Wild Hog

RIP Wildhog

2009-02-02T00:55:00.000-08:00

I got the comments up and running on my new site and I have a little bit of content up and ready to go. Point your browsers over to my new website www.grodontheweb.com. I may add some of the wildhog material to the new site or I may just back it up. If you want to read any of it or look at some of the early Emma pics they will still be here. I just won't be updating. If you link to this blog please update your site to point to my new page. Thanks!

Big Update Coming.

2009-01-28T13:43:00.000-08:00

I've been working really hard to put together a new site that I will be updating on a regular basis. What does this mean to you dear and faithful reader? It means you will actually have new Wildhog content to read on what will be a much more regular schedule. It means you will need to update your bookmark. And yes, it means Wildhog will officially be dead. Its been laying there and at times it has been difficult to tell if it is still breathing. It is. But not for long. The fork is coming. Here is a small preview. If you link to this page go ahead and delete the link. Check back here over the next couple days for one final post pointing to the new site. Thanks.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T09:04:00.000-08:00

I uploaded new photos to my picasa.

Emma's first day at school

2008-09-11T10:47:00.001-07:00

I uploaded some photos here as well as whatever was on my camera from the past couple days. She will always be my baby girl. She isn't quite grown up but when I look at that fuzzy little guy rolling around on the floor and look at here I know she definitely isn't a baby anymore.

2 days with Spore

2008-09-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! I have been looking forward to the release date of Spore for two years now and I let it slip. I guess somewhere in my head I new it was 9/7 but I didn't associate that date with Sunday. I figured the game would drop on a Tuesday like everything else. I stopped by a store Monday on my way home and picked up the last copy. It took a LONG time to install so I didn't get to start playing until 1:40AM.

I started playing an herbivore. Tuesday morning once Link was sleeping Emma and I went to work building a tribe of Zippities. She enjoys watching them interact with each other and the different species that populate the game world but she doesn't want to play for too long so we went and read for a while afterwards.

Tuesday night I was able to log a bit more time and I created a carnivore named Crococrotch. I took this species all the way through the Tribal stage. He is a vicious killer. Raptor claws, wings, a poison spitter, claws, and of course a giant crocodile mouth located...on its crotch! Here is a link to my creations so far. You can actually see how our creations evolved over the course of the game which is pretty cool. I have a lot of work to do tonight so I probably won't have a chance to play much for the next couple days. Do I play Spore Friday night or stick with TF2 which is my usual Friday night activity? Tough decisions I know :P

Tomorrow is Emma's FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL!!! I fully plan to continue a tradition my mom stuck with for our entire scholastic career and take a picture of her out on the front porch. I'll post it tomorrow.

P.S.
The coolest thing just happened. As I was typing the previous paragraph Emma walked over and says "So you are writing my name in there?" I confirmed and asked her to show me her name on the screen. She did. I was amazed. It may have been a fluke but it was pretty cool. Her brother is trying to eat the leg of a chair so I better go.

NO SLEEP TIL SPORE!!!

2008-09-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

I'll be picking it up on my way home and playing it as long as I can. Emma is really looking forward to seeing her creature who she named Zippity in action. Me too!!!

More games

2008-09-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to blog a bit more but I accidentally erased my list of stuff that is coming out. There is too much to mention in just one or even two posts and if you know me you know I ~~like~~ love to talk about games regardless of their quality.I am just going to go over a few of the upcoming releases every week. This way I can still post on other topics without interrupting a single multi part game related post and anyone who doesn't care about games will actually have something worth reading here.

First up is Mercenaries 2. I don't know about this game and I never played the first but the sequel is getting a lot of positive noise. I don't see it being a huge hit this season so they are probably smart to release it before all the huge titles hit. Hopefully it is shipping finished and functioning properly.

Next on the list and the first of the titles I will be buying is SPORE!!!! I can't wait for this game. It deserves more space than I can give it and maybe after I play I will blog on it. Truth is the internet doesn't really need more Spore material. Google it if you want to know more. You should go download the Creature Creature and play with it. This is probably the game I am most excited to play regardless of the mediocre reviews some European sites leaked. Less than one week to go!!!

Viva Pinata DS is shipping next week too. This is a little game and I don't know anyone who needs to run out an buy it if you played it for Xbox 360 but I think it is a huge deal. It marks the first time in two gaming generations that a Rare title is back on a Nintendo system. Anyone who played a video game during the 90s will remember Goldeneye. Rare made it. They are probably the only company to consistently release games that rivaled or outshined games made by Nintendo. Microsoft bought them up and brought them inhouse to develop games for Xbox hoping to attract a younger audience. I don't think they have seen a profit yet. I need to write a blog about this because I have some theories of my own on how to get them back on track and one of them involves publishing titles on Nintendo systems. I believe this Viva Pinata is being published by THQ but just getting a Rare title on a good start. I think the DS is the perfect platform for Viva Pinata. I don't know what it was doing on Xbox 360. It is too kiddie to appeal to the masses who are frothing over the next Gears of War but it is much too complicated for anyone young enough to watch the TV show.

Too many games

2008-08-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Fall of 2008 was considered the best year for games release in about a decade. 2009 may actually prove more entertaining and if nothing else there will probably be even more games that deserve your time, money, or both. I think a couple of my favorite games of all time may have dropped in 2008 so for me to be even half as excited this year was surprising.

The Orange Box has to be about the best value in the history of gaming. It contained everything Halflife 2 related which is the sequel to the game that basically set the bar for gameplay and story telling in the first person shooter genre. HL2 didn't disappoint and I am looking forward to the next episode. The orange box also included Portal which may be an FPS but is basically a puzzle game. I would describe as the best 3 hours you can spend with a mouse and keyboard. Last but not least was Team Fortress 2. This may actually be my favorite game of all time. I just can't get away from it and fortunatly neither can Valve. This week marks the third free major update and it is the largest yet. New maps, new match types, an update to one of the classes...AHHHH I can't wait! Expect to see me on a LOT next week and if you want to try it head to www.steampowered.com. You can play for free from Friday through Sunday.

Another of my favorite games ever is Bioshock. The story telling and gameplay are superb. I simply cannot get enough of the game's location. Rapture, the underwater city looks amazing and someday I fully intend to build a system just to go back and play this game using 3 monitors running at the highest graphic settings possible. My wife may say otherwise but it would be fun.

Call of Duty 4 completely caught me by surprise. A friend of mine had let me borrow CoD1 a couple years back and even though it was one of the only games at the time that I just sat down and played straight through I hadn't kept up with the series. CoD3 wasn't released for PC and the reviews weren't as positive so I didn't run out and purchase CoD4. It got a lot of buzz so I downloaded a copy(wrongfully I know). I don't know why but I just thought I would get it and maybe play it someday. I think I played through it during the next two or three days in its entirety. I couldn't put it down. At that point I knew I owed some game developers money so I promptly went to the store and bought it. A game like that deserves your money and those devs need to know that there are people out there willing to pony up so they have some incentive to make a sequel. I will be pre ordering the next CoD that Infinity Ward makes.

Tomorrow I will get into all that is coming out for 2009 and see if I can organize my list of what I will be hoping to actually play through.

Network+ blues

2008-08-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

I am currently working towards CompTIA's Network+ certification. This is an industry recognized certification about...you guessed it, Networking. I really wish they could have come up with a better name for this. I know. I know. I know. There has to be something better to do with my time than rant about semantics but I hate telling people I am getting Network+ certification. Why? Because most people who aren't in the industry don't know what it entails and besides, they can network too.I have had two people say "Oh, thats cool. I should get that too." One person told likes to tell me "I can network XP with my eyes closed." Well my friend, that is because Microsoft wants you to. They don't need every idiot who can afford to buy a PC calling their help line because XP doesn't automate home networking. Just because you can change the oil on your car it doesn't mean you are a mechanic.

I am A+ certified and when people ask what it is I tell them it is about building computers. It involves more than that but A+ is mainly focused on computer hardware. Most people find out I have A+ certification or learn that I have built my own PC and think I must be some kind of mad computer genius when in fact my computer knowledge would pale in comparison to most techs who actually have a job in the field. A+ is the entry level certification and Network+ is actually the next cert on the average tech's leaning path. It goes a LOT deeper than plugging two pcs and an XBOX into a hub or setting up a laptop to work with a wireless router. It makes me so mad that people would think there is a actually a professional level certification with such limited scope. What company would pay someone to network two computers the way one does in one's own home? I am sure there are companies who require this service but it doesn't need to be completed by a Network+ certified person. The average teenager would do just fine. Network+ is about getting computers to communicate. It is about the how and why computers can talk to each other. It is about connecting multiple computers in multiple cities using multiple operating systems in many different configurations and optimizing networks for security, speed, and stability just to give you a small idea regarding some of what is involved. I could go into all the details but trust me, you would get bored. Who wants to know the speeds certain cables work at, what the maximum distance between two computers can be given the type of cabling used, or which port your email is sent out on?

Next time you run into someone who is Network+ certified just remember that they have put in a lot of study time or time in the field working on computers. Give em the respect you would any other certified professional. Don't be afraid to ask tech questions because we are a pretty nerdy bunch who enjoy talking tech but just don't pretend you could do their job until you have passed the test.

Picasa

2008-06-24T09:35:00.001-07:00

I added some new photos. You know the address.

Wii Fit

2008-05-21T01:52:00.000-07:00

I just got done with my first 45 minutes with Wii fit. Wow! Not only is it pretty fun but I am completely tired out. Shanna and I have been planning on buying one for a while but after seeing how quickly the presales disappeared online I figured I better get one asap. This also solved another problem I had. I didn't want to walk into a store looking like the chubby video game nerd I am and come out with a fitness video game. I was gonna look for someone to go buy it for me but like I said I found the perfect solution. I hate to say it but.... Walmart. I could buy one on my way home from work after midnight on the release day which basically guaranteed I could score one and I'm not the fattest gamer running around Walmart at 12:30AM. Also, simply due to the fact that I have all my teeth I am automatically in the running for one of the most attractive people in the store. Wow did I just write that? Ouch!

Back on subject. I loaded up the Wii fit and it told me to step on the balance board. I kid you not he said "ouch" the first time I did it. So far I have got him to say "great" twice when I mounted up but usually he either says "ouch" or maybe its just "oooo." Neither is too encouraging and I am curious to see how Shanna reacts. I jumped straight into the balance games like skiing, ski jump, hula hoop, and marble drop. All of them are fun. The hardest part is that because it is a balance board and you are standing on it you can't just stop. If when I get tired and just lean to one side my guy skis off the course or a marble flies off the table. The toughest thing to get used to was heading the soccer balls. I play a lot of Wii Boxing so I am used to juking and jiving. This is completly different because you shift your feet. When boxing my feet are stationary and I move my whole upper body. Needless to say my Mii took many a cleat to the face tonight.

I actually tried two of the yoga poses and felt pretty relaxed and stretched out afterward. One of my legs is still a bit tight from the huge amount(for me) of walking I did this weekend. Next I jumped into strength training with some push ups. These are combined with planks and there is now way I can put into words how I feel about them. If you have lived a life of sin then you should probably try and do some planks as they will probably give you a good idea of what you will experience in Hell. At this point I just can't do them on my left side and I probably won't ever be able to because of my knee. I could barely do my right side and by the end I was pretty much falling off the board. After completing my set of 6(thats right) I was nothing more than a crying, sweaty, quivering fetal mass on the floor. The worst part is that I can actually do push ups. This stuff is tuff!

I finished up with a jog. Seriously. I just did a 4-5 minute relaxed jog in place that was actually kind of enjoyable just because I was running around some Nintendo created island. So far I am enjoying this thing and I think I will actually play on it everyday. You can unlock a lot of extra activities and games and the only way to do that is to spend time on it. The unlocks are all based on how much you exercise not how well like most other games which is perfect for this. I have my goal weight all set and if I ever hit it Ill post. I am aiming for just 15 lbs in 2 months. I'll update you then. Heres hoping I blog again before then.

It is 2:24 am and I have TWO kids who are going to be getting me up soon. If you want this spell checked then may I suggest CTRL+A, CTRL+C, Open Word, CTRL+V, F7.

And my wife wonders why I can't remember when church starts or when our anniversary is!!!! Sheesh! I obviously use my brain to store more important stuff.

We celebrated Emma's Birthday yesterday.

2008-04-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

We had a good time and thanks to everyone who came. She is enjoying playing with the games she received at this very moment. One of the cds she got was rejected for bedtime. Shanna and I are excited about the album "Here come the 123s" because it is by They Might Be Giants and has received positive reviews on Amazon. She told me "this better have the Veggietales song on it." I asked her if I could take it to work with me and she said yes which means we all get to listen to it today when I drive them to Grandma's. I am sure she will love it sooner or later.

She also didn't want to go to bed last night. One of her gifts was a comforter that matches her bed set. Too bad the comforter came in square plastic case that made it shaped like a pillow. She was telling me "I don't want to sleep with this thing. I want my new giant pillow." It took some explaining but she finally understood and fell right asleep under her comforter.

I posted new photos on picasa. Some good ones of Link after a bath, a couple from her party, and 2 that I shot after I did her makeup. I think it is time to buy a new memory card for the camera. We have an older one that writes too slow and it is tough to get movies and too many shots are coming out blurry. We will see.

Big day for a little girl.

2008-03-14T19:24:00.000-07:00

Emma came through surgery better than expected. Right now she and Shanna are out buying some ice cream. She truly does seem back to normal which is impressive considering she was starting anesthesia almost exactly 12 hours ago. We won't know if the surgery was successful for one month and there is about a 20% chance she may have to have another surgery so keep those prayers coming.

The nurses were all amazed at how happy and beautiful she was. They said they have never seen a little kid handle everything so well. If I can blow my own horn(it is my blog) I think at least part of that is because we did a very good job explaining the surgery to her and she is bright enough to understand.

They don't let parents in to see the kids until after the kid is awake and aware of what is going on. Little ones can sometimes freak out and get pretty disoriented. I guess it can be a bit disturbing to the parents. The nurses said Emma just sat up, opened her eyes, and said "Hi." They had never seen anything like it.

