Simple Randomness

I Could Use a New Bed…

I’m starting to realize that I could really use a new bed.  My wife and I are still sleeping on the same mattress that we bought when we first got married almost 6 years ago.  I guess the normal lifespan of a mattress is supposed to be 10 years or so, but I’m thinking that only counts when you buy a high quality mattress.  Ours doesn’t fit that description!

So now I’m starting to think about some of the options out there.  Here are a couple that I’ve thought of:

• Sleep number
• Memory foam mattress
• Latex mattress

Granted I need to research each of these more, but I’m leaning more towards the Sleep Number or a memory foam mattress.  If anybody has any recommendations, I’d love to hear them!  I guess they all have their benefits and I’ll really need to research them more to decide what to do.  That and save up the money cause the good beds sure are pricey!

My Top 3 Disney Animated Flicks

Well, being that I have a 2-year-old and now a newborn, we’re watching a lot of Disney movies lately. Mainly to keep the 2-year-old entertained if you know what I mean. So this got me thinking the other day: what are my favorite Disney movies?

So here are my favorites. Also keep in mind, these don’t include any of the Pixar movies, just the regular animated flicks.

#3 - Tarzan

I personally thought Tarzan was great. They did a much better job of blending the CGI with the regular animation, and it gave a better image of the ape-man really acting like a monkey. The one down side to Tarzan would have to be Rosie O’Donnell, but I will say that she wasn’t too incredibly annoying and I can even convince myself that it isn’t really her.

So Tarzan gets my vote for my #3 favorite. Great story, really good animation quality, and it keeps my kid entertained!

#2 - Lilo and Stitch

I love this movie. I know it’s definitely one of the more off-beat Disney movies, but maybe that’s why I love it. That and its full of a bunch of GREAT one-liners. Here are some of my favorites:

• Lilo: Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!
• Lilo: [creating voodoo dolls of her playmates] My friends need to be punished.
• Mr. Cobra Bubbles: Thus far you have been adrift in the sheltered harbor of my patience, but I cannot tolerate you being jobless. Do I make myself clear?
• Lilo: Elvis Presley was a model citizen. I’ve compiled a list of his traits for you to practice. Number one… is dancing!

I mean c’mon, with lines like that it has to be a great movie right? If you haven’t seen this one check it out.

#1 - The Lion King

This has probably always been my favorite, ever since I saw it as a kid. The songs are good, the story is great, and you get to see funny subliminal messages… ok, that’s not the real reason, but its a great movie. Honestly I can’t pinpoint the one thing that makes me put this movie number one on my list, I just know that it’s always been my favorite. Scar is a great bad guy, and you can’t go wrong with James Earl Jones as Mufasa. Great movie all around and my #1 favorite Disney animated flick!

Honorable Mentions

So there are a couple of movies that were really close to making the top 3, and I’m still back and forth a little bit. Here are the two that make the honorable mention list:

The Emperor’s New Groove

Another classic, this one is full of great laughs. Also full of great one-liners that you can sit around the dinner table and quote.

Beauty and the Beast

I can’t leave this one out can I? Another high quality, good Disney movie. It didn’t make the top 3 because it’s a little bit more of a chick flick, and I think that Stitch could take the Beast any day! That and I really don’t like the way the Beast looked as a human. He should have stayed a beast.

My Thoughts on Open Source vs. Proprietary Programs

Yesterday I got into a discussion with a friend of mine about open source programs vs. proprietary programs. Now granted, my experience with open source programs is rather limited. The main programs that I’ve used are FireFox, GIMP, Nvu, OpenOffice, and I guess you might count WordPress.

So here’s my thought: there are some great open source programs out there. If you consider WP to be one of these, I would say its the best blogging software out there. FireFox is awesome, need I say more? OpenOffice is great, too. But some of the other programs I’m not as impressed with. For example, GIMP and Nvu. They are fine in their own right, but I would have to say that the proprietary programs kick their rears (if you know what I mean). DreamWeaver blows Nvu out of the water in my opinion, and I would much rather use FireWorks, PhotoShop, or Illustrator over GIMP.

Now remember, my experience is limited, but I think that in most situations a proprietary program is going to be better. And really I think the main reason for that is capitalism. If you run a software company, you are going to do your best to make sure that you develop a product that meets the needs of your customers. You have a financial interest in making the best product you possibly can. I just don’t see the same level of financial motivation behind an open source program.

It just seems to me that if you need a more advanced program like photo or graphic editing, you’re probably better to go with a proprietary program.  You can do just fine with the open source versions, but I think they’re harder to use.  Again, this is just my experience with them.

Of course, this could very easily start a very heated debate with all of the Linux vs. Windows people out there. But again, this has been my experience. Any thoughts?

Getting Anxious For Spring to Arrive…

I have to admit that I’m officially to the point where I’m getting sick of winter and want Spring to come. I think I mentioned before that I tend to go through this cycle each year where for the first few weeks of a season I love it, then I’m ready for it to be over. Well I hit that point with Winter about 2 weeks ago.

