• K.I.T.T. – Knight Industries sure did make themselves a nice Trans Am.
• The Batmobile – Even though this show was campy and very tongue-in-cheek, it sported the coolest car on TV for a long time.
• Optimus Prime – Really all of the transformers, but Optimus went from a huge 18-wheeler to a huge robot with a big gun.  Plus he had that great voice.
• George Jetson’s Briefcase Spacecar – Oh the parking hassles such a car would solve.
• The Mach V – Speed’s Mach V still stands out as stylish and functional!

• Spectreman – The bad guys were talking apes.  One of them had blonde hair.
• Starblazers – How cool was the space battleship Yamato anyway?  Plus, all of the characters had groovy 70’s hair and were impossibly thin.
• Space Giants – A family of robots:  Goldar, Silvar, and Gam.  Silvar was one lucky lady, I guess.  And who didn’t want a friend who could turn into a rocket?
• Ultraman – This show was better than Spectreman.  The robot guy was cooler looking and the storyline was less hokey than the other show.
• Macross/Robotech – The king of space opera anime.

I got my Father’s Day gift a couple days early.  It’s 8 of these.  Really nice for doppios, though they’re not quite big enough for a little half-n-half.

I think at some point I want to swap out ALL of our glassware for these.

Today, after accidentally pouring the laundy soap into the washing machine instead of allowing Andrew to do it, Emma was banished from the laundy room.

Andrew drew up a sign and taped it to the door.  It “reads” NO WOMEN ALLOWED and is now only a place that Andrew and I can go into.

Emma was fine with that.

“The Number of the Beast” by Iron Maiden

I’ve had this one PC for 10 years now.  It’s undergone some upgrades since I initially purchased it back in January of ‘96.  Here’s what it came with (IIRC):

• Pentium 1 – 150MHz CPU
• 16 MB RAM
• 2(?) GB HDD
• 2D video card

Total cost for this monster:  > $3500.

In ‘98, I think, I upgraded the mobo+cpu+ram+hdd on this.  Basically, the only thing that remained of the old PC was the power supply and case.  Back then it got upgraded to a:

• AMD K6-2 350 MHz CPU
• 64 MB RAM
• 8.4 GB HDD
• 2D/3D video card (4 MB VRAM)

Pretty snazzy.  Ran Win9x like a charm.  Not so much WinXP when that eventually came out.  Since that major upgrade, I’ve added a new CPU (AMD K6-2 450 MHz) more PC133 RAM (it’s now got 640 MB) and it’s got more HDD space (70GB) and a good-for-its-generation video card (Nvidia GeForce2 MX400 – 64MB VRAM).  But the computer only serves 2 purposes:  print server and music server for my Roku Soundbridge.

Last Sunday, it served its last MP3 and printed its last document.  Now I’m in a bit of a quandry.  Do I purchase an ultra-cheap low-end machine to backfill this, or do I demote my current desktop to serve this function and get a new “high-end” PC as my main machine?

My main machine’s current specs:

• AMD Athlon XP 2700+ CPU
• 1.5 GB DDR2-400 RAM
• 330 GB HDD
• ATI All-In-Wonder-Pro 9800 w/128 MB VRAM (DVI-out only)
• Dual Layer DVD burner

The reason I’m balking is that a “low end” machine these days is hardly much worse than this.  Sure, I don’t get the big HDD or that much RAM, but the rest is fairly comparable.  Also, this machine is going to find a bit rough running Vista, unfortunately.

As I see it, I have 2 options:

1. Backfill low – keep my current machine and backfill the “server”.  From the looks of it, this will cost me about $400 after factoring in an inevitable HDD upgrade.  I can run XP MCE on such a machine and not only serve up music to the Roku, but also pictures and video to the Xbox 360.  The downside is that I will probably be looking at a main machine upgrade when Vista RTMs since I’m not going to want to run it on a “classic” PC.  That will almost certainly cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200 at the time which makes this total purchase $1600 or so.
2. Demote and backfill high – This means demoting my current main machine.  More than enough power there to run XP MCE easily.  However, to get enough headroom in today’s PC to ensure I have Vista strength, probably looking at closer to $1700+ for a PC today.  This option runs the risk of being on the low-end of Vista-capable.  Unfortunately, you cannot test drive PC’s at home for a few days before buying.

I need to decide relatively quickly.  We have no printing alternatives that work well, plus it’s a drag not having the streaming music.

If I should ever win the war against the sending of useless cards to one another in the mail, I will then set my sights against the sending of dead vegetation to each other in a gesture of… what?  Better to be you than the dead flowers I just sent you?

It seems to be far more pragmatic to send plants to someone.  You could easily send a flowering plant that would serve to add color and beauty to one’s surroundings while also sending whatever message you were intending.  Why isn’t this done more?  Because you don’t get a huge bouquet of live plant?  I try to send plants whenever I can, though I must admit that I do still send flowers to my wife when the need strikes or just on a whim.

Folks, send plants.  They live longer and are more rewarding.  Plus, you’re not throwing out some nasty bunch of dead vegetation with mold growing on the stems 3-5 days after receiving dead flowers.

This past weekend was “Reunion Weekend” for my college alma mater (The University of Chicago).  It’s been too hectic lately, so I elected not to go even though this was my 15 year reunion.

I think maybe I’m also a little freaked out that it’s already been 15 years since I graduated from college.  It’s gone by seemingly so fast, and I think about what it means for another 15 years to go by as fast – or faster – than this past 15 years has gone.  In another 15 years, my son will likely be finishing his first year of college.  I shudder to even think about it.  It’s been so fast since the days I was always carrying him around to think about him being in college.

In 15 years my little girl will be nearing the end of high school.  I don’t even want to think of the implications of that.  Where will they go to college?  What will they study?  What will they have learned from us?  Ack!

Of course, since this year is my 15 year college reunion, that means next year is my 20th high school reunion.  I shudder to think about it.  I went to my 10 year.  I don’t know if I’ll make it back for the 20th.  We’ll see….

1. There are apparently resorts in Europe that utilize “natural” sources of radioactivity for people to lounge around in.  This radiation is said to have theraputic or restorative powers.  I imagine it works about as well as you believe it does.
2. Not everyone gets thick skinned, jaded, and cynical about things that are not fully baked or under-delivered.  These eternal optimists sometimes make things work from sheer determinstic will to believe in the dream.  People like this are rare.
3. Cancer can be contagious if you’re immunodeficient.
4. There is only 1 Canadian province that does not require you to ship both English and French text with your product:  Quebec.  They only require you to ship French.
5. It only takes 1 person to introduce an organization’s worth of randomness.

Last week was our son’s 4th birthday. I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by and how much he’s grown in the last 4 years:

• Andrew at Birth 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Andrew at Birthday 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Andrew at Birthday 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Andrew at Birthday 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Andrew at Birthday 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other birthday news, I turned the big 37 on the 11th and Emma turned 3* on the 16th, so it’s been a busy week of birthdays here at the household (trust me, you don’t want to see ~60 pictures of us).