Category Archives: Jon

Zelda’s First Day At Nursery School

Posted on by

Didn’t happen. She was supposed to start today, but, due to having a fever, she missed it and stayed at home instead. Her three-day schooling-in will most probably start tomorrow.

I feel somewhat sad at Zelda’s departure into a new world. I have no recollection of feeling this way when Freya began nursery school – do not take this to heart, Freya, since my memory is both selective and poor. My little girl is off to start a new adventure, when all I really want to do is keep her close to me for a while longer.

It is not that I have reservations about the school: I work there. I know she will adjust well, and will enjoy the experience as much as Freya does. One thing does play on my mind, though. The general attitude has been not to pamper any new child that cries when s/he misses Mum or Dad. A certain amount of picking up and comforting is acceptable, but too much should be avoided, in case the child becomes attached to the teacher.

I disagree completely with this philosophy. I would rather that a child may become fixated with me, though happy, than to cry ceaselessly for a number of weeks, while I stand there espousing the virtues of an off-hand appraoch to child-care. I prefer to deal with a problem of attachment than an unneccessary amount of separation anxiety.

That said, every child seems to get over not having their close family near, and I m confident that Zelda will not be affected by the ordeal. I just wish there were more people like me.

Tempus Fugit

Posted on by

Over a month has gone since my last entry. Every time I start up Firefox I am reminded of my inability to update the blog. I have things that I’d like to write, but I am simply uninspired or unwilling to spare the time to do it. Which is a shame because the whole jonjo thing is mainly for my daughters’ sake.

In my defence I have been keeping myself busy. Having two offspring is a worthwhile expenditure of time which does take up a fair slice of of, what would otherwise be, free time. And then the writing of school books has demanded a certain amount of my consideration. Tidying up also detracts my attention from inscription. Honestly, by the time I could be doing what I’m doing now, I’m usually ready to lounge with a glass or two of red wine.

But tonight I am without alcohol, with nothing on TV to jostle for my attention, and without any school-book writing to do. I finished proof-reading the second book yesterday. I await further instructions from my editor – I expect few – and so I am freed of one obligation.

I have been better at organising myself of late. With the thought of all the things I needed to do (or should be doing) constantly eating away at my stress level, I finally reached a point where I told myself that I required alleviation. My new routines are far from perfect and still need working on. I still feel unnecessary stress at certain points throughout the day. In general, though, there has been an improvement.

The next step in getting my life in order should logically be a restructuring of the evenings. These are the most valuable moments during the day, and could be where I become efficient enough to make a huge difference. All it requires is a modicum of self-discipline. Hmm, not sure I lke the sound of that.

Posted in Jon

Laughing my Arse Off – A Taste Of Metaphors

Posted on by

Oh, I am on a roll tonight: three Metaphors before I’ve even started.

I’ve been reading a few books about language and linguistics recently. I’ve vaguely contemplated a stand-up comedy routine using the subjects – a few ideas have popped into my head – but I don’t think the world is ready for it. Unless comedy is broad enough to cover the unfunny, that is. But I do have a joke. Well, more of a witticism:

I hate metaphors: they get on my nerves.

While the tumbleweed rolls past, I just found out that there are many forms of metaphor. There’s the active metaphor, the complex, compound, dead, dying (of course), and so on, until everyone falls asleep (oops, another metaphor, probably the dead variant).
Not many people care about them, though, and understandably so. But it makes me happy. Except when it comes to metaphors. Grrrrr.

Family Fun

Posted on by

Freya was in the mood to play video games this weekend. It started off with a bit of bowling, tennis and Mario Kart on the Wii. She soon got tired of playing them, and asked if I had anything else. I didn’t think I did have much that was suitable for a five year old, but I found the classic hack and slash (and one of my favourite childhood games). Gauntlet. lurking in a pile of Playstation 2 games. She loved it, and we played for an hour or so, working our way through the never-ending hordes of ghosts, grunts, demons and the like.

After a few sessions of Gauntlet, Freya decided she wanted to try out something else. Jo and I had been talking about introducing her to the world of Mario, so we bought out Paper Mario on the Wii. Not only is Paper Mario typical of the Mario series, with secret areas abound and devilishly wonderful level design, but Mario can flip from a 2D to 3D. Sadly my writing skills are not finely honed enough to comprehensively explain what this does to the game, but it brings a fantastic dimension to the game play, and is a far cry from Gauntlet or Dora that Freya has been playing of late.

Jo, Freya and I played Paper Mario all Sunday afternoon, taking it in turns and helping each other get through the levels. Freya sometimes lacked the self confidence to attempt a few parts of the levels, but generally she picked up the idea and method of control very well. She even managed to keep up her interest through the (way too long) conversations that drove the game forward. And she gave the big boss on the first level the coup de grâce.

Going back to Gauntlet, I used to write a gaming blog. I found this entry about the very version that Freya and I have enjoyed playing:

Sunday, January 16. 2005

Re-living Gauntlet

Gauntlet has been in my top-ten arcade games for as long as I remember. It was with a great deal of pleasure and
anticipation, then, that I went out and bought Midway Arcade Treasures on the PS2. Having played it for 2 evenings
solid, two-player mode, I now realise that Gauntlet is less a game, and more a form of entertainment.

There is, like many other games of its time, no real objective, and no end. The difference with this and its peers is that
there is unlimited life, as long as you had the money to buy extra health. Nearly all the other classics had a “10p for
three lives” premise, which meant that you had to be good to progress and get the high-score. It was not important to be
good at Gauntlet : being rich was good enough.

The console incarnation allows you to add extra health by a simple click of a button, which, for most people, is far too
tempting to ignore.

And so, because of the relative simplicity of the game, after the initial retro-rush, I was left suitably unimpressed. There
was not enough development in the game to warrant my interest. 100 levels was more than enough (and I only played
this much because I was unaware there was no end).

I still have a fondness for Gauntlet, and will still feature high on my list as an arcade-game. I don’t think I’ll be playing the
console version again (until I get Gauntlet 2 on Midway Arcade Treasures vol.2).

Dora Beaten By Freya – Ironically Without Violence

Posted on by

Freya has finished her first ever video game on her own. Dora The Explorer – Journey To The Purple Planet. It was hardly the most cerebral of games, being linear and very forgiving, and it’s not her first time playing, either. Oh, no. Since she was about three years old she has been drawn to the Nintendo DS, and has many games which she likes to try out now and again. We’ve played together for many, many hours, and have completed the odd game or two, but this is the first time she did it with almost no help. Once she’d learnt how to save the game the only times I assisted her was when she could not hear what instructions Dora was giving.

I’m currently waiting (and so is Freya, with baited breath) for Singstar Abba to arrive, which will be our next family adventure in video games, although, in fairness, Singstar is more karaoke than gaming experience. Our newly purchased wireless microphones are lying pathetically in the Guitar Hero dual guitar holder that I received for my birthday.

I hope it arrives in time for Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest qualifier. The two go hand in hand.