Get a second life already

When I was a kid, my friends and I discovered Dungeons & Dragons, the original fantasy role-playing game. We thought it was fun, and we played for about a year or so (that year being essentially fifth grade), but after a while we all realized that if we kept playing we ran the risk of being labeled geeks for the rest of our lives.

Whether or not I could be considered a geek today is a subject of some debate, but if I am, it’s not because I used to play D & D. I gave that up at the age of about 11 when it became apparent that players of role-playing games were heavily ridiculed and ended up in high school with no friends, wearing denim jackets with Jethro Tull artwork painted on the back. Read More »

Freaking out the geeks

I know I may be a couple of years behind on this subject, but I feel it’s finally time for me to weigh in on whether kids should play dodgeball in gym class or not.

The controversy, as you may remember, stems from the fact that dodgeball, also known as bombardment, consists of kids choosing teams, taking sides on a basketball court and then hurling big rubber balls at one another. Read More »