Frenzied Daddy

Yeah, it’s “shaping up.”

There are three very good reasons for me to start thinking about the food I eat and the work I do- Ms B, Miss B and Baby K. I have a number of Irons in the fire, so I’m not thinking too seriously about starting a new web-hmm … free blog site … naah. But I can start a new topic and work on being a little more rational about the things I do. I’m not a big diet-crazy guy. Atkins, the grapefruit diet, the whole-carbo thing - they don’t do much for me. What’s important to me is something else; “Eat Less, Do More.” So I’m headed in that direction.

Ms B and the girls are going to K Falls a few days before me; I’ll be alone for a couple of days, and here’s a great recipe I won’t need to inflict on Ms B (Who dislikes pork, probably because by the time it’s done enough for her to enjoy eating, it’s dessicated and leathery). Panic Free Pork (yeah there’s a popup. It seems mostly harmless). Basically, take a porkchop, fry it with some apple and simmer it in apple juice until it’s done. And it takes as long as the rice will (about 14 minutes). I like the tip of using the kid-sized apple juices in the cupboard so you won’t have the full bottle of apple juice in the fridge turning into cider. (I always wind up drinking the excess juice. Go figure. ).

in my haha copious heehee free time, I plan to figure out some other ways to catalog a new dedication in my life- shaping up. But for now, I’m going to eat a little better, share some recipes with you darling readers, and go running again.

What blog would be complete today without the heavy weigh-ins of the blogger and their beliefs on the Terry Schiavo case?

Personally, I think this is an excellent example of political misdirection. Baseball not steroidal enough? North Korea not nuclear enough? New UN Ambassador not tactless enough? The War in Iraq getting too stale for you? President Bush (you knew it was coming) not using presidential power to further Catholic agendas enough?

Well, thank Jeb we can do something about the last one. Shew. For a moment I was worried that reality might have to take over. You know the same details I do; Ms Schiavo’s heart stopped for a matter of minutes, and is in a persistent vegetative state with apparently little to no hope of recovery. Her husband won a huge malpractice suit, which he cannot collect while she lives. He wants her feeding tube removed. Her parents hope that she’ll “snap out of it” and want them to stay in (at this writing, put back in). He claims that she wouldn’t want to live like this, but his motives may be suspect. Apparently her tubes are non-intrusive and she has other friends and family who will support her for as long as it takes.

Honestly, is this National news? Some people feel that it’s national news because of the judge involved- a Clinton appointee that makes it easier for *cough* some people to attack liberals. Hell, after reading too many articles and opinion pieces about the case, I don’t even know where I stand any more. Except here: Iraq & Iran > Schiavo. North Korea > Schiavo. Presidente Bush’s flagrant abuse of power ? > > Schiavo.

Write a living will, folks. Keep your life from becoming someone else’s political stone to throw.

PS. If I am ever in Terri Schiavo’s shoes … listen to my wife. She has spent more time listening to me than anyone else around, and what she says goes. Yes, even if there’s multi-millions for her to “get.” Especially if there’s multi-millions for her to “get.”

We’re frantically running around these days, keeping both children under control. The Elder is free of scholastic rituals this week, and the latter is learning to walk. Yesh, you heard that right, Baby K is soon to be Toddler K. She’s pretty special, as you can see in this adorable photograph.

Spoiled Gamers! I bet he even uses one of those computer programs for rolling dice. I tell ya, back in my day we used faux vellum and ink and liked it! Why … harrrumph. Never mind that I do a similar thing now, without the “overhead.” I scan the map, save it on my laptop, edit and use a “mask” on it.

Thanks for the Link

You know, I think Mr Crunchy has a valid case. I would be willing to give the conservatives “Prayer in schools” (like he said- private time for prayer or whatever, *not* enforced or school-led prayer) for us getting “Gay Marriage.” I’m not so sure about his other offers- gun legalization for prostitution, drugs and gambling. Eech, no. Maybe some drugs- the downers, like Marijuana or alcohol and not the violent-makers like Angel Dust (just what we need, some PCP-ridden junkie with legal guns upset about his craps loss). I could be talked into the “stem cell research” for the “one semester a year of Creationism.” That’s an interesting idea. Especially since anti-creationism is an act of faith itself*.

