My Mom, Robbin Marie Bird passed away in the early hours of November 17th, 2010 of a sudden massive heart attack. She was only 52 years of age. Getting that phone call at 5 in the morning remains the single worst moment of my entire life. My Mom was one of the two most important people in the world, rivaled only by my incredible Grandmother, Nanny. the sheer unquestioning love she showed to all her children is unforgettable. It's no secret to those who know me that I'm not the most successful or fulfilled person in the world. Failure to launch would aptly describe my passing into adulthood. I was woefully unprepared for the world, and Mom, understanding and compassionate as always, shielded me as best she could until I got my feet under me.

My twenties were a tumultous time almost as much as my teens, but she gave me food, shelter, and love for as long as I needed it, when most parents would have said "enough is enough, gtfo". My Mom always put her family first, even ahead of her own health. We didn't always see eye to eye, she was a bible reading, Jesus loving, hardcore conservative. I was becoming and currently am a political moderate and a secular humanist. (since so many people use the term, despite my dislike for being described by what I do not believe in, rather than what I do, basically I'm an atheist) Amazingly, this never really affected our relationship much. She still loved me, and I her. She was understanding of my ability to make my own decisions, whereas some parents will disown children for similar deconversions from the family's faith.

She was a genuine, caring, loving, compassionate, infectiously cheerful woman who always tried to shoulder too many burdens on herself in order to keep us happy. She did a great job of making sure we didn't know how dirt poor we were for a very long time. I only wish I could have done more with my life, been able to get into a place where I could help her and take on some of those burdens for her, most of them financial. She worked herself to the bone to keep a roof over everyones head, and her daughters, my sisters, into college. I spent the first twenty nine years of my life waking up and knowing she was there, seeing her smile and basking in the glow of it. The world has been a dimmer place the last near on year now, and it seems to only get dimmer.

I hold onto my memories of better times, almost all of them with her smiling face in them. Protecting and guiding me, smiling that infectious smile that seems to radiate happiness and love. Mom, I hope you were right and I was wrong. I do hope, on some level, your God is real. Because no one deserves heaven more than you, and I would gladly burn in hell for you to get it. I love you.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Love, Scotty.

So I gotta say, my experience so far has been pretty mixed. Maybe my expectations were unrealistic though, considering this is a peripherial for a system several years on the market, so expecting it to be exactly like using the Wii, which was built around a motion sensing wand of it's own from the ground up... may have set me up for some of the frustration. First of all, my first few attempts to play went poorly because I didn't have the damn camera plugged in all the way. Derp. Then I couldn't get the Time Crisis demo to calibrate properly because I really just didn't understand what it wanted me to do. This is what happens when you purchase a thing spur of the moment and stay up until four in the morning downloading games, demos, and updates... then not being able to figure out why it's not working just right.

I had to get my mentality out of approaching this like I'm playing the Wii and do something I'm not always good at... being patient. Now that I have a handle on things, and know better how the Move works, it's actually just about as good as the Wii, just not as immediately impressive as the Wii was due to it's ease of use. Dead Space: Extraction is a great game, better than any rails based shooter has a right to be, (and more content rich than it has a right to be as well) and it looks great. Poly count is still Wii esque, but the treatment the game was given on it's way up still makes it look fantastic in it's own right on the PS3. Time Crisis, well... it's Time Crisis. That's good or bad depending on whether or not you're an existing fan of the series.

Then I tried the Beat Sketcher demo, and that was genuinely neat. (I don't say neat much, but that's the word that came to mind for sure) I guess I almost forgot I had a USB camera attached to my system now, because when I popped up on the screen it took me a bit by surprise. This was my first experience with using the Move as something other than a pointer, and in that area, it seemed to truly excel. I sketched super saiyan hair on my head and even gave myself green eyes, and set it as my wallpaper. I really enjoyed that. I just know my niece would absolutely LOVE to play this, so I'm gonna go ahead and download the full game soon so she can check it out.

Two days later and some sleep and patience has helped me come around to enjoying this thing a whole lot more. Now I just need more full games that actually use it.