Key Lab

The boy child this morning, after having his waffle and milk, watching transformers and half of Stormhawks, shuffled off the couch to get ready for school. 5 min later he comes back out, black jeans, black T-shirt with a gray stylized skull on the front. Ahhhh....key lab day. Now key lab is music, piano to be exact, every 6 days it pops up in the rotation, I can never keep it straight as to what activity he has each day as the rotation is every 6 days and it is simply too much to compute at 6am. However, when he comes out of his room dressed all in black i know that it is...key lab day.

He informed his mother and I a few months ago that as he loathes key lab, ergo he chooses to wear all black on the days it shows up. He does well in it, but he protests against the inhumane treatment in a positive way, showing his ire through the choice of his clothes.

I love that he wears black on Key Lab day.

W.o.W.

Or World of Warcraft. Ok, so I have been into computer games for a long long time, lets see I got my Atari 2600 at....9, then Commodore 64 (Ultima II Quest of the Avatar) Yes i became an Avatar, hehe. Then Nintendo's, Sega's, 3DO, XBOX and various computer's (A new one about every 2 years). I've played Zork, gotten the visceral thrill of the kill in Rune...(God I loved this game), The snipered head shots in Unreal Tournament, (Yes that was me hiding up in the rafters), three years ago, after reading all the hype, hearing that it was unlike anything else, i said ok, what can 30 days hurt, I'll give it a try.

Now, 3 years later I still play almost daily. Had you asked me then if I thought I would be playing the same game 3 years from now I would have laughed at you. But now, with three years, numerous patches, one expansion down and another on the way, I realize that it is simply digital crack, that once you start it is quite literally impossible to stop, i really believe that they will have to shut the servers down for me to ever stop playing in some form.

Would I call it a hobby, yes I suppose I would, it is definitely recreation, but it is also about...control. With life being as it will, a hectic, energetic, stress and joy filled thing, WoW for me is an...oasis...a place I can go for an hour or so and choose exactly what I want to do, I can fish, i can pick flowers, i can kill demons, i can joke with people in guild chat, accrue huge amounts of money or go watch a sunset. There are no real rewards from this, it is in the end a game. Over the last three years have I used this game as an escape...yes...have I spent more time playing it than living life...yes...have I learned that lesson...yes. For awhile the game was not about relaxing and enjoyment, it was simply easier to be there than real life. Now, thankfully, it has gotten back to being simply fun, it is a game after all and in the end should be...fun.

Both of the kids rolled toons, both played a bit, the girl child lost interest quickly, the boy child lasted a bit longer, in the end the wife and kids understand that it is something I enjoy and something that is now easy to turn off and come back to another day, for virtual fun is fine, but fun in the real world is....better.