rejection as a hobby   (link, opinion)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2004-02-19
I'm going to include a huge quote from today's PA news post because it is awesome. I'm also going to paraphrase it a little bit for my own purposes.

"You may be tempted to give ground to the notion that the "innovation" is gone from [stuff], like the part-time pop nihilists to whom all Internet argument is ceded. This is a hipster's gambit, and it's one you would do well to apply a belt sander to. What you are saying is that you are incapable of being pleased. Instead of turning up your nose at the rich feast placed before us, you might ask yourself if you want to be a person for whom nothing is satisfactory. That's the trick of that position - to become so enamored of your own refined palette that no morsel can surmount your culling mechanism. Understand that this isn't the same as liking everything. You can be a huge snob and still be semi-permeable to amusement. I certainly don't waste my attention on bad [stuff], and there's no need to invest your dwindling time and resources for [stuff] out of some twisted sense of equanimity. As far as the white stag "innovation" is concerned, if you're looking at the [mainstream] you may be hard-pressed to find it at times. ... My point is that if you focus entirely on [the mainstream], that's like opening your bedroom door a crack and referring to that visible sliver as "the universe." ... If ... you can't find some way to enjoy yourself, please send me your name and a picture so I can fucking avoid you. I don't want to catch whatever it is you have."

I cut out or translated the gaming-specific references to make the quote more general because this point is something that I also agree wholeheartedly with in the general case. I consider myself easy to amuse. What this means is that while other people are miserable for whatever reason, I'm usually finding a way to enjoy myself. The point that it's possible to be "a huge snob and still be semi-permeable to amusement" is great too. I'd like to add something to that, though. It's possible to be a huge snob and still be respectful of other people's amusement. It's basically the same concept as not being that vegan/vegetarian asshole who can't eat anywhere and makes everybody else's life more difficult. Just because you have special tastes that you don't compromise on doesn't make you special. It just makes you that much more of a dick. Kthx bye.

P.S. Not all veggies are assholes. But it bothers me that most people feel obligated to accomodate difficult people who project their aura of awkward compulsion without compunction.