Help Us Celebrate Father's Day

Don't you think this great dad deserves $250 for the restaurant of his choice? I entered Celebrate with Style's Father's Day Photo Contest and out of hundreds of entries, not one, but both of my photos made the top ten finalists. Wow! So if you could, please visit the contest page and vote for Doug. You'll need to register with Celebrate with Style to vote (email address is all you need). And which picture should you vote for? Doug says Photo 10, the one on the beach. You can vote once a day until June 6.

Here's some notes about the photos. This first one was taken on the pristine shores of the Caribbean Beach Resort in Walt Disney World in December 2006. It was extremely bright and I was glad that my Canon S2 IS point and shoot was able to capture their glow. The second photo was taken after Doug's birthday party three years ago with my first digital camera, an Olympus C3000. Dova was just 17 months old, kicking back and relaxing just like dad. So it goes to show that it is the photographer and not camera, as both of these were taken by point and shoots in automatic mode!

I'm still in shock that my photos made the final 10. Out of hundreds. What an honor! Check out the 25 runners-ups as well.

Dova's Sayings Part 2

I had so much fun with the last installment of Dova's sayings, that I saved them up for another Thursday Thirteen. Since this was pretty tedious, I'll just post them as they happen from now on (shorter blog posts keep your attention right?).

1. Mom, you have ants in your brain. They'll never crawl out.
   


2. Mom (while picking up some rotisserie chicken): Be careful, it's hot.
   Dova: Why does the chicken want to be hot and sweaty?
   


3. I don't want to be cute anymore. I want to be beautiful. (You are sweetie!)
   


4. Grandma: Did you like the MIT Museum? Was it like magic?
   Dova: It's not magic, Grandma, it's science!


5. I'm half Chinese. Mom, you're full of Chinese.


6. We can have two mommies in our family me and you. And we can have two daddies in our family, Adam and daddy because there are two tall fingers in my hands, right? (Pointing to her middle fingers) This one is a tall one and that one is tall. (Four-year-old logic at its best)
   


7. I don't want to be a boy when I grow up. I want to be a girl forever. (Whew, luckily she was born into the right sex.)
   


8. Yellow tastes like sour lemon juice.
   


9. I want to crack my heart open, so that the blood will flow down to my legs. (Oh my, what an imagination. Dad told her just to relax and it will happen naturally).
   


10. Mom, here's a joke: How can you be running in the air so fast? Because you're on the ceiling! (Hmm, maybe other 4-year-olds will understand that one).
    


11. Mommy, you're pregnant. You have a food baby! (Way to use the urban dictionary!)
    


12. These mosquito bites are so itchy, it feels like butterflies are tickling me from inside my body.
    


13. Mommy, I'm hard of hearing because there's a mouse in my brain.
    

How to Incorporate Haloscan Comments and Save Your Old Blogger Comments

The Blogger commenting system has long been the Achilles' heel of the Blogger platform. I prefer that people leave their name and URL if they have one instead of a ridiculous link to their profile, where you have to click around to find their blog (especially if they are a blogging addict like me). When I comment, I use the Name/URL field, but this practice hasn't caught on, as it is much more convenient to use the default Google/Blogger username since you've already logged in. And the Name/URL and Anonymous fields are enabled as a pair. Can't have one without the other. Not cool at all. Worst thing is the lack of a private email field.

Since I have so much history on this blog, I wasn't about to switch to a different comment system and lose all the comment history. And I'm not about to switch platforms either. That would be akin to rewriting code as opposed to re-factoring, which is just against my agile software nature (OMG, agile development has invaded my private life!). When my poor hubby got flummoxed over losing a comment (and I subsequently flipped out as well), enough was enough. I looked into Mr. Linky comments, which were not quite as elegant as I would have liked and then had a revelation where I could use Haloscan and still be able to preserve my old Blogger comments. Sometimes being a software engineer comes in handy. So here is the procedure with the magical HTML code that makes it all work.

1. Sign up for a free Haloscan account (free is always good in my book).
   
   
2. Click Install on the second toolbar. This procedure is only for the New Blogger templates.
   
   
3. Make sure you have Display trackback code checked. Another Blogger deficiency with the lack of real trackbacks.
   
   
4. Click Next. Follow the instructions here to the tee. Download your Blogger template and then browse to it so that it is displayed in the edit box.
   
   
5. Click Upload Blogger Template.
   
   
6. On the next place, click Download New Template. Again follow the instructions on this page. Don't worry about overwriting the original template, you've just downloaded it.
   
