Dubbadoo Online

A rare moment...

2007-03-05T22:26:00.000-05:00

This was one of those rare moments when all is good in the world. At least for the five minutes that it lasted. The boys actually ARE good friends. Owen IS a good big brother. Andy, who's a good 18 months younger than Owen, is almost as big as his big bro. Should make for cheap entertainment on the weekends... Friday Night Wrestling.

Oh those silly, silly 60s...

2007-02-20T08:52:00.000-05:00

Okay this is just ridiculous. It's a pretty cool song though. Love the overproduction and HIGH cheese factor.

Welcome back Don and Barb

2007-02-19T08:53:00.001-05:00

Sunrise in Miami, Florida
Originally uploaded by lilith121.

Welcome home to Don and Barb Starke who drove a ridiculous number of hours against snow, sleep deprivation, and NASCAR crazed hillbillies to get home to... a snow and ice encrusted home.

Hope you got your beauty rest ;-)

Science improves life yet again

2007-02-19T08:31:00.000-05:00

Beach bums

2007-02-16T08:04:00.000-05:00

Beach bums, originally uploaded by jbatgist.

In January, we had the pleasure of spending a week in California. We stayed in Monterey and got to visit Carmel, Big Sur, and San Francisco. The kids had a great time. The weather was beautiful. I forgot just how beautiful Carmel is. It now tops my list for early retirement destinations. Now all we need is $100 million.

Back on the weight wagon

2007-02-16T07:58:00.000-05:00

Well... it's a new year and I'm back on the wagon. The lo-cal, fat-burning wagon. Joined a gym. I have NO time so I have to go at 5:30 in the bitter cold morning. But in four weeks I've managed to burn 6 pounds off. I DO feel better. More energized. Can't say that I enjoy it a whole lot but it feels good to shrinking in size rather than the other way around. Of course, I have my bodybugg.

Blogged with Flock

Winter is definitely here

2007-02-15T09:17:00.000-05:00

Uggh. Snow. Yesterday we got six inches plus about an inch and half of ice. Misery. It took me nearly an hour and a half to clear the driveway and that was WITH a snow blower. Ouch.

Blogged with Flock

He's a cute kid

2006-04-22T21:57:00.000-04:00

Here's a recent shot of our l'il Andy. He's a good kid. Smilin all the time.

Who knew Pac-Man could be so funny...

2006-03-13T08:17:00.000-05:00

Oh those wacky things that college kids will do. This is worth checking out though. Pretty hilarious video of Pac Man being chased through a real college library by a colorful ghost.

Pac-Man video

Great performance

2006-02-20T08:10:00.000-05:00

There are so many other more important things to write about but so little time. Sorry for the long absence. I have been crazy busy.

I stumbled across this today and loved it. It's a high school band's live performance of DJ Shadow's "Building Steam With a Grain of Salt". A great track being very nicely interpreted by a bunch of teen "band geeks". ;-)

Check it out. You'll need windows media player.

This made me smile and it's not even 8am on a Monday yet.

Happy New Year

2006-01-13T08:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long absence. Things have been a little hectic. I sincerely hope you all had a merry Christmas and New Year's. Frankly, I'm glad it's behind us and am happier now that things have "somewhat" returned to normal.

We had a lot of fun with the kids. Saw our friend, Cal Rambler. Got to see "King Kong" for my bi-annual movie theater experience. Loved it. We saw a LOT of toy trains with Owen.

Cheers to 2006. Looking forward to a happy, productive, and hopefully less tumultuous year than '05.

The rule of law and education work to create wealth...

2005-12-19T09:01:00.000-05:00

This is not exactly earth-shaking news but here's an interesting article about a recent study of the World Bank. It's very clearly written. Kudos to the writer.

The Intangible Wealth of Nations

My kids' online future

2005-12-16T08:31:00.000-05:00

This is interesting. From an article in this week's Business Week online. The current generation of teens, called generation @, make no distinction between living online or offline and use every possible technology out there — e-mail, IM, chat, social networking, text messaging. Can't imagine where things will be when Owen and Andy hit the school years. Right now they're still part of "Generation eFart".

Teens online patterns

Tis the season

2005-12-12T22:53:00.000-05:00

Our neighborhood does a whole luminaria thing (little candles in a paper bag weighted down with sand or, in our case, kitty litter) every year. It's a pain to set up but pretty when it's all said and done. Nearly everyone participates. There's a fun party to boot out in an open field with tents, coffee and cookies, and a bonfire. It's been snowing pretty good this last week. Nice to have a snowy December. It's January and February that are hard to take...

