Full Throttle for kids?

A few days ago when I filled up my gas tank with my kids' college fund I noticed a radio station was there promoting whatever. I approached them and was met with a friendly staffer who offered me a Full Throttle energy drink. I took it, said thanks, and was on my way. Remembering the ads and commercials of how powerful and great FT was I was anticipating something a little more full of oomph. When I tasted it I was amazed to realize that, to me, Full Throttle tastes like gummy bears. Very nice fruit gummy bears, not the cheap ones, but good quality gummy bears. Now did I feel so full of energy that I could finish my basement in a day? No. Was I able to stay awake for the rest of my shift at work. Sure. So here's my word of advice to the Coca-Cola company. If you're going to make an energy drink and taut it as the overpowered steroid-infused muscle bound tough guy that you think it is, make it taste like something other than a candy beloved by my one year old.

My Mario is better than your Mario

With the recent purchase of the Wii, I asked my brother-in-law if I could borrow his Mario Galaxy game so that we would have something else to play other than the sports game we have. While the controls were very much unlike any other Mario game I've played, after awhile it all seemed second nature. Even Jesse was able to pick up on the controls quickly and even passed a few levels. He made the comment to me yesterday that Uncle Dustin's Mario is better than our Mario. Our Mario is from the Super Mario World version on the Gameboy. Appearantly riding a dinosaur isn't nearly as cool as walking around on little planets. I'm guessing Jesse wouldn't fully appreciate how far Mario has come from his 8-bit days as a plumber.

Wii!!

I'm still amazed that after being out on the market for almost a year and a half, it's still nearly impossible to get a Nintendo Wii, which brings me to my current blog entry. Jesse started his new season of Tee-ball yesterday, but I needed to get him a mitt. Since there is a Wal-Mart about a stones throw away from my work I headed over there on my lunch break. I got the mitt and decided just for kicks to check out the video game selection. At the Nintendo section I noticed a large box that said Wii Sports. Upon further inspection I realized that I was staring at an actual Wii. Just then a friendly employee walked by and asked if I needed anything. Dubiously I asked "Is that a Wii?" He replied "Ya, you want it?" I answered "Ya". You gotta love Wal-Mart.

That night we got it all hooked up and ready to go. It came with the sports game that features tennis, bowling, baseball, golf and boxing. I must say that already I'm not nearly as good at those games as I thought I would be. Bowling, I'm ok, but Jesse is better at me at baseball and Melissa kicked my butt at golf. And tennis. Is there a Mortal Kombat available for the Wii? I'll have to look into that. In the meantime I have to admit that this thing is pretty cool, and it's the first Nintendo console that I've bought since I got the SNES back in 1991. Funny thing is, it was only $50 more than the SNES new, but at least that came with 2 controllers.

Tax Day

With just over 24 hours to spare, Melissa and I finalized our taxes and sent them in. I used to think that taxes were fairly easy to do, just somewhat time consuming. We've always used a tax preparation software to help us (I recommend TaxCut) so it's been pretty easy. This year we had to deal with stock options, and it was such a pain in the butt! Oh well, now I just have to sit back, relax, wait for the refund to come.

The Return of Battlestar Galactica

If you're not watching it, you're missing out on the best show on TV. Don't get me wrong, Heroes is awesome, the Office is king of funny, but this show the best. Period. And, you don't need cable TV to watch it, you can just go to www.scifi.com/bsg and watch it for free! You'll thank me for it, just like I have thanked my older bro. Thanks Steve!

In Memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. who died on this day in history, here are some excerpts from his "I have a dream" speech.

• "In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'"


• "It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual."
  "The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people. For many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We can not walk alone."


• "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"


• "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."


• "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will they be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood."


• "This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."


• "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."


• "Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Laments of a power computer

At my day job I recently received a brand new quad core computer, 3 Gig of RAM, 2 160 GB HD's in a SATA raid, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Sounds great, right? Well, among the new programs I got was Office 2007. I'm a big fan of programs like Excel and OneNote, but this beefy machine for all its quadruple processing muscle, has a hard time rendering my dozen or so graphs that are on one sheet. Appearantly processor #2 doesn't like it when I move graphs around or try to edit them. I've never had this problem even with my home computer which is just a lowly dual core. Maybe my video card is better. It can handle WoW like a champ. I'd hate to think a PCI-e video card in my work computer is being outclassed by a TV tuner card in my home computer. Now, if you understood any of this blog, I'm sorry, you're a geek like me. If not, you're normal and should just be grateful that your mind isn't bothered with such silly minutiae. Actually, I've just been looking for a good reason to use the word "minutiae" (pronounced min-u-sha). Me <---- dork