Watch out for the five-o

Congratulations to my friend Jim who is now all the rest of my friend's worst nightmare:



His cop badge is still all shiny too:



I remember the first day that he said he wanted to be a cop. We were all like, pff, yea right. We couldn't take him seriously. To us, it was just another one of those stupid career ideas that he wanted to do. He went from like video game testing to accounting to stripper to chocolate factory owner, and then to cop. How were we suppose to know he was serious?

Well, we did make fun of him for being fat and saying he'd fit right in with the rest of the donut loving officers. Well, right after that, he started going to the gym every day, running a couple miles a day, and eating salads and shit for dinner. I mean, Jim wasn't fat to begin with, he was just stocky, but man, he toned up.

That was two years ago. After barely missing academy requirements a year ago, he kept up his routine. He got his mile run time down to like six minutes, could do like 100 pushups, and all that sort of physical fitness stuff. He tried again and passed with flying colors.

Then it was off to Police Academy for six months. In there, he had to shave his head. From the stories i heard, he was getting crushed by the drill sergeants. But he presevered. The next thing I know he's showing me all the stuff he learned in Academy and he had me in cuffs on the ground before I could even say "But I'm not black!".

And there you see him above, decked out in our hometown's police uniform. He was hired before he even graduated. Out of the 37 or so graduates, only half of them had jobs coming out. Jim is set.

He's also the first out of our highschool group to strike out into the real world. Can you imagine that? Probably the biggest slacker in the group, and he's the first to make it. And not only make it, he's doing something that everyone should be proud of. He's protecting and serving the lives of the common folk, he's the guy that everyone wants around when they need a cop, but nobody wants around when they're going about their daily lives. He has more balls then you or me. I know i'd never be able to be a cop, and you probably aren't one either.

So good luck jim, I hope to hear your awesome stories, and you know i'll be worried sick about you too. You're putting yourself in danger voluntarily and as much as i'm scared, i'm totally one hundred percent proud of you.

But if you ever write me a fucking traffic ticket, i'll punch you.

Fuckin MMORPG's

Warning. This is a video game post. I'm sure as I write, it'll be more then just video games, but you have been warned.

So for the past three weeks, I've been living off soda and pizza shop food. Luckily the pizza shop isn't just pizzas, so I've been able to get a little more variety than just meat, cheese, bread and tomato sauce. I get lettuce and onions on my burgers and gyros, and potatoes in the form of fries. That's good enough right? And the reason why? Because I'm a fucking addict.

My just say no policy to MMORPG's went away. What's an MMORPG? Well, it stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. In other words, it's a fuckin huge video game where you play with thousands of people at the same time, people all like me, people who won't leave the computer for a simple task like food shopping because they want to kill just one more thing... just one more thing... just one more thing before logging off.

I used to just say no to MMORPG's. To me, they're drugs, and for a good reason. Like I said above, once you start playing, you just can't stop. It takes video games to a whole new level. Instead of playing a game by yourself, you get to play with all these people who are doing the same thing, you get to talk about what you're doing while you're doing it, and everyone cares because they're doing the same thing!

Sadly, even though it's a breeding ground for anti-social behavior, to the person playing, it's really not because they're being social in the game. Plenty of people to talk to, every day you meet someone new, and you just "hang out" with these people you never met. You get to help people and impress them with your physical stature in-game, and since, you know, I can't fuckin swing a sword and cast spells in real life, i get to do it in this fake world.

But enough justifying something that's bad. It really is horrid that I got sucked in. I'd like to say that my life hasn't really changed, but yea, it has. You can tell by the lack of posting. Seriously, if I can't spare twenty minutes to write a blog post, TWENTY fuckin minutes, something has to be wrong. Unfortunately, it was bound to happen. I have an addictive personality. Once I find something I enjoy, I keep doing it until I get bored of it.

Also, this isn't the first time this has happened to me, which is why my just say no policy went into affect in the first place. Back in high school, I used to play these games called MUDs, which stands for Multi-User Dimension. Remember, this was back in the days of 56k, so true online gaming wasn't perfected yet. It basically was an MMORPG, except it was all text. That's right. I was a fuckin loser who stared at text on a screen all day. What? It's like reading a fantasy/sci fi novel, except you get to control what's happening.

So here's where the specific video game talk begins, so if you're not into it, skip down. I started playing Anarchy Online because they gave away free subscriptions for a year. Didn't have to buy the game or anything, just download, sign up, and play. As much as everyone says the game sucks, I like it alot. Most other MMORPGs are fantasy based, but Anarchy Online is in a Sci-Fi world. What can I say, 4 feet long laser scoped sniper rifles are way better than flinging magic missiles.

