Becca's birthday

Here she is, enjoying her birthday afternoon on the couch. Isn't she cute :) We celebrated yesterday by going to her favorite resaurant, and tonight I am making her dinner, so that she can relax a bit. We gave her cards an presents yesterday also, and ate Oreo blizzard ice cream cake for dessert, so hopefully her birthday weekend wasn't too terrible for her.

Computer Fun

I like to build computers, and Nathan acquired a nice piece that needs some upgrading. The case is great, and has 2 fans and a power supply that glow with blue LEDs. He was given this computer by his friend because it no longer worked. We were able to throw in a spare hard drive and a power supply and bring it to life. It is a Pentium 4, which is a little old, but it still has a decent graphics card. He plans on using spare cash to upgrade this as time goes on to his ultimate desktop machine, and this case can definitely handle it.

I like building computers, I was able to put together a fairly top of the line machine for a guy at work for about $800 for the parts. He tells me at least once a week how nice his machine is, faster than the work computers that cost the company $2,000 each. Building that new computer is definitely the cost effective way to go, but if you aren't going to do that, it seems like Gateway has the best price to value ratio, much better than the giants HP and Dell, who tend to charge twice what the parts cost, and they both outsource their tech support to India, while Gateway is all in the US.

Best Board Game Ever

It may be a little hard to see, but this game is Weapons and Warriors, a fun little game that my brother and I played, with the help of my kids. Basically you get to shoot little marbles to knock over little guys, and destroy their castle. But when the castle takes a hit, things really go flying. The boys loved it, and Micah played it all the next day. Nathan ended up winning 2 out of 3 with his lucky shots, but it was all fun, even when my own castle was exploding, it was still fun to watch. Who needs a new movie from Netflix over a 3 day weekend when you can play a game like this.

My handyman skills

So, my wife thought that this little rack couldn't hold up to the strain of all the things that the teachers asked the kids to bring to school. As can be seen here, the backpack in the center is very full, I'm sure that it weighs more than my 9 month old daughter, in fact. My wife had it sitting on the floor, telling people that the rack would be pulled out of the wall. Now I felt like this was insulting to the job that I did with those little racks, so I had to put the backpack up there to test it. And looks like it is fine.

Brain interface device

Check out this brain interface device It allows you to control your computer as fast as thought. It doesn't really read thoughts, so you have to do some training to prepare to use it, but it shows interesting possibility. Watching Star Trek, they talk to their computer, but wouldn't it be easier if you could just think to the computer? This device reads up to six ranges of alpha and beta brainwaves, plus eye and facial muscle movements, to allow a decent amount of control, but it isn't even a full keyboard yet, so it can't replace the keyboard and mouse just yet.

You have to use biofeedback to train your alpha and beta brainwaves to act like you want them to, the article says that they feel proficient after about a month, and compare it to learning to type on a keyboard. Anyway, it sounds interesting to me, but maybe not until it has been out a while, and gets cheaper than $300...

Staycation

We began our staycation today by visiting the zoo. I've heard that it's more popular this year. I know that we would rather spend money on doing fun things, than on gas or plane tickets, so that we could sit in a hotel room for a couple of days, trying to find free activities.

My oldest boy took some pictures of my wife and me at the zoo. We spent most of the day at the zoo, and still didn't get in to see everything, so maybe the kids will want to go back again. The zoo seemed pretty busy, so maybe everyone else is trying the same thing. If almost everyone stopped driving on vacation, I wonder what that would do to the oil industry. I keep hoping that the price of gas will go back down, but I'm not holding my breath.

Even though it isn't a full vacation away from home, it is already helping me out. I am feeling less stress already, and it is only the first day :) It seems like I have been sick quite a bit lately, and maybe it is just the stress has weakened my immune system. I was asked the other day if I take vitamins, and yes I do, and I think they do help somewhat, but I haven't had significant consecutive time off of work for probably five years. Yes, I've taken time off after my wife had a baby, but that is such a stressful time, I never really felt rested and ready to go back to work. I just need this time to enjoy my family, and relax, and not worry about anything for a week.

This little girl never needs to sleep it seems, even when we do. Here we are wearing the same clothes, at about 11pm, with all the other children in bed, this little girl still looks wide awake and happy. I have just spent two weeks with quite a bit of overtime, and then my wife decides to work for three days straight. With Independance Day festivities, including late fireworks yesterday, I am all worn out. I haven't had a week off of work for about three years now, so it is about time, and I'm excited for our vacation next week.

My wife says that this little girl looks like me, but I'm not seeing the resemblance in this picture. I have heard both that she looks like me, and that she looks like Becca. Looking at the baby pictures, she definitely looks more like my oldest son than like the two middle children, but we probably won't know too much until she is a bit older.