Insects, Kid Tabletop Games, and Comic Dogs – Geekout 24

I’m a bit late wrapping this one up; life gets in the way sometimes. Anyway, I hope you’re still here and looking forward to some geeky topics. This one will be a bit quick, and it’s about Six Types of Insects, Six Children’s Tabletop Games, and Four Named Pet Dogs in Comic Books.

Make it so.

Six Types of Insects

Upon reading this, I was a bit confused. Is “type” a technical term for these that I didn’t know existed. I commented about this to my wife, and she wasn’t sure at first what they meant either. We established they must have meant something along the lines of a word or words that people use to describe a group of species that are insects regardless of the taxonomic level. For example, it might be possible for a genus or a family to be an answer. Not sure what I’ll have in here though!

If you’ve ever played the board game Dominant Species, you know that insects are everywhere, and they’ve got way too many different species!

Ants

Ants are a remarkable type of insect, both for what they create and accomplish together and for their societal structure. Ants are everywhere on this plant, and that’s due to some really great achievements in their species. They build elaborate tunnels, work together, and have different classes with different roles.

I was a big fan of the game Sim Ant when I was younger. In the game, you controlled one ant at a time competing for resources against rival ant colonies, and you could make new queens to colonize other parts of the yard.

Mosquitos

One of the most hated of insects are mosquitos. Yes, there are many different mosquitos, which is why you hear about certain types being in certain areas. This is very relevant due to certain species being able to spread certain viruses and parasites that can harm humans.

Flies

One of the most annoying on this list, these little buzzing creatures get our attention quite easily. I don’t know that much about them, however, I do know that there are some species of these little buggers. It shows the significance of these fellas that we use a “fly swatter” to kill insects that aren’t even flies. We dislike these so much, we have a weapon with their name on it…

Bees

The insect on my list with the worst public relations team has to be bees. This is due to their close relationship to wasps, not their close relationship to ants. How do you know they’re closely related to ants? Remember that I talked about complex social structures and accomplishments of ants? These little guys are similar to ants; they have different roles, communication, and build things together. We love these insects for their role in pollinating plants as well as making honey!

The reason they have such a bad image is that many people think that yellow-colored wasps are bees. You can look up the difference, but one of the best ways to tell is how fuzzy it is. It’s not very scientific, but bees tend to be fuzzier and wasps are usually smoother. I’d guess this is because the fuzz helps to pollinate.

Butterflies

Humans love looking at butterflies. These insects make such beautiful patterns and colors and their wings, which really grab our attention. And when they’re flying around, they’re not buzzing and making annoying sounds. They’ll even sometimes gently move those wings while sitting otherwise still.

We also tend to find their larval form kind of cute. They’re caterpillars! It might be gross to some, but these little guys walk around on stuff until they eventually cocoon up and become butterflies!

Beetles

Not to be confused with the musicians, these little creatures are a strange group. I don’t know enough about them, but I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of beetles in your life.

Six Children’s Tabletop Games

I wasn’t sure why children’s was the topic here. Am I supposed to be remembering these from my youth or remarking on new ones? I don’t really know, so I’m going to name a couple each of children’s versions of modern games,  children’s versions of classic games, and classic children’s games.

Catan Junior

If you’ve heard of Settlers of Catan, you’ve gotten at least a glimpse into the modern world of board gaming. Catan is from the mid 1990s, so it’s not exactly new either. Catan Junior is the children’s version of the game. It’s simpler to play than the regular version, but the basic idea of the game remains.

Ticket to Ride First Journey

Like with Catan Junior, this is a children’s version of a modern game. In this case, as you likely guessed, it’s based on Ticket to Ride. With its basis being one of the easier train-themed board games, the children’s version should be approachable for kids.

Clue Junior

I think everyone reading this knows Clue, and to no one’s surprise, they make children’s versions of this. I’ve not played it, but I’d guess it just reduces the number of options to make the game easier and shorter.

Monopoly Junior

Another of the classics, most people will know monopoly. The kids version if going to be the same basic game, but with a smaller board and bigger pieces. I’ve seen this in store, and remember seeing the player pieces showing through plastic windows. The pieces are huge, which makes sense if you expect kids less-precise hands to use them.

Candy Land

And into the classics! This game has an awesome movement mechanic. You draw a card and move to the next space with the card’s symbol. Plus, it’s candy themed!

Chutes and Ladders

Probably known as Snakes and Ladders to some of you, this game has spaces where you can climb up ladders or slide down chutes. Chutes are bad, and ladders are good. I’m not sure how great “chutes” is for little children anyway, since I don’t think they know what those are. One probably has to explain to children that they’re like slides or something.

Four Named Pet Dogs in Comic Books

Don’t know the comic book dogs. Sorry. I tried to think of them. I think my wife will be disappointed, since she seemed excited by this prompt. She knows comics much better than I do!

Wrap Up

OK. I’m back in catch up mode, so I’ll try to get the next one out soon. The next one will cover Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and General Geekiness.