Now this is a socially accepted response. The phrase ‘what’s up’ has been used since what, 1990? That’s as far back as I can remember. The brain of most people would compute that as ‘response accepted’ and go on to the next task. Carlos’ didn’t. Neither did my Grandmother’s.

This isn’t a bash on Carlos, he has enough of that on the Internet, but this is something I’ve never understood. Carlos went on to suggest that he has a lot more life experience than the young man he met. He’s been around a lot longer. Undeniable, of course. I draw a problem with his next sentiment. The sentiment that just because of those facts, he deserves respect. He acknowleged the young man, he extended a greeting to him, he feels that he should be greeted with a ’sir’. While I don’t disagree with that, as it stands, I draw issue with the better-than-you mentality.

This was also my grandmothers fault.

Demanding respect due to “elder status” is not right in my opinion. If anything, demand respect because everyone deserves it.

In my opinion, everyone has respect, until you do something to lose it. I don’t know the guy walking down the street, I don’t know anything about him, and when I greet him, it’s out of respect for my fellow man. Not because I feel above him.

Just some random thoughts. This is one major reason I never got along with my grandmother. We grew up in different times, I guess, but it doesn’t change what is fair.

I respect the fact that developers spend a lot of money and put a lot of time into creating great games. I am completely willing to put up my $50 for a new title. I am not willing to be treated to third party software installs on my computer, EULAs that effectively eliminate any rights I may have to use that software or dictate how I may do so after I’ve paid my money or in short, be treated like a criminal while the individuals who do pirate your software enjoy a better user experience.

Ben goes on to quote an EA rep from their forum, which pretty much sums up why EA is the devil

Be nice in your forums. The below quote is a perfect example of not being nice. It shows only that you would willingly take away a paying user’s ability to play a game based on words they would say.

Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you’d actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It’s all one in the same, so I strongly reccommend people play nice and act mature.

All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but its what we have to do.

Those banned will stay banned, but like most other internet services, its not that hard to create a new fake e-mail account. However, its a lot harder to get a new serial key =)

I’m glad that smiley is in there or this slap in my face would sting a lot more. In short, don’t punish us for buying your software.

This really is a good read, and I highly recommend any gamer chooses to speak out about the way we’re treated.

An open letter to Electronic Arts - because voting with my wallet isn’t enough.

While there, my brother revealed that while he was unpacking, he found hundreds of photographs from his youth, which also included several of me.  I used to be a goofy kid.

Why can’t I remember it?

I don’t remember any of it.  When I questioned my mom all she said was “You used to be a happy person.”

Which actually reinforces something I’ve been privy to discover about myself in recent years.  I feel I have a lot of suppressed aggression, but the funny thing is, I don’t feel angry.  I just feel…i don’t know, it’s hard to describe…sad, but in a weird way.  Not like ‘boo hoo’ sad, because, frankly, I have nothing to be sad about, but it’s the feeling of being down.  I don’t like the word depression, because I don’t feel that fits what I’m trying to describe, but hell, I’m no doctor.

In discussing things with Justine, Mom and Steven in the past few weeks, they both agree that I have a lot to be angry about, to which I agree, but why doesn’t it just pass and go away?  There is no sense in staying angry at things that cannot be changed, and I know this, but it seems my brain just dismisses the anger to suppression instead of release.

Maybe I should seek help?  You know, because therapists don’t have their own issues to deal with.  Right.