I went to a great event today: Microsoft Across America 2007.
I got a shirt and a nice pen, and some other stuff. Like the full version of Office 2007! I enjoyed Keith Combs presentation for 4 hours, and that's really saying something. Who else can you listen to for 4 hours and still say you enjoyed it?
February 27, 2007
Andy Talks!
Last night I was snuggling Andy and kissed him on the cheek. I said "I love you" and I swear he repeated it in baby talk. It was amazing.
All About Olive
All About Olive is something I think I'll be very interested in. I think everyone should have a friend who's much older than they are...
February 26, 2007
February 24, 2007
Yes, I'm alive!
In case anyone wondered, yes, I'm alive.
Thanks for calling to check on me, FO. :)
I have lots of things to write about and some cute pix and videos that I'm going to try to put up soon. Things are going well at Casa de H. We had plans for Jen's cousin with the twin boy babies to come over for dinner last night, but they fell through. Oh well. We're going to play Halo 2 and maybe some Burnout 3 on Xbox. We've been playing a ton of Burnout. It's a great, great game.
Here are two videos of Brendan playing. He's so much fun to be around!
Lately, I've had a little bit more free time on my hands, which is good, but I still feel like I'm too busy. The consulting has slowed down, but now I'm really working on mom's website. I'm trying to get her to start using Google ads and we're working on getting new pieces up for sale. It's good experience, but I don't think I do it fast enough. Oh well.
Andy is getting cuter and cuter. He'll lay on his belly for a while now without getting fussy, and he rolls around under her baby gym a lot. He makes lots of facial expressions and noises too. He's generally a good little baby, and he just adores Brendan. Brendan seems to get along well with him too. The other day Jen told me that she woke up to find Bren quietly playing with Andy with one of Andy's little baby toys. It was cute.
I'm happy because we have DirecTV now. Thanks to my brother who gave us a dish and one of his old receivers. We haven't watched much of it, because we're afraid we'll get addicted, but at least we have it. Bren has watched cartoons quite a bit on it...I helped put the dish up, so now I'm not afraid to go on my roof. That's a good thing. Here he is up there.
I have to both tattle on myself and pat myself on the back: when we were setting it up, I called him on his cell so that I could tell him where to stop when I got a signal. We generally knew where the dish was supposed to point, but not exactly. Well, after about 10 minutes, of nothingness, I told him "Ooops, guess what; I forgot to hook up the feed cable from the dish to the box!" I was trying to figure out how to hook box to TV and totally forgot the other important cable. Uh-oh. But later, after we fixed that, we still couldn't get a signal. We tried for an hour, including going on the net and driving around to look at other houses. The net said point it directly south at 55 degrees elevation, but that didn't work. it looked like other houses were pointed directly south, so that kind of confirmed it. Bro was ready to just give up, but I said let me go up and you stay down here. So, I went up there, and he'd read the elevation ruler wrong. He had it set to 45 degrees. I fixed that and moved it more toward true south, and it worked. I never told him what I did though. I didn't want to make him feel bad. :) The funny thing is that considering that the DirecTV satellite orbits at 22,300 miles out, just 10 degrees of elevation off made us point almost 3900 miles away from where the satellite really was. Amazing! Want to know how I figured that out? This.
Thanks to the DirecTV, we've also rearranged our various video devices and cleaned up our front living room. Definitely a good thing! Here's Dad and bro before they left.
When I was a kid we had one of those old giant satellite dishes. I learned a lot from things like discovery channel. I also remember turning the dish to different satellites. What a weird concept today. You know that they are using those kinds of dishes to build the Allen Array
We also lately took the boys to a park and duck pond a few miles away. I'll let Jen put up the pictures of the boys, but here are two interesting features of the place:
Duck Bath:
Chess Table (or checkers):
That's all for now...
