At iD Tech Camps our students learn how to make video games.  But today, I’m going to teach you how to make cookies, based on video games.  Specifically, Pacman cookies.  This post will be a step-by-step tutorial of how to make Pacman themed cookies.

First, do not attempt to cook or use the oven without an adult present!!!!!  As I am no exception to this rule,  I asked my adult friend Charlie to come supervise me.

Before getting your hands dirty, you are going to need the proper cookie cutters to make the shapes.  Unfortunately, actual Pacman cookie cutters do not exist so you’ll need to improvise.  There are two different shapes you need to create, the “ghost” shape and the “Pacman” shape.

For the ghost shape, simply find a tulip shaped cookie cutter and rotate it 180 degrees (or just turn it upside down).  Charlie demonstrates:

For the Pacman shape you will start with a simple circle shape and then use any “V” shaped cookie cutter to subtract a portion of the dough.  For those of you learning 3D modeling, this is very similar to “subtractive modeling” when working with polygons.  I found that this “house” shape worked nicely:

Once you have the cookie cutters gathered you will need the following cooking supplies;

Sugar Cookies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Icing:
1 egg white
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
Various food paste colors
Mini chocolate chips

Tools:
Plastic bags
Baking Tray
Scissors
Spray-Oil
Butter Knife

Or you can just cheat on the sugar cookies (like I did) and buy some pre-made dough.  Once the dough is ready, lay it out and begin to make shapes;

I found that transferring the shapes from the cutting board to the baking tray was very difficult, so you are best off creating the shapes directly on the baking tray.  Make sure to spray it down with oil first.  I recommend removing the excess dough while the stencil is still applied, as demonstrated below.

And time for Pacman:

Well done!  These are all the shapes we need for representing the characters of Pacman:

Now it is time to bake the cookies.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook for about 10-12 minutes, check frequently as cooking time can vary.  While you are waiting try and partake in something productive, such as playing music:

Now the cookies are baked.

Next up is making the icing.  Combine 1 egg white, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of corn syrup and powdered sugar and give a good stir.

Once the texture is consistent we are ready to add the color.  There are 5 colors you’ll need for the characters.  Between a set of “regular” and “neon” food coloring dyes, we had almost all the colors we needed, here is the breakdown:

Combine red and yellow to create orange, don’t forget to save some icing for the color white.

To mix the color in, we will spoon parts of the icing into plastic bags, about 2-3 heaping spoonfuls should do for each color, make sure to ration properly so you don’t run out.  Once in the bag, add drops of food coloring and kneed the icing within the bag until the color is even.  I found that bold colors such as red required many drops, whereas lighter ones like blue and pink required few.

Once your colors are ready, cut small (like REALLY small) holes in the corner of each bag:

Then drizzle the icing over the cookie.  Go very light on the icing and use a butter knife or spoon to spread it out.   Start off EXTREMELY light, I can’t stress this enough.

Next up we will have to make the eyes for the ghosts, but we need to let this icing dry first.  Put a few dabs of icing on the plate and test with your finger as a reference for whether or not the cookie icing is dry.  While waiting, you should probably exercise a bit as you are about to eat some cookies:

Now that the icing is dry it is time for the eyes.  The whites of the eyes will simply be some left-over uncolored icing (make sure to save some) and the pupils will be chocolate chips.   You’ll want to offset the position of the “whites of the eye” and compliment them by where you position the chocolate chips.  Remember go light on the icing, when you press down the chocolate chip, you will spread out the white icing:

All done!  Have a little fun with it!  We made a maze with the leftover icing!

BIG UPS to Helvetica from http://www.snackordie.com for the original recipe.   Tune in next week for Ms. Pac-Man Pizza!!!!!!

Anyone knows that at iD Tech Camps our camp staff is all about having fun, and our corporate staff is no exception!  Every year Halloween is a big event in our main office and throughout our nationwide satellite offices. Here are some highlights of our costumes:

It’s me as the Big Bad Wolf!

The Ingram-Cauchi family (our founders!) as Little Bo Peep and her Flock of Sheep

Patrick from Client Services as a Karate Master!

Joy and her family as a Star Wars menagerie including Luke (in-Jedi-training), Yoda, Princess Leia and an adorable Jawa

Jimmy from the Web Dept. as Fred Flintstone!

Dwayne from Client Services as “Gumdrop Head”!

Brother-sister duo Kate from Human Resourses and Dylan from Field Support as 50’s Girl and Roger Rabbit

Nova from Administrative Services as a Peacock!

And I just can’t get enough of myself!

That does it for Halloween ‘09.  I can’t wait for next year!

It is well accepted that games and puzzles serve to keep ones brain sharp. In fact, there is even pending research that the kind of stimulation they provide can prevent/slow the progression of certain mental conditions such as Alzheimer’s and even improve cognition in individuals who’ve suffered head trauma. Additionally some types of games require social interaction which benefits ones social skills, especially in young adolescences as it develops the their ability to corporate (or beguile!) to achieve an objective. At the very least, games are a fun way of giving your brain a work out, which is just as important to exercise as the rest of your body.

Here are 4 very fun “brain games” that I personally frequent. They are each very different and promote very different types of cognitive skills.

1) http://games.asobrain.com/ – Xplorers

Mental Muscles flexed:

• Memory
• Social Skills
• Strategy, Planning Ahead
• Resources Management

“Aso Brain Games” offers a view games, however I’ve chosen it for one in particular; Xplorers. Xplorers is a carbon copy of the best selling, European, tabletop board “The Settlers of Catan” by Klaus Tuber. It is a classic “German-style board” game as it encourages a very high-level of player interaction, is simple, short and highly aesthetic. In a nutshell, the game resembles a hybrid of Risk and Monopoly, minus all the boring parts (seriously when is the last time you finished either?)

2) http://www.flashbynight.com/drench/ – Drench

Mental Muscles flexed:

• Visuospatial Cognition
• Planning Ahead

The self-proclaimed “World’s Simplest Flash Game”. Players have a limited number of moves to paint a grid all one color. Moves must be planned based on the pattern of the pre-existing pixels, which is randomly generated from 6 different colors. Calling for an extremely high level of visual concentration, players will becoming increasingly adept at interpreting a seemingly chaotic grid of colors. Though very different from Chess, players must think several moves ahead, similar to Chess players. As each move yields a tree of options, players must think through as many options while they can keep track of, all the while swimming in a sea of brightly colored pixels!

3) http://www.fantasticcontraption.com/ - Fantastic Contraption

Mental Muscles flexed:

• Creative Problem Solving
• Understanding of Physics and Engineering
• Trial and Error

This game allows user to build contraptions to compete various tasks. The game is very open ended and it’s puzzles can be solved in a variety of ways, there is no one correct answer. This gives it tremendous reliability as you can revisit puzzles to try and solve them is a simpler way (or a more complicated way!). What is particular fun about this game is that one can build their own levels and share them with the community. Participants have used this to create spin-offs of the game such as “Battle Bots” in which users create contraptions which joust one another!

4) http://games.swirve.com/earth/ – Earth 2025

Mental Muscles flexed:

• Resource Management
• Long Term Strategy / Planning
• Social Skills
• Mathematics / Statistics

This text-based game is run tournament style in month long and two-month long installments. Hundreds of player compete in building an empire. During that time they must find ways to monetize, defend and expand their empire by employing a variety of different strategies. Seeking out alliances are needed for survival. The game allows for many different types of play; will your empire’s army brutally conquer others or will you focus on industry and grow rich through exporting goods?

What are your favorite brain games?

At iD Tech Camps we always say that our students will make friends that last a lifetime but I’d like to point out that the same is true for our staff as well! When I started with iD, back in the summer of ’05 I taught Web Design and Flash Animation out our heralded iD Princeton location. While there I made good friends with an international staff who was hired from Scotland, Andy aka “Wee Haggis”. Though I could barely understand a word he said, we quickly became close friends.

After working hard all week at camp, we’d take road trips all over the northeast coast touring the different parts of the country. In fact, he joined me the next camp season to drive across the country to work at iD UCLA, a road trip I’ll never forget!

