Painted Swift spider

supunna picta 9mm
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

As I blogged over at moonflowerdragon, Cricket spotted this spider running very fast up the fridge. While he and Fish wanted me to just squash it, I was curious - not knowing what kind it is.

We know now, thanks to my new digital camera, and the entymology department at the Melbourne Museum.

We might have identified it ourselves at the University of Queensland Find-A-Spider Guide, but I was looking at medium-sized spiders, not small ones because I measured it at 9mm rather than 8mm or less. The boys didn't want to look at the photos at all. I must admit I didn't enjoy it either.

From Cassowary to India

Cassowary
Originally uploaded by chatallot.

Today, upon reading of the Tarzali home-edding family's cassowary spotting, I asked the boys whether they knew of the Cassowary. "Yeah" said Cricket, launching into his associations " a flightless bird... lives in the rainforest ... related to the emu". Fish didn't know.

...Wikipedia or Google? ... okay Google's first suggestion is Wikipedia anyway...

From there we learned that the Tarzali Tales would have been referring to the Southern Cassowary. But first we explored what 'ratite' meant ("any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin ... hav[ing] no keel on their sternum and, lacking a strong anchor for their wing muscles, could not fly even were they to develop suitable wings); then checked that Gondwanan did indeed mean that the cassowary is supposed to have descended from beasts particular to the Gondwana supercontinent.

In the process I learned (I think for my first time) that the name of the supercontinent Gondwana is "derived from the Gondwana region of India", "because some of the earliest rock formations of this continent were first investigated in part of the region"

Puzzle Pirates

It was Lucas who introduced Cricket (and thus Fish and I too) to Puzzle Pirates. Thank ye very much ye little blaggard ;-)

We had begun to tire of the grind ('kill' lots and lots of monsters to achieve the quest) on Silkroad and this much lighter game offered a less violent, more amusing form of play.

Both offer the opportunity to explore social issues particularly in the online world. That other players may be real people on the other end means that what you do makes a difference to someone else - if you don't keep up your end of the pirateship tasks your character could be planked (and I think I witnessed recently robbed into the bargain). I think also that how well you do your task impacts on others' tasks (though I don't know that for sure in puzzle pirates). And when it comes to melee when one ship grapples another to plunder - your skill (and luck) may affect the consequence for the whole crew.

Curiously we have found beggars in both games - players who ask other players for game-money. How we feel and what we think about the begging is also interesting to observe. Fish can totally relate to the desire to have someone just give him the money so he can get the thing he wants NOW (a wolf in Silkroad, doubloons to play different games in pirates), and so he is inclined to give people the game-money they ask for because he would like to be given for his own asking. Me: "getting money in this game is quite straightforward and easy, if time-consuming... if you want the game-money play the game".





Enough of each begins to feel as monotous as bouncing a ball against the wall but Cricket loves another opportunity to play poker.

Silkroad Online

Which friend do we have to thank for the introduction to Silkroad?

It has kept us happily busy for the last few weeks. It is contributing wonderfully to Fish's reading and Cricket's spelling as we party up with game-friends (and strangers) to quest and try to survive trading on a fantasy silkroad.

Fish has enjoyed Trader and Thief jobs and I've tried out Hunting.

Issues we've explored have been: balancing such games with health and family needs; world-wide timezones; comparing virtual with real-time behaviours (what do we ever know about other people's motives).

I want to expand on that last one first. We discovered (although the game discussion forums did warn) that clever thieves are undetectable while they mark traders out... a new young trader trusts this friendly player who offers to escort you with your carefully loaded trade horse (which is such a low level it may not be attacked by player-thieves) only to be killed by strong npc thieves spawned in the area by the 'helpful' guy's thief friend, after which the 'helpful' guy now in his thief suit and his friend make off with your trade gear.

Watching Fish discover intricacies of the game first hand, despite the warnings, I was reminded that his learning style is very much to leap in and give it a go. It is a huge emotional challenge to support such learners. He is of an age where "it is just a game" is not comforting or consoling, mind you he is also of an age where not winning is almost intolerable. Having said that, it occurs to me that my own style of playing (reading about the strategies, watching others) reflects my own distaste for losses.

Update: 17 February 2008
This post has attracted advertising comments for bot services - please don't make such comments, I will only delete them. If you wish to pay for the advertising space I guess you could make us an offer.

Moonflowerdragon: Scenarios for Internet Ethics

Moonflowerdragon: Scenarios for Internet Ethics

I just blogged over at moonflowerdragon:

Thanks to my Bloglines account, and Francey from Gargoyles Loose in the Library, I now have a bunch of new scenarios to raise when discussing internet issues with my boys.

Our local library gave us material from the government's initiative to promote internet safety (can't remember what it is called), which didn't really address anything we hadn't already discussed ... but finding the material prompted a refresher discussion in a timely way for our exploration of Silkroad (about which more later, right now I want to PLAY).

