Now that the kids are watching some TV and we’re liking the 15 or so minutes that [readmore] it gives us to get stuff done around the house it’s the perfect time for the little LCD display with built-in DVD player that we’ve got in our bedroom to go on the fritz and stop playing DVDs! It will play some disks with almost no problem – sometimes there is a little stutter here and there, but nothing too bad while some do not even load to the menu – particularly the Baby Einstein DVDs that we would rather the kids watch. We purchased the extended warranty when we bought the TV a couple of years ago. I don’t generally buy these warranties on consumer electronics, but the salesman seemed pretty sincere when he told us that the built-in DVD player [i]will[/i] stop working and that this would entitle us to a replacement.

I guess it’s time to see if Circuit City stands behind their extended warranty plan.[/readmore]

[list]
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568984480/bujinkanmartia0b/]Thinking with Type[/url] is a great introduction to typography. There is a whole culture around type usage and type design that I never knew existed. Sure, I love to download fonts, but this book, I think, has made me a bit of a font snob. I feel like a few good fonts is all we really need (and as web designers/developers/publishers, we really can only rely on a few) rather than the bloated list that now resides on my machines. So, now I know what [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descender]descenders[/url] and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascender]ascenders[/url] are and the differnce between [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Em_(typography)]ems[/url] and [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En_(typography)]ens[/url]. The author also goes beyond just type itself to discuss the methods of using it to create or enhance the material that is to be printed. It’s really a great book that has opened my eyes to a [url=http://www.ilovetypography.com]world[/url] that I never knew existed.
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416552510/bujinkanmartia0b/]Duma Key[/url] by Stephen King. I seem to be on a bit of a King roll lately. I decided to read this after having read some good reviews on Amazon. I’m glad I did. It’s a tidy little story about a man who loses his arm (and nearly his life) in an accident and “retires” to a little island in the Florida keys to recover. As you can imagine, crazy shit starts to go down. Interestingly, King chose to tell this story in the first person. I’m not sure how often he has done that before, but I can’t think of any that I’ve read up to now. Short stories, yes, but not a whole book. As usual, his characters are so well written and mostly likeable that I read through the whole thing rather quickly. I’d recommend that you take this book with you on a beach vacation.
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590595335/bujinkanmartia0b/]DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model[/url] – I bought this book a while back but never really made it through the whole thing. I guess I filled my brain on the first two chapters alone and didn’t need to continue for a while. It’s been sitting on my shelf mocking me, taunting me “Come on you loser, you want to know more about getElementsbyId and what makes that shitty [url=http://www.jquery.com]jQuery[/url] code that you’ve been playing with tick.” Ehhh…yeah, so that’s what happens while I’m in my office and my mind wanders.
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553287893/bujinkanmartia0b/]Rendezvous with Rama[/url] – In tribute to the recent passing of Arthur C. Clarke, I decided to sit down to a few of his more popular novels. This one was on the top of the list. What can I say, the man was a genius and wrote like I would expect a genius to write.
[/list]

As mentioned [url=http://don.oninohana.com/blog/?postid=276]a few entries back[/url], Chloe is really starting to talk. Although the “Me make poo poo” thing may have been a misunderstanding. The next day after the first spoke those words, the said the same thing a few times, but this time she was pointing at Gabriel’s shirt that had Winnie the Pooh printed on it.

“Me make poo poo” = “Winnie the Pooh (poo)”

Yes, Gabriel and Chloe tend to add an extra “poo” on the end of the famous bear’s name. That’s always good for some laughs.

Anyway, as I was saying she is really making strides with her language. One of her recent catchphrases that just cracks me up everytime I hear it is “Down me”. This indicates that she wants to get down from somewhere. I’m not really sure what I find to be so funny about it…maybe it’s her tone of voice. It’s kind of monotone and she tends to speak her little sentences very quickly.

Gabriel is steadily advancing as well, but lately, he’s been letting his hands do the talking. He’s taken to hitting and pulling Chloe’s hair whenever he wants to get our attention or take something with which she’s currently playing. This was a stage that he went through several months ago that luckily passed pretty quickly, but now it’s back with a vengeance. Yesterday, he got six time-outs for misbehaving. Oh yeah, we’re trying to use short time-outs as suggested by our pediatrician. I’m not sure that he understands the concept yet as they don’t seem to be leading to any changes in his behavior.

Any suggestions from my faithful readers?

Against all odds and to our great surprise, we’ve managed to avoid using TV and DVDs to keep Chloe and Gabriel entertained until late last week. That’s almost 20 months with no television (for the kids). We’ve been watching all along although at a MUCH diminished level as my two almost-full DVRs can attest. I can’t say that I miss it all that much. Sure, there are a few shows that I watch on a regular basis like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs but almost everything else has fallen by the wayside.

