Doug Gains International Fame

Well, it was either incredibly dumb or extremely cool, but either way, I now have been heard by an international audience. A gaming podcast I enjoy listening to solicits calls on a regular basis and one day I had idea that I thought just might be worth sharing. I left my voice mail in the coolest means I could muster and waited to hear myself on a subsequent episode. I thought I had all but been forgotten until more than six weeks later when my message with the bright ideal hit the airwaves.

Turns out, these guys thought my idea wasn't half bad. Also turns out that this podcast has a circulation of just over half a million subscribers in the US and England. Wow, it's all of a sudden quite intimidating to think that I called a phone number and put myself out in front of 500,000 plus people. Now I just need to decide if I'm proud to be heard by so many people or embarrassed to be "that guy" who calls the gaming podcasts. I'll let you decide for yourself. An excerpt from the podcast plays above.

91 Hours of Loneliness

I feel kinda lonely right now. I thought I must be crazy or perhaps indulging in too many re-runs of Steel Magnolias, but when I crunched the numbers, I realized I only see my wife for about 18% of the week. Maybe I wasn't crazy after all? You see, my wife and I start the doldrums of our week again tonight. We work opposing schedules (I work at night and she works in the day.) From now till Saturday afternoon I'll only see her by chance. After about four hours that afternoon, i'll go to back to work for the Saturday night shift and see my family again Sunday morning. After Hannah finishes work Monday (Sunday and Monday are my days off, Saturday and Sunday hers) we again have a few hours before turning in and getting ready for the next day and the rest of the week apart.

I should say now that I'm not writing this for sympathy. Our family is secure, stable and mostly happy. I just found a remarkable statistic that perhaps justifies a little loneliness, perhaps even a little selfishness with my time and it always helps me to see the field when I write, talk and get my thoughts out of my head.

As I see it, most humans take roughly 112 waking hours in a week. I spend roughly 21 [hours] with my wife, more or less depending on how her illness is treating her. A single bread winner family with a 9 - 5 job spends closer to 72 daylight hours with their spouse or roughly 64% of the week - or at least the potential to.

You see, even though the numbers make feel less guilty about a feeling of loneliness, they still don't earn me any sympathy. I'm lucky to sacrifice almost no time with my daughter, that goes for my wife as well. I know some families struggle to find time with their children while trying to support their family. Others struggle to find work at all. I guess i'm just hoping you too will have one of those "whoa" moments and realize what value your family time has and cherish it for as long as you have it because something tells me that even if I had all the time in the world with my wonderful wife and beautiful daughter - it still wouldn't feel like enough.

Girl Scout Cookies For Sale

Emma, the newest member of Daisy Troop 2511, starts selling Grils Scout cookies today!  She's only been a member for a little over a week, but she's already (almost uncontrolably) excited to share the sweet, sweet treats with our friends and neighbors.

So if you're hankering for a Samoa, would like to Do-Si-Do, or just Tagalong we would Thank-You-Berry-Munch if you gave us a call and bought your cookies from Emma (cause you know your gonna buy some anyway.)

If you click the "Call Me" button below, you'll be connected to my voicemail box through your home or cell phone.  You can also contact Emma by E-mail at princessemma@familyingram.net

Netflix says Wiiiiiiii!

I was reading the twitter feed for Xbox Live's Major Nelson and learned that Netflix, the popular mail order DVD rental and broadband streaming service, will be available soon on the Nintendo Wii.  This came to me as quite a shock and pleasant suprise.  I have been enjoying Netflix's streaming service since it launched on the Xbox 15 months ago.  Then Xbox was the only gaming console to support the service, later Sony's PS3 adopted the netflix brand.  I only know two people who own a PS3, but I know at least a dozen with a Wii, so I am excited for them considering many of them pointed out the netflix feature as one that especially leaned them toward other consoles.

On the "shock" side of the announcement, I was amazed that the little Wii, which blocked playback of standard video DVDs, was not only offering the streaming video service, but had the capability to do so.  There are some caveats however.  A broadband connection is required, no HD video will be available and you will need to load a disc (a sort of Netflix game disc) to watch movies in your queue.  No on-board software.

The required boradband connection is not a suprise.  That bandwidth is needed to stream video regardless of whether you're using Netflix's own set-top streaming unit or a gaming console.  It's also expected that HD video will not be an option since the Wii does not output in an HD enviornment nor is the processor capeable of decoding a signal that complex.  I don't own a Wii but my understanding is that the storage space available would not be heafty enough to keep the software necessary to run the Netflix streaming on the console, which is a reasonalbe assumption as to why Wii users will need to pop in a Netflix disc to use the service. 

