I always learn something new at Christmas. This year it was my mother’s cranberry pie with graham cracker crust. It’s not particularly hard, or particularly complex. It’s just hands-on. I learned by doing.

I went with Mom to a yoga class on Wednesday. I learned three yoga poses I definitely need to do on a regular basis. I learned through interest and hands-on(-small of back) engagement.

I packed to come to Florida. This sized carry-on, no liquids or obvious dangerous objects. This sized checked baggage, clothes for sun and semi-cool weather, formal outfit for Christmas Day, presents for family. I don’t know when I learned this, but it’s a needful skill. What made me good at it? Practice.

What made Bill Gates the successful man he is? Practice with computers. What made me the successful computer user I am? Practice and experimentation. My father asked me how many iPhone apps I have. (116) how many do I use daily? About 30. How many weekly? About 70. Practice.

Children with adult help all over America are setting up video game systems right now. They’ll play obsessively until school starts again, or they have an epiphany and win the specific game. (Wii three kings of Orient are…)

Maybe school is/should be for for teaching abstract thought, new modes of expression, long-range thinking, and exposure to new ideas. Right now it’s a content machine, or an assembly line.

It worked for school leaders, and blogging. Santa,what I want for Christmas in 2010 is…

Merry Christmas to all, and happy new year.

With no sign of a true release date for Gran Turismo 5, they decided to give us another taste, in addition to Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. In this free PS3 demo, you can drive two very pretty cars around a single track. The cool thing is, you can actually play this track and have your name up on the Gran Turismo Leaderboard, which you can check out on their website. The two cars included in the demo are a stock model Nissan 370z and a tuned version of the same car. These cars, along with the track, look amazing (except for the lack of a damage model). For those who just want to play a solid driving simulator on their PS3, go out and get this demo now!

The Playstation Network has done a very good job of offering a variety of genres that you wouldn’t expect from a big company; genres like tower defense, twin-stick shooters, even some with a distinct indie flavor. One genre that really hasn’t been present is the real-time strategy. Mushroom Wars aims to fill this void.

Mushroom Wars is a micro-RTS with that casual feel that most PSN games carry. The basic gameplay revolves around moving units from one outpost to another. Each outpost spawns units at a fixed rate, which you can upgrade by spending units. A variety of different buildings adds a bit of flavor, with the bases that spawn units, and towers that shoot at units around it. Different objectives on each map change your strategy; some maps ask you to capture certain buildings, while others ask you to completely destroy your enemy. Either way, speed is the key to victory in this game.

Time
15-20 minutes (or more, depending upon how many times you play)

Audience

Children & Youth

Description

This matching game is a fun one to play at Christmas.  It takes the elements of “The Legend of the Candy Cane” (apocryphal) and uses it to make connections between the popular Christmas candy and truths about Christ.  Even though the widely circulated story of how the candy cane originated is not true, we can still find meaning and symbolism in the candy that will help us to appreciate our Savior.

Scriptures

• Exodus 12:22-23
• Psalm 51:7
• Isaiah 53:5
• Matthew 1:23, 5:12, 26:28
• John 10:11
• Romans 6:4, 9:33
• 2 Corinthians 5:21

Materials

• Printouts of “Legend of the Candy Cane – Cards.ppt” (available at www.teachingthem.com on the Lesson and Material Downloads page).  There are enough cards in the printout for two teams.  If you will have more teams competing, you will need more copies.
• Scissors or a paper cutter (to cut out the cards)
• A simple, red-and-white candy cane to use as an example
• Flipchart or whiteboard and markers
• Optional: If it bothers you that participants will be able to see the images through the paper, you might want to use a heavy stock of paper, or you might even want to glue the cards to cardboard or posterboard before cutting them out.
• Optional: Small prizes for the winners – I recommend candy canes to fit with the theme.
• Bible

