Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Growing up in the 2000s, it was quite the time to be alive. Now, I don't know how many of you watching this video have actually heard of a VCR tape. It was one of those things like you had to be. That's where it all started for me. That was my first access to technology. Now, back then, I was a jit.
I was like four or five years old. I had one of those box TVs and I would just mindlessly stare at the TV. Now, I don't know what was so exciting about TV static, but apparently that was enough to get my child brain stimulated. Now, I'd watch the Cars movie on repeat. I don't know why, but it was just something I would do on the daily at like five, six years old. But this was the average day. So I would get up at...
Like four or five in the morning. I don't know how the hell I got up that early. Apparently I had enough energy to bust through walls like Kool-Aid Man, considering all the holes I put in the walls. But we're not going to talk about that, all right? Now I would usually get up and just play my DS. There was no phones, okay? There was no, oh, I gotta get up and text my friends on Snapchat. No, that didn't exist, okay? I was out here playing Pokemon Pearl, the original new Super Mario Bros, sometimes play Zelda games, Kirby games, whatever I was fancying for the day.
Now, that was like my hardest life decision at that point. Do I play Mario Kart or, or, hmm, I don't know. Do I play Mario Party? Like, they're both great games, but I don't know which one to play. I had one of those DS travel kits, bro. That's how you know I was a sweat. I would bring my DS to school, show off my Pokemon, do whatever I had to do. This particular day, we'll say it's a weekend. Now, my daily breakfast consisted of either like the Eggo French Toast or Eggo Waffles. And that was one whenever my parents would get up.
And sometimes they would walk into my room and, you know, I had to put the DS under the pillow, a classic trick. Alright, it's 4 in the morning, perfect time to play Mario Kart. Hopefully I don't get caught.
I had to act like I was still asleep, of course, but we're not trying to get caught out here. Eventually, I'd get up and I'd watch TV, you know? And when you'd watch TV, you know, sometimes you wouldn't have cable, you know? Depending on your family income, you'd have to throw on either PBS, Disney, Nick, Cartoon Network. Usually, I'd throw on, like, Cartoon Network and Pokemon was on in the mornings.
Or sometimes I'd be throwing on like Lil Bill, Handy Manny. You know, those are the classics. Usually I'd be up way before my brother. Like he would sleep more than I would. And when he would get up, it was around like eight o'clock. And my parents always set a limit on the Wii. So I couldn't play until eight o'clock. And that was my move, bro.
I would sneak play my DS in the morning and then play the Wii. That was my go-to. But we would get up and play New Super Mario Bros for the Wii, and we would just like play like the same levels over and over again. I don't even know. Or Paper Mario or whatever was out at the time. Now, we weren't really balling like that, okay? We didn't have like the DSi or anything. I know all you big ballers out there had the DSi, and I didn't have many Wii games because, you know, I had to do a lot of chores for that one.
That was really my only responsibility over the summer, so it really was a grind doing the chores. My dad had like this old Windows computer, right? And we didn't really use it much, but when I did use it, I would just browse the internet. Like for, I don't know, YouTube videos to watch, or just anything, really.
Wherever my imagination wanted to go, that's what I would watch. Now, this was a time when people actually had home phones. So, I had to remember my homie's number. So, I would always give him a call around like 11 o'clock. And it would always go something like this. Yo, what's good? Okay, I did not sound like that. It was more like this.
Is Dorble there? And usually, you had to talk to their parents first. That's kind of how it was. Who the hell is this? What are you trying to sell me something? Oh, I'm Dorble's friend, Birdie. A bird? Who? What? Honey, I think he's trying to sell me a birdhouse. I don't know what the hell's going on. Wait, is that Birdie? Oh, please let him come over. Come on. What? You want this kid to come over? I don't know who he is. We're not trying to feed the whole neighborhood. Oh, we're just going to get a Birdie and Wii Sports. Let him come over. Come on. Come on.
