allaboutduncan

BABIES Shows How Parents Differ the World Over

// April 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Movies

The trailer for the documentary Babies looks absolutely fascinating. I’m not one on seeing documentaries in the theater, but I’d actually look for this one on April 16, 2010 when it’s released. Unfortunately, I’m sure it will only play in Nashville (which isn’t too far away), but having two kids, it might as well be a state away.

Still, the idea of following four newborns from four different cultures for a year is such a cool concept. You see the differences right away in the trailer as a goat casually drinks from the bath of the Mongolian baby. It will be interesting to see how different cultures treat their newborns.

I know that when Riley was born (our second son), our parenting approach was vastly different than it was with our first son Carter. I’ll admit, that we were too protective of Carter. As first time parents, I think that’s only natural. You don’t know what to expect, so you tend to be too cautious.

Because of this, Riley is a much more adventurous toddler than Carter. He’s absolutely not afraid of anything or any situation and will plow headfirst into any obstacle – and we let him. He can already climb by himself into the playhouse in the yard and slide down the slide. Mind you, this playhouse is on top of 4 foot posts, so it’s a good climb and a tall slide. Riley gets dirtier, plays rougher, and even eats things we wouldn’t let Carter touch until he was older (carrot sticks). A lot of this has to do with Carter as well. Having a brother that’s 4 years older, Riley thinks he can do whatever Carter can – and most times he does.

Just this past week we visited my sister’s house and Carter and his 4-year old cousin were having a pillow fight. Right in the middle, slinging his own pillow, was Riley. I wouldn’t change anything we’ve done – because we’ve got two wonderful boys.

Carter Loses His First Tooth

// September 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Web

One day it’s loose and the next day he pulls it as school. Luckily he made it home with the tooth.

Monster Names

// July 9th, 2009 // No Comments » // Web

This is pretty funny stuff:

Get Your Monster Name

Carter Runs the Bases at Turner Field

// June 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // Carter

Made it to our second Atlanta Braves game this past Sunday. It’s was a great game (Braves won). Close all the way until the end with both teams playing great.

Carter ran the bases once again after the game and I managed to capture it on video.

Carter – Dodgers 2009

// June 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Carter

Here’s a photo taken after our last game on June 1.

On a side note—I think it’s time for a new glove. That one is starting to look small.

T-Ball Season 3 is Over

// June 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Carter

Carter (and the Dodgers) played their last game of the Spring season last night. We were up a against the undefeated White Sox. Even though we lost the game (16-8), Carter played possibly the best fielding game ever.

He was attentive, fast and ready for every hit. He knew where to take the ball every time and if he got an out, he’d turn around and check the other bases.

Here’s a video of him getting an out at first and then running home to try and get another:

Our regular first baseman had left for vacation (since school was out) or Carter could have thrown it to first, like he did at a previous game:

I couldn’t be more proud of him. He loves playing ball and wants to play (and practice). I won’t push him to play, but I do encourage him – because he’s good.

I’m looking forward to Fall Ball. I’ll be stepping up as head coach and hopefully we’ll have another fun season.

Our First Atlanta Braves Game – Part 1

// May 4th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I live in a family of Atlanta Braves fans. That’s not a bad thing. It’s turned me into one as well. Growing up, it’s something I never would have guessed I would enjoy so much, but it’s become something that we, as a family, share.

This past weekend, Jill and I took Carter and my mother to Turner Field to watch game 3 of the Braves vs. the Astros. It was the first trip to Turner field for any of us. Before the game, we asked my mom how she got hooked on the Braves.

My mother is the biggest fan of the bunch. She subscribes to ChopTalk (the official Braves magazine) and can tell you stats, trivia and other facts. Since she spends so much time with Carter, it rubbed off on him at an early age. She was determined to get him into baseball. Since he’s now in his third season of playing T-Ball, I would say it worked. Being surrounded by it and helping coach Carter’s T-Ball team, I find myself wanting to watch as many games as I can. She’s passed her fandom on to us.

She started watching the Braves with my Granny (her mother). We’re not sure when Granny became a fan, but we think it was shortly after my grandfather passed away in 1993. At 78, she didn’t drive and we guess she started watching the Braves on TV to pass the time.

While she also watched Basketball, it was the Braves that she was always most interested in. From 2002 – 2006, I was lucky enough to work close by. I was able to eat lunch with her almost every day. She always looked forward to seeing me and I almost always found her waiting in the kitchen when I arrived.

Unless the Braves were playing.

