Zeigen

Henry IV Part One, Act III, Scene 1:

Owen Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

Henry “Hotspur” Percy: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?

Here, Hotspur neatly refutes his cousin-by-marriage Glendower’s pretentious brag with a fine skeptic’s rebuttal. I was reminded of this exchange from this case from last month: A so-called tantrik employer of black magic claimed to be able to kill any man with a curse within three minutes, and the challenge was taken up on live TV.

I took a personal day today as Kimi recovered from the surgery. She was in good spirits and only a little dazed from the morphine, and came home today around 11:30. She was in pain from the surgery but for the first time in years didn’t seem to have back pain. Apparently the nerve was gigantic and inflamed, and the surgeon said she was surprised by the extent of the damage. But preliminarily at least, all seems to be better.

The kids are both in good spirits (although Sophie’s falling asleep too soon to get a good dinner) and glad to see their mom again.

I’ll keep you updated, but so far we’re both optimistic that the surgery was a success.

From here, she’s got six weeks of no lifting anything more than 8 pounds, no bending at the waist, and two weeks of no driving.

Kimi and I would normally celebrate my birthday by going out tonight, but she won’t be home; instead, her back surgery is today (right now, in fact), and she’ll be at El Camino Hospital tonight.

We had a nice pre-birthday dinner last night instead (with John, Yvonne, and Logan as our guests) where she made all of my favorites: Artichokes, garlic new potatoes, baked brie, chilled cracked crab (a little late in the season but still nice), plus some salad and chicken for Sammy. Thanks sweetie!

She then fretted all night instead of sleeping, and prepared weeks of meals for Sophie and organized everything she could get her hands on. A little nervous about the surgery? I think so.

Tonight it’s just me and the kids, but I’m thinking about taking us all out for sushi. I’m distracted by Kimi’s surgery and hoping she gets through it and the recovery okay (six weeks of no lifting).

In other news, the kids are settling in well (getting up nice and early in the morning, making it easier to get them dropped off at school and me to work on time), and in even better news, my back is no longer sore from moving.

My brother Rob was just chatting with me:

Robert: How old are you now? I can’t keep track, it keeps changing each year

Stephen: heh
41

Robert: Stop it

Stephen: Er
38?

Robert: Each time you get older, you drag me with you

Stephen: I’ll put it in reverse then

Robert: I don’t want to follow you down this path
thank you, yes reverse will work quite nicely

Stephen: Or just kill yourself now and stop the wrinkles before they begin

Done.

Tomorrow morning the house gets tented and (we hope) the termites are exterminated. Then construction begins Thursday.

Done. 

To get to this point, we’ve spent the last two weeks packing and moving and relocating, but now we’re done. Done.

We ended up filling up the POD we rented with about 30 boxes and items to go, so I had to grab some more storage space yesterday. While Kimi watched the kids yesterday (with help from Bob and Kyrie towards the end of the day), I got the last of the stuff out and stored.

Done.

Since we basically finished yesterday, we were able to take a trip (with John, Yvonne, their new baby Logan, and Yvonne’s parents) down to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga for a picnic and koi-watching escape, which was very relaxing. And needed.

Kimi did the final pass this evening, and we’re both sore and exhausted.

Done.

Moving is horrendous.

Last Saturday, Kimi and I took a break from packing, got a babysitter and went to Yuri’s Night Bay Area over at Moffett Field, with Tracee and her friend Rafique. The event was an all-day affair, 2pm to 2am, with plenty of talks and interesting exhibits in addition to the music. It was quite Burning Man-esque, except without the playa dust, blinding desert heat, dust storm white outs, camping out for a week, driving several hundred miles, and the no commerce thing.

I would have liked to explore more, but based on our babysitting arrangements and when Tracee and Rafique could join us, we only made it there at around 9pm. The main attraction for Kimi was seeing Amon Tobin perform, which was around 10:15. The immediate problem was food: There were only a few booths, what they sold was a bit weird, and the lines were extremely long. Kimi and I waited in one long line, only to arrive at the front just as they ran out of food. So we bought some overpriced organic juice. Repeat again at the next line, where all we ended up with were some bizarre chips made from weird roots, and some chocolate. That was dinner. For an event of this size, they clearly didn’t plan the food situation well enough. More vendors, more choices, and adequate food supplies at each vendor would have helped a lot.

