Design Ninja

Political rant

2008-11-07T23:33:29Z

OK, I'm getting sick of people referring to the Republicans as the 'small government' or 'reduce spending' parties. I'm hearing this as part of the 'what did we do wrong' analysis of the election, and also from actual people like my dad. I've been politically aware for over 25 years now, and not once during that time have the Republicans actually done anything to reduce spending. The deficit is huge because of Reagan, Bush and Bush. Clinton got us to surpluses. That is the political reality I know. Anything else is empty rhetoric, or pre-1980s politics. My generation has never seen anything but "spend and spend" Republicans.

--Tom

How do you spell syllabic?

2008-11-04T18:02:52Z

Griffin has been using words for a while now, all simple things like "dat" and "ma". Other identified words include "da" "dg" (dog), and "dr" (door, used to request rides in the elevator). Just within the past week, he became multi-sylabic. He now says "hello" with both parts of the word, which is adorable.

Duncan was a clone trooper for Halloween this year. Along with half the boys in second grade. Star Wars still is alive and kicking. Door to door kids were strangely light - maybe the Friday date meant more went to parties or to visit friends/family instead of hitting the streets for candy? Someone suggested they may have gone to Halloween events at churches and stuff. Sacrilegious, I say. If you're not out on a dark street in a dark costume dodging passing traffic, it's not Halloween.

Oh, and I voted. Go me!

mrtomsmith @ 2008-08-22T09:31:00

2008-08-22T16:40:07Z

Old news, but:

So we went to San Diego Comicon this year. The Avatar panel was impressive. We all enjoyed the costumes. Duncan was entranced by the SCA people sparring outside. But I think his favorite part was when we found a booth giving away posters. He didn't care about posters, but they were using rubber bands for them, and the floor around the booth was covered with dropped rubber bands. His eyes lit up. Best booth ever.

My favorite was Duncan doing a drawing for Larry Marder (creator of Beanworld), showing beans on a pogo stick. Abstract, but right in line with the abstract style of the book. He traded Duncan back for it, so Duncan has now started doing convention sketches.

--Tom

mrtomsmith @ 2008-06-12T10:48:00

2008-06-12T17:48:28Z

I wrote an article on D&D. I wanted to share.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3693/the_adventurers_guide_to_thievery.php

mrtomsmith @ 2008-06-05T09:41:00

2008-06-05T16:49:52Z

This morning I asked Duncan if he knew any scientists, to tie into the reading he did last night on a couple of scientists.

His answer?
1. "Me!" He likes to do experiments; more on that below.
2. "Amy or Arne". He wasn't sure which one, but knew one of them was a "space scientist". I explained geology to him.
3. Albert Einstein. Partially because he's one we read about last night. The reading didn't actually say what he discovered, so I translated relativity to a six year. As Ayanna noted, my explanation just made him whine about how it didn't make any sense. With relativity, I think that means I explained it correctly.

And last night, he was struggling a bit with a sentence with some big words. Something along the lines of "Albert Einstein and Marie Curie won awards that recognized their discoveries." When he finally got all the big words, he got pouty because no one has ever given him an award. Because he does science experiments - like that thing with the oranges! I tried to explain that they answered big questions and changed the world, but he didn't buy it. I think he felt he'd been laughed at by the institute, and tonight was the night he vowed revenge.

--Tom

Milestones

2008-05-28T20:43:49Z

I think we can definitively say that the little one has now walked. He's taking a few steps every now and then when necessary to get around. The first one I got a good look at was this weekend. For the historical record, let's just say when he turned one (which is Thursday).

He's got a few words down. His most frequent word is 'dat', usually while pointing at something. But he also does 'da', 'ma', 'br' (brother), 'dg' (dog) and a few others, all with at least somewhat correct context and usage. My wife says that he will point to the main Wii screen if it's on the TV and say 'da'. He's been using some version of 'ma' and 'da' since at least a month ago. His 'first word' is subject to interpretation depending on which sound you're willing to call a word, but I suspect in the long run, Ayanna's going to credit it to 'ma' and I'm not going to fight it, so his official First Word will be ma.

Top front teeth are blatantly there now. He's a toothy boy.

--Tom

mrtomsmith @ 2008-05-15T13:45:00

2008-05-15T20:47:09Z

Griffin knows and correctly uses the word "dog". More of a "dg" but the intent is spot-on.
Duncan finished his first big school report a day early. Gorillas. Woo hoo.
I will likely need to go to Sweden sometime in July.
Ayanna hears about a promising job soon.
Go gay marriage!
GTA IV is every bit as good as people say.
Speed Racer proves that video games have won the culture wars. Go us!
I still haven't seen Iron Man yet.
Duncan is still playing Smash Brothers with me.
School dance tomorrow. I think Duncan has already been challenged to a breakdancing competition with a kid in his class.

