A place for everything

I am but a simple boy. I don't require a lot (outside of that whole world domination thing, but that's another story). I do like to have everything in its place. That is really the only time I'm happy is when everything is neat and ordered.



So I found it a tragedy when az anyam and az apam setup my water table and my sandbox.


I wanted the sand in the water table and the water in the sandbox.



So I have made it my mission to move the sand from the sandbox....



into the water table.

And the water from the water table....

into the sandbox.



The world will be a happier place once I achieve this.

High Eight Us

I'm going to take a few days hiatus. I'll be back on Friday.

I just got a new Thomas book I need to work my way through.

Also, Mama and Papa arrived in town and I'm going to spend some quality time with them.

To Dance or to Eat?

Dancing is work. But I love to dance. Not only do I love to dance, I need to dance. I also love to eat. I also need to eat. Sometimes life is so confusing. It's like if I had two roads in front of me...which should I take? Or if I had two loves, which should I leave? The blond or the brunette. I think I would ditch the blond if it were the feast of the Pentecost.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5103712593342297746

I was able to find the perfect solution. To the food vs dance question. Not the blond/brunette thing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5103713439450855074

To eat and dance. I can strut my stuff with a graham cracker in my hand, just as well as if I didn't. (There's one in my hand in the video if you can't see it due to the graininess of google's cheap video interface.)

I don't want to work, I just want to bang on the keyboard all day

As much as I love gadgets, remote controls, keyless entry, cellphones, my true love is the computer. You would think with as many computers as we have in the house, az anyam and az apam would allow me to frolic on them liberally. But Noooooooooooooooooo, I have to surreptitiously plot and scheme to get time on them.



Yesterday, I saw az apam's computer open and I didn't see az apam. I sprinted over to his computer opened Microsoft Word, got into the Visual Basic Editor and started whipping up some VBA script. And then az apam returned.

I don't know when I'm going to have a chance to write that virus that will enable me to take over the world when az apam and az anyam keep interrupting me.

We grow up so quickly

What is wrong with wanting to be a grown-up? I have many wonderful role models in my life who are adults. I'm just trying to follow their leads - playing on computers and blackberries, talking on cell phones, drinking from adult cups, etc.

I'm even trying to play games like an adult. Even though it doesn't always quite work. Especially when there are distractions like food around.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5102232216899614290

Sometimes I need some alone time

I wish the paparazzi (or in this case the parent-azzi) would leave me alone sometimes. I feel like Timothy Stack with this utter and total lack of privacy.

Look at the recent postings - Mate in the tub, Mate eating, Mate playing, Mate at the beach, Mate in a laundry basket. Can't a boy sit in a laundry basket without getting filmed? Yesterday I got fed up with it:

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5101849277615502914

Framing your frame of mind

So much of life is enjoying the moment. Conditions have to be just right for an even to truly be memorable. Would anyone remember Caesar saying "Alea iacta est" if he hadn't just crossed the Rubicon with his army? What if he had said it just because the dinner table had been set and the food served on random day in 50BC? Another example - if Archimedes hadn't been taking a bath when he discovered the concept of volume calculation via displacement, would he have been remembered? No. Well, maybe. But it would not have been nearly as cool of a story.

I don't need to be an ancient Greek mathematician or invade Rome to have profoundly memorable moments. I just need a laundry basket.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5101489801737729554

Phone calls have a special impact when taken in a laundry basket.

Laundry baskets are also great places to watch TV, fold laundry, BBQ dinner, drive a car, get a diaper changed or even have a beer. Hear me now, think about it later and give it a try sometime next week. You'll thank me.

To love the bath or hate the bath?

I've gone through stretches of my life where I've loved bathing and stretches where I've hated bathing. I love playing with toys and dumping the water from one container into another, but the whole water thing is a bit beyond me.

For the last two weeks I decided to hate bathing. I enjoy walking over to the tub, watching it fill and getting it undressed. I really like sticking my hand under the tap while the water gushes out. I just don't want to get into the water. As soon as I get put into the water, I'll try climbing back out of the tub, or at a minimum stand at the edge of the tub calmly requesting az apam remove me from the tub.

Az apam just figured out that if he can get me to sit down in the tub and to play with toys before I realize I'm belly button-deep in water, we're all good. I won't even really complain when he washes my hair with this approach.

The latest in avant-garde fashion

You can keep Junya Watanabe and Margiela. If you want true revolutionary fashion, you talk to me. These other people are so caught up in the historical definitions of clothing.

In the new post-post-modern world of chic garb, I will be king. Just like with the rest of the world. And in my kingdom, food will be the new chartreuse. I've been experimenting for the last few months. Most of you saw the masterpieces - Mate and Cousins in Cookie Monster. That blue looked pretty good, but I think I am more of a spaghetti sauce skin tone.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5100583396134548946

They laughed at Donald J. Trump, Chris Berman, Shawn John Combs (doing business as Puff Daddy, doing business as Mr. Ditty), Vincent K. McMahon, Meals on Wheels, Saddam Hussein, Jewish workers at NBC/Universal, Elizabeth Smart, James Hoffa, http://www.google.com/, Pope Benedict XVI, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, John Deere, http://www.accuweather.com/, Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party, Roc-A-Fella Records, Shawn Carter (doing business at Jay-Z), Japan's Nikkei Stock Exchange, Gambino (crime family), Three Mile Island, Tony Danza, Islamic Republic of Iran, University of Miami, GEICO Insurance, Jewish State of Israel, Soledad O'Brien, Tsunami victims, The American Red Cross, Jessica Alba, Charles Moose, al-Qaida Islamic Arm,Fruit of the Loom, Outback Steakhouse, The Panama Canal Commission, Kelly Clarkson, 13 tribes of Israel, Plato, Lincoln Memorial, Boris Becker, Various Buddhist monks, Christina Applegate, Jewish Mossad, National Vanguard Books, Mein Kampf, Venus Williams, Medieval Times, Denny's, Brotherhood of the Snake, Larry King, Larry King Live 9 p.m., Rastafarian natives, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, The Illuminati, Wu-Tang Clan, Wu Wear Inc., Nordic gods, The Da Vinci Code, Sears Tower, Mike Tyson, Native American Fish Society, Green Bay's Lambeau Field, Pizza Hut, Ming Dynasty, Barry Bonds, Gangs in Hong Kong, Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, National Hockey League Players' Association, Philadelphia Eagles (2005 roster, including Donovan McNabb) and last, but not least, The Waffle House. But I will be the one laughing at the end on this one.

