Dad (Brett)
All around rockstar geek. Brett enjoys his job as a Clinical Data Manager (helping research medical breakthroughs at Celgene); in his time off he enjoys reading books, watching movies, and learning new tricks on his camera and in Photoshop. He absolutely adores his wife and 2 daughters.
Mom (Erin)
Complete supermom. Erin loves her job as a Youth Field Researcher (aka 'mother'); in her plentiful spare time (ha!) she enjoys sleeping, re-reading Twilight or Harry Potter, and cuddling with Brett.
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Hybrid Angel/Devil. Aeriana loves her mommy and daddy, each of whom she loves to test at times and pretend innocence at others. A veritable sponge, Aeriana wants to do anything she sees an adult doing; she loves babies and especially adores her little sister, taking great care of her every need.
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
Growing fast, Zoe wants to be just like her big sister. Very goal oriented, she'll find a way to get that toy she's been looking at. She loves her pacifier and can't help but snuggle up to her blanket. Zoe is as relaxed as they come, she just loves chillin' out and watching TV.
It might only have been my youthful foolishness, but I used to think that the ratings you gave to movies actually meant something. Today I count myself slightly less naive and it is with sadness that I now consider your ratings system completely and utterly useless (it's been coming for a while - some of your PG-13 ratings were less than accurate, this just cemented things).
For future reference, I prefer my G-rated movies to be swear-word free. You see, I have two sweet daughters and they just don't need to hear those words. They don't hear it from their parents, they don't hear it in their music, and they don't need to hear it in any movies. Now I will never be able to look at a movie, see that it is G-rated, and trust that they can watch it.
Thanks for nothing you useless reptile organization, Brett
P.S. Your website needs to be updated, it currently states "No stronger words are present in G-rated motion pictures."
General Conference is this weekend and I'm really, really excited. Not only will this weekend be a spiritual feast, but things have been kicked off in a spectacular fashion.
The October Ensign (available electronically in text and audio as of today) is focused entirely on temples.
Also something I saw on the lds.org site today was a link to a new documentary, apparently posted on BYU.tv yesterday. The documentary is called 'That Promised Day' and covers the incredible work that was performed in the 70s to reformat the standard works; adding chapter headings, cross references, and everything else that someone like me, born after this was all complete, takes for granted.
I haven't watched the documentary yet (I'm at work), though the trailer alone is really interesting. It seems that it will be aired immediately after the Sunday morning session of conference, but thankfully the full documentary is also available to watch whenever you want on BYU.tv. Enjoy.
My brother asked me for a list of apps for the iPad that we would recommend; I was part way through the email when I realized that there were probably others who might be interested as well.
We tend to gravitate toward free apps, and for many of the apps listed below we actually have the "lite" or "free" versions because we like the app but not enough to pay money to do more with it (we also will sometimes use the iPhone version rather than the iPad version of an app if it's cheaper - app purchases can add up quick). There are also a number of paid apps that we were able to get for free during a special discount period (using the three websites below); finally some are apps which Erin or I thought worth the cost and purchased the full version (I've added an asterisk before the ones we actually paid money for). We do have plenty of other apps, but these are our "recommended" ones; we also really like some of the native apps - but I don't think you'll need any help finding those.
In your free time do you like to watch old physics lectures? You do? Hey, me too! Thankfully for you and me, Bill Gates decided to spend a few bucks to license some Richard Feynman lectures and make them available online.
Feynman is known for making science very interesting and easier to understand. Go ahead, click the link... prove your geekiness.
I'm particular. Really particular. I don't think it goes so far as OCD, but I like things to be organized and consistent. I've spent way too much time organizing our movie library (html code from scratch), our online book library (Librarything.com), our music library, and of course our image library (Flickr). Then of course there are our book shelves which have to be organized... because Harry Potter needs his own shelf, all the leatherbounds must be lined up tallest to shortest, and it would be downright blasphemous to mix the mass-market paperbacks with the hardcovers... um, really I swear it's not OCD (but if you put Stephenie Meyer next to Isaac Asimov I just might flip).
