Category: General

Time Magazine has chosen the 2006 Person of the Year, it’s You! They wax somewhat poetically about how individuals around the world through the likes of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, open source software, etc., are sticking it to the man and wrestling control away from the powerful. I don’t dispute that there is something to this, and I’m happy that the rise of global collaboration via the web is getting some recognition. But like all cool things, getting recognized by the mainstream press is generally the kiss of death. Will MySpace still be cool when everyone’s grandma and big corportation is there too?

Between coughs and sneezes yesterday I was able to set up another aStore shop. This one, Kaiju no Keitai, focuses on cell phones and related accessories. With so many cell phone options out there now, this site should prove useful to anyone who wants to see comprehensive reviews of various cell phones without having to hunt for them all over the internet. I didn’t even know that Amazon was selling cell phones until yesterday! The site also displays a news feed of cell phone technology related stories. Enjoy!

I hate being sick! Today I’m home with my girls, who are also sick and my head feels like it is about to explode! Worse, lying down makes it feel worse, so no rest for the weary. This started last night which made rest impossible, leading to many hours of late night Anime Network and Ripe TV viewing, and don’t forget about Something Weird! All I’ll say about that is, Comic Party Revolution, well, sucks! But Trashy Girls gets a thumbs up on Ripe TV for, well hate to say it, seeming to keep it real with a lot of corn. Ugh, the depths illness will sick one to!

As for real work, forget it! I’m just worried about dying right now!

Whenever I hear stories such as the one of James Kim and his family becoming lost in the Oregon wilderness, I’m filled with dread at the likely outcome. Nevertheless, after hearing of the rescue of his family, I was filled with hope that somehow he would be found alive. But that hope disappeared when the most probable outcome, given the circumstances, materialized yesterday with the discovery of his body by search teams.

There’s no point in debating the wisdom of what he did. All I’ll say is that there are no better ways to lose one’s life than in the protection of your family or others. Goodbye James, rest in peace, your family is safe.

Today’s walk to work was greeted with what I like to call a hard blue sky. It’s the kind of clear blue sky that tells you it is freakin cold outside. And indeed, this morning was pretty cold. But I was happy because it took my mind off of other troubles for just a little bit. I think the purely visceral things that come from physical existence will always do that for you. Nothing like being cold to yank one’s mind back into the reality of reality.

The latest TV ads for the redesigned iPod Shuffle seemed to be getting under my skin for some reason. The ad features a series of people morphing into each other as they put on clothing and then clip on the new clip shaped Shuffle. It’s a clever ad in the way that we’ve come to expect for iPod promotions. But there was something else that was getting to me, boobs!

The ad only shows each person from the neck down, that is, no faces. Humans naturally lock on to faces, so the absence of the face basically puts the torso at eye level. So as males morph to females and vice versa, you cannot help but notice the appearance and disappearance of boobs! Since sex sells, I do not believe this is an accident. And because the ad maker was smart enough not to feature any women with unusually large breasts (which helps the morphing too), the ad should escape protest even though it is literally putting boobs in my face!

Click here to see the ad for yourself.

Winds howled and whipped up a white foamy froth on Lake Michigan this morning. It was beautiful and I was so happy just to be alive.

I have a serious case of the blahs today. 🙁 I certainly have plenty of work to do, but am totally unmotivated. It could be a let down from the hospital drama earlier this week. Or it could be that I’m just a Class A slacker. Ehh, who knows? Maybe it’s because I have a copy of Final Fantasy XII (a 15th wedding anniversary treat for myself :3 ) sitting on the shelf at home just itching to be played. Mmmmm, could be…

I actually do manage to get a lot of work done despite the occasional attack of the blahs. Last night I successfully migrated WillowBrow from Blogger to WordPress and she is very happy with the much easier to use WordPress. I also learned some new SQL tricks yesterday that will help me with a data migration job, w00t! And I’ve had my first, “It’s okay to be nerdy.” talk with my oldest son who’s being teased a little at school. So life goes on.

Nothing like a house full of kids for some drama. Yesterday, on the way to a political rally, my youngest son started vomiting in the car. We weren’t sure what the cause was, but we knew that our plans had been scuttled. So we turned around and headed back into the city. A short time later, things got worse and we needed to find a hospital. Fortunately we the nearest one was also a children’s hospital.

My wife has been with our youngest at the hospital for a day now, while I keep things running at home and get the other kids to school and so on. Needless to say, I’m very worried. I’ve prayed alot, and friends have prayed, and our pastors have been helping out too. But I can’t help but feel guilty, not about my son in the hospital, but about how much fun I’m having finishing my oldest son’s Inuyasha costume for Halloween. I promised him that I would help him finish it up in time for Halloween, a promise I’m determined to keep. But with one child in the hospital, the innate pleasure I’m getting from working on the costume seems out of place. I suppose I should just take it as a blessing in a time of trouble. Or maybe it’s a lesson that no matter what else is happening, the show must go on.

Ugh! It never fails, I always manage to get sick after a con. Usually I’m laid up on the following Monday, but this time I tried being macho and went to work anyway, a bit in a daze. Well that just put off the inevitable, so I’m out today instead… Worst of all though is whether I’m well or sick, dead or alive, I’ve still got to schlep the kids to where they need to go. So beware any red minivans you may see on the road today, I might not see you in time!

After some less than spectacular grades, we reinstituted the schoolnight television ban in our household. TV has never been such a big deal that the kids get all spastic in its absence, so it’s not a big deal here and life goes on with a little more time for homework. Nevertheless, the spirit of the Sponge Bob remains! This morning the kids were acting out a Sponge Bob episode with their own little twists in the characterizations. This is a pretty creative household, so this kind of play is typical and they’ll often mix characters from other stories and media including some of their own creation. So the TV may be off, but Sponge Bob lives on!

BTW, I actually like Sponge Bob, the first couple of seasons are priceless. But I think he’s been badly over-exposed. Da ha ha ha! Daaaah! Ha ha ha!

An elementary school in Boston has banned tag for fear of getting sued if a child gets hurt playing. They’ve also banned touch football and any other unsupervised contact sports, CNN reports. This is just ridiculous! They’d might as well ban childhood altogether while they’re at it! I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said things like, “The living room is not the gym!”, or, “Stop that! I have no desire to go to the hospital today!, and the ever popular, “Stop running in the hall!” Physical play is a part of childhood that sadly, as our children grow fatter and fatter, kids really aren’t getting enough of today. And with play comes some risk. I would even argue that this early risk taking lays the foudation for the kinds of risk taking one needs to be successful in life as an adult. Oh how I wish I could still throw my body around with such reckless abandon as I’ve seen in my own kids because it sure does look fun!

Going to dim sum, yaaaaay! It’s the little things that help keep me going!