A lot of times, parents get so bogged down with the meal preparation, clothes buying, teeth brushing, tucking in, story reading, bath time, dinner times, school time, that they forget one very important fact.

Having kids is, without a doubt, the greatest possible excuse you could ask for to act like a kid. I mean, how else would it be perfectly acceptable for a 30 year old to play video games in the middle of the day? Or go and poke things with sticks? Or, on occasion, enjoy a tea party with ten or twelve of your daughters closest stuffed animals?

I don’t mean to sound maudlin, but when I think about it (and forget the troubles of the day), its actually like being able to have a second, better childhood.

What brought this on, you ask? My kids tree house, I respond.

Yes, I am building, with my own hands (and many a power tool) an actual tree house in an actual tree. This fact surprises people more than anything, since kids could fall out or throw things or whatever. But anyone who had a tree house growing up will tell you that it was awesome.

When my wife first threw this idea out there, I was dreading it a bit. The time investment, the cost, the prep, the actual construction, and eventual destruction (kids grow out of these things apparently) were a lot to handle for this cowboy. Now though, after my wife and I worked through the issues and the costs and are finally getting ready to build it, I am actually pretty excited about it. I mean, I didn’t have a tree house when I was a kid. The only trees around my home in California had oranges or avocados in them, and the owners got pissed when you started climbing them.

But in Oregon, where trees are not only plentiful but downright loved, a tree house seems perfectly fitting in my little suburban neighborhood.

So the next few posts will be mostly me building this thing, which starts this weekend. I have the tree prepped, the lumber sitting in the yard, and an excited 8-year-old who is now more excited since he can see that its actually happening.

But to bring things around to a close here, let me say this: Go climb a tree. Go swing on a branch, or slide down a slide. If you have a kid, go do it with them. If not, borrow a kid (preferably with the parents permission) and just go and play. You may be surprised at how much fun you, as an adult, can have playing tag or poking things with sticks.

Cheers

…

I thought as much. I didn’t think of anything either. It seems that, the older I get, the more pessimistic I get about making them. The last few I have made seemed to fail within a month, so I guess I just stopped making them.

Perhaps, in the grand scope of things, these silly attempts to better ourselves through a significant, annual event are supposed to fail. I mean, if we were really meaning to stop doing this or start doing that, wouldn’t we be motivated enough, if the cause was important enough, to just start doing it as soon as possible?

I personally, do not need an event like that to start or stop something if its important. But in the spirit of things, my New Years resolution will be to post more entries on my blog. What’s yours gong to be? Go on a diet to fit in that bikini (dudes need not respond if this is your goal)?

Will my resolution actually happen? Maybe. Possibly. Stay tuned to see if it does.

Cheers

I hoped on my wifes computer (it being right next to me) and a quick Google search later, found the cause of it. Apparently, after a time, the batteries on MBP’s can swell. I though this was a joke. I mean swelling batteries?

Although I wasn’t laughing when i flipped over my laptop and took out the battery (which, after 2 years I have never done). The casing around it was peeling away, and the side that touches the keyboard connector was horribly bowed. I set it aside, plugged into the wall and restarted and now, thankfully, my system works normally.

However, one thing disturbs me. Firstly, the techs who replaced the screen a few weeks ago didn’t notice this. Not a huge deal, surely. But what I didnt know at the time is that when a battery swells like that, its nearing the end of its life and can, and there are many articles that document this, explode.

I asked the Apple support people this and they confirmed that, yes, a certain amount of time after the swelling starts, the battery can explode.

Um, what?

So here I am, with what amounts to a ticking timebomb sitting on my lap, wondering how the techs who worked on my system missed this. One of the guys said specifically that they inspected the entire system and it was fine. Obviously, this doesnt include a physical examination.

I will, however, be pointing this out to the tech when I go back in there tonight to get a new battery. Hopefully they will, in the future, look out for such things as I would think that replacing a few batteries is preferable to having a few dozen lawsuits against you from people with scorched laps and lost computers.

We’ll see. In the mean time, check your batteries people.

Cheers

UPDATE: I took it in to the Apple store this evening and, not only did they get to me a half hour sooner than I thought, but they replaced the battery without question. He said that the old one was part of a bad batch that the manufacturer put out (metal shavings in the lith-ion cells). This is the third time that someone has told me that something on my laptop, my very expensive laptop, was part of a “bad batch”. If this happens again, I’m demanding that they give me a new MBP instead of constantly replacing dodgy hardware. Maybe it’ll work. – Thanks

UPDATE 2: My coworker (boss, really) just sent me a picture of this MBP. He started noticing funny things happening and took a look at the underside. His battery was swollen also (the plot thickens). The only difference was that his is REALLY swollen (like, its almost a sphere). It cant be part of the same “bad batch” as mine since he got his MBP almost a year before me, so something is definately fishy with Apple batteries.

