Abby has been taking ballet at the local studio this semester. She seems to have enjoyed it quite a bit, and wrapped up the semester with an appearance in the studio’s spring recital. She and her cronies did a routine to Marion the Librarian, a song which delights me if for no other reason than it rhymes “librarian” with “carrion.”

The girls milled about in a typically adorable 5 year old ballet troupe fashion, and Abby was delighted that she got flowers for her debut performance. Getting Liam to sit quietly through two additional hours of dancers who weren’t his sister, however, was an interesting challenge.

Congratulations, Abigail! Great job!

The Brunching Shuttlecocks turn their trenchant wit on the world of weblogs. Share and enjoy!

We caught Donnie Darko a week or two ago. I’ve been meaning to write about it since, but kept getting distracted by other things.

Briefly, Donnie Darko is a teenage boy who starts getting visitations from a 6 foot tall, demonic-looking rabbit named Frank. When Frank calls Donnie out of the house one night, a jet engine falls on Donnie’s bedroom. The FAA is mystified, as they had no flights in the area at the time. Then Frank lets Donnie know that there are 28 days left until The End. And it gets better from there.

The film manages to steadfastly avoid typing. It has elements of science fiction, comedy, mystery, coming-of-age, romance, and horror all blended together into an intensely interesting narrative. I haven’t quite figured out all the lose ends, but remarkably, the disparate elements are all pulled together and end up making some sense. It’s still a pretty outre film — probably too much so for a lot of people — but I enjoyed it as much as anything I’ve seen recently. Definitely worth the time if you enjoy unusual cinema.

After my last diatribe on not losing weight even though I’ve been working out, one of my good friends suggested the Testosterone Advantage Plan. I was a bit wary, but because my friend had gotten such good results with it, and because we are remarkably similar for people who aren’t related, I ordered the book. It turned out to be better-researched (and better-written) than I’d expected, so I decided to give the plan a shot. It combines a modified mediterranian diet (higher in good fats and protien) with weight training, and according to their research has produced excellent results with the men who have tried it out. Additionally, it’s a progressive thing, so if I miss a workout or have a slice of cheesecake, I should see only slightly worse results — it doesn’t rely on putting your metabolism into starvation mode by denying it certain nutrients like Atkins does.

The first surprise: shopping for a week’s worth of food yesterday took quite a while, and pretty much filled a grocery cart. There’s a lot of food on this diet — and I’m on the 2,000 calorie/week, lose weight plan. People who are trying to maintain their weight or increase it actually get more!. And though I’ve had some temptation to cheat, the temptation has actually been to skip food I’m supposed to be eating. “Holy cow, that sandwich is huge! And didn’t I just eat?”

I also started on the workout today, and felt like a big old dork looking back and forth between my book and the machines in the gym, trying to figure out what was what. I think I’ve got the hang of the exercises now, though, so I should be able to make do with my Xerox sheets and a pencil next time around. (At least for two weeks — after that the workouts change. Fortunately, I won’t have to worry about it, as by then, my stomach will have popped from all this food.)

As I’ve mentioned a time or seven here, one of my favorite places to work over the years has been Macrobye Resources. Today Macrobyte released Conversant, a very capable multiplatform groupware and application development environment. It’s a large, versatile system for helping people work together in nearly infinite ways, and is what I use for this website, though it’s capabilities go far beyond what I’ve done here.

Anyway, if you’re in the market for an Internet-capable application development environment, it’s definitely worth a look — and I’d say that even if I hadn’t had a hand in its development.

Emily recently turned 10, an event we celebrated with our usual backyard bacchanal. Good fun, and fewer near-drownings than usual. Go to Emily’s 10th Birthday for all the libelous details.

We finally decided on a replacement for our venerable Kodak camera, which recently met its demise. The new addition will be the Powershot A40, which while it is only 2 megapixel, adds a lot of the manual controls that the Kodak lacked, as well as some nice features like a stitch-assist mode and the ability to use a printer without needing a computer. My favorite feature, however, is the optional waterproof case, which will not only allow us to take pictures of the submarine fauna in the crystalline San Marcos river, but which will also prevent the camera from meeting the same end that our camcorder did — drowned in a bucket of water by our children.

I’ve long been a fan of Handspring’s Visor line of personal organizers. I’ve recommended them to friends, and have been indirectly responsible for the sale of at least a half dozen of the little units.

But lately, they’ve started to frustate me. I use Mac OS X at home, and find it immeasurably superior to the old versions of the Mac OS. Handspring, however, has steadfastly refused to support it, even though Palm finished the desktop software months ago. I finally was frustrated enough that I sent them an email expressing my dismay that they weren’t supporting OS X, to which they responded “We value your input. Thanks for emailing!” (I paraphrase, of course.) So, compounding their lack of support with bad customer service, I made the decision to go back to Palm, which has been doing a good job of supporting my OS of choice.

So, last week I picked up an m130. I installed the OS X desktop software, and have been absolutely delighted with the combination. (Well, at least after I did a hard reset. The memory was a bit corrupted when I got the unit.) The new desktop software works better than the old version ever did, and the addition of color and more memory is a welcome one. CompUSA included a 64MB expansion card as well, which I’m still trying to figure out how to fill.

So, it’s been well over a year since my initial resolution to drop some weight. I’ve been pretty good about regular aerobic workouts on the treadmill or eliptical glider, and feel that I’m a good deal more fit than I had been. Unfortunately, I’ve also managed somehow to put on several pounds since I started working out, even though my diet has changed for the better. I guess my metabolism is slowing more quickly than my habits are changing, alas. I’m sure I’ve got a lot more little happy oxygen-delivering capillaries, but I’ve also got some more middle for them to deliver oxygen to.

So, on the advice of a friend who has a similar build and who has managed to drop a fair bit of weight, I’m starting strength training too. The theory is, of course, that by building more muscle mass, your body burns more calories at rest. I started in today, being careful not to overdo too much, but still hurt anyway. Squats are my least favorite exercise so far. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Texas recently passed legislation establishing a statewide “do not call” list that telemarketers must buy and use to avoid calling the people who have signed up for this service. The list has been building since January 1, and will go into effect at the beginning of July. (If you’re a Texas resident, you can sign up at http://www.texasnocall.com/. Go do it now!)

Telemarketers are evidently aware that this is going to put a dent in their marketing plans. We’ve been getting a ton of telemarketing calls lately, including the absolutely wretched ones that don’t even have a human on the other end, but only a recording.

Your days are numbered, scumbags! C’mon, July.