The Fun Zone

I've really been enjoying yucata.de lately. I find it very easy to set up and jump into multiple games, and to keep track of what's going on. It's great for me during this particular drought of face-to-face gaming.

So, I've been playing a game of Atta Ants with three other players, one of whom uses the screen name "Atta." That made me a little nervous, because one would assume that "Atta" is someone who really likes Atta Ants. I wasn't sure how things were going to go, as we all acquired four ants, but couldn't find a clear path home to get any more. I was able to steer a few spiders toward the side of the board where I wasn't, effectively blocking several ants from getting home with their leaves. Finally, I found an opening, acquiring my fifth ant, and setting up an unblockable path home for the sixth. Victory was (and still is) in my grasp. Then it was Atta's turn.

He has yet to take it.

Now, this sort of thing happens all the time in play-by-web systems. Somebody gets busy, has to step away for a few days, etc. However, since yucata.de uses a ranking system based on your win/loss record, there are also a few people who try to game the system by not finishing games they think they're going to lose. I didn't really think that was what was going on in this case, but I clicked on Atta's profile just to see when he last logged in.

Atta's real name is Richard de Rijk. The designer of Atta Ants.

And I'm winning against him.

Hee.

--

Oh, hey, yucata.de recently added Arkadia to its list of games. I know some of you have enjoyed that one in the past. If you fancy a game, just invite amazingintern to the party. You know you want to.

The Kid becomes more vocal every day. He takes great delight in imitating what we say. Often, this is just a bunch of random syllables, but more and more, he'll spit out a pretty close approximation of the correct word. Of course, the real question is whether he's using the words correctly, or whether he's associated them with the completely wrong thing.

The Word: Tah-tah (Turtle)
What He Thinks It Means: Turtle
This one's spot on. Shawn and Bitty gave him this illuminated turtle for Christmas that projects stars on his walls and ceiling. He's all about pointing at them at bedtime.

The Word: Sir-kah (Circle)
What He Thinks It Means: Ceiling
I have no idea how this happened. Maybe he was pointing at something up above that had a vaguely circular shape, and we responded positively, so it stuck. Now wherever we go, he points up and says "circle." I'm working hard to turn this around.

The Word: Papa
What He Thinks It Means: Picture
We were all excited when "Papa" became one of his first words, but none so much as his grandfather, whom we call "Papa." We thought he had it right for some time, because he would point at a picture of Papa and say "Papa." But then he'd point at a picture of somebody else and say "Papa." And then he'd point to a picture of himself and say "Papa." I'm working hard on this one as well, but a more dire situation has emerged regarding TK's self-image (see below).

The Word: Da-da
What He Thinks It Means: "Me"
Going back to our earliest conversations, I would point to myself and say "da-da." The concept seemed to stick with The Kid, until this week, when he started to point to himself, in an exact mimic of my gesture, and say "da-da." I have no idea how I'm going to fix this, because when I say "No, buddy, I'M da-da," while pointing at myself, he just points at himself again and says "da-da". It would be endearing if it wasn't so frustrating.

Now, lest you think that ALL of his linguistic progress is screwy, I should note that he's gotten very good at identifying his favorite books. Often with a single word. Here's a glossary:

"Roar!" - Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea
"(snoring sound)" - Don't Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
"HA!" - New Socks by Bob Shea (from a single line a third of the way through the book)
"Aaaaaaaah!" - The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems
"La, La, La" - Moo, Baa, La, La, La by Sandra Boynton
"(slapping the table)" - Baby's First Words (which includes the word "table")

Of course, all this could change within a week, so I have to keep changing my interpretation of everything he says. It's confusing as heck.

But it's darn fun.

Some of you may have heard my grumblings about the vampire romance story that I had been working on. I couldn't share any details at the time, but now the book is out for all to enjoy:

Dark Dream by Christine Feehan. It's part of the Dark Series, Book 7 to be exact, about a race of vampire hunters known as the Carpathians. The Carpathians have many of the same traits and abilities as vampires, and will eventually become the demons that they hunt, unless they find their true love, their lifemate. The result is a tender romance with a bunch of bloodsucking and paranormal violence. Fun for the whole family! Except anybody under the age of, say, 14. Because of the vampire sex.

Happy listening!

Today was a big day in the world of audiobooks. Today, the Audie nominations were announced! Don't worry if you missed it. As far as I know, there wasn't a press conference on the morning news. We had to settle for an online press release.

The Audies are like the Oscars of the audiobook world. Presented by the Audio Publisher's Association, the awards honor the best recordings in several categories over the past year. So, I was scanning the press release, trying to see if I recognized any of the names, when I came across the Science Fiction/Fantasy category:

Calculating God, by Robert J. Sawyer, Narrated by Jonathan Davis, Audible, Inc.
Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke, Narrated by Eric Michael Summerer, Audible, Inc.
Ghost Radio, by Leopoldo Gout, Narrated by Pedro Pascal, HarperAudio
Skybreaker, by Kenneth Oppel, Narrated by David Kelly, Full Cast Audio
Sunrise Alley, by Catherine Asaro, Narrated by Hillary Huber, Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Wait, what? I stared at the screen for some time. I had read "Childhood's End" on the list, and my first thought was "that's weird, somebody else read Childhood's End. Huh." Then I thought it might be some sort of elaborate joke. Then everything got a little fuzzy while my brain tried to work things out. The Kid finally yelled at me from his high chair, snapping me out of my reverie. He may have thrown a Cheerio at me, but I'm not really sure.

So there you have it. My recording has been named one of the five best Sci-Fi/Fantasy recordings of the past year. There's a big awards gala in New York (they alternate between LA and NY each year) on May 29th. I'm pretty sure we'll be going, but I don't have all the details yet. Assuming that the bulk of the nominees attend, there could be some big names there. I saw Jim Dale on the list, as well as Tony Shalhoub, Neil Gaiman, Bronson Pinchot, Garrison Keillor, Wayne Night, John Slattery, and Lewis Black. Also of note is that I took an audiobook seminar with Hillary Huber, one of my fellow nominees, a few years back. It will be cool to see her again.

I've got to start looking for a tux...

The full list of nominees is here. Wish me luck!

Wow. I missed out on a great gift-giving suggestion. Well, at least a great suggestion for your friends and relatives who own a PSP.

Mytran Wars, my latest video game adventure, was released around Thanksgiving. Is it a bad sign that Amazon is already out of stock, with no plans to get more? At least you can see a video of the gameplay. Sadly, no audio from the cutscenes. I haven't seen the game in action, but it appears to be very Starcraft-like, with a hint of Final Fantasy Tactics going on.

Track it down, and buy several copies! Come on! It'll be fun!