Regret

This morning it was wet and I didn't air my tires the night before. These were two good excuses for me to not ride my bike into work today. I didn't even pull the bike out of the Blazer. It rested with it's limp tires in the back while an overnight storm misted Houston. I left this morning with the bike still in the truck, but not intending to ride it. Besides the two great excuses I had, I just didn't feel like it.

I arrived at the museum, parked, and started towards the train. Right as I got to the corner of Montrose and Binz, however, the 34 was a block down, so I fumbled a dollar out of my wallet and hopped on. As we quickly bounced along the short remaining stretch of montrose, onto Main and into the medical center (in less than 5 minutes) I realized how incredibly crappy the train is, which makes the same trip in maybe 11-13 minutes.

The train is such a piece of shit. I would choose the bus over the train anyday of the week.

Happy Birthday...

To Le Pableaux!

Flash 2007

At some point last year it dawned on me that i could use xml to hold presentation data and access it throughout the presentation as necessary. I naturally assumed that i would need to have it reside not in an external location, but within the flash environment so that it could be called.

So i worked toward this and made it happen. Then...

It just recently dawned on me that i had been reading the xml and pushing the data into arrays at compile-time rendering the need for the xml doc (at run-time) useless. So now i've got to rework the xml files and the xmlReader function to read a traditional xml file (much easier to handle than xml pushed into a MovieClip). There is a slight difference in the syntax (no need to attachMovie and read the text from mc in the library) and other considerations - but here is my most recent question:

What is the syntax that would make the value of an xml node (let's say "Introduction") the name of a new array in which the remaining xml data would be placed into. Take this xml for example:

<section>

<name>SectionOne</name>

<header>The header for section one</header>

<maintext>This is text for section number one.</maintext>

<bullet>This is the first bullet of section one</bullet>

<bullet>This is the second bullet of section one</bullet>

<bullet>This is the third bullet of section one</bullet>

</section>

I want to make <name> the name of an array object that will hold the data in the remaining nodes. How would I do that? I've tried it a couple of ways, but failed.

Ultra Sound

Ultra Sound
Originally uploaded by TaggartCojanSorensen.

Liz and I went in for the first ultra sound today. We didnt get to here the heart beating but we could see it, the NURSE PRACTITIONER pointed to the little blur inside the blur and said that is your raspberries heartbeat. She said it was strong. Once or twice Liz joked that we now had proof she was pregnant because so far her pregnancy has been ... , mild?.
It was a good visit and we both look forward to watching this develop.

Product Review: Pepsi ICEE

Yesterday, Carolina handed me a note from the school: NO ROLLING BACKPACKS. A few weeks ago we noticed that Adolfo's oversized backpack was developing bare spots on the bottom so we went shopping for a new backpack. He found a nice Cars rolling backpack (with regular shoulder straps as well) at Marshalls and we bought it for him. It's been almost a month since we bought
it. I guess they never noticed it was on wheels, but regardless,
school policy says no rolling backpacks so last night Adolfo and i
went to Target to purchase a new backpack. This time, we found a Spiderman backpack with action shots silkscreened on it and a Superman backpack with a giant 'S' hologram on it. He chose the Superman with the scratchy hologram material on the front and cause when we looked at it and moved it to the right or left at 45 degrees the giant 'S' was replaced by a swooshing Superman.

He thought it was pretty neat.

Coming out of the checkout aisle daddy began to feel 'snacky' and as
luck would have it, there was an open snack bar. "Why don't we get a snack, huh Adolfo?"

"Sure! I want popcorn"

As again, as luck would have it, Target has a easy to purchase 'Popcorn combo' - one small popcorn, one drink. I took a peek at the ICEE machine hoping to see the familiar coca-cola logo, but instead i saw PEPSI. Pepsi???? Really? I don't usually drink pepsi - the carbonation is too weak and it's a
little sweeter than Coke - but would the differences be apparent when frozen? I subbed the drink for a small pepsi icee.

Adolfo chomped on his popcorn while i dispensed ICEE. The color was different - darker. The texture was identical, but from the first taste, it was too sweet. It didn't have the jolt of frozen carbonation that the coca-cola version had either. So my final verdict is that the Pepsi ICEE is too sweet and too bland. I would avoid this one, get a regular soda or just not snack at all.

Adolfo Uses Daddy's New Wireless Remote Control on Himself

Adolfo Uses Daddy's New Wireless Remote Control on Himself
Originally uploaded by killy.

What a great weekend. We started it off having my sister Lynda, Diego and Dezma over for a camp-in. The kids slept in pup tents in the living room. We made cookies let the kids run wild for most of the night. Carol made a dynamite breakfast the next day - the works - which segued into a really nice relaxing 'spend-quality-time-with-Adolfo' day. Carol taught him how to watercolor and he and I played a good game of chess.

Later, Carol and her mom had a nice business meeting with Diana while Adolfo IV and i went to the park where he met a nice girl who enjoyed playing tag. They played non-stop for nearly and hour. Then, Todd 2.0 (A.SxSW.) showed up, then the Sorensens (2.25) with a big bag of frozen tamales. Delish!

I felt pretty guilty for having such a leisurely day, so i made up for it today. We woke up, went to church, ate lots of free church donuts, came home where i cleared out the compost, started a new one, pulled out the mower and tiller and filled both with new gas, cut the backyard, planted four potato vine seeds, tilled the corner of the front yard and spread compost out.

It's truly amazing the amount of leaves that have fallen off of that tree. The ground beneath the tree (and beyond!) is just choked with leaves and acorns. I raked till my arms were burning.

It was a whirlwind day, i tell you. Hopefully it will pay off.

I also made a visit to the Houston Garden Center on 18th street behind the Whataburger. Wowee, it's a good thing carol told me, specifically, not to buy anything. In my future - four crepe myrlte trees, two dwarf japanese red maples, several bags of composted cow manure and a palette of sod. Oh yeah, and some Listeria vines for the SE facing wall and fence.