No means No

How can I make this clearer? I do not like the water. If I did not enjoy dangling my feet in a little creek, why would I enjoy going into the ocean?





Auntie Em and Christina Neni were visitting and they decided to take me to the beach. The beach is a fun place. It's like a giant sandbox. The water at the edge of the beach is not so nice. Fortunately, they picked up on my subtle signals that I was not into going swimming and let me do my own thing in the sand.

Actually, I didn't just do my own thing. Auntie Em buried my legs in the sand. That was pretty cool. I also went cruising the beach for young ladies.

Dance Music

I have to add to my previous post that the music I am dancing to in the first video is from my cousins, Sari and Sandor. I've written extensively about them in previous postings.

I love that CD. I love dancing. I can't wait to dance to Kaszalj, Kaszalj Pok with them.

Here is their blog: http://webbosfamily.blogspot.com/

I really like to dance

One thing I got to do in Vermont is dance. Dance, dance, dance, I really like to dance.

I danced everywhere. Especially inside hiding from the rain. I danced inside.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6787933919860130045&hl=en

I danced while in my chair at the dinner table.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2189408263163709333&hl=en

Sometimes my dancing looked more like running, but it was dancing.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4229997536372026531&hl=en

I danced while sitting in the grass.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4889925289669878834&hl=en

And sometimes (after dancing all day) I danced in my dreams. This was on the way home from the concert.

I love a lot, but NOT WATER

Being in Vermont, we did Vermont things. We tasted cheese. We ate granola. We went hiking in our Birkenstocks. There were pretty mountains and a cool river.

We mostly walked along the side of the river, but then we (az anyam and az apam) decided to go down to the river bed. I enjoyed this until certain people who were with me went overboard. I like playing with small amounts of water. I like looking at water.

BUT DON'T PUT ME IN IT. DON'T EVEN DANGLE MY FEET IN THE WATER.

Can't a man get some peace and quiet?

As future conqueror of the world, there are always people wanting to get in touch with me. I am always busy, busy, busy. I rue the day I asked for a cell phone.

One of the reasons I went to Vermont was to just get away from it all. I figured they don't build cell phone towers out of granola and Ben and Jerry's so I would have nothing to worry about up there. I was wrong. I couldn't even get through a nice dinner in a restaurant without getting bothered on my cell phone.



So when we got home I turned my phone off and went to sleep. It was quite nice to be in my own bed again.


Then people started bugging me on az anyam's cell phone. Being a future world conqueror stinks sometimes.

Hey good looking, what you got cooking

Vacation was wonderful. Vermont reminds me a lot of Hamilton. If Hamilton were rainy and full of trees with a ton of mountains with ski areas and trails and no factories other than timber mills. So it is not really like Hamilton, but it did rain a ton.


We didn't have much opportunity to get out and do stuff because of all the rain, so I worked on my cooking skills. I've gotten really good at putting a strainer on top of another strainer.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8577545615325059874&hl=en

Top Chef here I come.

How much is that doggy on the other side of the fence?

Am I being kept in or are the dogs being kept out?

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5095297368931550770

Shirley Neni and John Bacsi have two wicked awesome dogs. They are the coolest toys - they move and make noise even when you don't squeeze them. They make even cooler noises when you do. But for some reason I was kept from them all Saturday afternoon. We were like Pyramus and Thisbe. If Pyramus were a one year-old boy and Thisbe were two little, white dogs.

Out of the Office

I am going to be in Vermont this week eating granola, wearing sandals and protesting Ben and Jerry.

Come back next week for all sorts of exciting news from my vacation.

Gadgets, gadgets everywhere

Learning to use them is a bear.

Or requires beer. Or something.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5094439397674567138

As much as I love my remote controls, they don't always act as they should. I point the remote at where the music is coming from and I should be able to change the song, the volume, etc. Right? It doesn't seem to work.

I've thoroughly investigated these speaker things, both the right and the left. Nothing seems to make them work from the remote control.

Strawberry, raspberry, elderberry, gooseberry, boysenberry....

Ever since I was a baby I have loved gadgets. Remote controls are my personal favorites, but I don't really discriminate. I've always been a fan of phones. I've been calling Nagymama quite a bit on az anyam's cellphone. I love banging on computer keyboards. I really enjoy discovering new things on gadgets.

The Holy Grail of gadgets has been az apam's Blackberry. Yesterday, I found the coolest trick you can do with a Blackberry. It's got a function on it that makes parents freak out. It took a lot of time and testing to figure it out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5093908883314165154

I'm going to have to try this with az anyam's computer next. I'm sure that would make them freak out as well.

Did you hear about the one with the lion, the rabbi and the hippo?

Neither have I. I was trying to read it in one of my books when I was interrupted....well not really interrupted, but watched. Watched by that eye that is always watching.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MatthewStrada/Export/photo#5093703077071275410

I enjoy reading by myself much more than having somebody read to me. I can point at the pictures in the book and talk while flipping through the pages just as well as az anyam es az apam.