Negligent in My Blogging

I seriously doubt that many people follow my blogs, but if anyone does I apologize for the lack of posts over the past 4 or 5 months. As you might imagine, I've been a bit preoccupied with work and this summer with "daddy duties." Since my son, Brady, wont begin daycare until August and with my wife, Sheri, back to work, I've been playing Mr. Mom for the last several weeks. However, I hope to post several posts over the next week or so.

Upcoming posts will include my review of my self-built Media Center PC I've been using for the past year and a vacation review of Disney World. Other travel-related reviews I've written in the past can be found along the right-hand margin of this page.

Three Hours of Sleep I'll Never Get Back

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been taking advantage of the midnight showings of this summer's blockbuster movies as my son, Brady, and wife, Sheri, are asleep at that time; thus, my father- and husband-related responsibilities are not being neglected. Of course, there is additional loss of sleep, so the movie has to be quite good.

The movie I was most looking forward to this summer, in part due to the hype of the trailers, was Transformers. I'll admit that I grew up when Transformers appeared as toys, competing with GoBots, and was one of the dominant cartoons on television. I even had a number of the Transformer toys, including Optimus Prime and Starscream. And of course, my friends had various versions of them as well. And since the only movie to date was a cartoon version, I was quite excited that a live-action film was being made.

While the movie was fair and one that is enjoyable to anyone looking for a shoot-em-up flick, I must say that I was disappointed in the film overall. In my opinion, it failed to stay true to the cartoon storyline, the storyline I grew up on. Instead, the storyline was disjointed with all the Autobots and Decepticons going after one item, the Allspark. Rather than showing how the Transformers evolved, Optimus Prime spends five minutes providing a narrative.

Now, I must say that the midnight show drew a lot of fans. The theater was packed, and the audience cheered upon the lights dimming. The audience also cheered when Optimus Prime appeared for the first time, and applauded when the film was over, much like one would see at a Starwars screening.

Fortunately, I also saw Live Free or Die Hard, also known as Die Hard 4.0 in Europe, the week before at midnight. While the audience was much smaller, I must say that this 4th Die Hard movie was everything that I expected it to be and more. While I admit that I was not a fan of Die Hard 3, I really enjoyed the first two Die Hard movies. However, I think this is the best to date as you have a known character, the introduction of several new characters, and all the action and suspense that one would expect from a Die Hard film. Thus, I was completely satisfied when I left this movie, realizing that the 11 bucks and loss of 3 hours of sleep were worth it--not so for Transformers.

Of course, I could always go to Krikorian Theatres' "Mommy Movie Mondays," which I've taken advantage of several times, but I didn't want to wait to see the movie, nor did I want to be interrupted from the action by having to tend to Brady during the movie.

Pride of Aloha Review

I've had a couple of people asking me to post my January 2005 review of the Pride of Aloha, so here it is: http://members.cox.net/drlc/POA%20Review.pdf

While this review was posted on Cruise Critics, the posting on that website is incomplete.

What I've Learned in Two Weeks as a Parent

The following are a few discoveries I've made over the first two weeks as a parent:

• Coolers are king.
• Keeping a cooler on the nightstand to store bottles for 2:00 a.m. feedings will make your life a lot easier so you don't have to go far when hunger hits your newborn.
• Keep diapers everywhere.
• While changing tables might be nice, they are often inconvenient in terms of their location. If you live in a two story house, keeping a diaper station downstairs as well as upstairs will make your life a lot easier. In addition, it's useful to keep diapers near the bassinet if your newborn is sleeping in your room.
• Use a light that can be dimmed.
• The last thing you want to do is turn on the lights in the middle of the night to check on your newborn, to change his or her diaper, and/or to feed him or her.
• PDAs are useful in keeping track of feedings, diaper changes, etc.
• While this may sound trivial, the first thing your infant's pediatrician will ask you is how much he/she is eating and how many diapers you are changing on a daily basis. He/she will also want to know the content of those diapers. Further, you may enter a new parent coma, which will impair your ability to remember anything usually resulting from too little sleep. Thus, if it's not written down, you might not remember it at all.
• Don't believe size tags in infant clothing.
• Even though Brady was an average sized kid in terms of weight and length, all of the "newborn" clothes are still way too big. "Onesies" work well and we swaddle for warmth. Anything else they'll end up swimming in. I've also found that I like Carter's clothing the best and have found that they run large.
• A digital camera is your friend.
• Keep a digital camera in your diaper bag so that it's always accessible. Take pictures everyday and take more than you'll need. You'll be surprised at how quickly they grow and change. And since they're digital images, there's no cost for the ones you choose not to print.
• Make triple prints of all your photos.
• You'll want to keep a set for yourself and the grandparents will likely want a set as well.
  
