Owner: META-DAD URL:http://www.meta-dad.com Join Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:29:33 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: I’m a Dad. That’s how I define myself at the moment. Not too long ago I defined myself as a Husband, but now I’m a Proud Dad and a Fine Husband. And maybe someday, I will get the title of “Good Dad” - that’s the goal, anyway. Site statistics:Click here
Quote of the Week 2007-07-13 12:39:06 Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you.
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I may not forget you.
~William Arthur
Read more:Quote
Friday the Thirteenth 2007-07-13 11:21:51 Triskaidekaphobia ris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh, noun:
A morbid fear of the number 13 or the date Friday
the 13th.
In Christian countries the number 13 was considered unlucky because there were 13 persons at the Last Supper of Christ. Fridays are also unlucky, because the Crucifixion was on a Friday. Hence a Friday falling on the thirteenth day is regarded as especially unlucky.
Some famous triskaidekaphobes1:
Napoleon
Herbert Hoover
Mark Twain
Richard Wagner
Franklin Roosevelt
1. Source: “It’s just bad luck that the 13th is so often a Friday,” Electronic Telegraph, September 8, 1996
Related Links:
Dictionary.Com
Doomoo Seat @ Baby Dagny 2007-07-12 19:05:20
Straight from Belgium, this soft, squishy, incredibly comfortable seat will quickly become a household favourite. Not only will your baby love it and your toddler fight for the right to hog it, you will love perching on it, and feeling it too! Great, another thing for the kids to fight over, just what we need.
(Doo Moo Seat via Baby Dagny)
Kid Friendly Experience Greco-Roman Style 2007-07-12 14:50:39
My wife and I had been meaning to go to the Getty Villa for a while now. I must admit, the fact that you have to make a reservation to go kind of put us off, for some reason. It seems a bit snobby. We finally went with kids in tow, of course, and found it to be a surprisingly enriched experience.
Tucked away in a narrow ravine in the hills looming over the Pacific Coast Highway is the Getty Villa which is a meticulous and vibrant recreation of a Greco-Roman
Villa served up as one part museum, one part archaeological dig and one part villa inspired from the ancient Roman Villa of Papyri which houses the private antiquities collection of oil mogul J. Paul Getty.
To set the mood for the experience, I recommend seeing the 12 minute introductory movie just inside the theater and then upon exiting I would sign up for one of the many guided tours offered. We did the Architecture and Gardens Tour and even though we did not last the full 45 minutes (actually the boys didn’t) we found the Read more:Friendly
, Style
10 Video Games That Will Make You Smarter 2007-07-10 16:59:24
It is very easy to assume all video games are a big mind-suck, like its cousin the boob-tube, but with a discriminating eye you can throw a few gaming titles into the mix that will actually help them, and you for that matter. Of course there are those games like Big Brain Academy (Wii), and Brain Age (DS) which don’t hide the fact that they are academic games. There are the ones that are simple spin-offs of their low-tech parent - like the DS version The New York Times Crosswords (DS) (does it have a tutorial-mode with snarky hints by Will Shortz) and then there are the ones that try to hide it like Re-Mission (PC) (teaches people about cancer ala sci-fi PC shooter style game) and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (PC) (which uses arcade-style games to help you speed up your typing ability).
Here are some of my personal favorites that I can remember at the moment:
Sid Meier’s Civilization (PC) (historical reference and strategic game play)
Age of Empires Franchise (PC) (histori Read more:Games
, Video Games
And Now For Our Moment of Zen… 2007-07-10 15:09:26
Good Cop, Baby Cop
Sorry for the video post but Will Farrell makes me giggle. I wonder if the little girl is his daughter.
Read more:Moment
, Zen
, hellip
Solar Beach Tote 2007-07-03 09:38:49
Spend the day at the beach while keeping your iPod, phone, or camera totally charged! This is exactly the kind of thing Ray Kurzweil predicted in his book,“The Age of Spiritual Machines, When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
This tote bag charges most handheld devices in 2-4 hours, not bad. Eat your heart out L.L. Bean!
(Via Reware Products)
Read more:Solar
, Beach
And Now For Our Moment of Zen… 2007-06-29 08:38:36 Depicts 8 million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees harvested in the US every month to make the paper for mail order catalogs.
