American Family

2007-01-08T20:39:00.000-08:00

diegomcnamara.blogspot.com

Change your bookmarks!

Well, I'm closing this blog and starting a new one. It's been a fun and evolving run, but the topics have veered away from the "babies" and let's face it, the blog is more about me being an ass and less about the family. I'll still be posting family related news, but the newer blog will allow me to talk about a more diverse range of stuff. So it's all good. The new blog is still in production, so I'll be updating links in the coming weeks.

2007-01-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

2007-01-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

2007-01-06T04:20:00.000-08:00

Tina, our oldest cat, is no longer with us.

Unfortunately, after having some serious problems with her eating, we took her to the vet and they found a tumor that was in her head, which was affecting her jaw movement and even pushing her left eye out a little, causing it to bulge out slightly. The vet did not recommend surgery since it was in her head, and her chances of survival were pretty slim, and she would likely starve to death because she was unable to open her jaw. She couldn't eat hardly anything that couldn't be drank, and even then, it was barely anything. She had dropped down to 3 pounds and had stopped grooming herself.

So we had to let her go. The kids were under the impression that she's with the doctor, but that's about it. They tend to forget about things, so I don't reckon we would have to explain that to them.

I'll post a couple photos and videos later of her later.

2007-01-06T04:12:00.000-08:00

Not Procrastinating. Not Entirely.

Well, I was going to start rough cutting a whole bunch of footage tonight when I realized that I actually skipped ahead about three weddings. I was wondering why the footage seemed still so familiar. So I was exporting the wedding feature to edit on DVD Studio Pro when I realized that I should probably back up my blog. It has been 3 years, after all. So I went about the Blogger way to do it, and it simply hung up on some error. So I had to do it the good old way, doing it week by week and cutting and pasting. It took a long ass time, and unformatted with odd spaces, it's all in one file. And god, I kid you not, though it is not formatted, it's near a thousand freakin' pages. I have about 780 plus posts, though not all of them text, or quality for that matter, them a lot of words.

Which also got me thinking that maybe it's about time for me to drop the American Baby/Family blog and leave it on the web to mature or something. The posts are getting more personal, less updated, and it's just mostly me being an ass, all negative, and somewhat ruining the spirit of the earlier posts. Such optimism! Such excitement! Such frequency!

Plus, I can't even upload using the new blogger, so it's a little frustrating because the blog is so freakin' huge. But some ideas are running through the head there. Thinking about reformatting (but not editing) the old blog, putting some footnotes or whatever on it, and then just getting it bond on a book. I don't expect anyone to buy it, but at least it'll be around in hard copy for the kids to use it to incriminate me later.

I dunno, I am seriously considering hanging up this blog though. Will keep you updated.

2007-01-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

2006-12-30T15:24:00.000-08:00

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man		75%
Superman		55%
Batman		55%
Hulk		55%
Robin		47%
The Flash		45%
Iron Man		40%
Wonder Woman		37%
Green Lantern		35%
Supergirl		27%
Catwoman		20%

You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

2006-12-27T01:51:00.000-08:00

2006-12-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

2006-12-21T23:06:00.000-08:00

Is Capitalism Supposed to Feel So Dirty?

For the few of you who have been keeping track of my Nintendo Wii purchase/reselling plans, a.k.a. Diego's Slow Descent into Capitalism Guilt Hell, I can finally say that it has reached its evil conclusion. After a few days of listing (and relisting) it on Craigslist, someone offered to buy it for $400. We met at a CompUSA, in the rain, and he drove up and called me on my mobile. I told him the merchandise was in the car, and he checked it out, snorted a little sample, gave me 400 bucks out of an envelope, and we parted ways.

So, the first Wii sold on Ebay for about 415 for the Wii and Zelda, and after the evil ebay and listing fees, it was actually only about 80 bucks ahead. This sale was about 150 ahead, minus taxes, which means that though I didn't completely pay off my own Wii system, it certainly took a big chunk of my own expenses.

Was it all worth it? Yes and no. I mean, sure, it took about 230 bucks off my final purchase, and all that was just a little more determination in waking up earlier, waiting in line, and fronting the money. There is a certain rush when you finally get a buyer who will match your price, and it's nice when you feel like the work you've done is paying off.

Then again, there is the anxiety, the guilt, and the feeling like you're doing something that's morally iffy. For the record, no, it's not illegal. It's merchandise scalping of some sort. And really, this is an gaming entertainment console - it's not a necessity, and it's not really something that'll deprive any humankind of any basic needs. It's a luxury item with a promise of fun, and that's about it. It doesn't dispense water, nor can you slaughter it for meat. You could attempt to mate with it, though the risk of electrocution may discourage that. All and all, this is something people can go without. So if someone wanted to pay for it, I shouldn't feel bad for them. After all, I did stand in line, stay informed, and fronted the money for it. I also spent the time researching and listing it, and held on to it for 2 whole months till the peak of Christmas shopping. And if someone wanted to buy it, who the hell am I to stop them? If they have the resources and they willingly reallocate their funds to purchase it, it's their free will.

That said, second guy I didn't feel too bad. He seemed younger than me, and he was driving a pretty nice Mercedes Benz. So, hardware lust has its price. The ebay customer was a little tougher for me, because it was a grandmother with no bidding history, and she wanted to get it for her grandkids. Yeah, you tend to feel a little idiotic and selfish because this grandmother just wanted to make her grandkids happy for Christmas. I can't help but feel like the smoking dealer on the street corner, looking to profit off the opportunity of a shortage. But again, she put the bid in, and won it. I didn't knock on her door.

Yeah, so I'm a lousy profiteer. I can't not feel bad about the whole thing. But the money's going back into my credit card bill (Whee!) because that's where I fronted the money from after all. Whatever extra money from the other sale was gone because our cat decided to get all old on us.

But at least this whole thing is behind me now. I'll probably never be selling anyone drugs or guns in my lifetime, because I'd be way too worried about the people I sell it to, and what they could be doing with the money. Notice I didn't say no about selling sex, due to the fact that it concerns the act of making someone feel good, you know, aside from the slavery/low self-esteem/disrespectful to the body God gave me/whoring overtones.

Of course, if you know me or better yet, if you've seen me, you'd know that I wouldn't/couldn't do that anyway.

Would I ever do anything like this again, you ponder? Ask me when Playstation 4 comes out.

DSC 1882

2006-12-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

He looks a bit like Harry Potter in this one. It's either determination in his eyes or he's peeing.

This was at the Children's Museum in Seattle. They had a dressup box.

2006-12-19T16:38:00.000-08:00

It's a Wonderful Life

So my wife gets the credit for actually sitting me down and making me watch this Holiday Classic. It's not that I don't want to watch it - I knew it was good for two reasons - Frank Carpa, and Jimmy Stewart. But it's just one of those things that you know that you can put off indefinitely, because you know it's always going to be there, like Gone with the Wind, or some of the other classics.

But anyway, yes, I do like it, and yes, I was crying at the end, even though I actually know how it ends. But it was still a good movie, like these old classics tend to be, when they were written by screenwriters rather than clowns. Less on spectacle and more on story.

We've had a pretty good Christmas season so far, and one of the funner things we did was to give my wife's older daughter a used iMac, along with a digital camera that sucked a little. We're getting the camera thing taken care of, but they really like their computer. It's a notch better than the old iMac I used to have, but it's just right for them right now. It can do photos and music, and though it won't be current enough to run online goodies like trailers and whatnot, it'll do fine for what they need. It was nice to see that they were grateful and happy about their gift, and the grandkids loved their toy as well.

We went to Zoolights at the Point Defiance yesterday, and I forgot the most intregal part of night photography - my tripod. So I don't have many photos of it, just some. The trip was fine, even though the car trips were too long because of Christmas traffic, but I think the best part was the trip home, when the kids were in the back just having a ball with their grandma. I think the kids certainly enjoy my mom, and it was really nice to hear them playing back there.

Well, back to work for me. Lots to do, really behind.

2006-12-14T13:33:00.000-08:00

Zoe talks up a storm during dinnertime.

2006-12-13T01:12:00.000-08:00

The Cute Kids

During lunch today, Zoe and I were talking about something and where it was. I know, it's vague, but go with me on this.

"Is it on your tummy?" I asked.

Zoe lifts up her shirt and looks at me.

"No, it's my bellybutton." she answers.

"Oh."

She pulls down her shirt.

"It's hiding."

Then she covers her eyes.

"1, 2, 3..."

Playing hide and seek with her belly button has to be the funnest game I can think of.

And tonight, we decided to go to "Happy Feet", an animated penguin flick that has a rather heavy dose of environmentalism and scary carnivores, to make up for not going to Zoolights. The kids were pretty good during the whole movie, though Alex had to be reminded time and again that we had to speak quietly during the movie.

Zoe was talking through one of the parts, and I told her that we have to watch the movie and had to be quiet.

She expressed minor whininess and said, "Hey, I talking to Alex. Hey..."

But she was pretty good throughout.

Alex was very much into the movie, and here are a couple spoilers - if you don't intend to find out more about the movie, now is a good time to stop.

So the penguins refers to humans as "aliens", and this is referenced throughout the movie. Anyway, during the third act, some humans fly in on a helicopter and they emerge themselves to the penguins, looking rather like, well, humans.

But Alex sees them and he says, "WOW. ALIENS."

Talk about immersive empathy.

Anyway, this flick is rated PG, and I honestly think that though it isn't a bad movie, it fell a little short for me. I think some of the parts are a little too scary, a little preachy, and really, I wouldn't have minded if the whole movie was about the dancing and singing. I was getting a pretty good vibe off of that. I think I wouldn't have minded if this film had little peril in it, and just had the comedy. But I suppose that would make it more adult-oriented.

And Robin Williams is fine in it, though he can't really voice two characters who interact with each other. There's not enough distinction to really tell them apart. Other than that, there is some dubious racial stereotyping, but maybe I'm reading too much into it. Beautiful film, a nice decision to incorporate real world footage into the animated flick.

Recommended, though for the older kids.

2006-12-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

Update on Job Thing

My wife got a call from the union today, and I guess they're offering the job back under some conditions. It shouldn't be bittersweet news, but it kinda is. I think we had hoped to cut off this chapter and hopefully begin a new one, but in the end, it'll be nice to have that security again. But it was like being jolted twice, once out of routine and then back into it. She meets with them tomorrow to discuss some details.

2006-12-11T22:13:00.000-08:00

Shafted by the Man

Perhaps it's a really good thing that I'm not with Freddy's anymore, because it would be awkward and infuriating to work for a company that has this stupid rule. This is common knowledge if you've worked for the company, but nonetheless a number of people still fall victim to it.

If you're a checker, and you make the mistake of returning a written check back to a customer, you're instantly terminated. Never mind that it was an accident, or that none of that money actually went in your pocket, or you don't even know the lucky bloke who just got his check back. It's instant termination. Regardless of the amount of the check, or the number of times you've done it.

Well, chalk up my wife as the latest notch in this stupid rule.

Okay, she's technically suspended, which is their pansy ass way of saying they're too indecisive to tell her that. But we're not really holding our breath on this on, and she's reeling from it kinda hard. I mean, she's dedicated 19 years to this company, and they're accusing her of god knows what. And the amount of the check? 60 bucks or so. That's it. One bloke drove a forklift into a water pipe at work, and it was 20 thousand dollars of merchandise ruined, and he kept his job. Hell, I accidently broke some idiot's tailgate handle, and she fleeced us with some phony claim for a 400 dollar handle, and I never missed a day of work. But an honest mistake of returning one's check? Out the door you go, bub.

I don't know why they still have this stupid rule, because any employee of this company who's worked for more than a couple years will know, there are better, more efficient, more productive, more rewarding ways to steal from the company than returning a stupid ass check. In fact, word is one of the tills was short 600 bucks and no one is accountable. Money can be shorted, and nothing happens. But god, you return a check and you're gone.

I'm pissed at the company.

Anyway, our plan right now is that I'm applying for something full time again, even though I haven't completely caught up with weddings. It's more important I find something first because then she can find a job that goes around my hours, instead of me having to stick with some part time crap because my wife has another part time job with irregular hours.

Financially, we're doing okay for now. Thankfully we're not going to be kicked out because of rent, but at the same time, our bills will pile and wedding seasons' not exactly on fire right now. I spent the whole day applying for a couple editing jobs, hopefully I'll at least score an interview. In the meantime, we're boycotting the store because after 19 years of service, this company does not earn another dime off us because it does not recognize the true value of its employees.

2006-12-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

It's sad and impulsive and a luxury item, but we got this for ourselves about a week ago.

2006-12-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

James Kim

I talk about it on my other website, Chipper Report, but there's just a few more things that I didn't mention about it.

It has been pretty much on my mind for the past few days, and I was pretty bummed about hearing that he didn't make it yesterday - but it also got me to thinking about my own life. How it doesn't take a high-risk job or sport to have your life cut short. Fate doesn't really care if you're Steve Irwin or James Kim, if you have children or a loving wife. When it's your time to go, that's it.

Oh one hand, it reminds me that yeah, working out everyday and eating right all the time can't stop the inevitable, so just enjoy life. But I guess the other thing is that I've thought about my own life, and how I need to leave my legacy. Otherwise I would just have died a videographer, which isn't much to remember by. It reignites my purpose to do a film by 30, so after this year's weddings are caught up, I really gotta start writing again.

Sigh. And I keep checking the news, as if something else might change.

2006-12-01T01:39:00.000-08:00

Got my new Canon scanner today, and in addition to being a better scanner for my business for doing photo montages and whatnot, I can finally work on archiving old photos for myself, and working on my Mom's much belated birthday photo montage. Unfortunately, the first two albums I sifted through mostly had photos of me. But I think it's all interesting, so I'll bore you guys with some of them.

Only in the seventies can a little boy get away with that. I'm not sure if the outfit is pink or red, but I used to think that it was my outfit that was making the rhino in the background get riled up. Today I discovered that my Dad had written in the back of the photo, "Who's the adorable little fellow?" or something like that. Fellow, he says.

This was during a birthday party, probably when I was 4 or 5. I specifically remember that I was trying to launch one of the little egg fellows and hoping that the photo would catch the egg in midair. I think it was one of the first birthdays that I remember, because I remember we got a lot of toys, including a bike that you pumped air into that made it go. The table behind my head sorta has an interesting story. I think it's that table anyway. Once someone was babysitting my brother and I and I hid under that table while my brother hid under the kitchen table. She freaked out and it was the last time she watched us.

My 2nd birthday. A picture of us when we were still a foursome. And that's my Dad, whom I haven't seen in 16 years or so, and have contacted briefly when Alex was born. You'll notice two cakes because my brother and I have birthdays only three days apart. For a long time we just shared a cake, or maybe it's after that that we shared a cake. And again with the pink outfit.

2006-11-30T01:10:00.000-08:00

The Wii has this avatar creation thingy that doesn't work with anything yet other than Wii Sports, but already we've got our family up. I look like I have a receding hairline, but that's the closest to my haircut as it gets.

2006-11-29T03:18:00.000-08:00

Days Like This

Every once in a while, one of those "clown" days just happen. Neither terrible nor great, just unusual, and a little more drama than I can handle. Days like this when I feel like everything spiraling in one direction while I'm looking the other way.

As some of you might know, we got hit a little harder than usual with the weather this week, some big ass cloud with a cold demeanor came along and dumped a measly 2-3 inches of snow, maybe, and then made it all problematic by freezing it all up. Back in Bellingham where I used to be, there is significantly more snow to contend with, so much so that a lot of people are stranded where they're at. But here, not so much. Well, depends on where you are, I suppose. A lot of people, including my wife, didn't go to work because it was difficult getting anywhere on these frozen roads.

But anyway, I suppose it started yesterday, when I decided that it might be fun to go to Bellevue Square. We headed out at around rush hour, but found ourselves in a parking lot situation on the road. After about 15 minutes of not budging, we just went to the local mall instead, watching the snow fall on the mall's outside Christmas tree. In one instance, Alex wandered inside the tree and I was shouting for him, not realizing that it was actually a photo booth with a Santa in there. Anyway, Alex was just so impressed with the whole deal - he kept saying, "Santa gave me a candy cane!" for a good portion of the evening.

When I watched the news later and realized that many people were still trying to get home, or that their cars were abandoned on the freeways, and that they were still on the interstate that I was trying to get on to go to the mall, I felt a little stupid. Like I was the one running into the burning building because I wanted a nap.

So, the snow froze, and we were out today, no biggie. The vet had called and mentioned that our cat, Tina, was doing pretty good, but the medication would have to be skipped because we had reached the limit that I had set. Well, I asked my wife to call in and ask how much the amoxicillin would cost, and it turns out it was just 15 dollars. So the vet was just assuming that we bought a sickly cat in to be checked out, only to leave without the medication that would help her be normal again. Anyway, after the 500 dollar limit, $15 is really not the issue. So yeah, we're smarting from that bill, along with my business taxes. Another 500 plus there. 1,000 in the hole in two days.

Anyway, Tina's doing okay, despite the lack of concern from one of her owners who showed a lot of indifference when she was informed (albeit incorrectly) that Tina could possibly be put down. I guess there are more important things to tend to, like Thanksgiving dinner with her father. Oh wait...

Back to the clown day, Alex and Zoe were doing fine, enjoying their snow day and playing with snow, and my wife and I had a rather brutal snow fight, whereby we didn't just lob snowballs at each other, we threw it at each other's faces. I popped some snow at her face and when she looked up, her glasses were white with snow, and they were on the inside of her glasses. Yeah, I felt like a jerk. She got me back. But then I got her back again. I think I might have damaged some nerves on her face too.

But yeah, Alex woke up kinda upset, and he was crying for a bit, so I tried to hug him and comfort him for a bit. But he was crying unusually harder than normal, so I was a little worried.

What's wrong, I ask.

Brgughhhhh, he answered.

So while my wife cleaned him up, I did the sheets and we had to tell Zoe to stay off the bed. He felt better afterwards, laughing and whatnot, especially after we gave him a freezer pop. Later on, he had some water and up it went again, all over the carpet.

"Not again!" he said.

So we cleaned him up again, and once again, he didn't have a fever, or dizziness, or any other symptoms, he just felt better afterward. I said to my wife, "Maybe it's me. Everytime he sees me he throws up."

We decided to try something lighter for dinner, but sure enough, we saw dinner again. We gave him a little water, but that was it. Nothing else for tonight.

Yeah, I had to steam clean the carpet tonight.

Oh well, maybe tomorrow will be better. Or at least cheaper.

2006-11-21T22:50:00.000-08:00

Things Rising from the Dead

Well, not really, but I'm no longer witty anymore, so it'll have to do.

Stumbled upon my old blog, The Procrastinator Triumphant. I was pretty sure I had killed the blog, but I guess nothing's really dead when it comes to the internet. I read a little bit of it and I was like, impressed. The vocabulary! The vulgarity! The blantant lack of respect! Crazy. It was kinda a nice reminder that everything changes, no matter how similar and boring you might think it is.

Well, that's enough penny philsophy.

So the "Love" album came out today, and I am quite curious and a little disappointed in a way. I'm listening to the preview on the Beatles.com website, and some of it sounds quite the same, and some of it just seems wonky. Like Number 9 from the White Album just broke free and tried to infest the rest of the albums. It's a strange remix/reworking, not really what I expected. I think when I think remix, I think of Fatboy Slim and other kinds of DJs just putting in beats and souping it up. The remix seems different and yet, very much the same. No word on whether or not I'll be getting it. Don't know how I feel about it.

So as promised, the thing about the Wii.

I think it's really something for the company to reinvent itself. I think in a lot of ways, Nintendo is like Apple - a formerly very strong company that's having to fight for its life, and realizing that the best thing going for the company is its innovation. Instead of pimping out their next-gen console with micro-processors and Blu-Ray madness, it decided to go back to basics, and do something different. Does it pay off? So far, yes and no. The games are certainly different in their feel - you seriously couldn't sit down for hours playing like you would some other games, because fatigue does set it when you're swinging, twitching, jerking and extending your appendages to do what you need to do in the game. I think that the launch games are okay, but definitely there needs to be more games to gauge. And half of the features like internet, the Virtual Console, Wii News and Weather are still offline, so it's really tough to tell. Some of the other games might have online capability, but I don't like a lot of the other games, so I'll have to keep waiting for one.

Like I said, I welcome the new control scheme, though there has been a number of times I'd really just like to relax my arms and sit down. But it's fairly difficult to do so since there's so much require movement. Shooting games like Red Steel doesn't fair too terribly well when you're sitting because there isn't enough room, and it's tough to pretend to shoot from the hip.

The lack of CD/DVD drive is a little weird, not that I need one, but hey, it would be cool. The Photo Channel is nice, having the ability to preview your SD photos, but then again, it doesn't read the movies from my Minolta. It'll help when I need to show my recent photos, but by no means anything more than that. And they really should have done the photo-editing more justice by making it more open ended, like Mario Paint. It gives you a lips stamp and a star stamp, which really should be replaced with a keyboard or fonts.

All and all, it still comes back down to gameplay I suppose. There's still something to be said about a standard controller and console whereby I don't have to stand or fling my arms around to be entertained. But Wii is a great party machine, a good console for a household with stagnant kids, and generally a happy little machine.

Doesn't play Gears of War, but hey. I don't have 600 bucks either.

Sorry, 1,200 bucks, if you want to get your hands on one.

2006-11-21T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is for Dansen's request to post some Wii photos.

My wife playing Rayman. It should be noted that most of the time when we're playing the Wii, we're usually standing. You don't have to, but it helps get into it.

Where it's located in the entertainment center. It's actually small enough to place vertically on a shelf, surprisingly.

Everything I got, except Zelda, which I'm selling. Just not that much into Zelda.

To compare, the Wii next to a standard DVD case. It's really not much thicker either, I think I read that it was 3 DVD cases thick.

Wii!

2006-11-19T23:42:00.000-08:00

Wii Timeline

Never thought I would be one of those folks who camp out overnight for a console launch, but since I've been obsessing about it for months, I thought I might as well get one. Now we had two preorders which we were planning to put on ebay, but we decided to get one for ourselves with the possible profit from the sale of both Wiis.

Anywho, I had a wedding yesterday, an eight hour gig that ended at 9:30pm, so I thought I'd try for the midnight launch at Freddy's. But getting there, I had the feeling that it wasn't going to happen, because the line was already from one end of the building to the other. I approached the last guy in line and he was the 120th, and since I knew there were only going to be 90 Wiis, I told them good luck and went home.

Now despite my educated guess that I will probably be within the 99th customer range if I went to Target at 2 or 3 in the morning, I couldn't relax and my headache wasn't getting better, so I decided to head over to Target at 12:30am, some 7 and a half hours before the store was to open, and camp out there. I wore flannel jammie pants under my jeans, a t-shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, and two jackets, a baseball cap, and packed a sleeping bag, my laptop, some magazines, and a folding chair and headed over to Target.

When I got there, the line had grown slightly since I swung by two hours before, so I staked out my spot, and got comfy. I tried reading, but the words weren't making a whole lot of sense since my headache was still kicking my butt. But here's the approximate timeline.

Got there. Found out that there were a few people there who were in other lines at other places. The guy in front of me had been at Toys R Us for 2 to 3 hours and he was just 2 people short of getting a ticket. He headed over to Target immediately without packing for the over night. There were canopies, tents, sleeping bags and lawn chairs strewn out. Mostly guys, some girls who just showed up to offer support, snacks, and sleeping bags.

One of the guys at the front of the line, a husky looking dude, was pretty livid. He insisted on counting off each person because the line that he was line grew and bumped him out of candidancy for a Wii. I was number 47. He told everyone that if anyone tried to jump in line, to let him know, since him and his friend were bouncers.

Meanwhile, a couple of teenagers, sharky looking dealers that crept with intention and greed, come on and decided to try to sell their Wii to us. They didn't have it in hand, but they were telling us that they would sell it for $350, a hundred dollar profit.

Nobody bit, everyone seemed to be in the long haul. However, at some point the guy in front of me had offered $325 for it, because the two sharks came back and told him that someone at the front of the line had offered $360 for it, and if he wanted to match it. The guy passed, and the two sharks went back to their cars, and left. Thing is, nobody offered any money up front. Like I said, sharks. I think I was surprised that these two kids were such hustlers.

It was almost a whole hour before someone got behind me. He said hi and I said, "Hello."

"No?"

"No, I said, Hello."

This was a party of four, a dad, a lady, and a ten year old girl, and they were each wanting to get one each. I highly doubt using your children to get a console seems rather dubious. But hey. Whatever. The poor little girl had to sleep had to endure the cold wind and temps in a sleeping bag, and the chairs were toppling on her for a while too.

I space out after a while, I decided not to worry about the laptop in my bag and put it back in the trunk. I got into the sleeping bag because my butt was freezing, since that was the direction the wind was blowing. So I sat in the chair with the sleeping bag up to my nose, and my hood up. I probably looked a little odd, this clump with glasses looking out. I wasn't sleepy, but I was spacey, so I just closed my eyes and focused on the music. It's nice when once in a while, you don't worry about your playlist, and you just listen to the song. I like to isolate certain instruments, and listen to the different sounds in a song sometimes.

The trickle of people slow down and the guy in front of me attempts to sleep, despite his vocal paranoia of beetles climbing on him. He didn't have a sleeping bag, but a blanket and a hooded sweatshirt. The guys up front were hardcore, staying awake and gabbing about games and whatnot. A gaggle of them clutched onto their Nintendo DS-es, though I suspect many gave up after a while because their fingers couldn't withstand the cold.

I space out for a while, and then time passes. Sometimes I open my eyes, staring into the parking lot, and guiltily enjoying the nothingness of nothing. I decided after a while that if I pull the sleeping bag over my head, it was actually kinda comfy. Note that throughout the whole night, I was sitting in my chair. Didn't want to lay on the cold ground.

At around five the crowd slowly grew, and I decided that now was a good time to start a movie, so I put in "V for Vendetta." At around six, Target employees came around and roused everyone up, and told us to get into a straight line and to clean up the sleeping bags and lawn chairs. We did, so that we could wait in line while standing up in the cold without our blankets. They came around occasionally to answer questions, and hand out popcorn. There were many hopefuls thinking they might open early, but really no such luck. I put my stuff away, and now had to stand and wait for two hours. My chair decided that it wasn't going to accomodate my fat ass anymore, so it broke.

At 7, adding insult to injury, a trickle turned into rain. I was figeting all over, bouncing on the spot because I was tired, rocking out, cold, and I had needed to pee since 2 am. Finally, they announced that they were letting 30 in at a time, and I felt no remorse for the 100 and up customer who didn't get a Wii because, well, they didn't commit. Anyway, they went home, and we went in the store, where the campers were plunking down money for the system.

My grand total was 498 and some change, and I tried not to wince too much, reminding myself that I was going to get a return on them later.

And I went home, and passed out on the bed.

Impressions of the Wii Later.

2006-11-15T02:57:00.000-08:00

I've been to so many wedding receptions that play this (including the one I'm working on) that it's laid eggs in my head. It's not a bad song, but it really shouldn't be this catchy.

2006-11-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Zoe has this habit of narrating things and generally talking up a earful which I think is pretty cute. She does this during dinner when she's supposed to be eating, and she does this sometimes when I really need someone to cheer me up. She's got a really infectious personality that's curious and obilvious, part cheerleader and part clown. During dinner, she'll take a over-dramatic bite, and then proceed to announce, "I eating, Daddy. I eating. Chomp." She also sports some cadence in her speech, I suspect, because sentences are too much of a mouthful to get out. She'll say something like this:

"Yellow, Crane, over there. Huh."

and then repeat, "Yellow, Crane, over there. Huh."

Until you acknowledge her. When I wake her up from her afternoon nap, she's always quick to get up, and she'll narrate, "I get up. Zoe get up. Hi Daddy. Hi Daddy." and then she'll sit there, rubbing her eyes, and her little bob of hair will be all frazzled in the back. And then, almost immediately, she's in a good mood. Her brother is a little different, he can wake up either in a good mood, or he'll be a really cranky little boy.

Alex's personality right now borders on hyper crazy over-excited boy and insistently stubborn boy. He is frequently all over the place, doing all sorts of voices, and being as agressive as a little boy can be. Holding his hand while we're out sometimes feels like you're water skiing. He'll jump, pull, hop, and circle you until you collapse from exhaustion, and he'll probably sit on you and laugh manically when you're down. As for his stubborness, he'll obsess about something like juice, or a toy, and his mind will be made up. He'll ask for it, hover over it, and repeat it over and over. I'll say something like, "Dude, not right now, please don't ask for it again or you'll get a time-out."

And then quietly under his breath, he'll mumble, "juice."

But the kids are actually doing okay, except that mealtimes have become major productions. 9 out of 10 times, they'll stall, play with their food, and refuse to eat. It's become a little bit of a power struggle during mealtimes because they'll drag out a half hour meal into an hour and a half of repeated reminders, and constant nagging.

I thought it might be a great idea to ship them out the other day, but then I read the fine print during the "Click N Ship" feature on the postal service website that shipping people is illegal, so I resigned to the idea that I would just have to be a parent and take care of them.

So yeah, this Sunday the Nintendo Wii is coming out, and I'm going to be getting one! Wii!

2006-11-03T23:03:00.000-08:00

Halloween Pics.

2006-11-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

Busy, Busy, Busy

Let me get the dorky things out of the way - The media center that I've set up just got a helping hand by my newfound knowledge of how to use the VNC, which stands for Virtual Network Computing. Basically, I can now control my Mac Mini with my laptop, which really helps increase my workflow and allows me to use my iBook as some kind of souped up remote. Very cool.

Alright. The day before Halloween, we took the kids up to the Fairmont Hotel because my Mom's workplace had a thing for kids, so we went downtown and got the kids dressed at the hotel, because their tails were kinda in the way when they were sitting in the carseats.

The function itself was bad organized, because they had decided to start the whole shindig with the movie, "Monsters, Inc." Now, not a bad movie itself, but since I myself and a lot of parents probably own the movie anyway, it was silly to start off a kid-friendly thing but sticking in a movie. They had popcorn and whatnot, but they were supposed to have other activities too, which probably happened after the movie ended. We didn't stick around too long to find out, because we had dinner reservations at 7:30 at Schuckers, which is really what I wanted to post about.

I've never had filet mignon before, and since my Mom had a gift certificate for 150 bucks, I didn't feel too bad about ordering a 13 dollar bowl of chowder and a 43 dollar plate of filet mignon and lobster. We also got a warm plate platter, with calamari, shrimp, oysters, and clams. Weren't too crazy about the clams or the oysters, but even my wife who doesn't like seafood much more than me liked the calamari. The chowder was good too, though when I was done with the appetizer and chowder, I was already fullish. Then it seriously took almost another hour before the main course came. And I'm sorta glad that the main course was smallish - I expected bigger portions, but it was good. Tender as a baby's bum, not that I've taken a bite of that either. The lobster was good too, though the portions were a little slim. And I think it's odd when they cut the lobster out to look shrimp-like. Odd. But man, that was a good dinner. I was waddling home that night.

Yesterday was of course, Halloween, and the kids had a pretty good time. I think it's odd that all this month leading up to Halloween, the kids have been obsessed about Hulk (Frankenstein, really. He's green, so...), Vampires, Witches, Boneheads, and then when the day of Halloween comes, it's really about candy. I've got some photos that I'll post later, but they did have a ball. Grandma had a bit of the nasties, so she stayed home. Alex was having fun going from store to store saying Happy Halloween, and sticking his hand into candy jars when he's not supposed to. The boy just beelines to the jar, obilivious that most times that the person is handing out the candy by hand. Zoe got a lot of "Awww"s, because she's just that beauty age between infant indifference and toddler cheekiness. Cute but completely unaware of it. They both made out like bandits.

My wife and I have been philtering their candy all day.

--

Oh, I did forget about the court date yesterday. We wanted to get a hearing for my wife's expired tabs. About a month ago, she got pulled over for expired tabs and it was almost two hundred bucks of a fine. Well, we managed to get it waived since we didn't really know that it was expired and we fixed it the following day, but the interesting part was listening to all the other court cases. Driving without insurance, without license, causing 5 car accidents... Just a little bit of everything, it seems like. There were a few other expired tabs, and my wife was nervous getting up there and talking to the judge, but it was dismissed and my wife did good. It was pretty interesting though, that the judge was pretty no-nonsense and her job was pretty much having to sit through all these people and their excuses. Some were pretty lame. Some were relatable. There was a lady who claimed that her 9 year old son made bad choices, and could be classified as handicapped, but she parked at the handicapped spot without a permit, and she never had a permit. So her excuse was that she wanted to make sure that he could get to the apartment safely, so she parks close. The judge imposed the fine because she didn't see how come she had to remain parked at the handicapped spot, once her son was at the apartment. And yeah, c'mon. It's really not cool to steal a handicapped spot.

2006-10-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

Maybe God was a procrastinator.

In classic Diego mode, I spent most of the weekend doing what I do best - embarking on weird little adventures in my limited little world. This weekend, I was consumed to the idea that damnit, I'm going to turn my mac mini into a little media center.

But of course, I wasn't really going to do it the correct way, which was to spend hundreds of dollars getting a server, extra storage space, software for recording Tv shows onto the hard drive, a LCD with a HDMI connector, or a Dolby surround sound. Nope, just hooking it up to my Mom's 34 inch Analog TV using a 20 dollar DVI to Video adapter.

So the results are a little mixed right now. It's still not completely user friendly - reading text off the TV is like trying to read fine print through vaseline glasses. It's doable, but certainly not fun. The bluetooth mouse I had laying around (yes, I do have mice laying around. It's something I do.) works fine with the bluetooth that's built into the mac mini, and I can connect to the internet using airport, but I'm still limited to punching in text onto the onscreen keyboard. I'm going to remedy that soon with a boothtooth keyboard, which after rebates should be around 18 bucks.

But it's nice having all the photos in one place, and I have my mac use the photos folder as a screensaver, so it goes into screensaver mode after 3 minutes of idle and all the thousands (yes, thousands!) of photos I've taken gets a second viewing for the whole family. In addition, the video clips and the music collection is now more accessible, so that's cool.

Most of all, it's great to have iTunes as a central app. I couldn't imagine forking out 299 for Apple's iTV which is coming out next year, but my 50 dollar solution seems to be working out just fine. By the way, I do most of my work on the iBook, which is partially why I thought the Mac mini could get a day job. I can still have it run apps in the background, which is great too.

Well, weekend's over at any rate. Back to work.

2006-10-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Patch Photos

2006-10-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

And now, for a little fiction.

I wrote the bulk of this at McDonalds, with a headache, and with little attention to grammar or spelling. Whee!

Hope it’s a fun read.

------------------

Hanna cradles her cup, letting the warm, sweet aroma from her non-fat double with whipped cream and a hint of cinnamon filling her lungs. She will eventually take a sip to convince herself that it was worth the three-forty nine, but she will probably let most of it go cold. Then at least, she thinks, she can say it’s gross to drink it cold, instead of buying gourmet coffee simply for the aromatherapy.

She glances at her watch, and then brings the cup closer to her lips, indulging on a taste of the whipped cream, and immediately feeling a twinge of guilt. Unconsciously, she puts her hand on her stomach, before realizing that the silly notion that it might settle there. No, usually those bad carbs end up somewhere you can’t see, she thought.

They end up somewhere you can’t see, like your butt or the back of your arms. At least for me, she sighs.

“Cause I’m a Picker, I’m a Grinner, I’m a Lover, and I’m a Sinner…
I play my music in the sunnnnnn…”

I keep forgetting to do that, thinks Hanna. Nothing like dating yourself by announcing your favorite song as your ringtone. Doesn’t Jay-Z have a new song out, she asks herself, trying to remember what Jay-Z looks like, but inaccurately recalling Ludacris in her mind.

Let it be Andy. Let it be Andy.

Oh.

“Hi Mom. Happy Morning to you too.”

“No, Mom.”

“Just having some coffee…”

“No, just by myself. Per usual.”

“Actually, I prefer the isolation. Allows me to hear the other voices without all that interference you get from human interaction.”

“I’m joking, Mom. Stop crying.”

“All right, see you for dinner.”

“I know, I know. Men prefer pretty, not funny. Golden advice mom. Look, I’d better be going. Gotta get back to work.”

Hanna glances at her watch.

“Really, mom. I’ve got to go.”

Hanna puts her cell back into her purse, and looks around the room. She tries to single out the one person who might need it the most, but she also knows that she’s a tremendously bad judge of character. Smiles and good manners fool her, and she has to remind herself that a lot of good people hide under a mask of indifference and mild aggression. Thankfully, she seldom figures out what becomes of the chosen, though once she did see a man she had previously helped. He was standing in line at the local Safeway, berating an elderly checker who was too eager to apologize, perhaps excabating the situation.

Hanna flirted with the man afterward, disgusted with his behavior and believing that he didn’t deserve her help. It was to her shock when she found out later, that he was a local congressman whose childhood ailment finally caught up to him. She didn’t know that he had a family.

Hanna has thought about giving it all up – it was just too much responsibility for her to deal with, and the weight of the consequences were too much to bear. But she recognized that her gift, a burden as it was, could save humanity. Not humanity as a whole, of course, but she could help restore faith in people, one by one. That good things can happen. Miracles can happen.

God, I’m corny, Hanna scoffs to herself. Just get it over with.

Suddenly, she realizes that the little tidbits of conversation she’s been overhearing in the next booth meant something. This was Hanna’s lucky day. The answer just presented himself in front of her.

“How old is he?” asks Hanna.

“He’s two,” answers the Mother, without looking up from her book.

“Cute kid. I like your glasses, buddy,” Hanna says, placing her hand squarely on his face. The Mother is ready to protest, but Hanna has already walked away with an odd smirk on her face.

----------------

The anxious Mother holds her son close, whispering consolations to him that he cannot hear through his own sobs. She tries to convince herself that it’s nothing. A viral infection. Maybe a bug. But nothing serious.
The doctor walks in, studying his chart, a curled brow perhaps too much of a giveaway.

“How long has your son felt this way, M’am?”

“I don’t know. Sometime this morning after breakfast, he just started crying and I haven’t been able to calm him down since. What’s wrong with my son, doctor?”

“I’m not sure. We can draw some blood and run tests, but I just like to rule out the obvious… Hi, Little Man.”

The little boy continues sobbing.

“Can I ask you where you owie is?”

“Honey,” the mother whispers, “Can you show the doctor where your owie is?”

The little boy points to his head in between breaths.

“Is there something you’re not telling me, doctor? Please, just tell me if there’s something you can fix and…”

The doctor holds up a finger, then slowly reaches for the boy’s glasses. He folds them and places them beside him.

“Let’s try that for a while, okay?”

“Doctor, he needs that for the strabismus, I’ve been told to leave them on him.”

“He looks fine to me. His eyes are looking right into mine.”

The mother holds up his boy and looks into his eyes.

“But… What happened to your eyes, Henry? What…”

“The glasses. They’re giving him a headache. He doesn’t need them.”

“But how?”

“I’m just a doctor, M’am. Let me know if his owie comes back.”

2006-10-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

The Loyalty of Children

Often I like to remind myself that my kids aren't going to be this age forever - when you are their hero, their inspiration, their role model. They will try to get what they want all the time, but deep down they have a love for you that can't be denied. It's unconditional and pure. It's uncluttered and simple.

Right now my wife is going through a really tough time, and her daughter seems to be having the time of her life. My wife spent a lot of last night hiding her tears, feeling the tremendous weight on her chest, alternating between sadness and anger. Frustration and hopelessness. And JL? Well, she was yukking it up with her boyfriend. Making jokes at our expense. And even today, just glancing on her blog, she has a pretty sprightly attitude about the whole thing. She doesn't care about what she's putting her mother through, and she sure as hell doesn't know what's in store for her.

JL thinks that going to Bellingham will solve all her problems. She thinks loving someone enough will make everything go away, and that love is forever, and it conquers all. Anyone with anything more than an ounce of intelligence will beg to differ. True love requires a lot of work. It requires respect, it requires communication, and it requires real friendship. Not poetry or false promises. Not lies and excuses. Real love isn't easy. It's a lot of hard work. But she's sold on that idea, so she'll have to find out the hard way.

The lies she uses to build her fantasy world will collapse on her, because they are what they are - fibs. Excuses. She says Bellingham is where her dad is. Her friends are. Her future is. Her sister is. While all that has some degree of truth, the real truth is much more selfish, more conceited. It's where her boyfriend is. Or at least what she wants her boyfriend to be. She's always maintained a rather distorted sense of optimism to their relationship, one that consists of pretending to be someone else, or to tolerate the other as long as they can.

She's already chosen the wrong path at the crossroads, and now it's almost entirely up to herself to choose to turn around and head back where she came from, or to look for an alternate route. There's no one to guide her anymore, to yell at her that she's going the wrong way. The wolves on her current path want the same thing as she does - whatever's beneficial for oneself. They want her for different reasons - one wants a roomate and a surrogate wife, to take care of him and help bring in extra income so that she can help with rent, as well as act as a collateral to get child support. The other wants her for something more primal. Something that will not last. It will either get boring, or youth will give way to age and her body will change. It's like a 9 year old dating a 13 year old. Their maturity is made up of playing house, and romantic ideas that never materialize into real emotion.

Personally, I'd really want to move past this, because it's been nothing but destructive to our lives. The kids are not getting our attention, and the bratty teenager doesn't care that she's hurting anyone. All she cares about is her gratification. Our best wish for her may be that she doesn't have anyone treat her the same way she's been treating us.

2006-10-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or do other people see death everywhere during the fall? All these leaves that have fallen are no longer a part of a living organism, it's just laying there, dead, and wasting away. Everywhere. The rain breaks them apart, and then there are just brown stains where they used to be. The streets run brown with death.

Good morning.

I've been having odd dreams, I think in response to feeling the urges to be creative. The podcast idea has been festering in my head for some time, sure. But the other day I dreamt that I was auditioning for Hamlet, and the director wasn't so sure about me and asked me what my approach was toward playing the character. I started describing to him and midway, I woke up, probably because I don't really know what I'm talking about.

Yesterday, a 16-year-old local kid emailed me looking for employment/internship possibilities, and it was a little strange to think that I was in a position to do so, except for the whole money thing. Like I don't really have any money to spare for him. I guess sometimes I forget that my business persona seems more professional than I remember it to be. I replied to him with some tips, but I doubt he really needs any help at all. This guy has a GL-2, Final Cut Studio, and he's done greenscreen work. He has more experience in some aspects than I do.

Damn, these iBooks sure do run hot.

I'm currently in the waiting room of some medical office, while my mum is getting the results of her MRI analyzed. She's been having some neck/spine pain and it's been a pain trying to get it treated. I feel bad that she has to put up with the pain, hopefully they'll find something to help subdue it.

2006-10-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

Photo Post.

A batch of photos for everyone!

2006-10-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

As the weather swings closer to Spring, it's tougher to figure out what to do with the kids in the evening. Usually, I'm a homebody, but these kids do get kind of restless and insane, so I try to take them to some playground or something, to run off some steam.

Well, being indecisive as I was, I decided to head up to the Bellevue Mall so that they could play around in the playground indoors. It's not a big playground, but it's better than tearing the house apart. When I got there, the weather seemed decent enough, and there's a park with a playground close to the mall, so we decided to go there instead.

Walking to the playground was a bit of a challenge. For some reasons, my kids seem to think that bodies of water need things in them, so they always like to pick up leaves, pebbles, or children smaller than themselves and hurl them into the water. Don't know why. So it takes forever to walk to the playground. When we're there, we're doing well until some idiot kid decides that it's a good idea to jump over Zoe while she's at the bottom of the slide. Granted, she was kinda blocking the end of the slide, but when I told her to move the kid decides to jump over her as she was getting up, and kneed her in the back of the head. Which pissed me off. I kinda yelled at the kid who didn't really care, and I was scanning the playground to see what crap parent was not disciplining their kid, but no one really registered. She was all right, and it was nothing major, but it does bother me when other kids have no playground manners.

So we decide to leave and head back to the mall, to fulfill my craving for a Tropical Colada Smoothie at Orange Julius. After I had it for the first time a month back, I've been wanting another go at it. I go up to the menu board and... there it wasn't. The clerk blabbed something about a chocolate colada, which sounds pretty grody anyhow, and so I got the string, now icky regular Pina Colada. I shared it with the kids, who decided that the best way to drink a shake is by pulling the straws out.

Walking through the mall was challenging too, because as I might have mentioned, these two kids have a pretty severe Halloween jones. Alex wakes up and the first thing he says is, "Halloween." I am not joking. So every store naturally had some Halloween display, which would draw the kids in, and then we look around, and it's... a paper store. Or a candle store. So we'd take three steps into a store, and then head back out.

I have to say this though, I've never felt guilty about my nature calls, but kids will do that to you. I had to take the kids to a stall with me, and Alex felt compelled to check my undercarriage, and say out loud, "Daddy Pooping." Of course, I couldn't say, "No, poop doesn't fit through there," but I felt like I had to defend myself and say, "No, I'm not pooping." Ahh, bathroom with an audience.

My attention just got scattered.

2006-10-10T13:39:00.000-07:00

Froggy

2006-10-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

Pop Goes the Weasel

2006-10-07T23:44:00.000-07:00

I was waiting in the car and I had some seemingly profound thought that flashed across my mind, and then I realized that it probably wasn't really that profound at all, but rather it was just something that I have known all along. I was just trying to ignore it because it's a little hard.

It's about percentages. I think I really suck at it. I think everyone deals with percentages, and if those percentages are even a little bit off, that the balance of life follows along with it. I used to blame it on youth, that when you're younger, you have more time, more concentration, less things to worry about so your percentages are spread more evenly. When you're a wanker like me, you're just all over the place. As a result, all your percentages are low, even those of a leisurely nature.

When I edit, I imagine I'm usually at 20%. I drift off to do other things. I take a lot of breaks. I get bored a lot. I surf, I play with the kids, I goof off. I will even see there and stare at the footage, trying to imagine what it's like to be a person in that group. I think 15% is even not that unfair.

When I relax, honestly, it's not even 100%. I'm full of tension, I'm full of anxiety about the work that I'm not doing, and I'm just not able to full relax. There's something I should be doing, and I can't wait to get back to not doing it.

When I play with the kids, I have to admit, I fare rather poorly. I think 55-65% is a little frightening, but I believe that may be the truth. If I'm not actively doing something that has nothing to do with the kids likes tapping away at the laptop or keeping busy with the camera, I'm just worried. Again with the things I could be doing. I know, no lecture required. The Beatles said it best, "The love you take is equal to the love you make." I don't want to be a parent to two teenagers who don't give me the time of day because I didn't give them the time of day when they were younger. I mean, that's what really happens nowadays, isn't it? Parents don't give their kids time and the kids adapt. Nobody wants to be sitting around, pining for attention. Unless you're a teenager who lives in my house. But I digress.

People just adapt and then suddenly when you're ready for the attention - they've learned to do without.

I need to focus. I need to increase my percentages in everything I do. Work, play, kids, sleep. I need to be closer to 100% on everything, and not be so non-committed and disinterested in what I have to do at the moment. Work hard, play hard, parent hard. I can't coast on this half-assedness that I've been doing, because it'll eventually destroy all the aspects that make up my life.

And right now, I'm really not supposed to be blogging. Back to work.

Sigh.

2006-10-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

So we're at the playground, and Alex is playing when he sees one of those voice-speaker things. Basically it's a pipe of some sort that allows one kid to speak into it, and on the other side of the playground, another pipe allows another kid to listen in and converse accordingly. What does Alex say? Happy Halloween. Over and over again. This causes amusement in some parents, and slight embarassment with this particular parent.

I suppose it's natural for kids and anyone really to preoccupy their minds with some kind of obsession. Whether it's perfection, their vanity, or a particular person, I think we all have to be obsessed about something in order to stay motivated in life. If we got everything we wanted, I don't suppose there's any real reason to keep doing anything. Alex's obsession is Halloween. The boy loves Halloween. As much as birthdays, even. Everytime we got to the store, he'll yelll "Halloween! Halloween!" And he'll want to push every button on every dumb animatronic. Zoe's slightly less interested in the spookfest, mostly because she's only 2 and doesn't like things that are too creepy, like ghouls, ghosts, and big-haired mumbling freaks. Our neighbor's house has become a destination because they decorated their front patio with Halloween garb.

We're trying to keep the Halloween stuff at a minimum, and so far he really hasn't had any nightmares, or Goth tendencies like wanting to put on black lipstick or mope incessantly at the local 7-eleven. He's still pretty normal. For now.

Beginning of this week, seriously, I was a little annoyed at the crap that was going on. At the end of the week, there is slightly good news to bear with, depending how you look at it. For my business, it's great, and for the light at the end of the tunnel, it's looking a lot dimmer and harder to spot. I scored two weddings in October out of nowhere, and they're not even like tiny weddings. Well, one of them is smallish. But it's still a bunch of work that I gotta do.

My wife and I are trying to get on some kind of schedule. So that we can maximize our time and spend more time together.

Hmm, my attention is trailing.

I guess so am I.

2006-10-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Some Rants, Some Raves.

Too much editing to do, and a little camera shy to boot.

To keep the pessimistic ego of mine stroked, we'll start with that.

It sucks to have to deal with a certain client who doesn't seem to understand that editing is not like - I don't know, I don't have a proper metaphor to which to compare it to. But anyway, I've been giving this client previews. Jpg previews, as well as actual footage to view, and she's blown it off. Too busy, looks good now, whatever. And then when I think I'm done with her, she's pulled it out and pointed out mistakes, or things to her disliking. It is a giant pain in the ass because I'm already backed up as it is, and changing something on a final DVD ain't easy. Reedit, rerender, reexport, reauthor, reencode, and reburn. And since I'm using Pro Apps on a Mac Mini, it does take a huge chunk of time. Hopefully tomorrow will be the last time I ever see her.

Wife got a ticket on the way to work. Evidently, our tabs expired in Feb. and nobody noticed. Who remembers their tab? We didn't update our address with the DMV, so they probably sent our tabs to our old address. Usually that's our reminder. The damage? About 200 bucks. Hell yeah, we're going to court to appeal that.

The whole JL got elevate into crazy ass ex involvement on Monday, when JL's father wanted to bend some rules and wanted us to break our punishment on his behalf. Then he got into crazy-boy mode and threatened to even call the cops. The following is an imagined re-enactment of his phone call with the police.

D. 911. What is your emergency?

B. Hello, I need to call 911.

D. This is 911. Can I help you?

B. Are you Christian?

D. Sir, do you have an emergency?

B. Are you watching me right now?

D. Sir, do you have an emergency you'd like to report?

B. I do. My ex-wife is holding my daughter against her will.

D. Is she in immediate danger, sir?

B. No, but my ex-wife used this term I'm not familiar with. I think it's Parent-speak. It's evil. I don't understand the word. I think they're trying to plant her or something. Horticulture.

D. Sir? What term did your ex-wife use?

B. She said my daughter was... grounded.

D. Sir? This line is reserved for emergencies only. Is there anything else I can help you with?

B. My wife is preventing me from seeing my own daughter. That qualifies, right? Am I making you happy now, Daddy? Sob.

D. Sir, this is 911.

B. I know. Don't judge me. Only God can. And he's in Cabo.

D. Sir, are you not granted visitation rights?

B. Well, I can drive down and see her, but just not drive her back here in Bellingham. I have another freakishly tall troll I think she'd like. He writes poetry and dances to video games, and... oh wait. It's the same troll. Excuse me.

D. So you can see her.

B. Well, not from here. I'm in Bellingham. It's like 90 miles. I can't even walk that far.

D. I mean, you can visit her, right?

B. Well, yeah. What's your point?

D. When was the last time you saw her?

B. Two weeks ago. But I know she won't be allowed to come here for another month. That's violating a court order.

D. Sir, we can't act on something that hasn't happened yet. Besides, you can still visit her. Who has primary custody?

B. My ex.

D. Sorry to say sir, but this is something you need to call during office hours, and they'll probably tell you to call your lawyer. This is a custody issue, and not an emergency call.

B. I don't have a lawyer.

D. Sorry?

B. Ted Bundy, Zacarias Moussaoui, Slobodan MiloÂ?evi?, John Allen Muhammed were their own attorneys. I don't need a lawyer.

D. At any rate, I have to hang up now unless you have an emergency.

B. I sometimes swallow my own ejaculate. But that's a dirty word. I like the term, "Holy Juice."

D. Take care of yourself, sir.

B. It was very nice talking to you.

D. You too, sir.

B. Hmphlx.

(Dial tone.)

Onto the good stuff.

I tuned in Monday to watch "Heroes", which wasn't bad, but I stayed on to watch "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip" and just liked it a lot. I downloaded the Pilot and episode 2 and watched the pilot and I'm now officially a fan. Great writing, great actors. I hope it gets picked up beyond the ordered 13 episodes, but we'll see. Aaron Sorkin seems to make these quality dramas, and even though I wasn't into it when it was on the air, I liked "Sports Night" too. And I don't care for sports. So, go watch it for free on the painfully slow NBC.com, and then once you've fallen for it, buy it on iTunes. Great great writing.

My iBook finally came home, freeing me up to do some actual work like blogging, downloading Studio 60 from iTunes, surfing, and the other thing that I'm supposed to be doing. Editing? Who knows.

Oh yeah, Zoe's been a pain lately. She ain't listening. And she's all cute about it too, no remorse, all cheekiness, and stubborn to boot. That little girl's got charm, but man she can be bull headed as hell. I wonder where she got that from?

Alex, on the other hand, has decreased in his manic laughing, thus relieving me of thinking that there's some kind of faint nitrous oxide leak going undetected in this house. It seems like the kids have some primitive toddler form of Scissors, Rock and Paper game and they decide who some be terrorizing the Parents for the next period.

A. Alright, I'm done laughing at everything and nothing. And not listening. Your turn.

Z. I'll call your not listening, and raise it with blantant stubbornness, and I'll even mug and act cute - and they will forgive me.

A. You won't.

Z. Watch me.

Thus the adventures continue. I really should get back to work here.

2006-10-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

The Thing about Vlogging

I think I'm going to try to do a little bit of both, since they both have their advantages. For instance, when I have video of the kids, it's great. When I'm just a talking head rambling on about seemingly boring going-ons, it's not. Also, the 15 minute clip I had had to be trimmed down to 12, and then encoded, then uploaded, and then listed. It takes seriously about a good half hour just to get a vlog up, excluding the upload times. I enjoy vlogging, but I do summarize a lot because I don't remember details when I present the oral history.

So anyhow, here's a good old-fashioned written post.

One of the things I cut out from the vlog was about one of my biggest pet peeves. And in order to discuss the context of the pet peeve, I had to describe what went on this weekend, and the whole context of that - and it became a huge freaking mess. But here it is.

On Friday, JL was supposed to be picked up by her dad to go to Bellingham for the weekend, and then he called to say that he couldn't make it, and that his car was really in no shape to be driven anywhere. My wife worked that night, and the usual procedure is that we drive her up every third weekend, and that's it. Any additional visits to her boyfriend - I mean, her father, would be up to her and her dad.

So she tells her mom that she's going to the Teen Center instead, nothing out of the ordinary. So she leaves, whatever, and my wife goes to work. When my wife came home from work, she was wondering where she was, and I said she was probably just with one of her friends or still at the Teen Center, since she wasn't the kind of person who would call if she was running late. Well, she went out looking for her, and then called her boyfriend, and the BF's mother said that JL was in Snohomish.

Gist of it is, she decided that she was going to WALK to Bellingham since she wasn't going to get a ride from her dad, and she told no one about her intentions. Only when it got dark outside, she decided to knock on a stranger's door, and call her boyfriend to try a wrangle a ride. If we had not called her boyfriend's mother, who deserves to get some Parent of the Year Award, we would not have known about it.

So she got in trouble, and here are the main reasons.

1) She approached it with a toddler mentality. I want to go to Bellingham, and I want to go now. I don't care what anyone thinks.

2) She didn't let anyone know. Us, the primary caregivers, or anyone in Bellingham. That means she could've had her ass kidnapped, raped, and murdered, and nobody would know for days. Weeks. Or if ever. If she was in the wrong place and the wrong time, she would be a spot on the earth and no one would ever know where she was last heard from. A search party would have no radius to search around.

3) She had no F-ing idea where she was going. She ended up in Snohomish. She was headed in the right direction for a while, and then she was heading east. She would've ended up over the mountains.

4) She knocked on a stranger's door for help. See number 2. Wrong house, and it would be all over.

5) She didn't think any of it through. Plan A was Dad with broken car, and at work to boot. Plan B was boyfriend's mom who doesn't even have a car, for Chirssakes. And please, even if she had made it there, we would've just went over there and yanked her ass back.

6) Nobody ever said she couldn't go to Bellingham. She just didn't want to wait. Even her boyfriend didn't know. See #1.

So that pissed us the hell off. To further piss us off, we thought we might call some people in her life to let them know, hey, she tried this, please tell her it was stupid as hell and tell her that she's hurt people in the process.

And that was a half bad idea, because evidently, running away from home is not universally a bad idea. I guess to some people, it is encouraged, and even rewarded. Her dad said to my wife, well, maybe you should take her to a movie once in a while. So there you have it. Run away from home, and you'll get a large tub of popcorn to go with your matinee. The further you run away, the more fucking snacks you'll earn. You make it to another state, it's an upgrade to an IMAX feature, man.

Other stupid advice was that the person should take her out to lunch, or just "listen to her". Sorry, but we're not retarded. There is a truth in trying to understand your teenager, or listening to her, but anyone who has struggled with raising a teenager will know this. Teenagers are hyper aware of themselves. To the point whereby they transform into selfish, self-centered egotists who think they should have everything for nothing. Not true for a lot of kids, but very true for a lot of them too. What happened on Friday was not because she was misunderstood, or as she dramatically quipped to me, "I'm trying to go home." No, it's not that she misses her Dad. She misses her stupid boyfriend. That's it. I would take their relationship with a little more weight if he weren't a prospective deadbeat who cheats on her, but as it is, he is looking to be as promising of a husband as a drunk, unemployed, disrespectful punk ass would be.

Then my mother-in-law was visiting today to celebrate my belated birthday, and when my wife was out of the room, I heard my mother-in-law say to JL, "If you ever need bus money, come talk to me, and you know, when your mom and your aunt was your age, they ran away too..." And I yelled for my wife, "You mom's saying stuff!"

Seriously, people. If you're not going to back our play, just play along and say nothing. Seriously. Do not patronize a kid by being her best friend, and offering her options to defy people who care about her. If people really cared about her, they'd show her the right thing to do, not the easiest thing to do.

So that's my pet peeve.

2006-10-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

Reflecting on turning 30, 50mm lens.

2006-09-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

A birthday clip and a failed birthday post. Thanks, kids.

2006-09-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

A non Vlog post. One thing I like about YouTube is the availability of old music videos that I wasn’t able to watch when I was a kid (no MTV in Singapore.) Of course, watching them does knock it down a couple notches in the coolness factor. A few of my favs for you to enjoy.

