Tech Tips for Catholics

In a fairly recent article, written by William J. Doherty, Ph.D., he points out the importance of eating meals as a family.  He says, “Research has continually confirmed that eating meals as a family affects nearly every area of a child’s life.  Kids who eat regular family meals get better school grades, are better off psychologically, receive better nutrition, don’t smoke as much or do drugs, and are less sexually active as teens.”  He goes on to say, “… it’s not only the quantity of family meals that contributes to their life satisfaction, but also the quality of meals. For years, experts on family meals have preached turning off the TV — but now texting, iPhones, and video game consoles also compete with family dinner.

Tom McGrath and Bret Nicholaus have teamed up to improve our “quality of meals” with The Meal Box.  The Meal Box contains 54 cards, each one featuring a creative question guaranteed to spark fun family conversation during family meals.  The questions, such as If you could have the voice of any famous person, whose voice would you have?, are sure to engage everyone in the family.  The reverse side of each card features a quick “Food for Family Thought” tip from family expert Tom McGrath.

“The Meal Box” card game would make a great expansion pack for the “Loaded Questions” or “Loaded Questions Junior Edition” Board Games!

And now, you can Get The Meal Box on your Kindle! This would be great for long, family road-trips.

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The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) recently released a Catholic Children’s Website.  I’m not a kid, but even I had a lot of fun learning about our Catholic Faith.  Parents will have a blast exploring the site and discussing the Faith with their children as they go along.  There is something in this Virtual Town for Catholics of all ages.

Here are just some of the activities you will find:

• Bible Bites
• Learn Latin
• Word Searches
• Matching Games
• Quiz Games
• Coloring
• Puzzles
• Dot 2 Dot
• Saint Trivia
• Choir Practice (Simon)
• And so much more!

If you have a question about the Faith, head on over to the local post office and mail EWTN a letter (in the game, but they will receive the e-mail and should respond to it).

When you login, you start off inside the clubhouse.  If you click on the “What’s New?” Star, you will find the latest activities that have been added.  Other than this, just click around and see what you find : )

Below are screen captures that I took while playing around on the EWTN Kids site (the music, I added afterwards).

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Catholic Bible Trivia Game Online
• JellyTelly: Online Children’s Video Channel
• Free Download: Catholic Game Show slides (Eucharist edition)
• Fun Wii Download: “Critter Round-Up”

Back in the day, and perhaps still today, video game magazines were notorious for pranking their readers between the pages of their April issues.  Printing fake game cheats, news, and all sorts of other little bits of fabricated information.  For those of us who were anticipating the April issues, knew what to expect, but I always felt sorry for those who were not prepared.  I admit that there were a few times when I forgot all about the April issue and spent countless hours implementing the gaming tips that were supposed to “grant me infinite lives”, or that would “unlock” something cool in the game.  It is never fun to be on the receiving end of an April Fool’s joke.  First you feel angered or deceived, then comes the urge to get back at the person with an even bigger prank, which I’m all for.  Just don’t get too out of hand.  Some people take it too far.

This April 1st, Twitter will be inundated with contrived lies, half-truths, and deception.  Some may even be outright malicious, but hopefully this won’t be the case.  There’s nothing wrong with good, clean fun, if done in a light-hearted manor.  I plan to avoid the internet altogether on April Fool’s Day.  I’m pretty gullible and I know for a fact that I would fall victim to at least one online April Fool’s joke.  Here is an example of one from last year.

All of this talk about April Fool’s jokes got me thinking.  What does the Bible say about fools? Actually, there is quite a bit of Scripture that talks about what it means to be foolish or to be a fool.  A fool is described as someone who is:  full of deception (Proverbs 10:9-10; Proverbs 10:18; Proverbs 14:8; Proverbs 19-9), reckless and sure of himself (Proverbs 14:16; Proverbs 17:7; Proverbs 17:27-28; Sirach 22:7; Ecclesiastes 4:13-14; Ecclesiastes 10:3), a brute (Sirach 22:9-20; Proverbs 17:20), lacking in faith or is in ignorance of God (Luke 24:13-35; Wisdom 3:1-3; Wisdom 13:1-9; Psalms 53:1-2; Jeremiah 5:21), wicked (Ecclesiastes 7:25; Ecclesiastes 4:17; Proverbs 10:21-23), quick-tempered (Proverbs 14:17), discontent (Ecclesiastes 7:9), unwise and/or unprepared (Matthew 25:1-13; Wisdom 3:11; Proverbs 17:16), and is grief to his parents (Proverbs 10:1; Proverbs 17:21; Proverbs 17:25).  These are just a few examples.

Have a fun April’s Fool’s Day, and try not to be too big of a fool!

Critter Round-Up is actually a pretty fun game!  I was at a friend’s house a while back and he had some Wii Shop credits to burn.  One of the WiiWare Games that he purchased from the Wii Shop Channel was Critter Round-Up.  This is a 1-4 player game.

The object of the game: is to fence in different types of animals before they eat you or before they eat each other!  When you get up into some of the higher levels they throw the domestic animals in with the wild and it can be a disaster if you don’t round up the most ferocious first.  Every once in a while you can collect an arsenal of steak, squirt gun (or maybe it’s pepper spray), and other tools to help attract or repel certain species.

With 50 challenging levels, taking place in the Outback, the icy Arctic, your domestic Farm and more, I recommend this game for all ages!

Below are some screenshots that I found online:

What are some of your favorite WiiWare Games?

