It is safe to play Geopopper from August 13 at 7pm until October 2nd at 1:27pm 8/13/13 - 10/2/13

Warning do not try the new Doritos flavor Rojas

For your own good, I am asking you to, actually imploring you NOT to
Try the new Doritos flavor that is coming out in August
play geopopper
play twister games from pre 1976
Go outside on August 19 between 2:17 and 4:02pm est
Touch any sassafras leafs
Listen to untrust us crystal castles on YouTube
Sign in to Facebook twitter waze on sept 2, 2014
Please do not

Whatever you do, do not play geo popper geopopper

Monsters University Principal

The Monster's University Principal
Use your uniques attributes to contribute the most.

Rather than focusing on what others are good at and trying to be like them, we have to listen to Mike Wazowki
"No two scarers are alike"
We have to embrace our uniqueness, whether it be creepy ability to sneak up on people, ability to see the funny side of things, ability to write blog articles that might only amuse oneself, attention to detail, whatever quirkiness we have, we got's to use them.

Like the championship ping pong players whose coach didn't have them spend hours developing a well rounded game,  but focused on their unique strength and had them hone in on that, spending six hours plus making them better than anyone else.

Find what you are good at and do it.

If you love what you do, you are not working, but you are producing so much more value.

Sickkkk and tired of drudgery for what sake????

someone wise once said  in life, you're going through the pain anyways, you might as well get something out of it.

I agree and I also think maybe just maybe there does not need to be such pain involved.  Maybe we can figure out a new way of doing things so everyone is loving what they are doing.

Later this week:
Here's an idea of an app (best app idea ever and I am going to tell all the ideas of how to create it)
What's the deal with extroverts?
How I am turning work into a game
Is anyone, anyone at all playing Geopopper??

A faulty business plan? Maybe yes, maybe no the arrested development principal

Sooooo the goal of turning playcadia into a gaming empire has not totally crumbled, but it is not as tangible as it once was.

Geopopper has hit the App Store and people downloaded it, quite a few people

But the problem is no one is creating arenas and playing.

Cdogg saw that one person created a few arenas.

He dug a little deeper and saw the setup arenas corrseponded quite closely with my sister's house (I still think a neighbor could have downloaded it and found it fascinating but cdogg is a little more speculative).

So instead of the goal of having millions of players play it right away, we have a new goal.

Find one person, just one person who thinks the game is fun and plays it.

Not just theoretically fun (that's me) but actually enjoys playing and frequently plays.

Questions:
Is annnnyyyyone playing, annnnnnyyyoone at all?

What is holding people who downloaded the game from playing the game (technical glitches, too much energy, confused, tediousness of creating arenas...?)

What would make it more fun?

The reason we need to find out if even one person is interested in playing is because if we find one tangible person out there who likes it there will likely be more and this could be a worthwhile venture.  However, currently: cdogg is spending approx $15/per person who downloads the game (advertising) and it doesn't seem like anyone's playing so basically he is getting .001 cents in advertising revenue (making my blog earnings seem like the big league).

Now I'm no business school major, but at this point it is not looking good.

Cdogg also no business major (a solid general studies major, yep that's a possible major for all you undecided college students) and he is not going to continue to put his focus on a faulty investment,  I know geopopper could be fun and amazing however I must take into account the arrested development principal.

Arrested development principal
Something that is wonderful and creative and value producing can get the kibosh if it doesn't have the right support

Because i was previously part of the upstanding wevegotstuff, i can get my hands on some stuff,
some pretty pretty interesting stuff
Picasso prints
metal detector accessories
Coins
Stamps
Baseball cards
Smoking jackets
Books
Lighters
War room maps

So  I am offering some of this stuff to any takers ho are willing to offer some much needed feedback. How to get your hands on this stuff? Email


Previous goal=turning playcadia into gaming empire, shifting the way people work, play,  solving worlds problems
New goal= finding one person, one single person who enjoys playing geopopper

Plutarch Heavensbee? Maybe!

So I was reading The Art of War, like I tend to do on Tuesday mornings, and Sun Tzu made an excellent point:

Whoever deliberates/calculates more, wins.

Well, I have fallen into my old habits of chasing squirrels and bright lights, but instead of that being a bad thing, I am going to look at it as a little rest before I gets my calculating on.

But before I do,  I will give a slight explanation for why Game on!!!!! became game? meh...

The bright shiny lights/squirrels (ie distractions/reason behind game meh) in my life:
1. Planning the amazing race cottage edition (it started out so promising, but as seen by the videos, the balloons popped)

2. Planning the assassins 2 cottage edition.  Ahhh it was even better than Assasins one!  Again for those of you who do not know Assasins is the game where all players get a target, location, and action.  To eliminate their target, players must get their target to the location and get them to do an action.   My brother had the easiest hit (his son, eating a smore, by the fire).  I was quickly taken out by helping with the dishes on the backporch:(I don't know how I was going to get my brother in law to wear a fanny pack, so maybe it was for the best.

3. Losing my phone on the beaches of Saugatauk (I was upset until I found out that if you break a wine glass, you will lose something important to you, so much better a phone than anything else!)

