Fears

Too scared to look...too scared not too.

Whether you are five or fifty, everyone has something they are afraid of.  Sometimes they are completely justified, and other times they are totally irrational.  And sometimes they are just downright funny (I know a guy that at first looks is one of the toughest guys you'll ever see, and then you find out he's afraid of butterflies...as in freaks out and screams like a girl scared).

The thing about fears is how you act upon them, and whether you let them control your life or if you use those fears to drive you.  I have three fears that I can honestly say affect me daily.  The first is a fear of my mother, and not in that I'm afraid of what she'll do to me daily.  It's an underlying fear that at some point, I may do something that will make her lose all faith in me.  It's more of a fear of making her disappointed in me.  I've had that fear for a long time, and it has allowed me to separate myself from certain decisions and re-evaluate them before locking in what I'm going to do.  Sometimes, I've made the wrong decision and I have disappointed her.  Luckily, nothing I have done has permanently hampered me in her eye.  But even so, those times when I have disappointed her, I've done everything in my power to rectify the situation and improve myself so that it never happens again.

If I fully lived in the fear that I'd never be remembered, this is what I'd be doing right now.

The second is a fear of being forgotten.  It stems from my dream of one day creating something, whether it's a game, or a TV show, or a movie, or something where everyone for a long time enjoys it.  Whether I get rich off of it is besides the point, but I want to have something that years down the line, long after I'm gone, people will still be able to look back on it and will remember my name along with it.  The fear comes from never reaching that.  Becoming just another statistical death amongst the masses where aside from those that physically knew me, no one will ever know who I am.  I would like to believe that this blog might eventually reach that status, and I hope I'm alive when it reaches there.  Until then, I continue to attempt to create something that will be remembered and cherished.

I am never going to live in Australia...EVER.

The third is my irrational fear.  Spiders.  Eight-legged, ugly little insect eating spiders.  Even from the smallest little house spider to the big tarantulas to those Australian spiders and Camel spiders.  I take precautions within my house to ensure that no spiders enter at least my room.  I have plug-ins that generate sound through the walls to create a barrier and I spray the baseboards and windows and doors every month or so.  Occasionally, one finds a gap and breaks through.  When that happens, I'm so afraid of them that I have to use oversized hard cover books or spray them from a distance to kill them.  If I see one and don't manage to kill it, I'm paranoid for hours, sometimes days, of what it's doing in the places I can't see.  Is it plotting to crawl all over me in my sleep?  Is it going to set up a nice little home and watch me with it's eight eyes as I dream?  *shudders* I'm going to stop there....I'm creeping myself out.

I'm just glad my father has never heard of Slenderman

I look at my father though, and the only fear I've seen him have is ghosts and stuff.  He doesn't like hearing horror stories or watching scary movies, he doesn't like people talking about ghosts or possessions or exorcisms around him, and he definitely doesn't like to know that my great grandmother sometimes comes to visit us, even though she's been dead for more than ten years now.  So we just don't expose him to it.  

My mother's worst nightmare.

My mother on the other hand, she's afraid of some funny stuff.  Midgets, clowns, driving over bridges, handling raw chicken...we tease her about it all the time.

The point I'm trying to make is how we handle fears for our day to day life.  Some people use fear to motivate them to be better, while others let fears consume them into a hardcore preventative state.  Look at those afraid of germs.  Some just make sure they wash their hands well and often, carry around some anti-germ lotions, and generally take care to monitor what they are touching and eating from.  Others on the other hand will lock themselves into a hermetically sealed home, only leaving if they absolutely need to.  They wash constantly, and even small little specks of dust or dirt will drive them absolutely crazy.  

This guy just overcame his fear of being a silhouette.

The first step to living with your fear is admitting you have it.  The second is confronting it.  My first two fears live with me constantly, and I work hard to try to keep them at bay without letting them interfere with my life.  The third one I've been attempting to get better at.  I'm no longer afraid of paper spiders, and smaller spiders I can at least approach for the kill with a paper towel or toilet paper.  Eventually I would like to get over the fear enough that I can be in the same house as someone with a pet tarantula without constantly looking over my shoulder to see if it has escaped. (I did go to a guy's house once that had a pet tarantula that he didn't tell me about.  As soon as I saw it, I left despite his assurance that it can't escape.)  I'll never hold a spider, that I'm sure of.  But it would be nice to not be paranoid about every spider I see.

So what are your fears?  How do you prevent them from taking over your life?  Or do they, and what do you do to keep your self from going into a panic over them?

