Although I must confess that it is quite soothing to watch little green squares turn blue on the computer screen. But that is because I like procrastinating.

My mom uses the Internet to participate online in the Neopets world, where if it was the real world, she would be a businesswoman of the highest credentials. She certainly is business savvy. Of course, you might scoff at the idea that making huge money in a virtual world isn�t the same as the real thing in the real world. But I think it underscores the hidden talents that my mom has.

The skills needed in judging market trends through keen observation and other logical processes that translate into business acumen is the same whether you play stocks and shares in the real world, or a virtual one. Scoff at it if you like. (BF does when I babble about my profits in Neopoints. :P) On the rare occasions my mom dabbles in real shares, she has the Midas touch. My mom still needles my dad about the times he decided to sell when she said to hold. My dad is still sheepish about the everything. He says that he doesn�t have the courage or the endurance where such transactions are concerned. My mom is made of sterner stuff than he is.

And Daddy? Daddy is perpetually stuck in front of the computer screen in his free waking time, trying to devise a foolproof way to break through the fortified base in the Assault Map Overlord in Unreal Tournament. He has discovered more ways to defend than I thought possible, but he is still defeated quite often when he has to assault the base. Geez.

For an old geezer, Daddy is pretty good considering that he just begun playing the game about half a year ago. He still cannot dodge shots very well in face to face combat but he is bloody accurate. Oh, and playing with Godlike bots now, albeit in the same map, is a great accomplishment for someone who had to have his daughters collect guns and ammunition for him, and then move him to a sniper�s position in Capture the Flag maps when he was a newbie.