2Dolphins

What Lies Beneath?

2008-07-18T05:36:00.000-05:00

If Robert Ballard’s enthusiastic presentation Exploring the Ocean’s Hidden Worlds featured on TED doesn’t rev you up about the possibilities that lie beneath the surface of the world’s oceans, well, you may not have a pulse. Or maybe you just never had an aquarium as a kid or marveled as Jacques Cousteau plumbed the depths of the amazing underwater world on TV.

Anyway, Ballard is an oceanographer, marine geologist, & shipwreck explorer (he led the teams that discovered the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989, & the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in 1998). In this talk, he passionately discusses oceanic exploration as a better, more sensible (and probably far more profitable) alternative to space exploration and brings up a lot of interesting questions about why we aren’t devoting more resources & energy to exploring some of the largest (and largely uncharted) features on our own planet.

Particularly interesting is the contrast between the budgets of the 2 U.S. exploration programs — NASA, tasked with exploring space, and NOAA, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration — and the striking remark that the funds from just one year of NASA’s annual budget would fund NOAA’s budget to explore the oceans for 1,600 years. But the even more surprising comment made during this presentation is:

50% of America lies beneath the sea and we have better maps of Mars than that 50%.

At a time when the U.S. is up against greater international competition than ever, I think Ballard makes an especially compelling case for radically-increased exploration, mapping, & mining of our oceans. Watch the video and please post a comment with your thoughts on this:

Click here if the embedded video above doesn’t play properly in your browser.

YIMBY

2008-07-16T19:38:00.001-05:00

As a longtime fan of Will Wright’s city building simulator game SimCity, I’m very familiar with the term NIMBY, which is an acronym for "Not In My Back Yard," a phrase used to describe resistance from citizens to the development of landfills, affordable housing (especially multi-family housing), industrial facilities, or other services or structures. In the game (as in real life) citizens frequently boycott controversial, unsightly, or distasteful things from being located in their neighborhoods even if they themselves and/or those around will benefit from the construction.

Likewise, there’s an opposite acronym for those rare occasions when the people are excited about something new in their neighborhood — YIMBY. And YIMBY, or "Yes In My Back Yard," is our new motto now that our swanky "Veranda" is complete!

The patio cover project progressed very rapidly and construction has actually been done for several days now, but we wanted to wrap up a few finishing details before the unveiling. For more details, be sure to check out our Veranda & Back Yard page.

Of course, you can also peruse our 2Dolphins Resort & Spa page for revealing looks & other ongoing home improvement efforts throughout the rest of our house.

Motivated Marketing

2008-07-11T21:56:00.000-05:00

Gasoline has now peaked $4 per gallon and you’re stuck driving a hulking behemoth that gets 12 M.P.G. — if you’ve got a tailwind. How the heck did this happen?

Marketing.

It’s not easy to admit, but most of us are willing victims of marketing. Very, very clever people are paid lavish salaries to coax, convince, or otherwise cajole our ideals and opinions about everything from cars to shoes to pizza to trashbags. Yup, these are the guys whose job it is to bend our wills — and they're very, very good at it. In particular, U.S. automakers & their marketing wizards have a magical hold on us. They’ve been hand-crafting the public’s perceived need for the kind of vehicles they want us to buy for decades now. Not sure what I mean? Don’t think you can be manipulated? Need proof?

"That thing got a Hemi?"

Pure genius. I didn’t even know what the heck a Hemi was when that Dodge advertising campaign launched, but I sure was checking the contents of my shorts, feeling so inadequate over not having a big honkin’ truck equipped with a Hemi engine. Think that doesn’t sell vehicles? Think again! Take note of how many big hinkin’, 8-cylinder, 4-wheel drive, quad-cab trucks and lumbering, oversized SUVs are on the road serving as nothing more than single-occupancy commuter vehicles.

Yup, American automakers haven’t needed to be concerned with fuel efficiency or catering to the small car market because they’ve had most of us securely under their spell for so long. They’ve snookered us into believing that bigger & more cylinders are better and that we need the horsepower to do zero-to-60 in 6.5 seconds or else we’re pansies. If you’re driving a small, inexpensive car with a fuel-efficient 4-cylinder engine, you must either be destitute (because affluent people drive big cars with beefy engines), or some kind of treehugging, rice-eating, commie-lovin’, hippie.

