My PS4 Unboxing

I'm sorry about the audio problems.  My camera's mic no longer works as it should, but you see what you see anyways.  And to redo the whole thing would seem to be pointless.  Also, I could have sworn I had the camera set up straight when pointing to the tv.  Weird.  Really really weird.

Anyways, You know what's in the box.  One thing should point out is that when I go into "The Playroom" you'll notice that the screen blinks a couple times and reads "No Signal."  I thought I had one of the bad PS4s at that point.  =/  But the light on the PS4 was white and not blue as many articles would point out.  I was putting it through an HDMI switch, because I only have two HDMI ports on my tv.  Satellite receiver, PS3, and now this.  So, I plug it directly in and now it's fine.  This has to do with HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection).

Coming Soon: Playstation 4 unboxing and more...

Yes, I know the Playstation 4 is already out.  I realized much too late that I would have the money for the new system.  I was going to hold off, but I sold a lot of things that I realized that I had no more use for and combined it with a little extra.  Anyways, lucky for me, Walmart's website allowed me to order the Playstation 4 as a bundled item that came with any game of my choosing.  I chose Assassin's Creed IV:  Black Flag.  The game arrived, however the system is on "hug demand" as they called it.  It will not ship to me till December 11th or 12th.  I could get it the following Saturday the 14th or Monday the 16th.  Until then, I hope to start blogging again.

Empathy Communication

Sorry that it's been a long time since I lost wrote in my blog.  My mind is a little cloudy and has been due to a sleeping disorder I have.

Anyways, there is a classic aspie symptom that I am currently working on.  I have a hard time communicating to people how I feel about them.  I have bottled up emotions about people for a long time.  More or less for as long as I can remember.  The thing is that it hadn't been seen to me as an obstacle till recently.  I guess I wasn't aware of just how bad it was.  So if someone I know, especially someone in my physical vicinity, not necessarily online, I can't communicate how I feel about them.

For instance, if someone is in a room, empty or not, and they are quietly weeping, I tend to take a few minutes before I can read that emotion.  Mostly, I think I'm kind of aware, but I just don't want to be wrong, I think.  So far I've been able to ask people if something is wrong, if I'm the only one in the room at the time.  I can't really bring myself to express concern.  This is how it feels to me.  Someone feels bad clearly and I start to feel bad and my throat tightens up like I'm about to lose it.  Other times, I just generally feel uncomfortable, but not necessarily sad, so to speak.  I then close myself off emotionally and verbally and then keep to myself.

So, why is this happening.  One theory I have is that in school, I had moments where I had emotional outbursts and cried at a sad movie that may have been shown in school.  Or I may have been rejected by some girl I had something for.  This didn't happen all the time, but it did happen.  And so the guys of the classes would like look down on me or come down on me as if there was no reason for me to do so.  You know like "Real men don't cry."  That sort of thing.

Although this is part of it, I do see, if I go back to that time, that I did bottle emotions even then.  But they'd just come out in large bursts, sometimes in anger (never minding some of the times I showed anger when I was bullied.).

So what is it exactly that is the problem?  Well, all I can figure right now is that it's just like the many sensitivities that some aspies have already.  Textures, certain colors, touch (one of my personal mild sensativities), tastes, crowds, lights, etc.  I would like to address, as well, that I have a touch sensitivity, but it's mild.  I'm not a hugger, as much as I'd like to be.  There are some people I'd rather not hug anyway, but that's a boundary with me or many other non-aspie people, too.  I have made exceptions to the rule in the past and like I said, it is mild.  I remember someone in college that hadn't seen me in a while before I came back and she reached out and I obliged.  But I felt comfortable with her.  She had this glowing personality, though I was also sort of intimidated by her beauty.  I guess back then, even when there was a time when she wasn't currently seeing someone, I was only able to see her as a friend, possibly due to the fact that I thought she looked to beautiful for me.  Maybe I didn't want to be forced into the friend zone.  Honestly, I may not really have had a thing for her anyway and was just content where I was with her.

