And... it's official. I hate their text options. Totally screwed up my formatting and I had to go in to change everything. I'll stick to my HTML mad skills.

So, that's different.

Blogger's added some bells and whistles to the text editing, which is kinda fancy and potentially tacky at the same time. I can imagine all the color-blind bastards making their blogs into some technicolor nightmare with blinking text now. Hopefully most of us will refrain from that.

First of all, Alex is doing great. Still cruising, still picking up new tricks here and there. He's learning to bounce to music a little more, and clapping is still a hit and miss trick for him. He seems to enjoy doing it when I kidnap his hands and force them together, but he didn't really do it himself. Not for me, anyway. He's still shoving entire cookies in his mouth, crawling at the speed of light, and flashing cute little smiles to flirt with the adults. Even though I'm very aware that this is really a special time and I should cherish it, I'm still thinking that I'm missing out on a lot of his stuff. I suppose unless I was independently wealthy and have no social aspirations, I'm bound to miss some of his growth.

So, the last week I've been completely obsessed about getting a better digital camera. Not the video camera, I have one of the best. But a digital camera to capture better stills. My Olympus has given me tons of memories, but I'm ready for more manual controls, and more resolution. I had the hots for the Canon A80 for a long time, and was actually checking it out at Freddys, when my wife showed me another camera. It was a different sort of camera, but the retail was $349.99, which was too rich for my blood.

However, after some research, I found it to be comparable to the Canon, with a very big exception - the Minolta Z1 has a SLR feel, and a 10x zoom. If you know anything about cameras, you should already know that most digital cameras don't have more than a 3x zoom, unless you're willing to sell your cows and work two jobs to attain a camera with that kind of zoom. It also has total manual controls, a pretty decent LCD, and a 3.2MP resolution, for my 8x10 prints of my nose hairs, if I were so inclined.

But talk is cheap. Here's the centerfold.




So, I obsessed about it so much and finally put in an order for it on credit. I know, it's a bad habit, and I was going to save up for it. But using the birth of my daughter as an excuse to get it sooner warranted spending the money for it. They haven't processed my order yet, so I'm a little testy about that. I want the camera! Oh, and I found it about a hundred cheaper online. I love the internet.

So when I get that, I'm thinking about starting a photoblog. That should be fun.

The other thing that's going on is my newfound ability to throw things out, or let things go. All the junk that's accumulated over the years have finally gotten on my nerves, and I'm trying to clean house. I put a bunch of pricey electronics on sale on eBay, my first selling experience, and I'm thinking of having a garage sell, to get rid of all the college books that I think I'm going to reread, but probably would never.

To understand my pack-rat nature, you have to understand my history a little bit. I've always had the impression that I never remember anything, and that things change too much. Usually only when I revisit something, it'll become clearer what the original impact of it was. A big part of my gathering nature comes from the fact that when I was 14, I moved to the States and lost most of my possessions. (I didn't lose them, I couldn't bring them. Immigrants coming and starting new is not a cliche.) Most of the material things that defined me before 14 was mostly gone. I still wish for my notebook with all my compositions - which probably was the origin of my creative writing. So, I started just saving stuff, stuff, and more stuff. I saved stupid things like shopping bags from Disneyland. But I also saved cool things like love letters from my wife. (Interesting factoid, when we used aliases, my name was "Alex".) But anyway, do check out the things that I've managed to let go, and hope I get some good bids on it. I need the money to pay off my camera.

As further prove that I've aged tremendously and not noticed, here are 5 things that Everyone should know about me - so that they can aid me in these areas.

5. A few days ago, some kid asked me where Yu-Gi-Oh games were. I asked him to repeat himself. Then I paused. Pretended to have a thoughtful expression on my face. Then he found it himself and I was relieved. "Oh, that. I knew that."

4. Today before work, I played 15 minutes of SSX, a snowboarding game. When I was driving to work, I was the recipient of one killer headache, the kind that's associated with motion sickness. Where the hell's my 2-D side-scrolling Mario?

3. Vitamins just started making sense.

2. If I don't have more than 8 hours of sleep, I get cranky.

1. I'm really starting not to care about my appearance. I figured I should just let it all go because nobody's looking at me anyway, they're looking at my baby.

So, Alex has just started to learn how to clap a little, and he's awfully pleased with himself when he hears the smackity smack of it. I've also gotten more aware that if I don't spend more active play time with him, he'll learn to be a little too independent and not play with me anymore. I guess it's a good thing that I realize this, because I don't want him to not need me. I know that he does, but I want him to get happy when he sees me, start bouncing his head about and making happy sounds.

Yes, if I haven't mentioned it, I think that his head bouncing thing has to be the cutest thing in the world. What it is essentially is he's trying to sway from side to side, but his head does most of the leading, and his body doesn't always follow. So you have this boy, twitching his head from side to side rather earnestly, and trying to bounce. It's the cutest thing to watch, especially when he's doing it while crawling. Sorta resembles a drunk dog or something.

So my wife is enduring horrible nighttime cramps and excessive sweating from the damn summer heat, as well as my incessant pranks that make her cry. I wasn't trying to be mean, but I guess I just forget to be sensitive sometimes. But ah, she forgives me, and all is well again.

Hmm. Now I'm out of writing juice again.

Don't really have anything terribly new or interesting to say, just had a good weekend with my son, playing video games, and generally doing nothing. Watched Eddie Izzard's "Dressed to Kill" comedy concert again, and I really enjoy the verbal antics and great stand-up. I remember when I first watched it, completely accidentally, at a hotel room in Seattle. My grandfather, who has since passed on, had come up to the States to visit and my mom got a few days stay at the now defunct Four Seasons in Seattle (now Fairmont), and I shared the room with my Grandpa. He fell asleep and I got bored pointing my laser pointer at the opposite building (remember when everyone had one of those?) and watched a bit of TV. HBO was on, and at first I was watching it because there was Eddie, in some makeup and a chiongsam, which is what Asian women wear only in movies and massage parlors anymore. But I remember just laughing at his comedy, and really enjoying his facial nuances and playfulness.

Of course, it took years before they decided to release it on DVD. But now I own it, just have to get around to watching some of his other concerts. If you ever get the chance to watch one, do so. It's insightful, cutting, hilarious stuff. He's a smart comedian who occasionally reverts to little boy antics and he's just a fun guy to watch.

Rambling about my daily life has given me time to think about what I really should be writing on the blog.

My wife is huge. Her tummy is so big that her maternity shorts no longer fit her. Zoe's a big girl and she looks like she's just hanging out, ready to make a break for it. Whatever shirt my wife wears, her tummy peaks out a little, as if the little girl inside is itching to say hi there, I'm Zoe. What'cha doing?

If anyone wants to give me a hard time about saying that my wife is big, raise your thumb, and stick yourself in the eye with it. I'm not trying to be insensitive, her tummy is just big with the baby. I'm aware that she's very pregnant.

So, the thoughts of having two babies is still freaky, I think any free time that we now have will soon be nostalgia. I expect long hours in front of the TV because that's about the only thing that I can do. I'm starting to understand the complacency and general zombie-like state that some parents exhibit around their kids - the young-uns just zap so much out of you. I hope that we don't become like those parents, who work just to put food on the table, and then come home and parent until bedtime. But in a lot of ways, parenthood has changed the time perspective for us. Alex's first birthday is coming up soon, and it has been the fastest year of my life. Everything has just been a flash.

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. At least Mondays for me are kinda easy. Hell, my job is really kinda easy, I should stop whining about it so much. But I better edit a little bit before bed. Laters.