Day at the DIA

Becky and I took Evan to the Detroit Institute of Arts today.

We received some free tickets in the mail and we thought about taking the whole family. Then we estimated the repair bill from a visit with all 3 of our kids and decided to just take Evan... and we had a great time! Evan enjoyed the art, but I think he enjoyed being with just the 2 of us even more.

It was my first visit to the institute and I really enjoyed it. I was especially impressed by the helpful staff. Everywhere we went people were giving us directions and smiling at Evan (but then again, he gets that a lot).

Here are a few picture highlights:








Check out more art.

To Tablet or Not to Tablet

Tomorrow at 1pm eastern, Apple will stop time.

or at least that's what the hype would lead you to believe.

The maker of the Macbook, iPod, and other desirable gadgetry has scheduled a special press conference to unveil a new product. Speculation around the industry is that they will announce a new tablet computer that will make Mac lovers drool. A tablet computer is basically an giant-sized iPod touch. It would likely be a step between the portability and a lower cost of an iPod touch and the power and utility of a Macbook Pro.

Now, I'm not an Apple slappy, but I was privileged to have the use of one of the new Macbook Pro's for several months at the end of last year. I loved it, I miss it, and the only thing that keeps me from buying one myself is the price. I don't think that they are overpriced, but you certainly pay a premium for what you get.

We were in the market for a new laptop a month ago and we were able to buy a decent PC for just under $400 where the base Macbook model starts at $1000. I hope that I can own at Macbook Pro in the near future and if the price and specs are right a Macbook tablet might be the right thing for me.

Then again they might just announce a new 100gig iPod the size of a grape.

Mo' Bunk Pics

Here are a few more shots of the boys enjoying their new beds:





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Beds of Bunk

After a lot of time and hard work the bunk beds are done!

I started this project in mid-November. We built them almost from scratch and I'm really proud of the finished product. The boys seem to really like them so far. They wanted to climb up and down the ladder all afternoon:)

We were so busy getting their room set up we hardly had time to take some pictures. Here are the first few images, I'll post some more tomorrow.

Evan the Engineer

I have an old desktop computer that has barely been running over the last several years. It was kept all these years because it stored all our digital photos and video plus I hoped to repurpose it for a basic computer for the kids to use.

Our great packing adventure has provided me with the perfect excuse to take the next step in wiping the hard drive clean and reinstalling windows. But it wasn't meant to be. After shredding the disk it just couldn't recover. I might have been able to get it back in working order, but it really wouldn't have been worth the effort. I am trying not to be a hoarder.

I was going to take out a couple of parts that I thought might be useful and Evan said he wanted to help. He got really excited about unscrewing and disassembling EVERY part. It was great. I just showed him what to do and he undid every piece by himself.

He was really into how it all came together. It was great to see his mind and personality come alive as he pulled each part out. We talked about which part what which, but he was mostly interested in the deconstruction.

He has a really analytical mind (he also loves puzzles), perhaps he has a future in engineering?

O'Brien Strikes Back!

Just a couple of days ago I blogged about NBC's new plan to return Jay Leno to 11:35pm with a new 1/2 program. They cited the low ratings for the current Jay Leno show and Tonight Show as well as pressure from the local NBC affiliates.

It seems like this just creates huge problems. The network looks foolish for making such a strange move and then totally stepping back from it after only a few months. Leno and Conan look like rejected losers for those time slots; and Conan fired back today. He released a statement that was very direct about his reaction. At one point he says:

I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of the Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

You can read the entire letter here.

Wow. I think Conan is must watch tonight. It should be really interesting to see that will happen at NBC next. This is way better than most of their programming, maybe they can just make this the new 10pm reality show.

Hoarder!

A couple of months ago Becky and I started watching a show on A&E called "Hoarders". This is a reality show, but in a documentary kind-of-way, not a game show. This is definitely a can't look/can't look away program.

It highlights the lives of compulsive hoarders and the mental health and cleaning professionals who try to help curb their addiction/habit. For those of you who don't know, hoarders collect stuff; lots of stuff; any kind of stuff... in many cases their homes end up looking like this:


It's scary to look at the way these people live. A couple of years ago I led a group of teens to clean out the house of a hoarder; we sold some of the stuff in a garage sale, the rest ended up in the trash. I couldn't believe how much stuff she had in her tiny house.

My family is spending alot of time cleaning out the house as we pack up and anytime I come across some old box or can't decide whether to keep something or not I just think of Hoarders and throw it in the trash!

I highly recommend watching this show if you lack the motivation to clean your home. I usually spend about an hour cleaning around the house after each episode.

Leno returns again

NBC has finally admitted defeat.

The Jay Leno Show has been steadily losing viewers over the scripted dramas they so boldly shunned less than a year ago. Local NBC affiliates are furious because they rely so heavily on the 10pm lead-in to their local news programming. Not only have they been pressuring the network, but Conan's Tonight Show has been consistently losing out to Letterman.

Speculation has been rampant that changes were eminent, but tonight NBC officially announced that Leno will have a new 1/2 hour program at 11:30pm.

This was a huge bombshell and basically a complete admission that their plans failed miserably. They will try to remedy the problem following the Winter Olympics, but I think it may already be too late for the struggling network. I didn't follow NBC latenight much, and I'm sure that I won't be interested now. NBC is currently renegotiating with Conan and Jimmy Fallon, it's not certain that they will agree to move back the half hour. (source)

You can read Adam's take on it here.

Will any of you miss the Jay Leno Show?

How Tweet It Is

It's no secret that the US auto industry is hurting. Living in Dearborn we've got front row seats to the whole show. Ford is in a better position than GM or Chrysler, but I've not been personally persuaded to look into their vehicles. When I was looking for a car, all of Ford's attention was on SUVs; when I was looking for a minivan they stopped making them. And I've not seen much to make me look back from my Hondas until now.

Sync.

It just keeps getting cooler and cooler. Sync is basically an in car computer that allows you to have seamless integration between your vehicle and portable devices, such as your ipod or mobile phone. At first I was pretty skeptical, it seemed that they were just throwing some flash tech into a car to be able to mark up the price, but sync keeps getting upgrades which make it more and more appealing. The latest addition reads your twitter feeds to you. You can be totally in touch with your calls, texts, and tweets while staying hands free. (source)

It's going to be a few year until we look for a new vehicle, but I might be looking at a Ford with snyc when the time is right.

Any testimonies from someone who uses it?