Remember this game?  If not, you are in for a treat.  It is part puzzle, part point-n-click, and part timing.  When you finish, check out Hapland 2 and Hapland 3 as well.

For the fellow jazz-heads, here is one of my favorite classics (with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Al Haig, Curley Russell, and Sid Catlett).  For those who still don't quite get it, this youtube video has a nice explanation from Ted Buehrer's "How to Listen to and Appreciate Jazz" of what makes this song so amazing overlaid on top of a nice montage of "Dizzy's All-stars"

My son, Griffin, and I spent a good amount of time slacklining while on vaca last week.  We aren't quite this good (yet :) but this was certainly good inspiration!

When I was a kid, Smurfs were smurfing awesome!  I bring it up now because, of course the 2nd modern movie is now out in theaters, but I thought I would share a short story about how my run-in with Gargamel's daughter.

In the third grade, when I could name 32 of the 50 original smurfs, there was a girl in my class who had an uncle who worked at the "Smurf Factory."  Because her uncle was "so totally awesome," she spent 2 weeks walking around the playground at recess with a spiral bound, college ruled notebook, taking orders for Smurf figurines.  She was selling them for 50 cents a piece, OR for 5 bucks, you could get as many as you could name.  I could name 32.

Now remember, the world wide web didn't exist at this point, and you had to be part of a University or IBM to have access to the internet, so coming up with 32 Smurfs meant serious dedication to Saturday morning cartoons.  I watched her write down each smurf name underneath my own name and then she put "Owes $5.00" next to it.  Shoot, where was I going to get the money?

I asked my parents, but they had too many questions about the whole thing.  Not wanting to break my piggy bank, I spent about a half hour shaking 3 dollars and change out of it, then another hour convincing my younger sister that I would give her 5 of my figurines if she let me shake the rest of the money out of her piggy bank.  I put all the change (mostly pennies) in a ziplock bag and brought them into school the next day (one day before the end of "the sale").  It was the day before winter break, and I fantasized about what I would do with this belated Christmas gift as I watched this girl (I don't remember her name) stuffing bills and bags of change from half the kids in my class into her Super Friends lunchbox.

That was the last time I saw that girl.  She never came back from break and someone said her family had been planning on moving to California for the better part of the year.  "WTS!?! (What The Smurf!?!)  I was so sure that the combination of my superior knowledge of pop culture, mixed with my financial resourcefulness and a touch of being in the right place at the right time, was about to deliver the payload of miniature blue awesomeness.  Instead, I was left with an empty piggy bank and a distrust of girls with spiral notebooks.

And, as for the new movie, I don't think I can bear to see it.  We were in Mexico when the first one came out 2 years ago, so it was tempting to see them as "Los Pitufos," but alas, it is just too painful.  You win, Gargamel's Daughter.  You smurfing win.

I have spent most of my professional life working with kids, so this video really warms my heart.  Enjoy!

My son convinced me to put this one up.  Looks lame at first, but I have to admit, we had a hard time stopping once we started.  You'll need a friend for this one.  Have fun, and you can be sure I will post this one again when they come out with the trampoline controlled version :)

So I just got back from a week in the Blue Ridge mountains, and yes I brought my banjo!  No phone or internet which is why we went a week without posts, but if you want an idea of what went on for me, watch this video several times every day for the rest of the week.  Enjoy!

Got friends who always seem to have cute ascii art as the signatures on their emails?  This little web app lets you upload pictures from your computer or link to ones on the internet and it automatically turns them into ascii masterpieces.  Have fun!

A few months ago, I found an old Rubik's Cube and wondered if it would be more or less easy for me to learn how to solve it at almost 40 than in my childhood or adolescence.  After using the "sticker changing method" and the "break apart" method as a kid, I did finally get a book and follow the step-by-step instructions to completion once (maybe twice) but it didn't actually stick.  This time, I found dozens of resources on the internet and had mastered (well okay, not really mastered it) in a few weeks!  My younger son took an interest and, and now he can solve the cube as well.  So now I can check it off my bucket list, but what is next?  We bought a "speed-cube" to see if we could get faster times, we have played with the 2x2 and 4x4 cubes at our local game store, and as you can see in the picture above, there are dozens of new challenges to try.  Now that I am a cube snob, nothing can substitute for the real thing, but click the picture above for a link to an online flash version of the cube (click the astronauts below to scramble, solve, undo, etc.) or click here to see me solve one (rather slowly :)

My son showed this one to me.  If you like physical comedy, you are in for a treat!  Enjoy!