5:55 AM woke up went running

6:40 AM checked on kids at the tennis court

6:50 AM started making breakfast.  Pancakes – plain, banana, and walnuts

7:40 AM took son and friends to math club

8:00 AM returned home.  Worked on finding Sonia an ear nose and throat specialist.  Called several places, and was only able to get in touch with one

Houston Ear Nose & Throat
281-440-5858
18220 Tomball Parkway
Methodist Willowbrook hospital facing 249..
#155

While looking for this one, stumbled upon this website: www.texasearcenter.com/index.asp

When you first go to the pages, a video of a lady telling you about the page is played at the top.  It adds a really nice touch. 

Burned several DVDs for my dad and Carole using Roxio MyDVD.  Lots of features here that I need to explore.

 

Got ready for the day and headed out about 9:15.

Went to Office depot to pick up dad’s fixed computer, toner for the HP printer, cordless phone, and some other small items.

On the way to Coldspring, I listened to Dr. Rupert Snell’s Hindi Conversations.

I also listened to three TED.com videos:

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

Here is a transcript of it.

Several interesting ideas about how gamers online will stick with a problem until it is solved.  They will network with each other and help each other achieve “meaningful” work (in the game).  What we need is to be able to take these attributes into the real world.

Does work at the Institute for the Future. 

Image of a gamer on the verge of an “Epic Win”

This was captured by the photographer Phil Toledano.

“I’m not good at life” face:

5.93 million years of collective WarCraft playing

 

10,080 hours from 5th grade to 12th in classroom if you have perfect attendance.  Kids in western communities spend about 10,000 hours playing online games before graduating.  This is tied into Malcom Gladwell’s book “Outliers”.  Which I am currently reading as well.

Economist Edward Castronova is referenced.  He is looking into why so much is invested in online games.

Ancient dice made out of sheep knuckles.

Mentions a story from Herodotus

Invention of dice game by Lydians

Also watched Tony Robbins speech about why we do what we do

An interview with Madelein Albright: ON being a woman and a diplomat

 

The visit in Coldspring went well.  Got to see the family.

Then I went to pick up a friend from the airport.  When I got home it was time to take Sonia to the eye doctor.  Found out that she has a case of episcleritis.  The eye is made of similar material as that which arthritis attacks in the bones.  Very interesting..

Then got home and made some chopped steak for my guest.  And then we were off to play chess at our weekly chess event.  Two of the people that I took there won a trophy.  I ended up losing all of my games.  But I felt that I had the advantage at some parts of the game.

Got home about 10:30.  Ensured Sonia took all her medicine.  Not it is 11:16PM and heading to bed.

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