Before AO campaigned their free year deal, Blizzard's World of Warcraft was released about three weeks beforehand. After being completly addicted to AO, I decided that I needed to try another MMORPG to compare. Since AO was my first game, it seemed so great, but obviously, since it was the first, I had no previous definition of "bad". So when Jesse got a free 10 day trial key off his friend Greg for me, I had to try it out WoW for myself. Bam, insta-hook #2.

WoW was so addicted that I haven't played Anarchy for three days. Before that, I logged on intermittently to say hi to the friends I've made in the game, but I didn't really play much (My next step is to try to pull them away from AO and start playing WoW). But AO compared to WoW is really no contest. I tried for a week to justify AO to myself, but no, it's not happening. It's like comparing a Honda Civic to a Chevy Corvette. Um.. they both have four wheels.. but that's about it.

I guess so far i'm doing alright compared to all the other horror stories of MMORPGers out there. Stories of wifes divorcing their husbands because they found another guy on the game and cyberfucked them and then realized their real life husbands are douches, or the guy that starved to death because he literally rather play the game than eat, or the people who only leave their computer to work, and they only work because they need money to pay the subscription fees and internet costs. I eat, take breaks, go to class, and do homework... well, I do as much homework as I would even if I didn't play the game.

So that's what I've been doing these past three weeks. Hell, it might have been even longer. I can really remember when I started. It's been one long day to me. And I guess that's the sign of a true addict.

Help me out guys, leave me convincing comments to pull me out of this.

This is my update.

I've been nagged almost daily now for a blog update. And seriously, I'm sorry. Something happened over winter break that really put me in a dead zone. I guess I delayed long enough. I might as well get it over with.

Usually, I can write down my thoughts and express them in such a way where I can let the readers feel what I feel. I don't know if I want to this time. There are so many things that I want to say, there's so many emotions that I want to pour into one point just about it, but I can't. It hurts me. I have to pause right now thinking about it, before I can even continue.

I thought I would be old and stuck in some dead end job before I'd ever experience what happened. I wish it were true, but it's not. It has to be done though, so let's just throw it out there.

My friend Mina's mom passed away. I won't go into details, because I don't want to, but that's what happened. When I first found out, I couldn't move. I just sat there, brain empty. My fingers were numb, my legs were useless. I stopped playing video games. Let me say that again. I stopped playing video games.

A couple minutes later, I broke down in tears. I kept saying to myself, alright, just stop, it's not going to help, but I couldn't, I was stuck in a crying loop. In the back of my mind I thought this is how much it's hurting me, and it's not even my own mom, it's someone elses mom. How does Mina feel? My chest fell straight to the ground after that, my heart hurt with every beat. I have to pause again.

This is the post I wanted to avoid, the reason why I couldn't update. Of course, there's so many other things I could have written about, but how do I just ignore one of the most tragic events in my friend's life? We're so close, we're all family. Her pain is mine.

It was an experience I'll never forget when we all got together that night. To see the different ways that everyone dealt with the situation, it was really something. Some people were like me, who just sat there numb. I couldn't look at Mina directly, but I couldn't look away either. This was the face of absolute sorrow. Don't look away. Remember. Don't let her deal with it herself. Remember. Share in her pain. Remember. I have to pause again.

Then there were the others, who dealt with it by acting like it didn't happen. I didn't hate them for it, I understood what they were doing. They were trying to help by getting her to put the sorrow aside for a moment, like morphine or tynenol. Just forget it for now, deal with it later. I guess it worked though, she was smiling a little. Conversations broke out on all the good times, all the good memories, about all the good people surrounding her that day.

Around Mina's house, there were framed pictures of her mother placed neatly on corner tables, hung on walls, and in the hallways. They were taken to preserve a memory, but now they were all memories of a wonderful loving mother who left all too early.

I didn't know Mina's mom that well, I only met her a handful of occassions when I stopped by the house to pick her up, or when we met there before heading out to somewhere else. I honestly don't have much to say, and I can only speak for myself on the situation.

Of course, it's Mina who I sympathize with, I can't even begin to say I understand what she feels. But knowing how I feel then and now, all I can do it gauge it... and it must be hundreds and thousands of times worst.

I hope that everyone I know won't have to experience this again for at least another fifty years. Maybe sixty. I can only hope.

Because it really sucks.