Author: TechyDad
Gaming Addicts
I think I’m raising a pair of video game addicts.
A couple of weeks ago, we went to visit my parents. While there, they insisted on buying the boys a gift. I tried to steer NHL to a Transformer figure since he loves the show, but both he and JSL wanted more video games for the Nintendo DS. At first, I’ll admit that I was against it. We have plenty of games and I didn’t think NHL needed another one. After awhile, though, I accepted it. Especially after we found Lego Indiana Jones for the Nintendo DS.
NHL loves the Lego series. He has (and has finished) both of the Lego Harry Potter games and has the Lego Star Wars game as well. Since we recently introduced him to Indiana Jones (specifically, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark), we figured he might like this. (Plus, I wouldn’t need to help him changing this "toy" from a vehicle to robot and back.)
JSL, meanwhile, really needed some games. Most of the games we have for the Nintendo DS are for NHL’s skill level (if not higher). JSL can try these, but he’s probably just going to wind up frustrated. He wound up getting a dinosaur game that is perfect for his age level.
As soon as possible, the boys loaded up their new games and began playing. Then, they swapped games and played each other’s games. They’ve been playing them (or begging to play them) ever since.
That’s not it, though. Even before this, the boys would keep asking me when a certain game was going to be released. They counted down the days and, when it finally arrived, they waited impatiently while I downloaded and installed the playable demo. They were hooked on the previous versions, are hooked on this version, and will likely get hooked on the mobile versions once we get our smartphones.
Yes, my boys are in love with the Angry Birds. They’ve tossed the birds at pigs in many environments. Now they need to take into account orbital mechanics to defeat the piiiigs in spaaace. (Oops, sorry. Wrong piggies.)
With all of the video games they like playing, it’s no wonder that I suspect that I’m raising a pair of gaming geeks. I don’t know where they get it from. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to play some Lego Indiana Jones on the Nintendo DS.
Smartphone Bound
Two years ago, when we renewed our cell phone contracts, we added unlimited texting. Until then, we scoffed at the need to text anyone. As our use of social media expanded, though, sending status updates on the go seemed more and more doable. Plus, the ability to send photos to people on the fly was just too tempting. So we bit the bullet and upgraded from simple flip phones to more complex texting-capable phones.
Still, we decided against getting smart phones. While it would have been nice, we balked at paying an extra $30 per phone per month. However, as the months passed, smartphones were talked about more and more. People were getting them, posting social media updates from them, taking photos from them, checking e-mail from them, playing games on them, and browsing the web with them.
I have to admit that I began to get some tech-envy. Part of me felt like a fraud. Here I am, TechyDad, and I didn’t have the latest and greatest technology in my hands. My "why would I ever need this" attitude was giving way to "I really, really want this." I also began hearing rumors about family data plans coming. Instead of paying $30 per device per month and getting a set number of gigabytes for each phone, you would pay a certain amount and share your data across all phones. This seemed like the ideal plan, so we watched and waited.
Then, B won a smartphone. And we were invited to the 2012 Disney Social Media Celebration. Suddenly, we began to wonder about how long we could hold out. The rumors of family data plans persisted, but nothing concrete was emerging. (The latest is maybe in the summer… perhaps.) We began to explore providers and plans.
After this past weekend, we believe we’ve made our decision. There are a few more pieces to get into place, but we are officially smartphone bound. A whole new world of technology is about to be opened to us. Here’s hoping my final "non-smartphone" week passes quickly.
Aloha Friday: Lack of Caffeine
Every morning, people around the world stumble out of bed and reach for that first cup of coffee. Many folks can’t make it through the day without it. I’ll admit that there are plenty of mornings when I can hardly drag myself out of bed. I’d love to grab a cup of coffee to help me wake up, but I don’t.
For some reason, I just never got into drinking coffee. It just doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve tried tea and, while I like it, the caffeine in it just doesn’t help wake me up at all. (I usually reserve tea for days when I’m sick. Tea + Honey = Soothed Sore Throat.)
