iPad and Red Dead Redemption

New Toys       

After sitting squarely on the fence, Diana and I bought an iPad.  The idea was that it would fill a number of purposes, from portable movie player and book reader, as well as email/Facebook checker, game player, educational toy, etc.  I think it will take a little while to actually figure out how this little device will fit into our lives.  It's beautiful and fun to play with, but it still feels like a weird hybrid.  I was able to convert previously ripped DVDs and get them on the pad.  That certainly will help with our upcoming plane trips with Allison.  We also got a little learn-to-read app that she can play.  Maybe surprisingly, I'm somewhat reluctant to just plug her in to a screen at such a young age.  As I said, we're still figuring out how it will play into our routine.

The same day, I also bought "Red Dead Redemption", Rockstar's latest and greatest offering since Grand Theft Auto IV.  GTA, it should be noted, was voted "Game of the Year" by dozens of major publications, and critics are already raving about RDR.  I've played about 3 hours over the past two nights, and am about as fired up as I've been about any game ever.  They absolutely nailed my perception of the old Wild West.  The towns are as dirty and gritty and determined as their inhabitants, and the landscape is breathtakingly beautiful.  It just feels so damn cool to mosey down the middle of a town and watch and listen to the people.  Or ride out into the wilderness on your horse under the starlight, and listen to the howling wolves.

Horseback riding is a major mode of transportation, and it's a ton of fun.  They really do a great job of making your horse feel alive, with a mind of its own.  You don't drive your horse like a car by pushing a button for forward and a button for backward.  But you can turn him, and kick him to make him go.  If you're riding with a group, he'll naturally follow the horses in front of him, so you don't have to manually steer the whole time.  Kick him a lot, and he'll go pretty fast, but kick him too much and he'll buck you off.  So even riding somewhere is a fun little mini-game of going as fast as you can without pissing off your horse too much.

One of the main selling points of the game is your ability to make moral choices.  The nature of good and evil have always been topics in Grand Theft Auto, with corrupt cops and benevolent gangsters.  I've only seen the tip of the iceberg, I hope.  As an example, I was out riding, and heard some gunfire.  I went to investigate, and saw two men chasing a third and shooting at him.  The two men were wearing badges.  What should I do?  I ended up shooting the bad guy, and the good guys thanked me.  I don't remember if I earned any other rewards.  I'll bet that if I shot the lawmen the bad guy would have thanked me and rewarded me as well.

I could go on and on, but I'll cut it short.  I've played poker in a saloon, helped drive cattle to pasture, shot and skinned deer, skunks, rabbits, coyotes, and even an armadillo.  I've helped the Sheriff raid a bandit hideouts, rescued a lady being carried off by a bad guy, shot the rope of a noose to save a hanging man, and found and deciphered an old treasure map.  Each of those events leads to rewards and more and more stuff to do.  It's just overwhelmingly delicious, and I'm just at the beginning.

As best of all, Diana appreciates the background sounds of desert wilderness over the honking and cursing and gunfire of Liberty City.

Healthy!

Just to follow up, Allison is back to 100%.

It was crummy timing.  We had a busy weekend planned, visiting friends, birthday parties, etc, and we had to cancel out of all those.  Allison's temperature was up over 103 on Saturday, and she was pretty low on energy.  Motrin helped get over the hump, and by Sunday afternoon she still had a low fever, but was back to her normal self.  Daycare has a policy of "don't show up if you've had a fever in the last 24 hours", so I took my final sick day on Monday, and we headed to Legoland instead!  It was a really fun day.

One of Allison's daycare friends has roseola, which is a virus that causes high fever followed by a rash.  So we're on the lookout for that.  The good news, though, is that everyone is happy and healthy and feeling fine.

*sigh*

Allison has had a runny nose for two weeks now, and was put on antibiotics for a sinus infection at the beginning of last week.  Now she has a fever and sore throat.

She's happy, compliant, and good-natured.  And sick.  It seems like forever since she's been healthy for more than a few weeks at a time.  But from what I've heard, it's pretty typical for this age.

It's funny to talk to my parents about this kind of stuff.  They remember my brother being on antibiotics for months seemingly months at a stretch for never ending ear infections.

Could be a lot worse, but I'm hoping it gets better soon.

Mark it down!

Allison read her first word all by herself today.  We were in the bath playing with letters, and I was arranging them and she was sounding them out.  I laid out "PAT", and she sounded out each letter, but couldn't get to the word.  When I helped her along, she got it.

Then I laid out "TAP", and she said:  "tuh... aaaa...  puh....   TAP!"  Her first unaided read word.

*proud*

I then laid out "BED", and she said very carefully, with her finger underlining each letter:  "buh-nyeah-nah.  Banana!"

Not perfection yet, but a good start.

I like this post, alot!

If seeing the word "alot" makes you cringe, read this.

Helping out.

One of my earliest memories is of my dad building a play house for us in the back yard.  I must have been three years old or so.  I remember he was up on top of the thing, a good six feet up in the air, with a bunch of nails and was hammering away.  I came toddling out with my little wooden play hammer, and asked if I could help.  Obviously it was not a safe environment for a three year old, and I'm sure my dad was hot and tired and working hard.  He rejected my offer for help.  I distinctly remember my abject disappointment.

I brought this up recently to him, and our reactions to it were amusing because we both kind of reversed our initial feelings.  I said that I obviously understood why I couldn't get up there and help out, and he felt disappointed that he was a "bad dad" and that he should have taken the time to let me pound in a nail or something.

So, with that in mind, this afternoon I attacked the weeds that have been choking our side yard.  This was not tiny little dandelions in the middle of the lawn, but literally 4-6 food monsters growing in our totally neglected side alley.  Allison came out to visit, and saw me working with some clippers, and called for Mommy and asked where her toy pliers were.  Diana got them, and I cut up some little pieces of weeds so that she could pick them up with her pliers and put them in the garbage can.  She was so cute and so helpful.

(I just re-read this post. The point of this is NOT a comparison of my fathering skills to that of my own dad (that's not a game I'll win), but rather that I'm thankful to be able to apply some lessons learned from the past.)

She's been going through quite a politeness renaissance lately, with lots of pleases and thank yous and your welcomes.  We're enjoying it while it lasts.

Bedtime stories...

Allison is lying in bed right now, telling stories to herself.

"Once upon a time there was a young girl named Cinderella and she had two sisters who were yucky to her.
And she cried and cried.  And then her fairy godmother came and she heard her and fairy godmother said (something).
Cinderella said "Ok, I'll be a good listener..."

And then she got distracted, talking out a friend's birthday party, and cupcakes.  "After my nap, we have a cupcake for Shayne's birthday!  I LOVE cupcakes.  Cupcake.  Cupcake...... CUUUUPPPPPPCAAAAAKKKKE!"