More new photos

2008-01-28T15:43:00.001-08:00

I uploaded some more photos to Picasa. The link should be somewhere on the page. This is a great shot that Shanna took today. We had to sneak him in because so far Emma hasn't cooperated with us getting this pic. She always wakes up and gets mad but today we got it.

We have all been pretty sick lately but are finally getting over everything. I start back up at work on Monday. The next couple weeks are gonna be pretty long and I am dreading it.

More new photos

2008-01-28T15:43:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to me!

2008-01-12T20:05:00.001-08:00

Lincoln Matthew Rodriguez

Every year is better than the last.

2007-12-25T00:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas has never been more fun. Shanna and I love watching Emma now that she is old enough to really experience the Holidays. Obviously we took her to get a photo with Santa. It was pricey and it took a long time. I know standing line wasn't easy on Shanna and it wasn't easy for Emma but seeing her so excited to speak to Santa was worth it.

Even though there are many reasons why this Christmas is better than ever there is one that makes this time of year difficult. One of my grandparents passed away earlier this year and even though I can probably count the number of Holidays spent with her on one hand it will be difficult to get through tomorrow without thinking of her. I didn't have a chance to go to the funeral and I don't know if the reality of it has sunk in all the way but the absence of a phone call and yes, as shallow as it may initially seem, the lone missing gift will be sorely felt come Christmas afternoon.

All of my grandparents (and relatives for that matter) have given me plenty of gifts over the years. I'm not just referring to tangible items like presents but words, prayers, advice, examples, support, and plenty more. I don't mean to belittle any of the gifts I have received from my living relatives but for some reason the lowly single item that my Grandma would send me twice a year without fail on my birthday and at Christmas have become some of my most appreciated gifts. My Grandma lived a couple states away and these presents have always been a reminder that I have people out there praying for me and now my family too.

They were always thoughtful gifts. I can practically hear her calling my dad on the phone and asking him if there is anything "that the boys could use for Christmas? You know, like gloves, or hats, or scarves." I still have my gloves and the day they fall apart will be a sad day indeed.
I am going to miss not speaking to her on the phone tomorrow. How she would always be amazed at how clear and close by we sound on over the phone. I guess in a way she has probably never been closer. My guess is that she is in Heaven celebrating this Season right along with us.
One thing I don't have to guess about is that I am sure she will be asking Jesus to watch over us all and bless us this Christmas.

Thanks for all the gifts and thanks for all the prayers over the years Grandma.

New photos up.

2007-12-17T12:28:00.000-08:00

I posted new photos to picasa. I didn't use Flickr because I would have been over my upload limit and I hate having only 200 pictures.

Making Money.

2007-12-17T11:22:00.000-08:00

Well not really but for some reason my blog has doubled in value over the past two months which is interesting considering the amount of posts. YEAH! I wish real money was this easy to make. Who is adding links to this blog anyway? For that matter who is still checking after two months of inactivity and do I even deserve any traffic?

All the same here is an update.

Emma is growing up everyday. Speaking more, thinking more, and looking more and more like a school kid every time I turn around. Not one to be showed up by her younger cousin she dropped a deuce in her little toilet but isn't too interested in potty training. She wants to do it for about two days a week and then decides she wants to wear diapers. Maybe we will push her once the baby comes and we have more time home together.

Speaking of the baby, he has a name now. No, I won't tell you. Lets just say my sister in law doesn't have to worry about Boone's name of choice any more unless we plan on having two little Greek gods in the family.

Shanna is ready for this kid to come. I am torn. The later he comes the more time off I can take and the better it is for my studying and job hunt. If he comes this week I don't have to work during the holidays so there are definitely pros and cons all around.

Christmas shopping is half done. I still go to work feeling like the narrator of Fight Club. I passed my CIW Associate certification and am working on my CompTIA A+ this month.

I'll post more soon.

P.S. I'm not actually naming my kid Zeus.

See ya in 2 more months lol.

2007-10-12T23:43:00.001-07:00

Here is a bit of what I have done since I last posted. It has probably been months at this point. Easily the longest I have gone without a word since I became editor-in-chief of wildhog.

I started school. Seriously. I am back at it working towards a BS Information Technology. Right now I am studying for my CIW certification.

I spent too much time in World of Warcraft. I made a bet with a buddy of mine resulting in him purchasing and playing for a while so I helped him level up. I played a bit of Bioshock. The game is too good and too intense. I am into the second level and every second is pure gaming bliss so as much as I want to move forward in the game, I enjoy the first time play through so much I am saving it for when I can play uninterrupted with nothing else on my mind. You should try it out. No, I'm not buying you new underwear if you mess yours.

I bought the Orange Box. I know. Two games in just as many months. What am I doing with my money? When I stepped back and thought about it I realized that other than games I picked up with Christmas money I hadn't bought a single game all year. Shanna had. There was definitely and imbalance in the force that required correcting so I obliged.

The Orange Box is amazing. I finished Half Life 2, Portal, and have logged a significant amount of time on Team Fortress 2. Half Life 2 literally gets better each level. I have to say it has been the best FPS experience I have ever had. Probably better than Goldeneye on N64. Portal is short and sweet like cake. Emma enjoyed watching it and she really likes the music.

TF2 deserves your time. The game is so well balanced and the maps all work well. I have latched onto the Soldier class and can usually be seen near the top of the score list on whatever server I am on.

As my CIW test approaches my game time is rapidly disintegrating in front of my eyes. From here on out school is going to get pretty hectic and I am going to be talking to Shanna about how much gaming I can do each week. Seriously. I am talking a self imposed weekly gaming allowance. Luckily Steam keeps track of how much you play so Shanna can keep tabs on me. There is so much gaming goodness coming this year it is a shame to miss out. If you aren't a gamer let me tell you that it is pretty much common knowledge amongst the well played that we are in the most exciting months of a banner year for gaming. Easily the best year for good releases since about 1998.

I will try and update once a week or so. I am pretty busy and will continue to be for a while. I need to post more photos of Emma and when I do I will update the blog.

New Learn 2 Draw post is up.

2007-07-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

I am starting a new one. I think this format works a bit more than the old one but it takes me longer to get it together. Let me know what you think. Remember if you are interested or have captions or drawings send em over!

New Music Part 3:Interpol

2007-07-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

I finally decided I had to give the new Interpol album a chance. As I said earlier it doesn't have a steady flow of the canonical Interpol songs that the casual listener will recognize. It will probably take a lot of flack because the first single is what you expect from them. People will hear it and buy this album. Then some people will be frustrated by the rest of the content.

As with most hobbies it is the obvious that attracts people but it is the subtleties that keeps them around and drives them to go deeper. This is a deep album. Make now mistakes, it may not be as readily accessible as the previous two but it is just as good. Interpol has said that they included keyboards from the very start of the writing process for this album and the entire vibe is different. This album is moodier and harder to follow but I think the payoff is bigger. Interpol has really grown and challenged themselves with this album. If you want more of the same you should check out the two albums by The Editors. They are both great albums and though some people might write them off as Interpol knock offs they are quickly garnering their own strong following and seem to be pleasing critics. I can only imagine Our Love to Admire will help The Editors. I just hope that people don't write off Interpol because I think this album deserves a second, third, and even fourth listen.

More Windows stuff.

2007-07-19T01:10:00.000-07:00

I promised to write some more about Windows Vista and the Windows Defender. It's been a couple weeks and although my wife told me not to blog about computers anymore I got a cool comment about another Vista Victim so here goes.

If you haven't figured out I am a PC guy. Not a Mac guy. I have a brother who is and I can't tell up from down on a Mac. I feel you get way more bang for your buck from a PC. I can also tell you exactly which components are in my box, not to mention which box I have. I can upgrade my computer's memory, HD capacity, video card, motherboard, CPU, and occasionally even the BIOS. I don't have to wait for a new OS to upgrade like most Mac users. I have already touched on how stable Vista is. When it is up and running you have to deal with one of the new features which I believe is called "Windows Defender." Sorry it has been a couple weeks and I have tried to clear the experience from my head so I can't be sure what it is called. Like I said, I'm not a Mac guy. I can almost appreciate the wittiness of the Mac vs. PC ads but they still kind of chap my hide so I either have a deep seeded case of Apple envy or I am a PC guy to the core. This ad is great. I laughed out loud when I first watched it. First I thought it was about a firewall. I remember my first firewall being cinched down so tight that it set off alarms every time I moved my mouse. I didn't realize this was about one of the Vista "features" until I had experienced Vista first hand. You can't open a game, the internet, Word, or pretty much any shortcut without Vista firing off a warning. Even as an admin you have to ok Vista to change the screen res when you launch a game. Am I sure I want to allow this program to edit settings??? I was the one who double clicked!! This ad could not be more accurate without showing actual screen shots.

The other reason I am a PC guy is games. Two of the main reasons to upgrade to Vista per Microsoft are security, see above, and gaming. Pfft. Yes there is a games folder. Yes it does have some cool features. You can sort your games by last played, alphabetical, or any of the other ways you can sort files now. I keep all my game shortcuts in a file on my desktop so this games file is nothing new to me. Some games get cool icons. Not all of them. Not all installed games end up in the games folder which is kind of pointless. Vista will also consider your PC components and rate your system for gaming. But this only gives you a very vague idea. My system is actually only rated a 4/10. Probably because I only have 1 gig of ram but for most games I can run everything max. It doesn't show individual games min/recommended requirements or if individual game ratings. Another cool idea is that the game folder will list which version of the game is installed. This doesn't seem to important but for online gaming like BF2 or WoW it is important to know because you have to have current versions. Vista games folders lists all of my games as 1.0 no matter what. There is no point to display this info. I have way too many issues with Microsoft's gaming initiatives to cover here so as always I will cover it later.

Hopefully if you are buying a computer with Vista installed the company selling it will have support available and unless that support wants more trouble than they can handle their engineers will have put together some stable systems. I know companies like Dell are offering XP installs again. Commodore(Yes that Commodore) is launching a new line of mid to high end gaming rigs that will only be available with Vista installed. If you have Vista I wish you the best of luck. There are rumors about Service pack one being pushed out sooner and if that happens I may buy a $25 hard drive to install it and see if it is ready for the real thing. Until then you can guess what I'll be running.

New Music Part 2:More Smashing Pumpkins

2007-07-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

The Pumpkins disc hasn't left my player until today. I am loving it. The first hotspot for me is Tarantula which has a Siamese Dream feel to it. It is rift based and heavy with Jimmy's skins sounding better than ever. There is a hint of The End is the Beginning is the End which is cool and sonically the guitar work will remind you of Quiet or Cherub Rock. Doomsday Clock is easily the best way to start the album. There isn't a better drummer out there and a smile spreads across my face everythime Billy drops in with the heavy second guitar 15 seconds in. Once I heard this there was no doubt in my mind about the strength of the album. This song is classic Pumpkins.

Right now I think my favorite song is That's the Way(My Love Is). This song reminds me of Honestly by Zwan which may deter some people although I will never understand why. Zwan was great. It has a great bridge, beautiful chorus, strong solo, and Jimmy really nails it on this track. The two just balance each other so perfectly. When people would ask me who else was in the reincarnated band I would say that you really only need Billy and Jimmy. I was told it would never happen that way but here it is and this song is proof that it works.

Like I said I love the entire album. Even the 10 minute United States in the middle of the album at track 7!!! I will blog on that this later. I promise. If you want my take on any song or want me to elaborate call, comment, or email. If you can't tell I can talk Pumpkins all day. I will post more on Interpol too but for now just go buy both of these albums.

New Music Part 1

2007-07-14T00:33:00.000-07:00

The new Smashing Pumpkin album is good. I bought both Zeitgeist and Our Love to Admire(Interpol) fully expecting to experience some buyer's remorse. I had listened to bits of the SP album the week before and nothing jumped out at me except for the single Tarantula, which I had heard quite a bit, and the opening song Doomsday Clock which I had also heard because it is on the Transformer's soundtrack. MTV.com had the entire Interpol album streaming so I listened to it once while at work. There was nothing on it that grabbed me. The Heinrich Maneuver which is the first single is just awesome. It is exactly what I wanted for this album so it was taking concentration just to keep focused on my day to day activities in the weeks leading up to release. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed when I heard the rest of the album. There aren't many songs in the vein of Evil, Slow Hands, PDA, or my personal favorite Obstacle 1. I like Interpol's slower songs but I didn't know if I was ready for a full album of them.

I went to Best Buy to pick up the Smashing Pumpkins album. Best Buy only had the yellow cover available with the bonus track "Death From Above." Emma didn't like the color and I agreed with her so I headed to Target. They had a purpleish color and that pleased both of us a bit more plus it was cheaper. Bestbuy.com offered it for $9.99 but in store was $13.99. Target had SP and Interpol at $9.99 so I grabbed them both. I don't like that Billy or the label(I don't know which) offered 5 different versions of the album. iTunes, Best Buy, and Target all offer a different bonus track and there are 5 different colored covers, blue, green, red, yellow, and purple.

Mine came with the title track listed at number 13 right behind a pretty little gem called Pomp and Circumstances which is akin to the French Movie Theme from the Cherub Rock single and Vieuphoria movie. It is a bit more grand but is right up my alley. After hearing the short and mellow Zeitgeist it is pretty clear that it doesn't really fit anywhere on the album but number 13. I am looking forward to hearing Death From Above and because it earned a spot at track number 9 I am assuming it is a bit heavier and probably fits right with the rest of the album. It is pretty easy to identify what time period a Pumpkin outake or B-side is from because each album has a unique sonic thumbprint and everthing from the corresponding period falls right in line. If these songs follow suite it will be cool to see where Billy originally imagined them.

I meant to post this last night.

