Patty's Blog - 2old2play

I've heard it all!

According to a CBS news story, California is banning bake sales because they make kids fat! I wonder if they base their ideas on anything scientific?

Bake sales 40 years ago didn't make kids fat, so how has that changed? Maybe they ought to look at how things have changed in 40 years (including the weight of kids) and change things that have changed, like....

Removing pop machines from school grounds (never saw a pop machine in school when I was a kid).
going back to meatloaf and potatoes and mixed veggies and an apple instead of pizza and hot dogs.
stop cutting phys ed from the curricula, it's about more than learning to play tennis or handball.

What's really changed in 40 years?

High fructose corn syrup instead of nearly everything else. (Did you know that water and corn syrup with a teeny bit of color and flavor can be easily mistaken for real juice by most people?) You know how profitable that is for corporations who sell whatever flavored drink?
Chicken that used to be 7% fat and is now 22% fat (without the skin. Same piece).
Food that's more air than anything else (cereals etc.)
Governments that protect and subsidize corporations that make non-food and push it on our kids in commercials during the cartoons.
Remember what margerine turned out to be...partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that made people's cholesterol and triglicerides go up. Margerine used to be far more profitable than butter.

Even ants won't eat twinkies, why do we call it food if the insects won't eat it? They last 6 months.

Well, California can do what it wants, but instead of being the perfect example of the nanny state, telling us what we can and cannot do, wny not make it wrong to sell non-food as food. Why tell mom-and-pop that are just trying to help raise money so their kids can do what we did...that they can't have bake sales (and pot lucks...those were ruled illegal a few years ago here). We don't need the The People's Republic of California or the United States. Instead, why doesn't our government do what we expect it to do, stop the massive fraud being propogated on the American People, by the corporate food agribuisness giants that push milk, soy and corn on us with whipped hydrogentated polysorbate 60 and "process cheese food" or whatever, and make them sell us real food that is as good as it was 40 years ago? I won't even go into feed lots. If you want to go off your beef forever, visit a feed lot. No, just drive by.

So, if the government wants to know why people are heavier than they were 40 years ago, maybe they ought to look at the obvious, that what passes for food now is unrecognizable compared to food of 40 years ago, and that's the crap they are foising we are all putting into our kids. And ourselves. No wonder we're heavy and sick. It's not food.

Banning bake sales ain't the answer. It's just a case of misdirection-to keep people from looking at the real problem. The rest of us ought to really take a cold, hard look at what we consume (do we even use plates at a table anymore?) If we refused to buy the garbage and went out of our way to get real food from small farmers in our locales, it might put enough pressure on them to change the 3 crop farming we do. Or maybe not. Between India and China, maybe we can get them all addicted to twinkies. Compared to those markets, we dont' have much of a chance. The worse part is that it is way cheaper to buy "process food stuff" than it is to buy real food. Not an accident.

I vote for home-baked and home-made food. I vote for telling the government to push off when it comes to them telling us how not to eat, while subsidizing industries that make junk that sends us into coronary failure by age 50. They ought to really take a look at what changed from 40 years ago. Those are the things we should change back. Bake sales were just as unthreatening then as they are today. We're being handed something to eat, and it ain't food.

[6 Comments]

Changed Gamertag

Well, I learned a lot of noob stuff the hard way. When I first signed onto Live, I knew nothing about it. Silly me! I signed up with a gamertag of Gellans Mom. The problem here is obvious to many, especially you gals. But nobody tells you when you create your gamertag to make sure it does not give your gender away.

So before I upgrade to gold again and wade into any lobbies, I decided to make it non-obvious. New gamertag is GuardBirds. Gellan is the bird...variations on a theme. If you enter the house, he might dive bomb you (!) Well, not really. It's not his intent. But most folks just seem a little skittish around a fast flying bird that likes to land on the head. It's just the biggest landing strip on my bod, is all. He doesn't stay up there. He likes it when I sit well, rather unladylike and have my leg over the chair-arm...he walks down and uses my foot as a perch. <shrug>

Anyway, he's my guard bird. He welcomes me home as soon as he hears my voice outside or the key in the door.

That, and the name reminded me of the YardBirds of late 60s fame, a band Eric Clapton was in way back when.

So now I can get into some multiplay without getting slammed as a woman before anyone even hears my voice. Maybe it's not an issue to the guys on here, since timmies aren't welcome, but well...you gals know what I'm talking about.

Have a great week.

[4 Comments]

Art Imitating Life

Irritating life. Playing a game that is complicated by the idea of wife and kids (or husband and kids). Suddenly, they want a bigger house. Better furniture. Larger budget. But they complain if I am not at home entertaining them as well. Like which way do you want it? I have to go be the hero. I sometimes work, quest, buy and sell businesses, that sort of thing. Fine.

I can keep my living expenses on an even keel. I only wear nicer clothes because I got tired of people saying I was too ugly or I got dressed in the dark. What's the deal? Do they like my clothes or do they like me? I suppose it depends on what I am wearing.

Love the game. Next time, though, I think I'll just go to the bar and pick someone up for a night. I so want to do something else besides spend 3/4 of my time taking care of a pet rock. I can't get to the story.

I suppose that's what a lot of us feel like when we have to work to support the bricks-and-mortage part of our lives, instead of being able to chuck it all for a few weeks and do what we want (right after chucking it all for a few weeks to do what we want.) What's this house and furniture and clothes and gifts and I'm in a life-or-death-struggle and you IM to tell me you want sex and you're getting unhappy????thing.

No wonder we play games. I'm just not at all sure we really want so much reality in our games. <wink>

At least I can walk around with three weapons on my back without getting arrested.

[4 Comments]

If you can, join me.

I just read another dedicated gamers blog and decided to go do it. What did I do? Well, I come here for answers and advice on games, and soemtimes just to shoot the breeze. And yeah, I get my word count in.

Well, this board costs money and they want to make improvements, so I thought it would be a good idea to put my money where my mouth is. I figure, I sometimes run over to BK or McD's and get a burger and fries and a drink. I'ts more than $5 and always leaves me feelign disapointed. Posting and reading on here doesn't do that. I get answers and often friendly repartee and a different outlook on stuff than anywhere else.

So I decided to take my $5 worth of disappointment in McD's or BK or whoever, and skip the meal once in a while, and join here. Even a $5 a month member, if there are enough of us, can pay for the upgrades and make this place great. Some of you can afford it. Here's the link: [url]http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php?name=Subscription[/url]

I could not figure out how to use the url codes in the editor. BBCode is so much more versatile but if they can't afford it, we won't get it. And I really like this place! This service, a place where we can hang out with other gamers without having to deal with Timmies. maybe ease into coop or online play. Where else...

I tell folks about it, but I am going to contribute what I would have wasted on a dry, lukewarm burger. Make my burger at home (way better) and have this place too. Please if you can, join me.

Patty

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Buy, sell, or run for the hills?

Someone in my family asked me today if I would buy shares of some stock because Warren Buffet had, which meant that it was a good buy, right?

Well, except for one thing. We don't know why Warren Buffet bought it. That's important for two reasons.

One: Maybe he bought just to inspire confidence in the investment community and to set an example to other [big] investors to buy, so as to avoid a huge crash in the near future. Until we know one way or the other if that was his reason, unless we can afford to buy something just to set a good example to millionaires, we might want to have a better reason.

Two: Warren Buffet can afford to lose a billion dollars without having to worry about what he'll have for dinner tomorrow. His retirement plans won't change because of a $million here or there. Will yours?

I did not answer my family member directly as in "buy" or "not buy." I suggested they think it through. The things going on in today's market are far more complicated than any pundit can express in a sound bite, and while they might get part of it right or another aspect of it illuminated, the people who dreamed up the investment 'vehicles' and 'instruments' behind the real problems on wall street are probably a lot craftier and more intellectually sophisticated than someone who can get paid because he/she looks good on TV and has very white teeth.

What I'm really trying to say is this: regulation didn't happen because regulators, while smart, didn't understand what was actually happening. Hedge funds are not required to share any information with anyone they don't want to. Credit default swaps? Nobody even knows the total value of any outstanding ones, or who has them, not to mention what they are. Now the banks and institutions who "invested" in these items don't trust one another because balance sheets do not have to list these items separately, so there are no accounting methods one could use to determine where these wonderful items are, hence, whether or not an institution is adequately capitalized. How can an honest government-employee regulator deal with stuff like this?

See what I mean? That's just for starters. I don't think Katie Couric would be able to explain exactly what has happened, or why it happened, to the average couch-potato Joe, any more than King Kong could fly. I could be wrong, but I doubt she understands. I am not sure I do, except to understand how complicated things are. If you own an annuity, go get the thing out and read it. After about an hour's reading, come back and you'll know what I'm talking about by 'obfuscated." That's the kind of complicated I'm trying to relate.

It's not all the media's fault, though. First, like I said an amazing amount of secrecy cloaks what's been going on in the back rooms of these institutions (it's not fair to call them banks or brokerages, with all the deregulation that allowed them to morph into one another's territory like they did in the last 20 years.) It has taken far longer than one presidency to get here. More than 2. Think decades.

That's another part of the problem. When all this mess started, it was with legislation that was written and passed before Katie Couric even joined the workforce, most lilkely (I'm only using her as a 'standard,' I don't know her resume and I don't blamer her, per se). Mike Wallace was reporting the news. Barbara Walters. Peter Jennings. CNN didn't exist when they thought some of this stuff up. Legislation to allow for Interstate Banking and legislation that severely crippled people's ability to go bankrupt, perhaps was designed so that when this stuff inevitably failed, the courts couldn't just invalidate the claims of these parasites.

The problem did not happen overnight, and it won't go away overnight. Matter of fact, it probably won't go away at all. It will just take on some new face, and call itself something different. I doubt that there's really any way to truly fix these problems without overhauling the underlying bad business practices, and that just isn't going to happen if they don't see the light of day (sunlight is a great way to eliminate mold).

