Kinect for young kids

Its been a little over a month since we set up the xBox 360 Kinect.  Overall, it was a successful Christmas gift, but my kids seem to be at the cusp of enjoying the games in full.  My 5 year old boy is naturally energetic and athletic.  He, of course, loves it.  Especially now, in the winter when he can't burn off energy running around outside.  In one month, he completed the Kinectimals quests, has kicked my butt in boxing and done respectably well in other Kinect Sports.  He races as well as me in Kinect Joy Ride and enjoys the challenges in Kinect Adventures.  He's as good as a 5 year could be with these games.

My 4 year old girl has had some troubles with the game and hence probably does not enjoy it nearly as much.  It may be in part her personality and in part her lack of athletic ability, but she has only been moderately interested in playing.  She has troubles at times controlling her arm movement enough to select options on screen.  She also prefers to flail her arms about randomly rather than try to control her movements to score points.  I was kind of hoping that the games might motivate her to try to control her body movements better, but no such luck yet.  She has tried most of the games and liked Kinectimals the most.  Kinect Sports is a bit too hard for her still.  Kinect Joy Ride requires her to stand in one place too long.  Kinect Adventures is a bit too difficult for her to play, although she enjoys jumping.  Maybe next year, as she gains those fine muscle control and coordination, she'll enjoy it more.

Occasional, Kinect has troubles when I play with my kids.  For those of you who don't know me, I'm tall (6'6").  It doesn't happen often, but occasionally, the game displays my or my kids avatar on its knees when I join the game.  I once had to box my son while he was on his knees.  It didn't seem to stop his ability to knock me out :(.  Another time, I ran an entire race on my knees and WON!  It could just be a calibration problem with Kinect when we quickly switched players in the middle of the game.  Since its rare, I don't consider it a major annoyance.

Kinect also has problems with full sun light.  Our game console is on the south side of the house, and at least in winter, the sun beams into that room in the middle of the afternoon.  When it does, the Kinect cannot detect our arms effectively and goes all crazy if we try to play.  We've tried closing the blinds with only modest success. Not such much a kids issue, but good to know none-the-less.

So that's my Kinect review for young kids.  I would recommend it for kids 5+.  For that age, Kinectimals is perfect; Kinect Joy Ride pretty easy; Kinect Sports, some sports are easy; Kinect Adventures, pretty easy.  There may be some 4 year olds with good coordination and lots of patience who could play it effectively, but would be an expensive paper weight if they don't.  Of course you could be like me and want to play games yourself.  Speaking of which, I think I'll sign off here and go play a game.

Weekly goals

This week:

1. Really, truly, completely finish my ethics article.  (Sickness rolling through the family delayed my progress last week).
2. Complete a revised ethics survey.  Send to co-authors.
3. Prep for classes
4. Help clean house for Monopoly party this Saturday!
5. Follow up with co-authors on other papers.
6. Re-post ads for crib, pack-n-play, and co-sleeper.

Stretch goals:

1. Review investments.
2. Brainstorm and document dissertation paper 3 changes still needed before publication.
3. Conduct lit review for IR evaluations and IT ethics paper.
4. Pack another box of toys.

Purposefulness

The man without a purpose is a man who drifts at the mercy of random feelings or unidentified urges and is capable of any evil, because he is totally out of control of his own life. In order to be in control of your life, you have to have a purpose—a productive purpose . . . . The man who has no purpose, but has to act, acts to destroy others. That is not the same thing as a productive or creative purpose. ~ Ayn Rand, “Playboy Interview”

I'm really starting to master the habit of living purposefully.  I define purposefulness as "The systematic identification of goals and objectives to achieve."  Over the past couple years I have done a lot of self-reflection to discover my central purpose in life, with corresponding long term and short term goals.  By systematically approaching goal setting, I  regularly review my long term goals to ensure consistency with short term goals.  By systematically approaching goal setting, I ensure the time I spend on activities is consistent with my central purpose.  By systematically approaching goal setting, I maintain a harmony in my life that is quite fulfilling and rewarding.

