The "Summer Reading Program", each kid reads or has 10 books read to them, TD Bankwill give your kids $10 each either for a new or an existing account, but the program ends end of the month, 30th September.
Great little program this and essentially free money for your under 18 year olds so got nothing to lose.
The engine is now available for free here.
Read the terms and conditions, but they sound pretty good for those that just want to tinker around with it.
To get started, the official documentation can be found here.
The community developed documentation, which is well worth a browse can be foundhere.
A simple guide to get started on creating a level can be found here.
More indepth knowledge can be found in the wiki here.
Now go and enjoy!
Information about what the Boston Game Loop is all about, for those who don't know can be found here.
For those who weren't able to make the GameLoop, a collection of notes, thoughts and write ups from various people who attended, in various disciplines are listed here that I could find. If there are any others, please let me know.
Darius Kazemi, on his blog, Tiny Subversions, has a indepth write up here.
"Embracing failure in game narratives"
"Unconference unwriteup from a game undesigner" by Nick Lalone
For a photo look into the conference, Elliott Mitchell, has posted a public album here.
For those interested in the Philly Game Loop, which was a spin off from the Boston event, a good write up of that event can be found here.
So you've been buying nappies and noticing that they have a sticker on the inside with a code you can redeem for prizes, with the flyer being able to win a years supply of nappies and wipes, how awesome!
Well not exactly...but you've nothing to lose by trying.
Once you've set up a user profile at both sites, you can plug your codes in. Pampers certainly make this a lot easier to do, as you can add more than one code at a time and if you're anything like me, I just keep them in a draw and do a bunch at a time when bored some evening, and gives you a chance to check out other prizes being offered.
Huggies, you have to enter and submit a code each time and also select a store where you bought them from a drop down menu, which is more hassle.
On the other hand, to enter the year supply of nappy and wipes with Huggies, it only costs you 5 points per draw and you can enter as often as you want. Pampers cost you 20 points to enter their monthly competition.
They both offer many other prizes that you can enter for. Huggies have a instant win thing where the prizes are smaller and use less points, but you find out straight away and they also have small monthly prizes such as a box of nappies that you can enter and wait till they draw a winner. Pampers allow you to spend the points on products, toilet seats, toys, that kind of thing as well.
One nice thing about Pampers, they have a chart showing how many points you'll likely earn for each product, because different type of nappies, sizes and number count get different points ranging from 10 for wipes or a small packet to 180 for a large box for instance. Huggies doesn't appear to do this and the points ranged from 4 I'm guessing for the wipes, to 25 for a packet of nappies.
At the end of the day, you've got nothing to lose by keeping the codes and doing the programs, but they probably aren't worth the extra cost over getting a store branded box of nappies, especially if they had a coupon you could use.
This is great for anyone living in the burbs or fancying a bit of a change.
The Children's Discovery Museum in Acton.
Every Friday till the end of August, between 4:30 and 8:30pm both the Children's Museum and the Science Museum portions at the place are free.
The Children's portion is fantastic for little kids, ideally from say 2.5 up till around 6 or so as they get to play with a fake train, water tables and a giant human bubble maker as well as a diner, a jungle themed room, a boat themed room, a theatre and a host of other fun little things for kids to play around with and explore.
Then over to the Science portion, aimed at slightly older kids, but 3 year olds will still love this. There are plenty of things for all ages, especially the musical instrument and noise making activities and water based activities.
Spending the evening here is very easy to do and a lot of fun. Not as crazy busy as the time they were doing the Free Friday event for the Highland Street people, so very easy to get in, park and play. The garden area is a great spot to have a picnic if you arrive early, or just play in the huge sandpit outside if the weather is nice.
The Khronos Group is hosting a art contest that ends next week, 7th August.
The details of the contest can be found here.
An author of children's books. He bills himself more as a story teller though and if you get a chance to catch him doing a book session, you really should!
He has read at a lot of libraries and it was there that I managed to catch a show, which went on for 45 minutes, stories and a little bit of music, just enough to entertain and keep little minds in tune for.
Binder, has a collection of around 6 traditionally printed books, of which "It ate my sister" and "The bedtime story book" are particularly good collection of stories. He also has a collection of audio books and e-books. The audio books would be great to collect as he has such enthusiasm and energy in his story telling. Of which, is't a strict reading of his books, but a collection of age appropriate stories, some of which are based on the written tales but many being based off of stories you might recognise, that have either been updated or merged with similar stories, all with great amusement and audience participation.
At the end of the reading session, he did have a collection of audio CD's and books you could buy, offering them for $10 each instead of the regular $15, and if you bought two, you could get a third for free. These were all signed and personalised. He accepted cash, cheque and credit card, so you don't have to worry about being caught short if you wanted to buy a book after a showing.
For a list of his free readings, of which seem to be mostly in MA and RI can be found here.
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