The best eight years of my life

On February 18, 2004, we welcomed a new addition to our house. Today, Peter's a whopping EIGHT years old, which seems impossible to believe. But what an amazing little man we've created!

Happy birthday, Peter!

Man, I just cannot believe this boy is 7 years old today.

Seriously, how does this happen so fast?

The future's so bright, I've got to wear shades

How's this for making us '80s kids feel old -- 2011 is only four years away from the hoverboarding world of 2015 "Back To The Future II" predicted for us way back in 1989. Ye gods. No hoverboards but tons of iPods and iPads and iThings. (Further Future Shock amusement: 11 predictions BTTF2 got right, and 11 predictions BTTF2 got wrong.)

I turn 40 this year, too, which is a really weird thing to see on the horizon -- on 11/11/11, no less. My wee boy is nearly 7 and about to enter Year 3 at school. I sort of feel like my entire 30s whooshed by in a blur of babies, newspapers and moves. I moved from California to Oregon to New Zealand, had a high-energy kid, and I guess that accounts for that blurry feeling as we enter 2011. Where did the 2000s go?

The world young Peter is growing up in may not have hoverboards and flying cars (yet) but it is very different. P will never know a pre-digital world without the internet, texting, Facebooks, iPods and the like -- he will assume knowledge is all out there instantly, without having to dig around in libraries, just a click or two away (the other day he asked about what eels eat, then said "I guess we can just look it up on the internet").

As Arcade Fire sang in last year's song, "We Used To Wait":
"I used to write,
I used to write letters I used to sign my name
I used to sleep at night
Before the flashing lights settled deep in my brain"

It's a world where you're never out of touch if you don't want to be, where you don't sit around waiting for weeks for a letter from an old friend you've been wanting to hear from. Just send a Facebook message.

... Not that I'm gonna turn into one of those cranky old geezers complaining about the way things ain't the way they once was. The world of 2011 brings us many wonderful things that make it possible for the world to seem bigger and yet closer than ever before. But it's interesting, now that we're actually IN the future of 2011, how different from what we once imagined and yet how futuristic it actually is when you think about it.

Today I am Mime Man

What's your powers Mime Man?

My powers are to mime out stuff and make bad guys go away. I have a motorbike and a plane.

How did you get your powers?

I got my powers by stepping on white and blue tomato sauce at the same time.

What's your secret identity?

John Key [editor's note: The Prime Minister of New Zealand. No, I don't get it either.]

Do you have a partner?

I have a dog named Billy. He bites bad guys' legs and helps us to bad guys' hiding spots.

Who is your worst enemy?

My worst enemy is Superman. Because he gets grumpy sometimes.



(Cross-posted from Peter's Creations which features lots of cool stuff done by the young fellow at irregular intervals.)

Like blogger, like son

I reckon I've been blogging on and off 6 years or so now and it's time to let the younger generation do their thing. Allow me to hype to you my wee boy's blog, showcasing the remarkable variety and creativity of his swell and nifty art creations! With a little help from Mum, it's Peter's Creations! Go check it out.

Next stop, Year Two!

So the beginning of the boy's first school year was weird and strange and fun -- but the end of it is even odder to me. Down here in upside down down under, the school year ends just before Christmas and starts up again in February, so Peter's on his final day in Year 1 of primary school today. He found out his next teacher and classroom that he'll start up with Year 2 in 2010, and got his very first school report. It's got to be a bit tough, having just gotten used to his little group of friends and familiar faces, and then moving on to the next one. It makes me feel weird, too -- first "end of term," first of many more to come, the kind of realization that school isn't just a one-off thing but a years-long journey for the boy.

He is doing pretty well, all things considered. It's been a bloody rough year for our family in a lot of ways with two grandparents battling cancer, but he's been strong at school and his reading and imagination are tops. There's more than a fair share of discipline and obedience battles and there are times when you just think life was easier when we had two cats instead, but so it goes. Peter gets a break now with mom for a while and then he goes back in February -- not one of the newest kids, but moving on up the old school food chain.

