Tom Squared

This evening I was grilling up dinner when I spied a tomato plant with only one, half-eaten tomato.  Looking closer it seemed that the half-eaten tomato was devoured by a green leaf.  Then the common sense kicked in and I looked a bit closer.  We have a huge , beautiful caterpillar happily munching on our tomatoes.  My friend Rob let me know this is a Tomato Hornworm and is relatively harmless unless you count it eating all my tomatoes and flowers within one day (apparently it’s supposed to only eat the leaves).  Apparently it will turn into a sphinx moth. I quickly grabbed the camera and got some great pictures of this gigantic, yet cute, guy.  The “eyes” on the top of it’s head are there to scare birds into thinking he’s a snake. Somehow Rachel thinks it’s not safe to touch, so I told her I’d check.  By now it’s likely moved on to bigger and better things… like our beefsteak tomatoes. All I can think about is Th...

When I was in college I took a Psychology 101 class, mainly to see if I was at all interested in becoming a psychologist.  Listening to people, talking to them, and helping them work through problems seemed just as interesting to me then as it does today.  Of course, school is a bad example for real life and having to learn about Freud, Jung and Wundt soured me to the whole idea.  I mean, four years of that would be incredibly boring and a painful practice in memorization.  So I decided to take the easy way out and major in Computer Science, those classes were cake (or pie anyway, I don’t much care for cake). There were two things I took away from my psych class though that were useful.  First, when you’re told you can work with someone else in the class to write the paper, what the teacher really means is you can do a little research together, but you can’t actually work together to write the paper.  Got my first “F” with that misunders...

I asked Rachel what she dreamt about last night, and here is what she said. I dreamt that we were at school just looking around. Ms. MaryLee was there and she was playing with our toys. She was our size. When I asked if she had any other dreams this is another one from the same night. I dreamt about a puppy that didn’t bite. He said “I don’t bite” and I said “ok.” I didn’t pet him. Sometimes I wonder how much she makes up on the fly (she is great at making up stories and imagining things) and how much is actually from a dream.  In either case though, these made me want to start up my dream journal again that I once put together for a psychology class in college. And yes, Rachel did say dreamt and not dreamed, my kids grammar is better than your kids :) Peace, +Tom

Tonight I got to do one of those rare things which are far more enjoyable than I’d really expect.  I got to play with my wife.  I know what you’re thinking…  and no, we weren’t running around the house playing tag… That’s just dangerous.  And yes, I know what you were really thinking, and that’s even MORE dangerous. Tonight, for the first time, Erin and I played on the Wii together.  I got a pinball game off the discount rack at Costco, and it’s become one of my favorite games, next to Geometry Wars. Tonight Erin saw me playing and she joined in.  I kicked her butt up against the wall, as any good husband should when asserting his power and prowess.  We won’t discuss those games where Erin got two or three or even four times more points than I did.  All I remember are the games I won…  all two of them! Anyway, it was really just fun.  We sat and laughed at each-other and watched expectantly, waiting for the other person to mess ...

I came across these two animations by alanbecker on deviantART .  First off, if you haven’t checked out deviantART, it’s definitely worth some time.  This is one of the first real art sharing sites, and anyone can share.  I love the humor involved in each one and I was thinking that this could almost be a great basic training video. Animator vs. Animation by * alanbecker on deviant ART Really, that is just amazing stuff done in 2006.  Then alanbecker did this one in 2007. Animator vs. Animation II by * alanbecker on deviant ART This one is even better.  I love the mix of the Windows desktop, animation of icons and overall show. Here’s what I really love.  This guy is 18 right now…  Yeah, do the math, the first one was done when he was 16.  What was I doing at 16?  Dating I think. What I also love is that this guy is a Christian, and a pretty faithful one to boot.  Just check out some of the other images and text that...

Tonight we had a fundraiser at Baja Fresh for our church mission trips.  Essentially lots of people came to Baja Fresh and 15% of the money spent went to St. Matthew’s .  I got there and had my dinner and chatted with a few people.  Then there was my daughter. Once a few people she knew from church showed up, you couldn’t keep her down.  She went to one friend, hugged her, talked, and came back for a bite before moving back to the conversation, or moving on to another friend.  There’s only one way I could describe it… She was working the room. She would go from one pre-schooler to another, talking, hugging, then moving back for a bite or two.  She had every kid under 5 talking to her, and she clearly was interested in each one of them for the people they were (and so she could get some attention, hey, she’s four). Man, she reminded me of myself.  I loved it! Peace, +Tom

I'm sitting here at home watching The Shadow , easily one of the best movies made based on one of the best old time radio shows.  I hadn't picked up on this earlier, but the weapon used to destroy the city is none other than the same power source used to power the NSEA Protector in Galaxy Quest . I never knew Beryllium was so cool.  Now I want a sphere of my own. Anyone know of other places Beryllium Spheres are mentioned? Peace, +Tom