My wife and I restarted playing WoW. We have a 4 year old son.
he watches us play, and I let him control the character. We made him a goblin hunter. We got to a town, and he stays in the town and talks to "my family"
"That's my granddad," he says, and clicks on the inn keeper, who is more friendly than the other goblins.
"And that's my princess," he says, clicking on the priest trainer. "Dad, how can I give her flowers?"
I think for a minute. "We'll be herbalists. Then we can pick flowers and, uh, you can give them to her."
"Let's do it!" He shouts.
He is frustrated that he cannot pick the red flowers. "she likes the red ones, though." When I explain the game wasn't designed for those flowers to be picked, and that we have to find different red flowers he nods. He seems to understand "It wasn't programmed to do that," but I am sad that I can't help him immediately.
I have a plan: I will level up his hunter, put him back in this zone, then when he wants, I will help him travel somewhere with red herbs to pick, for his princess.
* * *
Before this, he and I made a "Cow hunter" (that is to say, a Tauren hunter) and with that character, he was most interested in using the /sleep command to lay perfectly on the beds in the Inn, and with eating food by the fire with my wife's character, his mom.
We absolutely had a World of Warcraft picnic next to Thunder Bluff.
Also, there is a quest to rescue 5 captured Tauren. I've only rarely seen him so distressed --once you have rescued 5 Tauren, the quest mechanics switch to "return to the person who gave you the quest" and you can't free anyone else --you don't have any more keys, or something. "But they need my help!" he said, more than once. I reassured him someone else would come to save them, soon.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Still processing it all, through a coffee high that's going to last all day. A buzz, despite eggs and toast.
I went out dancing with a friend last night. She's a woman. I picked her up just after nine p.m. I . . . am still high from the coffee her husband made me.
I slept at her place, crashed in their upstairs bed and slept in a spinning room.
Woke up in a sunnier, happier reality. Looking around, a bit shaky from the jump. Lounged in the kitchen and talked about animated movies form the early 2000's.
Poor dance partner didn't quite know the tune, but the stories kept her entertained.
It's sunny today.
Today is a good day. Yesterday was also a good day. I cleaned a lot of the house and that's important to me.
I am in love with Black Light Burns Album, "The Moment You Realize You're Going to Fall."
I am in love with my wife, and my son, and art books that make my eyes hurt.
Altruistic 18 year olds who steal my Long Island Iced Teas and speak Spanish and me fumbling for the right word, the right conjugation.
I'm in love with the color blue, the color red.
"Because of you." He said, "I searched, back streets to the shore, the river banks. No thanks. You won't feel like before. Because of this, I fish --(for) little bits of time."
What's not to love about that?
I love the butterflies in my tummy, and the tea and the eggs and the waffles. I love the way you care about all this.
I love
Monday, December 31, 2012
2012
The world didn't physically end, but there can't be new beginnings with out some ends, and there were oodles of new beginnings over the last 364.5 days.
I started a creative writing class primarily because it fit my schedule and it turned out to be the best, most connective class I've taken in college, ever. Seriously, I made at least five friends, and probably one good one, in that course, never mind the guided writing practice, never mind the networking and mentoring.
I saw Mindless self Indulgence and got many, many free drinks thanks to my good friend Mike.
I started a multidimensional, multiyear tattoo project with the inimitable Jimmie Hayes, of Liquid Chaos Tattoos, in Brownstown, Michigan.
I went "boating" for the first time, and the second time, and it was surprisingly fun. It was surprisingly fun with only two people, and I think the more people that join in, the more fun it will be. Next time I'll make it more of an event. (Also, GPS.)
I became an American citizen this year, took the test, passed it, stood and pledged my allegiance in un-ironed, somewhat flattering, trousers and a light grey argyle sweater I can't for the life of me find.
I started role playing again, with a good group of guys, and we all get along pretty swimmingly for the afternoons that we play. I think we'd get along outside that setting, but I won't push the issue.
I've started writing again, if somewhat sporadically.
I started doing performance art this year. I would consider my final project a finished piece, even if I haven't gotten any feedback on it, yet. And I consider Pecha Kucha evenings performance.
I met the director of puppetry and performance art for the DIA and was told I should submit something for their performance art show in February, 2013.
I got a disgusting stomach bug and an awesome octopus mustache and a tea cup with an octopus inside it.
Ran into my first catch 22 of marriage. Have been, if I'm honest, reeling from this one for the 11/12 of the year, but! 2012, none the less.
Now, I understand why passionate coffee drinkers are passionate about coffee, but I don't know how anyone could settle for anything less, once they'd committed to (what I'll refer to as) The True Coffee Experience (Thank-you, Roos Roast).
I made some new friends through old friends, and I saw my first live cage fighting experience. The two are unrelated, and not unrelated, but not related as the first two strands of thought went.
