Andrew turned 5 yesterday. It’s amazing how time flies. It’s also amazing what a truly wonderful little boy he’s become. The interactions we have now can be truly fun and thought provoking.  He’s not only asking some of what I would consider “typical” kid questions, but also some interesting, challenging ones as well.  And he also can be quite thoughtful about how he answers some of the questions we ask him.

Anyway, here he is sometime within that first week:

And here he is at 5 years old:

It’s amazing what you can’t find the time for.

Part of me likes being sick during vacation because I don’t have to burn sick days and be out of the office getting behind.

OTOH, part of me doesn’t like being sick during vacation because it makes vacation less fun.

So, I’ve got some kind of bug now and Christmas is quickly approaching and there are things to do, but all I want to do is to lay about and pretty much do nothing.

I just can’t seem to make time for it.  Lame.  Oh, Scoble, I have let you down! 

Hey!  We’re okay after the big blow of ‘06.  We lost power just before 11pm on Thursday evening.  We regained power right around 2:30pm on Friday.  After thinking about it, the power decided it had prematurely reinstated itself and promptly went away again at 9:30pm that same day.

The next morning, we were still without power.  Therefore, it was the perfect time to get a Christmas tree, which we did after managing a short gas line.  On our way back from successfully killiing another tree, we pondered whether or not we were going to be able to man-up for another brisk night.  Y’know, cuz we have small children and all.  So, on the way back I got on the horn with Starwood Hotels reservations (Starwood being our hotel chain of choice).  There was ONE open room across ALL of the Starwood properties between Everett and Tacoma.

Being mindfull of the rising Christmas bills, I chickened out and didn’t pull the trigger.  Happily, when we got home, the ol’ Alternating Current was rockin’ the Hong household and we were set to fire up all of our electronic gear.  I tell ya, without the soft hum of at least a dozen electrical machines running in the background, it’s downright spooky in the house!

Now, we’re cuddled up in the warm glow of plasma radiation and microwave technology.  Just as Norman Rockwell would paint were he still be alive (ummmm, if he’s still alive, my apologies).

Ok, quick hits:

• Wii – thumbs up
• PS3 – jury’s still out
• Xbox 360 HD-DVD player – thumbs up
• Zune – thumbs down
• Xbox Live media downloads – could be thumbs up.  bandwidth problems and lackluster content selection make it “jury’s still out”.
• PSP game selection – still thumbs down.
• 2G Shuffle – thumbs up
• 2G Nano – thumbs up
• Gears of War – rocking exploding thumbs!
• Cingular Blackjack – thumbs up!
• Cingular 3125 – jury’s still out
• Samsung HP-S4273 – thumbs up!
• Comcast HD-DVR – still the worst piece of consumer electronics, in like, ever.  At least I’m still just renting it.

I don’t know how many of you read “The Closing of the American Mind” by Allan Bloom.  I did, just before I entered college mostly because Prof. Bloom taught at the university I was shortly to attend. 

But that book isn’t what this post is about (though I highly recommend it for those interested in powering through).  Instead, I look around and, by God, I think most people are just getting dumber every day.  Just look at what’s going on:

• Art is Offensive?  Apparently, when you’re talking about Texans.
• Until recently, pop (milk, too!) can assplode planes (too many links to link to), or so believes the TSA.  AND WE ALL GO ALONG WITH IT LIKE SHEEP.
• ADL must explain Borat (when you have to explain the joke…).
• People believe flight attendants wield Star Trek-like hand-held scanning equipment.

And to show that I’m an equal opportunity critic of dumbass-ness:

• Dems might actually run Hillary Clinton in ‘08.

The ‘08 Presidential Election should be shaping up as one of the most straightforward opportunities for the Democratic Party to win back the White House.  That is, if they don’t field a nominee that turns off half the country.  I’m a Dem and even I would have to think long and hard if it were to come down to a Clinton/Giuliani election.

So, I got the aluminum Nano (no tuner or XM), and the Shuffle update was a surprise.  The updated iPod video was a disappointment and there was no phone.  I did buy Zuma for my 60GB iPod, which is somewhat entertaining.  It’s a little difficult to use the click-wheel as a game controller.  All told, this announcement was 3.5 Stars (out of 5).

The rumor-mill is, of course, buzzing about what Apple will announce next week.  I heard today that Apple sent confirmation to all of its retail outlets saying only, “It’s showtime!”  Could that possibly mean that we’re seeing the “real” video iPod and the rumored $14.99 movies in iTMS?  T’would seem to be.

I personally would love to see a brushed aluminum Nano with a builtin FM tuner or builtin XM integration.  But those are probably not in the cards…..

These are bands who might’ve started in the 70’s and also may have lived on in the 90’s, but were really part of the 80’s Metal-outside-the-mainstream-but-getting-closer zeitgeist.  At least, IMHO.

• Judas Priest
• Iron Maiden
• Quiet Riot
• Motley Crue
• Metallica

Metallica is interestingly unique as they actually did break through and became quite mainstream successes.  You can almost lump Motley Crue into that category as well, but I think Tommy Lee and Vince Neil became famous for other things besides the band.

Yours truly,

Former 80’s metalhead