misc

Wed - June 21, 2006

Movin' On Up, To The East Side...

I've been working at eyespot.com for a few months now, and one of the features of that website is a video blog. It's a video hosting, mixing, sharing community, so a video blog is a natural feature for a user's account. So, I've been [1] busy working for that startup, and [2] vlogging Justin can be considered part of my job description. So all the action is over there now.

Writing this blog for the past couple of years has been a lot of fun. I had more free time then than I do now, so apart from brevity you shouldn't find the new vlog any to be much different than this blog (but I'll miss all the weird traffic I get from Google searches here). Eyespot will quickly mature to be just the videoblogging software I want — and since I work there I get even better tech support than I do from Sarat at Lifli (makers of the iBlog software I've used for this blog), which is saying a lot. :)

Oh yeah, we'll be referring back to this blog quite often over the next couple years. Mainly to see what to expect from Justin's expected little brother, who's due at the beginning of November... ;) What, we didn't tell you? Isn't that why you read this? To keep up? Well, consider yourself updated. It's a crazy time now. :)

Go --> http://eyespot.com/blogs/kevlar

Posted at 01:35 AM Read More

Mon - November 7, 2005

Ketchup

Sorry, but I've fallen behind again and I'm catching up on blog entries. Meanwhile, check out some recent pictures.

Posted at 11:17 PM Read More

Sat - September 3, 2005

Scouting Trip

The party tomorrow will be at Justin's favorite place: the Poway Midland Railroad. So we stopped in to set up final arrangements and plan decorations. I kept Justin busy outside with the train.

Afterwards, we went to the Thomas store to further test his mood and pick up a few decorations for tomorrow. We were hoping he'll still be interested in trains, after this Blue Man kick he's been on, and today proved it: he still loves the blue train.

This evening we opened a couple presents. There's no point saturating him on one given day, especially when [1] he doesn't grasp the concept of his birthday yet, and [2] his birthday isn't really for another week. Shhhh.

At the Thomas store; opening Grammie + Grampa's present: a Thomas set!

Posted at 10:05 PM Read More

Thu - September 1, 2005

Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast

Our hearts go out to all the people affected by Hurricane Katrina, and those later affected by the slow response of government agencies (FEMA), which, among other things, led to the dissolution of society in New Orleans. We hope that our leadership learns from this terrible event what it apparently did not learn from the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and that the next time a WMD is unleashed on us, whether by man or by nature, the situation is handled better.

Qualcomm will be matching employees' donations, so that will probably be the avenue of most of our support. Glenn is raising cash as well, so we'll be helping there too.

Posted at 01:20 PM Read More

Mon - August 22, 2005

iForsake iPhoto

I've been using iPhoto (albeit not version 5) since starting this blog, but as my photography—and the file size—has expanded, poor iPhoto has been pushed to its limits. After considering jumping to iView Media Pro, the new version of Photoshop has shipped, along with a new digital shoebox app called Bridge. One of the major new features is the upgraded handling of Camera Raw photos, which offer greater latitude for the digital photographer.

Bridge and PS CS2 don't offer all the conveniences of iPhoto, but their benefits outweigh their drawbacks. As I get more versed in Automator, I should be able to improve the photoblog workflow further. For example, I'd like to tag images in Bridge and have those tags follow when uploading to Flickr...

Turns out we have a 3rd cousin who works in the Photoshop department at Adobe, and he strongly recommends a new book titled Real World Camera Raw.

Now, as for whether and when to shoot Raw vs. JPEG, here's my philosophy so far: when I'm chasing Justin around, I'll probably shoot JPEG to get the most of my memory card. When I'm shooting something more ... artistic, deliberate, or something in more challenging light, I'll shoot Raw because it'll give me more latitude for adjustments afterward.

Posted at 01:33 PM Read More

Wed - August 10, 2005

100 Weeks Old

Today Justin turns 100 weeks old. Seems like only 75 or so...

Posted at 06:50 AM Read More

Thu - August 4, 2005

1,000,000 Minutes Old

According to Time And Date dot Com, Justin is a million minutes old today. How old are you?