2007-07-11T02:05:00.001-07:00

By the time you read this the new album by the Smashing Pumpkins will be sitting on store shelve. I will go out and buy a copy. I couldn't help myself when I saw it online so I have listened to most of it. I haven't sat down and listened to it straight through. I haven't even listened to the entire album pieced together over multiple sittings. What little empirical data I have tells me that this album isn't their best effort. It isn't what I have been waiting for. And yet after 7 years of waiting anything by the Pumpkins is entirely what I have been waiting for. You can call me stupid because I am willing to pay for something that I already have or can get freely. You can call me wasteful for purchasing a CD with paper and useless jewel case rather than go with the "greener" option and legally downloading from iTunes. You can point out that if I pre-buy on iTunes I can pre-buy concert tickets. I am a fan. I have my tickets to a Pumpkins show(they go on pre-sale tomorrow.) I want the artwork. I want the physical CD. I want to show my support for my favorite band and I want to be able to list the names of the songs, song order, and identify the disc itself from across the room. Too many people download albums and call themselves fans but can't even name a song that doesn't get radio play. I am goin to see them play in Seattle and if I had the money I would watch them in Vancouver, WA and Vancouver, BC. I have seen them every chance I've had. I am proud to add my $15 to Billy's ever growing pile of money. I am a fan. And so I head out the door with cash in hand.

I wrote this a couple days ago.

2007-07-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lapse in updates. I took Vista completely off of my machine and it took me a day or two to get XP installed, updated, and stable. No Blue Screen of Death yet though. My Mic works like normal which was something that not only had no functionality under Vista but would shutdown the computer. I am currently running Counterstrike Source at 244 FPS Woot!!! Sooner or later I will partition a drive and install Vista. Once or twice a month I will boot it up and look for updated drivers. Someday I think it will be stable. At that point I will migrate. It was a pretty trip but it was more headache that it was worth. Some of the programs that I had good luck with are:WoW, CS Source, Oblivion, Star Wars Empire at War(if the EXE is launched as and admin and not the launcher), Mahjong, Flash 8, Dreamweaver 8.

These programs completely crashed: Poker, any Dreamscene besides the original, Dungeon Siege 2, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas(it worked once), Photoshop is incompatible with Aero and Dreamscenes so my desktop changes every time I use it, Chess, Microsoft Games Launcher(which I really should blog about). It is worth pointing out that Dungeon Siege 2 is a MS game, as is Chess. Dreamscenes and Poker are both optional MICROSOFT WINDOWS VISTA updates that I downloaded from the Window update page and resulted in BSOD more often than not. Other than trying to get my mic and sound card to work(which MS is not supporting in Vista) the programs that crashed the most were MS programs or even Vista only programs. Go Figure.

The secret to Vista is XP

2007-06-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

It looks like someone you have seen before but obviously younger. Once you see the parent you can put two and two together. This is the offspring. It is faster, bigger, and consumes much more. It will learn the programs it deems important quicker than its parent and run them more efficiently than the old folks thought possible. The 'other' programs are given a blue screen and left for dead. Sneered at and shunned. Refused entry at the door.

I think I may have finally tamed this beast called Vista and all I had to do is tell it's mommy how it was behaving. How it wasn't letting my programs into the party. How it was turning up its nose and giving them the blue finger of death right in front of me.

The most important feature I can find in Vista is the compatibility tab. Microsoft has included a nice feature with the properties of any exe file. Right click and choose properties. You will see a new tab called Compatibility. This will allow you to run the program as it would be run under a previous OS. Why would anyone want to shell out $200+ to run programs through XP emulation? BECAUSE IT WORKS!!! My PC may look like a Vista machine... but if you open up the hood you will see more after market XP parts than an XP machine has.

Tomorrow I write(complain) about administration rights and the WINDOWS DEFENDER. Stay tuned!!!

2007-06-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

So far so good. My CPU core is staying right around 30C which is surprisingly low. Oblivion looks better than I could have imagined and CS Source is running smoothly at the highest settings.

I have Vista Aero running which looks nice but there really is no reason to upgrade to Vista. It definitely isn't worth the price unless it is bundled in a new machine. I love that it gets me to the desktop quicker but that wouldn't be so important if it didn't crash so much. An occasional crash or lock up is expected from Windows users but Vista is frustrating because most of them just happen when I am trying to do something I have done before. I got a couple blue screens when I installed drivers or new hardware/software. That is always a risk. It is maddening to get them while trying to load Geometry Wars or launching a game or app that has run plenty of times before. If you are thinking of upgrading I would strongly recommend against it until SP1. There are too many companies that need to release stable drivers and too many hang ups that need to be worked out. Not to mention it is an extremely expensive "upgrade." I doubt that the average PC owner looking to upgrade any PC that is older than a year will be happy with how Vista would run on their machine. Instead you should go look for a new background and Vista theme for XP because that is all I have used so far.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who gave birthday and Christmas money that helped build me a new computer!!!

This should probably be a longer update.

2007-06-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

My buddy Tim came over today and we got my new PC put together. The original BIOS was trying to boot from the empty hard drive but once we got in there and set up the optical drive as the first boot option it was pretty much smooth sailing. I did get a blue screen of death after I installed the "Vista" driver for my onboard audio.

I have to say Vista is pretty cool but unfortunatly I don't know what I am doing. I always used "Classic View" in XP so my PC has looked about a decade old until now. The blue screen of death is about the only thing I recognized. I have Vista Ultimate so I can run Aero and all of its flipping transparent goodness.

I just got my mouse, keyboard, video card, and CPU utility fully installed and supported so I am going to put it all to good use and play some Oblivion, F.E.A.R., and CS Source. I'll post an update about how it all goes. Later this week I am gonna install all of my Adobe(Macromedia) software and see how things run. Here is a rundown of what I bought.

MSI P6N NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI Platinum
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz
1 GB RAM
XFX NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT
Lian-Li PC-6087

P.S. last I checked my CPU was running at 33C because of the fatty Zalman 9700 lol. I'll have to see what it is at after a couple games.

There's Been a Development

2007-05-25T00:02:00.001-07:00

My brother pointed out to me that I will be in Oregon one week after my birthday for his wedding so I will have the chance to buy some computer parts without tax. This makes the prefered gift for PC components cash because I can save 8% right off the bat. I still won't be disappointed at any newegg.com gift certs.

Here is my list.

2007-05-24T00:01:00.001-07:00

So my birthday is coming up pretty soon and I am getting asked what I want for it. I am getting pretty close to building a completed computer and all I need is a hard drive, CPU, and Video Card. The best thing would be money or gift certificates to www.newegg.com. If you really want to get me a computer part let Shanna or I know and I can send you a list of the specific items. Returns are less messy if I order something and it turns out to be DOA which happens occasionally with pc parts.

If you really really want to get me something tangible there is a board game called Carcassone that I would like. I could use a Best Buy gift card for $20 so I can buy Smashing Pumpkins and Interpol on 7/10. Here is a link to a hat that is totally nerdy but I think it would be cool because I am pretty nerdy. This one would be cool if I could get the beige emblem. It looks like they might be out. I really need newegg stuff though because I have a half empty tower with a motherboard and ram sitting around doing nothing.

New stuff

2007-05-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

Wow I didn't realize it had been so long since I had posted anything. The second Learn2Draw item is almost complete and will be up soon. I really need to overhaul that site since I have just left it on the default settings. I am also looking for a better way to display the content.

I took Emma to the Seattle Aquarium the other day. We parked up at 7th and Stewart near Shanna's work so we could visit her. I would choose the day that has all of the Pike Place Market elevators broken so Emma and I walked up and down the Market Hill stairs. Well she walked halfway up and I carried her and a stroller the rest of the way. I carried everything on the way down.

She loved the aquarium and I will post my photos soon. Emma loves to go to pet stores and just watch the fish. The pink fish are her favorites which should come as no surprise to anyone who has had the privilege to meet her. She also enjoyed the river otters which she called "bunnies." Emma is not a fan of the Octopus or Wolf Eels :)

The eye patch seems to be working for Emma and she has no qualms about wearing it now. If I ask her if she wants to wear it she actually says yes. The wierd thing that I had said I would write about in a previous post was that on the second day she was wearing it I asked if she was ready for the patch and she said yes. I went to put it on her eye and she said "Other eye please." It broke my heart beacause she was so polite and because she obviously knows that she can see better out of one eye. I told her that we have to patch the good eye so that the bad eye will be strong. She nodded and said "ok" but she sighed, slumped her shoulder, and seemed so defeated and disappointed. She is a strong little girl.

Learn2Draw

2007-04-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

I posted the first Learn2Draw post. Thanks to everyone involved. I am going to work on new layout and design that fits the project a bit more. If anyone has any ideas or wants to get more involved let me know. I appreciate any comments and I am hoping to post once a month but once a week would be way cooler. If you guys know anyone who wants to join let me know!

http://learn2draw.blogspot.com/

The Patch

2007-04-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

Emma dealt surprisingly well with the patch and having to wear it really showed me just how much that kid understands about herself and the world.

She woke up at 7:30 or so on Monday. I was dragging and that is earlier than normal for her but she was ready for the day. I also had a pretty nasty cold/upper resp/sinus thing going all weekend which I'm still not over so hopping out of bed that early sent my head reeling. The bright spot in the day(other than the sunrise) was that we could get the patch over and done with before noon. I was pretty sure I was going to be calling in sick to work at that point so I was banking on a good nap. This was all that kept me going. We have some pretty good looking adhesive eye patches that are designed with munchkins in mind. Hers was camoflauge. Pink of course. She was excited to wear it which I took as a good sign. This excitement wore off about 0.8 seconds after I covered her good eye. She started with "Don't like it. Don't like it." and quickly advanced to "Daddy take it off!" Once I had her glasses on over it she was threw herself onto the couch and wrapped herself in her very soft and fuzzy "pink blanket Grandma bought me" as she calls it. I tried to rub her back and tell her that it will be ok or that she looked pretty but she waved me off. I had to stop her from trying to take the patch off so she grabbed her blanket and ran to the stairs. She laid burrying her face in the blanked so I couldn't see her. It's really sad to see your own child so embarrassed they don;t even want you to see them. She didn't want to move so I decided I would just let her stay there. Then I decided it would be boring so I would grab a book. She looked like she was going to sleep and I couldn't just let her sleep on the stairs. I figured a less selfish choice would be to read her a book instead so we went through Richard Scary's bedtime stories and Curious George's ABC's. Eventually she decided to come down and spend the rest of the day as normal as possible. That was Monday. Tuesday was easier but there was another development. I'll post it soon.

This is why you don't sleep with pigtails in your hair

2007-04-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

Check out that wing hair! On the way back from her eye appointment Emma pulled out her hair bands and this is what happened. She hammed it up saying "wild hair" and "Chewbacca!"
I really think that her glasses have been helping but she still relies too much on her good eye so starting today (Friday) she has to wear an eye patch for 3-4 hours per day. We might put it off just until we have enough time to order some more patches but we will at least try it this weekend to see how she reacts. I don't think I will be taking or posting any pictures unless she is comfortable with it and it will be a while until we think about having her out in public with her patch. I expect she will be pretty disoriented for the first couple days. I'll let you all know how things go.

Posted new pictures on Flickr.

2007-04-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

Including photos from Easter, potty training, and her bike. The Learn2Draw stuff is coming along nicely. I have two of them circulating and there are only 3 or 4 more people to hit so I am hoping to post withing two weeks.

It's potty time!

2007-04-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

I posted that last post from a Firefox addon and I don't think I'll be using it again. I haven't checked my blog until now and it is full of null space holders that were inserted and meant to be blank space. Instead I have a messed up post that is oddly formatted. Sorry.

Today we finally got Emma to go to the bathroom on her potty. She loves it and everything I try to take her off she say "A little more potty." I have to get a photo because she was sitting on her little potty with a blanket on her lap, and a TV remote, juice cup, and a book. I put her in front of the TV because she has yet to actually go potty on the potty. We have had her on it for up to 20 minutes straight only to have her ask for a diaper and then pee in it once we put it on her. This time I decided she is going to sit on it until she goes. I had to be in the kitchen to get her some breakfast and do some dishes so I couldn't just leave her in the bathroom alone. Anyway we are well on the way to potty training and let me tell you it is way overdue.

I wrote this on Monday

2007-04-12T03:17:00.001-07:00

I finished my experiment this week on Easter. I had originally
wanted to go until next week. My family was celebrating my brother's
birthday as well as Easter and there had been talk of doing it next
week but that fell through. I decided I would celebrate along with
everyone. 5 weeks or 35 days isn't bad. I went about 10% of a year
without caffeine. Right now I get pretty sick if I over indulge in
anything. I have been eating 4-6 times per day but those "meals" can be
as small as 100-200 calories, sometimes just a banana or other bit of
fruit. I was up to 15 pounds lost at one point but total as of today is
11 pounds lost over 5 weeks. I am having no problem keeping that off
and I'll be continually losing over the Spring and Summer. I am at a
total of 28 pounds lost since I had my surgery almost 2 years ago.
Definitely slower than I had hoped but definitely heading in the right
direction. I have reclaimed a couple shirts that were fitting pretty
snug and I am going to have to buy new jeans, pants, shorts and belts
if I lose ten more pounds or risk shedding them mid step.

I had been looking forward to a cold Coke (I prefer Pepsi but
after 5 weeks any sugar and caffeine would do and it was available). I
couldn't choke it all down. It was WAYY to sweet and was making me
pucker and gag. I had a Starbucks Iced Coffee with
my dinner but I got pretty sick to my stomach and felt like I was going
to puke. I was dizzy for about 10 minutes afterwards. There was Easter
candy and cake at work as well today. I had 3-4 small chocolate eggs
throughout the day but I avoided the cake. I still haven't tried fast
food and I am in no rush to. I have a feeling the first time I do I
would be wise to stick to something very small like a regular
cheeseburger and even then I am afraid that it will just shoot right
through me on a slick of grease. Quite a pretty picture I know. I think
I'll be avoiding caffeine at this point as well. I am going to try and
go with a "no sugar outside of my house" lifestyle. I don't have much
of a sweet tooth and other than this week(Easter) we don't have candy
or cookies in our house so if I can just say no at work, which I proved
I can, I'll be fine avoiding excess sweets. I have found a new love for
all things fruits but it will be nice to eat things I have avoided like
yogurt, and graham crackers.

