Little Dude’s First Haircut. What Were We Thinking?!

We experienced Little Dude’s first “real” haircut today.

As you may recall, we’ve shaved that melon a couple times, but it has been almost exactly two years since we’ve touched that glorious coif.

As you can probably tell from my choice of adjectives, this has been a stressful day.

Mrs. Dude rolled out a fantastic blog post recapping Little Dude’s first haircut (yes, apparently we have blogging wars in our house. :)), so I won’t recreate the wheel. But I will make a few points and send you along to my lovely bride’s fantastic site.

  1. I need to start by saying how much we absolutely without a doubt whole-heartedly adored the Little Man’s hair. For real. Loved it! Look at that before shot…

    Little Dude - Before THE Haircut

    Little Dude – Before THE Haircut

  2. Little Dude hated every minute of this experience. Refer to Mrs. D’s post for photographic reference.
  3. The Dude’s dome is desolate when it comes to hair follicles.  Why would anyone let me sit in a barber’s chair (literally have not been in one in 10 years), hold my son while he screams and cries,  and then ask me for direction about my two year old’s mane?!
  4. I’ve given Mrs. Dude direction about this haircut for six months…”just an inch, no more, just an inch.” Why did I choke under pressure? Mrs. Dude reminds me that I uttered the words, “we’re not worried about the length, just make it look natural.” What?! Length is ALL we were worried about! Who am I, Vidal Sassoon?! Natural?! I shave my head with a bic razor that I sharpen on my jeans. What do I know about “natural?” Just trim that shit! How hard is that?!

I’ll preface this by saying that he’s our son, he will ALWAYS be amazingly handsome to us. HOWEVER, who is that dude? And where did his hair go.

Little Dude - After

Little Dude – After

Can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.

How could a haircut be this stressful?

Geesh! Maybe bald is beautiful.

Check out Mrs. Dude’s post…she’s pretty great. 🙂

A Remote Helicopter that Drops Ping Pong Balls. Need I Say More?!

iStrike Shuttle

iStrike Shuttle

“Let me write my blog post about stupid helicopters that drop ping pong balls,” says the sarcastic pregnant lady playing backseat blog writer.

Ladies just don’t get it.

But I bet the dudes in the audience are lovin’ this one.

A remote helicopter that is controlled by your iPhone…AND drops ping pong balls!!!!

Video evidence below. Wait for it, wait for it…50 second mark, bam! Dropping ping pong balls.

You can remotely drop a ping pong ball on the lady that does not understand why you would enjoy remotely dropping a ping pong ball. Awesome.

Need I say more? I think not.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHkXJpftxe4[/youtube]

Life Moves Fast

One of my all-time favorite quotes is from the wise sage Ferris Bueller.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91lJhEzMaH4[/youtube]

So true. As age creeps on, it’s amazing how quickly the clock ticks on. There never seems to be enough time.

I guess the secret is to enjoy the time we have. But it sure would be nice to have an extra few hours.

So, what could we do with some added hours in our day? Below is a great infographic about “what we could do with an extra two hours,” but first, a bit about the source of the goods.

Hat tip to The Art of Less Doing for sharing the love, but this originated at the FancyHands.com Pintrest page.

FancyHands. Great name.

I’ve never used them, but I love the concept. “Assistants for Everyone.”

Virtual assistants that will do just about anything you need them to do. And great prices. I haven’t figured out what to use them for yet, but the Fanciest of Hands is definitely on my short list to give personal outsourcing a try.

 So, what could you do with an extra 2 hours? How about…

What Could You Do with an Extra 2 Hours?

What Could You Do with an Extra 2 Hours?

The Dude, A Camera, & A Canvas

I’ve always said to Mrs. Dude that “anyone can be a photographer.” Since before the Mrs. picked up a camera and started her amazing photog career, I claimed digital cameras and Photoshop threw open the doors to any yahoo that wanted to claim their title as “professional photographer.”

An endless supply of mediocre photographers littering the interwebs tells me I’m right.

On the other hand, thousands of dollars in equipment, endless hours honing ridiculous technical skills, and an artistic eye that no money or time can buy tell me the Dude is dead wrong.

Mrs. Dude, you are truly rad!

So, I straddle the fence with my own photog skills. Am I just one of the masses with the luxury of a digital camera in hand? Or does the Dude have an eye money can’t buy?

On the fence?! Nah! I’m super rad…when Mrs. Dude is there to tell me what to do and edit my shots. 🙂

Last night we gathered up the Dude clan for a quick run to the beach so I could capture Mrs. Dude’s baby belly in the perfect light a sunset throws on the dunes at dusk.

The way I look at it, we only need one great shot to make the trip a success.

The Mrs. showed me a few pics, and I must say…I nailed it! With complete direction, of course. But now Mrs. D says we aren’t posting any yet!

Wha, wha, what?! The world deserves – no NEEDS – to see the Dude’s phtog skills.

