Jan 5, 2008

Winding Down

Alas, the final weekend of the Christmas break has arrived. Well, okay, many of my co-workers returned to work on Wednesday... I, on the other hand, had already requested to be off for this week, so for me, Christmas break is coming to an end.

Shan is feeling better after her surgery, though there is still quite a bit of recovery to go. In the meantime, Tyler and Emily both had a round of the latest stomach virus going around. So, yesterday, Shan held Emily's hair back while I took Tyler to the doctor (he was having some loss-of-peripheral vision issues). Emily was sick until about 10 o'clock last night. Tyler mainly needed to drink replenishing fluids. He said it was the worst bout of "good news/bad news" he's seen in a while:
Good News: Water wont help get the nutrients back (he does not like water)
Bad News: Colas don't do it either
Good News: Gatorade will help you
Bad News: Blue and Red Gatorade tend to make kids sick when they drink too much
Good News: You can drink orange or yellow

As Tyler put it, "I was like "Yay...crap...yay...crap...yay!" :-)


When we got back from the hospital the other night, my "SingStar Pop" was waiting in the doorway. Emily and I have played it a couple times, and she did a great job on "Bad Day" which stands to reason since that is one of her favorite songs.

She also loves to sing ANYTHING, even if she doesn't know the words. The thing about SingStar is that as long as you get the tune (singing or humming or whatever) then you'll do fine. She is very quick to pick up on the tune, and if she hears the song once, she can pretty well remember many of the words for the next time she sings it.

I, on the other hand, will be downloading the songs to my mp3 player so that I will at least know the tunes and learn the words. Hey, just because I can't sing doesn't mean I don't want to my best, right? ;-) To borrow a line from Ratatouille, "Just because everyone CAN doesn't mean everyone SHOULD..." :-)


I finished "Crysis" the other night (well, okay, it was like 3am), and I have to say that is a VERY cool game! It was also very tough, which is a plus and a minus. I think games can be a lot of fun without beating you over the head with big, bad bosses, but hey, that's the nature of the 1st person shooter.


I hate stupid videos. What's a stupid video? One where the artist stands there and sings. Take Sugarland's "Stay" for example. She stands there, the camera zooms in and out, switches to guitar player, etc. That is NOT a music video. Well, okay, it is, but it is not a GOOD one, and certainly not anything worth winning any kind of video awards! Even Toby Keith's "Love Me If You Can" is not a GOOD video. Please, he sits in front of a big white screen. Whooop-dee-doo. Yes, I grew up on MTV and Michael Jackson, so my expectations for videos may be higher than what people like today. But, videos should SHOW the story of the song being performed. You wanna stand and there and sing? Go on tour. You wanna make a video, then SHOW the story!
'nough said.


There has been much discussion lately around here about the impending 2009 DTV deadline. In February, 2009, all analog "regular" television signals will cease to exist. In the lack of public information about this changeover, we got into a discussion about HDTV and the cut-off. Well, for those who were just as confused, here is the deal: Analog signals will die in Feb 2009, and everything will be digital. NOT HDTV, but just DTV. According to some sources, only 20% of US households still have analog-only antennas. How? Because most folks have cable or satellite or both. What will those 20% need? Either a DTV antenna or a converter box. All of that will depend on where they live. Right now, DTV antenna do not have the range that analog ones do, but that will probably change in the future. I talked with the guy at a local Radio Shack and he said we are too rural for a DTV antenna to be effective (50 miles to Texarkana, 90 miles from Little Rock). But, if I don't want DirecTV or Dish then I really don't have much choice. Now, we do have DirecTV, and I don't know what we'd do in 2009 if we did not already have it.

I did some checking, and current converters run about $100 or so. Now, that still might not get me what I need because I would still need to grab the signal over the air. I see rural folks getting screwed out of TV if they cannot afford satellite programming... Ouch...


Guess that's all for now! Y'all come back now, ya hear?

1 comment:

  1. Yes, I like videos that show the story of the song too. Carrie Underwood's Before He Cheats is a good one. Reba and Kelly Clarkson's video for Because of You is good though you really have to know what the song is about in order to understand the video.

    I really like the Yay crap yay crap. That is funny. Hope all are okay.

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