Pintiquinestra

A late entry, but critical to every pregnancy, is Grandpa Tolley's baby name submission. Erini was to be named after a Babylonian Emperor (Shalmaneser), while Baby #2 has been suggested with a name a bit more common place, but still odd. If you are familiar with the full work of Don Quixote, the name Pintiquinestra wouldn't sound quite that out of place. I have to admit it did sound a little familiar when I first heard it, but I think Caitlin and I will stick to the original plan.

We have a name picked out for a boy - Lachlin Joseph Ray - but Friday's ultrasound confirmed that Caitlin is carrying another girl. Hence we will be going forward with the name Bronwyn Bell. With Rini, we were going back and forth about the middle name right up to the instant she was born. In the end, our first born went home with the name Erini Tiana. It wasn't until a few months later that I realized our daughter's initials spelled out the abbreviation for the Latin term et cetra. Now, I'm about to have a daughter whose initials are more closely identified with the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Then again, the worst thing would be to name my children after employment positions and office equipment ie. Desk, Financial, Historical, Bank. I'm sure we wouldn't be allowed to leave the hospital unless we came up with a better name. If the Hospital staff didn't put their foot down, I'm sure our families would.

As this is our second baby, I've been asked many times if this is like rolling off a log. For the first 36 weeks, I would have to agree. But the past four weeks have been new territory. Everyday, I was half expecting the call to come that Caitlin was in labour and I would have to meet her at the hospital. That call never came. It started to feel like it would never come, which my wife would heartily disagree. The due date couldn't get here quick enough, and now that it's passed, tomorrow morning she is going to be induced. Should inducement fail, baby will be removed via Caesarian. One way or another, baby WILL be born tomorrow.

And that's the funny thing. I know that tomorrow, I'll have a baby laying in the bassinet we have set up in our room. Sleeping? Depends on the time of day, but I know I'm going to have to get to bed early tonight. It might be the last time for awhile I'll have the chance to sleep through the night.

Details will follow as I get them, but for now, I'm going to help my wife back a hospital bag.

Godspeed.

Movie Project Day 10: Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1

Of all the Pixar DVDs I own, I have not purchased Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1, nor implied that I would like to receive it as a gift. This could be partially due to the fact that since we own all the Pixar titles released to date and the short films are included on each of the titles, with the exception of The Adventures of André and Wally B. as it was produced under the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project, not Pixar.

However, it is quite interesting to see each of the films together, watching the technology improve with each subsequent film. This volume also contains four quick shorts featuring the lamps from Luxo Jr. which were aired on Sesame Street. I had never seen these segments before since I didn't watch Sesame Street in 1991 when they were produced. In addition to all this, the commentary from John Lasseter and the other directors for each of the short films (excluding Mike's New Car and Jack-Jack Attack) adds a wonderful bit of insight to the creativity, genius, and desperation that was the fuel to create these unique films. While Jack-Jack Attack had no commentary track, Mike's New Car was fresh and young. Moreso young.

For some reason which I have yet to find out, and may never discover, instead of the directors doing commentary for this short film, they had their children talk about it. The short itself is very silly and doesn't add any great character development to Monsters, Inc. stars, Mike and Sulley, and therefore, why should there be any serious talk overshadowing it? Perhaps it was a birthday present to their children, or even more likely, the children asked the directors, who then couldn't find a reason not to let them do it and figured, "Why not?" The result, a commentary track that my daughter absolutely loves.

That not to say Mike's New Car is her favourite of the Volume. Rini has watched the entire disc so many times, I am almost reconsidering purchasing a copy or putting it on a wish list. My wife doubly so. It's still a joy to watch these bits of animation, and since only four of the thirteen shorts contain any type of dialogue, Rini is fine with talking about the films as they are playing. Now, when she watches "Red's Dream", she says "Thank you!" every time he takes a bow. This was brought about by asking what the characters are feeling and how their actions represent that, but after some time it has evolved into making up lines for these silent characters.

