Kids' Birthday Party Guidelines

I've been to a few in my day. Some are great, some suck. Here are some tips to make sure yours is good for young and old:

1. Offer Food right away
I didn't have time to eat lunch to make it to your party called for noon. Feed me, damn it. Then, maybe I'll be able to calm my kid (and myself) down.

2. Booze.. now.
This may be a personal preference, but I think it is appropriate for kids' parties. It's still a party with adults present. I will be much happier to make small talk with the other guys who are just as unhappy to be there as me if I have a beer in hand.

3. Communal activity first, then groups, then free play.
Kids don't always mingle easy first. Make them sit next to each other at least. Coloring, art & crafts, something where they do it independently but at the same time. Then, they'll be warmed up to play as a group. Musical chairs, freeze dancing, that sort of thing. After that, let them go crazy and form their own groups. They'll be able to meet kids thee genuinely like and start friendships.

4. Paper plate and plastic cups
Don't give me a slice of pizza on a ceramic plate. You won't get it back.

5. Balloons for all
They love these things. I don't know why. Same goes for stickers. Have enough for every kids x2. In every color.

6. Music in background
At the least, it will not make a silent room feel so awkward. At best, it will drown out the inevitable tantrum that some kid will have when there aren't enough balloons.

7. Leave an area for adults to sit and talk.
If the Moms & Dads have fun, the party will be more fun for everyone.

8. Let there be light, not dark
Kids don't like the dark, so make sure it's in a room with a lot of like. The back room of a local bar that resembles a cave will not work.

9. Know your audience.
Do not have a party on a Sunday during football season. Don't have it on Halloween night. Don't make me miss something I would rather be doing.

Those are my tips. I hope the party I go to tomorrow follows these guidelines. But of course, it's on a Sunday. See rule 9.

Ancient Technology & Legos

This... is... awesome.

The Antikythera Mechanism in Lego from Small Mammal on Vimeo.

Full article here.

Technology Hits the Family

We got a new stroller and new iPhones. Here is my trying both out for the first time. I had a little more trouble with the iPhone's video than the stroller. This ineptitude stuck me as being a quintessential "Dad" moment.

I Shouldn't Post This, But Brian Said To

Harley was complaining that her new iPhone isn't working.

"I can't hear anything. I've raised the volume, but i can't hear you. Everything sounds muffled. It must be broken."

"Have you taken off the plastic film off the face panel?"

"No. **pause** Oh wow, it works! Great, talk to you later! Can we keep this just between us?"

Cool Space Movies

What better way to burn off a massive pastrami lunch than unproductive searches on YouTube?

Size Comparisons


The Universe is a Big Place


An Asteroid Hitting the Earth
(Harley should not watch this before going to bed)

Strange Brands

These are awesome.

Here's a taste of what you'll see...

Hi Again

It's been a while. It may be a while longer. I'm trying to pare back on my responsibilities, to focus more intently on fewer things. My new job is a big one, my kids, my marriage, Deadliest Catch... all of these things need to be the priority.

I may take off the summer. Probably. If you want to sign the petition to keep this blog active, please visit www.gullible.com/giveandrewmoney.

The Kids 10.15.10

THE STORY BEHIND THIS VIDEO

World, plase meet Grad. Grad the dancing penguin was a gift from Ma, best MIL ever, as a congratulations gift for finishing my NYU master's program. Ma knew purchased me this as a token, which is grealty appreciated. Surprisingly, this little penguin kind of sums up how I am feeling about the whole thing.

Seriously, I am happy, and I know it! I feel like clapping my hands and shouting hooray. I can take my time at night. I don't have an albatross around my neck. I don't have to save my energy with the the kids to keep writing. No editing, sourcings, bibliographies, referencing checking, none of it.

I went for sushi and got the most expensive roll AND hot sake.

I had a beer when I got home after work. So what if I get tired? I don't have to work!

I watched Lost the same night it aired.

I didn't have Jack crying at the door because I won't play with him.