• A good office chair may be a better bet than a rocker or a glider.
• Everyone raves about using a glider to calm your infant and/or for breast feeding, but my wife found that my ergonomic office chair worked best for her as the chair can be custom adjusted in all ways (e.g., height, tilt, arm height, etc.). You can't do this with a glider or a rocker. In addition, the chair swivels, so you can still use the chair to sooth your infant.
  
• Learn to swaddle.
• Nothing calms Brady more than being swaddled. Waffle style receiving blankets work best as they can be pulled tight, but they leave waffle marks on your newborn's skin. While they do sell swaddling sacks, they may be too large for your newborn.
• Your legs make an excellent cradle.
• If you're sitting in a recliner or on the bed, cross your legs at the ankles and use the space between your legs as a cradle. This way, your newborn will be close to you and you'll be able to see him/her clearly. However, keep in mind that he/she will be too far away for him/her to see you clearly.
  

Brady Is Born

It's official. At 10:23 a.m. on Sunday, January 28th, 2007, my son Brady was born. He weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. His head circumference was 14.25 inches and his chest measured 12.5 inches. His APGAR score at 5 minutes was 9 out of 10.

NBC Stuido Tour (Burbank, CA)

With time to kill before the taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show at Studio 11 on the NBC Studios' Burbank lot, my wife and I opted to take a tour of the NBC Studios. The AAA admission price was $7.50 per person for an advertised 70 minute tour. In actuality, the tour took less than an hour.

The tour is advertised as including the following:

1. Visiting the Tonight Show Studio
2. Seeing one of Jay Leno's cars
3. Visiting a soap opera studio

The tour starts with a short, although outdated, video introduction to NBC Studios. From there, we were escorted into the studio to a variety of sound stages. The first stop was the Days of Our Lives sound stage. My wife was excited by this as she's been watching this soap for 20 years. However, we were not allowed into the sound stage, but instead had to view it through a doorway. As a result, nothing was recognizable to her, and she watches the show every single day.

We did get to enter the Telemundo news sound stage, where robotic cameras are used in the filming of the newscast. From there, we saw the car that Jay Leno was driving today, a 1940s era (I'm guessing) Saab, and then visited The Tonight Show studio. Since we had seen The Tonight Show taped live previously, this was not all that exciting for us; however, we did get closer to the stage and learned a few things we didn't otherwise know.

All in all, I'd recommend saving your money. The tour was no comparison to the tour offered at NBC Studios New York. Instead, I would recommend going to the gift shop/tour entrance and requesting tickets to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That way, you'll get to see the studio and the show and you wont miss out on much.

If you are a Days of Our Lives fan, the area just outside of the NBC Studios Gift Shop is "Salem Place." Thus, if you want to see something from Days of Our Lives, you can access this area for free as you enter the gift shop.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

On Thursday, January 25th, my wife and I headed to Burbank for a taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show as this was on her list of things she wanted to do before our son, Brady, was born. Although I'll admit that the show's staff is very energetic and seem to enjoy their jobs, I must say that the ticketing process needs to be revisited.

Now, before I go on, I must state that we ended up getting tickets for Ellen's birthday show. As a result, more people may have been in attendance than normal.

Like most shows, tickets are given in excess of capacity, much like how airlines overbook their flights. While this is quite normal and I've experienced it for every show we've gotten tickets for, this simply meant arriving early to guarantee admission. However, for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, this process was quite different.

Rather than simply arriving early to the taping, Ellen tickets are distributed at 9:30 am. for a 3:30 or 6:00 p.m. taping. While the gates open at 7:00 a.m. to begin lining up for "guaranteed admission" tickets, many people arrive early and begin standing in line before this time. However, the general tickets clearly state that the Burbank Police may move those who choose to line up early.

We opted to leave our home at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at approximately 7:30 a.m. When tickets were finally distributed, we received ticket numbers 240 and 241 and were told to return at 4:00 p.m. for the 6:00 p.m. taping; thus, wasting the whole day. Unfortunately, only about 150 people were admitted to the taping as 30 seats were reserved for VIPs. The end result is that we ended up in the "Riff Raff" Room, watching the show as it was taped on monitors, never actually seeing the studio itself. And as a result, none of us in the "Riff Raff" room were eligible for any of the gifts handed out on the show.

While I must give The Ellen DeGeneres Show credit for having such a room, the ticketing process has to be revised. And although they offered us the opportunity to rebook at a future date--which happened to be on my wife's due date--we would have to arrive early and follow the same process outlined above. That being said, the show staff is very energetic, and I've never seen so many people having so much fun at one time. People were dancing, the music was loud, and Ellen even came into the "Riff Raff" room to say hello. She even acknowledge us during the show and we were filmed, although briefly, there.