Avatar: The Last Airbender

Leesha and I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender.



This is a series I've been aware of for as long as it has existed, but never bothered to explore. It always appeared to be some ninja cartoon that happened to have pretty good art and some imaging that resembled Miyazaki slightly.

What is this show about?

 

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Within each nation exists an order called "Benders" who have the ability to manipulate the eponymous element of their nation. The show’s creators assigned each Bending art its own style of martial arts, causing it to inherit the advantages and weaknesses of the martial arts it was assigned. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

link to more...

Leesha and I have developed a tradition of sitting and watching a show together when we can. I use this as incentive for getting chores done as well as spending time with her in an activity that truly interests both of us. We've watched Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, ROBOTECH, Haibane Renmei, Last Exile, Dungeons & Dragons, Oban Star-Racers, Sarah Jane Adventures, and now Avatar: The Last Airbender.

We're 4 episodes in and this show is good. It's aimed at an audience of her age almost directly, but has enough fantasy mixed with realism to keep geek adults interested. So far I'm quite impressed. Impressed enough to start this thread.

Very Good Saturday

The last week was coming close to overwhelming. At work there are people in training. That means the training department is putting in 9 or 10 hours a day all week as we cover or evaluate morning routes and afternoon routes with training for 3 hours in between. Sometimes that even includes afterschool routes like it did for me on Monday. Thursday I sat on a Minneapolis charter route which clears around the same time as a St. Paul after school route. Then I have small group bible study on Tuesday night. And we had a small group church meeting Wednesday night. Very busy week. One nice thing was every moment I worked on Friday was overtime. So I needed a fun-no-work weekend.

That's what I got.

Saturday was gaming. D&D at Rob's house. When I got home it was Jack and Leesha and Hazel in the back yard (Hazel is our friend's dog we're sitting for the weekend). Cara grilled brats for dinner. Pretty good day.

After dark and after Leesha was ready for bed we watched the 3rd episode of our new show - Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is an American anime. Three episodes in and its proving to be very well made. It's targeted to Leesha's age, I believe, and has enough fantasy elements to be interesting for adults with that geek gene. We're both really enjoying this show a lot.

Easy Day and Lunch

I had lunch at Cecil's with a former co-worker at KSTP. We used to go to Cecil's after the morning and midday news and we both left 5 around the same time. Hadn't seen him for a couple of years and he looked good. Too long. Good people.

Easy day at work. During the AM routes they had me go out and observe other bus drivers which is a default task when all the regular drivers show up to work. Then I had said lunch. And for the PM routes they sent me out to stand-by, which is like what I did in the AM, but with out the observing. I'm just a set of wheels available if something goes wrong. And nothing did. I got to choose a flat-nosed or transit style bus. Those are fun to drive.

An easy day was what I needed, too. Because I'm sick AGAIN! This variety of cold is the ever-running flow of snot out of the nose along with more sneezing than I've ever experienced in my life. I wonder if this is actually allergies.

And I also found time to get comics today.

Woodland Hills Church Usher

Leesha has been serving Woodland Hills Church as an usher for about a month now. She helped collect the offering today at the 11:00 service.They have her in a purple vest and everything and they've given her a name tag. She's doing a great job, too.

Backsliding In Communication

I wanted to mirror something I wrote on the other blog...

I think Jack is starting to backslide with his communication abilities, SOMETIMES. The kid is amazing and creative with the ideas he has for conveying a message. For example, Cara tells me he's running around the living room playing with a ball. She hears a noise, one of those noises that goes along with something bad. Before she could check what happened, Jack comes around the corner saying "Ooopity, flower"! It was obvious that his ball knocked over the vase with the flowers Leesha got for Cara. That's amazing.

However, I think he's collecting so many words in such a short period of time that he's simply overwhelmed by them and can't keep them strait. He used to point at the staircase and say something like "David, Gnome!" which was his translation for David the Gnome which is an animated television show I was showing him for a while. Or he'd say "Dolphins!" meaning the stain-glass mobile that hangs down by the bottom of the stairs. Jack and I often count all three of them when we get down there.

But lately when he tries to say something it is often babbling noise.

Just an interesting observation. He's sleeping at the moment of writing this blog entry, no doubt his little mind is sorting all the new words and images his eyes and ears took in today.

Ultrasound Today

We had an ultrasound today and the tech said that she'd be surprised if it wasn't a GIRL! 

