|
07/11/2007 Head on
over to the Moblah'g page. I
have a full write up on today's E3 events! Much happiness
today!
@4:10pm
The Photography page has
been updated. Skip on over when you have a moment!
@8:00pm
Evening time, and I feel a cold bearing down on me like a
deadline. I really dislike this feeling, as I'm sure most do,
because it only brings the assurance of further misery in the days
ahead. When the cold first hits, you feel run down, but not
terribly so. You can still eat normal food, at least.
The last time I had a cold, I told myself that next time I got
sick, I would take the opportunity to eat heartily before it really
set it. Why, then, can I only eat pizza flavored Goldfish
crackers? I had the inkling to eat something...but this is all
that came to mind. And they taste like Juicy Fruit gum, for
some reason. Ugh. I hate colds.
On to better news, I found out late last night that the
family has an opportunity to travel back to Lake Arrowhead next
weekend. Finally, an opportunity to MoBlog remotely in a place
where most haven't been before! For those not familiar with
that region of California, I posted a few pictures over at the
Photography section of the site.
Those pictures are mainly placeholders for the time being.
After multiple trips, I have yet to produce any solid prints.
I'm hoping with a little bit of patience, I should return with
something better. And of course, there will be fuzzy cellphone
camera pictures posted at the Moblah'g daily.
Come to think of it, all posts will be located at the
Moblah'g during the trip, as I won't have
any access to anything else. I don't know why I'm typing this
now. There is still nearly 10 days until we leave.
Anticipation is sweet, is it not?
My mind is blank now, so I'll tidy up this post and bid
goodnight to one and all. The family and I will hop in the Fit
and head on down to Blockbuster, I think...we're really enjoying the
unlimited movie pass deal they have going. During the past two
months we've watched more movies that most people have in their
whole life, I believe. We've definitely watched more than we
anticipated. I could never get the hang of returning movies on
time, anyway...they must have figured out that most people were like
that when they obliterated late fees. I'm truly grateful for
that one, for sure.
Sumner always seems to think it's his turn to choose a movie
though. He'll probably keep that up until we've exhausted the
entire Family and Children's movie section at this store. That
could take a while; we do live in East Freakin' Mesa.
Countless numbers of children here make for a big selection of
cartoons. We'll see what he picks tonight. He's on a big
Garfield kick right now, which is OK with me. I coaxed him
toward that title last week, it being one of my favorite shows from
my childhood.
And no, he doesn't seem tempted by the horrible CGI Garfield
movie voiced by Bill Murray. Wait. I've probably just
jinxed myself. What have I done!? Heaven help me if I
have to sit through that.
Wish us luck. Oh, and I polished off the bag of pizza
Goldfish. Smooth. Happy E3!
07/10/2007
The Blog Goes Green
It was a busy weekend. As I mentioned in the daily
blog, I had no desire to get back on the computer after Friday
night, which is a rare thing for me. Usual weekends involve me
plastered to my desk for hours each night, pounding out words and
redesigning the site.
So why the change of heart this weekend? In a fit of
redesign rage Friday night, I looked up at the top of this very page
often, frowning each time at the volume of white space. I
wanted something different! I wanted flash animation! I
had no idea how to do this!
Off I went to Adobe.com, searching for tips and tricks to
implement a custom-drawn animation into my site. Fifteen
minutes later, I gave up and simply downloaded the entire 400 Mb
trial version of Flash CS3 Professional. I figured I could
learn it as I went along, kind of like I did with Photoshop.
While I did take a class to learn Photoshop, the only real thing I
paid attention to was how to make water effects with the "ripple"
tool. That hasn't come in too handy, except for entertaining
Sumner. And I should add that's losing it's luster quick too.
Back to Flash. I installed the program (nearly 10 minutes,
a new record) and opened it up. Nothing looked familiar, so I
poked around the menu settings and decided to start from a template.
Templates have historically been a great place to start learning
programs risk-free, but the problem here was that every template was
for a banner ad. That wasn't really what I had in mind.
I kept at it for another two hours or so and let me make no
pretense; I was extremely frustrated. I have no idea why I
expected to pick it up and learn it without some sort of effort, and
the program made me pay dearly. By the end of the night I was
fed up with everything computer related, and I shut the computer
off. Done.
Saturday morning brought a welcomed phone call from the
in-laws; this can only mean one thing on a weekend. Breakfast!
