Good bye 2008. Welcome to Zombo-com.

My last post of two thousand eight. My final words to the world. Um... let's see.

Oh yeah, welcome to Zombo-com.

Besides that... it was a good day, even though ZUMBA! was canceled (as well as the whole YMCA... on the bright side, we got a KILLER parking spot. Then we played games with our whole family. And Houston can play grown up games like Beyond Balderdash. That's the made-up-definitions game. Then we turned on the TV for a few minutes, even though it's a gaudy spectacle of, i dunno, weirdness. New York, a sad, sad, rubbery Dick Clark, some lady with silver eye makeup and a frightening grin, and... Ryan Seacrest? Huh? We turned it off right after the seizure inducing flashing thing, and now it's pretty much bedtime. Good night, and happy new year!

Zane says some of the *bleep*est things.

Aww! Phoebe had to leave today. She came all the way from the United Kingdom just for a three day visit. Dang. So she left this morning. Doesn't Houston look sad?

So Mum's out of the house, so we all went to the mall. That's what children do when their parents are away, right? That or throw parties. And that requires cleaning up. So mall it was. We found stupidly cheap toys for the kids to spend their Christmas money on, and i took a pretty good picture of Houston on the carousel. And i was carrying two whole bags through the mall. I felt like such a consumerist. Gross.

Oh yeah; Zane saying things. Well, he's always had a potty mouth. Shirt, fox, and bridge have sounded pretty much exactly like, well, the expletives which start with those letters... and then recently he's become enamored with telling jokes. He loves it. He'll be happily playing, and wander over next to me, put his hands on my arm, and start talking. Sometimes it's "Know what? Love... You." or "I... Idea!" Usually it's jokes, the thing is, he's got the "Knock knock" part down (one time accompanied by the most adorable hand motion) and the "...chicken... road?" part. But when he comes to the punchline, if he hasn't thought of anything, he'll say "Eat me." Eat me? Um... rude?

Josh and Lauren left...

After a brief visit, JJ and Lauren went home. They have jobs which require them to be on-location. Josh is a chef and Lauren is a masseuse; it's hard to cook absentee, and harder to give clients proper therapeutic massage over, say, the phone. Or Gmail chat.

My job today was going to be to move about seventeen million boxes from where all the kids from work used to live (and where i used to work) to the new building where we are now going to live. I didn't help, though. I feel a molecule of regret, because however many people who were helping had to work one [however many of them were there]th harder to compensate for my absence. Plus, i didn't get to say goodbye to the building where (a) i met Tim Wetzel and many many many other friends, (b) i laughed until i stopped, (c) i got ten dreadlocks pulled out, (d) i spent well over a year inside. I figured it out (not very precisely) and i spent well over a year inside that building.

So anyway, JJ and Lauren left, having managed to avoid getting sick at all. That puts them in the minority of my family, since the rest of 'em have been quite sick. We conclusively blame food poisoning from a scuzzy gas station somewhere between Chicago and here. Probably Gary Indiana, the "armpit of America." Like, all of America, N. and S. Them not being sick is also extremely important, since both cooking and massaging are activities best done while the contents of your digestive tract are not seeking egress from your body.

They drive a manual Honda Element, which is a nifty chunky little "Active Lifestyle Vehicle" or whatever, which is a stick shift like i mentioned earlier. I only bring that up that because everybody in my family now drives a stick. I'm so proud. Phoebe's Mini is a stick. Mum's Hyundai is a stick. Antony drives a manual transmission Accord. Our little car is has a clutch, but our minivan is obviously an automatic. I don't think they make manual transmission minivans. At least they don't bring any to the US. Stupid.

Okay, so anyway, thanks for visiting JJ and Lauren! Even for a short amount of time.

Why? What the-?

I was rightly enough looking forward to this weekend being a time of fellowship and joy with my dear family. I don't get to see my youngest brothers nearly enough, which goes for my other family members as well, of course... But anyway, we've been playing games, goofing around on the computer (YouTube is a beautiful thing for filling those awkward moments following revelations like "Juanito... we're not sure whose child you actually are") and watching Houston and Katrina and Zane. They're loving having so many grown ups around to bounce off of and hug. I'm glad they are getting some good quality time with my family.