This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. ~ Artist, Chris Jordan
(Chr Read more:Moment
, Zen
, hellip
Use With Caution | Antibacterial Products 2007-06-28 09:41:03 According to a recent report, the plethora of antibacterial soaps, cleaners and detergents may be doing us harm in the long-run. These products are designed, of course, to eliminate bacteria that would otherwise inhibit diseases/conditions like tuberculosis, food poisoning, cholera, pneumonia, strep throat and meningitis - to name a few.
The old school approach is to use products with soap, bleach, alcohol or hydrogen peroxide in them. Alcohol and hydrogen peroxide eliminate all bacteria in its path while leaving no residue because it simply evaporates. Soaps on the other hand lift, trap and carry away the dirt and bacteria. The newer antibacterial products do a more selective cleaning of a given area while leaving a slight reside behind which is meant have a prophylactic effect on a given surface. But what lab tests are revealing is, there is a potential for the residual bacteria (that is exposed to the antibacterial residue) to mutate to a resistant strain. Think of it in terms of a Read more:Caution
, Antibacterial
, Products
Hand-Painted Kid Furniture 2007-07-16 11:24:56
An incredibly unique line of children’s furniture offers a rich mixture of bold color, expressive patterns and original illustrations crafted to inspire imagination and nourish creativity in the children who use them.
Lilipad Studio is a small company nestled in the gorgeous mountain community of Hailey, a small hip town just outside the famous skier’s paradise of Sun Valley, Idaho.
Laura Higdon, owner and creator of Lilipad Studio is an artist and mother of two, Kyra 13 and Everett 10. In a large studio adjacent to her home, she works together with local artists and artisans creating the essential pieces of furniture for small children: table and chair sets and stepstools.
(Lillipad Studio via KidPoop)
Read more:Painted
, Furniture
Poems for the Young Ones 2007-07-16 11:03:08
My wife and I have got burnt-out reading narrative stories to the boys and have started to work some poetry into the mix. If you haven’t read poetry aloud recently, it’s an interesting challenge and totally enjoyable.
The Caroline Kennedy compilation is beautifully illustrated with hand-painted watercolor paintings and includes everything from e.e.cummings and Robert Frost to Shakespeare.
Related Links:
Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems
A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children
The Wonderful World of Sand Sculpting and Sandcastles 2007-07-18 15:44:39
I used to play in the sand all day long when we went to the beach as a kid. I grew up in New Hampshire which boasts of thirteen miles of coastline, Hampton Beach was the place to go and I imagine it still is even though I have not been back there in many moons. The water is cold by anyone’s standards. For example, today’s air temperature at Hampton Beach is 66 degrees and the water temperature is 62.1 degrees, not exactly tropical. My brother and I would body surf all day long, but when we got sick of that we would grab a bucket and start digging. It’s sandcastle time my friend!
We had a few caveats; the castle needed to have a moat, and it needed to have lots of tunnels and it had to be close enough to the oncoming high tide so we had to move pretty fast. Making sandcastles at the beach have a couple of tried and true techniques, and I’m sure these techniques have impressive names for the professionals (yes there are professional sandcastle makers, most likely Read more:Wonderful
, World
, Sculpting
, Sandcastles
Woollyhoodwinks 2007-07-18 10:55:25
Woollyhoodwinks are empathetic woodland creatures made lovably real in select woolen fabric. The ‘Hoodwinks are hand-made, so each one is completely unique. Woollyhoodwinks come packaged in their “tree” with special sticker and pinback button surprises! Catch some ‘Winks today!
(Via Orange Button)
The Disneyland of Botanical Gardens 2007-07-17 10:43:19
The Huntington BotanicalGardens
in San Marino has a staggering 150 acres of gardens to experience with lots of themed gardens to choose from; Jungle Garden, Shakespeare Garden, Herb Garden, Camellia Garden, Japanese Garden, Palm Garden, Australian Garden Desert, Sub-Tropical Garden, the Lily Ponds, the Children Garden and of course, the upcoming Chinese Garden. The Chinese Garden is currently under construction as is the Gallery but the Tea Room located in the Rose Garden is open.
We set our sights on seeing the Japanese Garden and the Children’s Garden for this first visit, understanding that the kids may not last the whole time. It is not a cheap entry at $15 per adult but we were pleasantly surprised that the grounds are immaculately kept and the attention to detail and balance is striking when experiencing all the different views.
