DJ Electric Daddy

Second Trimester Awards : The Sprite A winner

2011-03-31T15:38:00.001-07:00

Today was the Kindergarten Awards Day for the second trimester and our little over-achiever took home not one, but two awards certificates.

The Sprite shows off his awards

One was for Excellence In Writing and the other was for a Perfect Attendance Record. The first comes as no surprize really, he has been coming along leaps and bounds with reading and writing lately. The second is astounding, compared to recent history. To not miss a single day of school through the winter months, to either sickness or laziness on the part of his parent (IE; me) is an award-worthy achievement indeed.

Well done son.

Little League : Phillies T-Ball Opening Day

2011-03-09T23:33:00.001-08:00

The Phillies on Flickr

Last weekend saw The Sprite have his first game as a member of The Phillies Little league T-Ball team. This was after the mornings opening ceremony which had every team take the field to present their banners and colors. It was all very exciting, and new to me. Being a Brit, this whole organised youth sport thing is taken far more seriously on this side of the pond.

Anyhow, the kids looked great in their bright red uniforms, and they played remarkably well for a bunch of 5-6 year olds who had only 4 practices so far as a team. The other team definitely had the better of the hitting, but luckily at this stage no-one keeps score and the kids are not really paying attention to who is doing better. We have this one kid on our team who is a real gamer, you can tell he's been practicing for this day for years. He's the only kid who can hit the ball clear over the pitchers head past the second baseman. And he has an arm. He can fire that ball from third base like a rocket.

They're all just out there having fun. Until the attention starts to waver after about 3 innings. They only play for 5 innings in T-Ball and that is clearly enough for these little guys. We have 20 games in the season, 2 per week. Gonna be a lot of fun.

The K2's on Flickr

Opening Day Ceremony on Flickr

First Hit on Flickr

Home run jog on Flickr

The battle of wits on Flickr

Technorati Tags:
fitness, kids, baseball, little league

Kindergarten Jog-a-thon 2011

2011-03-08T23:53:00.001-08:00

Last week The Sprite and his Kindergarten class of 2011 had the annual Jog-a-thon. They had to run laps around the school field for 30 minutes. This was to raise sponsorship for the schools PE dept. as each runner was sponsored by the lap. It was pretty good fun and the kids really got into it. Our jogtastic little runner managed 16 laps. Not bad considering the mornings cloud cover broke and it was close to 80° at 11am when the kids were running.

At the start line on Flickr

Grinin like a madman on Flickr

Putting everyting into it on Flickr

All sweaty now on Flickr

The finish line on Flickr

Technorati Tags:
kids, kindergarten, school, fitness, fundraising, jogathon

iPrincipal : My Thoughts on Technology in Elementary School

2011-03-04T15:26:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I received a request from the local school district to fill out an online survey that was focused on the use of technology in our elementary schools. This followed an event at my son's elementary school that was an opportunity for parents to see how the school planned to make use of modern technologies in it's educational curriculum.

Elementary Learners Using iPads

Image courtesy of Fancy Jantzi on Flickr.

The evenings presentations were orchestrated by Ted Lai, the Director of Technology and Media Services for Fullerton School District, who had been guiding several programs that had children as young as Kindergarten and First Grade creating media as part of their education. Of course, this appealed to me immensely. As a media creator myself I totally appreciate the value storytelling has in society, and am very excited kids are getting a chance to discover this for themselves. The fact that they are getting hands on with visual media and the technology used to create it at an early age feels like a bold step forward. It makes me feel grateful to be a part of this community that is enabling this program. I really hope these ideas go somewhere, as the plans outlined sounded a lot like the kind of education I would like my kid to enjoy.

The evening was used as part of a fundraiser to provide for technology purchases for the school, and gave parents and kids together a chance to sample some of the tools the school and Ted Lai are aiming to use. We tried iPad's loaded with apps to engage the kids in Math, Animation, Storytelling. Even Angry Birds was demonstrated for its benefit to understanding geometric angles. Then we moved into the lab where the kids were building PowerPoint and Keynote presentations. The presentations were used to display information learned about trees and plants. The aim is for the kids to learn as they play, that they absorb the information almost without them knowing it.

Naturally, after the evenings series of presentations I was wildly excited about my sons future at the school and the opportunities he'll have to use creative visual communication as part of his everyday schooling. It set my mind thinking about all the cool things the school could do. And then, the invitation to offer my thoughts on the subject fell into my email inbox. I was asked, if I were Principal, what technology choices would I make. My suggestions I have copied below. It will be interesting to see if any are adopted and what else the school district comes up with. I worry though that educational funding being what it is during this financial malaise if good plans and intentions will come to nought if there is no budget.

If I were Principal my suggestions are these. Start a school blog, to open up bi-directional communication between faculty, parents and students. Each class or classroom will have one or two designated 'student journalists' that will have access to login credentials for that week. They are free and encouraged to post pictures, texts, videos, reports about issues they are concerned with, school or otherwise.

An open comment system will foster a healthy debate and free thinking community. Each child will have an ID that is linked to them throughout school that they will login to the system with. If any child is reported or caught posting inappropriate or inflammatory or trolling, they will be dealt with the same way discipline is carried out in the offline world; detention, suspension or expulsion. Good digital citizenry can be learned here.

The blog would be the hub for an open and transparent communication platform.

As Principal I would make my weekly address, via live streaming video, and archived for on-demand consumption. Special events would be covered here, again via live streaming, video archiving, journalistic reports, moderated by parent/teacher team and executed by students. Once a month a live stream video Q&A session would be conducted by me, The Principal, with any parent or student interested.

The survey:

http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2010/Default.aspx

Technorati Tags:
media, school, technology, education

The Tale of Brocolli : The Storytellers Journey Continues

2011-03-03T12:51:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about the tendency for The Sprite to concoct elaborate scenarios in his game play, and his emerging talent of using his creative imagination for storytelling.

This tendency has continued to blossom, and the expanded scope of some of his recent storyplay has been really fun to listen too. I'd like to share one such event, it was so imaginative and spontaneous and brilliant.

On a recent trip to Laguna Lake, where we often go to take an evening stroll, The Sprite created a new character that had us wondering if our son had taken a bump to the noggin. There is a small bridge that spans a small shallow stream that flows over some rocks and stones. The stream connects the main lake to the series of small ponds that are an integral part of the water filtration system. At that bridge it is pretty routine for us to stop and play Pooh Sticks for a while, The Sprite using some of the many twigs fallen from the plentiful tree's surrounding the lake.

On this day, he found a spray of branches full of leaves that had fallen to the ground. Immediately he picked it up and named her Broccoli. Apparently this was taken as some kind of familial offspring and he felt some paternal need to protect her and nurture her. He played with her for almost an hour, showing Broccoli the different areas of the lake, and talking to the leafy twigs like they were a real person. Everything else outside of this imaginary world was completely invisible to him.

Well, needless to say, we had to give Broccoli a ride back to the house where she was promptly given a place of pride in his bedroom. And there she has sat for the past dozen or so weeks, referred to and greeted occasionally as The Sprite goes about his business.

Our leafy friend Broccoli

"Hey Broccoli, are you okay here...Good. Seeya later"

Predictably, Broccoli has a limited life-span, being separated from her parent trunk and limb many days ago. As the leaves have dried and fallen to the floor, it was apparent we had to put Broccoli out to pasture. Very maturely, The Sprite explained how we should take Broccoli back to the lake so she could be with her family. We could find another Broccoli and bring her home with us.

So that's where we'll be going this afternoon. To give our guest and friend a leafy funeral.

Who knows what's next.

100 Word Celebration

2011-03-01T09:39:00.001-08:00

The Sprite had a little celebration for passing his 100 Word reading test today. Mommy recognised this achievement with a CONGRATULATIONS balloon and a delicious huge chocolate cupcake.

Over the past few weeks he has been tested on several lists of ten words each. List ten makes a hundred, which is the guideline for kindergartners to be reading. But there is no stopping. The lists continue to come home and we continue to learn more sight words - words that are instantly recognisable and dont need to be sounded out

Technorati Tags:
kids, kindergarten, school, reading

100 Days of Kindergarten

2011-02-17T13:25:00.001-08:00

Today marks the 100th day The Sprite has been in school. To comemorate this epic acheivement the teachers had them prepare a 100 Day presentation for the class. The kids had to collect 100 Things and do a show and tell in front of their classmates. Our little petrol-head predictably chose cars as his 100 Things and ElectricMommy printed out 95 cool NASCARs and HotWheels cars from the internet and The Sprite cut and glued them to a sheet of poster board. We then added 5 real HotWheels cars to the board for effect.Of course, being the designer, I could not let the poster board go simply decorated with printed out cars. I added a yellow and white racing stripe motif to the flourescent orange board, and added a 100 racing number for good measure.