Done well, living purposefully leads to value-dense living. The goals and objectives chosen should integrate with your hierarchy of values to provide maximal happiness and fulfillment.  Your values specify what you want to gain and/or keep.  But in order to gain and/or keep something, you have to identify how you plan on gaining and/or keeping it.  Hence, goals.  To make things value-dense, you should strive to find goals that combine as many values together as possible.  Goals should not be developed in isolation, but should support and build on one another.  For example, I love technology and business so I became an information systems academic.  But I also love studying and applying philosophy, so I apply philosophy to my teaching and research where appropriate.  By setting appropriate goals, I achieve multiple values, thereby living value-dense.

There is plenty more to say about this, but it'll wait for another day.

Weekly goals

Well, my weekly goals from last week did not pan out the way I hoped.  Rather than staying focused like I should have, I agreed to teach a class of a faculty member who went on sick leave.  When I first agreed, I thought it would not require much preparation since this is the graduate version of an undergraduate class I'm already teaching this semester.  Once I made it too class, I realize that the student have already purchased a textbook different than the one I wanted to use.  Well, we'll see.  So, I didn't finish my ethics article, nor call the cable company back.  I also decided to wait on my little announcement in order to tell more friends first.  But I did complete 4 of my stretch goals.  So it was a productive week overall.

This week:

1. Start outlining changes to information resource evaluation article (applying Objective principles)
2. Complete revisions to ethical instrument article - send to co-authors.
3. Prep for classes - 215, 247, and now 606
4. Call auto ins. to change policy
5. Call Comcast to change services
6. Contact Frank Fields about rentals 
7. Contemplate and write about purposefulness - if I keep this up, I may have to consider turning this all into a book.

Stretch goals:

1. Brainstorm survey for ethical judgments in IT
2. Install Visual Studio 2010 on office computer
3. Finish de-cluttering our bedroom
4. Pack up 1/2 of the kids toys
5. Contact and setup a visit with our realtor
6. Continue to try to sell/donate baby stuff
7. Re-pack items in old boxes

Oh, by the way, our little announcement, in case the goals didn't give it away, is that we are moving this summer, to North Carolina.  More details to follow.

Efficaciousness and 5 year goals

Part of the challenge with defining 5 year goals is that we are not stagnate.  We continuously improve our knowledge and capabilities.  So when defining those goals, we have to keep in mind that our skills will improve over time, allowing us to accomplish more 3 years from now than we can now.  Especially, if we systematically attempt to improve our skills during that time.

And we should systematically attempt to improve the skills necessary to accomplish our 5 year goals.  If a goal is that important to our life that we are willing to devote 5 years worth of work, then logically we should also attempt to do everything in our power to improve our capabilities in successfully achieving that goal.  That includes improving one's skills and knowledge over that time.

For my 5 year goals, I want to work on my scholarship, my teaching, and my productivity.  The first two require improvement in my writing and speaking skills, hence my desire to work on those skills.  I am also reading many books on the history of information systems, to build my knowledge and improve my classes.

Skills to improve

Overall, I've had a good history of self-improvement.  I am always developing new skills and knowledge to improve my ability to solve problems.  One of the reasons why I love the field of IT so much is because of its continuous change challenging me to keep relevant.

Lately, I have been pondering how to better spread ideas through publication of articles, books, web sites, lectures, and more.  To do so effectively, I need better writing and speaking skills.  Unfortunately, I have not pursued improvement in these skills systematically.  These may become two new goals for this year.  Toastmasters may be a useful means of enhancing my speaking skills.  I may also start video taping my lectures and watching them for ideas on how to improve.  In writing, I may review some books I have on non-fiction writing.  I have also contemplated doing a study on the writing skill difference between articles in top-tier journals and mid-tier journals - with some hopeful take-aways to improving my own writing.

If I am to meet my goal of 20% improvement in productivity by 2015, I need to improve the activities I do the most, namely writing and speaking.

