Master Pre 09 Sep : 08:31
Yes, preferably with an assailant pummeling you with a bamboo stick.
My favorite thing to do in basic was shining my boots, that's about all we had to do though! There's some trickery you can pull off using a lighter that can turn them into a mirror. But since you don't have the leather toes, it's sort of a mute point.
Let me know if that changes, I can give ya some pointers.
Maybe during Mid Semester break or Thanksgivi
ng break, but not a second before.
However, I DO have the opportunit
y to iron shirts and dust my wall locker. And for this recruit, that's videogame enough.
Master Pre 08 Sep : 09:33
Ahhhhh...r
oger that. You seem to be enjoying the college (military) experience
. Are you gonna have a chance to get some Halo Reach in?
Velvet Typhoon 07 Sep : 19:14
You've got to find ways to make it work, Mr. Pre.
Master Pre 07 Sep : 15:07
Good stuff Mr. Typhoon! As for the library bathrooms, you're all alone on that one. Never encountere
d that in the AF!
Thin
gs I've learned at Norwich: How to heat a pop tart with a clothing iron. How to eat a banana with a knife and fork. How to brush my teeth, shave, and iron a shirt in under five minutes. How to take a shower using nothing but baby wipes. How to use Windex to shine shoes. That masturbati
on in library bathrooms is acceptable
, and encouraged
.
These are the life skills that will carry with me for the rest of my life.
Master Pre 06 Sep : 10:10
I didn't know you liked football?
Velvet Typhoon 05 Sep : 11:00
We had our first football game yesterday.
They had 3rd and 4th Battalions form up in the endzones, and whenever a team scored, interceive
d, changed possession
. . .really, whenever anything at all happened during the game, we did about 20 pushups.
it was motivating
.
turdferguson49 03 Sep : 13:41
A long weekend and the beginning of football season? Can't get much better than this!
Master Pre 03 Sep : 10:40
College Football weekend, L4D2, GoW2, Golf, Coffee...t
his is going to be the perfect weekend.
motaboy82 02 Sep : 15:23
Bring the wheel barrow, take two crushed earings! sales were up 267% for the quarter thanks to RDR. Now they have 300 million in cash on hand to invest on another title or two
Are Your Online Gaming Friends Really Your Friends?
You spend your days playing with them. Maybe they're your backup in a first-person shooter. Perhaps they heal your World of Warcraft guild raids. You count on them, and they count on you, but do you count them as friends?
As I was wondering through the morning news, I stumbled over a Charm City Moms column in The Baltimore Sun asking the question, "Are Your Virtual Friends Real Friends?" In the short article, Liz Atwood observes her children talking about playing games with friends online, prompting her to ponder that question.
"When they play with children on these gaming sites, are these friends? Does a friend have to be someone you see face-to-face or can you be friends with someone you never meet?"
I've been playing MMO games for more than a decade now, from Ultima Online to World of Warcraft to Second Life, and I've often referred to the people I play with on a regular basis as friends. It just seems natural.
But to someone looking in from the outside, like Liz Atwood, it must seem rather peculiar, referring to people we will likely never meet as friends.
Are we labeling these people friends out of convenience, or is the definition of friend changing with the times?
Looking back on my online gaming "career," I've called lots of people my friends. I spent a year and a half in an EverQuest guild, spending more time hanging about virtual avatars with strange names than I did anyone in real life. If I had a problem, I would bounce it off one of them. If one of my guild-mates stumbled on hard times, we'd band together to help them out.
It felt like friendship. Hell, it felt like family.
The difference is, once I quit the game, those people disappeared. Once I was outside of that virtual community, it was as if I no longer existed. Is that how virtual friendship works?
And perhaps it's a testament to the importance of internet anonymity, recently highlighted by Blizzard's attempt to use real names in the World of Warcraft and StarCraft II forums, that I never knew anyone's real name.
Sure, there are a few online folks I talk to outside of gaming circles, particularly those from Second Life, who seem as a whole more willing to take the virtual out of virtual reality. On the whole, however, I've spent months of my time playing with friends that I will never see again.
Looking back, perhaps "friends" was too strong of a word. Maybe it was just easier to say than "acquaintances," or perhaps calling them friends made the time spent seem more worthwhile.
Has the word "friend" simply lost its meaning on the internet? We have Xbox Live friends, Facebook friends, Wii friend codes. Perhaps there should be two different definitions, one for online and one for off.
Do you consider your online gaming friends real friends, or do you need more than a screen name and an avatar before the label sticks?
Send an email to Michael Fahey, the author of this post, at -email-.
Personally, I was pretty critical of the entire concept of "online friendships"...but with The Few my opinion has certainly changed. We've all been hanging out together for years at this point, we share photo's on Facebook, stay up to date on each others families...that sure sounds like legitimate friendship to me!
friend /frɛnd/ Show Spelled[frend] Show IPA –noun 1. a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. 2. a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter: friends of the Boston Symphony. 3. a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile: Who goes there? Friend or foe? 4. a member of the same nation, party, etc. 5. ( initial capital letter ) a member of the Religious Society of Friends; a Quaker.