I started reading plays as art, and now appreciate playwriting and play performance as more separate things.
I am aware a lot of these could be grouped together, that I could sort them out better, that this is just rambling, but I'm okay with it.
This isn't an instruction manual, this is a rumination.
First (majority of) a year as a father, and Everyone's still alive.
I got my nipple tattooed. Yes, getting my nipple tattooed hurt.
Maintained a surprise friendship, a very nice one. It's 2013 now, I think we should go out for drinks now and then, then and now.
That's a scratch on a beautiful scar that is The Year, 2012.
I've spent today trying to convince my wife that its okay for babies to cry until they calm themselves when sleeping in a new room, and watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, which is about a famous chef helping restaurants that are failing to succeed. He's an incredibly high strung, but very calculating man; he understands the concepts of Agency, Passion, and Beauty through Simplicity. Most importantly, he usually succeeds in teaching or reintroducing at least one of those concepts to the people on his show that he helps.
That's a boring tagline.
Here:
Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is the A Team television show you'll wish you had as a youth: All the swearing and helping the downtrodden you'd ever want to sink your teeth into.
I started a creative writing class primarily because it fit my schedule and it turned out to be the best, most connective class I've taken in college, ever. Seriously, I made at least five friends, and probably one good one, in that course, never mind the guided writing practice, never mind the networking and mentoring.
I saw Mindless self Indulgence and got many, many free drinks thanks to my good friend Mike.
I started a multidimensional, multiyear tattoo project with the inimitable Jimmie Hayes, of Liquid Chaos Tattoos, in Brownstown, Michigan.
I went "boating" for the first time, and the second time, and it was surprisingly fun. It was surprisingly fun with only two people, and I think the more people that join in, the more fun it will be. Next time I'll make it more of an event. (Also, GPS.)
I became an American citizen this year, took the test, passed it, stood and pledged my allegiance in un-ironed, somewhat flattering, trousers and a light grey argyle sweater I can't for the life of me find.
I started role playing again, with a good group of guys, and we all get along pretty swimmingly for the afternoons that we play. I think we'd get along outside that setting, but I won't push the issue.
I've started writing again, if somewhat sporadically.
I started doing performance art this year. I would consider my final project a finished piece, even if I haven't gotten any feedback on it, yet. And I consider Pecha Kucha evenings performance.
I met the director of puppetry and performance art for the DIA and was told I should submit something for their performance art show in February, 2013.
I got a disgusting stomach bug and an awesome octopus mustache and a tea cup with an octopus inside it.
Ran into my first catch 22 of marriage. Have been, if I'm honest, reeling from this one for the 11/12 of the year, but! 2012, none the less.
Now, I understand why passionate coffee drinkers are passionate about coffee, but I don't know how anyone could settle for anything less, once they'd committed to (what I'll refer to as) The True Coffee Experience (Thank-you, Roos Roast).
I made some new friends through old friends, and I saw my first live cage fighting experience. The two are unrelated, and not unrelated, but not related as the first two strands of thought went.
I started reading plays as art, and now appreciate playwriting and play performance as more separate things.
I am aware a lot of these could be grouped together, that I could sort them out better, that this is just rambling, but I'm okay with it.
This isn't an instruction manual, this is a rumination.
First (majority of) a year as a father, and Everyone's still alive.
I got my nipple tattooed. Yes, getting my nipple tattooed hurt.
Maintained a surprise friendship, a very nice one. It's 2013 now, I think we should go out for drinks now and then, then and now.
That's a scratch on a beautiful scar that is The Year, 2012.
I've spent today trying to convince my wife that its okay for babies to cry until they calm themselves when sleeping in a new room, and watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, which is about a famous chef helping restaurants that are failing to succeed. He's an incredibly high strung, but very calculating man; he understands the concepts of Agency, Passion, and Beauty through Simplicity. Most importantly, he usually succeeds in teaching or reintroducing at least one of those concepts to the people on his show that he helps.
That's a boring tagline.
Here:
Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is the A Team television show you'll wish you had as a youth: All the swearing and helping the downtrodden you'd ever want to sink your teeth into.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Snow Bird
I love being warm, and I love knowing that a car will do what I want it to, on a given road.
Driving on, in, through, snow is no such a thing.
So, what does this look like? If a year from now I'm writing from a meshed in porch in Indonesia, or Thailand? How did I get there?
I know that I am not there 100% of the time, I am still married, still have a son. We have to leave after Christmas, and stay until his school is out, so may or June, if they follow roughly the same educational time table we do here.
Does he learn Thai or Indonesian, in addition to English? I would like that.
I chose this location because it is warm, I know it to be (with research and a guide of sorts) cheap, and it seems reasonable.
