Marcus Man, Marcus Man.
Goes wherever an infant can.
Makes a mess, any size.
Chases cats, hey Pythag,
Look out!
Here comes the Marcus Man.

Is he strong? Listen Sir.
He’s got a poopy diaper.
Can he climb anywhere?
Take a look, overhead,
Oh no!
There goes the Marcus Man.

Whether day or night,
when you hope he will stay.
Like a streak of light,
he’ll be out and away!

Marcus Man, Marcus Man.
We so much love our Marcus Man.
Flashy toys, he ignores.
Deadly things he moves towards.
Our boy, although we are imploring,
He’ll just keep exploring.
There goes the Marcus Man!

I don’t know what it is with me and Disney red-heads, but I have a new favorite cartoon: Kim Possible.

I stumbled across it while playing Diablo II and looking for something to watch on television. Disney was having a Kim Possible marathon…and what fun!

So, what is it about? Kim is a high school student, has two younger twin brothers, and is a cheerleader. Oh, she also frequently stops bad guys from taking over the world.

She doesn’t have superpowers. She is just very agile and athletic, smart, and lucky. Her buddy Wade, only seen online, provides her with gadgets and stuff, and lets her know when trouble is around.

Her sidekick is a fellow called Ron Stoppable. He reminds me of, well, me in high school. Geeky, awkward, terrible with girls. Through trying hard and being a klutz, he actually helps her out on her missions. More to the point, he naked mole-rat Rufus helps out a ton, and is incredible smart for a rodent.

Unlike most Disney families, her parents are still alive, together, and love each other. Kim is actually a nice person, and also in many ways a typical teenager.

The villains are a hoot! One of my favorites the Mad Scientist Drakken, who I swear was Freakazoid in a previous incarnation. He has a great sidekick and lousy henchman, and comes up with wacky plans all the time.

Another one is Sr. Senior, Sr. (and his son, Sr. Senor, Jr.) voiced by Ricardo Mantelban. He and his son are billionaires, and live on a secluded island off of Europe. They were content, but when they sucked all the power from Europe for themselves, Ron made them realize that they really have an evil lair and such, and that they really are trying to be supervillians. And thus an enemy is born.

I could go on and on. I highly recommend this show. It is just silly fun with interesting characters with wonderful voices.

And that’s the situation.

Our son Marcus turned one year old yesterday!

People do say time flies, yet I am amazed at how quickly time has flown.

The pictures of his birthday can be found in the picture book (link on the left).

He’s at an interesting stage of development (and I’ll probably be using that phrase until the day I die). So, off the top of my head:
• When I hold him up and let go, he can stand for around two or three seconds.
• With the five color ring toy, he is now putting the rings back on, not just taking them off. He isn’t putting them back in the right order yet.
• While standing he can pull himself around the big table in the family room.
• He likes giving things to people.
• He, in general, seems to be a very happy little guy.
• He does cry when he is very tired, but he wants to stay awake.
• He is eating lots of solid food. Loves ice cream!
• At restaurants, in public, he seems to be doing okay so far, which is a relief.
• He likes to clap his hands.
• He adores Pythagoras! I think the cat is his favorite toy. Oh, and Pythag is very good with Marcus, tolerating the pulling and tugging while we try to teach Marcus to pet the cat gently.
• He still has the best smile in the world!

I’m sure this next year will be even more interesting.

We love our Marcus man.

Every have a day where you don’t feel connected? Where things are just odd and you can’t figure out why.

I had a day like that, today (probably yesterday, Thursday, by the time you read this the first time). I was working on a dozen things at once, getting lots done at work, but my mind would stray all over the place.

Somehow I wrote a proposal, and a pretty good one. And I did a good thing at work, too.

But still, I definitely was off.

Now, I’ve been sick for a while, but it was just a really runny nose and the tickling throat.

Or so I thought.

After work, I was on the sofa reading Newsweek, Elaine was feeding Marcus, and Pythag was hanging out too.

My thoughts were whirling. I put the magazine down and day dreamed. A ton. About, well, everything.

