So, today was fun. Drove around with this morning, from about 8am-noon. Went and looked for a McDonalds that Google says is there and we say is a house.. Also went to the local Whole Foods. Then this afternoon, we left him at one of his grandparents' house, and swapped the office and the bedroom. Not a trivial task, or a lightweight one. Now we're mostly done, and we're just browsing the web before going to sleep.

Black Friday

NEW LAPTOP!!!! Ok, now that that's out. I went to Best Buy this morning, hoping to get one of the $380 laptops. Didn't get in line quickly enough - was probably 30 people too far back (wasn't too far away from the front door). So later when we all were out and about we happened to find a good $600 laptop (Compaq Presario C304NR) - I grabbed the last one they had. I'm still setting it up, but definitely getting there! It's powerful enough to replace my desktop for almost everything (can't play EQ (which I don't play anymore anyways) or do the TV card I had in the desktop). So I'm pretty happy. Still nothing new on the job front. Wouldn't have gotten the laptop, but the deal was really good (and I'm a computer guy, so I've done some research and try to keep up with things a bit), and I do think I'll get a job in the not too distant future. As far as the family, Kris works next Tuesday. Things seem to be going well - Thanksgiving went well (although we didn't have leftovers for the first time in forever), Isaac's trying to talk in syllables. Saying "mamama" and "ababobob" (I'm trying to raise him with some Hebrew, and Abba is Hebrew for dad/daddy). We're going to massively rearrange almost every room in the house except the kitchen. 3 bedrooms and the dining room - partially to optimize some of the space, and also to make space for the ... Winter Lights Tree. Yeah, the Winter Lights Tree, the tree with lights on it during winter, that thing. :) The agreement between and I is that I'll put up the tree if I don't have to call it a (You know what) Tree. Speaking of Hebrew, my study is totally at a 0. Due to the recent work situation, any time I've had not working or spending with family has been playing on the computers to destress and play. I'm hoping to have some more time to study next month or early next year.

Sheep

A simple rant. It really annoys me when parents are sheep. "Just do what you're told, and don't ask questions, 'cause we know better than you!" ARGH. Can you not think for yourselves? No matter what the topic is: breastfeeding/bottle, circ/nocirc, stroller/baby wearing, cribs (and crying it out) / co sleeping, vaxing/delayed/novaxing. I mean, come on! You have a responsibility here! You and you alone - not your doctor, or in laws, or the government! If you don't FULLY understand the implications of doing/not doing something - ask! Ask what the real risks are, and where those data are coming from! And yes, doctors DO get things wrong - look at how they bundled the SV40 vax issue, and there are STILL peds who try to retract foreskins, even though it should NEVER be done except by the kid themselves. Ask other parents what they've encountered. And finally trust in your instincts, assuming that they aren't buried under all of this science of pumping kids full of drugs, or that if anything's wrong then we must fix it. Not that this is intended for anyone I know - not at all! Just venting as I'm reading stupid online parenting boards. Authority should be questioned when things don't add up - whether it's Iraq or mercury/autism links.

My life

Still searching for a new job, hoping to get something soon. Will report more when I have more to report. :) I read in Opera magazine (while waiting for a coworker to finish a discussion in which I definitely was NOT participating in, you read the only magazines available) that if you can keep a habit (good or bad) going for 30 days it becomes more habit and requires little to no active thought. And that one social scientist suggests 3 habits a month. So, my habits for December: 1. Drinking 8 cups (2 liters) of water a day. Coloradoans are very dehydrated - it just comes from being in this environment. Also, drinking more water helps with weight loss (and let's be honest - I've got a few spare pounds!) 2. Daily prayer. Seems weird to type it, and since I didn't grow up religious it's not something that I'm very familiar with. But, being as I'm trying to convert to Judaism, and trying to be more observant, I think it makes sense to at least try. Will probably just use the standard Jewish prayers, but might not. I've got some time to research this more. 3. Start serious work on PocketPoster 2.0. I wrote PocketPoster as I wanted a LiveJournal client for my Windows PDA. Now, I want to be able to upload media (pictures, audio and video) as well as blog entries, and I want to use more than just LiveJournal, but Google's Blogger, Atom API, FotoBilder, Flickr, etc. from one client. Might even make a desktop client as well as a mobile client. I wish I had time for more things, like learning Ruby (might be a January goal), or playing with advanced VB.Net (like massive multi-threading) or learning C#. I think I may put one of those for a January goal now that I think about it, maybe all three.

Online assessment - did great!

I recently took an VB.Net online examination through a contractor company that I'm working through, and I got a 90th percentile score! I was ranked as Advanced (Master), and capable of mentoring others on most areas of a project. I also only took 23 minutes for a 40-60 minute test! I'm pretty excited - it's not as good as I was with VB6 back in the day (there I got 97th percentile, and I knew which two questions I didn't know the answer to), but still it's very good.

Funny userpic/icon

This userpic is just funny. The woman in the picture is J K Rowling (I didn't get it until explained it to me).

Okay, so and I were discussing this article. I intended to say "She's a crackpot." What I actually said was "She's a crockpot." This has led to to me replacing "liberal crackpot theory" with "liberal crockpot theory". As in:

Kris, this is just more evidence of your liberal crackpot theroy! Instead of putting him in a stroller all of the time, and putting him to sleep in a "nice" "safe" crib, and giving him "perfectly good" formula, you want to practice babywearing, co-sleeping, and breastfeeding. In public even! You're crazy!

becomes

Kris, this is just more evidence of your liberal crockpot theory! Instead of just cooking meats, roasts, and stews, you want to cook desserts, beverages, and fruits! For a potluck even! You're crazy!

See? So much more fun.

'Canadian Idiot' Weird Al Yankovic

"'Canadian Idiot' Weird Al Yankovic" on Google Video
A little video to the Weird Al song "Canadian Idiot".

Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II - The Domino Effect

"Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II - The Domino Effect" on Google Video
The guys from EepyBird are back, with 251 bottles of Diet Coke and over 1,500 Mentos mints. In Experiment #137, they did a mint-powered version of the Bellagio fountains. This time, it's one giant Coke & Mentos chain reaction that has to be seen to be believed.

Jobless...

Well, today was not my best day. The stress at work was really getting to me, and I decided that I needed to make sure that my boss knew that I was still stressed. I didn't expect anything to really come of it, just that he'd be aware. However, as we got to talking, the discussion moved to how I fit in at Signal. To make a long story short, I don't have a long-term future there. I can understand, but admittedly I'm still in shock about the whole thing. I've updated the resume, posted it online, I've reopened my Monster account and I'll be looking starting immediately. Good thing is, they're going to keep me on for the next ~ 30 days to do knowledge-dumping from me to Sara. And they're going to be flexible with regards to interviews, so I still get paid, and I can arrange interviews. This deal also comes with a good recommendation to companies that call, and knowledge that I'm OK on the job until the end of the month. Of course, I'll certainly miss the job - I don't expect to find a well-paying job that combines both programmer and network admin in one job. Not for what I want in pay, at least! I think I'll stay in the small-medium business sector, but I probably won't be able to stay in the medical field. For now, I'm just taking this weekend to calm down, relax, realize that the world will not end, that I do not hate the people at my now-old work, and that I can move on and get an even better-fitting job. One that challenges me like my current one stopped doing 2 years ago. In the end, everything should be OK, if not better. It just sucks in the short term.