Welcome Baby Edward!

Ok, people have been asking about our new baby Edward. Here's the information:

Edward
Born: 5:39pm 12/19/07
Weight: 9lbs. 3oz.
Height: 22 3/4 inches
Circumcision: Done

And, here are some pictures.

First Snow

Here's a quick peek at my handywork over 2 rounds of snow shoveling. Ethan came out with me the first time and he loved it.

Likes: Social Webs, Social Engagement, Social Energy

Dislikes: Social Isolation

Non-linear Narrative

I was listening to the radio and heard a new song the other day. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the band so I can't link to it.

But, the song was completely linear narrative. It was like someone wrote a short story (I would say Flash Fiction but that's typically got abstract elements to it) and then picked up a guitar. In other words, I was not impressed by it.

The music should be the driving force in a song. The lyrics do not need to take me from point A to point B, the music does that. Lyrics can supplement the story-telling but shouldn't beat you over the head with it. Non-linear lyrics, and even nonsequitur lyrics, make for a more interesting song in my opinion.

I have the same feelings about poetry. When you try to force a narrative story into a poetic form, you typically end up with a piece that sounds stilted. The lyricism of poetry (like music) means that your words aren't the focus. The words are secondary to the flow and emotions you are trying to draw out of your reader.
Caveat: Random snippets of pseudo-profundity about how dark your life is does not count. ;)

-y

Ethan likes to add the -y sound to just about everything that he says these days. These are all used a nouns.

Some of his favorites are:
Blankie
Cuppy
Chippy
Milky
Chairy
Bally

Some of my favorites are:
Worky
Underpanty
Penisy

Happy Birthday!

Well, Ethan is officially 3 years old. He's also officially a 3-year old.

The boy is precocious, inquisitive, active, loving, moody, friendly, and growing every day. He's only three years old but it seems like he already knows everything about this little world.

Today was a good birthday. Ethan was old enough to realize what a birthday means, and he's been very excited about opening his presents. So, this morning we opened all the presents from mom and dad, Grandma and Grandpa Jo, Grandma and Grandpa M, Grandma and Grandpa G. Yeah, that's a long list, just like there were a lot of presents. He loved opening and playing with all of them.

At church we told his teachers that it was his birthday, so they made sure to sing him a birthday song. Actually, they have been taking the nursery kids over to primary and they sang the birthday song to him there. He got to stand in front of the whole primary (he told me).

We held a small birthday party at our house after church. We invited Ethan's pre-school friends. One of them was sick so it was only 2 families. That was perfect for how crowded our house is getting. I had no idea how good of friends Ethan has become with his pre-school group but they all played together so well. They didn't take any of the normal time to get comfortable with each other. And they all ate dinner together at the same table, it was so cute.

After dinner, it started snowing. Ethan said that it was snowing because it was his birthday. He's so cute.

Unfortunately, after missing his nap because of church, and so much excitement during the day, bedtime was difficult. But, he's asleep now and tomorrow, he'll wake up as a 3-year old (still).

Artist

Alright, I've pretty much decided that I may not ever make a full post about my trip to Texas. That's not to say that I didn't have a blast going down there. I was very happy for the chance to bring Ethan down when the whole Hall side of the family was there to see Ethan. We've really been hoping for that kind of chance and I was thrilled it worked out.

When we got back from Texas, Ethan started drawing a lot of faces. He would fill whole pages with his face drawings. Since they are worth a 1,000 words (at least) I'm going to post one that we had especial fun with.
Ethan actually named most of the 'faces' that he drew and I prompted him with the rest.








Then, just the other day, we were drawing together again and he started to do some more faces. But this time they were a bit different. Here you can see his latest works. And, in case you couldn't tell, those are 'mad faces.'

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for my family, my home, my job, and my faith.

And turkey.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your... ladder.

Ethan has a current favorite show. It's called Super Why. He likes to run around the house telling us "I'm Super Why Ethan." He loves to be a super hero.

So, in one episode of the show, Rapunzel for some reason couldn't/wouldn't user her hair for the prince to climb up. So Super Why went into the story and changed it so say 'ladder' so that Rapunzel could climb down and be with the prince. Then, one of Super Why's friends spelled 'cut' to give her a haircut.

It's definitely geared towards younger kids but they do a good job of getting Ethan to interact so at least he's not just sitting there staring.

Shapes

Ethan has been able to draw circles for a while now. He loves to draw pictures of circles and tell us that they are people's faces. Usually Ethan, Mia, or me.

But today, I showed him how to draw rectangles. We would draw 1 line. Then 2 lines. (Parallel) and then 1 line. then 2 lines (parallel the other way) to make a full rectangle. I was very impressed at how quickly he picked it up. He's a smart kid. I need to take more time to teach him things like this.

My bad example

"Fine. Whatever."

Unfortunately, I know exactly where Ethan picked that up.

1 Year of Blogging

According to my dashboard, this is my 365th post to this blog. That's 1 full year of blog posts... of course, being spread over 4 years makes it a little less of an accomplishment but I still think it's pretty cool.

Growing Up Digital

Scene: Dad is in the kitchen making dinner. Ethan is helping him. Mom is in the office taking a little break.

Ethan: Dad, I need to go get you some emails.
Ethan runs off to the office. Dad chuckles and plans this blog post.

Ethan runs back into the kitchen with his fist closed like he's holding something.
Ethan: Dad, I brought you some good emails.

The rumors of my death

probably haven't even started circulating. I am still alive. I am still planning to make a long post about Texas. I'm sorry that I've been so negligent. Don't worry, it's not just my blog.

Middle Name

How does Xerxes sound?

The Facebook

In my continued dive into social media, I now have a Facebook profile. (And so does Mia.)

We've already hooked up with most of the family but just throwing it out for anyone that might not know yet.

On Notice

http://shipbrook.com/onnotice

My first novel

This is going to be a long post, it's been a busy weekend. In fact, I'm going to call it my first novel.

Prolouge
I have been working with my manager on changing my job role at Snowbound. Where I've been focused on the MarCom, and especially writing, side of marketing I will be moving now towards Web Analytics and using our marketing data to determine where our most efficient campaigns are. About a 2 weeks ago I found out about a conference in DC on Web Analytics and pitched it to my manager and CEO.

Chapter 1 - Airplanes
I had planned to leave around Ethan's nap time because he's not been napping lately. He goes down in the car sometimes. So, Mia drove to the airport and Ethan was very cute saying good-bye. He gave me a kiss, then made sure that I gave Mia a kiss.
Then, I found out that United had actually sub-contracted my flight out to US Airways. I was in Terminal C. US Airways flies out of Terminal B. I saw corridors in the Logan Airport that I didn't know existed. The most interesting was a long hallway with artwork along the wall and windows as the other wall, with white, wooden rocking chairs along the entire way. It was a longer walk to the terminal than I expected.
Once in the right terminal, I had to keep walking to a small, little, teensy counter for the 'shuttle' service. After which, security was another joy. I asked the man working the metal detector if it was mandatory that I remove my shoes. I hate doing that in airports. He said "Pretty much" which I take to mean that he didn't want to go through any hassle on his end to do the special test for my shoes.

Finally, I was at my gate, eating Mike & Ike's and waiting for my flight.

Chapter 2 - Nation's Capitol OF FUN!
I landed early in D.C. I called Tyler. He didn't show up until after I was supposed to have landed and would expect him to arrive. Fortunately, when they did arrive they recognized me because I wasn't expecting them to be driving a new car. As I learned when they arrived, they were late because Tyler and Mags had been in a bike accident. Or, more specifically, Maggie's trailer tipped over and she got scraped up by the restraints and a black eye from hitting something (maybe the tire?). Mags was doing alright but she was a little shy.
We drove back to their new apartment. Any by 'new' I mean they haven't been living there for that long. It's smaller than their place in Boston (upstairs) and more expensive. But... at least it's got hard wood floors? And, they're going to try and buy a house in the next year or two so they'll be getting out of there in as short a time as possible.
But, we didn't stay in the house for long because we had an entire city of culture waiting for us. So, Beth and Tyler pooled their collective knowledge of the city to give me a driving tour. (And by collaboration, I mean that Tyler drove and Beth gave directions.) I got to see most of the important buildings (White House... I'm not looking at you) like the Capitol, Washington Monument, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, office building that Beth worked in, and the up-scale McDonald's that doesn't have the arches out front.

Then we parked along the side of the Potomac. I was very impressed with how beautiful the scenery around the city is. After parking, we walked over to the FDR monument (memorial?). It was quite an interesting one. It was more like the FDR experience. They had waterfalls spread throughout with his terms of presidency demarcating the different sections. Then included quotes from him during the term of the time.

At one point, there was also a park ranger giving a very, very impassioned presentation about how great a president FDR was, even if you didn't agree with his political views. We had to move on because it was a little overwhelming for us.

Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. I know that I've been there before. Probably about 15 years ago when my own parents took us to D.C. The Memorial is pretty incredible. I didn't realize how high from the ground the actual monument is. You have to climb up two flights of stairs before you are face to face with the giant statue of the president that kept our country together. On the left side was the Gettysburg Address. On the right side was the inaugural address for his second term. Yes, I know that I didn't link either to Wikipedia, that was intentional.

I have to say that standing at the top of the memorial looking outward over the mall towards the Washington Monument and the Capitol behind that was pretty impressive.

We didn't walk all the way up the mall but we did walk along the Vietnam Wall and then over to the Korean War memorial as well. I've been by the Vietnam Wall before but felt inadequate this time as we walked past people that were looking for, or at, specific names on the Wall. I can't even imagine how intimate that must make the thousands of names that are listed there. I'm pretty divorced from the losses of the war but seeing people who were feeling it so closely was sobering.

Chapter 3 - Dinner
Yes, dinner gets it's own chapter. I hadn't really eaten anything since the lunch I had before leaving for the airport. I was hungry and Tyler mentioned that there were plenty of ethnic restaurants in the area. He called his brother to get some recommendations. We decided on Korean BBQ. After driving down there, we discovered that it was in an area with a number of Korean restaurants and suddenly we didn't know which one we were looking for.
Finally deciding on the biggest one with English on the sign (yes, that was a factor) we went inside. The menu only listed noodles and dumplings. That's not what we wanted so we got up to head back out and find the right place. Now, one thing about Korean culture that saved us (foreshadowing) from ourselves was that the waitress didn't just let us go. She saw us through the window and came out to ask why we were leaving.
We told her that we were looking for a place for Korean BBQ. She told us they did have it, just not on their menu. With my (limited) knowledge of Korean food: Pulgogi, Kalbi, Kimch'i, Pibimpap, and Mondoo. We got ourselves an order of Pulgogi and Mondoo.
It was amazing.
This was authentic Korean food (as was evidenced by every other guest in the place was a Korean. It came with Kimch'i, Radish kimch'i, pickled radish, a spicy greens plate, rice, spicy red bean paste, and the lettuce leaves to wrap it all in. And a big plate of beef. It actually took 3 rounds to cook all the meat. Tyler and I didn't think we'd be able to eat it all... but then we did. We wrapped the meat, rice, greens, paste, and garlic in the lettuce and just couldn't stop. When everything was gone, I felt full. Full but not sick, not like when you eat a big meal at an American restaurant.
I even, finally, got up the courage to say "kamsamnida" which means "Thank you." Any of you that know Korean transliteration will have to forgive me if I misspelled that.

Chapter 4 - Triangulating
The next phase of our journey that night was to get some cheesecake to take home to Beth. She looked up a Cheesecake Factory and gave us the directions. Now, normally, I'm pretty useless when it comes to directions. However, 4 years in Boston must be rubbing off on me. We found the Cheesecake Factory through a process of triangulating (read: trial and error). After we realized that the way we were going on a particular road was not inline with the direction we would head back the other way and see if that was any better. After doing this... a few times, we found it. One Key Lime and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle slice later (packed up to go) we headed back out and triangulated our way home. It was an easier process this time.
But, the moral of the story is that having been lost so many times around Boston, I'm no longer afraid of being in an unknown city with no clue about where I am. I was able to participate in the process of getting Tyler back on track. (More foreshadowing.) This is a new skill that I'm going to have to hone.

Chapter 5 - Respecting Triangulation in the Morning
Now, I've known my friend Tyler for a few years now. We lived right next to each other and did quite a bit together. We know each others strengths and weaknesses. With this in mind, when Beth woke up feeling terrible again Sunday morning and said she wasn't coming with us to drop me off at my conference, I expected that we would be doing some more triangulating.
You can see where this is heading. We missed the bridge we were supposed to take into the city because it wasn't named on the signs like it was on Google Maps. We pulled off the highway we were on and broke out the maps. The big map book (which I got lost immediately after opening) went to Tyler and I took the little travel guide with the cartoonish map that didn't label all the street names.
Ironically, I was able to find exactly where we were on that map (or, mostly exact I didn't know if we should turn left or right to get going) and it showed enough of the city to follow the route we needed to get on the street that would take us to the road the hotel was on. We didn't have to triangulate nearly as much this time. Mostly because our turns were through round-abouts so it was fairly easy to keep on track.

Chapter 6 - The Conference
Trust me, this chapter would bore you guys. Let's just say: I came, I learned, I networked.

Chapter 7 - You Can Go Home Again
Ah, home. The dream of weary business travelers everywhere. Alas, my journey to the airport was only the beginning of yet another chapter (pun intended) in my weekend narrative (am I taking this too far?).
Once again I did the ticket counter shuffle down to a tiny little space for the US Airways Shuttle. Fortunately, it was right across the aisle from Legal Seafoods. Not having paid for a meal yet, I decided to use some of my per diem on a good meal before I headed home. In I went and took a seat. Not a seat at the bar, being raised Mormon even sitting at a bar makes me feel awkward, but at a raised table with stools next to the bar. It's a subtle difference, I know.
I sat in the middle to watch the Patriots game and give other people room to sit along the table without pushing past me. I ended up sitting across from a woman who was just coming from Boston (but still traveling before going home). She asked me what was good at Legal and I recommended the Crab Cakes. I had thought about getting them as my meal but coming in at nearly $30 seemed a bit over the top. Since she didn't have any problem with spending her per diem, she ordered a crab cake appetizer and we split it.
Now, for those of you who have not been to the East Coast, there is a split. Further south is crab country. Maryland is famous for its crab. I lived there for a year. Further north is lobster country. Maine is famous for its lobster. I've lived in Boston for 4 years.
But, when it comes to which shellfish I prefer to boil, crack open, and pick the tender flesh from, I will choose crab every time. And the crab cakes at Legal Seafood are excellent.

My flight out of DC ended up being a little late. But not late enough to make me miss my flight to Boston. Good thing too, I was on the last shuttle flight from NY to Boston. And, finally, I wasn't sitting at the window of a full row. I was on the aisle and there was a woman by the window. We were both reading during the delay (yep, again) before take-off and then as we climbed to our cruising height, for our 35 minute flight.
After getting into the air, she put her book away and I asked what she had been reading, highlighting, and writing notes on the blank pages at the front/back. It was "Becoming a Confident Woman through Christ." I on the other hand had been reading "Marketing to the Social Web." We started talking about religion, she was middle-eastern racially but raised Baptist. She had a bunch of questions about Mormons, why we believe in scripture and prophets beyond the Bible and if we believe in Christ. We had a good conversation, I think we both learned some interesting things. She was only 23 but for the last 3 or 4 years had been spending a week each year doing some religious service. I think it's great that other religions get their youth involved in those activities.
Unfortunately, I had given out all my business cards already so didn't have anything on-hand that I could give her. Well, maybe it's a seed anyway.

And then, finally, I arrived home and went to bed.

Epilogue
:'-(

You Have to Admit Your Cat's Dead

The Office, and the current story arc, is very funny.

Look Mom. I'm social!

I just cleaned up my del.icio.us tags. There are fewer now and hopefully easier to understand.

Web 2.0 Saved My Marriage

Out of Office

Mia worked all weekend. I took care of Ethan all weekend.

Then, this morning Mia asked me to take the whole day off work so she could rest. She definitely needed it. So I agreed.

But, I absolutely couldn't stay around the house again all day. Ethan and I went to the booksale at the library. I picked up One Hundred Days of Solitude and Master and Commander.
Ethan got a new Bulldozer book and the Little Train that Could.

Then, we drove down to the Aquarium. It's an easy drive now that we know how to do it. So, I grabbed Mia's aquarium pass and we headed into Boston. Normally the passes are only supposed to allow you into the building if you're with the person named on the card. But, they didn't even bat an eye when Ethan and I were going in.

Ethan loves the Aquarium. Especially the little tide pool that you can stick your hands in. His shirt was all wet from leaning over the edge playing with the starfish, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, and horseshoe crabs.
He also likes the sharks in the big tank at the center. We walked around and he'd climb up on the ledge (designed for kids to stand up a little taller) so he could watch them pass.

After that we went to Quincy Market for lunch. Ethan (a boy after my own heart) enjoys a good corndog, which is what we got. We ate lunch with my friend Ken. Then, I was thinking about going home but we'd already missed naptime. We walked over to the Boston Common. (We followed the Freedom Trail so I wouldn't get lost.)

He ran around in the grass, chased the squirrels, and then ended up in the playground by the frog pond. He loves new playgrounds. At this one he discovered a pyramid-shaped ladder that was about 7ft. high and began to climb it repeatedly.
Then, after a while we saw his friend Juan Fernando. He's just about Ethan's age but we haven't seen him in a few months. Of course, that didn't matter to the boys, they just started running around together having a great time.

