Cat Ears or Devil Horns? You decide.

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Ate chili last night to help clear up my cold, now my face is paying the price.

Damn you Rosacea!

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Ten Life Lessons from Richard Branson - by Dumb Little Man

"I enjoy every single minute of my life."

For me, this is the most important thing to remember. When you’re enjoying what you do, you’re more likely to do it well and to be successful. Enjoying every situation is an art, a skill, and can be developed. Maybe it comes naturally to some people, but for most of us, it takes a little practice. But believe me, it will make an enormous difference to the quality of your life.

via dumblittleman.com

I find this to be so very true. Even when faced with very challenging issues I do my best to find some humor or joy in the moment.

Another great quote from Branson is "But the majority of things that one could get stressed about, they're not worth getting stressed about." This is also true for me, I tend to not worry as much as I once did. There really isn't much of anything good that comes from it. I find being in the moment and dealing with issues and tasks head on to be the most effective way of going about my day.

More insightful quotes at the link above.

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10 Seconds Later

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Kristen was changing Ember and he was completely serene... Then seconds later that evil gas man showed up and ruined his day. Poor guy. Sent from my iPhone

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Before and After

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Found my self spending too much time doing my hair in the mornings, decided to simplify things a little. Busted out the clippers for a DIY job. Not too bad.

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Little Man Smiles

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Taken this week at our last appointment with our midwife Mary Harris. It was such a bummer to have a our final visit with Mary, we had been with her for the last 9 months and she's been so amazing with us. As you can see she has a golden touch with Ember. He's been very smile-y the pas few days and Mary really knew how to get him going.

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DIY guitar pick punch

via blog.makezine.com

A Pretty Sweet way to make guitar picks out of all of those maxed out credit cards & soon to be used up gift cards in your wallet!

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Ember's 1st Halloween

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Well... he slept through most of it. But he looked good doing it. Thanks to Denise for the costume!

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My little Mr. Cool

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Royksopp - The Drug

Only electronic musicians can get away with spending so much money on a video for such a non single. Arty, Visually Engaging, Vague. All the usual qualities.

Curious to hear the rest of the new album, "Senior", supposedly on a more introverted ambient tip.

Enjoy

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Passed out after a long hard day.

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Having issues with iOS 4 and IMAP Mail accounts syncing? You're not alone.

Chris Hardie posted a great piece back in June on this topic and updated it in September.

I post this today because even after multiple restores I still have syncing issues with multiple mail accounts that that seem to just ignore the fact that I deleted a mail message. 10 times. The same message. I wanted to put my head through a wall.

Essentially I'll delete a message move on to the next then when I go to jump to another message, BAM! There's all the mail I just deleted.

Makes mail on your phone really (un) useful.

Chris posted that after upgrading to 4.1 his issues went away, but mine persist. Especially on my MobileMe account. Which kinda bugs me. A LOT!

Hope some of you find this link useful and entertaining.

http://www.chrishardie.com/blog/2010/08/iphone-ios4-imap-mail-syncing-problem...

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When are young girls gonna stop using the "stranded, no money for gas" con?

Scenario: I pull up to a Gas Station and a young girl asks...

"Do you have a few dollars I can have? I'm stranded with out my wallet, I live in Boca and I need gas!"

This isn't the first time I've heard this con.

Me: "Oh man, that sucks. Where's your car?"

Girl: "Oh, um... It's down the street?"

Me: "Do you need help getting it to the gas station?"

Girl: "No, I just need a few dollars to get home."

Me: "OK, but how are you going to get gas in the car if it's down the street? Do you have a gas can?"

Girl: "Um, No... I just need a few dollars and I'll take care of the rest."

She's getting irritated now, I'm a poor mark and she's already looking for other guys at the gas station to sell her story to.

Me: "Yeah, that's what I thought. Well, I don't have any cash, but I could use my card to spot you $5.00 to get home"

Girl: "Oh forget it!"

As she storms off.

Me: "That sounds like a great idea!" said with a great big smile.

I've got no problem helping out someone who truly needs it, but when you smell a con it usually is just that, a con.

While I was pumping gas she was pretending to call her mom to amp up the story for the next guy to over hear. Then a cop pulled up, she suddenly didn't need any spare change and just went walking.

On to the next gas station...

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Ga Ga for Erica

Erica came by for her 1st visit with Ember and he total loved her.

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Sleepy Kisses

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1st bath

This picture was taken fresh after Ember's 1st bath, which was on Tuesday. We gave him his 2nd one this morning. It's amazing how much dead skin comes off!

For a kid who freaks every time he wets his diaper, he sure does enjoy his bath. Go figure.

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Catching some rays with daddy.

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Still peeling and a little yellow, Ember an I hang out in the back yard a few minutes a day to get some fresh air and help him with his jaundice.

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Oops! Made the mistake of watching TV in real time again.

Kristen's mom had been telling us about a new show on TV she started watching called 'The Middle' and wanted us to check it out.

Well, I'm not sure if they just had an off episode or if the show is always this lame but I was bored out of my mind. Half exhausted, half in awe of my 10 day old son in my arms, I was in the mood for a good laugh. I didn't get a single one. But since I was comfortable and Kristen and I were kinda talking through the show anyway we left the TV on for the next show, 'Better With You' at least I think that's what it was called.

Another dud.

Reaching the point of irritation with how lame the 2nd sitcom was, I made my exit and head to Target to grab a few groceries. When I returned, Kristen had made her way to TLC and 'Sister Wives'. Intriguing from what I can tell, but I don't know if I'll make it through an entire episode.

After putting the groceries away and finally settling in on the couch comes Kat and 'LA Ink'. The faux reality of this show just kills me.

I'm about 5 minutes into it and I'm ready to just throw a hammer at the TV.

As you may of noticed by now I don't really enjoy much TV. I mostly use my TV for the Roku and primarily to listen to MOG or Pandora and watch the occasional movie of Netflix or Amazon.

I watch so little TV that it's hard for me to believe that 1) people watch this crap and 2.) these shows were green lighted.

Many people signed off on creating multiple episodes of turd and millions tune in.

Blows my mind.

Mental Note: stop watching TV in real time it's slowly sucking out your soul.

Yikes!

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Best Friends...

Ember and Dora nap side by side after breakfast this morning. Sent from my iPhone

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Ember fights off the sleep

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IMG_0023.mov (10564 KB)

While fighting the urge to fall a sleep, Ember gives a cute little smirk.

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Tuckered out...

Ember kept us up the entire night as he worked hard to help get Kristen's milk to come in. Finally at 11:51 he passed out for more than 20 minutes allowing time for Kristen to get a shower, me to send some emails to the office, make breakfast, write this post and hopefully take a nap.

Sent from my iPhone

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My Perfect 10

Meet our little boy...

Ember Brighton Thomas Shockley

Born at our home at 8:05 AM on 10/10/10 weighing in at 8 pounds 0 ounces and 20.5" in length.

WooHoo!!!

We're exhausted and going to sleep now.

Birth Story from Dad's point of view coming in the next few days.

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Wait for it...

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IMG_0021.mov (7845 KB)

This woman is a welcomed sight after a long day. I often see her doing her funky dance while walking her dog in the early evenings on my way home from the office. She always makes me laugh and leaves me a with a big o'l goofy smile. Perfect way to end a work day.

Enjoy!

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Dinner & Card Game.

Went to dinner tonight with the Kitchman's and Morsani's for Alexis' birthday then headed back to our place for a quick card game of Monopoly Deal before everyone had to head home to relieve baby sitters. Ahh... Domesticated Life. All in all a pretty tame evening but I managed to capture a few fun shots with the iPhone and doctor them up in Cross Process and Black & White.

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42 Things You Didn’t Know About Thom Yorke (And 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Kid A)

Everyone knows that Thom Yorke is passionate about climate change, that he purchased the entire Warp Records catalog after OK Computer, that he was born with his left eye fixed shut. But did you know that he can’t read musical notation? Did you know that he said he’d “start skanking dancehall style” if Radiohead were to split up? Did you know that today marks his 42nd birthday? If not, this list of 42 things you didn’t know about today’s birthday boy might very well shift your paradigm.

via flavorwire.com

Not sure where all the facts come from, but they're interesting none the less.

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Maternity Photo's Slide Show

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_Maternity_Photos-Display.m4v (75910 KB)

As promised a quick slide show for some of my favorites from the Maternity Shoot. 

Enjoy!

