Another first: Jessica figured out how to clap today. She's been doing it all day.
She also rode in her first parade today (the Westchester Fourth of July parade). The MOMS club had a float. Jessica was in a wagon for about 5 minutes; that's the picture below. There are more pictures from today in the July gallery on SmugMug.
Yea for America!
I'm tearing up a bit.
She started the blog to document her travels in India this summer. Have fun, sis!
UPDATE: I added a feed to the left-hand column of this page. Under "Photos", you should see "Zinn in India", with links to the most recent entries there.
The fate of "Cinderella III" is uncertain.
I'll admit that I've only actually watched one (maybe two) of the direct-to-DVD sequels (one of the Aladdin sequels, when I think it was a new-ish idea). It was clear to me then that the quality level just wasn't there. I'm sure for the budget and timeline they were given, the people responsible did an admirable job, but it didn't compare with most of the theatrically released animated movies (at least not the ones for which these sequels were being made).
Here's the story on CNN Money. What's interesting is that in every version of the story I read, the move is said to have been influenced largely by Steve Jobs and John Lasseter, both having come to Disney via Pixar. I guess it makes sense, in a way: I love Pixar, and think they know a thing or two about storytelling via animated movies. Jobs is on the board of directors of Disney, and is the largest individual shareholder in Disney. Lasseter is Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. So they have some pull. But it can't have been an easy sell to shut down what is, I believe, a money-making product line.
Does this endanger the franchise quality of characters from Disney animated movies? I don't think so, but it might change things some. Kids at Disneyland get excited to see Belle and the Beast; I think they would even if they haven't watched Beauty and the Beast - Belle's Magical World or Beauty and the Beast - The Enchanted Christmas at home. As a kid I got to know some of my favorite characters well by repeated viewings of the original. (I know, beware the argument that is based on "it was good enough for me.")
I say, if there is another story worth telling with the characters and world of an animated film, let it be told in another theatrical release (or as a Disneyland attraction, of course). Toy Story 2 was a great movie.
Jessica likes to climb over people, and when she gets to the other side, she goes head first. Loves it.
If you haven't seen the new TV spots, you should check them out.
Many of the 2006 pics are now online in our Smugmug galleries.
There are a number of pics from Jessica's first month that are still to be uploaded.
Jessica completed her first 6-week swim class today. We took some photos.
Shortly after iTunes came out, probably in 2001, I tackled "the project" of ripping my CD collection to MP3s. At the time, I was concerned about disk space, and so I skipped CDs that I rarely listened to, or in some cases I would rip just a track or two and leave the rest untouched.
Maybe you already see the problem, here. The whole point of having a music library is that you can go through periods where you don't listen to some pieces, but then later you can circle back to them and enjoy them anew. You play some tracks too often, causing a kind of burnout, but then you leave them alone for a time and they become enjoyable again.
This normal progression has coincided with the growth of digital music, especially iPods and the iTunes Store. I'm now much more comfortable thinking of my digital library as my 'main' music library, though I still always purchase a CD of anything I want to have long-term (no DRM restrictions, always available to re-rip in a future format if need be). I listen to music from the digital library almost exclusively; except for my car stereo from time to time, I can't think of the last CD player I used to listen to music on a physical CD.
Over the past year or so, I've found I've made a mistake 2 or 3 times. I'll think of an older song or an album that I haven't heard in a long time. It's not in my digital library, so I look into buying it. In at least a couple of cases, I bought a track on iTunes, pleased to only have to pay 99 cents for a track I haven't thought about in years.
You probably see where this is going. I discover later that I have the track, or the whole album, sitting in my physical CD collection. Since I don't peruse the physical CDs much, and during "the project" several years ago I didn't feel that it deserved ripping, the fact that it was there has escaped my mind.
Fortunately I haven't done this too much, but iTunes did get a few dollars from me for tracks I technically already own.
That says it all.
Dana was carrying Jessica out of the room today. I waved bye-bye, as I often have, and Jessica moved a hand up and down in response. It was a crude wave, but a wave nonetheless. She repeated the gesture a couple of times during the day.
