Apart from crafting a somewhat coherent idea on a keyboard, if you’re a modern, avid text-messager, like myself, you know the familiar, sometimes grueling question you contemplate when you reach the end of a thought: to choose or not to choose a complementary emoji (or three)?  [Insert face with rolling eyes emoji here]

Sometimes sifting through the hefty multitude of yellow, round-face personalities, animal faces, food items, hearts, shapes, vehicles, unidentifiable symbols, etc. takes longer than composing the text itself. Besides, a single emoji can be worth a thousand words, no? And you, naturally, don’t want to convey a wrong tone to your recipient if you don’t select wisely…  

For example if I want to express happiness, do I pick the traditional smiley face, the upside down smiley face, or the smiley face with rosy cheeks? Or the open-mouth smiley face, or the open-mouth smiley face with matching smiling eyes? Or I could skip the smiley face altogether and pick a sunshine… Of course there’s always the now passé emoticon of my friend to my right. :-)

Two minutes later, still vacillating, I find myself hitting “send” sans emoji. [Insert facepalm monkey emoji here]

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English defines an emoji simply as a “a small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion, etc. in electronic communication," but have you ever wondered who chooses which of these mini colorful celebrities makes it to your keyboard?

It’s a group called the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit organization with widespread, international acceptance that standardizes the characters, digits and symbols you type via various platforms to ensure they are communicated as you want them to, minus strange characters or pesky white boxes.

Founded in 1991, Unicode promotes, extends and develops the use of the Unicode Standard, and its sweeping success is evident in its supporters, with big-name vendors such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, IBM, Adobe and Yahoo, to name a few.

Every year Unicode launches a new version that includes fresh-faced emoji characters. Last year Unicode 8.0 released the unicorn face, burrito and 39 other icons; this year Unicode 9.0 added the selfie, bacon, avocado and 69 other icons (For Apple users, it’s estimated you’ll see these around October).

Unicode, specifically the Unicode Technical Committee, chooses which emojis make the cut, but the ideas make it to your keyboard through its proposal process, which can be completed by any emoji enthusiast.

Yes, it’s true - you can create and propose to have your own emoji appear on millions of cell phones and other digital platforms across the world! But unfortunately the process is laborious and can take about 1.5 yrs to become an accepted candidate, according to the Unicode Consortium’s sample timeline.

Each emoji has to meet specific selection criteria, such as expected usage level and image distinctiveness, and clear a few meetings.

Some that are up for petition currently are a redhead emoji, the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, a KitKat “break” emoji, and a dumpling emoji.  

But if the perfect emoji isn’t at the disposal of your fingertips right now and could save you numerous seconds of yellow-face scrolling if handy, perhaps it’s worth the trouble? Others have certainly made the cut. The journey to your new emoji starts here.

Wake up. Eat breakfast if you can. Drive to work.

Try to focus.

Do the work. Coffee. Lunch. More work.

Go home. Dinner. Chores. Sleep.

Start over again.

Ever feel you could write your life in a checklist? Like time is a thing always drained away? You swore you’d get that hobby project done. Or finally fix that broken light in the hallway.

Yeah, me too. It’s hard. Life is a rush of responsibilities. And even when you have free time, the sheer number of things being marketed to you will pull you in many directions.

The world wants your time and your money. You budget money (I hope) and it helps you keep track of things. So, why not budget time? Or at least try to get a bit of control.

Sounds difficult because it is. And I am not perfect either. So, I fail at this too. But when life eats you alive, I have a few pieces of advice to make things a tad more efficient.

1. The “Have To” List.

Priorities are important. And some things you have to do. So, know those things down pat. Trust me when I say you’re less likely to get distracted when you know a list of everything you have to accomplish by the end of the day.

2.            No Television, No Facebook.

How much time do you spend on social media? How many hours? How much T.V.? Television is not a ritualistic thing. It is a relaxing thing. It’s a reward. It is not a given aspect of day-to-day life. Treat both as things you get when the “have to” list is done.

3.            Just Get It Done.

Life has a ton of tiny things you should get around to doing. So, just do them. Yeah, it will take like five to ten minutes, but trust me it will only get more difficult if you let it all form a pile. Buy those vitamins from Natures Food Patch. Mail that letter at the post office. Pick up the gift card for your mother at One Stoppe Shoppe on Cleveland Street. Go do it when you think of it—barring obvious delays. Random particles and tasks that need doing eat concentration.

4.            Fully Relax!

No, none of that “a reward YouTube video for each work assignment done” or “texting a friend while doing homework.” I am not pooh-poohing leisure time. We all need it, or we would explode. But, if you are going to have some—then it is relaxation time. Full-on. And if you have to do work, then just do the work. Multitasking for productive things is not a good idea, and you’ll end up using more time on doing both at the same time than if you did them one at a time.

Sounds difficult and annoying and hard? Yeah. It is. But I know of no more efficient way. And, like I said, I fail at it all the time. But it’s at least worth attempting.

Think of all the time you could save.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Bioshock Infinite is a masterpiece with serious flaws. There, got that part out of the way. Now let’s talk about what it tried to promote.

While the first Bioshock tackled everyone having full control over their lives—especially regarding economics and how capitalism plays into it--the sequel Bioshock 2 did the same treatment for communism. Showing the evils of the opposite of the spectrum.

The problem, it seems, is we live in a world where there is no set answer to these kinds of questions. No matter which extreme you choose.