The kind of unnecessary crappy we force on our bodies is pretty
disgusting and I have been a model of what not to do. I am paying for
it now. I watched the movie "Super Size Me" for the first time while I
was doing all this and if you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it.
Along with Cigarette companies fast food companies have done an AMAZING
job of not only selling us junk that is killing us but convincing us
that we need it and can't be happy without it. The other day I got a
lot of weird looks because I was kneeling down and shuffling along a
couple grocery store aisles. I wanted to see what the world looks like
from my daughter's point of view. I am interested at what companies are
trying to sell to my daughter. Let me tell you there are a lot of high
fructose corn syrup filled cartoon shaped fat builders down there but
don't take my word for it. Look below your knees sometime and check it
out for yourself. She knows Shrek, Spiderman, The Disney Princesses,
Vegetales, Curious George, Winnie the Pooh, Sesame Street, Foster's
Home for Imaginary Friends, Happy Feet, Gilmore Girls, Dora the
Explorer, and Chewbacca on sight and she is only two. I am positive
that we allow her to watch less TV than the average family and I know
that we control the content tighter than most yet the amount of stuff
she is exposed to is amazing. As far as TV goes she only watches PBS
and the occasional on demand Cartoon Network show with me. The rest
comes from movies or books. I'll step down off my soap box now. This is
all stuff that came out of my experiences of the past couple weeks.
I'll have some more stories about Emma soon and as requested a picutre
of her bike.

Where a kid can be a kid.

2007-04-07T12:51:00.000-07:00

I took Emma to Chuckie Cheese's for the first time on Thursday. She had a great time. We went with Emma's babysitter and her kids. We ended up with over 1100 tickets to buy Emma prizes. She came away with a pink Tinkerbell purse, a Disney princess pencil, two Disney princess coloring sets, and some glittering lip gloss.

This week she loves using her lip gloss and playing outside because the weather has been so nice. She has been riding her new bike, playing in the park, and picking flowers every chance she gets. It's pretty weird but I can barely remember her being a baby and I don't know how she got to be so grown up or exactly when it happened.

I am really glad that Adobe and Macromedia merged.

2007-03-28T00:41:00.000-07:00

Woot CS3 is here! I want the Web Premium. I get so frustrated with Dreamweaver sometimes. It has a lot of cool features but lately I have been just using it to manage my CSS and as a text editor. I use a couple visual tools and I validate with it but IE 7 is so easy to design for that I don't need DW as much as I used to. Oddly the only browser I have much of a problem with is Firefox which is also what I use. As long as I have the Firebug addon I am ok but I am very excited about the new DW3 which is shocking to me. Having more support for CSS as well as Ajax and the closer integration with other CS3 products is great. The Spry tools add a huge layer of abstraction that should allow even the newest beginner to come up with some incredible sites. I LOVE the idea of a browser compatibility check!!! It is hard enough installing IE 3-7 on one PC and debugging for as many as possible but that feature alone will make it worth picking it up for me.

Photoshop 3 Extended is about the coolest thing I have heard of and you should expect to see a lot more 3D graphics soon. It will be easier to have 3D in Flash without having to buy extra software.

Speaking of Flash, being able to pull actionscript straight out of timeline tween is like cheating!!! I love to script but there are times when this will save hours as well as headaches. I usually design and draw in Flash(shhh don't tell anyone) because I am so familiar with it's limited tools. The addition of a more powerful (dreaded)pen tool to make it more like Illustrators is great. I am so excited that they adding more power to the Flash toolset AND the ability to import Photoshop docs while maintaining layers is priceless!!!

Another really intriguing feature is the new page feature of Fireworks. I absolutely love Fireworks and I can't imagine prototyping a single website without it now.

Anyone want to prebuy me a copy??? Actually I can upgrade so it won't be too bad :)

Half way there.

2007-03-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

Three weeks down, three weeks to go. Sugar isn't much of a problem and caffeine is a non issue at this point. I have lost almost 11 pounds and I am hoping to lose 10 more over the next 3 weeks. Now I remember why I play video games. I can't work all the time. You can read too much and there are times when you just want to turn your brain off and kill some time. I forgot that I have a terrible time getting to sleep while I am working on something. I have missed a couple days of blogging because I have been working on a website every free moment I have. I am about ready to turn something on just to relax. If I do make it another three weeks you can bet I will be wasting a fair amount of time killing zombies or something once Shanna goes to bed. If your name rhymes with Kim Karson and yo wanna get together for an entire Saturday and play Dynasty Warriors give me a call!!!

I uploaded a few more pictures to Flickr. This set includes two of Emma and I going out to stomp some puddles with her new goulashes or "water boots" as she likes to call them. I think this one is my favorite one. She is in her all pink outfit that she picked out for herself. This is her as she is about to jump. I was at work but Shanna told me all about it. There are also a couple good ones of her opening a birthday card with her favorite present "monies" inside of it.

New Photos up.

2007-03-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

We decided to got with the Panasonic. I like it a lot so far. With the extra money that was left over we picked up some new warm weather pajamas for Emma and a pair of overalls. That kid is growing like a weed and Costco had the camera and the pajamas on sale.

I uploaded the photos I have taken so far to my Flickr site. I am pretty upset that Flickr is going to be going to a Yahoo ID for a login. I pretty much gave up on creating one after about 10 minutes of getting "that id is taken messages." Elmosfriend, Emmasdad, garrettshanna, yahoo_suxors, naked_elmo, naked_bear....ALL GONE. Unless I want to resort to spelling my name with no vowels or tagging everything with and underscore and my social security number I don't think I have the time to come up with something. I'll probably just build my own photo show or switch to Google's next month. I like Picasa anyways.

Here's the scoop on the Camera.

2007-03-17T01:02:00.000-07:00

We have had some bad luck with digital cameras in the past. We have had two of them die on us in the past two years. My grandparents sent us some money to by a new one so that we can take photos of Emma. This is pretty cool but I have to think there is a bit more too it than my Grandpa tossing a check in the mail. On what was probably the same day Shanna found out that she was getting a bonus from her work. Combined we have enough money to buy a pretty decent camera.

This Lent deal is going pretty well and like I said I think it is good to learn to live with a little want in your life. I can say that I am truly grateful about this gift not just excited, glad, or even just thankful. I really think God had a hand in here somewhere because the timing is just too close. I'm not saying that if you fast or give up stuff your going to come into cash. I certainly don't believe my faith is like a Christian Visa and once I have earned enough points I can cash them in for a reward. I didn't give up all this stuff to get rewards but I am receiving them. Not to sound ungrateful and I know my grandparents will understand but money be it in the form of gift or paycheck is about the least important thing I am gaining during these weeks. I am starting to see other areas of my life where I can trim the fat it's just a matter of actually doing it.

Some people may wonder if I am nuts or yell BS that I am claiming a camera could be a gift from God especially since people are buying for us and it's not falling out of the sky. The truth is my Grandpa gave my brothers and I a 20 year old camera in 1996 and now both of my brothers are professional photographers providing for their families. They have worked hard to get to where they are but their paths have crossed with too many people, places, and opportunities to just chock it up to dumb luck.

So this is where I stand in regards to a camera choice. I am leaning towards a Sony H2. It got good review versus other cameras such as Canon but it is about $100 less. I think that Shanna will want a Panasonic model. The Nikon looks good but I guess it is a little more difficult to use than I want. It has a huge screen but supposedly it is difficult to shoot with one hand and your thumb will cover part of the screen. I may post another update before we go the store to look but I will check my email and blog again so if you have any last minute advice feel free to let me have it. Thanks for everything you guys have sent already. I'll have photos of Emma with her glasses soon.

My take on the new music of 07

2007-03-17T00:15:00.000-07:00

pixies: My interest is piqued but surprisingly I just don't care. There are a few Pixie standards that the fans want to see played at their shows but other than that I think I have outgrown them. I used to love them all. Honestly I don't think they would be half as famous if it wasn't for Kurt Cobain. I think The Breeders are a much easier listen. Frank Black and the Catholics tends to grate on my nerves. I think Pixies biggest problem is that everyone loves some of their stuff. They are a hip name to drop and they influenced an entire generation of bands. Those bands did Pixies covers and almost every single one of those covers is better than or at least enhances the original.

Dinosaur Jr: I have 2 albums. The only 2 that charted in the top 100 maybe even top 50. Never bothered with anything else but I am always up for a listen. I was pretty tempted to look into some tickets to see them at the Showbox this Spring.

Duran Duran: I hope this is bigger than The Police reunion. It deserves to be and they have worked on singles with Justin Timberlake which pretty much guarantees a couple hits.

Relient K:Always fun. Shanna has been bothering me to pick it up.

Wilco: Wil who? I don't care. If it's anything like their other stuff I would put it on if I wanted to fall asleep.

Son Volt: I gave this a listen when I was in high school. Never heard of them again until there supposedly huge return. They got major publicity at Bumbershoot. Why?

White stripes:Not again!

Bon Jovi:Go on tour to milk you fame and call it good. You have the hits. We don't need another album.

LL Cool J:Momma said knock you out! I don't know anything else. I know he was a rapper first and an actor second(or third after model) but I like his movies better than his music. Give me Ice Cube in anyway shape or form!

Ryan Adams: Uhhh don't you mean Bryan Adams :P

Queens of the Stone Age: I really don't like these guys but they have written a few songs that rock. If I had to put them in a genre I would say they play "The Devil's Music." The first song on "Songs for the Deaf" can't be turned up loud enough or played too many times.

Talib Kweli:Never hear of him/her/them

Paris Hilton (That's Hot!):Hi, my name is Paris and I have Herpes. Now that's HOT!!!

Meat Puppets:I'll be darned if they can't write a good song but I'll never buy an album.

Radiohead:I need to write a blog about Radiohead. I'll probably run out and buy it but as far as I'm concerned they are starting to release just beeps and boops without much bite. "The Bends" and "OK Computer" easily make my top 10 favorite albums ever. I got "Kid A." I loved "Amnesiac." I have given "Hail to the Thief" more time than it warrants and with the exception of a few hot spots I don't think it's up to par but then what is when people are calling you the best band of a century. Thom's solo stuff was good but it really needed the rest of the band to fill it out. It was like "Kid A" junior. I'll always give them a listen.

Whitney Houston: Anyone who lived through 1992 heard enough Whitney to last 10 lifetimes.

Coldplay:their hiatus was just not long enough for me. I'm not ready to be bombarded by them again. The only band that is harder to escape has to be The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Let's just hope Coldplay doesn't release a double album and lets pray to the music gods that no one ever does what the Peppers originally planned for "Stadium Arcadium."

Help I need some advice.

2007-03-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

I know it's pretty bold of me to presume that my friends and family have nothing better to do on a Friday night than rush home and read MY blog but I am hoping that is exactly what you all do. Shanna and I have the opportunity to buy a digital camera tomorrow and we want advice on what to get. I happened to be at Costco when I found out so I took a quick peek. The two I liked were the Panasonic DMC-TZ1 and the Nikon coolpix S10. The only real reason I liked those ones were because they both offer 10x optical zoom. I am hoping you guys can recommend a good camera in the $300-$350 price range as well as a good camera for under $300. I have a few errands to run before work so I can't go into detail about everything. I promise I will check this before we go shopping so please either post here or email me. I am going to research on my break tonight and I will promise a full update and explanation tonight. If you don't wake up and check my blog first bright and early every Saturday morning you should tomorrow because there will be new material.

Terrible Twos

2007-03-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

I don't have to eat my words yet but the terrible twos have struck! Emma has been waking up in the morning and staying up until two. She wakes up and says "Hungy! Hungy!" I usually bring her downstairs and feed her a little bit of food, watch part of a show or read to her, and take her back upstairs. This is killing any time I might have to devote to something productive but it is fun at the same time. She does wake Shanna up and that is messing with her sleep schedule but I love that Emma is sleeping in until 10! I'll have an update about this later to see how many nights she is going to do this.

I will be entertained in 07

2007-03-14T00:24:00.000-07:00

I am excited about all the stuff coming out this year. The latest from The Arcade Fire is outstanding! If you haven't picked it up yet you should. The new Modest Mouse is great too. Everything you have come to expect from them but they have once again grown and expanded their ensemble. This album includes drum machines, horns that are actually integrated into their songs, and as always the biting and witty lyrics Isaac is known for. New Interpol as well. I couldn't do this post without mentioning that the Smashing Pumpkins will be releasing new material and if anyone wants to take me to Germany for my birthday they are playing a festival on June 3rd!

I can't wait for the game SPORE. It's been on MY radar since it has been on the radar in 2005. I don't think there was a must have game last year. This year I am looking forward to SPORE and the latest Zelda for the DS. I'm also excited about the new expansions for Battlelore coming out this Spring.

Photoshop 3 is coming out which will be interesting too. I can't imagine what more that program could actually do but it will be fun to see. I am pretty sure the beta is still open if you want to go try it. Flash 9 with Actionscript 3.0 should be out later this year too.

Movies this year actually look good too. New Fantastic 4 which will look good if nothing else. I just hope they don't make it too wussy like the first one. Transformers will be good. New Harry Potter book and movie too.

The only things I can think of that are missing are Prince Caspian the movie which should be out the first half of 08 and new stuff from George R.R. Martin.

Let me know if I missed anything or if there is something you are looking forward to.

Late night little girl

2007-03-13T01:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry about missing a day. This weekend was busy because I had to work and the time change. I will be glad to have next Monday off. Emma was awake when I came home tonight so I took her to let Shanna sleep. She just went to bed so I didn't have any time to work on stuff tonight. I am hoping she sleeps in. It is 1:28 AM.

We bought her a bike for her birthday. She has been wanting one for a while. If anyone wants to know what to get her for a birthday present we have been looking for a pink toddler helmet but haven't found one yet. There is a really cute Little Mermaid swimsuit at Costco too. Save your receipts because she probably doesn't need 7 helmets.

Everything is still going well with my Lent stuff. I lost between five and six pounds last week. Here's one of those cool lists with food you shouldn't eat. Make sure to check the PDF file or just click here. Too bad Coldstone is on there but hey, Burt Baskin died at 56 and Ben Cohen had a quadruple bypass at 50 so what do you expect?

Lucky Day Seven

2007-03-10T22:20:00.000-08:00

Today while we were eating lunch Emma wanted my empty cup. It's a tall plastic cup so it's a good cup to speak into if you want to make your voice loud and echo. She put it up to her mouth and started saying things. Laughter ensued. Soon she was saying one of her favorite words... Chewbacca! That sounded awesome and there was no way I could resist.

