In my garage, I have a coin-op arcade version of Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition. I spent hours on this machine, working on combos and special moves. I love this game.

Fortunately, Parker and Kent have picked up an appreciation for it (though they haven’t quite figured out how to do the special moves yet). Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make a SF2 movie. Since Kent expressed ZERO interested in dad’s crazy idea, I decided to just use Parker.

The following video is the result of a few quick takes and a couple of hours of editing. It’s VERY rough (bad green screen, line down the middle, etc.), but I want my boys to catch a glimpse of the potential of what we can do. I want them to explore their creative sides and expose them to the creative process in general (from concept to completion). The idea is that I’ll add more elements in the future (character select screen, life bars, timer, etc.) if they want to continue with it.

Anyway, here’s our first take: Parker Fighter 2 (Round 1)

(By the way, the image attached to this post is a super-rad abstract display of the characters in the game.)

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ht to marko

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Now that my obnoxious excuses are out of the way…

I came across an article at cnet.com about a study that Crimes Against Children Research Center (CCRC) recently completed.

The news regarding onine predators is mostly good. Arrests have increased only modestly from 2000 to 2006 in spite of the tremendous increase in youth using the internet during that time.

I don’t want to minimize the dangers online in anyway. But often, the impression the “media” gives parents is that there are countless predators waiting to sift through their child’s personal information left on a myspace page or blog so they can piece together the location and identity of the minor. The internet is made out to be a deadly place where danger lurks at every corner.

From the CRCC’s website,

“There was no evidence that online predators were stalking or abducting
unsuspecting victims based on information they posted at social
networking sites.”

And further,

“The nature of crimes in which online predators used the Internet to
meet and victimize youth changed little between 2000 and 2006, despite
the advent of social networking sites. Victims were adolescents, not
younger children. Most offenders were open about their sexual motives
in their online communications with youth. Few crimes (5 percent)
involved violence.”

The idea of predators lurking around for unsuspecting victims isn’t nearly as prevalent as the perception many have. These adults (according to this study) are open about their intents and look for students who will respond to these advances. It’s my opinion that most students will be aware of these encounters and respond appropriately to them.

Though this is “good” news. It doesn’t take away from the fact that parent’s need to excersise wisdom and caution regarding their student’s use of the internet. We can’t assume that teens will just know what they should and shouldn’t post online. We can’t assume that they can be trusted with computers in their rooms, behind closed doors. And we can’t be afraid to dialogue with our kids about these issues, even if we don’t fully understand the technology involved.

Keep lines of communication open (this means listening, too!). Express your concerns. Set up clear guidelines and expectations.

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I’ve been getting behind in my podcasts recently, so the other day I made a concerted effort to get through some of them. One of those episodes came from the February 9th video podcast embedded below. The main reason I’m posting this one in particular is because it has some great insight for parents in the first segment regarding talking to your teen about your faith. Since I have at least a few parents who read my blog, I thought it might be helpful and insightful. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

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It’s a bit lengthy, but it’s a must read and brings some great balance to an important topic that isn’t going away. Parents and youth workers need to be aware of the real dangers so we can address them in a realistic and effective way (especially in light of yesterday’s post).

Do yourself a favor and check it out here.
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