I didn't bring my computer home from work.

I felt like I had just returned from the war and was given a second chance. I can't believe it's over!

I sort of miss it. At graduation I noticed that Steinhardt had a nutrition/food science program. I looked into, one of the core courses is on Agriculture. It sounded awesome. And oh look, it's only 32 credits. So that would take me 2 classes, no 3 classes a year and...

NOOOOO!!! No no no no. Oh no you don't! No more. I can read any book I want, watch any movie. There is no subject off limits. I just cannot/will not put myself under the emotional and financial pressures of an organized academic institution. (Maybe I'll go for a PhD when I retired. Seriously.) For now and a long time after, it's the college of life (the cheesiest line of my blogging career to date, yet oddly true).

This little penguin really sums it up. I got my whole life ahead of me. I'll likely never lose the drive to read and learn new things. But now my time is my own. I just taped 3 hour long shows about space, so that may keep me busy. I'm dying to get back into the guitar, which will happen. And I may think about reading some fiction (probably not).

What this video most represents is that I now have the time to watch the little moments like this with the kids. Before, I'd be in the bedroom working while these gems take place. Now, I can be there without the worry of my school work (on top of my job). That's the biggest relief.

Why Diet is Dangerous

Today at Francesca's (and Ian's) birthday party at the Palace skating rink, Mom told me I should be drinking diet soda. I said diet and all its chemicals are bad for you. Mom patted my stomach. Thanks, Mom.

Shockingly, Fooducate.com had a posting about the problems with diet soda:

1. Our body gets confused by artificial sweeteners
The dissociation between sweet taste and calorie intake may put the regulatory system that controls hunger and body weight out of sync, thus sabotaging weight loss plans. A study on rodents showed that those fed saccharin actually gained weight compared to rodents fed sucrose.

2. We’re “Infantilizing” our taste sense
Artificial sweeteners are a hundredfold sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). By getting ourselves used to so much sweet, normal sweet flavors, of fruit for example, become bland and so do other healthful foods such as grains and vegetables, thus reducing our willingness to consume them and ultimately the quality of our diet.

3. Long term effects unclear
While there have been many studies on artificial sweeteners and disease such cancer, very few focused on long term weight gain. A seven year study, (San Antonio Heart Study), showed a relationship between diet drink consumption and obesity, but the causation is not clear. Consumption of artificial sweeteners is growing yearly.

The article that the posting references is not available to everyone, but it's written by this guy.

It comes down to this:
1. regular soda tastes better.
2. because it tastes better, I enjoy it more.
3. because i know it's bad for me, i drink less.
4. overall, i drink less soda but enjoy it more when I do.

Movie Reviews

Here are two videos that are perfect for lunch or procrastinating at work. Each are the first segment of a YouTube movie critique by RedLetterMedia. They are hilarious and surprisingly insightful.

The Phantom Menace: I never realized just how much this movie sucks.

There are 7 videos to this one. I was sad to finish the last one.

Avatar: when plot the isn't the focus, something is missing

Redesign Redesign

Here's the new Del Monte. Started at Sterling as I was just leaving, I think the final product looks great.


F*ckers.

*********

This image is from a blog post I did back in Sep. '08. Horizon had redesigned. This post is related to another one with a blurb about the food industry giving me the heebie jeebies. This feeling grew since then, which is why I wrote my thesis on the food industry.


Here is the re-redesign, a change in the central banner and the addition of the pasture image. I loved the original design and hate the pasture. It adds clutter and takes away from the clean, premium look of the original redesign.


There's a good reason for this change. Horizon the biggest organic dairy brand in the country, has come under a lot of fire for not being organic enough. Blogs are blasting them for not being truthful in their claims and acting like a regular industrial dairy. This image is an attempt to tie them back to the farm and the roots of the organic movement. Not sure it works, but hopefully my company can help them do something about it.

