Shane Acker's 9...

Video Games - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

This Looks absolutely AMAZING! I can't wait...

Addicts...

Okay... So little H is totally addicted to the movie "Bolt".
He LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEESSSSSSSS it.
We're talking a CRAZY, out of control kind of Love.

Obviously...
Note captured behavior above.

He's especially apeshit over Rhino the Hamster featured in such said movie.

And Really. Who can blame him.
Rhino Rocks. He's so Awesome, he's Beyond Awesome.
He's BeAwesome!!

Of course, who am I to talk.
I was pretty much singing the same tune
about my latest must have gadget.
I'm such a Gadget Junkie.

Meet my latest conquest...
The Flip Ultra HD
... Oooohhhh, Mamacita Likes!!

Talk about BeAwesome!!
This little number will totally knock your socks off.
Wowzers.
It's a pocket size video camera.

Duuude.

8G = 120 minutes of film
Super light weight and just a bit bigger than your average cell phone.
Picture quality is superb!
Super EASY to use...
and so much fun - it's Redonkulous!

I'm tellin' ya.
Don't walk. Run.
Run out & get one to call your very own.



Amazon has the best price I found
AND
if you order before May 30th you can get a free
Flip accessory... Plus free shipping.

Like Dude... whaterya waitin' for??

Learning Curve...

I picked up a new lens over the weekend and
have been playing around with it.
Unfortunately, not with much success.
It's a manual focus lens... which as it turns out -
is rather challenging with subjects that absolutely refuse to hold still.
Hmph.

Which is a damn shame too.

As these photos would be utterly priceless if they weren't so out of focus.

When little Flynner is hungry...
he's less than thrilled with the blog paparazzi.

It's Baaaaack....

Yes, Dear Readers...

Believe it or not the Infamous Lens has finally returned.

So things are looking up. Of course, not without a hitch.
The settings seem off somehow now
- like skin tones are way pink and the contrast is odd. Hmmm.

I sincerely hope this doesn't mean I'll actually have to read the manual...

But just for starters...

here are a few fun shots of H-Man.

Our little Heartbreaker.

No Soup for You!

Or in my case...

Sooooo.... at about the two week marker Flynn started to get what I had assumed was Baby Acne or Prickly Heat. Which is just a rash like condition that most babies get primarily on their face. H-Man had a minor case when he was an infant that cleared up in less than a week. Hmmm... In Flynn's case however, it just kept getting worse and worse. And Worse. Evolving from tiny red dots into prickly feeling welts and spreading from his face to his entire head, his arms, legs, and entirely covering his chest and belly. Not Good and certainly Not Pretty. A visit with the pediatrician told us that, as it turns out, Flynner has an allergy to dairy protein - AKA as Milk Allergy. Which is not to be confused with being Lactose Intolerant. Lactose is a sugar found naturally in milk (all milks) where as Milk Allergy is caused by a reaction to a number of protein allergens in cows’ milk, such as casein and whey. Casein is the curd that forms when milk sours, and whey is the watery part that is left when the curd is removed. And wouldn'tcha know it - the only remedy: for ME to cut dairy out of MY diet.

WHAT???!!! I'm sorry... I didn't quite get that. ME Give up Dairy???
You've got to be joking.
Surely that doesn't include milk... WTF!
You want me to go without breakfast??
It's called "Cold Cereal" for a very good reason - the MILK is Cold.
And give up CHEESE??!!
Never.
As in Ain't Gonna Happen.
Ever.

I am a BIG fan of dairy. We're talking HUGE... like I'm not entirely sure I can completely convey my LOVE and Obsession with Dairy. I mean come on... how on earth can you possibly ever make it through one single meal or hell, for that matter, even a snack without consuming cheese, milk, cheese, yogurt, or more cheese??? It's inconceivable. It's impossible. Getting through the morning... let alone the whole damn day without dairy... Ugh - just the thought alone is enough to make my head spin and to twist my stomach into knots. There, you see, I'm beginning to sweat profusely. Body tremors, shaking and uncontrollable convulsions are sure to follow.

