How my father used a love of gaming to teach me the most important rule in life.

As we celebrate Father's Day 2017 I'm reminded of something.

The first home based console we had growing up was the Atari 2600, and my Father became The Master of fixing broken joysticks!  It wasn't that the controllers were poorly built, as a matter of fact for the time that this system was released these controllers were fairly durable.  No my Dad became the master of fixing the Atari joysticks because of the constant and consistent abuse these controllers had to endure at the hands of myself and my two older siblings.

We took our games of Frogger, PAC-MAN, and Pitfall seriously!

We would receive stiff warnings about treating our belongings better, would be reminded of how expensive these devices were to replace, and would even be threatened with "If you keep breaking these then I'm gong to stop fixing them!" but we kept breaking them, and Dad kept fixing them.

Eventually each of us graduated from the Atari to our own personal computers, the Commodore Vic 20 was the first of many to cross our front door, and once again our father was there to support us with our never-ending computer needs.

It began with buying a few cartridge based games that we could play, but games were just as expensive in the 80's as they are today.  So after much debate with my mother, off Dad went to the store and when he came back he held in his hand the secret to our gaming salvation, at the time anyways - The Datasette!

Armed with this new device, and a copy of Compute Magazine, Dad took on the task of teaching himself basic programming skills.  Every issue of Compute would come with pages upon pages of instructions for programming a basic game for your Vic 20, it was tedious data entry but Dad would do it just the same.

His time-consuming efforts equaled new games for us, so we didn't complain and once again Dad became a master - this time at programming.

As the years continued to turn we each eventually graduated to new hardware, first the Commodore 64, than the Commodore Amiga, and finally the PC as we know it today - and our father was always there to support us, to lend a hand were needed.

It wasn't until years later when I had children of my own that I began to realize why Dad had become so involved in something that he seemed to have no real interest in, it was about teaching us the lessons of love, the lessons that a father strives to pas onto his children.

For myself and my siblings it was about gaming, for our father it was about showing us that you can do anything you set your mind to, learn to fix a joystick, learn to program, keep up with ever-changing technologies, change careers mid-way through your working life, start your own business.

There is a fair age difference between myself and my sister, nine years, between myself and my eldest brother there is a eleven year age difference, my father was celebrating his 43rd year when I was born - this is a time when most parents are preparing to send their children off to post-secondary education as opposed to thinking about the first day of kindergarten again.

My Dad lived life by his rules, not the rules society placed upon him, and in his own way he tried to teach his three children to do the very same thing. This is our first fathers day without Dad, he passed away just after fathers day last year having had a hard-fought battle with terminal bladder cancer. 

I expect this to be a difficult day but it will conclude a year of firsts for our family.

To those of you reading this, cherish the time you have with your fathers, learn both their rules for life and whatever else they are willing to teach you, say whats in your heart because at times life can be a cruel game and you may not get this opportunity again next year.  

I wish you and your family a very happy and healthy fathers day weekend, please remember to follow us at cangeek.com.

Thanks for reading.

The Geek I Am.... My Homage To My Dad

As I write this weeks blog it is May 21st, 2016 and here in Canada we're celebrating the Victoria Day long weekend, well most of us are anyways.

I am sitting here on my parents back deck falling asleep, its been a long week.

CanGeek is a dream slowly becoming reality,  but at this point it doesn't pay the bills,  so I also work 40 hours a week as a Store Manager for a 'As Seen On TV" retailer, the things we do to chase our dreams......

My father is sitting next to me and he's falling asleep too, his fatigue is of a much different nature, brought about by unimaginable pain and discomfort.

My father is dying, he has terminal cancer and this weeks blog is my homage to him.

I have been asking myself for weeks whither this blog was appropriate given the nature of its content and I've decided it is, I wouldn't be who I am today if not for the influence my father has had on my life.

Without dating myself, I went through adolescence at a time when society was slightly less accepting of what we now refer to as fandom and pop culture.  That`s not to say that we didn't celebrate our shared enjoyment of genre films and television shows, and we absolutely bought our comics and games on a weekly basis, but it felt like to avoid unfair judgement and peer pressure we weren't so open about our likes and dislikes.

We didn't wear our geek on our sleeves, not like we do today, and wearing Marvel or DC attire to anything other then elementary school was a good way to get an ass kicking.

It was the dark times indeed.

Through all this however I always seemed to have the love and support of my father.  Born in 1931 he grew up in a much different time, and his experiences could have just as easily drove a wedge into our relationship, but he was always supportive of my choices and decisions.

So well other kids were off joining sports teams and going to Friday night parties, I was playing video games with a close group of friends, being introduced to RPG`s such as D&D and Shadowrun, and playing tabletop games like Battletech and Magic: The Gathering (We Did a lot of that!)

And my Dad was always there to take interest in what we were doing, asking questions and in a lot of cases adding to my gaming collection wherever possible.

Eventually I fell in love with a truly beautiful woman, she is both kind and considerate to everyone around her, and I was considering popping the question. 

The advice I received from my friends was "Do more with your life and then maybe get married"
The advice I received from my father was  "Do what feels right in your heart"

We married, bought a house, and since then have begun to raise two wonderful children and spent many amazing years together.

Last June I was laid off after giving 6 1/2 years of my life to EB Games Canada, this happened three months after the news of my fathers cancer, and I was forced to come to terms with so much at once.

It took me months to decide my next move, CanGeek, a business I'd been considering for years and years. One afternoon I explained my plans to my father, this was in an attempt to focus him on something other then his pain, and once again he surprised me by offering money to invest in the business.

With so much going on for both him and my mother he was still thinking of his children first, that is the type of man he is and the type of father he has been to his three children.

Fathers day is just under a month away now, and CanGeek will be introducing a limited edition product celebrating all the Gamer Dads out there, it will be available for purchase through our new Facebook store.  Our hope is that it will be a gift both you and your fathers will treasure for years to come.

As both a father and a son my hope is that I will have the opportunity to celebrate one more fathers day weekend with my dad because if not for him I would not be the geek I am today.....

Thanks for reading.