Little Dude showing off his soccer skills…or futbol for all of my international readers.
Word on the street is that Santa may have room for a soccer goal on his sleigh. Shhhh.
4 days shy of 18 months.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa6lA35J0PQ[/youtube]
Passed Thanksgiving and fast on the way to Christmas. How does time move so quickly? The older we get the faster it moves? Or do kids do that to us? It’s hard to keep track of what’s going on in the chaotic circle of the Dudes.
As a result of the fast gallop that life is taking into the future, the Dude has once again accumulated some tasty morsels of internet sweetness. This edition of Dude’s News will be a bit of a potpourri, but there will be some holiday tinged items to keep us festive.
Local News
The resident photographer was out at a meeting the other night, so the Dude got to enjoy a solo dinner with the kiddos. Dinner conversation with the kids is always fun. The Princess generally leads the way.
Princess: I don’t like sweet potatoes. I don’t like sweets.
Dude: Sweet potatoes aren’t that sweet.
After a minute of contemplation. Princess: I like candy. It’s a type of sweet.
This exchange is followed immediately by, Princess: But I don’t want dessert tonight.
Dude: Ok.
Princess: Mom gave me a consequence this afternoon; no dessert. But I’m all right with it. Mom gave me a choice – tv or dessert – and I chose dessert. I felt like telling the truth would be better because later you would have said, Princess why didn’t you tell the truth?
She’s right, I would have. I congratulated her on telling the truth, and we talked about what happened while we finished dinner.
As I was clearing the table, Princess: But Mom said I could choose not to sleep in my bed, and that’s what I chose. I’ll just have to sleep in the bean bag.
Dude: No, that’s a punishment for us dealing with a tired version of you tomorrow.
She’s crafty, just like her mother.
In other local news, Princess finally has a loose tooth! Hasn’t fallen out yet, but it’s on the way. And, the boy’s hair is growing fast and furious. We are officially passed the one year mark (Thanksgiving) since his last haircut. Awesome.
Evolution of a Crazy Man
Say It Ain’t So
Is the U.S. government seriously considering pizza as a vegetable?! For real?! This is some sort of bizzarro world, right? House of Representatives say pizza = vegetable. 🙁
11 Best Illustrated Children’s & Picture Books of 2011
Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’ve read all (or any) of these books, but they all seem pretty dope, so I figured I’d share.
Street Skiing
When I grew up, we use to drive six hours to Upstate New York for a week long ski vacation each year. We had friends that lived in NY, so it was a good excuse to visit and enjoy a week of skiing at the local mountain.
This dates me a bit, but snowboarding wasn’t even really an option at that point. It was skiing or nothing. By the time I hit college, I traded in the skies for a snowboard, and I never really looked back. Skiing seemed dated to me.
But skiing has regained much of its coolness over the years, and this video actually made me envy skiers again. Thanks Kottke.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/32863936[/vimeo]
Super rad, right? But back to my original point. Long distance family road trips. Awesome…in a grueling way.
We took a trip to West Virginia for Thanksgiving. It was a great time in the mountains with family, but the seven hour car ride was a bit challenging. Anytime with two adults, two children, three dogs, plus luggage, locked in a vehicle for seven hours is going to be tough. Now mix in some puke, and you have a legendary (or is it normal?) family road trip.
The Princess got sick about five minutes after we entered the car for the ride home. She handled it like a champ, and there was no sign of sickness the next day. Made for a brutal trip, but glad it passed quickly.
Good times.
Education
Free education…that’s fun?! Can’t be. But it is. Check out this awesome site (www.KhanAcademy.com) that is so simple, but such an amazing idea.
Over the years, I’ve realized how important – and cool – math really is, but figured I squandered my opportunities in school to truly understand it. Strange considering my Dad is a math professor. But Khan Academy has given me the gift of free math tutoring that is easy and fun…for real. And although they (really just he) started with math, there are all sorts of new topics coming online.
Here’s how the site describes itself:
Learning
The Dude is a big fan of education. Not necessarily “formal education,” but learning in general. It’s fun to learn new things, and beyond love, it’s probably the most important aspect of life. So we is that we start to learn?
How about before we’re born?! Sweet! This is a cool TED talk…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stngBN4hp14[/youtube]
Surf Break
Everyone needs a little surf in their life. Here’s your dose for today with a surfer with one of the coolest names, Taj. (Thanks Kid)
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/32449778[/vimeo]
Christmas List!
For all of those hard to shop for little dudes and dudettes, here is the Dude’s absolutely favorite list of the 5 Best Toys of All Time from Wired Magazine.
