(no subject)
Sorry, I'm refraining from posting journal 1 because it was a letter to future-self, which is just bad in general. Feh. I'm not going to go back and correct all of my 2am mistakes.
journal 2____________________
Today I visited the bowling alley/arcade in the student union and watched people duke it out on Street Fighter III and IV. Watching them makes me wonder, “How much effort did they have to put into mastering the game? Are they able to balance school work while practicing every day of this game? What’s the point of showing off in an arcade?” I give this a lot of thought as I see the characters on the screen punch and counter each other.
A strange tactic. A miss with the ultimate attack. Complete domination. The crowd cheers loudly whenever something unsuspected happens. I can only look at the screen in awe, wishing I could play at their level, just like I did with soccer years ago. I would spend about an hour or so watching them play with no interruptions such as my dad telling me to do my work. It’s a nice feeling.
There’s also an interesting machine from Japan in the arcade where you have to cut a string with a less-than-an-inch razor to earn the hanging prizes. It’s not at all like the usual American prize-grabb’n games. It’s annoying, difficult, and mainly addicting. It caused me to waste twenty-something dollars on the game. A guy before me spent over fifty-dollars on the machine. What’s causing people to waste their money is that there are hundred-dollar prizes hanging in front of you in the machine. I have to fight the urge to do it by myself since my friends aren’t there to stop me.
The Student Union arcade is the only place I can really consider my little haven in this school. There’s not much else to do, in my opinion. I don’t like going to parties or forced grouping things because I find it hard to have a common interest with the people there. It makes me want to go back in time so I can spend more time with my true friends. I’ve only made… one or two friends as of now? It’s hard to find someone you can actually have fun with.
I feel conservative at the arcade, now that I’m a college student. When they had the local arcades before they were taken down, I would spend my money everywhere by playing my favorite games, earning tickets, and winning prizes. But now I have food and book payments to worry about. They just came in from no where once I arrived at SJSU.
However, I can still stay and watch the gamers fight, which only costs me a few moments to watch. It’s the perfect time killer for me. Sure, I would get more out of my time if I studied, but where’s the fun in that? I enjoy watching people compete in video games with each other.
I also enjoy helping people out in arcades by giving tips of what I know to people who haven’t played before. But in reality, I can only give out advice to the annoying cutting game. I still try though. Today I thought, “Hey, since I’m good at all these claw-grabb’n games, I must be good at this one. I’ll help get this stuffed animal for this girl so she doesn’t waste $10 on something that’s worth $5.” After one try, I utterly failed at helping her, and she stared at me like some kind of creep just trying to get with her afterwards. In embarrassment, I left and fell asleep somewhere on the Student Union tables. There goes a shot to make a friend. I’ll still go to the arcade the next day.
journal 3_____________
At the end of September I went to a MUSE class about learning in different ways. I got there about five minutes early to find the room packed. I had to sit on the floor cramped between people’s bags. The room became so full that the teacher had to leave the door open so people in the hallway could listen.
He begun by asking what kind of learners we were. No one responded. After a long silence, he pulls a tennis ball from no where and asks us in a happy manner, “Who wants to play catch?”
We were dumbfounded and stared at him with faces that had, “Huh?” written all over. Some people realized that this might be a trick exercise and stuck their hands up into the air, wanting the ball. I slowly raised my hand up, but not high enough for anyone to see. The teacher ended up not throwing it and begun his lecture talking about what people usually do in this situation - “watch and observe” or “take action immediately”.
As the teacher went on with his lecture, I felt sleepy but I was also very interested in what he had to say. I’ve heard that people have different ways of learning before, but the way the teacher said it sounded more interesting. I wanted to know more as he went on. I haven’t had this kind of feeling to learn in a while.
A few weeks ago, I went to the arcade again on a Friday and decided to watch some people play, but apparently everyone left for the weekend. Only a few people were still playing and it was generally silent enough that you could hear two old men play table tennis in the next room. Even the speakers on some of the arcade machines weren’t loud enough to be heard.
I ended up watching this group of people play Marvel vs Capcom 2 and a lonely player. The group of people started making the room lively as they yelled a bit when playing. It was enjoyable to watch. It reminded me of my friends.
After being a little disheartened, I sat down to play against someone on another machine. The person I was playing against chose the same character and did the same tactics as my brother would. A rush of nostalgia hit me as I did my best to win, but at last, I lost. I talked to the guy afterwards and complimented him on his match. He answered in an awkward way that told me his first language was not English.
The group of people that was playing Marvel vs Capcom 2 shifted over to another machine, and I started watching them because I wanted to join their fun. After observing a few of their matches, I walked up and slipped a quarter into the machine with an “excuse me”.
They thought I was really good and a “baller”, which I’ve heard a few times with my other friends, but never did really knew the correct definition. I beat their first friend, who was decent. The next person commented on how she noticed me watching them play and again threw the word “baller” around. She picked the rival character of mine and I instantly became pumped. Again, more nostalgia rushed into my head as I imagined playing against my best friend.
As we played, she spread her elbows into a long rhombus shape, which got into my playing space, but I didn’t want to seem rude and complain because they seemed like good people. I beat her one match, and she beat me in the next. We ended with a satisfying handshake, saying we should play again. She asked for my name and I did the same. She had to same her name quite a few times before she eventually told me an English name. And then her next two friends told me theirs. I’m not too good with Chinese.