Work has been extremely busy, causing me to be extremely quiet on the blogging and email fronts. Here’s a quick catch-up:

Family

Charlie and Samantha are taking swimming classes and Samantha is playing Volleyball now! Beth and I took the family on two (short) trips this summer – the Grand Canyon+Sedona first and then a trip to Disneyland. Both a lot of fun! OH, and Kyria, my older sister, made me an excellent scarf (patterned after the one worn by Tom Baker in season 12 of Doctor Who) – it’s awesome!!

Homestead

We’re working on several cool projects at Homestead and we’ve recently brought a lot of great new talent on board. Our customers are happier than ever and they have a lot to look forward to later this year and next.

Games

I played and finished Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Portal. Very fun, fairly short games. Portal exceeded my expectations and delivered a unique experience that I’ll never forget. Bravo!

Gadgets

I’m jazzed to see the new Nokia n810. I’ve been a believer in the internet tablets (770, n800) for a while now, but recently I’ve been bugged that they don’t fit in your pocket. The n810 fixes all that by being just a little bigger than an iPhone. Imagine a Nintendo DS Lite MINUS the top screen/speaker assembly – that’s the size of the new n810. Wifi, 800×480, GPS, Slide-out-Keyboard, smooth youtube – IN YOUR POCKET. It’s unbelievable. Looks like Nokia really found the sweet spot with the new device. More from ThoughtFix and Atmasphere. Specs at Engadget.

Software

OS X Leopard looks GREAT, particularly the Time Machine versioned backup system. Nine more days! And the (better-late-than-never) iPhone SDK is coming in February. I’m really enjoying Apple’s products lately.

TV

Kitchen Nightmares is the only series I’m really attached to right now. Heroes has a lot to make up for after last season’s disappointing finale. Probably won’t be very excited about TV until the next seasons of Lost, Doctor Who, Life on Mars and Battlestar Galactica arrive.