The 2013 Roo-view

Ok, so here we go. Bonnaroo 2013 has now come and gone, everyone survived, and everyone was forever changed for the better. I guarantee that this blog post will contain my honest-to-god feelings about my experience, and will be relatively free of hyperbole. It is insanely long, and took me a few hours to write. Also, the first half will have more pictures. My photography was unfortunately inconsistent.

(tl;dr I am not the same)

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It’s 3am.

I feel like writing something.

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning, and I’m usually pretty sound asleep at this hour. But for tonight, I am wide-eyed. I figure it’s as good a time as any to record my thoughts. My mind is weary, but awake. Every thought I have flows slowly out, as if I can feel the electricity pulsing from my brain to my fingertips to my keyboard.

Which is exactly the state to be in, when you want to record some juicy, abstract, mindless musings for later, more sober, scrutiny.

Note: As I write this, I am grinding levels in Final Fantasy III. I’ve found a comfortable spot in the game, wherein I simply need to walk around in circles, fight an easy mob by simply tapping a button a few times, and check over to the screen every now and then to make sure my party’s HP isn’t too low. It’s helping to keep the monkey-mind distracted.

I think tonight, I’ll go back in time a way.

I’m coming up on 25 in a little over a month, and it seems as good a time as any for some decent introspection.

It’s been a fun ride so far, and I hope it continues for quite a while. A lot of exciting things are still yet to happen.

My earlier writings are strange to read these days. A lot of the time, I didn’t even really know what to write about. Most of the posts were topical, or completely unnecessary. Sometimes, they still are.

Though now I’ve found that my writings closer to the present day are infused with something else. Not necessarily something better or worse, but certainly something different.

I feel more connected now. In those days, there was a lot more confusion and loneliness. There was uncertainty. I didn’t know where I was going to end up, and that scared the hell out of me.

Now, I know that there’s something to be celebrated in uncertainty.

I think I find life so awesome and beautiful because it’s so mysterious. It’s something I just couldn’t ever grasp the entirety of. I am truly grateful for each day that I have, because each one is made up of hours, minutes, seconds, and moments that can never be replicated.

There are an infinite number of moments.

These are mine, those are yours.

And all of them are ours.

Enjoy each and every moment. Because you will have a last one. And so will I. By connecting with each other, we multiply our experience. Life is as limitless as you want it to be.

Make friends. Love every other person out there. Love yourself. And do your damnedest to make this universe a better place to be.

When you die, you won’t be gone. You’ll be infinite.

Goodnight.

OUYA: First thoughts

Well, my OUYA console arrived today. I actually passed right by it a few times, before doing a few double takes and realizing this small rectangular box was for me. It was a pleasant surprise.

Anyway, I unboxed the thing in a slapdash fashion, eager to see what it could do. To my surprise, the box was incredibly tiny. It fits easily into the palm of your hand, and weighs next to nothing. If I would have read all of the email updates that were sent to me for backing the project, I probably would have known all of this ahead of time, but that’s not how I like to do things. I like being surprised.

D’awwww. This is what the world needs right now: cuter consoles.

If you want all of the tech specs of the console, look elsewhere. I’m sure several other people have listed those out for you on their blogs. I just want to share my thoughts on what this console could mean for the future of gaming.

I plugged the tiny box in, hooked up the cord, and powered it on. I inserted the two AA batteries into the wireless controller. (Sleek, but I’m not a fan of using batteries.) One of the coolest features of OUYA is how easy it is for anyone to mod or create extensions for the console and/or controllers. So I’m pretty sure a rechargable controller is coming in the near future, from someone.

I logged in to my OUYA account, “Snoo” (I had reserved it a couple months ago, finally able to drop the “Senor” from my tag. I thought I’d be more excited about this, but I guess I had grown attached to it…) After logging in, I was taken to my dashboard, where I had the option to play games I had installed. (I had none) I chose to “discover”, leading me to a sort of digital storefront. The first game that popped out was Final Fantasy III, which I hadn’t played in many moons. I opened it up, read the info, and clicked download. Just like that, it started installing to my hard drive. No credit cards on file, nothing. In seconds, I had started a new game and was having a pretty great time. I’ve yet to be asked to buy the game, but it is most likely going to be a purchase I make. There are a couple dozen good games on the store right now, and that library will grow very large in the near future.

Choices, choices.

You see, the pull of OUYA is that anyone can be a developer. My console right now, is capable of uploading any game I may create, and posting it online for the world to try and (hopefully) buy. That’s where the whole “future of gaming” thing comes in. By cutting out the middleman completely, OUYA provides a unique opportunity for indie developers to get their game made, the way they want it made, without having to worry about publishers, or marketing, or any of that crap. It’s simple and pure.

It remains to be seen if we will see an OUYA exclusive “blockbuster” game, or if the marketplace will be over-saturated with mediocrity.

I remain optimistic after playing for a few hours. Some of these games are legitimately fun, and they’re all free to try.

The keyword here is potential. The next “Minecraft” or “Braid” is floating out there in somebody’s head, and it’s now easier than ever for them to get that game to you. The catalog is incomplete. Nothing on OUYA right now will blow you out of the water. Give it some time, though, and this little tiny box might just surprise you.

I’m gonna go play Final Fantasy III now. I may also buy it.

I’m about to f**k up this Land Turtle.

Stream_of_Consciousness_001

Hello there, text box. Let me fill you up with musings.

I think one of the best times to write is when you don’t have any strong inclination too. You sort of will yourself to sit in front of the keyboard (or your pen/pencil and a notebook, if you’re old-school), and you just make yourself write things. It’s very beneficial for your mental health, or so I hear.

That being said, I find myself in a state of ambiguous thought. There are little topics and tidbits orbiting my mind like a star. None are being pulled in any closer to the surface of my conscious mind. There they sit, hovering out of reach, equidistant, or as much so as I can make them.

You see, sitting here, and typing out my conscious thought that comes to my mind keeps them at bay. It requires just enough of my consciousness to keep me from delving too far into any particular subject of thought. They will creep closer from time to time, maybe occupying a fraction of the space they would need for real introspection to occur. I continue to type, and they continue to rotate.

Ladies and gentleman, we have a symbiotic relationship between the monkey mind and the digital notepad.

Frankly, I’m surprised that I haven’t made any typos at this point. At least, none have yet become apparent. Maybe also an effect of the distracting nature of streams of consciousness.

But boy am I having fun.

I suppose I should wrap this up eventually. No point in rambling on for days. The true reason behind this post is selfish. It’s not really worded (or interesting?) for any particular reader besides “Future John”. I hope to look back in the future, read these words, and realize more about who I am, who I was, who I am becoming.

I assume it will always be in flux.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And sure, knowing these things is probably not vital to my happiness or my survival. I’ll be lucky if it doesn’t end up being detrimental to either… I guess we’ll see.

Also, who knows?

Maybe someone out there is amused by the monkey mind.

For a reason passing my understanding.

Choice

A post by one of my friends on Facebook sort of got to me last night. Now I know that Facebook is one of the farthest mediums from engaging in an intelligent discussion, and I knew that such a discussion was very unlikely, no matter what I countered with, so I did not “take the bait”.

…But it did get me writing. Which I’m quickly learning is never a bad thing. Even when the writing is bad.

Especially when the writing is bad.

Anyway, I wrote another poem. It’s after the break.

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