Joss Whedon

So there has been a little bit of a buzz on teh intarweebs about Joss Whedon's latest endeavor, Dr. Horrible. Basically it really hits on one of my personal favorite songs by Jonathan Coulton called Skullcrusher Mountain. What happens when a super genius villian is in love? Well I can say it is terribly interesting. You should definitely check out the video for Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Seriously. First off it stars Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. Second, the music is good. Third, it is definitely bite sized at under 14 minutes per act (so far as Act III hasn't gone up yet).

I watched some of Mr. Whedon's early TV shows, but I didn't recognize genius until Firefly. But this really is a wonderful work and quite enjoyable.

"Why" #

I am here testing at work instead of riding the train.

July 7, 2001

So 7 years ago today, Michelle and I were married. That is 7 years, 1 kid, 2400 miles, and countless other things that have occurred between here and there. And in all of that, I am still deeply in love and quite happy. We may not do anything out of the ordinary today (planning with children can be difficult at times) but it will still be special.

So what does one do the day after the fourth?

Well in my case you make one trip to Lowes to pick up a few minor things (propane included). Second you fix the tonneau cover to the truck which broke off last year. Third you clean the living room and family room. Fourth you play some Super Mario Galaxy cause you little girl is hooked on the fat italian plumber.

So late last year, the pin that hold one of the two arms on my tonneau cover broke off. The single one didn't have the strength to hold it up, and put too much strain on the back of the cover. So after a couple of tries I found a size bolt that worked well. So if this one breaks, I am in serious trouble.

And I was surprised to find that Miranda likes to watch either Michelle or I play Super Mario Galaxy. "Mario Jumping!" "Mario Swimming!" "Mario two eyes." Really cute and fun to see her so excited.

Mucked some more with my template

I am pretty sure no matter what I do, I won't be happy with whatever changes I make. I will likely revisit this on the next rainy day we have in Seattle (no jokes please). But on the plus side, editing all my ridiculous advertising chunks was very easy. Look at my widget, I have a page recommendation, but it does point to the main page . . . from the main page. Sigh.

Work looks to be going back to a reasonable level. Launch pushes always bring more hours to make sure we make it as good as possible for customers, but still meet any sort of obligations we have. So I am very tired, but recovering.

Lately, I have been playing with twitter. I am still not sure about it's use as to me it has always felt like blog light. Right now I am primarily using it to update my facebook status as I really never log into facebook unless someone sends me a message and it emails me. I just don't have much compelling reason to use it. Twitter I worry about as I don't want to fire off tons of this little snippets every day, so I try to keep it to 2 tweets a day at most.

Now that work is slowing down, hopefully I can get back to my two blog posts a week. And also maybe beat GTA IV soon.

Don't muck with your template at 4am

Well I was doing to testing by adding a new widget for my advertising column when I accidentally clicked save instead of preview. Needless to say, I quickly grabbed a template to use until I get my old one back operational (or maybe create a new one).

Either way, most of my major work project of late is somehow tied into the amazon widget on the right. Which recently released, so that is where I have been.

Happy Birthday Jason!

Welcome to 30

Now you can't give me crap for being 30 and you being in your 20's :P

Bacon Floss?

Cinnamon? Mint? Nope.

I am not sure how I feel about this. I think I would prefer soap as generally I am looking for a "clean" flavor and feeling when I floss. But it seems I should post something about a bacon related item. If I would have remembered earlier, I would have posted about the 3lb. of bacon in a can.

Replies

Thanks Jay for the book recommendation. I will likely grab a copy when it gets into a translation I can read. Although an interesting NPR report I heard recently discussed that some of child behavior problems stem from a lack of unstructured play. The basic premise of the research was that by allowing children to play outside of the control of adults allow kids to develop the skills to self-regulate. This also gives them skills in determining power structures in the groups of kids and learn what is acceptible in dealing with other kids. I think there is something there. At the same point, as parents, we are so heavily scheduled, we end up doing the same to our kids, even if unintentionally. But when I looked at the reasons you put in from the book I thought some just didn't make sense.

Reasons listed:

1. destruction of the larger family unit, thus loneliness of the parents with the resulting desperate need to connect with the inmature child
2. pressure to perform makes parents push kids harder than they can actually take
3. lack of role models for healty parenting, both for parents and for kids
4. misguided, romantic drive for freedom of mind and action, even in a 2 year old (the Flower Children are reaping a harvest they did not expect with their anti-authoritarian attitudes)
5. lack of understanding of the healthy development steps of a forming mind

So let's see if I can make another numbered list to talk about them.

1. Alright, I totally buy this one. Add to it smaller family sizes has led to smaller family groups. And add into this one, the break down of local neighborhood groups. Remember when you knew all your neighbors?
2. What is meant by this? Is it a lack of giving praise? Honestly I think this ends up only affecting small pockets of parents. I think more likely you get parents that are involved in their prior lives and fail to give the appropriate time to their new lives with kids.
3. Dysfunctional begets more dysfunctional is the basics there. In the end, we will tend to fall back as parents to the same things that our parents did. Those are our role models. As for kids, it comes down to us as parents.
4. Yep.
5. I am pretty sure that we are further along understanding the developing mind than we were 20 or 50 years ago. But the bottom levels of understanding in society are probably at what we were years ago though, is that bad?

Really, I try to compare what society is like now versus 50 years or 100 years ago. Is what we have as a society better or worse than before. I honestly think we are doing better just because we have time to think about these problems. But then we take these things that could help us get better and we blow them out of proportion.

Alright I think talked to long on that topic given I only planned to give thanks :)

To James on the same thread, personally responsibility is not a trait we have instilled in the current culture. Definitely is something we should work toward.

Otherwise, that is all I have for now. Back to work, since deadlines are looming.

I hate Big Media

In case you haven't heard, there was a tragedy in the Akihabara district of Japan. 7 people were killed and many injured when an individual with an unhealthy mind decided to go on a rampage. I really feel bad for those that have suffered.

What has got me a bit irritated this morning, is how it was covered in the New York Times. They have taken this horrible event and then applied a hatred for video games in it. Sigh, why do they feel the need to do this through a time of suffering for the people in that area of the world.

Offending article

He also wrote that he liked the popular video games Tales of Destiny, a fantasy role-playing series that employs the distinctive art style known as anime, in which adult characters often resemble children, and Gran Turismo, a car racing game in which the cars can crash and suffer damage but the focus is on racing rather than destruction and human figures are rarely visible.

Review: Maple Bacon Lollipop

Alright, ish was kind enough to send me some Maple Bacon Lollipops due to the fact that we have hypothesized that all things bacon are good. I want to reaffirm that guess as these are quite good if and only if you are prepared for what they are delivering. My first try at the lollipop was not a good experience. I wasn't sure what to expect, but at the same point the lollipop just didn't sit right.

The part the initially surprised me was how not sweet this lollipop is. The maple flavor is subtle, and not overly sweet. It was kinda water down flavor. The second part of the flavor that hits you is the underlying salty, smoky flavor that is there as well. It really tastes like you took your bacon and dragged it through the last bits of maple syrup still on your plate. You can really see the bacon pieces in the lollipop as well.

Highly recommended to bacon lovers.

Lord Stanley's Cup

Well I was able to watch the NHL finals this year and it offered a great experience for me. The main reason for that is because my two favorite teams were playing for it all, although my favorite is the Wings. Overall I found this cup well played by the Wings, but the Penguins did not until their back was against the wall. Especially in game six when the started having better puck control and being more aggressive as the Wings got the puck. So I am looking forward to next year and I really hope that the Penguins can keep their team together.

Back from the Midwest

Well, I had a bit of an absence from blogging and the web in general as I toured around the portions of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan visiting friends and family and letting Miranda get acquainted with them. We had a couple of rainy days, but really ran into absolutely lovely weather sitting in the mid 70's most of the time.

Originally we were supposed to go to a wedding on Memorial Day weekend, but in the end the travel was trying and Miranda can be a bit stubborn and exhausting, so we made a quick change in plans and headed to Michigan to let Miranda unwind from being placed in a harness for a long time. This gave us an extra day with my grandma where Miranda could be her goofy self and skin her knee.

