Details

City of Ember— Utterly magnificent.  Not only faithfully reproduced the milieu of the book, but added material to it that made sense and allowed it to work better as a movie without violating any of the original concepts.  Are you listening, Peter Jackson?

Spore— Still unabashedly fun, although the continual high keening of the animals now has a proven ability to give me a headache.  Understand the reviews better now:  Space stage is as complex as the rest of the game combined.  Not an impediment to my enjoyment, nor my son’s, since neither one of us have any previous RTS experience.

Colonization on the home system– Finally got to see the opening animation;  not bad, but the human figures were strange-looking and clunky.  In-game graphics sure are purty, though–  can see the reflections of the ships in the ocean as they sail, broken up by the waves in the water.

chicken and black bean tacos– Edible, but just not an adequate substitute for ground beef when using yellow corn shells.

We Love Katamari— Fun all over again, as Jack has gotten older and his skills and appreciation of it have improved.  Broke the house record for all-time biggest Katamari together, rolling up the King (but not the Queen), then obsessively sang the end credit music for the next two days.  Want to find the music on .mp3.

blueberry nectarine pancakes– Look weird.

marble mazes– Unusually frustrating.  The abundance of video game simulations available to Jack have shortened the level of time he’s willing to spend tinkering with non-“pre-boxed” engineering scenarios before getting frustrated.  Gotta work on that.  Discussed in the meantime the concept of “support” and how to achieve it in constructs.

apple picking– Never went, because of a communications error causing us to miss the scheduled meeting time.  Turned out to be an unexpected bonus:  those who did go reported that the line to get in was miles long, the apples were $25 a bag, and the farm provided no guarantee there would even be any apples left.  They left without partaking, got lunch somewhere else, and had a poor day.

“Walking With Dinosaurs”– Freakin’ awesome.  Unavoidable sense of slowness compared to CGI dinosaurs more than made up for by true-to-life scale and right-in-your-face reality.  Jack not only able to see and enjoy the show as entertainment, but be curious about and anxious to discuss the stagecraft behind it.  Me too!