My brother has gone back to playing the Sims in order to distract him from the disappointments in his real life. Over ten years of Sim games and still no disabled Sims. I know why, and of course there's a reason and it isn't personal, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. There's just something disturbing to me about watching my brother play himself in a game where everything is the same as his real life except that he can walk. It's kind of like that episode of The Office where Dwight plays Second Life and recreates his first life except that he can fly. I say, if you are living in a fantasy world you might as well go all out, with different gender, purple skin, and super strength.

Today a baby appeared in Terry's Sim yard.

Some random walk-by Sim apparently didn't care enough to aim for the door step, and they just abandoned the poor tyke in the no-man's-land between houses. "It's not mine," my oh so typically male brother said when asked why he wasn't taking care of the baby. But to be fair, it really wasn't his baby, and as it hadn't reached his door, he was unable to greet it or physically interact with it in any way.

The baby's name is Apple Lee, and it came from my sister's Sim family, where she is apparently married to the guy in Coldplay (who, I learned a few hours later, named his kid Apple for real). In an alternate Sim world, young Apple continues to grow and be cared for, hopefully even loved. But in Terry's version of simulated reality, she slowly rots on the sidewalk, with no one to change her diaper as the flies circle and the green stinky gas wafts up from her like so much animated limburger cheese.

My dear mother, bless her heart, was most concerned for Apple's digital welfare, saying she wanted Terry to look online and try to find a way to fix the situation. But there's nothing to be done. Maybe the baby will disappear the next time he starts the game, or maybe it is just stuck there forever.

Why does no one ever think of the children?

Today was my brother's 23rd birthday, and Mom gave him a Kindle. She hopes it will make his homework easier and maybe even turn him into a reader. I'm skeptical and fear that I myself just got a new toy. Oh noes.

But if Terry can actually get any of his textbooks on the thing, and he actually gets his class reading done and does his homework faster, then it will be worth it. His hands are so gnarled he started physical therapy today to stretch them back out. They're frozen in a pose of index pointer for hunt and peck typing on one hand and two fingers for operating a mouse on the other-- think years of fps games and never touch typing. Plus, his arms are weak so he has trouble holding textbooks as well as flipping pages. It takes him an hour to look up answers that most people could find in 20 minutes.

So, this is a very expensive and somewhat foolish experiment on my mom's part, but I hope it pays off for my brother.

And if not, *I* certainly had fun playing with it today. Harold Speed's manual on drawing technique is on Project Gutenberg for free, but without the illustrations. The paperback edition is on Amazon for $8 and has the illustrations, which the more expensive hardcover edition apparently doesn't (wtf?), but the Kindle version has illustrations too and is only $1.00. And I'm pretty sure the illustrations only ever were in b&w, so the Kindle version is actually the best value! Moreover, the text is a very dry theory book that I had trouble concentrating on reading it at Project Gutenberg, BUT on the Kindle I find it easier to focus beçause of the streamlined user design that tells me how much progress I'm making through the text without showing me the mound of pages I have yet to read. Also, it's nice to be able to highlight quotes and save them, and to increase the size of the text so I feel like I am reading much faster.

I don't know if it can convince someone who doesn't read to become an avid reader, but the Kindle certainly makes reading a more pleasurable experience for those of us who already love reading but have short attention spans. I also made it through all the BBC world news and some articles from Cnet besides. It does Twitter pretty well too. If it were mine and I found out I was going to Japan any time soon, I would take it on the plane.

Michigan is fun except that every time we drive anywhere I get carsick because the roads are so bumpy and the exit ramps are corkscrewy, and there is no horizon to stare at since everything is so built up even in Rochester. Whoof...

Had my JET interview. It was not the tribunal I prepared for and was rather pleasant and easy. They mostly asked me about my experiences abroad and with teaching. Dunno how I did, but they seemed to like me ok. Now life goes on til April.

We had a birthday party today for my cousin and her husband who have birthdays less than a week apart. There was a huge Italian dinner, two cakes, and my cousin's kids wore me out. I love em to death, but I am never having three kids 5 and under all at once. I just don't have the energy for two toddler boys and a baby sister who wants to be one of the guys too! We built a domino run, dropped marbles into a motion machine, I took pictures of them playing with their toys, and they randomly attacked me with plastic dynamite, Civil War style guns, and their fists. Grayson is three and in a hitting phase his mom is trying to break him from. Overall good kids though. I've just been seeing them too close to their bedtime.

