Articles by mgedwards

The Adventures of Fishman

Whenever I play with my son, I try to have fun too.  We play well together; in fact, my wife always tells me that he has such a good time whenever we play together.  Sometimes my mind gets carried away, and I really get into playing with whatever toys are available at the time.  The other night I happened to stick a toy fish on the head of his Mr. Perfect toy, and presto!  “Fishman” was born.  Thus began The Adventures of Fishman.  See the photo section for live shots of the world’s newest superhero.  Eat your heart out, The Incredibles!

By day “Fishman” is Mr. Joe Perfect, a mild-mannered consultant for Discovery Consulting.  He’s Mr. Everyman, the kind of guy women love to bring home to meet momma.  He’s courteous and thoughtful, everything every woman ever wanted in a man.  He says sweet things when you press his stomach such as, “The ballgame doesn’t really matter.  As long as I’m with you, I don’t care what we watch.”  Or “Here, let me make dinner tonight,” or “Let me stop and ask directions.”  He wears beige khakis and a snazzy blue dress shirt, the wrinkle-free kind with the indestructible buttons you can pick up at Men’s Wearhouse.  He sports a short, preppy haircut.  The only problem is that he’s single.  In future episodes after a few dates hopefully, Fishman will find true love, or perhaps a sidekick.

By night he is “Fishman,” a mighty superhero.  Endowed with an iron Fishhead to mask his identity, he carries a candy trident that he uses to fight crime in Discovery Village.  After eating a bad filet of soul one night at a local restaurant he is suddenly endowed with the superhuman sense of knowing when something fishy is happening.  Determined to do good, he uses this power to sniff out when something rotten is going on and to fight evil for the good of all mankind.

Fishman’s greatest nemesis is the One-Eyed Monster (OEM), a villain who escaped from the sinister labs of Monsters, Inc. and terrorized the good citizens of Discovery Village.  His mission is to stop OEM from carrying out his sinister plans to wreak havoc on Discovery Village.  In the photos section, you’ll find action shots of Fishman thwarting OEM’s plans to derail a commuter train.  Fishman pins down OEM and saves the train before it falls off the edge of Discovery garage.  Fishman saves the day again!

Click here for an updated version of the article with photos.

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Inauguration and Chantico

I missed the Inauguration festivities today, although I really enjoyed having the day off.  Tomorrow is Friday, so it feels almost as if I have a 4-day weekend (five hours of Korean class notwithstanding).  I could have gone to the inauguration and would have liked to because I’ve never had the opportunity to do so.  It doesn’t matter so much to me who’s being inaugurated, at least when it comes to attending the ceremony–I would have gone regardless of whether President Bush or Senator Kerry had won the Election.  In either case I would still have enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of the occasion, not to mention the beautiful winter scenery surrounding the ceremony.  The Inauguration Parade would have been fun to see.  If I had had an extra $300 I could have bought a couple $150 Inauguration Ball tickets for my wife and me.  Alas, I stayed home with my family.  I would have been ill-advised to drag my young son out into the cold to see something that he would not have enjoyed anyway.  I also did not want to leave my wife to take care of him without me, because I already do that while I work full time.  Perhaps when he’s older and another president is inaugurated I can take in the festivities. 

Today we all headed to Barnes & Noble and Starbucks.  Mommy and baby checked out the kid’s reading area with the wooden train track, and daddy headed over to Starbucks to settle in with a Korean workbook and a Frappuccino.  I absolutely love Starbucks.  It always reminds me of Seattle, my old home.  It’s a Seattle experience I can enjoy around the world, even in Seoul.  I like Starbucks so much that I designed their first web page (I write tongue-in-cheek).  Back in the mid-1990’s I built my first web site and put together a list of popular Seattle companies.  Starbucks was much smaller back then.  I looked for Starbucks’ web site and could not find one, so I built a page of my own with the title, "Here’s why Starbucks needs a Web site."  I added a counter to count the number of page hits.  I think the page generated a few thousand hits while it was still online (I removed it a long time ago).  I never reported the results to Starbucks, but I’m glad they took me up on my advice in a big way.  I digress.  Today I went to Starbucks today and studied Korean.  I noticed a new drink called "Chantico," a "drinking chocolate."  I had to laugh.  Of course it’s glorified hot chocolate.  But if you brand it, give it a fancy name, package it as gourmet, and convince people to pay a premium, you can make a lot of money.  Starbucks is famous for turning commodity products into "affordable luxury."  If they could do it with coffee, why not hot chocolate?  A brilliant idea.  I might just have to try one.

Let it snow!

We had our first major snowstorm of the year this morning.  Only three inches of snow fell on the Washington, D.C. area, but it happened so quickly on the eve of Inauguration Day that it threw many people here into a huge panic.  It’s been said that drivers in D.C. represent different driving styles from around the world, and many are notoriously bad drivers even in good weather.  The sudden snow left many drivers panicked, stranded, or victims of fender benders.  I went by the Rosslyn area in Arlington today and watched in amusement as cars with bald tires try to climb the hill on Wilson Blvd.  Not a chance!  It was a big mess.  I even passed by a Porsche stalled in the middle of the freeway.  All those horses don’t mean a thing if you don’t have good tires.  I also drove today and was concerned too about getting home in a reasonable amount of time, but by the time I on my way the snow had started to melt and the commute was much better.  I’m just glad that tomorrow is a day off for D.C.-area Federal employees so I don’t have to venture far from home.  Inauguration Day is always in D.C. when it comes around every four years.

I also saw Secretary of State Colin Powell bid adieu today to the State Department.  It was a tearful farewell.  I didn’t attend the ceremony but I watched part of it on television.  Secretary Powell will be greatly missed.  He made some major changes in the Department that have helped better prepare it for the challenges of the 21st Century.  Dr. Condoleeza Rice was confirmed by the Senate yesterday and will be the incoming Secretary of State.  I hope that she can continue to carry on the reforms that Secretary Powell started.  Tomorrow is a new day and a new administration.