Wait?! I think not.

Little Hands, Big Belly

Little Hands, Big Belly

Awesome, right?

Honestly, I’m so biased that I have no clue if it’s any good – my wife, my kids, my baby belly, and my shot. How could I not think it’s amazing?

But what I do know is that we need this hanging in our room for inspiration leading up to the big event a short two months away. A gorgeous canvas as a daily reminder of where we’re headed and why we’re going in that direction. I love it.

Luckily, I just scored some great canvas prints from PrintCopia.com, so I know where to get this jobby job taken care of.

The PrintCopia canvases are the shiz – heavy-duty,  well made, great picture quality…an all-around gorgeous print. Check out the rad shots of Little Dude flying we just hung up…

Little Dude Flying Canvas

Little Dude Flying Canvas

Hook it up if you have some great pics (or hire the Dude…I hear I’m a rad photographer).

By the way, PrintCopia also has car magnets, custom banners, & signs.

However, I will mention one tiny detail…

I have Mrs. Dude convinced I’m a “doer.” I’m up early gettin’ at it – whatever “it” may be, and I love to say that “I got stuff done” today. As I get older, the jobs keep piling up, so I guess I just keep on truckin’.

But the reality is that I’m pretty lazy at heart. My yearbook quote in high school was,

“I’m lazy. But it’s the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn’t like walking or carrying things,” by Lech Walesa.

And I’m sticking to it.

I love to get ‘er done, but sometimes the laziness wins out, and this is one of those times.

The canvases from PrintCopia are gorgeous and of high quality, but I’m a bit dismayed to report that one of two canvases (i.e. 50%) arrived with a blemish right in the center of the picture. Nothing a little white paint can’t fix, but a factual review is a factual review. I submit to you evidence numero uno…

However, overall, these are fantastic canvas prints, and a trip to the post office to send it back just seems like a lot of work, so the Dude’s laziness has won out. We’ll make it work.

With that said, if PrintCopia wants to send a canvas of the Dude’s awesome photog skills displayed above to make up for the blemish, I’m happy to report to the masses of the great customer service. Wink, wink. Nod, nod. 😉

In the end, the lessons contained herein are…

  1. Hire Mrs. Dude for your pictures. The Dude is all talk and takes all necessary direction from the true brains in this relationship – i.e. the Mrs.
  2. Buy a canvas print for your home – your Mrs. will thank you…FYI – Christmas is right around the corner!

The Dude Has Always Wanted To…Blow Glass

If I have an idea, I tend to give it a whirl.

Thanks to a wise sage (Mr. S. Barry :)), I tend to live by the motto of “Be the Expert.”

Wise words, right? We’re all just faking our way through life. Regardless of how smart we might think we are, we have no clue. Zero. Nada. Zip! We are all just making it up as we go, so we might as well “be the expert.”

I love to tell Mrs. Dude that everything is easy….she loves it too. 🙂

I know that lots of stuff is pretty darn difficult, but a huge part of me does believe that everything is pretty easy when we put our mind to it. If someone else did it, odds are, you can too.

As a result of this can-do attitude, I tend to latch onto ideas that I have no business holding on to. Like blowing glass.

Blowing glass seems awesome, right?! Shaping molten glass into gorgeous designs. Awesome.

Where do I sign up?

Then I watch a video like this that reminds me that sometimes it’s ok to leave it to the “experts.”

Who knows, someday Mrs. Dude may end up with a mis-shapened glass vase crafted by the Dude in an overcrowded garage utilizing dangerously hot materials in dangerously hazardous ways, but for now, I’m cool with watching this dude create an awesome glass blown horse in all of 90 seconds…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFSB3-SzgoQ[/youtube]

Hat tip to The Kid for sharing the love.

99 Problems But a Hack Ain’t One

Have you noticed the word “hacking” creeping into everyday conversations lately?…or is it just me? Like when you get a new car and you start to see them everywhere?

I’ve been learning about different ideas for “hacking” lately, and it seems to apply to everything. Hacking is a computer term that in a general sense means to look at systems holistically to test and measure how the system can be improved.

The Dude digs the idea. It carries an anti-authoritarian connotation. Everything is part of a system, and everything can be improved. In a sense, we are all “hackers.” And we are all trying to improve our personal “systems” each and everyday.  Or, at least we should be.

In addition to the common idea of computer hacking, I’m starting to see the idea of bio-hacking, life-hacking, fitness hacking, etc. more and more. And I think it’s a pretty great development. It shows that we are taking control. We don’t need no stinkin’ authority to tell us what to do. Let’s hack a better future.

I’ll continue to share some “hacking” ideas, but for now, let’s focus on some great “life hacks”…

Here are “99 Life Hacks” that will leave you amazed. You can use just about all of them…seriously. So simple. So brilliant.

And let’s follow-up with a sweet “Life Hacks” infographic

Amazing Life Hacks

Amazing Life Hacks