Ten Tentacles - So many arms, so little time.

A couple of years ago I realized that I had reached that age bracket where I was the same age as my parents were when I became conscious of their ages. I mean, before you’re a certain age, you don’t really think about how old your parents are. At least I didn’t anyway. I didn’t really start to notice until my teens, and now I’m as old as they were then. Today, I’m thirty-six. I remember my mom when she was thirty-six and I wonder if she still felt like she didn’t have it all together. She sure didn’t act like it. I hope my son thinks I have my act together. My dad always seemed like he had his act together. I still freak out over a new pair of cool shoes.

Those are my new boots, by the way. I got them a few days ago so they don’t really count as a birthday present. Ha! I’m still breaking them in, so my pinky toes are suffering, but they are otherwise very comfortable. Plus, they have buckles and straps! Woo!

My darling wife sent me these flowers at my work. And in saying that I realize how GAY I sound in this post. All I need to do is mention how I’ve been knitting a lot more lately and the deal is sealed. Sheesh. But, I don’t care. I really liked the flowers and my wife is the best for knowing I would. Thank you, sweetheart!

Finally, there’s new Marquee Comic action over in my photostream. Several knew pictures posted recently And, oh yeah! It’s Phở Phriday! Same bat time; same bat station.

It’s a good day to be me.

Two posts in one day. Look’out! This, though, just had to be shared.

One might remember that Steve Jobs took a call on the iPhone during the Keynote. Well there was a unique ringtone there. A ringtone of heavenly qualities in tone, rhythm, and key … an anonymous Gizmodo fan [sic] took the time to extract the ringtone audio from the presentation, clean up the static and the sound of 1,000 fanboys wetting themselves, and send it on in for our loyal and awesome-tastic readers to load onto their plebeian handsets.

Yes, I downloaded it and put it on my phone. I also made it available for you here. Or, you can go to the article and get it yourself.

Too fun.

Via Kelly:

In other news, DAMN! It’s time for another Phở Phriday, and this is the first post I’m making since the last one. Here’s the logo, and you know the time and place.

I’m sure there’s a lot more I have to say, but it’s not coming to me right now. Oh, wait, yeah. I am SO tired of being Mr. Mom already. It can be over now. Thank you.

Oh wait! Yeah. I’ve been damned. I always knew I would end up in good company. Thank you, Jenni!

It’s Phở Phriday again! You know the place. The time is 1pm. Be there or don’t have soup … or something.

In other news, I have dicovered what may be the coolest software ever writen for writers. Avenir - The Writer’s Workshop is a combination database and word processor. In their own words:

Whether you are brainstorming for your first short story or putting the finishing touches on your latest best-seller Avenir provides you the tools you need to manage the creative process from inception to publication.

It’s Apple only, but it is a Universal binary, so it should run equally well on PowerPC and Intel based Macs. I played around with it last night for quite a bit, importing bits of some stuff I’ve been working on. It’s very cool. Give it a try.

Via snipeyhead:

Ooh, you’re a dark one. Sitting in the corner, singing to yourself, playing with matches and twitching. Most of the time you instinctively avoid company, and if you’re forced into close proximity, things do not go well. You can probably stop stabbing that teddy bear now. It’s not going anywhere.

Via BoingBoing:

I immediately thought of you when I saw this article, Kelly. I know how much you like typography. For everyone else, it’s just really damn cool. A whole calendar has been put together using pin-ups constructed entirely out of typography. It’s a graphic designer’s wet dream. Heheh.

Wow. While it may be cause for sadness on many fronts, there is much rejoicing on others (woot!). I’ve been getting tidbits of live coverage from today’s MacWorld 2007 Keynote Address and, as speculated, they’ve announced an iPhone. An hour into demonstration of the device (which runs OS X and links seamlessly with iTunes, Address Book, iCal, iPhoto, &c) Stan Sigman, President and CEO of Cingular Wireless, takes the stage to announce an exclusive partnership between Apple, Inc. (Apple Computer, Inc.’s new name) and Cingular, for the phone.

He said, “We committed to the device without seeing it …”

So, for all my non-Cingular friends out there who want this phone … looks like it’s time to raise the bar™ and come on over to the network with the fewest dropped calls. Heheh.

This is probably a little late for most folks for today, given that lunch is only a couple hours away, but I wanted to let all of you in the Piedmont Triad area know that I am declaring today the first, and I hope not the last, Phở Phriday. Look, I made a logo:

Now, I’m fairly certain Daniel already declared Fridays to be Phở Fridays, but I spell Friday with a ph and I made a logo (feel free to use my logo for your future Phở Fridays, Daniel). Also, this Phở Phriday occurs east of the Mississippi. Maybe we can start Phở Phriday chapters across the nation!

For those in the Piedmont Triad area, Phở Phridays will occur at 1pm, every Friday, at Phở Hien Vuong on Spring Garden Street. Click here for fancy Google mapage.

I picked Phở Hien Vuong because I know it, and the service and food are excellent. If anyone knows of a better place for phở, I’m certainly willing to try it. Today, I’ll be at Phở Hien Vuong. Hope to see you there. If not, hope to see you next Phriday.

Via Woody:

So now it’s in your hands. You follow the What kind of pirate am I? link, or click the image, and decide what kind of pirate you think I am. Go on! And then go an put this on your page so people can rate you. Weeee!

Well, another year gone by and I’ve reached some of my goals, but am still lagging behind on others. I suppose that’s the way of things. I mean, to quote a certain jazzy singer, ahead of his time (Jason Mraz), “Well I bet if you all had it all figured out, then you’d never get out of bed.”

We set goals and strive for them; sometimes we make it and sometimes we fall down. I think we learn more from the falling down. I also think this last year I fell down a lot more than I made it. In retrospect, I think this is a good thing; it means I learned more than I might have.

I like to think I will spend the rest of my life learning. It is one of the reasons I am always challenging myself to learn new, and seemingly random, things like the knitting I’ve recently taken up. Learning new things keeps the brain active.

My biggest fear in life is not death, really; it’s losing my mind. An argument can be made that this is a form of death, but being alive and mindless is far scarier to me than not being alive at all. Maybe all those times I fall down will help me think clearly for a long time to come, and maybe I’ll always have a reason to get out of bed.

[fa:p:id=339797524,j=r,s=s,l=p] And, she’s back to making more sense. For a while there I was a little concerned for her mental health; and her comic health. But this one is funny. I think someone should put it on a shirt. Hell, I think I’ll put it on a shirt; you can find it here and here. If you want to see all the other shirts I have available, you can go here or click the shirt in the sidebar.

In other news, thanks to angieelz, you can now all experience Weird Alien Prison Mario. For some reason this picture reminds me of, like, The Chronicles of Riddick; like I did some time in Butcher Bay. Instead of getting my eyes polished to see in the dark, I got the weird lizard eyes that let me see through women’s clothes. What?

Oh! And, Happy New Year!