Odds and ends

Ok... odds and ends today.

1) I woke up this morning and immediately told my lovely wife, 'Wow it's really cold.' Ten minutes later I discovered the furnace had gone out and it was 50 degrees in the house.

2) My youngest son calls the church 'Winter Carnival' the 'Winterful Carnival' We really like that. :-)

3) Your monitor is dirty. Click here to clean it.

4) Two of my Neverwinter Nights 2 mods are up for 2007 mod of the year. The competition is good, and I do not have expectations of winning, but I am honored to be included.

5) My very old and dear friend Eric T Mayer is getting married in Columbia this summer. Wow!

6) My youngest son took a field trip to the public library, which he calls, 'The Republic Library'.

7) On a trip to the Library my middle son, who's in Kindergarden told a young girl he's friends with, 'You are the most beautiful girl. Don't you see how everyone smiles at you.'. My middle son is six. What a smoothie.

That's the list of odds and ends for now!

Cheers,

Ernie

Indiana Jones 4 Trailer

Oh yeah. The man in the hat is back...

Favorite 2008 Super Bowl Ad

Star Trek Teaser Trailer

This goes on both blogs...

New Shed

My wife received a 6 by 3 storage shed for Christmas as a family gift. While on Christmas vacation I dug a 1'+ deep whole in our sloped back yard, set cinder blocks into the whole, leveled the earth then put in a layer of sand. My wife and son leveled the sand and put in paver stones.

Today my mother and father stopped by to help me build the shed. My dad is extremely talented when it comes to this sort of project. We pulled up the paver stones and did an extra hour or two of work getting them more level. My wife and son did an excellent job, but with some expert guidance from my dad we were able to get improve upon the foundation a bit.

The shed went together rather quickly, in just a few hours.

During both phases of construction it was very wet and muddy. My boots look like I had walked through a swamp. Below are photos showing the completed shed. It looks crooked (but level) due to the planks of wood we have around it, but it's both straight with the fence and house and quite level.

I've also included pictures of the yard and deck which are covered in mud.

Youngest Son is very aware

My youngest son likes to make things out of paper, and has made a few cards and letters for my friend Bruce. We've hand delivered some and send others to him at work (I work with Bruce).

Last night he drew something, put it in a box, wrapped the box with printer paper, attached a 'card' that he made, and told me it was for one of his pre-school teachers. This is within the scope of things he normally does so I didn't think about it too much, but my wife and I felt a little odd that he had done this for ONE teacher and didn't want to start bringing wrapped boxes to school everyday. We didn't want to stifle his kindness or creativity but I was watching this closely.

I explained to the teacher who was present at his school what it was and who it was for. She told me it was the birthday of the teacher my son made the present for. I was stunned that my son, who is four, had the awareness to think about this, remember it, come up with a plan, and execute it. I was impressed and touched by his behavior.

Gaming News

I try to keep my personal blog free of gaming news, but you can see in this post on my gaming blog, that I've been lucky enough to be included in an podcast interview about Neverwinter Nights, the game I write for and play most often. You can follow this link to Neverwinter Podcast Episode 40, the podcast with my interview. I haven't even had time to listen to it yet, but was very excited and wanted to post right away.

Here's that link again:
http://neverwinternightspodcast.com/?p=89

An Old Friend is Engaged

I heard from Eric, a dear old friend of mine from New York yesterday. We chatted a bit on the telephone an caught up, but the only thing I can seem to remember is the news that he is engaged. He's been dating a woman named Monica for over two years and the two got engaged this past August. I am thrilled for my friend and his news easily eclipsed everything else we discussed.

Congratulations Eric and Monica.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have some turkey and an extra helping of potatoes.

Enjoy the day.

Santa Claus

The recent news stories about Santa Claus are too funny and they are also a bit sad.

Recently there was a story out of the UK. that Santa needed to go on a diet and could not be fat this year. Now there is the following out of Australia.

YDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.

"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.

"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.

"Leave Santa alone."

A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.

What's wrong with a traditional Santa. I don't want to offend anyone, or encourage poor health but give me a break, it's Santa!

Interviewed regarding gaming project.

I was interviewed by Neverwinter Podcast last night using Skype. I blogged about it over at my gaming blog extensively, as it's related to my gaming projects. What's a podcast? What's Skype?

