Do you play video games? Video games are addictive. Understand my friend that we have a limited imagination. Only a few individuals have a great imagination. Some of us think we have a great imagination and many of us do. I may have a great imagination for marketing. Someone else may have the gift of gab. Some people have a great iamgination and can organize or invent ways to organize. Well some people have a great imagination to create high graphics mind blowing movie effects...and games. Since most of us don't have the imagination to create games we get overwhelmed by what games can do. When you begin to play a game the game becomes you and you become the game. What you can't accomplish in real life you can accomplish it in a game. Most Yahoo pool players cant shoot a real ball in a pocket to save there lives. Even less are actually superheroes. Not many of us can play professional baseball or even drive a ar over 80 miles an hours without crashing. And if we crash then there goes the car and maybe our lives but no...not with the need for speed series. You can crash over and over again. Then you can look foward to doing it again and again day after day. It's a sense of accomplish to play a game and do something that you could never do before, in real life. Since in real life we are irrevelent, we compensate what we cant get in life by using a game.
Most of us wish we could do something different than anyone else. Let me tell you alittle about myself. I'm an artist. I've loved drawing since I was 10 years old. This love for art leaded me to use different mediums such as paint, charcoal, pen, etc. When I was in high school I was painting with acrylics and airbrush on people denim jackets and jeans. I graduated when I was 17. My art leaded me to graphic and advertising design which then led to web design by the time I was 20. Then on to web development and internet marketing. I design busines cards, fliers, magazine covers, etc. I love to learn. I went on a vacation to Puerto Rico. I enjoyed travel so much I learned everything there is to know about being a travel agent and running my own travel agency business by the age of 21. I bumped into people making one way trips who need to make a new life in the city. I learned about real estate and obtained my real estate license by the time I was 22. During my years in Real Estate I obtained my real estate brokers license. In this field I was introduced to mortgages. So I learned everything I needed to learned about mortgage which lead me to learning how the bank detemines rate for a mortgage. I learned how to read credit reports and understand how to keep good credit, improve your credit, repair your credit by the time I was 23. Learning about money pushed me into accounting to income tax return preparations which lead to learning more about bookkeeping by the age of 24. As an independant back office bookkeeper I learned about other business. Unfortunately when you learn all of these thing you also learn how to take shortcuts. You learn what important and whats not relevant at the time as well as other strategies to move foward.
Why did I spend so much time on my self. I'll explain after I tell you about my stepson.
I raised him since he was 9. His Mom got him a Sega Genesis followed by Nintendo 6400, Playstation, Gameboy, by the time he was 18 he brought his own Gamecube with his Burger King salary. He was really into race car games. He was glued. He would wake up with the controller in his hand and would go to sleep the same way. He couldn't stop talking about how many points he received and how much money he obtained in order to purchase an upgrade to his car. He bought a PSll when he was 19 with his Dominos Auto Delivery salary and tips (The closest job he had to his dream career even though he was still in High School). I tried to teach him how to draw since he was 9. No interest. I tried to teach him how easy web design is. The closest he got to learning was creating his own yahoo profile account. I tried to teach him computers and all he learned was Instant messaging and chatting on AOL or Yahoo. I tried to teach him about saving money and obtaining and keeping his credit clean but all he learned how to do was spend it and get more in debt. Since he had his first speed racing game he's been into cars. He thought he was a mechanic. He began learning about cars and I thought he finally learned something from those freaken games. I saw his interest in vehicle specs and his girlfriend spoke to me about his interest in attending an automotive school. His mother and I spoke to him about it and he was excited to discuss it. I never seen him so excited about anything. We decided to pay for his schooling. He wanted to go on campus in Pennsylvania. We thought about it and agreed. It was a difficult thing for him with his girlfriend being pregnant and all. His little sister was already crying just thinking about him not being around. They love each other so much. She was so much more cheerful when he was home. But he was only going to be gone for 18 months for an associates degree. He would still be able to go back and forth on weekends. Before he was scheduled to start school he started to hang out pretty late. Every weekend it became later and later. I was afraid that he may wind up loosing interest in going to college. Sometimes he would call to say he would be staying over his friends house. Sometimes he wouldn't call. He bought a DVD for his car so that he or his friends could watch movies. He bought a gadget so that they could play video games in the car. I did everything I could to get him a hobby, a skill, a real job but he was too stubborn. Maybe I tried to hard.
Well buddy I dont need to tell you, I hate video games. Sure I played a few from Pac-Man, Asteroids, Cetipede - to The need for speed series and so on. I was never hooked. To me my life was my game. I mastered one area and move on to the next. That leaded me to the next level in my life and so on. Now I teach people how to start there own business as well as owning a large company with many department for different thing such as real estate, accounting and bookkeeping, Insurance, Web development, and vacation center.
My stepson took his racing skills to the streets. Those nights he was hanging out till late I found out he spent his time racing. Street racing. His girlfriend new but she didnt tell us. His friends who came over and sat at our dinner table to share a meal with us didnt tell us. We heard it from a total stranger. We heard it from a police detective. He came knocking on our door and all I could think is what trouble could he have gotten into. He was generally a good kid. Respectful. Loving. Never in a gang. He got along great with his little sister whose now 9. His son is 3 months. They haven't met. His little sister is tramautized by his absence. Those strangers who knocked on my door told us that he'd been involved in illegal street racing. They said he had been driving over 80 mph. They said seatbelts dont make a difference at that speed. Some of his friends were arrested that night. But at least they still have their lives. We had to compose ourselves in order to explain to our daughter that her brother went to heaven. She's presently receiving counseling. She's not doing well in school like she used to. His Son...He's somewhat lucky.. He doesn't have memories of his father. He never got to see him. He won't be needing counseling. I beg the babies mother all the time. "Please, Don't ever get him a video console"