I lost it. I don’t wear it 24-7, I take it off at night before bed and leave it at home when I go PT in the morning. Most of the time when I get home from work I set my hat down on my desk and take off my ring and watch (which she got me for my Birthday) and set them in my hat. Well about a week ago I when to put on all my stuff and go to work and my ring wasn’t there. I figured it was on the dresser or in the bathroom upstairs but I was in a hurry so I went to work without it. Over the next couple days I looked everywhere I could think for it and determined it is gone.

Now it doesn’t fit me very well anymore. I had gained a lot of weight and it got to the point where it was to tight. so I stopped wearing it. I didn’t like not wearing a ring so Damsel and I picked out a new one, nothing real expensive, a stainless steel band with a cross laser cut into the side. Well, then I started losing weight. after losing about 50 pounds my original ring fit me again and I have been wearing it for the last 3 and a half years. But now I have continued losing weight and am below what I was when we got married, so it was very loose on me.

So we have determined the ring is lost, and it is time to go ahead and get a new one. Rachel asked what I might like and I like James Avery’s stuff so she looked online and picked one out, with a little help from me. Then she learned that she could get an inscription on the inside of the band. She thought for a while and decided what to put. She seemed a little proud of herself. So I am now having to wait till March to get the ring, My Mother In Law will be bringing it with her when she comes to visit.

I wonder what the inscription will be? maybe…

One ring to rule them all…

Fast forward about 30 years and I tell my Man Cub we are going to watch Star Wars. “What’s that?” is his reply. OMG I can’t believe you are 7.5 years old and haven’t seen it yet. But now that George Lucas has messed with our universe and created the prequels, where should I start?  With the “Holy Trilogy”, where it all began, with the Vaseline on the camera lens to hide the “Special” effects? Or do I start from the new digital world where Yoda actually kicks some butt and Samuel L. Jackson has a purple Light Saber like the future version of Shaft?

I decided to start at the beginning, The Phantom Menace, just so that I can avoid having to explain a lot, like “Where did Darth Vader come from” or “How does he move the X-Wing?” and “What’s an X-Wing?” As much as I was disappointed in the prequels, they do a good job of explaining some stuff, especially for the kids. So we started at the beginning, with Young Anakin, Obi Wan Kenobi, Qui Gon Jinn, Jar Jar Binks, and that girl from The Professional (yeah I know, her name is Natalie Portman) as Queen Amidala, the leader of the Naboo, future love interest of 6 year old Anakin and eventual mother to the savior of the galaxy, and his sister. Man Cub really got into the movie. More than I expected, in fact the next day we decided to watch Episode II, The Clone Wars. Then we watched the next one, and the next one, and had a Star Wars Marathon and eventually watched them all.

It was a blast, even the daughter ‘Songbird’ watched a lot of it with us. I think it was the buckets of popcorn that kept her attention. By the end of I did answer a lot of questions, but it was really a lot of fun sharing my limited knowledge of the force with the Man Cub. Since that day he has been an almost Star Wars fanatic freak. He got a Light Saber from Santa, has watched the movie so much I think he knows them by heart. He is more into Star Wars than I ever was.

I said all that to say this.

An old Jedi friend of mine Billy, who was the youth pastor at our church, handed down a Darth Vader piggy bank when I bought his house. I thought it was pretty cool. When you press a button it plays the Imperial March and says “Impressive,….. most impressive…..but you are not a Jedi yet!!” with all the breathing sounds. Since the Man Cub is so into Star Wars now I passed it to him. He hits the button just about every time he goes into his room. Last night he walked into his room and hit the button and I could hear him singing along with the Imperial March, “Bum bum bum, bum ba-bum bum ba-buuuum” I had to laugh out loud. And it inspired me to write this post. So remember, as passé as something may seem to us, they are most often new and exciting to our kids, and give us a chance to re-live our younger days and maybe connect with our kids a little more. so…

May the Force be with you.

Crete is amazingly beautiful, we were very near the city of Chania which is on the north-west tip of the island. While in the island we didn’t get to do much sight-seeing except for the evening excursions for dinner into Chania which has an amazing market district that has every type of vendor imaginable. Sure there were those that had the regular tourist swag like nick-knacks and what-nots, but there were also leather vendor that hand crafted bags that were absolutely amazing. Indiana Jones looking satchels as well as wallets and purses and man purses too. Jewelry stores that have everything from cheap costume jewelry to unique pearl or amethyst necklaces, bracelets and ear rings.  While at any open market you should come ready to bargain, don’t try too hard at this one, if you low ball them they are more than willing to let you walk away.

