If Chaos Were Organized (Excerpt)

So I had a really interesting experience Monday night. I think I was hallucinating. Some definitions of hallucination seem to imply its only visual. I disagree, and luckily have found much better definitions that cover all of the senses. Heres one:

A hallucination, in the broadest sense, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space.

<snip>

Hallucinations can occur in any sensory modality visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, proprioceptive, equilibrioceptive, nociceptive, thermoceptive and perception of time.

I cant remember the last time I had a really high fever, but Monday night I broke 102. It was 102.1 actually. Made my joints cramp up, and I was getting chills. Under blankets and wearing fleece top and bottom, I was still curling my toes from being cold.

Slept on/off from about 2pm Monday until 8am Tuesday.

So Monday night, I wake up and Im getting ready to go upstairs and get off the couch. I got myself into a state of awake, but not awake. Its as if both my conscious and unconscious minds were acting at the same time.

I knew I was awake, but I knew that I was asleep. How strange is that? I started talking to Jean about things at work. Both incomplete and complete thoughts about projects I was working on and problems I was having. She would tell me that she didnt work with me and had no idea what I was talking about.

Then, immediately after saying it, I realized that I was making no sense, so I would apologize to her. I went so far as to tell her that I wasnt making sense and that my mind was all foggy like I was dreaming, but I was sitting there awake and talking to her. She chuckled to herself. This went on for several minutes.

She should have recorded me, because it didnt stop there. We went upstairs and I continued being loopy. Today, when I brought it up with her, she told me at points in the conversation I would look straight at her, with open eyes, and say something. She thought I was awake, because my eyes were open and what I said sounded coherent,  but she didnt know what I meant.

When she asked me what I meant, I would say I have no idea.

So Im not sure if I was actually hallucinating that I was at work, or just somehow that my unconscious mind was wrapping into my conscious one and the crossover was complicating things. I would say it was like sleep-walking, but instead sleep-talking. But then how do I explain the fact that I was able to *know* I was being weird at the time I was doing it?

Really kinda trippy if you ask me. Took some Tylenol. The fever finally broke. Spend much of Tuesday with a negative fever (hovered around 97 for most of the day). Finally last night came back to normal.

I have very fond memories of caroling as a child. We had these ancient hand typed cheat sheets that were packaged with our Christmas decorations. They would come out every year for general singing, but were also used as we walked around with our family and friends going door to door holding candles.

There is something magic about knocking on someone's door, they answer not knowing who it is, and then the smile on their face as they hear the singing and call over others in the house to listen.

In college, our SCA group used to carol across the Cornell campus, singing several more period pieces (even in Latin and German)

Every year, I tell myself that I need to start doing it again. I've tried to push the Iron Bog caroling, but realized that I should be doing it with my family as well.

Well, this year it's going to change. We're going to go, and I would *love* to have your voices be heard alongside ours. Just a few hours out of your weekend to put smiles on your face and those of others.

That was part of an email I sent to friends a few weeks ago. Yesterday we were able to bring it all together. Now, my original vision of going door to door with candles was thrown for a loop with the bad weather yesterday. My rain date was also up against something else, and I *really* didnt want to miss out on going, especially since I had several responses.

So we went with Plan B. That consisted of me tracking down a nursing home or assisted living location that would welcome us on short notice. Luckily, I found one not far from us in Deptford. I sent out an email early in the day to let folks know not to get nervous with the rain.

Overall, it went really well. We had 8 adults and 8 children, though only 2 of the kids actually joined in the singing.

Our music was holiday and seasonally inspired. Since almost half of the singers were Jewish, we want to make sure to not be overly Christian in our song choices, while at the same time including some Chanukah songs (which are really hard to find sheet music for, btw)

We wind up singing to a group of about 15-20 older women (and a few men), plus the staff. It was great to watch them sing along and smile in recognition as we worked through the songs.

It was actually more difficult to do it this way. Had we gone from house to house, we would have had breathers between songs. We could also have repeated the ones everyone knew really well, or tended to get the best reception. In this case, we just worked through the handout Id given everyone. We sang for about 45 minutes.

