New Year's Day Adventure

On New Year's Day my 3 daughters, baby boy and I hit a local public forest and traversed its unpleasantly frequented depths.

Lupita is 5'2", 117 lbs at 10 years old. You've seen her pictures on teh interwebs, and they are up to date (if not, make with the clickies, she's a cute kid). She is my Tiger.

I bought her a real, authentic Swiss Army Knife for Christmas and she took her first opportunity to use it (we were following a creek in the forest) to find out just how sharp Swiss Army Knives are and lanced her thumb. She didn't cry, she just said "Ow!" and then looked at me, and I could see this wave of shame wash over her face, and then she cried, not for the pain, but because she felt she'd done a bad job: I had trusted her with the knife. Mistakenly, she thought I didn't think this would happen.

I told her, "I knew that was going to happen." "You did?" "Of course. I had knives explained to me but it only made sense after I cut myself with them. Trust me, it's not a mistake you make often after the first time."

I hadn't, however, thought to pack bandages, antibiotic cream or anything else I used to take with me on horseback rides other than lots and lots of water. So I cut my undershirt and made a bandage and wrapped her thumb well.

So we hurried back; I had all of my kids with me. Alejandrita (alay-hon-dree-ta), my 5yo daughter, waited to trip until we were out of the forest and on the paved sidewalk, and Dulce Maria ("Sweet" Maria), my 8yo daughter, went down with her as they were holding hands. They screamed. Alay had a skinned elbow and Dulce a skinned knee. So I cut my shirt up some more after licking the wounds clean.

We came back home (this was all on New Year's Day) and Maria Alejandra, my lovely Latina, was much amused. Everyone but the two boys (myself and my son) were hurt.

Lupita also noticed that Jose Francisco found his younger two sisters' reactions perplexing. She caught the look on his face, he peered at their wounds, and then looked at Maria's thumb, which had bled a bit through the impromptu wrapping.

I put powdered vitamin C on Lupe's cut, which BURNED, but worked great. It was much better this morning. Dulce was terrified of it, so Maria applied neosporin.

So it was a good day. Life is not complete without crying daughters.

[Transformers] Starting a New Generation the Right Way: Using the 1st Generation Cartoons

I write this because it interests me and because I know there must be some parents out there who are into Transformers. If you are a parent, please chime in on in the comments, I will be glad to read from you.

This blog is about introducing my children to the Transformers toys and story via the G1 cartoons, some Knock-Off toys, and a few official toys. If that doesn't interest you then TMTDNR and PDNR.

The Target Audience:
I'm the father of 3 girls (ages 10, 7 & 5) and a 2yo boy; Hasbro has nothing on my marketing abilities.

How to Introduce:
I know the Transformers: Animated show is coming out but until it arrives I won't know how different it is; chances are it will be good, but I'm not sure it'll be as great an introduction (the G1 cartoon was good about having lots and lots of Autobots and Decepticons in each show even if they don't speak much; the new show features less characters and cameos others - it also won't have Peter Cullen, my childhood favorite from Voltron and Prime).

What I Had, and what I Got:
The only toy Transformers I had were two large Decepticons from thrift stores (1997ish?), Generation 1 Grimlock, Overdrive, Camshaft & Downshift (1984-5; they survived the typical mother holocaust scenario), and a Classics (2006-7?) Mirage and Grimlock. The G1's sit on shelves, the thrift store specials (already broken) were general toys, and the Classic Mirage I'd play with my 2.5yo son from time to time, but never let him hold it without me. The Classic Grimlock stays in it's box.

First I posted here and met some nice folks who gave me advice on where to go to buy some toys on the cheap; the Big Lots idea panned out great.

My son, who loves matchbox cars and toy soldiers, went through several expressions to show how "cool" and "wow" the Knock-Off Transformers I got were. For $25.5 I got 23 Knock-Offs, but only "released" two of them.

Priming for the Generation 1 Cartoon:
I sat my kids down and let my daughters re-watch an episode of Azumanga Daioh, ate dinner (kids are more settled after this), and sat them down for their first 1984 original "G1 Cartoon" experience. I brought out one more set of Knock-Off's, an open top jeep and a tank, let my son hold those, and fired up the show.

Now psychologically, my son is Driven; he's the kind of personality that has to be doing something productive or he gets antsy. In the adult world, we know these people as super-annoying bosses and successful athletes. Normally he watches 10-15 minutes of a show, and if he likes what is going on, he then mimics it (Walker: Texas Ranger, etc).

Watching G1 Episodes 1-01 & 1-02:
My son sat through the entire first episode holding a Knock-Off Transformer in each hand; my 5yo daughter held one too, my older two girls (7 & 10) were acting like the toys were above them at this point.

