Two things came up at Thanksgiving dinner this year that I wanted to talk about. One was my "blog" and the other was video games. I prefer to refer to it as a journal, but it is what is, so it is a blog. I sort of defended the existence of my journal by saying that I started it because I wanted to practice writing to keep my skills from decaying. That is actually true, although there is another reason.

I find when I get angry or into an argument, I often become incoherent. It's not that the ideas are unclear to me, in fact, I find just the opposite: the ideas are so clear in my head that I don't stop to explain key points that need to be made. If I take my time and write down my reasoning for a particular position I find that I can be much more persuasive, or at least less nervous if the subject should come up in a conversation. I have strong opinions, but I tend to be non-confrontational.

Take the other subject at dinner: video games. In the 7th grade I wrote an essay about why video games were good that was so coherent and well written that my no-good English teacher Mr. Farley wrongly accused my mother of having written it. My father felt that I spent too much time playing video games and tried to dissuade me from doing so. In the long term he didn't alter my behavior, I think that he was wrong to try, and I don't think that my interest in video games has stunted my personal growth. I hardly play video games at all anymore, but I do not regret the time I invested in them.

At dinner, one of the guests said that video games were bad because you don't use your own imagination. Since I tend to be non-confrontational in person, I didn't contradict the guest. While it is sort of a personal reasoning, and may not be relevant to everyone's experience, I'd like to explain why I disagree here for the record, and so that in the future I have a coherent line of reasoning for arguing the subject.

(Why video games can be good...)