Back on track, I am currently working with my therapist on this.  She's suggesting I tell someone how I felt one day when they were feeling bad.  On top of that she also wants me to invite a friend over to where I live.  I listed off 3 people in my life that I'd like to have closer friendships with.  I am not doing so well at that.  I haven't done this yet and this was assigned to me a few weeks ago and my next appointment is near the end of this month.  I had thought I was going to see her every week or every other week.  So, I should probably get on this.

On another note, I think by showing I care when someone is hurting (women in particular) I also don't want to give anyone the wrong idea either.  I am sort of afraid to find out how I came off or do or say something wrong.  I don't want the messages to get mixed up.

Why Next Gen Games Don't Impress Me

Take a look at the last two pictures of the four.  Notice a difference.  Yeah?  How much of a difference?  Not much, is it?  I haven't seen any side by side comparisons between two of the same games, say Watch_Dogs(PS3 vs PS4), but honestly they're going to show you the PS4 graphics, right?  Of course, but...they look like what the current generation systems are already capable of.  Slap on some social media based firmware and there ya go.  Your next generation system.  XBox One isn't excluded from the same argument.  Playstation 4's specs are nearly identical with only the speed of the ram being higher.  Neither system has clearly shown us that they're better than last generation.  I'm sure even Knack could work with some minor tweaking, but I could be wrong.  All together though, I'm not impressed.  Will I get a PS4?  Probably, but only when Assassin's Creed appears only on the next gen consoles exclusively or there are more compelling games later on.  But of course, I have to face the fact that I'm poor, too.  But I'd kind of feel ripped off playing a game that I love that is only available on PS4, because frankly if the same game were made for PS3 I'd probably get almost the same experience.  Not much of an improvement.  Maybe Sony and Microsoft should have waited a few more years.  I mean, the best we may actually be getting is frame rate.  Okay, I'll admit that that might be a compelling reason to join the next generation.  An increase in frame rate would more or less smooth out the motion, but one could simply just get a 120hz or 240hz television.  But the fans have been talking "next gen" for a long time.  Sony and Microsoft gave in to their demand.  They offered no explanation as to why the next generation would not look much better.  And I'm still befuddled as to why fans are clamoring over them and can't wait to buy the new system.  Why is it that no one explained to them that a new system at this point wouldn't show enough improvement to warrant moving on?  Because they want more money.  You ask them for more.  They give you what they can while keeping the price affordable and this is what you got.  Thanks gamer fans...  I hope you're happy with your "better graphics."  And I'll probably have an empty wallet when I finally do see a few games worth shelling the money for a new system for and it'll be just because it's only on the next gen system.

I mean come on Sony...Microsoft...  Prove to me that the improvement in the gameplay and graphics is significant enough.  Prove me wrong.  I'd love to see you do it.  Maybe I'll change my tune, but I've seen videos of these new games and they don't look that much better.  In fact they look exactly the same.

Are Things Random or Are They Not so Random?

Ok, I was thinking about how life throws some people lemons and some are particularly sour and others not so sower.  Let's take for example someone who was sexually molested in their teens.  The question might always come up "Why did this happen to me?"  "Why not someone else?"  "Certainly it could have easily happened to someone that dressed a certain way, but why me?"

Well, I would start off by thinking that maybe life is just random like the roll of a die.  You don't know what number is going to come up.  When a die is rolled is random chance, right?  A slot machine.  A card game.  A computer pulling up a random number from one to a google.  Life just deals out random things to random people.  There's no reason to feel that you did something or that God hates you or anything like that.

But then I start thinking, well what if it isn't completely random.  I'm going to use the dice again.  And let's say you roll up a 6 three times in a row.  Lucky, right?  Chance, right?  Well, chance maybe.  I mean surely you don't really have control or intend to roll a 6 a second or third time.  Even if that's what you wanted, but think of this.  If someone or some computer were to analyze the roll from the moment you place it in your hand to the moment it stopped.  They could look at each and every movement of the die.  On top of that analyze the balance of the table, whether the table is completely flat, or even whether it was slippery or not.  Take all those into account and it can tell you why it rolled a 6.  It's because of all these events and specifications that it happened.

So, why do these things happen in your life.  Random just isn't the word for it, but much rather a completely and highly extreme set of events along with environmental elements that make these things happen, from the beginning of time until, now.  One thing leads to another.  And there is no way to tell if or when something in your life will happen.  It may not be random, but it is surely far too complicated for any man or machine to answer the question as to why a certain event in your life happened.  So, stop asking why.  It just happened.  It's not because of you.