By golly, if you’re not driving a big-ass, rubber-burnin’, God Bless America, gas-guzzling GM truck, well, Bob Seger & John Mellencamp are going to come over to your house, beat ya up, drink up all your beer, and prolly take your girlfriend!

And women aren’t immune to the crafty marketing pressures either. A decade or so ago, U.S. automakers began targeting that segment by hoodwinking safety-conscious moms with the false perception that SUVs are safer.

Even now, they’re feverishly trying to hustle the more environmentally-aware among us with SUV hybrids. These are nothing more than a sad, misguided, & utterly greedy attempt on the behalf of automakers to seem "green" yet continue to cater to outdated, redneck attitudes. The whole idea of the improved fuel efficiency of a hybrid is almost completely negated by the added weight & poor aerodynamics of SUVs. (Not to mention that they’re still not nearly as safe as they’d have you believe.)

So how the heck are we supposed to feel good about buying a small car from these hucksters now?

Marketing.

After more than 50 years of profiting handsomely (to put it mildly) from skillfully shaping our desires & subsequent purchasing habits by building false perceptions and stroking our redneck egos about how horsepower equals manhood, the automotive industry & their marketing geniuses have a social responsibility to apply that same moneygrubbing fervor towards making Americans feel OK about buying smaller, less resource-wasteful cars.

Advertising shapes public opinion so automakers need to get busy selling a new idea!

July 2008 Blogtipping

2008-07-08T20:00:00.000-05:00

"Blogtipping" was created by Easton Ellsworth over at Business BlogWire to offer 3 complements & a tip or constructive comment to 3 fellow bloggers each month. With so much going on in analog world, Dede & I have barely had time to keep up with anything digital, so our Blogtipping for July is another assortment of unrelated, but still very cool blogs that we think you should take a peek at:

Let’s Explore by Amy Anderson offers lots of inventive & inexpensive activities, crafts, & even snacks for kids. Dede wanted to highlight this site because:

It features loads of things to keep kids hands & minds busy.
Amy proves that kids’s stuff can be both frugal and fun!
Great mini-reviews of children’s books.

Tip: Hey Amy, maybe you should add an "About" page so we can get to know a bit more about you?

The Simple Dollar from Trent Hamm offers "cents and sense" with simple ways to manage finances, save a little money, and improve your life. This is a recent find that quickly landed in my Google Reader list because:

Truckloads of practical finance & lifestyle tips.
The blog is frequently updated with fresh & interesting new content and has lots of helpful reader comments.
Clean & easy to navigate site design, plus email or RSS feed subscription.

Tip: The content is great, but I’d suggest adding a few more images to visually jazz up the posts.

I Do Things So You Don’t Have To is chocked full of all sorts of things, from kinda ordinary to adventurous to downright wacky, that JD is willing to let her readers experience vicariously through her. There’s plenty to like about this blog:

The author’s sharp wit makes even mundane "things" fun & interesting.
Who else would live with a rodent, go on a crazy diet, have a tooth pulled, watch a crummy movie, or live through an allergic reaction — and then blog about it?
You can subscribe to the RSS feed or have updates sent to you via email.

Tip: I can’t think of anything to add but I’m anxious to see what JD gets into next!

Now it’s your turn! Have a new blog you’d like to share? Post a comment!

Meet Me On the Veranda

2008-06-30T22:08:00.006-05:00

The combination of old shingles and some recent storms with very high winds led to many of Permian Basin area home with roofing problems. Although we couldn’t detect the damage, it seems that we were among those.

But it seems that the timing was fortunate — having just finished our master bath renovation about 3 weeks ago, our ever-reliable contractor Truett was available to tackle another project that Dede has wanted to do for several years. We decided that this would be a good time to cover our patio so the roofing work on that could be done at the same time as the new shingles are being installed on the rest of the house. Yup, so even while we’re still rebounding & cleaning up from the bathroom redo, we’ve launched into yet another large home improvement project.