Finally, after a long day we walked back to the car and drove home. The boy took a little nap in the car and then we snuggled and watched Toy Story 2 before bedtime. It was a full day but we had a blast.

Like Nephi of Old

So, on Sunday I was giving a ride home to a woman in our ward. When we got home, she realized that she didn't have her keys. She was locked out of her house.

We drove around for a little while, out to where her husband works but the place was closed. Then we drove back to her house to see if any of her neighbors were home.

Since it was still locked, I started calling around to find a place she could wait for her husband to some home (Mia was at work). When I called a unnamed priesthood leader, he asked if I had tried to open the door with a credit card.

No... I hadn't tried that. So we did. And it worked!

I felt how Nephi must have felt when recovering the brass plates. Well... maybe not quite.

Negative Space

The concept of negative space in art is often overlooked. It's more difficult to make a piece of art that creates meaning out of the elements that it doesn't include.

I've been reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises this week. There are a couple of things that I like about Hemingway (in spite of criticisms). And the first is that I like his sparse style. His lack of attribution during dialog keeps you moving through the back and forth. It also allows him to play with the dialog a little more.

Second is negative space. I'm more than halfway through the book and he's now directly addressed some elements that have been defined through the negative space in the book. It was rather shocking to actually see them printed in the book. Once you realize that elements exist in the story (but not in the book), you start to take for granted that the characters have the same perspective. They are aware but don't directly address them.

I will however give one criticism of the book. Nearly every other sentence is describing what the characters are having to drink. They always seem to be drinking before, during, or after anything else that's happening in the book.

Likes: Monday morning
Dislikes: 3 day weekends

Quiet time

The last few days, Ethan has decided that naps just aren't for him. As you can imagine, this is quite a problem for Mia and I.

We keep trying to do the nap time routine but Mia's had to resort to Quiet Time instead. This consists of Ethan playing in his room for a little while and then watching a movie while Mia's in the office.

Unfortunately, it's not the same as getting a real break during the day. We are hoping he'll start taking naps again one of these days.

Kiss

I'm going to try to focus on the positive, even though Ethan has learned that he can throw tantrums. We don't give in to them (usually) but he's still throwing tantrums every chance he gets.

However, let's not dwell on that, once he's in bed and I'm holding his hand, when I ask if he wants a kiss he asks for one "on my face" and points to his lips.

It's very cute way to end our day.

In the good old days

Mia and I were talking about people that used to be in our ward here in Boston "back when we were single."

Of course, what my cute wife meant was before we had kids.

Heat wave

Boston is coming out of a heatwave that sent the temperatures into the high 90's with upwards of 90% humidity. Needless to say, it was pretty miserable. We have the A/C running quite a bit more than normal and it's been nearly unbearable going outside to do anything.

Fortunately, that seems to have broken. Maybe this means we are settling into a more pleasant temperature for September. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Ethan and I dancing to one of his favorite songs.

Warning: Partial male nudity (you might see me without a shirt)

Hubris

So, now that blogging is fashionable, I like to scroll down the archives list of the blogs I read or discover to see how long they've been at it.

It is a secret source of pride for me when I see that I've been blogging longer than some of the sources that are now considered 'established' in the blogosphere.

Granted, I'm still living in anonymity but that is by choice.

Happy Birthday

Congratulations on getting older.

I still love my hot 20-something wife though.

:D :D

Protagonist

I've been getting through my summer reading list. So far I've gotten through Pebble in the Sky by Asimov, and part of book of short stories by Arthur C. Clarke.

Currently, I'm reading Conan by Robert Howard. Interestingly enough, it's a book of short stories as well. And even more interesting, the stories are pretty well written.

As I have discovered, Conan is not Schwarzenegger. He is intelligent but his barbaric nature limits his understanding of the machinations of civilized men. His adventures are not just page after page of blood and conquest. One of the stories I just read was more of a detective tale with only one scene of fighting towards the end.

And, as a writer on pre-emptive sabbatical, it's a very interesting character study. Conan is a protagonist. He is not a hero like we would think of hero's in books today. The most striking example is that he often starts his stories as a thief going after some prize. In pursuing these treasures, he shows no concern for the lives of his opponents. So often in modern tales the hero is the one that values all human life (usually in direct opposition to the villain) even those who are actively trying to kill him/her. In my opinion, this is an outgrowth of modern humanism (good) set in an Darwinian world (without a god or afterlife, bad) that values preservation of individual life over all other virtues.

But, I'm getting sidetracked. In the Conan stories, he's interested in his own preservation. When someone crosses him, he immediately fights to save himself. But, he's also willing to put himself in harms way when he gives his word or someone is depending on him. He's not cruel, just has a very clear sense of self-preservation.

If any of you are interested in the more technical parts of literature, I recommend reading Conan as an interesting way to study characters. And, if you aren't, Howard is a good storyteller.

He remembers

This is for my dad to commented that Ethan wouldn't remember their visit. I had to get something from the office this morning and Ethan ran over with me (but was stopped by the gate).

He looked in and said, "This is where Grandpa sleeps."

He sure is a smart kid. And he loves the attention he gets from all his grandparents.

More iPod TV

So, I came across a new product for iPods that is designed to connect you up to your TV or stereo. No more hacking your iPod.

SendStation AV Connector

Genre

After reading a very interesting response to a debate I've not been following by one of my favorite author's Ursela LeGuin, I went over to a blog that a friend of mine recommended (his old mission comp. writes there).

When I was astounded (or flabbergasted really) by the revelation that Mormon literature has become a mature enough genre that it can start branching out. So, you don't just have to write a cheesy fictionalized account of some unnamed Nephite hero, now you can write about a scripture-quoting cyber-villain being chased through virtual reality in a sci-fi novel with an "optimistic Mormon twist."

It's amazing to see how far we've come.

My parents strike again

We had a really fun week with my parents while they were out here. They got to spend lots of time with Ethan, which meant Mia and I got lots of time to be alone. A situation that everyone, including Ethan, was happy with.

The Grandparents took him to the Aquarium, Children's Science Museum, parks, the mall, pretty much anywhere they were going he went along. Ethan had a great time with them. My dad thinks that he's not going to remember their trip (in the long term probably true) but he does have a good memory now for these sorts of things.
In fact, his favorite little game to play lately is to go around saying "Tut, tut. Looks like rain."

Mia and I had chances to go out to movies (Simpsons) and dinner and just relax. We slept in everyday, and no I won't tell you what time we woke up each morning. We needed the time and were grateful to my parents for letting us have it.

But... there is a dark side to my parents visiting. Every time they visit (and I think it really is every time they've come together) something goes terribly, terribly wrong with one of our cars. We wouldn't mind if we had to change a tire or a headlight.

Sadly, this is not the case.

The year Ethan was born my alternator died and I couldn't move my car off the street the night before a big snowstorm that was deemed a snow emergency and got my car towed. I had to have it re-towed over to a shop to get my alternator replaced.

Another year, we had to replace all the brakes and rotors on one of our cars. Fortunately we caught it before they failed like when I was driving an old Ford and my brake line snapped while I was driving on the Mass Pike. (Or more specifically, while I was swerving to avoid someone that had cut me off and then stopped suddenly. Fortunately, I didn't crash.)

This time one of our cars had been making a loud growling noises, which we assumed was just some sort of muffler failure. We should have known better. When I took the car into the shop they informed me that the exhaust system needed an overhaul. The catalytic converter had to be replaced, the connection back to the muffler was broken, basically a lot of work. Oh, and a new front axle to boot.

Now, I know that we really can't blame my parents. That's just not logical... unless... there is a rumor that my dad might be a covert operative. Maybe he practices disabling enemy vehicles on our cars to make sure that his techniques work. But I'm sure that's a crazy theory.

Well, whatever happens, we are glad that they come see us, even if it is just for Ethan ;)

No Regrets

I haven't posted in nearly two weeks and I have no regrets about that. Let me tell you why.

Mia and I were on vacation for the first week and I've been getting settled back into life in the second. The vacation was great, we went up to Montreal on a train out of Albany. The train ride took about 2 hours longer than expected but that gave me plenty of time to read Harry Potter. In fact, I nearly finished it on the train.
I enjoyed this book, it made up for Book 6 by finally providing the context it needed to be a complete story. And, as I've said in the past, JK Rowling is a good storyteller. Her actual writing might not be the best in Western civilization but she knows how to captivate her reader with the story. I can rarely read that much of a book in one sitting but the Harry Potter books make the hours just disappear.

Once we got to the city, Mia and I began our relaxation. That was the point of the vacation so we didn't mind taking it slow. Our first day we went to the Biodome and Botanical Gardens. We knew that we would be walking around so we took our time through the exhibits. The same in the gardens.

One of the interesting parts of the garden was the Chinese area. We saw some lotus flowers but only saw one that was open enough to see how the seedpod fit inside the flower. After walking through the main gardens, we went to the smelling garden. This was an interesting part of the garden. There were guides to show you which flowers to touch, smell, and even some that you could taste. Most of the tasting plants were of the kind that you could rub the leaves to get some of the oils on your fingers.