We then prepped The Sprite on what to say for his presentation, and here he is running through it, trying to remember his words and not get nervous. Well, I managed to stay and watch all the kids do their presentations today and it was very cute. They were all entertaining and had some great 100 Things collections. The Sprite of course had to wait to last, to check out what everyone else was going to do. A leader he is not. But he remembered all his key points and spoke up well.

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4), Flash Video (.flv), MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Windows Media (.wmv)

Tags: cars, kids, kindergarten, hotwheels, nascar, lamborghini, school, presentation, 100days

T-Mobile : How To Lose A Loyal Customer

2011-01-25T14:38:00.001-08:00

Well, dear T-Mobile, after more than 6 years of loyal patronage it's time we parted ways. I used to proudly state how T-Mobile treated their customers fairly and for that good service, some loyalty should be rewarded. When the iPhone was released my excitement was tempered by my sense of loyalty to T-Mo. My reluctance to change carriers spanned the years between then and now. I even went to the length of buying a used 1st Gen iPhone that was jailbroke/unlocked to use with my T-Mo SIM. As newer versions of the iPhione were announced and released I stuck loyalty to T-Mo. As my old 1st Gen phone got more and more beat up I continued to resist the urge to leave the company who had provided fair and honest service, and jump ship to AT&T and a nice new iPhone with a faster processor and better battery life.

Over last few years I have noticed more calls getting dropped by T_Mobile. In my home office I cannot even get a signal, I have to step out into the front lawn to make calls or check voicemail for any missed calls. There have been occasions where I missed an important call from a client thanks to the shoddy reception in my office. But still I gave T-Mobile the benefit of the doubt.

Then, just last week, in an effort to cut costs, I reduced my plan minutes form the Unlimited minutes $50/month to a more reasonable 500 minutes $30/month. Considering I only use about 200 minutes a month this made perfect sense. At the time the customer service rep was very helpful to assist me in adjusting my plan and having looked at my usage history agreed it was good sense to adjust my plan. At no point was any other service discussed. I also have an unlimited SMS plan and the $10/month unlimited Internet plan.

Happy that I had saved myself $20/month I continued on my way believing T-Mo were on my side. Little did i know that behind the scenes where they plotting to sabotage my trust. Looking at Safari waiting to pick up my son from school, I was greeted by a generic login page from T-Mobile asking me to pay $1.99 per MB to use their data service. Confused, I tapped around trying to find any kind of clue to what might be going on. Nothing made sense.

So a call to T-Mo Customer Service quickly followed whereby I was informed that the $10/month internet plan was only available to subscribers of the $50/month phone plan. If I wanted unlimited internet I would have to pay $30/month. Yes, simple math. To save $20 on my phone plan I had to spend $30 on internet. I was flabbergasted. How could they do this and get away with it? Does anyone else just blindly accept these shady terms? Is this how a company hopes to reward and hold on to its loyal customers.

The line of BS the rep fed me was that certain plans were only available to certain customers. I told her I refused to be strong-armed into buying minutes I don't need just to get the internet I do need. I told her in no uncertain terms that its just zeros and ones. Its just data. Its not like the internet plan will not work on the network if the phone plan is not active. T-Mobile can pass data around however they wish. What it comes down to is pure price gouging and manipulation to ensure they get $70/month out of their customers regardless of the services they need or want. That, to me, is shady, underhanded and not the way to treat loyal customers.

As customers, we should be able to pick and choose what services we need a la carte so we pay for no more or less than we want. If I want more internet than phone minutes, I should not be penalized or forced to a different tier than a user who might want more minutes and not much internet. Carriers in the US have had their way for too long, with secret data caps, data plans unlimited in label only, questionable pricing structures. I long for the time when a rogue upstart company enters the playing field to upstage the rotten mainstays of cellular providers. I long for Skype to release a phone that uses their system over a satellite network free from cell providers. I long for a la carte plans where we can choose exactly the services we want with fair and open pricing structures.

I know moving to AT&T will likely be no better. But at least I will have a phone that is up to date, responds quickly, has a better camera. I will also be on a network where I can count on the coverage being reliable. My wife, Danielle, has been on AT&T with her iPhone since they were first released. She has reception just fine. In fact last summer when our family travelled up to Northern California for vacation, Danielle routinely had 3+ bars where I had none. I went practically the entire vacation with spotty (at very very best) cell signal.

So, thanks for the service while it lasted. You are no longer any better than AT&T which was once your most appealing characteristic.

Technorati Tags:
cellular, T-Mobile, AT&T

Signs of Creativity : The Storytellers Journey

2011-01-18T16:40:00.000-08:00

The Sprite has shown signes of creativity since he was able to move and talk. Lately he has displayed an increased level of conceptual creativity, making up highly elaborate stories and scenarios. He has always had a strong creative streak, look at who his parents are, two artists, so its only natural. Painting, playing piano, singing, writing. Making up stories seems to be at the root of much of this energy. I myself was an avid storyteller as a child. I had a legal hard cover pad of lined paper that I filled with stories about characters I invented; chubby ghost, spiders, posinis fish. Also characters were based on books I had at the time; Hectors House, Andy Pandy, Bill & Ben. My imagination was running riot over the pages of that notebook. I'm hoping it is still in the attic of the home I grew up in, safely covered in cobwebs, and not lost to the landfill somewhere.

In the past, bathnight games involved Sesame Street character Bernie - an amalgam of Bert and Ernie - was hitching a ride on the friendly shark (represented by a wooden handled loufer). The shark would take Bernie on aride all over the wall, up and down the bath. And oh the antics they would get up to together.

The boy has always been obsessed with cars, specifically NASCAR. Who knows why. But over the past year or three he has amassed quite an impressive garage. He'll arrange all the cars on the grid and enact elaborate race theatrics where each driver has a personality and vociferously argues with the other drivers. He is like the Director of a huge blockbuster movie acted out on the living room floor.

He has been playing the piano for a while now, which makes us very happy. Before he started lessons, he'd play around on the old player piano in our living room, turn around to face an imaginary audience and ask "I want all you guys to sing, okay" He'll proceed to bash on the keys of the horribly out-of-tune antique piano making up a horribly out-of-tune ditty. I can only hope the guys singing along in The Sprite's head were in better tune.

His drawings have taken on an increased level of detail, both visually and conceptually. Simple stick figures are now taking on depth and dimension. Colors are being explored fully. And every picture now contains an incredibly detailed backstory. No longer are Mummy and Daddy and Himself standing in a white void on the page. Now we are coming down from a mountain after school to stay at a hotel with a ghost in each room while eagles float under a black sky before the storm.

The most interesting story The Sprite has concocted involves another life he apparently lived. This ultimately revolves around his 'old house', a place where he used to live with his other parents and a sibling in 1840. Apparently the house was shot up by 'the bad guys' and it burned to the ground, but not before our little hero was able to save his family. We could be talking about something as innocuous as a pair of shoes, and that will trigger a long diatribe of how he used to have a pair of those shoes, at his old house. The funny thing is the story has remained extremely consistent for well over a year. Maybe two. The details get added and modified occasionally, obviously to accommodate whatever the current circumstances triggering the anecdote. But the foundations of his story have not wavered one bit. He'll recount the tale over again without faltering or missing a detail. For a while we wondered if he was reincarnated and having some kind of spectral flashbacks. Was kinda freaky. However I'm sure its all just manifestations of a highly creative mind at play.

Most artists are storytellers; musicians, poets, writers, painters or filmmakers all telling stories. Whether The Sprites behaviour is anything beyond normal child's imagination remains to be seen, time will tell. But you can guarantee ElectricMommy and I will nurture and encourage every aspect of his creative dreaming and storytelling every step of the way.

Technorati Tags:
creativity, storytelling, kids

VLOMO2010-Day25-Thanksgiving

2010-12-19T09:08:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moments are a snapshot montage from The Big Turkey Day here in the US of A

VLOMO2010-Day26-Desert Explorations

2010-12-19T09:07:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment was spent fooling around exploring the California desert outside of Quartzsite, CA. With the family looking for a way to burn off some post-turkey day calories we rounded up a convoy of 4x4 wheelers and took it out to the dirt.

VLOMO2010-Day27-Shoe Wall

2010-12-19T09:06:00.003-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment comes from the strange iconic monument on California Highway 62 known as show wall. Here, travelers passing through the desert stop and hang a shoe, or other item, on the fence surrounding the burned out foundation of an old building.

VLOMO2010-Day28-Tanker Train

2010-12-19T09:06:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment was found yesterday. Once more along California Highway 62 on route back to Fullerton from Havasu, we stopped at the railroad siding where a large number of tankers are parked. I'm fascinated with the railroad, the engineering feat of constructing these immense vehicles, the massive cast iron components, always makes for interesting photographic subject matter

VLOMO2010-Day29-Unboxing Danica

2010-12-19T09:05:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by Hot Wheels and Danica Patrick. The story goes like this. Some months ago The Sprite and I were in Costco where we saw a really cool large scale Ferrari R/C car for $30. Determined to own said item to add to his Jay Leno-esque car collection The Sprite set about saving his allowance. Weeks passed and when he finally reached the appropriate amount of savings we went back to Costco to make his purchase. Sadly once there we found all trace of the Ferrari was gone, they had sold their entire stock of that car. Not to be deterred we head home and to the power of Google and the Internet. After 3-4 hours of searching for large Ferrari cars in the $30 price range The Sprite had made his online purchase. Only now he was getting a Danica Patrick Indy car. Why? Who knows. We've never watched Indy racing, he has no idea who Ms Patrick is. But who am I to deny the boy to invite the lovely (and extremely fast) young lady into our house. After several days of waiting and asking when Danica will arrive, the box finally showed up on our doorstep...

VLOMO2010-Day30-Last Day Rant

2010-12-19T09:04:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment was found walking the streets of Fullerton where I encountered three lovely ladies who gave me cause to rant.
And thus ends the thirty days of VLOMO 2010. I can go back to a normal lifestyle once more. Thanks to all who watched and especially to those who played along and took part in the ongoing experiment that is Video Blogging Month. See you next year.

VLOMO2010-Day23-Recall The Chips

2010-11-24T10:25:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment finds me ranting about SunChips and a noisy packet.

VLOMO2010-Day22-Marbles

2010-11-24T10:17:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment finds me losing my grip. Work, family, holidays, and the pressure of keeping up with VLOMO are taking their toll on my sanity. Have you seen my marbles?

VLOMO2010-Day21-For No Man

2010-11-24T10:07:00.001-08:00

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VLOMO stops for no man. Todays VLOMO moment is pretty much filler, just trying to keep up with the game.

VLOMO2010-Day24-Arizona Bound

2010-11-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moments were spent on the California freeways 91, 60, 1-10, 62 and Arizona Route 95. Our annual pilgrimage out to Lake Havasu City for the family Thanksgiving gathering. This has been the downfall of my VLOMO productivity in years past. I'm determined to shoot every day and edit when I return. We shall see.

VLOMO2010-Day20-El Destructo

2010-11-24T00:40:00.001-08:00

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Sometimes The Sprite likes to spend his days off playing Gran Tourismo on the Playstation all day. Others, like today, he prefers to remove his trousers and destroy our house in his under-garments. While I was busy in the office, I could hear all kinds of cacophony out in the living room. When I finally went to investigate, this is what I saw.

VLOMO2010-Day19-Kindergarten Feast

2010-11-24T00:35:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment was spent with The Sprite's kindergarten class as they enjoyed their Thanksgiving Feast on the final day of school before having a week off. Dressed in paper costumes as either Wampanoags or Pilgrims they filed out into the cold damp autumn day to shiver and eat the apple sauce, corn bread and pumpkin pudding they had made in class the past two days.

VLOMO2010-Day18-Kindergarten Volunteer

2010-11-21T22:26:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by The Sprite's kindergarten K2 class. I volounteered to help in class. Tomorrow is the big Thanksgiving Feast, and today we were making costumes and preparing the home made apple sauce. I helped all the kids peel their apple and put it in the pot. An added bonus was when the music teacher showed up after and I got to witness their little singalong

VLOMO2010-Day17-Blurred Leaves

2010-11-21T22:15:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment comes from the archives, the video vault, deep in the vlogger cave. My work kept me from shooting anything new today, so I offer a little abstract experimental short. Using footage of some blurred leaves in the back yard and some shots of The Sprite playing in said leaves, I conjured the Magic Bullet and the Aphex Twin to bail me out.

VLOMO2010-Day16-Photo Challenge

2010-11-21T22:02:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by PixelCorps.com. I spent a few hours this morning wandering the paths and trails of Fullerton, and the railway tracks and train station, looking for interesting photographic shots. PXC is an online guild of digital media professionals and a place for learning and self-development. One of the ways they do this is to set challenges for its members and offer mentoring to fulfill them. Many challenges pass without my partaking simply due to the investment of time required, but the challenges easiest for me to play along with are the photography ones. Today I was looking for Doors, Window, Concrete, Cast Iron reference, and Composing with Depth, and Objects From A Unique Angle. I had a lovely walk and got to practice my camera work. A successful day in my book.

VLOMO2010-Day10-A Walk In The Park

2010-11-18T09:37:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment was spent at Hillcrest Park in Fullerton. It was such a lovely day that The Sprite and I decided to take a little jaunt to the park, swing some t-ball, explore the secret playground, and enjoy the gift of life that is November in California.

VLOMO2010-Day11- School Lunches

2010-11-18T09:36:00.003-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by the Fullerton School District food services. I promised The Sprite we would try the cafeteria at his kindergarten, usually reserved for grade schoolers use. Unfortunately the whole episode was a bit of a fail. Not at all how I remember school dinners back in the UK. There was not even anywhere to sit. What do they expect the kids to actually do? And if you don't like tacos, well I guess you are SOL.

VLOMO2010-Day12-FAIL

2010-11-18T09:36:00.001-08:00

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Today's VLOMO moment is brought to you by Adobe Premier. Which kept crashing on me as I tried to edit todays clip, until I finally gave up at 3am. So, no video today. Just this goofy animation. Thanks Adobe ;)

VLOMO2010-Day13-PTA Movie Night

2010-11-18T09:35:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by the Fullerton School District and the Parent Teachers Association. Once a month they hold Movie Night at my sons Elementary School where parents and kids get to camp out in the multi-purpose room and watch a movie. The PTA sells raffle tickets and junk food to raise funds, and everyone brings camp chairs or blankets and pillows. This month it was How To Train Your Dragon, which just happens to be one of The Sprites favourite movies.

VLOMO2010-Day14-Play Date

2010-11-18T09:30:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by The Sprite and his friend Kayden, who are more like Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau. They argue and bicker like a couple of cranky old men who can't find their slippers. And so it was all day long as I tried to keep the peace in the house. By the end of the day I had a monumental headache. Never again.

VLOMO2010-Day15-OCMoto Club Ride

2010-11-18T08:15:00.001-08:00

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Day 15. Half way through videoblogging month. Still going strong, not missed a day yet. Todays clip is taken from yesterdays OCMoto Sportbike Club ride. I mounted the camera to the fairing stay of my Suzuki TL1000R to capture some of the ride. We had over 60 bikes on the ride from Tustin Marketplace through Silverado and Live Oak Canyons down to Laguna Beach. Not bad for a November Sunday. Thats about as much a reason to live in California as I need.

VLOMO2010-Day9-FilterSweep

2010-11-12T08:41:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment finds us entranced by The Sprite and his electronica ambient voodoo. Like a techno Jedi he is learning the power of subtractive synthesis and twiddling knobs. Most importantly - filter sweeps.

VLOMO2010-Day8-TheExistenceOfSanta

2010-11-11T22:08:00.001-08:00

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During yesterdays Christmas List exercise The Sprite brought up the subject of Santa, magic and Elves. He basically deducted that quite reasonably, Santa cannot exist. Heady stuff for a six year old to be pondering indeed. Asked if I knew the answers, I simply replied, like any good father would - "Ask your Mother, she knows about such things"

VLOMO2010-Day7-ChristmasList

2010-11-11T17:53:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you by The Sprite making a list for Santa of all the things he found in the Target catalogue he wants for Xmas. The list is long, but was written entirely by The Sprite himself. Maybe that will impress Santa sufficiently to be....erm, generous.
This is the extended cut with lots of extra Spritish chit chat. A preview cut was created for VLOMO10 and can be found here.

VLOMO2010-Day6-SoccerSkillz

2010-11-08T00:21:00.001-08:00

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Todays VLOMO Moment is brought to you by the Fullerton Rangers Soccer Club Lil' Rangers Skills Program. Run by 2 young and enthusiastic coaches, for the very reasonable fee of $5. They get the kids, all under 8 years old, stretching, running, dribbling and tackling. It's great fun and really valuable instruction.

VLOMO2010-Day5-MothersDay

2010-11-08T00:15:00.001-08:00

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Today, I met my neighbor on his porch.
He was crying.
His mother had just passed away following open heart surgery.
I hugged him and tried to offer some comfort.
I didn't feel like shooting and cutting a segment today.
This felt like the significant moment of my day.
I'd like to take a few seconds and think about our mothers, wherever they are.
Enjoy what we have while we still have them.
And spare a thought for those who do not.

VLOMO2010-Day4-TBall

2010-11-06T01:32:00.001-07:00

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Todays VLOMO moment is brought to you from T-Ball practice at Fullerton YMCA. The Sprite was invited by his best friend to join him for this session. The coaches graciously allowed him play. Despite the fact it was 99° out at 4pm today, in the shade it was not too bad and we had plenty of water breaks. The Sprite had a great time and displayed some ability in throwing, catching and hitting. We'll sign him up for Spring Little League. Looks promising.