Now my only concern is what happens if this battery issue arises in the new MBP’s? The ones without the removeable battery? Scary stuff, probably. – Cheers

The back story: I was using my MBP, working away, and all the sudden my screen gets covered in vertical pink bars. Like every other pixel column was pink and the rest were normal. I took it to the store and they said they needed to replace the screen (clamshell replacement they called it). They had my computer for 5 days. It was really annoying having to go back to my PC that had none of my files on it.

Anyways, I suffer through it and get my MBP back with a shiny new top on it (they couldn’t save my stickers, oh well). Everything is fine for a couple weeks and then the vertical lines come back. But inlike last time, it was only for a few moments. OK, I thought to myself, a slight hiccup.

Only it happened again. And stayed for a few minutes. And again, for a few hours. And finally, it spat out blue vertical lines at me so I took it back to the apple store.

The tech (the same one who worked on it before) said that sometimes new and old hardware can cause degradation, and that I needed to replace the clamshell again.

Fine, I said. But this time I keep my laptop. He said they would order the part and let me know when they had it. Super, I thought to myself.

Skip to today, the Apple store calls and says they have the part. I call back and ask how long it would take to swap it out (last time the tech said it was simple, once they get the part). The man on the other end said that, if I drop it off Saturday, I may have it back by middle of next week. If I drop it off today, Thursday, I may have it by Monday.

Fuck. That. Noise.

Why, if this is a repeat repair, was this not given a little higher priority? Also, since they have the part, it shouldn’t take that long (according to the first tech I spoke too), so why the long wait?

Other people ahead of me, the man said. Somehow, this did not make me more understanding. I can not afford to have my system down for 5 days again, and this plea fell on deaf ears. Erg.

So what am I to do?

Well, the vertical line thing isnt happening at the moment. Im taking that as a sign that my system doesn’t want to go back again, since its behaving properly now (much like my kids do after I threaten them with chores and/or face washing). So I think, for the next day or so, I will keep working. I have five days (the length of time they keep the part in-store) to drop of my system so I will probably leave it over the weekend and, hopefully, be able to pick it up Monday morning.

I just really expected the Apple Store to be a little more sensitive to my situation, much like their adverts claim they are. Oh well, it would be the first time an ad was misleading. It just sucks it cost me 5 unproductuve days to find this out.

-Cheers

Hopefully this will be my last political rant (yay) if/when the new president does something to really get on my tits.

Its been about a week since President-Elect Obama was named. And its been a somewhat tumultous time in some parts of the country and in some homes. Mostly, I going off of what people I know are saying. And some of what they are saying is downright scary.

One fellow I know and I got into a discussion about what will happen in the coming 4 years under Obama. He had his doubts (as do a lot of people) but what irritated me was that he voiced his opinion in a short sentence:

“Well there goes the country.”, he said.

I promptly flicked him in the nose and asked him to please explain what me meant by that, seeing as he voted for Bush twice and for McCain. He said that with all the threats America is facing, we need to have a strong military and he believes that won’t happen under a Democrat. Earlier in the prez race, he said that he was  quite displeased with what Bush had done to the country and our international standing, and wanted someone strong to lead us. I pointed out to him that McCain voted mostly the same way in regards to past actions the US had taken. He said that was different because he didnt vote that way all the time.

Apparently, 10% difference is enough for him. I promptly flicked him on the nose again.

Its at this point I should mention that my friend was duct-taped to a chair, unable to move (I love college pranks). He also started spouting the standard Republican rhetoric that the GOP was saying all through the race. I was about to flick him again when a friend of mine (his girl friend) did it for me.

The point is this. I don’t mind what people believe in. I don’t mind that my friend voted differently from me. What I do mind, especially in the case of my friend, is that he was just accepting what was handed to him as the absolute truth, never venturing out in the great world of information to find out for himself if it was true or not.

Now, I’m not so different. A lot of information I get are from people I trust, so I often trust that its true. I would say about half the time I dig deeper to find out more information or to see if its accurate. The other half I usually accept until someone else says something differently or I find info that doesn’t jive with it.

What has me worried is that a number of people I know are just accepting what is handed to them as the truth. Case in point, I played a trick on my friend and emailed him a “live” broadcast (god bless Flash players) of a well known news agency saying that the worlds honey bees have all died. He’s smart and saw this as a bad thing. But instead of calling someone to confirm or even checking the link I sent him he (according to his roommate) started inventorying their pantry and told his roommate that they needed to stock up on non-perishable food for at least a year. He was totally convinced and it took me calling and two other friends going over there that this wasnt true. He then sent me an email virus (god also bless Macs immunity to windows viruses) and a short 11 word sentance on where I should put all my risting farm implements.

To make a long story short; check your facts people. Don’t be sheep. If someone says something outrageous, check it out on your own. If someone else says something innacurrate, make sure it is and confront them about it.

And, Dave, if you are reading this, I am really sorry about the duct-tape trick. So, please, give me back my iPod.

- Cheers