The next day we decided to go down to Old Montreal. Since it was so close to our hotel we also walked there. This also meant we took plenty of breaks to make sure Mia didn't get too tired. The old city was fun to explore. We went down to the water and walked through the old city houses. Mia also wanted to look at the art galleries, of which there were plenty... with prices that include 1 too many zeros for us to purchase anything.

Fortunately, we did find a man selling his photography on the street and we were very impressed by it. He takes photographs right after snowstorms so that the ground disappears. (His development method also contributes to this effect.) And that leaves striking back and white photographs of the main subjects.

So we bought some.
In fact, we bought a picture of two lotus blossom stems after the petals had fallen off the flower and all that was left were the pods. There were two stems next to each other, just like Mia and I in Montreal :) I'm very happy with the picture. We've been very pleased with our decision to look for local art each place we go on vacation. They serve as wonderful reminders of our trip and give us something unique to show people.

The train ride home also took longer than posted (but this time not longer than expected). We arrived in time for the dinner after the wedding rehearsal. Ethan saw us and then kept playing with Bryson.
I had to go over and ask him to give me a hug. After that he was ready to hang around me. I was happy to see him again though, so I didn't mind.

The wedding the next day went well. Everything happened just like it was supposed to.... almost. The pillow that Ethan was supposed to carry with the rings wasn't found in time (but fortunately he wasn't going to carry the real rings) so he just walked holding my hand as I carried the ring-bearer teddy bear. Ethan got a bit wiggly during the ceremony but he made it and did well during the reception afterwards too.

By the time we finally got home, it had been 6 full days. We were all glad to be back in our own house. Ethan had been having a hard time when he got really tired at nights and kept asking us to go home the 2 days after Mia and I returned from Montreal.

This week has meant some housework in preparation for my parents coming next week.

iPod TV

We are getting ready to go on our vacation and I wanted to bring my iPod along with some videos that we could watch at our hotel rather than paying crazy amounts for the in-room service. But, rather than watching them on the laptop, I wanted to see if I could find an accessory to connect my iPod to a TV.

I assumed it was possible because I have a cable that connects it to my stereo, so all I needed was one that had the third plug for video. However, I was also assuming that it would go on the iPod connector slot at the bottom.

Since the only think I found on BestBuy was a $90 accessory, I turned to Google. And that's where I found a site that shows you how a hack to connect your iPod to a TV.

Granted, you'll need a video iPod to make this work. But for those of you that know that joy, prepare for it to be magnified... unless you already knew about this.
In which case I ask: Why didn't you tell me!

My cousin's cousin

Just added a link to your blog Karen.

For everyone else, it's more for my own navigation since the blog is still invite-only.

Remember me?

So, I'm going to write a post about me today. I figure since I own this blog, I can do that once in a while.

But, I'm not sure what to say. My life pretty much revolves around waking up, taking care of Ethan, going to work, coming home, taking care of Ethan, making dinner, putting Ethan to bed, cleaning the dishes, writing or gaming or reading, and then going to bed.

I miss my bike. Riding to work in the morning and home in the afternoon was nice because I had some time to myself. I had some time to get outside. I had some time with no other pressures on me. There was nothing else that I could be doing except riding. Unfortunately, I managed to rip some of the spokes out of my front tire. I got them replaced this weekend, but I need a friend to help me true the wheel. I'm anxious to get back into riding.

Well, that quickly turned into a whine. So, I'll give a glimpse into my rarely talked about work on Avlis 2. As you probably don't know, I'm the Lead Designer for the world. That means I have to make the creative decisions and try to get the systems we are going to build spec'd out. Oh, and I have to manage a team of Designers working with me. This has been a challenge, but in a good way. I've learned about how to deal with creative people (good for my field) and also learned how to re-think ideas from different angles. This position is really one of problem-solving, which is something that I feel I'm good at.

In addition to working on Avlis, I'm also still editing World Forge Magazine. I've been doing that for 1.5 years now. I can't believe we've made it so far. I'm looking forward to continuing with WFM as it gives me a chance to do some light writing. Not having the future of my company's reputation as a thought-leader in our technical industry is a huge weight off my shoulders when I'm in WFM writing mode.

Also, Mia and I are preparing for a trip to Montreal next week. I've never been to Canada. If anyone has advice for how to interact with the locals, I'd love to hear it. I'll try to refrain from just talking louder at them since I don't speak Canadian. ;)

Mr. Potter

We went. We saw. We drove home and Mia showed me a new way that is totally awesome.

Giving Dad a Raspberry. He's laughs more during these than we do. But, it's so much fun.

And, just to even the score, we got Mommy in on the action too.

Retraction Part 3

So, let this be a lesson to me. I shouldn't post things to my blog that may be controversial. I hope this will be the last retraction that I have to post.

Last night as I was getting Ethan ready for bed, I told him that we were going to take a bath. He pointed his finger at him and told me "No!"
I pointed my finger back at him and said that we were going to.

He pointed his finger, a little more emphatically, and said, "No. I'm going to fight you." I told him that I wasn't going to fight and went the table to clear some dishes. He ran over, said it again, and then hit me on the leg.

Neither Mia or I know where he picked that up. But it certainly isn't something a wimpy child would do.

Of course, I did have to pick him up at that point and tell him that we don't hit people. And then, we got ready for this bath.

Purple Car

We've been encouraging Ethan to potty train by using bribes. The specific bribes we are using are Cars cars. In other words, little toys that represent some of the figures in the movie Cars.

He got a generic race car for the first time he went on the potty. Since then, we've had a new car on the fridge, the purple car from the group that harasses Mac and makes Lightening McQueen fall out.

Here's Ethan talking about what he did to earn the second car... finally.

Retraction Part 2

The 4th of July is all about the fireworks. At least, that's how I was raised. And how I'm planning on raising my son.

That meant we had to keep Ethan up well past his bedtime but Mia convinced me that it was worth it. He had a blast during the time leading up to the fireworks. Then, when they started doing a few test shots, he would cling to Mia or me and say "I want to go home." Since we were there with some friends, we decided that we were going to stick it out.

So we let Ethan snuggle on our laps, he was getting tired. Once the fireworks started for real, Ethan snuggled into me and wanted me to cover his ears. He also kept asking to go home. I kept covering his ears but we told him that we were going to stay. After a while, I stopped blocking his ears and just kind of putting my hand loosely over top of them. Then, when my hands got tired, I put my sweatshirt over his ears for him to hold. He did that for a while, then started enjoying the fireworks and would point at them and say "Boom!"

By the end of the night, he was having a great time. So, my son has already started on the proud tradition of 4th of July fireworks.

Retraction

Well, it looks like I can point to my first case of me trying to use Ethan as a way to re-live my own childhood and make changes per my own recollections of the past.

In my last post I chided him for being a wimp. In retrospect, the park was very crowded that day and Ethan wasn't up from his name for too long when we went over. And, if you look a little closer, I always feel that some of my childhood was spent being a scrawny little kid who was afraid to do things.
Now, I know that there were plenty of things that I wasn't afraid to do (reckless things, my parents might say) but the memory is a funny thing. And the highlights often tend to be the memories that we don't want to think about.

I took Ethan to the spray park again this weekend. He was a little shy at first but this time started having fun after only a few minutes. There were almost no other kids (especially big kids that tend to run around without looking) and he started braving some of the things that seemed so scary the day before.

Maybe while he's still young it's better that I learn that he's a unique person with unique desires and fears. I can certainly do my part to provide him the opportunities to grow but I'm not going to be able to mold him into the idealized image of myself at his age. Or, at least, I can't do that without having him crack that mold wide-open at some point and rebel in ways that may be harmful to himself.

Looks like it's time for me to go back to learning how to be a parent. You'd think after 2.5 years I'd have it all figured out. Sheesh.

Cowboy Up

I need to do something about Ethan. He's getting to be a bit of a whiner and a wimp.

We went to the spray park today and Ethan didn't want to get in the water at all. There are a couple of different structures in the spray area, a big flower, a tunnel (open rings), a snake, and a bucket. Then, in the ground are some nozzles that shoot water up too.

After about 1 minute he started to cry and wanted to sit on one of the benches. Then he wanted to go home. I picked him up and carried him into the water under once or twice. He kept crying so we went over to the playground.

He did his normal climbing up the circles ladder and sliding down, until Maggie and Tyler came to the park. Then we tried doing the water again... similar results.

So, I'm trying to decide if I need to just keep taking him until he grows to love the water or just give him a bit of space and not push him too hard just because I think it's silly to be scared of the spray park.

Me = Geek

I'm not sure how many of my family and friends know this but I'm a computer gamer. And this last weekend I went to a gaming meet.

It was just outside of Albany, which is not that far from me. So, I drove out there and had a chance to meet some of the people that I play with. I had a great time, we played lots of games, went swimming and mountain biking, and I got to sleep in.

