And there was darkness, and it was almost as good...

As I sit here in the electricity deprived darkness of my bedroom, taking care of my 7 month old child as my wife scoops the snow off of our sidewalk, I find myself wondering what it is, exactly, that we did as kids during blackouts instead of tinkering on battery powered electronic devices.

I'm totally diggin' technology that is coming out these days. Here, you can call me without knowing my number nor revealing yours! Ingenious!

Grateful for my Daughter

This morning and for the last couple of days, I have noticed that Mckenna (5 yo) will go to her room, shut the door and put on various church/primary CDs. I have even heard her singing along to them behind the closed door. She even busted out "Follow the Prophet" while we were in the car, without any music to accompany her. This makes me so happy, almost to the point of tears. I'm glad to see her clinging to the iron rod of her own free will and choice. It wasn't long ago that she would rail against church or any type of media about church. It warms my soul to know that I and her mother have succeeded in some small way, influencing her for good. I can only imaging how full of joy our Father's heart must be when he witnesses us choose that which is good, wholesome, and uplifting. This is truly one of the sweet mercies of parenting.

Google Doodle Article Response

Here's the article if your interested...

And the picture of what we're talking about:








Quotes from and responses to the article:

"How much influence does Google have in terms of driving the news?"

Google is HUGE and therefore whatever it does IS news. Google is not supposed to be some non-biased journalist. And Google News isn't a reporting platform, just a culling of reports from other news organizations as a courtesy to its visitors. It is first and foremost a search engine and a software solutions provider. So to answer your question, Google should drive the news if only to inundate the internet with buzz about itself for profit's sake.

"[Google doodle as advertising]"

I say more power to them. I don't think it'll happen though. Google's been around long enough with their own ad agency and have yet to exploit their vanilla homepage as such. If they ever did, it just might be enough to make people switch search engines to Bing or at the very least stop clicking on the doodle.

"But the Google doodle could also be used to advance a political cause as well."

And why couldn't it? Google has the right to free speech just like anyone else. The de facto line is drawn at the point where they start offending/turning-off a large part of their customers/users. Hence it would be bad for business to hard-line such a divisive subject.

"But what if the Google doodle were to be used for more commercial purposes? Would it be a source of controversy?"

What isn't a source of controversy today? Everyone readily vomits out their approval or disapproval about someone else's doings. I don't see why this should be any different.

"Would it give an unfair advantage to those who could afford to pay for it?"

This one actually made me laugh out loud. This question alone reveals the Marxist views of the article's author. To believe that you've done something inherently unfair by purchasing more avenues of opportunity to solidify business profitability is downright diabolical. As the downtrodden masses, unable to successfully make use of the equal opportunities this country provides, should we also demand the abolition of Super Bowl advertisements on the same grounds? And if you'll indulge me... In response to an accusation of unfairness, David Bowie replies in The Labyrinth, "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is." Because someone has worked hard and become successful while the rest of us are still in the struggling phase leads the disaffected to declare that some injustice has befallen them. That this is in some way unfair. That we should all attain success together and anyone showing premature promise should systematically be punished or maligned. This idea takes focus off of its proper place, the one. The minute one stops focusing on betting their own situation to take note of others around them, the differences becomes obvious. If the difference seems insurmountable this observation easily leads to envy and a desire to "even the odds" through any number of legal or illegal means. This further breeds the socialistic attitude of equal results no matter the effort or ability.

"Could it create a situation where Google could be accused of advancing a personal agenda?"

Do you call it an accusation of advancing a personal agenda when Coca-Cola comes up with some new marketing plan to net new profits? Or just damned fine business acumen? I bet its share holders want Google to be accused of advancing the personal agenda of maximizing profits.

Okay so major updates here. Just go check out my Picasa Web Albums to see all the wonderful things that have happened recently. But just to summarize, I've uploaded pics from our trip to Mt. Rainier, San Diego, The Temple, and our cat's newborn baby kittens. Enjoy!!!: http://picasaweb.google.com/patrick.connor

Friday Workout

Today went fairly well. Pounded out my hour. Pushed myself a little more than yesterday. I'm almost done with the Faraday book, probably will finish it today at work. Kenna had a water playday at preschool due to the 78+ degree weather. I got her all sunscreened up and put her in her tankini. She's getting a little to tall and lanky for it though, her belly is finding it hard to stay covered.

In da internets...

Sometimes you find something that just tickles you so pink, you have to share it with others. And such it is with:

I'd almost drop $10 on this just to chump on all my friends with an iPhone. The Apps are a hoot, but definitely check out the specs page. You'll roll in stitches, if we have the same sense of humor that is.

This thing really sucks!

The wife's been bugging about getting a new vacuum lately. We've had the same one since before we were married and it's starting to show. So guess what pops up on woot.com the other day? You guess it a vacuum. Chalk one more item up on the woot board. This could become a very expensive new habit. Got to keep it in check.

Items from the Woot-Off

The BIG Boom
The little Boom
The gag gift
and
The impulse buy

Woot again...

More crap!

Picked up a couple of Lappys with the Blu-ray

Here's the Woot page where I got 'em plus all the info. Kelley wanted one for herself so we got two. That was last month. Mine came with a bum drive so after dealing with Kerpal from India for a few days I finally got a new drive. All is fine and dandy now.

Wednesday Workout

So today was a fresh start again. Last Friday Kenna was running a fever, didn't go to preschool, hence I missed out on my workout. Then again just this past Monday was Memorial Day (may they all rest in peace) and no school again for Mckenna giving me about 6 straight days without having to go to the gym. I really didn't try that hard today. I was just going through the motions. I don't know if the numbers on the machine are all that accurate. I seemed to be able to hit four and a half miles without much effort, but five miles just seems a little out of my reach even when I give it my all, or my most.

I'm also reading a biography of Michael Faraday, the father of electromagnetism. And yes, I became interested in him after the Character Daniel Farady popped up on Lost. I decided to take it with me to the gym because it is a heck of a lot smaller and less cumbersome than my new Dune novel: House Atreides.

Wednesday Workout

Kinda wussed out today. First off didn't have any clean sweats so I had to wear some old workout shorts I had. Next came the realization that Kenna's boosterseat was missing and not in my car. Char had taken her yesterday and given the booster to Kelley who then put it in her trunk, where it remained until I went to pick it up from her at her work on the way to take Kenna to preschool. So I was already having an 'off' day. But today is special for me cuz I was only 45 points away from reaching YELLOW LEVEL (the second level) in the Y's 12 week program. Never you mind the fact that I've been in this program since September last year. So Hurray for me!!!

Wednesday Workout

Haven't posted in a while, but I have been working out. Maybe I'll get around to posting the other workouts. Maybe not. Point is that after San Diego I fell off the workout wagon. My iffection that followed shortly after didn't help much either.
I'm not so sure if I still want to try my 5 mile, 1000 calorie, 60 min eliptical run. It just seems a little out of my grasp right now. See the thing is, as I lose more weight, I can run faster. But along with the weight loss it take fewet calories to move a smaller body the same 5 miles. Maybe my goal was just like the futile idea/attempt to travel faster than the speed of light. Allow it is easy to imagine a faster speed than that of light but in reality it doesn't exist! I'll have to do some serious soul searching to seek devine affirmation of my assumption. Wish me luck. If it is true, I need to reevaluate my motivation/goals.

Friday Workout

Here's Friday's workout. Not my best work but I'm there none the less. I missed Wednesday because it was tax day and I waited as long as I could before having to fork over a big chunk to Uncle Sam. I took Wednesday off work so that I might not be distracted while feeling the full effect of the tightening grip of our government.

Changing the subject. I think I wanna get something to listen to the AM band while working out. I just can't seem to get enough of Rush Limbaugh. My workouts tend to cut right into the middle of his broadcast time.

Monday Workout

First time back to the Y since vacationing in San Diego. I was sweating like a pig. I could only hit up to 45 minutes, mostly because my bladder started acting up around the half hour mark. I must be out of practice because I never have potty issues on the eliptical machine. So I'll probably be back up and running my usual time on Wednesday. I'll also have to install itunes on my new laptop to workout a bpm set as suggested by Roseanne. Also look forward to my blogging about our vacation to SoCal and our trip up to the big hill called Rainier. Until then.

Wednesday Workout

Just finished my eliptical run. As you can see, just shy of my goal again. Does anyone know of a good free program that'll analize your current collection of music and tell you what each song's bpm is? I'm really gonna need that to create progressively harder workouts for myself.

Monday Workout

I missed the gym on Friday so I was kinda off of my game today. I just need to take some time and put together a 'mix tape' that runs around 142-145 bpm. That's so I can hit my goal. I need that constant pounding beat to push me and keep me in the lead. It's also cuz I get a little clumsy at the higher speeds and need something to balance me out.

Workout Frustrations...

So I usually hit up the gym Mon/Wed/Fri while Kenna's at preschool. Well, today, I slept through my alarm and didn't even get up until after 9:15am. Kenna's perschool starts at 9. Then I was freaking out cause I couldn't find any workout clothes. So Kenna was 45 min late to preschool and I didn't go to the gym. And to top it all off, I couldn't get the day off so my friend David could come up from Vancouver to hang out. It's been a really tough day for me. Mostly I think because of that monkey wrench thrown into my workout routine.

Wednesday Workout

Don't get too excited. I kinda cheated to hit 5 miles. I checked where I was at the 60 minute mark and saw that I had hit 4.66 miles and barely 900 calories. I was so frustrated to find that this was exactly where I was at 60 minutes on Monday and if I kept with my regular 5 minute cool down, I'd not hit either of my goals. So I decided to go all out in the cool down phase. I broke 5 miles but still the 1000 calorie mark eluded me. I would have been too discouraged if I hadn't made any progress so I pushed the envelope and the rules, but just a little. It'll take a lot more to hit my goals under 1 hour exactly, like 143 strides a minute continuously to make the 5 miles! It might take me longer than I'd like but I'll make it