A "Mysterious Girlfriend X" Thought

If you've never heard of the "Mysterious Girlfriend X" anime.  I can give you a short summary.  I've only seen one episode, so it's more like a synopsis.  I can tell you how it all starts.  So this girl transfers into a new school and her eyes are rather obscured by her hair.  She doesn't really talk to anyone.  At lunchtime some girls gather at her desk while she's there sleeping with her head down.  She kindly asks them to leave her alone, because she's tire and then slowly smacks her head down and starts sleeping again.  That may not be too weird, but at some point during the school day she starts laughing for no reason at all and she apologizes to the teacher and tries to stop.  So school's out and the main guy that sits next to her walks into the almost empty class room.  He wakes her up and tells her that she can go home.  So she's got drool on her desk.  She looks up and you can tell he was kind of taken by how good looking she was.  She gets up and leaves and for whatever weird reason, other than maybe he think he might like her.  He wipes his finger in her drool on her desk while she's gone and then tastes it.  So he's out of school for the next two weeks with a fever and cough that won't stop.  She hears of this and goes to his house.  She asks if he did what he did after she left that day and then puts her finger in her mouth and puts it in his.  Suddenly he's okay.  He asks what's going on and if he has or had some kind of bacteria or something that he caught from her.  She starts laughing hysterically and then explains that he's just lovesick and that he was in withdrawal.  So the show goes on a little more and they become boyfriend/girlfriend.

So basically this is a really strange anime about a weird mysterious girl.  So maybe I was thinking that she's got some back story that she might be alien or whatever or that maybe she has some psychological back story.  It is anime after.  That's kind of what I would predict.  But now I'm thinking otherwise.  I think this is just about a weird girl and how he's trying to see what makes her tick and why she's so weird.  That's kind of the hook.  She's just weird, so you want to know more about her.  You want to know what makes her tick.  I'm not sure I can say that I've ever met someone that I wanted to know more about, because they were weird, but it's kind of interesting to think about.  I mean there are people out there that are just so weird or mysterious that other people are drawn to them just to find out more about them.

And the mysterious factor made me think that well, maybe it's okay for me not to talk a lot.  I'm not a big talker.  I'm quiet.  But would that not be a reason for someone to come over to me and try to talk me up?  I mean it was explained to me once that, if you're the quiet one at a party and all alone or whatever the case may be.  Being the only one that's not with another group, people may look at you and notice you.  Or they may be too absorbed in someone else.  Many times, though, I'm told that when you're the only one not doing what everyone else is doing, you may not think you're being noticed, but actually you stand out.  You're not blending in at all like you think you are.

So this is also making me think that if I talk a little at a time out there, assuming I go out more, that my people will want to know why I am a certain way or may want to see what makes me tick.  And no one is boring.  One may be boring to another person, but no one is truly boring.  I have my beliefs and wonders and my interests, my curiosities.  I have my likes and dislikes.  Surely someone's going to want to uncover all my mysteries.

Relationships

How many of you are still single?  How does that make you feel.  Well first off I kind of like being single, but I kind of don't.  I mean I'm 35 and I've never been in a real relationship with someone.  Sometimes that does get me down, but not a lot.  Other than the times that I'm just okay with it, I'm longing for it, but not really upset that I'm not in one.

I have to say that I am a little ashamed, because when I fantasize about it, I may be a little unrealistic and I don't mean that I'm looking at all these beautiful women on websites with smiles and such or on my television screen.  No.  I mean Everything is perfect.  They're physically beautiful and everything.  I'm really fixated on looks, but they don't win me over unless they have the personality and mind and love that I need in someone.  I guess it's good that I won't stay just because they look good.  Now my idea of good looking is a little wider than what some people talk about online.  They can be a few extra pounds.  Maybe 225-230 lbs and still look good to me.  I'm really fixated on the face as far as looks.  Beautiful smile, eyes, and hair.  More or less the whole, above the shoulders look.  That's where my eyes point when I think someone looks cute.

