Greg Hiltz

http://drawmarkee.wordpress.com 

I haven't played Mario Kart for a month.

What am I doing with my time? I was just thinking about that the other day. For one thing, I have played a couple other games - most recently Super Mario Galaxy - but not nearly to the level I was racing on Kart. I've played some guitar, but not as much as I should be (for a guy trying to get a band together). I think what I've mostly replaced those hours with is straight-up sleeping. Many of those Mario Kart hours took place in the middle of the night: I'd start racing "a few" at 11 and end up going to bed at 3. I'm just not staying up late like that any more, not regularly. 

"It's made you better in bed, more focused," says Joanna, who's playing Galaxy right now (I asked her for a quote). When she finishes beating this boss, perhaps she'll offer something more substantial. 

I'm already planning ahead to the next game obsession. In June I'll be buying Ghostbusters, which promises to keep me up late and out of the sunshine. In September we're investing far too much money in The Beatles Rock Band, the whole set - that was Joanna's idea.

"I think you're less edgy. You're happier, more well-adjusted ... it's just been nice since you've stopped shooting up Mario Kart," Joanna tells me from the couch. I ask her about the, um, auditory atmosphere in the house. "Oh God, the music.... you know the Pavlovian dog where they, like, ring a bell? When I hear Mario Kart it was getting to the point where I wanted to hurt someone." 

I think she's happy.    :-)

It's been really easy! I don't think I'll miss it much. I'm thinking of some kind of Mario Kart tournament on New Year's 2010, starting with the opening round just after midnight. It would make an awesome live show, after a whole season of live productions at CCTV's new center. We had a great Orientation tonight: about 25 people in the house, and more signups than I've ever seen. The new workshop materials we're developing were put into use for the first time, a test run. One of the dudes found out about Orientation from watching my show, TRONGuide TV! I got to bring a thrill to a little 6 year old who wanted to meet MarkBot from last year's Capital Crypt. My friend Mark, the robot himself, happened to be at his desk, so I introduced the kid. He got a signed DVD and everything, it was classic. 

I'm really hitting a productive stride at the office. Anybody seen the show? 6 episodes in the can as of this Friday 3/6, and I'll have regular new content almost every week through the summer. I see this as the definitive year for what I've been trying to do at CCTV: helping the public succeed by setting a great example, involving them in the process, and building our channels. Promoting, and teaching people how to promote. I think we're going to grow and grow in usage as more people get the hang of making shows and start gaining their own viewers... some of whom will learn about cctvsalem.org in the process. Holding it all together: our own staff-produced efforts to keep our channels looking like something people want to watch. We've really never done much of anything to increase viewership in general, but that's changing. It serves us in every way for people to be watching our channels, talking about our channels, recording our channels - and going online for more.

Comments welcome for this entry ... as an experiment. I decided to not to maintain a friend or contact list for Livejournal - not that anyone's reading. Feel free to post anonymously, sign your feedback, and leave a link.   :-)

Take care, my friends!

Greg

 

For 20 hours per week, on average, for the past few months, I have been racing in a video game called Mario Kart Wii. It's hard not to keep saying it - to myself, in conversation, and in writing - to the point of repetition - that I spent over 700 hours in front of that game. Granted, I was kicking ass: I ran in first place 300 of those hours, specific data to be calculated. 1 Blooper kart around 32 tracks .... and numerically-confirmed skills to show for it. Mission accomplished, right? A long time ago, in truth.

Perhaps I played a little too long, but getting the time back will be a positive experience. Will it be worth having used up all that time playing Mario Kart to begin with, to be so suddenly aware of time spent? Heheh..

Well, I AM damn good.

 

G

I posted a late-night journal entry yesterday about warm water, my kid's earache, and the bare realization of an 8-month gaming addiction. Yes, you were there as the stark reality set in: I have been working a part-time job playing Mario Kart. You might say it's been on my mind since then, and already, it's almost over.

Last night I went immediately from the computer to the Wii, which was already on from checking stats. I raced 3 or 4 world races against just one other dude, a very fast Funky Kong (racing Manual on a bike) who beat me all but the first race, Moonview Highway. Details aside, I wasn't exactly in the zone. I knew this would be my last set of WFC for a long time. I went straight to sleep, but really late (not as late as tonight, though).

I can't help but share big stuff like this with just about everybody I cross paths with. I told my wife and kids first thing in the morning. I told several co-workers before 11 AM. I edited all morning, then told two friends at lunch, and another who came by to pick up Girl Scout cookies. Oh, and I posted a link to this blog on my Facebook profile. Total people now involved now equals 90 individuals. Several of these people really care about this turn of events, and a few stand to see a fair amount of change in their own lives as a result of my cutting out Kart. The show DID get done, by the way!