Preparation

• Print out the cards.
• Optional: Glue the cards on top of the cardboard or poster board (to prevent participants from being able to see the images through the paper).
• Cut out the cards.
• Sort the cards into sets.  (There are two identical sets in each printout.  Most matching games have you match identical cards, but in this matching game, participants will match a characteristic of the candy cane with its meaning/symbol.  So, each set will contain one of each of the following cards: “White,” “Red,” “The Rock,” “J-Shape,” “Stripes,” “Peppermint,” “Hard,” “Sweet,” “Hyssop,” “Sinless,” “Blood,” “Shepherd,” “Born of a Virgin,” “By His Stripes,” “Jesus,” “Wash Me Clean,” “New Life,” and “Heaven.”
• Shuffle the cards, and lay them out in three rows of six cards each.  (The cards should be laid out face-down.”)
• Practice the script.

Procedure

Use the following script and instructions (or modify to suit your needs):

• “Have any of you ever heard “The Legend of the Candy Cane?”  (Acknowledge responses.)
• “It’s this story that has been sent around the internet and on different websites about how the candy cane was created and why.”
• “It says that a man created the candy cane to be a witness to Jesus Christ and that each of the characteristics of the candy cane pointed to our Lord.”
• “Unfortunately, some people checked out the story, and it turns out not to be true.”
• “The candy cane has been around for about 300 years, and it started out as just a simple candy.”
• “However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t find symbols of Christianity in the candy cane.”
• “Many times, God uses something to bring glory to Himself even when mankind didn’t intend to give Him glory.”
• “I think the candy cane can definitely bring glory to God.”
• “Let’s look at it more closely.”  (Hold up a candy cane for the participants to see.)
• “What are some of the things you notice about the candy cane?”  (Hold up you hand to show that you want them to raise their hands to be recognized one at a time.  As you call on them, you might want to write what they say on the flipchart or whiteboard.  Then, ask them to tell you what this characteristic might represent in the Christian faith.  Several characteristics will have two meanings.  You will have to give them some guidance, but let them come up with as many as they can.  The main responses you are looking for are written below.
  • White = Sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21); Born of a Virgin (Matthew 1:23)
  • Red = Blood (Matthew 26:28)
  • Hard = The Rock (Romans 9:33)
  • J-Shaped = Jesus, Shepherd’s staff (John 10:11)
  • Stripes = By His stripes… (Isaiah 53:5)
  • Peppermint = Hyssop (Exodus 12:22-23), Washes Me Clean (Psalm 51:7)
  • Sweet = New Life (Romans 6:4), Heaven (Matthew 5:12)

There may be additional connections that the participants can make, but they won’t be included in the matching game.  As you make the connections, you might want to have someone read the Scriptures listed above.  Some Scriptures may need a little background information to connect them to the symbol.)

• “See!  We came up with at least eleven connections between Christianity and the candy cane!”
• “That can’t be accidental.  God must have hidden these truths in the candy cane for us to find.”
• “Now, let’s play a game to help us remember these connections.”
• “It’s a matching game, like when you turn a face-down card over and then try to remember where its match might be.”
• “How many of you have played a game like this before?”  (Acknowledge responses.)
• “I’m going to divide you into teams before we play.”  (Divide participants into evenly-sized groups – as much as possible – based on how many sets of cards you prepared.)
• “Here’s how it is played for those of you who haven’t played before.”
• “Each team has a set of 18 cards, placed face-down in front of you.”
• “Your goal is to match all the different sets before the other teams do.”
• “You will do this by turning over two cards at a time.”
• “You will take turns on your team being the person who turns over the cards.”
• “Once you turn them over, you cannot change which cards you’ve chosen.”
• “I will look at the two you’ve chosen and tell you if you have a match or not.”
• “If you have a match, I will let you make a set and take the cards off the board.”
• “Sometimes, you may match two cards that actually need a third card to make the set.”
• “You will be able to tell if there is a third card when there is a #3 in the corner of the two cards you have turned over.”
• “Whenever this happens, I will let you turn over one more card to see if you can make a full set.”
• “If you turn over the third card, I will let you remove the cards from the board.”
• “If you turn over two (or three) cards that don’t match, you will have to turn them back face-down in the same place you found them.”
• “After I’ve looked at all the cards, we’ll go to the next turn, and someone else in your team will turn over the cards.”
• “The first team to match all their sets wins!”
• “Do you have any questions?”
• “Are you ready to play?”  (Start the game.  Do one round at a time, so that you will be able to tell which team wins.  If you have a prize picked out for the winners, you can hand it out then.  If you finish quickly, you can shuffle the cards and play again.  For a more challenging game, you might want to combine two sets of the cards to make a total of 36 cards for each team.)