So everything was moving along well until an hour or so after church. Then, Phoebe threw up. Next down was my mother. Josiah made it through our big meal, and then he threw up. I shudder just to think of it. But we seem to be able to blame the Subway they ate on the way here from Chicago. Because Antony didn't have any, and he feels fine, and JJ and Lauren didn't drive with them, and they feel fine too... and we all feel JUST GREAT HAHAHAHA!!!!!! Mum said "I'm sorry to be such a burden" and i was like "Oh no, if you were four and barfing, THEN it would be a burden." Because seriously, as long as you can throw up into something and clean your own face off, you're absolutely no trouble at all. Open invitation to those who need a warm, friendly place to throw up, as long as you can wash up.

The Fam!

My family is visiting! Josiah, Antony, JJ, Phoebe, and Mum, in order of ascending age. We've talked and eaten amazing food, and shopped. Karen didn't know what to get me for Christmas, so besides a tool box, hammer and very good utility knife (the last one i'll ever need), she gave me permission to drop fifty bucks on anything i wanted. I thought about investing it in Necco wafers (the last batch of those i'll ever need!) and really couldn't think of anything to buy. But then my $3.99 Big Lots speaker fell over for the thousandth time, and i epiphanied "Speakers!" So i got some. They're good.

I just hooked them up, and that (and disassembling my computer to get to the heatsink on the video card, which has been artifacting and crashing a lot due to heat) took too long. So i will simply mention that we got to see Brooke and Travis and their new little girl Sophie, and they're all so great. Sophie is tiny and adorable. And the weather was very very foggy. Like, it was fifteen degrees F yesterday, and suddenly today a warm front moved on through, and all the air heated up to the high forties F, so all the cold ground and snow has been evaporating, and then cooling the air next to the ground, forming some amazing fog displays. Right, and it is late, so instead of putting up pictures and talking about my family, i'm going to go to bed. Expect pictures and perhaps even video in the next few days.

Merry Christmas fo REEEAL!

Houston continued squishing stuff with his vise this morning, reducing that car to something one might expect to see playing Flat Out 2. I must admit -- it looks cool. But then we caught him squishing part of a toy he got for Christmas a couple years ago from my sister Phoebe... this is Not Okay. Oh well.

At Karen's parents house, we ate excellent food, siezed the moment to catch some zeds, enjoyed a Christmas program put on by the cousins, took pictures of those cousins, and opened gifts. To follow up on the food and gifts, we ate more food. The birthday cake for Jesus was blown out, leaving the place smoky like a bar or something.

Every time we have a special gathering, i have to laugh at scenes like this one. We're all snapping away, taking so many pictures of every single moment. It's as though moments aren't real unless they're documented photographically. If a memorable moment occurs and nobody is there to record it with a digital camera or video recording device, did it really happen? Well, however you answer that question, we had a very memorable Christmas, which most certainly did happen.

Christmas Eve!

In order to remove the slimy tentacles of consumerism from the message of grace and joy we celebrate on Christmas, we usually have our frenzy of gift opening on Christmas eve or Christmas Adam. Heh. (Houston prayed today to thank God for the three "things" we have, and one Momma made up: Christmas Adam) I believe we've been successful in keeping the Spirit of Christmas OMG-GIVE-ME-MORE-STUFFF-NOW out of our house, using a delicate balance of a) being kind of poor, b) being kind of responsible with what money we do have, and c) never watching TV. So our kids don't seem to have been obsessed by materialism like your typical American youngsters.

So, the kids enjoyed their gifts. Here's Houston's light saber, here's Houston wearing traditional bank robber headgear and Katrina looking cute, and Katrina's thrilled to have about a dozen pencils, while Zane loves to have cars all of his own. I love watching Zane open presents. He gets completely enthralled by whatever he just opened, and doesn't even care what else is going on, and how many presents are being shoveled his way, he just wants to play with his matching cards! Or his pencils! Or candy! Seriously, that kid loves candy.

