Walking home from work last night listening to the Metro 2033 Dump Truck episode I realized I recognized a man at a table ready to eat dinner.

Now living in this town you learn real early to act blase and not give a shit when you see famous people. It's part of the social contract we have with them. That being said, it was all I could do to not intrude on the guy's evening and say thanks for the games and probably have an awkward exchange and maybe scream "CAN'T YOU SEE I'D BE BRILLIANT AT DESIGNING GAMES JUST BASED ON THE THREE SENTENCES I HAVE SAID TO YOU, WHY HAVEN'T YOU ASKED ME TO BE YOUR APPRENTICE, I'M A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH, A GENIUS WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED, SCREW YOU KEN LEVINE YOU ARE THROWING AWAY THE BEST THING THAT YOU HAVE COME ACROSS SINCE THE IDEA OF LEAVING STORY ELEMENTS IN AUDIO FORM SCATTERED AROUND YOUR GAME ENVIRONMENT! WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ME, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, MY DAD!?!" but probably not actually any of that part.

Regardless I kept my shit together, kept walking, and heading home ruminating on the fact that neither my girlfriend nor any of my friends would appreciate the event at all. So I'm posting it here, because what is twitter?

Ken Levine, if by the smallest chance you ever check your page on GiantBomb, I hope you enjoyed a peaceful meal in this world, but know that in a parallel one you may well have been interrupted by a version of myself who is more of a cad.

There is always a man, a mall, and a Corner Burger.

(I can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Levine was drinking a Diet Coke with his meal).

ken levine IS a diet coke

You didn't passionately kiss him on the mouth?

@darknessmyoldfriend: Was he alone? If so, you should have come over and fangirled on him. I think the biggest issue is when they're out with family. But if they're alone, just be your own awesome self and spew your love on them. Now that Bioshock Infinite is kind of winding down from the big attention it got for a few months, I imagine he would probably appreciate your enthusiasm.

Though, since you didn't do that, thanks for sharing! That was nice of you, but really, it's okay to be an overt fan sometimes. :)

@truthtellah:

He was not alone. I would have been tempted to have a horribly ill advised exchange with him if he had been alone, but for as long as I can remember it's been expressed that interrupting a person while eating with friends/family is the pas-iest of faux pas.

I'm glad to be able to share it with members of a community who could relate in the slightest. My girlfriend, who calls all video games Nintendo, would have been totally lost and my friends would have said "Who?" at which point I would have explained and they would have said "Oh, you said you liked that new Bioshock, right?"

It's not easy being a fan of video games in a grown up world.

@darknessmyoldfriend: ha. Well, you did your one show of decency toward him.

Thus, the next celebrity or big developer you see, you owe nothing to them, and you should leap upon them with gleeful exuberance. For you deserve to let out that fan love every once in a while. ;)

(and if you see Ken Levine at that place again, you definitely have to talk to him, even if he's throwing a Bar Mitzvah)

I saw caps lock. That's all I saw. That and nothing else.

Did you kiss him on the cheek?

Wicked burn about those two sentences in the middle of the post, denoted by quotation marks. Then again, I admit the first was quite a run-on, so mea culpa.

Did he play Stairway?

Did you touch his shoulder?

Did you tell him that elizabeth is your waifu

DINNERSHOCK MOTHERFUCKER!

You should've followed him all night to his house, then fangirl on him when he got to his door.

I would've stared at him mouth ajar til we made eye contact thus forcing me to briskly turn and walk away.