"Emma say 'I'm your father.'"

"Em yo faado!! Em yo faado!!"

And voila! Faster than you can say "May the Force be with you" another Star Wars fan is born!!

It was a good lunch and she does a great Darth Vader impersonation as long as she has a good cup.

I had to head out to work pretty quickly and I didn't have time to grab some grub for the evening meal. There had been a meeting at my work earlier in the day so there was plenty of fruit and vegetables in the break room. Problem Solved! When I went back there to graze one of my coworkers offered me some honey glazed prawns she had left over from her lunch at a nice local restaurant. Given the volume and quality of the food, combined with the fact that it was all on my edible list I have to wonder if there is some greater force at work here. Consider that I work at Providence. Weird huh?

Grapenuts and Milk

Spaghetti
- Mizithra Cheese, Steak, Red Onions, Mushrooms, Basil

Pineapple, Grapes, Strawberries, Broccoli

I'll probably have a quesedilla or sandwich soon

Tired

2007-03-10T00:38:00.000-08:00

It was a long week at work and I still have one day to go. Now I remember why I play games. I could really use something to veg out to. Guess I'll go read or watch some more Photoshop TV.

4 pieces of Pizza total throughout the day for breakfast lunch and dinner

Turkey Sandwich

1 Apple

half an Orange

1 Kiwi

2 servings of Peanuts

1 slice of Toast with Peanut Butter and HONEY!

a couple Saltines

I can see clearly now.

2007-03-09T00:58:00.000-08:00

We took Emma to get her wonky eye checked today. Turns out she can see fine and in focus too. She just has an eye that has to work harder than normal to focus which is causing it to cross. We bought her 2 pairs of glasses today and we should have them both in about 10 days. I'll be sure to post some photos of her but I can't promise much because the only camera we have right now is part of my phone. I am really glad that she just needs glasses and not surgery. If she has a hard time adjusting to them I'll probably end up buying a non prescription pair for me to wear to encourage her. Even though pirates are cool I am glad she doesn't need an eye patch because I'm not looking forward to wearing one Arrrrrr! I don't think the glasses will be too bad. She loves trying them on at stores and Shanna wears glasses which Emma has been known to put on.

The lack of sugar in my diet is already having an effect on my pallet. Fruit, which is the sweetest thing I have eaten all week really POPS on my tongue now! I bought a couple dates today that were larger than my thumb. They actually seemed rich and where more like eating a caramel than a fruit.

Grapenuts and Milk

1 Large Slice of Pepperoni Pizza

Tuna Sandwich

Handful of Peanuts

1 Banana

4 Dates

Day Four

2007-03-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

I have to work Saturday so I had today off. Emma and I had a lot of fun. We ran a few errands, went to the park, library, a second park, and did a lot of playing around the house. I usually leave to take her to the babysitter's at about 2:30. She won't nap anytime before 1PM so as you can imagine we cut it pretty close sometimes and this really only allows her to nap for one hour at most. I was curious to see how long she would sleep today. I woke her up at 4:15 so she could watch Curious George on PBS and eat some lunch. I wasn't too surprised but I didn't think she would nap for almost 3.5 hours. The strange thing is that she can actually go all day and make it until 10PM without a nap if she has to.

Everything else is going well but I absolutely have to buy some honey. No sugar is no fun. I had originally just intended to go without sweets but there is a lot of grey area so I just went for no sugar. I have had a bit. It turns out that Goldfish crackers have a small amount and I have had a couple bites of oatmeal and rice cakes to try and entice Emma to eat her breakfast/snacks. Other than that I haven't slipped yet.

Breakfast Burrito
- 1 egg, bacon, cheese

Tuna Sandwich

1 Orange

Raisins

Pecans

Turkey Sandwich

A few bites of Steak

Peanut Butter Toast

Day Three

2007-03-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

This is already starting to have a positive effect. I am a pretty compulsive shopper when it comes to the grocery store. I don't by junk but my wife knows better than to send me in there alone. Emma and I walked to Safeway for plain peanut butter(EVERYTHING has sugar in it!!) today. Odwalla juices were on sale for a really good price and I was about to buy one. I was hot, thirsty, and I haven't had anything to drink but water since Saturday night. I thought about it and decided I don't really need one. This was a pretty big step because that purchase needed very little rationalization. The reality is that I had 8 oz of water left in my bottle. There was absolutely no risk of dehydration. I had plenty of fruit and food at my house which is less than half a mile away and yet I was completely convinced that I needed this juice. I guess all the practice saying "no" to stuff over the past 48 hours really is paying off. I'm not even halfway through the first week and I can recommend this to you. As weird as it may seem it is good to be able to live in want. Say "no" to yourself once in a while. The truth is you can't have everything you want and I have a feeling that even if you could it wouldn't be enough.

Grapenuts and Milk

Quesedilla split with Emma

1 piece of bread with peanut butter

1 Apple

Meatball and Noodle Casserole

Cheese and Salami Sandwich

Day Two

2007-03-06T00:11:00.001-08:00

If I can make it through today I think I am set. The only day that I can foresee as more difficult is Emma's Birthday. One of my coworker's dad works for Nabisco and apparently every now and again he has a lot of merchandise to get rid of. She brought in a box full of boxes of Oreos, animal cookies, Nutter Butter bars, Ritz Chips, Crystal Light, etc. Not just any Oreos either, White Fudge covered ones. I was able to refrain completely. I managed to go for a short(3/4 mi) walk and ate my homemade lunch. Luckily I had a really good podcast interview with Donald Miller I wanted to listen to on my walk so it wasn't too difficult to leave the food.

Emma and I had a good lunch. She has discovered bologna and will wildly wail for "No-ney" at lunchtime. It is pretty fun eating with her since I can actually eat my food and don't have to worry about feeding her. The funny thing is to watch her imitate EVERYTHING I do at the table. If I lick my plate she will. If I dip my sandwich into sauce she will. No matter how normal or strange a behavior she wants to try it. I guess this is probably the best time to start showing her how to eat healthy stuff like vegetables. Now I just need buy some and actually eat them. Anyway here is what I had today.

Grapenuts and milk

Sandwich
- Turkey
- Cheddar
- Avocado
- Tomato
- Mayonnaise
- Kosher Salt & Black Pepper
- Crescent

5 meatballs with sauce

1 piece of bread

4 crackers

Day one

2007-03-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

Day One went surprisingly easy especially when you consider I have a box of Girl Scout Cookies and a half a bag of Peanut Butter M&Ms on the counter. We don't usually have this stuff around the house but its that time of year for the cookies and the candy is left over from a retreat last week. I bought a basketball Saturday and I went down to my neighborhood court to shoot some hoops. I spent about 45 minutes and worked up a good sweat. I think I made about 10 shots lol but I'm actually not way off considering it's been about 10 years since I played. I can't run either because of my knee so it really was just shooting with a little bit of shuffling here and there.

I spent all of my free time today drawing with the computer, blogging, and optimizing a website I am working on. I would like to put together a collection of clip art stuff to sell. Here is the start of my first piece of art. Obviously unfinished. This pecker is missing feet, a perch, some shading, and I need to play with the angle of his head because right now it just looks like he is missing an eye. I am working on the texture for the wing but I have it all wrong and am probably just going to hand paint it. Any advice is welcome since this is my first attempt at drawing an animal and I draw like Napolean Dynamite.

Anyway here is what I ate today.

1 Apple

Spaghetti

Foccasia bread

Salami Sub Sandwich(homemade)

Some pita chips and Salsa

3 meatballs

2 small fried plantains

An update.

2007-03-05T00:36:00.000-08:00

I have never actually participated in any sort of Lent event. Never given up anything for 40 days and technically I'm not doing it this year either. Due to equal parts ignorance, sloth, and irony being that I am a pastor's kid I don't even know when Lent is but I guess it started a couple days ago. So where is this going? Well for the next six weeks starting today(err yesterday I guess) I am going to give up sugar, caffeine, fast food, and video games and I am hoping to document it on my blog. Each day I'll be posting what I ate and if I was able to refrain from wasting time twiddling my thumbs.

My goal is to be more productive over the next couple weeks. See if I can get a leg up on some of my projects or increase my skills. See if I can drop a couple more pounds. Maybe replace some of what I am losing with some healthier choices, activities, or practices. Because I work until midnight most of the posts will be posted at about this time so if I am referring to "today" it will probably be "yesterday" for you, dear reader.

Caffeine, fast food, and gaming are all pretty clear cut. As far as sugar goes I'm not actually going to be too strict. No candy, desserts, and the like. I am checking labels for hidden sugars in things like dressings but if I miss something because I can't figure out what the name is I'm still going to consider this a success. All the same if you see something on my list that may be suspect let me know.

I am interested to see where this goes. If I can keep up with the discipline and the blogging. I may need some extra prayer or reflection time to get through it so this may end up as more of a "Lentil"?? experience than I had originally planned.

Finally, I updated my links and also added a nifty value widget that my brother turned me onto. Normally I don't place things like this because they show how many people DON'T visit your page. In this case I new it was low due to my lack of activity so I decided this was a good benchmark. We will see if I can move it at all over these next few weeks.
$564.54

Terrible twos = terrible two year old.

2007-02-13T00:50:00.000-08:00

So there are probably a lot of people who would disagree with that and I can't say I have a lot of experience with two year olds. Technically I can't even say I have a two year old for another month. Emma is starting to come into her "terrible" twos. She is easy though and I say if you have really bad terrible twos its because you have a terrible two year old :)

I don't :P

Now that she can communicate to Shanna and I pretty clearly what she wants there is no hesitation. "More mine money!" "More dandy(candy)." "Haha Daddy ripper"(I don't have a dog to blame it on like my brother and my kid is too old to blame now). Emma's two's aren't really terrible at all and I don't think they are going to get much worse. Go ahead and laugh. This kid is a breeze so far and as a father of a daughter I am WAY more worried about what happens in her life between the ages of 12 and when I die than I am of this year. She is too much fun even when she is upset. She still uses sign language (I caught her signing as the spoke to her kittens today) in addition to words so she is very easy to understand especially if you spend much time around her. When she gets upset she will say "NO." But then she answers "no" to just about any question. Most breakdowns or "tantrums" as I believe they are called are usually due to extreme sleepiness and almost always end with her falling asleep, wanting to be held, or falling asleep while I hold her. Something I am always pleased with because it won't be too long before I she is too old for that. Having her sleep on your shoulder is just about the best thing in the world although it might come in second to her walking up to you and putting her arm around your back and just smiling and patting your shoulder like she is your pal. I guess now that she has the "friend" thing down the next thing to learn is how to retract that friendship by responding to my "Emma, daddy says no" with "Daddy you can't be my friend!"

It's been a while since I posted so here is a fictitious ad I built with Photoshop. It's just straight out of a book so it isn't as impressive as you might think and the photo quality isn't as high as it could be. I shrunk the file size for posting but I think you can get the idea. I think it's fun.

Wow

2007-01-26T09:14:00.001-08:00

So my 22 month old daughter just handed me her dolly and said "hold please" like she does every morning. She hands me all the stuff she wants to take downstairs and then I hold her hand so she can traverse the staircase. After the doll she hands me her blanket and says "hold that too please." Uhhhhhh?

This may not seem like a big deal to some of you but look at that sentence. Hold is pretty easy. It's just your standard verb in this case, probably its most common use but come on "that?" I don't know where she learned that! Well probably us but I don't know HOW she learned it. They don't go much past numbers, letters, and colors on Sesame Street. I know. I know. She probably should have said "hold this" instead but come on. That is one of our more advanced words to string into a sentence. It can be a pronoun, adjective, adverb, and I'm pretty sure a conjunction if I remember my language arts class. (Ms. Hensley would be so proud! May she rest in piece.) Its pretty impressive to me that she could toss a too in there as well. The please is just the icing on the cake. I don't know how I am gonna be able to keep up with this kid and at this rate I won't be able to help her with her homework after 2nd grade haha.

MWAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-01-04T00:32:00.001-08:00

In answer to my brother's quiz...

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom		77%
Riddler		72%
Magneto		71%
Mr. Freeze		71%
The Joker		70%
Apocalypse		69%
Lex Luthor		63%
Juggernaut		53%
Kingpin		45%
Dark Phoenix		43%
Poison Ivy		39%
Mystique		37%
Catwoman		34%
Green Goblin		33%
Two-Face		33%
Venom		31%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

Well its ugly but you get the idea. Guess I'm not so vain after all. Or at least not about my blog.

The bodies.

2006-12-30T01:01:00.001-08:00

I went to see an exhibit called The Bodies today. It was pretty interesting. I decided that when I die I want my body to be prepared in the same manner and displayed via open casket with all my muscles(what muscles?) showing. Guests will be able to snack on Fruit Punch and Beef Jerky. It sounds fun. Too bad I won't be able to enjoy it.

It had to happen sometime.

2006-12-19T23:55:00.001-08:00

I am 27 and a half. Today I think I officially entered adulthood. I have a mortgage, own two cars, actually own land, and have both a wife and a daughter. I vote, I pay taxes, I pay property taxes, I cook meals and change diapers but I never really considered myself a full adult. More of a young adult or something. Don't get me wrong I'm not completely delusional. Teenagers and even undergrads (can you believe my youngest brother is finished with school?!) are an annoying breed with whom I no longer identify or understand. Oddly enough this happened the day I stepped onto campus as a Senior in College. The past few years have felt sort of surreal and I have never seemed all the way grown up. It was difficult to view movies with twenty something actors and realize they are younger than I am. Actors in movies have always seemed older than me. This is probably why I don't identify with most of those twenty something soul searching movies. Anyways...

Today I took Emma to school. She doesn't attend any sort of school yet as she isn't quite two years old. Sometimes I drop Emma off there because her babysitter volunteers in her son's class. Today I was there to pick him up as a favor to her. I, cough* cough* I was responsible for him. I've babysat and volunteered in church nursery before. I've been a Sunday School Teacher and a VBS leader. All that was stuff that kids can do. I think this just seems more real to me because it is something that I've seen my parents do a million times. This is something that dads do. I signed him out and walked him and Emma across the street. I got them all buckled in safe and drove two kids through town. Me up in the front seat and the munchkins in the back seat. I guess this is just the first of many more trips to come. I think I am ready.

