don't let friends drive after gaming

there is a new danger in our society: drivers who have just come from arcades. while it has long been acknowledged that driving while drunk is dangerous, the dangers of driving after playing videogames has not been similarly publicized.

friday night, after seeing the new movie the mothman prophecies (not worth the hype, i.m.h.o. i found the constant zoom-y camera work and 'mothman' sound effects to be annoying, and wondered what "based on a true story" really meant), karl and i went next door to an arcade. spent an hour or so playing driving games (like that fabulous one where you're a taxi driver and you get points for hitting people and stuff) and shooting games (like the one(s) where you are a government agent equipped with a ridiculously large machine gun, and you spray the city with bullets, trying to take out the baddies, who are equipped with even larger (but slower-to-shoot) missile-launchers--i particularly like the way the gun and even the platform you stand on shake appropriately as you shoot everything in sight).

the transition from the arcade to the car had apparently not made itself adequately clear to me, because i had the definite impression that i was in a videogame, all the way home. note to everyone: it is Not Good when you are driving at 70 mph down the crowded highway and (a) you are certain that if you hit the car in the next lane, he'll just bounce out of your way, and you'll get 5000 bonus points and (b) you fully expect a big green baddie to jump out from the bridge trellis 100 ft in front of and start spraying you with radioactive missiles, so you are concentrating more on said trellis than on the actual road down which you are careening. luckily, i'm really good at the driving and shooting games, so i got home with no 'damage' to myself, plenty of time to spare, and the high score for the day.

but, to protect the world from drivers and gamers less skilled than myself, i would like to see more awareness education in the schools about driving while arcaded. perhaps a public service announcement campaign starring racecar driver jeff gordon.