Here’s a pre-construction shot of our back yard with the then-uncovered patio:

And here’s a peek at the first day’s progress:

It’s at odd times like these that my inner nerd kicks in and I start wondering about silly things like the term "patio." A little Googling revealed that patio is a Spanish word originating in the 1800s that typically refers to a courtyard or paved area adjoining a house. I also learned that, since we’re covering our patio, it’s now more appropriately considered a "veranda." While it sounds like a Spanish word — especially when I use my best Antonio Banderas voice — veranda is actually a term imported from India that refers to a gallery or porch with a roof supported by columns.

I like the sound of that. Veranda. Who knew we were so multicultural?

I’ll post more photos as this project progresses, but in the meantime, you can peruse our 2Dolphins Resort & Spa page for revealing looks at most of the other areas of our house & ongoing home improvement efforts.

Word Up!

2008-06-23T05:48:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Brian over at The Cheek of God, I discovered a nifty & free little web-based "toy" by Jonathan Feinberg called Wordle.

Wordle generates very snazzy "word clouds" — a visual depiction that gives greater weight or prominence to words that appear more frequently in the provided source text — and lets you tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, color schemes, & more. It may seem like just a fun time-waster at first blush, but I think you can glean a bit of useful insight with this tool; Since it prominantly highlights your most commonly-used words, you may discover some interesting vocabulary trends within your writings.

I plugged in a sampling of 2Dolphins posts from the past 2-3 months and here’s the result:

This reminds me of the Which Words Do You Own? study that I submitted our blog to last year. It’s interesting to see the difference in the word cloud from back then vs. this current one from Wordle.

Tuesdays Are Twos Days

2008-06-10T18:20:00.002-05:00

Several readers seemed to like the free software applets that I featured in my recent Twofer Tuesday Utility post, so here are two more handy utilities that just might make your day. This time, I’m highlighting a couple of great web-based graphics-editing applications that I’ve been using lately:

Picnik is a free web-based application that’ll help you create masterpieces from your digital photographs. After you complete the easy sign up, simply click upload photo from your local hard drive or open your photos from one of the several photo sharing sites that’re supported.

One of the most exciting & useful features of Picnik is that it allows you to crop an photo without distorting the original image proportions. Why’s that worth getting revved up about? Well, that means you can start with an image that’s 400 x 300 px, crop out the portions of the photo you don’t need, and still end up with a 400 x 300 px image. That’s perfect for projects where you need to keep image sizes consistent — like blog posts, for example. This feature isn’t even available in most retail graphics & photo editing packages!

Dumpr offers a small collection of (mostly) free web-based photo effects tools. While I can’t vouch for exactly how practical or useful these effects tools are, they’re addictive, fun, & easy-to-use applications that’ll let you do some really creative things with your digital photos.

My favorite of these is Museumr which lets you stick your own photo into an art gallery in a modern museum (See below!). Some of the photo effects available are a tool to insert your snapshot into a paparazzi-inspired scene, create a Rubik’s Cube, change a photo into a pencil sketch, make a jigsaw puzzles, wrap an image around and much more!

A Journey of Discovery, Revelation, & Trivia

2008-06-09T05:41:00.001-05:00

Legendary rock band Journey released a new 3-disc album this week aptly titled Revelation that contains a CD of 11 new songs, a CD with 11 re-recorded classics, and a DVD of Journey’s Las Vegas concert in March ’08.

The surprising revelation is that this release features the band’s new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, formerly of the band "The Zoo" from Manila, Philippines. And amazingly, the talented singer was discovered by Journey’s lead guitarist Neal Schon via a YouTube video! CBS aired the amazing story of the Arnel Pineda’s unconventional discovery on their Sunday Morning show last weekend.

What may be most amazing is just how much Pineda’s soaring tenor captures not only the sound of Journey’s most well-known frontman, Steve Perry, but also much of the same texture & character. Some say that Pineda lacks Perry’s fire on some of the re-recorded classics but they sound great to me and his vocals definitely shine on most of the 11 new tracks. Regardless, the similarity of the two singers is uncanny. I’d wager that most people won’t catch that the new songs are not sung by Steve Perry on the first few listens. What, not convinced? Compare the following classic hits as performed then vs. now:

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - 1982

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - 2008

Faithfully - 1983

Faithfully - 2008

After hearing those songs, what do ya think?

By the way, I was a huge fan throughout the ’80s and was well-versed on all things Journey, but there’s at least one lingering trivia question I can’t answer:

Their iconic logo first appeared on the Infinity album cover and has carried forward on every album in the 30 years since, but I’ve never heard whose idea it originally was. Anybody know where or who the scarab-like futuristic insect with bird-like wings logo came from?