Also because it requires a passport. The Puerto Rican islands do not require a passport, but are (I'm guessing) much more expensive, being primarily resort islands.
What am I doing? I am writing, one form or another. I could still be at the Uni(.) but that isn't strictly necessary, as long as we are all being supported.
Sure, but, all the way back to paragraph three: how did I get there? Was I visiting to set up a technology exchange for work? Were we vacationing? Visiting friends? A visiting professor whose acquaintance I made, who we (MW? Me?) became friends with due to children of similar ages and interests closely aligned?
There are weirder things that have happened.
I could be dual appointed, or working for a satellite or sister Uni.
As the sun sets, and E plays with his laptop or his Mega Blocks, I listen to noise canceling headphones while working on a new art installation.
MW haggles politely in the market for fresh fruit and veg and my mom (our families) send us hard to find foods and items via Fedex, once we've run out, around my birthday.
My birthday parties are laughingly described, now, as the most exclusive by all my friends back in Michigan.
Again, we are Indonesian, Thai, Korean, from December 27th through the end of May or June, and I work from my laptop or computer, or with my hands at some local job or what have you. Do I just find jobs once I'm there?
The idea of living without the social security net of a steady job is frightening, but is it ultimately better or worse than the alternatives?
I suppose we either find apartments --this would be ideal, for me (travel light, move light) we find apartments each time we move, or we rent out our house in the States and rent out or pay for the apartment/condo elsewhere even when we aren't in it (lend it to friends, or play host to families that need the space.)
Driving on, in, through, snow is no such a thing.
So, what does this look like? If a year from now I'm writing from a meshed in porch in Indonesia, or Thailand? How did I get there?
I know that I am not there 100% of the time, I am still married, still have a son. We have to leave after Christmas, and stay until his school is out, so may or June, if they follow roughly the same educational time table we do here.
Does he learn Thai or Indonesian, in addition to English? I would like that.
I chose this location because it is warm, I know it to be (with research and a guide of sorts) cheap, and it seems reasonable.
Also because it requires a passport. The Puerto Rican islands do not require a passport, but are (I'm guessing) much more expensive, being primarily resort islands.
What am I doing? I am writing, one form or another. I could still be at the Uni(.) but that isn't strictly necessary, as long as we are all being supported.
Sure, but, all the way back to paragraph three: how did I get there? Was I visiting to set up a technology exchange for work? Were we vacationing? Visiting friends? A visiting professor whose acquaintance I made, who we (MW? Me?) became friends with due to children of similar ages and interests closely aligned?
There are weirder things that have happened.
I could be dual appointed, or working for a satellite or sister Uni.
As the sun sets, and E plays with his laptop or his Mega Blocks, I listen to noise canceling headphones while working on a new art installation.
MW haggles politely in the market for fresh fruit and veg and my mom (our families) send us hard to find foods and items via Fedex, once we've run out, around my birthday.
My birthday parties are laughingly described, now, as the most exclusive by all my friends back in Michigan.
Again, we are Indonesian, Thai, Korean, from December 27th through the end of May or June, and I work from my laptop or computer, or with my hands at some local job or what have you. Do I just find jobs once I'm there?
The idea of living without the social security net of a steady job is frightening, but is it ultimately better or worse than the alternatives?
I suppose we either find apartments --this would be ideal, for me (travel light, move light) we find apartments each time we move, or we rent out our house in the States and rent out or pay for the apartment/condo elsewhere even when we aren't in it (lend it to friends, or play host to families that need the space.)
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Notes From Class, 10-09-12
Petra Kuppers and her partner Neil Marcus came and spoke to our class today. That day. October 9th.
They are crips, cripples, people with disabilities --these are all phrases they used to define themselves.
The first thing I learned, but will often forget, is that compliments are inherent, and words aren't to be wasted on them. Specifically, I misunderstood "Accent?" as "Excellent." And said thank-you. Then, thankfully, I was corrected, and explained that I was from Stratford, England.
Before all this, the class crucible hit its boiling point and three separate groups merged and chatted playfully.
I was reprimanded for not wearing my cowboy boots.
I stayed after and helped two classmates with their pieces.
When we left the stage, people were still milling about talking about forming a writer's group, for practice and workshopping outside class.
Here are the notes I took on my phone, so I don't forget them.
They are crips, cripples, people with disabilities --these are all phrases they used to define themselves.
The first thing I learned, but will often forget, is that compliments are inherent, and words aren't to be wasted on them. Specifically, I misunderstood "Accent?" as "Excellent." And said thank-you. Then, thankfully, I was corrected, and explained that I was from Stratford, England.
Before all this, the class crucible hit its boiling point and three separate groups merged and chatted playfully.
I was reprimanded for not wearing my cowboy boots.
I stayed after and helped two classmates with their pieces.
