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Myst III Exile
Last weekend, I installed "Myst III: Exile" because I read that story
"pupils learn through Myst game". I played it a little, but was
afraid that it was a little boring for Annabel.
Yesterday, we went to get her from my sister, after not having seen her
for more than three weeks. This evening I sat down with her to play the
game together with her. We played for about one and half hour and did
solve some puzzles. I am afraid she is going to be hooked.
Playing Go
This evening, Annabel and I went to the
university to play Go. I played against Rik
with six stones ahead and lost with 15 points. He is a strong Kyu
player. Annabel played some games with Martijn and also read a lot
in an Zoop boek. (Zoop is a
soap-opera playing in a zoo, and while it is usually pronounced
like soup with a 'z', it sound like soap when pronounced according
to the Dutch fonetic rules.)
We also discussed the state of math education in the Netherlands,
because one of the other Go players had been recently involved with
taking a math comprehension test for freshmen. About ten years ago
there has been a big reform in the Dutch highschool system. The
seems that in an attempt to make math (and related subjects) more
attractive, they have made it more concrete with the idea that
students would also comprehend the more abstract aspect easier.
The test showed that many freshmen had problems with such elementary
things as fractions. The reason must be that they have become to
reply on their graphical calculators too much. But still it is
shocking especially if you realize that this is a university with
predominant science majors. It would not surprise me if the reform
by its emphesis on writing reports and working in groups is
actually turning down the more mathematically oriented students.
It seems that in the whole education system, social skills (being
able to work in teams and make flashy presentations) is valued
higher than being able to do science. No wonder that Asian countries
are starting to become predominant in these areas.
Myst Exile: solving a riddle
This morning, one of my first thought was an idea for solving a
riddle in the Myst Exile game that Annabel
and I are playing right now. After I checked if the idea was correct,
I woke up Annabel and told her that I knew the answer to it. Then she
told me the answer as well. She had thought about it, yesterday
evening at the University while playing a game of Go. It seems that
we both had a similar experience of finding the answer to a riddle
while not consciously thinking about it.
Abunai 2005
Today, Annabel and I went to
Abunai 2005 to help with
the Go workshop. We stayed for about four ours and explained the
Go rules to students attending the conference, and played some
games amongh us (that is Rudi, Martijn, Rob, Annabel and I).
Rudi had printed out some 9x9 boards on a picture he took from
a wooden cubboard in his kitchen. It was interesting to see all
the cosplay.
We had a look at the dealerroom and the gamerroom. It looked like
it were mostly students attending this conference. To me it looks
like many still behave as teenagers, but maybe that is just because
I am about twenty years older.
(follow-up)
Playing against Ton
This evening, I went to the University to play Go.
Because it has been a long time ago since I played against Ton,
I decided to play against him. He gave me six stones ahead and
I lost with twelve points. Not very good I feel. There was a new
person, who seems to be about my strength. I probably will play
against him next time. Because Ton and I were both by bike,
we decided to bike home together some part. We had some good
conversation about the things happening in our lives.
Myst III: Exile
Tonight, I finished Myst III: Exile. For solving one the
Ages, I did make use of some hints from
Universal Hint System, a very nice hints site.
Spider
This morning, about 15 minutes in the church service, I discovered
a rather large spider, about two chairs away from me. The spider
looked more dead than alive. It did almost not move. But still I
kept a watch on it all the time in case it would wake-up and run
away. I did take two picture of it, but both turned out to be bad
when I looked at them at home. When Annabel
returned, she almost stept on it. Later she told me that she had
seen it and stepped over it. She is totally not afraid of spiders.
Then someone sitting behind me, picked it up to bring it outside.
It did not move at all when he put it on his open bible. I do not
know what happened with it.
This afternoon, Annabel finished
Myst III: Exile as well. I had promised to install
Riven, and so I did. Riven was quite a disappointment
after having played Exile. It also crashes often, probably
because it was not designed for Windows XP. When it crashes the
mouse pointer disappears and it simply does not respond any more.
It also seems that the puzzles in Riven seem to be far more
obscure.
Biking to play Go
This evening, Annabel and I biked to
the university to play Go. We went by bike,
because the main road from our home to the university has been
closed, and taking the detour would probably take a long time.
Annabel did not play any game, but she did look at some games
of others, and read in "Zoop" and make a floor plan for a family
hotel. I played agains Taco and lost with 15 points and getting
nine stones ahead. Afterwards we talked about some of my mistakes.
I also looked a little at a game between Rudi and Marcel. Annabel
and I made some suggestion for Marcel, which he decided to follow.
Seventh Dutch Kabuki day
Today, the seventh Dutch Kabuki day was held. We dropped Annabel with my mother and then drove with Andy
to "De Regenboog", an activity center in the village Maarn for people
with a mental handicap.