The force is strong in this one

Armageddon Expo, this past weekend.

Things that I have been doing other than blogging:

• Finally finishing the 2-year project of painting pretty much every room in our house by painstakingly turning the mottled jaundice yellow Formica of our master bathroom into a shining cheerful blue and stripping the bubbling ceiling and repainting it.

• Listening to much nifty music from The 13th Floor Elevators and Roky Erickson, The Eels and Big Star.

• Having a cosmos-shattering blog crossover by meeting fellow Auckland blogger, comics fan and journalist Bob of the Tearoom of Despair, whose passionate comics posts are well worth reading.

• Watching Kenneth Branagh give a nifty smouldering performance in the dark and intense Swedish-set BBC detective series "Wallander."

• Waiting in line in hopes I get tickets for the Pavement reunion show right here in Auckland.

• Bought a new toaster after the old one reached the end of its 2 1/2 year lifespan. They sure know how to make things last these days, don't they?

• Listening to the alternating bouts of intense rain and intense sun that make an Auckland spring.

• Peter asked a girl in his class to marry him. In writing. Because he loves her. How did it go? "She said she'd play with me but only if I DON'T love her."

Hey kids, comics! Free Comic Book Day 2009

One of the cool things about having a 5-year-old is that they're very pliable still, and like the things you like. Peter doesn't feel the need yet to rebel against everything we hold dear, so if I like comic books, so does he. Anything that has superheroes is nearly as cool as Transformers and Lego in his book.

So of course Free Comic Book Day is a great father-and-son geek bonding kinda thing. FCBD has been going for several years now, and it's always a decent event -- I like it even more in New Zealand as comics here are so much more pricey than in the US. Gotham Comics did an excellent job this year and Peter's Superman (sort of) costume was a hit.

Good freebies this year, too -- the kid-comics included a DC Kids' comics sampler, Transformers (of course), the Bongo comics crew featuring the Simpsons and the like. There's even a "kid-friendly" Wolverine comic (although I have to admit a "kid-friendly" Wolverine seems really bizarre to me) which the boy dug ("How does he keep his knives sharp?").

I haven't been following DC's superheroes at all really lately so the Green Lantern "Blackest Night" freebie did a good job of bringing me up to speed with all the various "new lanterns" mythology they've introduced. (Orange Lanterns? Really?) I'm not hooked enough to buy yet another huge crossover, but it was decent entertainment. Probably my favorite freebies were a surprisingly good old-school Avengers tale by Bendis that had the Dark and Light Avengers facing off, and a kitschy fun Drawn & Quarterly Nancy/Melvin the Monster sampler of '50s comics by John Stanley. FCBD books run from the adult "Love & Rockets" to "Archie," and it's a great way to get yourself and your kids exploring -- it's happening tomorrow in the US, so be sure to check it out if you can.

The fat cat who sat on the farmer's mat

"The fat cat who sat on the farmer's mat."
by Peter, age 5

The fat cat who sat on the farmer's mat. He did the farmer's paperwork because it's a really silly cat. The fat cat who's the farmer's mat cat is very very very very funny because he also did feed all the animals on the farm too and the fat cat drove the tractor to scare away the sheep and she also is very silly because when they first moved the house to the farm the fat cat did pull all the vehicles with its long long tail and the farmer said you should go away for a holiday, but the plane landed in the garage.

The end.

The first day of the next 12 years or so

"I was very happy at school. I was wearing the same uniform as everyone else and my school is just up the road from my place. And also they have a computer room where everyone plays games on the computer. My friends in my class are Caitlin and Hayden. And Mrs Brown is the teacher. She teaches everyone's stuff. Big school is better than daycare and it is smaller and it is not just like a big house. It is little white rooms and those rooms are where the school classes are. I learned to count up to one hundred but I can't tell you that now. I hope we do a different thing every day. I went swimming too.

Oh one more thing I like playing with Caitlin a lot. And that is all."

