Everyday Atrocities

Everyday Atrocities: Pokemon on Emulators

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Time and time again, I see people get excited over emulators.  Who wouldn’t?  Having hundreds of games at your disposal and the chance to discover a new hidden gem sounds awesome.  For most people, emulators are like a treasure box filled with childhood memories.  The franchise that I see people get the most nostalgic over is Pokemon and with good reason.  Pokemon is still fun to play.  I just cannot fathom playing it on an emulator.

While I rarely had the opportunity to trade and battle with other people in older Pokemon titles, having a link cable is essential to the Pokemon experience.  How else are you going to catch them all?  Knowing how dedicated the people who design emulators are, it may be possible to trade Pokemon on an emulator, but it just seems dull.  Doing that loses the sense of adventure that extends outside of those games.  Having to find other players or even driving to stores to get special event Pokemon is not the slightest bit convenient, but it gives the illusion that we live in a Pokemon world.  I wonder if Toys R US managers got annoyed of having kids enter the store just to obtain a Pokemon and walk out.

Aside from trading, there are other features that people playing on emulators will miss out on.  Players of HeartGold and SoulSilver will be missing out on one of my favorite features of those games, the Pokewalker.  Just transfer a Pokemon, put the pedometer in your pocket and level up Pokemon just by walking.  I do not know if the Pokewalker was an accurate pedometer, but anything that gives out easy to obtain (if you walk a lot) experience points is a welcome addition.   People looking to complete the Pokdex legitimately are going to have to buy the WiiWare title My Pokemon Ranch which communicates with Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.  I never played it.  Capturing or hatching and then transferring 999 Pokemon to obtain Mew sounds tedious.

The best thing about playing Pokemon using actual cartridges is that if you so desire, your Pokemon stay with you.  Theoretically, if you have the right hardware, Pokemon caught over ten years ago in Ruby or Sapphire can be transferred to Omega Ruby and Alpha Saphire, a game released last year.  Can you do that with an emulator?  If you are looking to play Pokemon, get a DS Lite or 3DS XL because playing Pokemon on an emulator is atrocious.

Everyday Atrocities: Cup of Noodles

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How much protection does a cup of Maruchan Instant Lunch need?  It just seems excessive.  The cup is already protected by the cardboard packaging.  There is no need for the cup itself to also be wrapped, especially when there is a lid that has to be peeled off.  This is obviously done for health and safety reasons, but I have seen individual cups of cereal with just a lid that peels back.  Why doesn’t cereal get the same treatment?

Perhaps the strangest thing about the packaging is that the back of the cardboard explicitly states not to microwave it.  Yet when examining the cup itself, there are microwaving instructions.  Which one is it?  Can or can I not microwave it?

I know that I am supposed to pour out the contents of the cup to a different container and stick that container in the microwave instead.  Doesn’t that defeat the point of it being called “Instant Lunch”?  If I had access to another container, chances are that I am near a stove and can just boil water, which is the best way to prepare it.  Besides, shouldn’t the external cardboard packaging provide a disclaimer with the microwaving instructions?  I guess it does not matter much as there will always be people who practice unsafe ramen cooking techniques by placing the entire cup in the microwave and that’s atrocious.

Everyday Atrocities: 3D Glasses

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The improvements made in 3D glasses have been great.  No longer are they made out of flimsy white cardboard and red/blue lenses.  Now they provide a better image, are more comfortable to wear and less stressful on your eyes.

 
Some people find them so comfortable that they wear them as sunglasses.  It looks idiotic and does not help at all in protecting your eyes.  The plastic sleeve the glasses come in address that, but I doubt many people actually read the warning.
 
It even has a diagram!
The new plastic sleeves are less attention grabbing.
I wonder how many of those sleeves are just tossed on the ground or thrown away.  It seems wasteful.  The glasses themselves use even more plastic.  They must be relatively cheap to produce.  I bet that it costs more to create the perforated tab to open the sleeve housing the glasses than it does to create the frame and lenses.
 
Box office statistics show that even with the insanely high prices for tickets and popcorn there are a lot of people going to theaters.  Let’s take the Avengers as an example.  It grossed $622 million.  Now you have to take into account that this number is just for the amount it made in the US and includes both 2D and 3D ticket sales.  For a moment, let’s assume that all of the sales were in 3D and the average price for a ticket is $15.  You have a total of 41,466,666 people.  I would say that is a very large number and this is just for one movie.  Just imagine the dozens of other blockbusters that are released in theaters and how many 3D glasses have to be produced to keep up with the demand.  A crazy amount.
Imagine all of the plastic being used.  Sure, there are announcements in movie theaters saying that you should recycle the glasses, but how many people actually do that?  Lazy people toss them in the trash.  I keep all of my glasses as a souvenir.
 
 
Is it even necessary to produce so many glasses?  Why not encourage people to keep and reuse them just like those eco-shopping bags.  It could potentially lower ticket prices.  What exactly are theaters charging extra for admission to a 3D movie?  Maybe 3D is just a fad that will die out in a couple of years.  It is infecting film design with purposely done shots that are just awkward to watch without wearing those wasteful glasses and that’s atrocious.

Everyday Atrocities: Lines

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Getting on all of the attractions at Disneyland in one day is next to impossible. You will spend more time standing in line than you will get on rides. When seventy minutes is considered a short wait, you just know that you are in for a long day. Over at Disney California Adventure, I have seen the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror reach a waiting time of over three hours. Such times are just insane, yet it does not stop people from standing in line. Is the wait worth it? The rides at Disneyland are certainly an experience, but some of the rides are just too short to justify the wait. Disneyland and other theme parks do however provide excellent immersion and try their best to make waiting in line as enjoyable as possible.

Other places need to do the same. Imagine how much more entertaining it would be to wait in line at a bank if you had to make your way through a complicated and decorated pathway, instead of just going around some velvet rope. Adding a place to sit would be a nice addition. Even better, the seats could slowly drag you along until you get to the front of the line. It would certainly make waiting in line less tiring or maybe it will just show how lazy Americans have become. Either way it feels like lines go on forever and is that not what lines really are? Infinitely long.