Average Grod's Average Blog

I bought Macromedia Studio 8 tonight. I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on it. Only 1-2 weeks and it will be here! In other news I found out that my computer is working. Or at least it isn't not working. A family friend has had it for the past week or two and he found no problems with it which means that it will run for now. Since I have 2 PCs that I will be using to back up my work I should be fine. I will start saving up for a top of the line computer but for now I can focus on getting to work. Till then I am just going to blog, read, play, surf, and Emma-sit.

This adsense is doing pretty well. Keep those clicks coming. Let me throw out another shameless plug and say that if you have your hope page set to google.com and you read this blog then kill two birds with one stone and make this blog your homepage. That way you get to check for updates first thing and you can still access Google search easily. If not then just be sure and click an add every now and then. If you have a page I strongly urge you to sign up for adsense(through me of course) and put it on your page. You won't regret it.

I have been devouring my New Masters of Flash Volume 3 book. I know it is a couple years old now but some of the stuff in it is timeless and I am jumping on the Flash bandwagon a bit late anyway. I am a bit disappointed in the CD just because Volume 2 had tutorials on it and this one just has demos. The tutorials are covered pretty well in the book but it is a bit cooler to see something in action rather than just read it. I am finding a new love for all sorts of weird things such as processing(not like my job at Prov), recursion, patterns, physics, data output, interactivity, and other nerdy stuff. I am going to order Macromedia Studio 8 tomorrow and get back to Flash after a much needed 2 week break from it. It will be cool to have my hands on the latest version of something. Not to mention it will be my own legal copy which makes it that much more cooler.

I am going to have to put my purchase of a Wacom Intuos Tablet on hold for about a month so I will be focusing on my website and some programming projects until then. I have been brainstorming up some ideas for characters, worlds, stories, plots, and jokes to animate in the future. I am not yet sure what form this will take but I hope to entertain my daughter(and myself who am I kidding) if now one else. I may or may not decide to take down my current project page as it is becoming embarrassing to me. I may just leave it up for laughs after I finally fix a couple of the more obvious bugs that come from uploading stuff on a whim at 3AM without testing it.

Feel free to send me ideas you may have for projects.

I hope you all have a great Christmas. I know I will. If you will be there I am looking forward to seeing you. If not I hope yours goes as well or better than mine.

Or I've sold out. I signed up for Google AdSense. Go ahead and click on the buttons to the right or at least search through my search bar once in a while. I get paid when you do. Why shouldn't you? Click the button on the bottom right to sign up. If you have a blog that people frequent I recommend you try it but please sign up through me and if you don't have it yet you really need to try Firefox. That is the only browser I use.

I promise you no more shameless plugs.

For a while.

I played Stubbs the Zombie this week. Man I was disappointed. The worst part is that the game had sooooo much potential. I think it still has what is probably the best soundtrack ever. Some how this also increases its disappointment factor.

Let me start with the soundtrack. It is a compilation of popular oldies performed by modern rock bands. I know this has the potential to be cheesy but once you see the songs and the artists you realize there is no way this album could go wrong. If this had nothing to do with a game it would be cool. Songs you know and love such as 'Lolipop,' 'Earth Angel,' 'Mr. Sandman,'and 'My Boyfriends Back.' These are performed by artists such as Deathcab for Cutie, Dandy Warhols, Flaming Lips, and Phantom Planet. The game itself was made by Wideload Games. It is their first game but that doesn't mean their employees are new to games by any means. These are the guys that made Halo. BAH! This is hurting already. This game had too much potential. I haven't even got to the zombies yet! Adding zombies to anything automatically ups its cool factor. Think about it. Football is cool. Just about everyone here is into it. What if a zombie came out of the playfield, ripped off a quarterbacks arm and beat him with it before walking the ball to the endzone for a touchdown. How bout Harry Potter movies. Just increase the ratings to R and add zombies. Instant classic. Holidays? No problem! Halloween with real live dead zombies would be crazy cool and who better to carve the turkey on the real holidays than a zombie butler? As you can plainly see there is no way this game could have been bad. Some how it is.

Zombies are freaking cool. But it is not fun to play as one. Stubbs moves like a zombie. This attention to detail is cool at first. He limps and moves slow like the real guys. But after about 10 seconds I was wishing I could run. Who wants to limp around in a platform game? Story? We don't need no stinkin story! Then you shall have none my son. Lets see... we have a nice town, nice people, ADD ZOMBIES! I know I said that adding zombies is cool. It is. This game has zombies but has absolutely NO STORY. There is no reason you are there. Nothing is explained. I didn't actually play the game all the way through so this may happen at some point but I quit well after I should have and there was no hint of a story. The soundtrack. I know I raved about this earlier. So how can I be so upset with it now? Where is it??? I felt like I fell victim to a bate and switch. The title page has songs from the soundtrack playing but that is it. And they aren't in random order so if you want to hear a specific song you have to wait for it. I didn't hear any of this cool music in the game. The game uses the Halo 2 engine. This is a double bladed sword. The game runs smoothly and looks good. On the other hand it has the same crappy load times as Halo 2 and worse, it feels like you are playing a bad version of Halo 2. You have no gun and you move too slow to really approach enemies. Your moves are very limited and get repetitive quickly. The vehicles don't fit the story at all, wait there is no story, so they really detract from the game because it is never explained how a zombie comes to drive a slime projecting jeep cannon thing around a giant green house. To make matters even worse the vehicle just feels like you are driving a halo vehicle with a bad skin. In fact the entire game feels like a bad Halo mod which is really sad. If you are going to use another games engine you are obligated to make a better game since you don't actually have to build a game from the ground up. This game could have and should have been my pick of the year. Instead it brings me to tears.
If you are looking for a game in this style then play Destroy All Humans. It is short and isn't without its flaws but it is entertaining enough to be worth the price of a rental. Psychonauts easily wins as my game of the year. PLEASE go buy it, rent it, steal it and play it. Actually don't steal it. I need these guys to be around to make more games so give them some money.

I still have a computer. My good buddy Darren was kind enough to let me hang on to his for a bit longer.

Shanna and I had a good weekend and we owe many of you thanks. My buddies came over and helped clean our house. Good news guys. It is still clean. We cleaned most of the house up and then organized the garage. Tim and his dad built us some shelves and we are able to park both of our cars in the garage now. My parents took Emma for the day so I would be freed up to help at home. Then Shanna's parents took Emma in the evening so we could go out to dinner and a movie. We watched The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I really enjoyed it. I have loved the books and have been reading them since I was a kid. I am really hoping they make at least a couple more of the books into film.

This will be my last post for a while. I have been on borrowed time. The computer I have been using for the past couple months is a loaner from a buddy. I am returning it tomorrow. Another family friend is putting together a system for me out of all the old computers I either owned or was able to procure through donations of kindness. I don't know when I will post next but I am sure it will be at least 5-10 days. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I hope to be back up and running before the New Year but I will wish you a happy one just in case. Thanks to everyone who helped out these last couple months with baby sitting, computers, and prayers. It was a busy couple of weeks.

Be sure to check out ashley paulina jewelry. This is the site that my brother Gabe and I put together. I did all the Flash work. He did just about everything else. Since you will notice it is all Flash that may not seem like much to the end user but trust me he put in his fair share and then some. It was fun to work with him and we really compliment each other well. I hope I am not jumping the gun by giving out the site too early. The gallery isn't completely finished and some of the text may change. There really isn't much jewelry up yet. Let me know what you think via email. I would consider any feedback be it positive or negative to be invaluable and once she starts giving out the address it won't be coming from friends and family. Be sure to check the site in January as the galleries will be complete and the pieces will be shown in all their beauty with pricing information.

As far as my next projects go I am going to begin building my site(not garrettrodriguez.com I have an even better one!), continue to work on Gabe's site, and begin writing short stories as well as brainstorming characters for some online comics or movies. If you have ideas or want to collaborate feel free to contact me.

See you soon. Thanks for reading.

I just woke up from a nap. Or rather I was 30 minutes into what was shaping up to be a good nap when the phone rang. "May I speak with...uhhhhh..... Guh, Gah, Gay, Garrett.... hmmm...Rrrrrrooodreegooz." Congrats! Hooked on Phonics worked for you lady. I was afraid it was some bill collector so I was a bit apprehensive. We haven't had any call since we both went back to work but yesterday we got one. There was a mix up with a payment and something we thought was being paid wasn't. The situation was remedied within a couple minutes but it was frustrating and made me apprehensive at how this call was starting out. I was hoping it was just a sales person. It was. Too bad for her. I only had 4 hours of sleep last night and here I am semi conscious after just having fallen asleep. Not a recipe for the easiest of sales.

Once I admitted to being Mr. Garrett Rodriguez she shot straight into her spiel, poorly written dialogue bouncing straight from her screen to my ears via her lips. Remember I used to do this sort of thing. The best ones stick to the script as much as necessary but make sure to talk to you like you are a person. Don't read everything verbatim and if you must, don't sound like you are. She wasn't even entertaining but at least I could understand her. Nothing like getting some 5 cent an hour worker from India or some black person from the south. I don't have anything against these people but I don't think the companies employing them for national or international work are wise. I will not buy anything from someone I can't understand. I am better off with the people who call me up speaking Spanish. Anyway she was offering disaster insurance.