We had the best strawberry cake ever today. Strawberry shortcake iced with hand-whipped cream and covered in chocolate covered strawberries. It is Nino's cake because his mom made it for the first time on the weekend he was born. She took it to the hospital and they cut into it right after he was born. So it is HIS cake, and she has made it for him every year for his birthday for 41 years.

And my cousin-in-law's dad looks like Italian TV's Frank.

That is all. Past my bed time. We may be going to Canada in a day or so though.

Rajah died today. It was a stroke, which was infinitely better than if he had hung on until his kidneys got him instead. We think he had a minor stroke a few days ago, and that's why he mostly lost the ability to walk. It didn't stop him from trying though. He rose up using his front paws for balance, would wobble a bit trying to get the other two legs up, take a few staggering paces and then fall over on his side and cry pitifully. We would try to guess what he was trying to do and help him get there, because otherwise he would wear himself out struggling down the hall. He wouldn't stay put if you just put him back where he was. But he was content to be in a lap or in sunshine. He wanted to be warm, and he always loved his people.

( stories, picture )
We buried him today under a stone dragon statue surrounded by the fish pond, an apricot tree, a forsythia bush and a flower bed. It seemed like a fine and private place, a beautiful one where I would never forget where he is. The three cats who attended Rajah's burial weren't in mourning, as cats only live for the moment and they were already over the fear of death they got while smelling him, but it was comfort for my mom that they were there while she dug the grave. Rajah deserved a king's burial.

Rajah stopped eating today. He's old and we think he's on his way out because of his poor kidneys and heart. He's been my cat since I was about 12 years old, and he was a very special Christmas present. I'll try to dig out the story I wrote about him when I was younger; I think I still have it somewhere.

Mom set him up with a towel and a pillow next to the heater in my brother's room, but what he really wanted was companionship. It's hard for him to walk now but he came to the front door when we came home and said, "Ow!" so we would pay attention to him. I sat and sweetalked him and stroked his ears and neck for a while, we offered him food and water but he wouldn't eat, and now Mom's holding him wrapped in a towel on her lap.

He doesn't care about food or even warmth anymore, but he still loves his people. We're going to give him as much comfort as we can until he leaves us.

Hell on Earth is living in a house where everyone else gets Netflix and they always request badly done action or martial arts movies. One of the best Christmas presents I got this year was my own Netflix subscription. I'm waiting for my first queued movies to arrive, but I've already been watching a lot of movies from the online instant queue and on DVD with Eric while he was here.
(Movies watched: Hogfather, Bananas, Wild in the Streets, One From the Heart, Paper Moon)
( movie capsule reviews )

If I were to make a hearthstone shaped keychain that lights up when you squeeze it, what color should it light up? Blue or green? I don't play the game... but it looks like the symbol on the stone is blue but there is green magic fire when you cast Hearthstone?

Oh, and do both Alliance and Horde use them? Or does the Horde have something that does the same thing but looks different?

Elemental - Cup Of Brown Joy from Moog on Vimeo.

was actually a Disney movie! as cheap and poorly executed as it was. I was surprised that I hadn't heard anything about it beyond an interview with James Marsden in one of my sister's teen magazines. But after watching it, I can see why Disney probably wanted to sweep this one under the rug. The animated character designs were an afterthought because most of the movie is live action. It's almost a good idea for a story, comparing the perfect world of the Disney princesses to the reality that is divorce and commitmentphobia. But the satire doesn't go far enough and mostly just comes across as a cheap Frankenstein of Disney classic moments.

The plot mostly holds together, but like the poison apples, there is nothing wholesome beneath this shiny surface. Being a Disney movie, it couldn't go far enough with the satire to risk hurting the Disney Princess *brand*. The most annoying part is the ending where the writers tried to subvert gender stereotypes with a single line of dialogue. Sure, Giselle is heroic at the very end, but for most of the movie she conforms to the insipid stereotype of the earlier princesses (ie, Snow White and Cinderella). Just saying that she's saving the guy and starting her own business doesn't change her role as a helpless damsel for all the rest of the movie. (And you know the McDreamy lawyer is taking care of her startup business costs, so she's *still* not independent!) Giselle chooses reality over fantasy, but the movie offers very little reason for her to make that choice.

Still, the acting performances are good, especially Timothy Spall as the villainess' toadie. I wish they had given him and James Marsden a bit more to work with. Giselle is fluffy and insipid and we spend the whole movie following her. Meh. Prince Edward (Marsden) is pretty insipid too, but at least he makes for awesome eye candy and if Disney's only going to advertise the film to teenage girls they should maximize the eye candy and give me more Marsden daydream fuel. Is Enchanted a really good movie? No. But is James Marsden really cute? Yesh!!! o^_^o