January 7, 2008, 12:23am.

Wow, I am totally blown away by this evening's email from Kylie Woodard, my former Helpdesk co-worker at Synopsys. At 10:22pm she sent an email to a few of us "close friends" within Synopsys, I picked up my Blackberry JUST BY CHANCE at 10:37pm; what I read was probably in the shock factor range of 9 or 9.5 (Jeana occupies the factor of 10 level).

Alisa Banuelos, whom both Kylie and all the Helpdesk Team worked with closely for Aart DeGeus (the CEO of Synopsys) passed away yesterday evening at 9:35pm. I was shocked to read every bit of Kylie's brief email. No cause, no explanation, just that she was sad to say that, "Alisa had passed and was surrouned by family and friends . . ."

I'm still a bit upset, crying, because it brought back strong memories of Jeana's death. I went to see the movie "I Am Legend," with Will Smith. Dad picked me up at around 6:10pm and we saw it at Mercado. That movie also had some dramatic scenes of this soldier (Will Smith) protecting his wife and son, but losing them BOTH in a helicopter crash. He had thought they were both safe on board a Coast Guard chopper, but about 30 seconds after take off another chopper struck into the Coast Guard helicopter (the other choppy was taken down by some zombie-mutant types who tried to commandeer the aircraft).

It was a GREAT movie, but saddening when I thought about Jeana. So powerful, that's when you know a movie is good. When it makes a 34 year old cry like a baby, it's a damn good flick. :)

I'm going to bed now, tired and have to perform the Aperture Recalculation when I get up at 7:00am. OH JOY!!!!! ;)

Good night all. God, take care of Alisa's 10 year old son, and help her family get through this tradgedy quickly. I applied to be a Big Brother for her son this evening. I hope in some small way, whether it's once a month, or once a week, that I can help this little guy through this tough time, and be there to do fun stuff that my Dad did with me.

God Bless ALL of the Banuelos in their time of need. Amen.

Sincerely,

Brian

January 6, 2008, 8:52am

Happy New Year ! ! ! Wow, I still can't believe we're six days into 2008......it seemed like 2007 went by waaaaay too fast. :)

Christmas 2007 was awesome, and although heavily broke from J. Barnes not paying the wife's wages on-time, we had a great X-Mas filled with laughter, family, and good times. New Years Eve was un-eventful, we simply kicked back, had a nice dinner at Grandma's (Tia's house) and let the kids stay up WAAAAAAAY too late watching movies. Logan's new favorite is Polar Express with Tom Hanks. We shouted, "Happy New Year!!!!!" at midnight with the rest of the Pacific Time Zone folks, and stayed up till about 1:30am enjoying the sounds, music, and TV specials they had on covering new years.

Tressa DVR'd the Evanesence: Live Set on VH1 for me. She loves Evanesence too, so it was a nice bonus show for me. She also snagged Cathouse: The Musical, so can't wait to watch that one. ;) Who doesn't love a shaved kitty any way? LOL!!!!!!!

I bought Rome Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at Best Buy for X-Mas, he's gonna love it. The demo of the game is incredibly realistic and I want a copy some day too! :)

I also install "Insurgency" which is an Army/Marine MOD for HL2, it's pretty cool, but so real it's hard getting used to team tactics and being blown to bits by one rifle bullet. :(

We finally got the 2 tires Tressa needed for her Toyota Sienna XLE as well. They're BFGoodrich Touring Precept tires, and they ride nicely (great price $73.00 each at America's Tire store).

I might have to snag me a Blu-Ray DVD player from Frys or Circuit City soon. They're about $239 now, so that's a great price for a device that can crank out 4 or 5 times the resolution of a normal DVD!!!

Well, that's it for now....Tressa found my Canon SD700IS camera bag, so we now have the battery charger back and can actually USE the camera! ;)

Welcome to 2008, "Pos si ! ! ! !" Quien Sabe!!!? :-)

Brian