Photo: All Fun and Games

There are all sorts of camps for kids. There are band camps and scout camps, writing camps and sports camps, boot camps and religious camps. But up until recently, I had no idea there were game camps.

It’s a niche that Vivian Hua, the owner of All Fun and Games, realized after one of her friends mentioned that his kids needed a place to be during their breaks from school. Vivian owns the gaming store, based in Apex, NC, and with its impressive game library and 1,400 square feet of space, she thought she’d give the idea a try.

“Friends of mine have children in the All Year Round schools and they love to play games. He asked if it would be possible to run a camp to teach games and learn gaming etiquette,” she explains. “Teaching proper etiquette of turning taking and other acceptable behavior while playing games. Showing that all games are fun and educational, that no matter what kind of game you are playing, you can always learn something from it.”

So the Game Camp was started.For $125, parents can enroll their kids for a week. There are options for full and half days. The kids who attend range in age from 6 to 14. “Surprisingly enough, if in the right atmosphere, their attention spans are much longer than I initially anticipated,” says Vivian.

“We have rough outlines of different game types that we will focus on each day, with open playing giving kids a chance to choose what they want to play. An example week will be group or party games on Monday, classic games like chess or dominoes on Tuesday, card and dice games on Wednesday, and hobby games like Magic or Warhammer 40K or German games on Thursday. Then, on Friday, it’s free-for-all.”

I asked Vivian how she kept the kids interested in the games. “We have a prize point system that encourages playing games to earn fun prizes out of our treasure box,” she explains. “We generally have a circuit of 4 to 6 different games being played at any time, plus puzzles and mindteasers in case kids don’t feel like participating.”

What about the parents? “They’re surprised at how much the kids love playing games,” Vivian says. “They’ll teach the parent how to play. The parents just can’t believe their kids can have the attention spans for some of the longer playing games.”

I’m hoping this is an idea that catches on at other local game stores across the country. It’s another added bonus that brick and mortar stores can offer over their online competitors, and it’s a great excuse for kids who might otherwise be socially isolated in their hobby to meet other children with similar interests. I was lonely and miserable at Boy Scout Camp as a kid, but I would’ve thrived doing something like this.

Does a classic day camp with beading, wallet-making and watersports trump a game camp? Where do you think your kids would choose to go? Leave a comment!

Image © CBS Studios, Inc.

Star Trek: The Animated Series has been unjustly neglected by all but the most devoted Trekkies for most of the 36-plus years since it originally aired. The animation may — does — look cheesy by today’s standards, but some of the stories are truly excellent, and they did get all but one of the original cast members to do their characters’ voices.

Well, StarTrek.com has now put every episode of the series online for free viewing (though not, alas, downloading). If you’ve not seen any of the 22 episodes of the series, but are a fan of ST:The Original Series, you’re in for a treat. Some of them are just so-so, but even the worst of them is better (to my mind, anyway) than 70% of the episodes of ST: Enterprise. My favorites are:

• “Yesteryear,” in which we learn a lot about Spock’s childhood. If you’ve seen the 2009 Star Trek movie, you may recognize some of Sarek’s lines (voiced by the inimitable Mark Lenard)  from this episode (as was intentional on the part of the filmmakers).
• “More Tribbles, More Troubles,” written by David Gerrold as a sequel to his famous ST:TOS episode “The Trouble With Tribbles.” A very funny episode, particularly because they got Stanley Adams (who played the part originally) to do the voice of Cyrano Jones.
• “The Slaver Weapon,” by sci-fi master Larry Niven. The episode even features an appearance by Niven’s Kzinti.
• “Mudd’s Passion,” featuring Roger C. Carmel as the voice of Harry Mudd, of course.
• “The Practical Joker,” in which the holodeck makes its first appearance in the Star Trek universe.
• “The Infinite Vulcan,” not so much because it’s a great episode, because it’s not (although it’s not bad, either), but because it was written by Walter Koenig — thereby making him the first Star Trek actor to write an episode of the show in any form.

The irony of the last one is that Koenig was the one original cast member who didn’t provide a voice for the show, though according to Koenig that was not by his choice but because they simply couldn’t afford to bring everyone back. And at least they were decent enough not to put Chekov in the series with a different actor, but rather to introduce two new characters as navigators.

Have fun!

(Oh, and a message to the hardcore Trekkies out there: I know Gene Roddenberry said ST:TAS wasn’t canon. It doesn’t matter: it’s still good.)

Advertising Blimps

Advertising blimps are seen at all of the major sporting events. Advertising blimps allow lots of people to see the product that is being advertised. With the blimp flying through the air, people take notice and are interested in what the blimp says on it. They will stop what they are doing to read what is on the blimp.

I think blimp advertising is a great way to get word out about a product to many people at once. Unlike say a billboard that stays in one place, so people have to actually be going by the billboard to see it, the blimp travels around to where people are. Advertising blimps are very large, so they can easily be seen. If I had something important that I wanted to advertise and money was not an object, I would choose an advertising blimp. One drawback to advertising blimps would be though that they cannot travel when the weather conditions are bad. This would be an advantage of say a billboard. The billboard can be seen even when the weather is bad. If you were advertising in an area that does not have a lot of inclimate weather, then the advertising blimp would be ideal.

14 ft. advertising blimp with lettering – $1031.00

As a child, I use to love being outside playing and seeing an advertising blimp fly overhead. We always stopped to see what the blimp had to say on it. If someone would come up with a smaller more economical version of the advertising blimp, I think many companies would use this type of advertising to bring their products into the spotlight. For now, I guess I will have to settle for seeing the blimps on the rare occasions that they come to our neighborhood. A great way to get my attention though, is to use an advertising blimp soaring through the air.

Advertising Blimps Build Your Brand is a post from: Advertising Balloons

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