Evan Valentine, Stay-at-Home Dad

Our car has three banks of six XM station presets. One of the banks is mine. These are my stations.

1. Lithium: Can't go wrong with 90's alt-rock.
2. 40's on 4: Self explanatory. I really, really wish they had a 30's station.
3. Chill: Downtempo electronic, also including trip-hop and ambient.
4. The Joint: Reggae.
5. Bluegrass Junction
6. Raw Dog Comedy: Uncensored stand-up comedy.

Since the stations I listen to are not very popular, most of them feature commercials which is quite annoying. Despite whittling down 150+ stations to six, none of them are particularly good. I mostly switch between Reggae and Raw Dog Comedy. Oh well, it's my wife's car, and she loves Sirius XM... and it was free! (my aunt re-activated our account as a Christmas present).

Speaking of Reggae, here are some of my favorite lesser-known tracks.

Tiken Jah Fakoly - Le Pays Va Mal - Reggae in French from the Ivory Coast. Political lyrics (translated)
Beres Hammond - Just Like A Woman
Melodians - Rivers Of Babylon - Most people don't know the Sublime version is a cover of this
Bob Marley - Mr. Brown - Not one of his popular tracks, but a great and fun song

Last night began the concert gluttony with Gaelic Storm. It was a good concert. Tonight it's Leon Redbone at 7:30. I'm excited.

I'm getting back into a non-tv phase. This is a good thing--a very good thing. I used to watch cartoons all morning with Stephen, and then leave it on ESPN's endless loop of Sports Center all day. There is no reason to watch ESPN at all anymore since football is over. Without Merril Hoge, there is no analysis worth watching. Merril Hoge is the best post-game analysis personality, in any sport, on any channel. You have to ignore the fact that nearly all of his predictions are wrong; that is not his thing. I love all of his little "inside the play" replays.

I should just cancel all of my DVR recordings (PBS' Nature, FRONTLINE, Nova) and stop downloading documentary specials. I don't watch any of them. I just watch 60 Minutes every week. That's it. I'm listening to more music as a result, and writing more blog entries. (It's not all good, however. I spend a lot of time on link sites).

The verdict is that I really like Linux Ubuntu. If something goes wrong or does not work "out of the box," things get very difficult, very fast. For instance, my Logitech webcam was working in every program except Skype, but after searching a lot of forums, I found that the webcam works in Skype when I load it by typing "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype" instead of just typing "skype." It was a pain to figure out, but now that I know, it's not a big deal. It would be much harder if I wasn't running GNOME. This old laptop doesn't even have enough power to run Skype video chat in Windows XP, so I don't actually have any other options.

Speaking of that, I spent about a hundred bucks last night to repair/upgrade this laptop (Dell laptop from 2004). This old battery lasts 7 minutes when unplugged, and the keyboard is kind of destroyed, so I spent about 50 bucks buying replacements for both of those. Hopefully replacing the keyboard is as easy as it looks. I also spent 49 bucks on 2gigabytes of memory. I'd like to extend the life of this laptop for at least a few more years. Running linux is already helping me turn this little pony into a fast horse, and upgrading the memory should make everything run smoothly even though I like to keep lots of software open (and 10+ tabs in my web browser).

Now that my photos site is all debugged and displaying properly, I have no excuse not to finish it. Still need to finish my little bio/profile/about page, and I'm going through several years of photographs, finding a few of the best ones to add. That is where they have been/will be some photos on here recently from a few years ago.

My son has just cried for two days straight. I don't know if he has more teeth coming in or what, but he is one pissed off kid. Here is a pretty common exchange:

he: [Reaches for coffee mug on coffee table]
me: "No no... that's hot" [I move it to the direct center of the coffee table]
he: "I hate you, Dad! I hate you and I hate this family, and I wish I was never born! This house is stupid and I hate these clothes and I'm gonna run away and never come back!"

Seems a bit of an overreaction. Then I take him up to his room where he cries while playing with all his toys. Like, he's opening and closing his "spin and learn" alphabet book over and over, and spinning the letters, all while crying at maximum capacity with tears running off his chin. I don't know if some teeth are about to come through, but I hope so. That would mean there is an end in sight. I'm really sick of this.