Sunday though was a party my parents put together and they were able to get a lot of my relatives together and just have a nice cookout. We were able to get another Aunt and Uncle to visit on Memorial Day, and overall it is was a very fun weekend. Even managed to get a bit of sunburn on the bald spot.

Tuesday, Michelle and I had one of very few and infrequent dates. Went to El Rodeo and caught Ironman. Great food and a fun movie.

We then spent the next 4 days slowly visiting my friends from high school and seeing all of their kids. We also spent a day going to Grand Rapids where we got Miranda's photos done by Sadies. I think next year, we are going to use our friend Jodi as she takes some really good pictures. Either way, once I get the pictures I will be sure to post and share.

Either way, we spent some more time with family and friends, and on some level we were very sad to go. We caught Michigan at a beautiful time and it is good seeing all the folks were are friends with. But in the end, we are exhausted. Miranda was exhausted. So we spent all day today traveling back to our home in the Northwest.

Don't forget your night vision

Night Vision is really the best way to avoid falling into a puddle.

Bringing back up to date

Not a lot has happened recently, so I really haven't felt like blogging. Football seems to the major source of my blogging material. The other one is reviewing stuff I have read, watched, or otherwise used. This will be a couple of half-assed reviews for a couple of things.

Book: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein

The sequel to Number of the Beast, which I didn't really care for, but I found this one more enjoyable than the Beast. Still not on par for some of his other works however. Again we find ourselves with a bit of Author Masturbation, where he has included many of his past favorite characters, however we do get introduced to a very strong male lead character that is very interesting if not similar to his other leads in previous books. The plot starts out pretty straight forward as a murder mystery and then twists and turns like a snake into a hero story. I won't give away the ending, but heck, I re-read the ending twice and still didn't know what happened. If you like Number of the Beast, you will like this one. For me, I still like Starship, Stranger, and Mistress much more.

Book: Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter and Dominate New Markets by Constantinos C. Markides , Paul A. Geroski
Pretty good business book to read, but with a few caveats. Most of these style books (innovation centric) will tend to have lots of case studies and talk about the hypothesis as to how some companies made it and others didn't. This book didn't have any case studies. Instead, it looked historically at which companies innovated and came up with a new product idea, and which companies had staying power. I know that sounds like case studies, but this felt more like a history lesson to me. The hypothesis put forth is that companies that innovate on the product and create the product are never the companies that succeed. The companies that succeed are the ones that are able to efficiently deploy these product ideas to the market. The authors go on to talk about companies that specialize in bring products to a market are never good at innovating new products, since their culture and skills tend to marketization whereas other companies that innovate really focus on the technology and not how it will apply to the mass market.

Either way I recommend picking this up if you are into big business innovation, as I found it easy to read and insightful.

Phone: Samsung Blackjack II Black Smartphone (AT&T)
So far, I have had this phone for about 2-3 weeks, and I still like it. Given that it is a Windows device I was prepared to reboot it every couple of days like one of my friends runs into with his mobile Windows device, but I can happily say, that it has happened once, but it was mostly my fault. Rather than review every little aspect of the phone, I will give the condensed version.

Pros: 3G is fast and reliable. GPS is cool, but a little inaccurate. Video and picture camera are decent, though not high res. Phone calls are clear. Reception is good even in some nearly dead areas I know of.

Cons: Keyboard is slippery and hard to type on. Battery case is slippery and hard to open. Mobile Internet Explorer is horrible. Wish I had an extra 1/2 inch of screen width.

Overall: I like it, but really anything should have been better than my 4.5 year old Sony Ericsson T637. But battery life is about 7 days idle, or 3 days doing some surfing and texting, or 1 day if you talk alot.

Video Game: Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition

I am about 25 hours into the game and 45% in. I really like a lot of it. The sandbox aspect of the game is just really addictive. The driving is ok, and I think I liked it better than Yahtzee, although I don't think I have played as many of the GTA games as Yahtzee has. The voice acting is superb, and the plot is engaging (at least to me). Some things I can complain about is my "friends" in the game. It feels like they wait till the most inopportune time to give me a ring and want to hang out, and if I turn then down, they like me less. So I have drop everything and go hang out with. Not only hang out with them but pick them up and get them home. Seriously. Can't we just meet somewhere? Give me more than an hours heads up. But in terms of depth of content, I think there is more stuff to read in here than any of The Elder Scrolls games which really says alot. Also would like to note, THIS IS NOT FOR KIDS!

And in conclusion: It seems that Miranda has taken a liking to Rock Band. Frequently we here the phrase, "I rock?" Which lets us know she wants to play the drums.

I keep wondering how he got re-elected last time...

Kwame is at it again. Way to rail against your voting public and their right to information.

I have a new phone

I got a new cellphone with a new number. If you want to get ahold of me, you should contact me and ask for it. I still have my old cellphone for a couple of days, but it will be shut off. You can contact me via my old phone too or if you work with me, then it is in the phone tool. Otherwise, I am not posting it.

And the phone is pretty nice. Definitely like it so far. Samsung Blackjack II.

Lions draft... ummm yeah.

The Lions have added a few new folks to their teams but I am not sure what they will really add this year.

• Gosder Cherilus (OT) - May not start this year, but will be in the rotation. Although honestly after seeing the rotation last year, Gosder will likely be the starter. I think this is a solid pick, but I question moving away from Brendan Albert. This could prove to be letting go of one of those massive guards that could have improved the run game.
  
• Jordon Dizon (LB) - Small, but quick. I am not sure this is where I would have spent my round two pick. I think there were more, larger LBs available with strength. I am not sure he will be able to shed blockers in run situations. In passing situations, he has the vertical that can help for his lack of stature. Honest, I think this was a bad pick. No offense.
  
• Kevin Smith (RB) - Almost broke Barry Sanders' collegiate records and has lots of carries in a relatively weak conference to show for it. Although, I think this was a good pickup and could see lots of time in the RB rotation.
  
• Andre Fluellen (DT) - Rivals.com puts him as an underachiever that lacks passion. Let's see if we can get some work out of him, but he will likely show up in the rotation. I think this was a decent pickup.
  
• Cliff Avril (DE) - I expect him to move to LB in the next couple of years and make a significant impact to special teams this year. High motor, large lineback type. If the Lions have some problems at strong side lineback, that is where he will be.
  
• Kenneth Moore (WR/KR) - Not much receiving in college, did more work in punt and kick returning with a punt return average of 13 yards. Might get cut.
  
• Jerome Felton (FB) - When we lost Schlesinger because of Martz we lost a lot of power in the run game. This could bring some of that back. A couple of fumbles, but should still help the run game. If can develop solid pass catching skills we are in business here.
  
• Landon Cohen (DT) - Practice squad
  
• Caleb Campbell (S) - Practice squad

I am probably being overly negative here, but in general not all rookies can make an impact. And honestly, after looking at the Lions schedule, I see them potentially winning 5 games, but I really think the last 9 games will be losses. So, come on Lions, please prove me wrong.

2008 Mock Draft

I pray this is the last one I have to do. I wouldn't have taken another stab at but the Kansas City trade of Jared Allen prior to the draft completely scrambled who they would target and all that trickled down and made me spend another hour on this. Sigh. Of course, I love it, but still there is a lot time put in here. So let's see if this one has legs.

