Fatherhood (Cute!)

Digital Cameras for Parents of Blurry Toddlers.

My wife and I went on vacation to the beach a couple of weeks ago. While there, I saw a lady following her little boy around with a camera snapping pictures of him trying to catch pigeons. I noticed that she had an expensive Digital SLR camera. Taking pictures of a toddler can be tricky. If it takes a second for the camera to focus, you've already missed the moment.

Here are some resources that may prove helpful to you when you go to buy your next camera.



   
Buyer's Guides

• Digital Camera Buying Guide (CNet.com)
• How to Buy a Point-and-Shoot Camera (PC Magazine)
• How to Buy a Digital Camera (PC World)
  

Reviews

• ConsumerSearch.com - Makes recommendations about the best cameras in each class and price range. I find their reviews to be very helpful.
  
• CNet Reviews - Tons of reviews. This site is especially useful if you already have an idea of what kind of camera you want to buy.
  
• Wize.com - Categorizes cameras based on how you think you'll use yours (vacation, sports, everyday use, etc.)

Other Useful Links

• My Product Advisor - Great Site! I've used them to pick out my last two PDAs. The site asks you a series of questions about what you're looking for in a camera and makes recommendations when you're done.
  
• SizeEasy - Enter the physical dimensions of the camera you're thinking of buying and SizeEasy.com will show you how big it is relative to other common objects like a deck of cards or a CD case. This is useful when shopping online for items that you can't physically see.

Parting Advice

1. Don't stress too much over which camera to buy. You certainly want to consider things like price range, camera size, and how you plan to use the camera , but in the end they all pretty much work the same. Most people never really even figure out how to use their camera once they have it anyway. Which leads me to my next point...
2. Learn how to use your new camera. I'm not saying that you need to learn about f-stops or aperture or anything like that. Learn how to operate the zoom. Learn how to turn the flash on and off. Learn how to turn the LCD on and off. Stuff like that. The good thing about digital cameras is that it doesn't really cost you anything to take bad shots. Read the manual and experiment. Maybe take a local photography class. You'll be glad that you did.
   

Girl Power!

I recently read an article that says that 90% of girls report sexual harassment. As shocking as that statistic is, there was one quote that stood out to me. While interviewing researcher Christia Brown, Amy Wilson asked, "How about female high school athletes? Do they face unique sexist challenges?"




Brown responded,

They often get comments about their sexuality or their inferior athletic abilities. However, we also know that those girls have the best outcomes of any girls in high school. They tend to have higher self-esteem and do well academically. They also tend to have better body images than nonathletes. We suspect it is because they view their bodies as powerful and use their bodies for a purpose, instead of just viewing their bodies as something that needs to be attractive.

In light of the recent Olympic games, I think that helping girls see themselves as more than a pretty (or not-so-pretty) face is important. Check out the full interview here: "90% of girls report sexual harassment." (Detroit Free Press)

Beyoncé gets lighter, Vogue gets darker

There has been some debate recently about whether or not L'Oréal digitally retouched Beyoncé's skin to make her look lighter. As afrobella.com points out, this isn't the first time this has happenned.

While searching for info about the L'Oréal controversy, I came across several articles talking about the July 2008 issue of Vogue Italia, which featured all black models. Critics of the fashion industry have long decried the lack of black models on the runway, so I assumed that this "all black" issue of Vogue would be considered a good thing. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. Many commentators question whether the special issue will have any affect on the fashion industry at all.


The July 2008 issue of Vogue Italia has sold extremely well, but don't expect to see this translate into more diversity in who appears in ads and on the the covers of top fashion magazines. Black women already spend $20 billion each year on clothing alone.


For more info on the Vogue Italia July 2008 issue, check out Italian Vogue's "All Black" Issue: A Guided Tour (I wouldn't look at this at work, by the way) on Jezebel.com.

Should I buy "Death Throes 3" for little Johnny? (Part 3)

In Part 1, we talked about how to find and read the ESRB Ratings on games.

In Part 2, we covered how to use video game reviews to get an idea of the contents of a game.

Next, we'll look at sites containing game-play videos so that you can see for yourself what kinds of things are in the games your kids are asking for.



They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so video footage is worth... well... a whole lot of words.

Places to look

Here are three sites that should cover most of the games you can find in stores:

• http://www.gametrailers.com/

• http://www.gamevideos.com/

• http://www.youtube.com/
  

I suggest you check out Gametrailers.com first. They combine all of the videos for a game on a single page, so you will get the most "bang for your buck" that way.