While not everyone shares my feelings for Pixar, ie. PIXAR4LIFE, the title alone speaks of what this company has made, and what they have in store. Volume 1 marks the beginning of a collection that both children and adults will enjoy as much, and possibly more than, the movies that coincide with them.

iPressure

28 May 2010 marked an important day for Macintosh aficionados across
the globe with the release of the much praised, sometimes fabled,
iPad. Edmonton, Alberta also had the opening of a new Apple Store.
Tweets abounded from every sector of Edmonton as people clamoured to
get their hands on the precious commodity that had finally been
officially released outside the United States. Not to say that people
weren't tripping over themselves prior to this date. I know of one
person in my local church congregation that has had an iPad for close
to a month now, and I was able to try it out. From my experience,
would I say the iPad is a wonderful device? Yes. Magical? Not
really. Easy to use? Definitely. Would I take time off work to sit
in line to get one? No. Would I search the city to find one, after
completing my regular work day? No. Would I wait until there was
sufficient funds in my bank account before embarking on a search to
find an iPad? No, no, and again I say no.

I have no strong affinity to the Macintosh name - even in my choice of
fruit I would sooner pick Spartan or Pink Lady - and thus do not see a
need to join the masses who praise the works of the great Steve Jobs.
That is not to say that I dislike Mr. Jobs and everything he is
associated with, for if that were so, I would have to stop utilizing
the moderately coherent phrase 'PIXAR4LIFE' whenever I talk about
animated films.

And that is not to say that I was not ever tempted to purchase an
Apple product. Recall in January 2010, after we had received a $15
iTunes gift card as a Christmas gift, I was near ready to purchase an
iPod Touch. This same temptation surfaced when I broke my iPaq in
October 2009, such to the point that I posted the iTem on my christmas
wish list. Once my brilliant wife repaired iPaq, I amended my wish
list. As for the gift card, we used it to buy an album which iTunes
allowed me to burn to CD, and we also aquired a portable DVD player
for half the cost of a basic iPod Touch. This investment was quite
prudent as now we're able to watch movies after Rini has gone to bed,
and also provide some entertainment on long car trips, such as the one
we recent made to Taber.

But the iPad is still a wonderous little device, and once prices drop,
I could see devices similar to it become more the norm. Tablet
technology is not new, far from it. Ten years ago someone gave a very
similar speech to the one Jobs gave in late January 2010. Tablet
computers were to be the wave of the future, and soon they would
become commonplace. Up until 2009, tablet computers generally carried
a four digit price tag, and were fragile like aluminum foil coated in
glass. They might survive one drop, but unless these devices were
protected like the Panasonic toughbook, they were not generally used
for consumer use. Commercial and industrial applications abound, plus
they make for wonderful product placement props on CSI:NY.

At the end of the day, why would I want to throw my hat into the ring
with this new product? Because it's the new 'it' gadget? I would
have the oppurtunity to be at the forefront of technological history?
It's trendy and fashionable? Everyone else is doing it? These are
the questions I find myself surrounded with. Petty, insipid, and
otherwise pointless questions that do not garner the need to be
addressed at this time. True, iPaq's wifi card will only work on
802.11b, but for what I need right now, that's enough.

I would almost consider getting a chinese knockoff, such as the APAD
which my coworker purchased on eBay for a paltry $150. Running on
Android, it has a similar interface, but has the flexibility to allow
for additional peripherals. USB keyboard, mouse, and external hard
drive just to name a few are some of the differences from the iPad.

If I would be using the device for the same functions that I use iPaq,
it would have to be decent for writing, tweeting, email and internet
browsing primarily. Music and movies would be secondary.

But I will have to wait for the day when that want becomes a need.
There are other things that I can devote my attention to right now.
Like the fact I got to help my little girl ride a bike today!

Cousins, cousins, cousins

I can't think of another time when Rini has seen quite as many cousins
as she has today! Last night, we travelled down to Calgary and stayed
the night with my sister and her family. It was rather spur of the
moment because I called her right when we were about to head out the
door. We were going to travel straight to Taber, but when I realized
the travel time was 5 or 6 hours, which would put in Taber around
midnight, I figured it would better if we just went to Calgary, then
continued to Taber the next day.

I used up a moment of brilliance with that idea, and I fear I may not
have another bit of inspiration for a year or so.

Still, it worked out remarkably well on a number of accounts. First,
I wasn't as tired driving, and we were able to spend some time with my
sisters as Liz was over for a visit with Isobel.

We spent a couple hours playing Wii, most of the time playing Boom
Blox. We tried Rabbids Go Home, but it seemed banal compared to the
previous versions we'd played. I was initially excited, because
Raving Rabbids and Rabbids TV are a lot of fun. Nevertheless, I had
not played Rabbids Go Home previous to last night, and I wasn't
missing much. Chris had never heard of the Rabbids series, and I was
rather disappointed that his first game was a rather poor experience.
Eh, you can't have sunny days all the time.