Young M.C. “Bust a Move”

Steve Miller, “The Joker”

Fluff N’ Such, doing Barenaked Ladies’ “If I had a Million Dollars”

Jurassic 5 Featuring Dave Matthews Band (Two of my Favs!), “Work it Out”

Ibrahim Ferrer y Omara Portuondo - Silencio

The last one is not technically a music video – it’s taken from “Buena Vista Social Club”, and I don’t even have the single on the CD, but it is an awesome moment from the DVD. Wim Wenders rocks.

2006-09-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Vlog entry about being sick, getting photo books, ibook repair, and crying at weddings.

2006-09-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

The Chase

Watch the camera play Chasey-Chasey with the kids as they go into fits of laughter.

2006-09-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

I have my own iTunes listing!

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=192160178

No idea how to search for it to find it though...

2006-09-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

Do the Puyallup Vlog.

This is my first semi-actual vlog entry. I will be starting a new vlog webpage at:

http://americanfamilyvlog.blogspot.com

Hope you like it!

2006-09-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

I hesitate to say that I'm slacking off today, because today is Sunday after all, and I worked pretty hard yesterday.

Yesterday I videotaped a wedding that I enjoyed, and though I pretty much do enjoy a lot of what I do, some weddings are just easier. Despite showing up late because I showed up at the wrong place, they were pretty cool about the whole thing, which was really nice of them. But also, these guys weren't shy around the camera, but at the same time they weren't hamming it up for the camera either. They treated the camera like a family member, which is really great because in the end, they'll be watching it and seeing how much fun they were actually having on their wedding day. Also, most of the events were pretty well sorted out, and the guests were pretty understanding that the photographer and videographer do have first dibs.

And the couple - I have to say, and it might seem odd to hear, but some couples don't look great on camera because they seem like two people in some arranged marriage. They hardly talk, and when they do, they seem like they're just talking about their laundry. And also, some couples worry too much about who's going to happen that they don't seem like they're enjoying themselves. This couple looked very much in love with each other - singing to each other during the dances, looking into each others eyes with utter adoration - just makes my job so much easier because they really like each other. The wedding next week will likely be the same, since I did their love story and they were pretty happy together.

So I was doing last night's wedding, and the DJ announced that they were going on a 5-week honeymoon - to which I was instantly envious, but excited for them. The only time I've gotten that much time off was for paternity leave, but I didn't take care of no babies in Hawaii or Australia, mind you. Then I thought, you know, I wish I had more alone time with my wife. I mean, we were never really by ourselves since there was JL, but there was more of it. And now that we have two toddlers, we may not ever know the joys of going dancing, or going on extended vacations, that sort of thing.

But anyway, I was trying my best to annoy my wife today, for unknown reasons. But it was fun playing with her, and she told me that she had missed me. This wedding business has me at home, but preoccupied with other people's lives. I'll be back at it tomorrow, after my long night last night, but it was a good wedding to go to. I'm pretty sure that these guys will be happy together.

2006-09-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Podcasts, Being Sick, Birthdays, and Procrastination

For those who have tried to download the movie, you probably have already found out that the link has problems. Well, good news is that link is fine - but you just need the latest version of Quicktime or iTunes to watch it. Sorry about that - I just figured that I would encode for iPods because it had the best quality.

So I've got a wedding for today to shoot, and I got a rather nasty cold to deal with. Last night I got zapped from it, but this morning I have feeling a bit better, with some bright colored yuckies coming out of me to verify the condition on my sickness. Hopefully I'll be able to sustain till 12:30 tonight, which is when the wedding will conclude. Long hours... Whee.

So Zoe's 2nd and Alex's 3rd birthday went well, except both days felt like Christmas because of all the left over packaging from all the presents. But the kids are just happy as clams, having all this new stuff to play with. It's weird to think they are officially out of babyhood too, that now they're just toddlers.

Looked up "procrastination" in Wikipedia, and found out that what my problem was. Trying too much to be a perfectionist, so in the end, it was just easier not to do it at all.

Well, don't feel like blogging right now, I guess. Kinda pissed at someone.

2006-09-08T02:27:00.000-07:00

I Guess I Am Running a Podcast Now

But don't count on regular updates all the time - it takes a bit of time just to get one out. Fun, though.

A lot of stuff happened, but I'll let this video get its glory for now.

So, to subscribe to my podcast, go into your iTunes, and under "Advanced", go to "Subscribe to Podcast".

And the Address is http://feeds.feedburner.com/AmericanFamily.

ITunes will then subscribe to it, and it will download automatically everyday, or you get it for free!

Porn!

Laters.

2006-09-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

The Little Boy Keeps Growing

Well, tomorrow Alex turns 3, which seems like it's been a long time coming and way too fast, all at the same time. The kids are just pretty psyched anyway, because any birthday for anybody simply means that there's cake, and presents. Except Daddy's birthday. Nothing fun about Daddy's birthday at all. 30 is not a fun thing to be.

But my little boy is just leaps and bounds, saying lots of new phrases and singing along with the car songs, "Express Yourself" he repeated once. It was pretty cute. We're not having a big deal tomorrow, since we don't have that many friends. But I'll try to get some photos tomorrow.

Bedtime for kids now!

2006-09-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of Steve Irwin and I have yet to watch any of his shows past a couple seconds - in fact, I have probably seen more parodies of him than I have of the actual guy. And yet I got a little bummed out last night when I found out that he died in one of those freaky ass accidents that nobody knew was coming. I felt immense sympathy for his wife and two young children, because though he did have that baby dangling incident, I think he was likely a pretty good father to his children and a good husband to his wife. Just his personality was so open that it was infectious - once you got past the seemingly child-like behavior, you could see that this man had so much passion for what he did that he didn't worry about how he behaved when he got pysched about presenting animals to the camera.

Now, there's been numerous sources on the news by different people saying the standard catchprase, "He died doing what he loved."

For some reason, that phrase has always irked me - it's like this Zen-like summation to a tragedy that befalls a person who was abruptly killed before his/her time. And I think it is a gross generalization for anyone to endure. Yeah, he was doing something he loved when he died, but I'm sure he would've wanted to die of old age, seeing his wife and children by his side. If I ever get hit by a boom mic while filming a movie, and someone said that about me, I'd be pissed. I'd haunt their ass.

Anyhow, condolences to his family. He seemed like a good bloke.

2006-09-02T01:35:00.000-07:00

Photos from the camera phone.

2006-09-02T00:51:00.000-07:00

How to Make Me Angry

Put me behind the keyboard of a PC running XP. Goddamnit, nothing makes you appreciate a Mac until you get on a PC. Then it's like, "Oh, that's why."

Just tried to get a bunch of photos from my phone that I downloaded to the PC onto the Mac. Tried Networking, tried a direct Firewire line, even tried FTPing the photos to a tripod site, and the PC was threatening to take my first born for it.

Ultimately I just uploaded all the pics onto Twango.

Even Twango has drag and drop, you bastards.

Grr.

2006-09-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

INT. HOUSE - DAY

Wife is playing "Bookworm" at the computer, a letter/word game. Husband is milling around, pretending to work.

WIFE
"WANK" is not a word.

ME
"WANK" is slang. It's British for masturbation.

WIFE
You're British for masturbation.

ME
What does that even mean? I though we were having a conversation in English, but I guess not.

2006-08-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

2006-08-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

Blogging at Work

I guess it's a habit now.

Just a few updates, and a few bits of happiness to share.

Was talking to Dansen yesterday on MSN and iChat (because I couldn't decide what the hell to use that is the best with PCs.), and I guess he went through a 4.9 earthquake while I was typing with him, which was really weird. It would've been cooler if we were video chatting, but it was still slightly bizarre.

The retail gods are in my favor today, giving me discounts any which way I can get them. First, I've always wanted mapping software for my Palm, and I even looked at Staples for it yesterday. But anyway from 40 to 50 bucks seemed a bit steep, and a lot of them are pretty limited without GPS support, so I have so far decided against them. But Palm had a rebate, bringing down the software to a comfortable 20 bucks, so I got it online today. It's helpful when Google maps screws me in the butt and gives me grossly inaccurate info while I'm on my way to a wedding. Nothing like being lost on the way to videotape a wedding, I say.

The other godly intervention is slightly more frivilous - Along with the iPod that my mom found were some sweet in-ear earbuds that had sound isolation and awesome bass - only thing is that the earbuds don't always stay on, and one of them had fallen off and got lost. Well, they do sell the replacements at SonyStyle, but after taxes and shipping, the stupid rubber "ear cushions" run almost 15 bucks. Well, lucky me, they had free shipping that ended today, so I got them for about half the price. Woohoo!

Well, I should go to work now. Can't blog forever, you know.

2006-08-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

Life, Scripted.

INT. INTEPRETATIVE CENTER - DAY

ZOE is sitting at the kiddy table, reading a children's book.

MUSIC is coming from the TV, from a program about Mt. Rainier.

ZOE looks up, POINTS at parents.

ZOE

Dance!

PARENTS look at her.

ZOE

Dance!

PARENTS are visibly amused.

ZOE

Do It!

Parents LAUGH.

CUT TO:

INT. HOUSE - DAY

FATHER is working in the next room, he overhears the conversation in the living room.

ALEX (V.O.)

OH NO!

ZOE (V.O.)

Wha happened, Alex?

ALEX (V.O.)

I don't know!

FADE OUT.

2006-08-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Transition from Vacation

It ain't easy.

This is the second day back from vacation, and I'm doing videography work here and there, and doing housekeeping things alternately. Being gone for a week and the bills and things-to-do sure do pile up on you.

I'm a little more caught up today, though for the next few 4-6 weeks, I will be concerned that my iBook doesn't catch on fire, even though I've been warned that I should just run my iBook with power from the wall - but who in the world with a laptop does that? At least I'm not as concerned about keeping my battery fully charged anymore, since I'm going to return the battery anyway.

This campout is possibly the last one, since my mother-in-law will be selling the RV lot, and with the lot will go the country club membership. It has been a different sort of campout than the others, likely because everyone knows that it's going to be the last. My father-in-law's absence was greatly felt, and I think all the children just felt like they needed closure in order to move on, and they just needed one last chance to say goodbye to a family tradition that's been going on for years.

We visited the spot where his ashes were spread, we made a stepping stone marker that proclaimed our love for him and placed it at "Secret Falls", a place where he found by himself, and we just reveled in an environment that held memories for so many people, even myself. Some new memories were made as well, but mostly it was just coming to terms to losing our summer vacation spot.

Caleb, my nephew, really took a liking to me. He's usually just full of mischief in an annoying way, but since his sisters weren't around to egg him on and tease him, and he was suddenly the oldest kid under puberty, he took on the role of big brother to Alex and Zoe, and really took care of them. I was pretty impressed with his behavior with them, since all I usually experience from him in the past were just agonizing annoyance. But I just listened to him and encouraged him this time round, and he just really took to me. Pure guy is surrounded by so much drama, I must seem like the dull and stable presence that he needs to feel normal. But he's really a good kid, but he sure does need a good amount of guidance if he's going to veer off the destructive paths that his family members have chosen. I'm not just passing judgments, but when your mother's had three children with two men she's never married, and one of your sister's a lesbian whose lover decided that the first constructive thing to do when she got out of jail was to torch a car, and your other sister used to date a heroin fiend (who brought his drug crap with him to the campout last year - with my kids there), and is now dating a less destructive but still controlling man, that boy does need some positive guidance.

So, just getting back into the groove of things. Lots to do, and tomorrow I'll be back on my work schedule. Sigh. Just getting burnt out looking at what I have to do.

2006-08-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

Two days left of the campout and although there's something to be said about experiencing nature in its glory, taking wonderful photos of Mt. Rainier and assorted bugs on assorted flora, and sleeping out in tents listening at crickets lull us to sleep - I will be glad to be back in a warm bed, with hot running water, and four walls to keep our kids in some kind of controlled environment.

Not that we're roughing it, by any means. There is running water, ice-cold glacier water that numbs your fingers if you use it for anything more than half a minute. There is electricity, which allows me to type this post and watch movies with the kids, and charge up my iPod if I need to. There is a single burner in the shed, allowing us to have warm food. So no, it ain't really camping, but I ain't really a country kinda guy. I'm Joe Urban - I like my amenities. I'm not Joe Metro though, I can do without Lattes and low carb meals, and I can do without some things - but I know, I'm a wuss. If the world came to a point whereby technology meant nothing anymore, I would be obsolete fast.

Anyhow, we did get to do a few things that were fun. The kids enjoy the rivers and the swimming pool, and the vastness of their exploration has just done wonders for them. To be able to run around and pick up different things like rocks, golf balls, and cigarette lighters is doing them a lot of developmental good, I'm sure. Also, they just love the attention given to them by their aunts and their cousin Caleb, who was previously the youngest member of the extended family but is now like a hero to the my duo. For the first few days, and even now, Alex has been calling Caleb, "Boy" and just following him around, showing him things, trying to get his attention. It's fun to watch, and a little scary because Alex sure does enjoy the attention from older boys. Seems like Daddy's only cool at certain times. Older boys are cooler all the time.

I myself have had the chance to watch two movies at the campout. I finally watched "Fantastic Four", which was okay though I believe most of it is attributed to Jessica Alba, who may or may not have been good at it - I was just too preoccupied looking at her and imagining that whenever she was invisible, she was really supposed to be naked. And I got to watch "2046", which is a Wong Kar Wai movie - a sort of lyrical, artsy movie with which seems to exists outside the convention of current movies. It pretty much does its own thing without giving a damn about what the rest of the world thinks about it. And I thought it was good. Different, slower, and very cruel - but good. Sad as hell, but it sure elevates all the actors in it into something else. Very well done.

There's a ton of work waiting for me at home, and I forsee a lot of disgruntled mail coming my way, being how I'm behind of quite a bit of work. But I suppose it's what I brought unto myself. I'm sure after a day of rest of two, I'll be back in the stride of things. Editing like it was my only means of survival.

The kids are now sleeping in the tent in the afternoon, with some lullabies coming from my iPod outside the tent, tricking them into slumber. The others have gone to Secret Falls, which is the unofficial moniker of a place that my father-in-law "found" by himself. My wife and her two sisters are going to put a dedication stone there to honor him, complete with a little saying and initials of the families.

Yesterday we went on a trek and saw where his ashes were spread, and it was a bit of an emotional trek for everyone. Alex liked it because of all the huckleberries he got to eat, and Zoe liked it because she got the opportunity to show Kitty what horse poop looked like. I got to take tons of pictures, and I'm only happy with maybe a handful of them.

I think photos are interesting because if anything, looking beyond the skill level and beyond the inherent beauty of the subject, it is a unique opportunity to see the world through an individual's eyes. I mean, yeah, my photos mean I've been somewhere, and I took those photos. But more than that, they show what I think is wonderful, what I think is interesting, and whom I love. Which is what I hope that my photos will say over time, that I took so many damn photos of my kids is because that's what I loved about them. The way they played, the way they smiled, the way I looked at them.