Drugs and Dollhouse and LOST and Battlestar

I got drugs today. After a week of pain in my teeth and pressure behind my eyes, I finally went to the clinic to find out if my sinus infection is bacterial or viral. After an hour I left with my drugs. Hopefully this will kick it's ass. At least I had good reading material with me.

I have been sick more days of 2009 than I haven't. This year has not been fun. Over the winter break I had that horrible sore throat with a fever. That eventually passed. As I posted in the last entry, Leesha passed something to Jack. Naturally, both Cara and I got it, too. Whatever it was, it got worse for us than it was for the kids, which is a blessing of sorts, I guess. Cara had/has it but it seems to be moving out of her system. Now for the last week I've had the said pain all around my face and teeth and an irritating caugh that doesn't help anything and can't seem to be avoided. It's gotten so bad that my caughing is also now gagging. So hopefully these anti-biotics will kick it out.

Cara and I watched Joss Whedon's Dollhouse tonight. I didn't want to like it as much as I did. I posted about it on Cinema Judge's website...

* this review contains spoilers*

We just finished watching Dollhouse this evening. With so little time I didn't want this show to be as good as it was. Foolish of me to doubt Joss Whedon. He is a master storyteller. Fantastic start. Dollhouse, if you noticed, is partially produced by the star, Eliza Dushku. I imagine it's going to be a challenging role for her as she will play many characters throughout the show.

All the standard characters are in place, Eliza plays the empty husk Echo who is programmed with personalities [of previously real existing people] and is sent out on whatever job a client needs. When the gig is done, she returns and is wiped clean, no memories. There is the ruthless and focused Adelle DeWitt (the not-so-hot-as-she-used-to-be Olivia Williams); the savvy computer nerd that explains things for us, Topher Brink; DeWitt's lapdog, Laurence Domonic, loyally do anything she says; Helo from Battlestar Galactica, Paul Ballard, who is an FBI agent on the Dollhouse case. My favorite character so far is the company's moral pillar, Boyd Langton- Echo's handler and ex-cop.

I think this show has so much potential. How many episodes will air before FOX kills it?

While this show starts, its seems like the production quality for LOST has started to slip. If LOST jumps the shark and if Dollhouse gets yanked by FOX (which happens to almost everything Whedon does) we'll still have our Battlestar Galactica.

Raising Sand

I purchased a CD for Cara for Valentine's Day. I got Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand. Didn't know much about it other than it won a lot of awards and we really like Alison Krauss and I like Robert Plant. It's a very nice album. I think my dad would like it, too.

Gaming

Felt like running a bit of a game this evening. So I printed up a couple of pre-generated characters and gave them to Leesha and Cara. Tossed in a few goblins and we ran a skrimige using the True20 rpg system. I wanted to get familiar with the combat system and give the girls a feel for some more gaming. I think it was a really fun time. True20 is interesting at first. I think it will be smooth if we keep at it. Leesha was getting into it, cutting them down with her longbow. Cara's passive character was trying to achieve a hit. I had the remaining 3 roll a Will save and fail so they all ran. One got away, one got cut down. And one was wounded, begging fior mercy. So it was granted to him, and Cara's character healed his wounds. The encounter ended with that last goblin following the pair at a safe distance, now a loyal and amazed companion to the healer.

It's been a rough weekend. Leesha was sick last weekend and throughout the week. Now, all of a sudden Jack is sick, pretty much because Leesha can't keep her [dirty, germy] hands off of him. Poor guy. Killed the weekend. He is miserable and needs to be held. His cry sounds like a bark because of the crap in his lungs.

Pellucidar

Reading another Edgar Rice Burroughs book - Pellucidar. The 2nd book in the series about the Hollow Earth. I like this series far more than the John Carter of Mars and its quickly gaining on Tarzan. This book is better than the first one- At the Earth's Core.

Facebook

A friend from long ago and I were marveling about Facebook, on Facebook this evening. It was really fun revisiting memories like these. I really appreciate Facebook for the opportunity to re-connect with people I haven't talked to or even thought about for 14 years.  He happened to be the person who demonstrated what the internet was about back then, simply chatting with friends across the country. And here we are today chatting about it across the country. It seemed pretty common place for him at the time, but I was trying to keep my head from exploding. Tonight it was common place all around. I'm still amazed at what the internet really is.

Busy

Recovering from the New Years 'break' and it's been go go go. This weekend finally had some down time.