I cut in fairly early. "I am not interested."

"Well sir let me tell you.."

I laughed a bit. She kept going. I don't remember what she was saying. I didn't care. I gave her another 2-3 seconds and then "Sorry but I'm just really not interested."

"Sir, disasters happen all the time. Will you be..."

"Actually they don't happen all the time or they wouldn't be called disasters would they?"

This time she laughed. Pretty long too. I had a smile on my face because I knew I had stumped her. She was good. I knew this one wasn't going to give up and she didn't. I was to tired to be playing my best game so I figured I would just call this one good and finish up next time she opened her mouth. She came back at me with something like you are right sir but they happen unexpectedly. At this point I was like"You're right. I'm not interested today. Thanks." She figured it out and hung up.

I don't like telemarketers but I like to play with em when I can.

Back to the insurance. I was laying there thinking do I need it? Someday I will get it. Right now we just can't really afford it.

If something like Katrina happened what wud I do. I would take what I could cary. Mah shotgun, mah boots, and mah two dogs Snot n' Bowser. They're good fightin dogs. Oh ya and mah famly too. If mah house is sunk there ain't nuffin I can do bout it. Do I need someone to pay mah mortage? Not really. I'll won't be back in that dung heap again. You collecters kin take whatever you find if yur willin to go swimming fer it. You can sue me but lucky for me you can't take my family as payment an I like to see ya try and take mah gun, boots, ur dogs.

On the serious side I guess that screws the bank and it would probably mess up my credit but in the case of a real disaster where the house is completely lost I'm not going to worry too much about paying my mortage. One of the things I won't be walking out of the house with is my file with all the bills in it. Where is the mailman going to deliver the bill to anyway?
Now if my house isn't completly destroyed what would I do. I would go to work, get paid, and pay my bills. I work at a hospital and I have been informed that in case of a disaster not only would I be required to work but I am required to stay until they release me. That should bring in some good money. What if my hospital is destroyed in the disaster? Oddly enough my hospital has two campuses and if one was destroyed I am sure there would be more than enough work at the other for me. If they both happened to disapear I am sure that whatever disaster occured would probably be taking my house with it which puts me back at my earlier situation.

There are probably some faults in my logic but I'm still a bit tired and I think this will hold up over the phone. It's more fun than just saying "Not interested" and I am hoping it will get better results. Next time the insurance lady calls I am gonna explain the situation to her in detail. In fact I am going to print this out so I can just read it to her word for word. If I forget this and she starts reading to me I will grab the closest piece of literature and read back. Right now it would be a toss up between a Sudacare Vapor Plug Box and a letter from my car insurance company.I bet she would enjoy hearing either of them. I may even delete some words and I am definetly leaving in the mispeled words so I will stumble around. If she happens to wake me up again I will even break out a crappy accent. Lets see how she likes it!

You can decide what I mean by that.

Here is something that should make you happy.

It is about 1 minute of Emma. The first part is her laughing. The banging is me. I was dropping something and then juggling to try and catch it. She loves it and cracks up every time. At least when we are alone. The last part is what happens when I give her the recorder. She is noticeably louder there is more banging. Those are the sounds you would hear if she was putting you in her mouth because that was where the recorder was. The worst sound is the "windows click." That is because I was deleting folders and clicking around the desktop while I was recording. I had it set to record the mic but I guess it picked up everything. Oh well.

I am sorry this is up so late. Most of the people that would appreciate a live recording are the ones who can't see her in person. They are also the ones packing up or shutting down their computers to head this way for Christmas. Hope you get this first and it inspires you to step on the gas.

The following is comprised of the writers personal views and opinions. He has run no studies and does not have the facts to back his claims up but rather draws conclusions from what he has deemed "common sense" and "common knowledge."

Also: This material may be considered offensive to readers of all ages.

Emma had a stomach virus over the weekend. She is better but I think I had it for a day or two. I stayed home from work yesterday and watched TV. Then I watched some more TV. Then I changed the channel and watched some more. After a couple hours of TV courtroom shows I watched an infomercial for a colon cleansing product. Some of the claims must be based in truth but some of them seem outrageous. The host is a guy who was diagnosed with skin cancer. He had cuts that wouldn't close. Then he developed a pectoral lump. Long story short... breast cancer. He declined treatment because he had recently witnessed his grandmother go through painful chemo only to die a painful death months later. He decided to search the internet for a cure. He found a colon cleanser. He took it for 7 days a month. After the first "treatment" his sores scabbed over. Then his lumps stopped hurting. After JUST FOUR MONTHS he had no cancer left in his body! AMAZING!!!

I do think that having a healthy colon can have numerous health benefits but he is claiming that it not only cures but prevents it as well. He said that while he was doing this treatment he examined the "toxins" that where coming out of his body and he made this conclusion:the gunk that was lining the wall of his colon was full of poison. It was this poison that was the source of his cancer cells. That seems like quite an experiment as well as quite a deduction. I don't know about you but I have some experience with this. While my number one activity yesterday may have been TV, my "number two" activity (catch my drift?) involved my colon. Not before, yesterday, or ever in the future would I "examine" the uhhh "toxins" that were coming out of my body. They were much too toxic and I don't think they had been inside me for more than a couple hours much less years like the stuff he was clearing out. SICK!!!

He also said that humans have the ability to live twice as long as we do but we "choose" not to because we live with clogged colons. I don't see any of these miracle 120-160 year olds around and I order tests on patients from nursing homes around the area. There are some patients over 100 but not many and not more than 105 years old. Another selling point was that we clean every other orifice of our body, so why do we ignore the colon. "Imagine not brushing your teeth or cleaning your ears for 10 years?" I can't equate brushing teeth, and cleaning the exterior of ears(remember not to stick the Q-tip past the opening of the ear or damage may occur) with a cleaning out an internal organ. We ignore the colon by eating too much unhealthy food. Not by forgetting to call Roto-Rooter.

John Wayne apparently died with a 44lb colon. The host failed to mention that he also died of colon cancer. This may just be a classic case of what came first, the colon or the cancer but regardless this case is an exception not the rule and in a society obsessed with weight I think it is wrong to push the weight loss side effect as a benefit of the product even if "the average American has 2-25 lbs of excess waste in their colon." Weight loss by laxative cannot be a health weight loss option.

My conclusions: Do I want a healthy colon? Yes
Would I pay 2 easy payments of $49.95 plus S&H to spend one week per month "purging toxins from my sytsem:" NO
My suggestions:Exercise, eat more fruits and vegetables, and avoid fast food and the standard American diet of meat, fat, and sugar. I am sure portion size and chewing you food are both colon friendly activities as well.

Have a nice day.

I have been wrapping up work on my first ever paying project. Some of you know what it is. Once it is done I will be sure to post a link. Gabe probably will too since we are teaming up on this one.

Last week was kind of a blur. It was really a recovery week. To be completely honest I don't remember the week before last. I was past 5Am on 3 maybe four of the weekdays. I still had to get up with Emma on the mornings that Shanna worked. I found that I do stress out a bit but I carry it all in my shoulders so I ended up with a huge and painful knot at the base of my neck that limited head movement, slowed me down, and made me pretty crabby.

I have a lot of stuff I want to blog about but probably never will. I am launching a web based company. Flash Forward 2006 is in Seattle and I want to go. I figured out who I would put on a list of Flash heroes. I have a gripe with PG-13 movies. I developed some opinions on Web 2.0. I played and finished King Kong for Xbox. On top of all that Emma just finished up a weekend with a bad case of the wet tail.

I will leave it at that for now but if you want me to elaborate on any of these topics post a comment or email me.

P.S. I don't have any new Emma pics but I do have some audio recordings I need to edit and post.

Google maps is cool but Google Earth is even cooler. Someday someone will probably us it to plan an attack on U.S. soil but until then I will us it. Too bad for you Mac users. This bad boy is PC only. Forget Doom 3 and Half Life 2. Google Earth is the best reason to upgrade you 3D card. Check out the my church.

This is my first attempt at something in Photoshop. It's pretty rough but it is kinda funny. If you can't tell it's Yoda and Emma meshed together. Sort of. I took it straight off of an online tutorial and I still couldn't get it right. The color is off. So is the only highlight I attempted. Not to mention the right side of the face is messed up. It was a fun experiment and now I have something entertaining to show besides a headache. Photoshop can sure do a lot but man it is tough to learn. I guess I can only get better.

My Grandpa says they don't make movies like they used to and that a modern comedy is mostly just jokes about body functions. I completely agree! Just go watch The Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy. And although I'm not a big fan of poorly written movies that rely on a well timed fart I do enjoy the low brow humor when it involves cartoons and stick figures. Thank goodness for Adult Swim and Smurfbite!!! I don't have cable and there aren't any new Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVDs out there right now so I guess that leaves me with the stick men. Yay! Head on over to www.smurfbite.com and enjoy. I was the guest doodler today(Friday). I want to thank my brother Gabe for turning me onto the site. You can thank me or blame him depending on how offended or entertained you are. Here is a link to MY contribution.

