Pwn Up: Grounded For Life

Ever had a moment so nerdy that you needed to tell the Internet about it? Send your submissions to dorklypwnup at gmail.

For me groundings as a kid meant "no playing video games". It was tough, but at least I still got to sit and watch my younger brother play. Eventually my mother figured out that it wasn't really punishment because I would end up telling my brother where to go and what to do in the game. Getting any kind of enjoyment out of video games negated the grounding. So my groundings soon began to include "no watching video games". Skip ahead a few weeks later I get in trouble once again, and get sent to my room. I was too stubborn to let my grounding disrupt my gaming. My mother was in shock when she came to check on me and discovered I was listening to an audio cassette recording my brother and I had taped of a playthrough of Contra. She didn't say I couldn't listen to video games.
-Mike

A few weeks back I was a couple payments late on my car. Each payment is about $250, but when I had the money together after paying all my other bills, my PS3 stopped working. Rather than making a payment on my car, I chose to buy a new PS3 so I could start playing Arkham City. My car was reposessed shortly after, and as a result I lost my job for continuosly showing up late (from taking the bus). However, I DID beat Arkham City.
-Ray

When I was a kid, my mother would often punish me by taking my Sega Genesis controllers away. As I was unable to play, I would load up Mortal Kombat II and watch the start menu until a demo fight started. My brother and I would try and guess which character was going to win.
-Samuel

I recently came across my Gameboy Color with Pokemon Gold in the back. I started to play and got four badges in one sitting, then saved my game and went to bed. I wake up the next day to find that my game didn't save, so I started another new game – and found the cartridge wasn't saving anything. I discovered that a battery in the cartridge was needed to save games and mine was dead. So I bought a new battery online and decided to fix it myself, but I didn't know how to solder (which was required to fix it). I taught myself to solder and fixed it up, and I now have beaten the Johto Elite 4 with my lvl. 81 Typhlosion. And with my new found soldering skills, I've also fixed 2 red ringed XBOX's.
-Ryan

When I was younger, I was often grounded from playing video games as a result of me doing bad in school. When I was about 12 years old, Super Smash Bros. Melee was released for the Nintendo Gamecube. Unfortunately, it came out while I was grounded. I really wanted to play, so I shut myself in my room and, whenever I could, I would sneak in some playtime. One day, my stepmother tried to open the door to find it was locked, so I shut off my Gamecube, opened the door and told her that I "had to pull up my pants." That's right – I was willing to let my parents believe I was masturbating in my room rather than get caught playing video games on restriction. And this wasn't a one-time occurrence…I went so far as to make a custom "Keep Out"-style doorknob hanger to let them know that I was having "private time" which was really just me playing SSBM when I wasn't supposed to.
-Kader

This week's "We're Really Trying To Not Run So Many Tattoo Pictures, But C'mon, This One's Just Too Good" Award goes to…

I've seen a lot of people get the Triforce tattoo on them SOMEWHERE and everyone always complains "It's SUPPOSED to be on the back of the hand!" And I think… "Yeah, we get it, it's supposed to be on the back of the hand, but it isn't constantly on display." Good luck trying to get a decent job with 3 Triangles on your hand… UNLESS you do like I did and get a UV tattoo.

Before anyone starts complaining that "It's not on the left hand!" I argue "Link's is on the left hand because he's left handed (in most games), Ganondorf/Ganon's and Zelda's are on their right hand because they're right handed (also in most games). I'm right handed, therefore right handed tattoo that doesn't show unless in a blacklight. Also, the reason I got all 3 instead of picking just courage/wisdom/power, I really don't think any of those stands out in my personality more than the others.
-David (see below)

David's UV Triforce Tattoo: