Carrie Prejean is a real piece of work

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Joel

This has been floating around on the Interweb for a few days, but I only watched it last night.  Can I say that she seems to be tool?  Is that even applicable to the female gender? In any case, she’s fake.  Sitting there hocking her book on Larry King Live — feh.

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Veterans Day 2009

Posted on November 11, 2009 by Joel

First off, I salute all of our surviving U.S. veterans, and commemorate those who have passed on. You have done a wonderful service for all of us.

I was off today, which was very nice. The kids were both at school today, and my wife was off making the bacon.  I had nowhere to go today, it was rainy, and I was perfectly comfortable hanging around at home.  After dropping off the kids to school, I watched some tv, I cleaned up the kitchen, the guest room, and the kids’ room. I also did the laundry, and vacuumed the entire house.

My friend Doug came over around 1:30pm, as he need some help rebuilding his laptop with his new copy of Windows 7. We ordered some Domino’s pizza for a late lunch, watched some tv, backed up his data to my PC first, rebuilt his laptop, and copied back his data last. We unfortunately ran out of time to install his applications, but I guess he’s on his own.  He, in turn, cleaned and scrubbed my aquarium tank, and so the aquarium is up and running again.  Now, we just need some fish!

Finally, my wife and I fed the kids, gave them bathes, and got them to bed. I’d call this a most productive day, which are my favorite kinds of days.  Yes, I actually like productive days over lazy days, as I feel like I’ve truly accomplished something.

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Josh is now a Star Wars fan

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Joel

It’s like a dream come true. Joshua is, I think, officially a Star Wars fan. He’s only 4.5 years old, but I think I can get continue my corruption, er, I mean, nurture his budding love for geekiness.  We’ve been watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars (I did say that it’s been pretty cool.) As I understand it, it’s the highest-rated show on Cartoon Network right now, and for good reason. The latest episode, Landing at Point Rain, was a phenomenal, engaging, action-packed war episode. I mean, it was really good.SWCW-Landing-At-Point-Rain

We’ve also watched Star Wars Episode IV (A New Hope) and Episode V (The Empire Strikes Back) which are slightly over his head, but he asked a lot of questions.  He obviously didn’t get it all, and I did some minor fast-fowarding, but I kept him engaged in the main storyline.  I also made sure he thought Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Chewbacca are all pretty cool.  I think he just likes R2-D2 a lot. He’s already asking when are we going to find out what happens next in Episode VI (Return of the Jedi.) I was happy that at a birthday party a week ago where they had a Prince & Princess theme, he was amenable to the idea his sword was a lightsaber.  🙂

This year, I’ve been embracing my inner geek. All these years, I’ve been too self-conscious to admit to it, but it obviously often showed.  Now, I feel secure enough to let myself…. um, be myself, I guess. I’m a geek.  Nothing wrong with that.  Why be a half-ass geek?  Go whole-ass, I say. Be the techno geek.  The sci-fi geek.  Why not, after all?  There are others out there like me.  As a matter of fact, Wired.com has a Geek Dad column, written by someone just like me. Enjoy it. Love it. Live it!

If I can make my kids enjoy sci-fi too, hey that’s great.  Their journey towards the Dark side will be complete.  I just hope they can get still dates in 10-15 years.

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The Quinn Gray kidnapping hoax

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Joel

Isn’t this whole thing just crazy?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Brothers (2009)

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Joel

I saw where this was going about 5 seconds into it.  Still, you know, this has to be happening all over the world in similar situations.  Life is messy and tough, isn’t it? Brothers stars Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Tobey Maguire. I might want to see this movie. I don’t know.  I’ll think about it.

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A busy November Saturday

Posted on November 7, 2009 by Joel
I love pumpkin picking

I love pumpkin picking

Saturday morning, we met up with my sister-in-law and her family at our house.  We drove down to Wall, NJ to visit Atlantic Farms, which has a small petting zoo.  We’d been here before back in October 2008, and I t hink Josh has been to another one recently on a school field trip.  Still, I don’t think kids ever get too tired of petting zoos.

When we got down there, there were no long lines or crowds of people, so we were actually a little nervous that there was no petting zoo, but there was.  I guess today wasn’t a specifically promoted day. Kids had a good time, and I saw basically the same farm animals from last year, like that cow with the big tongue that wants to lick my face. Josh had a good time, as his cousin Sophia was here.  Lily had a somewhat more trying time.  She went “baaa” at a sheep, the sheep returned the “baaa”, and she got scared. She eventually calmed down, and got into the whole petting zoo thing by throwing corn in the general direction of an animal.

Dinner with Doug & Kathy

Dinner with Doug & Kathy

In the evening, we drove up to my NY to drop off the kids to my parents for the evening.  After that, we immediately drove up to see our friends Doug & Kathy to hang out and dinner.  We ate at a surprisingly good Greek restaurant — “surprisingly” good not related to the quality, but that it was situated in a strip mall on Rt. 17 in Ramsey, NJ. I know Greek cuisine is big on seafood and lamb, but I stuck with a great tasting chicken platter. 

Worst present you can ever get me?  Seafood and/or lamb.

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I bought a PureSleep so my wife can sleep

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Joel
What's going on when you snore

What's going on when you snore

Maybe it’s the weight gain, or the onset of old age.  In recent news, I’m snoring. A lot. This isn’t a dainty snore once in a while that women find attractive.  This is heaving snoring every night, and apparently disruptive to very beautiful women who attempt to sleep next to me. I can’t believe it, though.  I’m actually snoring. 

I tried one of those sleep strips you get from the store and attach to my nose, but that did nothing.  The deal with my snoring is that I can feel part of my throat resting lower, partially blocking my airway, and resulting in that snoring noise.  My wife is a light sleeper to begin with, so this has resulted in my wife getting very little restful sleep, and often driven her to another room.  Not fun.

If you see the diagram on the right, I realized that this is what is happening to me. No sleep strip is going to alleviate the problem.  What I saw on the PureSleep infomercial and website made a lot of sense.  Last week, I ordered the PureSleep. It arrive this weekend, and I tried it out Saturday night. 

The PureSleep

The PureSleep

It’s basically much like a a retainer that teenagers and some others have to wear in one’s sleep all night.  You boil the PureSleep device in hot boiling water for 60 seconds to make it malleable.  Wait 10 seconds for it to cool down slightly, then stick it in your mouth, and bite down hard for 45 seconds.  This makes an impression of your teeth into the device.  Take it out, and cool it down in cold water for a bit, which makes it harden up.  This whole process is important in order to customize it for your mouth.  In addition, the harder you bite down, the better the device and your teeth lock while you sleep.  With a proper fit, your mouth and the device lock, and this keeps your lower jaw from slipping backwards when you sleep.

I tried it Saturday night, and while it took some getting used to, I was still able to fall asleep, and it certainly worked. I had to take it out around 6am as a break, but I apparently started snoring again.  On Sunday night, I was able to keep the PureSleep in my mouth all night, and my wife told me she was able to sleep all night.

If you’re snoring, and you’re driving your spouse bonkers at night, do yourself and your spouse a favor.  Try the PureSleep. So far, it’s working great for me, and my wife is practically ecstatic.

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Halloween 2009

Posted on October 31, 2009 by Joel
Josh as Spiderman

Josh as Spiderman

One busy Halloween.  I spent most of the previous night up  uploading photos and trying to get my Adobe Premiere Elements software to recognize my camcorder (“Y’all better recognize!”), which hasn’t worked in a long while.  Still not luck today, even with a fresh install of Windows 7.  What the heck is going on?

I took Josh to another birthday party — the 2nd party this week, and there’s one more coming up Sunday. Since it was Halloween, it was a Halloween-themed party. Josh had a 2nd costume that we broke out for him — Spiderman. Kids these days — two costumes for Halloween?!?

What I liked about today’s birthday was the simplicity.  All of the birthday parties these days feel like large events, like renting a gym.  When I was younger, we just hung out at the basement, and we ate White Castle. This party was at a VFW hall, and the kids played games like musical chairs, Pin the Parts on the Mummy”, Hot Potato (or “Hot Gourd”), etc.  Traditional, and I liked it. Kids don’t always need all that fancy stuff. It felt refreshing.

My BIL is a scarecrow

My BIL is a scarecrow

After a short break at home, we made the trip to see my sister down south.  My BIL and sister were taking the kids trick or treating, and we would…. uh, hang out. Not much to comment on, except folks down there are really into Halloween.  House after house was decorated to the 9’s, and lots of trick or treating kiddies and teenagers. Kinda reminded me of my old neighborhood.

Nothing too fancy.  We watched Young Frankenstein while they went trick or treating.  After they came back, my sister cooked an excellent dinner, as well as baked cookies.  When did she start cooking so well? I think we got out of there after 10:30pm, got home uneventfully, and dropped the kids into bed.

