Draft pop Hellboy penguin madness

+ The Vikings made a blockbuster trade with the Chiefs and gave DE Jared Allen a huge amount of money.

Might be great if it works out. But this is a big risk. I don't think you see the Patriots (the gold standard for personnel management in the NFL) making trades like this...

Don Banks calls it high risk, high reward.

Peter King and Paul Zimmerman both like the Vikings' draft when you include the Allen deal, though King, like me, thinks it's too risky.

+ Song, by Toad calls MGMT 'slightly camp electro-pop' and links them to the Scissor Sisters, which sounds about right to me.

(Do you like Scissor Sisters, Madhu?)

+ I liked the first Hellboy, I like the comics, and the trailer for the second one looks good, too.

+ Did you know there was prehistoric penguin 5'7" high and 200 pounds?

+ Found this out while doing some Guillermo del Toro/HP Lovecraft research. When I sent the relevant IMDB link to Dan tdaxp he wrote 'this is the greatest thing in the history of the world'.

Keeping my Daughter and Son at Work Day

I kept Elizabeth and Wil home today to 'shadow' me in my work. We have had fun talking about work.

Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work had some good activities I could use and print out.

I asked them what they learned about my job and they said: it's sometimes boring, I'm a telecommuter, I need times of quiet (when I'm editing or proofreading), that the weblog I edit for AvWeek [Ares] got over 2000 hits yesterday, it's sometimes interesting, I make a lot of money [compared to my old job and their own experiences of money], and I 'make the Internet' [what I often tell them].

I asked them if they would want to do my job when they grow up and they said 'no': too much typing, not-moving and quietness ;-)

As an exercise in doing what I do and in thinking about future work, I had them each write a post that we put up on twinlog this morning.

Then we went out for a 'business lunch' at Longhorn Steakhouse.

They are playing outside right now, having some recess time that Christine assured them you do not get when you have a job! :-)

We're in the final glidepath now for our day; they have some reading and math they need to do before 3pm.

I think Christine feared this was going to be one of those things I sort of schlepped through (like Ireland trip planning) and that all of us would be unhappy, but I actually had some good ideas and did some planning and fun was had by all.

Minor update

What have I been up to? Not much. Nothing extraordinary, just slacking in my online presence/pursuits. A few notes and links I've been saving:

+ The weight loss is going slow, probably because I'm still eating too much ;-(

+ But exercise is going well, consisting of calisthenics, dumbbell exercises and yoga. Glad to have some muscle tone and fitness back!

+ Paul, Carol and Mary Stokes visited Spain, almost exactly the same places I visited... 19 years ago:
If it´s Tuesday, then . . .
Saw the Alhambra
Back in Madrid. Whew!

+ Speaking of Spain, I wanted to watch some highlights of Pau Gasol. Not too exciting, honestly. Someone said he's got a small forward's game in a center's body. That sounds right to me. Constantly scores, but none of the normal flash like dunks or aerobatics.

How's that for a minor update?

A little bit more on Watchmen

Synopsis, with spoilers

I'm much less taken with Alan Moore at this time of my life than I was as a teenager. V for Vendetta seemed so awesome then. Parts of it still are. But Moore's anti-fascist-anarchism crusade leaves me cold at 36. Do we really have to be that vigilant about authoritarianism? Were Reagan/Thatcher really that close to it? Made to choose, I'd rather be mainstream than Moore.

I mean, in case you were wondering, this guy is on the extreme fringe (just scan the Wikipedia link above if you don't believe me).

All that to say, I'm excited about the movie and Zack Snyder's work, but it's not the comic movie event of the decade for me. Right now, I'm more excited about Iron Man.

Watch April Eight

Ok, my man Madhu is complaining that I haven't updated recently (not that he has), so I'll throw some links at you:

+ April Fools

• Gmail's Custom Time
• I really liked my boss' post: Defense Contractors Make Peace. Unfortunately, it's not true :-(

+ I watched pretty much every minute of the Elite Eight on Saturday and Sunday and the late game Friday night. Links to that effect:

• Marsh is a total spaz when it comes to UNC basketball. Similar article on appreciating Hansborough.
  
• Stephen Curry is staying in school. Man, were they ever close. Great run. It'll be hard to duplicate without his point guard next year, with Curry probably moving back to the one.
  
• Five things from Grant Wahl on the first day of the Elite Eight.
• Have you seen the Roy Williams Coke ad? I got to hear the story from him once in person. Here's a longer version from an old Sports Illustrated.

+ Ooh, man. I didn't know Zach (300) Snyder is doing Watchmen next. One year away and looking forward to it. But first, Iron Man.

All I got for now. Sorry, Madhu. Not much your going to be interested in :-)