To quote my father, “The early bird gets the worm”.
To quote my father again, “Early to bed, early to rise, keeps a man healthy weathy and wise”.
To quote my father yet again…, “There is no such thing as a free lunch”.
I hope you see where this is going. I’ve gotten a million of those quotes of wisdom from my dad. Every day as a child my father would drive me to school and bestow upon me a nugget of knowledge. I am grateful, to this day, for the soundtrack of quotes that plays in my head. (…at 7 o’clock in the morning while I lay in bed dreading the start of another day.) It’s those quotes that get me up and to work each day. “Oh the places I’ll go with the knowledge I know”, says I! It is for that reason I credit my dad for giving me some of the best knowledge I’ve got.
So now I ask the Babelers, “What piece of knowledge had the most impact on your life? Changing the way you viewed the world?”
Greg Molyneux
UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, B, A, [SELECT], START.
The immortal Konami Contra Code.
While first used in Gradius, the Konami Code didn’t elevate rock star status until its use in Contra for the NES. This epic cheat wrought the life lessons that would define a generation – The Path of Least Resistance.
No longer was there a need to work hard, no more would ambition be necessary, no longer would we have to till the fields and walk up hill (both ways) to school during snowstorms in July. No more. Technological cheats would both conquer the world and increase body fat with a few taps of the finger.
Armed with the 30 lives code, Rinestone and I were able to decimate our foes with no fear of death and no real consequences. Strategy and tenacity were thrown right out the window since we could romp through the Contra world and ostensibly the real world with reckless abandon.
Just like the Max Power Way, the Konami Code advocated the wrong way because it’s faster.
Andrew Blanco
The piece of knowledge totally and completely transformed my life from day one was the knowledge of how to use a toilet. Up until around the age of 2 I had no clue how to manipulate the porcelain god to my benefit. Compared to the high chair I always sat in, the toilet seemed like nothing special – if anything just a shiny low-chair. But lo and behold, this shiny low-chair had special powers that boggled my mind. After many failed attempts at mastery, one day I finally “got it”, and since then I’ve never had to wear diapers again.
Image Used in this Post
how to use the japanese-style toilet courtesy of flickr user Yuya Tamai published under the CC license.
2 Comments
Hey Jeff, wouldn’t your dad offer you unsolicited advice advocated your willing consumption of grass? Offering that if it was good for the cows it was good for you.
Yes. One afternoon, when I was around 11 years old, I came home and asked my dad what we had to eat in the house. (Only my mother knows the answer to that question.) It was the weekend so my dad was throwin a couple back on the deck. He responed to my question, “Eat some grass Jeffrey… If it’s good enough for the cows, it’s good enough for you”. That was the last time I asked my dad what we had to eat in the house. (He is a smart man.) I think his responce to my question was followed by, ” Go shoot me another duck”. Which in my house is code for another beer.