We spent a bit of time near a fire sculpture, talking with friends, and gradually made our way around to see different displays, some aeronautical, some environmental, and a few rides. We waited in line for the psycho-bike ride, which was a lot of fun: Four people pedal on bicycles, which spins around four seats in a merry-go-round. First you pedal and then you ride (or vice versa). I haven’t ridden a bicycle in a while, so it was a bit of a workout.

We had to relieve the babysitter at midnight, so we weren’t able to stay too late, but we did enjoy the performances, and I thought the light installations were very well done. The music was so loud, though. I guess the kids today can’t have it any other way, but I was very glad Kimi remembered ear plugs. I was a little put off to see one dad had dragged along his (approximately) seven year old daughter and plunked her down by the speakers. She didn’t have ear plugs, and clearly wasn’t enjoying herself. Same kind of parent who drags toddlers to horror movies, I guess.

Amon was outstanding, and did make the evening worthwhile. There was a bit of cognitive dissonance in wandering past hangars and flight trainers, across a parade ground and runway, only to arrive at a rave on an airstrip. I would love to attend this event next year, prepared with having eaten at home and being able to attend more of it.

(Apologies for the bad picture quality; the only camera I had with me was the iPhone.)

That was quick — a whole week without a blog post.

As is traditional in the blogosphere, here’s my long-winded excuse for not having updated this blog:

• The dog ate my homework, along with my left tibula.
• I was too busy doing my taxes and the check is in the mail, taped to a brick.
• I was sick with a case of temporary sickle-cell anemia.
• We were kidnapped by Libyan terrorists, developed Stockholm syndrome, ate French fries and Belgian waffles, and then were stranded when our American Airlines flight was canceled, so we had to swim home (uphill both ways).

The truth is that we’ve been spending our time moving out. Packing up. Hauling boxes. So so so many boxes.

The floors of our house are in a terrible condition (thanks to the cracked foundation of our 1950s era house), and the bathroom and the kitchen both need work. I’m not the kind of man’s man who can just fix all that solo, so we’re having some work done. It’ll take about two months, and in the meantime we’re living in a guest cottage in the back of Bob V.’s house. For two months. Eight weeks. Two months. Did I mention we’re all sharing a room for two months?

Last week we got almost everything packed (and I took off Friday from work to help get it all done). Monday the PODS people (hah!) arrived. Thanks to Kyrie taking the kids Saturday morning and Sunday evening, we’re now in pretty good shape. Last night, we moved into the cottage.

It was a pretty rough night. Both Kimi and I are sore from lifting boxes, and Sammy and Sophie naturally were a bit disoriented by the new location, so woke up several times. Each at different times, naturally.

Sammy and Sophie are both used to sleeping in their own rooms, and even though they get the upstairs while Kimi and I are downstairs, it’s all one big room.

Our house is pretty small, but to really appreciate how nice it is to have a house, all you have to do is try to squeeze stuff for a toddler and an infant into 600 square feet. Still, it’s a great space, and we’re very appreciative of Bob and family for letting us camp out.

It’ll be very nice to have new floors and a remodeled kitchen, but in the meantime, I repeat: We’re insane.

We did take a couple of breaks from moving: Wednesday we had Kevin and Rachel over for Uncle Frank’s BBQ and a game of Race for the Galaxy (my new obsession, a board game I’ll review here sooner or later), and Saturday night we took in Yuri’s Night at NASA Moffett Field, about which I have several more thoughts that may actually appear here as well.

…that I was a long-haired hippy.

Kimi scanned this in for some reason. I believe it showed my potential as a gas station attendant.

Three years ago today…

Love you always.

