A couple new toys

I have to be somewhat obsessed with Rock Band, despite being hopelessly incapable to operating the foot pedal up to par at the "Hard" mode, I'm still pretty hooked on the drums. Anyway, I invested in some drum pad silencers for my drum kit - which sounds odd, but if you've ever played the original drum kit, there's a "thok thok thok" sound when you strike the surface, which actually can get a little loud and distracting after some time. Especially while playing guitar with someones drum, one can barely hear the music sometimes. The new pads are pretty sweet, definitely masking the sound quite a bit, and also making it slightly bounicer.

The other toy finally arrived in the mail today, my 4 disc Blu Ray of BBC's Planet Earth. That's 550 minutes of hi-def beauty, effectively turning me into mashed potatoes whenever I look at it. You could actually just run the series and leave it on for the worlds more beautiful screensaver. I've skimmed through some bits, and man it looks freaking awesome. Gonna have to resist just sitting there and watching the whole damn thing.

So this is on top of some pretty big things coming up, including Alex having a semi celebration tomorrow with a family gathering, followed by Sunday at the Puyallup Fair, and then on Tuesday, i'll resist checking the web for updates and just watch the keynote when I get home.

So here are the factors to consider. The nano will likely either get a memory boost to 8 gigs for the core model, or a price drop in order to create some interest in it which might wane because of the iPhone. In either case, its a strong contender for me. For a second and less likely option, if the touch drops to 199, it might have to be considered. The app store essentially turns the touch into more than just an ipod, but the price is still hefty. I dunno, will have to be patient and wait it out. My 512mb mp3 player is really not cutting it.

Struggling to stay awake. Gotta clean up a little before I watch 10,000 BC. Don't know why, since I've heard terrible reviews about it. Oh good, Snoopy just ended.

This week bad, next week should be better

Seriously, this week needs to soak their feet in quick dry cement, crawl its pathetic self to the pier, shoot itself in the head, and throw itself into a watery grave. Not much to salvage from this week really. Started off unofficially last Friday after the expensive car bill, and then elevated itself into a traffic ticket on Labor Day after the family spend the day at the zoo. Later that evening, I had some serious dizzy spells and headache and went to bed where I napped for about 3 hours. Unfortunately, I missed the kids bedtime, woke up at 10:30, then wandered about rather aimlessly unable to really go back to bed. The next day was a similar experience. Feeling sick, went to bed really early.

On the kids side, Alex pooped his pants two days in a roll, the regression which we don't really understand. Ever since he's been potty trained, this hasn't been a problem at all. Hopefully it's a real quick phase.

Anyway, next week will be better. Especially Tuesday. Tuesday will be the best.

Okay, it's late.

How Stephen Chow Destroyed My Little Girl

I'm a big fan of Stephen Chow, his absurdist comedies have always ranked high on my favorites when it comes to movies, so when he directed a little family movie in between his big budget ones, I thought it might be a good little intro for my kids. So I popped in CJ7, and then slowly my expectations began to peel away little by little. So, one of the things I forget sometimes is the cultural differences between Eastern and Western movies. As nonsensical as his movies are, Chow tends to infuse a lot of spiky and mean humor, bordering on cruelty. At the same time, it's not that it's just mean to be mean, but rather it's stuff we don't see in Western movies. Basically, the movie is about a destitute father and son, the father being a rather clueless construction worker and the son being picked on especially since his father enrolls him in a private school full of snobby rich kids. In a couple scenes, the cute little alien is being chased and stomped on by kids, even by the protagonist of the story. While this is jarring for most of us, like Zoe, it's pretty much what kids would do. So Zoe is baring the whole movie except when the little alien is being squished and twisted and abused - she would vocally shout, "That's not nice!" and get a little worked up. She was definitely making me a little worried because the movie does take it a notch further then what we're used to as Disney-fed audiences.

Spoilers now, so watch out.

Anyway, the father falls off a building at work. That was a little traumatic as it is. But the alien, possessing regenerative powers, revive him but ends up draining his own life whereby a little bead falls out of his head, and he shrivels up and becomes a stuffed animal. At this point, Zoe is just sobbing and I'm feeling like I just took a sledgehammer to her heart by showing her this movie. The movie ends a little ambiguously, but is enough for me to tell her that everything turned up alright. But still. We had to watch a couple episodes of Curious George and have some fruit snacks just to take her mind off the movie, and just when I was putting her to bed, she was hopping in excitement and she hit her hit on the second tier of the bunk bed. Crying recommenced.