My friend and bandmate Ian, aka Iggy on the Kart track, was the person I was most interested in talking to as soon as I got home. Mostly via text I broke the news, but of course he already knew (his wife's on Fb). Ian has raced me over 400 times since he got the game for his birthday. His wife plays, my family plays, in every possible combination (mostly Greg vs. Ian). We've raced world/regional and friend room races until all four racers are matched evenly, the races tight and fast. 

So, it's been with a fair amount of emotion that I've had my final races with Ian as of about midnight tonight. I am now retired from the online racing circuit, at least for now. What, you want a target date? A number, as if I haven't seen enough of those in the past 24 hours.. I'll get to it.

There's nothing like an exciting race, and the first few we ran were definitely that. I jumped into a regional race circuit Iggy was already running, with another 9 or 10 racers. I placed second in the first race, Bowser's Castle, with lots of stiff competition from skilled high-scoring racers - just what I love about this game. So great to have my buddy on the track with me, too - we both race Blooper Karts, and I noticed tonight that we're also both orange - he in the racing jumpsuit, and myself in long sleeves and Mario overalls. I earned that outift by winning (top 30% of field) no less than 5000 online races. I thought it was appropriate to wear it tonight. The second and third races I don't necessarily remember, except I was in the zone and still losing because everybody was racing so damn well.

The last race was N64 DK Jungle Parkway. I got out front, like I do every race, but didn't stay. Again, great racing, very fun and AWESOME - just what a final online ought to be.

As I took the bridge going into the final S-curve of the track (entering the cave - don't you play the game?), I remembered that I needed to tell Ian, via text message, to quit after this race. I was in 8th or 9th, with the leaders well into lap 3... I realized I didn't care about my score anyway, which has been hovering in the 8200-range, since this was going to be the last race that would count toward my score anyway. Knowing the game as I do, looking at the heads-up, there was no way of making an exciting comeback to take the win. The weapon I had picked up entering the bridge was a triple shell, which I loaded as I crossed the line into lap 3. I stopped the car.

For a few seconds I looked back and forth from my phone to the controller; in fact, I do believe my hands actually jerked back and forth. I picked the controller back up as the spark of an idea had me turning the kart around and heading back into the cave.

I have some experience with this kind of irreverent, bad-racer behavior. The green shells were rotating around my vehicle; the 10th place racer hits one and goes flying. 2 shells left. As I coast the Blooper down the muddy hill I am aware of the heads-up display, which shows the track layout and position of every racer. My friend Iggy is pushing 1st, gaining on the guy who has been winning for 3 races, and they are coming around the bend.

Vaguely my inner self was struck with wonder at the timing of this moment and this tactic, and being at the end of my last race. With that notion I knew it was going to work and be awesome.

I lined up my kart at a 45-degree angle, pointing directly at the exit of the very narrow bridge leading into the cave and the final curves of the race. Iggy's icon overlapped the leader's as they traveled down the canyon toward the bridge. They were an instant away from the entrance. And I swear to you, ladies and gentlemen, the Force pulled that trigger -- clickclick -- sending two green shells bouncing into the bridge exit just as both racers jostled for position and entered.

Green shells bounce, for the uninitiated. Back and forth on the railings of a very narrow bridge. I couldn't see where they went after the first bounce, being positioned where Mr. 1st Place won't see me. Oh, I've laughed so many times tonight thinking about the surprise on that guy's face when those two green shells came fast the wrong way at that angle and started banging around in front of him, my buddy Iggy right on his tail. There was almost no possible way to get past them.

In that instant, I watch the heads-up and the bridge simultaneously, knowing someone was hit, breath held ... and here comes Iggy, flying into the cave like a bat out of hell. YEESSSSS!!!!! One of those shells found its mark, and Ian somehow managed to blast by the other one. 

Man, my cheer went UP  -- what a thrilling finish! For my last race online, I got to help my buddy win with some jerky-ass tactics and made a perfectly timed and executed green shell attack at a pivotal race-deciding moment... how fun is THAT!?

The now-second place racer came over the bridge seconds later, and I chased his ass up the hill, cheering and whooping it up at home (reasonably) and trying to bump into him into the mud. It was an incredible victorious feeling. Go team Freak!!!!!!!

With that, I retired.

I do mean it, by the way. In light of the damning evidence supporting the idea that my life is being swallowed, I'm prepared to be specific. How about this for a number: I won't play Kart until 2010. That's right. It will be January 2010 before I race a single lap on Mario Kart Wii. There will be other "casual limitations" on other gaming time as well; as far as Kart goes, however, I'm not touching it for 10 months. 

My final race will be tomorrow night around 7:00 PM, between me, the kids, and Joanna: 4-player!! About an hour of family game time, and then I'm really, truly done. I loved this game, but I'm absolutely ready to be retired from it.


