Nic’s big present to the family was this UFO-like flying machine (which I had seen and flown before, see here and here). It’s a complicated, expensive and very fragile machine – but boy is it cool when it works!
Below is the feed from the camera onboard during a flight over the top of our house.
More time spent repairing than flying
UPDATE: The drone is currently dead. Parrot customer service has quickly responded with an offer to repair. Will update as news comes in.
Veronica slept through Christmas morning, so she only saw the Santa presents. We finally got around to opening most of the last presents Monday morning.
Angry Birds for all three of them.
Just felt like putting this up again. Play. Really. It’s simply great. “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.”
The three best minutes of TV I have ever seen
Summertime. Gabi and I watch one or two TV shows every night throughout the year after the kids are in bed. Our favorites (24, Lost, Fringe, Survivor, CSI) are all in reruns or canceled now. Summer is the time to find a newish show, one that has been on-air for awhile which we’ve heard about but never watched. One that we can see from the beginning of the series. We discovered 24 and House this way in previous summers.
This is the summer of Mad Men, a biography of advertising men in New York, starting in March 1960 and moving forward. It can be viewed as science fiction in reverse: everyone smokes, everyone drinks too much, no car seats or seat belts in cars, no cellphones, no computers, no internet, and dozens of other things we take for granted.
But concept and setting do not make a show. Personalities do. Writing does. And this is one of the most finely written pieces of TV I have ever witnessed. And it begs my imagination to try to describe it in any cohesive way, other than to say I like it. The clip above (linked here) is so fine and elegant and moving, but I can’t tell you why, since it requires viewing the previous 12 episodes to know why, simultaneously on four or five different levels, this presentation is so hard for Donald Draper.
Part of my attachment is, no doubt, the passing of my father this year, for this is his era. In 1960 he was 36 years old, the same age as the protagonist, Donald Draper. While the show is clearly a reflection of our time, it is my father’s world being shown. Smoke. Martinis. Scotch. And more.
Nine hours before we watch the next episode.
Aaron watches photos of Grampa Cal circulate on the TV
Thanks to David Edfeldt, we have a complete video recording of the prepared eulogies, as well as the afterward comments from everyone. Chris’ Eulogy is in the first two sections, followed by mine, followed by Peter Sammond reading Mary’s. The final three are the roundtable afterwards.
Table in the front room devoted to Calvin
March Field, CA
