Category: Observations Page 72 of 90

Freedom is killing you

On June 5, 2012

Julien Smith’s post Give in to the machine gets to the heart of a problem I’ve always had when I had too much free, unstructured time.

Freedom is killing you. This is the problem most of us with day jobs have too. We’re so used to being told what to do during the day that we never let our own internal machine develop.

Think about it: Would you even have graduated high school if you weren’t forced to be there?

Would I have followed through and finished high school? My gut reaction is to declare, but of course! It’s what you do to get a job and move up in life. But honestly, I’m not sure if that’s really the case for me. I don’t know if I would have stuck with it if I didn’t have to. I had other desires and ambitions.

I wanted to write and I was fascinated with print design and the fledgling web design industry. I had a lot of interests that didn’t seem to coincide with what school was trying to cram into my head.

After I graduated high school and went on to and college my free time grew immensely. With that new-found free time I didn’t apply it to my studies. I didn’t apply it to any great craft. I didn’t apply it to much of anything. I slept some. I drank gallons of Mountain Dew in a vain attempt to feed my creativity and to learn as much as I could about the world and specifically web design as I thought I could.

I took classes, I did ok in them but I never excelled like I had in high school. All my life I had been told to work to my potential and push myself because I was smarter than that. Then, when I was in college, all that exterior prodding goes away. Sure, I didn’t fail out of school and I knew enough to keep my grades up fairly well but the fire was gone.

The motivation was gone. I had worked and worked hard to get into college which was supposed to be a challenged and I wasn’t challenged. I drifted through and for the first few years of my life out of school I didn’t have a fire underneath me.

I worked hard at whatever job I happened to be doing but the fire and drive wasn’t there. I hadn’t realized it had been so long since I had to motivate myself, I had forgotten how to be self-motivated.

I don’t mean that in the “are you a self-starter” job interview question kind of way. I always worked hard at my jobs. Often times too hard for what I was getting in return in either money or respect. But I continued to work hard because that’s what I knew would eventually lead to better opportunities.

A couple of times since graduating college I’ve tried to in a freelance capacity. I’ve tried to work as a web and print designer and that dream ended with a parade of poor choices.¹ I’ve tried to work in tech support as a remote worker and there wasn’t enough structure for me. I entertain the idea of becoming a freelance writer, technical or otherwise. But every time when I really think about it and get down to it, I prefer to work in a structured environment.

I like the security of money and time off. I like the security of having a consistent income and having the freedom, albeit comparatively limited, to do what I want to do with my life when I am not at work.

There is a trade-off with freedom. Sometimes too much can be just as bad as too little. When there is too much freedom, I lack the discipline to make it work in my favor because it was always a should and not a must.

Hindsight is always 20/20. ↩

Give me co-op or give me death

By Carl

On June 2, 2012

In Observations

I am having a really hard time getting excited for any of the new games coming out. They’re all sequels or far deeper into the series. Borderlands 2 is coming out again. This time with new characters and more guns!

I can hardly get excited over more piles of useless guns laying strewn around after every battle or random enemy encounter. They’re littering the world like so many worms on sidewalks after a rain storm.

There is a new Gears of War game being teased for E3. I played the first one for an afternoon for a couple of hours intneding to go back and finish it. But I never did and never have touched any of the sequels since.

I am sure the games are getting tweaks and changes but the play style doesn’t speak to me so I don’t enjoy it. Like the time I rented the Chronicles of Riddick:Assault on Dark Athena
and Hitman: Blood Money
from Gamefly and then realized I cannot play stealth games.

I am the barbarian. I crash into a room wielding axes or with guns blazing with no thought of myself or others. I am not sneaky. I am not stealthy. I won’t wait for my opening to make a kill. I will barrel into the room and overwhelm with force. This is not what those games were built for and I die, a lot.

There is another Halo 4
game being released. I will buy it. I will play it. But I will do this more because most everyone I know on Xbox Live will be playing it too, as well as half the Xbox-owning world at least until the Next Big Thing comes out. I enjoy the series well enough but it’s changing hands with this release so there are going to be some growing pains and changes I won’t like.

We’ll see when it hits shelves and people get their hands on it how it is received and how the new company take the reins on a beloved series that has a rich history behind it.

Speaking of trading games, the Call of Duty
franchise annoys me because they’re split it between two game developers. This means two things.

Two totally different versions of the game every other year.
A new game Every. Single. Year.

This seems excessive. There doesn’t need to be a new version of the same thing every single year. And the continuous ignoring of cooperative game play rubs me the wrong way. I fault the Battlefield
series for this as well.

There is almost always more than one person on your side on the screen in the war at any time in the game. There is usually a squad of 4 or more. Why can’t at least one if not 3 or more of my friends be those other players? Why must I be stuck with useless AI drones who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn instead of real human beings who can aim and shoot and talk to me? I just don’t understand.

I’ve heard the excuse of it “ruining the story” which is a cop-out. The story is kill those Nazis/Arabs/Zombies/Aliens because this is World War II/Desert Storm/The Future. I don’t buy it. If you don’t want to do co-op because it’s hard or because you don’t care enough about it or if it would be technically challenging that’s fine. But don’t claim it would ruin your story when the story is point and shoot.

It may not be all the games that are coming out that don’t entice me. It could be me tastes and where I decide to spend my time are changing. I bought Serious Sam 3
which is a series I love more than any other and I haven’t touched it. Maybe because it’s on the computer and not the console. I don’t know. I need to make time for that game in my life because it’s mindless fun and great with friends.

I have played entirely through and enjoyed Saints Row: The Third. The Saints Row series is what Grand Theft Auto
would be if it had a sense of humor. The situations and weapons just get weirder and funnier. The story line gets crazier and more outlandish and it’s just fun.

