Frenzied Daddy

I noticed on Reddit this link: now that Canada has Google Street View, we can show you the horrible truth. Don’t let stoners work in your public signs department. I shared it with my 4 friends on Facebook, and then shared it with Miss B. Her response? “Haha. Someone probably slapped a decal on it.”

She’s so smart!

There are two problems with cutting your finger with the lid of the dog food can. The first is that the lid is not nearly as sharp as your mother (“Don’t throw that at your brother! You’ll cut his head off!”) or Charlie Brown (“I cut myself on your dog food can. I hope it doesn’t affect your enjoyment of your meal.”) would have you believe. So while the cut itself is smallish, it’s really a rip in the skin and hurts like the dickens. The second is that this is when you learn that Barbie and Skipper used up all the bandaids when that maniac Ken rammed his car into theirs to keep them from capturing the fairy unicorn.

I haven’t laughed like that in years.

For you gamer-types, or ex-gamer types, especially if you’ve ever witnessed the bloody fight between the “storytellers” and the “rules lawyers,” I have to recommend Dorkness Rising. There are people and characters in there that I swear I’ve gamed with; and they’re accurately, if a little hyperbolically, skewered.

If you’re not a gamer, it won’t be nearly as funny. But I think you’d still like it. I was rolling on the floor, laughing so hard I had tears running down my face. Especially at the end, the blooper reel.

But she could be!

Came home from an interview today (not blabbing about it cuz I don’t want to jinx any of my possibilities) in a great mood and not ready to retire to the basement yet. So I made the TT go for a walk with me. She wanted to take the arthritic Perrin and the elderly Honor for a stroll. I was unable to find both leashes and decided to put them both on the same one with a splitter.

As we got to the other side of the block, a little grey cat went totally bunions-to-the-wall ape-poop. It rose up, hissing at my poor dogs, who couldn’t get away because they old and feeble. Then it walked toward them, hissing, and finally charged them, darting under Perrin, around over his shoulders, on his rump, hissing and spitting. He was so surprised he fell down.

Which is a problem. Now I have a bag of poop in one hand, the other is holding a leash with two dogs on it, the cat is angry, and the dog fell over and can’t get back up. I had to (gently, ‘cuz I’m being totally respectful at this angry yowling spitting demon) swing the dog poop bag at the cat to get it to slowly move away, lift Perrin’s hips up so we can slowly walk down the street from the cat. And while we’re going, the dastardly thing decides we’re not moving fast enough, so it chases us, spitting and snarling.

My poor dogs were so put out. Well, ok they weren’t. They forgot all about it by the time we got a house away and the cat left us alone.

I had a conversation about a year ago with my boss; he wanted to know why I had “blown off” an entire day of work, with plenty of high priority projects in the queue. It was one of those days where I was supposed to get a million things done for work, for home, for other projects, and I hadn’t been taking my brain drugs and had, in fact, spent the entire day reading a book.

I don’t do it often, especially when I’m taking my drugs, but I’d be lying if I said I was perfect.

I had retreated from the high stress world of everything I was supposed to do into some easier world. Like spending my day watching Oprah and One Life to Live. It’s hard not to do that yesterday, today and tomorrow — I have work to get done and a full time job to find, but books are seductive and easy. I’ve reread a couple of Linnea Sinclair Romance-Science Fiction novels, but really, I’m trying hard to stay productive.

The TT and I put in a small raised bed with tomatoes, peas and radishes.

The DQ has the same problem. She’s been hiding in books rather than doing her “boring” homework (some Outdoor School vocabulary books, her normal geography, that sort of stuff). On the one hand, it’s great that she’s reading (it’s fan-tastic that she likes reading), and she is even supposed to read 1000 pages every quarter of school (part of her grade depends on it). On the other, it’s frustrating to have to punish her for not doing her homework.

Both of us have a similar problem; hiding in the books to avoid work/homework. How would you suggest I teach her to focus on her homework?

My friend, young raven, asked me whilst enroute to the airport, if I was gaming currently. Sadly, no. However, I am living vicariously through several gaming-related podcasts and other sundry stories. Wil Wheaton just wrapped up his story about sending his son and some friends through the beginnings to their game, and his reflective tips on DMing are also great suggestions for new parents who haven’t yet figured out their game. Or old parents who, like me, sometimes lose track that the goal of this journey is fun.

Whenever you can, say “yes.” I think my first instinct is always to say “no.” No, you can’t have another Popsicle. No, I won’t help you clean your room. No, I won’t read you another book. No, I won’t tell you a story * this topic is actually reserved for another post . What if you tried saying “yes.” What’s the worst that’ll happen, if she has another Popsicle? What are you doing rather than helping him clean his room? Can it wait? Why not read another book? Our kids hear “no,” too often, and we should practice saying “yes.”

Everything is important to the PCs (kids) It’s probably not a big deal to you if you take the blue blanket or the pink one, but she’s throwing an ever-loving fit. If it’s really not important to you; try letting them pick once in a while. With the previous one and this one, I’m not advocating “say yes every time,” kids need to learn that they don’t always get their way. But they can sometimes get their way, can’t they?

Listen to your players (kids). Are you half-listening, singing to the music or reading the recipe for the stroganoff? Focus on what they’re saying, and how they’re saying it. Treat it as important, and since they’re kind of new to the world, you may have to go the extra steps of showing that you’re listening by *gasp* making eye contact and repeating back what they’re saying. You know, “good listening” skills.

Keep it simple, even if you’re just getting started. Kids don’t really care if you arrange a huge fantastic trip, like parachuting into the zoo and enjoying the day. All they really want is simple stuff – especially if they’re infants or toddlers. How many parents have you seen with these incredibly ornate parties for their two-year-old? Ponies? Alligators? What’ll you do next year? Keep it simple

You should go take a look at his post. He’s got several more points, and the only one that I think doesn’t directly translate to parenting is “buy a DM screen.” But even that one? Yeah, the kids don’t need to know everything.

Huh. Post 999? Weird.

What I have to do to get Erich to have his hair cut like this…

/me saunters off, whistling innocently.

Hmm, that’s interesting.

One of the ways that the Star Trek reboot this summer is being promoted is through twitter; you can follow the Kelvin (and now there’s a great name for a ship). Actually, it’s a twitter feed for their Sweepstakes. But I’ve seen a lot of “buzz” generation through twitter- everyone from Santa Claus to the Transformers is trying to figure out how to use Twitter to spread the word about their product.

I doubt I’ll be entering their sweepstakes. The prizes are a trip to Hollywood for the premiere (and to wave hi to Shane and Sam and their girls) or a zero-gee air flight (whoopsie, I need another air sickness bag). However, if Intel were handing out Lenovos (especially with linux installed), that’d be a no brainer.

Anyway, mentioning Star Trek on your twitter will get whomever is the human behind the USS Kelvin’s twitter feed to notice you and follow you. So get crackin!