Time Suck #1
At the library staff get-together last night, our new children’s librarian told us about this great new educational game she found on the UK Science Museum’s website. She raved about it and warned that it was way too difficult to stop playing.
So naturally, I went home and tried it . . . for three hours. Good thing I’d had one or two too many diet sodas at dinner!
Thingdom is a unbelievably cute, sneaky, and entirely too addictive way to introduce the concept of genetics to your kids. Supposing you stop playing long enough for them to try it out.
You adopt a squishy little Thing who comes equipped with its own genetic profile, raise it until it’s ready to pass on its genetic material, chose a potential mate with the right genetic traits for whatever the game wants the offspring to have, and complete a task to impress that mate so it will agree to combine DNA.*
You then choose one of the resulting four babies to continue your breeding program, or start over.
I managed to reach level four before all the babies, who were supposed to be green and indeed had been green since the first level, turned blue. Darned recessive combinations!
Janie, however, reached the final level before breakfast and gives it a double thumbs up. She’s playing it right now and promises to give me some pointers, once I’ve posted this.
Science . . . it is adorable!
ooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooooooooooo
Time Suck #2
aka, Resistance is Futile
Today, I broke down and signed up for Twitter, mostly so I could follow people.
I may not be posting much at first, since I work in a no-phone-zone** and the moment I try to think of something interesting to tweet, my brain dries up.
But if I do and you’re interested—or if you’re wondering who that clueless idiot is who just tried to tweet at you and didn’t quite make it work—I’m, uh, Sarah W (@EarfulOfCider).
Is that how you write that?
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*Which is done in a tasteful and non-gratuitous manner, for those of you who were worried. You can also skip that bit once you understand the concept.
** Not that my phone is capable of doing anything but making a phone call or two before needing a recharge anyway.
Earful of Cider 
I must be an idiot, I couldn’t make my thing jump and impress it’s mate. Oh well, I should be writing anyway 🙂
You have to point underneath your Thing and press the hold button for a second (or a little less) before releasing.
And there’s really no way to say that without sounding naughty . . . 😀
I couldn’t twit if my life depended on it but Thingdom looks promising. I’ll pass it onto my techies-in-residence. Thanks!
No, you’re definitely not a twit, MSB! 🙂
But as long as I remember my life really doesn’t depend on Twitter, i should be okay.
Enjoy Thingdom!
Oh Sarah, you’ve been kidnapped by the dark side! Please be sure to post the pros and cons you see as a new tweeter. I’m looking forward to the story.
So far, I have three followers, and I had a brief conversation with Sarah P. this morning, so I think it’s going well.
The only tip I have is not to expect many people to tweet on Sunday afternoon . . . 🙂
Please, please, please do a post on twitter once you get the ins and outs down.
After all, if you know anything about me, it’s that I am a firm believer in brevity…
Right. 😀
I’ve given Twitter a shot for about two years, and have concluded it’s just not my thing. To be fair, it’s kinda fun and COULD be my thing if I let it. But I’m way too busy during the work day to read or write tweets, and I’m not willing to spend much of my evening on a time-sucking social network when my writing time’s so limited.
That said, I’m keeping my account active and occasionally checking in, so I’ll stop over there to follow you.
At this point, I’m mostly just following people I like and trying to make one or two tweets a day, not including my blog alerts, just to get oriented. It’s not that big an investment, but it’s only been a few days.
So far, I’ve learned that one of my favorite authors just finished the last draft of his next book, and is going to the hardware story to buy a new toilet. So it’s a mixed bag. 🙂