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.
Aeriana knows she's supposed to stay in bed until the clock says 8:00; she's pretty good about it and when she wakes up earlier than that she usually talks to herself or sings quietly (sometimes not so quietly). This morning while getting ready for work I was able to hear her beautiful voice singing I Am A Child of God, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, and the following inspired twist on a classic.
One little monkey jumping on the bed, he fell off and bonked his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, Hello!
Two little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bonked his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, Hello!
Three little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bonked his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, Hello!
.... ....
Nine little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bonked his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, Hello!
Ten little monkeys jumping on the bed, Momma said "No more!"
Aeriana knows well that mommy is in charge of when the monkeys should stop, not the doctor...
On another fun note, Aeriana played dress up for a little bit this weekend.
Courtesy of Aeriana's lovely voice and her best friend, Rebekah's willing support:
"Come on 'Bekah, let's follow the prophet!"
(Singing and marching...)
"Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don't go awaaayyy! Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don't go awaaayyy!"
We won't be posting for a couple weeks so here's a little something to tide you over - as if you weren't used to long delays between posts or anything. We hope you enjoy this Julliard-quality exclusive performance of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam.
(We were in the car one day and Aeriana was just singing her little heart out, I'm glad we had the presence of mind to record it because I can't help but smile while listening to it. Aeriana just loves to sing. All the time. Loudly.) ;-)
At least, in our home the Christmas bells are ringing. We love Christmas; Halloween is fun, Thanksgiving is great, but nothing compares to Christmas. The first to come is always the Christmas music, I started listening to Christmas music about 2 weeks ago; next we'll start to decorate our apartment sometime next weekend. Why wait longer than we have to, we LOVE Christmas!
To share in the Christmas joy, I thought it would be fun to post a daily Christmas song on this blog. To the right, you'll notice a small addition where my hand-picked Christmas favorites can be heard. What you will also notice is that there is not just one song, there are two. I had too much trouble narrowing my picks down to 61 songs (one a day from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31), so instead I decided to have two new songs every day. It was still difficult, but I managed to narrow it down to 122 of my absolute favorite Christmas songs.
I really hope you enjoy the music and the season.
P.S. Part of what made this possible was my discovery if an amazing site called Grooveshark; it's a radio station type site, but better... you can create a free profile and then save playlists that you like and add favorite songs to your "Library" to listen to any time. It's not a perfect site, I've seen some hiccups, but it's still a lot of fun and I definitely recommend you check it out.
I've forayed into video tutorials in response to a special request. Check it out on my Back In Focus blog, and then let me know what you think and if you'd like to see more.
Uncultured Swine (no flu though, thank you very much)
One of the things I love about living in New Jersey is the traffic... or is it the taxes... or maybe Newark. Wait, none of that sounds right. Oh yeah, what I really love is the culture. I've never been anywhere else that had as much cultural diversity in my entire life. It's incredible. We've got just about every cultural influence ranging from different ethnic groups to vastly different economic extremes. You want to see crack dealers, stop by Trenton (or the aforementioned gem of the Garden State, Newark). You want to see hoitie-toitie opera goers, swing by the Metropolitan Opera for a show. Oddly enough, either visit will cost you about the same amount... namely, everything you've got in your wallet.
Except during the summer; that's when checking out the opera or the New York Philharmonic can actually be cheaper than getting mugged after stopping by the ATM (you stopped by the ATM in Trenton??? are you insane???). During the summer, if you time things right, checking out these high-culture events is so cheap they're, well, free.
I always hope to make it to a few performances, taking the opportunity to enjoy an evening of great music while relaxing in a beautiful grass-filled park. I don't always succeed, life sometimes just gets in the way, but hopefully this summer will prove one of cultural growth for me.
If you're in the area and are interested in checking out the events for yourself, take a look at the following web sites (and search Google for lost more, this is just the stuff I'm interested in).
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...
We just celebrated Aeriana's first birthday and realized that we've got a bunch of great video of her first year that we haven't shared. Over the next couple of weeks we're going to try to post several of them. To start is this great clip... Aeriana has always loved peek-a-boo (the first part), but as she's gotten older she's learned to love music more and more. All the time we'll find her playing music on her toys and swaying or dancing to the beat; the second part of this clip is one of the few times we were able to catch it on video. It's not the greatest, sometimes she'll be getting her boogy on way more than this, but it's a good example of her getting lost in the music... it's towards the end, but worth the wait.
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.
There's just something special about the Christmas season as well as the music that comes with it. Whether the songs are about Christ, Santa, snowflakes, or cuddling up by the fire, Christmas songs are just so much fun. With the extreme excitement of Christmas in the air (our decorations have been up for about 3 weeks now), I took the time to create what is officially* the greatest Christmas music playlist in history. The playlist includes everything from Elvis to Sinatra to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to The Carpenters to Martina McBride to Josh Groban and so many, many more. In all, it's over 9 hours of Christmas goodness!!!
