Das Bloggenstein

Reminder that I will be out for the remainder of the week at the OSPI January conference where I will be listening to other teachers and principals around the state talk about what they’re doing to help students learn and teachers teach.

In other news, check out this game that’s coming out for the computer called Crayon Physics Deluxe: http://www.crayonphysics.com/ Video should load by itself. It costs $20 but maybe I’ll get it for my birthday.

I came across a game last night at home called Auditorium (www.playauditorium.com). It combines my two favorite things in games: Music and Puzzles that have more than one answer. My wife and I were up playing it for quite a while and probably spent more than 20 minutes or so on one of the last levels. The game is only a demo right now so it’s not completed but what they have is amazing.

Another game I can’t recommend enough is for the Xbox 360 arcade called “Braid”. It’s a simple 2-D side-scroller game like the original Mario Bros. games but it’s a puzzle game too and in the game they play with the idea of time. The art work (yes, there is actual Art in the game), music, and the writing are all beautiful. If you have an Xbox you can find a demo of the game for free or pay for the full one.

Are there any video games that you love that have great puzzles and rely on problem solving skills?

Did you know that you can get updates from this blog when something new is posted? You don’t even have to go to the site, it gets delivered right to your door like a newspaper.

What I’m talking about is called RSS or Really Simple Syndication. Here’s a good article on what it is (link) and another on how it can help you (link). There are a number of ways you can get the updates, whether you use an email program like Outlook or Google’s personalized page or a reader like Google Reader. This can be very handy if you are following different websites that update content, like mine or a newspaper. Personally I use a personalized Google page that keeps track of family member’s blogs, news items, gadget blogs and web comics. I don’t have to check if someone has updated anything I just go to my personal site (link).