Хайпът около ‘N.O.V.A’ \Halo-то pа iPhone\ е доста голям, така че въпреки че не ми остана време да ви пиша че играта излезе по график [App Store линк] искам да ви уверя, че използвам всяка свободна минута за да разцъквам FPS-и на iPod Touch-а си

Eто клипче от първите ми сблъсъци с мултиплейъра на играта с всичките му плюсове и недостатъци. Във видеото ще видите как се мъча да се конектна и как разцъквам на 2 от нивата в играта + опцията за слушане на собствена музика по време на игра

Сори за качеството но все още търся оптималният вариант за записване на геймплей от айфон/айпод тъч.

Сингъла още не съм го тествал подробно, но ако оцелея до сряда със сигурност ще има с какво да се занимавам през почивните дни

PS: Чест прави на Gameloft че не избацаха на играта цена от 10 долара следвайки светлият пример на EA, ами я пуснаха на $6.99 (5,49 евро) въпреки, че можеха да минат и с 10-ка

There is an excellent new concept  ~ Lego hole-punched cards ~ where punched cards make 3D stairs, platforms, backdrops, characters and standing pictures.  I first saw this on Filth Wizardry and thought I would make my own for the girls!

We had just read the poem “The Lady Of Shalot” by Lord Alfred Tennyson and the story presented an excellent opportunity for a diorama narration using the Lego hole punched cards.

(For more information on dioramas check Jimmie’s Squidoo lens on Making a Shoebox Diorama and America Museum of Natural History’s Wetlands Diorama.

Drawing the pictures

We drew the castle and the objects  mentioned in the poem.  You can download our pictures here ~ Lady Of Shalot Lego Diorama.  I wanted to draw the characters, but the girls wanted to use their Lego people!

To mark  the exact place for the holes we rubbed pencil on the picture over a Lego block. (I eventually made a hole template using an old ice-cream box lid punched correctly! This plastic makes excellent, durable platforms, stairs or levels to play on))

We punched the holes with an ordinary punch.(The larger holes offers more “grace” for an easier fit.)

I thought the girls would paint or colour the pictures, but they went to play the story out!

It was a natural narration opportunity!

What new ideas do you have?

“Few things deflate one’s sense of manhood like having your lightsaber run out of juice right when you’re about to cut some dude in half. Even worse: The process of “recharging” the wounded fellow is uncomfortably familiar. You just sort of grab it and shake it around until it’s ready for another go. Right. The super over-the-top absurdity and sexy gore-fest that made No More Heroes such a bizarre and crazy hit on Wii is clearly back in good form. Our hilarious, blood-soaked play session with No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle had us carving up goons, inadvertently pureeing scantily clad ladies, and making quasi-obscene gestures with the Wii Remote. And we’d expect nothing less.”

Check out the full preview here at GamesRadar.

A Topatoi demo is available now on the PlayStation store, and I got a chance to play it. After dying on the first jump in the game, the only thing i can say about the game is…

…I don’t get it…

BUT everyone should give it a run to see what you think. Topatoi features “classic platforming gameplay,” So, go out and try the game, and if you can figure out what i was doing wrong, or if you get stuck on the first part of the game, drop a comment and we will get back to you.