Please. Here, let me talk to him. All right, fine. You can talk to this rascal. Whatever. Sup, birdie? Yo, bro, you trying to have a sleepover? Oh, you want to spend the night? Okay, for sure. Let me ask my stepdad real quick. Now, if you had the neighbor with the mean stepdad, you know, it was kind of hard to get the okay to stay over. But once he did, it was a great time.
You know, I got there and usually we would just hang out outside for like a couple hours. My homie had a basketball hoop outside and we would just play games like horse around the world. I'm sure a lot of you would play with the neighborhood kids or something. I really didn't have that many kids in my neighborhood.
It was kind of a rarity when we had the full squad over, but they were all from completely different neighborhoods. Now, usually you'd play outside until dinner. Sometimes you get some flag football going on, capture the flag. It was an eventful day. It really was. And by the time we got inside, it was around dinner. Or sometimes we would go inside and take breaks for like 30 minutes or something. But by the time we would go inside for good, it was dinner. Now, my friend's mom would either like get fast food or something or take out, or she would just make dinner.
My friend's moms, their meals slapped, all right? Like, I'm not gonna lie. Like, it hit the spot after a long day. After that, we'd whip out the Wii or something, play Wii Sports, or play hide-and-seek inside. I know parents hated when kids would play hide-and-seek inside, but it was just the move. Hide-and-seek inside was just on another level. Then once we'd get bored of, like, hide-and-seek, we would whip out a board game.
Now, we didn't have too many options, right? We had, like, Monopoly, of course, but we didn't know how to play Monopoly. Goddamn, we were, like, six years old. But we knew how to play shit like Chutes and Ladders, Mousetrap, Trouble, you know, just the classics. And we did this to kind of entertain ourselves for a few hours. And now it was around bedtime, and we thought it was a good idea to build a couch fort or a blanket fort.
Now, we were no architects, obviously. So the friend's parents would help us. The mean stepdad wouldn't do shit, obviously. I don't know what he was doing. He was probably on the couch drinking a beer, watching like Duck Dynasty or some shit. So when we were done with this fort, it was our proudest moment, okay? Like, it was our proudest creation ever. So we would spend the rest of the night in this fort.
Now, you had to bring your DS. You absolutely had to bring it. Because y'all were gonna play like co-op Mario Kart on the DS. That's just how it was. I don't make the rules. That's just what's happening. Either that or you guys were all gonna Pokemon battle. Now, I was that guy that would only level up my starter.
I don't know about y'all, but that was me. And when it would get dark enough, we would tell scary stories. Now the stories that we told, granted, they were not very scary, okay? But we just thought they were. Around like 2011, 2012, I was like 9, 10 years old. Now for the most part, I was off social media.
But I stumbled upon an image that was like one of those chain posts. Now, obviously I was scared shitless because this was my first time ever like on social media, to be honest. And I thought it was like the scariest thing ever because it said like repost this or you're gonna get cursed or something or send this to 10 people or someone's gonna haunt you or some shit like that. And I thought it was real because, well, I was a gullible 10 year old. So obviously I was shitting bricks over here. So the scary stories would go a little bit something like this.
Guys, I have the scariest story ever. No way, really? So one day, I was scrolling on the interweb, and I was looking for something to do. And I found this post that said, repost or you're going to get haunted. Oh, no.
And my friends were like, "Please tell me you reposted it. Please tell me." No, I didn't. I didn't have an account. Now usually there was this one kid that would knock out by like 9 o'clock. That's kind of how it was. And when this one kid just fucking knocked out, right? We would always prank him. That's how sleepovers went. We would do the favorite classics such as, uh, dipping his hand in warm water so he pisses himself. Or drawing "insert here" right on his back above his ass. Okay, we weren't that mean, but yeah, we were pretty cruel.
We really thought we were like next level Avengers for pulling this prank. But when he woke up, in reality, it kind of went something like this. And the kid would be like,
And that's about it. You know, nothing crazy happened. I just got put in timeout. That's about it. Now in timeout, it was a time for me to really think about my life. Growing up in the 2000s, it was absolutely amazing. It might be because I just grew up in the era, but I'm not really sure. Shit was really a golden age. I'm sure a lot of you can relate to that.