4. Volleyball

5.  End of Earth, Pacific Rim uuuughh only 4 hours, but they drained me

6. A slight depression due to my "brains and my dad's inventory that we did not come up with:"

(direct quote from Steve Costakes, my one day guest blogger, see what a treat you are in for?)

So maybe we don't have to dissect gossamer, but we should investigate it!

One does not dissect Gossamer?

In the ziggy seinfeld episode, elaine questions a comic. she asks the editor of the New Yorker why the comic is funny and the editor tells her "it's like gossamer and one does not dissect gossamer." It turns out the editor just liked the cartoon kitty and the comic itself was not funny.

I felt like I have been the editor.

I avoided looking deeper into things using the "one doesn't dissect gossamer excuse"

IE, by breaking down things into parts, you will miss the parts as a whole. 

Or looking at it another way you can take all organs that are healthy and working and put them together and there will be no life.

Or there are ideas, crucial pieces that can't be dissected, put into words and they are the lifeforce or more integral to the process or concept than the identifiable parts.

IE what kids should be learning in math class has led to an insane amount of standards and kids who really don't understand math principals all that much.   (Years ago, I heard that the hardest question a michigan test for high schoolers was a simple question about the distance a person traveled if they.  All they had to do was use the old pythagorean theory, which they knew was a2 + b2 = c2 because they answered that question correctly, but they couldn't apply it to this situation)
However, I am not as skeptical of dissecting these ideas.

I think dissecting with a superficial scratching is the problem

IE asking lame, boring questions that you don't really care about finding the answers

IE coming up with plans that aren't potentially amazing

But when you dissect and plan in a deliberate, challenging, focused way it can be awesome (don't even get me started about the awesomeness that is the Math Lab at U of M, talk about a way to engage kids in math, challenge their brains and get them to talk about mathematical processes in a way I still cant)

I also think there are too many things where we can do sooooooooo much better.

Schools
Work
Relationships with other individuals, countries...

We have all this human brain power, we have got to come up with a way to mine it better, because right now it is haphazard and people are being wasted.

There are some people who, but so many people do not

Deliberate egineered workplaces and schools that but it is not an engineered, deliberate process.


New way of thinking by being at a company where things are not left to chance.  They have the phrase engineered to amaze.


Got me thinking how yeah we can leave things to chance but how dangerous is that?

Deliberate focus and make it interesting.

Engagement, asking interesting questions and collecting interesting data and....

then we are but for designing
And when you shift your attitude to avoiding work, can start seeing how work is what we should be doing work is fun and interesting


ARRRGGG TIMES LIKE THIS WHEN I GET VERY FRUSTRATED WITH WORDS NOT BEING ENOUGH, wish I could take pictuers and put to words, and make cohesive all the ideas that are swirling around in my head.


What/who the heck is Gossamer?

I assumed it was hotsy totsy poet. 

460 × 276 - guardian.co.uk

It turns out it is a beer, a song by the Smashing Pumpkins as well as very fine spider silk (likely what the editor was referrring to).

600 × 398 - clydesdaleproject.blogspot.com

Swamps of sadness principle, ooohh already sad, maybe this wasn't a good idea

 Karen's Swamps of Sadness Principle:  Negative will bring more negative. Even if you start out strong and positive, if you are surrounded by misery/negative thinking (Artax, Im looking at you) it is hard not to be submerged into it.

I feel this is what happened in Detroit. An uncontrolled spiral. 

Now what is the reverse?   We need a principle (better than the J curve and preferably based on an awesome movie or real life event) for when one things sparks and the chain of events, and momentum brings. 

Geopopper Vision

Gepopper is updated so it should be working better for all of those who installed the first version.

I am going to be creating arenas like crazy in Detroit.  All my facebook friends will be able to play them.

So if you are not friends with me on facebook and want to cool arenas, friend me, but let me know it is a geopopper related request.  Also if you are making cool arenas, please friend me, because I would love to play them.

Eventually arenas will have descriptions and ideas for making them even more fun.  IE play this one at night.  Play this one on a boat...

Some serious logic, no faulty assumptions here

I am going to make an argument in this blog that seems so logical to me. and so different than what we are doing for the most part. 

To give some credibility to what I’m about to say, I received an A in Logic 101 and I am able to complete quite a few logic puzzles from easy logic puzzles for beginners. I totally get the

To clarify my credibility: I can answer the riddle: there's these two guards, one for each door. One leads to a room with a tiger... armed with a gun. The other leads to the wonderful Diamond City, a city full of diamonds, where the walls are diamonds, the doors are diamonds, the water is diamonds and the air is diamonds.

But, I have a heck of a time explaining it with my words.

and don't even get me started on all thumbs are fingers, therefore all fingers are thumbs faulty assumptions and the like 

Okkkkayyy, before I go on another tangent let’s get down to biness or bizness  (saying/writing biness and bizness is not getting old to me so my apologies go out to everyone else who I’m pretty sure it is old to)

So Playcadia has one game out there and it has the potential to be really fun.  It could even have potential to be exercise inducing and spatial awareness inducing as well.

However, that is not my vision of what Playcadia and of what other companies have the potential to do with the Playvolution.

