Recent Entries
Thanksgiving Weekend
November 28th, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving everybody! We spent a quiet weekend with just our little family. I was looking forward to cooking a nice Thanksgiving meal. Instead of turkey, we did Cornish Game Hens. Yum! ...
My Top 10 Beatles Songs
June 15th, 2010
My Mom asked me what my top 10 Beatles songs were. I'm don't know everything about the Beatles and their music (although I've learned a lot since marrying Alyssa), so I knew that I couldn't make a...
Games, Games, and More Games - part 4
January 7th, 2010
The latest in a series (see part 1 and part 2 and part 3) describing the games that we've purchased. Munchkin Impossible Alyssa has wanted this ever since we played it with our friends in CA,...
Can't Buy Me Love... But You Can Buy Me Rockband
September 15th, 2009
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, Alyssa and I were eagerly awaiting the release of Beatles Rockband, which was released last week. In the months before its release, we geared up for it with...
Pachinko Machine
August 24th, 2009
My parents bought a pachinko machine a number of years ago at a garage sale. We played with it when we were kids, so when we went to visit, I got it out for Ethan. He liked it. Pachinko is...
Beatles Rockband Countdown
July 19th, 2009
As many of you know, Alyssa and I are big Beatles fans and we are anxiously awaiting the upcoming release of the Beatles Rockband game. When we first saw the trailer for it, we knew we had to get...
Mowing the Lawn
June 6th, 2009
Now that I'm a home owner, I have the responsibility of taking care of my lawn. Our house is on a corner lot and the previous owners idea of landscaping was to lay grass--lots and lots of...
Victory Button
January 26th, 2009
Alyssa got me one of these for Christmas and it's one of my favorite presents--ever! Many of you might be familiar with the Staples "Easy" Button. You press it and it says, "That was easy!" It a...
Lang-8: Great Site for Language Study
January 19th, 2009
I haven't been posting here recently because I've been posting a lot at a new site called Lang-8. It's a site to help with language learning. The idea is this: post a blog entry on the language...
Photoblog: Zoo Lights
December 7th, 2008
We went to the Zoo Lights yesterday at the Hogle Zoo. I brought along my camera so take some pictures. Here's how they turned out. There were standard Christams-type decorations like the...
Headphones
November 24th, 2008
Ethan Modeling My New Headphones Recently I bought a set of Sennheiser HD 485 headphones. I had been experiencing headphone envy working with my co-workers who all seem to have a nice set of...
Monster-peice Theatre
November 15th, 2008
Hooray for another joint blog. Alyssa is writing her version and I'm writing mine. For the past few Octobers, Alyssa tries to watch as many scary movies as possible. To tell the truth, I'm not too...
Pumpkin Carving
October 29th, 2008
A couple of weeks ago, Grandma Whipple took Ethan and us to pick out pumpkins. I really enjoy carving pumpkins. Every year we do it, I try to do something new and original. (See a previous...
Is There a Doctor in the House?
October 20th, 2008
li { padding: 1em 0; } Lately, I've thought a lot about becoming a doctor. Which is not to say that I plan on becoming a doctor, but just that I've thought about what it would be like to be one. ...
New Computer
September 13th, 2008
Our old computer was having some troubles recently, so we decided to get a new one. In situations like this I guess it's custom to post all the specs, but honestly I don't really know them. I got...
Whipple Fun in Park City
August 10th, 2008
This last weekend, the Whipple family got together in Park City. We all had a pretty good time just hanging out together, playing SingStar and Wii, sitting in the hot-tub, and putting on a talent...
Stuffed Peppers: The Recipe Creation Process
August 6th, 2008
Some people have asked me how I come up with certain recipes. When I tell them that I just thought about it, then came up with it, they're generally not satisfied. So here is the entire process...
Tri-blog-athon
July 20th, 2008
If I took the time to write in my blog more, these would likely be four separate entries. As it is, I'm cramming them into one to clear my queue and start over, hoping that I'll take the time to...
Hawkeye
June 26th, 2008
While at the recent family reunion in Idaho, I went for a walk along the grounds of the lodge we were staying at. I heard a loud, screeching call and looked up to see a hawk circling me. It...
The Ants Go Marching
June 26th, 2008
Fortunately, the ants are only marching one-by-one at this point, but it's still not something we want to say "Hurrah! Hurrah!" about. We found the ant in the picture crawling through our house...
Games, Games and More Games, Part 3
June 7th, 2008
The latest in a series (see part 1 and part 2) describing the games that we've purchased. Citadels We first played Citadels with the Madsens. The Gist of the Game - Players pay to build...
New Apartment: Orem
June 2nd, 2008
Now that we've moved in (finally), got everything unpacked (almost) and finished decorating (mostly), we decided to put up some pictures of our new place. Alyssa wanted to add some new colorful...
