Yearly Archives: 2006

Technology

Do I Want a Nintendo Wii

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Our traveling Christmas parade comes to an end tomorrow. We finished our fourth Christmas yesterday and we’ve traveled through seven states. I won’t bother counting how many relatives we’ve visited because it won’t sound that impressive, but it feels impressive to me. We’ve also opened more presents than I care to admit. Most of them were for Lexi, but still. Wow.

Speaking of presents, I’m having my typical post-birthday dilemma of how to spend gift cash, thanks to a wad of cash I received for Christmas. Usually I only get cash for my birthday, so it’s a little different to get it for Christmas. Not that I’m complaining.

One of my potential purchases is the latest game system, the Nintendo Wii. I’ve heard glowing reviews from friends and strangers, and it sounds like fun. I’m not a huge gamer. I do have a GameCube that gets minimal use (though little to none lately). I’m not sure if I’m just being tempted by the latest toy or if it really would be fun.

But whether or not I want one is a moot point right now. They’re not exactly readily available. I don’t know how you’d go about getting one with their limited availability. I imagine by mid-January or so you could find them, so I probably don’t have to wait long. But it really kills instant gratification. Where’s all the cool web toys that can show me where the Wiis are.

Company News, Monkey News

Adopting an Emperor Tamarin

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Emperor Tamarin. Photo from Como Zoo.To celebrate the holiday season Monkey Outta Nowhere adopted an Emperor Tamarin from the nearby Como Zoo. The zoo has seven tamarins in the primate exhibit and we opted to support the smallest of the monkeys for its Seuss-like qualities. It’s always been one of our favorites.

And why support a monkey at all? Como Zoo is a top-notch urban zoo that’s a great low-cost attraction for families (donations are suggested, but not required). That’s a cause worth supporting.

We hope you and your family–and the tamarin’s–have a happy holiday.

Domicile

Watching the Junk Go

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Yesterday I watched the garbage man toss a lamp, a brass coatrack, a pile of curtain rods, three bulging garbage bags and my usual full trashcan. He never paused, he never considered, he just picked them up and threw them in the truck. And if that wasn’t final enough, the truck sat there for a few minutes while all my old crap was crushed.

Man, it feels good to clean out the house and get rid of all this junk. On Thursday the recycling man took away almost every magazine I’ve collected, my correspondence with the Yomega yo-yo corporation, a marked up early print out of my first novel and more useless junk that I’ve realized I don’t need to store in the basement anymore.

Yesterday a man came and bought our half-finished Mac aquarium. I’ve also seen my Star Wars toys and baseball cards carted off. I’ve also eBayed a ton of stuff that was taking up space in drawers and made a run to Goodwill that filled the entire back of our car. And, believe it or not, we carted off four brimming grocery bags full of books.

Now I’m just waiting for my several leads to snatch up my NASCAR cards, the Batman stuff, the beast (we dropped the price), and I’m still hoping for a lead on my pile of Billy Graham memorabilia. Perhaps the family fued over Billy’s grave will spurn somebody to see the value in my box o’ Billy.

Just for Fun

The Kevin D. Hendricks Quiz Answers

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A little while ago I unleashed the Kevin D. Hendricks Quiz just for kicks. Since the little viral tool isn’t the most useful thing, let’s take a look at the answers and see who knows me best.

Surprise, surprise, my wife takes the top spot, and my dad has second.

So let’s unveil the correct answers (and no fair taking the test after you read the correct answers):

Continue reading The Kevin D. Hendricks Quiz Answers →

Internet

2 for 5 on Craigslist

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My numbers are improving on Craigslist. I’m now 2 for 5. My baseball cards are gone and now the remains of my Star Wars collection are gone (unless there’s another box hiding at my parents house, which I may disavow any knowledge of). A woman picked them up this afternoon for her 8-year-old son who is nuts about Star Wars. If my collection must go, I’m happy to see it go to a kid who will play with it.

I’m still waiting to sell the beast, an old scanner and my racing cards. And if I ever get around to photographing and posting it, my entire collection of Billy Graham memorabilia (Billy-o-bilia) that I scored from the free table in the closing days of the BGEA.

Internet

My Baseball Cards Are Gone

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I just sold my entire baseball card collection. There’s a large empty spot on a shelf in the basement where they used to sit. Taking up space. It’s nice to see them finally go, but I am a little sad. Mainly sad because my childhood collecting dreams never materialized. And it’s sad to invest so much time and energy into something just to give it up one day. But I haven’t cared about baseball or baseball cards in a long time.

Yesterday I posted the entire collection on Craigslist with a brief description of what I had and a picture (check it out, you can see the entire collection overwhelming my coffee table). I asked for $50 for the whole collection after seeing larger and better collections going for about that. In a little more than 12 hours I had 10 offers and by 10 a.m. this morning the cards were gone and I had $50 cash in my pocket.

Part of me wants to dread giving them away for such a pittance and wishes I had asked for more. But the rest of me is just happy to be done with it so easily.

Now if I could just get rid of my NASCAR card collection and the beast.

Music

I Like Christmas Music

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Today I picked up a couple new Christmas albums. First I grabbed Justin McRoberts’ Christmas Songs EP. It’s just three quick songs, two classics and one original. I always like Justin’s stuff, and it’s fun to have some Justin tunes for the holidays.

Then I picked up Songs for Christmas by Sufjan Stevens. It’s a 5-disc, 42-song collection of Christmas songs recorded between 2001 and 2006. It’s very different from the usual Christmas music I like, but it’s fun. Kind of quirky and mellow, just like Sufjan Stevens.

Getting the album was a nightmare though. iTunes kept giving me errors when I tried to buy the album, saying the item was being modified and try again later. That persisted for two days. Then every record store in town seemed to be out of it. But I finally scored a copy at Borders of all places, and cheaper than I saw it anywhere else ($18.99). Of course if you’re not needing instant gratification you could just order it from Amazon.

And now that I write this it strikes me as slightly odd that the two albums I picked up have practically the same title only reversed (Christmas Songs vs. Songs for Christmas) and they’re at the opposite ends of the track spectrum (3 songs vs. 42 songs).

Writing

The Nervous Noodle

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The Nervous NoodleWhile working on my novel in November I heard from an old friend I haven’t talked to since 3rd grade (that’s 1988 if anyone’s keeping score). The friend contacted me because he dug up an old story I wrote and gave to him before he moved away. Rather ironic, considering that I was in the midst of writing a novel. Check out page 1 and page 2.

The Nervous NoodleThe story is called “The Nervous Noodle” and it has about as many typos as my novel. But hey, I was in 3rd grade. It’s kind of a morbid little story really. I had quite the imagination in 3rd grade. That was the year I wrote the classic FX-77 Spacefighter as well as a massive, multi-part story involving all my friends and the best treehouse ever. Every page was a new part and most of the story involved me cataloging all the cool stuff we had in the treehouse.