Weekly goals

Last week, I did not complete all of my essential goals... very sad.  But, they will be avenged :)  Some of my stretch goals have been tabled till later.

Essential goals:

1. I will finish my ethics article.  I made great progress last week, but did not complete the revisions necessary for publication.  I'm behind schedule, but I'm working on a plan to get caught back up.
2. I will also complete my budget cutting.  While calling about canceling cable and phone services, Comcast gave me some options to consider about how best to save money.  I've thought about them and will call back this week.  
3. I will also review car insurance options.
4. The regular class preps for IS 247 and IS 215.
5. Clear paper work off of my desk.
6. Make a little announcement to the world
7. Think and write about the habit of efficaciousness.  I ran out of time last week, but I was going to write a post on passion and ambition, but that'll have to wait.  This week is all about "The systematic pursuit of the knowledge and skills necessary to produce desired effects"

Stretch goals:

1. Start recruiting alumni for Global IT club alumni panel
2. Schedule a massage (thanks Brenda!)
3. Research information resource evaluation literature and outline changes to article.
4. Pack up toys to donate
5. Finish decluttering our room
6. Begin selling Pack-n-play, co-sleeper, and crib.  Anybody want to buy them?  They're in good condition and at bargain prices!

Ambition in terms of risk/reward

When it comes to ambition, I tend to favor goals that are not so risky, but have high rewards. I've talked before about value-dense living. The basic premise is that my choices for activities, goals, and objectives should focus as much value as possible.  I want the greatest reward for the least amount of risk and effort.  With ambition, I strive for ever higher values, increasing rewards, and great achievements. The more ambitious I become, the more focused I must be on particular values and particular achievements.  The narrower the focus, the greater attention I can apply to one ambition.  People such as Thomas Edison had extremely narrow focus of goals, which allowed him to become perhaps the most prolific inventor in all history.  However, his focus on work made for an interesting relationship with his wife and kids (it doesn't sound like he had much of one).

In my previous post I noted that I don't wear myself thin much anymore.  I think this is in part because my ambitions have become almost a steady state of continuous improvement rather than a shot for the stars, mad-dash for extra-ordinary super duper large goals.  Now I try to balance my life to achieve value-dense living, pursuing values that add the most to my life and happiness.  This means cutting out many of the super large goals because they often don't bring any more satisfaction than the continuous improvement that I strive to obtain.  This doesn't mean that I won't find a place for big goals in the future, but they will have to offer extraordinary value above and beyond what I am currently achieving for me to adopt the goal and strive to complete it.

The sweet spot?

I have struggled over the years trying to find a sweet spot for ambitiousness. I do not want to set my goals to low and fail to reach my potential. Nor do I want to set my goals to high and frustrate myself with never reaching them. In general, I have not been a risk taker. I always seem to pick goals that are a challenge, but always doable without significant struggle. Sometimes, after reading books like Atlas Shrugged, I am motivated to push myself to my limits as Dagny does over and over. But I don't.

Some of my goals, such as completing my undergrad in Physics or my PhD in Management, were challenging and time consuming, but never to the point that it stretched me. I was fortunate that I did not have to work part-time outside of my PhD program for extra income. As an undergrad, I did have a part-time job, but I lived at home and my parents took care of all my bills and managed the house.

The hardest goal I set for myself was starting a career in web development. While living on my own, I changed careers from teaching/tutoring to something that I had zero experience doing. So of course no body wanted to hire me. Yet, I needed someone to hire me to get experience. My solution - I offered my services for free. I built websites for organizations I knew and for family businesses. But of course, doing this work for free meant that I had no income. So I picked up some part-time jobs here and there while I struggled to make ends meet for over 6 months. Finally, I was able to find a job at a .com company willing to take a chance on me. With experience in that company, I was easily able to transition to work at other companies when the .com went belly-up.