Pretty cool stuff. Who knew the little things would be so fun?
I've moved on up to a more robust photo hosting service for all of Jessica's pictures. You can now check out photos of Jessica anytime here:
Pictures from 2007 are already there, and at some point I'll add pics from 2006, just so they are all in one place.
There is a new gallery with pictures from our Colorado trip in late March:
Smugmug really has a lot of great features. You can view these pics in many different sizes, download the originals, order regular prints, order other photo-gifts (T-shirts, mugs, etc.), subscribe to an RSS feed for updates on new photos or new galleries. It's pretty cool. If you're so inclined, check it out, and feel free to let me know if you'd like to take advantage of any of these features but aren't sure how. I'm no Smugmug guru yet, but I've found their feature set very impressive and their documentation quite helpful.
(A "thank you" goes to Art, who first turned me on to Smugmug.)
After last summer's house addition project, the backyard was in pretty poor shape. It hadn't been in great shape before that, and now one swath of it was worn down to dirt. The sprinklers that used to water the lawn and planter bed had all been disconnected (and pipes removed) as part of the addition. Dana and I made an effort early on to manually water the lawn, but we know from experience that this doesn't last.
So, we figured, what we needed was to do a minor landscaping project to bring back the lawn. Would have been simple enough, but we decided to take care of one other thing first: a fence.
The previous fence was still serving a purpose, but it was not in great shape. Nor was it attractive. We've figured for a while that we'll probably need to replace the fence someday in order to get a maximum selling price for the house whenever we do move; might as well take care of the fence now and enjoy it ourselves. The timing was good: the houses on both sides were temporarily vacant, so there would be minimal inconveniencing of others. A new fence and/or vegetation could also address the privacy issue created when the homeowner next door cut down the large trees last year.
So we had a new fence installed, took out a couple of unruly bushes (and an old clothesline post), and added new sprinkler lines, some new plants, and some more grass. No, we didn't do any of this ourselves, I'm sorry to say. We're pretty happy with the results. See before and after pics below.
FYI -- There are updated photos on Jessica's page.
Disney is currently celebrating a "Year of a Million Dreams" at the Disney parks. I recently found out that they're holding a "Dream Job" contest (sponsored by Careerbuilder.com). The winners will get to go to Disneyland to experience one of the following jobs: Jungle Cruise Skipper, Parade Performer, Pirate, Princess-in-waiting, Haunted Mansion butler/maid.
By the time I learned of the contest, there wasn't much time before submissions were due. Entering the contest required submitting a short video (45 seconds). I liked the idea of the jungle cruise, so I thought of a couple jokes, found a hat, and made a quick video.
Long story short, I'm one of 20 finalists for the jungle cruise job. I'm including my video below, but if you have a moment, I'd appreciate it if you'd vote for my video in the contest.
Here's the the page where you can vote for my video (click "This one gets my Vote!"):
Here's the the contest page, so you can see all the videos you'd like.
Seemed like something kind of fun. If you do vote, I thank you.
This is a very cool, short, geometric proof that the square root of 2 cannot be rational number. The high level summary: If the square root of 2 were rational, it would be possible to construct a 45-45-90 triangle where the sides all have integer lengths. It can be proven that from any such triangle you can construct a smaller triangle with the same properties. This could go on forever, which would be impossible, since there is a lower bound to the positive integers.
A new proof that the square root of 2 is irrational
Found via Daring Fireball.
Spotted at Koo Koo Roo today, on a small sign next to a jar in which people put business cards to enter a sweepstakes (emphasis added):
"The price for this sweepstakes is a $100 Koo Koo Roo gift card."
Man, that seems kind of steep.
