October 2002 Archives

If Batman flew a bomber, it would look exactly like this.

Vincent at 5 months
OriginalPhotoshop fun - sepia tone, grainy and removed thumb
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The brain is cluttered with baseball memories..

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The brain is cluttered with baseball memories. What a great series. I only watch baseball during the World Series these days, and it was well worth it. I was an Angels fan as a kid, routing for the Dodgers in my later years, so it wasn't a stretch to be a fan again. Just an amazing transformation -- they looked so depressed in the dugout the 7th inning in Game 6. One home run and what a remarkable transformation. Never stop believing ":-)"

[Google Top Stories]
Pictures from the Pumpkin patch in the "Photo Gallery".

APEC states focus on terror threat

Now this is a wave. [Google Top Stories]

Katherine is officially a mischief maker. While Suzy and I were sleeping this morning, she went downstairs to "make a cake". We didn't hear a thing. Luckily, she came upstairs, woke me, and asked if I wanted a bite. Apparently, she pushed the chair to the cupboard and got out cocoa mix, vanilla and icing and mixed it in a bowl. This is Katherine posing after the fact.
Weight Loss - Photographic Proof
before
before
Apr 2002 - 254 Pounds
after
Oct 2002 - 222 Pounds
incidentally, I didn't start losing weight until July.
DA: Nolte on Date-Rape Drug.

DA: Nolte on Date-Rape Drug

If Nick's such a great actor, shouldn't he at least use his considerable talent to look innocent (and sane)?

[Google Top Stories]

Katherine's going to have to start playing with pretend dolls once again. Vincent's growing up fast.

Ever wonder what happens after you put your child to sleep? I always heard footsteps upstairs but I was never quite sure why. What was she doing. Now, caught on film for the first time, Katherine after dark.

Classic quote from Katherine, who yells to me to come upstairs:
Katherine: DADDY!
Me: [walk up stairs to attend] Katherine, you have to stop screaming. You're going to wake Vincent and that's not fair to him.
Katherine: Daddy, I wasn't screaming. I was yelling.
Me: [skeptical] What's the difference?
Katherine: Screaming is when I do this. AHHHHHHHH!. Yelling is when I say DADDY!.
Me: [speechless]
In case anyone thinks we're not going to war with Iraq, or it's some recent trick by the Republicans before the election, here are satellite photos of the Qatar air base being built (photos show progression from Jan 2002 to June 2002).
Classic. Plants are people too, eat meat.
Milk protest turns sour
POLICE had to break up an animal rights protest yesterday when schoolchildren in Aberdeen pelted activists with cartons of milk.
The coverage in the U.S. of the Bali Bombing has been miserable. Australia has just suffered through their own 9/11, on 10/12. Two bomb blasts destroyed a night club on Bali killing 187 people, mostly Australian, all on vacation. The L.A. Times and New York Times have a couple articles apiece, but you'll find much more comprehensive coverage from Australia and the UK. And since this is the web, it's only a click away.

At 2pm yesterday, Craig Salvatori put his two young daughters on a plane at Bali airport, telling them he had to stay "to look for mummy". Three hours later he found her body in a morgue. Kathy, who would have turned 38 yesterday, was barely recognisable, except for some jewellery, her body so badly charred, her blonde hair blackened... The president of the Maroubra Lions rugby league club, John Costa, said seven families had immediate members missing. "We look like we've lost five mothers, a father and two children ... missing this long after the event, it's not looking good."
Sydney Morning Herald Links

Doc Searls, from Santa Barbara gets the rocket in his picture, taken a minute before mine. Unfortunately, neither of these images captured the full range of colors as the sky was a deep shade of blue, not black. Probably need a slight time lapse.

There was just a beautiful rocket launch from Vandenberg AFB. Lit up the sky just as I came home. By the time I got out of my car, ran into the house and got my camera, the rocket was gone. Had to boost the brightness/contrast a lot so you can see more than a dark sky.

Vincent must have his thumb in his mouth 12 hours a day. Here's proof. This shot was just taken at 1:30am, 6 hours into his typical 13 hour slumber. (Yes, he sleeps in the dark. No, he didn't wake from the flash).

Imitation is the sincerest flattery

US 'planning occupation of Iraq'

US 'planning occupation of Iraq'.

Now that the invasion of the planet Mars is complete, US sets site on Iraq. [Google Top Stories]

Update to Visual News Feed - although a guid is created in the RSS for each image, many tools do not yet support the field. The net effect is that you keep seeing the same image throughout the day. Now, references to the images are stored in the db to try to ensure each hourly update shows just unique images. Should cut down on some noise in the feed I noticed this weekend. Incidentally, the RSS is cached for 30 minutes at a time. If the cache has expired, your hit causes the fetch. 30 minutes seems like a reasonable tradeoff between the freshness of the data and the load on this site.

Raiders roll Bills to stay unbeaten

Raiders roll Bills to stay unbeaten.

After something like 8 years without a NFL team to root for, I think I'm coming back to the Raiders. I dropped them after they moved back to Oakland. Watching them play today convinced me to root for them once again. It will feel good to have a NFL team to root for once more. Charlie Garner put them over the top for me. [Google Sports]

Marc puts the visual news feeds to work, showing us all a new way to blog.

Lest anyone think I'm bitter for the comparison chart below (1. I'm not, 2. sorry for missing your bachelor party Bart), please observe the following:

Two happy kids with a wave from the wee lad, Vincent. This is what makes me happy.

Incidentally, I had no idea Vincent was waving or even could. He's just 4 months. Timing is everything, but luck is even more.

This weekend, Suzy, her sisters and mother left for Santa Fe. They're celebrating various birthday's, girls weekend out, etc. I'm at home with the progeny. Took Friday off of work and it went really well. Tomorrow, might actually venture out of the house and stock up on supplies. Since the brood is now asleep and I'm an insomniac, I offer the following.
Weekend Comparsion Chart
SteveSuzy

Quick note to regular readers of this website: I'm a nerd. You may not understand the following until you start a weblog of your own.

Standing on the shoulder of Giants... I'm not the only one to repurpose Google's news feed. Julian Bond of VoidStar allows you to synthensize an RSS channel out of an arbitrary query, so you can easily stay on top of your favorite news story.

New feature on BigFrog -- Visual News. Visual News gathers together images from around the internet to show what's happening in the world. The references to the images are actually found on Google News, which runs an automated system to gather news from 4,000 sources. I've written an automated system which builds on (or subtracts from) their work, filtering out all but the images. Just click on an image to read the associated news item.

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Vincent, now 4 months, is eating. Just a tablespoon of oatmeal twice a day, but it's a start. Though a little run down with a bad cold, he's been in a really good mood lately. Had him laughing for 5 minutes straight the other night, just pretending to sneeze. The laugh on him, deep -- you don't think it's coming from an infant.

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