   
7. Here is the new stuff. While you are still in the Layout > Edit HTML tab, make sure that Expand Widget Template is selected.
   
   
8. Search for "end haloscan". You should be at the bottom of a section that starts with "start haloscan (part 1)".
   
   
9. After the "end haloscan" comment, add this code (the first line should already be there):

   <!-- end haloscan -->
   
   <!-- special old blogger comments -->
   <b:if cond='data:post.numComments &gt; 0'>
    <a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.url'>
    <b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1 Previous <data:top.commentLabel/>
    <b:else/><data:post.numComments/> Previous <data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if></a>
   </b:if>
   <!-- end special old blogger comments -->

   
   
   
   
   
   If you have old blogger comments, a "1 Previous comment" or an "X Previous comments" link will appear after the Haloscan comment link. The previous comment link will not appear if you don't have old Blogger comments, so new posts will only show the Haloscan link. Clicking the previous comment link will open the post's permalink URL to display all the comments. It will no longer show the Blogger comment window (yes, that's the whole point!).
   
   
   



10. Now search for "end haloscan" again twice. you should be at the bottom of the section that starts with "start haloscan (part 2 - post)". Scroll up a bit to verify this.
    
    



11. After this "end haloscan" comment, add this code (the first two lines should already be there):
    
    
    
    
    
    

    <!-- end haloscan -->
    
    </b:if>
    
    <!-- special old blogger comments -->
    <b:if cond='data:post.numComments &gt; 0'>
     <h4>
     <b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1 Previous Comment:
     <b:else/>
       <data:post.numComments/> Previous Comments:
     </b:if>
     </h4>
    
    <dl id='comments-block'>
    <b:loop values='data:post.comments' var='comment'>
    <dt class='comment-author' expr:id='&quot;comment-&quot; + data:comment.id'>
    <a expr:name='&quot;comment-&quot; + data:comment.id'/>
    <b:if cond='data:comment.authorUrl'>
    <a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow'><data:comment.author/></a>
    
    <b:else/>
    <data:comment.author/>
    </b:if>
    said...
    </dt>
    <dd class='comment-body'>
    <b:if cond='data:comment.isDeleted'>
    <span class='deleted-comment'><data:comment.body/></span>
    <b:else/>
    <p><data:comment.body/></p>
    </b:if>
    </dd>
    <dd class='comment-footer'>
    <span class='comment-timestamp'>
    <a expr:href='&quot;#comment-&quot; + data:comment.id' title='comment permalink'>
    <data:comment.timestamp/>
    </a>
    <b:include data='comment' name='commentDeleteIcon'/>
    </span>
    
    </dd>
    </b:loop>
    </dl>
    
    </b:if>
    <!-- end special old blogger comments -->

    
    
    
    This code is for the post permalink where all the comments are displayed. The previous Blogger comments will be shown below the Haloscan comments.

After you've switched over the Haloscan, you will probably only have one post that may have both sets of comments. Here's my combination post. Any new comments on a post, new or old, will be recorded by Haloscan. And all your Blogger comments are still available. Perfecto!

Hats Off to Dooce

Image from Deseret News.

This week's Hump Day Hmm is about a blogger inspires you.

This week...it's all about the other guy. One of the greatest things we all say we find in blogging is community. What post, blog or blogger has inspired you? It could have been a comment, a post, something someone did. Perhaps you've become friends. Big or small, if it moved you and caused you to take action in your own life, tell us about it. Tell us what inspired you, and then let us know the story from there---your story.

Everyone blogger knows Heather Armstrong, aka Dooce. She is the star celebrity of mommy bloggers, even the oh-so-proper mommy twins Susan and Janice of 5 Minutes for Mom, who had the honor of meeting her this week. It's a cliche to say that Heather's blog inspires me, as she inspires thousands, with her blunt yet personal posts, deprecating humor and most of all (for me anyway), fantastic photos. People put her down for just about everything, from making gobs of money from her blog, to her profanity and vulgarity. But not enough people speak out that she is a truly ground-breaking phenomena that is at the top of the heap because she really is that good.

There are topics that I would certainly not discuss on this blog when it comes to my family and kids, as I'm way too nice, polite, cutesy, whatever. But I can aspire to take fantastic photos. I've had my latest camera (Canon Digital Rebel XTi) for about a year, but only recently have I decided to invest in lenses that would capture photos at Dooce's quality level. I don't claim to be anything but an amateur photographer, and I would hate to take it beyond the hobby stage where it wouldn't be fun. But I do aim for the "wow factor" and it's thanks to being inspired by Heather.

