With a budget rivaling major movie productions (300 million dollars), China picked their best director to orchestrate the opening ceremonies: Zhang Yimou. The name sounded familiar and Jennilyn guessed it right as the director of “Hero,” one of the most beautiful movies we have ever seen. I was impressed from that point forward and expected a great show, considering the amazing cinematography in “Hero.”

Here were my personal favorite moments:

• 2008 drummers doing a countdown to the evening’s events.
• Unbelievable fireworks at every opportunity, especially the footsteps to the birds nest, which was the nickname of stadium.
• Repeated moments of incredible symbolism:
  • Using groups of 2008 performers per act.
  • Well, starting the Olympics on 8/8/08.
  • Using opposites: light to dark, 2D to 3D.
• The humongous LED screen that appeared to be forever-rolling scroll.
• The Chinese printing blocks symbolizing the Great Wall coming down and China opening up to the world.
• The Chinese blocks opening up and discovering that they were not animated by technology, but by people!! Amazing synchronization!
• All the Tai Chi students running and forming different formations.
• Lighting of the torch, which used the scrim of the upper portion of the birds nest, it spun together in the last 30 minutes of the show, unknowing to the audience.

Throughout the show, what impressed me over and over again was the way Zhang Yimou orchestrated people as part of the show rather than on relying soley on technology. It was a beautiful theme throughout. I think being a geek in technology, I sometimes forget the magic that comes from people rather than technology.

If you didn’t get a chance to see the ceremonies, there is a video stream online. You’ll want to get comfortable, as it is an hour long. But since it was a live show, it was even more amazing.

Watch the Olympics Opening Ceremonies in Beijing »

I became interested in the Blueprint CSS framework after reading a few articles on grid-based design. I liked how there it facilitated visual flow to a web page and helped create an implied alignment of page elements. After much experimentation, I was able to adjust our site into a grid, however, most of posts prior to the redesign won’t take advantage of the grid layout.

One other learning opportunity I employed in this design included the jQuery javascript library. I’ve always been leery of javascript, but I have since adopted the mindset of progressive enhancement using javascript. Those who have it, will get a perk. Those who don’t have javascript enabled in their browser (a rare breed), will still be able to use our site.

You’ll see a simple jQuery effect for our navigation and post title links, giving it a soft glow when you hover over the link. I’d use it for all the links, but Jenni thought it was too much eye-candy. It certainly made the list of photo albums fun to watch as the wave of color trailed the mouse cursor.

We’re still using WordPress to house the content of our blog. I’ve been extremely pleased with how it has improved since I started using it in 2005 and its themes feature makes it much simpler to change the look of our blog without rewriting all our content.

What is Bokeh?

Our new WordPress theme is called “Bokeh,” which is a photography term. Taken directly from Wikipedia:

Bokeh (derived from Japanese bokeaji, “blur”) is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field. Different lens bokeh produces different aesthetic qualities in out-of-focus backgrounds, which are often used to reduce distractions and emphasize the primary subject.

I actually landed on this design by accident. When I loaded a background image by mistake, complimented on the bokeh. So I stayed with the blurred background image even though I hadn’t planned on using a background image, least of all, one as big as the one we have. But with some optimizations, it didn’t seem to be too much of a bandwidth hit.

The idea of bokeh grew on to me because I’m into photography, but mostly because it reminded me that a design should support the most important aspect of our site (I could argue, all web sites): the content. Being bokeh, it would be out of focus, to bring focus to our content.

My focus on content had come from looking at our web traffic on Google Analytics and analyzed how our blog visitors navigated and spent time on our blog. I found that most people only went to our homepage and that was it. My theory is that most people read our short blog posts and were finished.

The second most-visited page was our photos, so I’ve listed our most recent photo albums on our homepage, to make it one less click. As per Jenni’s requests, the albums now open in a new browser tab, so it’s easy to return to our blog after browsing through the photos in an album.

The goal of the redesign was to improve the usability of the site and put more emphasis on content than our previous design. So putting the photo albums on the homepage, adding a list of archives by year and month, including a list of related blog posts, and expanding our “About Us” section were rooted in that goal. I still see areas of improvement, but I was too excited to wait any longer to launch ;)

Thanks to everyone who visits our corner of the internet. Jenni and I enjoy looking back on our blog to see how what crazy adventures we’ve shared, how much Kadence has grown, and how much God takes care of even the smallest of details in our lives.

Let us know what you think of our new look in the comments. God bless.

We have a spare bedroom in our new house that I’ve purposed as the photo room. However, after this shoot, I realized that it was too small to get adequate distance from subjects. But for closeup portraits, it worked pretty well. I had some light contamination from the window.

