Right now on Bemanistyle.com, the staff is looking to give away a full, legit DJ Max Technika cabinet!  All anyone has to do to enter is make a $20 donation to the site, which goes directly toward our current drive of paying for a new server for the site.  For each $20 donation, the donee is given two chances in the drawing!  The raffle will also feature a few unannounced secondary prizes to go along with the grand prize.

Of course, there are a string of rules and conditions to the drawing and donation process.  If you are truly interested, you can head over to the official Bemanistyle Raffle #4 page and read up on the terms.  If you're looking to enter, you can do so straight from that same page.  Thanks go to anyone that checks the raffle out and if you enter, good luck to you!

I don't know how I was able to salvage this, but this is one of the very few things I have remaining from my work on Rithum.com.  I guess it is pretty relevant still with the release of the Pokewalker and the huge surge of active gaming the Wii has brought upon us:

For those who like to pretend they are reading intelligently with news articles, MSN Health and Fitness has a story up that details the Top Gamers’ Workouts (http://health.msn.com/dietfitness/ar...0697&GT1=10412).

While the story hits up on items that us gamers have known for years and years, it goes into newer technologies being used by fitness companies to incorporate video game-like attributes to exercise equipment. It is interesting to know that in the future I will be riding a stationary cycle in front of a 17-inch screen slaying dragons instead of getting off my ass and cycling through the scenic countryside like I do from time to time. I do have to point out three key areas this article fails though:

1) Dance Dance Revolution appeared in the United States prior to the 2001 indicated in the article. DDR was introduced to U.S. arcades in 2000 alongside the Japanese release of 3rd Mix - while the domestic version is labeled Dance Dance Revolution USA and has a limited songlist, they share the same interface.  I've even had people tell me the original entry released in the U.S. in extremely limited numbers, but I've yet to come across any concrete evidence for this.

2) The article claims Guitar Hero is an active game. My opinion is flicking your wrist back and forth repeatedly hardly makes a game “active.” To the article’s credit, however, this could be comparable to masterbation and I have seen some medical journals promoting that due to the nature of the blood flow involved.

3) The article does good in mentioning Wii Sports, but completely fails to point out the upcoming Wii Fit, a game on the same system completely tailored to the very reason this article was written.

However, what kind of fairness would it be if I didn’t offer my insight on active games? Check these ones out:
MoCap Boxing (arcade) - I made the mistake one time of playing this all day and then attending a lock-in for Dance Dance Revolution. Never have my legs been more cramped in my entire life. MoCap Boxing by Konami puts gamers into the virtual boxing ring by making them attach makeshift gloves and step into a motion capture area located in front of the game. Not only does the game force you to punch in front of the screen feverishly, but in order to avoid the taste of canvas, you’ll have to duck, sway and weave away from the motion sensor areas where the opponent’s punches would travel if they were real. The punching works the arms and the defense works the legs - a one-two punch to strengthening up.

World Class Track Meet (NES) - In a pretty obvious choice to anyone close to my age, the good old Nintendo Entertainment System Power Pads gave us a pretty good workout even though we knew how to cheat the long jump. Placing a mat on the floor, players competed in sprints, hurdles and jumping events by alternating left and right steps as fast as possible. You’re not human if there isn’t sweat on your brow after a matchup against the CPU character Cheetah or a heated two-player race. The floor mat even further supported activity with games such as Dance Aerobics.

Martial Beat (arcade/Playstation) - In 2002, Konami unleashed this monsterously-sized cabinet into Japanese arcades, and while it shares similar concepts to the company’s Bemani titles, many Bemani fans may very well slap you if you claim that. Once again using sensors to detect movements, the game cycles music tracks and features a full-motion video of an instructor asking you to imitate them performing simple martial arts moves and Tai Chi-type positionings. If you think it sounds a lot like Tai-Bo, well, it does. That in fact makes it a primary candidate for a full-scale workout if you can stick with it (or in today’s date, even find one of these cabinets).

