7 Months with Jack

Well, almost 7 months. Jack turns 7 months old tomorrow. It's been a big month for him...major milestones met (ugh...sounds like work talking). He started effectively crawling about a week ago and also started sitting up on his own. It's truly amazing to watch him hone his skills each and every day. Every day Jack surprises us with his new accomplishments. Here's a photo update to keep you all up to speed.

Jack sure loves balloons (much more than Mom). They're sure hard to get a good grip on!

Jack is getting pretty active these days, so certain items have become obsolete. His swing isn't getting much play time these days since he always wants to keep moving. And his bouncer is only being used for feeding time. But, he just got a new jumper and he loves it. It's huge, but what it takes up in floorspace, it more than compensates in fun.

He's been rolling and crawling around everywhere...really keeping us on our toes. He rolled his way under our futon sofa. How'd he get under there?

And he sure loves paper. You can't keep him away from crawling all over it.


He loves standing up. He's got pretty good balance...maybe it's that wide stance.


Here he is demonstrating his skills in sitting up. Look at that focus.


Grandpa loves hanging out with Jack. Check out their hats! Go Tokyo Giants and UCLA!


I guess Jack doesn't mind hats on his head...no matter what they look like.


Nor does he mind when Mom messes with his hair.


He sure has a lot of toys. But he likes to spend time with each one of them.


He loves Auntie and Uncle's aquarium. He can watch it all day long.


And after all that playing, he knocks out at the end of the day. 8 hours of sleep!

Get Simpsonized !

I've been waiting to Simpsonize our family. I finally got around to it. Here is what the Simpsonizing machine came up with. (LINK)

And it's hard to go wrong with a solid set of Ralph Wiggum clips. Enjoy! It's too bad it doesn't include "My cat's breath smells like cat food" or "I bent my Wookiee."

Sport Stacking and Scrabble

This weekend is a great weekend for Alternate Sports. As you know, I've been a big fan of these Alternate Sports, including the Rock Paper Scissors Championship, Spelling Bee, and the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Well, tomorrow is the 2007 World Sport Stacking Championship! It'll be on ESPN in HD tomorrow (8/17) at 10:00am. Set your Tivos! If you have no clue what Sport Stacking is, I don't blame you. It's a competition where you stack cups in different formations, trying to make the fastest time. It's fantastic! The great news is that this year, a new world record for the Cycle Stack was set by David Wolf. Here is his remarkable feat via YouTube.

And so you understand what the different cup formations are, here is a rundown from Wikipedia. (LINK)

Also, the 2007 National School Scrabble Championship will be on ESPN in HD this Saturday (8/18) at 12:00pm. It's a competition between 101 teams of middle school-aged students in 2-man teams. Check it out!

And when this weekend ends, we can look forward to the U.S. Open of Dominoes later this month and the Krystal Square Off Hamburger Eating Championship this October!

Trapped in the Drive-Thru

Everyone has the fever! Weird Al Yankovic wrote his own version of Trapped in the Closet. Check out the 3-chapter video for Trapped in the Drive-Thru. It's awesome.

And if you are keeping up with R Kelly's version, here is my latest whiteboard character map. (LINK)

Bohemian Rhapsody as you've never heard it before.

This guy was on KROQ this morning. He's a manualist...he can play songs just making fart-like sounds with his hands. Amazing.

What's in a UPC symbol?

I thought this was interesting...a breakdown of a standard UPC barcode that we all know so well.

Left Hand Guard Bars - These bars serve as a starting reference point for the scanning devices.

Number System Character - This digit identifies the type of manufacturer or how the bar code will be used. For example 0, 6, and 7 are generally used in the retail industry, while 3 is assigned to the health and drug manufacturing industries.

Number System Bars - These bars correspond to the Number System Character.

Manufacturer ID Number - Each company must apply for a Universal Product Identification Number with the Uniform Code Council. The UCC assigns each company a unique six digit identification number for use on all of their products. The number is composed of the Number System Character and a five digit manufacturer's code.

Manufacturer ID Bars - These bars correspond to the Manufacturer's ID Number.

Tall Center Bar - These bars serve as a middle reference point for the scanning devices.

