Maybe I Need To Do This

i just re-read my last real post. man i wish i was that guy again. so truly content and happy with how things were. i wish, for just one minute, i could be him again, live his life.

such a fragile illusion isn't, life?

~m

New Background

all kinds of bad

hallo?

31 and Android

so... 31... who'd a thunk? 

it seems to me that if one could plot out the the perceived magnitude of getting older,  versus ones actual chronological age, i believe one would come up with something kinda sorta resembling that of a sine graph... with all the peaks corresponding to "milestone years". it is this arbitrary set(usually something like:  16, 18, 21, 30, 40, though yours certainly will vary...) that then determines the amount of  excitement/joy/stress/anxiety one experiences as it relates to ones own birthday (or that of a loved one). thus defined, this birthday was to me... well... meh. 

i already know that i am getting old. i already know that i will never again experience the wonder that is the blissful ignorance of youth. i already know that i am jaded.  

this being said, if i were to take a couple of steps back and look at the past 31 years in the perspective it deserved (hopefully, under the influence of some really good single malt...), i am definitely humbled by the view. all in all, i have a pretty freaking sweet life. so i am not gonna complain....

also (file under: A for Awesome), B got me the T Mobile G1 for my birthday... and all i can say is dude. "this shiot be bangin"... or some other urban colloquialism for absolutely, and incomprehensibly awesome. infact, if the ethereal properties of awesome could be shaped, formed, molded even, into a mobile communications device, it would be the G1. being the tech junkie that i so unapologetically am, it is a cruel, painful and on-going joke that i am always behind the curve for the latest and greatest cool new toys. well not this time baby! i got my sweaty brown hands on one of the coolest gadgets this side of CES!

now you can, i'm sure look up the spects and various reviews for this puppy all by your lonesome, but i gotta say, the responsiveness of the touchscreen, the vastness and variety of the app store combined with the speed, stability and intuitiveness of the Android OS really make this the smartphone on the market. oh, and lets not forget the sheer gravity which is google... man i love this phone!

 out for now...

Obama '08

Here is the victory speech for those who missed it:

Dinosaurs

this is awesome:

"I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago. I want to know that, I really do, because she is going to have the nuclear codes" 

Hilarious, but painfully true.

~m

Chrome pt.2

there are some definate hits here ... so far i am loving it.... but there is at least one area that isn't doing it for me: bookmarks.... 

here's how i see it, Chrome lets you import all your settings and practicall everyting else from IE or Firefox right on install.... but for the life of me i can't seem to figure out how to import a folder of links (say from another computers' Favorites' folder)

this is of course only my preliminary thoughts. let me play with it for a few more days and i'll report again.

Chrome

everyone needs to, at the very least, check out google's latest offering: Chrome. i just installed it and have been playing with it for a about an hour.... i post my thoughts tonight.

This Is How I Roll

test for yourself by clicking on my stats:


here is my summary page, click to see full size...

In The Meantime

check out this video by the band needtobreathe. not only is it a really cool song, the video kicks ass too...

~m

Updates

"i am going to make an effort to post here regularly" this phrase is often uttered on this blog... but as you may (but probably not because i never update this damn thing...) have noticed.... i have not been keeping my word. for this i apologise.

but give me one more shot... you know i am good for it right?

~m

First post this year...

sorry for the long absence... lots has been going on... will try to post soon...

~m

Fatherhood

well i have been looking after William full time now for about 3 weeks ... so far things are going great... he is a ball of fun and just a pleasure to be around... that is not to say that there are times that i get frustrated and stressed... but the great stuff out weighs the tiring stuff infinitely...

he/ we are starting to settle in to our own little routine and getting more into the groove of it.

that's about all for now...

here he is just being himself...

