The Secret to Creating Minor Accounts for Your Kids on Game Center

It all begins innocently enough. You get your first Apple device (iPad, iPhone, etc.). You create your Apple ID to get started. You download a few free apps like Facebook and Words with Friends Free. You can play Words With Friends through Facebook but then Facebook will publish your moves. If you want to take a more incognito approach you create a Words With Friends Username linked to your email address. Using either method you can find your friends and challenge them to a game. What you don't realize is you have just created a whole new set of problems.

Your kids see you playing a game on your device and they want to play too. You download the Temple Run Free app. You tell them they can't buy coins because you don't want to pay for them to play a free game. Even if they wanted to buy coins they couldn't because they'd need to enter your Apple ID for in-game purchases and you keep it a closely guarded secret.

The kids decide to download DragonVale Free because all their friends are playing it and it sounds like a lot of fun. They play the game obsessively for several weeks and get to Level 24. Then the kids realize they can find their friends on DragonVale. Now they'll be able to visit their friends' parks, give them gems and see their dragons!

This is when the real trouble starts. To be found on DragonVale the kids have to tell their friends their Game Center Nickname. They realize their Game Center Nickname is the same as your Words With Friends Username. You thought "sexymom13" was a funny username when you created it - and it wasn't already taken! Your kids, on the other hand, are not amused.

I must confess my ignorance at this point. I did not fully realize the significance of Game Center. I knew I had the Game Center app pre-installed on my iPad but I had no idea what it was. When I started playing Words With Friends I only played through the app. I didn't play other games so I figured I had no reason to use Game Center. I installed the Words With Friends app on both my iPad and Android smartphone and I could access my games on either device. My Android smartphone doesn't have Game Center so how important could it be?

I must also admit I was too weak to tell the boys they couldn't use Game Center. That would have solved many of our problems but where's the fun in that? As far as I can tell if you need an internet connection to play your game then it's a multi-player game and you need to use Game Center. If you don't need internet to play your game then your progress is stored locally on your device and you can ignore Game Center. Most games can be played locally and provide hours of fun. But no, I opened the can of worms that is Game Center so I will continue with my story.  

Game Center is the key to online multi-player social gaming on your Apple device. Game Center is how you connect with friends (and potential online predators), send friend requests, organize online multi-player games, and check out your friends' achievements and points. I had never knowingly used Game Center on my iPad so I'm not quite sure how it happened but I discovered I had a Game Center Nickname that is identical to my Words With Friends Username. This is significant because your Game Center Nickname is the nickname you use for all your multi-player games. This would prove to be my downfall once I had multiple people sharing my iPad to play games.

First John decided he didn't like my Game Center Nickname and wanted his own. Then Nathan decided to use the allowance and gift money he saved to buy an iPod Touch. I discovered my Game Center Nickname was tied to my Apple ID so I thought the solution would be to create a separate Apple ID for each child. That wasn't a great solution because you need an email address to create an Apple ID and you can't get an Gmail account for a child under the age of 13. I went to the Apple Store, described my problem and was told the only way to create another Game Center Account was to lie about my child's date of birth so I could create a new email account. That is incorrect! The Apple Store Genius I spoke to wasn't a genius after all.

After searching the internet I discovered you can create Minor Accounts in Game Center. Here's what you need to do to create separate Game Center Accounts for each child in your family, all linked to the same Apple ID;

1. Click on the Game Center app.
2. From the main menu, click on the "Account" banner. This should be the email address for your Apple ID.
3. From the pop-up window, click on "Sign Out".
4. From the main menu, click on the banner that says "Create New Apple ID". You don't really want to create a new Apple ID but click on it anyway.
5. From the pop-up window, confirm your location.
6. Enter the date of birth for your child. This is where you can create a Minor Account for a child under the age of 13.
7. A new pop-up window will display the rules for the minor account. You can have the rules emailed to you. Click on the "Agree" banner and then on the "Terms & Conditions" pop-up window.
8. Now you can create a Game Center Nickname and password for your child. The new nickname will be linked to your Apple ID and password. You can then select the privacy settings you want for your child. 
9. Keep the new nickname and password in a safe place. I've read on a few discussion forums that Apple cannot help retrieve lost Minor Account information.

