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Wednesday, October 27, 2004 Birthday Overload Parker went to three birthday parties in almost as many days this weekend. By the third part, he finally understood the presents were not for him, but I am worried he will be expecting cake and ice cream on every weekend. At the last party, he did have a meltdown when his friend Steven got a big bag of Hot Wheels cars which Parker craved, it much the same way that people are driven made for gold in old Westerns. I finally carried him to the playroom, where there is an enormous train table. As I set him before it, he stopped crying, wiped his nose, and announced calmly: "I feel better." ------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, October 26, 2004 LucasArts with Blinders On When reading this article, it's apparent that the original Star Wars negatives were completely cleaned prior to updating for the latest edition. That completely blows Lucas' argument that the originals are not release because it would be too expensive to clean them up for release. Even more disturbing is the side blurb from LucasArts marketing manager, Jim Ward: As with many restorations made with the cooperation of living directors, the Â?Star Wars TrilogyÂ? introduced content changes, mandated by Lucas, to conform narrative and look and feel in the original trilogy with characters and visuals introduced in the later films. Some were controversial with fans. Jim, financial success does not equal the winning of this argument. The fact that people bought the darn thing speaks to how powerful Star Wars is regarded by the public. But there are far more than 5 people complaining of the changes. Even people who have bought them have complained of the changes. And not just fan boys. My mom can't understand why they have been changed either, and she is hardly a science faficionadocianado. The changes are controversial to a large number of people, Jim. They just don't think it will do any good to be vocal about their complaints. ------------------------------------------------
Sunday, October 17, 2004 Peoples is Peoples I can't stand ignorant people. Three cases in point: Towns throughout the Bible Belt have protested that Halloween falls this year on Sunday, and have instead decided to hold Halloween festivities on Saturday instead. Segeral people quoted in the stories I read spoke of how Halloween celebrates "the Devil, not the Lord". Now a town in Louisiana wants to ban Halloween for 'promoting Witchcraft'. Now it is true that the practice of celebrating Halloween does come from pagan rituals from before Christianity. But the early church adopted this practice into its religion by creating All Saints Day, the day after Halloween. And the basic message of Halloween is still to protect people from evil spirits. How is that different from an exorcism? On National Public Radio, the topic of discussion was the National Rifle's Association's attempt to spread an anti-Kerry message to their supporters. One of their methods was a bumper sticker that played off of Kerry's nickname, the Poodle, by showing a picture of a poodle and stating "This Dog Don't Hunt". In point of fact, the poodle is a bird dog, bred specifically for hunting. Its perfected coif was designed specifically for hunting and wading through water to bring back downed birds. So, in reality, this dog does hunt. The rifleman are confusing the image of the poodle as a pampered pet with its original intended use, and their bumper sticker loses all meaning to anyone who knows anything about dogs. Rapper KRS-One stated in a recent interview that 9-11 "doesn't affect us the hip-hop community." "9-11 happened to them, not us," he added, explaining that by "them" he meant "the rich ... those who are oppressing us. RCA or BMG, Universal, the radio stations." Well, KRS neglects to notice that 9-11 put this country into a recession, which cost millions of people their jobs, including people within the hip-hop community. Of the 3000 killed, there were not only accountants and executives, but office managers, maintenance and custodial workers, which certainly are not to be included among the rich. It led, directly and indirectly, to the U.S. committing itself to two wars, which affected millions as well, including the hip-hop community. To think that 9-11 only affected the most affluent in America, and no one else, is being ignorant of the facts. ------------------------------------------------
