Entry one

I'd like to start this off with something I feel somewhat fitting with choosing to begin something.

Winston Rowntree's "Choose Your Own Adventure (or: do something)"You can find it here: http://www.viruscomix.com/page525.html



I've long been a fan of this person's work. They have been at it for seven years and at some point I stumbled across it and found a few quick jokes. After a time it started becoming these huge sprawling works like the one you see here that weren't necessarily funny, but still damn good reading.This in particular will likely always be my favorite because it illustrates an idea oft expressed, but it's the one that got it to sink into my head.

The title alone is something that for me echoes into some pretty early childhood. I read quite a lot of books, eventually getting into CYOA books and from there getting sucked into the land of the vidya, which honestly is what makes this hit a terribly sore spot on myself.  I've spent most of my days living a surrogate life. Whether it's through repeating the scenario of being the guy that saves the day, gets the princess etc. or any other kind of surrogate experience. It could be said that much of my life hasn't really been lived save through various proxies. I'd even go so far as to say that most of my actions in meatspace are even built and modeled around these surrogate experiences.

That doesn't mean they're bad. All things considered, if it weren't for these sorts of things I likely wouldn't have made it as far as I have. The problem lies in the fact that they're safe. That's why I love this comic.

We have a quick setting of the stage. Being as it's a choose your own adventure, it's in the second person making it pretty explicit that you're supposed to take this work in a weird way, not having you relate with a character or anything like that, but simply putting yourself in the character's shoes. This is your adventure, your experience, your proxy/surrogate/representative in the story.

So, to put it better, I (the reader) find myself in this situation.I find myself in this metaphor for whether to stay in this place that is like a womb, safe but lacking in growth, lacking in anything except for basic comfort and the fun i can make of it, or to leave. Frankly, each day I find myself in my own representation of this metaphor. The only thing to make it more accurate would be a glowing screen attached to the internet, letting me experience so much more from the safety of this room.

Reading this the first time stung. At the time I didn't really have much going on in my life. I was busy burning up quite a lot to try and keep the few things good I had in life and generally being a bit of a fuck-up. Everything to keep myself in that womb. This served as a wake-up call. I had a question laying in front of me regarding something important.

I kept looking at this comic over and over again. Each time I thought about my personal teleporter and what it would maybe mean to go through. Eventually, I made a choice and decided to step through that particular door.
Funny, a thing such as a comic can influence something so important. Doubly so if you know what the choice was.

I had that adventure and I kept with that choice, even if the initial thing that helped pushed me forward was lost long before I left.

When I got back, I found out they were selling prints, this as a poster.
I keep mine on the inside of the door to my bedroom because every day I must choose to leave. I have to get up and engage with life. This is my call to battle, to war in pursuit of enjoying what life has to offer in spite of all the dangers. 

I don't want to end mine with a full-clip and no scars.