Well, it is Friday, and none too soon I think. Rantwick Junior is testing for his Red belt in Karate at 530 today, so I'm hoping nothing delays me. Friday afternoons seem to have a special knack for surprising / delaying me.
Speaking of Rantwick Junior, I thought of him while reading the comments section of BSNYC; people were discussing this computer game called Minecraft that seems to be crazy popular right now. He's 11 and loves it too. The thing is, the game looks terrible and seems to have little point compared to most modern games, so people on the comment board were wondering why kids seem to like it so much.
I have had the exact same thought, and my theory is that kids like it because it has no "story" or "rules" or "levels". You just do stuff and make stuff and collect stuff and try not to die. Like life, except without school or work. The lack of structure and story and good graphics allows kids to use their imaginations to fill in the blanks. That combined with just using the computer seems enough to keep 'em hooked real good.
When I looked for a video to describe Minecraft, what do you know, they sell it based on precisely what I had thought, which makes the preceding paragraphs a pretty big waste of time, I guess. Sorry.
Minecraft seems to be almost open source stuff. Rantwick Junior sometimes asks about mods and plugins available out in minecraft forum land, and since I am a computer guy, I have tried to help him download and install mods and hacks and plugins with very little success. I think I need to devote more time to figuring out the platform and how these extra things work. Or not. Maybe it is just fine as is. Like trees. Trees are fine just the way they are.
Speaking of trees (he he he), I have some new ones for the contest! I have added them to the album and slideshow found on the entrants page.
Rlove2bike sent me these, with the following note:
I thought I would send you these two for entry into TARATS. These were taken in Bayfield, WI., home of the http://bayfield.org/bayfield-activities/bayfield-apple-festival/ I can see now that I am going to have to take TARATS a little more serious as the competition is a might bit stiff. But just like Cheese, Beer and Packer Football, how can we not take a tree in Bayfield seriously...I mean really.
I'm taking those trees seriously, for sure... you had me at cheese. Nice trees RL! Way to plug that apple festival too! I love apples and trees and festivals. Apples grow on trees and Bayfield has an apple festival and is not far from where I grew up, really. Wrong country, but still... if I were you, I would attend the apple festival in Bayfield WI if you can. I bet it is awesome.
Yer Pal,
R A N T W I C K 