When we left the stage, people were still milling about talking about forming a writer's group, for practice and workshopping outside class.
Here are the notes I took on my phone, so I don't forget them.
- "Storm Reading" is play I should read.
- The Olympiads (Olympians?) is a loose, disability advocacy and performance group
- Neil does not like the phrase "Crip" instead prefers "Shape Shifter" or "Twisted Pretzel Alien."
- Sara Kay(?)ne is a stage writer who committed suicide, and who was brilliant according to Petra and a classmate
- Same classmate and I created a performance based on the line "Tell me of your body." Our performance was well received and will be added to for a final assignment, I think
- The (German?) word Ichfrasis, over and over
- The phrase, "The commutative, connotative world."
- The phrase, "Small c catholic."
- On the 24th of October there is a disability outreach event at UofM, then another on the 25th, both based around or pertaining to the concept of Ichfrasis
- The performance piece, with four people, could (might) have
- 4 stages
- life
- ascendance
- descendance
- death
- People turn and sync or unsync
- all ask one speaks
- all speak, one asks
- speak for other people
- the spacing is important:
- moving closer, staying equally far apart
- Location role vs Player role
Monday, September 10, 2012
I honestly don't even know where I left off, so we'll call whatever whatever and start with this weekend.
Son fell asleep on my shoulder, Thursday and Sunday.
Class assignments aren't due until Wednesday, as far as I can tell, and I successfully discovered both classrooms. But is that love? I mean, these are good things, but they don't compare to the blossom, the cherry blooms in my soul, I get when I son and I connect.
So let's dig a bit deeper, eh?
Plotting out a MMA curriculum with a good friend was lovely. I'd call that love. A plan for working out.
A bevy of look-but-don't-touch --Yes. Cheap thrills can be love, too, or lovingly administered cheap thrills, at least.
Chatting with my brother in law. A strange, Yin kind of love.
I loved it.
Friday night was full of love: the roar of the crowd, the sweat and racing hearts and testosterone --I love both those, all those things. (friday night I went with some friends to a live MMA event and it was amazingly exciting, if mildly disappointing.) The juxtaposition of something so personal and yet so public was interesting in the extreme, and I loved it.
Thursday, what'd I do thursday? I had a beer with a friend, apologized properly for being rude the day before. Those acts aren't love, but the relationship is.
Love is worth working for.
I enjoyed, but didn't love "Super 8." it was Dazed and Confused + The Goonies with a splash of Aliens.
I think I will love "The Avengers" But we shall see.
I dreamed about my other blog last night, a genuinely happy reminder to update it.
I suppose I forget how much I love writing.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
SUNDAY:
Went to the Henry Ford Museum (in Michigan, USA) and saw a VW car with a Mexican license plate. We went with our son, and my wife's father and his wife and this was after brunch at a coney island (Americana) restaurant midway between our houses.
In addition to the trains and the car exhibits (of which there were many) we went through a Titanic (Yes, the ship the movie was based on) which was very interesting: lots of recovered treasures on display.
I took a nap, held my son a lot and had pizza without cheese for dinner, and the heaps of toppings made up for the lack of cheese.
SATURDAY:
I had brunch with my wife and son at our favorite local restaurant: Beezy's, in down town Ypsilanti (Michigan, USA). We met a nice woman and her daughter (Evie) but didn't run into Jameson or his parents and the woman taking orders remembered both us and our names, which is always heartening.
Then in the evening, I went and practiced martial arts (Ju Jutsu, [Ju Jitsu?] specifically) with an old friend. After training we went and got some food, and there we chatted about our lives and where we thought they'd be taking us. It was good, and there were lots of recurring themes, which (i think) means we are getting close to the core of some ideas.
Went to the Henry Ford Museum (in Michigan, USA) and saw a VW car with a Mexican license plate. We went with our son, and my wife's father and his wife and this was after brunch at a coney island (Americana) restaurant midway between our houses.
In addition to the trains and the car exhibits (of which there were many) we went through a Titanic (Yes, the ship the movie was based on) which was very interesting: lots of recovered treasures on display.
I took a nap, held my son a lot and had pizza without cheese for dinner, and the heaps of toppings made up for the lack of cheese.
SATURDAY:
I had brunch with my wife and son at our favorite local restaurant: Beezy's, in down town Ypsilanti (Michigan, USA). We met a nice woman and her daughter (Evie) but didn't run into Jameson or his parents and the woman taking orders remembered both us and our names, which is always heartening.
Then in the evening, I went and practiced martial arts (Ju Jutsu, [Ju Jitsu?] specifically) with an old friend. After training we went and got some food, and there we chatted about our lives and where we thought they'd be taking us. It was good, and there were lots of recurring themes, which (i think) means we are getting close to the core of some ideas.
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