But these things won't be revealed because a) "they" don't think we're smart enough to understand it (and in maybe 50% of the cases, they're probably right-and I might be being generous there) and b) the people who need to expose these things, the ones with the access to the all-important media, don't understand it themselves and c) the people who could afford to buy media time and had access to the kind of education and access necessary to understand it, don't want us to know because they're getting rich on it and don't want the whole thing to stop.

So where does that leave us? Buy or sell? Well, in one way or another, our economy is based on corporations, and for better or worse, they will be around. So if you really want to buy, the bottom is a great place to buy from. But you should consider companies, not stock. Consider the value of their products. The management they have. Their corporate culture and the morals of their leadership. Did they do something outstanding and brave during this time? Or did they just petition to soak the taxpayers and demonstrate cowardice in the face of difficulty. Because stock means ownership, even just a little bit.

Or you could buy gold. But when this is over, that will go back down.

I can't tell anyone what they should do. I wouldn't want to. Everyone's goals, needs and resources are different. But there are no easy fixes, no bailouts or anything else that will fix this or prevent it from happening again, so long as the "Masters of the Universe" are allowed to operate in complete secrecy while they get rich, and then get to stand with their hands out and get bailed out when they're found out..either because of a bad calculation or because of a bad risk. So long as we, the taxpayer, has to bail out anyone who gets that large (thanks to legislation that allowed the merger mania of the last 20+ years and lifted restrictions on types of activity these organizations were allowed to participate in)...so long as they are allowed to act with impunity knowing we will bail them out if it doesn't work...this will happen again.

I don't want to see the economy go under. I don't want to see innocent people lose jobs, houses, etc. because of the malfeasance of a few. It will happen and it is happening. Something has to be done or the average joe will get wiped out. That's a fact. This is NOT about sub-prime mortgages. They're using terms like that to make us turn on one another and not look at the real problem. They're using terms like that to paint people who get in over their heads (by a thousand or two or five) as deadbeats, so we won't notice that they're in over their heads by hundreds of millions...they don't want us to be looking at them, so they assign a derogatory term that applies to people we naturally dislike, those who try to have too much or are too stupid to know what they're getting into) they are trying to divide and conquer. If we're lashing out at one another, they can make a clean escape. You guys are gamers, you know how diversions on the battlefield work. You have to look where they are purposely NOT pointing, if you want to see real action.

The problem is this....we have already demonstrated by this catastrophe that we do not learn from history. Or rather, that we don't learn history, period. But if we don't learn history, therefore not learning FROM history, is it not simply a matter of time before it all happens again? If there's anything at all I would guarantee, it is that. It will happen again if we do not LEARN what REALLY happened here. If someone tells you that they can explain it to you in 15 bullet points or 15 minutes, they're lying. And once we do know what REALLY happened here, we have to prevent business from doing it again. Unless you can find away to breed greed out of our species. Good luck with that.

So if you don't know what a Credit Default Swap is, or how one works, or who had them, or why they didn't work, you should
If you dont' know what a Hedge fund is, you should
If you don't know what they were doing to the mortgages after they created them, you might want to find out where they went.
If you don't know what the hedge market is, you need to find out.

When you learn all this, then you can know how to instruct your legislators, who also likely don't know all this. Nobody has time to know all this. Except because we didnt' have time to know, now it is going to cost us. And we aren't even going to get shares or bonds or anything for our money. Just the bill.

By the way, it's not wrong to be angry. Just don't do anything stupid in your anger. it's not wrong to be afraid. Just make sure that your fears are rational, and based on something, not just whipped up by people who want you to act without thinking. Fear and passion do not lead to the dark-side. Allowing them to rule unchecked does. If you know what you face, then you can figure out how to counter it.

This is not about free markets. It's about unchecked greed. It is not about over-regulation. It's about people finding a way around the rules by making new roads and new things that circumvent the rules that nobody's ever heard of. There is no regulation of hedge funds. So it's not about over regulation.

Last of all, you don't have to believe me. I hope you go and check this out for yourself. Just be cautious. If the explanation is shorter than the 300 page bill they just passed, it's likely that it's just more BS. Because there isn't any way at all to explain what has happened in the last 2 weeks in just 15 bullet points. There just isn't. Don't believe me? Prove me wrong. If I'm right, then we need to make soure the people who run this country and who play with our money while we're out there working...we need to make sure they're doing right by us. Because if you turn your back, well...history is replete with great stories, this one being just the most recent, of what happens when we delegate our authority to others without accountability. Until they find a way to delete the "greed" gene, we have to find a way to be more involved in what's going on in the halls of power. If not, well, then we'll just be more cannon fodder for the next group.

What a wonderful day.

[4 Comments]

Financial meltdowns.

There is enough news to go around. I am reminded of a song I really loved from the 60s (I think. Or early 70s.) A song by the band Traffic, "Low Spark of High Heeled boys" warned us....

