Don't look for me to buy an Xbox or anything, but...

Yesterday I spent most of my evening (after making videos for class projects all afternoon--AWFUL) playing Nintendo 64 with my friends. I am pretty sure that the only games I ever really played growing up were Goldeneye and MarioKart, and I am not very good at either. But I was having fun nonetheless.

After a few rounds of MarioKart, we decided to run to EB Games and look for used games to play. I get bored really easily in video game stores, so after about 30 seconds of searching through 8 billion Madden games and a couple Pokemon cartridges, I wandered to the front of the store and found the most wonderful thing I've ever seen (as far as video game stores are concerned, of course): Guitar Hero II.

So while my friends looked for their used games, I learned how to play Sweet Child O' Mine on a fake guitar. But it was probably the most fun video game I've ever played (maybe because I wasn't losing to someone?). It's sort of like DDR for your hands, and with WAY better music.

I suppose I have taken an interest in video games recently (not a real interest, just less of a non-interest, if that makes sense) because I'm reading Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, a book about how today's video games, television shows, and movies are all much more complex than the entertainment of the past. The first chapter, which is about video games, is pretty long, but as I've worked my way through (I'm a busy girl, people, and the Top 100 are waiting impatiently over there for me to finish them), I've learned to see video game-players differently. One of the main arguments, for example, is that through no other form of entertainment do we rely so heavily on our ability to make decisions, and video games are helping people hone this skill. I never really thought about it that way before. At any rate, I can't wait to get to the tv and movies part, because that actually pertains to me.

So, in conclusion (because I have to go do homework, y'all, and I don't have time to be creative): Try Guitar Hero II, and read Everything Bad is Good for You. You will feel good about the video game because of the book, and you will feel good about the book because...it's a book.