All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

I don't want to be a dull boy.

People in the present world does not know how to play. One of my fondest memories is to make a kite and fly it with my dad when i was young. I played gasing with the kids in the neighbourhood and was inspired by how my dad used to make his own gasing from a chunk of wood and a nail, and told myself i would do that someday, well something i have yet to do (maybe i would do it with my boy(s) next time, i would definitely make a kite and fly it with my kid).

Maybe i am blessed with no drag-n-drop and no nintendo (we couldn't afford it). My only first-hand possession of toys is a box of assorted lego blocks. I first played video game, touched a APPLE-II computer, and later played the first SEGA console in my friend's house. I first saw a M.A.S.K switchblade toy in school when my classmate with a silverspoon brought it to school. I saw many toys, but never owned them.

We used to create our own game-books in school, we wrote the story line, draw out the characters, and write the steps of the game-book. In school, we have hand-motion RPG, where a person will use his hand and fingers as a character walking in a story line, with the other hand as villians and other characters, where we created special-moves for the characters-to-choose from, and drew them out in game books.

We have all-year-round tournament going in school for eraser-fighting and 围棋 on pages torn out from mathematics exercise books (our teacher used to punish those students with very thin mathematics exercise books). I was quite good at 围棋, but sucked at erasers. We have rankings, and for every period of time, people knew who is the king of the hill at that time (you need to win the top ranked for a few times convincingly in order to be recognized). Each person devised special strategy, and we know each other's strategy and constantly think of ways to counter it. Each person's strategy is usually in the macro level, but in the micro level, there is vanilla strategies like 两头蛇 that everybody employs and knows how to counter. (people in Malay school play other games).

The fact is we can't afford a lot of things, so we have to create our games by hands on. Do kids still do this in school? I wonder.

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ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY - "The sentiment expressed by this proverb was first recorded thousands of years ago by the Egyptian sage Ptahhoptep, who wrote in c. 2400 B.C., 'One that reckoneth accounts all the day passeth not a happy moment. One that gladdeneth his heart all the day provideth not for his house. The bowman hitteth the mark, as the steersman reacheth land, by diversity of aim.' The more familiar modern saying appeared first in James Howell's 'Proverbs in English, Italian, French and Spanish' (1659), and was included in later collections of proverbs. Some writers have added a second part to the proverb, as in 'Harry and Lucy Concluded' (1825) by the Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth: 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy/ All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy'." From "Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993). quoted