Old coot
I’m feeling a certain inflexibility of thought that concerns me. I was in Target and walked past a Playstation 3 with a bunch of game demos on it, and I just wasn’t interested enough to slow down and look at them, because I’d have to read and figure out and learn buttons and crap. At work they’re finally going to get me a new computer to replace this steam-powered computation-engine, but I’m more concerned that I’m going to have to fuss with re-installing things.
I’ve kinda always not adjusted well to change, but this feels different. It’s a lack of my basic inquisitiveness, which I’ve generally taken as one of my best traits.
January 3rd, 2008 13:30
Could explain the lapse in blog posts (and A1…and scribs…and…)
Spinn, maybe you’re just burnt out and need a bit of ‘you’ time. I’ve busted your chops enough in the past and so this time I’m going to be supportive (for a change).
It’s not easy to be ‘creative on demand’ and maybe you need to take some time off and work on a completely different tack, if for no other reason than to recharge your mental batteries.
Whatever it takes, man. I miss the old stuff (and NOT JUST the freakin captions), because it was some of the most original humor/satire on the net, truly! (Which, BTW, is really the only reason I bust your chops - because I miss it soooo freaking much…and I KNOW I’m not alone…)
Maybe go back to doing some of your longer form story stuff, or take month or two off of politics and comment on the absurdity of the world at large…but losing your “basic inquisitiveness” kinda concerns me. Especially since you spoke about depression in the past.
Hey, been there - done that. Email is in the post, feel free if you want to talk. But know that no matter how I comment, I *do* enjoy and respect you and have for years.
And if you can reach out and touch complete strangers like that, it can’t be THAT boring to be Spinn!
Cheers, and Happy New Year!
January 4th, 2008 03:01
You too, huh?
I’ve been feeling kinda like that for the last few years or so. I’m hoping the job I just took with my new employer will help rekindle some of that sense of curiosity and discovery, if for no other reason than there’s so new stuff to learn about.
But there’s a lot to be said for taking some unstructured time off. Happily, I have a place I can go in the Sierra mountains, and last year I spent ten days up there with the express purpose of un-cringing. It takes me about three days before I begin to actually relax and stop worrying about stuff — there’s nowhere I have to be, there’s nothing I need to do, I can sit out and do nothing more than stare at the lake for an hour, and that’s perfectly okay.
It’s probably foolhardy to try and psychoanalyze you based on a single blog post, but whatever you’ve got sounds treatable :-).
But I agree with you about the latest crop of console video games. I’d rather not have to spend an hour learning a complex set of controls, especially when it’s not “portable” to other games. Gimme a joystick and a fire button — I can grok that.
Schwab
January 4th, 2008 08:49
The important question is, “Were you looking for Senior Discount notices as you passed by the PS3?”
January 4th, 2008 13:04
Yeah! That’s the way I’ve felt with every console since the ColecoVision!
I feel your pain, bro.
January 4th, 2008 23:58
Satoru Iwata is looking for people like you!
January 5th, 2008 13:37
I’m kind of in the same boat, but I look at it slightly differently: You’re not shying away from something new; you’re shying away from doing the same thing over again, for the nth time.
New gaming system? More buttons to learn (again), an overly-expensive purchase (again), a whole new batch of games to buy (again). It stopped being worth it to me when the PS2 came out; Guitar Hero is trying its damndest to worth my while to buy something that actually is somewhat new.
New computers are the same way: Another new machine, another round of reinstalling and archiving/copying. I have a copy of XP sitting at home that I’ll get around to installing eventually. (”Eventually” being when the current install of 2000 breaks down. If I’m going to be installing everything again anyway I might as well upgrade the OS, but it’s not worth pissing away an afternoon otherwise.)
Want to feel less like a codger? Go do something that’s actually new… I’d be willing to bet you’d actually get into it.
January 6th, 2008 03:24
It really feels like games aren’t getting better, just more complicated. And I’m still on PS2, for fuck’s sake. I just bought a Nintendo Entertainment System off of e-Bay, and let me tell you, feels like home. If I can scout out a working Atari 2600, I might actually be a video game master again.
January 6th, 2008 06:08
Hmm…
Wow, me too, it must be something in the water or something.
A little background — I’m eighteen now, but I’ve been reading various ruffiani things (SW, NMD, Brunching, Scribs, Lore’s blog… I even read most of the IRC logs at SWHC) for about four or five years now…
I have something of the same worry about my diminishing curiosity and interest in, well, /everything/. I had a really traumatic adolescence (I spent most of 2004-2007 in group homes) and I sort of lost contact with most of the things that I liked to do and that I was interested in before then. I’m trying like Hell to re-establish that spark, but now that I am out on my own and I’m responsible for getting the bills paid and trying to move my life forward, it seems that the stuff I used to care pretty strongly about is just so much background noise now.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry that you’re going through that. Email’s in the post if you want to have a chat. Also, thanks for some of the best stuff I’ve ever seen in any form of media for the past five years.
