Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:09 — 6.5MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, pineapple is my favorite fruit, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a few short stories about summertime fun.
Yesterday I told you about some of the great features of the best WordPress backup tool on the planet. Everyday this week I tell you a bit more about it. While I do earn a small commission for every one of you that use www.goldenspiralmedia.com/buddy to purchase BackupBuddy, I’m singing its praises because I want to. I’ve been using it for years and I could not be a happier customer. I not only love its robust backup features, I love its other features too like database mass text replacer and url replacement when you migrate to a new domain. Make sure you’re backing up your WordPress site with BackupBuddy and never worry about losing your website data again. Visit www.goldenspiralmedia.com/buddy for more info.
Friday Forum
Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by calling and leaving a message at 304-837-2278, emailing an audio file to feedback@goldenspiralmedia.com, or clicking on the Send Voicemail tab on my website, GoldenSpiralMedia.com.
What I Learned Yesterday:
Now that the calendar has passed Memorial Day, it seems that summertime is upon us. My kids are out of school until August so forget that summer solstice stuff, summer is here. Believe it or not, when my daughter arrived home from school last Friday and my wife asked her if she was excited to have the next 3 months off from school, my daughter complained that she only had 3 months off! I took that opportunity to let her know that as an adult she can expect to work through the summer months and maybe get a few weeks off from work each year. For some reason those words did not bring her great joy and anticipation of being an adult.
I know that when I was her age, I didn’t look forward to the days when I’d be an adult and have to work year round. I doubt there is a kid in the world that feels that way. Summers for me were always fun. Sure, there were always chores to do. Cleaning up the kitchen, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning my room, and so forth. We had to mow the lawn, help my dad lay carpet on the weekends, and occasionally help my step brother’s dad haul hay. But for the most part, summer was non-stop fun.
My best friend from 4th grade until graduation was a guy named James. We spent as much time together as our parents would allow. He’d often stay over at my house and I’d often stay over at his house. When were were younger we would ride our bikes as fast as we could down a hill near his house. When we felt like we’d reached maximum velocity we’d jam on the brakes and try to make the longest skid mark possible. I have no idea who was better at making skid marks, but I’ll always remember the pure joy and laughter we shared trying to one-up each other.
James had a small creek near his house and we’d often go down there and try to catch crawdads.
When we first moved outside of town, we had a whole new world surrounding us. It was about that time that my brothers and I were starting to become interested in skateboarding, but skateboarding was difficult when you lived out in the country and the surrounding roads were dirt and gravel. There was a kid named Michael down the road a bit and his dad worked on elevators.
Michael had several giant spools in his yard that were once used for elevator cables. Michael’s dad also had a lot of thick sheet metal so we took the sheet metal and made it into a long strip in the pasture by Michael’s house. We took our skateboards, climb up on the spools, and skate down the pasture until we ran out of our metal runway.
Behind Michaels house was a creek. Our parents told us very plainly that we were not to swim in the creek. There could be snakes or other dangerous things there. Did we listen to them? Heck no! We swam in that creek all the time. Looking back on it now, it was pretty risky, but 10 and 12 year old kids, risk was only another word for fun.
About a mile down the road from my house was another friend named Les. Les not only had a Nintendo, but he had a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine. In case you’re too young to remember Nintendo Power, it was an official Nintendo magazine that not only gave you all the latest info on new games, but it gave you tons of inside information and tips to beat games. It provided dozens of screenshots of games to help you out. I don’t know why it went away, but I’m guessing the internet had a big part of it. Back in the 80’s it was like an exclusive Nintendo endorsed cheat sheet delivered regularly to your mailbox.
One time I stayed over at Les’ house for about 3 days straight. Les had just picked up a game called Shadowgate. First let me tell you that I looked up info on Shadowgate as I prepared for this episode and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a new version of Shadowgate is about to be released. Check out Zojoi.com for more info. I’m not affiliated with Zojoi in any way.
Shadowgate was a great game in a category called point and click adventure games. It wasn’t as advanced as adventure games like Mario or Castlevania, but it was far more advanced than text based adventure games like Zork.
In Shadowgate, you had to make your way through the castle trying to solve a series of puzzles and overcome various obstacles. The screen was broken down into various sections. One section showed a single image of the room you’re in, another section had a list of commands, while other sections had a list of inventory items and options to save the game.
Les and I played the game non-stop. A lot of Shadowgate’s complexity lies in the fact that you have to learn by failure. For example, there is one room that has an ominous pair of eyes in the distance. The game tells you that the room is exceptionally hot. On the walls are two unlit torches. On the ground is a pair of skulls and other bones lying next to a helmet, shield, and spear. Also on the ground is a chest. There are at least 10 choices you can make in this room, but if you don’t make the correct move first, you will die. What is that first move? You must pick up the shield. The moment you do anything, the beast on the far end of the room will fill the room with fire and you will die. However, if you pick up the shield, you’ll be able to protect yourself just in time. Once you have the shield, you can carry out the rest of the challenges in the room.
While some of the puzzles in the game were easy enough for us to work our way through, several others had us stumped. Fortunately, Les’ Nintendo Power magazine came to our rescue. Within the pages of the magazine was a phone number you could call and get assistance with any game. It was not a toll free number, but Les assured me his mom was cool with us calling the number. We called it several times over the course of the days I stayed over, and we finally beat the game. By the way, it turned out Les’ mom was not cool with the phone calls and he got in trouble when the phone bill arrived.
Here’s what I’ve learned. Nothing beats summertime when you’re a carefree kid with plenty of free time and no responsibilities. Those days make up a tiny portion of our lives and deliver some of our most prized memories.
Of course, being an adult comes with its own adventures and rewards. Many of those adventures and rewards involve our own kids. I’m doing my best this summer to help my kids have a great time. We’ve always limited the amount of time they can spend on the computer and computer devices, but this year we’re also making sure they spend time every day out in the yard, playing at the park, peddling their bikes, and enjoying the searing Oklahoma heat.
After all, one day very soon their carefree days will be gone, and those days don’t make a return visit to our lives.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes.
[sc:stuff]