Week 96: Circle Tracker

This week's Tiny Car, Hot Wheels' Circle Tracker, is representative of a whole bunch of Daddy elements.

First and foremost, this little diecast is aqua, and as regular readers know, aqua makes me stupid happy.

Second, the car is from the HW Video Game Heroes collection. Even though I have never been good at video games, not even during my youth playing Centipede at the Howard Johnson's near the turnpike or Frogger and Galaga at the bowling alley (on an aside, I can't believe how much coffee and how many doughnuts I used to consume back then -- I'm fairly certain the doughnut dough actually patched up holes that must have been burnt through my stomach from drinking that midnight  jitter juice), video games are nonetheless a major creator of discussion, strife, debate, disagreement and eardrum shattering shrieks (from three-year-old G, not my wife). I might go so far as to say that when I allow my three-year-old to play the Wii, I finally become a Video Game Hero ... with stars in my eyes.


He loves playing the Wii, and regardless of how many restrictions I put on gameplay, he asks if he can play about once every hour, and those request feel like they are around the clock. *SnOre Snort can I play Wii? Zzzzz*.

G has been asking to play Wii so much that now he sometimes slips it into other things he says with barely a change in vocal inflection, so that the request simply flows as one run-on sentence. "Can I have a gwass of milk hey can I play Wii?" "Was that thunder outside can I play Wii?" "Are lobsters dangerous can I play Wii?" No, for real.

I'm selective about the games I allow my kids to play, much more conservative than many other parents I hear about, but I have no apologies. I was horrified when I heard my five-year-old insist that kids on his preschool bus play Black Ops, Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, and while I'm sure some of the kids were lying, I'm also sure some of them were not. Call me gramps, but no five-year-old should be playing a rated M game, no matter how fun it might sound to engage in acts of mega violence and depravity. Plenty of time for that when they get older.

No, the games in rotation for my youngest two are Just Dance, Just Dance II, Wii Sports Resort, JumpStart Pet Rescue, and G's favorite, Wipe Out, based on the TV show.

Watching him play Wipe Out is way more fun than the game. It's like being in a studio audience. He jumps, shouts, talks back to the television (you're not getting me, no, no way, I'll show you!), laughs, jumps some more, and becomes completely immersed in the game. He's become quite good, also, although sometimes he'll just have a character jump into the water over and over, laughing more and more each time.

When I'm watching him play, even I forget sometimes that I need to have him do some other type of more imaginative play or constructive work. I suspect watching a toddler make a contestant jump into the water is more heart warming than watching him blow off somebody's head with a bazooka, but I also suspect the parents letting their preschoolers blow off people's heads with bazookas are not watching their kids play at all.

Enough preaching.

But seriously, Black Ops?

This blog entry has already become too lengthy, so I won't even touch on the Circle Tracker tie-in except to say I've been tracking my kids doing the same things over and over this week -- circle tracking.

As for the car's double zero number, I could say it relates to my current job search, but let's just say it means  time is up for this entry.

Either that or it means two big bug eyes looking right at you. You pick.


Hot Wheels photo was shot by myself but the checkerboard background concept was the idea of Racer Z.