Heather doesn't know me from any other adoring fan, but I do comment whenever she dares to open a post up to comments. So if you haven't already, go visit Dooce and pay homage.

Wordless Tuesday - Dova Loves the Playground

Here's Dova at the playground during Adam's soccer practice.

I have so many great photos in the last couple weeks, I'll be posting a "Wordless Wednesday" everyday until I catch up.

Tuesday Toot - Adam scores his first hockey goal

Adam (navy blue) faces off against his friend Timmy.

I don't remember when Adam scored his first soccer goal, but I do know that by the second season, he was scoring several goals per game. He would get excited and do his little victory dance, as seen here. Nowadays, he scores soccer goals and just casually walks back to the starting line, almost as if he is disappointed that play has been interrupted (something like a slot machine addict being disappointed when they hit a jackpot). He is too proud or jaded to do a victory dance, but he does keep track of exactly how many goals he scores. OK, I guess he is still quietly proud of his goals.

Adam started playing ice hockey last September and a hockey goal has been far more elusive. There is a wide range of skills among the players, so in his first 12 week session, he barely even got to touch the puck. He settled into playing defense, and spent most of his time batting the puck out of the defensive zone, or hugging the blue line in the offensive zone. By the second session, his skating skills vastly improved and he started to play better defense, actually making key saves. Now, in the third session, he has finally felt more comfortable playing offense. He did score a goal a few weeks ago, only because the captain (who had already scored four goals that game), passed him the puck instead of scoring again himself, as there were no defense men there. We have been encouraging Adam to take the puck and dribble it, instead of passing it or just batting it away. In his last game, Adam finally started to take these opportunities and have shots on goal. And then he scored his first bona fide goal. He took the puck across the blue line, with defensive players skating next to him, dribbled it down to the goal and took a shot. It went past the goalie and he raised his arms and stick in victory. I cheered in the stands, but not too loudly. Don't want to be one of those obnoxious hockey moms. I was completely beaming the rest of the day, congratulating him over and over. I don't know who was prouder, Adam or me. Now that he finally has a taste of success, I can see him becoming a great player someday. I can safely say that he is better than I am at hockey!

Photo Hunters - Shoes

Here is Dova's collection of Barbie and mini-princess shoes (notice Cinderella's clear glass slippers in the middle, as well as her brown peasant shoes on the right). How do we manage to keep all these tiny shoes? Well, in a hermetically sealed bag of course. This mom cannot stand to lose things, so Dova is only allowed one pair to play with at a time. And miraculously, the missing white shoe on the right doesn't really bother me. And I'm not even taking Paxil. The missing black Barble shoe on the left however... I wasn't there when Dova tore open her Barbie gift that arrived by mail. Both she and Adam claim that it only came with one black shoe. Hmm, about as likely as Barbie coming with only one foot.

My favorite shoes are the purple platform sandals, they remind me of my funky orange boots. A quick look through google produced this one, but doesn't have the funky wide heel:


This sandal also reminds me of the stiletto with a tip jar:


Oh my, where were we? It's a slippery slope with those Barbie shoes!

PicLens is just like Minority Report

I innocently installed the PicLens add-on for Firefox from a tip from kirtsy and forgot about it. A few days later I noticed a play arrow on my Flickr pictures. I clicked it and I was thrown right into Minority Report. Pictures were flying around to my will. I clicked on Entertainment and swished around to a trailer for Twilight. It is a totally awesome browsing experience. Adam immediately wanted in on the action and here he is trying it out for the first time.


As you can see, it is even easy for a child to use. Get your PicLens add-on for Firefox (Windows or Mac) or Internet Explorer here.

Thursday Thirteen - Springtime is jumping time

We took out our moonwalk for the first time in over a year. Not exactly a simple task as this entailed lugging it outside, finding a hole the size of a mouse on the bottom, lugging it back in, going to Home Depot to buy some PVC cement, patching it, waiting a week for it to dry and finally setting it back up the next weekend (I assume there was no mouse inside, but we did run it with the exhaust open just in case). In honor of the occasion (as for all occasions), I took out my camera to capture the bouncing kids. I think these kids take jumping to an Olympic sport, whether it be in the snow, off the couch or in the moonwalk. Here are thirteen shots of our jumping kids.

Yee haw!!

Cannonball!!

