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Any other opinions?
Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this I didn't know where else to put it.
It's simple: a life without dirt is a life half-lived.Just look at the facts and you'll see that we're spending too much time indoors, watching TV, playing video games, and in malls.
America needs DIRT now more than ever.
Looks like it's aimed at kids and adults who spend too much time staring at a screen. Sounds like WebmasterWorld is their perfect demographic.
I would guess it's a public service effort to get kids outside to play. At least here in the US, we are becoming a bit over concerned with dirt, to our detriment as some recent studies have shown. Children are kept so clean that their immune systems are not developing correctly.
I've been yelled at by strangers for letting my kids run barefoot in the yard. "You don't know what kind of germs are there"
I think in the backs of our minds, we have convinced ourselves that staying indoors is healthier than going outdoors. This line of thinking leads to finding more indoor entertainment, few of which are very healthy.
we have convinced ourselves that staying indoors is healthier than going outdoors
Back to the Victorian age anyone? Fetch me my smelling salts, and close that terrible, drafty window!
Dirt: The Original Toy
That's fantastic. :) A famous baseball player going head-to-head with Microsoft, Nintendo, Sega, etc... Ah. Thanks. That really made my day!
Can irony sell in US?
Biting my lips, I will watch over again some very exellent bowling tape...
Can irony sell in US?
Not to people who let their kids sit in front of a video game machine all day... that's why they had to bring in a sports star to help. ;)
That whole campaign to prevent skin cancer is backfiring. People aren't sending their kids outside for fear that they will develop skin cancer, and if they do, they slather then with so much sunscreen, that their skin can't absorb vitamins from the sun that we NEED! I don't agree with sunbaking, but come on. We need a little sunshine.
This added with the dirt thing is a catastophy. I have three kids and I am really thinking that these days, unless you have your kids hermetically sealed, you are frowned upon. Good thing I know how to tell people to go to h*ll.
I'd be interested in sports myself, but quite frankly, Paintball is the only fun one now adays. And pass, with frisby or ball.
I think that one of the things that keeps kids inside is that they aren't doing sports out of free will. Their parents force them outside, and their school forces them to run in the freezing cold rain, or even (in my case) snow, as the track is so slippery it's hard to stand.
Personally I don't do sports cause they have a chance of forcing me to have surgery on my knees, and I need to get rid of this horrible Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS) first.
If they just encouraged, instead of annoyed, and forced kids to take part in sports, then they'd enjoy it more. I didn't like soccer, or baseball, when my parents forced me to play those sports, when I could, I got out of those right away. But when I started Kickboxing (and I don't mean Tony Blanks' Tai-Bo) out of my free will, I loved it! Aside from the gym smelling like crud, and the teacher, Mark scaring me [the guy was very skinny and scrawny, not at all threatening, then he'd kick an 8-9 foot tall punching bag that was 2 1/2 feet wide, (I couldn't make it budge, just left a small impression in it, it was like punching a piece of wood) the thing would just COLLAPSE.]
I'm all for choice. And sites like this are a good thing. They don't force, or annoy, just encourage.
[shardsoglass.com...] is another good site like this from those Anti-Tobbaco people.
P.S. Is it just me or is [americaneedsdirt.com...] a scarily well-optimized picture?
We haven't got any good climbing trees on our property now, but I still love having a fire in the backyard, and walking through the trees... and swimming outside. But there's isn't much of anywhere to swim outdoors around here.
We just got a badminton set for the backyard, and when the kids aren't arguing about their made-up "rules" and swinging the rackets at each other's heads, they have fun with it. But it's sad, after years of the TV being constantly on and having video games at Mom's house, they don't seem to know how to entertain themselves outside for more than 5-10 minutes, unless they have a specific activity going on.
That's the worst part about the whole TV/video game thing I've seen. If really young kids get hooked on it, it seems like they forget (or never learn?) how to use their imagination in the real world. Hopscotch? Booooring. Those hoop-and-stick toys? Never cut it nowadays. Even simple, good ol' spinning tops have been turned into weird high-tech looking "battle" games.
Even simple, good ol' spinning tops have been turned into weird high-tech looking "battle" games.
Man I remember playing a game called Battling Tops as kid. You wound the string around the top put it into the launching slot and pulled the handle unwinding the string. The top would drop off into a circular battling arena that was slightly depressed towards the middle. this "forced" the tops to come together and bang into each other. The winner was the one who's top spun the longest. My friends and I spent hours coming up with elaborate winding patterns convinced they were the secret to winning.
After that we'd move onto to Rock-em Sock-em robots ...
It worked last night for Friends but I bet you when I move our internet connect tonight or tomorrow morning, it will die again. :)
..... Shane
they don't seem to know how to entertain themselves outside for more than 5-10 minutes
My mom is a librarian at a school for grades 3-6. She says the same thing. She says kids today are dependant on someone else to entertain them. Very few can entertain themselves. Don't know how to make up stories or think beyond what they are told. Very sad. Kinda scary.
So when the weather does break in spring (and it snowed up here yesterday, just to give you an idea), I'm out hiking in the mountains, or rafting down a river, or just walking down the street to enjoy the sunshine, every chance I get.
I have a friend who was living even further north, in Anchorage. She just moved back to the lower 48, and I haven't heard from her in days (we usually talk online pretty much daily). I got a brief e-mail from her saying she'd bought a big dog and was out wandering the countryside enjoying the sunshine.
So mebbe there's a lesson in that for our kids. Try and FORCE them to stay inside as much as possible, and they'll be running for the door as soon as we turn our backs. A little reverse psychology couldn't hurt.
we have convinced ourselves that staying indoors is healthier than going outdoors
my brother is an (*cough*awardwinning*cough*familypride) architect with a specific hatred of modern building techniques - his main problem is that they are all based on the premise that we should live in a plastic bubble, and he's quite certain that this is simply not natural. He has all sorts of theories of modern health problems stemming from this acceptance. We all let other people build our houses, and never ask why they do what they do. Problem is, most of the people building don't know either.
We're getting better at insulating ourselves from the real world, without stopping to think if it might be a bad idea.
ummm /threadjack
My friends and I spent hours coming up with elaborate winding patterns convinced they were the secret to winning.
Now they just have plastic 'zipper' pulls, that thread through a plastic launcher handle... no art or craft to it. I didn't know they used to have actual arenas before though. So it's not the concept that's new, it's the incredibly tacky over-the-top presentation that does it. And they're not called 'tops' anymore, they're Bey Blades.
school librarian
I couldn't stand to work in a room full of kids like that. I'd lose my voice. ;)
I just spent the weekend playing in the dirt. I had to replace the sewer lines for my house :)
Me too -- repiping the house crawling through on my belly with hands in sh** water!
...feel better knowing i wasn't just being a cynic.
"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up"
-- Lily Tomlin
But I suppose, if anyone was going to endorse dirt, it's definitely in a detergent company's best interests. ;)
We all let other people build our houses, and never ask why they do what they do. Problem is, most of the people building don't know either.
We didn't (um. Edit: we didn't let others build. We DID and DO know what we're doing....) We (my husband and I) built our own (well okay - STILL isn't finished!) starting in 1985. We hired "hands" literally - a helper carpenter to make three of us to balloon the studwalls; the masons to do the fireplace; the shinglers to do the roof (45+ feet in the air....); the fence company to put up the 3 rail pasture fence and the 6 foot chain link deerproof around the house/garden area.
It's almost done 18 years later, $45,000 in materials and now worth a quarter million. But my husband is almost too old to live here any more with the snow in the winter. At this point, I'm thinking we should have let someone else build the damn thing in less than a year so we could have just LIVED HERE since....