If you know Wired, you’re probably expecting some sweet technical gadgets, but be prepared to be amazed by simplicity. Love it.
History
In the first edition of Dude’s News I mentioned an article that discusses that early humans (as in 100,000 year old humans) were intelligent enough to seek out and mix materials to create paint for cave art. Very impressive.
Along the same lines, here’s an article that suggests that humans 42,000 years ago had enough “high levels of planning and complex maritime technology” to go deep sea fishing for tuna! Unreal. Our educational system teaches us about the last one to two thousand years, and the way we learn it makes it seem like there isn’t much to learn beyond that. Seems like there was a whole lotta life going on before our current frame of reference.
Time
Awesome article. Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Time. Time is a amazing.
Here’s a sneak peek at #10:
10. A lifespan is a billion heartbeats. Complex organisms die. Sad though it is in individual cases, it’s a necessary part of the bigger picture; life pushes out the old to make way for the new. Remarkably, there exist simple scaling laws relating animal metabolism to body mass. Larger animals live longer; but they also metabolize slower, as manifested in slower heart rates. These effects cancel out, so that animals from shrews to blue whales have lifespans with just about equal number of heartbeats — about one and a half billion, if you simply must be precise. In that very real sense, all animal species experience “the same amount of time.” At least, until we master #9 and become immortal.
Make sure to enjoy all one and a half billion beats!
Space
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date ‑- two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.
Stop and ponder that for a minute. The size of 10 billion of our suns!? Think about the size of the Universe. We are just a tiny little speck in the middle of nowhere among an infinite amount of galaxies, stars, and planets. From a sheer statistical perspective, there’s no way we are alone in the Universe. No way. There is soooo much we have no clue about.
Smile!
Seems like we should all be smiling much more.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9cGdRNMdQQ[/youtube]
Holiday Rituals
In the last edition of Dude’s News, I mentioned that I’ve been testing out the “primal” diet/lifestyle, and I have to say that it is going very well. Based on a month or so of walking the walk, I would highly recommend considering it. The ideas seem like commonsense…to the Dude anyway.
Here’s a recent post from Mark’s Daily Apple, the primal blog that I’ve been following, that discusses ritual, and it’s a great reminder of the importance of our holiday rituals, regardless of what they are.
Over the years, I’ve questioned the specifics of the rituals to much, and as a result I lost the bigger picture. It is important to bond us, as groups, in a common story and experience. Rituals help us know who we are and where we come from.
Keep up the rituals, and if you don’t have any, now’s a great time to start.
Once again, the awesomeness has accumulated, and I haven’t found the time to share any of it in individual doses; so I’m going with grand buffet style post once again. Dude’s News.
For the second edition, I’m going to focus on some items that display the undeniable righteousness of life.
Local News
The Dude and the Mrs. have embarked on a journey to explore the “primal” eating and exercise habits. It seems to contain a lot of common sense, so we figured we’d give it a whirl.
One day per week is designated as a “sprint” day. It could be sprints, jump rope, bike, etc. at a fast pace. This week I chose to actually sprint. I haven’t done that in a quite a while. It felt great to get out there again.
Until…about ten minutes into it, while sprinting, a thought popped into my head recalling when I pulled my hamstring sprinting on the beach. At almost the same instant I pulled my hamstring. Awesome.
One day of sprints and one pulled muscle. Sweet. I’m sticking with it though. But the experience made me wonder how tightly mind and body are tied.
So, don’t think “pulled muscle” next time you sprint.
Life is Pretty Cool
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOMI1JKfWwc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNN1VKeS61g&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0x52u2yzgI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_QLguHvACs[/youtube]
The quantity of information available these days is amazing.
A short 10 – 15 years ago, the biggest source of information was TV and radio. We are now inundated with information almost constantly. We are riding the information superhighway after all.
I think it’s about as rad as rad can be. I love finding new sources of information, learning something new, starting a new hobby, teaching myself how to do something I’ve never done. The pace of learning has exploded.
I’m sure it’s a double-edged sword. I’m sure negatives can be argued, but I dig the plethora of information at our finger tips. The drawback I find is having the time to consume all of the ideas that I’m interested in.
I have so much great information coming at me through my RSS feeds (If you’re not familiar with RSS feeds, it’s worth the read – awesome way to collect info you’re into without having to go find it.) that it’s impossible to follow every idea down the rabbit hole, and even content that I dig is often pushed aside or forgotten.
I’ve been collecting a few nuggets of greatness in my email for a week or two. My goal has been to write separate posts for each, but time keeps passing, and the content keeps coming. So, rather than try to get individual posts out, I figure I’ll share them all at once under the amazingly clever name of “Dude’s News”…I know, you love it.