I throw on the 2nd episode. Halfway through that was too much for my son, so he started to play. He wanted to SHOOT the Knock-Off my 5yo girl had, so she retailiated. He now understood Transformers; he'd always been trying to use his thrift-store Decepticons as though they didn't have guns. Guns are great for little boys: you can shoot people across the room and they die (we do, anyway; so does he if you "shoot" at him).

Playtime!
My 5yo & 7yo girl all wanted to play as soon as the 2nd show was over, so we all sat down and did that. I explained the made-up names, personalities and sides of the Knock-Offs and we separated into teams of two.

We had the typical scenario: a Good Guy was caught by the Bad Guys in the first battle, so we had to rescue him, so each side took a break: one to plan and the other to interrogate, before we did the next battle; it is amazing how involved children are with their play and it made me remember that I did the same thing as a child, only I had no siblings.

Epilogue:
Later, my 10yo came back and we re-watched the 2nd half of the 2nd show because she'd fallen asleep, while my 5yo and 7yo daughters went to bed. My son watched it and then we (me, 10yo daughter & the boy) played for a bit longer before he had to go to bed - but we couldn't take away the Knock-Off Transformers.

He ended up falling asleep on his mother's shoulder (that's normal) holding his two Transformer KO's (vehicle mode) and using them to prop up the bottle. My lovely Latin lady said when she tried to remove them as he started to close his eyes he'd say "Uhn Uhh!" and pop awake. Very cute.

Oh, and my 10yo had decided that Transformers were fairly fun. Like my son, you can't hand her her mind on things, although she is obedient to any order. My 7yo and 5yo had decided they were great; they don't like toy soldiers but they seemed to relate to fighting robots that turn into cars, planes and other vehicles. Interesting.

Why I'm Not Worried:
I am not a completionist and moderation in all things is something I teach my children, mostly by making them earn every dollar they get, and then watching them find out the hard way how easy it is to ruin all that hard work by spending their money on something stupid. I'll warn them, and then say nothing more on the subject. Apparently I'm prophetic, because my daughters come to a screeching halt if Dad warns them, and start questioning their motives behind their desires.

It's amazing to watch them (10 & 7yo) go back and forth down the toy isles, comparing toys, coming up with a top 3, viewing them all together (even if that means transplanting the toy to another isle), and then deciding on one, because they can't afford all 3.

I won't mind if any of them grow up and forget about Transformers or any of them grow up and continue liking them; I play videogames, my wife makes crafts and uses her sewing machine, we all need hobbies (though some are more productive than others). If the lessons in cost-benefit analysis and moderation stick, they'll be good teenagers and fine adults.

Closing:
I hope you enjoyed your read; if you are parents who have introduced or are introducing Transformers to your children please chime in. I admire the collectors here, but I can't relate. I would love to read from other parents, or even younger (or older) kids who actually read all this and feel compelled to relate your experiences.

Tonight we're going to have another quick pen & paper RPG session based on our Chore Wars characters, and catch another episode of the G1 cartoon.

Chore Wars: The Minions of Jose Francisco

Reading Penny-Arcade, I found a nifty Web game that lets you turn your family into Role-Playing Game (RPG) characters and household chores into "adventures" worth experience, gold and the occasional battle with a monster. "Chore Wars," it is called.

Since the default settings are private, I can't link you to our party, so I have enclosed a ZIP file that has the three main pages:

1. Party - Shows our party, "The Minions of Jose Francisco." Celeste is Maria Alejandra. Mia is Maria, which is the nickname Jose Francisco calls her. Esteban is himself. Lord Soong is me, named after one of my more famous villains.
2. Adventures - Shows all the possible adventures to undertake.
3. Week - Shows what has happened this week.
   

I strongly recommend that any family group give it a try.

To make the rewards real I'm doing this:
Every paycheck allotting $50 to reward money. I'll take a look at what the kids have done and dole out the money based on how much experience they have earned.

Game Gold/Money will be useful for:

• Trading game gold for US dollars, probably 100:1. So spending 100 gold gets you one real United States dollar.
• Buying a day off, etc.
• Spending the money in the pen & paper RPG portion of the game.
  

You will notice that I spend a lot of attention to items everyone can get. I'm a Dungeons & Dragons player and for years I've been waiting to introduce the kids to RPGs. Well every weekend they'll get to go on an adventure, just two hours long, and the items and stats (strength, dexterity, etcetera) they have will dictate what they can do. This should encourage them to look at the different chores and try to do them so they can get items not available otherwise.

Of course, my house is so disciplined that the girls have to do all these things anyway - this is my way of trying to make it fun. So far the girls love it, but they are both scared of the computer, the Web browser, and the interface.

I digress...
One thing I love about my brother, Esteban, living with us is that he is very self-disciplined, grew up in a loving but strict household, and has had no children until now. That means that, as any new parent is, he's loving, but very hard. This is actually good for the girls because he's pushing them in school so much, and while it's hard work, and they tend to lose privileges with their Nintendo Wii, they are learning and their academic abilities are increasing. He is re-teaching them their entire grade (before summer vacation) in Spanish over the course of the summer, so while he's paired down the amount of work, it is still a lot to do; but Dulce and Maria are doing it and I'm so proud of them.