In that case, she would be eating her lunch in her chair and I didn’t exist on game day. When I came in the door, I would give her a quick kiss and she would half-heartedly tell me what there was to eat in the kitchen. She never took her eyes off the game. She rarely spoke during the game. It was clear that during Baseball season, I ranked just below Chipper Jones (her favorite player).

Before the game, my mother joked that everyone always talked how Granny never said anything bad about anyone. That is, unless it came to the Braves. Mom remembers watching a game with Granny, only to hear her mumble something about Chipper Jones not batting as good as he should.

I’m sad to say that the day I purchased our tickets (great seats – row 17 – behind first base), Granny passed away. We never had our chance to tell her how excited we were to be going, but we sure had fun thinking and talking about her at the game.

I’ll continue this story in a few days with photos from the game and my impressions of the Braves, Turner Field and game day. Stay tuned

Indiana Jones Halloween Costume

// October 27th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Carter

Here’s Carter’s Halloween costume for 2008. The hat, whip, gun, and pouch were all gifts from Dad (birthday and other). The cloths were all items in his closet. A little brown makeup for a 5-o’clock shadow and the look was complete.

This has got to be one of my favorite costumes (although he’s only dressed up 5 times). I think I like it because it’s partially homemade or not a store bought kit. It looks more real.

Anything is way better than the plastic shirts and masks we had as a kid.

Riley is dressing up as Charlie Brown—because what baby doesn’t look like Charlie Brown. Photos of that to come.

T-Ball Coaching is Fun

// September 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // Carter

I’ve not posted a whole lot on the site lately and that’s for several reasons.

One reason is T-Ball. Never in a million years would I have imagined I would enjoy coaching T-Ball (asst. coaching) as much as I do. I was thrown into it in the Spring when Jill volunteered me at Carter’s first practice.

I’ve never been a big sports guy. Imagine that. A web developer/comic geek/pop culture geek not being into sports. Cliche much? Anyway…

I managed to take it in stride and appreciated her encouragement that she wanted someone out there to help the kids that would push them to have fun and encourage them. The first season in the Spring was so much fun that two of the other Dads and I decided to keep our kids together and coach a team this Fall.

Fall T-Ball is busy. Two games a week and none on the weekends makes for long days, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Not only is Carter doing great, but we’ve got a great team. Every kid has improved over the course of the season. It’s amazing. I’ll be sad when we play our last game next week.

I’ll be anxiously awaiting the Spring season in 2009 and hope that we can keep as many of these kids together as we can.

Flickr Video – Is It a Good Thing

// April 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web

Flickr has finally added the long rumored Video feature and I’ll admit, I’m quite happy about it. Although, I seem to be in the minority.

Judging by the comments on the Flickr Blog Post announcing Video, most Pro members (video upload is available only to Pro members) are not pleased with the feature.

Many complaints center on YouTube being available for video and they don’t want Flickr to fill up with crap like YouTube. To play devil’s advocate, I’d say Flickr thought of that.

• Video upload is available to Pro members only. How many kids/teens will pay $25 for a feature that’s free on YouTube?
• Videos are limited to 90 seconds. Again, longer videos are free on YouTube and 90 seconds limits what you can do.
• Video is homemade content only. No video clips.
• Video is safe or moderate content only. Nothing to offend anyone.

I think Flick user The_Searcher said it best in his forum post:

I would see this as one of those “hobbies” that kick in here, less a complete takeover. Like HDR groups, TiltShift groups, FishEye Lens groups, etc. People will take those kinds of shots, but unlikely that’s all they’ll do.

You may find an initial spike, as everyone jumps at the chance to make a video. Then once the novelty wears off, and people realize they still have to be creative to make something good, it’ll settle into a niche. maybe.

I know I plan to use it over YouTube for my personal / home videos. I think that will complement my main use of Flickr as a storage/viewing for personal photos. This will let me keep my YouTube for things like DVD Menus and other non-personal uses.

Some of the complaints are valid. There are other photo features that Flickr could add. RSS feeds are needed for Video, Photo, and Both. This feature also breaks some existing Flickr integration. It works fine with my Recent Photos widget/RSS, but the import photos doesn’t display video. Time to get rid of that section anyway (or just direct it all to Flickr).

However, I think Flickr did a great job integrating the video into their existing system without making it obtrusive or hard to manage. I’ll be using it, now to see what others do.

The one feature I want is to post video by email. I can do this on YouTube and it’s perfect for video from my cell phone. Once Flickr adds that (which I’m sure they will), it will be perfect.