I will be honest though.  I met a friend online from far away and we started off sending long messages.  We just clicked.  But being far away, it wasn't quite feasible.  I eventually saw a few pictures of her, but she wasn't all that as far as looks to be honest, but I still had feelings that went past that.  If we were to meet someday I would have still wanted her.  So, I'm not really hung up on looks too much, but I don't get past them on first sight.

I go to a group and people have tried telling me a few times, "Why not her?"  She's just a friend to me and she's a little too quirky for my taste.  To be honest, the very idea felt kind of icky to me, because it's like the feeling you have for a relative.  Would you want to get romantic with a relative?  Would you want to be romantic with someone you only saw as a friend and that's all there is to it?  No, it doesn't feel right and it doesn't feel comfortable.  You're repulsed by the idea, because you've already established your type of relationship with that person in your mind and that's where it ends.

So, here's a little problem I have.  I'm have a hard time meeting new people or talking to them unless they talk to me first.  It's kind of like walking into a dark room and not knowing what's there and you're too afraid to ask if anyone's there, if they're good or evil, and whether they want you there.  (Weird ghosty metaphor.)  So in a nutshell I'm too unsure of myself.  And what if this person is attractive?  That's a whole nother thing.  The fear spikes then, because you know about the "butterflies in your stomach" feeling.  I'd be unable to speak or ask them out.  At least that's the way it was when I was younger.  I don't get out much and when I see someone I don't think twice about what she'd be like.

When I was in High School, I'd see a lot of everyone, so if I saw or even knew someone attractive, then I have the whole "can't tell the person what I feel" or "ask them out" sort of thing.  Now that I'm not stuck in that kind of situation and everything is all opened up and everyone scattered, where the chances of me seeing the person again and where is totally unknown.  So I don't even think about a person I just saw at the gas station or whatever.  Maybe I'd be less intimidated, since I'm not in the situation of seeing the same people all the time in the same place.  Maybe I'm different now, too.  But there's no real way for me to test out the idea that I have less fear of women.  All I have is the fear of people in general, which is now a bit minor.

I can barely tell you something about online dating.  I can see a scam a mile away and I get very little feedback on these free profiles.  I have double checked my profile with other people who say it's a good profile and doesn't reflect some bad things about me.  I have had one hit, but the person was a psycho and that lasted a few days.

Right now all I can do is know that things are okay right now and I don't really need anyone.  I just have some strong desires sometimes and I'm still moving forward, even though it's slower than some other people.  Someday something will happen as I change.  It's a matter of time, advice, understanding, and action.  I will get there.

How many people with Aspergers Syndrome don't work?

I tried looking up that statistics on how many Aspies don't work and get disability and couldn't find it.  But because all Aspies are different, I suspect that there's no way to really guess the answer.  I'm one that does not work.

I have had jobs in the past.  I started off with cleaning jobs.  In fact they were all more or less about cleaning besides my last two.  Manual work is a big turn off.  I do and did what I had to do now and even back then. Anymore, now and my physical health is not doing me well.  My back is giving me pain, when I stand around too much or bend over a lot.  I can stand to work doing certain manual tasks for a few very short hours if it were a job and not just house work.

My first couple of jobs were just to help pay for books for college.  As soon as classes started, I had to stop and do them.  After I graduated I found it difficult to find any work at all in my field.  So I still took on jobs I wasn't happy with.  But for whatever reason I wasn't working up to their standards.  At the time I didn't know what they meant and I still don't conclusively understand.

I had one job where I was pushing carts and was hoping to go at the registers.  Unknown to me that I even had AS at the time I tried this job nervously.  The last few months of the 4 years I was there I got worse and worse and my mind was not handling it very well.  I was stiff and rigid and nervous.  Even from the beginning I was this way, but I was even worse during that last little bit.  All the stimulation, having to socialize even just a little, and having to pay attention to so many of those things made me progress into burn out.  Turned out that the boss was just hoping I'd get better.  I never did.  And because I was getting worse, he asked me to quit.  So that was that.

I had bills from a credit card company that I still had to pay off.  I qualified for cash benefits from the state, which I had gotten before the job, because of another diagnosis and at the time I didn't get social security benefits.  I tried anxiously to get them, due to my condition.  I described in full how it made me feel and how it hindered me on my performance.  I was as detailed as I could be.  I was automatically approved.  It did take a long time, but I did that SSDI/SSI.