And what I love for Esteban is that he gets a chance to have kids too. They look up to him, they talk about him with me, and this morning when Jose Francisco stirred awake he said "TIO?" loudly before orienting himself. Tio means "Uncle."

PS
Mom, please correct my grammar.

Kids at Play and Esteban

I've uploaded some pictures taken with Maria de Guadalupe's craptastic camera. I even snagged two of Esteban, but my poor brother hadn't had a chance to come his hair yet.

Also featured is "Jose Francisco versus: The Dirt" and "Jose Francisco versus: The Cold Sprinkler Water"

As for this shot of Alejandrita, I liked the depth and pose here, look at her arm and the curve of her back and her dress - quite cherubic and innocent.

By all means, see the Flickr collection of photos if you like.

My Brother from Mexico Has Arrived

Esteban's Arrival
Esteban arrived on Monday night at 11PM at the local airport. I recognized him from far off because he really does look like my wife, only he was born a boy not a girl. Oddly, given that description, he's quite handsome. He also speaks great English for someone taught by English courses. Maria, my 10yo, was with me to greet him.

Esteban got stopped and questioned by INS three different times, basically every stop but the last, each time he said he could tell they were comparing notes from the interview before, even though it was different people in different airports and cities. I'm not sure why the US has taken such a horrible turn against immigrants that aren't Canadians, but they have. Being Hispanic can't be confused with being Muslim, but Hispanics are definitely not "in". It's basically open season. He didn't mind, he just realized what they were trying to do - catch him at a different answer.

Esteban is like...
Esteban is quiet and thoughtful, hardworking and observant. He's a good cook. He says that if the choice for his father is getting his daughters Magdalena, Gabriella or Marisol to cook for him, dad will ask them to fetch Esteban. I ate way too much of his cooking at lunch on Tuesday.

Mighty Tuesday
I took the day off from work on Tuesday and took my extended family to the Salvation Army, where we bought Esteban more clothes than the one suitcase he brought. Esteban told me that he's studied psychology, philosophy, theology, Mexican history (as opposed to world history), and trained incoming workers how to put together computers at an IBM factory.

We dropped by Perfection Auto and saw Mr. Nuñez, our mechanic who runs his own shop. Mr. Nuñez spoke with Esteban in Spanish. He gave Esteban his card and said in English "Call me as soon as you get your papers sorted out." Mr. Nuñez has a specific way of talking and emphasizing things.

I asked Esteban, realizing what I thought just transpired (he just got offered a job, tentatively) "Do you know how to fix cars?"

Esteban smiled lightly and nodded "Sure, yeah."

My mom hit the issue a bit more clearly: my great grandfather, who went on to become the Governor of Colorado, hit the train tracks as a hobo for a year. Got his head straight, saw the country, carried around Shakespeare with him. My mom said "Back then, this was an excepted thing to do - often you'd find hobos were really just men seeing the country, not homeless or drug addicts like today."

When Esteban lost his job at IBM (first in, first out, and Mexico has felt the same small downturn we have in the last year) there was just no reason to not come here. Clearly, it was not for lack of education or the ability to walk into another job, which I knew already, but I didn't know how many things Esteban knew.

At any rate, since I've returned my 32" TV, I've asked Esteban for help considering what to do - buy computer parts for $300 and have him build one (with me helping), or buy wood working equipment so he can have fun with that, or something else, or just put it back into savings.

Jose Francisco Meets His Uncle, Esteban
So Jose, my 2yo boy, woke up early on Tuesday and came out into the living room to find someone sleeping on the couch (transformed into bed-mode). He decides it is appropriate to wake up this person and show him his toy Matchbox cars. Then, tired, he gets into the bed and naps with his Uncle until 7AM. They'd never met until this moment, and nobody else was around.

Other than feeling the jealousy of there being another man in the house, this has been how they relate ever since. Esteban and Jose Francisco took turns following each other around in the stores and places we hit. Jose quickly found that Esteban just ignores him when he whines about something, and tells him no when he tries to do something he shouldn't.

My mom told Esteban that it must have been the pheromones that Jose Francisco recognized - he knew Esteban was blood the moment he met him.

Esteban Meets the Wii
(WiiSports) He enjoyed Bowling and didn't understand Tennis any better than real life. He loved Boxing, and hunkered down and jabbed and hooked like he was really there, practicing on some tethered ball in front of him. He still lost because he couldn't figure out how the controllers wanted to be held to block. He laughed a lot, which is something the Wii brings out given the game you play.

Summary
So we're all happy Esteban has come to live with us. He has no return ticket to Mexico, which might be another reason INS was so interested in him. I'm just as happy as can be. The van fits everyone, exactly, even when the little ones grow. My wife is happy that her youngest brother is here and he's happy to be here. My kids love him and he's quickly seen what he expected: we are as Mom has told him and as we've represented ourselves on the phone. I don't think he had any surprises, even Wal-Mart didn't seem to surprise him.

Don't Buy This TV / Father's Day

I had a fantastic Father's Day, complete with:

1. Homemade Breakfast.
2. Homemade Father's Day cards.
3. A 32" TV with component input and 480i.
   
4. Back pain medication since it was acting up, coupled with cuddles when I napped. I kept feeling the kids swapping who would be on the couch with me as they played around and I lied there, intert.
5. Lots of attention from kids.

Whatever you do, however, don't get that TV, an ILO 32" IWT3206. Mine came with a permanent color problem on the left hand side - I'm taking it back as soon as I find a vehicle that can fit it.

Naps are Good
It was great having my back pain medicine on a day I didn't have to work. I never feel like getting up from naps when I come home for lunch on those days, and on Sunday, I didn't have to. The kids took turns riding the horse in Shadow of the Colossus, or playing Wii Sports, and someone would always end up on the side of the couch with me - mostly my 7 and 4 year-old daughters, as my 10yo is getting a bit big and didn't have room. I'd drift in and out of sleep and hear their voices. Children are so cute when they giggle and talk to each other saying "My Daddy's asleep."

Wii + Component Output = Good
The Wii works great with Component Output - text that was unreadable on Gmail was now readable on the 32" at 480i... my wife's 32" lacks this input or resolution and you can't read the text even on a big screen. Whatever replaces this TV will also feature 480i at least.

Jose Francisco, "The Strong"
Jose Francisco is quite the baby boy. He stuck a crayon inside the power-button hole in the old TV that just died, and I smacked him on the leg for messing with electronics (which he knows not to, it was just too tempting). In hindsight, I think he was trying to make it work - he loves to try to fix things. Rather than cry and then fall into my arms like my daughters, he kept a grudge for about two hours, and didn't want me around him. I did not press him, knowing that you have to give Jose Francisco his own time to decide things - playing with a sprinkler (something else we did on Sunday), anything. Afterwards he came out and we played cars and games with the giant TV box.

Many adults I meet don't have the strength of personality of my two year-old boy. That's why my wife and I spend so much time trying to give him exactly the right upbringing: obedience that isn't blind, decision making (for him) that isn't abdication of parenting (on our part), and rewards for anything tough or clever he does, from falling (tough) or lifting things (same) or attempting to redirect my attention from reprimanding a sister (clever, he often comes up with something new).

On the surface, he's remarkably emotionally detached from things, but that's only if you don't get to know him. He picks a sister and gets a hug in the morning - it's not always his little mama (my 10yo). He handles each sister a bit differently:

• Alejandrita (4yo) is his playing companion and friend (he'll often grab her to show her something he wants to do or join in her activity).
  
• Dulce (7yo) is both his help, his target (for wrestling or chasing her around the house with something that scares her, like my belt, which he has learned how to swing overhand quite well), his sympathy magnet (Dulce's a sucker for anyone out of sorts or crying) and sometimes his playtime companion.
  
• Maria (his oldest sister) is his partner in crime (he knows she won't tell on him unless it's dangerous or strictly forbidden, and even then she handles disciplining him herself and rarely involves me or my wife - strengthening the trust), his help, his little mama, and his playtime companion.

Father's Day was great, if only because I got to see my kids alllll day, and my wife got a chance to rest - the older two had to cook all the meals.

Adventurous Evening

Imagine David, on one shot of tequila. I took two in a row once at 1:30AM because I couldn't sleep, and when my wife told me to take a shower (relaxes the body) I said "I can't," she asked why, I said "because I can't stand up," and no sooner had I said this, but I rammed my shoulder into the door frame trying to enter the bedroom. She laughed, of course. Silly Mexican. Or is that silly American?

So anyway, I have a cold sore, so my friend Kevin told me "Listerine" and I tried our generic last night - no burning sensation. I read the label. No alcohol. So I take a shot of tequila and swish it around the front of my mouth. God, that tastes awful. Swallow. Woozy. Buzzed. One shot of tequila, mind you. I sit down and chat with my oldest, who is still up. It's almost 10PM.

We go to hang out with my lady, and she says her tooth is really hurting, can we go to Walgreens? I think "Well, I have to go, might as well not worry her..." so I don't say anything about Tequila and make my firstborn come with me so she can talk to me along the way, not that she minded.

We get to Walgreens at 10:02PM. Northeast stores close at 10 or earlier, if they are smart. So I try thinking of any pharmacy open that late that is closer. Think, think, think. It took a conscious effort to pull up the locations in my head. Tower road. Millhopper Plaza. Butler Plaza. 13th Street. They were all on the Western side of the city. Why? For the same reason everything closes at night in Eastern Gainesville. 13th Street it was.