All in all, a very fun weekend. I'll have to do it again sometime.

Running

Another video! I know that it's been a bit of a long time. This is from last month and even since then Ethan has been changing. I'll have to get something new shot and posted. But, in the mean time you can watch my boy running around in circles. (He never gets tired of doing it.)

Trains

I took Ethan to the library yesterday. And, even though he has a James train and freight car at home (or perhaps because), those are always the two he wants at the library as well.

He also likes it when I get a train to play with him. The table is usually crowded with other little kids though and I have the major hindrance of not being able to stand up and walk while moving my train around the track. I'm just a little too tall.

Fortunately, he plays well with the other kids. He doesn't try to take their trains or push them out of the way. Yesterday, he even played so well with the other little 2 1/2 year old that his father and I exchanged numbers.

Ethan's growing up to be a fun boy.

Back in the Saddle

After a two week hiatus, I'm going to be riding my bike to work again. I had to replace both wheels. The front one I replaced immediately after the crash, but the back-wheel I didn't realize was also bent.
Then, after riding it to work the first time after the crash, I felt more resistance than I expected. Turns out, my back wheel was rubbing against my brakes the entire ride.

I just bought the new wheel on Saturday, replaced it on Sunday, and today used the tool from the kit Mia got me for my birthday to release a little tension from my back brakes.

Everything appears to be in working order now and I'm going to ride back in this morning and see if I'm still in shape enough to make the full trip. I have to admit, that since I haven't been biking, I've also let my diet slip a little. I'm still not drinking soda but I have been eating more junk. Well, that will have to change again.

So much to say

I have been gathering a number of stories about Ethan over the last week. He just does so much that is cute and worth writing about. I'm not sure if I'll get everything that I've been thinking of but I'll try.

He was trying to take his own shirt off and really wanted to do it himself.

"Show me how you do that trick," I said.
"I can do it," he said trying to get his arm out of one of his sleeves.
"show me how you do it, and I promise you, I promise that I'll run with you at the park," I said.

That's just a silly example of me listening to my iPod too much as well. :)

Ethan has also gotten very good at climbing up a set of metal (with rubber around them) circles that he can climb up to get on the playground. Then he slides down 'the big slide'. And, he'll keep making that circuit over and over. It's nice because we get a break from running around with him all the time.

Another thing that has been fun for me this week is that Ethan keeps wanting to go to work with me. It's probably because he's been waking up around 5:30-5:45 and then we fall back asleep on the couch until like 7AM (at least I do, sometimes Ethan stays awake and watches TV). So, after having that much time together in the mornings, he's always sad when I have to leave the house. So, this week, he's been asking to get dressed, put on his shoes, and drive in the car with me to work.

And, then, when I get home from work, he's been either sitting on the porch waiting for me (with Mia) or runs to the door when I get home, yelling about how excited he is that I'm home. That really makes my day.

And, one final note about the boy. Part of our bedtime routine now includes talking with him about his day. I wait until he's already in bed so that I have his attention. He can be pretty coherent about what he did during the day. I love hearing about his many adventures and what he thinks is worth talking about.

So, that's all that I have for now. I'll try to keep posting more frequently.

Politics

I am the anti-Stew

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 70% Conservative, 30% Liberal Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Ethics: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!

Today when I drove up into the driveway, Ethan was standing on the porch with Mia waiting for me.

When he saw me, he started jumping up and down saying "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" and didn't stop until I was out of the car and came around and picked him up.

He gets so excited when I come home from work to play with him. It's a pretty great feeling.

Heat

The heat has arrived in Boston. We've had the AC in for a couple of weeks but haven't turned it on too much. Now, it's on.

Mia's not a big fan of the heat. And neither am I. We both get to a point of being so hot our rational thought processes are turned off. You don't want to see either of us when this happens.

We are also learning that Ethan doesn't much like it either. We went for a walk today, and he immediately wanted to climb in his stroller and just get a ride. But, he's so cute in his little hat and sunglasses.

The walk was to replace my phone. Which we did, I got a new Katana phone. We were looking at the Razr, but the salesguy told us the Katana has a better antenna. Since we know that is a problem in our house, we went for it.
And, because of the way Mia's last phone was handled, she was eligible to get a new phone too. So, we both got Katana's. $20 bucks each (plus tax). Phones are pretty cheap if you aren't buying them without a contract.

They should work out better than our last phones that fell apart just before our 2 year contract was up. We'll be with the same phone company for another 2 years. In case anyone needs to know which one, email me.

More bike woes

I got back on the horse (well, bike) yesterday and rode to work. Then, on the way home I felt that the riding was more difficult than normal. Looking behind me, I could see my back wheel was wobbling and the brakes were shaking back and forth.

Once I finally got home, I tried spinning my back tire. It went about two revolutions and stopped. I think I discovered what made riding home so hard.

I'll be spending some more time this weekend trying to fix the back tire. Looks like I might have to buy 2 new wheels :(

Have I mentioned that I'm frustrated about this crash?

Summer Reading Begins

So, it's summer and I'm going to be trying to read and write more (as I've already mentioned). As pat of that, I'm reading the second book in the Fablehaven series. It's only been a few months since Mia bought the first one, so the story was still pretty fresh.

The second book is called Rise of the Evening Star. It picks up almost a year after the first book. The kids are just finishing their school year and hoping to go back to Fablehaven. Conveniently, they haven't run into trouble until the very last week of school.

Again, I don't want to walk through the plot, so I'll review other things. First, Brandon does a good job writing this book as a second episode.
If you've ever read the Hobbit, and then followed with the Lord of the Rings, you can clearly see how the world of Middle-earth expands in the LotR series. The Hobbit gives you a glimpse into a narrow piece of the world defined by the adventure episode. The trilogy expands on the world, taking the adventure to many new places and giving more depth to the world. Tolkien does this very well, which is why the LotR is still one of the foundations for many fantasy stories.

With that background, let me repeat. Rise of the Evening Star does a good job of being a second episode in the world. Some sequels (or second book of the standard fantasy trilogy) try to make the world too big. They add in too many new elements, making the reader keep track of the setting rather than being able to focus on the story in a now familiar world.
In this book, there are new elements, in fact some pretty significant ones, but by staying close to the Fablehaven preserve Brandon is able to add them without detracting from the flow.

Also, when I feel that his pacing has gotten better. The book started off with a nice action sequence. It moved well, and built up to a climatic scene that segued nicely into the main story. After that, he did slow down and spend quite a bit of time in exposition. Introducing new characters, adding some more depth to the secrets of Fablehaven, and exploring Kendra's changes.

I was talking with Mia about this the other day and what came out of our discussion was that I'm not the target audience. :) What we were talking about was the incredible self-awareness of the characters. They analyzed situations and their own feelings with a self-awareness that I certainly don't remember having as I muddled through middle school and high school.
But, as Mia pointed out, the adolescents that this book is written for probably do feel that they are that aware. And that they can analyze situations that rationally.

One thing I admire is that he includes questions at the end of the book aimed at his audience to help them do some critical thinking about what they've read. One of the questions was about a twist at the end of the book. It asks for some speculation about how this could play out in the next episode. Unfortunately, this twist broke some of my immersion. It felt like it was a plot device more than an organic, natural occurrence in the story. I'm going to reserve judgment until I read the final book (next year) but he's going to have to handle things very carefully to avoid being cliche.

Crash into me

Well, I suppose that it follows that having a bike, I would have a bike accident. Of course, I was hoping for something small. I'm not sure this qualifies.

I was riding home from work today (not something that I normally do on Fridays) and at one point a trail merges from behind a grocery store. Another biker merged on, going pretty slowly. No problem, they were on the right, I was on the left. I moved over a little further just to make sure.

Then, as I'm getting closer they look back. Suddenly, after seeing me, they swerve over to the left side of the trail. I hit my brakes, but it's a dirt trail so I skidded and we collided.

We totally got entangled, flipped, rolled, all that bad stuff in a crash. My leg and shoulder got scraped up and the other person got the wind knocked out of them. Neither of us were badly hurt. So, that was good anyway.

Of course, on the bad side, my front tire was totally bent, in multiple places. I'll have to get a picture. So, I was about 1.5 miles from home and had to put my bike up on its back wheel and walk it the rest of the way home. When I got home, I was sore and tired. And had to talk care of Ethan for the rest of the afternoon.

But, we made it through. We even went to the park.

So, I'll be going out tomorrow to try and get my bike fixed.

Manual Labor

I've already mentioned that I finished writing a story by hand. I've decided not to be shy about my writing, and I also feel a connection with the handwriting on the page.

Since I'm going to be typing it all in and doing my revisions after that, I feel that something is being lost. To avoid that, I'm going to post some scans of the hand-written version on my Web site (yes, the rest of the site does still exist).