VLOMO10-Day3-ShowerSong

2010-11-04T00:27:00.001-07:00

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Todays VLOMO moment comes from The Sprite's bathnight/showernight sing song. Quite where a six year old finds the inspiration to create a song titled Green Beans All Around is beyond me. I just go with it. Self expression is healthy

VLOMO10-Day2-PianoLesson

2010-11-04T00:22:00.001-07:00

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Todays special VLOMO moment comes from The Sprite's piano lesson.

VLOMO10-Day1-Halloween Hangover

2010-11-04T00:14:00.001-07:00

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The day after Halloween the decorations are redundant, and there is nothing left but a glut of candy, rotten pumpkins and a costume likely never to be worn again

SynthKid 2 - A Halloween Song

2010-10-28T02:54:00.001-07:00

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The Sprite has started taking piano lessons. His homework is to practice some of the excercises they do in class. I pulled out my old Yamaha CS1x synth and set the voice to Grand Piano and let him go through his DoReMi's. After the homework is done it's time to play. The boy has a natural apptitude I think you'll agree, when it comes to tinkling out a tune. Here he finds a spooky synth voice to fit the ghoulish Halloween theme.

Snake Eyes

2010-10-28T02:01:00.001-07:00

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Imagine yourself slithering on the ground. You happen upon a snotty little 5 year old boy....
Actually I was just goofing around with the Flip and a strange little lens thingy that came off a toy flashlight or something. Holding it in front of the Flip lens it created a very cool faceted effect. ;
Now, back to the snake scenario...

Mudpies & Seaweed

2010-10-06T06:52:00.001-07:00

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The Sprite gets to play in the wet sand at Huntington State Beach. Throwing mudpies into the surf and dragging up seaweed. Chasing waves back into the Pacific, and being chased in kind. These are some of the happiest moments of his young life.

Explorations In Synthetic Sound

2010-10-06T06:24:00.001-07:00

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Before we delved into piano lessons for The Sprite, I let him loose on my old Ensoniq VFX synthesiser. Let him get a sense of tickling the keys. Playing with the dated wavetable sounds we made an audible racket of awesome proportion. I also let the boy take control of the camera so he could document the aweful din. The whole thing is an artful mess. But we both came out of the ordeal mostly unscathed. Mostly

Junk Mail

2010-10-01T00:55:00.003-07:00

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Disgusted by the gross amount of paper waste that pours through our mailbox each week, I shot this little protest movie. Hundreds of those prepaid return mail envelopes, largely from credit card companies and banks, end up in the trash each month. An utter waste. Each time one of those envelopes is returned it costs the companies money. I seal the empty envelope and mail it back, wasting the companies revenue. If a huge number of thepopulation did this in a co-ordinated effort, these financial institutions would get the message. No one can force them to stop the waste, but mney talks and if they waste enough of it, who knows...

My New Office

2010-10-01T00:55:00.001-07:00

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A while back, when I was 'let go' from my position at a marketing/ad agency, I embraced the opportunity to live the freelancer lifestyle. That is, working from the peace and solitude of ones back yard. Or as we call it - The Office

SynthKid 2 - Christmas Music

2010-10-01T00:54:00.003-07:00

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The Sprite has started taking piano lessons. His homework is to practice some of the excercises they do in class. I pulled out my old Yamaha CS1x synth and set the voice to Grand Piano and let him go through his DoReMi's. After the homework is done it's time to play. The boy has a natural apptitude I think you'll agree, when it comes to tinkling out a tune. This time he uses a pretty dulcimer voice to prepare some music for the upcoming holidays

SynthKid 2 - A Halloween Song

2010-10-01T00:54:00.001-07:00

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AMA Pre-Season Test - Fontana

2010-02-03T07:55:00.001-08:00

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Scenes from inside the paddock at the AMA/DMG pre-season test at Fontana. The major teams try out their 2010 Superbike and SportBike machines for the first time.

NaVloPoMo : Nov 06

2010-02-02T08:46:00.001-08:00

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Tickle Time with Mummy

Back in June we went camping up in Santa Cruz, CA at one of the KOA chain of campgrounds. KOA are great as they really cater to families. There are all kinds of events and activities for kids and parents. Parents can really relax, their children run around and have fun without us having to worry about the safety or whereabouts of them. There was an endless stream of kids on rental banana bikes cruising the campground all weekend. Kids ruled that joint.

On the Saturday there was a movie screening and marshmallow roast down in the lower field. They had one of those inflatable screens and a projector setup. It was cold too, evidenced by the coats and gloves, up on the NorCal coast. Waiting for the movie to start, The Sprite and ElectricMommy had a tickle showdown. I love these clips as they remind me how much fun we had and how happy we all were on that vacation. All three of us really enjoyed ourselves.

I Miss My Mummy

2010-01-27T00:11:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, a little boy just needs his mummy. Even though that little boy is 43 years old, mum still knows best, and every once in a while it's nice to go around to mum's house and soak the benefit of her worldly knowledge, advice and reassurance.

Where is this sentimentality coming from tonight?

This evening I had the pleasure of presenting a few samples of my work at the Orange County Multimedia Association Digital Video SIG. I was quite happy to be asked to do this, as I had been attending these meetings for many years and had wanted to present for a long time. One of the leaders and hosts of the group saw some work on my website and was suitably impressed to warrant an invitation to me to share some of my motion graphics tips and techniques with the group.

So tonight I got to stand there for ten minutes showing off four of my best samples of work a a precursor to next months meeting where I will case study and dissect a project in detail. I received some great feedback for how good my work was and some good suggestions for what members would like to see next month.

So you would think one would be feeling quite proud and excited after such an evening. It was not the case for me tonight. The previous presenter was demonstrating some video post production clean-up work they had done for a boy's bar mitzvah recently. The boy was dancing and fooling around, surrounded by friends and family, having a wail of a time apparently. Thirteen years old and the world in front of him.

And although the demonstration was quite interesting, my mind was elsewhere. I was sucked back in time to my own bar mitzvah. I could see it clear as day. Standing in the dining room of my parents house in Kenton. The food on the table. The new portable TV/Radio/Tape player I got as a present sitting on the heavy pine welsh dresser. The rough claret-colored carpet. I remember it like it was yesterday, myself and Mark Jacobs a friend from Glebe School, running down the street, me falling and scuffing the knee of my Sunday best trousers.

I remember this day more clearly than many others, more clearly than I have reason to. This day that was almost exactly thirty years ago. This memory plain took the wind out of my sails and glassed up my eyes. Immediately I tweeted this:

Where was that little boy now. I hardly knew. The little boy from 1980 had big plans, big dreams and the world in front of him. Thirty years later the little boy is tired and lost, wondering where life went. What happened to the big dreams. This kind of reaction was not an isolated incident, I've had a number of these anxiety-inducing reminiscences lately. I caught a glance at a photo of The Sprite I carry in my wallet, from when he was two years old. I saw that picture and it took my breath away. He is now five and time is flying by so uncontrollably quickly. It really hit home when the family went to watch Pixar's UP. The opening montage flashes back over a man's long life, tugging at the emotions, and asking the question "what have you done with your life".

I've wondered if this is what a mid-life crisis feels like, or if its just the result of an unpleasant work atmosphere, an uncreative and unrewarding job or lack of personal success when stacked up next to my peers. Either way, these moments of reflection have gotten my heart racing, my chest tightening and my head feeing as though the walls are closing in with nowhere to turn. I keep waiting for this feeling to pass, for a return to energy and happiness. With nights like tonight where I should be on cloud nine, instead I'm stuck in the doldrums of emotional instability, and a return to normality seems far off.

If only I could just go around to my mum's house, like I used to when I was younger. She'd make a cup of tea and talk some sense into me and explain how things are good and positive. Too bad mum's house is on the other side of the world, ten 747-hours from here. Sometimes I question if moving to the States, so far from family and friends was the best idea. I've thought more about returning to the UK lately than any time in the past fifteen years here. Life is good here; we have a nice house, a good life, great weather, jobs. It's just, I miss my mum's tea.

Gaige Decorates His Trophy House

2010-01-19T23:03:00.001-08:00

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For some reason or another, The Sprite decided I deserved a trophy. For being the Best Dad in the whle wide world or something I thought I heard him say. So out of a discarded cardboard box he fashioned a hand-made trophy to award to said Best Dad in the whole wide world.

I left him alone for 30 minutes to decorate it but could not resist spying on him as he deftly and delicately placed his brush strokes around the box. He is already talking about being 'an amazing artist' as a lifes ambition. I'd say he is well on his way with brush technique such as he already possesses.

