aroundsquare forum

 

we’ve got a forum now.  you can check it out athttp://groups.google.com/group/aroundsquare/  in fact you SHOULD check it out athttp://groups.google.com/group/aroundsquare/

 

i’ve got a bet going with myself on how many days until the first visitor, and how many weeks until the first person signs up.  you can help me win.

and don’t mind this bit: 

<a href=”http://technorati.com/claim/6dt2gb53cy” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>

 

introducing clatter

 

a simple and engaging baby toy, with tactile, visual, and auditory aspects… check it out here http://www.aroundsquare.com/clatter/home.html

or if you want you can even buy it here http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8310208

 

the shortest distance

 

the shortest distance to the cutting edge is to fall behind and then stand still until everyone catches back up to you.  i’ve been making things all my life… simple things, low tech things.  i had a phase when my main tools were pipe cleaners and rubber bands, and a phase when i banged stuff together with a hammer.  i had another phase when i made my own baggy corduroys, my own silly shoes and my own fuzzy hats.  but the point has always been, that on a certain level, i see the world as something that we’re able to participate in.  beef doesn’t come from the supermarket, it comes from cows, and those cows grow somewhere with the help of a guy in overalls.  if we want something and we have a little perseverance, we can probably make it happen.

 

and while i’ve been doing more or less the same thing all this time, the rest of the world has changed a lot.  now we’ve got the internets, which we never had before.  lots of people are talking about how the internet levels the playing field, how its democratizing our world, giving more people a voice, and allowing people to make something from nothing, almost.

 

but most of that is in the context of doing things online, high tech things like blogs and web businesses and stuff.  i’m interested in seeing how much the internet really flattens things out when your primary interest is low tech.  wooden toys… stuff made from logs instead of blogs.

 

it started before monkey knuckles

 

i’ve always liked toys.  i remember when i was a little kid and i first learned what the word mature meant, i equated it with losing interest in toys.  i worried for a little while that i would never get mature because nothing was more interesting than toys and i couldn’t imagine a world where i didn’t like them, just like i couldn’t imagine a world where i would have the patience to sit and watch the news.  as i got older i sort of grew up, but i never lost my interest in toys.  the coolest toys for me were the ones that you could do the most with.  i liked toys that i could find new ways to play with, so naturally i gravitated to skill toys, yo-yos and the like.

 

one day a few years back, i saw a toy i had never seen before.  it was super simple and super cool.  it was astrojax, three balls on a string.  it blew my mind that something so elegant could have escaped invention for so long.  i set to work making me a set, and as always, i was compelled to start messing with things.  i started playing with new configurations and slowly something new evolved.  i realized that by freeing up a second ball to slide on the string, a lot of new possibilities opened up… and monkey knuckles was born.  a solution looking for a problem.

 

monkey knuckles was the first, followed by moknuckle, the one ball version…

 

and then the flood gates opened and out came a rush of new ideas, designs and well garbage too.  rich in means, poor in ends.  but i think there is opportunity.  although my ideas are low tech, the internets have made it possible to connect with interested folks, manufacturers, suppliers, and to start building a little and unprofitable business from this love of toys.

 

freedom to play

 

it’s hard to know the right balance between freedom and structure… but it’s not an either/or type of balance.  the point is that some structures actually enable freedom.

language is a structure that limits our thinking… if you don’t agree just spend a minute trying to think of something without language… we think in terms of language… and it’s hard to bust out of that.  but by the same token, language enables us to think about things in ways which would not be possible if we didn’t have that structure.  it lets us dig deeper.

 

so it is in the development of children.  toys and tools dictate, to a certain extent, how kids can play.  round toys roll and square toys don’t… but things that roll and things that stay put are both useful for going beyond having nothing to play with!  the the differences in extent are important… the best kind of toys are the toys that give kids a chance to develop some creativity… the ones that are not totally closed to interpretation… the more open the better.