Ok, well, I didn’t get 5 comments. Kinda sad really.
But who cares! It’s my blog and I can break my own rules if I want to!
So here it is, as promised:
Jonathan Coulton’s “RE: Your Brains”
As sung by ME!
In Rock Band 2
P.S. That was “Expert” mode and I scored 97%. If you were wondering.
So, yesterday was officially both Papa’s (My father-in-law) and Grandpa’s (my dad) birthdays. More on this later, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
We spent the day strolling around NYC yesterday. Running around the city is tough work with three kids. Even with help. Katie and Mike, (our friends from Hawaii), have always made having kids easier. They are a great aunt/uncle (they’re brother and sister) set to have around. When we lived in Hawaii, they were our babysitters. They were great to have around, and frequently crashed at our place. Having them over yesterday and today was like reliving old times a little, and that counts for a lot.
I’m a big fan of using the Subway when in NYC as a way of covering ground, especially with kids. It’s a bitch getting selves, kids, stroller, etc. to the platform, but once there, it’s a straight shot onto the train. The bus, on the other hand, would be sitting there while your slow-moving-herd boarded, while other passengers watched with frothing mouths.
Kevyn, it turns out, likes the subway too.
George and Kevyn on the subway
He kept asking me to let him slide down the pole. So being a dad, I obliged, his laughter being contagious and infecting other passengers.
Lara also introduced him to the rushing wind preceeding an oncoming train.
Lara and Kevyn, as the train approaches
Central park has some nice little playgrounds, where the kids can have adventures, meet new friends and explore the properties of matter, As Caelyn was wont to do. She also likes putting sand at the bottom of the slide. Just because.
Caelyn playing with sand
Mike and Katie spent some time with their non-blood nieces and nephew as well. Honestly, you should have seen the looks on their faces when Mike and Katie walked into the apartment yesterday morning. It was priceless!
Katie watching over Caelyn
Mike and Quinlyn
The end of the evening involved dinner and tomfoolery at Dave and Busters, where the kids made a killing in tickets on some roulette type of game. Quinlyn played air hockey for the first time. And Me, Mike, Quinlyn, and Kevyn took turns blowing up aliens/monsters on various gun games.
The cap to the evening was something Papa had said earlier. Lara had called him to wish him a happy birthday, and he said something to the effect of “have a piece of cheesecake for me.” Well, this became our driving force. Find a whole cheesecake in NYC at 9:30PM. Problem being that we were tired, and it was getting late: most normal bakeries were closed by then. Everywhere else sold them by the slice, and we weren’t having any of that. So after searching Times Square for a deli or bakery with a whole cheesecake we settled on a slightly-used-but-mostly-whole cheesecake, that cost $43 after tax. Some decisions just can’t be explained.
A slightly used cheesecake
Well, here’s whats going on in my life at the moment:
I’m loving World of Warcraft‘s new expansion, and am furiously leveling my brand new Death Knight. I gave my guild leadership back to the original GM since my life is about to get real hectic. See two paragraphs down.
The kids are growing up fast, meaning challenges, fights, and standoffs. I have the I-Win button though. It’s great to be a dad.
I’m getting kicked out of the navy for being tubby. Ah well. It was (not so) fun whle it lasted. Still don’t know *quite* when I’m getting discharged, but I’m guessing within the next 2 months. We’ll be moving back to NY. I miss winter.
Still alive, still here. We write mroe when I have something a little more profound to say.
This post is prompted by THIS article.
So, the summary of the article is that the husband is torqued becasue his wife spends all ehr time playing WoW, ignoring parental and household responsabilites, had an affair with a guildmate, and refuses to regognize the problem.
The columist says that Online gaming does seem to be highly addictive for some people, and “World of Warcraft” is a prime offender..
World of Warcraft is a set of instructions on a server that accepts requests from and interfaces with a remote terminal client. It lacks the capability to be an “offender,” any mroe than crack, cigarettes, coffee, booze, or sex do. They are simply things that must be dealt with rationally. If the wife refuses to acknowledge that there is responsability in life, then that is HER problem. It’s not WoW’s fault.