I've mentioned the free computer program SimplifyMedia before; if you haven't tried it out, now is the perfect time. Sign up, connect with up to 30 friends/family (i.e. me + 29 others), and listen to other people's music. If you link up with our account I'm sure you'll enjoy our 'Favorites - Christmas' playlist, and of course I'm always looking to hear some new great music. I can't think of better music to share than Christmas music!
If you have any questions about SimplifyMedia, let me know. It's simple, unobtrusive, and so cool. I use the program every day to listen to my music from home while I'm at work... it's been especially difficult today to not break out in "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" in my cubicle. (If you do sign up, our username is 'yrthegood1staken'.)
*Official poll results. Poll conducted by me, taking a random sampling of me, with pretend questions designed, asked, and answered by me. Zero percent margin of error.
Jay Greenberg is a 15 year old kid, but don't call him a normal teenager. Jay is a musical child prodigy. Currently studying at Juilliard, Jay started playing the oboe at age two, has now composed over 100 works, and had written five symphonies by the age of twelve. When talking about music, Jay says that he constantly hears music in his head and it's all he can do to get it written out fast enough, his gift is truly inspirational.
I can relate, though from a slightly different perspective. That's right, I'm a mathematical genius. True there are a few differences between my and Jay's prodiginosity (technically the term is "prodigiousness", but one of my other talents is making up words that sound like they could be real); his gift is artistic while mine is scientific, his gift is practically constant while mine is relatively fleeting, and his gift is extremely impressive while mine is... well, completely fabricated. But all differences aside, I think Jay and I are kindred spirits.
I came to this realization yesterday while Erin and I were driving to church. Aeriana is not a big fan of car rides and will stop crying only under the perfect circumstances. If we're driving at a decent speed, if there are sufficient bumps in the road to give her a soothing massage, and if we are listening to piano music (especially Jon Schmidt) then she's happy. But if the music stops, if we listen to something besides piano music, or if the car slows down she will let us know in varying degrees how unhappy she is at the change. Erin and I were laughing pretty hard yesterday because she'd be quiet and happy until we hit a red light, then the wailing began; as soon as we started driving again she'd calm right down; it was like there was a switch turning her cries on and off.
My prodigious mathematical inspiration struck me at one particular point in the drive, Aeriana had been up and down in her mood but right then we came to a red light at the exact same time a song on the CD was ending, so the car was stationary and completely silent. But not for long. Aeriana's wails almost instantly became louder than they'd been at any time during the rest of the car ride. I realized that there must be a mathematical equation that could explain the volume of her cries based on the environmental variabilities. And so I present to you the fruits of my utter genius.
The Deaf Man's Theorum
(V * 10 – (B * 2) + M) = dB
Where V relates to the velocity of the car:
- If velocity is 0-10 mph then V = 2 - If velocity is 10-50 mph then V = 1 - If velocity is > 50 mph then V = 0
Where B is the number of discernible bumps in the road per quarter-minute ranging from 0-15; bumps per period shown as "bpp"
Where M relates to the type of music playing:
- If music is off then M = 110 - If music is rock/pop then M = 70 - If music is instrumental/classical then M = 50 - If music is piano solo then M = 35
Where dB is the decibel level of Aeriana’s cries on the way to church
Decibel Level Reference:
0 dB = a mosquito ten feet away 5 dB = Aeriana at 60 mph, 15 bpp, listening to piano music 13 dB = the hum of a light bulb 40 dB = whispering 60 dB = normal conversation 72 dB = Aeriana at 30 mph, 4 bpp, listening to rock music 85 dB = beginning of hearing damage 128 dB = human head hair can begin feeling sound vibrations 130 dB = Aeriana at 0 mph, 0 bpp, with music off 133 dB = gunshot at ear level 149 dB = human lungs and breathing begin vibrating with the sound 165 dB = jet airplane 190 dB = human ear drum ruptures 202 dB = human death
Okay, so it may not be THE coolest music program ever, but it's pretty close. It's a program called Simplify Media, found at simplifymedia.com. I've always been a bit frustrated with my music collection on the computer, I've always tried to keep my collection on the main computer, but there's my laptop I want music on for when I travel and my work computer for, well, work. Transfering songs from one to the other constantly is annoying and there's really only so much space on my laptop, so I never really have full access to every song unless I'm sitting right in front of the main computer (not to mention the hastle of trying to maintain multiple libraries).
Well, not any more. I found this program, installed it on each of my computers (it's safe, small, and unintrusive, and it works on both pcs and macs), and now I can stream my entire mp3 library over the internet. Where I used to have about 30 songs on my work computer, I now have access to my entire music library. It's all extremely easy and plays right through iTunes, so there's really not anything new to learn.
The other really cool thing is that you can link to up to 30 friends' libraries just as easily. If you're interested in listening to your music from different computers, check it out.