Once the kids have their own Game Center Nicknames they can play each other on multi-player games. John can visit Nathan's DragonVale park and see Nathan's high score on Jetpack Joyride. They can also play the same multi-player game at the same time on different devices tied to my Apple ID. When the boys were sharing my Game Center Nickname the first person to start Gizmonauts was the only one who could play at that time.

One serious downside to the new Game Center Nicknames is that ongoing multi-player games cannot be transferred between Game Center Nicknames. This means that a child who has made it to DragonVale Level 24 and accumulated a lot of limited time or rare dragons will be forced to start over at Level 1 with their new nickname. This may bring your child to tears.

So there you have it. You may decide you don't want your kids to use Game Center. But if you do let them use Game Center to play multi-player games then they will need their own Game Center Nicknames. It's best to give them their own Nicknames early on before they start accumulating game history. It can also prevent the embarrassment of being known as "sexymom13" on the playground.

[Disclaimer: My Game Center Nickname/Words With Friends Username is not really "sexymom13" but that name made Johnny laugh the loudest when we were writing this blog entry. Everything else in this entry is true.]

Going paperless

I have vivid memories of going to the library when I was in grad school back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There were so many books and journals the bookshelves were on tracks so they could be packed together as densely as possible. If you wanted to retrieve a book you would manually roll the shelves apart to open a gap large enough to walk between them. I recall thinking there was so much information on those bookshelves and the volume would continue to increase exponentially every year. I worried about the trees. I worried whether the floors were sturdy enough to hold the books. I worried about being crushed between the shelves.

Flash forward to the 2010s. Despite my job teaching at the University of Arizona, I haven't set foot in the university library for years. It's not that I don't use the library. In fact I use it almost every day when I'm writing lectures and teaching. The difference is that I do everything online from the comfort of my own home or office. I scroll through journals rather than thumbing through them. While I miss the smell of the books and breaking in new bindings I don't miss trudging across campus only to find the issue I need missing from the bookshelf. As long as I have internet, the electronic version of the paper is always available for me.

In November 2011 I bought my husband a new-to-the-market Kindle Fire for his birthday. He's an avid reader and has bookshelves full of books. I thought it might be time for us to embrace the electronic reader. About a month later he bought me a iPad. Then he declared we'll never need another bookshelf in the house. I think he might be right.

The boys love to read and have bookshelves full of Magic Treehouse, 39 Clues, Harry Potter, Oh Yuck! and other beloved books. We go to the library about twice a month to fill up our book bag. We donate old books and try to buy used books when we need an actual book. I'm proud to say my 10-year old knows how to look up words in a real, physical, paper dictionary. That skill may be akin to hooking a horse up to a buggy but I'm proud nonetheless. The boys are open to reading electronic books but they still like actual books and I'm fine with that. I do look forward to the day when electronic readers consolidate reading materials for school so the boys don't have to lug around such heavy backpacks.

My parents are even starting to embrace the electronic age. When they first started using email they would print every message they received, as it were a valuable fax or a telegram. My dad suggested getting my mom an iPad for her birthday last year. I think he may like it more than she does. They use the iPad to read the news, post on Facebook and check sport scores. The iPad is especially useful to them when they travel so they can keep up to date on the hometown news. Neither one uses it to read books.

My husband's brother, who is an earlier adopter than we are, gave my in-laws Kindle Keyboards in 2010. My father-in-law reads the New York Times or other out-of-town newspaper on it as well as an occasional book, which he purchases. My mother-in-law will read an inexpensive book on it when she is traveling. So my in-laws are open to going paperless for reading news and books. However, my father-in-law writes a letter to us every week. Sometimes there are local newspaper clippings enclosed. He used to hand-write the letters but now he composes them on his computer and prints them out. I always had trouble reading his handwriting so I applaud the upgrade to computer-generated text. He signs the letter, places it in an envelope, puts a stamp on it and drops it into a mailbox. Each week we look forward to that letter. My husband keeps every single one of them.

After I got my iPad I made a vow to go paperless. Well, I can't imagine being totally paperless but I'm trying to significantly reduce the amount of paper I use and generate. I no longer print out every journal article I want to read. I grade student papers electronically rather than having them turn in hard copies. It's been an adjustment and sometimes I yearn for paper, a pen and a yellow highlighter but I'm trying to adapt and move forward.