Up in the mornin' and out to school

...So we've been busy lately, what with life and all, and ... the final countdown. The final countdown, that is, to our wee little man Peter's first day of school, which is now just a week away. Peter turns 5 years old on Wednesday, and under the New Zealand school system, he goes to school the following Monday. Yikes!

We're in the whirlwind of emotion that comes with this transition -- our baby, what happened, how did we get to school days already? It's total cliche, but good lord, the days do move, don't they? Peter is ready for it, of course -- he knows his letters and numbers, loves to learn about everything from dinosaurs to space to pirates. Everyone thinks their kid is the smartest in the world, of course, but we hope our boy flourishes in the wild world of the education system.

And for me, it's a big slap upside the head as his experience will be very different than my primary-school days in California 30 (urk) years ago. There are lots of differences in the NZ system (such as the whole starting when you turn 5, rather than at the start of the next school year). Most kids in NZ schools wear uniforms, for one (and look at our lad in his new uniform!!) The curriculum will be different, I'm sure -- the Maori language is taught pretty heavily, for one.

Peter will also be in a very different environment than the small California mountain town I grew up in. His school is quite a little United Nations -- a mix of white, Maori, Asian, Indian, Pacific Islander. We had his first school visit last week, and in his class of a dozen or so kids, there is one other white or Pakeha girl so far. We were visiting with a couple other parents whose kids are about to start -- and you had one from Sri Lanka, one from Tonga, one half-Samoan... Auckland really is a melting pot, by gum, and it'll be interesting for Peter growing up some here.

I'm a bit freaked and scared about the big transition, but heck, kids are kids and this school has a good assessment report. But it's a big day next Monday -- the first day of the rest of Peter's life!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, defined

Conversation whilst playing with Lego with the boy:

"...Dad, you know how much I like enja turtles?"

Me: "Ninja turtles?"

"No, en-jah turtles. They have lots of vehicles you know and do things."

"Engine turtles?"

"Enja!"

"Do they like to have fights and run around a lot?"

"No, enja turtles, not neenja. They ride cars too. I think they eat cats."

"Ninja turtles, those are called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- they've been around since I was a teenager. Did you learn about them at playschool?"

"Yep, enja turtles, they're my favrit."

"Enja??"

"...Dad, you need to learn how to call things names you know."

(Pause)

".... But you can call them ninja turtles if you want to."

McCain mutiny, Magazine and band-aids

Random Friday notes!

• How you know that your once-toddler is growing into a truly rambunctious and rowdy 4 1/2-year-old boy -- he managed to have band-aids on BOTH legs and his elbow earlier this week. It's a busy life being a moderately clumsy boy who falls down a lot. Sometimes his legs look like he was run over by a truck and I'm vaguely worried Child Services might think we're beating on him. Ah, to be a boy again, where you don't creak for weeks when you fall flat on your face...

• OK, after five debates this past month (four in the U.S. and one New Zealand), I'm officially debated-out. Still, yesterday's American finale was interesting to watch as the slow implosion of John McCain's campaign continues. Yes, he could still win, and I'm certainly not going to rule it out, but boy, overall his performance in these debates has been dismal. Interestingly, it's not so much what he said as how he performed. Obama has proven to be pretty masterful at projecting a cool, collected vibe, even if it sometimes is a bit stiff. But McCain has been all over the bloody show at all three debates, by turns hyperactive, frazzled, arrogant and insecure. I watched much of yesterday's debate on the big-screen at work, with the sound lower so I was focusing more on the visuals than the words, and McCain was just jittery, vibrating on that chair like a volcano in the rough. These debates have shown the sound bites are sometimes less important than the image ones, I think.

