I Have More Toys Than You

If a person were able to watch a complete recording of my life from beginning to present, they would discern that I have a strange affection for toys, so distinct and refined that I could be labeled a toy savant.

If you think you are too old to play with toy's then you are a liar and I pity your closet lifesyle.

I keep every toy from my childhood in bins in my basement. I don't play with all of them, but I like to keep them around. When I was young I used to imagine that all those Batman's and Beanie Babies had feelings and opinions, but were unable to express them because they were toys. Toys can't move. Yet I made sure to play with each one equally over the course of a week... so they wouldn't become lonely, of course!

My two favorite movies from back in the day were Toy Story, and Indian in the Cupboard. Why?
Because how freaking awesome would it be to open a cabinet in your house and see mini Darth Vader going blade to blade against a Fisher Price knight?! I KNOW RIGHT?!

I'm in my twenties now and I know none of that could ever happen, but the old me trapped within my drained and addled mind still has hope that one day his Lego's will come to life, build a colony in my basement, and wage war on every other being in their land of boxes and old clothes. Essentially becoming like the Moria goblins in LotR, using mice and squirrels as cave trolls, and I will live among them. An honorary and well renowned member of their society, like a village shaman... but the corrupt kind, that uses the people to bring him all the luxuries in the world for free... because they fear me and my knowledge...

If heaven was based on materialism that would probably be an accurate description of what my section would look like.

This being said, it can be assumed that I like to spend my free time doing absolutely nothing productive, and I feel that's how all people truly want to spend the end of their day after work or school. Even if someone says they love their work, or going to school, or doing endless amounts of research for their own personal benefit which happens to benefit a paying organization; again, anyone who says that they love to work is a liar. Nobody likes to work, work isn't fun. That's why its called work, and not called fun. It should be called not-fun. "Hey honey, im off to not-fun, so if u need me, I wrote my private not-fun number on a piece of paper and stuck it to the fridge, byeeeee!"

Clearly more descriptive and accurate than saying work.

I imagine a perfect life having a moderately productive job, 9-5 with two days off a week at least that will send me home each day feeling as if I've accomplished something, or helped someone. Then going home to my own house, to see my wife and give her an affectionately light kiss on the cheek, then prepare to make/help make dinner. After dinner relaxing in a hot shower followed by watching tv, playing a video game, surfing the web, or going out to meet friends for some shenanigans, but most days would be sharing these activities with my wife.

I believe that my inner child would be satisfied in life, if he could share his toys with the inner child of my future wife. 

It sounds silly, but if you think about it everyone is driven by that one thing they they couldn't have when they were young. For me that would be someone to share in the joy that my action figures and video games brought me, then and now. Its not actually the toys that make me happy, but the innocent pleasure that made me, still makes me, feel whole. It's not enough to experience that feeling though, I want to share it with others to make them happy, and when you use your innocent pleasure to give others pleasure, that's a whole other level of enjoyment man.

Why wouldn't you want to tell the world when something makes you happy?

I read it somewhere once that the biggest turn on a person could experience is knowing that they turn someone else on. ( don't ask me where I read that, its not for the ears and eyes of the public... yes I realize I've been talking about how much I enjoy toys this whole time, but its not like that. You're reading too much into it! Innocent pleasure! Think innocent pleasure!!)

Well, I probably just ruined this whole thing, but whatever it was good till you got down here, right?

Lol... gimmi sum feedback bros and brahs.

Time Management in the Eyes of a Procrastinator

I view the world as a giant video game. 

All the world follows a general script, and each decision changes the script as they play. Joining an organization allows for new quests, reputation, and automatic faction alignments while new acquaintances and potential party members phase in with each click of the imaginary cursor i see in my head. 

I also like to think of that oh-so-linear path we all take down the general script like Bizzaro at Six Flags. 

If you don't understand that, Google Bizzaro and come back to my page to read the rest of this thought. 

I like to think of myself as an overall happy person. I enjoy my life and most of the people in it. 

                                                                  HOWEVER
Every so often i'll feel like the world is coming down around me. 

Being a full time student is not as difficult as it is portrayed to be. Being an outstanding academic is the hard part (which I am no where near close to being). 

Owning a car is not difficult either. Paying the insurance and keeping up with the maintenance is where the challenge lies. 

And working part time is not difficult at all. Working part time to pay for the car insurance and maintenance for the car you need to get to the part time job, and the classes for the degree you need to qualify for a higher paying job, is moderately difficult. 