Back to the Blog

wow

it has been a while since i have posted here...i actually need to post about not knowing how to get started.

some really great stuff though. our son was born on the 26th of september and he is doing great. there were some issues after we got back from the hospital but all's good now... i am going to upload some pictures to flickr and then i post them here.

out for now

~m

Omnia mutantur nos et mutamur in illis

this past week Bridget and i celebrated our 2nd anniversary as a married couple. it was very nice, in that we had a great time at dinner whilst reminiscing and marveling at how our lives have progressed since we started dating almost 8 years ago. i love her. truly.

it is strange, in retrospect i should have done so many things different... so many tangents where i should have stayed on the straight and narrow...

i don’t know, they say that hindsight is 20/20 or maybe my saying this is a defense mechanism to help me accept ‘my reality’ or maybe it is true, i don’t know nor do i care really, but I can’t help feeling that any one of those, supposed missteps, being redone, would inexorably alter where i have ended up... and i just can’t bear to think that i might be somewhere other than here.... i’ve got it pretty sweet here... wonderful, loving wife, a child on the way, pretty great family and friends, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

now i’m really not trying to get all Robert Frost or anything really, conversely i guess i’m just marveling at how times have changed and how i too, have changed accordingly. and relishing every minute of it, every pungent, sweaty, teary eyed, blood caked moment of it. and it in light of my impending fatherhood, hard as i try, i can’t seem to find any reason now too.

how ‘bout you?

~m

Erie Man discovers how to 'burn' Saltwater!!!

i had read this article this morning but this video that engadget put up is really exciting:

could this be the end of high gas prices?

~m

HA. HA. HA.

i am sure all of you think this is real funny....



~m

Weekends and Webcomics

so apparently babies cost money. even before they are born. lots of money, apparently.

Bridget just had her baby showers and we were really touched by all the nice gifts we got from all our friends and family. yesterday we went out to pick up the rest of the essentials we needed to get before baby gets here, which should be anytime between 2 and 7 weeks from today... baby stuff is expensive, but i really think that the stuff we got is worth it... i guess all we gotta do right now is sit and wait for him to get here....(Tom Petty’s ‘The Waiting’ plays in the background)

in other news, labor day weekend was just awesome. we got to spend time with Bridget’s parents and my buddy John came up so we got to hang out with him too. we miss John. he needs to move closer to PA... Monday we got to fire off a couple rounds from my other buddy’s Bushmaster C AR-15 and the .45 XD so that was equally great... on a side note... i need to get to the range more often.... my groups are just pathetic...

those of you who know me have probably heard me mention the webcomic Penny Arcade in some form or another. lately i have noticed that i am, more and more, getting my 'funnies' fix from the internet as opposes to other media. the logical reason for this is that i am on the intenet more often than i am aywhere else because of the nature of my job. now some of you may say that i am not a alltogether logical man nor do i play on on tv so to i say that that is why i believe that there may be another reason alos; you see, just like bloggers, i think that webcomic artists have more creative freedom to express their ideas without being constained by the standards of other media like print or tv. (Wired magazine did a great article on the Penny Arcade guys which echoes a similar notion to this.). as a result i have stumbled upon more than a few really funny stips like this one by Scott Meyer. with the staggering amount of really good material out there, i think that i may be significanly limited if i choose to stick to one type of media exclusively... what do you think?

out for now...

~m

Of Time Past or Five and a Half to Six Pounds

yesterday was the beginning of the 35th week of the pregnancy. it seems so close now. about 5 weeks to go.

a lot has happened since the last post, there has been great loss and great joy but mostly just a lot of the usual nonsense of life... we thoroughly enjoyed the Simpsons movie and i was actually able to catch “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “F4 : Rise of the Silver Surfer”... i really liked the Bourne movie, but then again i have been a fan of the series so that really wasn’t a shocker... F4 was alright... i definitely liked it better than the first Fantastic Four movie but that is really not saying much.

one of my bosses passed away last week. everyone who knew him kinda expected this because he was sick for a while now but you can never really prepare yourself for this kinda thing. He was a good man and a good boss. He was also really, just a very nice guy. He was the one who i interviewed with for this job and He was my direct supervisor.

He will be missed. Greatly.

Bridget and i have been trying to keep up with the preparations for the arrival of the baby ... getting the birthing plan done, prepping the room, etc. etc. etc. all here doctors’ visits have been going fine and in fact, he has estimated that the kid weights around 5.5 to 6.0 pounds already(!). Awesome. Bridget is feeling the babies kicks and movements much more pronounced lately and the enormity of it all is leaving her more than a just little tired and expectedly uncomfortable. still, all is going well.

Sunday is Bridget’s shower so her parents are coming up and then my buddy John is coming up this Monday so this should be another good weekend.

~m

Interview with Homer Simpson and Dan Castellaneta on the Bob and Tom Show

this was live this morning on the Bob and Tom Show... i added the pics...

enjoy!

~m