So anyway, I got excited a few months ago with the impending announcement of the “Apple iPad”. I thought I’d really like it. I was actually well prepared to start listing the reasons in my own mind why I HAD to have it. Surprisingly though now that all the details are out, I don’t really want it anymore. It just wasn’t exactly what my mind envisioned it to be. So, that saves me some money, right? Well, perhaps not. I’ve found something else to lust after, and I have to admit that it has peeked my interest much more than the iPad ever did.

Take a look at the Microsoft Courier.

Just watching that video made my brain explode with ideas of how many ways I could use this thing. I think this is pretty much a device that everyone could be carrying around, it seems to have that much potential. Not to mention it just looks… awesome. I mean seriously, wrap this thing in a nice leather journal style case and I’ll buy it right now. Man, I need to start earning some money again!

What the…? It would make a little more sense if I shared my computer or Amazon account with other people, but I don’t, and the only person who has ever been on my computer is my brother. And he’s 18, so if he’s looking at Princess Barbie I guess I have more serious issues to think about than my browsing history, just sayin’.

I may be on the verge of turning 30, but I don’t think I’ll ever “grow up” enough to stop enjoying movies like this. Bring on the flying owl champions!

He barricaded himself in, and that gave us probable cause to enter the building and get him.

Hey now, wait a moment. How would you know the door was barricaded unless you had tried to already enter the building? So you had no probable cause to go into the house, until you tried to go into the house and realized you couldn’t get in, so then you’re allowed to go in. Yup, sounds logical…

Me:  Hey, what are you doing home so early?
Him:  The snow on the roads is so bad! I left school to go get lunch, and I almost got into so many wrecks. Cars were sliding down the hill towards me. It took me an hour and a half just to get here!
Me:  Jeez… so, you’re ditching class?
Him:  No, not really.
Me:  How so?
Him:  Well it took me an hour and a half just to get here, so there is no way I can get back in time. I’d miss class on the way there anyway. So… I’m not really ditching.

The kid should go into politics, I swear.

Me:  Oh, well I guess this works out then, now that you’re home you can help me shovel the driveway.
Him:  Uhh (sigh) Okay…

Take for example the image above of a package I have arriving via. UPS.  Originated in Santa Rosa, California, and was shipped to 2 other different locations in CA before being taken clear across the country to Louisville, Kentucky. Then shipped ALL the way back across the country up to Alaska.

Of course I know that these different shipping services have multiple hubs all around the country, and only “some” of them are able to make the trip to Alaska, but it just seems funny seeing the box being shipped further away from me only to be brought closer later!

I honestly felt bad, like I was letting a poor little kid down or something. She blinked at me, and scrunched up her little nose in confusion, then very slowly and deliberately she repeats “Toys… Please…?” as if she thought that if she could get me to clearly understand what she was talking about, I would magically produce a before-that-moment hidden collection of wonderful toys. Her father came to my rescue at that point and told her to stop harassing me about toys, I couldn’t help but laugh at the disappointed face she gave me as she walked away.

Of course later I found her in one of the other bedrooms rolling around on the floor giggling in a big pile of my dogs toys. I can understand her mix up, my dog does have quite the collection, and some of those things look an awful lot like something a kid would just have an amazing time playing with. I didn’t think her dad would be all that pleased to see her run by with a rawhide bone in her month though, so once again I had to disappoint her and steal her away from her fun.

I’m such a grouch!

The Clown is also doing great. He has his own little hide-away bedroom set up, and gets along really well, especially with the catfish. I really should have more than one Clown in the tank, since they love being in groups, but I know how big he is going to get (9-11 inches) and I didn’t want to overcrowd the tank. His coloring, as you can see above, is a really noticable light-orange and black stripe combination. That photo is from last year, but they grow so slowly that he looks pretty much the same still. He is finally getting to the size where he likes to pick on the snails in the tank, which is why I had bought him in the first place.

Things I’ve learned in the past couple years:

• Bleeding-Heart Tetra’s are mean little suckers, don’t mix them in a community tank unless you wan’t all your other fish nipped.
• Be prepared to use multiple types of food if you have multiple types of fish:  floating, sinking, pellets, flakes, etc.
• Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami are a mean fish as well, and they love eating aquarium plants, so be warned. First night they (2 of them) were in my tank, they killed one of my catfish. So they were taken back to the store.
• If you have problem with Algae, don’t leave you tank light on so long. 7-8 hours a day, max. Do a 10% water change once a month, and make sure to vacuum the gravel.
• My night time feeders — Catfish, etc — really love the LED “Moonlight” I installed. Fish enjoy the day & night cycle, think of it as the sun and the moon, rarely is it ever pitch-black out in nature, so why would you do that to your fish in the tank?
• Trial and Error:  I’ve had 3 species of fish that just didn’t work out, had to take them back. Even though they were listed as peaceful community fish, they didn’t fit my needs. If they are going to harass and scare the fish I’ve already had for years, that is just unfair to the long-time tank dwellers. You may have to mix and match over quite a long period to find just the right balance for your tank.

I’m proud of him. Really proud. We both know that he doesn’t have to do this. It isn’t as if he has run out of options and is opting for military life out of desperation. I’m not saying everyone who goes into the military is desperate, but we all know that some people go in just because they have nothing else left for them. My brother isn’t in that situation at all. When you hear the phrase “they have the smarts in the family”, that is my brother. He’s never missed the honor roll in school, straight-A’s all the way through. His transcript is going to read like a holy grail of the education system.

He could have his pick of colleges. Money might of been tight for some, but we probably could have swung it. He could have easily went to the University of Alaska.

But this is his decision and I’ll back whatever he does. He fully understands that he’ll be going to war. That is just a certain reality of todays Army. Even though his chosen path won’t lead him into the front-lines, there is always a danger. It doesn’t matter if you are building roads or cleaning water, you are still in a war zone. Things happen, and he’s obviously aware of that.

He’s talked off and on about the military his whole life, but it was always in some far-flung future where he still had years to decide what he wanted to do with his life. Now that he’s 18 and the end of high school is just around the corner, I think he now realizes that the time for planning has caught up with the time for decision making. Whatever that decision is for him, I’ll be there to back him 100%. And if it does happen to send him over seas, well he will just have to deal with the fact he’ll be receiving plane loads of care packages from me at every mail call.