Here is the current status of my very own personal quest to be paperless:

Things I like about being paperless;
1) Electronic editions of my magazines: I love reading Entertainment Weekly and People on my iPad. My annual subscription comes with free access to the electronic edition. I can download the newest issues on Wednesday night even though the paper copy doesn't arrive in the mail until Friday afternoon. My paper copies generally go straight into the recycling bin. Sadly, you can't subscribe to the electronic edition without getting the paper copy. However, see #1 on my "Reasons I don't want to be 100% paperless right now list" below.

2) Back-lit iPad screen: Whatever I'm reading generates its own light! Poor lighting no longer discourages me from reading in a comfy chair. I hated being tethered to my Itty Bitty Book Light when I read in bed. When I'm traveling there never seems to be an electric outlet by my side of the bed so I would have to bring along a battery pack. The freedom afforded by my back-lit screen is worth every penny.

3) Using and generating less paper: I'm getting more comfortable reading journal articles and grading papers electronically. I'm also glad the elementary school has converted to an electronic newsletter. There are now fewer paper notices coming from the school. Most of what does come home ends up going right into the recycling bin. With the electronic newsletter I can just print out and save the things I want.

4) Fewer catalogs arriving in the mail: I used to get stacks of mail order catalogs in the mail. Now that most companies have online catalogs they've stopped mailing the hard copies. While I did enjoy thumbing through them when I had free time they often just sat in piles waiting for me to look at them and reminding me I had not.

5) I don't have a great paper filing system: What am I supposed to do with all that paper I accumulate? There are work-related papers, bills, bank statements, receipts, invitations, recipes and more. I imagine I'm supposed to sort through the papers and file them in the appropriate place. The problem is I'm not that organized. If I can't figure out what to do with a particular paper I stuff it in my filing cabinet and then I can't find the paperwork I need when I need it. I can find things far more easily if they are sent to me electronically. Gmail gives me a huge amount of space for my email. I never ever throw out a single email message and I'm only at 65% of my capacity. So any time I want to find information in my gmail archive I just have to search and there it is. If gmail charged me for this service it would be worth every penny. It's free so it's even better.

6) Less clutter: Going paperless has reduced the amount of clutter on my desk and in my house and office. Don't get me wrong - I still have clutter. It's just not piles and piles of paper.

7) Lighter travel bag: When we go on trips I don't have to carry around heavy stacks of magazines and books. That makes my carry-on bag or suitcase lighter. I do have to plan ahead though and make sure everything is loaded on my iPad in case I don't have internet access wherever I'm going.

Reasons I don't want to be 100% paperless right now;
1) I'm not taking my iPad to the beach: I don't want to worry about getting water or sand on my iPad. I don't want to worry about leaving my iPad behind when I go in the water or for a walk along the beach. I'd much rather take along a magazine or book and then I don't have to worry.

2) The morning paper: Call me old fashioned but I like to have the paper delivered to the house. The first thing Johnny does when he wakes up is look for the comics. I like leafing through the local paper while I eat breakfast. That's an old habit that will die hard. 

3) I don't like reading electronic books: I've tried but I just don't enjoy reading electronic books. I like flipping pages. I like feeling the book in my hands. I suppose it's the way of the future but I will be dragged kicking and screaming along the way.

4) Will the kids read or play games?: My boys haven't shown much interest in electronic books. We downloaded a few free books when I first got my iPad. Then I noticed they abandoned the books they were reading in favor of playing Temple Run or Angry Birds. They're older now and perhaps I need to give it another try. One big problem I've encountered is the limited availability of electronic books they want to read. It's much easier for them to pick a book off the shelf at the library and read it immediately. The good electronic books have long waiting lists. I'm not buying electronic books for someone who reads as much and as quickly as Johnny does.

