Unordered List: Fires, Kinect & 'Real' Games

My prose can be somewhat unwieldy at the best of times, the primary reason my attempts at blog posts never get past the first sentence. 
Here's my attempt at solving that while potentially making for a more confusing reading experience by distilling this blog format in to a bulleted list of vaguely associated thoughts. I'll let your own creative minds weave them in to whatever format you can best parse.

Fires

• Our dishwasher caught fire. No idea why - we were just sitting eating breakfast when we heard a strange popping sound. On entering the utility room, we found the dishwasher aflame, so we promptly dialed the fire brigade and got the hell out.
• Two fire trucks, a paramedic and a police car later, the fire was out and the majority of the smoke had been cleared out. What we saw inside is pictured below.     
  
• Luckily, the emergency services responded really quickly, and had the fire out within about 10 minutes of the call, so it didn't spread too far. The majority of the stuff we kept stored in the utility room was burnt, the kitchen was all badly smoke damaged and the rest of the house was covered in ash and stained from smoke.
• We've spent the last few weeks between temporary accommodation and home, trying to sort out insurance, and starting to replace things. We're very lucky to have an excellent landlady who replaced the kitchen and had the whole house re-carpeted and re-painted. It all looks brand new and shiny now.
• We're finally starting to get back to normal - still waiting for a few of our possessions to be returned from the cleaning and restoration service, and we're still waiting on the insurance cheque, but other than that, all is well.
• Important lessons learned: Keep an eye on your appliances. If we weren't in when this happened, this could have been much worse. The things your parents tell you aren't all scare stories, this shit really does happen.

Kinect

• I picked up a Kinect on launch day here in the UK - I openly admit to being something of a useless-gadget aficionado, as well as a bit of a motion control fanboy, so I considered the investment worthwhile regardless of how much I enjoy it. Besides, I passed the Wii on to my younger siblings when I got bored of that, so it could always serve as a nice gift should the thing start collecting dust.
• After a few days of playing with it in various conditions, with various people; it's an extraordinarily impressive bit of technology. Surprisingly enough, it works as advertised - latency is barely noticeable, it's oddly accurate, and most interactions with it seem uncannily natural.
• It absolutely does require a lot of space to use. Not necessarily because the camera can't see you if you're too close, but because you're going to need a lot of room to move around in. We've had an 8 year old play some Kinectimals without any issues while being right up close to the camera, but when me and my girlfriend are playing Kinect Adventures, we need as much space as possible so as not to murder each other while playing Rallyball.
• Our living room is 3 walls of almost full-height windows (almost like a conservatory). When the sun shines directly in, Kinect throws a wobbly and won't work at all. Granted, our living area isn't exactly standard, neither is it surprising that it doesn't like direct light. We still haven't had blinds fitted since the fire, so that should solve it.
• The games feel quite proof-of-concepty at the moment, generally lacking in substance. Saying that; they are a lot of fun - there's a decent amount of variety, and the few I've played work (technically) very well. I've found a lot of the games feel a bit slow; long cutscenes, awkward menus, etc., but I get the feeling this is because I have to be standing all the time - not something I'm used to.
• Kinect Adventures is your standard pack-in fare; a bunch of concepts thrown together in some loosely associated manner. It's a great way of showing what the hardware can do, how well it works when it does work and how fun these type of motion games can potentially be, but it doesn't necessarily have much lasting appeal beyond popping it in for a couple of rounds at parties.
• Kinectimals really is a kids game. It's reaaalllyyy slow, and it holds your hand pretty much all the time - you really don't get much chance to mess around with your pet. Some of the toys and challenges can be fun to play with, if a bit simplistic. I think we both spent way too much time playing with the beachball last night. Graphically, it's great - the pet animations are incredibly endearing, and the world is colourful and inviting, beyond that, I wish this was more Viva Pinata and less Kinect 123.
• Dance Central is probably the most important of the Kinect launch line up. Harmonix knows how to make a decent rhythm game, and they've succeeded with Dance Central. It's enjoyable, tiring, frustrating, entertaining and addictive all at once - this is really what Kinect needs to become a really worthwhile peripheral.
• So it's a great little add-on for those who want something beyond your standard controller-gaming affair. In the end though, it all games down to what the future holds for it. Innovation in new games for the device is absolutely the key to its survival, and how long it gets to stay in front of my TV.