Computers: A Saga
When there's silence in my house ( a rare thing, you should know ), I like to think about giving Ben ways to focus his crazy intelligence on things that are not the TV. Some kids can watch TV and play, taking breaks from whatever they're doing to stare up at the TV a while; Ben can't stop himself. If the TV is on, there is nothing that will distract him from it, even if it's a dull documentary describing dental diagnoses of dingoes. His jaw slacks, his eyes glaze: it's as if he's watching The Most Fascinating Thing Ever.
As a more-interactive substitute for Neanderthalish TV-comas, we tried having Ben share Becky's computer. Being a Mac, there were a bunch of things you could get for it, and we figured it would be good for him to learn how to take care of a computer. This was the worst possible idea we ever could have had, and resulted in the following damages:
- Several of Becky's writings being lost due to Flash-game related freezes
- Mental anguish from listening to crappy sound effects ad nauseum
- Nagging, whining, and complaining when computer time was over
- And, the last straw: A glass of water spilled on the fancy Mac keyboard, shorting it out and turning it into a $75 toy for Alex to bang on
But we're not bitter; we just turned it off. His account, that is. Locked. No more.
"...but Daver! How will he learn about computers???" people ask me. As I've discovered, he will learn about computers the same way I did: by messing with them. And he'll learn faster and be able to do more at the same age as I was, regardless of whether he gets time to play Carmen Sandiego or not.
My father-in-law, however, who is the guy I call when I have the urge to go to Fry's and look at nerd toys, was still aghast that his grandson was not getting computer time at home. Since he always has to keep his gaming computer up to date, he replaced an old laptop with a new rig, and decided to donate his used laptop to the cause. So, since I can't handle there being a computer in my home which is not being used for something, (clever man, my father-in-law), I installed Carmen Sandiego and Python on there for him to play with, along with an e-book called Snake Wrangling For Kids. He's currently working through the book now, learning to program in Python.
I figure in about 6 months, he'll have built Skynet. God help us all.
Tweetaholic
- @grace134 don't question it, just savor each sweet snap-snap-pop...
- @Ieatmykidzsnack don't jinx it! Punxsutawney Phil is a vindictive mofo.
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- Please brain, forgive me for joining this conference call.
- My alarm went off this morning. I'd only been up for 45 minutes or so. #whybothersettinganalarmwhenyouhavetoddlers
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Posted via web from dwink | Comment »
New York, New York
The last time I went to NYC, it was for a conference. I brought along
Becky and Ben, and they went off to visit friends while I went to listen
to people talk about some Compliance thing or another. I don’t remember
much of the conference, to be honest, but I DO remember ditching it one
afternoon to walk around Central Park, Ben happily chasing his “Pumball”
(a wadded up piece of paper — yeah, he’s always been this way). It feels like a lifetime ago. Now, we have too many kids to bring them along, so it’s just me. I’m
going to work, and it’s cold outside. Probably will be so busy that I
won’t even make it over to Central Park, much less to wander around it.
Will be wearing dress clothes, and sitting in meetings, and maybe
getting some of the locals to show me something interesting after work. I’m thrilled to be going again, though. There’s something about NYC that
feels really good to me; maybe it’s that it is unabashedly City, that
it’s such a hodgepodge of buildings and nooks and crannies and people.
Or maybe it’s the streets and bridges whose names are famous nationwide, thanks to
Sex and the City and countless other movies and shows: FDR Drive, Park
Avenue, the Jersey Turnpike, Brooklyn Bridge — as a visitor, there’s
great novelty in seeing that you’re riding on these streets that have
been mentioned a million times. I imagine it’s the same feeling Chicago
visitors get about Michigan Ave or Lake Shore Drive. So, this time I intend to breathe in as much as I can while rushing from
airport to office to hotel and back to office again, embedding another
fond memory into my cortex to tide me over until the next time I get to
visit, because while Chicago is my home, I will always love New York.Posted via email from dwink | Comment »
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- SoccerMom on Why The iPad Isn’t The End Of Society As We Know It
January 24th, 2010 - 09:53
Skynet? He’s not evil enough for Skynet. Perhaps unlimited pizza or unintentional Dora porn (you’re welcome for the search terms), but not Skynet.
[Reply]
January 25th, 2010 - 13:10
Oh man….Carmen Sandiego is the best game ever! And how brilliant to teach him to program! Then you can hire him out and get some dough on the side!
[Reply]