I found my digital camera!

IMG_1450
Originally uploaded by CyberJazzDaddy.

. . .And just in time to turn the little Bear four years old.

We had a quiet little cake and coffee party with the local relatives over on Sunday. My wife had cooked cup cakes and made frosting from scratch, but was running out of time to get them all frosted.

So in a flash of creativity she mixed different colors into the frosting, put them in seperate bowls with the sprinkle shakers on the table, and set up a make your own cup cake buffet. It was quite the hit.

Bear had quite a good time. Here's what the little Bear likes:

Cupcakes, but only the frosted top. He leaves the unfrosted bottom on his plate like discarded sandwich crust.

Dinosaurs, Godzilla, and his new inflateable punching bag. We're hoping that last item saves his siblings some torment.

Dirt.

He doesn't like:

Listening to dramatized books on CD. He can hear all the good action but can't figure out why his mom won't turn on the T.V. so he can see the picture that goes with it. He finds this very upsetting.

But he did like his Birthday even though I'm not sure he totaly understands what was being celebrated and why. But heck, when people are shoving treats and presents at you all afternoon, you tend not to ask questions.

Blogging 01-24-06

Welcome to New Release Tuesday--the happiest day of the week! Well, besides Friday, of course. Ok, and Saturday. Sunday too. Ok, ok, let's just say that New Release Tuesday is an apology for Mondays.

For those who don't know, every Tuesday is the day that all the new CDs and DVD movies are release from the big studios and record labels. So if you have been waiting for weeks (months) to see something, today is the day that you can finally find relief. When I managed a Blockbuster Video store back in the late 90s, today was very busy trying to get all those new movies on the wall for all the movie hounds who would be showing up to grab the latest----that they could have seen in the theaters six months prior. Whatever.

For me today it's the release of Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride", and P.O.D.'s new CD "Testify".

The CD is one that was on my Christmas list in early November, until they announced a delay and it wouldn't be out till now, in late January. The movie is one that I was going to see with my daughter on her 15th birthday last October. We were going to have a daddy-daughter movie marathon. I was going to take her into a multiplex first thing in the morning, and we were going to watch as many movies back to back that we could. I think we figured out that we would have been able to see like 8 movies and get home past midnight. But money got tight and her friends started planning a surprise party that I thought she would really enjoy (and she did), so the plan got scrapped.

The one movie for that day that she really wanted to see and turned down several offers from her friends to go see it because she wanted to wait and see it with her dad, was Corpse Bride. Tim Burton is a favorite we share. When you meet young Kitten she's all sweetness and light, but there is a little Goth streak deep down inside her. It's something we share. But it's a Burton brand of Goth. Not so much death and despair. But more, "it's-an-ugly-world-but-you-can-still-find-joy" kind of Goth. Sort of. Something like that.

Today is also the day that Disney officially acquires Pixar. Ironicly, or perhaps not so much, on the anniversary of the original Macintosh announcement during the 1984 Superbowl. This means Steven Jobs will be the primary shareholder in Disney stock and a board member. And John Lasseter, head of Pixer and director of Toy Story among others, would be positioned as a head creative adviser at Disney. This is a triumphant return for him as he left Disney some years ago for creative differences, if I understand it correctly.

I don't know how I would like Jobs personally, he seems to be a pretty hard guy to be around, but it looks like he's about to make history again. He blasted the personal computer revolution onto the world with the Apple computer, revolutionized it with the Graphic User Interface (mouse and windows) environment, came back and saved Apple with the iMac and iPod, is hailed as saving the music industry by bringing legal music downloads to the mainstream, and looks like he could be set to save Disney animation and bring it into it's third golden age. Not to mention what content deal he'll be able to leverage from the inside for the burgeoning iTunes Music Store video business.

Quite a day.

But it's not all serendipity. I failed to mention when I was talking about the MacWorld announcements that there was a distinct lack of anything about any Pepsi/iTunes bottle cap promotion for this Superbowl. No caps. Dude. Bummer. Dang it, man. Don't these people realize there are people looking forward to that action all year long. What is their problem!? Ok. I'm over it. (crap)

In related, sort of, movie news, this weekend we tried to see if the little Bear would enjoy a Godzilla movie in any other form besides the Mathew Broderic computer animation version. In other words, would he be ok watching a rubber suit Godzilla or would he see that as a fraud. So we're in the video store and we see this movie with Godzilla all over the cover called "Final Wars". Cool, mission accomplished. We grab stuff for us, too and head out.