I am picturing games for more than just amusement and distraction.  I am picturing jobs that are designed like a game.

But I have just a thin wispy glimmer of what I mean by that. 

Because it takes time and energy to design jobs that are like games.  It takes research and manpower and money and it might be all based on an invalid theory that people are more productive at play than at work (but I really, really don’t think that is true!  I’d be willing to bet my blogging earnings on that with anyone who challenges me and can come up with a way to test it).

But my argument is this (and there definitely might be some circular reasonings, fallacies... some all fingers are thumbs if you will):

PREMISES

It takes energy and resources to design jobs that are like games.

It is essentially a job to design jobs that are like games.

If people played instead of worked they would be infinitely more productive and value producing.

A huge problem is that there aren’t enough jobs and people are overqualified for their jobs.

Machines are taking over perfunctory tasks.

If machines perform more and more perfunctory tasks, people can work on producing more value.

Turning jobs into games would cause production/value to increase as well as bring more value to people's life.

The cost of employing these gamemakers is nothing compared to the increased value from the playforce.

THEREFORE
Gammmmmeeee on!!!!!

FYI I plan on reading this (maybe I should have done in a second to get my logic back to its tiptop college day shape

http://www.theskepticsguide.org/resources/logicalfallacies.aspx

Hangover Three= Hilarious + Geopopper = being downloaded

Hangover 3, hilarious.
First things first: I was not planning on seeing Hangover 3.  I didn't see Hangover 2.
But I did and I laughed out loud several times and was pleasantly surprised.

(How are you like a giraffe? I'm majestic, pensive, tall...)

Geopopper making its way
So Geopopper is in the app store and people are downloading it!

If there are any readers who have downloaded, stand by because important updates are being made and will be available soon. 

A future post will have more details about how to play, how to get the most out of the game, a the vision of what it can be.

Also a youtube video is coming soon.

Next game?
CStax/Cdogg gave the go ahead for the next game, so I am diligentlyish working on that, and I think it is going to be something else, Cluesque app that will be exciting and a little scary.

Also thinking of Cobra Triangle.  Remember that board where you had guys to protect and those horrible boats kept stealing them.  If I die at a younger age than I should, I blame that early death on all the stress induced from that game.
I'm Mario Party 5 where players had a backpack and you had to grab them, shake them to get their coins. Who knows what game will come from those ideas, but I think it is going to be awwwesssome +

Big news!!! As the 4th grade teacher I used to student teach for said, WHOAH WHOAH WHOA and is that Ryan Gosling I see? Nope, no it's not:(

3 Exciting things happened yesterday

1. At one point in the day I checked my phone and I had over 20 text messages.  I felt sooooooo popular.  Hold your horses before thinking I am the big man on campus, I was part of a group text and it was a lot of jibber jabber.

2. Ryan Gosling was hanging out in downtown Detroit.   It turns out it was not RG but a radio station pulling a prank with one handsome imposter.

3.  THE MOST EXCITING



GEOPOPPER or Geo Popper (for those of us who don't like change) is in the App Store!!!!!


CAUTION: The version on the app store is in the process of being updated.

 

 

 

 

CStax has already submitted an update that will provide a much better user experience with improvements on the way aimed at helping anyone on cellular networks, but it will take a few days while we await apple's approval.

 

 

Note this version of Geopopper is an MVP, minimum viable product. 

 

But it will not be an MVP forever.  Sooooooo many exciting updates, soooooo much polish to be occuring.

 

We want feedback to make it more fun and provide value to users.  We will be constantly working on making it as spectacular as possible.

 

Spoiler alert: Orangatang arms, cloaks of invisibility, avatars...

 

 

 

 



Let the playvolution begin!!!

Zorros corner:

Okay at the way you just do your little blogs about you

Regional at eight

The above may seem like jibberish, which it is. but it is also my attempt to get zorro to write a blog. He was going on about something and it wasnt as funny as the time he was saying he had thought of the ipad years ago, but it was pretty close. It failed today because he got suspicious when i held my phone close to him (the only way i see getting him to write a blog is using voice recognition) but I will be more cunning in future attempts.

The real k. Peterman
I was going through boxes of old pictures and the like and i have some great stories
And would consider selling them to a worthy j. Peterman


Recess in Detroit! Awwwwesome!!!:

Geopopper Hits Detroit as well as XGames, Hunger Games (If I have my way) Sand Volleyball Courts... All we could have hoped for and more!

 

Ahhhh it was a moment that makes you feel clairvoyent.

I was playing Geopopper at Campus Martius and was picturing balloons in the air.

Just yesterday, I saw this sight.  Beautiful!!!

It was just like I pictured it.

Detroit: A Pheonix

For years Detroit has been a symbol of decay.

But just like the rock I mentioned in ,

That was just one of its many layers of paint that adds to its story and complexity.

Sometimes when a place has reached a trough, the depths of despair, that allows its revival to become all the more fabulous.

I have a feeling Detroit is on its way to becoming even greater than it was in its heyday. 

I'm sensing a next Renassaince.

Of course there is a long way to go and of course there are naysayers

But it is just the start and what a heck of a start it is.

There is momentum and energy.  There are people in the streets.

