So Much Stuff I Can't Recall

Coupon savings are for one item per customer per purchase. No restriction is made on the number of coupons you can print and use across multiple purchases or spread among several buyers during a single purchase.

You might even buy me a nice gift (I won't even calculate how much you saved, honest).

Why you should read my review of the 15" PowerBook: There's an anecdote about my first computer, plus I explain what the "down escalator" hotkey is. Check it out.

Never been more proud of him; that's my boy.

I still have 4 free tracks to download before the end of next month (plus however many more I get from drinking Pepsis).

Why you should read my review of Godzilla: How can you not read a review entitled "The Monster that Ate 2.3 Hours of My Life"?

Preliminary thoughts on the Mac are good. I miss right-clicking (maybe a mouse is in my future); the menu structure is significantly different, but I'm getting the hang of it; the laptop looks great and it has almost 4 hours of battery life if I'm just word-processing.

In other news, Blogger has changed their input system; preliminary thought on it: I don't like it as much (you can't see previous posts while you key in a current one).

Also today, Apple dropped the price on the refurbished Powerbooks $100.

Grrrrr.

Fortunately, when I called Apple to find out if they had a grace period, I wound up talking with Tommy in customer service who said they did indeed have a price protection period, and he refunded the money.

Yay!

I haven't really done much exploring on the Mac, but what little I've seen looks very sweet.

Last summer I picked up a book by Harry Harrison entitled Bill the Galactic Hero, the first in a series of three Bill books. While I was down in Los Baños I picked up books 2 and 3 at a second-hand bookstore in Merced. Book 2, Bill the Galactic Hero: The Planet of the Robot Slaves, has been reviewed over at Amazon. Look for Book 3 probably next month.

Why you should read my review of Bill the Galactic Hero: The Planet of the Robot Slaves: Several of my family members are mentioned, and there's a particularly apt metaphor regarding pork products (completely unrelated to my relatives).

Check it out.

...and I thank you for your support.

After 20-ish years as a PC user, I'm making "the switch." Not a full switch, but enough of one to learn how a Mac works. It's likely that with the notebook form factor that I'll make the Mac my non-surfing/non-gaming computer of choice.

Why switch now? It looks like we're going to start Phil in nursery school (or at least daycare) soon, so a) I'll need to find a job to occupy my time and b) I'll need a job to pay for Phil's new activities. Most jobs in publishing or design require Mac experience, so I'm gonna get me some.

I went the refurbished route through Apple and saved 20%. It's eligible for the extended warrantee, so I'm covered for repairs and phone support for the next 3 years.

Plus, it's a new gadget to review ... I'm so excited!

Now he's re-enacting the three episodes we have on tape using Legos. Recently we've made the Mole (burrowing vehicle) and the Firefly (super-bulldozer). When we made Thompson Tower (a super-big building that catches fire and has to be bulldozed by the Firefly) we needed a ramp (HotWheels track) and a parking tunnel (so a car could drive in, crash, and catch the building on fire). Today we've made the Fireflash (nuclear airplane with bomb in the landing gear — we did include a piece that looks like a bomb) and Elevator Rescue Car (the vehicle the Fireflash safely lands on). Then we landed the Fireflash on the Elevator Car.

Right now he's trying to figure out how to build the Sidewinder (a giant, walking, insectoid robot) and Recovery Vehicle (a suction cup-launching vehicle that pulls the Sidewinder out of the "Pit of Peril" — how do you make a suction cup out of Legos?).

Eventually these tapes will wear out (they're viewed at least once a day) and we'll have to get the full 32-episode DVD collection.

We're gonna need more Legos.

Why you should read my review of The Nine Tailors: I include a couple interesting links to websites about the British custom of churchbell "change ringing." It's a two-for-one knowledge bonus: find out about a good read and a centuries-old artform at the same time. Impress your friends at parties, astound your family during the Final Jeapordy round.

• Short clip of Mary Had a Baby


• Short clip of Evergreen
  (as near as we can figure Phil keeps looking at the manger scene over on the other side of the stage)

The videos were shot by our Youth Pastor, Jason Roberts. His son Andy is the blonde child in the dark brown pullover. Thanks Jason!

My first album from iTunes is Havalina's Space, Love & Bullfighting (amazon link).

Good Stuff Maynard.

I still have 8 downloads to go (not counting future winning Pepsis).

I went through my 53 reviewed items today and found that I have Spotlight Reviews with seven of them (that's 13%; the percentage goes even higher if you exempt items that have fewer than 10 reviews). Items with which I have Spotlight Reviews are:

Books

• Coyote Waits
• Desert Heat

• The Mighty Quinn
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
• Johnny English
• The Hitcher 2: I'll Be Waiting

• Atari: The 80 Classic Games

Way to go, Me!

• The Classic 60's-Style Batmobile


• The 80's Movie-Style Batmobile


• The Hardnoze Big-Front-End Batmobile

• The Crooze Lowrider-Style Batmobile

Here are a couple ways to set the image as your wallpaper:

Option 1
If your monitor resolution is set at 1024x768 (or you don't know what it's size is):

• Click the "Get It Here" link below
• then right click on the image
• and choose the option that reads similar to "set as wallpaper"


• You may have to change your wallpaper settings to "Stretch" to get the image to fill your desktop

Option 2
If you know your resolution is smaller than 1024x768:

• Right click the "Get It Here" link below
• then choose the option reads similar to "save link target"
• then open the image in your favorite image editor
• and resize it
• then change your wallpaper manually

If Option 2 makes no sense to you, go with Option 1.

Get It Here

Why you should read my review of Titan A.E.: I include an important safety tip from the movie, plus I mention Tron (which I really should review one of these days).

Check it out.

Phil and Family

• With Grammy & Poppa
• With Gramma & Grampa
• With Aunt Julia (at the Exploratorium)

In The City

• On a Cable Car with Mama
• At the Exploratorium
• Sailing Where the Wild Things Are
• On the Yerba Buena Carousel with Dad
• Riding a Giraffe
• Riding a Ram
• Nice Horse Lips

Miscellany at Gramma & Grampa's

• Bubble Bath
• Riding Grampa's Motorcycle #1
• Riding Grampa's Motorcycle #2 (note the side view mirror)
• Riding Grampa's Motorcycle #3

Be sure to scroll down and see the panoramic view from our hotel room.

Why should you read my review of Selling the Dream? Pseudo-reference to The Three Amigos and I say something nice about somebody for a change.

During the big storm last week there was significant lightning action in upper righthand quadrant of the picture (the actual sky; we don't have one of those Harry Potter cameras where the photos come alive). Very cool.

We'll work on getting some more shots of the trip up soon.

Why you should read the Weaveworld review: I reference the TV-show Scrubs and Chekov (Anton, not Pavel) in the same paragraph.

Check it out.

So, go to Walgreen's and buy this movie (caution: dangerous words), but don't buy the Pepsis.

Eat healthy and have a laugh. What a combo.

Check it out.

Fortunately we had the CityPass, which meant free cable cars up Powell to our hotel. It also got us into several SF attractions for free (Exploratorium, Palace of the Legion of Honor, SF MoMA, etc.) and Muni bus service as well (handy for getting from Pier 39 back to the Powell cable car station at 9pm – on a retro streetcar, no less).

More on our trip to California and the ACA convention (with photos) soon!