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What is the point of developing hand-eye coordination?

I was thinking about that while on vacation with my extended family. My nephew and I were playing Guitar Hero, and I thought “Why does it matter how good I get at this game? Sure, it’s fun to play, but why should I spend hours practicing pushing little plastic buttons?”

No, I don’t actually spend hours practicing Guitar Hero, as I don’t have the game. That was just a hypothetical question. And yes, it is fun to play and one can create lasting memories playing games with people. But it’s the interactions and relationships with people that really makes the memories, not the game itself.

It would be one thing to spend that time practicing a real guitar, a guitar that I could take places and entertain people. Come to think of it, it can be pretty entertaining watching some people play Guitar Hero. But I have no aspirations of becoming a singer/songwriter, so that’s why I don’t spend time on a real guitar.

For a long time, the best rationalization people had for spending timing gaming was that it develops hand-eye coordination. I suppose a minimum level of that skill is necessary, but after some point there can’t be much added benefit.

In your normal life, how much precision hand-eye coordination is required? Once you get the basics down, you should be good. Why not work on your walking skills or breathing skills?

Maybe someone wants to become a skilled surgeon – that would require good hand-eye coordination. What would be a better use of your time – staring at a screen and pressing pieces of plastic with your thumbs or maybe knitting or sewing something?

Playing something is one thing; practicing it is another. You should practice what you want to do. If watching a screen and pressing buttons very quickly is what you want to do, then go for it.

Alpha was taking a bath and, as is standard for just about every child, wanted bubbles. A little while later, he called for me to come into the bathroom. He wanted me to see that he had put a bunch of bubbles on his face and was pretending to be Santa Claus.

I complimented him on his nice beard.

The bubbles must have tickled his nose, but he didn’t want to itch it and disturb the bubbles so he sniffed.

Bad choice – to inhale sharply through one’s nose when bubbles are directly under one’s nose

I noticed that he got a funny look on his face. I figured he didn’t like the feeling of bubbles in his nose. But I was wrong. After I saw him spit out bubbles, I realized he didn’t like the taste of bubbles.

That was our biology lesson for the day – how the nasal cavity connects to the mouth and throat.

In case you haven’t been paying attention to the ads: there is a new X-Men movie opening this Saturday.

It is called X-Men Rivals.
Here is a shot of the title:

And here is a cut from the comic book upon which the movie is based (click on the image to see a full-size version) :

Here is the text, in case your browser has trouble with images:
Wolverine: My worst enemy …
Wolverine: Not even my claws can penetrate his thick skull
(last frame shows Brutus Buckeye)

In a shameless spoof of MckMama’s Not Me Monday, I am posting a Not Mine Monday.

• It was not my children who stuck their drinking straws into a bowl of sprinkles (that were supposed to go on their ice cream) and were trying to drink as many sprinkles as they could. Nope, my children know that straws are for their drinks only, and they know not to play with or make games of their food.
• Our son did not let out one of the longest, loudest yawns he could, just after the last hymn, while the pastor was getting ready to say something but hadn’t quite started so it was very quiet in the church. But if he had done that, the whole congregation, including the pastor, would have laughed.

And to make things official, here’s a Not Me entry:

• I did not give the kids straws so they could drink the sugar water light syrup out of the fruit cup containers before they ate the fruit. Nope, I know that they don’t need the sugar and I always drain the fruit cup first. And rinse the fruit. Yeah, that’s it.

About a month ago, I announced that I had setup a webpage to track football prediction methods.

Now, I am announcing that I have added a new method – More Points Wins. So far this year, it’s more accurate than the Isaacson-Tarbell Postulate.

If you haven’t already followed the links in the above paragraphs, you can click here for details about how More Points Wins works or click here to track its (and the other methods’) results.

It seems the radio stations and I have differing ideas about the categories into which they put themselves.

Here are the standard categories:

• Pop
• Adult Contemporary / Soft Rock
• Alternative
• Classic Rock
• Oldies
• Classical

I always put them in approximate decades :

• Pop is current
• Alternative (alternative to what? real music?) is the 90s
• Soft Rock is the 80s
• Classic Rock is the 70s
• Oldies is the 60s and 50s
• Classical is everything else. Except Metal. That doesn’t fit in anywhere except the Hard Rock station. And it transcends decades.

The radio stations have slowly been moving songs between formats. They do it a song here and there and hope that no one will notice.

But I’m onto them. They can’t sneak it past me.

I’ve noticed that the songs that were once considered Classic Rock are now played by the Oldies station. Songs that were Alternative are now Soft Rock. Songs that were Soft Rock are now Classic Rock. And no one plays Oldies anymore. I mean, when was the last time you heard How Much is that Doggy in the Window?

I’m thinking the radio stations’ formats are defined by relative decades, not absolute decades. So the Oldies station plays songs that are 40-some years old, the Classic Rock station plays songs that are 30-some years old, Soft Rock songs are 20-some years old, Alternative are 10-some years old, and Pop (if they still call it that…what is it? “today’s hits”?) is 0-9 years old.

I don’t want to switch formats. I don’t want to become an Oldies person.

They should keep things stable. Then when an audience no longer exists, the station should switch formats to a new style.

That’s the way generational naming works. Baby Boomers aren’t just people in their 50s and 60s. And Generation X isn’t just people in their 30s. No, they are defined by being born in a particular range of years.

And that’s how songs should be.

On an unrelated note: I could tell I am officially old because I referred to the 21-year-old guy who won the poker championship in Las Vegas last week as “that kid”. I think, technically, 21 means he is a man, not a kid. But you know those youngsters these days…

I was driving with Beta and we had a fun conversation. This is somewhat paraphrased, more so toward the beginning before I knew that it would become more interesting, but it conveys the idea.

Beta : Who lives in [a certain location]?
Some Guy : Your uncle and aunt. And your cousins. And they’re going to have another baby, but right now it’s in her belly.

In the mommy’s belly?
Yes.

Not the daddy’s?
No, only mommies have babies in their bellies. That’s what makes them mommies.

(laughing) No, babies don’t make mommies.
(catching on that he understood “babies make them mommies” to mean “babies make mommies”) Oh, umm, that’s right. Mommies make the babies.

(more laughing) Did you forget that God builds the babies?
Yes, that’s right. God builds the babies and then … puts them in the mommies’ bellies.

And that was the natural end of that conversation. I’m glad he knows where babies originate. Since that’s settled in his mind, we won’t have to discuss it later, right?

Right.