A cat is a cat is a cat.
I don’t have to like that.
She gives me gifts
I’d prefer not to have.
Extinguished life.
Birds, mice, chipmunks and bats.
My bloodstain stoop
Her trophy case.
Today she stood proudly over a wren.
I think that’s what I buried.
Movie Review- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Having some free movie tickets about to expire inspired me to take my 13 year old and his best friend to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (official movie site). Review? All I can say is it had motorcycles*.
*Update: Someone said their were robots in this movie. All I saw was Megan Fox.
Actual review? I enjoyed the movie. The action was great. I didn’t think the CGI was as confusing as the first Transformers movie. Contrary to what I read, I felt it had a decent plot. My biggest problem with the movie was the unnecessary, overly used toilet humor. The number of sexual jokes and use of sexual elements bordered on uncomfortable. At one point I distinctly questioned my judgment in bringing the two 13 year olds and felt badly for the audience members with the much younger children. Recommendation: rent it from Netflix or Redbox.
Gas man answers
Use 100% gas. Okay to fuel with tanker.
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What kind of babysitting is this?
Cathy is touring the high schools, the older boys are out of the state, the 7 year old socialite is at a friend’s house, and I’m downstairs trying to work which leaves the teenage girl babysitting the 4 year old boy. So why is the bathtub running? I dread going upstairs to see what mess they are recovering from but I must know!
Week 2 – no work
A major project culminated on Saturday July 25. I did something unusual. Instead of jumping into another project or lighting a big fire under my sales and marketing hat, I spent a week tending to long neglected personal things. This was both necessary and cathartic. I feel human again.
Today I did some final testing on some client code and got final approvals and sign-off closing out yet one other project. I now turn my energies to patch a little code as a favor to an old client of mine and this afternoon I have a scheduled conference call to complete some research for a bid for what may be my next project. Hopefully by the end of the week I’m off overhead and back to billables. So far, I think it is a good idea to add a week of "no work" after an extensive project for tidying up loose ends and making up for neglected areas in my personal life. However, if by the end of this week I am not back to billable hours, I will declare it a failed experiment and begin working on a mental breakdown.
And we’re off…
Cathy is out getting to tour all the area high schools with the respective principals. Today she has appointments to tour Karns High School and Bearden High School. We’ve sent the older two boys to Indiana to paint their uncle’s house. The two little ones are playing while the sleeping teenage girl babysits. I need a day at my computer without distraction. Perhaps it is time to wake the teen. If you don’t see another post on Reality Me, she ate me.
Last week I caught up!
In the name of prioritization and business, I have spent the past several months neglecting many things in my personal life. Last week I was able to catch up on many of these things. I am a much happier person! The trade-off of taking personal time to get caught up is that this week I have no projects scheduled since I did no marketing last week. I strive to keep my schedule booked out 2 months so it is odd to have nothing. Obviously I need to strike a slightly better balance between business and personal life.
Shaun Was Once A Child
Why do zombie movies always focus on the adults? Buy a print of this excellent piece of art from artist Jason Chan!
From the mouths of babes
Me: "Evan, watch me pull my finger off."
Evan, 4 years old: "Do it again and pass it to me. You got to break it off and put it in my hand."
Me: "Wise acre."
In yesterday’s mail
The Stigma
Apparently there’s some stigma around bloggers, particular mommy bloggers, doing product reviews. There shouldn’t be. I understand the stigma’s origins. The stigma comes from those ridiculous pay-per-post services where the participants are encouraged to write shining reviews in return for the product and/or money. They are disingenuous. The advertiser is not paying for the post. The advertiser is paying for search engine ranking. The 200 people who read that paid post, or even if it was 10,000, are not going to pay for the cost of the advertising. What pays is when someone searches for the product and the multiple paid posts have given credibility and ranking to the product in the search engines. As a matter of personal choice, I do not participate in pay-to-post programs.