        This mix of responsibility leaves very little room for studying, homework, and much desired past times. 
This mix makes it difficult to show the world that you are trying in school, yet your lack of time to study comes back to haunt you during the first, second, and final exams EVERY. DAMN. SEMESTER.

The frustration builds upon you with each pointless class where the concepts make it into your head but don't hang around for long themselves, because they too must start driving to work, to pay for the car insurance for the car they need to get to class, to qualify for a higher paying job!

AND WHEN YOU FINALLY DISCOVER A CLASS THAT CAN TEACH YOU CRITICAL SKILLS FOR A CAREER YOU MIGHT NOT FIND BORING, the tightly fitted weekly schedule that you willingly signed up for (because it allowed for the most efficient management of your time) says NO YOU MAY NOT STUDY THIS MATERIAL BECAUSE YOU MUST GO TO WORK!

WHERE YOU WILL WASTE YOUR TIME STANDING AT A DOOR FOR PETTY CRIMINALS TO TRY AND ABSCOND WITH MERCHANDISE THAT HAS NOT BEEN PAID FOR...

AND. The worst part about it is that they might not even come. Not even with an invitation! Why?!

Because THEY TOO must get to work, to pay for the car they need to get somewhere else which may lead to higher pay.   (of course they don't do that, because they are petty criminals and don't want to take the simple path to improve their ways of life) 

BUT WHY DO THEY INSIST ON LETTING YOU DO NOTHING ALL DAY!?!?! 

I want to go back to doing nothing all day. Maybe I should settle and attempt to be a trophy husband to a wealthy hard working woman that don't need no man... Nah, id rather waste my own money. 

I need a break.

Assumptions Built Into This Question

How often do you sit around and wait for something to happen?

If you are a gamer, then the answer for you would be ALL THE DIDDLY DARN TIME! Yea you might be up in arms thinking of a defensive response to my answer because you spend your day managing which daily quests need to be completed in how much time to leave room for your raid, or some time for grinding mobs for a rare drop and "Hey Ivan you suck because I'm doing alot of things to get this really awesome set of armor for my toon so it can look better than your stupid hunter!"

                    Well yes metaphysical viewer stereotype, you are doing lots and lots of work to make  that helmet worth the time investment.  

 But think about it...

         In all that time you've been killing tigers for reputation, you're banging out a good 10 rep per kill. You're now in a grinding groove, completely mindless until its time to log off for work. You're a a grinding machine. So now that you have a steady inflow of reputation, are you not simply sitting at the computer waiting for the job to be finished?

What about farming for a rare drop? Are you not waiting for the right bird to come along so you can cut a broad sword our of its unusually large stomach?

 Both of these scenarios are time investments. What is an investment? "An investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future" (Investopedia.com).

                   Something that will be worth something else IN. THE. FUTURE.

What am I getting at--- FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK.

While I was sitting around today waiting for life experiences to cross my path I decided to pick up a book I found in my basement a year ago, and decided not to read till now. I do that.

The book is titled Motivation: Theories and Principles and I am only one chapter into it, so this is a premature opinion on one of its ideas, but  I want to share it anyway:

The book starts out by comparing the mind and body and whether or not our behaviors are free or determined. It talks about this opinion called Mentalistic Monism: The view that we do not have to assume any external world if our only knowledge of it is from our experience (pg. 5).

Rephrased: There is no external world outside of our minds and there is no proof  that things exist outside of our minds except for what we experience.

If you believe this, then not only is this game we're playing not real, but the things that are real also arn't real! Trippy, yah. Too bad someone couldn't have added a mini map to our "real world" UI's.

Then there's this guy name of David Hume who took this idea and said there is a possibility that there is only one mind and that any other apparent minds are only the experience of the one mind, like other objects are all experiences of the one mind.

This guy pretty much just called you an idea. Who does he think he is, saying you're no greater than an idea?! You know what Mr. Hume, YOU'RE an idea!

 So he re-branded Mentalistic Monism as Solipsism.

Let say you stubbed your toe on the foot of your bed. The first experience you have would be *SONOFAB@#$%!*  The second experience you have asks "If this pain is only an idea why am I experiencing pain, unless this bed must exist?" To answer this question, the existence of the bed has to be assumed. IF you are a solipsist, your argument would be that neither the bed or the pain actually exist unless you can prove that they are separate entities from your mind.

Why would my mind pain its self, Ivan?

This is because we do not pick and choose experiences; they just happen. Or you're a masochist.

