eternally chaotic

I am not squeamish or faint or weak-kneed at the site of blood.  In nearly all cases where I have encountered it in the past, regardless of the details, it has never bothered me.  This is certainly not the case when it comes to the girls and bloody noses.  If it were anything else, skinned knees, cuts and scraps, whatever, I would just bandage them up, kiss the pain away and send them packing.  There is something about bloody noses though that scares me.  The location nor the seriousness of what is causing the bleeding is rarely evident.

Tonight I heard Piper crying on the monitor, this being somewhat typical shortly after bedtime, usually resulting in the need for a drink, often goes ignored for ten to fifteen minutes.  There was something though about her crying that caught my attention, everyone that has kids knows what I am talking about, a slight change in pitch or less whining or a layer of panic, etc…as a parent you know and it is hard to explain.  So I dashed up the stairs, hit the light and quickly took in the situation: Piper on her knees in her bed with her hands covered in blood.  It was smeared all over her face and had dripped and been rubbed over her clothing and bedding.

I was able to get her calmed down pretty quickly and once she saw it was only blood and not something else, weirdly she calmed down – I had expected the opposite.  I cleaned her up, changed clothing and bedding and had her lay back while we waited for the bleeding to stop together.  Interestingly she wasn’t crying because her nose was bleeding but because “something” was coming out of it and in the dark of the nightlight she didn’t know what it was and that scared her.  I find it a little ironic though that the princess of the pair didn’t mind the gushing blood but the inability to identify it properly – perhaps there is hope yet…

Since I have some unfounded fear of the nosebleed I decided to take a look online and see what I could find.  What causes them?  Are they serious in kids?  Is it normal?  At what point is it serious enough to head in for an emergency?  Time to squish the fear with knowledge.  So here is what I learned.

Anterior nosebleeds are the most common in kids.  Caused by capillaries that break and burst for no real reasons but possibly from allergies, a recent cold, sinus infection, dry nasal cavity, small fingers digging, etc… are mostly harmless and the amounts of blood are inverse to the severity of the problem in most cases.  If they happen more than once a week or continuously for several weeks the recommendation is to see a doctor just to make sure something more sinister isn’t going on.

Another thing I learned is that you should not tilt the head backward to help ease a nosebleed.  Supposedly it does not make it stop any faster than just applying tissue to catch the drips and it adds the risk that the blood will escape out of the back of the nasal cavity and into the throat.  If that happens and in rare cases it could cause you to vomit – I guess you stomach is squeamish about blood even if your eyes are not.

Cable and Satellite television companies have a lot to learn. I have been going through the process of trimming down what I subscribe to, not being a huge TV watcher, outside of the various shows that Tivo grabs for me, I know specifically what I want to be available. What I have found, and this is nothing new, is that I don’t like to pay for channels and/or shows that I don’t watch. More often I find myself thinking about ditching cable altogether and using various online services to scratch the itch. This sounds appealing but adds various complications to getting my various subscriptions to appear on the medium that I want to view them which is not my computer monitor, no matter how much I love it, but my high definition TV.

Current Inefficiencies:

As a cable or satellite customers I am only given a small number of choices about what program plans I can choose. These packages are predefined, pre-priced, and inflexible in their offerings. After deciding to use a certain company, Comcast in my case, love it or leave it, is the only option I have vs. broadcast thanks to an obstructed southern skyline at the appropriate angle from anywhere in my yard or on my roof. Comcast offers a small number of packages that each add onto each other until you can subscribe to everything they offer. I do not have a need for everything they offer but I do have an interest in a specific selection of channels. My problem, or issue, is that to get the channels that I want I have to subscribe to a mid-range package just below the premium offerings, paying a premium price for content that I don’t use. Satellite services such as Dish and Directv offer packages as well with no customization outside of the different options in each package.

