Some particulars I'd like to try to work with...

...So, now that I have this idea for this establishment...  It's time to kinda write out the overall points/aspirations of this place:

***The Shop***
-New and used video games will be sold and traded; price-matching (on both selling and buying) will be accepted, so long as you have proof of some sort.  All games and systems of all sorts will be accepted, so long as they prove to be in good, working order.
-Video Game paraphenalia, such as t-shirts, action figures, posters, any kind of collectible item involving video games will also be sold here.  Trading and bartering of said goods is also welcome.
-If we have a used copy of a game you're lookin' for, you can try it out at the store for a short while.
-At least 10% of all profit from the shop will go to a different charity each month.

***The Arcade***
-Several of the newest and/or best arcade machines around will be featured.
-Many ticket-giving games will be featured; "real" prizes (i.e., good toys, discounts at the store or cafe, etc.), more tokens, or giving to a charity of your choice with each ticket having a certain amount for the store to donate as choices for ticket redemption.
-At least 10% of all profits will go to a different charity each month.

***The Cafe***
-Reasonably-priced food and drink available, and definitely not just soda.
-The cafe will have wi-fi support for Nintendo DS, PSP, laptops, and other machines implementing wireless internet usage, usage that'll most definitely be free.
-At least 10% of all profits will go to a different charity each month.

***The Events***
-Tournaments of all sorts will be held; sponsors are welcome to support.  Prizes will be given based on the amount of people signing up; much of the entry fees will go to the charity of the month.
-Video game talent contests will be held: show us the most impressive thing you can do in a video game!  Again, much of entry will go to the charity of the month.
-Visitation of St. Judes: help bring fun and good times to the children of St. Judes!

***The Name***
...I really don't know yet, to be honest.  I'm definitely open for suggestions in this department.

Any comments or suggestions will be greatly considered and appreciated; this post will be updated as suggestions/different ideas come up.

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The New Direction...and Hopefully the Last One I'll Take...

Have you ever had one of those times in the shower when you're sittin' there washin' your hair and you come across this great epiffany that'll seemingly end all the problems in your life or in the world or both?

Well, I did.

I started thinkin' about how I get annoyed with the corporate setting of EB Games/Gamestop and thought, "Damn, how nice it'd be if we didn't have to go through so much crap to get things done the way they want it to be done."  They want us to push 8 gazillion different things in the course of 1 minute.  "That game doesn't come out for awhile...you can pre-order it!" or "I can put a one-year protection on that game for (x amount of dollars)." or "Bring in your old games to trade in!" or "Hey, you have our discount card?" or "You know you wanna get the strategy guide..." or "I got a used copy of this game for less..." or "Yeah, this'll be a game to consider getting (even if it's the worst game ever, advertising apparently pays)"...  The list of crap we go through goes on and on and on...  It would be nice, for once, if I didn't have to worry a moment on any of that stuff, so I could just talk to people, find for them what they want, help them with any questions/concerns/problems they have...  I want to help people, not be a pre-programmed jerk made to push as much crap onto them as quickly as possible...

So I got to thinkin'...how do I get around all of that crap?  Start up my own store.  Get some good, generally-knowledgable people to work with me, carry everything we possibly can (that's worthwhile at least), and just help people get the games they'll want to play and enjoy.

And, from there, I started thinkin', "Man, I freakin' hate the media for making it out to seem that everyone that has ever played a game, even something like Pac-Man, should be shot and burn in hell for all eternity."  So what can I do to overcome that "image"?

Support the community.  Support charities.  Have video-game-related events that'll end up somehow benefitting these. 

What kind of events?  Tournaments. 

What tournaments to have?  I dunno, some stuff out of an arcade.

How do I get access to an arcade?  Make my own.

And, so, my dream was suddenly constructed while I stood there rinsing the shampoo out of my hair.  The first video game...place...that does what it can to help out people in whatever ways possible.

The only problem left is figuring out how to get all of it to work...  I gotta make enough money to live and pay my employees...and raise as much money as I can for these different charities and funds and whatnot.

I'm now tryin' to figure out which charities I should donate to.  First and foremost, St. Judes.  I really do like what they're doin' and would like to help them out in anyway I can.

Secondly, American Cancer Society.  Hell, I'm alive because of the organization, per se; they saw it fit to put my name on a memorial of all the cancer survivors (at the very least out of my hometown)...  I really do have a vendetta against cancer I'd like to wage.

From there...  I dunno.  Perhaps the main Multiple Sclerosis fund...or the fund regarding Myleodisplasia...  I definitely want to donate to area schools, too.

It just feels so right...  It seems like it could work.  I would like nothing more than to see this establishment take form and start helping others as soon as possible.

...And so, I must change my major to enterpreneurship.  Forget about computer science, it does only so much.  Forget about chemistry, there are others that are much more qualified and motivated than I am about it.  I will find a way to have video games bring people together and help fight a common foe.

Please, if anyone is interested in helping with this establishment, I would be more than honored to have whatever assistance I can get, even if it's as little as pledging your participation in the events this establishment will offer.

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A Further Realization of the Self...

I got to thinking earlier today about things...

...I came to the conclusion that I somewhat treat life as if it were a video game console.  As totally stupid as that sounds, I think it's a rather appropriate description of it.

