After a waiting for two days for the mail and one day before tmobile could switch my account over, I finally have an active sidekick in hand.

Impression of it has been positive so far, the qwerty keyboard is definitely a big plus for me, even if there is still a slight learning curve. I imagine it'll get even easier over time. The phone is a bit hefty for the pants pocket, but not too bad. The phone is in pretty good condition, and though it's a pretty good text and email phone, it's a odd normal phone. Anyhow, impressed with it. Had to go through a little bit of a guilt trip though, after finding out that it was a dollar a day irregardless of whether I used the phone that day or not.

Website surfing is not bad, decent formatting and a little poky, but I can access the email and news easy peasy.

Well, maybe I'll get some photos up later, but I guess that will just depend. This concludes the sidekick post.

Bones

Even though we have 2 cats, the kids have a general meh feeling about them, if not sometimes bordering on fear. They've been scratched before, but nothing to really cause considerable caution on their part.

Their experience with dogs is slighty worse, they've had my mother in law's dogs bark and scamper at their feet, so their impression of dogs isn't much better.

Anyway, this afternoon Alex pointed out to us that he had green bones, while pointing to his head. Then he said that he doesn't want the dogs to get the bone in his head.

Poor boy must have all kinds of thoughts running through that green skull of his.

In Space

I was putting my shoes on to go to the car to check for something and the kids asked where I was going. My wife said, "Daddy's going to space."

"Space?"

"Yes, I'm going to space where there's a vacuum and sound doesn't travel at all so that I can't hear any bickering or fighting. The absence of sound."

"Oh," said the boy. "Watch this!" he said when he tossed the book in the air. Obviously my space venture was of no interest to him.

Right now I'm wishing I was in orbit somewhere. The kids had somehow switched roles and Zoe is now the whiny, temper tantrum that Alex had been all this time. She's crying up buckets when she doesn't get her way and pouting up a hangdog expression to get my attention - which unfortunately leans on the negartive tone.

Anyway, seems like its a little calmer for now. Hopefully it'll just be that the rest of the night.

DSC_0814, originally uploaded by diegomcnamara.

The text is formatted a little odd, but works nonetheless.

DSC_0813, originally uploaded by diegomcnamara.

Sunday Post

Didn't know what I was going to cover exactly, so I gave it a generic title.

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but I keep forgetting.

Whenever we come to a automatic sliding door at department stores, my wife will say, "Open Sesame!" as we step up, and the doors would slide open, and we would continue upon our way to our capitalistic ways. Anyway, Zoe being the brain that she is, was going through the door with me a while back and after we exited, she turned and said, "Thank you, Sesame!"

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So I've been flirting with this idea around, and it gets riled up whenever something like the iPhone or my Palm comes around. Portable word processing/web access. I am very much attached to the idea that I should be able to write anywhere on a device, and I know it's been possible for a while, but the devices are either too incompatible, expensive, or too much of a hassle to bother with. At this point, I think even the iPhone would be too much of a bother because touch screen text entry isn't quite as intuitive as button pressing.

The biggest obstacle is cost - how to have a device that has web access but doesn't cost a cow. Even the real basic data plan has to be paired up with a voice plan, and there's a yearly/monthly commitment that I don't really care much for.

But I have a solution on the horizon. T-mobile has a prepaid plan that I'm currently on, which ensures that I do have mobile access, but more on a pay as you go type situation so if I'm not using the minutes, I'm not being charged. The last time I used the phone for a voice call was Valentine's Day, in fact. Anyway, T-mobile also has rates for the Sidekick, which is a funky phatty phone with a full keyboard on the phone. And if I wanted to access the data, it's only a dollar a day, and that's only if I want to use it. If I don't, it'll be no charge. Anyway, I did a bit of research (code for something I do when I'm bored and looking for stuff to buy) and found that a used one will be in the ball part of 150 bucks. It's not loose change for sure, but it certainly is cheaper than a brand new smartphone. The Sidekick isn't especially smart, but the keyboard is nice. It probably is a bit of an indulgence, but the idea of being able to blog anywhere or write anywhere has always been an attractive idea for me.

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Watched "Superman" with the kids yesterday, and found the movie to be pretty much as corny as I remembered it. I thought I just didn't get it when I was younger, but now I just realize that I probably wouldn't have gotten it if I was older. Not that it's awfully complicated, just that there are some parts of the movie which seem kinda... off. Like why Margot Kidder isn't really attractive in any sense. Or how Lex Luthor never really states why he hates Superman (although in the comics, it is fleshed out.) Or why he spends a year at the Fortress of Solitude offscreen and then he's got his costume on. Like, WHAT? Don't even get me started on altering the earth's rotation to turn back time. It'll take years to explain that to the kids and how that's not possible. He got bored and sewed himself a suit? I dunno, probably in context, that would've been a better film than it is now.

More than that, I think it's really surprising that "Superman Returns" basically lifts most of the first and second movie for his update. The whole thing is like a weird remake - there's a dichotomy, I get it, but most of the movie seems like they were working off the same producer notes. Weird.

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Well, I had more in my head but the kids are doing their thing now. Jesus Christ, I was just typing that and Alex took a hollow tube and blew into my ear. He lost that tube.

Audio Podcast

How 5 Minutes Inspired Me!

When people ask me what I did this weekend, I would be like, I was videotaping that and it was fun and inspiring and made me feel alive! And then they would watch the video and go... Why were they doing that? Well, it's not for everyone.

