I used Game Maker a few years ago to create a few games for fun. It is bit of a resource hog but it is easy to use. GM comes in 2 flavors lite (free) and pro ($39.99). The lite version should do everything you want but $40 is not bad for full functionality. GM is drag and drop but it does have a script object. All my game I used the script object for 95% of the functionality. There are very few things that the drag and drops are needed for (bouncing off objects). I hate drag and drop since it does not teach you anything. The other thing you might want to looking into is finding a freeware or a cheap game that allows for modding. In the early 90's I modded the hell out of Red Alert. The rules.ini file is editable in notepad. Now you can just download Tibedit and have a GUI for modding. I have heard (but not seen for myself) of a mod that turns RA2 into a space game. I have also recently d/l Aquiria http://www.bit-blot.com/aquaria/ . The website says you can mod and change graphics too. I have been thinking of recreating one of my GM games using the Aquaria engine. Modding is a bit of a side step but it will allow your kids to use an already developed engine and it may give a better foundation for understanding how a good game works before they actually decide to make one themselves.

Just speaking from my experiences. My last job provided flue shots for everyone. Over a 3 year period I notices about half the people who got the shot got mildly sick but never to the point of not being able to come to work or to the point that they would say they had the flu. My wife on the other hand who has had chicken pox 6 times, 4 times as an adult, got a full blown flu both times she got the shot. True, she is an atypical case but if you get a flu shot then days later your sick as a dog with the flu and this happened 2 out of 2 times... (insert your assumption here). We get the shot at the pharmacy in the grocery store we visit every week. So I am sure she is not being infected by the environment. ie Going to the hospital and being infected with the flu from being in hospital.

As I understand it vaccines are typically a weakened form of a virus so the body gets exposed to the virus with our catching it. But from what i have seen with flu vaccines about half the people get a mild flu and about 5% get a full blown flu. HPV is a virus the causes cancer and it is being injected into kids. That in its self is scary. A friend of mine's 13 yo niece was given the HPV vaccine over a year and a half ago. Later she stared having severe abdominal pains. Doctors found dozens of tumors. The biopsy showed that it is a type of cancer that normally presents in a different part of the body and there is genetic damage to 2 chromosomes. This cancer is presenting very a-typical, the doctors have never seen anything like it. The family has done a lot of research about the vaccine and the type of cancer she has and are far more informed than I am. They all strongly suspect that the cancer was caused by the vaccine. I recommend that anyone thinking about getting this vaccine think twice about it. Even if there is a 1% chance that you kid will get cancer that is higher then the chances that they will get infected with HPV and get cancer from the HPV.

Stupid question in know but... Remember the Night Watch. They started as “observe and report” and then they were given complete control under martial law. Just like the Nazis’. Great now we have to watch out for the SS on wheels. 18 wheels!!!

I am an ITT grad with an AA in multi media. The education from ITT was no better than I the community college I attended a few years earlier. ITT will flat out lie to get students. I was told my student loans were at 6.8% I later found out that some were as high as 15.24%. The paper work you sign for the student loan has the amount of the loan but no interest rate. I even found a promissory note that apparently I signed but was left blank except for my address and social. ITT's motto is "We'll get you funded." I was also told that all the programs I needed for my classes would be provided. After starting I was told to d/l cracked versions of the the Adobe suites and 3DS Max. Bit Torrent was highly recomended and so was asking for coppies from students that had already taken that class. 2 years latter I had over $25,000 in student loans and about $10,000 in cracked programs.

I have always been partial to the golden spiral myself. Or you could see how many digits of PI you could fit around your arm that way you could stop when you run out of arm or money.

3/14 1:59:26 pm PT

The most important thing you can own on the internet is your name. Go buy YourName.com and put up faverable material on yourself. Maybe even put a side page explaining that the blog is not you with proof.