Respect

For the last two years, I've been living with my parents (whom I affectionately call 'the 'rents'), and for the most part it's been okay.  It took me a while to find a job, and when I did it was just part time working at a liquor store, and after two years I finally have a chance to get something full-time that I can move out on my own again on.  I do what I can to help out, whether it's vacuuming, or the dishes, or even washing the cars if they want me to.  I'm not perfect, but I try real hard to do what I can to help out.  And I do it out of respect for them helping through a tough time.

About seven months ago though, my aunt hit near rock bottom.  After quite a while of having problems with money (which my dad as well as other family members helped her with), she was in danger of being kicked to the curb.  My dad was nice enough to say she could move in with us for a while until she got back on her feet, something we were also going to help her with.

At that time, I didn't know the extent of the damage, but with her on the cusp of being force out of here, I now know every detail.  For years, she has been borrowing money from family, never even attempting to pay them back.  While living with us, she has spent more time going back to her husband (who is a drunk and has even attacked their sons before) and hanging out with her friends than with her 18 year old son in high school who is living with us as well.  She doesn't do anything to help out around the house, and shows no sign of gratitude towards my parents.  This fifty year old woman basically has the mentality of an angst ridden teenager when it comes to respect.  Just this week, she spent ten days being with her friends, while the son living with us was under our care during his spring break.  She ended up coming home at 9pm on Sunday, said a quick "Hello." and then ran up to her room and hid.  She never checked to see what was going on this week, or even attempted to come home and take care of her own son.  My mother ended up doing his laundry, on top of the task of making sure that he ate.  My aunt has never taught him how to do anything to fend for himself, and in my opinion has set him up to basically to fail for the rest of his life.  Total, she owes my father somewhere in the vicinity of 8-12 thousand dollars, and he's already said that he doesn't ever expect to get it back.

Her basic routine during the week is to wake up, drive her son to school, go to work, and come home at around 10 or 11pm.  Given what she does, I don't fault her for that much, though my mother is pissed that she can't seem to wash a coffee mug after she's done using it.  On weekends, she remains with her husband and friends, avoiding contact until Sunday when she arrives either right before dinner or right after dinner.  She eats, then hides.

There are ton of little things as well.  She uses my bathroom, and when I wake up in the morning, I find that she's used the toilet and hasn't flushed.  Her room is so cluttered it makes my room look pristine (I don't keep the tidiest of rooms).  She never offers to do the dishes, and she never tries to even do her son's laundry for school.  On the one or two nights in which she's been home and my parents were away that weekend, instead of actually preparing something decent for a meal, she's made hamburger helper.  Her one night home with her son, and she makes something a bachelor makes when he's eating alone.  And that's just here.

Over the years, apparently she's never pushed her children to be better, so the son living with us is in some of the easiest classes I've ever heard of, despite him being quite intelligent.  Her apartment, the one time I've been over there, made Chernobyl look livable.  She's avoided taxes several times, which is where some of her money troubles came in, and at family functions she does nothing but eat and socialize, never trying to even lift a finger to help with anything.  The first family function I did with that side of the family, I was asking if there was anything I could do to help, and after dinner I helped with the dishes, something I learned to do from a very young age.

I tell you all this because you should respect people, especially if they are trying to help you out.  I can tell you right now that after this entire incident, she's burned a major bridge between not only this house, but the rest of the family.  I'd be surprised if she has another bridge to even cross should she fail at being a human being again.

But yeah...respect people.  Help them out, and strengthen that bridge so that if something happens later on, you have somewhere to go to for help yourself.  

Employers and Employees

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  No one likes to work.  Especially when that work involves interacting with irate or even ignorant people, back breaking heavy lifting, and standing on your feet for hours on end for minimum wage.  People like money though, so some people get a job to earn it.  Others find ways to get money just to sit on their asses, but many people are willing and able to do an honest days work for a paycheck.

I've worked several jobs, primarily in retail and sales.  Before I take any job, I usually determine whether the amount I'm being paid justifies the work I'll be doing.  Nine dollars an hour?  Yeah, I'm willing to work four hour shifts dealing with customers and lifting boxes to stock shelves.  Not hard, and to some extent, I enjoy it.

What I don't enjoy is doing that stuff while other people, who are paid exactly the same as I am, get to stand around and gossip WHILE I'm doing that work.  I'm a self-motivated worker.  I prefer to at least make it look like I'm busy doing something while I get paid, and nine out of ten times I actually am trying to get stuff done because I take pride in doing something to justify my paycheck.  In other words, I work hard for the money.  Yet, most of the people I work with don't.  Unless they are confronted with a task directly, they will simply stand around, talking about non-work related topics, or playing on their phone or reading a book in clear view of customers.  To me, that's not only highly unprofessional, it's also an insult to those that would be happy to take their job. (To those of you that are unemployed and seeking work, that would be you.)