This is my 100th post! Thanks for spending a few minutes of your day on my musings. I hate it when TV shows have an episode that is just a compilation of old episodes like the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends. But this is my blog and so I get to do it anyway!
When I started this Shanna was definitely showing but Emma was still a ways off.
We got a dog and gave him away. I partially destroyed my knee and came to grips with a weight problem. I also made it through surgery and have managed to lose weight instead of gain it. I fought with my backyard, reviewed a couple movies and concerts, and have posted copious amounts of baby pictures. I also launched a podcast and kept it up for 2-3 posts (btw this isn't entirely dead). Not counting this blog I have written just over 23,500 words*. I guess this is in the ballpark of a 100 page novella. Pretty cool huh? Thanks again for checking out my blog. I appreciate your comments both online and off. Keep reading and have a great day.

*25,533 words, 93,743 characters not counting spaces or any automated posts such as dates or "posted by:----" Just blog words and titles. I got these stats from Microsoft Word. I blog an average of once every 2.8 days.

Lately I have been getting up with Emma and hanging around with her during the day. It's pretty fun but separation anxiety coupled with the fact that we now cage her into the living room make for a sad little girl at times. If I walk the few feet from the living room to the kitchen to make her a bottle she starts crying. She can see me as I am standing right in front of her, but she can't get to me. We had to gate off most of the house since she is now able to climb stairs. For now she does ok at nursery and the houses of family members but we will have to see how she reacts if we ever have to leave her with a babysitter who isn't family.
After the Emma shift I pack up and head to work. This isn't to taxing but it does take eight hours. Over nine when you consider breaks and driving. I get home at about 12:30 and hit the Flash most nights. Last night I went til almost 6. Usually it's only 2 or 3 though. Regardless, this seems to make at least 2 or 3 nights a week 12-15 hour shifts. At least one of my projects is almost complete and the second one should get knocked shortly thereafter. At least it's fun stuff and it looks like it may be taking me in a new direction, not to mention career.
It may be a few days til I post again. I am putting together a special post. Sorry to disappoint but it won't be about Emma but rather the blog itself.

Emma learned two big things this week. First she learned how to take off her clothes. She can't do snaps or zippers yet but once I start she helps me finish. Or if I am trying to dress her she does everything she can to keep the clothes off. Yesterday I got one arm and her head in her shirt and she managed to take it off before I could get her other arm in. I was dressing her on the floor of her room as well as changing her. Once I got the diaper off she rolled over and crawled about 5 feet before I caught her. I set her in the diaper for round two and she rolled over, stood up leaning on a stool, then started laughing and dancing(shaking up and down actually but dancing is a pretty good description of what it looked like). It looked fun and I wanted to strip naked and dance too but One: the windows were open and Two: I had to go to work. Anyways, she goes to sleep pretty easy now. Shanna put in a lot of long and hard nights so I guess it is only fair that I get a shot at some hard work. Dressing her takes up to 20 minutes now and she screams, cries, and fights like she did when she was learning to sleep by herself. Except she is 2 months older, stronger, and louder now!
She also discovered the stairs. I used to leave her in the hallway and go up the stairs to watch what she would do. She would crawl to the end of the hall and look around for me but never move toward the stairs. Today she found em and climbed em. DONT WORRY! Shanna was with her the entire time. We aren't one of those people who build climbing walls in there apartments or anything. Not that there is anything wrong with it but we didn't want any broken babies. I wish I could have been there but Shanna told me she crawled up the steps behind Emma and didn't touch her the entire time. Emma just went up the first flight, then the landing, then up the second flight and all the way to my room with no help from mom. My hope is she was looking for me but my guess is she wanted to play the gamecube. Or maybe just play with the clutter of CDs and paper on the floor. Speaking of which I should get cleaning.

S bsy cnt evn bthr tpng fll wrds
Nah just kidding but I honestly have been busy. I am working on a couple sites for people and when they are finished I will post links so you can check them out. I am hoping that all this will lead to a career change. So far it looks promising. I was planning on launching a business in January but now my fledgling company may be swallowed up by another company before it has been fully birthed. Weird how things work out and I am excited to see how this year shapes up. I will be adding some great links to this site soon. Check back regular like and I will keep you posted. Thanks for any prayers you have been sending up with our names attached to em. Keep em coming as this is year will hold a lot of opportunity as well as choices.

I added a little thumbnail demo to my project page. I am pretty proud of it. Now that I have the basics working there are a lot of things I can do with it. Obviously I would load up a variety of pictures with it and add a preloader but I think you get the idea and I accomplished what I was going for. It might take a couple seconds to load depending on your connection and how picky my server is being. The other day I couldn't get the thumb to load into the larger frame but hopefully it works for you.

I watched Million Dollar Baby today. I really enjoyed it. Sure some people felt duped into watching a movie that sold itself as a boxing movie and the slipped in a hefty opinion on euthanasia but that can be an entirely different post. It had a great story and it was a great movie. Clint Eastwood is an incredible actor and he is really getting to be a great director. Well Duh Garrett he did win Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture for Unforgiven. I wasn't so impressed with that, not to mention the competition wasn't so incredible that year(The Crying Game?!?!)That can be another post as well. I haven't watched many of Eastwood's earlier films but the more I watch him the more impressed I am. He has been acting since 55' and directing since 71''. He has also been composing music for his films as well as producing. I really thought that he did a nice job with the use of shadow in this film and his acting was top notch.
It saddens me that a lot of my favorite actors are starting to get up there in age. Paul Newman has officially retired from films. I fear the next thing I hear from that camp will be post mortem. Eastwood shows no signs of quitting but he is getting older and he is getting slower. Maybe that is just acting. I think it is forcing him to make films like Million Dollar Baby though. With him it's not what he says so much as how he delivers his lines. Kind of like Johnny Cash. I really think that his age is only contributing to this but its just a bummer to know that his career has to end some day.
A lot of them aren't making the sort of films that made them great either. I love Al Pacino but so many of his later movies lack the gusto of his earlier films. He still has it but the vehicles are weaker. I wish that there were people out there who could step up and make films like The Godfather, Scarface, or even Dog Day Afternoon. It's sad to have to watch films like Insomnia, The Recruit, or GIGLI to have to see him in action. There are a couple young actors out there that I do like but no one who really stacks up the same way.
It's getting pretty late and I am starting to lose my train of thought and ramble so I better head to bed.
To try and sum this up... A lot of new movies are fun but they lack the substance that was prevalent in so many older films. At least there are companies like Netflix with a huge library ready to ship. I guess I'm just disappointed that some of my old favorites seem to be fading out rather than quitting at the top of their game and I am discovering some of them so late in the game they only have a handful of films left.
I am gonna read this tomorrow and realize what a mess I made of something I have been thinking about and trying to organize into a postable form for about a week now. Hope this all makes sense. Goodnight!

I was in high school. But later that night I can remember hanging out in the front driveway shooting hoops. I was anxious for my buddy Jason to come over. He had a car and he had a job. More importantly he had a job across the street from Rockin Ruby's (R.I.P.). Once he finished his shift he came straight over to my house with my "package." That's right. 10 years ago today Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins was released.
To this day it is still one of my favorite albums. I even had the title track played as part of my wedding service.

BTW if you happen to have my pink disk return it! I have to blues but no pinks. I guess Ill be buying that album again.

Hah! Emma loves to crawl under stuff for some reason. Maybe all babies do. She crawls under tables, chairs swings, whatever. Today she crawled under this little thing. Then she decided she needed to stand up. Then she realized she was stuck. She started pounding on it and crying. Like any good dad I grabbed the camera and snapped some pictures before I saved the day.

More at flickr including some good eats.