Let’s start with some Local News
Local News
The Boy is a lunatic, and the lunacy grows everyday. Running, screaming, throwing, kicking, and a whole bunch of eating along the way.
Words are coming slowly but surely. He is always moving and exploring, and he’s becoming much more sure-footed. It’s fun to set him loose in the yard and follow him around. A great way to slow down and enjoy some everyday exploring.
The Princess is crushing first grade. Reading like a champ, loving piano lessons, and being a fantastic big sister.
The local news is all unicorns, gummie bears, and rainbows.
Science
Here’s a very cool video from TED (as in “Ideas worth spreading,” TED) about the complex experimenting and decision making that babies and toddlers use to figure out the world around them. I get the impression that the collective “we” views babies as lacking in some of the cognitive muscle that we flex as we get older. But maybe “we” have it wrong.
Judging by Little Dude’s constant exploring mentioned above, I’m inclined to think that psychologist Alison Gopnik may be onto something here. She says something in the video about toddlers not having ADD but rather lacking the ability NOT to pay concentrated attention to all of the amazing things around them, and that seems to fit Little Dude to a T.
Here’s the video description: “Babies and young children are like the R&D division of the human species,” says psychologist Alison Gopnik. Her research explores the sophisticated intelligence-gathering and decision-making that babies are really doing when they play.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cplaWsiu7Yg[/youtube]
In other science news, here’s an article from Discover titled: 100,000-Year-Old Paint Factory Suggests Early Humans Knew Chemistry.
As in one hundred thousand, 100k, one hundo thousundo! That’s craziness!
As a culture, how can we feel comfortable with the idea that we have any clue about what is going on? We know of a blink in time of history.
Jesus was around two thousand years ago. We have written history for something like ten thousand years. That still leaves 90,000 years between our knowledge and people sophisticated enough to craft paint. That’s “20,000-30,000 years before archaeologists had previously thought such complex thought processes possible.”
That’s a huge amount of time. Wild.
Lastly in the science department, this is what the Universe looks like. Insane, right? The Universe. You’re looking at it. A second ago I implied we don’t know anything, and now we have an example of us mapping out the entire Universe. Life is full of paradoxes.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/29769051[/vimeo]
Nature
As described on Kotke.com: “Richard Feynman talking about the beauty of science and of the natural world over a bunch of video footage taken from NASA, Microcosmos, and BBC nature docs like Planet Earth.”
This video is super cool. Got a special place in your heart for Mother Nature? You will after you watch.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmbwczTC6E&feature=related[/youtube]
In a similar nature-loving vain, here’s a great video of a dude following mountain climbers for National Geographic. The Dude is becoming increasingly intrigued by mountain climbing.
If you have a chance (especially if you have Netflix), check out 180° South. It’s a surfing/mountain climbing “documentary,” and it’s pretty rad…with a rad soundtrack. It gave me a new outlook on mountain climbing. A completely isolated and useless act, but you come back with a new perspective. Anyway, onto the feature presentation.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/27786807[/vimeo]
Amazingly Cool
In the amazingly cool department, ABC News is reporting that the DeLorean is coming back! Back to the Future…Present.
And, it’s coming back as an electric car.
Nice work making electric cars cool. Didn’t think it could be done.
Economics
And to round out the Dude’s News coverage, let’s take a quick look at a report from Bloomberg stating that DC now outpaces Silicon Valley for the highest household income in the country.
As Don King is fond of saying, “Only in America.” How is the region that houses the government and all of the cronies that go along with it the highest paid area of the country? How is that possible?
Federal workers earn an average of $126,000 in total compensation!
Our tax money pays them, correct? Do we see the shitstorm going on in country/world right now? Are they really worth an average salary of $126,000? Things are waaaaayyyyy out of whack these days.
Amazingly Cool Part Deux
To end on a positive note, let’s showcase what could be one of the greatest father/son bonding experiences of all time – and absolutely the greatest Hotwheels track the Dude has every laid eyes on (hats off to TheKidShouldSeeThis.com for another gnarly video)…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzTRTQkmHpU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Dove Man
Well, the Dude is officially for sale.
After a year and a half and138 posts, the corporate sponsors are finally flocking to the land of the Dude.
Flocking?…perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. I got some free soap.
Mrs. Dude estimates the value of the package at $65. Not bad. So, a big thanks to Dove soap.
Dove contacted me asking if I would review their new men’s line of soap, and I’m not one to pass up some free soap.