Worse yet, those who are managers seem to do nothing about it.  They walk by, say nothing, and don't even comment on their lack of activity, even when it's been going on for over an hour.  So, because of this, I would like to declare a list of things to remember for both employers and employees.  And yes, I have seen all of these happen at the various places I've worked at.

Employees

1: You are there to work.  Do something.  Anything.  Help a customer, stock a shelf, file some paper work...whatever your job entails, do it.  Everything done for the day?  Get ahead.  Do stuff that would normally be done tomorrow.  Can't find anything to do?  Ask your boss if there is anything you can take off their hands.  Not only does this show that you are a hard worker, thus if they need to get rid of someone you are less likely to be let go, but it also makes time go by faster.

2: Phones, books, games, and anything else non-work related...don't use them at work.  Checking the time on your phone is one thing, but you should not be on Facebook or playing a game while working. Do it on your break.  Do it when you get home.  But when you are on the clock, work.  You aren't getting paid to play (unless you are a QA game tester...then I guess you are, but it's towards a purpose)

3: If you have clients or customers, don't talk about them or other clients/customers around them.  It's unprofessional.  Period.  Same goes for bad mouthing your co-workers in front of them.

4: Speak English (or if you are in another country, whatever the native language of that country is) to your co-workers during business hours.  Customers don't want to hear you yammering on in another language for two reasons:  One, if you start breaking Rule 3, it's even more of an insult that you thought you could hide it by speaking in a foreign tongue and two, it's unprofessional towards your fellow coworkers who may not speak the language.  Also, eventually, you are going to say something out of line that a customer or coworker is going to know, and they are going to call you on it.

5: Whatever your dress code is for work, you should be two steps above it at all times.  Many of the places I've worked had a dress code of "uniform shirt and khaki pants, belt and black shoes."  That does not mean a wrinkled right out of the laundry shirt that you keep untucked, khaki colored pants that have 20 pockets on them, a belt with flames on it, and black boots with ten straps on them going up to your knees.  Professionalism people...remember it.

Employers

1: Chain of command.  The people you employ are there to work for you.  If they are not working on something, then give them something to work on.  You don't have to micro manage them, but whenever you see an associate standing around doing nothing for 10 minutes, then tell them to do something.  If you are the boss of the place, give the department heads a list of tasks you would like done daily.  And let your associates know that they can express comments and concerns through this chain of command.  A low level employee should not be contacting a CEO directly.

2: Delegate.  You hire underlings for a reason.  They are there to do the menial tasks while you take care of the higher priority ones.  Store managers?  You should be worrying about ordering stock, money, and walking through the store to see what needs to get done so the store is as perfect as it can get.  The associates should be the ones doing things like stocking, cleaning, and your go-to guys should be doing things like resetting sections.

3: Reward.  Every job has employees that skate by doing bare minimum and others that work hard every day.  Let the latter know that their work is appreciated.  Tell them "Hey, I appreciate all this work you do." every so often.  If you can, give them something small.  Gift cards, free product, a paid day off...something that shows them that their hard work is not for nothing.  If you make it public, then the slackers might start working harder to try to earn it.  And don't just give it to a random person just so one person isn't always winning it.  If one guy is always winning, give it to number two once in a while, or even number three if those two guys are always at the top.  If you give it to the worst person in the place, then the reward becomes meaningless.

4: Reprimand.  Those people that do nearly nothing? Reprimand them.  Give them verbal or written reprimands saying that they need to work harder.  Evaluations don't come often enough to really make an impact.  Usually those people that skate by need to have someone on their ass pushing them.  And if they don't get it after a while, then those written reprimands will prevent you from being sued when you fire them.

5: Communicate.  Talk to those guys below you.  Tell your section leaders or your head clerks or your department heads what is going on.  The best boss I ever had carried a notepad on him at all times, and he wrote down everything.  Twice daily he would get all the senior staff together and tell them everything and what he wanted to be done about it.  The senior staff would then pass whatever was necessary along to us at the low level and things got done.  In fact, the store was almost always perfect because of that.

6: Train.  Don't assume that because someone does something once they will remember it every time from then on.  And if someone has never done something before, don't just take over for them.  Make a note to train them on it.  It doesn't need to be extravagant training, but quick training on something every so often is great for a refresher.