But at the end of May, I would expect there to be rain, NOT SNOW.
That was a horrible slap in the face when we went out to leave for
Taber, and there was 10cm of wet snow piled on top of the car! The
weird thing is that this happened last month when we went to the
Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. It's like we bring bad weather
with us!

Ah, I'm probably blowing that a little out of proportion.

It was great that Rini was able to play with her cousins, second
cousins, and her first cousins once removed. Those were the cousins
that she played with. It was fun figuring out the level of relations
that I had with everyone else, but I confused a few people as well.
Seems a little ironic that I learned how the relation levels work from
my first cousin twice removed.

Time for a change up

I wouldn't say that I'm dependent on my wife, but I do appreciate her input, otherwise how would I have come up with the following: "I have two minds: one's lost and the other is out looking for my wife to tell me where it went.

Something that Caitlin and I have been working on the past few days is organizing our home a bit better. We keep thinking that the ideal thing to do would be to move to a new place, and I can't say nay to that idea, especially with baby #2 on the way and not a lot of place for new baby to sleep, save maybe the bathroom. We were considering putting baby in with Rini, but then realized that would be quite difficult for Rini to sleep. That and it's not recommended for children under the age of six to be sleeping in bunk beds. I'm thinking that the bed manufactures don't want to be sued if young children fall off the beds, because Rini loves climbing up on the bunk beds at Grandma and Grandpa's, plus her cousin has been sleeping in a top bunk for some time now. That six foot bunk at IKEA was a little freaky though. It would be good, but a little freaky.

Though it would be great to have everything done at once, we're trying to tackle one room at a time and the living room is the first on the list. I tried looking on kijiji for some shelving, but we went to Home Depot and IKEA and got much better ideas. True we spent a lot more, but at least with IKEA you don't need to worry about the store throwing away the shelf before you go to pick it up. Then again, they don't have free shelves at IKEA either. Cheap, but not free. Yet I was a little perplexed by their pricing, specifically with the BILLY shelves. I found some online for $80, but when we got to the store, we found some for $50. Quite the drop in price, and yet when we went to the warehouse, we found the $50 shelves we got were in white, while the $80 shelves were in Black/brown. That was the only difference. Same style, same name, EXACT SAME DIMENSIONS, but different colour. I couldn't figure it out. We just went for the cheaper one, paid, packed up and left.

I know I could say something about racial inequality, but I'll leave that for another day.

As it worked out, the shelving that we currently have in the living room complemented the BILLY units better than we hoped. We had an end board for a water bed(?) beside a birch finish BILLY shelf, and things piled precariously everywhere. Now we have the birch shelf in between the two white shelves with the end board on top of the three. And it fits great! The only hiccup was that in order to get the new shelving setup, I had to pull everything off the previous shelves and place them in various spots in the living room. The couch, the floor, the dining table and even the cube shelves we got from Home Depot, which we setup with the hope of using in the living room, but didn't need once we found the BILLY shelves worked so well.

But those wire shelves will not go to waste, because they will fit very well in our bedroom, which is also in sore need of organization. For the past three years, we've had a small bedside table beside our bed, and a large gap to the wall, that we partially filled a couple years ago with a bookshelf from Office Depot. Then I did some measuring and found that not only will the cubes fit there, but the dresser that's been sitting wasting space for the past three years will fit there too. So we're going to move out the bedside table, put in the dresser, and then put the cubes on top.

We did get some under-the-bed storage bins, but made the error of not measuring the clearance under our bed first. Thus, we have to return the bins that are too tall to fit. There is an adage my wife uses with her sewing: Measure twice, cut once. The same could be applied here, only it would be: Measure twice, buy once.

Better make sure I still have that receipt.

Movie Project: Day 9 - Samurai Jack Ep. 27

In the spirit of continuing to expose my daughter to new shows, we took a stab in the direction that most would not tread. Genndy Tartakovsky is one of the revolutionary animation directors of the aughts and turned the page for the animation industry. I have have been a fan of his work since Powerpuff Girls, in which he directed a few episodes. He finally went out on his own with Dexter's Laboratory, and then went on to do Samurai Jack. He is most famous for the Clone Wars microseries commissioned by George Lucas which served as a transitory work for Star Wars Episodes II and III. He has not worked with the current Clone Wars Series, nor does he have any plans to work with Lucasarts anytime in the near future. Currently, he is developing a feature length production for Samurai Jack.

Please note this does contain spoilers to the episodes content.

