Blogging the Personal

Janet Clarey's recent post On Growing Facial Hair is right up my alley of interest. But frankly, I have nothing interesting to add to the conversation.

In fact, I've had very little of interest to add to any conversation of late, mostly because I'm much more focused on my personal life and the many transitions I'm handling there. If I were to blog it all, we'd be WAY off the topic of instructional design.

If the women bloggers who make Zaid's next list are the ones who don't interject their personal lives into their blogs (ala Cathy Moore as reported to Michelle Martin), then I don't think I'll make that list. Which is fine. Really. Blogging's not a contest...

But personally, I like the personal. And yet, I also like my boundaries.

Of course, I do see some connections that bridge the gap between my personal and professional lives:

• My 3 and 5 year old kids are at the end of their first month of Montessori school. I'd love to apply Montessori principals to eLearning instructional design.
• My son is really into his Wii. We've had to find some more age-appropriate games than Super Smash Brothers and the like. Recently discovered Endless Ocean. You're a scuba diver exploring different dive spots in a fictional spot in the South Pacific. Awesome experiential game. Kind of like Second Life in how open the environment is, but there are challenges and a bit of a story woven into that keep it a game. Plus, swimming around with whales is really cool.

So. This is me trying to get my blogging energy back.

Whee! We got Wii!

My son just turned 4. He is blessed with an indulgent grandmother. Because he seems to like gaming, she got him a Wii for his birthday. (Don't ask me how -- and I don't even want to know how much she paid for it.)

My son "games" by watching us grownups play. He's not coordinated enough yet to work the controls, but he seems to have the basic strategy down and tells us where to go.

I've written about my gaming experience before. It's rather limited.

So last night I stayed up until 1:00 playing Zelda: The Twilight Princess. I had to force myself to stop.

The graphics are amazing. The controller is so fluid and much more intuitive than the Nintendo 64. I'm definitely hooked -- you might say, "immersed" or "addicted".

And now that I've been reading about games via the blog-o-sphere, I've got a different appreciation for them. I just played in the first village last night. This is basic training mode for the novice. You solve a few simple puzzles. You learn how to use your slingshot, ride a horse, wield your sword, go fishing.

I was learning and I hardly even noticed.

Wii!

Video Games & Retirees

Interesting article in today's New York Times by Seth Schiesel about the increasing acceptance of video games among retirees/baby booomers, especially older women. Some of this due to the introduction of the Wii. Think Nintendo bowling league for seniors.

I think NYTs links don't last too long, so I'll quote some key nuggets here in case you can't get to the article later:

...the women of St. Mary are actually part of a vast and growing community of video-game-playing baby boomers and their parents, especially women.

Anxious about the mental cost of aging, older people are turning to games that rely on quick thinking to stimulate brain activity.

It turns out that older users not only play video games more often than their younger counterparts but also spend more time playing per session.

“Women come for the games, but they stay for the community. Women like to chat, and these games online are a way to do that. It’s kind of a MySpace for seniors.”