Our first dinner out was at an open air restaurant called “Semiramis” and i figured “when in Greece” (like “When in Rome”), I should have Greek food.  I ordered Lamb.  I have eaten Lamb before but this was so delicious I might be ruined for it forever.  After dinner in Greece it is custom for them to bring you either Ouzo or Raki, both with the capacity to launch rockets into low earth orbit.  Raki is the equivalent of Greek Mescal Tequila.

After Crete I went to Germany for a short training session and spent a couple short days there.  It was very picturesque but I arrived right at the start of the fall season so it was a bit damp.  I didn’t get out much except for a bazzaar that was organized on Ramstein Air Base, to hangers full of vendors from all over Europe were there.  Mostly German artisans and wood workers of amazing talent.  I picked up a few trinkets for family.  After that my group went out for Chinese food and talked for a couple hours, then caught a plane the next morning for our home.

The trips were so short that I barely got to see much at all.  I will be heading to the Bronte Pistacchio festival here in Sicily and it promises to be an interesting day.  My son loves pistacchios and I like them pretty well too.  So the whole family is driving up to the base of Mt Etna to check this out.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

I will remember to bring the camera this time.

I must say that I didn’t think it would be possible.  After receiving my first duty station of Fort Monmouth New Jersey, I was sure that my Army career was going to be full of disappointing assignments in obscure locations.  That could not have been further from the truth.  Starting with Fort Monmouth.  It was an obscure location to be sure, but hardly disappointing.  I don’t think I could have had a better group of leaders for my first duty station.  Every one of them helped me in some way.  They know what those ways are and if they don’t, well…

Then I got orders for NAS Sigonella Sicily.  just the idea seemed so surreal I was unsure of it even happening.  Then the time slowly ticked by and came the day for moving, and flying out.  Getting here still didn’t seem real.  After almost 3 weeks if is finally sinking in that I am here.  I have a lot of people to thank for helping to get me here.  And also a great family for being willing to follow me 5000 miles across the globe.

I have not been very good about writing here but would like to be a bit more prolific (if that’s the right word).  And a new friend suggested I make a photo blog, since I like taking pictures.  that seemed like a capitol idea to me so.

Mt Etna is visible from the upstairs window.  Which happens to belong to my son.  He was pretty Excited about this.

The Architecture here is amazing.  I know there are some awesome building in the USA, but most of these buildings are older than the USA itself.

The Fish Market was awesome.  When we turned the corner to go down into the market that smell wafted up and reminded me of the fish and shrimp houses back home in Rockport and Fulton Texas.  I grew up with that and it takes me back.

And yes, Sicily is for Lovers. These two crazy love birds were seen in Catania this past week.  The Wine here is amazing.  The difference between fresh wine and the swill that is served at restaurants in the states is like night and day.  And the cost/value there is no comparison.  I am having a glass of some of the best red wine I have ever had for just about $4.50 a bottle.  Of course here its in Euro.  3 Euro.

We had great time visiting the market and picking out a few things.  like…

Olives, Mozzarella, Pecorino Cheese, Carrots, onions, Tomatos, bananas, Lemons, Peaches, White Plums, Cherries, and Svelgi (a native Italian fruit)

The produce in the market is all organic, it is mostly straight from the field, and the tastes are amazing.  I don’t think I have ever tasted a sweeter peach.  It is going to be an adventure living here, we knew that coming in.  Stay tuned for more adventures to come from me and the family as we travel Europe and see what this part of the world has to offer.

till next time, Ciao.

So with this goal in mind I set out to find a decent OS that would allow him to learn the foundations of computers without having to know what a registry key is.  I decided pretty quickly that he would be best served with a linux system since it is free for every basic and advanced software package you can think of.  And also because it can be trimmed down to the bare bolts of what you want.  There is not a lot of need for installing or uninstalling a bunch of stuff.  The latest versions of linux are just as easy, if not easier to install than windows.  You can even burn a disk that you can run a live version of the OS to try it out without install it or changing anything on your current system.

After a little searching I found 3 possibilities.

1) “Sugar” – Which is the OS on the “One Laptop Per Child” project that is designed to run on a very low resource laptop and be very simple to understand, navigate, and interact with.  It is all those things, but not much else.  After trying it twice, on LiveCD I decided it was just a little to pre-school-ly.

