Bowser’s Minions

Mario’s enemies have something to say. Love it.

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Mr. Belding is a pimp

Mr. Belding can get the ladies?  Stranger things have happened.  Check out the photos of Dennis Haskins having the best week ever for himself.

And now for something completely different: a compilation of funny news broadcast slip ups.


Compilation of Funniest News Slip Ups – Watch more free videos

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Wall-E

We’re on guard for Josh feeling left out….. you know, where Lily gets all the attention. My wife suggested we take Josh to see a movie.  We dropped off Lily with Num’s mother, and made a mad dash to the movie theater to see Kung Fu Panda, but due to a crazy thunderstorm this afternoon, we found the AMC theater in Hamilton and surrounding area knocked out of commission from a power outage.  Regroup!  Kung Fu Panda wasn’t playing anywhere after 5pm, so we went to another theater in Freehold to see Wall-E.  Good movie with great animation, but I didn’t find it one of my favorites.  The story was good, but not great.  Josh had his big bag of popcorn, and he was the center of attention, so mission accomplished.

Wall-E (2008)

Wall-E (2008)

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Harish

Today, we went to the funeral for Harish.  He was the family friend I mentioned back on July 21st.   We couldn’t make it to the wake Friday night, unfortunately.  We left Josh with Julie & Robbie, and took Lily with us. The funeral service was held at the United Methodist Church at New Brunswick, which was sadly the same church he and wife Cynthia were married in back on June 29th 2003. It was disconcerting to be back 5 years and 1 month since the wedding in the same church, but for the worst type of reason.

Harish

In Loving Memory, Harish

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Upgrading my PC

Keeping in mind that there is a snowball’s chance in hell of my wife approving another of my crazy schemes this year, I’m thinking about upgrading my home PC.  It’s been three years sinc we got the Dell in March 2005, but I feel it’s about time for some cleaning up.  I’m absolutely considering a fresh install of Windows XP (I’m ruling out Microsoft Vista on the advice of about, oh, the 1,000 people I’ve spoken to.)

I also started down the slippery slope of, “Hmmm, what else should I upgrade?”  Adding 1 Gb of Crucial extra memory would cost me $29, which is pretty good.  Adding 2 Gb more would cost me $50.  Cheap.  Since I’m in there, about how a new Nvidia 8800 GT video card?  That’s only $203.  Before I install a new video card, I need more power.  A Dell Dimension 8400-compatible power supply unit — a 500w PSU would cost me only $109.

A little over $300 would get me faster and better, which is pretty good.  In the end, with a newer faster PC, I could run Vista (one day) with a future monster widescreen 30′ LCD monitor. The challenge is figuring out precisely when the slippery slope morphed into a dangerous precipice.

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I am Iron Man

After working in Philadelphia today, I went to see Iron Man by myself at a nearby movie theater. That movie was great.  Robert Downey, jr. was a great choice, but I didn’t find Gwyneth Paltrow’s role to be all that useful.

Iron Man (2008)

Iron Man (2008)

To see the actual suit in action on the big screen was really fun.  Great special effects, but I don’t think there was enough of the Iron Man Mark III suit in the movie.  I’m looking forward to seeing The Dark Knight next week.

The Dark Knight (2008)

The Dark Knight (2008)

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A weekend of highs and lows

This has been a weekend of highs and lows.

Friday night, we went out with Num’s parents to celebrate her mother’s birthday. A little belated, actually, but better later rather than not at all. We went to a south Indian restaurant not far from Princeton.

On Saturday, Josh had his usual gym class, then a quick lunch, then we were all home packing for the day.  Num’s long-time friend from high school Barbara was getting married to her fiancé John. (BTW, did you know there is a difference between fiancé and fianceé?  I had no idea the French were so complicated.)  The kids were staying with my wife’s parents, as it was going to be a late night.

After we dropped them off, we were off to Wallington, NJ for the wedding.  Nice wedding, but we had a 2 hour gap of thumb-twiddling time between the end of the wedding (4pm) and the reception starting at 6:30pm in Morris Plains.  What to do?  We considered a movie, but nothing quite fit.  We drove over to Clifton Commons in Clifton, ate ice cream sundaes at Applebee’s, and dispersed at the local Barnes & Noble bookstore to occupy ourselves until 6pm.  We were the best-dressed couple at Applebee’s on that Saturday afternoon.

The reception was at the classy Bretton Woods house.We stayed until about midnight, dancing up a storm.  We went home to change into pyjamas, pack clothes for church the next day, and slept over at the grandparents’ house. Photos for the whole event are now online for your viewing pleasure.

Sunday was all about attending the early 8:30am church service, breakfast at McDonald’s, taking an afternoon nap (all of us!), then Josh and I went to the pool.

Now for the lows.  A family friend passed away unexpectedly this weekend, and we got word late Saturday night after the wedding reception.  Tonight we went to his wife’s house for consolation with some of the family.  More details to follow, funeral set for later this week.  Very depressing, and hard to figure out.

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WordPress 2.6

I upgraded to WordPress 2.6!  My life has more meaning now!

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Atonement

I watched Atonement, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.  While I thought it started off slow, I thought it was an excellent movie by the end.  Good direction, good cinematography, excellent acting.  Well done.  It was nominated for a Best Picture in 2007.  I don’t think it’s quite “Best Picture” material, but it was certainly very good.

Atonement (2007)

Atonement (2007)

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And then there were two….

The carnage continues. Concerned about the imminent loss of our four remaining fish, I hit the local Petco during my lunch hour.  I called Doug, and he walked me through purchasing a pH/ammonia/nitrite/nitrate testing kit, and this stuff called Stress Zyme to battle nitrites.  When I got home tonight, I found two little guppies were lying on the bottom of the tank.  Two fish left, and one of the remaining guppies was swimming vertical, and slowing sinking backwards to the bottom.

I did the testing, and turns out the nitrites were at 5ppm, which is very high.  It appears that I’m overfeeding the fish, and the uneaten food is polluting the aquarium.  With Doug’s guidance on the phone, I emptied 5 gallons of water out, replaced it with new water, cleaned the tank, and added Stress Zyme.  Our two little survivors are zipping along, and surprisingly appear healthier and happier.  This weekend if we have time, I’m going to pick up some live plants and snails, and a little decorative aquarium doohickies.  The plants and snails will do some cleaning organically, and a sunken battleship will spice up the tank.

Anyone looking for a fabulous flat-panel tv?  The Samsung LN52A550 is on sale, and I’ve been told by an actual set owner that it is a quality product.  In addition, looks like the economic downturn is creating gluts in HDTV inventories, forcing retailers to initiate price drops.Yee haw.

The teaser trailer for Terminator Salvation has been released, starring Christian Bale.

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