game

Endless Uno

| patmcg

Molly, Kari, and I had the world’s longest Uno game. It lasted well over two hours.

Molly and Kari both “almost” won several times, just to be dashed by a wildcard or a +2. It got ugly at times. When I betrayed Molly with a +2 card, she said, “I thought we were friends, Dad.” with that perfect Molly deadpan delivery. 😆

We played songs on the HomePod to reflect the mood. I asked Siri to play, “I Don’t Care Anymore” by Phil Collins. We all just wanted it to end.

We ate Tootsie Rolls to keep our strength up.

Eventfully Kari won the night with a sneak run and a small mistake on Molly’s part (or was is mine?).

Maybe next time we’ll play Ticket to Ride. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Clueless ROBLOX Dad

| patmcg

This is me in Roblox. This pic pretty well describes how I feel in that game. I’m just thinking “What is going on here?!” And then some random player wants to be my girlfriend. So weird (and, no thanks).

Molly and Claire are great tour guides. Molly is so patient and wants to show me the whole world! This pic is from Royale High, one of Mollys favorite games at the moment.

As a side note, Claire has been calling me “Bloxy Dad”.  I call her “Bloxy Teen”.  And Mollys is, somehow, “Alex”.

Life Lessons from Monument Valley

| patmcg

A few weeks ago, I got hooked on the iPhone game Monument Valley.  It is a beautiful, simple, fun game full of puzzles and optical illusions.  I showed it to Claire, and she wanted to try it out for herself.

monument_valley

As Claire got stuck in the game and needed some guidance, I found myself coming up with a few simple rules to help her out.  On reflection, these rules are just applicable to real life as to the game.  Here is how to win at Monument Valley and in life.

  • Keep moving toward your goal until you get stuck.
  • When you get stuck, figure out what specifically you can change about your situation.
  • Change things one at a time until you are moving forward again.
  • What you change often depends on knowing where you want to be and where you have been.
  • Repeat until you reach your goal.

I just wish the real world were as beautiful as the game.

And don’t even get me started on life lessons from the Civilization games.  I could write a book on that.

Angry Birds

| patmcg

Angry Birds
The birds want their eggs back from those mean pigs!

After a couple of years of playing with mildly entertaining video games and websites, Claire has now gotten into her first real game.  Her favorite game is everyone else’s favorite at the moment: Angry Birds!  This is a great action/puzzle  game that is often pretty challenging.  We were a little hesitant to let Claire get “into” video games, but I think there are some good things about it.  Angry Birds clearly requires logical reasoning and lots of experimentation.  It also requires patience and persistence, which, in my opinion, are just as important as reading/writing/math.  Personally, I would rather see Claire attacking a tough Angry Birds level than passively watching TV.  Both need to be in moderation, of course.

Claire doesn’t get a whole lot of time to play.  She squeezes in a little time between school, family time, errands, play dates, etc.  She mostly plays in the car when I’m driving her to pick up Molly after school.  Once we pick up Molly, I have to reclaim my phone.  The two girls tend to swap toys and things in the back seat, and I do not want my precious iPhone in Molly’s hands — or mouth, or thrown on the ground — as tends to happen. Claire occasionally plays at home too, but she can’t wander around with my phone or give it to Molly.  Yes, I’m pretty protective of my phone.  I’m trying to nudge her into the free web version.

Angry Birds - 3 stars!
Claire is always proud of her 3-star victories

First and Last

| patmcg

Kit, her mom, Claire, and I were playing a game called “First and Last” from a deck of cards called “52 alternatives to TV”. This game read as such…

Someone says the name of an animal, and the next person says an animal that starts with the last letter of the name. So if you said “elephant,” the next person might say “tiger.” Take turns saying animals without repeating any until someone can’t thin of another one. The last person left gets to pick the next category (countries, people’s names, etc.).

This turned out to be a pretty fun game. We did not make Claire play since she, uh, cannot read or spell, but she sort of hung around and watched. The game was pretty tough, actually. It went something like this…

Kit: Elephant
Joyce: Tiger
Pat: Raccoon
Kit: Nene (this is a Hawaiian bird from a book Joyce brought back from Hawaii)
Claire: Eagle!

Yes, the three year old jumped in with a good answer. She even said it with real conviction, like she just knew “eagle” was right. We cannot say how Claire knew “Nene” ended in an “e” and “Eagle” started in the same letter. She may have gone by the sounds of the words, or it may have been a lucky guess, or maybe she actually knew what she was talking about. We’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and go with the last one.