Update: 5/27/07

Today we bought a pool for $14 at Super Kmart. I also picked up 60 lbs of birdfood for $11.

Oreo and Holly enjoyed the pool for a short while. Holly was less impressed than her D-battery shaped counterpart, who could barely keep his eyes open in bliss.

Update: 5/25/07

Earlier this week, Laura and I both took some time off from work to bring the dogs up to Smith Mountain Lake to visit with her parents, the Perrys.

Welcome to Perrydise:

What you see above is one of Peter's monstrous rose bushes that line the lakefront property.

We spent most of our time enjoying the outdoors on walks with the dogs and taking in the summer air. At night we went out to dinner and caught up on each others' lives.

I for one am glad that the Perrys were generous enough to let us bring our dogs into their home. Four dogs running around can make for some pretty hectic moments, but our hosts were exceptionally patient.

It was also a good opportunity to play around with some regular sized dogs -- no offense to Oreo and Holly, who are both on the miniature end of the dog world.

Thanks to Anne and Peter for letting us stay at the lake for a few days! Now here's your Friday video.

Update: 5/17/07

We went out on a limb this week and rented Pan's Labyrinth from Blockbuster. It won 3 Academy Awards this year, with the only major drawback being it's entirely in Spanish.

Since I normally turn on subtitles when movies are in English (God bless Laura for tolerating this), I didn't mind reading/watching the movie.

I thought it was actually really good! I definitely recommend this as a movie rental if you enjoy a good fantasy/thriller movie with excellent special effects. The movie is quite violent, so I wouldn't recommend it for young kids -- but it has a parallel war, fairytale theme that the main character transcends with her imagination.

For me, it did exactly what any good movie promises, it was a 120 minute escape.

In a completely unrelated note, here's your Friday video...

Update: 5/16/07

The gauntlet has been thrown down! Mike at Life's a Trip left a comment today about his Geni.com family tree reaching 238 members! So far my maternal grandfather has been driving most of the family tree growth, adding 16 family members in 2 days!

Now I'm looking to my dad to pick up the slack and start adding more information about his side of the family... starting with this guy:

Pictured above is Eugene Artemenko, my late paternal grandfather (1928-2001).

My dad promised me tonight he will help build up his side of the tree -- which might include branches that reach to the civil war! I emailed my Aunt Susan tonight to see if she can help too.

This project is exciting to me because it helps me play a role as a "connector." In Malcom Gladwell's book, "The Tipping Point":

Connectors [are] those with wide social circles. They are the "hubs" of the human social network and responsible for the small world phenomenon. The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances.

How else could I be connected with a Russian imigrant who fought in the civil war? I believe a more important question is, how else but through the Internet could one even be aware of such a connection?

Now it's anybody's guess to see if as a group we can actually achieve something. I'll settle for being a little better at communicating!

Update: 5/13/07

I stole the following idea from a post I saw on Erin and Michael's blog, Life's a Trip. A short time ago they reviewed a website called Geni, which helps people collaborate with relatives to create a family tree.

So far I've been able to make a small sapling of a tree and I'm sending out email invites to people in my family tree in hopes that they will fill in information about my great grandparents. I'll start by inviting my Dad, uncle Bill and Grandpa Bill.

The only issue I can foresee with this website (and any other 'Web 2.0' site that asks you to recruit subscribers) is that they want everyone to create a profile. My hope is that my family can just put in their basic info to get started so we can work on the family tree.

If it gets big enough, maybe I'll post an image of the completed tree here on Artemenko.org. Seems fitting right?

Update: 5/10/07

I'm proud to say that I have at least two friends with whom I keep regular contact. Both Adam and Tim share the same home town of Fairfield County Connecticut.

While keeping in touch, it's hard not to notice the huge difference in lifestyles that have emerged in the post college years. These differences have sparked a few notable email conversations debating city vs. suburban life.

It's not unusual for us to banter about the contrast between my married life in a cul-de-sac and their bachelor pad in NYC.

However this week was different because we had a semi-legitimate source from which to draw our opinons... when the dialogued turned toward a Wall Street Journal Article by Michael Borone called "The Realignment of America The native-born are leaving "hip" cities for the heartland."

Why did I like this article?

Because it validates my decision to move to Charlotte from Chicago a little over a year ago! Here is a quote from the article that provides some context:

The nation's center of gravity is shifting: Dallas is now larger than San Francisco, Houston is now larger than Detroit, Atlanta is now larger than Boston, Charlotte is now larger than Milwaukee. State capitals that were just medium-sized cities dominated by government employees in the 1950s--Sacramento, Austin, Raleigh, Nashville, Richmond--are now booming centers of high-tech and other growing private-sector businesses.

Here's a picture of downtown Charlotte in 2007:

My takeaway from the article was pretty basic, more places in America are promising work. I think the connectivity of the Internet, mobile phones, and the advent of the home office in the last decade have encouraged this trend.

At this point I'm really happy where I am. I'll be interested to see if this trend continues, and if I'll ever end up in a big city again like Tim and Adam.

Maybe we can all be roommates. I'm sure Laura would love that.

Update: 5/06/07

Ben found a link to a great clip from last week's Family Guy. Sometimes I shed a tear or two when I laugh really hard. Hey some people wet their pants, things could be worse.

Something about when he gets up on all four pegs before the finale really gets me going. Why is this so hilarious to me?

Update: 5/01/07

More often than I should, I do the solo thing for lunch so I can take out the dogs during my break. I work close to home, so it's not a huge deal.

Anyway, now is the time of year when the Carolina critters start to come out. So sometimes I'll stroll around the yard looking for cool stuff. Usually nothing happens.

This past week, I found a lizard and took a picture of him. He must have been sick or dying, because I got incredibly close to his face and he didn't move.

Laura would have you believe his feet have straighter toes than mine. And such is my curse to walk the earth without the breezy feeling of sandals.

Seriously if you want to check out really good photography, check out my Brother Peter's website Latent Design.