Tag Archives: Wizard 101

Power outage

It wasn’t a brownout for the rancho, just a cutout this afternoon that came back on in less than a minute. Took an hour more time for some people, maybe. Crashed the main computer, of course, in the midst of Mr. B. playing, as he said, "an important duel" in Wizard 101. So he was upset to tears.

This Austin Energy release is from July 18, so it doesn’t speak to what happened today. It doesn’t even say why the "small piece of equipment" at a nearby electrical substation caught on fire to cause 17,000 customers to lose power. But it’s not surprising, given the heat wave (now 23 days above a hundred degrees for July) and the whole town running a/c to the max, not to mention more of everything else electrical because it’s not very inviting to go outside. I suppose the brownouts will be here soon enough.

UPDATE:  Mrs Charm says it seems to have half-busted the microwave. Again. Still cooks, but the fan doesn’t come on anymore. Durn thing is only little more than a year old. Fortunately we know better than to try and get it repaired.

Wizard 101 angst

Mr. Boy was having a crisis of confidence for about three weeks running over the Counterweight East portion of the Dungeon on multi-player Wizard 101. Over the weekend, he and four online friends finally conquered it. So happy he gave me a hug. Now he’s on to Counterweight West and Big Ben.

Reminds me of his first computer game play with Harry Potter software and some moving blocks in a canal. He kept jumping and missing the blocks and falling into the water and having to start over again. High frustration, lots of anger. But he stuck to it and, boy, was he happy when he finally beat it.

Online games

It was inevitable and it has come to pass. Mr. B. has become enamored with Wizard 101, an online computer game. It was developed, as it happens, by folks in Austin and Dallas. It even has recommendations from Austin school district teachers, as well as good reviews. Seems safer than the average first-person shooter and, in fact, isn’t violent at all. Just the thing, apparently, for a third grader. We shall see how it goes.