Sorry about the rambling post, but I'm pretty bored. And man, I do miss writing, even though my writing isn't very good. I think the key for me is rewrites. I was looking at an old script I had downloaded on my Palm, and I just thought the dialogue needed a ton of punching up. It was just terrible to listen to.

Anyway, I'm done. My sunburnt face is starting to affect my concentration.

2006-08-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I went ahead and changed the title. The address is still the same, but I might change it later on, since only like two people noticed that I was even considering it. You can't lose something you don't know about, right?

I just decided to go ahead with the name change because Zoe turned two earlier this week, thus ridding all babiness from our family. They are both officially toddlers, and I didn't want to rename it American Toddlers because then I'd have to change it again when they became tweens, or whatever the hell they call those things.

I'm at the library, doing my work shift and trying to get some work done on a Saturday, being how I'm on vacation next week. Nevermind that really just means that I'm still working, just at a different location - it's a vacation, damnnit! My new iBook and external Hard Drive are coming with me, you know, in case I get a free moment.

Cue sarcastic chuckle.

So anyway, Zoe's birthday went pretty well. By midday, Alex was thoroughly bummed out because it was Zoe's birthday, and she got first dibs on everything that day. Zoe also became hyper aware of her princess-ness, and used it accordingly. Everything she looked at was hers. Well, almost. But it was a pretty good birthday, with her Aunt Randy and two grandmas going to the playground with them, having cupcakes and a ball at the playground.

With all the presents, it was almost like Christmas again, filling our garbage cans full of cardboard boxes and twisty ties. And our house looks like Geoffrey from Toys R Us wandered in and threw up toys all over the living room. A kitchen set, a new bike, a dollhouse, balloons... Just tons of stuff.

But it was fun, seeing the kids just so happy about the whole day. Cake and sweets and lots of new stuff sure puts a smile on their faces.

Anyway, back to work, man.

2006-08-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

Compromise

I'm not a big fan of dubbed movies, and there's only a tiny handful of dubbings which I really care for, but I just had to do it. I rented My Neighbor Totoro for the kids, even though I do have the original somewhere, but I don't see my kids getting too into the movie if it was in Japanese. And since they don't read the subtitles, I think the English dub would be a little better for them. Which they are still watching now.

This movie still tears me up everytime I watch it. This and Finding Nemo, which Marlin holds Nemo in his fin and sees the egg, man those scenes just get me.

Anyway, work hasn't been going very well in the last week, just been distracted by one thing or another. We bought and returned two of Zoe's gifts because they were lacking and defective, and I had to hang out with a friend today because it's been a while. And tomorrow's Zoe's 2nd birthday, so I'll be busy with that.

On the flip side though, I got my new iBook and despite some complains about being lied to about the capacity and some screen blemishes, I'm really happy with it.

Well, gotta change the kids because Totoro's coming to an end. Later gators.

2006-08-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

Day Three of Being Self-Employed.

Yeah, it's still weird. It's like I'm on summer vacation, but I have a butt load of homework that's due soon. And everyone is either wearing a suit or a white dress. WTF.

Anywho, I have to admit that I'm both working harder than I've ever been, and also procrastinating more than I've ever been. This post for instance. I'm close to finishing one wedding, but there's still seriously like 4 or 5 left. I don't even remember. And there's one tomorrow. So it's not like I'll be painting murals on my free time or anything, though I have to say that I feel a lot more refreshed, less stressed, and more... myself.

I am editing for the bulk of the time, but I do take a lot of breaks, and once my replacement laptop arrives (oh yeah, I ebayed me a faster ibook, and I'll be selling my other ibook this Sunday...) I'll be taking that to the library on a regular basis just to edit. Change of scenery, and there's way less tendency for me to do other things like snack like a fatty or look at porn. What can I say, I'm interested in anatomy.

But overall, I think it's been kinda different. My wife keeps thinking it's the weekend, because I've been home the last two days now. Hell, even I do that. Mr. Alex came down today and just assumed I was home because he started calling for Daddy before he even saw me. But like today, I just wake up, get ready to go somewhere, and then go upstairs. I don't even hang out with the wife or kids that much, just occasionally to say hi. When Zoe pooped in the potty today, I came down and cheered her on. And looked at the poop because she wanted to show me what she'd done. Yeah, I don't do that just for anyone.

I think one of my major problems in editing - is music. Seriously. I can think of a million different songs for moods, but love songs, goddamnit, I just don't listen to them. The ones I do like are like old. And kids today don't care for old music. This one I'm just finishing up has had several song changes. I'd lay then an audio track, edit to it, and then toss it out after a week because it's absolute shite. It didn't help when under musical preferences, the groom liked rap, hip-hop, and the bride liked ballads and oldies. So now I've thrown in Oscar Peterson, which some Mary J Blige, Paul McCartney, and Savage Garden in their video. I just hope they don't want to sue me for audio torture. Oh yes, and Wet Wet Wet.

Oh yeah, Love is All Around Me, C'mon and Let it Show.

Another obstacle with this baby is that they're in the hotel conference rooms the whole time. And the DJ completely shoved his musical penis into my footage by playing really loud 80s crapola, tainting all my audio. Basically, it's tough for me to keep any of the original audio in there because whenever I cut, the songs in the background are cut too, so it's disconcerting and choppy. So I have to shut out all audio and soundtrack it. Essentially turning it into a silent movie. And for the person who would think I should isolate the vocal audio from the background, please take me to your time machine as well, since you know where all the magical machines are located.

But this one's close to being done, and then it's the Indian wedding. Oh yeah, 11 hours of footage, and a good chunk of it I don't even understand. That should be a kick in the pants.

Well, back to ~~procrastinating~~work.

2006-08-11T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, this was bound to happen sooner or later, but I've been thinking about the progression of the blog. Now that Zoe's 2nd birthday is nearing the corner next week, this blog's namesake is a little dated, and since most my entries have very little to do with charting the wonderful progression of child-rearing, and more to do with one man's slow descent into madness, I've been considering a few things with this blog.

1) Abandon it, start a new one. Those of you who have a big crush on me will still have a blog to visit, just not American Babies.

2) Change the title, pretend nothing happened. Of course, I could change it to Fifi's Awesome Poke Puppy with Incentive, but the web address will still be americanbaby.blogspot.com. Which makes it a little confusing and disturbing.

3) Pretend this post never happened, continue to blog until my kids turn old.

If I could possibly get some input on this, that would be great. If not, then I guess I'll do whatever I want, which is probably 1. Or 2. Really, I don't think anyone would care. Or would they?

Well, let me know, guys.

2006-08-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

I would be more excited about today being my last day at work, but due to the lack of sleep from editing last night, it's not really working out to be that way. I was editing a project that's underpaid, and overworked, mostly because I was willing to bend the rates to fit the customer's needs, but because the customer had so many customized needs, it got to be more of a hassle than anything. A big pain in my ass, really.

Anyway, I'm training my replacement today, and that's going as well as can be expected. It's tough when you realize that other people aren't as anal as you are, because then you feel like they're never going to get it right. But hey, not going to be my problem anymore. I got a deli breakfast at the store, which has the distinction of having the world's worst scrambled eggs. They have a rubbery texture, and each nugget of egg has a dark yellow cap of hardened egg guts on the top, giving a weird kind of taste sensation in your mouth when you bite into it. I also had one of those power drinks, which claim to give you energy, and when I got back to work my co-worker got me a Frappincino. So I'll be running the paint off walls today, till about 3pm when I collapse from a triple cardiac arrest.

Awesome.

So tomorrow, I'll still be going to work, except I'll be hauling my mac mini upstairs, and closing the room to JL's bedroom. Since she's gone for the summer, I'll just be using her room during the day, and perhaps spend some quality time at the library, stealing their power for my own evil devices.

I've got 5 weddings, one instructional video, one photo montage, and another wedding to shoot this weekend. So don't worry, I won't be too bored.

I posted this from the free WIFI at work at Starbucks. That's pretty cool.

2006-07-24T00:54:00.000-07:00

How a Procrastinator Spends His Wedding Editing Time.

So, we were at the Bite of Seattle and I decided to get cartoons done of the kids. It was a black and white sketch of the kids, and they were even in a plastic sleeve to prevent any accidental drips and whatnot. Well, we each got a five dollar strawberry shortcake that wasn't very good in the first place, and it managed to find its way into the sleeve and ruined part of the sketch. But I thought that I could salvage it by scanning it in and cleaning it up with Photoshop, and then getting a film print made of it - which would look pretty cool. Anyway, it was probably while searching for a driver for my scanner that I rarely use that I realized that I could probably try to colorize it too, since I was already digitizing it. So I did, and here are the results. They ain't great, but they're pretty good for a first timer. Luckily, I found some odd program that enabled the scanner, since the manufacturer hadn't made a driver for the Mac since OS 9.

But I decided to completely cheese it out with a background with this.

I'm pretty happy with it, though I'll probably mess with it some more. His mouth is flesh colored and I'm not that hot on the background of the finale result. Zoe's is half done, but I should probably do a few more hours of weddings before I get caught up in hers. But overall I'm pretty happy about it. The eyes on the mask was tough, but the hair was probably the hardest. I also had a heck of a time trying to add more depth to the photo, and the diffusion in the blue certainly helps. A nice little crash course in Photoshop though.

2006-07-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

The best photo of the kids, ever.

2006-07-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Don't Let Comfort Get in the Way of Progress.

That's the mantra that I've been repeating to myself for consolation.

I made that up by the way, so if you decide to put it on a t-shirt, send the royalties to me.

This weekend, I made another life-altering decision. It will only take a couple thousand dollars, a klepto-centric trip to the zoo, and some exploratory surgery and I will finally realize my dream to become a Centurion. Half-man, half-horse, all Badass.

No, really.

At any rate, it would've been an easier decision to make than the one I had to make, which is to go back to part-time for my primary job. For the record, being a Non-Food Receiving Coordinator is actually not that bad of a job. I think it's the only job in grocery/retail that has 8-5 shifts, Monday to Friday, and holidays off. Plus I get a desk, and a computer. It was pretty tough to give up the position, since I consider myself to be pretty lucky to land it in the first place. But since the weddings that I've shot aren't getting done as fast as I'd like, and my home life is suffering from my absence, I decided that I needed to cut down my workload to something more manageable. I didn't want it to get to the point whereby my kids would only recognize me from the back of my head, since I was always at the computer arranging other people's lives.

I mean, it was the original plan anyway, to slowly phase into videography full time, but I didn't expect the NFRC job to be so comfortable and easy, and enough to keep me busy and challenged at the same time.

But last week, I was in the breakroom and I overheard three girls talking about their college degrees, and I went to speak with one in particular because she did film studies. And she said that it's easy to stay at the company because it's comfortable. Now I've heard that before dozens of times, but this time it resonated probably because the videography thing is piling up on me, and I'm actually making money off of it. And I thought, well, I don't want to be comfortable all my life and be unhappy in the end. A little discomfort and I could be happier with my life, right?

Nonetheless, telling my boss this morning kinda made me sad. I'll miss the deliveries, the books, and the freedom of the position. But hey, videography isn't so bad. I get to go to weddings and stick cameras into people's faces. And I get paid decently. And I'm my own boss.

But most of all, I can spend time with my wife and kids and not feel guilty about not doing work, and vice versa. That perhaps is the most comforting thought of all.

2006-07-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

I guess the idea of the whole experience became so blown up in my mind, anything that was going to happen was bound to be some degree of letdown. But doesn't the concept seem sound? Taking my kids to their first real movie - a first run movie in theaters, and at the same time, it would be their first time in a movie drive-in. And the movie they'll be watching? Cars. The idea just oozes with cuteness, doesn't it?

And then there was the reality of it. Having blown speakers in the front and back of my car, and having a tape deck that didn't work meant that going to the drive-in would be a pretty quiet endeavor. Of course, now I realize that we could've just bought a portable radio, but it had been ages since I've been to one. Especially one here here in Seattle.

Having put in over 3 hundred bucks into the car's stereo system on Saturday, (it wasn't that much at first, but one problem begat the other and it was simply easier to just install new speakers) I was pretty keen on testing out my new Sony "EXPLODE" speakers, except it's spelled "EXPLOD" or something, because hip people don't spell things correctly. So I asked my wife if she wanted to go to the drive-in Saturday night, since it was the weekend and it didn't matter if we were out late. She said sure.

I checked the movie showtimes for the Auburn Drive-in, and Cars was indeed playing there, but it was the second half of the double feature, the first being "Pirates of the Caribbean." So I checked Kids-in-Mind, which is a handy and slightly over-detailed website that rates movies according to Violence/Gore, Sex, and Swearing, the three main reasons why I want to be a filmmaker. They not only rate but actually lists in detail the scene and its context, in a unintentionally amusing clinical manner.

After reading about an eye being plucked out by a bird, and a decapitated head looking for its body, I realized that PG-13 was pretty much dead on. In addition, by the time the second feature came on, it would probably be way too late for the kids to even enjoy the movie.

So my wife asks if there were any other Drive In theater showing Cars. And there was one.

Next thing, we're on the freeway with two groggy and slightly cranky kids who were just snatched from their naps, and we're on our way to Port Orchard. Finally now I have an answer to, "How far would you go to see a movie," and that answer would be "76 miles." We were running a little late but I managed to shave 20 minutes off the drive, down to an hour, and we still managed to snag a pretty good spot. Now since we left in a hurry, we hadn't had dinner or brought the right clothes, so we got a lackluster pizza from the concessions and had to pretty move around outside in the dark to stay warm, and to keep the kids entertained. The playground there was described by my wife as something they was build when the drive-in was first erected, and had not seen an upgrade since. There were boisterous and reckless kids that nearly mowed over my todds, and the playground was a little bit of a safety hazard.

For reasons unknown, the staff decided that it had to be absolutely pitch dark to start the movie, so it wasn't till 15 after 10pm until they started the movie. The movie was pretty good for the most part - there were parts when the movie was obscured by a Zoe climbing over the seat into the backseat, only to realize that nobody else was in the backseat, and the part when Zoe decided to honk the horn, and the part when Zoe decided to be tricky and place her blanket over the wheel, and then honk the horn, and the part when Zoe decided to kick the dashboard, the radio, change the channels, turn up the volume, and kick the shade off the radio display, blinding us with the luminous and beautiful new CD/MP3 player display. Alex was a little fidgety, but he was overall pretty easy to sit with. He would sometimes reach behind his head to grab my head, and drum his fingers on my head, before turning around and saying in a sweet voice, "Hi Daddy."

When Cars ended, we decided to skip Click, and headed home. It didn't take more than a couple minutes before they were pushing up Z's in the car. We didn't get home till almost one-thirty, and they went to bed with no problems.

Thus ended their first movie/theater slash drive-in experience.

2006-07-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

Lately, my wife and I have had some issues with Parenting, namely having to deal with two toddlers whom I think are much much smarter than us. They just don't know it and I fear that if they ever realized it, my wife and I will be doomed.

