Story Time with Kael

Last night after dinner, Kael decided to tell us a story… and I’m going to share it with you:

One day there was a baby geese and it was looking for its mother. He found another geese, but it wasn’t his mother. It was his brother! So, they took off flying and found a snowman. But it wasn’t built by his mother. It was built by his father. So, they took off walking and found their mother. And they were so happy to find their mother.

Then there was a big dragon. And he opened his mouth…and he ate them.

Then, the dragon opened his mouth again and ate their snowman.

Then, the dragon opened his mouth again and ate their house.

And that’s the end.

Such a sweet, happy ending we thought it was going to have.. and then the dragon ate everyone…

iPhone!

After much rumormonger, and speculation.. Apple today announced the iPhone!

Cingular will be the exclusive US carrier.. the phone itself is still awaiting FCC approval (so it’ll be at least 2 months before its available). No buttons, all touch screen, runs a stripped down version of OSX. Comes in two configurations 4Gig and 8Gigs (it has iPod functionality built in obviously)… $499/$599 with a two year contract..so.. I probably won’t be replacing my phone any time soon.

Also introduced today is Apple TV (the iTV codenamed product). Which is essentially just a 40Gig hard drive with wireless and TV connections on it to stream from iTunes to your TV (It will synch with one copy of iTunes, just like an iPod).. too bad the AppleTV isn’t a DVR..then I’d buy one.. probably won’t get one in its current incarnation…although, I suppose if I bought more movies from iTunes it might be worth it.

They want me to pay????

Unbelievable!

after finding out that there is a open source solution for TiVo’s programmers being unable to find their ass with both hands… TiVo today sends me their newsletter telling me that they have released an ‘official’ version of TiVoToGo for the Mac… and.. all I have to do is BUY it from another company! (here’s the text from their newsletter)

Oh, Mac friends…

Yes, the day has finally arrived when we can share this much anticipated news with our most loyal, passionate, and oh-so-patient Mac friends: We’ve partnered with Roxio to enable TiVoToGo in Toast 8 Titanium, available TODAY!

Yes, you can now transfer your favorite TiVo recordings to your Mac, watch them in a player, burn them to DVD, and convert them for playback on iPod or PSP

Right…so.. lets see if I have this right:

1 – Over two years after first announced

2 – Not from TiVo

3 – A product I have to purchase from a different company, to use a feature included in my monthly subscription fee to TiVo. And for the low, low, price of $69.99 at that…

And geniuses over at TiVo, please do answer this.. why the hell would I want to pay another company to use a feature of your service that I’m already paying you for???? Do you think Mac Users are stupid? Or do you think your product is good enough we should pay someone else to let us use your product…

You guys are idiots if you think this is a good idea… I’ll stick with the Free and Perfectly functional Open Source product to use the feature I’m already paying you to let me use…

Free Laptops!

I was reading ArsTechnica today at work, and apparently, while I was on vacation, there was a torrid scandal in the blogosphere about Microsoft giving some bloggers early copies of Vista to review.. of course, thats mainly because they gave them fully loaded Acer Ferrari laptops as “review units”, and apparently didn’t require the units to be returned.

Continue reading Free Laptops!

Turn Around!

Maryn’s 1 year doctor appointment was cancelled (they apparently felt that 4 inches of snow was too much to stay open through… wimps..), so we don’t have her official one year measurements..but..she definitely feels like she’s over 20lbs.. so, we turned her car seat around, and she now sits forward enjoying the view with the rest of us!

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1st Birthday!

Today is Maryn’s 1st Birthday! We had her party with family and friends back on the 16th, so everyone would have a little break between birthday and the holidays. Today, we took her to Build-A-Bear to make a new stuffed animal.. she chose a dog (she’s quite the little dog person).

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quite the little Princess huh?

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And this is Kael giving Maryn’s new puppy a bath at Build a Bear..

Hard to believe she’s already one….this year has just flown by!

Christmas!

Maryn’s first Christmas! As has become our tradition, we went over to Jan’s parents’ house to exchange gifts with her family on Christmas eve, then did our gifts and the gifts from Santa on Christmas morning at our house.

The kids’ increased their holiday haul pretty significantly after the trip to the grandparents:

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Look..matching PJs!

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opening that morning haul

She failed a what test?

You know.. sometimes you find the strangest things on the internet.. for example.. did you know that there was a Gender test? and, that its possible to fail it?

Its true… read this.

Yup.. failed the gender test.. so, does that mean she doesn’t have a gender? wouldn’t a gender test just have two results, Male or Female? Not pass/fail?

Chanukah!

For Chanukah this year, the kids lit the Menorah (well..Kael did, Maryn is still a little to small to be playing with fire)

We went over to my mom’s to exchange gifts, as is expected..the kids made out like Bandits.. at this rate, we’re going to need to move to a bigger house, to make sure there is room for all their stuff!

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Happy Chanukah! to everyone!

Burning Crusade Cinematic

Blizzard ‘premiered’ the opening cinematic to the Burning Crusade expansion the other night at the Video Game Awards.. I didn’t watch the show (and apparently, the video didn’t get a lot of camera time anyway)..but.. you can now view the cinematic yourself.. Blizzard’s download link is here. (DiVx format).

I love the way the Blood Elf is shown draining the Mana Wyrm… and the Mage sheeping the dude in mid air is funny too