This week’s videos had everything from a practical joke that had me fooled for days to another reason to argue with my sister on the phone about conspiracy theories. Here’s a sample of the things I enjoyed watching in the past week:

1. Indy Mogul tricked me into caring…and that’s just plain wrong. Starting with last week’s Q & Erik, Indy Mogul’s been perpetrating the myth that their host, Erik Beck, injured his eye while making the death ray for this Monday’s “Backyard FX”. I was telling people all about it, making them watch the “footage” of the injury, and generally feeling bad for the guy…until yesterday…when they revealed that the whole thing was a hoax. Well played, Indy Mogul, well played.
2. Have you ever thought about modding your DS, Playstation controller, or iPhone? If not, check out the awesome skins on last week’s DL.TV (there’s even a mugshot of Mario and Lugi that’s just. plain. awesome.)
3. Should she stay or should she go? That was the question on everyone’s mind this weekend on the Sunday morning talk shows. As always, Veracifier and TMPtv give us a snappy recap of the topic in their Sunday Show recap.
   But wanna know how they’re capturing all that footage? Check out the behind-the-scenes blooper reel from April Fools’ Day (with a special appearance by a stack of Series 3 TiVo DVRs on the desk behind Josh).
4. Am I conspiracy nut? No. Is there a picture of me on the phone with my sister while standing on the grassy knoll in Dallas? Yes. The Onion took a firm jab at all of the “truthers” out there with yesterday’s report on a new 9/11 conspiracy book.
5. The Professor Brothers (from Super Deluxe) examine the world of the future. One word: BEARSTRONAUTS!

Keep on Downloading!

John T.

We’ve added Gourmet Magazine as a new partner to TiVo’s Video Downloads today. Each Tuesday, a new episode from The Gourmet Channel will cover cooking, travel (through their partnership with National Geographic) and promotions.

(And by the way, my wife and I think subscriptions to Gourmet Magazine make a great gift.)

To kick things off, there are five episodes you can download:

• Sara’s Weeknight Meals
• Partners in Exploration
• Exploring Galapagos
• The Ingredient: Sake Lees (aka sake kasu)
• The Ingredient: White Asparagus

To get your Season Pass to The Gourmet Channel, you can either visit TiVo Central Online, or on your Series2 or Series3 broadband-connected DVR, head to TiVo Central -> Find Programs -> Download TV, Movies & Web Video -> Browse Other Video -> All -> The Gourmet Channel.

Bon appetit!

By now, everyone should know what a Rickroll is. (Right?)

• There are some who are (accurately) decrying it as dumb and childish.
• There are some who are predicting that we’re only just now getting started.
• A detailed timeline is informative.
• Remixes such as the muppet version are springing up.

I present for your consideration five alternatives to Rick Rolling someone:

1. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Lickroll’d.
2. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Rick Moll’d.
3. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Rickshaw’d.
4. Have them click here and tell them they’ve been Ricky & Mole’d.
5. Or there’s this, where you can see a definite Nick Roll.

We already announced (back on March 12) that TiVo will support playing YouTube videos through your TiVo Series3 or HD DVR.

At a dev. meeting just now, I pushed for a parental controls feature that I’d like to make sure is a P1, one which many of our customers have requested: Under no circumstances will the app allow playback of this video. (Warning: Don’t click that link, you already know what it is.)

So, rest easy, citizens of the world. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and smart blocking of certain content.

For the last few months, I’ve not been playing very much World of Warcraft — typically 3-6 hours per week and that’s it. That changed last Tuesday — they’ve released some new content, and I’ve been playing a bit more than normal. On Sunday, while Sophie was napping, I played a few minutes with Sammy on my lap, and explained to him a bit of what was going on.

He really likes watching my character fly around on his Netherwing Drake (Sammy calls it a bird), and while I was doing a couple of quick daily quests, he narrated a bit of what he could see. He doesn’t distinguish between my character and me — both are just “Daddy” to him.

“Now Daddy’s fishing.” (I was.)

“Daddy’s getting that flower. He’s getting all of them!” (Picking herbs.)

“Daddy’s giving the big fish to that man.” (True, turn-in of the World’s Biggest Mudfish.)

“He’s mailing those boots to mommy. Mommy will like them!” (Mailing some magic boots to a bank alt for disenchanting.)

“Those are clouds.” (Yup.)

“Now daddy’s at the farmer’s market. He’s buying fruit!” (Not quite, I was selling junk and buying candles in the Shattrath Lower City refugee camp.)

“That’s the sun going down.”

“Daddy’s flying to Hawaii!” (Taking the flight path from Silvermoon to the Isle of Quel’Danas. Every island is Hawaii to him right now, since we’ve been talking about his trip to Hawaii last year and looking at Hawaii pictures.)