Our beautiful son Hayden is three years old today. I can’t believe it.

A while back, I shot and edited a poor little short film for the now semi-defunct Inside Woodland site (oh snap!). The film is about Ross Dress-for-Less.

I posted the video to YouTube, and a Ross employee from their corporate offices watched it. I received an email from this person asking to use the video for an upcoming “big” corporate meeting.

This is the first step towards “Rossome” entering our commercial lexicon as well as fame and fortune for one Floating J. Foam.

Here’s the video, in case you missed it or have missed it.

I stopped counting the days since we halted production on our latest film. Miracles do happen, though, and we finally finished it.

Here’s the announcement page. Here’s a direct link to the Quicktime file.

PC users, make sure you have the latest version of Quicktime to view the film!

My wife showed me an old photo album today. It contained many wonderful pictures of my development. The picture below is from Christmas in (I’m guessing) 1982.

The sheer enthusiasm is what sets this picture apart for me. I was so excited, I spas-tastically arched my back, laughed with a snort and told my parents way more than they could possible care to know about wizards and elves. I’m sure my dad had an extra belt of whiskey just to keep his eyes from rolling.

Oh, and the mouthful of teeth are a treat. No doubt my dad had to adjust the light meter on his camera before firing off the flash for fear of setting the camera’s film ablaze from the reflection. I bet orthodontists would clear their calendars when they saw me walking down the street.

My wife set up all of the Sesame Street characters featured in the last post and snapped this shot.

You can see the dueling Gordons, the honeys and most of the other Fisher Price people associated with this set as well as a few that are just part of the Little People family of toys.

For the sake of this blog entry, I’d like to direct your attention to the left roof section of the display where two similar pieces are located.

Can’t see? Okay, here’s a close-up of the two pieces.

You’ll notice that one of the figures is made of wood and one plastic. The wood one is clearly older than the plastic one and probably basted in lead paint. Besides this difference, there’s also a huge difference in the faces of the two pieces.

Back when the wood one was created, boys with acne were typically mean. It’s easy to understand why. Having acne, while something to do, isn’t all that fun. I know that you’re assuming that masturbation is to blame for the poor kid’s pocks, but I’m going to suggest that this isn’t the case, as he doesn’t have any arms.

By the time the plastic boy was made, dermatologists had discovered new solutions for people with severe acne, so the boy’s face was cleared up. Since the acne no longer emotionally challenged the boy, he was happy, and the face reflects this new attitude.