Switched

NO FUN AND SOME GAMES: So, there are a number of avid gamers in this household. People interested in technology and the latest gaming system, most especially if it's a Nintendo product.

Today, the Nintendo Switch was released.

It was kind of a big deal.

We didn't succesfully score a Switch during the pre-order phase, which was a huge bummer. So, I've had my finger on the pulse of the day of launch sale options. 

I worked all the angles, had all the right browser tabs open at the appointed time(s). Nine p.m. East Coast last night meant midnight to us, and 12:01 meant 3/3, the day of release.

All four of us were working the angles. Imagine the jubilation when my tap tap tapping led to scoring a unit via Walmart.com. We had a Switch, signed, sealed and supposed to be delivered by March 7!  Woo hoo!

This morning we went about our business, and about 8:30 were readying to leave for CJ's ortho appointment when I saw an email letting me know our order with Walmart had been canceled. "

Oh. MyGod. Are you KIDDING ME?!?!?

Last night I was all ready to do the midnight rodeo or early a.m. getting in line thing if I had to, but we didn't 'cause we had ours (hahahaha not really, apparently), via Walmart.com.

I said MANY MANY MANY bad words when I got their ridiculous email.

Do you want to know how you don't want to spend your Friday morning? 

You do not want to spend your Friday morning on the phone with Walmart 'customer service,' trying to get an item you ordered. It is Very Not Fun.

I won't bore you with the details. The bottom line was (of course) despite being 'escalated' to higher tiers of 'help,' there was no real help. I got a $25 Walmart gift cert and many, many 'sorry' statements. Pretty hard to play a game on that platform.

As soon as I resigned myself to the fact that was a lost cause, I weighed my options for scoring the hottest item on the planet on this given day. My last and only hope was Amazon's Treasure Truck. We're lucky to live in a city where a magical Treasure Truck roams neighborhoods passing out amazing things you want so badly. Like lobster. And Nintendo consoles.

Realizing the Treasure Truck often has the hottest, bestest stuff, I quickly texted Kennedy and Christian asking them to be on the lookout for a Treasure Truck text. Meanwhile, I (on my forever awful and unstable phone) downloaded the Amazon Shopping app. It was about 9:45 and I knew that Treasure Truck text notifications go out at 10 a.m. The download was so s-l-o-w! It finally happened and I launched the app, and looked for the Treasure Truck link.

I clicked on it and it said 'today on the truck ...'

OMG. It was the Nintendo Switch. THE. NINTENDO. SWITCH. 

Yes, please. 

I poked at my cell phone screen and tried to order one. 

And it worked. 

Wow. 

By some stroke of luck, I got the unit before the blast text even went out to all the world! 

What's even more amazing is that Kennedy got one too thanks to my frantic/hurried "OMG Igotonefromethetreasure turkc" text. He hopped on ahead of the text, too!

We went to a spot outside Google and Adobe Seattle HQ to pick the unit up.

As an added bonus, the kids each got to shoot an arrow at a gnome to win a Fremont (Theo) chocolate bar. 

After we left there, we went to Fred Meyer and scored the last two "The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild" games for the new Nintendo Switch. 

We met Kennedy in Queen Anne this afternoon, passing off one of the Zelda games in the middle of the street via opened car windows while barely moving. It might have looked a bit sketchy at the time, but he was happy the 'deal' went down.

Shortly thereafter, the kids got their system all set up, much to their delight.

Overall, today was one of those 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times' days.

Meanwhile, in my back seat. ... 

Red, White and Green

           
SEUSSICAL: Today was a bit busy. 

It involved hauling two crockpots, a portable oven, 11 dozen eggs, 10 or so pounds of ham, two vegan quiches, posters, props, 6 gallons of chocolate milk, and more to the kids' learning center. 

That all happened by 8:30 a.m. From then on, it was scrambling in more ways than one. ;)

Specifically, 132 eggs were scrambled and dyed green, an homage to the famous Dr. Seuss book "Green Eggs and Ham." March 2 is Dr. Seuss' birthday, and it's the 20th anniversary of the National Education Association's "Read Across America" campaign, to promote literacy and reading to and with children.

The green eggs were served up along with a vegan greens, 'eggs' and 'ham' quiche, chocolate dairy milk and a soy milk alternative as a 'fun' raiser. 

Meanwhile, families were enjoying a Seussical selfie photo booth, and taking turns in the special reading chair, sharing favorite Seuss books aloud. 

There was also a craft table, where people could make  a fun door hanger, and an Oh The Places You'll Go-themed sheet dreaming about the future or a cute little Lorax out of a clementine.

All in all, a bit of work, but we had lots of great help and there were many appreciative people. 

MIND BLOWN: Tonight, we went down to Living Computers; Museum + Labs for their monthly movie night. 

