Exhibitionism - I Passed It On

I have always craved attention, despite being pretty shy for most of my life. Even now I'm not exactly a social butterfly. But that's not the same as craving attention... you don't need to know people in order to want them to notice you. The result is a blogging cycling weirdo with a cam on his head and rantwick.com stickers on his bike. It does no harm, I get my fix and everybody's happy, or close enough. I'm totally cool with it and Mrs. Rantwick has accepted it as part of loving someone as awesome as me.

Anyway, it would seem one of my little apples has fallen rather close to the tree in this respect. Rantwick Junior, a kind young man who in his early years displayed heart warming messages inside the house has moved on to "look at my achievement" messages outside the house.

The Sidewalk Skill:

The Sidewalk Message:

The good news: He ain't no liar. I've seen him go that far. Honesty, sometimes to excess, is another quality we share. He can also do a bunch of freaky tricks that impress and scare other parents. I love it when they're scared most of all. Holy crap, do I ever love that kid.

Toot that horn, my man. Yeah!

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - That makes two posts in a row about my son... please don't worry. I will return to incoherent ramblings about cycling and foliage right away.

PPS - Mrs. Rantwick has noticed that I like ascribing qualities in our children to one or the other of us, while her preference is to see them as individuals who would be wonderful with our without us. She is so wrong. They are wonderful in the ways we are wonderful, and bad in the ways their friends are bad, and their friends are bad in the ways their parents are bad. It is as clear as day to me; I don't understand why Mrs. Rantwick can't see it.

Minecraft, plus TARATS Entries 15 and 16

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