2) “Qimo” – Which itself is a very nice OS it looks graphically appealing but is also a little too “pre-school” for my soon to be 7 year old.  It is a version of Ubuntu Linux that has been packaged for kids and come pre-installed with several game packages.

That when it hit me.  I could just use Ubuntu and just install these packages but leave the other stuff i want him to learn also.

3) “Ubuntu” – I chose to just use Ubuntu linux for a couple reasons.  I could get all the game packages that are on “Qimo” and I could leave packages that I want him to eventually pick up.  I still wanted to keep the web browser available because there are website that he likes including “NickJR”.  I can create launchers for these sites on the desk top and they would launch the browser to the site but not have the address or navigation bars to allow him to go surfing the net.  i also set up a remote desktop app so that I can pop on and monitor whatever he is doing from my laptop.  It also helps me when I want to update or manage his laptop but I don’t have to get up and go sit at his table to do it.

Also I should note here that I started with Ubuntu and eventually installed the Edubuntu packages.  Edubuntu is Ubuntu with all the Education packages and games that you want for kids.

There is also an ulterior motive to putting Linux instead of windows.  It is that Linux is more stable, less prone to crashes or virus’, and he will know his way around PC and Linux machine before he is 10.  And since Mac is now basically a Unix OS he can transition to MaxOS easily.

A couple of the packages I suggest are:

GCompris:  This package has spelling, math, puzzles, science, and several other games that are perfect for kids from Kinder to 3rd grade.

Childsplay: This also has great educational games for primary school age kids.

Jet is playing Hangman right now.  A great game for kids to learn the keyboard.

Don’t go out and buy a kid between 5 and 10 a new laptop or desktop for them to play with.  Kids don’t need a terabyte of storage and 4 gig of RAM.  Nor do they need a terribly powerful graphics card.  I used a 5 year old laptop with a dead battery.  It stays plugged in all the time cause he doesn’t need to take it with him.  That old laptop you have in the closet could be your kids favorite toy, and help them learn a ton and maybe get a head start on that Computer Science degree.

References for if you want to do the research yourself.

Qimo – http://www.qimo4kids.com/

Sugar – http://www.sugarlabs.org/

Ubuntu – http://www.ubuntu.com/

Edubuntu – http://www.edubuntu.com/  ( Easiest way for the non-techie, easy install and setup)

Let me know if you found this helpful.  Or if you have questions on how to set up your kids PC.

Anyway, I have decided that it is time for him to start practicing more computer skills.  He had a computer class in his Kindergarten class but now in 1st grade his new school doesn’t offer it.  He got a DS for Christmas and has impressed me with all the extras features he has learned to use on it.  He showed me something I never knew before.  So I got the extra laptop sitting around that hasn’t really been used since I got my new laptop a few months ago.  I decided it was good enough for him.  But Damsel and I are worried about just handing him a PC than can do, or see anything and everything the internet has to offer.  I thought of putting a family safe firewall like Safe Eyes, or one of the others I have seen.  But I find those to be a little over kill in some areas.  They will actually block educational content too simply based on key words.  Not that that’s all that bad, since I don’t really want him going to some sight that is too graphic for him even if it is educational.

Then there is the issue with the programs on the PC itself.  There are a lot of things built into Windows that are not really kid friendly.  Not inappropriate, just not very intuitive for a soon to be 7 year old.  Email, is mostly web based now.  Gone are the days when everyone HAD to have there email routed to either a proprietary email program (AOL) or to Outlook.  I use Gmail and so does Damsel. and most of my family.  But I don’t really want Jet running the web browser without at least a little supervision.  And the whole point of this little experiment is for him to discover the computer for himself.

So I found a couple different KID Operating Systems and I will try them out over the next couple weeks and see which one will work best.  I have already ruled out “Sugar” which is the OS on the “One Laptop Per Child” project.  Most of the ones I find are for pre-school age children and well, my son is a little beyond that.  So I will try to keep a log going here of what I have found and what program we like best.

Check back for updates.

I learned that she loves to color with the kids, I knew she liked to color, but didn’t know she talks the kids into coloring so she can. I can’t color by number.

This summer is our 10 year anniversary and I am still learning things about her.  Our two wonderful kids make life ever interesting and rarely boring.  To make a long story unnecessarily short, Life is Good.