Downhill Racers (arcade) - Speaking of putting game screens in front of bicycles, this arcade cabinet lets two people race each other down dangerous mountain courses by pedaling on a stationary bike. While nothing beats riding a bike for real, I wouldn’t advise sailing down steep paths located in between jagged rocks. Obviously, peddling as fast as one can, Downhill Racers provides for quite a workout. To rub it into the opponent’s face with style, there are a number of jump points where players can execute mid-air tricks, making it as fun to watch as it is to play.

Arm Champs II (arcade) - While recently arm wrestling arcade cabinets have becoming notorious for breaking arms in Japan, Jaleco’s Arm Champs II has been floating around U.S. arcades now for 15 years. The cabinet emits a large, robotic arm, which players grip in traditional arm wrestling fashion and attempt to outmuscle the computer in nine different levels of strength. The first three opponents are laughably easy, so the casual player shouldn’t blow a bicep or anything, but those looking to flex their might will find challenge in the later opponents. Those who get into the game should find the game can be almost as intimidating as the actual sport itself.

Of course there is more to be had, but anyone who is looking to get active should head out to any local arcade as active gaming has become the staple on which arcades still exist in the United States.

Originally published on Bemanistyle

Back when news of this year’s brand new DanceDanceRevolution titles surfaced during July’s E3 event, Konami of America went out of its way to state it was going to feature “major licensed master Latin tracks.” While we were initially ignorant about the impact these Latin tunes would have on the final product, DanceDanceRevolution X2 released in North America on Oct. 27 and it became clear exactly how far Konami was looking to go in featuring Latin-style music in the title. Of the title’s 60 songs, nearly 17 percent of the list features Latin songs and/or artists and it seemed as if the company purposely went out of its way to reproduce Konami originals in this styling in bringing revival songs from previous entries into the mix. It’s hard to deny DanceDanceRevolution is as global as it has ever been, originating from its humble, nine Konami original songs on the original DDR arcade cabinet, evolving to later include European influence with the company’s Toshiba EMI partnership and, finally, breaking out into recognizable tunes made popular in America. While Latin-style songs are hardly nothing new to series, what attributed this focus to load almost one-fifth of DDR X2 with this music genre?

“We believed that the PS2 market in Central America is relatively large, so we decided to implement Latin/Spanish-influenced licensed and Konami original songs that might be better accepted in that region and for the residents in North America who enjoy this type of music,” stated series producer Naoki Maeda in a recent e-mail interview with Bemanistyle.com. Looking at recent events that have unfolded in 2009 between Central America and Sony, perhaps saying the previously untapped video game market in the territory is large could be an understatement.

A February announcement made by Sony Computer Entertainment America officially put the company’s consoles and services available to the territory for the first time(1). Prior to this point, residents of the area had to either swallow heavy-hitting price tags for systems and games thanks to customs taxes and import tariffs or take part in playing pirated copies of games titles. In fact, a 2008 editorial by Pascal Clarysse, who was formerly a marketing manager for Lik Sang, commented on Edge Online that a popular title such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl could cost as much as $110 U.S. at retail in Columbia – a real slap to the wallet when you take into account that Clarysse states the minimum and average wage in the country is $260-280. Because of these limitations, he states the Game Boy Advance and Playstation 2 continue to be the best-selling systems in Central America(5) and when you factor in the huge install base the PS2 has in Brazil – the largest in the territory - it becomes easier to understand SCEA’s decision to officially enter the market(2).

“The significance of the Latin America market is huge. Obviously from a population standpoint I don’t think it’s a big secret that this is a huge opportunity. We will put a number of resources in place to cater to that market,” stated Sony Computer Entertainment America’s Vice President of Sales Ian Jackson one year ago at a BMO Capital Markets Interactive Entertainment Conference. “… We’ve identified the Brazilian market as probably the biggest market opportunity for us, and that will be the third part of our launch which will take place over Spring 2009."(3)

Thanks to the official distribution of Sony product in Central America, the distribution has made the prices of official games a bit easier to swallow for the 13 countries within reach of Sony Latin America, even though the territory has some fierce competition in the form of the regional Zeebo console and pirated discs that provide games at a lower price. Regardless of where players are receiving their games, it can’t be denied that gaming is a huge hobby in Central America and the Playstation 2 is a common system, much as it is worldwide, where it has been cut to a $99.99 U.S. price tag. Konami’s efforts to market DanceDanceRevolution to this territory rolled off of Sony’s momentum in the region as X2 and Hottest Party 3 made appearances the weekend prior to the titles’ release at Latin America’s largest video game event, the eighth-annual Electronic Games Show in Mexico City, which saw more than 30,000 attendees(4). As such, Konami certainly isn’t ready to give up on the system, which still has a full year to follow Sony’s intention to give the Playstation 2 format a 10-year life cycle.

“We still look at the PS2 as a competitive platform in today's global market but the so-called next generation consoles like the PS3 and Xbox 360 have great possibility of permeating throughout the world even more,” noted Konami's Naoki Maeda. “Our goal is to foresee the needs of the market and provide titles with the hardware that best suits these needs.”

Before the attempted penetration of DDR into the Central American territory, however, local players had long been accustomed to Andamiro’s Pump It Up series, a cheaper arcade alternative that served as the go-to dancing title for this territory along with Korea. In 2005, Mastiff CEO Bill Swartz, who was at the time preparing Pump It Up Exceed for a home console release in North America, told Edge Online, “It's insanely popular in Latin America and Korea. Every year in Mexico City there are tournaments. This year's drew more than 15,000 people and they had to open the doors an hour early to avoid a riot. " Interestingly enough, the same interview has Swartz stating the release features “lots of Latin music,” showing the dancing game market has in some form catered to the territory for a number of years(6). According to Maeda, the global appeal of DanceDanceRevolution stems from the art of dance being a global language that is enjoyed by everyone across the world, however, cultural differences are what tend to bring such “market targeting” into play.

“The global appeal of DanceDanceRevolution lies in the fact that the main idea of the game is ‘dancing,’ which is a method used to express oneself that can be seen throughout the world,” he explained. “However, there are several different types of dancing which can come from elements such as the characteristics of a country or what they deem beautiful. We believe that holds great importance in that the recorded music fitting the dance type of a specific region is essential.”

Of course, targeting the Latin music market isn’t an unfamiliar endeavor, with Konami of Japan releasing Mambo a Go Go (which, unfortunately, missed the U.S. market with an intended, but cancelled, release under the name Mambo King) and SEGA developing Samba de Amigo during the Latin pop craze that hit at the turn of the century. Even though neither title had a huge impact, if any, on North America, Maeda noted Konami hasn’t given up on the theme as long as its games are openly available to the region.

“Yes, depending on the location of where we release our titles and the characteristics of the people in the country, we would like to provide content that is geared more toward that region,” he stated. “Music in Southern America has its own characteristics with a very unique history and developing games with these themes are in one of our best interests.”

Will the adjusted focus help Konami and its DanceDanceRevolution series in the long run? Only time will tell in the long run, but, currently, the company is keeping a positive focus on the market for now.

“Our view of Central America is that there are several unknown elements in the market, but features such as their national trait where they look at things objectively and with the way ‘dancing’ is positioned in their lifestyle, we believe that it is a very hopeful market,” concluded Maeda.