The Flooded OC

2010-01-19T22:55:00.001-08:00

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Oh us Brits love to complain about the weather. Today was the second of torrential downpour here in the otherwise sunny OC. You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen, well it applies not only to the midday sun, but to the midday deluge as well. I took a stroll in Ridgecrest Park, Aliso Viejo this lunchtime after I got drenched walking twenty feet to the car. Bizarre day

Did You Hear The One About Uncle Carbuncle

2009-12-02T23:18:00.000-08:00

So, I am finally an uncle. Was beginning to think that The Sprite would be the only next-gen kid in our family, but my little sister, Smurf as she is affectionately known, gave birth to Lola Amelie last week. I'm happy to report mother, father and child are doing well adjusting to their new life together.

Having been a parent for over five years now, and having gone through teething and potty-training, the terrible-twos and the know-it-all-threes, it's hard to remember quite what it was like in those brutal first six months of baby boot camp. I look back on those times fondly, in fact I kind of miss them. I semi-jokingly told ElectricMommy last week that we should have another. HaHa, that conversation ended quickly.

So, if I can think back to 2004, maybe I can pull some nuggets of helpful advice for my Sis and Neice.

I remember going out to eat more in the first six months than any other time since. We could put The Sprite into the car seat and take him anywhere. And he would sleep. I can't tell you how many restaurant tables he slept under during that time. Enjoy having someone else cook for you and dine out as much as you can. Once they get a little older, kids have a tendency of making dining out a messy frustrating aggravating nightmare.

Also in the Enjoy It While You Can file is having a child that falls asleep the moment you put them in the car and go for a drive. Oh how sweet the peaceful silence of a baby in slumber in the back seat. Yet, that too will pass. Once babies start talking, long trips manifest into a test of ones tolerance for hours of endless babble.

Of course it's not all bad in the back seat of the car as they get older. Infants demand feeding and daiper changing at the most challenging times and locations. This made some of our long trips impossibly tiring. It gets easier as they get older and you can hand the little one a jumbo bag of Dorito's to feed themselves back there, negating the need to stop and warm a bottle.

Actually, I'm just remembering how much of a hassle it was to go anywhere. And never spontaneously either. Sometimes we elected to stay in just because we couldnt be bothered to pack up and go. It took at least 30 mins to get all the paraphernalia needed to go mobile with baby in tow packed up into the daiper bag and loaded into the car. Bottles, bottle-warmer, daiper, wipes, rash lotion, burp cloths, clothes. It was like packing for a camping trip. We quickly learned I was worthwhile having a kit packed and ready to go at all times, and got our drill pretty well rehearsed, just about the time we didn't need to pack anymore.

I remember the first times The Sprite got sick and the only thing that would calm him was putting him over my shoulder and doing laps of the house, for hours on end. Round and round and round I would carry him, and if I stopped the crying would ensue. I think I must have been in the best shape of my life back then, especially once he started on solid food and started packing on some pounds.

The best thing about those days I recall was the stroller walks we would go on as a family. The Sprite would sleep almost immediately we got rolling and we would walk all over our neighborhood. Those days were great and very therapeutic, strolling up and down the local streets for an hour at a time, sometimes twice a day. They were over far too quickly, once he was done with the stroller and could walk himself, the walks became less therapeutic, and less frequent. Enjoy those while you can.

Those early days were so frustrating as we rarely felt like we knew what were doing. People would offer conflicting advice, the numerous books we read would sometimes contradict each other. Luckily we live in an age of the internet and online communities, and information is rarely more than a Google search away. After a while we just found a groove and we've been going with it since. I'm sure Smurf, you will find your groove and just go with it. Do what feels right, what works for you and don't worry about every little bit of advice offered.

And have fun, take a ton of pictures and video. Because it is done in a blink, even the really tiring, frustrating parts.

Congratulations. Lola Amelie is a beautiful addition to the world.

My Son The Raver

2009-11-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

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This Halloween, my wife ElectricMommy found some really cool LED pumpkin lights that change colors as they sit inside the carved out gourde. The Sprite also found these light vessels attractive. In fact while we had the dance music pumping during our marathon pumpkin carving session, he took the lights into the darkened living room and had his own private rave. For a little fella he busted out some big moves.

Yosemite Snapshot

2009-11-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

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Some left over footage from our trip up to Yosemite this June. Out first time there. Simply amazing and stunning and breathtaking. The vastness and the size of it all. So nice just to roll down the window and listen to the wind...

My Son The Artist

2009-11-03T21:51:00.000-08:00

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When I have something busy to do on a weekend, I like to keep Gaige well occupied, like France in the 1940's. The best way to do this is to set him up in the driveway with a huge roll of photography backdrop paper and all his paints. On this day, our little Van Gogh was extremely productive, using almost every last drop of paint, glitter glue and utensil he owns. His own body is as much a canvas as the paper.

Sunday Pancakes

2009-11-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

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The Sprite is a magnificent chef. He loves to cook all the time. On a Sunday he likes to help me make pancakes for all the family. It makes him so happy he literally breaks out into song and theatrics. And funny faces.

Flashback : Halloween 2008

2009-11-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

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This is a clip of The Sprite and his best friend at the Fullerton YMCA Halloween festival from last year. Carefree and full of the energy of youth they frolic to the tune of Abba's Dancing Queen.

The Case Of The Dying Bee

2009-09-27T20:57:00.000-07:00

I watched a bumble bee die today. Slowly. It must have taken three or four hours.

Gaige got his first bee sting whilst playing in the dirt in the back yard. He was playing well by himself while Dani and I were doing yardwork preparing for someone's fifth birthday party next weekend. All of a sudden I hear him SCREAMING at the top of his lungs " I'VE BEEN STUNG, I'VE BEEN STUNG". He comes running to me holding his hand yelling with tears beginning to roll down his cheeks.

So we take him to the bathroom, soak his hand in cold water, and give him some Tylenol. This helps and after about ten minutes the poor lad finally settles down, and begins telling us a story about how he got stung two times before, at his old house. Everything has a story with Gaige, and almost invariably involves some anecdotal reference to 'his old house'.

I tried to tweezer the stinger out of his swelling hand, clearly visible as a small black hair protruding from the wound, but was unsuccessful. So we put some ice on it and sat him in front of the TV. It wasn't long before he was back outside with us, helping and playing in the dirt again.

It was strange, that it even happened at all. There are no flowers in our back yard, any that once were there have either died in the summer heat, or been pulled out for re-landscaping. Also, he was playing in a dirt patch, not a typical place for a bee to be hanging out. At first when I heard and saw him screaming I thought it may have been a spider that bit him. I was worried as we have a lot of Black Widows in our foliage, I myself was bitten by one several years ago. My guess though is that the bee was old and on its last legs anyway and was on the ground, unable to fly. Out of poor luck and coincidence Gaige managed to come into contact with the furry insect and suffer the resulting assault.

I'd always known bees die after they sting, we all learn this quite young. I wonder why nature decided this (out of natural selection, not intelligent design). Maybe the wasps and bees drew straws eons ago in the carbon ether before the earth existed, and it was settled that wasps would get the 'sting at will' with zero consequences package, whilst bees will have to make do with the 'one shot'.

What I didn't realise was just how long a bee will writhe and wriggle and spasm after its sting has been spent. It lay there on its back legs pumping, it's whole body vibrating. I wondered what kind of chemical changes were taking place inside it's exoskeleton. It tried to stand a couple of times, I thought for a moment it was faking me out and about to fly off, but the thing fell back down and spasmed some more. I debated wether I should put it out of its misery, but evolution has clearly designed this process for a reason, so I let it go on for a while. Also, I was curious how long it would go on for. So I let it go on for a while, checking back occasionally to see if it had finally exhausted its lifecycle. Eventually it got swept up with the leaves and twigs and dust. And that was it for that particular bee.

And at dinner, Gaige informs us "You know, I'm just a little bit allergic to bees, but not wasps".

Yep, everything has a story.

Train Ride At The Spectrum

2009-01-08T01:33:00.001-08:00

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Water Ballooning

2009-01-08T01:31:00.001-08:00

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In a world baked by a relentless summer heat, one man and his son struggle for survival in the scorching suburban wilderness. When all good reason was gone, only the love of a good water balloon offered any relief. In this tale of never-ending pursuit of a cooling trend from the onshore flow, only semi-filled colored rubber
orbs can save the day.

The Muddy Tike

2009-01-08T00:15:00.001-08:00

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What started as a simple hosing down of the Mommy Wagon (also known as the Dani Doom Machine), quickly turned into filthy mayhem. Not one to turn down a chance to play with or in mud, The Sprite saw his window of opportunity and seized it with both hands.

A small (and I mean small, but it doesn't take much) puddle formed from the hose-down overspray, and quicker than a Republican legislator can erode your human rights, Mad Mudd McGuiness dives in bringing Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater with him.

