Many of you know that Jean’s (ownedbytwins) family is from Massachusetts. We’ve been together now going on 11 years, and we’ve regularly gone back to MA to visit. It’s about a 6 hour trip from where we are, and although tiring, it’s something that can be done in a weekend.

It’s starting to get more difficult now financially though. I mean, it’s tough enough with the twins eating us out of house and home, but filling up the car with gas is really starting to become ridiculous! Let’s give an example. Back in 1996, Gas averaged about $1.27/ga, and that was for PREMIUM. Makes me laugh to look back at the discussion of rising gas prices 10 years ago.

I haven’t bought premium gasoline in years. I don’t even bother looking at the price. I simply get the cheapest regular gas pumped. This weekend when we traveled, we paid $2.85/ga. That’s double what it was in ‘96, at least against the average. In some areas of the country it’s even worse than that, or it’s going to be real soon.

We bought the minivan because we needed the space for the twins. But when it costs me $46.00 to fill up the tank, and I have to do it once to go there, and once to get back, I really need to start evaluating if I’m better off spending my $92 someplace else. Hell, I wind up putting the gas on the charge card when we go, because last thing I need to do is overdraw the back account trying to put stupid gasoline in my car. Figured I’d deal with it when I got back.

This summer, when we have the twins’ birthday party, the MA folk are coming down to visit us. They’ve got large family cars, trailers, and campers. I can’t even imagine how much it’s going to cost them to come down and visit us for a few days.

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I realized that I haven’t been posting enough family photos. In the past, we’ve tried dumping out images to Sony Image Station and sharing them that way. Ultimately, we get really far behind and just have too many images to deal with. I’m thinking it might be better to post the best images of events, and catalog them and share them that way.

I’m working on installing the Coppermine Photo gallery for my site. I’ll use it for family images and to link through to my blog, but I’ll make it available to other family members too. Gotta work out the logistics of integration, users, the whole deal.

I’m also trying to work with a new javascript plugin called Highslide, that will help facilitate the viewing of those images within the blog. It allows me to show a thumbnail, and then click on it for a overlay. Ultimately, I read on some integration directly into the Coppermine albums, but for now, I think I have to do single images. I also need to do alot of work on the css for the Highslide plugin so that it has the right colors etc to match the blog. Let’s see if this works as expected with one of my favorites:

It takes extra work to get the final image and the thumbnail paths, but I figure if I get the integration down properly, it’ll be smoother in the future. For now, it’s a start… enjoy the images on a Friday afternoon as we’re getting ready to head to MA for the weekend to get even MORE wonderful kid pictures.

For now though, you can check out a batch of recent images that I’m getting this project started with at: Misc. 4 and 5 star images.

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So I’m sitting here working on my Chairman’s Sony Vaio laptop, preparing him for his motorcycle trip across Mongolia.. That’s why I’ve got time for some posting this morning, as I multi-task.

Any case, John C. Dvorak has a post entitled “This is wrong on so many levels…” I don’t want to either a) cheat you with an item or b) cheat you with a quote… so if you’re up for something wrong, follow the link.

I have to believe that Bruni (math5) is going to appreciate this in ways only her devious mind can.

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Compliments of Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection:

2007 Pulitzer Prizes-FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY, Works Photographer Renee C. Byer won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for 2007 for a series of 20 photographs that she ran in the Sacramento Bee chronicling Cyndie and Derek Madsen. Cyndie is a single mother of five and the photographs tell the story of her loss of her 10 year old son Derek to cancer.

It’s a troubling, moving and emotional series of photographs that show in the most poignent way how powerful photography can be.

These photographs broke my heart.

…and they should.

Letting a journalist follow you around through during such a difficult time is an incredibly hard decision to make. I’m proud of Cyndie and Derek for allowing Renee into their lives. I’m sure that chronicling Derek’s life and death (because you do realize these pictures are about both, and not just death, right?) was not only already helpful to the family, but will be helpful in the future as the family grieves, remembers, and laughs and cries.

As she tooks those pictures, Renee must have been constantly struggling with her own emotions. Folks can say that as a journalist you have to try and stay neutral. But it’s the emotional attachment to things we take pictures of that help them be something *more* than just images.

Current Music: Heather Dale - Adrift

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My friend Ryan called me on Monday and said he was at the Hamilton Mall and wanted to stop by, as he had something for me.

