Zephyrus of the Anemoi

My wife and son were on the way to school this morning when something profound happened. They were listening to the radio and one of the DJ’s on the morning show was talking about a handicapped man that lives on his own. They said that he was unable to pay his heating bill, and the station was taking donations to cover the expenses.

It was at this moment that something remarkable occurred.

“I remember when we didn’t have heat and it was really cold,” my son spoke out from the back seat. He was referring to a time last winter when either the pilot light had blown out or the heat had been turned off and the house got extremely cold in the morning.

“Why doesn’t he just have his mommy come wrap him up in a blanket and bring him his breakfast?” he continued.

My wife smiled and gave him the obvious response. “He doesn’t have a mommy to take care of him. He lives all alone.”

My son thought about it for a minute and then he said, “I think we should take some of my presents back to the store so we can give him some money.”

My wife was at a loss for words. She just looked at him in the rearview mirror. Before she could recover he began again.

“I think we should also tell Santa to take my presents and give them to him so he has something to play with.”

At this time, my wife started to cry, as did I when she relayed the story to me over the phone later in the afternoon. With tears in her eyes, she dropped him off at school and drove to work. She couldn’t get over what it meant to Avery to be willing to give up his presents. This is a kid that loves Christmas and values his possessions immensely. And with no prodding whatsoever, he was ready to give them up for a man he’d never met and would never know.

I’ve never been so proud of my son in my entire life.

My wife sent the radio station an e-mail to tell them about Avery’s sacrifice. They informed her that the man’s bills had been paid, but that they may read the letter tomorrow on the air during the morning show. So if any of you listen to 106.5 The Wolf in Kansas City, tune in tomorrow morning. You can even listen live online.

UPDATE: To the best of my wife’s knowledge, they did not say anything on the show after 6:45 (which is when I was able to crawl out of bed and start recording). If they said something before then, I don’t care, because no sane person is up that early.

Avery has been singing “Topeka” by Ludo for the last couple weeks since seeing them live at the Apple Store. Today, he decided to sing the song while his friend Levii “played” the guitar.

The lyrics are completely wrong, except for the opening line, but he’s convinced himself that’s how they go. I’m putting the song on his iPod to help him learn the correct words, but for now you can listen to this.

Avery and I went to get our first father-son haircut. I’ve been getting my hair cut at a place called Chop Tops since I moved into my house, as it was nearby, they give you a beer with your cut, and they do a great job with my hair.

As it was decided that everyone needed a haircut today, I figured Avery could get his cut with me. This was a big hit.

Part of going to Chop Tops is the feeling of being pampered. As a guy, you don’t get that often, and you don’t usually need much to feel this way. Here, it’s simple: the stylists are all young girls, they bring you a drink, and they wash your hair. Avery was very excited about getting his hair washed after it was all over.

I don’t remember ever going with my dad for a haircut, since he was probably shaving his head by the time I was old enough to do so. It was really awesome to get to go just “be men” together, even if neither of us are really “men”, yet.

Warfare Incorporated is a game that was originally available for Palm devices in 2003. Recently, it was ported to the iPhone by Spiffcode, Inc. For anyone that has ever been a fan of Command & Conquer or Starcraft, this is an excellent purchase. It’s only $5 and has over 200 add-on missions that can be downloaded directly to your iPhone / iPod Touch. If you’ve got a PC or a Mac that’s running Windows, you can also design your own levels, host them yourself, and share them with your friends.

I started playing it last night, and am really impressed. It makes full use of the multi-touch features of the iDevice of your choice and despite having graphics that are identical to those from the original (not a detriment, in my opinion), still looks surprisingly nice. My only complaint is it can sometimes be difficult to scroll around the map quickly, or issue movement commands into a group of your own troops. Other than that, however, it’s a lot of fun and fairly robust.

So, if you’re looking for some awesome RTS action for your iPhone, this is the place to go.

Direct link here.

I’m a big fan of J.J. Abrams.

I’m not gonna lie, he’s let me down a few times in the past. For example, the first half of the third season of Lost was pretty dreadful and without focus. But Lost has done well for itself since then.

I’m telling you this because I’ve been watching Fringe. At first glance, it’s got all the J.J. trademarks: a secretive corporation working on the outskirts of rational science, a massive conspiracy traced throughout the lives of one or more of the characters, and a strong female lead.

However, up until now it hasn’t really grabbed me the way Lost and Alias did. I just haven’t had that same feeling of being “sucked in” to the show. One reason has been that J.J. has been much more reserved with the doling out of the mysteries. While Lost went over the top with presenting mystery after mystery and not solving any until there were too many to count, all the strange happenings of Fringe point to the same large conspiracy. We receive small pieces of the same puzzle every episode.

The last two episodes in particular gave us some big hints that perhaps “The Pattern” (the overarching conspiracy for the series) may be tied to the backgrounds of all of the characters, not just those readily apparent.

I will continue watching the show, and recommend anyone with a strong enough stomach give it a shot, as well.

Just don’t expect Lost.

Hot on the heels of Black Friday, Shop-a-holic Saturday, and Sunday Bloody Sunday comes the newest member of the zany Chain-Shopping Gang. Advertising companies across the globe exploded with happiness at the prospect of encroaching closer to Christmas by one whole day for their “get-em-while-they’re-cheaper” deals.

Me, I did all my shopping on Black Friday.

I don’t even feel bad about it. It went smoothly. Checked out all the deals, went to the local Wal-Mart around 7 pm to scope out what products they had that were in competitors’ ads, verified that they would price match, and went to bed at 10:30 pm. At 3:30, my iPhone screamed at me to get out of bed and my wife and I quickly dressed and headed back to Wal-Mart. We gathered up what we wanted to price match, sat next to the kiosks they had set up for their own deals, grabbed a couple of them and made it to the aisle before the large majority of people.

All in all, it was pretty freeing. I recommend it to everyone.

Next year, be prepared for Terrible Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Thirty-Percent Off Thursday, Freaky Friday, Seppuku Saturday, and Someone Kill Me Please Sunday.

I’m looking forward to the news.