We came back safely, but the first 10 minutes of the ride were fun.

After we came home, I told Maria the complete story after she'd applied her medicine to her tooth and felt better.

She laughed.

Connections: Rationalism, God, Kids, and Waking Up

A friend of mine has inadvertently managed to cut a knife through my years and years of upbringing which has taught me I'm a flawed and useless mind. Flawed, yes, anyone with AADD (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder), by definition, is - but useless?

His net effect is that I've found the joy I used to take when I was young in engaging my brain in things. Growing up about the only TV I watched were nature shows, PBS (Public Broadcasting System), Doctor Who, original Star Trek, some cartoons, and Night Court. I enjoyed horseback rides and spending hours and hours not playing videogames, but drawing and making up my own worlds - which I do to this day every time I'm walking by myself.

So I bit torrented the first season of James Burke's Connections and, while some of it is out of sync and the 70's film quality doesn't hold up well, it's still just an incredible series, and it's got me thinking.

God
You see, I have a rather rational mind. I recall, watching something Carl Sagan put together, learning that 95% of the world believed in some sort of God. My immediate response was "95% of the world is stupid?" I am no longer an atheist, but that's not by choice, but by personal experience. Believe me, if faith was all I had - I would still be the staunchest atheist you could find who really didn't care to spread it around or use it to say "I can do whatever I want," which is what almost every other atheist I ever met did, and I didn't like them, but that didn't matter to me at the time, because rational thought mattered more than emotional beings.

Suffice it to say, I do not believe in coincidences anymore than God or a policeman does, and aside from this, I've seen proof that the world isn't as simple as what we can normally observe. Beyond that, I can't tell you anything - what religion to follow, what ethics to follow, I can just tell you - the tree is there, even if nobody sees it or believes it, and I get the sense that the tree isn't anymore damaged by a lack of belief than a tree in this world. It just is. I make no effort to explain it because I'm rational enough to believe the only way to explain it would be through the scientific process, and I don't have the tools I'd need to do that. It's also pointless, because as much effort as some people put into believing in God, others put into disbelieving. It almost always boils down to emotional need.

I've also found that I still enjoy rationals more than true believers in Christ because they're capable of thinking without boundaries. My wife is a wonderful exception - she'd be akin to some of the scientific Catholic friars of old - devout to the physical secular world as well as the clerical one. You can't bring scientific information to her that she doesn't want to accept because, to her, all proven science is part of the world, from Dinosaurs to ancient man to the vastness of the cosmos, it fascinates her. There was a time she'd have been burned, or, like the old friars, carefully researched away from prying eyes.

At any rate, the thinking rationals put into the workings of the world interests me more because they aren't afraid to say "Fanatical religion = bad" and so on. For some stupid reason, most followers of faith don't want to admit that there is any bad associated with what they do.

The flip-side, of course, is rampant liberalism and the problem this brings with rearing children, but I digress...

It Helps My Life
Anyway, rational thinking has got me thinking about the world again, like I used to do more of - how news is spread, information twisted, how societies and civilizations work, how change happens (thanks to Connections) and how we are all caught up in it. The Internet wasn't around in the 70's, but it was on the drawing board, so to speak.

This, in turn, has given me another hobby I can engage in with my wife. You see, my lovely armchair anthropologist (she's had college level courses in anthropology but, as she was a traditional Franciscan Nun at the time, she was not allowed to collect a paper degree, so she has no proof other than quizzing her) goes so far as to take a notebook and colored pens to make notes on everything she sees, so much so that she cross-references what one documentary says with another.

Testing My Daughters
Back on Connections: I actually wrote up a written test for my 10 year old daughter, Maria, 9 questions in total, dealing with the first episode. My wife tried to tell me it was too much, and I realized it was, so I added money to the pot: $1 per every two questions answered. 1 question was rhetorical.

Dulce participated passively, by watching the show and then observing Maria giving her answers.

Maria de Guadalupe couldn't write down her answers, so I transcribed for her. It was made especially difficult because her reward for beating up a 13 year-old black ghetto boy (poor kid, but this is basically where I live, so I might as well write it like it is) arrived the same day - she was stuck: she wanted to have fun with her reward, but I told her "If you don't do your Connections work today, you won't make any money. You'll still have to watch it, but you'll have no questions and no opportunity to make money. This is how the world works, Maria. If someone asks you to do something for them and they are willing to pay you, you can't tell them 'Maybe next week.' "

She eventually saw my point. Her questions weren't entirely correct, but I kept telling her as I transcribed "I don't care if you're completely correct, I care that I've made you think." She earned $4 in roughly 2 hours of work - one hour spent watching the first episode by herself, and another reviewing it and saying her answers with me when I got home. She's lucky if she can make $4 in an entire day of chores, so she was amazed at the work/reward ratio, and asked if she could do more.