January 7th, 2008 11:42
JJ- you know I think I like your explanation. Because on top of my general inquisitiveness, I also have a dislike of doing the same things repeatedly. So, yeah, setting up a new laptop: not really expecting much discovery there, it’s just kinda drudgework. Think it’s also about having an appreciation for where my time goes.
Sub: eh it’s not about being burnt out, but I appreciate your saying those things. Because yeah, on one hand I don’t care what you say, but on the other I prefer to be creative for an audience, so I guess I do.
And besides I’ve had a metric assload of “me” time. I’m kinda unhappy I haven’t naturally gotten into the swing of getting A1 reprogrammed, because inspriation/motivation used to come naturally to me, and I’m not used to thinking of it as work.
January 7th, 2008 13:32
Hum. Please don’t think of this as any sort of insult, but… have you ever considered any medication?
January 7th, 2008 14:15
Er. Is this being interpreted as depression or something? Seems like most of the comments are “we’re so sorry you’re going through this troubling time” kind of things.
I mean, eh, in context of things I’ve said before, I might see where you’d go that way, but actually my outlook in recent months has been much better than it’s been for some time. This post isn’t related to depression, it’s just a mindset shift I’ve seen in myself.
January 7th, 2008 14:37
Meh, everyone else is taking my lead on that - sorry. If it’s just disdain for learning new buttons perhaps it’s not a negative mindset change as much as a reassessment of your priorities in life. In that case, I’d consider it a *good* thing…
I have a buddy who was going through a related thing; he’s kind of been uninterested in tech lately because there’s really nothing genuinely new and exciting in his line (networking) and those things that require new training and skill sets to implement just aren’t worth the trouble in his words.
And as far as your change in outlook in recent months, I’m in that mode too and it feels pretty damn good.
BTW: Gee, it’s always good to know you don’t care what I say…
January 7th, 2008 14:38
Note: there was supposed to be a -grin- after that last line, but the form stripped it.
January 7th, 2008 14:48
you have reached the point where the effort put forward towards newness no longer reaps the same satisfaction/rewards.
sometimes it’s a good thing as you end up finding something new to tickle your fancy.
January 7th, 2008 15:02
Yah, along the way I programmed a fairly nice ajax-based raid tracker for my Warcraft guild. That was pretty interesting to me, so I learned what I needed to and got that moving…
Huh. You have convinced me I am not feeling so old cooty after all. Well done.
January 7th, 2008 15:07
> I also have a dislike of doing the same things repeatedly.
Oh yeah. One of the upsides (and downsides) of the job is that we give the clients a medium-duty CMS for their sites. They like it because they can make changes whenever they want, and we like it because we don’t get any calls to change “FooJammer 3.1″ to “FooJammer 3.2″ in eighty scuzzilion places.
On the downside, there are always juuuust enough tweaks that I can’t just do a copy-paste. And when one of those comes up I just dread the time it would take me to copy/alter/test the thing. Makes me wish the company was a little larger, so I could just phone it in — er, VPN it in, I guess.
The thing that bugs me when I get into one of those ruts is that I never feel the urge to find something new to get myself out of it: On weekdays I just want to veg out, and on weekends I’m doing other stuff (usually with friends, so it’s not like I’m a shut-in). But come Monday the best I can manage is “here we go again”.
January 10th, 2008 12:24
Dammit, I had a dream the other night that you were running a new caption competition. It involved a proscenium, and all the captions had to involve opera and historic photos, the latter of which you were going to re-sketch as isomorphic projections.
Your goddamn caption competitions have invaded my subconscious.
January 12th, 2008 02:33
My two cents, cheap as they may be:
If you’re tired of the same-old same-old, get a Wii. The games remain kinda the same, but the play is at least new and exciting for a while.
As far as tiring of the routine, or of losing your curiosity, do you travel much? I recommend a vacation to somewhere bizarre you wouldn’t dream of visiting normally. I know, expensive. But India, or Russia, or someplace of equal interest you haven’t visited (I assume you might have at some off chance visited Japan or something) can cure the aches of home by the time you return. New places tend to lend to greater appreciation to old hobbies and perspectives.
January 19th, 2008 14:51
Inquisitiveness is in our genes ,nurture it love.