Thanks for calling to check on me, FO. :)
I have lots of things to write about and some cute pix and videos that I'm going to try to put up soon. Things are going well at Casa de H. We had plans for Jen's cousin with the twin boy babies to come over for dinner last night, but they fell through. Oh well. We're going to play Halo 2 and maybe some Burnout 3 on Xbox. We've been playing a ton of Burnout. It's a great, great game.
Here are two videos of Brendan playing. He's so much fun to be around!
Lately, I've had a little bit more free time on my hands, which is good, but I still feel like I'm too busy. The consulting has slowed down, but now I'm really working on mom's website. I'm trying to get her to start using Google ads and we're working on getting new pieces up for sale. It's good experience, but I don't think I do it fast enough. Oh well.
Andy is getting cuter and cuter. He'll lay on his belly for a while now without getting fussy, and he rolls around under her baby gym a lot. He makes lots of facial expressions and noises too. He's generally a good little baby, and he just adores Brendan. Brendan seems to get along well with him too. The other day Jen told me that she woke up to find Bren quietly playing with Andy with one of Andy's little baby toys. It was cute.
I'm happy because we have DirecTV now. Thanks to my brother who gave us a dish and one of his old receivers. We haven't watched much of it, because we're afraid we'll get addicted, but at least we have it. Bren has watched cartoons quite a bit on it...I helped put the dish up, so now I'm not afraid to go on my roof. That's a good thing. Here he is up there.
I have to both tattle on myself and pat myself on the back: when we were setting it up, I called him on his cell so that I could tell him where to stop when I got a signal. We generally knew where the dish was supposed to point, but not exactly. Well, after about 10 minutes, of nothingness, I told him "Ooops, guess what; I forgot to hook up the feed cable from the dish to the box!" I was trying to figure out how to hook box to TV and totally forgot the other important cable. Uh-oh. But later, after we fixed that, we still couldn't get a signal. We tried for an hour, including going on the net and driving around to look at other houses. The net said point it directly south at 55 degrees elevation, but that didn't work. it looked like other houses were pointed directly south, so that kind of confirmed it. Bro was ready to just give up, but I said let me go up and you stay down here. So, I went up there, and he'd read the elevation ruler wrong. He had it set to 45 degrees. I fixed that and moved it more toward true south, and it worked. I never told him what I did though. I didn't want to make him feel bad. :) The funny thing is that considering that the DirecTV satellite orbits at 22,300 miles out, just 10 degrees of elevation off made us point almost 3900 miles away from where the satellite really was. Amazing! Want to know how I figured that out? This.
Thanks to the DirecTV, we've also rearranged our various video devices and cleaned up our front living room. Definitely a good thing! Here's Dad and bro before they left.
When I was a kid we had one of those old giant satellite dishes. I learned a lot from things like discovery channel. I also remember turning the dish to different satellites. What a weird concept today. You know that they are using those kinds of dishes to build the Allen Array
We also lately took the boys to a park and duck pond a few miles away. I'll let Jen put up the pictures of the boys, but here are two interesting features of the place:
Duck Bath:
Chess Table (or checkers):
That's all for now...
February 17, 2007
Bush Moles
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A doctor removed two moles from President George W. Bush's left temple on Friday and they were believed to be benign, a White House spokesman said.
Now, how about the ones in his administration, eh? :p
Now, how about the ones in his administration, eh? :p
February 11, 2007
"I hate Macs" article
This is rather amusing...be sure to read the author's comment at the bottom.
This made me want to go see some of those ads at Apple. Great advertising, I must say! The "Security" onr is so right on. And I love the "Power cord" one. If I had the cash, I'd buy a MacBook Pro and dual boot it with Vista. That'd be awesome.
Hey, the UK ads are pretty good, but they seem like silly copies of the US ones. Maybe I'd appreciate them more if I knew those actors from the TV show they're in...
But the best, the best, the best ones are the Japanese versions. If you've watched the US ones, you'll kind of know what's going on. Damn, I wish I spoke Japanese!!! Tank, I need a translation program for Japanese!