Mutha. Fucka. I feel quite faint.

And although I was seriously tempted to bitch-slap the doctor and stay safely afloat on the Denial River (where I've been spending oodles of time recently) there was just no getting around all the symptoms little Flynn was displaying. Including loose stools (gotta love that mental imagery), gagging (always pleasant), refusing food, vomiting (we're talking way beyond spitting up here folks), wheezing, and of course the really nasty skin rashes. So while I sat rocking back and forth, cradling my head and weeping inconsolably the doctor tried to tell me that most children outgrow this form of allergy by the time they're 2 years old. Like that was suppose to make it all better somehow.

Mutha Fucka.

No Dairy for the ENTIRE time I'm nursing???
That's a YEAR.
A YEAR.
A YEAR... do you hear me??

And Yes, I know my voice is cracking and I've started to sound shrill.
But COME ON!!!!
Surely you jest!!!
A whole entire YEAR??

Of course... Just one look at this handsome little face gives you the answer.
Yes.

Yes, one whole year without Dairy.

No Milk.

No CHEESE.

No Yogurt.

No Hot Chocolate.

No Cream Cheese.

No Chocolate.

No Cheese.

No Butter.

No Cottage Cheese.

No Cheese.

No Ricotta.

No Sour Cream.

No Buttermilk.

No Cheese.

No Ice Cream.

No Frozen Yogurt.

No Custard.

Etcetera, Etcetera...

Oh and did I mention - No CHEESE?!

But he's worth it right??

So now I've been Dairy-Free for about 4-5 weeks. And shockingly it took more than two for all the bad proteins to leave my system... so we're really only now starting to see the major changes in little Flynner. The rash on his face and limbs is now completely gone (but these photos are from last week... so you can still see some of it here... well, you would be able to see it if the quality of these pictures were so piss poor. But that's a whole other rant entirely... the fact that my camera lens still isn't fixed... okay, okay - I'm digressing). He still has some remnants of the rash on his chest, but since that was where it got the worst it'll take longer to clear up there. No more gagging thank goodness and we're back to just the normal amount of spitting up. Phew. What a relief.

And before any of you try to get all giddy about Soy products... like I did... turns out lots of soy items actually have some dairy in them. Plus, wouldn'tcha know it, lots of babies (35% or so) have the same allergy to soy as they do to dairy proteins. Go Figure.

One thing that I've found that is really helping me... least ways through the mornings - helping me not to starve - is Almond Milk. Who knew. It has a nice vanilla flavor and isn't sweetened - Nice. Terrific on cereal! Not so great as a substitute for a big mug of milk with dinner... but you can't have it all.

And on this note I'll wrap it up.

I've included a best of clip for all you Seinfeld fanatics to relive the joy of Yev Kasem (AKA: Soup Nazi) And for those of you who might have been living under a rock and don't get the whole "Soup Nazi" reference.



One of the greatest moments in the history of television....Least ways the history of the television I've seen.Which I admit... is very little... but still. It's pure Awesomeness.

The Rock, A Worm and The Shit...

Yes, as you can see... We're still deep in The Shit here.

Ghads the quality of these photos is truly depressing.

I simply can't decide whether I want to:

A) Cry like a baby.

B) Scream like a Banshee.

C) Swear like a truck driver.

D) Stab the moron who's "fixing" my lens....

Hmmm... So many choices... So little time.

This rock is H-Man's most favorite spot in the garden.
He spends ages hanging out here...
discovering, investigating and enjoying nature's bounty.

Here he's having a swell time inspecting a worm.
Worms are cool.

Cool for The H... Not so Cool for the worm.

Unfortunately... for this little guy...
20 minutes of close scrutiny from the H-Man became quite fatal.
And in the end -- as The H so delicately put it --
"He went to the night-night."

If you please...

A moment of silence.

Ancient Chinese Secrets... Not So Much

Okay... So for starters, I'm not even sure just how many folks even remember that commercial. For me it's a pretty vague memory... but it's there.

But of course I'm totally calling bullshit on it... none of this crap has ever worked for me. I've always sucked at the laundry. I've tried all the detergent boosters, sprays, gels, sticks... Yeah Whatever. In the end, No matter what, my whites still manage to look a bit dingy. And stains? Forgettaboutit. They're NOT coming out. Ever. And no amount of scrubbing, pre-treating or soaking is going to make an ounce of difference. Period. End. Of. Story.

Set in stains, bleach spots and perma-dinge simply seemed to be my lot in life. So be it. And when the clothes start to garner laughs from your local homeless shelter... well, my motto has just been - Buy New. I never really gave it much thought beyond that.

So with all that being said, you can imagine my surprise and dismay when my handy dandy dryer (that has served me well for the past 16 years) seemed to go a little haywire. About 3 months ago I noticed that it was taking like an hour and a half to get shit dry in the dryer. At times the towels were actually souring AS they were drying. Hmmm... who'd have thought that was possible?! There were times I would hear a strange clicking noise coming from the laundry room... click, click, click. Reminding me of a bizarre rendition of "The Raven"... the clicking coupled with the wacky temperature fluctuations began to seriously creep me out. Sometimes I'd open the dryer door after 25 minutes and the clothes would be smokin'... we're talkin' Hot, Hot, HOT - like burn your fingers hot. While the very next load would be cold as ice after 55 minutes - as in no heat at all. So what do you think I did about it??

How about a big Fat Nothing. Oh Surprise, surprise.

Auy-yup... This here would be the part where I totally fess up to being an utter dumb ass traveling down the Denial River without a paddle. It seems that nothing could convince me that something was seriously askew with my beloved dryer... that is until the electricity bill came.

Mutha Fucka.

Yes, dear friends, when your electric bill can rival your house payment - No Shit - one can only hope you finally manage see the light... or that someone you know will be kind enough to kick you in the head.

So shortly after soiling myself I finally managed to pull my head from my ass and snatch me up a pair of these pretties.

Gee Whiz and Wowzers! Aren't they sparkly.

And you wanna know something totally crazy. Since these bad boys arrived... My whites have never looked so Goooood. We're talking Brilliantly White... Shockingly White... and with only 2/3 cups of bleach??!! Modern technology... it's an amazing thing.

The Moral of this story... It's all about the tools you have. Tools make all the difference. And when a major appliance starts to produce unknown scary sounds... don't be an idiot. Replace it before the electric company can bend you over the proverbial barrel.

Besides... I Promise you... Doing the laundry has never been so much fun.

7 Weeks and Counting...

NO... NOT for Flynner here... For my fucking camera lens. A lens that has been in the shop now for SEVEN (nearly EIGHT) weeks - I mean Come On already. So that means nearly Zero photos... because when I try (& oh how I try) I end up with "The Shit". The Shit that makes me scream obscenities till I'm red in the face and my throat feels like I've been gargling with battery acid. The Shit that nothing can fix... no amount of creative digital editing can correct the horrible quality, color and lighting that I'm faced with here. The Shit that makes me yearn to hunt down the repair shop technician like the dog that he is and punch him right square in the kisser. Boom. Right to the moon. The Shit that is driving me slightly apeshit crazy. The Shit that's eliciting day dreams of setting this ancient hunk of plastic junk that's posing as a camera on FIRE.

So Here.

Here ya go... just a few exceptionally shitty photos of our little Flynnmeister... who BTW is 6 weeks old!! Geesh, wouldn't it be nice to see what he really looks like? Without straining your eyes to see past all the ill lit grainy fuzz and be able to see his face?? To have some semi-decent photos of him for prosperity? Yeah, I suppose it would wouldn't it. But that is just but too bad for you. And too bad for Me. Because picture taking these days is alot like a crap shoot and according to the asshole who's posing as a camera repair guy - and I quote: "Tough Ninnies."

Welcome to The Shit.