We were taking it pretty easy today, just hanging around the house and doing some decorating for Halloween. My mother in law came over to help decorate, and like a real man, I simply stood and took pictures. But turns out that my wife wouldn't have wanted me to help anyway, since she had a Halloween vision and I wasn't wise to it. But we had a pretty relaxing day, and then I got really caught up playing Rock Band online with strangers. For some reason, if other people are playing with me, I tend to play better because I don't want to be the one that fails the band.
So dinner was a little late, and after dinner we were listening to my iPod when "Dancing in the Rain" came on. I stopped the song much to the kids protest, since they really like that song. For the longest time they thought it was a Winnie the Pooh song, probably because of the orchestration behind it. I pulled up the clip online and they watched with awe, and Zoe recognized it as tap dancing right away. So they were so in awe that we ended up watching Fred and Ginger, Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry the Mouse, and Zoe was the cutest when she asked, "Why is the room gray?" I had to explain that a long time ago, movies didn't have color. "Oh." she replied. I wondered if she thought that people were gray as well.
After the kids went to bed, I watched a bit of "Doomsday" but stopped when the wife came home, since "Doomsday" was pretty much a boy movie. Then we watched "Leatherheads" with Clooney and it was a pretty fun movie. Clooney doing comedy is always worth a watch, since he really has a knack for it. It wasn't quite as screwball as I'd like it, but it was pretty good. Funny thing was, when I looked it up, the core audience turned out to be 50 to 80 year olds. I guess I do like older movies sometimes.
I've been using blip.tv to upload videos of Pizza Bento, and it's been a really good experience. It auto-links so that when it posts on my blog, it also creates a link for iTunes to reference. So, goodbye to Vimeo and even Revver. Blip.tv is my new friend.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Spent a whole afternoon trying to not be bothered by insane children, and trying not to lose my mind trying to find the right setting for visualhub for the Pizza Bento podcast. I think I may finally have a solution. Of course, I would have to retro convert all the previous episodes. Holy crap, why am I spending so much time on this anyway? Even then, not even sure if it'll fix the problem on Vimeo on audio resyncing. Sigh.
The kids are being a little loco right now. Not quite sure what the deal is, just that they're just hyper, not listening, and flirting with bedroom imprisonment. Alex had a whine fest just now while doing homework, and has been about the same way all week. Double sigh.
Just stepping away from the computer for right now. All that video conversion is enough to make one lose his gourd.
The kids are being a little loco right now. Not quite sure what the deal is, just that they're just hyper, not listening, and flirting with bedroom imprisonment. Alex had a whine fest just now while doing homework, and has been about the same way all week. Double sigh.
Just stepping away from the computer for right now. All that video conversion is enough to make one lose his gourd.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The Late All Encompassing Post
This is what happens when I don't blog for a while, all my memories become a mass of information that's difficult to digest.
First off, I'll just start off with the kids, so my wife can just read the first part and skip the rest. I know she loves me a lot, but for the most part, my tech and geek rambles probably bore her to death.
So I guess Alex has been a bit of a bear this week, whereby he likes to find something to be upset about. He'll laser focus on one thing that he knows is out of his reach, demand it, and when we can't offer it, he'll pout and repeat over and over again how much he really likes it. He had a one-two punch yesterday when I ran into the video store while the family waited in the car - he wanted to go in with me and when my wife said no, he got really sad about it and also complained that he couldn't see out his window because it was raining.
Actually, on my birthday eve when we were eating at a Chinese restaurant, he noticed that it was getting dark and he said that he didn't like it when it was dark, and acted panicky. I probably dismissed it. He's been going through a few fears, like going to another part of the house during the day by himself, and yesterday being in the bathroom with the automatic flush. After the toilet auto flushed, he clung onto me and told me he was afraid and I had to explain to him that there was only one possible outcome when he comes into a stall. After he pees, the toilet flushes. That's it. If he expects it to flush, he can just prepare for it.
I'd like to give props to Hulu.com. What I thought was a rather silly venture for the networks has actually been a godsend. We caught episodes of Life and Heroes when we missed the initial airings, and despite having to sit through repeated commercials of "Eagle Eye" over and over, the streaming is pretty nice, even on a older computer like mine. Nothing to download, easily searchable. And the content is actually pretty strong, with some clips, and a pretty respectably library of movies, including uncensored R rated movies. Whereas youtube is like sifting through the trash for some good stuff, Hulu is probably more like going to a really good public library. In fact, when I missed the VP debate, I caught part of it on Hulu until I was so creeped out but Palin winking at me I had to stop.