I, for one, have been fascinated by these "improv missions", which are not technically considered a flash mob, but nevertheless it's the same idea. A group of people who randomly meet up, doing something for a short period of time, and then disband. I never met any of these people before, and hopefully I will have time to do something like this again.

The American Babies book came in the mail and the wife has been devouring it like she's never read it before. It looks pretty nice, though the formatting is a little off. Hardcover and the quality is pretty good, makes me feel like a real author, almost. I'll post photos of that later.

We also did the Zoo on Saturday, and though overall it was a good experience, we were convinced after that trip that Alex could possibly not be ready for preschool. He likes to argue and not listen to directions, but most of all he doesn't quite know when to be serious. A good time would really be when Mommy or Daddy has an angry look of their faces, but poor Alex somehow interprets that as funny. So it was a bit of a stressful trip out, with him being constantly reprimanded for not showing enough respect. Sigh. He's a good kid, but he lets his excitement and emotions get in the way.

Anyway, still got loads to do, wasted a lot of last night and this morning trying to figure out the improv video. I need to be done with it for right now.

Pie Week

Well, it's not as tasty as it sounds. It simply addresses the situation at work. We're currently having problems with the boards, so they can't build any units and therefore the whole assembly line has been halted. Although shipping is slightly more fortunate in having something to do, we have no real quota to meet and no one's looking up our skirts to see what we're up to. So there's a lot of pressure gone and I'm feeling more relaxed at work. I'm seriously tired of being so stressed all the time. Of course, this will mean that the next week or month will be insanely busy, with us playing catch up. Also, after just having a 4 day weekend, we won't be working Friday because of the shortage so I'll have another 3 day weekend. Sweet.

My love affair with NPR continues. Today I've been just listening to NPR for the whole day. I used to like Whad'ya Know on Saturdays, but since they don't really showcase the whole show as a podcast, I've really taken to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." It's a great news quiz show, with great humor and interesting guests dropping by. All and all, it's a great listen that has made me laugh out loud while working, inciting some looks from co-workers. But even the Movies podcast or the Tech podcasts are top notch, going beyond the usual glossy summarized and highly opinionated slant of mainstream media and providing a much more classy way of bringing me new information. I've just been really glad to be getting all this stuff into my brain. Now I don't feel like such a drone.

Today at work, I was scraping stickers off the floor with a razor blade and a co-worker came up and looked at me.

"Keeping busy, huh?"

"I know, it's not the best utilization of my abilities."

She smiled and nodded.

"Then again, I do work here after all."

I laughed at myself out loud, probably as some sort of self-mockery and realization that it was the sad truth. College education and I'm scraping stickers off the floor with alcohol.

I'm revisiting Band of Brothers again, having missed one of the episodes when I watched it on the History Channel a while back, and this time I'm watching it uncensored (just language) and for some reason, it doesn't come with subtitles. I'm a funny sort, I enjoy subtitles for some reason, likely due to the fact that I'm an aspiring screenwriter, but I think it also helps my comprehension. Although it does ruin a lot of comedies for me, since I'm a speedy reader. I get the jokes before they deliver them.

For some reason, today the kids are either acting super crazy therefore becoming more accident prone, or as I am always suspected, the house is slowly getting smaller. But so far tonight, Alex kicked the hard floor with his foot, Zoe tried to round off the kitchen counter corner with her head, and Alex tried to sharpen his toy sword on Zoe's hands.

The other day, when we were having our family day at Pike Place Market, we were hanging out at the park and they found a little boy to play with. Nothing complex, they just running around each other and having a good time. Anyway, at one point the little boy ran off further than usual, and Zoe reached that invisible radius between herself and me and so she stopped dead in her tracks, and for good measure, stuck out her arm to prevent Alex from going any further. She was so serious doing that too, which made me proud and laugh at the same time.

Just put the kids to bed, and we were playing "What are you going to Dream about?" The kids enjoy that, as do I, though we get a little goofy sometimes. Alex dreamt that I have two butts for eyes, and Zoe dreamt that I only had one tooth. Now their lights are off, but they're still talking quietly which is pretty cute.

Oh, one of the things Alex did again tonight was to mumble incomprehensible phrases really loud, like "Oola!" and "Nohnoh!". I told him to stop shouting it so loud and he said he was speaking Spanish. Thank you, Dora. Now they think they know Spanish.

A Post From Mommy

So today Alex and I were working on his "homework" and Zoe is coloring in the next seat at the table. She announces that she has to go potty and runs to the bathroom. Sure enough a few minutes later, I hear her crying and knocking softly at the bathroom door. I immediately knew she had locked herself in yet again so I walked into the other room retrieve the knife stored away for such occasions, and while consoling her calmly unlocked the door. Picking her up I got the explanation from her.

"Wilbur (our cat) locked me in the bathroom", she tells me in between tears.

Ignoring her statement, I asked her if she locked herself in again and got the reply:

"No, Wilbur do it," She tells me, still in tears and obviously very upset.

I told her that I really didn't think Wilbur did it when Alex walks in from the other room and interrupts me.

"Mom."

"Yes, Alex."

"Wilbur can do that. He know how."

At that point I had to give up because, as we all know, there is really no winning over preschool logic. So there you have it. Wilbur the cat I guess is some mystical creature. Not only can he lock a bathroom door that a three year old cannot manage to unlock but he can do it when he is sleeping under the kitchen table. I know he can be a grouchy cat but he must really have something against three year old girls to be doing this kind of mischief.