As we all know, nothing and no one are perfect in life. I say this because some people can get caught up trying to achieve a version of themselves that doesn't exist. That being said, we are all made up of bad habits. Our bad habits can range from something as small as not sleeping to something as big as a drug addiction. We have habits because we constantly are doing the same thing. More often than not, our worst habits are the thing we love the most.

In "The Heroin Diaries", Nikki Sixx has published the diaries that he wrote during his drug abuse. I noticed that in the diary entries, Nikki Sixx mentioned more than once that heroin was more of a lover than any other drug he used. "One could say that I've been having a 10cc love affair...my mistress is so seductive." (p.47) If this was the case for Nikki, why can't it be the case for anybody else with a bad habit.

Like I said before, habits, whether good or bad, are something that we love. I know I certainly have an unhealthy obsession with chocolate. Maybe our bad habits are just as seductive to us, as heroin was to Nikki Sixx.

While it is that case that some bad habits are worse than others, that doesn't change the fact that those habits could be hindering all of us from what we want and need to do. Nikki Sixx knew this and was able to overcome his problem while many others couldn't. This is proof that in the end, it will be up to us to give up the thing that we "love" the most.

    Let's talk about immortality for a minute. In a video game, you have an infinite amount of lives and do-overs. In real life, you have one chance and when it's your time to go then you're just gone. But, are we really gone? Some people will argue that if a person is physically not here on this earth, then they are gone. Others know that a person can live on through their memories of the people that they left behind. This is exactly what we are doing now and what Halliday, and every other famous person, does before they kick their metaphorical bucket. Halliday programmed his own avatar, Anorak, to continue to live in the OASIS even after he died. You may just think this means nothing because he is still dead in reality. Well, the reality is that everybody spends just about every minute of their reality in the virtual reality that this dead man created. I believe if people still continue to speak of your legacy you after you pass on, you are, in a way, immortal. Halliday programmed his own avatar, Anorak, to continue to live in the OASIS even after he died. "For years gunters had speculated that Anorak still roamed the OASIS, now as an autonomous NPC. Halliday's ghost in the machine." (p.84) Usually, people who are famous, immortalize themselves in their work. Halliday wasn't any different. He even created an entire competition to pass on his legacy. This is specifically how Halliday achieved immortality. In what way could Wade achieve immortality?

    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is definitely a novel for sci-fi lovers. As a person who tolerates sci-fi, it was really hard to tear through the pages like I had originally planned to. In the prologue, us readers got a background of what is going on in the book. I am eternally grateful for the information because without it, I would be so lost.

    While reading I couldn't help but think about the saying, "Art mimics reality." This book is an exaggerated example of what the real world is coming to. Cline created a story that showed how people used virtual reality to escape their real world problems. "The ongoing energy crisis. Catastrophic climate change. Widespread famine, poverty, and disease. Half a dozen wars." (p.1, paragraph 2)  In real life we use our smartphones to do everything. I can't recall how many times I've heard the phrase, "I hate talking to people in person, I'd rather text." It has gotten so bad that people, including myself, will use smartphones as a way to avoid conversations. Phones were invented to have communication, not avoid it. Cline did a great job using a seemingly off-topic concept to explain something bigger.