Streaming Options

An alternative medium for me to cable is online. I watch the same shows, at the time of my choosing, with basic time-shifting built in, via sites like Hulu or OVGuide. I find this refreshing in that I can usually find what I am looking for and watch it on my own schedule. This is great for a missed episode or a recommendation from a friend or absent minded viewing while I work, but not for my primary shows where I want to relax in front of the television and not a computer screen. Options are starting to come out that stream web content directly to the TV but the technology is still immature and the user interfaces typically focus on specific features but miss the principles of K.I.S.S interface design. A recent option that is gaining momentum is ZillionTV – they plan and might actually succeed in bring the streaming content of the web to our living rooms – they get it – just like Tivo gets time-shifting for the masses.

À La Carte

If the cable and satellite companies will not give me any options there is someone out there that will. More often I am willing to find my show a few days after it airs via OVGuide, and ignore any commercials that might get in the way, my irritation to this is that I usually have to watch it on my computer. Advertisers have to understand the potential lose of revenue this leads to in scale – the cancellation of the Jericho series is a prime example of how time-shifting and online content can scare away funding from advertisers for a show that is loved by its fans. I however would be more than willing to watch commercials if they were relevant to the programs that I watched or preferences that I specified, or better, that I could train my set-top box to understand – the Tivo style thumbs up / thumbs down applied to commercials could tailor advertising content directly to me – in such cases I would be apt to actually watch them vs. time-shift around them when such an option is available.

Wish List – Listen Up Service Provider

I would like to see the following:

• A basic, simple fee, to support the generic infrastructure of providing service.
• The ability to subscribe to specific channel for a fixed price per channel and a discounting price, or sliding scale as I add channels to my account. I am uncertain what a single channel should cost but it should scale to reward those customers that subscribe to more channels or specific packages or recommend combinations. Channel prices could vary as well as there is no reason why premium content should cost the same as broadcast content, but the service provider should be cautious about overpricing – as an example I would be willing to pay fifty cents for each broadcast channel or a standard definition cable channel, one dollar for each high definition cable channel and two dollars for each premium channel such as HBO or Showtime.
• The ability to subscribe to a particular program on a particular channel at a particular time, but not to the channel itself. This might require an additional service such as having DVR access added to the account, as an additional fee, so that should you use a provider supplied or personal DVR, the show is made available to your signal at the specified time, or after normal broadcasting time potentially for a discount, for viewing either in real time or via a DVR.
• The ability to have commercials tailored to my preferences. Taking this option a step further training of commercial would be ideal. In practice of defining preferences I should have the ability to opt out of certain categories of commercials that are not applicable to my purchasing needs, desires, or habits. Applicable to a training technique I would like the ability to start fresh and tell the service what I like and dislike. To do this would require that I actually watch commercials, which I am okay with, but after a period of time I would expect the advertising content to begin to tailor to my liking and applied bias. Once advertisers understand that viewers don’t mind watching most commercials and would likely be happy to do so should the content be somewhat personally tailored, all involved parties would win – I might even be more opt to use the Tivo “Press thumbs up now to learn more…” feature.

Infrastructure

Asking for a upgrade in service from the service providers is easy but what would such an infrastructure upgrade entail. In most cases the connectivity to the market from the provider is already established. There would be the need for innovation on the side of the provider to add the above functionality to their content management and distribution systems. The technology seems to be close to some of the ideas already in that Comcast at least offers a significant amount of content on demand and I see much of the services I mentioned as an extension from that base with an added layer of management that understands more about my personalized preferences vs. a presentation layer to the masses.

In addition to the content providers’ themselves there would be a new market waiting to be tapped by set-top box manufacturers to add in the new features and take advantage of a new way of providing the same content to the same defined market in a new way. Advertisers would need to rethink how they market. They could take a given product and market it to defined groups of like minded viewers in different ways tailoring the presentation where it made sense. They would need to understand that some viewers are not appropriate audiences for certain products and they would have to respect our preferences to get us to agree to and honor a potential new partnership where time-shifting became a technique of the past.