1. Miami Dolphins - Chris Long DE whoops Jake Long, OT
2. St Louis Rams - Jake Long OT whoops Chris Long, DE
3. Atlanta Falcons - Ryan Clady OT
4. Oakland Raiders - Vernon Gholston DE
5. Kansas City Chiefs - Glenn Dorsey DT
6. New York Jets - Darren McFadden RB
7. New England Patriots - Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie CB
8. Baltimore Ravens - Matt Ryan QB
9. Cincinnati Bengals - Sedrick Ellis DT
10. New Orleans Saints - Keith Rivers LB
11. Buffalo Bills - Limas Sweed WR
12. Denver Broncos - Chris Williams OT
13. Carolina Panthers - Rashard Mendenhall RB
14. Chicago Bears - Branden Albert OG
15. Detroit Lions - Derrick Harvey DE
16. Arizona Cardinals - Leodis McKelvin CB
17. Kansas City Chiefs - Jeff Otah OT
18. Houston Texans - Mike Jenkins CB
19. Philadelphia Eagles - Devin Thomas WR
20. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - James Hardy WR
21. Washington Redskins - Calais Campbell DE
22. Dallas Cowboys - Jonathan Stewart RB
23. Pittsburgh Steelers - Aqib Talib CB
24. Tennessee Titans - Kentwan Balmer DT
25. Seattle Seahawks - Gosder Cherilus OT
26. Jacksonville Jaguars - Phillip Merling DE
27. San Diego Chargers - Antoine Cason CB
28. Dallas Cowboys - Kenny Phillips FS
29. San Francisco 49ers - Sam Baker OT
30. Green Bay Packers - Brandon Flowers CB
31. New England Patriots - Pick forfeited
32. New York Giants - Erin Henderson OLB

Draft part 2 (16 - 32) and updates

Whoops. I missed on my first pick and the draft hasn't even started. So suffice it to say, I just going to swap the Longs. Easier and I could see either team take either of them.

1. Arizona Cardinals - Mike Jenkins CB; With needs at both CB and the D-line, my rough feeling is that they are likely to focus on secondary with a lot of DE going early. The next couple DE that could go would be Lawrence Jackson, Calais Campbell and a couple of others, but I think it is unlikely for them to go after them with Mike Jenkins on the board.
2. Minnesota Vikings, Jared Allen => Branden Albert OG Chiefs; My guess is this will be the mega trade of the draft where they hand this pick over (and more) for Jared Allen and then the Chiefs will grab an O-line guy with Brendan the most likely person.
3. Houston Texans - Aqib Talib CB; And David Carr can probably attest, the Texans would like more depth at o-line as they have been injury plagued since they became a team in the NFL. That said, they will likely grab a corner which is also a need and pick Aqib Talib to pick up the nickel slot.
4. Philadelphia Eagles - Devin Thomas WR; More than likely, if they don't make a strong play for Chad Johnson, they will likely grab a good wide receiver in the draft if one is availabe that warrants the 19th overall, and I think they will find one in Devin Thomas who already look good in their colors.
5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - James Hardy WR; Tampa suffers from a player surplus in their areas of weakness where no one has really stepped up and taken control of the game. Jonathan Stewart is a possibility, but with injury concerns, I think they will pass. I think they will go toward who ever is the top receiver on their draft boards.
6. Washington Redskins - Calais Campbell DE; Let's go with someone you know will likely drive who the Redskins pick when they pick one of their defensive coaches ex-players.
7. Dallas Cowboys - Jonathan Stewart RB; Filling in for Julius Jones with a vacated spot.
8. Pittsburgh Steelers - Jeff Otah OT
9. Tennessee Titans - Kentwan Balmer DT
10. Seattle Seahawks - Gosder Cherilus OT
11. Jacksonville Jaguars - Phillip Merling DE
12. San Diego Chargers - Antoine Cason CB
13. Dallas Cowboys - Kenny Phillips FS
14. San Francisco 49ers - Sam Baker OT; Call me crazy but I could see the Lions move up and take Brohm. And then I would cry.
15. Green Bay Packers - Brandon Flowers CB
16. New England Patriots - Pick forfeited
17. New York Giants - Erin Henderson OLB

And of course, the teams most likely to bone the draft according to the analysts.

2008 NFL Draft: Picks 1 through 15

As per this time of year, my football addiction becomes too much and I have to post my predictions for the NFL draft. So far, in my years predicting the first round (sometimes public, sometimes private), I don't have a real good track record. This year though, I think I can feel it... not really.

So without further ado:

1. Miami Dolphins - Chris Long DE; Likely that the Dolphins will take Chris Long as there is probably going to be some good offensive linemen available later in the draft and an elite end here could mean a big difference to apply pressure and giving the rest of your defense a bit of a break.
2. St Louis Rams - Jake Long OT; Rams here have a couple of needs being offensive line, wide receivers and defensive line. Given the whupping that Bulger got, I think they are going to put a priority on getting Jake Long here to create a cornerstone for the future of their offensive line. However if he is gone at this point, they will likely pick up Chris Long. If they were to go WR I would put my money on Limas Sweed, but this could be a tad early for Limas to go.
3. Atlanta Falcons - Ryan Clady OT; This one is just as interesting at the first pick as both the Falcons and the Dolphins are looking at serious rebuilding efforts. I am sure that many will expect them to take Matt Ryan here and get their next QB, I am going to predict that put a little more stock in the offensive line and pick up Ryan Clady.
4. Oakland Raiders - Vernon Gholston DE; I am sure that Al Davis would love to pick Darren McFadden, but with only 5 picks in the draft and this the only one in the first three rounds, he would love even more to trade it. Unfortunately trading away high draft picks is impossibly hard, here we will see Oakland trying to get a bit more ferocious on defense and pick Vernon Gholston.
5. Kansas City Chiefs - Leodis McKelvin CB; Chiefs could use offensive line help but will look to later rounds to pick up some guards and a center. Most likely, with the absense of Ty Law, they will pick up what they hope with be a shutdown corner in Leodis McKelvin.
6. New York Jets - Darren McFadden RB; Jackpot for the Jets here. With Thomas Jones' rough outing last year look for the Jets to select Darren McFadden who probably shouldn't have fallen this far. If he is gone, they could take Matt Ryan or Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.
7. New England Patriots - Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie CB; High likelyhood here that we will see them draft Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie if available. There was a lot of flux at the corner position and I wouldn't be surprised to see the use of another high draft pick to bolster what they have. That said, they could grab hold of Keith Rivers to add some more youth the the linebacker corps.
8. Baltimore Ravens - Matt Ryan QB; With McNair a recent memory and Boller or Troy Smith waiting in the wings to fill those shoes, expect the Ravens to take some insurance and pick the best pure passer in the draft in Matt Ryan.
9. Cincinnati Bengals - Glenn Dorsey DT; Maybe with the bargain of the first round, I expect the Bengals to add another potent weapon to their defensive front. Expect later in the draft for them to address additional LB, WR, and O-line to add some depth.
10. New Orleans Saints - Sedrick Ellis DT; The Saints are showing some age on the D-line and will like grab a young guy to fill in on the front. Cornerback could also be a need they fill here with Mike Jenkins or one of the other top flight CB.
11. Buffalo Bills - Limas Sweed WR; Looking to give another passing threat the Bills will likely pick Limas Sweed instead of grabbing Mike Jenkins (another high likelyhood at this spot).
12. Denver Broncos - Keith Rivers LB; If Keith Rivers is sitting here, that is likely to be their pick. If he is gone, I see them trading down as they could get some of their other targets for DT or LB a little later this round. If they stick it out here, Branden Albert could add to the Oline.
13. Carolina Panthers - Rashard Mendenhall RB; While Carolina could sign Brian Brohm here, I think they will make a surprise pick and grab the next top rated RB available in Rashard Mendenhall.
14. Chicago Bears - Chris Williams OT; Here they could grab Brian Brohm (QB), Chris Williams (OT), or Branden Albert (OG) and I really expect them to go after a lineman in Lovie's organization.
15. Detroit Lions - Derrick Harvey DE; WR last year, another defensive building block this year. Given the lack of LB in this draft that fit the Tampa 2 mold out of the blocks, I expect a high draft pick spent on an edge pass rusher to attempt and give the corners a release of pressure by reducing the time the QB has to throw.

Note: Made correction to typo

Doctor Says...

I am fine. Or good enough.

Either way, that is good news, so now we can have our party for Miranda (although secretly I think it is just to get folks we care about together). Seems that my sinus infections are ok to have somewhat frequently as they are going away. So I guess each one has been a different infection.

As for my foot, it is healing normally and doesn't look to contain any infection. Plus I renewed my tetanus shot, so ten more years till I need another one.