[1] Official SCEA Press Release, “Sony Computer Entertainment America Expands into Latin America” - GameSpy
[2] Theo Azevedo, “Produção do PlayStation 2 e jogos no Brasil é aprovada” – UOL Jogos
[3] Staff, “SCEA: Latin America is a Huge Opportunity for PS2” – Playstation Universe
[4] Official Michael Meyers Public Relations press release – “Eighth-Annual Electronic Game Show Draws 30,000” – (received internally by Bemanistyle.com)
[5] Pascal Clarysse, “Gaming in Latin America” – Edge Online
[6] Staff, “Pump it Up” – Edge Online 

As it was pointed out to numerous people, my trip entailed nine hours of driving, originating from the Toledo area, so with proper planning, I actually missed out on a day of work Thursday to cut into the trip and make the travel there a little less grueling.  We had everything packed on Thursday in a decent time and head out around noon with the intent of stopping somewhere outside of the Philadelphia area and just relaxing after a most tedious drive.  We hit a pretty big roadblock, however, as when going to renew littlenekochan’s state ID card, we were told that on that very day, a new regulation was passed to where you had to have a proof of residency in order to receive an ID.  Of course, we didn’t have this and the resulting BS put us behind scheduled almost an hour and a half.  Still we were in decent spirits for the trip as leaving the day prior allowed us to take easy and not be in a rush.  After seven hours of driving, we stopped for the night in Carlisle, PA, and got a nice Mariott suite with parking, a hot tub, a pool and plenty of stores across the street, all at a much lower price than the Philadelphia hotel we ended up staying at.  We managed to snap a bunch of pictures on the way as well – being from northwest Ohio, things like hills and mountains are unheard of – so in all, the first day of our excursion was relaxing and full of anticipation.

With the lead time, we were able to cut our travel time down to two hours and, as a result, we were able to arrive at the Philadelphia Convention Center one hour before the opening on Friday without having to wake up real early and rushing out the door.  Finding our way to our hotel was a very simple process and it was nice to know it was a mere block away from the convention center, but once we arrived, this is when we found out the hotel had absolutely no parking.  After about 15 minutes of asking random people where we should go, we settled on a parking lot a block from the hotel where some gentlemen I could barely understand charged me $60 for parking.  This isn’t the convention’s fault, for sure, but after the huge chunk of change we spent on travel alone (there were a couple unforeseen costs and turnpike rates decided to hike on Oct. 1), let’s just say I’m never driving out to Philadelphia ever again.

Now that we were finally settled to go to VGXPO, the problems with the event started to surface.  If there is a VGXPO 2010, please, please set aside a little bit of money and invest in some f*cking signage, banners, anything.  Since the convention center and VGXPO Web sites do not provide exact addresses and no note was ever made of where to enter this building, we walked around the entire building trying to find where we were supposed to go and it wasn’t until we saw a convention hall staff member outside smoking that we were able to finally have an understanding of which direction to go.  When we finally arrived at the entrance of the event, which, still, had absolutely no signage or any indication whatsoever of there being an event there, I began to wonder if others were having the same troubles since there was now almost only half an hour until the doors opened and I would generously say there were maybe 25 people outside of the entrance.  After some texting, Jamie came down to give us our wristbands, which after reading other online accounts of VGXPO, sounds like a godsend now after the clusterf*ck people have described as the registration process at the event.

Walking to the exhibit hall, it was hard to shake the feeling of how spread out and empty everything seemed at the time.  I shrugged it off since the event hadn’t started yet, but, obviously, foreshadowing should tell you I will get back into this topic in due time.  We walked past the Nintendo booth, which got me amped, I noticed the nice Army setup toward the front, but making out way toward the back, I could see scores of empty, wasted space, empty booths and a CBS/CW tent manned by people that looked like they would rather be at a 2-week seminar about how to properly chew food than at VGXPO (here’s another aspect I’ll be returning to).  After winding a couple of times through the hollow path that lied beyond the front attractions, I was finally able to see Retrocon and some hope finally coursed through my veins.

A full square of classic and current gaming goods and some extremely hard-to-find items complemented by a string of classic (and some very bizarrely picked, might I add) arcade titles – I say this not because J2Games was a part of it, but, honestly, Retrocon was one of the few places in the entire convention center I could go to and not feel depressed.  I was finally able to re-meet Jay and finally meet Bill and Thomas face-to-face, which was essentially the entire reason I came to the event.  Nothing on the Web site for VGXPO alone would have made me drive nine hours and I’m very proud to say I’m acquainted with everyone on the site here, so finally being able to talk to people face-to-face was a welcome change and an experience I won’t soon forget.  What was forgettable was what happened once the announcer declared the expo was open and small chunks of people muddled in at a very slow pace.