I wasn't content not working.  I felt that I needed to do something.  But it was like something I was supposed to do and not something I really wanted to do.  I did get another job, but during the last part of training I failed miserably at the job.  I figured taking orders by incoming phone wouldn't be so bad, but I was wrong.

Again, I'm not content that I get money without having a job.  I feel the pressure put on myself by what I perceive others in society to believe.  I would like a little more money and have thought of taking some small very part time job, but I think I want to take small steps first.  I want to move out of my parents' home.  Then I would be able to put myself in a situation where I feel the need for a little extra cash.  Moving out on my own would have a lot of benefits and I have already began the process with HUD.

So how many people with AS do not work?  Is it because they cannot stand the work environments they have always been put in?  How much pressure does it put on others with this diagnosis?  Can they press on like I was unable to without falling apart?  Do they constantly have to worry about job performance?  How do some that do work, keep it all together?

What job would be right for me?  I have thought of working for myself, but I really don't have it in me to do that.

Disinterest In Talking To New People

I usually like to be by myself, but inside there is a longing to be with other people.  Unfortunately if they don't share my interests, then they don't interest me much.  And it's probably a bad generalization to say that everyone in my rural area thinks about cars, farms, country music, and drinking.  But that seems to be what this place is all about.  There are tons of garages and mechanics around.  There are people with special cars with their windows down blaring Toby Keith through their car stereos.  And just looking all around me there seems to be nothing but horses and cows and fences as far as I can see.  I'm miles from any big city and even the closest one is full of the same people and a country music station.  Now I do like a little country music, but when I was in HS I just went along with my parents on everything.  "Rock music is nothing, but noise, today," they'd say.  So country was my safe choice, but I've grown bored of it and I grew up and I got into my "I don't have to listen or believe everything they tell me," stage.  I have a mind of my own.

My influences were the very few or maybe just one or two people that knew about anime.  Other influences followed.  Instead of our backwoods cable company offering just CMT (Country Music Television), they added VH1, so I did get a little more music influence.  The internet came around and I started using that in the second half of 1996.  So, maybe music is the thing that I share a common interest in with many people around here, now, knowing that even around here music influence is almost just as varied as anywhere else.

Anyways being the loner I was, I spent my time online.  Later came cable internet and better PCs and so there were anime fansubs to download and watch.  Money was scarce and I finally bought a gaming system of my own and games.  My influences primarily came from online websites, online friends, and gaming sites.  This was what I found interesting to me.  Computers, the internet, anime, various music tastes, video games and various things people around here, I feel, know nothing about.

So how do I start a conversation with people?  Maybe interest in music, since that is by far the most varied interest I have.  My music playlists have country, oldies, pop, a tiny bit of rap, alternative, rock, violin, movie soundtracks, classical, j-pop, j-rock, some metal, a tiny bit of industrial, musicals, electronica, 80's...ok I think that sums it up as much as I can.  lol.  But beyond that I could start talking about anime.... "What's anime?"  "Is that them Japanese cartoon porn things?"  "Cartoons are for kids."  That about shows the attitude I'm afraid I'd run into.  PCs, well there are a few people that can work their way around and find the settings to fix just about anything and everything around here, but really most people at least just know how to work them and would rather start asking me questions like "My internet isn't working.  Can you help me?"  My son over in whatchamacalitville says I need a router or something to hook up my other things.  What's a router?"  "My computer's slow."  Well, ok, so I guess that's another place for me to start.  Maybe I can get to know people, because I can help them with computers.  But really, I can't be asked to solve everyone's problems.  I'm just one guy and on top of that, I've run into computer problems of my own, mostly on my parents' computer, that I haven't figured out yet.  Personally I just think my parents need a new PC as it's slower than molasses.

I don't know.  Maybe there's hope for me yet.  After writing all this I may have realized something.  Anime aside, there isn't anyone around here that wouldn't be interested in me.  Maybe I should go around saying "I like computers."  Or "I'm into all sorts of music."  Surely there's someone around here that'd appreciate me for those.  And video games?  I may be surprised at what I may find out about people and what they play.

