tekHedd – the blog

Fear is a strong motivator. Fear of terrorism, fear of death… The lengths people will go to in order to avoid facing fear amazes me. Is unquestioning loyalty easier than facing fear? How do fear and desperation become unshakeable faith? How do fear and laziness cause unquestioning internalization of whatever is on The News today? How do fear and stupidity lead to an unshakeable one-sided view of events? Is your hateful job better than dealing with your fear of change? Are your monthly car payments easier than admitting you’ve been manipulated by flashy ads during the super bowl? And those anonymous strangers and shallow friends who judge you by what year your Land Rover is, are you afraid you’ll lose their respect?

What lies will you accept to avoid facing your fear? A $500 kickback from the president? The illusion of security? The promise that your country is better than any other country in the world, and always will be as long as you give up a little freedom? How little privacy is too little? An NSA camera in your kitchen? Bedroom? What if I told you it’s for the safety of your children? What if I told you it was to protect everyone from terrorism, and you risk being investigated if you don’t participate in this completely voluntary program? What if it came with free broadband?

How easy is it to buy the cooperation of US citizens? Is it really this easy to expand federal powers, with a little media spin, a tax credit, and a rah rah rah? Do we really value our freedom so little? If not, do we really deserve it?

This isn’t the America I grew up in. I feel like the citizens of this country have let me down by being easily manipulated, lazy cowards.

I’m easily manipulated–and I vote!

What a strange day I’m having.

So, a few minutes ago I got an IM from someone I don’t know, saying “hi, are you there”. I was like, “yup”. Well, the next IM quotes my GC signature (which I don’t use anywhere else), and welcomes me to wowaimcom, where I can buy gold.

Great. Just what I need. Some gold spammer is farming GC accounts. No big deal, it’s the internet. I’m a big boy.

And then I log in to GC, where I have +200 fame for the signup of… wowaimcom. Huh? I referred a gold spammer? When did I do that? How did I do that? I must have been very, very drunk, or something. (Hah, right. I’d never be that drunk.) Now I feel dirty.

Speaking of the Holidays, let’s talk about the holidays. My holiday was characterized by three things: visiting with family, driving in winter conditions, and Final Fantasy 3 for DS.

This may be a blog, but that’s no excuse for inflicting my family conflicts on you. For completeness, however, these two things sum up the experience nicely: 1) being told to go to church to meet a nice girl, and 2) being made to wear a blazer and slacks to church. Did I mention that I’m not Christian? :( But hey, it’s mom–I didn’t drive a thousand miles to get in a fight.

And it’s still nice to see the family. More important, I managed to put in over 20 hours of Final Fantasy 3 on the DS. Hooray, time alone with FF3!

It’s refreshing to play an old school console RPG again. None of that linear path mollycoddling like in the new games. You talk to some people, they tell you their current dilemma, and you have to figure out where in the world you should go to get the things you need to un-dilemma-ize them. Granted, the plot itself is still quite linear, but you’re left on your own to explore the world and find the dungeon entrances. And with random encounters, exploring is the grind. When I was younger I wasn’t aware of this, but it does take some of the pain out of endlessly fighting the same four creatures.

So, yes, it’s a bit dull and repetitive, but it’s not a bad grind. Plus, the FF kids are so cute in their different job outfits. I suppose it was inevitable they’d eventually make a game where the outfits are the only point of the game. (Guess which FF I’m referring to!) And then on the way home, they closed the roads. So, after a brief experiment with driving a front-drive car in white-out conditions, during which I found myself chanting “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die”, I ended up sharing the only available room with “Steve” at a hotel in the middle of nowhere (or Nebraska) …playing more FF3. What would I do without the DS? (What do you mean, “read”?)