I took my son out for Daddy-Cooper night on Thursday (our regular night) and we went to Burger King for dinner. My son is all about Burger King. It's understandable, really. They give you a crown, you feel like a King and the food isn't half bad. And to top it all off, most of them have a monstrous playground inside that is immune to rain and is the saviour of many a stay-at-home mom.

However...

For the convenience of their non-child toting guests the playground section is usually separated from the rest of the restaurant. This has the curious effect of not being attended to all that often by the Burger King employees. And even if the tables are cleaned now and then, I really doubt if for $6/hour someone is climbing throughout the enormous sectioned tube maze to 409 everything inside. Add to this a constant flow of hyperactive children running, sweating and panting and you've got the makings for one stinky place.

Thankfully I was able to talk my son into eating outside the play area "where we could see all of it" and not have to endure that throughout my meal.

All that aside, we had a blast. He met an older boy who proceeded to command my son into taking over the world from inside the tube maze and I got to watch some part of the Incredibles movie.

Can't wait 'til next week!

I've decided to move to Fiji after reading this book.



Now all I have to do is get a job there, convince all of my family to move there and I'll be set.

Why doesn't Raid make bug killing infused door sweepers? You know what I mean? Those little strips of plastic or furry things that attach to the bottom of a door to give it that *whooosh* sound?

Or maybe Raid infused caulk for bathroom tile or moulding strips. Hell, why not build the whole house out of Raid infused wood?

That spray stuff is for amateurs.

Well it happened. I've finally joined the masses. I can now be reached at any time of day, in any corner of the civilized world. My voice leaps out over radio frequencies. I can send text messages over Mt. Everest. I can coordinate multi-million dollar deals in Tokyo from my bicycle.

I now own a cell phone.

I bought the Treo 650 since I figured noone would ever call me and I might as well get a PDA out of the deal.



Pretty sweet 'eh?

I was checking my website statistics today and noticed an interesting trend. The pictures I have up of my miata (2001 Special Edition) are some of the hottest parts of my website. The fact that my car is more interesting than these ramblings of mine is no big surprise.

My little BRG baby is really becoming somewhat famous. If you go to http://images.search.yahoo.com/ and type in "miata" my car is on the first page!

I've recently grown some significant facial hair. The first time in my life really that I explored what my face could grow. I had the standard goatee that is all the rage these days nothing wacky. But I soon grew tired of it. It's getting warmer and for me spring brings allergies and nose blowing and a moustache can really get in the way like you wouldn't believe. So today I decided to shave it off. I start shaving and get down to the last bit on my chin and I stop. I look and think...hey that's kinda cool. It reminded me of an egyptian pharoah. So I think I'll keep it and call it the Ramses look.

But this got me thinking about facial hair too. I wonder if anyone wears "the hitler" style any more. You never see it. I'm betting noone ever does just out of respect for the Jewish race. It's amazing how one very evil man could cause generations of change.

Sleep. I want sleep. Lots of it.

As a researcher in robotics, I often tell people that I believe we are in the age of robotics. That in the near future, say 50 years, we will find that the robots in our everyday lives will become ubuitious. This is a good thing in most respects...

But, HOLY CRAP this is spooky: http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/lommas/EAP-video/android.mpg

And this: http://ndeaa.jpl.nasa.gov/nasa-nde/biomimetics/Biomimetic-robot-Hanson.mov

Forget chinese water torture, the rack, thumbscrews, bamboo shoots under the nails...the real way to torture someone is to play a tape of an infant crying. If you add to that the screamings of a two year-old, mixed with a healthy dose of sleep deprivation and nicotine withdrawal you've got all the torture you'll ever need. After a few hours of that, I would admit to being at the center of any cockamamie plot you could hatch up.

Seriously, I'm not sure what it is but the cry of an infant can really go right to the core of a person. But I guess it's even more powerful when it's your own child.

I would love to hear that some fool actually fell for this and paid these guys half a million to transplant their brain.

http://216.247.9.207/ny-best.htm

Now I have seen everything.


http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter04/pattwomb.html

Money sucks.

Correction: A lack of money sucks.