reason has been that I have just been exhausted.  This last week I got very little sleep, and waking up early has still not entered into my mind as something that is normal.  So I have been not sleeping as well, or as much as I could have been.

This does not mean that I have not learned anything.  Hell, one of the things I learned is that Monster is my friend, but I have to be able to get one in order to use it.  Now, you would think I learned this a long time ago when I was drinking Monster every day, but no, I had to learn from when I was exhausted.

Now the question is, why am I doing this to myself?  Sure, I have to set my alarm for 6 (let's be honest, I don't get out of bed until 6:30) So maybe I should be smart enough to go to bed at a time when I would not get tired when I wake up.

The problem is that I am not a morning person.  It does not matter to me at all how much sleep I have, when I wake up I am groggy.  I wish that I could wake up and be ready to greet the day, but I am not.

Couple with the fact that I start to feel awake at 6 PM and don't get tired until about 11.  I am a night owl.  The only reason I even do get tired that early is because I am exhausted from being up at 6.

So how does a night owl become a morning person? So far the answer is that I can't.  So when I normally would be writing this blog, I instead am trying to sleep.  So I suppose what I should be doing is writing this when I get home from work.

Hey that is an idea.

Let's see how I do.

Dinosaurs

Ask any boy that is between the ages of 3-7 about dinosaurs and I bet that you will learn more about them than you ever thought you would know.  What is it about these creatures that makes us so fascinated?  Obviously to the little boys it is the fact that they are big, and mean, and will eat you if you cross them.  Of course in these fantasies the boys are sure that the dinosaurs would never hurt them.  They are friends after all.

The funny thing is, though, how often do you meet someone that is that into something?  How often do you meet someone that can talk your ear off about something that you know very little about?  More importantly, how often do you stop and listen to them?

My dad was always into history. He still is, and it is one of the things that he loves to learn more about.  The home that he was in, and I spent my teenage years in, had a wall of the main living room that was just one long series of bookcases.  Every sort of history book you could imagine was on there (as well as some classic sci-fi and other books).  I never appreciated those books until I started to get into history myself as a hobby.

My dad is also one of those that will talk your ear off about old military weapons and tanks and the like. I think he mostly got that from my grandfather, who would do the same.

I sometimes think back and wonder what I could have learned just sitting there talking to both of them for extended periods of time and listening to what they have to say.  I am sure that none of it would be practical, and I would never have a chance to use it, but it is still something that I wish I could go back and do.

I suppose that is why I decided to learn something new every day (FYI, in case you are curious.  I learned today exactly how mousse works. Shut up, I am a guy.  It is not something that we are taught.). I want to know more about how the world around me works.

However, when the world keeps you busy it is hard to learn something every day.  I find that given the chance, most of us would rather shut off our brains than try to learn.

But I digress.

And I am being told it is time to stop typing and go to bed.

So I guess I am shutting my brain off.

Feels good.

Video Games

I am going to try and be light today since the previous ones have been a bit sappy.

Today I was thinking about video games and how they stand up to the test of time.  What makes a game stand up to the test?  Is it simply nostalgia and really the games suck?  Is it that the games have an engaging mode where playing them over and over makes them fun?

For me, I think that it has to invoke all of those.  A good game that will make me want to play it again and again is a game that I don't have to remember the controls, because they are ingrained into my being.  Whether it be from me playing them so much, or because they are just easy to get.

But much like a good book or a good movie it has to draw you in somehow.  Some of my favorite games to go replay are the classic Megaman games.  Why?  Because they are a challenge and with patience and practice you can beat them.  It is not the story, its not the graphics, it is just that the games are fun to play, and rarely do you call bullshit.

There are other games that it is the story that draws me in.  Sure, the story might be minimal (after all, they did not have much space to work with) but what is there draws you in.

This is a major complaint that I have with a lot of games these days.  How is it that with terrible translation issues, and the simple fact that there was limited space, does a game like Final Fantasy 4 draw me in more than most modern games?

Simple, because they did not rely on being flashy.  They had a story to tell, and by god they were going to tell it.

It is sad that I can play the hell out of Baldur's gate, but when I get to Mass Effect 2, I played it twice.  I might play it again before ME3 comes out, but really it just does not stand up to the test of time.

Or maybe I am getting old.

Yeah, that is probably it.