“Blood and bodies are hell of a way to start the morning. It was an apparent murder-suicide. Their cold, lifeless corpses were slumped in pools of blood at opposite ends of the otherwise cozy apartment. He was a good cop. Maybe it was the stress that made him snap. Maybe it was something else that made him put a bullet in his wife and then turn the gun around on himself. Either way, something just didn’t jive. It was time to roll up our sleeves, grab the stylus, and dig into to the evidence in Crime Scene.”

Check out the full preview here at GamesRadar.

is the Melbourne and Sydney Hands-On woodshows are having their dates shifted right, by an as-yet unannounced amount.

Jessie Kent, a graduate of WyoTech – Fremont, has been selected as the winner of the school’s 2009 Dream Award. The award recognizes a graduate who has completed a post-secondary education while overcoming extraordinary challenges.

At age nine, Kent’s parents divorced and his childhood home burned to the ground, sending his parents into a pattern of drug use, homelessness and bad choices. Kent followed his parents’ lead and in the sixth grade, he was arrested for possession of marijuana, which started a long relationship with the juvenile court system and a year-long stay at a home for juvenile delinquents. Kent was released at the age of 17, but as an adult, his troubles escalated. By the time he reached the age of 24, he had served two jail sentences for a total of 27 months.

Kent’s decision to turn his life around came during the last year in prison, where he decided to become clean and sober. His sobriety, combined with the persuasion of a few good friends, led him to pursue his education at WyoTech where he earned a 4.0 GPA in the Applied Automotive Technology program.

“Jessie was an excellent student during his time here at WyoTech – even serving as Eagle Tech,” said Joe Pappaly, president of WyoTech’s Fremont campus. “He had a strong desire to succeed and believed that an education could offer him a real opportunity to change his life.”

Today, Kent earns salary plus commission at a smog testing facility in Lafayette, Calif. His spare time is dedicated to charity work such as the AIDS Walk in San Francisco and a new non-profit organization called Advocates for Childhood Freedom Foundation (AFCFF). As a Dream Award winner, Kent will receive a $2,500 WyoTech scholarship to further pursue his education.

About WyoTech
WyoTech – Fremont campus is located at 200 Whitney Place, Fremont CA, 94539. WyoTech is a division of Corinthian Colleges, Inc., one of the largest post-secondary education companies in North America. With six campuses located throughout the United States, WyoTech offers degree and diploma programs in the fields of automotive, diesel, collision refinishing, motorcycle, marine technology, as well as construction trades. In addition, WyoTech offers advanced training programs in applied service management; advanced diesel; light duty diesel; advanced automotive diagnostics; street rod and custom fabrication; motorsports chassis fabrication; high performance power trains; and trim and upholstery technology. Learn more information about WyoTech programs.

About Corinthian Colleges, Inc.
Corinthian Colleges, Inc. is one of the largest post-secondary education companies in North America. Its mission is to prepare students for in-demand careers or for advancement in their chosen fields of study. Corinthian’s schools offer diploma programs and associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees in a variety of high-demand occupational areas, including healthcare, business, criminal justice, transportation technology and maintenance, construction trades, and information technology. More information can be found on Corinthian’s website at http://www.cci.edu. Media may contact Camee Edelbrock, Schiefer Public Relations, Office: 714-241-1116, Cell: 310-466-0915, email: camee@schieferpr.com.

Free Ancient History mini books and practical hands-on activities for the Stone Age

Download your 5 page Stone Age lapbook project here ~Stone Age

1. Coil pot shape fold mini book
2. Stone tools trifold
3. Cave home mini book
4. Stone Age facts 5 flap mini book
5. First clothes petal mini book
6. Making fire accordion mini book

For more Sonlight World History pages click here ~ Free Sonlight World History

Free Ancient History mini books and practical hands-on activities for Archeology

Download your 5 page Archeology lapbook project here ~Archeology

1. Layer book of archeological mound or “tell”
2. Broken pottery puzzle
3. Dinosaur puzzle

For more Sonlight World History pages click here ~ Free Sonlight World History

Fractals, Googols and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The beginning of Fractals, Googols and Other Mathematical Tales reminds me of Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. It begins with a 3 dimensional cat landing in a 2 dimensional world but Fractals, Googols and Other Mathematical Tales quickly goes on to other mathematical subjects. From Mobius Strips to Fibinocci rabbits, tangram cats, and the invention of the decimal point, this is a fun read aloud that will get you thinking about, experimenting with and enjoying math in a fun, hands-on, creative way. Great book for middle schoolers and especially homeshoolers of that age.