Some background and an update:
I may have mentioned this before, but I think it's interesting. The FAA requires that children over 2 years old sit in their own seat on an airplane, but leaves it optional for younger children, who are otherwise allowed to sit on an adult's lap. Interestingly, the FAA flatly states that having these smaller children in their own seat (preferably in a carrier) is safer than being on a lap, but they've opted not to require it. Why? Because if they require that infants have their own seat, then many families may opt to travel by car rather than pay the added expense of another airline ticket. And traveling on the streets and highways is statistically more dangerous than traveling on an airplane, even sitting on someone's lap.
Here's the update: Until recently, many airlines have offered a reduced fare (usually half-price) for families buying a seat for their infant of less than 2 years of age. Apparently this is changing. Airlines are dropping this discount, and according to the story, the motivation is market forces, plain and simple. For a time, many airplane seats were empty, but lately capacity has been reduced and demand has increased, so flights are more often full or close to it. When chances were that the seat would otherwise be empty, airlines were happy to get 50% fare for it, but now that the seat would likely otherwise be occupied by a full-fare passenger, half-fare isn't such a good deal for the airline.
Here's a brief commentary on the story which includes a brief survey of airline policies via their websites.
One more wrinkle: online versus in person booking. Many airlines offer their cheapest fare online, even offering a discount over the same flight booked on the phone with a person. Those that do still offer an infant fare reduction typically don't let you book that online; you have to call in.
This weekend I booked tickets with Frontier for the three of us (Dana, Jessica, and myself) to visit Colorado in late March. I searched for the flights we wanted online, then called in to make the reservation so I could get the infant reduction (a big deal for me; I pretty much always prefer an online transaction to placing an order over the telephone).
I got two tickets at full price and one at (roughly) half-price. Great. Except that I was getting the 'in-person' booking fare, not the online booking fare. I didn't do the math until I'd hung up the phone, but it turns out it would have been cheaper to buy 3 full-fare tickets online than it was to buy 2 full-fare and 1 half-fare ticket on the phone. Live and learn. (The third commenter here found a similar scenario with Southwest.)
I mentioned a while back that I haven't yet had cause to do much video (TV or movie) downloading from the iTunes Store. I imagine if I had a video iPod I would do more, though I don't know when I'd really watch much on an iPod; I don't commute on a train or subway, and I don't find myself waiting with a time to kill very often.
Still, I think the availability of TV shows on iTunes is fantastic. Here are a few reasons why:
1. This week our TiVo had a hiccup in recording Heroes and Studio 60. (Long story, but it's actually not TiVo's fault.) What are we to do? Within hours of realizing the problem, I had downloaded the missed episodes from iTunes. Problem solved. (Even better, I set my laptop on the dresser, grabbed the Apple remote, and used Front Row to watch Heroes from bed. That's more in appreciation of the MacBook Pro than the iTunes Store, but it was fun.)
2. Last spring Dana and I started watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD; we'd been given season 1 for Christmas (a great gift). By that time season 2 was already on the air, but we stayed away from that so we could go in proper order. Season 2 was done in two halves, for some reason, so the next DVD set we got was Season 2.0, the first half of season 2.
When we watched the last episode in that set, season "2.5" had been on the air for a number of weeks, but the DVD set wasn't going to be available for a while. Having just watched the cliffhanger, we couldn't wait to see what happened next. Again, we downloaded just the episode we needed, this time within the hour. On that occasion we hooked up my laptop to the TV and watched it there.
3. Classic TV. They've got some great old shows on the store, as well. I downloaded and watched the pilot episode of The Incredible Hulk. That was fun. Glad I didn't have to buy a full DVD set just to watch it.
CBS posted on YouTube an iPhone demo given by Phil Schiller. I realized as I watched it that I hadn't yet actually hadn't yet seen the real screen being used by a real finger. Watching it made me want one more.
After getting up at 3:45 am to wait in line to see Steve Jobs deliver the MacWorld Expo keynote address this morning, I'm finally relaxing a bit this evening. Jessica is asleep, and I have a chance to collect my thoughts about today's biggest announcement: the Apple iPhone.
(image from Macworld.com)
Let me start with the bottom line: I want one.