Outside of the proposed benefits to Advertisers I was curious to see what my new cable bill would be assuming that the at a minimum the discreet channel subscription was made available. With a basic fee of $10.00, 6 standard definition channels at $0.50 each, 19 high definition channels at $1.00 each, and 5 premium channels at $2.00 each, my monthly bill would be (10+3+19+10) or $42.00 – Normally my bill for my cable package is $74.00 monthly with about three-fourths of the content not wanted and not viewed. This approach would continue, I am assuming, to pay the providers bill, and it would make me a happy, satisfied customers knowing that I am paying for precisely what I asked for and nothing more – wrap the service with a convenient, easy to use, subscription management system accessible via the web or the set-top box and bill me monthly for the either the high water mark of channels I subscribed to for the month or offer me a range where I can pay a set price for a specific number of channels but limit my options to change them to a few times a month to minimize abuse.

I certainly won’t hold my breath but I would love to see the cable and satellite content providers implement even one of the above ideas. If I had my choice the discreet channel subscription would be a great start and likely the easiest to implement in scale.

I have become a captivated fan of Joss Whedon’s new show on Fox, Dollhouse. As much as I despise fox for what they did to Firefly, they seem to have gotten it right this time, or at very least hired the guy that knows how to get it right. With the the episodes in order, I’ll reserve judgment on what else they might be able to screw up.

I missed the airing, as did Tivo, of the first episode. The week in between, although unintentional, allowed me to catch some reviews of the show online, however scathing they might have been. I also heard Whedon on NPR describing his new masterpiece. To be honest though the show is complex and I don’t believe it can be summed up in even a few episodes or short conversations. The characters are rich and deep, at least when they are not in their doll state, the stories that involve the “actives” are technically detailed, in the T.V. sense anyway, environmentally stimulating, action packed and somewhat dramatic. Whedon mentioned during the NPR interview that each episode was very similar to a pilot for Eliza – the person she is playing is never the same and continuously evolving – even in the doll state she is constantly becoming more aware of herself, current or former is yet to be seen.

The various story arcs present are what has truly entangled me into show and made me glad that Tivo didn’t miss a beat each Friday night. The short list from what I have seen include a rogue personality only known as Alpha who, with the help of a particular set of imprints and intelligence, has escaped after murdering everyone in his path with exception to Echo for whom he has a soft spot. I like the concept of what is being done with Alpha but it is very similar in description to another character named Alpha from the J.C. Hutchin’s audio book 7th Son. The chief of security, Dominic, seems to take his job to heart but has little love for that which he protects. There is a certain static, yet undefined, in his reactions and relationship toward the Dolls, in particular Echo. In each episode, or near, he has suggested that she be put in the attic, and I am assuming not in the nice fun playful way. Topher, the scientist that built and runs the imprinting technology, is busy trying to figure out who, possibly Alpha, has compromised their computer systems and now has the ability to remotely reprogram or deactivate the “actives” while they are on assignment – assuming they answer their phones. If it is not Alpha, and there is only minimal evidence to the audience that it is, that would open up another possible long reaching story arc with a potential corporate or government nemesis. Speaking of government, FBI specifically, agent Ballard is trying every trick to learn about the Dollhouse. He has some interest in Echo, or the person she was, but there isn’t so far a real connection, other than a few photos about why he cares or what she might mean to him, other than a case number.

So far each week has been entertaining. My favorite has been episode 5: True Believer. The story is interesting and captivating, even if the technology is a bit far fetched, but I love the immersion they provide Echo into the cult. I liken it to the events surrounding David Koresh but with a twist.

The show has merit but unlike others that start and you instantly judge them, Dollhouse has to grow on you a bit, perhaps in the same way that Jericho did – start with a bang – get to know the characters – start telling the story. The story concept is a bit foreign, or at least new, and the seasonal arcs needs some time to grow – there seems to be a breadth of background that we only learn in small chunks – but the picture seem to be more significant each time we get one. The characters are interesting, simple at first, but as you watch additional layers are added, or removed, to reveal something deeper, not philosophical, but attention grabbing with slight detail that if missed would diminish the whole. Just like Buffy and Firefly, and continually assuming Fox doesn’t find a way to screw with it, Dollhouse has potential to be a great show – okay maybe not “great” but a classic in the same sense as the others.