The XGames are coming.

If just one person gives their energy and time, a lot can be accomplished.

What if thousands, millions give focused time and energy to making DTown amazing, watcccchhhhh out!!!

 

My bell tolls for thee CDogg

Some good news and bad news

1. Bad news:(

 



2.  Good news is that:
Cdogg made changes that will ensure we will not see that screen anymore.

He added a guest mode so you don't

I wish he had done that sooner because just yesterday I received a facebook message from my dad who only got a facebook account so he could play.  I responded but did not want to set any precedent of wall posts, messages...

So while I was looking at the changes I saw something that made me want to call in sick Monday because some other serious bizness came up (I did not call in sick because I actually adore my job, what's that???  I found a job I like? Yep, it's true there are fabulous jobs out there, more to come on that in future blogs, but I digress). So I saw liked arenas...that cdogg (or Cstax as he calls himself) has a time of 7 at Cranbrook good.



A strong urge to beat that time welled up in me, and all I can say is my bell tolls for thee CDogg!

Game On!!!

As promised ode to rocks...

As promised Ode to Rocks

Thinking about the Rock in Ann Arbor.

 On its own it was a pretty cool big rock.  But through the years it has become so much more.

It is covered with layers of paint.  So many events and reasons that people paint the rock.

Like brains are apt to do, mine made a connection between the rock and my blog (note my mind also connected my work to Michelangelo’s so it has an uncanny to bridge and connect things that would seem impossible to bridge). 

So I was thinking a blog kind of starts off like the rock in Ann Arbor, cool for its own merit but just a rock or idea at first. 

Each layer of paint on the rock tells a story, shares memories, and affects the viewers. 

It has become a legend because of those layers, even though some layers were downright ugly:

whereas others were incredibly beautiful:

I see my blog with each article being a layer of paint, not impressive on its own for the most part, but with each layer a little more value is created, it becomes something greater than what it started. Each article is like a layer of paint. 

Together those articles become something much greater than the rock.  Each layer has a story.  Some layers might be a little lame, but have an awesome story behind it, create an amazing memory, or change the writer/painter in some way...

So like giving a mouse a cookie, if you give Karen a blog, she’s going to want to write about rocks and if she starts writing about rocks she’s is going to talk about rock camp.

So one time at Rock Camp… (yeah that’s right I did go to rock camp)

As a child, we would go on family walks.  A few blocks away there was a rock.  What we used to call the big rock.

I loved that big rock.  I would stand on it and imagine things and feel

Interesting how when I see that big rock, how small it looks.  I try to imagine how I saw it with such wonder.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s crazy how awareness and perspective change.  How easy it is to lose that sense of wonder.

My perhaps alltime favorite movie character: The Rockman 

Because of his kindness, and his vulnerability, and of course his big strong hands. “These looked like such bring strong hands.

As they would say in Tonga, fakaofa, fakaofa aupitoL

Note: Hidden agenda: making my blogs overly flowery so guest bloggers will be forced to volunteer awesome content to make me stop.

Bab’s Corner

Literal v. Figurative I absolutely love overhearing someone use literally blatantly wrong over and over.

Not a judgey person, at least I hope not, but that always makes me laugh and become a little smug (although I have no room to be smug due to my background where phrases like “I says to the guy” were acceptable. And an inability to appropriately determine if I’m doing good or well ((I do know good is an adjective and if I logically think about it I can get there, but it takes a while and I appear even slower if I cannot respond to a how are you within a minute…) As well as a habit of starting sentences with And, but.

Soooo I discussed some literal rocks and now for a figurative rock.   My mother.  Who is such a lovely strong woman.  She literally is the kindest person I have ever met.  Never speaking poorly about anyone and always caring too much.  I did have an interview and ridiculously answered one of my weaknesses is that I care too much.  It slipped out and is blatantly untrue.  But my mother does care too much.

 She is a kindergarten teacher.  I subbed for her class for one week and literally would have died if I subbed more, it is a heroing job not for the weak!

She recently tore something in her knee that will require surgery.

But she is not a complainer.  She limps from place to place (fakaofa aupito) with a smile on her face.

And on occasion she gets to use a cart.  Bab's at Costco  (Fellow shoppers be warned!)

 

 

 

Coco properly uses a hash tag + geopopper still going through apple's review process + Google crush

First things first: I have started a twitter account and hashtag:( no followers)

I believe I have correctly used a hashtag.

Now onto other matters:

I always rave about google and what i usually am most impressed by is their ability to think ahead. when they gave their employees one day to work on personal projects they were not concerned about the loss of productivity that might initially lead to. they had faith that setting this up would allow great things to happen. 

 

 

 

Google reminds me of a fly. They are seeing things at a faster rate and able to be one step ahead. 

How do they do it?

Are the google people smarter?

Definite, definite possibility

However, I think the employees at google are extremely interested in what they do.

I think they ask the fun, out there questions

And

I think they are extremely focused
Focus is crucial

As seen by my next post (ode to rocks for all you geophiles) and previous posts i lack a laser like focus and might be a little too scattered to reach google status.

Like the Dog in  UP I worry I get distracted by every new idea/squirrel that comes my way.