Makeover Over

2008-06-07T23:10:00.002-05:00

Dede took the inaugural shower this week in our new master bath! The renovated bath feels much larger & brighter and we’re really happy with how well the mix of materials complement each other. Visit the updated Master Bath page for details & photos!

And feel free to roam around on our 2Dolphins Resort & Spa page for other revealing glimpses of our home.

Junetipping v2.0

2008-06-04T05:47:00.004-05:00

With most of the monthly Blogtipping posts I’ve done, there’s been a central topic or theme to tie together the 3 blogs I’m showcasing. (It seemed relevant for this past April’s post, for example, to focus on finances for the sake of April 15th a.k.a. "Tax Day.") However, June’s featured sites don’t really have a unifying theme; It’s just another grab-bag of assorted, but very worthwhile blogs I’d like to recognize & share:

Glassy Eyes by Ira Mitchell aims to pull the curtain back on the mystifying & monopolistic world of prescription eyeglasses to show you how you can get quality glasses for as little as $20! (Dede & I hadn’t discovered this blog before we gambled on buying glasses online for Liam, but given how well that worked out, I’m likely to try this for myself next time I’m ready for some new specs.)

Ira’s not just talking smack here — he really wears glasses that were purchased online — several pairs, in fact.
He arms you with all the info you need to confidently purchase eyewear online at a fraction of the prices of places like LensCrafters or EyeMasters!
The site is chocked full of research, forums, articles, customer stories, retailer links, & even discount codes!

Tip: I'd sure like to see the forums moved from Google Groups to a more capable platform like vBulletin or PHPBB.

[Geeks are Sexy] is a group blog from Canada that focuses on a wide variety of fun technology news. [GAS] is one of my regular reads because:

Offbeat science & tech news & commentary.
Frequently updated content means there’s always something fresh & interesting to read here.
The website is clean & easy to navigate, but you can also subscribe via email or RSS feed.

Tip: Hey Kiltak, maybe you could arrange for more cool freebies like tech vendor swag?

The Art of Manliness calls itself "a blog dedicated to uncovering the lost art of being a man." Sure enough, it’s an incredible resource for guys — and even has a few things that’ll appeal to gals as well. There’s lots to like here:

Tons of useful & practical tips & techniques.
Thought-provoking articles with loads of reader comments to keep the conversations going.
I like the classic feel that the old-school artwork & photos give the site’s excellent design.

Tip: I can’t think of anything to add — this blog is awesome!

Now it’s your turn! Have a new blog you’d like to share? Post a comment!

How Am I Unlike a Turnip?

2008-05-26T07:32:00.005-05:00

Well, for starters, you can get blood from me. In fact, I give the stuff away fairly often.

I’m a big proponent of donating blood. Giving blood is a simple & very charitable gesture; a single pint of blood given by a donor can help to save the lives of as many as three people. But Shelly Tucker over at This Eclectic Life reminded me of another great reason to give blood...

Before any blood is collected, you must first complete a brief medical history questionnaire. It’s also at this time that a mini-physical is performed, during which your blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and your hematocrit (the number of red cells in your blood) level are checked to ensure that you’re a eligible candidate. And of course, after your blood is drawn, it’s thoroughly screened for diseases. During these pre- and post-donation steps, sometimes conditions you were previously unaware of, like high blood pressure, for example, can turn up. In Shelly’s case, she was shocked to learn that her blood tested positive for Hepatitis C antibodies, though (thankfully!) negative for the virus itself. While this is certainly not news she would’ve wanted to hear, she now knows to alert her doctor to keep a close watch out for liver damage during future checkups.

Similarly — although much less seriously — I was alerted to an unknown problem when I went to give blood earlier this year. I was turned away because of a low red blood cell count that was revealed during the pre-donation mini-physical. I promptly made an appointment with Dr. Perlman for a follow-up on this and the initial bloodwork indicated internal bleeding. After a number of tests and visits with Dr. Perlman and my bariatric surgeon Dr. Davenport, I was able to breathe a deep sigh of relief — they determined that I’ve developed pernicious anemia, caused by serious vitamin B12 & iron deficiencies due to malabsorption. This type of anemia is readily treatable; I’ve been on corrective supplements for over 2 months now and have since been able to donate blood again.

