Chris’ World

It seems like it’s been an eternity since I made a post. It’s funny how you can get busy and completely forget to post all the things that would be perfect for a blog.

Last weekend the family and I headed west to El Paso for my grandfathers 80th birthday party. My aunts and grandmother live there so it was a nice central place for all of us to meet. In all, about 34 people made the trip and it really was an awesome party. We followed that up with a Super Bowl party on Sunday before heading back to San Antonio.

On Saturday night wihle the party was in mid swing I was keeping an eye on the endering progress of a special slideshow/video we whipped up courtesy of Animoto (my new favorite website). The router at my aunt’s house is located in my cousin Louie’s room so I was in there checking my email with my mom, who was getting a little nervous that it wouldn’t be ready. As we were headed back to the party my son and his new friend, an 8 yr old boy named Liam, waltzed into Louie’s room.

Louie is 20 and let’s just say that he has lots of eye candy littering his walls including the newest Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar. When Liam noticed the calendar he pointed and turned Ethan’s attention to a picture of Brooklyn Decker, someone whose name I’d heard on the Dan Patrick show but never seen. Ethan’s reaction was priceless as he blurted out:

Whoa. I’m gonna marry that girl! And that one, and that one, and that one! (Spinning around Louie’s room)

We turned out the light and quickly ushered the boys out and back into the living room. Not to be detered Ethan made at least 2 more trips back in there to admire that calendar. My cousin Louie fueled his curiosity and apparently Ethan settled on his favorite, “the chinese one.”

Kids say the darndest things.

Life in General ethan, quotes

Yesterday was a historic moment for the United States. Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President and the first African American President. On one hand I am glad to see the world embrace a person of color as the leader and face of our nation. On the other, I can’t help but feel that he was simply elected based on the color of his skin and not the content of his character. This in and of itself isn’t a horrible thing. He ran on a platform of hope and change and I hope he makes good on those promises and I hope the changes that he offers up benefit all Americans and truly do improve our nation as a whole.

While talking over dinner about the inaugaration, my wife brought up a good point that those of us in the gaming world are all too familiar with; Hype. How often has a good game been crushed underneath the weight of the hype? How often have games actually lived up to the pre-release hype? Almost never.

Parlay that same logic to Obama and he’s going to have to show up Washington and Lincoln just for people to think he lived up to the monumental expectations that have been set forth for him. I don’t buy into Obama’s politics and I didn’t vote for him, but he’s the leader of our nation for good or for bad. That said, I can’t help but feel that he is doomed to failure and he’s only been on the job for 23 hours.

Only time will tell what will happen in this fair nation. I’m remaining optimistic that this isn’t a slight of hand that results in our nation being worse off than before. I’ll admit though, I’m awfully nervous about what the future holds.

Life in General politics schmolitics

Today at lunch we picked up McDonald’s and headed to the Courthouse to file for an Assumed Name for an upcoming business venture and on the way Ethan did something that was pretty cute and a tad bit humorous.

Lauren and the kids had just gotten through with a MOPS meeting and so Ethan just had a bible lesson. Ethan asked us “Can I ask God a question?” We both replied with “Of course you can.” His prayer went something like this:

Dear God,

I would like a little brother. Having a little brother would be really neat so I’d like to have one.

Thanks

Lauren and I just sat there kind of silent for a moment. When Ethan was done he just said “Okay, I’m done”, as if he’d literally only been talking to God and nobody else could hear him. It was kind of sweet. Not sure if I’m ready for God to answer that particular prayer of his though.

Life in General ethan, prayer

Or so says the Radio ad for the Monster Jam. My brother and I took Ethan to the Monster Jam on Saturday night at the Alamodome. If you know much about my son, then you also know that loud noises terrify him and here I was taking him to the MONSTER JAM. To add to the potential disaster of this particular night, I managed to procure tickets that were about 50 yd line and only 4 rows back. That’s right, we were right in the middle of the chaos.

Given our propensity for disaster, I figured we’d get squished by a bouncing monster truck tire or perish in some other equally dramatic fashion. Somehow we made it out alive.

In preparation for the Saturday, I borrowed 3 sets of hearing protectors from my dad and ensured Ethan that it would be loud, but there would be nothing to worry about. We parked at Rivercenter Mall, a good mile walk from the dome and started walking with the hordes of people also headed that direction. It was cold and I ended up carrying Ethan the entire way. Partially because I didn’t want him to end up as someone’s hood ornament and also because I don’t really mind carrying him around. Pretty soon he’ll be too big for me to carry so I’ve gotta take advantage now.

Once we got up to the entrance, we stood in one of the ridiculous lines and finally made our way inside. Our section was just around the corner and we got seated in preparation for the madness. Armed with hearing protectors and a healthy fear, I could tell that Ethan wasn’t really eager to be there. The first truck zoomed out of the hallway and Ethan about jumped into my lap. I looked down at him and he mouthed the words “Alright Dad, I’m ready to go.”

He remained curled up in my lap for the first 15 or so minutes of the show as he quietly observed what was going on and kept telling me it was time for us to leave. On one hand I felt bad for “forcing” him to endure this, but on the other hand I knew he was going to come out of it with a big smile. I was right, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

The first part of the “Jam” was an actual racing bracket where the trucks did time trials around the outer circle of the course. This part was largely boring for him as the drivers were very conservative and were aiming for the fastest time and not the biggest air. In the end Predator was crowned the victor and it was time for intermission.

During intermission they cleaned up the course and brought out a ramp for some Motocross drivers to jump off. They spent a good 20-30 minutes doing various tricks (including the infamous backflip) off the ramp and Ethan was really jazzed about that one.

Last up was the Freestyle competition for the trucks. Each truck had 90 seconds to put together their best run. Excitement was in the air and Ethan was no longer curled up and cowering. Instead, he was standing on his chair screaming at the trucks.

Truck after truck made huge jumps with each subsequent run pushing the limit of what was sane. When the dust had settled, Grave Digger had emerged with the day’s top run. I could hear Ethan screaming in his best metal voice “GRAVE DIGGER”. It was hilarious and awesome all at the same time.

When the show was over, we stopped and bought a Grave Digger pennant and headed for the exit. It took us 45 minutes to make it out of the building and back to the car. Then it took another hour back out of the parking spot and another 20 or so minutes to get out of the garage. We didn’t arrive home until nearly 1 in the morning. He’d long been asleep in the back seat, but he’s still telling stories of the show so I know he had a blast. I’ve got tons of pictures and video from the event that I am going to post as soon as I get it all uploaded.

Life in General ethan, monster jam

As consumers, we often settle for lackluster service/support from the companies that we do business with. On occasion, businesses deliver top notch service that is worthy of praise. This type of service is often very hard to find. I happen to work for a company that I believe delivers this level of top notch service, but this post is not about us. This post is about my experience at The Oil Exchange. The Oil Exchange delivers an experience that is worthy of praise.

Getting your oil changed is something that all of us do (or should do) and most of us don’t enjoy it. It’s inconvienent and often costs more than we think it should. So what makes the experience at TOE so different? I’ll tell you.

• You don’t have to get out of your car – This is not a big deal unless you have kids. If you do, getting to stay in the car can make the difference between a happy errand and a nightmare.
• They offer you a drink while you wait – Not a huge deal, but a very nice touch while you wait
• They are polite and don’t pressure you on additional services – Nobody likes being sold to and the guys at TOE will inform you of any potential service needs that they find, but they’ll never pressure you to have the service done there.

These might all seem like small things, but together they make for a wonderfully pleasant oil changing experience. I’ve been going out of my way to take my vehicles over to TOE since I first visited them on a whim a few years back. If you are in the area, I fully suggest you giving them a try.

Life in General the oil exchange

Over the Christmas break, I conducted an unofficial science experiment of which I just never got around to writing up until now.