I’m proud to say that we’ve remained good friends ever since and have visited each other just about every year. However, our most recent rendezvous was a special as his entire family came a long for the ride! I met up with them in New York City, then we all headed to Philadelphia. Here we are at the world famous Philadelphia Art Museum in front of the infamous “Rocky” statue. Andy and I are up top:

I found the only place NYC broadcasting the Scotland vs. Macedonia Football game, as it was not to be missed (my awesome Scotland Football jersey compliments of Andy’s fam) here we are in attendance:

PROTIP: Did you know the symbol depicted in the Scotish “Isle of Man” Flag (between Andy and I) is called a Triskelion

Our labs are very impressive; typically a network of 30-100 computers boasting the latest technology, most cutting-edge games and applications and the kind of decorations that only iD staff know how to bring.  However what is equally impressive is that the labs are built from scratch in a mere 48 hour time period. That’s right, in only 48 hours iD staff is expected to turn a totally empty class room into a lab space worthy of the iD name.  What more impressive is that it is typically accomplished with only a couple of staff.  I consider myself an expert at setting up labs at this point and try to help set up as many locations as possible.  I decided to doucment how a typical lab set-up runs while I set up the Ohio State University lab with the help of OSU lead instructor Bryce (who was also the writer of our ‘09  Web-Design and Flash Animation Curriclum):

Day 1

Day one is all preparation for the arrival of the computers which happens the following day.  Prior to arrival “Camp-In-A-Box” (C.I.A.B.) has been shipped to the University location.  CIAB contains all the non-tech related materials to run a successful camp.  The combine shipping weight of “Camp-In-A-Box” averages at close to 500lbs.  The main objectives of day one are to un-pack an organize 100% of the “Camp-In-A-Box-Materials”, purchase any additional materials needed and then to prepare all the workstations for the arrival of the computers the next day.

Bryce is consumed by “Camp-In-A-Box”!

Every single item is inventoried

I never did finish making the cabinet…

Finally, set up and ready for the computers!

Day 2

Day two is all about the computers; inventorying them, setting them up, setting up peripherals, networking them and finally testing them.  To stress test the electical needs of the room, we turn them all on and off at the same time, nothing like hearing the windows start-up song coming out of 30 machines at the same time (I’ll try to get a video of that, did you know Brian Eno made the theme?).  Once the computers are set up, if there is still time we’ll unwind by making some decorations.

More boxes!

What’s crazier, that pile of ethernet cables or boxes stacked all the way to the cieling?

Things are beginning to shape up….

Now there is a lab!

Of course, the most important part is still missing and won’t arrive for another day:

THE STUDENTS!!!

Rock on Bryce!

That’s all for now!  Sorry I’ve been quiet the past couple months but now that camp is over (and I’ve taken a well deserved break) you’ll be hearing a lot more from ‘ole Grizzle!

Whew, it has been a while! Since my last blog I’ve been all over the country touring all the iD Tech locations that I manage. I’ve visited Carnegie Mellon University, Ohio State University, Sacred Heart University, Villanova University, Seton Hall University, Rider University and I just got done setting up the brand new Wesleyan University. I can’t wait to share all fun pictures from my trips to share with you!

This particular one comes from iD Seton Hall! All of the instructors had constructed large-print out portraits of themselves – prime for pranking! Fortunatly, one particular camper seemed to have a never ending amount of silly props in his back pack to deface instructor “Athena’s” portrait (there was a mythology theme). Here you go, way to take one for the team Athena!

See more photo’s of iD Seton Hall in action on flicker

Whew, it has been a while and I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog!

Since my last entry I have been to two staff trainings; Lake Forest College in Chicago and last weekend at Villanova University in the Philadelphia area. We take staff training very seriously and require all new staff attend training and once trainings are complete we will have trained approximately 300 staff and about half of them were in attendance at Villanova last week.

We cover a lot of ground in the several days that staff attend: teaching skills, risk management, our online tools and forums, safety procedures – but the most memorable part of training is teaching people how to have FUN at camp.

Welcome back guys! I had intended to post the conclusion to this prank last week but I was busy at our annual staff training at Lake Forest College in Chicago (more on that soon!)

