Ah…what a great time to discuss cookies!

The following story is true.  It would mortify my daughter if she knew I posted it.  My daughter doesn’t read this blog – something about a new South Park episode (hmmmm…) so until she does, please don’t tell her I told you this story.

Shopping – This Season’s Sporting Event

My daughter and I were out shopping – her favorite sport – and I got her two cookies.  One was peanut butter, the other chocolate chip.  Unlike me, she is able to control herself and the cookies were not eaten by the time we get home.  On reflection, I don’t know where this self-control comes from.  I guess her dad.

My daughter puts both cookies on the kitchen table and stares at them.

After what seemed like a long time to me (which means it was more than two seconds), I ask her why she is staring at the cookies.

C is for Cookie!

She says she only wants one cookie, but wants some peanut butter AND chocolate chip.  Oohhh…..I kept looking at her…until…finally….I unfortunately tell her she COULD have half of each.  Once I told her this, she looked very relieved.  And I felt that I let my own parents down.  My parents did a more "you can figure it out for yourself."  And I am GLAD they did.

Go Ask Alice

My grandfather used to quote me lines from "Alice in Wonderland."  Here was one of my favorites:

"One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don’t know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn’t matter." – Lewis Carroll

I am fascinated by the choices we have in life and work.  We typically say "good luck."  And some people seem to have better luck than others.  My opinion is their better luck has a lot to do with coming up with creative solutions and following that path.  Not the right or wrong path.  There are a few of those, but most of the paths are good, better, best.

Video Games Bring out the Explorer

This is what I love about REAL video games that let kids explore, try stuff out.  Find things, solve challenges.  And this is what our game designer (Duncan) did in ItzaBitza and ItzaZoo.  I got a mail message from a concerned parent that their kid was having difficulty figuring out a quest.  I emailed him back and said a little frustration is good.  Because he WILL figure it out.  And when he does, the feeling of success and power that brings to him will be worth it.  The parent mailed back and said (to my relief!)  this is exactly what happened.  I see as being a bit frustrated at times a very positive thing.  And good games – like ItzaBitza – have the ability to do this.  Just not too frustrated that you can’t figure something out – ever.