They aren't complete, the pages that I'm writing on are too big for my scanner. So it's not a way for you to read the story, but at least get a sense of what it was like before the computer standardized it and took away my personal touch.

Micro blogging

No, I'm not going to start using Twitter but I did have the perfect micro blog moment today.

In fridge: 2 liter coke, root beer, mountain dew; 20oz Dr. Pepper

Competent Writer

Life is what happens at the intersections.

That's my philosophical way of introducing my plan to write this summer. For the details keep reading.

First, with the season finales for most shows happening this week, I've decided to stop watching television. I've felt like I want more time to write, read, and play. And TV has just been keeping me from doing that.

Second, I picked up on a short story that I started writing a year ago, or maybe more. I've known how I wanted it to end, but there was a piece of the story between where I was and the ending that I wasn't sure how to handle. I finally just decided to write it out and finished that this week.
Building on that, the story is completely written by hand. It's been a very interesting experience doing it all by hand. I think that writing by hand will help me develop my own style. When writing on paper, everything that you write stays on the page. You can still revise, but you always know what your first thoughts were.

Third, I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing. Surprisingly, it's an interesting book if a bit sporadic. I'm still only half-way through but I can see that King really does have a passion for writing. And it's been a wake up call for me. Mostly because I've been using television and other things to give me an excuse for not doing the reading and writing I need to get better.
I also like his metaphor for the writing toolbox and very straight-forward definition of the pieces. I've never really been a horror fan but I might go back and read some of his books. In fact, The Shining has always interested me.

Finally, I know that writing is something that I want to do. It's been an uncomfortable dissonance in my life, feeling that I don't have enough time to myself (or rather time to do the things that I want) and so I've been funneling my free time into TV and gaming.

I guess this is like my blogging post. It's got to be an addiction if you really want to pursue it.

(This is the wife - Read the comments to see how much writing John already does. Although he doesn't realize it, he is one prolific guy.)

Lions

Ethan has a very active imagination. We were watching Mulan yesterday and afterwards he wanted to get his pirate sword and fight the bad guys. Later that night, as I was putting him to bed, he talked to me about how he, mom, and I were all going to fight bad guys. And he was a little bit scared, so I told him that bad guys couldn't come into his room because we closed the door.

We have also been pretending to be lions and bears the last few days. It's something that Mia likes because Ethan drops his voice an octave. Rather than screaming a high-pitched scream and running around the house, he growls.

But, I'm not going to be able to explain it as well as this video. Which, for any of you tech-geeks, was uploaded to Google Video instead of YouTube this time.

Rainstorms

Just wanted to do a quick explanation of a new feature on my blog. I'm going to be trying to ride my bike to work as much as I can. And, I'm keeping track of that in the bike section of my sidebar.

Unfortunately, I don't often check the weather online or on the TV. I just look out the window and see if it's raining or not. So, today, I rode to work in the morning but then it started raining around noon. So Mia had to come pick me up.

I locked my bike up in my bosses office, and hopefully I'll get to ride it home one of these days.

And I shall call him...

[09:36] xxxxxxx: You shall now be know as 'Blog-Boy'
[09:36] xxxxxxx: My Big Blogging Brother
[09:38] xxxxxxx: Mr. Bo Bloggitty
[09:38] johan5000: hahahah
[09:38] xxxxxxx: Bling Blang Blog Bladdah Bloo Bloo

Names removed to keep someone from feeling really, really embarrassed. ;)

Teachers are scary

So, most of the time I've very grateful for the men and women who dedicate their lives to teaching children. It's an important way for our society to progress and continue to evolve towards a better tomorrow.

But sometimes teachers forget that they aren't the only ones who decide what's best for kids. I'm always amazed/frustrated when I read stories where the teachers did not ask for any sort of parental input or engagement. I don't think that teaching should happen in a silo.

Anyway, read this story and tell me what you think.

Teachers stage mock attack

More Apocolypse

I can add to the recent signs of the times being reported.

On Friday I put the air conditioner into our bedroom window by myself, and in about 5 minutes.

I credit this to rote memorization from the last four years rather than any actual handyman skills of my own.

My bike ride

Apparently, my style of posting does not attract people to read my blog. Fortunately, I'm mostly only writing for my family but I thought I'd try my hand at something longer.

Maybe I'll get a few links from the few people I know that blog.


So... topic... topic... topic.

The problem is that I spent my days on serious stuff so I'm not sure that I could whip out something funny. And, since I doubt that anyone wants to read my pontification on marketing, I'm going to write about biking.

Recently I had a conversation with some friends about biking. One of my friends asked what kind of bike I had. To which I confidently responded "A Schwinn". And of course, that showed just how little I knew of my new hobby.

I can now give the update that I have a Schwinn 26" Men's Ranger. Which is more specific but I still don't know what that means in comparison to other brands or models.

But, what I can do is talk more about the ride. I used a Google Maps mashup to calculate that I ride about 4 miles one-way. It's not that long, but there are a couple of hills. It takes me about 35 minutes to ride to work. That's much longer than I want to take each morning. And much longer in the afternoons once work is done. So, the first thing that I'm working on is improving my speed. I can feel it in the muscles on the tops of my legs (quads for you smart people).
Which is working. I have already noticed that I'm able to go faster, which makes my legs hurt even more. Hopefully at some point in the summer the hurting will stop.

I've also got some cool biking equipment. I won't spend too long talking about the shorts ;) but I've got a nice helmet, a pedometer, and sunglasses. I've also been using my iPod on the trip since I ride along the river trail here in Boston. I don't have to worry about getting hit by cars (for you worried mothers, my wife already brought up that point).

Because I ride along the river, I tend to ride through clouds of gnats on the way home, when it's warmer and humid. The sunglasses are a lifesaver. But the river is so green and lush that it's totally worth doing.

And one last thought about biking is that it makes me much more aware of the weather. I never really cared before because I'd just be driving and then sitting in the office all day. But now, I always have to know what the weather is going to be like the next day (or the morning of) so that I don't end up riding in a rainstorm. I did that my first week of biking... it was not fun.
In fact, Mia picked me up at the grocery store along the way. We had to put my bike in the trunk with the back wheel sticking out. Every bump along the road made the trunk smash down on it. Even after I tightened the bungee cord that was holding down the trunk.
I don't want to repeat that kind of abuse to my new bike.

Anyway, I'm a biker now. Next step is a tattoo I suppose.

Yearly Links

So, there are some blogs that do weekly links... I don't do that.

But, since I did want to link to some of the cool things that I use and since Zack posted some videos of Aida, I thought I'd do it now.

First, I think that Aida has a little Ethan in her.

Second, since our laptop hard-drive is getting full already (it's 60GB and we thought that would be fine), I haven't installed any chat programs except Yahoo! for video chatting with my parents. Instead I use Meebo

My dad turned me onto the TWiT podcast and I listen to it now while I ride to work. It's good because they provide perspective on all the new happenings online. A very grounded perspective.

And lastly, I want to put in a plug for Google Reader. If you aren't already using RSS feeds, you don't know what you're missing. And I can't explain it.

Internal clock

Mia just called me and put a very sad Ethan on the phone. He woke up from his nap and I wasn't home yet.

I normally would be. But, Mia worked on Wednesday this week so I came home early then and I'm staying later at work today.

I wonder if Ethan has a long-term internal clock that beyond just regulating him to 2 hour naps or getting up at 6:30am each morning. His longer clock tells him that on Friday, even though he can't conceptualize that as a day of the week, he should wake up from his nap and see me.

Interesting thought. No idea if it has any merit though.

Happy Father's Day

This one's for you Dad.



Also, if you have a Google account, you should be able to log in to Blogger and update your profile to United States (and you can even keep it private). That might trigger an English page and you can still leave anonymous comments.

Blogs vs Bloggers

I was reading today at Marketing Profs. (sign-up req'd) about the dark side of blogging. The main theme was warning against the addiction of blogging.

This was in the context of using blogging as a platform for business, specifically trying to start or promote your own business through blogging. So, I'm going to take exception with some of the article.

Blogs and Bloggers are two different things. I have a blog, but I'm not a blogger. I update my blog for personal reasons, family reasons, friend reasons. I like doing it but as anyone who's followed my blog knows, I don't post every day.

I think, that this is also the reason that I don't twitter. I'm not trying to gather a following, I'm not trying to be a thought leader and give people frequent updates so they'll always know what's on my mind.

However, one thing that I did find true was the desire for feedback. Having a few friends and family that check my blog now, I'm always hoping some people will leave comments for me. I'll have to try and fish for them better.

I've toyed with the idea of becoming a blogger. But I keep resisting because I don't think that I want to get addicted.

ABCs

This is the final post in a series that I recorded a while ago. This is a cute little video of Ethan trying to recite the ABCs. He's getting pretty good... but not quite there yet.

Grilling Season

It has begun. The weather was so nice yesterday that we decided to make hamburgers yesterday. And then today, I decided to do some grilling again.