This holiday season is going to be tough for me namely because I don't have that much money to indulge in all the great games that will be coming out. For sure, Rock Band 2 and Little Big Planet, the latter because it's something creative and the kids could sorta get into it, and the former, well, because it's raped my brain and it's all I ever think about. But I played the Bioshock demo and it is sick good. I'm not a big survival horror guy but I appreciate the really good games like RE4, Bioshock, and even Dead Space, which looks like fun even though I'll likely be playing with the volume at a subdued level.
Oh, another geeky thing. For a moment I was considering getting an external battery for my iPod nano because unlike most normal human beings, when I use my iPod daily, I use it for almost 11 1/2 hours, the moment I start work and listening to music and podcasts, to my breaks when I watch game trailers or diggnation or the news. It is always on. Anyway, it wasn't lasting the whole day during my regular use, dying during the last stretch of my shift. But after some experimentation, I'm getting it to last the whole day by doing the following.
1) Turning off the EQ, which I guess is actually a battery suck when it has to correct your original track by adding more oomph.
2) Turning off the preview panel and the cover art.
3) Turning off the backlight.
Oh yes, #3 is a last resort, because although the screen is still visible, without any overhead light it is close to impossible to see. But even when I had it on 2 second backlight, it was still draining the iPod. So I operate it without the backlight while listening to music, and during my breaks when I watch the video, the backlight would be at half the brightness and that would be just fine.
Geek geek geek.
Rented Lego Batman. Alex is real happy about that. I'll have to see what we can do today, it's my wife's last day of vacation, so we should probably do something.
First off, I'll just start off with the kids, so my wife can just read the first part and skip the rest. I know she loves me a lot, but for the most part, my tech and geek rambles probably bore her to death.
So I guess Alex has been a bit of a bear this week, whereby he likes to find something to be upset about. He'll laser focus on one thing that he knows is out of his reach, demand it, and when we can't offer it, he'll pout and repeat over and over again how much he really likes it. He had a one-two punch yesterday when I ran into the video store while the family waited in the car - he wanted to go in with me and when my wife said no, he got really sad about it and also complained that he couldn't see out his window because it was raining.
Actually, on my birthday eve when we were eating at a Chinese restaurant, he noticed that it was getting dark and he said that he didn't like it when it was dark, and acted panicky. I probably dismissed it. He's been going through a few fears, like going to another part of the house during the day by himself, and yesterday being in the bathroom with the automatic flush. After the toilet auto flushed, he clung onto me and told me he was afraid and I had to explain to him that there was only one possible outcome when he comes into a stall. After he pees, the toilet flushes. That's it. If he expects it to flush, he can just prepare for it.
I'd like to give props to Hulu.com. What I thought was a rather silly venture for the networks has actually been a godsend. We caught episodes of Life and Heroes when we missed the initial airings, and despite having to sit through repeated commercials of "Eagle Eye" over and over, the streaming is pretty nice, even on a older computer like mine. Nothing to download, easily searchable. And the content is actually pretty strong, with some clips, and a pretty respectably library of movies, including uncensored R rated movies. Whereas youtube is like sifting through the trash for some good stuff, Hulu is probably more like going to a really good public library. In fact, when I missed the VP debate, I caught part of it on Hulu until I was so creeped out but Palin winking at me I had to stop.
This holiday season is going to be tough for me namely because I don't have that much money to indulge in all the great games that will be coming out. For sure, Rock Band 2 and Little Big Planet, the latter because it's something creative and the kids could sorta get into it, and the former, well, because it's raped my brain and it's all I ever think about. But I played the Bioshock demo and it is sick good. I'm not a big survival horror guy but I appreciate the really good games like RE4, Bioshock, and even Dead Space, which looks like fun even though I'll likely be playing with the volume at a subdued level.
Oh, another geeky thing. For a moment I was considering getting an external battery for my iPod nano because unlike most normal human beings, when I use my iPod daily, I use it for almost 11 1/2 hours, the moment I start work and listening to music and podcasts, to my breaks when I watch game trailers or diggnation or the news. It is always on. Anyway, it wasn't lasting the whole day during my regular use, dying during the last stretch of my shift. But after some experimentation, I'm getting it to last the whole day by doing the following.
1) Turning off the EQ, which I guess is actually a battery suck when it has to correct your original track by adding more oomph.