There is a lot of talk recently about enacting new "Financial Literacy" requirements in order for students to finish High School in this area. A lot of schools have pushed back the launch of the program for another year because of budget problems. So, the states who mismanaged their money are teaching our children about financial literacy? Am I the only one bothered by this? To quote Bill Hicks, "It's irony on a base level, but I like it. It's still a hoot."

I got this link off fazed.org: The 100 best free science documentaries online. This is my kind of thing. Documentaries. Free. Online. The list loses a great deal of credibility when Super Size Me is the first "science documentary" on the list, though. Just saying.

Michał Jacaszek finally came to America. Just come do D.C. and I'm there! A partial clip from his concert in NY on Feb 11:

I like to say how much I love Lightroom and that I don't miss Photoshop at all. This is only partially true. I sort of have to say that because I spent $299 on Lightroom version 1. With that money, you get all 1.xx upgrades until version 2 comes out, then you have to pay $99 to get all version 2.xx upgrades. I saved my $99 and did not get version 2, but version 3 is coming out this April, and I will spend the 99 bucks on it. They have put some Photoshop-like features in that will make me miss Photoshop even less, such as the ability to make selections, the ability to combine photos into HDR images, and improved features all-around, notably sharpening and noise reduction.

I have been wearing Acuvue 2 contacts for about ten years. These are now considered the "old style." They have advanced several generations since then. Now the contact lenses are made of different material and they allow your eyes to "breathe" more. When I got an eye exam two weekends ago, the optometrist gave me one pair of Acuvue Oasys and one pair of my good old standbys, Acuvue 2. I put on the Oasys contacts at the doctors office, and at first my vision wasn't as clear as it should have been. I think that after I got used to them, they were fine, since I do not notice a major difference right now (I just switched to the Acuvue 2 pair about ten minutes ago). The side of the story that I did not tell my optometrist is that I never take proper care of my contacts/eyes. I leave them in for 2-3 weeks without ever taking them out before bed. This is why I am leaning towards the newer, more expensive contacts that allow oxygen transfer through the lens. Another notable thing from my exam: I haven't needed a stronger prescription in the last two years, so that's a good thing.

I finally figured out what makes my desktop PC freeze. It's µTorrent, which is supposed to be the bittorrent client that is more streamlined. Before I had µTorrent, I was using Vuze, but that was too bloated and so forth. Anyone have any suggestions of torrent management software (preferably one with a smaller footprint than Vuze or BitComet)?

I take 3mg of melatonin before bed every night. Well, every night that I don't forget. I have been doing it for about a year now, and I really like it as a sleep aid. It is a naturally occurring biochemical, so it doesn't have the same effect as a "drug" would. The purpose is not to make you really sleepy or groggy; it just makes you feel naturally tired. Around 20-40minutes after taking it, I just sort of yawn and say "I think I should go to bed now. That would be good." It has other advantages, too, like the fact that it allows me to get up feeling completely normal if Stephen starts crying at 2am (where 99% of sleep aids make it much harder to get up before you have gotten 8hrs of rest). It is safe, has no side effects, and has no chance of addiction. The problem is that an overwhelming majority of the population says that melatonin has no effect on them. I will say that it took two weeks of me taking it every night before it had an effect on me. Maybe I wasn't noticing the subtleties before that, or maybe my body had not gotten adjusted to 3mg of melatonin at roughly the same time every day. No idea, but I like it.

And finally, How Tough are NES Games? Answer: really, really tough. Like, getting-run-over-by-a-car-and-still-working tough. Like, getting-dropped-thirty-feet-onto-concrete-and-still-working tough. (Note: usually when I find out about a YouTube video via another blog, I don't actually link to the blog post, but this is my friend Martha's blog, so I didn't take the credit this time)

Edit: fazed.org copied me for once (not really), and put up a link to the 60 Minutes story about the Bloom Box. Nice try, copycats! I was first!

The forecast for Manassas has changed. Instead of two straight days of snow, it is supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow. Possibly we will get a snowstorm on Thursday now. So maybe the rain will clean up all the snow and sand for a couple days, then it will dry up on Wednesday, and then we will get more snow. We'll see. My car still has snow on it and Stephen has a Dr. appointment at 8:10am tomorrow. I hope the rain comes today and cleans off my car. Then I will have officially gotten away with never cleaning 30" of snow off my car.

