Things, Stuff & Such

Today is Scott’s 14th birthday.  I called him on my way to work this morning to wish him a happy birthday before he left for school.  I can’t wait to get up there next week.  One week from today is Aaron’s birthday and he is turning 13. 

Today is also my brother’s birthday.  He is 34 today.  His birthday sort of got hijacked when Scott was born.  I will have to call him this evening.

Thats all I have for now.  I will have more about the boys’ birthdays when I get back from MO.

I got an email last week saying I was invited to participate in beta testing for Tabula Rasa, which is the latest massively multiplayer online game.  It is the same idea as World of Warcraft or City of Heroes; which I have played before.   I signed up and loaded the games client on my computer last night.  It was a little over an hour of downloading the client before I was able to get my hands dirty. 

I only played a short time last night just to see if I really wanted to do it or not.  The first thing you do is set up your character.  As with the other MMORPG’s you can have many different characters but, I will only create one for now.  All characters are humans and I didn’t see any way to select a female character (not that I wanted to).  I will talk about it more as I get into playing the game.  From what I have seen so far the graphics and visuals are very good. 

A couple of days ago I got a $1 bill as change for my lunch at the Court House that had a www.wheresgeorge.com stamp on it.  Actually, it had the stamp on both sides, plus a different stamp from another website: www.TrackMyCash.com. This is at least the second time I have come across a ”Where’s George” bill.  I logged in to my account and added the bill.  You can see the progress of this specific bill here.  The bill originated in New Kensington, PA but the person who entered the bill before me was also in Naples.  It is fun to see the path of currency as it is passed along in the normal course of business. 

Last weekend the boys’ mother painted their bedroom.  While furniture and stuff was moved out of the way their cat knocked a birdcage off a dresser and on to their computer, spilling the birds water into the case.  Now the computer is dead. 

I tried a little troubleshooting with Scott over the phone but could not get it back up.  I will bring a power supply with me when I go at the end of the month to see if that is all that’s blown.  I have a feeling it is the board but, you don’t know until you try.

Today we celebrate the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492.  The first thing that comes to my mind is the mnemonic device I was taught in Elementary school to remember the date: “In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean blue”.

One cool thing about my County gig is that I get holidays off.

Well, most holidays.  Not this one, though.

I know that Columbus’ discovery of the Americas brought about the rush of Europeans to the New World.  That brought the Pilgrams who formed colonies…

So I don’t really need the day off. 

Lest we forget, somewhere between Columbus discovering the Americas and the United States prospering there were many native peoples killed and opressed.

Maybe today is a day to think about what it took for our country to get here… and what was taken.

I talked to the boys over the weekend.  We talked about their birthday party when I visit at the end of the month.  The plan is a bowling party with a group of friends.  Scott and Aaron are each inviting four or five friends.  When I talked to Aaron he mentioned he was inviting Ricki, the girl he went to the school dance ‘with’. 

“Don’t embarass me.” he said to me.  That made me a little mad at first.  I did not say that to him though.  I wasn’t sure if he was joking with me or not.  He was in a happily-exited-fast-talking-high-energy mood so I assumed it was more that than anything.

“Hey, I’m on your side.  I won’t embarass you,” I said. 

The last few times we have talked he has mentioned that he was either expecting to recieve or planning to make a call to Ricki.  It is cute.

To a point.

He has not used the word ‘girlfriend’ yet.  I think he’s to young for that.  Well, I know he is.  His mother thinks it is all very innocent and maybe she is right.

Still to young to be this concerened with girls

Finally, some one has taken the time to codify an ‘official’ set of rules for Shotgun.  The days of “You can’t do that!” or “That’s not fair!” are over.  No more arbitrating disputes… just refer them to the official rules!

It’s a fun little site that has the theory, history and rules of shotgun.  They also sell a pocket reference guide to keep in your glove box or give as a gift.  At $5.95 with free shipping it’s not a bag gag gift for your teen or his friends.  I considered getting one for my car.  We’ve had shotgun arguments that last way past what I would consider an understandable amount of time.  Plus, who ever felt they were wronged or cheated at the last shotgun call will invariably be extra diligent in his next shotgun attempt.