View all my reviews >>

More wonderful ideas for exploring math with teens can be found at The Fun and Games of Pre-Algebra.

I thought I should post a video finally of the HTC Hero hands on first look.

Having a hard time finding the perfect holiday gift? Come and create your own!

Saturday the 12th beginning at 11:00 am and going throughout the day (come when you can)

Make earrings for $8

Bracelets for $15

Necklaces $25

OR check out what I have available and shop!

The location is by Superstition Springs Mall. e-mail julsaftermidnight@live.com or call Juli 480-365-8985 to get directions. Cash only please.

Hope to see you there!

A couple of months ago, a video started circling around about SurfaceScapes, a project from Carnegie-Mellon’s ETC that let you play Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition on a Microsoft Surface.

As it so happens, I was headed to Carnegie-Mellon a day or two after that video showed up, so I quickly wrote the team and asked if I could do an article about it. They said yes, and so I wrote about it for TechFlash (there’s a video too).

I haven’t gotten around to posting about it here for so long due to my November hiatus, but now that I have, here are some features about SurfaceScapes that I didn’t cover in TechFlash’s article:

• There are 256 of the icons that are used to identify objects on the Surface, called fiducial (thanks, Scott, for the spelling!). That limit, however, is just in place for the smaller ones. In bigger sizes, there are are thousands, or even millions of possibilities, and the SurfaceScapes team hopes to be able to put one of these icons on the back of Power Cards so people can use those in play as well.
• Before starting on SurfaceScapes, none of the team had any familiarity with 4th Edition, and all of them had different experience levels with RPGs in general. Some of then hadn’t played since 2nd Edition, while some of them hadn’t played at all. Over the summer, they ran some sessions, both in person and over Skype, to get familiar with the system.
• Physical dice rolling is a bit of a tricky subject when it comes to the Surface. Because of the way the Surface reads dice, in addition to the many different varieties of dice, there’s no way to make it compatible with the player’s own dice at this point.

At WyoTech you can get the new career training that a lot of people only dream about. Are you tired of your job and lying awake at night wishing for something better? Are you a car or motorcycle junkie that wants to make their hobby into their career? WyoTech may be the answer for you.

We have six campuses in the United States that are dedicated to providing you with the skills, knowledge and career training you need to be competitive in today’s tech industries. WyoTech offers the following career training programs*:

• Automotive Technology
• Collision Refinishing
• Diesel Technology
• Residential HVAC
• Marine Technology
• Motorcycle Technology
• Plumbing
• Electrical

For more info, check out our new blog post and our website at WyoTech.edu

To connect with other WyoTech enthusiasts and get advice from real students & graduates, become our Fan on Facebook, our friend on MySpace and our Follower on Twitter.

*Programs vary by campus.

“You have to hand it to the guys at Renegade Kid – they’ve managed to elevate disturbing to an art form. Exhibit A: the box art for the developer’s upcoming horror-drenched follow up to its first-person survival horror experiment Dementium: The Ward. It features a close-up shot of some poor bastard screaming in terror, though his cries are clearly muffled by the human hand that’s ripping its way out of his own mouth and clawing at his eyes. Amazing. Judging from our recent hands-on time with Dementium II, good things are on the way. Particularly if you like you handheld gaming sessions served up with a slab of raw, bloody meat.”

Check out the full hands-on preview here at GamesRadar.