Taking two steps forward and one step back is harder than it sounds. Also you look silly.

So I was thinking about how not a lot of girls play video games and why that might be.While its true that there are a lot more female gamers today then there were twenty or even ten years ago, its no stretch to say they probably only make up less than 20% of total gamers. (and unless there are parrots or dolphins out there playing its pretty easy math to figure out the rest are guys.) So I started to think that maybe there was a sociological reason behind it. I mean women and men share lots of common interests. I know girls who are way more into sports than I am. Music and movies for the most part transcend genders. Hell gender itself is starting to get a little fuzzy. So why the stark difference when it comes to video games?

I think it may come down to marketing. Think about all of the great classics of the NES era. There were a few games that I feel were pretty unisex. As in they had not much to do with machismo or violence or babes. Tetris, Pac Man, Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Zelda etc. Those few were the ones probably responsible most of the girls my age who play video games. But take a look at all the other titles from that time. Contra, Battle Toads, Castlevania, Mega Man, Double Dragon, Metal Gear, and on and on. These are all very guy centric games, boy centric really even. Big guns, big tits, evil bosses, and monsters. Its no wonder not to many girls got into them. So what happens is the market sees that more boys play games then girls and the cycle continues. Mortal Combat where ninjas ripped each others spines out. Heavy Metal, a demolition derby with missals. Duke Nukem where you could actually give strippers money, and kill alien pig cops with a B.M.F.G. (big mother fucking gun)How about Dead or Alive which introduced the oh so inventive boob jiggle physics. And of course as guys we ate it up. Yes I liked Dead or Alive, I was fifteen and there were jiggling ninja boobs in my video game. How could I not.

But Where in all this were the girls? Who was representing them? I can't even think of a good game on the NES that was more aimed towards girls than guys. Maybe a terrible Barbie game here and there. The occasional Disney game that were always a controller smashing, hair ripping nightmare. Echo the Dolphin for the Sega Genesis wasn't bad, but not much else comes to mind.

There has never really been a competent game directed at girls until recently. Even then how far can things like Nintendogs or Dance Central go as far as bridging that gap.

Now that I'm writing all this though I'm thinking about what really may be the core problem. What kind of womens interests would translate well into a game? I'm not being sexist as much as just uncreative. What would a game that women like, but guys don't care for, even be about with out being pandering or outright misogynistic? A Sex in the City action adventure? A first person Fashion Designer game? How about a Twilight RPG. (that ones actually not a bad idea really)

Again I'm not trying to be sexist about this. Its just hard to think of things that girls like that would make a good game. Maybe the real problem is that women are unique and complex complex creatures with widely varying tastes and interests. Men on the other hand I guess are just easily amused lizard brained trolls, so its easy to create compelling games for them.

I mean big guns, big tits, evil bosses and monsters? Sounds fun to me.


"I mean just cause I don't wanna war with you, it don't mean go warm up the barbecue. It's like "pardon you" a Sawed off limit, my high noon is a quick little minute. I don't want to spend it sitting with a critic, who simply isn't ever really gonna get it."
-Aesop Rock

I keep getting the urge to break my ankle. Is that a thing? Do I have a thing I'm unaware of.

Sometimes when I read an article on a website that I thought was interesting I,against my better judgment, read the comments at the bottom. For the life of me I can't figure out why I put myself through this torture. Endless forum wars where no one proves any point well enough to have the opposition concede and so it just continues on and on until its a complete farce. Where are these people and what do they do? I do not have time to argue with strangers on the internet and I don't do anything. ( no really I did almost nothing today, read a book, listened to a podcast, pet my cat. That was really my whole day.) Still though I would not consider it a prudent use of my time to look up Wiki facts and spell check my poorly written rebuttals on why Pikachu is a racist stereotype.

These people are seriously sad. Make broad sweeping generalizations about people they have never met and accusing them of everything from being a liberal commie fascist dolphin rapist, to a neocon socialist butt sucking Indian giver. Sitting on their highest of horses shielding themselves with esoteric factoids and misremembered wives tales. Get back to work! The offices of Gabin, Stienstienson, and Bob don't pay you to sit at your cubicle and have a flame war over the finer points of Transformer mating rituals.

Yes Mr. Smarty pants I realize the irony of saying these people are sad for making generalizations of other people. But at least I admit that I to am petty and sad, but at least I don't do it very often. Right? ...Guys?

This is the part where I get bitter about it all though. Ready?...I KEEP READING!!

