Asymptomatic has been neglected over the past few days because of the holiday and other things that are involving. It's interesting how when things get busy it becomes more difficult to write, yet those are the times when there are more things to write about.
Sunday was Easter. So I had off work last Friday. Berta doesn't get a holiday on Good Friday, so I was at home alone with Abby all day. She has her little routine that she she likes to do, which she has learned from Nana. It's difficult to break her of little things she wants to do during the day so that you can do something fun with her. We went out to A.C.Moore to get some drawing supplies with her birthday coupon. We got a new pack of crayons and a new crayon pad. I also picked up a set of Blowpens, which I thought we could use on our Easter eggs.
The rest of the day, we didn't do much, since Abby was too enthusiastic about running around the store and not listening to me. She slept through a good portion of the afternoon, which suited me fine because I got some computer time in. Nothing major accomplished there, though.
Saturday was a busy day for Abby and me again. Berta had to trek out to David's Bridal to check out some bride's maid dresses for Emma's wedding. In order to fit all of this into our existing schedule, I took Abby to Gymboree in the morning while Berta was out.
Gymboree was interesting. I think Abby might be a little too old for the kids in her class. Just slightly. That is, it would be nice if she had a kid "role-model" to play with. Someone her age that would encourage her into group play. As it is, it seems that some of the younger kids in her class would look to her for group play, and she's just not having that. I wonder what these kids do at home during the week, or if they're in day care.
Anyway, it was pointed out to me that Gymboree could be a kind of parent network, too. But I just don't see it. Sure, some of the parents talked here and there, but they didn't seem to do much more than supervise their kids on the semi-protected elevated and edged gym toys. The idea that Gymboree is a parent social gathering is a fanciful rumor that needs to be put down.
After Gymboree, Abby and I wen to SuperFresh to pick up some supplies. While we were looking at the cake pans (I was looking at the cake pans, Abby was looking at the cheese graters), a woman and a person-sized pink bunny came down the aisle and accosted our little one. She didn't know what to do. She wasn't scared, but she wasn't giving away hugs or kisses, either. Maybe next year. Anyway, the nice SuperFresh bunny gave Abby a little stuffed bunny with some chocolate that Berta later ate.
We stopped at the mall on the way home (yeah, yeah, roundabout way home) and picked up a movie I had on reserve at Suncoast, Spirited Away. I will point out now that movie titles should always be underlined along with titles of books. Titles of things that are parts of other things, like chapters or newspaper articles, should be quoted. Think I learned something the hard way?
Spirited Away is a great movie about a girl that gets sucked into a strange world. It's the kind of story that you dream of as a kid and never happens in reality. The movie is very well done. Oh, yeah, it's anime from the guy that brought us Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Delivery Service.
I also picked up a copy of the new Harry Potter film, which was a better film than I remember the book being. While at the mall I got a copy of the new Fiend Folio for D&D. This book will be useless to me. I should have gotten the Epic handbook instead, as this will be more interesting and just as useless.
By the time we got home from the mall, Berta was just getting home. So that was good timing for everyone.
That evening I went to the weekly D&D game at Bob's. The evening's proceedings were very meta'ed. We spent a lot of time out of character talking about problems with the game.
Basically, we're all playing evil characters. Or most of us, anyway. And that's fine, but as a result we all have our own motivations and underhanded dealings. Naturally, these are going to sometimes screw over other players. It's the nature of the characters to act this way. The problem is that our characters' natures are antithetical to the nature of gameplay, which is cooperative.
We tried to assess the problem and come up with an amiable solution. We thought about rewinding the game to where misdoings took place. But that invalidates a lot of gameplay. We considered putting everything out in the open so there were no secrets between players. But that's not very conducive to roleplaying between players. (As a rogue, I would be able to steal from non-player characters, not player characters? That ridiculous because it virtually eliminates examining the mischievous nature of my character as a possibility for role-play.) I suggested that we not stop ourselves from cheating other players, but that we play fair when others are caught doing it. I don't think even this is a workable solution.
In any case, we kind of left it up in the air. There was a certain feeling that the party needed a cleric. Certain players left the game with the inclination of scrapping their current characters to fill this role. Well, maybe. I got home that night wondering what I had invested in this game that I needed to play at all for all the trouble it causes.
I tried to talk to Adam and Dave about the possibility of implementing a more flexible system. One maybe that's not d20. But they're not interested in that. And they're perhaps the most open-minded of our group. So any hope of instituting a system that emphasizes role-play over optimizing character statistics is hopeless.
Sunday morning after the game I wasn't really in the mood for much, and Berta got up early. We went out to my dad's with Abby to hunt for Easter eggs. Abby had a good time. She picked up a few eggs when she encountered them, but I don't think she was really looking for them, at least not after she found a few.