And i'm very very proud of Houston's tool bench. Karen put a little note in a little box saying "Tool Bench" and Houston said "Yeah... i'm really going to get a WHOLE tool bench." He hugged me when he saw it. And clapped when we said it would stay in the basement. And played with it every spare second before bed. And yes, he removed one of the dimensions from one of his toy cars. This time it was the height axis which was nullified. Perhaps tomorrow it will be width.

NOEL

Please join me in saying "Wow." I know we're all jaded from watching Clark Griswold and Tim Taylor plug in ridiculously overdone Christmas decorations, but this one we found in actual real life. Karen pointed out that there's a theme here, with everything religious (traditionally, at least) being on the left, and everything commercial on the right. Impressive. And ne'er the twain shall meet, i suppose.

I finished Houston's present today. It's a work bench. It's built from 2x4's and free and almost free wood from various sources. And glue. Houston's a pretty rough kid, and i wouldn't put it past him to destroy something put together even with drywall screws. So, lots of glue. It's not totally finished -- i need to get some hefty staples so i can tether a hammer, level, screwdrivers and pliers to the bench, and some bolts to mount an old vise to it. A vise. I remember having access to a vise for the first time. I spent hours flattening various things, holding things and hammering things, bending things... aaah, to be eight again. I'm just worried that the day after Christmas all of Houston's Matchbox cars will have lost one of their dimensions.

Shortest day of the year

Yesterday was December 21st. This year was the first time i've been so aware of the solstice. Why? Because three of my family members were throwing up, one had pooptastrophes in his diaper, and we've been snowed in. A good day to be a short day.

Marine life

Did you know that hagfish (which Karen and i saw many many times in Korea writhing around in tanks or being skinned alive in preparation for cooking over open wood fires) enter fish through any body opening, and then eat the animal from the inside out, leaving bones filling a bag of skin? Okay: DISGUSTING. I don't know why i'm reading about this while i've got whatever it is that make Katrina and Zane throw up all night. Also, the Mola mola is the biggest bony fish, and the fry stage is whimsically cute.

Seriously? OW!

Why do i always wait until the pain is killing me before making a dentist appointment? OW!

In related news, i've always been a big fan of teeth brushing, but could never force myself to get into a habit of flossing. However, i've now become an official flosser. I've been flossing many times a day for the past... six months? About? But a good long time. If you're like i was (when i was six months younger and much more foolish), and found flossing uncomfortable, just stick with it. It doesn't hurt after a week or two, and starts to become a cherished part of one's daily hygiene. Or whatever. I can't think right now.

Also, there was a lot of snow last night. Today i went outside to shovel, and helped unstick six cars. Six cars is about how many cars i'd expect to see during the time i was outside, which demonstrates how bad the roads are. They're really, seriously bad. One of the ladies who was stuck seemed to think that stomping on the gas ALL THE WAY DOWN ALL THE TIME was the best way to get unstuck. So she melted strips of snow down the street, her new Mitsubishi's engine roaring against the rev limiter, tire rubber burning, transmission toasting, and with her kid, me and our neighbor pushing the whole way. And she was sitting, inches from the steering wheel, hollering "NOW MY TIRES ARE HOT! THAT'S WHY I KEEP GETTING STUCK!!!!!" over and over. I was like, "Lady, take it easy! It's really bad for your car to floor it like that while you're stuck."

So yeah, there's a lot of snow hanging around right now.

Crafty!

Karen and i end up getting props frequently for being crafty. Karen can crochet. I can build stuff. Karen can sew. I'm handy with a yo-yo... For the past few years we've made Katrina and Houston's big presents. A beanbag toss game. A doll house. Books. Well this year, we've got two big projects in the works, and a crocheting project Karen did, and so that's why i'm up so late. Pictures will be coming forth soon.

And why in the UNIVERSE do kids only throw up in the middle of the night? Katrina has NEVER vomited in the daytime. But tonight she barfed twice, once all over our bed. I was out in the garage making the thing i'm making which i'm not sure i should specify, when Karen came in, i thought to have a gander at how the project was coming, but then she gave me the rather obnoxious news of Katrina's illness. Today i read something on the 'net about why kids get sicker at night. The "Vomiting" section said that kids only SEEM to spew more often at night, but that's just because it's so inconvenient and memorable. Hum. I'll check with Karen about this, but i don't seem to remember any of our kids casually wandering around throwing up here and there, and me not noticing just because the sun's up and there's other stuff to do.

