19 Feb 09 I just want him to say it correctly
Last night my oldest was playing Halo 3 on the 360. He’s getting quite accurate with his shots, and feeling somewhat cocky playing against the computer – so I puff up my chest and offer to play him head-to-head.
Oh boy.
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05 Feb 09 Childhood Brought to You by Master Chief
Is there anything that is immune from the merchandise exploitation squad? In a seemingly endless line of “what were they thinking?” cross-market ideas, Mega-blocks, the bastard stepchild of Lego-like construction sets, has penned an agreement with 20th Century Fox (and by association, probably a lot of other franchises) to produce and market a line of Halo themed construction toys.
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Tags: Construction, Halo, Lego
30 Jan 09 More insides for your perusal
Going along with our “take it apart to see how it works” culture as a dadmin, I found this little photo set quite intriguing. Seems the blogger attended a photo trade show in Japan, and wandered over to the Nikon booth – where they had on display a neatly cut-in-half Nikon D3.
I only wish I could get a high resolution photo of this.
Oh – and I wouldn’t mind playing with the tool they used to do the cutting.
Tags: camera, exploded view, how it works, take apart
28 Jan 09 My child is a gold farmer – is that bad?
Hi, I’m Atom and I play World of Warcraft.
I’m not going to wax on about the addiction of WoW, or MMOs in general – perhaps another time. Suffice it to say, I do play said game – probably a bit more than is appropriate for a “guy my age”, but certainly not as ‘bad’ as some of my guild-mates. Why the game is so appealing to me probably transcends a few boundaries – fantasy role-playing, socializing, a bit of twitch-gaming, interesting lore, etc.
In any event, I play – so deal.
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Tags: Gold Farmer, MMO, Warcraft, WoW
24 Jan 09 What’s new is old again
“Back when I was your age…”
I can’t believe I’ve uttered that phrase to my kid. Where does that come from? Why should my child care about what I did 35 years ago to accomplish <whatever task we’re discussing>? It’s an interesting question for which I have no answer – and would love to hear comments.
The following mind-wrestling session I had last night is what brought this about.
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Tags: Art, Graphic Tablet, Music, Piano, Right Brain
15 Jan 09 eeePC deal on Amazon
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting my kids one of those ASUS eePC things that are all the rage. Amazon is currently having a pretty sweet deal that – if my credit card wasn’t about melted from the holidays – I would jump on.
If you’re a masochist, you can even get one with XP on it…
Tags: eePc deal amazon
11 Jan 09 Teaching kids the basics of programming using physical props
A few years back I was asked to lead a “problem solving” session once a week for my first grader’s class. With my education and employment in engineering, I felt that this was a natural fit for me, so I agreed and started 2 days later.
For two 45 minute sessions, I would “entertain” two different groups of kids (about 8 of them each) – divided by gender and picked from the class based on some criteria I was not privy to. I was given guides and a problem to solve (based on some curriculum I can’t recall). The goal of each session was to encourage group cooperation to reach a solution to the problem presented.
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Tags: Lego, Mindstorms, Programming, Robot, Scratch
07 Jan 09 Finding gold within the garbage; parts and knowledge a byproduct of our disposable society
Teaching your kids to make things is a wonderful part of being a parent. Teaching your kids to take things apart is (arguably) even more so. Of course you can find info on the web to read but nothing is better than getting your (and your kids’) hands dirty.
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Tags: Disassembly, Do-it-yourself, Electronics, Hand Tools, Make, Pack Rat, Scrounging
Polls
Friended by your Kids?
- My child doesn't have a facebook page (I think.) (33%, 1 Votes)
- Nope, and I've asked. (0%, 0 Votes)
- No, because I haven't and don't intend to ask. (33%, 1 Votes)
- You bet. We're a facebook family. (34%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 3
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