2007: My year of the computer game
I did quite a bit of computer gaming this year, much like the last twenty plus years. This year it was mostly World of Warcraft, Sims 2 and SimCity and the time spent probably didn't come close to the year in my twenties when I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing Hack. Or, going back even further to my late teens when I played Advent on UT's unix system (I still have the detailed map that my friends and I drew way back when.) This year gets the honors though because this was the year that games taught me something about myself. I came to realize that I am very goal oriented. I suppose every human is, but I'd never thought about myself that way. I'm also rather picky about my goals. If they are too easy to reach, I get bored. If they are extremely difficult, then I also get bored. However, I don't always blow off the extremely difficult goals if they have a really good payoff and I can get pretty creative in finding ways to reach them even if I'm told it can't be done. Some times I find a way, other times I have to let the payoff go and focus on some other challenge. I can look back and see this pattern over and over again in my life. I was a very talented pianist when I was a child. But it was too easy and I traded it in for a wrench and a race car when I was a teen. Now that was a challenge and I didn't care that girls just didn't do that sort of thing back in my day and age; I did it anyway. Not to prove anyone wrong about the girl thing, it was just something I wanted to do so I went out and did it. Much the same when we formed our band - I'd never heard of a bunch of thirty-something year olds forming a band, but we did it anyway. I had never played bass guitar. I'm not particularly good at it, but it's not impossible either which landed it squarely in the perfect challenge range and made it fun, which it continues to be today. And being in a band provides goals - write a song and work it out. Once that's done, write a new one. If it ever became really easy, I'd probably trade it in for.. oh, I don't know - a welding torch or something. But the band doesn't play so much anymore and I think the reason I've been so bored for the last several months is I need a new middle-of-the-road challenge. My current job is challenging in some ways, but not the right ways. And computer games are and never have been a substitute for the real life thing. So I guess the real question here is what next? I've had my eye on an art class the last few days. Drawing and painting are not something I do very well, but I don't think they would be impossible either. Just one possibility and I have a brand new year ahead to explore options now that I know I need to be looking for them. Here's hoping I can find something and close out the year 2008 as the "Year of the Paintbrush" or some sort of similar title.