A game for kids and kids-at-heart

Next to sabong, my driver Sammy loves pusoy. He would play the game even if it’s the last day of his life. He would play pusoy with other drivers while I am at work, sometimes with my barbero Lando, and during "good times" with Bettina or Jobert or Andy.

For a start, they would wager 25 centavos until it got bigger and bigger. Sammy would always win but not when Jobert is around. I know if Sammy played pusoy the night before. He’d be weary and his sense of direction becomes ballistic. At his weirdest, he would mistake Ayala Avenue for Roxas Blvd., and at his worst, we could not find our way out of UP Diliman for a whole night.

In the province, pusoy is a game only adults are allowed to play. This is as a general rule. If a boy played pusoy he was hugador, meaning he was a gambler. Scrabble and chess were wholesome board games. But these were only for the "schooled." And during summer, there would be chess competitions everybody looked forward to. Winning the game meant the young kid was bright and had a mind better than the rest. After all, he could dream of becoming a Bobby Fisher or a Gary Kasparov.

But the card and board games were a bit "elite." Not everybody could afford to have a chess set or scrabble. There were also no computer games, no Game Boy to play with. You had to content yourself with patintero and kadang-kadang, which were for everyone to enjoy.

If you ask a child nowadays what he’d likely do during spare time, he’d surely answer – play computer games. And who has not heard of Counter Strike, Ragnarok, Rose on Line, Slyss, Warcraft, The Sims, Feeding Frenzy, or Super Mario? Even Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Finding Nemo are now computer games! And yes, it seems like the art of reading books is a thing of the past.

Seldom will you find a child who does not know a thing or two about computer games. Haven’t parents complained about the proliferation of computer game rental stores? Haven’t they talked about how their children would go on a side trip to video stores instead of going to school? And haven’t we read about raids done by the MTRCB or the OMB on video game rental stores that are also sex dens? As we all know, everything can be downloaded from the Internet. Internet is not the highway of information for nothing.

"Children in recent times learn values from TV shows, movies and video games. Although entertaining, they don’t always enrich children’s lives," says Dr. Michael Rayel, author of First Aid to Mental Illness Dr. Rayel also invented a new game called Oikos (pronounced eeh-kos) which can help children learn emotional skills like anger management, assertiveness, communication strategies and dealing with bullies. Although the game is designed to teach, children will also have fun playing with it. Unlike any game, Oikos focuses on developing and improving children’s emotional health.

The Oikos Game was first launched in Canada, then in the US. The game involves various emotional and interpersonal situations that portray events, episodes or behaviors that can happen in real life. In a way, such situations expose children to virtual life experiences.

In this game, positive behavior is reinforced while the inappropriate behavior is not. Children learn through rewards and consequences, repetition and play. Through repetition, these situations are committed to memory. When a similar situation arises in the future, children can be guided with the appropriate response.

The Oikos Game is available in Shopwise, Hobbes and Landes and National Bookstore.

The Essential Card

Tower Records and Music One offer more perks this Yuletide season through the newly-launched Essential Card.

A minimum purchase of P500 from any Tower Records and Music One store entitles a customer to an Essential Card and a stamp. Get 10 stamps marked, and have a chance to win a holiday gift in the Pick A Prize Promo. Once all 20 stamps in the card have been stamped, you get a P500 Tower Records or Music One Christmas Gift Card depending on what store you made the purchase. After having all stamps in your card marked, you automatically qualify for the grand raffle.

Major prizes include Creative Zen Micro Mp3 player, Magic Sing Fiesta Videoke Microphone 2005, Jansport Airborne backpack, Senheisser HD 437 headphone, Philips HE 590 headphone, Senheisser PX30 headphone, Infinity J Sound Microphone SS 88, Senheisser MX 450 earphone, Case Logic KSW 128 CD cases and Infinit J Sound Earphone JS 574.

In Pick A Prize, special gifts are also at stake like CDs, freebies and other merchandising items.

The Essential Card promo runs until Jan. 15, 2006, the last day to have your stamps marked. Grand draw is on Jan. 31, 2006. The Essential Card is honored only in the store where you made the purchase.