They were wrong. And i still want to know why vomiting is solely a nocturnal activity.

Getting back to the crafty thing: Karen's way more crafty when it comes to doing activities. I'll play make believe or draw or make stuff, but Karen's come up with activities for each day of the Advent, including things like "Watch a Christmas movie" and "Dress up in silly clothes and take lots of pictures". That last one is what we did today. It was utter fun. Houston wore a Wonder Woman leotard over his pants, a wig, and a tie. Which i believe he tied himself. Katrina wore shorts over her own leotard, fairy wings, and a floppy hat. I dressed Zane in a haute couture little girls' skirt suit. Okay, it's probably not haute couture, but it's fleece, very loud, and has flowers. And i love it. Zane seemed okay with it as well.

Christmas Program 2 of 2

Today was Houston's Christmas program. We kind of couldn't see him at all, and his group was, like, two hundred kids, so... He's on his way onto the stage up there. Houston had fun, i think. He was actually singing this time. Last year he kind of stood there and played with his hat.

In other news, after raining all day yesterday, today it was COLD. I got wood for Houston's Christmas present, some string cheese, and Maruchan Instant Lunch. Basically, Cup-o-Noodles. I haven't eaten noodles from a styrofoam cup since Korea, and then they were, you know, "good". Delicious. These are not as good, but not as bad as ramen noodles of the same brand. Ugh. In fact, i wanna go buy some good ramen at the Korean store right now. So spicy and good.

Oh yeah, and Karen's computer has a VIRUS!!!!!!!!exclamation point!!!!eleven!! Can you believe it? Neither of us have any idea how, but sure enough, if you click on an outgoing Google link, you'll get redirected to three or four utterly unrelated, completely fraudulent ad sites. I might have to go last resort and reinstall XP.

Christmas Program 1 of 2

Yesterday i mentioned my new camera. I'm impressed with it so far. It's this one, which that same site rated as nearly the best of "budget" cameras. There was a Sony which was judged the best camera, but it used lithium ion batteries, which are great, but are fairly expensive and a hassle to replace once they inevitably wear out. And that camera uses Sony's own (stupid) memory card format. Karen's new camera also placed near the top of the list, but she's already got one... and i'd feel weird if we had the Exact Same Camera. This one got rave reviews along with Karen's, but mine is uglier and slower, but has a smidgen wider angle lens at maximum wide, and takes movies in a 16x9 format at decent resolution: 848 x 480 pixels. That's more resolution that our old Mini DV camera gets. But there's no zooming while taking video. Karen's does that. I will use this shortcoming as a creative tool, not a hindrance, while making the internet's next wildly popular internet viral video.

Right... so today i used the camera to take some pictures of the nieces' and nephew's Christmas program. A kid threw up. This being a predominantly Dutch ancestry crowd, the temporal-lobe-bending lack of rhythm made perfect sense. And it was totally cute. Check out Kelly's angel costume! Those wings are awesome. And it turns out she and her brother can play piano. I'm not sure when this happened, but it was probably since they got a piano teacher for a mom. My piano teacher seemed like a crabby lady, but probably because i combined easy aptitude with near total apathy. I frustrated (and continue to frustrate) a lot of people because of this, and i feel really bad about that sometimes... so anyway, i always thought it would have been weird to have a piano teacher for a mom. Instead, my dad was the school principal.

Sledding! And new camera.

We went sledding! Sledding for the first time is like the official beginning of winter-for-real. That, and that night when i find all the blankets in the house to pile onto the bed. That night has come and gone, but as nice as a warm, heavy-blanketed bed is, sledding is more fun. Well, fun in a different way.

We once again visited our gentle local sled hill, which was practically overrun with crowds of people compared to every other time we've been there. Seriously, there were so many people there, at least one. And her mom. And after they left, two boys came with their dad. I'm glad i'm not crowd-o-phobic. Demophobic, proclaims Wikipedia. Karen and i have talked often about how few kids there are on that hill ever, considering how many kids live in our neighborhood. It seems to me that our part of town is more the Stay Inside Watch TV type. Which is sad.

