As you may have noticed there was only a single update to our family site in the month of October. This is really sad since we actually filled up every weekend with some sort of activity. Admittedly we had some downtime in the middle of the month due to my bringing H1N1 home and spreading it around after our trip to the State Fair.

Heather is working on a catch up post to fill in the October gap. I could lay blame on Heather as she has read EVERY SINGLE book in the Harry Potter series during the month of October… but I can’t do that without also laying the blame on myself. Sickness, school, and work have kept me busy. I’ll also admit that I’ve been a little preoccupied due to the release of Forza Motorsport 3.

Other items of note in the month of October. My youngest sister turned 18 and my mother celebrated the 24th anniversary of her 29th birthday. After we catch up we still have a lot of things to cover, like:

• Writing letters to Santa
• A visit from the Browns
• Our usable garage
• Why I’m so awesome at driving cars in a videogame
• The marshmellow test, and many other things

Tags: family,fun,games
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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I just wanted to inform anyone who reads our blog that Kib passed away last night. My mother bought him as a puppy when I was a senior in High School. It’s sad to see him go and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to explain his passing to my little girls since they were both very fond of him.

I’d just like to say that I don’t mind the loss of my hat collection, 3 playstation controllers, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 copies of Gran Turismo 2, belt, and 2 ties. In the end it was worth it.

Tags: dog,sad
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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We don’t have a July 4th tradition. We do whatever we feel like doing any given year. Last year we visited family in Bryan Texas, and I managed to get some good shots of the fireworks (see above). This year they were otherwise occupied (Samuelson family reunion).

One of our neighbors had approached us with an idea. Block party. Sounds fun. It would only take a few grills, some shade, and some neighborly spirit to throw one together. He talked to enough people however that it quickly became a rather large party. They closed down our street, put up some bounce houses, water slides, and our neighbor labored for days building a large misting gazebo of sorts.

The kids had a blast and it was nice to get to know our neighbors better. At the same time the day was very very hot. I admittedly spent at least half the time indoors. I also didn’t share my grilling skills with the neighbors. My grill was too busy cooking 4 racks of spare ribs and 5 racks of baby back ribs.

Because of the days activities the kids were way too tired to go see fireworks. They went to bed early. Phoebe laid down on the floor in the living room and promptly fell asleep. She has never done this before. She was obviously exhausted.

Categories: BJ, BJ's Life, Weekly Family Update
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I think I’m finally ready to start posting my favorite songs from last year.

I’m going to have to group them since I can’t really compare something from Meshuggah to Andrew Bird. They’ll be in playable flash format for your perusal. I’ll also link to the bands last.fm pages. This will probably be an ongoing thing throughout the year.

Tags: best of 2008,music
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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I try not to bemoan my own existence very much but this morning I woke up with a migraine. I haven’t had an actual migraine in years. When I was younger, pre-teen – early teens, I would get them frequently but over time the frequency subsided to the point that I hardly ever suffer from an actual migraine.

Right now I should be at church with the family, but due to the lingering pain I’m sitting at home typing out how much I appreciate my wife. I slept until 1:30 PM when I should have been up at 7:00 AM. Heather doesn’t work well with little sleep. With at least 8 hours of sleep I’m pretty sure she can handle anything the world throws at her but if you edge her closer to 7 hours she becomes volatile. Last night probably wasn’t her best night of sleep but she got the kids ready herself and packed them off to church because her wuss of a husband couldn’t handle his little headache.

Thank you.

I had forgotten how terrible migraines were. It’s like someone is yanking on your optical nerve as hard as they can. Any sort of light or noise makes the nasty little optic nerve yankers pull harder. I can pretty easily spot the difference between your average headache and a migraine due to the fact that real migraines hurt so much they make me throw up. Sadly it also seems to be the only way for me to get rid of one. Vomit -> Sleep = cured headache.

Tags: migraine
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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Todd, my brother-in-law, has posted a list of his favorite 75 songs released by different artists during 2008. An impressive list to say the least.

I poured over my last.fm rss feed to locate what new material had crept in in 2008. I’ve found 50-60 new releases to evaluate for the best songs. This is going to take a little while.