This made me want to go see some of those ads at Apple. Great advertising, I must say! The "Security" onr is so right on. And I love the "Power cord" one. If I had the cash, I'd buy a MacBook Pro and dual boot it with Vista. That'd be awesome.
Hey, the UK ads are pretty good, but they seem like silly copies of the US ones. Maybe I'd appreciate them more if I knew those actors from the TV show they're in...
But the best, the best, the best ones are the Japanese versions. If you've watched the US ones, you'll kind of know what's going on. Damn, I wish I spoke Japanese!!! Tank, I need a translation program for Japanese!
A series of Tubes
Hmm, I might get myself of of them there new-fangled Tubes thangs that Senator Ted Stevens was talking about.
The Dresden Files 2
Well, we've watched the first two episodes of The Dresden Files, and I am really enjoying it. It's a great "Monk meets the supernatural" kind of detective show. I love Monk.
In other TV news, we are getting satellite TV. Wahoo! We're going to mount it on the pole that currently supports our unused broadcast TV antenna. I think I'll leave that on up there, though, because where would I store it if I did take it down? I certainly couldn't throw away a perfectly good TV antenna. Also, now where did I put that perfectly good plastic bag I saved for something about a year ago? Hmmm.....
In other TV news, we are getting satellite TV. Wahoo! We're going to mount it on the pole that currently supports our unused broadcast TV antenna. I think I'll leave that on up there, though, because where would I store it if I did take it down? I certainly couldn't throw away a perfectly good TV antenna. Also, now where did I put that perfectly good plastic bag I saved for something about a year ago? Hmmm.....
DS and Pedophiles
I just watched this story on Milwaukee's Fox News about the possibility of bad people chatting up your kids with Pictochat*. While the story focused on how weird-os and long-haired hippies might be chatting with your child, I think the real important part of the story is that the wireless reach on these things is phenomenally better than advertised! They have a range of over 300 feet the story says. I think that's wonderful and something for Nintendo to be proud of. This little handheld device has enough power to transmit a good strong signal and still has pretty good battery life.
In all honesty, this story did prompt me to make a mental note to tell Brendan not to give out information to strangers, but that's good advice anywhere: pictochat, online, phone, etc. I think that the Fox news story needlessly targeted the DS for the shock value. The story would have been better if it was about teaching your kids not to give out personal information. I cold easily see a dumb kid answering the phone while you were in the shower and answering questions you might not want them to.
By the way, I live at777 Pine Gulch and my ATM Pin is 12345, thanks for asking. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have said that...
*PictoChat is the app that comes built into all Nintendo DS units that lets you chat wirelessly with other DS users within a certain distance. It works on Wi-Fi just like laptops, etc.
In all honesty, this story did prompt me to make a mental note to tell Brendan not to give out information to strangers, but that's good advice anywhere: pictochat, online, phone, etc. I think that the Fox news story needlessly targeted the DS for the shock value. The story would have been better if it was about teaching your kids not to give out personal information. I cold easily see a dumb kid answering the phone while you were in the shower and answering questions you might not want them to.
By the way, I live at
*PictoChat is the app that comes built into all Nintendo DS units that lets you chat wirelessly with other DS users within a certain distance. It works on Wi-Fi just like laptops, etc.
February 5, 2007
Colts Win
Colts tame Bears for Super Bowl victory
Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy hugged the Colts' Peyton Manning after the Colts' 29-17 win over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007.
(Associated Press)
Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy hugged the Colts' Peyton Manning after the Colts' 29-17 win over the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007.
(Associated Press)
February 4, 2007
SuperBowl Ads
The ads are good this year, so far. I have to say that the Coke ads smash the Pepsi/Sierra Mist ones to dust. Coke is it! Hahahaha.
Watch the ads here.
Watch the ads here.
Amazing Kickoff
In the first 14 seconds of Superbowl XLI, Chicago has made a touchdown. Amazing! 92 yards running to get that first touchdown of the game. This is going to be fun.