Why have we waited so long? When Gabriel was discharged from the NICU, one of the doctors gave us the whole rundown on “how to be a good parent to a preemie” and his speech included the medical establishment’s recommendation that television not be a regular part of our childrens’ routine until they are about two years old. We laughed and the doctor, taking off his proverbial doctor-hat, said “I don’t know if this is possible, but you can try.” Lo and behold, we managed to almost make it to 24 months. Sure there were some Baby Einstein videos on now and again (especially when the kids were still little enough to sit in their bouncers) but we don’t really count that as “regular” watching of TV.

Since the only TV we have upstairs is in our room, we put up a gate and the kids sit or stand outside our bedroom door to watch. It’s a very cute scene to watch as they repeat the words they’re hearing or make animal noises when they see something they know on TV.

This was my birthday present.
[img]http://houlenberg.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3318&g2_serialNumber=3[/img]
Ain’t she pretty? It’s been a while since I’ve used an SLR and I’ve never had the opportunity to use one with autofocus prior to playing around with a friend’s camera a few months back so I am amazed by the technology and versatility.

I got an SLR for Christmas one year (I think I was 14 or 15) when I was intent on becoming a photojournalist and was really into taking “ninja pictures”. In addition to just trying to take cool photographs, I liked the technical aspects and knowledge that were required. Finding the “right” shutter speed and aperture setting for the film and conditions and the desired outcome while maintaining focus and awareness of just when to find that perfect shot was, and still is, very exciting. I’m looking forward to really getting to know the camera and taking some great photos.

Robyn thinks that Chloe spoke her first “real” sentence today. [b]”Me make poopoo.”[/b] I don’t doubt it, the girl’s been talking up a storm lately.

I’ve gone desktop and I don’t think I’ll ever go back….

I’ve been loving Google Reader since I started using it last year, but I’ve been increasingly annoyed at it’s slow load times with large or frequently updated feeds and (few) display quirks in [url=http://www.opera.com]Opera[/url]. I already stopped using Gmail a couple months back in favor of my longtime Yahoo! Mail account once Yahoo added the ability to send using your own POP3 account. Yahoo has never failed me and I like the straightforward interface (I have not updated to the newer Outlook-style Yahoo mail).

So, while I had some time on Monday and Tuesday, I gave [url=http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/FeedDemon/Default.aspx]FeedDemon[/url] a try after reading several good reviews. I’ve never used a desktop RSS reader, so there was a little bit of a learning curve with the interface, but right away, I could see that this was much speedier and just as functional. Because I use a few different machines, I signed up for a [url=http://www.newsgator.com]Newsgator[/url] account in order to synch my feeds (which is what I really liked about Google’s app) for reading on another machine with FeedDemon installed or on the Web via NewsGator’s web-based reader with which I have barely played around. I can definitely say the synchronization works well and now that I’m accustomed to the interface, I really like it. There seems to be a lot of customization available including the ability to create command line scripts to send items to different services or save them to a file, etc.

Okay, one more Houlenbabies entry for today. BTW, I’m home all day yesterday and today watching the kids while Robyn does her training for her new outside-the-home job, so I’ve had some time to catch up on some stuff I’ve been wanting to get done, but mostly I’ve been playing with the kids and surfing the web.

After we put Chloe and Gabriel down for the night last night (actually, it’s barely night at 7:30pm anymore), the music from their little star projector stopped and it was quiet for a about 15 seconds. Usually during this time, we wait and listen for any rustling noises on the baby monitor that might indicate someone is still awake and is getting ready to let us know that we need to take some action to help one of more kids get to sleep. But last night it was quiet after the music stopped. A few more seconds elapsed and then Gabriel’s little deep voice was heard saying “All done.”

Robyn and I looked at each other and started quietly cracking up. It was quiet for the rest of the evning.

Robyn was wearing this shirt the other day
[img]http://www.oninohana.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3314&g2_serialNumber=3][/img]
As a side note, she tells me that she wore this to bed every night for the duration of my trip to Japan last year…actually it was almost 2 years ago. Seems like just yesterday…. Anyway, while she was wearing it the other day, one of the kids pointed to the little sumo guy and said “Daddy”.

Gabriel now regularly calls his sister “Clokey”. It’s pretty much how he has pronounced her name for the last few months, but now he really calls her by name (or at least his name for her). It’s very cute.

We finally got the kids’ MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccinations last Friday. This is normally administered around 12 months, but we decided to put it off a bit. Back when we decided to do this, the doctor that we usually see at our pediatrician’s office was not very supportive of our decision and, in fact, gave us a stern talking to about who we should believe when it comes to medical journals and pharmaceutical research. Since that time, we have not been back to see that particular doctor. Instead, we’ve been seeing Dr. Walsh who is a mom of twins and (obviously) a woman. Overall, she’s been much more supportive of our decision to wait on some of the vaccines and seems to have a nice bedside manner.

