myJaxonIf we don’t go crazy once in a while, we’ll all go crazy. - Hawkeye

Jesse kept hearing about this game for the Wii called Puzzle Quest from one of our friends and the library had it on their shelf this weekend, so we picked it up. At first, we really weren’t that crazy about it, but after playing it for pretty much most of the day, it’s growing on us. The game has a quest mode as well as a “instant battle” option. I think Jesse started a quest, but I couldn’t tell you what it is. We’re enjoying the actually battles to care about the quests right now. The battle mode is what would happen if Puzzle Fighter and Bejeweled had a love child. There are also different spells you can use to give yourself more of an edge, but you have to earn enough mana in order to use them.

Overall, it’s fun to play and perfect when having a small child run around. Ian has been able to sit in our laps, while we play, and not effect whether we die or not. You can have the puzzles be timed, but if you’re worried about a tiny body standing in front of the TV, you can also have the timers turned off. This is actually kind of good.

I just noticed Jesse is playing in quest mode and it kind of reminds me of some of the older Final Fantasy map boards. Although this does remind me of one small grievance I have with the game…the font is TINY. Jesse says it’s mainly our TV and if we had an HDTV, then it would be different, but I don’t believe it. The font is so tiny, you could be sitting right next to the TV and still not be able to read it. On ours, it is a little blurry, so maybe it is readable, but it’s still really tiny for me. I wear glasses after all.

One more awesome thing…it’s only $20 on Amazon. Most Wii games start out around $50, so it’s not that bad of a deal.

Does anyone have a list of things they need to pack for when they go camping? Yeah, I should have one, but I couldn’t find the one I did for last year. I think I did one last year, I’m pretty sure I did one last year…

Anyway, my mother is just as organized as I am, if not more so, and she was looking for her list and couldn’t find it either. She did some searches and found a couple of really good ones. Here is a list for the generic camper. It’s a pretty good comprehensive list, but I will probably remove some of the items for my own. After all, I don’t think we’ll be needing Water Purifying Tablets or Water Filtering Pump for our weekend trips.  She also found this list for families. While we’re not planning any camping trips this year with Ian, I do plan on taking him at least once next summer.  We were thinking of going this year in June,  but with buying a house and Ian being the age he is, we wanted to wait one more summer.

So I wanted to share these lists and put them in a place where I’ll be able to find them again.

It’s weekly geeks time again and this weeks theme:

Choose a political or social issue that matters to you. Find several books addressing that issue; they don’t have to books you’ve read, just books you might like to read. Using images (of the book covers or whatever you feel illustrates your topic) present these books in your blog.

I’ve been a supporter of Net Neutrality for awhile now, but I never really thought about looking up any books on the topic until Dewey came up with this weeks theme. So I went over to Amazon and came across a couple books that caught my interest.

1. Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated by Thomas M. Lenard and Randolph J. May
2. Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age by Jonathan E. Nuechterlein and Philip J. Weiser

Net Neutrality has been going on for the past couple of years and still there are Congress members who have no idea what it is. I’m sure we’ve all seen the footage of Senator Ted Stevens calling the internet nothing but a bunch of tubes. However, I’m hoping that the Senator, and other non informed members, have learned what the internet is by now. Net Neutrality is a huge issue to independent website owners, like me, because if it isn’t passed into law, then the larger companies can pay to have their sites load faster, while mine would load up as if it was still on dial-up.

Already, there are a bunch of “Save the Internet” campaigns going on. I’ve been a part of the Free Press Media Reform newsletter for awhile now, and while I don’t religiously read it daily, I do keep my eyes open. While I do agree that the internet does need to be regulated, the speed at which sites are loaded should not be something that is. Afterall, if Literary Escapism took forever to load, who would read it? Would I spend as much time working on that site if it took forever to see it? Reading has saved my sanity over the last 15 months (can you guess how old my son is) and all of the reviews and work I’ve been able to put into Literary Escapism have kept me from going stir crazy. So, I’m going to say it, “Save the Internet has a write in campaign on their site that will automatically detect who your congresspeople are simply by putting in your zip code. Go over to the site and fill out their form and send it to your Congress representatives. Although, at the moment, it seems like the Free Press site is under construction, so go over there once it starts working (if it isn’t already working by the time you read this).

One other issue that is being discussed in Congress right is the Reading is Fundamental government program. I’m going to be shameless and plug it again, but they are talking about cutting all funding to this program and that would mean millions of children who were receiving free books will no longer be able to do so. Right now, there is a write in campaign going on and all it takes is a few moments to fill in some blanks. I’m urging everyone who reads my site, to write in and make their voice heard.

Just so people can get a clear understanding on what Net Neutrality is, the Daily Show has a pretty good explanation and here it is…

Fox released a couple teaser trailers for the new Joss Whedon series Dollhouse.

So I decided to do a little baking today for the guys at Jesse’s work. I love using them as guinea pigs since it allows me to indulge my vice of cooking and baking without having to gain all the extra pounds. Although Jesse has been told that I have a secret agenda to fatten up all of his coworkers. Honestly, this isn’t the case, but I’m glad they are willing to eat my efforts.

For this time, I’ve made three different types of bread. I actually had four types planned, but I decided to hold off on that one a little bit longer.

1. Jamaican Coconut Bread
2. Strawberry Walnut Bread
3. Oatmeal Cinnamon Bread

Anyway, that’s what I planned, so I hope they enjoy it.