7: Promote.  Take note of who are your best workers.  Anytime an opportunity comes up for promotion, ask them if they want it.  Put in a good word for them, and even push to get them promoted.  That's why they work hard.  They want to advance.  If nothing is coming up for a while, give them a leg up.  Train them on how to do higher level stuff.  Give them the opportunity to do it themselves under supervision once in a while.  This way when they do get promoted, they can hit the ground running.

*****

So, to all the lower employees out there, work hard.  Try to work harder than anyone else where you work.  And if everyone is just slacking off, raise the complaint to your boss.  If your boss doesn't care whether you slack off or work hard, continue to work hard but look for a job where your work will be appreciated.

And to employers out there, you should only want the best workers.  No body is perfect, but when you know someone is working hard and trying to make something for themselves, help them along.  Help them move forward.  It's how you gain loyal workers who will advance your business ten-fold.  And cut off your dead weight, because it's not the pay thats going to make your good employees leave.  It's your good employees noticing that their work isn't going to get them far with your company.

People of the mall.

I went to the mall a couple of days ago, and wandered around with some acquaintances of mine.  Nothing really significant happened, except one little thing that got me thinking.

There...I've met my pony quota for this blog.

One of the guys in our group noticed a couple of people outside of our group laughing at us, and also a girl outside of our group taking a picture of us.

Perhaps I should explain why.  If you haven't gathered so far from previous blog posts, I'm a brony.  For those not in the know, it's a fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.  Whether you agree with my choice to watch it or not, that's your prerogative  and I don't feel like going too deep into it in this post.  The people I was hanging around with, also bronies, and from the general attire we all were wearing that day, it was pretty easy to tell that we were a herd of bronies.  (Yeah...I made that pun.)

Anyways, after that guy pointed it out, I went on high alert for further incidents of it.  While there were the occasional stares at us as we walked by, I rarely noticed any laughing or pointing, which was good. Some people actually smiled at us with a genuine greeting.  I was happy to see that there were not too many people out there that wanted to start something.

I'm all of these...and more.  A lot more

And by start something, I have to bring up a few other situations that have happened in my life.  Along with being a brony, I'm a raging geek, nerd, otaku...I'm quirky in many ways.  I can't really explain every way, but understand that I have more than one thing out there that makes me smile uncontrollably, and quite a few eccentricities in the way I act.  This has in the past, caused more than one problem, most notably with confrontation.  I've had a few times where certain people have seen my overly happy demeanor as a sign that I'm a pushover, or even a fun little (well, not really little) target for attempts of bullying and humiliation.

This was what I was mainly afraid of as we continued through the mall.  That some teenager or young adult was going to see a group of obvious geeks and attempt to take advantage of the situation to either harass or even physically test us.  And I wasn't going to have it.

I've been in a few fights that started with this same look.

People know I'm not one to take any form of harassment lightly, usually getting quite angry and even physical myself.  It's not that I want to fight, but I learned at a younger age that running from a problem doesn't solve it, and can usually bring that problem back.  I prefer to confront any and all problems head on.  I may not win, but I will show that I'm willing to give that problem a run for it's money and make it second guess itself next time it wants to try something.

So for the next couple of hours, I constantly was watching for any sign of trouble that may be heading our way.  Luckily, no incidents.  The herd was oblivious to my watch standing, and we ended up having a great time.

But those people...those couple of people that made my one friend uncomfortable even for just a moment...especially the girl that took our picture...they are the kinds of people that need to understand something.

The reason why we have so many conflicts in life is because of people not allowing other people to be themselves.  Our group wasn't harming anyone.  We were just roaming the mall enjoying the day and each other's company.  We weren't blaring music, singing loudly all over the mall.  We weren't dancing like crazed idiots.  We were walking, and had our attire been different, you never would have known we were bronies.  But because they knew that fact, suddenly we were a focal point for ridicule.

And that's why I don't go to the mall very often if I can avoid it.  Yup...that's the point of this rant.  Malls suck.  Yay for a point.  Oh, and a question.  Have you ever noticed someone ridiculing you behind your back because of something you were/are that's different from what some would call 'normal'?  What did you do about it?  Run or fight?  I like hearing those kinds of stories.

Also, I'm thinking about starting another page.  This one would not be updated nearly as regularly, but it would be a more idea driven blog.  Someplace where I can upload pictures I've done, lyrical work, animations, etc etc.  I don't know how often it would be, and there is going to be a LOT of random crap most people aren't going to understand.  But if there is an interest, I'll start it up.

Reading Up

A couple of days ago, I had a discussion with a friend of mine.  He wants to be a writer, and received a harsh review on something he wrote, and was feeling a bit down.  So, being the guy that I am, I wanted to help him.  I read the review and while the guy put it in a pretty blunt and almost rude way, overall everything he said was correct.  His story has bad pacing, his sentence structure and punctuation wasn't great, and the way that he attempted to create flow was more confusing than anything.  The basic gist of it was, it wasn't engaging.

