How's it going everybody. I decided to wrap up the day and evening with a little post before going to bed. It's once again Thirstday, but I'm refraining from drinking like a good boy. There's puke in the bathroom. Yes, already. Just a part of life on this floor.
I suppose it's kinda nice living here. The reputation makes it for an interesting mix. People who don't live here, according to elevator conversations, wonder what it's like for us. The fact that other people wonder about life on this floor makes it at least kinda fun. However it's like being stuck in paradise. If you wanna party, don't leave. But if you don't wanna party, you're stuck. It's like living in Miami but hating hot weather. You just kinda have to deal with it and be happy for the good aspects of your home.
On a broader scale, it's quite neat going to the #1 basketball school in the nation. I didn't know this before but Rupp Arena is the largest arena in North America, including NBA arena's. Yeah that's fucking nuts. And the guys I see in the student center all the time are the same guys I see in the ESPN Top Ten highlights. In addition, I'm getting tickets to the UK/Louisville game and now that Louisville's actually pretty good, this may be one of the biggest games in a while. So I'll be looking forward to that.
Good God do I love happy music. It allows people to enjoy life more. Good shit right there good shit. It reminds me of the Shacklette's residence like five years ago. Those were some happy times. For those of you who don't know, Alex Shacklette was my best friend for quite a few years. He brought out the purely innocent side of me. He had two brothers, and a cul-de-sac full of kids our age. His parents quickly learned how to entertain young guests without relying on videogames, and over time made my life a little less superficial.
Raising children must've been difficult in the digital revolution. I imagine it would've been hard keeping us from constantly playing videogames, but the Shacklette parents pulled it off. For example, they would throw an old mattress over an old couch in the basement. The mattress buckled at the spine of the couch and turned into a massive toy for eleven-year-olds to go nuts on. I remember spending so many nights sleeping on that mattress, it wasn't even level! I struggled all night balancing on the damn thing but I didn't care. However once we grew older, it took more than old furniture to play on to keep us from obsessing over irrelevant videogames.
A way that innocence was procured without us noticing is how the Shacklette residence overstated and changed the definition of vices. As a freshman, sophomore, and even junior in high school, I could have easily joined my classmates in smoking weed and getting an early start on drinking. Instead I spent summer days in the Shacklette household. Cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol were the last thing on our mind. The first thing on our mind was Screen Time.
Looking back, the Shacklette Screen Time Policy (or SSTP) was a little imprisoning to us. Screen time was defined as the daily duration spent interacting with a screen. Screen time was a currency in the household, even for their most valued guests. Each child received a balance of two hours of screen time each day, which could be spent however you wish. Watching television, playing videogames, browsing the internet were all things that drained our balance of screen time.
When we were in our younger years (5th grade, etc.), we all blew a cool 30 minutes of screen time immediately after school by watching Yu-Gi-Oh. After that it was a pretty solid distribution of activities between Super Smash Bros. and Pokemon.
As we got older, approaching those crucial high school years when teenagers typically make it or break it, I learned to never turn the TV on when in the Shacklette residence. The longer the TV is on, the less time we had to play World of Warcraft. Yes, soon enough the time came when visit's to the Shacklette's consisted of playing World of Warcraft straight through until our two hours were up. Our time management was impeccable. Once the two hours were up, it was research time. A small exception in the screen time policy was that if there was heavy reading, thinking, or education involved the time was excused. A way Alex and I used that loophole to our advantage was by reading and researching and planning and simply thinking about World of Warcraft. We discussed strategies, crunched percentages and collaborated with other neighborhood kids to find the best vector to success in our virtual world. We'd do this about three times longer than actually playing the game (or using any other screens). Then, the next day we had another two hours where we'd put our hours of planning into orbit.
It may seem counterintuitive but this actually added to the fun of visiting the Shacklette's. When the biggest thing you have to worry about is how much time you have left to play World of Warcraft, you realize how you don't actually have any real problems. Then when your time is up, you have nothing but time to kill, and you just slow down and relax. When I ate dinner at the Shacklette's it was a slow and relaxing family event. Normally, when there are friends over and dinner is ready, you pause your videogame, woof down a quick hot dog, and resume playing for another twelve hours. When all screens are already off-limits, you are able to enjoy little time-wasters like "family dinner".
After practically growing up with the Shacklette's during weekends I was highly accustomed to the lifestyle. One thing I realize looking back, is that smoking, getting high or drunk etc. were the last things on our minds. While half of the high school is struggling to be with the cool crowd, all that Alex and I wanted to do was get our two hours of screens in. And when we hit the age where we couldn't help but to break the rules, we did. Believe it or not, almost once or twice a week, Alex and I would wake up at 5am, sneak downstairs, and steal an illicit two hours of extra screen time. When the parents came downstairs at 7:30, we simply told them we had just woken up.Once the parents left for work we would go back to sleep for a few hours, wake up, and play more. We were some badasses back then. The funny thing is, as weird as it sounds, that (in addition to our common sense) kept us from doing crap like exploring the liquor cabinet, or getting into trouble in the neighborhood, or hurting each other.
Every Sunday and Tuesday were the longest days summer. Every Sunday and Tuesday were dubbed "No Screen Days", that was when the Shacklette parents unplugged every screen in the house. No screens, for the whole day. Sundays and Tuesdays were the days that massive stick-sword fights broke out in the neighborhood. All day would be spent doing something like making the biggest damn pirate ship out of Lego's and by dinner time have it ready to set sail in the bathtub.
Most friends would simply not go to Alex's house on Sundays and Tuesdays. But as close as me and Alex were, it was difficult to let my best friend suffer like that alone. My thought process was usually something like "Oh it's a no screen day, I bet Alex is bored." Furthermore, the most preferred way to get passed no screen days were to invite Alex to my house, yeah we didn't have the neighborhood of kids but at least we had entertainment.
Spending so many nights at the Shacklette's altered me over time. It could be the reason that even today I have the urge to put down the controller or laptop, and just enjoy myself without screens. Even while writing this, I could be playing Madden instead. On average 97% of children spend at least 13 hours a week on videogames, and average 7.5 hours PER DAY on "screens". In retrospect, I didn't die being stuck in the Shacklette's house with no entertainment, and I also never left to go play videogames by my lonesome at home.
Maybe if we did this as adults (I'm 18 now I count as an adult) we'd enjoy life a little bit more. Instead of obsessing over screens we could obsess over just living. Why don't we turn off phones for dinner? And after our favorite show is over why don't we turn off the TV and find something else to grasp our mind? Over the course of writing this memoir I realized how enjoyable my time at the Shacklette's was. I obviously can't go back to those carefree summers of my life, but I can learn from it and simply slow myself down, shut down my phone, close my laptop, and find something else to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment