The random thoughts of Robert Barrios
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October 20, 2008 8:15 PM
We wend to the pumpkin patch with the kids on Saturday. It was a good time, then we went to the filipino district in Union City. Had Palabok and Diniguan with Puto… Mmmmm. We also took home 2 dozen pan de sal from Valerios, freshly baked.
The kids ended up being sick on Sunday. Chloe had a fever. Annie ended up catching the cold too and was out today.
~rb
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October 12, 2008 10:12 PM
Today was the babies Baptism. We had family from all around travel into town to be with us on this special occasion. We have wonderful friends and family who have travelled long and far to spend today with us. It was a great day with people we love, good food, and lasting memories.
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Grabbed a new pen from LiveScribe (www.livescribe.com). I’ve had it for about 3 weeks now and I’m sold on the product. Performs as advertised and works like a dream. My only complaint is that it doesn’t have a mac client yet, but this is supposed to be released sometime later this year.
What I am bummed about is the Xperia smartphone from Sony Ericsson looks to be delayed until the end of this year… I guess I’ll just have to continue to be patient.
~rb
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August 24, 2008 11:30 PM
Just finished watching the Olympics closing ceremony. Wow, the Chinese really did a great job. I remember going there 2 years ago and seeing all the work they were doing on the roads and around Beijing to prepare for the games. They really outdid themselves. I enjoyed seeing how the closing ceremony was more modern, a transition from the opening ceremony. Also, the use of humans in all the shows, whether as dancers or even the visual effects was very creative and awesome to see.
I enjoyed the last 2 1/2 weeks. Watching all the sports and seeing this type of good will competition brings out my “world peace and harmony” compassionate self. It was memorable to watch Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, and Shawn Johnson perform. It was also great to see Kenya win their first gold medal in the Marathon, which meant that the medal ceremony was during the closing ceremony for the world to see.
China is a beautiful country. When I went there 2 years ago, I was able to visit Beijing and Chengdu, pre-Olympics. I wonder if I can still feed 18 people with alcohol for $80 USD. I’m sure that staying and eating in Beijing is a lot more expensive post-Olympics.
Well, it’ll be another 4 years until the next Olympics, which will be in London. Hopefully, the family and I will be able to attend.
~rb
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August 22, 2008 6:56 PM
Another work week is done, and I’m off for a week. It’ll be a good break so I can spend some time with the kids.
I’m still backing stuff up on Mozy as I have time. Mozy is working pretty well. It resumes where the last set ended, so I don’t have to start any backups from scratch.
I’m also looking forward to the fall lineup of TV shows. Heroes, Prison Break, and The Sarah Conor Chronicles will all be starting up in September.
~rb
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August 16, 2008 10:56 AM
I’ve been looking for a service to backup all my pictures and videos. Well, I found one, Mozy. Mozy (www.mozy.com) is a company by EMC. EMC is a well known enterprise storage provider. They specialize in Storage Area Networks. So a service like Mozy is down their alley. For $4.95 a month, they’ll allow you to have unlimited storage backup!!! Wow, this is great! I’ve compared backup services with Amazon S3, Apple’s me.com, and a couple of others. They all come out to about $25 per 100 Gigabytes of space. Also, both Amazon and Apple have bandwidth transfer fees or caps.
Well with Mozy, there is no charge for space nor is there a transfer charge. Especially since I have over 200 Gigabytes of pictures, videos, and other data I don’t want to lose, I’m not looking forward to $50 a month in charges.
So, I signed up for Mozy today. Now, the hard part is the 12 days Mozy says will take for me to transfer all my files over the Internet… Hmm, I wonder where I can find a faster speed network.
~rb
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August 14, 2008 9:36 PM
Kids went in for their 1 month wellness check. They both got the Hepatitis B vaccinations today. I felt bad about them crying when they got poked by the needle ☹
I watched the Harry Potter trailer. Geez, the Half Blood Prince trailer is really dark. It looks more like a horror/thriller type of trailer. The book is pretty dark anyway so I guess the trailer is appropriate.
I’ve missed all the movies this year, Dark Knight, Ironman, and whatever else came out. I guess Annie and I will be missing more over the next couple of years. Our DVD player will get a lot of use.
~rb
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August 10, 2008 9:37 PM
This weekend was nice and relaxing. We took the new mini-van into the dealership for some treatments we bought it. We also picked up some new floormats and wireless headsets that the dealer owed us. Annie’s mom went home after spending almost a month with us.
Chloe and Sebastian turned 1 month old today! We had spaghetti as it’s the closest thing to noodles that I can make. Mmm. I love my spaghetti.
We took pictures of the kids and video’d their bath today. They are the kind where the kids will be embarrassed that we taped it in the first place.
Well, it’s back to work tomorrow.
~rb
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August 6, 2008 9:57 PM
I know it’s only Wednesday night, but I’m looking forward to the weekend. I got a couple of new lenses for my camera today, a 50mm f/1.8 lens and an Image Stabilized 18mm-55mm F/3.5-5.6 lens. We plan on turning the house into a photo studio and just shooting pictures of the kids who will be 1 month old. It’ll be a good time, and I get to play with my new toys.
After this weekend, Annie’s mom will be leaving for home, so it’ll just be Annie and me with the 2 kids. Well, gotta catch some sleep now.
~rb
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August 3, 2008 11:47 AM
Hmm, where to start. Well, I guess with new toys. I’m getting back into photography. I used to use an EOS SLR for different things, so with some changes in life, I went ahead and bit the bullet and bought a digital SLR, so I can reuse the couple of lenses. Well, this new camera is awesome, since I also bought an external flash for it. My pictures are coming out crisp, without the flash bleaching that happens. I’ve been bouncing flashes off ceiling, walls, and using a diffuser when outdoors. Big difference in image quality!
Also, we just bought a mini-van. It’s a Red Pearl Toyota Sienna… Haha, it brings back memories from High School, when I used to drive a Read Pearl Toyota Previa. It’s a really resilient vehicle, even though it’s a mini-van.
Mom’s back visiting this weekend, but will be going home on Tuesday. I’ve got to get working on doing video edits and making DVDs
~rb
Robert's Blog 