I was able to sell a UMD for Jay before the show had even begun, so I had a little hope in being able to pitch some sales, but almost immediately, it was clearly evident what type of show this would be.  Amongst the first groups I conversed with, I received this very puzzling question: “So, where are all the games to play?”  Mind you, this is said as we standing right next to a full classic arcade set on free play.  I tried to reply with a joking “What do you mean?  I see a bunch of games available to play right here [the arcade], there is a tournament lounge by the stage, Nintendo has a booth and there are few companies over that way too.”  The young group just looked bewildered like I had just answered in Japanese.  “Yeah, but … where are the new games?”  they retorted.  I still attempted to play along by answering with “Well, I have some Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games for sale and a number of other vendors have new games for sale, the Army setup I think has Halo, Nintendo has some new games at the booth and they are playing Street Fighter IV and other newer games in the tournament area.”  Reeling back like I had just devastated them, they came back with, “but where are the games that aren’t out yet?  Where are all of the other companies?”  To this I couldn’t say anything other than “Sorry, but Nintendo is the only company out here (this is before I knew Storm City Games, Synet and Island Officials were at the event – my apologies guys!).”  The kids ran off after muttering a very disturbed “oh.”  With this situation, I had finally run into the crutch you have by naming your event and “expo” – you will immediately be compared to the industry events of higher caliber such as E3 or PAX – PAX, this event certainly was not.

After uncomfortably making conversation with people who had no intent other than window shopping and asking about “that one game,” I made my way over to where Bill was sitting after witnessing scores of people staring his section of the booth over and not having any clue who Bill Kunkel was.  Just as it is online, Bill was very easy to talk to and we shoot around a bunch of topics such as video game writing in general, Tips & Tricks, arcades and more and I was able to have him take a quick look at the thrown-together “resume” I pieced together for the event.  While Bill left to prepare for a panel he had to kick off the event’s panels – “411 on Collecting Video Games” – I decided it was as good a time as any to check out the floor space.  I found it odd that virtually half of the exhibition room’s floor space wasn’t even used and I almost expected to trip over a few tumbleweeds as probably half of the guests and featured booths hadn’t even shown up yet.  After taking a lap around, I found my way across the convention center to the room where the panel was being held and sat in on it.

Evidentially, being a panel, other people were supposed to join Bill and help him run the 411 bit, however, no one seemed to show up and he was left to run the show all by himself.  Regardless, it was still an interesting panel and he was able to prove a few key points in regard to games and how there doesn’t seem to be focus on collecting other game-related items.  The audience participation kind of steered the conversation away from the point of collecting, but it was still rather intelligent discussion and, of course, they received Bill’s insight on the matters and I was glad to see a handful of the guests stuck around to greet Bill and thank him for the panel.  Bill also did another panel later in the evening and afterwards left with an acquaintance to grab some food – that sounded good, but too bad the convention center saw fit to close all of the building’s food offerings in the early evening.  Being 7:00 p.m., we decided we should look for the grand opening ceremonies … but no one could find it or even knew what it consisted of.

Instead, walking around prior to the closing of the event, I was able to get some quality time in on the Nintendo and Storm City Games booths.  On Friday, all I really played was the New Super Mario Bros. title and Zelda Spirit Tracks.  I still don’t think either game is really for me, though.  New Super Mario Bros. is most likely something I would enjoy for one playthrough and never play again and it’s just been hard for me to get into a recent Zelda game.  Although both titles are executed really well, I suppose they just aren’t a fit for what I am looking for.  I was able to play the first stage of New Super Mario Bros. with some other expo attendee and it kind of bored me to see that it reflected the design of World 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros.  I would have liked to have tried some of the other stages as the later stages looked to be more of a challenge, but I would be distracted by other events and games.  I loved the setups for the Zelda DS units though – nice red, mushroom shaped seats (that would look great in my gaming space) and a dual-screen monitor for those passing by to watch the gameplay.  The train segments rather annoyed me on the demo, but, still, the dungeon and boss fights were classic Zelda.  Both of these offerings were the same as seen at E3, but it was nice to get a hands-on play with them.

