Achievement Unlocked...

There are signs at the elevator and in the laundry room to tell us that the water will be off between 9am and 11am tomorrow, so obviously everyone still in the building panicked and decided to wash all of their laundry today. I swear people do this to spite me. Don't they understand that I have to do laundry because I"m going away? If I don't get in before 2pm, you'll have to deal with me doing laundry until 3am.

Anyways, so I have about 10 minutes left before I have that window of opportunity to get my laundry in the wash, so I thought I'd blog about something I've been thinking about recently.

Merit Badges.

Well, something like that. Letting my geek show a little here, but how awesome is it when you're playing a video game, and you get one of those "Achievement Unlocked" messages? (Granted, I usually watch Adam game, but I still get excited when he gets those messages). And what about the old Pokemon cartoons, where Ash would be trying to get all of the badges from the Pokemon trainers so he could compete in big competitions, and when he got the badge, he'd do one of those "magical spin around in technocolour" moves while shouting: "I got.... A LEAF BADGE!!" or whathaveyou, give the V-For-Victory sign and a little pokemon thing does a happy dance beside him? How freaking exciting is that?

Well, Yesterday I earned two new "knitting badges": Long-Tail Cast On, and Knit-In-The-Round (DPNs). And I got thinking about it. How awesome would it be if we got little badges every time we mastered a new skill? Like, When you're working on some project and you figure out how to use the Formatting stuff on Microsoft Word, and you could jump up and hold up a sparkly new badge and shout out: "I earned... THE FORMATTING BADGE!" Or, if you're a knitter like me, and you complete your first sock/cable/steek, you could spin around and shout out: "I got... A SOCK/CABLE/STEEK Badge!" And add the little button to your collection. Maybe you cook, and you're making stock for the first time, or just learning how to make bread? Think of all the potential badges you could get! "I got... THE RISOTTO BADGE!"

Then, when you've mastered all the skills in a particular area, all your badges turn gold, and you get a bright, shiney WINNER badge! "String a fishing rod, make a lure, catch a fish, clean a fish, cook a fish, I completed... FISHING! 100% MASTERY!"

I want to get my SOCK badge and my LACE badge before the year is out.

That would be wicked awesome.