Guitar Hero III is, in my humble opinion, the greatest game ever made. I was addicted almost as soon as I touched my first wii-guitar. At the time, Erin was violently pregnant, and though she tried the game, her belly proved too large an obstacle to overcome in order to actually correctly hold the guitar, and so it was impossible for her to enjoy the game.
Luckily in the past couple of weeks Erin has picked up the guitar and has since become addicted herself, though she still hasn't played nearly as much as I have. Last night we recorded each of us playing, and thought some of you might enjoy seeing the videos (granted, I figure the vast majority of you simply won't care, if you haven't played you might not understand the awesomeness that is Guitar Hero).
Here is the video where Erin plays The Metal on Easy, she got 5 stars, and considering she'd only played the song a few times before, it's obvious she's quite the natural.
Then, here is a video of me playing The Metal on Expert... I can only get about half-way through the song before the complicated note sequences get me booted off stage, but it's a fun first-half. (FYI - the first 60 seconds of this are Erin figuring out the video camera and me feeling awkward on camera... so feel free to skip that part).
Finally, here is a video of me playing Knights of Cydonia on Hard. This song is super intense and my arm gets tired half-way through, but luckily I'm able to finish the song. This one is pretty long so you might not want to try to watch the full 6+ minutes.
About a week ago my friend Sariah posted a blog about free hugs... me, being the distractable type and all that, just barely saw it today. I love the idea and wanted to share the same video she did. Watching this also reminded me of a Dave Matthews Band music video from several years ago, quite possibly my favorite music video. Check them both out... and hey, if you're too shy to hug a stranger, at least smile for them, it's just as contagious. :-)
Dave Matthews Band - Everyday (great lyrics)
Free Hugs Video - Starring real-life free-hug-giver-dude Juan Mann - Music by Sick Puppies
If you've never listened to or read The Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean, I highly recommend it. Those who have may recall the story/song of the angel who wanted to sing with the angelic hosts at the glorious birth of the Savior. The angel shows up for try-outs, sings his best, and knows instantly that his lack of vocal talent relegates him to spectator-status rather than participant in the heavenly celebration. In protest he surges forward, wanting with all of his heart to sing at the birth of his Lord, and as he does so breath-taking music fills the room; we find that this angel is the pre-earth Handel, who's vocal talents are limited, but whose testimony of the divinity of Jesus has now filled the earth with some of the most beautifully composed music in the entire history of the world.
It's a wonderful story but why, you ask, am I thinking about The Forgotten Carols... an obviously Christmas-holiday anchored production... in the middle of May? The answer stems in the wonderful Stake Conference that Erin and I attended this weekend.
Sunday's session was fantastic as we witnessed a North-East-wide broadcast from Salt Lake City and listened to several church leaders including Elder Eyring and President Monson. I also had the privilege to attend a Stake Priesthood Leadership Meeting on Saturday afternoon that proved enlightening and, at times, amusing. The Forgotten Carols, however eased their way into my thoughts at a different meeting; the Saturday night adult session of the Stake Conference.
Several local leaders and congregants gave wonderful talks, and half-way through we were treated to a musical number sung by the choir of one of the local branches. I don't remember which hymn they sang, I listened to or sang dozens of hymns this weekend, but the people made a stronger impression. Being from a branch, the choir member count was extremely low (maybe 10 people were singing) and as is often the case with smaller choirs, the voices proved slightly less than professionally trained.
There was one voice in particular that stuck out... not because it was any better than the others, but solely because it was considerably louder than the others. In all honesty it was hard to miss the voice, it was rather shrill and harsh; it was also easy to pinpoint the owner of the voice. An unassuming, elderly lady proved either unaware of the harshness of her voice, or proved that she just didn't care. Whatever the case, it was tempting to snicker, though my own voice would hardly earn me a spot in a Messianically-proclaiming choir. And this is where The Forgotten Carols came to mind.
Despite her shrill voice, or maybe oblivious to it, this sweet woman was singing with all of her heart. To our temporal ears it may have sounded un-trained, or age-strained, but the look on her face told that the song of her heart was far more angelic than we could possibly perceive. She, like the fictionally-presented pre-earth Handel, was singing a hymn, she was singing praises to her Lord, her God, and His holy work on this earth. It made me realize, and I hope I can remember this feeling, that it does not matter whether the notes of a song are out of our optimal range, whether our particular parts are unfamiliar, or whatever reason we may find for holding back our musical prayers; our Father in Heaven doesn't hear with temporal ears the reverberations from our vocal cords, instead He hears the strength, willingness, and love of our hearts. May we unabashedly sing our praises with that knowledge so that our Lord, and those around us, may know the true feelings of our heart.
P.S. Elder Jensen gave a great talk entitled The Nourishing Power of Hymns in April's Saturday Morning session of General Conference.
Dad (Brett)
Mom (Erin)
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
My Morning Soundtrack 2
Christmas Bells Are Ringing
Uncultured Swine (no flu though, thank you very much)
Video Update Part 1