It wasn't until late after we got back home that I realized how much sun we all got. I'm still quite fried and very itchy from my limited exposure. But I spent a lot of time just sitting on Dad's raft-like back patio thing, which is like a mirror of light set out in the brilliant light of day, so what was I expecting? Even Abby got a little burned on her head and chest, but she doesn't seem to be bothered by it.
On Sunday afternoon we went to my mom's who had dinner for us. The lasagna was quite good. I've pretty much given up on having conversations over there when Abby's around, though. It's actually kind of depressing. In fact, I may institute a more global policy of saying nothing except for when it's absolutely essential so that I am read clearly.
Mom had out the finished rocking horse she made for Abby's birthday. It looks very nice. I'm really proud of my mom for all of the work she's done on all of her wood projects. They're all very nice. This horse, though, is really something to behold. I don't know if it looks better than store-bought just because it does or because I know my mom made it.
We left Abby with Mom and Nana early Sunday night so that Berta could get to bed early. She had to leave for a business trip before dawn on Monday morning. That suited me just fine, since I've been suffering for lack of sleep lately.
Berta got up at 4am on Monday and puttered around to get ready. She left to get to her office at 5. She interrupted another of the series of very strange dreams I've been having lately. In this one I distinctly recall being on some other planet and there was a giant (and I mean big) elephant falling from the sky toward me and the group of people I was standing with out on this open desert plane. This must be related to watching Spirited Away at some point over the weekend, which would probably lead to this type of imagery.
Monday morning was weird. I got up at the usual time. Got ready in the mostly usual way. No Berta. No Abby. It was nice to be in the house all by myself. Not that I didn't miss the girls, but it was a nice leisurely morning. No worry about being too loud. No getting in anyone's way or anyone getting in my way. No Nana for whom to prepare the house. Just me.
Work on Monday was invigorating. I managed to get done everything that I set out to do. I completely rewrote the demo application I've been working on for the past three weeks. That's right - 3 weeks pared down to 1 day. Why, you ask? I got rid of support for data binding. Data binding in .net sucks. I used a tight XML file to store all of the data instead, and rewrote everything in one day. The database support in .net is very flexible, but it seems like it was designed to be used by legacy C++ programmers and is, as such, incomprehensible.
Before class on Monday night I even finished up my response paper for the first half of Frankenstein. We only got to watch the first half of the movie last week, so I could only really write about what I had already seen. The response paper turned out pretty good, I think. You can read it if you look through the archives on Asymptomatic. I need to write a longer paper with a better topic as a final paper, so keep an eye out for that, too.
Class, like the rest of my Monday, was unusual. I got to the library a bit early, and so I sat outside with my notebook and watched a bit of Invader Zim. It turns out that the library wireless network signal extends even to the stone slab benches out front. If I got up the nerve to ask how to connect to it, I might be able to read email and surf from right there.
We watched the rest of the movie when class actually started. I got back my paper on movie/comic book trends and was pleasantly surprised to have received an "A". That makes two "A-"s and one "A" in papers so far. I think that if I manage a check-plus on my Frankenstein response paper and then another "A" on my final paper, I'm a shoe-in for an "A" for the course. This is my hope, because then I can maintain my 4.0 average.
In discussions with the teacher after class, I worked out my issues with conferences for this last paper. He doesn't have office hours when I can be there, so I will conference via email. That'll work. We also had some discussion about the lack of discussion in class.
I wonder if he realizes that one-on-one he's a pretty hip guy with some valuable insights, but in a classroom setting he's just not energized enough. I had to let this thought distill after class because I couldn't pinpoint it while we were talking. I feel bad for my class review (which we had to fill out during this class) because there were several points that I had to answer negatively simply because they didn't apply or weren't necessary. I really don't like those class reviews.
On the way home from class, I stopped at Mom's and picked up Abby. She didn't seem ecstatic to see me like she is when Berta shows up, which is fine - I don't expect much, but she was happy to go home. I could tell.
Abby fell asleep in the car and managed to stay asleep as I carried her all the way up into her bedroom. There, she woke up just long enough for me to get her jacket off, and then she crawled into bed and fell asleep.
I watches some cool shows on Bravo about Cirque du Soleil and Varekai before I heard a crying from upstairs. She was having booger problems. I got her to let me "blow" her nose, but the boogers weren't resolved. She woke up an hour or so later, and rather than running relays between her room and ours, I just let her sleep in our bed. So, yeah, I contribute to the whole sleeping problem. I look at it as dad/kid bonding.
This morning, Abby woke up shortly after I got dressed, so I took her down to have breakfast. Nana showed up shortly afterward, and I headed out to work.
And that's about it for the past few days.
I need to catch up on my Game WISH stuff and write a bit about how I'm coming to hate all of the endless web news I used to slather. I should also blather a bit about how my personal social value is decreasing or how I'm finally noticing how low it already is. But don't make any assumptions based on these snippets. Just wait until I finish an article on them.
Adieu.