Please note: Blood donation screening tests are not diagnostic and are no substitute for routine annual physicals! For your own sake as well as that of potential recipients, please don’t use blood donation for the purpose of screening! If you suspect that there’s a problem, please see your doctor first!

This isn’t necessarily easy for everyone, of course. Giving blood can cause queasiness & cold sweats and just the needle-stick alone is quite difficult for some people to tolerate. However, you can take comfort in knowing that giving blood not only helps others but may also benefit you as well. In fact, it stimulates the generation of red blood cells and there’s some evidence that suggests that giving blood may lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.

So, what’s your take on this? Do you donate blood?

Busted Again

2008-05-22T00:24:00.000-05:00

My, what a difference 2 years makes...

Sharp readers (and maybe even some not-so-sharp ones) will readily see what’s changed since Dede & I were first busted at the ballpark back in ’06.

Suffice to say, this year’s MCH Employee Night at the Citibank Ballpark was definitely unlike previous ones thanks to our own all-star, who April would be quick to point out is:

(Press the "Play" button above to hear a great sound clip
from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
or click here if the audio control doesn’t appear.)

Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap

2008-05-20T06:41:00.002-05:00

In 1981, the Cancer Council Australia launched their very successful Slip, Slop, Slap skin health campaign. Ads featured the program’s mascot, Sid the Seagull who encouraged people to "Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat" when going out in the sun to reduce the risks of skin cancer.

The slogan was later extended to Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap or "Slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen, slap on a hat, and wrap on some sunnies" to also promote the use of sunglasses. (Even though this very effective campaign has resulted in far fewer incidences, Australia still has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world.)

It might seem a bit early to be talking about summertime skin care here in the middle of May, but with the forecast already calling for triple-digit temps, it’s pretty appropriate. So as you gear up for outdoors activities, remember the "Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap" slogan to protect yourself!

Sadly, despite best intentions, many of us will still end up sunburned at least once during the Summer months. If you find yourself looking rather lobester-esqe, head over to WiseBread for some cheap & simple sunburn remedies that really work!

Master Bath Makeover

2008-05-14T05:14:00.000-05:00

Our much-needed but perpetually-delayed master bathroom renovation project is finally underway!

Our master bath’s step-in shower developed a slow leak into an exterior wall, so we’ve been planning on gutting the tiny bathroom and remedying the problem before it could cause any real structural damage. We’ve been working towards this for well over a year, saving our pennies, assembling materials, & finalizing design choices while our trusty contractor Truitt has been tied up on another job that kept expanding.

The layers of construction dust settling throughout the house and the mess are a challenge (to say the least!) but since this is a room that sees heavy use everyday, we’re excited to finally have the makeover in progress! We’ll update the Master Bath page soon, but in the meantime, here’s a teaser glimpse of the new glass block shower stall:

Be sure to check out our 2Dolphins Resort & Spa page for revealing looks at most of the other areas of our house and our ongoing home improvement efforts.

Welcome Siena!

2008-05-13T21:02:00.002-05:00

Congrats Clems & Sophie!

Twofer Tuesday

2008-05-13T05:55:00.002-05:00

Occasionally, I come across small utilities or other free software applets that’re worth passing on. It occurred to me that it’s been a long time since my last Two For Tuesday Utility post, so here are a couple of utilities that I’ve been using quite a lot lately:

Lyrics Plugin is a free applet that lets you easily view song lyrics in either Windows Media Player or WinAmp. Just play your favorite MP3s and their lyrics will be displayed automatically.

Notepad++ is a free & open source replacement for Windows’ Notepad. The program is highly customizable and offers a wealth of powerful features that make it especially great for use as a source code editor — like hacking out some HTML, for example.

Dolphins Bubble With Excitement

2008-05-06T06:59:00.001-05:00

By way of a link featured in Deb Shinder’s WXPNews, here’s an amazing video of bottlenose dolphins at Sea World Orlando creating & skillfully manipulating delicate vortexes of air (a.k.a. "bubble rings") underwater:

Dolphins Playing With Bubble Rings

Be sure to read Mystery of the Silver Rings by Don White, creator of Earthtrust’s Project Delphis, to learn much more about these incredible bubble rings.

