My Life in Concerts

I'm not a huge concert goer, so here's a quick list.

• 38 Special - KY State Fair
• Bad Company (w/o Paul Rogers) - KY State Fair
• The Violent Femmes (College)
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville
• Jethro Tull - Jacksonville
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville (yes again)
• The Moody Blues - Jacksonville (yes again)
• Queen plus Paul Rogers - Jacksonville (closes a circle of irony with Bad Co at the state fair)
• The Police - Wrigley Field
• The Moody Blues - Southern Indiana (yes, yet again)
• Lady Gaga - Louisville, won tickets at work

So, one thing that should be immediately apparent is that I really haven't seen bands playing in their heyday. Many of my favorite bands, The Doors, Hendrix, The Rolling Stones had members die before I was born. Others like, Led Zeppelin and The Who had members die before I was a teenager.

A side effect of this, the crowd at The Lady Gaga concert was more energetic than any I have been to so far. There were a lot more women in their thirties than I would have expected. The number of mothers their with either their daughters or a group of teens was about what I would have expected. The number of women in the 30's or 40's in the crowd was really quite surprising.

At other concerts I've been to, being dressed up was owning one of the band's t-shirt or a tie-die shirt. At this concert, fishnets and heels were nearly ubiquitous, even among guys in the crowd. Frilly little tutu things were also popular as was face paint and caution tape worn as clothing. Then there were some more exotic costumes elaborate costumes that mimicked something Lady Gaga had worn at shows or in videos.

This was also by far the biggest production at a concert I've been to. This is the only one with props, fire effects, costume changes, and dancers. Actually, there were multiple stage changes where the entire set of props in use changed.

My biggest fear was that Gaga would just phone in a performance since this was just Louisville, but she was high energy from start to finish, still jumping up and down during the 2nd encore. She was also good at getting audience participation, however, I have to confess, the Gaga claw as a form of crowd participation still mystifies me even after having seen the show. Still, the bottom line was that I was entertained. I'm glad I won the tickets and went to the show.

Childlike happiness

Caroline showed me this link this week:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple

I especially like the 4 panels where the main character is happy with his purchase. The way he carries around his iPride remind me of the way my nephew Blake carried around a toy that was called Kasey the Kinderbot, or something like that. He was too young to understand most of the educational games, but he loved the idea of having a robot friend. He carried it around with him and took it to bed much like the character in the comic.

Now, the cartoon's happiness soon vanishes into a spiral of foolish materialism. However, I keep wondering what it is about kids that they can be so happy with either a favorite toy, or just playing that we seem to loose as we grow up.

Kids and To-do lists

I watched my sister Michele's kids last Sunday afternoon. My nieces took to the idea of a to-do list for the visit when I suggested it. Blake kind of came up with an implicit to-do list of play video games and read about video games on the web.

Here's Taylor's list:

• Paint
• Play Rock Band 1 (because we haven't played that one in a really long time)
• Bounce on the ball (a big red exercise ball)
• Play chess
• Practice Karate kicks and chops

Lauren's:

• Eat candy cane
• Color pictures
• Help Eric do chores
• Play Lego Rock Band
• Eat rest of candy cane (added after she decided she wouldn't eat the candy cane all at once)
• Eat fancy chocolate now (as in, before lunch and not for desert)
• Eat lunch
• Do Karate punches
• Bounce on ball (the ball was popular)
• Help Ma do chores

Regan's

• Help Eric do chores
• Color pictures for Ma
• Draw weird pictures
• Eat lunch
• Do Karate kicks
• Do Karate punches (she scared Lauren & Taylor with her kicks & punches)
• Play Lego Rock Band
• Eat fancy chocolate for desert
• Bounce on big red ball (I told you the ball was popular)
• Help Ma do chores

There are some interesting differences. Taylor's list was the shortest, and she was the least interested in keeping the list up to date. For example, she did paint a picture of her suffed dog Mojo, but didn't mark that item off her list.

Regan was most concerned with accuracy. For example, she didn't mark off Rock Band even though we decided we didn't have time for it.

Lauren on the other hand was most concerned with making sure everything was scratched off the list. To this end she, marked off Rock Band once we decided we didn't have time to play, marked off Help ma with chores when she left my house, and marked eat lunch when I started cooking it.

One thing I thought was interesting was how Lauren and Regan mixed fun with work on their lists. Arguably, Taylor's list and Blake's implied list are nothing but fun. I don't think most adults would approach their to do lists that way, but maybe we should. To that end, my list for the weekend will include the following:

• Do taxes
• Watch Superbowl

Time is a funny thing.

Yesterday, Lauren and Taylor turned 7. When they were born, I was working in Jacksonville at Blue cross. I didn't get to see them until Christmas, and I had never seen babies so tiny. They were both probably in the 4, maybe 5 pound range.

I like to tell this story, but my co-workers in Jacksonville wanted to see pictures of the twins. I had one with Michele, Suzanne, and Caroline all in the picture with Lauren and Taylor. One asked which of my sisters was the mother. Ironically, I think that was probably another Lauren Elizabeth who asked that question. Another, Robbin Thomas, didn't let me answer, she said, "Oh that's easy. She's the one who looks tired." (I wish I had a digital version of that photo to attach.) All that would have been December of 2003 and the first week of January 2004.

