my daily chirp

Something exciting happened at Busch Gardens this past Friday. The Noodle measured up to forty-two inches! Why is this so exciting? Am I just being a proud daddy?!? Well, this one little growth spurt opens up a whole new set of rides, from roller coasters to some high flying swings, for the kiddo. Too bad I couldn't convince her to ride a roller coaster. At age three, Neve riding the Big Bad Wolf would have been awesome! But, I did manager to get her on the Der Wirbelwind without a problem.

Labels: amusement park, busch gardens, der wirbelwind, neve, rides, video

Purple, Green, Blue Hair Wrap
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

Oh No! The Noodle actually didn't get her face painted! Is she sick? Doesn't she know that she always gets her face painted whenever we go to Busch Gardens? I guess Neve has finally realized that variety is the spice of life. Actually, the kiddo told me Friday morning that she didn't want to get her face painted because if her face got wet, the face paint would run down into her eyes. So she settled on getting her hair wrapped in purple, green, and blue string with the same color beads at the bottom holding the wrap together. The Noodle is a practical little girl.

Labels: amusement park, busch gardens, hair wrap, neve, photo

Wow, for the past couple of days I have been a total slacker when it comes to writing a blog post. Honestly, the slackerism hasn't been isolated to blogging. For the past couple of days, it's permeated my life from not working yesterday and today to simply doing the laundry. But wait! What is slackerism? Slackerism is a time honored tradition of doing as little as possible and relaxing to get by, and sometimes even less than that. Only by carefully releasing all of one's preoccupation with effort can true "slackerism" be achieved.

Labels: humor, slacker

Over the past few years, I've read many articles that advocated labeling excessive use of certain technologies as "addictions." So, it shouldn't come as any surprise to see the American Journal of Psychiatry publish an article in March calling for Internet addiction to become officially classified as an addiction in the next version of Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (basically the official rule book for such things). Nevermind that research has shown little evidence that the Internet is really addictive. But I digress...what I find extremely interesting is the article says one sign of such a disorder would be excessive email and text messages. I guess too much communication between people is a mental illness. Ridiculous.

Labels: rant, thoughts

I think most of the time, most meetings should be held without chairs. People standing up think more quickly and get distracted less often. And the meetings don't last as long. This one tip alone would probably eliminate the eight hour meetings I've been attending weekly for about a month now.

Labels: rant, thoughts

You know it's time to get a new cell phone when the keypad doesn't work anymore and the internal speaker is starting to flake out. Needless to say, my Motorola RAZR had seen better days. So, I finally broke down and get a new phone.

Most people who know me would say I have a gadget fetish and that is the sole reason I bought this phone. Honestly? My "New Every Two" kicked in and with it a $100 rebate. So, I wind up paying fifty bucks for a phone that provides me 1) a QWERTY keyboard for typing emails and text messages 2) stereo speakers to play my mp3s 3) browses the web (as limited as it is) 4) lets me makes phone calls and 5) it still fits in my front pocket.

Labels: cell phone, enV2, gadget, lg vx9100

The Cat Mask
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

During last year's weekly run to Busch Gardens, Neve's face painting preference was flowers. At this beginning of this year's Busch Gardens weekend ritual, it seemed that the "Unicorn Mask" was going to be the Noodle's face painting style for the foreseeable summer. You see...the Noodle is a creature of habit. Once she has decided on something that she likes, she usually sticks with it. So when Neve asked for the "Cat Mask" today at Busch Gardens, I was really surprised the Noodle wanted some variety.

Labels: amusement park, busch gardens, face painting, neve, photo, photostream

These are the Days (Van Morrison)

Labels: mp3, song, van morrison

Bubble Colors that Swirl and Shimmer
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

When I look at this photo, I see a transparent plume of green, white, and purple neon strings. What you are actually seeing is a bubble being blown from Neve's bubble machine. So, what is so fascinating about bubbles? The usually precise spherical shape, the incredibly fragile nature of the microscopically thin soap film, the beautiful colors that swirl and shimmer, or most likely, a combination of all these phenomena?

Labels: bubbles, photo

Someone said something to me that struck me as very interesting.

You are a good photographer. I love taking pictures too, but I wouldn't even call myself an amateur. That's why I say pictures and not photographs.

So why is this statement so interesting to me? Because before this one statement, I never thought to ask, What is a photographer? I always defined a photographer as someone who took really standout pictures. But after hearing, for the first time, a distinction between pictures and photographs as it relates to a person's abilities to take a picture (photograph), I truly began to reevaluate my definition.

