Video Games

I wonder if my age has anything to do with my limited interest in video games. The first console we had in our home was Intellivision and according to Wikipedia it was available in 1980 (but not sure exactly when we got ours), I was 9 years old then and by that time I had a decent amount of LEGO and toys.

Perhaps having physical toys to play with, especially LEGO, fueled my imagination so much that I didn’t need video games. Going outside to play was a big part of my youth. Having woods behind our house to explore and in the winter we could safely sled down Welwyn Lane.

The Intellivision games I preferred were ones that didn’t require a lot of jumping but Auto Racing had a curve that would bring me to tears of frustration.

That frustration came from playing a game for weeks to months and I still couldn’t beat certain levels. Tron’s Deadly Discs was fun until the level where enemies would come at you from all 4 sides and I couldn’t block them all.

Sure I could have practiced more but cartoons after school were just as entertaining.

Another contributing factor (and many years later) may have been when I got my own computer in 1997 and would buy a new game every other month. This led me to not finishing a previously purchased game because I was engrossed in the new one. The other downside was if I couldn’t get past a certain point due to not being good enough, a difficult puzzle (with no help from a message board), or losing interest because it was another First Person Shooter (this didn’t deter me from buying another one next month).

While I enjoyed my Xbox and the games that were made for it, I lost interest… until Xbox 360 and Fallout 3. After finishing the main quest and playing through all the DLC’s, I boxed it up during an apartment move and kept it in the box till I donated it.

I was going to get a PS4 and ‘No Man’s Sky’ but the negative reviews and the thought of “I’ll play it for a while, get bored, and get rid of it” came right after.

Buying

A bad habit I’m working on stopping is talking myself into a purchase that isn’t necessary. For example, I’ll have a bag of frozen french fries in the freezer but I’ll want to buy fries from Five Guys. Because it takes 10 to 15 minutes for me to get home from there, the 5 Guy fries need to be heated up in the oven. This is an easy solution, just make the fries I have at home instead.

This past Christmas I got money from my parents and put half into savings, the other half into my pocket. I was going to buy the Lego Lakeside Lodge but recently my external hard drive stopped working. After I bought a new hard drive from the Apple Store in the Westchester, I was going to buy the LEGO set but as I walked back to my car (which meant going past the LEGO store again) I talked myself out of it since I used all of the money from the gift plus my own. I didn’t need another LEGO since I got the Star Wars Eclipse Fighter for Christmas as well.

Everything Is Awesome

I bought the LEGO Volcano Exploration Truck set yesterday because I could get Double Points and can't resist green bricks and big tires.

In this set, the female is the scientist who does the research and exploring. Back when I played with my Galaxy Explorer I always thought they were men even if their faces were gender-less. Granted the women have full lips and eyelashes but that only makes them stand out more.

Checking the other Volcano Explorer sets, they have almost equal number of men and women. Pretty cool that LEGO is doing this.

Stay Weird

I was a weird kid, I knew this as early as kindergarten. I remember we would draw pictures to take home. When my Mom would ask ‘What is it?’ I’d tell her ‘It’s a vacuum cleaner.’

I drew a few vacuum cleaner pictures before I got into cars and LEGO. I would build one out of red slope pieces, which might have been influenced by race cars and the Munster Mobile.

Sadly my kindergarten classmates were already into cliques and even then I wasn't cool enough for them. Wish I could go back and tell my younger self to stay weird and not concern myself with the popular kids.

How A LEGO Geek With OCD Spent Their Sunday Morning

I put all the wedge pieces into their own section because I never liked searching for a 1x2 brick and getting a wedge instead.

Also I have a lot of lightsaber handles despite only having 3 Star Wars sets.

One thing about the Super Satchel Bin from the Container Store I don't like is how it flexes which makes the dividers bend from being tight or squeezing the rows to make them fit. I do like that it only cost twenty dollars instead of its usual forty.

You're Never Too Old

You’re never too old for LEGO.

You’re never too old to stop imagining being a child with a cool treehouse and giant robot friend.