There was an interesting story on the most recent 60 Minutes about The Bloom Box. This is yet another alternate power source that people think might slowly start to replace our current grid. It is compact, wireless (yes, wireless electricity) and "clean." John Doerr, the famous venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, has contributed over $100million to K.R. Sridhar and his company, who have raised nearly half a billion dollars in capital. John Doerr has invested in some famous flops, namely the Segway Scooter. Like the Segway was supposed to revolutionize travel in the U.S., this new power source is supposed to revolutionize the way we power our homes. Everyone would theoretically get their own little box (it really is quite small, about 4" cubed) in their back yard and generate their own power. K.R. Sridhar made the same type of invention for NASA before he ventured into the private sector.

I just sent off a request to this place for a week in August. We are trying to take a vacation with both sides of our family. This place would be ideal. It is close to the ocean and right on a lake. This way, my dad could bring his jet skis and Jaime and her dad could go deep sea fishing. It has internet, pool table, two family rooms, three floors, a pool.. even an elevator, hehe. We only have one week of availability because Billy is enrolled in classes all summer and his fall semester starts in late August. We narrowed down the list last night based on availability and pet allowance. Hopefully everything works out. It will be nice to have the planning of this out of the way. It looks like a good place for photos. I may try to rent a zoom lens for that week.

I have a good couple of weeks coming up. My brother Robert is visiting for his spring break the week of March 7. My brother Billy is visiting for his spring break the week of March 14. Back-to-back weeks. I am going to The Birchmere three times in less than two weeks. Gaelic Storm on March 4 with a group of six. Leon Redbone on March 5 with a group of five. Bobby McFerrin on March 17 with Billy. The Birchmere won't go out of business as long as I'm still in this area.

Stephen is officially nine months old today. His Uncle Gavin is officially twenty-six years old today. It was thirty years ago today that the U.S. hockey team (comprised of U.S. college players) upset the four-time defending gold-medal winning Soviet team, which of course had a lot of political implications as well.

Here is an article about many convergent studies on the potentially negative effects of ingesting fluoride, complete with more links and citations than you'd ever care to click. Fluoride is, of course, good for your teeth; a lack of fluoride accelerates tooth decay. That is why fluoride is in toothpaste and mouthwash... but you don't swallow toothpaste and mouthwash. Fluoride is also in nearly all tap water in the United States, and is not removed by Brita or Pur home water filtration systems. It also can not be removed from water by boiling or freezing your water. I don't believe fluoride in our water is a big conspiracy like Alex Jones does, but I leave open the possibility that we as a nation may have rushed into the fluoridation of our water supply without thinking. We seem to place a lot of emphasis on teeth and beauty, sometimes above all else. (What's the first thing Americans say about the British population as a whole? Man, those Brits have some ugly teeth).

On a lighter note: The weirdest video you will see today. This is more a testament to my odd sense of humor than anything.

There are rumors of another big snowstorm on the horizon. No one is saying how big or what portion of it is hysteria, but the current Wolfram|Alpha prediction for Manassas is snow all day Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 22nd and 23rd). I still haven't dug my car out of the snow from Feb. 6th and 9th.

We got another fish for our one-fish bowl this weekend. He is a red Betta named Monte. I took several pictures, but none are any good. I'll get one eventually. Aquarium photography is nearly impossible.

Steve (my friend) and I were watching this video last night, and it made Stephen (my son) so happy for some reason. He had a big huge smile while he rocked his head and pulled on some guitar strings. It was quite adorable.

My site is getting a lot of Valentine's Day-related hits recently. I'm not complaining. Here are some google searches that have brought people to my site:

• valentine sippy cups
• valentine blog
• valentine widget for wordpress
• valentine's gift ideas
• music for valentine's day
• useless valentine facts
• valentine font

I have also found out about other people with my name. Other Evan Valentines in this world include:

• A highschool athlete who plays tennis and football
• A [female] pornstar (I use the term "star" very loosely lightly here)
• A standup comedian

Who would have ever thought that someone crying at the end of a movie could be so funny and adorable? Parker Stech thought so, and he went where no man has gone before. His wife cries at the end of virtually every movie they watch, and he records interviews with her while she's crying and posts it on YouTube. Just go to cryingwife.com and click "videos" to see for yourself. Some of the movies are sad and deserving of crying, but some of them are not in that realm at all, such as Back to the Future. Hilarious.

