Looking for something less frivolous to do with my time
My visa from Korea is still in the government mulls over my application, then mulls it over some more stage, so I've been forced to find ways to amuse myself that don't involve spicy barbequed rice dishes, Asian electronics, and people watching at the airport.
Luckily, one of the people I'm staying with is a videogame addict. At first blush, you'd think this a development completely unrelated to my move to Asia, but in fact South Korea is chockablock full of gamers. Though some people play from home, many go to PC Bangs, which are internet cafes scattered throughout the community where you can check your mail, surf the net, and shoot the living hell out of your buddies online.
Video games are so popular in Korea, there have even been incidents of players staying at a PC Bang for days at a time, sitting at the computer and going without sleep until they collapse, and in some rare cases, die.
I'm not quite at that stage yet, and I seriously doubt I have the commitment in me to die for anything, much less a collection of pixels doing my bidding. But my recent foray back into the salt mines of shooting, running, and puzzle solving has reminded me how age takes its toll on your body and mind.
There was a time (say, 1995) when I could play a video game all night. On more than a couple of occasions, I'd look up from my computer to note the sky had gone from black to an inky red, before realizing I'd just played Quake (the original) until the sun had come up.
Thankfully, I'm no longer quite that anti-social or committed. Plus I now own a Mac, which besides being an extraordinarily easy and fun computer to work with is perhaps the world's worst game machine, second only to a trip to an elderly relative's house for lack of available gaming options. The older I get, the less available games matter to me, and even my Xbox only saw a couple of hours a night of gameplay, at best.
But the game I'm currently playing, Half Life 2, is so well made, so graphically rich, and so compelling that if it wasn't for the fact my shoulders hurt and my eyes burn after a few hours of twitchy gunfire, I'd never leave the house. In fact, my friend who owns the game rarely does leave himself. Somehow he's fought past the aches and pains of his mid 30's to put some solid time towards blowing up demons and figuring out puzzles. Of course, he goes to bed at six in the morning and wakes up around four in the afternoon, but his job allows him to keep odd hours, so in a way he's living every nerd's dream.
But I can't do that, whether its based on physical ability or newfound maturity. A little voice would keep nagging me to do something productive with my time, and not waste it on something as frivolous as a video game. And I will¦just as soon as I shoot this next alien.
