Muhahahahahaha! Here I am tweaking the world's power supply! Tweak, tweak!

And the original:

The other day I felt like playing some Guitar Hero and I asked Logan if he wanted to use the Playstation with me. He goes, "We have a station?" I say, "Yeah, look [pointing]... Playstation 2." He says, "Oh! I didn't realize! Kids at school talk about their stations and I didn't think we had one."

We have previously gamed together and he particularly likes to watch me play Ratchet & Clank. My wife, however, realized that R&C is rated "Teen" (for some reason), and has decided that Logan is too young to watch it. It does have a lot of violence, but it's extremely cartoony and doesn't involve humans. But I agreed, so I showed him some other things.

I showed him Super Mario World, the most basic of SNES games. The game is old school but still amazingly great. He really got into it. This might have been a mistake. He frickin' loves it.

Yesterday we were going over to Nana's house for Mother's Day and I thought I'd show him my GameBoy Advance SP, which of course, has Super Mario World. Holy Taco! The response was immediate and severe. He was like, "This is the same as the game on the TV except I can take it wherever I go?" Right on my little Padawan.

One of the best gaming devices ever

The whole day he was like, "Can I play Mario? Can I play Mario? Can I play Mario?" Oh boy. What did I start? I'm happy that he is discovering the magic of interactive gaming, but I don't want it to become an obsession. This is both good and bad.

It's easy (at least while they are young) to keep kids from getting involved in "poor choice" activities by keeping them in a vacuum. Two days ago he didn't know that GameBoys existed and therefore he didn't want to use one. I'm tempted to just roll back the clock and take the GameBoy away completely. But is that really fair? Better, I think, to use it as a learning opportunity.

Make it a reward that he needs to earn. Teach him about the dangers of over-indulgence in any single activity or behavior. Give him cues as to when it is appropriate to go off and play and when it's not.

Blue wins.

Neat! I just realized this existed!

ApertureScience.com

I was able to enter the site and complete the new employee application. There are also a few easter eggs hidden in there.

I like this. Like the instrumental music and the animated portal gun.

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/cube/

Oh, and by the way, I played Portal AGAIN yesterday. My kids constantly want me to play level and then see the ending song.

I've created a Picasa gallery that highlights some of my recent (and not so recent) gaming. Some of the earlier shots are from the Lord of the Rings Online beta. A couple of them show glitches.

The latest ones are from Team Fortress 2, which has AMAZING visuals. And there are a couple of my house in Middle Earth that I bought 2 days ago.

Here is a link to the song that is sung to you by GLaDOS at the end of the excellent game, Portal. The song is quite good, and has made it onto my iPod. However, it won't carry quite the same emotional impact unless you've just spent the previous 3 hours running through the Portal Enrichment Center. If you don't "know" GLaDOS, then it might fall flat for you.

I'm Still Alive - GLaDOS

Um... scratch that Orange Box entry. I am currently on a gaming high as I've just had one of the best gaming experiences of my life. My life, I tell you!

One word:

This game is a 3-hour experience like no other. And the end-game is nothing short of gaming genius. I hate to spoil the finale for you, but the game actually sings to you at the end. I was so shocked and impressed by this that... well... I just can't stand it... it was so awesome.

Portal starts out as an enigma. You are like, WTF is this? What is going on. Then comes the "Ah ha!" moment and you begin to get into the game. Then it becomes a real mind-bender. Then you suddenly feel invincible as you master the concept of the game. Then suddenly you are fighting for your very life. Then you have a song sung in your honor. So freakin' awesome.

Portal is a puzzle game that looks like a 1st person shooter. And that's a good thing! It's a pure puzzle game through and through. It's a puzzle that, for the most part, you've never played before. It is extremely tactile and satisfying.

I just can't say enough about it. It is a game that will forever live in my memory as a personal key moment in gaming.

p.s. I <3 my weighted companion cube

p.p.s. And did I mention that Steam is, like, the best feakin' thing ever? Holy crap Valve did such an incredible job bringing it together. Everything about it just feels great and games are so accessible. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you just have to ask me for an explanation or go install a recent Valve game.

Wanted to buy the Orange Box last night, but then I realized it was $50. Ugh. I must be getting old or something because I actually made the right decision and walked away. Although I'm sure the games are awesome, there's no need to introduce anything new while I'm still into LOTRO. And then there's always Battlefield 2, which is still so incredibly awesome. And then there's the PS2 with Guitar Hero I & II, which I still keep coming back to again and again. Oh, and I've still got to finish the first Ratchet & Clank... my kids love to watch that game.

By the way, E and I had great fun on LOTRO last night. For some odd reason, we chose to insult every single quest-giver we interacted with.

I've just acquired an excellent, new zombie game called Last Night on Earth. It contains a popular scenario called "Escape in the Truck", and the game comes with a flat cardboard cut-out of an old truck. A guy on BoardGameGeek found a toy truck at Wal-Mart that exactly matches the one in the game. I checked out my local Wal-Mart and found the exact same truck.

And after 15 minutes of rapid aging, here is the same truck ready to help some b-movie zombie-attack survivors escape the onslaught... if it will start!