Mum has claimed us at Technorati

We have a few games to post about when we run out of steam on them. In the meantime mum has continued with the 23Things project and is claiming this blog at Technorati with this link to her Technorati Profile

numa numa warcraft in english

The boys loved this one at YouTube today.

supercoolpic

supercoolpicshot1
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

Take a look at this, they were right to call it supercoolpic don't you think?

ProtopageWithBlog

ProtopageWithBlog
Originally uploaded by moonflowerdragon.

I've posted at my own blog about maybe changing from protopage as my start page, and in the process have been reflecting that the boys use links from two of our protopages (mostly page 2 {I think} of the public pages). Actually that numbering of pages instead of naming is the reason I'm thinking of changing to Pageflakes.

Lexington Library Commercial #1

Way to love the library guys.

Laugh

Now this is the way I love to laugh, reminds me of the time ... no I can't remember what was so funny but I spent 15 minutes laughing ... anyway here 'tis.



Update 11/10/06: Cricket reminded me what I had been laughing about - and it still cracks me up. I asked Cricket to do something - he said 'in a minute, I've just got to...' and when I turn around to see what is so urgent to him - he is tapping at a keyboard (?entering data ?programming ?communicating ?setting off a program?)...

... - which is not actually hooked up to anything ...
... - the urgent matter was a part of some imagination - a game or role play

ROTFLMAO

It just tickled my funny bone. Still cracks me up.

Unschooling workbook - getting to unschooling

There's a funny thing about my experience of Sandra's lists (recently summarised on AlwaysLearning that she might appreciate.  I read them, think they're great, decide yeah I might do some of those, I save them, print them, link to them, try to memorise them, then I get off the computer, find the boys heavily engaged in whatever they're into that day, and the mood passes. 

What I have learned is that whenever possible I share with the boys what I'm into, appreciate what the boys are into, appreciate what our friends and family are into, invest my attention into positive relationships, and enjoy life.

If I have to (or feel inclined to) seek out stimulating ideas, Sandra's lists are my first places to look:

http://sandradodd.com/checklists
http://sandradodd.com/deschooling
http://sandradodd.com/stages
http://sandradodd.com/typical
http://sandradodd.com/math
http://sandradodd.com/music
http://sandradodd.com/arts
http://sandradodd.com/connections
http://sandradodd.com/history
http://sandradodd.com/movies
http://sandradodd.com/mirrors
http://sandradodd.com/help
http://sandradodd.com/unschooling

WOW and Darkheart

Today I played WOW and I did a battleground where you have to capture a blacksmith, a farm, a lumber mill, a mine, and a stable, and by holding the bases to get resources the teams need to get resources up to 2000 to win.

My friend Darkheart is staying with me for 8 days

Paper Hats

On September 9, at the Australian Breastfeeding Association Goldfields Regional Meeting I have planned a deBono Thinking Hats session to contemplate the issue of the cost of 2007 conference and training.  I thought it might be fun to have coloured hats to wear while we think in each colour, so I went looking for paper hat instructions.

Using a large coloured sheet might get a little pricey - but perhaps the boys could paint some made from newspaper.  CreativeKidsAtHome had suggestions to achieve the different shapes I'd like to use.  Enchanted Learning offer an origami samurai hat.  Then there is one way to make four different hats.  Then there is the white chef's hat or, from about.com a green leprechaun hat or black top hat.

A green garden hat (from Playschool).

No so usable for me, but fascinating:  While the Smithsonian introduced the Mad Hatter, they don't have images online, so it is Mr Paper I thank for my first image of Moses' beautiful headware sculptures. I'm equally grateful to the student artists, their teacher and Dwight-Englewood School for displaying the students' Mad Hatter inspired creations.

Blue whale Photo, Balaenoptera musculus :: Image #05824 :: Phillip Colla Natural History Photography

Now there is something you don't expect to learn every day.

Blue whale faeces (Photo, Balaenoptera musculus :: Image #05824 :: Phillip Colla Natural History Photography)

It was St. Joseph County Public Library's library for life blog (specifically Ewww, Gross!) that piqued my curiosity.

A study of small fluffy creatures and library usage

While my boys are not small fluffy creatures, it is never too soon to learn about appropriate library usage - perhaps this lesson from Peeps will prove valuable .

Weather site for Fish

Fish asked yesterday what makes tornados - maybe Web Weather for Kids can tell him.

Dewey Decimal Classification

I'm not sure how relevant the DDC will be to Cricket or Fish. Possibly they'll only need a basic appreciation of the system in order to use libraries. I'd like to learn enough to classify materials myself. There is an animated tour of the DDC at the Online Computer Library Centre. I wonder whether the notion or practice of classifying websites to DDC is at all useful.

Cows with Guns AND StarGate

I'd love to look at it: http://stargate-sg1.hu/amanda/videos.php

Power out

Last night the power went out right when we were about to have tea.

I grabbed the torch and Mum and Fish lit candles.

At the time that the power went out I had just cooked tea and has watching M*A*S*H.

Fish was playing Warcraft on the pc.

Mum was washing a pot.

The power was out for 20 min.

A friend said the police did it, to help resolve a hostage situation.