Real Life vs Video Game Life

I'm often struck in the vast difference between video game life and real life, especially when it comes to war.  I just finished reading "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge.  As a real to life account of war, it it vastly different than what is experienced in the average video game.  The average video game throws amazing circumstances at you and you end up fighting constantly, effectively dying and retrying.  Video games are full of banzai charges and insane attacks.  It's the kind of stuff that makes for great movie scenes.  It's also things that were learned and quit.

By the time of the battles at Pellilou and Okinawa, the Japanese banzai charge had gone the way of the dinosaur.  It was an ineffective action when faced down by a bunch of entrenched Marines.  It was replaced with deep emplacements and disciplined fire.   That led to slow slogging battles battles where every inch of ground was a difficult struggle. 

You don't see much of that in video games.  It's all blind charges and insane maneuvers as your bullet sponge avatar heroically destroys an obviously inferior enemy.  It's a sad blight on humanity.

I once thought of a movie to describe real war.  It would have been called Guard, and it would be four hours long in real time.  No quick cuts, no exciting scenes.  You have three people standing in a guard tower watching a mobile populace move through their day to day lives. 

It would have been the most boring movie known to man.  But then it would have been the most accurate war movie ever.  Just by observing you would learn the wonders of high intensity anxiety and tension.  It would have been beautiful. 

But then, I've never been a screen writer.  Or much less a story board person.  It would have been interesting. 

The general answer is that real life is not video games.  And that's about all there is to it. 

Those who have seen war...

To those that have seen war know that the war never ends.

The location changes, the faces change.  The weapons change.  But the war starts and never ends.

I remember when the war started.  It was March 20, 2003.  Since then, it has never stopped.

The battlefield has changed.  I haven't been in Iraq since 2007.  No more sunsets in the desert sand storms blocking visibility.  The M4 has long since been returned to the armory, and I probably couldn't even set the headspace and timing on .50 cal any more. Those skills have atrophied with lack of use.

New skills have replaced the old skills  I use a keyboard and mouse now.  Electrical scissors and crimpers.  The speed at which I used to be able to disassemble and reassemble an M16 has been replaced with the speed of making Cat5 ends.  I fight with command lines and code.  Programming languages and interfaces.

The enemy hasn't really changed.  The enemy is still amorphous and dodgy, never wearing a uniform or showing his face.  Sometimes its Haji.  Sometimes its the apathetic indifference of your own coworkers.

The war is still here.  Fought in bursts of insanity and boredom.  Sheer terror and force of will.

It has never ended.  It just moved locations.

And it will never end.


And the rest will choose not to see it.  War exists all over the world.  Right now.  And nothing is changing about that.

It will never change.

Parenting... (a how not to)

I've heard the statement before.  I'll hear it again.  And it's completely false.

"Kids these days..."

That's how it always starts.  It's a giant discussion about how the world is going to hell in a hand basket because the kids these days aren't doing what they should be doing.  I'm not going to blame most of it on the kids.  They get a bad rap, and childhood is a pain in the ass.

I'm going to blame it on the parents.  Children by and large are a direct representative of what their parents do.  Let me be clear: I didn't say what their parents say.  I said what their parents do.  If you yell at your kids, your kids will yell at each other.  They will be you, but with less of a filter.  It is both weird and creepy.  I've seen it out of my own kids.

If I want them to start listening more, I have to start listening.  To everyone.
If I want them to quit yelling, I have to quit yelling.

Do as I say not as I do doesn't work.  Yet that's what many parents use.  For a while.  Then they phone it in and quit trying.

It's strange how we start off wanting our children to be the president when they are four.  By the time the child is 15, you're hoping to avoid jail.

Where did that come from?  How did we fall so low as parents as to go from supremely high achievement to less than the average?  Where did our grasp disappear and our fight go?  Too many bills and too many problems in the world?

Parents, you must hold on longer than you think.  Maintain the discipline longer than you think is necessary.  Especially in the teenage years.  There is a time for responsibility, and that is as the child earns it.  Fail in responsibilities, reduce responsibilities.  It's a constant give and take.

We want women to achieve in life at the rate of their male counterparts, but what do we teach them via most children's education method?  TV teaches most children.  And you demonize business or anyone starting a business.  And you end up with some single mom on TV with multiple kids and a contrived story about how they got there.  Might as well say the sperm donor walked as some of the crap they come up with.

If you want to see women succeed, start writing successful women.  Start teaching that parenting requires two parents.  And it requires full time effort from both parents.  I don't care if you are tired at the end of a work day.  You aren't done until the kids go to bed.  Quit dialing it in and being a dead beat parent.  Achieve something.

And...  don't let the hippies teach you how to parent.  Because they haven't got a clue.

I've heard numerous stories, and I'll leave you with one from "the old Corps".  I heard it during Corporals Course in Iraq back in 2007.

An instructor was asked about the differences between the "old Corps" and the "new Corps".  He said there was a Marine who would show up to a unit, and be great for a few weeks.  Then the Marine would start becoming insubordinate and rude.  Eventually, the guy would be taken out back and beaten up.  It worked OK for a few days.  And then he was back to the same old thing.

He was moved to a new unit, probably due to his disciplinary issues.  Same scenario proceeded.  The man would show up and be great at his job for a while.  Then he'd turn insubordinate and rude.  And he would be taken out back and beaten.

And that same thing persisted until he was finally discharged.

Following the end of the story, I remember a bunch of people looking like it was something to look forward to.  Like they had missed a great institution.  But they missed the crucial point.  Despite the beatings, the man never changed.  The beatings did not fix the problem.  It was a stupid application of force that only temporarily solved the problem.

And yet here was Insanity rearing its ugly head again.   Over, and over, and over again.

The normal answer

I've been working like a crazy man the last couple of weeks.  Putting in hours the normal individual wouldn't consider sane.  But it's done.  Or at least at a temporary standstill. I started writing an article about the time spent.  It wasn't worth a shit.  I haven't moved on.

I started writing, and it seemed like a good thing.  Then I realized I sounded like a whiny little bum.

Too much "oh poor me".

And another part of me started speaking up.

"What would haji do?"  Do they care that you haven't slept in 36 hours?  Are you still sane?

When your friends die, what's your excuse?  Did you do your best, or did you roll over like a little bum?

What could you have done?  Why are you living a life of regret?  Grab the wheel and force the ship in the direction you want it to go.  Damn the torpedoes.

Quit making excuses.  Grab the wheel.  Put your back in to it.

And if it isn't moving, start kicking it.  Kick until it moves.  Make it move.

"Does haji care you had a bad day?"

"Does haji care you haven't slept?"

Move the damn wheel.

Make it move.

Haji will kill you and not think twice.  He will drop a bomb on your day and completely fuck your world.

Adapt.  Improvise.  Overcome.

Don't let that asshole keep you from your goals.

Don't be an excuse.   Be an answer.





Dedicated to 3/4 and 3/5.  The assholes that saved my ass in a firefight.  Because when I was weak, they were strong.

Ooh rah.