"...and the man in the suit
just bought a new car
from the profit he made
off your dreams."

Sound familiar. I don't hear congress asking any of these fat cats for those new cars (or those silk suits) back. But we could be advised. If we did not try to live beyond our means, they wouldn't have a market to milk. All we can do is take the fuel away from those who like to start really big fires.

Unlike my usual, short and sweet. Get the CD, or find the song and listen to it. It's pretty good.

[3 Comments]

Too much political analyzing by people who don't know

We're at the doorstep of Memorial Day Weekend. Yay! Finally, the weather, the calendar...they conspire to give us time to do what we enjoy best, recreate in our own way (many of us will spend at least a few hours with whatever game we enjoy). So what's with all this darned news about the presidential race which is still months away?

I guess there is one thing we can all count on. Reporters are good at being reporters, whatever that job entails. But that does not make them experts at the things they cover or report. The brew-haha at Fox about the sex in Mass Effect is one small example of a greater problem: if we, the listeners do not know the truth of the matter, we are vulnerable to being misinformed by a news media that also does not have their facts straight.

It struck me today...when I heard the question (asked by an NPR 'voice'): are we ready for a woman in the white house? Well, let me suggest that the reason they are getting muddy answers is that they are asking the wrong darned question! It's not whether or not we are ready...I'm pretty sure that if the RIGHT woman were presented to the people, it would be a landslide, even among those who might otherwise hesitate to vote for a woman. Same with a person of any color/race or other persuasion.

It isn't that Hilary is winning or losing or whatever based on the fact she can wear a skirt without raising eyebrows (well, I don't honestly remember when I last saw her in one, so who knows?) Why do these talking heads keep forming the issue in these terms? It's whether or not Hilary is the right individual, male or female, for the country, which I think is more the issue, but for whatever reason, these people don't seem to catch on.

While there are no shortage of people willing to talk AT us, telling us what we are thinking, I want to know where are all the people who are willing to listen to what we're saying?

I don't want 4 or 8 more years of 'the same." We've already had Bush I and Bush II and Clinton I. Do we need a Clinton II? Is that not more of the same? I think the dynasties that have ruled this country for the past few decades need a rest.

i don't know how I feel about Barach Obama. But I assure you, his color is the last thing I'm thinking about. I'm fairly sure that many others out there feel the same. It's what he has to offer, what he's saying (and notably, what he's not saying) or what he's proposing (and notably, what he's not proposing.) He's made some rookie mistakes. Being a person of color isn't one of them. BTW, it's an error to call him African American, he's not of African descent. Our politically correct age doesn't suggest how to describe someone of color who is not of African descent. I prefer to overlook the color issue entirely. It's what he offers; or what he doesn't, that concerns me. There's a lot of campaign left for all of the contestants to wear their colors and showcase their ideas.

As for Republicans, well, I can't help but wonder what their candidate will stand for tomorrow, since his stance has been so malleable over the past 15 years. It's almost scary to think how influenceable he is. He is a hero, but heck, anyone can change. In a way, it saddens me the most when I consider how heroic is his legacy. I cringe when I hear him apologize for some of the acts that truly must offend him, considering they were used against him so long ago. And I know his view on those issues has changed. More the shame. Give me someone who can stand for what they believe, even in the fact of huge and powerful opposition, and when everyone realizes that the opposition was wrong, viola, you have a larger-than-life hero. But it's a stance very few can make. I don't even know if I could.

Where does that leave us? I am left with one question. Why is it that the pundits, talking heads, the "Experts"; why do they all seem to talk to us as if we're too shallow, too ignorant, too vapid to do a little thinking without their coaching? Why don't they value what we think enough to ask us why we're voting as we are? Why sit there and make things up based on their own projecting? It's what they think, ergo, it must be what we think?

I have something good and something bad to think of each of the candidates, and there are others running whose names have been (intentionally) left completely out of the debate (which is another slam on the media by itself). The system is broken, and the people who are explaining it to us need to get off their pedestals, turn OFF the microphones and turn ON the hearing aids. Maybe then they'd know what we really think. Please don't let the media tell you what "we all" are thinking. Heck, they don't know! Do what your conscience and intelligence dictates and hang the media. Minnesota gave the media a complete slap in the face when we elected Jesse Ventura. Regardless of how you feel about him, one thing is certain, he demonstrated to the press, the media, and the pundits that they don't know everything! They were gobsmacked! I think that's delicious!

I recommend everyone, if you care about the presidential (and governmental) race; please do your own research and don't trust these arrogant, self-absorbed, and self-aggrandizing grandstanders to inform your opinion. They don't know what we're thinking, and they don't know anything about our lives.

(edited for grammar/punctuation)

[4 Comments]

Is it or isn't it? Well met?

We have this whole forum here dedicated to the anti-timmie. After all, if you're over 26, you can't be one of them, can you?

