tickling the ivories

tickling the ivories
Originally uploaded by jduty

Definitely doesn't get his musical ability from Dad, must be Mom.

A2Geeks.org

Being a geek and technology professional in the Ann Arbor area, it benefits me in multiple ways to have lots of people like me in the area. In an effort to try and create a society for geeks and people who want to employ geeks in this area a bunch of us have started A2Geeks.org. Please go check it out. If you are part of a professional group please register it and if you want to help we absolutely welcome it! We are currently planning 2 events I'm pretty excited about, both of which should be free. For both of them we are looking for speakers, organizers, sponsors, you name it.


The first is the annual ArbCamp 2008 on December 18.
http://www.a2geeks.org/display/geek/ArbCamp+08

ArbCamp is a spin off the famous "Bar Camp" idea, which is an "unconference". Its less about formal speakers and sessions and more about getting people interested in talking about various topics together. It will be at the fantiastic Spark Central, which should lend it self well to a nightly overflow to various bars in the area. Please go register yourself and your ideas.

The second is the first ever A2geek spring conference hopefully sometime in March of 2009.

http://www.a2geeks.org/display/geek/a2geeks+conference

This event is still very much in the planning phases so if you have ideas please help! We are hoping to secure big sponsors with big name speakers and some very well thoughtout sessions spanning many topics. Should be a great way to see what Ann Arbor has to offer professionally and geek wise.

Also, if your creative side is just itching to get out, partipicate in our logo design contest:

http://www.a2geeks.org/display/geek/a2geeks+logo+design+challenge

Rembering the warmer times

Sunday evening it started snowing and its been in the 30's ever sense. Not that its a bad thing, but as we start our 6 month winter, remember the good times ;)

Leader and his army

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Halloween was great. Joshua got all dressed up and even let us put face paint on him. One of the many things we absolutely love about our neighborhood is the family involvement. All the families were outside and one of our neighbors even had a party, which was a lot of fun. Here is Joshua with two of his best friends, Katie and Alex (they are goth and rocker girls).

Specail Ops here we come!

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

No, Joshua isn't being sent to military school, Ant Megan's Halloween costume came in the mail a few days ago. Complete with dog tags and camo face paint.

So tonight there will be a surge strategy implemented in our col-de-sac to try to root out the candy-givers and bring them to justice. What can I say, we are staying the course.

The Cowboys

What can I say, I'm disappointed. I live next to the city with the worst NFL football team in the U.S. And its not just a bad year, the Lions have never been good. I simply can't root for them. One part of my Texanship (and yes, I'm a Texan, and so is Joshua) that I flaunt aggressively is that I'm a Cowboy's fan. The big star, the new stadium, its everything I love about my home state. I really hope they can pull it together because I'm planning the mother of all superbowl parties if they do.

Oh.. and Owens, there is no "I" in team. There is also no "jerk" and "drama queen", incase you were wondering. Grow up and get open or shut up and block someone.

Follow the story if you can

Brilliant!

catchup

Wow, its been a while. So many things have been going on and we've been having a great time. My mom came up to visit last Saturday and spent the week catching up with Joshua, spoiling us with amazing cooking, and we've loved it. Unfortunately today she is off to Chicago to visit Chris in Chicago.

Sunday we all went to an Apple orchard and had a great time. Last year we did the same thing but waited too late in the year to go. This hear we hit it perfect, lots of apples, beautiful weather, and beautiful company. Here is a flickr set of our visit



Joshau is doing fantastic. We had to switch day cares a few weeks ago and once again we got really lucky. The new place is a really cool place that he can grow with and his old teacher is there also, which makes the transition easier. The first few days off drop offs was a little difficult but now he is basically running out of my arms to get started with the day. Oh, and his new trick is singing, a lot..

I've still been plugging away at Zattoo and loving every second of it. The market obviously has me a little worried but, due to luck and not any planning on my part, I haven't done too bad.

hello old friend

Sorry its been forever since we've spoken. Things are going fantastic in the Duty home, and I promise to write a juicy post in the next few days. Until, then enjoy this awesome picture complements of my old co-worker, John Turner.

Awesome....

And this is our castle

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Because Kerry and I are good and proper U.S. citizens, did we decide to spend our economic stimulus check on saving or paying off debt? HECK NO! We went out and bought a freakin big play set for Joshua!

This was really suppose to be his birthday present, but because of the delivery delay we just got it. I have to admit its awesome. The thing has 3 swings, a rock wall, rope ladder, step ladder, a 8-foot wavy slide, and a club house. Joshua loves it and so do the rest of the kids on the block. I have a feeling the wine circle will start residing in our backyard from now on.

