#7 - Video Games

Being raised in the 80s has always been a proud achievement of mine, not because of the music and the mullets, but because I was there for the rise of the video game revolution. The Nintendo Entertainment System introduced me to a new way of wasting my time. Sure my dad had an Atari, but I never really got into video games until the NES came out. I have been fortunate enough to probably have played every platform since the NES including currently playing the XBox 360 and Wii. For years, video games were taking up a decent amount of my time everyday. I was in the Air Force from 01-07, so a lot of my free time was on the sticks of the PS2 and XBox. I'm not saying I played all the time, but a good 3 hours or so which to me seems like a lot for gaming. It still game me time to get out and do things. However, once I got out of the military, got married, and had a child, things changed. I now realize the more important things in my life and its not satisfying my own needs playing video games. Even though I did play video games, and still might once in a while, I never considered myself an avid gamer. I played mostly sports games, upgrading every year when the new game came out, just to relax and ease my mind after working all day. I never wanted to become one of those people that never get off the couch, go outside, or know how to talk to someone face-to-face. I consider myself fortunate. Unfortunately, I do know people that are "addicted" to video games. In fact, I have two that are related to me, my youngest brother and my brother-in-law. As I type this now, all I can hear in the other room is constant machine gun fire from Black Ops. Now I say addicted because from sun-up to sun-down, and sometimes to sun-up again, they are constantly on their consoles. That to me is wasting your life away. I now realize that video games are the ultimate de-motivator. They are the perfect hobby for those that have no real goals in life and continue to live day by day. I don't hate on those that play games constantly unless their uselessness directly affects me or my family, I have better things to do. I do say that the longer a child can go without being exposed to video games, the better off they will be in life and I tend to test that theory with my own son.

#6 - Computers

When I think about my earliest memories of using a computer, I'm sure I would relate to many other individuals that were born in the early 80s and say that our first encounters were probably in school. I can recall experimenting with the 8 inch floppy of the MS-DOS version of the Oregon Trail educational program. For the most part, I had no idea what I was doing. I was 9 years-old in 1992 when that came out, and I could really care less about Oregon Trail. It was maybe a couple years later when my dad was able to afford a computer for me and my brother (he had bought one, but we weren't allowed to mess with dad's stuff). When that computer came home, it might as well have been back at the store because we had no idea how to use it. We were too busy playing outside, enjoying being a kid. Besides, connecting to AOL seemed to take at least 15 minutes! I remember my dad telling my brother constantly to get off the computer because he would stay on for hours, and of course it ties up the phone line until we were able to afford a second line. I hated the computer from the start. I had no idea the how to use it, the terminology. I could never remember the "http://" that went before the website. It was frustrating but I always felt better by going outside and pretending to be Michael Jordan out on the basketball court in the street. Fast forward to today, I'm not so computer ignorant. Now that I have been around PCs for close to 20 years now, I feel that I'm a little more computer savvy than normal. And for good reason. Majority of my school work has been done on computers as well as most of my free time. Making movies and music would not be a possibility for me without my Mac. Talk about the impact computers have had on my life, between my wife and I we have 3 laptops and I have no idea why. I hardly ever use the one I just bought 2 months ago and she uses one for her job, accounting. I think it's just a piece of mind knowing that I have a laptop that I can use anywhere. That is just a little proof that computers have ingrained society so much that we feel uncomfortable if we don't have one. Geesh, talk about a power control that companies like Apple and Microsoft have on us.