They say this is the first touchdown ever on a SuperBowl kickoff.
They say this is the first touchdown ever on a SuperBowl kickoff.
SuperBowl
SuperBowl XLI is tonight. This is my one football game of the year. I am looking forward to watching the commercials, as usual! :)
Old Cartoons
I was just checking out the new Transformers movie website, and that led me to IMDB where I found lots of info about old cartoons I used to watch.
From the movie website, I saw the name Peter Cullen. His voice is very distinctive, I think. Here's a little clip of Optimus Prime, to refresh your memory. From tftm.net. I never knew who the voice of Optimus Prime was before, and I really never cared frankly, but now I'm interested. I'm into those old cartoons. I want to watch them again, but I know that they won't be as "cool" as I remember them to be, so I'm a little hesitant. We'll see what I decide.
Back in the 80s, the voice actors did lots of different shows, so it was pretty easy to recognize them when they voiced a new character. I noticed in Cullen's filmography that he was also in Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, which I had totally forgotten about. I watched that and enjoyed it a lot, even though it didn't last long. 14 episodes I think. Anyway, the point is the Cullen was in that too. Additionally, another very memorable voice was there: Chris Latta, also the voice of StarScream in Transformers. If you've ever heard his voice, you probably would recognize it immediately. Here's a little clip of StarScream, to refresh your memory. Also from tftm.net. Great memories.
I sure enjoyed all those cartoons. I watched GI Joe too. And Ghostbusters. And Voltron. And Starblazers. And Dungeons & Dragons. And Plastic Man - that was so cheesy. :)
Also Interesting: TFArchive
From the movie website, I saw the name Peter Cullen. His voice is very distinctive, I think. Here's a little clip of Optimus Prime, to refresh your memory. From tftm.net. I never knew who the voice of Optimus Prime was before, and I really never cared frankly, but now I'm interested. I'm into those old cartoons. I want to watch them again, but I know that they won't be as "cool" as I remember them to be, so I'm a little hesitant. We'll see what I decide.
Back in the 80s, the voice actors did lots of different shows, so it was pretty easy to recognize them when they voiced a new character. I noticed in Cullen's filmography that he was also in Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, which I had totally forgotten about. I watched that and enjoyed it a lot, even though it didn't last long. 14 episodes I think. Anyway, the point is the Cullen was in that too. Additionally, another very memorable voice was there: Chris Latta, also the voice of StarScream in Transformers. If you've ever heard his voice, you probably would recognize it immediately. Here's a little clip of StarScream, to refresh your memory. Also from tftm.net. Great memories.
I sure enjoyed all those cartoons. I watched GI Joe too. And Ghostbusters. And Voltron. And Starblazers. And Dungeons & Dragons. And Plastic Man - that was so cheesy. :)
Also Interesting: TFArchive
February 3, 2007
Coinstar Hack
FO, will you please try this coinstar hack and let me know how it goes? I'll mail you 103 pennies to test it with... :) :) :)
Potter 7 !!!
I was very surprised to see an email from Amazon this morning announcing the release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JULY 21 of this year! I can't believe that it will be ready by that date!
Accio, Book 7 indeed!!!!!!!
Accio, Book 7 indeed!!!!!!!
Jack n Bob
Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. They loaded up in Jack's truck and headed north. After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard. They pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the night. "I realize it's terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed," she explained. "I'm afraid neighbors will talk if I let you stay in my house."
Don't worry," Jack said, "We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. And if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light."
The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way. They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing.
About nine months later, Jack got an unexpected letter from an attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend.
He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, "Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from....."
"Yes, I do"
"Did you happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?"
"Yes," Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out. I have to admit that I did."
"And did you happen to use my name instead of telling her your name?"
Bob's face turned red and he said, "Yeah, sorry, buddy. I'm afraid I did. Why do you ask?"
.
.
.
.
.
"She just died and left me everything."
