So Theo and I have been spending a lot of time together. His favorite activity currently (as the last time I posted) is watching me play World of Warcraft. If he's been good, I 'allow' him to watch me play. As you can imagine its really terrible to have to play a video game like this. I'd much rather do chores, or stay 'at' work longer or even just go to the dentist for a root canal.
Interestingly enough, this has allowed us to bond in a way I wasn't expecting. Last night he told Emily that he and I were 'best buddies'. This, of course, is the easiest way to make me deliriously happy and extremely suggestable. Hopefully he won't ever figure out the last part.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Worthy quotes from work
Here's a few things I've seen recently via email at work.
1.) A coworker's car wouldn't start and he was looking for jumper cables in the evening. He started with "Anyone got a pair?". It turns out that only myself and a few others were still online, and everyone but me was from either Russia or Hungary originally. None of them picked up the rather unsubtle reference.
2.) I told my boss (not meaning to--it just slipped out) that I was experiencing a little burn out recently, and he said "Let's get together over dinner and discuss your bo..." I don't know if he intended to be funny or not.
3.) Again with the ex-east bloc developers. The one from Russia--a wonderful person to work with and hang out with--sent an email out that said "Does anyone have a knife I can use to cut the cheese?". My pal Morry immediately responded to everyone saying "You need a knife for that? Sounds painful!"
There are many more, but these are the recent highlights...
1.) A coworker's car wouldn't start and he was looking for jumper cables in the evening. He started with "Anyone got a pair?". It turns out that only myself and a few others were still online, and everyone but me was from either Russia or Hungary originally. None of them picked up the rather unsubtle reference.
2.) I told my boss (not meaning to--it just slipped out) that I was experiencing a little burn out recently, and he said "Let's get together over dinner and discuss your bo..." I don't know if he intended to be funny or not.
3.) Again with the ex-east bloc developers. The one from Russia--a wonderful person to work with and hang out with--sent an email out that said "Does anyone have a knife I can use to cut the cheese?". My pal Morry immediately responded to everyone saying "You need a knife for that? Sounds painful!"
There are many more, but these are the recent highlights...
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The ongoing video game saga!
Otherwise entitled Theo Gamer II: Out of control!
We've managed to impose a 'system' on his gaming life at this point. He earns 'good' checkmarks and 'bad' checkmarks throughout the day...if he has more good than bad, he gets a half hour of video game time. if he does something extra special that we ask him to do (like read a book aloud for 30 minutes, or fold some socks) he can earn a 15 minute increment on that. This seems to be working sort of...he definitely wants to earn the good, and he gets upset when he earns a bad one. And we have a timer going when he uses up his playtime.
The new problem though is that he absolutely hates stopping, and is completely ungraceful about it. Last night he pitched a fit unlike one I'd seen in quite some time. I ended up picking him up and cradling him on the couch while he worked it out. At first he was punching and kicking to get away from me, but I just held onto him and spoke mellowly to him (imagine that!!). After a few minutes he subsided and we talked it out.
Internally I was completely aghast. My first thought was to remove all computers and video games from the house. But 1) that's a knee jerk reaction and wouldn't actually address the REAL issue, and 2) I'd have to move out with my computers and video games, leaving Emily in the parenting-lurch.
So I resolved that if I can help him through those moments when he simply can't have something he really wants, then eventually he'll learn to cope with it. I just have to remember to be cool and calm about it (not one of my stronger skills).
At any rate, the saga continues! Did Emily tell everyone about our Washing machine experience?
We've managed to impose a 'system' on his gaming life at this point. He earns 'good' checkmarks and 'bad' checkmarks throughout the day...if he has more good than bad, he gets a half hour of video game time. if he does something extra special that we ask him to do (like read a book aloud for 30 minutes, or fold some socks) he can earn a 15 minute increment on that. This seems to be working sort of...he definitely wants to earn the good, and he gets upset when he earns a bad one. And we have a timer going when he uses up his playtime.