Wow, that last sentence is just full of grammar problems.

Anyway, Zoe has been going around lately, occasionally spouting, "Dammnit. Fuck." in her cute little cherubic, squeaky innocent voice - if Angels swore - it'd sound a lot like that. My wife claims she says it quite a bit, and I've only heard it once. It's one of those, "Did she... Did it sound like... Nahh...." things. We've decided that it's my wife's fault, mainly because I haven't been around that much to swear around my kids. But who knows. I do my fair share.

Yesterday, though, I was at the top of my parenting game. I had a relatively bummer day at work, so I decided that when I went home, I was going to just make it as stress free as possible, so I decided to watch some TV with the kids (we try to limit the TV to morning and nights, to just a couple hours. I tend to cave more.), namely a documentary about comic book heroes. Anyway, it's slugging along, and I doze off with Alex on my lap. I woke up a bit later, and my chest is soaked with the little boy's sweat, who has fallen dead asleep in my arms. I thought it was a bit late to be taking a nap, so I try to wake him up, but he's out like a caffeinated Richard Simmons. I place him on the bed, and he's just limp and his head's wobbly. A little later I ever tried nuzzling his cheek, which usually sends him into fits of laughter, but he's asleep. Zoe yells at him to wake up, and he's still asleep. So I just let him sleep for a couple hours, woke up him for Kipper, and then he's back to bed again. I guess it was fine, since he was still asleep when I left the house this morning, but I wouldn't recommend letting me parent your kid. He'll just sleep all the time.

And yeah, I spent most of yesterday telling Zoe "no." Well, if she wouldn't be such a rule bender, I wouldn't be doing that. All that climbing and death-defying stuff she was born to do. So, haven't been feeling like the best parent lately, and I cannot express how glad I am that children have a pretty short term memory, a very unconditional love (at least for the next few years), and a great sense of humor. I could use those traits in my personality right now.

2006-07-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

I had a vivid dream about being in high school last night, except the people and locations were a little jumbled up. Elements of Singapore, my work colleagues, my actual high school, and some completely fantastical things were in there, but there I was, leaving class midway through a exam because I didn't feel like I could do any better if I stayed and actually took the test.

It was a Chinese test, and I knew that I couldn't write more than a few words of it, so having an entire exam on it was just ridiculous. So I rode my bike home. I decided to turn around and just finish the test anyway, and then the alarm sounded, which really pissed me off. The details of the dream were so vivid that every moment was accounted for, unlike some of the other dreams I have that cut from one scene to another.

I think a huge part of it has to do with me searching Myspace last night. I don't particularly partake in the "social networking" that is usually Myspace - the only non-friend I have on there is Jurassic 5, which for some reason, I think is my friend. The blog is pretty empty, and I have a few photos out there. Anyway, I did searches on there for people in my high school graduating class, and I hardly recognize any of them. Of course, the majority of the people on there were the popular kids, at least I think. The rest of us really don't want to have any association with our high school. But it's strange to see these unfamiliar faces, faces of older people who now have lives, occupations, kids, and in some cases stagnant progress. Like it's just been a year since graduation, even though it's really been 12.

Someone I didn't recognize send me an invitation to meet later on this month, which is really a peculiar time to meet since 12 year anniversaries are really not the thing to do. I'm not really considering it, since I feel like I haven't changed all that much.

That's the feeling I've been having lately - that I haven't changed, or progressed at all. I feel like I've been pretending a lot, like I'm not really a wedding videographer, I just convinced a bunch of people that I was. That I'm not really a good dad, I just act like one. And that I'm really just a day out of high school, that I lack direction, and that I am still trying to find my direction in life. Of course, all this is just my perspective - I do know that I love my wife and kids, and I sorta like that I'm doing wedding videography, even though I don't think I'm really good at it.

And filmmaking, I'm really thinking about putting this wedding videography thing on hold next year for the first few months. I really need to get my feature made. The big Three-O is really starting to grab me by the neck. Feeling like I really need something worthwhile in my obit if I get hit by a bus tomorrow.

I'm all right, really. Just thinking a lot about my place on this earth.

2006-07-04T01:26:00.000-07:00

My awesome rash. It is slowly recovering on its own since I stopped taking the medication.

2006-07-04T01:25:00.000-07:00

Zoe's head got a big goose egg when she fell the other night. It has since hatched.

2006-07-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was one for the books, and I'm so thrilled that tomorrow's the Fourth, and I've got the day off. I desperately need the rest and the relief for my sore muscles.

It started off on Thursday, when I did a full day's of work at my regular job, went home and changed, and drove off to Kent in rush hour to start Day 1 of the wedding coverage of my first Indian wedding. I pulled about 3 and a half hours that night, filming girls getting henna put on their arms, belly-dancing, and a few other ceremonial things. This all happened in the house, where it was pretty balmy since it was packed with so many friends and relatives.

Friday, same thing, pulled in about 11-12 hours of work between the regular bread-on-the-table job and the wedding stuff. That night was more of a casual event, just eating, mingling, and dancing. Added bonus was that I was starting to get a bad rash - a reaction from Amoxicilliian that I was taking for my sinus infection. It was spotty, itchy, and really really not fun. Although most of it was covered by clothing, it was running up the back side of my right hand, which I was afraid people might misconstrue as some infectious disease.

Saturday was the big day, and the day was split up into two events. It started off at 9 till 3, and then from 7 till 11:30. Everything ran over time, including the ceremony which was much longer than the weddings that I've been doing. Theirs ran well over an hour, and even with three cameras there, I'm pretty sure I didn't do it justice. There was so much going on that often I was left out of the loop.

Sunday was another wedding, this time in Seattle. Everything went pretty well except the guests at this party were totally unreal. There was maybe about 10 to 11 different digitial and video camera wielding friends and family decided that they were the photographers and videographers. These folks actually were standing up during the ceremony videotape, and this one guy even went right in front the couple to videotape the vows. Luckily my camera was just a notch over - at the edge of the frame was essentially the joker with the camcorder. And of course, people just thought it would be a dandy idea to stand in front of my B camera, so my backup footage consists of some dude's back. And the ceremony was in direct contrast with the Indian wedding, this one lasting like maybe 3-4 minutes. I am not joking. After the bride walks up the aisle, I walk to the back of the room and they're starting the vows, which put me in total freakout mode. But I managed to get some footage from a relative's camera - which will hopefully make up for the missing footage.

So now my rash is getting better since I'm off the medication, and my poor hand is recovering from that death grip that I've developed from holding the camera for the last weekend. Now if I could only get some more nappy time.

2006-06-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

The Awesomeness of Me (& the Lameness of Being Me, Especially the Last Two Days.)

Okay, First the Awesomeness, because frankly, most of my readers fall into a mild boredom after the first paragraph, because they're sick of hearing about my camera equipment and my new purchases. (Um. Three CCD Panasonic camera for my backup footage.) I was editing a wedding and using the Dave Matthews Song, "Crash Into Me" to montage my way through the photo sessions, and ran into a weird little snag. Just when the tune reached the part whereby the sweet little song turns a bit pervy, footage of the groom and his sister pops up on the screen.

Hike up your skirt a little more,
And show your world to me...
Hike up your skirt a little more,
And show your world to me...

And there's groom and his sister, posing for the photos. So I decided to be a little daring, and spliced out that portion while keeping the portion of the beat intact. You can't even hear the difference. Like that part never existed.

Now the lameness.

I spent most of Father's Day sleeping, or in pain. I slept on my neck wrong, which gives me spinal problems and chest pains. Sound odd, but it happens to me. I get weird ailments, like going into shock getting chest pains when I slept weird. So I had to sit up most of the day, but since it had kept me up most of the night, I had to take some of my wife's Vicodin from her old prescription from her pregnancy (expired meds! Awesome!), and then take a nap while my kids waged war on my head.

And today I went to work in a daze, which got worse when I realized that it wasn't getting any better. Things were too bright, noises were too loud, and numbers on the paper actually flickered like they were on one of those airport arrival/departure boards. Everytime I close my eyes, tears came streaming down my face. I left after half a day, came home and slept for about 4 hours. The rest of my day was better, though I can't fight that feeling that I'm really behind on all my work now.

Doesn't help that I'm blogging instead of editing either.

I'm awesome!

(When I'm not lame.)

2006-06-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

Finally, a good alternative to Flickr, which caps your free photo limit to 200 and your upload bandwidth. Twango is my new best friend.

2006-06-12T00:53:00.000-07:00

Nine Minutes of Smiling.

Why can't we make something this cool for American television?

2006-06-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

Pythagoras Switch

Figured out the name of the show, obviously from Japan. It's a kid's program, and I'm enjoying it a ton... Check out the dance about 4 minutes in.

2006-06-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

MASK Theme Song

When I was a kid, this was my favorite show. Wasn't real big in the States (or Singapore, really) but I liked it because it was more feasible than Transformers. Well, just a little more.

2006-06-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

Blogging from work because I've got no time at home, and I'm procrastinating about editing at work during my lunch break. As much fun it is to watch weddings during my lunch, sometimes a lunch break should be just a lunch break.

Happy to say that some of my "Diego-ness" is passing onto the kids. I mean, afterall, I am their Dad and everything that I do will invariably be copied and perfected by my children. So, in addition to my contribution to Alex's anal retentiveness and cleanliness (relatively speaking, of course.), and his cheekiness, and in addition to Zoe's pout, and skin complexion, comes the brand new skill of... talking funny.

As soon as I had noticed that Alex responded to the absurd voices, I started doing it more. We were on the way to Target the other day, singing, "No more monkeys, jumping on the bed." and I did it in several different voices. That made the kids laugh, and soon after they were attempting their own voices. Alex has several, Zoe has like two. Alex does this screechy, old lady, halting high pitched, "No more monkeys..." and it sounds great. Doesn't even sound like him, and he's darn tootin' proud of it. Zoe does a deeper version of her voice, which is pretty cool too. Zoe did a voice with her Kitty yesterday, making the Kitty wave her paw and she said in a squeaky, high pitched voice, "Hi Zoe. Hi. Hi Zoe. Hi Zoe."

I dunno, I have a pretty good feeling that they'll have a healthy sense of humor. I imagine I got a couple class clowns on our hands.

2006-06-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's the thing about high-fives.

They're stupid.

I don't get a lot of requests for them because I'm usually not friends with the high-fiving types, but more importantly, I graduated high school so my high-fiving days were pretty much over.

However, somewhere along their new lives, people have taught Zoe and Alex the concept of high-five, and the kids love it. Perhaps it's the hitting nature of it, or maybe it's just something fun to do (Clap with someone else! But only once!), but they like to say things like, "Daddy, high-five," mostly out of the blue. We usually stick to the "Good Jobs" and "Yayy for you!" and hugs, but we hardly do any high-fives. We're not prudes or anything, it's just such a stupid gesture.

Consider this - it's not a formal greeting of any sorts, it's impersonal, and when done incorrectly, can miss its mark and you end up smacking someone on the top of his head. What then, Batman? What then?

But the kids love it, so I have to do it because it makes them happy. Zoe will hope up Kitty's paw and she high-fives it with her free hand, which is so cute that a kiosk with a coin slot ought to be put up around her so people will line up to see it. Alex always has a satisfied smile on his face when he does it too, so for now I will have high-five my children.

And don't even get me started on pounds.

2006-06-03T01:30:00.000-07:00

Only 4 posts in the last month? What a shame.

I've been pretty busy in the last month, with a wedding in the can waiting for an edit and planning all these other weddings that couples decided last minute to do. Then there was a whale of an account that swung by me, but ultimately was not right for me. It was to be a cooking show hosted by a local chef, and they were really looking more for a production company, but the contact gave me a call anyway, got me all psyched up, and never called me back for my rates. All in all, I don't think it was meant to be because it was a little out of my league. I would've had to request a ton of money to upgrade my equipment to fit the cook's needs. But that feeling of something ambitious got me going again. Got them gears in my head clicking.

Alex and Zoe are going through a bit of a phase right now, not an easy one like teething or not being able to sit up for a prolonged period of time - oh how we wish that was the problem - but instead, the art of Not Listening. This is when you tell them, "Let's go." or "No, that's dangerous." or "Don't run away." and they do it anyway. Their hearing is perfectly fine - I mean, if I whispered the words, "ice cream" right now, they would probably wake up from their sleep and run downstairs screaming, "ice cream! Ice cream!"

Their "Not Listening" thing can be a little tough at times, and the tantrums have returned as well. There's no gradual emotional shift, just a jolt from one end to another - happy kids to rampant village destroyers. They are finally at the same understanding that they are adversarial in nature, because they are siblings and that's what they do. They'll fight over the most mundane things, and on more than one occasion, they even fight about unrelated things. It just takes one kid to say, "Mine!" and the other one will automatically chime in, even though they're both preoccupied with their own toys, with no desire or even knowledge about the other kid's toy.

But yesterday Alex and Zoe did something that was really sweet and cute. They did "Ring Around the Rosie" without music or our coaching, and they were having a lot of fun playing with each other. It's a great fuzzy feeling when you see your kids get along, especially since they spend most of their time fighting.

Alex is showing a lot of progress, and enjoys the nursery rhymes a lot. He tries to repeat them and usually finishes the last few words of every line. Zoe isn't much into the vocal mimicry, but she's certainly into dancing and jumping. My wife is right, she's a cute little dancer when those feet boogie down.

Well, I'm past my expiration so I'm going to bed now.

2006-05-14T23:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day Photo Post.

Text later.

2006-05-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

B & M requested more photos of the kids, so here they are.

2006-05-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

This post was really due a few days ago, after my great weekend with the kids. A lot of nice moments that just really makes parenthood seem like a less scary place to be. As Alex and Zoe get older, the growth that I've witnessed in them seems like a brand new revelation every single time.

Zoe's picking up new words all the time, with special emphasis on words like, "NO!" and "MINE!". But she also learned words like "That's nice." and "Miao", which I think is pretty cute because she does the Chinese pronunciation of a cat's meow, which I think is great. She's also a bundle of fun because when I tickle her, she would giggle, and then point to her other knee, and say, "This One!" And giggle. And then point to her head and say, "This one." Mouth. "This one!" She also has the great advantage of being impervious to how she acts, like most kids, and I would be lying if I didn't feel like the best daddy in the world when she sees me. The other morning, she came downstairs, saw me, yelled, "Daddy!" and did this weird, skipping, flappy little dance of joy. And inside, so was I.

Alex is currently testing his boundaries, and probably has an imaginary time-out scorecard in his brain. He's getting in trouble a lot recently, kicking kitty, throwing toys, terrorizing his little sister and not listening. I'm sure it's just a phase, but it's still tough for me and my wife who would rather spent the time we have together playing or just chilling, instead of having him warm up the corner of the couch and testing how screamproof the house is.

