Common conceptualization about gamers

If you are in asian countries like where I came from, more often than not, you will hear people giving out comments like "don't play games, you're just wasting your time", or "go do something beneficial" or worse.... "go build your character instead of playing computer games". Many of the generation Y people in the Asian country will definately hear that alot, especially from the mouth of the generation X people (a.k.a. your parents). There are no disputes, playing games whole day is bad your for character, as it deprive people from sleep and meeting new friends, but after coming to the states and with plenty of time to self reflect, I realize that this might not be entirely true.

I am not sure about other gamers, but for me, I found out that much of my traits are corresponding to the effect of playing games for the past 20 years in my life. Games attracts me, I like to stand there and see people play, trying to understand why that guy wanna turn left instead of right, trying to think why he chooses that place to set the bomb instead of there, and stuff like that (and occasionally get a negative feedback from friend that ask me to stop staring and start playing).... and I kind of like to analyze people, not judge... just analyze and ask questions about why he wanna say that, why she wanna do that...

Then I remember when I was young, I like to transform my hand into an airplane and fly around visualizing barrel roll, loop and those difficult maneuver, yeah... I kind of still do that now but without the hand sign. I believe this is also coming from the visualization skills I have when I started to involve in playing computer games.... Coz nearly all of the games out there are NOT real, you have fantasy or science fiction with plenty of effects and impossible maneuver in games, you have gruesome murder in games that even TV doesn't show and I never question it to be impossible.... That is how much I trusted myself in games, and I believe it kind of skewed the actual life that my eyes are seeing... kind of scary if you ask me, but I believe I'm still sane.

Not only that, but the never say die spirit is there, I believe this is the result of being too involve in games in the past, in game losing is a normal thing, loading a game probably took 10% of my total game time and even playing games that CANNOT die like "Fahrenheit" and "Days of the tentacle", losing will be in the sense of how to make the game advance till the end, and that I believe is the fuel to propel a gamer to reach the end point because there is a promising cake lies in wait...

and speaking of end point, most gamers will do in life with an end in mind, maybe not the final end in life, but a little distance away point where I have something to look forward to. This is enforced even more by my parent earlier when they give incentives if you achieve something insignificant like passing your PMR and stuff like that :P But the point is my mind has been shaped to chase for something, and without a goal, my life can be a total disarray with no direction, and this is where I can turn into something different if not careful....

After been in the States, alot of my colleague say that I am 'fearless' albeit in a stupid way, and they credited this to the reason that I have no problem take the free fall ride in 6 flags, I bravely rented an AR-15 rifle instead of starting out with a 9mm pistol during shooting range and I even suggested to have parachuting out from 15,000 feet from a plane.... and nobody interested in jumping from the sky.... lamers
Anyway, I believe this attitude steam from the fact that most gamers dare to face whatever the world throw at them, they have face crazy fuhrer in Wolfenstein, they have faced with impossible puzzle in Prince of Persia, and executed world record maneuver in Wing Commander or Descend 3D... So gamer never say die, especially for an atheist :P

So basically there are many wrong intepretation on gamers nowadays, and it really sux when we have to take the blunt for the failure in society. But I guess this is life, and as long as it doesn't take away the time and energy for one to concentrate on their love ones and important task at hand, it definately will build character.

Gamers forever!

Yum yum at Arizona

Had been going to alot of places for food in and around Phoenix, US is basically like Malaysia, with multi-racial food everywhere... instead of malay nasi lemak, indian roti canai and chinese char koay teow; they have mexican taco, western steak, italian macaroni & cheese, vietnam phö, and of course west coast shrimp. Amazing that a place so deep inside the desert, you get to eat fresh shrimp all the way from California... must be some impressive logistics at work here.

1st week started off with Joe's crab shack, which serve superbly huge crabs (Alaska king crab, spider crab) and it was topped with endless beer... ok it look endless to me, but its actually kinda like 3 pint per person... Somemore the mood is great, people dancing around, probably could make those people in TGI Friday looks like pre-school pom pom team. Damage is $30

After 2 weeks devoid of chinese food, we manage to found a shop in Los Angeles's Chinatown and went to this chain shop call "三和"(San Her) and had the best chines food in US, yes... as of now it still top in the chart for best chinese food for me in US so far, and yes... the shop is quite dirty for US standard. The left koay teow is actually "干炒牛河", which means dry fried beef koay teow, and the green vege is actually the ultimate 菜心 (choy sam), being in US nearly all the greens are brocolli and capsicum, I tell you if I come back to Malaysia, I'm gonna ban those fricking vegetable from me list for at least a month! Damage around $13

Another nice place we went was the "Cheesecake Factory" in Phoenix, their cheesecake definately could beat our Secret Recipe cheesecake (original American marble vs original cheesecake), so the comparison is quite equivalent... the reason they are good is because their cheese after eat will not make your stomach too filling, and the price is not that expensive... dollar to dollar wise. Besides the cheesecake, their shrimp pasta is nice, not too much spices to cover the fresh shrimp, and not too little to compliment the ingredient used...Damage at $23

Of course we also went to the famous "Red Lobster" restaurant which serves .... *duh*... seafood! We ordered basically everything they had and the food is just so-so, its comparatively expensive and the quality is just not as expectation. Then again experience might vary, their mango pina colada was superb though, and I'm still awake after the drink... awesome :P Damage $30

One of the all time favourite here (and cheap food) is the Vietnamese food, they are famous for their beef / phö (which basically means koay teow soup), spring rolls and their coffee are famous.

Basically I just like the beef and their hot soup... and the spring roll tasted good because the skin is soft and feel 'fresh'.... yeah, I think I have taste problem when it comes to Asian food. So far I think I had eaten 10 times of Vietnamese food, all in and around Phoenix, the best so far located in 19th Avenue and Bethany Home (IMHO), followed by 19th Ave and Camelback, but people might argue the other way round....Damage usually at $7

Then there is the Chinese buffet that many of my friends so like to eat but I don't see its worth the money at all (USD13 per pax), the food is basically more shrimps (not so fresh), kid lobster, and standard beef, salad, chow mien and stuff...

The cup above is actually sweet and sour soup, good as appetizer, but sux if you drink too much :P

And of course I don't just eat outside all the time, I do cook my ownself just for the sake to save some money, maggie mee, soup, yogurt and fries... Quite healthy right?Stupid picture dunno why auto rotate, which I give up adjusting....

So basically that's what I try out in US... there are many more small stuff which doesn't worth mentioning over here, till then. Sayonara from Arizona