Publicity

Life has been so busy.  That is probably very obvious by how little we get to blog. But when funny, irritating, or weird stuff happens, I feel it necessary to update you all.

EcoReno is awesome. I love doing it and I love making a difference. I have also become very receptive to free publicity. You want a news story on green cleaners? You got it!  Anything to get the word out.

I got a call from KOLO a few weeks ago wanting to do a story on green cleaning products.  A very nice reporter called and asked if she could shoot footage and then come back to shoot live for their morning show. Yep, the morning show that airs from 5am to 7am. What time should I be here Monday? 4:15am. Again, free publicity.

We shot the some footage on Friday morning - a reasonable time of 10am. We confirmed for Monday morning at 4:15. (Let me remind you that even though there is a Starbucks across the lot, they don't even open that early!) She said the only thing that would keep them is breaking news. I think she said something about WWIII.

I had been having problems with the cell phone, but never gave it a second thought. I drug my butt out of bed at 3:45 after a restless night. I kept thinking that I would over sleep. I got dressed, made myself presentable, and took off into the dark morning. There weren't many people out, a few early morning people heading to work and passed a few guys probably heading home from a bar. Oh, and I got a full moon. Who does that? Okay, besides Kelly Ricciardi?  Seriously, a big, white ugly butt thrown in my face. Ewwwwww!  Got into the store, locking myself in quickly, and disabled the alarm.

BEEP.  BEEP. Ah, a message on the phone. BREAKING NEWS!!  Not WWIII, but a body found near Caughlin Ranch. No live shoot for me. There had a been a message left on my cell phone and she hoped that I had gotten it before I left the house. NOPE, because my cell phone is acting up and I didn't do anything to try and fix it. It was a simple fix too - turn off and back on. I headed back home to bed. When I got into the bedroom, Marc asked if I had even left, that is how little time had passed.

The story did air. They used the previously shot footage and I am also happy to say that it aired again during the evening news. I heard it while cooking dinner. So, worth it, but I can tell you that I will be sure that cell phone is working before I head out for a 4:15am shoot!

Other updates: Dad was just here and we had a great visit including the Sacramento Zoo.  The kids are great - both getting so big! Sid's sitter, Michelle, is telling us that he is very interested in the potty. Trained before his second birthday? You never know.

New feature

Just added something new here - to the right, below the photo of our house, you'll now see a little box that will automatically display links to posts from other blogs that I find interesting and want to share.  You folks who subscribe to posts via email are missing the boat here.  It will eliminate the need to write a new post here linking to whatever item of interest.  So make sure you actually visit the site once in a while to see what's new!  That first one on "Last Night's Summer Rain" isn't really all that great, I just needed one to test things out.  Enjoy!

Reno street view

Really cool, Google Maps now has Street View for Reno!  Photos appear (at least in NW Reno) to be from sometime around spring 2007.

Linkdump mostly

I've been meaning to post here but lack of anything particularly interesting or time to post has hindered me. So without further delay, I present today's Marc mind- and link-dump, gathered from my usual ponderings and roamings about the web:

• Morgan splurged and bought me this shirt. Love it.


• Probably due in part to my new subscription to Kiplinger's Personal Finance, I'm looking into 529 plans for both Lola and Sid.


• The site is unresponsive at the moment, but I thought this recent post from Cory Farley especially good. Episodes like this continue to make me embarrassed to be an American.


• Having significantly upgraded our coffee with the burr grinder and french press, now this item has me pondering whether or not to take the next step....


• It's looking like a good time to be a barfly in downtown Reno. As I told Rayna, I like the *idea* of a nice selection of drinking establishments more than I actually patronize them.


• How awesome would this be for Burning Man?


• Maggie sent this. Can't decide how funny I think it is.

Well, I think that's all I've got on my mind for now. Time to shave my head, wait for Morgan and Lola to come home from yard sales (it must be spring), and get pumped up for sushi lunch.

