Time for another installment of fart-ripping goodness. This time, I'm going to rip about work. Not homework, but actual 'joining the labor force' and 'contributing to society' work. Don't get me wrong, working is fun up to a point; I really like thinking about how I'm simply working, and not going to school on the side.
During college I was unfortunate enough to land a total of zero internships. I worked a lot of labor-intensive jobs focused around manual labor; nothing particularly in the professional realm (the area I was aiming for since, otherwise why would I be going to a 4-year college for?). A job that was even remotely related to a professional setting was working in a library shelving books. Every job I managed to qualify for involved heavy manual labor perhaps even comparable to sweatshop labor. Err, nevermind, nothing ever compares to sweatshop labor; no matter how bad you have it in America, somebody has it worse elsewhere in the world...
At my current work where I only work part-time (damn them not offering full-time just to skimp out on benefits...it's the economy hehe that seriously should be a taboo word nowadays), I was trained by people who were younger than me. It felt kind of embarrassing, they range from 18-20 year old kids still taking college classes on the side while working there. Then there's me, straight out of college with a degree, working at a place where these teenagers have been for 1-2 years already. Aside from the great work experience gap, just the actual age gap is noticeable in terms of everyday demeanor and conduct. Sometimes my coworkers will be loud, obnoxious, and sometimes rebellious during work. Even though I know they're only acting natural for their age, I'm only 2-3 years older than them; and I feel like I shouldn't engage in their shenanigans. See? I'm using shenanigans to illustrate their actions--so old.
Like I said above, I only work part-time for now, and of course eventually I would like to work full-time to expedite my process of moving out of my parents' place. During some of my summer work stints and some other temporary work experiences, I definitely caught a glimpse of my future where I would be working 40-60 hours per week--it's not pretty. The work would be fine, as long as I'm receiving some income, I'm not going to be the one to complain; although the trade-off from working long hours during a given week is that I will obviously have less free time for myself.
For those who are younger than me, or maybe those who are experiencing this already, having enough free time is or will be an issue for you. For the most part I think I've done a good job of keeping up with my periodic cardio workout, watching sports every now and then, watching a fair number of TV shows;although I've been wanting to catch up with Lost and The Office. Oh yeah, I totally forgot that I'm also trying to juggle in a pseudo social life. Since I'm making time for TV, working out, and my sham of a social life, I haven't really made enough time for playing video games.
I remember back in the day (great...I'm using the back in the day clause) when I first got my PS2. I was maybe 13 or 14 at the time, and one of my first games for the system was Gran Turismo 3. Before I was super interested in cars, I would occasionally watch coverage of the 24 hours of Le Mans or the World Rally Championship on SpeedTV. I was completely mind-blown by Gran Turismo 3, and have been super passionate about cars ever since. To this day, it is the only game where I actually bought the strategy guide for. Luckily it was only $4, so it wasn't so hard to find the money for it.
Before people started fail-themed blogs and websites, the people at Polyphony Digital and Gran Turismo were the originators of the FAIL meme.
I played that game back and forth trying to unlock every special/LM car in the game. This would often lead to me doing 10-long race championships and endurance races multiple times. Of course this was only possible because I had so much damn time on my hands. I was only in Jr. High at the time. I had the luxury of being a kid--I was a carefree child for the most part. If only my PS2 memory card didn't go corrupt on me, I would still be able to show proof of my 100% completion of the game. I wasn't a true GT masochist by trying to get all golds for the license tests, but I at least completed all the races with gold. I actually did it twice since one of my friends who also had GT3 lost his data, and I offered to beat the game for him for kicks.
I prided myself on actually having 3 (you read that right) R390 GT1 road cars. Sigh. Oi, where art thou?
In short, I had a lot of free time on my hands to finish Gran Turismo 3 not only once, but twice completely. I happened to pick up a copy of Gran Turismo 4 a few years back when I was still in college, but I hadn't come around to putting in some decent time into the game until I graduated. Looking for jobs and maintaining a somewhat healthy social life alongside some responsibilities at home started eating my free time away. As of now I'm only about over 50% through the game which is still an amazing feat in my opinion (thanks to B-Spec mode, err, I won't go further into detail about that), but it just doesn't seem like I'll ever finish it. There's just no time in my schedule to face those grueling 24 hour endurances at the Nurburgring or Le Sarthe, tempting as they may be.
Since starting GT4, I've developed a love/hate relationship with that damned pace car. "Oh awesome...you're showing the correct racing line...AHH shit you're in my way!"
Gone is the time that I can just lay around and not have a care in the world. I can't just go to class, go home and take a nap. I gotta wake up, make a lunch for my kid brother, prep food for dinner, go to work, run errands, take care of some household chores, etc. Blah. Will I be able to make enough time to play something as time consuming as a Gran Turismo game? I sure hope so, just for my youth's sake.
~Gimme some R390~
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