Mexican Jew. She likes work and spots ways of making easy money fast. *chuckles*

The questions:

• Connections: "The Trigger Effect" - lists all of the questions I wrote down for Maria, and the answers I transcribed for her.
  

The questions ranged from "What would happen if there was no electricity in our house? How could we survive if it never came back on?" to "What happens to a city if it loses electricity permanently? What do the people do?" to "Why is the plow so important to civilization?"

Her answers ranged from bits of ideas to pure accuracy based on what James Burke said. I'll post it here. Dulce was interested, but is 7 - I can't do this to her just yet, but I'm glad she wanted to observe.

How many 7 year-old little girls do you know who want to watch Connections, twice?

Summary

• Watching Connections has helped rekindle my questioning of the way things are, and why.
• Dove's daily commentary and friendship helped spur all of this.
• I love asking my children why, and not focusing on their answer, just that I made them think.
  

PS to Kevin - The other religious friend of mine whom I find capable of rational thought is Kevin, in Virginia. He's got some hard and fast views, but that's what makes him a great person - he'll never betray a confidence, and never betray a person, because he's incapable of it. Jack Bauer could torture the man, and he'd stay firm. On the flip-side, that means you can't question President Bush or the PS3 ;)

And I love him like that. Too few people have firm minds. His is just one (firm mind) that is unusually free from being stuck in the mud, so to speak.

PS to Dove - I know he's not big on compliments, but I hope he realizes that he's made my life a bit better, and that is pretty much the best thing someone can say about a friend.

PS about Dave - I am an INTJ. I am aware this makes me more apt to thinking rational thought and working systems is far more important than emotional concerns, which don't affect how the world works, only what you do in it.

In the title, "Waking up" refers to my re-realization that my mind, while beneath super geniuses, is still useful, and fun to exercise.

Family has been sick, and speaking of sick...

By Wednesday, 3 out of 4 of my children were sick, excluding my oldest daughter.

I woke up on Thursday morning early (6:15am) so I sat down to wait for 7am at my computer. I knew something was wrong when nobody got up. Not my firstborn, not my wife, not even the baby boy. At 7:25am I crept in and saw the children all looked like they had sweated all night long. My wife was in similar shape, so I cleaned the living room and kitchen (save washing dishes, noisy dishwasher) and waited for 8:25am, at which point I called work and told Rich my situation, and to ask a manager to call me back if they'd like. I wasn't sick, and while my family could have survived without me, I would not have felt good about that.

Now here's the cool thing - I kept everyone hydrated all day, made the kids stay still (broke our TV rules and set up hours of Blues Clues and Azumanga Daioh for them, the latter of which I watched as my children can't watch any anime without me - not because I like anime, but because I know how quickly something inappropriate but funny to Japanese folks can crop up) - but it was the cleaning in the morning Maria Alejandra kept thanking me for at the end of the day.

Friday, I've done much the same, but they've been more self-managing. Jose Francisco still looks like he's in the process of turning into a vampire - his eyes are red, he has rings around his eyes, he holds his mouth open all the time, and his lips are flush and his face is pale. Vampirism! That's it!

Speaking of Sick...
I've had all the Supreme Commander I can tolerate in one single day, I think. Friday being easier, as I haven't had to ferry food and drinks to bedridden family members, but rather help Maria (well, both of them) with the kids.

The final game runs better, but 4 players with 500 units apiece still slows down Pharra. What I dislike, ultimately, is that it's not a strategy game, it's an arcade game. The only strategy revolves around what order you build things in and what units you produce. For all of Chris Taylor's boasting about it's strategy game controls, and it has the best I've seen, there's not much to do with that. You just overwhelm.

Sure, there's strategy in the rock, paper, scissors, air supremacy, naval supremacy, land domination game-play - but it's all about momentum. That's it. Just keep up momentum.

After a while, and many games, you come to see what is like in a thing - and it's the momentum, and I just don't care to keep it up - it's always the same.

Stream of Consciousness about my Family

My wife always says I'm a good father, but I rarely feel like I'm good - just adequate. This is a conversation I had with my friend over Instant Messenger.

David Beoulve: Question bud...

Telnarius: Sure.

David Beoulve: Okay, by my logic... I'm not athletic...

Telnarius: Ok..Dave does no pushups

David Beoulve: I rarely play many activity games with the baby boy. I chase my daughters around and tickle them. I'll throw balls for him.

Actually, that'd be accurate. (I don't do push-ups.)

Telnarius: Ok..Dave is into light activities.

David Beoulve: _I_ don't feel like I'm the greatest father but Alay thinks I'm fine. I can get angry, but I don't punish them angry.

Yes, light but vigorous activities.

Telnarius: Ok..so where's the question?