In the months leading up to this announcement, there have been wild rumors and speculation about a cell phone/iPod thingy from Apple. My opinion then, as now, is that I'll probably always want a dedicated iPod anyway, so if my phone can play music (or even video), that may come in handy now and then but it's not a feature that I have to have. However, there is one area ripe for improvement: cell phone software interfaces and synching. I said before today that if Apple could apply their magic touch and really make contact and calendar synching work, and make an interface that is intuitive, easy, and pretty, then they could really have something.
Well, it sure looks like they did just that.
Interestingly, the widescreen iPod with touch control features on their own are pretty sweet. I would upgrade to a standalone iPod with those features, though maybe not for $499 plus a service contract (more on price in a moment).
I've been thinking about getting a "smartphone" recently, because I would like to be able to check for emails now and then while out and about. I've never had one, so I can't speak to the ease of use of the keyboards, but I'm inclined to believe Steve Jobs' claim that the touchscreen keyboard on the iPhone is as least as easy to use, if not easier, than the keyboards on Blackberries or other smartphones.
Even with all this, I'm not head over heels in lust. First, use of the internet features relies on data over the cellular network, which in this case uses EDGE. I still get confused by 3G cell phone technologies, but I'm pretty sure this is the slower of the ultra-modern data options. I suspect the reason Apple would go this way is simple: for other reasons they've ended up partnering with Cingular (soon to be AT&T), and EDGE is the technology Cingular uses. Why did they go with Cingular? Steve Jobs says "they're the biggest and the best". Maybe true, I don't know. I'm guessing they were the partner willing to bend and not enforce the kind of demands on Apple that wireless providers typically enforce on cell phone manufacturers.
So I'm curious to see what data access is really like on this phone. I'm also curious to get beyond the demonstrations and see if the interface and usability, which look amazing, hold up to actual, everyday use. I wonder if scrolling through long lists by "tossing" the list with a flick of the finger is really efficient, or if you'll end up overshooting and coming back and forth to find a given entry.
And what about the price: $499 for a 4GB model, $599 for an 8GB model, both with a 2 year contract with Cingular. I don't know yet what a Cingular plan would cost that would allow for decent data use. I will say this: if you're willing to pay $500 for the phone, you may as well pay an extra $100 and get twice the storage space. If you're going to keep a fair amount of music or photos on the phone, and any TV or Movies, you'll want the extra space.
Why is the price so high? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if it is expensive for Apple to make, at the moment. If it's very popular, they'll probably be able to bring down the cost. For what it's worth, the original 5 GB iPod was introduced with a price of $399, followed shortly by a 10 GB model for $499. They sold a few. These prices certainly came down. I also think there is value for Apple in having a product priced at a premium. They don't want consumers thinking this is just another cell phone. Better if it's understood that it's more; enough people will pay the premium for the superior product, and Apple's "coolness" and "gotta-get-one" factors are enhanced.
I was a little disappointed today that there wasn't more immediate gratification. No glimpse at Leopard, the next Mac OS, no new iLife or iWork. The AppleTV is kind of cool, but nothing that makes me drool. Maybe the AppleTV would move me closer to the tipping point where I would buy more video content from the iTunes Store. (Owning a video iPod, or iPhone, would also move me closer.) The iPhone was really the news, but there aren't any out at the Apple booth to play with.
When I got back to the hotel room, my initial explanation of the iPhone was tempered, I think, by the lack of anything to play with and the fact that being up since before 4 AM was catching up to me. The possible success of the iPhone may be portended by Dana's reaction when I showed her the demo movies at apple.com: "I can't believe you weren't more excited by this. This would be great for people like me. We should get 5."
Happy New Year!!!
2007 = 223 * 9
2007 = 223 * 3 * 3
You can tell right away that 2007 must be evenly divisible by 9 because 2 + 0 + 0 + 7 = 9.
Interesting watch event to look for this year: 2:03 am and 4 seconds on May 6th (02:03:04 05/06/07)
Hope you have a fantastic new year.