What Chris Will Miss About California
May 3rd, 2008
Top 5 Things Chris Will Miss About California 5. Beaches/Mountains Although we didn't go that often, I really enjoyed going to the beach. This was the first time I've ever lived really lived...
Happy Birthday to Me!
April 8th, 2008
Today I turned 30. The big three-oh. To celebrate, Alyssa bought me this cake from a Japanese bakery located near the Japanese grocery store we always go to. The cake is beautiful. I was...
18 Again
March 29th, 2008
Alyssa tagged me into writing "6 Things Every Person Should Accomplish Before They Turn 18". I tried to come up with an interesting list, but because I wasn't a very interesting person, the list is...
The Mystery Spot
February 17th, 2008
While Alyssa's Mom was visiting us, we decided to take her to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. The Mystery Spot is a place where things don't behave like you think they should, as explained in the...
MindTrap
February 10th, 2008
Our ward recently had a swap meet, so Alyssa and I took it as an opportunity to get rid of stuff. While going through our games, Alyssa suggested we get rid of MindTrap and MindTrap II. Because...
California Christmas v2.0
December 30th, 2007
This was our second Christmas in California and our first Christmas with Ethan! These are a set of bubble lights that my brother got us for Christmas. I loved the set that we had growing up (we...
Japanese Drama Reviews
December 22nd, 2007
As promised, here is a review of some of the Japanese dramas I've seen. You can download them at D-Addicts.[1] or you can email me and I might be able to make a copy for you. 鉄板少女アカネ...
Reasons Japanese TV is Better than American TV
December 20th, 2007
I've been watching a few Japanese dramas lately and I've been really enjoying them. It's interesting to compare to American TV. The biggest difference is the format. American shows are created...
Wired
December 18th, 2007
Recently, I discovered a way to download Japanese television dramas from the internet. Watching them is a nice way to pass the time while I'm feeding Ethan or eating lunch. I really enjoyed some of...
Killer Christmas Carols
December 2nd, 2007
Like I said in my last post, I hate Christmas songs. It's not that I hate all Christmas songs, but most of them are cheesy, sappy, and some are downright dumb. Here are a few of the things I hate...
Seven Habits of Highly Chris-like People
November 28th, 2007
Alyssa challenged me in a blog she wrote a while ago to write seven little-known facts about myself. Here they are, in no particular order. td {vertical-align:top; padding-bottom: 20px;} 1....
Complete Redesign
November 16th, 2007
On a whim we decided to rearrange the furniture. Here are some pictures showing the new layout. As you can see, we've completely rearranged everything. This arrangement makes the "dining...
Lights, Camera!
November 7th, 2007
Alyssa and I have been saving up for a nice camera ever since Ethan was born. The video camera we bought is good, but we wanted a nice still camera to capture some of Ethan's cutest moments. This...
Ramadan
September 30th, 2007
Our neighbors are Muslim and they invited us to a Ramadan feast last night. Ramadan is the month (on the Islamic lunar calendar) in which the Qur'an was revealed to the prophet Mohammad (peace be...
Games, Games, and More Games - Part 2
September 21st, 2007
It's been only five months since my last entry about all the games we've bought. Since many people ask us about game recommendations, here are the games we've bought since...
All Creatures of Our God and King
September 16th, 2007
Last night Alyssa started working on her lesson for Young Womens: The Importance of Life. It starts out talking about how wonderful nature is and how God has given us such great natural...
It's the Devil! The Freakin' Devil!
September 6th, 2007
I've chosen to do a nutrition theme for one of my classes, so I made a graphic that I thought would be appropriate. I recently listened to a science podcast in which the interviewee was saying that...
Blogging Along, Singing a Song
September 4th, 2007
As you can see, I've redesigned my blog page. I did this for a number of reasons. The title was obsure - The previous title (tail life.txt | grep interseting) was a Linux command that essentially...
In the Warm California Sun
September 2nd, 2007
California weather, tired of being called "boring", has punished me by raising the temperature of boring to 90° plus this last week (the forecast above is for next week, which looks like it might...
More Audiobooks
August 20th, 2007
Here's an update of the books I've been listening to while I'm watching Ethan. The Assault on Reason by Al Gore - This book talks about the American culture's drift away from logic and reason. He...
My Life as a Cartoon Character
August 19th, 2007
There are a couple of places on the web where you can create an avatar for yourself as a character in that show. Alyssa did it too. Here are a couple of mine: Chris as a Simpson's Character Chris...
My Week as a Single Parent
August 19th, 2007
Alyssa left for Milwaukee on Wednesday afternoon. By Saturday, I was going crazy. Most of the week was fine. I took care of Ethan, I baked bread, I cleaned the house, I even got a couple hours of...
Squirrels
July 19th, 2007
While growing up my mom would go walking at a park while my siblings and I played there. There were squirrels there that were fascinating to watch. Ever since then, I've had a soft spot for...
