My Best Gaming Buddy To Be

I think I am going to take a day off and talk about being a dad and nerddom.  I'll return to the setting-with-no-name after the weekend when I can hit you all up with organizations and inspiration and whatnot.  'Till then...

Being overseas for a large part of my adult life means that I have had to really search for gaming.  The internet has been a huge boon, allowing me to stay in contact with my gaming buddies back home.  Going back the the States once a year of so for our annual mini-Con, Nerdapalooza, has also helped.  But, real gaming is about getting together on a semi-regular basis, spilling soda on character sheets, and trying to explain complicated combat manuvers through a mouth full of pizza.  I dont get those moments a lot lately.  Probably wont as long as I am in my current (busy) job.  C'est la vie.

So it was with great pleasure that I watch TV shows with gaming elements.  As of late, I discovered Adventure Time, which is pretty much a catalog of all the goofy stuff I did when I first discovered roleplaying.  Adventure Time is quite witty and engaging, all sold on the veneer of a simple cartoon.  The thing is, due to my life situation, Adventure Time and similar shows are things I normally watch solo.  My wife isnt in to SF or fantasy - and cartoons are straight out.  I tried to get her on to Samurai Jack once.  That didnt work.  Nor did Avatar:tLA.

So, I (suffered) enjoy(ed) in silence.

Until the last couple weeks.  My daughter, Elliot, stumbled across Adventure Time when I was looking for something to occupy her.  She loved the show.  Tracie hated it (she calls it "that cartoon with that dog and the weird arms").  It makes me very happy as of late because in the mornings, while my wonderful wife sleeps in, E and I sit on the couch together and watch Adventure Time.  She is awesome.

What is best in life, Conan?  Watching cartoons you enjoy with your daughter.


Better yet?  I ventured forth with Samurai Jack.  E loves it as well.  She comes up to me every so often, tugs on my shirt, and flawless asks for "Saumrai Jack."  It makes sense, when you think about it.  Samurai Jack is not only visually appealing and (normally) filled with action - but the attention to sounds and music must make it that much more appealing to a really young viewer.  I have to be a bit more careful with Jack than I am with Adventure Time, just because the baddies in Samurai Jack, and especially Aku, are a lot more scary than anything Finn fights.  I cherry pick which eps of Samurai jack we can watch together.

Next up in E's nerd education?  Candyland!  Can't wait.

Terrible Gas

Let me just tell you, I hate farts. I used to love 'em. I have yet to meet a fart joke I dont think is at least chuckle-worthy, and possibly downright hilarious. However, once you become a parent, farting is suddenly deadly serious. You see, farts are the harbingers of bad things with babies. They may herald the coming of a heavy diaper. They may simply just smell like, well, like a fart. Or, in the worst scenario, they wake your baby up. Thats the kicker for me. I dont mind diapers. I dont even really mind dirty diapers. What I do hate is when my daughter is sleeping soundly, and then at 3am has to pass gas... and because she is a baby it doesnt come naturally. So, flailing commences. Legs are kicked. Grunts start. And, horrifyingly, she wakes up as her cute little intestines work the gas through her system. To a baby, even minor discomfort is usually a crying matter.

There have been nights, where I hear her little cry, knowing that she isnt fully awake. She begins to roll back and forth, kicking her legs. I know she has a fart coming. I dread it. I stay deathly still, hoping that if I am perfectly still that it will somehow make the fart pass and my daughter fall back asleep. Eyes wide open, breathing slowed, I pray that things (ahem) work themselves out. Sometimes they do, sometimes they dont and I have to get up and help put her back to sleep.

Waking at 3am hearing that your baby has a fart coming is a special sort of dread I never knew about until a few months ago. Its terrifying and demoralizing at the same time.

Farts. They wake my daughter up at night. For that, they hold my eternal enmity.

Babies, Names and Trains

Time to talk about life.

I met with my buddy Keeton last night and his wonderful wife, Jamie. They are cool people with a nifty new house (and nicely cut lawn, I do declare) up in Denton. A lot of my life was spent with Keeton in it, and it was great to see him again. We grabbed some beers, made a run to Sonic and watched a show I had never heard of called "Archer." Good times.

Holy crap, Archer was awesome. If you like dry humor, and know what I refer to whan I spell out: ATHF. Go see it if you haven't.

Aisha Taylor is the voice of Lana. Win.

My discussion with Keeton and Jamie (who have a beautiful little 5-year old girl) got me to thinking about stuff. Baby stuff. One, when asked if I was excited about the baby, I really wasn't. I was a little alarmed by that and thought rather than deal with my emotions - I'll post here (I am sure there is a psych evaluation just waiting to happen with that sort of narcissism). Two, its about time I posted my slightly curmudgeonly view on names.

Lets start with Excitement.

As many of you know, I am about to be a dad. The baby is due Sept 20. I get asked a lot about how excited I am. My answer is normally "meh." That response gets a lot of raised eyebrows.

Honestly, I am "meh" -- at least most of the time. I have been excited on and off throughout the last eight months, especially near the beginning when I was reading my daddy books and coming to grips with the changes that are to come. So why am I "meh" now? Because its hard to keep up that excitement for nine months. At some point along the way, I came to grips with my current situation - which is basically constantly in waiting with imperfect knowledge about a radically different future. I'm waiting for baby. I'm waiting to catch back up with Tracie. So, I am "meh" until the next stage, the birth, when I will get excited again.

I mean, all you hear as expectant parents is how much your life is going to change and how you can't prepare for the demands of the child. Okay. Fair enough. If I can't prepare, I am going to go into "meh" mode, preserve my energy and anticipation for the baby, and accept that I can't even imagine the changes. I'll listen to the advice, take what sounds reasonable, make preparations from that reasonable advice, and just stay as emotionally neutral as much as I can.

So, I'm "meh" for the time being. Once I am with Tracie, once the baby is on the way, thats when I will get excited. 'till then, I wait. Even then, a little "meh" to help keep us grounded and calm is probably a good idea.

Names and Blissful Ignorance.

People ask us if we have a name yet and what we will name the baby. I dont give the name. Why? Because if I give someone the name then they might tell me about how they had this jerk boyfriend or horrible girlfriend in high school and he/she sucked so bad. I dont want to know he/she sucked so bad and that they have lingering baggage with the name. Ignorance is bliss since I dont want to even have a hint of an idea that we should change the name -- no matter how horrible the person was. Tracie and I have finally found a name we like, and we are going to stick to it, come hell or high water -- and I figure its easier to keep it a secret now and avoid all the horrible stories that certainly exist with the name we chose. I know Tracie and me, if we hear the bad stories, we may actually change the name.

So, we keep the name to ourselves until after the birth (when, not coincidentally, I will get excited. see above). Tracie and I figure after the birth, when the baby has the name once and for all, its too late to make the change.

Trains.

When you have a baby on the way, you look at stores and what they have on the shelves differently. I notice strolers now - never did before. I see wet-wipes on the impulse buy shelf and think we should stock up. Yeesh.

I went to Toys R Us yesterday to buy a couple waterguns for the upcoming barbecue at my Dad's lake house tomorrow (win). What did I see there?

Holy crap! Baby needs that.

Hm. Now that I think about it, baby also needs one of these: