Intellectual Poison

My neighbors, the ones who were total jerks but moved out more than a year ago now because the dad couldn't pay his mortgage and child support his daughter sued him for, well he's in the process of defaulting on his home loan and his house is going to be publicly auctioned off.

Which makes me thoroughly happy. Not so much that he's having financial trouble though I would bailing his two misfit sons out of jail every other week isn't helping, but that they won't be moving back in, ever.

If we were in a better financial position, I'd actually consider trying to buy the house. Especially since it will probably sell for an absolute steal given the market conditions and the surplus of foreclosed homes on the market. Anyone got an extra $350,000 laying around they want to invest in some real estate?

Can you say Karmic Justice? I knew you could.

Labels: karma, neighbor

As many children are sure to do, my son is going through a phase where he pretends to be a dog or, less commonly, a cat. He follows Nande, our big hound, around the house, curls up on her bed with her and will "retrieve" items in his mouth.

All of which is pretty funny and entertaining.

But last night took the cake. I made dinner for Nande and put it down for her. Grady came downstairs, saw Nande eating and immediately had to have a bowl of goldfish crackers to eat too. He took the bowl, put it on the floor next to Nande's and proceeded to eat out of it without his hands, like a dog. He even came up to me afterwards to get his after-dinner pet just like Nande does.

It was pretty darned hilarious.

Labels: funny, raising children

There have been a rather uncomfortable number of gang violence assaults lately, including a broad daylight shooting in Live Oak, an armed robbery, several stabbings and more.

And the violence isn't being restricted to Watsonville, there are attacks taking place in Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and other localities.

I usually do not care all that much about the gangbangers because they usually don't care much about me. I'm not within their target demographic but I do know that some wouldn't think twice about robbing me or harming me or my family.

Have I mentioned recently how much I dislike living in a gang warfare zone? Or that I have to think twice before putting on a jacket to leave the house to make sure I'm not wearing enemy colors.

Labels: gangs, violence

Just read this interesting article at MSNBC called Stranded at the airport? Don’t forget Rule 240 which basically boils down to this.

If you get stranded at the airport due to a flight cancellation then you can ask (ask, do not DEMAND!) that the airline use Rule 240 to get you on the next available flight to get you to your destination. Note, not the next available flight by that carrier, the next available flight, period.

Rule 240 mandated that an airline facing a delayed or canceled flight had to transfer you to another carrier if 1) the second carrier could get you to your destination more quickly than the original line and 2) it had available seats.

Which is a pretty nice and empowering little bit of rule making for passengers, imagine that! Of course it has to be a legacy from the old days since the airlines wouldn't want to empower passengers in anyway. Heck, they'd have us fly buck naked and unconscious if they could.

Has anyone out there used Rule 240 to escape a sleepover at the airport? I'd love to hear about it in action.

Labels: flying, passenger rights

I'm feeling a little extra cynical this morning so I thought it would be fun to go through an off-the-cuff list of people in the news who really need a good, hard cock punch and why.

George Bush - um, because he's been a miserably crappy jackass of a president
Bono - his desperate need for a cock punch is only outpaced by his desperate need to appear to be a good and decent guy when he's really a colossal douchebag
Al Davis - thanks for continuing to guide the Raiders into the black hole that is your own asshole, your public emasculation of Lane Kiffin to try and force him to quit to save $4 million is beyond contempt and you have doomed your team to the cellar until you sell them or die
Arnold Schwarzenegger - you want to shut 48 California State Parks to save $13 million over two years, the asinine-dness of this proposal is truly staggering
Bud Selig - thanks for being a hypocritical ass
Roger Clemens - you juiced, everyone knows it, quit pretending you didn't because all its doing is making you look like an even bigger dick than you already are
Lynne Spears - you writing a book on parenting is like Ted Bundy writing a book on dating tips, you are an all-time hall of fame bad parent of an insane 20something and a pregnant 16 year old, your parenting advice is laughable
Jessica Simpson - just because the stupidification of America started with you, you incredibly dense simpleton
Rudy Guiliani - every day you look more and more like a ghoul with receding lips and gums, like monkey trying to show dominance or something
Tom Cruise - dude, just shut up and go away. You and your scam religion are just annoying and stupid

That's all I've got for right now, I'm sure there are more. Who do you think is in desperate need of a cock punch?

Labels: celebrity, cock punch, politics

Saw this over on The People's Republic of Seabrook (originally from Democratic Caucus which has data source attributions) and had to post it here because it provides a very, very clear picture of just how far we, as a nation, have fallen under Dubya's dubious leadership.
The standout data: more Americans in poverty, the cost of insurance has doubled to $12k per year, the shocking drop in views of the US around the world (12% for Turkey!), greater consumption of foreign oil, negative personal savings and almost twice consumer credit debt over 2001.
There's no way to avoid the fact that George W. Bush has been an abject failure as a president and has done almost immeasurable harm to our nation on every front. Whoever replaces him in the White House will have a steep hill to climb out of the pit Dubya dug for us.

Labels: bush, legacy, politics

It occurs to me from time to time just how very fecally oriented parenting is. And being a dog owner is for that matter.

An enormous amount of effort, both mental and physical, goes into keeping butts poop free and skin clean and clear of rashes. Because, if you didn't know, some poop has an alkalinity or acidity that can actually burn sensitive baby backsides.

Luckily there's Boudreaux's Butt Paste for when either of the boys get a little rashy. The stuff is magical. It soothes rashes almost instantly and repairs damage alot faster than you'd think was possible. Sully is totally down with the Boudreaux's, he knows what it is, knows what it does and is happy to lie still so he can get some relief applied.

Grady, on the other hand, will have nothing to do with it. At some point in his few short years of life, he's decided that medicine is the devil's business. He won't allow bandaids on cuts or scrapes, he won't allow Neosporin on those same wounds, he will quite literally freakout if we try to use some butt paste on his butt, even when it is obviously very, very tender and sore.

I'm not sure where he got the fear against medicine but it can be a real pain in the butt (literally sometimes) to try and get some cold meds or some fever reducer down his throat some nights. Luckily someone came up with meltaways that don't actually taste like dirt, they have an okay grape-y flavor that he'll put up with. But sometimes it is just too much of a battle to put up with.

Anyway, back to the fecal theme.

Our life revolves around diapers, wipes and butt paste. Having enough, having enough upstairs and down. Finding the wipes when you've got a kid down and half undressed. And chasing down two little boys who think it is the height of hilarity to turn and run the other way when it comes time to change one of their drooping diapers.

One nice thing about all the rain we've been getting is that I can't go out in the backyard and scoop up all of Nande's poop. And reducing my poop chore list (I might be inclined to call it a duty or doody list) by one is never a bad thing. But I am ready for the rains to go away for a few days so we can dry out. But not as ready as I am for Grady to really start taking to the potty training.

Labels: diapers, parenting

School Cop Investigated for Porn Link on Friend's MySpace Profile

That's right, the cop is being investigated because a "friend" on MySpace had a link to a legal adult site.

I'm glad the St. Petersburg PD has nothing else to do but investigate incredibly dodgy charges of making adult content available to underage children.

Which is utterly ridiculous. I think they should go after search engines next because if I go to Google.com and type porn into the search string, it returns hundreds of thousands of explicit sex sites. And that's only two clicks!

Seriously, the moron-level in this wrong headed investigation is stunning.

Newsflash to School Officials, there's sex and nudity and violence and hate speech and loony fetishes and all manner of everything on the internets. You can't expect someone to be checking all of the links two clicks down from their profile on a daily basis. Its stupid and demonstrates that these officials investigating really don't have the first clue as to how social networking or the internet really works.

What a waste of tax payer money.

Its easy to allow the jerk on his phone is his Ford Expedition who just cut you off without even seeing you to screw up and ruin an entire day. Its easy to let a momentary assholery take over your reality and make the world darker and uglier.

But easy isn't always better (just don't tell that to water) and it isn't always equitable or acceptable.

Why let your day be hijacked by an instant of bad when the day can be changed to something better, more productive and sunnier?

I deal with a myriad of events that seem almost designed to thwart my having a reasonably good day, from a dog that barks at people only she can see, a toddler who thinks the height of funny is to stand at the television and keep turning it off, a bigger boy who has the most extraordinarily selective hearing ever and a wife who, well, let's just say she's occasionally part of the problem. But do I let it get me down?

