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Taco's kid isn't the only one. My son started watching Colbert with the family quite young. It never failed to get a reaction from six months onward: Sesame Street got interest and curiosity, but that eagle and the opening theme heralded a wide-eyed sit-up-take-notice response. It was so strong that we'd play Colbert to get him to stop crying during teething misery. (Not crying makes giving medicine a whoooole lot easier.) Nowadays, when we sit down to watch something and start the music, he promptly runs over and plants himself on the middle of the couch between us and stares raptly.

It doesn't last, of course - he runs off again pretty quick, particularly losing interest during the interviews - but everything before that seems to hold his attention pretty good, and he's now almost two. Stewart gets a lesser but equally approving reaction - he's more likely to come sit down with us, but not so likely to sit up and take notice at the opening theme.

Babies: nature's shininess meter.

By my experiments, Colbert > Noggin > Sesame Street > Stewart > Teletubbies, etc. There's a ranking system at work here in my boy's brain, though I'm not quite sure what it is yet, as he hasn't got the ability to inform me of his true opinions.

I will note: John Stewart introduced a puppet named "Gitmo". It was Elmo with a beard. When he fed that thing to the dogs, I do believe we experienced the boy's first traumatic television event. Ever after, the hubby vets the programs before the baby gets 'em. That was the one moment I regretted the TV. Most of the time, I tend to take Jeff Vogel's parenting approach. TV is a god at capturing a child's attention, and should be used wisely.

A lot of people seem to think the guy who wrote the article is an idiot.

He makes his living off of writing RPG games.

I won't argue on the look of his games. They have very obviously dated graphics.
But his games are not about graphics.

I've personally purchased 9 of his games over the years.
They have good story lines, long play times, multiple endings and have a bit of replay value.

He does make good games for those looking for a game with depth and story to them.

Hes also very sarcastic.
Take a look at what he wrote about his daughter.

As is site is aptly named - Irony Central - The irony is hes an RPG writer who happens to make a decent living off RPGs, and can write off every game he plays as research.

Seeing what he wrote though, I'm more curious what his next game is going to look like.

As he wrote about starting you off as a loser, thats exactly how his games start you as well.

Whoa, you need to read some funnier stuff. Good god man, this is the information age!

Get started at:

http://www.notmydesk.com/
http://lileks.com/institute/index.html
http://www.ironycentral.com/babymain.html

If gaming articles are more your style and you've played Ultima 7:
http://www.it-he.org/ultima7.htm especially "Further drug experiments" http://www.it-he.org/u7_drugs.htm

I think you might be interested in this political party (please oh please identify the humor)

http://www.ironycentral.com/scorchedearth/faq.html

Actually, I believe my exact words at the time were: "Okay, that's it, we have to give it away..."
Wife: "The whole CD changer?"
Me: "Hell no, the kid. I might be able to fix the changer, but the kid's obviously broken."

Are you familiar with the work of Jeff Vogel?

Well, until someone invents a person-capable teleportation device, i think the answer is No.

Attempt 7: Teleportation

Teleportation, in this case, would be the difficult technique of transporting a Convict to the Americas by disintegrating him here and reintegrating him there. With great expense, we constructed a teleportation device and stuck a Convict inside.

Result: Convict did not so much "Disintegrate" as "Melt."

From Reaching the Americas: One Mad Scientist's Approach by Jeff Vogel

(Speaking of which, while Spiderweb Software isn't UK-based, does anyone else think that they do a nice job of dark English-style humor? If it weren't for American spellings, I would have thought that the Exile series had British roots.)

If you like Spiderweb's stuff, you should take a look at Jeff Vogel's other site, Irony Central.

catapults
possibly cannons

For some reason, I'm reminded of the Reaching the Americas experiment.

Check out The Story About the Baby. The first year of a child's life, as seen by her dysfunctional geek of a father. Not only is it a great introduction for what to expect, it's hilarious as well. Should be at the top of any geek parent's reading list.

The first rule of Operation Total Chaos is that we do not talk about Operation Total Chaos.

SO SHUT UP!


::notes that this would explain the lack of communication between parties::

Jeff Vogal for President!