Andrew Acomb

Here we have Ray on the left and Kurt on the right. Each one has mastered their very own distinct style of sword fighting. They meet in an epic battle at Kurt’s house. Who will win?

Jennifer and I planned on visiting Port Gamble, Washington this weekend. It’s a cute little town on the Kitsap Peninsula. We found out just a day before going that this weekend is also when the Great Peninsula Future Festival is held there. The festival is all about “building a sustainable future”.

At one of the booths, I met author Michael Sterns. He’s writes books for children. He told us a little about himself and gave us a brief summary of his first book called Kokopella and The Butterfly.

Michael put a lot of thought into this book, from the size of the book to alternating the pages that the pictures are on. He told us he chose artwork that is very descriptive to make it easy for young children to “picture read”.

During the summer, Michael gets to travel the country selling his books. How awesome it that!

If you can’t find him at a festival or event near you, his books are also available online at Grasshopper Dreams.

While in New York, we had to stop in at Gaffney’s for Open Mic Night. Jennifer’s brother Pete has been hosting it for as long as I’ve know about it. If your ever in Saratoga Springs on a Tuesday night, definitely check it out! Pete usually opens up with a few songs. The one in the video above is awesome. It’s been stuck in my head all day.

Jennifer got up and played a few songs too. The first couple were with her dad Ray. She did one by herself that I will have to post later.

Ray also played some songs. Pete joined him for a couple of them. The video above is one of my favorites!

All these videos where taken with the Flip Mino HD. I’m so glad I picked one up right before leaving for our trip. I wanted a super portable video camera so I can share videos online. It records in 720p and can store a full 60 minutes. I really like the pop up USB connector. It makes it so easy to transfer movies to my laptop on the go without any annoying wires.

We had a few friends over on New Year’s Eve. Instead of playing Rock Band, Jennifer and I decided to try out an Xbox 360 game called Lips. It’s basically a high tech karaoke game. It can tell when you stop and start a word and what tone your singing in. If your singing right, you’ll get points. It’s much more detailed than Rock Band. Plus, the mics that come with it have a sensor in it to detect motion. So you get extra points by moving around when prompted. It comes with 40 songs and you can download even more from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Each song comes with its video.

I had a lot of fun, but Jayden beat me in the first round! He ended up going to the final round against Jennifer. It was close. The scores went back and forth, but Jennifer barely beat him.

My Xbox 360 died again! I wouldn’t be so upset if I actual did something to it to make it fail, but I didn’t. I don’t hit it, drop it, or even leave it on for excessive amounts of time. I was just using it as it was intended to be used and it still gave me the three red rings which indicate a technical problem with the Xbox 360. These three lights are often referred to as the “Red Ring of Death“.

So I called Xbox Support. The person I spoke with was extremely helpful. I won’t be paying for a thing! I was worried that I might have to pay to get it fixed, because this is the second time I’ve received the “Red Ring of Death”. So just like last time, they are sending a shipping box out to me so I can put the Xbox 360 console into it. Then in a week or two, I should receive another Xbox 360. Last time, the turn around time was very fast.

I’m just a little dissappointed about this whole situation. After having back surgery, I was looking forward to playing a few games. At least I will have it back in time for some of the major releases later this year.