I want to pop those Japanese filmmakers in the head. Here's a page from film making 101. If you have a movie that boasts a certain headline expectation, you might want to deliver on that a loooooong time before the last 20 minutes of a 2 hour movie!!!! That's how long it took for Godzilla to actually appear. Of course, Bear was not interested in all the other stuff going on in that movie. So somewhere during that evening, we had the idea that we could calm this disappointment by pulling up pics of Godzilla on Google images.

It worked like a charm. Electricity shot through his body as he poured his wide eyes over this never ending cornucopia of Godzillia photos. For the next hour his vocabulary was reduced to two words---"this one!"---as he went from one picture to the other with his sister doing the clicking for him.

But now we've created a monster of our own. No homework can be done, no email can be checked without a little face appearing at your elbow pointing and screaming for Godzilla. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

But I did just received my first flirtatious email from my wife here at work. This year just keeps getting better and better.

When you wish. . .

Well, last Tuesday was the MacWorld Keynote. That's the annual event where Mr. Steve Jobs makes the product announcements that is going to sort of set the tone for tech in the new year. Or at least that what's happened the last few years. Now it's not like this a religious thing for me---it's more like following a sports team. Or like watching world champions play chess. It's exciting in that sort of plodding way that involves the less visceral parts of the brain and gives a slow motion savoring of glacial change that's set to have a profound impact. The challenger moves a piece. Such a small piece, and only a few squares. How important can that be. It doesn't raise many eyebrows, but the observant notice beads of sweat forming on the otherwise stoic face of the world champion. Something significant happened here.

That's what MacWorld was like this time. Nothing the papers could splash headlines about, but a die was definitely cast. The first Intel Macs were brought out, and ahead of schedule. The rest of the year will be about moving all the other Macs over to Intel. The Intel processor switch made headlines last year when it was announced, but this year, when the products actually come out as expected, is when the trickle starts wearing away at the rock. In the next few months, if you follow the tech blogs, is when you'll see people start to triple boot off of one machine--An Apple. Three machines in one, Linux, Windows and Apple. And if you can do that, why would you want any other machine that could be more limiting. The tech fringes will be effected fist. Then slowly it will move inward.

And the buzz on the streets is that Apple didn't even make their biggest announcements at MacWorld. Seems that there may be headline shattering products waiting in the wings, but a forecast Intel chip supply problem kept them from all being unveiled. But the word is that it's going to be big. Like left field, didn't see that one coming big.

But even with all this going on in sunny CA, it was dwarfed and virtually swept aside by something that happened Tuesday afternoon in my personal life. That afternoon, Tuesday January 10, my wife called me and spoke words that would forever change my life.

Sexy, beautiful words that I have been waiting for years to hear.

"Honey, can you help me get on the Internet?"

If you had looked toward the Midwest at that moment and were in this hemisphere, I believe truly that you would have seen the fireworks.

Oh man. When I said just a few short posts ago that 2006 had something in store, I had no idea. There have been a few things in my life that I had desired to see happen, that I had lobbied for because I felt compelled to do so, but secretly in my mind felt that there was little to no chance that they would happen. And then when it did, I stood there as slack jawed and flabbergasted as the harshest cynics, eyes glazed, just overwhelmed at the wonderful wonder of it all---when the wall fell in Berlin, when Aparthide fell is South Africa and Nelson Mandela assumed the highest leadership position in that country without bloodshed, capitalist economies is Russia and China, and now this.

Glory, Halalulijah, seems things are still unfolding in this Universe as they should. Heavens be praised. Ok, maybe I'm getting a little hyperbolic here. Have to remember that my wife reads my blog now (did you hear that---my wife READS MY BLOG! Have you even had those moments where you just can't stop smiling?). She actually asked me the other night while she was reading my blog if she could correct me on details in my retelling. That made me scowl for a moment. I've thought about it though, and I've decided she can----but only in my comments. Hear that honey, you can't just tell me ---leave it in the comments, baby. When Keroni and Mark had their blogs they would have conversations in the comment section and I always thought that was so cool.

But I'm getting a little ahead of things.