The game doesn’t take itself seriously. I mean there’s a giant dildo bat, an octopus-shooting rocket launcher and a fart-in-a-jar grenade. Do I need to explain further?

The big thing that draws me to games today is the co-op. I love to play cooperatively. Part of it is because I like talking to someone while I play and the other part is that it’s more fun for me to play through things with friends and not alone.

Saints Row: The Third has co-op through the entire campaign. This is why it has earned a lot of hours in my Xbox. The multi-player and co-op in
always earn it high marks for reply value and fun. The firefight missions allow co-op play with at least three friends and the campaigns are the same.

I’d rather go into battle with a good friend at my side and not a pre-programmed AI player any day. I will live longer and have more fun too.

If you’re breathing, you’re OK

By Carl

On May 27, 2012

In Observations

Take a deep breath. Let it slowly fill you. Pretend all of this air is all the frustration you’ve had in your day so far. Then let all that air out. Not too fast, but in a slow gust. Breathe out slowly. Let the anger and frustration out. Free it from your brain and lower your stress level. Feel lighter and happier. Feel like you’ve let out all of the poison inside your body.

Everything is better now. Everything is fine now. It will all be OK. It is all OK. It has all been OK since the first day and the first time you took in your first breath. It has always been OK. You’ve been fooling yourself ever since that it’s not OK.

Breathe in. Breath out. Repeat. Everything is ok. It always has been.

Internetizens

By Carl

On May 16, 2012

In Observations

Children are citizens of the internet. Adults are merely tourists.

I question every time I read about some valiant efforts adults are making to think of the children when it comes to the internet.

Children are citizens of the internet. They are growing up with it as a part of their lives. They were not introduced to it late into their teens, adulthood or in their senior years. The internet is as much a part of their lives as the television or radio was to the lives of older generations.

Children are aware of the privacy implications of sharing things on social networks. This doesn’t mean children don’t need to be made aware of the dangers of online predators or cyber bullying. However, as savvy as the normal parent my be, children are going to become more fluent in the language of the internet as time goes on.

They have grown up with it and have an understand which starts at an early age. Even if your children aren’t allowed to browse the web, they likely enjoy the benefits of Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and other providers of entertainment.

I am a child of a time before home video game consoles. When I was younger, you had to visit an arcade to play games at the expense of piles of jingling quarters.

When video games came out, I was still quite young and I grew up with them so I had a clear understanding and appreciation for them. I spoke their language and they spoke to me. I spent many, many hours playing and perfecting my abilities.

I understood how they had to be connected to a TV, how to troubleshoot them when problems arose. I understood how to control them and how to play the games.

There was a time before television, and especially color television was in homes across the country. There was a time before the radio. There were always times before technologies we take for granted today.

When the television was delivered and setup, there was a learning curve to understanding how to get the set connected and working. There was a skill set involved in figuring out why it wasn’t working and what could be done to make it work.

Each technology has its own language which must be learned and mastered.

How to spot a scam

By Carl

On May 9, 2012

In Observations

With Skype allowing calls to outside lines, scammers can call anyone they want from anywhere they want for pennies and attempt to scam people out of their hard-earned money. Everyone wants to win big money and prizes but there are certain things to look for when you think you’re being scammed.

What contest did you win?

The caller will say you’ve won a contest. What contest exactly? That’s where the deception begins.

The caller will give a vague answer such as “it was a drawing in a big retailer like Best Buy or Kmart” or something like “it was a sweepstakes in your area.” The answer is always very vague.

If you had won something, the caller would identify the contest and who was hosting it. For example, Tigerdirect holds giveaways for computer equipment. Upon winning, someone from Tigerdirect would call, identify themselves and say what you had won.

Are you eligible?

The caller will try to talk to anyone who will pickup the phone. If the caller at any point tells you you’ve not eligible to win a prize due to location, age or any other reason, this is a scam.

If you had won, the caller would have already checked your eligibility. The company holding a giveaway would not waste time calling someone to give them a prize they could not win. If you’re not eligible to win, the caller would not ask for another person in the house who did meet the requirement. For example, if you had to be 25 or older to win, the caller would not speak to someone under 25 because they are ineligible to win.

Pick your prize from this great list!

If you won a prize, the caller would already know what prize you won and be calling to ask you to claim it. The caller would never give you a list of prizes. For instance, if the caller says you’ve won either:

A New Car
$25,000 Cash
32″ LCD TV
A Cruise
You are being scammed.

If you had won, the caller would be notifying you of the exact prize you won and making arrangements to verify your identity, and information you submitted when entering the contest. You will never be offered a choice of prizes.

Please go here to claim your prize.

If you caller is asking you to go to a hotel to claim your prize, you are being scammed.
If the caller says anything about a presentation or 60 or more minutes, you are being scammed.
If the caller cannot give details such as parking arrangements or specific directions to the venue they want you to go to, you are being scammed.

If you had actually won a contest, the prize would come to you. You will not need to meet them at a hotel in a city far away from where their caller ID claims they are. If on the off-chance you do need to meet them somewhere, it would be an official office, not a hotel. If you did need to go there, they would offer you directions and details. If the caller can’t tell you how the parking is at the venue they’re asking you to go to, the caller is not there and you don’t know who or what is waiting there for you.

Use your head

The best way to avoid being scammed is to use your head. We all want to believe we’ve won thousands of dollars, new cars and fabulous vacations but if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

If you think you’re being scammed follow a couple of simple rules.

Do not give any personal information.
Ask detailed questions.
Ask for a number to call the person back, then try it.
Call the number you’re being called from after the call or from another phone.
Be smart, if you think you’re getting scammed, or have already given out information, collect as much as you can and contact your local law enforcement.
If it’s a company repeatedly calling you, contact the Better Business Bureau.