Answers Day

The sequel to Questions Day

"Will you let us babysit your little one every so often? Remember, we've been through basic grandparent training with your nephews, so we're qualified." - Mom

Of course! We already have you down for August - October 2017 so we can go to Burning Man and then backpack across Australia.

"Feeling prepped for the arrival of little Uri? Anything least/most looking forward to?" - Evil Mike

We're in the process of painting the nursery and have acquired the minimum mandatory baby needs (like the car seat and the Oculus Rift). Beyond that, we're not going to stress it too much. We lead a pretty low-maintenance lifestyle, and the presence or absence of knick-knacks shaped like owls or ergonomic pieces of plastic with names like a Silicon Valley startup will not be what permanently messes up our child.

"Do you have any idea how to play sniper heroes? I see videos and try to replicate, but I can't snipe." - Evil Mike

I don't play any sniper heroes but I understand the mechanics:

• Stay mobile, and don't stick around in the same perch after a couple kills.
• Move your mouse with your whole arm instead of your wrist for better aim.
• Instead of steady tracking as your target moves across the screen, practice anticipating their location and not moving your mouse until you're ready to shoot (flick-shotting). This reduces the amount of unsteadiness you introduce into your aim.
• Bind "I need healing!" to your forward motion key.

"Looking forward to any upcoming movies?" - Evil Mike

I don't even know what movies are coming out any time soon, so I had to perform in-depth research. Apparently there's another Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming out next month, which is good because it's been awhile since I last napped through a movie.

"Politics...what's up with that? I just..." - Evil Mike

I've found that since I cancelled my Washington Post print subscription, I consume much less news in general. The online version, while timely, tends to show the same 3 article for days at a time, leading me to visit less often during the week. In this scenario, I only hear about the latest political fiascos on Sunday mornings unless they're particularly egregious, and I can't say that this has had any sort of negative effect on my life at all -- this must be what hippies feel like when they boast about intentional disconnection.

"Do you have a plan in place for the role of technology in Mike Jr.'s early life?" - Mike and Ghost Chompy

My personal desire would be a pragmatic balance between exposure and overstimulation. Technology is not inherently evil. There won't be any sort of zero tolerance policy on technology because it will be important to be able to pick up those skills. On the other hand, giving kids smartphones at the age of 9 is dumb and letting them play video games on a hike in the Shenandoah Valley is even dumber.

"Think it'll be weird to grow up as the first generation under full surveillance or will it be quiet adaptation in the way we were the first to grow up with Lunchables™?" - Mike and Ghost Chompy

The potential negative effect of so much monitoring is mitigated by the fact that the watchers cannot possibly hope to keep up with the data. There is so much new data being captured about the world and people in it through our devices every second that it is almost useless at a micro scale where it would impact a single person.

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