I think we should do something more for Halloween next year. I’ve forgotten how fun it can be.

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Heavenly Sword

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Joel
Heavenly Sword (2007)

Heavenly Sword (2007)

Cue the headline news music. This week, I beat Heavenly Sword, a game for the PS3. Please return to your regularly scheduled programming.

The game came out about two years ago, and my brother-in-law Robbie borrowed it from a friend, and then lent it to me about two weeks ago.  I’d seen the title a few months ago, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.  I saw the large sword, and dismissed as one of those myriad Japanese and their large sword fetish games. However, free game to borrow? Why not.

The game is a martial arts game with a hack and slash quality to it — you know, “button mashing.” Wonderfully rendered, good story, and nice music. I did like the game a lot, and I thought it had some unique elements. The story starts out with about to begin a 1 vs a 100,000-man army final battle.  You are Nariko, a tough-as-nails woman in feudal Japan. However, one minute into it, your sacred sword that will slowly drain your life finally kills you.  As your out-of-body experience shows you going up to the sky, you end up in some strange purgatory. 

You begin talking about the legend of the Heavenly Sword, and how the major recent events began five days ago.  The game then truly begins at five days ago. The rest of the chapters in the game continue chronologically (four day ago, three, etc) until you reach the final battle you were in the beginning, in a chapter aptly named “Full Circle.”  The story continues, but I won’t spoil it. It was certainly unique.

I did like it, but the game was awfully short.  I thought the game was good, but….. I’d probably be annoyed if I spent $60 on a six hour game.  Also, while I like all the numerous martial arts moves, you have to be pretty good at hitting all the buttons (square, triangle, square, square) in the right sequence and timing to get the combos. Doable, but at some point, you just regress into just mashing all the buttons, and hoping for the best. Good voice acting too.  Anna Torv [Fringe] voiced Nariko, and Andy Serkis [LoTR, King Kong] voiced the evil King Bohan, as well as Dramatic Director.

Sample image 1

Sample image 1

Sample image 2

Sample image 2

Too bad there won’t be a sequel.  The developer Ninja Theory has cancelled the plans for a sequel, as from a “follow the money” point-of-view, they’ll make more money on multi-platform games (XBox, PS3, etc.)  I guess they can’t convert all their PS3 game code to be compatible with both the PS3 and the XBox 360. Ah well.  I really liked the Nariko character.

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Halloween Parade & Friday Nite Out

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Joel
Josh at the Holloween Parade

Josh at the Halloween Parade

I worked from home Friday, as we were expecting multiple critical packages in the mail today, as well as the kids’ annual Halloween Parade. You send the kids’ costumes in the morning to the daycare center, and the kids dress up and do a little parade outside (by class) for all the parents. So many parents show up with cameras and camcorders to capture the big moment, then each class has a party. Of course, you did your part by signing up for Munchkins, juices, cupcakes, etc.

Every month or so, the kids’ daycare hosts a “Friday Nite Out” event.  The kids get to hang out at school in the pajamas (the novelty excites them immensely), have dinner, and play from 7pm to 11pm.  Meanwhile, the parents get a well-deserved break to be a couple again. After an unusually long hiatus, they had another event, on the same day. Weird coincidence.  After the party ended, we took the kids home around 4:45pm, then they hung out at home, before we got them into their pajamas, and dropped them off to school around 7pm.

Sushi? Yes. Forehead? No.

Sushi? Yes. Forehead? No.

My wife and I were in the mood for Japanese cuisine, so we made reservations at a new place called Sunny Garden in Princeton. One of the reasons we selected this particular establishment, is that I signed up for the Hilton HHonors Dining program. Now as a Hilton HHonors member, if you sign up (for free) and register specific credit cards, every time you dine at a participating restaurant, you earn 5 bonus HHonors points for every dollar you spend.  Recently, they have been running a promotion where, if you sign up and eat at one of those restaurants, you earn bonus 1,000 HHonors points, in addition the regular 5 points per dollar you earn.

What I like about the program is that I don’t have to remember to put in a code, provide my HHonors membership number, or submit any documentation.  I registered one or more cards, so whenever I use them at a participating restaurant, I automatically will get the points.  We made sure we at a HHonors Dining restaurant Friday night, as we wanted the promotion bonus points as well.

Win win, I think. You know who didn’t win? The fish who died to make my sushi. Sucker. The food was excellent. They offer Chinese, Japanese, and Thai cuisine.  Even more interesting was the fact they also offer free Wi-Fi. I come for the excellent food, but I stay for the free broadband.

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