Anyway, when we first got our Mac Mini, I played around with iLife 08 but wasn't too impressed... my own personal system worked better for me. But when iLife 09 came out about a month ago, I knew things were going to change. The main reasons we upgraded were iMovie and iPhoto.
iMovie has been great, allowing quick and easy movies... I used it to make the announcement video in the previous post. I've used many different tools to make video clips/shorts before and iMovie 09 is definitely one of the simplest while turning out great quality (though it is limited and can't match the $300+ PC software I'm used to... also the prior version, iMovie 08, was a completely different story and a complete waste of time).
Even better than iMovie, iPhoto has been my favorite part of iLife. I used it to quickly and easily make this slide show for Aeriana's cousin's birthday.
It has the Places feature which allows me to map the location of where I took photos, and then plots them for me (also searchable based on location, etc.).
Then there's the Faces feature which auto-identifies people with some pretty impressive accuracy.
Finally there is the Flickr feature, which let's iPhoto sync with our Flickr account and vice versa. And here is where my 'particularness' comes in... you see, the Flickr feature is limited to only new uploads directly from iPhoto. With thousands of images already on Flickr unable to take advantage of the new organization/tagging features, what is a nearly-OCD guy to do? Well, delete the thousands of online pictures and re-upload all 8+ gigabytes of photos, of course. And so it's been almost non-stop (Erin would probably try to make me delete that 'almost') over the past couple of weeks that I've been sorting, organizing, naming, placing, tagging, deleting, and uploading pictures.
Finally, as of tonight, I'm done. Sort of. There's still some minor updates I'll be doing, but at this point everything is synced so I can go into iPhoto whenever I get a chance, make a change, and then see that change reflected on Flickr soon after. And one of the main benefits is that from now on, adding new pictures we take will be extremely easy; I've figured out the shortcuts and tricks and will be able to manage all future albums in much less time.
To me, the 'particular' one, all this up-front work is really worth while... now with literally three clicks of the mouse I can see every single picture of Aeriana we have. Or every picture of my parents. Or my sister Dacia's family. Add a couple more clicks and I can make a slide show of pictures of Erin and Aeriana together. Hey that's not a bad idea... maybe it will soften up Erin and get me out of the dog-house for being practically non-existent while working on my latest project.
Wow, that was easy. I love iLife!
**Update** It's Saturday morning now and Erin read the post and saw the slide show... everything backfired. I asked if I got bonus points for the slide show, she said "No, I know how easy it was." That was definitely an unintended consequence. So then I asked if the fact that our pictures were now so well organized gave me bonus points. Her response "Nope... pizza would!" Ah pregnancy cravings...
Movie ratings drive me bonkers... as Erin and I discuss movies and what is/will be appropriate for our children, we've got a hard and fast limit; no rated-R movies in our home, period. After that, things get a little hazy. The ratings system is just too vague.
How great of a movie is The Incredibles!?! It's PG because it's got some violence, but I personally wouldn't be concerned about a five or six year old watching it; on the other hand, have you ever seen Antz? Antz is also rated PG, but there are dozens of swear words in the movie. I certainly wouldn't want the same child who's just old enough to watch The Incredibles to also be watching Antz.
As for PG-13 movies, there are some that I would be fine with having an 11 or 12 year old watch with me, and then there are others that in my opinion deserved an R-rating and shouldn't be watched at all (while the kids are under my roof at least).
Having lived with this frustration for quite a while, and having discussed with Erin what we could possibly do, I think I may finally have an answer. I found a website today that is much more clear than the (lame) MPAA rating system, and certainly more specific. Please keep in mind that everything from here on is based solely on my brief review of the site as of finding it about an hour ago... by no means have I looked at every aspect of the site.
- The site has a solid list of movies with very specific age ratings (year by year). The Incredibles - deemed appropriate for kids 5+; Antz - deemed appropriate for kids 8+. And on top of the movie ratings, there are also ratings for TV Shows, books, websites, games, and music.
A search on J. K. Rowling books shows the following:
Books 1-3: Ages 9+ Books 4-5: Ages 10+ Book 6: Ages 11+ Book 7: Ages 12+ Tales of Beedle the Bard: Ages 10+ Fantastic Beasts/Quidditch Through the Ages: Ages 9+
I don't know if I'd put exactly those ages on each book (I haven't put quite that much thought into it), but that's pretty dang close and follows appropriately the increased intensity as the series progresses.