My wife put it best when describing it to her mother over the phone that night when she said, “it is basically the Disneyland
of Gardens,&r
Honey, I Cloned The Kids 2007-07-20 13:21:18
Xerox has sponsored a fun little viral page that allows you to create your own cover of the popular Tech-zine, WIRED. It allows you to choose from a short selection of stock photographs or you can upload your own, create your own headlines and adjust the them of the cover. What I like about this thing is it allows you to go back into it an edit it if you’re not happy with the results. Pretty fun stuff.
(Via Wired Magazine)
Read more:Cloned
Warhol-Styled Kid Art 2007-07-20 11:42:28
allPopArt turns photographs of your loved ones into Warhol
-inspired wall art. 4 Panel Warhol style portrait inspired in the art of pop art genius Andy Warhol. Available in different sizes and materials.
(allPopArt via Gifts.Com)
Read more:Styled
Kid Nation 2007-07-19 13:36:51 Loading...
CBS’s new reality show is neither “new” nor is it based on “reality”, now discuss.
Now I can say with all certainty that CBS has a new hit with this concept, and I say that not because it is a great concept or because it has exceptional style or production value but because it is getting a boat-load of press. “Kid Nation” is a reality-based program coming out in which a bunch of kids are plopped in a fake old west town (called Bonanza) and are expected to form there own real-life SimCity - a functioning working society complete run by them.
40 children, 40 days, no adults—eager to prove they can build a better world for tomorrow in the new reality series KID NATION. Settling in Bonanza City, New Mexico, once a thriving mining town but now deserted, these kids, ages 8 to 15 and from all walks of life, will build their own new world, pioneer-style. They will confront grown-up issues while coping with the classic childhood emotions of
Zeptonn Poster @ Blik 2007-07-23 10:52:58
Jan Willem Wennekes is also known under his designer alias Zeptonn. Zeptonn creates all sorts of funky designs ranging from t-shirts, posters, logos, button badges and books. And now wall graphics for Blik.
(Via Blik)
Read more:Poster
Parent-Minded Reviews 2007-07-25 11:29:35
I have been compiling what I hoped to be my own litmus test of sites that give fair and even-handed descriptions of movie content for different categories like violence, profanity, crudeness, et al. I wanted to share with you a couple of the site while trying to figure out which ones align with the views and opinions my wife and I share. we (me especially) are starting to realize that even though we consider ourselves media-savvy we don’t necessarily know everything there is to know what’s media appropriate for our kids.
Case and point: we recently rented some new animated kids movie (I have daddy-brain right now and can’t remember), we were very excited to establish a family “movie night” complete with homemade caramel popcorn and other goodies. I was sure to make sure the surround sound system was on and balanced (so as not to blow our hair off when a character went “boom”). Well things didn’t go so well. My oldest one lasted about two Read more:Parent
Legoland For The Little Ones 2007-07-24 11:08:33
Throughout the summer months I will be sharing some reviews of some local kid-friendly destinations. I should preface this review with some facts about my family; my oldest is two and a half and the youngest is six months. So that said, I will explain that our weekend down in Carlsbad (California) was surprisingly good. I wasn’t sure that there would be enough to do for him considering his age and height, but I stand corrected.
Yes, Legoland will set you back over a $150 not including lunch but it was a great time for all and the lines weren’t bad at all. I used some vacation time, so we were able to go mid-week which makes a world of difference. My understanding is that during the weekend in the summer the lines are quite a killjoy.
Beyond that, the rides were great. Considering my son was too small for most of the rides (36″ minimum), we found plenty to do. He really enjoyed the toddler wet playground (Water Works) by the Pirate Tours Ride. It gave my wife and I a
Zeptonn Poster @ Blik 2007-07-23 10:52:58
Jan Willem Wennekes is also known under his designer alias Zeptonn. Zeptonn creates all sorts of funky designs ranging from t-shirts, posters, logos, button badges and books. And now wall graphics for Blik.
(Via Blik)
Read more:Poster
Honey, I Cloned The Kids 2007-07-20 13:21:18
Xerox has sponsored a fun little viral page that allows you to create your own cover of the popular Tech-zine, WIRED. It allows you to choose from a short selection of stock photographs or you can upload your own, create your own headlines and adjust the them of the cover. What I like about this thing is it allows you to go back into it an edit it if you’re not happy with the results. Pretty fun stuff.
(Via Wired Magazine)
Read more:Cloned
Warhol-Styled Kid Art 2007-07-20 11:42:28
allPopArt turns photographs of your loved ones into Warhol
-inspired wall art. 4 Panel Warhol style portrait inspired in the art of pop art genius Andy Warhol. Available in different sizes and materials.
