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.