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Day #7 – The Day We Went Back To School

800px-bellevue-hill-scots-college-1 Do you remember what art class was like, back in primary school? Back at the beginning of primary school?

We were privileged yesterday to be a part of our second’s art class. It was pretty cool, watching the kids interact with each other, year 6 kids (the oldest in the school, they have a "helper" system there), and the teacher.

I poured paint into ice-cream buckets, washed my hands half a dozen times, carried paintings to drying racks, and tried to stop our youngest from getting covered in said paint.

250px-bioshock-rapture Other notable events included my discovery that everything in Rapture was not as I thought. Andrew Ryan was not the big bad guy. Love the story-telling that has happened in this game. It’s very cool.

Now that we’re at the tail-end of holidays, the impending return to work seems more, less-distant (how bout that gramma for you). I’ve had a fantastic week off, and am very grateful for that.

Have had an idea. To keep me writing once a day on the blog, I’m going to continue the "Day #x – Title" thing we’ve got going on here. When I miss a day, the count resets back to zero. I’ll start over again to distinguish between the holiday meme and the blog-day meme, or whatever it should be called.

Fare thee well, and happy weekend-ing for everyone!

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Day #6, Too Much Pressure

[ Spoiler Alert for Bones and Heroes, kind of, although if you watch them you would know about this ]

Wow, just watched the season 3 finale for Bones and an episode of Heroes season 3.

Zach was the apprentice. Crazy. How did it happen? I mean, what did the guy use to appeal to Zach, to bring him onto that path. Am hoping season 4 (which is a fair way along in the States, maybe finished) will give us some more info on that.

And then, Heroes was mind-blowing, as per the last few episodes. Peter’s Dad has arrived, and just took/stole/leeched? Peter’s powers. Very cool.

So today was another great day. We recorded the voices for episode 3 of The Plastic Detectives. Now I’ve got the pieces, just have to put them together.

Am getting caught back up into Eldest again.

That’s about it for the moment.

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Day #5, Holidays Halfway Full

It’s hard not to get a little sad, now over halfway through the holidays. But you know, it’s been five awesome days. Four more to go. I’m hoping they are as full and hearty as the previous ones.

Had Session tonight, so am totally bushwacked. Brain fried.

Our third had her first orientation today at school for next year. Was a strange experience, for her, and for us. Came away wanting to be more involved with the P&C. Not sure if that will pan out though.

In a switcheroo from a previous post, talking about Eragon and pacing, I’m finding it hard going in Eldest. It’s probably just me.

Had a burrito today so packed with beef and rice and kidney beans that I think I’m good now for the week.

Hoping to finish the third episode of Plastic Detectives tomorrow. We’ll see.

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Day #4, I’ve Been Taking Photos of Splicers

Haunting music plays through crackling speakers. Water flows, hypnotic in it’s ripples. Lush vegetation sprawls through the area.

You hear a mother talking to her baby. Singing a lullaby.

Quickly, I ready my camera and move as close as possible, snapping right as the woman turns.

This is Bioshock.

So today, because of my six month deal, I re-discovered another gem of a computer game. Bioshock. It’s been sitting in my Steam list for a while. I got through about a quarter, maybe less.

ah-prod-swordnskull-picmain-enHave been having a blast with it.

We played some great sessions of Sword and Skull today. Went a lot further than before. The kids are really loving the interaction, decision making, rolling of dice.

Have to get some other board/dice games.

The kids have created this game in the back yard (could be played anywhere, kind of). We’ve got a mega tub of big chalk pieces. Whoever is "in" takes a piece, and runs around the yard writing a series of numbers, let’s say 1 to 5. The other people are inside.

The object is for the seekers to find each of the numbers, preferably in order, although it usually degenerates. Once the numbers get past about 15, it becomes harder to recognise them, even after changing the color of the chalk. Particularly when the locations are forgotten by those who drew them.

Was a wonderful day. Looking forward to what the rest may bring.

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Day #3, Shooting In The Breeze

As a Monday, today was definitely weird (it’s getting hard to spell things the right way when the software tells me I’m wrong). My brain kept telling me I was throwing a sick day. Continually tried to make me stress about work tomorrow, or something that needed doing right now.

Rest is hard. Proper rest. Not lazy vegetating, but true rest. I spent most of the day NOT thinking about work, salary or otherwise.

It’s always a different matter when you read a series of books in a row (or at least a few of them), as I’m doing with Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle.

Eragon made a big splash as a movie a while back, at least in my memory. I’m finding the books (a good way into the second book, Eldest) quite a good read. Easy, excellent momentum, and full of imaginative story-telling.

When I think about other authors, Raymond E. Feist springs to mind. It could be the map, and the Elves being at the top, and the fact that Eragon is about to meet the Elves in the section I’m reading at the moment.

This evening, early while the light was good, I shot the outside scenes for the third Plastic Detectives episode. It’s going to be a cracker, at least, I’m excited :).

Will do the rest of it tomorrow hopefully, along with the recording, and possibly the editing and release. All depends on how the motivation goes, and outside disturbances like wrestling with the kids, or eating food.

Watched an excellent episode of Bones tonight. Seeley gets shot at the end, the very end. It’s such a good show. All the characters are like gems, revealing more with each turn of the sun.

That’s a wrap.

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How Long Has It Been Since You’ve Bought A Computer Game?

nogame Hi, my name is Stu Andrews, and I’m a player of Computer Games.

The last computer game I bought was Depths of Peril, back in June (2008). It’s only 4 months, but I can honestly say it feels a LOT longer.

Back then, I made a decision. Games would only be bought every six months. This included not only my precious PC games, but also Wii and DS (those are the current consoles we’ve got. N64 and XBox didn’t really figure into my estimation :).

For the first couple of months, it was easy. There were no games that called. Then, last month, the Enhanced Edition of The Witcher came out for download (had the original). This allowed me to take a break from working late nights for a while.

1-11-2008-9-40-55-am It’s November, and the exciting games are mounting up. The World of Goo. Sacred 2. Fable 2 (although not having an XBox 360 helps there). The second Penny Arcade Adventure. Wrath of the Lich King is almost here. The list goes on.

There’s one month left to go. It’s going to be hard. Especially considering this week is holidays for me.

I haven’t talked about _why_ I’m limiting myself (and the family) to buying every six months. That’s for another post. But I’ll finish asking the question:

Is money the only reason you limit your Computer Game buying?

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Day #2, Sent To Prison For Over-Acting

In my attempt to diarise my 9 days of holidays, here’s the second.

We had an excellent worship service this morning. The sermon was taken from Matt 5:27-30, looking at sex as heaven and hell.

One point in particular I thought was excellent.

Sex will not of itself produce the reality to which it points.

The reality is, in summary, that we wish to be fully loved, accepted and known.

We had friends over for lunch, so the still newish bbq got a workout. Woolies had porterhouse steaks on a big special, plus some beef snags.

All in all, some good eating was had.

Lastly, because I’m missing out watching the end of the new Frost episode, Prison Break will no longer be in my taping/watching schedule. I started watching tonight, and really, it was ordinary. I loved the first season. But this, season 4, is getting ridiculous. I’m happy to suspend disbelief, but Michael just seems to be over-acting more with each passing scene.

Course, I’m not an actor, so have no real basis to ground that on.

Tomorrow, the fun begins. My Todo list awaits :)