I Want My MP3
July 8th, 2007
I recently purchased an mp3 player. Now that Ethan's here, I spend a lot of time holding him and walking him and feeding him. I figured this time could be put to good use if I had something to...
Baby Geniuses: The Gentle Revolution
July 1st, 2007
I've wondered about how to help Ethan learn and I've been interested in the development of the brain in these early stages, so I've been reading some books on baby intelligence. One series that was...
Welcome Home!
June 14th, 2007
Alyssa and I just returned from our two-week vacation to Utah. We went for the wedding of my sister-in-law, Noelle. While there, we did Ethan's blessing, so everyone came down for a visit. Whew!...
"Photoshopping" Should Not Be a Verb
May 21st, 2007
I've been playing around with image editing tonight. Thought I'd share some of my creations. This one was created from a picture of me and Ethan. I was playing around with color, but couldn't...
Teacher for Hire: Homeschooling Update
May 18th, 2007
I just finished teaching another science lesson to the Homeschool kids. This will be the third 'official' lesson that I've taught, so I thought I'd put up some of my thoughts and observations. Age...
Games, Games, and More Games
April 11th, 2007
Alyssa and I love playing board games. When we lived in Kansas, our apartment was often used as a tour apartment for those who wanted to move into the complex. The management mentioned that almost...
Linux Lessons: My Attempt to Help Out
April 11th, 2007
Like I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on a website that will contain lessons/articles/HowTos about Linux in general and Kubuntu specifically. Well, I've finished it and it can now be...
Chris says, "Yay!"
April 2nd, 2007
I've been using Linux for about three years now. Along the way I've picked up a lot of information and a lot of experience in dealing with the operating system. It's an exciting time to be a...
Hike #6: Skyline Ridge with the Homeschoolers
March 25th, 2007
Last Friday I went on a Nature/Science hike with the Homeschool families. I decided to take them to Skyline Ridge because the trail isn't all that challenging. As you can see, we have a wide...
New Camcorder
March 21st, 2007
Alyssa's been saving for a camcorder ever since we found out that she's pregnant. Yesterday we finally purchased it. After much research and deliberation, we decided to go with the Sony...
Hike #5: Los Trancos Open Space Preserve
March 15th, 2007
We've been having gorgeous (albeit boring) weather lately, and I'm finally getting over the cold I've had recently. Sounds like time for another hike. Los Trancos is located across the street...
The Evolution of Homeschoolers
March 9th, 2007
A group of parents in our stake have formed a homeschooling co-op that meets every Friday. I volunteered to teach a science lesson to them every two weeks. Today was my first lesson. I decided to...
Monterey Bay Aquarium
February 18th, 2007
Alyssa and I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday with our friends, the Madsens. We had a really good time, although the aquarium was really crowded. Also, there we fewer benches and...
Hike #4: Skyline Ridge Open Space Reserve
February 15th, 2007
This trail is in the same general areas as hikes #2 and #3, so I'm getting used to the road there. It's used by a lot of bicyclists, so I'm sometimes stuck behind a cyclist going uphill on a...
Rain
February 9th, 2007
This is the view out of our apartment this morning. It's been rainy most of the week, but it's really coming down today. When we first moved to California, I was a little disappointed in the...
Hike #3: Monte Bello Open Space Reserve
February 7th, 2007
I had decided to go on a hike today, even though the forecast called for rain. I packed an extra sweatshirt, my gloves, and earwarmers just in case. I arrived at Monte Bello (near Upper Stevens...
My Watch
February 5th, 2007
I used to work in the Mens shop at the BYU Bookstore. One of the items we sold were watches. Most of the watches were traditional wristwatches, but some of the watches we sold could clip to your...
Hike #2: Upper Stevens Creek
January 31st, 2007
For this hike I wanted to find a place that was further away from civilization, with more trees. Most of my information for the trails around here comes from the Bay Area Hiker, and while looking...
Hike #1: Almaden Lake Park
January 26th, 2007
Since the doctor told me that I should exercise more, I thought I'd try checking out the hiking trails around the south Bay area. First up, Almaden Lake Park Trail. This trail was nearly...
Can't You See I'm Burning, Burning
January 25th, 2007
I've always been cautious about going to the doctor. If I can put it off, I usually will. Alyssa always asked why and my answers have been unable to explain my real feelings. I went the doctor...
Monkey Shines
January 24th, 2007
Our friend Wayne is an excellent painter, so we commissioned him to do a painting for Ethan's room. If you don't know already, we've decided to do a safari theme and we love the painting that he...
US Bunk
January 23rd, 2007
While cleaning for and getting ready for the baby to come, Alyssa and I came across a jar full of change (mostly pennies). I was going to the bank yesterday, so I thought I'd deposit them. I went...
