Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

                                    I don’t play computer games beyond bridge and scrabble.   I do not do first person shooter games howevActivision Shame On Your for Call of Duty: World AT War er I have a friend who loves them.   He got Call of Duty:World At War for Christmas.  He wasn’t able to get it going on his computer.  I upgraded his video card to a 256mb video card to meet the specs of the game.  He exceeds all other specifications. Game still wouldn’t run.   I looked at myriad you-tube videos complaining about the game and offering suggestions as well as too many forums to count.   After tweaking and prodding and patching I got the game to run adequately.   Adequately compared to how well it runs on the X-Box.   I spent 2...

There is a school in NY City that is basing it’s entire curriculum on video games. The premise is that today’s wired kids can be better engaged through a medium that is home to them. NYC has a 39% drop out rate. Quest to Learn is hoping that this approach may be able to up their student retention level. Oddly enough I saw socialization results that mirror what they are seeing when my sons had the first cyber café in the area. Quest to Learn has discovered that kids with attention disorders can be reached through video games. At one point my sons had a Mom come in and buy her son 100 hours of computer time. She stated that she had seen more socialization progress in her ADD child the 6 weeks that Cyber-Stop had been open than she had in three years of therapy. As a former teacher and counselor, I saw kids engaged in problem solving and pushing their social skill to new positive levels. Therefore I am inclined to think that the Quest to Learn may have a winner. Edu...

The October issue of Wired magazine had a letter to Mr. Know-it-all from a father wanting to know if he should let his 10 year old son dress for Halloween as the main sleazeball character in Grand Theft Auto IV. Mr. Know-it not so much thinks he may send mixed messages to the poor brain damaged kid if he disapproves of him dressing like his sleazy character but lets him play the game. Mixed messages? This guy isn’t sending mixed messages, he is shouting loud and clear that he can give a damn about the emotional well being of his kid. Scream all you want Grand Theft Auto fans, kids shouldn’t be playing it. Kids do not have the experience or resilience to be exposed to the unsavory themes of this distributing game. Parents, it is ok to say NO! No matter how much they whine, complain, claim ALL their friends play it (maybe new friends are needed) you still can say NO! Parents have a responsibility to provide a wholesome as possible environment for children. Let college corrupt their behav...