Dad Therapy

New Mac Mini Update: Call of Duty 4 Run Through

One of the things that always held me back from switching to a Mac from a PC was the utter lack of games to choose from. There still are hardly any games made specifically for Mac. Even LucasArts seems to have dropped the format. I have fond memories of playing the original Tie Fighter and X-Wing games on my dads old Macs.

I used to be a pretty decent gamer and even reviewed games for various publications (I never paid for a console or game for five years). But once Carter was born my gaming became mostly Wii stuff like Guitar Hero where Courtney could actually somewhat enjoy gaming. The only PC game I’ve gotten recently was World In Conflict, a very good military strategy game. I only could muster an hour or two after Carter and Courtney were in bed. So, this reduction in gaming time means a switch to Mac won’t be as painful. Still, I need to get my fix in sometime.

My co-worker Matt had an extra copy of Call of Duty 4 for Mac and lent it to me to check out. Now, my Mac Mini was the base model with the lower graphics setting, but I upgraded the RAM to 2GBs, and that ups the graphics setting to the higher spec machine’s.

Everything I’ve run so far from Hulu and DVD video has looked great and had no hiccups at all. How would Call of Duty 4 hold up?

It kicks ass.

Wicker Park, Winter in Spring

It seems like yesterday's massive snowstorm never happened. 24 hours later and it may still be cold but most of the slush is gone from the roads, the skies are clear and the dog doesn't need to wear a coat. Did that mysterious half day of snow really happen? Luckily I took the Canon G9 out yesterday for some snapshots. I had it underneath my coat until I decided to snap a shot, but I didn't take many because darnit, it was cold and wet. Photo gallery below.

No More Baby Mullett

We're up early on a Sunday having our milk and I figured I'd show everyone Carter's first haircut. Courtney just ran him in to her own stylist this week to chop off the mullett and the hair going all over his ears. Sounds silly, but I miss the mullett a little bit. 

Friday Night Out, Briefly

We were going to head to Coast for Sushi and Courtney could have cooked rolls, shrimp, crab etc. But Courtney read on her mommy message board that someone got food poisoning there, twice. We decided to go to Feast because we've been there with Carter before. We even found a great parking spot right off Damen equipped with one of the cities new parking meters. Eight quarters later we walked the block to Feast but they don't open until 5:30. Really? So, we went to Northside across the street. I had a so-so salad, Courtney had fish and chips and Carter got some Chicken fingers. He was pretty good only throwing his sippy once and making googly eyes at the waitresses. It was very nice not having to cook and clean and we were back home at our normal time. Now just sitting on the couch and watching the Blackhawks. Nice to have a nice and easy night after a rough week.

'Where The Wild Things Are' Looks Great But...

There is no denying "Where The Wild Things Are" directed by Spike Jonze looks great. Just check out the trailer below. However, with Carter only being 13-months-old it doesn't look like I'll be seeing this for a while. I guess I should be cherishing every minute at this age, which I am, but darnit kid, let's get to Lego, comic book and movie age soon!

Dad Therapy Gets Added to Alltop

We may be new but we’re moving up the charts folks. Alltop has graciously added us to the Top Dad News page.

We’re way at the bottom like a new entry should be I guess. But definitely go visit the page because some of my favorite Dad blogs are on there like Geekdad and others.

New Mac Mini Vs. Old Vista PC: Early thoughts

I’m still just a week into the migration of PC to Mac with the New Mac Mini. To recap I received the new base Mac Mini with 1GB of extra Ram ($649) and had major problems just getting the display to work. That problem “fixed” there was a lot to do.

It took two days to get my music imported into iTunes again.

It took a day to organize my photos.

And for the first few days I was just getting acclimated to the “eccentricities” that is life with a Mac. You know, using the Apple button instead of CTRL (of course mine is a Windows start button but still), expanding windows in just one corner etc etc.

But there are some things that are painfully obvious even at this early date that I just have to point out that don’t live up to the Mac vs. PC hype.

Yep, Vasectomies Up Because of Economy

Not only are guys getting vasectomies timed to March Madness, it seems that men all over the country are lining up for the little snip-snip more and more. Doctors are saying there could be two causes.

1.    Men are making sure no new kids come along because of the dour state of the economy.
2.    They’re making sure they get any surgery gets done before they might lose their jobs and health insurance.

Does that sound nuts to anyone else? Or is it just one more bizarre footnote in our troubled times?

With the Economy Down, Vasectomy Rates Are Up (Yahoo via Rebeldad)

Pearl Jam Ten Remix/Remastered/Redone, Awesome

Being the uber-Pearl Jam geek that I am, sure I splurged and bought the mega-collector set of the re-release of Pearl Jam’s Ten. It comes out today but I pre-ordered through the fan club and it arrived on Friday. I actually didn’t get a chance to listen to the discs much at all over the weekend.

I ripped the CDs to iTunes of both the Remix by Brendan O’Brien and the Remastered edition and spooled up the Unplugged DVD on Friday night. I probably hadn’t watched that since 2000 or so. It was pretty odd, but also pretty awesome to see all the songs (only four were shown on MTV’s reruns) and of course have it on DVD. Although I didn’t think the video quality was that great and it wasn’t in widescreen format of course. One other oddity on the video, admitted Cubs fan, Vedder was sporting a White Sox cap. I only noticed because now I live in Chicago. Of course, he was friends with Black Jack McDowell at one point...

Ten itself?

Am I The Only Dad in America Who Doesn't Have March Madness?

I’m a sports fan. I’m a mild college basketball fan, especially my dear Hoosiers who have fallen on tough times lately. But I have to admit when the tourney came up this year and brackets went around I had absolutely no interest. And it seems this is the most maddening of years ever, with everyone I run into talking about the games etc.

I even saw a story in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune saying that dads around my age are scheduling their vasectomy to coincide with the first weekend of the tourney so they have something to do while icing their “boys.”

At work on Thursday the cafeteria TVs were all tuned to the games. A coworker showed me the iPhone app he had downloaded from CBS to watch all the games. Twitter was aflutter with updates on various games from fans hardcore and casual. Even the President was on TV filling out his bracket.

Me? I was starting to get annoyed.