I could get into the whole MMR-autism thing, but I won’t. We’re pretty much of the opinion that there is no link, but it’s very difficult to be in the position of having to make a single decision about a vaccine that could impact the lives of your children. When we initially agree that we would wait, the likely threat of measles seemed to be way off and not something with which we would have to deal. So, we were surprised when my mother in law called last week to tell us that she had just read that a baby, who had just returned to the States from Israel (and residing on Long Island) had been diagnosed with measles. After doing a little research, I found that the CDC had released a measles advisory for those travelling to Israel.

Now, for most, this would not be a big deal if you weren’t planning on going to Israel. Well, what are the odds of our unvaccinated children living right across the street from husband and wife flight attendents of Israeli origin who also happen to be living an “holistic” lifestyle and have not had their kids vaccinated either? Pretty low, right? So, we decided to get the vaccination a month ahead of our schedule.

Our kids are doing great.

Back in the days of working as a long distance operator there were a lot of interesting characters that we met. Amazingly, although some of [url=http://don.oninohana.com/blog/?postid=13]our “regular” customers[/url] with whom we spoke were very quite odd, I think what made the job more interesting were some of our coworkers. At the busiest times (the center would hire summer help for the summers), the operator population was split about 50/50; people under the age of, let’s say, 28 and those (mostly women) over the age of 40.

The women who had been there for some time were comfortable with their positions and were generally happy to be doing their jobs and going home. Being union represented employees, most had some seniority so they got the hours they wanted, plenty of vacation, great benefits and excellent pay for being “unskilled”. Very few had any desire to move up in the company or change anything about the work environment. So, I think it was safe to say that some felt, not threatened because the union had their backs, but a little intimidated by the influx of young temps and new-hires (of which I was a part) who were coming in at a time when the technology and work place was changing. Truth be told, they really had nothing to worry about as very few of us had much interest in making any moves within the company or staying on past a couple of years. It was a pretty good gig for us and there were a lot of stories that came about from the interaction of this interesting cast of characters.

Here’s one to get started: I’m calling it [b]Funny or Happy?[/b]

Tim was a tall, dark haired guy who I thought probably enjoyed listening to [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smiths]The Smiths[/url]. He wore a long, black trenchcoat, faded jeans, tanker boots and fingerless gloves when he came into the office from those cold New England winters. I’m pretty sure he was going to school part time and he struck me as a pretty smart guy. Although pretty quiet, he could always be counted on for a funny one-liner during the many training sessions that we had to endure. Tim was also involved in an extramarital affair with a late twenty-something woman with a wealthy husband who probably worked a lot and a young kid at home and who also happened to be working in our office. But that’s not what this story is about….

Tim was on one of the many teams that encouraged the employees to get involved and motivated to help increase the efficiency and knowledge of the operators. I was on the Quality Team, for example. This involved weekly meetings to brainstorm ways to increase the level of customer service that we provided to our customers. It was a great way to get “off the boards” for a few hours a week and actually use your mind while at work. Anyway, Tim was tasked with delivering some kind of training that his team had come up with. When it was my turn to take the training, apparently there was no one else who needed to be trained at that time, so it was just Tim and me in a conference room for 30 minutes or so.

I remember coming in, sitting down and making small talk. Then Tim looked at me with a hint or seriousness in his eye and asked “So, would you rather be funny or happy?” (or something like this…I can’t remember exactly – seem my last paragraph for more information)

I thought this a bit odd, but figured it was part of the training package, so I answered “Funny.” That was my personality at the time.

Without missing a beat, he launched into a 10 minute discussion/lecture about this subject that was definitely NOT part of the corporate training. His pauses were perfect and kept me wanting to hear more. His word choice was excellent and the final “punchline” of the story of a man who was reflecting on the idea of whether it was better to be funny or happy was in fact, both funny and poignantly touching.

I remember thinking that this Tim was one smart cookie and a very cool character. I could see how Lauri might dump her husband in favor of him. After this, I sought Tim out during breaks and free time in order to hang out with him. I was hoping to catch some witty words of wisdom or that some of his coolness might rub off on me.

Some time later, maybe a few months, maybe a year, I don’t remember now; I was reading my friend and roommate Chris’s copy of the latest [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_RollinsHenry Rollins[/url] book when I was shocked to run across the same story that Tim had told me that day. Now, most of us would recognize the same story whether it was the general outline or even just a similar retelling. Tim’s words were exactly as written in that book. It’s like he was reading it off the back wall, just over my shoulder after having practiced his delivery a few times before I came in the room. I was really taken aback. My respect for Tim as a hip, smart, funny guy was completely gone. The bastard had memorized the whole story and offered it to me without a single reference to the author! His choice of material was great (probably the best in that whole book) and he managed to keep a little of my respect for having good taste in authors (we were definitely on a Rollins kick at that time).

Whatever happened to Tim? I don’t really recall. I think he got the subject of his affair to leave her husband but then dumped her after a while. I think I remember someone telling me they saw him buying Crack in the less savory part of Worcester, but I’m not sure if that’s true or not.