Playing with the Big Kids at Alltop

I had this badge up for a few hours, but then I thought, wait, my blog doesn't use profanity, oops! Plus I'm more in the line of "Seriously?! I got in?" and "All the cool kids (and me)". In all honesty, I am honored to be on the same page as the mommy blogger biggies such as Dooce, The Mommy Blog, IzzyMom, and The Bloggess, to name a few. Ever since I saw Heather Armstrong's interview clip on the Today show, I've been wondering how I could become the software engineer who quits and makes more money blogging than as an engineer (BTW, Kathie Lee is a total dink in this interview). Perhaps Woulda Coulda Shoulda wasn't making the big bucks that I do as a software engineer (I kid of course). Or more likely, my blog impresses myself more than anyone. Hopefully this new listing will bring fame and fortune but no hate mail!

If you haven't already, check out Alltop.com, especially all the cool moms.

Wordless Wednesday - Adam and his Dragon

Since Adam was born in the Chinese year of the Dragon, he naturally has a lot of dragon paraphernalia. Here is his IKEA dragon who licks him as he sleeps. You can get a Minnen Drake from your local IKEA store.

More video games equals better behavior??

In Adam's first grade class, there is a complicated behavior rating system based on color cards. It goes something like this... Everyone starts off with a green card. For their first infraction, they get a yellow card. Then they get a red card and some privileges get taken away. After that, they get a blue card and they have to sit in front of another first grade class for five minutes. And after that, they get a black card and a note sent home for their parents to sign. So something like four strikes and you're out. But if they stay green until lunchtime, they get a star sticker on their chart. And if they stay green until the end of the day, they get another star. Adam is certainly not the best behaved child in his class, but also not the worst (thank goodness!). He is somewhere in the bottom half when it comes to stars. He's had only one note sent home (besides the notes he used to get for not doing his writing assignments). But who is the child with the best behavior? A boy named G. And what is so special about G? Not only has he amassed the most number of good behavior stars, he has also collected the most stars on Super Mario Galaxy. Purely coincidence, you say? Well here's some more evidence.

There are three boys in Adam's class that got Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii at the holidays. G, L and Adam. Here is the breakdown of their stars:

Boy	Good Behavior Stars	Mario Stars
G	60	90
L	45	60
Adam	15	30

G and L are the top behaved students in the class, and even the girls are behind them. Since it takes quite some time to get up to 90 stars in Super Mario Galaxy, you can safely bet that G plays it a LOT. More than we would ever let Adam play, even with good behavior. The worst behaved boys in the class, C and Z, have only 5 and 4 good behavior stars and no video games at home. Z gets black cards and notes sent home on a regular basis. So from this ridiculously small sample size, you can conclude that the more video games a child plays, the better their behavior in school.

Thankfully, Adam has never tried to make this argument with us, as it would never go over. But it does make me wonder. Perhaps the discipline and hand-eye coordination required to do the problem solving and mazes increase self-control. But this goes against my recent post on creative play and self-control, as video games are definitely not creative play. Perhaps these kids play so much that they've become Stepford robots. Or maybe these kids are better behaved because their parents are super hip, having gotten the Wii . Snap out of it! It's not a scientific study by any means, just clear evidence from one classroom that is hard to refute.

Super Mario Galaxy: Video Games

Quick note on the picture: Mario is with a green star that I made for Adam out of plastic canvas and yarn. I didn't have yellow yarn to make a regular Mario star, but Adam tells me the green stars are much better.

Photo Hunters - Candy

I'm like a kid in a candy shop with my new lens (har har)! I was pressed for time for photo hunters this week, because I was away for a business trip and had no previous candy shots (photographing candy obviously adds inches to the waist). I got home last night with yet another cold (we call it the Toronto bug) but luckily my new lens also arrived. I emptied the candy jar onto the counter this morning, put on my new lens and voila! Can you tell that apple is my favorite flavor? Dova's favorite is grape as there were none left.

Wordless Wednesday - Spring Soccer has begun

I've managed to avoid the first few soccer games this spring because I have to wake up early to take Adam to his early morning hockey games. Handling his lollygagging sister and taking them grocery shopping afterwards leaves me exhausted by noontime. Plus all the previous games have been rainy so I couldn't even take my camera and new telephoto lens. There was perfect weather for the game last Sunday (Mother's Day) so I dusted off my soccer picture taking skills to get these shots. The first shot is an awesome goal kick. He graciously scored five goals for me on Mother's Day. The second is his usual goofing around with a teammate on the sidelines. The last is a Charlie Brown football kick (notice his foot is in the air and the ball is still on the ground), where he ended up flat on his back afterwards. If he actually kicked the ball, the ball would've been out of sight, and not such an interesting picture!

