There was a Flash game I got into a while back. Armored Tank or Shoot Gun or Tank Tank or something like that. You know the type of game I'm talking about; you've probably got your own Tank Tank. Maybe it's Angry Birds or Bejeweled or TankVille or whatever. Some cheap, simple little video game that you play when nothing else is going on. Mine was Tank Tank, and for two or three months, I played the hell out of it, in the process getting really, really good at tanking.
And then I realized that I hated it.
Why?
It should not surprise you if I reveal that playing Tank Tank for four hours every day did not make me a better person. It did make me an older person, and thus legally a wiser person, though that benefit I mostly credit to the local topography of space-time. For example, I'd be just as wise if I'd crammed tanks up my ass for four hours a day instead, and certainly a lot more famous.
Maybe you don't see what the big deal is; it's something that might come with perspective. You see, now that I'm over a tenth of the way through my expected 300-year lifespan (Canadian health care), I have a certain appreciation for the value of time. I don't like wasting it, especially when I know there's something better I could be doing. And there was always something better to do than play Tank Tank. Whether it was reading or writing or simple duck harassment, I have any number of other hobbies and pastimes that provide greater lasting joy than playing Tank Tank.
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No, I couldn't see that program, because I don't have a television. What's that? Oh, I was out molesting fowl all night.