So I asked him, what writers he liked and how much he read.  He named a couple of huge authors like J.K. Rolling and Stephen King, and a few other long-since dead authors, but then he told me something that told me his entire problem in one sentence.  He doesn't read all that much.

I don't know any writer out there that doesn't read.  And they read a lot.  It pretty much fills up the rest of their time when they either aren't writing, sleeping, or doing their job.  And even during the last one, sometimes they are reading short stories or poetry whenever they can.  It's like a musician that doesn't listen to music, or an artist that doesn't look at other artist's artwork.  It's gaining a frame of reference, and expanding your knowledge of your craft.  As an artist myself, I probably look at images and speed paint videos at least 4-6 hours a week.  And it's not just looking at them, going "Hey, that looks cool." and then clicking to the next one.  I study everything about it.  Their line work, their shading techniques, their framing of the composition, the color choices they made.  I find every little detail and analyse it.  Then several times, I've attempted to recreate it using my own techniques, or if I can't, trying to figure out the technique they used.  Sometimes I find things I never knew existed, or a new way of doing something that not only looks better, but save me time.

The same thing goes for musicians and composers.  The ones I know constantly have music playing if they aren't working on something themselves.  Sometimes it's just for pleasure, but other times, especially with a new song they've never heard before, they are listening to every detail, every pitch of every instrument.  Where they are accentuating certain parts, and where they are breaking things down. How they pace their song, and how they leveled each instrument so not one part is overbearing.

Sounds like a lot of work, right?  Well, if you want to be good at anything that is part of it.  Let's go into something less creative.  Mechanical Engineering for example.  Working just by yourself, you may figure out how to repair an engine eventually.  But if you watch someone else do it that already knows, you'll be able to do it much faster.  If you watch several people do it, and put their techniques together, then you might be able to find an even better way than all of them.  Getting into the engine, you might start studying how each piece works and it's relationship to every other piece, and possibly figure out ways to improve upon it.

Or how about salesmen.  Even the greatest salesman in the world can learn something from another salesman.  How to interact with people, or certain words to use in place of other words to make something sound fancier and more appealing.  Even mannerisms, fluctuations in volume and speaking patterns, how to tell jokes and anecdotes...they all come into play and learning from other salesmen can improve your own style.

A book I think everyone should read is Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. In it he explains that it takes 10,000 hours of practice in order to truly perfect anything, which equates to roughly 3 hours a day for 10 years.  Now, that can be accelerated by practicing more per day, so say 6 hours a day for 5 years, or 10 hours a day for three and a half...something like that.  But it's the hands down practicing, and good practicing, for 10,000 hours that's important.

Studying is part of practicing.  I don't claim mastery over anything (I wish I could though) but the things I am really good at I probably have about 4000-5000 hours doing, and much of that was studying.  One thing I'm really good at doing is talking about Evangelion, and anime done by Studio Gainex.  I have literally studied that anime, watching it so many times through, reading up on theories and discussing little nuances of the series and movies.  The culmination of my work came when I was able to give a panel at Megacon and Anime Festival Orlando on the subject, the best of which was the one at Megacon where I was in main events and was given the honor of leading into them showing the first of the Rebuild movies.  I had roughly 100 people in there, the largest crowd I had ever talked to, and afterward I had people stopping me in the halls and asking me even more questions, all of which I was able to answer for them, even if it was just a theoretical answer.  Had I just watched the series once, I never would have had enough knowledge to do that.

What I'm trying to get at is that anything you want to do, especially if you want to do it for a living, you must practice and study.  Studying doesn't just come from reading instructions, but seeing examples of your craft done by other people.  If you want to design video games, you have to study video game design, and play games not for enjoyment solely, but look at everything they did and try to understand WHY they did it.  If you want to act in movies, you must watch movies and see how other actors have portrayed their characters, studying everything from their voice to their facial expressions to their hand movements.

So, what do you do in order to practice your craft?  And how many hours of practice do you think you honestly have?  1000?  5000?  Have you already breeched the 10,000 hour mark?

(Also, side note, I've noticed that I have quite a few readers in Germany (or one that just keeps reading).  To my German readers, feel free to comment below.  I may not speak German, but I know how to use Google Translate, and I would be happy to hear thoughts from people other than my fellow Americans.)