What about Twilight? Books 1-2 are a clear Age 13+, books 3-4 are an iffy Age 13+.
- The site also links in what it considers to be relevant news articles and includes advice for parents when dealing with kids and media. Each review also includes potential discussion points for parents and their kids based on messages the media seems to be sending.
- One of the other things I like about the site is that it's ultimately answerable to the public. The site has an investment in constant improvement, if they begin to let users down, users will go somewhere else. I believe that the monopolistic MPAA ratings system has outlived it's usefulness and it will be something like this site that will replace it.
- Each review has some detail, outlining language or violence or sexuality. I used to use Screenit.com for this, but the 'outlines' were just too descriptive. The outlines on this site are straightforward, but don't include enough detail to be offensive if you're looking at a questionable movie. In other words, I wouldn't have wanted my kids browsing Screenit.com, but I don't think I'd have a problem with them browsing this one.
- Finally, I think this site could potentially create excellent avenues of discussion between you and your child. If the child is coming to see you about each book they're reading and each movie they're seeing, you're much more in the loop, making it more likely that your kids won't accidentally see inappropriate material and more likely that if they do they'll be able to come talk to you about it. It may be tedious at times for them and for you, but to me it's a small price to pay to make sure I'm a solid component in my child's media consumption.
Cons for the site:
- The selection of reviews is relatively small. They've got all 4 Twilight books, but not Meyer's The Host (which by the way was also excellent). I'm sure you'll have more luck with more popular media while more obscure selections will probably prove less likely to be included (though hopefully that will become less and less of a problem as the site grows, and I noticed that you can request a specific review).
The media count based on my quick look today is as follows:
- Also, obviously each child develops at different speeds and each child can appropriately cope with different subjects at different ages. That being said, the age ratings for the media on the site will have to be adjusted based on the child in question. It would be really awesome if the site gave an option to auto-adjust ratings; say I wanted to be more strict with my kids, I could theoretically enter my desired adjustment, 'add 2 years to each rating', and thus see the new age appropriateness for that specific child... just an idea, not something I've seen on the site (though I emailed them, making the suggestion).
- Finally, I can't seem to find the criteria used to select ratings (seems like it's only available for registered educators, a complaint I included in my email); this is one of my big complaints for the MPAA; the MPAA has vague explanations available, but to me it's not nearly enough. Hopefully user demand will push the site to publish its criteria for assigning age ratings. It may be that the only thing holding them back is legal issues; maybe they don't want someone else stealing their ratings formula and then starting up a competing site? Maybe they can copyright their method? Not sure.
Overall, I'm glad that I've found the site. I've added it to my links on the left, and I hope that they continue to grow and improve so that I can start to rely on the ratings as Aeriana gets older. One final comment that probably goes without saying is that no ratings system will ever be able to replace an attentive parent. I would hope that no one would ever use this site as an end-all source of what's appropriate for their child. Nothing beats one-on-one discussions and attention for good parenting, but I'm all for getting a little help.
My daughter is an alien... at least that's the best explanation as to how she can be so "other-worldly" cute.
Okay, seriously though we just finished watching a movie called "Martian Child". Really, really, really, really good (really). I had never heard of it, but gave it a shot because it stars John Cusack, who's one of my favorite actors. Well, it surprised Erin and me quite a bit. It's the story about a guy who adopts a kid, and this kid thinks he's from Mars... I guess I'd classify it as a comedy because we laughed a lot, but it was also very thought provoking and dare I say, endearing. Anyway, check it out if you get a chance, it just recently came out on DVD (this week I think).
And while I'm at it, I might as well post a picture of my "other-worldly" cute baby girl.
Several years ago I thought it'd be fun to hook my brand new top-of-the-line PC up to my TV to watch movies and use the internet from the couch... in all honesty it was absolutely awful trying to read anything on screen because I had a normal TV with analog inputs, but movies (sort-of) worked.
Then a bit later, about 3 years ago now, in a moment of complete and utter genius (if I do say so myself) I splurged and bought an HDTV with digital inputs and a surround sound system. Using the computer from the couch became a wonderful experience and had me hooked from the get-go (not to mention how the setup impressed the ladies, I believe Erin's reaction was "Woah, that's sweet!"... and three months later we were married).
