Chord finder

Ginger got me a guitar for Christmas, so I'm starting to learn. This site is so helpful for learning chords.

Why didn't I think of this?

This guy started with a red paper clip, and he is making a series of trades for bigger and better things until he can get a house. Right now he's traded up to a three-day snowmobile trip to British Columbia, which is available if anyone has anything better.

Merry Christmas!

I'll be back in a few days!

Don't fly Air India.

Wow.

Two more just for fun...

Good surf

Check out this AP photo of the waves at Swami's yesterday. Nice.

Go Bruins!

Tonight Ginger and I watched the finale of Martha Stewart's Apprentice show, and were happy to see the victory go to a UCLA Anderson MBA. That's the second time an Anderson alum has won an Apprentice show -- once with Donald Trump, now with Martha Stewart. I think we're batting .333, or is it .400? Either way, not bad!

Prima Ballerina

Emma likes to walk around the house like a ballerina, on the tips of her feet with her toes curled under. She doesn't know about ballerinas yet, but she sure is a good one!


Check out the close-up of her toes below. Ouch! When I ask her if she can stand like a ballerina, she rolls right up onto her toes and becomes three inches taller, then walks around like it's nothing special.

Wise guy

Here's Ethan in his preschool Christmas program today.

Some artists use paint...

...and others use pancake batter.

I'm hiding!

Tonight at the dinner table, without any warning, Emma stood on top of her chair, looked up at the ceiling, closed her eyes, and yelled at the top of her lungs "Daddy! I'm hiding!"

Guernica, by Ethan

Except for the outline of Godzilla, this is all Ethan's creation. Drawn this afternoon in church. My favorite invented monster is "Bunny Kong." Can you spot him?

Santa came to town today!

Emma thinks Can-Kah Klaus lives in a house down the street.

When you don't know what to do with your finger...

...here's a good place to put it.

Make a font of your own handwriting.

I tried this the other day but couldn't write my letters straight enough on the page to make it worth buying the font. It's fun to try,though.

This looks like fun.

Over five feet in the air!

Remembering Joseph

I just finished Richard Bushman's biography of Joseph Smith called "Rough Stone Rolling." It was excellent in the way it described the context in which Joseph Smith lived his life. This book looks like a good one also, and perhaps fills in the "anecdotal" gaps of Bushman's broader biography.

Get your TIVO ready...

...'cause SciFi Channel's having a Godzilla marathon on Thursday. Just what we need around here.

Credit card companies are lame.

Recently a criminal somewhere applied for a credit card in my name and ran up a $7,500 bill. The burden of proof was on me to show that the account was fake. Here's why the burden of proof should be on credit card companies in situations like that.

Best map site

Go to this site, click on driving directions, enter your starting point and destination, then click on "route flight." Sit back and the site takes you on a 3D journey to your destination, and will find gas stations, hotels, etc. along the way.

Have you tried this?

This is fun. I have found lots of new music at this site, stuff I never would have heard otherwise.

For you last minute shoppers...

More Christmas gift ideas (although please don't buy me anything from this site!).

Batteries made from spinach.

Huh.

Career advice

Some twenty-somethings took a road trip around the country in a green RV and interviewed people who love what they do for work. They asked the people to share secrets to success. Video clips of many of the interviews can be found here. Interviewees include Sandra Day O'Connor, Tim Brown (the founder of IDEO), Michael Dell, a guy named Manny the Lobsterman, and more.

A typical snowy/rainy afternoon at our house.

It's too cold and wet to play outside today. Here's what the kids are doing instead:

Andrew is busy doing homework. Usually Andrew likes to take a laid back approach to things, but when homework is standing in the way of fun he moves dangerously fast. Alas, penmanship is a lost art.

Here's Emma. She's dancing. Her favorite song to dance to is "Back in the USSR" by the Beatles, otherwise known in our house as the "huhnuh song." She is very good at keeping herself busy.

Ethan's at the computer, looking for Godzilla previews to watch on netflix.com. It's one of his favorite things to do. As a result of his additions, our queue is now up to 257 movies.

His favorite thing to do is draw Godzilla, and his third favorite thing to do is play video games. I had to temporarily kick him off the computer to make this post, but he just earned 10 more minutes of computer time by putting away all of his socks and a bunch of toys. He's asking me right now why I typed "Godzilla." If only someone would invent a learn to read system based on Godzilla. Ethan would be very motivated.

Okay, one more website and that's it.

I love browsing ShouldExist and rating the crazy ideas. Here's a similar site, but the ideas are usually pretty lame.

Did you see this?

She's planning a repeat performance in August.

FuturePundit

Here's another fun website. This one is for reading about what the future might be like. WARNING: very nerdy.

Cool Tools

This website is so much fun to explore. Lots of really cool gadgets (and Christmas gift ideas for last minute shoppers!).

SET

This looks like a fun game, something Andrew would definitely beat me at...

Cutey patootie

"Emma, are you my cutey patootie?"
"I not your pooty pooty! I jis Emma."

Signing on.

10-4.