On Console Design

I've been around for quite a while.  Long enough to see gaming consoles evolve from simple 8-bit machines to home entertainment computers that encompass many facets of life.  Long enough to see gamers evolve from a select group of individuals that were deemed nerds to just about every make of human being from the toughest sports nut to the meekest of child.  I've also seen the console war itself evolve from simply who can output the best graphics and have the best exclusives to a war not just about power, but functionality and to a lesser extent, gimmicks.

I've also been witness to enough items to understand what works and what doesn't in the long run of gaming, yet I still see console manufacturers trying to implement items that most gamers never will use unless they are forced to, and even then they will do so with a groan and a bit of disappointment.  It's not always the console's fault.  Sometimes the games just don't do justice to the idea.  They feel tacked on last minute, or even worse, forced in just so they could say they used it.  Because of this, I've come up with a concept for a console using what I know and a plan about how future workings of it would be.

1 - The Power, The Brain, and the Guts: Contrary to popular belief, it's actually not hard to design a console's inner working as long as you know what you are doing.  I'm not going to state any specific hardware, because the moment I type it, there will be something new announced and it will be obsolete.  Also, coming back to this post a few years later, it will probably be ridiculously out of date.  Instead, the inner workings would be an amalgamation of contracts with hardware manufacturers based on the date of release.  Working together with them, I would take a hint from Sony's Playstation 3 and run a multi-core system with a central processor.  I would probably expand upon it a bit, possibly running 10 cores with a central brain to handle final compiling.  Given enough RAM, whatever the high end graphics and sound cards are, and the proper outputs, and the hardware is pretty much done.  The only thing I would have above anyone else right now would be terabyte hard drives.  Models would come in one, two, and eight terabyte, and there would be an output connection for a separate cord.  This cord would directly connect to another terabyte hardrive of the same type, so that users could expand to higher HDs.  I would also sell this cord with a 16TB and 32TB hardrive should they be available at that time.  Granted, the space could go up if needed based on the time of the console's release.

2 - The Mind: The operating system for a console is, in my opinion, the most critical part of the console itself.  An operating system should be set up for the ease of the end user, and should have basic functionality to run without too many possibly unused programs.  Basic programs that would come with the console would be an online store, game launcher, DVD Player (or whatever format I could have it play), music player for digital music, photos, and basic community applications.  Aside from that, there would be the ability to fully customize everything on the operating system.  Start up sounds, backgrounds, icons...pretty much everything.  The console would come with a program for the computer, both PC and Mac AND Linux compatible, that would help create themes.  And yes, those themes would be dynamic.  My console has enough power to run high definition games at at-least 60 FPS.  I'm sure it can load a full HD movie to be played as the background.

Everything else would be for the user to decide to download, and most would be free.  Things such as Netflix, fancy picture slideshows, or even an internet browser don't even get used on consoles most of the time (at least not through anyone I know).  Apps that I haven't seen that should be there are screen recording and internet streaming.  There are plenty of gamers out there who enjoy playing and like to record themselves having fun and show it to others.  Let them...in fact, let them easily do it.  Along side the community functionality of just having a friends list so you know when they are online and what achievements they have, there would be functionality for those Let's Players out there to simply click a setting, and instantly they are online streaming, speaking into a mic (purchased separately) and showcasing their skills.  If they do not wish to use that forum, they can simply record to the hard drive to upload to whatever place they choose.  Other social media apps such as Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook would be an optional download as well, and I'm sure as time went on, there would be plenty of other apps to add that people would enjoy.

3 - The Interface: Now for the controller...that little device you hold in your hand, and the one piece of equipment that always seems to be tampered with by console makers.  First off, I need to explain something.  Despite what most people think, controllers have not changed too drastically over the years.  D-pad on the left, buttons on the right.  The implementation of shoulder buttons with the SNES has been expanded on, and the Dual-Shock controller's joysticks are still probably the best places to have them, though some would argue that X-box's controller did it better by switching the D-pad and left joystick placement...but that's not the point.  The layout is still fundamentally the same.  Why?  Because it works.  It's comfortable.  It's easy to get used to.

So, with that, I'll keep a similar design to the Dual-Shock from Sony, with a few additions.  First, there would be a 4-inch screen dead center of the controller.  Now, this would never be used for any games itself, but instead would be a console interface based on what the user is doing other than gaming.  For those that like to play their own music, there would be a music controller there.  Chatting with friends via a mic?  It would display a status on who is talking and who is connected.  For those streaming though the console's media site the chat would be displayed so the player could simply look down for a moment and see the chat, thumbing through if they want to see more.  Even digital movies could be played on the screen, or if they don't want the distraction, achievement lists, power displays, or just a clock.  Of course, this could all be set up in the settings.

