OddballGreg - Hoarding (Keeping What You Don't Need)

A screenshot of the bountiful aid supplies I had "liberated" in a short 5 hour stint of Fallout: New Vegas.

Hoarding. It's a problem people suffer from when their belief of an items possible usefulness in the future overrides it's actual necessity in any likely situation. Some people are good at logically working out what they need, but others occasionally just can't let things go. Let's talk about that.

A couple days ago, a Kotaku article about a YouTube channel called ManyATrueNerd caught my attention when they mentioned that this one, enterprising individual, had taken it upon himself to play the widely acclaimed Fallout 3 and New Vegas games from Bethesda Softworks in what was perhaps the most psychotic, hilarious playthrough of a game I have ever watched. 30 episodes of listening to a British madman "Kill Everything" was quite literally the most most absurd thing I had watched in ages, and I loved every minute of it. (I am OddballGreg after all. It's all in good humor though.) I highly suggest you watch that very humorous playthrough.

In any case, watching him play these old, favorite games of mine made me want to play them again myself, and promptly installed Fallout: New Vegas, only to remember 4 hours in why I had never finished the game in the first place:

Turns out I probably missed the day at school where they explained what "Packing Lightly" meant.

 Hoarding. We've likely all done it in some capacity over the course of our lives, digitally or not. Why is this a problem? Well, in terms of Fallout: New Vegas, a character can only carry so much before they get encumbered, which removes their ability to run or jump and makes them walk slower than a crippled grandmother with a walker. The many times I previously played this game, I spent hours walking at this snails pace with my overly laden pack until frustration made me stop caring.

This time though, I was interested to find out, why exactly, did I keep doing this to myself? What was the source of all this weight in my pack? To people on the outside, the obvious answer would be all the heavy guns and armor I carry around.

While carrying 3 sets of armor and a FREAKING FLAMETHROWER is certainly heavy, they were only a small part of the issue.

For myself, I was somewhat more convinced that my issue came from my incessant need to carry anything that could be made into something else. Crafting materials and whatnot. Strangely, even this pile turned out to be somewhat underwhelming.

You would think that scrap electronics, wrenches, whet stones and scrap metal would be the problem. Apparently not.

However, the revelation was when I finally came to the "Aid" section of my inventory. Healing items, food, water, various fictional drugs that provide bonuses to the game character. Things would expect to be useful. So dropping a couple items, and then a few more, and then another hundred, I quickly realized why it was that I was so frequently overladen in this game.

Listen, I know "Waste Not, Want Not" is a thing, but this is ridiculous. This pile probably weighs more than I do.

That is over 200 units of in game weight of "Aid" items. Considering the fact that the heaviest item I was carrying was metal armor which weighed 15 units, I think it's fair to say that I think I found the problem.

An old habit of mine from many a game has always been to take anything that could be useful or save your life. Healing items are excellent, so is food when you're playing on "Hardcore mode" which requires your character to eat, drink and sleep. But at no point did it ever occur to me that I might be carrying too much food, water, medical supplies and other assorted items. "Surely I'll just naturally go through all this supply?" That would be true if I wasn't such a strategically frugal person. I saved everything I could whenever I could, and the consequence of this is that I just never stopped adding more and more to my characters pack. Perhaps in a humorous moment of disbelief, the total equipment on the floor of that room was likely several times my character's mass and weight, and would probably not have fit into the trunk of car, let alone my character's seemingly depth-less pockets.

It's interesting to consider that this is the same issue that people all over the world have to deal with in a very real capacity. That they simply cannot bear to give up something that could be so very useful, even if they don't actually have a use for it themselves. Even I need to frequently clear old and useless from my desk every so often, limiting myself to keeping only what has been useful in the past year or so, and is not readily or cheaply available. (The rest gets pushed off the edge and into a convenient green bin that I keep nearby.)

Do understand that hoarders are not stupid or silly in any capacity, and like all of us, are the result of their experiences, which makes them into the way they are. I like to keep useful things, because I've known what it is like to not have things when you need them. I've seen the more fortunate throw away perfectly good food and drink for arbitrary reasons, not because they're spoiled, but because they don't understand just how lucky they are to have what they do. Despite this, it is an occasionally unhealthy habit that is good to deal with in what ways one can. Organisation, as I am quickly learning thanks to this blog, far outweigh keeping the "possibly useful" objects I like to have.