(allPopArt via Gifts.Com)
Read more:Styled
Kid Nation 2007-07-19 13:36:51 Loading...
CBS’s new reality show is neither “new” nor is it based on “reality” - discuss.
Now I can say with all certainty that CBS has a new hit with this concept, and I say that not because it is a great concept or because it has exceptional style or production value but because it is getting a boat-load of press. “Kid Nation” is a reality-based program coming out in which a bunch of kids are plopped in a fake old west town (called Bonanza) and are expected to form there own real-life SimCity - a functioning working society complete run by them.
40 children, 40 days, no adults—eager to prove they can build a better world for tomorrow in the new reality series KID NATION. Settling in Bonanza City, New Mexico, once a thriving mining town but now deserted, these kids, ages 8 to 15 and from all walks of life, will build their own new world, pioneer-style. They will confront grown-up issues while coping with the classic childhood emotions of ho
The Wonderful World of Sand Sculpting and Sandcastles 2007-07-18 15:44:39
I used to play in the sand all day long when we went to the beach as a kid. I grew up in New Hampshire (which boasts of thirteen miles of coastline), Hampton Beach was the place to go and I imagine it still is even though I have not been back there in many moons. The water is cold by anyone’s standards. For example, today’s air temperature at Hampton Beach is 66 degrees and the water temperature is 62.1 degrees, not exactly tropical. My brother and I would body surf all day long, but when we got sick of that we would grab a bucket and start digging. It’s sandcastle time my friend!
We had a few caveats; the castle needed to have a moat, and it needed to have lots of tunnels and it had to be close enough to the oncoming high tide so we had to move pretty fast. Making sandcastles at the beach have a couple of tried and true techniques, and I’m sure these techniques have impressive names for the professionals (yes there are professional sandcastle makers, most like Read more:Wonderful
, World
, Sculpting
, Sandcastles
Woollyhoodwinks 2007-07-18 10:55:25
Woollyhoodwinks are empathetic woodland creatures made lovably real in select woolen fabric. The ‘Hoodwinks are hand-made, so each one is completely unique. Woollyhoodwinks come packaged in their “tree” with special sticker and pinback button surprises! Catch some ‘Winks today!
(Via Orange Button)
The Disneyland of Botanical Gardens 2007-07-17 10:43:19
The Huntington BotanicalGardens
in San Marino has a staggering 150 acres of gardens to experience with lots of themed gardens to choose from; Jungle Garden, Shakespeare Garden, Herb Garden, Camellia Garden, Japanese Garden, Palm Garden, Australian Garden Desert, Sub-Tropical Garden, the Lily Ponds, the Children Garden and of course, the upcoming Chinese Garden. The Chinese Garden is currently under construction as is the Gallery but the Tea Room located in the Rose Garden is open.
We set our sights on seeing the Japanese Garden and the Children’s Garden for this first visit, understanding that the kids may not last the whole time. It is not a cheap entry at $15 per adult but we were pleasantly surprised that the grounds are immaculately kept and the attention to detail and balance is striking when experiencing all the different views.
My wife put it best when describing it to her mother over the phone that night when she said, “it is basically the Disneyland
of Gardens,&r
Hand-Painted Kid Furniture 2007-07-16 11:24:56
An incredibly unique line of children’s furniture offers a rich mixture of bold color, expressive patterns and original illustrations crafted to inspire imagination and nourish creativity in the children who use them.
Lilipad Studio is a small company nestled in the gorgeous mountain community of Hailey, a small hip town just outside the famous skier’s paradise of Sun Valley, Idaho.
Laura Higdon, owner and creator of Lilipad Studio is an artist and mother of two, Kyra 13 and Everett 10. In a large studio adjacent to her home, she works together with local artists and artisans creating the essential pieces of furniture for small children: table and chair sets and stepstools.
(Lillipad Studio via KidPoop)
Read more:Painted
, Furniture
And Now For Our Moment of Zen… 2007-07-27 11:15:14
My darling husband.
I don’t know what I’m doing. I dress in the morning for Him. I get all quivery in my tummy when he comes to see me. I lust after him hugely. I have fooled around with him, but have not had sex. But not for lack of wanting to&hellip
;” ~ TrueWifeConfessions.Com Read more:Moment
, Zen
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