When the boys were little it was a non-issue, they both sat in the back seat.  From baby carriers to child car seats to the little booster seats, all they knew was the back seat.  It wasn’t long after they were both old enough to ‘ride bareback’ that I heard “Can I sit up there with you?” from the back seat.  It was Aaron and he was eager to graduate to the front seat. 

I, on the other hand, was not ready for that just yet.  I felt they were safer back there.  I am always worried about being in a car accident – especially with the nutty drivers we have in SW FL.  Any time I imagine being in an accident I picture another car or Semi ramming me head on or in the driver’s side door (I always seem to imagine the most gruesome of outcomes for myself).  So, I associate the front seats has danger zones.  I always felt a little more at ease with my precious cargo in the back seats.  It may be unfounded but, it helps me get through the day.

“Sure, when you are a little older.”  I said, happy to have bought myself a little more time to get used to the idea. 

“Then can I?” Scott asked, never one to let something get by him.  He has quickly processed my statement and found himself a hole.  He is, in fact, older.  Fortunately, we were already under way.  He was, actually, old enough to sit up front.

“How about you sit up here on the way home?” I offered.

“Okay!” he replied with a very satisfied tone.  Aaron was disapointed and he made sure it was understood by all.  I explained to both of them my feelings about the front seat and their safety.  They seemed to reluctantly accept it.

By Aaron’s next birthday the front seat was fair game for either of them and so began “shotgun” which we use to this day.

I love to take picutes - especially of the boys.  I wish I had more, wish I had taken more when they were younger.  One problem with taking pictures is what do you do with them?  I have hundereds of megabites of digital photos sitting on my hard drive that I want to share with family and friends.  One solution I use is Flickr.com, which is simple and free.  Well, free up to a point.  You are limited on the amount you can upload a month as well as the number of sets you can sort your images into.  Not to mention the piece of mind knowing your precious images are safe from a hard drive crash or hurricane damage.  Well, I decided to pay the $24.95 annual fee last year to get unlimited uploads, storage and sets.  At the time it seemed like money well spent.  And for that year it was.  Then it was time to renew my annual membership.  They caught me in the wrong mood I guess and I decided not to renew.  This meant that all my previously uploaded images (500+) would not be available for viewing.  I was reassured that my pictures were not lost and once I renewed they would all be available to me once again (like a hostage released for ransome?).   I decided that since I was already paying for web space with my new web host I would skip the premium services and host the pictures myself. 

There are several different ways to create online photo albums for free.  Currently, I use flickr.com (free version now), Picasa (by google, which gives you free space on their web servers plus a very cool photo organizer app that is one of the best free apps of its kind around), and Adobe Photoshop’s web album creator.  A neat and free slide show creator from Microsoft is Photo Story which is a downloadable app that lets you import your pictures, add transistions and effects like zoom in or out and music.

From photojojo.com I heard of a cool website called Animoto.com that will take your pictures and turn them in to a “photo music video” that will blow any slideshow or PowerPoint presentation away.  The deal is you sign up (for free) and you can upload pictures and either use their sound tracks or upload your own.  They then process your images and music into a video you can share with family and friends.  Check out my first try.

It’s super simple and in just a few clicks you get a professional looking video.  They randomly add transitions and effects for you.  You just click and wait.  With the free account you get a 30 second video.  If you are willing to pay you can get longer videos using many more pictures.

The site seems to make it’s money from the premium service and ads on the web site.  One nice thing about the ads is that they are unobtrusive on the site.  They refer to them as “distractions” that you can view while your video is being processed.  My 30 second, 15 picture video took under a minute to process and I was emailed the link once it was done (or you can stay on the site and watch it there once completed).

For now you can not download your photo videos but, I looks like that feature will be added in the furture.  For now I am happy throwing in pictures and seeing what cool video creation awaits me at the other side.  It’s a very cool site, I hope you check it out.