I have been discussing with a friend of mine about SEO optimization (at great length). There are different ways to essentially 'game the system' and increase your page rank on google. The fact of the matter is that my URL has no keywords at all and that makes it difficult for me. I have taken some steps towards trying to create backlinks and I have renamed my blog. At first I thought about trying to corner the market on "professional photographers in the DC area," but upon further research it seemed that those were hard keywords to advance my page, so I settled on something to do with "stay at home dads." I renamed my blog "Evan Valentine, The Stay-at-Home Dad" to try to get some more search results. It has worked a few times so far. I am doing research into hosting the same blog via multiple URLs. More on that later.

I have made a few recent posts in a shameless attempt to figure out search engines. First I made my "Kurt Warner Retires" post. I made this post 2 hours before the news was officially announced in an attempt to get a jump on the competition. It did not work. Then I made my "WordPress Plugins Used On This Blog" post in an attempt to get some visits from nerds trying to do research on how to gain an advantage on their blog. That also has proved unfruitful. Running a blog seems like a full time job, and it is a constant learning experience.

The funny thing is that my recent post with pictures of the snow behind my house has gotten way more hits than any of my other posts, because of people searching "snow" and my city.

Growing up in a place that had no winter weather, there were a few things I had to get used to when I moved here. I had never shoveled snow or owned an ice scraper (a credit card/student ID always worked fine in the unlikely event that there was any ice in the morning). Another thing I didn't expect was that chap stick is a near-must when the weather is cold and dry for a prolonged period. I had never used chap stick, and now I have a near obsession with it four months out of the year. Luckily I have like five sticks in my drawer. Another weird thing that you don't think about: I never needed windshield washer fluid in Georgia. Wiping down your windows every other time you filled gas was quite enough. But when you get hit with splashback from a brown puddle of melted snow mixed with salt and sand, it's over. You absolutely need that instant windshield wash.

Ever wanted to be an investigative reporter? Let Charlie Brooker show you how.

A story about Nintendo from 1988. Part of the humor is seeing a very young Bill O'Reilly on Inside Edition from back in the day (back in the WE'LL DO IT LIVE! days). The other part that is interesting is how unbelievable it now seems that adults had never heard of Nintendo--and this is within my lifetime. Asking people if they had ever heard of Nintendo, they respond with "No, who is he?"

Two songs that make me happy every time I hear them:

1. Bruddah Iz - Henehene Kou ' Aka
2. Gui Boratto - Beautiful Life - Great vocals come in just after the three minute mark.

I have a strange view of myself (don't we all?). Unfortunately, I assume everyone doesn't understand me and automatically thinks I'm an asshole, and that sort of leads me to fulfill that role, even though it is self-imposed. I also assume everyone thinks the music I like/make is weird and I am being judged because of it, when in reality that's not true at all. I usually don't speak much when meeting new people. I never talk about my music with people (if you want to see someone in an extremely uncomfortable state, just play one of my songs in front of me. I can't even begin to describe how horrible it is). Some people immediately think I'm cool because of that (silence is often mistaken for wisdom) and some people immediately think I hate them because of that. I think my friend Adam said it best. Some people are focused on what they think of other people (that's me), and some people are focused on what others think of them. Neither is healthy, though I think someone like me is much less likely to get their feelings hurt.

In the end, I know that what I think doesn't really matter, but I am not good at relating that. I realize that it's just one person's opinion, but I can come across like my opinion is the only one that matters.

Here is an article about a Japanese DVD that supposedly helps you maintain eye contact when talking to women. It has all different types/ages of women, some with lots of cleavage showing, and you are supposed to maintain eye contact with them for the duration of the video clips. So odd... Japanese people apparently think they can solve all problems, both big and small, with technology.

Speaking of weird things in Asia, check this out. This fish is called a Human-faced Carp (warning, this video is a bit loud), and now you'll know why. Some of the YouTube comments say this video is a joke/hoax. Real or not, it freaked me out more than I'd like to admit.

