My oldest son asked me to help him put on his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, so I obliged him.

Five minutes later, he asked me to take it off of him. I asked him why.

"Some people just don't want to wear their costumes," he said.

Then he explained further, very matter-of-factly: "Some people want to wear their costumes, some people just don't want to wear their costumes."

I think he was teaching me some sort of lesson about something.

Courtesy of a friend's blog I found this. Amazing grace, beauty, strength...and humor, in action. :)

Two events to report:

• My first Dungeons and Dragons game since about 3.5 years ago will be taking place soon. We'll be playing 4th Edition for the first time. It's not the beginning of a campaign or anything -- just a sort of "D&D Night" with some old friends -- but I'm still looking forward to it.
• Thanks to a friend and colleague from my Sierra On-Line days, it looks like I'll be writing (freelance) to provide content for an actual video game -- scripts, color and story text, that sort of thing. I'm pretty excited, really. the pay won't be great but it ain't bad. I've really been wanting to get more fun, creative work like this. It will also make a good addition to my already highly varied writing resume, and the money will also help with the next item...
• We've also officially booked our Disneyland Vacation for next April -- 7 nights of the Disney hotels/theme parks/merchandise.

This weekend looks to be both fun and potentially hellish at the same time. The next three days (Sat-Sun-Mon) will just be me and the boys mainly. Amy works, and my usual weekend 'help' (my mother) won't be available because she has to watch my nieces while my older brother moves.

My blogging efforts have slowed greatly, largely due to 3 things:

• An increase in work
• Working from home
• Joining and using Facebook

Work has increased, although not so much that I'm swamped. Working from home, however, often means 'downtime at work' is spent getting things done around the house. And Facebook, of course, is just faster and easier than blogging.

Blogging still serves it's purpose, though. I blog mainly as a medium to 'practice' my writing, and I don't think I could start an anti-Chung Moo Doe list on Facebook. :)

The camera on the LG Dare rocks, easily it's best 'extra' (or standard, these days) cell phone feature. Here are some other quick thoughts:

The touch screen works pretty well, although it seems bit wonky occasionally. [Sometimes I'll touch something to open a Web site or application and it does nothing, requiring a 2nd or even 3rd attempt. The virtual keyboard is surprisingly accurate though--more so than I would have thought.]

I like the customizable 'desktop' and the fact that I can put my own shortcuts on it.

The music player seems good enough, but I haven't dug into it yet. I may be soon, though, as I'm growing increasingly interested in using it for music playback.

The only real downside is that Verizon is still a pain in the ass with regards to giving you easy access to your phone's ringtones, music, pictures and videos.

Basically, to really do all the things you want to do with a new fancy multimedia phone, you need to spend some time Googling and searching forums for information (unless you're happy paying $1.99 for ringtones and 

In a nutshell, you need to do the following:

• Download Bitpim (a free application) -- or something like it -- to be able to access the phone via your USB cable. You can transfer files from the PC via Bluetooth, but only one file at a time and only in a limited fashion.]
• Figure out the arcane file system on the phone to learn where things like ringtones are kept (see below for some more info on this).
• Download a program that can convert .3GP/.3G2 media files to a more suitable format (.WMV, .AVI, etc.). I've found a few, but I'm still trying out different ones.

For anyone interested, if you're using Bitpim to browse your phone here is where to find media files:

• Ringtones are stored in Brew\10889
• Video, music, and sounds are all stored in under MMC (at least on my phone, which I've equipped with an SD card and I've set all video/sounds/pictures to be saved there.)

I've spent a week with my new cell phone: The LG Dare, courtesy of Verizon Wireless. Here's a quick 'review':

The best auxiliary feature hands down...

...is the built-in 3.2 megapixel camera. It's suitable for photo-quality (300dpi) 5x7 shots and near photo quality (200dpi) 8x10 shots.

The camera also sports quite a few advanced features (rapid shot, face detection, and various options for adjusting white balance and other attributes), as well as a flash. The on-board photo-editing features of the camera allow you to resize, crop, and do panoramic stitching, as well as a host of other options. 

If you want a secondary digital camera (which I did, because my wife always seems to has ours), the Dare can't be beat. I have a good camera and a great phone without having to carry two separate items.

The other features are new to me, but I'm getting quickly spoiled by them. The virtual keyboard works surprisingly well, and the touch screen in general has practically ruined me for ever wanting to use a standard phone ever again. I've never been a big digital music listener, but I think I may load up an SD card with some tunes.

