Mario 64. I have not played this before. So we're gonna press B to jump and Y to attack. A to read signs. Okay. This is my first time. I don't know how I didn't play this game as a kid somehow. Press Z or L to crouch. A to read a sign. All right, here we go. Let's try this. Good. I like bringing those childhood memories back. My brother and I played a ton of Nintendo 64, and I have no idea how we didn't play this game or Zelda. How did we not play either of those?
Fighting King Bob-omb
If I can't throw him out of the ring, what am I supposed to do then? Oh, he caught me. All right, we'll just drop him on the ground then. Ah, okay. We'll throw him around from the back. Whoops. Well, every time I threw him off, it said it was against the rules. You must prove yourself in battle. Pick me up from the back and hurl me to the... all right. Oh, so I gotta hurl him to the world turf, not off the mountain. There we go. All right, so he's tracking me pretty good now. Let me grab him from behind again. Ah, he picked me up. Oh my gosh, I fell all the way down there. Oh no, don't let him throw me off. All right, stay on. Dang. Oh, I can kind of turn and make him throw me a certain direction, can't I? Oh, don't grab him when I'm behind him. Don't dive. Oh, there we go. All right, threw him a second time. Dang. Oh nice, we didn't fall all the way off. Good. Oh lord, I was just button mashing and died. Pop your stony head up. Yep. Oh no, I got kicked out of that whole level? Oh, man.
The Biggest Form of Wealth
To me, though, the biggest form of wealth you can have is the love you have and the love you give to others. So I feel like I'm tied for the richest man in the world, with all the people I love and all the love I have in my life. Rich in the people you love. And it's a two-way thing. It's not just the people that love you, but it's the people you love. Really, you can't control who loves you. You can control who you love.
All right, so we're going to jump up here. Jump and bang him right on his back. Nice. Oh, nice. Hit him on his back again. Oh, nice. We got him again.
Don't Neglect Your Family to Stream
I'm big into this: if you're live streaming, make sure you're not neglecting your family or your health or your relationships to do your live stream. My thinking is, if you're a full-time employee and you've got a wife and kids, honestly, you probably don't have time to stream hardly at all. And that's okay. Or maybe just a very small amount of hours a week. If you're putting 40 hours in at work, then you've got like 60 hours or something a week to work with — no, plus all your time sleeping. So if you're putting eight hours in a day at work, you probably want to be spending most of the rest of that time with your family or your friends, or doing some self care, some service, some volunteer work. If streaming is stressful, it might be because it's not the right thing. There's a lot of different ways to help out.
And if you can, there's a lot of kids who would really appreciate somebody who loves them to take care of them. It's nice to see that's something you can do kind of regardless of a relationship. As an uncle or an aunt. You could adopt a kid. There's a lot of ways to have kids in your life without biologically fathering or mothering them. It's a great joy to be there for a child that needs you.
Now, I only stream so much — I've learned the hard way that if I do my live stream too much instead of hanging out with my kids, then I'm going to pay the price for that by not feeling good. And I like to feel good.
A Dream About My Dad
I had a dream about my dad last night that my dad was dying, and how much I was really sad. I'm like, dad, this is the last time I'm going to get to see you. And then I woke up and I was relieved. I'm like, well, I've been there and done that now — dad's been passed on for seven years now. And it was kind of amazing to reflect on all that I've done since then, how much I've grown and learned.
Grateful for What My Kids Take for Granted
I think obviously we want as many parents as possible raising their kids with love and kindness and an eye towards service. That said, if you've been through a lot of hardship in life, it also puts you in a really, really good position to appreciate when you've got it good. So I've got a family I'm praying for — I know one member of the family from Alcoholics Anonymous — and that family helps me appreciate my family. Like, I'm glad what's going on in their house doesn't go on in my house. If you live in a house where there's love and kindness and consideration, you take it for granted. There's a lot of things you take for granted that, in other households, it's not like that. My kids take for granted that they're not going to get hit — by me or by my wife — regardless of what they do. And that's not how it is in some households.
I'm grateful today for what my kids take for granted: if dad says he's going to be somewhere, dad's going to be there. I'm really grateful for that, because as someone who has had years of my life as an alcoholic, if I told you I was going to be there, that wasn't necessarily true. It's really nice to be so reliable.
AA Is School for Grownups
AA meetings have been, for me, like a school for grownups. All the things I didn't learn in school, people in Alcoholics Anonymous have helped teach me. And I'm teaching my kids that stuff. I'm like, when you get upset, why don't you try to think about what you're going to do when you get upset? Why don't you try to think some kind thoughts? And why don't you pray and express your feelings? I tell my daughter that: instead of hitting your brother, why don't you say, hey, I'm angry right now. I don't like that. I'm scared. And then I'm modeling these behaviors for them — and these are things I learned as a function of going to AA.
There's opportunities in every situation. I wouldn't change a thing about my childhood. My dad was an alcoholic, and I didn't want to go to AA. I was a drug addict and gambler. And the way I see it, I chose him just like that. I thought I could help out by being his son, and that he would teach me some valuable lessons. And I know lots of kids that were in some pretty rough households, and they have the unique opportunity to help others in a way that I don't. If you've been through something, you can help somebody else in a way that somebody who hasn't been through it will have a harder time helping.
