neurological dryer lint

my sister pointed me to an article on the washington post (FRRYYY) about steven johnson and everything bad is good for you that does a great job of outlining the major point of what he's writing about, the thing i've always known but never been able to articulate as intelligently and powerfully and in such a clever way: maybe TV and movies and video games aren't all bad. maybe they're not like, say, a piece of cheesecake: only for taste with no redeeming value. there are actually good things about them that can be beneficial - maybe even in ways that other methods of entertainment couldn't benefit a person.

i love his premise. for so long i've felt like the world was laying a guilt trip on me because video games and TV were what i did for fun. that i was doing this terrible thing instead of something 'normal' and 'healthy' and 'good for me' and 'wholesome' that wouldn't 'rot my brain' (like, say, playing baseball or reading war and peace or chess, for example). but johnson stands up for those of us that enjoy a good episode of the west wing or a run through metroid - how unfair is it to say that they're not valid?

want your kid to develop good problem solving skills? don't hand him a glove and throw him into left field. hand him wario ware. watch him be forced to learn the rules of a game, how to beat it, and then actually win at it in under five seconds. then watch him do that twenty times in a row. fear it.

you're thinking right now "what, i should stick my kid in front of an xbox and not parent him or ever take him outside?" this isn't an attack on those things. no one's claiming you should raise your kids on 24 alone. but maybe - just maybe - good things were happening while your son played zelda. maybe part of why my brother is so ridiculously smart is that weeks of rollercoaster tycoon taught him elements physics and economics and sociology when he was thirteen.

please forgive the bitterness. it's a little sore. *rant done*

oh and renee made my grandmother's recipe for tomato sauce and meatballs tonight and it was absolutely heavenly.

listening to: nofx - there's no fun in fundamentalism