Dear Family and Friends,

We hope that 2004 was good to you. We started the year by attending Freestyle Motocross in January, where we saw motorcycles do things we didn't think were possible:

We had a nice summer vacation to Monterey Aquarium, tour Cal Poly SLO, ride quads on Pismo Beach, ride coasters at Knotts Berry Farm, Tijuana, Wheel of Fortune studio audience, and tour of Sony Studios (formerly Paramount - lots of history).  Photos are here.


Note: This is a composite image. Click Here to see the layers

Stephanie is a senior at Mira Loma and working part time at Best Buy. She will leave for college next year to study Architectural Engineering - maybe Berkeley, Cornell, USC - something in that league. Stephen will be 16 in May, and is excelling in the same advanced IB Program. He and his friend Chris endured an all-night Laser Force. Here they are the next morning:

My brother Jay stopped by a few times on his way to and from Scotland. Here we enjoyed Baja Fresh in Roseville, and he performed for our grandmother's 96th birthday party.

Tess and the kids helped my longtime friends Jun and David manage their Reflections of Asia booth at the Pacific Rim festival in Old Sacramento.

In May Kim flew a Russian fighter jet trainer - after his father gave him the idea. He burned more fuel in 30 minutes than the average SUV uses in a month. In April Tess and Kim saw a Kings v. Lakers game - although Kim is not much of a fan.

Kim is coming up on four years at Prestwood Software. He enjoyed a business trip to Boulder in August to visit a key client - and also met up with his Uncle Scott. The team attended Borcon in San Jose in September. At the company Halloween Party Kim and Tess went as "terrorists" - and apparently Mike didn't have time to change into a costume. (Kim is trying to "look mean"):

We purchased two parakeets "Itchy and Scratchy." They are amazing. They walk around the house for awhile then go up the ladder to their cage:

On Saturday afternoons the Beverages & More across California sponsor a $0.50 wine tasting. Kim recommends this, and if you live near Citrus Heights, please stop at that store with us.

Activism

Kim is still president of the Programmers Guild. This position has facilitated his activism against offshoring of U.S. jobs, and of worker visa programs that displace U.S. workers.

He is also active against the bias and injustice of Family Court. After his friend Steve Tipaldi committed suicide after seven years trying to see his daughters - but only being forced to pay both support and the attorneys who were keeping him from them by the "justice system" - Kim joined with other activists to launch MENS.

Politics - Who is at the helm?

So much for a cheery Christmas letter.. Kim is concerned that India and China are on track to become the economic superpowers - leaving the U.S. with nothing to offer on the global market. (We already depend upon investment from other countries to remain solvent.)  Click on the book at the right for a perspective

To make matters worse, the Earth is approaching a permanent shortage of oil. The countries that we rely on for the oil that runs our economy don't generally like us. Once they can sell all they can produce to India and China, why not just cut us off - or raise the price to $200 per barrel?

BP is now "Beyond Petroleum"

Solutions would require Congress to look beyond the next term and stop being controlled by corporations. This isn't likely to happen.

The Lighter Side

We've seen many disappointing movies this year. Instead we've become fans of South Park and Reno 911.

We also saw some new movies that I recall from high school days, such as Rollerball (1975) (2002) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. (The movie "Dodgeball" was a rare comedy that was funny - with a twitty bad guy similar to "Big Fat Liar".) (We saw Polar Express in IMAX 3-D - very cool.)

May 2005 be good to you. Meanwhile enjoy my yellow sticky animation. (I thought I had an original idea, then I found Post-it theater - lots of good stuff in archives.)