Mediocre

Well, it is August 12th. Which for most of us means that school starts in about a half a month. I, personally, move back in two weeks from today. In fact, if all goes well, I should be writing another blog sitting in my cave of a computer space.

So I have two weeks left of this so called summer. Big whoop. Quick side note, how come no one says big whoop as much as they used to? I wish I could say that I had an amazing summer and I enjoyed every second of it and I am dreading to see it end, but if I did then I would be lying. This chevalier does not lie.

It is true that this was not the perfect summer. I do not believe that I have had the perfect summer yet. This summer was spent working to pay for may things. I made a good chunk of change, but I went into summer having already spent it. What did not pay for my motorcycle, is going towards school. It kinda puts a damper on working because I do not even get to spend the money however I wish.

I do not want you to think that I spent every waking minute of my summer working. I try to be too laid back to even consider something of the sort. No, I had my outings. My day trips. My weekend getaways.

Summer started out with me going to Six Flags. That trip was fun, but ended in finding out I had more work once school started.
The end of June was marked on my calendar as a reunion with friends from school. We got together to spend a day and watch the fireworks. One of the highlights no doubt.
July flew by until the last weekend when I ventured three hours on my bike to visit some friends up north.
The following weekend I went the other direction north to see my sister and another good friend. This is the weekend I think I would mark as the best one.

And now I am here. Typing. Rested for the first time in three weeks. Looking back at everything that happened. I met some new people. All of which, as far as my mind can remember, were enjoyable in some way or another. I discovered the work of a businessman. It made me want to postpone full time work for a few extra years if possible. I found out that two of my good friends split. I am curious as to how this will affect the coming year. Only time will tell. But most of all, I became closer to one of my already close friends.

There were somethings that I learned this summer that I am not sure I wanted to hear. I found out what some of my friends think of each other. It was weird spending time alone with them, what they told me seemed to be on their mind for a while now and it kind of burst out of them. It was almost insulting to hear them say it. As though they thought I felt the same way about it. But alas, these were only minor parts of my summer and I feel that I humored them without betraying the friends that they spoke of.

My thoughts are scattered now, as you may have picked out. It is summer, and that is my excuse. I look forward to the coming school year which I will chronicle for you. I look forward to the next summer, which I hope will be a little more perfect.

My World

I was sitting at my desk a few minutes ago, labeling parts by the cavity number that they were molded in. I was pulling multiple shots from each cavity and was using the numbering scheme of 'cavity number-shot number'. After doing a few of these, my mind was running '7-1, 7-2, 7-3,...etc.' A few parts later my mind was running 'World 8-1, World 8-2, World 8-3, World 8-4...wait was there a world 8-4?' I was trying to remember whether or not Super Mario Bros. had 3 or four levels within each world. It is sad how my mind functions, sad but the truth.

If you know much about me you would have known that I did not play many video games growing up. Do not get me wrong, I think I played more than your average kid growing up in the nineties, but still not much based on today's standards. My parents always told us that we didn't need a Nintendo. Naturally we did need one. They didn't want us playing video games all the time. I think part of it was that they couldn't afford one. But alas, they finally broke down and found us not one, but two of them used, but cheap. We had our Nintendo.

My parents, sticking with their notions that we did not need to play it all the time limited us to a couple hours a day. This was fine by me. Back in those days I was covered in mud and grass stains and I was red and bleeding from mosquito bites. I was an outdoor kid. Our neighborhood had a fair share of us nighttime wanderers. That I believe was good for us.

So now I wonder, how is it that my mind reverts back to Mario, when I had far more hours clocked playing outside? I never beat Super Mario Bros. and neither did my brother or sister. The only person I truly know to have beaten it while it was on a NES was my father. He did it in one long spree, no save points back in those days. I wonder if his mind ever reverts itself back to NES gaming mode?

As I grew older, my video game time increased. I had computer games that I would waste hours upon hours on. At friends houses we would widdle away sunny days indoors playing the SNES and Playstation. I still was an outdoor kid. I loved to run and be free. But my surroundings were growing smaller as I grew bigger, and I escaped to digital worlds.

I feel as though my childhood was wasted sitting and playing these silly games. All I got out of them was a poor set of eyes and some pop-culture references. But it worries me, if I played few video games, gradually working my way into more as I grew older, what then will our current generation turn into? My four and six year old cousins have a Wii to play with. My uncle bought it for himself, but they play just as much as I did, if not more. Those two also have been playing games on the computer ever since they could hold their head up and press a button. This worries me. It truly does. I have seen my friends, ones who I grew up with, turn into nothingness. My neighbor, a fellow nighttime wanderer, sits in his basement by the glow of his computer screen each night until four in the morning. My dad sees him as he leaves for work. I rarely see him leave the house on his own accord, when he does he is hauling his computer with him over to some LAN party where he will, no doubt, sit and play more games.

I know the horrors of video game addiction. It was only this past year when I could be found sitting by my computer questing in an MMORPG. I left Breseis, my level 52 Night Elf Druid, in a state of dormancy. Yes dormancy, merely asleep. I know that the urge to take her out questing will come again, she only waits for my to click the button to login. But, thankfully for now that time is not ripe.

So now, I will declare for all the world to see. My kids will play less video games than my cousins. Less video games than my neighbor. Less video games than I myself ever played. I want then to be active. I want them to be able to distinguish between a sunburn and a tan. They will be athletic, but not jocks (I cannot stand jocks). So if my future wife is out there reading this, be warned of how our kids will grow...and give me a call so I can stop looking for you.

But for now I must get back to work. My World 7-2 cavities await. But when I get home I will run into the night like I just double tapped right on the D-Pad.