This also opens up something that I'm surprised nobody has thought of before.  Interactive Live Digital Game Guides (sold separately).  Purchasing one of these ILDGGs would allow you to basically cheat through a single player game.  The guide would allow you to navigate through a few menus to decide what you want to do currently, then as you play update your guide.  So if you wanted to find all those hidden items for that achievement, the little screen would act as a map.  If you wanted to know the code to unlock the door without having to read all the clues, the game would just tell it to you (even if it changed each time you played).  I've used online guides several times for those fetch trophies, but I have to make notes on which items I've collected so I don't have to go searching for 1 of 100 in a large world.  This would make it a lot easier and would justify the purchase of game guides again.

4 - The Games:  A recent topic that has been coming up in the console wars is backwards compatibility and the used games market.  On the former, assuming this console does well and warrants a second generation, there would definitely be backwards compatibility, and to anyone that designs consoles out there reading this, that should be a must regardless.  I know where the companies are coming from.  They want people to purchase new games.  They want people to re-buy their old games in new formats.  That's great, but unless you give them a great incentive to do so, most gamers would rather just keep their old consoles until they either die or enough good games come out for the new console.  And even then, they will probably keep their old console just to play older games.  I was lucky enough to get the double backwards compatible PS3, and I still occasionally play some PS1 and PS2 games.  It's rare, but when those feelings of nostalgia come on, I'm glad I have the ability to pull out Lunar or Megaman Legends and have some fun.  So if you want people to be less angry about not having immediate backwards compatibility, then heres a tip.  Create a way so they can get their old games back for the new console.  And with the invent of the internet on consoles, here is the perfect tip.  Buy a disc version, get a downloadable version for free, lock it to the account so only that account can play it, and poof!  New console comes out, make the SOFTWARE have the ability to play the digital versions, and people will just store their discs and download their old games at their leisure.  Problem solved.

Now for the used games market.  Several companies are attempting to tackle that the wrong way by treating it like it's a stolen game.  And I understand this...to them, it is stolen.  But here's how you fix that, and several games have taken the first step towards it.  Several games require you to input an online pass code in order to play the game online.  That's great.  Now, what about single player games?  Easy...online registration.  When you get a game, the first thing you have to do is input a code inside the box...if it's valid, a small 100kb file downloads to your system unlocking the game for that system.  If you sell the game or give it away, the game won't work.  If you don't have a stable or consistant web connection, that's fine since the file itself is what activates the game, so you'll only need to be online once for a few minutes, and then you can play the game offline all you want.  This would work for handhelds as well.  If the game is digital, then the file downloads with the game itself, and everything is good.

Oh wait...what about the other end...the game stores that sell those used games.  Well, they still can.  Users that purchase these games can purchase the online passes or the offline registrations of the games for a fee obviously.  I would probably say $5 would get you either/both.  Stores can still sell used games for discounted prices and make money on them for themselves, and the game companies can still make some money on their work.  I think that about covers all the bases.

5 - The Gimmick: There is none.  I've seen too many consoles try and fail at it.  The Wii was the closest thing to a success with the nun-chuck thing, and even that was mainly geared toward the casual gamer. Sega Dreamcast tried their VMU unit, and that wasn't enough to save the company from falling from the console wars.  Gimmicks just don't work.  If it's not part of the functionality, then it's not worth putting in.  Stick to what works, add what you need to make your functionality work, and leave the rest alone.  Some could say that the screen on the controller is a gimmick, and to some extent it is, but it's there for functionality.

*rereads* Wow that's a long post...but the I hope the idea is getting through.  I also hope that someone from either Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo reads this and starts to rethink where they are going with their consoles.  If not, oh well.  Maybe I'll get someone with the know-how to build it wanting to go in with me and Kickstarter this.  Maybe not.

Friends

There are many articles out there about where certain types of people fit into different circles of closeness as far as friends go.  Some of them are quite simple.  Others are quite complicated.  The problem with many of them is they don't take into account the number one place people say they have friends.  The internet.  With Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Google+, and every other social network out there, some people can claim that they have over 5000 friends, yet they've only met a handfull of those people.

So, I'm going to attempt to simplify where friends fall to include internet friends.  And to ensure that everyone knows where friends fall on this list, I'm going to give an example of how you may interact with them.

Level 1: Those dudes/dudettes - Skipping completely unknown people and those people you just don't like (both of which would be level 0), Level 1 friends are people you have met, whether in person or on the internet, that unless their name is right in front of you, you can't even seem to remember them.  Half the time, you can't remember how you met them or where you know them from.  You just have some vague memory of their existence and if someone asks if you know them, you think for a minute and usually respond with "yeah...I know them...they're cool" or something to the like.