You could argue this, but ultimately your arguments do not exist outside of my own mind, because there is no separate "you" outside of my own mind. So you could rage all you want but I don't care because you're not there! HAH!

Let this be a lesson to you if you see me on the Fields of Justice.


                             COMMENT BELOW AND SURVEY TO THE RIGHT.

Driven To Insanity

I am a car owner, and I love to drive.

I complain about how much I have to pay for insurance, or gas, or yearly repairs, or how much I have to drive everywhere...

                       But at the end of a trip, I love being able to drive and I love driving.

When I am alone at night on the road my car is a sanctuary and a quite place that nobody can invade (because its moving at 55+ miles an hour so I'd like to see them try and get in!)

I can turn up the radio and let the tunes wash over me like a shower of beautiful sounds perfectly compiled by their composers and mixing artists. Led Zeppelin in the dark so loud that I can feel John Bonham's drums beating in my bones; Rush cranked up to eleven so Alex Lifeson's solo's send my head into a euphoric state of peace.

                   Driving definitely has its perks...
                                                          But then there are other people on the road...

    For those who blog and drive, how many times have you been at a 4 way intersection and another car had made it to their sign before you, and then wait until you go forward first? I've encountered these people at least twice in the past week. Do you want to know what I think of people like this?

                                YOU CAN'T DO THAT PEOPLE! GET OFF THE ROAD!
             RETURN YOUR LICENSE TO THE RMV IMMEDIATELY AFTER YOU CONTACT
                                 A TOWING COMPANY TO HAUL YOUR TOYOTA
                       TO A MOTOR VEHICLE AUCTION BECAUSE YOU DONT
                                                  DESERVE TO HAVE ONE!

You cannot give someone the right of way if they don't have it! Just because YOU have the right of way, doesn't mean it is yours to give! The world of motorism is a delicate and complex machine, and should not be tinkered with because someone is feeling generous today.

     This is where society ends people: when the right of way has been given to the person next to you.
What if there were three people at the intersection, and the first gave it to the second, and the second gave it to the third? By that logic the third would have the OPTION of giving it to the first, and that would cause the drivers of the 4 way intersection to be caught in an infinite loop of generosity. Then traffic would build up, the entire city would be caught in a gridlock, that gridlock would extend onto the highways, and the stand still traffic on the highways would stop traffic in multiple states. The entire country (maybe even the continent) would be in a state of emergency all because some "nice guy or gal" decided to hand over the right of way to somebody else.

  Lets put this in another perspective:
          If you were a competitive drinker in a drinking competition where each contestant took turns ingesting a shot of whatever, and you were given the choice of going first or second, and you decided to go first, but then insist that the other contestant goes first because that is the "chivalrous" thing to do, that means the other contestant has the option to do that (which he/she will utilize and extend the first drink back to you).
                                        The competition would never begin! You'd be there forever or until the bar owner became sick of the kindness and kicked you both out.

Going back to the intersection:

      Now what if we were at that intersection with the same three vehicles, and the first person decided to give the right of way to the second, but the second didn't take it because he/she went to driver's ed, and meant to sit there until the first person made their way through the intersection. The third person would become frustrated that no car has moved in a whole minute, and would proceed to enter the intersection without care for the other two drivers.
            Then what if the first driver came to his/her senses and took the right of way WHILE the third car was entering from their side, because they were offended that the second person wouldn't accept it from them?

              They would be exchanging insurance information, that's what.
The second person would be stuck there with them because he/she has now become a witness and needs to give a statement to the officer responding to the accident. On top of that insurance premiums for persons 1 and 2 would jump, making their wallets significantly lighter for a good year or two. Who benefits from this situation? The insurance companies!

By giving up the right of way, you are causing panic and distrust among your fellow drivers which will influence them to buy more coverage on their insurance plans. Insurance companies are made up of terrible people who benefit from the misfortune of others.

Don't give up the right of way. Don't give free business to your insurance companies. The right of way isn't yours to give to someone anyway.

COMMENT BELOW AND SURVEY ON THE RIGHT!

Magic the Gathering: Case Study on Flipping Cards for Profit

Hey, I just noticed the "Title Bar" at the top of the page!

I am a hobbyist, if you have not already read that. I consider myself to be an expert on having hobbies; there is nothing I enjoy more.

Would it surprise you to know I am 22 and only recently discovered the wonders of Magic the Gathering?

It should... from the information I provided about myself in the previous post, it should.