James Taylor

Lola picked out a DVD (okay, I did) at the library. Sing Yourself Silly is so much fun. First, we stumbled across Ladybug Picnic. My mom sings this to the kids, finally found it on You Tube and Lola wouldn't stop asking to see it. Even Sid starts to yell when it comes on. I think it is also how Lola started using the mouse pad on the laptop. I came home from work one day to find Lola sitting on the side of the rocking chair, saying,"watch this Momma," and then Ladybug Picnic blasting so loud that I wasn't surprised when she loudly said, "What!?!?" when I asked what she was doing and why it was so loud. By the way, Gigi is sitting right there in the rocking chair. Apparently this had been going on a while. Marc said it was on when he came home at 1 and I don't get home until after 4:30pm. Yikes.

Back to the DVD. There is a wonderful song Jelly Man Kelly done by James Taylor. I love it. It is catchy, cute and there are all these kids that sing a long with him. He wrote it off of a poem that his daughter wrote in school. And he is hot in a 70's rock star kind of way. So one morning, Lola and I are enjoying a little James when I notice that he has these pretty long yucky nails. "Really?" I think to myself. So I rewind and have Marc look. I was kinda put off. They are pretty long and thick. I am not one that should judge fingernails, as I have been a biter since second grade when I observed Erin Wheelock doing this very thing. I have never been able to quit despite my mother's numerous attempts with hot sauce, rubber-bands, and continuous swatting. But long nails on men are just gross. I like them clipped and short. Heck, I wouldn't even frown upon some bitten down nails. But not James Taylor. This guy has long nails.

So this morning I decided to do a little research to see if anyone else had noticed. I found this quote by James himself: "My style of playing is evolved around hymns ... mostly I think hymns and Woody Guthrie. A few Christmas carols. But it's the thumb. I use the thumb (emphasizes the word 'thumb') (L) and the hands that are attached to my arms ... the thumb and these three fingers. For a while there I was breaking fingernails regularly and I had these artificial nails put on. But some of you may do that I don't know. Do any of you use those nails? Well, they're interesting. It's hard to get them to believe you. You say what you want just play the guitar (L). But there's something inherently evil about them. It is epoxying something to your fingertips. You have power." Transcript of James Taylor Workshop At A&R Studios - circa 1976 or 1977

Huh. I never would have thought. Then again, I have never played a guitar. This explains it all. Love him - long nails and all!!

Links

Embarrassed by how long it's been since my last post (over 2 weeks!) and knowing that I absolutely MUST add some new photos, as well as update Wordpress, I humbly offer a couple of worthy links for your consumption:

Another "presidential candidate match" thing and, a kind of funny, kind of useless, translation thingamajig.

Photos and upgrade to come soon, really!

Priceless

I was just going to dump two sweet links on you, scans from a 1975 JCPenney catalog someone was kind enough to post.  Here and here.  That was a few years before my mom started working for JCP, but having grown up in a JCPenney household, I fondly remember poring over Christmas catalogs throughout my childhood.  I don't remember seeing anything as fabulous as these, but I guess it's the historical perspective as an adult rather than childhood fondness for toys that makes them so great now.

Morgan mentioned our visit to SF.  In a nutshell, we (us four plus Paige and Maggie) had a great trip over, overnight at friends (who weren't there but let us stay at their house) in Oakland, then a truly wonderful visit with friends visiting from France.  Great time was had by all, Lola included, who had some really good fun playing with little Zoe.  We forgot our camera, but fortunately they didn't.  I should have photos to post someday soon.  Stay tuned.

Cool stuff

Just a couple good things I found online this week, both from BoingBoing...

Crazy video, an excellent example of two very dissimilar pieces of media together raising the art of the mashup higher.  This video is Burning Man caliber insane.  If you're impatient, ffwd to the 1 minute 10 second point.

Amazing photos of ceramics the instant they shatter.

One more thing...

Along the same lines as the trivia/IQ tests linked below, may I present:

71%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

Link dump time

I was going to wax poetic about how it's starting to feel like fall has its foot in the door, brisk tingly mornings as I ride my scooter through the streets to work each morning, fewer dust-covered Burning Man cars passing through, and balloons in the skies.  But Morgan beat me to the punch, so there you go.  Other tidbits, we're FINALLY taking possession of the Eurovan tonight, and Lola's started pooping on the potty!  Good times all around

In addition to the general updates above, I found a handful of cool things to share with you loyal readers, fun/neat/cool sites on this here world wide web.  Most came from an article in PC Magazine of 100 best undiscovered websites.   These are the ones I thought most share-worthy:

Top Secret Recipes - for recreating the yummy things you get when you eat out.