When I moved back to Louisville in 2007, the twins would have just turned 3. In that time, I would have left Blue Cross to take a job at another company, been laid off from that job, and found a job in Louisville so that I could move back home. Also, when I moved back home, Regan was 5, and Blake was 7, the same age the twins are now. Furthermore, Karina, Ethan, and Abby had yet to be born.

Oh well, I guess that's enough musing on time for now.

Transcript of a saved message on my phone

Michele) Say it's Taylor.

Taylor) Uncle Eric, it's Taylor

Taylor) It's TAY-lor!

Michele) Is he there?

Michele) Are you talking to him?

Mom) Are you talking to Uncle Eric?

Michele) Hello

Michele) Hello

Michele) You might have gotten his answering machine.

I love this! I have to make sure I don't delete it accidentally.

Regan the Storyteller

Once upon a time, there were pigs who said: “Oink, oink.” They had names. The first little pig was called Taylor, the second one was called Lauren, and the third one was Regan. One day their mother sent them out to build their own houses. The first pig, Taylor, made her house out of straw. The second pig, Lauren, made her house out of sticks. The third pig, Regan, made her house out of bricks.

One morning the big bad wolf came to town. He was looking for pigs to eat, and he came to the first little pig’s house. He said, “Little pig, little pig, won’t you let me come in?”

And the pig said, “Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin.”

Then the wolf said, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I will blow your house in.” Then Taylor’s house blew down because it was made of straw. She ran to the second pig’s house.

The big bad wolf came and said, “Little pigs, little pigs, won’t you let me come in?”

Then Lauren and Taylor said, “Not by the hair of our chinny chin chins.”

Then the big bad wolf said, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in.”

Lauren’s house was made out of sticks, so the big bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew the house in. Lauren and Taylor ran to the third pig’s house.

Regan told Lauren and Taylor to come in when they got there.

Then the big bad wolf showed up. He said, “Little pigs, little pigs, won’t you let me come in?”

“Not by the hair of our chinny chin chins.” The three pigs said.

The big bad wolf said, “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in.”

He huffed and he puffed but he couldn’t blow the house made of bricks in. He had to come up with another plan to get in. He climbed up on the roof and tried to go down the chimney, but the pigs heard a noise.

The big bad wolf did not know that they put a big pot under the chimney, there was water in the pot, and a fire was burning under the pot. When the big bad wolf got in the house he landed in the pot. Then he flew out of the pot, and his tail was burnt.

The big bad wolf had to go to the Dr. Wolf. Then another wolf was making a robot wolf, and it said, “Little pigs, little pigs, tomorrow lets go to the apple tree to pick some apples.” It was just what the new wolf wanted his robot wolf to say.

The new wolf told the little pigs let’s go at eight AM to the apple tree. The pigs got up early, and they went to the apple tree and picked some apples. Then they went back home. A while later the new wolf showed up at Regan’s brick house to get the pigs to pick apples with him.

The pigs said, “We already picked some apples.”

Then the new wolf said, “What! How could you do that so fast?”

The robot wolf tried to punch down the brick wall, but it was too strong and the robot wolf fell apart. The robot wolf looked at the wall before he fell apart and said, “How did a pig make such a strong wall?” Then he fell completely apart.

The new wolf was upset that his robot fell apart.

The End

I found this on one of my USB drives while I was trying to free up space on it. It ends kind of abruptly, but I love the inclusion of the robot in what started out as a traditional Three Little Pigs Story.

WoW vs Other Computer RPGs

This is the second time this has happened to me. I'm currently playing Dragon Age Origins, and it's making me want to start playing World of Warcraft again. The sad thing is, it's not the multi-player aspect that makes me want to jump back in, it's the loot. The other time this happened was with Dungeon Siege. That one did make me jump back into the WoW world.

Ironically, it's the non-linear nature of Dragon Age that makes me frustrated with the loot you find. There are 7 tiers of material in the game. For the first 2/3 of the game, finding a weapon made out of the 6th tier material would be a big deal. Shops don't carry them, so for the most part you have to get them as quest items. That's fine. The problem is, late in the game, hired goons are running around armed with gobs of them. It's absurd. Another problem is that a tier 1 item with a +2 bonus to armor well might be more protective than stuff made out of the top end materials, yet I don't find the good stuff with the same sort of bonuses. It just feels wrong to have your max level character wearing unfinished light leather gloves because they provide better protection than massive dragon bone gauntlets.

Which gets me to another issue, the strength based requirement to wear different quality levels of armor is very annoying. WoW has a game mechanic that lets you wear anything you get as a reward for a quest. Sure, you might need to enlist some aid to finish a difficult quest, but once you're done you can automatically use your reward. What kind of game design is it to give a quest item that the player won't be able to wear until they level up 4 times? I also dislike the design decision to make the very best items in the game expensive shop items instead of quest rewards. I don't even want to talk about the economics of this game.

A large part of the fun of computer RPGs is decking your character out in increasingly better gear. Each item might only make a tiny difference, but those tiny differences add up by the time you've replaced every single item your character is using. It's a design mistake not to allow the player several opportunities to upgrade gear over the course of a game.

The long lifespan of a MMORPG is going to give the programmers far more time and resources to polish the mechanics of their game than the developers of a stand alone game will ever have. However they need to at least make them smooth enough so that when someone decides to play one, it doesn't drive them away from single player games back into the multi player ones.

Now from my post, you might think I didn't enjoy Dragon Age. That's actually far from the case. I love the game. I'm nearly done with my second play through. The story is awesome, but some of the mechanics and design decisions have made me want to play WoW again.