a sunday morning at our home

A really real Hydrogen car???

Has anyone heard or know anything about this?

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

Who'da Thunk?

When Seth Godin first wrote about Little Miss Matched about five years ago, they were an obscure little sock company, selling funky socks to fashionable girls.

The idea was beyond clever. 3 to a box, 133 styles, none of them match. Instead of a strategy built around a consultant's vision of 'utility' or a strategy built around cheap or a strategy built around excessive retail distribution and heavy advertising, they built their strategy around one girl saying to another girl, "wanna see my socks?"

They just did a huge deal with Macys and closed a $17 million funding with the folks who financed Build a Bear's retail rollout.

(Credit: Seth Godin)

More on fathers...

Well, again, I have been inspired to write a bit about fathers and grandfathers by some of the posts here.

I am enormously proud of the family I come from, not only hard-working brilliant folk, but sometime war veterans as well. My maternal grandfather fought in the infantry in World War II in Italy. "It'ly" as he would say. My mother was born while he was overseas and did not meet her father until a year later. An imperfect man in many ways, but no less proud and loving of the family he cultivated, he passed on several years ago in Northern VA.

My paternal grandfather was a combat pilot in the Korean War, sometimes known as the Forgotten War. He flew the Corsair which can be viewed in the Air & Space museums in DC and Northern VA. A great man, I am told, for I never had the privilege to meet him, as he died in plane crash when my father was 21.

My father's second wife is a native of South Korea and with her help, he wrote a beautiful work of fiction several years ago called "The Land of the Morning Storm", a touching story that narrates both from the American soldier's point of view in the war and the Korean perspective as well. If anyone ever would like to borrow a copy, I'm happy to loan it to you, it's not readily available in stores.

My ancestors came over to the new world on the ship "Mayflower" where they landed at Plymouth Rock and I am directly descended from the first governor of Massachusetts. My ancestors have fought in the American Revolution, the Civil War (on the side of the Union), and every war that America has fought since it's inception. I hope that I do them justice in memory and in my own beliefs.

And for Ciara's benefit (she told me I had to write this as well), my European ancestry is Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and of course, the cuisine-lacking Brits. Hopefully I inherited more from the Monty Python boys than the cooks. :-)

Hurray for Ocean City!

An excellent wrap on an otherwise crappy site. And to get the mayor involved—Nicely played...


http://morefunhere.com/

day of fathers.

Father’s Day, the day for saying “hey pops, thanks… you know, for being my dad/grandpa.” It’s a good thing we have such days set aside to honor 50% of the parties responsible for our existence. Thanks greeting card, tie, and Tommy Bahama manufacturers, for putting this whole thing together. I’m not a Dad, but I’m sure that if I were, I’d tell you that I appreciate it.

My Father’s Day consists of precisely 5 must-have telephone conversations. No, it’s not because I am the product of an early 80’s gang-bang in which none of the participants wanted to find out who I really belonged to, because not only were DNA testing solutions ridiculously expensive at that point-in-time, but also because they shared the bond of friendship and could not bare to think of a sole-fathership for their darling, bouncing baby Nicholas. (Now, THAT’s the premise for a TV show. Fuck “My TWO Dads,” I gots 5.)

No, no… That is not the reason for my phone calls.

Both of my parents (sharp, glowing, sound people) were the products of broken homes, in most cases (3 out of 4) their parents remarried and established their second marriages before I was born. With this in mind, I’ve always had 4 sets of Grandparents. Big thumbs up to multiple Christmases and such.

After making the rounds, having conversations no shorter than 5 minutes, I realized what’s been true for a good amount of time, and certainly my entire adult life. I’m not as close to some grandparents, as I am others, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love those I have less frequent interactions with… It just means I have more to learn about them, sadly in a limited time frame (how limited? You never know.).

