As a history major - I tend to look at everything and find trends, think about what historians will write about our time, and all kinds of fun things that drive Amy crazy. The other day while I was thinking about playing Super Mario 3 on my Wii, I thought about the definition of being social (”interactions between people”) and then thought that my son Evan’s generation will most likely view our generation as very unsocial. We wrote letters that took days to deliver, interacted with people very limitedly, played games by ourselves, and worked independently.

Our definition of communication has completely changed. When I thought about it, I went to college before cell phones were really popular. If you wanted to get in touch with someone it was by phone, email, or by the chance of meeting someone. No one had digital cameras so most of our college pictures are tucked away in a shoebox somewhere in one of our friend’s closets. We had the beginning of networked games, but our interaction there was limited to typing in “hi” or “Don’t go in the dungeon without me Ken!”.

Now - we have instant access to … [more]

I recently went on a trip which required a long car ride with my son. I figured he would do fine - just as I did when I was his age. I did not have a DVD player and was entertained by just looking out the window or listening to my parent’s 8 tracks. When Amy suggested we bring along a portable DVD player so Evan could watch DVDs in the car to keep him content I was very against it. I have a thing about him not being too dependent on constant entertainment (TV) but in the end, Amy would not give up and we brought the DVD player. Evan spent almost 20 hours in the car in a 4 day period and I do not think we heard one cry, or scream. I am still not excited with the DVD player in the car, but after listening to Amy talk about the grad class she is taking on technology and this generation - it made me think.

This generation of kids has just about everything they want entertainment-wise at any moment. Not only do they have TV - they have several TVs. … [more]

We got some super snow over the last few days and I am loving it! Yesterday we got so much snow it was a two time snowblower day which is always fun. This is by far the most snow I have ever seen here (Chicago) since moving from the Buffalo area and our streets are covered and it is getting difficult to look to the left and right when pulling out of neighborhood streets because of the big snow piles. The snow is so wet and heavy (with a good inch or so of slush under it all) that the snow blower was barely making it in some deep spots…but thank goodness we have one or I would have to abandon my car and only use the Land Rover until it melted because it is too heavy to shovel.

It was nice to be able to take a break mid-day and go out with Evan for a little bit. We took him outside in his snow suit and pulled him around in his sled which he liked (when we went fast). I look forward to when he is a little older and we can build snowmen and … [more]

I return to blogging a year older and a little more relaxed now that the holidays are done. I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and are ready for a great year! I am in the midst of catching up with work, and getting everything back in order. I learned that the holiday time is more stressful and needs better planning now that we have 2 birthdays (me and Evan) and Christmas and New Years all within a little over 2 weeks. I figure by next week I will be ready to get back to posting more. Happy New Year!

Well, the full story is available on his web site. He is absolutely wonderful and we are excited to have him in our home. I never thought I could be so tired, but hopefully we can get some sleep tonight. My posts will be very limited over the next few days so happy holidays to all!

Every day Amy and I get another day closer to meeting our son Evan. We are both so excited about this we can barely stand it. Every day I get a phone call from Amy, I think “this is it!”…but nothing yet. I might not blog for a few days in the next few weeks, so if I go “silent”, time to move on over to Evan’s blog which I will keep up to date for sure.

After a long search and evaluation process for a WordPress plugin to fit my needs, I decided to go with a WordPress plugin called fGallery. I started off looking at the Coppermine plugin but after reading about how development had been stopped and the reasons why, I plugged on to find something that would not require any separate software install and offered seamless integration with WordPress. After playing around with it for a bit, I integrated it on Evan's web site. So far, so good. Now if only I had a plugin that would pull my photos from iPhoto, post them into WordPress and perhaps another online service ;). Hmm...
[tags]WordPress plugins, photos, fGallery[/tags]