Randomly Noted

It’s that time of year – when thoughts turn to interminable summers with the kids. Or, if you’re a kid, painful summers with the ‘rents. Our kids, ages 11 and 13, never wanted to go to camp during the years we traipsed around the world. Now we’re back and they’re game for camp. And so our younger child will attend a day camp for gamers. The elder, a clarinetist, will attend overnight music camp in upstate New York. Truth be told, I’m a bit embarrassed about letting our little boy devote hot summer days to designing computer games – it would be more parentally responsible to sign him up for a summer of swimming and archery. But the little guy doesn’t enjoy those types of activities; he DOES love computer gaming. We’ll make an effort to get him to the local pool each afternoon after eight hours of creating, and slaying, virtual monsters. Colleagues who are into this stuff say they’re envious of the three week-long courses we’ve signed our son up for: “RPG Game Design-Graphic Art Hybrid;” “Game Creation-Arcade & Platform”; and “3D Game Design-Role Playing Games.” The stage mother in me hopes he will emerge from the experience as a budding Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.