Music

Artist: Coldplay

Song: Don't Panic

Album: Parachutes

 

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On Ember's Due date; No baby yet but we do have Maternity Photos...

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We did a Maternity Photo shoot with Liz Lauren back in August and the Photo's just came in today! We're quite pleased!

Here's a quick sampling of the photos, more can be found on My Gallery or on Kristen's Facebook Page.

Video Slide Show To Come...

 

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It was my pleasure to serve you today.

Sent from my iPhone

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It Gets Better

via youtube.com

So with the recent suicides of young LGBT kids, I think it's fitting to post this. Not just for young gay kids but for all kids. Middle School Sucks. Period. High School for many sucks just as much if not even more. The one thing I can say, Is yes, it gets better.

When ever you have just the worst day ever, watch this video and remember, It will get better and you should stick around to see how much better it can get.

Joe

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Wow, the new Apple TV's are small!

Sent from my iPhone

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TEDxNextGenerationAsheville - Birke Baehr - "What's Wrong With Our Food System"

via youtube.com

This kid is on to something. :)

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The Skofflaws - William Shatner

  
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So I was going to write about Dax Riggs this week, but <a href="http://www.bemorewithless.com/2010/10-ways-to-simplify-your-music/">after reading this article</a> I was inspired to 1st clean up my iTunes library a little bit, you know just for about an hour or so. Well 3 hours later I had reached Art of Noise and I was exhausted; fatigued from rating, renaming, categorizing & deleting files.  Dax was gonna have to wait.

Think about it, do you realize how many albums Aphex Twin has?  

To cleanse my pallet a bit and switch tasks around the house I started importing a few old CD's and came across The Scofflaws - Ska in Hi-Fi. 

I was never a hugh Ska fan, I came up during the 3rd wave of the Ska movement which was more Ska-punk than ska, but I still to this day have a soft spot for those ska groups that were more of the classic 1st wave Calypso meets R&B meets Jazz vibe and 2nd wave 2 Tone vibe. The Scofflaws fit somewhere between that 1st and 2nd wave.

A lot of their songs are pretty goofy, Including William Shatner, but they feature great musicianship and are lot of fun to listen to. I saw the band live once in '95 or '96 and I remember a lot of the kids not getting it. Their sound wasn't punk enough, but the Ska purists, they got it and loved it.

More on the Scofflaws: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scofflaws

Enjoy!

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Robert Plant's Band of Joy and their Monkey (cover).

Nestled in the mix of Banjo laden covers and bland country ballads is this gem, a brooding cover of Low's "Monkey". It's just brilliant.  The take would of fit perfectly on the Cure's Pornography or Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. It's dark, menacing, spooky and oozes that tribal gypsy vibe that Robert Plant does so well.

Such a surprise.

Enjoy!

  
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08_Monkey.mp3 (10308 KB)

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My Girls...

Catching a nap.

Sent from my iPhone

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I Enjoy This Life!

via s3.amazonaws.com

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Today's fortune was pretty accurate... Apple & Ping.

Some how the fortune cookie new what would come today from Apple. Crazy.
Sent from my iPhone

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Total. Buzz. Kill.

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I was all excited and about to set up my sons fancy shmancy crib when I noticed this massive gouge in the head board. "WTF is this!" I shouted. Kristen came running into the room and within seconds was on the phone with Pottery Barn, "Hi, Our Crib has this massive gouge in the headboard. We're NOT going to pay for this, so what's the next step?" I love her!

Upon further inspection of the shipping box it was pretty easy to see how it was damaged. At some point in the process someone was even nice enough to cover the hole in the box with packing tape to avoid potential water damage. That was nice.

Long story short, New crib is on order and old one is going back. Certainly not the most horrible thing in the world, but a total buzz kill.

Joe

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Nutrigrain Ad - A "GREAT!" Web Classic

via youtube.com

I was reminded of this Ad today, fortunately Denise found it for me.

"Babies Everywhere!!!"

Love it!

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Cami Secret Parody (Boob Apron)

via youtube.com

The original concept is dumb enough, this parody just amps up the dumbness!

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F**K YOU

via youtube.com

Cee Lo Green comes soulful, funny and funky with the break up Jam of 2010.

Clever title ;)

-Joe

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My beautiful wife and her belly!

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Sent from my iPhone

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