Shakespeare once wrote “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. He was trying to say that a name is not that important, that you would still be you even if your name were different. “Hogwash” that’s right I said “Hogwash”. Shakespeare was poetic but he didn’t have a clue. I grew up with the name Thompson, for 18 years I was a Thompson. My Father was a Thompson, my brother and sister were Thompson’s, my Mother was not a Thompson any more, but being young I didn’t question why she was different. Then it happened, I turned 18 and I married my high school sweetheart. Some guy said some words and asked us each a question, we said ” I do” and then poof I wasn’t a Thompson anymore. At first I thought the new name was a little weird, but I had known it would happen so I was prepared. Hey it’s 1973, every girl that gets married gives up her Father’s name in favor of her husbands name. Wait a minute…Father’s name….husband’s name….what the heck happened to it being my name. Oh well I will just have to console myself with my first name Robin…now surely that one is mine… I will always be Robin.
Flash Forward to the present: It’s 36 years later, still married to ’73 (what I’ll call my husband in this blog) and we have 4 grown children, now known as girl 75, girl 79, girl 80 and boy 88. Have I gotten use to the new last name, yes I have. What I didn’t expect, what no one warned me about, was that I would lose my first name too. How is that possible you ask. Well let me tell you, it happens slowly over time, without you noticing at first. Then one day you realize you haven’t heard your name in a long while. Oh people call you by names, just not your name. First you become honey, sweetheart, teddy bear, and then you are Mommy, Mom and Muu-ther! (always drawing out that first syllable) and now grandma. Somewhere along the way, Robin got lost as I took on the roles that were my life. Now don’t get me wrong, I love being a wife and Mother. I would choose to do it again in a hot minute. It’s just that at 54 I want to be Robin again too, I want to get to know…me, remember what I was all about before I had these other names. My kids of course think I’m crazy. ’73 thinks I’m just going thru the change, but he has decided to humor me and use my first name “what is it again” he asks.
passions and soapboxes 
Two Women Create A Video Game Concept About Losing your Virginity to Win a Game Design Challenge
On Wed. March25 in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference there was a Game Design Challenge to see who could come up with the best new video game concept. The theme was your “First Time” and the challenge was won by a 2 woman team who created a concept about losing your virginity for the Nintendo Wii platform. I have enjoyed video games for a large part of my life going all the way back to Pong, and I have defended the video game industry in the past but this is just irresponsible. I know it is just a concept and will never be an actual game, like concept cars are for shows and not mass produced. The idea of taking something so private and personal as your first sexual experience and turning it into a game is truly offensive to me, even if it isn’t a real game. It demeans both men and women as well as running the risk of misuse by teens who would take the sexual competition out of the virtual ether and into the real world. Does anyone remember Dungeons and Dragons and how college kids got carried away playing this game or “The List” that high school boys played competing to see who could “collect” the most virgins. The potential for disaster here is enormous and to create a theme like this at a convention makes me wonder who’s in charge, adolescent boys. Is this what our society has come to, where virginity is a game and something to be laughed at. What were they thinking, if they were thinking at all.
Excerpt from CNN.com dated March 27,2009
Tough task: Designing a game about your ‘first time’
On Wednesday, at the Game Developers Conference here, the two-woman team of Heather Kelley and Erin Robinson won the Game Design Challenge with just 36 hours of preparation, while their competitors had weeks to come up with concepts for a game about “your first time.”
This was the sixth straight year of the design challenge, hosted annually by New York-based game developer Eric Zimmerman. The contestants are generally top-tier game designers like two-time winner and Spore and The Sims creator Will Wright, Deus Ex lead designer Harvey Smith, or 2008 winner and Leather Goddesses of Phobos creator Steve Meretzsky.
The two women came up with a concept for “Our first times,” and presented it as a two-level game, one level for Kelley’s experience and the other for Robinson’s. They imagined a series of mini games that could be played on Nintendo’s Wii, or possibly on Apple’s iPhone.
Kelley began by explaining that her game would commence with the player having to pick an outfit for a date that was intended to conclude with their deflowering. It would have to be the least complicated outfit possible, she said, nothing with zippers that get stuck, or too many buttons or ties.
The next mini game would revolve around choosing the proper mood music from a selection of LPs–yes, records, since the game would be set in the timeframe of Kelley’s first time. And clearly, she said, Miles Davis would have to be the choice.
The penultimate mini game would task the player with “not falling off the top bunk” in a college dorm room,” while the final task would involve flicking off the smirking roommate.
And then, afterward, calling the best friend to tell the tale.
“But you have to be careful,” Robinson said, “because she’s next to mom and grandma on the speed dial.”
For the full story follow this link: Tough task: Designing a game about your ‘first time’ – CNN.com.