What I Saw in a Portugal Airport
I remember in Portugal, in the airport, I saw parents being really rough with their children. And it's hard to even see that. Then I talked with one of the moms that was there, and we did this thing called eye gazing — we just stared into each other's eyes for like 10 minutes. She was one of the very few people that I talked to there. My mom, she said something about the way parents treat their children, and we both cried. Because that's hard to see sometimes, and everybody has value.
Loving People Exactly as They Are
One of the things that I've been working on is to love — true, unconditional love, to some degree, just disregards a person's outward circumstances. I had one night where I prayed so hard for this family I've been mentioning that I cried. And I could see a little bit from each of their points of view, and the final thing I came out with was a complete love and acceptance of them as they are — to be able to love them exactly as they are. Not conditioned upon, well, if this member or that member of the family would change or do better, then they could be loved. No — to love every member of the family exactly as they are, which was kind of surprising to me. I mean, think about the most unlovable person you know. If you can pray to the point where you can love them exactly as they are, to me, that's where you can love yourself no matter how you are.
Nice — I'm glad I've switched my thinking to more long term, too. I'm finding most of the things you want, like the family being loved as they are and just becoming a happy family, are accomplished over the long term. Like a happy marriage: one day at a time, over the long term.
Bad-Mood Tickets on Campus Patrol
Back when I was a police officer, if I got in a bad mood, I'd give people tickets for things. There were signs near campus at USC — no right on red — and I'd get in a bad mood and give people tickets for going right on red when there was a sign saying no right on red at that light. One night doing that, my sergeant calls me at the station. He's like, Banfield, what are you doing? Something wrong? You having a bad night? I'm like, these kids are not following the law. He's like, I know, but why do you need to pull them over and give them tickets when there's like no traffic right now, man? Why not just give them a warning? It's not that serious of a violation. He's like, Banfield, I think you need to be on bike patrol for a night. I'm like, oh, dang it.
I told somebody to put their shirt on one night. That was kind of dumb — I look back at that now and I'm like, yeah, that's kind of silly, telling people to put their shirt on. It's funny because now I stream without a shirt on. I mean, it was like 2 a.m., and there was a guy coming back from the club, and I said put your shirt on. He put his shirt on, he kept walking, didn't have an issue. And then I pulled one guy over and gave him a ticket.
"That Was Cold Blooded"
That ticket was for running a red light. The guy goes into court and says, judge, the light was yellow when I went through it, and I'm sure about that. And I'm like, no it wasn't — it was red. And the judge is like, well, it's your word against his. Dismissed. I'm like, that was cold blooded. Oh, there's a little air pocket over here I can get in, isn't there? I didn't see this last time. I'm like, that was cold blooded. So if you get a ticket, and they don't have a camera, and it's your word against theirs — it depends on the judge.
Carrying a Georgia Fan Out of the Stadium
I remember one night at a Georgia game I worked, there was a Georgia fan flipping all the South Carolina fans off, and a lot of people, understandably, were complaining about it. I don't remember if we asked him nicely to stop or just straight up came up there, but he understandably wasn't very compliant with us either. So me and another officer took this dude by his arms, way out, walked him all down through the stairs, and as you can imagine, the fans were very happy with that. I loved that part of the job. You gotta swim down below the star, away from the bubbles — okay, we'll try that. I loved that part of the job: getting the chance to be a hero like that. All the fans were really happy that this intoxicated Georgia fan was taken out of the stadium, and I was very happy to help.
Only Fight When You Can Win
I always liked to get into stuff. Some of the other officers preferred to do less. I'm like, hey, if there's a call, I want to get into the action, because being a university police officer is kind of slow compared to working at a lot of city and county departments. I was always out there — I was always enthusiastic to have a fight if I was in a position to win. At the same time, I'm like, I don't want any unnecessary problems if I'm outnumbered. As a police officer, I hurt my back once, and it was a good lesson: if you're gonna have to fight somebody, make sure you're in a position to win. And if not, call for backup and wait.
The Star on the Eel's Tail
All right, let's see if we can get the eel to come out. We need one more star, and then we can open that eight-star door. That eel's a rough old boy. Wait, there's a star on the eel's tail? Huh? What? I'm not seeing that one. You're all messing with me. Oh, I see the star now — it came out. Okay, come on, get it. Ah, I see it. It left, right? Y'all were not kidding with me. Can't get at it coming through the side, that one. All right, so we get him to pop his eel head out, and then we need to be ready to grab that star off his tail. We know he's gonna come back over here. Come on, pop your eel head out. Come on out. Do I have to let him hit me for him to come out? Oh, he's coming out now. He's coming out. Yes! I got the star off his tail. Nice. All right, now we can unlock that eight-star door, can't we? Oh, I gotta actually pick it up — I thought I had picked it up. Apparently not. All right, we got it now. Good job.
All right, so I want to go put my kids to bed — this is a good time for it. If you enjoyed watching me figure out Mario 64 for the first time, there are plenty more adventures like this one waiting in my Games playlist.