A revelation

While I was in Austin, my family and I were looking at dorms in UT. While my sisters and I waited for my parents to go to the restroom, my sisters asked me one question.

"If you could take back all the times that you played video games, would you do it?"

I didn't know what to say. Video games were fun! but they take so much of your life away.
So I paused for a long time and changed the subject.

"Oh hey look! The U.S. Army Reserve! So cool!"

"Answer the question, Loren!"

Then our parents came and we continued looking through the dorms. I never answered their question...

But now I found it. The answer is...

"Yes."

I looked back and noticed that I missed so many things while I was playing video games. Like going out with friends, doing my homework, go to events, and get sleep! When you do nothing, but video games, you lose an opportunity to do something fun or productive. It may be fun, but after you beat it, you ask yourself, "What did I accomplish?" NOTHING!

It's like in some games, I get all the upgrades and all the super moves or whatever. It takes at least 50 hours to get all of these things. Then once I've obtained it, there is nothing else I can get. I have everything. No more! Then I tell myself, "Wow, why did I go through all this? That was a big waste of my time!"(Final Fantasy VII)

This may sound weird, but it reminds me of Wall-E. Wall-E had a personality and had a curiosity for the items he collected. He had a personality and didn't live such a lonely life when he met EVE. That's what I think everyone should be.
Whereas normal robots just do their job and have no personality. They're cut off from the outside world and live in a bubble. That's what I used to be. A Video Game Robot (VGR). Special abilities: Video games. That's not very impressive. Just playin' games and decline an opportunity to play game.

I just thought of this cause my friend has been doing this. He doesn't hang out with us because he wants to play computer games instead. Any free time that he has goes into watching anime or playing games online. It was like me back then. Now I realized how much of a bum I was and how stupid I must have looked. Video games really are drugs.

But they still heavily influenced me. I love the mascots (Mario, Link). and Nintendo's music. I really appreciate Shigeru Miyamoto. Nintendo is my childhood.

Now I am older. I've decided that games cannot be a part of my life every time. Time to move on and be a more responsible person. I will play less games and more...connecting with people.

One of my New Year's Resolutions is:
Don't play too much games (don't get addicted to games) and
Meet New people and friends.
...and of course study hard

Survival of the Fittest

Competition is in our life. It affects us. It's everywhere. Without it, what's the point in life anymore? Sometimes you wonder, "Why can't UT and A&M just be friends?" They don't want to be because they love the competition. Both of them strive to be better than the other. If there was no competition, both of them would be like, "Hey..." and have boring conversations. When there IS competition, both UT and A&M would try to be bigger and better and gain more respect than the other.
In nerdy terms: you wanna be the very best, like no one ever was. No competition would be like starting off with a squirtle, but never giving it a chance to evolve and fight other Pokemon. You just leave it in its weak unevolved state, clueless and wondering why it was born. If there was no competition, then it destroys the whole point of having a Pokemon at all! Pokemon trainers are meant to make their Pokemon stronger and become the greatest Pokemon master ever.

Unfortunately, competition has a downside and flaws. Some people will go to great extents to make sure they are better. A common example, cheating in school. People cheat to get good grades. When people get good grades, their GPA is higher and thus Colleges, Schools, and Workplaces will be more likely to accept/hire you than people who are lower. That's just a fact.
And when people that are lower find out they didn't get accepted/hired, they get jealous and angry and maybe try to murder them or threaten to break ties with them. These are some of the flaws that I could see.
In nerdy terms: Team Rocket doesn't know how to make their Pokemon the best. So they stick to stealing good Pokemon in hopes to become better than...let's say...Ash. When they do successfully steal Ash's Pokemon, Ash becomes angry and uses his other pokemon to attack Team Rocket. It becomes a violent ending!

What would be a better society? Utopia or a hierarchy?

I'd rather have competition (or capitalism...right?), but I just don't like how people aren't always perfect or pure and place themselves higher than others in a corrupt manner. I'm not saying im perfect either. I've cheated before. I definitely felt guilty about it, too. I'm just rambling right now. But these are my thoughts.

"Your life is defined by its oppurtunities...even the ones you miss." ~Benjamin Button

That movie was good.
Anways, I think that's true. I think it's where you were born that defines it. Like if you were born from a mother who went to Harvard and works as a doctor and lives in a huge house in a suburban neighborhood, you're way ahead of the competition. Why? cause you have so many oppurtunities to do whatever! like study abroad, help from parents, lots of money attend private schools. things like that.
Whereas if you were born in urban parts and your mother could not put you in public school because she was in debt, her husband is in a hospital unable to care for you, and she works full-time as a janitor in a Cafe, then it's hard to find oppurtunities. You miss a lot of oppurtunities that could've been helpful in the future. Now I understand why some people don't always get what they want. They don't have any oppurtunities presented to them. This is what I believe is true.

What to say?

I will just say what is happening at the moment.
Right now, I am on my laptop. I have an unfinished essay that I need to finish. I have a banana right next to me because my new year's resolution is to eat more fruit. I keep empty water bottles on my window sill to recycle them later. Donald has a bunch of random people talking from his laptop talking about games and computers. He has recently played a new MMORPG called "Perfect World". It's just like 2nd Life or World of Warcraft. I have a Hunan Emperor Menu on my left because I wanted to make the menu a lot better. I haven't started on it yet. I hope to finish this by March. I just watched 4 movies this weekend. Bolt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, and Ghost Town. All of them were really good.
Okay, I have nothing else to say. I am so boring. Ann told me that I should write about my thoughts. maybe next time I will post my thoughts. Alright. next time then.