I Got Her Hooked

She knows that she wants it.

Oh, yeah.  Who's the man?  I'm the man.  I got her hooked and there's no denying it.  She can act like she doesn't care all she wants, but I know differently.  I know that she wants it multiple times per day and that she can't control herself.  She wakes up out of her sleep and thinks about it.  She wants it before and after dinner.  Even after the first session, she watches the clock waiting for more.  My lady craves it.

Wait.  You dirty-minded scoundrels.  No, I'm not talking about sex.  I'm talking about how I introduced my lady to Candy Crush.  I won't lie, the photo I attached probably didn't help your wandering minds, but I like to be misleading like that from time-to-time. #Gotcha

Yes, she is hooked on Candy Crush and it's my fault.  She held out as long as she could, but decided to give it a try shortly after Christmas.  Now she fusses when she's stuck on a level and gets even more agitated when she runs out of lives and has to wait 30+ minutes for more of them.

I was once hooked on the sweetness that is Candy Crush.  It felt different than Angry Birds.  That limitation of lives creates more of a sense of urgency in playing.  However, like most things, I got used to it and learned to control my need to have it.  Now I usually only play a couple of times per day during the week.  I'm too busy on weekends with football to care about it on gameday.  But, it's the ultimate way to pass time while sitting in a line or at a doctor's office.

Her addiction is hilarious at the moment, but I'm sure at some point I'll start to hide her iPad so that I can help curb her addiction.  Then again, she'll probably get over it herself. Once she gets past Level 35 and finds herself closer to Level 100, then the thrill will slowly dissipate.  It's just a matter of time for the newness to wear off. :)

I'm glad that she's not THIS hooked on the game!

Is there a game that has you hooked?

What Happened to Pride?

Pride starts at home.

I really try hard to do the right thing.  I really try hard to be a good person.  But, for what?  What is the pay off for me working so hard to be presentable to the public?  My mom passed away last year, so it's not about trying not to embarrass her.  My father is 72 years old and I don't do it to impress him either.

What is it?  What makes me go about my life the way that I do?  What makes me watch what I say in public,  try to dress appropriately for where I'm going and give maximum effort on my job?  Pride.  What happened to pride?  You could see it in so many people back in the day and now it's almost non-existent.

I listened to stories that my parents told me about when they were kids.  People back then had so much pride to the point that it almost seemed like a full-time job within itself.  I have relatives who were janitors, maids, etc. who didn't feel any shame in the jobs that they did.  In fact, they were completely the opposite.

They were so proud of being employed that they worked as hard as they could and rarely took time off.  My parents instilled that same pride in me.  They taught me how to always do my best and work hard.  I do the things that I do because I now have pride in myself.  It wasn't always like that though.  I had to evolve.

When I was younger, like most kids, I acted accordingly not because I cared how I looked in the public's eyes, but to make my parents proud.  I knew that as long as they were happy, then more than likely, I would be, too.  It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

However, as I got older things changed.  The things I did became more about me and less about my parents.  I realized that I didn't just represent them, but I had my own reputation to uphold as well.  It took seeing some of my peers establishing bad reputations to realize it.  However, what people thought wasn't my only motivation to be a certain way.  What I thought of myself played the most important role in establishing pride in my life.

I cleaned my house when I knew no one was coming over.  I brushed my hair even though I knew I wasn't leaving the home that day.  I realized that I truly had pride in myself when I found myself putting forth a maximum effort doing things that no one would ever see.  I thank my parents for that.  I spent so much time in my life trying to make sure they were happy with my behavior, that I didn't realize that I was benefiting from it myself.

Pride is becoming extinct and it's almost completely non-existent in males.  No one feels ashamed for what they say, how they dress, or how they perform because you can't shame someone who doesn't care.  And if a child doesn't have parents who instills pride in their kids at an early age, then that makes it that much tougher to develop good habits.

This is the society that we live in now.  No one cares any more.  And the people who do care try to keep their families as far away as they can from the people who don't.  I can't say that I blame them.  So many influences of the wrong things flood our television and radio markets and what do we do as parents?  We allow our kids to partake in it.  Why?  Because other kids are doing it.  They're going to hear it anyway.  Why do we let our kids dress like adults?  "Because other kids are doing it."  "They're going to do it anyway."

That's our justification for promoting shame and demoting pride.  SMH.

Do you think that the days of people caring about anything are gone now?

If the parents don't care, then you know the kids won't.