Gaming

It shouldn't surprise anyone that gaming is a logical steppingtone for learning. We tried to foster learning in our children through fun activities from Uncle Wiggly to Old Maid. As babies, colors, shapes, sizes, sequencing, decision making and a host of other skills were learned and honed through games. You might not agree with the concepts of Resident Evil IV or Halo, but they are very, very popular and quite lucrative. Like we used to say in the old days, we don't care what you read, just read.



Just some examples from most popular rentals:

Top-10 Wii
Resident Evil 5 M
Killzone 2 M
The Godfather II M
Street Fighter IV T
Call of Duty: World at War M
Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe T
Wanted: Weapons of Fate M
Little Big Planet E
WWE Legends of WrestleMania T
HAWX T
Mario Kart Wii E
Super Smash Bros Brawl T
Monsters vs. Aliens E 10
Mario Party 8 E
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games E
Super Mario Galaxy E
Sonic and the Black Knight E 10
Deca Sports E
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed T
Wii Music E

Top-10 Xbox
Resident Evil 5 M
The Godfather II M
Halo Wars T
Wanted: Weapons of Fate M
Major League Baseball 2K9 E
Fallout 3 M
Wheelman T
Call of Duty: World at War M
Gears of War 2 M
Left 4 Dead M
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat T
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas 2nd edition M
Madden NFL 08 E
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith T
Star Wars Battlefront II T
Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition T
Call of Duty 3 T
Thrillville E 10
Need for Speed Carbon E 10
Black M

Wikis

Wikis are not new to me since I have been using the phenomenal Henrico County Public library Wikis since their inception. In comparing our site with others, I'd say that we he have a lot to be proud of, namely our expert staff and our "cutting edge" technology.

Photosharing

Well, I have so many new accounts that I must make myself a list of passwords. Gmail, Yahoo, Delicious, Word Press, Blogspot, Flickr etc. I have managed over 100 personal (mostly family) pictures, and have played with the cool tools available. Each site has its own special features that attempts to outdo the competition. Lost of fun!

Podcasts

Well, it seems easy enough to find anything and everything when you are looking for specifics. I found some very interesting podcasts from http://coffeegeek.com They are linked below and you can click on them to see what I mean.

Caffespresso

By the way, or should I say BTW, since this blog has coffee as part of the title, I want to say that I found a new coffee shop called Caffespresso. The owner, Claudio Ragazzi, is from Italy and serves a variety of sandwiches, bakes some delightful breads, pastries and cookies and of course offers a selection of tea and coffee based drinks. (Gelati is supplied by DeLuca) He teaches a class in Mediterranean Geography at VCU for fun and tells me that a couple colleagues of his will be teaching Spanish and Italian there soon on Wednesday evenings. Ciao!

Twitter

Read a lot about and followed a lot of the news-related twitters. Just enough to peak one's interest. It's like the "sound bite" concept, just en(this would be just about where the 140 character limit would be)ough to grab your interest and go form there.

Rss Feeds

This RSS concept is appropriately named, especially for those of us who need "simple" in our lives. I tried some very specialized feeds which are easy to keep up with and conversely, some general ones on professional matters or "newsy" items. These are overwhelming, especially if you are a bit compulsive and feel compelled to at least read the titles of each story. Best (for me) to try to stay focused!