Afterwards we returned to my house for cookies, hot cider, hot chocolate, and Jewish death bread (with clotted cream of course). Those celebrating Chanukah light their Menorah and exchanged gifts. The kids watched the classics of Rudolph and Frosty on DVD.

Thank you everyone who came and joined us. It was a wonderful evening, and hope the residents smiles stay with you throughout the season.

Here was our final set list of songs (* = actually sung):

The Twelve Days of Christmas *

Good King Wenceslas

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer *

Toyland

My Favorite Things *

Jingle Bells *

Let it Snow *

Over the River *

Jingle Bell Rock *

Carol of the Bells

The Holly and the Ivy

Deck the Halls *

Frosty The Snowman *

Winter Wonderland *
O Chanukah, O Chanukah *

Dreidel, Dreidel *

Oh Christmas Tree

Here we come a-caroling

We Wish You a Merry Christmas *

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) *

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

We Need a Little Christmas

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree *

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Up on the Housetop

The Night Before Christmas

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Sleigh Ride *

Mele Kalikimaka

Hey Ho Nobody Home (shortened verses)

Boar's Head Carol

everyone gives to their mistakes. Oscar Wilde

So the Bachen Family went on an adventure tonight. Actually, several. Ive been looking for an excuse to try out Chore Wars, and finally decided to do it tonight. Chore Wars is an online game which allows you to earn experience and treasure for your character by doing chores. Make work fun!As I explained to Jean, its like gold stars for gaming geeks.

It was a raging success! Both kids completed the adventure Telling Mom and Dad about School (15xp), and Eating All my Lunch (25xp). Alias lunch quest was uneventful, while Connor had to fight off a hungry dog. They each earned some gold coins and a golden tiger.

Alia ate all of her dinner, and completed the adventure 'Eating All my Dinner NonCombat. (50xp) She earned some more gold coins and silver spoon. She traded in her silver spoon for dessert, and got some yummy vanilla pudding.

Connor didnt want to eat his dinner tonight, but he kept wanting to go on another adventure.

We told him no. You only get to go on an adventure and fight the bad guys if you eat your dinner like Alia did. He pouted for about 10 minutes, and then decided he really wanted to try it again. So he ate his dinner! Then we went on his adventure and completed Eating all my dinner Combat (50xp). This time the Monster Dog was no match for his swift sword. He vanquished the monster and found some gold coins and silver spoon which he promptly turned in for some Jello.

It was getting late, and I wanted to take them upstairs for a bath. They wanted to watch the silly cat video again. Mom made them turn in their golden tigers that they had earned to stay up a little later and watch the video. They wanted to watch it a second time, but had no tigers left!

Oh, and everyone in the family completed the special adventure Trying Something New with My Family. We each earned 100 XP, and got a ruby! Who knows what you can turn THAT in for. Its so special you can only carry 1 at a time!

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Im not sure how were going to create the rest of the quests. For now, to get them involved, I made sure they were able to complete 1 immediately (lunch, which I knew they ate), 1 that required little effort (tell me about school), and 1 which took effort (eating dinner).

I made sure that they earned a treasure for dinner, by setting it to 100%. We really want them to eat dinner, and its the biggest fight in terms of meals. Tentatively, 1 silver spoon = dessert. Maybe you can save up for 3 and get ice cream at the mall, or have mom make a cake! Who knows.

I created two quests for meals, with (100% chance) and without (0%) combat.. That way I can ask them ahead of time, do they want to fight or not.. it doesnt really matter as you cant die, but it lets them have a choice.

Ill work on the other quests later.. Being nice to your brother/sister and Picking up toys.

Plus, I have to add the adult chores.. I think taking out the trash is worth at least 30XP!

For now, I was just happy to see that a little bribery for dinner worked. Lets hope it sticks with him, and I can get them thinking about doing things to earn xp and treasure.. obviously Ill have to tone down the treasure at that point, but I gotta hook them in first! Rules of being a DM make the first fight easy.

Last night I completed Gears of Wars 2 (Xbox 360). I had picked the game up sometime last week, but Ive been pretty diligent about playing nightly until I completed the single player campaign (Normal Mode).

