3% of a Second

My son has a very good memory.  He can keep track of every single card in a complex deck of Magic the Gathering, plus all the spells, cards and abilities of the other colored decks.  It is definitely something children do with ease that makes their parents feel their age because we can't keep up with their little minds moving so quickly. 

One of the things my son has been interested in for a long time is "glitches" in games.   Back when I was young we called them 'bugs' and for the most part that is the defacto term for when a piece of software isn't behaving as expected.  My son is interested in when a glitch gives you, the player, the ability to do something you otherwise couldn't do with the game mechanics or rules. 

For instance, there could be a glitch when you ground pound as Mario if you happen to press the L2 button at the point of impact it lets you do another ground pound.   If you can keep this timing up, you can make it over large expanses that you couldn't reach until much later in the game. 

That's a useful glitch, he's moved into the esoteric glitches now.   He demonstrated today a special thing that happened only when the particular creature in the game (It was a lively chomping plant) had gotten wet.  While wet, you could do a double jump and when you land on its head, if you got the timing just right, you would launch into the air.   You could keep doing this, jumping higher and higher.   The only trouble was, the window in which you had to time your reactions was a thirtieth of a second.  

That's correct, 1/30th a second or 33 milliseconds.  My son was practicing.  He was going to master this glitch.   It was hard, but that didn't deter him.   It was a crazy window of time, but that didn't bother him. 

I love that he's interested in how the games work just as much as how the games are played.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter hasn't wanted to take care of our neighbor's dog, Charlotte, today and last night.  I think it's been because it's so frightfully cold outside.   My husband and I did the dog duty today.  My daughter says she'll be up for helping tomorrow again.