Product Review: Sony Playstation 3
I bought a PS3 a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't really happy about it and made the purchase while wringing my hands due to the unfavorable affect I've seen video game consoles have on the neighborhood kids I know. But alas, the PS3 is one of the cheapest Blu Ray players on the market right now (probably because Sony is partially subsidizing the cost fully expecting to make up the money in video game sales) and the upgradability of the PS3 to BD Profile 1.1 and BD Profile 2.0 is something no other Blu Ray player on the market can match. Furthermore, I hear the PS3 has a library of video games that is supports. So, right there... the value proposition of the PS3 is immense. This means that if I ever find a standalone Blu Ray player that I actually like (for a reasonable price), it should be relatively easy to resell the PS3 on craigslist or something.

That's the rationalization I used to justify the purchase at the time anyway.

Last night and today I fiddled around with the multimedia support of the Playstation 3 - I must say that I was simply blown away... almost speechless in fact. I knew that the PS3 would play slideshows of pictures, but I forgot about some of the demos that Khan gave me at his house. I'm speaking specifically of the "photo album 2" slideshow (or whatever it's called). Basically, I loaded up some 600 pictures of Eliana that I had taken of her from the time she was born and loaded them onto the PS3's hard drive. The PS3 read the EXIF data of the pictures and sorted them by date and delivered the most wonderful slideshow that I could have hoped for. It was absolutely brilliant. I put some music in the background of the slideshow and then ran it on a continuous loop up in the attic during Eliana's birthday party tonight. It was an immediate hit.

Summary: Why buy a standalone Blu Ray player when a PS3 brings so much to table? Go get one. You won't regret it... even if you never play one single video game on it. (Am I a fanboy now Khan?)

Eliana's Birthday Parties
Eliana turned 4 today. She had two parties... one for her friends and cousins (kids only) in the afternoon, and one for family in the evening. It was a busy day.

For the first party, Eliana invited several of her friends (and similarly-aged cousins) to the Second Story Repertory to see a musical perfomance of Cinderella. The kids all sat down right next to the stage (criss cross applesauce) with Kristy and Eliana's former teacher and friend Jana Bell. Mom, Dad and myself sat in the chairs. The play encouraged the kids participation and the kids were eager to oblige. After the show, Eliana and her entourage congregated in the theater lobby, ate cupcakes, opened presents, and were visited by the crew of the play (who sung Happy Birthday to her). Eliana became pretty shy at this point and refused to give Cinderella a hug, but instead clung tightly to my neck. Here are some pictures:

Eliana's (non-family) party guests:

In the evening for Eliana's second party, we had the family over for dinner (pizza), cake, and ice cream. My aunt/uncle (Anadeane and Layne) were in town, so they came over as well. We had quite a host of people attending, so the extra space up in the attic was put to good use. Here are a few pictures:

My little girl is growing up fast... for kicks, take a look at previous birthday party pictures:

Eliana's 3-yr-old Birthday Party Pictures
Eliana's 2-yr-old Birthday Party Pictures
Eliana's 1-yr-old Birthday Party Pictures

Projects with Dad
I spent the morning finishing up some small projects around the house with the assistance of my Dad... the primary achievement being the installation of the remote-controlled window shades in the skylights over the media room area. Since it took us about 2 hours to complete the task, I'm glad I didn't have to do both of them.

When I was growing up, my Dad was always busy doing something around the house. I remember fondly the large playground he built for us in the backyard complete with a two-level "fort" that included a covered slide and section of pole vault scrap that he converted into a fire pole. He did this from the ground up using raw materials (not a fancy kit like I used). He re-landscaped our entire backyard to include a half basketball court... again, mainly for our benefit. Then when we were a bit older, he demolished the playset and built a over-sized two-car garage in its place... again, from the ground up... doing 99% of the work himself. He involved the four of his boys in these projects quite a bit (cheap labor and all).

In many ways I'm my father's son... specifically (to my Dad's credit) I'm fairly handy around the house. There are few tasks that I would not feel comfortable tackling: electrical, plumbing, dry wall, irrigation, painting, whatever. It was nice to have Dad around today. The seasoned wise (old) man (sorry Dad... but you are!) giving his son a bit of help.

Good times.