Random Thoughts Thread

[BoneSnapDeez]

I hate when people complain that "kids these days, they don't play outside like they used to." It's not like our parents did. Maybe it was watching TV or reading instead of videogames, but they stayed in the house too.

Speak for yourself. I don't think my folks were ever inside. My father picked potatoes every day until he left for college.

I don't think I was ever "inside" until dinner time. After school I was either playing a sport or just goofing off and running around the front yard.

[KitKatCara]

I hate when people complain that "kids these days, they don't play outside like they used to." It's not like our parents did. Maybe it was watching TV or reading instead of videogames, but they stayed in the house too.

Speak for yourself. I don't think my folks were ever inside. My father picked potatoes every day until he left for college.

I don't think I was ever "inside" until dinner time. After school I was either playing a sport or just goofing off and running around the front yard.

Same here. I grew up in a family where kids weren't allowed inside during the day for anything except for bathroom breaks and lunch, which was taken outside to eat. We were pretty much thrown out of the adults way so they could go about their business without or interference. (By business, I mean reliving their hippie days without kids around.)

My parents were raised much the same, not allowed inside because the adults didn't want to deal with them.

We were poor and lived in the woods, so we came up with some pretty cool things to do. I found a machete in my grandfathers tool shed, and we had a huge trash pile where people would illegally dump shit. My friends would take stuff out of it, and we built a little town in the woods governed by kids made out of trash and small trees that I would hack through. Most of the stuff that we did would give a grown person a heart attack, but it was awesome.

I'm pretty confident that If I was dumped in the middle of the Forrest with just a machete, I would survive because of my childhood. We even knew what plants that were edible and what wasn't. I wouldn't trade my experiences for the world.


Jeez, going back and re-reading that makes it sound like Lord of the Flies. I promise I didn't kill anyone..honest!

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I've always played video games, but spent way more time outside. Until high school, when I started gaming in study hall...

[o.pwuaioc]

I've always played video games, but spent way more time outside. Until high school, when I started gaming in study hall...

Yeah, this is about how it was with me, except for the study hall thing. High school was more for hanging out, and mostly indoors. I miss the sandlot we had, and the unexplored "forests" and "hill" though.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Recent religious discussion has led me to researching a bit. Looking about, it is quite interesting to see how diverse the beliefs of people are. Atheists are pretty central in their belief there is no higher power, but Christians, Muslims, and Jews have highly selected and widespread beliefs within their religions.

Also, just the little facts. Women are more likely and more commonly believers in religion, or other supernatural beliefs. Men are more likely to believe in an angry God. Hispanics and Blacks in the US are more commonly religious, and also tend to be more into their chosen religion.


One fact I question though is how the surveys and such I've seen have shown certain things- like show atheist numbers as low as 5% of the population in the US. I think it is quite a bit higher than that. I also have issues with the fact that one survey showed that Catholics and Jews are more likely to believe that God created the universe and such, but has no vested interest in us or our actions. That seems quite odd from sects that put so much emphasis on sin.

[MrPopo]

I also have issues with the fact that one survey showed that Catholics and Jews are more likely to believe that God created the universe and such, but has no vested interest in us or our actions. That seems quite odd from sects that put so much emphasis on sin.

Judaism doesn't really put much emphasis on sin. There's 365 commandments that describe things you should not do, but all but three have exceptions where you not only can, but MUST break their prohibitions. And the penance gets rolled into a single day of "yeah, we're imperfect, but we try hard".

[Forlorn Drifter]

I also have issues with the fact that one survey showed that Catholics and Jews are more likely to believe that God created the universe and such, but has no vested interest in us or our actions. That seems quite odd from sects that put so much emphasis on sin.

Judaism doesn't really put much emphasis on sin. There's 365 commandments that describe things you should not do, but all but three have exceptions where you not only can, but MUST break their prohibitions. And the penance gets rolled into a single day of "yeah, we're imperfect, but we try hard".

I misunderstood then. It still, to an extent, goes at odds with the common thought of how Catholicism is.

The whole idea of "yeah, we're imperfect, but we try hard" seems to be the general view towards the idea of sin nowadays.

[Luke]

I don't think I was ever "inside" until dinner time.

Two words: Shadow Tag

For those not in the know, this has nothing to do with Shadow the hedgehog. You and a group of friends run around like idiots under a light or streetlamp playing touch tag with your shadows and it is always complete chaos.

Loved that game.


Count me in the group of kids who spent more time outside than in.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Grew up in a town with one street lamp.

On the flipside, my wife never had to use highbeams until she moved to Maine.

[brunoafh]

I think I was about 50/50 really. I spent a ton of time outside right up to high school with sports, but I also know I spent an ungodly amount of time on all day gaming sessions. I feel like the amount of JRPG-athons I had were about equal with my time spent messing around outside as a kid or playing sports for school. Some days I didn't so much as leave the TV screen/computer, other days I was out and out on my bike doing this or that from sunrise to sunset. Spent a ton of time practicing track & field in high school, lost several dozen hours of daylight playing Planetside too. So yeah, probably about 50/50.

Now it is very much like 70/30 indoors/outside, with the only time I bother going outside being to exercise my dogs or to go to class.