Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
So I finally saw Yes Man last night. It kind of felt like I was watching the last 5 years or so of my life. Perhaps even my life in its current form, as well. Basically, it’s a guy who passes up every opportunity to do anything and has been stuck alone and in the same dead-end job for far too long. He eventually started saying yes to things and his life turns around for the better.
This behavior is just all too familiar to me.
It really is reminiscent of how I live my life. For the past 5 years or so, if not longer, I have been shamefully addicted to MMO games. It started with City of Heroes then turned into World of Warcraft, and that is where I spent my life. I would get home from work and play these games until way after my bed time, wake up late for work and then repeat the process.
Countless phone calls from my friends asking me if I want to go to a movie. Do I want to go play foosball with the guys? Let’s go have some drinks! A fight is on, wanna come watch it and have a beer or two? Hey let’s go over to so-and-so’s house and play some games! …
- Sorry, busy right now
- Bad timing man, I’m cooking dinner!
- Eating dinner right now
- My head hurts, not feeling well
- I was sleeping when you called, sorry
This is just a sample of the excuses I had to not go anywhere so I could instead sit at home in my own misery and continue to tap away killing giant butterflies. It got to the point to where even when I had a cell phone, I would ignore calls or just keep my phone off so I wouldn’t even have to make up an excuse. Sooner or later my friends would ask why I haven’t been around, and my typical response was, “Work’s been kicking my ass, sorry.”
Eventually, for whatever reason, whether it’s because I got tired of making excuses or because my friends finally caught on, i just started flat out saying, “Can’t, I have a raid tonight.” This led to a pretty predictable answer from me as time went on, and eventually my friends stopped asking me to hang out. They went out without me. Watched the fight and didn’t bother asking if I wanted to go because, honestly, we all knew what I would say. It didn’t really bother me, either… I was killing giant butterflies, collecting my “epic purps.”
Recently I have been getting tired of it all (That’s a post for another time) and started being more open to doing things. This leads us to now … to the movie, Yes Man … and it got me thinking. Perhaps, just maybe, I should be more like that. Saying yes to almost every opportunity that presents itself. Maybe not on such an extreme scale, but going out to a bar, even when drinking until I puke on myself isn’t something I typically do. Perhaps going out and watching an MMA fight would prove to be beneficial, even though watching two guys beat the living shit out of each other doesn’t appeal to me (yet). Maybe I’m not into these things because I dismiss them without experiencing them.
Yes. Maybe it is time for me to stop secluding myself from the world. But then the question I ask myself … is this a revelation, or just a phase?
Posted in Gaming, Life | Comments (1)
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:35 pm
I kept suggesting you go watch this movie and I’m glad you finally did. Glad you’re taking steps towards progress.