The Blarg

As strange as it may sound, during Obama’s multi-country tour of the Middle East I’ve heard several journalists now talk about how he isn’t giving interviews. The entire trip is basically turning into an opportunity for him to get pictures taken in the Middle East. Foreign journalists are being snubbed completely. The German writer Christoph von Marschall remarks:

Surely a man who has said he would talk with U.S. adversaries such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can spend a few moments with journalists from friendlier countries.

Andrea Mitchell even says she doesn’t know what the heck is going on during the tour, because it’s all a PR stunt. Watch the video here. In fact, when I saw video of Barack shooting hoops in front of the troops, I couldn’t help but notice almost the entire crowd was black.

I think it’s funny that the latenight news runs clips like the above and does zero critical analysis. Clearly the people there wanted to be there, but it came across in the news that all of the military was excited for him to be there. Why can’t the news say “a majority of the attendees were black supporters”? Maybe he’s not giving interviews because they don’t have any teleprompters in the Middle East.

And to really hit you upside the head, CNN is posing the question Could an Obama Presidency Hurt Black Americans? Read the following:

Yet there are a few political commentators who warn African-Americans that an Obama victory could be twisted to suppress the push for racial equality.

So let me get this straight. If Obama became President, it would be bad because then blacks would think they are no longer held down by the white man? Obama can be President, just like Oprah, Tiger Woods, Larry Elder, and 50 Cent are all successful black people. How stupid do you have to be to realize the door is wide open for people of all colors? Even when those doors are thrown wide open with throngs of people passing through them, some people have the gall to say an Obama Presidency would convince people that Blacks have come all the way? No crap, because they have. If you can acheive the Presidency, WTF else do you want your ethnic group to achieve?

In just the last week or two Luke has started to laugh. Usually they are really short, but mommy got him going the other day and he let out cute little squeals for a whole minute. I thought I’d join Angelo and post a video of the boy. Click here to see it in HD.

Took me two weeks to finish my editing of the book. That’s spending 3-4 hours at the library almost everyday. I went to Kinkos and had two “books” printed to send to my editors, Kevin and Joanne. Once I get back their edits, and incorporate them, I can start working on putting it up for sale!

A friend of ours got me Mario Kart for the Wii, and it absolutely rocks. Today we played it for over five hours. The are a ton of online options, tons of characters, and it’s super fun. I have Kurtii on my friends list, but he’s never on, and Paddy hasn’t even registered me yet. Anyone else have Mario Kart for the Wii that wants to play online?

I’ve gone from 109 dvds for sale down to 20. Pretty darn good for only a week and a half.

Now that the book is mostly done it’s on to other summer projects. I need to edit lots of video, and I have a huge box of negatives from my parents house. I have hundreds of pictures to digitize, so I might start working on that…

…or I could go play more Mario Kart.

Edit: I forgot to include his four month stats! At the doctor he weighed in at 18 lbs and 2 ounces, and stretched just shy of 26″. That’s my big boy!

I know it’s been a while since I posted, and I hate to break it to you, but until the book is done it will stay slow. Hopefully the following will make up for it.

I have never been more proud of my son than during this photoshop moment. This is his after bath towel with a hood, and everytime we use it I call him my little Jedi. He’s the bomb.

Now for some boring non-Star Wars pictures.

This chair is much too big for him.

We’re very serious about our finger sucking. Three at a time!

Here’s non-photoshopped bath time. The wife looks especially hot in this one.

Luke got his four month old shots today. That’s his pediatrician Dr. Nation…the same guy that was taking care of me when I was four months old. Super cool.

Today was also first baby food day! On the menu was “butternut squash.” Mmmmm. We were amazed, the little piggy ate the whole jar! We’ve read that usually they don’t get much of it down the first few tries, but he took to it like a pro. Now cross your fingers baby food=10 hours of sleep.

If you hadn’t heard already, I am a huge fan of High-Definition video, and everyday my 480p resolution DVDs stare and taunt me with their low resolution!!!!

It’s not actually that bad, but I’m having a firesale. All the DVDs must go! I have this cabinet full of DVDs from when I used to actually buy them, but we never watch any of them. There are some movies that I actually want to own like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Matrix, but by and large I don’t need movies like Weekend at Bernie, Outbreak, and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

I’ve put all 100 or so on Half.com, and already I’ve sold 12! Granted I priced them very competitively because I don’t want to still be selling these things 6 months from now. On average I should be able to get between $1-$3 for each of them, and then with that money I can buy some of the truly good movies in Blu-Ray!

In case you want to buy some of my DVDs, go visit The Blarg’s Store!

Sorry the baby hasn’t had much of a presence on here lately. I blame my laziness on summer vacation. Here are bunch of cute pictures in case Grandma in England happens to get on the internet.

Luke got to try on my Dirtbags hat and he thought that was pretty cool.

I cropped out most of mommy in her nightgown. Apparently the internet isn’t a good place for that or something.

A new thing we’re doing all the time is eating our hands and grabbing our feet. There have even been a few times where he got his foot in his mouth. It’s quite the feat.

These were so cute I had to put up two from the same photo session. I don’t remember what I was doing, but he loved it.

I’m not an expert on all things writing, but I’m pretty sure that when you finish a book from start to finish (for the first time) it’s called a first draft. I gots me one.

All street speak aside, I’ve finally finished my first draft. I started it mid-March of 2007, so it only took a year and four months to finish. Right now it stands at 112,000 words, or 195 pages in word (Times New Roman 12, single spaced).

Tonight I began the long and arduous task of editing. My goal is to have it done in two weeks, and then it’s off to my other “editors.” Hopefully by the end of the month or early next month you will all be able to sit down and see what I’ve been throwing hundreds of hours of my life into. And finally, now that it’s all done, here is a quick synopsis of my story. I started writing this to go on the back of the book, and it’s probably not the final version, but it’s enough to wet your appetite.

In a small central California town a seismologist working for the United States Geological Survey has a made a terrifying discovery. A recent seismic phenomenon is predicting global volcanic activity that threatens to wipe mankind from the face of the earth. Fearing widespread panic and civil disobedience the truth is kept under wraps, but the President pushes forward with a dramatic initiative to overhaul NASA and begin a new mission: to colonize deep space.

The newly formed deep space team must harness the technology of researcher and single-dad Tom Scolari, but with their eyes focused on the stars the odds are against them. News of the earth’s demise is on the verge of becoming public, and increasingly violent eruptions continue to mount around the globe. The continued survival of the human race rests upon the shoulders of a few, and time is running out.

I know it’s been a long time since baby pictures, and these are just a few to tide people over. I need to get the motivation to take stuff off the main camera, but it’s downstairs right now.