As it happens, I already own Bluetooth USB adapters for my PC, a Bluetooth stereo speaker system, and a Bluetooth stereo headset/microphone (courtesy of a review I wrote about a year ago). This gives me unprecedented flexibility and new integration options for using my phone, which I'm only beginning to explore.

I'll write more tomorrow in order to keep this short. :) 

I went to Fred Meyers last night to pick up some milk.

Unfortunately, I was bitten by a shopping bug, which tend to run rampant when I see signs like "take an additional 50% off." I ended up buying three small 2-packs of Marvel comics characters for my youngest son.

He doesn't know any of the characters--Thor, Loki, Dr. Strange, Iceman, Pyro and Antman -- but that didn't stop him from waging terrific battles between both the various characters and some conveniently located toy dinosaurs as well.

And now he knows who all the characters are and to an extent what their superpowers are, and if they're good guys or bad guys.

Thor smashed a number of bad guys. Pyro and Iceman fought by shooting at each other ('shoot shoot, shoot shoot' he would say, with little shooting noises). Towards the end of the evening, Pyro spent a lot of time riding on an Allosaurus while Iceman rode on a Stegosaurus.

Yeah, kids are totally better than TV.

Work has been light this week, but looks to pick up next week. I got a lot done though!

• Trimmed some trees
• Drained, cleaned, and refilled the pond
• Got some landscaping done around the kids' Big Toy, putting down anti-weed fabric and filling in the area with 13 bags of play sand.
• Grilled some great food -- I think 3 times -- this week.
• Lots of other miscellaneous, mundane chores around the house.

I also got something new and shiny

I upgraded my phone to an LG Dare this week while upgrading our cell phone plan.

My main reason for the upgrade was that I have been lamenting my lack of a personal camera good enough for snapping shots of the kids (my wife usually has our main digital camera with her).

The Dare has a camera good enough for photo-quality (300 dpi) 5x7 shots, and near photo quality (200dpi) 8x10 shots. It's also got a flash and a slew of relatively advanced features like face detection, rapid multi-shot, panoramic stitching, and others. Best part of all -- I don't have to worry about carrying an additional item about, as I (almost) always remember to carry my cell phone.

Our cell phone plan hasn't been updated in about ten years. Now we get nearly twice as many minutes and better features for basically the same money we've been paying.

It's strange to think that when we got our first cell phone plan you could potentially go 100 miles away from your designated 'home area' and be considered 'roaming' (and get charged ridiculous per-minute rates for roaming calls). Now, cell phones are so ubiquitous the plans are easier to buy and understand (thank goodness).

Of course, I had to do some Googling and download a free program -- BitPim -- to be able to get around Verizon's iron-fisted control of their phones and network so I could do simple things like copying music and ring tones to and from the phone. (I hate Verizon's closed network, but unfortunately it's still advantageous for us to remain in it.)

I also learned that if you buy a grill, buy brand name

Getting some simple replacement knobs for my grill was a chore.

I bought my grill at Lowes -- Perfect Flame brand -- and it's a nice grill. But that brand is made in China and distributed by BBQTek (a Canadian company).

I had to do some serious digging just to figure out who I could get parts from (admittedly, I don't have the manual anymore) and how to get them. I ultimately got the knobs, but it took too much work.

Bottom line: I like the grill, but next time I'm in the market I think I'll pay more and get a Weber or other brand name.

My youngest son, for whatever reason as of late, has been so die-hard into Superman that it's nigh impossible to peel him out of his Superman pajamas (complete with cape).

For him, it's not just about wearing Superman, it's about being Superman -- so just buying a shirt with a Superman picture doesn't quite cut it. He likes Iron Man, Hulk, Batman, and Spiderman as well, but lately -- it's all about Superman and only Superman. Even his way-cool, recently purchased Batman pajamas (which look like Bat man suit in The Dark Knight) won't coax him out of Superman.

I'm not even sure why he's so fixated on Superman. He hasn't really seen much of Superman. There are no current cartoons or movies for him to watch with Superman in them. (I Guess I better get some Justice League DVD's from Netflix.) :)

Anyway,  I decided to go get him one or more Superman T-shirts -- the simple royal blue shirt with the traditional logo -- and finding such shirts is damn near impossible.

Timeless though Superman may be, he is not in vogue right now. I walked one end of the mall to the other and found nary a single, simple Superman logo T-shirt. Pickins were slim on Amazon too.

I did *finally* find a single tank top with underwear after digging through Toys R Us for a bit. It was the next to the last one (the other one was too big -- size 8 -- otherwise I would have picked it up). He can wear the tank top, and his older brother can have the underwear.