No More New Timmys

I just saw on CNN.com that Don Herbert, better known as "Mr. Wizard" passed away today. I remember watching his show almost religiously on Nickelodeon. I remember it was the last cable channel we got at the time, 18. He introduced me to fascinating properties of the world and physics. He was probably the second most influential television personality at the time, no one can displace Fred Rogers. The two Misters of children's television. I salute you Mr. Wizard and thank you for all you have done.

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Fight to the Last

Well stick me with a fork, I am done. Just the other day I finished The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, the seventh in the Chronicles of Narnia Series. If you want you can read my takes on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth books.

This is the final book in the Narnia series, and it brings to a close the tale of almost all the characters you come to know and love in the series. It covers the last battle for the land of Narnia, and all those that reside in it. I’m not even going to go into the contents of the book much. This seems to be the most controversial book of the series, and it is also the only one to win the Carnegie Metal. It’s the one that should spark the most contemplation and discussion. I recommend reading it with your children and talking about it.

And now, on to other things in the ever growing pile of books.

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Linked Rings

Well I’ve plowed through one more and have only one left to go. I’m talking about finishing The Magician’s Nephew the sixth publication in the Chronicles of Narnia Series by C. S. Lewis. If you want to read them, the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth reviews are available.

This book was published fifth, but in the chronology it takes place first. In fact this is the book that explains how it all began, and why the other books are the way they are.

This book follows the children Digory and Polly. You may remember Digory as the professor in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Digory’s uncle sends the two children on a magical journey that leads to the origin of the White Witch, Narnia, and everything else that follows in the other books.

This book reminds me of Episode One form Star Wars. If it was the first story you saw, you probably wouldn’t be interested in the rest. Reading the other stories first plants questions that draw you through reading this one, despite it not being the most entertaining of the series.

Now It’s off to the last of the series.

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Making Them Drink

Considering the long pause it took me to finish my last book, I have quickly gotten to this one. I just finished reading The Horse and His Boy, the fifth publication in the Chronicles of Narnia Series. You can read the first, second, third, and fourth reviews there.

This book breaks form the previous ones in two ways. It is the first book to jump back in the timeline to a point before the end of the first book. It takes place during the Golden Age rule of the four kings and queens of Narnia. It is also the first book that doesn’t follow characters that enter Narnia from our world. Only Edward and Lucy of the original Pevensie children appear near the end of the story.

The book follows four characters, centering on one primarily. Shasta is the adopted son of a Calormene fisherman. He sets out from the home with Bree, a talking horse from Narnia who was enslaved. On the journey they encounter Aravis, a young noblewoman, and Hwin, her talking horse. They must overcome obstacles to reach their goal of escape to Narnia. On the way they learn more about each other and their past.

This book seems to have gotten a little closer to the entertaining with lessons formula. It should make good reading with children.

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Timpani Roll

I've had the Child's Play Charity banner at the top of the blog for weeks now. The drive is over and the totals are in. This year the charity raised over $1 million for games and such for childrens' hospitals over the world. A last minute rally drove the number above $1 million. That's an outstanding achievement for such a young charity targeting specific audience. Here's hoping the number will bring more publicity to the charity and make next Christmas' drive even better. I congratulate the organizers and all those who gave so freely.

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Seat of Government

In keeping with the reviews I’ve made of the first, second, and third books of The Chronicles of Narnia series, in order of publication, I’m writing up this one for The Silver Chair.

TSC is the fourth book in the series, if you go by the publication date, and it is also the first book that doesn’t include any of the original 4 Pevensie children. This book sees Eustace Scrubb from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader being joined by Jill Pole on a trip to Narnia. Eustace isn’t nearly so much of a twit in this book. They are given the task to find the lost son of Eustace’s old friend King Caspian.

This book continues the trend of becoming more thought provoking and complex. The 4 signs the children must follow on their quest are a good opportunity to think about context and different interpretations of phrases. Also this book shows a lot more Christian imagery and almost blatant discussion, especially with Aslan. It also becomes apparent that Lewis didn’t think much of some of the modern teaching environs. It’s still a great book with lots to stimulate conversation among families and friends.

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Beyond the Edge of the Horizon

Today I just finished The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, the third book I’ve read in The Chronicles of Narnia Series. If you want to see the other two reviews the first is here and the second is here.

TVotDT sees Edmund and Lucy making another journey to Narnia, along with their cousin Eustace. They arrive at the ship Dawn Treader and accompany King Caspian and crew on a journey eastward.

Actually I found this to be right behind The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in entertainment value. However, I think it surpasses it as a story full of lessons and insights that parents and children can talk about and share. It’s definitely a more advanced book with more advanced thoughts. It requires more leaps of logic to follow the hints of action, hence the recommendation of parents reading it with their children. Each of the islands and tests gives interesting lessons about life, but it also makes the story more formulaic. That is both beneficial and detrimental, making it different from the other stories. And now I’ll head on to the next in the series.