I was much more interested in the Storm City Games booths, which featured Island Official’s Hands-On! Tangrams and a tent displaying the upcoming DSi-only cart title System Flaw.  Tangrams featured some challenging puzzles based on the puzzle game of the same name.  I was struggling to make zoo animals out of set shapes, but it was a fun experience nonetheless and I hope the title does well.  System Flaw is one of the more original titles I’ve seen lately and it’s good to see a game making extended use of the DSi’s functionality.  The title uses the DSi’s external camera to display your playfield and enemies will surround the player, which must spin the camera view to see the beast and fire away to destroy it.  I expect this to be a popular game and it seems the company knows it has it potential hit on its hands with telling me a few things they could hope to do in a sequel.

The remaining time whittled down with me checking out the span of offerings at Retrocon, which featured a great mix of imports and classic titles, systems and gaming-related items.  I didn’t pick anything up the first day, but toward the end of the first day, food was definitely on my agenda.  After meeting up with Chris, we were able to deposit our belongings in the hotel and we headed down to Chili’s to meet up with Jay.

It was a nice dinner with the company of others as our group joined another group that had a booth at the event.  We just chatted away and enjoyed bacon cheeseburgers and called it a day.  On the way back, littlenekochan forced a stop at the nearby 7-11 to complete her Domo-Kun cup and straw collection.  To unceremoniously end the night, I pretty much crashed as soon as we returned to the hotel.  My one thought on the first day was definitely one of hoping the second day, the day that everyone stated would be the “big one,” shaped up far better and had more to offer than the first.

Part of the reason I've been so quiet lately is due to the looming shadow of fall that no self-respecting person looks forward to.  No, it's not my birthday, but rather, what I'm referring to is returning to the schedule of academic institution.  In 2002, after receiving two associate's degrees, I left college because I was offered a full-time job that just happened to fall into my area of study, so to say I'm behind on my schooling is a bit of an understatement.

I finally returned to college last year and while I kid about the pains of schools in my opening anecdote, it's been a very knowledgable endeavor for me and being six years wiser, I can see even more how important an extensive education is.  What comes as a shock to me, though, is how culturally relavent gaming is even in schooling today.  When I go to school today, fliers line walls, informing people of when they can attend the next "Gamers United" official school video game club, public use televisions line an entire hallway and on each one you're hardpressed not to find video game consoles hooked up to at least 80 percent of them and the student gathering lobby features a small lineup of fine arcade cabinets.  Not only that, but colleges are actively seeking and teaching students in the field of video game development.  When I gather my collective memories of what school was like for me in the '80s, I would only have wished my elders were equally supportive in my supreme interest of video games.

I find it amazing how time changes things.  It should be most obvious to any living entity that time does work that wonder, but, sometimes I just sit in awe at the degree of which time can change something.  How could gaming be so acceptable now when my adolesence was filled to the brim of people telling me I was wasting my time with my aspirations, I needed to grow up and how I needed to place my ambitions on something more worthwhile that would actually bring ample finanical support to myself and my future family?  It's just not fair, but in c'est la vie fashion, life isn't fair and that's something I have to accept in today's world.

I can easily remember people constantly nagging me about how seriously I took games, but how is that honestly any different than someone who can tell you the exact date that Babe Ruth hit his 139th career home run?  Diversity is what makes the human race a fantastic being.  What severely interests one person is "poo-pooed" by another - that's just another example of how society coexists via individuality.  I never really cared about what light other students made about my interests, and in all fairness, I can't honestly recall someone saying I was stupid for enjoying video games or being called a "dork" because of it - they just made it a priority to point out how much I enjoyed them.  However, to this day, there are two specific instances through my inital schooling where teachers called me out on my hobby, and they still grate me to this very day.