--

Not doing a whole lot today, just some space and data management. I cleaned up the desk a little and labeled some of the many USB cables I have laying around. I can't even tell half the time what the hell I'm plugging in anymore. So I got a load of that junk sorted out. Stayed home pretty much all day. Feeling drained today, coming down with something that dehydrates me a little.

We're going through a phase with the kids right now whereby their manners seemed to have gone completely out the window, and they are now acting like cave children who were raised by grizzlies. This morning, while we were sleeping, Alex came in, climbed into bed, and shouted, "WAKE UP!" That was followed by Zoe demanding, "Where's my show?" I think their manners have lapsed because although we correct them constantly, they haven't been enforced with time outs. Just a talking to that they just say, "Ok....ok...." to. So while the kids are playing today, Mom and Dad are defusing their crankiness from being yelled at.

My four day weekend has been very expensive so far - we took the Kia in because of a check engine light, and after the scheduled maintenance that it was overdue, replacement of brakes, and some other work, we are almost 800 bucks poorer. Then Blockbuster pissed me off a little because their stupid in-store exchange seems to have its own calendar, so my trade ins were actually rentals.

But I did make a couple purchases that I was pretty happy about. One is the 550 minute Blu-Ray edition of BBC's Planet Earth. Eye freaking candy, if you ask me. I remember seeing it at Fry's for 165 bucks, but I got it off Amazon for around 50 bucks. Even if it turns out being used, I'm good with that. I can't usually find a lot of content for my HD monitor, so this is cool. I have to say though, I've gotten so used to my PS3 and my monitor that when I watched "21" on a standard tv last night, it seemed like I was squinting to compensate for the letterbox. So spoilt. The other purchase was more tangible, and more delicious.

Yesterday I couldn't decide what to do with the family, and after ruling out the aquarium, the zoo, and everywhere else, I foolishly craved for Krispy Kreme donuts. So we hung out at Gilman village in Issaquah for a little bit, and then went to Krispy Kreme. I'm the funny sort who doesn't like donuts, stemming from getting sick from a donut stand in Singapore at the World Trade Center. I got like super sick from that, and so now it comes back to me whenever I stick one in my mouth. For some reason, Krispy Kremes don't have that effect on me. Anyway, we got there and once I got out of the car, the wind picked up an outdoor umbrella and blew it off the stand, and slowly hurtled it toward the car like a runaway kite. My wife told Alex to stay in the car, and Alex, having seen this thing that was 3 times his size tumbling toward him, starting going, "AHHHH! AHHHH!" But I just stopped it and held it, but it was quite amusing. Then the kids were just having an absolute ball seeing the production of said donuts. Alex kept saying, "That's so cool!" And when I took a bite of the plain donut, it was like biting into a cloud. It felt almost invisible, but for a hint of sugary goodness. Unlike others, we only made off with a couple dozen. People were walking out of there with 8 dozen or so.

So anyway, just chilling out today, probably do some gallivanting later on today. The day seems to be taking its time.

Trying to impose a non-desk evening for a while, whereby my back is turned to the world and my face is buried in a laptop or my PS3. So I'm sitting with Alex while he's exploring his new pre-school learning program. He certainly has a little problem comprehending some concepts like finding the letter between 2 letters even though the entire alphabet is listed above the problems. But overall he can get the solution if he gets the problem reexplained to him.

Well, I mentioned this on the podcast of "Pizza Bento", but i'll restate it since there's no shortage on ways to further embarass myself. But I've decided after hours of Rock Band and an episode of "This American Life" whereby a heartbroken reporter decided to write a love song after her break-up, that I will attempt to write and sing an original song for funsies. It will be composed in Garageband since I have little musical talent, and it will likely be a traditional pop song.

I came up with a hook, and had to record it immediately because I would forget if I didn't. Now the next step would be to find the notes that correspond and build it around that. This will be interesting...

