This is Austin … he’s going as a Star Wars Gonk Droid this Halloween. We’re pretty excited about his costume, mostly because he loves Lego Star Wars 2 so much, but also because of one amazing feature. You see, Gonk has no arms, so how will my little boy get his candy? By allowing people to drop their candy into a secret candy trap door in the front (pictured below).

Click on the image to see the trap door
Amazing. Made from a box (how could you tell?) about 2 hours of sweat, spray paint and duct tape with my son. And worth every minute of it!

JG

This is Christian … he’s going as a Lego Star Wars Darth Vader this Halloween. He plays Lego Star Wars 2 a little every day, so when we had the idea to make his costume he absolutely loved it. This ones pretty straightforward, but really looks fun. After Halloween the costumes will be free to play dress-up and use the imagination until finally biting the dust.

Made from two cardboard boxes, lots of black spray paint and two rolls of black duct tape. Took about 4 hours – lots of trial and error. Halloween at the Griffins is going to rock!

JG

Brian Ferry sent me this link to Messin with Sasquatch. I’m now going to officially get nothing done today. Hand me some beef jerky …

JG

Saw a great article today in PC World about the 5-year anniversary of the iPod. Here’s a few of the learnings 5 years later, and there’s a fun clip at the end of the official announcement of the digital music device. I love my Nano …

4. Small is reliably beautiful. The first iPod wasn’t the original hard disk-based music player–Creative’s Nomad Jukebox was pretty cool for its time–but it was the first one that comfortably fit into your pocket. And Apple has been smart to continually release iPods that are thinner and smaller than those before them. There’s never been a time when even impressive players from other companies haven’t tended to look chunky, and therefore clunky, compared to their Apple competition–and it’s hard for any electronics device to come off as cooler than something that’s similar but skinnier. Whether Apple can or will continue to shrink the iPod, I don’t know, but I’m not aware of anything in the works that aims to out-svelte it, especially considering that the Zune isn’t exactly wafer-thin…

5. Technological races are never, ever over. If, prior to the iPod, you’d asked me what company would dominate digital music, I might have guessed Creative or Rio. Or maybe Sony or Samsung. I might even have mentioned Microsoft. I wouldn’t have mentioned Apple, though, and neither would have almost anyone else. (Here’s a Macworld article from 2001 rounding up initial pundit response to the iPod; it was, at best, mixed. And if anyone had predicted that the thing would be not simply one of the most successful consumer electronics products of all time but a social phenomenon, he or she would probably have been drummed out of the National Pundit League for irrational exuberance.)

JG

No, Doug Fields wasn’t in Spooner, Wisconsin this weekend playing golf.

Dick Steffen and Ted Hays won the championship match of the Tuesday 18-hole league last week. Jerry Thompson and Buzz Ekholm took second place, and Milt Jones and Doug Fields landed third place. Ted Hays was the top individual point-getter followed by Buzz Ekholm and Dick Steffen. Tom Bergeman garnered the honors of low net score with a 70, followed by Dave Gulden with a net 71.

And this Doug Fields, a carpenter who built a huge pine deck, is also a different guy as well.

JG

Would you believe Flat Fields travelled across the country last night? It’s true!

JG

With the impending arrival of our 4th child, my wife and I got out tonight to relax and breath some life into our relationship. It was a fun night – it never ceases to amaze me how fortunate I am for my wife and realize her incredible strength. Just a great night out, some much needed relaxation with my bride of 10 years. It didn’t hurt to use a coupon from the Entertainment Book for half off dinner and then not being able to find a good movie to watch.

I’m a cheap date!

JG

This week was easy – since the World Series game was on last night, there was no Sunday night football on NBC. So ESPN gets the win by default. Either way though, this week they would have given NBC a run for their money. Pretty solid game, good rivalry, great opening … but still messy commentary and the sideline reporters are too scripted. I just don’t like cringing at what the guys in the booth will say next – but still very much enjoyed the game.

Week 7: ESPN

JG