Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

We have found a cool new computer game called Zoo Tycoon. G and A really like it. Because G is a fluent reader she is getting really good at it. It's pretty detailed: you have to buy all the elements of the zoo, hire zookeepers, build habitats the animals like, etc. If the animals aren't happy you aren't allowed to get any more animals.

Now here is the scary part. The visitors to the zoo can tell you what they think about the zoo (they either like it or they don't). G has figured out how to: 1. Build enclosures for the guests who don't like the zoo, i.e. people cages. She generally includes restrooms, games, and benches; 2. Put the people who don't like the zoo into enclosures with animals. So if a visitor doesn't like the zoo, she can place him/her in with the lions or t-rexes (yes, you can have prehistoric animals in the zoo); 3. Place the unhappy visitor into a marine animal tank.

Now if a visitor is placed with a predatory animal, guess what happens? The animals attack the visitor. G and A think this is funny. The lioness will bat around a visitor, ha. But the visitor gets back up and G moves him to another area of the zoo. (I guess he has learned his lesson?) If you place a visitor in a water tank, the visitor vanishes.

Hmm. How worried should I be? I was thinking about that this morning when I remembered being in high school at the Model Congress. My group created a "License to Kill" bill, where for some reasons you would be justified in killing people (generally if they annoyed you as I remember it.) I remember thinking that was really funny, and I was a teenager, not a little kid. I turned out ok, so maybe it's not that bad to send little tiny digital zoo visitors in with a little teeny digital lion? It still is a little freaky to watch your sweet little girls gloat over the lioness attacking someone, no matter how teeny.

Roller Derby has a lot of that aggressive energy that we usually hide away. While the sport is super competitive, there are lots of rules (and referees) to remove ways to unnecessarily get hurt (no elbows, no tripping, no hands, etc.). There are definitely girls who gloat about hitting and taking hits. While Derby Lite is gentler, keeping someone from getting where they want to go, is still really fun. So the moral of the story is, if you play roller derby you don't have to give up getting back at people who don't like your zoo (metaphorically speaking)! You just have to give a good block instead of sending them to the lions!