Yesterday i went to what we Cypriots sometimes call the National Guard (but usually just call it a complete waste of time), what outsiders would call a fiasco and what i’d like to call the black hole that just sucks taxpayers’ money.

Whenever i go to these “meetings” it is as if i am in a world like the one in F.E.A.R or Timeshift where time just slows down. It feels like i am there for an eternity mainly because there is rarely anything interesting to do. Most reservists just sit around for small talk, use their mobiles non-stop, read the sports section of the newspapers or just smoke their cigarettes thinking (about nothing) and staring (into nothingness).

Those are things that i don’t do in my “civilian” life and therefore could never do even if i wanted to. My best option is of course portable gaming which would have been ideal. But in all honesty although i don’t usually give a damn about other people’s opinion on gaming this is too much. Sitting in a room or area full of reservists playing games on my PSP or DS on my own is just suicide. If you have seen About a Boy, it is like that kid getting on the stage to sing with his tambourine before Hugh Grant appears to save him from being socially slaughtered.

What i need to do is locate another gamer. There has to be a gamer in my company (army term) who is a nerd like me. There has to be. Then it would make it tolerable. Less of a loner, outcast. Ok, maybe we would still be outcasts but at least we would be an Army of Two. We would agree beforehand on which console to bring and what multiplayer game to play. Advance Wars and Mario Kart on the DS or Warhammer 40k and Lumines on the PSP? Then time would surely fly.

I have to find him. I need to find that soulmate who wil