Zane is much more willing to get tumbled about in the snow that Katrina or Houston were at this age. He wanted to go down the hill by himself, and when he fell off when i was pulling him back up the hill, he calmly said "Help. Me-uh.", and then proclaimed it "Fun."

Frotagie McFrotage

Today, to give Karen (who works a lot harder than me, for the most part) some time alone, i whisked the three kids off to the land of cheap bread and already-been-paid-for-once merchandise. We were wandering the aisled of dented boxes at Big Lots, and Zane holding my hand and letting his other hand brush gently all the items on the shelves. I let Zane do this, because he's always shown a rare mixture of gentleness and nimbleness, while Houston has been nimble but Very Rough, and Katrina has been clumsy but gentle.

So anyway, there we are, Zane distributing smeared partial fingerprints on everything, and me trying to keep track of the other two kids, who seem to be suffering from some weird condition called "RUN INDOORS RUN RUN RUN", probably because they can't spend much time running on the other side of the door during winter. There were two well built ladies looking at something on the shelves, wearing the kind of tight hot pants one might expect to see at Big Lots, and i watched in slight horror as Zane stroked his little hand right across... right across both of their bottoms. Utterly oblivious.

The ladies kind of looked back just to check on what was going on and caught my eye... Oh man. Have you ever done the nodding and shaking your head at the same time? While pointing and saying "It was the two year old, it wasn't me!" While laughing? Well, i have.

My Yagi-Uda works gooda.

Finally tonight we watched a show BROADCAST!!!! In HD, or at least digital, since our TV is most certainly high definition deficient. But finally our extremely stubborn channel 8 came in (because of the Yagi-Uda antenna i made to exacting specifications to match the 180Hz frequency of channel 8), so we could watch The Office! Live! But now our local CBS affiliate won't even think about coming in, since it's broadcast in the ridiculously low band of 60Hz. Seriously? That's such an antique band, it's just silly. Maybe they're going retro. Except "retro" in this case means "nobody can watch it". Maybe they're going for pre-television retro.

And watching TV: ads really suck. Ick.

In other, less technical and boring news, Houston's on a point sheet kind of thing at school, and he's been doing really well. So we got to go to the mall today to ride the carousel. Karen was a blessing to my soul by volunteering to ride instead of me, since just standing where i can see the stupid thing can make me feel queasy. Katrina showed off: "Daddy! No hands no feet!" Zane was staring at the crank mechanism which makes the horses (etc.) go up and down. I could see his little engineer brain working on that puzzle. Houston is a clown, and had a great deal of fun. But as silly as he may be, he couldn't come up with a decent explanation for the gigantic frog animal kids can ride, featuring a life sized duck head sprouting from its lower back. A frog... with a duck head on its butt... i think somebody was kind of high when that thing was designed. No other explanation.

A little work story.

We have a kid at work whose got a huge mouth. Not literally, but when you say someone had to open his or her big fat mouth, that's the kind of mouth we're talking about. He's got no filter between his poor, worn-ragged psyche and the outside world, and his amygdala is hard-wired into his mouth, so every single comment even peripherally involving him becomes a reason to lash out.

So he gets in a lot of arguments.

However, last night we went to Degage (which is a ministry to feed disadvantaged/homeless people extremely cheap food) where we go once a month or so, and for the first time, i got to hang out with the patrons of that restaurant. They're a... seasoned bunch. Earthy. They tend to carry a lot of earth on them. And their language is pretty dirty too. I've been thinking about taking one or more of my own kids down there some evening, both to expose my kids to the way some people live, and to brighten the place up with cute young faces. But it is a pretty rough crowd. On the other hand, it's mostly rough after people have gotten their food and they're just hanging about because it's warm inside, and bitterly cold outside, so maybe we'll still go... someday.

Right, well, as a "jackpot bonus" treat, we took Senor Loudmouth to Degage. And this kid just kind of sat down next to a 46 year old (one of the details my kid found out) guy and said "So what kind of things do you enjoy doing?" It was awesome. I guess the dude's an amateur architect.