Hola!

Hola!
Originally uploaded by jduty.

Tía Megan huelgas de nuevo! Esta vez sus viajes llevó a Mexico y Arizona, lo que arroja un sombrero y poncho para Josué (y tequila para mamá y papá). Él piensa que son super cool a desgaste e incluso divertido para ver a mamá, papá y tía Megan.

Zattoo Euro2008

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

The few people in my personal life who have insight into what I do at work know I've been working night & day the past few months to get Zattoo ready for Euro 2008.

Zattoo (the TPTV startup I work for) mostly streams live television in Europe right now. This weekend the Euro 2008 soccer tournament started. This cup features all qualifying European soccer clubs, battling it out, twice a day, for 3 weeks. The viewership is huge and completely trumps anything the U.S. has seen (including the superbowl).

Here is Daddy and Son, hard at work at the opening of Euro2008 bringing soccer to all the fans in Europe. Enjoy.

some perspective

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Obviously we've been feeding him well:)

Kerry and I are also very happy his nose corrected itself . (for those who don't know, Joshua's face and Kerry's pelvis had a boxing match during labor).

2 years and going strong

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Today is Joshua's 2nd birthday. Waking up this morning I couldn't believe its been 2 years since Kerry and I were at the hospital meeting him for the first time. What seemed like a pretty scary start has turned into a wonderful two years.

Before we had Joshua more people that I can count gave us this piece of advice:

"Having kids will be the most challenging and rewarding thing you will ever do."

Looking back at the last 2 years I'd have to agree, parenting is the most challenging thing I've ever taken on. That being said when looking at the picture above, it is definitely the most rewarding thing I'm pretty sure I will ever do. We've loved every second of the last 2 years and we can't wait to see what next year has in store.

Happy Birthday Joshua.

Let the good times roll

Only took a few months to get me through the process.  Let the good times roll.

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Flickr Adds Video support

04_26_07_Joshua_First_Steps
Originally uploaded by jduty

We use Flickr (www.flickr.com) for all of our photo sharing, and if you haven't seen the 2,000+ photos we've uploaded, we use it a lot.

Now flickr allows uploading video files. To test it out here is Joshua taking his first steps, obviously a while back. I'm really impressed with Flickr's video support and it adds a lot of value to an already affordable service.

Like a fish in water

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Originally uploaded by jbduty98.

Last weekend my Dad was in Chicago for business so we loaded the minivan and headed to see him for a night. Obviously Joshua had a great time at the Disney and Lego store on Michigan Ave. But I would have to say he obviously had the most fun in the Hotel pool. He really took to it well, even having his head below water. Maybe we have a future Michael Phelps on our hands?

See More Joshua Goes to Chicago

The Finger?!

The Finger?!
Originally uploaded by cphillips06.

My cousin is having her second baby and decided to have the 3D ultrasound thing. Obviously Baby Phillips didn't appreciate the violation of privacy.

Start them early

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

On Friday I took the day off for another rendition of "Man Day."  It was another fantastic day where Joshua and I started off with pancakes, then cruised the mall for a few hours, then went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch. 

This picture was taken at the Ann Arbor Apple store.  As you can see Joshua felt right at home playing with the "Dr Seus" game.    Of course, being my son, he prefers Macs.  

World Traveler

This will be a fast post because I can barely stay awake, but I feel I should update on the million things that have happened the last 2 weeks.

Man... the last few weeks have been a tornado. Two weekends ago we went to South Bend to attend Amanda's (Kerry's college roommate) wedding reception. It as a wonderful time, great dinner, and great weekend. Joshua enjoyed playing with the other kids and really enjoyed running around the College Football Hall of Fame. They had a full width, half length football field that he out-ran us all on it.

When we got back on Sunday I quickly had to repack and fly out for Zurich, Switzerland for work. It was a very productive trip, with lots of meetings and long hours. The 12 hour travel there and back was a little long but worth both the work achievements and just to see Switzerland. I won't go into all the differences between the U.S. and Europe except to say there are a lot of differences, many of which favor Europe. But after a week I was happy to get back on the plan and jet back to my family. I'm still amazed how much energy that trip took out of me when I got back, its been 5 days and I'm still recovering.

Check out flickr for some pictures of all the above.

Impulse buy

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

While waiting for our return flight back to Michigan at DFW Joshua and I went into a Dallas Cowboy's store. Joshua quickly reached out of the stroller and put on a pretty cool looking Cowboys hat on. Since I was pretty bummed about leaving Texas and was overcome with pride that my son was obviously choosing the Cowboy's over the Loins I bought the hat. This is now the most expensive hat I own.

One.. Two... Three

IMG_0655
Originally uploaded by jbduty98.

I'm currently down in Texas with Joshua. While I work remotely my parents are having some much-needed grandparent time with Joshua. A new trick this week is he can now "count" to 5 using his fingers! I know nothing about toddler intelligence but I'm pretty impressed with this.

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

The American Dream

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

I think I am now living the American dream. A wife, kid, house and now a minivan. In the immortal words of Peyton Manning:

"Here is what you are going to do. Paint some flames on the side, or maybe a big number 18"

Hmm... flames may actually work with this...

Big News

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

I just found out that my brother is moving to Chicago, which is about 6 hours from us! While its a little sad that more of my family is moving out of our home state I can't help but be super excited that I'll have him close. Its been almost 6 years since we have lived close together and I'm looking forward to catching up on lost time!

Of course he will be super busy with his exciting new job at Blue Magnet Interactive but I'm sure he can drop by AA every once and a while.

awesome

Awesome super bowl!  Obviously it was proven that I don't know anything about football, but I don't care.  That was a great game and I'm glad it went the way it did.  Plus, we had great friends and great food over.  

Happy Football Day!

I love football, both college and pro.  In fact, for someone who has never played a second of competitive football in his life its weird how much I like it.  

I'm really excited about tonight's superbowl.  The last time these two teams met was a great game, which I missed because I was holding my son's head over a toilet while he was puking (ahh, the holidays).  

My Predictions:

I obviously think the patriots will win and thus wrap up a perfect season.  That being said I think its going to be a very close and hard-fought game.  So crack a few beers and lets watch some football!

Question of the day

How is it possible for schools to have a snow day when there is no snow and over 40 degrees?

iphone facebook

The past few years I've noticed that more and more of Kerry and I's friends are being remotely located. Obviously we have lots of friends in Texas but also many of our friends in Michigan have moved elsewhere, which makes keeping in contact difficult. I've tried to jump on the social space train and get into Facebook. The problem is when I do find myself at a computer its usually for work, and I get very little social time (just look how sparse this and my tech blog is).

Recently I discovered that Facebook has an iPhone interface. Its basically a web interface optimized for use with the iPhone, and I love it. Now when I have a few seconds free I can bring up facebook on my iPhone and write on walls and update my status.

If you have an iPhone and want to give it a try just go to facebook.com in the browser, you will automatically be forwarded to the iPhone interface. If you want a neat icon on your iPhone desktop just press the "+" button and select "add to desktop. Now facebook is 1 click away.

Has anyone had any experience with it on other smart devices (blackberry, Palm)?

Real men cook

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

I make my own pizza, including my own dough. For those who don't know pizza dough is incredibly simple and the resulting pizzas are so much tastier and healthier than delivery (and I'm sure cleaner). On top of that Joshua loves them. His favorite seems to be cheese with hamburger and tomato slices (no sauce, just olive oil). We usually do this at least once a week.

So Sunday I decided to get Joshua involved. He started by watching me add the blossomed yeast to the dry ingredients and then helped me knead it into a dough. After resting he helped me roll out the dough and add the toppings. He seemed to love every second and It was a perfect example of getting your kids involved in the kitchen. Of course the only problem was keeping him from eating the cheese off the uncooked pizza while we were assembling it.

I'll have to think of other dishes he can help with, obviously pizza worked well because none of the ingredients were hot.

Christmas has come and gone

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Originally uploaded by jduty.

Its been a while since my last post and for good reason, a lot has happened. Christmas was a blast, and Santa really must have thought Joshua was good this year because he made several trips. We started the season at Kerry's parents with a great Christmas. Joshua's big gift was the cadillac of wagons.

Shortly after that we flew to Dallas to be with my family and had a great time. The grandparents and great grandparents got to royally spoil Joshua and I got to see my brother and his girlfriend and some of our Baylor friends at new years. The only downside is once we got there Joshua got a nasty stomach bug. While the throwing-up only lasted a few hours he was recovering for most of the trip. Even so he was ready to entertain the whole time.

Upon returning to Michigan (and leaving beautiful Texas weather for nasty, wet, cold Michigan weather) Kerry and I both got to experience the stomach bug for ourselves. Not a flick you want to catch. Still, it was a great holidays.