I watched a really great movie the other night. It was called Stevie. I loved it and I am here to tell you that you should rent it. The director, Steve James, was a big brother to an 11 year old boy named Stevie. Stevie was a troubled kid. When he grew up he became a troubled man. This is Steve Jame's documentary about reconnecting with an older Stevie. It is rated 'R' for the language as well as the subject matter.
The first thing I did when I saw Stevie was laugh. Then when I met his girlfriend I laughed again. After reading the synopsis of the movie I figured it would be a pretty funny film about some down and out hicks. It didn't help that there may not be enough good teeth in Stevie's family to make an entire set. Not to mention Stevie seems to be the mold that Billy Bob Thornton's character in U-Turn was cast from. (Everyone should see that character but I don't recommend the movie) Once the film got into the details of Stevie's life I realized this wasn't a comedy and I wasn't going to get much mileage making fun of these people.
I am going to say this bluntly, but realize I am not trying to make excuses for a bad person, Stevie is a product of a system that failed him in every way. His mom decided she didn't want him and he was passed from institution to institution until he had been to every one in the state. Then they tossed him to correctional facility. The only time he ever did well was the few years he had an actual foster family. They provided the only thing that an institution can't but what these kids need most, the love of a family.
During the movie Stevie commits a crime. This is when the film really grabs hold. You realize that you are kind of stuck. You may not want to finish a film about this guy. By now you kind of like him. You know you shouldn't. You know he should go to prison and yet you don't want to see that happen. Stevie keeps saying "I ain't going to prison no matter what," while alluding to "other plans." No one wants to see a film where the main character commits suicide to avoid prison. That was my biggest fear at this point in the film. I know that he needs some kind of treatment but I'm not sure that prison will help him. There is this great scene where the director is asked what he would do if he had been affected by this crime. He had originally taken this scene out because he doesn't have much of an answer and he stutters around a lot. His editor made him keep it in and it is vital to the movie because it sums up exactly how I felt. The director can't bring himself to admit that he would want to punish Stevie or that he is guilty(remember this is right in front of Stevie.) But at the same time he knows Stevie is guilty. After stumbling to explain himself about 5 times he just says "I'm not ready to give up on Stevie yet."
My absolute favorite shot of the movie is in the courthouse at the very end. The camera lady almost missed it too. She points the camera up to the courtroom exit just in time to catch Stevie's fiance burst through the doors with her hands over her face. This was such a powerful scene but it is only made so because of the fiance's personality. She has some sort of developmental dissability or retardation or something. ( I make no attempt or apoplgy in regards to PCness) Like I said when I first saw her I laughed and said "Shanna check it out he is dating a retard." By the end of this film I realized I had really made an ass of myself. This girl is the most beautiful person in the film. When you get to see how much she is hurt by this and how she keeps a positive attitude about the entire thing. She isn't able to give up on Stevie either but she knows that she needs to move on. I can't really put my finger on it but there is something great about her.
Anyway go rent this movie. It moves a bit slow at first unless you enjoy making fun of people less fortunate than you. If you can stick it out for long enough sooner or later you will realize that this film has a hold on you. I liked this film for two reasons. It made me think and it made me feel.

P.S.
Make sure to check out these deleted scenes:
Stevie and the electric poles
Stevie's escape route

This is from earlier today when I was trying to watch a movie. Emma gets right up on the entertainment center and blocks the remote. The worst part is she won't even turn the volume up when I ask her too!
I watched a couple movies this past weekend. The first was Alexander. Be warned this is a real stinker and I am a pretty big Oliver Stone fan. The only accounts we have of Alexander are from around 300 years after his death so Mr. Stone had to kind of fill in the blanks with some creative liberties. He does a better job than I would but it still isn't enough to make a good movie. He uses narration and flashbacks to tell the back story. He probably should have stuck to one or the other. The movie comes to a complete halt in the second scene and never really picks up. The first battle is a confusing mess. The plot is confusing until the 3rd act and Colin Farrell falls way short of a Peter O'Toole or even a Russell Crow. Heck, I enjoyed Brad Pitt better in Troy! In fact an "Epic" movie, at least this one has epic material and Stone tries to make it an epic, deserves the treatment that David Lean lends to his movies. Did I mention the different accents? Stone says he doesn't mind because the characters would be from different regions of Greece so they would have different accents. Makes sense but the average movie watcher wouldn't know this and you have actors sounding Shakespearian when suddenly accents such as Irish and Liverpool popping up mid sentence. No one really has an accent and sticks to it. Except for Angelina Jolie who obviously took elocution lessons from Count Dracula. I liked the second battle and the story does come together more during the final act but it is much too little and much much too late. Don't bother with Alexander, especially if you have no desire to witness the rampant homosexuality of the Greeks.
The second movie I watched was Ray. What a delight! Jamie Foxx was incredible. I used to be kind of upset that he got an Oscar for it since he is so young and his career hasn't been that incredible but I think it is just because it took people so long to give due credit to Denzel Washington and his work is consistently great. Not to mention he won for Training Day which was not one of his best. Guess I felt Jamie Foxx should have to be around a bit longer to earn an Oscar. Most of you have probably seen Ray. If you haven't go watch it tonight. He was a really talented and dedicated musician but he wasn't without his demons. This movie shows both without making you feel sorry for him but rather shows you that when he created problems for himself he had to face the consequences. In fact you aren't able to completely like him until he fesses up and faces his problems. I have a new respect for both Ray Charles and Jamie Foxx and I would watch definitely watch Ray again. Makes me feel bad that I never had a chance to see him live.
I also uploaded some more photos of Emma. There are some great ones of her looking at Shanna through our coffee table. Her expressions are priceless!! Most of these are from when she had her cold so be on the lookout for boogers. Also note that there is almost no mess from us. If you got rid of Emma's "stuff" our living room would be spotless. Just a heads up for Gabe and Ashley you will never have clean rooms again! We are getting better at cleaning everyday and there just seems to be more and more pink things showing up on my floors! There is also a beautiful one of Shanna that either Emma or Shanna must have taken.

I figured out a good way to get Emma to sleep. Let her do it herself. We have been trying to get her to sleep in her crib. She fights it like mad so during the day we usually let her nap in our bed. Now she is too crawly to allow that. She heads straight for the edge of the bed and it is only a matter a time until she falls off. Today I could tell she was getting sleepy so I tossed some pillows and blankets on the ground in the living room. She crawled straight for them and went to bed. I had to stop watching the movie I was watching and now I am pretty much relegated to the upstairs but at least she is sleeping safely. I think the next step is to buy one of those kid cages to place around her. I have a feeling she is gonna be taking naps in her own room soon... On the floor in her cage haha.

Funny how I would love to be able to create websites for people and yet my blog still has the default "Edit-Me" links. I will fix that someday.

Emma fought us going to sleep tonight for 2 hours before we finally took her downstairs to play for a little while. Less than 1 hour and a diaper change later she passed out. I always thought I understood kids but that must have been when I was one.

This time it does involve a little booger nose. Emma has had a cold. I have pointed this out before. Last night Shanna was coming down with it. Today I woke up with it. Shanna and I slept in the same bed and we had the morning off together. Somehow we managed to not even see each other before heading off to work. She woke up early with Emma. Then I got up at 10. Shanna took Emma from 10 until 2 when she woke me up to watch Emma so that she could shower. At 2:30 I showered and Shanna was on duty. We both left at 3:00. After 9+ hours of sleep and only a laughable 4 hours of work I am still completly wiped. I have to be up for work in less about 8 hours so I am going to head off to sleep. I am hoping that getting as much sleep as possible and a lot of vitamins will help me beat this thing before it really hits. We will know tomorrow.

Not a whole lot going on these days. We have taken some more pictures of Emma that we need to post. She has a little bit of a cold. Today she had a fever of 99.0 so I gave her some baby Tylenol. She has a pretty runny nose. Well, it is pretty and it is pretty runny. She likes it. She can make cool sounds blowing through her nose and apparently snot tastes good too. She is sleeping now. So tired that she went straight to sleep when I put her in her crib. She usually fusses for a bit and doesn't like to take naps in it.
I have been pretty sleep lately. I got my hands on Psychonaughts for XBOX and I am enjoying it more than I should. I am seriously considering selling my XBOX but I would really like to hang onto it to play a couple games. This is one of them although I doubt it will have much replay value. Anyway, I have taken almost 5 days off from Flash and tried to catch up on sleep and house stuff. I have a bit more to do on my current project so I better get to it. Have a nice day.

Here is a pic of Emma. My Grandpa emailed 2 of them out to Boone, Gabe, and I. They are both great. Gabe has posted the other one. They are both from the party we had for her after her dedication this past Sunday.

Actually it was closer to spammed. This has nothing to do with the munchkin but rather the blog itself. I checked my email at work and I had two comments posted. Both of them were junk. At least one of them was nice enough to compliment the blog and he actually did have a blog. The other one was just a junk link to one of those get rich quick sites. I deleted both of them. I can't believe how quick they got me. I had only had this page live for about 4 hours.

I just got the kid down for a nap and figured I would run upstairs and fix my blog. These things always seem to take longer than they should. I had about 2 months worth of updates so it took a while just to load up. Anyway I am back on the blogger pages now. If you are reading this then you already know. Go ahead and change your bookmarks and links back here. Like I said it will be a while before I have another blog ready to go.
I fed Emma earlier today. Actually I let her feed herself :) I gave her a one of her cookies and let her dip it in her sweet potatoes and then into her mouth. What a mess! It was fun though. I was going to take some pictures but I think the camera is still in Shanna's car. Ill be sure to do it again. This is a short blog because I have already spent too much time fixing the blog. See ya later.

I added a quick poll at the bottom of this page. I think I have been over this before but the truth is I no longer have the file for this page. There will be no updates. EVER. I kind of put it up here once it was functional and I never really finished it up as well as I would have liked. I am going to be working on a full flash site that will integrate this blog but that is still months away from completion. In truth I haven't even started building it. I am still designing. Right now I am leaning toward blogger. It has the funtionality and usability that I hope to provide someday but didn't with this first build. I also don't like that I never finished a preloader and now you are stuck watching the intro movie. Let your voice be heard and VOTE! Unless there is an overwhelming love for this site I am switching back. My feelings will not be hurt. This was just a project I took on to see if I could make a Flash blog. I did. I consider it a success but my skills are beyond this site now. If I switch back I will save it to show how wildhog 2.0 looked.

