Boredom vs Creativity and World of War Craft

Boredom vs Creativity and World of War Craft      Recently, I heard a piece on NPR about boredom, it’s good for us. According to Jim Sollisch boredom leads to creativity. Ok, I’ll buy into that. When we are bored, we dream and doodle, we are creative. I thought that was pretty interesting, so I dug a little deeper. and found a piece by Dee Kumar Boredom is Good for Creativity, Why the IPad, Internet and TV Helped ruin Creativity.

Apparently, today’s families never really disconnect and get bored… When we are bored we find something to distract us, we check our facebook or e-mail, we text a friend, turn on the TV, anything to avoid being bored. Creativity is dying and my kid’s brains are turning to goo because they rarely whine those infamous words,” I’m soooo bored.”
You can see where this is going.
I thought about this problem all day and decided my family should unplug for just thirty minutes a day, we need to eat more green leafy vegetables and be bored at least once a day. I wondered, if their goo filled heads would explode, would their fingers continue to tap and twitch as though texting an invisible friend? Probably texting “my mom suxs”” And I’m embarrassed to admit this but what really concerned me was what time  we would turn everything off. And what show would we miss? Dancing with the Stars? Billy the Exterminator or Glee. Pathetic, right? I figured we would have to do it early in the evening, right after the news. There’s nothing on worth watching good then.

When I made my proclamation the reaction really wasn’t that bad. Lex,who is the consummate facebooking/texting thirteen year old, kind of shrugged and said ok, then disappeared to read and practice her guitar. That was good because I actually haven’t heard her play in about six months. Creativity lives on!
Alex, my husband found a book, stretched out to read, but he promptly fell asleep. Sandor the seven years old had the biggest problem even though he plays alone in his room all the time. But when ordered to “play” he was lost. Finally he found a knock knock book and an elephant puppet. Ever three minutes he came into the kitchen to let the elephant perform.

Knock knock
Who’s there?
Alaska
Alaska who?
I’ll Ask Ya one more time to open this door.

After a few minutes of that, he ended up under the kitchen table with the puppy in a staring contest. The puppy started licking himself and Sandor won the battle.
Finally Sandor asked if he could play with Lexie. He told her the knock knock jokes then they made up mean names to call each other, just for fun, like “chicken baby cheese cake”, “freaky frog face” and “puppy breath” That’s pretty creative. Ok, basically, they did what they always do.
And me? Well, apparently I have problems because the kids are laughing, Alex is snoring and here I sit, in the bathroom with my laptop wondering, what time Biggest Looser comes on tonight.

Then I started wondering is creativity really on it’s death bed? There still seems to be plenty of music, movies art work and books in the world. But I do worry a whole lot about the kids who spend hours every day playing video and computer games. It seems almost obscene and I question their parents parenting skills but the truth I’ve known a lot of kids who played hours and hours and hours of video/computer games (especially World of War Craft and Halo) and most have turned out just great. They are smart, athletic and social. (I actually hate admitting this) I’m not alone in my concern.

Yesterday Sandor put a pair of his boxers on our dog. He even made the dog’s tail stick out the fly, and Lexie covered her door with duct tape and patches of demin. I don’t know what other kids do when they are bored but I think we might be ok for now.

Giant Shiny Bras At Walmart…Another Sign of Obesity

I’m going to lay it right out here, breasts in America are getting bigger. And I feel fairly certain it’s because we are all getting fatter.  Breasts are made of fat, so when a woman gains ten pounds her boobs get bigger.  Any woman will validate this fact.

But here’s more evidence of swelling boobage. I went shopping a couple of days ago and found myself surround by rows and rows of giant bras. I’m talking about massive bras with cups bigger than my son’s head.

I have pretty big boobs and have worn a 36 or 38 D for most of my life.  When I was a teenager they were considered gigantic, freakish, worthy of lengthy conversatons. Today that’s not the case, because so many women have boobs much much bigger and they lt them hang out there…all the time. Twenty years ago finding a bra that size was really hard and they were all ugly granny bras.  As a teenager I was sure all the bigger  bras had been designed by structural engineers and Baptist ministers. They might as well have been cut from burlap.  And the strap across the back was at least three inches, there’s no way that looked sexy.It was terrible.