On the other hand I do notice a more focus than previously before and if I focus on just getting 1% everyday :
http://blog.thinkhuge.info/2010/12/one-percent-better.html
my progress, our company, our game has the potential to:

 

Also we need some interns.  There are a few interns at where I work and they are great.  Super, super hard working dilligent people, youthful enthusiasm and optimism.  And basically because we have a Kramer on our team and run our office like Kramerica...

 

Letters from KDOGG/COCO + Special Acclaimed Guest Writer

 

I was thinking about Letters from a Nut  as I often do on Tuesday mornings.

It is a book filled with hilarious laugh out loud random, random letters from an interesting, dillusional/interesting character.  

Jerry Seinfeld wrote the forward and I have a feeling it could be Larry David who is the anonymous writer.

I was a Peace Corp volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga, and especially appreciate the nut’s final letter  asking the king if he mistakenly picked up his sword because he saw a picture of the king holding a sword with striking  resemblance to a sword he lost.  (Side note, I never got to meet the king because he died before I arrived, but I did buy a great deal of black clothing because of the Tonga custom to wear only black for two years after a king’s death)

I love the book so much I have decided we will be switching up the blog format to include multimedia.  I believe I have already added in Zorro’s correspondence (See past article when he was upset about genre of mushrooms species received : different than the catalog picture)

Readers you may be in for a treat, no newcomer to the writing world, Stephen C. may be submitting his guest blog.  To ensure this happens I have written a letter:

Dear Stephen,

I am writing in regards to the Christmas coupon generously given and received 12-25-12.

The coupon a guest writing spot on the prestigious Game On!!! Blog.

I see it has not yet been redeemed.  Although there is no expiration date, the writer is on a spree, so you might want to redeem while you still have a chance.

I thought I would provide some guidelines and clarity of what is expected:

See previous blog posts for rules aka there are no rules

See previous blogs for quality aka not that high of a standard

See previous blogs for content aka whatever suits your fancy

No heed can be given to grammar and spelling.  They don’t own you.

The more exclamation points the better.

Suggestions for content:

Your take on the formation and evolution of Geopopper

A dissection of any current game

Your favorite Seinfeld episode with a play by play of what went down (King of Queens, Arrested Development…)

maybe a contest?

Games you like to play

Knowledge about award systems

The future of Playcadia

What’s the deal with a company with three employees requiring a newsletter

A corner of some sort (see Bab’s corner following this letter).  It would be great if we could track down the clip of Mr. Rodgers learning to skate or a new delightful Koko the gorilla story.

CDogg mentioned talk that this blog’s overall purpose is to market, bring awareness to Geopopper and Playcadia and not just my own personal diary… So um yeah that would be great if you could make references to Social gaming, GeoPopper, and whatever else the kids are talking about these days.

Thanks!!!!

P.S. 701-1205 words please

P.P.S. 11 Font

 

Geo Popper gets a new, improved, revamped name: GeoPopper!!!! Also...

 

For those readers who just tune into the blogs: Here is the game overview: 

 

Welcome to the world of GeoPopper!

The outside video game that merges an app on your phone with the real world.

 Geocaching meets competitive racing meets Easter egg hunt.  GeoPopper allows players to play video games that merge the actual physical environment with their mobile devices.  Players create arenas in places like parks, determine the location and number of balloons, and then run, walk, sprint, meander to the location of balloons to pop them. Geopopper uses your phone's GPS to determine your proximity to a balloon.  Once you are close enough to a balloon, the balloon will pop.

Create arenas around the world (note if you create an arena in Spain, you will have to go to Spain to play. So maybe creating arenas at a nearby park is a good start)

Play by yourself in solo mode and see how quickly you can pop all of the balloons in the arena.

Play against friends in group mode and see who can pop the most balloons.

Share your best arenas with your friends.  If enough people like your arena, your arena becomes viewed by the world.

Arena Builder
To create new arenas, tap the arena builder on the bottom of your screen.
A map will appear and your current location will be showed by a blue dot.
You create the location of where you are going to play and set up the arena by zooming into that location on the map.
Next you determine the number and location of balloons in your arena by dropping green pins.   You drop these pins by touching the screen for 2 to 3 seconds or hitting the pin icon (note if you hit the pin icon, the pin will drop in your current location).

After you have 3 - 1,000,000 green pins placed you will name your arena.
You can view the new arena by going to GROUP or SOLO.  It will appear in the my arenas tab at the top left,  symbolized by a red balloon.
If there is more than one arena in an area, there will be a bunch of balloons.  Zoom in to see the individual arenas.

Solo Play
Choose an arena and try to pop all the balloons as fast as you can by going to the location of the arena and moving to the location of the balloons on the map.   Your location will be shown as a blue dot.


Group Play
Choose an arena, invite Facebook friends, and try to pop more balloons than they can.