I must have fallen asleep, but I didn’t notice my day dreams turning into dreams. They did, and they were as weird as they usually are.

At about 7:15 I woke up, sweating.

Sweating?

I felt…wonderful. All my fatigue was gone, my nose was much clearer, and I felt awake and really good.

I had a fever, and I didn’t know it.

I definitely had it all day. I might have had a low grade fever all week and didn’t know it.

Anyway, it has been several hours, and I still feel really good, relatively speaking. I’m also hungry, quite hungry, which is an excellent sign.

I think I’ll take Nyquil again one more time to kick the rest of it out of my system.

And then, perhaps, I’ll reread my proposal, and make sure it really does make as much sense as I thought it did…

This is almost an advertisement for a store. Usually on the blogs that I read, I see stories of companies doing horrible things and making life difficult.

I’d like to tell you of a good shipping experience that I just had.

I had, about a half a year ago, I guess, bought a pair of pants from Men’s Warehouse. I love these pants. They are silk, look great, and feel even better to the touch. I rarely wore them because, well, they are silk and have special cleaning instructions (I have to let them hang to dry, for instance).

I wore them recently and noticed that they were a little too short in leg length, riding just above my shoes. Not good.

So I thought, “Hey, I just got my tuxedo at Men’s Warehouse. Maybe they’ll be able to do these quick alterations.”

I took the pants there, but unfortunately I had to have them dry cleaned before they would touch them. I wasn’t happy about this, as it meant two more trips before I could get them fixed. But, they did say they’d alter it for free, so I guess it wasn’t so bad.

When I went in with the pants and tried them on, they were very short. I mean, almost an inch above my shoes. I don’t think I grew taller - it was probably something the one hour martinizing or somesuch that the dry cleaners use.

Anywho, the tailor said that she couldn’t lengthen them enough.

So, I was out of luck. I was a bit ticked off. I had a nice expensive pair of pants, and now I have to donate them before I got any real use.

As I was about to leave, though, the salesman who was helping me stopped me and said, “Hang on, let me talk to the manager.”

To make a long story short, they found a new pair of pants, very similar, fixed the hems in the legs, and gave me a free exchange. I was out the door in less than a half hour.

I was stunned. They could have just let me go, but instead they went out of their way to help me and make sure I had a good experience, probably at some cost to them.

Amazing. That was incredible service.

And that is why I’m using this entry to shout positively about the Men’s Warehouse. You bet I’ll use them again, and I highly recommend them to anyone who asks.

This specific store is located in the Oak Valley Center mall, off of exit 175 of I-94, near Target.

On Sunday, Elaine and I saw the remake of Battlestar Galactica, which we taped from the Sci Fi Channel. I had heard many reviews of this show, way before it came out. With very few exceptions, they were negative. Heck, even the actor who played Adama was telling people not to watch it.

So I had very low expectations going into it.

I have to admit, though, that I was pleasantly surprised. Let’s take it in order. Be warned, there are spoilers ahead. Lots of them.

The Good.

• The way the show saluted the original series. The original look of the Cylons, the ships, etc., where explained as from the Cylon-Human war 40 years ago. So you would see them in the historic exhibit.
• Many of the bits from the old series, like the curse words (Frak), and the “By Your Command” being used.
• The space battles were amazing. I’m not one for special effects, as they are common place, so I don’t mean that. I mean how, well, big the battles seamed, and how they took their time with them. Battles were quick, but still it took a long time to engage.
• The hard choices. They showed the new President (who was the Secretary of Education – “a school teacher!” as Adama put it!) making tough decisions. Letting many people die so others could live.
• Baltar. He is a genius, but this time around he wasn’t actively working against the humans. He was just a dupe, falling for a pretty girl, and trying to figure out how not to screw up. I like how they are working that.
• Changes. I didn’t mind some of the changes. A female Starbuck and Boomer were fine by me, and I loved the updated look of the ships and robotic Cylons.
• Technology. I liked that the Cylons infiltrated the human technology, and also how they improved the looks of the standard metal Cylon.
• Story. I liked the story. That didn’t change much from the original show, but they took care with it. Again, I was pleasantly surprised.

The Bad.

• After a big war, even forty years ago, I doubt that the humans would have been so unprepared for another battle.
• Confusion. It seemed like Galactica was the last Battlestar. It wasn’t, it was the last of the old series, but I somehow missed that.
• Fem-Fatale robots. Alright, they made human like robots so they could infiltrate the colonials, but really, does that hot blonde robot really need to want sex all that much?
• Earth. According to this version, Earth doesn’t even exist. It is a legend and no one believes it or has a clue that it is real. However, this could become a “Good” if, in future installments, they do evidence and act on it. On the plus side, I like them bringing it up, and using it as hope for the humans.

The Ugly.

• Only one: robot religion. I can see robots being afraid of humans. I cannot see them getting religious, believing in god, and wanting to have a soul. On the other hand, I’ve never met a fully artificially intelligent robot, so what do I know.

I hear this might become a series. If the writing remains high, and they develop a story arc, I will definitely give this show a chance. The arc would be relatively easy.

The first year would be spent on evaiding the Cylons, and detail the work required to make sure humanity remains a viable species. How do they handle food, spare parts, and the very very low gene pool? At the end of the first year, they find a clue about Earth. The second year follows up on that, and also deals with the Cylon infiltrations. Maybe Baltar realizes how they were made.

Hmm, not sure where it could go from there, but hey, I’m not a SF writer.

Anyway, great job! If you haven’t seen it, and didn’t mind reading my spoilers, I highly recommend this four hour television movie.

Last night Elaine and I went to Second City to see my teacher, Tiffany, in her show. She is part of the Second City touring company. Her shows are on Sunday nights and Monday nights. My class decided to get together and see her on Monday, since that is our normal class time.

It rocked.

Just going to have Elaine meet most of my classmates would have been enough. Nine (out of 14) were there. Most of them said to Elaine, “Oh, I recognize you from Chuck’s webpages!” That was cute.

However, the show itself was very very good. It wasn’t the improv that we are learning. It was a bunch of skits, like from Saturday Night Live or Mad TV. Some of the skits were just okay, but most of them were quite funny and had me and the audience laughing out loud.

I think my favorite skit was the soap opera one. A man and woman were fighting, harshly, but every so often they would turn into a soap opera and with music flowing would express their love and burning desires. It was great how their attitudes would make their physical positions seem totally different from one second to the next.

The seventh player was on the piano, and he did a great job. Also, the crew who handled lights and other sounds did an amazing job too.

After the show they did a bit of improv, and the music and stage effects were also added in an improvisational way. What an experience!

The show unfortunately started 25 minutes late, so that meant that the after show improv didn’t last very long.

We also hit a traffic backup on the way home, so we didn’t get back until around 11:30 PM or so. I’m very glad Elaine’s parents were there to take care of Marcus and were willing to baby sit that late.

I’m sure you are asking now, “Is that where the anxiety was?”

No. It was Marcus.

We think he is starting to go through separation anxiety. If I’m around and hand him to someone else, he cries, like when I dropped him off at daycare this morning.

If Elaine is around and she hands him off, even to me, he cries. Mommy is the most important person to him right now.

It gets kinda funny. He’ll crawl away from Elaine to another room, look for Elaine, then get upset because she isn’t there.

It will be nice when he is out of this stage in about ten years.

I'm home.

I stayed up way to late last night, just couldn't sleep. Had a wonderful steak dinner though, and got a nice buzz too.

I've updated the Halloween pics -added one and fixed what the joker won (thanks for pointing that out, Pete).

After I rake the leaves I'm going to go through and reduce the size of my pics. Hopefully, you won't notice a difference!

I travel quite a lot.

In fact, I’m in Orlando right now. And before you get jealous, realize that I won’t step one foot out of this hotel until I got home Thursday morning. I’m in a freezing room waiting for people to show up so I can actually do some business development. I’ll be working until very late tonight doing the good old “grip and grin.”

