Viridian Games

My youngest, Jewel, is cementing her knowledge of “big” and “little” by wandering around and dubbing everything one or the other.

She likes to come up to me and say, “You’re the big daddy!”

At which point I say, “And you’re the little sister!”

“That’s right!” she beams.

I don’t think she gets it.

“It’s awesome!”

I am inclined to agree. Pulled down the demo over Xbox Live and I am very impressed with it. Lego Star Wars was much more combat-oriented, with the gameplay basically consisting of you entering an arena, shooting or eviscerating anything that moved, and then figuring out how to move on to the next arena. David actually had trouble with this because most of the puzzles weren’t explicated very well. Most of them required you to use a Jedi power to open a path for another character, who could then open the door. While David did figure it all out eventually, I had to help him a fair bit and there was some frustration.

Lego Indiana Jones is much closer to a traditional platformer with lots and lots of well-constructed puzzles to solve as well as some combat. And excellent cutscenes - when Lego Indy escapes the first temple after being chased by the ball he is confronted by Lego Belloc, who demands the golden idol. Lego Indy tries to give him Lego C-3PO’s head instead. I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.

One of my design philosophies is “Let players be clever, and reward them when they are” and Lego Indiana Jones follows that philosophy well. And frankly I was amazed at how quickly David - without any direction from me - figured everything out. He had no trouble with the puzzles where you had to do something with one character then switch to another because the game made it much more clear what you were supposed to do. After seeing the demo I will definitely be picking it up.

My son David and my daughter Jewel were playing hide-and-seek. During the course of those events I heard Jewel say, “Do you see David? Click on him if you do!”

It is possible I am letting them play on the computer too much.

Me: “Well, I’m 37 now.”

Jamie: “Huh? On your priest? I thought you told me you just dinged 16!”

I know, it’s been a week since I posted - kind of stupid to post a demo and then disappear off the face of the earth, huh?

Well…there’s no way to say this but to say it.

Last Wednesday I had a heart attack. A small one, but it was big enough. It seems that a combination of birth defects that weakened my heart and my atrocious diet finally conspired to put me in the hospital, which is where I’ve been for the last five days.

Now, I’m fine now. Really, I am. I am not susceptible to another heart attack at this time…but it does hammer home how all my attempts to Put That Freakin’ Sandwich Down were too little and too late. I might have been okay if it weren’t for my propensity to smear saturated fat all over practically everything I eat.

So I’m going to be resting up for the next week or so. I may post a bit, may not - just depends on how I feel. But I had to let you guys know what was going on.

I’m…just glad I didn’t have to leave you guys prematurely.

I decided to make a duck this year as well as the turkey. I’d made this recipe a couple times and holy cow it’s good, so I thought I’d make it for Jamie’s mom, who had never had duck.

The thing about cooking a duck is that if you do it right you’ve got a lot of duck fat left over. Duck fat is deliciousness defined, so I put a little into the potatoes and a lot into the gravy. Result: a dinner everybody raved over - it was my best ever.

So from now on whenever I make a big elaborate dinner, I’m always going to make a duck so I’ll have the fat available to delicify all the other dishes.

Summer vacation is finally over, and my son David couldn’t be happier. He loves school so summer was hard on him. He’d ask me every night, “School tomorrow?” and I had to keep telling him, “Not yet.”

But today he finally started first grade! It was pretty funny…when the bus came he practically dashed for it, as if he were afraid it might leave him behind.

I’m pleased to say that he learned a lot over the summer…he can read and write a good number of words. Just yesterday I watched him write the word “poem” in his notebook…I never taught him that one. I have no idea where he picked it up. He appears to be ahead of where he should be from a learning standpoint, and his social skills are improving. I think he’s going to be all right.

About a year ago I grounded Megan for the first time.

This was a real grounding. I actually removed the power cables from both the computer and the GameCube in her room and told her she could have them back in a week, providing her behavior improved.

And then, remembering the hijinks I committed as a kid, I moved in for the kill. “Megan, ” I said, “I know you’re a smart girl. You could probably figure out a way to hook those back up and try to keep it secret from us. Just know that if you do that and I find out, you will be in more trouble than you’ve ever been in before. Do you understand me?”

“Okay, Dad,” she said, lip quivering. “Jeez, I wasn’t even thinking anything like that…”

And then she started crying. Jamie shot me a “Way to go, dumbass” look. Quick, Anthony, defuse the situation with humor!

“And if you invent a time machine, and go back in time so that you can stop yourself from doing what you did so you don’t get into trouble, and I find out, you will be in even more trouble! Do you hear me, young lady?!”

Whew! It worked. Both she and her mother cracked up. And thus one of our favorite in-jokes was born.

David was playing Journey to the Purple Planet this morning while we waited for the bus to come.

At one point I overheard him say, “I love outer space!”

That’s my boy.

I turned 36 today at 9:30 this morning. Funny, I don’t feel any different…

Unfortunately, finances are tight and any gift-buying will probably have to wait until next payday.

In the meantime, I will give myself the gift of getting this really thorny problem fixed in Planitia, so then I won’t have to think about it any more.

Happy Birthday to me!

EDIT: Oh, look! I found myself a present after all!