David Beoulve: Why does she think I'm a better father than I do? My daughters I consider biased. I can make them cry by being too sharp with them, but I always try to realize on the days I do that, in the moment I do that, and then sit down and talk or hold them - but just the fact that that can happen makes me feel validated that I'm not that great, just passable. Thing that disagrees with that notion is well - the girls are happy, work hard, smile a lot, and are well behaved.

Telnarius: Because you actually spend time with your kids.

David Beoulve: But of course, they're the most interesting thing in my house. That and my lovely Latina.

Telnarius: Does it have to be more than that?

David Beoulve: Oh, so…

But I mean... I feel like spending time with them is just what everyone should do. I feel like because my 2nd daughter (Dulce) is so quiet, I don't talk with her much, but I do spend time with her and she seems to think that's fine...

Telnarius: Just because something might seem small to you, doesn't mean that it is.

David Beoulve: my 9yo (Maria), if I just sat down next to her and didn't talk, that'd be a crime to her.

Telnarius: You spend time being a husband and a father.

David Beoulve: Heh well to be honest, it's butt-kick fun.

Telnarius: It never has to be said more than that.

David Beoulve: (nods)

I feel a little guilty that Alejandrita and Dulce don't show up in my blogs more, but that's what they're like - very laid back. Alejandrita may be an extrovert, but the only time you'd know it is when we have company and my older two retreat and she runs into the center of the living room.

Dulce is very personal. By that I mean, she can just sit with you and be. Maria Alejandra (my wife) is like that (although she's so well educated she can also talk for hours).

It's actually kind of strange, because - you wouldn't think sitting together each doing something, maybe not the same thing, was being together. I also love cuddles, and Dulce specializes in that. I never have to nap alone. Something warm and breathing puts its head on one of my shoulders, if not both of the younger two.

The older one (Maria) does as well, but I think that's partly because she loves her old man, and partly because she's got to claim territory. I've told her, of all of my children, she is the most like Jose Francisco - she was just - born a girl.

But she won't butt in on her younger sisters. She shares.

Jose Francisco, MAYBE he'll lie on my shoulder if his business is going to sleep and he's got a bottle and he wants to get to the business of going to sleep.

But he seems to prefer his mom or his oldest sister to me. No disloyalty felt, I just really think he is a man's boy... I can't teach him this stuff - I'm VERY emotional and empathic. He was just born this way. "I love you dad. Over there." He'll hug me when I come home and want to be picked up, and then he wants out of my lap and runs to go get something.

That's just... Jose Francisco. I wouldn't want him different. He demonstrates his love differently.

Telnarius: By head-butting you in the crotch ;)

David Beoulve: Not yet, but certainly in my head, and also punching me in the upper lip. He's 23 months old, and can do a child's punch. He's not really a child yet as much as a toddler.

Telnarius:
Hehehe

And then at 3 years old... he Piledrives Dave ;)

David Beoulve:
Well one can only hope, however unfortunate that'd be for me. He sure loves a challenge, though. We found him jumping on our bed just yesterday, and he climbed to the top bunk bed last week.

Does this post have a point? Maybe, if you can catch it.

Maria Alejandra is sick today, poor dear

Maria Alejandra is sick. I asked her three times if she wanted me to stay home and watch kids for her, but there are two problems:

1. Maria Alejandra is a Mexican girl, and they don't like to stop working. At least the good ones don't.
2. Our children are so well behaved that you can leave them to manage themselves for a day.

Bleh. I should have made a command decision to stay home and care for the kids; even being well behaved, the boy is "muy Latino" and Alay worries about him. His sisters are good at corralling him. Sometimes I have to remind him who "Pack Leader" is, but whenever I do he'll fuss (he gets embarrassed when I scold him) a moment and then do what I told him to without further objections.

I think that's fairly behaved, for a baby boy. I want him to listen to me and his mother when he's a teenager. I worry about the fussing part - what will that be like when he's a teenager? But Alay assures me that all of her brothers were like this, it's genetic, and all but one brother out of 6 listen to dad today, and they're grown.

I... cannot say. I know how to raise little girls; I'm still learning with the boy. I love them all.

David Dies, Keeps on Working

I... unlive! Election Day Tuesday I was up from 5AM until 2:30AM Wednesday, at work from 6am to 2am. I got 4.5 hours of sleep and I'm back in at work at 8:30am.

The image is some random guy dressed up, not me. I don't wear glasses and have a 'stach and beard growing. Well, what suffices for manly hair growth on my nubile face.

I called Kyle at AAC and everything is coming together. He's a bit pissed because a case didn't arrive for another customer he's working on (a computer for Microsoft) but was pleasant with me. He's also tired because he was up late as well. Running your own business has got to take a lot out of you.

Poor Maria Alejandra tried to wait up for me but feel asleep at 1am. My poor lovely, loving little Mexican girl. She's so devoted, so loyal.