I Know. Keyboards : A Sprite Wordgame

2009-01-08T00:02:00.001-08:00

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The Little Dirt Deville

2009-01-07T23:39:00.001-08:00

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Summer Heat Car Wash

2009-01-07T23:27:00.001-08:00

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Look At Me, I'm A Shy Exhibitionist

2009-01-01T18:53:00.001-08:00

The Sprite has reached that 'showoff' stage of his young development. Whenever he wants to attract, impress or get the attention of someone (it could be another child, a visitor to the house or a family member) he will often resort to some outlandish stunt. Usually this involves climbing and ultimately falling to the ground in a glorified flop. "Did you see that?" he'll ask. "Do you want to see this?" he'll inquire before repeating the stunt.

Recently we were at Irvine Regional Park for the annual Christmas Train that rides through the park to Santa's Village. Waiting in line for our turn to ride the train, a girl maybe 7 years old took a liking to our Sprite. This attention was met with cold shyness at first, but thanks to the young lady's persistence, was eventually returned with some very silly behavior of the "Do yo want to see this?" variety. Climbing on the railing, falling to the ground, fake-bumping into the wall, all including an array of sound effects to enhance the stunt.

His antics must have worked, The Sprite and his older lady friend were inseparable for our duration at the park.

I wonder how long this showoff phase will last. Generally, the little guy is very reserved and standoffish when meeting people. However, once he warms up to someone the antics usually start. He has started mimicking TV commercials and movies, invariably the slapstick physical comedy appealing to his sense of humor. Any time the Pepsi Max "What Is Love" commercial he rushes to the TV to ape the head-nodding and falling over. It cracks him up to no end.

I always thought he would be great on the stage or screen. He's a total ham and loves an audience. But he has to warm up and get comfortable first. Not ideal for auditions i would say. As parents I wonder what we could do to build his confidence enough to overcome his initial shyness. I'm not sure the showing off is a favourable trait but the humorous exhibitionism is definitely entertaining for now. We like to see this side of him more than the shy, reserved kid who won't answer when asked a question.

Of course on the other hand, a reserved kid is absolutely less likely to be abducted by a stranger. By my rationale, any douchebag looking to coax His Stubborness into the back of a bronze Toyota Camry will be greeted with nothing more than a stiff cold shoulder. Nothing can make this kid do ANYTHING against his will. So I take an ounce of comfort in this case. It's tough to know where to set balance between reserved/outgoing. For now it is not a problem obviously. We don't stop laughing at the non-stop goofball show when The Sprite gets going, and the lucky few he warms up to are treated to a great slapstick show. Hopefully eventually he will find enough self-confidence with other people to be his silly self right off the bat. It's s endearing.

A Monochrome Christmas

2008-12-31T01:36:00.001-08:00

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The Sprite explains why, contrary to popular belief, traditional Christmas colours of red and green are in fact incorrect. Instead, he proclaims black and white to be the colours of choice.

Building Christmas Cheer

2008-12-31T00:31:00.001-08:00

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The Sprite lends his hands to help ElectricMommy decorate the Xmas Tree. The whole house is given the seasonal sizzle in an effort to bring some yuletide cheer to one and all.

As you shall see, the little elf is quite deft at fetching and hanging. And his enthusiasm knows no bounds. Yahoo! This year has certainly been the most fun with the little fella, as he has been into the whole idea of it like never before. Christmas Eve he was wound up and ready to explode with excitement, he could barely contain himself.

We hope you all had a lovely warm and happy holiday season.

Wishing all the best for the New Year!

Kidz Soccer

2008-12-23T15:15:00.001-08:00

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Back in May The Sprite was signed up for the 5 and under soccer league at his preschool. It was a pretty good idea, get him out there and runing about with all the other kids. He's half Brit so naturally I was hoping his latent footie skillz would surface and he would run rings around all the Yank kids.

Sadly this was not to be the case. The latent Brit soccer skills will remain dormant for a while longer. Our little Becham wanted nothing to with the kids or the league. He wanted to ball, but got very frustrated when it would not come to him. He was fine in practice when he had a ball to play with. But come game time it all got a little overwhelming for him. Most of the other boys and girls were happy to get in there and battle for the ball. But The Sprite was one of several kids who didin't want to, er, play ball, as it were.

It was frustrating at first, but he got a little better a the 8 game season went on. I ended up going out there and running around with the kids. The Sprite kept close to me and ran about and got a couple of kicks of the ball. To be fair, he was one of the younger ones and the bigger boys were fast and dominated the control of play. A bit daunting for the little guy to compete with.

We'll try again in the future when he has more interest in doing it. And when he can bend a free kick around a 10 man wall into the top left corner of the goal.

Family Christmas Card 2008

2008-12-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

Here is the family Xmas card we made this year. We had a picture taken at the Christmas Show that took place at the Church where The Sprite goes to pre-school. Trouble was, despite their attempts to dress up the scene with a Christmas tree and poinsettia, the background was so stark and white. This is the before and after of the shot I edited and composited into something a little more attractive.

The original shot

The final image

Solace From The City

2008-11-13T02:31:00.001-08:00

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A recent family trip to Laguna Lake in Fulllerton. This little pocket of peace, quiet and solitude serves as a lovely break from the city. Only minutes away from downtown, you'd never guess this was in urban Orange County, and not somewhere more rural.

We like to go here in the evenings as the sun is setting, and do a lap of the lake. It is so relaxing. It is rarely busy there, but it has its share of walkers, bikers and fisherman. The Sprite loves to run and throw stones and scream. Not so much into the relaxing yet.

Laguna Lake is in an area known as Coyote Hills which is rapidly being developed (at least it was before the crash) despite passionate opposition and protest from the community. You can see why.

The Day We Tried To Ski

2008-10-14T01:03:00.001-07:00

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Every year, in late February, we make the only trip of the year up mountain to find out how much we suck at skiing compared to last year. On my father-in-law's birthday the whole family meets up at Snow Summit in Big Bear. At Snow Summit you can ski for free on your birthday, hence the occasion. We rent a cabin for a couple of nights which makes for a nice comfort after beating oneself up all day on the slopes. Driving back down the mountain exhausted and your body hurting was miserable when we did it.

Typically, Southern California ushers in a huge storm the preceeding night, which usually means; 1) treacherous driving conditions, 2) great skiing.

This year, right on cue, a storm swanied into town late Thursday night. So as we do each year, we arise with some trepidation at the crack of dawn, or earlier. Pack up the car with all our warm clothes and snow toys. Grab a coffee. And try to beat the commuter traffic on the 91 freeway, then ultimately wind our way up the San Bernadino mountain range via Route 38.

It was clear, however, that as soon as I got up and looked outside the day would be less than great. It was grey, damp, cloudy and no visible sign of land above 150 feet. As we sloshed our way toward the summit it was obvious we would not be needing the snow chains in the trunk. The rain had melted any snow on the road and luckily the cloud cover kept the temperature above freezing so damp was all we got.

We stopped for coffee and breakfast at Running Springs, just before Big Bear on the 38. Here, The Sprite got his first snow play of the weekend, climbing the ploughed-snow verges with Everstian determination. Unfortunately we only had wool mittens for him, unable to find toddler sized snow gloves anywhere. Unbeleiveable I know. He did have some good thermal undergarments and snow pants and jacket and the cold did not seem to bother him.

Once we met up with the rest of the family it was almost unanimous that skiing was out of the question. My brothers-in-law both decided it was worth a try, but they are significantly younger than the rest of us, and as such clearly willing to suffer for their cause. Or their thrills. As it turns out, despite visibility being alsmost nil at the foot of the ski slope, the fresh powder was outstanding, and the dampness did not make the snow 'sticky' at all. Basically, the conditions were incredible. I went out for a walk to shoot some snoe photo's in the afternoon, and the snow underfoot was like tiny little ball-bearings. Crump crump crump. It sounded as good as it felt. I felt a tinge of regret as I walked along some deserted back alleys, breathing heavily in the thin air.

I kinda wished I had sucked it up and gone skiing.

Especially as the next morning, a Saturday, the road outside our cabin that led up to Summit resort was bumper to bumper with eager skiiers and snowboarders, hungry for some action on the fresh snow. To add insult to the situation, the sky was clear blue. It was going to be a GREAT days skiing. If you could weave your way through the masses on the slopes. My father-in-law swore years ago he would never ski on a Saturday again for the very reason there were just too many people for it to be any fun. He's skied there for 50 years and seen it grow to it's current scale. He's earned his right to be picky. So, after breakfast, everyone packed up and left. A bit of an anti-climax to all that great powder.

Next year. Just hope I don't suck doublefold for having missed a year.

Semanal08 : Week 21 - Quadzilla : The Sprite Rides Free

2008-07-29T02:19:00.001-07:00

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It was way back in December, in Arizona. The kid got his first real wheels. He'd had a tricycle for a while and had gotten pretty deft at pedalling up and down the street. But this was different. This time he was motorised. He had the power.

