Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Either the mainstream's nuts, or I'm dense.

Truly, I think I'm just dense in this case.

For what seems like at least two weeks now, the US political news has discussed a resolution being debated in Congress that, if I understand it correctly, would state for the record that Congress is opposed to the Bush administrattion's Iraq Troop Surge, and that Congress is critical of the handling of the Iraq 'war'.

Many news reports are discussing this issue. Many House and Senate members are spending a lot of time and effort on the issue.

I Don't Get It. This is a NON-BINDING resolution. IT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING. This would be like me telling somebody about to vote for a Republican "I think you're wrong." They aren't likely to change their vote. No penalties or ramifications occur.

I really don't see the point of a non-binding resolution, especially one that concerns important matters like this. It's not as though Congress is declaring they don't like the shade of green that Utica, Mississippi chose to paint a gazebo in a park.

What possible benefit can there be to something so meaningless, and why would allegedly intelligent Congress-critters spend so much time on this?

Over the last several years I've become more and more convinced that education is a curse, and being clueless and uninterested about world affairs is probably key to being happy. (And, apparently, key to becoming President as well.)

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

bits and flotsam....

Current mood = dreary.

Job still stinks. No calls back from the previous interviews yet.

Worked at my favorite client site today - 9 hours, still haven't solved the problem I was called in to fix yet.

Bought groceries, came home, had leftover chinese and an Abita Purple Haze.

Watched the last 30 minutes of Star Trek Voyager. I haven't watched Voyager in years. When it was current, I watched the first few seasons, and decided it was without a doubt the worst Star Trek series made. Tonight I gave it another chance. It's as bad as I remembered.

Now, I've just started watching Scrubs, a show I only recently discovered via syndication. Scrubs is an excellent show. However, in keeping with the theme, I've seen this Scrubs episode already, and I've only been watching the show for a few weeks.

Kids just came home. Gotta run.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Nate's 6th Birthday



Yesterday, January 13, 2007, Nathan turned 6 years old. I woke up around 6:45AM, and puttered on the computer for a little while, while the rest of the house slept. At around 7:15, Nate came down and greeted me. In honor of his birthday, I showed him a Mickey Mouse Gamecube game I'd bought last week (Disney's Magical Mirror). It was pretty bad, as is usually the case with licensed games, but we gave it a shot.

I thought that maybe Nate would like the game, as he's younger and therefore might be a less discriminating gamer, but soon after we began, Nate also decided the game was pretty bad, and we took the disc out and put it away.


We then put in Chibi Robo. Chibi Robo is a cute little game where your character is a 4-inch tall robot, whose mission in life is to make the Sanderson family happy. You do this but giving the daughter flowers, cleaning the house, etc...
It's actually a fun game, and Nate took a liking to it as soon as all of the introductory clips ended and he was able to actually do things.

After an hour-and-a-half or so of playing videogames, we went for breakfast. Nate wanted it to be a guys-only event, so we let Maren and Mom sleep in, and the two of us drove to Friendly's. It being Nate's birthday, he had a large pancake with M&M's mixed in the batter, and a hot chocolate with whipped cream. The Friendly's folks gave Nate a Happy Birthday balloon, and then we went home.

We collected Maren and Jessica and drove to Jessica's parent's new apartment, where we collected the two of them and Jessica's sister, Elissa. The seven of us proceeded to drive about 45 minutes North, to visit Jessica's Poppie Jim. We visited Poppie for a little while, watched the beginning of the Colts/Ravens game, and then left to go home. On the way back home we picked up some Chinese food for dinner, and ate it at Jess' parent's place, while Nate and Maren ran around and we watched the beginning of the Saints/Eagles game. After dinner, Jessica, Maren, Nate and I drove home. As the second quarter of the Saints game ended, we pulled in to the driveway.

Jess put Nate to bed, I put Maren to bed, and watched the end of the game. As Nate's birthday came to an end, I began updating this blog (see the multiple posts below), and went to bed.

Nate's Birthday. - will recap tomorrow.

So much to say, so little time. It's almost 2am, and I'm wiped out. I wanted to post about Nate's birthday today, but the last two posts took longer than I anticipated, so I'll catch you all up tomorrow.

GO SAINTS!!!!

For those of you not partying on Bourbon Street right now, Good Night. Pleasant Dreams.

Hanging with Nathan.

I've been pretty busy lately, and have neglected the blog. This post can serve as a sort of recap, as well as a photo show of sorts.

I mentioned earlier this month that I took 12 days off from work at the end of the year. During that time, on December 28, I went with Nate into NYC for a daytrip. We took the train, because Nate loves taking the train into New York. We had a hot dog & a Knish from a street vendor. We did a lot of walking around, in addition to riding the subway. We walked through Grand Central Station. All of those activities were fun, and a part of the package, but our main objective on this visit was to see a model train exhibit in the Citigroup Center.

The model train exhibit was definitely worth the trip, and very, very impressive. Imagine an elaborate model train set-up you've seen. This one most likely blew it away. In one section of the 'town' there was a Drive-In Movie Theatre, with a packed lot of customers, watching a real movie! That is to say, there was an actual moving picture on the screen (something black and white, as the setting was the 50's, I believe).

There were 4 sides to the exhibit, each gracefully flowing into the other, and each representing a distinct season. There was also a day/night cycle, with appropriate lighting changes, and neat neon lights, signs, and billboards that lit up the night. There were even animated neon signs like you would see on a Main Street, or in Times Square.

I took several pictures and videos, but unfortunately most didn't come out very well.

Pics from our NYC Adventure, December, 2006:

Nate on platform as our train approaches
the Montclair State University station:



Nate & I playing with our camera's
'self-portrait' setting while on the train:



Outside Macy's:




The Holiday Light Show in Grand Central Station:



Nate on the Grand Central Station Subway platform:




The Model Train Exhibit:

       



   




In front of the subway map,
on our way home:

How 'Bout 'Dem Saints?!?!?!?!?!



!! Special Saints Edition !!
Sean Payton must have paid a visit to the Voodoo Gods and Goddesses at the beginning of the 2006 NFL season, because the choke-artists of years past seem to have been fully excised from the NEW New Orleans Saints. These guys, I'm finally convinced (well, with lingering nagging doubts, admittedly) are the Real Deal. Wow. I just watched the game against the Eagles, and there were so many opportunities to blow it, but the team held strong and gets to move on to the NFC Championship. Win that and they go to the SUPER BOWL. Having watched the Saints for almost 30 years or so, I'd have never believed they'd go to the Super Bowl in my lifetime, but now they've almost made it.I believe that, if they show the same backbone and character they showed tonight, they could just make it after all. Wow.

So, for the time being ignore the clashing colors on this webpage. In honor of the New Orleans Saints, I'm going Black'n'Gold for a little while, and I'm not an expert web designer.

Wheeee!!!

Friday, January 05, 2007

Can't Pretend That Getting Older Never Hurts....

For almost 2 weeks (12 days) I took vacation days, and only returned to work this past Wednesday. By yesterday (Thu) I was already miserable again and wanting to walk out of the place.

Many of the friendly people have left, and most (all?) of the jerks have remained.

God I want a new job. It's time.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Quote from a recent Chris Rose column...

Based on "availability of data and geographic diversity," Forbes rated Milwaukee as America's drunkest city, Minneapolis-St. Paul second, on and on down the list until you get to New Orleans at No. 24.

Yes, 24. The Saints are in the playoffs. White voters re-elected Ray Nagin and William Jefferson. GQ magazine says New Orleans restaurants suck. The city has just one assessor. Britney Spears is, well . . . ah, never mind

Hell has indeed frozen over.

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