Today we took Emma to her 6 mo checkup. Yeah Yeah Yeah you caught me. This was actually her 4 mo appointment at 6 mo. I guess that probably makes us bad parents. I'm not quite sure but I think that may even mean that she has to get extra shots. Hopefully she will never read this and it will just become one of those things parents do to kids but never get caught. Like setting all the clocks in the house back a couple hours on Christmas Eve and telling the kids not to wake you until a certain time so you can get more sleep. Regardless, she took those shots like a champ. She screamed. Ohhhh how she screamed. But 20 minutes later when we took her to the mall to return some shoes she was happy as ever. Entertaining the store ladies as always. You would never know she had received 4 shots earlier. Much better than her mother would have handled 4 extra shots.
As far as development is going she is coming along splendidly. 28 inches long. Off the charts for her age(100th percentile). She is either 19lbs 5oz. Still up there for her weight but only 90th percentile I think. Shanna would know for sure. Her head is only 16.5 inches or so. Only the 25th percentile. Basically she is taller than she is heavy and she has a small head haha. I asked if that is ok and the nurse said they just check head size to make sure it is growing. There is no problem if it is small and that she is developing normally and tall for her age. As a short and round person I think it would be pretty cool to be taller than you are round.
Hmmm Garrett, nice segue to....Yourself you dirty attention hog. This is my blog after all so now it is time to take the spotlight from the cute baby for a while. I weighed in today and I have lost a gross total of 24 lbs of fat. I have put on 9 lbs of muscle so that makes a net total of 15 lbs lost. I still have about 35 lbs to go until I have hit my surgery goal of 50 lbs but when you look at the total of 24 lbs it is an accomplishment that I am very proud of. I have been doing those killer "stomach" exercises and I am up to two sets of eight. Not much but better than collapsing after just 5 :)
Shanna is enjoying Emma more and more each day. What mom doesn't. Last night she got Emma to go to sleep in her own crib all by herself. This has been an ongoing struggle and it means a lot of just letting herself cry. Hard to do but probably better now than later. Shanna was just telling me that during and shortly after labor she thought that she would never forget that pain and wondered how anything could ever be worth it. Today she has decided that the has finally forgotten the pain and is positive that she does want to have another child. Something that I have always been sure of. After all I have the easy part. I spent part of the pregnancy on bed rest and I was the one wheeled into the delivery room but there is no need to rehash all that. I guess it takes about 6 months of baby time to equal 41 weeks of pregnancy and a day of labor.
I have taken up enough of your time today. Now that I think about it I have a sleeping baby, 2 hours to kill before I have to be at work and a wife downstairs that wants another baby. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that I should get off my computer and head downstairs ;) ;0 ;P

Once again I have been devoting all my free time to working with Flash. I have been dabbling in Freehand and Photoshop as well. With the release of Macromedia Studios 8 this month all the Studio MX stuff is dropping price so I was able to pick up three good books for under $20 including shipping. That gets me up to five books total on Flash. I now have a pretty good library and my projects are starting to show it.
I was able to get into the gym three times last week which was good. I didn't go yesterday. Probably because I was tired or something. I am not going today because I slept with my leg weird and it is killing me. I actually have a bit of a limp this morning.
Big new on the Emma front:Sunday she crawled. Both Shanna and I were able to experience it together for the first time and the was cool. There is a mad rush in our house to better baby proof things we missed on the first time through. She also discovered how to clap. Now she is banging on everything. I need to get going because right now she is "clapping" on the Gamecube.

Now that Emma is a bit older and on a pretty predictable schedule I have been able to get into the gym a few times. Not as often as I should but better than none. One of the things we do while working out is keep track of our heart rate. Mine used to stay around 80% of my max heart rate. Not too dangerous but not exactly where it should be to workout. Essentially my heart rate was running at the rate of someone my age of superior fitness doing an intense workout. That's not me. I used to need a break to bring my heart rate down a notch. I didn't feel like I had to but my trainers would make me, just to be on the safe side and to stay within optimal workout range. After taking so much time away from the gym I figured I was going to have to start all over. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my heart rate has dropped 4 beats per 10 seconds putting me right where I am supposed to be. Maybe even on the lower side. It has been this way for 2 weeks.
There are two ladies who run the gym I go to and this past week I have only been there when one of them was in. Today I was in while the second lady was working. She saw me taking my heart rate and asked where it was at. I told her and I explained that even though I hadn't been in the gym I was walking on a regular basis. This had helped to lower my heart rate. I said "No matter what I do it doesn't seem to increase." Word of advice:DON'T EVER say that to a trainer!!! They will find a way to raise it! She said "just give me a minute and I'll get in there to push you." "HUH?" She finished up and sure enough she was right next to me pushing me to go harder. Let me rephrase that. She beat me like a red headed stepchild. She worked me as if I were a draft horse. She pused me so hard my face looked like a 6 month old pinching a loaf. She added three new exercises to my routine too. After one of them I pointed to my chest just below my ribcage.
"OOooooohhh I realy feel that right here."
"That's your stomach."
"What?"
She looked at me confused.
"I thought it was about 6 inches lower where the rest of my stomach is :)"
We both laughed at that. Actually she laughed if gave more of a "huh, huh" which was about all I had left in me.
Overall I had a good workout. I guess since my heart rate was so low it did mean I had made progress, but it also means that I am ready to go to the next level. Yay!(ohhhh the sarcasim) I feel pretty good now but I am still a bit sore. I don't think my "stomach" will ever be the same but that is probably a good thing. Sooner or later I will even be able to do more than five of those stomach stretcher things. Remember, there are certain words not to use around a trainer unless you are really ready to sweat. More, harder, this is easy, push me, I barely felt that. You have been warned.

Let me paint a picture for you. 10 minutes ago I was upstairs working on my computer. Emma was sitting on the ground next to me playing with a four foot inflatable hammer. Honestly. 9 minutes ago she started crying. 8 minutes ago it turned into screaming. 7 minutes ago, yeah I know I am a bad dad and I took longer than I should have, I got off the computer and and carried her downstairs. 6 minutes ago I set her down and started making a bottle. 5 minutes ago I laid down with her on the bed and started feeding her. 4 minutes ago she started rubbing her eyes. 3 minutes ago she was finished with the bottle and rolled toward me. 2 minutes ago when she rolled toward me our eyes met. Hers widened for an instant of recognition and she gave me the slightest hint of a smile. 1 minute ago she closed her eyes all the way and fell completely asleep. I fell completely in love...again.
I was thinking to myself that it is pretty cool to be able to actually see her fall asleep. I usually get her to the very edge of sleep and then sneak out so I don't accidentally rouse her. More often than not my mere presence will awaken her. It's times like this when I envy my wife and the opportunity she has at 3AM to go upstairs and put Emma to bed. I have been trying to help out and Emma is getting better about sleeping for me. At 3AM neither one of us wants to be the "lucky one" but once she is in our arms we realize that we are lucky and the sleeper downstairs is missing out. It is so worth trading 10 minutes of sleep for what seems like a priceless eternity of a beautiful sleeping babe in your arms.
Another observation I take away from this experience is that I knew exactly what she needed. Regardless of what she wanted. She was asleep in only a couple of minutes. It made me think about all the times my parents put me down for a nap and I fought with them. Then it made me wonder about all the times growing up when they said "no" or made me do things their way. Maybe they weren't so mean and dumb after all. Too bad it took me two decades and lot of dirty diapers to realize it.

OK OK so that title is way too dramatic for the topic at hand. I called the cable company today and we are back on the $13 plan that includes just the networks. I know. I know. There are bigger tragedies out there and I give you permission to laugh at the title now.
Last year when we bought our house I called Comcast and explained to the rep that I had bought a house, I was moving, and I wanted to cancel service at my apartment and transfer it to my house. Maybe it was the use of the "C" word that flagged him. Maybe he was new. Maybe there was an unknown deal that I had stumbled onto. Whatever the case may be he pleaded with me "Please do not cancel your service." Before I could remind him that I wasn't actually canceling but rather transferring my service he offered me the digital cable package for only $19.99. The catch is that it would only be good for one year and at the end of that year I would have to remember to call and change it or automatically be billed the regular price of $39.99. I signed up at once.
One year later I am calling to see what my options are. I told the rep that I would like to return to the $13 network only plan. I waited. No plead, no offer, no attempt whatsoever to drain more money from me. What I was really hoping for was an offer to extend my current promo at which point I would agree and then inquire about the new DVR box.(Digital Video Recorder) For only $10 more per month I can get a box that will record anything on TV. This would be great. I watch no television. I watch a lot of movies and even TV series but only on DVD. I work until midnight. I will probably try and watch 1 or maybe 2 series this year but I have to rely on the VCR. She didn't go for it. I asked how much it would be. Just to get the DVR the lowest monthly price would be over $60 including taxes and fees. NO WAY. I would sooner buy a TIVO.
Truth is, I am probably better off. I will save over $550 per year on the cheaper plan and when you look at what television really is and how important it is(or should be) to your life it is just mindless entertainment. Sure there are some good or informational shows such as Alton but they are too rare to pay the $60 to be able to see them. Until they start offering actual Bachelor degree programs via cable I will stick with the cheap seats.
Is it the end of an era? In a way, yes. Will I miss it? Probably not when you consider I haven't watched a single episode of any show in my house for the entire summer. Am I better off? Well I did get into the gym today and if I had the DVR I would probably be spending my mornings catching up on shows from the previous evening. Just my thoughts but cutting TV is probably the easiest way that Americans could give more time to family, a constructive hobby, or even shed a few pounds.
Well, I gotta go. I just borrowed a game from my buddy Tim and the story is really starting to pick up :) Have a good day.