Also, this seems like an awefully biased and one sided issue to be giving advice on. I’m not saying that if the husband is being truthful, the wife doesn’t deserve a kick in the cooter shin, but this could very well be the husband blowing things way out of proportiong. Even the affair part could be an exaggeration (though it is entirely posisble).
As for the husband, I think he needs to take a hint. Seriously, it seems like she doesn’t want anything to do with you or your family. Take them and get out of there.
All that said, I have serious doubts as to the authenticity of this letter. It only tells one side of the story, and absolutely villifies WoW players as lazy, irresponsable addicts. Sounds like a worst-case scenario letter written by one of those vehemently-anti-video game mommy’s groups.
Hell, I have doubts about the whole advice column idea anyway. I don’t think an advice column is a viable substitute for real counselling, and if you wrote in before seeking real counselling, then I’m afraid for your children, since that’s a wonderful example of taking life lessons from celebrities. We all know that celebrities all make the best decisions. (Though I have to give the columnist credit for suggesting counselling).
So, the columnist is trying to pass responsability to the game and give advice on a situation that she only knows one biased half of, the hubby’s a whiney bitch who may or may not be real, and the wife is a WoW addicted guild-slut.
At least that’s what I get out of the article.
Day one of my tenure as a lone parent comes to a close. With lara in Florida for Kat’s wedding, it’s a wonder that the kids and I are still alive.
Ok, it’s not that bad. Really, aside form Kevyn and I starting the epic battle of wills (where I try to convince his still-malleable, yet stubborn, mind that he WILL INDEED eat what is put in front of him), today went very well. Quinlyn got to school on time, with all children fed. I passed my rope-and-choke, ensuring at least another 6 months in the Navy (if you didn’t know, they’re kicking us fat people out). The babies and I played and watched movies.
When they went down for a nap, I played WoW. I got them up before we had to get Quinlyn form school, letting them eat lunch while I cleaned up the living room. When we all got back home, I cordoned the kids off in the freshly cleaned living room and went to work on the dining room and kitchen. When all was clean (save for mopping, which is part of tomorrows agenda), Quinlyn did her homework while the babies played in the living room and watched movies. I took a well-deserved WoW break.
After a little WoW-ing, I made dinner (some Hamburger Helper thingy I made with ground turkey). We ate at the table for once, Kevyn being excited about saying “Amen” after my Quinlyn-requested prayer. Kevyn was less enthused about eating his food, however, and spent about a half an hour being wheeled in his high chair between the table and the corner for refusing to touch his food. During this time, I bathed the littlest one (who massaccred the meal, making a mess of her self in true Caelyn style). I got fed up with Kevyn and put him to bed about a half hour before Caelyn, who played with me on the couch until she started cudling and sucking her thumb, her sign that it’s bedtime.
Shortly after the littlest ones were in bed (about 7PM), my buddy Mike called and came over. We spent some time WoWing and playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl with Quinlny before it was her turn to hit the sack. After some mroe WoW, Mike had to leave, as he has to be up early for work tomorrow (today). I continued playing WoW until about midnight, when I realized I was making bad calls in the game and should cut my losses. At that point I logged out, and remembered that Lara had asked me to dick around with her blog because the theme was no longer working. So I changed that, and looked around for a new theme for my own blog (yeah, this one). I then noticed that WordPress is up to V2.5, and got to thinking that now would be a good time to move the whole Romaka.net thing (including our blogs) over to my new hosting server, but thought better of it, since, despite my geekiness and knowledge, I’m prone to messing things like that up when I’m at my best; doing it tired was courting disaster. So that’s a project for another day.
I feel good about accomplishing stuff today. Got a good chunk of the house cleaned, and leveled my WoW character, Keiki, to 66. A rising star, that one…
Ok, night night.