Arena and Game Safety
You're not on your couch playing a game, you're interacting with the real world.  That means you have to use more caution when playing this game.  Arenas are created by users like you, but the real world changes.  If an Arena contains dangerous locations or if conditions change, it could make a previously safe arena unsafe.
Use common sense when playing: Call it a day if there is an alligator, crocodile, unsavory character or anything you do not feel comfortable with near a balloon
Use caution and think about unique environmental factors that could possibly make your arena unsafe.  Do not create arenas near cliffs, bodies of waters…
Some arenas might be safe in the summer but hazardous in the winter.  Think about this before playing and creating arenas. An arena that is safe during the daytime, might be dangerous at night.  An arena that is safe in summer might become dangerous in winter.
Don't build Arenas that require a user to cross a road.  Roads are dangerous and require your full attention when crossing.  Don't build arenas near natural hazards (cliffs, lakes, etc).  Because accuracy isn't very good, even marking a location within 10 meters is dangerous.
GPS accuracy in mobile devices is not very good - we're limited to the hardware we're using and the best we can get is within about 10 meters accuracy (and sometimes that even seems like a stretch!).  That means you may be trying to get to a balloon to pop but your dot isn't in the right spot.  Be aware of your surroundings.

Geo popper: the beginning. A mixture between geocaching, Easter egg hunting, and racing. Overlapping a game onto real world.

In my novel writing attempts I used to picture my main character being a bit disillusioned with life and then one day this main character enters an alternate universe where her life becomes a fascinating game. Instead of falling down a rabbit hole the game is overlaid onto her world but no one else can see it.

She would be walking down the street and need to hop from one to brightly colored circle like a board game, there would of course be a mission and adversaries.

As seen by this blog and my other blog how I wrote a novel in one month (with two posts and zero novels) novel writing isn't my thang.

But the tiny idea of overlapping a game onto the natural environment resonated with me.

I pictured Mario brothers and how fun it would be to be Mario and leap up for coins and get items that could help you on your mission.


Side note growing up I remember having 3 great debates
1. Was Santa real? He had to be. we would go to visit Ohio on Christmas Eve and when we returned Christmas morning, there would be presents under the tree. Explain that if Santa isn't real.
2. Were the singers of Mary Mo singing Mary mo or Mary moon (clearly Mary mo)
3. could mario jump over the castle flag in Mario bros 1?

i knew the answers for 1 and 2, but if i hadnt seen it with my own eyes i would always have an inkling of doubt on 3. If nothing else I hope readers of this blog view me as a credible source (I kid, I see nothing in these blog posts that would convince anyone of my credibility or saneness), but I tell you with complete certainty that Mario can jump over the flag pole.


Hmmmm where was I? (Please picture me with a pipe, suit coat w courdoroy patches while I tell this story)

Ahh yes, I was telling how geo popper, a mixture between geocaching and road rallies came to be.

I pictured tomb runner and how much more fun it would be to be the tomb runner. With google glasses this is a near possibility.

Think of how much more fun running would be if you were picking up coins along the way. Or if you were running on a track and through your google glasses you would see a game. Different scenery, different obstacles.

Balloons, enough said

Morgan Freeman was on the Daily Show and discussing how he gets to hang out with steven hawking and other top notch physicists because he is the voice for a universe documentary.

I could keep up because I watch the Big Bang Theory and am pretty well aware of the hadron collider and the like and so on and so forth.

Morgan Freeman mentioned how you could use balloons to show principals of multiple universes.

Moments later he mentioned how another physics principal could be described by using balloons.

Jon Stewart stopped him and asked if the whole science was based on balloons.

It was pretty funny and would be to you too if you watched it rather than read it.

My point in telling this story is that balloons are pretty awesome.

They can be used to explain crazy principals of physics

They can be used to entertain and inspire audiences watching up

They can be used in a fun and somewhat dangerous game where each contestant has balloons tied around their ankles and you try to stomp on everyone else's balloons without getting your own popped.

99 Red ones can be used in a catchy catchy song

Lastly they can be used in an awesome app that is going to add quite a twist to the gaming world.

Are caution signs getting a little alarmist? + Hashtag Monsters Inc Principal or Principle, who really knows

This blog is clearly not going to be as dangerous as walking on a wet floor at MCDs (do you see that guys arms flailing? That is dramatic!)   However a caution is necessary before reading this blog because dududum
There will be some hotsy totsy words used including but not limited to:

1.Paradigm shift
2. hotsy totsy (the hotsiest totsiest word of them all)
3. Sturgeon's Law

The Monsters Inc Principle
Another warning, I am basing my entire argument off of what I like to call the Monsters Inc Principle:
In the movie, the Monsters did not get their energy from coal, wind, water...
Their energy source came from scaring kids.
Each time a child was scared by a monster, energy was produced.
At the end of the movie, they serendipitously realized that energy could be produced from making kids laugh.
Not less energy, not the same amount of energy, but MORE energy.
So...
Laughter = crazy high amount of energy
Scares=minor amount of energy
Laughing=delightful
Being scared=the worst
After this realization, monsters who would continue to scare children rather than attempting to make them laugh to get energy=idiots, masochists

I am afraid that we humans are doing the same thing in schools, in jobs, in life.

By being so serious, I think we are missing the possibility that we could get a heck of a lot more done playing than working.

By leaving the playing for the kids (and in some unfortunate instances not even leaving the playing for the kids)  we are throwing away what we do best and doing what we do with mediocrity.

