A couple years ago I had a brilliant idea to become a semi-pro poker player to help pay for school. So I invested some money in my skills and ventured into the online gaming world. So maybe the idea wasn’t all that brilliant and my poker skills aren’t really skills at all. It took me only a couple weeks to be down $500 and six months to win it back. After I got most of it back I cashed out, left the gaming world, and never looked back. Though the real money aspect of online gaming isn’t appealing to me anymore (quite scary actually), I sometimes get an itch for the gameplay. Therefore, since May 2008 I’ve been a member of Facebook’s Texas Hold ‘Em Poker application. The money is fake and the games aren’t always exciting, but it does the job of giving me my poker/gaming/competition fix. I play a few times a week, usually to relax a bit or while I’m watching a game or even reading a book, but to be honest I don’t even know if I really enjoy it. Weird. I guess we all have the thing(s) we do to help us through the daily grind.
P.S. There’s something depressing about being a multi-millionaire on Facebook poker. =/
Disney’s got it all figured out: Disney succeeds in theme parks based on fantasy that remediates reality, yet manages to create a whole new kind of reality founded in nostalgia and “transparency and authenticity of emotion.” Bolter and Grusin explain that Disney success is largely due to the ultimate triple threat: “Disney television, film, and theme parks each make their own promise of authenticity of experience even as they validated the promise of the other two” (172). This threesome works collectively to ensure Disney’s never-ending place in this world. I’ve never personally been a huge Disney fan but I do like a few of their movies (UP made it on my all-time top 20 movie list), and going to the theme park usually culminates in a negative and crowded experience. Still, I went to Disneyland 4 times over the past 12 months (note: every time was free) and I’ll probably take my kids there too. I’m not exactly sure what it is but Disney’s spell is strong, and if it doesn’t have you it’s got someone dear to you. Muhaha.
