Category: Personal

Ah, Christmas

James Asher1 Comment

Christmas for our family isn’t a religious occasion; for us it’s just a time to get together as a family. Now, before anyone jumps in and says that Christmas is just another holiday that has been transformed by retailers as a day to spend oodles of money on things that we probably shouldn’t, much like Halloween, Easter, and, uh, Arbor day, it’s not, so can it.

This was the first year I could really give people the type of gifts that I have always wanted to. Having a salaried job allows me to do this. My brother Rory got his present early on account of him becoming a father. He was in need of a baby monitor, so I, as his brother and complete nerd, got him this cool wireless video baby monitor system. I gave my dad a Kitchen-Aid stand-up mixer. Apparently he’s wanted to do some cooking/baking/whatever that requires a nice mixer. Becky put together an Amazon wish list prior to Christmas and from that I decided to get her a bunch of children’s books which was the majority of her list. She’s going to be an elementary school teacher, so she deemed it logical she should have some children’s books. My favorite book that I got her was Katy and The Big Snow. That book wasn’t on her list, but it was one of my favorite children’s books, so I figured it would be ok.

On the receiving end of things, I made out pretty good as well. Rory, with an apparent desire to support my burgeoning alcoholism, got me an 8-piece crystal decanter set. Though the set is for whiskey and I don’t drink whiskey, I think I can find something to put in the decanter. The origin of my dad’s gift is somewhat cumbersome to explain, but I will digress for a moment to try and explain. For my birthday in August, I wanted a radar detector for my car. I told him I was going to pick it out so I could make sure to get a good one. However, I never got around to doing it. When Christmas came around, I just figured I’d pick out a nicer present that would cost the equivalent of a birthday present plus a Christmas present. I’ve been wanting a digital camera for a while now and since I’d be traveling soon, it seemed like the right present to ask for. And thus, my present was born. My last gift was from Becky. We had some trouble deciding what we were going to get for each other, but out of the numerous things I said that I would like, she decided on the Metropolis Chrome messenger bag. Josh has a few and he really likes them and I’ve wanted a messenger bag for a while now, so I’m quite happy with the outcome. I’m quite happy with the whole Christmas, actually.

So, that’s how my Christmas went, how did everyone else’s go?

The Kansas City Ballet Presents The Nutcracker

James Asher4 Comments

After a tasty, and a tad expensive, dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, Josh, Gill, Becky, and myself attended The Nutcracker ballet at Midland Theater. Midland Theater is located in downtown Kansas City; from my house, it is way downtown. We had a little trouble finding the place because of some very annoying road construction, but eventually we found it. The historic theater has that classical elegance that you see only in old black and white movies.

The Nutcracker is an annual ballet put on by the Kansas City Ballet. Due to construction slated to begin next year, this is the last showing of The Nutcracker at Midland Theater, until 2007 at the earliest. It was fun to dress up nice and attend the last showing.

We had balcony seats for the show, which wasn’t that bad with the exception of the slightly elevated temperature. I somewhat prefer balcony seats, makes it seem more like a show to me. The show itself was pretty good. The sets were surprisingly well done. I’m not much of a theatergoer, but I was intrigued by these colored blinds that they used as backdrops. If light was shined on them in the proper way, you would see that particular blind, if the light was offset, then you would see through it and barely notice that blind. It made for nice transitions between scenes. I’m not really sure what the proper timeline of a ballet is, but this ballet had the first half as more interpretive and the latter half more focused on the dancers and their abilities specifically. Like I said, I don’t know if that’s how a ballet is supposed to go, but that’s how this one went.

All in all, I’d say I enjoyed my first ballet experience. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to self-sacrifice every now and again for the lady in your life. The ballet, like sushi, isn’t all that bad once you actually try it.

Congratulations Rory and Roxanne

James Asher5 Comments

Juliana Rose was born to Rory Asher – my brother – and Roxanne Reed – his girlfriend – on November 15, 2005 at 5:18 pm. She weighed in at 8 lbs, 2 oz. and was 20.75 inches long. Everyone is doing very well, there were no complications to speak of during the birth. Right now, everyone – Rory, Roxanne, and Juliana – is just very tired.

Oh, and I’m an uncle! Yippie!

SxSW Or Bust!

James Asher2 Comments

If people have heard of South By Southwest (SxSW), it’s usually for the music festival portion. However, also hosted at SxSW is the SxSW Interactive. The SxSW Interactive is basically a huge conference for web developers of various sorts. As my boss would say, “So, it’s a big nerd convention. Are there any Star Wars panels there?” I can’t wait, it will be tons of fun and I’ll be around some of the greatest innovators in the web design/development community.

Update
My registration for SXSW is now being processed and the flights are booked. Yippie!

My Childhood Hobby

James Asher3 Comments

When I was a kid, my big hobby was collecting baseball cards. Since I moved out of my house, they’ve been in storage. This past weekend my dad, in an effort to do some cleaning up, gave me all my cards. I started going through them and I found this little gem.

As it turns out, I had a 1953 Topps Pee Wee Reese card. According to Beckett magazine, the de facto standard for baseball card worth, the card is worth 175 dollars. Woo Hoo!