It’s been an…interesting few days. Our son Connor went through quite an ordeal last week, coming down with a case of what we later realized was roseola. And with our trip to Michigan coming up soon, I’ve got a lot of work to finish in a short amount of time. But at the same time, I’ve been enjoying the spoils of life in some pretty cool ways, proving that there’s usually some goodness to be found in every batch of troubles.
Things usually go pretty routinely around here, but routine was the last thing on our minds this past Wednesday when Connor started running a very high fever out of nowhere. It just so happens that his fever began in the evening after he had a DTaP vaccination, so at first we thought it was some kind of reaction. But when the fever stayed pretty high for another couple of days, we started to wonder what the hell was going on. Then on Saturday, his fever completely disappeared and was replaced by a weird sort of rash and a galaxy of tiny red bumps that seemed to start on his face and quickly spread to his torso. Was this a reaction? An allergy of some kind? We even started to wonder if he was allergic to the herbal medicine we had given him for his fever.
Turns out, thanks to my wife’s Internet sleuthing, that these symptoms are an exact fit for roseola, a fairly common viral illness that mostly seems to affect children within Connor’s age bracket. Once we learned that the rash was that last stage of the illness and was not harmful, we were pretty relieved — and as of today, Connor seems to be back to his usual smiling, happy (but occasionally temperamental, of course!) self. My mom reports that I had roseola as a child, too. Hopefully Connor is done with it for good, and now has a lifelong immunity to boot.
With our son feeling much better again, I went back to work this week in the hopes of polishing off a large number of tasks before we take a break and head to Michigan for a few days. I made some good progress yesterday, but then had my challenge compounded by an enormous new task that also has to be completed before I leave — to the best of my abilities, anyway. So I deferred a couple of less-important items and will be spending the rest of the week on the new project. It’s good stuff, and it’s all billable hours, which is great — especially because this quarter we’re already significantly above revenue goals and stand to receive a sizable employee bonus. Looking forward to that.
Despite some challenges, my wife and I have found plenty of things to be happy about. Just getting Connor back to health was practically cause for throwing a party. Watching him crawl around the house, sit and look out of his bedroom window, or stare around all in wonder at the world when he goes out for a stroll is priceless. Mrs. Oddball and I both also scored iPhone 5s this past weekend, and shortly we’ll have matching protective screen films and cases (Rocketfish soft-shell clear TPU, specifically) just in time for our trip.
I’ve also picked up two astoundingly good video games in recent times — Borderlands 2 last week (see my mini review of it here) and Team Ninja’s latest fighting opus Dead or Alive 5 today. DOA5 is particularly exciting because I’m going to get a chance to play head-to-head against my friends while we’re up north, which ought to be a good time. After dusting off DOA4 a couple months back and re-familiarizing myself with the gameplay, I jumped into the sequel tonight and lapped it up. It really is like a more mature, more polished, more beautiful and more exciting version of DOA4. Nearly everything has been changed, and yet the core gameplay is very familiar and easily accessed by series veterans.
I’ll have a Face Value installment covering DOA5 soon, but until then, I will just remark about how completely jaw-droppingly gorgeous this game is. It takes the series’ iconic characters to entirely new places, and evolves their appearances so that they look less like glossy plastic anime caricatures and more like actual men and women for a change. I’m really welcoming the new style. Plus, my collector’s edition of the game came in an incredibly nice package, complete with a hardcover art book, poster and soundtrack CD (in a real jewel case) all packed inside of a hinged tin box. Very well done.
Now, if we do not get a Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 built on the DOA5 engine, the universe will weep. I’m serious.
Not too much else to say today, but be on the lookout for a bit more in-depth impressions of DOA5 shortly, as well as a report on some of the niftier things about the new iPhone and iOS 6 that my wife and I have been discovering as we’ve played with our new devices. I think the killer feature of the iPhone 5 really has to be the LTE connectivity, though — if it weren’t for the unrealistic and astronomical bandwidth pricing, I would consider using LTE as my home Internet service. It’s that good, here in the Dallas area anyway.
[notice]PSA: I’m planning not to take my laptop with me to Michigan, but rather than jeopardize my attempt to post something here every day if possible, I shall attempt to post from my iPhone or iPad. Expect potentially shorter posts and fewer images for a time.[/notice]
