I just had one of those unexpected cries. Not necessarily sad, a little overwhelmed with goodness and missing my father. See, I’m really seeing light at the end of this tunnel lately. I still have plenty of worry – I’m totally uncovered by health insurance, each month can be a different stress of praying my car doesn’t break down, I’m very, very concerned about my ex-wife’s situation, and Viv still needs that very expensive dental surgery at some time. But at the same time, I know all these things will work out. And that peace in my shoulders is something my father never saw in me. I want my Dad to see how happy I am today. I want to him to see his son madly in love. I want him to see the recovery and this amazing comeback. I want him to see my son is doing so well in school again, after his small shoulders were so burdened with missing my and resolving matters too big for his age. I want him to see my daughter is still the light she’s always been, just flourishing in new and beautiful ways every day. I’m finally coming to grips with that message Dad, “Life grades on a curve”. It really does.

Got some potentially exciting news, my favorite Kiwi, Di referred me to a friend, Mark Shea an Australian documentary filmmaker who is looking for soundtrack music. I got an email from him this morning and he apparently digs my song, Two Chicks At The Same Time. No idea what this will lead to, but hey, even if a guy on the other side of the planet enjoys my tunes, that’s awesome.

Book reviews…

Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces that Work -OK, the thing is with books on web design they have a relatively short shelf life. This book is no different, but the care that went into putting this book together gearing it specifically towards design, is awesome. This book does of course delve briefly into technologies here and there, but the fact that it focuses more on the impact and real form follows function ideology really works well. That said, page after page is filled with links to incredibly helpful websites to help you choose color schemes, tools to help you build wireframes and sitemaps, etc. I devoured this book, seriously. Highly recommended for either a graphic designer that is getting into web design, or a web developer that wants to polish his design skills (like me!). Many thanks to Heather from Mind Over Media for the recommendation.

Shadow Divers- this was a recommendation from my best friend, Doug based on my somewhat counter-intuitive fascination with military history. I say counter-intuitive, because I’m bitterly opposed to the War in Iraq… you’d think I would want more war so that the Military History Channel would not run out of material! This book details the amazing story of two courageous deep sea divers making an amazing discovery of a lost WWII German U-boat 70 miles off of the Jersey Shore. The discovery is amazing unto itself, but the care and respect these men gave to the remains of the sailors that lost their lives aboard this sub is so damn impressive. Literally risking your own life to not disturb the bones of a sailor that perished 40+ years ago – impressive. And it appears that a movie is in the works! Woo!

• Madonna and Lady Gaga on SNL
• Lou Rawls Colonoscopy – thanks MOM!

Links for my geeky homies…

• Digg to Launch iPhone App

Look what I got to do this morning…

This pile of kittens was playing with my feet and anything else within paw’s reach while I was talking to Laura from Laura’s Grooming for Pets in Willingboro, NJ about helping her out with getting her website tuned up. Very nice people and happy to say I’ll be redesigning their site – they are a perfect customer for my furiousCMS, very glad to be working with them. Also, if you’re in the South Jersey area, those kittens are up for adoption – very playful and a couple are litter box trained already!

On the way home, I was thinking how cool is my job right now? One day I’m working on a law firm’s website, the next day the Hope for Humanity sites, a mobile bicycle repair guy, a site for a teacher to help children read, a blog for the Center for Civil and Human Rights, or a historical landmark like the Battleship New Jersey. Pretty cool eh?

Just found out that Brooklyn Force, an indie film by Adam Bertocci featuring one of my songs, It Will All Be Over Soon will be shown at the Coney Island Film Festival!

• 4 Awkward Moments in Facebook “Likes” – thanks mamatulip
• Keep on Fucking that Chicken
• Did You Get Many Spankings?
• xkcd Book is Out!

Single fathers of daughters, I have some advice for you… if your daughter (or son, sure) wants to take ballet, let her do it, and most importantly, volunteer to do the ballet clothes shopping. I know, I know – are you crazy? Those shops are insane and usually a zoo of moms and daughters screaming about the tutu they really, really, really waaaaaaant. But I’m here to tell you, there’s something else… (pipe organ flourish…) lots of women that are so impressed that a daddy is taking his daughter to the ballet shop. Lots of women, usually in shape dancing type women, maybe they got divorced, got a boob job and a tramp stamp tattoo to you know, declare their freedom. So gentlemen, go. Do it.