Me, i lost a game of chess to a guy.

Snow Kids

Today i was a Good Father, and bundled the kids up securely and warmly, and went outside to build a snowman! Alas, the snow was too cold for the roll technique to work, so we had to use sandcastle building strategies to get the snowman to stick together... except we didn't use buckets or water. Okay, we did use water, but only the crystallized kind. But eventually we got a snowman stack of intersecting spheroids, which Zane knocked down, but we put it up again. I found one surviving charcoal briquette which served, crumbled, as the facial details. Katrina wanted to make the snowman a snowgirl, mostly by making an eyebrow out of grass. We managed to use leaf stems for eyelashes, and then sticks for hair. She didn't like the hair sticking up, Wilson-style, so we broke the twigs to make them lie down.

Thus was made the season's first snowman. It is cute.

We got inside, unbundled ourselves, ate some egg sandwiches, and then it was quiet time. Katrina: "But Daddy, you didn't play with me!"

Houston the Monkey

Houston and Katrina are members of WGVU's duck... thing... okay, i have no idea what it is. But it's a club for kids where the mascot is a duck whose body is made of the letters D U C K. There was a mascot at the thing we went to today, and i didn't see any kids who warmed up to him. I wonder if people who get dressed up as the giant Mickey or Spongebob or light bulb ever get inferiority complexes from having kids cry in terror and adults kind of avoid being near them. Do you think it's hot in those costumes? And i totally bet they stink, kind of. Especially if they're old. How are you going to wash a seven foot orange hammer costume made of foam rubber and fake fur?

Right... so we went to Cr'aig's C'ruis'er's today, because the kids belong to this club. Somebody gave them the memberships. Thanks, somebody! We each got to enjoy two activities and eat pizza. And Houston is a monkey. He went on the go carts with me once, and seemed to love it, but wasn't as interested in the theory of fast driving; taking the least curved line of a corner, hitting the apex just at the right spot, late or minimal braking... he wasn't steering, so that makes it somewhat less fun. But the second activity he chose was the ropes course. Here lies one of Houston's greatest talents. He's good at math. He can read very well.

And he's amazing on the ropes course. At C's Cs, their course is only about fifteen feet up, so it's not particularly frightening. The elements are also mostly very simple, but that's to be expected. But it's still high, and has things like a bridge made of widely spaced boards on wobbly cable. But Houston attacked it with ferocity. The second element he did was the tires, which were the most challenging thing there, and he just flew across, wiggling and flopping around, and not making one false step. He had no fear. I asked him if he would be scared if he didn't have the harness on, and he said that he would. So he's not crazy, just fearless.

Houston probably gets it from me. I love ropes courses. I have to intentionally scare myself into worrying about the possibility of falling just to make it more thrilling. And doing elements no handed is also fun. Or hopping on one foot. Awesome stuff.

Video Ninja Again

In Peru, we lived next door to a family whose kids were just a little younger than i was. They'd visit frequently, and one of those times, we spent hours under the house looking at ant lion nests and trap door spiders. Anyway, that's who Josh is. And he asked about the VHS to DVD process.

Now the simplest solution uses a home theater style DVD recorder, which would work just fine... but HOW BORING! The far less elegant and geeky -- and let's face it, superior -- solution will be outlined in confusing disorganized fashion here:

First, you need a VCR. I bought one for $9.00 at a thrift store, took off the cover, and used a Q-Tip and rubbing alcohol to scrub clean every surface which comes in contact with the tape. The head (VCR heads are big chunky spinning bits of nice shiny metal) needed the most cleaning.

Then you'll need a capture card. I bought a cheap Hauppauge "WinTV" card, which was $20 back in the early oughts. Here's Newegg's page with some cards which should work. They tend to be fiddly, especially when combined with the ludicrously bad "TURNS YOUR PC INTO A PERSONAL VIDEO RECORDER!!!1!!" software which they come with. You should be able to find one of those disappointments for nearly free somewhere shady and possibly contagious. My kind of place. And no worries: if it doesn't come with a CD, so much the better!

If you do get a brand new card, throw away everything that comes with the card besides the card. Then install this driver which should get your card recognized without the crappy manufacturer's drivers.