A week or so later a box arrives addressed to “Dude,” and I was pleasantly surprised to find a great gift package. Two types of soap, deodorant, a scrubbing thing, and a sweet bag. Already exceeding expectations!
I’m a dude, so to a large degree soap is soap, but after two weeks of using the goods, I’m pleased.
All of the products smell like a dude, in a good way. But keep in mind, that means they are strong…which has pros and cons.
Taking a shower with the soap followed by applying the deodorant and a squeeze to the Mrs. can lead to choking on the strength of the dude smell, but hours later, a squeeze at the end of the day still elicits oohs and ahhs about how good you smell.
So, overall a score for Dove soap. It’s Dude Approved!
And let this be a tri-fold lesson to all of you corporate sponsors:
Thanks again to Dove. It is now the Dude’s soap of choice.
You can find Dove Men + Care Facebook page here, where you can buy all the Dude Approved goods for yourself. Tell the Dude sent ya.
On a side note, we would need cable in order to actually watch TV, but the Dude has seen TV, and I’ve always been a big Simpsons fan. Great writing. So, when I accepted this lucrative offer from Dove, I immediately began referring to myself as Dove Man and in the classic Duff Man voice.
I don’t think Mrs. Dude has ever watched the Simpsons, but it’s been making me laugh for the last week.
Signing off, Dove Man…oh yeah!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmNkyuKBu2c&feature=related[/youtube]
Let me start by professing the Dude’s love for the Dukes of Hazard.
I was a HUGE Dukes fan as a young lad.
I can still recall the classic Sears picture hanging on the wall by the stairs in my childhood home of me in my “Sunday best.” Obviously my sky blue iron-on Dukes of Hazard t-shirt! Bo and Luke sitting on the hood of the General Lee. Classic 1980’s.
Not to mention my amazing General Lee replica with the roof that lifted so I could stuff Bo and Luke in their proper seats…it was just the right size for G.I. Joe’s by the way.
I bring this up because A. the Dude loves the Dukes, and B. Little Dude loves to put anything and everything in his mouth.
What do these have in common you wonder? The fantastic “Questionable Skills” blog I mentioned last week. Ted McCagg has done it again; he’s tickled my funny bone.
Dukes of Choking Hazards
Over the past week or two, I noticed a couple national news headlines that made me scratch my head. They are unrelated stories, but the topics are most certainly related.
1. Drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in U.S., data show – L.A. Times
Hmmm. Well, The Man must know what he’s doing. Even if legal, prescribed drugs are dangerous killers, at least the drugs we spend billions of dollars fighting, locking up non-violent criminals, and watching our “war” spill over to thousands of deaths in Mexico (and the US) must be immensely dangerous and worth the extreme sacrifice, right?
Enter headline #2…
2. ‘Magic Mushroom’ Drug May Improve Personality Long Term – USA Today,Discover Magazine, MedPageToday.com, etc.
For real?! This is the culture we live in?!
What’s the goal of the “War on Drugs”? Promote dangerous, addictive drugs created in a laboratory and sold for insane profits that limit our ability to think and act for ourselves, while at the same time locking people up and ruining lives for any interest in naturally occurring plants that have been used for thousands of years and create a sense of well-being and “openness”?
Seems logical. Par for the course for The Man.
I’ll skip the long drawn-out rant. There are a lot of much more qualified ranters on this subject, but I will leave you with this graph. Does something seem wrong with the way we’re currently operating?
American Incarceration Timeline
I’ve been thinking about this post for a while. I guess on some level, it’s been knocking around the Dude’s noggin for years.
On September 5th my Grandmother passed away.
Grandma, Gram, Greatma. The Dude’s Mom’s Mom. The absolute epitome of a Grandmother.
Here we are 20 days later, and I’m just now getting around to putting pen to pad…or keystroke to keyboard. I can’t really explain my slow pace for turning this post around. I guess a life with kids is always an excuse, but that’s not really what held me up. It was more of a reluctance.
A reluctance to move on, a reluctance to face the closure, a reluctance to work through the feelings of mourning, a reluctance to let one of the last pieces of childhood fade away? Probably all of the above, but also a reluctance to the idea of my post not living up to the amazing person that Gram is (she’ll always be in my heart, so I’m sticking with is rather than was).
The Dude has been blessed with some amazing genes. If my Grandparents are any sign of what’s to come, then Mrs. Dude is stuck with me for a long time. Gram passed away a month and a half before her 92nd birthday, and her amazing husband, Pop, is still watching the Yankees and doing his daily crossword puzzle at the ripe age of 94.
