I get on the bus tonight looking for a good seat. Good usually is usually defined by a forward facing next to an average sized person quietly doing their business. I chose a seat next to a guy close to my age playing a DS. He fit the description of a good person to sit by, but I chose him above the several other premium bus-buddies because of his DS.

As I walked to my seat I thought, I'm going to sit next to him, pull out my DS, ask what he's playing, invite him to play Planet Puzzle League via my wireless conenction and then come home and tell the internet about my interesting encounter.

Let's recap what I had planned:

1. Sit next to him
2. Pull out my DS
3. Talk to him
4. Tell the internet about it

I did all of these things except for number 3. I was even planning out my post in my head on the bus. I was going to say, "I took off the habitual commuter scowl and replaced it with a half smiling, bright eyed expression that would not discourage conversation." (which I did, by the way)
But he never talked to me. More importantly, I never talked to him. The DS has built in close range wireless capabilities, clearly intended for friends to congregate or the 4 or 5 grown men on the bus everyday to play each other in mario kart or draw dogs and pigs in picto-chat. Please gentleman, the new way to converse with the people around you is in silence, crouched over your portable electronic device.

So why didn't I do it? It would have been a normal social encounter, much more fun than my usual commute. I'd meet someone new, someone who I could see on the bus once in a while and we could talk about DSs or how Nintendo is packing up and deserting their frienemies in Redmond. I could have had someone to play DS with once or twice a month on my way home. But I didn't say anything. Why didn't I? I think because even though I didn't talk to him, I accomplished 3 of the 4 objectives, which is pretty good. Internet, thanks for still allowing me to feel accomplished without actually making me talk to anyone. You never let me down.

Also, for whatever it's worth, I won 46 games in a row in Clear Battle/Level Hard/vs. Computer mode on the way home form work. So yeah. It wasn't all failure.