Whatever

It's rather telling that after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the international community responded with an outpouring of support and concern...

...yet after Monday's earthquake in China that's (so far) killed 15,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless, the response of most American citizens is a collective "whatever."

Since I have kids and it's cold and flu season, inevitably today I had to hike down to the local pharmacy to pick up some cold and flu medicine.

And inevitably I end up wondering what's the difference in what I get.

Ethical dilemma for the day:

Do I complain to FedEx because they delivered my wife's Valentine's Day present a day early, or commend them for their efficiency?

If you're anything like me, you've probably given up on the mainstream news nowadays. And who can blame you? Between the demands of a 24-hour news cycle, the blatant bias, the time-wasting celebutard updates, and the death of fact-checking, the only way to stay informed nowadays is to follow the blogs and the comedians for news, and relegate the mainstream media for sports scores and weather reports.

As soon as I saw this, I just had to put it up, if only so my pal Dr. Dave can chime in and answer the darn thing:

Whatever plans I had for the weekend were tossed out the porthole when I got sidelined with a 103-degree fever and a case of bronchitis.

My son has a mild habit nowadays, in the evenings, of stalling his bedtime by asking me nonsense questions. Even so, I was caught unprepared when he came out last night and we had the following exchange:

So, is it merely a coincidence that this web site goes down on the same weekend that I get sidelined by a severe cold?

Okay, it's not as if the world needs even more stories about non-gamers enjoying the Nintendo Wii. But my blog postings have been waning lately, and this is the only blog-worthy thing that's happened to me recently, so what the fig.

Yeah, I know, I haven't been updating this for a while. What can I say, other than things are pretty busy and I haven't had much to share?

But hey, here are a few quick-n-amusing tidbits for your weekend web-surfing pleasure:

While wandering randomly through the intertubes, I ran across this article, wherein MSN/NBC/Newsweek/whoever asked a bunch of celebrity baby boomers to name three things they wanted to do before they greeted the reaper.

[Updated December 26, 12:29am] Well, I've got my Wii unpacked, and here is the obligatory blog post from it.

As for Nintendo's strategy of reaching non-gamers with the Wii, it's hopeful around here. My wife the non-gamer was hesitant at first, but enjoyed goading her mother into trying Wii Sports Tennis, and later bowled a few frames too.

Further proof that I am Mario's dad:

Y'know, sometimes I get cocky and start to think I've seen it all. I don't think I get fazed easily -- after all, I live in Southern California, and leather-clad lesbians sporting neon-pink mohawks rollerblading down Venice Beach are a dime-a-dozen out here. Ho hum, big deal, whoodles.

It says something about the human condition^* that I can spend a restless night's sleep, tossing and turning over some key issues in a presentation, only to have said presentation come and go with everyone fighting hammer and nail over something else entirely different.

So, in the latest iteration of my family's unofficial annual tradition, my wife -- without any advance planning whatsoever -- suddenly gets the desire to get out of town for a few days during the summer. Nothing big, just a few nights out of El Lay, maybe stretch out a three-day weekend type of affair.

Y'know, I used to think that not being able to do something that I had promised to do was one of the most embarassing things in life.

Sorry for the lack of blog updates lately. It's been pretty busy this week, with various deadlines and milestones coming up at work, and a few brushfires that had to be extinguished along the way.

To make up a little for things, here's an amusing slice-of-life anecdote for all the gamer geeks out there...

Over at Jim Hill Media is an article by Michael Howe, who (briefly) interviews various Pixar folks at the world premiere of "Cars" last Friday at the Lowe's Motor Speedway.

The following exchange with Pixar's creative kahuna John Lasseter caught my eye:

...I get clobbered with a cold-plus-allergy combo that's got me all worn out and my nose running faster than the Mississippi during flood season (or whatever regional river analogy of your choice).

Great timing there, nose. Now I'll probably spend the entire weekend in bed, and not in a fun way...