Friday, October 15, 2004 Where there's no Smoke, There is Still a Fire, Probably When I first read on the Drudge Report that the Kerry-Edwards action plan for election day called for Democrats to cry voter intimidation in precincts regardless of whether proof existed, I believed it was a spurious claim. What party in its right mind would do such a thing, and in an open matter. To his credit, Drudge to link to a rebuttal on the DNC website to his report. However, the DNC page does not issue a rebuttal per se, but rather says his excerpt was not taken in full context. After reading their full action plan, I don't think it was. II. HOW TO ORGANIZE TO PREVENT AND COMBAT VOTER INTIMIDATION Section 2 clearly spells it out: even if there is no evidence of voter intimidation in a precinct, go ahead and have community leaders talk about it and give the impression that it is going to happen. That in and of itself might indeed have the intended consequence of ensuring it does not happen, but it also enforces the idea that it is likely to occur, further weakening people's perception of how powerful their vote can be. ------------------------------------------------
Friday, October 08, 2004 You Gotta Admit, "Mansquito" is a Catchy Title This truly explains why Sci-Fi Channel's schedule is so terrible - their scheduling department actually comes up with their movies. That's right. Their Neilsen analyzers decide what movie they can sell. Sadly, their increased ratings show that they are effectively reaching their target audiences. Maybe this says more to the audience than the film. ------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, October 05, 2004 Finally! Swamp Dogg on Itunes According to the new internet economic model, obscure music and entertainment can revitalize all entertainment industries. As the cost of retail space becomes irrelevant, the amount of revenue available in the Long Tail, that merchandise which before was deemed unprofitable due to smaller sales, becomes the most important merchandise in the market. Research shows that if you take the bottom 80% of the market, be it books, or cds, or movies, the revenue made from the sale of all these items combined is about twice as much as that of the top 20%, which were considered the bestsellers. Netflix and Amazon show that the mainstream can be directed to the smaller sales items through recommendations, and the markets can double or even triple in sales. ------------------------------------------------
Sunday, October 03, 2004 Stay on Target As you may have noticed, we have not been blogging recently. We just changed servers and it’s been a bit hectic trying to figure out how to make the blog transition in between intermittent brownouts. However, we are now back up and running. Be sure to read down the page, as I have about a week’s worth of posts to post. ------------------------------------------------
The Slightly Transparent Veil Kristin and I were looking at information on all three Presidential candidates to see whom we agreed with, and on what issues. While looking at stances on immigration, we ended up on this site detailing Kerry’s record and stated stances on various immigration issues. On first glance, this page seems to show a telling reversal in Kerry’s views on immigration. Before 2003, his voting record as a Senator seems to be against any laws that favor giving new or additional rights to immigrants. After 2003, all of his quotes and stances seem to be pro-immigration. This seems to affirm my belief that Kerry’s stance on an issue depends on he is stumping for – as a Massachusetts senator, issue on immigrant rights was not important to him, but as a Presidential candidate, they are of paramount importance. However, on closer inspection, it is impossible to tell based on this voting record what Kerry’s stance was on the issue prior to 2003. Of the three votes listed, only one was for the specific amendment mentioned. The other two were parts of much larger packages of appropriations and budget bills. The site cleverly does not mention this fact, but instead extrapolates that since Kerry voted against the larger bill, he voted specifically against this amendment in the bill. This is why I hate the way a government legislature can add amendments and riders to bills that have nothing to do with the original bill in the first place. If we base a politicians record solely on how they vote, there are probably an equal number of good amendments that are voted against as there are bad amendments that get passed, simply because they are tied to a larger piece of legislation. I think a government body should vote on any piece of legislation separately, rather than en masse. If a law is not important enough that it be brought out and discussed before the legislature as a whole, then it is not important enough to be passed into law. But I can still judge Kerry on what bills he has sponsored, and the paucity of bills he himself has written. And I can still follow up loosely on his voting record. ------------------------------------------------
Saturday, October 02, 2004 Star Warped I am altering the trilogy again. Pray I don’t alter it any further. Kristin says I have been obsessing about this, but I thought I would get my points down, one last time, for anyone that wants to read them. The Star Wars DVDs were just released. And Lucas once again has decided to change and alter the films, like he did for the special edition, but this time to make them more consistent with the new prequel trilogy. This includes dubbing over Boba Fett’s voice, digitally inserting Ian McDiarmid over the actor who played the Emperor in Empire, and replacing the ghost of Anakin Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi with Hayden Christianson. I recognize the artistic reasons Lucas did this, and I am all for him wanting to make his films as he sees them. What I do object to is his altering the story, and then acting as if his originals no longer matter or have no inherent worth. He knows says the original theatrical releases should be considered rough cuts, and that he mostly dissatisfied with them. Currently he has no plans to release them on DVD, and considers that case closed. His belief that the current films is evident in the advertising for the DVDs, which claims these are the original classics. The thing is, the original films have inherent worth as a historical and cultural work of art. It is important to retain them as the originally were, because they were a watershed moment for the film industry and special effects as we know them today. In deciding they have no value and discarding them, Lucas is going against a personal cause he does support – the preservation of film as culture and art. Others recognize this – the last VHS set that included the unaltered films now sells on eBay for upwards of $120-$150 dollars, which is an astonishing price for a film on a format that is rapidly becoming obsolete. Even more disturbing to me are the fans that openly support the changes and deride the films that existed before. Some even advocate further changes in the future, including removing the puppet Yoda for the CGI one in Empire and Return of the Jedi. Which to me would be anathema. As my coworker Allan said, “There is more humanity in Frank Oz’s hand than a computer program can ever hope to achieve.” ------------------------------------------------
Friday, October 01, 2004 Evil Can Never Stand against a Stratocaster and an Aria. Never.  At work today we talked about obscure animated films we watched as a child. I remembered a film I used to watch called Rock N Rule, a story about the battle between good and evil in an apocalyptic future decided by Rock N Roll stars. The neatest thing I found on this site was information on a company attempting to release this film now on DVD – it is an interesting look at how a DVD gets made, especially when asking the fans of a cult film themselves what they would like to see in a release. Look under Movie Info, and click on the link at the very bottom about current news of the release of the film. ------------------------------------------------
You Say you Want a Revolution? I could not believe this article when I read it Lennon Fans Threaten his Killer as Release Looms Wasn’t Lennon all about peace and non-violence? It seems his fans need to listen his albums a little bit more closely in the future. ------------------------------------------------
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Monday, October 18, 2004 My Little Ball of Anger Parker has become this little ball of anger seemingly overnight. Jeff and I both don't get it!! He screams "no" at us, hits at us, knowing that if he doesn't stop he'll be put in his room to calm down, and then opens and slams his door, throws stuff inside his room, etc.!! I am at a complete loss for what to do, how to get him to express his anger or frustration or WHATEVER it is in a healthy, non-destructive way!! I mean, he's even barrelled into me in anger, hitting not just me, but little Sprout as well!! It is CRAZY, I tell you!! Right now, he's in his room crying about it ... which he always does as SOON as he is put in his room (he's able to choose when he leaves on his own, and often comes out all smiles, and hugs and "sorry"s ...). ------------------------------------------------