Someday maybe Emma will read this along with some of the other stuff I've left up here. If she is anything like my wife she'll get a kick out of it. At least she will know that we didn't always know what we were doing and weren't always sure of ourselves. All the same it will be cool to let her in on our secret insecurities when she is getting married and having kids. I wonder if we can keep them secret til then?

Now all I have to do is sit back and wait.

2006-12-16T11:02:00.001-08:00

That's right! She has finally done it. I shouldn't have to work once Pizza Hut or some other major chain calls to patent Emma's new idea...PIZZA DIPPERS!!!

The other night we were eating pizza for dinner and Emma was drinking from a normal cup with a straw. Like all kids she loves blowing bubbles into her cups. There is no better place to hold your cup than in you lap so you can see all the fun bubbles bursting and splashing your face. One unlucky(or lucky depending on your point of view) piece of pepperoni didn't survive the trip from plate to mouth and landed with a splash and an "Uh-Oh," followed by Emma's surprise face.If you've been lucky enough to hang out with her you know the one. The pepperoni sunk to the bottom of the cup and I reached over to fish it out. Upon retrieval she promptly grabbed it off of my fork an dipped it back into the water. The next move is obvious. No. She didn't eat the pepperoni she slurped of the water and dipped it back into the cup. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Soon two pepperonis were in the cup. Then three and finally four. At this point in our story Emma's water looked like the Exxon Valdez was spilling its load all over the surface. The water itself wasn't very clear either, looking more like pizza sauce than crystal clear tap(is that an oxymoron?).

Shanna was instantly horrified. I on the other hand had visions of greenback dancing through my head. Who wouldn't want Emma's new Pizza Dippers? The next day while I was dipping my garlic bread into pizza sauce she was hard at work on a new creation... Jelly Belly Fruit Snacks dipped in Pizza Sauce YES!!! I am still waiting for the pizza chain labs to call but I don't expect they can hold out much longer.

Every river starts witha a couple drops.

2006-12-05T01:13:00.000-08:00

Emma started potty training this week. We bought her a little toilet. It's actually pretty cool. It has handles and can be used on its own or with an adult toilet. She uses it with our toilet and that way the base can be used as a stepping stool. She is very good at telling when she needs to go "potty." Sometimes the actually says the word but more often than not she will say "dirty mermaid" because she has diapers with the Little Mermaid on them.

As you can see I did a good job messing up my blog by "upgrading" to a new template. Sooner or later (lets face it...later) I will fix it. In other news, I am going to attempt to bring back the Learn2Draw blog but again I will need a bit of help. It won't require much and anyone interested should email me. I'll be contacting people this week anyway hoping to sucker some of you in.

Wii have a problem

2006-12-01T01:58:00.000-08:00

I saw this site a couple days ago. http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/
I don't know if Nintendo has taken it down of it is just getting too much traffic but you should check it out if you can. It tracks all the different items people have destroyed with Wiimotes. Speaking of destroyed..."The father of the Playstation" is being "promoted." He is being taken out of the everyday aspects of the Playstation. Smells like a cover up for the screwup known as that PS3. Crazy thing is an American is running the show now over at Sony Computer Entertainment. Wow. The Wii shipped over 6,000,000 units in the first week too. I am glad Nintendo is doing well and I am excited to get my hands on one.

Amazon

2006-11-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

Its been about a year since I added the Amazon search window on the sidebar. Thanks to everyone who made a purchase through it. Don't forget to buy a couple things through it this season and make sure you check www.amazon.com in the next couple days. Stay home and avoid the Black Friday rush! They are having incredible deals such as the $100 Xbox 360 tomorrow.

Wild Wiimotes and Tacos Vs PS3

2006-11-21T01:07:00.000-08:00

I would go for the tacos! Taco Bell pretty much makes me sick 90% of the time I eat it but I could always buy another PS3 and I would probably be the only person in history to win a lifetime supply of gas and tacos!!!

Here is the comment I posted about this story:
Just wait until one of them hits "Grandpa" as he walks by and induces a heart attack. Sooner or later someone is actually going to kill a family pet with one of these flying Wiimotes. In a sick and ironic twist it will be during a game of Wii Nintendogs!

PS3 Launches today

2006-11-18T01:30:00.000-08:00

Have these people seen the games that are available for this system? I realize that it is the cheapest Blu-Ray player available right now but if it plays discs like my PS2 it will be useless after a year. I know that Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, and future Rockstar games will be available for this platform but at this point I can't imagine spending the time or money on this machine. Don't get me wrong I want one soooo bad, if for no other reason than to play FFXII (I recently sold my PS2) but I really think that patience will pay off with this machine. If you don't believe me look at the titles that are or will be available before 2007. Sports titles and a couple that are available on other platforms. There are 2-3 exclusive titles that will cost $20-30 come June. I can guarantee that the games launching at the end of this systems life cycle will be worth the money. I think this machine probably has a wider range of possibilities for game programmers than any of its competitors and given the design of the Wii I think that says a lot. At this point I would go with the Wii. Xbox 360 STILL has no must have title and like I said... the potential is there for the PS3 but it will be a while until developers really learn to take advantage of all of its capabilities. When they do(I'm looking to Square-Enix) the games will look unlike anything we have seen before. As far as their fun factor goes.... we will have to wait and see. The Wii will be fun right out of the box.

"That must be a good book."

2006-11-07T02:24:00.000-08:00

"Huh? Yeah it is...my hair is brown."
"Excuse me?"
"I am just trying to show that you aren't the only one with a firm grasp of the obvious."

I am a reader. More so than I used to be and I owe this to my wife. Right now I am 20-75 percent of the way through 6 different books ranging from juvenile fiction to editorials to the obligatory Flash programming book. I don't have a lot of time to read and the majority of it is accomplished during my breaks at work. I read while I walk around the hospital on my way to and from work as well as on my break. Those who can't be bothered to pick up some print constantly plague me with the dreaded "That must be a good book." I don't know if they are trying to start a conversation or falling prey to narcissism and speaking just to hear their own voice. They wouldn't walk into a room full of people staring at a TV and say "This must be a good movie" but rather "What are you watching?" as they sit down to join the sitcom sponges.

How do I know these are the unread? We readers stick with each other. If we dare interrupt it is ALWAYS done with a "Oooooo what are you reading?" This is seldom a sore greeting and if we are at a critical point in our literary journey it is entirely acceptable to inform the greeter "I can't put this down right now, just a minute." This greeting between book lovers is always coupled with the hope one will come away with another title added to the "must read" list and even if that doesn't happen it will at least allow you to speak about a hobby you love with a kindred spirit.

So if you see me walking with my face half hidden behind the pages of a book don't talk just to talk. Interrupt me with something of substance. Ignore me. It doesn't matter just don't tell me something you can't be bothered to find out for yourself.

This is how Emma likes to sleep.

2006-11-04T20:36:00.000-08:00

She walks over right behind the door and sleeps on the floor every night. Sorry the picture is so bad but it is difficult to reach in there without waking her up.

New Flickr Photos

2006-11-04T20:26:00.000-08:00

I added some more photos. The highlights include:Emma stealing the cheese, first day in her big girl bed, stealing dad's heating pad spot on the couch, pouring crackers on the floor, our new kittens, and Emma wearing adult socks. Enjoy!

Political:Yes Ridiculous:Probably Not

2006-11-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

So I just skimmed over the updated story about this pastor. Not looking good for him and I am rapidly swinging toward my normal frustrated, disenfranchised, condemning self. Now Haggard's side of the story doesn't make sense. At best it sounds like he left out some information. He is admitting to buying meth and requesting a "massage" from the prostitute but claims that he never committed any sort of sexual act or took the drugs. I waste money on drugs all the time only to throw them away without trying any. (sarcasm...I haven't ever done any drugs. Not even in Highschool*.) This pastor was waaaaayyy out of line just picking these drugs up and it is going to ruin him. The evangelists are half right. This is still political but more and more it is looking less ridiculous. The part about the gay male prostitute "doing the moral thing" is still pretty funny though.

I am done with political blogs(I had a good run(sorta) of 2 in a row woot!). There is too much info to keep track of and too much BS to sort through. I'll be posting some new photos of Emma this weekend.

*I am actually straight arrow and this is meant more as a joke(if you read the article).

This one just feels a bit odd.

2006-11-03T00:03:00.000-08:00

Usually when a priest, teacher, or politician is involved in a scandal I am pretty frustrated that they have abused their position to take advantage of someone or violated the public's trust by participating in some immoral and unspeakably low act but when I read this story about the Rev. Ted Haggard something just didn't click.

I am glad that the male homosexual ~~prostitute~~, ex-prostitute decided to that he "had to do the moral thing." This is completely laughable. Especially given Tuesday's vote. I don't know either of these men so Haggard could be completely guilty but the damage will be done regardless. If you look at this logically though the story doesn't add up.

The accuser claims he voted for Ronald Reagan. That means 18 years old in 1984 so he is at least 40 years old. I don't know anyone who decides on a career change and ends up a prostitute so he has probably been at this for a while. Actually I don't know any prostitutes. He obviously makes good money but he also said he is no longer a prostitute yet his last meeting with Haggard was supposedly in August which was barely two months ago. He is also does drugs. My guess is he is an addict. What else are you gonna spend $200/hour on? If prostituting did so well financially people would do it all the time. Instead they do it out of necessity, usually to pay for a habit. So lets see. This guy who has been slumming around for 20 years decides to give it up. Probably because when he turned in his resume that says "1986-present manwhore" the offers came pouring in. Of course they all beat his previous $200/hour wages. This isn't something you just give up either. There aren't options for people with this background. His evidence is also stuff that won't hold up in court and he has nothing to lose. My guess is he is getting paid somehow and is going to mess things up for a lot of people. I don't actually thing Haggard is guilty and sooner or later I think this thing will kind of go away but the damage will have been done. Sorry to go on so long about political stuf but its my blog and I have the mic.

Yourminis Screenshot

2006-11-02T23:58:00.000-08:00

As requested.
Here are my minis. I swear I am gonna blog on Microsoft soon but in the meantime check out live.com Nothing impressive but I will have to check back after 11/7 to see what they do. Looks like everyone is going to have thier own search engine "portal"(this is totally yesterday's word) soon. They're all kinda knock offs. I am happy with mine but sooner or later I am gonna want it for my desktop. I'll be posting a photo of my workspace soon.

Upgrading to Web 2.0

2006-10-29T22:20:00.000-08:00

I am a wanna be web guy. Sad thing is I haven't really jumped onto the whole web 2.0 thing yet. I think it's because I want to remain a normal internet user. I know my way around the internet and I don't need every bit of information at my fingertips 24/7. Plus I think a lot of it so far has been gimicky. I was working on a desktop application for myself that would incorporate the feeds and applications that I use on a regular basis. I know it is pretty much just like a Mac desktop(this might mean Boone-3 M$-0) or the forthcoming Windows but I wanted the experience of building one for myself. Well I finally found someone who did it well enough for me to change my homepage to. http://www.yourminis.com/ is a cool page which allows you to basically customize your own homepage. I know Yahoo or Google lets you create your own page as well but I prefer the control of yourminis plus you all know how much I like Flash. It is made by the guys who brought you http://www.goowy.com. Give one of em a try.

What do I have on my mini? Calender, To do list, weather, email, brother's blogs, a COMIC!!! and more. YAY!!!!

Emma phones home.

2006-10-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

Today Emma and I went to Costco. While I was busy shopping she decided to take care of an important phone call. She called her Great Grandma G.G.(nickname) and had a very animated 15 minute call. At this point Grandma is thinking "I don't remember any phone call." Don't worry you aren't going senile she didn't actually dial. She picked up my phone, opened it and started talking. She was talking all about her favorite things and waving her other hand wildly around in animated gestures just like her mom does. The name G.G. popped up every couple minutes and at one point she offered the phone to me and yelled out her name. G.G. Obviously wanted to speak to me. Emma went on and on about The Little Mermaid, Grandpa, Elmo, Shrek, puppies, and kitties. All her favorite things. She was completely oblivious to the people around her hamming it up and pointing at how cute she was. Knowing her she probably just chose to ignore them because this kid doesn't miss much. She really looked like it was all business. Maybe next time I will actually dial the phone for her since I am sure G.G. would love a real call.

Boone:2 Microsoft:0

2006-10-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

My brother is a Mac user. Who knows why but he is. (he doesn't get out and game much) He made a nice comment about a Microsoft product the other day. Now this

I am planning to post my defense(Really) of Microsoft soon.

Weird Sleeper

2006-10-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

Every night we put Emma to bed in her bed. Every night I check her at about 2 in the morning and she is sleeping on the floor right next to the door. I always have to gently mover her and put her back in her bed. Weird huh?

Oh boy

2006-10-09T01:39:00.000-07:00

North Korea is testing nuclear weapons. If I had a choice between releasing Saddam and giving North Korea nukes I think I would flip a coin.

This one is about a week late.

2006-10-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

The other week one football player ripped the helmet off of another and then stomped the guys face with his cleats while he was on the ground. You probably heard about it and if you are anything like me it made you sick. Sorry I am bringing it up again because at this point you have probably heard all of it and got over it. What makes me mad is that if I did this anywhere I would spend the night in jail. I might be able to get out on bail until my trial but there would be a criminal trial I am sure. Because this happens on an NFL football field the authorities leave the punishment up to the NFL authorities. The punishment was stiff...for the NFL. 5 games without pay. I believe the previous record was 2 games. Believe it or not there were players who thought this was too stiff an urged the offender to appeal. The upside of this story is that he actually took responsibility for his actions saying he did it, he was wrong, and he would accept any and all punishment the league handed down. He also apologized to his victim. His coach was cool too, making a bee line for the other teams coach after the game assuring him that if the league's penalties weren't enough the team itself would deal additional punishment. This is all well and good but this was a malicious criminal act requiring 30 stitches. Is his punishment too strict? You tell me. Five games with no pay amounts to $190 k in lost income. That's right. He is losing more than I paid for my house. Sounds fair but that is 1/17 of his $5.5 million contract. Something is wrong with this world when there are people starving and homeless yet a criminal can make millions and avoid criminal punishment just because of celebrity status. To be fair the team is looking into their options and have been notified by their lawyers that he is breach of his contract so whether or not he will play again is up in the air. He may or may not play for his team again but I doubt he is done for good. I could be wrong but at this point I don't have the confidence that any professional sports organization or the american sports enthusiast to do the right thing. They are just too entertaining and that means they bring in money. Anyone remember Mike Tyson?