Turns out, that something was a battery pack for a Xbox 360 wireless controller.

The week before, we had been playing Rainbow 6: Vegas, and my batteries started running low. I only have one battery pack, so if I forget to take it off and charge it when I go to bed, I can find myself in situation where bullets are whizzing past my head, and just as I go to reload, I have no power.. and whammo..

So during the game, I’m trying to run through the house and find batteries that actually work (the 360 controller allows you to use regular AA as well). Put the first set in, start playing… 1 minute later… batteries dead.. ACK!!!.. so go and find another set.. finally get back on.

Ryan laughingly asks why I just don’t buy a second battery pack. I make a comment about the zombie grubs and not justifying spending money on a spare battery pack, even if it’s only 10/15 bucks. I just gotta remember to charge it!

So anyway, he went out of his way to pick me up an extra pack, so that when we played, I wouldn’t have any more battery issues.

What goes around comes around… over the past several years, before he had a full time job, Steve or I might pick up the occassional lunch bill for him. Never thought anything of it.. and I’m sure, that when picked up the battery pack, he wasn’t thinking, “Oh, I owe Duncan for that Moe’s lunch from April of 2005”. He just thought about being a nice guy.

Nice guys are cool. Nice cool guys are good to have as friends.

Women hug each other in these sorts of situations. I just gave him a hearty handshake and said ‘Thanks. I appreciate it.’ He knew the implied hug was there.

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From IMDB Memorable Quotes: Shaun of the Dead

Shaun: [in concerned tone] Mum, have you been bitten?
Barbara: No, but Philip has.
Shaun: Oh, OK.
Ed: [concerned] What’s going on?
Shaun: We might have to kill my step-dad.
Ed: Oh, OK.

Zombies.. who doesn’t love ‘em. Friends of ours had a zombie gaming party last week. I don’t know if either of them have a blog or I’d link to it.. In any case, since you can never have enough zombie games, especially simple ones, I ran across this Zombie Chow Down, compliments of this week’s Nodwick links.

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Wow, it’s been over a year since I posted about anything Serenity related. However, sometimes you run across something that brings you back full circle. Plus, I needed to continue my titles and I was only part way through the song

I happened to be listening to some music by The Bedlam Bards, who happen to have an album called On the Drift ~ Music Inspired by Firefly and Serenity.

Now, while you may not be interested in the entire album, some of the tracks have been released for promotion a while back. In fact, it was this track that helped inspire the rest of the album — The Ballad of Joss. Figured you might want to take a listen to that track and laugh.. granted if you aren’t a browncoat like me or the Bedlam Bards, it might not be as funny to you.

Here’s some lyrics to sing along:
Joss, the man they call Joss . . .

CHORUS:
He wrote about spaceships and shepherds and whores,
Stood up to the networks and gave ‘em what for.
Fox cancelled his program, but that was their loss–
The creator of Firefly, the man they call Joss!

Joss saw the viewers’ hearts breakin’,
He heard the Browncoats’ lament,
He saw Fox management takin’,
His show in a way that made no sense.
(He said) “You can’t do that to my program,
Can’t grind it under your heel.”
So he took all his cast, and now at last,
They’ve landed a Big Damn Movie deal!

CHORUS

Now, here is what separates Firefly
From other shows you’re likely to see:
It’s meaningful and witty, and the setting’s really gritty,
And the theme song’s about Serenity.
It’s a little like a western, (hyah!)
And a little like X-Files,
It’s better than Trek, and it’s funnier than Shrek,
And it beats out Andromeda by miles!

CHORUS

Now here is what separates Whedon,
From writers who slave in the core:
The man they call Joss, well, he said to Fox,
“I’m going where no show has gone before.”
He told us about reavers,
He told us about sin,
He took us to the black, and we ain’t comin’ back,
’till all those crazy Browncoats rise again!

CHORUS

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As a Scadian Parent, I have to keep my eyes open for anything remotely medieval. Now, whether or not I’ll have this built for the twins summer birthday party is another story all together.. Where the hell would I store it? Maybe I can talk Steve into helping me build it. He likes offbeat projects like this. Mr. McGroovey’s Castle

Via Boing Boing:

HOWTO Make a Room-sized cardboard play-castle
The Mr McGroovy’s Box-Rivets site has a killer set of plans for converting eight refrigerator boxes (they have tips for getting these for free) into a room-sized cardboard play-castle that your kids can run around in.

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