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Never being “It” again

What the hell is wrong with this country? I mean seriously. I just saw over at CNN that schools are banning Tag, touch football, and other chasing games from recess, because students could get hurt. My God people, of course they can get hurt. It’s called LIFE. What the hell do you want to do, raise your children like veal? Children get banged up. It’s part of life, and usually helps train them away from getting banged up worse later on. The elimination of recess and chasing games, it’s no wonder children are getting so fat. Maybe they have a really good reason for it, but fear of scrapes, bruises, and broken bones should not be some of them.

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Florida gets Bully’ed

I put a post up earlier about Rockstar, their new game Bully, and Jack Thompson. I didn’t cover the topic in all the detail I felt like, because it was getting too long as it was. Well as it turns out the Judge has watched several parts of the game instead of the whole thing, and has decided to decline the move to restrict the sale of the game in Florida. Jack Thompson of course declares it a miscarriage of justice. The Judge said the game is no worse than what is on television. Thompson probably wants to shut down most of that as well. Basically the Judge came up with the same ruling that I was thinking about. The game is free to be sold, and it’s the parents’ responsibility to monitor what their children play. Wow what a novel concept. Too bad more parents don’t follow it. If you let your kids do whatever they want then you don’t get to gripe about the activities they choose afterward. Here’s a novel idea. Why don’t you watch them play some of these games? I’ve played a couple of RPGs in my life, but I’ve spent more time watching friends play. I usually play the part of lookout and provide assistance in problem solving and direction choice. Of course all that is with permission of the person playing. It becomes a socializing event much like some of the online gaming has become. Now lets see what happens next.

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“I cut you so bad. You no wish I cut you so bad.”

“Those are some bad roaches.”

“I blame the schools.”

Rockstar Games has been in the news a lot over the years. They garner a lot of attention because they have published a lot of games that depict or involve the user in violence, like the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Revolver, Manhunt, etc. These games received a lot of finder and tongue wagging because “Depictions of violence are bad. MMkay.” In the past couple of years there was another big uproar about Rockstar. They were stupid enough to leave some code in the game that allowed a player’s character to have badly rendered and acted sex. The code wasn’t accessible in the normal game, but there are modders out there that live to make this kind of stuff work. Apparently it was alright for little Timmy/Tammy to shoot someone in the head, but God forbid he/she has poorly simulated sex on the screen. Basically it was a stupid mistake to leave the code in there to begin with, but the situation blew way out of proportion. The game was recalled, the code was removed, and the rating was upgraded. Which if parents had been paying attention to the rating in the first place young children wouldn’t have been playing the game. It just makes me angry and when I’m angry I ramble.

That got a small number of very noisy people worked up because they didn’t have any other way to make a name for themselves at the time or justify the existence of their organizations. They screamed that the ESRB, the organization that rates the games, had failed in their job. That started a whole bunch of bad legislation to “monitor” games, whose sole purpose was to waste taxpayers’ money and make it look like someone was doing something for the upcoming elections. Why bother trying to do something good when you can just make a showing. I say that, because most people in government knew the laws were unconstitutional to begin with. Haven’t we had that document tread upon a little too much in the past 6 years already? Personally I think the ESRB is doing a fairly decent job. They recently added punitive clauses to ratings agreements that allows them to fine companies for including material not disclosed to the ESRB. And more stores are following the ratings in refusing to sell some games directly to kids below the rated age level than previously. Plus I believe that there is no complicated situation that government regulation can’t screw up even more. The focus should be keeping it private, self regulating, encouraging store adherence, and educating parents. Maybe more lobbying will fix it with a little fight fire with fire. Think of the dent we could make in the deficit with the lobbying money spent in this country.

Anyway, it’s a complicated issue, which brings me to what I wanted to say. Rockstar has a new game coming out shortly, Tuesday in fact. It’s called Bully, and apparently it’s shoved a big hornets’ nest on a long stick up a bunch of people’s collective asses. Given Rockstar’s history of violent games and the “Hot Coffee” mod lots of people drew conclusions about the game way before anyone had played it. Now that is looks like it’s coming out, and some people have played it, their hyperbole about the game had shrunk, and they appear to be grasping at stuff to say about it. Surprisingly, Jack Thompson, of Penny Arcade fame (start at the second post on the page), gave an interview about the game and was surprisingly coherent, logical and showed some valid concerns. I think they may have finally gotten his medication straightened out. Well Jack has been spearheading a court case to allow him to see the game before it is released for sale. I’m not entirely sure why he and only he is qualified to judge the game for appropriateness, but apparently he is. I guess everyone else lacks the intelligence or moral fortitude to do it. So a Florida judge had ordered Bully brought to the court so that the judge can observe and direct someone playing the game. Considering the game is dozens of hours long, this could result in severe butt trauma. The real question is what does this mean for future games and other forms of entertainment. Will law suits and judicial review become standard fair for somewhat controversial games, movies, books, plays, TV shows, newspaper articles, etc? I’m waiting on the answers and hoping they will be good ones.

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