Wow. That might be the worst conditions I've ever experienced. The weathermen nailed this prediction. Gusts up to 40mph that cause complete white-outs where you can't see more than ten feet.

I just took the dogs for the shortest walk of their lives. I couldn't feel my face after five minutes. I had to stop every minute or so when the wind kicked up and I couldn't see. The snow falling and blowing around feels like I'm literally being attacked by ice pellets. Glad that's over with.

What is it about snow that makes people think their dog no longer needs a leash? Not only is it against the law to unleash your dog, but it is just plain stupid. I just took the dogs out while fat flakes fell from the sky. As soon as I got past our patio, I hear "Preencess! Preencess!!!!"

Our hispanic neighbors have a little white dog (possibly a bichon frise?) named Princess. It started charging us while barking, the girl next door growing increasingly nervous. I was thinking, "you should be nervous; Chloe treats about 50% of all dogs like Michael Vick's dogs." So I did what I always have to do and lifted both of my dogs off the ground by their leashes until the dad came out and called the dog back. Chloe definitely snipped at Princess. I mean, the dog was charging us while barking. What did she expect?

Now, this dog is usually kept under control and is therefore well-behaved, but the neighbors had the oh-so-common attitude of "It's snowing! That gives me carte blanche!" What is wrong with people? Leashes only work if we both use them. I had to deal with this same nonsense the other day. A maltese came into the street and was chasing us around. Then the owner doesn't want to come get their dog because they have to get close to my dog, and they don't know/trust my dog. It's just like what do you want me to do? The reason our dogs are so close is because you don't have your dog on a leash. If I pull my dog away, your dog follows us!

Had to get that off my chest.

Someone finally showed up to clear our parking lot with a Bobcat today. They stayed all day and made quite a bit of progress. I figured I had an hour's worth of work left to do before we could eek Jaime's car out of her parking space. I have done maybe 8hrs of shoveling since Saturday. The back steps, the front steps, a small path in the back, uncovered the opening to the french drain in the back, and Jaime's car. Well, as soon as I started shoveling today, the Bobcat guy came over and cleared out the bulk of the snow in front of Jaime's car. It only took me about 20 minutes to clear some more out. There are still piles of snow over two feet tall on either side of Jaime's car, so it has to be parked ever-so carefully.

Between noon tomorrow and Wednesday afternoon, we are supposed to get dumped on again. I've seen reports that say 8-12 more inches; I've seen reports that say 12-20 more inches. Who knows. With all the compacted snow that's still left on the streets, it could be a pretty dangerous situation when more snow falls. I guess that's why the guy is still out there scraping snow off the asphalt with his Bobcat. This is why we went grocery shopping today in case it gets bad again.

I hope I never see another snow shovel in all my life, and I'll most likely be using one again for the next two days. Great.

UPDATE: Jaime said she heard the Bobcat guy still cleaning up our parking lot at 2:30am. You can't tell from looking at it. Most of it is covered in slick, compacted snow. My walk this morning was rather dangerous as it was still dark and I had to walk on the streets. All the streets in our neighborhood and the neighborhood across the street are in rough shape. Only one lane is open, and no blacktop is visible.

Stephen slept through the night for the first time in six nights last night.

A huge snowstorm like this is hardest on the dogs. At first we really can't do anything except wade through snow that is taller than the dogs in an effort to find a place for them to pee. Eventually we can walk on the street but not the sidewalks. At least having dogs forces me to go out and shovel a few paths.

By this morning we were able to take a fairly normal walk, albeit on the streets. Here are some shots from yesterday when it was really hard for the dogs.

I am the biggest idiot on the planet. I took my dogs for a walk.. a regular walk, which is 1.5 or 2 miles. I saw things I may never see again. I trudged through waist-high snow in the middle of the street. I saw piles of snow six feet high or more next to people's freshly-shoveled driveways. I took my camera, of course. Who wouldn't want to take an opportunity to document the area's biggest snowfall on record?

Many streets had not been touched by plows. We were walking along places where tires had crushed the snow, slipping and sliding all the way. Everyone was out taking pictures or shoveling their driveways.