I still restrict much of what the girls get to watch on television, limiting shows to mostly pre-screened movies and a few shows on the Disney Channel or Sprout.  The past favorites have been Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Goodnight Show, Wonder Pets, and the like.  Recently, I don’t even really know how, perhaps Tivo loves us more than we know, a show was recorded that Piper, Violet, and I, loved.  Phineas and Ferb, another Disney show that airs on Fridays with plenty of reruns throughout the week to fill up the queue, is about summer break where two brothers think up fun stuff to do each day using their super wit, great imagination, cooperation with friends, and access to unthinkable tools to build their super sized creations all the while their sister Candice tries, futilely, to bring their activities to the attention of their parents.

There are plenty of other elements of the show to keep the story fun and interesting, including Perry the Platypus, Phineas and Ferb’s pet, who is a secret agent working to keep the evil plots of  Dr. Doofenshmirtz in check.  The evil doctor is my favorite character, his plots are hair brained and wacky and equal in proportion to that of the brothers, only with poor, but funny, planning and execution.  The show is funny, entertaining (even for me), thoughtful, imaginative and fun.  What used to be the girls asking to what Mickey Mouse has recently turned into something refreshing and new and perfectly appropriate for both their ages.

In preparation for an upcoming game night I have been reading up on some of the games likely to be played. And because it has been a while since I have played any of them I have been reading up on fresh (or old) strategies for dominating.

Risk is one of my favorite games and while lately I have taken a liking to the modern version, Risk 2210 A.D, I still enjoy the classic game without the extra complexity. I have never really used the web to learn strategy and have always relied upon playing often and with different tactics, learning my particular strengths through repetition. I have never excelled at Risk but I am learning that I spread my armies to thin, much to early in the game. I tend to take advantage of, and have had luck with, investing my troops in the conquest of my neighbors, near the start of the game, or within the first few turns. If things go well I will have amasses enough countries to bring in enough reinforcements to be able to hold what I have taken and perhaps even entrench a little before the next explosion through my new borders. This tactic seems to do well until the game starts to conclude and one or two players have clearly started to rise up as the dominate forces in the world at which point I have either entrenched enough to survive their turns or my armies are mere fodder for the advancing troops.

Settlers of Catan is a game that has come up several times but I have yet to play. From reading the Wikipedia page on the game it sounds intriguing. I get the idea that playing it will be similar to making the computer game Civilization a multi player board game. Not having ever played Settlers’ I don’t have any strategy to start from and the way it looks much of the game is chance regardless with resource production being controlled by a spin of the dice. The real strategy in the game seems to be about where you locate your cities and build your roads to keep others out of your territory as you expand your range of control. This game gets rave reviews from nearly everyone I know who plays it so I am somewhat excited to give it a try.

Nuclear War is another of my favorites and one that I have played countless times over the years. Strategy might be just a kind way to say – use whatever means you have at your disposal to systematically destroy ever ounce of your opponents population. You might have to wheel and deal a bit, or create an alliance to get rid of your pesky neighbor so you can focus on your real enemy at the table. The game is simple for the most part with early propaganda, secret cards to steal population from your opponents, delivery systems to make sure your warheads leave a lasting impression. There are some other cards, specials, that give you advantages in aggression and defense should you need them – and you will need them. This is, or can be, a very fast played game once all the players get the hang of it and with the only real objective to destroy all other people in the world but yours it makes for some great entertainment. In many cases it is hard to not destroy the entire world once you start launching your nuclear strikes, not from your strikes but from the all engaging retaliatory strikes that follow – sometimes just surviving once all out war starts is the hard part.

Illuminati is one of my favorite card games but I rarely get play it due to the time it takes to play a full game. With the various expansion packs that go along with the non-collectors version of the game, not to be confused with the collectible card game Illuminati, there are plenty of organizations to build your network upon and the wide variety of connections and special powers that come with each as well as the Illuminati themselves make strategy a must. I don’t need much help anymore building my networking and going on the offensive to accomplish my goals – I do prefer the ultimate destruction of the other Illuminati vs. playing for the specific goals, there is something more satisfying about wining by systematically picking your opponents networks apart piece by piece.

