The persuit of AWESOME

Dudes, if something isn’t awesome it’s not worth doing.  Except things we need to do.  I was watching a review by Nostalgia Critic on Disney films which included Casey at the Bat.  The short film itself is one of my all-time favorite Disney shorts, one I’ve reflected upon so many times, “Dude, you don’t just let the first two go bye!”  But also loving the umpire and the crowd’s reaction.  After his final swing we jump to the beautiful afternoon in the park where all is joy and serenity and I see a kid running down the street pushing a hoop (I guess the stick part came a little later) and immediately thought to myself, “holy crap, that’s what kids did?”  I can understand it actually, I played tons of silly games me and my friends made up when we were younger.  One such game involved throwing Halloween fuzzy peach candies packages at each’s goals until one of us scored, it was good fun and no-one got hurt during this one.  I and my brother played this for days after school and it drove my Dad crazy (also part of the fun).  Now-a-days?  It’s videogames, movies, and all sorts of intoxicants that help me get through the seemingly boring down-time of everyday life.  It’s making non-play-time excruciating.

These are for throwing!

I look upon my senior co-workers and wonder what drives them; personally I’m driven by the duty that comes with the profession.  I've taken an oath and that oath binds me to a few things, especially quality of work and deadlines are my nemesis when it comes to quality.  Also, losing my job is not a desire of mine so I keep up the good work.  Regardless, I find work difficult when I know I've got probably thousands of hours of entertainment waiting for me at home.  It’s ridiculous, without spending money one can watch YouTube videos, download game trials off PSN (some of which gives you an hour or so of play-time), and dedicated websites release videos that are generally of a quality that can compete with television without the censorship (hopefully it stays that way).  If the power goes out you can read books, I have about 2 dozen on my shelf I haven’t finished, 3 I’m in the middle of actually, and these are days of entertainment.

What I’m getting to is that the quality of free-time is starting to vastly outdo the quality of work-time from an enjoyment/fulfillment sense.  At work I’m an Engineer, at home I’m a freakin superhero/assassin in the renaissance/bounty hunter/dragonslaying battle-mage to name a few.  Sure, in Mass Effect I can also be an Engineer, but those engineers are like BATTLE-ENGINEERS.

  I've got a double-major in Electrical Engineering and Kicking Ass!

These engineers are an engineer in the same sense as a train or sound engineer is an engineer.  They’re basically good with technology and they don’t create anything new, they just have tools to assist their combat… I actually have a hard time believing John Shepard would be an Engineer but whatever, it’s awesome, those attack drones totally make the enemy run out in the open for easy shooting!  So, when I go to work and Engineer a pipe-line reinforcement pad or size a pump for a client I feel like not only is it not epic, it’s made much less epic because videogames have redefined what engineering could be.  Not only am I a non-superhero, I’m a non-super-engineer!  Although I’m glad I’m not working in a Dead Space environment, that’s eff’d up.