Tuesday Toot - Long Live Kirtsy!

This week I have to give a huge Toot and applause for the great gals at kirtsy, formally known as sk*rt. They have persevered through the toughest of corporate bullying from Skirt! magazine (don't bother gracing them with a visit) to be reborn into an even more fantabulous site. And the new name is totally cool. In true kirtsy fashion, they ran a contest to pick a new name. At first I thought kirtsy was a bit too cutesy and voted for sheesaw (as in she saw this site and wants to share it with you). But as soon as I saw the winner, it finally clicked. Just move the s in sk*rt to the end and curtsy away! Even the logo has transformed itself brilliantly. And to show you how truly great these gals are, here is a snippet from the email that they sent to us editors.

Over the weekend, after more harrassing letters from [Skirt! magazine's] lawyers, we created a giant timeline defending ourselves against their claims...with pretty charts and graphs with dated linked details on how a magazine for women bought its domain name after we had launched and how their site design changed radically from what it was last Aug to what it is now (coincidence?) and how we've always been supportive (duh, we're designed to send people to other websites. That's our whole point.) and how they've always not acted in a very sk*rty way and on and on and on and on and on and whatever. But we were angry. And we wanted our truths to be known. So all that crap is what we were going to send you today.

But thank God we didn't.

Because last night we talked to Guy Kawasaki. And with only a few words, he parted the clouds we were being stormed by. And we saw more clearly. And we realized, all that yuck is so not us.

We're not warring people. We created sk*rt to connect and support and inform. That's it. We didn't start it to start a gigantic business (obviously, or we wouldn't be in this situation). We started it to create something cool.

So we've made a decision, we're not going to talk about all that. No matter what is thown at us, we are going to be positive about this. We are going to be ourselves. We are moving forward, moving on. Life's too short.

I am so impressed by their outlook and fortitude, I hope they don't mind my sharing. World leaders could learn a thing or two from them. You don't have to fight to come out on top. The world will embrace your positive attitude. I could not be more proud to be a kirtsy editor!


For more news and reactions to the rebirth of kirtsy, check out Design Mom (a kirtsy founder), The Bloggess, Gwen Bell, Oh My Stinkin' Heck, and BlogHer.

So go check out kirtsy for yourself and enter their huge contest!

Mommyfest Blog Party!

Hi everyone, I'm Angela, and welcome to mommy bytes! No, I don't bite (usually), but I do push bytes around for a living as a software engineer. I'm a mom of two crazy, I mean wonderful kids, Adam 7, and Dova 4. They keep my husband Doug and me very busy and provide much blog fodder.

Here's a short video of our daughter Dova, which was taken by her brother unbeknownst to us. You can see in the seconds of calm near the end, that she is a sweet, quiet girl. It is her brother who makes her act crazy.


And to prove that our son Adam is indeed completely crazy, here he is videoing himself while we were in the other room.


Yes, he has his own camera which has managed to withstand lots of abuse. My favorite hobby these days is photography, and you can see lots pictures here on the blog as well as over 10,000 pictures on Flickr. Don't forget to vote for your favorite High 5 photo. My entry is here.

Check out the prize that I am donating for Mommyfest, a $20 Amazon gift certificate for the 5 Things About This Mom Meme. And please sign Mr. Linky so I can visit you as well. Check out the other moms at Mommyfest on their link page too!

Happy Mother's Day!

A colleague asked me if I had plans for Mother's Day. I said, "Hockey game and a soccer game." This family doesn't stop for Mother's Day! When do I get to relax and go to fancy brunches? But the kids did take some time to make the sweetest cards and gifts. Here's Adam's card:



Apparently, the best thing about me is that I have a son who only thinks I play video games with him. Never mind soccer, frisbee, photography or reading nearly 1000 pages of Harry Potter (we are approaching the end of Year 3). Or constantly making him separate meals for his finicky tastes and planning the multitude of sports and activities (thanks Doug for doing most of the chauffeuring, except for early Sunday morning hockey games). But I do love his drawing of me wearing a shirt in my favorite color. And I do love playing video games with him.

Here is Dova's gift she made in school and her card, with a little help from Dad.



She loves to draw and is getting really good making rainbows (she somehow knows Roy G Biv already!?!). Thanks kids, I love you!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!