• Very cool retro discovery of October for me is the post-punk band Magazine. I've been re-reading my "Rough Guide To Punk" and they sounded interesting, so I plunked out on the collection "Where The Power Is". After grooving out to it all week, I'm definitely going back for more of their albums. Frontman Howard DeVoto was originally in The Buzzcocks and after splitting with them set off to make his own band. Wow, what a cool sound they had -- kind of straddling the line between punk anger and synth-pop, they're like the missing link between the Sex Pistols and Depeche Mode. "Where The Power Is" covers the band's 1978-1981 heyday, and goes from the raging explosion of "Shot On Both Sides" to the doom-pop "This Poison." Special props to the epic "The Light Pours Out of Me" and guitars 'n' keyboards workout of "Definitive Gaze", although my favorite tune might be the snide and twisted "A Song From Under The Floorboards." Devoto sneers in his Johhny Rotten meets Peter Garrett voice, "I know the meaning of life / it doesn't help me a bit." Too cool.

• Well, after mulling it over I plunked down my $150NZ (urk!) and am going to see Neil Young in January, along with Prodigy, TV On The Radio and all the rest at the Big Day Out 2009. I wavered a bit but looked over at all my Neil Young CDs (I don't have everything from this prolific singer, but I've got nearly 20 of 'em) and said, My My, Hey Hey, OK. Besides, living in New Zealand, you really have to take into account the likelihood of a performer ever coming through here again. Sadly, faithful wife isn't going, so heck, if anyone in Auckland is going and wants to hang, let me know...

"The force is strong in this one."

At long last, we have begun indoctrinating the boy in the ways of the Jedi. Thoughts and questions of Peter, age 4 1/2, upon his first viewing of "Star Wars" ("A New Hope," of course) on an extremely rainy, blustery winter Saturday afternoon:

"Why are they having a robot garage sale?"

"Do those aliens make music all the time? Do the aliens make music while they're sleeping?"

"Does Han Solo have any superpowers?"

"Who's that slug man? I hope he [Han Solo] doesn't get eaten because did you know, that slug guy likes eating LOTS of things."

"Is [the Death Star] made out of mud? It looks kind of like it's made out of mud."

"That robot looks like a tiny mouse and I can show you my mousey voice sqeeeek squeeek squeeek."

"R2D2 turned off the radio and turned it back on and then made it LOUDER!"

"R2D2 can turn into a fire extinguisher or a screwdriver. He's a changing robot."

"There's an ocean under that garbage floor!"

Final thoughts: "I like Star Wars because it had my toy robot in it!"

And then he was off to run around the house being a TIE fighter.

Faster than a speeding bullet

Super-Peter.

Stomachache, head wounds and "Crystal Skull"

• Contrary opinions, vol. 1. I really should never read anything on the Internets, because everybody usually hates everything. In any event, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" after being gripped for disappointment. Escapist pulpy fun, really, and I'd call it up there with the first two sequels. (None of them touch the brash novelty of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," though.) It has flaws -- too many sidekicks, a rather unimpressive return from "Raiders" co-star Karen Allen -- but it also has an awesome Cate Blanchett channeling Natasha from "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle." I think she's easily the most memorable villain in a series that oddly, lacks distinctive villains. I loves me some Soviet vixen. And for all those who claim this one's far-fetched, I felt it fit in just fine with the series so far (and liked the '50s sci-fi paranoia vibe). I mean, in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," we had people's faces being melted off by the wrath of God and freakin' 1000-year-old knights guarding the Holy Grail in "Last Crusade," eh? I don't think "Skull" is as smooth a piece of summer escapism as "Iron Man" was, but heck, it's a fun time at the picture show.

• So, I've been dealing with recurring stomach pains and insomnia the past few months, which kind of sucks when you have to get up for work at 5am. Not sure if it's a gastric thing, stress, food allergy or (urk) an ulcer. It's had quite an unpleasant effect on my once-charming demeanor, I'm afraid. Up until about 1999 I hadn't been to the doctor in YEARS, but in the past decade it's been one thing after another for these brittle bones, it seems. Going to return to doctor this week despite my horror of having tubes stuck down my gullet (an option he mentioned last time I saw him about this back in October or so). Egad. Age stinks.

