Waste of life

"you are wasting your life with those things..." my mom once told me when I was playing video games in the car.
Strange how watching TV, or listening to the radio or picking at your toenails isn't a seen as a waste of life. Video games in the west (after 30+ years) are still kinda seen in a bad light.
(Video games in Asia are not seen as so nerdy, and it is not unusual to see women in arcades kicking ass in Japan, or college girls online for days on end in Thailand)

I have been playing games for as long as I can remember, at one time my hometown had the most video arcades of any city in America. I have seen games go from this--->

to this--->



I am very lucky and excited to be a part of this history; to be the first generation to watch this form of entertainment evolve right before my eyes.
It must have been similarly amazing to be born in the 1920's and see film go from silent black/white to "talkies" and then color, all the way to the CGI effect loaded movies of today.

This same rapid evolution has happened to gaming in my lifetime (...well coin-op era on. I missed out on the pre television/cathode ray tube experiments of the 60s). From simple 2-D vector graphics in the 70's to 8bit Nintendo games, to the first real 3-D games, I have been there.

Now with the PlayStation 3 (1080p high end HDTV graphics) and Nintendo Wii (sensors in the Wii Remote allow it to sense linear motion along three axes, as well as tilt) coming out in the following months, my excitement is back at an all time high again.

But I think most peoples reaction to a 33 year old man showing them his Pokemans
is still->"

Oh well. Some good has come out of it since one of the main reason I even ended up studying Japanese in college was to play import games. One thing leads to another and now somehow I can easily annoy people in 2 Asian languages...

If you dont get the subtle reference in the first pic click here

PS: I wasnt trying to be so harsh on Thai food. After I re-read my last blog post it kinda sounds that way. Maybe because I eat mostly at street vendors and small mom and pop places. You get used to it.