But there is still this general uninterest about me, that I can't seem to get over.  If I happen to have a handheld device in my pocket or something, I'm more likely to play with that than talk to someone.  I'd rather be playing a game or watching an anime, than talk to someone new.  Somehow I just don't like to be bored and I like to stay in my general interest areas.  I need to start doing things to keep myself from getting bored or I need to stop worrying about how bored I am when doing something or talking to someone.

Do You Cry a Lot or Do You Try To Bottle It Up?

Do Aspies outwardly express their sorrow or bottle them up?  Not a question I can rightly answer about anyone else, but myself.  I think this is up to the individual.

Me, when I was in school, it was this thing that people would tell you that boys don't cry.  That is unless it's something outright awful.  Now girls as I was growing up, they were better to me about it, but not the guys.  When it happened to me, it would be in spurts.  I try to bottle things up and even though usually I lost my temper, I'd cry on rare occasions after having bottled it up for so long and it could be triggered by a movie.

I don't cry often even now.  I cry at funerals.  That's the biggest thing, but usually, even more so now, I' just let a few tear drops run from my eyes and get kind of bleary eyed, but I don't cry much.

Anime films like "Air" or anything else from the same studio, typically have emotional things tied to them and done real well.  I cried twice watching "Air."  It has a troubling ending, but it doesn't make me depressed or ill to watch over and over.  There was one anime that did that, though.  "Grave of the Fireflies."  I saw it twice and I just got rid of it.  I felt ill after watching it and real blah like.  It was a good movie and all, but I can't see myself watching it ever again.

Now that I think of it, it might be that Aspies are more prone to cry.  We seem to be targets in our early years.  I've witnessed and read enough online about it that it's more likely.  But I don't do it often.  I tend to try to emotionally detach myself, even though I'm not terribly good at it depending on the situation.  But yeah, when something sad happens that I'm not there to witness, even if I do have some connection, my emotional side tends to detach itself.

Zombies: The Perfect Movie Monsters

The wretched decaying bodies.  The dead.  They come back to wreak havoc on the living.  The mangled and the twisted.  The stench of death is enough to make one sick and although they can't truly capture that smell on film, they certainly have the guts, literally, to make you sick just watching.

That is of course their intent.  If you love horror or movie monsters, nothing can be better than to watch people survive an apocalyptic scenario such as a zombie outbreak.  You ask why are they the best?  But maybe you'll tell me why they are the worst.

First the typical zombie is weak.  They are slow and although they have one weakness, they can be taken out quite easily.  Well, a simple blow to the head can knock their brains out.  And that is a small part of their brain that does all the work.  Where we use all of our brain.  The zombie uses very little.

But what they lack in ability, they make up for in numbers.  The more there are the more dangerous they are.  Also, some can be quite quiet.  Don't let them sneak up on you.

The scariness of a zombie comes from the scenario itself.  The spread of an incurable disease that no one can stop.  The loneliness that comes when all of the people around you are dead and/or undead.  Having to find shelter, survival tools, food, and water.  Then there are the people that you have no idea that you can trust.  In this scenario there is every possible nightmare.  Like I said, loneliness, possible betrayal, starvation,  exposure to the elements, dangerous people, unexpected noises, and changing into someone you don't want to be.

Oh yes, you will become someone else when zombies are around.  If you were a giving person, expect to be betrayed, unless you make good choices.  Choices you would wish you have not had to make.  You might become uncaring.  You might start to care only for yourself.  You might be a monster.  You may kill innocent people just to get what you need.  When something occurs that changes everything around you, that changes your situation, you will become someone you weren't before.

So what are the best zombie movies and shows to watch?  Well, of course, there's "The Walking Dead."  Of course you may be already watching that or know someone else that does.  "Zombie," which is one of the more gory ones out there is a great choice.  There's a scene in which a woman has her eye pulled into a wooden splinter from her door by a zombie that's after her.  Later, her body is being eaten by zombies and you see almost every detail.

In video games, there's the ever popular "Left 4 Dead."  There's a good first person survival RPG called "Dead Island."  But look them up, there are more coming, they never end just like the zombies.  They keep coming.