30 Rock

2008-04-25T19:58:18Z

So I've started watching 30 Rock (I need shows for when a boy is trying to get to sleep on my chest). Last night was an odd experience. There was a plot about making a porn video game and how it would be the ultimate culmination of human experience, but even the most resolute nerd considers it folly to try because it can't be done. And I'm watching, thinking "yeah, I did that once". I'm not used to having my life be the B-plot (and Amadeus parody) in a comedy. But I like it.

PS: Their explanation of the Uncanny Valley was surprisingly accurate. Their portrayal of game design, not so much.

Yay!

2008-04-17T18:52:37Z

Griffin started clapping about a week ago. The 12th of April, to be exact. We think it might be because he saw another baby (Sage) doing it on Friday, but that's unconfirmed. Regardless, he spent much of Saturday happily clapping at the slightest musical stimulus. I put on a mix of CDs for him and he had a good time. He's not doing it constantly now, but does it every now and then, usually linked to either happiness or music.

Occam

2008-04-07T16:44:18Z

I disagree with Occam's Razor (the theory that the simplest solution is usually correct). Where's the proof? Has anyone verified Occam with experimentation? How do you measure 'simplest' anyways? (Usually, by personal bias and cultural background, which is part of my problem.) How did this get to be part of the core of modern science? Because when I look out at the world, I find that it's almost always the more bizarre and complex solution that turns out to be true.

A cow licked the world out of ice? Simple. Big Bang? Not.

Things are made up of four elements in various combinations? Simple. Atoms? Also simple. The laws of sub-atomic physics? Not.

PS: I quizzed D on his theology recently. The world was made by a cow licking ice. Then plate technonics made the mountains. The Flying Spaghetti Monster made all the food in the world, and Zeus made people. I need to ask him where Jesus fits in. I know he's friends with FSM.

mrtomsmith @ 2008-03-31T13:51:00

2008-03-31T20:53:58Z

So a week or two ago I had the brilliant idea of printing out my Amazon wish list and bringing it to the library. I use my Amazon list partially as a collection spot for books I'd like to read at some point but can't afford at the moment, so it worked like a charm. I found about half of the ones on there (the other half being obscure out of print books Neil Gaiman mentioned on his blog at some point), and I'm almost done with a biography of John Brown now. Good stuff. I'll have to do that again (or, as a librarian friend recommended, go to the library web site first and ask them to hold the books before I go).

mrtomsmith @ 2008-03-31T13:05:00

2008-03-31T20:09:13Z

Whew. Got back Sat. night from a whirlwind tour of the middle of the country. Six plane flights, two boys, and many bags. You would think that would be a recipe for disaster, but other than a few weakened backs, it went surprisingly well. We managed to keep all our bags throughout the entire thing, and the boys only screamed a little on the planes. Ayanna wasn't feeling well yesterday, but seems better today. So overall, surprisingly survivable.

The actual purpose of the trip? A week in Denver for Easter/Spring Break/Gma Denver's retirement (with connections, thus four flights) plus a last minute addition to Chicago for my grandpa's funeral. He had a good life, and got to choose to go off dialysis, so in many ways it was a relief. And almost the entire family was there (just missing Dena, who chose to come out while Grandpa was still with us rather than for the funeral, since she's in Australia).

mrtomsmith @ 2008-02-29T09:46:00

2008-02-29T17:49:20Z

Woo hoo! Crazy upside-down day that doesn't really exist!

If I had a very pregnant wife today, I'd have her induce just so our kid only ages one year every four. Alas, my wife is not very pregnant. I feel sorry for me.

It was foggy on the way to school. I tried to convince Duncan that it's Leap Fog Day, but he twisted it back to LeapFrogFogDay.

--Tom

Gay Woman Buddhist Ninja Zombie Alien Superhero

2008-02-11T20:43:41Z

We want to talk Jesus with the high school kids at church, and one of the angles we want to use to approach it is the variety of interpretations of Jesus. Bumper stickers cite "Jesus was a liberal" or "Jesus: the ultimate rebel" while Fox News commentators attribute their family values to him. So I've been doing some casual research (i.e., google) on different forms of Jesus.