I got back to the house and grabbed the measuring tape. While trying to take a few snapshots of the measuring tape sticking out of the snow, my spirits were crushed. I had the camera on manual focus for the entire walk, and my pictures are most likely completely worthless. I had some good stuff at my fingertips, and I threw it all away by having manual focus turned on. What an ass.

By the way, my measurement was only 23" which is certainly not any kind of record. It's only one more inch than we had December 19-20th.

I couldn't be more satisfied right now. We're just preparing to be snowed in, eating frozen "California Pizza Kitchen," and catching up on recorded shows. I walked the dogs already, and we're waiting for the heavy snow to kick in.

Jaime stopped at Burger King and the gas station on the way home. She arrived bearing Whoppers, french fries, beer, and cheerios. Stephen just ate his first Cheerios a few hours ago, and he took it like a champ. He had quite a good time, and seems to be mastering the pincer grasp.

The local news makes it seem like there is a madness all around, but I saw other people walking their dogs, nice and calm, enjoying the weather. The grocery store was calm and empty this morning. All is well.

There have supposedly been nearly 600 traffic accidents already today in this area.

We're going to bathe Stephen and enjoy our night. Cheers.

Just six weeks after we got 22" of snow, we are predicted to get 18-24" 20-30" over the next two days. The 22" was record snowfall for the month of December, and the snow this weekend is supposed to be the most snowfall in a century for the area (record snowfall for this area was 28" in 1922). It just started snowing about five minutes ago. My dogs' lives are going to get hard for the next five days.

Fridays find us at the end of a grocery cycle, so I went to the store to pick up a few things this morning. They were out of a lot of stuff, but they had everything I needed. Yesterday must have been a record grocery shopping day; everything is like the end of days around here when it snows. People are referring to this as "snowpocalypse," sigh. We just had this much snow on December 19th!

Stephen was practically falling asleep at the grocery store, so I just gave him a little milk when we got home and he instantly went down for a nap. That allowed me to get a shower, my first since Monday. Maybe he will like the snow more this time around. We'll see (anything for a photo-op).

Jaime is signed up for automatic updates about baby development. They have been pretty funny for a while, as Stephen is well ahead of the developmental milestones. This is the one from today, titled Your 8-month-old: Week 3

One day you'll walk into your baby's room and find that little person standing up, grinning at you. Many 8-month-olds are strong enough to pull themselves onto their feet and stay there by holding on to you or a piece of furniture. A somewhat comical aspect of this wonderful development is that some babies know how to get up -- but not back down again. They will stand and stand as long as they can hold on, and finally either tumble down or cry to be "rescued."

I'm pretty sure he could do this in his sixth month. He has mastered the sitting back down part, too. That's one less thing to worry about, I guess.

We got a package of "leftover" gifts that my parents forgot to bring with them when they visited at Christmas. Stephen has improved at opening presents in the past month. He was having quite the good time with the wrapping paper by the time my wife turned on the camcorder. There is also a compilation of videos from Christmas day that I just uploaded, which I'm sure is terribly boring to people outside of my family.

I am typing this from my new laptop. And by "new laptop," I mean Jaime's discarded ex-laptop, circa 2005. I just did a system restore and spent about THREE HOURS uninstalling AOL and all the other crap that comes pre-installed. Then, after I did all that nonsense, I find out about the PC Decrapifier--made for removing all superfluous software at once. Maybe next time, sigh... maybe next time. I'm already getting used to hitting the missing 'x' key on this banged-up keyboard. So, since this computer is older and needs some help being fast, I installed Google Chrome. I think I like it. I mean, the tv commercial said it was fast, and commercials don't lie, right? Right? It has some cool ideas, like running a separate process for each tab within the browser, so if a website crashes the browser it only takes out the one tab.

I'm afraid I am addicted to lamebook, and I have brought my wife along with me on that one. It's like bash.org, with less racism! It includes such gems as this idiot:

It's bad enough to get teen pop lyrics on your arm like it's Shakespeare or something, but then to do THAT? Why not just put "waist" on there? I guess I like sites that make me feel good about myself (those are not hard to find these days). Jaime and I were wondering if the tattoo artist caught the mistake and just let the kid be an idiot, or if the kid and the artist are both blissfully ignorant of basic spelling.