"I couldn't stop playing until I got all the achievements. I'm a little OCD."

No, you aren't.

"Yes I am! It like, drives me crazy!!! I like, totally have to do it! If that's not OCD then I don't know what is."

I won't bother (bore) all of you with the semantics of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but I can fairly definitively explain to you why you are definitely not OCD- in general.

Anomalists: we're speaking in generalities here, how many times do I have to drive that into your thick head? I don't care if your second cousin is OCD for real, I'm addressing those gamers who "epically," overuse silly jargon that makes them seem a bit dense.

Fun fact: I posed these questions to ten different individuals that game- "Have you heard of OCD?" All affirmed they had. "Have you ever said you are a little OCD?" 4 maybes, 3 yes, 2 no, 1 probably. And finally "Do you know what OCD even stands for?" 6 of 10 did not know. Heh, so 8 of 10 have or might have used that particular term, with at least some of them having no idea what it even meant.

Automatically this gave some validity to my personal belief that most individuals spew the lexicon of their surroundings without bothering to discover or even wonder what those words actually mean- not unlike a 3 year-old who repeats naughty words. But I digress.

It would seem that in the gaming sphere, there are a multitude of instances or arrangements that would lend to obsessive behavior: 360 achievements, PS3 trophies, uncovering fog of war, finding all the easter eggs, obtaining legendary weapons, completing all quests, and so on and so on and so on.

Yet none of these things have anything to do with OCD. Type A personality perhaps, but not OCD. Another topic for another time.

The primary reasoning behind my dispute of the idea that gamers suffer from OCD is because a finding of OCD in an individual is usually correlated with a lack of serotonin in the brain.

"Sey wut?

Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that is often referred to as the body's "natural feel-good drug." Several studies have indicated that many people (you may have said this yourself) "play video games to relieve stress."

On a personal note, this was affirmed in a discussion with my wife and her battle with hyperthyroidism and her doctor. My wife has found that only playing the DS (or another gaming console) helped alleviate her stress. Doctor's verdict: serotonin.

In fact, these same studies correlate the playing of video games with the release of serotonin in the brain.

While it may be true that gaming can feel stressful and become agitating, most individuals will still readily admit to being drawn to them as a better alternative to the daily stressors of real life.

"Couldn't it be said that being OCD and not having serotonin would cause me to play games to get serotonin?"

No, not likely. If your serotonin levels were already to the point that you are clinically OCD, then you are likely incapable of playing video games with enough capacity to have your OCD tendencies transfer to gaming. OCD is a rather crippling psychological problem; many individuals commit suicide or are committed to an institution. That is not a joke.

Serotonin: the relaxing, feel-good drug of the body- released by the playing of video games.

OCD: a condition hallmarked by a significant lack of seratonin in the brain.

You're not OCD, and releasing that serotonin in your head will most assuredly make you NOT want to go shoot-up a school either.

Yeah...

Track is starting its full swing, the indoor season kicks off this Thursday at Indiana State University and my person life went

SLUUUUUURRRRRRP!

Down the drain.

Gamespot? What's that? Friends? Life? What's going on? Eh?

On a positive note, I've put a new "spin," on coaching I thinks. I don't remember any coach ever sitting around talking about Army of Two and Fallout 3 when *I* played sports. Good times! (Oh yeah, I know lots about pole vaulting now too. I guess that stuff is apparently important as well. XD )

So yeah, I'll be scarce, once again. Bah.

At least I'm feeling better. Yay for health.

And only two years until the Mayans rise from their graves and eat us all!

Say, can someone tell me...when the end of the world comes for all of those Armageddon-ists, what time zone does it begin in? Does it begin in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America? Planes didn't fall out of the sky in 2000. Halley's comet didn't eradicate us in 1984. (Or the previous 100 times it was documented in history for that matter.) Eh. At least they came up with an asteroid event this time. Asteroids don't need time zones. Just Ataris.

Sorry, tangent again.

It's a NEW YEAR (except in China- not yet), and when the NEW YEAR'S roll in, we all must first write NEW YEAR in capital letters like they do in all the junk mail I get on Saturdays and on television commercials, and then make NEW YEAR'S resolutions!

By definition these are things that we promise to do on January 1 at 12:00 A.M. and fall off the resolution wagon by approximately 3:30 P.M. on January 1.

So my resolution for Gamespot is this: I'm going to be less downtrodden, more upbeat and more of the old mprezzy that you all know and loathe. (And, being that I just made this resolution roughly 2 minutes ago on January ummm *checking calendar* 4th! I'm not subject to the terms and agreements of other NEW YEAR'S resolutions.)

I also resolve to actually click on links in my friends' blogs.

I resolve to stop zinging johnsteed7...as much.

I resolve to listen to some of the 8,143,943 songs listed as "best songs EVAR," by GS friends.

I resolve to talk about gaming more. Oops, messed that one already.

And finally, I resolve to stop blurting random things about myself and my life sporadically.

Nah, scratch that last one. I enjoy doing that.

New rescued shelter-kitteh for this year: Mulani. ("Ghost")

Note: No, we do not have 100 cats inside our house. Just Mulani (right) and Boomer. Wendy, Jabba and Ichabod all reside outside, keeping the field mice at bay, which is a more pleasant way of saying "keeping the field mice dead."