I come from a pretty pragmatic world view. What is the downstream effect of me leaving the milk out on the counter? What's the downstream effect of me driving like a jerk to get to work right on time? What's the downstream effect of me not putting the toilet seat down?

Pragmatism is living an examined life, knowing what you are doing, knowing how your actions will impact others and actually giving a damn about how those actions will impact others.

If you're having a bad day and don't want to be having a bad day then make a conscious decision to change your attitude and you'll be amazed at how much better the world looks when you just change the lens you are using to view it.

Labels: perspective, pragmatism, reality

Instead of trying to put together a single issue blog post, I thought I'd just dump the current contents of my brain out into a post.

There are lots of things I'm working on or working through or thinking about.

A big one is the Governator's current plan to close 48 state parks to save $13 million over two years. Which is, as anyone with two brain cells to rub together, completely and utterly asinine. Scuttlebutt online says that he's shutting them down to eventually sell to his rich GOP pals to turn into summer vacation homes. And yeah, I am just cynical enough to believe it.

One of the other legs of his three sided proposal is to cut school budget's by 10% across the entire state. What does this mean on the ground level? Teachers won't have enough materials to effectively educate our kids and the downstream effects of shorting education will take decades to repair. Underfunding education is like shooting yourself in the foot right before a marathon.

I had a thought about Amy Winehouse being the English version of Courtney Love from a couple of years ago when she was in the headlines all the time for increasingly bizarre and shout-for-help behaviours.

Teh Brit needs to go on a long vacation away from people with cameras. Her trainwreck is not entertaining, its just sad. Her pregnant 16 year old sister, her mother and her entire life are a cautionary tale.

I am bummed that spring training will be out of reach again this year. I'd hoped to be able to figure out some way to get here but it just isn't going to happen. I think that I am going to try and figure out a way to go up for Opening Day and a few more games this season since I missed all of last season.

And, because I've got a bunch of work to take care of, I'm going to leave this post with a quote from Gandhi that my mom sent out to me last week.

Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence: wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, politics without principle.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Its that last one that we, as a nation, have been lacking. No wait, that's not quite accurate, Bush has principles, just really messed up and wrong principles.

Labels: random

It is no secret that I've been trying to work my way through some depressed times of late, the reasons are many, the resolutions are few.

But there are things I can do to make myself a happier and better individual and I need to be concentrating on those things I can change rather than allowing myself to get frustrated about the things I cannot change.

Those things include regular exercise, decent sleep (which is only partially under my control), eating well, spending quality time with my family and spending fun time with my friends.

I am approaching the years when mid-life crises are not unheard of and I have felt a little bit of the crisis trying to encroach on my usually pretty sunny and positive disposition. But there is strength in recognizing the approaching ennui and being able to take steps to stave it off or deflect its full brunt.

So, until the lower part of the cycle passes, I'll tread water, try not to make too many waves and try to squeeze out some happiness here and there when I can.

At least my computer lab is in the mid to high 50's already this morning. Yesterday it was an icebox in here until the afternoon.

Labels: ennui, updates

Higher wine prices boost drinking pleasure. Or, another way to look at it, you fool yourself into thinking a cheap wine is better than it really is because you paid too much for it.

It doesn't taste any different but you want to think it does so your brain decides that it does.

Which is a neat trick. But it doesn't work the same way with vodka or whiskey, I can promise you that much.

I wonder if it works the other way, does really expensive wine sold cheaply taste worse? I'd reckon so.

Labels: foolishness, wine

Then don't say anything at all.

.............

Have a warmer Tuesday than I'm having.

Today is our annual football party to celebrate the end of a successful football pool again. I came close to the top but ended up in third overall and I'm pretty okay with that.

The football pool party has grown to become one of the times of the year when all of the old neighborhood comes together. We all either lived together or close enough to be the same thing. But since then we've gotten married, bought houses, made kids and moved. Life goes on.

But I'm looking forward to seeing pals, watching football, letting Nande play with her pal dogs and having a few beers to celebrate the Patriots taking one step closer to a perfect-perfect season.

My predictions:
Patriots over Chargers - 35-24
Packers over Giants - 28-14

Now, if I can only get myself some of those scores on the card and make a little scratch at the party.

