memorial day

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post".

kids, do not play with toys

i snapped this pic at a garage sale i went to this afternoon. if you're going to buy toys for your kids at a garage sale, make sure it's the kind that they can play with.

the eyes have it

i read this article this morning and couldn't help but agree with the author. as consumers we are willing to shell out big dollars to get the highest quality visual image we can. a mega mega-pixel digital camera, a wide screen hi-def tv that's bigger than your dining room table, blu-ray dvd's, etc, etc, but yet we reduce our music to it's lowest terms. we squeeze the original high-quality music from our cd's into manageable bites of music data for our portable mp3 players and pretend not to notice the lack of quality. i can say this because i'm a huge violator of this principle myself. a recent inventory of my digital music collection revealed several tracks that were well below my minimum standard of 128 kbps, which is a questionable threshold itself. granted, this whole idea means less to some people than others but it must be noted, there is a difference in sound quality when you start compressing music.
why do our eyes deserve the finest quality and our ears get kicked to the curb? it's just an interesting observation.

abbi

keep this little girl, and the family, in your thoughts and prayers.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/abbi

happy birthday mom!

happy birthday and welcome home. glad we could spend today together!

two-headed monster challenge

while recently scouring hulu.com i came across one of my favorite television shows from my childhood, "johnny sokko and his flying robot". it was a japanese series that ran from october 1967 to april 1968 (1 month after i was born) and yielded 26 superfantabulous episodes. it reached it's popularity in the u.s. as re-runs shown from '71-'73. it doesn't take long into the clip (you'll never make it through through the entire episode) to realize just how ultra-cheesy this show was. as a boy, i remember this being so much cooler. the special effects are ridiculous, the plots thin, and the americanized voice-over dubs are as bad as it gets. still, i remember that flying robot shooting missles out of his fingertips and blasting that bazooka canon from the top of his head. as far as surprisingly violent childhood television series' go in the ealy 70's, this show was so totally da bomb. i can never make fun of the power rangers ever again.

gone digital...

i just finished hooking up my new government subsidized analog-to-digital tuner\converter box to my antiquated zenith set in the bedroom. it works pretty slick and the best part? i was able to configure the new remote to operate the tv as well. nothing like consolidating tv remotes whenever possible. i get all the standard network and public tv channels (and a couple extras) in the relative clarity of a digital signal vs. the oft fuzzy analog picture i've grown to tolerate. i still have one more converter to purchase for the small set in the kitchen but it really was a breeze to setup and configure. the votes are in and it really is obvious: digital good, analog not so much.

see a first place team...

i have two twins baseball tickets i can't use. help a brother out and
take your son, daughter, spouse, to the twins game this tuesday night.

the pics...

we had a great party tonight with family. here's the pics.

happy b-day alaina j!

can't believe it's been 11 years! stop growing so fast - you are freaking us out!
happy birthday lainie! you are still the birthday queen. cha-cha-cha, ooh la la, walla-walla bing-bang, hi-ya!

5th of may

*"A common misconception in the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's Independence Day; Mexico's Independence Day is actually September 16 (dieciséis de septiembre in Spanish), which is the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.
The holiday commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The date is observed in the United States and other locations around the world as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride."

*source (taken from wikepedia)

another tidbit of factual historical information provided free of charge from thirdthoughts

tale of two weekends...

last weekend was cool, drab, & rainy. i remember thinking about how i didn't really get much accomplished as i mostly kicked it at the crib with my 'peeps. this weekend, while warmer and sunnier, went by like a blur. we had a friend over on friday night to help us plot out our upcoming plan to finish our basement. it's important to note that this venture is still in it's infantile stages. we are thinking about doing some of it ourselves (framing, etc.,) and bidding out the rest (sheet rock, etc). we sort of have an idea of what we want to do and that's an important first step. on saturday i had a friend come over and help me hang a ceiling fan. a simple enough task, or so it would seem. but we always seem to run into a few logistical issues and this time was no exception. bottom line is it's up and spinning. now, i'm chillin' like a villain cuz i got a new fan on my 'cillin. then i went to this same friends house and helped him restore functionality to his linksys pci wireless card and re-establish his network security settings. saturday afternoon we went to allie's friends wedding. today i did some house cleaning, put up the screens, and prepped my bike for riding, and grilled out some polish. time to gear it up for another work week.