You can find the answers at Wikipedia. What's Wikipeida? The short answer is it's a wiki, but you can read about wiki's and wikipedia on Wikipedia.

My name actually shows up in a gaming related Wikipedia entry. You can read it here...at the very bottom of the page under external links.

My interview will show up on episode 39 of Neverwinter Podcast which should be out in a few weeks. I'll definitely post a link on my gaming blog.

Sick Child

My youngest was sick earlier in the week. Stomach Flu kind of ting. My middle son was on a field trip to Curtis Orchard today, and got sick while he was there, with the same thing. He told Shannon that he didn't like that place because it made his stomach hurt. Clearly he just caught it from his little brother, but it sounded pretty funny. Curtis Orchard is a GREAT place and I'll definitely be back with the whole family at some point.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

My two littlest boys love the Charlie Brown Christmas special and watch it regularly even now in September and October. My oldest son also enjoys it but not to the point where he has to watch it once every other day. Halloween is right around corner, and so I figured I'd pickup 'It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown'.

I sat snuggled in my chair with the one of the younger boys on each knee and my oldest on the couch next to me. They laughed and smiled and we had a great time. As soon as it was over and until he fell asleep my middle son cried and cried. He said the nighttime scenes were too scary! He never wants to watch it again, that's ok with me but I feel badly that I scared him when I was trying to have a nice quite time with all three boys.

Oops!

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Meeting

This looks more like a gaming project than a visual studio programming tool, but what the heck. The ad was funny.

Digital Video Camera Bites the Dust

My digital video camera bit the dust, mostly anyway. It's had a problem for two years, while a tape is in it often becomes bent, creased or damaged while in the camcorder. When this happens it's nearly impossible to rewind, play or record with that tape. Most often the tape has to be pitched. Today I had the same problem but the tape won't eject.

I've been all over the net looking for solutions, and it sounds like this is not uncommon with mini DV camcords, the Sharp band (which I have) tends to be more susceptible as it ages. I've tried all the troubleshooting tips to no avail, and the next step is to start unscrewing parts and remove the tape, which may damage the device, or sent it in for repair, which according to others will cost nearly as much as replacement.

I let the warranty lapse a year ago for the same reason, the warranty renewal was a significant cost.

It looks like a replacement is in the cards for the future. Unfortunately I planned to use this one for a small work project, then buy one for the office. Instead I will buy one for the office tomorrow so I can do the work. I had planned to buy one for work so it's not much trouble.

The big questions is which way to go... I'm not shelling out for a hi-def camera, which means do I get a mini dv, a DVD recorder, or something with an on board hard drive. Given my experience with the tapes, I'm surprised to find that's probably the route I will go. We have a CD based camera at work, and I'm not a fan. I'm not sure about the on board hard drive, but it may be worth looking into. We'll see...

The camera was originally a gift, and one I could not have been more thrilled with. I've learned how to make DVDs, made polished home movies, fun short films for the kids, and other miscellaneous films. It's been one of the best gifts our family received and it's had a significant positive influence on me. (If you were a purchaser of this gift... THANK YOU)

Neverwinter Nights 2 Project Complete

My latest gaming project, a new Neverwinter Nights 2 module is out. You can visit http://enoa4rpg.blogspot.com to read all the latest gaming news or visit web site where the module is posted and rated here: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2ModulesEnglish.Detail&id=182

Locatelli Cheese

Locatelli Brand Pecorino Romano

I love it. My kids say it smells funny and they call it 'foot cheese', but I think it's wonderful.

Try it!

Illinois State Budget Mess

The Illinois State Budget has been a mess this year. Months of overtime sessions. The governor making inconsistent and seemingly irrationally statements. It's been alarming and amusing to watch.

My wife showed me this great site where I have been able to get the latest and greatest on the happenings in Springfield, IL. It's a great place to stay up on what's happening in Illinois State Government. I wish there were something similar in Washington DC.

http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/

This blog is updated many times during each weekday. I check it as much as I can for unfiltered news. Great stuff.

World Clock

This is pretty cool. My mother in law sent me the link to this flash based world clock.

Birthday Cake - Grandma Strikes Again

My mom always makes elaborate birthday cakes for my kids. I posted pictures of the spiderman cake a few months ago. Well it's my eldest son's birthday shortly and we are celebrating today. Here are pictures of the amazing cakes my mom made this time.