Check out Duck Carnage for Android

A friend of mine released a new Android game entitled Duck Carnage.  The game is similar to the old school Duck Hunt, but a lot more fun!  The game is a great stress reliever!  I’m not usually a shoot-em-up type of gal, but I enjoy taking these ducks out of the sky!  As you progress through the levels, the backgrounds become more realistic and you are able to purchase new weapons. 

A bonus for this game is your young boys and girls will really enjoy it.  I’ve had a hard time finding games that are simple and straight to the point for my young son.  When we are on a road trip, he’s constantly asking if he can play “shooting games” or “boy games.”  Duck Carnage has been a life saver for those trips!  The game also helps develop motor skills as they have to follow the ducks on the screen and press quickly in order to shoot them.  The sound effects are easy on the ears, but if you are really in a quiet spot, there are options to disable sound effects.

The name of the game is a little misleading – no real carnage takes place.  No blood or excessive violence, just fun cartoony play time.  Check out Duck Carnage now in the Android market.

Unlimited Instant Videos with a Free Trial of Amazon Prime

image Amazon is offering unlimited instant online videos if you sign up for Amazon Prime.  Amazon Prime is a subscription service which gives you discounts on shipping and even free shipping options when you make purchases from Amazon.com.  This comes in very handy when Christmas rolls around!

It looks like Amazon is stepping up the ball in the online video streaming market share.  Hulu and Netflix are the other two big players.  Amazon is a versatile company, and it appears they are spreading their wings and keeping up with consumer demand. 

Give Amazon’s service a try and prepare to disconnect your cable/satellite service! 

Is Facebook Unhealthy for Your Children?

Is Facebook unhealthy for your children?  Larry Rosen, a psychologist at Cal State Dominguez Hills, thinks so.  He’s been studying the effects of technology on people for the past 25 years.  This time he’s turned to social networking and gaming among teenagers and children.  On Saturday, he made his case at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in Washington, D.C.

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Raising Gamers

world-of-warcraft-logo My teenage son went through a short phase (although it seemed to last forever) of gaming for long hours, avoiding showers for days, taking his food back to his room, and avoiding contact with us at much as possible.  Yes, he was in the throws of World of Warcraft, and the sudden emersion into this multiplayer fun-fest took him off his feet.  I could hear him laughing at all hours of the night, even though he would insist the next day that he was in bed by 10 p.m. 

My nagging for him to stop playing felt quite similar to the nag I used to give my husband when he was in the throws of yet another MMORPG.  I stopped nagging my husband years ago, when I realized that all that energy could be put into my own quality time.  If he was so involved in this hobby of his, then I decided to focus on my own hobbies and build my own life.  This is probably the most healthy approach for any relationship, although your marriage tends to grow in different directions. 

Yet, the focus away from the nagging worked.  I made sure to appreciate the times they did spend with me, and realized that they will grow tired of the newness of their current game, and will come back to the ‘real’ world.  My husband realized one day that he was missing a lot of my life, and didn’t really like the fact that I didn’t nag at him anymore.  The nagging meant he had some control over my feelings.  With that power gone, he couldn’t wait to get it back!  The entire experience evolved into a great lesson for me.  My happiness was no longer bound to what the people in my life said or did.  My happiness was under my control.

 

With this lesson being learned, I decided not to nag at my teenager, but use a different approach.  As a growing boy, I didn’t want him to subject himself to living a life of reclusion at a computer.  The thought of him growing into one of those pale, smelly gamers who only comes up from the basement briefly, was not a nice picture.  Here are some methods I used to help him transition out of this period nicely:

1.  He has to feed himself. I would not serve him food while he was playing.  If he couldn’t eat dinner at the same time as us, he would have to come up and heat up his own food.

2.  Emailed or texted him notes of appreciation or love.

3.  Watched him play.  There were times that I would go into his room, sit back on his bed, and chill out.  I tried to maintain a good conversation, but there were times where he was so far gone into a raid, that he would barely say anything.  But, even so, I enjoyed bothering him.

4.  Encouraged him to attend family outings.  Sometimes, I MADE him to do this, which involved threatening WoW account closure.

5.  Chore completion for monthly subscription fees.  I will admit I balked on this sometimes, as I’m not very good at insisting on chores.  As time wore on, I did get better and more of a stickler on this.

