All About Kelly

I'm happy to report that while Kelly's teeth have been coming in unexpectedly fast, crowding out her baby teeth, she is in good shape. This according to a dentist who specializes in kids' teeth development. He assured Jean that he doesn't like to pull teeth, and thinks that he can save all her adult teeth. She's going into braces soon, and will be in braces or retainers for three years or so. I'll report further when she gets fitted. On the bright side, at least two leading female cartoon characters that she watches regularly wear braces!

Behaviorally she's a bit on the deficit side. We had a conference with her teachers yesterday, and while I'm sure they tend to overemphasize conformance, they seemed genuinely concerned that Kelly isn't bonding with her classmates, and is given to arguing everything.

I'm joining the dreaded line of soccer moms on Monday and dropping her off at the crosswalk (which I find very annoying). This is because her school counselor wants Kelly to come in with her fellow students instead of being escorted by Dad.

In addition, Kelly is going to see a kid counselor to help her work on being more of a 'team player'. Come Fall, we'll be having another meeting with the teachers to set measurable goals.

Another light note: Kelly cleaned out enough of the junk pile in her room to make space for the old Powermac 8500 that's been displaced from my room. I spent the better part of the day moving hardware around, vacuuming dusty corners, and rearranging furniture. The den looks a bit tidier, and Kelly has a computer of her own.

I dismantled some modular wire shelves in the den, and Kelly put them back together herself for her room. Of course, there's really no place to put it, so she put it in front of another shelf in her room. There's now approximately one postage stamp's worth of standing room in her bedroom.

Finally, I took a second shower to get all the grunge off. When I took off my shirt, all I smelled was dust! Ugghhh!

And I did all this lowly sysadmin crap with a strained back. Am I a moron or what?

Latest Music Purchase

Can't stay away! Here's my latest purchase of music online...

• Respect - Aretha Franklin


• Fly Me to the Moon - Astrud Gilberto


• Garota De Ipanema (Single) - Joao Gilberto & Stan Getz (but really Astrud)


• Take Five - Dave Brubeck


• Greatest Hits - The Doors
  
  
  
  • Hello, I Love You
  • 
    
  • Light My Fire
  
  
  • People Are Strange
  
  
  • Love Me Two Times
  
  
  • Riders On the Storm
  
  
  • Break On Through
  
  
  • Roadhouse Blues
  
  
  • Touch Me
  
  
  • L.A. Woman
  
  
  • Love Her Madly
  
  
  • The Ghost Song
  
  
  • The End
  
  
  
  


• Strange Days - The Doors


• Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile) - Gato Barbieri


• Play on Love - Jefferson Starship


• Up against the Wall, Red Neck Mother - Jerry Jeff Walker


• A Kiss to Build a Dream On (Single) - Louis Armstrong


• I Try - Macy Gray


• I Heard It through the Grapevine (Single) - Marvin Gaye


• Soul Bossa Nova (Original Mix) - Quincy Jones & His Orchestra


• Come Back Baby - Ray Charles

Dungeon Siege

I've enjoyed puttering about with Diablo II, so when I saw that Dungeon Siege was out for the Mac, I asked my friend Alan if he thought it was worth buying, since he's had it for ages, being on Wintel. The verdict was thumbs up, so I decided to buy it.

Kelly was immediately pushing me to play it -- for us to play it, rather. So last night I sat down with her and fired it up. You can guess what happened, can't you?

$50 game, on a brand new 1Ghz G4 Macintosh. 3-D rendered environment, lotsa big-bad-uglies invading poor innocent farmholds. What does Kelly do? She chases the chickens!

QOTD

I think the mistakes I’ve made in my own life have plagued me, but they’re pretty boring mistakes: I committed a series of grisly murders in the eighties and I think I once owned a Wilson-Phillips Album.

Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose

I got to thinking about the computer I'm about to retire, and realized that I ought to share the naming scheme in my house. I get to name all the computers since I'm the computer-literate geek. Since I'm also into anime, the computers tend to get anime names. You can sort of see the history of anime by the names of the computers in their order of acquisition:

1. Powermac 8500/120 - Ryoko (Tenchi Muyou)


2. Blueberry iBook - Ryo-Oki (Tenchi Muyou) ('cause it's smaller!)


3. iMac (all-in-one) - Haruko (FLCL)


4. iMac (iLamp) - Megumi (Cheeky Angel)

I wonder what show I'll be infatuated with the next time I buy a computer?

I Can't Win

I've been warning Kelly for weeks now that she ought to clear a space in her room if she wanted to inherit the Powermac 8500 when I replaced it with the new iMac. The idea is to give her ready access to a machine to play Freddy Fish and Putt Putt games when the kitchen computer is tied up, since I have no intention of letting her install a bunch of games on my new computer.

So I was searching for something on the Internet (the lyrics to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", if you must know), when Kelly walks in and says "I'll take that computer when you want to get rid of it!"

Gahhhhh!!!

The Long March

I just picked up my new computer!

It's a 17" LCD iMac. So far everything's good. I mainly have to resist the temptation to try to configure it entirely tonight. I really have a couple of week's worth of work, if I pace myself properly.

Anyway, I transferred all my iTunes music over from my laptop and have been listening while I work. Lotsa fun.