Why? WHY? would I sit there and tell myself "I hate this, this is completely detracting from the thoughtful and informative article I just read" and still just keep plugging away? Ten pages in and I have officially spent more time reading the dumb ass comment war than I did the original article! Its like a disease. What is the point of reading the thoughts and opinions of the professional writer that you came for, only to drown it in the ass water of the everyday trolls and troglodytes that roam the internet spewing said ass water? What is ass water? No idea! Find out and then figure out how to make it and then try and market it. It will have been a more practical use of your time than reading an internet argument.

Its like a car wreck or a reality TV show that involves judges, you don't like what you see but you are going to watch any damn way. We have to be drawn to stupidity and drama naturally, it must be in our blood. If anyone is at all interested in the article and subsequent comments that started me down this line of thought, then here.

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/12/28/racists-batman-muslim-paris/1#comments

Also as this is my first "note" on facebook I would like to take this opportunity to say that I don't like the way its set up and will not be posting any more on here.( if you are reading this on my blog and not on facebook you can probably ignore that last sentence, although you are perfectly free to not ignore it and get all confused as well. No pressure, the choice is yours) There is a link to my blog on my profile somewhere if you are interested. I am going to be writing in it more since I am trying to loose one bad habit and replace it for a good one. I am trying to stop smoking, doing good so far only two per day the last two days, going to see if I can make it all day with out one tomorrow. The good habit want to replace with it is writing though. So every time I feel the need to smoke I will write something either on my twitter, or in my notebook, or on my blog depending on where I am.

Word to warning coworkers if I am sitting somewhere scribbling in my note book furiously, it might be best to not disturb me.

Just Kidding.


"What I don't recall is when I said, I simply can't sleep in this tiny bed, with you anymore"
-Ingrid Michaelson

I just got my ass beat by mega man.

So here's the deal.

Blue Ray can go eat a dick. I'm not going for it.

There are a few different reasons I'm not down with the Blue ray but the major one is its just to soon.

Standard DVDs came out around 97 or 98 right? around then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD
It took over VHS pretty quickly but not that quickly.

I mean I bought the Fellowship of the Ring on VHS you guys.

You GUYS!

That hasn't been that long. DVD's are still perfectly fine. I don't need yet another copy of The Fifth Element.
Also did we really need another format war?
Where people shell out some big bucks to be early adopters only to guess wrong and end up with a $400 useless piece of crap.

My Dad bought an HD DVD player. Its sitting in a closet somewhere now cause its worthless, unless you want to watch the two movies he got with it just before Blue Ray took over.

Also the price point is just ridiculous.Why would I want to pay almost thirty bucks for Resident Evil. When I could Pay $10 for the Matrix... quaddragy?...quintiligy? What the heck is the four movie version of trilogy? Cause it came with the Animatrix also.

Ooh thats a good one I'm gonna watch that while I write the rest of this.



I do agree that Blue Ray does look better I can't argue with that. They say sound quality is sharper as well but i think I would have to have a pretty good sound system to really notice.

There is something that bugs me about the high Def though and it's really hard for me to explain. When the camera moves sometimes I get a kind of motion sickness.

If the foreground is staying relatively still and the background is moving i get this since that the world is moving around the camera and not the other way around.

That's really the only way I can describe it. Watch a movie where something is flying and you might see it.

My final reason is that its to late for another analog format. We are moving to everything being stored on hard drives. Its already happened with music and movies are following suite. When was the last time you used a CD and not your Ipod or Zune or what have you. I have a PC that mostly just serve as a fancy Jukebox with over 500 albums last i checked. My DVD collection however is spilling over a three tier bookshelf, not to mention the several that I've lost over the years.

The only real barricade keeping movies from being as digitized as music is now is their large file size, but with memory getting cheaper and file types getting smaller its only a matter of time. We didn't even have flash memory a few years ago and look how much thats changed how we use media now. Imagine whats next.

So no Blue Ray you lose its to little to late.


"Well I know I'm not dreaming now because I know what is like being in a dream.
So dreaming lets you know that reality exists?
No just that my mind exists, the rest I'm not sure about."
-Animatrix

Oh yeah it was quadrilogy, that's what I was looking for.

This is really just a bunch of crap

Superbowl was entertaining. We had beer and brats and chippy dippy's and there was an annoying drunk dude who locked himself in the bathroom and drunk dialed three individual girls to tell them what he "REALLY" thought about them. I think he may have even cried a little bit.

To damn cold to smoke.

I don't really hold a lot of stock in astrology.
Its not my thing.