How about you folks, any trades you’d be willing to do? (Or unwilling, et cetera). Use Mr Crunchy as a prompt or come up with your own. Leave them in the comments.

* You don’t believe me? Given an omnipotent God, how do you prove that the world wasn’t created two seconds ago, in one “Bamf,” with all of us walking and talking and arguing about fossils and evolution, and the war in Iraq and all the other crap that’s happened over the last 20,000 years? Faith, I tell ya- is belief in something you can’t prove. When you prove something, it’s not a matter of faith any more. And postulating an omnipotent God like so many people do, you can’t prove that God didn’t do this. Or the mice. (Yes, that’s a Hitchhikers Guide reference.)

Comics, I’ve always loved you. Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, the independents, anyone I’ve happened to overlook. The combination of art (drawing) and story (writing) really hits home for me. (Illustrated Classics not withstanding). I love spandex armor on female super heroes, wise cracking heroes like Spidey and uh … the Hulk. I love Cerberus the Aardvark, and yes, I’ve even been known to read Ritchie Rich (way back in the dark ages before I met X-Men).

I also love role-playing games. My current fixation (sigh) is Everquest 2, also known as Evercrack 2. Periphally, I’m aware of City of Heroes, and honestly, if I didn’t have this Evercrack monkey on my back (and wasn’t paying $12.50 / month for the honor), I’d look into it (And with City of Villains on the horizon, mmmm cheesy goodness ) . But Marvel doesn’t feel the same way (Why can’t we all just get along? ). Marvel recently sued the COH folks and were thrown out of court. And they’re still getting slapped around (see last panel of comic.

Poor Marvel. Muahahahahaha! (cue villainous laughter)

Well, you’re not as good looking as Ms B (but still a damn fine young man, I daresay) but check this out

And look, it’s the Anti-Dooce!

Sorry, was doing some work (really!) with regard to REST and SOAP and “web services” and got side tracked. But the discussion about those items is really fascinating, and it takes what I’ve been doing at work ( using javascript to suck some data from one site and spit it out on another) to a really exciting new level.

It has been a delightful weekend- and today I’m enroute back to work.

First and foremost, my niece was born at 12:15 AM on Saturday, making her the first family member I have born on my birthday. Totally the bestest present ever, not only is it a baby but it’s the best kind - a healthy one! Welcome, Neice K. And congratulations to M and D.

Giantsfall game went well on Saturday, and we’ve scheduled another for April. Let’s hear it for random bloodshed and strange magics!

And on Sunday, I had a terrific nap, with a baby on my belly, a cat on my shoulder, another cat by my feet, a dog next to the nest, all of us in a phenomenal warm sunbeam. And though I fought a headache all day, it only got truly bad just about bedtime.

Note: the following is an entry for the Blogging For Books Nine contest over at The Zero Boss

I gingerly lifted the lid of my 80286-1MB and examined the contents. There, nestled among the diodes and resisters was the elusive random-access-memory socket I had been seeking. I examined it carefully, then closed the lid. “Are you sure you–” was as far as I got. Ms B locked steely brown eyes with my watery blue ones.

“I’m sure. Get into the car.” Her warm throaty contralto brought a smile to my face.

She drove her sleek, yet affordable 4csportcoupe mark I, stylish but not as powerful as the Mark II version, but in the hands of the ace-world-class driver Ms B, a weapon in its own right, to the computer store, and we walked inside to purchase the memory we needed. Once home, we were confounded by the technical knowledge required to insert the memory into the computer. “Screw this!” Ms B announced, and we were off again to the computer store. She drove confidently, the cool hands of a woman who’s been driving for longer than the Empire’s been taxing peasants.

Cruising silently past the 80286-2MB and the Oh-386 models, we lined up at the top of the line. More onboard RAM than a computer had ever had before, a whopping 256K cache. This thing was big, really big, it didn’t occur to us how big it was until we lined up one of the boxes of software against the technical specifications of the computer itself. It was like comparing a moon to sputnik, but this was no moon. This was the 80486-8MB-1VMB computer, and we were awed to be in the presence of so much power.

“We’ll take this one,” Ms B directed the sales clerk.

This has been brought to you by the writings of David Weber, Author of some of the best hard-science fiction in the galaxy, creator of Honor Harrington and assorted fantasy works.