Blogs May Be Tipping

2008-05-05T19:56:00.001-05:00

Blogtipping is a chance to give a nod to some noteworthy fellow bloggers — after all, everyone likes a little pat on the back, right? And you never know, this could be the tipping point for some lesser-known gem of a website to become an overnight sensation. May’s installation is a grab-bag of assorted blogs that don’t have anything else in common other than, well, we think they’re worth checking out:

Blue Skunk Blog is a recent discovery but I’ve been enjoying keeping up with Doug, both on the blog & via email. Doug Johnson, who is the Director of Media & Technology for the Mankato (MN) public school system, uses this as a sounding board for education- and technology-related topics among other things. What’s not to like:

Some great reading material about kids & technology.
Be sure to check out Doug’s free e-book.
Nice, clean site layout makes everything easy to find!

Tip: I’d like to see a page aggregating some of the reference material links that’re peppered throughout some of your posts — like the Alliance for Childhood’s Tech Tonic.

Simple Green World by Jeneflower is a brand new blog that Jen has spun off from her Three Sons and a Princess adoption blog. Dede & I like this one because:

Practical eco-friendly tips drawn from personal experiences.
Jen’s "Living Mindfully" attitude is inspiring & infectious!
Posts target the bigger picture — not just being greener, but also increasing the health of your family, decreasing expenses, reducing waste, & just being a better overall person.

Tip: I’d like to see a few more images & photos!

4 Reasons Why from brothers Mark & Sean Evans is a fun blog that I recently added to my Google Reader subscription list because:

Each post features a short list of 4 (sometimes 5) items to support an idea or argument.
I like the controversial angle that these guys take on topics.
Very clean site design makes it easy to navigate & discover lots of interesting stuff.

Tip: Guys, your "About Us" page could use just a little more info and maybe include a photo so we know what you look like?

Now it’s your turn! Post a comment to share one of your favorite blogs!

Shut Down For a Day on Shutdown Day

2008-04-30T06:57:00.001-05:00

Shut down, switch off, unplug, disconnect, go offline, go analog, jack out — No matter how you say it, sometimes it’s really a good thing to get away from technology for awhile.

Shutdown Day is a non-profit Canadian organization founded by Dennis Bystrov & Ashutosh Rajekar to help raise awareness of the increasingly excessive use of digital media (TV, computers, game consoles, cell phones, MP3 players, etc.) and how technology can interfere with real world social interaction.

The idea of this global experiment is simple — just turn off your PC on Saturday, May 3rd, for the entire day and involve yourself in some other activity: go outdoors, play sports, get together with friends & family — whatever, the point isn’t to reject our wired culture, but just to take a brief technology vacation and re-engage with the real world.

Maybe this also serves as a good opportunity to reflect & consider: Are we too wired? What do you think — can you survive for 24 hours without computers, email, & Internet? Are you willing to take a technology vacation for just one day? Do you think there’d be any benefit to doing so?

Note: (I first mentioned Int’l Shutdown Day quite a bit earlier last year. Dennis & Ashutosh explained that the annual event was shifted from its original March 24th date to May 3rd for the sake of warmer weather and a tree-planting event that’s to be held in Quebec.)

Paris Hilton Shall NOT Be In Attendance

2008-04-27T22:30:00.003-05:00

Baking For the Birthday Boy

Liam is turning the big "2" tomorrow so in preparation for the occasion, Dede got all domesticated today and baked not only a coupla dozen cupcakes for his daycare class, but also a big cake, complete with artful writing & sprinkles, for a little family gathering that we had today.

Yes, that’s right Brad D. & Glenda, we’re not total sticks in the mud — we do let Liam have sweets from time to time. And even though he’ll be turning 2 years old tomorrow, this’ll be the first time he’s ever had a birthday party, so this certainly qualifies as a sweets-worthy occasion!

Watch our Russian Adoption Journal blog for highlights & photos of the big event!

Have Birthdays Jumped the Shark?

And on the topic of birthdays, Dede & I have been noticing that there’s a definite trend towards increasingly extravagant children’s birthday parties. Renting a traveling petting zoo, reserving private time at a water park, a block party complete with a DJ spinning kids’ music... These soirees costing hundreds of dollars or more are arranged by ordinary, otherwise well-meaning, mere mortals like us or you — not whackadoo celebrities in LA-LA-Land for whom money is no object.