I have been doing some training this week and it requires me to be in Renton at 08:00 the last couple mornings. I am leaving my house at 06:00 and getting back about 12 hours later. If I had to do this for more than 3 days I think it would kill me. The training is going well and I am learning a lot of useful stuff.
It is really cool to see Emma get so excited to see me when I get home. Shanna says that she thinks Emma actually looks for me during the day and misses having me around since she is used being with me during the mornings. It was cool to see her start crying when I walked across the room to get a drink. Not so cool about making her cry but it sure felt good to see her reaching for me and then stop crying and get excited when I came back and picked her up. I am starting to get pretty good at doing stuff with just one arm. Guess it is a good thing we don't have twins.
Once I am back on a normal schedule I will try and work on this page or else take some more pictures of her to post. Don't count on anything though because at this point I feel like I could out sleep Rip Van Winkle.

Every year my friends and I go to Bumbershoot. Every year there seems to be a little bit less to see and the price goes up. Every year we say this will probably be the last year we go. Every year we go. The only real changes are that there are no hangovers involved any more and we seem to make it to all the shows, even the early (noon) ones. I guess that's what happens when you grow up and get respectable jobs. Ironically, the early riser with the most respectable job is also the one we used to have to drag out of bed, revive with a hair of the dog, and throw into the car. He was also the reason we missed early shows. If I'm not mistaken he was the first one on the scene this year. One other big difference was that we were all there with a significant other. My how times have changed. We didn't just run around in a pack like we did as kids. We all split off to spend time with our dates and then met up at big shows.
Overall it was a great day and the beautiful weather only added to the event. Shanna and I were able to see Dashboard Confessional which is one of her favorites. Lucky for her they played Hands Down, her favorite DC song. After that we took the Monorail downtown and went to Pike Place Market. Apparently she had never been there before. Oddly enough she has been to Mexico and Disneyland but not Pike Place. On the way back to Bumbershoot the Monorail was out of order so we hoofed it back to the Seattle Center. It was a great day so the walk was no big thing. It felt pretty good. We did a lot of walking that day and it sure helped me to keep shedding the pounds this past week.
I was glad that Shanna was willing to stick it out til after 11PM so I could see Iggy and the Stooges. He isn't exactly her type of music but he is so energetic that she enjoyed him just the same. She also realizes just how influential he was/is and that she had a rare opportunity to see a true rock icon. I was just elated to hear I wanna be your dog! It is a pretty sweet song and I don't think that Guy Ritchie could have made a better choice when he threw it into Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Bumbershoot was great as always. I am glad I got to go and I will probably be there again next year.

It has certainly been a while. To be honest I just didn't feel like posting anything for a couple days. Then my computer died. I am pretty sure it is the processor or some part of the motherboard that is fried so I was without a computer for almost a week. I know, I know. There are people dying in wars and floods God forbid I should be without the internet but regardless that was my situation. The good news is I had 2 people offer to let me use spare PCs so I am up and running and better than ever. I now have 2 monitors! Let the Flash development begin!!! On that same page... I lost all my earlier Flash files. "What does that mean?" you ask. It means that you are stuck with this page looking the way it does for a while. When it changes the entire thing is going to look completely different but that won't be for a while now. I am actually going to help someone else with a Flash project first.
I am going to have my Google Talk up from now on so if you want to get in touch with me use it. Other big news: I am up to, or rather down to (depending on how you look at it) 15 lbs gone. Yay me! Probably due to all the PC tower moving I had to do over the weekend. Actually it probably has more to do with Bumbershoot but I will leave that for another post. Anyways I am back now so be sure to check regular like because I am going to keep the posts coming. This is #75 baby!

I am not doing anything worth typing about. Come back in a couple days.

I did a 15 minute mile yesterday. Not to impressive but I am proud none the less. If you consider that when I started walking I had a limp and it took me 46 minutes to do two miles. My goal is to be able to get under 10 minutes but I am not too sure if that will be possible without a bit of jogging. Since running isn't permitted by my doctor I'll have to wait until I can shed the necessary weight, have surgery, rehab and then continue. Someday I would like to be able to jog the whole thing. I know it is possible but it is a pretty lofty goal. For now I will settle with where I am at. I have been able to maintain my weight the past week even with the trip to Seaside but I haven't lost any more. Could be that I am putting on a bit of muscle but who knows. I have added a lot of arm reps and both push ups and crunches to my routine. We will have to see how it goes. I will keep you posted. Thanks for your continued support.

In unrelated news Emma is now pulling herself up to standing from sitting if she had something to hold onto. I predict crawling, standing, and even walking all within 7 mo but no pressure kid.

Here is an upsetting story I read today. The good news is that we no longer need to come up with a solution to the problems of our country's healthcare system. At this rate we won't have anyone who will want to become a doctor in a couple decades anyway.

If a doctor can't tell you that you are overweight what good is he? What would happen to a doctor if he neglected to tell you some bad news about your health? Lets say the doctor suspects you have diabetes. Ooooo that sucks. You're gonna have to change your diet around. Say goodbye to a lot of the fun foods you were eating and hello to lot of exercise. He knows it's not gonna be fun and you probably aren't gonna want to hear about it but guess what. If he doesn't tell you, you die. If he brings is up, well, you are sitting there going "Great, this is the last thing I wanted to hear." You are probably going "Dude, come on are you sure?" But at least he has done his job and you can take steps to right the situation because you are now informed.

Being obese is a medical condition. It isn't relative like being fat is(too a point). Everyone has a slightly different opinion as to who is fat or at what point a person is fat. Clinical Obesity has guidelines based on your body mass index which is computed based on your height and weight. If yours is over 30 guess what... you are clinically obese! You don't need a doctor to tell you, I WILL! No one wants to be told they are obese but if there is anyone who should tell you it is your doctor. And you know what? You should be glad that you are afflicted by a condition which you can do something about. At least it isn't cancer or one of the millions of other conditions that he could be telling you that you have which just leaves you helpless. Don't get mad at the only person in the world who isn't turning a blind eye to your situation because you are offended. When it comes down to it YOU are the offender! If you don't want to hear it then don't visit the doctor OR get off your fat, sorry.... obese, butt and do something about it. Some of us need to know we are overweight and that we have to do something about it. If a doctor can't tell us who will?

I am gonna go for a walk and cool off. See you later.

My work has blocked the Flickr site so I made a slideshow using Gabe's pics. Since our camera died I am gonna be taking pics from anyone I can to use in slideshows for the peeps at my work. If you want to see then point your browser here. Chances are, if you are reading this then you have seen the pictures already but you can never get too much Emma!

The slideshow was thrown together in 30 mins using the photo slideshow template in Flash MX 2004 pro. It's not bad. You guys probably like flickr more but with a few quick modifications you could make your own slideshow. The controller is pretty cool too. If it is in the way you can click and drag it using the little grey bar at the top of it.

Have fun.

I have been watching the second season of Dead Like Me on dvd. Too bad the show was cancelled it is pretty good. I guess one of the new shows on Showtime is going to be a television spinoff of the movie Barbershop. I don't think that will do so well and I am kinda pissed that it is replacing DLM. I hope someone else (HBO) picks it up. They need something good now that Sex and the City, Sopranos, and Oz are over or finishing up. At least there are still new seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm out there.

I am also reading A Clash of Kings by George R R Martin. Wow that guy writes some engrossing material. I can't seem to put it down. Just about everyone out there will flame me for this but I enjoy it more that The Lord of the Rings books. Awesome movies, great books, but harder to get through than this stuff. Maybe that says more about me than the authors and I come out looking like a dunce but that's just how the cookie crumbles.

It has only been a couple weeks and I think I am already tired with the recent overhaul of my blog. Does this mean I will be going back to the old static blog? NO! I am proud of all I have learned so far and what I have been able to do. Just getting the thing to function correctly was a big job. But when I sit back and look at it there are only a couple things that I have implemented that couldn't be done with normal old HTML. I like the intro movie and I put some work into that to make it from scratch but it doesn't really fit the theme of the rest of the site. In fact I am not sure if I even have a theme other than just grey and green. So once again I head back to the drawing board. I have taken a break from Eric Liddell and have been reading a book about developing a Flash site that Boone let me borrow. He was fortunate enough to find a copy of it for only $1. The author is also the founder and president of http://hookumu.com/ an award winning web development firm. I think that someday I would enjoy being on a team like this or even creating my own sites. I am going to sit down and start designing my own site as a demo/portfolio.