But what do I like about zombies?  I like that they don't die in more conventional means.  You can blast them about, pound them, and cut them up, but they still live.  They're just like Jason Voorhees.  Jason only bests them, because he himself just keeps coming back no matter how many times you kill him.  Stabbing right in the head doesn't even kill him.  So, if it wasn't for him, zombies would be the best, but I guess he's just one guy.  Zombies are millions.  Yes, it's that they never end.  Jason's just one dead man, but zombies are many and forever.  So, just be careful of the super zombies.

Now there's a "what if" scenario for you.  What if the virus in question that turns the dead into the undead were to evolve or to mutate?  What if zombies got faster and stronger?  What if they became just like us?  Anything just to make them scarier.

Sony Press Event 2013

As you know by now, It's official Playstation 4 will be available.  Not only that, but it won't be next year.  It will be this year during the holidays.  My guess is that it will be soon before black Friday.  Unfortunately I did not hear the official pricing on the stream.  Rumor has it that the costs will be $429 and $529 depending on which package.  What that includes will likely be hard drive space or maybe in even included peripherals.

The new controller will include all the same that was on the Dual Shock 3, but in addition will have a share button for sharing videos of your gaming with your friends online.  A touch pad will be at the top center.  Also a light bar to indicate which player you are.  This light bar will also be used with another peripheral that is a new enhanced camera, that looks much like Microsoft's Kinect.

Again you will be able to share footage of your games with your friends.  There will be more emphasis on community, you could say.  Your Playstation 2 and 3 back library can be accessible through the cloud.  My understanding is that with today's high speed internet, it will be much like playing OnLive, a service which feeds you video, while your console does little work.  This is Sony's answer to backwards compatibility.  You WILL be able to play all your old games in this fashion.

The games they showed were quite impressive to say the least.  First of all just to show it's capabilities, the rendering allows for full expression and high textures to give a more realistic feel and be much more the quality of a CG movie you might see.  The games that I am most interested in are inFamous: Second Son and Watch Dogs.  I'm a big fan of the inFamous series, so this game is a must for me, so I guess that even though there wasn't much in the way of gameplay to be shown, I might be biased here.  Watch Dogs is great.  I want to say it may be a little like Grand Theft Auto on a grand scale with Sci-Fi.  You hack into anything, people's phones, cameras, ATMs, and any known grid that runs just about anything in the city.

I hope this wets everyone's appetites for E3 this year.  I will try and save what I can for a PS4, but it is likely that I'll stay away from it for quite some time as there are still plenty of games on the PS3 and shortages will be likely, if not inevitable.  That and I'm saving to move out within the next 6 to 9 months.  Peace!

"Bully" A Documentary...My Thoughts

When I got only a little ways into the film I saw Alex's story and that made me angry and I felt all the stuff that happened to me come back and seeing all that he went through, I felt even more.  There's no question that this is a problem.  Now I was mostly verbally abused in High School, but that's bad, no matter how you look at it.  The simple answer to many people is to ignore it and move on.  But how does it feel to have to hang out with the "loser crowd?"  How does it feel to hang with others that are being bullied just the same over and over.  Sure getting together helps and I felt for them just as much, but that group sense isn't enough.  The bullying had to stop.  And also unlike Alex I lashed out and was referred to as "psycho,"  Because of it.  Alex just pretended to laugh and enjoy it, just because he wanted friends.  And it wasn't just verbal.  it was physical for him.  Stabbed with pencils, punched, and choked.  The bullying on him escalated enough for the film makers to show his family and finally have them know and get into the picture.

It feels sickening to watch much of this go on.  So one problem that the school goes through, because of this bullying is that they could be seen as bad for letting this go on, of course in this movie, it was for them to show the world and get some help with this problem.  The school took the right step.  Here's some other things that can happen.  In the movie there was a father talking about his son that was only 11 when he committed suicide.  A black athletic girl was bullied so much that she took her mother's gun onto the bus.  No lives were taken and no shots were made, but she held the students hostage.  Pointed the gun at many of the students that picked on her.  She threatened and yet at many of them.  "You made me do this," is what she says.  One thing that doesn't really come into play in this movie are lawsuits.  I've heard school staff being sued for their irresponsibility in taking care of these problems.  Suicides, bullies beating, school shootings, and lawsuits.  I'm sure no school wants these, but when a parent puts their kids in the care of others, they expect them to take care of them.  The schools, by not doing anything, invite these things into their buildings.  Then they sometimes punish.  Hypocrisy is what I call this.