6.  Family vacations to the outdoors.  There is no better way to get your kids attention, than by taking them away from technology.  Camping is especially a great way to get them involved with the family. 

7.  Make it clear they know where you stand.  I told my son specifically that playing games exclusively in life will not bring him fulfillment.  I also told him that he would grow out of it, and when he does I’ll still be there, but in the meantime he still needs to be responsible for taking care of himself.  Bathing, eating and sleeping are basic life necessities.  If his gaming interrupts those, then he should take a break.

Overall, he listened.  He has since passed the obsessive gaming, and is more active in our family life.  He still uses his computer and phone a lot, but it has been a more positive experience than negative.  He has grown to be an amazing teenager, and I even think WoW helped him grow out of his cocoon.  He met some great friends during that time period, friends that he’ll probably know at least ‘virtually’ his entire life.

The great news is that I didn’t freak out about the whole thing.  I was able to continue living and raising him as I wanted.  Nagging has lost its luster for good.

Wikipedia Needs Contributors

Wikipedia, the virtual encyclopedia that is built on volunteer submissions, says it is losing contributors.

Founder Jimmy Wales says administrators are busy simplifying what he called "convoluted" editing templates that may be discouraging people from writing and editing Wikipedia’s entries. He was speaking to the Associated Press on Thursday Haifa, Israel where the the website’s annual conference is being held.

In another effort to encourage volunteers to stay active, Wales says the site has introduced a new feature called WikiLove that lets users post positive feedback.

The nonprofit organization that runs Wikipedia announced it is encouraging professors in India, Brazil and Europe to assign the editing and writing of Wikipedia entries to students.

Shake Your Desktop

windows7 Do you run multiple programs simultaneously on Windows 7?  If so, you’ve probably noticed how cluttered your desktop can get.  In Windows XP, to minimize every window on the screen, the quick launch menu had a nice little button called “Show Desktop.”  This instantly minimized every window.  With Windows 7, this is much more fun!

Windows 7’s Aero Shake feature allows you to minimize every window except the one in which you’re currently working in a single step. 

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Half of Netflix Users Connect through Gaming Consoles

Have console?  Will stream.  If you own a Wii, Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, the odds are you watch Netflix on them too.

A Nielsen survey of 12,000 online interviews finds half of all Netflix users connect through gaming consoles, such as the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or Nintendo’s Wii.

Eighty-nine percent of Hulu users  watch on their computers. Nearly three-quarters of Hulu users primarily watch TV shows, while only 11 percent of Netflix users watch TV shows.

Netflix users mostly watch video on their TVs rather on their computers, with only 42 percent watching on computers.

More than 15 billion videos were streamed in May, an all-time high.

Why You Should Fandango

fandangoThe summer blockbuster season is in full force, and you happily gather up your family for a movie outing.  Captain America has just released, and everyone is dressed up and ready to go.  All smiles and laughs until you get to the theater and realize the entire city had the same idea as you! 

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Supreme Court Says No to Video Game Law

It’s a great day for parental freedom.  The U.S. Supreme Court this morning struck down a California law that restricts the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. 

"Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion. The ruling was 7-2.

The Supreme Court’s ruling unambiguously reaffirms that video games, which have become increasingly complex and in some cases more expensive to produce than movies, also qualify for full First Amendment protection.

Government lawyers called attention to Postal 2, which lets players go on murderous rampages.

Scalia noted that books often viewed as suitable for high school students are full of violent material. "Certainly the books we give children to read–or read to them when they are younger–contain no shortage of gore: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed. As her just deserts for trying to poison Snow White, the wicked queen is made to dance in red hot slippers ’till she fell dead on the floor, a sad example of envy and jealousy.’"

The Entertainment Software Association, which represents the U.S. computer and video game industry, welcomed the ruling.

"Today, the Supreme Court affirmed what we have always known–that free speech protections apply every bit as much to video games as they do to other forms of creative expression like books, movies and music," said Michael D. Gallagher, ESA’s president and CEO of the ESA, in a statement. "The Court declared forcefully that content-based restrictions on games are unconstitutional; and that parents, not government bureaucrats, have the right to decide what is appropriate for their children."

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