Here’s the artist breakdown.

Agalloch, Amon Amarth, Amon Tobin, Andrew Bird, Animal Collective, Autechre, Azam Ali, Behold… The Arctopus, Between the Buried and Me, Blockhead, Buckehead, Candiria, Conor Oberst, Cunninlynguists, Deerhoof, Devildriver, DJ Zinc, Dream Theater (Greatest Hits), Estradasphere, Faun Fables, Final Fantasy, The Flaming Lips, Fleet Foxes, Fleur, Gnarls Barkley, God of Shamisen, Gojira, In Flames, Isis, Kamelot, Kronos Quartet, Laura Marling, Loreena McKennit, Lustmord, Meshuggah, Minus the Bear, Mr. Lif (Collaborations), Nine Inch Nails, Niyaz, Okkervil River, Opeth, Orishas, Ozomatli, Portishead, Psycroptic, Puscifer (Remixes), Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Roots Manuva, Secret Chiefs 3, Sera Cahoone, Sigur Ros, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (2007 ahem), Soilwork, Solefald, Sonata Arctica, Strapping Young Lad (Greatest Hits), Textures, Tin Hat Trio, Toadies, Tom Morello, Venetian Snares.

Right now my iPod is loaded with the new albums from the above artists. I’m listening linearly instead of using shuffle and rating them as I go. Once I’ve got a song from each of the above albums I’ll make a new playlist and rate them based on my favorites. I’ll be truthful to my tastes. Normally I try and limit exposure to my musical tastes, but limiting the list based on how palatable the music is to anyone else wouldn’t create a list that’s mine.

Tags: music
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life, Entertainment
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Popi (as my children refer to my father) has always had a way with gift giving during Christmas time. In years past, while still living in the Atchley home, he would concoct and carry out elaborate scavenger hunts, puzzles, and tricks while presenting his children with gifts. These puzzles ranged from the esoteric clue that led to an obscure passage in a familiar book, to literally hacking into his lightly secured linux server in order to retrieve a command list and open a file containing another clue. Every Christmas you would find Dad scheming, plotting, writing, and setting up these elaborate hunts.

This year he couldn’t control the venue, and at 29 years old my preferences for gifts are either too expensive, or so specific as to be almost impossible to locate without 2 overseas contacts and a divining rod (“Yes, I would like you to get me the German HDMI stripper sold through a grey market front on ebay.” “I’ve always wanted magnetic throwing stars.”)

I ask for cash. Cash is boring. People think cash is so boring that they’re more likely to give you a gift card that you’ll never use. Cash feels impersonal and lazy. Popi, made it not lazy. I unwrapped my present only to find a Godiva chocolate box. In my family, it is well known that boxes are often reused. Instead of keeping any individual item in it’s original box, we’ve found it far more fun to change the box, so items are harder to guess. While we’re in the box we’re also likely to throw other random goods to provide either insulation from shaking, or something jingly so that shaking the box is the most innacurate way of figuring out what you’ve gotten. So I open the Godiva Chocolate box and am greeted by a $50 bill on a stack of other bills. “AHA. You think you’ve tricked me old man, I’ll not be fooled by a $50 on a stack of $1 bills.” I looked closer. Wrapped around the $50 and the other bills is what appears to be a small paper tie that reads, “$5000, Viewpoint bank.”

Wat?

I closed the Godiva box in a moment of thought, realizing that even this was fake. I also realized that is was a very good fake. Upon closer inspection it was in fact a $50 on a stack of $1 bills. The fake paper tie took Popi over an hour to make. Through trial and error and by using the paper tie on the stack of $1 bills, he had mimicked to the best of his ability what a $5000 paper tie might look like.

Good job. You got me.

Tags: christmas,gift
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
1 Comment »

With the new year on the way, I’ve decided to take my contributions to our family blog in a different direction. For one, you’re likely to find far fewer political posts. I’ve pounded out and refined my political stance enough that it seems silly to continue to say the same things over and over.

Tags: blog,naasen
Categories: BJ, BJ's Life
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