Rondayview

Spider-Man 2

Caught the midnight showing at the local Sony/Loews. I don't think it was a sellout, but it must have been close; there were a lot more people present than I expected. The movie does not disappoint. Easily the best movie I have seen since Return of the King. Peter Parker is complex and real, and we are shown the best and the worst of what makes him who he is; he's a superhero and yet he's human, with human emotions and struggles. The writing, directing, and acting all come together in this one, and the special effects, spectacular and impressive, are just right, and empower rather than overpower the story.

Gmail Invitations

You're probably aware that an entire market has sprung up around Google Gmail invitations. They're for sale on eBay, there are sites dedicated to swapping invitations for goods and services, there's what amounts to a lottery (cost per play is a mouse click) with the Gmail Machine (currently offline due to alleged cheating); it's amazing the things that can become of value. A superb marketing move on Google's part---I'm sure it wasn't accidental---I'm of the opinion that Google's probably going to allow Gmail to continue to grow via the invitation model for a while before opening it up to the general public. And it wouldn't surprise me to see future sites launched using the same model; even if what's being marketed isn't all that desirable, it seems that making it difficult to obtain and then building the idea that ownership puts one in a special class of people, will have the world knocking at the door.

Well, for what it's worth, here's a couple invitations from me. First clicked first served. Will be interesting to see who ends up grabbing these and how long it takes from the moment I publish this to my blog. I'll post the stats after they've been grabbed.

[Update at June 30 12:56 PM] Well, it took a little over twenty-four hours for the first invitation to be claimed. Congratulations Josep! I've activated the link to the second invitation now.

[Update at July 2 10:42 AM] The second invitation was finally claimed last night around 9 PM.

Invitation #1  (Claimed! June 30 at 11:06 AM.)

Invitation #2  (Claimed! July 1 at 9:07 PM.)

Thomas & Taylor

Just a quick shot of the boys to share with family.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel Test Shots

Well, I finally gave in and have gone completely digital. Point and shoot digitals have achieved excellent picture quality, but I've really missed my 35mm. The advent of digital SLRs priced within reach has had me drooling for a while now, and this past week I finally chose the EOS Digital Rebel as my first. Click the image at left to go to my gallery of test shots; it's an impressive camera to say the least!

Our Baseball Star

Taylor played baseball this year; the league used regular hard baseballs, and the coaches did most of the pitching. Taylor was on a team that lost only one game! I was very impressed by the level of play that these seven and eight year old kids are capable of; there was true excitement to watching the games.