Unfortunately the computer that has been my playground/guinea pig for these experiments and modifications is standing on it's last... um... megabyte. After proving less and less reliable over the past few months and with blue screens of death abounding, Erin and I started contemplating replacement options.
I pushed pretty hard to get a Mac since I've heard such good things lately, Erin however grew up with them and had a bad after-taste from the earlier versions. But I think I'm getting her convinced after about a week of testing one out. We've got a Mac Mini hooked up to the TV and it looks great, we've got everything networked together, and thanks to the Mini's, um, miniature size and the wireless capabilities of Apple hardware, we're making the entertainment center much more aesthetically pleasing; the modem and router are hidden behind the bookshelf, the Mac is hanging out under the TV, and the gigantic eye-sore printer has been banished to the other room. The cherry on top is the ability to use Boot Camp to run Windows on the same machine for a couple of programs that don't run on a Mac.
This is (hopefully) the last part of a complete overhaul that we've done to the living room, mostly in preparation for Aeriana. It's really opened up the room and things look much more cozy. Below are some pictures of the new setup... anyone who's seen the place prior to our recent re-arrangements will probably be fairly astonished; everyone else, well the setup probably won't be exciting to you (but well, with counseling I think you'll come to forgive me for posting it).
From the front door...
Opposite view (you can see my other obsession... Erin's a saint for putting up with my inherent need to own books).
BIG TV, Tiny Computer, and tons of movies... :-)
P.S. Special thanks to the McBrides... Kyle's, Nikki's, and Karlene's postive experiences with Macs helped propel Erin into being willing to at least give Mac a shot.
Pretty good week I've had. Work was pretty intense, a lot going on, but it's kept me busy and it was a good amount of stress... just enough to keep work really exciting without being so stressful that it's not fun any more.
Today was a great way to end the week; Erin and I started the morning off by going to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We both loved it, though I think I enjoyed it a bit more than Erin; she just finished listening to the book on CD so all the inconsistencies were fresh in her mind (and of course no movie could ever match the level of entertainment that the books achieve). After that we went shopping to an outlet mall to buy Erin some maternity clothes... she's not thrilled that she's starting to show a little, but I think she's by far the cutest pregnant lady I've ever seen (not that I'm biased or anything).
Tomorrow we have church and dinner with some friends with whom it's been far too long since we've hung out. Hopefully it will be a good start to another good week.
If you haven't noticed by now, you soon will... Erin and I love movies. We don't really watch much TV, unless we're hooked on a specific show (currently Heroes, used to be addicted to Lost until it fell off in Season 3), we play a lot of board games, and sometimes we'll just chill and read books, but a lot of the time we watch movies. The past several days has been no exception.
Monday morning, since we were both off for the holiday, we caught a matinee of Spider-man 3, in preparation we watched Spider-man on Saturday night and Spider-man 2 on Sunday night... needless to say, we were excited to go see the latest installment. Later on Monday we watched Arthur and the Invisibles, a kids movie that just released on DVD, also one that we were excited about.
Utlimately Spider-man 3 had too much going on, a few things that didn't make sense, and a couple things that just down-right annoyed me; a really good movie, but certainly not on par with the first two. Arthur and the Invisibles was even more disappointing, the movie is partially live-action and partially computer animated. The animation was fantastic and the plot was good, if a little recycled; but much of what happened to the characters was just too cheesy, and the dialog was very, very weak (this coming from a huge fan of kids movies with notoriously weak dialog).
The "sleeper hit" for the week though was a movie we watched last night... we weren't too excited about this movie and only watched it because we had it around and hadn't seen it before. The title pegged it as a cheesy love story but Win a Date With Tad Hamilton ended up being really good. It didn't exactly earn "favorites-list" status, but we really enjoyed it. It was funny, pretty original (about as original as a love story can be), and had some great acting. Topher Grace did a great job and Kate Bosworth was adorable, and believably sweet/naive. The movie also pulled off something I don't remember seeing before; it had two complicated love triangles with an ending that made you happy, but involving all characters that were likeable and honorable. With the exception of two annoying side-characters, every single person in the movie made you like them.
