For starters, I finally did what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I shaved my head. I’m still in the process of getting used myself as a bald person (along with everyone else who knows me), but I’m pretty sure I won’t be growing my hair back. All of the insecurities that used to haunt my mind regarding a bad balding pattern have vanished … that freedom alone makes it all worth it.

As quickly as I decided to be a comic book nerd, I’ve decided to now jump back off the bus. I like the X-Men comics a lot, but it’s become more of a hassle and money suck than an enjoyable hobby. So I’m all done with that.

I’ve become very interested in space travel and exploration. The next book I buy will be about the Apollo Missions.

Just off the top of my head, these are the things I’m either currently involved in, or have tried out:

1. WordPress (active, self hosted, miloandpro.com)
2. Facebook (active)
3. Twitter (active)
4. Flickr (active)
5. Vimeo (active but rarely used)
6. Instagram (active)
7. vlix (active, but haven’t used it yet)
8. color (used then deleted)
9. soundtracking (used then deleted)
10. Springpad (active, can be used socially, but I use it for personal lists)
11. Mint (active, but neglected)
12. LiveStrong Calorie Counter (active)
13. DeviantArt (account exists, not used for several years)
14. myspace (deleted account several years ago)
15. Blogger (active account, no actual blogs)
16. Google Reader (active)
17. Google Docs (active)
18. Google Calendar (active)
19. Amazon Wish List (active … perhaps misplaced on this list)
20. B&H Photo Wish List (active … perhaps misplaced on this list)

This list is too long, but I’m not sure how to simplify it

My memory isn’t the greatest, but I do know that it was about the 6 month mark with Abi that things really started becoming enjoyable all the time. She was on a good schedule, sleeping well, and starting to learn and do more things. I’m happy that I remember this because it gives me hope with Danny. Pro and I are tired all of the time. We bicker with each more than we have since Abi was his age. He doesn’t sleep very well, which means we don’t sleep very well … it takes the steam out of each day. We’re ready for things to start getting easier, and I know they will … in about a month. Danny just turned 5 months. And don’t get me wrong, he’s a lot of fun right now, smiles all the time, rolls over, tries to crawl, giggles at his sister, etc. He just doesn’t sleep longer than 45 minutes without needing attention of some kind. We’ll get there 

In other news, my online weight watchers for men subscription is over. I lost 21 pounds in 3 months. I still want to lose about 5 more pounds, but I feel great and my clothes fit better and look better. No more sucking in to get the belt thru the 1st hole … now it’s hole number 3 without sucking in.

I want badly to get back to running, but the weather hasn’t been cooperative. I run outside, and I’m not a cold weather runner … so I’m still waiting things out. I did get in a run last Sunday. I limited myself to 20 minutes because I’m old and haven’t run for over 7 months … made it 1.8 miles at about 11 minute mile pace. Not terrible all things considered, but I felt terrible the whole time …ugh.

My photo every other day project is going well, but as usual, I don’t have the time or energy to really get the shots I have floating around in my head. Still, it’s nice to have a record of the kids growing up.

My brain has been working overtime lately. I’ve ordered a new laptop, and the process of “making it mine” is going to be a lengthy one. All of the programs that need to be installed and tweaked is mind numbing. I’ve already started my to-do list regarding it.

I’ve made the switch from Firefox to Google Chrome. I’m liking Chrome a lot, but I’ve been using Firefox for years, so again … the process of “making it mine” is a lengthy one.

Lastly, Pro gets her new iPad 2 tomorrow and while it’s hers and going to be used by her 90% of the time, I can’t help but think about how I might be able to get some use out of it as well (selfish much?).

Pro decided a while back that she wanted to get an iPad, but I knew they were planning to announce the iPad 2 at some point soon, so she’s been waiting it out (since early January). Finally, she’ll be getting one on the 11th. I’m excited to play around with it myself. It looks very cool. I’ll be holding out for the iPad 3 personally

We have 3 computers in the house, but none of them can play HD video. I bought a new camera a while back and it takes HD video (the Canon 60D), so naturally it’s time to upgrade computers as well. We’ve sold the netbook, which makes me a bit sad … I use it every day and it’s awesome for traveling and we’re planning to strip down our desktop PC and turn it into a wireless print server for the most part. I’m going to order a new laptop, and pro has a laptop which is in pretty good shape. I’m still not sure if I’m going to like doing photoshop on a laptop, but we still have the desktop if needed, or I can just plug the external monitor into the laptop. We’ll see how it goes. Being very accustomed to the netbook, a 17.4″ laptop screen is going to seem pretty big

So I decided it was a good time to sell my camera while it still had some value on the used market and buy myself something new. Of course, I didn’t have the extra money needed to upgrade cameras, so I also had to sell my 200mm 2.8L lens. That’s kind of a big deal, I loved that lens … but in all honesty, I didn’t use it that much. So I bought the Canon 60D, it’s the newest Canon camera at the moment. I love it so far. It has the ability to wirelessly fire my flashes which I think is going to be a great feature for me. I tested it out last night and I’m liking it a lot. Also, this camera takes HD video, so we no longer have to leave the house with both a video camera and a regular camera. It’s going to take some practice to get the video looking good because it requires manual focusing … with some practice, I’ll do just fine I think.

My plan at the moment is do another “photo every other day” project starting the first of the year, so having a new camera is exciting.

So Daniel James Milo has come to join us. He was born this past friday at 6:30pm. He weighed 7pounds and 12 ounces and was 19″ long. Everyone is healthy and happy and starting to adjust to a new way of doing things. We’re very excited and blessed.

I’ve decide to do another “photo every other day” project for the year of 2011. I’ll be buying myself a new camera in a week or so, and I’ve been slowly buying lighting and studio equipment … so I figure it’ll be a good way to make use of all the stuff

The first iPod Shuffle I ever owned looked like this one here, which is Pro’s current model:

I liked it, but you couldn’t have multiple playlists on it, so it wasn’t perfect. When Apple announced a new shuffle, I was very excited and ran out and bought one:

… but just as my luck would have it, that one was terrible. The controls were located on the earphones. The earphones would get wet with sweat while I was running and the iPod would conk out about 25 minutes into my run. I couldn’t go back to my old shuffle as I had given that one away, so I was forced to buy an extra piece which moved the controls away from the sweat. It worked ok, but was kind of a pain. Thankfully, Apple recognized their mistake and has just released a new shuffle in the old design but with the new features:

I’d like to thank my lovely assistant for helping me thru this exciting story

They changed Flickr a while back. I’m annoyed now. Most of the changes are great, I like them. The problem is if you’re a non paying member, like myself. They shrunk down the maximum size viewable images to 1024 pixels on the longest side. Any images which were larger than that were automatically shrunken down to 640 pixels. That pretty much ruined all the galleries I had uploaded. I’ll be taking them down, now

My plan is to do another year long photo project, but I don’t really want to pay Flickr to get all the cool features (and needed extra space). Don’t get me wrong, the website is worth every dime they charge, it’s just that I already pay for my own web space and domain name … as well as another photo challenge website … and of course my Xbox Live subscription … so I’m already up over $150 per year fees. I don’t really want to add another $25 on top of that. I’m not sure what to do.