2) Turning off the preview panel and the cover art.
3) Turning off the backlight.
Oh yes, #3 is a last resort, because although the screen is still visible, without any overhead light it is close to impossible to see. But even when I had it on 2 second backlight, it was still draining the iPod. So I operate it without the backlight while listening to music, and during my breaks when I watch the video, the backlight would be at half the brightness and that would be just fine.
Geek geek geek.
Rented Lego Batman. Alex is real happy about that. I'll have to see what we can do today, it's my wife's last day of vacation, so we should probably do something.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Double the Dork
Super Scanning Post
Early high school photo, possibly freshman year? I look really Chinese here. For some reason, I don't like photos like these, the backdrop with the distant stare. The only time I see them is on the news when people go missing and that's the photo they choose to use.
Daddy and Zoe
I couldn't get the scanner to get all the photo, but that was her drawing of us. Something about the way she draws eyes are interesting. Just huge circles that seem outerworldly.
Octopus
This is one of my favorite drawings that Zoe made. It's so simple and cute, without anything extra to clutter it up.
Gun
Dug up this drawing I did for Japanese class in high school and my wife didn't believe that I drew it. Of course, nowadays the teacher would've flunked me immediately since there's no tolerance for this sort of thing.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Yikes
I was looking at how many posts I've done for this blog as compared to my old American Babies post and I'm barely halfway to what I used to do. But I suppose a few years and a couple infants is a lot of material to work with, whereby me working a lot and being a cranky ass isn't really blog worthy.
So far, I'm having a pretty good weekend. The bosses at work didn't call me in today even though they technically could, so I basically have a 4 day birthday weekend. I didn't really do much yesterday, my present was my iPod from a couple weeks ago, so there were no toys to speak of. My mom did give me a bit of cash, but alas, the three games that I really want don't come out till later.
Rock Band 2, Bioshock and Little Big Planet, FYI.
So being 32 didn't really mean a whole lot, but I did like it more than 31 simply because it rolled off the tongue a little better. We ate at Dairy Queen, and I watched Alex act a little too wacky for his first soccer lesson. And I played a buttload of PS3, including earning a lot of trophies for Burnout Paradise, which received a nice little patch yesterday. It meant me deleting my save file, but I wasn't really that far in the game so I didn't mind much. Also finally made a rather stumbly transition to Rock Band Hard, but I do well enough to stay in the game. For now anyway. It's interesting because the songs that were too easy on medium is just perfect for me in Hard. The songs that were fun in Medium are now melting my brain in Hard. But man, Rock Band 2 will make me a happy little clam because of a couple new things. Freestyle mode means I don't have to hook it up to the Mac anymore, and Steve Miller on Rock Band is a good thing for me.
Was going through the garage looking for the soccer ball and I sorted through some of my old junk and came across a lot of stupid things I should've thrown out a long time ago. But I did find some interesting things that I'll share later, including a drawing that my wife didn't believe that I drew. More later. Soccer now.
So far, I'm having a pretty good weekend. The bosses at work didn't call me in today even though they technically could, so I basically have a 4 day birthday weekend. I didn't really do much yesterday, my present was my iPod from a couple weeks ago, so there were no toys to speak of. My mom did give me a bit of cash, but alas, the three games that I really want don't come out till later.
Rock Band 2, Bioshock and Little Big Planet, FYI.
So being 32 didn't really mean a whole lot, but I did like it more than 31 simply because it rolled off the tongue a little better. We ate at Dairy Queen, and I watched Alex act a little too wacky for his first soccer lesson. And I played a buttload of PS3, including earning a lot of trophies for Burnout Paradise, which received a nice little patch yesterday. It meant me deleting my save file, but I wasn't really that far in the game so I didn't mind much. Also finally made a rather stumbly transition to Rock Band Hard, but I do well enough to stay in the game. For now anyway. It's interesting because the songs that were too easy on medium is just perfect for me in Hard. The songs that were fun in Medium are now melting my brain in Hard. But man, Rock Band 2 will make me a happy little clam because of a couple new things. Freestyle mode means I don't have to hook it up to the Mac anymore, and Steve Miller on Rock Band is a good thing for me.
Was going through the garage looking for the soccer ball and I sorted through some of my old junk and came across a lot of stupid things I should've thrown out a long time ago. But I did find some interesting things that I'll share later, including a drawing that my wife didn't believe that I drew. More later. Soccer now.
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