5) Paper reminders: As much as I like my electronic devices I like physical reminders of the things I need to do. I write my daily "To Do" lists on paper. I tried using Astrid to organize my To Do list on my electronic devices but it took much more effort than just putting pencil to paper. I also tried Grocery IQ for my shopping list. I had two problems with Grocery IQ. First, it took longer to put together my electronic shopping list and second, my phone battery always seemed to die during while I was at the store. I prefer my bills to be organized in chronological order based on due date. I was forced to go paperless for some of my credit cards but I always end up printing the bills so I have the physical reminder. I also like to have paper reminders of school-related items for the boys. I have the school lunch menu on the fridge. I have the Funfest wristband and ticket order form on my desk so I remember to fill it out. I put the field trip memo on the wall next to the calender so I remember which day Nathan has to wear his class shirt and and what items he has to bring along.

6) I don't have a great electronic filing system:  My paper reminders are a crutch because my electronic information isn't well-organized. I can rely on search to find information but I only remember to look for the information if I have a physical prompt.

7) Airplane take-off and landing: I don't fly very often and I like flying well-enough but I find that period of time when they make you turn off electronic devices to be interminable. You're squished in your seat and you know you'll be stuck there for several hours. And then the turbulence starts and babies are crying and you really just want something to take your mind off of things. At that point you've even been forced to stash your noise-cancelling headphones. You can reach for a paper magazine or book but you can't turn on your electronic device.

I'm no longer as worried about the trees. I know the floors can withstand the weight of my smaller piles of paper. And now I won't be crushed between the rolling bookshelves because everything is drifting up into The Cloud.

John's Game Review: Minecraft pocket edition free

 This is the worst game I have ever played. You only get 28 materials but 10 are blocks of different colored wool and 4 of them are tools. Everything considered, you can only build with 14 things. And that's in creative. When you fly, your feet only go a block off the ground.

My rating: It's not even worth it.

Oh no, we caught up to real time!

Has someone ever given you a gift and you had absolutely no idea what it was but it totally changed your life forever? That happened to me in 1999 when my husband gave me my first Tivo for the holidays. At that point I was recording my TV shows on a VCR and re-using the VHS tape over and over until it stretched and the picture quality degraded. I had a system and it worked for me. Little did I know how much I needed Tivo.

My husband hacked that first Tivo right out of the box, replacing the puny hard drive with the largest one he could buy. Then he set up the Tivo in the living room for its trial run. I was dazzled by the ability to time-shift, fast-forward through commercials, replay a missed line of dialogue, and watch live TV while recording another show. I'm a control freak and now I was in control of my TV! I forgave my Tivo when it was fed incorrect scheduling information by the cable company. I missed my Tivo dearly when I was forced to watch live TV while on vacation. Eventually my husband bought his own Tivo so he could record auto racing, Junkyard Wars, and other things that conflicted with my shows or filled up my hard drive. We are now on our third Tivo. This one has two tuners, it can find shows over internet, and I can control it with my iPad.

I don't think my father will ever become comfortable with the Tivo time-shift. My husband, on the other hand, likes to start watching basketball games after they start so it will only take about 20 minutes to watch the first half. Then you can get something done during half time and still have a little time left before you have to start watching the second half. But time-shifting makes my father anxious. He's always a bit on edge when watching a sporting event with us and knowing we're behind real time. At that very moment other people around the country know what the actual score is and he doesn't and he blames Tivo. I decided not to pay too much attention to his complaints after I caught him watching an old Boston Red Sox baseball game on ESPN Classic. He thought it was live. Talk about a time-shift!

My children have never known life without Tivo. When they were little I could make sure they only watched 30 minutes of TV at a time. I would start a show for them and they would come running when it ended. Johnny learned to alphabetize when he had to find Blue's Clues in the list of shows. Nathan learned Phineas doesn't begin with an "F" by searching the list.

Tivo is now a dependable member of the household, gathering and organizing our TV shows while we're at school or work, when we're out of town and even when we're asleep. Phineas and Ferb is broadcast at 5:30 AM but the boys can sleep peacefully knowing that Tivo will have it available whenever they're ready to watch it. I do find it strange to see how much the boys like watching commercials. They tell me the commercials (like the one where Geico lizard has a flat tire) are often better than the auto racing or football they are watching with dad. My husband is grateful he has Tivo when he watches a show with the boys. The boys are usually talking and asking him questions about the show and he has to re-wind to so he can hear what he missed.