Judging by the above, yes, we are friends. There is a mutual feeling of affection, assistance is provided, and on Xbox Live, at least, we're all part of the same party.
But to expand the question - do we have very many real friends at all?
I know at least three women who've had a new "Best Friend Forever" about every three months. I was personally deemed 'expendable' and tossed aside by around half a dozen people I had almost considered family in November/December.
The number of people I actually consider friends is barely three people.
One girl has told quite literally all of our mutual acquaintances that she loves them. She is also quite possibly the most taxing individual I have the misfortune of meeting. Now, I don't know if she actually does embody the spirit of universal love, but if she does, it turns out that love is not infinite. Rather than shower wealth on a few (like my three), she gives pennies to the many.
While she can boast quite a higher number of 'friends' than I can, I find she is one of the loneliest people I know.
The question does not seem to be whether the people with whom we interact on Xbox Live are equivalent to our meatspace companions - it's whether our meatspace companions are of equal merit to an electronic avatar. In the immortal words of the great warrior poet Ice Cube, "If the day does not require an AK, the day is good."
Good point. I'd venture to say that many of our meatspace companions are easily adopted into an acquaintance status since people are very consumed with their lives today. Take social sites like facebook. I set mine up and then closed it within 48 hours since I already began hating it. I eventually got over my anger and resumed the site. Most people today are interested in the constant, but shallow, updates in other's lives. I, along with many others, found facebook a great way to connect with old friends. I dare say "real friends" that time has allowed one to lose. Even though these friendships re-establish themselves, they still remain tethered to past experiences.
Ever have a pan pal? I haven't. But I am sure that XBox live people are the equivalent for today's generation. After all, we don't all live in Texas and can see each other every day. Florida's humidity is my love and I shall stay here forever.
I digress. Either it is with age, or perhaps marital status that people tend to nurture fewer relationships than in younger years (when the whole school was one's friend). So there are stronger bonds with fewer people…since we can’t all be Kip Dorey.
It could also be how busy each new generation finds themselves. After all, I still want to play drums and guitar in a band...not sure how I'd do both, but one can dream. Electronic friends are becoming more of a norm or at least a little more respected in terms that people will start to fear each other so much during the zombie plague that the only communication that will be had, aside from eating your neighbor, will be within the safety of your house. Yes you can have friends over XBox live, you just won't go out to the bar with them...unless you live in Texas.
In the end, pen pals are just to express one’s life in a linear style. With a communicator, you can have a conversation…so it’s more involved. The quality of friend is also something to debate. Chris Hansen from Dateline found this out.
[ Edited Thu Jul 15 2010, 12:13PM ] Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you seek peace, prepare for war!)
I think, in the end, it really depends on the strength of the bond which you associate with friendship. I think often "acquaintances" are confused with "friends". Think of "friends" in terms of internet security... you might be willing to let your internet/Live friends save cookies on your hard drive, but are you willing to let them run javascripts and plug-ins in the background?
Haha, I have no idea where I was going with that, the idea just struck and I ran with it. Seriously though, I think it ultimately depends on how comfortable you are with those people, and to what level of detail you're willing to reveal about your personal life. You may have had a great time raiding dungeons with WoW Bob over the past four years, but you might not feel comfortable telling him that your wife has been cheating on you with the Culligan water guy and you have since contracted Syphilis. Or that you're secretly into German fetish porn and you make yearly trips to the Hamburg NaughtyCon for a different sort of role-playing session. Perhaps it's just my personal nature to keep most folks at arms length, but I think being that trusting with someone I've only "met" online is a big leap for me--though you do now know about NaughtyCon...
Atlas in Flames Advocatus Diaboli -------------------------- "In my life I'd not soften things that cut and burn so often." Alice in Chains, "It Ain't Like That"
"Si pecasse negamus, fallimur, et nulla est in nobis veritas." If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there's no truth in us.
[quote]I think, in the end, it really depends on the strength of the bond which you associate with friendship. I think often "acquaintances" are confused with "friends". Think of "friends" in terms of internet security... you might be willing to let your internet/Live friends save cookies on your hard drive, but are you willing to let them run javascripts and plug-ins in the background?[/quote]
I think i was just compared to "bonzo Buddy" ... lol thats epic
I would definantly consider the people I game with online friends in fact if I ever get the chance it'd be hella cool to go visit some of you guys at some point. Hell, KS is planning on making a trip to MN to see my dad and I and another buddy of his from MN. There's something exciting about meeting the people who you've experienced so many random funny as hell or just plain old cool moments in games with. I feel comfortable going to you guys even with things that come up in my life. I know you guys will give me an unbiased opinion based on the experiences you've had in your life.
So basically there's no question in my mind that you guys are my friends you guys are my gaming crew ^_^
[ Edited Thu Jul 22 2010, 03:25PM ] "I'll hunt you down without mercy, hunt you down all nightmare long!" All Nightmare Long-Metallica