What does it mean, anyway, to be a timmie? Let's see. Rude. Potty mouth. Obnoxious. Hurtful. Unhelpful. (Especially rude and mean to women/girls). Sexually provocative. In other words, it means the atittudes of any typical teenage boy who gets hard from using words his mommy won't let him use in the house, to say things he wouldn't never allow some other guy to say about his sister (but he can say them himself if he wants).

But maybe that's a distinction without a difference. Do you have to be under a certain age to be a Timmy? I suggest that any person stuck in pre-or mid-pubescent behavior patterns who gets a little to aroused by inappropriate sexual references and refuses to treat people online with the respect he/she MIGHT give them if they were eye-to-eye (might, but no guarantees there), is a Timmy.

They seem to come in all ages, both genders. Maybe what it really demonstrates is our acceptance of a much lower standard of behavior than we would accept into our house, our churches or our workplaces. (Or maybe not).

I think we've gotten so far away from a "civil" society these days we don't even know what it means anymore. When I was growing up (admittedly too long ago), saying some of the things we see everyday online was just considered mean spirited and meant to be provocative. Nobody spoke like we do now to anyone. The way that kids treat teachers and other adults is a real eye opener. But we just don't require a higher standard, and kids become adults...

Nowadays, folks feel free to share their opinions, provocative or otherwise, helpful or not, because hey...it's a free country. But free or not, unkind or snide commentary is still uncivil. The younger folks here maybe don't remember the days when politeness and respect were given until they were somehow unearned. Nowadays, respect only goes to those who have the biggest, rudest, whatever.

What the heck has happened to our society? Us older folks (!), ought to know better and set a better example. rather than learning from our grandkids how to act. Maybe we ought to set a higher bar and actually model that behavior, hopefully reversing the trend of mean speech and ugly behavior. Sadly, we don't set a good example many times, and often times we ridicule those who do. It's so much fun until we're on the receiving end of the jabs (joking though they are pretended to be). It has been said that every tease starts with a thinly veiled insult.

Take myself too seriously? This is just a discussion board... um...but does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? Is being rude behind a keyboard just a good excuse to be rude with impunity? Do we talk to people we know face to face the way we talk online? And if we do, do we have any friends? Real ones? People that would pull out their weapon and hop in and die for us if someone challenged us? Are we, in fact, well met?

Maybe if we were less like the children and timmies we claim to be trying to avoid, we might actually set a real example that might mean something, and in the process, we might prove to be people worthy of real friendship. But then again, maybe we'd be out there with people instead of interacting with cartoons? Maybe this is as good as it gets for folks who don't want to deal with real people.

But rude is rude, no matter what graphic you put next to it, or how anonymous you are online. Even if you don't believe it. Well met, indeed.

[3 Comments]

Fantasy, RPGs, Middle Earth and Boring Life

As is my way, I started at the end, and began to appreciate the beginning by falling in love with the end of the story.

I have enjoyed many aspects of a both peaceful and frightening world in a little story playing itself out in a land, or rather group of lands, namely Cyrodill, Morrowind, and the Isles...all of Tamriel. At first this seems a fantasy story with a fantasy theme line unrelated to another so easy to set down and not consider. Sheer entertainment.

Until tonight. They played all the movies, Lord of the Rings; Fellowship of The Ring, the Two Towers, and Return of the King. All day on TV, basically. As I watched these movies, all based on a place called "Middle Earth" and the book The Hobbit and the Trilogy of the Lord of the Rings, and I saw many similarities. Perhaps some inspiration in archetecture and naming conventions. A flavor that fits the story (the movie adaptation of the story).

Now I hope to be forgiven this grave faux pas, as I could not find the original, The Hobbit interesting when I attempted reading it as a teenager, but simply never finished it. I now realize how much more it would explain my experiences than I had ever believed, but I had already passed it on. So no, I have not read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (yet). Or The Hobbit (yet). I was more interested in outer space not inner space. Fantasy just didn't work for me then. Somehow, I have changed. Or the world has. I will now set to reading the novels.

I realize the theme is very similar, and I am now want to read these fine books by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Oddly enough, I do have another book about all this that I am reading; Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle Earth

I found the movies quite inspiring and wonderfully timed with my trip into Obvlivion; even the oblivion parts made sense in middle earth.

Tolkien was greatly affected, apparently, by his experience in "no man's land', the space between the German and the Allied trenches during World War I. Although he didn't write about it directly, the concepts, the scarring, the things he saw, germinated into real wars. The use of machinery, the unholyness and filthyiness and ugliness of it all...and how the human spirit (or rather the Elven, Dwarven, and Hobbit spirit also) can withstand and reach great points of heroism to triumph over insurmountable evil...for Tolkien, it must have been like another day at the front.

How rich and how fertile the imaginary landscape which he has painted, with the colors of the horrors he witnessed, returning to the good that was left, and the hope that existed, and the love that withstood. Always great losses and pain along the way, but such is the payment for truly risking to love thoroughly, so it is not to be avoided.

If there were any way, left in our imaginations, to return the world to some sort of peace that it new before the age of man, or between ages, or some mythic time; should we not bring it out and share the hope for that in some way? All is not lost, at least all need not be. But we will risk all to perhaps save everything worth saving.

