Hooking Up A Video Game System: A Nevin Barich Blog Experience

Like a lot of men, I am not what you would call "handy." If you asked me to put together a table, hook up your stereo system or build you a fence, you might as well be asking me to construct a rocket ship. Simply put: When it comes to things that have a lot of wires or require, you know, tools, I'm lost.

But despite this lack of handyman understanding, there's one thing that guys like me can do. One skill that we're born with -- not taught -- that takes over when we meet face-to-face with this device.

Guys like me become handymen...

...when we're hooking up video game systems.

Recently, my fiancee Ramona -- God bless her -- bought me a Nintendo Wii, something I've wanted for a very long time but could never justify spending the money for in my own mind. Knowing that I would continue to sit on the decision for at least a few more months, Ramona took matters into her own hands, bought me the damn thing and made me blissfully happy.

Me: I love you.

Ramona: I know.

Me: I was talking to the Wii.

:-)

Knowing how bad I was when it came to being handy, she offered to hook up my Wii.

Little did she know that wouldn't be necessary.

From the second I opened the box, I became transformed. I was handy, coordinated, a man's man. You see, when it comes to video game systems, guys have a sixth sense of what goes where. Instructions aren't necessary (not that we'd read them anyway). I had no clue what all the wires and plugs were called or what purpose they served, but I knew exactly where they went. Why? Because it was a video game system!! I just knew. It was an instinct, like a female polar bear tending to her young.

My hands flew, random wires became vital clogs in the engine that was the Wii. And within minutes...

...I was playing Wii bowling. :-)

So while I can't build a shelf, fix a car or paint your house without leaving a bunch of streaks, I can get your video game system hooked up, providing you with countless hours of mindless entertainment that will make you neglect your job, friends and loved ones.

And that's something.

:-)

And now for this week's:

SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE

Shortly after getting the Wii, I visited my good friends at Gamestop in Chatsworth to buy some more accessories, where I was greeted by two of their workers that you can only find at a video game store.

These guys, simply put, were psychos. They were the epitome of "Hi, I'm 25 years old and I've yet to even kiss a girl" ness. One of the guys told me that he drew a map of the landscape of the original Legend of Zelda. The other guy kept saying that every game I was looking at was "THE SHYSER!!!!" We somehow got into a conversation about Mike Tyson's Punch Out and both burst into song of Don Flamenco's theme music (complete with the right arm raised and the little dance).

It was a good rendition. I'll give them that.