In second grade, in order to learn the ins and outs of writing, we did a variety of works ranging from writing a letter to recalling a personal experience.  One of the assignments was based on a one-page creative paper where, essentially, anything was fair game.  I can't even begin to tell you what my paper was about, but I do know I tailored it toward a short role-playing adventure.  A few days after handing in the piece, I was singled out and called over to the teacher's desk and the closer I came toward the desk, the teacher's scowl became more and more detailed.  She was clearly annoyed over something I had done and the back of mind raced with possible solutions as too why this teacher was ticked off.  Did someone find out about some trouble I had caused on the recess playground?  Did someone tattle on me for a name I called them?

Upon reaching the edge of the desk, the teacher holds up my creative writing assignment, complete with the messy Crayola drawing that was supposed to somehow represent a person with a sword and shield.  My mind instantly went blank and my face narrowed with confusion.  What could I have possibly done in a writing assignment to piss off my second-grade teacher?

"Do you think everything is a game?" she scowled.  At this point, I honestly didn't know what to say.  Did it even matter what my answer would have been?  My mouth was agape, indicating I wanted to answer but I couldn't, so she continued regardless of what my opinion on the matter was.  "You need to learn that life isn't a video game.  I don't want to see anything like this again.  Ok?"   Again, sensing it didn't matter what I thought, my body slumped down and I slowly sulked back to my desk.  Oddly, that's the only time I ever "had it out" with that teacher.  Judging from that encounter, you'd have to assume she was a total and complete b*tch, but I have to insist that wasn't the case at all.  But given how supportive she was of my education efforts throughout that year, that's one thing I'll never forget, and it still bugs me to this very day how blunt and destructive she was toward my work merely because it resembled a video game.

The second case is a pretty short story, but, regardless, it irritated me beyond belief.  Once again, much like my second-grade teacher, my eighth-grade literature teacher was very supportive of me and was a nice teacher, but through one negative interaction, this is pretty much all I remember of that class through the entire school year.

In order to stimulate our interests in reading, we were required to bring in a book of our choice and silently read it in class for half an hour or so and this continued for a couple of weeks.  Around this time, Doom was the biggest thing happening in video games and my friend had come across a series of novels based on the game.  Since I was required to have a book, I thought "why not?" and my good friend was more than happy to oblige when I asked if I could borrow his book for a couple of weeks.

At about the third day into this reading session, I was actually about halfway through the book and the silent reading was going pretty smooth - that was until the end of that period where the teacher did a big no-no.  While like my second-grade teacher, she seemed to have quite the problem of me injecting video games into my education, unlike my second-grade teacher, she scoffed at having the courtesy of pulling me aside and dealing with the issue.  In front of the entire class she took a deep sigh and sternly belted out, "... and Mr. Auzins ... next class I expect you bring a 'real book' into class.  I don't want to see this again."

I guess "I don't want to see this again" was some sort of official slogan for teachers of my time before high school.  I suppose it's acceptable if you loosen your belt and drop trou in front of a teacher or whatnot, but, what did I do wrong in bringing a legit text novel to school?  Once again, singled out for enjoying video games and while I could put up with what the student said, those two instances are forever etched in my mind.

I would say those instances are etched in my mind not because they scarred me for life, but they serve as food for my soul.  I've been published in magazines and tons of online Web sites and I've had a hand in a few very popular online Flash games and make a simple living off of doing so and if I were a complete d*ck, I'd take examples of my work, return to those very schools and shove them in those teachers' faces while I do my "You're seeing this again" dance.  Thankfully I'm more mature than that.  I doubt those teachers even remember those encounters, but an "I'm sorry" would bring an instant grin across my face.  It just shows you, though, that what other people think doesn't matter.  Just be who you are and strive for the person you want to be because when you become that person, you've just overcome the odds and the icing on the cake becomes even sweeter.