HerdingChaos

Loren is laying on Becky’s lap and something amusing to Becky happens. Becky laughs. Then Loren giggles. She has no idea what is funny.. in fact Becky is often reading something that made her laugh. But it does not matter. Loren giggles.

So what is a TWCHDDVR you ask? The Time Warner Digital Cable High Definition Digital Video Recorder is simply the worst executed DVR that I have ever used. However, it was pretty much the only option to get something that even the kids could use that would work in HD at home. Well no more you craptastic monopoly! Tivo has released the Series 3 HD DVR. I own a Series 2 DVR and it has always done what I wanted, never crashed and in general helps me dig through the billions of crap shows and boil my viewing time down to the 2-3 hours a week that I really want to see. I can not wait to take my TWC DVR into the TWC office and ask for two CableCARDS in return. The Tivo is expensive, but they have earned it. I cannot think of any other bit of electronics that I have bought recently that I felt really produced a high quality product for a decent price (except maybe the macbook I bought for Becky). Anyway, once I get it in I will let all two of you know what it is like.

My buddy Derek owns and runs Derek’s Martial Arts Gym. Back when Derek started the gym I helped him a bit here and there getting it setup. The building was in pretty bad shape when he started with it. It looks great now. So great in fact that a few months ago the gym was the setting for a music video for one of Derek’s students Ron D. for his video South Sea. The video has been posted to you tube. Check it out!

We have a DVR in our cable box. It is a bit like a VCR without all the tapes. We record the few shows that Becky and I watch and a ton of kid shows for those rare times that they want to watch TV.

A couple of mornings ago I was sleeping in and Tracy came up to the bedroom. She had the cable/TV remote in her hand. Andrew started school and I think she was a little lonely. She wanted to watch her favorite show, Dora the Explorer.

The remote for the cable box is the universal kind. And the TV is setup to send all the sound through an amp and not the TV. So I was showing Tracy that she needed to hit the CBL button, then POWER, then TV then POWER, then AUX then POWER. She watched all of this closely, then turned to me with a smile on her face and said, “That sure is a lot of power just to watch Dora!”

When Loren is doing something a bit crazy my wife says things like “You are my little nut.” or “Loren is just being a nut.”

Today while driving in the car with the family I hear Tracy from the backseat.

“Loren is just a peanut! Sometimes she is so funny and she is just a peanut!”

Well, Becky never was specific about which nut she was….

I am such a nerd. I just had a random thought that I should have named the kids using names with spellings where every other letter was on a different hand when typing into a QWERTY keyboard. It would have made it easier to type their names.

The internet has been buzzing with anticipation for the new movie Snakes on a Plane. I have seen the FARK comments and other internet references related to Snakes on a Plane so I knew about the movie. I was not really planning on attending the flick. But something really fun did happen a couple of days ago. I got a call from Sam L. Jackson. He started with “Mike! This is Samuel L. Jackson…” He proceeded to tell me to go to the movie with one of my friends who he also named. Mr. Jackson also had details about my life that he used in the conversation like “stop playing around with your computers at work, and stop obsessing about your kids and go see this movie”. Turns out all of this is one of the best executed marketing campaigns I have seen. The guys at varitalk have setup a site where you can send a partially personalized message to a friend via Sam Jackson’s voice. In order to customize the message you provide market information like what type of job, what type of hobbies, and the email or phone number of the receiver. But to offset all of this marketing-big-brother-type-stuff they made something that is fun and really quite cool.

Andrew is 6. I still sometimes do not believe this because he will engage in activities that I normally do not associate with a 6-year-old. For example he likes to play chess. He likes to play a computer game called Civilization. He chats with me on Yahoo IM when I am out of town. He questions me about cars and then proceeds to explain the difference between front, rear, and 4 wheel drive vehicles (something that, as far as I know, I did not teach him). He does other things like reading and spelling right in line with what you would expect from a 6-year-old. But my parent filter always picks out the above average performances. But sometimes the normal behavior is the most memorable.

I was away from home for work. Andrew was sending me instant messages to just say “hi” and other general chit chat that you might have with a 6-year-old.

We had the following conversation:
(2:31:58 PM) Andrew: hi
(2:32:07 PM) Mike: hi.
(2:32:19 PM) Mike: how has your day been?
(2:32:59 PM) Andrew: god
(2:33:12 PM) Mike: i will be home in 2 days
(2:33:16 PM) Mike: i miss you all
(2:35:16 PM) Andrew: I miss you to.
(2:36:02 PM) Mike: i bought an upgrade to civilization
(2:36:21 PM) Mike: the upgrade adds new leaders and civilization types.
(2:36:32 PM) Mike: we can play it together sometime.
(2:37:33 PM) Andrew: coo

Then a little later:
(5:20:33 PM) Andrew: hi
(5:20:37 PM) Mike: hi buddy
(5:22:03 PM) Andrew: how era yow
(5:22:10 PM) Mike: i am good.
(5:22:21 PM) Mike: I am still working
(5:22:26 PM) Andrew: good
(5:27:49 PM) Mike: http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/warlords/warlords.html
(5:28:08 PM) Mike: click on that and you shoud see the page about the new civilization
(5:28:37 PM) Andrew: cool
(5:32:01 PM) Andrew: osim

I always love reading his IM’s since they are usually phonetic. I saw “osim” and was a bit confused at first because it was the first time I had seen it. Then I said it out loud.

Blueeyes: 1993-2006

I picked him up from the pound when he was a little kitten. He died in his sleep yesterday afternoon.

Sequels and formulaic crap is all we seem to get out of Hollywood lately. We have not had a really compelling original story in quite some time (remember I am talking about Hollywood and not the indie scene). Recently the best story/character based movies have been adaptations of books or a remake of a classic film. Of all of them I have only really been pleased by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Therefore I spend most of my entertainment time buried in books or at the one of the local theater companies or reading interesting blogs online.

One of the blogs that I have always found very entertaining is Jessica Stover’s blog at JSDC. Jessica is a screenwriter/actress/performer living in LA. I originally was sent a link to her blog entry describing her visit with the Star Wars nerds. Many hours later I am sitting up in front of my computer when I should be in bed and I realize that I have read all of JSDC.

So why I am going on like a little fanboy about Jessica? Well she is different.. the good different. She self published a book called Aidmheil that is a collection of short stories, poems, and entries from her blog. Of course I bought the book and I loved every page. I read a ton and I love a good story. I read Greyfeather in Aidmheil and badly wanted more. Usually that type of reaction only happens when I read well established authors that are considered “one of the greats”. Normally I go to the local bookstore and buy the rest of everything they have written and read it all. But with Jessica I have to patiently wait to see what type of awesome she is going to do next. This time is different. This time she needs me to help make the awesome happen. This time she needs you.

Jessica has completed a screenplay codenamed TSL. The story is an original fantasy feature trilogy that has already garnered good feedback from Hollywood. But not enough good feedback for taking a chance on something that is not American Pie 5. The story is not well suited for a small independent production so Jessica is taking another approach. A new website called Eventful allows fans to request a performance in their town. One of her fans made a demand on Eventful and it has slowly been building. The Hollywood types pay attention to numbers. Jess was told that is she could show interest from 100,000 people she would have a good chance of making this movie. So all two of you that read my blog have to go right now and demand a screening of Jessica’s movie. Instructions are provided on JSDC, or you can just click the demand button below. With the power of all those tubes that make up the internet I am sure we can get the demands to 100,000.

This is free and will only take 30 seconds (or 4 min if you are still on dialup). So get clicking!!!!