Additionally, (as though buying a really hideous looking big bra when you are 15 isn’t bad enough),  most stores in the 70’s 80’s put the big bras on the lowest rack. So we had to search for our big ugly bras on our knees. Its no wonder I never wanted to go shopping.

Now, stores are filled with hundreds of glorious looking giant bras, shiny and sparkly and hot looking, even if you have boobies the size of basket balls.  And lots of bras big enough to hold three puppies are even kept at eye level because big boobs are the norm.

What does all this mean? Well, I’m really worried about the obesity rate in America , but I know there are a lot of “breast Men” in the world who love the new big ta-ta norm. So, at least for those guys the future is looking magnificent.

****If you want to read more about men and their evolutionary feelings about breasts this is a pretty interesting site.http://www.breastoptions.com/bigbreasts.html

#This is a re-written reprint because I went shopping again today and the bras were bigger and even prettier. Lucky me 🙂

Sit Down And Shut Up When You visit Your Kid’s Apartment

If you have a son or daughter who moves into their own place please read this. First, remember, if your kid invites you over you are really lucky. Nine times out of ten children will insist on meeting you in public so you can’t see how they are living. And sometimes it’s better that way. Maybe you can’t handle the truth.

But if you decide to go in you need to follow some serious rules.
When you first walk in, no matter what kind of nightmare national disaster you encounter, you must not gasp, shake your head or say something like ”
“Oh Lord.” You must keep smiling and talking without staring at the hairy kid with the catfish tattoo who’s sleeping on the couch. And don’t touch him either. Do not comment on the forty three Taco Bell bags behind the couch.
Now, find a place to sit down, then stay there. And don’t act like finding a chair is a big deal, even if you have to dig past dirty clothes and beer cans. Be Cool. Act as though it’s not a big deal. And please, do not pull out a germ-X wet wipe.

Once you are seated, stay there. That will keep you from doing the one thing you must not do. Clean. You absolutely positively can not start cleaning. Don’t touch the nasty dishes, don’t put dirty clothes into the empty laundry basket, do not empty the revolting ash trays. Just sit down and hold still If you start cleaning , you will offend your kiddo and they won’t ask you back. For at least 18 months. Would you walk into a friends house and start cleaning? I hope not.

While you are there, try not to use the bathroom. Sometimes a bathroom is so foul you’ll forget all the rules and start cleaning or crying.
Do not comment on the smell in the apartment, unless you seriously smell something burning. It’s their home. If they like the smell of wet dog and bong water that’s fine. Maybe what you smell is the roommate so bite your tongue and keep smiling and breath through your mouth..

If they offer you something to eat or drink, take it and say thank you. Do not point out that the coffee mug is chipped and dangerous, drink from the other side. Don’t try to pick the dried cheese off the plate with your fingernail. And don’t ask where the nice plates you gave him at Christmas went. Just take what they give you, look relaxed and smile. And you actually need to eat or drink, you can’t just fake it.

If a member of the opposite sex walks out of the bathroom or appears from a closet or bedroom don’t say, “Who are you?” Be polite and say something like, “Hi, I’m Diana, Joe Joe’s mom.” Again, be polite, You might try  “Those are  really pretty beads in your hair”.  Do not be nosey, you may not look at your son and say, “Did she sleep here last night?”. You actually don’t want to know the answer.

And finely, do not start poking around. Do not open drawers or cabinets, do not dig through closets. I promise you, you will not like what you find (a zip lock full of assorted condoms or midget porn). If you rummage  you are invading their privacy and you’ll never get invited back.

Things will get better as you child gets older. Eventually, they will clean the fridge and do the dishes, it just might take sometime.

Remember, your kid loves you, they invited you over! That’s an honor and probably means you did a good job. So, keep loving them and ignore the beer can sculpture.