There had been changes in the program, because Prof. Dr. C. Schrander-Stumpel
and Dr. J. Schrander could not attend due to some unexpected
circumstances. They both felt sorry that they could not attend.
I think that about twenty families attended this day, of which about
six for the first time. In total we had eighteen children with Kabuki Syndrome
attending. We met with some new cute children with Kabuki syndrome. Some still
rather weak. Two of them having a PEG. It also made me realize how long it ago
it was, that Andy was like them.
After everyone had had a cup of coffee or tea with a piece of Limburg pie
(from Multivlaai), we started
with a presentation about "transition" by Lieke van den Hout, a student of
Dr. J. Schrander.
At one point, somewhere between 14 and 21 years, our children become
too old to be seen by a paediatrician, but often still have to deal
with complicated health issues. This means that some kind of transition
has to be made to another doctor or team of doctors for adults. She
explained us about the concept of a "case manager", someone that you
can always connect for dealing with medical issues, and who can make
the right appointments. She explained that at their hospital this was
working nice, but experience learned that "transition" does not happen
smoothly at all hospitals and that often the health care gets fragmented.
Then Dr. Titia Kan gave a talk about issues to deal with puberty and
contraception. She is a physician for persons with intellectual disabilities
(and a member of NVAVG).
For people with mental handicaps, puberty is often a more than usual
difficult time, because the physical development is often behind on
their emotional development. Also the issue of sex education and sexual
abuse was talked about.
Around one o'clock we started with the lunch which lasted about one and
half hour. Then we talked about various issues that had been raised
by different parents and shared our experiences. Then around four we
had some tea with some left over pieces of Limburg pie. And then it
was time to say goodbey and to do some cleaning-up. It was around half
past five that we left. Before and after the activities, I talked
with several of the new parents to hear about their stories and to
give them some encouragement.
We also got printouts of two articles in which Andy is one of the cases.
These are
Kabuki Syndrome: Clinical Data in 20 Patients, Literature
Review, and Further Guidelines for Preventive Management and
Kabuki Syndrome Is Not Caused by an 8p Duplication: A Cytogenetic
Study in 20 Patients both of which appeared in the
American Journal of Medical Genetics, Volume 132A, Issue 3, 30 January 2005.
The first paper has
two supplements, namely:
Synopsis of the medical features in Kabuki syndrome and
Guidelines for preventive management.
(Sixth Dutch Kabuki day and
Eight Dutch Kabuki day)
Finished 80% of Riven
This evening, I finished about 80% of Riven. I arrived at Gehn's Age, but without
some important item, and I also went to visit Catherine. I have to admit that last
week I already looked at
a map, which gave me some idea about how to find the secret paths on
the village island. Tonight, I also looked at
Maps of Riven by Calyxa to verify the locations of the domes as I had found them,
only to discover that I had marked down the wrong location for the dome at the
prisoners island.
I also read this walkthrough,
which gives the answer to the animal riddle, but does not explain how it is found.
In a certain sense, this walkthrough is broken, because it gives answers to puzzles
that you could not have solved had you followed this walkthrough.
I also read through UHS hints,
only to discover that was completely going in the wrong direction with respect to solving
the animal riddle. I tried not to remember the solution and see if I can find the clues
by myself. I think, I solved about 80% of the puzzles by myself. (Maybe I should have
kept a journal of all my searching, as
JohnB did.)
Playing Go
Annabel and I went to the University to play Go. We went by car and I took the route that I normally use when I bike
to my work. That meant I had to drive mainly trough a 30 Km (20 mile) zone.
When we arrived, Rudi and Marcel had just arrived. Because no others came, we decided
that I would play against Marcel and Annabel against Rudi. About halfway some students
looked over saying that they never had seen it before, and talked a little about the
rules. I lost a large group when playing against Marcel. I lost with 53 stones while
having got a nine stone advantage at the beginning of the game. But still that is not
very bad, but worse than last week.
When Rudi and Marcel started another game, I played a game against Annabel. Then I
looked a little the game between Ton and Tace, who had arrived a little later than us.
It was a quarter past ten that we went home.
Nerds and geeks
Yesterday, Annabel when she saw the cover of this weeks edition of Intermediair
that she knew some of the people on it. Then she pointed out that the guy in the blue
t-shirt was still wearing the Abunai 2005 admission band, just like
she is doing. The picture belongs to the cover story about nerds and geeks, which is
partly based on the book Geek Chic, The Ultimate Guide to Geek Culture. The
story also includes a picture of Bill Gates when he was in his early twenties.
(follow-up)
Riven and Uru
Today, "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst", which I had bought last Monday on
marktplaats, arrived. After
Annabel and I finished playing "Riven" this evening,
I decided to install it. At first it looked very interesting, but then
lixia suddenly rebooted. And it
kept on doing that, also after I downloaded the latest video drivers for my
Radeon graphic card. This really frustrated me.
(follow-up)
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Thursday, September 29, 2005