A huge paradigm shift occurred in Monsters Inc (Paradigm shift =CHANGE IN BELIEFS/IDEAS ABOUT THE WAY THINGS ARE)

I believe we NEED that huge paradigm shift.

KAREN's KEY ASSUMPTIONS
People who are happy and like what they do are better at what they do and offer more to the world
People let responsibilities/fears/limiting believes limit their output
People create value when they are in their flow
*I use flow interchangeably with play and will take future blogs to explore this idea
*What I mean by flow: being completely engaged in an activity, synapses firing
Many people are in jobs where they do not get to experience flow
We can design jobs, situations that allow people to play/flow



Sturgeons Law: 90% of everything is crap
(See this article for more clarity: http://m.guardiannews.com/books/2013/may/19/daniel-dennett-intuition-pumps-thinking-extract)
We are absolutely inundated with crap,
questions, ideas, art...
Time is too limited to focus on crap, but I feel that's all that people focus on.  There are thoughts to be had and we putz around in the mundane.  Ahhhh I can't do it, we gots to play more.  However, because it is such a foreign concept, takes creativity and questioning, we actually have to work really hard to become deliberate to play more.

Getting ready for Playvolution! Much better than the Industrial, Agricultural, and Information combined

There have been dramatic shifts in what people spend their time doing, how they work, how they spend their leisure time, their core beliefs.

Sometimes these dramatic shifts are labeled revolutions,
like the good old Agricultural Revolution that allowed people to stay in one place for a long time, build permanent home sites, and

I think that next revolution that totally transforms the way we do things could be the
the PLAYVOLUTION (even the name beats the others)

When we have a huge cultural shift that play is the way to go.

Life is tough, it is filled with
war, inequality, famine, death...

But by focusing on how bad everything is and focusing on the questions that don't take curiosity, out of the box thinking we are totally wasting our focus and energy.


Not avoided, not made worse,
but when framed in a way so people (not just a few enlightened ones, but the vast majority of people) are able to tackle these problems with hopeless optimisim, watch out, the positive effects are immeasurable.

Right now I will bet the million dollars I plan on having in 2014 that if people went to play instead of work, that if they played complex interesting games rather than conduct mundane, routine tasks the world would have less war, less hunger, less all of the crap.

These guys say it much better than I can and what if they're right? Hash tag goodbye childhood obesity, spelling tests, and TGIF:

"It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.” -Leo F. Buscaglia

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -George Bernard Shaw

"Play is the beginning of knowledge.” -George Dorsey

“Play is so integral to childhood that a child who does not have the opportunities to play is cut off from a major portion of childhood.” -Musselwhite

“Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.” -Roger

"We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.”

"Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.” -Diane Ackerman

"Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.” Abraham Maslow

Karen's corner
At work today I received a message saying I came highly recommended (I began to have an inkling this call was not for me) and a question about refinancing for a lower interest rate (the inkling was confirmed, I am not a mortgage banker). When I called the man back to see if I could point him in the right direction, he gave me the name of who he was trying to contact. I found her extension and realized it was one small digit away from mine. So of course I immediately consider what Kramer did when his phone number was one digit off from moviephone. "Why don't you just tell me the movie you'd like to see?" The scary thing was when I received the message I was so excited to tell the man about how much he could save if he refinanced and ask him about his financial goals and play nortgage banker.

Kindergarten Engineers What the What?

Ahhhhh I wrote an article that I can now safely call my best piece of writing ever (I can only say that because I somehow did not save it, and that is how I will choose to remember it)  Because I don't have the heart right now, I am going to just write out a skeleton, a thin shell of that masterpiece.

There was some lovely, flowery writing about a To Sir With Love esque kindergarten teachers, there were some solid comparisons to Michelangelo, and there was a cautionary tale about, a chimp, a hula hoop, and youthful optimism.

I'll see what I can recreate, but no promises.

I was once again thinking about the importance of engagement in learning and once again thinking that the same principles that hold true for the classroom, hold true for the workplace, life...

So I attended this conference and was so inspired by what is happening in some classrooms.

Lots of teachers are incorporating Project Based Learning and  Learning by Design.

What the teacher did:

1. Noticed her kids were extremely interested in a type of toy, it wasn't GI Joes or legos, but some specific brand that alludes me now.

2. Had them play on the playground

3. Wrote a letter (likely on fancy official paper) from the toy company asking for the kids help.  She sat the kids down and read this very official letter that asked the kids to design a playground for these toy people. 

The letter had guidelines but limited

4.  Supported the children by future exploration opportunities, time, and material supplies 

5.  Supported the children with opportunities to test their buildings, showed the children a structure for testing their designs and for recording their findings

4. Gaped open mouthed at the amazing things the children created

In other words the teacher:

1. PAID ATTENTION TO WHAT THE KIDS WERE INTERESTED IN

2. SET UP EXPERIENCES FOR THEM TO OBSERVE/GAIN EXPERIENCE

3. DESIGNED AN ENGAGING, CHALLENGING PROJECT THAT ALLOWS FREEDOM and CREATIVITY and  INCORPORATES WHAT THEY ARE INTERESTED IN  

4. OFFERED SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE, but LET THE STUDENTS DO THE HEAVY LIFTING

THESE PRINCIPLES SHOULD BE THE STANDARD WAY OF DOING THINGS:

If we want to reach optimum potential of human capital

The current situation in many schools and workplaces remind me of Monsters Inc.  The monsters scared children to generate power.  The crazy thing was it was way more fun to make children laugh than cry and it produced a heck of a lot more power.