Top: Mary Wachsmuth
Right: Clark Wachsmuth
Below Clockwise: Tracy Fuller, James and Leah Brandis, Jack Lim, and Mai Vo

With Tracy’s Goofy Hats

I should state that I’m going to write spoilers below. If you haven’t seen the movie, you may want to come back to this after you’ve seen the movie. There are some great plot twists that should be enjoyed through the progression of the movie.

With that disclaimer aside, I have to give props to Chris Nolan and his crew. They know and understand how to deliver a story with rich metaphors that get picked up in repeated viewings. Sometimes I dream up things like “wouldn’t it be cool if they did…” and I get excited when it happens. In The Dark Knight, I was shaking in excitement because they did what I thought would be cool and took it up a notch. Often times a few notches.

The Dark Knight

I loved they named the movie “The Dark Knight” since it is one of Batman’s aliases and tied the theme throughout several story threads in the movie. I was pleasantly surprised that they played off the theme of knights as much as they did. Harvey Dent was the “white knight” of Gotham because he was a district attorney using the law to fight crime while Batman was the “dark knight” because he used means outside of the law. I thought it was a clever means to tie the two characters together in addition to the same love interest.

Too Little Two-Face

I don’t think they got to explore character of Two-Face as deep as they could, but the movie was getting pretty lengthy and the Joker stole the show. I still have to tip my hat to the writers who did Batman: The Animated Series, their treatment of Two-Face was the best.

Aaron Eckhart, who played Harvey Dent, did a good job and his character was well-integrated into the plot. He wasn’t just another villain tacked on like in previous Batman movies, but he didn’t get the time to become the tragedy he is in other interpretations. I would’ve liked to see more of Harvey Dent’s hidden dark side lash out before his face transfiguration. Perhaps I missed it, but there wasn’t much explanation in the movie as to why Harvey had the nickname “Two-Face,” which was alluded to later in the movie.

The Killing Joke

I was immensely sad to hear of Heath Ledger’s death. The first movie I saw him in was A Knight’s Tale and he did a respectable job. In 10 Things I Hate About You, I found his character likeable. In The Dark Knight, he has become the definitive Joker by which all future Jokers will be judged by.

Crazy. Unpredictable. Insane. Brilliant. Scary and deadly. Jenni didn’t come see The Dark Knight with me because he looked too scary from the trailers. And she was wrong. The Joker is more than scary. But scarier still is how well Heath Ledger portrayed the madman. From the moment he showed the audience his magic trick, any doubt of his incredible performance disappeared.

“When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you.” ~ Nietsche

I remember reading an interview where Heath Ledger spoke about how he prepared for the part. He confined himself to solitude and I can only imagine what his thoughts went to become the Joker. When I found out he died, I could only think of Nietsche’s quote and wonder.

The music was used beautifully for the Joker as well. The first track on the soundtrack, “Why So Serious?” sounds like metallic bees buzzing by your ears or feedback from speakers. And it was perfect as Joker’s theme. Anytime the Joker was about to bring chaos, this theme would start building up. It’s borderline music and noise, just like the Joker—nearly illogical.

Those Wonderful Toys

I wouldn’t be a geek if I didn’t go into the cool gadgets introduced in this movie. Here were my two gadget favorites.

The Batmobile A.K.A. Tumbler gets an upgrade—or should I say a weight-loss program. After sustaining catastrophic damage from a bazooka, no less, one portion of the tumbler disbands and it’s the Batpod! I knew of the Batpod from the trailers and previews, but I had no idea it would emerge from the Tumbler! Batman had some nice tricks on using it as well, such as riding it up a wall to do a 180 flip. Awesome.

Sonar vision using cellphones as beacons was also cool. I thought it was neat to use cellphones to transmit signals and use the transmissions to be able to get a virtual representation of 3-D space. A very cool concept that I hope remains only as movie magic. A good nod to how a bat’s vision works.

Three of a Kind?

I agree with one movie review that described “The Dark Knight” as a crime saga; the dark tone distanced it from a summer blockbuster superhero movie and elevated it into a gritty war between good and evil.

Harvey Dent said that “the night is darkest before the dawn,” which implied to me that Chris Nolan is creating a trilogy. I hope not. With the brilliance of the last two Batman movies, I would want the darkness to go on into an abyss—a never-ending series of great Batman movies.

Feel free to share your favorite memories with Jennilyn in the comments ;)

As I courted Jenni, I got to know Cory quickly because he was an open and friendly fellow who was adventuresome, yet very grounded. He was comfortable with himself and his confidence was ever present, but never foreboding. Though we didn’t have much in common, he was always great to converse with.

