Hip Dads

In honor of the dads we'll be celebrating this coming weekend I offer up a little music video.



By the way, this was made by a church. Who says Christians can't be funny.

SubUrban Art Kids

Urban art (from Latin urbanus, itself from urbs (“city”)) is a style of art that relates to cities and city life often done by artists who live in or have a passion for city life. In that way urban art combines street art and graffiti and is often used to summarize all visual art forms arising in urban areas, being inspired by urban architecture or thematizing urban live style. - taken from Wikipedia's Urban Art page.

Yesterday our kids and some friends and neighbors decided to add a little urban art to our street out here in the suburbs of Portland. Instead of the typical chalk outline they used some tape which I think was a good medium since it made it stand out so well under the street light in the dark.

Please note the kill shot "X" designations on the outlines. A little morbid but it is urban art... right?!?

Baker's Photos Part 2

Here are pictures of Stephen and his kids. It's easy to take good pictures when you have such good subjects.

I love to see their faces so close together because it shows how much she looks like her daddy.

Baker's Photos Part 1

Today I got the opportunity to expand my photo skills a bit and do some portrait work. My friend wanted some photos of he and his kids and I got the privileged of taking them. He knew of this run down house west from here and we used that as the background for the pictures.

Here are the photos I got of the kids. I'll show you more of the rest in a later post.




And this is the one I'm most proud of. What great looking kids!

Birthday Paint

Brianna turned fourteen this past month and for her birthday she wanted paint for her room. This Monday her and I tackled the project. We covered pink with more pink. Her old paint scheme was pink with a white sponge pattern on it. The new scheme was inspired by our friend Krista's office.

Here's the girly working hard on the darker of the two pinks. She brushed while I rolled.

Here's the finished product. She is very pleased which makes me happy.

Happy Birthday girly!

Amos in August

This video only gets me more excited to see Amos Lee in August. His album Mission Bell is just brilliant.

The Face

Facebook or The Face as an old friend likes to call it can really get on my nerves. I have a love hate relationship with The Face. I love the fact that I can keep in touch with so many people at all levels of life no matter the distance. I love that I can share fun things, pictures, events with people who don't live close or whom I don't see often. I love that when my friends band is playing I can advertise and support his venture. I love that people post funny things and interesting things and thoughtful things. I love seeing pictures of people I don't see everyday. I love certain things. Other things I could do without.

What bugs the shit out of me is the vague postings. Pardon or don't pardon the French but seriously, if you're going to post something make it mean something, don't make me guess or ask. I have a very vivid imagination and can make up the best of stories for your vague posting if you want. Vague postings just make people want to know what you really mean which makes me think you want people to ask. If you post "I'm sad ;-(" or "I wish I could do that over" or "I feel like a big stinky pile of poo today, don't ask why" you are really just asking for people to ask "why?" or "what happened?" or "but I want to ask why because you posted something vague".

On this same note... I know that you know when you post something on someone else's wall that others can see it. I know you are really posting that post so others will see and not just the person who's wall you posted on. How do I know this? Because I do. And also because if you didn't intend for others to see it you could message it to them privately or change the view settings the them only.

I get the game people play, I just don't like it. The Face is good and fun but it also is shitty, self-serving and foolish at times.

19 and Life to Go

Nineteen years ago I married this lady.

Nineteen years later she still puts up with me. There's got to be an award for that.

I love you lady.

Darth Attitude

This cracked me up. We knew Darth could be evil but did you know he could display such a snarky attitude?

Smooching Joel

Monday I got a shot of Kathi smooching another man. I'm watching you Joel.

Capturing the Spirit

Sometimes photos can just capture the spirit of a person. Not in the way that we've heard that some natives think that photos steal their spirit but in the way the their spirit, who they are inside, is captured by the photo.

Monday I took the day off and we took the kids to the aquarium in Newport. We had a great day together. Although the Newport aquarium is small, it's displays are wonderful and we enjoyed each and everyone of them.

Before we took off for dinner at the Rogue Brewery we stopped off at the beach to play and take some pictures. Here are a pictures of each kid that I feel captures a bit of their spirit.

First is Brianna. She is our tenderheart. Compassion is one of her gifts. She is the best kind of friend a person can ask for as she'll put her friends before herself any day of the week. We all wish we had friends like her. This photo captures her sweet side. It is peaceful, not aggressive. It is bright and colorful, not dark. It's very Brianna.

Now here's Alex. Alex is all boy. He's about all things fun. Alex is our comedian. Alex is also one of the kindest people you'll ever meet. This picture shows his free spirit. Barefoot on the beach, carrying a gun made of wood that he found moments before and his perpetually mussed up hair. Ask him why his hair is messy and he'll say "I don't know" and what he means is "so?". And then there's the smile, it rarely leaves his face.

Talking Dog

For more funny talking animals visit the YouTube site

Blowfish

My kids have discovered the joy in the humor of the window blowfish face.

The first time they showed me they acted like it was a new thing. I thought I may have deflated the moment a bit by telling them we did that as kids too. It wasn't intentional just stated the facts. It didn't matter much, it's still high-larious to them.

Call Waiting

Today a customer called me with a problem. Not a new problem but one due to their own issues and the weather still plagues them. A problem that I was probably more familiar with than he was. He proceeded to rehash the problem and the steps they've tried and the ones they've ignored. That was annoying enough but I was patient and let him go through the steps he needed to.

At 4 minutes and 23 seconds into the call I hear a phone ring in the background. He says it's his cell and he needs to grab it. Whatever. You called me buddy. He proceeded to take the call. I watched the time tick away on my phone which records the length of calls. Thirty seconds... forty five... a minute... a minute ten... patience... a minute thirty... patience evaporating... a minute forty five... ahhhrrrggg... my fingers on the release button... two minutes and he's still yapping... click! I'm out.

He calls back ten minutes later asking for me and I'm on the phone. He leaves his number. I'll call him tomorrow.

I was irritated. Not without good reason. First, he called me. Second, in the past three weeks this has happened to me five times. All five times it was somebody that called me and proceeded to take another call during ours. Not once in each of these five incidences did I have the opportunity to even tell the person to call me back when they are done. All five quickly said "I need to grab this" and then proceeded to take the other call.

What this shows me is a total lack of respect for me and my time. I'm all for customer service and giving the customer my best but I draw the line at disrespect. There was a day when I would have been mortified to hang up on a customer. I guess those days are gone.

Shooting

Today Alex and I took off in the Jeep to explore the back roads of the Tillamook National Forest. Our ultimate goal was to find a place to shoot. Despite the fact that all his play time and toys revolve around fire power and weapons, Alex has never fired a real gun. We gave him the opportunity to buy a .22 rifle last year but he chose instead to get a bow and arrow. So this weekend I borrowed a .22 rifle from my co-worker and out we went.

We drove along for quite a while before we found a place that looked safe. The problem with that forest is the amount of dirt bike and four wheel riders there are in the area. I stopped and asked a few about good places to shoot but none were too helpful.

Once we were settled and the target was in place we went through a number of safety points. That done I fired a few rounds so Alex could see and hear what it was like. His turn. After a few moments of reluctance he finally fired a round. His face lit up. He was hooked.

Since the gun was a bit heavy for him I let him rest it on a stump. The target which was about 30 yards away didn't stand a chance. Most shots were low and to the right but they were all hitting the target.

At the end of the day his hands were cold and tired, the Jeep was muddy and it was time to head home. His last words before leaving the forest were "Dad, I think I like shooting more than the bow and arrow." Not surprised.

Taekwondo Tournament

Last month Alex competed in his first taekwondo tournament here in Portland. He had a great time and we had fun watching him. He took a silver in his form and a bronze in his breaking. I had the pleasure of holding for him during his breaking.

The competition was long but a lot of fun to see. Outside of The Karate Kid I've never seen a tournament like this. Next year Brianna and I will probably compete as well.

Here's Alex with Brianna and Kathi after receiving his first medal. Kathi's shirt is proof that she loves me.

Alex performing his competition form for the judges.

Alex breaking two boards with a flying side kick, me sweating profusely.

The girly. Ain't she cute.

Patiently waiting for his turn to compete.

Here's a picture of the team published in the Hillsboro Argus. Although the photo was submitted by Molly Frazier I must let you know that it was taken by yours truly.

Spring Girly

The end of Winter has given us record amounts of rain and a depressing lack of sun. So far Spring hasn't treated us much better. Thankfully the plants understood we needed a change and began to bloom.

Brianna loved the blossoms so she collected a bouquet of cherry blossoms to display in the kitchen.


Dear Lord, please bring us some sun. We could use a ray of sunshine and a little vitamin D after this long wet and dark winter.

twin baby boys have a conversation - part 2 ORIGINAL VIDEO

Can someone translate this for me? It appears to be a friendly disagreement of some sort based on the hand gestures. Maybe it's over sock etiquette and whether or not it's acceptable to have only one sock or two of a different color. Not too sure. A little help people?

Art with Salt - Eric Northman

Just when you think that every art medium has been used along comes something like this. Salt.

The simplicity of the white on black is striking but what really gets me is how the salts texture perfects the face.

Big Heads

A couple weeks ago I sent my brother a photo of a Charlie Brown squishy that he had dropped off at my office about ten years ago. For ten years this Charlie Brown figure has graced my office without much notoriety, however, someone had come into my office that day and asked about it. This reminded me of my brother so I sent him the picture and a text from my phone. He had returned the text asking if it was still squishy so I sent him a response photo showing that it was. This Darth Vader bobble is another nick-knack that floats around my office. Darth holds a prominent position atop my computer where he can keep a watchful eye on things.

Seeing these two figures got me thinking. What is up with the oversize craniums? Are we obsessed with big heads? I for one have a larger than normal head at 7 5/8" but nothing compared to these two. My boss has an irritating habit of calling attention to my head. Irritating not because I'm embarrassed or bothered by having a big head but because it's not the least bit funny and his point of bringing it up is that he thinks it is.

What would happen if the world was destroyed and aliens landed on Earth and all that was left in the rubble were a couple of bobble head dolls and images of Precious Moments figures? Would their report back to the home world consist of ideas that humans were large headed beings with incredible balance to be able to stand with that melon on top? I'm sure they would.

We are taken in by things over-sized. Even McDonalds knows this, just look at the Hamburgler and Mayor McCheese.

What would I look like if I took my 7 5/8" head to the proportions of the bobblehead?

Well no need to leave it up to the imagination. Here it is. Huge Noggin' Brian. "Like an orange on a toothpick".