Parker's Birthday Trip Parker started getting sick on Thursday with a cold after we'd made non-refundable reservations in Orlando. So, Friday, after Jeff's dental appointment (which was later than we thought, he had to wait 30 minutes for a 15-minute cleaning -- aren't cleanings supposed to be longer than that??), and after making sure we had everything packed, we headed out. Jeff told me we had to be there by 2:30 for something that was a surprise that had also been pre-paid -- we were running quite late and I was very stressed about us making it there in time. We ended up stopping to grab lunch and I asked him to call to see about pushing whatever it was back even a little, so that we'd have some extra breathing room. They couldn't, so we were stuck. I started to get really, really stressed about that and having to constantly reach back and wipe Parker's runny nose. So -- Jeff told me what it was. He booked me an hour-long maternity massage at the Grand Floridian Spa!! Oh, it was awesome!! After the massage I showered (I had oil all over), and then we went to the Grand Floridian for High Tea. Unfortunately, Parker didn't nap, and wasn't in the mood for being "proper" and polite there, so Parker and Jeff left several times to explore the Grand Floridian resort hotel while I leisurely enjoyed my tea. I really felt honored, and that this anniversary of Parker's birth, though I had always considered it to be solely about him, was also about me becoming a mom. It was very, very special, and Jeff made it that way. The late afternoon/evening was ALL about Parker, as we entered the Magic Kingdom. First we stopped to hear the end of a Surprise celebration for Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or some other Princess , and Parker was entralled!! It was at the castle, so he had a blast. The park was SO INCREDIBLY CROWDED!! I couldn't believe it, since it wasn't a holiday weekend and there was no special event that night. We then went around and looked at things, and ended up only doing a few of the attractions, including Grand Prix racing (Parker ADORED this), Winnie the Pooh's ride, and the Phantasmic Music thingie (I'm really bad about remembering it all). Parker stayed awake for fireworks (which were at 10 pm!! with NO NAP!!), and promptly conked out. We left the park then, and rode the boat back to the Grand Floridian (he loved the boat ride to Magic Kingdom, too). By the time we got to the van, that was still parked at the Spa , it was 11 pm. And here's where the day soured. We head towards the condo/resort we booked through Expedia that was in a neighboring town/county. We got a "little" lost, but only lost about 10 minutes or so. We get there, and there is a LINE OF CARS at the front gate for check in. We waited at least 30 minutes, probably closer to 45 to even talk to the attendant. Then, they have no record of our reservation, and have to take all our information a second time (they had better not charge us twice!!!). We get to our room, I lay a sleeping Parker in the bed, take his pants off, change his diaper, wipe his face with a warm washcloth, brush his teeth .... and then Jeff tells me he's brought everything in from the van. ..."Where's the suitcase?" ..."Hunh?" ..."The suitcase? Our clothes? It mus be still out in the van, will you go check?" ..."Uh, ok." He comes back a few minutes later ...."It isn't there." ..."What? You mean we have no clothes except for what we're wearing?" Needless to say, I'm not pleased. So, I go to pull back the sheets on our bed to climb in just in my underwear, and there are ANTS on the bed!!! So ... Jeff has to go get another room. Once he's back, the van is repacked, and I'm redressed, we shuffle into the van and drive to the other condo suite with a sleeping Parker, who is coughing and runny, and wakes up a bit more. We get there, no ants, but only a queen size bed. We all get in bed, and with Parker being sick, and me not having extra pillows to get myself comfortable (hey -- I'm pregnant, dang it!!), I just get angry. Parker is just pushing up against me and I finally ask Jeff to pull him into the middle at least. Well, this is enough to really upset Parker who rolls around some more and cries and screams. I resign my self to discomfort as both men fall back asleep. I finally, at 3 am, move to the couch, and find some semblance of comfort. Parker wakes us up at 8:30 am, sounding even worse, with much more snot pouring out (really, it was soooo gross!!). I want to go home. After FINALLY going, two hours later, to have breakfast at IHOP (which in and of itself was less than fun -- the place was packed, traffic was horrible to get there, and Parker wasn't too keen on keeping at all quiet or still), I work on convincing Jeff that we should just go home. Parker's breathing to me seemed worse (though we counted and it was 40/minute, which is fine), and he was miserable, I was miserable -- oh, and the condo? The walls are SO PAPER THIN, that you