Then I entered “The Real World”.  No not the first reality show ever from MTV.  But all in one year I went from college kid, to College Grad, Father, and gainfully employed.  It was a wake up call to be sure.  My first job out of college was as a web developer for a small gift company.  It lasted about 4 months.  Then I got a real job.  My title was “Software Analyst” at a respectable medical information systems company.  But what I really did was sit at a desk and call clients on the phone to help them set-up there new software package, or at least part of it.  For my ADD self it was like nails on a chalkboard for 8 hours straight.  When I got to work I couldn’t wait till lunch, then after lunch I watched the clock till 4 then made a dash for the door so fast my boss sometimes didn’t know I had left.  That lasted a year.

After that I bounced between a few different IT positions till I was out of bridges to burn.  I was working as a bartender at a bowling center, a very upscale place, but still.  I liked my job except the fact that I didn’t to see my family as much as I was used to.  I made decent money for a bartender but with a mortgage, bills, and up to my ears in student loan debt, it wasn’t cutting it.  Summer of 2008 rolls around and I had lost a bit of weight, nearly 50 pounds in 6 months.  So Damsel and I talked a bit about something I had been wanting to do for a long time.  Joining the military.  It was basically a guaranteed job with great benefits and I could get my student loans paid off.

Fast Forward almost 3 years, I joined the US Army 28 October 2008.  We up and moved to New Jersey for my first duty station in Summer 2009. We found a great little church and made some great friends.  We knew that we would have to move this summer because this base is closing.  It was already slated to close this summer before I was even given orders to come here.  What we didn’t really count on was loving it here so much.  We have gotten to kno wsome great people, and see a lot of sites that we are sure we would not have been able to do without having lived here with the Army.  Now here it is almost Spring of 2011 and I have been in for 28 months and now I have orders for my next duty site.  We leave this summer for NAS Sigonella Italy on the Island of Sicily.  It is really bitter sweet in that we have to leave the friends we have made, but HEY, we are going to Sicily.

The Army has done wonders for my ADD.  I get to do my job, PT a lot, learn cool Army stuff, shoot guns once in a while, go see new places, meet new people and travel half way around the world, and get paid for it.  I am not sure if its all the stuff I get to do, or just the fact that I am providing for my family and serving our country at the same time.  But I don’t think I would be happier doing any other job.  I plan to make this a career for the next 18 more years and Damsel is on board.

So here comes the next chapter in our life and I have to say thanks to God for making this all possible.  We will definitely miss our friends here, as much as we miss our friends and family back in Texas.  But a long time ago I said to God “Here I am, send me!”  I just didn’t expect him to send me to Italy, via New Jersey.  But thus is the life of a those in the military.  Thanks to my wonderful wife Damsel for being so supportive.

Ciao

Anyway, I digress.   a lot has happened in the last two years.  After my last post I worked pretty hard and lost enough weight to join the Army.  I lost over 50 pounds in 6 months and enlisted.  Spent winter Nov 2008 – Feb 2009 in Ft Leonard Wood Missouri.  Then the next 3 months in Ft Sam Houston in San Antonio TX for Advanced Individual Training to become an Army Food Inspector.  We have been stationed in Ft Monmouth New Jersey since Jun 2009.  Crazy thing is now we are getting ready to go somewhere else this summer.  But we don’t know where yet.

The Last two years have brought a lot of changes.  Daughter was born, Moved to Jersey, met a lot of really great people here in Jersey.  It has been hectic at times but the truth is that we are growing so close that I could not have imagined doing anything else.

The Army has been such a great experience for me.  And my family seems to really enjoy all the things we have been able to do while here in Jersey.  We have been to NYC a few time, and the Jersey Coast…(I can’t bring myself to really call it the “Shore”) has been a blast.  The next thing we are going to try to do is go see Niagara Falls.

I have gotten to see more snow than I really cared for.  We had two winters of the worst winter storms Jerseyites have ever seen.  Or so they say.  I don’t know whether they are in denial or that forgetful.

Its been a lot of fun and I am looking forward to what else God has is store for us.

Anyway it has been pretty hectic around here, I have been working a lot and haven’t been here much.  But stil have spent more time with my sister than I have in a while.  Its cool, since she is moving soon I wont see her every other week which has been the norm for the last 4 years, so I am glad to spend some time with them before they move.  I am working out to lose a little wait to go into the Army in Sept.  I went down to the MEPS a few weeks ago but was told I was still a little to much man for them.  Anyway I got a little extra time to spend with the family before I go to Basic.  However that does mean I will still be in AIT (Advanced Individual Training), when the time for the new baby to come in January.  Hopefully I can get a little leave around that time.

Well that about as up-to-date as I can think to make my first post in 4 months.  So TA-TA  wrotet more another time.

Knight