Can't Keep Terecita

Dulce, Alejandra and I have all gotten sick because of Terecita. I made sure to leave the kitten with the girls last night so that Dulce would wake up sick and realize what needed to be done without us just landing the bad news in her lap. It worked. The poor dear got so sick she had trouble breathing, woke up, put the kitten in the guest/girl's bathroom by herself, and went back to sleep.

Alejandra felt so guilty that she tried to hide her symptoms.

I just don't know why I was able to keep Midnight for two weeks and not get ill, as I recall, and this kitten had my allergies going after the first night. We've bathed her and she's quite clean. We keep the litterbox in her bathroom.

Alejandrita showed me a purse this morning with a lab puppy on it that looks reminiscent of Bella. She said "I don't want Bella here because she try to bite Gose (jose)." I talked with her and made her feel better. I realized instantly that she was preparing herself for losing Terecita - she saw that her sister, Dulce, was sick, and her mother.

That poor child. She is so good with animals. I ordered Maria to take the kitten to bed with her for the purpose I stated earlier, and Maria said that the kitten kept leaving her and going to sleep with Dulce and Alejandrita. I knew why - Alejandra has played with the kitten, petted her and let her sleep in her lap ever since I found her.

This morning, the kitten meowed softly, then sadly, then angrily, then despondantly, wanting someone to let her out. She's become so attached to people - she's the cat I've dreamt of having, but alas - I can never keep cats. Alay can't use Dr. Chance's remedy while breast-feeding.

Perhaps my friend, Brandon, can help keep her until he finds a home for her.

A cat like Terecita is good enough to make me wish I had no allergies, that is for sure. She's just so - odd - for a cat. She likes to be around people and is content being in someone's lap much of the day. I taught the girls to let her go when she'd leave, so she wouldn't feel constrained, and it worked. The kitten just chooses to be in a lap and tries to nurse my daughters' long dresses. She doesn't want to sleep alone at night, though she'll nap in her cat bed you bought for her. Sad. I'll have to find a friend to take her - no way this kitten goes to a stranger.

Teresita the Kitten rescued from the street

I was driving to work this morning along the urban-green streets of Gainesville, avoiding the main roads, when I saw a college student walking along the side of the road with a kitten hopping through the grass trying to follow him. Periodically he'd stop and try to wave her off with his hands or feet. The kitten would duck, but continue following him.

A cat that tries to follow a stranger? I did the math quickly and stopped at the STOP sign, turned right, stopped immediately (this confused the red land-yacht behind me, who eventually passed me), turned the minivan around, and drove back up to the walking student, kitten still in tow.

I asked him "Mister, could you grab that kitten for me?"

"Sure," he said, "she's going to get hit by a car." He picked her up; the kitten ducked but did not protest.

"My girls will love her." I said, taking her into my arms.

I held her in my left arm and drove with my right on the ride home; she pressed against me and purred. Every moment I was stopped or slowing down, I'd pet her, and she purred. I showed up at home and got out of the 1986 Plymouth Voyager minivan, Rafael. My daughters, perplexed at my return, opened the front door and saw the kitten. The picture above was actually staged; I had already come inside and given them instructions and was then leaving.

All I said was that her name was Teresita and we were keeping her and to keep Dulce Maria (my 6-year-old) from getting too close because I didn't want her asthma or my allergies (which seem to be fine around a clean one-cat house, but kill me around male cats or dirty houses) to stop us from keeping her.

Lunch Time
When I came home for lunch, she was lapping up her milk. I stepped into the girl's bathroom with her (the crate is in there with some of the colored wrapping paper you gave us outside the crate and a towel inside the crate) and my daughters quickly followed. I brought her out and put her on the kitchen table.

Teresita saw the spaghetti and steak Alejandra had made (though it was cut super-thin, Alay didn't realize until she got home) and stepped over to it and tried to find something to nibble on, so I cut up a piece of steak into tiny bits and fed her one noodle and lots of bits of steak. So she sat on the table and ate with us, and she seemed to think this was perfectly normal. She'd look up at us once in a while and go back to picking at her food. Sometimes she'd come over to my plate, especially if she had finished what I had given her (so naturally I'd give her more).

Once she was done with that we put her back in the bathroom and kept eating. She hopped out immediately and went under the table and startled Maria de Guadalupe (and vice-versa). I picked her up and held her in my lap and proceeded to pet her and scratch her softly. The girls joined in. Then Teresita surprised me by suddenly splaying out her side and lying prone, so we continued to softly scratch and pet her.

Then she suddenly jutted out her neck and chin, offering us her most tender spot without fear or doubt, and I scratched her ever so gently, at which point she fell asleep. After it was time for me to go, I carefully lifted her and put her in Lupe's lap, who was on the couch, and she fell back to sleep. Her head stirred when she heard the garage door, but when I called home at 2:48 PM, Teresita was still asleep in Lupe's lap. I left at 2:20. Talk about a patient 9-year-old!

So, that is what we know about little Teresita so far.