It was such a special trip to travel to where my father was born. I had heard about it in my youth, but never thought much about it, nor how my dad started there. It wasn’t until college, when my friends learned that my dad was born in Mauritius, that my family roots became interesting. From then on, my friends teased that I was part black since the island of Mauritius is 500 miles east of Madagascar, a larger island east of Africa.
I came home an evening a few days before Christmas to an unmarked box at my doorstep. As the kids were going upstairs to bed, my curiosity got the best of me and I opened the box to find my very own Google Chrome OS notebook! It was quite a surprise! Sure, I signed up for one, but I didn’t think I’d get selected.
That’s Jack and me with his copy of StarCraft from Gamestop’s midnight launch. Yeah, midnight. And I’m thirty one years old. God bless Jack for his undying inner child and our mutual fondness, respect, and history with StarCraft.
What is almost as fun as surviving a zombie apocalypse with friends is surviving an alien swarm. While I haven’t watched a lot of zombie movies, I’ve seen a few space marines versus aliens. And fighting off an alien menace was best realized in the movie Aliens, specifically from the perspective of the character Hudson.
As I was replacing a headlight lamp, I managed to drop a socket somewhere in the engine of our car. At first, it was lodged where I could see it, but when I went after it with a long screwdriver, it fell somewhere I couldn’t reach or see.
Happy Valentines, Happy Chinese New Year, and Happy Birthday to Oregon! A trio of events on one day. Usually, Valentine’s day is a nightmare to get reservations at a restaurant, and usually, Chinese restaurants are a fail-safe, but since it is Chinese New Year, even Chinese restaurants might be full!
We finally got to see Avatar in 3D last weekend, as the first movie we’ve seen on a date outing in two and a half years. Funny, how having a kid can change date activities. All in all, Avatar was enjoyable, if too predictable. I, personally, spent more attention trying to see all the 3D, and figuring out how they did it than the story itself.
I couldn’t resist getting into the joke about the Apple iPad with the post title–I can see some eyes rolling. I get excited about Apple product announcements because Steve Jobs is an amazing presenter. I enjoy taking sips of the Apple Kool-aid that brainwashes me into wanting an Apple product even if I don’t need it. Thankfully, I have Jenni to talk about it afterward, geek out for a while, and come back to Earth realizing that it’s another fancy toy to learn about, and not something I have a need for.
When my company moved from text to HTML e-mail newsletters last year, I found myself going back in time for web design. I had to toss out using semantic code and advanced CSS to create HTML e-mail designs that would be compatible with the wide assortment of e-mail clients. I was humbled as I would complain about cross-browser testing, but it was nothing compared to trying to design a HTML e-mail that would work for the varieties of e-mail clients. Needless to say, I’m glad I don’t do HTML e-mail designs all the time.
I’ll first admit that when I learned that a Batman game was coming soon, I didn’t give it another thought. The screenshot made it look like a simple brawler and nothing much past that. It wasn’t until I read that the company had enlisted some of the voice talents from Batman: The Animated Series that I raised an eyebrow. Then I found that the script was from Paul Dini–then I thought, that’s gotta be good.