My second hardest goal was completing a marathon. This really did push me to my limits, but only for a few hours. The first half of the marathon was easy (as most marathoners will tell you). But around the 18 mile mark, the arch of my foot became extremely sore. I slowed to a walk, then a slow jog, back to a walk, back and forth for the next 8.1 miles. All the while, my foot throbbed. That last hour was extremely difficult, but I pushed myself through it and made it to the finish line.

The older I get, the less motivated I am to push myself to my limits. I no longer want to complete an Ironman. I no longer want to work 70 hours a week, week after week. I no longer want to take large financial gambles. Yet, I know that if I do push myself I can achieve much, much more and potentially bring myself immense happiness. This is definitely something I will have to give a lot more thought too.

Why Ambitiousness?

In a world where ambition is sometimes frowned upon, why would I explicitly focus on such a habit and more so, consider it a virtue?  I agree with Ayn Rand's definition of ambition: "the systematic pursuit of achievement and of constant improvement in respect to one’s goal" By this conception, hopefully you can envision a positive aspect to ambition.  I want to improve my understanding of the world.  I want to improve the education program at my school.  I want to improve my family's financial situation.  I want to improve my productivity.  I want to improve my ability to communicate effectively.  I want to improve my relationship with my wife and family.

It is imperative to have and pursue goals in order to stay alive.  When these goals are rationally based in reality, we have the framework for developing these goals towards higher and higher achievements that are fulfilling and meaningful.  I could not and would not be satisfied with my current income level for the rest of my life - not because I am not making enough to enjoy life, but because I would be a sign that my life has become stagnate.  Once I achieve today's goals, I set my bar higher to achieve tomorrow's goals.  As I continually push myself to be the best that I can be, I increase my enjoyment of life.  If I am a better professor, my students and colleagues should hopefully respond positively.  If I find ways to increase my income, I will be able to experience better life's wonders or prepare myself better for emergencies.  If I am a better husband, I will have a more fulfilling relationship with my wife.  If I am a better father, my children will have a better chance at becoming fully independent, virtuous, happy adults.

When ambition turns to irrational goals (political power, prestige, etc.), the dark side of ambition rears its ugly head.  I have no desire for power over others nor care about my prestige because neither of these things will improve my happiness.  Nor should anyone.

Weekly goals

Last week went well.  I completed all of my essential goals and half of my stretch goals.

Essentials:

1. Finish writing details for IS 247 (web development) class project
2. Review and edit IS 247 class on HTML introduction
3. Review IS 215 lecture on the history of computing, part 2
4. Call for and chair curriculum meeting to discuss spring, summer, and fall schedule
5. Revise and resubmit ethics article
6. Cancel cable and phone service (we're  moving 100% online for all entertainment and phone services) after the Auburn game tonight.  War Eagle!
7. Review the habit of ambitiousness

Stretch goals:

1. Gather data on student majors in our classes
2. Review and purchase a book on HTML 5
3. Revise and submit online auction alternatives article to Journal of Electronic Commerce Research
4. Request input on online auction selection and bid article

The Child's Imagination

As I was throwing away two old computers, my son asked what they were and I told him.  He wanted to see inside, so I opened it up and started explaining all the parts.  What he saw: "It looks like the Earth" pointing to the mother board.  "And look, here's a park and this dot is our house... this is my school... this is Tara's school".  So I opened up the other computer and he found Grandma and Grandpa's house.  30 minutes later, he and his sister were still studying the compute boards. 

Its amazing what the mind of a 4 and 5 year old see.  I see a hard drive, memory, capacitors, circuits, and mother board.  My kids see a cornucopia of adventures in a new world.  Truly fascinating!  Who knew I would still get one last use out of those old machines?

Saying "No"

Perhaps one trait I have learned well from my parents is how to say "No" to requests of time and money.   When it comes to friends and family, there is a temptation to say "Yes" to every request because it feels good to help the people you value.  But often times it comes at the expense of your own personal goals.  There is definitely a time and place to say "Yes".  But the difficult part is figuring out when to say "No" and do so gracefully.  "Yes" to that new car, "Yes" to helping out at the bake sale, "Yes" to picking up your friend from the airport.  All of these things can be great values.  But what if the new car comes at the expense of your children's college?  What if the helping at the bake sale means skipping a date with the woman of your dreams?  What if picking up your friend from the airport means losing your job because it was the 5th time this month you left work early?  