I do however think that their is something to it. Can we predict what we should do and how we are going to feel on a day to day basis because of the stars?

Probably not.

But this description of a Pisces is me all over.

So it can't all be malarkey right?


PISCES

In the scheme of astrology each of the zodiac signs supposedly indicates the level of evolution beginning with Aries and finishing with your sign, Pisces. There’s no doubt that the water signs, Pisces being the final and most mature of them, indicates your spiritually developed character.

The ruling symbol of your star sign is the fish and just as the fish lives in the ocean, so to is Pisces suffused with feeling and empathy, the emotions that are characterized by water. You truly are a compassionate and unconditionally loving person. You have a universal approach to the way you live and this is seen in most of your actions. Whenever you see someone suffering, or in some type of trouble, it touches your heart and you can’t help but offer your assistance. Your heart goes out to them. Even if you’re in a hurry, busy doing something else, you’ll take time out of your busy day to lend a helping hand where you can. It is second nature for you to care.

Your friends know you to be a person upon whose shoulders they can rest their weary and heavy heads inn times of stress. They look to you when they feel they need to offload their problems. You’re always there to help reassure and calm them. One of the difficulties with your sensitive nature is that you avoid making hard decisions at times, especially if you feel this is going to undermine someone else. With close friends and family members you’ll do anything to help them but don’t forget you must also help yourself. Some Pisces are so habituated to this attitude that they themselves end up becoming the sacrificial lamb in their relationships. You should try to recognise when you’re being used as no one gains from this. Balancing your needs and those of others is a particularly important lesson for you.

Because you’re an intuitive person you don’t always like to think your problems through. Using your emotions and your deeper intuitive powers is the way you prefer to resolve your life problems, even if others don’t quite see the sense in it. Pisces, you are somewhat of a daydreamer aren’t you? Nevertheless your instincts are powerful and more often than not correct. Your ability to foresee things before it actually happens is quite uncanny. I’ve known many Pisceans who become psychics and clairvoyant as they have the ability to act as mediums. Remember though that intuition can only go so far. Learn to develop your thinking processes as well as your intuitive feelings.

You have an instinctive understanding that there’s a unifying thread throughout all of life. You see this sometimes more clearly than you see the real world. As a result, you can tap into the universal consciousness and produce wonderful works of art and music. You should allow yourself the opportunity to express your vision of life. Culture is important to you ands you love to surround your self with artwork, music poetry and fine furnishings. You’re a very emotional person so you need the support of people to allow you to express this. Sometimes because you’re so hypersensitive it works against you and you end up absorbing the negativity of people around you. You mustn’t let others drag you down into their world of bad feelings.

You’re idealistic about the way you see the world and unfortunately what you see is not in keeping with your aspiration. You have to learn to accept the world with all its faults. Sometimes you’re out of step with the world around you so be careful not to end up living in a world of your own making. You need loving friends to help your feet carefully planted on the ground so your creative dream weaving doesn’t make you impractical. You’re gentle, impressionable and receptive. You want to share your emotions and are also happy to receive the demonstrative love of others. You try to hide just how sensitive you are and if someone insults you tend to suppress these feelings and can become depressed. You mustn’t be afraid to speak up even if you do upset or anger someone by doing so.

You enjoy your own company and are quite satisfied to potter around in a quiet way and enjoy what nature and life have to offer. You’re equally comfortable in a social environment. Sometimes you do feel isolated and a little disconnected from life. This makes you feel dispassionate even if you do seem to be enjoying what is going on.

Because you are an observer of human nature you are philosophical and realise that nothing lasts forever. If, for example, in relationships you have to let go of someone, then so be it. You understand that all good things must pass. Your destiny is primarily connected to wisdom, self-knowledge and compassionate service to the world. You must be free to live your life on these terms and if you’re able to do so you’ll become much more secure within yourself and at the same time can bring great satisfaction to those who are lucky enough to come into contact with you.

Pisces are most compatible with Scorpio, Cancer, Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo.

Whoa, huge slam on anteaters out of nowhere!

I'm trying hard to play it cool.

If I get to eager to quickly things could go wrong.

Show her I'm funny and sweet, but also kinda of a dick.

Don't let her know how cute I think she is, but don't slip into the friend zone either.

I will refrain from asking her out when I see her again.

Just a friendly wave and maybe a "hey whats up" and then I'm on my way to something I'm more interested in than her.

I have to do this one right, I have to play the game perfectly.

I have to convince her that I barely even notice her.

Cause she is on my mind all day long.

Sigh.
She probably has a boyfriend anyway.