And we're back!

"This is not 'nam. This is bowling. There are rules... Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?" - Walter, The Big Lebowski

Well it's been a few years, but I've decided to pick-up the keyboard again. I never did explain the name for this blog. While it is from poor Walter's diatribe, there's more to it.

I meant to put an image up at the header somewhere, and still might when I figure out how, of a pixellated dog that I have tattooed on my back. Some years ago, back in college, I decided to get this tattoo, and this is what I wrote about it at the time:

You're going to have to bear with me for a bit. This is, I think, one of those "you had to be there" moments in growing up, but try to picture yourself six or seven years old again. You're in the middle of realizing how mutable the world around you really is. At that age you see something, anything, and imagine it to be something else. And with the level of imagination you have at this point, it just takes a little time and dedication to see your dream become a reality. Like one time that I looked at my staircase and saw a slide. It was just a matter of ripping the top off my toy chest and using it as a toboggan. A few seconds later, there are scuff marks on the wall, and a delighted child.

Now picture video games entering into this seven year old's arsenal of distractions. This opens up an untapped level of creativity. Before my Nintendo, I never though I could feel what it was like to defend the world from alien invaders, or try to eat powerpills while being chased down by pastel ghosts. There was one game, however, that brought grave premonition.

In the classic Duck Hunt, you have a limited number of bullets to kill a certain percentage of ducks. When you miss, often at first, a hound pops up from the bush and laughs at you. Kind of funny at first, but the levels get faster and harder, and you want to win because you can. That's when you miss, and that dog jumps up to laugh, but this time you're waiting for him. He will mock your failure no longer. You're gonna plug that bastard. "Click! Click!" echoed by the game as "Bang! Bang!" and the dog is still there, laughing. Laughing harder than ever because you just missed three shots in a row. You know he should be dead. You shot him square in the face. The game, however, wasn't programmed to let you shoot him, so you can't. It's just a miss.

Every kid who's played that game knows this frustration, and though it may have manifest itself in their life before having played Duck Hunt, he will still identify the realization that a short sighted system stands in the way of their dream with that fucking dog.

Well now I can't figure out how to unblockquote. Go figure.