I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but so far getting Nefarious, six, her own computer has been a really good decision. It’s been hard on her having parents that live at opposite ends of the continent, but now that both her and her mom have computers with videochat, it’s as if they have a magical window that connects them like a wormhole collapsing the distance to nothing. This is by far her favorite thing about the computer, and it’s interesting to see how second nature using it all is for her… I suppose that’s no surprise since she’s been surrounded by constant computer use since she was born, so she instinctively knows what to click on to make what she wants happen. I was surrounded by computers as a kid as well, but for me, computers were a technological toy and something akin to electronic building blocks, but for Nefarious, and I suspect most of her generation, computers are first and foremost a means to connect people to each other, which I hope will steer the world in the right direction.
In addition to video chat, she seems to quite enjoy typing away in a normal text chat window as well — it’s all new to her, so it’s funny to see her type things like “thank you for sending me a smiley face mommy”. Her account is locked down of course so she talks only to her mother right now, but she seems to also enjoy playing chess online against anonymous human opponents. Speaking of chess, I saw a great car today that was covered in chess bumper stickers like “I’M A CHESS NUT” (get it?) and so on. Our latest chess “inventions” include a new piece called a “bulldozer”. The bulldozer replaces the knight, and moves in the same L-shape. However, as it is a bulldozer, instead of just killing the piece it lands on, it kills everything in its path (friend or foe), making the piece slightly awkward to use, but much more powerful. It’s been a good addition.
The other chess addition that we’ve made, that I quite recommend trying, is a “double move” variation of the game. On a player’s turn, instead of moving one piece, they get to move two. The restriction is that the two moves can not be interrelated. That is, they can’t bump into each other, you can’t move one piece twice, or you can’t move one piece out of the way to allow the other to move. Or, to put it in another way, you have to be able to do the two moves in either order. Give it a try — it’s surprising the subtle ways this changes the game.
We’re working away at Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book in the Harry Potter series right now. It’s a bit slow to get started, and since we’ve read them so quickly, the beginning is always repetitive as Rowling makes the story accessible to those who have not read the first two, but it’s starting to get good. One of my better childhood memories is having long books read to me, and I hope Nefarious will enter adulthood with the same feelings.
Other than that, I think I’ve got to watch Craigslist (which reminds me, I’m just putting the final touches on Backpage.com and Daype.com support to my search tool, and will post it before I leave on Christmas vacation) for some gym mats… I sometimes walk out into the big room to see Nefarious and Cassie performing stunts that could easily lead to a skull more cracked than I like!
Caitlin has gone out with a friend tonight, but I can’t wait for her to get back. Tonight is the night that we’ll hopefully confirm our Christmas vacation, so we’ll spend some time browsing through the discount sites and see what strikes our fancy! I can’t wait! Oh and next door band stress got worked out… They’re playing a show this weekend at the Big Bop, so there are a couple practises this week to make sure Saturday’s show goes well. It’s not the sort of music I’m into, but they actually sounded really tight tonight as they did their set, so I think their fans will get one of their better shows.
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