We don't do it often, but when the occasion arises, the wife and I
always recommend Cracker
Barrel as our choice of restaurant. They never disappoint
with their selection of morning delicacies, but we could never
convince them to go. I suppose they had a valid reason, as the
nearest location was situated somewhere down the I-10 in Tempe,
nearly 20 miles from our location. As a side note, I would
whole-heartedly drive the distance if it meant being spared from
such tortuous devices as Denny's and *shudder* McDonalds. I
used to like their breakfast food, but then I grew taste buds and
moved on.
The fortuitous occasion arrived a few months ago that a Cracker
Barrel was built just five miles away from the in-law's house,
nestled right next to
the largest outdoor outfitter that I have ever seen. I
think they may have an indoor outdoor inside that building, if you
follow. Otherwise, I can't digest the idea that the entirety
is covered with merchandise. The edifice is simply too big.
I don't remember where I was going with this. Oh yes,
Cracker Barrel. I had the most delicious selection on the
menu, Mama's French Toast Breakfast with turkey sausage (sausage!
shout out to Janey) and scrambled eggs. I highly recommend it.
The wife got her usual, a mountainous bowl of oatmeal and a muffin
the size of a bowling ball. She can hardly put a dent in the
muffin, but Sumner likes to eat the rest anyway. It all works
out when you have a three year old with a voracious appetite.
No kidding, that child can pack it in when he wants to. When
he doesn't want to, well...good luck.
After breakfast, we parted ways with the in-laws and
headed back toward our side of East freakin' Mesa, and I remembered
that we had surpassed our oil change reminder by
several...*ahem*...months. It was decided that it would
probably be a good idea to head over to the dealership. The
brakes were shot on both vehicles, and the wife's car made Bozo the
Clown noises whenever you turned it on. The past few times we
had taken the car to the local mechanic, they being the cheaper of
others in town and a place we had trusted on multiple occasions.
Yet the last time, I was left unimpressed by their brash service.
It was time to go Honda, baby.
And that's where it happened. Presented by repair and
maintenance bills that stretched the length of 8.5x11, we thought
twice about our future relationship with not one, but both cars.
You might call it an impulse; heck, y ou
could even call it a rash decision, but we made friends with two
particular cars on the lot that decided to follow us home that
night.
After spending eight hours at the dealership. Eight.
Freaking. Hours.
And yes, we like 'em. Nah, we love 'em. We got two
Honda Fits, their newest car that promise good gas mileage and low
emissions. (you wondered why the Blog went green? Now you
know) They drive swell. And hey, it's the wife's first
new car!
Good news all around. We should save a small fortune on gas
during the next few years. That fact played no small role in
our decision to make the trade. They're good looking too for
such small cars. Pretty functional too, I was amazed at the
flexibility of the cabin. Plenty of room for kids in the back
seat, too. All for the price of one inexpensive SUV! And
we got two of them.
Yeah, I'm a bit sad to see the Acura go. Sumner actually
asked later that night when we thought the old cars would get back
from the hospital (it was the only analogy that fit, really) and I
told him that they probably weren't.
The Acura was still a pretty good car, but the mileage jumped up
really quick and I had already had the air conditioner and
transmission worked on recently.
I don't even want to know what'll happen to the wife's Bozo car.
I was worried every day that she drove that thing to work.
Darn thing shook so much she swore it'd blow and leave an
Olympic-sized crater in the freeway. My dad told me at
least a billion times to stop exaggerating, but I ain't kidding you.
One shaky car.
The picture ain't great, but the red one is mine, the white one
is hers. Cut the picture in half and you'll have a whole car!
I wanted to roll them out of the garage, but that would have meant
opening up the door and possibly waking up the boy from his slumber.
I'll take a few pictures later on down the road.
So that was Saturday, and you should now be gathering a
pretty good idea of why no posts were made throughout the weekend.
We came home pooped that night and slept soundly as can be.
Sunday was spent in the company of family visiting from Utah, and
that was really nice. We were still pert tired from the
previous day's activities, so we needed a break. Oh yes, and
the wife fell into the pool. Actually, Sumner pushed her in.
It was quite humorous.
My mother provided her with dry clothes from the bottom of
Where's Waldo's 1990's chest of drawers, so she looked extra nice on
the ride home. She asked if I thought people could see her
through the windows, and I said no. Though I kept wondering
why so many people were pointing and shouting, "There he is! I
see him!"
Phew. I think that's a generous enough entry for the time
being. Time to hit the hay. See you over at the
Moblah'g! You
know how to get there.
|