Maybe that's why our games get us so excited, as a society, we have learned not to risk, we are told to play it safe, to stockpile (but stockpile what which will be valuable?) and dig our holes and hide, while the experts figure it all out for us and make things nice and safe. We will be safe when everyone feels like they have to carry a part of the risk, when 14 year old boys reach with a sword next to their fathers, against hopeless odds. We have risked nothing like that lately, nor learned how costly such risks are, to those who survive and those who don't; everyone loses much. But our generation isn't too in the habit of losing much of anything.

So we plug in whichever game gives us what our lives cannot; a sense that the rewards feel justified after taking a risk, but that getting something for less (at least risk wise) does not satisfy in the same way. We are made to need to battle and protect, to love and to lose, to win and to die, but the modern world has sanitized it so much that we go looking for the old experiences we know we ought to have.

Feel free to tell me if you think I'm stuck in middle earth. But I think many of us yearn for better stories but live in a world that stifles the living of and or telling of such stories, without great personal risk. And our western society is as risk-averse as anything I've ever seen.

I think I'll head out this spring and risk whatever to get out and see what's left of the old frontier. If you have a piece to share, by all means...let me know.

It's just one woman's opinion, of course.

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A letter to the TV Networks

Dear Television Industry,

RANT ON:

To the writers: I hear you are back at work. That's what the news tells me. Jay Leno and others have fresh dialog about current events, instead of the obviously dated shows that were on during your strike. I don't know the particulars about your strike; as usual, network news programs probably terribly oversimplified the issues, so I'm under no illusion that I know what the real issues were. One thing I heard was that you wanted more of a cut from the DVD and online sales. I have some advice for you.

Next time you want to take issue with what you get for DVD sales and online sales, you might want to ask why so many folks have turned to DVD or online delivery. Fewer commercials. (Online content is trying hard to bring them there, so I would expect online delivery to die a tragic death if they start what the networks have done; polluted whatever viewing there is with so much advertisement that there's no way to keep your focus on the show any more. Hard to remember where things left off after 7 minutes of commercials.

After sydication to cable networks, especially the "T's" (TBS, TNN, etc.) cut further and add more commercials, they advertise other shows while yours are playing. It used to be a little corner with just their channel logo. Then it became animated. Then it crept across the bottom of the screen, and now up the side, until it seems like they've converted fully a fourth of the screen to advertisements of other shows, blotting out whatever is in that portion of the screen, and distracting the viewer from the show. You guys haven't got a chance.

Why tell you? Because now that I've gone off to either watching DVD's or playing interactive games on my Xbox, I haven't felt any desire to return to the few shows I used to watch semi-religiously. I'm having far more fun with the full screen, non-interrupted, interactive story. I had forgotten how annoying all these commercials were until I was without them for a few months. Wild horses couldn't drag me back. You guys have lost some folks' attention for good. Consider a good game development company if you're looking for work.

To the Networks: oversaturation is reached. You've gone way overboard. Too many commercials. My evening news (local) is supposedly 30 minutes long. 20 after excising commericals (drugs, cars and food..but mostly drugs). Then cut that in half and remove sports (which isn't news...it's sports. It should be a separate show). So, in the ten remaining minutes, two is weather. One is teasers for news stories we MUST see but they won't air until next week, so if the problem they warn about hits you between now and then, you're outa luck, bud! Two minutes of feel-good non-news, personal human interest story that has nothing to do with anything. So, five minutes for whatever news is happening in town. Anything to do with the war, politics, natural disasters, crime, local goings on, are relegated to three minutes an evening. You guys call that a news cast? It's propoganda, advertising and Oprah without the Oprah.

Reality TV. What, did you guys all just get lazy, greedy, or both? One is good, so twenty must be better? Have you guys given up on trying to do anything interesting and complex? Do you network and TV folks realize that the worst video games have more writing and talent in them than the best of your reality garbage? You realize that many of us don't watch most of it? Reality TV, what a cop-out. The caliber of the shows that are on TV are abysmal.

What is it about thinking that we need to know what Levitra and Celebrex are? Why are most of the prescription drugs of the day (the expensive ones) are now household names? How do we explain to a 4-year-old what Viagra is? What is wrong with you people? If you folks did not sell out to the pharmacuetical companies, maybe some of us could afford healthcare again! And having 1/3 of your 'show time' blotted out by commercials?

I can't even tell you how often I see some movie on one of your networks, decide I do actually want to see it, and throw the DVD in the player so I can watch it without your ridiculous advertising. You're rich enough. We don't need to know how much our neighbors will think of us if we buy a Volvo or how wonderful all women will view us if we can't get rid of our, um, er...improved virility. WHAT NONSENSE!

If you want to know where we went, check on XBox Live, or see how well the WII and PS3 sets and games are selling. We don't miss you and we aren't all that interested in being reminded why we stopped watching so much TV in the first place. The longer I play, the more ridiculous your lack of talent, resources, and imaginination really are. Not to mention the fact that all the 'entertainment" is just a cover for your real goal; ONE LONG ADVERTISEMENT. Bah, humbug!

