Reward for Hard Work

This year Little Kat built a retaining wall in our back yard. It was really wide. Maybe spanned 24+ feet. It was between one and two feet high. The wall was difficult to erect because it is on a hill. Little Kat muscled through the effort.

Some of the work digging post holes was done as a punishment because Little Kat kept getting zeros at school for not turning work in. The majority of the work was done in exchange for me buying him an NVIDIA Shield and a gaming computer kit.

The NVIDIA Shield is a small handheld Android device. As such, it plays Android games (apps). It is supposed to make the games easier because the Shield itself is a super joystick/gamepad. I had actually heard of the Shield before.

Little Kat wanted an awesome gaming computer. He needed a good Intel CPU. He also needed a kicking video card. Little Kat figured the best bang for his buck was to buy a bare bones computer kit that he would assemble himself.

Initially I told Little Kat I would fund $300 worth of computer parts for his gaming computer. Unfortunately he found that the games he wanted required more horsepower. His minimal specs required $500 of computer parts. We renegotiated our agreement, added some more work to the retaining wall job, and his budget jumped up to $500 worth of computer parts.

Today we finally purchased his gaming computer kit. The video card had been out of stock for a few days. When I first clicked the purchase button, the web site froze. I removed all items from my cart. Then I added them again. The transaction went through. Since Little Kat is spending a month with his grandparents this summer, I am shipping the parts directly to their house.

Building your own computer should be part of any young man's coming of age. I am glad to play a small role in that quest for Little Kat.