My experiment centered around the theory that if there are toys on the floor and you are wearing no shoes you stand a 99.9% chance of either stubbing a toe on one of these toys or of stepping directly on the sharpest edge of the toy. This theory is driven by the fact that our feet have a gravitational pull roughly 100x greater than that of our own planet.

This small gravitational pull is just enough to pull any toy within a close proximity either under the foot just prior to it touching the ground or to pull the toy into the foot at a high enough rate of speed to cause massive trauma. The end result is the same: endless hopping and cursing usually followed by a violent reaction of kicking the attacking object which usually results in additional trauma.

I setup my experiment by littering the house with random toys. I actually let my lab assistants do this part for me since they are far more efficient at it than I am. The reality is that they’d in fact already done this part and continue to do so on a daily basis.

I simply walked around the house like I normally do and lo and behold I managed to step on roughly every toy possible with a few random toe stubbings littered in. Any parent of small children has conducted similar experiments inside their own home so I am confident the science community will accept my new hypothesis as an accepted theorum. If all goes well, I’ll be writing up my scientific findings in an upcoming issue of a science journal. Until then, mind your podiatric gravity.

Life in General podiatric gravity, toys

Christmas is always a crazy time of the year for our family. We make time to see my Mom, my Dad, my In-laws, and copious amounts of extended family. It usually results in tons of travelling and it takes a vacation from the vacation to recover from the festivities. To recover, I took last week off too.

It was kind of nice having an extended time off with nowhere to go and nothing to do, except clean and hang out at the house of course.

With it being a new year and all that, I’m sure everyone has resolved to make some sort of change for 2009, but I don’t really believe in new years “Resolutions”. I mean, if something in your life needs changing, why wait until January 1st to make the change? Why not just change when you identify the need?

That said, I’m identifying a need for change and resolving, on this 5th day of January, to be more goal oriented this year and become more focused in what I do. Vague? Absolutely. After all, if I am going to resolve to do something then I might as well make it vague enough that I actually stand a chance of succeeding.

Life in General resolutions

I would ask you if you’ve ever had one of those days, but I already know the answer. Of course you have. We all have. Those days are the days where it seems like things couldn’t go more wrong if you tried. Today is one of those days. Well, only kind of.

The day started out innocently enough, despite the 3 trips to get water for Ethan between 2 and 5 am because he couldn’t stop coughin, poor kid. Oh and Evie had to go to the bathroom at 5:45am. So I pulled myself out of bed today at 7:45am, feeling like I’d pulled an all-nighter and hopped in the shower.

For the next 45 minutes I tried to juggle getting the trash out, finding a juice cup, getting ready for work, making coffee, and cleaning up the dog excrement that my precious beagle decided to deposit in the kitchen as well as on the new living room rug. To top it off, she managed to pee all over her bed.

Molly is a great dog and rarely does things that I’d classify as stupid. She must have been having an off-night or a geriatric moment or something. *sigh*

I finally managed to get out of the house and make it to work, well after my scheduled arrival.

The day is not a total loss though, it’s Christmas Eve. I’m sure the day will improve as it goes on. Have a Merry Christmas everyone.

Life in General bleh, ethan, evie, molly

When it comes to photography, I’m probably not the person you want snapping your important pictures. On top of that, I’ve never really had a great camera up until now. Yesterday I got a Canon Rebel XS (1000D). I got a sweet deal on it and it even came with an extra telephoto lens to boot. So the question is, where do I go from here? I’m running on full auto at this point and while I’ve read about F-Stops and all that jazz, I still really have no bloody idea what I’m doing. Any advice is welcome.

Life in General canon, photography

I’m a big proponent of family activities. The one currently keeping my family occupied is Rock Band 2. The no fail mode here makes it possible for the kids to rock out with us without affecting the overall score of our song.Whe the original Rock Band came out, I passed it on to one of my staff members because I really never got into Guitar Hero and I figured it was more of the same. I was wrong and I’m loving it more than ever these days.

Oh, and I fixed our busted guitar.

Life in General, The Gaming Life gaming, rock band