• We went for a fine beach trail hike yesterday with Peter, who's really getting impressive at his ability to go on long walks. (Good thing, as he's darn heavy to carry now.) However he did manage to fall on his face three times, which is never fun. He did one particularly nasty crash onto jagged lava beach rocks which sent panic skating through our hearts for a moment, but fortunately just had a little cut on his face. It's amazing we ever make it past the age of 4, really.

Misc., I say, miscellaneous

...Yeah, been a busy week and not much blog time in there. And there are few things lamer than a three-day holiday weekend in which you work two of the three days. ('Tis Anzac Day today.) So a few random thoughts so I don't leave the week totally blogless:

• Peter's request today: "Tofu with silly sauce please." (That would be "soy." Yes, we're raising a hippie.)

• Is there a better white female singer than Dusty Springfield? When I say "singer," I mean in terms of pure belt-it-out hit-you-in-the-spleen hollerin'. (Of course there are many other white female singers I love like Cat Power, Lucinda Williams, Linda Thompson and many more, but technically Dusty is the queen methinks.)

• OK, I love Frank Miller, and I love the late Will Eisner. I love Frank Miller's over-the-top gonzo "Sin City" movie. But grim 'n' gritty Frank Miller taking Eisner's pulp hero "The Spirit" and making his movie into what surely looks like "Sin City II"? Ugh, not so much. The levity, invention and sheer good cheer of Eisner's work is really missing from this trailer. Hopefully the movie will be better than this teaser, but I dunno man....

• I'll add to the millions who've already said this, but so long to blogger supremo Dave's Long Box, who closed up shop this week. Easily in my top five blogs to visit list, Dave was totally Airwolf and pushed the Boob War to the max. And if you didn't have a clue what that meant, go page through his archives.

Yeah, our boy's got the moves

Peter: Can we have a dance party?
Me: OK, pick out your music.
Peter: This!

(Grabs Tom Waits' anarcho-noise jazz/punk classic "Bone Machine," a sure sign my boy at 4 is far cooler than I ever was.)

Results below. Check out those hips!

How to create a 4-year-old superhero

Now that Peter's a huge 4-year-old, he's old enough for me to begin the process of firmly warping his mind and showing him there's more to pop culture than Bob the Builder and The Go Show. Yes, it's time for superhero action!

My vast comic library has been held in reserve for this purpose. However, the tricky part is finding comics a 4-year-old will actually be into. I wish I had more of the Carl Barks Duck comics or old Harvey comics or Jeff Smith's Bone, but alas I don't and they aren't cheap or easy to come by down under. If I read my kid the latest issue of say, Thunderbolts or Ex Machina, much as I enjoy it it'd probably warp his mind a bit (er, comics really aren't for kids so much these days, are they?).

Which is where the phone books come in. I've been on a tear collecting the DC Comics Showcase Presents and Marvel Essential black-and-white reprint 'phone books', finding them pretty much the best bang for your comic-buying book you can get -- 500+ pages of classic comic goodness for the equivalent of 3-4 current comics in price. Not too shabby. I've probably got over 30 of these things by now, from classics like Superman and Batman to less-known but sometimes even better stuff like Enemy Ace, The Defenders and The Unknown Soldier. Not every one of these is appropriate for a 4-year-old, but a lot of that awesome "Silver Age" (1950s-60s) stuff is just great for an aspiring superhero geek. Last night we read tales of The Flash, fastest man alive, and his foes Captain Cold and the slowest man alive, Turtle Man (not surprisingly, a fairly ineffectual villain, that one). Peter loves 'em, and now he also wants me to read him lots of "Iron Man" comics (we saw the trailer for the fab looking new movie on YouTube the other day). Peter is also hugely into my Tintin collections, which is grand.

I've always hated those who acted like reading comics were some pitfall on the way to becoming literate, a sidetrack that leads into gum-chewing idiocy. I cut my reading teeth on comics and today read everything from John Updike to Paul Auster to Shakespeare -- plus Iron Man. Yeah, I know we've got everything from PlayStation to iPod these days, but a good old story still fires up the imagination furnace like nothing else quite can. And anything that does that is a great thing in my book.