For those of you who no longer contemplate the one handed clap

Here is a link to a blog where the wirter discusses the relative size of different measurements of digital storage. Apparently google pushes 20 petabytes a day. I think my first PC had a 24 meg hard drive (Yes I remember playing around with the config.sys and autoexec.bat files to get some games to run... Must squeeze few more K of expanded memory...). Anyhow, food for thought (Ah that was a bad play on words. You'll see hat I mean when you click the link.).

I never knew Google was THIS massive!

Green Rage! Well at least really angry.

Went to see the new Hulk film with the wife last night. It was pretty good. Lots of good CG moments, and the story line was more straightforward than Ang Lee's offering. Not quite the same caliber as Iron Man, though. I think it was the casting. Jeff Bridges just made for a much better "clever" bad guy than Tim Roth who was more of the traditional man/monster type. The chemistry was much better between Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow as well.

That being said the latest Hulk film is not a "reboot" and assumes you're going to get a lot of the nods to both the comic books and the old TV series (of which I was surprised that there were quite a few: the gamma radiation chair setup, the green eyes in the dim light, Banner walking in the rain, Bill Bixby on the TV set, Lou Ferrigno as a security guard, etc...). If Stan Lee's cameos get any larger they're going to have to start paying him a lot more than usage rights.

I don't know if they are going to make any more (who am I kidding), but they did set up for a major Hulk villain by introducing Samuel Sterns and his gamma experimentation (SPOILER: I'll save you the google or wikipedia hunt. The professor who tries to help cure Banner of being the Hulk is Samuel Sterns, who due to gamma radiation exposure becomes the hyper intelligent "Leader." Its a reverse on the classic hero outsmarts the bad guys through superior ingenuity and intelligence. Here the hero beats the nerdy smart villain using brute strength). Good popcorn flick, but there is a little violence that might be too much for the kiddies, particularly in the Hulk/Abomination fight at the end.

Quick Update

Wow it's hard to believe that it's been so long since I posted. Still, I made a promise to myself when I got into blogging that I wouldn't make it something to stress out on, just to enjoy. It's been a rough week. I haven't really spoken with many people outside of the immediate family about this, but I have been wrestling with some significant health issues for some time now. My body just hasn't recovered from the blood infection, and now we are worried that I am having a neurological or auto-immune response (May not even be related to the blood infection). Muscle weakness, twitching, trouble swallowing... yeah scary stuff.

It's ironic that this is coming to a head rolling into my tenth anniversary celebration with Amaryllis. I've committed to myself that hell (sorry Mom) or high water, I am going to enjoy the special moment with my wife. It's amazing to think that I have spent a third of my life with the same person. I can remember lasting three weeks with my first girlfriend (bonus points for any of you out there who remember her... double bonus points if you can spell her name properly :) ). When you start growing together its amazing how little you can imagine being apart. I remember the first time I every saw her, wet hair, sunburned, gringo Portuguese (well mine never got that good).

I asked her to marry me overlooking Bear Lake, near Garden City, Utah. It was Easter Sunday. No eggs, no basket, yet it was certainly one of the best ones I've ever celebrated.

This is what happens when mechanical engineers drink.

Link: BBC NEWS Americas Florida's hurricane simulator

Oh I'm sure this piece of technology will never be abused during rush week.

One of those weird days...

I spent a good chunk of the day tinkering with the 4Runner. Thankfully, pretty much everything was solved with a good cleaning of the terminals and a new battery. There are still a couple of things I would like to sort out, but that brings me into the realm of electrical systems, and there is some voodoo even I won't mess with.

After that, the whole family went over to a friends house to help them build a retaining wall in the garden as a surprise for his wife (Someday sweety...). The kids had a ball playing in their yard, and Kate petted a bald spot on their cats. The wall turned out pretty sharp. He is a surveyor/civil engineer, and his son has just about finished up his civil engineering degree. We put in a rounded corner as opposed to a square one, and his son trimmed the capstone with a masonry saw so it all fitted together beautifully. Not so handy, I was manual labor...

It was a beautiful day, we got a lot done, and were feeling pretty good about the world. Amaryllis popped off to the store, and called me while she was in line. Our niece is in the hospital right now with some type of stomach problem that is causing her both to vomit and have diarrhea (thank goodness for spellcheck, I never get that one right) at the same time. I hope everything works out. She's a precocious little gal, and life is tough enough when you're three. After that, Amaryllis told me that an acquaintance of hers fell off a ladder while helping paint a house, and is now in a coma. Don't think this would be a good time to read the news.

Lucas channels von Däniken

The kids finally convinced me to take them to Indiana Jones 4. I had been avoiding it because the trailers had me worried that yet another memory from my childhood would be piddled on. I'm going to throw some pretty significant spoilers in here, so consider yourself warned.

I really wanted to like the movie. There are some classic Indy moments, and some good chuckle spots. They also did a pretty good job of visually throwing out the late 1950's cliches. Still, I could not shake the Chariots of the Gods plot. Pandimensional aliens? A psychic villianess? It kind of throws all of the supernatural elements of the previous films for a loop. In the end it's genre camp that takes itself too seriously by forgetting to wink and nod at the camera. The last quarter of the movie reeks of midichlorians. Without millions of dollars in special effects, and the nostalgia factor of an iconic character, this would have been a plot worthy of the early days of the Sci Fi Channel.

Sigh... I need to just get off my soapbox, pop some popcorn, and watch some classic Jones.

"When I wore a younger man's clothes..."

I've been spending the last little while going through photograph's left by my mom. She was an avid scrapbooker, so there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of them. It's like an endless nostalgia factory. My brother would tease me endlessly about doing it. I am one of those people who never lets go, fueled by a powerful memory for people and places (but ironically not for directions ;P). Still there were pictures of events I barely recognized, and events I could only piece together base don who was in the photo. It's strange to watch yourself go from a chubby naked baby to a chubby hairy dad with a whole lot of goofy kid, awkward teen, and ambitious college student in between.

The thing about the digital world is that you are free to sift through the past present and future and portray yourself however you would like (much to the chagrin of online daters). It's interesting to compare people you know in real life with the pictures and personas they present online. Some people will throw up a recent picture warts and all (some lucky people don't have any warts), others will use photos from years ago. Some don't use photos at all. No judgement, just observation (the sociologist in me will never die).

The picture attached to this post is of Amaryllis and I shortly after bringing Gabriel home from the hospital (Note: If my wife caught my using this picture of her completely exhausted after her first, roughest, and longest labor she would beat me. Thankfully the couch in the picture is long gone, so there is no risk of me sleeping on it.). I was a junior in college. Gabe was born during finals week. Boyish grin, woman that I was passionately in love with, my first child, and ready to kick the whole world's butt. I even loved that shirt (Amaryllis, what ever happened to that one...).

The reality is that I am not that person anymore. I'm a bit heftier, balder, and surlier on a Saturday morning. However, I love my wife more deeply (ten years on the 24th), I would do anything for my children, and there are some are some things I will never ever say in a public meeting again. I've lost some of my naivety, crusted a little bit more with cynicism, but have a much richer hope in the next generation. My back and neck hurt. I've made pancakes enough to perfect them as much as I will in this lifetime. I get to cheer my kids in Tae kwon do, and I usually know exactly how far I can tease my wife and which pranks are off limits (No cold water over the shower curtain.). By the time I go I hope I make many more memories without regretting too many of them.