Kristen’s Soccer Highlights

Some highlights of Kristen’s 2007-2008 seasons.

The Seventh Sense

Andy entered the Unnecessaray Sequel contest with his entry "The Seventh Sense".  Cassidy plays a ghost that died in an easy-bake oven accident.  The trailer is 2 minutes and it came out great.

Valle De Bravo

I just got back from a vacation trip to Mexico.  Friends ask me where we went and I tell them Valle De Bravo, and they say huh?  Valle De Bravo is to Mexicans as Napa Valley, or Martha’s Vinyard, or Florida is to Americans.  It’s not Acapulco, or Cancun but they don’t call Valle De Bravo the “Little Switzerland” of Mexico for nothing.  Many wealthy Mexicans, including several ex-presidents have vacation homes here.  Why you might ask?  Well you can checkout this short slideshow for some of the reasons.  Oh yeah, I was also born there.

Tennis record

I’m playing tennis again after a two year absence.  I started playing in seventh grade and played through high school winning 3rd place in UIL Tennis in 1980.  Leonard Smith was #1 and Robert Stapper was #2.  I beat my friend Monty Sauls in a very close match to win 3rd place.  I actually ended up going to sectionals in Corpus Christi because I believe Robert was unable to make it due to an injury.  I also came in 3rd in mixed doubles playing with Melanie Markow-Wilkes.  Since then I’ve played in USTA 4.5 leagues.  Here is my history in USTA tennis (for which there is an online record):

2008 Record: 9-2

2007 Record: Did not play

2006 Record: Did not play

2005 Record: USTA 4.5 – 7-4  (includes 2-1 in singles)

2004 Record: Did not play

2003 Record: USTA 4.5 – 1-4  (I did go 3-0 in Waco Little State Champ)

2002 Record: USTA 9.5 – 2-2

1979 LBJ Tennis Team

Drums

David has been taking drum lessons for about two months now.  He seems to have a real knack for them.

8notes

Drum Score Archive

Danny Brit

DrumBum

DrumBum Drum Lessons

Free Drum Sheet Music

FindFreeSheetMusic

Drumline Sheet Music

My favorite Christmas song renditions

O Come All Ye Faithful – Amy Grant
Angels – Jim  Brickman
Little  Drummer Boy – Vienna Boys Choir
Deck the Halls – Mannheim Steamroller
Silent Night – Mannheim Steamroller
Carol of the Bells – Mannheim Steamroller

Watching TV online

Dianne Holloway wrote an article today about the experience of watching TV shows online.  For the most part, she is right, the experience is degraded from  watching it on TV and you probably would only consider it if you missed a show and wanted to catch up.  But she did not explain the other side of the coin because the experience can be quite nice and I want  to encourage other networks to do what ABC is doing in providing streaming HD for some of their shows.  Here is the email I sent to Dianne in response to her article:

Hello Dianne,

I enjoyed your article about the state of online viewing of missed episodes.  For the  most part,  that’s why we view shows online, to catch up on shows we missed. Although MOST shows are of lesser quality than we would find on the tube, the convenience  and ability to catch up is worth it.

In the case of Thursday night, the story is different and I feel you  left out this important point in your article.  My daughter and I watch Ugly Betty religiously,  it’s a bonding thing; but our entire family of five enjoy Survivor at the same  hour on Thursday night as well.  We opt to watch Survivor live and my daughter and I will watch UG days later at our convenience. 

Now ever since I got my relatively modest 32″ HD TV,  I’ve become a HD snob and avoid regular programming whenever possible.  The experience is so much more enjoyable.  I don’t sacrifice that with Ugly Betty online because it is one of the  shows  that  ABC makes available in streaming HD!  My daughter and I snuggle up on a bed or  couch and take in UB on my widescreen  laptop, wirelessly, in beautiful HD!  Having the picture just 2 feet away in HD is actually pretty cool.   If you haven’t experienced this I recommend it.  I even have an extra long VGA cable that I can plug-in to my HD TV  and it’s  as if we were watching UB live in full HD, on-demand!  It’s a great  experience and one worth sharing with your  audience.

There probably aren’t that many folks with HD TV’s that don’t pay for  HD programming through their cable/satellite,  but I happen to be one of them.  We only have basic cable with no HD stations;  but  I receive ABC,NBC,FOX,CBS,PBS over-the-air in HD.  I hope the other networks copy ABC and we start seeing more and more streaming HD shows  online.

Regards,

Alan Kleymeyer

 

Paintball

I took David paintballing this weekend.  It was a perfect day for it; overcast, and it rained a little bit.  Actually it could have been a little colder, it was in the upper sixties.

David was kinda nervous.  He mostly stayed back and shot from out of range.  He never shot anyone but managed to use up about three times more ammo than I did!

We tried Xtreme Paintball.  I had called ahead to get information. Mark and the rest of the staff were terrific.  They really seemed to focus on making sure everyone had a good time, that teams were balanced and that safety was not compromised.  I really appreciated his warning to the group that there were kids present and to try to limit bad language.   

I spent $90 for about four hours of play.  $15 covers rental of equipment & fields, free air all day and starter pack of 100 rounds.  I purchased an extra 2000 rounds for $60.  1000 rounds is $35.   $15 is cheap in my opinion so I’m happy for them to make money off the paint.  That seems fair. The more you shoot the more you spend.

It only took about 45-50 minutes to get there from Bee Caves & 71.  We may try other sites in the area just to compare and to try out new fields but I definitely see us returning to Xtreme Paintball again and again.  Thanks Mark for getting David hooked and me hooked all over again!

If you’re looking for a paintball field near Austin, or have never done it but are interested, I highly recommend Xtreme Paintball.  Tell ‘em Alan sent you!

Why Halo 3 is so much fun

I’m working in the last levels of the campaign in Normal mode.  I actually haven’t played the campaign in co-op mode much.  Once I finish the campaign alone I want to try it in co-op on a higher level.  Perhaps I can get some friends to join David and I on a regular night.  This article explains why coop campaigns can be so much fun.

I love coop campaigns.  Gears of War offered the best coop campaign experience thus far.  David would usually lead and I would follow but we needed each other as one of us fell and needed the other to revive us.  Not to sound too corny, but it was truly a bonding experiences between David and I.

Maker Faire

So we attended Maker Faire yesterday.  Jane called it Geek-orama from what she saw on the website.  We entered through the indoor venue and walked down to the floor of the show arena.  After taking in a few "booths" Cassidy said "You paid $25 dollars for this!  What a rip-off".  Granted the large indoor building, housing many science booths and robotics and such may not have appealed to an 11 year old girl.  It actually did but you had to find the interesting exhibits among some mundane ones.

Once we ventured out to the outdoor area, the kids perked up and got more excited.  We first watched the Live Size Mouse Trap (replica of the board game), and hooked-up with Jim afterwards.  The artistically decorated cars were interesting.  There was a real good magician, fire-breathing, sword-swallowing performer.  By far the favorite activity was the Cycle park.  There were a dozen or so modified bikes that we ALL enjoyed riding around.  We all wanted one!  Many of the bikes were provided by Cyclecide

By the time we walked out everyone was saying how much fun Maker Faire was.

Dirty Car Art:

Camera Car: