Speaking of Say Hi To Your Mom…
On my way home from work last night, I was listening to the song “But She Beat My High Score” off of the album Numbers and Mumbles and thinking and laughing about these lyrics.
and there’s a flame, there’s a spark,
but she beat my high score.
so say goodbye, there’s the door.
I can’t see you anymore.
I, like many guys, am insanely immature when it comes to video games (or anything competitive for that matter). I hate losing and will throw a tantrum internally or externally when losing at something that I feel I should’ve won. I really thought I would’ve outgrown these issues by this point in my life, but I haven’t.
Mary and I have a Game Cube at home which is used almost exclusively to play either Mario Kart or Mario Strikers. I used to dominate at these games, particularly Mario Kart, but the gap has closed considerably. Mario Strikers, the more I play it, then more I realize, seems to have a considerable amount of arbitrariness to it. Shots that shouldn’t have a chance go in. Periphery players running in crazy directions. This is all compounded I suppose by not having control over the goalie and is exceedingly frustrating when both players are roughly equal.
Our last three game set began with a 7-0 walloping on my part, and finished with two straight 2-3 goal wins by Mary. I gave up with about a minute to go in the third game I was so frustrated. Yes, I am one of those people. Every time we play I vow never to play again.
At least with Kart I feel like there’s some sense to it. I generally am a better driver but Mary hangs around close enough these days to take me out with solid item usage. I don’t like it and often play the poor sport card of “the only reason you won is because you got such and such…” (If you can remember back to Psychology class I believe this would classify as the Fundamental Attribution Error. I am aware of my fallibilities. I still blame the prize box though.)
With these self-revelations in mind, I find it intensely amusing to picture the breakup scene of the guy in the above mentioned song as he flips out over losing his number one slot on the high score list to his girlfriend. Given my own poor sport propensity this might not be the most unreasonable scenario in the world.
From Say Hi To Your Mom, I also highly recommend Discosadness which has the phenomenally addictive song “Kill the Cat.” I haven’t listened to any other albums yet, but I imagine an album called Ferocious Mopes must be good as well.
ah, but have you ever put yourself in a partially non-ambulatory state or otherwise injured a part of yourself (say, the foot) while playing video games?
Not yet. I think the point of a good tantrum is to address the perceived failure of some body part or extention there-of. I.e., when playing basketball, striking a wall with a foot is perfectly reasonable given the insubordination of the foot/leg in a failed layup attempt. Punishment! Video outbursts therefore are generally addressed to the hands (thrown controllers or smashing of nearby objects).
at least you are systematic about your masochism. and you have a regular basketball game. i hate you.