Okay, this post is about Father’s Day, not my Grandparents. My Dad, is the single most influential person in my life. My Grandfathers, they bring their own unique qualities to the table of our relationship, always in a positive way. What is it like for those individuals out there that don’t have that? That have abusive, neglecting, or terrible excuses for men as fathers … as Grandfathers. I have no scientific backing to this, nor am I a statistician but I believe my situation is, sadly, more unique than that experienced by most children out there.

My Dad taught me to be fair, in all that I do. Other children experience the act known as “the bad touch,” the feeling of a father’s fist of frustration and anger and so on.

There’s an opportunity to further dive into the psychological affects of abusive fathers, but I’m not after that. Driving around, enjoying the Sun today (yes, having the majority of the aforementioned conversations), I thought about how grateful I am to have the family that I do.

That is all.

Maintaining that creative drive...

Hi guys,

So I think we've all felt that utter fatigue and lack of inspiration that comes in the midst of a project when you've had setback after setback or you've just been continuing with something for so long that it's hard to stay excited about it. When it involves physical exhaustion and trying to be the leader of a team and keep everyone else inspired as well, it can be almost impossible to keep the spirit of the endeavor in mind and maintain your own excitement about a project.

Can people please share their experiences with this and how they have overcome this in the past?

Thanks!
Andrea

a lesson learned on father's day

we spent the entire weekend doing guy things... watching too many movies, eating way too much red meat and sweets... we had a bbq in the park, played on the beach, rode our bikes and went sailing. we played too much mario cart and ate clam chowder on the pier and tasted the best root beer. it was as much their day as it was mine... i realized that my boys just want to hang out with me. i'm still not sure why.

Kids pictures are always welcome. But kid VIDEOS are better.

And no, by "kid videos" I don't mean anything directed by and/or starring R. Kelly.

Take a good look at this little slice of brotherly love.



Keep a close eye on the slow-mo - because we already know it makes everything better. It looks like we have got ourselves a "Double Header."

You can see this clip, and many more like it, in the upcoming documentary on American child-rearing, "Put Down the God Damn Camera and Do Some Parenting, You Jackass!"

Contentment in a cup of cocoa

It's amazing how many things we need to re-learn through the eyes of our children. Like how to find complete happiness on a rainy day at the bottom of a cup of hot chocolate.

Erin (age 4) with her chocolate-stained grin.

(picture taken on my phone; pardon the low res.)

FARTLEK

Fartlek: Swedish for "speed play"

Why can I only remember the first part of the word?

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Things really ARE better in slow motion.

I submit THIS for your consideration:



(Now taking entries for the Draftfcb edition.)

From concept sketch to model

brude_concept_model
Originally uploaded by mostrostudios

This character isn't finished yet but getting closer. The teeth and tongue needs texture work, the skin on the neck also needs some texturing so that it isn't so smooth and the skin in general looks a little too much like plastic but that is as much lighting and rendering settings as it is the 'texture'.

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Things the Japanese Do Better: Pranks.

There are things in this world that the Japanese will always do better than anyone else. Design a reliable car. Craft a perfect sushi roll. Develop an addictive video game. Math.

But that is all old news.

We need to break new ground. We have to answer the questions plauging the minds of inquisitive people everywhere. We must know:

Do the Japanese PRANK better?

Consider the following examples and judge for yourself:





(This one is a bit longer. Make sure and wait around for "Mission II" starting around 3:30.)

HP DreamColor monitor displays a billion colors

HP's DreamColor display is a big hit with artists (a 24" backlit LED display that can show a billion colors). It's relatively cheap at only $3,499.

but who am i kidding? i'm a color retard and see the world in shades of grey.

Sam the seagull stealing Doritos

video from jacci... pretty funny!

butterflies

i think most people eventually loose their ability to relate with the world on a meaningful level. instead, we propel ourselves from one biodegradable moment to the next; struggling to maintain a viable relationship with reality.

is it just me, or does anyone else feel like the desperation in the world borders paranormal.