Should product reviews be on a blog? Absolutely! The Internet is a reflection of the real world. In the real world, if I try a product I like, I will probably tell others about it. If a company wrongs me, I will warn others. It is only natural to extend that to the Internet. Some bloggers will even ask companies to send them products. They have the audience and clout to get this benefit. Reviews don’t have to be positive. The catch is that if you get a reputation for giving negative reviews, no one will send you their product. Mike Arrington recently accused Leo Laporte of Twit.tv of getting a pre-release Palm Pre in exchange for a glowing report and Leo took great offense.
I have products sent to me. I’ve had the best intentions of reviewing them but never have. Until someone starts BlogHim and lets us daddy blogs have cat fights over swag, I think I’ll accept products for review. Joan Goldner, a wonderful person!, sent me The Busy Body Book when my Covey planner had run out and I forgot Cathy’s birthday. I never posted a review of The Busy Body Book but it remains one of my favorite organizers despite being a Covey fanboy. I’ve been calendarless for 2009 but am just about to order a Busy Body Book. Read about it on their blog.
Yesterday’s mail
Yesterday I received two products: a bidirectional IDE to SATA or SATA to IDE Adapter and a LifeStyles premium polyisoprene Skyn "closest thing to wearing nothing" condom with Excite female stimulating gel. I’m looking forward to reviewing both of these products! The adapter I ordered from Hong Kong for $4 which included free shipping. It comes with a circuit board, power cable, and a SATA cable. I recently tried to buy a SATA cable locally, just the cable, and it was going to cost me $20 plus tax! The condom was a surprise and comes with a survey asking for feedback on the Excite female stimulating gel. I think I’ll be able to find a volunteer to help me fill out that survey (pseudo related note: We bought Watchmen last night). Now I’m off to plug a cable into something.
The Review
Here’s your quickie review: The Excite female stimulating gel product..let’s just wow! No, let’s say that twice..WOW! WOW! As for the Skyn condom, anyone with a LATEX allergy who has been horrified by a polyurethane plasticized baggy as an excuse for protection can be happy to know that your polyisoprene condom lives up to its marketing. Not only is it as comfortable and flexible as a latex condom, it truly is almost like wearing nothing.
August?!
Where did the summer go?
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But it’s just a simple feature!
Everyone must read Brent Simmons’s Anatomy of a feature!
Today’s Status Report
Today is far from over but I feel a status report is in order. My wife had important meetings today that would keep her out of the house most of the day and early evening so I’m in charge. She left, two neighborhood children joined our horde, and I attempted to meet my goals. Of course, the older two children were off doing their own things all day so I had no true backup. My goals were simple: write a business proposal in the morning and walk a client through the changes I’d made to their application in the afternoon; if time permits, prospect for more work.
We had no causalities on my watch, but the collateral damage is awesome! Only one dog was so muddy that she needed a bath. Only one child needed a midday bath. We had only 1 temper tantrum and associated bout of tears, otherwise a happy day. There was lots of laughs and much bouncing on the trampoline. I realized that my yard needs to become a much higher priority. I failed to get the proposal done. The chat with the client went well but didn’t end with the "all done" that I’d hoped. I did, however, get some long overdue to do items off my list, such as ordering the dogs’ flea preventative, and that felt great! Now I need to cook dinner and see if I can begin digging our house out of the rubble.
You can have your jet ski
Keep your jet ski! I’m getting a Jetlev flyer!
From the mouths of babes
Looking down at the trampoline I see one child drawn and quartered by four other children. They waddle to the edge of the trampoline and start rocking the captive child back and forth as if to throw her from the trampoline to the ground. Then they release sending the captive nearly to the other side of the trampoline with a flop.
Me, opening the window and softly calling down into the valley: "Hey Noah! Do me a favor and make sure we don’t go to the hospital. I don’t have time for that today."
Earlier it was:
Me: "Evan. We have guests. They don’t want to see your penis."
You know.. there should be a book they give to new parents titled, "these are the ridiculous things you will say" with a list of the absurdities you will utter. I’ve said them all!