I was expecting a variety of views, but I wasn't quite ready for the variety I found. I think you can literally type in "Jesus is" followed by anything and get a legit response. Not necessarily a scholarly view, but at least someone trying to argue that Jesus was that thing. For the record, I was adding "bible" as a search term to try to limit it to people who are at least trying to make a Christian argument.

For example, I did find the expected Liberal, and (with some hunting) Conservative. Libertarian - easy. Communist/Socialist - surprisingly hard to find, but plenty of people arguing against it. Going a bit further afield, Magician. Fraud. Carpenter. Not a Carpenter. Dark-skinned. Red-head. Blond. (One site that was very insistent that Jesus's beard was closely trimmed - not a long Hippie beard. Angrily insistent.) Jew. Not a Jew. Violent. Not Violent. And then I started getting silly, but I still found hits: Gay. Woman. Buddhist. Ninja. Zombie(1). Alien. Superhero.

Strangely (or perhaps not), the one thing I could not find is anyone trying to argue that Jesus supports family values. He has some clearly anti-family quotes in the Book, and anti-tradition, and I suspect that the people who would make the argument would be offended at the thought that they would have to make the argument. Oh, and the only argument I found for Pirate Jesus was a silly one. I couldn't find much of anything for Robot Jesus. But those were among the only failures.

Not exactly relevant, but "Jesus loves Reagan" only turns up 5 hits, two of which are for little girls named Reagan (so cute!).

--Tom

(1) Did you know that in Matthew, when Jesus rises from the grave, he also raises some other dead people in that graveyard? Who proceed to hang around with him in town? I wonder if there's a Christian tradition for what happened to Jesus's zombie friends. Did they hang with the various people Jesus made into immortals?

I never thought it would happen to me

2008-02-01T18:05:17Z

So this morning, my son asked "Why don't we play Rock Band anymore?". And I... I didn't know what to tell him. I'm sorry, son. I've let you down. From now on, I resolve to commit myself more fully to gaming. For the children.

The evil face

2008-01-28T22:39:35Z

Over the past week or so, Griffin has perfected his grimace. He's been scrunching up his entire face much more than he previously would, giving rise to what we've dubbed his 'evil face'. He looks like an alien lizard creature that is about to spit poison on your face. We've been trying to visually document it, but only have shaky video so far. It's hard to predict. He seems to use it socially in some cases, but not just to show displeasure. I think he thinks it's funny. Snarky little boy.

A few other milestones I should document in a public place for when I am old and forget such things:
Solid Food: Just after Thanksgiving 2007, but still shaky on the subject apart from one day where sweet potatoes made him happy
Walking: Around Christmas 2007. Had been using a wiggle-based form of movement for about a month prior.
Stairs: Shortly after New Years 2008. Continues to enjoy them immensely.
Phantom Menace (Duncan): Jan 26, 2008. He liked it. Especially Darth Maul and Jar Jar. I even got his impressions on video, specifically in case he becomes a famous director so I can blackmail him with this for my retirement fund.

--Tom

My new myth

2007-12-24T18:17:51Z

So I was with Duncan in church on Sunday, and the children's story was amusing. God created the world, but found it too boring so she added fun things. Cute. It's nice to see God with a sense of humor.

But I think it mis-prioritized. My new creation story: God had this great idea for a joke, but realized that she needed to first fill in the backstory of the joke so everyone would get it. Thus, she poofed the world into being.

Some speak of the coming of the Great Punchline, when the purpose for the universe will finally be revealed. We'll all have a good laugh, then poof out of existence as our purpose has been fulfilled.

I don't know if it's good enough to be my favorite creation story (it's hard to beat cows licking existence out of a block of ice), but it's my favorite of the ones I've created.

--Tom

Red Scare

2007-11-30T21:06:11Z

So a few days ago, I needed to request use of Duncan's school for scout meeting. (Yes, apparently I'm the Den Leader of Duncan's Cub Scout den. Nobody else really wanted to do it, and I like talking to the kids.) So I go the school office and get the form. The scouts already have most of the paperwork on file, but I need to officially request the day we want and all that. So I'm reading through the boring fine print on the form, as I am wont to do, and notice that buried in there is a mention that you have to attest that you are not requesting use of the school for a Communist group, or any group listed as Communist by the FBI. I was heartily amused. I showed it to the clerks there at the school, and they were surprised to see it - no one had ever actually read it before. We tried to figure out when they last updated the forms. There was a small date that might have indicated that they updated it in 2001, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the Cub Scouts aren't a Communist front (although that 'sharing' stuff they encourage makes me suspicious), so I went ahead and filled out the form.