What better way to introduce this brilliant director to my daughter than with one of the more unusual episodes of the series. This is a little bit of an understatement, because all episodes of Samurai Jack stand apart from each other. In this one particularly, it features a character which my wife and I channel when we get frustrated. There is no explanation regarding most characters, and most are only seen for one episode, with a few exceptions such as the Scotsman. In this episode, Jack accidentally bumps a misanthropic wizard with an incredibly short temper. Although Jack apologizes for his error in genuine humility, the wizard flies into a rage and transforms Jack into a rooster, although he is referred to as a chicken, clucks like a chicken, and even the episode is titled "Chicken Jack."

It's hard to say just what the inspiration behind this episode was, but the bulk of the show has Jack competing in robot pit fighting. It could be referred to as cock fighting, but Jack is the only bird we ever see. As the episode progresses, it is hard to know how the continuity of the series is going to carry forward, because it seems that Jack is doomed to a life as a prize fighting bird, imprisoned by an irresponsible master. But just when almost all hope is lost, and Jack starts to accept his lot, the tables turn. The fat, rude, and slovenly man who found Jack is dressed to the nines ready to take Jack to a main event fight, when he bumps into the irascible wizard. POOF! Jack is back and the fight manager is now a chicken. It is one of the biggest WTF (What The Fruitcake) moments in the series.

Although Rini was a little scared by all the fighting that occurs during the pit fighting, she did enjoy the ludicrous plot and over the top characters. She especially thought the fact that Jack was a chicken was particularly funny.

Nonetheless, I'm quite sure that Rini will have to watch the episode a few more times before she fully understands why my wife and I shout, "ALWAYS!" in order to lighten the mood when we're hot under the collar.

Movie Project: Day 8 - Treasure Planet

Movie Project was on a bit of a hiatus while I was recovering from a back injury. I have since learned that just because water is dripping on concrete steps does not factor out that there could be ice on said steps. On a related note, it is a very terrifying feeling to forget how to breathe.

In the spirit of the Movie Project, I picked a title that I was not sure Rini had seen, or if she had, it had been some time since she had seen it. Truth be known, I had not watched Treasure Planet in years, and it has special significance for me. True, it was a box office bomb met with tepid reviews, but holds a fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and it was also the first movie my wife and I saw in theatres. The first movie we saw together was Bandits, but we're not going to show that movie to Rini until she's in her teens.

Back to Disney's 43rd animated full length feature, and the first to be shown in both regular screens and IMAX at release, I kept watch to see what would be the hook for Rini. Whether it would be the pirate story narrated by MegaByte Tony Jay, the solar surfing, or any one of the zany and odd characters that are featured in the movie. Rini was moderately engaged up to when Morph appears on screen, and that was what hooked it for her. Much like Abu in Aladdin, another one of Rini's favourite characters, Morph adds a very strong comedy relief to this science fiction themed retelling of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic.

The movie itself can be a bit of a struggle to figure out, especially if you take into account the facts about the vacuum of space that would tend to not allow for open vessels. Though I will admit that an anthropomorphic cat voiced by Emma Thompson would not be near as hot if she were wearing a space suit similar to that of Dr. Doppler's instead of the feisty pair of thigh high boots. Sometimes you have to relieve your sense of logic and just go along for the ride and Treasure Planet is definitely one of those movies. If you can get over the fact that in this movie space is NOT a vacuum, then you can also grasp the concept of a planet that is one massive construct with plant life growing on its metal surface.

Another movie that is strewn with scientific inconsistencies is WallE. It's not really fair to put Treasure Planet on the same page as WallE as the story behind the Pixar marvel is very powerful and original, while the other is a fancy dazzle display of 2D animation on top of 3D decorated with a mild, adapted tale.

Did Rini like it? She did ask to watch it again today and she laughed when Morph did his cuckoo crazy impersonation of B.E.N. during today's viewing. She also did her own little, "Cuckoo" to echo Morph's. I'm certain this will not be the last we've seen of this movie.

Sometimes I wonder if we are spoiling our daughter too much with the theatre setup we have at home. While it is nice to watch movies on a big screen, Caitlin almost prefers the surround sound we have, since it allows for the details that occur off screen as does in Treasure Planet. Another movie that has little easter eggs in the rear channels is Cars. When Mia and Tia (they're like, his biggest fans!) are carted away by security, they shout "WE LOVE YOU, LIGHTNING!" you can hear Mia/Tia shout, "No, I love you more!" when the camera goes back to Lightning McQueen.

Eh, time will tell.