When I open a pack of cards I find more value in actually having the cards rather than playing the game. When I was 9 I went mad with Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh (I almost never left the house without a deck...). With the release of Hearthstone, I began to relive the schoolyard days of playing for keeps during recess. My only need for improvement in Hearthstone would be expanding the library of cards available to the players.
     Don't get me wrong, I believe the current set of cards works so well that the whole thing could be a board game ( which Blizzard was most likely trying to do ), but playing with the same cards over and over and over... makes me feel drone-like after about an hour of play time.

My roommate eventually introduced me to the wonderful world of the Multiverse ( for those of you who are not familiar, the Multiverse is the setting for Magic the Gathering ), and sure enough my addictive personality drove me to purchase booster packs, starter decks, and at least one bundle box ( 36 packs of cards, 13 cards in each pack... you do the math ).

I love it. I'm having a very hard time exercising my self-control when I see them. 

Being a college student, money is hard to come by. Work is harder to fit into an already tight schedule. Having a money sink for a hobby complicates the situation even further!

So I am playing with the idea of flipping cards for profit. My reasoning:
   
     If I enjoy having the cards, and these cards hold monetary value to many individuals other than myself; why not buy a booster box, sell all of the cards on ebay, save the profit for the duration of this experiment and allocate some of it to buy another booster box, and repeat the whole process?

-I will receive the satisfaction of pulling the hard to find cards every time
-I will make some side money for my own expenses other than my bi-weekly pay from work
-Many rare cards will be available on the market for purchase by collectors and players alike
-Information data will be acquired from the entire process for future use
     -> should this information become published it would be available to others looking to gets started making a profit from trading card flipping.

             If I have any readers yet, feel free to lend me your thoughts on this idea

                               Also don't forget to check out the survey to your right -------->

THE ORIGIN OF MY NAME

Bolded, italicized, and underlined because this is important for future fans :D

It all began in middle school, where one of my friends let me use his subscription to the ever popular popular MMORPG World of Warcraft (ooooooooo, aaaaahhhhh...)

Making my first toon was a huge event in my life, and something inside of me at the time knew that, so I decided to put an enormous amount of effort into naming it. Hearing so much about the game from other friends plus spending time reading the strategy guide on the bus rides home gave me opportunity to preform what kind of character I wanted to be while traversing Azeroth.

                                                         DWARF HUNTER  (woahhh guy, chill out..)

Ok then, what are some names suitable for a dwarf? During middle school I discovered the writings of R.A. Salvatore and the answer was clear to me: DRIZZT DO'URDAN!!! Obviously the perfect name for my Dwarf hunter. (Drizzt Do'Urdan was the name of R.A. Salvatore's most popular character, who's lineage stems from a long line of Dark Elves and had absolutely nothing do do with a Dwarf..)

So I typed it into the name field: NAME UNAVAILABLE. Um... ok, how about Drizzt...
NAME UNAVAILABLE. Uh... fine. What about DrizztDo... NAME.IS.NOT.AVAILABLE.

FINE THEN.

So I settled for the next best dwarf out there... IVAN BOULDERSHOULDER!!!! Who wouldn't want to share a name with such a rough and tumble lone warrior and his trusted sidekick Pikel? (ME BRUDDAH!)

I typed it in: Ivanbouldershoulder and hastily hit the create button!

Character Created: Ivanboulders

NICE hey wait... what?!

Nobody told me about the 12 character limit AND SO "Ivan" was brought forth into the world... of warcraft!

From that moment on, all of my gamer tags and screen names have been variations of the original:
Ivan the Boulder, Ivanshoulders, Ivan the Shoulder, IvanMeteor, Ivan, Ivan the Sediment..ious

All of them Ivan and something to do with a rock or a shoulder.

So what have you gathered about me from this second post? That I am a gamer? An idea sharer? or maybe a fan of fantasy and possibly sciencefiction?

Well yes that... but most importantly you should have picked up on the fact that I am impulsive and act before I think... but hey, at least I think, even if it comes second.

Hey, check out the survey to your right and give me some free data   --------->

The purpose of this blog is to satiate my need for somewhere to write my thoughts other than on Facebook, because single posts disappear too quickly and I fail in motivating myself to write a journal.

To be clear, this blogs is about me... ME... and I guess a bit about you, if you so choose to comment on me...

Obviously I'm new to this scene so bear with me as I delve further into the mysterious world of blogging. Buckle your belt kiddies, this is going to be a bumpy ride.