New iPods need to come out quick, my musical needs are cycling through my devices faster than Apple's timeline. The mini adapter that I had for my phone to listen to music got lost somewhere, and I'm reluctant to replace the 10 dollar thingie because I'm sure it'll turn up sometime in the future. So I'm old schooling it, using a 512mb iRiver mp3 player that I used for my weddings to record vows. Its a tiny ful featured player, with radio, line in, and mic in features, through the UI is complex beyond belief. Its like 5 buttons to do sixty things. So hopefully a cheaper 199 iPod touch or a nicer and cheaper Nano will make me happy.

But now when I go to work, i'll have a ton of gadgets again.

New iPods need to come out quick, my musical needs are cycling through my devices faster than Apple's timeline. The mini adapter that I had for my phone to listen to music got lost somewhere, and I'm reluctant to replace the 10 dollar thingie because I'm sure it'll turn up sometime in the future. So I'm old schooling it, using a 512mb iRiver mp3 player that I used for my weddings to record vows. Its a tiny ful featured player, with radio, line in, and mic in features, through the UI is complex beyond belief. Its like 5 buttons to do sixty things. So hopefully a cheaper 199 iPod touch or a nicer and cheaper Nano will make me happy.

But now when I go to work, i'll have a ton of gadgets again.

Waiting here in the doctor's office with the kids while the wife is having an "adult" conversation with the doctor is driving me crazy. Alex was initially getting on my nerves because he was climbing all over the furniture, and making demands like, "I'm thirsty" because he just wanted to try the water cooler. Honestly, the first thing that tempered my bitchiness was when we first stepped into the office. There's no reception, just a waiting area and a bunch of rooms. Its basically like a house that was converted for office use, so the waiting room is also the living room, and the bedrooms are offices. Anyway, stepping in, and the aroma of burnt coffee and a weightlifter's sweaty belt comes to mind. It isn't a pleasant whiff whatsoever. Now I've became horridly accustomed to the smell, but the freezing temp is inching me closer to irrational irritation. We've been waiting for 35 minutes now. I just broke out the handheld games for them are the batteries are also dead for both of them. Nice.

Anyhow, after this freezing debacle, we're going to my first company picnic. There was one last year but I didn't go.

As for the rest of the day, I'm planning to watch "Predator" on Blu Ray later tonight, and continue with Battlefield Bad Company, I was really starting to enjoy myself with that game. Its got a nice sandbox feel to it, minimal loading, and very destructible enviroments. I was grenading a house to obilivion wall by wall yesterday. Next gen games sure are juicy.

Firefox is hot.

Couldn't think of anything witty, so the immortal words of Paris Hilton came to mind. Anyway.

The other day, my wife saw Alex crawling over to another boy in Martial Arts class and spanked the boy on his butt, so she brought that up to him in the car. He denied it, saying that he didn't do it. Since we're his parents, we can usually tell if he's just denying to just get out of trouble or he's denying it because it simply isn't the truth to him. In this case it seemed to be the latter.

"But I didn't hit him," he said.

"Then how come I saw you go over there and spank him?" inquired Mommy.

"Maybe your glasses were dirty," offered the boy.

We thought it was pretty funny. But he sincerely didn't think he did anything wrong, so there might be more to that. I was going to twitter or blog about something else he said, but it fell out of my head.

Which leads me to wonder if Twitter archives all my posts permanently, like Google does? It would be nice, though archiving the Tweets will be a bit more challenging than Blogger. I think all the posts are somewhat disposable reading anyway, really.

My newest toy is something I've been waiting for a while, a laptop lap companion, or whatever the hell it's supposed to be. Basically it's a contoured type dealy you place between your laptop and your lap so that your balls don't cook under the building heat from the battery. The iBook does get a little toasty and usually I just put a kids' hardcover book for that. But I was at Costco and for about 20 bucks, there was a Belkin one with a USB fan built it, so despite my horrible luck with the brand (Belkin 2, Me 0), I got it anyway. Figured even if the fan broke, all I really neat is that hunk of plastic and that shouldn't break. Knock knock. But I was feeling around under the thing to get the hinge to pop up and stuck my finger in the fan. All my swearing did was make my wife laugh harder.

I might have made a pretty good call with an upcoming gadget. I was going to purchase a used iPod touch from a co-worker of my good friend Kenneth in Singapore, along with a book explaining how to avoid unnecessarily long run on sentences. It was a fair enough price, but the rumor mill on the web is ablaze with possibly a vast iPod refresh for the Nano as well as a cheaper iPod touch, so I'm holding out for that. Should be in the next few weeks, which is just as well because I'm seeing a lot of overtime for the next few weeks. If everything goes accordingly.