Happy Birthday Miranda

Miranda hit two today even thought it feels like she has been two for a while (talking back you know). She has plenty of personality and had a good time at her birthday party on last Wednesday. We were supposed to have one today, but I have been pretty ill of late so we decided to not infect everyone. So we will take a look at having it next week after I visit the doc and see "what's up?"

Grandma and Grandpa Dykstra decided to get her a trampoline which I thought I would share a picture of.

Miranda at the Doctor

Besides the nasty diaper rash, Miranda is very healthy. The big news is we hit the 25 percentile of weight (I am sure Michelle will correct me if wrong). So now she is 35" high and 25lbs. Woohoo.

Attacked by a 2 year old

Well, I wounded my foot as a result of things magically appearing where I would not expect them. One of those hair holder things (sorry don't know the name as I am lacking in hair and it is generally worn by females) was laying on the ground pokey side up. Suffice to say, that is magically got embedded into my heel. Which hurt. A lot.

Sigh.

New Direction in Life

Today I am here to announce that I am taking on some new endeavors. When I look at the state of the world today and what Miranda is going to have to live through, how can I not decide to start my own company which has the sole goal of creating a better future and world for our kids.

The real crux of our problems stem from our heavy reliance on energy. We need energy for our TVs, vehicles, refrigerators, and everything in our lives. Now you may be thinking that I will be spending time working on a solution to cheap, safe fusion energy, but that really doesn't hit to the heart of the matter. It still leaves us with a dependence on energy.

So what I propose is to create an army of individuals that will rise up around the world to cut the power. It is easy to start, but I won't say that it is not without some danger. We are currently looking for people with experience with bolt cutters, chainsaws, and cutting torches. We need to bring that power grid down. We need to free up our time from mindless pursuits of video games, music, and TV. Then we will be free to spend our time doing what we were meant to do which is live from the land by raising crops and animals. No more wasted time and our personal fulfillment levels will be higher.

Join with me and remember that only you can truly hate April Fool's Day.

Book Review: You Suck

Recently read You Suck: A Love Story on the advice from Ish and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. This book is definitely not high brow literature. It doesn't fall into the traditional vampire (or vampyre) tales. Instead it weaves a really nice story about two naive vampires just learning what it means to be that. What you give up, and what you gain when dealing with people around you.

The main characters consist of Jody and Tommy but that book is able to create a great supporting cast. The Animals which are Tommy's friends before he turned are just fun and really add to the story (especially for someone who used to work in the grocery business). Also you have the Cheddar princess turned stripper and hocker who really just is about the only purely nasty person in the book. You get treated to the 800 year old vampire Elijah as well and his more subdued view of being pissed on while trying to feed on a drunk. But really the most delightful character is that of Abby who is trying so hard to be goth, but really is just a bubbly, hello kitty type girl.

The story is simple and short, but the characters really bring the fun into it. Recommended.

Misc Notes

So I thought I would drop off a couple quick notes / rants / whatever.

1. Miranda has now used the potty a couple of times. Woo hoo!
2. Miranda still hates hair washing.
3. Miranda now says happy, bubbles, and a few other words and phrases.
4. Work is good. Tiring but good.
5. Coffee is good and not so tiring.
6. The parking garage at the train station should really try to be open in the morning. There really isn't any place to park otherwise.
7. The Rescuers is a pretty fun movie, but it is weird to feel the different pacing of the show from a by gone era. Very slow and methodical.
8. Burnout: Paradise City is fun.
9. Godiva Chocolate Liquor + Chai + Soy Milk = Yummy goodness.

My little rockstar.

Co-operative gamer bill of rights

I saw a post on this in a couple of different places and took a stab at what I thought it should be on my gaming clan's blog.

Miranda is not impressed

Lions release Kenoy Kennedy

This one I am pretty surprised by. I really thought that Kenoy had produced good numbers and positively impacted play on the field. I can only guess this is cap related, but otherwise it doesn't make much sense. I can only hope that at 30 he will get a chance to start somewhere and make an impact like he did with the Lions.

The only other Lion thing to note, is I saw that Harrington got re-signed by the Atlanta Falcons. Hmmmmmm. Not sure what is up with that, but Atlanta is a weird place.

Detroit Lions releases....

Detroit recently release Kevin Jones and Kalimba Edwards. To be honest, I agree with Tom's assessment on Kevin. I think he is a great player but the moneyed owed for a player that has been frequently injured is something the Lions can't pay for especially on the final year of a contract. I agree that Kevin will be a phenomenal player. I really hope that the Lions can resign him with a back loaded contract that would bring him back with money to match the amount of games he will be available for this year.

As for Kalimba, best of luck, but I am not sad to see that position get freed up for a replacement. Maybe a move to OLB in a 3-4 will be a better move for him.

Update on life

Well, it seems we are mostly back to healthy in the household. The time change made it a little more difficult to get better as it totally screwed with sleep. Plus I think I broken my NyQuil addiction as well. Seems every time I get a cold, I turn to NyQuil to make sure I get my rest just cause it does a good job opening the airways and then making me drowsy. However, after I feel the cold has run it's course, I have to somehow back down from it, which means the first few nights off tend to be me laying in bed till midnight waiting for sleep. Usually I try to go off of the stuff on a weekend, but this time it wasn't possible. Either way, I survived the low sleep and now and back to good.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I hear that 30 is one of the special birthdays that you should celebrate. I guess I missed it. We'll try again in 10 years. But the cold was a mixed blessing, it gave me the chance to spend more time with parents who were in town to see us as I didn't lose the commute, just spent part of the holed up working from home.

Book Review: Time Enough for Love

I recently completed Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein. Time Enough for Love tells the furthering stories of Lazarus Long aka Woodrow Wilson Smith and his continuing life. At this point in the story (4700 AD), Lazarus has been alive 2700 years and done just about everything. As such he wants to end it gracefully in a run down hotel across town. Things don't go so well as the Howard families refuse to let their key piece of genetics and information die and have resolved to try and find things in life to get Lazarus interested again in living, but the real underlying theme is around love is what makes life worth living.

This book is broken into 4 sections that have their own distinctive feel. Part 1 seems to be a lot of pontification by Heinlein as the members of the Howard families attempt to get something new for Lazarus. Here you are introduced to a planet leader who can be as manipulative as they come, a computer in love with said leader, as well as a couple of lonely rejuvenators. They worry about Lazarus. They talk of manipulating him. They speak with him, trying to get him to share many of his stories from his long life.

Part 2 has involves Lazarus telling two stories to the computer, Minerva, about his past loves and trying to explain what love is. I found these sections to be much more enjoyable than his random pontifications. Heinlein is able to create interesting characters in very interesting scenes when he actually sits to tell a story.

Part 3 suddenly appears and takes you forward 5 or 10 years. Here again we find ourselves subject to Heinlein's discussions of group marriages and love again. We hear his ideas on raising children and creating happy healthy family units.

Finally in Part 4, we take a look at Lazarus' past through the eyes of an aged Lazarus and how he gets to meet his first family again but as another person via ways of time travel. This he is able to paint another good story of a person really looking out for his skin so much that he again forgets that life is about living and loving and that he has to rediscover that through his family and the ones he cares about most.

Overall a good book, but dreadfully long and over tedious in places. Recommended to the die hard RAH fan. Everyone else need not apply.

The Magical Age

I think we have reached a very neat age for Miranda. She seems to be comprehending more of what is going on. Cause and effect understanding seems to be getting better (very crucial in making sure that bad behavior is curbed). Plus she is starting to talk. Her language is not easily translated to english so I have lots of trouble understanding her.

So in the last month, we have had a potty use, which is good, but now she doesn't even want to go near it. Our bath times are getting a little easier. She still doesn't like to get her hair wash, but now it is more of anger as opposed to the straight out screaming her head off. She is not kicking the cat now, which I count as a huge win.

Some of the bad is that she has figured out how the TV works (at least turning it on). She still throws food on the floor and we can't take the food away yet as we are still trying to get some more weight on her. We go through daily tantrums over nap and bed. Cleaning is hard as she still won't put things away and loves to haul out what we put away.