Perhaps more than anything Tivo has taught me to be open to new technology. I still prefer buying music CDs to MP3s and I continue resisting Twitter but I admit I really like my smartphone and iPad. We should keep looking forward because the transistor radio and the payphone booth aren't coming back. You may not know what the newfangled gizmo is and why you need it but it might just change your life. 

John's Game Review: Doodle Jump HD free

In Doodle Jump, you jump from platform to platform by moving the iPad and trying not to hit enemies or fall. To shoot enemies, tap on them. There are four different themes: regular, space, Halloween, and winter. There are also jetpacks, trampolines, springs, propeller beanies, and rockets to help you go higher.

My rating: 4 out of 5

Almost Lost in Translation: Nathan's Favorite Games

When I first proposed the idea of a tech blog to Nathan, my 7-year old son, he told me he didn't want to participate. But now he's changed his mind. I think he was initially drawn to participate after he saw John include game rating icons in his game reviews. Nathan wanted to pick his own icons and rate his own games. Sibling rivalry is dependable motivator.

My plan was to ask Nathan what he liked about his favorite games thinking I could just type as he spoke, doing a little light editing and summarizing as we went along. That's where things got interesting. When I read back what I wrote he would start laughing and say, "No, no, no. That's not right!" I have never played any of these games myself. This meant he had to simplify and clarify his explanations so they made sense to someone with no prior knowledge. Most of his explanations were lost in translation. There's a big difference between doing something and explaining something. Occasionally we had to bring in John to translate some of the finer points. 

In the end I found this to be a fun exercise. So often I'll pick the boys up and school, I'll ask how their day went and they'll reply "fine" without any further elaboration. But if I ask them about their video games they will give me more details than I generally want to hear. Asking Nathan what he likes about the games gave him a chance to work on his communication skills with me and we got to spend some quality one-on-one time together. And now I know what he's doing when he's playing his games :)

Games: 
1) Gizmonauts (iPod Touch and iPad): It's like Dragonvale but you have robots and you're in space. You can clear out stuff and find mowhawks for your robots. If the robot gets to level 5 you can get toys, like a saw for a builder bot, or a mowhawk or microphone for a perform bot, or a banjo for a rock bot. 
My rating: 5 out of 5 

2) Dragonvale (iPod Touch and iPad): You get dragons and you can breed them to get different dragons. It's like Gizmonauts with dragons instead of robots. When you get an egg you can hatch it, put it on a pedestal or sell it. You can buy things like flower boxes with coins or dragons with gems. You get goals and once you do the goal you get coins, gems and XP. XP helps you go to the next level so you can get more stuff. 
My rating 4 out of 5 

3) Minecraft (PC): Everything is blocks. You can dig in the side of a mountain and make houses. You can even make a floating house by putting a house in a tree and then destroying the tree. You can slaughter cows and pigs and chickens and then you can eat them in survival. (Note: Slaughter is my word, Nathan said "kill". I didn't think that was appropriate but he thought kids might not know what slaughter means.) In creative you never die and you don’t need to eat – you are invincible and have infinity stuff.
My rating 4 out of 5 

4) Temple Run 2 (iPod Touch and iPad): It’s like Temple Run except you’re in the sky and you’re getting chased by a giant monkey. You find gems and coins along the course to buy stuff. You can buy new characters with the gems. You can also use coins to buy gadgets like a coin magnet.
My rating 5 out of 5 

5) Subway Surfers (iPod Touch and iPad): It’s like Temple Run but you’re on subway tracks. A sheriff is trying to catch you. In different places there are dump trucks that have dirt dumped out of them. You can go up on the dirt and then get on top of the subway trains. I don’t know how to do the surfing part yet.
My rating 5 out of 5 

6) Hill Climb Racing (iPod Touch and iPad): You get a Jeep and the wide open countryside with hills to start. You get coins along your track and when you jump off hills you get an air times. You get coins for the jumps. Insane air time will get you the most coins. You can get different levels and vehicles with the coins.
My rating 4 out of 5

Educational:
1) Essential Skeleton (for the iPad): You can see the different parts of your body. You can tap a part of your body like a tooth and tap “erase others” and then you can see the tooth by itself. You can turn the skeleton around and it’s like it’s dancing. You can also make your siblings (Note: Sibling is his word, not mine), if you have any, guess what the body part is that you chose. You can also read about the parts of the skeleton.
My rating 5 out of 5 

