Randman's World

Man, this is funny!

It's been a bit since I've posted some photos of Charlie, so here goes.

Sony has announced that it will no longer be working on the QRIO robot. If you had ever seen one of the video clips of QRIO, such as the 3 QRIO's doing a Japanese fan dance, or QRIO throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game, or QRIO playing soccer, you know how remarkable this little robot was. He was very lifelike, fluid and smooth in his motions. Plus, he could run, jog, hop and other amazing things.

I hope someone picks up the research into something like this. QRIO was truly amazing.

David Hasselhoff singing Hooked on a Feeling video.

This has got to be one of the worst videos I've ever seen. Worst, in a funny way. Worst, in a "WTF was he thinking" kinda way. Worst, in a "I can't stop watching it" kinda way.

Apparently made in 2002, released in Germany, where he is a huge star.

I'm permanently scarred by it.

Disney and Pixar have combined. At first, I was unsure what to think about this one. Sure, on the surface, it looks good, but my initial thought was "Disney will suck the creativity out of Pixar", just as they had with their own animation division, and the Imagineering department, with such disasters as Disney's California Adventure, Disneyland Studios Paris and Disneyland Hong Kong.

But, then, I read this on micechat.com


John Lasseter, in my opinion, is the closest thing we have to Walt Disney's creativity and vision. He's the genius behind Pixar's successes. He gets it. It's all about story. Not technology, not flashy artwork. Story. He has fought for this at Pixar, and the results were with 7.4 billion dollars.

Steve Jobs thrills me less. He's gotten credit for things that I don't believe were really his ideas. Sure, he owns/is CEO of Pixar, but he doesn't do the work. In the beginning, he really didn't want animation. He saw it as a means to an end, in that having animation allowed him to sell the software it was made on. Then, all of a sudden, the animation began winning awards, and he realized he might make more money.

Bob Iger, Michael Eisner's replacement, has really stepped up and mended fences with people that Eisner angered. Without Iger, the Disney/Pixar merger would not have happened.

But, none of this would have happened without Roy Disney, the nephew of Walt, son of Roy, and keeper of the legacy.

His battle against Michael Eisner through SaveDisney really brought to light the problems on the board, the megalomaniacal personality of Eisner, and eventually, his "retirement". Roy fought to restore the company with his families name to it's glory. We're not there yet, but I think we've taken a huge step forward.

Thanks, Roy. You Done Good!

As many of you know, I perform with a sketch comedy group in a show called Monkeys with Handgrenades. We perform 30 sketchs in 60 minutes, with the order chosen by the audience. It's a fast paced, funny show, and is a lot of fun to do.

This weekend, we performed "The Best of Monkeys" (or as we like to call it, 30 plays we did last year), and sold out both shows. This was the first time we did two shows in a month, and I was concerned we would just split our audience in two. But, we have 108 the first night, and 122 the second! Not bad for a theatre with a capacity limit of 87.

Saturday night, Kris Ketz from KMBC Channel 9 was in the audience, and hung out after the show. He's a nice guy, who told us some fun stories about being a news anchor. He enjoyed the show alot, so, we can now put on our posters:

Yesterday, I surpassed the previous record of established losses from identified theft cases. Yesterday, the total dollar losses that I have proven through investigations reached $237,686.74 for FY'06. The previous high dollar amount was $236,262.61 in FY'01.

The good thing is that the FY'01 number was for the entire year (August 1, 2000 to July 31, 2001). I still have 6 months to go, so it's safe to say that FY'06 numbers are going to be big.

While it's not good that a company has losses due to theft, it's good for me that I am identifying, investigating and prosecuting the losses that do occur.

A trip to the doctor for Charlie. We truly did not like being laid down and being measured. Then, a shot in the thigh. He wore himself out crying.

The only good thing was that this should be his last shots until Kindergarten. And, I'm sure that he'll get lots of extra loving from Grandmama.

Other good news - according to the plotting of his measurements, he should be in the "normal" range on height and weight around his 2nd birthday. Yeah. He's growing good, and will hopefully make it onto the charts.

Actual slide on left in picture!


Yesterday, to enjoy some of the sunshine, we took Charlie to the park. He had really enjoyed going to another park during our last warm snap, so we took him to Barry Platte Park.

Charlie likes to try to walk up the slides. He makes it (with some help from Daddy). Yesterday, I put him inside the giant playground fort. He walked up the stairs to the end, where the corkscrew slide is, sat down, put his feet in front and slid down the corkscrew, all by himself. He caught his feet halfway down, and ended up on his stomach. Momma caught him at the end. I have no idea how he even knew what it was, as it was his first time on that piece of equipment. He really hadn't enjoyed the little small slides we had tried him on before.

So, to test to see if he liked it, or maybe he thought it was something else before. I put him back in the fort. He walks right back to the slide, sits down, and pushes off. This time, he slides all the way down on his butt/back, and giggles at the end. One more time, and he goes all the way down again. This is with no prompting from Daddy, or anything.

A very brave 19 month old!

On our last Disney Cruise, we were table mates with a wonderful family from England. Jack, their son, was a perfect young gentleman, very polite and fun. I taught him some magic tricks (which I hope he has practiced), and he gave me a very nice Disney Cruise Line picture frame when the cruise was over.

Jack's family sent us some nice cards and photos recently. Then, Jack sent me a link to his new website. Hopefully, he'll keep it going, and add more stuff about his life.

It's nice to see that someone from Astrakhan has read the blog. I actually know that it was the wonderful Vika, our translator during Charlie's adoption. There are not enough nice things to say about Vika. Vika and her co-hort Vera work very hard for all the families adopting from that region. Plus, she's just a really nice person.

Some might say, she's a Superwoman! (inside joke). And, she's extremely cool (yet again, inside joke).

And, everything I said goes equally for Vera. Except that she got me to do part of her homework one day!

Well, I'm currently in Cartersville, Georgia, at the lovely Holiday Inn. Oye. Got a dishonest employee that I'm investigating. It's an interesting investigation, with some unique elements. Should be a long day tomorrow.

It was pretty hard to leave the family at home this time. Gotten real attached to spending time with the wife and kid! Hopefully, Charlie doesn't miss me too much.

I'm am truly hating traveling to Atlanta. I don't know why, but I hate that airport. Not as much as JFK, but almost.

UPDATE: It was a good day. Full confession, recovery of a couple thousand dollars worth of equipment. I like it when it goes this smoothly!

Kim's Aunt Pauline passed away this morning from cancer. She was a truly classy woman, who lived life to it's fullest. She will be missed.

UPDATE - From the Contra Costa Times:

Pauline B. Ullerich
Pauline B. Ullerich Dec. 28, 1922 - Jan. 5, 2006 Pauline, known to her friends as Polly, was born in Browning, MO and moved to Colorado in 1942 where she met her husband, Gale, while working at Sears. They later moved to California where they have resided in Danville for the past 27 years. She is survived by her beloved husband of 62 years, Gale Ullerich, and her loving sons, Paul Ullerich and Rick Ullerich. She was also a treasured grandmother of Dustin Ullerich and Russell Ullerich. Polly worked the past 20 years as a volunteer for Kaiser, Walnut Creek. She also enjoyed painting, helping people and vacationing. Friends and family are invited to her memorial service at St. Phillips Lutheran Church, 8850 Davona Dr., Dublin, CA on January 11th at 2:00 p.m. Interment will be at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, Denver, Colorado.