One of things that I really like about GOW2 was the same thing I liked about GOW.

Pacing.

Its a shooter, but the Gears team does a very good job of mixing up the content. Gears really puts you on the edge of your seat. I find myself getting stressed in the high stress situations, just like the character would. Thats the mark of an immersive game.

So you need some downtime. You cant always be in the high stress mode, but you need the story to progress. They handle this with two well presented means of pacing.

The first is within the chapters themselves. They design the maps and encounters to take you logically through the story, but the down time between fights isnt obvious filler. You start to come down between one encounter and the next. There are a few exceptions, where there is wave after wave, but these are culminating events. Those are kinds of challenges the game needs, but cant occur *all* the time.

Even some of the boss fights in GOW2 are easier than some of these progressive waves. At the time the boss fight is happening, its more important to progress the story, and youve already come off a stress fight. This isnt a press A and win kind of fight, but you can feel like youre winning and have control, rather than being overwhelmed.

The second major element of pacing is the per chapter maps. Gears of War 2 does a good job of intermixing  vehicle maps. This might take the form of riding in a tank, or handling a turret on the back of the transport.

What makes these work is twofold. First, you arent worried about ammo and precision. In all cases, its about clearing the path and progressing forward. You are doing bulk damage and covering lots of ground. This gives your mind a chance to relax from the focus needed to zoom in with a sniper rifle, for example.

These vehicle maps in GOW2 each offer a similar but unique experience. Riding backwards on a Reaver while escaping, is much different than guiding a Brumak through the rubble.

Overall, I really enjoyed the game and would definitely recommend it. Im going to start playing the multiplayer now, and go back and pick up some of the achievements that I missed.

The gameplay is is more of the same from GOW. However, overall I felt that the story and progression was tighter. I often felt the need to play one more chapter, because of how smoothly things progressed and kept me involved.

The visuals are great. Granted, Im finally enjoying this game on 1080i, where I played GOW on my old 28 non-HD screen. That being said, there are lots of little details that bring the world together. Like wall hangings, or insects buzzing, or the huge variety of textures. My favorite though was the during the Riftworm chapter (aka Chainsaw glory). The armor of Delta force slowly starts turning red from the feet up as they get covered in blood. Its really obvious by the end of the chapter, but it had been there all along. The subtle addition, early on, added an element that you didnt even know you were missing.

Just a reminder to all Bobos, dues can be paid annually at any time. This really shouldnt be a problem for you, even with the economic times as bad as they are. I am fully confident in our ability to be stupid, no matter how much money is involved.

In case youre wondering, I renewed my membership today.

So Im outside working in the garden and hear some buzzing above the table we have setup for the kids to eat snacks and also where I had their towels (they were playing in the pool).

I looked up and saw a huge wasps nest in the holly tree directly above the table. So first I move the table and then I worry about the kids playing out there, so I go into Dad protector mode. I dont actually see any movement and its later in the day, so I decide Ill just chop off the branch its on and get rid of the whole thing.

Mistake #1.

The tree limb cutter didnt cut all the way through on the first try. So the branch kinda worbled and woke up the whole hive. Apparently it wasnt as late in the day as it should be.

Mistake #2.

So the buggers chased me across the yard and stung me three times I was yelling like a girl, as the situation warranted. As you  can see by my picture, the clippers are still hanging in the tree branch that they failed to cut.

When I got done whacking the ones on my shoulder and taking my shirt off, Alia asked me what happened. I said I was stung by a wasp. A: Whats a wasp? Me: Its kinda like a bee.

A: Oh, a bumblebee. You must smell like a flower.

So I called Jean, told her the whole story. Told her to buy some wasp spray. When she got home, I looked at the stuff - Hot Shot, With a 27 foot stream.

Woo Baby!! Im taking full advantage of THAT.

I unloaded 1/2 of the can on the damn thing, and then another 1/4 from the other direction (once things settled down).

Now I have to wait 24 hours to take it away, as the wasps who werent there will come back to the nest and get their comeuppance.