It Never Seems To End

I caught something the very night of my last post. I thought and was expecting to throw up, but never did. Instead my throat became extremely sore and I was very chilled. This lasted through Friday and Saturday and is still going strong today. Saturday we did go to a clinic to get swabbed for strep-throat. Turns out that is not what I have and that would've been the thing to have to get a remedy. Whatever I have has to run its painful painful course. They said probably just over a week. If it goes for longer, I'd need to go back and get tested for mono.

At least everyone else is feeling well. Jack did throw up again last night. Not sure why, but he's acting fine today. Cara is going crazy from just being in the house for so long and battling Leesha's devious ways of finding attention. She continues to antagonize Jack. Its getting rare that he allows her to hold him. Sometimes he gets mad if she even comes near him. It's all her own doing, though. From day 1 she was in his face too much. No amount of warning from Cara and I could give her a clue. Now its Jack's screams that seem to actually give her pause. Sometimes they don't even do that.

With all of this literal down time I've been reading and watching old shows. Finally finished Edgar Rice Burroughs' 2nd book in the John Carter of Mars series - Gods of Mars.

I've also been watching old '80s episodes of Doctor Who when the Doctor was played by Peter Davidson. Davidson is a very dorky awkward Doctor. Not at all doing the right thing at the right time. He seems more flawed than most of the other Doctors I've seen. I never understood why he wore a celery on his lapel. Perhaps that will be revealed. I must keep watching...

As I watched these episodes some big Doctor Who news broke...

The official 11th Doctor. Here is a link to the article and a discussion board about it.

So all the things we cancelled on this week...

• Holiday Celebration with Mom and Dad at Greg and Mandy's
• Small Group Social with Parents
• New Years Day with Trelevens
• Work on Friday
• Gaming on Saturday
• Church on Sunday

The Bad Cruise Ship Holiday

This is my blog, so I'm going to use it to vent.

I'm looking forward to this holiday break ending! From the perspective of possibilities it looked fantastic and fun. Having gone through most of it now, there were some nice times with family and some of it was actually fun. And the best part wasn't actually officially planned. Saturday we got everyone together. Sunday on Jack got very sick and it took several days for his recovery. And he's not completely back, actually. This morning we gave him milk for the first time and he rejected that pretty quick. So Jack getting sick was a big drain on everyone and completely derailed much of our holiday family plans. Also put a stop to small group and seeing the Trelevens today in Wisconsin. But the kick in the face happened last night.

Leesha got sick. She started throwing up around 1:30AM and she still is at it. Bless her heart, she's obviously much more capable of taking care of herself than Jack was, so we're leaving her to sleep where Jack got cuddled and cared for. But she's also kind of attempting to make it more miserable for us, which Jack didn't/unable to do. So yeah.

I've had enough of this crap.

And Cara is nausious in the mornings, too!

Oh, and Happy New Years...

HollyWillis on DeviantArt

We had Secret Santa with our family this year for the fun of it and to cut down the cost of the holidays- our gifts were to be something made. My pick was my mom, Holly Willis. For her gift I gave her a GMail account and set her up on DeviantArt.com, also providing her with a basic user's manual for the accounts.

She has given me some art over the years and what I have here I posted on her art gallery. This evening we posted some of her more recent work online. As we were posting her art, some people started marking her paintings as their favorites and sending her messages. Mom was thrilled about this as this demonstrated the potential for networking and just getting your art out to people who appreciate it. It was fun to see her reaction.

Here is a link to her gallery

hollywillis.deviantart.com

Jack Is Back

Jack is almost completely back. The last time he spit up was about 5:30AM yesterday (Tuesday) morning, so its been a good amount of time past the worst. Now its just getting his strength back and making sure he's drinking lots of fluids. His spirit has returned and it is so wonderful to hear him laugh and blab. For short periods of time he seems back to 100%, but he mellows out fast and needs to rest. He's been using far less diapers, too. He's basically refilling his system.

Wow, it was scary. If I could step out of the situation and take a look I'm sure it never was that critical, but as dad- that just wasn't possible and I didn't like seeing the little guy so uncomfortable. I thank God for placing us in a time and place where this kind of thing is not such a big deal because of modern medicne. A different era or country and Jack may not have recovered. I didn't think such a small guy could derail a holiday's plans so effectively.