Now that we have a gas grill, I think we'll be doing much more grilling this summer than we have in the past.

I'm excited.

Addict

One thing that I've discovered, or rather articulated because I remember feeling this way two years ago when I was running in the mornings.

While there is some inertia to get over when starting an exercise regime, once I get going I crave more of it. After having ridden my bike about 5 times now to work, I totally want to keep doing it. Even though my legs are sore, and I still get very winded, I want to keep doing it.

I'm not going to take a before picture but maybe when the summer is over, I'll post up an after picture of how good I look.

Language

Ethan was exploring language this morning. Specifically he was interested in expletives. Now, I know that it's not a good trend to start so young in life and I didn't laugh or encourage him, but now that I'm away from the house I can say how cute it was.
Especially in his squeaky voice.

And, because those of you reading this blog will know that Mia and I don't swear, I'll let you know that he was saying things like

"My gosh" In front of sentences or as he was spilling milk while eating breakfast.

"Oh brother" After breakfast while we were playing with his new Teddy Bear (created at Build-a-Bear, as yet unnamed).

So, I guess it's not too bad. ;)

Baseball

In Boston you can't get away from it. Which is why I shouldn't be too surprised that Ethan seems to like playing it. Of course, he's probably more interested in just swinging the bat at this point. I would like to teach him to play some sports. I was never very good at them as a child and I expect to re-live my childhood the way I wanted it to be through my son.

I'm sure he won't mind. :)

Easter

Just trying to keep up with the boy these past few days. The weather has been nice so we were outside most of the day.

But, since I don't have anything interesting to talk about, here's a video of Ethan helping us color Easter eggs.

Random

Ethan walked out of the office tonight carrying an empty bag of Milano cookies and happily munching on one.

This happened at 9:00PM when he was supposed to be asleep.

Just talking

My mom asked for some video of Ethan just talking. We tend to do a lot of prompting, we tried to just ask him some questions and let him do the talking.



He's really getting to be such a big boy.

And, I spent the night tonight getting other videos ready, so I'll be posting video for the next few days.

Life Again

So, I've been a little lazy posting this week. Partly because we didn't have the boy for the first three days of the week.

In case you are wondering, I love my son but it was amazing to have some time to ourselves. Mia and I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in and doing our own projects. We got some of the serious cleaning and re-arranging of the house done, which was nice.

Then for the last two days, we've just been catching up with Ethan. He always learns so much when he's around older kids and we've been impressed with how much he talks.

I'm going to put up some more video soon. Ethan picked up his baseball bat today and so we were playing a little baseball, it was very fun.

My biking saga

I decided to bike to work today, after the morning commute. I wanted to see if I could do it, since I'm going to start riding to work every morning (as soon as I can).

Well, the first trip was really really hard. And it took me about 45 minutes to bike the 4 miles (one-way). That has to be some kind of record (not the good kind).

But I figure I'll use my blog as a diary of my biking efforts so that at the end of the summer I'll be able to proudly tell you that I'm biking 4 miles to work in 10 minutes... well maybe not that fast.

So anyway, I'm sore, but feeling good about getting outside and doing some exercise.

Branded

We are getting ready for a trip out to Grandpa's house, where we'll be leaving Ethan for a few days (we are excited) and part of getting ready has been putting some music and books on the iPod.

So, while Ethan and I were sitting in the hallway playing he asked me "Daddy, where's your iPod?"

My son is now officially a child of the new millennium.

Puppies

We went to the park this morning and a very small friendly dog was there too. Ethan loves dogs (though he's been nervous about letting them get near him recently) and he wanted to play with him.

I think that he like the dog because it didn't look bigger than him. Even when the dog was jumping up on him, it didn't get taller than Ethan and he laughed while they played.

But this was a very playful dog. After a couple of times getting jumped on, Ethan wanted to climb up on me, or on his bike, which, as he repeated a few times "It's not for dogs".

But, then after a minute he'd want to go back over and see the dog again. He even threw the chew ball for the puppy to chase. Overall we had a very fun time at the park this morning.

Hard at work

Ethan had to go to work today. His work routine consisted of:

Hiding under his blanket (with me tickling his legs)
Reading a book
Playing with his trucks
Riding on my back (what a killer commute)
Closing his bedroom door as he declared he was going to work

I don't know how he gets his 40 hours in but it must be rough.

Contacts

I don't know if I posted about this, but I've been wearing contacts for about a month now. They are getting quite comfortable on my eyes. And I like that Ethan can't grab the glasses off my face.

That's a bit random, but it's what I'm thinking about tonight.

Birthday

So, it's my birthday. The big one... or rather the first of many big ones that will make me face my mortality every decade or so.

I am officially 30 years old.

But, I have the consolation of having a hot twenty-something wife so I've still got that going for me.

My birthday was actually very fun. Except for the fact that I've had a cold this weekend :( But Mia was great about taking care of Ethan today, even while she was cleaning up.
And actually, Ethan did a great job playing by himself. Normally he's very needy of our attention, he wants us to always be right next to him. Today he was in a good mood and just played along without much trouble. Which was nice because I had very little energy.

I also had a surprise party last night. I was completely surprised. This may stem from a difference that I've noticed between Mia and I when we watch movies. She's always looking to figure out the mystery or twist early in the plot. I'm more content to just watch and let it unfold by itself, waiting to be surprised by whatever happens.
I think that's why I just accepted that Mia really wanted to get the house clean this weekend, and why she made a gigantic lasagna for just the two of us. And why, when the doorbell rang and I thought Beth and Tyler were joining us for dinner Mia wanted me to get it... especially when I sent Ethan to open the door instead (I was talking with my brother online at the time).

So, I was very surprised by the party and I was very glad that everyone was able to make it over. We had about 4 other couples with their kids (about 5 kids total). The kids played well together and the adults all got to chat and eat some good food and cake.

I guess with a birthday like that I can't complain much about being 30. :)

Duck Says Quack

Grandma Linda brought a present out for Ethan when she came to see Mia's play. Not only did he create an immediate rapport with his new duck but the duck now sleeps under a blanket on the floor next to Ethan's bed.

Juggling Cups

Ethan is such a smart little guy. On a whim I decided to juggle some of his plastic cups before dinner. He thought it was great, and after we ate dinner he started saying that he wanted to juggle cups. I couldn't understand him at first because I had no idea that he would have already picked up on juggling.

So anyway, without any more waiting, here he is.

Parenting

So, I want to make just a quick post about active and passive parenting. I've been thinking about this a lot because I take are of Ethan at the beginning and end of the day. And of course on the weekends.

But, in the mornings I find that I'm just coming out and letting Ethan watch TV while I lay on the couch for just a little longer. I've tried to tell myself that I'm not going to do this but when I'm in the moment, in the actual morning, I don't remember those promises.

In the evenings, I do better. We have been making trips to the park lately because the sun is out longer now (thanks DST) and the weather is warmer. I feel better about doing that because it means that I'm engaging with Ethan. But even then, like on our 2 hour trips, I brought a book so that I could just let him run his energy out. I didn't have a chance to sit down and read it all that much but the intention was there.

Active parenting -- The time spent with kids playing, running, reading, doing things.
Passive parenting -- The time your kid spends interacting with things that are not you.

I shouldn't come down so hard on passive parenting. It can be very useful when things like dishes, cleaning, vacuuming need to get done. Or just when then parent needs a little sanity. But it's an easy parenting style to fall into as the default.

Ethan is getting better about playing with himself without just watching TV. He likes to read books, run around the house, and play with trains.

Some of the things that I need to do more actively are read, sing, run, and build things with him. I'll have to keep working on those.

More catching up

So, Mia finished her play last weekend. It was kind of crazy because their Friday show got canceled because of snow, but then re-scheduled for Sunday. Mia had to work a full shift on Monday and was hoping for a day off on Sunday to rest.
David, Chris and family came out to the Saturday afternoon show of the play. And Linda came out for the evening performance. They all enjoyed it very much. The performance really was moving, they did very well with the singing and sets and everything.

So, during the rest of the week we tried to recover from last weekend.

Also, I received a present from my parents this week. It's for my birthday... just some random birthday, no major milestones that would make me feel old. However, to ease me into my next year closer to death, I'll have a boatload of music. An 80GB iPod with video capabilities. I don't even know what I'm going to do to fill it all up. I'll have to start hitting up my friends for music.

On Friday, Mia was feeling pretty sick so I took the day off so she could sleep before going to work. Ethan has been a crazy man lately. Very active, very very active. So, rather than letting him run around the house and wake Mia up, we headed out to the park. We were there for 2 hours. And he still fought me when I took him home. And then, after the nap we went to the park for 2 hours again. I'm going to make a separate post about active parenting, because on Saturday we went to the park for 2 hours in the morning and an hour in the afternoon (it was getting a little cold) and for about an hour on Sunday morning (though I hadn't been planning on it). Did I mention that Ethan's active?

