The Day of Megan

Yesterday was the Day of Megan, essentially her birthday party. Megan can invite one friend and choose several activities to do. She invited a very nice girl and we went to Chuck-E-Cheese to throw down some pizza and then to Chilled Ponds for an hour of Ice Skating. I am so glad that my roller blading skills have transferred to the ice: only a few spills, but, I knew how to fall. Cindy fell hard on her shoulder and I was really worried about her. Katie, who had been hugging the boards the entire time, fell on her back and had to be assisted off the ice. But, no blood, no broken bones. And what goes with Ice Skating? Hot chocolate! Just Daddy's excuse to go to Starbucks. The final activity was decorating the birthday cake. The father of Megan's friend is from Uruguay and we were treated to a couple of birthday songs from their family's tradition. No one had problem falling asleep last night. Maybe a little sore and stiff, but definitely worn out.

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday Megan. You have brought seven years of laughter into our home with your quick wit. Mom and I still do not know where you get your dancing skills from, but you have that ability to just flow. Enjoy your day, enjoy your weekend.

Family Reunion

This weekend was a quick trip down to South Carolina for a family reunion. After the event with our cat on Friday, I think we all needed a bit of distraction. And, in the end, that is exactly what it was. Saturday's reunion was based around the offspring of my Great-Grandfather. Unfortunately, I never new him, but I got a change to meet many of my second cousins. What was strange was I could see physical traits (especially in the face) that indicated that we were related. I wish that the event had been a little more of a mixer. It was held at a park, and we had a nice pavilion. We cooked hamburgers, introduced ourselves and then kind of gravitated to the people we knew. By three, we were packing up and heading home. I had met some new relatives, but, I did not feel like I go to know anyone.

Lucky

I was recently playing a city map called "Road to Jalalabad" in my game of choice "Battlefield 2." After choosing my kit, I joined a squad and introduced myself. The Squad Leader responded and we were off to the battle. The SL had a thick accent and he asked me were I was from. "USA, Virginia." His response was "Lucky. I am from Belgium."

At first, it was just neat to know that I was playing a game and talking to a guy from Belgium. We were seeing things in the virtual battlefield at the same time. But, what sunk in later was his response to where I live. "Lucky."

My experiences have taken me to various parts of the world, but nothing has touched me like what I saw in Malaysia. When I gripe about cable being out, I think of the hovels that our bus would pass on the way to work. They not only did not have cable, but they did not have heating, air, sewers and a host of other things that I never think about until they are broken. Even then, it may be only hours before it gets fixed. Yeah, I guess we are pretty lucky.

Misty

Today was not a day that I would not categorize as a red-lettered day. Our Burmese cat of fifteen years, Misty, had to be euthanized. She has had kidney problems for years that we had been treating with diet, but we had noticed  change in personality recently. After taking her in earlier this week, her blood results showed that her kidney problems had worsened, and it did not look good. The decision we made to have her euthanized was not easy.

We stayed with her in the room while the doctor shaved her arm to expose the vein. He injected the serum and by the time he had finished the syringe, Misty was gone. Her remains will be cremated and then either buried or put out into the ocean.

Thanks girl. We miss you.

The Ship Hits The Fans

Ok, once you watch this trailer, you will see that I am not as clever as I want you to think I am. But still, I am totally blown away that the Star Trek project has been kept under wraps so well. This weekend, the TOS will begin airing again in High Definition with a re-recorded original score and new special effects.

Here is where you can breath a little easier:

1. The Opening Theme: This was re-recorded from the original score. It is "note perfect."

2. The Effects: There will be no fins, no barrel rolls. The shots have faithfully been recreated in the computer so that they will scale well with HD.

So, go get ready to get your Trek on.

Trailer

Battlestar Galactica Webisodes

If you are counting down the days to the October premiere of Battlestar Galactica(IMHO, the best military Sci-Fi ever), then fire up your FTL Drives and Jump over to Sci Fi to watch some all new webisodes until the return. So say we all.