Catholic Christians:  Download “What Do We Believe?” Catholic Game Show slides (Eucharist edition)

Here are some slides that I created for one of our Generations of Faith nights. You are welcome to download them and use them for your Youth Group, CCD, RCIA, Confirmation classes, or in your own home. We made it adults vs. kids and it was a blast (3 adults on one team and 4 children on the other). I played the host, wearing a suit that I got at our local thrift store. The adults won, but not by much. During the game, someone in the audience shouted “I’d like to Phone-a-Priest” : )

Click the thumbnails below to view some examples:

* Compatible with most multimedia/video programs.  Add some game show type music to add to the experience.  There are 35 slides in all.

Download Slides Here!

Never mind the Error message. You can simply click the Download button to the right to download the compressed folder. Enjoy : )

CateQUIZ’em! is an interactive DVD-based video curriculum for middle and high school catechesis.

The content of each annual volume is put into the context of the four pillars of the Church – Creed, Sacraments, Morality, and Prayer.  Users interact with the content through the DVD’s four main sections – LEARN IT!, PLAY IT!, LIVE IT!, and PRAY IT!

Volume One – Holy Spirit: Lord & Giver of Life (great for Confirmation prep) will be available in March 2009.  Future topics include: The Trinity, The Father, Jesus – Son of Man, Jesus – Son of God, Mary & the Communion of Saints, The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, The End Things, Chastity, and The Beauty of Life.

For more info about this series visit: www.catequizem.com

I’m horrible at Guitar Hero, the couple of times I’ve tried it at Kmart.  However, I have cousins who love the game, and have gotten pretty good at it (not quite as good as this 8-year-old, but : )

Guitar Praise (similar to Guitar Hero® or Rock Band®) is now available for the Computer!

Product Description: From the creators of the hit game Dance Praise comes Guitar Praise! You can grab the guitar and play along with some of Christian music’s top bands.  Pretend you’re right there on stage with your favorite bands as you handle the guitar controller and play the notes they’re playing.  Or you can add your own unique sounds as you shred those riffs or blast the bass by using the whammy bar.  Watch out, though–if you can’t keep up, the artists stop and take a break, and you’ll have to start all over!

You’ll get a USB Guitar controller (requires 4 AA batteries that are not included), the CD-ROM Game, wireless adaptor, and guitar strap.  To play, press the fret buttons and strum on the strum bar in time the color-coded cues as they scroll across the screen.  If you tilt the guitar at the right time, you’ll activate spinner bonuses for maximum points. There are 4 different levels, so beginners can start slowly, while experts will have their fingers flying as they use all 5 fret buttons while playing the chords and burning through the riffs!

Guitar Praise supports 2 guitar controllers so you can play alone or with a friend.  Each player can play the same track, or one player can play lead and the other play bass. You can even send surprises to your opponent to mess with their playing.  Keep score and earn enough points to get a new guitar with richer sounds and different effects.  Best of all, this game has over 50 songs from some of today’s top Christian artists like 12 Stones, TobyMac, Stellar Kart, Skillet, David Crowder, Hawk Nelson, SuperChick, Caedmon’s Call, Lincoln Brewster, Relienk K, Whitecross, and many more.  The lyrics also display on the screen so that you and your audience can sing along as you play.

Part 1

Part 2

As always, feel free to comment if you’d like.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy watching the Antiques Roadshow.  This week’s episode was really good!  A woman actually cussed after the appraiser unknowingly told her it would be okay.  I saw it coming, which made it all the more funny to me.  Plus, there was another woman who had one of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s zucchetti.  She had a cute story to go along with it, from when she was a child.  I thought this was pretty cool.

You never know what you’ll see on the Antiques Roadshow.  One of my favorite episodes was the one with a southern accented guy and his “two blue jars.”  He was so comical!  The story he told was hilarious.

Though, I could not find any footage from either of these two episodes, here is one for gamers and collectors alike : )

• View my tweets about watching Antiques Roadshow: 1|2|3
• View the tweets of others who watch Antiques Roadshow

JellyTelly, a new online children’s video channel from Phil Vischer, creator of Veggie Tales launched last night!

Try out JellyTelly for free this first month and if you like it, then it is a monthly subscription at $2.99 a month there after.  Your subscription will get you access to the daily shows and fresh games.  JellyTelly wants to spend the money on good Christian programming and not have all the influential advertising that our children are exposed to on, say, Nickelodeon and those types of networks.

If your children beg you to watch SpongeBob SquarePants, JellyTelly would be a more wholesome alternative.  Each Sunday, JellyTelly will show a “Movie of the Week,” which will feature a family friendly movie from some more known Christian movie makers, as well as some of the up-and-comers.  So check it out and see what you think!

Feel free to post your comments or talk about specific episodes in our comments section of this post : )

Many of you were too young to have owned the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), but if you do remember the original Nintendo, then you may remember the Game Genie. This little device would attach to most NES game cartridges and came with a book of various cheat codes.

Back then, most games didn’t have cheat codes scripted into the games themselves (with the exception of Life Force, Contra and a few others).  Anywho, my friends and I would stay up all night mixing the codes to see what would happen.  We would take the first letters of one code and the last letters of another code, put a code in opposite order, or whatever else we thought might work.  Sometimes it would work and sometimes it would not, but when it did work it was pretty awesome!  We actually turned all the bad dudes on Super Mario Bros. into King Koopas!

I wish I still had all of our codes written down.  We didn’t have blogs back then. You had to write into gaming magazines if you wanted to share gaming tips.  Here is a compendium of official Game Genie codes for the Nintendo.

If you have an old Nintendo (NES) and can find a Game Genie on eBay, you can try it for yourself.  Be sure to share your results with us.

Below are some related links to this topic:

• Super Mario Bros. Game Genie Codes (YouTube Video)
• Super Mario Bros. 8-bit Graphic Decals for Your Interior Decor