Today, I'm watching the new Discovery Channel's premiere of Planet Earth with their new hi-def filming techniques that let's them film from further away and thus get more natural footage. It's very cool.

And that's my update.

The rest of my rant

I'll finish my rant about the snow now. I don't like it in the east for a couple of reasons.
1. Snow storms are the primary distribution channel. We don't get many flurries or just 'snow'. We get mini-blizzards that drop 10 inches (or much, much more) at a time. This means that I typically have to shovel the driveway when I get home from work just so I can park (yes, it always seems to snow while I'm at work) and then I have to shovel again later that night so that it doesn't pile up too high. This includes the pile that the snowplows have pushed across our driveway.
2. Which brings me to number two. The snow out here is wet. And when the snowplows push it around, it gets more water in it. Trying to shovel the snow out of the driveway is about 10x heavier than the rest of the snow... unless it's iced over.
3. Any snow you leave for the next day gets iced over. It turns into a solid sheet that you can't get rid of until the weather is warm enough to start melting it. And... whatever you do, don't let your car sit overnight with snow on it.

Updates

Just some random stuff here but before I forget it all I want to jot it down.

Ethan and I went to the park twice today for 2 hour stretches. I love that the weather has warmed up.

Karen had her baby. A boy. More details later.

My parents Twitter. They are so cutting edge... or will be once they update it ;)

Fast Post

I hate the snow.

More later.

Fort Couch

The corner of our living room is a great playspace. Recently, I've been making that area into a fort by tossing a blanket over the couch. Ethan likes having his own little place. And he's so cute when he goes in there.

Ethan Cam

Ethan always wants to hold the camera. Whether it's the still camera or the video camera, he likes to feel like he's in charge of it. So, today I decided to pass it over to him and see what we got.

I'm proud to present Ethan's directorial debut short film.

Pick me up

So, yesterday, when I was having my stressful week, I cracked open the RSS reader and scanned through Logic + Emotion. I enjoy reading this one because I think it's insightful and because he posts cool graphics.

If your interested in marketing, you should check it out.

Temptation

Ethan beguiled me and we did stay up late.

I knew that I should have put him to bed at 7pm but he pulled one of his tricks. He ran back to the table and started eating dinner again.
This made bedtime take a little longer but we survived.

Earlier today, Ethan was doing other cute stuff. Like when I came home he had colored a picture of me (with Mia's help).

He had been talking all day about playing trains with me and had the tracks all set up.

I just love him so much.

Stress

This has been a very stressful week for me. At work I had to finish setting up 2 newsletters and mail them out. It takes a lot of work because I have to set up each of the segmented mailings by hand. We have 8 segments. This is my own fault, I pushed for doing this segmentation but it's still stressful.

I also came into work and discovered some problems. First, we changed some mail settings and had a large number of failures from the newsletter. Second, the scripts tracking our Web site weren't working so we have no data for the month of February.

At home, I also had to finish editing and setting up an issue of WFM, write my editorial, and release two previews for Avlis2.

Last night, I nearly fell asleep at 6:00 while sitting on the couch with Ethan. I'm glad that I made it through everything, hopefully the weekend will be more relaxing.

TV knows best

TV just taught me that it doesn't take years of hard work and sacrifice to develop a strong relationship with your family. It just takes money.

Specifically, this was a commercial for a home equity loan.

I guess I need a house of my own before I can really get close to Ethan.

To-Do List

Things that I would like to do:

Read literature
Write fiction
Write poetry
Be outside
Get to bed early
Cook better meals
Play computer games


Things that I actually do:

Watch TV
Read magazines
Write for work and WFM
Go to bed late (and I always know it's late)
Blog
Design for a computer game world (hobby)
Eat something quick (or leftovers)

Being Sick

I'm going to try and steer clear of providing too much information, but for those of you with delicate constitutions, you might want to skip this post.

The synopsis, if you are wonder why you should, is that I was violently ill yesterday.



Now, for the brave readers that are still with me, I'll give a little recap of the crazy day that happened on Friday.

Actually, I need to start on Thursday for this to make sense. On Thursday, I went out to lunch with my manager to a Thai restaurant across the street from our office. Then, that night, with Hannah and Phil and Mia, we had Blue Ribbon BBQ -- of which I ate too much but it was so good.

On Friday I woke up and went to work. Nothing crazy yet. But after about an hour I was belching, a lot, and it was bothering me. Figuring it was something that I'd had for breakfast, I tried to drink plenty of water to wash it out and get the taste out of my mouth.

About Noon, I decided that I should eat my PBJ sandwich to further push out anything that was making me gassy. Unfortunately, about an hour later, I started feeling even worse. So I left about 10 minutes early so I could lie down when I got home before Mia went to work.

After Ethan woke up, I was still not feeling well, except now it was starting to actually hurt my stomach. Mia called, I told her that I still wasn't feeling well and was just lying on the air mattress in the living room (where Hannah had slept). She recommended that I call our neighbor, Beth, to come down and watch Ethan while I tried laying down on the bed. I said that if I got worse, I would call her.

About 10 minutes later Beth came down. Mia had called her, knowing I probably wouldn't, and she played with Ethan while I went into the bedroom. By this time, I had towels and a big bowl with me.
Good thing too, after lying in bed for a while, my stomach getting more and more painful, I had my first round of violent illness. I took it out to the bathroom, figuring Ethan would see me and I'd have to stay out with him. Fortunately, he was in his room and I got to go back into my room and lie down again.

At 6:00pm, Tyler came home and he and Beth were headed out on a date. As a sidenote, Tyler brought up that maybe they could put Maggie down and bring me the monitor. Beth didn't even wait for me to answer and just shot that idea right down :)

Now, during all this time, Phil and Hannah were trying to get home from the Aquarium. They called to see if I could pick them up at Riverside station (they called before my first incident) but I asked if they would just take the commuter rail to Waltham and walk the street to our house.
Turns out, they caught the express train to Acton (Waltham is in the lower right corner). Fortunately, Linda was also on her way into town and picked them up.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. Ethan and I were on our second back-to-back viewing of "Superheroes" aka The Incredibles. This mostly consisted of me lying (again) on the air mattress while he sat on the couch. By this time, I had started in with the moaning when my stomach hurt. After about an hour of that, I once again became violently ill. I hit the pot that I had just in front of me, the air mattress being the perfect height, then crawled into the kitchen to finish. This was messier and not all of it hit the pot. As I was laying down the paper towels, Linda and the crew showed up.

Now, from here on out the details are a bit sketchier because once I had someone to help take care of Ethan, I started zoning out. I was also in pain which might have had something to do with it.

Linda jumped right in cleaning things up and getting me some ice and medicine. I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't come out. Thank you Linda.

I know that she and Phil did a great job getting Ethan some dinner, getting his pajamas on, and reading books with him. I went in to sit with him for a few minutes after that but had to run out for a false alarm. With Ethan in bed, it was back to the air mattress for me.

After my third and final incident, lots of things happened... I think this order is correct.

First, I had two members of the ward come over and give me a blessing. That helped. Then, Mia came home early from work. That helped. I know that I mumbled things, and was kind of hard to decipher. I think that I said some things that would be embarrassing if I was more coherent. David and Luke, from the ward, helped me into the chair in our office. I was going to try sleeping there but couldn't get comfortable. And, somewhere in there, I remember bits of the Legend of Zorro on TV.

Mia called our Doctor's office for the doctor on-call. She asked if I should come into the hospital. By this time we were pretty sure that I had food poisoning and not a virus that has been going around. The doctor talked to me, though I don't think that she enjoyed trying to make out what I was saying. Then, she decided that I didn't need to come in, but she would fax in a prescription for some suppositories that I could use if I couldn't fall asleep.

I want to pause for a moment here for an observation. The entire time that I was mumbling and moaning, I could think pretty clearly. I knew what I wanted to say but I had no desire to articulate it. When I went to speak, my body just decided that it wasn't worth the effort and mumbled something. This was very frustrating, but is something that I have experienced before when I got strep throat on my 21 birthday on my mission. That was miserable too.

Back to the narrative, I was able to fall asleep without using any drugs. Which was a miracle as my stomach was stilling sending out waves of pain. I didn't sleep very well though. I woke up about every two hours and Mia would help me focus on our white noise maker instead of the pain. Then about 3am, I went out to get some ice chips because my mouth was totally dry. And at 5am, I cracked open a thing of Jello because I was starving.

This story is bleeding into today (Saturday) so I'll quickly finish it up. Mia took Ethan to a Nursery activity at the church and I slept again from 9:30am to Noon. Finally, after that I felt much better. I had a plain baked potato for lunch, some Gatorade to help re-hydrate me, and some mashed potatoes and peas for dinner. I haven't eaten much but I haven't felt like eating much either.

Now, it's about 8:30pm and I'm ready to go to bed.

But, before I crash, I just want to give thanks to everyone who helped me through this. I know that I'm a stubborn patient but you all were great.