Labels: football, party

My wife was playing with Grady the other day and asked him if he had a best friend. And yeah, you guessed it, its me!

He's such a sweet little boy it just about kills me sometimes.

Labels: children

The 5 Most Horrifying Bugs in the World | Cracked.com

The language describing these bugs is a little overly vulgar but the pictures and information about these five nasty nasty bugs will haunt your nightmares.

The five are:
Japanese Giant Hornet
Bullet Ants
Africanized Honey Bees
Army or Soldier Ants
Bot flies

All are nasty, all can cause serious pain and even kill you. There are pictures and videos but I'm not crazy enough to go watching any videos of these nasty little buggers. Especially not any bot fly removals, hellllllll no!

And I don't think I really needed to see the picture of the brain with a big, fat bot fly larva in it, slowly eating a big old cavity in the brain. That was a little too much for me.

Visit at your own risk.

Okay, let me preface this by saying, just because these three boys acted like assholes and had been drinking and smoking dope does not mean that I think they deserved to get mauled by a tiger.

But the fact that they were being assholes, taunting and being rude to a caged animal speaks volumes about the kind of people they are (or were in the Carlos Souza Jr.'s case). And what it says isn't especially complimentary, it shows they are pretty lame ass pricks who get off on being jerks to animals who they thought couldn't do anything to get back at them.

The tiger should not have been able to escape but the three boys should also have not been allowed into the zoo as they were drunk minors (except for the older brother who is almost certainly the source of the alcohol for the minors).

The funny/sad thing about this whole incident is that I feel the worst for the tiger. She had a shitty life to begin with, stuck in a tiny cage, stared at by monkeys all day long, taunted by some punks and generally just stuck in a crappy life.

The vast majority of respondents to the Chronicle's poll think the brothers are responsible for the attack with 84% of 1400 votes going that way. That's overwhelming. But it doesn't matter because those brothers are going to sue the zoo, the city, the police and everyone else and make a few million bucks. Because they taunted a tiger enough to piss it off and make it escape to get a little retribution.

I hope both brothers face charges for their misdeeds in this whole terrible affair. They didn't deserve to get mauled by a tiger but the tiger definitely didn't deserve to get taunted and crap thrown at it or killed for some payback.

Labels: mauling, tiger, zoo

The guy who held my position before, as I've noted before, went well out of his way to not only burn his bridges but scorch any possible references for a job in the future. He went so far as to send an email to an entire school district to broadcast his dissatisfaction with the administration, the teachers, the parking and the fact that he had to share his lab computer with teachers.

Well, I heard that he asked to come back to the district and start working here again because he has been unable to find another job somewhere else. You can imagine the district's response.

Unless you are moving to another country it is just stupid to burn your bridges. Especially in a volatile environment like technology. People are always moving around, to startups to academia to any number of other places and you are bound to run into the same folks at some point or another. Any company he tries to get a job with that has any connection to the district is going to know what a crappy and disgruntled employee he is and will pass him over for a better candidate.

I've burned a few bridges in my time but none without really good strong cause. One boss felt empowered to call me on my days off to bitch at me about stuff I didn't do (not stuff that I was supposed to do, stuff that he couldn't blame on anyone else so he just blamed it on me). Another who felt empowered to decide not to pay me sales commissions I'd earned. I haven't run into her again yet but I know I will, eventually and I'm kind of looking forward to it because she was such a hateful and capricious bitch of a boss.

But I would never in my life broadcast an email to an entire company. The stupidity is beyond comprehension and I wonder if he's starting to regret his flameout resignation?

Labels: employment, flameout

While I think little siblings get screwed over in a great many ways by being little brothers or sisters, I also think they get an awesome advantage by having a role model close to their own size to emulate and worship.

Sullivan has Graydon to look up to and to pretend to be like. As a result, Sully is alot further along on some of his developmental abilities. He has a bunch of words he uses (and he says "Noooooo" in the sweetest way possible), he tries to climb up and jump off of the same stuff Grady does and is probably going to be tough as nails because of his brother's less tender lessons.