I can get the news right from AP or whomever on a news clipping service page on the Internet, I can read as much or as little as I want. If there are ads, I can either block them, cover them, or leave. I don't HAVE to watch your stupid ads and it feels great. I can only hope that everyone out there learns how empowering it is not to have the tripe you call programming shoved at us.

One last thought. If you go off ala Fox Network and try to discredit the genre out of fear of losing market share, just beware; if you're lying, we'll go out and prove it to everyone we know. We know you feel intimidated and nervous. You should. Perhaps you should reconsider your business practices instead of just attacking those you don't understand. They have plenty to offer or you wouldn't be losing your share.

Once the DTV goes into effect, I know a lot of seniors who are just going to forget TV all together because they don't think what's on now is worth anything. It's not worth a box or a tv upgrade, and more of the same swill is just poisonous. Hey, what happened to all those easy home-loan commercials you guys used to run? I suppose you guys don't think the money you made airing all those 'easy credit' commercials is in any way part of profiting from the problem?

So, television officials, try turning the telescope on yourself, and fixing your egregious errors, or you'll just keep bleeding marketshare to a wonderful alternative, videogames. You guys need to pick yourselves off the gutter floor and try creating interesting, engaging content, without most of the commercial advertising overtaking it, and maybe, just maybe, some of us might come back for a fraction of the time we used to watch. Every time you lose a viewer, you are only paying for pushing things way too far, and not being truthful with yourselves or your audience about it. Most action video games are downright tame (sex and violence) compared to some of your prime time offerings. If you slam the content of the games, it's very likely your words will return to haunt you, along with hard core examples of how hypocritical you are (Fox, can you hear me?).

I am almost certainly cutting back on my satellite service as a result of having found a better form of entertainment. And it's primarily your fault for taking me for granted. Good luck getting me back.

RANT OFF.

A too old to play lady.

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Imperial City Seeks Qualified Psychiatrist

It has come to the attention of the ruling council of Cyrodill that we have a shortage of Psychiactric professionals in our midst. A well-trusted, travelling businessperson has reported difficulty finding any qualified individuals fulfilling this apparent need.

This trusted source suggested that, while successful in business, trade, speechcraft, fighting and magic, and even trusted with the King's business, she has been plagued with a problem for which she is unable to find help. This esteemed citizen has confidentially revealed that she suffers from a disorder which compels her to hoard and collect items, creating a huge problem for storage.

It is reported that there are many magic professionals whom can assist the citizenry with their needs for illusionary, alchemical and alterative solutions, there appear to be no professionals that can assist with disorders that result in hoarding possessions.

This causes real problems including bandits and other miscreants taking over old mines and caves, so they can stash their ill-gotten gains. Travelling through the peaceful praries of the empire, one finds groves full of unsavory characters setting up camps and attacking good citizens who happen by, protecting and adding to their hoards.

Even the Imperial City finds no relief! Inside the barrels and crates that often litter the walkways (especially in the Market District), one can find what appears to be the possessions of beggars, who have no place else to store things, but still a propensity to collect things, including brooms, calipers, tongs, yarn, fabric, and other miscellany cluttering the streets of our fair city.

We believe the diseases of the mind, which manifest themselves in people saving and hoarding trivial items, is causing this blight. But there appear to be no psychiactric professionals to whom we can refer these individuals.

Therefore, by Royal Decree (in absentia, by the ruling council), the Imperial City and other Cities of Cyrodill are seeking qualified individuals with degrees in Psychiactric medicine. The amenities of living in the Imperial City are beyond match. We offer unparalleled benefits and salary commensurate with experience. Please send couriers with scrolls of detail to the Seat of Government of Cyrodill at once!

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I spoke too soon. Oblivion froze over.

The weather here has conspired to keep me gaming. It might have been nice the last time I blogged, but I am sick to death of below-zero (F) temperatures in March. At least we didn't have tornados.

Fifty or sixty hours into Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, I am beginning to wonder if I have OCD. Creating spreadsheets to make sure you level up properly? Checklists of which dungeons I've scoured? The game is huge! Undoubtedly there is too much to learn for a first playthrough, so I will try not to be to anal about perfection on a first character. But will I have this game finished before summer?

We're having a totally derailed conversation about the dow in the Off Topic section. It started out as a topic about the dow. Then it went off into five other tangents, and I'm afraid I'm responsible. I have rabbit-trail disease (I think I got it from a rat in Oblivion). It sure is more fun than watching the markets. During times like this past few weeks, I just don't look.

Three days before the DLC comes out for Mass Effect, but Oblivion might have me too busy to play it right away.

On a different note, even though it's a re-run, I can tell that the writers are back to work. Jay Leno is pretty funny for a change. He's only on, though, because I am writing this instead of playing my way into the Mages Guild.