2) My Math Flash Cards App (iPod Touch and iPad): I need to do flash cards for homework. These are good because you choose addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. 
My rating 4 out of 5  

3) Tell Time Little Matchups Game (iPod Touch and iPad): I'm learning to tell time at school and this is a good game. You have to match the digital clock to an analog clock or an analog clock to a digital clock.
My rating 4 out of 5 

 

Screen Time: Mom versus Son Point-Counterpoint

Screen time is a major source of debate in our house. At some point my husband and I decided 30 minutes of screen time a day was appropriate for the kids. That used to mean one episode of Blue's Clues or Dora the Explorer. Now it means 30 minutes of video games. So I went out and bought a timer so we would know when the 30 minutes is up. The kids claim the 30 minute time limit is totally unfair. John proposed letting readers of our blog vote for a winner but I pointed out I have a Facebook account (with which I could recruit voters) and he doesn't. In the end we agreed to listen with open minds to comments in response to this post. Here are the statements of our positions. I'm going first since I know the password for our blog account.

Randi's Position: 30 minutes a day is enough
I recognize the demands of elementary school are stressful. There are timed math tests, spelling tests, homework, band rehearsal, cub scouts, taekwondo, football and baseball. There are also beds to be made, clothes to be picked up off the floor and tables to be set and cleared. I get it - a kid needs some time to relax and unwind by playing some video games. But I have four fundamental issues that come up when I try to enforce the 30 minute policy;

1) "Wait, I'm not done yet!"
The 30 minute timer beeps. I hear it and I'm fairly sure the kids can hear it. But I look over and see they're still playing. I ask why they haven't stopped if the timer is beeping. They tell me they need more time to finish their current race or save their progress or some other excuse. Shouldn't 30 minutes mean 30 minutes and not 30 minutes plus the time it takes to finish whatever you started at 29 minutes and 59 seconds?

We had an ingenious parental control program for Windows on the PC called Times Up Kidz! We used it when John was playing Skylanders Spyro's Adventure. You can set the amount of time per day for each kid. The program runs in the background while they're playing and gives them a warning when there are 5 minutes left. Too bad there isn't a similar program for Nintendo or the iPad. 

2) The Time Warp
Here's a little math problem for you. If your child started playing video games at 4:00 PM and it is now 4:30 PM, how can they have 15 minutes left on the timer? Apparently the answer is you don't count the time it takes to download a new game, to switch between games or to wait for a program to load in the 30 minute total. When they're not actually playing a game they pause the timer. I must applaud their creativity but I don't buy it.

3) Grouchy Gamers
Call me crazy but you'd think the kids would have so much fun playing video games they'd be deliriously happy at the end of their 30 minutes. Hah! Guess again. They're mad they have to stop. They complain and they whine and they make accusations about my parenting abilities. Is there any way to win this battle?

4) Computer Homework
I know the teachers mean well but sometimes the kids are assigned computer homework. It's all innocent enough. Nathan might have to read a book and take a quiz on Raz-Kids or Johnny might have to do some math problems on IXL. Should their computer homework count as part of their 30 minutes of screen time? The biggest problem here is when the kids have lost computer time for bad behavior and then they are assigned computer homework. Does the teacher get to override my authority?

By the way, I'm not totally hardcore about the 30 minute a day limit. My kids know they get extra time on long car rides or plane trips. They actually look forward to being stuck in their seat for hours at a time for this very reason. Also, I'm making an exception so John can be encouraged to write his blog entries without using up his 30 minute limit. Shouldn't these exceptions qualify me for Mom of the Year?

John's position: 
I think we should get at least 45 minutes on weekends because it's supposed to be a time to unwind.My mom is saying that she thought I would go for 2 hours. Honestly, can you believe it? I'm fine with the 30 minutes on weekdays, but I don't think loading time and downloading more games should count because we're not playing games. I don't think computer homework should count because sometimes my teacher says,"30 minutes IXL", and then we would have wasted all our time doing homework and wouldn't get to play any video games.

We hope you will take some time and post your opinion.