* * *

I look forward to being more awake. The next topic is really the subject line of THIS post: the great thing (or things) about gaining 20 hours a week, all at once. I'm somewhat shocked and embarrassed by the sheer size of that figure, if it's accurate (my estimate actually stands at 22 hours per week, on average).  I've started thinking about what it is I'll be doing with that time, or could do. More on that when it's not so very late. 

Greg

Just a couple, then my friend Ian and I will retire for my last friend races...

For real!

G

Now that's the kind of subject line that might make you think, "Greg's lost it, truly." Could be! After all, I could be sleeping right now; instead, I thought it might be a nice night to see if my fingers and brain still work well enough to write a journal entry, for once. So far so good, but the digits are a little cold. Maybe I'll run a little warm water. There we go.

Okay, to be honest, I wrote "there you go" before I actually got up, but I DID go to the sink, and man, that really helps. You know what I like to do? When I'm doing dishes I wear nice rubber kitchen gloves and run the water really hot. Holding my hands under it with the gloves is just the right feeling of heat without the searing pain of scalded skin. Quite nice. Lately, I haven't been ON the dishes, come to think of it. My wife has been taking over more lately, for two reasons: one, I've been moody and cranky, off and on, and two, she's recently become unemployed and has a hell of a lot more time on her hands. Hands that are getting really good at sweeping through the kitchen and making in ready to cook something else. Maybe I'll show her the hand-heating trick - or else she can just read this journal.

My son has an earache. I can hear him in his room, kind of writhing and groaning every now and then. Poor guy. I really feel for him, and every time I hear him whimper in his sleep I get absolutely still. Except now, when I'm typing ... but even then, part of me goes quiet and feels out for him. That part of me wishes I could make it all better for the little guy just like that. That's the dad in me. The dude in me is only a little more selfish, still very concerned for the kid but, yeah, I also wanted to play a little kart tonight and hope he doesn't get up anytime soon.

Okay, so yeah, Mario Kart. My game. What made me think to come on here tonight is my experience with playing Mario Kart these past few months - indeed, since 1993 - and how it might make an interesting story. Last year I had the opportunity to talk about my history as a video game enthusiast at a CCTV staff meeting - I was the featured speaker of the week. It was fun - totally improvised it, but really, it's a history I know well, considering the depth of my involvement. Mario Kart, specifically, plays prominently in that history. Whether it's swallowed my life remains to be seen.  

All I was really going to say tonight is that I'm putting it on the shelf - this week's racing will be my Mario Kart Wii swan song. My wife just smiled in her sleep; and, somewhere, the future me -- the one who turned his creative life around with all the time gained by giving up Mario Kart -- is looking back on this entry and smiling even wider. He may also be remembering the relapses and the five other iterations of Mario Kart that came out since 2009. In any case, the time has undoubtedly come for me and the kart track to go on a break.

I'm very uncomfortable with the notion that I'm spending a truly grotesque amount of time playing the game, or that I'm somehow "addicted" to it. I mean come on -- is it really that big-a-deal? Aren't there dudes and ladies out there spending far more time on Warcraft campaigns and other areas digital realm? Seems like Mario Kart is pretty tame in comparison. So, really, I shouldn't give myself too hard a time over it -- and that's exactly the sentiment I've adopted which has allowed my Kart-addicted, grotesquely self-deluded self to play, and play, and play. Am I joking? I can't deny the numbers, which I'm about to retrieve. Drumroll!

2329 1-player races 
300 multiplayer races (est)
496 online friend races
8472 world/regional races
11,297 races total since July 2008

Ummm .. is that a lot? Each race is probably from 2-4 minutes long, plus track selection time (which takes twice as long for online races). Are we really talking about 700+ hours of Mario Kart? Wait, let me run those numbers again ...oh shit. 753 hours @ 4 total minutes per race. If Mario Kart was my job -- a 40-hour-a-week job -- that means I've worked nearly 19 WEEKS since last summer. At CCTV, my actual job, I've worked 33 in the same amount of time, minus 2 weeks of vacation.

Seriously. SERIOUSLY. Geez, I might have a panic attack if I look up at those numbers again. Oh my God, have mercy on my dumb ass.

I think it's time to have that swan song. Stay tuned! 

Greg

My poor son! He'll be okay.

Continuing the ongoing saga of my life and times, I present here a short to-do list of things happening in my life. And times.

Today:
- Leave home by noon and take camera
- Go to eye doc and pick up new no-prescription glasses (to wear with contacts when on TV)
- Get to work and finish unpacking my desk. Take photos
- Teach special "Linear Editors' Summit" to ease the last three old-style editors to move into the now
- Prepare for class in evening (camera equipment, clean up room)
- Come home and get on the Wii Fit after taking the dog for a walk

Tomorrow:
- Post another blog entry

G