I will continue to blog and I will continue to keep improving this site with occasional small usability improvements but for the most part you shouldn't be expecting too much. As always, please let me know if there is something that you feel this site is missing. If it is easy enough I will make a quick update. To be completely honest I have been playing the latest Star Wars game on Xbox and I must say it is pretty addictive. I figure I am about halfway through it so for now the Flash is kind of taking a back seat. I was just spending too much time trying to learn it so for now I am focusing on designing the site and then I will start building it.

If you can read this then it probably means that my latest update is working correctly. Flash likes to cache files on your hard drive. When you navigate to my site your browser will check and see if you have a version of my site saved already. If you do it will just use the one you have saved. It doesn't bother to see if it is the latest version or not. This is great for things like pictures that never change. Your computer won't have to download them every time you visit and this saves both load time and bandwidth. But since a blog is a dynamic text box that is constantly being updated you want to download the file every time to make sure that you have the most current post. I have been working to implement a work around for this to make sure that you can read all my posts since I figure that is why you are here. If you just popped in and suddenly had 3-4 posts to read up on I apologize. I was building this thing piece by piece and I didn't realize that caching was going to be a problem. Thanks for sticking it out.

Shanna, Emma, and I had a great weekend. We all made it back home safely even if it did take seven hours. This was a big weekend for Emma. She got to see the actual ocean for the first time and we had fun watching her put her feet in it and look out at the waves. Her favorite part must have been the sand because she got pretty fussy anytime someone tried to take her out of it. At least she didn't put any of it in her mouth. That was hardly the most surprising thing about the beach though. She actually sprouted her two bottom teeth while she was there. Shanna noticed them when we got back to the resort and they weren't there earlier that morning. I guess that fresh ocean air really does work wonders. We finished the weekend by buying a crib mattress for her on the way home. Last night was her first night sleeping alone and she did fine.

Right now she is out with her grandparents. They are on vacation and we needed a babysitter for about 1 hour. They volunteered to take her for most of the day! I have over 4 hours of freedom so I figured I would blog, eat, then choose between sleep, play, or read. Choices, choices, choices!

I am home from work and off to bed. I will most likely speak to most of you before you read this. I am really looking forward to this weekend in Seaside with my family. Less than 12 hours from now and I will be on the way. See you all soon unless I die on the way there.

In case something unfortunate occurs I prepared an obituary and a funeral plan so you guys won't have to deal with it. Also I want you all to have a good weekend and not worry about me for a couple days. Make sure my funeral is on a Wednesday so you can get out of work. You should tell your boss that the pain is too great and you need at least two more days off so you can scam a five day weekend out of the whole mess. Don't say I never did nothin for ya. I want a luau instead of a normal funeral. Serve Hawaiian Punch and Kalua Pork because they both taste good. I want to be cremated at the luau so just toss an apple in my mouth and light me up. Boone always liked fires so he can start it. Put me in my Hawaiian shirt that Shanna hates and try to find some cool shoes for me to wear. I would also like to be wearing shorts but you should shave my legs first because burning hair smells weird.

In loving memory of Garrett M. Rodriguez.Born in Year, Garrett was a(n) adjective boy who quickly grew into a(n) adjective man. He was a(n) adjective worker at Our Lady of 7 Deadly Sin Hospital for the last number years of his life. He became well known for his work extracting pizza topping from animal (plural). He was a loving relative of number animal. He will be adverb missed and leaves behind his noun.
See ya soon!

Emma is asleep. Shanna is reading and I stayed home from work today. My stomach has been really bothering me for 2 days now but I am pretty much over whatever it was. It is 10:30PM and I am restless. It is too early for me to go to sleep, I am not in the mood to work on my site, and I am not allowed to have the TV on. I figured I would just blog for a bit. Apparently Shanna likes to spent the evening reading am I am not allowed to impose on her normal routine.
I have been watching a lot of Asian films lately. This wouldn't be so wierd except that they have never held much appeal for me. I am sticking to a pretty specific genre. Samurai movies and a couple special Kung Fu ones thrown in for good measure. I have only watched 2 Samurai movies so far and they were both pretty good. Seven Samurai and Sword of Doom. I have also watched House of Flying Daggers and Hero. I highly recommend these last two movies. I am completely in love with them and once I buy them I am sure I will be watching them often. Both are beautiful, colorful, and entertaining. I love the story in Hero and it is only enhanced by how it is told. I like the story of Flying Daggers but what I like more are the action sequences. Even if you aren't into these types of films either of these is definitely worth watching. The samurai movies are interesting. They are old, shot in black and white but they are done well and always have good story lines.
I also got the chance to see Shaolin Soccer and am looking forward to watching Kung Fu Hustle. I first thought these were by the same guy that made that really crappy Kung Pow Enter the Fist spoofy piece of trash. I had no desire to even know that anything by the same guy existed. I never finished Kung Pow but I can only hope he died. Shaolin Soccer is by Stephen Chow and I will gladly watch anything he does. The reason I am not into Kung Fu movies is they take themselves way to seriously. These films only work if the acting, costumes, soundtrack, setting, story, direction etc.... is up to par(as in Hero). Almost nothing but the action is worth a darn if many Kung Fu flicks. Stephen Chow combines slapstick comedy, great writing, comedic timing, and special effects to make his movies. The acting is bad when it needs to be and good when it needs to be. I think Shaolin Soccer is genius and easily accomplishes what it sets out to do. I was actually laughing out loud at some of the jokes as well as the over exaggerated acting in a few scenes. If you like movies such as Spaceballs, anything Kung Fu, or even The Matrix I suggest you check out something by Stephen Chow. And if you are going to be in Seaside with me this weekend you are in for a treat! I am bringing Shaolin Soccer with me!

As you can see I added an old style intro movie. Sooner or later I am going to turn it into a preloader screen so any of you out there with a slower connection will have something cool to look at rather than just watching a slower version of wildhog. The problem is that in order for it to look good I created it using 24 fps. The rest of the site was made using 12 fps. The result is a smooth intro and then a super quick wildhog site. Rest assured. I will clean it all up but for now I am going to take a break and play with Emma. She should be waking up soon so we can go out for a walk. BTW I have now dropped between 7 and 8 lbs. Slow going but at least I am headed in the right direction. I have been getting out to walk 1-4 times a week for no less than 45 mins at a time. It is pretty hot up here but it still feels good and Emma seems to enjoy the walks.

Wow this thing is coming together piece by piece. I guess that is how most things get put together and I don't think it looks too bad. I have been spending all my extra time working with Flash and have a couple things that are still in the works. If you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know. Or if you should happen to notice anything missing that I used to have on the old blog PLEASE let me know. I didn't notice that the titles from my posts were missing until today. It only took 3 lines of code to fix but it took me a couple weeks to notice they weren't there.
Flash aside I destroyed 2 wasp nets, fixed some weather stripping that my favorite pet destroyed, and I have read a lot in the last couple weeks. Someone at work mentioned that she ate Mexican food Saturday. I said "What a coincidence, I fixed our toilet that day." If you fail to see the connection you just haven't eaten enough Mexican food. There is a lot going on in a toilet! I was pretty proud of myself for being able to figure it all out. I figure I earned a good night's sleep so I am off to bed.

I am pretty sure I have comments working again. I can't seem to get links to show up in color very well so until further notice they will just be underlined. From here on out I think I will get back to actual blogs about my life and stuff rather than strictly technical posts. Let me know what you think about the new look. Remember, you can use comments now instead of having to email me if that is your preferred method.

This will be the last post on this site for a while. Hopefully forever. I am moving the site over to garrettrodriguez.com. The first thing you will notice is that a lot of the site is missing. I will keep working on updating the links, counter, and other features. This site will still be available to check out any of the previous posts. But from now on new posts will appear on my new and improved Flash enhanced blog. Let me know what you think. You will have to email me because I haven't implemented comments yet.

No, this isn't the title of Emma's newest book or any of her books for that matter. My 1987 Honda Prelude hit 200,000 miles about 15 minutes ago on the way home from work. Pretty cool if you ask me. The darn thing is ugly as sin but I can't bring myself to get rid of it. At this point I have had it longer than most people keep pets for and it runs like it was 1989! In fact the other night this skater kid knocked on my car window and asked me if it was an 86' or 87'. He has one and it has 240k on it but he said it runs flawlessly. That gives me hope for mine. Shanna's car will be paid off in just 2 more payments. This means I will have the opportunity to by a new car next spring. Hmmm the real question is what to do with my Prelude. Since it's trade in value is $500-$750 and $2000 would be reaching if I sell privately I am trying to convince Shanna we should hang onto it. In 16 years it will be a classic car and Emma will be old enough to drive it. Pretty weird to think of any sort of Honda being classic. Somehow I doubt you will see my Honda in 2 years much less 16.

It has been eight days since I posted. I have been working hard on a Flash site. Since I can either post to my new site or this one I haven't bothered to post at all. If I hit the new one no one will know because I haven't given an address for it. If I post on this one I have to change a bunch of settings on blogger. Lose lose.
I have been Flashing during every spare moment this past week. So far I can get the basic text blog to load but that is about all I have done. I finished buttons for my links and started animating the background. Once I add a title to the background and figure out how to show pictures I think I will launch the site. The animation will take a bit longer and you will see it when you see it.
I went kind of braindead this last weekend and didn't do anything productive. I hadn't been sleeping much because I was working on the site. I figured I would play some video games since I hadn't for a while and I wanted something that would just pass the time and not require much thought. Now I am at the end of Final Fantasy X and I probably won't be back to my site til I finish that up. Posts will probably be few and far between for a while.