--Tom

mrtomsmith @ 2007-10-24T09:17:00

2007-10-24T16:40:45Z

Hi. I'm trying to follow the rule that if you mention something cool to at least two other people, it's worth putting on your blog so everyone can see. It's an extension of the basic "did you bring enough for the whole class" principle. And in doing so, I realized I should put up my fire story. Fun stuff first.

Cool Princess Bride DVD cover that can be read upside down and right side up:
http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/the-princess-bride3.html

Nice big picture of the fire smoke plumes extending out about half a California into the ocean:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/?2007295-1022/California.A2007295.2100.1km.jpg
More pics:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/socal_wildfires_oct07.html

And on a related note, technology can be used for good as well as evil. Discussion of the heavy use of Google Maps to track the fires:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114250687465160386813.00043d08ac31fe3357571&ll=32.990236,-116.930237&spn=0.946815,1.842957&z=9&om=1
http://searchengineland.com/071023-111626.php

OK, fire story:
This Sunday I took some of the church kids to the AIDS Walk in West Hollywood. All was fine and dandy. We heard a few reports of a fire in Malibu during the day, but didn't think much of it. Then we were driving home, coming through the valley toward the hills where Thousand Oaks is. And the whole Conejo Valley (our valley) was shrouded in a massive orange cloud of smoke. Which we were driving directly into. There was practically no one in our lane, but the lane going the opposite way was packed. They were getting away from the evil orange sky, we were not. As we entered it fully, the sun turned a pure evil blood-red color. With the debris that had already been whipped up by the winds over the past couple days (enough to wake both Ayanna and I the night before), it really did look like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. We half-expected to be attacked by zombies. Everything had a strange orange hue to it that put everything on edge. We kept comparing it to Mordor, with the evil eye peering at us from the sky. We'd put the AC on when we got near, so it wasn't until we dropped off the first kid that we realized how strongly the outside air smelled of smoke and burning. The news was reporting one fire between Moorpark and Camarillo, which is just a few miles from where some of the kids live. Of course, this fire was smaller than the Malibu and other fires, so it was getting little to no reporting. Thankfully, it turned out to be mostly contained by that evening, but it was creepy. For the record, no one I know has had to evacuate or been hurt. A few kids I know have missed school, and Duncan couldn't play outside until today. Our area seems to be clearing up, but there is still smoke on the horizon.

Here's what it looked like (pics by another friend from church, no photoshopping): http://flickr.com/photos/jonsphotos/1678821851/

Politics stuff

2007-09-19T23:10:41Z

Republicans: Weak on defense. Unwilling to support our troops. Anti-military.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/19/politics/main3278896.shtml

Why can I come up with good taunts with no effort, but the Democratic party never does? (Here's a free one: Define 'failure' as promoting recruitment for terrorist groups. Note that US troops in Iraq are causing a huge terrorist recruitment boom. Ask Republicans why they want the US to fail.)

Back a bit ago, when there was a big debate on military funding b/c Democrats wanted to cut troop levels through funding, Bush said he'd veto anything that cut troop levels. And then various people insulted Democrats because they were unwilling to work within this limitation. Bush SAID he'd veto it, so thus there's nothing they could POSSIBLY do. And thus anyone who tried to cut troop levels via funding was just causing trouble and being difficult and not supporting the troops. I'm very confused as to why the Democrats didn't just reply that they refused to send any bill that didn't cut troop levels, so Bush's talk of a veto was just causing trouble and being difficult and not supporting the troops. Saying that you're unwilling to compromise shouldn't end the debate. But the Democrats don't seem to be willing to push. They're as weak as the pansy-asterisk contestants on The Pick-Up Artist. Crybabies.

--Tom

Drawn to Prayer

2007-09-17T22:57:23Z

So there's a game my company just released called Drawn to Life. I'd been playing it a bit before it came out, and I'm intrigued by it's theology. In the game, you're "The Creator" to a group of little anime critters. They've had troubles, so you have to redraw the sun and battle the bad guy and rescue folks (drawing's the cool mechanic of the game, since the player gets to actually draw things). The usual hero stuff. What I find intriguing is how it changes my perspective on fetch quests.

Fetch quests are a standard thing in many RPGs where various townspeople ask you to do all sorts of minor boring things for them - "take this to the shopkeeper", "find five dingleberry roots" and stuff that makes you feel like an errand boy rather than an epic hero. It's generally acknowledged as a bad thing, but many designers still do it, because it's an easy way to involve the townspeople in the game and give the player simple things to do.

