Our Persisting Memories

13258 As I am sure most friends and family know that BJ got a promotion at work. The increase in income is equivalant if not more than what I would have been making at a part time job. I could be a stay at home mom. A new mother's dream come true, right? However, I have known nothing but the workforce for the last several years of my life and a paycheck of my own. So to just cut that off so suddenly was hard and to stay away even harder. C'mon, who doesn't like an extra paycheck?! I still wanted something outside of the home and an opportunity to socialize even if it meant work. Things came together where I was able to go back to my old job on an as needed basis. Mostly to cover vacations, sick days, etc. Just enough to get what I want but not too much to be away from Sophia for too long. I have discovered the life a working mom and it is tough!! Juggling taking her to my mom's house, making sure the diaper bag is loaded with all necessities, pumping at work,...

15422 Our precious Sophia is 2 months old already!!! How did this happen? Where did the time go? Everyone tells me to enjoy this time now because they are only this small for so short a time. How true it is. This past month has been filled with so much growth and change. She has gained some weight and is getting baby rolls (or chubs as I like to call them). She has gotten more beautiful, but that was to be expected. Sophia focuses her eyes on us and objects and reacts to them, mostly with smiles and babbling. That's another thing....she is 'talking' a lot right now and cooing. She is also on the very edge of getting a laugh out. It is so nice that my baby can now truly look at me and recognize me. It makes me feel good. She also knows what it means to get scared. I was feeding her the other night sitting next to BJ. He sneezed really loud and she got the biggest frown on her face and then started to cry. Her scared cry is so different from her hungry or tir...

You have to behold the majesty of this video. There is nothing that can properly describe how awesome this is. There has never been a more powerful moment imagined in all of videogame-dom. The ultimate mash-up. The best one is Michael Fantasy. Michael Jackson vs Videogame History . Yes, it was real; just understand that things like this can only be truly appreciated once. This video could change the course of history.

So, about a week ago I added a profile to myspace , for no apparent reason, not realizing it was a transdimensional hub to high school. I don't mind, I suppose. I find people generally interesting. I also was intrigued by the fact that you could write css/html in your profile and it works. I haven't figured out why they did this, but I've had some fun with it . By no means is this an open endorsement, but it has been interesting to exchange messages with old friends. To be honest, it's kind of surreal. I'm happily married now, I have a beautiful daughter, yet I feel like it's high school all over again, except I can't remember who anyone is. Now I feel fat, old, and stupid. In other areas of life it's easy to remember faces but not know anyone's name. High School is exactly the opposite. I remember names but I can't seem to recall if that's what people look like, or for that matter, if I even was friends with them. Apparently, I was ...

There's a hilarious side effect to targetted advertising. I have a tendency to inject a bit of sarcasm into my posts, and apparently, bots don't catch sarcasm. I didn't expect them to, but I also realized I complain a lot. I'm a whiner. Whining on a blog with contextual advertising just means you'll start advertising what you're whining about. On a lighter note, I won't have the Xbox tutorials up as soon as I thought. I need to order a modchip first, and the place I used to order them from was apparently selling cloned chips. This is probably the reason that Bekah's Xbox's modchip is toast.

This is my first Father's Day. The only presents Sophia gives me are full diapers, and a beautiful smile. Eventually, my refrigerator will be covered with notes to Daddy, and colored pages of princesses and ponies, but for now it is bare. The only thing I can share with Sophia right now are baby secrets. What I mean by this is that any experience with a baby is a personal one. There is only one interpretation of what Sophia is thinking, and for now that is the interpretation of the person she is interacting with. You look for visual cues she hasn't learned yet and decide what she is feeling. When something magical happens, like a smile, you can only tell people "Sophia smiled at me." While this is certainly not a miraculous occurence, I am here to tell you as I approach my first Father's Day as a father, that every coo, smile, giggle, hiccough, stretch, nuzzle, and cry is a miracle. This must be the first inkling of a father's joy. I'm sure ther...

Everytime I update xbox media center for my xbox I inevitably forget something. This is why, over the next few weeks, I'll be documenting my next upgrade for the little machine. Bekah also has felt it necessary to break the Xbox I modified for her, and has thus given me the opportunity to fix it. It probably just needs a new chip, so I'll take some photos and do a writeup on getting a modified Xbox up and running from start to finish. I'm not trying to replace any guides from xbox-scene but it will help me in the future, since 2/3 of the information there ends up being useless for my specific case. To be completely honest I hope it's her chip. If it's not, then I'll have to get a solder pump and clean some of my previous work up.

Sorry but this seems to be turning into some kind of video collection site. I just had to put this up here as well. It's too amazing for me to lose. It's called "The Powers of 10" and takes the viewer on a journey where the scope of vision increases by a factor of 10 every 10 seconds, then back in again to the atomic level. Check it out. Wheeee!!!!

I had to post this after coming across the link at digg.com . It seems only natural to post this CG video of a planet killing meteor, hitting the earth at 70,000 km/h, right after a post about unreasonable fear. Ouch. I have no idea what is being said in the documentary, but I doubt it's good stuff. The japanese are so apocalyptic, yeesh.

