Announcing the birth of my second daughter......

Holly Rain Wollaston, born May 13, 2009

6 lbs. 9.7 oz. 18.2 inches long

Born healthy, happy, and very alert!! :)

I'm so proud of my daughters and my wife. I'm the luckiest guy in the world!! :D

I love Amazon.....the ability to sit at work, at my computer, and shop for all my movie & gaming needs. I just hit the "proceed to checkout" button in my account on four lovely, must-have purchases: Fear 2 Project Origin (360), Killzone 2 (PS3), 2 copies of Resident Evil 5 Collector's Edition for the 360 (one copy for me and one for the wife), and the Resident Evil 5 hardcover Collector's Edition game guide. Spring is gonna be grand! :)

A note on RE5....I'll be playing as Chris and Angie will be Sheva.....

And I cannot wait to hear Angie bit*hing at me while I take all the ammo and leave Sheva with nothing! :P

I took off work Friday (January 16) to go with Angie to her sex-determining ultrasound......and Baby Allison is going to have a little sister!! :) I'm so very excited, I was wanting another little girl. We're already thinking of names, really like Anna Leigh, but I'm sure that will change....we changed Allison's original name while Angie was in the last stages of labor! :P I've been blessed in so many ways in my life (I'm not religious in any way, shape, or form so please don't go there), but nothing has ever been more rewarding than becoming a father. And now I'm going to be the proud poppy of another sweet little lady! Now it's Andi's turn....here's hoping she has a little girl so she can buy her tons of pink things! :)

My Fat Little Strawberry

My Little Piggy with A Bow On Her Head :lol:

Sweet Baby, Tie-Dyed & Crazy!

Her New Teeth (With Lunch On Her Shirt)!!

Bat Baby for Halloween!!

Playing With Her Little Bag of Goodies

So Scary in her Ghost Onsie

Awash In a Sea of Bears at Grandma's House

On Thanksgiving Day

I'll be taking many Christmas photos as well, which I'll post soon. For those that don't know, my wife Angie is pregnant again, and she's due the last week of May. I'm so excited. I love baby Alli so much, I can't wait to have two of these running around the house!! :D Happy Holidays!

Allison (& her first border crossing) :)

Sunny

The Roses I finally coaxed into blooming

A new week means new releases, so I picked up these Blu-Rays yesterday:

The Mummy (1999)

The Mummy Returns

The Sand Pebbles

As I was driving home with my loot, I got to thinking......"The Mummy" & "The Mummy Returns" are my first "triple dips", meaning I've purchased these on DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray. The choice to upgrade the DVD to HD-DVD is obvious, but why, you may ask, purchase the Blu-Ray on release day when I already have the HD-DVD? Because, as an early adopter and a fan of CONTENT, I began collecting for both HD formats. Paramount was HD-DVD exclusive, meaning if you wanted this studio's films in HD, you had to purchase them on HD-DVD. With the HD format war dead and gone and Paramount (along with basically all other studios) swearing their allegiance to Blu-Ray, films once available only on HD-DVD are now beginning to be released on Blu.

The reason I re-purchased is because for some reason, Paramount didn't feel the need to include lossless audio on the HD-DVD, instead opting for Dolby Digital Plus. Now that they're releasing on Blu-Ray, they are encoding their disks with DTS-HD Master Lossless, which is identical, bit for bit, to the studio masters. What does this mean? It means if you have a home theater with the right equipment, surround speakers, subwoofers, etc.....you are in for an aural treat. The crispness and clarity of lossless audio is leaps and bound better than lossy Dolby Digital or DTS. I've been building my theater, piece by piece, for many years now....and since music is my first love (even over movies) I've concentrated on buying the finest audio equipment I can afford (or what the wife will let me spend). After many thousands of dollars, I have an audio set-up that I'm very pleased with (I still get upgradeitis at times). :oops: So the choice to spend money AGAIN for the same film is worth it, to me at least, in order to have the finest audio available. If I were just a little more patient when these formats first launched, I wouldn't have to worry about this, but I'm a nut when it comes to this stuff, and I wanted all the HD content I could get....so now I'm obviously paying the price for being an early-adopter and a consumer whore. :D

My Blu-Ray collection is growing exponentially. I quit collecting DVDs months ago, choosing instead to focus on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (I did purchase "There Will Be Blood" & "The Darjeeling Limited" on DVD, just because they were movies I couldn't wait to come out on Blu-Ray). And now that HD-DVD is defunct, I'm purchasing exclusively on Blu-Ray, unless I find incredible deals on HD-DVD. So, here's what I picked up on Blu-Ray last week from Amazon, including what will most likely be my final HD-DVD purchase:

Casablanca

Patton

The Professionals

The Longest Day

And I bought this, mainly for Angie & Alli (although I've been told I WILL watch them): :P

Harry Potter Years 1-5 Limited Edition Gift Set

I'm importing these from the UK, via Amazon UK:

Black Narcissus

Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal)

I've been collecting as many of my favorite vintage / c l a s s i c films as possible as they become available. I've got a long ways to go, but I'm slowly making headway. I'm not sure of the exact number, but these additions put my Blu-Ray collection at over 150 titles, while my HD-DVD collection is most likely finished at 87 titles.

Let me just say....I'm not in any way, shape, or form a confrontational person. Never have been. One of the reasons no one sees much of me in the forums is because it's hard to say anything here without someone trying to start an argument or some other form of drama. That said, I've always held complete disdain for inconsiderate, arrogant, and un-caring people.

So I went into Wal-Mart on my lunch break to get a few things. On the way there, I dropped by the house to pick up my wife and daughter. As we're going in, with little Allison cooing in her car seat and riding on the cart, we pass this dude standing in front of the doors, smoking. Now, I don't care what smokers do, as long as I don't have to breathe it in restaurants or in public. But I literally watched his cloud of exhaled smoke drift right into my daughter's face. I said, "Hey, why don't you step a little farther away from the door so people coming in or out don't have to breathe that?" He looks at me with that I-don't-give-a-sh** look that only true rednecks can master, and he says "Why don't you mind your own business? I'm far enough from the door." I could immediately feel my blood pressure rise, but I calmly said, "You aren't far enough away to keep your smoke from drifting into people's faces, namely my daughter's", and I pointed to the cart. His response? "Well, maybe you should just leave her at home." He grinned and walked over to the ashtray to snub out his butt.

In total shock, I just walked into the store and began shopping. But as the minutes ticked by, I proceeded to get really angry. But I walked away, without giving this moron something he deserved. I'm almost 33....if this had happened 10 years earlier, there would be reports coming out of Ardmore, Oklahoma about a man found in a Wal-Mart trash can with his head stuffed up his own ass. If you don't care about others, fine. But don't be so rude as to make everyone breathe your tobacco reek....especially little children or babies.

End of rant. :)

On September 23, 2008, this is released on Blu-Ray, completely remastered and lovingly restored. 'Nuff said. :)

She's no great orator yet, but she's trying. She's learning so fast. :)

[video=I30ykzqt5b0IujPb]