For those just tuning in, this is the final installment covering the annual prank on Pete. In my last blog I documented how we covered Pete entire house with little green army men, now, it’s after hours and my team of merry pranksters has infiltrated the iD Tech Headquarters and we about to cover the office just the same.  We decided to Make Pete’s desk the epicenter of the green army men but start with a line of them from the elevator, that would meet up with a similar line of them coming from his desk and include a tableaux in the middle.

Ken, from IT, spearheaded the battalion starting at the elevator, arranging his soldiers in a tight single-file formation:

Jami, SoCal Regional Manager, lead her troups into battle starting from Pete’s desk. Jami implemented more guerilla style tactics, marching her soldiers in a staggered, tessellated pattern:

They meet in the middle:

It’s an ambush!?

And finally, the view from Pete’s war-torn desk!

Despite all these solders, we are all about peace a love at iD! We just have a funny way of showing it with these goofy pranks – Pete is always a great sport!

Welcome to the exciting continuation of “Trip to iD Tech Headquarters”. If you are just tuning in let me bring you up to speed. We are the annual iD Tech Paella party, hosted by none other than CEO Big Pete himself.  Every year at this event my department, the regional managers, play a big prank on Pete. So what was the prank this year?

Our weapon of choice: little green army men, approximately 1,000 of them

Our mission: secretly fill every nook-and-cranny of Pete’s house with them

While Pete was distracted cooking Paella and dancing the “eclectic slide” my cohorts and I rotated in and out of Pete’s house, with pockets full of little green army men. Here are some photo’s from our embedded reporters:

However it doesn’t stop there! Under the cover of darkness, at around midnight, a special “Delta Force” of soldiers was mobilized and invaded the iD Tech Headquarters! Though the assault on Pete’s house was fun, we out did ourselves in the office!!! Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion of operation “Make Pete Crazy with 1,000 little Green Army Men” and see Pete’s reaction!

Hey guys, this is a very special blog entry as I’m writing you from the iD Tech Headquarters. Most of the year I work from a smaller satellite office in SoCal, but I frequently visit the headquarters in San Jose for company summits. This particular summit, is one of our most important as it is the last time the whole company will meet before camp. We’ll be setting many important policies to ensure a smooth and safe camp experience for student and their families but we’ll also be focusing on another important initiative: everyone having FUN! Can you believe that we have as much fun in headquarters as we do at our camps!? In fact, sometimes I have a hard time telling the two apart! Just like our camps, our company has a lot of fun quirks and traditions, here are just a few that I got photo’s of while at HQ.

One of our most classis traditions is our “acknowledgement” ceremonies. It is how we conclude most days at iD Tech Camps, giving students and staff the opportunity to “acknowledge” someone who they feel deserves recognition. Some are heartfelt and some are silly, many are both. There are many different way of conducting them, but all incorporate a top-secret thigh-slapping, hand clapping, finger snapping sequence (I think I just gave it away). Many of our students and staff probably don’t believe that we do this at headquarters, but we do! And we have a lot of fun doing it!

Here are some pictures of an acknowledgement ceremony lead by SoCal regional manager Jami:

Big Pete and Stefan, from accounting, rock-paper-scissors for who gets to give the next acknowledgment:

A more recent tradition was started by our Field Support mastermind, Nancy, which is our 3:00 Pilates (and occasionally yoga) session. That’s right, every day at 3:00 iD staff can participate in an optional Pilates session (though in my office that’s usually when we take a trip to See’s candy downstairs). Here are some pic’s:

While there, I took a moment to introduce our newest regional manager, Charlie, to some of the other staff at headquarters as he also works offsite:

Charlie meets Rick and Crystal from IT                 Charile with Nina from Strategic Programs

But, I’m leaving out the BIGGEST iD TRADITION of all: PRANKS. Every year Pete generously opens his house for a “Paella Night” party, where he cooks up some delicious Paella for the whole company. However, an integral part to this event is that every year my department, the regional managers, play a big prank on him!

In the past, we’ve covered his lawn with forks, stolen all of his shoes, toilet papered his house and even stolen his car, however I think the prank this year may take the cake!!! Tune in next week for pictures!