Happy Birthday to Me and My Blog
I have been greeted with birthday phone calls and emails from family and friends, and even birthday wishes from “the team at Facebook,” but the best was being serenaded by my kids. First, Grace sang “Happy Birthday to You,” with the age counter included (Are you 1, are you 2, etc.) She almost didn’t count because she was afraid it would take too long. She did manage to get through it, though. Peter followed with rousing rendition of the “You look like a monkey” version. I loved both versions and it’s been great to spend a vacation with the kids at the beach, especially on my birthday.
It is also the third anniversary of my blog. Since I started on my birthday, it is easy to remember the occasion and mark it with a post. Lately I have been posting more kid pictures than anything else, but I blog for me and that’s what makes me happy.
Last Day at the Beach
As we start our last day at the beach, here are a couple of photos from yesterday’s fun. Grace, in describing her trip to the beach, said she is having lots and lots and lots of fun. Can’t get a better endorsement from a 7 year old.
A dip in the hotel pool
Peter, chinposing, waiting for dinner
And even on vacation, on the Carolina Beach boardwalk, I managed to find an abandoned building.
Here’s a link to the growing set of photos from this vacation.
Carolina Beach
Our first two days at the beach have been filled with plenty of time in the water playing in the waves, mini-golf, and lots of good food.
Hi from Carolina Beach
Here’s a link to the rest of my photos.
Cheese Label Music Criticism
Photo by Lisa Fain
According to the Advertising Age Songs for Soap blog, one of the magazine’s assistant editor discovered a container of cheese with Van Halen song lyrics instead of the ingredients. This was taken to mean that Van Halen, or at least the song “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love” is cheesy.
Peter and Grace Playing Bells
This week Peter and Grace went to Handbell Camp at the Methodist Church. Their mom plays handbells, and has for many years, so it is not strange that the kids are interested in playing. The other big plus is that on the last day of camp they have pizza for lunch, and get to go up into the church steeple (which looks out over Franklin Street in Chapel Hill).
This morning, they are rehearsing one last hour before playing in the church service today. Below are photos of them at the beginning of practice.
Peter with a handbell
Grace with a hand chime
NPR Interviews Naked Baby from Nevermind and He is 17
Imagine if your naked baby pictures wound up on the biggest selling record of the 1990s? Well, Spencer Elden’s did and NPR interviewed him.
Photo by Jason Lazarus
Olympic Bloggers
As part of Lenovo’s sponsorship of the 2008 Summer Olympics, they have set up an athlete’s blog aggregator. This allows fans to connect with the athletes on a more authentic level than the melodramatic tv coverage.
From the about statement:
We have invited a collection of athletes from every sport and every region around the world to blog about their experiences leading up to and during the Olympic Games. In some cases, these athletes were already blogging. In others, we helped them to start their blogs and get into blogging for the first time. Together, they represent the real stories of the Games. Athletes who may or may not win a medal, but have struggled, persevered and taken years of their life to be a part of those few short weeks in August when the world’s attention will turn to Beijing and their dreams will take center stage.All the athletes participating in our program were provided with new Ideapad laptops and video cameras to capture their experiences. They all also agreed to place a badge on their blogs indicating that they were part of our program (to be fully transparent), and also all agreed to allow their blog posts to be pulled into this site you are reading now. They were NOT paid in any way apart from the machines, and have not been asked or required to write about Lenovo in any way.
We are producing this program with our partners, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and have adhered to the best practices set out for campaigns like this by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). Athletes are provided support for starting their blogs, but Lenovo does not regard the blogs of the participating athletes to be Lenovo blogs – nor will Lenovo ever ask for any overt advertising or sponsorship acknowledgement on the athlete’s blogs. These properties are the property and responsibility of the athlete and are not subject to editorial management in any form by Lenovo, Ogilvy or Google. Terms and conditions are governed by Google’s standard terms for its Blogger and YouTube properties, and content guidelines have been established by the IOC.
Hike in My Backyard
This morning we went for a hike in the woods behind my backyard. This is not your typical suburban backyard, since it backs up to land owned by the city of Durham and managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. I wanted to see what was back there and if the trail went anywhere. It turned out that the trail leads up a hill to a house in another neighborhood. We did not walk into their yard.
Peter insisted on crossing this stream on this log. I was sure he would fall in, but he regained his balance.
Only Grace could lose her shoe in the stream.
The Spirit Inside Them
Last night the kids and I went outside to take some long exposure pictures with motion blurs. The camera was locked down on a tripod and the kids moved. I really like the ethereal nature of these photos.
