8 years. I knew this day would come. My trusty PC officially died on Monday February 1, 2010. A lot changed in those 8 years: RAM upgrade, hard drive upgrade, DVD burner upgrade, one complete reformatting and reinstall, one new controller board, and a new power supply. We accomplished a lot together: school projects, a CPA review course, numerous fantasy baseball drafts, work projects, a little web design, and tons of web surfing.
Sadly, a rogue spyware program took my PC down. I tried to save it, but I just couldn’t safely remove the program. I was able to grab my important files before my PC sipped its last bit of electricity.
Yes, I could reformat and reinstall Windows. But I won’t. It was my PC’s time to die. Reinstalling Windows XP would be an insult to my PC’s legacy. It’s time for it rest in peace. Who knows…maybe he’ll be reincarnated as a Linux box in a few years.
My son was playing a game on my iPhone right before bedtime the other night. I loved the way the iPhone lit up his face and I wanted to capture that. I used my programmed setting, but the camera was trying to make up for the lack of light. It opened the apture all the way, bumped up the ISO to 1600, and slowed down the shutter speed. The end result was a grainy, overexposed, slightly blurry photo.
I messed around with the settings a little by trying out Aperture Priority (AP) and Shutter Priority (SP) modes. The AP mode didn’t work out the way I wanted. SP mode came very close to what I wanted – - it’s the photo above.
Feeling confident with what I was doing, I turned the camera over to full manual. I adjusted the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to what I thought would make a good exposure. The result was a clean photo, but it was just a tad underexposed. At least I was working in the right direction. Before I could make the necessary adjustments, my son quit playing the game and wanted to go to bed.
This was my first real attempt at going complete manual mode. It did didn’t turn out exactly like I envisioned in my head, but at least I’m learning how all the settings work together.
After watching District 9 and Mongol, I owed my wife a solid chick flick. I made sure the movie at the top of our queue was The Proposal. I like Sandra Bullock, so I was OK with watching the movie. Plus, I had my iPhone handy just in case the movie got boring. However, I never had to break out the phone to keep me occupied.
The movie was good. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. Sure it was predictable like all chick flicks, but it was still funny. More importantly, my wife loved it. And that’s what I needed. Now I can add some more manly movies to the queue.
This is part one (of four) in my attempt to explain why I think Genghis Khan’s four laws are manly and should be followed. These are lessons I want my sons to learn.
Rule 1: Don’t kill women or children
That’s a pretty simple law, and I’m sure Genghis meant that literally. His men were warriors; so, he had to establish his army’s code of conduct. (Let’s just overlook that fact that he wiped several civilizations off the face of earth…that was just how he rolled.) But how does this law apply to us, the modern man? Of course, there’s the “don’t kill” part of the law. If you don’t follow that one, you go to prison. Everyone gets that.
I believe a real man takes it one step farther. A real man loves his wife and children. A real man respects and listens to his wife and makes decisions with her. A real man teaches and disciplines (with love) his children. A real man protects his family from harm or danger.
Those aren’t novel ideas. It boggles my mind how many guys don’t live up to those simple standards. Hell, just look at the slimeballs we elect to office: Sanford, Spitzer, Ensign, Edwards, Clinton…and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. I could probably come up with similar lists of sports stars, celebrities, preachers, and businessmen if I really wanted to.
I had some time to kill on Saturday night. My wife was scrapbooking, the kids were asleep, and we were all caught up on the DVR. So, I decided to watch a manly movie. I found Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan on Netflix (watch instantly). When I think of Genghis Khan, one of thee thoughts usually goes through my head:
The Netflix reviews looked positive, so I took the plunge. It was well worth it. He did some ruthless things, and the movie didn’t really address that side of him. Instead, the movie tried to humanize Genghis Khan and show he became leader of the Mongol people.
When thing that impressed me was his desire to unite Mongolia. During his early struggles he realized that Mongols needed laws if they wanted to progress as a society. He declared,
“Our laws will be simple. Don’t kill women or children. Don’t forget your debts. Fight enemies to the end. And never betray your khan.”
Any real man loves Star Wars. And any real man hates what George Lucas did to the original trilogy with the special edition releases in the late 90’s. With that in mind, enjoy these re-edited opening credits from CollegeHumor.com:
Well, I finally finished the Christmas project I started for my-mother in-law a few months ago. You might recall that my mother-in-law’s gift to her sister (my wife’s aunt) was a nice family portrait. Of course, I was volunteered to be the photographer because my price was right (free).
My wife’s aunt finally chose the photo that she and her family liked best. They only had one request: that I Photoshop out a stain on somebody’s jeans. No problem. I fixed that in a few minutes. Then I uploaded the photo to Costco and ordered a 20 x 30 canvas print. It finally arrived. It looks amazing, and it’s freaking huge. I’m both surprised and proud that a photograph so nice came from me. We plan on presenting the canvas print to her family this weekend. I can’t wait to see their reaction.
The man in me feels the need to breakdown who contributed to this project. I know doing this is a little petty, but who cares. It’s not like any of them read this blog. So here is the breakdown:
Coming up with the whole idea: my wife
Location scouting: my wife and me
Planning / scheduling the photo shoot: my wife
Posing the photos: me
Taking the photos: me
Uploading to the computer: me
Creating a slideshow and distributing digital copies: me
Choosing the best photo: my wife’s aunt
Editing in Photoshop: me
Uploading and ordering the canvas print: me
Paying for print: mothe-in-law (reimbursed me…to the penny…no extra funds for time and effort…not that it matters)
For the most part it was a positive experience: my in-laws love and trust my photo abilities, I learned some manual settings on my camera, I got to do a little Phototshop, and I learned that Costco’s canvas prints are awesome.
On Monday I was spent some quality time with my boy. Like I mentioned yesterday, he loves Spider-Man. So he asked me to find the theme song from Spectacular Spider-Man.
I usually tell my 4 year old a bedtime story every night. It’s part of the nightly routine. Honestly, sometimes I half-ass it with a short story (yeah, I feel a little guilty about that). However, last night I turned in a solid performance.
Lately, my son has been into Spider-Man and Super Hero Squad. We watched a few Spectacular Spider-Man episodes on YouTube (via my blu-ray player) yesterday. He loved it (and so did I). When it came time for the bedtime story, he requested a story featuring him and Spider-Man. No problem. Here’s the basic outline of the story:
My son drove a car to visit Super Hero City (that’s where Super Hero Squad takes place)
He looks for Spider-Man near the tall buildings buildings, but he’s not there
He looks for Spider-Man at the park, but he’s not there
He remembers that Peter Parker is Spider-Man so he goes the science lab to find Peter
He finds Peter and tells Peter that his secret identity is safe
Peter thanks him buy changing into Spider-Man and taking my son a webslinging tour of the city
That Spider-Man story was a good one. How do I know? 1) He didn’t get out of bed the rest of the night and 2) that’s all he talked about as I got ready for work this morning.
Few phrases will earn you more respect than these two simple words: I’m sorry. Those two words will take you far in business, in love, and in life.
Today, I saw one of the heroes from my youth finally learn that lesson. He said he was sorry and I forgave him, just like I forgave the others before him. I’m no longer angry at him for avoiding the issue (or lying?) for years. I am now at peace with his accomplishments, and I hope he will be judged fairly (even if that means discounting his career totals). I hope he can find peace and comfort with his decision.
I remember a long time ago I went golfing my buddy Echild. I was goofing around while driving the golf cart and I rear-ended another golf cart. I broke the axle on my cart. I was young and stupid. We analyzed the situation and we knew that nobody would ever know that I broke the cart. All we had to do was ditch the cart and walk to our car to drive away. But that wasn’t the right thing to do. I walked into the clubhouse and asked to speak to the course manager. I told him what happened and said the two little words: I’m sorry. He was surprised and thanked me for my honesty. I never heard from him again, and I never had to feel the regret or guilt for lying about (or running away from) my mistake.
There’s a lesson for you here, boys. You see, saying “I’m sorry” is hard. Sometimes it’s really hard. It’s always humbling. That’s why it’s so powerful. That’s why it can carry you when you need it. Please, learn to say “I’m sorry.” That’s what real men do.
I had some time to kill on Saturday night. My wife was scrapbooking, the kids were asleep, and we were all caught up on the DVR. So, I decided to watch a manly movie. I found 