I’ve recently been liquidating more of my video game collection on eBay, and the thought never occurred to me “Hey, let’s turn around get moar video game stuffs with the moneys!” But I’ve made an exception here, and with good reason. … Read more
When Little E and I last visited the robot store (a.k.a. Hastings, so nicknamed because dad keeps buying Daleks there), he went kinda nuts because he saw Princess Peach from Super Mario. Never mind that this was something between a stuffed animal and a backpack clip-on buddy, and nothing like the box full of Super Mario figures I’d gotten him for Christmas… he really wanted that Princess Peach. He talked about it at home. A lot. He really wanted to go back to the robot store and buy that Princess… right now. … Read more
One of Little E’s favorite games on his Leapster 2 is Star Wars: Clone Wars Jedi Math. From just listening to it (and, okay, playing it just a little bit), it’s a pretty fun little math game (I would’ve gone over to the Dark Side just to have a Jedi Math cartridge back when I was a kid; instead, I had… Math-A-Magic!). He plays it a lot, even if he’s not exactly memorizing the names of the Jedi Council.
Tonight, he played a pretty good game, rescued some Republic prisoners from the Trade Federation, and just before plunging into a new level of the game, held up his new R2-D2 figure and said “LET’S DO THIS, ARTOO!” That’s my boy. 😆
And if you think that’s impressive, check out the age/grade bracket that the game falls under on the label. God and/or the Force willing, he might just be better at all things numerically-oriented than his daddy was.… Read more
Are you ready to get a load of this? I’m not sure the little guy was – he was still half-asleep on autopilot this morning for present-opening time.
Christmas Eve was pretty jam-packed here at ye olde Greenhaus. As expected, my wife had to work all day, but this didn’t mean the boys were sitting around the house all day. After eating (and watching The Polar Express), it was time to make one last pre-Christmas run to the PO box, and then swing by the store to pick up a few necessities that couldn’t wait for the stores to open up again on Monday or Tuesday, namely kitty litter. As it turned out, we also had to visit the tire center at Wal-Mart because I had a tire that was almost completely flat when we set foot outside the house this morning. Sheesh. Nothing like relaxing on Christmas Eve, is there? And trust me, this was nothing like relaxing on Christmas Eve. … Read more
A few more photos of the object described in the previous post… … Read more
Previously, on Scribblings From The Public Restroom Stalls Of The Gods… I revealed that Little E is gettin’ a bunch of cool stuff for Christmas. He’s old enough for his first “action figure Christmas,” which, in my childhood, was just the best thing ever. I don’t have nearly the budget (or the helpful economy) that my folks had when I was growing up, but by golly, this year’s toy haul is gonna be pretty close to an “extravaganza” rating thanks to some judicious shopping.
There’s just one hitch: a bunch of Super Mario figures I got him were already opened. So how do I wrap those? … Read more
To talk about what Little E is getting for Christmas, one has to realize that in some respects, the boy lives in a little bit of a time warp. He likes old cartoons (to give but one example: he’s a sucker for the animated segments of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which I dug out simply because he’s so crazy about the games… he’s not quite so crazy about the Captain Lou live-action segments.) This time warp is a bit of a bubble that he’s entered simply by spending a lot of time in my room with me. We play Super Mario and Pac-Man on the computer and on the Wii. He watches Pixar movies of an older vintage than Cars 2 (his favorites: Wall-E and Toy Story 2).
Of course, toys tied to a specific thing like a movie or a game have a very specific shelf life: as soon as the thing’s off the market and no longer making money for the studio, it’s very rare for the merchandise to stick around. Not everything has the seemingly eternal staying power of Star Wars. And this… is what drove me to eBay to do some Christmas shopping this year.
In my previous blog entry, while ruminating about not wanting to saddle someone else’s kid with toys built around a super-violent story, I also mentioned being keenly aware of the risk of saddling someone else’s kid with something completely lame. This Christmas list for Little E was derived from listening to him talk about what he’d like to get over the past year. Everything here is something he’s said he wants. Other family members will get him clothes and books and stuff, and believe me, I’m grateful for that. That leaves me open to get the cool stuff for him. Everything was paid for by me eBaying off some of my own stuff to raise funds.
Here’s the cool stuff. … Read more
So Little E brought home a note from his day care a couple of weeks ago, announcing the annual Christmas party. All boys were supposed to bring a boys’ gift, girls were to bring girls’ gifts, and everything was supposed to stay under $10 – the usual drill, really.
What’s amazing is how much I agonized over what to get. Pardon me while I be a big hippie for a few minutes here. … Read more
Two conversations I had with humans today, with some context.
In response to my mentioning, during a phone interview for a job at a business that has “Fayetteville” in its name but has relocated to Bentonville, that my previous job ended when I wouldn’t move to Rogers on my own dime: “Bentonville is pretty much the capitol of the state now. If you’re not willing to move or work up here, you might as well get in the soup line.” (My response was to politely suggest that we terminate the interview since there was an obvious misunderstanding about the location of the business; his response was to hang up on me. I’m going to assume that this will be another employer who won’t be gracing me with a letter or a phone call telling me I didn’t get the job.)
In response to me telling him we needed to go to the grocery store, and what we were going to get there, when I picked him up today: “HEY EVERYBODY! MY DADDY AND I HAVE TO GO TO THE STORE! WE ARE OUT OF APPLES AND GREEN BEANS! OH! MY! GOSH! WE HAVE TO GO!” (For a minute I thought he was going to raise a stampede of preschoolers to cram into my car to go Occupy The Grocery Store.)
These were my major interactions with humans today. I prefer the small ones to the big ones. If I interact with any more humans, I’ll let you know how it went, and how much ranch dressing they needed before they were palatable.… Read more
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