These 'friends' shouldn't really be called friends.  They are acquaintances.  People you just know.  You don't actively try to do anything with them, and if you casually meet them somewhere sometimes you get the feeling that you know them from somewhere.  If it manages to click, you will retell all the same stories you told the first time you met and each one will click, but the next time you meet, you'll go over the same process, maybe with a few more stories added to catch up to date.  On the internet, you occasionally comment on their post if it's interesting or you can think of something funny, but there is rarely a time when you tag them in a post.  They do the same with you.  It's not that you wouldn't be cool together, but maybe there just isn't a spot higher in the chain where you can keep track of them.  Also, anyone that is famous on the internet, this is where you fall to them.  You are simply there.  You can have almost an infinite number of these types of friends.

Level 2: My buddies - Next up are people you know a bit of.  You probably have had a few conversations with them, whether in person or on the internet, but they aren't really more than just a person that you have similar interests to.  You may invite them to something if you are planning something big, or tag them in a post if it's something that sparks a memory of them, but overall you don't hang out with them on a regular basis.  If you seem them around, you will spark up a conversation, catch up with them, and then go about your business.  The reason why you keep them up higher in the chain from Level 1 is they may have something you want, whether it's a skill or item.  However, if you don't need anything from them, they can quite easily fall back to Level 1.  Of the people you know, there are probably under 100 like this.

Level 3: My friends - This is where we really get into the term friend at it's core.  Those at Level 3 you will casually talk to whenever the mood strikes or whenever you see them.  You have some inside jokes, you hang out whenever possible, but there is still a small wall where everything must go through some proper channels.  They still call to ask to come over, or they feel the need to reward you (or you with them) if any sort of special favors are exchanged.  You remember to tag them in most posts that are relevant, and they are quick to respond.  Some secrets are shared, but for the most part you continue to keep little things you don't want passed around for the world to know secret from them.  The trust hasn't fully come yet.  Most people have under 40 of these, but it can reach about 60 or 70.

Level 4: My close friends - That little inner circle that just shows up at your place and makes themselves at home.  The ones that bring you stuff and don't expect anything in return.  Those few people that will bend over backwards to help you move, or will spend an entire night with you watching movies because you just don't want to be alone.  These are the friends that you share just about everything with, and you tease each other back and forth in light-hearted fun.  Every chance you get, you are with them, and it doesn't matter if you are going out, staying in, or just talking on the internet for hours.  All of it is fun, and every time some new memory is made that you cherish.  You have forgotten more inside jokes with them than you remember, and whenever you are around them in public having a good time, you occasionally get stares from some of the random stuff you do together.  But it's okay...they are only jealous of how close you guys are.  Most people have under 10, though I do know a few people that get up there towards 20.

Level 5: My best friend - One person...maybe two at most. If you could be together all the time, you would.  Hell, if you could find a person to marry just like them you would (and depending on how you swing, you probably want to with this person).  It's almost like you think on the same wavelength. Finishing each other's sentences, being able to know what the person is thinking with very minimal description.  You could probably be one mind if it weren't for that pesky skull in the way.  This person is the one you call brother or sister, even if they aren't by blood.  Some call them soul mate.  Some call them the other half of you.  But you would be content if you could just be together having fun all the time.

Level 6: THE ONE - Much like the best friend, this person is so much like you that conversation isn't even needed.  A small motion with the face and a grunt of a certain tone is enough to compose an entire opera of words that portray what you want to say.  And to others...it's really creepy how alike you are.  It's not like two separate beings with similar minds...it's almost as though you were perfect clones of each other.  Fusing with them would only create the same person.  If you had actual telepathy, you could be in two places at once.  Not everyone has one of these...in fact, most people don't have one.  Why?  Because those slight differences in us makes it very hard to find a person exactly like us in every way.

I know some readers on my friends list/twitter feed are going to read this and start placing themselves on the list.  Well, most of you fall under Level 3.  After my internet reset back in January, I officially did out with everyone below that.  I am already starting to gain a few Level 2s back through other channels, but mainly because I've never met them in real life, only through a specific meetup group's page (you know who you are).  Unfortunately, all of my Level 3s and higher live so far away I can't get to them whenever I want.  It makes me sort of lonely.  But at least I have the internet in which to talk to them through.

I hope this makes sense more-so than other friend-circle-explanation-thingies.  The question is, do you know where all those people on your friends lists place on here?  Do you have Level 5s?  Do you have a Level 6?  If so...what is it like?  I can only describe it from an outside perspective.