MichaelandChrissy.com

Halloween might be my favorite holiday. You decorate your house and your yard, you get lots of candy, and it’s a nice chance to show off your boy to the neighborhood. You don’t have to drive to anyone else’s house and you’re not required to buy anything for anybody (aside from candy). The only problem is that you don’t get the day off from work. I suppose I should call off on Halloween next year.

Nikki brought Zach and Dylon back for “Trick or Treat” this year. Zach was “Captain Jack Sparrow” and Dylon was “Captain Hook”. We got plenty of pictures of them in their costumes, along with Aiden in his “Dumbo” suit. We took Aiden around the block in his stroller, and all of the neighbors said how cute he was. It was time for his supper though, so we dropped him off at home with Chrissy once we made it all the way around the block. She fed him on the porch while she handed out candy.

Highland only allows children to go Treating from 5PM to 7PM, so it was a race against the clock to get as much candy as humanly possible within two hours. We covered about three blocks by 6PM, and the boys were already complaining about being tired (and the bags were getting heavy, and it’s cold out, etc.). Nikki and I told them about how we would leave to “Trick of Treat” immediately after school and not come home until ten o’clock at night. If the porch light was on, you were fair game, and we gathered candy until we couldn’t walk anymore. Uphill, both ways, in three feet of snow!

Since I finished BioShock twice, I decided that I should go back and finish the Transformers game. I beat the Autobot campaign a while back, but I was frustrated with the Decepticon campaign and subsequently found other stuff to do with my time. Scorponok was what did it for me — he’s slow and weak, easily the most worthless character in the game, and yet you’re stuck playing as him. With the game only 50% complete, I started playing the Decepticon levels in earnest last week.

Finishing each chapter wasn’t very difficult. The fighting is painfully simple, since the majority of Autobot drones die with one or two hits. The hard part is beating the clock, like when you have to find Optimus in sixty seconds, but he’s hiding somewhere in the city. The only way to make the game difficult is to put a timer in there, which cheapens the whole experience. I can understand the use of a timer in a mini-game, but it gets aggravating when every mission is “do x in y seconds”.

The nice thing about the Decepticon campaign is that you are rewarded for being evil. You get bonuses for blowing things up. And each boss battle is a kill. After you defeat Ironhide, there is an animated sequence where Optimus mourns the deaths of Bumblebee, Jazz and Ironhide (with the same lack of feeling that he mourned Jazz in the movie, unfortunately).

What was the last thing to go through Optimus Prime’s mind? Megatron’s mace. I’m glad that these weren’t G1 characters now, since I’d hate to see them all die like this. I don’t have the same feelings for the movie characters since I didn’t grow up with them. The last scene is of Megatron, seated in Lincoln’s throne at the Lincoln Memorial, commanding his Decepticons while Washington DC burns around them.

When we first bought our house, the circuit box in the garage was a fire hazard waiting to happen. It had no lid and wires were dangling out of it. We asked my Uncle Marve to clean it up, being a master electrician, and he found that the entire garage was a mess. Conduit had been added piecemeal over the years, several electric garage door systems were still in place, and some wires just hung from the rafters for no reason. There were more pressing matters to attend to at the time, so we figured that we would come back to it when it became a necessity.

Three years passed. Before we could replace the garage roof, we had to shore up the rafters in there. To do that, Glenn had to disassemble much of the conduit running across the existing ceiling joists. Since the whole setup was a rat’s nest to begin with, we were lucky to be able to restore power to the garage door, let alone the rest of the garage. Marve said that he would come back and rewire the entire garage in a couple of weeks.

We finally got to it on Sunday. The process took all day, mostly because running conduit is a pain. I hung out with Marve, but I’m not much help with electrical wiring, so Marve did all of the work. We now have a single switch that operates all four lights inside the garage (before we had three switches, one for each of three lights), additional outlets near the work shelves and a rear switch that operates the flourescent lights above my workbench. Now that we have reliable lighting in the garage, I’m going to have to organize everything in there…

The Highland Pop Warner Football Team went on a field trip to the Kregel Farms Pumpkin Patch this weekend. Aiden isn’t old enough to play football, but our neighbor’s son does, and they invited us along. However, it was rained the previous night and it was cloudy all day (threatening to rain again), so only a few families showed up. I don’t like crowds of small children, so that worked out for me.

Kregel Farms is in Crown Point, not far from the downtown square. They have very similar attractions to the County Line Apple Orchard: a little kiddie train, a corn maze, a petting zoo, photo opportunities, and a food shack. Kregel Farms is quite clearly a farm, though, surrounded by reaped corn fields. Aiden enjoyed seeing the goats and cows again. These animals were clearly hungry and much more interested in us than at the Orchard. We popped quarters into the food machines and all the animals came running.