It takes self-discipline to avoid the immediate gratification in order to achieve your long-term goals.  It does not mean you can't help others, and in fact, figuring out how to say "No" gracefully can be beneficial to both you and the other person.  Instead of buying a car, you and your kids can learn how to fix the car you have.  Instead of helping at the bake sale, maybe you could recommend 3 other people who might be interested.  Instead of picking your friend up from the airport, maybe you could recommend a shuttle or taxi service - something your friend may not have been aware existed.

In academia, I have seen how the failure to say "No" has affected students' and academics' ability to do their job well.  Some academics fail to say "No" to their co-workers and end up working on 20 different committees.  Students fail to say "No" to their family or friends and neglect their homework until the last minute and have to spend an all nighter in order to finish.  

Emotions and Self-discipline

Perhaps the one virtue that I need the most work in is self-discipline.  I need to stop letting my emotions limit my productivity.  When I'm feeling bored or fidgety or frustrated, I need to discipline myself to either deal with the emotions quickly or file them away until I have time to fully work through the issues that are causing the emotions.  I have found that I use common procrastination techniques when in these moods - reading favorite blogs, perusing Facebook, chatting with co-workers. Not that these activities are not purposeful in their own right, but they should not be used as distractions when I need to complete other goals.

It means more time focused on weekly and yearly goals.  It means truly believing that my goals are important and worthy of the time I put into them.  I may need to remind myself of the happiness that completing goals brings to my life (especially if those goals are life affirming).

Weekly goals

Okay, so why am I posting these publicly?  Basically, I'm hoping all my readers will keep me focused and honest.  If a stretch goal keeps showing up, week after week, but never progresses, PLEASE encourage me to do something about it.

This week's goals

Essential:

1. Update IS 215 syllabus and schedule
2. Update IS 247 syllabus and schedule
3. Update eCompanion for new semester
4. Review and update research plan and prioritization
5. Set up article revision plan for both the JBE article and the JISE article

Stretch goals:

1. Complete JISE revisions
2. Find new executive for Global IT club
3. Gather data on student majors in our classes
4. Review and purchase a book on HTML 5
5. Plan "Monopoly night" at our house
6. Clear to-do list

Year goals

This year will be devoted to 3 primary goals.

1. For my career, renew my emphasis on research.  I have 5 unfinished articles sitting on my computer and will do everything in my power to submit one per month.  For the next 5 months, I will devote at least 16 hours a week to research, preferably 20+.  Unfortunately, I have not put enough emphasis on this area in the past couple years, so its time to renew my effort and focus.  I will also start at least 1 new ethics research project with collaborators.  This will help me to catch up on the first of my 5 year goals.  I may also start encouraging more undergrads and grads to work collaboratively on research projects.

2. Capital accumulation.  I will review our family budget and find ways to save as much money as possible for the next year, at minimum.  My goal, to build our savings to at least 20% of my base salary by year end.

3.  Develop a self-reflection system.  While it is easy to say I want one, establishing the self-discipline to make it happen will be much, much tougher.  So, I may experiment for the first few weeks to see what works and what doesn't until I find something that is practical for me.  I may also focus the self-reflection on just the productiveness habits first to minimize my scope and help to achieve one of my 5 year goals.

I may also add one other major goal for the next  6 months, but I'm still waiting for something before I proceed.  Can't say more about it at this point.

Although improving my health is important, I'm not quite sure what explicit goal I have for the coming year in this area.  Certainly, I will continue to work-out in some form or fashion, but I will have to give this area more thought.

I also want to work on passive income opportunities, but again, I have nothing explicit at this point and will not likely find one until later in the year.  So I'm putting this one on hold as well, especially until we have more capital to work with (see goal 2).