I don't always write whole columns dedicated to one dude, but when I do, it's because it was either that or reach for my rusty hook.
They say that home is where the heart is. It has the baseball team I root root root for, it's where country roads take me, and truly, there's no place like it. But the world is a big, gorgeous place, full of wonder and beauty. Recently, I was condescendingly asked "Why would buy content from PSN stores in regions other than your own?" and had to do a double take. It reminded me of a conversation I had back in college with a guy that asked me why I was trying to translate some lyrics to a foreign song I liked.
"Don't you have enough English music you can listen to?"
I impressively kept my cool as I realized I was in the presence of a stupid person. "How narrow-minded", I thought, "But no one has to die today". I brushed it off, but then so many similar conversations happened with as many different people. The idea that everything that could ever be desired is within one's immediate locale is downright baffling.
This is an import store. Here, people can buy products that are not normally on sale in the place where they live. Their customers tend to have favorite products and return with noticeable loyalty.
This is a passport. It takes some money, time, and paperwork to get it, but doing so interests a lot of people. With it, people can enter new lands, speak with their people, eat their food, and enjoy the sites of that location.
This is Frank's Red Hot. I put that shit on everything. I can't buy it where I live, so I pay to import it from another region. It's delicious.
These are Valkyria Chronicles 3, Final Fantasy Type-0, and Yakuza: Kenzan. I enjoyed these games tremendously. None of them has even been announced for release in my native country yet, and two of them probably never will. FFT0 was my favorite game of 2011. Thanks to the PSP being region free, I was able to play through it. It was a struggle to keep this photo to just three games, by the way.
These are my little sisters. One of them has a line of ancestry that I do not. Telling me that either one of these girls is irrelevant, or that I should care about one more than the other is a good way for you to wake up dead.
Here's me with my wife. For the last five years, she has made me more happy than I ever imagined a person ought to be. She came from a different country than I did. To confine me to one region would be to deny me this happiness. And then wake up dead.
This is the planet Earth. It's small compared to most other planets, yet still so big that you couldn't fully explore it in a lifetime. It's filled with amazing displays of natural awe, as well as diverse people with diverse languages and culture, all of which are beautiful in their own way. To limit your enjoyment of anything in life to only that which comes from your immediate area is to deprive yourself of what makes this world a wonderful place.
Stay universal, my friends.