Munchkin is by far one of my favorite Steve Jackson games, just below Car Wars on the list of all time favorites – now if someone could just convince SJ Games that Car Wars was worthy of saving, upgrading and expanding…I digress, that is a topic for another day. Munchkin in great in its pure form where you play a particular set and maybe an add-on or two. The mechanics are simple and easy to master with much of the strategy being intertwined with fate and the draw of the cards. Countless times have one or more of the players been gimped with unusable equipment, no race, no class, and a handful of excellent cards that just get rotated out while the character is assembled. A few times we have doubled the amount of life available to extend play, particularly when we mix and match the different sets, just to get the true munchkin feel with some decked out character weilding a short sword, a photon torpedo launcher and protected by a tin foil hat and cute curly elf shoes.

Axis and Allies is probably my least favorite of the strategy games. It is incessantly detailed and takes inordinate amounts of time to play even a single round, let alone the game. I recall the last game I played was in 2004 at our annual camping trip and after much time spent in the setup I didn’t last more than three or four rounds before having my armies disintegrated or splintered enough that I could not recover. Twelve hours or so later the game ended. My irritation isn’t at AA itself, from everyone that plays I only hear that it is a great game but requires a pretty significant investment in time to learn how to play it effectively. I certainly have not played enough to understand even the basics of the game, let alone any strategy to be adept at playing it well.

This list could not be complete without mentioning Fireball Island. While actually a game that requires very little strategy unless you consider the decisions about which particular trail to use to minimize the potential of getting turned into charcoal a strategy. I have played games that are very short with only a few fireballs getting used and games that have taken hours upon hours to get the talisman to the boat, each time with the players trading out who has control of it over the last ten spaces. We tried Fireball Island as a drinking games once as well, drinking a shot each time the fireball was deployed, I don’t recommend it unless you idea of a great gaming night includes getting snookered as well.

Amused and a little reminiscent, I found Violet eating with Uno tonight.  She came running into the kitchen with a mouth full of something and after a few minutes of scraping mush out of her mouth I was not sure what it was.  I chastised her and sent her on to play.  A few minutes later I heard her in the dinning room screaming “mine, mine, mine…”.  Upon investigation I could only laugh as I watched her push Uno out of the way so she could get access to his kibble.  She already had another mouth full and proceeded to fill each hand – once stocked for the road she took off toward her playroom.  Curious to see what she would do I just watched.  I figured that she would chew it up a bit and spit it out, much like she does everything else.  Surprizingly, she finished what she had in her mouth as well as both hands and likely would have went back for more had I not convinced her dinner was ready.

I have been teaching Piper how to do mazes lately.  An instead of just purchasing books of mazes for her to color in, I have found many many sites online that offer them from very simple to quite complex, all available for download and printing, thus reusable.  One site stood out, and while not so kid friendly in locating the appropriate maze for a four year old, it did offer literally one billion mazes.  On the sheet that it provides you print out both a blank and the solution.

• One Billion Mazes

There were however plenty of sites where I found mazes appropriate for young kids to solve.  There are certainly tons of places out there to download mazes, but many I found were wrapped with pop up windows and other annoying site elements that make finding the actual downloads quite difficult. These were the few that were clean and easy.

• Krazydad
• All Kids Network
• Mazoons

While looking around I found lots of different types of mazes.  There was one site that offered types that I had never even heard of – grids, patterns, hex-grids, spaghetti, freehand, tiles, brains, designs, jumping, and 3-D.  All for the pleasure of getting a line from point A to point B in the most imaginative ways possible – now if I could just relate this to getting the girls to take their fork (point A) and put it in their mouths (point B) come dinner time.

• Mega Mazes

So far Piper loves to do these and is getting better at them the more she tries.  She still doesn’t quite understand the point or the rules, in particular that you cannot cross over the lines to go down a different tunnel, but with each new maze or the repeat of one she has done in the past she is learning.

What I thought might be a slow weekend has turned into quite the opposite.  The cold weather broke, amazingly only a few days after having snow on the ground, and the temperature has risen to a comfortable level in the sixties (or better).  Enough that an impromptu dinner was had with the Thompson family Friday night at a small park near their house.  We ate pizza, grapes and chocolate cake and played through the evening.  There was one moment in particular where I was wishing I had brought the camera.  Piper, Whitley, and Violet all crowded onto a tire swing suspended from some chains on swivel.  Once they were on and secure we spun them round and round all the while with each of the girls giggling and yelling for more.  Violet in particular had me laughing.  At first she sat down like the other girls but would not relinquish a piece of cake so she held on with only one hand.  Having never been on such a contraption before, let alone spun in circles on it, she certainly showed nothing but excitement.  Even during the few times when the single hand came free and  she started to come free did she barely flinch, only wanted to be sat right again so the spinning could continue.