I read my own blog.

2006-10-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

I moved the mouse wheel down about 2 clicks and instantly relived the past three months of my life lol. So I posted about The Murder City Devils reunion show. Many of you know the outcome of this because you were (or rather weren't) there. We didn't go. This was a busy Summer. Guess I got that right because technically Summer is over even though it still feels like it but my calendar does say October. Anyway the concert fell on the same day as bachelor party for a friend of mine. We were doing an all day affair starting with breakfast. Here is were things get a little embarrassing. More for Shanna than for me but embarrassing all the same. I'll probably break some man code too and spill the beans on the events of a bachelor party but here goes...

I showed up in time for breakfast. It was good. I don't drink very often. I could easily say I drink less than once a month and not make a liar out of myself. For this event Shanna had cut me loose for the entire day and it was the only day of the Summer to just be Garrett with his friends and not have to be a dad or a husband. To clarify I mean duty wise(chores and diapers) not morally...I wasn't out carousing although I did take a trip to Capitol Hill. I had 5 drinks with breakfast. Count em. 1 2 3 4 5. That's a lot. I had to go get fitted for a tux and there is no way the guy couldn't tell. Shanna was embarrassed but I was surprisingly lucid. I just smelled like a pirate. I went through most of the day in this sort of haze. It was fun. Haven't done it since and I probably won't again although I know of 2 bachelor parties coming up next year! Anyway we didn't go to the Murder City show. We walked through the aftermath and spoke to people who were lucky enough to witness the real thing. We missed the added 2nd show the following night too. I guess in a way this was kind of the end of an era for some of us. Three years ago there was no way we would have missed a show like this. It was definitely more fun to just hang out and catch up with each other. When we did make it to a concert we were talking afterwards about how sore we were to stand for 4 hours. Where did the time go and when did we get so old?

BAH!!

2006-10-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

So I just wrote a decent blog about a movie I had seen and didn't like. More importantly why I didn't like it. When I hit Spell Check IE blocked my checking pop up and deleted my post. Guess this is the last time I blog in IE. Maybe I'll write it again sometime.

True Story

2006-09-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Emma woke up just now. Shanna went into her room to read a book to her while I went and got a diaper. They are reading Curious George's ABC's. When Shanna gets to the 'F' page she starts to turn it and Emma says "Gee." She knew what was coming up next. I grabbed the book and started over. She can say her ABC's up to M. She doesn't know them all. She only recognizes a couple. But she will say them along with me up to M. She can't quite clearly pronounce all of them. Her 'C' sounds an awful lot like her 'G' for a little girl who just turned 18 months old about a week ago I'd say that is pretty good...Although I am her daddy.

Here is what I have been up to.

2006-08-26T00:47:00.000-07:00

At least this is the short version.

I am still working on some stuff to put together a new version of this blog. Rather than make people check this thing all the time for a semi monthly update and launch a completely finished blog I am just going to jump right in. I am almost done with my font but I am not sure how it is working out. Here is a photo of part of it. Let me know what you think.

Soon you will be reading this blog in my own hand.
The top line is size 12. The next is 12 Bold. The last is size 14. If they are too difficult to read let me know. I am open to any suggestions. My ultimate goal is to let you choose a font and possibly even apply a CSS sheet to my blog. All done through Flash. Cool huh? If you don't know what this means just nod your head along with me.

I have was busy with the Ashley Paulina Jewelry site too. You know the link. Make sure to visit the shop. Keep an eye on the main page as well because there are going to be some nice changes coming. I have been trying to figure out Photoshop but there is a lot to learn.

On the family side of things Shanna got a new job down in Seattle. She likes it for the most part and her new schedule allows us to see each other more. Emma is completely in love with Elmo. She calls him "Melmo." She is also sleeping in her toddler bed which is really just her crib without one of the sides. She climbed out of her crib so it was time to make the transition. She loves to show off her bed to visitors. She has a stool she keeps under the bed and when it is time to climb in she pulls it out and climbs up.

Thanks to those of you still checking this thing. I promise more content, updated links, and a more interactive blog in the future. Keep watching...it will be fun to see how this thing evolves.

I got some good news in my inbox

2006-06-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure and excitement that we are able to tell you that yes, we will indeed
be playing a show this summer. Since the rumor started spreading a few weeks ago, we
have received an amazing amount of emails full of very kind words and urgent questions.
Here are the answers to some of them.

All members will be playing. This means that Dann and Nate will be playing guitar. Coady
will be playing drums. Spencer will be singing. Derek will be playing bass. And yes,
Leslie Hardy will be playing keyboards. A few of you seemed concerned that Merchbot
2000 might not be there, but rest assured you will be able to pay him a visit as well.

The show will be in Seattle. It will be at The Capitol Hill Block Party (http://
www.capitolhillblockparty.com/). We will be closing the outdoor stage on Saturday July
29. For extra fun, you should come on Friday July 28th, and you will be able to see Big
Business and Pretty Girls Make Graves.

Tickets are available online. You can go to TicketsWest (http://ticketswest.rdln.com/
EventDetails.aspx?evt=47903) to purchase them. You can also buy them at Neumos if you
live in Seattle. They are $10. If you buy them online, you will have to pay $2.50 per ticket
service fee, and $3.50 per transaction for handling, so maybe get together with friends, to
save a little bit of money purchasing a group of tickets (you can buy up to 8) at
TicketsWest. This is for just the Saturday. Like we said above, why not purchase a ticket
for Friday and make a weekend out of it.

We are looking for a place to have an after party because Merchbot 2000 really wants to
spin records while the rest of us drink. So we should have details on that soon as well.
There will also be additional bands playing the other two stages after our set, which
should be worth checking out.

If you are flying in from out of town, that is great. There are several hotels very near the
event, and we are trying to figure out if the event has a deal at any hotels, so you can save
a little bit of money.

For more details regarding the event and our plans, please feel free to check out http://
murdercitydevils.hellboundmanagement.com or the myspace page at http://
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=60766872.

Thanks for all the great feedback, we are looking forward to the show, it's going to be a
blast.

gabe and the murder city devils

Almost back to blogging.

2006-06-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

I am thinking about starting up again. I have been really busy building a shop for a previous client. I think it has turned out well. Once it is all wrapped up I will post a link to it. I couldn't believe that my site has been getting around 1.7 hits per day. That's not very many you say. I say it is for a site that has no content and it is all referral traffic from the one site that I have built. My goal is to really focus on my site so that I can have something for all my visitors and potential clients view. Not to mention a way for them to contact me about possible future work.

I posted a couple more Emma pictures. I love that little girl so much. She is soooo goofy and makes so many great expressions. My Grandpa posted some great photos of her too but you probably have to be logged in to see them. My Flickr Pro account expired so I can't add them to a set. No real loss since I never did anything special with them but my site will become even more unorganized if that is possible. Also, if you are one of the 2 people per month that visits the Learn 2 Draw blog you will notice a bunch of it is missing. I let my domain lapse so anything that was linked to it is gone for now. garrettrodriguez.com was fun while it lasted and I owe my brother Gabe a lot of thanks. He bought me a bit of real estate on the web and even though I probably didn't take full advantage of it I did put it to good use. It was also the reason I got into Flash which led to web design and the inception and launch of my own tiny buisness which has been profitable enough to pay for a full version of Macromedia Studio 8 and a 6x8 Wacom Intuos tablet so far. I have received a lot of gifts over the years(and hopefully I can add a Nintendo DS to that list come Saturday hehe) but this one was probably one of the best. Or maybe the wierdest. Whichever way you call it, it is probably the one that has changed my life the most and in a good way.

Anyway I am on the computer most nights doing real work instead of gaming so I will probably start blogging on a more regular basis again. See you soon.

Wanna play with my wee?

2006-05-12T00:51:00.000-07:00

E3 this week. I haven't kept up on it too much. There are a couple big things coming out of it. Nintendo announced that their new machine is called "Wii." Pronounced we. We-ird if you ask me. The trailer for Halo 3 was released. I am sure this is about all the Microsoft "gamer" sheep care about. Not me. I haven't seen it. I don't care. Halo is cool but nothing special and the "Master Chief" is easily the most overrated avatar in video game history. Sony announced the price for the PS3. In my opinion this is the biggest thing so far. Probably one of the biggest announcements in the industry in years. $600. Pfft. Who are they kidding? I guess there is gonna be a 20 gig version that is cheaper. $600 for the 60 gig version but the pricing will be open in Japan meaning it is up to retailers to price it. Screw that. Over here the corporate price gougers will be bleeding 15 year olds by forcing bundles on consumers once again. Force feeding us games we don't want just to get the one we do. I guarantee most bundles will run around $1000. Imagine the PC you could build for that. Even the Gateway or Dell you can get for that kind of cash could run circles around a PS3. If you buy one it is only for the library. They are going with PS2 controllers so it would be upsetting for those who own a PS2 to be forced to buy another controller when they don't need one. Whatever. I'll buy one sooner or later. Even though I could probably buy a Wii and an Xbox 360(bleh I should just buy a couple DSs) for the same price.

My next post will appeal to more of you.

Congrats to Gabe and Ashley

2006-05-05T03:46:00.000-07:00

Yay! I am an uncle!

I am still bored.

2006-04-26T01:34:00.000-07:00

I have finished up the site I was working on for Hope Academy in Nigeria but I haven't heard back about finding a place to host the site. At this point I am pretty much done with web stuff and am going to get back to playing with my own things. Maybe even get going on my own site. I just haven't been motivated to do anything lately. Part of it stems from a fear of over indulgence and an inability to step away from Flash. I literally have an easier time turning off a game than quitting in the middle of a project and that makes for some very late nights and VERY early mornings. Emma is waking up before 7 these days and it is killing me.

I made a tree program and I was thinking of turning it into a class but in the end I didn't see much point so I made it a component. I will post it sooner or later. Nothing fancy. Just some recursive functions that grow branches. Nothing new either but it is new to me and I needed the practice to get back in the swing of things. I am just about ready to start animating some stuff. I am narrowing down my list of topics and trying to figure out what I want my first project to be.

I am completely sick of music at this point. There doesn't seem to be anything out there that can hold my attention for more than a couple days. I have been listening the soudtrack to Amelie of all things as well as listening to audio books.

I was going to post some video of Emma but I decided against it and taped everything we have so far onto video cassettes. I will be mailing one to AZ and one to CA. If you read this and you live in that state(and you are actually related to Emma) you will be receiving one some time next week.

I am going to buy this someday.

2006-04-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

I saw this about 4 months ago and I was going to post it then but as usual I got lazy. My keyboard died and I need one anyway so I guess the timing is good.

Update

2006-04-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

I was sick for most of last week. I still have a bit of a cough left. I didn't really do anything last week except go to the doctor's.

My computer ran for about a week and then it died again. I am using my friend's computer once again but it is slow and frustrating especially since mine was running so well. I am going to upload some pictures and video as well as finish some web stuff but then I think I am going to take some time away from the computer. At least until I buy a new one. Not really a big deal since I only blogged a handful this last month. I recommend you check back here once a week but at this point that is me being optimistic.

I do want to get some video of Emma up early in the month. Garrettrodriguez.com is expiring next month so I may as well use up all the bandwidth. I am not going to renew it so there will probably be some dead links popping up if you decide to read any of my archives.

I uploaded some more pictures to Flickr.

My blogging days aren't over I am just taking a break.

Happy Birthday little girl.

2006-03-19T00:43:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday marked one year since I fell and tore up my knee. Read all about it here. This Sunday, today actually, is Emma's first birthday. Pretty unbelievable and exciting. Life has changed so much over the past year. All for the better but it wasn't always easy. I guess the good stuff never is. Emma and Shanna have been sick for a couple days now so it looks like her party is going to be moved to next week.

Work has sucked my will to write.

MIA

2006-03-09T13:02:00.000-08:00

Honestly I just haven't felt like blogging anything lately. I launched a new blog, posted the first half of a story and then lost the impulse to write. If you haven't noticed I forced myself to write the second half of the battery story. It is amazing how easy it comes once you sit down and start.

I played a lot of Evil Genius this last week. I also resurrected Moonleaf my level 60 Hunter from World of Warcraft and hada good run with a friend. Then I managed to get some high end gear for him as well. I also go invited to the Auto Assault Beta so it may be a while til you hear from me. Back in the day I used to apply for every beta possible and never got it. I haven't applied for one in 2 years and this invite came out of the blue. Wierd.

I read a book on CSS and am working on a website for a school in Africa. I am halfway through The Life of Pi. It is good so far and you should all check it out. I am still part of the way through A Feast for Crows but I put it down to read Pi since I am borrowing that one. Once I finish the website and put down the games I will blog a bit more regular like. Or at least post some more pics. Or maybe finish the banners for the Lear to Draw site. Who knows? I don't think I will ever be finished. I am not spell checking or proof reading this. Too bad.

The rest of the battery story.

2006-03-03T23:53:00.000-08:00

So I leave my car overnight at a gas station. The next morning I call my dad up and lucky for me he is able to shift a meeting and help out a son in need. We have my car towed to my parents' house. My dad loans me his car to use for a day or two while I have my alternator fixed. At this point everything seems fine. Things fall into place regarding the alternator and by the time I am off of work it is replaced.

The next day I put Emma in the car. My dad's car. It is making a really strange hum. I put my stuff in, sit down, turn the key, and.....NOTHING. Not a single click, hum, or buzz, and definitely not the roar of an engine. His car is D-E-A-D dead. At this point I am talking to myself. "You gotta be kidding me? What is going on here? This can't be happening." SMACK!!! That was me slapping myself to make sure I am awake. I check to make sure that I turned the lights off after returning home last night. They were turned off. I grab Emma and go back inside. I going over the people I need to call to notify that I am going to be late. I need to call my dad and tell him that I some how managed to drain his battery and offer to buy him a new one. I need to call my work and tell them that I won't be able to make it in until Shanna gets home. I need to call Shanna and tell her to come straight home because I can't meet her at work.

