The "I am so horrible to my children" post…

I did something horribly mean to my youngest Saturday morning.

It was truly unintentional, and I felt really bad about it.

Despite the fact that I was laughing.

What happened was that we were in the Halloween section, and there was one of those life-sized, animatronics skeletons that chat people up when they walk near it. The official designation is a "Life-Size Skeleton Butler Halloween Décor. Basically, a 6-foot plastic skeleton in a suit and a top-hat and holding a candle-stick (it doesn't really say 'butler' to me, but what do I know?)

Well, this one happened to have one of those "Press me to try" buttons on a string, so I felt certain that it wasn't motion activated—or at least not currently since the "try me" tag was still in the thing.

So there I am, I snatched up my youngster, and began walking towards that annoying skeleton, as I'm saying "You want to give him a kiss?"

Now my boy—and he's two remember—is taking this all in stride. He's not laughing out loud, but kind of giggling slightly.

And as I moved closer to the thing, I became even more certain that the motion detector was offline, as as I walked towards it, bouncing my boy about in its line of sight, it was not doing anything.

Well, about the time we get around two inches from that skeleton's face, the thing apparently sensed the movement and activated.

Glowing red eyes.

Moving head.

Clacking teeth.

And a voice.

Now, I wasn't expecting this thing to turn on, so I was a bit startled. I mean, this thing is popping on, more or less by its lonesome. My boy though… well…

My boy freaked.

I mean, really, really, freaked. We're talking "America's Favorite Home Video" level of freak. We're talking that kid watching the maze video on YouTube freak.

We're talking one of those shrill girly squeals.

His body nearly jumped out of my arms.

Just that whole, terrified pre-schooler routine.

Then he was clinging tightly to me sobbing, and I realized that I had moved ten feet back down the action alley and was whispering to him trying to get him to calm down.

A few minutes later, I took him back over to the thing and got him pushing the button to both start and stop it's routine. We got him touching the skeleton so that he could FEEL that it was plastic.

Of course that didn't stop him from discussing the monster the rest of the way through the store.

Monday Ramblings for 09/21/09

Sometimes, I wonder if I should forget this blog, and my others. I update far too randomly for my personal tastes, and I do have the best of intentions to update more.... I think I may need better scheduling or something. That may do it. We'll see.

Anyways, one of the things I do want to do is get back into episodic reviews of anime. In truth, I've not watched much of anything from this summer season (nothing really struck me as all that great, including the second season of The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi. I'm still on episode 14 of that.)

But, it's okay, because the fall '09 season is soon to start, and I'm doing my preliminary picking on what I'll try to watch now:

• Kampfer -- This one I'll at least give a shot to. Which means I'll get the first episode, and base my decision on those 22 minutes
• Nyan Koi -- just the description has amused me so I don't see how it could hurt to try it...
• 11eyes -- provided they keep the ecchi factor down, this has promise...
• Tatakau Shisho-The Book of Bantorra -- I'm going to have to give this one a try
• Seitokai no Ichizon -- I do have a soft-spot for slice-of-life comedies
• Inuyasha: The Final Act -- I will be watching this
• Seiken no Blacksmith -- I'll give it a try....

If I can get one or two shows to do reviews on then I'll be happy.

Beyond that, I have had a good geek time since my last post. I got to watch District 9 and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And I even got a David Weber book, and a Star Wars novel (both of which I need to write reviews on, but I'm apparently a horribly lazy person so...).

Of course, I do have the standard set megalomaniac children going for me to ensure I keep my life filled with random bits of geekery.

I also have recently discovered that geekery is contagious.

It seems that my eldest son had a friend over a lot during this past summer, and now said friend is as excited and ecstatic and obsessive concerning lightsabers and Star Wars as my two boys are.

Personally, I think it's great fun.

His parents... not so much.

But hey, that's the joys of a life of geek-ness.

Now, if only I could get my youngest to root for the good guys as opposed to wanting to throw lightning around like Emperor Palpatine....