Item Number - Each company is responsible for assigning a unique five digit number to each of their products.

Item Bars - These bars correspond to the Item Number.

Modulo Check Character - This digit is derived from a mathematical formula based on the unique set of numbers in each bar code that helps ensure the accuracy of the data scan.

Modulo Check Bars - These bars correspond to the Modulo Check Character.

Right Hand Guard Bars - These bars serve as an ending reference point for the scanning devices.

I found this information at this website.

The Craze is Back !

Today is the 13th, which means the 13th chapter of Trapped in the Closet comes out today! We get a new chapter each day for 10 days!

Go check it out! (LINK)

I've redrawn up the TITC map on my whiteboard so we can continue building the spider web.

Happy Birthday, Lego!

Today is Lego's 75th Birthday. Happy Birthday.

On August 10, 1932, a Danish carpenter, Ole Kirk Christiansen, began building toy blocks that eventually developed into the Lego brick we know today. He came up with the company name by combining the phrase "leg godt" which means "play well".

Did you know that just five Lego bricks (2x4) can be formed together in over 10,000,000 configurations?

Did you know that the Lego Group produces over 306 million miniature tires each year - more than any other tire manufacturer in the world?

To honor Lego, here is a scene from Return of the Jedi, which I created with my Legos over 6 years ago. Good times.

Paintball Game

It's Friday and I know you want to play a game. Just draw lines anywhere on the screen to make the ball get to the square.

Painfully addictive. (LINK)

Trapped in the Closet Refresher

As the hype builds for the upcoming release of Chapters 13-22, now is a great time to refresh your memory of Trapped in the Closet. We all remember the brilliant lyrics, the tangled spider web, and the tip-top acting. But seeing it again reminded me of exactly how great it was. Now you can check out Chapters 1-12 in an easy-to-use interface. And if you've never seen any of them (heaven forbid), now is the perfect time to catch up before the new chapters come out on Monday! (LINK)

We're in Escrow !

That's right! We're almost home owners! Joanne and I are really excited about our new purchase. We won't move in for another month, but things are looking good after a thankfully uneventful home inspection. For the past month or so, Joanne and I have been learning all we could about the world of real estate. It's been quite a ride, but we're happy to take the plunge. We found a great spot in Lakewood, right across the street from a nice little park. I took some pictures of the house during the home inspection last week. I only hope we can decorate the house as nicely as the previous owners have. Say hello to our soon-to-be new home (and goodbye to financial freedom).

Click on the picture for a photo tour.


Buster will finally have a real yard to run around in.
And Jack can't wait to move into his new home!

Can you see his new tooth?

X-Games 13 !

Went to go check out the X-Games this past Sunday to watch the Skateboard Vert and Rally Racing events. Of course, Home Depot Center mentioned that "pro style" cameras were not allowed, so I didn't even bother bringing in my camera...boy was that a mistake. Everyone had an SLR camera! I was a little bummed all day long because there were lots of great photo ops. You'd think with all my luck sneaking cameras into "no cameras allowed" venues, that I'd learn my lesson. Oh well. You're going to have to deal with my awesome cameraphone pics instead.

The skateboard vert event was fantastic! Shaun White (The Flying Tomato) dominated the pipe on his final run...making it a clearly uncontested Gold Medal.

After the skateboard vert, we went to our seats in the soccer stadium to check out the Rally Race. The hype was big after the tight race last year between Travis Pastrana and Colin McRae (when he flipped over on his last lap). They had one of Travis Pastrana's cars on display.

We had a great view of the track...check out Travis Pastrana in mid flight on the jump!

Colin McRae had another tough year...he just couldn't keep his car on the road. In the middle of the picture, you can see his car on top of one of the barriers after he flipped his car.

Next time I'm bringing my camera.

Tom, Jerry, and the Smurfs

I don't know how this got past me, but they released a new Tom & Jerry cartoon (written and directed by Joe Barbera) last year on the Cartoon Network. It was titled "Karateguard." It's not their best cartoon, but it's amazing to catch a new Tom & Jerry cartoon after all these years. Anyway, here it is via YouTube. (LINK)

Some of my favorite Tom & Jerry cartoons were the ones with the duckling in it. Just to take more of your precious time, here is one of the cartoons.

In other great cartoon news, The Smurfs are coming to DVD on December 4th! How Smurfy!

And why not throw in a quick Smurfs cartoon...with Jokey trying to outsmurf Brainy on April Smurfs Day by playing smurfy pranks on him. Brilliant.

And, no, I haven't grown up.

Name all the Presidents.

Been a while since I've had a game posted, so here you go. Name as many Presidents as you can in 10 minutes. (LINK)

Trapped in the Closet Teaser !

Can you believe it? R. Kelly made a teaser trailer for the highly anticipated sequel to Trapped in the Closet! Not only do you see some scenes from Chapters 13-22, but you see a brilliant recap of the first 12 chapters. The song is truly unbelievable...I can imagine the title of the song being "Trapped in the Closet (Oh $#!+)". (LINK)

Amazing what you can learn in 6 months.

Jack just turned 6 months old one week ago which meant it was time to go back to the doctor's office. He wasn't all too thrilled since he had to get 4 shots and have more bad tasting medicine. Yuck.

Surprisingly, Jack has slowed down his extreme weight growth caused by his active nature. I guess all that leg activity cut down on some of his weight gain. You can see how tone his legs are now. :) When it was time to weigh in, he couldn't help but look...16 lbs 9 oz. Not bad.

Time for a video update. Jack has learned lots of new things this past month. He's pretty much mastered the art of rolling. Not only can he roll from front to back or back to front, but he can roll long distance!

And he's been showing us early signs of effective crawling. Truly amazing. He finds something he wants, and finds a way to get there. It ain't pretty, but it's definitely a start. We won't call it crawling just yet...more like inchworming.

He's even learned to play the piano...although we haven't figured out what songs he's playing. He can even dance to the music!

Jack has been diggin' the Baby Einstein videos. Can't get enough of those puppet zebras I guess.

Have a great day!

Monstrous?

Apparently the mysterious 1-18-08/Cloverfield movie might be called Monstrous as Paramount Pictures has recently bought the domain name: www.themonstrousmovie.com. An unofficial teaser poster has been found showing the Statue of Liberty's head removed...matching up with the teaser trailer.

Back in the Closet

I haven't posted in 2 weeks, so I thought I'd come back strong with R. Kelly. Great news everyone...Trapped in the Closet is back! R. Kelly just announced that he has already made 10 new chapters to add to the first 12 chapters of his hip-hopera. They'll be released on DVD August 21st! Netflix Time! (ARTICLE)





Based on my analysis of the first 12 chapters, here is where we left off after Chapter 12:


And if you've already forgotten the magic of Trapped in the Closet, check out the first 5 chapters here.

Jack's got teeth!

I just got word that Jack has two little teeth growing on the bottom row. I guess that explains the unhappy patch he had for a few days. But now that they're out, he's ready to go! Teething also explains his new-found fascination for his thumb. Lots of quality time is spent with his thumb.

Jack loves quality time with his mom and grandmothers. Mom with Jack:


Jack with his two Grandmas:


Jack napping with Great Grandma Grace:


Jack loves his carrots. He's eating so much more now!


And he really loves playing with his feet. Look he's got both of them!


Toys are getting more and more interesting now that he can grab them so much better.


And don't forget that he still loves to sleep.


Jack hopes you all have a great day!

Good, Better, Best

Okay, two dictionary related blog entries in a row. Bare with me. But with all these Microsoft products coming out with super-cool names like Elite, Ultimate, Premium, I wanted to know how we are supposed to know which is the best or even bestest. One more poll to set the record straight. Which do you think rank as your Top 3.

more at twiigs.com...

more at twiigs.com...

more at twiigs.com...

Ginormous !

With the world insisting that the words 'gigantic' and 'enormous' be combined, Webster has officially added 'ginormous' to the dictionary. What they have failed to do is tell us how to rank each of these 'big' words. Vote below and tell us what you think are the Top 3 'BIG' words.

more at twiigs.com...

more at twiigs.com...

more at twiigs.com...

BOEING !

It was a great weekend for Boeing. Friday afternoon, Boeing launched the latest generation DirecTV 10 satellite which will provide significantly more capacity for nationwide HDTV. I worked on this satellite as well as the Spaceway satellites that are currently providing HDTV for DirecTV. Apparently, all my work is helping to provide HDTV to my own home. First contact has been made with the satellite, so things are looking good so far. (ARTICLE)

And yesterday was 7-8-7, which means that Boeing completed assembly of the first Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. A huge crowd of people stood around waiting to catch the first glimpse of Boeing's first new jetliner since 1995.

This new airplane incorporates many new technologies which are quite impressive:

- constructed of 50% composite material, making it lighter and 20% more fuel efficient
- fast cruising speed, maximum at Mach 0.85
- longer range of 8500 nautical miles, allowing for new flight paths and less stopovers
- larger windows with auto-dimming feature available to each window passenger
- LED cabin lighting to provide multiple lighting schemes
- higher cabin pressure to simulate lower elevation (6000 ft), resulting in more comfortable sleeping environments
- improved air purification and higher humidity (due to use of non-corroding composites) in cabin

Check out the new plane here.

As a result, Boeing stock is up and it's over 100 points today!

Rock Paper Scissors Championship

To continue the love for Alternative Sports, the Rock Paper Scissors Championship is being shown on ESPN2 tomorrow! Don't forget to check out the madness! If you want more details, check out my blog entry from last year. (LINK)

1-18-08

Anyone who went to go see Transformers, surely saw the trailer for the mysterious J.J. Abrams movie now referenced on the internet as "Cloverfield" or "1-18-08" (the supposed theater release date). Is it Godzilla? Is it related to Lost? Hopefully, we'll soon find out. Either way, I don't know how a movie like this can possibly be completed in secrecy within such a short time. And for now, they have a website: www.1-18-08.com with just a single picture posted. Here's a completely legal version of the trailer:



UPDATE: Official trailer posted on Quicktime here.

66 HDBs in 12 minutes !

Well, I hope you all got to see hot dog eating history being made yesterday. It was definitely the most exciting year for the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. With Kobayashi recovering from his jawthritis, they said his appearance would be a "lunchtime decision." The anticipation for the battle between the two greats couldn't be bigger. Joey "Jaws" Chestnut and Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi were neck and neck the entire 12 minutes, with both finishing well beyond last year's world record of 53 3/4. In the end, USA took the title! Chestnut took the famous Mustard Belt with 66 HDBs and Kobayashi finished with 63. Amazing! Kobayashi had a partial "reversal of fortune" in the final moments, which the judges didn't DQ him for.

Of course some of my favorite parts of the ESPN coverage is the pregame stats.

The new rivalry:


Comparing Chestnut to Wilt, DiMaggio, and Rocky. Very nice.

Next year, the rivalry will continue...

Don't forget to tune in!

Don't forget to tune in tomorrow morning to watch 6-Time Champ Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi take on Joey "Jaws" Chestnut. It's gonna be huge!

Transmorphers?

I'm sure you've heard all the hype about the release of Transformers (TOMORROW!). Well, I can't wait to see it and always have my eyes open for advertisements. I'm sure you can imagine my excitement when I was found it at Blockbuster Video! Oh wait, it's TransMORPHers. D'oh!

They also had Walking Tall: The Payback! That's right, the sequel! Okay, I never saw the first one, but how great does this "straight to DVD" movie look? It has Hercules in it! And his facial expression? I think he's got an upset stomach.

Happy Birthday, Lo!

My friend, Alan, loves getting lots of attention on his birthday! So here you go, Lo. Happy Birthday!!!

It's on !

Looks like things are looking up for this Fourth of July!

Kobayashi is in New York and ready to compete (despite his jaw injury) to defend his title! This year will be THE year for Nathan's Hot Dog Contest as Joey Chestnut will attempt to dethrone Kobayashi from his 6 consecutive years of championship. Can Takeru Kobayashi continue his reign and tie Lance Armstrong with his 7 consecutive championships? We'll see next Wednesday. (ARTICLE)

Happy iPhone Day.

No, I'm not buying a $500 phone, but it sure looks cool and it comes out today at 6pm.