Fun Times with Monkey Vines

Four Hundred Fourth Post: Fun Times with Monkey Vines (20080826)

When I was a kid about second to third grade my friend and I would go explore the woods. In the woods there was all kinds of things to explore and find things such as a tree stand or collecting rocks or insects. But the best thing was finding monkey vines.

In case you do not now, monkey vines are these vines that attach themselves to the top tree branches. When you find one that is in a clearing you then cut at the bottom and then you swing on it. We usually had trouble cutting the larger ones because we were using a Swiss Army knife, saw. (We had a Swiss Army knife because Macgyver always carried one with duct tape.)

Not much of a story here. I’m just thinking back to the interest in what nature held. I’m just noting the interest we view things as a kid.

But there is a question do kids go outside today? I know the importance of “screen time” (as Leo Laporte describes it). But other that boy and girl scouts, are kids missing out on things that aren’t electronic, video games, or related to the Web?

Someone once called my generation the Nintendo Generation. And I knew he was right. I once figured out how many hours I watched tv and played video games in my 5th grade standardize test and it came out to over 40 hours a week!

Of course it is what you do with the screen time that counts. Remember that 17 year old who found out how to change the service provide to one other than AT&T. That is all self taught. They don’t teach electronics in most high schools.

That is why you hear the game industry developing educational games. But today a lot of games already do that. For example, imagine a teen playing Madden. If he is just going to play it for hours its just a form of entertainment. But if he is into football and learns the plays, rules, formations, etc. he can use it at real football practice. So in effect, he is balancing “screen time” and “real time”.

Another application would be the math of the statistics of the football game. There is some serious math that goes into fantasy football. And why stop at football. Almost all games today come with a level editor. That teaches design, art, programming, math, etc. And then to flight simulators that can actually teach someone to fly.

So everybody needs to balance their screen time with their real time. I bring up this subject because I want to make computer game mods that will do just that: balance screen time and real time. It will be interesting to see if I can balance them myself will making mods.