We took a tractor-pulled hay ride (thankfully with dry hay) into the field to pick pumpkins. The field was a little muddy, but nobody sank down to their ankles. I walked out into the nastier parts to find some pumpkins that hadn’t been picked over. We found a good sized one for carving and a couple smaller ones for Aiden. Once we got back from the field, we wandered through the corn maze and tried our hand at pumpkin sling-shots. Aiden found a barn kitten to chase, so overall he was pretty happy.

I got a call from the Sleep Clinic to schedule a return visit. They say that I have severe apnea, and wanted to schedule another night to monitor me while I wear a breathing device called a CPAP (see-pap). It turns out that my oxygen levels drop to 85% during the night, whereas 96% is good. The study shows that I have oxygenation issues (I stop breathing) up to 400 times a night, some as long as 90 seconds, so my body tries to rouse itself so that it can breathe. The CPAP should help me sleep better.

I went in a few days later and I got the same technician as last time. She took me to the same room that I had last time. I got all wired up with electrodes to my head, face, legs and hands. And that is where the similarities ended. This time, they fitted me for a clear plastic face mask that would force air down my throat while I slept. The idea is to keep the airway open so I can breathe through the night. The mask was uncomfortable and made wakeful breathing difficult. It took forever to fall asleep with it on.

Last time, I fell asleep quickly and slept through the night. Although I had sleep issues, I still woke up refreshed. This time, I woke up a dozen times to adjust the mask and then woke up in a stupor. I felt like I hadn’t slept at all. I’m told that my oxygen levels were back up to 96%, but I wasn’t feeling it. I guess I just have to get used to the CPAP mask; once that happens, I shouldn’t fall asleep in meetings ever again.

Chrissy and I might be the last people on earth who celebrate Sweetest Day. Sweetest Day usually falls on the third week in October, but the exact date can be unpredictable. We never really know each year until we check the calendar. Oddly, we treat this day as being almost as important as Valentine’s Day (we joke that Chrissy left me once because I only gave her a card on our first Sweetest Day).

So each year, we try to come up with something thoughtful for each other on Sweetest Day (no gift cards here!). Nothing too extravagant, but we typically go over budget. Because Chrissy loves to take pictures of Aiden, I got her a pair of strobe flashbulbs with matching umbrella stands. She loved them, and can’t wait to put them to use for Aiden’s Fall photos.

Chrissy got me large frames for my Optimus Prime and Megatron posters. I’ve had these rolled up in the closet since 2000, since they were exclusive to the 1999 Botcon (I missed that one, but I ordered the posters online when I registered for Botcon 2000). I brought my Prime poster to Rhode Island with me to Botcon 2007 to have it signed by Peter Cullen, so I was very happy to finally have a nice frame for it.

The Transformers Movie came out on DVD on Tuesday, October 16th. There are two versions: a single-disc version with just the movie, and a two-disc version with the movie and an entire disc of extras. Many retailers are offering add-ins with the two-disc set. For example, Target has the world’s first transformable DVD case (it opens up into a plastic Optimus Prime) and Best Buy is packing two Robot Heroes figures in with the set. Other smaller stores are giving out Transformer-branded t-shirts, mouse pads, and pen lights.

Chrissy, being the best wife ever, ran out and got me the two-disc set from Target as soon as it released. She grabbed the last one from the shelf, too! Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a chance to watch it yet. I’m really interested in the Michael Bay commentary and the slew of bonus features, but we’ve been watching our TV shows or sampling cuisine at the new Houlihan’s that recently opened by us. I’ll get to it eventually, maybe this weekend. I might enjoy seeing the movie again so much that I’ll have to finish the Decepticon portion of Transformers: The Game.

The artist of an online comic that I read occaisionally posted a link to a book that he illustrated, Teddy Bear Dreams, on a web site called Wowio. I figured that I would check out the pictures of cute Teddy Bears, maybe send a link to Chrissy, and be done with it. But then I saw that Wowio allows you to download the book for free. Apparently, there are hundreds of books available for free download from Wowio. I signed up for a free account and easily downloaded a copy of Teddy Bear Dreams.

I’ll be interested to see if the business model succeeds here. You get the books for free and the author gets a kickback of some sort for each download. There is no advertising on the site itself, which is rather spartan in a black and white theme. Each book is downloaded in PDF format, but the first two pages and last page of the book are full-page color advertisements for a site sponsor. The ad pages are nicely done, and generated dynamically, as the first page says, “Ernst and Young proudly sponsors this ebook for… Michael Wilson.”