could hear people's conversations!! We'd planned to go to MGM for shows (in theatres with lots of other people and kids -- I didn't want to do that to Parker or the other kids!!) and then to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival (which still would require pushing around a coughy, irritable Parker), but when Parker said HE wanted to go home and "play cars", Jeff finally realized that we'd be happier doing that. We all napped in the room before heading out at 2 pm. So, Friday was great, and Saturday convinced us to leave. All in all, I definitely think it was a great birthday celebration for both me and Parker. I just wish we'd remembered our clothes, not been sick, and not chosen such a dysfunctional, ill-prepared place to stay. ------------------------------------------------
Thursday, October 14, 2004 He can't be sick!! So, Jeff finally convinced me to take Parker to Disney this weekend for his birthday. We tried to make reservations yesterday at a resort --BOOKED SOLID at any resaonable price. They said the cheapest they could give us was over $700 for Fri/Sat nights!!! Soooo ... we decided we'd keep looking around. This morning, Jeff finally secured a room at An Island Resort and Spa (a condominium place) for those two nights, totalling less than $150 after taxes and fees. Well, Parker and I woke up to take Jeff to work this morning, since we went and picked him up and took him to dinner last night after playgroup, and his car was still parked at work. So, after that we went to Wal-Mart, and got home around 10 am. Parker was ready for a nap at around 10:30 ... he went to bed late last night, so I figured this was fine. Fast forward to about 1 pm, when he woke up. He came out of his room, and sounded hoarse. He dry-heaved, like he needed something to drink. Got him something to eat and drink, and then noticed a runny nose. I thought it might be a fluke, but it has only gotten worse, complete with sneezing. I don't know what to do?!?!? I mean, the reservations really can't be cancelled at this point. Jeff had been making all these other plans, including a Tea Party at one of the parks, a character dining at Crystal Palace with Winnie-the-Pooh, etc., etc. Do we just go and cancel all of the other things that didn't require pre-payment? Do we try and go to everything? I feel terrible that we'll be taking him with a runny nose, and exposing all these others to his yuckiness, not to mention him being icky feeling!! What a horrible way to spend your birthday. ------------------------------------------------
Sunday, October 10, 2004 Saturday mornings Parker woke me up this morning by crawling over me and laying between me and Jeff and showing me the library card he’d found. It has a picture of the building and the trees out front of the main library in downtown Gainesville. So, as I tried to gain consciousness (and hoped Jeff would wake up), we talked about the card. “Look a building!” “Yeah, what else do you see?” “People go in the building.” “Unh-hunh. What else? Are there trees?” “YES!! And windows!” “Cool.” Then he gets up. I don’t know where he’s going, and honestly, I don’t care. Within 30 seconds, he’s back. This time, he has TWO library cards (we have three in the house – one for each of us, so it could be any combination of them). And he crawls back over me to show me that he has two. “Be careful of Sprout, honey.” “Look, another building!” “Yes, you have two now. What color is the building? Is it … beige?” “It’s yellow!!” “Oh yeah, yellow. How many trees does it have?” “TWO!!” And off he goes again. This time he comes back with my University of Florida ID card (yes, I still have it – it might allow me to get into movies cheaper, darn it!), and he says, “Look! Here’s Mama!! Here you go,” as he hands me the card. And off he goes again. Then he comes back with both another library card and our blue BankOne Visa card. He asks what it is and I ask him the color. “Blue and white and yellow!” “Yep.” “Look at all the buildings!” he says as he spreads all the cards out next to me. “Yeah, those are the same, aren’t they?” “Whoa, and Mama and blue!!” “Yeah. Neat.” I am slowly reaching consciousness and know that I do not want to get up. I need to sleep. “Wake up, Mama!” “I’m awake, I’m awake.” Then, he goes around the bed to Jeff – YES!! “Daddy, wake up!!” And Jeff gets up. I ask him the time, and he tells me it is 8 am. On Sunday. Sigh. I guess young kids don’t yet appreciate the concept of sleeping in. As soon as Jeff gets up, Parker says, “Time to EAT!!” I say, “Parker, please put those cards back on the computer table.” Parker replies, “Okay, Mama,” and runs off to do it. Jeff, needing to pee starts to walk past the