cpt_midnight

Gaming definitely is popular, especially among youngsters, but what I'd say is that after age 21 or so (when most people finish their mandatory military service) there's a significant "dip" in the amount of people who would define themselves as gamers. I didn't serve in the army, but from what I hear it tends to have a very de-individualizing effect on you for various reasons - it's not uncommon to meet someone you graduated high school with, and used to enjoy talking to, and find out that now he's boring you to tears.

As for Nintendo products in particular, I'd say they are the least popular (with the exception of the Wii maybe) because they're not officially supported or marketed in Israel, but you'll probably find specific "pockets" of die-hard fans who are really into their stuff.

For as long as I can remember, I've struggled at school and probably every academic effort that followed (would've dropped out of high school if I could, dropped out of uni twice, can't finish a MOOC to save my life). This is almost in inverse correlation to my actual learning ability: I learned fluent English from exposure to media, became very competent with two musical instruments by self-education, learned cooking largely from trial and error and I'm currently learning a programming language. The possibility of getting back into formal education presented itself to me earlier this week, but I can't help but feel that I may be wasting my time for the aforementioned reasons, not to mention the heartbreak and frustration that typically follow "failure" of this kind.

My question is twofold: are you and/or colleagues of yours familiar with variances in learning style like the one I described? If so, would you consider them a "disorder" that needs to be fixed or something that one needs to learn how to live with?

I'm an Israeli citizen, and I must admit first of all that I'm not used to hearing about Palestinians as anything other than human fodder that we should feel sorry for or blast through in order to eliminate Hamas. The part where you described playing your 3DS at night really got me - I swear I realized at that moment, possibly for the first time, that there are human beings on the other side of the border.

My question: do you have any ill will towards me for being an Israeli citizen or born Jew (I don't practice Judaism)?