So overall, nothing terrible and many things very cool so she is progressing well and we as parents are a little bit calmer than we were before.

Happy Valentines Day

And no, I didn't buy the flowers.

Download the songs of Rock Band

Since I have been playing Rock Band for the xbox 360, I have wanted to download the MP3's so that I can listen to the music and figure out the pitch of the singing or even just learn the songs so it is easier to play. I figured others would care about my work.

But here is the complete list of the ones I could find on Amazon.

• Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter"
• "Train Kept a Rollin'™" (Album only download)
• "Won't Get Fooled Again" (not The Who)
• Boston "Foreplay/Long Time"
• Mountain "Mississippi Queen"
• The Police "Next to You"
• David Bowie "Suffragette City"
• Black Sabbath "Paranoid"
• Blue Oyster Cult "Don't Fear the Reaper"
• The Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop"
• Deep Purple "Highway Star"
• KISS "Detroit Rock City"
• Molly Hatchet "Flirtin'™ With Disaster"
• The Outlaws "Green Grass and High Tides"
• Sweet "Ballroom Blitz"
• Rush "Tom Sawyer"
• Bon Jovi "Wanted Dead or Alive"
• The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
• Faith No More "Epic"
• Pixies "Wave of Mutilation"
• R.E.M. "Orange Crush"
• Iron Maiden "Run to the Hills"
• Foo Fighters "Learn to Fly"
• Metallica "Enter Sandman"
• Nirvana "In Bloom"
• Stone Temple Pilots "Vasoline"
• Weezer "Say It Ain't So"
• Smashing Pumpkins "Cherub Rock"
• Radiohead "Creep"
• Beastie Boys "Sabotage"
• Hole "Celebrity Skin"
• Garbage "I Think I'm Paranoid"
• Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun"
• The Hives "Main Offender"
• Queens of the Stone Age "Go With the Flow"
• The Strokes "Reptilia"
• JET "Are You Going To Be My Girl"
• Ok Go! "Here It Goes Again"
• Nine Inch Nails "The Hand That Feeds"
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Maps"
• Red Hot Chilli Peppers "Dani California"
• Coheed & Cambria "Welcome Home"
• Fallout Boy "Dead on Arrival"
• The Killers "When You Were Young "
• New Pornographers "Electric Version"
• Bang Camaro "Pleasure (Pleasure)"

Update: I had a link to the Amazon Listmania list, but that list just doesn't work. Must be a bug with Amazon Digital orders and Listmania pages or something on that line. Very, very annoying.

Review: Assassin's Creed

Finished Assassin's Creed today, and I am impressed. This is the first of the games that I have played from Ubisoft Montreal. I skipped the Prince of Persia's (at least the semi-recent ones), so I think this is my first introduction to the Havoc engine and other miscellaneous bouncing off the walls that the character is able to do. In Assassin's Creed, you play two roles. First off you play as Miles, the descendant of a famed Assassin clan from during the Crusades. You have limited interaction while playing as Miles and must glide around the room frequently to see if you can interact with anything. It would be nice here if it would highlight so you could see you could interact from a distance. The second character you play as is Altaïr, Miles' ancestor. Basically the game story centers around the fact that Miles is captured and must relive his ancestor's life through some sort of DNA memory. While this is a little hokie, but if you can suspend your beliefs past that part, you are in for a treat. The story is filled with conspiracy theories, alien technology, and ancient battles, not to mention getting to play as an assassin in a critical time in human history.

The graphics and sounds are executed well and give you a very immersive environment. You get the sounds of battles, plus the sounds of merchants hawking their wares. You get to see swirling dust and flying insects along with copious amounts of blood. The cities are beautifully rendered with tons of space to explore and tons of stupid flags to find.

The gameplay suffers from a few things. Many popular reviewers found this game to be repetitive and I can see where they are coming from. Your bare minimum mission consists of:

1. Arrive at city
2. Visit bureau
3. Do 2 of 6 investigations
4. Visit bureau
5. Kill target
6. Visit bureau

But that is the bare minimum. If you want there are high places to explore, and citizens to save. There are also 6 total investigations to do which all lend to the story and enrich it. Plus if you really would like to get into the role it is helpful to do all the investigations so you can see marked guard placements and good routes to the site. For me the most monotonous part was flag hunting. I got it into my head that I should find all the flags, but after trying to do so in Damascus for 3+ hours, I decided I would just collect the ones I could find (as they are save points) and that would be all.

Another clunky combat / gameplay point is that sometimes it can be a tad grabby. If you are running away from the guards sometimes your character will do very non-elite assassin sort of things like just grab onto a wall or accidentally fall into the water. These end up being very bad things.

But bad things aside, they really didn't detract much from the game and I still had a fun time playing it. In fact I recommend it just to watch the story.

Back to healthy

Well everyone is mostly healthy now. Miranda completely healthy and her parents, well, they are recovering. She is eating again and the vocabulary is increasing, we just don't always understand. But that is alright. Now I just need to take more pictures so my parents stay happy :)

Lions part ways with Shaun Rogers

Reports: Lions decide to part ways with Rogers

It's really hard to say letting go of a pro bowl player is a good thing. But there was also the frustration of seeing nothing produced out of him for 7 of the 16 games this season. See you Shaun, may your next team work out better for you, and may your replacement show up 16 games.

Sick kid

Miranda has her first real cold with fever. We have been lucky before this with 1 other light cold, but this one looks to be a big one. So yesterday I spent an hour and a half in Walgreen's waiting for the prescription that was supposed to be faxed in earlier. Either way, that sucked at I would have got home at 5:30, but instead got home around 7pm.

Add that in with Miranda not sleeping well and we aren't sleeping well and you have a barely functioning household.

But the prognosis is ear infection with a secondary infection that seems to be the flu. Antibiotics for the ear infection and lots of fighting to get her to take the meds, take the tylenol, and just eat or get fluids.

Bad parent addendum

Well, puking didn't end the day. I ended up getting pooped on to. Sigh.


But it looks like Miranda has the flu. Hopefully get her into the doc today and make sure we can do all we can do for her.

Yup. Awful parent award winner for this year too

Sigh.


Who the hell says timeout works? I would really like to know so that I could throw up on them. So my daughter is 20 months. We have been working with her to help understand things and also some of the things that are acceptable and not. So this morning she dumped food all over the floor. Fine. So I ask her to pick up the food and put it back in the bowl. She refuses. So I put her in her chair for a while.

Next I go to clean up the mess and she comes over. She helps a bit. Then when it is back full, she grabs and dumps it. So back in time out, but this time in her room all alone, for 20 seconds. I come in. I try to calm her down so we can talk. She throws up on me. Every time I do timeout with her, I get thrown up on. So how the hell do you do corrective actions when you are doing all you can to get fucking calories and nutrients to her and then have her regurgitate it?

Video Game Review: Open Season

I recently picked up Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle from Amazon for the low price of $20 (although it has gone up) for the reason that it was a great deal. I wasn't sure if the games would be good or not, but I figured that Miranda would appreciate the bright colors and hopefully easy game play of these games. So I finally decided to try Open Season first and what I found surprised me.

I am used to most movie tie-in games and whatnot to be atrocious, but what I found here was something simplistic but at the same point very entertaining. Now this game is used by many "hardcore" gamers to gain achievements or "nerd-cred", but I went in with that as secondary. The basic plot follows that of the movie where you play as both the bear (Boog) and the deer sidekick (can't remember) and Boog transformation from pet to wild animal. The majority of the missions are played as Boog and basically put you "on rails" running through the forest scaring off hunters and loggers. There are a couple of missions that are out of control "river runs" where you attempt to not run into too many things in your path. The controls are good. The camera is not annoying. And in the end, I found that I had fun.

About the only thing that bothered me was what felt like uninspired voice acting. I would hope that they wanted to do this in addition to just picking up a paycheck. But the general storytelling was well laid out and the writing was good and lead to a few chuckles.

In addition to the game, which is 3-5 hours to beat and very, very easy, you also get a number of multiplayer mini-games, as well as slideshows from the movie and various nature trivia facts.

