NHL is a budding geek.  I’m sure of it.  He loves superheroes and playing video games.  He also likes reading.  Although sometimes the prospect of starting a new book seems to overwhelm him, once he’s into a book, he will pour through it until he’s finished with it.

I decided that he was old enough to be introduced to some of the science fiction that I loved growing up.  So I found my old copy of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot.  I figured this would be good since it is just a collection of short stories.  We could read them together and go story by story.  NHL liked it, but didn’t want to continue after the second story.  I think they were too slow and cerebral for his taste.  So I’m on the search for other science fiction and/or fantasy books that would be more his speed.

Meanwhile, I’ve also been thinking about some of the classic movies that I grew up on that he would enjoy.  Back To The Future is definitely on the list.  I think he’d get a kick out of Marty McFly’s adventures through time.  I told him about the trilogy and semi-spoiled it by saying they go to the Old West in the third movie.  He suddenly got very interested.  (He did ask if they went back to the time of the Dinosaurs.  He seemed disappointed that Back To The Jurassic wasn’t one of the movies.)

Beetlejuice was on TV the other night and I loved seeing the Maitland’s try to cope with being dead, the new family in their house and "the ghost with the most" living in their model’s graveyard.  Part of me thought that NHL would like this movie, but then I saw the "gory/scary" parts.  They aren’t really bad.  Nothing approaching "horror movie" level, but just gory enough to scare NHL.  (He has this thing about blood.)  Perhaps in a few years, he’ll be able to handle it, but not now.

Of course, given his love of video games, I’m definitely going to take NHL to see the video game movie: Wreck-It Ralph.  He might not get all of the cameos (like Q-Bert), but this movie definitely looks like it has the right level of geekiness and age appropriateness.

What age appropriate geeky books/movies would you introduce to your child?

NHL is a budding geek.  I’m sure of it.  He loves superheroes and playing video games.  He also likes reading.  Although sometimes the prospect of starting a new book seems to overwhelm him, once he’s into a book, he will pour through it until he’s finished with it.

I decided that he was old enough to be introduced to some of the science fiction that I loved growing up.  So I found my old copy of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot.  I figured this would be good since it is just a collection of short stories.  We could read them together and go story by story.  NHL liked it, but didn’t want to continue after the second story.  I think they were too slow and cerebral for his taste.  So I’m on the search for other science fiction and/or fantasy books that would be more his speed.

Meanwhile, I’ve also been thinking about some of the classic movies that I grew up on that he would enjoy.  Back To The Future is definitely on the list.  I think he’d get a kick out of Marty McFly’s adventures through time.  I told him about the trilogy and semi-spoiled it by saying they go to the Old West in the third movie.  He suddenly got very interested.  (He did ask if they went back to the time of the Dinosaurs.  He seemed disappointed that Back To The Jurassic wasn’t one of the movies.)

Beetlejuice was on TV the other night and I loved seeing the Maitland’s try to cope with being dead, the new family in their house and "the ghost with the most" living in their model’s graveyard.  Part of me thought that NHL would like this movie, but then I saw the "gory/scary" parts.  They aren’t really bad.  Nothing approaching "horror movie" level, but just gory enough to scare NHL.  (He has this thing about blood.)  Perhaps in a few years, he’ll be able to handle it, but not now.

Of course, given his love of video games, I’m definitely going to take NHL to see the video game movie: Wreck-It Ralph.  He might not get all of the cameos (like Q-Bert), but this movie definitely looks like it has the right level of geekiness and age appropriateness.

What age appropriate geeky books/movies would you introduce to your child?

A few days ago, I felt like I was at the end of my rope.  So many stressful events happened one after another, pulling me in so many different directions that I just couldn’t take it anymore.  All I wanted to do was find a dark corner and hide from the world.  About the only thing that I felt like doing was playing Lego Batman on the Nintendo DS.

Last August, I wrote about NHL’s and my gaming addiction.  Since then, we’ve moved from Lego Harry Potter to Lego Indiana Jones and from that to Lego Batman.  I really like that Lego Batman lets you play in "Villain Mode" to help further their evil schemes… But more on that when I get around to reviewing the game.

I’ve found that, when I get stressed like this, I don’t function well.  All of my motivation to do that tasks that I need to do disappears.  Making myself complete them seems as hard as scaling a mountain.

