Category: Negative

[Grime/Glitter] EarthBound Isn’t Videogaming

My writing ambitions sprouted from playing EarthBound at a young age. There is no other form of entertainment I have returned to more, and yet, I don’t consider it a videogame. There are no objectives or high scores. You’re playing it wrong if you’re merely trying to rush through to the ending credits. The more effort you invest into exploring the world and characters, the more you learn about yourself. Earthbound is a digital novel.

WANNA CONSIDER HOW VIDEOGAMES CAN BE AS LITERATE AS NOVELS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] No Way Out

The more I see of the homeless population in Seattle, the more I think it’s not a lack of resources available to people that are underprivileged. Shelters, soup kitchens, and scant opportunities are available. But why try? Why is it that there are only a few ways to survive in the Americas: become stressfully rich, scrape by while living in massive debt, or live outside the system? Is there any way out of corporate subjugation?

WANNA CONSIDER A THOUGHT PIECE ON WHY MY COMFORT MIGHT NOT BE YOURS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[The Story] Adoptability of Homelessness

“Do you have 50 cents you could spare this afternoon?[1]” “Yeah, sure… You hanging in there alright?[2]” I gave him all my change, 8 cents, and one dollar more. “Thank you. Yeah, I am.[1]” The man wearing a dirty hoodie in the dry heat walked off, looking disbelieved over money. Life in “The Story” isn’t easier than our own. John (left) had periods of teenage homelessness before being “adopted” into Trishna’s (right) life. Can we adopt everyone?

Spoiler Warning Scale: Minor (worldbuilding, rant piece) WANNA CONSIDER AN UNCOMFORTABLE TOPIC AND MAYBE HOW WE CAN WORK TOWARD MAKING IT MORE COMFORTABLE FOR EVERYONE? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] Animosity Toward Entertainment

We’ve arrived at such an entertainment saturation that we can easily discard anything even remotely disinteresting. I’m just as guilty as any of us. Removing anything that could distract me from accomplishing my goals could be a succinct explanation of my work ethic, and yet, there are proper ways to handle our discarded distractions. Now is the best time to consider the prevention of consuming entertainment wastefully, because we’re only getting more saturated by entertainment!

WANNA CONSIDER HOW WE ARE MANIPULATED BY SHINY NEW OBJECTS AND HOW WE SHOULD REMAIN FOCUSED ON COMPLETING OUR BORING OLD GOALS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] Distracted From Stress

We have too many distractions. Some distractions are good. Too many distractions leads to that certain indecisiveness that spoils us of our time, enables us to be lazy, and prevents us from doing what we must. These distractions help us cope with terrible commutes or mediocre gigs at the expense of addressing what we must do to resolve the origins of these stressors. Taken broadly, the more we distract ourselves, the less we can do.

WANNA CONSIDER HOW OFTEN WE DISTRACT OURSELVES FROM OUR PROBLEMS? OR HOW OFTEN WE MISS THE RAINBOWS OF LIFE BECAUSE WE’RE FOCUSED ON THE TREES OF STRESS? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] Seattle’s Mercer Problem

Seattle traffic is beyond capacity. A stretch of I-5 (northbound and southbound) that usually takes around 5 minutes to drive through in light traffic now exceeds 20 minutes when all the commuter single-occupancy vehicles leave their gigs at 5PM. Wade it out until 7PM and it’s less terrible. The traffic focuses until, and dissipates after, one point: Mercer Street. Our new neighbor has invited all of their friends without the least bit of consideration for anyone else.

WANNA CONSIDER HOW WE SHARE IN A COMMON PROBLEM AND SOLUTION? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] The Gig Life I

Our careers permeate into everything we do. When I get invested in my work, I am no longer Anthony or the writer with the nickname Zombiepaper, I am an entity in complete service to my employer. (Oops.) We all sacrifice our humanities for money and security, though. In this first in a 12-day exploration of careers, let’s talk about “the gig life,” and how I retain, or restore, my humanity while working hard and smart.

WANNA READ SOME CAREER ADVICE THAT YOU MIGHT NOT READ ABOUT ON LINKEDIN? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] Losing Our AIM

A digital cultural artifact of our networking history will be lost when AOL Instant Messenger shuts down on December 15. Museum curators at places like the Internet Archives and OoCities act as conservationists for the future. Unfortunately, technology is moving too fast now for most to consider the importance of capturing our digital remains before they disappear. Let’s use this service’s discontinuation as a reminder that we should consider how our pasts can shape our futures.

WANNA CONSIDER HOW KNOWING OUR DIGITAL PAST CAN HELP US WITH OUR DIGITAL FUTURE? CLICK HERE TO KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] Missing Subtle Alarms

I missed three alarms. It’s easy enough to sleep through chirping alarms when you’re tired. My backup alarm, set much later, startled me awake. Those alarms were trivial on the surface, however, you can draw analogies from that. I plant situational alarms that sound in subtle ways, so if something goes off, then it’s time for me to investigate before something worse happens. They’re like red flags so when one of those sound… “let’s investigate!”

WANNA GET SOME INFORMATION FOR NEGOTIATIONAL ALARMS? KEEP ON READING!

[Grime/Glitter] Bad Business Practices

As we’ve been seeing with businesses that have been closing or reducing, no business is invincible, and Nintendo is conducting bad business practices by not listening to its customers by discontinuing the NES Classic Edition. They’re not directly ripping anyone off. The scalpers aren’t Nintendo employees. Yet if their official response provides excuses, and as I suspect, this was all to drum up attention for their newest product, for shame. Let’s review their official response.

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