While I don't expect this game induced revelation to change much in the world, I do hope that it has at least provided you with something entertaining to read, and interesting to consider. If it has, then please do let me know about it in the comments below or via Facebook/Twitter, as we here at TCSA love to hear your feedback. It would also be greatly appreciated if you share this post with anyone you think may find it interesting, as I am sure they will appreciate the thought as much as we appreciate your support. Of course, if you would like to read more interesting posts like this one, then do be sure to like the Official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left, so that you can get the latest posts, as they're made. Regardless of what you do, thank you very much for having taken the time to read this post; I hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Pack lightly my friends.

JovialJman - Internet Easter Eggs (Unknown Fun)

Screenshot is of the Google page after one searches the term "Zerg Rush"

Easter eggs are this thing that you get around Easter, (kinda in the name), and they are made from Eggs, (who would have thunk it, learn something every day.). In media however the Easter Bunny just loves to leave these little secret things all over the internet.

YouTube has some Easter Eggs such as: If you search "do the harlem shake" then the song will start playing while the YouTube logo dances to it. When the base drops, all of the thumbnails will move around and do the harlem shake as well. This was introduced just after it became a popular phenomenon on the internet. When you search for "doge meme" your search will yield videos but the font and colour of all the words will have changed. After searching for "beam me up scotty", your results will appear as if they have been transported onto your screen from Star Trek. If you have slow internet, like here in South Africa, you can play the classic Snake game while you wait for your Youtube video to load, while it is loading just hit the down or left arrow key and that should start the game. However it didn't work on my profile, but on the same computer under a different user, I was able to do it in the same browser, very strange.

Google is also very well know for their hidden items. There are very famous ones like searching for "do a barrel roll" to make the screen rotate 360 degrees and searching "z or r twice" will yield the same result. While searching "askew" will make your result a bit tilted and "tilt" will do the same. Apparently 1 is not just a lonely number but the most lonely, if you search "what is the loneliest number" a calculator will show you 1 because calculators understand English now apparently. This calculator can also answer the most difficult question "the answer to life the universe and everything" which is a reference to an awesome book/movie that I still need to read called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Googling "once in a blue moon" is apparently measured in hertz while if you want to nag a ram, Google "anagram" but for the nerd fame again search "define anagram".

Google has different ways in which you can search things like if you can speak "pig latin", give this a go; whereas if you would prefer to be a pirate, this might be better suited to your poop deck. (I just wanted an excuse to use the word poop), then there is the l33t style that has come with the digital age. If you would like to see what it was like to "google in 1988", then google just that. Then there are the little games which you can play as well; search "zerg rush" and google images for "atari breakout". There is this web page that mimics google but adds gravity to it and Google maps lets you see inside the TARDIS!! Just go to this police telephone box and click inside. (By the way if you do not know what a tardis is then you have missed out on an awesome series my friend.)

Try and beat my score, it can't be too hard.

There are not as many on Facebook though. Most of the Easter Eggs most people know of are not much to talk about, but there are still some. If you enter ":putnam:" into the Facebook chat then the head of Chris Putnam, the Facebook engineer, will show as an emoticon. And just like Google you can be a pirate on Facebook by changing your language setting to English (Pirate) and make it upside down by changing the language to English (Upside down) in your account settings.

In Mozilla Firefox you can type "about:robots" into the address bar to come across this really strange message. Go to this web site and look at the source code (hit F12) to see a dragon. Yes a ****ing dragon (the asterisks mean flying). Wikipedia has a blank page that cannot be changed. What is its use? To look pretty, what else?

Anyways, if you like these Easter Eggs that the Easter bunny has left for us, or if you have beaten my score on zerg rush, then please let us know down in the comments, over Facebook, tweet us on twitter or you could even email us if you want as we love to hear from you. If you have any friends that are bored, please consider sharing it with them to make their day that much less boring, I am sure they will greatly appreciate it. If you would like to see new posts as they come out or just want to show your support, also please consider liking us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Hope you have/had a really fun filled day, and I shall ramble again overmorrow.

Happy hunting compadres.