Competing with Teenagers

DAY 28

Gaming the last few nights has been racked with interruptions.  We have fallen asleep while playing games two days in a row.  John is eager to play both Bayonetta and finish up Marvel Alliance 2.  He is a little jealous that his teenage cousin who just bought Marvel Alliance 2 is already further along than we are. 

Today Inara requested that we play Little Big Planet.  John let her re-dress his character with the accessories of her choice. Apparently this is a task that she and John have completed before because she had marching orders ready.  First was changing its hair color and then putting his sock-person in a “spiny-dress.” 

We have to be out of the house ever day by 7:15 am. By out of the house I mean all four of us dressed, fed and prepared for the day.  Sleep deprivation has demanded that my blog appear before its usual midnight hour.   It has been a nice hiatus the last few days that allowed me to get my class preparation done & read another vampire book before the quarter started.

Even while prepping for my classes gaming has not been far from my thoughts.  I ran out of juice writing quiz questions and made Jeff Gerstmann of Bombcast a possible answer.  I wonder if my students will google Bombcast or just think I am crazy?  The funny thing is, it is such a wildcard answer some students will probably select it.

We beat another boss in Marvel Alliance 2 and are headed off to bed.  Hopefully we will catch up with those darn insomniac teenagers. 

Doing It with the Lights On

DAY 14

John and I almost always play video games in the dark. The darkness might hold some deep symbolism or “symbology.” It is more likely because when it is dark John does not notice me jerking side to side to will my avatar to maneuver better (which I honestly do.) Perhaps the movie going experience has impressed upon us that screens are best illuminated in darkness?  Or is it just the best time since our kids are sleeping?  I am sure it is most likely due to the latter but today we successfully played for an hour while it was still light outside. 

When we began play of Little Big Planet I realized John had put yellow duck stickers all over my dress. Big yellow ducks are not flattering, even on a sock version of me.  Luckily, I can wash my costume in the game LBP.  The Frida levels we played today had explosives and my mantilla got all sooty so this knowledge came in handy.

John thinks that my character is scary.  I think she is adorable. I think our characters even look like a pair.  We both favor zombie-looking accessories with neutral colors.  John adds tacky accessories to his character but we still look cute.  I need to get a screenshot of our little people running around.  We spent more time today just being with one another during gameplay.  We played with explosives, taunted scorpions, died on cactus and danced. Even though there is not utilitarian purpose in the game we danced.

In the summer of 2006 John and I attended the amazing wedding of our friends Eryk and Dena in Hawaii.  The reception guests were inebriated enough that John felt comfortable dancing with me.  For the first time in the decade since we had been a couple we laughed, spun and danced.  Today while we were playing LBP Johns little sock man grabbed my little sock lady and dragged me to the dance floor.  We spun, made faces and danced for no particular reason.  Not to celebrate beating a level, bad guy or earn points: we just danced. 

Gaming Purgatory & the Subsequent Snuggling

DAY FOUR

Sometimes when you are tired, stressed and just need a quick break playing games is the best cure.  Today was not one of those days.  We borrowed DJ Hero.  John played DJ and I played guitar.  We played about five our six songs before we just realized 2-player was not fun. LBP has been old faithful the last few days so we decided to play a few downloadable sequences. We counted the minutes until finishing our hour and finished our time tired and restless. The stress of the holidays and sick little ones was not helped by gaming.

Tonight gaming together was not fun.  On the bright side we are not trying to decompress in separate spaces then falling asleep apart.  We shared our gaming purgatory and instead of staggering slumber we head off to bed together for the first time in many months; a nice bi-product of our hour-long ritual.      

John’s Addiction to Accessorizing

DAY THREE

I was almost ready to go to sleep and give up gaming a few minutes early today but then we played the Frida level of LBP and I was sucked in again.  If you do not know who Frida is then please google her immediately.  One thing I learned on our levels today, that I kind of already knew, is that John is a costume whore.  He loves to accessorize his characters. I have given him grief for this previously when we played WoW.  LBP makes it so easy to re-equip stuff that John will stop in middle of level and change appearance.
 

I must admit the costumes in the Frida level are too cool.  I know have a mantilla and skeleton face on my little person.  She looks a lot like me on Dia de los Muertos.
 

As I wrote this entry john took a few minutes to decorate our house (our LBP house).  It is nice he is taking initiative but feathers and scary faces is not my idea of interior design.   The rubber ducks and myriad of flowers on the ceiling are refreshing. We need to get some more items and rework the place in a few days.

I am so glad we get to use our PS3 for more than watching our 2-year olds Disney blu-rays.  

Nursing and Gaming- Our first Roadblock

DAY TWO

It is a cold rainy day here in Btwon. I went for a jog and John went to donate blood.  After our daily obligations we found time to get in an hour of Little Big Planet. 

Before our hundred days I had watched John play LBP; I thought the controls would be more challenging than they are.  I had issues with depth but the game is really easy to play. After getting through the first few levels my 10-month old demanded my attention.

We made a marital commitment and a hungry infant did not impede our gaming.  I angled the baby to nurse while playing LBP.  Nate loved watching us play and we made it an entire level before he realized that the controller makes the little people on the screen move. We were not so successful in our user created play of Ninja Warrior.  Breastfeeding while gaming has put a kink in our plans but not stopped us.