Videogames and You

Half Of 26-Year-Old's Memories Nintendo-Related

BROOKLYN, NY—According to an fMRI of Philip Jenkins' brain during memory recall, his parietal lobe is activated equally for the words "mother" and "Banjo Kazooie."

Frighteningly, I can almost relate to this. Man I played some cool videogames when I was young. They seemed less high tech back then but somehow more engaging. Could of course have something to do with the fact that I'm older but I'm not sure that that's all there is to it. It's almost like filmmakers that make really crap movies that have amazing special effects. The F/X don't make them any less crap. I played some great games that were nothing but text, e.g., the famous Infocom games.

I should point out that most of my great memories of gaming were when I was with some buddy where we were either playing cooperatively or trying the beat the crap out of each other. Either way it was a very social experience and not really isolating at all. The great memory comes from that shared experience.

Day of Busyness and Fade Out

So today it's incredibly busy at work. Meetings and phone calls and many other things to do. Near the end of it I have one of my patented disassociative episodes. I get these now and then especially if I'm a) busy b) tired c) hungry. The best way I can describe them is that I can't feel what day or time it is or where exactly I am. If you ask me and I think carefully about it then I'd be able to tell you but I can't feel it. I know that may not make sense but it's the best way I can describe the feeling. The first few times it happened I panicked a little because I didn't know what was happening. Now, although I still don't know exactly what it is, I at least know that the feeling will fade away in a few hours.