WARNING - here's a thesis out-take that ended up on the cutting room floor:

In 1990, Congress passed the Organic Food and Production Act which established the national standards for organic food and farming. Organic farmers, unlike most traditional farmers, held on to a stringent set of values that guided the movement long before major food corporation wanted a piece of it. They were pushing for stricter standards, while food companies pushing for leniency so they could capitalize on the marketing potential of the new and fast growing category.

This turned into a 10-year battle "within the USDA between Big and Little Organic, or put another way, "the organic industry and the organic movement" (Pollan 2006, 155). Through industry insiders arguing on behalf of Big Organic, industry beat out the movement. In the final legislation that passed, "many of the philosophical values embodied in the word organic did not survive the federal rule making process" (Pollan 2006, 155).

Thesis Update

It's awful. Got feedback from my professor:
- My writing is not scholarly enough. Basically, I'm writing so that anyone can read it, whereas I should be writing in a style that is more dense yet fits within the academic tone that references the scholarly materials that my arguments are based on.
- From what I could find, nobody in academia writes about food. When they do write about food, they write about things so specific (the development of the olive oil trade in Italy, flavors of soda in India) that I can't use them.
- I reference some major thinkers (Saussure, Bourdieu, Marx) but do not go into detail on their arguments. This is giving them "short shrift" and is not sufficient for a scholarly paper.
- I would need another 3 months to do a paper that takes a Marxist view of branding. It sounds awesome, actually. Brands hide the production value of commodity items and create an artificial trade value. But I'm traveling all this week, half of next week, and I can't get my head wrapped around Marx and neo-Marxists philosophy by May 2nd. It would be giving them 'short shrift.'
- She didn't read the last 17 pages of my thesis. Or my appendix, which is 12 pages.
- I'm getting feedback now but can't help feel like I've been given no help. I feel like I've written this paper on the fringe of academia, a place where I am not comfortable nor familiar. No wonder my sources have gone mainstream (Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle).
- Almost every book on branding is some asshole trying to sell his/her ideas. Its not scholarly.
- My paper is repetitive and the order needs to be rethought. There was a very good reason for this repetition: I needed to remember what the f*&k I was talking about in each section.

I have lost all heart for this paper and academia. I just don't care anymore. I will do whatever it takes to pass, and no more than that. It's sad, but I need to move on in my life. I am fearful that my next draft will not be passable and graduation will be delayed. God forbid, cause I will make such a stink at NYU they'll graduate me just to et rid of me. This is not a threat but a warning.

In the words of Trey Anastasio, from the song Carini, here is what I hope to say by mid-May: "The thesis that you're writing is a piece of shit, but I'm glad you finally finished it."

The Organic Industry

This image, taken from a professor at Michigan State, shows that the Organic industry is for the most part an extension of the mainstream food industry. They bring the same government influence and profit drive to bear. Stlll, it's better than nothing!

Philadelphia, My Home Town

Philadelphia to ease marijuana penalty

The city's new district attorney and the state Supreme Court are moving to all but decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use in an effort to unclog Philadelphia's crowded court dockets.

Offenders will be charged summary offenses rather than as misdemeanors.

"We have to be smart on crime," said District Attorney Seth Williams, who took office in January. "We can't declare a war on drugs by going after the kid who's smoking a joint on 55th Street. We have to go after the large traffickers."

The goal is to sweep about 3,000 small-time marijuana cases annually out of the main court system, freeing prosecutors and judges to devote time to more serious crimes.

Memory Lane

This is Lilah's first time holding Jack. She was a little rough. Not much has changed.

Funny Video of the Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVDGu82FeQ

There's no embed link, but go to the video. It's worth it.

Jack-ee-boy Getting So Big

Here's a video Poppy took of Jack this past Sunday, 3/14.


He's such a good looking kid! Yes, I'll need to post one of Lilah soon.

Funny commercial

Watch this.

Betcha Can't Play This

This is what keeps guitar geeks up at night...

The Frozen Shore of a Great Lake

Somewhere between Minneapolis and New York.





I'm guessing it's near Erie, PA, based on this awesome web site about flight paths I found on line. Check this one out.