Family biz, Pictures

First Day of school

I have posted the pictures of the kids First Day of school.

As Always,McKelvey & Arden gathered with Liam in the front of our house. they were excited for school to begin. And this past Tuesday Liam had his first day of preschool.

I can’t remember being excited for the first day of school, and maybe my parents can chime in and remind me. But I am glad they are, and I am thankful they don’t fight to wake up and get them ready in the morning.

I also can’t remember having homework in the 4th grade, let alone the 3rd or 2nd. Any hoo, I hope you liked this glimpse into the kids lives.

Bit of the ordinary, Memes

Internet Memes | 15 Albums

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I saw this on Facebook tonight:

Liam Feldman’s Notes | 15 Albums.

It was an interesting Meme going on.

Internet Meme- the list of albums
The rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

Basically it was giving you a certain structure to share info about yourself. And the interesting thing about restrictions, I find they are in fact quite freeing. I think that faced with a totally blank canvas, most people would be at a loss as to what to make. Most people need a nudge in a certain direction. I am definitely someone like that, give me a starting point and I can run with it. That is probably why I am in the theater. Give me a play or a story and my imagination starts flowing. Every one is the same, initiating action is harder than reaction, which is what a meme relies on.

Anyway my response to the question of 15 albums:

1 Metallica – Kill ‘Em All
2 Bob Marley – Legend
3 Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
4 Various Artists – High Fidelity Soundtrack
5 Pink FLoyd – The Wall
6 Glen Hansard – Soundtrack to the Movie “Once”
7 Various Artists – Stand By Me Soundtrack
8 Jane’s Addiction – Nothing Shocking
9 Black Sabbath – We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll
10 U2 – Achtung Baby
11 Pearl Jam – Ten
12 Nirvana – Bleach
13 The Beatles – Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
14 Jimi Hendrix – Live at Woodstock
15 Phish – Junta

I intentionally limited myself to one album from musical artist or group, which made it harder towards the end.

Family biz

School begins for the little ones

Well, the girls have had their first week of school and all week Liam has been wondering when his school starts. It has been hard transitioning back to a routine. We actually have to set an alarm to wake us up at 7 instead of just Ann of I being able to just wake up. But the girls both like school so far. McKelvey, who really loves her teachers every year, is very pleased with Ms. Hickman. Ms. Hickman wasn’t sure if McKelvey liked her at first because McKelvey was so serious in class, but now she gets a hug from McKelvey at the end of the day, so she knows she’s doing something right. It might just be the free piece of gum sometimes given out at the end of the day…

Arden was never someone who had to have the loving hugsy type of teacher. Her kindergarten teacher wasn’t very affectionate, and her first grade teacher is known to be either. Arden said after the end of the first day that “we had to put are heads on the desks and be quiet a lot.” However a lot to Arden could just be one more time than she wanted (like just one time total). But Ms. Smith gives out Skittles at the end of the day so that goes pretty far in Arden’s book. I am beginning to notice a trend…

My school hasn’t started yet, but the meetings have begun in full force. Yeay.

Bit of the ordinary, Geekiness

Social Media & the record of the Web

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I saw something earlier today that made me pause and think. Leo Laporte, Technology Journalist and Radio host, had a minor epiphany about using Twitter or other Microblogging platforms. He was was posting for a week or so when he noticed that none of the things he was posting had been showing up online. Which made him question why he used those services:

I should have been posting it here all along. Had I been doing so I’d have something to show for it. A record of my life for the last few years at the very least. But I ignored my blog and ran off with the sexy, shiny microblogs. Well no more.

via Buzz Kill : LOL: The Life of Leo.

I share links and interesting things I find via Twitter and Facebook, but I realized that those are also just being sent out into the noise. One of the reasons I am posting here is because I was interested in having a record of my thoughts and interesting things I have found on the web. I make sure to share my family photos here, because I don’t want them to be lost by some company. I am going to redouble my efforts to share things here first.

Bit of the ordinary

Weekly Twitter Update From 2010-08-09 – 2010-08-15 #tw

Bit of the ordinary

Books

I recently read this article by Roger Ebert, and it stuck a chord with .me. It is about his love of books. Real physical non “e” books. Mr. Ebert begins by talking about how content he was in university housing with few creature comforts and books:

“What do I really need that isn’t here in this room?” I asked. “Its dimensions are a little more than twice as wide and deep as I am tall. I don’t know, maybe 150 square feet? Here I have the padded wood chair in which I sit tilted against the wall, my feet braced on my straight desk chair. I am holding the three-inch-thick Paul Hamlyn edition of Shaw’s complete plays. This room contains: A wood single bed, an African blanket covering it, a wood desk and its gooseneck lamp, a small dresser with a mirror over it, my portable typewriter, a small wardrobe containing my clothes, a steamer trunk serving as a coffee table, and two bookcases, filled to overflowing. What more do I actually need?”

This reminded me of my brief stint in Seattle while doing an internship at the Seattle Repertory Theatre. I went to Seattle without Housing lined up, but promised a temporary place on another intern’s couch. After a week of searching I found a place in Fremont neighborhood. I had one small room with a borrowed mattress and drafting table and a secondhand lamp. I had a wind-up Alarm clock and portable CD player to cover my other needs. Once I didn’t need to spend my free time looking for a place to live, I was able to explore the city more. I would leave the Seattle Rep’s paint shop at 4:30, after having started at 8am. I would have my camera, a book and a soda in my backpack and go looking around. One of the things I quickly discovered some great used bookstores. So over the course of my 2 1/2 months in seattle I read 50 books (and had to ship them back to South Carolina). Half were fiction and the other half were non-fiction mostly Time-Life art history books.

If you think of simplifying your life, that was definitely one of the times I lived the simplest. I don’t know if I could go back to that, but I wish I could have that amount of reading time again. I discovered that once the school year starts I only read for fun over christmas break and over the summer. Otherwise it is just stuff I read for work. Some of that can be fun, like the plays I read for class or ones we think about producing.

But there is something different about reading something just because you want to. I think I need to carve out more time to that.

Family biz

My Week at Winni

I have been gone a while, and it is good to be back home. We were at at Geneva Point Center in New Hampshire. It is a beautiful location: “Pine Haven”for an example. It is on Lake Winnipasaukee ( is that spelled right?), so there was a Beach which McKelvey and Arden loved. They got to play in the water every day. The adults went to classes in the morning, on different topics, from religion to social movements, to singing and even improv. the classes are intended to deepen your understanding of yourself and broaden your understanding of the world.

There is a labyrinth to walk and meditate, like the labyrinths in old cathedrals.

The center of the social life at Winni is the Barn. Classes are held there, and at night there is dancing in the barn. Ethnic dances from different countries, lots of dances that are just a lot of fun. It was a good relaxing week. I am kind of bummed that I have to start work again.

Barn Dance

Bit of the ordinary

Weekly Twitter Update From 2010-07-26 – 2010-08-01 #tw

Bit of the ordinary

Weekly Twitter Update From 2010-07-19 – 2010-07-25 #tw

Bit of the ordinary

Weekly Twitter Update From 2010-07-12 – 2010-07-18 #tw

the Blog of Owen Collins