LumosIQ test - totally fun mind games (just 3 of 'em) that give you a score of how smart you are.  I got 140.  Report back in the comments.

Another test - This one sent by Gigi, you have to think fast (8 seconds to pick an answer), it's more a trivia test than IQ.  Still fun.  Can't remember what I scored, 25 or something?

LikeBetter - Pick the picture you like better.  Pick enough of them and the brain tries to tell you something about yourself. 

DaFont - Mostly included here for me to refer back to another time, tons of free fonts for your computer.  Good for posters, flyers, tattoos, etc.

Boomshine - Totally addictive, fun, simple, and relaxing game. 

OK, that's all I've got.  Must....play...more....boomshine....

Reasons to love Reno

Lola and I peaked out our front window this morning to discover that we can see the balloons from this house as we could from our last.  It is not the same view, but really impressive from our driveway.  I have only done Dawn Patrol once.  my mom dragged us out so early, I don't think I had hit REM.  It was nice though. She made breakfast and there was champagne (I was too young to care).  It was fun.  I remember being impressed even as a snotty teenager.  Now, I wouldn't want to fight the crowds. Maybe next year for Dawn Patrol.  I think we will walk tomorrow morning to get a closer look.  Lola was impressed with just what she saw this morning, I bet she will love it.

I am back to work this week.  I have to say what a warm welcome they had - there were tons of books to be put away. Nothing makes the day go faster than a lot of work.  I truly missed it - actually my coworkers more than the work!  Ane with only 15 hrs,  it is easier to be away from the kids.

Parkerbailey (the '85 VW) was sold to a nice kid this week.  I guess he was older than a kid.  Sad to see it go, but the Eurovan will help ease the pain. We have the Saturn for sale if you know anyone interested.  A good car and I liked it. But we can't keep them all!  I already feel a little overwhlemed with the neighbors cars - but he has ten kids!

I am enjoying the cooling weather and am looking forward to the encroaching fall weather.   Changing colors, cooler weather, Marc, Paige, Lola and Gigi's birthdays, Halloween, and a visit from Nana.

Marketing machine

This is kind of cool while at the same time being a bit off-putting in all its capitalist extravagance - the marketing machine that is The Simpsons Movie. That website has so much stuff to explore it's kind of intimidating me. But this is fun...you can create an avatar there.   So here's me as a Simpson:

Just stuff

Are you freakin' serious?

I just find it hard to believe some things despite strong evidence that they're true.

Sorry, I've been remiss in posting, especially any new Lola pictures lately aside from the cookie thing recently. And sorry for using such huge files for that one. Hopefully I'll figure out the thumbnail feature of Wordpress next time. Speaking of learning new things, I did have a major score this week and figured out how to share the printer downstairs so we can print from the wireless laptop, as well as share files between the two computers. It's really sweet.

Grandpa Dave is here (geez, I just found the photo gallery broken when I went create that link...why does this stuff keep happening?!?!?) for a visit and Madeleine and her mom should be here tomorrow. I'm lucky enough to have some time off, from 1pm tomorrow through next Tuesday. Hopefully will get some beer brewed, root beer made, and even swing a golf club a little bit at some point. Holiday weekend, woo-hoo! And speaking of fun stuff, we actually got to the movies last weekend, to see Spider Man 3. Good show, good fun, if you don't try to take it too seriously and can appreciate some of the typical Raimi goofiness. And Michael Moore's new movie looks promising.

Lola is really a firecracker these days. Her speech is to the point of having nearly normal conversations with her now, even if her statements aren't always true or realistic. She's also becoming quite the rough and tumble kid now that weather is improving and she likes to play outside so much. Scraped knees, stubbed toes, all of that is more or less commonplace around maison Tiar these days.

And, as long as I'm tossing out links willy nilly here, check out this newish online encyclopedia of all things Nevada. Really a nice site, if you find such things of interest.

And lastly, this odd blog claiming to be written by a man on the run from the law, with his adopted son. Could be fiction, could be delusion, could be a clever marketing idea for a movie or something. Found that somewhere, I thought Metafilter, but it wasn't. But in searching Metafilter for the link, I was reminded how amazingly chock full of wonderous reading that site is. It's also a massive timesuck, so proceed with caution. Also fun, Ask Metafilter, for giving or receiving (or just reading) oddball advice from the masses.