kitchen. “No, Daddy, THAT way!” Parker says while pointing Jeff to the kitchen. “But Daddy needs to go pee-pee, Parker.” “No Daddy, time to eat!” “What do you want to eat?” “Uhhhh ---“ “Cheerios?” “No, Daddy.” “Ummm, Cheerios?” “Nooooo, Daddy.” “Ok, I’m gonna go to the bathroom, let me know what you want.” “Need to eat, Daddy.” “You want yogurt?” “Yes, oh-gurt!!” So, Jeff voids his bladder, washes hands, gets yogurt, and I decide to stay in bed. I finally get up at about 9:30, blissfully better rested than I was at 8 am. Parker is upset that Spiderman isn’t coming on today. He sees me, though, and proceeds to tell me what he did get to watch on Sunday morning TV. “Hey Mama! I watched the red train and the blue train! I saw bears, cups and teapot! And there was a boat and a tunnel. Too small, too small, yeah!!” I look at Jeff, a little bewildered, and Jeff looks back a little shocked. Apparently, this is exactly what happened on the first Thomas the Tank Engine show that Parker has ever seen. There were trains, including a blue and red one. A train was carrying bears, tablecloths, teacups and a teapot for a tea party. And then a train carrying a boat had to choose between three tunnels. One was too short, one was too narrow, and one was just right. Jeff tells more of the story, including a train falling into rocks, which Parker then tells me that it was “snow”. I am beyond impressed at his ability to recall all of that after seeing it only once. ------------------------------------------------
Monday, October 04, 2004 Today has been an odd day for me. First, Parker and I went through his winter clothes, to see what e has and oesn't have, what fits and is too big/small. He actually did fairly good modeling for me, so that made it a lot easier. It is crazy how different sizes can be and still fit! It is a horrible system we have over here! He still fits in some 24-month clothes, and also all the way up to some 3T. And yet some 3T are just literally falling off of him! The biggest limiting factor is his tiny waist (so bigger pants may fall off and small pants may fit) and his big head (so smaller shirts can't fit on; but there was even a 2T that would have fit if it had a bigger neck or even a button!!). Second, I felt all day today that I was further along in this pregnancy than I am. I can't explain it, but I had to keep reminding myself that I'm not quite 24 weeks. I was thinking mentally that I was like 32 weeks. I'm guessing this is all part of the nesting syndrome that I missed out on with Parker. Honestly, though, nesting does a house good. This weekend, I did like 8 loads of laundry, we got dry-cleaning out, the lawn mowed, weeds pulled, the lint area of the dryer cleaned (meaning I got a screwdriver, removed the screen, and used tongs to pull thick layers of lint out! It honestly was shocking, because we clean the lint filter at least once a cycle, sometimes twice!! I think we might completely replace the dryer hose for the exhaust too -- we don't need any chance at a fire!) Third, Parker I believe has entered a "Daddy" phase. He likes it when it is bedtime and Jeff reads him stories and then sings him to sleep. I like it too, but it is definitely a change. Parker is always such a sweetheart too, and says "Goodnight" with hugs and kisses for Sprout. I just love my Bug! ------------------------------------------------
Sunday, October 03, 2004 Planting Sprouts Today, Parker and I started on a science lesson. We planted flower seeds in a greenhouse set that my sister gave me for Christmas last year. Parker really enjoyed it, and within 2 or 3 weeks, we'll see the sprouts start and talk about how seeds grow and all. We talked about planting seeds in soil today. It's appropriate too since just last night, Jeff and I decided since we don't know whether this boy will be a girl or boy, we needed a nickname for him/her other than "baby". Parker's nickname was "Bug", so we stuck with the nature theme and decided on "Sprout". I can't wait to see the full blossom. ------------------------------------------------
Saturday, October 02, 2004 Parker the Singer Parker is such a joy ... so full of knowledge and energy! It is a great age, though trying at times. He loves singing now, and it is the cutest thing to hear ever. He sings, "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "ABCs", and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He's trying to learn "Wheels on the Bus", "Hickory Dickory Dock", and "Star Light, Star Bright". Once I learn how to record him singing them and get them on this computer, I will share ... oh yes I will!! ------------------------------------------------
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