University of Minnesota social science professor William Doherty has founded an online campaign called Birthdays Without Pressure to shed a little light on the excesses that seem to have overtaken today’s birthday parties & offer resources to help combat the intense pressure that some parents say they’re under to ramp up for these behemoth birthday bashes for their kids. The website offers some great ideas for low-key, low-cost, low-stress birthdays that’re still fun for all involved.

Do you think childrens’ birthday parties are beginning to become excessive? Have you encountered a birthday bash that seemed over-the-top?

Are You Aware?

2008-04-25T06:48:00.002-05:00

You’ve no doubt seen the acronym "RSS" or the now-familiar little orange icon on some of your favorite websites, but do you know what it is? Do you know what RSS feeds can do for you?

As I mentioned in my Lose Weight With RSS article a few months ago, an RSS feed reader allows you subscribe to, organize, & easily keep up with websites that feature regularly-updated content. And you don’t have to remember all of those individual web address URLs.

Daniel Scocco over at DailyBlogTips has declared May 1st to be RSS Awareness Day in an attempt to help more people become familiar with RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed reading & its benefits. Head over to RSSDay.org to learn more!

By the way, Google Reader is still my reader of choice and one of the features that I really like about it is the ability to share favorite blog posts with others.

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T21:09:00.003-05:00

Liam got in on the Earth Day action in his spiffy new "Save My Planet" t-shirt.

By the way, can you guess what film & TV actor Eddie Albert has to do with Earth Day? Ben over at Environmental Graffiti notes that, due to the actor’s extraordinary work with environmental causes & groups, when International Earth Day was being organized in the early 70s, it was decided that the holiday must be held on April 22nd — Eddie Albert’s birthday. Puts a whole new spin on Green Acres, doesn’t it?

Earth Day Warm Fuzzies

2008-04-22T01:22:00.000-05:00

In honor of Earth Day, here’s a great commercial from the Discovery Channel. As if you didn’t already have enough reasons to love this network — what with great shows like Mythbusters, Cash Cab, Dirty Jobs, & Survivorman, just to name a few — this inspiring ad titled "The World Is Just Awesome" will even give manly men a few warm fuzzies. Boom de yada!

HEB Saves the World

2008-04-16T20:40:00.002-05:00

To encourage more people to switch to reusable products & recycle more, H-E-B Grocery stores in Texas are celebrating Earth Day (Tuesday, April 22nd) by giving out coupons for a free reusable shopping bag when you drop at least 5 plastic shopping bags into the recycling bins located at the front of their stores.

While I’m not 100% sure, these look to be H-E-B-branded versions of the 1 Bag at a Time reusable bags that Dede wrote about last year. They’re made of non-woven polypropylene from yogurt cups, syrup bottles, straws, medicine bottles, etc. — typically one of the least recyclable plastics. These shopping bags are sturdy, water resistant, allergy-free, & shaped like the paper sacks that used to be popular at grocery stores so they have a flat bottom to make ’em easy to fill & unload.

By the way, have you ever wondered about those little numbers with the arrows around them on the bottom of plastic containers? They’re called Plastic Packaging Resin Codes and they indicate the type of plastic that an item is made from. These codes are designed to help consumers know how to recycle various plastic products & packages.

So, mark your calendar to remember to drop by for a free bag next Tuesday, April 22nd so you can do your part to help H-E-B save the world!

ProBlogger Today, Rolling Stone Tomorrow?

2008-04-14T21:14:00.000-05:00

Hot on the heels of my first venture as a guest blogger over at NeonScent — well, hey, it only took 8 months — I’ve had another guest blog article published! This time, I’m deeply honored that highly-esteemed professional blogger & author Darren Rowse chose to post an article of mine on his renowned ProBlogger, one of the foremost sites for blogging techniques, advice, & skill-building.

So, pop over to ProBlogger to check out Geoblogging - How to Geotag Your Blog for a look at a relatively new way to place your blog or website on the map — literally!

Now that I’ve had another tiny taste of fame, it makes me wonder what’s next... maybe the cover of the Rolling Stone?