tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post2416209826800328519..comments2024-02-05T10:41:31.777-05:00Comments on I Saw Lightning Fall: Gourlay on the Land of the Non-ReaderLoren Eatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-46846154629706622582012-02-09T08:49:10.505-05:002012-02-09T08:49:10.505-05:00I "won" some kind of genetic lottery tha...<i>I "won" some kind of genetic lottery that makes me resistant to the crap.</i><br /><br />Interestingly enough, when I was a kid I learned that I was allergic to tobacco. Back in the day, they used to inject a bit of it into your skin as an allergy test, and I rashed up when exposed. I can say I've never once tried a cigarette. I enjoy alcohol and caffiene in moderation. Like you, though, my real vice is Web surfing. And I can't blame ADD for it!Loren Eatonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-53404645165686365162012-02-09T04:30:44.950-05:002012-02-09T04:30:44.950-05:00Given how compulsively I read (I have and probably...Given how compulsively I read (I have and probably will continue to lose entire nights of sleep because of books), I find it kind of odd how little I am drawn into video games. I played ten-ish hours of Skyrim, got bored, and wandered off. I had similar reactions to WoW, actually. <br /><br />I don't think this is some virtue in me. I think it's like my aversion to cigarettes (asthma) and alcohol (tastes like poo and makes my jaw ache): I "won" some kind of genetic lottery that makes me resistant to the crap.<br /><br />Now, I can waste untold amounts of time farting around on the Internet, but that's usually me bouncing from page to page to page reading news and snippets and playing flash games for five minutes. (I *am* massively prone to ADD behaviors. Probably undiagnosed, in all honesty; I was super hyper as a little kid, too.)Scattercathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00302815654553659644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-11833757512222369032012-02-01T10:21:18.345-05:002012-02-01T10:21:18.345-05:00That makes this quote from the article apropos: &q...That makes this quote from the article apropos: "My <i>Skyrim</i> character now has a longer to-do list than my red-flagged Outlook task-list at work. My days at work and home consist of quests and side-quests leading to more quests and side-quests."Loren Eatonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-83716775456983349242012-01-31T10:33:58.318-05:002012-01-31T10:33:58.318-05:00Skyrim, like an MMO, is terrifying. I play long RP...Skyrim, like an MMO, is terrifying. I play long RPG's (rather slowly), but at least they have ends, and reasonably small quest lists.Chestertonian Ramblerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01550643992523840950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-20712297097799595802012-01-31T09:21:37.452-05:002012-01-31T09:21:37.452-05:00I agree with you. A bit of non-demanding pulp is g...I agree with you. A bit of non-demanding pulp is good -- within moderation. The problem comes when we have a hard time implementing that. For example, I'd have no problem watching <i>Voyager</i> here and there, but I wouldn't touch <i>Skyrim</i> with the proverbial ten-foot pole. Seems I can't do video games in moderation, so I don't do them at all.Loren Eatonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-43176802392609955512012-01-30T14:37:14.404-05:002012-01-30T14:37:14.404-05:00I am beginning, slowly, to come to a blance-is-goo...I am beginning, slowly, to come to a blance-is-good view. I have to experience "candy"--books only a couple steps away from his Voyager episodes, video games, generic TV shows--if only because I sometimes drown in contemporary philosophy and medieval history. These superficial entertainments serve as a signal to my body saying "stop thinking." <br /><br />(Or at least they do so until I start thinking of 24 as a mixture of soap opera and action movie forms expressing middle-aged male anxieties, or Flashpoint as a celebration of those men who choose to stand in the gaps between America's legal systems and the morality that underwrites them, or Twilight as, er, Twilight.)<br /><br />But I think anyone who surveys America can figure out that an excess of thoughtfulness isn't our nation's main problem. We still need to read more--or do more math, or study logic, or history, or poetry, or physics. Otherwise our brains become as flubby on predigested entertainment as our stomachs do on Big Macs.Chestertonian Ramblerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01550643992523840950noreply@blogger.com