Am using Firefox now and I'm liking it. Although none of my bookmarks are really set up, having the Twitter on the address bar and the Piclens is really handy, and it does RSS feeds as well, which is something Camino doesn't. Oh well, maybe I'll just mosey on over slowly.

Someone at work remarked, "You keep a blog?" and I've been wondering why I do. This overwhelming need to share my personal life on the web, even though I'm really not interesting enough to do so. I'm not sure, really. It's an outlet I suppose. Sometimes I feel as if it spoils what little social life I have, since people generally already know new news before I get to talk to them personally. Good thing my posts aren't that regular then, eh?

Happy 4th Birthday, Zoe!

I had wanted to blog about things before Zoe's birthday, but I'll just mash it all together and make a super post. Anyway, today was a day of purples, pinks, and princesses when Zoe's presents and cakes just overtook everything in the house. Abby Cadabby, who was previously unknown in this household, became a minor theme, along with Disney princesses, Barbie, and a whole lot of artsy tools. We had a family type gathering, with my brother and his family and my mother in law here to wish the Z a Happy Birthday. Zoe was pretty happy, seeing all these toys but the excitement value was carried mostly by Alex, who seemed more happy about the presents than Zoe did. Nonetheless, I think she had a ball. Now we just gotta figure out where to put all the new toys.

It's a little odd to think that it's been four years since Zoe was born. For some reason Alex always seems like he should be younger and Zoe should be older. Somewhere between their births they must've been some type of time distortion rip of some sort. The little girl sure does have some sass on her, she's always telling her brother what and what not to do, but she's also got some heart on her as well. Last night after I tucked her in, she told me she "was going to give me something special" and it was a hug and kiss. Somehow presenting that in that package made it something more than ordinary.

Zoe is something special for me, as well as my family. It's odd, since my mom's never had daughters, and my brother's never had a sister, so nobody knows how to shop for a girl. Luckily, though we were heavy on the artsy gifts and some princess stuff, there wasn't really anything to steer her into gender specific crap. Girls toys can be so oppressive sometimes, forcing little girls to concentrate on nothing but improving their looks and vanity-related tomfoolery. While boys are busy making war, girls are busy doing make up.

I'll get some photos up soon. Man, feel like this weekend I've done nothing much, and I think after this weekend I'll be okay to do some OT again. We've done a bit of overspending and I need to make up for it bad.

I lured yet another person into Rock Band, although I was expecting my brother to be into the drumming portion of the game. My sister in law ended up really digging the game, starting with the drums and then really digging the guitar. My brother tried it but didn't get much out of it. That, including Jay who was inquiring about purchasing a PS3 after I got him hooked on the drums, and my wife and it looks like we might have a band. Now I just have to figure out how to make Harmonix pay me for my efforts.

Watched "Hot Fuzz" yesterday and it was hilarious. I can see how it might've flown over the American audience, especially if they didn't quite gather that it was a dry spoof of sorts. It was a homage of buddy movies, and it was just a lot of fun to watch.

In other news, I did get my glasses fixed after a rather uninteresting snap early morning while I was cleaning my glasses. At first I thought my lens had just popped out, but then the sickening discovery that the frame had actually snapped. Lousy monkeys. Thankfully, the stupid Lenscrafters guy was too dismissive to sell my wife a replacement duplicate frame, and instead gave her a card for eyeglass repair shop in Bellevue. So instead of spending a couple C's on new frames, I got a weld job for about 50 bucks. However, due to some sketchy park job in some sketchy lot, they issued me a 25 dollar parking ticket which I intend to shove it up their lot. Those tossers issuing tickets to an empty lot. That's just annoying. Spoilt my day a little.

Well, that's about all that's about the Diego. I think Zoe's Princess Stories are about to end soon. Then I gotta get my hair cut and maybe a costume change, since I saw the worst photo ever taken of me by my wife. The WORST.



What the hell is wrong with my body? I had the budding chest of a 13 year old girl, the heightened gut of a fat guy falling from space, and it looks like the features of my face are trying to centralize themselves where my nose is. Damnit.

But here's prove that I'm not that hideous all the time. Different photo, same day.