Book Review: Forever War

In The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, you are given the story of a soldier fighting a far off enemy for reasons he does not understand. But in fighting that enemy, he is rapidly alienated from his own species by the progress of time and his lack of aging due to relativity. There are many direct associations that can be made between this and the Vietnam War (for reasons of the Author's involvement) and many have made comparisons between this and Starship Troopers by R.A.H. where the focus of the comparison has been on Starship being more optimistic while in Forever War there is a general sense of dread and then just resolve.

This book was excellent. This is the first time, in my relatively short time of reading Science Fiction, that a book gave me very real sense of dread about the future. On the main characters first trip back to Earth, he is faced with a very different world that has been changed in the 30 years he was gone by food shortages and rising class violence and lawlessness because of how food is handled. Just reading the causes and effects that Haldeman lays out still gives me chills at how very plausible it is.

Of course this trip back to Earth really sets forth the desire for the main character to re-enlist just to leave behind an Earth he does not know. And for then on out, you are given glimpses into the way that the worlds change as our hero finds himself out on longer and longer missions, where he just loses touch with what humanity has become.

Overall, this is definitely a book I can recommend. Don't be put off by the timeline as it is still an amazing story and setup. Also I recommend to make sure you get the latest author definitive edition as that covers alot more of the negative future aspects.

Miranda playing "Where is..."

Taken on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas

I know many of you are eagerly awaiting Boxing Day, but some of us are content with a nice relaxing Christmas day. Presents are nearly open. Family has been mostly called. Internet occasionally has been working.

So far Michelle has talked to all her family. I will likely talk to my family tonight once they get back from other family stuff. Miranda has been opening presents like crazy and loving it. Although it is funny when she finds a toy she likes, you can ask her to open more presents, but all you get is vigorous head shaking and a quiet little no.

It might be disconcerting for some but we have been avoiding the whole Santa thing. I think we are better off just telling Miranda what the holiday means and to say that the presents from from those that we love and love us. I think that is better than Santa.

But here is to the start of an excellent day and fun times spent with my small little family. May all of you have a great and wonderful Christmas.

I am not dead

I swear I will make a real post sometime this weekend. If you want to blame anything, blame the video games. When Miranda is awake it is time to play, but when she goes to bed... I tend to game.

Speaking of which, if you have a 360 and don't have Crackdown, you should pick it up cause it is only $20 at Amazon. (See previous posts...)

$20! Seriously, get it.

Review: Call of Duty 4

So recently I purchased Call of Duty 4 based upon the reviews of Tycho and my friend MatchesMMalone. Let me say that the Multiplayer mode had me hooked right away. The role playing game aspects of experience leading to new abilities and new weapons is really addicting as the leveling up is not tedious in the early levels and really addicting as you bring new weapons into play. Basically as you progress through the multiplayer game you have experience affecting your rank and personal abilities, along with unlocking new sets of challenges. Challenges are ways of increasing rank more quickly as you get experience bonuses for accomplishing a challenge. One challenge would be to kill 5 enemies while in the crouched position or perhaps to call in 5 UAVs. Then there are also specific challenges associated with each weapon in the game. By completing these challenges, you not only get experience but you can acquire new camouflage for the guns or new scopes and capabilities.

So multiplayer aside, there is a great single player campaign here as well, but it is missing a multiplayer coop mode that would have made this absolutely stellar. The single player campaign puts you in the shoes of 3 separate soldiers with specific objectives to meet. The missions are well scripted (much to the same degree that the missions in Halo 3 or other Call of Duty games are well scripted), the story is well told and missions range from easy to fun to challenging without getting to terribly annoying. I ran through the game on Hardened difficulty and really got stuck in only a couple of places where I spent ungodly amounts of reloads attempting to accomplish the mission. But the ending is satisfying and spectacular and very anti-climatic.

So based on this, the multiplayer aspects alone would warrant getting this game, but add in a fun, exciting (~6 hours) single player mode and I think we have a winner.

Where have I been?

Well, it seems that I took a long break from posting. I don't count the flash post as I was just playing with one of the Amazon associate widgets. They are written in flash and I was curious about how they looked on a web page. Now I know.

As hit the national news, large chunks of the Pacific Northwest ended up underwater. Luckily, we avoided that, although we did get a large amount of rain, there are advantages to living near the top of a hill although one could worry about mudslides. Nope, we made out ok.

Mostly I have had a few house guests. John "MatchesMMalone" Knight spent a few days with us as he was out for work. He got a tour of a couple of facilities at Microsoft as well as doing some speaking at the University of Portland. But wait he wasn't all. My parents came out for a week as well to spend time with their granddaughter.

Overall it was fun. We had a cookout while John was here so that we could get together some ex-Whirlpool folks for reminiscing. But I also got my butt kicked playing Risk. Never fight a land war in Asia.



Past that my parents, wife and daughter spent time traveling the area while I took off a couple of days to hang out with them as well. One of the days we made it down to the newly renovated Seattle Aquarium. They have really done a great job with it and Miranda had a blast. Also caught some lunch at Ivar's Acres of Clams which was excellent.

Otherwise it was just a week of visit with friends and family (not to mention all the cleaning leading up to it) and just had a relaxing time.

Things my daughter loves playing with

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for many things, first and foremost that the day is nearly over and I get some rest. Wow is it a busy day.

We followed the lead of last year and invited the Vassigh family over for the daily feast. It was lots of fun and it is great to see Ali, Steph and Darius again. No pictures this year. Had too much fun to remember the camera.

House guests

Well, I haven't posted much lately because we have been prepping the house for some guests that will be staying with us the first weekend of December. Mr. Knight aka MatchesMMalone will be visiting the PacNW as well as my parents. So along with that, I needed to make sure we had enough sleeping berths for everyone. So Michelle picked out a new bed and we have been turning my office into the fourth bedroom. I can pleasantly say that the office is clean (which is the first time since I finished drywalling, mudding, painting, and carpeting this room) and now has a bed in it. The worst part about it was just the shear amount of stuff that was scattered about in here. We really have some filing to do now and to decide what papers gets shredded (old stuff) and what we keep (new stuff).

Next to do is move the bed from our room to the guest bedroom in preparations for the arrival of a new bed next week. So I have to say that I have had a pretty productive weekend. Oh, and I really haven't slept.

And with that I believe that some coffee is in order.

Computer...

Well, I have to say that it feels weird still to have a fast computer again. The effect it's had on what I do with my computer is still nill. I still check email. I still surf the net. Although, I can do so with ease and speed. The biggest surprise to me so far in these intervening years is how fast USB 2.0 is compared to it's previous versions. Pretty pathetic huh?

That being said, working with photographs is now much more of a joy. And I am looking forward to trying out some of the PC only games that I have missed out on, specifically Spore.

I am not sold on Vista. I ended up turning off most of the Aero improvements. I don't need fancy stuff when I use the computer. I made it look like good old Win95. I am ok with that. More it is just easier for me find things. I may switch it back when I feel like monkeying with it, but I see these things as very utilitarian.

Cork Dorks

Given that I am not a connoisseur, but try to be one, I found this article on the Subjectivity of Wine to be pretty cool. Most of the time, I tend to keep my classification simply to drinkable and not drinkable. The second part of my analysis hits on day two with the size of my headache.

Will talk about my new PC later.

Misc post

Couple things have happened lately. First, I am likely to do nanowrimo this year, but I have firm beliefs that I won't finish it. I just want to do it to practice writing, but in no way will feel obligated to complete the 50k words in a single month. Mostly to do so would risk time with family and I don't want to do that. In such, I am going to try using one of the online office programs as I am replacing my desktop computer.

