Overheard in New York...

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jun 1st 2006 at 3:55PM }

Overheard in New York (City) poster, Everclear, caught this snippet of a conversation on the 2 train near Borough Hall:

SAT* prepping kid #1: What's 'hydrolysis'?
SAT prepping kid #2: Dude, don't you play Grand Theft Auto? Hydrolysis is what makes the cars bump up and down.
SAT prepping kid #3: Um ... Hydrolysis is the splitting of things in water.
SAT prepping kid #2: Whatever. Same thing.

*standardized test

[Thanks Lex!]

Tags: Grand Theft Auto, GrandTheftAuto, hydrolysis, MTA, New York, NewYork, Rockstar, SAT

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

dan @ Jun 1st 2006 4:02PM

how is this even remotely news? i once has a conversation about gaming with 2 friends. want to write a 12 page article on me?

32_Footsteps @ Jun 1st 2006 4:07PM

I see someone about to get a big, fat 600 on his SAT I test.

Isn't there also some state-wide test kids in New York have to take to graduate? I don't see them passing that one, either.

Concerned citizen @ Jun 1st 2006 4:10PM

They should put GTA at school so kids would be a lot smarter...and homicidal, but more smarter first.

Boys would be gangsta´s and girls would be Ho´s.

White Rose Duelist @ Jun 1st 2006 4:15PM

That's awfully generous, 32. Do you really think that #2 will be able to enter his/her name correctly?

Matthew @ Jun 1st 2006 4:15PM

This is great, it really made my day. Sad thing isI take that train and can really imagine that going down.

This... my fellow gamers, is what the future looks like.

Mike @ Jun 1st 2006 4:16PM

Good thing I have Joystiq to keep my up to date on all the insider trends in the video game business. If I didnt read this blog site, how would I know that 2 random people had a conversation?

This has got to be the worst post I have ever seen on Joystiq since I have been reading here.

alienhead_69 @ Jun 1st 2006 4:19PM

#3

"Boys would be gangsta´s and girls would be Ho´s"

I think I'm going to put that on the restrooms here at work.

MiThRaZoR @ Jun 1st 2006 4:20PM

Man, ya'll are retarded... This is just for kicks. I was crackin' up when I read this...

I think that kid 2 was dumb from the beginning. But misconceptions happen.

Concerned citizen @ Jun 1st 2006 4:21PM

C´mon dan if you don´t like it, please don´t read it, no need to bash.

If you´re good at understanding what is implied than you will notice that it show the impact that videogames have on kkids and how they learn(wrong) new things, when you were a kid you probably learned that plastic melt with extreme heat by putting your G.I.Joe on fire, today kids learn what hydrolysis is based on gaming experiences.

fawazr @ Jun 1st 2006 4:25PM

i think the point was that gamer kids don't typically make for stellar students. Sure, I ended up okay (only because my mom knew when to put a stop to the games; God knows I wouldn't have ever stopped playing on my own), but most kids don't. Videogames, like sex, are great, but still have their fair share of pitfalls. And the other standardized test that NY kids have to take are the Regents--a tremendously useless exam that's required for graduation.

The3rdNuisance @ Jun 1st 2006 4:26PM

How on Earth do you get hydraulics from hydrolisis. I didn't know what hydrolisis is, but it sounds nothing like hydraulics. This goes on my list of why gaming should NOT be come a mainstream thing, including Halo 2 on XBox Live, Counterstrike, World of Warcraft, and hearing someone actually say "pwnt" in real life, at least once a week.

alienclay @ Jun 1st 2006 4:27PM

and the correct answer would be
"Decomposition of a chemical compound by reaction with water"
applied to hydraulic actuator systems as found on many lowriders, hydrolisis would be the breakdown of the fluid used in said application. which would more likely lead to complications that would cause a car to not to "bump up and down".

BPM? @ Jun 1st 2006 4:27PM

ATTENTION! To all those who still don't get it!

Joystiq is NOT a news site. it is a BLOG. They are NOT forced to post only news.

With that said...
I found this post amusing, JRW.

Derbeste @ Jun 1st 2006 4:29PM

Overheard online:

Gaming kid 1: What's 'a slow news day'?

Gaming kid 2: Dude, don't you read Joystiq? A slow news day is when a gaming blog starts posting articles about people talking about the SATs!

Gaming kid #3: Um ... A slow news day occurs when very few events of relevence happen in the world or any subset thereof. Like say...the gaming industry.

Gaming kid #2: Whatever. Same thing.

Mike @ Jun 1st 2006 4:30PM

#8 your wrong. This kids is just dumb and confused Hydrolysis and Hydraulics.

alienclay @ Jun 1st 2006 4:32PM

...but of course the lowrider reference would be out of context to the original question so make of it what you will.