From this one statement, I could see a photographer is not a person who can take standout pictures. A true photographer is a person who can show true meaning in the most common things around them. Who can show you their feelings towards the person, thing, item, event, etc. that they are photographing. A true photographer would rather see the expressions on the faces of the people who are looking at their pictures. Consequently, a photographer is someone who has the passion of wanting to show others what they see in the world around them.

So if you take pictures and want them to be photographs...upload them somewhere, put them out in your home, carry them in your wallet and share them with coworkers and friends. Share them and let the people around you see what you see. Be a photographer.

Labels: photography, thoughts

On Friday, the Noodle bought a Doodle Pad at Target. Actually, she was torn between buying a Max and Ruby DVD or a Doodle Pad. Neve finally decided on the Doodle Pad and promptly asked to draw on it. The resulting picture actually resembled something.

Doodle Pad Dinosaur
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

Usually if Neve says she is going to draw something specific, in most cases, you have to use your imagination to see it in her finished drawings. Not this time...this time, the kiddo set out to draw a dinosaur and I can actually see it without stretching my imagination. Granted her dinosaur doodle looks like Barney the Purple Dinosaur, but it looks like a dinosaur nonetheless.

Labels: doodle, drawing, neve, photo

Hot Pink Bloom
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

Last year around the beginning of summer, Stephanie and I bought a rose bush and planted it in one of the mulch beds in front of my house. It's gone through a summer, fall, winter, and this spring without so much as a glance from me. I was under the impression the bush would bloom only white roses. Thinking back to when I bought the rose bush, I distinctly remember the descriptive tag attached to the rose bush talk about white blooms. So when I got home today and walked to the front of the house, I was so surprised to see among the white blooms a hot pink rose bloom. How did this happen? I haven't a clue, but it's definitely an interesting contrast to the dominating white roses.

Labels: flowers, nature, photo, photostream, rose

English Ivy
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

I took this photo of English Ivy (Hedera Helix) climbing up a white oak in my backyard. What amazes me so much is at first glance the leaves on this evergreen vine seem so smooth. But upon closer inspection, you can see that the leaves themselves are riddled with pock marks and are not that smooth. It looks like some bugs have been having eating well or it could possibly be some kind of fungus. By the way, the light areas are not caused by my camera flash, but by the sun reflecting off the waxy surface of the leaves themselves.

Labels: ivy, leaf, nature, photo

It isn't often that I get a song request. In fact, I have never had one. So when someone tells me that I need to listen to a song, I better hop to. I hope everyone enjoys Here by Rascal Flatts.

Labels: mp3, rascal flatts, song

Amazon Simple Storage Service or S3, as it is more popularly known, is an extremely cost effective way to store and manage your data. Your data could be anything, from simple normal every day work related files to your hosting or database backups.

Why am I sharing this simple description of Amazon's S3 service? Over the past three days I've been moving my own files to my bucket on Amazon's S3 service. These files include the JavaScript used in my blog, the flash music player I embed on some of my posts as well as the mp3s that are being played, and files that I make downloadable via a hyperlink. I won't go into the technical details, but I also set up sub-domains that point to my various buckets on Amazon's S3. 

Needless to say, I've been Über geek the last couple of weeks updating the "under the hood" items found throughout my blog. Hopefully, in the long run, all these changes will keep my site running smoothly.

Labels: amazon, hosting, website

On February 17th, 2007 at approximately 7:40 PM Jason was working his coffee house mojo for friends and family. Who knew JGill was the second coming of Bono?!? If you need proof, I've brought out an old coffee house video of Jason's cover of Until the End the World.

For your listening pleasure, I've also included the original version of U2's Until the End of the World.

Labels: coffee house, jason gillikin, mp3, song, u2, video

Blue Swirly Vortexes
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

Does the photo really look like water? Perhaps an abstract expressionism painting done with pastels? What I see is many little swirly vortexes of blue. In reality, the photo I took yesterday is actually water bubbling up from a water spout in the Land of the Dragons play area at Busch Gardens. The various shades of blue is from the rubber matting the water is flowing over.

Labels: blue, photo, swirls, water

The Unicorn Mask
Photo taken by mcdonoughab

So begins the weekend ritual of amusement park fun. Typically, Neve and I spend our days either at Water Country or Busch Gardens when the warmer months are upon us. So it should come to no surprise to anyone that the Noodle and I decided to head out to Busch Gardens today for some fun in the sun. And like every other time we go to Busch Gardens, Neve wants to get her face painted. This time she decided on a unicorn mask.

Labels: amusement park, busch gardens, face painting, neve, photo

Swing Time Fun

Photo taken by mcdonoughab

The weather has been consistently warm and sunny. In other words, gorgeous! So, what do you do when the weather is 80 degree and sunny? You and the Noodle head out to Kidsburg for some swing time fun! The picture and video says it all.

Labels: neve, photo, playground, swing, video