Part of me feels like I’m missing out on a part of geek culture. After all, ThinkGeek has a whole section of their site devoted to all things caffeinated. I just don’t desire coffee though. Besides, not drinking coffee means that I have an excuse to nap. (Not that I get to *use* the excuse often, but the excuse is there.)
My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you drink coffee?
BTW, the photo above is dedicated to Anissa Mayhew who I’ve often seen posting about caffeine in the morning. If I ever get the chance to meet Anissa in person, I’m buying her a big cup of coffee!
P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.
Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.
Aloha #131
Karma, Starscream Bullying and the Stolen T-Cog
As all parents do, I’ve tried to teach my boys right from wrong. Of course, there are times when doing the wrong thing results in an immediate reward for the person while doing the right things results in a near-term penalty. Young kids, being short-term thinkers, can often take the wrong path due to the short-term gain, even while knowing that it is the wrong thing to do.
To help NHL with handling this concept, I decided to introduce him to the concept of Karma. Karma, as I explained to NHL, is the concept that good things happen to those who do good deeds and bad things happen to people who do bad things. (Karma dates back to ancient India, but for NHL’s purposes, I relied on the modern interpretation.) NHL seemed to understand as we ran through a few scenarios describing what would be the right and wrong thing to do.
A week or so after we spoke about it, NHL, JSL, and I were watching Transformers: Prime. We’ve come to really like this incarnation of Transfomers and look forward to each new episode. This two-parter, Operation Bumblebee, saw Bumblebee lose his T-Cog. For those who didn’t watch, a T-Cog is the biomechanical organ that lets Cybertronians scan vehicles and transform. So when MECH, a group of humans trying to make their own Transformers, knock out Bumblebee and take his T-Cog, Bumblebee finds that he can’t transform anymore. Since transformation is so integral to what they are and since Bumblebee enjoys driving fast in his vehicle mode, this makes him feel useless to his team.
Back to Starscream, though. We first see him arriving on the scene after Bumblebee was knocked out by MECH. (They had both been tracking the same signal that MECH used in their trap.) Starscream’s reaction wasn’t to help Bumblebee, but to muse "Better him than me."
After this, he follows MECH back to their headquarters and proposes an alliance. The alliance goes well enough until Bumblebee tracks them down and tries to retrieve his T-Cog. MECH’s troops prove no match for Bumblebee despite the robot being unable to use his weapons. (No T-Cog means no transforming his arms into guns.) As MECH retreats, its leader tells Starscream to bring the T-Cog. Starscream grabs it. He describes Bumblebee as pathetic and a failure for being unable to transform into vehicle mode. When it looks like Bumblebee will get his T-Cog back, Starscream shoots it. He leaves Bumblebee with one final taunt: "Time to jet.. because I can!" (Note to non-geeks: Starscream’s vehicle mode is a jet.)
Of course, MECH isn’t happy with Starscream for losing the T-Cog. When Starscream says they can get one soon enough from another Autobot, they zap Starscream and take his.
I intended to use this episode as a lesson in bullying. I described to NHL how Starscream took advantage of Bumblebee’s weakness, helped the people who hurt him, and taunted him to make him feel bad about himself. (Of course, schoolyard bullying rarely involves blasters.)
NHL, however, dredged up the Karma talk from a few weeks back and pointed out that it applied here. Impressed, I admitted that he was right. Starscream could have done the right thing by helping Bumblebee (either right away or after he tracked down MECH’s headquarters). Previous episodes have established that he can contact the Autobots (when he was in need of medical assistance). His actions throughout the episode were one bad action after another, right down to shooting the T-Cog to spite Bumblebee.
For his bad actions, something bad happened to him: He lost his own T-Cog. His description of Bumblebee as a pathetic failure who couldn’t achieve vehicle mode became him as he scampered away by foot.
I was extremely proud of NHL for remembering our lesson and for applying it so perfectly.
Disclaimer: The image of Starscream above is from Clement Soh‘s Flickr stream and is shared via a Creative Commons license.