We're all still reeling, a bit. ;)

This evening's feature was an hour long documentary called "The Simulation Hypothesis." In a nutshell, a simulation hypothesis, per Wikipedia, "proposes that reality is in fact a simulation (most likely a computer simulation). Some versions rely on the development of a simulated reality, a proposed technology that would seem realistic enough to convince its inhabitants. The hypothesis has been a central plot device of many science fiction stories and films." The movie "The Matrix" is perhaps the most notable example. 

It's a conversation starter, for sure. Here's the description for the movie, where it's posted on YouTube. ... 

Are we living in a virtual reality? Is the universe emerging from an information processing system? And if so, could we ever tell? Is it possible to 'hack' the system and change reality? Take a look at the evidence and decide for yourself! 

Contributions to THE SIMULATION HYPOTHESIS are made by leading researchers from physics, cosmology, mathematics and information sciences. Appearances by MaxTegmark, Neil degrasse Tyson, Paul Davies, James Gates and many more. Science has never been so much fun!

“What an incredible film! Fascinating, mind-bending stuff.” - Timothy Rhys, Publisher: MovieMaker Magazine

"Supremely interesting, compelling, fantastic!" - David Hoffman, Producer: Cannes Film Festival Critics Prize Winner

"By far the best video I have watched on this topic, bar none." - Prof. Brian Whitworth, Systems Analysis: Massey University

https://youtu.be/VqULEE7eY8M


I'll have the kids write up a review tomorrow. The video was certainly thought provoking, to say the least. ... 

Short Report

A DAY: It has been what one might call "a day."

Funny, when I got up this morning, I thought my hours-long nightmares about terrorist attacks on the Washington State Ferries was going to be the worst part of my day. 

It kind of went downhill from there, with ugly realities taking the place of bad nightmare.

Anywho, enough about the unpleasant.

One bright spot this morning was when we tuned in at the last second and saw a pretty lift off of a United Launch Alliance rocket.  It was a fun launch to watch because it was a rare West Coast event. (The vast majority of U.S. launches happen down on the Space Coast in Florida.)

On board the ULA Atlas 5 rocket was the newest National Reconnaissance Office satellite. http://spacenews.com/ula-launch-successfully-carries-nro-payload-into-orbit/#sthash.kj1hlTaX.dpuf

THERE IS ANOTHER:  Looks like we've got another blogger in the family. CJ has started regularly posting. Here's a link to his (politics-centric) blog: http://cjmoki.blogspot.com/

I'm happy to see him take initiative, do research, and get more writing practice in. 

Fun Sunday

TACOMA FUN: Sunday morning we headed down south to Tacoma to go to a radio station's birthday party. Yes, seriously.

CJ has become, um, what's a friendlier word for 'obsessed' with 102.9, an alternative rock radio station out of Tacoma?

I guess it's not a bad thing. In fact, I rather love all the music. It's '90s grunge galore, and the music I grew up with along with CJ's older brother's, Rick and Ken.So, I love that music and we were happy to indulge CJ's wishes.

The party was at 7 Seas Brewing in Tacoma. They have a cool, expansive space. 7 Seas has an interesting history. Their circuitous path led them to brewing in the old Heidelberg brewing space, iconic if you're a Pac NWer of a certain age. 

Since CJ was the impetus for attending, we'll let him tell you all about it. ...

 Yesterday, my family headed down south to Tacoma, to go to 7 Seas Brewing. We went to attend the 1st birthday celebration of Alt 102.9, a radio station from Tacoma (though licensed to Centralia) specializing in the last millennium's alternative rock. The 7 Seas Brewing building was a very nice and clean venue, and there was a "spinning table", where you could try to spin a wheel to win a prize. While my family spun it 4 times (to no success), we did get some promotional stickers. emblazoned with Alt 102.9's logo. Lastly, there was pizza from "The Rock", a series of restaurants with very good wood-fired pizza.
http://alt1029.iheart.com/calendar/february-26-2017/alt-1029-birthday-bash-545945/http://www.therockwfk.com/

WE ARE DORKS: Since we were down in Tacoma, we knew we had to go to our #1 draw in that town: Dorky's Arcade.

I'll let Annabelle tell you a bit more about that visit.

Dorky’s is an arcade in downtown Tacoma and one of our favorite spots to stop when we’re in town. The arcade is a bit small, but it has classics like Burgertime and Frogger, favorites like Dance Dance Revolution, and some games I’ve never seen before! One of those games was Killer Queen, which is somewhat like Joust, but with teams of 5. Each team has one “Queen” and you can win 3 ways: Either kill the other team’s queen 3 times, bring enough berries home to your hive, or ride the slow snail to your side of the screen. It was really fun, but it seems like it would be more fun with more players. They also had a giant version of Pac-man, which was neat because it was also competitive. There were 2 players on screen at once, but other than that it was essentially normal Pac-man on a huge screen made of individual lights. It was super fun at Dorky’s and I love visiting when we can!

CJ had the high score (so far) of the day on Sunday on the table version of Donkey Kong.

The arcade also has a few pinball machines. This one was my favorite.

And we loved this old school slot action hockey game.