I think the turning point for me this year was the insane blizzard that we had last week that knocked our power out for 8 hours. I know that only having the power out for that long is short compared to other outages that have happened around the country, but it was enough for me to think “OK, time for Spring!”

I can also say that I think I enjoyed winter a lot more when I used to go skiing a lot. Honestly I think it’s been 4 years since I went skiing. Too bad too cause I really love to go skiing. But since I now have 2 kids and a lot of other things going on I just don’t seem to find the time to go. I know I know…priorities right? Maybe next year I’ll make skiing a priority again!

New Baby and Power Outages…Adventure???

On Friday our new son was born, Marshall!  He was considerably smaller than our first kid (7lbs 12oz vs. 9lbs 1oz), so it’s been a little different that way.  But he’s a cutie and its been fun seeing the little guy become more and more alert to the things going on around him.

Last night was a bit of an adventure too!  Where we live we tend to get really high winds that will cause the power to flicker a little bit here and there.  But last night the power company had to do an emergency shut down to fix some broken equipment or something.  So the power was out from about 5:30pm to 12:30am.  I’m just glad that there are people that are willing to go work on the power when its really cold outside with winds whipping by at 40+ mph!

So that’s the adventures I’ve been having the last couple of days.  Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Lifehouse “Who We Are” Album Review

Today I thought I’d do a little review of an album that my wife gave me for Christmas last year. I meant to do this sooner but never got around to it, so here goes:

Lifehouse - Who We Are

Personally, I really really like this album. I have 2 of their other albums (Lifehouse and No Name Face) and I think they’re all really good, but I honestly think I like this album the best. The thing with Lifehouse is that they aren’t some fantastical amazingly awesome band that will blow your mind with their musical talent, but they make a darn good album. A lot of albums get old after you listen to them a couple of times, but this one tends to keep making its way back into my car cd player.

Here are some of my favorite tracks:

• Disarray
• First Time
• Whatever It Takes
• Broken
• Make Me Over
• Learn You Inside Out

Honestly I like the whole album, but those would be my favorite picks. So if you haven’t already, check this album out!

I Made a Duct Tape Wallet!

I really wasn’t happy with my old wallet. When I first bought it I thought it was great and compact, but then as I started using it more I realized that it was so small that I couldn’t fit a dollar bill lengthwise, so I had to fold them. This made the wallet get fat really quickly. Great little wallet, but that was the inherent flaw in it.

Well I really didn’t feel like buying a new wallet. I didn’t like the super cheap ones and I didn’t like the price of most of the leather ones that I saw. Then I heard about duct tape wallets…and I thought the idea sounded great!

Overall it was pretty easy to make. I can see how once you get used to doing these things you could really pump them out. The one I made isn’t great by any means (not as good as the picture here), but hey - I MADE IT! So now I know that the next time my wallet goes out, I can just make a new one. And you can also customize them any way you want to.

So if you’re bored and need something to do, try making a wallet. It’s pretty cool!

What Do They Do With the ‘Loser’ Super Bowl T-Shirts?

One of my co-workers asked me an interesting question yesterday. So we know that when the Super Bowl is over you can buy a t-shirt for the winning team. So what do they do with the t-shirts that are already printed for the other team?

My guess, they probably go to third world countries with all of those black D.A.R.E. shirts that we all used to wear in elementary school. I even heard someone mention that they actually saw some kid wearing a t-shirt with the wrong winning team of a previous Super Bowl on it once.

I guess I’m not the only person that was wondering about this, I found another article about it from OregonLive: Which Super Bowl T-shirt did you want again?.

Now my other question would be how much does it cost for them to print all of the shirts that they aren’t going to use? That’s gotta get a little pricey, but hey - whey you’re charging as much as they do for a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl, I think they can handle it just fine!

And now we also know that the Super Bowl is not just an entertaining sports event, but is actually helping to clothe children in Africa and Asia. How nice!

A Random Thought About Being Mute

So for the last couple of days I’ve had a really sore throat and have basically lost my voice.  I can still talk, but if I talk very loudly it just starts to hurt.  This reminds me when I had laryngitis a few years ago and really couldn’t talk louder than a whisper for about a week!  My, wasn’t that fun….

This got me to thinking yesterday.  And being very random like I am, I was thinking about different basic body functions (seeing, hearing, speaking, etc.) and I decided that if I had to choose to give one up, I think I would choose the ability to speak.  I really would have a hard time if I was deaf or blind.  Sure I’d get used to it as people do, but if I had a choice I think I would choose to be mute.

Then I started thinking about how these days with the internet and technology and stuff, you could really still do a whole lot of stuff without being able to talk.  There are still so many ways to communicate.  Like this blog for example.  For all you know, I could be a mute deaf paraplegic and no one would even know it.  The internet really is the great equalizer in that sense.

Now, I really hope that I never do become mute or have any other problems of that nature.  But there’s my random thought for the day.  And by the way, that picture is not me…