All Better

Jack is home

He came home yesterday late evening. We checked in to the Children's Hospital Sunday afternoon. He stayed over night and was there all of Monday. Jack was able to spend the night at home last night. He was sick every half hour or so from around 1:30PM to about 5:00 or 6:00PM on Sunday. He got sick early afternoon, yesterday.

I think he got sick one other time besides that while we were there.

They put us in a very nice room at Children's. Cara did stay the night there and failed to get good rest due to a poor little kid in the room next door who cried almost our entire stay. I went home to use my CPAP and retrieve a list of needs for the next day.

One of our favorite nurses was Catherine from Uganda. She was thrilled to find that Cara lived there for a short while years ago. She took to Jack and kind of gave him special treatment- ordering a red wagon for him.

Monday evening my parents came with Leesha to see Jack as well as feed us. Around the same time, Cara's folks came too (they had fun meeting Catherine, it was cool that they were able to meet). Jack was maxed out with visitors. Not much later, the doctor came to check out Jack and said it was ok for him to go home.

Around 1:30AM he chuck up a bunch o.f fluid and a little piece of peach he had eaten during the day. He got sick a few more times through the night, the last one around 5:30AM.

It is Tuesday evening and he hasn't spit up anything worth reporting. He's drinking a lot and eating a little. I think Jack even loaded his diapers- a breakthrough!

Not Quite The Day I Was Hoping For

Today was going to be fun. Our plans were to go to Greg and Mandy's house and open our Secret Santa gifts and just hang out, maybe play some games and definitely eat. We went to church and picked up Leesha and then started driving to Willis West. About 1/4th off the way there Jack exploded. Something caused him to throw-up everything he ate for breakfast. ALL OVER himself, and the car seat. Quick thinking we diverted our course to Cara's parents house which is sort of on the way. They were there and we all got him and everything else cleaned up. However, Jack threw up again. And soon it was apparent that this wasn't going to stop anytime soon. We decided to call off going to Willis West and started on our way back home. Jack then upchucked something yellow so we decided to change course again to the Children's Hospital.


He was poked and prodded, and x-rayed. They seemed concerned that he was getting dehydrated and finally they I.V.ed him- which he was a real champion about. Having an I.V. put into your little guy is a scary ordeal. It did help to hear that the ladies doing it had done 8 already today. And they pointed out that that was just her count, there were other nurses doing them, too.

When it seemed he was finished he was fed some pedialight or whatever. But that came up pretty quick. But that was the last.

All said, Jack threw up at around 1:30pm and continued to around every half hour till around 5:30. The poor little guy never had a nap and was completely exhausted.

Cara's dad came and took Leesha to stay with them for the night. They are so great.

They moved us up to a real fancy room with the fanciest crib you've ever seen. TV, toys. Jack is definitely coming back. He started to get chatty again. What a wonderful sound that is. Looks like Cara's going to stay here to sleep and I'm going to go home to my CPAP.

A doctor says this may be the beginning of it and this may carry on for a few days.

Post Christmas Reflection

Having some time to ponder the virgin birth, as we tend to do at this time of year, I submit this idea (now bare with me, I'm not sure I'll be able to word this correctly):

Because the King of kings' arrival to the world was so insignificant and so completely normal, does this make it more amazing? My birth, and probably yours too, was more glorious than His. He was born in a barn. Mary didn't even have wet nurses. No family. Nothing like that. And He is the KING!?! I imagine when a King is born there is usually an amazing amount of fanfare and celebration. There was nothing like that. There was the host of angels and that's no small thing, but the only guys to see it were some lowly shepherds.

This last year or so's studies are showing me how exactly appropriate this for the Kingdom of God, actually. The upside-down, backwards Kingdom of God. If there was a huge to do about the King of kings' birth, it would go against the nature of this Kingdom He is revealing (at least to me little by little).

I hope I'm conveying my thoughts clearly enough about this, because its profound.

Survivors

We don't watch TV. Well, sort of. We do watch programs that have been downloaded and watch them right off the computer. Why not? No commercials, 16x9 presentation, not quite HD, but cleaner than what would be broadcast over the air... And the shows... We pretty much watch BBC. Doctor Who, [ spooks ], and now Survivors (we do watch LOST, but that's not currently on).

Survivors is a re-imaging of a show that was on BBC in the 1970s about a breakout epidemic that wipes out 90 some % of the Earth's population. The show is about those who are left alive and how they deal with the lack of society. We've seen 3 episodes and so far it is fantastic.

According to Wiki there will be a 2nd season. The original series lasted three seasons. Its a great show.