That's how much I paid for gas in Amsterdam. God Bless our military!

(original air-date: Jan 18, 2008, on BS)

(original air-date: Jan 12, 2008 on BS)

My daughter is obsessed with this show, so I see perhaps 3 episodes a day. I suspect over the last year, I've every episode, maybe twice.

So imagine my astonishment while flipping through the channels here in my Hoofddorp hotel when I happen upon Dora teaching not Spanish, but ENGLISH!

Of course, after considering this for a moment I realized it made a lot of sense, since English is the second language most kids in Europe need. But it was rather surreal to witness it for the first time.

(Orginal air date: Jan 4, 2008, on BS)

This is just brilliant. I gotta say, it never occurred to me to do this before, because, well, I like my house, and like having decent credit. I got a family to raise and all. And I can just about afford the payment.

But it makes me smile, a big smile, to see that the middle class was able to use the housing bubble to essential rob banks. Of course, they get their credit dinged, and can't live in the house they used to get the money. But they don't have to give any money back, and they aren't going to prison. But oh, their credit score will be low! Really, our desire to keep a good credit rating is all that prevents most of us in this situation from just saying "Oh Well, take the house back, I'm gonna go enjoy all this money you gave me."

Well, that and common decency. But hey, nobody in the Capital Markets plays by any rules that involve decency. If you're playing their game, why should you?

(posted on blogspot, Jan 2, 08)

I most often describe my religious views as "antagonistic". I'm devoutly atheist, and find most religious traditions to be simply absurd on their face, and find little reason to avoid pointing it out. Christmas in particular I find a great deal to dislike. Be it the fact that Jesus, Christ or not, wasn't born in Dec. Or the fact that the whole thing is just a co-opting of established pagan traditions. Most annoying to me is the Santa Claus myth.

Now, I realize this is a secular tradition, and one that annoys the Religious equally. But why on earth do we need to lie to our kids about this Santa character? Do you think it adds any value? Would they not be just as happy to get gifts if they knew they came from Mommy and/or Daddy? I can tell you, Trevor gave two shits about what came from who. That he got it was important to him. I'd advise any parent (my wife included) to honestly think about what difference it makes, and if that difference is worth deceiving your children for. While you're at it, how about evaluating the efficacy of any of the "miracle" based explanations you provide to them?

That said, I love to give presents, and of course to get them. I like the spoils of the holiday, even if the underpinnings are nonsense. So I celebrate Giftmas. I dunno where that term originated. I recall first hearing it from Jeremy, many years ago. In any case, it's rather ubiquitous today. Not LOLCat ubiquitous, but close.

The best thing about having kids, is buying one gift, and that constituting both a give and a get. Exhibit A:

The AFX Long Beach Grand Prix HO Slot Car track. 50 ft of track, extends into the next room. Need to get a pic of it setup. Pretty sweet. Best part is, when Trevor opened it, he said "This is just like you wanted, Daddy!"

Oh, and did I mention I love the cookies? I do. A lot. Mmmm...Cookies...

(first in a series of posts I made @ blogspot while this site was inoperable. Original date: Dec26,07)

So, being the awesome husband that I am, I bought for my lovely bride a laptop so that she may poot wirelessly around the house. I got an HP tx1302us (for $299 thanks to being one of 1000 people offered the deal on Black Friday). I got a 4g kit to make it usable. Now, on to what I hate.

User Access Control: If ever there were a more annoying "security" feature, the TSA must have it in their training materials. It prompted me FIVE TIMES while installing iTunes. WTF? Needless to say, it was the first thing to go.

The Wizards: Oh Dear God, how I hate these. Go ahead and try to connect to a WAP that isn't broadcasting its SSID. I spent 2 ours trying to figure this out. And it wasn't until all the OS updates were installed and rebooted that the options I needed were present. Of course, if it were as simple as it is in XP, I'd have been happy and done in 2 minutes. When will MS learn that not every user is a moron and that they should let some of us opt-out of the hand-holding? They managed to make most tasks more difficult. Incredible for most, but par for the course for them.

I will say, I like the icons for alt-tab. See, I'm not all hate.