Science at the Beach
January 20th, 2007
We've lived in California for about six months and we've never really been to the beach before. So today we went to a beach located just a few miles south of Carmel (near Monterey). (When I told...
Sickly Sam Dreams a Dream
January 19th, 2007
"I'm sad that I'm flying" I haven't been feeling very well this past week. One day Alyssa says that she has a sore throat and the next day I get one too. The sore throat goes away for her, but...
For the "Steak" of My Country
January 14th, 2007
I had a dream about Japan last night. I have a lot of dreams about Japan actually. The dream has caused me to reflect about my relationship with Japan, so I've decided to write about it. Reasons...
Cribbage
January 2nd, 2007
Alyssa and I spent the last few days shopping for a crib. I'm taking a small amount of comfort in knowing that this will be the single most expensive thing we buy for our new baby, but it's still...
Let it Go, Let it Go, Let it Go
December 21st, 2006
As some of you might know, I've been interested in Go for about a year now. Go is an ancient game that originated in China, but is popular in Japan and Korea as well. I learned about it when I...
Food, Glorious Food
December 17th, 2006
We recently got together with some friends in the ward for a cook-off. The idea was to try new and interesting recipes to share with everyone else. I was really excited for this when we first...
Feel the Power of the Dark Side!
December 14th, 2006
"Let your anger consume you!" I came across an interesting article this morning and thought I'd comment on it. The article has some offensive language in it, so I'll sum it up here, but those...
Come, Let Us Go Up to the Mountain of the Lord
December 10th, 2006
Yesterday two missionaries knocked on my door. The odd thing was, they weren't Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses. They were from the Church of God and wanted me to fill out a survey. The survey had...
Another Ultrasound Picture
November 24th, 2006
This is another picture from the ultrasound. The ultrasound technology picks up bone tissue really well, so what we're seen is basically the skull of our baby. Alyssa says that it looks like Jack...
Beautiful Boy
November 21st, 2006
Alyssa and I just got back from our ultrasound visit. It's a boy! We're both really excited about it. It was really interesting to see the ultrasound. It's so much easier to figure out what's...
Love and Movies
November 19th, 2006
Alyssa and I decided to each write about this topic separately, then compare our writings. You can see hers at Alyssa's Blog. Most couples fight over things like money and children. Alyssa and I...
Slow Slow Quick Quick
November 18th, 2006
I've been sick during the past couple of days--nothing big, just a little head cold. Mostly I just lay around feeling tired, which gives me plenty of time to read. Now that we've got our new...
Our New Bookshelves
November 14th, 2006
mouse over the bookshelf to see it open Alyssa and I decided to get a bookshelf a long time ago. In our first apartment, there was never really a place for one, so we kept most of our books in...
The GP2X: An Analysis
November 13th, 2006
A few weeks ago I ran across this machine while browsing online. It's a Linux-based hand-held gaming console. It's been a while since I've seen something and felt a "must have" feeling, but I did...
McChurch
November 5th, 2006
I recently started doing more origami. It's something fun to do to keep my hands occupied during church. I actually listen better when I'm doing something with my hands and it makes the meetings...
The Creativity of Halloween
October 31st, 2006
This is my Halloween Costume. If you can't tell from the picture, it's meant to look like me riding a little midget/monster. I supported the fake legs with PVC pipe and stuffed the legs and arms...
Got 115 Exp. Chris Leveled Up!
October 30th, 2006
I recently started playing Final Fantasy V again. Alyssa and I had played about halfway through when Alyssa got bored and wanted to move on to more exciting games (Final Fantasy VII). We started...
Mirrors on the Internet
October 22nd, 2006
I was looking around flickr.com to look for ideas on how to arrange the photo section of our site. Just for fun I thought I'd type in my name and search for that. Mostly, I got pictures of the...
This is a song for the text departed
October 20th, 2006
I've included the above clip for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to see if I could embed a clip in my blog. The answer is: Yes I can. But it's kind of a pain to put together. First, I...
Pathos Logos (Wecos Vinosec)
October 18th, 2006
My last entry bemoaned the fact that I've been less and less interested in fiction. The next day I was listening to RadioWest (a radio program based in Utah--I listen to its podcast) on which Doug...
Another Saturday, Another Blog Entry
October 14th, 2006
Alyssa and I have updated the website with a complete makeover. We added a Flash-based banner that includes pictures of us. We also redid the colors on our site, going with something more bluish. ...
Flex Your Kung Fu
October 11th, 2006
Well, the website is finally "live" so to speak. Up until now it's existed only on my computer at home, accessible only to computers hooked up to our little network (basically my computer and my...
Why I Quit Teaching
September 23rd, 2006
Seed Magazine has an article about a mathematician who started a fund to improve public math education by paying those who have higher math degrees more money. The idea is to attract people who are...