92 years of life is amazing, and beyond just surviving for such a long period of time, Gram shared an infectious love with everyone she met for those 92 years. She had four children, 10 grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren. She definitely left a legacy, but that legacy is much more than the number of her offspring.
By the time someone you love reaches 92, it’s a safe bet that thoughts of their passing have crossed your mind. So, I’ve had time to ponder the importance that Gram holds for me. And it is a deep, down to my core, type of importance. But it is never fully understood until it is a reality. When that phone call comes, and that expected, yet dreaded, news is passed through the family.
I’ve had twenty days to let the reality sink in, and Gram’s importance to me grows everyday. But I’ve moved beyond my reluctance to falling short. I know my writing can never live up to the person that Martha Louise Olsen is. Words can’t capture how special she is and how she could warm people’s hearts by just being herself.
There are endless examples and stories to tell. We relived great memories when we celebrated her life at the funeral. Tea parties, surprises under our pillows, singing around the Christmas tree, tennis camp, hours spent traveling to soccer games, our favorite desserts. But to me, Gram’s lasting significance was as simple as it could be, love…and lots of it.
Gram always had a smile to share and never had a bad word for anyone. She was a fighter for what she believed in, but she would fight in the absolute most loving way. I never once heard a complaint, saw an angry face, or witnessed even the slightest mean-spirited action. Family was always the top priority, but her love stretched way beyond the family tree. Her love was all inclusive. And her husband, Pop, was the man she loved the most until the final breath of air.
I am who I am, on so many levels, because of Gram’s love. I am the husband, father, and person that I am because of the lessons that Gram passed on to me. And the brilliance of it all is the Gram never once “taught” me a lesson. She passed on everything I needed to know to live a good life and be a good person by just being who she was. Her love infected me from day one, and it will never let me go.
As I’ve pondered the passing of people I love over the years, I’ve had a song by the Flaming Lips that sticks with me. There are a lot of nice thoughts in the song, but one that stands out, and is fitting for this particular moment goes like this:
Do You Realize – that everyone you know someday will die
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes – let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It’s hard to make the good things last
We’ll all be moving to the great unknown someday, but while we’re here, the most important thing we can do is share our love and let the people who are important to us know how much we care for them. When they are gone, they’re gone. I can’t tell Gram that I love her today, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt how much she loved me and she knows how much I love her.
The Dude family is basking in this love as well. We don’t let a day pass without saying those three magic words…many times. 🙂 It’s hard to make the good things last, so enjoy them while they are here, let them know how special they are…and fight like hell to keep them close.
Before I share the great Flaming Lips tune, I want to share a Bible verse. Stop choking, yes, a Bible verse. I believe this is the first time the Dude has quoted the Bible; not sure if/when it will happen again, so enjoy. This is a verse from Gram’s funeral service, and it captures Gram’s essence and her enduring lesson…plus, it uses the word “abide”…as in The Dude abides.
1 Corinthians 13
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Can I get an amen?!
And now on to the Flaming Lips, but before I go, I’ll sign off as I always do with Gram; “I love you Gram.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETI72zGyzZI&feature=related[/youtube]
The Dude loves the minivan. I’ve made no secret of my affinity for the gorgeous champagne yacht. In fact here’s a direct quote from one of my many minivan posts:
“As I’ve mentioned, I love our minivan. Mrs. Dude is still somewhat skeptical, but I dig it. And for all the haters, we’ve got a captain’s hat and a mini machine gun to let them know we are legit minivaners.”
But there has been a mutiny in Dude Land. The Capt. and his ship have been pillaged.
Here’s a quote from Mrs. Dude:
Things I won’t miss about the minivan:
1. the sticky steering wheel. (it was sticky b/c it was old, and touched by many hands not b/c I didn’t clean it)
2. the rims, they matched the paint job…gold.
3. the ceiling falling on our heads
4. the looks I got from people while driving the mini van, most just giggled.
Mrs. Dude and the Princess have teamed up to overrule the Dude and ship that champagne beauty off to uncharted waters.
Apparently they didn’t like the awesome gold rims, the roof falling on their heads, yadda, yadda, yadda.
She’s been sold to a fisherdude, who will stuff her full of fishing gear…rather than baby gear. I hope they form a strong bond…and the capt. hat gets good use.
Via con dias, minvan.
Champagne Queen
Cue the Boyz II Men…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b3mftcV0dY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
In light of the Dude’s recent rant on the TSA, this great drawing from Questionable Skills (this dude draws some hilarious, and random, stuff) seemed pertinent.
Questionable Skills: Service Animal