I’m not complaining about my job – I just want to make it clear that business trips are not for fun. I work down here, and rarely get to be a tourist, let alone enjoy the weather.

I’d much rather be home with my wife, son, and cat.

But anywho, I travel quite a lot, and quite frankly, living in a hotel is like living in Bizarro World.

Let’s start with the room itself.

I feel like a giant at every hotel room I’m at. Now, I’m only 6’ tall (exactly), yet my feet hang out over the edge of the bed, and I have to duck down in order to get my head under the shower.

Most of the time, I can easily touch the ceiling without fully extending my arms.

The glasses they have for water are very tiny – two swallows at most.

On the other hand, the pillows on the bed are huge. As in, if you put your head down on them, you are already in a reclining position. If they put more than two pillows in the room, I doubt there would be any room for one’s luggage.

At every hotel room I stay in, whether it is in warm Florida or someplace freezing like Massachusetts in the dead of winter, the air conditioner is always on at full blast at the coldest setting.

I swear, I’ve seen thermometers showing 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) or even lower. And if I turn them off or to a more comfortable temperature, during the day the cleaning staff will reset it right back to where it was. Thankfully, they are kind enough to clean up the note I leave asking them not to readjust the temperature.

Hotel rooms, the small ones I stay in, don’t have any refrigerators or microwaves. If you want cold water, you have to go get a bucket of ice. I find it odd to go get a bucket of ice when I just want two cubes for some water. And you have to get a full bucket – the machine has you press a button to get ice, and you either get nothing or a full iceberg.

At least in my room it is usually so cold that the ice doesn’t melt.

Because I’m on a business trip when at these hotels, I don’t have to pay for anything. That is a very odd and strange feeling to have.

I have to eat out, so I usually have a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At home I eat three meals, but they just aren’t as much food as they are when I’m traveling. It is hard to order small portions at a restaurant, and you can’t keep your food in your room without spoiling.

Well, I suppose I could put in on the AC.

The televisions are usually small, but placed in a very huge armoire right in front of your beds. So in order to watch television, you need to sit on your bed. At night, before you go to sleep, this is fine. But if you get in at around 9 PM and think you’ll be up a bit (but too tired to go out on the town), it is an odd feeling to watch television from one’s bed.

And I always end up getting a room with two beds. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with the second bed. I suppose I could wake up in the middle of the night and switch to the other one so that my company is getting its money’s worth.

The bed sheets are changed every day. At home we change them about once a week or so. During college I think I changed mine once a semester.

Who needs new sheets every day?

If fact, I don’t need a new towel every day either. And speaking of being a giant, the towels are getting shorter and shorter.

At least hotels now carry exfoliating towels. My skin is all nice and shiny after rubbing myself raw with those abrasive fabrics.

They also wash your towels every day too. You don’t want to know how often I washed my towels in college.

The toilet paper and tissues are usually pretty rough and scratchy too. At times I’ve been temped to bring my own from home, but I honestly don’t have room.

You see, when I travel on these trips, I have to bring my suits. At least two of them. Suits take up a ton of space. I only bring with me a satchel and a small carryon luggage cart.

Basically, I hate checking my luggage. If I do that, there is a good chance it will get lost, and even if it doesn’t, it takes about a half hour for you to get your baggage back.

So in my carryon I have to fit two suits, shoes, underwear, and toiletries. If I need three suits I’ll just wear one on the flight.

I think that is the oddest things about these trips – that I am wearing a suit all day long. I went to a public school that didn’t have uniforms, so I’m not used to wearing a jacket and tie during all my waking hours.

Wearing a suit is useful in one way, though. At least it helps to keep me warm in my hotel room.

The Halloween pictures are finally up! Look to your left and you'll see a link for picture journals. Click on that and you'll find the Halloween pages. I learned a lot by putting up those pictures, specifically, how to make them smaller in size. Of course, I figured that out at the very end, so expect long load times. I'll go through my pictures over time and reduce their sizes eventually.