History of Game Time

The latest issue of WIRED (still no idea how we ended up with a subscription to this, but now it's provided meat for two blog posts - maybe we should keep the subscription...) has a cool little "Brief History of Game Time" chart. Now, reading the chart, you notice something interesting. Since D&D came out in 1973, a groundbreaking worth-mentioning game came out almost every year--and some years got two or three great games--up until 2002 gave us America's Army. And since then, nothing but new hardware. That's right, America's Army was the last, great innovative game. Before that it was Halo. Makes it look like Greg Costikyan's right and innovation is dead.
On closer inspection, it's just an off-the-cuff chart that someone threw together. World of Warcraft deserved to make the list. If Halo gets to make the cut why not WoW? And where's Nintendogs? The original GTA makes the list with GTA3's artwork, but it's the N64 Zelda that was considered the groundbreaking Zelda?
Out of curiosity, which designer wins? Richard Garriot and Will Wright have two entries each. The winner is Shigeru Miyamoto with Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda. Unless you'd give it to Carmack for Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake - he doesn't bill himself a designer but I'd argue that he's pretty much the guy.

Came Across This

An article on attention, which should be of value to you, since if you're reading this you're probably one of those people who scatter their attention too widely (or you're a good friend and I love you for it.)

http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay51.htm

Ironic that the only reason I came across this article is because I do the exact thing it warns against…I was talking to Cathy on the phone while browsing the web.

If I was already the man-of-undivided-attention, I may never have come across it. But if I was the man-of-undivided-attention, I wouldn’t have needed to come across it.

I think it’s very important. To say it was like icewater on my spine would be an exaggeration, but I definitely felt *something*. I’ve been living my life like it’s *The Sims* - watching TV, eating dinner, and talking to Cathy at the same time in order to optimize my happiness - but maybe he's right, maybe that really is suboptimal. Instead of extracting full value from any of those interactions I’m extracting a shallow value from each.

This essay deserves more attention. Pun intended.

Mmm...salsa

Sofi learned how to dip chips in salsa just now. She looks so cute; she concentrates/focuses so hard on dipping the chip, and then she puts the chip into her mouth and gets a sort of faraway look in her eyes...
Blue corn chips and mango salsa, btw.

Random Stuff

Seems like Sofi's starting to be social...in fits and starts...a few weeks ago, she was going up to strangers and handing them her stuffed animals - but that only lasted a day, and she snapped back to being fearful of strangers the next day. But at the playground recently, we rode the spinny thing with some girls, and Sofi crawled over to one of the other girls and touched her shoe. Progress.

At the same park with the playground, I showed her how "pill bugs" or whatever-you-call-them roll up in a ball when you touch them. She immediately picked it up and walked off with it - "No!" we cried, afraid she would eat it or crush it or something. But we managed to pry the pillbug from her fingers and save its life.

Brush Teeth

We weren't sure how we were going to brush Sofi's teeth - she pulled away and resisted whenever we got a toothbrush close to her face.
Just handing her a toothbrush seems to work, though - she likes sucking on the bristly end. That's good enough, right? I mean, she's going to lose the teeth anyway.

Whoops

So we took Sofi to McDonald's today, and were peeling the fried stuff off the chicken and giving it to her. She loved it; ate a lot. And drank a lot of milk. And threw up. A lot. Of undigested chicken and milk. "Never coming here again," Cathy said. Sofi seemed unfazed by the vomiting; then I bumped her head when putting her in the car. That upset her. I don't know what happened - I've put her in the car many, many times without bumping her head...so I've been feeling guilty all evening.
Side note - we discovered that dipping the baked apple pie into the sunday makes for instant apple pie a la mode. A taste treat. Too bad we're never going back there.

The word for the day is...

"Smart". Whenever Sofi does something smart, we say, "You're so smart!" and make the sign for smart. In the elevator just now, she parrotted it back to us. "Marrrrrr." She said. And then later, in the bedroom, I noticed her do it out of the corner of my eye. "Marrrrr."

Sign language waste of time?

Sofi just learned how to say "more" yesterday. She's only been signing "more" for a month or two (guess I never wrote in the blog when she learned that one), so it almost seems like trying to teach her sign language was a waste. But it's not, really...the way she says "more" sounds like "mohhhhh" so it's good that she's got the hand gesture to make it clear.

Big Day

Today:

I sucked some food off my finger this morning with a popping sound - Sofi imitated me, right afterwards.

At lunch, she walked down steps while mom held her hands - then she went down a step by herself using the rail post.

I think something 'clicked' re: mouse usage. Reader Rabbit For Toddler up until today, has been pretty much a TV show for her where we click on stuff and she watches. Today she started using the mouse herself and really getting it - she was able to paint the screen and find the animals and move the shapes. Definitely lacking in fine motor control but she gets the idea!

Good Taste

I made the spaghetti alla carbonara extra garlicky / peppery tonight, and Sofi just ate it right on up and wanted more.

Again, she doesn't get it from me! I was a very picky eater at her age.

Already Fashion Conscious At Fifteen Months

Sofi's having a tantrum right now - she found a moccasin that doesn't fit her anymore and when we put her normal shoes on instead she threw a fit.

Also, sometimes she'll bring me a sweatshirt to put on her. And then she'll change her mind and bring me a different sweatshirt.