You must be this tall to ride...

Another good thing about searching for videos on Gametrailers.com is that they put the ESRB Rating for a game right on the page with the videos.

If a game is rated M (for Mature), then GameTrailers.com and GameVideos.com will show an "age gate" before they will show you the video.


Obviously, a game video that has an "Age Gate" on it will probably have some questionable content in it.

That's it for now! I hope that this post will help you to decide what is appropriate for you child to play.

I'll leave you with a sample video from GameTrailers.com of one of my favorite games. Enjoy!

Should I buy "Death Throes 3" for little Johnny? (Part 2)

Just like a book, you can't always judge a game by its cover. As we saw in Part 1, the ESRB description for the game shown above says that it contains "Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, and Use of Alcohol".

There are several cartoony characters on the box, so it's hard to imagine the "Use of Alcohol" or "Mild Language" parts of the game.

Reading Reviews to Learn About a Game

One way to learn more about the contents of a game is to read reviews of the game online. Game reviews are generally not written with protective parents in mind, but you can still learn a lot from reading a review of a game.

One word of caution. You're looking for reviews. NOT PREVIEWS. Reviews are (usually) written after the game is finished. Previews are written during the development of the game. This matters because sites that preview games are often reluctant to or restricted from writing negative things about a game before it is released. In other words, a preview might not give you an accurate picture of the contents of the game.

There are several places you can go online to read game reviews, but you'll get the most "bang for your buck" by going to sites that aggregate game reviews. Here are three popular sites for game reviews:

• Metacritic
• Game Rankings
• GameTab

My favorite of the three game review sites is Metacritic. On any of the sites, you can either search for the title of the game, or you can browse for the game if you know which system the game is on, such as the Xbox 360, Nitendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, PSP, etc.

Finding a Review

Let's walk through finding some reviews of the game above, Eternal Sonata.

1. Type "http://www.metacritic.com/games/" into the address bar in your browser.
   
   
   
   
2. Search for Eternal Sonata
   
   
   
   
3. Click on Eternal Sonata in the list of results.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click on one of the Read Full Review links to go to one of the reviews.
   
   

Here is an excerpt from the review of Eternal Sonata on GameSpot.com

"If that makes Eternal Sonata sound sickeningly sweet, rest assured that it also possesses a good deal of maturity. We watch Chopin sleeping on his deathbed, as the clock slowly counts down to his last moment on earth."

It's tidbits like this that can aid you in deciding whether or not a game is suitable for your child or not.

I understand that weeding through reviews of a game to find out if it's appropriate for your child can feel overwhelming (or even a waste of time). In Part 3, we'll look at ways to find videos of game-play online so that you can see with your own eyes what's in the game little Johnny has been begging you for.

Should I buy "Death Throes 3" for little Johnny?

I sometimes get questions from friends and family members with kids along the lines of,

"Little Johnny wants a game called..."

(There's usually a protracted pause here as they try to remember the name of the game,)

"... Metal Works 4... Or something like that. Do you know anything about it?"

What they're usually asking is, "will this game scar my child and make people think I am a horrible parent for buying it?"

While I can't always give a definitive answer for every specific game, I can provide some guidelines and resources that can help you choose age-appropriate games for the kids in your life.


Look at the Game's Rating and Description

You're probably used to seeing things like this on movie posters and DVD cases:

Well, video games have a similar rating system. The ratings are called ESRB Ratings. (ESRB stands for Entertainment Software Rating Board.)

The Rating symbols look like this one.


The rating symbol for a game appears on the front of the game box or case, and gives you an idea of which age groups the game is rated for.

In addition to the rating symbol, the back of the box will have a description of the contents of the game. For example: one of the games I played a while back has this description:

Rated T for Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol.

Here is the box for the game.
If you're wondering how a game with such cute box art could contain alcohol use... well, I don't know of an easy way to find out that kind of thing, but I CAN show you how to find out more about what's actually in a game. I'll show you that and more in Part 2 of Should I buy "Death Throes 3" for little Johnny?


Additional Links

For now, here are some links to additional information about ESRB Ratings.

• ESRB Rating Symbols
• ESRB Content Descriptors
• A Parent’s Guide to Video Games, Parental Controls and Online Safety (PDF)
  

ESRB Game Rating Search

Use this search box to search for game ratings. Just type in the name of the game and click "Search".