The fun continued on Saturday.  We meet the Hewitsons, Thompsons, Farleys and many others at Jeronimoes to celebrate Conner’s forth birthday.  We have been to a few different jumpy gyms but this one was pretty fun.  It wasn’t crowded with overage kids and there was plenty of inflatables to pick from to keep even the pickiest of the bunch having fun.  Piper had a great time sliding and jumping with all her buddies.  There was enough even for the little kids that I wished later on (for a few short minutes) that I had brought Violet as well.

After an afternoon nap and recharge we were invited to dinner with the Hewitsons and Farleys.  This is where we were introduced to the toy of the summer.  I will likely hear about this marvelous contraption until I purchase it, and then I will continue to hear about it.  Michelle had mentioned to me in the past, and even showed me a picture of it, but seeing it in action certainly is better than a still any day.  The Extreme Coaster is what it is called.  Pretty cool toy – they need an adult version as well.  Piper took right to playing with it and certainly didn’t want to share once she started.  Next time we need to get two of them side-by-side and takes bets on how goes farther or faster.  Even Violet wanted in on the action so after she climbed the ramp we would put her in the car and let her ride it down just like the bigger kids.  I thought it might scare her or she might fall out but that wasn’t the case.  Violet loved it.  Even without the car to ride down she would climb to the top and scoot down the ramp on her bottom – all the same to her.  I didn’t get any video or photos but Paul took a few for me on his new toy:

Sunday came to quick as well.  We were supposed to meet the Farleys at the Zoo but ended up sleeping in too late and had plans in the afternoon with the Sways.  I didn’t remember to set my clock forward and hour to mark the end of daylight savings time and awoke to a message from Paul letting me know the were at the Zoo.  Sorry we missed you guys.  Once we finally go up Piper and Violet both were excited to see Zack and Kerri and their new little doggy, Princess – rightly named coming to our house.  We turned the afternoon into a cookout complete with sunshine, burgers, dogs, and fries.  The kids, and the dogs, wore themselves out – and us in the process.  Hard to believe the weekend has passed so quickly.  I guess after being mostly cooped up while it has been cold, wet, or both, any chance to play in the sun seems to fly by.

The girls are just at that age range, and Violet is still pretty young, that they are still a bit like oil and water.  It is becoming more frequent but still somewhat rare that they will play or relax together.  After we came in from the snow on Sunday the girls both grabbed books and jumped into the recliner.  After a few minutes of watching them battle for position they settled into reading their books.  Violet would watch Piper like a hawk trying to figure out not only what she was doing but being sure to mimic each and everything.  I was able to get a few pictures before they noticed me and started being hams.

What started out, or so I assumed, as a just another cold Sunday changed with some excitement from Piper, yelling about the sky falling from the playroom.  “Daddy, It’s snowing!!! It’s snow daddy!!!  Come hear, come hear”.  I don’t know what I thought she might be seeing but snow certainly was not on the list.  It has been cold and rainy, and later I heard that snow was forecast, but it so rarely snows here that it never crossed my mind that it actually was – silly three-year-old – what does she know.

Turns out she knows precisely what snow looks like falling from the sky.  This wasn’t just small flakes dusting the ground either.  It was the huge puffy wet snow falling everywhere.  At the point Piper noticed it had likely been snowing for a while as the ground, bushes and vehicles were covered with an inch or so.

Quickly we got dressed to suffer the cold and wet to come and rushed out to play.  Violet had been in snow before but not at an age she would remember.  She certainly had fun just running around and looking at the snow fall from the sky.  Piper enjoyed it as well but was quite obviously cold.  We played for a good while before I was able to get some pictures and we headed back inside for hot cocoa and chocolate milk.