Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Ho Ho Ho etc

Heya, I seem to remember I have a blog. There's been a lot of crap going on with the holidays, and I reckon I might as well timestamp it here on my online diary.

1. My brother and his family hate my parents. Hooray. We'll get into that in a sec.
2. My father in law (wife's dad) has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. We found this out like last week.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

On top of all of this, I've got my head down, plugging away in the NWN2 toolset trying to put the finishing wraps on "Passing Through Lorren" so I can go, you know, get a job?

1) My brother is a pretty normal guy. I love him, he's my brother. But he's not the most... like... forceful guy I know. He won't let you walk all over him, but given a choice between direct confrontation and turning the other cheek, he's pretty low impact. His wife (whom I also love, she's my sister in law) is super into 'counter culture child rearing', which basically means her 7 year old daughter can't read because she isn't in public school, none of her three kids have been immunized (the boys are 4 and 2), anything with sugar or bleached flour is strictly forbidden, and TV/movies/anything digital is taboo.

I can dig it, on a few levels. Yes, your child should not be left alone for 8 hours a day with the television to babysit them while they have Cheetos and M&Ms for lunch. Duh. But like Sesame Street? Is Elmo bad for you? My 15 month old watches some PBS (Dinosaur Train, Super Why, Word World), and we have Japanese children's shows on DVD that Satomi's sisters sent us so he can pick up on the fact that mom isn't the only one that speaks Japanese. He loves banging on my keyboard and clicking my mouse, I'm not going to hide the fact that computers exist from him, that makes no sense to me.

The lack of public schooling is a sore point with many of us. I personally feel like early school is only 25% math and crap. The other 75% is being in an environment full of your peers, and learning how to function in society. Exposure to other children, and learning how to share. The three kids in that house have a distinct hierarchy in place, and there isn't really anything from day to day that shakes that up. If you're going to homeschool, fine, go for it... but I'm just not sure they're putting the full 100% required into it. In the end it isn't really any of my business. They're their kids,a nd they can do with them as they please. But shit like not having your shots is just stupid. It puts other children at risk. If Chloe caught some crap because she wasn't immunized, and gave it to Roy (my son) before he was old enough to receive his regular boosters I'd be fucking pissed.

It all boils down to just refusing to live in the world normal people operate in. My parents finally had enough of it, and called Crystal on it, and things were... said... that maybe should have remained unsaid. I can see it from both sides. Again, your kids, do what you want. But when my mom makes a holiday dinner and they all come over and refuse to eat any of it because they don't believe in gravy or whatever, it just adds up. The thing that I just keep coming back to is that the instant Chloe is old enough to go catch a bus downtown to hang out with a friend, I just imagine her going straight to the candy aisle and developing some eating disorder. Ugh, whatever. Not my problem.


2) Oh boy, Cancer! Stomach cancer even! This is my problem now, because it's my wife's father we're talking about. Masaru is some super cool old Japanese guy that just exudes... like... old school. Satomi was frustrated with him growing up because of this, but the instant I met him, I knew we would get along. Satomi has two sisters, and both of their husbands are bending over backwards for his approval all the time, and I think he's just sick of it. He doesn't put up with shit, and won't sugar coat things, and I like to think that I 'get' that. I call him Masaru, because that's his name, and the first time I said it everyone in the room almost died, except him. They all expect to call him Otosan ("father"), and here was the crazy American just using his name. God forbid. I also asked to borrow his car one day, because it's much roomier than the one we were driving at the time, and I could feel time stopping all around me. He happily gave me the keys, and tried to show me how the GPS system worked in Japanese. I screwed it all up and kept making random bookmarks. Everyone got all worried , but he just laughed and said he had no idea how that thing works either.

It's like, he knows I respect him, and that's enough. I really like Masaru.

His wife, Atsuko, is equally old school; but on the other side of the coin, being a woman. She gardens, cooks, cleans, and used to strap our son on her back and go about the chores of the day with Roy zonked out back there. She has some issues with her body, when she was younger she needed a blood transfusion or something, and ended up getting a bad batch of blood or... something. I'm not sure exactly how it all went down, but then she had a minor stroke, and she's not running at 100% these days. She's not incapacitated or anything, but she's forgetful, and can't drive a car. With the cancer being freshly discovered (they thought it was ulcers for a while), they still have a bunch of tests to run, and Satomi and I plan on going to Japan pretty much as soon as the holidays are over, and spending some time there. She'll probably stay on for longer than I will, she misses Japan, and will be able to help shuttle Atsuko back and forth to the hospital etc, and we can both lend a hand around the house while Masaru is undergoing the first surgery.

Maybe everything will work out, at this point it's still really early.

3) My module! Passing through Lorren is coming together, but as you can see, I've got a lot on my plate. It takes a backseat, but not TOO far back, because I still need to finish this thing to show it around in hopes of getting a job. While working on it, I've found that yes, I do find this work to be very interesting, but it's hard being the one guy that does everything. I can't focus on one task, because I'm the whole team, and need to do every task, but it gives me an appreciation for how much actually goes into making something like this.

I'm trying to keep it open ended, and it's looking like there are about 7 different endings at this point. I've clocked in 9459 words of dialogue, and I'm still not done yet. The funny part is realizing that a huge chunk of everything I do will never be seen.

I put it there, but you can finish the whole module without ever setting foot in the Pink Pigtail (for example). It need to be there in case you do decide to pop in, but so much of everything is like this... it all needs to be there just in case you look in that direction, although you may never do so.

Anyway, 20 days without a post, so this was one to make up for that. I haven't forgotten about the blog, but there's just bigger fish to fry at the moment.

xoxo

ixo

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope everything works out for your family and all that. Keep working on that game mofo!

-bonedead

oshin said...

Good to see a post again :)

The brother thing is a tough call, but your probably making the right choice, trying the whole dr phil intervention thing on people in that situation rarely works.

Sorry to hear about the cancer, hopefully it will be treatable.

LifeDeathSoul said...

Hope everything turns out alright for you! Merry Christmas and may your next year be better than this year :)

Stabs said...

Best wishes to you and your family. Hope your father-in-law has a smooth effective operation.

Sassafras said...

Sending good thoughts your family's direction.

Cap'n John said...

Merry Christmas, and wishing you & yours all the best for the coming year.

Echoing what everyone else has said before I really hope everything turns out okay with Masaru. Yeah, it's cancer, but it's not necessarily a death sentence; it can be, but not always.

My Mum was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, had a chunk of tissue taken out, did the chemo and has been cancer-free now for a year & counting.

Larísa said...

Ouch Ixo... It's tough. Family drama isn't as easily overcome as guild drama is. I really feel with you. Been there, done that. And cancer. My father got it (and died from it) so I know pretty much what you and your wife are going through.

You're growing up. Getting responsabilities. The kind of stuff you get grey hair from.
There's nothing glorous about it and I think most of us would rather remain young and childish and innocent. But for most of us it isn't an option. Those things... just come over us. And they tend to bunch up for some reason.

There isn't much I can do from the other side of the world. Still, for whatever it's worth: here are my thoughts, my support, my wishes that things will turn better. And a big: /hug from your friend and innkeeper.

Rem said...

Big ouch @ number 2. Best, best wishes and fingers crossed it can be treated and "fixed" as much as possible.

Hatch said...

Jeez. Sorry to hear about your father-in-law. I hope he has a full recovery.

As for your brother, I have no sympathy. I view their treatment of their children as child abuse.

On a lighter note, sounds like Roy is doing great! Good luck on finishing the module. Hook us up with some more materials when it's done, since as far as I know I can't check it out unless I have the original game.

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