I don't mean to tread on ground that had already been traversed by everyone with a political bent that begins with "lib", but I have to hold them accountable too. Libertarians, Liberals, Conservatives, Anarchist, Motorheads, wastoids.... whoops, but seriously, fear is used as the catch all to convince others that it is time for action. Whether it is to fight terrorists, start a war, stop the combustion process in all its forms, stop the government, go to heaven, vote, or eat vegetables, fear is the common impetus for human action. I must admit that I have an advantage. My father did not instill me with societal fear, but instead raised me to believe that the worst outcome was the most common outcome, so the only thing to do is prepare for the inevitable. I am happy to report that so far he has been wrong, but I do appreciate the idealism this manner of upbringing has sparked in me. To give an example that is oft repeated in the family: I know how to survive nuclear ...

Alarm will sound is an amazing acoustic ensemble that focuses on modern works. You can find more info at wikipedia . Their latest release is called acoustica and features acoustic versions of songs by Aphex twin. This is pretty eclectic stuff even by avant garde standards, but they pull it off masterfully. [audio:cd1-08-aphex_twin-cock-ver10-ksi.mp3] Here's the original track by Aphex twin. [audio:01%20cock_ver%2010.mp3] And here's the acoustic version by Alarm Will Sound. I can't really add anything that would make it more awesome. And here's an amazon link. Amazon album listing

I've added a Downloads Section , and a sub category Private Downloads in order to allow me to reimplement caching, and to clean up the main site. The password to the Private Downloads section is the same password the password protected posts on the site had. Have fun and let me know of any requests, or e-mail me if you want the password.

806 ...I married the most wonderful woman in the world. We met at a church dance, and while pick-up lines are typically frowned upon, I managed a meager one that made my future wife laugh. I'm not the type of man to use a pick-up line but this was apparently a special occasion. A few wry comments and an exchange of phone numbers later and we had officially begun the dance of love so common to the human race. The only problem is that in this case that dance was called, "just friends." I was convinced after the first date and all she did was complain about the "guys in Dallas," and that "they're all so weird." Being a guy in Dallas, I mistakenly associated myself with this group and assumed I had found a friend who laughed at my jokes, rather than a wife and mother of my children. There was one little problem. Heather was and is absolutely beautiful. It's difficult to have a beautiful friend, especially a beautiful friend who laughs at your jokes...

EDIT: I had to turn wp-cache off. It breaks password functionality. I'm implementing a caching system (wp-cache plugin) in order to speed up the site a bit.  The plugin will create a server side cache on initial load every 30 minutes.  My only issue is that it breaks the random content in my sidebar: Random Quotes, and Random Photo.  Basically those two items are only going to be dynamic at each new page load and/or every 30 minutes. I've broken the site a few times trying to get dynamic content to peak through the caching system, but the implementation of wp-cache prevents any functions not in the root directory of the site from being recognized.  The syntax to include them in the root path is wonky and I'm not going to keep playing with it given the limited documentation.  This also means my spellchecker might be broken (not that I think it ever worked in IE), however I haven't been able to test that yet. This is mainly due to dreamhost's overselling and generally...

Before the Stig takes out whatever speedy car they've been testing that week, one of the Top Gear presenters gives us some information on the Stig's background. Here's a brief list that isn't really comprehensive, but can give some insight into the nature of the Stig. Hit the jump to see the list.

There exists an MP3 site where you can choose your format; be it MP3, Ogg, AAC, WMV, or lossless. Not only that, but you can choose your encoder and bitrate within most of the aforementioned formats. In addition to all of this there is no DRM whatsoever. This means you can convert, copy, and stream these files to your heart's desire. I haven't even mentioned price and I know you're already interested. All of this can be found at AllOfMp3.com . The only problem is that its legality is in question (link to CNN story) . If there was a legitimate service that offers these same features I would be willing to pay up to an iTunes 99 cents per track for a lossless song, and pay less for lower quality files. The problem is that there is no alternative to this. The best alternative in the US is currently emusic.com , but emusic requires a subscription, and doesn't have near the flexibility that allofmp3 has. When allofmp3 goes away my best source for high quality hard ...

I promised a review, but this post is going to end up being an enthusiastic endorsement rather than a criticism. First of all, the wheel is completely useless without something solid to attach it to; in my case this means hanging 30 pounds of weights from the pivot joints of a wooden TV tray. I'm sure duct taping the TV tray to the floor would have worked as well, but the last time I duct taped something to the floor, it took the cat 3 months to grow the fur back.The wheel connects to the USB port of the Playstation 2. There isn't even a plug for the traditional Playstation 2 controller interface. The wheel also has an auxiliary power supply to keep the wheel twisting out of your hands while you car spins helplessly out of control. I wish the pedal base was heavier as it has a tendency to slide a bit. For a first timer, this means your first experience has you kicking the pedals slightly out of reach while the wheel picks up the legs of the TV tray it's attached to...