Welp, Bradey took his first step last night. He’s been standing up (from the middle of the floor, unassisted) for a few weeks now, but he hadn’t tried taking any steps yet.

We were hanging at the McSorley’s & he stood up & moved his little foot to take a step. Of course, he proceeded to fall flat on his tummy, but he took that step before taking the nose dive.  He did it again today @ home, so I’m sure he’s going to be flying arond here on his 2 feet in no time.

Bradey also learned another new skill. He’s been giving me raspberries on the cheek. It’s SO much fun! (well, when his face isn’t covered in snot to begin with).

Anyhow, we’re off to Target. I just had to share the fun news. (I’ll try to catch some video of  either of these activities to share with the world, but don’t hold your breath quite yet.)

I’ve made a few updates to this here blog & thought a few of you might be interested.

I’ll list the updates from least interesting to most (well… In my opinion anyways.)

I rewrote the  About Me / this blog page. It was a poor placeholder for something more interesting and I think I sucessfully rewrote the page without making it the least bit more interesting. eh…

I added a program to the Programs page. I’ve been working on some home automation software. This first program (the last one listed on the Programs page) is just a simple app to do 1 thing (and so far it’s doing it well). I’m sure it’s been done before, but this was my stab at making something usefull.

I also have a new blog where I plan to collect all of my techie related things. You probably won’t see too many of those types of posts showing up here very often, but you’re welcome to check out what I’ve got over at tech (at) tmasman.com.

That’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by! (or feed-reading through???)

I’ve had a general idea of what caused the current credit disaster we’re in, but I didn’t really know too much about the details, or how things really played out.

I knew it was basically all tied to Sub-Prime mortgages, and all the people defaulting on their payments, but I didn’t realize all the other details about how this particular trend (these types of mortgages being handed out left & right) came about.

I came across this video & it spells things out pretty plainly (& visually).

Enjoy!

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted anything… I’ve just been lazy with no decent excuse.

The last coule of weekends we’ve had Melisa’s sister’s family here & we’ve had a blast just hanging out with them again. It’s been so long since they moved away, it’s been fun to hang with them. But I think we all agreed, we can’t do that every weekend. Having a small house full of people gets to be a bit stressfull, no matter hom much fun is being had.

We’ve got our Christmas tree up and one string of lights around our front window. I want to do more lights around the front porch, but we don’t have any outlets out there & it’ll just be a pain to make it happen, so I think it’ll have ot wait until next year. <sniff>

Anyhow, I decided to go ahead & sift through some pictures from the last couple of months since I haven’t put many up here lately. There are descriptions & comments on each picture if you care to know what’s what or from where.

[Show slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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OK… So there’s this Blog Action Day 2008 where bloggers blog about the topic at hand. This year (hence the 2008 bit in the title) it’s Poverty.

The general idea is to bring public awareness to the given topic. I hastily signed up saying I’d write  a post on Poverty & then realized I don’t have much to say on the topic.

Some people choose poverty, some people get stuck there due to poor decisions, some people are born into it, and some people are hurled into it due to circumstances completely out of their control.

Last year when I vistited Delhi, India I was smack dab in the middle of an entire city born into poverty. There were people who just accepted their “fate” and continued to live like their parents did and then there were those who had made a concerted effort to get out of that life & moved into the ever-growing Indian “Middle Class”. So I know it’s possible to do something about your circumstances.

I guess my point of view on poverty is that there’s little reason (out side of physical or mental disability) to be stuck in a situation that you don’t want to be in. It’s a choice for many.

Maybe I’m heartless. Maybe I’m pessimistic about people’s excuses for being there.

I work hard to earn a living to support my family & I have a hard time respecting people who don’t do the same. At the same time, I do understand disabilities whether physical, mental, or even social.

Maybe I’m just conflicted.

In any case, how do you view poverty?
What does that word mean to you?