I'm going to make a spell called "silence" that I can bring out of the game world and cast it at the politicians on their campaigns, and other celebs as necessary. I just wish I could live in a place like oblivion for a while; at least until a gate opens up and daedra come pouring into the world. That wouldn't be much more fun than a close race between Republicans and Democrats a mere seven months before the election. Like I said, the news...don't get me started. Too many soapboxes, so little time.

I think I'll go grind a few levels in a game. My grandkids would be ashamed of me, if I had ever made any.

Notes from a place where Oblivion froze over.

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Leap days and too cold to not play

Actually, I'm lying. It was gorgeous out today (warm enough for snow to start to melt, the sun was warm, and I have the weirdest-shaped ice-dagger hanging in front of my dining window). But instead of getting outside for some air, I spent most of the day inside playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

I have a theory about why I do this. I'm a news junkie. Lately, the news, is well, let's just say I would rather hear about Jondur being in jail and his poor wife (!) being broke because he hid all their ill-gotten gains. Sounds so much better than, you lost $4,000 in stock value today. Now, I can certainly be happy being out $4,000 if I WENT OUT AND SPENT IT!!! Heck, if I have a nice 60" plasma TV on my wall to counter the loss, I won't cry for too long.

This is different. I know it is, I have a background in investment banking (no big deals...backroom). We still knew (if we had aspirations beyond file clerk) what was going on. My banking career began when interest rates were in the 17% rage, remember that? I learned tons about inflation, recession, but honestly the fifteen years after ward were not bad. It was the getting there that was painful.

Knowing all that, I think that all my troubles finding gold in Cyrodill are, well, more satisfying. I can whip up a few potions, or go dungeon crawling and looting, and, viola! I have gold again. My horse was free, and somehow teleports everywhere I go. I got a magician's tower for free, and it's got a greenhouse! It's just where I'd want it to be. And if all goes hopelessly to heck (like an Oblivian gate opening on my front door), I can always save and reload. What's not to love?

Except eventually the xbox (my computer's too slow...need a new one...that would be a nice way to miss $4,000, coming to think of it) gets too hot, and I have to turn it off, and watch the news or get int he car for a burger and slide off the road because of a little freezing rain, and meanwhile, I keep wondering what I can do to safeguard my $ without cementing paper losses into real ones.

I'd much rather be in any universe than this one, some days. I'm not even sure why the young folks like these games. What do they have to escape from? Us older players, we have real issues we are working hard to avoid! I speak for myself and I know it. But heck...wouldn't the unreality be nice for a few days?

Oh, yeah, leaping. I spent the day doing weird leaps to increase my athletic skills. While skipping down streets, or jumping off walls. Leap day. Ahhh...to have such problems.

Patty

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An introduction - my gaming blog

A very 2o2p person has a different take on gaming. Or maybe not. Hi, my 202p name is Patty. My family calls me that too. It's just easier to keep straight, I have enough problems keeping things together, like where I put the keys, the checkbook, the 360 controller. Okay, it's wierd to be my age and hooked on gaming. Or at least my friends think so.

Gellan's mom is my gamertag on 360 live. Gellan is my bird. He says hello. He's a cockatiel and he thinks he lives in Obilivion. He loves it when birds chirp in different games. You know there are chirping birds on the Citidel in Mass Effect? Gellan does. He's real name is Magellan. It's just him and me. He keeps his mess to the corner of the room!

Enough about me. I spent yesterday (my xbox 360 would blog happily) that I spent the whole day getting 2 more achievements in Mass Effect. I now have 790 Ach. score in that game; I'm only missing 3 ally achievements, one weapons ach, 4 or 5 of the less-used skills/powers and insanity. Not bad for someone who is old enough to be a grandmother. I actually really enjoy sniping geth and was amazed at the power of the later-in-the-game assault rifle. I sill like shotguns best for the knock-down power that's easy to grab and point! (In real life, too). I like my Remington and my Jeep. I've finished the game 5 or 6 times. I've played through as Soldier, Adept, Sentinel, Infiltrator, and the one that's a mix of soldier and adept... can't remember what it's called. See what I mean about keeping things together?

So I guess if you have any questions, pm me or ask over on the ME forum and I'll answer if I can.

But now some talk has got me playing oblivion. I'm sure I have tons to learn, but I'm having fun with it. I'm level 2, and I was playing with a horse, but I got off to pick some mushrooms and wandered so far I couldn't find him. I hope he (the horse) finds his way back to the Priory safely. *sigh*

Actually, I was distracted in my game play by a tech support call...my family, my brother anyway, considers me free XP tech support, but since I love my brother, I sit and we try to get him out of whatever he's gotten into. I think he's liking the porn sites...I told him I don't want to know, but I can't imagine any other way to get into all the problems he does. So I lost my horse and shut the xbox off and acted like a big sister for a few hours.

Now I just have to get comfortable with Halo so I can join the ladies in some good ol' fashioned aggression! I HAVE to remember to send a request to the ladies...

Games played (more than casually) lately:
Mass Effect
Oblivion
Jade Empire
KoTOR

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