But in Drawn to Life, you're not a hero, you're divine. So when the townsfolk are asking me to make them a new beach ball because they're bored, it's a prayer. At first this bothered me. The little girl prayed to save her town, and God answered their prayers, and here they are trivializing the whole thing with their petty requests. Then I realized that this is exactly what would happen if God ever actually manifested physically in our world. "God, I'm thirsty, can you make me a beer?" "God, can you go tell my mom that I'm going to be home late tonight?" From that point on, I got perverse delight in obeying their pathetic human demands.

--Tom

Meditation

2007-09-10T21:24:10Z

So about two weeks ago, we went to the start of school event. It's officially labeled an event, but it's actually just an excuse to get the kids all playing together after a long summer apart, followed by a crazy mob scene when the bring out the class postings. They're smart, so they don't announce who is in which class until the day before classes start, so the crazy parents don't have much time to complain. But it does get a bit hectic as everyone descends on the two bulletin boards at the same time, desperately scrolling through the big lists of names to see if their friends will be with them for another year. And the kids get excited, too.

Anyhoo, I was keeping an eye on Duncan as he ran around pre-posting, making sure he didn't leave his hat on the jungle gym when he ran off to get ice cream and stuff like that. At one point, he and about four other kids were out in the field and they had a natural pause where they all stopped running and screaming for a moment. I'm not sure exactly what triggered it, but I saw a few of the kids head off in another direction, and Duncan sat down. I overheard him say he wanted to meditate. So he sat in the middle of the field, with his legs crossed, hands out, and eyes closed, while various other kids were running and screaming all around him. I had the presence of mind to take a couple pictures, and after a few minutes he got up and began tackling another boy his age (which I also have pictures of, but more in case of criminal investigation than due to parental pride).

I have a good kid.

Violence good

2007-07-16T21:16:42Z

So Duncan and I stumbled upon a library booksale on Friday. Good stuff. Two grocery bags of random books for ~$15. Including a stack of smut for my lady love, a few well-illustrated mythology books, and other enjoyable randomness.

I'm about halfway through the California Legends book. It had a good piece on Emperor Norton, including some details I hadn't known (he was quite a prominent businessman before the crazy struck) (the King of Hawaii enjoyed his letters so much, he refused to deal with the state department and only acknowledged the US as an empire). If only the book had some actually references, I'd respect it more. But it's fun.

And I'm starting on a book about boys. Ayanna had borrowed one from a friend, but the tone of that one didn't sit well with me - something about how he claimed all stereotypes are inherently wrong struck me as funny. The new one strikes a better tone, but the biology section has a couple of casual mentions of homosexuality that have me worried. I'll need to see how those develop. I should probably stop beating around the bush and get "The Dangerous Book for Boys", since that's what I'm thinking of whilst I read these. Really, what I want are more books like "Killing Monsters" (1) that support my pre-existant belief that violent play and adventures can be good for kids. Necessary, even.

--Tom

(1) Coincidentally written by the guy who wrote the "Mosaic" comic series, which I've always considered to be underappreciated - it did the intellectually chatty 90s superhero before (and arguably better) than it's much-lauded sibling, Starman.

Soccer Dad

2007-07-03T19:31:03Z

Ayanna and I realized with horror last night that we now have Duncan enrolled in multiple extra-curricular-type events, to the point that we have to schedule out driving him around town after work. Next Wednesday, I'll leave work a little early to drive him to swim class, and thankfully he can walk from there right to his T-ball practice, and we have an informal plan to have dinner with one of his friends on the T-ball team after practice.

It's so suburban, I could scream. But then people would look at me funny, since I'm at work right now.

I've been teasing Ayanna about her reluctance to embrace the school moms. She had a few bad playground experiences when we first moved here, which have made her more wary of the overly-homemaker and overly-made-up* moms. Between that and my tendency to walk Duncan to school most days, I'm more of an elementary school social butterfly than she is. Which is quite a strange first.

--Tom

* This was a different word at first, but I try to assume that anyone and everyone could read this, so I'll keep it civil. Fill it in with the worst thing you can think of, but don't tell anyone you did.

Da Beard 2, Electric Boogaloo

2007-06-19T04:23:12Z

Oh, it is OFF!

B+11, as specified.

But I'm having trouble reading my esteemed competitor's measurement stick, so I'll leave it up to our team of celebrity judges to declare the final victor.

--Tom