Sunday, April 30, 2006

With only five weeks to go, I figured it was time to start the nursery. James, my artistic brother-in-law, came to Sonora to help us with a murel. Christina finally decided that she wanted the theme of the nursery to be the same as a baby book she recieved at a shower. (It turns out to be Carter's John Lennon collection. A sample can be found here.)

Friday, April 14, 2006

Gen Net

Techonology is wonderful. Being a part of the first generation to grow up with the Internet means I have the world at my fingertips. Google, Amazon, IMDb, Retrosheet, Wikipedia, I can find any inforamtion I desire on any subject in just a few mouse clicks. It's an On Demand society.

Generation Net (my own definition of anyone born after 1980) can watch any television show they desire at any time thanks to TiVo. With cell phones we can be in contast contact. Blogs, such as this one, allows us to self publish our opinions. iTunes gives us any song for $.99. Stupid yet entertaining videos can be watched at YouTube. The list goes on and on.

Take away our technology and we feel naked. Spend a few days away from a computer and it is as if life is passing us by at 100 miles an hour. Frustration sets in if we can't use our cell phones because of a dead zone. What do you mean I have to use cash and not swipe my debit/credit card?

A downside to living in a foothill community is that often technology is slow to arrive. If visiting Sonora, don't even think about using a cell unless you have Cingular. Believe it or not only half of the county has access to DSL.

I live within the city limits of the county seat and I was offered high speed internet just this week! Being forced to use dial up led to many upset sessions of web surfing over the past two years. I could not browse certain websites at home because my connection would time out before the site would load.

As technology becomes more intregrated with our lives we become more demanding. Sometimes I wonder if I could ever live 200, 300, 400 years in the past. But then my phone will beep with an incoming text message and I will quickly move on to my next technological dependent task.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Brain Boosters

I recently read in Time magazine that it is very important to take time out of your work day to re-energize the brain. It was recommended to do quick games that stimulate the brain, making you more "refreshed" when you return to the task at hand. SuDoku is my mid-day brain activity of choice.

If SuDoku is to much for you, then consider this game another type of brain booster. The goal is to avoid touching the red square to the black border and the moving blue blocks. My best time was 25.576 seconds. Go ahead and give it a try and post your best times in the comments.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Had a Bad Day Again

April 3, 2006 will go down in my books as a Bad Day. I awoke with a sore throat, a prelude to an eventual cold coming my way. Though I had all the energy drained from my body I still ventured to work. By lunch time I had enough and went home sick for the day.

At home I laid on the couch watching the Dodgers give up four runs in the first inning of the season. They would then fall behind the Braves 8-1 before teasing me with a comeback and eventually losing 11-10. (The remodeling of Dodger Stadium looks great. Frank McCourt may have the front office and team in disarray but by golly the fans can now enjoy new seats!)

When Christina got home from work she reminded me that it was our fist night of lamaze class. My plan was to watch the beginning of the UCLA-Florida game, TiVo the rest of it, and use the VCR (yeah, how old school is that?!) to tape Prison Break. Of course, the TiVo begins to act up and I am forced to decide what I should record on the VCR.

I rolled the dice and taped the basketball game, hoping that the tape would last through the end of the game and I would not find out who won, which would discourage me from watching the tape.

Lamaze class consisted of a room full of pregnant ladies complaining about their problems (as if sore backs, constipation, and trouble sleeping were any worse then the day I was having), an instructor that repeated everything I learned in my 9th grade science class, and an hour of learning to inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. (The one highlight of the class was the two kids who were in high school that came with her mom. At one point the instructor said, "Now you on the birth team were there during conception and it will be good for you to be there during birth." The mom immediately spoke up and joked that she wasn't there during conception because it was on a camping trip that she didn't go on. The whole time the boyfriend looked as if he was going to kill someone because his girlfriend's mother knew all the details of when she got knocked up. Priceless.)

Two hours later we returned home and I immediately checked to see if the VCR was still recording. I saw that the tape was already done so I quickly turned on the TV and it was the middle of One Shining Moment. Another quick decision had to be made: do I turn off One Shining Moment and risk missing the best part of the tournament or do I watch it and find out who won the game before I can watch the tape? Before a decision could be made I saw the highlight of Adam Morrison crying so I had to finish watching it. As the song was playing with the highlights of the championship game I told Christina that UCLA had lost and sure enough 15 seconds later there was the highlight of the Gators celebrating.

I flipped the channel over to ESPNews in hopes of seeing the highlights and/or final score. ESPNews was airing the press conference of Ben Howland, who then mentioned he told his team right before the game that John Wooden had been hospitalized. A not so perfect ending to my not so perfect day.

To recap my day: woke up sick, Dodgers lost, TiVo having technical difficulties, missed the National Championship, missed episode of Prison Break, missed most of One Shining Moment, UCLA lost, Wooden in hospital. On the bright side, there have been worse days.