Tag Archives: Opportunity

Lab Rats

Posted on by

For almost a year and half I’ve been playing this augmented multiplayer reality game with players from all over the world -about 7 million- set on a location-based map of the area you live in, basically a map of the whole world. So if you’d go to other countries in real life you would be seeing that environment on the map in the game. I won’t go into details but what it comes down to is the fact that you need to capture, build, and/or defend areas among other goals.

Although I’ve been playing it for a while already, I still have mixed feelings about the game as it brings out emotions in people that can have a serious effect in real life. Some tend to become overly protective about ‘their’ area, others become even aggressive. People use different tactics all the time which makes it a constantly changing psychological battle. It’s interesting -in a twisted way- to see how one responds and either retaliate or change tactics altogether.

At times I get fed up with the game, not the game itself but mostly a certain type of people who take things way too seriously. I get tired of the politics that are going around -just like in real life by the way- where you have dictators, followers, protestors, sheep and the common idiots in general. I often wonder what the makers of this game had in mind when they developed it and I honestly believe that we’re all basically lab rats playing in the maze that’s called our world.

I’m ‘almost’ at the highest level of this game and I’m not sure what I’ll do the moment I reach it, I’m taking my time in doing so because I’m not in a rush. In the meantime I keep thinking about what’s going on in the backend. Are they collecting data on us, are they watching human behaviour whilst under stress or in victory? Are we manipulated by the rules they come up with? Or are we blissfully ignorant and willingly participating in a worldwide psychological examination?

I wonder what will happen when their intentions will be out in the open one day… It sounds like a bad science fiction movie some how. A mixture of data rebels, network surfers, whistleblowers, a matrix, domination and a few scientists who track each and every move you make in real life watching your GPS location and collecting data on who you interact with and how. I’m sure there will be uproar if the truth comes out about what they do with all the collected intel.

Call me paranoid ;)

The Beauty of ‘Pear-shaped’

Posted on by

As I said in my previous post, I had an interview last Friday and the reason why I didn’t write an update yet is because I had to let it all sink in. The interview was supposed to take an hour but it took two instead. If I look back at all the interviews that I’ve had so far this was the most relaxed one in years and definitely the best one. I had the opportunity to ask all sorts of questions and because of my enthusiasm and the other person’s passion for his work we easily could’ve talked for another hour.

I think this is the biggest company I’ve applied with ever since I started my ‘career’. People often think about where their careers take them. I never had to, because I turned my hobby into a job and I was very much enjoying each and every opportunity that I got. Halfway I did change into a different direction though but I was still linked to the job that I love so much. But over the last three years I was forced to have a good look at my life and where I was heading since things went pear-shaped.

I ended up in a situation that I had been trying to avoid all my life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Au contraire: what I’ve learned over the last couple of years is priceless. Yes things have been scary and yes I’ve seen the bottom but I’m climbing because that’s what Goats are meant to do. So I can only be grateful that I can have my own dreams again. Dreams that others might take for granted, like having my own place to live, being able to unpack the boxes and redecorate my ‘home’…

This might have been the toughest period in my life but I’ve gained so much having to deal with this emotional whirlpool. It forced me to have a good look at myself and where I was heading. I’m not there yet but I am taking tiny steps to find my balance again. Part of that has been looking for the confident ‘me’ that I’d lost along the way. I’ve found her and I’m enjoying her presence whenever she is there smiling at me, telling me it’s going to be alright. She was there last Friday at the interview.

She smiled and she felt like nothing could stop her from reaching that goal. And it was good, it was perfect the way it was… The other person told me that he wanted me on his team and become part of a company of 3500 people. So I went home, high on sheer happiness. I was on the train for an hour and half smiling… I didn’t care that I had to change twice because of delays. I didn’t notice that everything around me was chaos… I was just sitting there smiling and enjoying that very moment.

I was also aware of the fact that I wasn’t there yet. You see… I need to pass a test first. An IQ test which is not just the regular kind of test but a more complicated one. This morning I received a phone call from the company’s HR department to schedule this test. There’s only three people that I’ve told about it because I don’t want to be pressured by others telling me ‘I can do it’. I would like to be realistic and positive at the same time, there’s a 50% chance of success so I will try the best I can.

After all, that is all I can do, try the best I can and live ‘now’… not in the past, not in the future but in the present. That’s what I did that Friday, make the most of that moment and it worked out just fine. So I’ll be doing the same next week when I’ll have to take the test and it’s no point speculating about the actual result. It’s a win-win situation because no one could ever take away that moment of perfection during the interview and after. There is a bigger plan for me and I have no clue what it is just yet.

I just have to accept it and embrace it… {to be continued}

‘You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.’ ~Henry David Thoreau

© (?) – Can you find the elephant?