Grandma, or Mama-G as she is known, had the crazy notion to buy the little fella his very own Yamaha Raptor Replica Quad. This thing is no toy either. It's as big as a full size 50cc Raptor and looks every bit the part. It runs off of a 12 volt battery, it has hi and lo speed, forwards and reverse. It also makes authentic 2-stroke ringningningning throttle sounds, which to anyone who's ever riden a 2-stroke knows is like a 100 peice symphony to motor-geeks ears. Of course it has none of the environmentally unpleasent side effects like the thick blue smoke of 2-stroke premix burning out the exhaust. I use the term unpleasent loosely, again, anyone who has ever riden a 2-stroke will know what i'm talking about here.

Well, it didn't take long before our 3 year old headcase was tearing up and down the street at full speed, locking up the rear wheels, skidding on opposite lock to get the thing turned around. He wanted no part of lo-speed, once he found out what that switch did it was full tilt. That is indeed my boy. It was near impossible to get him off the thing. And as equally near impossible to get the fantastic plastic into the back of the Chevy to bring it back to California.

Since he's had it, we ride regularly. Here, we take it out to the local park where he can ride up and down the path, terrorising the other lame, foot-propelled kids. See them turn and run when Quadzilla hacks down the tracks. Lately The Sprite and I have been taking rides around the block, he on the quad and myself on my mountain bike. Its a fun way to spend a few minutes these warm summer evenings.

Pretty soon, he'll be moving up to the real thing and heading back out to Arizona and the sand dunes to rev up a real 2-stroke. Ringdindinningningdingning!!!

The Long Spring of Infection

2008-07-07T01:34:00.001-07:00

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Fevers, flu, long cough, pink eye, scarlet fever, strep throat, tummy flu.

Semanal08 : Week 20 - Einstein's Revisited

2008-07-01T02:08:00.001-07:00

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A couple of weeks ago, on A Saturday morning, The Sprite and I were trying to figure out what we would do for a couple of hours while ElectricMummy enjoyed her turn to sleep in. Our little Early Bird is up to get the Weekend Worm promptly at 6:30am every weekend like German clockwork.

So we take turns to get up with him and find ways to keep him occupied while the other gets a couple of bonus hours of sleep. This usually entails sitting him in front of Playhouse Disney on TV whilst the unfortunate 'parent' sneaks some shut-eye on the couch.

But on this particular weekend The Sprite had his mind made up that he wanted to step back in time and watch some of those Baby Einstein's. you know, those DVDs of toys and toddlers and primary colors. These were great when he was an infant, we'd set him up in his swing and he'd sit engrossed watching these mindless (to adult eyes) video's.

We thought these DVD's were ready for the yard sale by now. He had grown and his tastes were more mature. We own every Pixar movie under the sun and they get played in steady rotation. Little did we know there was life in the puppet dog yet. We'll see if this weekend here was an anomaly or if Baby Einstein's once again become a fixture in The Sprightly Playlist.

Book Time With The Sprite

2008-06-12T07:51:00.001-07:00

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The Very Very Very Lazy Lazy Ladybug as read by His Spriteness.

One busy morning as I am rushing about the house deep in my morning ritual of putting on my cornflakes and pouring nice cold milk over a bowl of underwear, I heard a voice. It was talking, conversing, telling a story. I easily recognised the voice as that of my own child (now THAT'S parenting for ya) but it was different somehow.

It wasn't whining, pleading for some sticky sugary food item he is not allowed. It wasn't crying because the house next door was painted the wrong color. It wasn't screaming, shrieking at the top of his lungs, just to see if it's true that Daddies eyeballs start to bleed from sound over 21,000hz frequency and 120db of amplitude. No, this sound was quite, peaceful, conversational.

I stopped to listen for a moment, half expecting to hear a secret conversation with a new found imaginary friend, or worse. For him to be speaking in Aramaic, uttering strange ancient curses. But once I poked my head around his door, instead of picking an outfit for to wear today at school, I saw him sitting on the floor, book in hands, reading to himself.

Of course this would make any parent proud. The fact he chose to pick a book, one we had been reading every night for a couple of weeks, and voluntarily entertain himself with words was a huge step in the right direction as far as I am concerned. Not to mention it was darn cute.

Obviously he wasn't actually reading the words off the page. He's a way off from doing that. As I mentioned, we had been reading the book every night, and The Sprite Brain had clearly absorbed the story and memorised the words. This is almost more impressive, a trait he has displayed many times since, memorising words and books with ease. Matching the story to the pictures, and understanding the context, he is able to recount his most popular books.

I told ElectricMommy he would make a great actor if he can memorise his lines that easily. She said if he can remember a birthday or wedding anniversary (something his Dad is incapable of) she'll be happy.

Semanal08 : Week 18 - A Rant About Timekeeping

2008-06-10T23:01:00.001-07:00

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Time.

Where does it go. The sands in the hourglass.

"Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day" as David Gilmour sang.

Today, I rant about time and the management and keeping of it. it's been a recurring theme around these parts for some time now that we are always late. For everything. Since The Sprite was born it has only gotten worse. And now he is off to pre-school in the mornings, there are added complications and distractions to deal with.

Subsequently I have been getting to work later and later. The little fella just loves to help out. In fact he insists. Whether it is making my tea or taking the trash out, The Helping Hand of Sprite is there slowing me down. Trying to get everything done and get out the door in time without tripping over Little Monster has revealed an epic weakness in our system. We are all lolligaggers.

So it did not go unnoticed by the Power Behind The Door at work and I got a stiff talking to, well actually quite a limp talking to considering. ElectricMomy and I have tryed to work something out, some kind of system that works for everyone. With her off to full-time employment again it's tough getting a schedule where we can satisfy the needs of Corporate Amerika (which feeds and clothes us), yet allows us to deliver The Sprite to and from school safely and timely.

I'm sure it is nothing new and families the world over have to deal with exactly the same problems. It is also someting Corporate Amerika is fully aware of, it being nothing new to them either, so one would expect some level of understanding on their part. But also, I know that when The Sprite starts 'real' education we will have to be much more disiplined. School starts earlier and the stakes are higher than simply missing sandbox time.

I'm hoping these early years tune us to the fina art of getting up and out at a decent hour in the morning.

And with that being said, I'll leave it to Mr. Gilmour to take us out.

"Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say."

Semanal08 : Week 17 - Chicken Pie Shop

2008-06-06T00:13:00.001-07:00

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It's a Friday night. We are hungry.

It's the end of a long week. Nobody wants to cook.

What to do.

We let someone else do the cooking. We get take out food and bring it home, sit in front of the TV with a glass of wine.

One of our favourite take away eateries is the La Palma Chicken Pie Shop. It is on La Palma Blvd in Anaheim and it serves chicken pot pies. Nuff said. The food is all home made and is really tasty. They have the best mashed potatos and gravy. And cookies. Macaroons, snowballs, molases, peanut butter. So tasty.

So what we usually do is get a couple of the take away dinners, 4 uncooked pies for the freezer, a pint of gravy and a couple dozen cookies to last the weekend.

The place is a real old school mom 'n pop shop, and a little bit dingey to be honest. It doesn't look much but the food is worth it. There is nothing modern or smart about it. The old boy that runs it is a character, he's a bit of a grouch. I imagine he's done this every day for the last 47 years. So no wonder he's grouchy.

On this night I was taking video of the place and captured a great conversation between the owner and a customer. At least I would have captured it had I not ran out of battery. From what I could tell, the owner was from Germany and the customer was stationed there at some point, maybe during WW2. I wish I had gotten that on camera. I'll have to go back another time to get some more details, however I don't think I'll be lucky enough to get an interview with the old boy. I'll be lucky to get my food while it's still hot.

Semanal08 : Week 16 - Lunchtime Playground

2008-06-04T00:05:00.001-07:00

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A few weeks ago, ElectricMummy had to go do some business things, which is nothing unusual, except on this occasion our little Sprite had a bit of a cough that kept him out of school. That left me on playground duty for a couple of hours. Which was actually quite nice, it got me out of the office and away from work for an extended period of time with a perfectly valid excuse.

So, with time to kill, the boy and I hit the swings, slides and sand for a brief playtime. He had fun running around (of course) and I had fun chasing him (again, of course) stuffing my Flip into his face wherever he went.

But like all good things, our relaxing afternoon came to and end when mummy returned and he had to go home for a nap, and I back to work.

Semanal08 : Week 15 - A Sprite On The Sand

2008-05-14T18:03:00.001-07:00

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On a warm, sunny Spring day the family took a little jaunt to the seaside. Mr. G loves the beach, and makes a beeline for the water the moment we release him from the car. So, we spent a Sunday relaxing down at Huntington Beach, looking out over the glistening Pacific Ocean. It was early in the season so parking was easy to find, and the spacious beach was practically deserted. On this day we took a stroll along the beach path, went along to the end of the pier and looked at the seagulls, got some food from one of the vendors along the path and had a little picnic on the sand. Followed by some fun and frolic, and the inevitable indigestion. Our attempts at building sand castles were thwarted by Senør Destructo himself, his Royal Spriteliness. But we did end up finishing the day off with some ice cream. A visit to the beach is never complete without it.