Cory brought Arianne to our apartment shortly before the holidays in 2006 to hang out. We had a simple dinner together of potstickers as we tried to get to know the girl Cory was dating. She was shy and quiet, but very hospitable and helpful. After we finished our meal, we learned how to play a card game “Scum.” I’m glad we played “Scum” as we got to see a little bit more of Arianne’s playful personality.

From family gatherings thereafter, I admired how Arianne always jumped in to lend a helping hand. It is a quality I love about Jennilyn. Cory and Arianne worked side-by-side during family meals if there was preparations needed or clean up afterward.

Both Jennilyn and I were very fond of Arianne and hoped that she would be the one for Cory. We were so happy that we accompanied Cory when he picked out the engagement ring for Arianne.

Their wedding was beautiful outside Arianne’s parents house. Cory had built three arbors that framed the pathway in which Arianne would walk to him. They were decorated with roses with rose pedals sprinkled on both sides. Jenni and I had front-row seats to the ceremony and we got a chuckle as a neighbor lady poked her head through an opening in the bushes behind the wedding couple and snapped a picture. I wished I had gotten a picture of that.

I enjoyed that they did something different than an unity candle. I had never seen it before, but Jenni had. They had two bottles of sand in which they mixed together into a third bottle, symbolizing that they no longer are separate, but as one.

At the end of their reception, they drove off in a red mustang with fireworks blasting in the air and friends along the road with sparklers. Jenni and I wish them the best and look forward to getting to hang out in the future.

See pictures from their wedding »

What we liked about the house and location:

• Met our 3-bedroom requirement, for future munchkins (and overnight guests in the meantime).
• Close to the MAX, so I can take the train to work and we could stay a 1-car family.
• Great-room style living room, more room for guests.
• Kitchen with an island. Sounds luxurious and exotic eh?
• Community pool so that Jenni can keep her sea legs.
• Community hot tub for relaxing the muscles.
• Gas stove, quicker to burn our food, wok-style stir-fry, and roasted s’mores all year round!
• Kadie has her own room to sleep in and not be disturbed as easily.
• A backyard for Jenni’s gardening and summer barbecues.
• Bedroom with a view, often of colorful summer sunsets in the horizon.

The price was a little over our comfort level, but we went ahead because the houses nearby sold for considerably more. The seller was selling the house for much less than what it was worth, so we were getting a good deal. On paper, we were walking in with a boost in equity.

We closed on June 4th and moved the days afterward. We had an incredible amount of help to get the house cleaned and painted, then moved our belongings in. Jenni’s dad spent a few days with us cleaning, painting, and setting up. The weekend after we closed, we had many hands help us migrate our belongings, ranging from family to friends. Thanks Mom and Dad Hill, Mom and Dad Lim, Jack, Cory, Travis, Leah, and Steve for getting us moved!

See a few pictures from our new home »

David: “Huh? You need to grebber garble gooka?”
Jenni: “No! I need to grab the diaper bag!”

(I just made that up because I can’t remember what we’ve actually said, but it’s a lot like that.) Needless to say, our processing skills are a bit shot, just as our eyes are blood-shot.

I’ve done some silly things like using David’s toothbrush - oops! Gross! Sorry, honey. Just this morning I trimmed my bangs while they were wet and being pulled down. I cut, cleaned hair out of the the sink, and then was startled with horror when I looked up. Too short! Ugh! Guess I’ll have to hairspray them back since the clips won’t hold them anymore. My right thigh looks like I’ve spilled ink on it but really it’s just the bruise I got from hitting the high chair in our little apartment. Man! I can’t walk straight, think straight, hear right, or speak in coherent sentences.

Last week, when Kadie was crying at 2 or 3 in the morning, I must have been actively dreaming because I was telling David to do something but I wasn’t making any sense. After David asked me “What are you talking about?” He was like, “Stop talking and wake up!”

After I fed Kadie a little, I needed to eat because of low blood sugar. He told me, “Go eat. I’ll sing to her Kumbaya.” As I was cooking my rice and peanut butter I heard him start singing in a loud, delirious voice “Kumbaya………. (pause) Kumbaya.” He made it through a couple rounds of “Dut dut duhhhh….” which I picked out to be Heart and Soul, and 99 Bottles of Beer on the wall till she started wailing again.

Creative, honey. I have to give it to ya. I would never have thought to sing 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Though that does remind me of a couple drinking songs I may pass on to her that I picked up while on the ranch in Wyoming, and one I learned from my Grandma.

Another thing that is affected from sleep deprivation is my memory. My physical therapist said, “What? You’ve got baby brain?” She just had her second child and is probably worse off than me right now. There are more stories of forgetting things, I’m sure, but for the life of me, I can’t remember them.