Pondering the Meaning of Life while Playing Chrome’s Offline Mode Game

Oh, the times when internet shuts down, eh? A moment of shock, while the existential dread sets in… What to do now? Just what in the world am I supposed to do now? And then, when you calm down a bit, you notice a cute little dinosaur, and… it jumps! It’s a game, and everything becomes simple and easy suddenly.

When I procrastinate (I call it getting ready for work), I sing along to rap music and play Google Chrome’s offline mode dinosaur game, the ripped version found here - trex-game.skipser.com

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While this game is as simple as it can be, I noticed that you can play it in two different ways.

You can focus on the cacti and birds, and your dinosaur will be chasing them and struggling to jump over, never quite making it. The scene moves in the direction of right, and it is more dynamic and dangerous.

Or you can focus on the dinosaur. The scene suddenly stands still, the dinosaur just jumps up and down in spot, and cacti and birds come and go. Playing like this, I can go on forever, and I almost find it meditative. Almost.

My point? I suppose, in life, if you focus on problems and obstacles, if you worry about future and things you can’t control, you’ll find yourself running like a crazy dinosaur, falling over and getting stressed. On the other hand, if you focus on yourself and your inner peace and well-being, you’ll be stable in your position and just jump in joy over any shit that comes your way.

Most things in life are a matter of our own perspective. As Kate Tempest would say: It’s true if you believe it / The world is the world / But it’s all how you see it.

I myself prefer focusing on my abilities and developing skills that I can use to resolve the problems, than on anticipating what might those future problems be. And I practice this thought playing the dinosaur game. Whatever works, right?

P.S. There’s a third option: you can just copy this line Runner.prototype.gameOver = function() {console.log("hi")} in the console when inspecting the page, and it will make the dinosaur immortal.

Of course, this makes the game utterly boring!