"More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth."

Napoleon Hill

Hashtag, you rock Napoleon Hill Hashtage pure gold (yeah, yeah, yeah I realize I am not using the hashtag properly but I like it)

Learning by design, working by design, kindergarten engineers

Argument:
It's all about the framing, engagement, and scaffolding.

The ideas that the good teachers use in school should be pushed further and used to design jobs.

By good teachers, I mean the ones that design the learning experiences that the children will have.

Teachers, leaders, and bosses with enhanced awareness have the potential to build, frame, and implement situations to get students, indiviuals, and workers to higher and higher levels of potential.

This week, I will be painting some pictures to elaborate on what I mean

Tuesday: Kindergarten engineers what the what???
Wednesday: It's not your Grandma's math lab
Thursday: Ahhhhh, so that's why the formula for area is 1/2bh, what happens when teachers are deliberate
Side notes
1.  To not slide my credibility any further, I must set the record straight.  I was not told to scram off the set of Ryan Gosling's new movie, but rather told to scram off the set of a tv show that is being filmed in
2. My current small game of Assasins (see ) has had its first victim taken out by mwah.  It happened at Buffalo Wild Wings and it happened with bubbles.  Pretty exciting.

Hashtag Awestome Hashtag Engagement

Need some laughs? Paul Tompkins, Nick Swardson, Jim Gaffigan, Elegant balloons, moist cake, and squirreladors

Gots to get my blog on.  I have some momentum and I like it.  Sure this all might be jibber jabber, but maybe its not and because I have been posting everyday, I am going to continue on.

And because we could all laugh more (note there are laughing clubs designed based on the entire idea that laughter heals everything)

So while I get my blog on, please get your laugh on with these comedians:

1. Paul Tompkins
Paul discusses the best store name he has run across: Elegant balloons.  He then does a lovely little reenactment of a pompous man hosting a dinner party calling into a balloon store. 
Pompous man: "aaah yes I am hosting a dinner party at my mansion. I'll be entertaining some foreign dignitaries, heads of the state and the like, we're going to spruce the place up a bit, what do you have in the way of balloons?
Balloon Salesman: "Well sir we have this model here, also comes in blue."
Pompous man: "Those balloons are gauche, I am not hosting a free for all for a bunch of hill people that are going to eat with there hands.  Where are your elegant balloons?"


2. Nicholas Swardson Click here
Nick discusses how great it is to hang out with his grandma because she is so impressed by his strength.  When she asks him to pick up the groceries he can and she tells him, "Oh Nicholas you're so strong, you should be a super hero."  When she asks him to pick up a gallon of milk, he says in a very confident super hero esque voice, oh you mean this milk?

Also check out these gems:

Dan Cummins take on the Squirrelador
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiUhAGcsenM

Jim Gaffigan's view on why male seahorses have the babies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujRwl6dL9go

Paul Foot's questioning of why we always have to describe a piece of cake as moist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBk9DD84fdY

You go Eric Thomas, you go!/Don't linger on set of Ryan Gosling's new movie

Ahhh the next Tony Robbins=Eric Thomas.

Very, very motivational speaker, check him out!!! http://www.youtube.com/user/etthehiphoppreacher

Learning to say  "I'll pass" = so very important!!!

I was in a dark haze for a while when I didn't see opportunities and options.

Not a great place to be in

Luckily, I had a shift and began to see all my options and the world as full of endless possibilities.

The problem was I felt overwhelmed with the opportunities available and unable to put my full passion into anything because I was scattered and drifting and alllllllllll over the place.

Eric Thomas hits upon several key ideas for where I am at in my journey:

1. Not every opportunity is for you.

2. Learn how to say, "I'll Pass."

I am finally honing in on what I am passionate about and feel a huge depth to what I can produce and give to the world.  It is important to not get wrapped up in other people's ideas of what you should be doing or where your value lies, when you intuitively know when you are in your zone and doing what you should be doing.

Eric painted two pictures, one of a forest and one of a garden.  The forest was unintentional, seeds scattered everywhere.  The garden was designed with intent. 

Our life, time, and focus are like seeds, we can let them scatter or we can intentionally place them and nurture them.  (side note, forests are lovely and I do kind of have a problem with this metaphor because who is to say that a man made garden is any more valueable than a wild forest).



However, life is short and you might not be scattering your seeds on soil that will allow anything to grow, so I suggest and intend to practice some intent and deliberateness today.

Karen's Corner
On my walk into work, I passed by people filming a movie (guessing it's Ryans Gosling's filming in Detroit although he was not there).  It was difficult not to want to watch, so I passed where they were doing the work and took a moment to check it out and promptly got told Miss and then was given a gesture of walking along.  So basically told to scram.  Still pretty pretty cool and a fun way to start the day!