Computerjargon.com

I just got around to digging photos off the camera and stumbled upon this winner from New Years Eve.

Tina and Courtney dressed up like their Miis

A few days after Riley was born the doctor confirmed that Riley was tongue-tied. I always thought being “tongue-tied” was a figure of speech, but I discovered it’s an actual affliction. It means that the little “thing” that connects Riley’s tongue to his bottom jaw is too close to the end of his tongue. He isn’t able to stick his tongue out of his mouth. The doctor assured us that he would be fine, as long as being tongue-tied didn’t affect his eating or speech later in life.

So, with every check up we’ve had the first thing I bring up is Rile’s tongue. It freaks me out to know already that he might have problems when he grows up. Riley was 5 days old when they first told us, It was like finding a dent in your new car. For the last 4 months he’s tried so hard to stick his tongue out. I was finally accepting the fact that I couldn’t do anything about it right now and it was best not to worry about it.

Then on Tuesday his tongue came flying out of his mouth without warning. I was stunned. We were laughing and playing like we usually do (He likes it when I say “Hello” and “LOL” to him) when his little tongue jetted just a bit out of his mouth. It’s no Gene Simmons, but it’s a step in a new direction for Riles. He had a look on his face of pride that I’d never seen before. I’ve never been so happy about something so little in my life. All week we’ve laughed and played, sticking our tongues out at each other.

Even if you are adamantly opposed to podcasting I highly recoomend you give a listen to Ricky Gervais’ podcast. He is the original creator of the British comedy The Office . Its worth the listen just to hear Brits say things like “cheeky” and “bollocks” and “utter rubbish”.

One more minute. One more click. One more kill.

Just one more minute. That’s all. Then I’m done. Then I can sleep.

I can’t sleep, I’ll play for one more minute, one more click, one more kill.

I picked up World of Warcraft about three weeks ago. It’s a massive multi-player online role playing game. I like to think of myself as being on the edge of nerdism. I have the capability, and choose to be, to interact with actual people outside of the computer. I try to stay away from video games like this because, well, they start to consume my life. Addiction to a game like World of Warcraft is too easy. But, after both Frank and Kyle started playing, I didn’t want to be left out.

So now I’m in, addicted, just like everyone else.

Courtney has been kind about it. I try to limit my online time to an hour or two and when we have schedule conflicts. I’m waiting for the time she has to pull me away after a 10 hour stint that included 18 Mountain Dews. I’m hoping I give up before then.

To make matters worse, Chad and I started using Skype to communicate while playing. Courtney drew the line with me when I started insisting that we only communicate with Chad through the computer. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the VOIP service. Last time I attempted to call someone over the internet was circa 1998, when my brother was living in the dorms at Madison and I had a one way cable modem. The service was subpar. Any internet surfing done during our conversation caused the voice communication to breakdown. Chad and I are able to chat away with very little, if any, interruptions. Still, Court will not have anything to do with it.

I started reading A Million Little Pieces to keep me away from the computer as much as possible. It’s a first-hand account of a drug addict’s recovery at Hazelden. I picked it up after 3 separate people all suggested it to me within one week. The only catch, it had just been added to Oprah’s book club. I was assured that I would still enjoy it, even if Oprah enjoyed it too. I’m half way through it, at my typical breaking point. I have a horrible tendency to leave a book half way in if it doesn’t keep my attention. I’m having to fight my way through the rest of this one. The first 100 pages were stunning, almost breathtaking. Frey recounts every minor detail of every situation which allows the reader to become emotionally involved. He shares his addiction with you. His writing style is more of a stream-of-conciousness. He uses no quotation marks and repeats himself, repeatedly. To me it feels like how my brain processes things over and over and over again.

So why am I stuck? I’ve hit a dry spot. Eventually he is bound to turn the corner right? Rehab sucks, treatment sucks, everyone sucks, right? That’s the gist of the book. It’s a 400+ page novel. Around page 140 he flips. Life is no longer hard. Sure, he’s getting rehabilitated which is making his life that much easier. But it also makes it monotonous. That’s part of rehab though. Give people a pattern, a rut they can follow. Give them a path to walk down so they don’t have to think about it. It just makes for some repetitive reading at some point.

Now I’m assured that it picks up again soon. So I’m fighting through the dryspell. I’ll let you know what I think when I finally finish it. Hopefully soon.

Infosnack - The time spent on the computer at work doing things that aren’t work-related.

Ever wanted to see a panoramic of downtown Minneapolis from the sky? This makes me dizzy. Quicktime required.

I’ll admit I’ve been a little slow lately grabbing on to new technology. If I can’t find an immediate benefit to it then I complete forget about it. In the last few days I’ve run across two things that I can’t believe I’ve lived this long without:

Podcasting - Holy cow, it’s talk radio whenever I want it! I can listen to people debate the merits of browser versions all day long. The only downside I discovered was that any tom, dick, or harry can have a podcast. I found very few quality podcasts that I actually would want to hear on a regular basis. The few that I liked:

MPR: Musicheads - The elitist music nuts from The Current give their opinion even when off the air. It’s typically only 10 minutes long and airs once a week.

This Week in Tech - Highly nerdy nerds talk and debate. Their arguments typically end up dwindling down to “Yeah, well, shut up.” At least they talk about technology.

NPR Story of the Day - People always talk about having “driveway” moments when listening to NPR. You get so engrossed in a story that you can’t leave your car until it’s complete. Now I can listen to it later.

I tried to listen to Adam Curry, the self-proclaimed father of podcasting, but I couldn’t tolerate his ego. Maybe he’s a little jaded because he doesn’t feel he got the mad props he should have for being an innovator in the podcasting world. I listened to one show and decided it wasn’t entertaining. A side note - his podcast is called “The Daily Source Code.” Does Curry know how to actually right any code?

Del.icio.us - It’s online bookmarking. That’s it. Plain and simple. Kyle had shown me Del.icio.us a while go but I just couldn’t find a real use for it. Then I was shown how it can be used to categorize and store useful links. w00t! It allows me to label any URL which helps organize and store all the random corners of the web I visit.

Call me slow, call me a technophobe, but I’ve finally found a use for these two things. I’m off to play a bit.

I’ve done the HTPC thing and I built was a big headache. I learned quickly after purchasing a Tivo why it’s the only way to go. Tivo is taking a page from the smaller PVR firms and will be adding weather, traffic, and Live365 streaming next year. Thank you, Tivo. I love you too.

I would just like to say that I’m glad Ashlee Simpson was exposed for being the imposter that she is. That’s what she gets for concentrating on being famous instead of making good music.

Well, I fell for it again. First it was the Blair Witch Project and now it’s The Buried Secrets of M. Night Shyamalan. They had me hook, line, and sinker. Regardless if M. Night can see dead people, the mockumentary did have me sleeping with the lights on. I love being made to believe things you know probably shouldn’t be true, but you so desparately want them to be. Nice work, SciFi. I enjoyed the ride.