Goodness

Tonight, I experienced my first video game frustration. Not the usual kind, where I am frustrated that someone else is getting frustrated over a video game. No, tonight, I was the one cursing and throwing my controller into my lap in protest. While playing Lego Star Wars. Which happens to be an awesome game. I am not super skilled (ha - understatement of the century), but this game is made for 10 year olds, so I am able to function fairly well most of the time (and fine, this was my 2nd time playing it). But we were on this one level with lots of jumping, and I was not too good at this jumping, and I kept either falling and dying or falling down to the bottom level once I was almost one with the jumping and I was just so sick of jumping and falling that I said, "I suck! I quit! Done! @#$%!!!" I kid you not.

But I took a breath and kept going and eventually we completed the level. I like the team aspect of the game. It's fun not trying to kill each other (as in most 1st person shooter games, at which I am terrible), and instead working as a team to complete missions. I like that. Will, I'm sorry I keep accidentally shooting you. Or punching you. Or destroying you with my light saber. I promise it's just my lack of skill. I sometimes hit the wrong button on the controller, you see. Or my finger cramps up (uh, maybe a sign it's time to stop) or I just slip. Oh well. I would not want to play a "serious" game - I like the cartoony-ness of it that keeps it all in perspective. Remembering that it's just a silly game to play for fun is key, I believe. And it was fun. And I totally want Lego Harry Potter too, even though Will doesn't care about HP (a tragedy, I know).

On another video game note...in case you haven't been reading (or following my tweets) lately, I love the Kinect. Seriously, this thing is awesome. We have played Kinect Adventures (can't find a link to just the game) and Joy Ride, and I'm seriously considering getting Dance Central too. Microsoft, you win this round. It's just fun. No controllers to mess with, just your own body. Will and I have each created avatars, so next time we play, it will be our little computerized mini-me's on the screen. It's really cool though, how it senses your body movements and mimics what you do. It has face-recognition too, so in theory, once you sync your avatar with yourself (by standing in front of the sensor and letting it recognize you), it will know it's you every time. If you're playing a game and want to add a player, he or she just needs to step in front of the screen. It's super neat. I promise. Even though I don't totally get the whole XBox Live + Kinect profiles/avatars thing I'm sure.

I should add that nobody is asking or telling or paying me to say this stuff (though I think I get some sort of kickback if you click those links and buy them from Amazon or something, I have no idea). I was lucky enough to win the Xbox360 and Kinect from Dooce, and honestly, if I hadn't won I A) probably would not have known about it and B) would not have thought it worth spending the money. I didn't grow up with video games, I don't usually like them all that much, and it just wouldn't have been on my radar. However, if you DO like (or want to like) video games, you DO have an extra $300-400 lying around, and you DO have this on your radar, I will tell you that it is totally worth it. It is ridiculous fun, easy for even a video game newbie (noob?) like me, and it's actually a good little workout too.

So yeah. Video games, up and down. I think I'm a little zonked out from an abundance of late nights lately, and the staring at the big ole TV screen (oh hi, new TV in all your 46" LCD glory - I think this is the one we got; if not, it's similar). I've been so tired today and yesterday that I haven't cooked, haven't really cleaned, haven't uploaded pictures, haven't done much of anything. But I suppose that happens sometimes, after a week and a half of travel and the holidays in general. After a last-minute decision to have a New Year's Eve party (more on that later), our bedroom looks like we just moved in, but I've been too tired to do anything about it yet. I'm not even going to go back and re-read and edit this post, even though it's much longer than I thought it would be. Oh well. Just kidding. I went back and re-read it, though I didn't make it shorter. I had kind of forgotten how it started, and then I just decided to leave it all. 2011!

I have many photos to share, and I'm still deciding whether I really want to write the standard "New Year's Resolutions" post, and things are getting busy again starting, oh, tomorrow, but it's all goodness. And busy goodness is a good way to both end and start a year, I'd say.

Happy New Year to all. I hope your holidays were lovely and not too stressful and full of delicious things and goodness of all sorts.