Instead, I need escape from the situation.  Since I don’t have any friends locally, I can’t just head out with the guys.  Cooking is sometimes a stress reliever, but then I need to clean up from the cooking which adds more stress.  Watching TV will sometimes suffice, but I like being actively involved and feeling like I’m accomplishing something.

Enter video games.

Lego Batman isn’t so difficult that I’ll get frustrated by it.  And yet, it isn’t so simple that I feel like I’m not surmounting a challenge.  I can play it for a bit, allow my mind to forget all of my stressful thoughts for a time and feel like I’ve accomplished something.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What do you do when you’re stressed?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #142

NHL loves the Lego video game series for the Nintendo DS, especially the Lego Indiana Jones game that he recently got.  He’ll sit down and play it for hours, shattering everything in sight and besting minifig enemies left and right.  He prides himself on the progress made, new characters unlocked and new areas found.

Meanwhile, his younger brother loves doing what his older brother does.  He doesn’t quite understand how to play the game well and he can’t read the menus, but he loves sitting down with the DS and playing his brother’s game.

Can you see the catastrophe coming?

A couple of nights ago, NHL sat down to play some DS, let out a scream, and began tearing up.  We rushed over to see what was the matter.  His game was at 0% completed.  All of the hard work he had put into his game over the past two weeks was gone.  All the unlocked levels and characters, erased.  He was sent back to the very beginning and was understandably upset.

What happened was immediately obvious.  JSL had started the game to play it, hit a bunch of buttons and somehow deleted NHL’s game.  Of course, being upset, NHL yelled at his brother over this which sent his brother into tears (and running into his bed, JSL’s usual "hiding" spot when he’s upset).  A parenting split-team play ensued.  I soothed JSL and told him that we weren’t mad at him.  However, I let him know that he did hurt NHL, even though it was unintentionally, and he should apologize.  B reassured NHL that his brother didn’t mean to delete his game.  She also let NHL know that he could get everything back by playing the game again.

There were some tense moments between the brothers as JSL obviously wanted things to go right back to normal and NHL didn’t want his brother around for fear he would somehow disrupt his game again.  Thankfully, by the end of the night, they made up (hopefully for good).  JSL will now refrain from playing that game and we’ll look for another Nintendo DS game for him.

Anyone know of a good Nintendo DS game for a nearly 5 year old?

I think I’m raising a pair of video game addicts.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to visit my parents.  While there, they insisted on buying the boys a gift.  I tried to steer NHL to a Transformer figure since he loves the show, but both he and JSL wanted more video games for the Nintendo DS.  At first, I’ll admit that I was against it.  We have plenty of games and I didn’t think NHL needed another one.  After awhile, though, I accepted it.  Especially after we found Lego Indiana Jones for the Nintendo DS.

NHL loves the Lego series.  He has (and has finished) both of the Lego Harry Potter games and has the Lego Star Wars game as well.  Since we recently introduced him to Indiana Jones (specifically, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark), we figured he might like this.  (Plus, I wouldn’t need to help him changing this "toy" from a vehicle to robot and back.)

JSL, meanwhile, really needed some games.  Most of the games we have for the Nintendo DS are for NHL’s skill level (if not higher).  JSL can try these, but he’s probably just going to wind up frustrated.  He wound up getting a dinosaur game that is perfect for his age level.

As soon as possible, the boys loaded up their new games and began playing.  Then, they swapped games and played each other’s games.  They’ve been playing them (or begging to play them) ever since.

That’s not it, though.  Even before this, the boys would keep asking me when a certain game was going to be released.  They counted down the days and, when it finally arrived, they waited impatiently while I downloaded and installed the playable demo.  They were hooked on the previous versions, are hooked on this version, and will likely get hooked on the mobile versions once we get our smartphones.

Yes, my boys are in love with the Angry Birds.  They’ve tossed the birds at pigs in many environments.  Now they need to take into account orbital mechanics to defeat the piiiigs in spaaace.  (Oops, sorry.  Wrong piggies.)

With all of the video games they like playing, it’s no wonder that I suspect that I’m raising a pair of gaming geeks.  I don’t know where they get it from.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to play some Lego Indiana Jones on the Nintendo DS.