And speaking of my little ballerina… she’s been tapping and spinning around the house since we got back from the store yesterday…

Here’s me covering Seu Jorge’s version of David Bowie’s Rebel, Rebel from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou… what a fun song to play… I’m going to order myself a red cap and a speedo.

• the difference – thanks Mel
• uhhh yeah – thanks Mel… NSFW
• Green Sex Toy Could Save the Planet – thanks Mel, definitely NSFW
• Terrible Tattoos
• The Zombie Beatles Video Game
• Contra vs. Duck Hunt

Links for my geeky homies…

• 10 People You Won’t See on Twitter Anymore

Movie Review…

Velvet Goldmine – this was a fantastic recommendation from Jan. There are many that will not be able to withstand the homosexual impact of the 70s glam rock revolution depicted in this film, but this is a serious piece of art, honestly. The characters are based on these combinations of glam rock and Oscar Wilde and even his characters. Ewan McGregor plays Curt Wild a combination of Iggy Pop meets Lou Reed meets Oscar Wilde. Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrays Brian Slade, an obvious Ziggy Stardust era David Bowie meets Marc Bolan meets Dorian Gray. I also really enjoyed Eddie Izzard’s performance as Slade’s manager and Brian Molko and the rest of Placebo were awesome as fictional band, The Flaming Creatures. Also behind the music of the film was an incredible band calling themselves The Venus in Furs (named after the Velvet Underground song) consisting of Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, David Gray, Suede‘s Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music‘s Andy Mackay.

Books the kids and I have been reading…

Library Mouse- what a great idea for a book, you have to read this one with your kids, go to the library and get it now. Night Cars- I was surprised, Bubs really enjoyed this one, it’s a slow poem with great illustrations. Peanut- this is such a sweet story, the kids love this one.

• Danny Devito is on Twitter

I had a very busy day yesterday. Had a good phone interview for a position out in lower Bucks County, went over to my buddy Meredith’s to help her get her hard drive defragged (also learned of some insane goings on at her husband’s car repair shop), had a great lunch meeting with Brian from Zeropercentcards.com to discuss a new site and some SEO type tweakings to the project I just completed for him, tackled the next pile of features for Sageth, put together a prototype for a YUI promo carousel for the Battleship New Jersey, did a quick blog post for the Sore Thumbs Blog, cut the grass (with Bubs help), read Chris Guillebeau’s 279 Days to Overnight Success – thanks to Jan for recommending this, and also got some play time outside with the kids too.

Pictures from yesterday… Viv really enjoyed cutting fabric scraps with Abbe (Abbe will be sewing these into purses soon) and Bubs cut my lawn for me (he loved that btw)…

Movie reviews…

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist – I had such high hopes for this film, every Michael Cera has been in I have loved. But this film really should have just been a soundtrack (or playlist). The soundtrack is awesome and has a lot of awesome, aweosome songs (Speed of Sound by Chris Bell, Xavia by The Submarines, Our Swords by Band of Horses and Little Motel by Modest Mouse). If this film was made in the 80s, the two Corey’s would have been in this, if it was the 90s, this film would be Singles – either way -  a year later, no one would be talking about it.

Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One) – this film is brilliant, I honestly don’t understand why American thrillers aren’t made this well.

Vinyan – this film was decent, but it reminded me of an awkward teen unsure of who they want to be. The film dips it’s toe into nearly every genre of film without actually sticking to one or doing any of them very effectively. From what I have read, this film was also marketed really poorly, many thought it supposed to be a horror film.

• The Penistron will provide you with sex – thanks Mel
• This is why you always find a native speaker when you make an ad – thanks Mel
• How to disable a woman – thanks Mel
• Most Likely … Unauthorized – thanks Justin
• Moutain Dew-Scented Xbox Controller Soap
• Gallery of People in Heavy Knit Clothing – this is a fetish?
• xkcd : Exploits of a Mom – thanks Mark