Then use Virtual VCR, which is a tiny little application which simply records whatever's coming in on your TV card to your computer. It even records, using full VHS resolution, on my junky old capture card! You might need to use VirtualDubMod, a very excellent program, to get the video and audio properly synched -- when you open the video, select "Direct Stream Copy" for the video compression, save the video, and then it'll ask you if you want to adjust the speed of the audio to match the length of the video, which should fix it right up.

And then of course there's the encoding itself... ffdshow is the last codec you'll ever need. Oh, and then there's deinterlacing -- VHS video is sort of 30 frames per second, (29.97, really) but it's actually double that of half resolution frames. Bizarre. But the interlaced half frames don't look very good when displayed on a high resolution screen. Lots of weird jaggies on the edges of stuff. So to encode the VHS video, use ffdshow's XviD encoding option, single pass, around 1500mbps, with a deinterlacing filter called "TomsMoComp". That'll whip your old tapes into shape, piracy free, and for the cost of a cheap TV card and a thrift store VCR! Plus a fairly quick computer you probably have lying around anyway...

And when it's time to author the DVDs, there's DVDFlick. It actually works (which is a pleasant surprise to me), and isn't a monstrous hassle to figure out. And again: FREEE!!! Oh, and DVDFlick will create the .iso disc image, which ISOBurn will slap on a blank DVD with ease. Use DVD-R, not +R for better compatibility.

So there you go. Reading over it again, i realize that almost everyone who will ever want to do this will spring for a sub-$200 DVD recorder. Because wow, what a mess.

Work's a partial vacuum...

I've been frustrated with work recently. Our kids are the least trustworthy kids i've ever worked with. So many lies and attempts to manipulate or trick staff or the residents.

So frustrating, especially when the whole point of my unit is to keep kids from ever committing sexual offenses again: when they manipulate/lie/trick/sneak, they are engaging in the exact behaviors which will get them in trouble (again) sexually! So... i keep pointing out why i can't trust them, and i keep watching them every moment of every minute i'm at work, and i'm also frustrated because other staff do stuff like wander off the unit or sit in the office.

Okay, that's all. No more complaining. Gonna watch Jon Stewart with Karen.

Stuff's breaking...

Yesterday the VCR broke. Today it was the server, the little computer which serves up all these weblogs -- when you check our blog, you are viewing files right off the server sitting next to Karen's desk. I think that's pretty neat. But anyway, the server broke, but none of the files were affected -- it was just the power supply, and perhaps the memory. So now it's running on half the memory and with a new (from some random other computer) power supply. In fact, i have no idea where that power supply came from. Weird. I hope it's not a spy device planted by nefarious Socialists.

Luckily, i think i fixed the VCR. But that doesn't mean i'm not going to transfer all our VHS Christmas movies to DVD. We watch a lot of Christmas movies during the holidays.

My day off:

Today a VHS tape destroyed our VCR, so i fixed it, but then broke it, but fixed it, but ultimately it will still (slightly) mangle one out of four tapes. Which is unacceptable. So i'm sad that this VCR is no longer going to be used. They're cheap at thrift stores nowadays, because everyone's convinced that they're obsolete... and i guess in ten years from now when all VHS tapes are stuck together or oxidized or whatever, they will be obsolete.

Today we got to see dozens of different Christmas tree examples at Meijer Gardens. They were all beautiful, but i think the perfectly conical evergreen tree (made of metal and plastic) is kind of North American. Funny: the Canadian tree featured mostly hockey player ornaments. Um... Canada's culture is really really similar to ours... But anyway, it was really interesting to get a glimpse into the Christmas/wintertime customs around the world. And we went with Beth, so it was great fun. Karen put lots of pictures on her blog.

Here's some orchids, here's Karen and me, and here's some awesome thorns. Oh, and while everybody besides me was waiting in the car for, well, me, to go shopping, they watched drips race down the van windshield. When i got in the car, they whooped and hollered in delight because Karen's drip had won the race, i guess... so Karen and Beth explained what they were doing, and i said something about how it's great to be able to find things to have fun. Karen said "We tried!" and Houston paused... and said "I didn't try at all."