I recently got a Zune, mostly cause it was cheap, and partly because I wanted a media player. The device arrived yesterday, but due to gaming, I just set it to charging and played for a while. Once I was done gaming, I started the whole installation process. Now I would like to say that I feel like I am handy at computers, I have cobbled together many machines and have limped many along for a while. This installation process left me with tons of wasted time. First off this is a gen-1 zune and I figured my 4+ year old desktop would suffice for it's media connection. Wrong. The Zune may say that it works with USB 1.0 but that is a lie. I spent 3 hours trying to install the software in such a way as to work with my device and at the end of that, I pulled out my 3 year old laptop with a broken power plug and installed it on that. But the problem is that it is a 1.4GHz Centrino which translates to slow. So today, I did some bargain computer shopping while waiting during installations and have purchased a HP Pavilion M9040N Elite Desktop PC. Usually I order Dell, but due to the fact that lately I have noticed more and more troubles with Dells (over the last 3 years) and coupled with a decent amount of machine for the price, I went with the HP. The real drawback I see here is that it has Vista. Sigh.

Along with this Zune purchase, I was also under the incorrect assumption that it could possibly work with Amazon Unbox since I have a couple of shows downloaded that I have not watched. Again, I am disappointed. Sorry Microsoft, but when I buy a player from you, I expect it to work with Plays for Sure. Yes, if I would have done some research I would have realized this. Shame on me. But this DRM thing is really screwing with the consumer. I mean, damn it, I want to spend my money with you fuckers, but I do and ... and ... and you punch me in the face.

(I lost in the beatdown again! I need to switch to boxer.)

Nanowrimo

Well, we have finally reached November. Now I need to decide if I am going to do National Novel Writing Month. I have done this in the past as in before Miranda. I am not sure if I am up for it though.

Back from Oootaw

Well we are back from Salt Lake City and our visit with Ben and Karen (and 4 kitties). It was lots of fun. Miranda seemed to do passably well on the airplane, but it was only a 2 hour flight so we weren't really pushing it. In fact, I think any longer and we would have been in trouble. But it was fun seeing friends that now live in a lonely part of the world.

We did our routine match of Munchkin (Cthulu) along with some gaming on the DS and knitting (although you can guess who was doing what). Sleeping was interesting. Miranda slept great, we didn't as we heard all of her tossing and turning. Honestly, I didn't think you could run a marathon in your sleep but now have to reconsider my assessment.

I got to watch part of the Lions victory (woo-hoo) even though watching football makes Karen break out in hives. Also Ben introduced me to Portal which might have to be the coolest game I have run across in a long time. The graphics were great and the music was fantastic, but the real killer is that it is a first person puzzle game. Really makes you think through a lot of the levels. So that is my stamp of approval. Lots of thinking, lots of fun (the voice acting and script are fantastic) and it just makes for an enjoyable 4 hours.

As for the Lions... well, they were not stellar on every play but overall they made each drive on offense and defense strategically important to the game. They made the Bears work for long stuff while going soft on the short and I have to say that I was very impressed with the defensive line while there were a few breakdowns on the offensive line. But they were going against the Bears.

Halolcatz

INVIZIBEL WARTHAWG GUN

Found it! DJ Jazzy Jeff talks about music innovation

Innovation: The Digital Prophecy Of DJ Jazzy Jeff

10 minute draft timer

Thank goodness. Last years draft (which I watched all of) and this years draft (which I watched all of) took way to long. Finally they are going only have the first 2 rounds on day one and they are shortening the time to make the pick (which I think will lead to more Minnesota type draft day snafus).

Family tries

Well we pass through a few weeks since I last did a family update. Everyone's fine. Yup. Miranda had her 18 month checkup and the doc is pleased with the weight she has regained and with the motor skills. Also Miranda went to the pumpkin farm on the same day and thoroughly enjoyed playing in the mud puddles.

I'm doing ok and Michelle seems to be doing ok. We survived the windstorm. We've been playing way too much puzzle quest on xbla. Michelle is doing a bunch of alternative cooking where she puts pureed vegetables in various things (meatloaf, cookies, mac and cheese, brownies) and to be honest it is pretty good. I can definitely say that I could use the additional vegetables, so big win for Michelle. Miranda is still picky, but occasionally decides she will gorge...

Lately I have been reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Great book. The book centers around a book called Cryptonomicon and the families that have had a heavy involvement in it, covering both modern day and WWII. The writing is excellent and engaging and the characters are interesting. Once I get further I will put up a review but I have been working on it for about 2 weeks and am only half way through.

Finished Ringworld by Larry Niven and found it to be good and interesting, but at the same point it did not grab me and make me read till I couldn't keep my eyes open. The story of a vast engineering marvel created by an advanced civilization that doesn't seem to be around anymore in any great numbers, while the science was good, the characters were neat but not great or compelling. As I try to increase my reading base, I figured this was a book I needed to read although, I am thinking I should have read The Mote in God's Eye instead, although I may read that at a later time.

Next up on my reading list is Speaker for the Dead (Ender, Book 2) by Orson Scott Card, although I may insert Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) before it as I haven't read the first book in the series in about 8 years so maybe I should brush up on the story... Either way I am looking forward to reading some OSC.

Why George?

Dear owner of the Star Wars franchise,

I have been dumb enough to purchase many things that are part of this extensive franchise over the years. Some have been pretty good like the original trilogy and the Bioware games based on the license, but some have been just plain bad like some of the various books using the same recycled plotline or perhaps the Darth Vader voice helmet. I am really saddened by how much you have taken something that was iconic in our childhood and used that lovely nostalgic feeling to drain our bank accounts and destroy a memory. Sometimes tighter quality control can help, but sometimes it is just better to STOP.

Thank you,
Aaron

More on the mini music revolution....

Jeff Townes aka DJ Jazzy Jeff talks about his views on the digital music movement. It is interesting to see other artists talking about what music means and what the recording industry is trying to go through. One of statements:

As a result of his commitment to understanding the digital space his revenues from being a DJ have seen a dramatic increase now that he practically gives his music away for free and focuses on "super-serving" his customer with an "experience" vs just selling plastic discs. (Sounds very Long Tail right?) He is the first to say, "Music should be free, the experience is what you should be paying for"

is interesting especially if you have had a chance to the read the book, The Experience Economy. People pay will pay more for better experiences. Does that mean that music is now a commodity and all we are seeing is the industry fighting that fact. A fact that many other industries have had to face?


*** UPDATED: I removed the link. For some odd reason it was empty. I don't think I posted it empty. But maybe I did. Either way, my searching the net did not bring up the article :(

So, Amazon's not evil, right?

So it is kinda weird that I am writing this given I work for them, and to be honest, I don't think they are evil. However some believe we are near enough. Recently Amazon released digital music downloads sans DRM. This is definitely something I have been very passionate about. All the DRM solutions just seemed so damn hard just to listen to music that I spent money to listen to. Not to mention that the RIAA's view that I should feel privileged to even listen to these great <accent type="french">artists</accent> that they have tied to them. Where as I have felt that the Record companies should feel honored I decided to spend money with them for a non-essential purchase. Be honest, music doesn't sit up there with food, housing, heat, etc. Being an amateur musician (sorry if it isn't great) at one point, I know that getting paid for created content is important, but at the same point as a performer, it was much more important that people who want to listen to my stuff should not be inconvenienced.

So it becomes very interesting to me when Ian Rodgers of Yahoo! Music talks about MP3s and Amazon in a recent presentation. Excerpt from the presentation:

But now, eight years later, Amazon’s finally done what was clearly the right solution in 1999. Music in the format that people actually want it in, with a Web-based experience that’s simple and works with any device. I bought tracks from Amazon (Kevin Drew and No Age), downloaded them, sync’d them to my new iPod Nano, and had them playing in my home audio system (Control 4) in less than five minutes. PRAISE JESUS. It only took 8 years.

And I get even more excited when two of my favorite bands decide to connect in a more directly with their fans by going without a music label. Hey artists, you need to do this. I am more likely to give you money for your work than the suits and paying for them to prosecute music lovers, albeit some that are really guilty. Put it out there, I will buy it. Make it easy and I will buy it. Because in the end, even though it does not stand up there with food, housing, heat, etc, it still has some magic way of touching us and moving us in good ways.