And that's all for now.

We now resume...

Had a couple days of technical difficulties here. Couldn't log in to post anything but from the outside, everything looked fine. Finally sorted things out last night and disabled the offending plugin.

And now I discovered the editor of these posts is goofed up...I have to remember HTML now to link to anything or format text. Rad. Well, I wanted to link to something but my HTML is too rusty and I'm too lazy to look it up. So here's the link anyway, just a neat photo thing I saw. Hopefully I can fix things more completely later today...

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7

Couple of things to click upon

Just a couple things worth a click:

• Guess the Google game - it shows you images from a Google image search, you guess what the search term was.


• $205 million seized in Mexico, plus some Euros - If you've never seen that much cash in a pile, now's your chance.  Holy Moses that's a lot of dinero.

More forgotten

Dang...just found another couple pictures I meant to share...these courtesy of Kate, snapped on her little organizer machine a while back when we decided to take out and open a can of "Civil Defense Carbohydrate Supplement" that we found in the fallout shelter under the library.  Circa 1966, public buildings had fallout shelters stocked with beds, water, first aid, and hard candy to keep survivors going for a while after the reds deployed a nuke.  It's still down there, 40 years later, rotting away.  Curiosity got the best of us and we had to see and taste what 40-year old government issue candy was like.  Utterly disgusting.  Lots of good stuff about shelters and their supplies at this site devoted to them.  I wish these pictures did the candy container justice.

Statistical update

OK, just a brief update on the rather remarkable dice rolling streak I wrote about previously...we were way off in how the odds against such a streak would be calculated. I consulted my resident games-of-chance statistical genius and he explained it thus:

The first die of the 6 - whatever number comes out is correct-whether it's a 1,2,3,4,5, or 6 as any of these numbers are needed.

The second die of the 6 hits the table-it must be one of the remaining numbers left. So you have a 5/6 chance of hitting this number.

The third die hits-must be one of the 4 remaining numbers. And so on.

So 6/6 x 5/6 x 4/6 x 3/6 x 2/6 x 1/6=5/324 or 1.54%

Then to do it 3 times in a row. Must multiply the number above by itself 3 times 5/324 x 5/324 x 5/324=125/34,012,224=roughly 1/272,098 !!!!!

So there you have it. The odds against rolling 1-2-3-4-5-6 on six simultaneously rolled dice three times in a row are 1 out of over a quarter-million. Remarkable.

Some stuff

So, this was just going to be another blogaday entry, but suddenly, there's more to say.

For starters, Day 2 of Morgan's employment was today, and Lola got to stay with neighbor Sommer and her baby Ranon. 10am-2pmish, and all went well. Hurray! On a less festive note, we had to make our first parental visit to urgent care over the weekend. Blood in the diaper makes one a bit uneasy to say the least. So far, they think it's a urinary tract/bladder infection, but the jury is still out. Her bouts of unhappiness seem less than they were on Sunday, and we're hopeful that another week of bubble-gum flavored medicine will be sucessful.
Before I digress too much, let me get the blogaday business out of the way. A funny little blog with funny little drawings on index cards to illustrate funny concepts. See: Indexed and enjoy.

News item that doesn't concern me much despite my newfound affinity for soy milk.

For a taste of culture, take a look at the newly redesigned site of our friend Erin, recently relocated to Basel, soon to come back for a holiday visit. Her first stop? The Double-Dutch battle, we're hoping to be there too.

And finally, a brief announcement - I've been bombarded by comment spam lately, so I turned off comments here. Too bad, you were all just starting to come out of the woodwork a bit.

Happy blogaday 4

Time for one that's a little less categorizable. Josh Spear. Sort of about...design, culture, just "neat stuff" for lack of a better description. Check it out.

Happy blogaday 3

Sometimes history and death intersect to result in fascinating tidbits of knowledge.  Such is the case with today's blog, Corpus Obscurum.  To put it simply, it reports on the deaths of people who were big in importance but short on fame.  While that may not be completely clear now, visit the site and read through a few.  Founder of the National Hobo Foundation, first black soloist at the Met Opera, and Pope John Paul II's English tutor, to name a few recent entries.

Enjoy!