Monthly Archives: May 2008

Where Do People Spend Their Money?

The New York Times did a really cool graphic last week on what Americans spend their money on. It’s a big graphic and you can zoom in (one level) to read the parts you can’t see and the colors indicate change in prices over the last year. I really like the way they did it.

I’ve say it’s very Edward Tufte, except for the odd shapes of all the pieces. He would have put it down differently, something more symmetrical (or square) so that you could have more easily compared milk to dry cleaning. Continue reading

Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

This is my Mother and I, it’s not the best picture but it is the most recent one, just a few months old (I was showing her my QuikPod more than we were posing); you can tell we were just goofing around since she didn’t make me fix my hair. Maybe we’ll take a better one later today.

Momandmepict2349She’s a been a great Mom and she had to work hard at it, she had to drop out of High School to have me and that can’t have been easy in her very Catholic family. I do remember her going back to High School when I was in the first grade; she actually went back to school during the day, she didn’t just get her GED she completed the Diploma. I don’t really remember a commencement ceremony or anything like that (although I’ll ask today if I can get it to come up) she must have just gotten the paper.

I’m sure having me changed her plans for life in many many ways. I don’t know if she ever even got a chance to think about life after high school or if al of a sudden it was all over…

Thanks Mom! You brought me up pretty good and I came out mostly okay. Statistically, I’m doing pretty great – I’m gainfully employed, educated, not in debt (other than my home) and my only complaint is that I’m single with no kids (but I’ve still got some time for that). Thank you again and I Love You!!

This Weekend…

So I’ve got a few things I’d like to do this weekend:

  • some spring cleaning
  • some bicycle riding (if it warms up enough this afternoon) too chilly, I just went for a short one.
  • Speed Racer the movie (fans say it’s almost as good as Iron Man)
  • Play with the (semi) new WordPress I’ll do more but I did upgrade a site.

    Need to do:

  • some spring cleaning (yes, I know I used that one above but it needs to be done)
  • a few things for the class that I just started teaching
  • Order stuff from the Artificial Duck store.
  • recycling
  • Mothers’s Day! had lots of fun!
  • Find my driver’s license
  • post some more Costa Rica photos

    Unfortunately, Speed Racer is the one most likely to not happen, but it’s early in the weekend yet…

  • I’m Sorry…

    I haven’t been doing much traditional blogging much. I’ve been spending all my internet time playing on Seesmic.com, which is kind of a video conversation/video blogging site. I’ll be back soon (days not weeks)…

    Seesmic Updates

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    All these video’s will seem way out of context if you don’t play the whole thread….

    The BBC SciFi Phenomenon (or “My Doctor Who Weekend”)

    So I’ve really been liking the BBC’s SciFi shows the last few years and this weekend was a Doctor Who related weekend. I’ve never liked Doctor Who until the last few years (I’ll lean more towards I disliked it).

    Here’s my Doctor Who related activities this weekend:

  • The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Glittering Storm audio book – Read by Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane Smith on the new series, as his companion in the 1970’s Doctor Who and did a cameo a few seasons ago (which then spun off the new children’s series). The book was good, started a little slow, I felt like she didn’t like the way her character was written but the book was unabridged so she couldn’t change it, but it got much much better as the book went on. Sometimes I got the boys confused but you could always tell the who the kids were. Good story too.
  • Doctor Who S4E5 The Poison Sky (part 2 to The Sontaran Stratagem) – I was excited that it was on this weekend, but I forgot that it was part two of a two-parter! And it’s got Martha Jones in it. Great second part, can’t say much without giving anything away, but another very (very) short appearance of Rose. I think we’ll see a bit of her (and hear about the Bees until those episodes come up). I was surprised at the mention of Torchwood, but I think Capt. Jack’s due for another appearance too (and maybe Sarah Jane).
  • Torchwood: Hidden – Read by Naoko Mori, who plays Toshiko. This is a good story, but it’s really hard to tell the character’s apart. It probably reads okay, but when there’s more than a few of them, it’s hard to tell who’s who. I’m not done with this one, but it’s good so far.
  • Doctor Who Confidential – It’s not strange to have a “making of” for movies of TV series, but Dr. Who has one every week and this week it was another 45 minutes of show (right after the series on a different channel). It’s just really bizarre to see another show just about the previous show just on, I don’t normally watch it but it was pretty good. Torchwood has a “confidential” too, but I’m not sure they’re as long. Just think of it as the DVD Extras, but right after the show.

    So it was a good weekend of entertainment. And I got lot’s of non-Doctor Who stuff done too… Continue reading

  • What’s for Dinner?!?

    So what are you having?

    TequilaCon 2008

    I really hope I can make it to TequilaCon 2009….

    I’m sad I couldn’t go (again).

    While I’m just home relaxing this weekend, last week was cRaZy, next week will be semi-crazy and I just went on vacation and I go again in June.

    TQ08 Schwag‘ uploaded by Blogography

    I’m SO happy it’s the weekend!

    I think this is my first Seesmic embed, so if it doesn’t work for you (or even if it does) leave me a comment. If the embed doesn’t work properly, try the direct link.

    It’s kinda boring just looking at my head, I’ll have to work on visuals or scenery.

    If you try the direct link you can see what the 10 video replies are (I haven’t even seen them all yet); they’re blog style start and the bottom and work your way up. You used to have to log in to see these and now it doesn’t look like you have too…