That afternoon I talked her through starting an email account, showed her how to send and email and search for things on google. The kids were so thrilled and impressed when they got home and heard the news. Robo even jumped on the computer right away so he could send his mom an email, so she'd have something in there to read. And last night another break through---chat! We downloaded the Yahoo chat software and when she put in her ID, she already had a friend invitation there waiting for her from her friend in Iowa. I was on the laptop on the sofa beside her working on a spreadsheet for the reunion, and she was just laughing and laughing as she tried to keep up with her three finger typing. iTunes stayed put away, I had all the music I needed (sappy I know, but let me revel). She experienced that getting lost that sometimes happens as she looked up at 11 and realized that she'd been on-line for two hours.

So just remember, there seems to still be a little magic out there, over the rainbow and on a shooting star. Keep believing. Who knows, the impossible might just be closer than you think.

Maybe she'll become a headbanger next.

Or maybe I should just enjoy the moment and not spoil it.

Ok, yeah, I'll do that.

Welcome to the Future

Happy 2006!

Well, we're off and running straight into what has yet to happen. It was quite a holiday break for us and the kids. My brother and his fam were in town and that was awesome. We shared in the season, breathed a sigh as we rested---and waited as the clock turned. But we didn't stay to watch everything turn to zero again this year. I've waited up in the past on New Years and the midnight hour has brought nothing for me but the relief that I can finally go to bed, so this year we decided to skip it. Besides, the kids had been on sleep overs with friends all week and were so whacked out that they were at each others throats.

So, at 8:30 we had a family toast in the kitchen with sparkling grape juice, the three boys already in their PJs. Then we joined hands in a circle for a family prayer for the new year. After which the little Bear, not wanting to see a perfectly good circle of joined hands go to waste, announced that we would then commence what may become our annual new years ring-around-the-rosey. We ringed around, we all fell down, and then we all went to bed. Best new years celebration in memory.

This year will bring many new changes, and the fact that I've already let my daughter get behind the wheel is testament that even though I haven't bought my new calender yet, time still marches forward. We've gone out to the middle school parking lot on the weekend (when it's wide open empty) to get her comfortable with the machine before we subject her to insanity of the real road.

But 2006 does mark the 20th year since high school for me. That frantic year when I was chucked kicking and screaming into the deep end of Real Life. Actually, I ran up and jumped off the high dive by electing to get sent half way across the planet. So this also marks the 20 year anniversary of the Grand Australian Adventure. Something that I don't think I'll ever regret. So to unintentionally commemorate the event I'll be signing my daughter up for her own swan dive this year, with both language courses and trying to get her pre-registered for the trip abroad itself.

My Robo will begin his assent this year to manhood by leaving the gentle gardens of elementary school and begin to bravely walk the pubescent corridors of Middle School. That happened a little faster than I expected it to. And I'm sure that the other two have a whole host of surprises their just waiting to spring on me.

For me, it's serious get-down-to-brass-tacks time. I'm not a New Years resolution maker, but I do set goals. And dangit, this year is it. This year is THE YEAR OF THE HOUSE! That's where I spend 12 months busting my hump proving to my wife that I love her by bringing our dwelling back up to spec---and beyond. My brother just told me that he's finished putting the spit and polish on his dwelling, so I guess I'm a little over due, but better late than never I say. I've mentioned all the little things that I'll be doing to get Robo into his own room downstairs. I'll also be tending to the little repairs and maintenance that have built up over the last 8 years and always seemed to wind up on the back burner.

No small task, to be sure. But to prove how serious I am this time--I've made a list! Ha Ha! Didn't realize the depth of my commitment to this project did you? And being the geek that I am, I posted it to the Internet. If you are of the disposition to follow along, you can view it here:

http://wpmitch.tadalist.com/lists/public/180776

And the wife is experiencing her own little transisition. Now that we moved the computer upstairs, she's gone a little digital. More on that story in the next post.

This year just seems like it's going to be quite a turning point in our little corner of the world for some reason. A grand new adventure. And in what seems to me like some sort of an indicator of this, I've fallen into acting again, of all things. As a favor to a friend, a retired high school instructor from back when I was roaming the halls, I'm participating in a short dramatic presentation he's directing for the local area Chamber of Commerce at their annual dinner. Not huge, but it should be a hoot.

Not to mention that this week is the Consumer Electronics show where all the new gadgets come out, and next week is MacWorld where there is sure to be new Apple announcements! The groundwork for the Future is being laid even as you read this.

So come 2006. It's onward into the great wide open!