My Celebrity Collage

Thanks Rick!

Happy 40th Star Trek

September 6th marked Star Trek's 40th Anniversary. Although, James and I never completed our pledge while rooming together (to watch every single one), I can not remember a time in my life without Trek. I am what you might call a "closet Trekkie." I would never dress up in costume and go to a convention, but, I would go to a convention. In fact, back in the late nineties (date is held to protect certain ploy specific details), James and I met in Raleigh, North Carolina to see the man himself, William Shatner. It was a blast, but, I learned that many people take it way more seriously than I did. Although the Star Trek renaissance (TNG, DS9, VOG and ENT) was entertaining, nothing matches the TOS (The Original Series).

Space.
The final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Its five-year mission:
To explore strange new worlds;
To seek out new life and new civilizations;
To boldly go where no man has gone before.

How It Should Have Ended

Warning: Do not watch while drinking milk.

A co-worker sent me to the site "How It Should Have Ended." It contains several animated short films that have alternate endings to some great movies. The Superman ending really cracked me up. Enjoy.

Saints vs Sinners

This comment came up in Bible study a few weeks ago, "We need to stop living like sinners saved by grace, and start living like saints dead to sin." This comment has been swimming in my mind since then and what is my attitude towards how I deal with sin. Coincidentally, this is my discipleship study topic for this week.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our lord. - Romans 6:11

Star Trek TOS Redux

Came across a piece last week that Paramount will be transferring the original Star Trek series to glorious High Definition. In addition, the original optical shots will be replaced with digital fx. The cherry on the cake is...the first one will broadcast on September 16th. The show will be worked into syndication, replacing Enterprise.

You can read more about this at Aint It Cool News.

New Blogging Tool

I have been using Zoundary for several months now. I am not much into trying out new tools that come along, and Zoundary has served my needs for some time. This morning, I noticed that Zoundary has features for tracking clicks into products if you are interested with making some do-re-mi. Unfortunately, with a grand total of fifty six views last week, Creative Loafing is not targeted to this type of audience. While breezing through the Zoundary forums, someone asked about Microsoft's new Blogging tool "Live Writer."  So, I will use "Live Writer" over the next week and let you know what I think. And, btw, for a simple WSIWYG editor, Zoundary suffices. However, I have had a lot of errors posting to Blogger (Unicode coercion errors). Also, LJ has told me of some issues with inserting your own HTML. I thought I saw something in the forums that might help with this issue.

Steve Irwin Passes

This was not a great way to wake up. Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin died after his heart was pierced by a stingray's lance. Typically, a stingray's toxin is not fatal, but in Steve's case, the stinger pierced his heart. As a family, we really enjoyed watching Steve's programs, and I wish the best to his wife, kids and family.

Thanks Ernie!

So, what do you know? Ol' Ernesto actually helped out with the lawn edging project. Ground that was rock hard, became quite pliable after three days of rain. I was able to use my spade to get the lawn edging tucked into the ground in about four hours. My dad and I made two trips to Lowes to get the rock, and I am about 3/4 done with the project. I need to look to see if I have any PFC piping laying around that I can drive into the ground to be my Tiki Torch holders.

Not that everything from Ernesto was great, he also pointed out where I had a leak in my house. So...on to the next project.

Honestly Ernesto

Already, some of the schools have been closed and my parents are delaying leaving South Carolina for the drive up. I am glad I drained the pool last night below the skimmer because this morning I awoke to find it above the skimmer (gotta go out in the rain again). My foot sank in one of the areas where the sprinkler man laid some new PVC, and I am thinking the ground will be too wet to use an Aerator on. To make matters worse, my Ximeta NetDisk decided to die. This was the storage drive for photographs taken over the years. I will have to make a decision how valuable they are to me because I might send this off to get recovered. But, on the bright side, it is Friday, Monday is a holiday and the Gamecocks shut out Mississippi State (clang clang clang).