greenfoot

I am one proud father. Yesterday evening, the blacksono, bso, showed me the game he has been working on for the greenfoot contest. It looks rather spiffy and I was filled with a whole lot of nachas (the unique feeling you get when your offspring do something to make you proud). Lets begin at the beginning. A week or so back we had parent-teacher conferences at school. Usually the school is moderately happy with bso (we will not talk about any other children we may or may not happen to have enrolled at the same school). He is attentive in class, kind, does not bite, but also does not do a huge amount of homework, and could always try harder. He is a minimalist. I was surprised when his computer science teacher called me aside and told me he wanted a chat.

Usually computers are bso's strongest class. He tends be get a little bored and so I was expecting to hear the usual story that he does no more than he ever needs. But, I was surprised to learn that not only had bso signed up for this greenfoot programming contest but he had actually organized a team. There's an artist, a UI (user interface) chap, someone working on code, while he is working on the "physics" of the game algorithm. His teacher is actually worried that this may eat into his other work because he seems so motivated. What can I say. I have not been so proud of him since he learned to recite the whole of the Spanish Inquisition sketch at age 5.