Here's to hoping that Fantastic 4 II, Shrek the Third, Harry Potter 5, Bourne Ultimatum, Ocean's 13 and Transformers don't let their hype get my expectations up higher than they can deliver, cause I'm already pretty excited for them all.
Did I say Batman? Whoops, wrong super-hero... Did I say super-hero? Whoops, I meant just the normal kind... well sort of. Okay, let's straighten this out. I'm talking about the TV series "Heroes"; Erin and I watched the season finale last night (recorded, it aired on Monday).
Off-base as the last third of the subject line was, the first two thirds were right on. Holy Disappointment. For those who have never seen the show, I won't waste your time with details; for those who have seen the show but not the season finale, I won't ruin it for you. But I will warn you, it's a disappointment (hey, was that the third time I said "disappointment"? I hear saying things three times makes it more likely to stick, I certainly hope so.)
The best way to describe the entire season 1 of heroes is by calling it a roller-coaster; only that's not a good metaphore because it's like a roller-coaster that doesn't exist (confused yet?). Think about that first big lift at the beginning of all roller-coasters, you just keep going up and up and up (see, there's the 3x repeat thing again); and as you're going up you feel more and more anticipation. Okay, now pretend that occasionally that high lift section of the roller-coaster has sudden dips and curves, but followed by more lift and anticipation. Ultimately it would give you a building sense of excitement with generous helpings of "Oh my heck that was nuts!"
Well now imagine that you've experienced this building excitement and wow-factor for the better part of 22 episodes, and then right as you're getting to the top of the roller-coaster ascent and right as you're expecting the biggest rush of all... suddenly the coaster dips a mere 3 feet, the track plateau's, you (unbelievably) pull to a stop, and the operator is asking you to get out; the ride's over. Now you're getting the idea of what episode 23 felt like.
Don't get me wrong, I love the series. It's not perfect, but it's pretty dang close. It just felt like the normal (aka "really good") writers were already working on season 2, so the janetorial staff had to step in and piece together the season finale. Either way, I'll be looking forward to next season.
Now let's hope the summer's super-hero movies fare better...
We saw a couple of good movies this weekend... thought I'd share. I'll start with the least exciting, Disney's Cinderella III: A Twist In Time.
The idea is pretty cool (wicked step-mother steals the magic wand, reverses time, and undoes Cinderella's happy-ever-after), the animation was good, and Erin and I laughed quite a bit. The music was even catchy and well done, Disney is definitely getting the sequel-formula figured out better than it had ten years ago. I don't think I'd say this one was worth buying, but certainly worth a rent if you're into Disney movies.
Now onto the good stuff... one of the better movies I've seen in a while, and I watch a lot of movies. Bridge to Terabithia is based on the children's novel by the same name, also produced by Disney. It's PG, and in my opinion definitely warrants the rating as I'm guessing younger kids will get a bit scared at times. The acting was good, especially Leslie's part; the special effects were outstanding, and the plot line is fun. Above and beyond all that there was something I liked more than anything.
If you've seen Finding Neverland with Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet you might understand where I'm coming from. Finding Neverland (one of my top favorite movies of all time) is the story of J.M. Barrie's authorship of the famous book/play Peter Pan (which is incidentally, one of my favorite books). In the movie they use special effects to show the imaginations of the minds of J.M. Barrie and soon more people that he becomes close to. It creates a seamless blend of reality and fantasy that just screams "childhood imagination." Bridge to Terabithia achieves the same feat, making you wonder where the children's reality ends and where it begins.
Be forewarned, there are other similarities between the two movies (though they're in no way repetitive or tiresome in regards to the other). Both feature a young boy being taught to use his imagination; and both feature a great tragedy. Yep, it's a sad movie... Erin cried, then playfully smacked me in the arm in feigned anger for making her watch a sad movie. I didn't mind, it never hurts... and even if it had, Bridge to Terabithia was worth getting hit for. I highly recommend watching this when you're in the mood to laugh and let your imagination run free... oh, and have a couple of tissues handy.
Dad (Brett)
Mom (Erin)
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
Letter to the MPAA
Really Cool Stuff
It's Almost Time...
Raised by Wolves... or Elephants?
