"Everybody Loves ... "

... you probably thought I was going to finish that with "Raymond," didn't you?

But let's examine this and other titles and phrases. "Everybody loves ... (some thing or person.)"

In this case: "Everybody Loves Raymond." I, then, must be a nobody. I saw a total of seven episodes and hated every moment of it. Well, time for that full disclosure thing: I welcomed the commercial interruptions during the show. I wouldn't have been watching at all, except for the person that I was in a relationship with at the time happened to love it. After I told her I really didn't care for it (she knew I was being kind) she told me that I didn't have to watch it. And, I never did again. (Time for that full disclosure thing again: she and I were dating but we were not living together. She would go over to my place or I would go over to hers and then we'd spend time together. During our relationship, we never slept together. (I can hear somebody saying "Gods, this guy's a NUT!" I'm not a nut, I'm different. Deal with it.)

Until two nights ago when I happened to be channel-surfing during commercials (go on, admit it: you probably do this too.) And there it was in reruns.

It nearly let it ruin my night. But I didn't because it was coming time to log into the network and blow stuff up in my favourite game. So a night that had been getting worse got much better.

But I digress. The point is that many people do this for various reasons. "But everybody's buying this!" or "Everybody's listening to (name of radio station here.)" 'Everybody?' Really?

"Don't be the last one to buy (name of thing here.)" They do this for a reason of course. The reason is that many people have fallen for the "Keep Up With the Jones' " syndrome. In other words, all the people that have bought (this) simply can't be wrong. They just can't be. Or, if you don't buy this ... well, there simply must be something wrong with you because 'everybody' else has bought one.

For the record, my not loving "(Nearly) Everybody Loves Raymond" doesn't make me wrong, nor does it make me stupid. It makes me different.

When I logged into the game, my 'partner in crime' knew that something was bothering me, because she sent me a PM (private message) asking why I was being so quiet. Well, I've never met her in real life, I only know her from talking with her in the game (and on voice chat in the game.) I told her.

Therefore, for the remainder of that evening, every kill that the squadron made was named "Raymond." Their ships were "Raymond," or their buildings (if it was a ground mission) were named "Raymond."

Christina (her game name) nearly made me fall out of my chair laughing that night. We'd just gotten our eleventh kill for the evening when she came on group chat and said "Damn. And I thought everybody loved Raymond."

The SL (Squadron Leader) chimed in with "We probably shouldn't have killed him then." To which she keyed up over me and said "If it's red (the colour for the enemy) it's dead."

To be fair, "Raymond" got revenge that night. He and several other "Raymonds" banded together and killed us. But we'd fought them before and knew them well in the game, and a good time was had by most of us. (Except for that dying thing. Not too many people really like that.)

But the point remains that not 'everybody' loves or buys 'everything.' Or Raymond for that matter.

Time for that full disclosure thing again; this time, it's about why this message is being posted. In the game, the writers recently brought back "decay" where if you use an item too much or too long it'll either stop working correctly or stop working altogether. This happens in real life as most of us know: How many of us (myself included) have had to purchase a new cell phone battery because the old one simply won't hold a charge? Or how many of us (myself included) have broken a headset?

Somebody (I won't mention his name) owes me the creds for a new ion converter. And no, not the new experimental model either, even though it does have a faster recharge rate and higher output ratio. I think even you'll agree (you know who you are) that in this particular game 'experimental' means "Well, the designers tell us this'll work, but we need you to test it. If it blows up, we need to know why."

And yes, I know you swear by it. The last 'experimental' model of something I had in the game, I didn't swear by ... I swore at. You can ask our tank. :)

NOTE: In this game, a player with the moniker of 'tank' is a good thing. 'Tank' in this game is not a derogatory term as it was in "Space: Above and Beyond."

In this game, a 'tank' is a player with a ridiculously high defensive ratio. (Time for that full disclosure thing again: There are players out there using exploits. Nobody in our squadron does, although we did once have one player who did. When we found out, she was banned. Not just from our squadron, but the GMs found out and she was banned from the server.) No, I mean a player whose shields or armour (or both) are so strong (WITHOUT USING an exploit) that while you're wasting your time pounding on him or her, you're getting your tail shot off. I should know: before I spent the creds to respec, I was a decent tank myself. (To be fair, according to the squadron I was 'exceptional' but in my book I was decent.) Being a tank isn't for everybody, however. As a tank you can take the damage, but you can't dish it out. As a tank you might possibly get a kill if your opponent's shields or armour (or both) are depleted. Otherwise, you can forget about it. Your opponent will just laugh at you (or swear that he or she can't kill you.)