New Baby

In December, we were joined by little Lexie Grace. It’s amazing how she instantly became such an integral part of our lives. Besides keeping us up most nights she continues to make us laugh and bring us closer together.

The transition from being the parents of two children to three has not been without its challenges. As parents, Lynette and I are now outnumbered and we have felt it. At least we’re still faster than they are.

Big Move

One month after Lexie was born we moved 13,000 miles from Singapore back to Houston. This was a much bigger shock to us than we had anticipated. Even now that we are mostly moved in we still can’t get our cars in the garage for all the junk we’ve accumulated over the years. Thank goodness for garage sales!

While we miss our home and our friends in Singapore we are excited to begin this new phase of our life. Hopefully I’ll soon return to active blogging duty and there’ll be many more posts to follow.

Bizarro Do Anything, originally uploaded by abeckstrom.

I love the look of realization that crosses Bizarro’s face just before he gets his face re–arranged. I guess it just goes to show that some guys will do anything to impress a girl that’s not even remotely interested in them.

I discovered Tiger Balm during high school and found it to be the perfect panacea for all manner of sports–related aches & pains. Only recently, did I discover that they actually make the stuff here in Singapore.

Tiger Balm claims that it “works wherever it hurts” and lists on the label a number of specific maladies for which it provides relief.

• muscle aches & pains
• insect bites
• and … flatulence!

This begs the question, where on earth are you supposed to rub the orange gunk to fix that?!?! I’ve decided that I don’t really want to know.

Everyone knows that “list” posts are always terrific blog fodder, but Top 10 lists are so cliché.

After experimenting with various lengths, I’ve determined that seven is the perfect size for list posts.

How did I come up to this conclusion? Here are seven reasons why seven is an all around amazing number and the best number for list posts.

1. Seven the best number ever: Not only is it a prime number, but the ancient Greeks called it the perfect number, as it made up of the perfect figures 3 and 4 (triangle and square). More on what makes seven such an awesome number here.
2. Seven sticks in your head. I remember reading that US phone numbers were kept to seven digits because that was the optimal number within the short-term memory capacity of most people
3. Seven is the luckiest number: When rolling a standard pair of dice, seven has a one in six chance of being rolled, the highest probability of any number.


Image courtesy of ThunderChild5

4. Seven is essential to the Ultimate Question: The fictional super-computer, Deep Thought, was built for one reason&—to calculate the Ultimate Answer to “life, the universe, and everything.”.Its answer was the number 42. What number goes into 42 exactly 6 times? Seven!
5. Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: Perhaps the world’s earliest list post, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were a travelogue of the greatest landmarks of the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians. Sadly, of the seven, only the Great Pyramid of Giza is still standing
6. Seven books in the Harry Potter series: If JK Rowling had not written Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, her seventh in the series, then we’d never have gotten closure on that whole Harry versus old “He who must not be named” thing.
7. The Magnificent Seven: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn headline a cast of mean hombres in this 1960 cowboy-western. Shootouts, knife-fights, and stands against impossible odds, this movie’s got it all.


Image courtesy of Wikipedia

There you go, proof positive why seven rocks so much. I look forward to sharing more lists of sevens in the weeks to come.

Beloved by geeks all the world over, Tux, the penguin, makes a pretty adorable mascot for the Open Source operating system Linux.

But, kids don’t want to be mascots. They want to be superheroes. This is one Halloween mistake we’ll never make again.

Generally, Gmail does a fine job keeping my Inbox free of junk email. However, this lovely bit of spam somehow made it past their filters.

Does anyone actually fall for this garbage? I actually lost track of how many things are wrong with this email. I’m totally digging the horrendously bad attempt at a Gmail logo though.

What’s the most ridiculous phishing email you’ve ever gotten?

When a friend suggested that I try Microsoft Bing’s new shopping site I thought I’d have a little fun.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that the latest and greatest version of Mac OS X (AKA Snow Leopard) is due out today, August 28th. So, I thought I’d see how easy it would be to buy it on Bing Shopping.

I typed “Snow Leopard” into Bing Shopping and lo and behold—none of the search results on the first couple of pages came remotely close to the operating system update.

I don’t know how Apple’s new OS wasn’t at the top of the list. This is a total fail on the part of Bing. It’s not like no one’s heard of it. The reviews are in and, it’s been one of the top selling items on Amazon.com.

Apparently, if Apple or another Mac product reseller wants to sell via Bing they need to place an ad. The only place to find Snow Leopard is via the sponsored links (which I usually ignore).

It’s not like it’s in Microsoft’s best interest to make it easy to buy their competitor’s but if you’re going to be in the “decision engine” business, shouldn’t you be capable of showing the most timely and relevant information possible?

Cause I’m Evil, originally uploaded by abeckstrom.

I think I’m one of the few guys in my building at work who washes his hands after using the restroom. It’s disturbing, I know. In fact, it’s down-right evil.

This is what I hear 90% of the time.

Sound of toilet flushing . . .

Sound of door opening . . .

Sound of door closing.

Note the absence of the sound of running water.

Now for the segue. My son loves the Justice League. And I have to admit, that if he’s watching it, I’ll find some excuse to be in the room with him.

I almost died when saw the above clip. However, I couldn’t agree more. Going to the bathroom and not washing your hands is simply evil.

Because I’m a geek and because I have a wife who puts up with me, I got an A-320 Dingoo Digital for Father’s Day. I’ve been meaning to write about it ever since, but I’ve been too “busy” playing with the darn thing ever since I picked it up.

The Dingoo is a small, handheld videogame console that at first glance appears to be a cheap Game Boy Micro knock-off. Upon further examination, it is capable of much more. The Dingoo is an emulator and media player.

Out of the box, the Dingoo plays Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, NeoGeo, and CPS1/CPS2 games. You’ll have to supply your own roms, or find your own. The device ships with six 3D games of varying quality as well. The four GB of internal storage should be more than adequate for most gamers, but should you fill that up you can add additional storage via the miniSD card slot.

Unlike so many gadgets these days, the Dingoo actually comes with all the cables you need for it. Included are a USB cable, charger/adapter, and TV-out cable.

There’s something extremely satisfying about playing games from my childhood on nice, big TV.

With the Dingoo, I can play the best of Mario, Sonic, Link, and Samus whenever I want to. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it anyone looking for classic gaming on the go.

I’ve often wondered how you could make them better. Add peanut butter? Nope, the flavors clash. Dip them in milk? The chocoloate coating prevents that from doing much. How about increasing that “cool, mint sensation”? Hmmm…

Imagine the lovechild of a Thin Mint and a York Peppermint Pattie. If you thought this up 40+ years ago you would have invented the Mint Slice.

Our friends down under at Arnott’s have produced what is, in my opinion, the best snack-cookie ever. I’m not sure of their availability in the US. But if you see them, buy some, and share them with someone you love. You can thank me later.

Yum

Yum

Yum!

Is there anything better than a Mint Slice? Let me know what you think in the comments.