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I have had my xbox about 3 years now.  In that time I have played only a few games, my favorite being Call of Duty 4.  With that exception it is even rarer that I have ever played games on xbox live.  What I do use xbox live for though is access to Netflix streaming services.

An interesting bit here is that I still have an xbox live account – and will until it expires next April.  I am uncertain what I can actually do with it barring purchasing another xbox to use it with.  I don’t even want to play games with my console, I just want access to Netflix – why can’t the Microsoft gods understand this and kindly re-enable my console.  There certainly is no one to blame for this but myself.  I guess insisting that I had backup copies of my games wasn’t worth the price after all. 

Until we figure out what to do the Tivo will be our interface to movie heaven.  Purchasing another xbox is one option but it would have to be new from Microsoft to ensure that we weren’t buying a xbox that had been banned just like ours had.  Unfortunately the Tivo interface is significantly subpar to that of the xbox when it comes to Netflix streaming.  I am curious why though.  Microsoft certainly went the extra mile in their design providing access to the top 100 lists for each of the primary movie categories, access to the queue and the ability to setup movie parties.  Tivo offers only a vanilla connection to the current queue with no ability to actually manage the queue.  Hopefully the Tivo developers get off their rears and deliver an interface at least as useful as the xbox version.

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The primary part of the discussion was trying to figure out when specifically the clone wars took place.  Once that could be nailed down they would be able to pin point when Vader had died.  One problem though was that each of the boys understood the time-line of the show differently.  Isaac assumed that in context the original three movies happened prior to the most current three.  In addition he wasn’t quite sure where the animated shows fit in at all, other than to know they were related to the clone wars in general.  Jacob on the other hand knew the appropriate order, including that of the animated episodes, and he was trying in vain to explain that the most current movies really came first.

At some point, I think when I put dinner on the table, I was pulled into the conversation.  Happily so I might add.  I wasn’t going to interject, wanting to hear the conversation evolve as well as the excitement and vigor with which each side’s case was presented, argued and defended.   Isaac was adamant.  Jacob was done – “Mr. Isi – When did Darth Vader die.  Before or after the Clone Wars?”  Not wanting to crush any spirits with a quick and dicey answer, I sat down with dinner, and we walked through the progression of each episode.  I realized that it is hard to describe what a prequel is to a four and six year old.  There were certainly more questions, plenty of tangents, and much of “but that..”, “but they…” etc… in the end however, Isaac seemed to get it and was able to put things in their proper order in his head.

After dinner had passed I got to thinking again about the conversation and was somewhat exhilarated to have gotten to participate and be mediator for argument about Star Wars.  Not that being a parent doesn’t offer plenty of opportunity to do this but rarely is the topic about some nostalgia that has always been a part of the fabric around us.  There is a certain amount of unexplainable pride that goes along with seeing kids interested in the same stuff you were.  Same thing had happened when we were camping a few weeks back and Isaac taught Piper the Indiana Jones theme song.

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Just like the other millions or so people around the world we love our iPhones.  The problem is, so do our kids.  And whats wrong with that…why nothing of course.  Who doesn’t want to play an endless array of free or inexpensive games to pass the time of a ride in the van, or listen to the discovery channel, or…well point made.  The damned thing is brilliant (or at least many of the apps are), but I digress.

Our kids play on our phones a good bit.  Mostly in the van or while visiting somewhere or shopping, anywhere they don’t want to be or anywhere that invites boredom.  Other times and places we push the device on them like the local crack dealer so we can focus on a task at hand – try taking four to the dentist, all with back-to-back appointments and keep your sanity – like I mentioned – we love our iPhones.

The problem isn’t that our kids play on the phones, it is the lack of one key feature: Kid Mode.  What, per se, is Kid Mode?  It is the missing ability to lock portions of your phone before handing it over to your kids, or anyone for that matter.  It is the ability to create a profile for each of the users of the device and the ability to manage or change those profile only with some super secret password.  It is the ability to hide or disable applications.  A way to prevent connections to the Internet.  Ability to lock sensitive or private settings, features or applications.  The prevention of text messages from either displaying upon receipt or from being sent.  I really think I could make this list go on for a bit…however, there is one more that sits at the very top of my list – the ability to disable the Home key - that unmistakable indention that attracts your attention, your hand, and screams push me, you know you want to – which so happily turns off whatever the iPhone happens to be doing and transitions the screen to wherever the Home key happens to be mapped.

Some of my complaints…er suggestions assume younger kids, but I think they apply across the board and perhaps even in general – you can access a good bit of your life from that applications available.  Our boys can certainly navigate around the phone quite well – to well maybe – and our girls are getting better at it.  Should some of these ideas ever be implemented I envision being able to hand the iPhone to our two year old, setup to play a twenty minute episode of her favorite Disney character, and not hear requests to play it again shortly after – that big button that says “push me” wouldn’t do anything anyway because it had been disabled.  I envision being able to setup a profile for each of our kids or a guest, and perhaps using iTunes, add applications, games, podcasts, music, and other features to their profiles that are appropriate for their age, intellect, and desires.  Then when we offer our phone for them to play, we select a profile, enter a password and pass it happily.

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The site has into evolved into something more grand – originally a place for tales about the girls – it is that and more now.  While there will certainly still be entries about the girls, there will also be entries about the boys, as well and Carol and I, perhaps Uno and maybe even some thought about all the stuff in between.

If the name wasn’t going to be Princess Hell anymore what should it be?  The dilemma of a domain name is not one easily solved.  Many names came from friends and family – some making fun, others serious.  Here are some of them:

• Im Not Yelling . com
• Stop Touching Me . com
• Isi and Carol plus 4 . com
• My Freaky Family . com
• Blissful Chaos . com
• Growing Pains . com
• Be Quiet Please . com
• Chaotic Bliss . com

On theme stuck though once we started going through the recommendations – Chaos – Our lives are certainly that.  Now we just needed something to put before or after to make it whole – our life as a family isn’t just chaotic – it is special…more.  We tried hundreds of permutations with the variations on the word chaos.  Most didn’t make sense or were taken – chaoticbliss.com was $2,000 – no thanks.  Then I got a message from Carol one day, completely unrelated, that mentioned the word “eternally” and within a picosecond the name popped into my mind – eternallychaotic – and about another picosecond passed before I had checked the availability of the dot com domain and registered it.  Ok well maybe it took longer than that….but not much…and the delay was in godaddy’s response time – and thank the stars the name wasn’t already taken, thus eternallychaotic.com was born.

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This has been fun, if tedious, to learn and do.  The more we practice the better we get at both at the reverse spelling and the listening and decoding.  Now if we could just add a cipher in there in case the kids catch on.  Maybe ROT13…they are still young…that should fool them for a few years.

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