I was on GetGlue.com and made the comment on my situation.  I'm on medications such as Xanax.  I have been out of school.  I learned to forgive, but forgiveness doesn't just start at one day and you move on.  Forgiveness is an everyday thing.  The feelings and thoughts come back all the time.  I may even have to forgive it all over again.  Forgiveness is an everyday thing.  You don't just do it one time and it's over.

Now I don't have kids of my own, so you'd think that It's over for me, but I relive it.  I don't do this on purpose.  I wish I had that kind of control.  Maybe someday I will have a son or daughter.  I don't want this to happen to them and if it did, you better believe all hell will break loose.

I would love the opportunity to share my experiences.  I would be open to anything to help kids get through this today.  Though I do have some crowd fear and such and being single.  These things would make it hard to get into helping kids.  But I feel so angry or empathetic that I wish I could do something.

From the movie, Alex is in a new school.  He has friends.  He gets along well.  He even seems more outgoing.  The change in him was great.  What do you think made the difference in his mood and has behavior?  The atmosphere and the fact that he's not being bullied and has friends.  For a brighter future, we must end the bully epidemic.

The Sandy Hook Shooting "Conspiracy"

Ok, so recently some paranoid trolls on the internet, worried about their gun rights thanks to a presidential douchebag, started posting messages, blog articles, and youtube videos saying that the Sandy Hook shooting never happened and that it's all a big conspiracy to take away peoples guns.  Now I have no problem whatsoever with people owning guns.  I just have a problem with psychos with no seense of empathy for dead people and their family and friends owning guns.  Those are the ones I'm worried about.  If you don't feel for their families and just use the news of their deaths as a way to say the government is taking your gus, then you my friend, are a psychopath.  You have no feelings for your fellow man and woman and you don't deserve your guns, because you'll probably go shoot someone and not feel a thing.  I mean, if you don't feel for those families and are more afraid of losing your guns than you are worried about someone losing someone, then you have more feelings for your guns than the people you pretend to say you are protecting with those guns.

Where did these conspiracy theories come from?  Who wrote them?  Do you know them?  How credible are they?  So you have some minor evidence, but no proof?  I don't know you, but I'm supposed to believe you when you say that it's a conspiracy?  Ok, suppose I take your word for it.  Suppose I'm convinced by these tiny little supposed discrepencies that may or may not exist in your videos of the families.  I would look like the biggest most paranoid douchebag ever. 

And what if I believed that this story was true.  And I do.  It's on the news.  Can the news be bought?  Can they possibly be behind the spreading of a conspiracy?  How likely is that?  Ok first, yes money is a big motivator.  How much money would that take to convice that many people to report a lie?  Where would the money come from?  How much "acting" would it take to push this story as true?  You say some of them smiled in the news videos?  So what?  Any psychologist would tell you that a smile or even a little light laughter is normal from certain individuals.  Yeah, I know that's weird, but I've given a small smile during my biggest pains.  It's just a psychological reaction to get your through a big mess.  An extreme example would be someone that went mad with laughter, because they saw something miserable.  Most people, yes, would believe they thought it was funny, but not a psychologist or therapist.  They know more than most people do about the human mind.

So, there have been shootings in the past and at the same time there was talk of gun control.  I don't remember any conspiracy theories, do you?  Suddenly d-bag Obama wants to talk big gun control and people go nuts, so they use what they can including dead people to say "no."  Oh no.  Messages to the government that you're not happy about this.  Essays on why taking guns is a bad idea with references to credible people.  These aren't enough?  So instead you go all psycho and lose all empathy for the dead and their friends and family.  You go that far to say gus are a bad idea.  WOW!

That's minor compared to a huge controlled and well thought out conspiracy by the government.  Do you even know how unlikely that is?  I mean that's just way out there.  Why not go a step further to say the Obama is Osama Bin Laden's second cousin twice removed and that on top of that he was injected with alien dna from the planet Smoo.  That's about how unlikely that conspiracy theory is.

If you believe this is a conspiracy and not a reaction, then this is my response...