The Broken Sam
Posted on March 6, 2010
Detroit, family, samantha, winter
 The big storm of Feb, 2010, prevented the planned road trip to New Jersey where Heather’s cousin now lives and where an erzats family reunion was to surround that cousin’s 40th birthday.
The disappointment of the Jersey-bound family was extreme. They threatened lawsuits, which we laughed off. They attempted an occult summoning, but our many wards and talismans thwarted their so-called wizard. Ultimately they settled on paying for Heather’s airfare. Samantha had been looking forward to the trip more than anyone else, as she missed her second-cousins a lot, so I agreed to pay her way, while Riley and myself remained in Michigan in order to defend our house from looters. Mere hours after her arrival in the Garden State I received a text message stating that Samantha had fallen out of a bunk-bed, had hurt her arm, and was to be dropped off at a godless NJ emergency room by a party bus on its way to inebriate the entire family. X-rays revealed a broken elbow, and while the trip still involved some amount of fun for all involved, it will forever be remembered as the time that New Jersey broke Samantha. So its been a week, and while Sam has been fairly sanguine about the ordeal–at least as sanguine as an ADHD addled 8-year old can ever be–she is still suffering from aches and itches in equal measure. And since the whole enterprise had such a miserable ending I can’t even parlay the fact that I didn’t get to go into any sort of credit towards gaining some momentary personal freedom this weekend. *sigh* |
On MASS Effect 1 – Retrospective
Posted on February 6, 2010
 In the run-up to MASS Effect 2 I’ve reacquainted myself with MASS Effect 1, the 2007 game by BioWare. So, three years late, here’s my 10-penny science fiction fan analysis of the game: MASS Effect 1, a game not without flaws, is nonetheless my favorite current generation videogame. An RPG in the currently resurgent Western* style, it had a decidedly 80’s Sci-Fi epic look, feel and sound to it. Lots of gleaming, reflective surfaces surrounded you and your ears were treated to many Vangelis-styled electronic soundscapes. The plot, while nothing completely amazing to a dedicated science fiction reader, was really quite good for a video game; it involved the impending return of an inscrutible and unstoppable enemy called “the Reapers,” which apparently destroyed the galaxy-spanning precursor race called “the Protheans” many thousands of years ago. The universe of MASS Effect is like a clearinghouse of all the best Science Fiction ideas of the last thirty or forty years. Please, read on… |
Chase Auto Finance, Holy Crap
Posted on January 15, 2010
 On the way to work I missed a phone call, from a faraway areacode and a number I don’t know.
A stoplight provides opportunity, I dial back and an automatic attendant tells me that I’ve the unique pleasure of talking to the one-and-only Chase Auto Finance corporation. I wracked my brains but remembered no delinquency. The robots requested I tap in my account number or, barring that, my social security number. |
Restaurant Tour
Posted on December 31, 2009
cartoons, family, food, holidays
| Vicky, as prone to car-sickness as any other Starcevic descendant, assumed Gerald’s privileged front seat position and left her husband to sort through the crumbs and Archie comic books littering the rear seat of my Mazda. He made appreciative noises for the latter half of the twenty minute car ride which leads me to believe he may have consumed the crumbs without condiment. |
Lego Thimgs
Posted on December 8, 2009
On Saturday we visited the Henry Ford Museum and the touring Lego exhibit.
 Once the wall segments are prepared, the handlers place them upon the castle. Here you see Samantha creating her first piece of fortress wall. |
 There were helpful templates strewn about the supplied tables. Most of which were within child-arm’s reach of plastic bins of multicolored brick. Here you see Sam’s second fortress segment nearing completion. I enjoy the color pattern nearly as much as she did..Each assembled segment is added to the diaphenous fortress by the Lego handlers. |
 At 3:00PM (20:00gmt) the children contributors, surrounding the structure, were invited to strike it down and place the component bricks into the selfsame bins from which they came. The tear-down took no more than two seconds. Sam’s traveling companion, a fellow ADHD girl named Cayla, ran from the aggressive crowd which was. Sam fit in well with that sort and she emerged minutes later flush and happy with the destruction she’d been a part of. |
