Tooth!

Luke's first tooth is starting to poke out - right out in front on the bottom gum. His eyes are still this slate gray color that can look blue, green or brown, depending on the light - it's very interesting. With his fuzzy white-blond hair, he looks like a California baby!

Theo is getting ramped up for Halloween. For the past few months, he sais he wanted to be Batman again. Then over the past few weeks, he got on a Wizard of Oz kick, so on Sunday for the Halloween parade he wanted to be the Wicked Witch of the West. I had some reservations about that, but he was very cute running around in his cape (repurposed from the Batman costume) and witch hat, with a cardboard broom, cackling and repeating lines from the movie - "I'll get you my pretty and you're little dog, too!" and "Scarecrow, wanna play ball?". He knows almost all her lines by heart.

Then yesterday Aunt Alex sent some glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth in the mail. All of a sudden, he's a vampire! (Although he has NO IDEA what a vampire is!) Luckily, the same Batman cape works for that, too. Now we just have to teach him some "vampire" sayings...

Help2Go Updates

Today, I transitioned Help2Go from the Joomla CMS to a CMS I made myself over the past week. Should make things much easier to update, and I like having the control. Why Joomla didn't have a better upgrade path is beyond me...

Two articles I wrote last week:

Should I install Windows XP Service Pack 3?

How to convert AMR files

Wiimote Whiteboard on my Macbook Pro

I've linked to the Johnny Lee's work before, but here he gives a TedTalk about the Wii Hacks he's created. The whiteboard was of special interest to me, since schools would love to have this technology in every classroom.

Using the Mac software, my Wiimote, and an IR Pen I made riffing off of these instructions (and some parts from Radio Shack) I was able to get it to work with my Macbook Pro. Can't wait to show it to one of my client schools...

Brinsingr

Finished Brinsingr last night - I loved this book. It's the kind of story and characters that you just fall into, never wanting the story to end. Looking forward to #4!

Theo Sings the Butterfly Song

The Butterfly Song:




Link to Butterfly Song video

Theo Sings the Pumpkin Song

Link to the Pumpkin Song

If the candidates were trains...

Some Luke Photos

Some new photos here:
http://www.sodani.com/gallery2/v/2008/10/

or look at this quick sample:

Palin-Biden debate

Based on her performance with Couric, people were expecting her to just implode - that wasn't a realistic expectation. I think her handlers made her memorize 10-12 mini-speeches, and when a question even remotely touched the proper subject, she pulled out one of the speeches. She basically ignored the questions. The best example was when she pulled out her education mini-speech, when nobody was talking or asking about education at the time.

Biden won the debate, and she exceeded expectations simply by not falling down. CNN had those stupid focus group dials, and it was interesting that every time she spoke, the men in the group reacted positively, while the women reacted positively to Biden. People may like her, but I'm not sure her gosh-golly-gee act will actually turn into votes.