Review: Halo 3

Maybe I should support subtitles. You know something along the lines of Halo 3, now with uber-nerd helmet. That is exactly the edition that I bought. First off the helmet is surprisingly good quality and about the size of a regulation volleyball. Unfortunately, the design has the inside of the helmet be a 3 inch by 6 inch slot, which makes it not able to fit on anything really but the base. There goes my plans to have Master Cat with a kick-butt helmet on. I am sure Tigger is happier because of this.

Alright, enough of my banter, tell me about the game.

I have read a number of review sites that either say one of two things. Either it walks on water and turns water into poptarts, or people find it ok and actually a bit turned off by the hype. So to set the story straight, I can say that if you have not played the first 2, then you will likely fall on the it's ok standpoint. If however you have played both Halo 1 and Halo2, then you will likely feel that this one walks on water. Basically this falls into the category of run of the mill first person shooter where you go out and kill aliens and zombies. However, if you have played through the whole story you will discover a depth here that many games don't have. There are novels that go further. Entire games that exist in the same universe that expound on the backstory (see Marathon). It really is a good story of the end of the world and one super soldiers fight through it. Sound like a movie you have seen? Even if it does, Bungie has captured the essence feeling like the star of an action movie. You feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger during the movie Commando. Except killing aliens and zombies instead of taking out rogue mercenaries.

Some of the improvements are better party capabilities for multiplayer mode, tweaks to weapon capabilities, more vehicles (I personally like the new human flight vehicle), as well as just gorgeous textures and graphics.

Ratings:

• For those that have played both previous games: 5 out of 5
• For those that have not played either: 3 out of 5

Kalaloch Lodge

Well I am home sick after a thoroughly fun trip to the Olympic Peninsula. We decided to take a trip with both the Vassigh and Dykstra families over to the Pacific Ocean and the Kalaloch Lodge where we got a two family cabin for the weekend. The more surprising part is you got two xbox addicts to leave their boxes alone at home on halo3 launch weekend. But I digress. It was fun and it was great to see the kids play in the surf even if they got stuck inside on day 2 because of classic PacNW fall rain. So rather than tell you about it, there are loads of pictures you can look at.

One of my faves....

Easily impressed

Video of someone stacking dice with a cup

Halo 3

Wooooo!




Wooooooo!



Ok. I can say the multiplayer is fun, but haven't really tried single player yet.

Software: Optimized compilers and Moore's law

Joel, fromJoel on Software, recently talked about how software strategies should include features additions as opposed to optimizations. I recommend reading this article mostly because Joel is a pretty good writer, but I will attempt to distill his points.

• People buy features and things that do jobs for them
• People are unlikely to buy super slow software
• Features and software take time to build
• Hardware gets faster according to Moore's Law
• Time spent optimizing code and trimming features is time not spent building new features
• If you like optimizing, build an engine or a compiler since optimization is the feature

I think that covers it. The part I am not in total agreement on is his points around NewSDK. First off, you need to be able to identify NewSDK before you can port your apps to it, because it does not make sense to port to one that isn't going to be the DefinitiveSDK and porting to all PotentialXSDK is plain a waste of time. But when the DefinitiveSDK is found/created/agreed upon, build it ye shall. Errrr, you should really hop on that wagon.

If Trent says it, it must be ok

Article on Slashdot

I haven't read the whole interview so it is likely out of context. But it seems that Trent Reznor believes CDs are too expensive. It is interesting to here someone in the music industry say that. From what little I looked into manufacturing costs, I can see where the big ones are turning over enormous profits. They just want them to grow more. Only really they are hurting the artists and then in turn hurting the fans.

Especially you Sony. Keep your damn rootkit off of my PC.

Robert Jordan passes away

Slashdot article

My condolences to his family and friends.

Andy, I need a caption

Ok, so let me hear what you have.

Social Networking...

From the sounds of it, social networking is little more than digitally removing fleas and ticks from our allies fur...

How social can we get?

I will not pontificate on the value of facebook, myspace, orkut, or any of that lot. If people use it, it will survive. I have found it useful to me on one occasion. I guess that is good enough.

Wow. I feel old... and fat

I thought I was really tanned / burnt, but turned out that this was grease paint from when I played J.B. in the play J.B.

So this would be 1998/99.

Review or Rant: NCAA Football 08 Online Experience

Alright I already reviewed one mode of NCAA 08 for the xbox 360. Everything with the game was going super well in terms of playability. The menus were never great but you just eventually deal with them. Some complaints.

1. Why do I have to save? Shouldn't this be automatic?
2. Why do I have confirm that I want to save? I pushed the hardest to push damn button on the controller, I really want to save.
3. How can I quickly get my depth chart from the recruiting menu?
4. Why, oh why, is it so slow to navigate the menus (see more in my later section)
5. Why is it so slow to switch guys before the snap?

So last night, I tried the online experience. First off, the lag is completely unbearable. If you haven't played the single player game a lot you are at a disadvantage. You have to retain your originally timing because of the lag in what is shown on screen. Punting and kicking is damn near impossible. Pass timing as well is extremely difficult. The voice chat is garbled. I get disconnected from games frequently. Just a horrible experience. Not to mention in play selection for defense, I tend to like to gear my defense to the offensive personnel. This is impossible, because by the time I see the personnel, I have 12 seconds to find my play. Normally not a problem. But online, the menus are so slow, I rarely can get to page 3 of a play listing. For those keeping track that is 5 button pushes in 12 seconds is near impossible. So EA, get your crap together before you ship out a game, or don't even bother to add online capabilities.

Silly girl

Well, while Michelle and were cleaning the house a couple of days ago, we handed Miranda the xbox controller. It seemed like a perfectly harmless thing to do as normally she just randomly click buttons and she navigates the menus of Carcassonne or Solitaire. However this time she bought 1600 point from xbox live. This cost $20. I think I may want to parental control this if I can.

Lions predictions....

Well, I might as well...

versus	outcome	comment
at Oakland	Lions win	Beating Oakland during this stage of their development should be easy. They are rebuilding
Minnesota	Vikings win	The Viking defense will be too much for the Lions. In addition, the run game will eventually just wear out the Lion D.
at Philadelphia	Eagles win	An Eagle team that is not far out of the race from being the Conference champion will have some troubles with the Lion offence, but in the end stopping McNabb and Westbrook will leave the Lions short of the win.
Chicago	Bears win	The Lions shutdown the anemic Bears offense, but unfortunately the Bear defense scores more than the Lion offense.
at Washington	Lions win	The Lions D steps up and does its job. The hold the Redskins to 21 points, while the Lion offense racks up 39. All in field goals.
bye	No one win	Lions bearily beat no body.
Tampa Bay	Lions win	This is probably the best game of the year for the Lions. This will be one of those games where you wonder why the Lions aren't a contender. Then you realize you are watching them play Tampa Bay.
at Chicago	Bears win	See previous Bears comments as the same crap will happen again.
Denver	Broncos win	The Broncos run game perfectly sets up the pass game as the Broncos D, particularly Bly with 3 INTs, shut down the Lions' offense.
at Arizona	Lions win	In general, this is a close one where the total score is over 100 pts.
NY Giants	Lions win	Eli forgets where the end zone is. Either of them for the matter, and only scores for the Lions in the form of a safety. Kitna is injured. There goes the season. Of course I never thought I would say that in regards to Kitna.
Green Bay	Packers win	Farve has stellar game at Detroit. Sets touchdown record.
at Minnesota	Vikings win	The Lions put up a bigger fight again, but without Kitna the timing offense of Martz is completely screwed.
Dallas	Cowboys win	Romo, Romo, Romo and the blitzing D of the Cowboys.
at San Diego	Chargers win	Even though the game is meaningless for the Chargers as they have locked the division, the backup players still kill the Lions.
Kansas City	Chiefs win	LJ LJ LJ. Even with the upgraded run D, the common theme this year is using the run game to setup the pass game against a depleted secondary.
at Green Bay	Lions win	Green Bay was out of the playoff run so they bench Farve (as management could give a rat's ass about a legend) and the Lions completely shut down Rodgers.

All that said we are looking at a record of 6-10. The best record we have had in years!!! Go Lions. Make me proud.

Weird game name...

Sometimes I wonder where they get the game names that they have.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.