Alex is also progressing well along, saying and remembering more words and even working out an occasional sentence. He has tints of humor in his exchanges, and more cheekiness than you can shake a cat with. It's odd that each of them have things they listen to, and some they don't. Alex hates diaper changes, but Zoe doesn't mind them. Zoe doesn't obey physical boundaries like the kitchen and eating in the living room, but Alex is really good about that. And of course, both of them really respond to words like, "Candy" and "Chocolate" and "Ice cream." Ice cream's like the worse. They have plastic food and they will actually take possesion over the ice cream cones, and lick them over and over again.

Altogether, I'm glad they're getting older. To get past the little baby things like crankiness without a nap, or food pickiness, or diapers, so that we can just discover new things together. This summer will be a fun one - we're planning on the movie drive-in (yes, there are a few still operational in this wet state.), a zoo visit, maybe the Science Center, and the Space Needle. And something that I've missed - The Seattle Bite. Foooooood.

Tom Cruise is coming to Aberdeen. I don't know why. As I stated to someone in the breakroom, maybe he's looking all over the place for someone who still likes him. Personally, I think he's getting a tough rap for the whole thing. We all say stupid things, express our personal beliefs at the wrong times, but he just happened to do it to the most critical audience on national TV - the daytime crowd. Now that's a crowd that you don't want to piss off.

Tangent.

2006-05-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

I used to think planners with time columns and day-to-day notes were stupid - now I'm thinking that I'm going to need one soonish. Makes me wish my iPod was a little smarter.

On Friday I got an email asking if I could videotape a recital on Sunday, and after working out some details, it was a go. The "recital" turned out to be a performance at the Kirkland Performing Arts Center, so it was quite an experience. I, of course, managed to bluff my way through the evening, even when my client mentioned to the theater manager that he decided to hire a "professional". I either blushed or crapped in my pants a little because I keep having this feeling that I'm really just pretending to be good at videography.

When I was setting up, I couldn't even tell the sound tech what kind of plug in I needed for my camera. And then when the sound was distorted, he figured out that I had it on "mic" instead of "line in". Stuff I would figure out eventually, but I didn't, so I felt even more amateurish.

The performance started and I got progressively more worried because:

A) Stage lights hate my camera. The red lights wash out my subjects and suddenly it's like a cheap horror movie in some dark room. They had many different lights to drop my camera off.

B) One dancer was fine, great, dandy. Multiple dancers who go all over the place is not so great. Establishing shots are too blurry and indistinct, and you can't see any faces. Closeups mean there are people you're leaving out. Sigh. I had a second camera but my old Digital 8 can't make out faces and colors well. I would have better luck with a 35mm camera.

C) My second camera failed - at the end of the first hour, I went to change the tape and the carriage got stuck. Leaving me with one camera.

D) The performance is supposed to be one and a half hours. If it ran a minute over, I'm screwed because my tape usually runs an hour. I can stretch to an hour and a half, but beyond that I'm screwed. The trouble isn't that I don't have another tape, but the performances and breaks were so closely intertwined I was afraid I was going to cut something out - something I wouldn't worry about with a second camera. (i.e., change tape on camera one but not miss a thing because camera 2 will be recording, and then switch off.)

Luckily, I managed to pull through. Just not looking forward to seeing the footage because I'm way harsher than I'll need to be with my own footage. Wanna hear some swearing and self-loathing? Sit with me while I watch my dailies.

You Can't Say No!

2006-04-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

Zoe demonstrates her killer move - the obilvious, don't-you-just-love-me look. Works on Daddy a lot.

Alex's Charming Smile

2006-04-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

Told you he was cute! This photo is related to the previous post.

2006-04-26T00:08:00.000-07:00

Blame the lack of posts on my new camera.

I have yet to lose too many smiles to my new camera, which is really getting a lot of good photos of the kids doing their kid thing. Even yesterday, the two posed for me nicely while I snapped these two winners. They were at their absolute cuteness. Alex even did a little dance for me while posing, and said, "Thank you, Daddy" at the end of it. It was pretty darn awesome, I'll tell you that. I also like Zoe's sly smile, which is pretty rare in a lot of the photos. She's a playful little girl, but she mostly does her smiles and giggles while playing with someone, instead of just being wacky like her brother.

Over the weekend, we had some great family fun whereby the kids got to see new things, and I got to photograph them. We were given last minute tickets to the Mariners baseball game at Safeco Field, so Saturday night we were at the game. The kids were having fun at all the commotion that was going on, even if it wore them out to tears by the end of the game. But one of the fun memories from the game was when everyone cheered, and Zoe would gamely throw her hands up in the air and yell, "GOAL!"

And on Sunday, we went to the Bellevue Botanical Garden, and the kids got to run around while I wore my camera out with constant snapping. Alex saw a white butterfly and called it something - and it took me a few seconds to register that he was calling it a "Snowman Bee". So I told him it was a white butterfly, even though I really preferred that it be a Snowman Bee.

Ahh, lunch is over.

2006-04-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

I've developed a habit of bringing my laptop into work, which is quite a retail-centric environment whereby people don't usually bring laptops into work. Thing is, I don't really get a chance to be on the computer except the couple hours of free time I have after the kids go to bed, and the time I have to go to bed. I'm not kidding, I have about a maximum of 3 hours every week night to do something that remotely resembles "Me" time. And when I have a wedding or photo montage, that's about most of my "Me" time right there.

I can't do much with the laptop at work except blog offline and maybe write some email replies, but it's definitely more productive than watching Jerry Springer on TV. I swear I could've hurled that TV out the window yesterday. It's horrible watching people's ugly human nature televised on national TV. I'm not easily offended, and that show offends me to no end. It's just such an ugly environment.

So I'm sitting here, blogging at work and occasionally pressing buttons on my iPod, which is resting in my breast pocket of my dress shirt. And I just realized that whenever I cranked up the volume through my shirt, it looks a lot like I'm twirling my nipples. Which is why I will keep doing it.

I've been a little bummed that I haven't had a free moment to work on my script, and that it's still swirling in development hell in my brain. Oh well. At least I have stupid things like the news of HD-DVD to keep me occupied.

Which is interesting because if you haven't been following, there are two next generation DVDs coming out, the DVD-HD which is already on its way, with a 500 dollar player and available titles, and Blu-Ray, which is retarding a little with the delay of PS3. I personally think that Blu-Ray is more awesome, but I wonder if it'll survive on its own. Who knows. I do think that in the next few years, that just means that I'm in line for an upgrade soon. Some people will need their weddings in HD, on HD-DVD, so that they can watch it on their plasma LCD TVs. But you know me, I never argue with new equipment.

Well, enough blabbering. I'm quite happy that it's a nice day today. Might take the kids out later and get some more photos.

2006-04-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Easter doesn't have any religious significance in this house, what with us being Godless people and all. But at least we're not chowing down on chocolate crucifixes or watching homosexual tendencies in young dashunds.

Oh wait.

Easter was a pretty interesting affair - we went to a egg-hunting event - a first for both kids since last year it was too rainy and Zoe was too young to go on one. We paid for this event, which was usually free in Bellingham but I guess money going to the Senior Centre isn't necessarily a bad thing. They got their faces painted, played a few activities, and then I waited in the breakfast line. Of course, the egg-hunting began prematurely, and I lost my place in line.

The kids did relatively well during the 0-3 year old egg hunt, which was basically a patch of grass with unobscured eggs laying everywhere. All the kids had to do was to step forward, and pick up all the eggs in the yard. Alex got a pretty good share of it, though the little girl next to him was a little shy about it, so I told Alex to give her an egg. Which he did graciously, though he was probably wondering why he had to give an egg to someone he didn't know.

Zoe and my wife went to another area and they fared well also, and in the span of less than 5 minutes, it was pretty much over. Wasn't so much of a hunt, more like a egg rush, with greed being the motivating factor. Of course, the organizers of the even decided to put mostly hard candy in the eggs, so I bet all the 0-3 year olds had their stash replaced with something less of a choking hazard.

I was back in the breakfast line again, about half an hour before we got our modest servings of egg, ham, and pancakes.

Later in the afternoon, we hid a bunch of eggs around the house with a copious amount of jellybeans and M and M's, and they were a lot of fun to watch. Alex provided a running commentary while cracking open the eggs and eating the jellybeans inside.

"Gasp! Brown raisin!"
"No, it's a jellybean, buddy."
"Gasp! Brown jellybean. Not raisin. Mmmm. It's jellybean. Yes."

Of course, that amount of sugar lead to some erratic behavior all weekend - including a crying tirade that couldn't be consoled, followed by a sudden change in emotion whereby he was just cracking up laughing at... whatever. Zoe tended to handle the candy a little more in stride. She didn't have as much of an adverse effect by the sugar, she just looked like she was enjoying her jellybeans.

Yesterday we spent the majority of the day at my mother-in-law's, who got a cute new puppy that had that puppy bounce in his steps, perfect for pouncing on my brother-in-law's dashund, who was also recently acquired. This is in addition to another dashund who was already living in the house, and another dog that looks like a mutated mop, and very much smelled like one too.

Because I had spent so much time last week just being exhausted, sitting on the couch and doing absolutely nothing rendered me sleepy for most of the visit, napping through a neighbor's visit and pretty much whenever nobody was talking to me. I did however, regretfully see the two new dogs discover a fun new game called genital licking.

See, the male puppy still had nursing instincts, and the older dashund was a male who probably didn't mind a little muscle swirling around his wang. They were quite involved in the frolicking, struggling, and licking of parts that my brother-in-law commented that it was like Brokeback Mountain: Dog Edition.

The kids had yet another hunt with hard-boiled eggs at my mother-in-law's, which brought the grand total to 3 hunts in two days. They were completely exhausted by the time they got home, and I was estastic at all the cool photos I took with my new camera. Some of them were just exceptionally clear and vivid, making me so darn happy that I wish I had a puppy around.

2006-04-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Fifth Eye is now upgraded. New look, new photos with my new camera, taken with my new bionic arm.

Twannnnnngggggg. (Six Million Dollar Man sound effect here.)

2006-04-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

I was driving home today and there was a freakin' amphibious tank-a-ma-jig sitting at the intersection. I was amazed and completely in awe of it because there was some dude, a friendly sorta eccentric dude, sitting on the top of it with his upper torso poking out, and his lady companion was on the lower part, wearing a pair of goggles. It was surreal and sublime.

2006-04-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

Peaks and Valleys

I wish I had a better metaphor, but I don't, so you're stuck with the title.

I was having a streak of good feelings a few days ago, and today was just not a very fun day, but I'm expecting the next few days to be excellent. But first, just to get the bad day out of the way...

I basically spent the first two and a half hours of my workday in the rain, alternating between driving a forklift in the rain and putting boards in the trailer with a pallet jack. One occasion, a board fell over onto the wet ground and I had to restack it in the rain, and another time I had to restack it because some genious decided that bags of soil should be at the bottom of the board, causing the weight to shift and eventually fall over. I was soaked to the bone - pants, socks, and my hair was all helmety because I wore a hooded rainsuit. Oh, and I forked myself on the shins because I wasn't looking.

The rest of the day was spent catching up with my now swelling workload, and I didn't actually get caught up even when I left for work today. And when I was getting my mum tonight, I drove without headlights and with the e-brake on, without realizing it because I was too tired.

But on to the good news.

I had a really great weekend, spending much needed quality time with the kids and the wife, whom I'm starting to remember now. We even got to play around a little, watched some Tv and chilled out.

My timeline's a little screwed up now. Essentially, my mum found an iPod in December, and it was placed in Lost and Found. The other night she brought it home and I freaked. And I've been playing with it, putting my entire collection on it. I have about 3,000 plus songs. I reckon about half of that I actually listen to. The other half are either songs I don't care for, or odd random CDs that found their way into my collection.

Also, with the money that I got from selling my 116 CDs, I purchased a Nikon D50, with a 18-55mm lens. I barely even understand what the hell that means. It's a DSLR, makes a camera snapping noise that gives me a chubby, and the photos should be spectacular. It's due to be here by Friday, which should be perfect for...

Easter Egg Hunt! We're planning on planning something for the kids, like a hunt or something. I can't wait to see their faces when they find those eggs and get all excited. Okay, that's it, I have to go to bed now. Leave me alone.

2006-04-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

2006-04-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

2006-04-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

2006-04-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

2006-04-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

This is dedicated to my little Zoe Bear.

Dear Zoe,

When I first found out you were coming to visit us, it was a relief because we were actually going to use the name "Zoe", since Alex turned out to be a little boy. We were getting bummed that we wouldn't have a little girl, but you pretty much solved that. But we were also exceedingly worried, because markers in your mommy's tests showed that you had a 1 in 200 chance of getting Trisomy 18, which was one of the worst possible things that a parent would have to deal with. Needless to say, that turned out to be nothing at all - but thinking back, we couldn't imagine our lives without a sweet little girl named Zoe.

In the past few months, your personality has really blossomed - you're curious, talkative, incredibly nurturing, good humored, and you've got a really big toe - because you're always toeing the line or just straight out crossing it. You love and look up to your brother a lot, and the next biggest love you have is for Kitty, whom you simply cannot do without. You would request for it by name, and though you don't know that now, we already got a Backup Kitty that we're storing in a safe place, just in case your Original Kitty wanders off.

You love books. You would go to the toy box, grab a book, and throw it in my lap, and then do your cute little backing up thing whereby you just back up until your ankles hit my legs, and then you plop down. And you also do this thing whereby you'd grab my finger, and point it at the objects in the book you'd like to know about. You have a insatiable quest for knowledge that I hope you will carry throughout your life.

And there's your mischievous side, the little girl who tries to get away with murder. You like to test boundaries, and we hope that it becomes an asset to your personality, rather than a burden. We hope that you will push the limits on society, the limits of other prejudices, and become the best Zoe you want to be. You like to wander into the living room with food stuffed to the brim of your mouth, since there's no eating in the living room. You like to "borrow" Alex's toys, and hope that by twisting like a wacky person and screaming, I would somehow overlook the fact that it's his toy. One of our favorite memories is when we told you not to go into a room. You stopped in your tracks, turned your head, and looked at us. Then, with your head still turned to us, your body took a step forward toward the forbidden.

But your laughter and the joy you give is immeasurable. Your laughter are shrieks, giggles, and screams. Your laughter is contagious, lovely sunshine that opens up my heart and puts a big wide smile on my face. Your laughter is medicine for the ills that hinder my day.

You like to show off your knowledge. You like to learn what Alex learns, and you like to repeat things. A lot. And this thing you do, whereby you say, "Hi Aleis. Hi Mamin. Hi Daddy. Hi Whoa-ee" all in one breath is really cute. And for good measure, you even say, "Hi buddy."

I remember during naptime once, when Alex was groggy and I was holding him, and you were still asleep in bed. And though I'm not the religious type who likes to compare earthly things with spiritual metaphors, seeing you lying there on Pooh's tummy, holding Kitty in your state of slumber, I wondered why Angels didn't look more like you.

I love you, Z-Bear. I got your back.

Your Daddy.