I need to be clear up front, I am not opposed to these things below now (well, maybe just the NBA), I'm just not as pshyched about them as I was 10 - 20 years ago.  I need you to keep that in mind because there is the occasional time where I wouldn't mind stripping off my shirt for some b-ball, but I'd prefer not to.   Anyway, the idea for his hub came to me as I was in class the other night.  So read up, enjoy, and please leave a comment below.  

9.  Disney World.  I love amusement parks and always have, but one thing I remember from Disney during my last trip there, 13 years ago, was that I was so over it.  I was over the long lines only to see 1970's animatronics twirl around.  I was over the fake looking Pirates and stupid tea cups.  These were things that I enjoyed very much as a child, but I pretty much decided that I would not go back until I have kids.  Since then I have graduated to Universal Studios and King's Dominion...places where you could get your pulse racing.  But fear not Disney, some day I will be back to spend way too much money on over-priced goods.  And I have always loved the monorails.  

8.  Saturday Morning Cartoons.  Actually all cartoons.  I remember sprinting from my bed as a child on Saturday mornings to spend more time than necessary watching Captain O.G. Readmore guide us through the morning cartoon line-up.  From Gummi Bears bouncing here and there and everywhere, to the Get-A-long Gang, and the Ninja Turtles, I watched them all.  I recall learning about product placement and brainwashing from those fun commercials.  Today, I'm not even sure if they have Saturday morning cartoons, but I just don't have a place for He-Man and the Popples anymore.  Maybe life would be easier if I took a cue from the Smurfs or Snorkles, or spent a Saturday invested with the Go-Bots and Transformers.  Maybe not.

7.  All Nighters (Party Version).  Man, in college we would look for any excuse to go out, and stay out.  As a college student in D.C., Georgetown was always a good time, so we tried to go out as often as possible.  After school I worked in London as a manager of an upscale bar and restaurant and I used to stay late and drink with my friends.  Now a days I am usually in bed by 10 p.m. and I prefer it that way.  I can't drink on a weeknight and expect to be fully functional the next morning.   I also don't want to.  I like that I have matured just enough to where I can hold off on cutting loose until the weekend, or until next month.  

6.  Risking My Personal Safety.  I have been going skiing a lot this winter and each time I see these 4 and 5 year old kids zipping down the slopes as if they were born with skis affixed to their tiny legs.  These kids have no fear, and I think I was a kid that had a similar lack of fear, too.  I used to jump off my parents' house for no reason and climb trees and jump into canals.  I'd build ramps to jump with my bike.  And I loved diving and flipping over anything, action-movie style.  But it may have been a combination of being scared out of the water by a shark at 14 or breaking my collar bone diving for a football in pre-game warm-ups as a senior in high school (I was the kicker by the way), that has led me to be more cautious about things.  I have a motorcycle that I don't ride fast and a muscle car that I set to 6 miles per hour over the speed limit on cruise control.  I just don't hunger for the thrill of it all anymore because now I know the consequences of my actions.  

5.  Video Games.  We have the Wii and the only thing I play, maybe once a month, are the sports games.  I loved video games as a kid, and even in college, and a little after college, and some in the army when I was single, but as a married man with an active wife we still like to do things together that don't require a joystick (Get your mind out of the gutter!).  Our Wii is fun to play once in a while, but I couldn't imagine myself glued to the TV for five hours a night watching Lara Croft raid tombs or saving the world as some beefed-up action star only to start over again after I was killed off in level three.  Video games have a time and a place and I don't really have the desire anymore, but I still brake for Galaga whenever see a stand-up arcade version. 

4.  The NBA.  For years I have thought the NBA was fixed.  I think the inmates are running the asylum and I don't really see myself ever paying money ever again to see teams play meaningless regular season games.  Too many teams make the playoffs but after 20 games into the season there are already teams that have no shot at being one of those teams.  These teams just phone it in for the rest of the season only to see who will have the best shot at getting the number one spot in the draft.  There's no drama.  I just don't like the NBA anymore and that's too bad because I loved going to games with my dad and my friend Barry.  

3.  Taking Class.  The last actual college class I took was sometime during the last week of April in 1999.  I took some military classes while in the army and did my Masters online.  But now, for no reason, I decided to get a certificate in EMT-Basic and for two nights a week I have to go to a live class.  I can't stand my fellow students.  One dude sleeps or is late every time, TO A CLASS WHERE WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE LEARNING HOW TO SAVE LIVES.  One lady won't shut up.  Ever.  And these classes are 3 and a half hours long, twice a week, after a long day of pretending to work.  It really is exhausting.  But I do like what I am learning so I will suck it up for two more months.  

2. Shirts and Skins.  In my teens and into college, when I may have been able to pass myself off as a male model (I won't lie, I may have told a girl or two that I was, indeed, an Abercrombie model) there was never a hesitation to take my shirt off to play sports.  How better to declare sides in a pick-up basketball game then to have shirts and skins?  But gravity and a lack of a Roadrunner metabolism has kept my shirt on as my age has caught up with the number of flavors at Baskin Robbins.  But I am working at it, and if I had to I wouldn't be opposed to taking my shirt off.  Just not in front of women and children.  Or men with eye sight.  

1.  Gizmos, Gadgets, and Doohickeys.  I am not a tech guy.  I'm not tech savvy.  I'm not a computer geek or a thingamabob chaser.  I just don't have the patience for learning how to use new-fangled technologies.  My wife hooked up the Wii.  And the TV and the DVR and DVD player.  But when I was a kid I loved all these shiny gadgets.  Who didn't like wandering into Sharper Image and playing with everything?  Now when I see cool, new shit I just get anxious at the thought of having to try and figure out how to manage it all.  I am a lot more old fashioned than I'd like to let on, but I am happier that way.