That and Sully looks to Grady for cues, about whether something is funny, whether the music is rockin' and when its time to jump up and down on the bed to Choo Choo Bugaloo (the correct answer is that it is ALWAYS time for Choo Choo Bugaloo). Not to say that Sully isn't his own person with his own things he likes, he definitely is his own man (or little boy). He looks up to his big brother but still knows what he likes. And he really likes turning on light switches, drinking (and spilling) water in our bed and apples (all fruits really but apples are one he asks for by name).

In some ways I identify with Sully better because I am a little brother too. But it doesn't really matter, I love my two little boys more than anything in the whole world.

Labels: raising children

You never realize just how dependent you get on something until it is taken away. I am a power user of my mouse's scroll wheel and it really cramped my surfing and working style when the wheel (or ball to be more precise since it can move in any direction) decided to no longer enable me to scroll down.

Luckily the fix was pretty straight forward. Moisten a paper towel or cloth, rub the ball and see if that fixes it up again. If not then turn it over and repeat with some more vigorous rubbing action.

And badda-bing, we're scrolling to the bottom of pages lickety split again. Now if I could only get a longer screwdriver to tear apart an iMac with a dead power supply (hopefully its the power supply and not the hard drive which has a bunch of information the teacher still needs).

Oh yeah, my computer lab is a rather nice and warm (comparitively) fifty-nine degrees already this morning. At this rate I'll be able to take off my heavy fleece pullover just before the end of the day.

Labels: computer repair

I just happened to hear a Mike Huckabee quote about changing the US Constitution to reflect the "living word of God" which pretty much dismisses him as any suitable presidential candidate. Ever hear of the separation of Church and State, Mikey? Or those Constitutional amendments guaranteeing my right to practice my religion free of persecution? You might want to bone up on the documents you're proposing to re-write.

I understand and have zero issue with people having strong religious beliefs. My issue is when people feel justified in ramming their religious beliefs down my throat.

I don't loudly proclaim that God is a comforting figment of people's imagination and that he/she/it doesn't exist in any real sense of the word. This is my fundamental belief but I don't feel the need to talk about it all the time.

I'm sick of the religious pandering and general religiousification of our culture. Thankfully, I see alot more of the pandering on the GOP side who have absolutely zero chance of getting my vote (unless the Democrats nominate Joe Lieberman or Al Sharpton).

If Huckabee did get elected and started to move to rewrite the Constitution to suit his narrow religious needs then I would imagine (and hope) the national outrage would see him back down right quickly.

Oh yeah, the "living word of God" is an oxymoron. God doesn't speak to anyone, God doesn't write anything, the Bible is a bunch of stories written by men like you and me, it wasn't written by God's secretary and handed to man from on high. Its a storybook not unlike any other fictionalized storybook. Calling it the Word of God is illogical and false. It is the Word of God as Presumed by Man, at best.

I know this election season is going to drag out forever and a month and we will all be thoroughly sick and tired of all of it long before the end is in sight. Can't we just skip to the inauguration? We can flip a coin to see if Hillary or Barack wins since I firmly believe either would be a monumental upgrade to the current band of jackasses running the country.

Labels: politics, religion

Okay, let's get the complaining out of the way.

For such a long running show, it was an unconscionable pain in the friggin' ass to get in. The registration areas in Moscone North were closed at 11:30 in morning and all registrations were being processed at Moscone West (a new to me building). The line went hundreds and hundreds of feet down the block and moved in fits and starts and ended in a ridiculous anarchy of lines converging on one undersized and overwhelmed badge printing counter.

It took me nearly an hour and a half from being dropped off to being able to actually go into the expo. That's about 75 minutes too long. Big thumbs down to IDG, the show management company with their logo on everything.

What I was told to bring was the wrong thing to bring, mine did not have an all important barcode. That's just stupid and sets a bad precedent for the rest of the day.

But things got better quickly after finally getting handed my badge.

I met up with Esther whom I haven't seen in a long time and it was good to see her again. We walked out and around Moscone to an Indian restaurant and had a little lunch.

My favorite thing at the show was definitely the MacBook Air. Seeing it in person was very cool, it is skinnier than an Olsen twin, and sexier. And alot less expensive. Toting that while traveling would be no problem whatsoever and the optional solid state drive would make battery life better while making the machine less susceptible to drops and other realities of computing while moving.

But there were lots of neat goodies to be had. Not alot of swag and I didn't win an iPhone or new laptop or drop cash on accessories but I got some good info, had a good time and got some interesting pictures.

I had fun, my wife and kids had fun at the Zeum nearby and we got some cool stuff at Ikea on the way home as well as a stop at In'n'Out Burger, which absolutely never fails to please. The Animal Fries are good but not recommended for consumption while driving. And the grilled onions on the cheeseburgers are truly fantastic.

MacWorld was a good time, it was a long, long day and I think I'm going to go have a slice of coconut cream pie (why yes, I did make it myself) and hit the sack. For tomorrow I return to my icy computer lab (perhaps I'll bring a space heater).

Labels: expo, geekery, macworld

In case you hadn't noticed yet, there's a third column over there on the far right. Let me know if you experience wonkiness, bad rendering or other notable phenomena. Or let me know what you think. It looks busy right now but that's because its new. And maybe its a little busy.

Anyway, I'm off to MacWorld tomorrow. My first time and I'm rather looking forward to it. With a stop at Ikea on the way home, the wootiness is crazy.

Labels: blog, mac

Every so often I'll see some "contact" in my iChat/AIM contacts that I have never seen before and have never been in contact with before. I don't really understand why someone I don't know or have any interest in knowing can just appear in my contacts like they're some pal of mine.

They seem to usually be people within Apple but that may just be my presumption.

Today's mystery guest in my contact list is Liv Green, not a real person but a site about, you guessed it, Living Green. The site is busted, I have zero interest in interacting with a contact list invader and would just as soon lock down my list to bar jackhole interlopers altogether.

But, since I'm using AIM through my GMail, I don't have that functionality as of yet. I bet I can figure out how to do it though.

I just don't get the mentality behind someone or some company deciding its a good idea to dump themselves into contact lists, like I'm just going to open up a chat with someone because they appeared in my list. Um yeah, I'm a little busy for that, thanks. Or no thanks really.

On an unrelated note, I've now got my TwitterBar loaded up on all of the computers I regularly use so it'll be easy to drop quick updates whenever I like. Now I just need to redo my blog template to go three column and there will be space the Twitter badge in the sidebar.

Labels: chat, dumb marketing

I'm heading back to work today after a long holiday break. The kids don't actually start back to school until tomorrow but tomorrow is my trip to MacWorld so I'm going to go put in some time today.

I've got a bunch of ideas I want to see about putting into practice to make the lab more usable, more fun and more educational.

I'd also like to complete the hiring process so I'm a full-time worker rather than a temp for the security reasons, the benefits and the ability to get pay raises and promotions. As it is, I'm barely scratching the surface of the good stuff in working for the district.

It will be nice to get back to work though. I hope my lab isn't as icey as it was leading into the break but the weather's changed so it should be better.

And I'm actually pretty jazzed about going to MacWorld tomorrow even if the surprise closet is mostly empty (i.e. Apple won't be introducing the next category killer tomorrow). Any trip up to the city is fun and this time its all about Macs which is just cool by me and, who knows, I could win myself a new iPhone, that'd be fine!

Labels: school, work

Yesterday was my last official full day of holiday break and the weatherman had said it was going to be stormy up north. So we went south towards Monterey, Carmel and Big Sur. Its pretty ridiculous to live so close to such an amazingly awesome place and to not visit as often as possible.

We stopped just a few times to take some pictures but I did get a few that I'll keep. The throwaway shot above is one.

This is another, from one of the many turnoffs and pullouts on the road. Its a neat and very smart idea to have so many turnouts to make it so easy to pull off andreally take in the splendor. Words don't really convey it, pictures hint at it but the totality and sheer majesty of the whole place is beyond the scope of any lens. Not that people shouldn't try, of course.

One of the really unusual and kind of neat sensations I had was at one of the vista points. I stood up on the edge of a cliff some two or three hundred feet up from the water and felt warm air rushing up the cliff face contrasted with the colder air that had settled into the shadier dirt of the overlook. The warm sea air smelled fresh and, very faintly, like faraway places.

In fact,the whole ride was pretty good fun, until Sully got car sick and ejected cookies all over himself and his car seat. That was a bit of a downer for everyone. But we learned alot for our next trip down, which will likely be an overnighter, maybe even with Nande too.