Semanal08 : Week 14 - First Move, Playground Fun

2008-05-10T01:55:00.001-07:00

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A little while ago, we decided that The Sprite was ready for the next big test in his growth as a media consumer. He successfully graduated from Baby Einstein, to The Wiggles, to Sesame Street, to every Pixar DVD available. Now he was ready for the Big Screen.

A semi-local movie theatre has $1 movies on Sunday mornings, so we figured we would test The Sprite's ability to sit through a feature length with little financial risk. The latest Pixar gem Ratatouille was screening, so this was a no brainer to get him into. And although this was least kid-friendly movie Pixar has made to date, G did very well, sitting still throughout the show. The story was more grown-up and the characters less cuddly than previous Pixar creations, but there was planty of slapstick to keep us all giggling.

After the movie was over, The Sprite needed to burn off 2 hours of couped-up, coke-fueled energy. So we headed across the street to the park for a walk and some fun on the big slide at the playground.

Semanal08 : Week13 - Fun With Water & Leaves

2008-05-06T00:32:00.001-07:00

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On a chill but pleasent spring morning, our little Sprite finds many an amusement in the back garden wonderland of fallen leaves, puddles, dirt and all manner of things to get himself filthy dirty and soaking wet. Oh well, boys will be boys. Anyhow, it keeps him busy and occupied for a time. Even if it means we have to rake up the leaves again after the G-Express ploughed through them for the umpteenth time.

Semanal08 : Week12 - Drive Time

2008-05-05T23:39:00.001-07:00

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Driving the commute on a Southern California freeway can be a trying experience. It can take hours to travel the two miles to Mrs Miggins Pie Shop, and hours to get back home again. At which point the huge commemorative pie you bought to celebrate Huge Commemorative Pie Week is cold and grossly unsatisfactory.

The roads are populated by nutters and maniacs, on cell phones, texting and eating cheeseburgers. So I do what any good citizen would do. Pick up his Flip and capture some artistically shot video of traffic lights and sunsets and blurry dashboard things.

Semanal08 : Week11 - An Early Start

2008-05-04T15:13:00.001-07:00

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A rare occasion when the whole family is up on time and ready to go early on a weekday. Being up and ready early made me ponder how I could maximize my productive time, without neglecting sleep, and still getting out of the door with enough time to get to work on time.

Sadly, on this particular morning, i spent too much time videoblogging to get myself out of the house on time.

I read an article about the 6 day week, following the 28 hour day schedule, whereby one would be awake for 20 hours and sleep for 8. Obviously this would mess with any work schedule as by day three you would be awake through the night. But I thought it interesting, as a way to maximise productivity, and to ultimately get an additional four hours a day to spend playing Guitar Hero on the Playstation

Humorously illustrated here: http://www.xkcd.com

Oh The Irony Of Digg

2008-05-01T02:32:00.001-07:00

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Read a post on Digg.com about how the anonymous nature of the social internet made it easy to be, well, less polite than one would be in a face to face encounter. I found it ironic, and a tad ammusing, considering how volatile, rude and downright obnoxious Digg has become.

Question Everything

2008-05-01T02:26:00.001-07:00

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A follow up to this post. Don't believe everything you read in the papers, or hear on videoblogs. Seek and ye shall find your own truth.

More Fun With PlayDoh

2008-04-15T02:54:00.001-07:00

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The Sprite enjoys another 15 minutes of fame with his PlayDoh kit. Listen along as he spells out the rules for everyone to understand. He is very specific, he is a lad who knows what he wants.

Post-project Software Rant

2008-04-14T01:29:00.001-07:00

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Following up from the days earlier post about Project Stress. The project in question was finally completed and succesfully tested and delivered at 7:30pm on Friday of a long long week. The final disc was taped to the front door of the vendor who was flying out the next morning to the trade show our client was present at. I left it in trust and good faith it would be recieved safely. We uploaded a safety for good measure.

After, I took a few moments to breath out, relax, and summarise my thoughts and feelings from earlier. Evidently I was not happy with the software I had entrusted my production's success to. Preperation is everyting in these short deadline gigs and the company I work for is often woefully unprepared. They have a habit of committing to work, projects, or technology without having an inkling of what it will take. And who gets to bite the bullet and figure it all out, with limited resources and get the whole show delivered in half the time? That's right, yours truly. But I'll save that for a future rant!

A Break From Project Stress

2008-04-13T23:52:00.001-07:00

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Late in the afternoon, and late in the production of a quick turnaround project, I was starting to feel the pressure. Software was failing everywhere I turned. Tasks that under normal circumstances were a slam-dunk, a no-brainer, were taking far too long. Or worse, they were completely unsuccessful.

A Costco Lunch of Champions

2008-04-09T23:12:00.001-07:00

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Shall We Hide

2008-03-27T23:12:00.001-07:00

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Sometimes it's just fun to step back and let the camera roll and watch The Sprite go off on one of his tangents. In this case, he seems to want to hide. It's hard to tell if he was expecting us all to hide together, or if he wanted me to just get lost and take the camera out of his face. Obviously we did neither. But the little lad did make a pretty good impression of a seal whilst climbiing and rolling over the furniture. So it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Semanal08 : Week7 - A Night At The Races

2008-03-19T02:31:00.001-07:00

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It was a balmy night in western Arizona. The family headed out to the Mohave Valley Raceway near Bullhead City for a night of dirt track racing. Other than some speedway motorcycle racing back in England, I have never witnessed dirt track racing. My motor sports experiences have been purely tarmac-based. Until this night.

The night was a series of heats and a final of lower class vehicles, and the showcase class Modifieds. If I remember correctly, my father-in-law was telling me these monsters run on alchohol, which makes them the bad-ass mo-fo's of the paddock. Watching these loud and ugly Mad Max machines round the 1/3 mile oval almost entirely sideways was a sight to behold. Amazing control, driving on the ragged edge. And did I mention they were loud.

Semanal08 : W6 - A Geek In The Making

2008-02-11T00:34:00.001-08:00

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It was to my great joy, upon returning home from work some weeks ago, The Sprite had not only asked for some computer time, he had managed to power the iBook up, find his Nemo game in the Dock and start playing. Brought a tear to my eye, made me so proud. Unfortunately the radiation or something got to him after a while and caused a freak out of Sean Penn proportions.

Napa : Balloon Boogaloo

2008-02-11T00:28:00.001-08:00

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Having been couped up most of the day in the car, or dragged around hot tourist traps, The Sprite was finally alowed to stretch and show his funky b-boy style. Once he got going there was no stopping him, to the amazement of all around, to all the local passerby who witnessed a crazed toddler spazzing out on the sidewalk.

Napa : Hyper Dancing Sprite

2008-02-11T00:23:00.001-08:00

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Napa Farmers Market

2008-02-11T00:20:00.001-08:00

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After a Friday driving and exploring the wine country, we arrived back at Napa looking for a little coffee refreshement. Instead we found the Farmers Market in full swing. This was unlike in every way the Farmers Market in Fullerton we were used to visiting every Thursday. There were 2 bands, one at each end of the market. One playing old time classic rock faves, and the other ripping up some fine rockabilly surf twang variety. Also, there were several vendors offering beer and local wine, by the pint and glass, respectively. At first look Napa is a sleepy little town at the foot of the NoCal wine country, but upon further inspection it seems it has a large healthy local community. Everybody and his mother appeared to be out for the beautiful, warm summer evening.

Woodland Sprite

2008-02-11T00:15:00.001-08:00

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While the ladies partook of the grapey goodness inside the winery, The Sprite and I kept ourselves out of the way out in the gardens. The 104? heat outside had the old man was gasping before too long, but bothered not the younger of us. He was right at home exploring the shady grove.

Calistoga Wine Stop

2008-02-11T00:13:00.001-08:00

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Heading north from Napa there is an abundance of wineries offering tours and tasting. With limited time available we picked one winery from our guide book that sounded particularly interesting and wound our way through the rolling, tree-lined lanes for a little imbibement. Cuvasion was the winery of choice and it did not disappoint.

Heading Out To Napa

2008-02-11T00:11:00.001-08:00

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Our last full day in San Francisco we took a day trip out to the wine country. Heading north across the Golden Gate bridge, a treat in itself, we left the cloud and overcast skies of the city behind and found blue skies and temperatures more expected of a California summer. The densely built-up congestion of the bay area quickly dissolved into wide open space and farmland. It was a quick and pleasent drive to reach Napa, then onward to Calistoga for some wine tasting and ice cream. We returned later to Napa for an afternoon treat, a surprisingly vibrant Farmers Market.

Semanal08 : W5 - 40 Dollars of Frustration

2008-02-05T01:16:00.001-08:00

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I had $40 in my pocket, and a handful of ideas about what to spend it on. It could have been something nice for me, my wife or my kid. Or it could have been totally wasted. Listen to me rant and find out who took forty greenbacks from me.