Bike odometer: 2523
Van odometer: 154364
Weight lost (in pounds): 0
Aches & pains:Â sciatica
Current reading: My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk, Cross-platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets
Recent listening: Christmas music, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits
Recent viewing:Â Bounce, It’s a Wonderful Life, Spurs at Suns, King Corn, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Kingpin, Outback Bowl, The Shining, The Covenant, United 93, The Weird Al Show
Recent playing: Chain Factor, Galcon, Rock Band
Recently accomplished: Purchased new TV, Christmas shopping, snow removal, recycling
Imperative To Do: Get rid of office junk, freecycle, activate new Tivo, clean garage, get rid of MacRenewal Macs, trim bushes, pull blackberries
-
All I Got For Christmas
- Rock Band 2
- Home-made tree ornament
- Airport Extreme wireless base station
- Craig Ferguson’s book (fiction)
- Dead Space for XBox 360
- Dry rub
- Christmas Around the World (CD)
- Cash (an old favorite)
In three words – best toys and gifts for boys!
Click the photo to see the notes.
Update 12/30/08: Today I received Richard Thompson’s Across A Crowded Room and a cool Woot t-shirt. Also, I forgot to mention two pairs of loose-cuff sweatpants I got on Christmas.
-
Snowpocalypse 2008
Someone on Twitter coined the term “snowpocalypse” to describe the breathless media frenzy of the impending snow storm last week. Unfortunately, the snow has not melted and it has been a little snowpocalyptic around here since it arrived. I snapped a few pictures and put them in a set on my Flickr account. Unfortunately, there are probably more to come. I left Iowa 20 years ago to get away from this crap!
-
Ming and Other Pictures
I’ve been working late nights this week and Ming has missed my presence in bed I think. Last night he came out and kept demanding my attention. It was unusual enough when he croaked his meower at me but when he climbed onto my desk it was apparent that he needed attention. After I tried to ignore that, he settled on my Macbook Pro and sat there daring me to remove him. Eventually I was able to convince him to get off my laptop but he sought warmth elsewhere. I snapped a bunch of pictures and as usual a few came out pretty good. I was especially happy with the last few because, up until now, I’ve been unable to get a good picture of his cataracts. He’s totally blind in his left eye and can only see out the edges of his right eye.
-
People come from all around to watch the magic boy
This week both of our boys had holiday concerts at school. Graham is playing the cello now in the fourth grade orchestra and Thomas plays the double bass for his middle school chamber orchestra. Graham was very nervous before his concert appearance but I think it was all over so fast that he didn’t have time to think about it too much. The chamber orchestra was great (as always) and Thomas was even featured on a song from Lost called “Mist”. We’re very proud of both our boys and their musical ability. I’m glad for them because I’ve never really had the ability to play music except in the most robotic sense.
-
Prop 8: The Musical
Proposition 8, which amends the California constitution to limit marriage between a man and a woman, was recently passed by voters. Although California was not the first state to do so, it has probably been the most prominent and controversial. Some of Hollywood’s denizens – including John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Neil Patrick Harris and Allison Janney – have responded with musical humor:
-
Drain surfer
I love the boy’s face, which doesn’t even seem wet, surrounded by brown liquid that doesn’t really look like water. Click the thumbnail on the right for a better view.
