A New Adventure Starts Soon

It's Sunday morning and in two days, our family will grow by half again. Our twins will be finally arriving after 37 weeks of hitching a ride with Mommy. The house is mostly ready for them, as are we. Rory and Kyan are as prepared as they can be as well. Their little lives are going to change dramatically. Rory has already had a similar upheaval, but this will be the first time for Kyan. I'm hopeful for a smooth transition from little brother to older brother, which seems very possible as I watch Ky play with his matchbox cars this morning.

Pa's Birthday Party

My grandfather turned 90 this year and threw himself a little party. He is still going strong.

Letter to Jay Leno

Mr. Leno,

You are most likely the reason that I am catching up on Facebook, e-mailing with friends, and all caught up on Google Reader. With your show on at 10 PM, I am now free from the onslaught of ripped from the headlines Law and Order shows and the other dramas that NBC had populating the time slot. My old Tivo is able to record the one show I might want to watch and I can catch the rest on Hulu.

Thanks for the extra sleep, tonight and every night that you are on.

Kelly

Battlestar Galactica

This post has been way overdue, since the reimagined BSG got over with months ago. That being said, I did want to give it proper attention. Through four seasons, BSG had its ups and downs. They got a little preachy, had some great storylines, and also I think that the finale encompassed all of these things. They had the large battles, throwing old-style centurions (like seen in the original series) along side the new versions. Spectacular space scenes with dramatic space jumps and climactic finishes. They even squeezed in the old-series anthem at the right time.

I am tempering most displeasure I have with the episode by the fact that is was bittersweet to see the show end. I would have liked a more open-ended ending, with the possibility of movies, but perhaps it's better to not have the show tarnished by such things. If really desired, they can do more movied like the Pegasus-centric "Razor". I'm not sure if the new "Caprica" will satiate all my BSG needs either, but one can hope.

I hope that SciFi, oops, I mean SiFi, can come up with something as good in the (near) future...

PC Magazine, ExtremeTech, and others

Ziff-Davis is really pissing me off. A couple years ago, I had subscribed to Computer Gaming World which is/was also a ZD property. CGW turned into Games for Windows magazine, which was a little bit of a sell-out, in my opinion, but at least it kept the magazine going. Then I heard through other means that GFW magazine has ceased production. ZD never notified me. I had to call them and they transferred my remaining subscription to Electronic Gaming Monthly. Shortly after receiving several copies of EGM (including multiple back issues in the same week) EGM ceased production also. Again there was no notification from ZD. Ifelt that subscription had run its course.

Then last year, I caught wind of PC Magazine closing shop also. Specifically, the print version was disappearing while they focused on their online version. I was given an electronic subscription to PC Mag through Zinio (not a bad little service), but this is not the same as having a magazine in my hand. I'd like to think that this will work nicely once the Amazon Kindle has been colorized (and is a little cheaper). However, in the meantime, I don't read PC Mag like I used to.

Now onto the most recent issue with ZD. I've been a listener to the ExtremeTech podcast for quite some time. Loyd Case, Jason Cross, Robert Heron, and Joel Durham have all weighed in on the week's news with me and now their gone. ZD is doing something different with the ET website, and these guys are no longer there (Robert is still with dl.tv I believe). This was one of the few podcasts I was excited about listening to, and it was the right (and consistent) length of about 30 minutes.

I still listen to John C. Dvorak and the Cranky Geeks. I can only hope that the keep going also. So to Loyd and the other ET guys, thanks...

Road construction

I'm guessing that some of the money for the work that is being done to my path to work (Rt 149 specifically) is coming from the stimulus package(s). How about some money for the people stuck waiting for construction vehicles to move or for cars to come the other way on a one lane only section? Perhaps (if it passes) they can use the same GPS technology for tracking road usage (instead of increasing the gas tax). Although this will backfire and because you are actually on the road creating wear and tear on it. It will be like a taxi ride where you get charged for just sitting in the car, but charged more for it moving. Perhaps we'll be devoting some money to researching hover cars and/or transporter technology in the near future (http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/04/27/obama_science/index.html?source=refresh).

STS-119

I remember when a space shuttle launched it was a special thing and I watched it when I could. Nowadays, they aren't going up as often and are towards the end of their lifespan. Perhaps their replacement might one day be more commonplace, but it is still impressive to watch these behemoths take off. Millions of pounds of vehicle going 1800 miles an hour in about a minute is quite a feat. I like this video with the soft-spoken commentary and explanation of the different communications between the shuttle and ground control.

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