First Day of KG

My oldest kid started KG about a month ago. Of course it was an exciting day for him. He pretty much said adios to Mom and Dad and got right on the bus. I can't say there were any tearful goodbye's, except for maybe my wife. I can't believe he is already five and starting school. Time goes by way too fast...

Kids Music Review

I've decided to start reviewing some of the music our kids have been listening to. My hope is that I can help some of you parents out their avoid the pitfalls that we have made in some of our music choices. Since I don't have the time to review every album my kids have, I'll just review four albums that my kids have been listening to the most.

They Might Be Giants - Here Come the ABCs

My Favorite Song: Alphabet of Nations
Wife's Favorite Song: Alphabet Lost and Found
Son's Favorite Song: C is for Conifers
Daughter's Favorite Song: Go for G!
Review: An excellent addition to the family collection. They Might be Giants have always been a quirky band. Most people are familiar with their work with tunes like Istanbul (Not Constantinople) and Partical Man Twisting from their Flood LP. I especially like how they have incorporated this aspect of their music into this kids CD. You can truly tell that their is some genuine artistry in the songs they have created. Our kids seem to enjoy the album.

BareNaked Ladies = Snack Time
My Favorite Song: Pollywog in a Bog
Wife's Favorite Song: Wishing
Son's Favorite Song: What a Wild Tune
Daughter's Favorite Song: Popcorn
Review: I'll be the first to admit that I've never been a BareNaked Ladies fan. Having said that, I have to say that this kids album is pretty good. A lot of the songs are catchy and the wife and I really like the melodies they have created. Our daughter is always asking for the repeat on Popcorn. She is ruthless about it, and eventually we crack!

Alvin and the Chipmunks [Soundtrack]
Son's Favorite Song: The Chipmunk Song
Daughter's Favorite Song: Bad Day
Review: The Magical Kingdom has sunk to a new low with the rehash of this classic. With the all new Alvin and the Chipmunks, the songs sound as if they have been over produced and over digitized giving the impression that the whole album is just over the top. What's worse is that the chipmunks synthesized voices are paired up with modern day hits. I'd rather take my kids to a Rage Against the Machine concert! I'm not even providing a link to buy this album, no one in their right mind should want to subject a child to this crap.

Choo Choo Soul
Son's Favorite Song: Bullet Train
Daughter's Favorit Song: Bad Day
Review: The juggernaut that is Disney must like torturing parents. Like the pulsating lights of a nightclub, the songs on this album never seem to end. Maybe it's just that they all sound alike? Whatever the reason, the songs just don't offer much artistry. ***WARNING*** Do not listen to this album for more than 1 hour at a time, serious side effects may occur. Our latest trip to the beach included about 3 hours of music imposed torture listening to this CD over and over again. It took me well over a week to recover from that overdose.

Music Genome Project

A peer of mine told me about a website called Pandora. Pandora is an online radio station and is based upon what they are calling the music genome project. So what makes it so unique compared to your average online radio station? The interesting thing about Pandora is that it recommends music based on the attributes of songs and artists you like!

This is how Pandora works. You go to their site and create an account. After your account is created, you can create a radio station by typing in some artists or songs that you like. Based on your selections, the site will automatically pick music that has the same type of sound. It's not based on genre at all. It's supposedly based on musical attributes that each song is tagged with by the Pandora site. You can read more about it here.

You can create as many radio stations as you want. They can be based off a particular artist or song that you choose. That radio station will then only play songs with attributes that are like your particular song or artist selection. Another nice thing about the site is that you can give feedback on a song that the site recommends. You can either approve or disapprove of a song. If you disapprove, the song wont be played again. These are just a few of the goodies that the site offers, to see more, go to the site and test it out for yourself.

All in all, a great tool for those times when you want to find new songs and artists based on your musical preferences.

Fathers Day Gift

My wife is always coming up with good ideas for gifts. This year for Fathers Day, it was a book that we can use to help think of things to do with our kids. The book is called Kids Love Virginia. The website for the book is Kids Love Travel.

What I like: The book is organized into different areas of the state. The book also has a special index called "activity index". This index categorizes all of the different activities. It then references each activity under the appropriate category and what area that activity belongs to. Great way to quickly find an activity in a particluar area!

What I dislike: I want to be able to further refine my activities. I'd like to filter on different criteria such as age appropriatness and cost. Maybe that's a little too much to ask for from a book? How about a secure website where people who have purchased the book can log into? There you could filter activity by anything you want (area, cost, age, etc.). Kind of like Carmax, where you can filter on a number of car related factors.

In this day and age, I don't see a reason why this shouldn't be possible. All in all, it's still a cool present that I'm sure we will use a lot. Thanks Honey!

Lawn mower update

Just wanted to point out a reply to one of my last posts. Apparently, the batteries used by the Neuton mower are almost 100% recyclable. The person who replied also included a link to a kick ass website on the what's and where's you can recycle. I would recommend using this site Earth 911, it's an excellent resource.

Maybe battery operated devices and vehicles aren't as bad as I had originally thought.

Sand Boat 2.0

The first incarnation of sand boat was built by my father in law. Being an architect, his design was impeccable. After the boat was built, I was impressed at how much his creation did look like a boat. After all, it was made of sand! His only flaw was that he built the boat during low tide. Alas, once high tide came, the sand boat was sunk.

I went through two iterations of sand boat to try and duplicate what my father in law had created. Needless to say, neither version that I attempted came close to the original. I'm chalking it up to my lack of experience in making things out of sand. After all, if I compare my sand boat attempts to software projects, new versions are supposed to improve on their predecessors, right?

On a lighter note, our beach time this year was great! Our first week was spent at Topsail Island. This beach is a little north of the city of Wilmington. Topsail Island is a pretty secluded beach. It has plenty of private houses to rent and only one ocean front resort hotel in the Villa Capriani. Our second week was spent at Holden Beach. It is very similiar to Topsail, except that it is south of Wilmington.

One special note of interest was the aquarium that we visited. There are three aquariums in North Carolina. If you want more info, check out their website: NC Aquariums. We visited the aquarium in Fort Fisher. All of their exhibits are educational and very professionally done. In addition, it was enlightening to read about the aquariums conservation efforts. Very impressive!

All in all, we had beautiful weather and a great time at the beach.

My problem with gas lawn mowers...

In previous posts I've touched on the subject of a persons Sustainability and Carbon footprint in America. Instead of just complaining about the apparent lack of concern, I wanted to start posting ways that people are starting to improve their impact on our earth. This first post in many is about lawn mowers.

Back in college, I had a roommate who was a Mechanical Engineer and he was always going off on the harmful effects of lawn mowers. He always thought it funny that people were so worried about the effects of their cars on the environment, but didn't give a second thought about their lawn mower. What a lot of people don't realize is that gas lawn mowers have no restrictions on the amount of pollution they can emit.

Just doing a simple google on "lawn mower pollution" and selecting the first link will take you to a great article on what kind of pollution a lawn mower produces. The article is enlightening and in my opinion paints a pretty bleak view of the gas lawn mower. So what are some ways that people are ditching their carbon dioxide emitting problem? Here are my suggestions and opinions on a few:

• Electric Lawnmowers - Products like the Neuton run on a battery and produce zero emissions. The problem I have with these is the battery that the mower runs on. How do you dispose of it? Is it recyclable?

• Push Mowers - Probably the most environmental friendly of the mechanical kind. Their are plenty of options and varieties. Here is a good website.

• Goats - No joking here. You can now rent goats in 11 states. Is your state one of them?