Owen liked being out in the snow at night but Santa... eh... not so crazy about him. He had his fill and then it was home to a warm fire and a movie. Not a bad night!

2005 in lists

2005-12-05T08:14:00.000-05:00

For those of you who like seeing everything under the sun broken down into convenient little lists, check out this site. It aggregates ALL the various "Best of" and awards lists for the year. There are some interesting lists that focus on more than just music.

2005 in lists

Amazing music video

2005-11-29T12:09:00.000-05:00

Check this out. This French musician is playing an 11-STRING bass!!! There's a cool little Quicktime video of him playing the theme music to the Super Mario Brothers game for Nintendo. Funny. Talk about nimble fingers...

This week's listening assignment

2005-11-21T17:02:00.000-05:00

Well I can't have much of a "personal" blog without making constant music recommendations. It never ends, I know, I know... it's just who I am.

Here's (some) of the stuff I've been listening to and enjoying... a lot. As you'll see, my tastes continue to grow more eclectic (if that's possible) but the web is doing wonders for small bands from around the world and there's some really interesting stuff out there.

This week's tracklist includes:

Amadou & Mariam, Dimanche a Bamako: A blind husband and wife duo from Mali. Very catchy, interesting stuff. Try the track "M'Bife".

Johann Johannsson, Englaborn: Icelandic composer and member of the band, The Kitchen Motors. This is incredibly beautiful music that sounds like it's from the stark, icy glaciers themselves. Love this album. Not his latest. I just discovered it last week. A must for any Radiohead fans.

Jens Lekman, Oh You're So Silent Jens: A lovely Swede with a healthy sense of irony and black humor. Tres post modern but very listenable. He pulls in a lot of interesting references to Burt Bachrach, the Velvet Underground, and Orange Juice. Check out "A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill" if you can find it. Bizarre but fun. "Maple Leaves" is also great.

Deerhoof, The Runners Four: They're pretty out there but when they're on they're really, really great. One of the few current rock bands who still manage to surprise you. Tracks like "Scream Team" just get played over and over and..

and finally...

Bell Orchestre, Recording a Tape the Colour of the Light: A lovely, spare instrumental set from a group that includes several members of The Arcade Fire. Great fall/winter music. Check out "Les Lumieres" or "Throw it on a fire" for starters.

That ought to get you through the next couple of days. More to come.

Seeing things differently these days

2005-11-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

In a considerably smaller, friendlier act of domestic terrorism, Owen managed to stomp on my glasses the other day. Split them right in two.

Just to get through the day, I actually had to hot glue and tape them together with electrical tape a la "Revenge of the Nerds".

I now have a new (undocumented) pair of glasses and have been thrust into a new chapter of life. The "transparent" years. ha. More to come...

9/11 as seen from space

2005-11-18T08:33:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty amazing image. Be sure to click on the high-res version. New York City looks so small.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/
iss003e5387_feature.html

Making sense of the Sony XCP debacle

2005-11-17T07:39:00.000-05:00

While I don't intend for this blog to become some kind of tech watchdog, I can't help but get angry when I read about the whole Sony XCP root kit debacle. For those of you who may have heard about it but don't get what the big deal is, here's a good high-level article that's written in clear, plain English.

This has great implications to the whole digital rights management debate that is the current hot button tech issue for the next few years. Bad things are likely to come about as big corporations try to control what we watch or listen to and how we do it.

Sony's going to end up paying big-time for this mistake. http://wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69601,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

You talkin' to me?

2005-11-16T13:28:00.000-05:00

Our lovely son Owen tormenting our photographer friend, Tom Gigliotti, who was kind enough to shoot some pics of our family.

Owen was his typical suspicious self but Tom managed to ingratiate himself into the "circle of trust". They're old buddies now.

For the record, Owen is not flipping him off. He's shoving his Pez dispenser into the lens.

A blog is born

2005-11-15T01:50:00.000-05:00

Just what the world needs right?

I realize I'm coming a bit late to the party but better late than never right?

Stay tuned. More to come. I plan to use this blog as a record of my slowly disintegrating sanity... much like the stale donut crumbs that my son, Owen, pulverized into his car seat the other day.

Okay, it's late. Kim's asleep with her glasses on and the tv still running. I'm supposed to be paying the bills. ha.