Turns out I need to remember to put the phone on the charger. I picked up the phone and dialed and the stupid thing just laughed at me. In actuality it beeped at me but at this point I couldn't tell the difference. I pretty much lost it. I made some sort of weird huffing elephant sounding noise and shoved the phone back on the charger. I ran upstairs and headed to the corner of the room in which if I stand on one foot just right with my one hand on my head and my butt hanging out a window I can get a single elusive bar of reception with my cell phone.

First I call my dad and let him know that I have killed his car. He laughs and reminds me that he and Harv had been working on the car window and had drained the battery operating it. When he went to charge the battery he couldn't because he couldn't find the charger. Of course he couldn't because I had it >:~(

In the end everything worked out ok but it was a long day. My parents even brought my car back in an attempt to trade cars but I had their key with me at work so they had to go back home in my car. I guess I learned that you should keep your phone charged and that the battery light doesn't actually mean battery. It means electrical system and when it comes on you really should look into it. Maybe someday I will be a car guy. Til then I will just have stories that aren't fun to live through but are good for a laugh when you post on the internet.

Guest Blogger

2006-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

My brother's blog is down and he is in Kansas so he asked me to post this for him. I haven't read it yet and I need to run to work so here goes.

<>
Kansas Trip
Right now I'm in bed. Away from my beautiful pregnant wife, soon to be son and dog. I miss them. Let's see right about now we'd just be finishing up watching Grey's Anatomy and the four of us would be snuggled up on the couch. Fortunately the dog doesn't take up too much space.

Tonight I am in Hayes, Kansas. I had the opportunity to fly out to Denver on thursday where my Grandpa Don picked me up in the motorhome. We then drove four miles to Colby, Kansas and stayed in the Wal Mart parking lot. I haveto say that this thing is pretty comfortable. Not as comfotable as sleeping next to my wife and dog (sorry Grandpa, but I think that's the way it's suppposed to be). For being a 1990 ford motorhome with over 100,000 miles on it, this thing is really in comfy. I truly enjoy my grandpa's company and I think I can safely say that he enjoys mine. I can't imagine traveling in such tight quarters driving through the rolling plains of Kansas with a fellow you can't stand.

With good planning we were able to have a leisurely trip getting good sleep and not too pressured to drive long periods of time at a time. We met up with Tonne family who own Special T Hunting (www.specialthunting.com). Let me tell you these guys are great! If you're ever in Tipton, Kansas look them up. They raise their own birds and are just down right nice people with a strong work ethic. We shot a nice two rounds of their sporting clay course which is 100 shells apiece. Out of 100, I hit 50. Not bad considering the last time I shot a shotgun. I was fortuante enough to use my grandpa's Franchi Falconet 20 gauge double barrel with a modified and improved choke. "She's a real hunny of a gun," as they say. I really like the sporting clay course and it's something I'd love to continue in WA. Altough I felt like me shoulder had been punched 100 times in the same spot. All that was to prepare for the next day.

Today was the hunt. A late start and a breakfast of jalepeno bagel with cream cheese, pepperjack cheese wrapped in black forest ham and some medium pulp orange juice helped to give us the energy for a long day of hunting. Now I won't go into all the details, I think perhaps me grandpa could do that better, but it sure was fun. We hiked up the first rolling hill to where the birds were said to be and didn't have a flutter. But a few minutes later I had a pheseant rooster in my vest. Buena, my grandpa's sweet pointing lab chased up first bird of the day and it happened to be right out in front of me on the right side of the field. As I heard the bird cockle and the flapping of wings I instinctively brought my gun up to my shoulder. I quickly went thru my checklist in my mind as I arraned the bird in my sights. I made sure that the dog was out of the way, that my grandpa was safely off to my side and that there weren't any lawyers in the line of fire and flicked off the safety. First shot: miss! Time for a second shot and bang, whoop there was a bird falling out of the sky. Now Buena is a beautiful dog and it's her instinctive nature to retrieve. She chased the bird down and brought it to my feet, trotting back to me with such a proud grin on her face. She was proud, and she should be. She had just completed the task that had been past down in her dog genes for many generations.

So now what?! There's a bird at my feet and there's nothing left but for me to put it in my vest and pack it. This went on all day and may not sound like fun to some of you who, but it was. We had great success at first but managed to lose track of a bird across a fence while Buena was busy retrieving another shot bird. By late morning we had missed a few opportunities but stilled enjoyed the hike through the brisk Kansas rolling hills. We hitched a ride back to the motorhome with Larry and they served us lunch, a refreshing break from the hunt. With a renewed energy we set out in a new direction with new direction. We didn't get far. The first bird was spotted before we left the driveway and before we were even loaded. They held the dog back while I went in after it. Turns out we got two birds before we even really set foot in the field!!

Although our shooting accuracy steadily dropped as we went along it was amazing to see the dog work and we really had a great hunt. Did I mention yesterday was 60 degrees? Today was colder because of a storng wind, but it was very clear. We settled up and sincerely thanked our hosts for their warm hospitality and celebrated our success at Applebee's after driving an hour and a half from Tipton to Hayes. Tomorrow we head for Denver and then I catch a flight out to Seattle. I lto travel, I like to shoot and I love to spend time with my granpa. And while I can't wait to give my wife a big fat kiss and feel my little baby boy kick my hand through her tummy or feel boo's wet little tongue lick my nose, I'm having a great time pretending to be a cowboy, sleeping in an RV under the stars with his trust-worthy companion, noble dog and dependable shotgun updating his blog on his handheld treo cellphone pda.
< /gabe >

An ode to www.smurfbite.com

2006-02-23T02:46:00.000-08:00

Here is my new blog. I am still going to keep Wildhog as my main blog but I figured this would be fun. Let me know if you want to contribute. It is going to be a multi user blog so I can set you up with permission to post pics if you like.

As far as the name goes. I am going to stick with Learn to Draw as the official name but I will be rotating names through so you can always suggest new ones to me. Once I have it up and running you will see what I mean.

Let me know how you like it.
Help me by posting pics or emailing them to me.
Help me by coming up with more names for the blog.

Batteries not included.

2006-02-23T00:47:00.000-08:00

As promised here is my battery story:

It all started about 26 years ago. I had just finished a bottle and filled my pants. I was ready for a nap. No no no. That's my story. This is supposed to be about my battery. I am still in this story but it takes place a bit later.

Fast forward 25 years. Shanna and I go on a vacation with my family. When we get back we realize that my car door has been left open for the entire 3 days we were gone so I wasn't very surprised to find my battery pretty much dead. I went to my parents' house and told my dad, asking if I could borrow his battery charger. I still have it by they way and this little known tidbit of information will come into play later so remember it. My dad loans me his charger and tells me that it will get me to work a couple times but I should really buy a new battery. He insists on loaning me the money for a new battery. As many of you know we had a baby about a year ago. With babies come bliss. I mean bills. Huh, funny how that works. I gladly accepted my dad's money and then promptly used it to keep the lights on, keep the water running, or feed the new mouth. Charging the battery seemed to worked just fine.

About a month ago my car battery light started coming on once in a while. It would turn off so I pretty much just ignored it. After all, I knew I had a weak battery and I was just delaying the inevitable. Then one night my car died. All gauges went to zero. All the lights turned off including headlights. I left my car at work overnight and got a ride home. Shanna and I jumped my car the next morning and took it to get a new battery. This was on Thursday.

The battery guy told me that he put a new battery in the car but the light was still on so I should have my alternator looked at right away. I nodded. He pulled the keys back sensing that I was blowing him off. "I mean you should have it looked at as soon as possible." I nodded. "Today would be good." This guy wouldn't give up so I told him I would. I wouldn't. I knew that I would have to wait until some time next week because I needed to get paid first.

I continued to use my car the next couple days. Sure enough, after 10-20 minutes of driving my battery light would come on. Then it happened. I made it all the way to Tuesday night. Driving home at midnight my car died. Deader than last time. No power, no lights, no gauges. I decided I better get off of I-5. When I turned on my blinker my car turned off. I literally crested the offramp hill and coasted down into a parking spot at the nearest gas station. This parking job had to have been providence because I didn't even have brakes to stop myself. It was the best parking I have ever done and I didn't do it.

Don't hate me but I have some other stuff I need to work on so I will have to finish this tomorrow.

Finally!

2006-02-22T02:03:00.000-08:00

I should have gone to bed.

2006-02-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

We had fun tonight at my parent's house. We went over for dinner with my family and some friends. The night ended with us talking about photo stuff. I'm not too big on it but I want to learn how to use Photoshop and Fireworks. When I we went home Shanna went straight to bed. I should have. I told her I would go to bead at midnight and right now I am 3 minutes late. I played around with a great photo of Gabe and Ashley's nephew Ethan. The result is the latest entry on my demo page. Just click anywhere on the photo. It may take a second to load and it probably won't run smooth on a dial up connection.

I only have room for a few more projects and then I will be forced to build a menu of some sort at which time I will add a preloader. Funny how I want I tell people I am a designer and yet for my own page I just jump right in and start showing stuff off. At least I have a site planned but it would be no fun to have to wait for it to be finished to show this stuff off.

Off to bed I go. My mind is racing and full of ideas for this and other projects. Flash is a dumb think to do before bed. I will probably just lay there for the next hour or two waiting for numbers, formulas, photos, and ideas to leak out of my ears so I can sleep. Hope they don't make a mess on my pillow.

P.S thanks to those of you who are checking my project page on a regular basis. I just checked my web stats and at least one person is hitting it everyday. I will try to post more often to it. Cool to know that I am actually using up some of my bandwidth.

Marriage is not for me.

2006-02-17T00:16:00.000-08:00

Don't worry. I haven't thrown in the towel. Sit still and let me explain.

I am 26. Most of my peers that married are getting divorced. They are working on the final pages to the chapter in their lives that society has deemed the "starter marriage." Marriage isn't really sacred in our society anymore. This is tragic but not surprising considering what little is. "Self" is still considered sacred. That is the only real reason to get married anymore. A friend of mine always jokes: "think of the tax benefits." Too bad that is what most people are thinking of. Marriage has be reduced to nothing more than a financial agreement that benefits both parties. Think about it. You can sleep together, live together, buy a house, car, or even adopt a kid together but it is difficult if not impossible depending on your zip code to get benefits, insurance, and a couple of other financially beneficial things.

I don't think very many people go into marriage thinking this way. At least traditional male-female ones. Homosexual ones seem to either be about the above stuff or something to the tune of "we just want to announce are relationship to the public." There should be more to it than money and or public acknowledgement. Marriage isn't easy. Scientists believe that the "effects of love" only last 12-18 months. After that you have to work to maintain the relationship. Even with the best intentions it is easy to get caught up in the "me" of it. Most people say something like "marriage is all about sacrifice." It is and it isn't. That is a crappy slogan too unless you are pushing sports drinks or athlete shoes. No one puts self sacrifice on their daily To-Do List even though the world would be a nicer place if more of us did.

I have pretty much given up on playing video games. I still want to finish Psychonauts for Xbox but I have sold my PS2 and my Gamecube is collecting dust. I actually would have sold that too but oddly enough Shanna wants to keep it. I don't think of this as a sacrifice. To the outsider it may appear that my wife has me whipped and doesn't allow me to play. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have changed, not sacrificed anything. I would rather spend time with Shanna and Emma than playing games by myself. Sometimes I need "me" time and that is where the sacrifice starts to come in as I blogged earlier.

I had it pretty good as a bachelor. I didn't have to clean my room EVER. I had my own bed with my own blankets. I make a terrible sleeping partner since I snore and I like to sleep with blankets and pillows wrapped all around me not spread neatly and tucked in as Shanna prefers. I only had to do dishes when my dad came downstairs and got upset at the mess I made. I had my own bathroom and shower. My "rent" was about 20% of what it is now. I could stay up as late as I wanted, play games, watch movies, listen to music at anytime of the day. My only responsibility was to be at work on time. I filled the rest of the time in with as much sleeping, eating, playing, or "me" activities as I could. If I had taken the time to examine my previous life and look at where a wife, much less a wife and a daughter would fit in I would have seen that marriage wouldn't be for "me." If I wanted to maximize "me" time I should have told Shanna to hit the road and bought 12 pack of soda to keep me awake through an all night WoW binge. Getting married is probably the stupidest thing you can do if you want to live for yourself.

This is the sacrifice. Coming to realize and actually walk the walk that you aren't number one anymore. My greedy human nature tells me that if I find a plate Shanna left out I should leave one of mine or leave hers so she knows what I have to deal with. But I have found that picking up something she left out just because I am the one that found it or changing the roll of toilet paper even if it was empty when I got there encourages her to respond to me in the same way. I try to make myself the person I want to be married to. Sounds weird but say it to yourself until it makes sense. I think any marriage will work as long as both parties can remember that.

So I guess my marriage really isn't for me. I had good intentions going into it and I never meant for it to ever be totally about me but I know I used to put me first more than I do now. I have come to the conclusion that my marriage is for my girls. Mainly Shanna with a bit of Emma tossed in. I am already reaping the benefits so in the end I guess it is for me too. It's kind of like cooking. I can cook my favorite dish for myself and it is hard to beat. But the experience is much more enjoyable if I cook it for someone who enjoys it as much as I do. Hopefully they share some with me but if not things will be just fine.

If you ever hope to get married remember all this stuff. Don't let the idea of sacrifice scare you too much. The best way to live for yourself is to live for someone else. This is the best advice I can give you.

P.S.
I wrote this about 2 weeks ago and I meant to go through it a couple times and clean it up as I don't think all of the wording is quite right. My thoughts are pretty much all there just not as organized and as accessible as I'd like. I got home and wanted to post something but it has been a loooooong week so I am just giving this to you in its original form. No new or original stuff tonight. I will post about the long week later but for now just be warned: If you run on batteries stay far, far away from me.