Gamers Are Not Couch-Zombies

   Gamers unite! That's my newest battle cry. Gamers can get a lot of flak because we are often represented as lazy, shiftless couch-zombies that do nothing but eat potato chips (cheddar & sour cream is my fave, by the way) and stare at a screen. If you have actually looked at the price of all that gaming equipment, you would know that there is no way for this to be true; even used, games and hardware are expensive. Gamers have got to get their fundage from somewhere, and sure, kids might get that from parents, but a vast portion of us are adults. Fundage usually means the big J-O-B. You, know, work.  As in, not a couch-zombie and the better the job, the more fundage for gaming stuff. The better job tends to mean a good work ethic, as well, so throw lazy and shiftless out the window.
   I've had my current job for going on six years, and while you may be thinking that cashier does not sound like one of those 'better' jobs, some of you job snobs don't make half of my pay, and most of you would kill for my insurance benefits. I got in with a good company, and that matters. I have a degree; this job is mine by choice. If you are a doctor or a nurse, then sure you make more then me, but look at how less stressful my job is compared to yours. You cure people; I scan shit. I also am pursuing my BA (full-time college, bitches) and am a single mom (and I actually volunteer at my daughter's school. Yikes!!!). I need a low stress job. But this has gone off topic. Back to gaming.

^^My precious (<---best Gollum voice ever---)

   I started gaming later, in my teens. I was not raised a gamer from child birth, but my sister got this Playstation as a teeny bopper, because she was dying to have one. I didn't think I would get into the game craze, but she started bringing home these intense JRPGs (Japanese role-playing games) and the story on these things... I have been an avid reader all of my life, and the story to a good RPG is as intricate as the story in any book that I have read. Final Fantasy VII was not the first role-playing game I played, but that was the one that made me a die-hard fan. The twists in that story, the character development, all that drama and suspense reeled me in like a fish on a hook. I was a goner. No hope of a non-gaming life for me. That type of story-telling is also what pulled my mother in. She became a gamer when her kids were teenagers. And when people ask her why she games, she has responded with, "I spend all day fighting something that I can't touch. Sometimes it's just good to be able to bash someone's head in." My mother is an oncology (cancer) nurse, and has been one for over ten years. Before she started working in oncology, she worked in hospice and with AIDS. Still think all gamers are couch-zombies?
   Being a gamer, I am currently raising a gamer child. She did not start with Playstation, or Gamecube, or X-box (Wii didn't come around until after her birth); she started with Leapfrog. First she had a Leappad, then a Leapster, and her gaming experience graduated from there. My daughter is crazy smart; I wish I had her brains. She is in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program and she wants to be a scientist. We go into a bookstore, and while she likes books with good stories, mostly she wants a big-ass science encyclopedia. Her room tends to look like the reference section in the library. She wanted to be an astronomer, then she wanted to study global warming, and now she is thinking Cytology looks good. No couch-zombie there.
   I know an ass-load of people who game. Every last one of us are productive members of society. We all do our jobs, take care of our families, and live our lives. My life will always include being a gamer. No, I do not put gaming above family, above work and school and friends, but, in the words of my cancer-fighting Momma, when shit gets stressful, it's nice to be able to bash someone's head in. Plus, I would be missing some epic story-telling. But the point is: no couch-zombies here. 

The Awesome Box

   I've been packing in hopes that my application to move into an apartment will be approved. Packing for me is a way of positive thinking. And really, the only reason they could disapprove my application is credit. Mine is bad, but that is a song that probably every single parent could sing. It's hard when you only have one income; this is a two income world. And my credit isn't too bad; it's all hospital bills and student loans. The student loans are even all in good standing, but they make my debt-to-credit ratio high. I am a worry-wart, so as a way of keeping positive, I am packing. And I am packing things that I use practically every day -- the power of positive action.
   One of the things that  I am packing is my gaming equipment. I am a gamer; I don't know if you would call me hard core -- I take bathroom breaks and eat and sleep and go to work. I don't ignore my family over a game either. I'll never understand why some people do that. Games do not trump human contact. And I am never going to be the smuck who died because they gamed for 72 hours straight with no breaks. I mean, since giving birth I need to pee every two hours, and I need to eat. I am NOT going without food. But I do usually game daily, even if only for 30 minutes. And I've packed all of my gaming stuff. What am I going to do with myself until I move??!!
   As we have been packing, my daughter and I have been painstakingly labeling each and every box. We don't want to get into our new apartment and not know what is packed in each box. There are things that we are going to need right away, and there are things that can wait a little. Gaming stuff cannot wait. In reference to this, and in acknowledgement of the value of the items in the box, I have labeled my gaming boxes Awesome Boxes. Well, my daughter thought they needed to be labeled better than that. I don't see why, I think Awesome Box explains it all. If you have a box labeled kitchen supplies, and a box labeled awesome box, which one are you going to open first? If you answer kitchen supplies, my next question is-- How often do you lie and has this been a problem for very long? Of course you are going to open the awesome box, and what could be in an awesome box that was better than games, consoles, and equipment?

One of our labeled Awesome Boxes. 

   But my daughter took my sharpie from me and painstakingly made a list of what was in each awesome box. I have talked about our differences before, and this is one of them; my daughter is a little more orderly than I am; I tend to be chaotic. I suppose that this labeling is better, in the long run. Now I know what box has my PSP, and what box has the Wii. But they were all going to be opened on the first night of our arrival, regardless. The awesome boxes rule!