Concerned citizen @ Jun 1st 2006 4:36PM

"and how they learn(wrong) new things,"

Notice the "WRONG" word in there, that shows that what the kid learned was "WRONG".

Derbeste @ Jun 1st 2006 4:37PM

And btw...

Yes....of course a blog can post whatever they want. There will always be hits and misses....

But when you start posting conversations that were eavesdropped on and post it JUST because someone mentioned GTA....

You really start to think there is a competition going on between Ross Miller, Chris Grant, and James Ransom-Wiley to have the most posts in the last 30 days.

Not complaining.....just observing.

JodyAnthony @ Jun 1st 2006 4:38PM

uh, maybe the kid was joking/being sarcastic?

jaemz @ Jun 1st 2006 4:47PM

Art Linkletter would be proud... kids do say the darndest things.©

Rootbeer @ Jun 1st 2006 4:54PM

Hopefully his SAT scores will be good enough to send him to University of San Andreas, or at lest Vice City State.

Tob3z @ Jun 1st 2006 4:55PM

I wouldn't say kids learn wrong things from games. The kid obviously got his words from. Seeing as he referred to GTA I'm guessing that's where he learnt about hydro's. So technically he wouldn't even know about them uf it wasn't for GTA.

Oh and this is a slightly dull news post. Your the writer so I can't tell you what to write, but I do think you shouldn't post random conversations like this. The kid misunderstood, big deal.

Guess Who @ Jun 1st 2006 5:17PM

Three words.

SLOW.
NEWS.
DAY.

:)

1up_clock @ Jun 1st 2006 6:10PM

HELLO. I AM AN AVERAGE JOYSTIQ READER. IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME, I HAVE TO GO NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BLOG AND A NEWS SITE. REPEATEDLY.

jay @ Jun 1st 2006 6:57PM

I dont care whether its a news site, a blog, or u scratched that into a desk in school with a razor blade, it was still the biggest waste of a click in my lifetime. And that includes the time I won a free ipod mini by spanking the monkey.

Aaron @ Jun 1st 2006 7:05PM

Give me a minus star I don't care, this post is completely useless information.

Yuki~Summer Ver.~ @ Jun 1st 2006 7:10PM

I think it's a fast news day. So fast that your mind can't comprehend, and it registers as slow.

Nmaster @ Jun 1st 2006 7:19PM

You know what's slower than this news day? YOUR FREAKIN' LIVES. IT'S A BLOG AND THEY CAN POST WHATEVER THEY FREAKIN WANT TO. If you don't like the post, MOVE ON. Many RSS readers have DELETE buttons nowadays, try using 'em.

Newsflash: The internet is really big, if you don't like a certain site, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. Friggin' morons...

thunderleg @ Jun 1st 2006 9:34PM

I once overheard a couple of 10 year olds discussing "Gran Tet Auto".

Hardcpre @ Jun 1st 2006 9:53PM

I like how whenever someone makes a comment on it being a slow news day or a bad post they get a negative star. Who's in charge of that at Joystiq, Fox news and George Bush? Say something negative about us or something we don't want to hear and we'll take away a star. Way to encourage open dialogue and opposing points of view.

Pal @ Jun 1st 2006 10:08PM

I thought that it was funny, but then again I go to college in NY and my girlfriend likes to read Overheard in New York.

If you guys want 100% serious news, stop reading blogs. Blogs are written by people like you and me, not professional journalists without character and personality (their job in most part prohibits this). Nobody's making you stay.

terry @ Jun 1st 2006 10:28PM

#8 how am i supposed to know I don't like it until I read it?

LaughingMan @ Jun 1st 2006 11:38PM

Quote from user BPM:

"12. ATTENTION! To all those who still don't get it!

Joystiq is NOT a news site. it is a BLOG. They are NOT forced to post only news."

Yes and no. They're a "blog" site when the run stuff like this, but they're a news site when they want credit for something. They play both sides.

Back to the original topic: Isn't a little obnoxious and eliteist to copy down the conversations of people and make pissy little comments on them? Like everything that comes out of their mouths (meaning the people on that overheard site) is a nugget of pure f'n gold.

Ipsum @ Jun 2nd 2006 12:48AM

Haha, it's funny how people are actually *trying* to get negative stars. "I don't care if I get a negative star" = "PLEES TAK STAR I WANT ATENTION LOL LETS BE AOL BUDIES".

Come on, you people aren't that pathetic, are you? I don't see what the big deal is. James felt that this was amusing and wanted to share it with us. You're really going to chew him out for that? If you honestly think that this post was made because GTA was mentioned, then you completely missed the point.

Joystiq's tagline should really be changed to "games blog for people with an IQ".