(And you thought the ending would be different, didn't you? Hahahahahahaha.)
Don't worry," Jack said, "We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. And if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light."
The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way. They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing.
About nine months later, Jack got an unexpected letter from an attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend.
He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, "Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from....."
"Yes, I do"
"Did you happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?"
"Yes," Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out. I have to admit that I did."
"And did you happen to use my name instead of telling her your name?"
Bob's face turned red and he said, "Yeah, sorry, buddy. I'm afraid I did. Why do you ask?"
.
.
.
.
.
"She just died and left me everything."
(And you thought the ending would be different, didn't you? Hahahahahahaha.)
Our Planet Earth
I got this emailed to me and I just love it. I'm not sure just how digitally enhanced the pictures are, but I don't really care. This is beautiful.
Our Planet Earth
I had no idea that night fell diagonally across the country...how about that?
Our Planet Earth
I had no idea that night fell diagonally across the country...how about that?
Hillary Clinton
(I don't know why this is funny...I might actually vote for her, if she has a good platform.)
Hillary Clinton goes to a primary school in New York to talk about the world. After her talk she offers a question time.
One little boy puts up his hand. The Senator asks him what his name is.
"Kenneth."
"And what is your question, Kenneth?"
"I have three questions:
First - whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband's eight years in the office as President?
Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?"
Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary Clinton informs the kids that they will continue after recess.
When they resume, Hillary says, "Okay, where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?"
A different little boy puts his hand up. Hillary point him out and asks him what his name is.
"Larry."
"And what is your question, Larry?"
"I have five questions:
First - whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband's eight years in the office as President?
Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?
Fourth - why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
Fifth - what happened to Kenneth?"
Hillary Clinton goes to a primary school in New York to talk about the world. After her talk she offers a question time.
One little boy puts up his hand. The Senator asks him what his name is.
"Kenneth."
"And what is your question, Kenneth?"
"I have three questions:
First - whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband's eight years in the office as President?
Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?"
Just then the bell rings for recess. Hillary Clinton informs the kids that they will continue after recess.
When they resume, Hillary says, "Okay, where were we? Oh, that's right, question time. Who has a question?"
A different little boy puts his hand up. Hillary point him out and asks him what his name is.
"Larry."
"And what is your question, Larry?"
"I have five questions:
First - whatever happened to the medical health care plan you were paid to develop during your husband's eight years in the office as President?
Second - why would you run for President after your husband shamed the office?
Third - whatever happened to all those things you took when you left the White House?
Fourth - why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early?
Fifth - what happened to Kenneth?"
February 1, 2007
Oh so no time
I've had oh so no time to write lately. Where's my free time gone?!? Oh: consulting, family visits, etc.
I miss PrizePoint.com. It was an awesome online games site. Jen won $250 on there once many years ago. We spent many hours on that website. :)
I'm sad to say that one of my cousins has passed away. Mother's Sister's Daughter. I didn't really know her. I've seen her in pictures with me from when I was very young, though.
New life has also come into the world. Jen's cousin had her twin 4 Lb baby boys on the 26th.
We may be getting satellite TV soon. I'm a little excited. Discovery, History, TLC, HGTV, and maybe even Anime Network. Ooh!!! We'll see...
Speaking of anime, we're watching Maburaho at anime club right now, Jen went last week.
I miss PrizePoint.com. It was an awesome online games site. Jen won $250 on there once many years ago. We spent many hours on that website. :)
I'm sad to say that one of my cousins has passed away. Mother's Sister's Daughter. I didn't really know her. I've seen her in pictures with me from when I was very young, though.
New life has also come into the world. Jen's cousin had her twin 4 Lb baby boys on the 26th.
We may be getting satellite TV soon. I'm a little excited. Discovery, History, TLC, HGTV, and maybe even Anime Network. Ooh!!! We'll see...
Speaking of anime, we're watching Maburaho at anime club right now, Jen went last week.
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