Labels: big sur, california, coast, drive, photography

A few months ago Rick played around with Twitter and I couldn't understand what the point of it was. Short messages posted from whenever about whatever was my basic understanding.

But since Jay go me using it, I've actually enjoyed being able to keep up to the minute tabs on my friends. Its like getting a slice of their life, from Esther's bemoaning the barrage of PR calls to Jay and Chris' ride updates. It would be neat to have pictures incorporated somehow but I'm sure that's in the works.

When I get a minute (and find a suitable three column template to use) I'll add my Twitter feed to the sidebar. But here it is in-line, for fun. It will get better when I have a better text capable phone.

Labels: news, updates

WowWee's Rovio: 3-wheeled, Wi-Fi enabled robotic home surveillance

I can see some fun applications of this technology. Not only spying on my dog when I'm at work but it would be alot of fun in a school environment. Controlling it from the computer lab and sending it into classrooms around campus, broadcasting the video, would be not only pretty neat but also educational.

The ability to interact on the remote end is pretty sweet too. You can talk to and hear people and things you're viewing. That's good fun.

Add a tray or box to transport items and it would actually be really useful.

Today I took my boys to the mall so they could get their ya-ya's out after being stuck inside most of the last few days thanks to the rain. The mall is one of the few places with a space for kids to go crazy. They've got foam covered sea creatures to play on including a slide, tunnel, octopus head and huge clam shell. The floor's padded and there's a four foot high wall around most of the space that has a bench seat for parents to take a load off while the kids go nuts.

There are also two shoe lockers to stash shoes in. Most kids take off shoes and socks but some keep the socks on and wonder why they have such a hard time climbing up the structure.

Anyway, Grady usually finds a boy or girl near his age and near his temperament to pal up with and play. Which includes running in big circles, screaming and dancing in place. Sometimes while holding hands with the other child. Sully likes to get in the way, either by parking himself at the top of the slide or by immediately trying to reclimb the slide after he's gone down.

Sully likes being a nuisance these days. He delights in turning off the television again and again. And grabbing his brother's toys and running away with a big grin on his face. I call his affliction, little brother-itis, he may never grow out of it.

Anyway, the little boy Grady pal'ed up with today was a rather mischievous little three and a half year old. He and Grady got to chase each other all over the place, up and down the slide, on the back of the shark, sitting inside the giant clam. Good fun. For the most part.

The other little boy liked to push sometimes and I happened to look up from Sully to see him slapping a little girl not once or twice but a couple of quick times in succession. She immediately started crying and the boy got disciplined. But it appeared that there was a pattern of behaviour brewing in him that will need some straightening out.

But overall the trip was a great success made only better by a stop at the park on the way home to throw rocks into puddles and then go puddle stomping until Grady got his pants all wet and that was that.

Labels: rain, raising children

I did not get blown off the continent and out into the ocean, although it seemed like a reasonably good chance it could happen. It has been a busy couple of days punctuated by high winds, sideways rain and muddy dog paws.

Luckily we've got some good toys to keep us occupied like the Geo Trax in the living room and the inflatable Aero bed in the boy's bed room for quality jumping around fun. And quality jumping around fun translates into decent naps.

The big storm never materialized today though. It wasn't very nice or anything but it wasn't stormy and sideways rain.

I feel boring writing about the weather. I'm going to stop now.

By all accounts we in the Bay Area are going to be getting a beating from Mother Nature over the next couple of days. The news just said the Sierra is looking at blizzard conditions and some places will be getting more than two feet of snow. We won't be getting snow, of course, but I'm sure we'll get our share of rain and Nande will make sure we get our share of mud.

And I go back to work tomorrow so that should be some interesting fun.

But for this morning, I'll be battening down the hatches and getting ready to not leave the house. Luckily we've got a Tivo all filled up of Buzz Lightyear and JoJo's Circus.

One bummer about the wet weather is that there's really only one place to take the kids and that's the mall and it gets severely crowded during rainstorms.

At least we were able to get the house cleaned up with the boys at daycare yesterday so we can start today with a mostly clean slate.

Labels: mud, rain, snow, winter storm