But later, after a while, the next game came into existence, and instead of hitting hard at another opposing ideology, it went a tad more...topical.

Well, sort of.

If Rapture was a place far away from the “parasites” and the communists, then Bioshock Infinite’s city Columbia exists to move away from the quote: “Sodom Below.”

In other words: it is a floating sky city populated by white supremacists who all worship a born again “prophetic” religious leader named Comstock.

That alone is a lot to unpack, and this article is not long enough for me to go into the serious social discussions these games deserve.

But, perhaps, the biggest takeaway from all the games is this idea: Charismatic pseudo-dictators are never good. Letting a single person control everything is never smart.

And this applies to this day and age. Whether on the country’s stage or just here in Clearwater. We all focus on the president, but we need to look at all the people in charge.

The president has power, sure, I am not even going to attempt to argue, but he does not have all the power—and no one should, really. No one should have all the say. We have a lot, a lot, of elected officials all over the place who can help create compromise, and we must compromise with other’s beliefs. And failure to understand that will not end well. Seceding from those you disagree with will not end well.

And if you don’t believe me, well, give it about thirty or so hours of gameplay, and I think you’ll see my point. Good satire can promote, implant, and imply ideas without saying them.

And I am excited to see if, and when, more video games go the extra mile to hit on such broad and thoughtful topics as this.

Movies and books and plays already do and did: but now we can directly interact with the ideas presented. And that is real power.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

I am about to get supremely nerdy in this article, because for one of the first times, I get to talk about two of my favorite things in the world: social science and the Bioshock video game franchise.

Because the two are married. The two connect. And with video games being the up and coming and always spreading medium it is, it falls to it as well as others to promote society’s progress.

And, while that is a haughty thing to say, perhaps the haughtiest thing I’ve ever typed out on these pages, it is the truth. Art, must, absolutely must, make an effort and a rush to help bring ideas to the world.

And to my mind, there is no better form of this than social satire. Comedy and satire exist as a measuring stick and method of exploration of things wrong in the world, without perhaps directly attacking anyone.

Well, except, in the case of an oddball political philosopher named Ayn Rand.

Because, for my money, the ultimate work of satire in the video game medium is the Bioshock series. Perhaps only matched by Spec Ops: The Line.  

Let me break it down for you if you haven’t played, or aren’t deep into the holes of the culture of the youth demographic (insert comically dated slang here).

Bioshock is a game as Brave New World is a book. In the fact they endeavor to talk about things beyond what you might expect of them. Only with Bioshock, it is an interactive experience.

And the story of the game is one that may seem odd a first: set in an underwater city called Rapture, you, the player, find yourself in a situation of life or death.

For you see, the city has fallen. Well before you got there. Founded on Randian Objectivism which includes laissez-faire capitalism, the city of Rapture introduced a new method of improving one’s station in life.

It is called Adam, and it’s used to make a thing called Plasmids—which give you special abilities. And, because there is no shutting down or regulating this wonder drug...well....

...Everyone goes crazy and turns into murderous addicts to this one method of power.

And that’s where you show up.

And now, well, here’s the purpose. It’s a criticism. Promotes how messed up the mindset of removing all government oversight is. It promotes a rejection of the things that some people—and political agendas—want to happen.

And if you agree. Well, that’s good. I do. I see the problem. But if you don’t that’s good too. Explore how Rapture should have worked without falling.

That’s the power of satire. And Bioshock has a lot more to say. Go to Gamestop at Clearwater Mall—or buy it on Steam. Play it, see, if you haven’t already.

Like it or not, it’s the job of media to shape our perceptions of the world. To enhance and question it. To promote understanding and promote an analytical study of the way the world works—the way games work--and what we can sometimes take for granted.

And you know what? There’s more than one game in this series. And I think I have more to say on the subject.

For when I like something, there’s practically “infinite” I could talk about.

Until then.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

I called it! I totally called it! Pokémon Go is now part of the way people market. I’ve seen promotions, and signs, and advertisements.

And the cleverest one so far is happening right here in Clearwater with Nature’s Food Patch.

Now, I already like Nature’s Food Patch. As a health-conscious individual, it’s one of the few places I know I can consistently get reasonably priced healthy food in bulk. Plus, their hot bar is fantastic.

But, now, the incentive doubles with the fact they are a PokéStop. And I’ve been running out of Great Balls.

But they go one better than just promoting that fact.

In a move so smart, so savvy, it makes my head hurt: they will give five-dollar gift cards to anyone who catches a Pokémon within the building (for a limited time).

But only certain ones, of course. None of the common ones. Nah. You need to catch a starter Pokémon or several other rarer types to claim your prize. So, you’ll need to spend some time inside the building.

Like I said: super clever.

Now, normally, this sort of system has a few ways someone could manipulate it. Which, undoubtedly, unfortunately, someone would try. But thanks to the unique nature of the game itself, the location where you caught a Pokémon is displayed on your screen.

So, liars can’t trick, and the honest can prove, and brag.

This is so cool, guys.

They are also doing Pokémon events over there called “Lure-A-Thons.”

I’m blown away. This is another example of the new technological landscape I’m always raving about to people. And it’s worth celebrating just for this gamification idea existing in our world. Who would have guessed media like pong would evolve to this?

So, knock back an acai juice in celebration, and get searching Nature’s Food Patch, Pokémon Trainers, and catch those deals.

Because I can only bet a salad and some roasted chicken tastes so much better--so much more rewarding--when you caught a Pikachu to help pay for it.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com