Licescapades

Greetings all. The holidays have seen us sharing the season with so many good friends and family. We've also had several new visitors. Several hundred, in fact. Yes, lice have come a'calling to the Mehl household. Beginning with Sydney, and now moving onto Emelie, these vile little micro-menaces have become quite the ultra-nuisance.

The girls have suffered from the ongoing hair washing, nit-picking, and folicle probing. Poor Lori has suffered probably even more from having to administer all of the above procedures despite the insistent whining and moaning of the patients. Plus she's had to nuke all the sheets, towels and carpet almost hourly. I must say, Lori has taken to the cause of eradication with the zeal of a Hamas bomber.

We're not quite sure where the little buggers came from, but most certainly from some unknowing (hopefully) second grader. Both girls are a few inches shorter on hair now and truly know the feeling of a fine-toothed comb. Hopefully the little creeps will go out with the New Year. (The lice, not my daughters.)

Speaking of the year end, I know it's been a few weeks since I've blogged. That's been a side effect of a crazy December. Several huge projects wrapped yesterday. I've been working intense hours, but to the benefit of Binary Pulse. All kinds of good, exciting stuff going on. We have a new employee starting January 9th, and plenty of good business lining up for Q1. 2005 was the best year ever, with revenues up approximately 20% over last year...our previous "best year."

Christmas was great and I'm working on an epic photo essay on the main site. So stay tuned for that. I'll put all the details of the season in that.

Have a safe and happy and lice-free New Year! See you in 2006.

(F) Inwardly Mobile, pt.2

Conner fell in beneath a cloister with a group of twenty or so residents who shared his entrance to Tower Four. Most of them were Ring Threes. The phosphorescent blue ridges beneath the skin on top of their hands glowed confirmation. Ring Threes were an erratic bunch as Core residents went. Most lasted only two years. One out of every five graduated inward to Ring Two, while the other four were either evicted or left under their own will — or, rather, lack of it. The Core isn’t for everyone, Conner thought.

Conner smiled pleasantly at the guards bookending the large arched portal to Tower Four as he took his place in the security queue. Checking his watch, he saw it was 6:05. Five minutes here, ten to the Ring Two gate, five minutes there. Six minutes up, inside at 6:33. Food, robe…I’ll be fine.

Every minute of Conner’s day was focused on witnessing the moment of Exposure. Most Ring Twos had lost the sense of urgency around seeing the Core revealed at the stroke of seven, but none of Conner’s zealousness had abated during his three years in the middle Ring. He mused it was this very righteousness that brought him to the eve of Ring One ascension. Ahva had always thought it was unhealthy compulsion.

Conner and Ahva had been separated for two years. They had met and married in Ring Three and graduated to Ring Two together. They made it a year before the pregnancy and the conflict that doomed their marriage. I chose the Core over my wife.

“Step inside, Mr. Vim.” Conner was stirred from his meditation by the portal attendant. “Mr. Vim, your truth, please?”

Conner flashed an embarrassed grin at the guard and stepped forward under the security arch. He was bathed in an amber light as he placed his right hand atop a glowing sensor beside him.

A cool, synthesized voice enveloped him, its benevolent timbre resonant and soothing. “Conner Vim. Your truth, please.”

Conner had long since conditioned himself for this nightly routine. Ring Three truths came almost unconsciously and were generally painless. But only with pain do we enjoy the relieving salve of truth.

“A new one then?” Conner inquired into the ether.

“If you please, Mr. Vim,” the disembodied voice replied.

Conner cleared his throat. “When I was seven, I challenged my best friend, Anton, to a contest. The goal was to see who could hit my neighbors’ quasi-dog whelping with a rock. It was cocooned up in a storage shed next to their house, about a week until it went sentient. It was a child’s game, a stupid idea,” Conner chuckled, shaking his head with the memory. “I won, I guess you’d say. I severed the tether membrane with a well-placed throw and sent their beloved pet spilling to the floor. I swore Anton to secrecy. I told no one what we did. Ever.”

Conner looked up expectantly at the overhead light, but it remained amber. Behind him, an increasingly anxious Ring Three resident nervously checked her watch and looked at Conner with an expression between impatience and feigned support.

“Ummm, and…the next day, when my neighbor’s father came by to ask if I had seen anyone throwing rocks at his shed, I…he was looking at me with suspicion.” Conner sighed and shrugged his shoulders in capitulation. “I sold out Anton. My best friend, I blamed it on my best friend. What’s worse, Anton told me the next day that my neighbor’s father had spoken to his dad. Even after he told me he had received a beating, I told him nothing. I didn’t tell him it was me that ratted him out. In fact, I fabricated a lie that the neighborhood prude, Tasha Colvert, must’ve pinned the act on him in retaliation for his teasing at school. Anton hated her for the next two years before he moved off-world. He was proud that he never told anyone it was me who really killed the quasi-dog. He never knew it was me who had implicated him.”

Conner’s eyes fell to the floor as the air about him flashed green. “You may pass to Ring Two, Mr. Vim. Thank you for your truth.”

Conner exhaled loudly threw dry lips. Passage through truth holds both a departure and an arrival. Changing his satchel from his right to left shoulder, Conner followed the crystalline directionals Coreward, down the high, buttressed hall stretched expansively before him. It was now forty-five minutes until Core Exposure.

There and back again

My weekend in Phoenix was quick and eventful. The main purpose for the trip was, of course, to attend Mr. Ferrell's surprise 75th birthday party. It was definitely well worth the trip. You can read about the whole thing and see pictures here.

I also got some great time in with Jeff during a rare set of hours spent just being brothers. I stayed at his house. We went out to dinner, I force-exposed him to Warcraft, we played Playstation, and I slept in the following morning. These occasions are few and far between these days, and frankly, I cherish them (not just the sleep in part. :)

Today, I spent about 13 hours on set of a major video shoot for work. Everything went remarkably well and I took another step in cultivating my directorial skills. Thankfully I am supported by a tremendously talented and helpful crew on this project, and we are all committed to a really creative end product. Someday I hope to show it to the world...once non-disclosure limitations have expired. Rest assured, it stands to be one of Binary Pulse's coolest projects to date.

That's it. Just wanted to keep you up to speed. Binary Pulse holiday party this Friday. Phoenix Christmas with the Groves and Simpsons the weekend after that. Grand Californian/Disneyland/Lori's birthday and Christmas the weekend after that. My dance card is definitely full!