I've thought about all the things I'd like to do...  I'd like to be an astronaut, an architect, a roller coaster designer, an EB Games/Gamestop store manager, an arcade owner, a game designer, a chemist, a secret agent, a police officer, an archaeologist, or a teacher...  In terms of hobbies, I'd like to play video games, learn many martial arts, create and/or play music, mess with LEGOs, watch and make movies, a collectible card game player, exercise, play DDR...  I'm sure there's many more I can't think of at the moment to put in both lists.  I want to be able to do all kinds of things, experience the world from any point of view that I can, make friends with all...

...But I can't.  It's not like I could simply put in a different game and change what I play for awhile, then switch to something else after I get done with that.  That's what I want to do.  I want to see/hear/do it all.  But I can't.  I can't switch from Katamari Damacy to Time Crisis 3...  I can't switch from teaching or policing, and I especially can't do both at the same time.  I have to choose...

Choosing a career is like choosing one, and only one, game to play for the rest of your life.  Or at least that's how it feels to me.  I can't simply choose one game to play for the rest of my life!  There's different genres, different stories, different systems...  Katamari's fun, but only for so long; Devil May Cry 3 is awesome, but I like a good ol' RPG to play; RPG's are only so entertaining, so I switch to God of War, and then to Mario after that, and then to Beatmania after that...then I might go back to Katamari when all's said and done, and the cycle begins.

Even, to a certain extent, my friends are the same way.  I have different groups of friends, all of which I enjoy being with, all of which I want to do stuff with all the time.  But, I know that some of my friends can be somewhat "incompatible" with each other.  My assistant manager, Donald...  I really enjoy goin' to his place and playin' games and perhaps even having a drink or two; he's a good guy.  But some of my other friends would be highly uncomfortable being around him, I know...

I can't be with all my friends at the same time; it just couldn't happen.  So many different backgrounds, different philosophies, different everythings...  And so, I end up having to switch between them all like different video games...

I guess, in the bitter end, video games really have shaped me in ways I normally wouldn't realize.

...You know what they say about red mages: they're a jack of all trades...but they can't do any one particular thing very well.

...And in America, specialization and focus on one and only one thing is what's desired.  Perhaps that is why I'm having a difficult time with everything...

(EDIT: www.sloganizer.net for the win.)

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...

I really don't know why I'm typing in here.  It's midnight, Marissa's asleep, and I don't feel like playin' WoW.

...I really don't know what to do with my life.  So many possibilities, yet none...so many different ways to live that are offered here in America, none of which will put me down in the annals of history...  I think my playing of RPG's has really made me...epic, in a sense.  I want music in the background that matches my mood exactly, no matter what it is I do; I want to fight for a cause I believe in; I want to triumph over the impossible...

...And, yet, I want to veg out and do nothing...  It's really an internal struggle I face.  I want to save the world, yet at the same time, I want to just sit around and live out my life.  I want to accomplish everything I could ever dream of, yet I want to get nothing done.

I want to live actively, yet I desire to live passively...

"I don't know what's worth fighting for, or why I have to scream
I don't know why I instigate and say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way, I'll never be alright
So I'm breaking the habit,
I'm breaking the habit tonight"

---"Breaking the Habit", Linkin Park, Meteora

...Can I find the way of breaking the habit, the habit of indesiciveness?  Two different lives to live...unfortunately, they cannot coexist within...

...Okay, I guess I'll go home now.

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Art and Science...

As I walked off from Tai Chi class to come to the computer lab to type while Marissa has fun at swing club, I walked around and I wondered...  Why is it that I can accomplish DDR like a champ, whereas real dancing is probably my bane?  So, I walked and wondered...what are the differences between them?

In DDR, you move your feet around in a given fashion at a given pace.  It's there, black and white, you make the step or you don't make the step, with only a few varying degrees of accuracy present.  In typical dancing, however, it's a little different.  The feet are involved, but so are the hands.  More to handle, that's all the difference, right?  Not quite.  The real difference lies with how it is done.  In DDR, you are basically told how to step and you react accordingly.  In typical, social dancing...you make it up, every step of the way.  Sure you have several different given moves, but it is up to you to put them together and make them work.  There's basically a limitless amount of ways to execute a dance.

So, then I got to thinking...about my strengths.  My strengths lay in mathematics and science, fields that are basically governed by measurable, quantifiable ideas.  I'm a human computer, in a sense: a computer with sentience and intelligence.  There are no random events in such fields; everything happens for a reason.

So, that's probably why I'm into DDR; it's a measurable experience that'll tell me if I'm doing it right or wrong.  That's probably also why I'm so horrible at normal dancing; it's not governed by right or wrong, it's just there.  It all just happens.  My mindset doesn't allow for me to be random and pick dance moves to execute at will.  I'm too much like a computer.

...So, I went into what was open of the art building this time of night to just kinda waltz around and look at art.  They had some sculptures up made from string and wire.  They're pretty neat-lookin'--but I cannot comprehend what they are, why they are the way they are, any significant meaning...  It's baffling to me.  I could go all day about how long the individual strings are, and I could (with a little review) tell you what curves are present and their slopes and formulas and whatnot; I couldn't tell you what it is other than a sculpture...  I couldn't say what intrinsic value lies within it.  I couldn't tell you why they made it into what they did and not some other way.  It is unexplainable.

...Am I limiting my human existance because I cannot comprehend things happening because they can?  Will I ever amount to anything more than a mere computer?  I really don't know...

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