I was surprised to find advertising here of all places, but I just turned the page and quickly found the cover of the book. You actually get the front and back covers as well. The downside is that Adobe Acrobat doesn’t allow for “book mode”, so you can’t see the two pages side-by-side as you would if you were reading a regular book, which makes a picture book like Teddy Bear Dreams difficult to take in. I guess this wouldn’t matter for a regular book with no pictures.

But I like pictures. I checked out their “graphic novel” section, and there are a lot of Indie artists represented. The whole collection of “Hellraiser” comics from the early 90’s is there, as well as collections of “Star Trek” comics that were originally released in the 70’s. You’re only allowed three downloads per day though, so you’re forced to take it slow. Wowio has a few management books that I’d like to check out too, but these might compete with my paper-based book reading.

I beat BioShock for the second time tonight. Although I already knew the entire storyline and the twists and turns that I would encounter during gameplay, I still had fun finding hidden rooms and missing diaries that I couldn’t access last time. Also, I wanted to see both endings before I put the game away. A common theme in the game is man’s ability to choose, inferring that you are less of a man by not making your own choices, or by obeying the choices of another.

The game differentiates “good” and “evil” by the choices you make pertaining to the Little Sisters. Once you defeat the Big Daddy that is guarding them, you have the choice to either Harvest (kill) or Rescue (save) the Little Sister. The first time I played it all the way through, I only rescued the Little Sisters. When you do so, you see a cut scene of picking up the little girl gently while she protests, “No! No no!” Then she relaxes as you cure her. Her eyes stop glowing, and she looks like a little girl again. She thanks you for saving her and then runs away to hide. At first, I wanted to save the Little Sisters merely to see what rewards Tenenbaum would bestow upon me for doing so. But after a while you really want to save them.

I didn’t think that killing them would be much different, except that they wouldn’t thank you for it in the end. However, the task turned out to be a bit more gruesome. You pick them up more forcefully, and instead of a coherent “no”, the Little Sister growls out in pain, like a “Rah! Rrah rrah!” In this case, she doesn’t appear to have been or could possibly be human at all. The screen goes green as you squish her, so that you can’t actually see it, but you do see the Adam Slug that you pulled out of her, just before you ingest it. I actually felt bad, which is what the game is going for, I think.

I usually play as a “good” character, so I got the “good” ending last time for saving all the Little Sisters. In it, you once again choose to save all the Little Sisters by taking them to the surface to live, abandoning the dangers of Rapture. You are cherished by the Little Sisters that you saved, until you grow old and die peacefully. You get to see them grow up, graduate, and get married. You are loved. It’s a nice ending, but not animated as well as a game like this would merit.

This time through, I got the “evil” ending. In order to get the bad ending, you have to choose to harvest Little Sisters instead of rescuing them. You get twice as much Adam this way, but it also earned me the “evil” ending. To be honest, most of the Plasmids and Tonics that Tenenbaum rewards you with (you get one reward for every three Little Sisters saved) aren’t that good. I stopped rescuing them this time after I got “Hypnotize Big Daddy 2″ from Tenenbaum. The Plasmid just wasn’t that great, and it drains all your EVE in one usage. In retrospect, I would only take the “good” route again if I wanted to collect every Plasmid and Tonic in the game (on the XBOX version, you get points for doing that).

I have to say, the second ending was much cooler than the “good” ending. Instead of going to the surface with Tenenbaum and her girls, you stay and take over Rapture in thirst for power, commanding the Splicers that you previously fought against. The ending shows a US submarine looking through the wreckage of the airplane that you arrived in at the beginning of the game. Diving spheres surface all around it, and killer Splicers jump out and attack everyone aboard the submarine. The last shot is of a nuclear warhead in the submarine’s launch tube, and the hint that you plan to use it to take over the world.

When I was very young, I remember going to the County Line Apple Orchard on a field trip in elementary school. I’ve driven past it in Hobart about a hundred times since then, but I haven’t had a chance to go back. This year, Chrissy and I took Aiden there to see the Pumpkin House and buy a pumpkin. We showed up early on Sunday morning before it got too crowded.

Our first stop was the Kid’s Farm to see the animals. I think that the only animals that Aiden has ever seen were our cats, so he was enthralled. We took a lot of pictures of him watching them. He didn’t want to leave at all, but we reserve the right to relocate him at will. Afterwords, we took Aiden on a stroll (in his stroller) through the corn maze. This year, it was carved into a huge “County Line Orchard” sign, and it took about an hour to walk all the way through it.

We walked back through the apple orchards to get to the Grill for some lunch. We then grabbed some fresh apple donuts (I got pumpkin icing on mine), which are awesome. We bought two dozen more to take home and share with our friends. It was well past Aiden’s nap time by then (almost 2 PM), so we loaded up the C-RV for the drive home. Chrissy and Aiden slept the whole way, but we were tired out from our good time at the Orchard.