With the end of Sean's spring break, and after some tense moments, I think we've made some definite progress in Sean's potty training. He is still not able to tell us that he needs to use it on his own, but he can hold it, and if we see the signs that he needs to use it, he'll fully perform the potty routine on his own, with some prompting. It isn't quite where he was last summer where he used the potty completely independant of us, but only when he was completely naked, but at least he now wears the underwear. His routine is pretty important, especially since he has Pervasive Development Disorder, and I believe it is the key to his success. As he gets more familiar with it, and if Juri and I can maintain consistancy and insist on continual potty use, Sean will be fully independant within a couple of weeks! I'm so proud of what he has accomplished!
Last night, I played some beatmania IIDX and realized that I was doing better. For a while, I'd been stuck at a wall where I just couldn't progress beyond my abilities. I was having issues with chords (multiple keys at the same time). In particular, chords consisting of one or two keys keeping the beat (playing the drum sounds) on one side of the note chart, while playing the melody on the other side of the chart. The issue was that I was having problems getting my hands to operate independantly of one another. I'd find that my hand playing the melody would end up synching with the beat hand, missing notes inbetween beats on the melody. I found that if I speed up how fast the notes drop even more than I already do, I can read them better and I can manage to get both hands to work seperately! I've also been practicing on songs that specifically challenge that aspect of gameplay. So, I've found last night that I can pass some of the six star songs now, I've improved my scores on lower star songs, and hopefully I can start working on Hyper difficulty. Yay!
Alternate reality, you say? Yes, there is a new game genre out there called Alternate Reality Game (ARG) and it is a really interesting concept. I recently found a small blurb about one of them in my latest issue of OPM, and I think it describes the genre just perfectly. To quote: "Perplex City - Turns out the rabbit hole for this puzzle-game/collectable-card-game/alternate-reality-game is very deep. Solve puzzles on collectable cards to fill in pieces of an epic story that extends into the real world. The ultimate goal: Find the stolen 'Receda Cube"--hidden somewhere in the real, physical world--and earn $200,000 in real-world cash." Apparently, each card in Perplex City's game has a puzzle (difficulties range from easy to ridiculously difficult) that you answer on the game's website. Taking a closer look at some cards reveals more clues to the grand puzzle. Things like ultraviolet and heat appearing inks, small words hidden in the puzzle's picture, maps of the city on the back of the cards, and huge partial letters make up some of the more intricate underlying puzzling that has to be done to find the Receda Cube. There is a huge background story that occured for almost a year before the game cards were even released, as well. It is really interesting and it has me totally sucked in! At first, I liked the puzzle cards. Then, when I realized that there was so much more involved in it, I had to dig deeper. Now I am knee deep in the story and will be getting my first four packs of cards in the mail soon. I'll keep my progress updated on my blog.
Phew! I think that is enough for this entry! You can keep track of my current progress in beatmania and Perplex City on my blog's sidebar. The graphic for beatmania has my DJ name and how many AAA, AA, and A grades I've receieved, how many Full and Perfect Combos I've done, and how many DJ Points I have. Below that is how many Perplex City cards I've solved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment