I always had lots of luck offline. It's called 'bad luck'.
This saying got drilled into my head online 'If You Don't Play You Won't Win'.
I thought about that saying and realized it made sense. If you don't try, you are certainly beyond a shadow of a doubt not going to win. So, I started trying and I've won lots of cash and goodies online.
Just a few weeks ago, I won $50 in a program. I don't even know how I won it or what it was for or anything but I was paid. One year in a program, I won $500. The contest was you had to buy something from an ad and so I paid $0.02 cents for a newsletter subscription. I probably won because no one else had bought anything. Presently, I am in a contest that is a voice over contest....the winner will receive $30. I kind of doubt I will win it because my voice is probably a bit too southern for them. But hey, I gave it a shot anyway and the winner will be announced in a couple of days. I've won a lot of things online, primarily money, memberships, software, all that sort of thing. Would I had won if I had not participated? Of course not. Participation is the name of the game. If you try and try again, you'll surely eventually win. If you don't participate, one thing is for sure, you won't win.
I remember the light brite thingie too. I did not have one but a friend neighbor did.
I didn't have that surgery game thing either but that same friend had it. Operation! That was the name of the surgery game that buzz's when you tough anything you're not suppose to touch.
I was looking for something at amazon today when to my surprise, I came across something I entirely forgot about having as a kid. It's a metal potholder loom. I can remember having a red one (i think they were all red). The thing was actually a bit heavy. It was made from a durable metal. You could loop yard and make square pot holders. I thought it would be fun to list some toys that we played with as a child and many of the ones I played with, were in fact, invented in my day...some still popular today
-Jump rope
-Barbie dolls
-Mr Potato Head
-Scrabble
-Twister
-kick the can
-hide n seek
-spin the bottle (yuk)
-old maid and fish (cards)
-skate boards (invented in my day, by the way)
-Sketch it (sand)
-Easy Baker Oven (made terrible food by the way)
-roller skates and ice skates
-Slinky
-Doll house
-Gumby
-Ball and Paddle
-Clackers (no one could ever do this, clacking two balls together and almost all of us had black eyes from it)
-Comic Books (not a toy per se but they were a big part of my childhood, I had thousands of them)
-Clay, Paints, Crayons, Coloring Books, Coloring Pencils, Silly Putty
No doubt there is a lot more. Not to mention more activities like riding bikes.
I think that's why there was few fat kids in my day. Really. There were very few chubby kids and the ones that were chubby, so was their parents...mainly a gene trait.
I thought I'd share a true life experience since it's Easter weekend, of a bullying nature when I was in grade school.
There was a boy in my class when I was in 3, 4, 5, 6, 7th grades. All those years of grade school, Jack was bullied.
Now back in those days, bullied kids did not shoot up the school or do themselves in. They were smarter than that.
Let me first tell you a little something about Jack.
Jack is his real first name and I won't post his last name of course. Jack is Jewish. He had coal black hair and he wore braces. Something about that black hair, his nice rich olive complexion, and those big shinny braces, did not far well with the kids his age. Plus, Jack did not celebrate Christmas. He celebrated Hanukkah. That made him a tad different too as few were Jewish at our school. Also, Jack was a very reserved boy. He was quiet and I suppose he was taught to turn the other cheek. Boys his age picked on him, every day at school. He would be shoved into lockers, pushed down, called names, etc. Jack also had a bad problem with his nose bleeding. Seemed most anything would start his nose to gushing.
It was mainly the boys that picked on Jack. And when there was recess, Jack was always off to the side some where. At lunch, he sat alone. I can remember helping Jack up from the floor many times. The girls usually would try to console Jack and help him. But when it came time for outside activities or trying to sit by Jack in the lunch room, he would not have any of it....I understand now as that was all he needed to have girls hovering him which would have been more the bullys would have teased him about.
And now...the good part.....
Jack grew up! And man oh man did he ever. His braces came off to reveal the brightest, nicest, straightest teeth you ever saw in a mans mouth. And the once, puny skinny boy, was now built like a brick. To this day, they say Jack is still a bit on the quiet side and he is still rather reserved....and he does still celebrate Hanukah....but he no longer has those nervous nose bleeds....but there is more.....
Altho Jack's grades were never very good in school, he did always seem to have a knack for math.
Today Jack is a good looking 56 year old man....and he is a MULTI-MILLIONAIRE! He is to today's standards, more of what would call a RICH GEEK! He went into investments and made his fortunes. Today he travels all over the world and does whatever he wants to do. People look up to Jack and ask his advice.
Some of the lives of the boys that pushed Jack around in grade school:
Joey: died of drug overdose at age 20
Bob: turned into an over weight trash collector
Greg: struggling to make ends meet, has 7 children
Milo: still the same whimp he was in school
Mike: dropped out of college, alcoholic, lives pay check to pay check
If you have or know children that are being bullied, show them this. This is TRUE. We can't always control our childhood, but we do have great control over what we do in the rest of our lives.
Happy Easter weekend to those that recognize this 'holiday'.
Easter has always been a main time of year when I was growing up, being that my grandfather was a preacher.
So it's a time of year I take very seriously.
On the news yesterday, in my local town, seems a church did something that has not been done around here.
A group of them got together, one dressed up as Jesus carring a wooden cross on his back, all dresses in the old
Biblical attire, whilst the rest of the group, followed, swatting him with fake whips. This little parade went down
the main streets of the town. It looked very real. Needless to say, the police station became swamped with
phone calls as many thought the poor man carrying the cross, was truly being brutalized.
In one way, I thought it quite ingenious and a good way to bring about the actual events to mind of what Easter
is about. On the other hand, I thought that could have turned into something dangerous as traffic onlookers slowed,
to look, not watching the road.
And of course, not everyone believes in Christ or that He rose from the dead. So I imagine that were lots of calls to the city mayor as well.
