23... Oooo.. SCARY... Yeah, I'm talking about the new Jim Carrey movie. I poked around a little regarding the whole '23 conspiracy' thing. Look, anyone can find anything about any number if that person makes links they WANT to see... Look how many 9/11 things came up regarding the numbers 9, 11, 911, 9-1-1, etc. I'm not making fun of anyone's superstitions or phobias or whatever. Heaven knows I have my own (though I have yet to find a name for it, but when I do, I'll post it just because I'm sure it will have some bizarre name). My issue is the 'big deal' that is being made about it. I mean, to me, it is no different than 9/11, or 'lucky 7' or the whole 'Lincoln/Kennedy' thing (which isn't one, but some people believe it is... Whatever... Of course, Jim Carrey is so affected by the 23 thing in real life that his production company is called JC23...
And, so I move to another number-related thought... On Deal or No Deal, the player's parents had come to America with only $750 to their name. By the end of the game, the player was down to three amounts - $75, $750, and $750,000. They started talking about 'fate' this and 'fate' that... I'm not sure that the 'fates' are into things like game shows, but people like to think fate has some part in what happens. If you didn't see the show, the guy took a little over a hundred grand and when they opened his case... you guessed it... $750. So, Howie took the case and placed in the player's mother's lap. Fate? I don't think so. Co-inky-dink, most likely. A heart-touching one for sure, but still, coincidence.
Dad sent us a picture of himself taken while he was at the former Presidential Palace in Baghdad! There is very tight security to get in, and he had to be escorted, but how cool... :-) Mom said that they talk/chat/email everyday. I never pictured my Mom being a chatter... :-) I think it is great that they can be 7000+ miles apart, and yet really be no further apart than a keystroke. Sometimes, technology is pretty danged amazing... I know, given my profession is connecting schools with sites all around the world via compressed video, you might think text-based chatting would seem 'old hat' to me. Nope. there are things in this world that continually amaze me....
On another note, I have been playing Oblivion for a while now. Emily calls it the 'wolf and deer' game. She calls it that because when I play while she sits in my lap, I try to stick to walking around hunting wild animals. Though, we do like to stroll through towns. She hates the 'talking to people' part of the game, though. So, I always have to go back when playing solo and find out what I've missed. The system requirements for the game are pretty steep, but there is a 'mod' one can download called "OLDblivion" that allows the game to run on older computers. I do not need that with my upgraded computer, but I thought it was interesting that folks took the time to tweak the INI file to help those folks without 'cutting edge' systems run it....
Playing games with Emily is fun because it's interesting to see things from her perspective. She likes to play Battlefield 1942 in multiplayer with Tyler and me. She doesn't play for the shooting part of it, but because we play together, ride around in jeeps, and hop in airplanes, etc. In fact, the three of us have lost many battles because we were playing around and not playing the game. One thing we do is find 'houses' on the maps. We each get a house, or sometimes share a house - for no other reason that to have a place to run around, hang out, and have fun while the rest of the computer-controlled soldiers go on battling.
I forgot to mention that Emily and I bought a horse in Oblivion today. It's a paint. And, we discovered, it can swim....slowly...but it can swim... :-)
Shan's National Boards are coming along. It's not an easy ride by any stretch. The questions applicants are asked seem to repeat throughout the process, and some things are so vague, you really have no idea what is being asked in the first place. But, one step at a time, we get to check things off the list. People say that building a house tests people... They should try applying for National Teaching Certification! I just know that it'll be worth it, and that no matter how stressful things may get, I'm proud of Shan for doing it, for going for it and pushing through when I know all she really wants to do is throw in the towel some days.
One last thing before I head out this evening - if you know someone that has done something (or is trying to do something) and it makes you proud of them, tell them. I'm afraid people don't do much of that anymore. Why is it so hard to say, "I'm proud of you for..." or "Thank you for..."
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