The new problem though is that he absolutely hates stopping, and is completely ungraceful about it. Last night he pitched a fit unlike one I'd seen in quite some time. I ended up picking him up and cradling him on the couch while he worked it out. At first he was punching and kicking to get away from me, but I just held onto him and spoke mellowly to him (imagine that!!). After a few minutes he subsided and we talked it out.
Internally I was completely aghast. My first thought was to remove all computers and video games from the house. But 1) that's a knee jerk reaction and wouldn't actually address the REAL issue, and 2) I'd have to move out with my computers and video games, leaving Emily in the parenting-lurch.
So I resolved that if I can help him through those moments when he simply can't have something he really wants, then eventually he'll learn to cope with it. I just have to remember to be cool and calm about it (not one of my stronger skills).
At any rate, the saga continues! Did Emily tell everyone about our Washing machine experience?
Posthumously posted
Not me...this:
http://www.andrewolmsted.com/
Its fairly intense. Now, personally I find some of the many quotes of Babylon 5 slightly cheesey, but that in and of itself seems to give the post a certain sense of reality. If it was really contrived for the sake of contriving it, it would have had much more pseudo-intellectual quotes and such. I also really loved the minimization of the political aspects of his death. It felt personal and all in all, I felt kind of sad that he wasn't someone I'd met in real life. I'd gladly substitute someone like this for any one (or ten) of the software wrecking ego laden primadonnas I've met in my line of work.
Anyways, read it (its long) and discuss!
http://www.andrewolmsted.com/
Its fairly intense. Now, personally I find some of the many quotes of Babylon 5 slightly cheesey, but that in and of itself seems to give the post a certain sense of reality. If it was really contrived for the sake of contriving it, it would have had much more pseudo-intellectual quotes and such. I also really loved the minimization of the political aspects of his death. It felt personal and all in all, I felt kind of sad that he wasn't someone I'd met in real life. I'd gladly substitute someone like this for any one (or ten) of the software wrecking ego laden primadonnas I've met in my line of work.
Anyways, read it (its long) and discuss!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Video game junkie??
My son has discovered the joy of video games. This is not surprising given my own interests in the subject. We obtained a game that he loves to play at school--Hot Wheels Velocity X and he craves playing it 24x7. This is not surprising either. He is very young and hasn't learned to exercise the discipline and will power necessary to avoid falling into the deep hole of video game addition, and all the addictive behavior related (you know, stuffing the dog in the closet, arranging snacks and water and a little bucket for...waste, and then completely ignoring the outside world and the body's need for sleep). Unfortunately, neither have I at the ripe age of 40...so its a fairly bleak outlook. All of this is fairly normal for a youngster his age.
What's not very normal is that while he LOVES to play his video game, the word 'play' has a whole different meaning for him. For the most part what he really wants is to force Dad (that's me) to play the game while he sits nearby watching and bossing me around. "Turn there, Dad!" "Oh, you missed it AGAIN, Dad!" and various frustrated noises fill the room and for a change they aren't coming from me.
We have him on this somewhat complicated system of reinforcement and control whereby he can earn or lose video game time on a daily basis by being good or not. The system has a certain arbitrary aspect to it (its well designed to support the somewhat arbitrary needs of the Parental Units). So at any given time, he's got a fairly limited amount of gametime and he regularly chooses to have ME play ("Unlock the purple car next, Dad!" or "You drive and I'll shoot, Dad!") rather than playing by himself.
What does all this mean?
What's not very normal is that while he LOVES to play his video game, the word 'play' has a whole different meaning for him. For the most part what he really wants is to force Dad (that's me) to play the game while he sits nearby watching and bossing me around. "Turn there, Dad!" "Oh, you missed it AGAIN, Dad!" and various frustrated noises fill the room and for a change they aren't coming from me.
We have him on this somewhat complicated system of reinforcement and control whereby he can earn or lose video game time on a daily basis by being good or not. The system has a certain arbitrary aspect to it (its well designed to support the somewhat arbitrary needs of the Parental Units). So at any given time, he's got a fairly limited amount of gametime and he regularly chooses to have ME play ("Unlock the purple car next, Dad!" or "You drive and I'll shoot, Dad!") rather than playing by himself.
What does all this mean?
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