On and off

It would be a bit trite to say Caitlin has her good days and her not-so-good days, but that's the best way to put it. There is no way to predict when a good day will be, or if the good day will last the whole day! You would think I would be used to this by now since we are fast approaching the ninth month of pregnancy, but I'm not. Sometimes I miss going out, which is weird, since Caitlin was the one who would tell me that we need to go out and do something.

Miracle upon miracle though, Tuesday was a good day, and we decided to do something rather spur of the moment. Rather, I was flip-flopping on whether to go or not, but Caitlin suggested that we go when the LRT that was going to the Jubilee Auditorium arrived before the train that would take us home.
I am so glad we decided to go! This performance the first (technically second, the first show was the night before) of its kind in Canada, and Caitlin and I got exceptional seats seeing we got our tickets an hour before the show. We were at the back of the theatre, centre, which was directly in front of the sound mixers! Couldn't get much better sound wise for the performance of Video Games Live, a symphonic performance of video game music. It was an amazing show, and there were even some people from Microsoft and Sony giving out swag such as stickers and lanyards. There were also some T-shirts, which were "prizes" for making a fool of yourself by singing PlayStation2 Karaoke. Since the only cost was to wait in line, and I don't mind singing in public, I opted into this ordeal. Caitlin was going to participate in this affront to pop culture with me, up until it was our turn. She then realized that standing in line for 20 mintues made her uncomfortable to the point that she couldn't do it, and I was on my own. After a performance of "Rocket Man" that could have been outdone by a bag of cats in a dryer, I was rewarded with a PlayStation shirt. I'm not sure if you could call it a PlayStation shirt, because the PSX logo on was about the size of a postage stamp. The shirt is a little big for me, but perfect for Caitlin, and it was free to boot. Besides, I have a feeling we are going to need a few shirts that we don't mind getting stained. This will be one of them.

It's amazing how much video games have permeated modern society, and not as the waste of time and effort as some people think. Interactive entertainment has become the pastime of choice for the 21st Century. Also with the arrival of higher quality media for games, better sound came too. Oddly enough, classical compositions have a more powerful impact than pop music, and games are gravitating towards that genre for gameplay. For Christmas, my brother-in-law got a soundtrack for "Alice". I haven't played the game, but apparently the music is really good.

I mention this, because this night out for Caitlin and I was an educational experience as parents-to-be. Caitlin told me throughout the performance that during very strong numbers - such as Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Advent Rising, and Final Fantasy - baby was very still. Almost as if she was listening very intently. I'm very glad we picked up the soundtrack for Advent Rising, because those numbers were some of the most powerful numbers we heard. It's not quite like the "Mozart for Mothers-to-be", but it does have an energetic yet calming tone to it.

Games are starting to develop into interactive movies almost, with the scope of storylines they are taking and the quality of the music. With Blu-ray and HD DVD coming to the market, the potential for this will only grow. Nevertheless, I'm still going to monitor what my children play. For instance, I'm never going to let them play Grand Theft Auto. That was brilliantly innovative in terms of gameplay and concept, but on the other hand, I don't think they need to have the experience of beating a police officer with a baseball bat, and getting away with it.

I actually had a brief discussion with my manager today about censorship. This was brought up because I noticed that a DVD player that I sold someone had a TV guardian built in. Had I known we carried that player I probably would have bought it, since a) it was less than $60, and b) the player had an optical output, which would feed into our home theater. I mentioned that we have a TV Guardian for our VCR, and I enjoy it when we watch videos. My AM thinks that it's an ignorant thing to do, because the world isn't like that, and there's no reason to shield children from reality. Maybe so, but I don't "Survivor" or "American Idol" either, and I don't feel I'm missing anything.

On a comic note, I have a feeling this will be me in a couple of months.

First Christmas with baby, sort of

I'd like to say that this is baby's first Christmas, but seeing that baby isn't born yet, and we don't know if baby is a boy of a girl, I don't think it counts. Nevertheless, we (i.e. Caitlin) have had kicks and punches at odd times. A number of the gifts we got for Christmas were for baby, but mostly for us to prepare ourselves for baby. A new set of pots, a good container for a 72-hour emergency kit, and family friendly DVDs were some of the gifts we got from the Tolleys. From my family, my parents gave us a big bag full of baby stuff, and we (i.e. Caitlin and myself) haven't gone through the bag completely. There's some good stuff though, such as "The Baby Whisperer", "Fatherhood" by Bill Cosby, and Barbara Colorasso. Excellent stuff! There were also a few videos, which makes me grateful that we still have that VCR, and that I hung onto that remote when my old VCR died. Who'd of thought that we'd come across another GE VCR?

Even though it was nice when I was able to dig out that remote, I've discovered that you don't need to hang onto everything that comes your way. Namely flyers, receipts, and papers that are so faded you don't even remember when or why you got it in the first place! Goodness, I threw out so much trash today!

My parents came a little earlier than I expected, and so I didn't manage to clean the apartment to the level I wanted. Felt kind of bad, but Caitlin felt worse since she was laid out with a wave of weariness. This pregnancy has really taken the mickey out of her! It's all good, because even though I was cleaning house, she was feeding baby, and helping baby grow. I would guess that Caitlin helped baby grow at least 2000 new cells today.

As much work as there was, I am done school now, and dad told me a while back that when I was done my degree he'd give me his PlayStation2. He was waiting until I was done because he correctly assumed that I didn't need any more distractions. The question I have now is what I have to do in order to get the controllers. I'm thinking that he forgot to pack them, but I did find it a little odd that the console was there, along with the connecting cable and the power cord, and a few games, but the controllers and the memory card was missing. It's not really a big thing, because I was planning to get Dance Dance Revolution and a dance pad controller to go with it. Still, I was looking forward to playing "Enter the Matrix". Eh. I've waited this long.

I would have to say that today, I did my first act of baby proofing our home. It's not much, but for the first time, I made a concious decision to hide something that a toddler could easily grab and use to cause physical injury. It doesn't look like much, but when I was cleaning up the stuff in the main room, I came across the HMV dongle that tends to get lost from time to time. I decided to hang it on one of the dials on the stereo receiver so that we wouldn't lose it, and so it would be ready for easy access for anyone, even a child. It's a big plastic gizmo, never hurts anyone, and it would be very difficult for baby to swallow. But then I remembered...
It's perfectly safe so long as you don't cut yourself on the razor blade inside! I haven't cut myself with it, and I would think that it would be quite the feat if you did, and I've heard that children are quite adept at acheiving the improbably when it comes to hurting yourself. So I moved it to the junk drawer, where I'm sure our child won't dig it out and cut a gash in their finger, or the carpet, or a towel until they're much older.

Call me overprotective. Call me paranoid. But I think the proper term is a parent.

Heh. How witty. Guess I'm not that tired after all. Actually, yes I am. Night.