John's Game Review: Paper Toss 2.0

This is truly one of the wackiest games I've played. You throw random stuff into a trash can and annoy your colleagues. So far I can throw paper, tomatoes, flying saucers, watermelons, bouncy balls, and footballs. I'm trying to get the stapler, and my brother is trying for the flaming paper. Tomatoes and watermelons explode on contact, which makes it a little harder to get it into the trash can.

TIPS:
1) Boss does not mean it is the hardest, it just means you are in the bosses room.
2) If you choose "intern", you are trying to hit a moving target.
3) The only way to wake the boss up is to hit him in the face with a tomato or a watermelon.
4) Try aiming for the boss's coffee cup or the treasure chest in the fish tank.

My rating: 5 out of 5

John's game review: Ninjump HD Free (free)

Ninjump is a game in which you run up two vertical walls and try to avoid obstacles such as enemy ninjas, ninja birds, ninja squirrels, balconies (you slam into them), and throwing stars. It is impossible to fall unless you get hit or hit an obstacle. If you fall you die and then you have to start over. When you jump between the walls, you swing your sword and slice the stars, birds and squirrels. When you slice three of the same thing in a row (e.g., three birds) , something special happens. REMEMBER, enemy ninjas cannot be sliced!!!!!!!!!!!!

My rating: 4 stars out of 5

Introducing "Roaming in the Desert"

Not long ago I realized the only way I was going to have a deep and meaningful conversation with my 10-year old son, John, was if the topic was Pokemon. He is passionate about his video games and he loves to read but he hates writing. I thought this blog would be a way for us to meet in the middle. I could explore some of the technological issues facing our family and he could have a venue for writing about his love of technology. We'll see how it goes.

I'm calling this blog "Roaming in the Desert" because I'm aware that technological change happens faster in the big cities than it does in towns like Tucson. My technological challenges are therefore different than what you might experience in a densely populated area. Last summer, as we drove from New York to Maine, the kids were happily playing Club Penguin on my husband's laptop in the back seat of the car. This was all made possible because my husband turned his cell phone into a mobile wi-fi hotspot. That is generally not an option on our car trips in Arizona. You can't make a wi-fi hotspot in the Salt River Canyon because there's no cell phone coverage. Heck, you can't even get FM radio reception in the Salt River Canyon!

I'm not a technophile and I'm not a technophobe. I'm just trying to navigate the onslaught of technology invading my life and my home. We're not on the bleeding edge of technology and I wouldn't necessarily consider us early adopters. But somehow these devices keep finding their way in and they cannot be ignored.

Living in the desert southwest I often find myself in places without wi-fi or cell phone coverage. I'm guessing big city people don't even need to worry about this on plane flights any more. However, I seem to fly in and out of Tucson and Phoenix on the only planes in the fleet not equipped with wi-fi. I also find myself resigned to "airplane mode" on much of the 5-hour drive to the Imperial Sand Dunes, the 3-hour drive to Apache Lake and the 4-hour drive from the U.S. border to San Carlos, Mexico. I mention these places because they are my husband's favorite places to go so we visit them often. Once I get where I'm going I often have spotty cell phone coverage or wi-fi. I can only get reliable cell phone coverage at the sand dunes early in the morning when everyone else is sleeping. The wi-fi signal is so weak in the hotel room at the ski resort on the Apache Indian Reservation or in our beach-front rental in San Carlos I can't even play Words With Friends or check Facebook. Sigh, life is rough.

I admit cell phones, wi-fi and the internet do make it easier for us to stay in touch with distant family and to travel to remote places. My parents got their first email account around the time I went to Antarctica in 1996. I was able to send them email on an almost daily basis so my mom wasn't too worried I was going to fall in a crevasse and die. When my husband and I went to Portugal a few years ago we were able to Facetime our sons, even though our sessions generally devolved into the boys pointing the camera up their noses.

To conclude our first blog entry I asked John to give me his list of his favorite video games. However, the challenge was to give me two lists, one when he has internet access and one when he does not. Here are the results:

John's top games when internet is available:
1) Dragonvale (iPad)
2) Gizmonauts (iPad)
3) Minecraft (PC)

John's top games when there's no internet:
1) Pokemon HeartGold (Nintendo DS)
2) Papertoss 2.0 (iPad)
3) Ninjump (iPad)