For those who are already satisfied with the video and graphics abilites of the Wii, I can imagine they would be equally happy with the quiality of the movies and TV shows coming down the pipe with this service.  I can't get over the fact that the console that was devoted to gaming and wasn't going to mulit-task is trying to multi-task.  You can't play a DVD with the Wii, but you need to play a disc to stream video.  Ahh the irony.  According the the New York Times article which apparently broke this story, the netflix adapatation is sparking speculation that an HD Wii is in the offing.  I will be interested to see if a new console will bring more features than just a 720p (or higher) output upgrade.  When you've got the most popular gaming console, the world is at your feet really.

I'm stoked for my friends who enjoy thier Wii's and would likely enjoy streaming video on them as well.   I wish I could convert them to Xbox, I think they would find netflix, gaming and a number of other services more satisfying and brilliant in HD.  For now, chalk one up for gamers in America and behold the wide acceptance of video gaming in our society.  

I Used To Hate This Time Of Year

I guess I still do really, but this has been the most pleasant January I've seen in half a decade or more. Typically this time of year is full of slushy grey roadside snow, fog filled days with sub zero temperatures. All the gloom of winter occurs in January and February with no holiday cheer and festive lights to convice us its really great to "let it snow." 

But this year has been quite different.  The temperature is still cold, yes, but the sun has been shining, we've been more inversion free and I feel less like we're slowly sliding into a pit of snow and salt. I haven't used the snow plow for a couple weeks and the driveway has cleansed it's self of it's icy buildup.  Yesterday I went for a walk at lunchtime in short sleeves!  Seriously, If winter weather were like this regularly I could call off my campaign for the forced evacuation of Utah for three months every December.

You Skiers and Boarders: I think I'm starting to understand you too. In the past I questioned the sanity of allowing gravity to pull you down an icy hill for fun. I always understood the rush, now I see that downhilling can be just as much about escaping the cloud cover and enjoying a day outdoors. I wonder if I can find a way to survive the doldrums of winter that doesn't involve re-breaking my back? (I solicit your suggestions.)

We still have a ways to go till the seasons change in earnest, of course.   In the mean time however we have football playoffs, a Supper Bowl and even Olympic Games to keep us going till the thaw. If the weather continues to cooperate, this might turn out to be the best winter ever!

Fringe Benefits

If you've got to work at night, you may as well enjoy being the first to glide across a vacant parking lot.

Emma anxiously awaits her chance to talk with Santa.

The First Gift Of Christmas

Unlike recent years I have felt a desire to get into the Christmas mood. I've pulled out my Christmas music (all 80+ hours of it) and organized playlists for maximum holiday cheer (much to the annoyance of my staff at work.). I contemplated today hanging decorations in my office as well, but the thing that really got me in the spirit was what I found when I came home.

Although my wife had gone to great lengths to call me at work and let me know the decorating schedule would be delayed, I arrived home to a great gift - our little family tree assembled and shining bright. Emma has been working hard (with mom's help) all through my shift to prepare the display.

Now I was in the Christmas spirit. Our front room was bathed in the warmth of holiday lights and my mind immediately considered fond memories of helping grandma deck her home with (what to a child was) an endless menagerie of holiday fare whilst enjoying Bing Crosby and Eddy Arnold crooning the carols. I wonder if my grandmother knew she was building my fondest and strongest memories of Christmas?

Now i'm in the mood to build some memories for Emma, after I thank her for this first gift of Christmas.

Now That's Love.

Gaming Goes Big (And What I Intend To Do About It)

Just when you thought there wasn't a reason to buy yet another Nintendo DS, the game manufacturer has announced that it will produce it's fouth generation model of the popular dual screen device, this time in a large-screen format.

Upon hearing this announcement I immediately thought that Nintendo may have targeted a neglected niche - children whose parents may purchase a DS instead of a full console. It seemed that the expanded gaming experience with a larger screen would be appealing if I were a "tween" desiring to enjoy some more robust gaming. It appears though that Nintendo is targeting an adult demographic here with earth tones and a large stylus (not to mention a pre-loaded dictionary.) While I'm not aware of any data to base this assumption on, I would imagine that adults in the U.S. would dismiss this larger device given: a) Their access to full - television projected - consoles and PC's and b) the market's propencity to move to smaller multi function devices.

Perhaps there's a demand in the geriatric demographic that I'm missing. Or perphas I'm not being honest with myself. In the back of my mind, I would indeed love to play "The Phantom Hourglass" on a screen bigger than a credit card, and I can see "Master Sudoku" being easier on the eyes in a screen that appears to be rougly 30% larger than those on my DSi.

However, if I really wanted to do some large screen portable gaming, I'd probably go for something more like this:

Yes, it's a Nintendo 64 console with batteries and a small LCD screen wrapped up with a controller into one neat package. If I'm gonna take something big that plays this caliber of game, I think I'd rather take along the analog joystick and play some old favorites like "The Ocarnia of Time," "Goldeneye," and the greatest "Mario Kart" ever made. Someone better tell the folks over at Nintendo US to step in and mod that DSi LL!

Nintendo Announces Large-screen Nintendo DSi LL | Game Guru