Posted at 09:49 PM Read More

Tue - July 26, 2005

Return to Space

Justin wanted to watch Dragon Tales this morning, but he was impressed with the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery when I told him it was the coolest truck ever built.

Melisa told him to enjoy it on TV, cuz she won't let him fly it when he grows up.

That's a truck?!?!

Posted at 11:33 PM Read More

Fri - July 1, 2005

War of the Worlds

Later in the afternoon we were able to leave Justin, Jasmine, and Sophie with Nana + Pa so the 4 of us could see War of the Worlds. We managed to time it so Erik and Anna could get new tires put on their car while were in the movie, thus everyone's need for efficiency were met. The movie was awesome—now I know what it must feel like to be an ant at a picnic. Fills you with a thrilling sense of smallness and futility. :)

But suddenly it's Friday—somehow I lost a day this week. June should have had 31 days. They should move Leap Day to June.

Here's a picture of our friend Dan with Steven Spielberg, Dennis Muren + Adam Somner, in Wired.

Posted at 11:16 PM Read More

Mon - June 27, 2005

Jonathan's Dream Playground

I don't know the whole story, but a really nice playground has been constructed in in West Hartford in memory of a very young child who died. His family created the ultimate playground, and Justin had a really good time there. We're definitely going to visit each time we're out there (on our trips when it's not buried in ice and snow).

There is more about Jonathan's Dream and other playgrounds like it on Google.

You don't have to be this tall to ride.

Posted at 10:06 PM Read More

Fri - April 29, 2005

Speaking of Fish...

English is full of words that get used for different things, sometimes deliberately and sometimes haphazardly. Fish is one of those words, and Justin will sign "fish" for any of these items.

Fish are friends, not food. Or are they?

Posted at 09:34 PM Read More

Thu - April 14, 2005

The Sippy Cups

A friend of mine told me about a band in the SF Bay area called The Sippy Cups. They play kids' parties, but the songs are tunes we all grew up with: Pink Floyd, The Ramones, The Velvet Underground... arranged for kids of all ages to enjoy. Can't wait to see them in person.

Posted at 12:07 AM Read More

Wed - March 30, 2005

Baby Name Voyager

Are you trying to find a popular baby name? An unpopular one? Want to see which names are on the rise or on the decline over the past 100 years? The Baby Name Voyager is indescribably cool.

Posted at 11:05 PM Read More

Tue - March 22, 2005

Blog and Pony Show

Yeah, I've been busy lately and I apologize for the delay in getting Justin's updates posted. If you're a Justin fan, please be patient. It's raining again tonight and we still have taxes to do, so there may still be a couple dull weekends until we get you some really cool pix from the desert or the Wild Animal Park.

But if you are hankering to read about babies in general, here are some pointers. Turns out Justin Time isn't a unique thing. Sorry to disappoint. Apparently there are a lot of baby blogs out there. In the past 18 months that I've been doing this, I've only occasionally perused the web for other sites of this ilk. That is, until I ran across this article, whose title I noticed on my web/rich internet app RSS feed. Eric's article led to this NY Times article, which was kind of obnoxious but shined a new light on the world of baby blogging. (Obnoxious in that it calls bloggers narcissistic and the blog will haunt or at least embarrass him in later years.) Turns out there are over 8,000 baby blogs out there, and some of them are pretty ... famous. Notably, the renowned and notorious dooce.com and the data-intensive Trixie Update. Obviously (I think), Justin Time isn't famous and it isn't intended to be. As I said when I started it, it's for you, friends and family.

I've been reading about folksonomies lately, where it's all about tagging stuff. Flickr photos are tagged and blogs are tagged too. Why leave organizing the internet to a bunch of librarians when we can organize it ourselves? Or not.

Man, I need to take a week and organize my email and bookmarks and photos, too!

This is a cool flickr-based picture spelling thingy someone made.

Posted at 09:02 PM Read More

Sun - March 20, 2005

Winter is Over!

So glad Spring is here. We're sick of being sick. Melisa and I had a sore throat for a month, and we suspect, by all the recent drooling, Justin was afflicted as well.

And we're tired of the rain. So far this has been the 3rd rainiest year in So. Cal since they started keeping records in 1850 or so.