I uploaded more pics to flickr.
You probably notice I threw up my wildhog mascot too. I just made it into a jpg for now.
Just a heads up...I am working on some fun changes for this blog. In fact I am gonna give it a complete overhaul. Bear with me if you should wander on in and receive an error or find a strangely formatted page. It will be worth it someday. The new wildhog will be more vivid, exciting, entertaining, and even anatomically correct.Plus I will have complete control.

She may look like a mad dog but this is just what Emma looks like after bleedin a cherry dry. She is starting to reach for food and other items. This is when all the books we have say she may be ready to try and eat from a spoon. We have a little sucker deal which will hold cut up bits of friuts for infants to gum on. She loved the cherry and we all had lots of fun.

I just got back from Billy Corgan at The Moore. I have to admit I was pretty apprehensive going into it. Of course this may mean that it would be that much more easier to impress me but in this case I don't think so. I did have pretty low expectations going into the show but I would have been blown away even if I had expected the world. Billy was amazing! I was hooked from the second the house lights dropped and the stage lights came on. Honestly I was intrigued just watching them set up the stage.
I could go on and on about this show and I will, but it will be in a podcast so that anyone who wants to hear my review can download it. I think it would take up a couple of pages if I typed it up.

My quickie rundown would go:
-Billy played from 9:45- 10:53
-Encore till about 11
-14 songs plus an encore. 1 was an AC/DC cover. I am pretty sure he played his entire new CD but there may have been one song he skipped.
-The final song was a classic Corgan jam that sounded like a bunch of songs (including the opening riff from Today) mashed together.
-Something new from our usually shy hero... He greeted fans after the show then took the stage to explain that tomorrow is the final show for the North America tour. "This is coming to an end. It may be a while til you see me again but hopefully when you do it is with the Smashing Pumpkins."

GREAT NEWS! When the Pumpkins release new material I will be in line to buy it and as always I will be at the Show. If you have questions email me and I will answer them on the podcast. I think the next one will be entirely about this show.
BTW the above pic is just the one from www.billycorgan.com. You can see the screen in behind him and get an idea of what the show looked like.

I made myself a nifty little icon for my blog today. Unfortunatly I can't figure out how to show it on my actual blog site. This is a link to a page where you can view the icon. If you have any suggestions as to how I might either post in on blogger or export it to a usable type of picture let me know.

If you could ask Emma anything, what would you ask? This may sound wierd but I am putting together an interview and I need your help. Email me your questions to ask Emma. No question will be overlooked but I can't promise that all of them will be used. Like I said, it sounds wierd but send me some questions you would like her to answer.

Direct all inquiries to grod@spu.edu

Boone is posting more than I am and it has been a week since my last update so I figured I should toss something up here. Nothing is going on. Work, walk, sleep, wake, rinse, repeat. I have been learning Flash this past week and I am going to start a project that should be entertaining enough to make up for the lack in posts. Till then you should hope something worth posting happens to me. Should your need to read a blog become too great you can start a blog yourself and post about how much you miss fresh wildhog updates.

I did add a funny file to my mp3 page.

I posted this weeks podcast. If you want to get the audio files I mention then click here, not where I say to in the audio.

I was just finishing up the lawn as Shanna arrived home. She had a package for me from Gabe and Ashley. THANKS GUYS! They got me a book by Wolfgang Puck. AND they got Wolfgang to sign it and personalize it to me!!! I didn't have time to look at it yet. One, because my hands were still dirty from mowing. And two, I am in the middle of a 24 hour juice fast. Shanna and I are trying to shrink our stomachs down and "reset" our systems so all I am having is juice and a lot of water. I think if I looked at the book I might actually eat some of the pages. This is totally the coolest present I got this year and I got an IPod! (Sorry Mom and Dad) Last year Gabe and Ashley got me a signed Alton Brown book. I was so happy(and dorky) I took a picture of myself holding the book and emailed it to Gabe. Well, different book same story(and same dork). You can see page Iron Chef Puck made out to me too!
I also wanted to update my weight progress. I had managed to only gain about 3 pounds since I fell in the creek. Any doctor will tell you that is not bad for an injury that takes you off your feet for one month and limits your activity level for the next two. I decided I would try and maintain my weight by watching what I ate until I went back to work. Then back to work and back to working out. Shanna and I have been walking almost everyday. Even though I haven't been able to hit the gym in two weeks I have been able to walk. I am down four pounds in three weeks. This is on par with my goal of 50 pounds over one year. I am aiming for a pound a week. So far so good. Thanks for your prayers, advice, and thanks again for the book. Keep em coming.

I went back into the Heart of Darkness again today. I had mowed my lawn three weeks ago. I was sure I had the beast under control. Out of sight, out of mind! Without Henry I just don't have a reason to be in the back yard. It is far too small to run laps but the grass was so thick I thought I might be able to "swim" in it ala Uncle Scrooge in his money bin. In the end I just ended up with a heinous rash from fro to toe.
We opened the back window and realized that the 70% I had mowed previously had almost regained its former glory. The other 30% actually had three plants that were taller than me. I suited up and headed in. The first round, as expected, was the worst. I had to mow the grass down to a mowable level. Uhhhh, I don't know if that makes sense but just ignore your yard for the month and it will. When I hit the tall boys they went down harder than the Mighty Casey Jones. The scary thing is that they released some weird smells once they had been cut. I can only assume that scentual release was some sort of defense mechanism because it made me want to stop mowing and go back inside.
Once I had the flora under control it was time to deal with the fauna! Spiders and moths and bugs OH MY! There were all sorts of multi legged critters fleeing the blade of my Lawn Hog. It would have been funny to view this mass bug exodus from my neighbor's yard. Hopefully they won't be too upset at the sight of a couple dozen bugs creeping through the fence and into their yard. I ain't no bugologist but I reckon some of them critters may have been endangered. I would probably be in trouble with environmentalists if they had been around to witness the destruction of such a wildlife sanctuary. I felt as if I was destroying a jungle that has slipped under the radar of humanity. Then I was reminded of where I was when my Lawn Hog started choking. It had tried to swallow one of my old shoes that Henry had partially burried. I had checked the yard for all foreign objects and had found a respectable four out of five of them. I removed the shoe from the blade and finished the job at hand.
I went back through with the old Hog on a lower setting. I can proudly say that my lawn is looking much more respectable. It is completly mowed, trimmed, and edged. Now if only I could say the same about Emma's rat tail!

Too bad it has come to this. I think I am only posting about once a week. I am now one podcast behind too but I will get that finished in the next couple days. Thanks for downloading the last couple. I can tell how many are being downloaded per month. This week's (last week's actually) may not interest everyone since I am pretty much just planning on talking about movies or albums I have recently been into. Download away but don't be disappointed if there isn't much there to interest you. I don't know about putting Emma on there either. Those couple seconds actually take about as long to record as the rest of the post.
Emma laughed for the first time this week. An actual human laugh. Not just a coo, grunt, growl, howl, or one of the many other animalistic forms of communication she is famous for either. An honest to goodness human laugh. I was so surprised I almost peed myself. She did.
As you can see I am having more and more fun with her. She is just over 3 months old now and I have been spending a lot of time with her. Most of it is during the day when she is wide awake and able to be as wild as she wants. This is cool for me but I think at this point in the game it is becoming frustrating for Shanna. I get playtime and Shanna is stuck with bedtime. If she can't get Emma to sleep before midnight then she can't sleep either. It also means that Emma thinks Daddy means playtime. If Shanna is trying to put her to sleep and Emma sees me she wakes up with a big smile ready to party. Kinda cool for me to see but it upsets Shanna. Quite understandable if not the tiniest bit funny as well(Ill probably be in trouble for that line). The other bummer is that Emma doesn't want to go to sleep for me at home very often. She likes to cuddle up and sleep on my chest when we are out or at other people's houses. There just isn't a shelter from crazy eyed, loud mouthed, "Ooooooing," relatives like a Daddy's strong arms and warm chest. At home it is another story. Daddy still means playtime. Mommy is the one that puts her to sleep so that means Shanna often has to take her to bed with her. Emma will kick and scream if I try to feed or hold her when the lights are out. She knows what I am trying to do and she won't have it. Shanna gets out of bed, takes Emma from me, and she will literally be asleep before her head hits the bed. That doesn't mean she doesn't kick Shanna in her sleep though. It can get tough for both of us but I gotta admit, I think Shanna has it a bit rougher than I do so I guess I owe her some thanks for doing what she does so well.
I am hoping that as Emma grows we can turn this into more of a team deal. It would be more fun to always be the good guy and let my wife be the disciplinarian but that wouldn't really be fair and we would probably end up with a teenage daughter who "hates" her mother. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Sorry little girl. Life is tough. You are just gonna have to go to bed when either Mommy OR Daddy tells you too. Just the same... God, help me if Shanna ever works later than I do!